CHAPTER VI. 

 A BUSINESS PROPOSITION. 



CLEARLY coming under the heading of Agricultural 

 Economics was a paper read at one of the early meetings 

 of the Club (June, 1918) by Mr. J. H. Guy, then Assistant 

 Financial Secretary to the Ministry of Munitions. It was 

 entitled, " British Agriculture as a Business Proposition," 

 and its special interest lay in the fact that the reader was 

 an American, regarding Agriculture in this country with an 

 alien but very keen eye, trained to acute observation on the 

 other side of the Atlantic. For this reason I reproduce the 

 paper in full : 



Frankly, I am quite sorry that I consented to address a club 

 of specialists on this subject, because I find that all I have 

 learned of the industrial side of farming is of doubtful applic- 

 ability in England. I am therefore compelled to dwell on 

 your basic conditions as they affect the farming business, rather 

 than on the particular phase with which I am familiar. 



I was walking over a large estate with the owner a few weeks 

 ago, and was told that some of the cottages cost 400, and were 

 rented at 35. per week. The rent was clearly uneconomic, 

 but it was explained that a good man must have a good home, 

 and a good home necessitated a good house, and it was a land- 

 lord's duty to supply the same, regardless of economics. Of 

 course, the true meaning was obvious. The labourer received 

 less than his earnings in cash, and the balance was paid in kind. 

 But the results are far-reaching. In effect, the landlord keeps 

 a grip on a part of his labourer's income, and insists on its applic- 

 ation to house rent ; floating capital, save the landlord's, is 

 driven away from rural cottages ; a bad landlord may with- 

 hold this portion of the labourer's earnings, and a good land- 

 lord can have the luxury of benevolence by giving his labourer 

 no more than his just earnings. 



These things may be good or bad, but they give a flavour 

 the business of farming in England something akin to the 



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