AGRICULTURAL WAGES. 227 



Where the labourers are employed on a big 

 estate, they are usually better than on small 

 farms. But that they are not good enough to 

 attract the proper number of the right sort of 

 workers is clear enough. The greater emigra- 

 tion of agricultural than of town labourers is, 

 of course, mainly due to the fact that all the 

 thinly peopled countries make special efforts to 

 attract the agricultural and not the town worker. 

 Still, the extent of that emigration tells power- 

 fully a story of dissatisfaction with present 

 conditions. 



I do not think that " patronage " by the 

 landlord has anything at all to do with the 

 dissatisfaction of agricultural workers. I have 

 read (in city newspapers) that the landlord salts 

 his poor wages with contempt, and treats the 

 people on his land as " serfs." But in my 

 observation the personal relations between em- 

 ployer and employed on the land are far better 

 than in a factory. There is a " class feeling," 

 undoubtedly. But I do not think the English- 

 man resents this ; and it is not at all one-sided. 

 The " feudal lord " may expect a certain defer- 

 ence ; he usually yields in return a certain kind- 



