39 



work for them, e.g., their stock men and waggoners." Mr. 

 Wheeler considers that the only remedy for the decline lies 

 in the paying of higher wages to the skilled men and in giving 

 them a chance to rise in the world, 'but cannot see how the 

 general run of wages can be raised until farming becomes more 

 profitable. 



GLOUCESTER. -The laying-down or " falling "-down of the 

 heavy wheat-growing lands into pasture, and the 7 greatly in- 

 creased use of machinery on light and level lands have made 

 a great deal of labour superfluous. The straitened circum- 

 stances of farmers, due to low prices, prevent the proper culti- 

 vation of the land, and labour is the dearest article and the 

 one soonest dispensed with. Small farmers now employ little 

 labour, their sons doing much of the work. 



WILTSHIRE. The low price of produce, the high cost of 

 labour, and the advent of machinery have led to diminished 

 employment. At the same time better education has caused a 

 disinclination for the manual labour of the farm, milking and 

 Sunday work being particularly objected to. The attractions 

 of town life, the higher wages of industrial and business occu- 

 pations, and the Saturday half-holiday, combined with in- 

 creased travelling facilities, have contributed to the rural 

 decline. Mr. Stevens states that bad cottage accommodation 

 has also been a great factor, but Mr. Squarey writes : " I do not 

 think that the character of the housing of the agricultural 

 labourers, except in specially unfortunate and rare cases, has 

 influenced their migration." 



MONMOUTH. More and more land is laid to grass, as corn 

 does not pay at present prices. The young men are attracted to 

 the mining industries in South Wales by the prospect of higher 

 wages; nearly all the labourers left on the farms are either 

 old or middle-aged men, or boys fresh from school. Mr. 

 Williams writes : " Formerly the chief part of the work was 

 done by men boarded in the farmhouses ; now it is almost im- 

 possible to get men indoors on any terms at all. Fifty years 

 ago a good man could be hired for a year at from seven to 

 ten pounds. Such a man now, if obtainable, can get from 

 twenty-eight to thirty pounds a year. The old men are dying 

 out and the boys are increasingly difficult to get, so much so 

 that a scheme has been arranged for bringing boys from Lon- 

 don, fresh from school, into farmhouses ; this has been attended 

 with some success." 



Another important cause of the decline is the absence of 

 cottages which will compare with the new houses provided in 

 industrial districts. Mr. Williams observes : " Men will not 

 now live in the hovels in which their fathers brought up 

 families; these are gradually being removed, and few new 

 cottages are being built, so that there is a positive scarcity. I 

 could count up perhaps twenty of these hovels which have gone 



