77 



than on the larger farms. Thus, taking an average, employment on 

 farms will be approximately as follows : 



Men 



per farm. Total. 



59,514 farms of an average of 72 acres 1 59,514 



31,860 123 3 95,580 



37,615 ., 208 .. 61 238,094 



14,413 478 15 216,195 



609,383 

 Total Males employed in Agriculture in England and 



Wales, 1911 609,105 



Where a high ratio of capital is employed, as in the case of com- 

 mercially developed vegetable and fruit production, or sometimes in 

 dairying, and on good arable farms, the number of men employed 

 per 100 acres will be much higher than the average, and on poor farms, 

 especially poor pasture,the number will be very much below the average, 

 and on the poorest pasture farms may fall to one man per 100 acres. 



Under such conditions the rural worker is both industrially and 

 socially scattered and isolated. Men work in small groups in which 

 there is very little standardisation of the conditions of employment, 

 hours, rate or standard of work, wages, or perquisites. Conditions 

 vary in detail from farm to farm even within a given district, and they 

 vary in important particulars from district to district. As a result of 

 the social isolation there is very little opportunity for close comparison 

 of conditions or of the results of those conditions either by employers 

 or employees. In one district a custom of Saturday half -holiday may 

 be established with good results, but in another district within fifty 

 miles distance labourers are backward in making a demand for such 

 a concession because they cannot see how it could be arranged, while 

 employers would deny that it is possible to arrange for such a concession. 



But the prevailing size of farm businesses presents obstacles to the 

 progress of the rural worker of fundamental importance. In particular 

 it limits the employment of machinery and power, while providing 

 few opportunities for developing craft skill, and provides little scope 

 for progressive advancement of the worker. The small application 

 of machinery and mechanical power to the production of comparatively 

 small farms results in a low rate of production per man. In 1907 it 

 was estimated that the value of the annual production of British 

 agriculture amounted to only 90 per person engaged. The output 

 per man in many other industries amounted to a much higher figure. 

 The average for all industries in England and Wales, including those 

 in which over 50 per cent, of the employees are women, in which pro- 

 duction is low, was 104. In some industries the value of production 

 per person amounted to nearly 200 per annum. 



If this difference in relative production remains, the best possible 

 system of the distribution of wealth produced in agriculture can never 



