Agricultural History Review, Volume 42 Part 2 (1994), pp. 126–139

Debates over the provision of education to the children of the agricultural labouring class in the late nineteenth century display concerns not only about education itself, but also about such matters as labour supply, and cultural and political change. Farmers in the eastern countries in particular were, for example, determined to resist any educational or labour measures which nfight interrupt the supply of child labour at times of peak demand, such as harvest. Education was also seen by such farmers as an example of 'outside' interference in agricultural affairs. A measure such as the 1873 Agricultural Children Act therefore proqides a useful focus for debates and concerns over agrarian change. 

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