460 A FARMER'S YEAR 



BY the permission of the Chamber obtained upon a previous occasion 

 I beg to move the following resolution : 



'This Chamber respectfully calls the attention of her Majesty's 

 Government to the continual and progressive shrinkage of the rural 

 population in the eastern counties, and especially of those adult 

 members of it who are described as skilled agricultural labourers. 



' In view of the grave and obvious national consequences which 

 must result if this exodus continues, the Chamber prays that her 

 Majesty's Government will as soon as may be convenient make its 

 causes the subject of parliamentary inquiry and report with a view to 

 their mitigation or removal.' 



Before going further I propose to prove that ' the continual and 

 progressive shrinkage of the rural population' of which I speak in this 

 resolution really does exist ; that it is not a mere bugbear created by 

 grumbling farmers. The foundation-stone which I will lay in this wall 

 of proof that I hope to be able to build is that of our common experience 

 as farmers, proprietors, and others connected with the land. Pro- 

 bably there are few gentlemen present who would not be able to tell 

 the Chamber from what they themselves know that the supply of 

 agricultural labourers is much less than it used to be ; that to-day it is 

 largely furnished indeed from the ranks of elderly and old men who at 

 their time of life can turn to nothing else, or by those who for some 

 reason or other, such as mental weakness, are unfit to do anything 

 else. Most of those present could tell us also that the young men 

 are no longer going on the land in anything like the same proportion 

 as used to be the case, and, further, that when they do go on the land 

 their great desire is to get off it and into some other employment as 

 quickly as possible. 



I myself farm about 370 acres, and of the four ploughmen whom I 

 employ, not one is under 50, and two must be between 60 and 70, or 

 so I judge their ages. Indeed, it is a question to me, if anything were 

 to happen to these men, Avhere I should look for others of sufficient 

 skill to till the soil, and what I say of ploughmen applies equally to 

 the other classes of agricultural labour, such as milking, drilling, 

 thatching, and ditching, in which training and judgment are required. 

 For more than a year I have been looking for a young skilled 

 labourer to whom I could offer the advantage of a good cottage, but 

 have been unable to find one. Most of those to whom I have spoken 



