Census of England and Wales for the Year 1871. 397 



for the custom in old times, and, with a careful master and 

 mistress, the discipline was good for servants, and links of 

 gratitude were thereby forged, which, perhaps, do not so often 

 now exist between employer and emplojed. The farmer's 

 male relatives at home decrease from i^>2,321 to 76,466. As 

 farms grow larger, and the farmer's social position improves, 

 his sons go out to other professions, and to the ranks of more 

 profitable enterprises. Similar indications are noticed in the 

 increase of the number of farm bailiffs and of land agents, each 

 suggesting that both the holding and the ownership of land is 

 becoming larger, and that more assistance is required for its 

 management and direction. 



To fill the ranks of these classes, and to provide for the more 

 scientific practice of agriculture, Ave have a constant increase in 

 the number of those who are making agriculture a special study, 

 the Agricultural Student Class having sprung from 104 in 1851, 

 to 490 in 1861, and so to 760 in 1871. How few of these 760 

 have attempted the honours of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England, of the Highland Society, or the scientific course of the 

 Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester ! Are we to conclude 

 that these societies have pitched their standard too high for 

 practical purposes, and that the study of agricultural chemistry, 

 of geology, of mechanics, or of physiology, are beyond the 

 farmer's requirements : and that the most profitable course for 

 the agricultural student is to follow out the practice on the farm, 

 under the eye and the direction of a successful manager ? 



The next portion of our inquiry concerns a class which must 

 furnish the backbone of our agriculture, and whose condition 

 and future prospects are at this moment attracting almost 

 universal attention. The number of agricultural labourers, 

 shepherds, and in-door farm servants, has fallen thus : 



Male. 



Female. 



1851 

 ISGl 

 1871 



1,110,311 



1,098,261 



922,054 



143,475 

 90,525 

 58.112 



On the other hand, the class of male undefined labourers has 

 risen from 324,594 in 1851 to 306,544 in 1861, and to 509,456 

 in 1871. 



The increase in the undefined labourer class, 203,912, being 

 somewhat greater than the decrease, 176,207, of male agricultural 

 labourers, and indicating a transference of unskilled labour from 

 agriculture to other trades, we have to inquire whether this 



