68 AN AGRICULTURAL FAGGOT. 



proprietors of and attendants on agricultural machines," 

 who only numbered 2,160 in 1871, had increased to 4,260 

 in 1881 that is to say, they had doubled in number in 

 the course of ten years. 



The other reason given for the diminished demand for 

 labour in agriculture is the laying down of land to grass. 

 During the past twenty years, the land under plough in 

 Great Britain has decreased by nearly 2,000,000 acres, 

 and on the face of it, this must be assumed to have 

 displaced a certain amount of labour. Rather curiously, 

 however, Mr. Druce in his examination of the figures of 

 the 1 88 1 census found that the decrease in the number of 

 farm labourers in a particular county did not seem to bear 

 any relation to the increase of permanent pasture. It is 

 possible that the extension of the practice of milk-selling, 

 and the increase of the number of stock in the country, 

 may have tended to counterbalance in some degree and 

 in some districts the decline of arable land as affecting 

 the demand for labour. 



One cause sometimes alleged for labourers leaving the 

 country districts is the insanitary or dilapidated condition 

 of their cottages. No one would wish to say a word in 

 extenuation of the existence of bad cottages. The 

 agricultural labourer has the common right of every man 

 to protection against preventable risks to health in con- 

 nection with his dwelling. Generally speaking, it seems 

 to be admitted that for many years past there has been 

 steady progress in this respect, and that there is nowhere 

 now existing any such a state of things as that of which 

 Charles Kingsley, for example, wrote forty years ago 

 with so much vigour. If in any district unhealthy 

 dwellings exist, a remedy has now been provided by the 

 Housing of the Working Classes Act of 1890, which confers 

 large powers on urban and rural sanitary authorities for 

 the purpose of enabling them to improve the sanitary 

 condition of the dwellings of the poor. It is expressly 

 declared to be the duty of the local authorities to cause 



