December 15, 1921] 



NATURE 



503 



culture into the prices prevailing at various stages 

 in the distribution of vegetables in London may be 

 quoted in confirmation of it. Figures were col- 

 lected to show the amount received by the pro- 

 ducer, the wholesaler, and the retailers for various 

 classes of everyday garden stuff, with results as 

 shown below. 



Producer's, Wholesaler's, and Retailers' Prices 

 for Market-garden Produce, January, 192 1. 



Cab- Cab- Cauli- Sprouts, Tur- 



bages, bages, flowers, top nips, 



medium bottom top grade, medium 



grade, grade, grade, per grade, 



per doz. per doz. per doz. 28 lbs. per cwt. 



s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. 



Producer 03 02^ 30 36 30 



Wholesaler 10 09 50 — 56 



Retailers — 

 (a) Stalls and barrows 26 20 60 — 140 

 (6) Suburban shops ... 30 26 80 — 14 o 

 (c) Stores and high- 

 class shops ... 40 30 10 o 14 o 18 8 



One has only to glance at the prevailing methods 

 of distribution to realise their wastefulness. The 

 street in which I live contains ten houses, and 

 each day four milk-carts, three bakers' carts, 

 three grocers' carts, and two butchers' carts 

 deliver food to them. Twelve men, horses, and 

 carts, not to mention a host of errand-boys on 

 foot and on cycles, to deliver food to ten families ! 



At the present time labour problems afford a 

 useful example of the need for further investiga- 

 tion of the economic problems of agriculture. The 

 labourer is often blamed for results which are 

 due to the inefficiency of the farmer as a manager. 

 When wages were low it may have been that the 

 labourer was the cheapest machine, but in pro- 

 portion as his remuneration approaches more 

 nearly to the standard of reward in competing 

 industries, so will the necessity for making his 

 work more productive be intensified. The value 

 of the output from the farm per man employed is 

 not the only measure by which to gauge the effici- 

 ency of the management, but is certainly one of 

 primary importance. A man with a spade can 

 dig an acre of land in about two weeks at a cost 

 to-day of about 4Z. 10s. ; a horseman and a pair 

 of horses can plough an acre in about a day and 

 a half at a cost of about il. 155. ; a farm mechanic 

 on a tractor can break up an acre in about a 

 quarter of a day, and although in the absence of 

 sufficient data the comparison cannot yet be com- 

 pleted by reference to the cost of motor plough- 

 ing, it is fairly safe to suggest that when all the 

 factors are considered — speed, less dependence 

 upon atmospheric and soil conditions, as well as 

 actual cost — there will be a still further advantage 

 to be derived by investing the manual worker with 

 the control of mechanical power. Thus it may be 

 that high labour costs to-day are due in many 

 cases less to the inefBciency of labour and more 

 to the inefficiency of management. 



In a recAt issue of the Times an agricultural 

 writer expressed the view that if the means existed 

 for determining the proportion of the net returns 

 of agriculture accruing to-day to labour, it would 



NO. 2720. VOL. 108] 



be found that labour was taking an excessive toll 

 of farming results. This view is probably very 

 generally held, and it affords a good example of 

 the misconceptions which may and do arise in 

 people's minds in the absence of exact information 

 upon which to base their assertions. This happens 

 to be one of the questions which have been the 

 subject of investigation at Oxford, though only 

 on the small scale that the means at the disposal 

 of the University have admitted. An investigation 

 was made before the war of the distribution of 

 the net returns of agriculture as between land- 

 lord, farmer, and labour. It was found that the 

 proportions accruing to each of the three interests 

 varied hardly at all, and that it would be safe 

 to say that 20 per cent, of the total was going to 

 the landlord, 40 per cent, to the farmer, and 40 

 per cent, to labour before 19x4. Taking the above 

 proportions, and calling each of these shares 100, 

 the proportion of distribution between the three 

 interests varied during the following six years as 

 shown below : — 



Distribution of the Net Returns from Fanning 

 between Landlord, Farmer, and Labour 

 during the years 1913—14 — 1919-20. 



Year. Landlord. Farmer. Labour. 



1913-14 (standard) 100 100 100 



1914-15 97 104 99 



1915-16 94 loS 98 



1916-17 91 115 94 



1917--18 90 III 99 



1918-19 87 115 98 



1919-20 89 109 102 



The figures are interesting in several ways. In 

 the first place they seem to disprove the suggestion 

 referred to above, that labour has been taking an 

 undue share of the net returns from farming, for 

 an examination of the figures in the " Labour " 

 column shows that until the institution of the 

 Agricultural Wages Board in 191 7 the tendency 

 was in the direction of a slight but steady reduc- 

 tion in the proportion coming to the workers ; the 

 effect of the Wages Board Orders was to steady 

 this tendency and, ultimately, to bring labour 

 back approximately to the position it occupied in 

 1913-14. If the figures could have been continued 

 for another year it is likely that they would show 

 a material increase in the workers' share, but, 

 even so, it would be found that this increase had 

 been achieved without reducing the farmer's share 

 below his pre-war proportion. In the second place, 

 the figures confirm the experience of landowners 

 in that the landlord has received no part of the 

 increased prosperity of farming, whilst, as every- 

 one knows, his expenses of maintenance have 

 enormously increased. Briefly, the situation is 

 that, thanks to the Agricultural Wages Board 

 (and its appointed members may take heart from 

 the fact), the workers have been maintained in 

 the same position as regards their share in the 

 net returns as that in which they were before the 

 war, whilst the farmer has received his share in 

 the increase realised during the past few vears, 

 together with that which would have gone to the 



