So too, not every form of agriculture has declined.

While farmers and labourers show a decrease, market-gardeners show a large increase, and there seem to be many more persons living in towns who cultivate a bit of land in the country as a subsidiary employment.
Taken as a whole the absolute fall off in the number of those working upon the soil is not large.

The decline of small country industries is much more considerable.

Here another law of industrial motion comes in, the rapid tendency of manufacture towards centralization in the towns, which we have discussed in the last chapter.

Here we are concerned only with its effect in stamping out small rural industries.