THE RURAL PROBLEM. 



11 



country is tlie procUiction per man in agricnltnre so high as in 

 England. In Germany, the agriculture of which is sometimes held 

 up as a model of organisation we should follow, production per 

 person engaged in agriculture amounts to only about half the 

 amount for the United Kingdom.* The production per man 

 probabl}' amounts to about two-thirds of the production per man 

 in English agriculture. Low productivity per man leads to low 

 wages, as exemplified in Germany, and a low standard of life. 



However, the nation is not interested in the condition of the 

 agricultural classes alone, it is also interested in the supply of food 

 derived from the land. To secure a greater productivity per acre, 

 it is necessary that more land should be put under the plough. 

 From the point of view of productivity, there is no question of 

 arable crops verstis cattle, because arable crops and the number of 

 cattle may be increased simultaneously. Much land under the 

 plough can yield food for consumption by cattle, and for direct 

 consumption by man at the same time.f But in providing for 

 greater productivity, it is important to secure that the output 

 per person engaged is sufficient to provide for a decent standard 

 of life. 



In these considerations three points indicate the lines of a policy 

 for improving the organisation of production in agriculture : the 

 need of commercial managers, either of large farming operations 

 or of mutual associations for business purposes ; the value of 

 machinery and power in increasing the output per man, and the 

 need for this because the standard of production is already low ; 

 and the need for a larger area of land under the plough. The 

 methods of supplying these needs may now be discussed. 



One panacea for the cure of many of our agricultural evils 

 which has been put forward is the creation of more small holdings. 

 It is urged that smaU holdings produce more per acre than large 

 farms ; and of this there can be little doubt. Statistics of arable 

 crops on holdings of various sizes are unobtainable, but the follow- 

 ing approximate figures for stock provide good evidence for that 

 phase of production : — 



ARABLE LAND AND STOCK ON SMALL HOLDINGS AND FAKMS 

 (ENGLAND AND WALES). 



* J. Ellis Barker, Edinburgh Review, October, 1916 (No. 458), p. 285. 

 t For a statement of this see the Journal of the Board of Agriculture, xxii., 

 1015, p. 532 ; also A. D. Hall, 'Agriculture after the War,' ch. iii. 



