392 = 126 Taxation as affecting the Agricultural Interest. 
another, owned a co-existing share of the produce of the soil with 
the landlord proper. In England, it may be remarked, one-fifth 
of these tithes are now vested not in ecclesiastical but in lay 
proprietorship. 
Tenant's capi- The capital provided by the tenant for the ordinary work of 
tal and income, ^j^g farm bears also some variety of character. Differing ^6zX\y 
in different districts, on different soils, and sorts of farms, there 
does not appear to be much general agreement as to the average 
value of the farmer's plant in the stock, implements, and ma- 
terial accessories of his business. Where a mean has to be strucl 
between the high-farming which finds, at the least, profitable 
employment for 15Z. an acre, and the low level of the scale 
which a West of Ireland tenant would think ample, it is eas; 
widely to err ; but there is some ground to believe that an averag' 
of (say) 8Z. per acre over the cultivated area of 47,000,000 acre 
throughout the United Kingdom may fairly enough represen 
the working capital of the British tenantry. This gives a sue 
of 376,000,000/. 
For purposes of taxation the income-tax Acts assume th 
tenant's earnings to be measured by one - half his rent i 
England, and one-third in Scotland and Ireland — assumptior 
to which practical effect is given in the reduced poundage-ral 
imposed. It has been argued, on the one hand, that this 
too favourable to the farmer, and charges his profits too lightly 
%vhile, on the other, authority is not wanting for the very opposij 
contention. Since, however, this estimate is in point of 
that acted on in the adjustment of taxation, and since it coincid 
very closely with an average return of 9 per cent, on the farmii 
capital employed, I am disposed to believe that it is not, on tl 
average, at all too low an estimate, and that no great error ci 
result from its adoption. Omitting for convenience the def( 
ential favour shown to other than English tenants, I therefc 
take the aggregate taxable income of all the occupiers of t 
United Kingdom at one-half the gross value of the land-ren 
— which, it will be remembered, includes the tithes — or a to 
sum of 33,000,000/. a year. 
Larnings of the So far as the labouring section of the agricultural commun; 
is concerned, no money capital has to be assumed, nor does 
direct tax, with its tell-tale assessment, reveal in official figu 
the earnings which they enjoy in return for the labour tl 
expend in the common business. As in all agricultural qu 
tions, the wideness of the field impedes an easy computation 
what sort of revenue these earnings represent. Ten years ai 
a late eminent statistician, Mr. Dudley Baxter, in his elabor] 
work on national income, calculated their receipts as reacb jp 
52,200,000/. A notable rise in wages, to which the larger labp 
s 
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