PUBLIC SCHOOL BOYS ON THE LAND. [To THE EDITOR or
THE SPECTATOR.") R711,—The subjoined extract from a letter giving the experiences of a Public School boy in a labour camp during the recent summer tolidays might be of interest to your readers. The letter was written to ale by my son, aged fourteen, at the end of the camp.— " We went to S--, and soon found our way to the camp. found that I was in H:s tent, No. 1. It was not as I had expected floored with wood, but just the plain ground, and as the people who were there before us had apparently bees told that if they put too much straw into their mattresses they would roll sid them during the night, the sleeping was not over comfortable, bat it was good enough for He. We got up next morning at 6.30 end had breakfast at 7 o'clock; rations were distributed at 8 o'clock, and we set out in time Id arrive at the farm at 9 o'clock. When we arrived Mr. — directed us to his ' ' and told us to hoe turnips. We found hoes and went into the field, one of nearly 400 yards long. Well, we had not done more than a row and a half each by lunch-time, 12 o'clock, and our backs were just about broken. Fortunately just before we were going to recommence work at 1 o'clock Mr. H. came and told on to go and make hay, rand we did so, two of us loading the cart and four ricking. We knocked off at 5.30 and came back in time for a meal at 6 o'clock. The next day I think we hoed all day and knocked off at 4 o'clock. On the Friday we hoed in the morning and in the afternoon followed the machine round and putt vetch into piles. We did this at odd times for several days, because now and then it rained and became too wet for cutting. But by the end of a fortnight, in spite of some rainy days when it was so wet that we mould not go to work at all, we had cut every field, except one, of the harvest. One time it had been wet for so long that our farmer mid he could give us nothing to do, and I worked on Mr. Scott's garden for one day and for snottier on his farm. During the last week we had very hot weather. and on sonic days worked on till
10 o'clock at night, and then Mr. slid not let us get tap till 7.30, having breakfast at 8 o'clock. Before we left the farmers bad a meeting and asked us to stay on another week to finish the harvest, but it could not be managed. Our farmer had everything in except two fields of wheat and a field and n half of oats. Then carting if you happened to bo on top of the cart you use your Lands to arrange the sheaves, and as the sheaves were full of stead thistles oar hands were in like condition after a week's cart- ing. On Sundays we had Church parade, going to Lower Swell or Stow. I very much liked some of the Psalm and response banes at Lower Swell, and both times they had ' 0 God, our help in ages past.' On Sunday we had lunch at about 1 o'clock and nothing else till tea at 8, so we usually found it necessary to go up to Stow and have tea there. The food was quite good for a camp. We had porridge followed by bloaters or bacqn for breakfast, a slice of cake or a meat pie with a doorstep of bread and some cheese or a couple of beef sausages for rations, and for tea we had a stew of sort followed by plum roll or suet roll and syrup, with a lump of bread; there was also plenty of butter and we had jam at break- fast. On wet days we ate our tattoos in the mess tent, and on Sundays we had cold meab and salad, followed by pineapple chunks, for binch,and more cold meat and pickles for tea. They had horrid 'tuff to drink which they called tea, but which was chiefly used by us for washing up our knives, forks and spoons at the end of meals. On the last morning we all got up at half-past five, emptied are mattresses and put them in a pile, took back our blankets, which were rolled up in bundles of ten, also our mackintosh ground-sheets, which were also rolled op in bundles of ten."
[Goad boys:—En. Spectator.]
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