190 REPOftTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



20. Farmers.— -We do not presume to determine precisely the 

 average income of farmers, a task which has always proved beyond 

 the powers of statisticians, but it is necessary to make some estimate 

 to fit in to our general scheme. After the Commission on Agricultural 

 Depression in 1894, where evidence was given which showed that 

 farmers' profits averaged about 26 per cent, of their rent, it was decided 

 that profits should be assumed to be one-third of rent. We do not feel 

 justified in taking this assumption as representing the average, partly 

 because fewer than three hundred farmers choose the alternative of 

 assessment under Schedule D, depending on their actual profits, and we 

 only use it for estimating the relatively small number of farmers paying 

 income-tax, and as a check on further estimates. 



In the Eeports of the Income Tax Commissioners relating to 

 Schedule B we find the aggregate of farmers' incomes, which, reckoned 

 at one third of rent, are over 160L, and an aggregate of the rest of 

 farmers' income assessed, but exempted from tax. The first aggregate was 

 5,000,000Z. for Great Britain in 1907-08, corresponding to 15,000,000Z. 

 rent. Besides these figures we have in the return from the Board of 

 Agriculture of 1895 (Cd. 8502) the number of holdings of various sizes 

 in that year. These two things together lead to an estimate of the 

 average rent per acre, for if more than 11. 12s. per acre is assumed, 

 farms of less than 300 acres would pay income-tax, and then the 

 acreage of the holdings included would show more than 15,000,000?. 

 rent. If, on the other hand, less than 17,. 12s. is assumed the figures 

 fail to be consistent in the opposite direction. Of coarse, the rental 

 from farms of the same size varies enormously, but we speak only of 

 an average. We therefore take it that the average rent per acre is 

 11. 12s., as reckoned for income-tax purposes, in spite of the fact that 

 this is more than was estimated by Mr. Thompson, in a paper to the 

 Statistical Society in 1907. There were 20,000 holders in Great Britain 

 of more than 300 acres, and we will take this to be the number who 

 pay income-tax. In the case o'f farmers, we are assuming that there 

 has been no increase in numbers since 1901. We have then 258,000, 

 according to the census classification, not paying income-tax. This 

 corresponds to the number of holdings between 20 and 300 acres 

 in which the aggregate is 21,700,000 acres and the average is about 

 80 acres. The average rental income 17. 12s. an acre is 128Z. , the aggre- 

 gate 35,000,0007. The amount reviewed by the Commissioners and 

 exempted from tax corresponded to a rental of 26,400,0001., which (on 

 the same basis) would accrue from the aggregate of holdings between 

 50 and 300 acres. Presumably the profits of small holdings are 

 not returned by the tax-surveyor. No one will believe that the 

 average income of farmers holding 300 acres and under is as little 

 as 437., i.e., one-third of the average computed rental. It is just con- 

 ceivable that the cash income may not be much greater, but in such 

 a case considerable value of the produce grown is consumed at home 

 by the farmer and his family, who are also provided with a house. We 

 shall probably be on safe ground if we take the average income for this 

 group as 601. ± 30/.., that is the average profit per acre is between 

 7s. 6d. and 22s. M. The average income does not seem absurdly low 

 in view of the - fact that 86,000 of the farmers have between 20 and 



