METHODS OF PRODUCTION 105 



touched. But it does mean that the proportion of grass 

 to arable land, per loo acres, should be 45 or 50 acres 

 instead of the present 72 acres ; even then we should 

 have more grass per 100 acres than Germany has, and 

 quite rightly so. 



Again, ploughing up this acreage of grass does not 

 mean that we should have an "up corn and down 

 horn " policy ; for with that increased area of land 

 under the plough, properly managed, we should have 

 more and not less live stock. Taking all existing con- 

 ditions into consideration our motto should be " Up corn 

 and up horn," as Lord Lee, then Minister for Agriculture, 

 said when speaking at Gloucester in April, 1920. 



So much for the national point of view. Turning 

 to the economic side, let us consider what is the relative 

 profit earned by the farmer from plough land and grass 

 land respectively. 



First, it must he admitted that it is very difficult to 

 get much data ; for until quite recently little attention 

 has been paid to careful book-keeping, or to tabulating 

 the results where good accounts are kept. Within the 

 last two years or so an official " Costings Committee " 

 has been set up, but its work is not yet sufficiently 

 advanced to be of great practical use ; also the fact that 

 this committee has been at work only during a time of 

 abnormal conditions and prices, resulting from the war, 

 means that we cannot safely base calculations upon its 

 interim report. Ihis will be referred to later. 



For my present purpose the paper read at the Surveyors 

 Institution in 191 2, by its then president Mr. Edward 

 Strutt, gives the best figures I know of ; it shows clearly 

 the profit and loss on large acreages, and over three 

 separate periods, of the main crops on a mixed farm. 

 It must be remembered that the land in question is 



