12 



It will be seen that the thick black line representing the 

 number of labourers takes very much the same course, though 

 with somewhat deviating steps, in England, Wales and Scotland 

 respectively, ending in each case at a point which indicates a 

 reduction of about 35 per cent, from 1871. The heavy dotted 

 curve, representing arable land, shows no such uniformity. 

 In England it follows generally the same direction as the 

 labourers' curve, but at a distance which tends steadily to 

 increase ; in Wales the two curves almost coincide for the first 

 20 years, but part company somewhat violently in the last 

 decade. It is in Scotland, however, that the relative unim- 

 portance of the arable land curve as affecting the course of the 

 labourers' curve is chiefly demonstrated, for while the latter 



Labourers 



C*///e - 



takes what may be termed the normal course, the former shows 

 that the land under the plough in Scotland increased from 1871 

 to 1881, and only declined during the decade 1891-1901, when 

 the reduction of labourers somewhat slackened in speed. 



