782 
Profit-Sharing in Agriculture. 
acreage is divided between three farms situated in different parts 
of the county. One farm — Chevington Moor, of 403 acres — is a 
heavy clay farm, thrown upon my hands in 1888 like a squeezed 
orange, with all the fertility sucked out of it by bad and penur- 
ious farming. Through generous applications of Newcastle 
Corporation manure, this farm, which has not yet made a profit, 
is gradually coming round : and I hope soon to be able to show 
a balance-sheet which will be as satisfactory to the workers as 
to me. 
In the year 188G I applied the profit-sharing principle to 
the home farm at Howick ; since which time I have been able, on' 
three occasions, to distribute among the employes a bonus of 
sixpence in the pound on wages earned, as their share of the 
profits, and the prospects of next year's balance-sheet are, at 
this moment, encouragiug. 
In the same j^ear I also entered into the occupation of East 
Learmouth Farm, which is popularly known in Northumberland 
as " The Profit-Sharing Farm," and which has been the subject 
in the local press of considerable recent controversy. The 
outgoing tenant had insisted, as a condition of continuing 
the occupation of the farm, upon an increased reduction of 
rent, over and above the reduction of Ss. 8d. an acre (from 
42s. 7c?. to 33s. 11c?.) to which the rent had fallen when he 
entered the farm in 1882. His request not having been acceded 
to, the management of the farm came into my hands. It is a 
farm of 821 acres, 122 acres of which are permanent pasture 
and the balance arable. 
The nature of the soil is a good loam, and it enjoys the repu- 
tation of being one of the best turnip and barley farms in North- 
umberland. The knowledge of what had been done at Ralahine 
and in the German experiments to which I have ali'eady referred, 
coupled with a profound disbelief in the soundness of the " three 
acres and a cow " proposals, caused me to gladly take advantage 
of the opportunity, which the occupation of East Learmouth fanu 
afforded me, of making a good practical experiment of the way 
in which the profit-sharing principle might operaf^e to the 
advantage of the agricultural labourer. 
My first desire was, to establish the principle upon a basis 
which, from its obvious fairness and from the advantage which 
it ofiered to both employer and employed, might tempt other 
employers to apply it to their respective industries. It seemed 
to me that the profit-sharing principle, to be absolutely fair and 
unassailable from every quarter — whether capitalist or labourer, — 
should demand that the net profits which miglit remain, after 
labour had received its market rate of wages and capital its 
