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Thus the net result gives 56 per cent. whose health was benefited, 42 per cent.
in whom no perceptible difference was noted and only 2 per cent. whose health
had deteriorated. The general impressions of the doctors, apart from the result
obtained from analysis of the returns, were to the effect that the children had decidedly
benefited as a whole from the stay in the hop gardens.
Dr. Griffiths, who examined the children from the Southwark schools states:
"On the whole it appears that the general condition of the children improves—'the
the change does good'—their general appearance, their colour and so on, are all
better; but with the personal hygiene and cleanliness, and the skin conditions which
are likely to follow, it is not the case. There are a few points to be remembered—
(1) The poor, dirty children are the ones to go hopping and probably in many cases
their home conditions are no better than those of the hop gardens. (2) All children
'go back' in cleanliness during the holidays. This year the weather conditions
were ideal, which may have accounted for the short hopping season, in some cases
only 15 days. The children seem to enjoy it, and 'not to go' would be a disappointment.
To sum up—the total effect seems beneficial."
Dr. Dorrit Waterfield, who examined children in the East End schools, states:
"I thought (from the London end) that the children were extraordinarily improved
in health by their country stay, and only wish more of them could be persuaded to go."
It is necessary to point out that the conditions in 1928 have been exceptionally
favourable. Not only was the hopping season one of the shortest upon record,
but the weather was throughout as perfect as it could have been, bright, sunny days
following one another without exception, and it is not to be wondered at that the
results were beneficial; they could hardly have been otherwise.
No doubt had the season been cold, wet and prolonged, the result to the health
of the children would have been less beneficial, while, on the other hand, if the
accommodation in the hop gardens had been throughout equal to that on the best
farms, and if all the rural areas had put into operation and enforced the model
by-laws as some do, the result on the children's health would have been better still.
The attitude of the children themselves may be summed up in an extract from
the report of Miss Taylor, the District Organiser in Southwark. "Except for a very
few children who came home in disgust, they all seem to have loved their time in
the hop gardens."
Particulars in the cases of the 31 children whose health was found to have
suffered are as follows:—
Boys (10): verminous, 6; septic condition, 3; external eye disease, 1.
Girls (12): verminous, 1; general health, 5; septic conditions, 4 (including
1 vaginitis); rheumatism, 2.
Infants (9): verminous, 1; general health, 2; septic conditions, 3; external
eye disease, 3.
In practically all these cases there was a history elicited of overcrowding in
sleeping huts and difficulty of obtaining water for cleanliness purposes. One of the
infants whose general health had suffered, had stayed in a tin hut which accommodated
two adults and seven children. Straw was provided to lie on, cooking was
done on a camp fire and the lavatories were said to have been disgraceful. This
was the family's first experience of hopping, and the parents have determined never