12 SEPTEMBER 1925, Page 17

FARM WORK FOR TOWN BOYS AND GIRLS

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your correspondent's suggestion of farm work for town boys and girls sounds attractive, but my experience this summer shows it quite impossible to obtain. During the War one of my sons, a public school boy, worked during the summer holidays for a farmer to his own enjoyment and increased knowledge and to the farmer's satisfaction. Accord. ingly, I thought I could obtain for his twin brothers, six years younger, now aged nineteen, similar work. They have had the advantage of a year's experience at a good agricultural college. They were prepared to work hard at whatever was wanted during this July and August, or part of them, and we tried through friends a good many counties as far apart as Norfolk and Somerset. They asked no wages beyond board and lodging. To our surprise and disappointment not a single job could they obtain. For poultry it was the slack time ; for fruit and corn plenty of additional local labour could be obtained whenever wanted. There was also the difficulty of affording accommodation, though the services of either one or both was suggested. If they could have milked cows the boys could have easily found employment, but apparently nothing else was of use, and no additional labour was needed of which there was not an over-abundant supply-