FARM ACCOUNTS 8 1 



for nine years from 1884 to 1893, shows averages: for 

 labour, ^^1065 ; for manures and feeding stuffs, etc., 

 £7S3 'y and profit, ^25, without allowing anything for 

 interest or management. Rent, with which tithe is 

 counted, averaged £ii2S from 1884 to 1889, and since 

 then ;^58o. There was, therefore, a large margin for 

 allowing a reasonable profit to the tenant, who only 

 received ^^225, while the owner took in rent ^^"7964 133.^ 

 Accounts are given from North Cambridgeshire by 

 Mr Wilson Fox.^ Thus, twenty-one years of a well- 

 worked fen farm of 565 acres, one fourth pasture, give 

 average outgoings — for labour, ;^9I2; manures, etc., 

 £i66s, and an average profit of ^^"363, or &6 per cent, 

 on capital, while the rent paid to landlord has averaged 

 £iiiy, or £2 an acre. These accounts clearly show 

 the different position of tenants in the last few j-ears. 

 The total profit on this farm from 1874 to 1885 was 

 ;^68i9, or ^620 a year, or 11-3 per cent, interest on 

 capital. From 1885 to 1895 the profit has been only 

 ^798, or ;^79 17s a year, or only 1-5 per cent, on 

 capital. For the last five years the tenant has lost 

 ^335 a year, or 6 per cent, on his capital, and this 

 with a return of half the agreed rent. A further 

 reduction is essential if bad times continue. According 

 to the tenant, profit is no longer obtainable, even on 

 this splendidly kept up farm, without seriously curtail- 

 ing the most essential outgoings. The net rent received 

 by the landlord from this farm from 1890 to 1895 — five 

 }'ears — was ;^3690 lis 4d, while the net loss to the 

 tenant for the same period was ^1676 i8s ii|d. 



Accounts showing how a very high rent prevents 

 ends meeting when the pinch comes, such as the 

 following : — 



A farm of 869 acres, two-thirds arable, most of it 

 good sound black land, and about one-fifth heavy clay, 

 shows a profit of ^112 on 1892-93, and a loss of 

 £i9S 13s I id on 1893-94. In 1892-93 labour stood at 

 i^i494 and fertilising at ;^7ii ; in 1893-94 the two items 



' Rew, Norfolk, App. E. 2, p. 112. Farm Accounts, p. 142. 

 - Wilson Fox, Cambs, App. A. i A. Farm Accounts, p. 74. 



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