economic principles, and therefore sooner or later must come to utter ruin.

As regarded remedies, Mr. Buchanan was subsequently good enough to forward me a document, in which the gist of the opinions he expressed to me is summed up. As the views contained therein appear to me to be both practical and wise, I quote a portion of it almost in his own words. He wrote:

Now do not suppose that the remedies I have to suggest are going to populate the country and place agriculture on a sound and prosperous footing. At the best they can do but little, but I believe they can do 'a little,' and, what is most important, they can do that little within the near future, and need not wait for the far future, with all its attendant suffering, before they can be put into operation. I do not think that it is a question of wage that is causing the young and more intellectual life to leave the countrysides for the town centres. In my opinion, the great force that is operating is dulness, and that the cottager has little or no prospect of improving his position. As regards dulness, I quite believe that more could easily be done, and this at once, to relieve the dulness of the villages. But at the very best village life can never, in this respect, as far as we can see at present, be on a level with town life.

But I believe men would put up with the necessary dulness of village life if they saw a chance, after some years of hard work and frugality, of investing their savings in stocking small convenient pastoral holdings, the man, as usual, working for the tenant farmer, while his wife and children looked after and did their best for the small place.

From my own inquiries and from what has passed under my own experience I believe that a man under such conditions is better off than he would be were he to take a larger place, that would entail the whole work of himself and his family, which was not supplemented by any outside earnings. I have christened these small pastoral farm-cottage-holdings,' in contradistinction to small-holdings.

There is another and great point that these farm-cottageholdings' would do for the country and agriculture. A child or two who were most inclined for country life, after the school years were passed, might be induced to remain at home and assist to develop these holdings to their utmost capacity. The movement,

therefore, would rear up amongst us a certain number of men and women who had some knowledge of the work necessitated by agriculture.

It is absurd to suppose that an inexperienced man, no matter how strong his muscles may be, is competent to do the work demanded of him on a farm. To call agricultural labour unskilled is the basest and most foolish libel that has ever been passed on a fine body of English working-men. If competent agricultural labour is not skilled, then for Heaven's sake show me what is! I am prepared, at any moment, to stand up before any body of town workmen and to show them that their labour is unskilled by comparison. But, remember, I refer to competent, experienced, willing work, and not to slovenly, inexperienced, and driven work.

Also as these farm-cottage-holdings multiplied, there would arise amongst us more movement, more life, more inquiry for papers, books, and amusements; and so they would help somewhat to relieve that very dulness which is accountable for much of the migration townwards. Still, moreover, these farm-cottageholdings would produce larger quantities of those lesser agricultural products which ought to be raised in this country, and which, to our lasting disgrace, have been supplied to our town markets from over the seas.

I am aware that it is a mighty difficult and heroic task for a cottager who has a fairly large family to save sufficient to enable him to start in such a place with a fair prospect of success. Could not, then, some scheme be devised, by agricultural creditbanks or by Government loans, to advance to men of known character and experience (who had saved a bit for themselves) the balance necessary for a start, at low rates of interest, and with easy rates of repayment, and to landlords who possess the spirit, but not the cash, facilities to erect the necessary buildings at a cheaper rate than we can erect them at the present time? I wonder what a million or so of the nation's money lent out in this way would do? I would venture to predict that the capital and interest would be repaid, and the nation would be the stronger and richer for her loan to agriculture.

Could a landlord do a nobler work than to facilitate in all ways in his power the creation of these small 'farm-cottageholdings,' and could he experience a deeper and more enduring pleasure than to go the round of his estate and watch the increasing prosperity and consequent contentment of his 'farm

VOL. I.

FF

cottage-holders'? As to the tenant farmer, what a sense of security he would experience, and how much more prosperous would be his farming if he were sure of permanent, willing, and intellectual labour. To help others to help themselves is surely Christianity put into practice, and is the wisest method of being useful in one's time and place.

I saw other agriculturists in Shropshire, some of whom were farmers and some who were not, but of these I need only say that with variations their tale was much the same as those which I have already told. Of the rent and general conditions of the industry they made little or no complaint; their cry was of the labour, continually of the lack of labour. The question is to what extent their stories of this trouble ought to be discounted. The reader must bear in mind that small husbandmen, especially in a grass country, will employ no more hands than are absolutely necessary; further, that unless they are driven to it they will not keep on men in slack times, preferring to take their chance of obtaining help when it is actually wanted, and thus save money in their pockets. The object is laudable, but their efforts to attain it in these days of scarcity do not tend to the solution of a very difficult problem.

I will conclude my sum of evidence by quoting a few figures connected with a large, and I believe typical, Shropshire estate the books of which I was kindly allowed to inspect. This property, which is a little under 7,000 acres in extent, used to bring in a rental of nearly 23s. an acre in the good times. In 1901 it brought in a gross rental of about 18s. an acre, from which must be deducted the repairs, that come to between 18 and 20 per cent. of the annual receipts; the tithe, that averages 2s. 6d. the acre; and the other usual charges. It is an instructive fact that on this property almost the entire loss is due to the reduced letting value of the farms over fifty acres, those under fifty acres having practically held their own as a source of income.

This estate may be divided into three classes-bottom

lands, which fetch about 24s. an acre; hillside farms, estimated at 12s. an acre; and hilltop sheep-runs, worth 5s. an acre. In addition the woods bring in a little money, and there are some very small holdings. A gentleman who was very largely interested in this property told me that the tenants farmed well as regards manure and keeping a good head of stock, but such matters as fencing, levelling molehills, and cutting out thistles were not attended to owing to the shortage of labour. He was a strong believer in the building of cottages, and disapproved of the smaller holdings being merged into the larger farms.

The general body of the testimony which I was able to collect went to show that the cottage accommodation in the county is 'middling,' and that more of it would be helpful in keeping the men on the land. A considerable number of gentlemen of all classes with whom I spoke declared themselves in favour of more small-holdings, for which there is doubtless a demand. On the whole, I am of opinion that farming in Shropshire is still a profitable industry, much more profitable, indeed, than in many other counties. But here, as elsewhere, the labour question is becoming very acute.

ESSEX

IN travelling from Warwickshire to Essex, which was the next county that I visited, I passed through Berkshire and noted there much poor and badly farmed land. Also there seemed to be great areas that had not been laid, but had tumbled down to grass of very inferior quality, always a sure sign of agricultural depression, recent and acute.

The metropolitan shire of Essex covers about 987,000 acres, coming tenth in size among the English counties, and has a length from north-east to south-west of sixty-three miles. The best soil, a friable loam well suited to cereals and beans, runs along the coast, forming a belt of eight or ten miles in depth; indeed most of the good lands in Essex lie low, the richest pasture being found along the rivers and the marshlands, by the borders of the friths and creeks. Also there are numbers of islets of a marshy character, such as Havingore, Horsea, Mersea, Wallasea, Foulness, Potton &c. The highlands are situated in the interior of the county, the highest of all being on the London clay, as in the neighbourhoods of Waltham Abbey, Tiptree Heath, and Brentwood.

Certainly he who investigates the agricultural state of England must be prepared for surprises. Had I been asked before I went there in what part of the country I expected to find the labour conditions worst I should have answered in Essex, because of the prevailing depression and its nearness to London. The fact, as I found it, was that they were better than in any county I had visited so far, though how to explain the circumstance I know not. By this statement I mean that a certain proportion of the young men were