4 



Employment in Agriculture: An Inquiry. [Apr., 



ber 29th, 1920, was 372,000, which coriipares veiy favourably 

 with the average of 281,000 in the corresponding period of the 

 years 1917-1919. Since tiie beginning of the present year there 

 has been a slight diminution, consequent upon the outbreak 

 of disease already mentioned. 



The decline in the total stock of cattle in England and Waler. 

 last year occurred under each of the three main heads, which 

 are " dairy cattle," other cattle " and " calves," but was 

 most marked in the case of the last named. Since .mimals 

 classed as calves in June last would now be described for the 

 most part as yearlings, there may possibly be a moderate 

 shortage of that class of store cattle this year. There is, how- 

 ever, ample evidence that calves are being kept or purchased 

 for rearing in considerably larger numbers than in the same 

 period in 19L9 and 1920. "^The total of 4,368,000 head of dairy 

 cattle in the United Kingdom recorded in 1920 was the lowest 

 since 1913. In that year the number w^as 4,300,000, but 

 during the next three years the total number of cattle in the 

 United Kingdom increased by no less than half a million. 

 With a larger dairy herd as breeding stock in 1920 and a 

 keen demand for good class store cattle and calves there is no 

 reason why the total stock of the country should not increase 

 again as it did after 1913. 



****** 



FoK some time past it has been suggested that employment 

 on the farms in this country is decreasing. In order to 

 ascertain the facts, members of the District 

 A • u • Wages Committees in England and Wales 

 ^An In^uir^^ ' ^^^^ ^^^^ invited by the Agricultural 

 ^' Wages Board to give information from per- 

 sonal knowledge of conditions in their respective districts, and 

 to this end schedules of inquiry were sent out. The greater 

 number of these schedules have been completed and returned 

 and till? contents may be summarised as follows : — 



(a) That among men employed in connection with the care 

 of animals, referred to as "Special classes," there is little 

 unemployment. 



(h) That among ordinary farm labourers unemployment is 

 not much in excess of that which existed in .January, 1920, 

 and that it affects mostly the unskilled and inefficient work- 

 men. 



(c) That among boys unemployment to an unusual extent 

 is not general although it is anticipated that the increase in 



