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BERWICK. Dr. Shirra Gibb writes : " The outstanding cause 

 of the decline is the low price of tillage farm produce ; less 

 land is now under corn and root crops and fewer hands are 

 required. The unremunerative results of cropping in high- 

 lying districts and on retentive clays, where excessive labour 

 is required, have prevented the farmer from being able to paj^ 

 wages sufficiently high to compete, in the opinion of the 

 labourer, with the higher wages and greater social inducements 

 of town life or the prospects afforded by emigration. The 

 education given in rural schools does not tend to encourage the 

 desire for a country life, or especially fit the scholars for it." 



Mr. Somervail considers that the exodus from the rural 

 districts occasioned a scarcity of labour and raised wages to a 

 rate which farmers were unable to pay in view of the low price 

 of farm produce. They have, therefore, reduced the number 

 of their hands, and keep some of their fields longer in grass, 

 and also employ casual Irish labourers. 



ELGIN. The decline is held to be due to the general advance 

 of education and to the higher wages and social attractions of 

 town life. 



FIFE. The causes of the decline are stated to be 



(1) The low price of agricultural produce, combined with 

 higher wages, occasioning the laying of land to grass, and a 

 general reduction of expenditure. 



(2) The use of labour-saving machinery, especially during 

 harvest. 



FORFAR. Mr. Kydd writes : " I put down the decrease in 

 the numbers employed to the want, in some districts, of improved 

 housing, and to the greater use of improved labour-saving 

 machinery, this becoming cheaper and less complicated every 

 year. In my own immediate district the numbers will not have 

 decreased so much as in other parts of the county, the most 

 of the land being on Lord Dalhousie's Panmure estates, where 

 the labourers' cottages are excellent and of a most improved 

 class. Then more land is being laid down to grass, although 

 this is certainly not the case in this district of the county." 



Other causes of the decline are: The abolition of small 

 holdings and crofts; the want of security for the occupiers' 

 capital; the superior attractiveness of town life (this, in Mr. 

 Hume's view, being the principal cause); and emigration. 

 " Modern education," says Mr. Hume, " has the inevitable 

 tendency of leading the rural population to be discontented 

 with the monotony of country life; and the cities with their 

 numerous amusements and bustle will have an ever-increasing 

 charm for the better-educated of the rural dwellers. Then 

 emigration, especially to Canada, is taking large numbers of 

 the very best of our agricultural labourers. The consequence 



