The agricultural output of England and Wales 1925

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1757028552

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-135495

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: The agricultural output of England and Wales 1925

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: XV, 152 Seiten; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VII. Number and size of holdings

Collection:: Economics Books

showing an increase from 1895 to 1924 of 4,700. In fact, there iS no very marked change in the number of holdings from 20 to 300 acres during the 30 years, but there is a decline in the holdings of over 300 acres, which is of importance because the area lost from this group does not appear to be compensated for by in- creases in the other groups. Part of the loss in this group may, however, be due to the transfer of grass land to the category of rough grazings. The decline in the total number of holdings from 1 to 50 acres as shown by the Ministry’s figures is regarded in some quarters as evidence of the failure of the small holdings movement. For reasons given earlier in this chapter the figures do not necessarily bear this interpretation. In the first place, holdings between 20 and 50 acres have increased, and it can be assumed that all but a small proportion of the holdings in this group are real small holdings—that is to say, holdings from which the occupier derives 8 very substantial part, if not the whole, of his living. In the second place, as has already been stated, it is doubtful whether the reduction in the number of holdings from 1 to 20 acres is really representative of actual fact, in view of the extensive changes in the occupation of agricultural land and the very considerable number of new small holdings created in recent years. Moreover, seeing that a considerable proportion of the holdings of 1 to 20 acres returned to the Ministry (45,000, according to Crop Reporters’ estimates in 1925) are only partially or inci- dentally used for agriculture, it is quite impossible to estimate how far, if at all, the decline in the total numbers of holdings in the two smallest groups is due to a decrease in real small holdings. There are indications that in the last twenty years the reduction in the number of holdings only partially or inci- dentally used for agriculture has been very considerable. The foregoing considerations are probably sufficient to show that the Ministry’s figures of holdings between 1 acre and 50 acres cannot be regarded as evidence of a decrease in the number of real small holdings, though at the same time they do not afford any positive proof of the increase which, it is claimed, has actually taken place. The Population Census figures, however, given in Chapter VIII are suggestive. They show that between 1911 and 1921 the number of farmers, &ec., working on their own account or as employees increased by nearly 42,000. This increase must presumably be due to an increase in the number of persons describing themselves as small holders and may be accepted as indicative of the general trend, though there is some reason to suppose that it exaggerates the real facts of the case. The proportion of holdings of the different sizes and the proportion of the total area in each group is shown in the following Table :—

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