1904.] The Agricultural Population. 



275 



following table. Farmers' sons under 15 years of age are 

 excluded, as they were not generally classed as occupied prior 

 to 1 90 1. The female relatives of farmers returned as assisting, 

 in the work of the farm, which were not shown in 1 891, are also 

 omitted. Farmers' wives also assist in farm work, but their 

 numbers have not been ascertained. 



Males. Females. 



1851 1,232,576 ... 143,475 



1861 , 1,206,280 ... 90,525 



1871 1,014,428 ... 58,656 



1881 924,871 ... 40,346 



1891 841,884 ... 24,150 



1901 715,138 ... 12,002 



These figures illustrate clearly the rapidity with which, during 

 the last half-century, agricultural labour in England and Wales 

 has declined. In 185 1, of every 100 males over 10 years of age, 

 19 were workers on farms, whilst in 1901 the proportion was 

 only 6 per 100. In the course of fifty years the number so- 

 engaged has declined 42 per cent. Between 1881 and 1891 the 

 decline was 9 per cent., and between 1891 and 1901 it was 

 15 per cent. In all the English and Welsh counties more or 

 less decline has taken place, but it is a striking fact that with 

 the exception of Cornwall and Dorset the decline in all the 

 counties south of a line drawn from the Wash to the Severn has. 

 exceeded 15 per cent. The reduction in female agricultural 

 labour has been even more remarkable. 



The decrease in the number of agricultural labourers and farms 

 servants has undoubtedly been partially compensated by the 

 more general adoption of machinery by the farmers themselves,, 

 and in addition to this there is a small class of agricultural 

 machine proprietors and attendants, whose number, though 

 small, has increased during the last decennium by 40 per cent.,, 

 viz., from 4,675 to 6,545. Of these, 694 were enumerated in 

 Lincolnshire, 469 in Suffolk, 449 in Essex, 409 in Norfolk, and 

 317 in Cambridgeshire, a total of 2,338 in this group of eastern 

 counties against a total of only 937 in the northern counties 

 down to and including those of York, Lancaster, and Chester, 

 and the entire Principality of Wales. 



In contrast with the decrease in the number of workers on 

 farms is the considerable increase in the group consisting of 



Z 2 



