THE RURAL EXODUS 61 



engaged in agriculture as labourers and 

 shepherds we are faced by the following 

 figures : 



1871 922,054 



1881 830,452 



1891 756,557 



1901 609,105 



(Figures for 1911 not yet available.) 

 The cultivated land of England and Wales 

 is worked by twenty-eight males per square 

 mile (Census of 1901). If we used our land 

 like that of Belgium with her seventy-two 

 workers per square mile, we should increase 

 our rural population by nearly two millions ! 

 The most important of our national in- 

 dustries is being starved for want of adequate 

 workers, but for the nation as a whole the fact 

 possesses only a feeble interest. The sinister 

 significance of deserted villages and a failing 

 food supply is hidden from the eyes of our 

 urban population by politicians whose ac- 

 quaintance with the country is often derived 

 from week-end house-parties and rural golf 

 links. Transit by land and sea is so rapid and 

 cheap that as long as Danish butter can be 

 bought at I/- a lb., and Servian eggs at Id. 

 each, and New Zealand mutton at 6d., the 

 British householder takes little notice of the 

 fact that all these things and more also should 



