THE FARM ACCOUNTS ']^ 



reduction of about 1 1 per cent, on the reduced rent of 

 ;^536 would have made ends meet on the last five years ; 

 in other words, would have left the clear interest of 5 

 per cent, on tenants' capital intact. A very small ad- 

 ditional fall in rent would have given the tenant a small 

 working profit. These accounts amply illustrate the 

 insufficiency and tardiness of reductions, and how the 

 best type of farmer is gradually brought to ruin. In 

 this case, the tenant could not have held out without 

 private resources of his own. " But for the private 

 means which my father and I possessed we could not 

 have lived on the returns of the farm." Yet in the 

 twenty-five years the owner has received in all ;^2i,339 

 from this father and son in rents. 



Mr Wilson Fox says of the admirable series of 

 farm accounts in his Lincolnshire Report : " All these 

 accounts come from representative farmers who are at 

 the present time farming high. Consequently these 

 accounts can only be regarded as the best samples, and 

 do not represent those of a more struggling class, handi- 

 capped by want of capital." Taking one instance : 



On a farm of 474 acres, heavy loam, half arable and 

 half pasture, accounts from 1883 to 1893 inclusive, 11 

 years, show that labour averaged £^^2, nearly ;^i per 

 acre, and in the last two years stood at X467 14s, and 

 i^48o 7s, while manures, feeding stuffs, and seeds aver- 

 aged £Afyo, and were in the last two years ^378 13s, 

 and ;^4io. 



The rent has averaged ;^478, or about £\ an acre ; but 

 the farmer's profits, taking the balance of profits over 

 losses for the eleven years, have only averaged £1^ is pd 

 over the whole 474 acres, or under 8d an acre per 

 annum. In such a case as this the economics of farm- 

 ing are obviously upset in favour of the landlord in most 

 outrageous fashion. This tenant has been doing his 

 nd well, and has had as his reward the right to use 

 about ;^i 85 worth of produce per annum from the farm, 

 the use of the farmhouse, and £\^ ^ year as interest on 

 ^^305 5 capital and payment for his own skill and ex- 

 ertions. If 5 per cent, interest on tenant's capital and 



