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Rural Economy at Oxford. 



[JUNE» 



factor, to draw really valuable conclusions as to the type 

 of management and size of holding that will pay best in a 

 district that has been carefully surveyed. Cost accounts 

 are individual affairs, but they enable the farmer to Jearn what' 

 his holding costs him in food, labour, management, transport 

 and the rest. Costing enables him to select the crops that will 

 pay and the stock that is worth keeping, and to leave the others 

 alone, and while deciding where it is better to grow the material 

 for production, such as hay and roots, for example, to sell 

 it to those who will provide the finished article in the form of 

 beef and milk. Clearly the cheapest source is the proper 

 source, and the School of Rural Economy is in a position to 

 decide beyond all possibility of doubt the question of cheap- 

 ness. It can bring large things and small into the region of 

 proof, and a striking example of the latter class is provided by 

 the question of overtime. Certain farmers think it does not 

 pay to give overtime, but those who have been in touch with the 

 School of Rural Economy at Oxford know better, for it has 

 been pointed out to them that when their workers go home 

 because the farmer will not pay overtime, he must support his 

 horses in idleness, at a cost (net loss) which might be converted 

 into a profit if he considered the question of overtime in all its 

 bearings. 



It may be suggested that the new School of Agriculture at 

 Oxford, ^^oungest and not least vigorous branch of that 

 venerable Tree of Knowledge, is designed, despite its particular 

 purpose, to serve all classes of the agricultural community, 

 from the owner of many acres down to the actual tiller of the 

 soil. Farm costings, from which some of us, with the best 

 intention in the world, cannot help shrinking, are of more than 

 passing value, because by their aid the farmer will be able to 

 decide within a little the return that agricultural produce in 

 this country is capable of making. On this sohd basis it wiU 

 be possible, beyond the shadow of a peradventure, to decide 

 what wages a rural industry can pay and what difference in its 

 capacity to pay will follow from enlightened methods, to the 

 fruition of which landlord, farmer and farm labourer, have 

 given their best, united endeavour. 



