FARM LABOURERS 153 



schools and colleges ought seriously to take in hand, 

 and it is a problem capable of solution. 



If by 1910 the farmer had succeeded in readjusting 

 his position since the depression, the condition of the 

 labourer was still not satisfactory. It was true that 

 wages had risen to a level more on a par with those 

 prevailing in the towns, but they were still low ; and 

 the difference, coupled with the excitement and com- 

 panionship the town offers, will continue to draw the 

 majority of the young men away from the land. On 

 far too many of our farms labour is still being em- 

 ployed wastefully. The farmer allows his men to 

 work clumsily and slowly by hand rather than take 

 the trouble to teach them labour-saving contrivances. 

 Five men may be found receiving 153. a week when 

 the ideal to be aimed at should be two men earning 

 303. each and doing the same work with the help of 

 machines. It is less, not more, labour we want on 

 most of our farms, but then the labour should be of 

 the best and paid at rates competing with the wages of 

 the artisan. Not only higher wages are needed, but 

 above all the agricultural labourer wants a better 

 outlook ; he is tempted to send his son away from 

 the land, not so much for the immediate cash as for 

 the chance, however small, of mounting up the scale. 

 It may be true that not one boy in a hundred takes 

 his opportunity, but what thinking father in any class 

 of the community but will give his son the off-chance 

 if he can ? If the small holding movement succeeds, 

 its greatest boon to the agricultural community will 

 be that it sets a chance of social advancement before 

 the agricultural labourer. 



We may criticize both labourer and farmer, we 

 may sometimes even get angry with what may seem 

 to be their waste of opportunities, but if we look 



