OF AGRICULTURE. 95 



British agriculture that have been published 

 lately, without realising that the agricultural 

 depression which began in the " seventies " and 

 the " eighties " of the nineteenth century had 

 causes much more deeply seated than the fall 

 in the prices of wheat in consequence of American 

 competition. However, it would lie beyond the 

 scope of this book to enter here into such a dis- 

 cussion. Moreover, anyone who will read a few 

 review articles written from the points of view 

 of different parties, or consult such books as 

 that of Mr. Christopher Turnor,* or study the 

 elaborate inquest made by Rider Haggard in 

 twenty-six counties of England paying more 

 attention to the data accumulated in this book 

 than to the sometimes biassed conclusions of the 

 author will soon see himself what are the causes 

 which hamper the development of British agri- 

 culture.f 



In Scotland the conditions are equally bad. 

 The population described as " rural "is in a 

 steady decrease : in 1911 it was already less 

 than 800,000 ; and as regards the agricultural 

 labourers, their number has decreased by 42,370 

 (from 135,970 to 93,600) in the twenty years, 

 1881 to 1901. The land goes out of culture, 

 while the area under " deer forests " that is, 



* Land Problems and National Welfare, London, 1911. 

 t Rural England, two big volumes, London, 1902. 



