METHODS OF INCREASING OUTPUT 115 



Among these methods we would specially direct 

 attention to more scientific manuring, better seeds, 

 more machinery, milk records, arable dairying, and 

 alterations in the rotation of crops. Moreover, the 

 adoption of better business methods (e.g. book- 

 keeping, marketing, co-operation, credit and transport, 

 to all of which allusion is made in Part I of this 

 Report) would enable the cultivator to make larger 

 and more regular profits, and so directly or indirectly 

 increase his power of production. These improvements , 

 however, can only be introduced gradually, and their 

 adoption would depend partly on the application of 

 new capital to the farming industry, and partly on 

 the advance of agricultural education and research. 

 The schemes recently brought into operation by the 

 Board of Agriculture for providing education and 

 technical advice for farmers were, before the war, 

 promising good results, at any rate as far as the younger 

 farmers were concerned. 



53. We do not think, however, that these improve- 

 ments, essential though they are to the future pros- 

 perity of British agriculture, would result in the em- 

 ployment of a much larger amount of labour than was 

 employed before the war, unless a larger acreage is 

 brought under the plough. We mentioned before 

 (paragraph 1 9) that the area of arable land in England 

 and Wales during the last forty years has been reduced 

 by over 3 J million acres. Apart from the question of 

 profit to the farmer, there is no doubt that the decline 

 in arable farming represents a very serious loss of 

 produce to the Nation. 



54. Speaking broadly, the money value of the 



