AGRICULTURE AND THE COMMUNITY. 



I. 

 The Organisation of the Industry. 



System of Tenure. 



British agriculture differs from that of other old and 

 settled countries in two important directions. The land 

 is held by tenants in comparatively large holdings. In 

 England and Wales in 1919 only 11.68 per cent, of the 

 occupiers of agricultural holdings owned or mainly owned 

 their holdings, while the acreage so held represented only 

 12.32 per cent, of the total under crops and grass. This 

 in spite of the fact that for 12 months previous to the 

 date on which returns were collected a large number of 

 sales of land had taken place and newspaper readers were 

 being assured that the land of England was changing 

 hands. As compared with 1913 the percentage of occupiers 

 who were owners had increased from 11. 19 per cent, to 

 11.68 per cent., while the percentage of the total acreage 

 occupied by owners had increased from 10.65 to 12.32 per 

 cent. In the same year while the number of occupiers of 

 holdings of 150 acres and over formed only 12.29 per cent, 

 of the total number of occupiers in England and Wales, 

 the area held in holdings of 150 acres and over formed 

 52.65 per cent, of the total area under crops and grass.* 



There are thus three distinct classes directly interested 

 in agriculture : the landlords who own the land and the 



* See Tables, pages 52 and 53. 



