382 LAND REFORM 



"Greater London," which is ever attracting to it 

 people of all sorts and conditions, has now a popula- 

 tion of 6J millions. It increased by nearly one million 

 in the ten years, that is by a number about equal to 

 that of the inhabitants of Birmingham and Manchester 

 put together. 



These Census returns, as far as they relate to agri- 

 culture, become more and more doleful the more they 

 are dissected and examined. In 1901, exclusive of 

 gardeners, there were in all England and Wales only 

 195,141 persons (men-kind and women-kind) under 

 twenty years of age who were engaged in agriculture. 

 It is still more alarming to note that there were only 

 about 50,000 boys and girls under fifteen who were so 

 engaged. This shows that rural children on leaving 

 school drift into other occupations, and that very few 

 of them stay on the land. We are therefore brought 

 face to face with the fact that few besides the middle- 

 aged and the old remain on the soil ; and as these 

 die out, the grand old craft of the working agri- 

 culturist will die out with them.^ 



1 It is a common error to place an efficient rural labourer in the class 

 of "unskilled" workers. In no other industry than that of agriculture 

 does the workman require more skill, and in few other industries is such 

 a variety of knowledge needed. The straight furrow, the well-laid hedge, 

 the thatched roof, the well-built, comely rick, etc., require training and 

 skill on the part of the workman. A labourer of the old type knew the 

 ways and wants of horses and cattle, and could talk to them so as to be 

 understood. His powers of observation were wonderful. With no know- 

 ledge of chemistry he knew the nature of soils. With no knowledge of 

 meteorology, by looking at the way of the wind, its action on trees and 

 animals, and by other signs, he could forecast the weather with a fair 

 amount of accuracy. In these days, when almost everything is done by 

 machinery, the agriculturist, if schooled in the scientific reasons — the 

 "why and the wherefore" — of the things he sees and does, would be the 

 grandest craftsman of all manual workmen, engaged, as he would be, in 

 one of the few crafts left that require thought on the part of the worker 

 and give him a personal interest and a pleasure in his work. 



