228 Farming and Industrial Training in 
whether the liirmers liked it or otherwise, and I was told they were perfectly- 
satisfied, and as a reason for liking it, they said the boys did their work better 
by working only on alternate days, and that if there were any cause of 
complaint they held a threat over the boy that the schoolmaster would be 
told of it. If the work is not satisfactorily performed, a fresh choice is made 
from the list of boys who are willing to work ; but this is very rare. The 
wages are generally paid to the master of the school, who transfers them to 
the boys or their parents. 
" This is a rough sketch of the plan, and I can say that the attendance at 
this school is about the highest in the district as regards regularity and 
number of days. Facts will speak for themselves. The population of the 
parish is 430 ; the average attendance at school last year was 91 ; the number 
of children presented for Government inspection was 81 ; and the grant from 
the Committee of Council on Education amounted to 46Z, 18s. Q>d." 
Other statements corroborative of this clergyman's experience 
might easily be given, but the above seems to be sufficient for 
my present purpose. 
The agricultural enquiry has shown clearly that many of the 
schools have been built in localities and upon soils which 
were unsuitable for profitable spade-farming, and were certain 
to entail a serious annual deficit in the farm accounts. It is 
doubtless of great importance to place Reformatory Schools a 
sufficient distance from large centres of population and in a 
healthy locality ; but after giving due weight to those con- 
siderations, and also to the fact that the object of such institu- 
tions is the reformation of the inmates, and not the creation of 
a successful business, it will be seen by the annexed Tables 
(pp. 230-233) that the money-value of the produce of an acre 
of land in 1884 varied at different schools from about 3/. 12^. 
to 22Z. IO5. Personal inspection enables me to say that this 
enormous difference is due partly to soil and partly to climate, 
but chiefly to the relative accessibility of a good market for the 
produce. 
Much has been said and written of late years about the ad- 
vantages of spade-labour, but I do not know that any definite 
profit and loss accounts have hitherto been published in support 
of the idea that it is economical, or that it enables the cultivator 
to extract a larger produce from the soil than by more mechanical 
means. Under ordinary circumstances, it is reckoned by Re- 
formatory authorities that the power of an average boy is suffi- 
cient for the cultivation of each acre of land ; and Table II. 
bears out this statement as a whole. If we disregard the wages 
paid to a bailiff or labour-master, as being paid for supervision 
and not for work, and put the value of a Reformatory boy's 
services at Is. per diem, for the considerable proportion of the 
day that he is engaged on the land, on the ground that it is 
the average amount which neighbouring farmers are willing to 
pay for his services, it is obvious that the boy's labour-bill 
