Page:The agricultural labourer (Denton).djvu/24

 object we all desire—which is, to see the farm labourer earning more money by labour of greater value to his employer. To do this, technical—that is, practical—education must be associated with primary school teaching; that his mind may be actuated with special reference to his duties. Technical education, I believe, has been more than once explained in this room to mean practical tuition in those operations which men are called on to perform in the business of life. It is, however, a term that has been exclusively used in connexion with the arts and sciences, and those businesses in which mechanical and chemical science have been mixed up. In agriculture I believe the term has never been used; but perhaps in no calling is "technical" education—if by that term we properly express practical education—more required.

I will endeavour to make this understood. There is not a farmer in the country who, be he engaged in sheep farming or in dairying, in tillage, or in mixed farming, does not know the superior value of a labourer well acquainted with special duties. Take, for instance, a shepherd. The wage of a good shepherd is 16s. a week, besides perquisites; and I venture to say that, at this moment, there is hardly any other description of agricultural service in which there are fewer capable men. A good shepherd is one of the most difficult men to obtain, and the loss to individual farmers, and to the country generally, from the want of them is very great.

Again, good horse-keepers are almost as difficult to obtain as good shepherds. From my own experience I can say that the difference between a good horse-keeper and a bad one is not to be measured by the simple difference between scanty and liberal wages. Any one accustomed to horses knows immediately, by the