530 Decline in Agricultural Population, [dec, 



decline, and on the desirability or otherwise of providing more 

 allotments or small holdings. Endeavour was also made to 

 ascertain whether temporary and migratory labourers — such as 

 harvesters and hop-pickers, &c. — had declined to the same 

 extent as the agricultural labourers returned in the Census, and 

 how far farmers had tried to meet new conditions by altering 

 their system of farming and developing new or special branches 

 of agriculture. The replies furnished by no fewer than 248 

 correspondents have been carefully summarised and grouped 

 according to agricultural divisions ; and these are followed by 

 appendices exhibiting the changes in agricultural population as 

 revealed by the Census Returns ; changes in the area under 

 crops and grass, live stock, and number of holdings, all of 

 which are more or less illustrative of the subject ; and the 

 whole is prefaced by an introductory memorandum by Mr. R. H. 

 Rew, in which the various points in the inquiry are discussed. 



Contiimance of tJie Decline, — On the whole, the replies indicate 

 that there has been since 1901 a further reduction in the number 

 of men employed on farms, but that the decline is probably 

 proceeding at a slower rate than during the two decades pre- 

 ceding that date. Temporary or migratory labour, however, is 

 generally considered to have decreased in a greater proportion 

 than permanent labour. The monotonous repetition, in tones of 

 varying intensity, of the same story by successive Census Returns 

 has so familiarised the public mind with the process that it has 

 almost come to be accepted as a natural and inevitable course of 

 events. It is perhaps desirable, therefore, to remember that the 

 reductions of the past twenty or thirty years have an importance 

 greater than those recorded previously. 



The Position since 1870. — Prior to, say, 1870, there was in many 

 country districts a superfluity of labour, and there is little doubt 

 that a considerable proportion of the agricultural labourers 

 returned as such in the Census were only in partial employment. 

 The elimination of these represented, therefore, a less serious 

 withdrawal of labour from the land than the loss of an equal 

 number at the present time, when employment all the year round 

 is more general. The Elementary Education Act of 1870 power- 

 fully affected the agricultural labourers' position by restricting 

 juvenile labour and diminishing the aggregate amount of the 



