Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-10-19
FIELD LABoRERs QUIT THE eoUN-
TRY FOR EMPLOYMENT IN CITIES.
Farm Values Decline and Husbandry
ON the wane Throughout
'+1s~ SGD ~
the Island.


| the experience not only of this but of other
countries, he has the keenest of eyes and
| he has interchangeable industry in investiga-
| ton. He has Also what we did not quite
expect when he began his inquiry, a re-
markable freedom from prejudice, whether
! Of class or training, and can accept facts
which he dislikes without allowing his dis
| like to warp his judgment. He Is, for In
| stance, we imagine, inclined to believe that
Eng1ishmen would be wise. for the sake OF
the nation and not of any class, to restore
protection to agriculture, that Is, In fact, to
pay considerable bounty on the produc-
! tion Of food; but he 'perceives that this
must be excluded from the list of possible
remedies for agricultural depression. Free
trade, the spirit and the fact BOTH has, he
allows, so intertwfned itself with every de-
partment of the national life that to aban-
don 1t would produce endless disturbance,
even If 1t did not result, as he thinks 1t
would, in insurrection. The remedy for the
evils now upon US must, therefore, be
sought elsewhere; but 1t should be sought,
and with eagerness, for those evils are
great and pressing, and involve not only
the prosperity of agriculture but the char
acter and safety Of the nation itself.
Farming Does Not Pay.
Mr. Haggard finds, as the result Of in
quiries carefully pursued through the
length and breadth Of England, that agri-
culture is no. longer either profitable OF at
tractive. The landlord does not get easily
even his lowered rent: the farmer in most
counties barely lives, and remains farmer
only because he knows no other occupa-
ton, or because he Is by nature unable to
follow any other life; while the laborer.
though better paid and treated than of
yore. detests his labor and will not remain
upon the soil. About the position of the
landlord there is, we imagine. no dispute.
Partly through the direct fall. in rents. and
partly through the increased expense of
keeping up an estate, every tenant de-
manding improvements previously un-
thought Of his income has diminished on
the average nearly one-half-in Essex and
Suffolk much more than that-and the sal
able value Of his property in still larger
proportion.
Mortgages once supposed to have been
covered by security Of thrice their value
have been discovered to be risky" be-
cause If the lender. foreclosed he would
obtain less than the money originally adj
Vanced The process is perceptible every
where, and would be still more so but that
the wealthy still desire estates which give
them occupation, shooting rights and i'm
portance of kind and In many districts
there Is therefore practice, which 10 Mr.
Haggard seems Unnatural of spending
money on the land instead of receiving
money from it.
Field Hands Scarce
The large farmers are dying out, It be-
Ing found nearly impossible to secure ten
ants for large farms; the medium farmers
just live or slowly lose. their capital, and
only the small holders continue in ANYTHING
like prosperity. The. remaining class. the
taberers. are flying from the soil They
they think that there they have chances,
they have no fear, of cEoWding, their, hous-
Ing In the villages being abonhnable. they
nave come to regard the. laborers lot as
hopeless and degradipg-a view, 1t Is
known. which the village women take
even more strongly-and they depart never
to return. =
Upon this point Mr.. Haggard insists with
ever-repeated emphasis. He declares that
the truth is hidden from us by the growth
or the cities, which make the st atistics de-
iusive, by the fact that generation bred
to held work still survives and by vague
nope that when the mischief becomes a. lit
tie worse the laborer will return. ~ He Will
never return. says Mr.. Haggard, whatever
the consequences, to be q faborer again
ana the citizen. however pressed by pow
erty. VIII not and cannot take his place:
1t Is not only that he does not understand
the work and dislikes 1t, but that he lit.
orally Is physically unequal to it. He NAV
be strong IN a way, but work out Of doors
IN all Weathers for twelve hours day
Kills him or sends him into hospital The
result Is that, except on the best lands.
which will always tempt cultiva tors, the
SOIL Is being devoted to grass. not always
or the best kind; that agriculture is pow
erty -stricken, land that some parts of Eng
land are becoming almost as lonesome as
the veldt of Africa" and If there Is another
reduction of prices, especially in meat.
much OF 1t will become as farms in Essex
have become, derelict :