X17 
The productive side of agriculture is, however, only one 
aspect of the problem, and in attempting to review the general 
position, account needs to be taken of other factors, such as the 
holdings on which the industry is carried on, the number of 
persons engaged, the capital employed and the rent paid, and 
last but not least the influence of prices and the changes which 
have taken place in recent years. An attempt is made to deal 
with these subjects in Chapters VII to XI. 
As regards the number of holdings (Chapter VII) there is 
some difficulty in deciding on the extent of the increase in recent 
years in the number of holdings under 20 acres, but in any case, 
the bulk of the land is in holdings over that size. Holdings 
over 20 acres numbered 220,600 in 1924 and covered 24,372,000 
acres or 94 per cent. of the total acreage of crops and grass 
(excluding rough grazings). The corresponding number of 
holdings in 1913 was 221,250, while in 1895 it was 216,000. 
There has been an increase in medium sized holdings at the 
expense of holdings at both ends of the scale. 
A classification of these holdings has been adopted which 
gives some indication of their character and it is interesting 
to note that 104,200 or nearly one-half of the above total of 
220,600 holdings over 20 acres consist mainly of pasture land, 
while nearly 40,000 or about 18 per cent. consist mainly of arable 
land. One characteristic is that the smaller holdings, say, from 
20 to 100 acres, are generally more heavily stocked in proportion 
to their size than the larger holdings. 
The question of the number of persons who can properly be 
described as engaged or employed in agriculture or horticulture is 
one of considerable difficulty, but an attempt has been made in 
Chapter VIII to reconcile the apparently conflicting figures 
obtained from different sources on this subject. On the whole, 
allowing for differences in definition, there is a good deal of evidence 
that the number of persons engaged in agriculture or horticulture 
at the present time in England and Wales is about 1,100,000, of 
whom about 800,000 are employees of various kinds and 300,000 
farmers, market gardeners or nurserymen who are either em- 
ployers or working on their own account. The number of purely 
agricultural workers, excluding gardeners, has no doubt declined 
since 1908, though the decrease shown in the Census Returns 
between 1901 and 1921 is only about 40,000, and in the same 
period there was a corresponding increase in the number of 
persons Who described themselves as farmers. That there 
should be a decline in the number of purely agricultural workers 
seems a natural result of the decrease in arable land and is also 
largely accounted for by the rapidly increasing use of mechanical 
power in agriculture, a subject which is dealt with in Chapter IX. 
The reduction in the supply of agricultural labour appears, 
however, to be less than is sometimes supposed, and the evidence 
of the last few years suggests that the numbers are nearly 
stationary.