40 



Causes of down within iny recollection in this district, and could count 

 Decline. on the fingers of one hand all that have been built. Landlords 

 are naturally reluctant to build in the face of the indefinite 

 future of landowning generally." Commenting on the increase 

 in shepherds, Mr. Wrigley writes : " The land that is laid to 

 grass is not good enough to support cattle, and the stock now 

 carried is tending more and more towards long-tailed sheep. 

 From my own experience I should state that although there 

 are now more sheep in Monmouth, their class is deteriorating." 



HEREFORD. Owing to the fall in prices tillage land has 

 been laid to grass, and farmers not being so well oft' 

 farm the land more carelessly and with less labour. Mr. 

 R/iley remarks: ''The hedges have far less spent on them, 

 spudding thistles, digging docks, &c., are more or less aban- 

 doned in pastures; everything seems to be done in a rougher 

 and readier way. Hoeing is reduced to a minimum, 

 and cultivation is certainly not so thorough as it used to be. 

 Farmers are unable to give such high wages as are offered 

 in the towns, and though the men are often worse off in the 

 towns, the sound of the high gross wage tempts them. The 

 whole tenour of modern life affects the agricultural labourer 

 as it does other people more amusements, better clothes, 

 travelling facilities, and the desire to see the world. The 

 younger labourers have little knowledge of farm work and 

 less skill, because the bulk of them seem to take 110 interest in 

 it, it is only drudgery to them. If at school they were taught 

 that manual labour directed with intelligence is equal to any 

 work in an office or any amount of book knowledge, they 

 might not despise it so much." Mr. Wbotton attributes the 

 decline to the impossibility of obtaining small farms, or even 

 cottages except attached to particular farms, and to the lack 

 of opportunity for the labourer to improve his condition. The 

 system of education, also, creates a preference for a non- 

 agricultural occupation, and all the smarter boys leave the 

 country ; it is thought that quite as much has been lost in the 

 quality as in the amount of labour. 



The increase in farmers and decrease in foremen is attributed 

 by Mr. Eiley to the fact that there is a better demand for farms 

 and less tendency for several to be let to one tenant. 



(b.) Counties of Somerset, Dorset, Decon and Cornwall. 



SOMERSET. The laying-down of land to grass and the use of 

 machinery have lessened the demand for labour. In other 

 ways the wages bill is kept as low as possible. Mr. Gibbons 

 writes : " Only what is imperative is done, and our land is 

 really being reduced to a prairie. Scarcely anything is now 

 done to improve it ; very little drainage is carried on ; the use of 

 lime has practically ceased ; compost heaps are given up as so 

 much labour is required on them ; only the best and light lands 

 are cultivated." He illustrates the altered circumstances of 



