32 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



land and Ireland and it aimed at, and for a time secured, 

 the co-ordination of returns, obtained on a uniform basis, 

 from all three countries. 



The Agricultural Costings Committee existed for a suffi- 

 cient time to construct an organisation which bid fair to 

 produce valuable results, but it had barely got into full 

 working order when it collapsed owing to the withdrawal 

 of financial support. The responsibility for any attempts 

 to stimulate the adoption of a system of agricultural costing 

 was relegated to the Agricultural Departments, and for 

 England and Wales was entrusted to the Institute for 

 Research in Agricultural Economics at Oxford under the 

 expert control of Mr. Or win. 



In February, 1920, the Director of the Agricultural 

 Costings Committee (Mr. H. G. Howell, F.C.A.) read a 

 paper before the Club, which I give practically in full, not 

 only for its historical interest under the circumstances I 

 have described but because it states in a very clear and 

 concise way the case for keeping farm accounts on the 

 new system. The paper was entitled " Farm Accounts, 

 Profits and Costs." 



As I have probably been invited to address you as a representa- 

 tive of the Agricultural Costings Committee, a few words as 

 to the genesis and objects of the Committee will not be out of 

 place. 



In no department of our national life has the lack of reliable 

 data of costs and profits been so much felt during the last few 

 years as in the farming industry. The memory of it is fresh 

 in all our minds. Had the information been available, bitter 

 and misguided controversies would have been avoided ; the 

 course of many negotiations smoothed ; and the whole attitude 

 and relation of farmers and consumers towards each other 

 would have been less suspicious and antagonistic than it is 

 to-day. These suspicions breed on lack of knowledge of the 

 facts. 



The Costings Committee was formed to obtain the costs 

 of production of items of farm produce affected by control 

 of prices, and also to obtain permanent information of the 

 costs and results of farming. This latter object was recognised 

 as the larger and more important part of the work. In order 

 to obtain these results over as wide an area as possible, the 

 Committee promotes the keeping of farm accounts and cost 



