196 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
British worker, with so many alternative openings in more profitable 
directions available for him under our industrial system, would never 
for one moment submit to. From what I have read, I imagine that 
the fact which drove so many Scottish crofters across the seas was 
much less the selfishness of deer-stalking landlords than the opportunity 
for exchanging a few acres of rocks and heather in the Highlands for 
160 acres of the virgin soil of Canada. People only submit to poor 
conditions of life when they have no alternative, and one of the most 
important studies awaiting the investigator of agricultural economics 
is that of the lines on which to develop the industry so as to give the 
worker the biggest reward for his toil. 
These few illustrations may serve to indicate the over-riding import- 
ance of the economic factor in farming just as in any other business. 
It is a common experience in industry that many scientific and tech- 
nical processes are possible which are not profitable, and it is in the 
light of the profit that they leave that all of them must be judged. 
Economic conditions are subject to continual change, and the varia- 
tions may be both sudden and extreme. This makes it the more need- 
ful to be continually recording experience and to examine it for the 
‘facts that emerge from which to obtain guidance for future policy. 
Much information is required both for national and individual guid- 
ance. Of late years, for example, there has been much advocacy of 
more intensive cultivation of the soil; it is said that by closer settle- 
ment and more intensive methods the production from the land could 
be much increased. On the other hand, there are those who advocate 
a development of extensive farming as being the only means by which 
to attract capital to the land and to pay the highest wage to the worker. 
Both sides to this controversy can and do produce evidence in support 
of their views, and some figures derived from a survey made by my col- 
league, Mr. J. Pryse Howell, will serve to illustrate both. The total area 
surveyed was 9,390 acres, divided into fifty-two farms of various sizes, 
and the region was selected by reason of the uniformity of the general 
conditions. All available data for each holding were collected, and 
after grouping the farms according to acreage the figures were thrown 
together and averaged for each group, with the following result :— 
Propuction per Unit or LAND AND PER Unit or LaBouR FROM 
Houpines or Various SIzEs. 
m 3 a 3 32 n x =I 
ne es So gs = iS 
BR n A 45 fg Ag > ‘i 
Boo og Bowhers, 8 dae Ba ES 5. 
S 33 aS ao 3 Ee a2 = 
8 3a 3 ae 2 sae Seige 2 Be 
5 eleie eed 4H 4 4 43, B a 
Acres Acres Feet s. d. EMS: >: Li arias 
I. 0-50 5 29 Wit 341-369 3210 7-1 111911, 16819 0 
II. 50-100 10 78 22 319-384 33 0 6:4 919 2 156 2 0 
TIT. 100-150 14 138 21 370-453 27 2 4-2 4 19,. 1 189 0 O 
IV. 150-250 11 201 11:7 330-411 28 4 3:3 7b" 8° 2224 
V. over 250 12 356 18:0 286-435 26 5 2-6 8 4 4 31619 0 
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