60 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



and humble luxuries are not enough to induce 

 him to stay on the soil. 



Politicians and sociologists of every school of 

 thought have since 1851 admitted the alarming 

 decrease in the numbers of our rural popu- 

 lation. A slight improvement has taken place 

 during the opening years of the twentieth cen- 

 tury, for actual diminution has been replaced 

 by a slight increase. If we take the " rural 

 districts " of the Census returns, we find a 

 positive addition to the population of 438,066 

 in ten years ; but side by side with this small 

 augmentation of actual inhabitants the urban 

 population has been added to at a much 

 higher rate, with the result that the actual 

 proportion of rural dwellers to the older 

 population has reached its lowest point of 

 21-9 per cent. Further, in the case of 581 

 rural parishes which showed considerable in- 

 crease of population, Mr. Seebohm Rowntree 

 discovered that only sixteen attribute the 

 growth to agricultural development. The 

 causes of the increase in the remaining 565 

 parishes are declared to be residential develop- 

 ments in the neighbourhood of towns, the 

 building of factories, the extension of collieries, 

 and other matters wholly disconnected with 

 agriculture. If, again, we take the numbers 

 of those in England and Wales actually 



