$60 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



conditions which cannot be foreseen, if unchecked, it may in the 

 end mean the ruin of the race. 



Owing principally to the lowness of prices, from whatever 

 cause arising, and the lack of labour, I take it to be proved then 

 that in the majority of districts English agriculture is a failing 

 industry, although at present, in the absence of serious war and 

 want, this gradual failure does not appear materially to affect the 

 general prosperity of the nation. Yet I maintain it is affecting it, 

 not only by the lessening of a home-grown food supply which 

 might be vital in the case of a European struggle, but in an even 

 more deadly fashion by the withdrawal of the best of its popula- 

 tion from the wholesome land into cities which are not wholesome 

 for mind or body. 



Will this movement stop ? Many think so. The hopes of 

 farmers are built for the most part on a belief, which I find to be 

 very widespread, that the trade of the country is threatened with 

 imminent disaster which will send people back to the land, or at 

 least prevent the migration of any more of them to the towns. 

 For my own part I do not believe that anything short of actual 

 starvation will cause those who have become accustomed to a city 

 life or, still more, their children to return to labour on the 

 soil even if they were fitted so to do. It is, however, possible that 

 those who remain on that soil might be prevented from deserting 

 it by the difficulty of obtaining remunerative employment in the 

 towns. As the demand for robust country folk is at present enor- 

 mous and increasing in every branch of labour including the 

 army, the railways, and the police that case is, however, purely 

 hypothetical. In this connection it must be remembered that the 

 unemployed, of whom we hear so much, are not strong-limbed, 

 sound-minded rustics, but townsmen of the second or third gen- 

 eration who, whatever else they can do, cannot or will not labour 

 with their bodies. Therefore it comes to this while there is 

 a demand and trade flourishes the exodus must continue ; and 

 at present, with some exceptions, the demand is active and trade 

 does flourish. 



The reader may ask, Why should it continue ? There are sev- 

 eral answers. Chiefly it is a matter of wages. More money can 



