396 Agricultural Jottings from the General Report of the 



away to one in fifteen in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and one 

 in thirteen in Norfolk, districts which are more especially noted 

 for their arable cultivation. 



By another official inquiry, returns of live stock in 1871 were 

 obtained from 469,444 occupiers of land in England and Wales, 

 a number which was increased to 481,412 in 1873, showing 

 that land is occupied by nearly double the number of those who 

 in the Census paper returned themselves as farmers and graziers. 

 The inquiries in 1871 showed that of these, 237,999 were 

 holders of less than 20 acres of land, and in 1872, 103,189 of 

 these were returned as occupying between one acre and five 

 inclusive. The returns for 1873 give us also in England and 

 Wales, 243,700 garden allotments detached from cottages, and 

 which average throughout the country about a quarter of an acre. 

 No doubt some of these allotments are held in connection with 

 the smaller holdings to which allusion has been made ; but the 

 enumerators of agricultural statistics estimate that in England 

 there are about 353,000 separate holdings not exceeding five 

 acres in extent, and that number is exclusive of the gardens 

 attached to all classes of dwelling-houses, including those of 

 labouring men, I think we may conclude that the greater 

 number of these small holders will be agricultural labourers, 

 tradesmen in country villages, and artisans in small towns, 

 who cannot be said to derive their, chief support as farmers and 

 graziers, and that so the Census returns will mainly represent the 

 class of tenant farmers, by Avhose energy and capital the credit 

 of English agriculture is for the most part sustained. 



Are they prospering, and has their condition improved ? If 

 we may take as a test of prosperity the number of marriages, and 

 if we agree with the Registrar-General, that when trade is good, 

 and the industry of any particular class is well paid, the marriages 

 of that class increase, we have at once a satisfactory fact, for at 

 the end of this decennial period farmers' wives had increased from 

 163,765 to 187,029 ; and as some proof that their marriages are 

 not hasty and imprudent, we may note that out of this number 

 only 5373 were under the age of 25. The number of the 

 farmer's female relations living in his house had increased, and 

 these and the wives, probably, to some extent replace the female 

 in-door servants, whose numbers fall one-half. As, however, 

 the number of male in-door servants has also declined from 

 204,962 to 158,756, we may conclude that the work in farm- 

 houses is very considerably reduced, and thereby the necessity 

 for female in-door labour is diminished. The old patriarchal 

 system of boarding young men in the farmer's own house is 

 going steadily out of fashion ; and we can scarcely wonder at it, 

 when we see the change that has taken place in the social 

 condition of the farmer and his familv. Much micfht be said 



