The enclosures were thus fatal to three classes of the rural population: the small farmer, who had at most thirty acres; the cotter or cottager, who had perhaps five; and the laborer who had less than that or none. The process of enclosing their allottments after the consolidation mentioned, was so expensive that it could not be borne except by a man with some capital to start on. The man who was called upon by the enclosing committee to promptly ditch and fence his little land, and who could not do so, was compelled to sell at whatever price he could get. The small farmer of thirty acres might possibly have borne this expense but he received no adequate recompense for his rights of common; and such advantages as he received from the consolidation of his thirty acres could not make amends for the loss of common rights. For, without pasture he could not keep sheep; with no sheep he could not fertilize his land; without fertilizer the land soon wore out. The small farmer then could emigrate to America, or go to an industrial town, or become a day laborer. Thus it was that a small, independent farmer in a few years became a laborer and in another few years was perhaps thrown upon parish relief.
The effect upon the cottager can best be described by saying that before the enclosures he was a laborer with land; and after the enclosure he was a laborer without land. For the inability to fence and ditch his holdings operated even more sternly in his case than in that of the small farmer. A great part of the land, moreover, that was enclosed was turned to pasture by the large owners, and the laborers formerly employed on it were discharged. Where fifteen men farmed, one man herded. The cottager and the laborer were thus made dependent on wages alone at a time when competition for work was beating wages down to a starvation level. The squatter was a poor alien on the land. He settled on the waste, built a cottage, and got together a few geese, perhaps a cow and a horse; and began to cultivate the land. With the coming of the enclosure he lost his common right; and thus uprooted he could start on a wandering journey of beggary.
Perhaps we can get an idea of the misery and universal wretchedness of the rural population if we quote a few words from an eye-witness, Cobbett, in his PARISH REGISTER: