70 



Question : Would industrial farming increase the number of people 

 employed on the land if machinery and implements were extensively 

 used? 



Answer : I think so. You would need more people to deal with it. 

 But it is doubtful whether you could get a largely increased population 

 on the land without resorting to uneconomic means of production. 

 You might by returning to spade labour, but this would reduce the 

 standard of living very considerably. 



Question : As capital can get a better return in other industries, 

 how can it be induced to come into farming ? 



Answer : The statement that other industries pay better cannot be 

 supported. I should say that there are few better-paying industries 

 than farming. 



Question : Then how do you account for the lack of capital ? 

 Answer : By the lack of commercial organisation. 



Question : Are there any statistics to show the amount of money 

 earned in farming at the present time, and are these earnings on the 

 increase ? 



Answer : There are no statistics ; but I think the upward move in 

 prices shows that farming must be becoming more profitable. I have 

 some recent figures showing the net returns per man employed in 

 agriculture, which give a total of about 130 to 140 per year. 



DISCUSSION. 



MR. ALDERMAN R. MORLEY (Workers' Union) : 



I am one of those who have only had contact with the land on the 

 lines which Mr. Orwin has condemned, as I had the misfortune to be 

 born in an agricultural district. In the latter part of the paper he says 

 that, however you organise agriculture, you will never, in his opinion, 

 get the workers in agriculture to be so uninterested in their work 

 as the worker in the factory and the mill ; this is the difference between 

 agriculture and all other undertakings, and, because of this, I think 

 the suggestion of large scale farming is not the wisest suggestion. 

 Our outlook has to be governed by the fact that we are living on an 

 island, that our area is restricted, and that therefore intensive 

 culture would appear to be necessary rather than large farm culture. 

 All the improvements of the latter can be got by co-operation. 



