SMALL HOLDINGS IN 1888 395 



of the land to which their industry is specially adapted would have 

 gone far to satisfy their legitimate aspirations. Their memories 

 are tenacious. Deeply hidden in the recesses of the labourer's 

 mind lurk vague and often misunderstood traditions of the past 

 conditions of rural life. He knows that he is tilling land as a wage- 

 earner, which his forefathers farmed as occupiers. He does not 

 realise that the change has been only a part of a great industrial 

 revolution which affected manufacture as well as agriculture. In 

 the multiplication of small holdings there also lay the opportunity 

 of mitigating the most depressing influences of his present position 

 and future prospects. " Speaking generally, the worst aspects of 

 his life at the present moment are the decreasing demands for agri- 

 cultural labour, the absence of any reasonable prospect of emerging 

 from the condition of hired service, and the pauper allowance 

 which rewards the most industrious career. Some readjustment 

 between the demand and supply for labour, some social ladder, and 

 some better provision against old age are the true needs of the agri- 

 cultural poor. So far from relieving the glut of labour, the new 

 departure in the practice of farming will still further congest the 

 market. Economical management and increased breadths of grass, 

 whether permanent or temporary, mean a reduction of working 

 expenses, which will take the form, not of less wages, but of less 

 employment. Emigration affords the only other outlet for the 

 excess of the labour supply." * 



Comparing the position of 1888 with that of 1912, it is obvious that 

 there are resemblances as well as differences. Generally speaking, 

 the problems remain the same ; tune has only accentuated some 

 and modified others. The great contrast between the two periods 

 lies in the partial recovery of agriculture from acute depression. 

 The great resemblance consists in the paralysing effect of the un- 

 certainty of the political outlook, which is infinitely more menacing 

 than in 1888. Were confidence once restored, the conditions of 

 farming, given favourable seasons, might warrant anticipations of 

 a considerable revival of the industry. 



The lapse of a quarter of a century has considerably changed 

 the relative positions of the three agricultural classes. To many of 

 them the depression of 1888 brought ruin. Of those who sur- 

 vived, it meant to landlords a substantial reduction in the standard 

 of living, to farmers a deprivation of comforts, to labourers a loss 

 1 Pioneers and Progress of English Farming (1888), p. 226. 



