STIRRINGS OF NEW LIFE. I59 



of land in the parish, the good gardens attached to each 

 cottage, the abundance of allotment land and the number 

 of small holdings contained in the parish. 



The most interesting discovery made by the author was 

 that the children of the small holders, who cultivated hold- 

 ings of different sizes, from about I acre to 10 acres, were 

 iniinitcly more healthy than the children of the agricultural 

 labourers, in spite of the fact that the market gardeners' 

 families averaged 67, whilst those of the labourers averaged 

 4 -6. There were therefore 2'i per cent, less children 

 born on the average in the family of the labourer than 

 in that of the market gardener ; and in these small families 

 the death rate was just ten times as great. As in the inves- 

 tigations of later writers Miss Davics found that poverty 

 in the life of the labourer was greatest when the children were 



young and unable to contribute a penny to the family income. 

 ***** 



In 1906 England turned her attention from the ends of 

 the earth and glanced at her own wasted acres. A gleam 

 of hope entered the benumbed mind of the rural worker. 

 The sweeping victory of the Liberal Party, with the election 

 of a group of Labour Members independent of the old 

 political Party, stirred that slow moving mind with hopes 

 of better days to come. The Liberal Party had put forward 

 a definite programme of small holdings, and of non- 

 contributory Old Age Pensions. 



The Labour Party, which was formed in 1900, committed 

 the great Trade Unions of the country to a political policy 

 untrammelled by the fetters which had bound men like 

 Arch, Burt, Broadhurst, Fenwick, and John Burns. It had 

 taken the field with an army of 1,000,000 workers and had 

 won its first victory over the outposts of Privilege. 



Once more the difficult task of organising agricultural 

 labourers was essayed ; not so much from the point of view, 

 apparently, of gaining a great rise in wages, but to make the 

 farm- workers class-conscious, and teach them to realise that 

 they must win their own salvation by industrial and politi- 

 cal action. The cry " Back to the Land " became insistent, 

 and if it were not possible to raise wages to any appreciable 



