Production of milk in relation to area under crops and XVII. Percentage of cultivated area occupied by holdings over 20 acres which is on mainly arable farms XVIII. Percentage of cultivated area occupied by holdings over 20 acres which is on mainly pasture farms XIX. Percentage of cultivated area occupied by holdings over II. Average acreage of Wheat, Barley and Oats in ten-year III. Number of Dairy Cattle, and Other Cattle 2 years old and VII. Prices of Agricultural Produce and All Commodities, 1906 VIII. Prices of Vegetable Products, Animal Products, Feeding MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES. SIR, TO THE SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE I HAVE the honour to submit a Report on the Agricultural Census of England and Wales, 1925, based partly on the Annual Agricultural Statistics, and partly on enquiries specially undertaken in connection with the Census of Production. It may not be out of place to refer at the outset to the discussions in the House of Commons* as to the need for a survey of the agricultural conditions and possibilities of the country. This Report, while not pretending to provide all the information desired, is an attempt to meet that demand on the statistical side. The task of compiling statistics that afford guidance as to the trend of a complicated and heterogeneous industry such as agriculture is, however, a formidable one, and whilst the Report provides some material on which a judgment can be based, there are necessary limitations to the information which can be supplied by agricultural statistics and also to the deductions which can safely be drawn from them. In the period which has elapsed since 1908-the date of the last census-agriculture has passed through an economic disturbance which, measured by its effect on prices, is without parallel in the last 100 years. The present enquiry refers in the main to the year 1925, seven years after the end of the war but only three years after the sharp fall in prices in 1921-22, and sufficient time has not yet elapsed to enable general conclusions to be drawn. But the evidence seems to suggest that, though appreciable changes have taken place and there have been gains and losses in different branches of the industry, agriculture has passed through this period without suffering any serious economic set-back. From the nature of the subject, the Report is necessarily somewhat detailed and it may be useful if I attempt to indicate some of the leading figures which it contains. This brief summary needs, however, to be read with caution. In the Report an endeavour has been made to explain the limitations to which the figures are subject, and one particular limitation which needs to be borne in mind is that the figures for a single year may not be fully representative. For this reason, the Report is not confined merely to a comparison of 1925 with 1908, but summarises in more or less detail figures both for preceding and intervening years. * On the 8th April, 1925, 3rd August, 1925, 24th June, 1926 and 2nd August, 1926. The value of the land, including farm houses and buildings, on which the agricultural and horticultural industry of England and Wales is carried on was estimated in 1925 at about £815 millions. The working capital employed in production was put at about £365 millions, so that in the aggregate a gross total of no less than £1,180 millions is represented in the capital equipment necessary for production and involved in the cultivation of the soil. The value of the land and improvements with the necessary houses, buildings, etc. (i.e., what is usually called "landlord's capital") is about £31 per acre over the whole area of crops and grass in England and Wales, while the "tenant's capital" that is the value of the live and dead stock, tenant right valuation and current cash necessary to enable the occupier to pay wages and to carry on his operations, is equal to an average of £14 per The annual gross rental value of agricultural holdings is about £42 millions, and the average rent per acre paid in respect of the area under crops and permanent grass is 32s. No comparable figures are available for earlier years so that the appreciation in value since 1908 cannot be stated. acre. The area of land in England and Wales used for agricultural or horticultural purposes was in 1925 approximately 31 million acres, of which 25,750,000 acres were returned as arable and permanent grass, and 5 million acres as mountain, heath, moor, down and other rough land used for grazing. Of this total, 10,682,000 acres were returned as arable land. Thus approximately two-thirds of the agricultural area of England and Wales is under permanent grass or rough grazings, while one-third is ploughed either annually or from time to time. The arable area, however, includes 2 million acres of clover and rotation grasses, so that the area which was devoted to crops other than grass in 1925 was only 8,100,000 acres, while the area under grass, whether clover and rotation grasses, permanent pasture or rough grazings, was 22,670,000 acres or nearly 74 per cent. of the total agricultural area of England and Wales. In the course of the discussions in regard to the proposal for a survey of agricultural conditions, a desire was expressed for information as to the utilisation of the land with a view to ascertaining whether there was any material area not used for agriculture. This question is discussed in Chapter II. The total ! land area of the country is somewhat over 37 million acres, and of this approximately 31 million acres can be accounted for in the Agricultural Statistics, while nearly 2 million acres are in forests and woodland, leaving only a balance of about 4 million acres. Account has to be taken of the land needed for the buildings, houses and gardens of our cities, towns and villages, for roads and railways and for the many other purposes to which land is put in an industrial country such as England and Wales, and, after allowance has been made for these needs, it seems that the area remaining unaccounted for must be relatively small. The enquiry which has been made shows that this is the case, for while some 420,000 acres were identified outside urban areas as not included in the Returns, much of this was stated to be entirely useless for agricultural purposes and only about 75,000 acres were considered to have even a possible agricultural value. Whether the land included in the Returns is as highly cultivated or as fully stocked as existing economic conditions admit is a matter in regard to which no conclusions can be drawn from the statistics. Some of it is admittedly in need of drainage, and, as already mentioned, there is an area of no less than 5 million acres classed as mountain, heath, moor, down and other rough land used for grazing. Included in this latter area there is evidently some land which in the past under more favourable conditions has been either arable land or better pasture. The changes in the distribution of the agricultural area are discussed in the Report, but the most important change is the decline in arable cultivation. Apart from the war years, this has been practically a continuous feature of the Agricultural Returns for the last 50 years, the area of 14,766,000 acres in 1871-75 having fallen by 1921-25 to 11,144,000 acres or by about onefourth. A very large part of this decline took place in the first 35 years, the area in 1906-10 being about 11,444,000 acres. Under the stimulus of the war, there was a substantial increase from 10,998,000 acres in 1914 to 12,399,000 acres in 1918. This was followed after the war by a return to the condition previously existing, so that in 1924 the area was 10,929,000 acres or practically the same as in 1914. In the following year, 1925, there was a further fall to 10,682,000 acres, which was the smallest area of arable land ever recorded in England and Wales and 724,000 acres less than in 1908. The loss of arable land over the whole period of 17 years since the last census was therefore nearly 6 per cent. The greater part of the loss has been due to the decline in corn growing. This loss in the arable area since 1908 has been accompanied by a loss of permanent grass, the total area under crops and permanent grass in England and Wales having fallen from 27,348,000 acres in 1908 to 25,755,000 acres in 1925. This difference is made up of the 724,000 acres of arable already referred to and 869,000 acres of permanent grass. A substantial decrease in the area of permanent grass was shown by the Returns in 1918 as a result of the increase in the arable area which took place in the same year. In subsequent years, however, the arable area rapidly declined while the area of permanent grass though gradually increasing did not by any means return to its former level. There seems no doubt that the bulk of the land thus transferred from these two categories now appears as rough grazings, though naturally some part must be accounted for by the encroachment of buildings both in urban and rural areas. Information as to the production of the different crops is given in Chapter III of the Report, but this is difficult to summarise as it is not possible to express the aggregate production of the arable area in any simple manner. Differences in production as between one year and another are dependent on the area sown or planted and on the average yield, which in turn is dependent on weather conditions. Of these differences the area is the most distinctive and an idea of changes in production can perhaps be obtained by mentioning briefly the area devoted to a few of the different crops. The total area under corn crops in 1925 was 5,182,000 acres as compared with an average of 5,786,000 acres in 1906-10. There was thus a loss of just over 600,000 acres which was spread nearly equally over the three main cereals. Turnips, swedes and mangolds declined in the same period by 400,000 acres, the only important crop which showed an increase being potatoes, the acreage of which rose from an average of 418,000 acres in 1906-10 to 506,000 acres in 1921-25. It is evident, therefore, that apart from the differences in the average yield per acre in the two years 1908 and 1925, there was a material decline in the potential output of the principal farm crops. There is no means of ascertaining or expressing the production of grassland, the output of hay only representing in most cases part of the production even of the land from which it is taken. As regards the other crops, including vegetables and also glasshouse produce, information has been obtained as to production in 1925, but the details available for 1908 are insufficient to enable a comparison to be made, though it is believed that the area now devoted to these crops is much greater than it formerly was. As regards fruit, the area under orchards and small fruit was rather less in 1925 than in 1908, but in the interval there had been much new planting and the productive capacity of the area under fruit is now much higher than formerly. Against the decrease in the principal farm crops may be placed the increase in dairy farming, the stock of cows in 1925 numbering 2,713,000 as compared with an average of 2,330,000 in 1906-10, an increase from about 85 to 105 per 1,000 acres of crops and grass. The increase in dairy cattle has been continuous for the last 50 years and is a definite and marked characteristic of farming in almost all parts of the country. As a result, milk production is estimated on the results obtained in 1925 to have risen since 1908 by about 150 million gallons from approximately 975 million gallons to 1,120 million gallons, an increase of about 15 per cent., while the amount of milk sold as liquid milk has risen in the same period by about 20 per cent. The number of cattle other than dairy cattle shows little change if the figures for 1925 are compared with those for 1906-10, but there was an increase during the war which has since been lost. Sheep, on the other hand, have shown a very marked reduction, the numbers falling with fluctuations from the high figure of 20,290,000 in 1909 to 13,438,000 in 1922. Since that |