i6 POPULATION 



chinery emerges as the principal cause. This 

 inquiry only covers the period 1881-1906, 

 but the stress laid on machinery confirms the 

 evidence of its influence in the more rapid 

 migration of 1861-70. It is not a first cause. 

 These are to be found in agricultural depres- 

 sion, which set in heavily after 1874, falling 

 prices, and rising imports. The farmer in 

 trying to meet these conditions found two 

 weapons to his hand — machinery and the 

 conversion of arable into pasture land ; and 

 both have been steadily applied on an 

 extending scale. But machinery appears to 

 be the more important of the two, and it 

 affects dairy farming as well as crop raising. 



These have constituted the principal vis a 

 tergo driving labourers off the land. The 

 vis a fronte has been furnished by the attrac- 

 tions of other industries and other countries. 

 It has operated less steadily than the other, 

 being subject to fluctuations due to the state 

 of trade, the demand for labour in other in- 

 dustries, and the activity of emigration. 

 Recently, for instance, the expansion of 

 Canada has proved a powerful attraction. 

 Lack of housing is another factor which has 

 exercised a considerable, though not a 

 general, influence in recent years, having 

 been brought into play by the rising standard 

 of requirements. To some of these points we 

 shall return later on. 



