Much the same thing happens all throughout arable agriculture—­from the hoeing to the threshing—­a troop are wanted one day, scarcely anybody the next.  There is, of course, a steady undercurrent of continuous work for a certain fixed number of hands; but over and above this are the periodical calls for extra labour, which of recent years, from the high wages paid, have been so profitable to the labourers.  But when the agriculturist draws in his investments, when he retrenches his expenditure, and endeavours, as far as practicable, to confine it to his regular men, then the intermittent character of the extra work puts a strain upon the rest.  They do not find so much to do, the pay is insensibly decreasing, and they obtain, less casual employment meantime.

In the olden times a succession of bad harvests caused sufferings throughout the whole of England.  Somewhat in like manner, though in a greatly modified degree, the difficulties of the arable agriculturist at the present day press upon the corn villages.  In a time when the inhabitants saw the farmers, as they believed, flourishing and even treading on the heels of the squire, the corn villagers, thinking that the farmer was absolutely dependent upon them, led the van of the agitation for high wages.  Now, when the force of circumstances has compressed wages again, they are both to submit.  But discovering by slow degrees that no organisation can compel, or create a demand for labour at any price, there are now signs on the one hand of acquiescence, and on the other of partial emigration.

Thus the comparative density of the population in arable districts is at once a blessing and a trouble.  It is not the ‘pranks’ of the farmers that have caused emigration, or threats of it.  The farmer is unable to pay high wages, the men will not accept a moderate reduction, and the idle crowd, in effect, tread on each other’s heels.  Pressure of that kind, and to that extent, is limited to a few localities only.  The majority have sufficient common sense to see their error.  But it is in arable districts that agitation takes its extreme form.  The very number of the population gives any movement a vigour and emphasis that is wanting where there may be as much discontent but fewer to exhibit it.  That populousness has been in the past of the greatest assistance to the agriculturist, and there is no reason why it should not be so in the future, for it does not by any means follow that because agriculture is at present depressed it will always be so.

Let the months roll by and then approach the same village along the same road under the summer sun.  The hedges, though low, are green, and bear the beautiful flowers of the wild convolvulus.  Trees that were scarcely observed before, because bare of leaves, now appear, and crowds of birds, finches and sparrows, fly up from the corn.  The black swifts wheel overhead, and the white-breasted swallows float in the azure.  Over the broad plain extends a still