210 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 
For various reasons, however, I do not regard this as incumbent upon me, 
but will confine myself to the following brief statements. British agricul- 
ture does not form one industry, but is, in reality, composed of many, 
and depression has rarely weighed with equal severity upon all of them 
simultaneously ; in general, the arable districts have suffered longest and 
heaviest, and in proportion to the weight of their soil—none more so than 
East Anglia ; war profits carried many farmers well into the lean years ; 
it was only in 1931 that agricultural bankruptcies equalled the level 
attained in the nineties (when at most one in five hundred farmers failed 
annually) ; new products, and the expansion of the more remunerative 
older ones, frequently brought help where it was most needed; the 
economic situation of the landowner has declined even more than that of 
the tenant ; while, justifiably, the standard of living of the worker is now 
greatly superior to what it was in 1914. 
In approaching my main thesis I propose, before attempting to estimate 
the results accruing from the policy each represents, to enumerate, and, 
as far as possible, to assess the total cost to the State of the various reliefs 
and disbursements of an eleemosynary character that these post-war years 
have witnessed. I do not apologise for this, as I feel confident that a 
large majority even of the agricultural community does not appreciate 
the weight or the diversity of these aids. 
First must be placed the direct, recurrent and non-recurrent, grants. 
Chronologically, in the forefront of the former comes the Corn Production 
Acts (Repeal) Act, which, in 1921, resulted in the payment of over eighteen 
million pounds to the growers of wheat and oats in Great Britain. By 
this means some three-quarters of all the occupiers of agricultural land 
received £3 and £4 per acre respectively, or an average of about £80 per 
head, for the crops in question raised that year. Additionally, a further 
million pounds was deflected to the furtherance of rural education and 
research. 
The subsidising of sugar and molasses derived from home-grown beet 
—nowadays a much discussed product—will, with the perfectly legitimate 
inclusion of the concurrent Excise remissions, during the eleven years 
of its existence have cost the taxpayer slightly over £47,000,000. At 
this stage, I will say nothing in regard to the proportionate distribution 
of that vast sum between farmer and factory, nor will [ comment upon 
the very debatable economic repercussions affecting sugar refiners, 
foreign cane and beet producers, British shipping interests, or home road 
and rail services. The benefits derived from the introduction of this 
crop into our farming economy have been undeniably great, but the 
spectacle of two hemispheres subsidised to compete for an over-stocked 
market is a remarkable one. 
The redemption of a solemn war-time undertaking to settle ex-Service 
applicants upon small-holdings caused the expenditure, through the 
medium of the County Councils, of £15,250,000. The precise cost to 
the State of establishing the 17,000 persons in question is extraordinarily 
difficult to assess, but I am indebted to friends at the Ministry of Agri- 
culture for the following information. Some nine-tenths of the sum 
