50 ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 



He is on his way to the workhouse where his father died before 

 him and where his son will follow him. That is what ' the 

 Land ' has done for him. And he has never planted so much as 

 a potato in a bit of ground from which he could not be ejected by 

 a month's warning before Michaelmas." 



* * * * * 



In 1901 a deputation of Suffolk farmers visited Denmark, 

 and this deputation pointed out to their English fraternity 

 that the " expense of farming in Denmark appeared to be, 

 with the exception of State Aid, quite as high as, or higher 

 than in Suffolk. The taxes and rent charge were about the 

 same as in East Anglia, but labour, implements, etc., were 

 dearer ; but against this must be set the fact that the Danish 

 farmer appeared to be satisfied with a much simpler and more 

 frugal mode of life than is common here." 



Though the English farmer was becoming more and more 

 of a dairy farmer, the proverb was no longer a household word 

 that, " If the cows be not milked by the time the herdsman 

 blows his horn (sunrise) the dairymaid's wedding is spoiled." 

 It was difficult for the English farmers or their families 

 to realise that they were not living as their fathers in the 

 Golden Age of farming. They complained of the cost of 

 labour, and yet labour was the one item of expenditure 

 over which it was fatal for them to economise. Without a 

 word of protest the unshackled labourer silently left the 

 farms for the police force, the railway, the contractor's yard, 

 the factory and the mine. 



A sympathetic Government had passed in 1896 the Agricul- 

 tural Ratings Act, which relieved the farmers of half their 

 rates on their land, though not on their buildings. And this 

 Act was continued in 1902. Critics have scornfully dubbed 

 this Act " The Landlord's Relief Act," because, though 

 tenants had immediate relief, eventually this sum found its way 

 into the landlord's pocket in the form of higher rents. Whilst 

 the depression lasted and landlords were seeking good 

 tenants this was not possible ; but at the turn of the tide no 

 doubt landlords, by raising rents, reaped the benefit of the Act 

 instead of the farmers. 



Of more permanent value to farmers was the creation of the 

 Board of Agriculture in 1889, and the subsequent grants made 



