4 NOTES ON THE NATURAL LIMITS TO OCCUPATION, ETC. 



increase would fully stock land occupations in the year 1920. 

 It is clear, therefore, that employment on the land in the 

 United Kingdom is bound in within very narrow limits by 

 space — one of the most formidable of all natural limits — 

 and no alteration in the rate of remuneration of the agricul- 

 tural labourer, nor improvement in his condition, can 

 affect this limit in the slightest degree. But in addi- 

 tion to the space limit, the number of hands necessary 

 to cultivate a given area, or produce a definite quantity 

 of produce, there is a gradually contracting limit brought 

 about by natural forces, such as steam, electricity, and 

 improvements in labour-saving machinery. Thus the same 

 area in 1881 was cultivated in a higher degree, and 

 with better results, than in 1841, with a reduction in 

 the hands employed equivalent to 31*06 per cent. Since 

 1841 the added force of steam, as an auxiliary to human 

 labour in the United Kingdom alone, and there utilised in 

 the transport of materials and in various other ways, is esti- 

 mated to be equivalent to the manual force of 108 millions 

 of workmen, or fully six times the manual force of the total 

 number of breadwinners of the United Kingdom at the 

 present moment. It is not surprising, therefore, that agri- 

 cultural hands per 100 acres should have decreased from 

 *?-76 in 1840 to 5'35 in the year 1881 ; and that these com- 

 bined causes should of necessity compel a regular stream of 

 migration from rural districts to urban centres or to other 

 countries ; and so long as a healthy condition exists in 

 rural districts (unmistakably indicated always by a high rate 

 of natural increase) such migration is inevitable. According 

 to calculations made by Mr. Mulhall, in the United States 

 9,000,000 hands raise nearly half as much grain as 66,000,000 

 hands in Europe. Thus it appears that for want of imple- 

 ments or proper machinery there is a waste of labour in 

 Europe equal to 48,000,000 of peasants. In other words, 

 one farm labourer in the United States is worth more than 

 three in Europe, This state of affairs in Europe, however, is 

 altering for the better each year. Since 1840, owing to 

 improvements in implements and machinery, tillage has 

 become more productive, and grain has become cheaper. 

 From the same authority we learn that " in 1840 each peasant 

 produced about 7b bushels of grain; in 1860 the average 

 was 87, and in 1887 it had risen to 114 ; that is, two men 

 now produce more grain than three did in 1840." From 

 these observations we are able to understand that a smaller 

 number of hands employed in agriculture is no indication of 

 smaller produce. Take the results of two periods in the 

 United Kingdom, 1840 and 1887, and we at once perceive 

 that the tendencies upon the whole are beneficial — not 

 injurious. 



