Agricultural Wages 1O7 



are to judge by the general level of 

 earnings. 



In recent years wages in agriculture have 

 risen in spite of the falling off of profits 

 and rents consequent on the fall in prices. 

 And the rise in wages can only be ascribed 

 to the check to the supply, by the greater 

 migration to the towns, and the cessation 

 of the social causes which formerly induced 

 the surplus to remain in the country. 



Although, as just pointed out, in many 

 cases the farmers kept up a surplus supply 

 of labour, in some cases the landlords 

 refused to keep up the cottages on the 

 farms, and in order to avoid the rates, 

 forced the labour to go to some parish 

 where these restrictions in building were 

 not in use — the open villages, as they were 

 called. Here the rents were high, and the 

 cottages very bad, and the labourers had 

 to walk considerable distances to their 



