POPULATION AND DEPOPULATION. 159 



ten years of no less than 147,452, or nearly 20 per 

 cent. ! Fortunately, there is a slight set-off against what 

 would otherwise be a very alarming state of things. 

 The Board of Trade report remarks on this subject : 



" The returns show a decrease of 147,452, or 19-5 per 

 cent, in the number of male agricultural labourers (of the 

 classes specified in the table) since 1891 , but owing to changes 

 of classification the rate of decrease is somewhat overstated. 



The report adds : 



' ' It may be questioned, however, how far the decrease for 

 1901 shown by these figures represents an actual and per- 

 manent diminution in the supply of agricultural labour. It 

 should be remembered, in the first place, that at the time of 

 the census of 1901, the country was at war in South Africa, 

 and that large numbers of the military reserves had been 

 called up for active service. At the close of the war, a year 

 later, many of these men would return to their former occu- 

 pations, and to this extent, therefore, the decline would only 

 be temporary. Then, again, there was considerable in- 

 dustrial activity at the date of the census of 1901, and the 

 higher wages obtainable in other industries probably 

 attracted some agricultural labourers from their normal 

 occupation. On the other hand, it is probable that fewer 

 agricultural labourers were omitted in 1901 from the agricul- 

 tural class through insufficient designation. But balancing, 

 so far as possible, one against the other, these disturbances in 

 the census returns, there can still be no doubt that a large 

 diminution has taken place in the number of labourers. It 

 is not necessary to discuss its causes here at length. The 

 principal of them are generally said to be the greater attrac- 

 tions of town life, the higher wages paid in nearly all other 

 industries, the conversion of arable land to pasturage, and 

 the introduction of machinery for farm work." 



These are, no doubt, part of the reasons for the serious 

 depopulation of the rural districts. Other and more 

 important ones will be presently given. Meanwhile, 

 although the figures of the decline have, so far, been 

 given only for England and Wales, the same decline, for 

 the same alleged reasons, has been going on in Scotland 

 and Ireland ; but data is not available for extending the 

 comparison so far back as 1851. We can, however, 

 show the decline from 1881. In that year the number 

 of agricultural labourers of all kinds, including shepherds, 



