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 VIII. Employment and wages in agriculture

Collection:: Economics Books

[106 farms, and greater on mixed farms than on farms which are mainly pasture. This is especially the case in regard to per- manent adult male workers. The total number of workers employed per 1,000 acres on holdings which are mainly arable is 36-6, against 23-1 on holdings which are mainly pasture. As regards regular male workers, the mainly arable farms employ 27:9 per 1,000 acres, against. 16-2 on mainly pasture farms. Naturally enough, the greatest employment of labour is to be found upon fruit and vegetable holdings, and here temporary female labour bulks largely in the total. There is'a marked tendency to reduce the labour on holdings as farms increase in size, but it will also be observed that after a certain point the number of permanent male workers tends to increase, while the casual workers diminish throughout. This is no doubt largely due to the fact that the occupier is excluded from these figures and that on small farms no additional regular assistance is required in many cases, whereas as farms increase in size the occupier has to employ more regular workers. As more labour is employed on arable land than on pasture, it is to be expected that those counties which retain the greatest proportion of their cultivated area under arable crops will show the greatest employment of labour. In Table 26 in the Appendix are shown for each county the numbers of each kind of worker per 1,000 acres of crops and grass in the year 1925. The figures show that the proportion of arable land is only one of the factors which govern the amount of labour used, and that the type of farming has also a good deal of influence. The high rate of employment in Middlesex is due both to the high proportion of vegetable holdings and also to the number of residential holdings employing abnormal quantities of outside labour. Kent and Worcester are high because of their fruit and vegetable farms ; Lincoln (Holland) and the Isle of Ely owing to the extensive cultivation of potatoes. In some districts the labour bill is high owing to the predominance of dairy farming on the pasture lands—e.g., Cheshire. Considering the proportion of arable land to total cultivated area, the rate of employment in York- shire (East Riding) and in Lincoln (Kesteven and Lindsey) is abnormally low. Wages.—No special inquiries as to wages were made in con- nection with the Census inquiry in view of the fact that minimum rates of wages are now in operation throughout the country under the Agricultural Wages (Regulation) Act, 1924. In the Report made under this Act for the year ending 30th September, 1926, some information is given in regard to the average earnings of agricultural workers in England and Wales in 1925-26. The average of the minimum wages fixed in the various counties for ordinary agricultural labourers was about 31s. 6d. per week over the country as a whole. Workers engaged in tending animals, such as horsemen, cattlemen and shepherds, usually receive additional wages in payment mainly for the longer hours

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