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XLV. — Agricultural Notes on the Census of 1861. 
By J. D. Dent, M.R 
My dear Sir, — In looking over the Reports, of the Census 
Commissioners for 1861, I have met with certain information 
connected with Agriculture, which, I think, deserves some per- 
manent record in our Journal ; and I shall venture to submit to 
you, first, some of the Tables which have been prepared by the 
Commissioners, and then a few remarks of my own upon them. 
The first thing which strikes us, in England and Wales, is the 
aggregation of population in towns — the inhabitants of 781 towns 
amounting to 10,960,998 ; and those of the villages and country 
parishes to 9,105,226. "The area occupied by the 781 towns is 
2991 square miles ; that of the rest of the country, 55,330 square 
miles. 
During the decennial period from 1851 to 1861 the rate of 
increase of population has been much greater in town than in 
country, and the large towns have gained more than the small 
ones. In 1851, 580 towns were included in the record, and in 
that year the population of these "towns and that of the sur- 
rounding country was nearly equal ; " but in the subsequent ten 
years, while the population in the villages and country parishes 
increased at the rate of 6 - 5 per cent., the increase in the towns 
was 17*3 per cent., this difference being due to the migration 
from country to town." 
Unfortunately, for purposes of comparison, the Census Com- 
missioners of 1861 have drawn up their Tables which refer to the 
occupations of the people, in a somewhat different form from 
those of 1851 ; and there is also a variation between the Scotch 
and English systems, which renders an exact comparison a matter 
of difficulty. These changes have arisen from a desire to impart 
to the returns of each successive census a greater degree of 
accuracy, and to point out more clearly the different occupations 
of the people. In 1851, and again in 1861, the farmers of the 
United Kingdom were requested to return the number of acres 
which they occupied, and also the number of labourers whom 
they employed. In 1851 we find 91,698 persons, who, in the 
returns, called themselves farmers, but had apparently no labourers. 
Many of these probably did all the labour themselves ; others 
had the assistance of their children ; some employed labourers 
only during a portion of the year ; and some may have had 
labourers whom they did not return. It is certain, however, that 
in parts of the country, men who have only a few acres of land 
and employ no workmen, have always been returned as farmers ; 
and this we must bear in mind when we compare the number 
