158 BRITISH RURAL LIFE AND LABOUR. 



stricted, the figures for 1901 show a marked and extra- 

 ordinary decline in the agricultural population. In 

 England and Wales alone the reduction in fifty years 

 amounts to over 500,000. The figures are obtainable 

 from the respective census returns including ordinary 

 labourers, shepherds, horsemen, and cattlemen, as under. 

 There were in 1851 in England and Wales 1,110,311. 

 This number by 1861 had dropped (by 12,050) to 

 1,098,261. In the next decade, however, there was the 



TABLE 19. CLASSIFIED AGRICULTURAL POPULATION OF THE UNITED 



KINGDOM. 



* Females not tabulated in returns and presumably included amongst males. 



extraordinary drop of 174,929 ; the 1871 census showing 

 the rural population of England and Wales as only 

 923,332. Between 1871 and 1881 there was a further 

 serious fall of 92,880 in numbers, the returns for that 

 year showing only 830,452 as remaining. By 1891 the 

 number was 756,557, a further drop of 73,895. 



The most startling result, however, since the one 

 shown in 1871, was shown by the census of 1901, which 

 gave the total number of rural labourers for England 

 and Wales as no more than 609,105, a swift decline in 



