2 Agriculture and the Community. 



permanent equipment of the farms, such as houses, 

 steadings, etc. ; the farmers, who provide the working 

 capital and control the business of production ; and the 

 workmen, who are employed by the farmers and work for 

 wages. It is unfortunate that we have no precise infor- 

 mation which would bring out the relative number of 

 people included in each group or which would show the 

 extent and nature of their interest in the industry. Such 

 statistics as are available do not enable us to estimate 

 accurately the number of owners of land and the rent which 

 they draw from agricultural land. We have the figures 

 of the census giving the number of farmers and the 

 different classes of wage-earners, but we have no reliable 

 information as to the capital employed in agriculture by 

 these farmers or the returns in the form of profit on 

 capital employed, nor have we any accurate information 

 as to the amount the industry pays to the workers in 

 wages. The last return of landowners, known as " The 

 New Domesday Book," was made in 1873, and Sir Leo 

 Money in 1905, working from the data there supplied, 

 estimated that one half the area of the whole country was 

 owned by 2500 people. The number of farmers and 

 graziers, both men and women together, with their 

 relatives of both sexes assisting, given in the census 

 returns for 191 1, was 383,333 in England and Wales. The 

 number of workers of both sexes employed in agriculture 

 was 678,503. 



The facts given above are sufficient to establish the 

 general statement that the land in Britain is owned in large 

 estates by a comparatively small number of private owners 

 and let to a large number of tenants whose holdings range 



