i8o 



LAND REFORM 



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With regard to agricultural labourers, the classifica- 

 tion of their different kinds of work adopted in the 

 Census of 1901 differs from that of previous Reports. 

 For this reason, the Report states, " it is obviously- 

 futile to compare the numbers under separate head- 

 ings with those under similar headings at previous 

 Censuses. The total numbers of workers may, how- 

 ever, be fairly compared after excluding farmers' sons 

 under fifteen years of age and female relations of 

 farmers, for reasons stated on a previous page. With 

 this necessary modification, the aggregate of such 

 workers at the last six Censuses were as shown in the 

 following table " : — 



NUMBER OF WORKERS ON FARMS. 



If we take these figures in connection with the fact 

 that in 1851 the population was about i8 millions, 

 and in 1901 about 2,^2 n^ilh'ons, or nearly double, the 

 extent and rapidity of the decline in the number of 



1 For minute particulars of the manner in which agricultural work is 

 divided under different headings, see General Report, Census 1901, 

 Table XXXIV, p. 259, and Table XXXV, p. 274. These particulars are 

 somewhat complicated, but very interesting. They relate to farmers, 

 graziers, bailiffs, woodmen, gardeners, nurserymen, and all others con- 

 nected with agriculture. These tables put the number of farm servants, 

 men and women (including shepherds, stockmen, horsemen, and ordinary 

 labourers), at 621,068, instead of the number 727,130 given in the above 

 table. The former seems the more correct. For the changes in classifica- 

 tion see Table XXXIII, pp. 245-55. l^age 247 refers to agriculture. 



