20 THE RURAL PROBLEM. 



is increased production increases in proportion, and when this 

 this is not the case a decline in the standard of life must occur. 

 With an estimated number of agricultural producers of 1,073,000 

 in 1907 the value of the gross output of agriculture in Great Britain 

 was estimated at £150,800,000, or £90 per person. To recover all 

 the area of cultivated land lost since 1890, and return to the plough 

 all land put under pasture since 1875 with an increase of 100,000 

 families would leave the rate of production much the same as at 

 present, with still a smaller agricultural population than in 1871. 

 But as most of the trouble with regard to rural depopulation has 

 arisen from the fact that urban industries or colonial farming have 

 offered a better return for labour than our own agriculture the need 

 is for a progressively increasing rate of production per man. And 

 every increase in number of manual workers must be accompanied 

 by a large increase in the application of capital and power if 

 healthy conditions are to be maintained. 



There is a good deal of sentiment about life on the land when 

 men are far from its unrelenting grip, but when they are subject to 

 its call for drudging labour at all seasons and in all weathers, with 

 but a small return at the end, the glamour of life is caught from 

 other sources. 



This sentiment is nowhere more to be feared than in regard 

 to proposals for establishing home industries in conjunction with 

 agriculture. In many parts of Europe, especially in Germany and 

 Sv/itzerland, Avhere home-industries are common in conjunction 

 Avith agriculture, the joint occupations only make existence possible. 

 In most forms efforts to establish home-industries in rural districts 

 are palliatives for existing evils which multiply the evils. If 

 industry is to be decentralized in this country it should be under 

 such conditions as will return an amount of wealth and welfare 

 equal to that possible under present industrial circumstances. 

 The small holder should not be required to spend ten hours in the 

 field and four at the lathe or loom, the factory employee should 

 not be required to spend ten hours in the factory and four in the 

 field. Modern life and modern citizenship require a mental, as 

 well as physical, quality in manlcind, and this cannot be attained 

 without leisure from economic obligations. The essential problem 

 of decentralisation of industry is one for the engineer — it is that 

 of the decentralisation of power at low costs. Residence may be 

 decentralised by the provision of better and cheaper transport 

 facilities. 



There is a good deal of the red-herring in the cry of " back-to-the 

 land," for, on the whole, the futin-e stamina of the race must 

 depend upon the improvement of working and housing conditions 

 in urban and semi-urban areas. And in those areas was developed 

 that freedom and variety of life which have enlarged the outlook 

 of the masses of the population. Life on the laiid is not an idyll, 

 for Jack and Jill bear a heavy yoke which can be made lighter 

 only by severely practical measures. Partly because they have 



