3 2o GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE 



of cattle, and its production of fruit and vege- 

 tables, required the close personal supervision of 

 a " working " farmer. Even more than this was 

 necessary. There were needed for these alterna- 

 tive branches of agriculture helpers of a higher 

 type than the labourer who had gone through 

 his almost mechanical round of duties in the 

 production of corn. But persons of this type 

 were more difficult to get, and even when they 

 were secured, the milking of cows, especially, 

 was regarded with dislike by both women and 

 men. So the lack of competent hands, followed 

 by the steady migration of the rural population 

 to the towns, too often led to a shortage of 

 labour which the working farmer and his house- 

 hold had to meet by themselves taking the 

 leading part in the ordinary work of the fields. 

 Here, again, therefore, the working farmer had 

 the advantage over the gentleman farmer, so 

 that while the latter lamented over the deca- 

 dence of that British agriculture in which he 

 could no longer play his part, the former found 

 abundant scope for his personal energies in 

 newer directions. 



To the original contention that the agricul- 

 tural crisis could be surmounted only by turning 

 to these other sources of production, instead of 

 corn-growing, two objections were advanced : 



