Agriculture is encouraged in England because the migration from the country to the city has increased extraordinarily. Agriculture is restricted in favor of stock raising, which gives employment to fewer laborers than agriculture. In spite of the great increase in population, the number of agriculturists has steadily decreased since 1851. On the other hand, the industrial population (and it is predominantly urban) has increased significantly. Every industrialization means a pauperization to a certain extent. It produces the army of unskilled laborers, the victims of the sweating system, who in a destitute condition are left to eke out their wretched existence in the "East Ends" of the large cities. There is no corresponding misery in the country districts. A marked industrialization therefore causes a degree of general pauperism such as is unknown in the agricultural regions of western Europe. The pursuit of gardening among women has a social-political significance. The English laboring population is estimated at 4,000,000 people, among whom the trade-union movement has made considerable progress. The English trade-union statistics of 1904 show 148 trade-unions having women members. There are all together 125,094 female members, _i.e._ 6.7 per cent of all organized laborers. The greatest number of these are in the textile industries (almost 100,000). The total number of women laborers in this industry is 800,000. MEN WOMEN (SHIL. A WEEK) (SHIL. A WEEK) Cotton Industry 29.6 18.8 Woolen Industry 26.1 13.1 Lace Industry 39.6 13.5 Woven Goods Industry 31.5 14.3 Linen Industry 22.4 10.9 Jute Industry 21.7 13.5[48] In the textile industry, in which women are better organized than elsewhere (there being 96,000), there existed in 1906 the preceding difference between the wages of men and women (see table, p. 84).