94 THE MINORITY REPORT 



value of the food producer to the State and society, 

 and created efficient machinery for settling suitable 

 men on the land. Here in Great Britain we have 

 hitherto failed to appreciate the value to the State 

 of a healthy agricultural population. No Government 

 whether Liberal or Tory for half a century has treated 

 agriculture as possessing any peculiar importance on 

 broad national grounds. 



29. An adequate wage, a good cottage,^ the attrac- 

 tions of a living community, instead of the dullness of 

 village life as it is to-day, and access to the first rung 

 on the agricultural " ladder," — these essential con- 

 ditions are all well within the Nation's power to offer. 

 And such an offer will, we believe, be good enough to 

 keep in the United Kingdom its fair share of the ex- 

 Service men who want a life on the land. 



30. The principal factor in the problem we are deal- 

 ing with is the question of an adequate wage. 



In 1907 * the average weekly cash wages of farm 

 labourers varied from 125. Id. in Dorset to I85. Id. 

 in Middlesex. Taking into account certain privileges 

 (such as payments in kind, or cottages rent free '), the 

 total earnings, as estimated by the Board of Trade, 

 varied from 145. lid. in Oxfordshire to 20s. 5d. in 

 Derbyshire. 



1 An addendum to the Minority Report, written after the presen- 

 tation of the Report, discusses the question of housing. 



2 Board of Trade : Earnings and Hours Inquiry. Vol. V. — 

 Agriculture in 1907 (Cd. 5460), 1910. 



3 " The value of a cottage has been taken as £4 per annum, and 

 board and lodging has been computed at £20 16s. per annum {8«. 

 per week). The averages stated represent not the earnings during 

 a given week, but an average of the weekly earnings during the 

 whole year." (Cd. 5460) p. xvi. 



