424= 158 Taxation as affecting the Agricultural Interest. 
While the labouring section of the agricultural community ha 
been seen to bear a lighter taxation than other workmen, agri 
culturists of the middle or upper classes have appeared to b 
taxed considerably in excess of the general average of thai 
class. This, it has been shown, may, in the case of several im 
posts, be traced in part to usage more or less prescriptive, an' 
in part to what has been deemed the eminently taxable characte 
of the chief form of agricultural capital — the land. A sti 
further discrimination has made it clear that, thanks to th 
incidence of local taxes, the landlord's average taxation — falling 
as this does, not only on what may be regarded as the natur; 
rent of the soil, but with equal pressure on the revenue he derivf 
from capital devoted to its improvement — exceeds 16 per cent, 
while that of the tenant-farmer is upwards of 12 per cen 
Opinions may indeed vary as to some of the details which lea 
to these results. Minute accuracy cannot be claimed for calci 
lations into which hypothesis must occasionally enter. Stil 
however, as the result of patient enquiry, I am disposed 
regard these conclusions as fairly enough representing, whe 
contrasted with the position of other incomes, the gener 
pressure of taxation on British agriculture. 
