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CHAPTER VIII.—EMPLOYMENT AND WAGES 
IN AGRICULTURE. 
Agricultural Employment as shown in the Occupation Tables 
of the Population Census.—In considering the productivity of 
agriculture, a question of great interest is the extent to which 
the land of this country provides employment or a means of 
livelihood for a portion of the population. The main source of 
information on this point is found in the Occupation Tables 
of the Decennial Population Census which indicate the number 
of persons who declare themselves as engaged in occupations 
connected with agriculture or horticulture. In addition to these, 
there is an unknown number who have some other principal 
occupation, but who still derive some income or other benefit or 
advantage either from the occupation of land or from employment 
in connection with it. The most obvious examples of the first 
class are the considerable numbers of tradesmen in country 
districts such as butchers, inn-keepers and others who occupy 
land in connection with their business or who may actually 
carry on farming, but who would return themselves in the census 
under their principal and primary occupation. A substantial 
proportion of the smaller holdings must be in the occupation of 
persons who have other means of livelihood and who describe 
themselves under headings other than those which would bring 
them into the agricultural groups. In the same way in the case 
of wage-earners, there are a large number of workers of various 
kinds who are intermittently or partially engaged in some form 
of agriculture or horticulture, but who would not regard it as 
their main source of livelihood. No definite estimate can, how- 
ever, be made of the number of persons who are thus, as a 
secondary occupation, engaged on or in connection with the 
land, but it is probably quite appreciable. 
The Occupation Tables of the Decennial Census, then, may be 
taken broadly as showing the number of persons whose main 
or primary occupation is connected with agriculture and the 
changes which have taken place in England and Wales during 
the past 50 years will be seen from the following table. Com- 
parison is subject to certain reservations especially in regard to 
the various subheads, since the classification into groups by the 
census authorities has not been uniform throughout.