THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 537, 29 January 1913, Page 6

THE RURAL WORLD.

RURAL DEPOPULATION AND ITS ARREST IN ENGLAND AND WALES. Although in England and Wales the tendency of the population of the rural districts to migrate into the town or to emigrate abroad presented a serious problem during the latter part of the 19th century, the expression 'rural depopulat on" can only be applied to this movement in a relative scene. The population of the rural districts did not actually decrease, though it grew very slowly as compared with the urban population. Thus in 112 registration districts which in 1901 were purely rural there were 932,364 inhabitants in 1801; 1,324,528 in 1851 and 1,330,319 in 1901. Making a similar comparison for 105 of these districts which were still purely rural in 1911, we find that the population rose from 852,313 in 1801 to 1,212,548 in 1851 and 1.306,565 in 1911.

Meanwhile the pbpulation of England and Wales as a whole was growing with great rapadity and consequently the proportion of the popula tion living in towns was steadily becoming higher. In 1881 this proportion had already reached 6.9 per cent, and it rose to 72 per cent, in 1891. 77 per cent, in 1901 and 78 per cent, in 1911. It will be noticed that the increase in this proportion between 1901 and 1911 was only an additional 1 per cent., ? as compared with much larger increases in the two previous decades., It is ,apparent, therefore, that during the period 1901-11 the rate of increase in the rural districts can only have been slightly less than the rate of increase in the urban districts. The change which had taken place is, indeed, somewhat remarkable. Between 1891 and 1901 the population of the rural districts increased by 2.9 per cent., while the urban population increased by 15.2 per cent. Between 1901 and 1911 the rural population increased by 10.2 per cent, while the rate of increase of the urban population declined to 11.1 per cent. The rural depopulation had been arrested.

The significance' of the foregoing facta discusaedin the article of which the first part appeared in the May issue of the "Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelligence," published by the International Institute of Agriculture. The first part of the article endeavours to trace the causes of the slow growth of the rural population in the 19th century; the second part will discuss why the growth has been accelerated in the present century

It was not on account of a diminution in the natural increase that the rural population grew so slowly, since the birth rate is higher and mortality lower in the country than in the townß. There was an actual exodus, a strong movement of population from the country to the towns or abroad.

The beginnings of this exodus ate to be found in the "Enclosures" whiqh took place in the 18th and early in the 19th century and completely revolutionised the agririan system in England. Separate enclosed holdings were submitted for the old system of open field divided into strips and common lands upon which all the villagers enjoyed rights of grazing cattle. The process was greatly accelerated by the introduction of improved agricultural methods, which could not have been successfully adopted on the scattered strips, and by the high prices which prevailed during the period of the Napoleonic wars. When lands were enclosed many villagers were deprived of grazing of which they could hot adduce legal proof, and others were obliged for want of capital or tempted by the high price of land to sell the holdineß allotted to them. As a result, a large proportion of those who had previously had rights in the land became merely wage earning labourers.

It was from this class that the rising industries of the towns drew their supply of labour and though, as long tm the prices of co'n remained high, there was a large demand for agricultural labour, a movement towards the towns set in. When at the close of the Napoleonic wars, the price of corn fell, the industrial development became even more rapid. At the same time the demand for agricultural labour tended to decrease, since meat production became more enumerative than cereal growing, and much land was laid down in grass.

It was not, however, until 1875, that the prices of corn began to fall very seriously. . About this time, owing to the development of the means of transport, the United States and other corn-producing countries began to send enormous quantities of grain to England, and priced rapidly dropped. The conversion of arable land into pasture became accelerated and in the culivation of cereals machinery or seasonal labour was largely substituted for the employment of regular labours. Following upon foreign competition in corn, came the importation of frozen and chilled meats, and an agricultural crisis resulted, in which : much land Weht'out of altogtber.

The fluctuations in the fortunes of agriculture inevitably reacted on the rural population, but other cause? were also at work to check its growth Amongst these the article mentions the disappearance of manufactures from the rural districts owing to the centralisation of industry in the towns, and the decline of milling and other industries subsidiary to agriulture. The rise in wages tended to reduce the amount of labour which the farmers could profitably employ, while the spread of education and the general rise in the standard of living produced a discontent with rural conditions, which was aggravated by the dullness of rural life and the superior attractions of the towns. Yet another cause of the exodus has beena serious want uf proper housing accommodation in the country districts.

CARE OF THE DAIRY CALF.

Mr E. H. Dollar, a prominent breeder of Holstein cattle and a farmers' institute lecturer of New York, has the following to say concerning the care of the dirty calf:—

"In the first place, we must consider the calf as an infant, and it must be handled and fed very much the same as a baby. I believe that it is safe to say that 90 per cent, of the calves that die at less than six weeks of age die from one of two reasons: indigestion caused by overfeeding, irregular feeding, or feeding milk of a lower temperature than that to which the calf is accustomed; or by infection caused by feeding from dirty pails. How many times we go into a calf barn and find the pails turned bottom side up on the floor, and there they remain from one evening to another, from Monday morning to Saturday night, and from one month to the next. Is there any wonder that a calf a week or two old, fed from such pails, becomes sick, and for a few days dies and the in fection passes from one calf to another, and many times the entire herd is lost.

"Again, we find a man who keeps his pails clean, but is overgenerous. He wants his calves to grow fast, and so feeds them all they will eat, but feeds them only twice a day, allowing them to garge their little stomachs with six or eight quarts of milk, when they should be fed one or two quarts at a time arid that four times a day.

"L«t us start with a calf at birth. We will take it for granted that the mother has been properly nourished and properly housed, so that., this infant has been brought into the world in a strong, vigorous condition. The I mother and calf are placed in a box stall, loose, and left there for a abort time, varying from six to twelve hours according to the condition of the calf, but not longer than twelve hours under any conditions. There are two reasons why the calf shuuld be removed from the diam so early. We do not want the milk taken from the udder of the cow in too large quantities for at least two or three days after calving, because we have learned from experience that the heavy milking cow that has had her udder entirely emptied soon after calfing is apt to have milk fayer or, at least, is more liable to this disease than she would be were her udder left well distenled with milk. But the principal reason so far as the calf is concerned, is that we do riot want it to take into its stomach too much milk at one time. It should have a little of the mother's first milk—this seems to be'necessary; but as soon as the calf becomes strong enough and begins to show a tendency to take too much of this milk, remove it at once to a separate stall, milk a small quantity from the cow four times a day or every six hours and feed it immediately, so that the calf will have the milk as near the temperature it can from the cow as possible. Of course, the amount fed must be regulated according to the calf, but perhaps should not exceed one and a half pints every six hours The feeding pail should be sterilised or scalded every day; in fact, I believe it more necessary that the calf pails be given the very best of care than it is that the milk pails be looked after to the neglect of the others- This little calf then, should be fed three or four times a day for at least two weeks. One oE the greatest mistakes made by many calf feedera is that they ask the calf to go too long between feeding times, and then allow it to take too much milk into the.stomach atone time. Calves should bs fed very much as a baby is fed, and no one wou'd feed a healthy child at 7 o'clock in the morning and then not until 7 o'clock at night.

"After the first two or three weeks the calf should be gradually changed from whole milk to a skim milk diet by adding each time a little skim milk direct from the separator, and may also be fed three times a day instead of four. In this way the calves will derive nearly as much nourishment from the skim milk as from the whole milk. To the skim, milk may be added a small amount of flax seed to replace the fat removed by the separator This is an excellent feed, and one on whidh calves do well. We feed milk to our calves as long bb it can be spared many times until they are a year old, but at no time do we exceed six or eight quarts at one feeding. :