106 Tlie Alteration in the Distribution of the Agricultural 
bridge, Essex, Hunts, Norfolk, and Suffolk ; and in 14 out of 
the 16 counties which form the mixed pastoral and corn-growing 
division ; but in 8 only of the remaining 21 counties which 
form the pastoral division. Again, if we take the 6 counties 
which, according to the Special Official Return made in 1881, 
had the largest quantities of unoccupied arable land, we find 
that the decrease in the number of farmers in all of those 6 
(except Wilts) v. as considerably over the average ; thus Essex, 
in which 5021 acres of arable land were returned as unoccupied, 
shows a decrease of 15'8 per cent, in the number of its farmers ; 
Herts, which had 2876 unoccupied acres of arable land, shows a 
decrease of 19'8 per cent, in the number of its farmers ; in 
Lincolnshire, which had 2575 unoccupied acres of arable land, 
the decrease shown is 14*9 per cent. ; in Hunts, which had 
2305 unoccupied acres of arable land, 20"4 per cent. ; and in 
Cambridgeshire, which had 2234 unoccupied acres of arable 
land, 14- 7 per cent. 
The calculations which have been recently made by my 
friend Major Cralgie as to the decrease in rent, also afford some 
confirmatory evidence that the decrease in the number of farmers 
in the Eastern and Midland counties was greater than in the 
rest, for the fewer the number of farmers the less would be the 
amount of rent receiv'ed, unless the rents of the remaining had 
been raised, which we may assume was not the case. And 
Major Craigie's calculations show that in the Northern and 
North- Western counties the decrease in rent, according to the 
Inland Revenue Returns from 1877 to 1883, was 3J per cent. ; 
in the Southern and South- Western counties 2 per cent., but 
in the Eastern 11 per cent., and in the Midland 112 per cent. 
From all these considerations we may, I think, fairly conclude 
that the decrease in the number of farmers is to be attributed, 
if not entirely, at all events to a very great extent, to the mis- 
fortunes which overtook those of them who were especially 
engaged in the cultivation of arable land during the latter part 
of the period from 1871 to 1881. 
The decrease in the number of farm-labourers, however, does 
not follow the same geographical division in so marked a 
manner; for we find that the decrease in the number of the 
labourers is above the average in 12 only out of the 21 Eastern 
or corn-growing counties, but in 13 of the 21 Western or grazing 
counties ; and sub-dividing the counties as before, into the three' 
divisions of " corn-growing," " pastoral," and "mixed," we find 
a decrease of labourers above the average in 4 of the 5 counties 
comprised in the first division; in 9 of the 16 counties classi- 
fied as " mixed corn-growing and pastoral ;" and in no less 
than 12 of the 21 pastoral counties. Arable land farming does 
not seem therefore to have been the cause of the greatest de- 
