SECONDARY RESULTS 109 



hand, a half-stoked engine cannot run at full speed, and 

 low wage-rates do nothing to stimulate the management to 

 make the most effective use of labour. 



In the graph (opposite) a comparison is made between the 

 rise in total wages and the rise in earnings per man during 

 the years 1913-14 to 1919-20. If higher wages induce 

 better work, or more efficient management of labour, the 

 curve for ' total wages ' should rise less sharply than the 

 curve for * earnings per man ', but in this respect the results 

 on the farm in question are negative, for the two curves 

 follow each other very closely throughout the seven-year 

 period. Perhaps the chief interest in the graph lies in the 

 fact that the rise in the labour bill and the rise in the earnings 

 per man were identical during the period that wage-rates 

 were fixed by the play of the market, and that the influence 

 of the Orders of the Agricultural Wages Board on the farm 

 in question was to reduce the efficiency either of labour or 

 of the direction of labour. This effect as measured by 

 figures is, however, so slight as to be negligible, and it is 

 common knowledge that there were other factors in the 

 labour situation during the years 1916-19 which would 

 more than account for the slight differences indicated in 

 the graph. The curve introduced to show the rise in the 

 cost of living indicates a very close correspondence between 

 the changes in wages and in the cost of living, 1 



4. THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE NET RETURNS OF FARMING 



In the Final Report on the First Census of Production of 

 the United Kingdom (1907) 2 a calculation is made of the 

 value of the net output per head of persons employed in 

 the industries reviewed. This net output is ascertained by 

 deducting the cost of materials at the works from the value 

 of the output at the works, and the difference constitutes 

 for any industry the fund from which wages, salaries, rent, 

 royalties, rates, taxes, depreciation, advertisement, and sales 

 expenses, and all other similar charges have to be defrayed 



1 The curve for the cost of living is plotted from the figures published in 

 the Labour Gazette a Cd. 6320. 



