n6 Large and Small Holdings 



increased absolutely : but nevertheless the supply was diminished to 

 such an extent that labourers often simply could not be found, more 

 especially, as Mr Rider Haggard has shown 1 , when younger men 

 were wanted. If it was the extension of pasture or the introduction 

 of machinery which was driving the people off the land, they might 

 have gone to the districts where agricultural labour was in such great 

 demand, instead of to London, Birmingham or Manchester. To 

 explain why they did not do so would need a description at large 

 of the differences between the life of the labourer on the land and in 

 the towns 2 . The labourer left the land because the towns offered him 

 higher wages, more enjoyment, more physical and mental excitement, 

 greater freedom and a higher social position. He was not concerned 

 with the fact that the farmer had to pay higher wages and generally 

 to provide better conditions of life than had formerly been the case. 

 His comparison was not between past and present, but between two 

 present-day standards; and he preferred that of the town. 



The large farm system had thus failed to fulfil the social hopes 

 which it had held out. It was to have provided the labourers with 

 steady work at high wages, and so to keep them on the land. As a 

 fact, its tendency was to develop a greater supply of labour than it 

 could use. And although in recent times the opportunities for migra- 

 tion have prevented the labourers from feeling the injurious results of 

 that tendency, and wages and conditions have on the contrary steadily 

 improved, they continue to leave the land. This is still partly to be 

 attributed to the large farm system. For it deprived the labourers of 

 their holdings, and so robbed agricultural employment of its chief 

 attraction. The use of a piece of land makes the delights of town 

 life look dull, and keeps the labourer in the country even when in 

 many respects he might do better in other employments. The large 

 farm system, therefore, aggravated the opposition between town and 

 country conditions, and in every direction strengthened the tendency 

 to migration. 



This fact has been recognised of late years, and in consequence 

 the creation of small holdings has been regarded as of increasing 

 importance as a means of putting a stop to the rural exodus. It is 

 no longer simply a question of the need of the landed interests for 

 allotments as a means of retaining their labourers. The movement is 



1 Haggard, op. cit. Vol. I, pp. 105 f. (Sussex); Vol. II, p. 111 (Lincolnshire); p. in 

 (Oxfordshire) ; and cp. also p. 539. 



2 For such a description see Levy, Landarbeiterfrage etc., pp. 503-6; and also Shaw 

 Lefevre, op. cit. pp. 31-33. 



