T 



CHAPTER TEN 



THE AGRICULTURE OF 

 CAMBRIDGESHIRE 



By R. McG. Carslaw and J. A. McMillan 



(A) THE PERIOD 1900-1936 

 By R. McG. Carslaw, m.a., ph.d. 



HE FOUR PHASES EVIDENT IN THE FARMING OF THE COUNTRY 



since the beginning of the century have been well marked in 

 Cambridgeshire : 



(i) The pre-war years up to 1914, when, on the whole, profits and 

 wages were gradually rising. During tliis time, adjustments in cropping, 

 in livestock policies, and in methods of production, were being methodi- 

 cally, if slowly, evolved. 



(ii) The abnormal war, and immediately post-war, years of 1914-20, 

 characterised by scarcity prices, by high profits, and by the improvisation 

 of methods to meet a shortage of labour and raw materials. 



(iii) The post-war depression of 1921-3 1, with heavy capital losses, with 

 statutory minimum-wage legislation, and with much searching for new 

 methods and types of farming, e.g. the development of sugar-beet 

 growing, poultry, motor tractors, etc. 



(iv) The years 1932-36, marked by the combined effect o£ (a) Govern- 

 mental action, e.g. subsidies, tariffs, and quotas; (b) Marketing Boards 

 (milk, pigs, potatoes, etc.); (c) cheap feeding stuffs; and (d) improved 

 technical efficiency. This period, too, has been characterised by better 

 profits and by rising wages. 



Between 1900 and 1936, there was a decrease of over 20,000 acres 

 (about 4 per cent) in tlie area under crops and grass (from 490,306 acres in 

 1900, to 467,980 acres in 1936).' Rather more than one-half this dechne 

 can be attributed to the deterioration of cultivated land, particularly since 

 1920, into "rough grazings"; but as much as 10,000 acres was lost to 

 agriculture as a residt of the encroachment of buildings, roads, etc. In 

 spite of this decUne in cultivated area, there is reason to beheve that the 



■ The figures in sections A and B of this chapter are derived largely from 

 Ministry of Agriculture Statistics. 



