NATURE 



193 



rUE ORGANISATION OF AGRICULTURE. 

 (i) Tlie Transition in Agriailtiire. By Edwin A. 



Pratt. Pp. ■^ + 354- (London: John Murray, 1906.) 



Price 5^. 

 (2) An Introduction to the Study oj Agricultural 



Economics. By Henry C. Taylor. Pp. viii + 327. 



(Xcw Yorli : The Macmillan Co.; London: M.ac- 



inillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 55. 

 (j) The Development of Agriculture in Denmark. By 



R. J. Thompson. A paper read before the Royal 



.Si.-ilibtical Society, May 15, 1906. 

 (i) T^HIS is the work of an author whose previous 

 writings on subjects of agricultural economy 

 have attracted considerable attention. The present 

 volume has a three-fold purpose — to describe recent 

 developments of subsidiary branches of agriculture, 

 the progress of agricultural cooperation, and the 

 principles on which small holdings may have the 

 best chance of success. 



Mr. Pratt states that " it is open to consideration 

 whether the bitter cry of the distressed British agri- 

 culturist has not been persisted in with undue energy 

 of late years." It is certain, however, that the last 

 period of agricultural depression, which reached its 

 culn:inating point about 1892, was terribly acute, and 

 the subsequent recovery has been correspondingly 

 slow. That there has been recovery few authorities 

 will deny, and we believe that the general agricultural 

 outlook is more hopeful than it has been for some 

 time. This is certainly the impression we gain 

 from a careful perusal of Mr. Pratt's book; yet 

 at the same time the author scarcely touches upon 

 the main features of British agriculture, and in 

 this respect the title of the work is not altogether 

 justified. Wheat-growing has declined, it is true, to 

 a very marked extent, and a great deal of arable 

 land has been converted into pasture during the last 

 quarter of a century. On the other hand, the decline 

 in the wheat acreage has been somewhat balanced 

 by an increase in the acreage under oats. The 

 increases in the areas of those subsidiary branches 

 of agriculture, as Mr. Pratt c::'!s them, with which 

 his book mainly deals, are relatively unimportant. 



The breeding of live-stock, and especially the home 

 and export trade in pure-bred pedigree animals, the 

 f.ittening of cattle, sheep and pigs, grazing and 

 dairying, all involve operations upon such a large 

 scale, and require individual skill of such a high 

 order, that we cannot conceive of any " transition 

 in agriculture " which would seriously interfere with 

 the size of the holdings, the acreage of the crops, or 

 the capital necessary to maintain them. But if we 

 except agriculture on the large scale as it has been 

 and in all probability will continue to be carried on, 

 we admit that Mr. Pratt has done useful service in 

 bringing under review those important developments 

 of comparatively minor industries which are not only 

 of benefit to agriculture, but are nationally advan- 

 NO. 1913, VOL. 74] 



lagcous by helping to create and maintain a sturdy, 

 independent race of Englishmen. 



.An interesting account is given of the com- 

 mercial aspects of milk selling. The facts related 

 are not new, though it may well be that they have 

 not attracted much attention outside the districts 

 affected or on the part of persons not immediately 

 concerned. Farmers in the dairying districts have 

 found it pay much better to sell fresh milk than to 

 turn it into butter and cheese. The sale of fresh milk 

 and cream is, in fact, practically our only agricultural 

 monopoly, and it is not likely that foreign competition 

 will seriously threaten it. But whereas formerly (he 

 milk producer was an individual unit at the mercy of 

 the urban wholesale dealer or middleman, judicious 

 combination amongst dairy-farmers has enabled them 

 to protect their interests, and especially to secure a 

 uniform and equitable price for the milk produced. 

 In Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Essex, and 

 Somerset, associations have been formed with this 

 object in view, and their success has been remark- 

 able. In one case, Mr. Pratt states, the financial 

 gain thus secured through combination amounts to 

 from 30,000?. to 40,000!. annually, or an average 

 annual gain per member of from 30Z. to 40^ 



The descriptions of fruit-farming and the produc- 

 tion of flowers, bulbs, vegetables, poultry, and eggs 

 will repay careful study, and they may well en- 

 courage the further extension of similar crops in 

 districts suited to them upon the cooperative prin- 

 ciples that have proved successful. 



We come finally to the author's views on small 

 holdings. This question is now under consideration 

 by a Departmental Committee of the Board of Agri- 

 culture, and it is well known that the new President 

 of the Board, Lord Carrington, is deeply interested 

 in the subject, his own experiments in that direction 

 in Lincolnshire and elsewhere having met with strik- 

 ing success. Mr. Pratt discusses the question as to 

 whether ownership or tenancy is the inore expedient 

 form of tenure, and he pronounces unhesitatingly in 

 favour of tenancy. We believe that his conclusions 

 on this subject are sound, and that the example of 

 countries where freehold occupancy has resulted in 

 heavy mortgages with the payment of " rent " in 

 its most odious form should be avoided. 



(2) Dr. Henry C. Taylor, the author of the book 

 on "Agricultural Economics," is assistant professor 

 of political economy in the Wisconsin University, 

 and an expert in the Office of Experiment Stations 

 of the United States Department of Agriculture. 

 His work forms part of the " Citizen's Library of 

 Economics, Politics, and Sociology," and is in effect 

 a studious effort to apply to practical agriculture 

 the principles of political economy. As such it should 

 prove useful to young agricultural students in con- 

 nection with their ordinary course of " political arith- 

 metic." Dr. Taylor himself states that one of the 

 aims of his book is the setting forth of " fundamental 

 econoinic principles, which, when carefully followed, 

 lead the way to success in agricultural production." 



In thirteen chapters the author deals with the 



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