Reformatory and Industrial Schools. 
229 
alone will amount to 15/. per acre for 300 working days. At 
Feltham, where 22/. 10s. per acre is realised for the produce, no 
fewer than 2^ boys are employed per acre, so, at the above rate, 
the cost of labour is 15/. in excess of the receipts. Against 
this, we have to put the very large farm profit (exclusive of 
boys' labour) of 4/. 10s. per acre, leaving a net deficiency of ten 
guineas per acre. But even this result is obtained only by so 
large a proportion as two-thirds of the receipts being for vege- 
tables and dairy produce. At the North-Eastern Reformatory, 
near Morpeth, we find a large farm of 500 acres, nearly two- 
thirds of it in grass, and only 85 boys employed on the whole 
farm, most of the work being done by men, horses, and imple- 
ments. The gross value of the farm-produce in 1884 was only 
3/. 12s. 2J</. per acre (the lowest in the list), and the accounts 
show a farm loss, exclusive of the cost of boys' labour, of 
820/. 15s. Id. ; but if to this we add 1275/. for the omitted 
item, the total loss is less than four guineas per acre, although 
the value of the produce per acre is relatively so small. 
A better illustration than that afforded by either of the above 
extreme cases is furnished by the Northamptonshire Reforma- 
tory, which is in an agricultural district, and the land attached 
to which is worked entirely by the spade-labour of the inmates. 
We here escape from the disturbing influences of the plough, 
of an excess of grass-land, and of an insatiable market ; and we 
have the theoretical number of one boy to each acre of land. 
The farm accounts show a modest profit of 37/. as the result 
of working 45 acres of land, and the value of the produce per 
acre reached the respectable amount of 11. Is. 4rf. in 1884 ; but 
although a considerable amount was received for boys' labour 
from neighbouring farmers, the net result is that the labour 
applied by the boys to the school land cost 5/. 14s. Ad. per acre 
more than what was received for the crops produced. 
The Bedfordshire Reformatory may be quoted as another 
typical example in an agricultural district, with the great advan- 
tage of high farming, bringing the value of the produce up to 
9/. lis. 8(/. per acre. Here there are 50 acres of land worked 
by 54 boys, so that the boys' wages would amount to 16/. 4s. 
per acre, subject to the deductions for the above-mentioned 
value of the produce and of 21. 2s. 2d. per acre for the earnings 
of the boys on neighbouring farms, leaving a net sum of 
4/. 10s. 2d. per acre as the excess of boys' wages over the value 
of the produce. 
An examination of the Tables annexed will show that the 
same fact is common, in a greater or less degree, to all the 
schools, as illustrations of the costliness of spade-labour. But 
the schools are themselves only illustrative of what is known 
generally of the superior economy of horse-power over man- 
