400 Agricultural Jottings from the General Report of the 



always meant indifferent work. Fewer hands will be employed ; 

 these will be better paid, better housed, and better fed. Labour- 

 saving machinery will take the place of the human machine ; 

 and as the wages rise, the farmer will find out that his work will 

 be carried out as well and as economically as before, because 

 his workmen are both physically and intellectually more capable. 



During a great part of the present year a severe strain has 

 been placed upon farming capital and labour in the Eastern 

 Counties, and a struggle, which must leave painful scars behind, 

 has been taking place between those whose relations should be 

 friendly if agriculture is to be successful. But even in this 

 struggle we have gladly missed the bad features of earlier con- 

 tests. There have been no stack burnings, no injury to stock or 

 crop ; and though inflammatory language has been used, and 

 hard and unjust things uttered by the outside agitators of the 

 movement, on the whole the battle has been fought fairly and 

 straightforwardly on both sides. There have been mistakes com- 

 mitted by each of the combatants, and much loss and suffering to 

 innocent parties has ensued. The farmer will have to recognise 

 that his men have a right to combine with one another for legiti- 

 mate purposes ; and if by such means they can raise their position 

 and prospects fairly, no resistance on his part can prevent their 

 efforts. On the other hand, the labourers will find that they are in 

 greater numbers than are required, and that the standard of wages 

 must be regulated by their work, and not by some fancied measure 

 of their own ; and that if their position is to be improved a con- 

 siderable migration may be necessary. The landowner will see 

 that if he wishes to attach and retain the best men to their work 

 and to the locality, he must provide better cottages, with gardens 

 and appliances to make home more comfortable. The labourer 

 will be able with increased wages to pay increased rent for these 

 comforts ; and the probable diminution of numbers will render 

 fewer cottages necessary, and make it easier to provide that these 

 shall be of a superior class.* 



Do the figures in the Census bear out this view, and render 

 these suggestions probable ? If we look to other orders of industry 

 not exactly agricultural, but either dependent upon agriculture 

 or auxiliary to it, we find manufacturers of agricultural machinery 

 rising from 1034 in 1861, to 3628 in 1871 ; owners and workers 

 of agricultural machinery for hire in 1861 being 1446 ; and in 



* Since the above remarks were written, the Executive Committee of the Agri- 

 cultural Labourers' Union have withdrawn their support from the Eastern Coun- 

 ties laboiirers, and have left them to come to terms with their old employers, or 

 to seek fresh work by emigration. The contest has resulted in defeat to the 

 labourers, and I fear the coming winter will find most of them with impaired 

 resources to meet its demands. It is surely not too much to hope that the suc- 

 cessful farmers will be generous, and remember old ties and hapjiier days, and 

 not put such pressure on their men as may drive them to despair. 



