20 Agriculture and the Community. 



farmers before the Royal Commission on Agriculture, 

 1919, must be amazed at the tenacity with which they 

 stuck to their plea that farming does not pay, even in face 

 of the figures they themselves submitted, most of which 

 were estimates at the best, and not actual records of 

 transactions. The conclusion arrived at by the Committee 

 appointed by the Agricultural Wages Board to enquire into 

 the Financial Results of the Occupation of Land, 1919 

 (Cmd. 76), is probably as fair a summing up of the financial 

 position of agriculture in England and Wales, as will be 

 found: — "The Committee find considerable difficulty in 

 arriving at a just conclusion on either of the questions 

 referred to them. The evidence before them cannot be 

 said to allow of a demonstration of the financial position 

 either of the occupiers of land or of the workers upon it. 

 Certain indications emerge, but the arithmetical results 

 can only be accepted with qualifications, and in the result 

 the Committee are bound to exercise their own judgment 

 in submitting what they consider to be reasonable 

 deductions from the facts and figures. The problem is 

 complicated by the fact that while precise information is 

 regrettably sparse, general statements are very freely and 

 confidently made, in good faith by those who might be 

 expected to be well acquainted with the facts. Nothing 

 is more common than the allegation that farming is 

 normally an unremunerative business — that year after 

 year occupiers of land lose money. If farmers 

 systematically lost money, not only would none 

 remain in the business, but no one would be willing 

 to enter it. The fact is that the profits in farming, or 

 more precisely, the rate of interest earned on money 



