IN CONCLUSION. 273 



employs five and a half millions of people on the 

 land. Small as our number is, it continually 

 dwindles, though 1912 showed a tiny improve- 

 ment.* For half a century our total of people 

 employed on the land has fallen steadily decade 

 by decade from 1,625,482 in 1851 to 951,439 

 in 1901. The 1911 total will probably be less, 

 for the 1911 total of arable land did not reach 

 the 1901 total. The return from capital in- 

 vested in agriculture is lower than that obtain- 

 able in any other business undertaking. The 

 proportion of the national income derived from 

 agricultural land is smaller than in any country 

 in the world with which comparison is possible.f 



* The last report of the Board of Agriculture states : — 

 " The most satisfactory change shown by the returns for 1912 

 is an extension of 36,000 acres of the land under the plough. Thirty 

 years ago there were 13 J million acres of arable land, but by 1896 

 this was reduced to less than 12£ millions. There was a slight 

 recovery in the following year, but since 1897 the reduction year by 

 year was continuous, until it was arrested in 1912 by the increase 

 just referred to. The arable area is still, however, just a million 

 acres less than in 1896 ; and whereas in 1883 almost exactly one-half 

 of the cultivated area was under the plough, the proportion of arable 

 land is now little more than two-fifths of the total." 



| Income tax figures not being generally accessible, I have 

 taken in other countries (Germany, France, Italy, etc.) the pro- 

 portion of the land production to total production. In Australia, 

 out of a total wealth of £187,734,000 produced in 1910, £113,000,000 



11 



