AGRICULTURAL COMMISSIONS 



3^3 



has been most affected by this development, and at the date 

 of the Commission the home production had sunk to 25 per 

 cent, of the total quantity needed for consumption. Other 

 home-grown cereals had not been similarly displaced, but the 

 large consumption of maize had affected the price of feeding 

 barley and oats. As regards meat, while foreign beef and 

 mutton had seriously affected the price of inferior British 

 grades, the influence on superior qualities had been much less 

 marked. Foreign competition had been, on the whole, perhaps 

 more severe in pork than in other classes of meat, but had 

 been confined mainly to bacon and hams. 



The successful competition of the foreigner in our butter and 

 cheese markets was attributed mainly to the fact that the 

 dairy industry is better organized abroad than in Great Britain. 



The Commission found that another cause of the depression 

 was the increased cost of production, not so much from the 

 increase of wages, as from the smaller amount of work done 

 for a given sum. Where wages in the previous twenty years had 

 remained stationary, the cost of work had increased because 

 the labourer did not work so hard or so well as his forefathers. 



The following table ^ is a striking proof of the increased 

 ratio of the cost of labour to gross profits : 



Acreage 

 County. of 

 farm. 



SufTolk 590 



Period 



of 

 account. 



1839-43 

 1863-7 

 1871-5 

 1890-4 



Average 

 gross 

 profit. 



£ s. d. 



1,577 13 3 



1,545 o 9 



1,725 o I 



728 10 5 



Average 



annual 



cost of 



labour. 



£ s- 



773 II 



836 9 



1,026 14 



973 I 



Ratio of 



Average cost of 



cost per labour 



acre, to gross 



profits. 



s. d. Percent. 

 26 2 49.03 

 28 4 54-07 

 35 2 59-48 

 33 o 133-50 



On a farm in Wilts., between 1858 and 1893, the ratio of 

 the cost of labour to gross profits had increased from 



^ Parliamentary Reports^ Commissioners (1897), xv, App. iii, Table viii. 

 From an examination of the accounts of seventy-seven farms, the average 

 expenditure on labour was found to be 31-4 per cent, of the total outlay. 



