than any other cereal to this purpose in a farm rotation, and being more serviceable on the farm than wheat as a stock food. The rise in the mangold acreage is explained later.

5. Dealing now with the consequences of the fall in arable land in connection with the livestock industry, the changes which have occurred in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire may be used to indicate the general tendency.

Variations in the numbers of live stock, 1866–1913.

Variations in the numbers of live stock, 1866-1913.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE.

Considering Charts 6 and 7 and dealing first with sheep, the close association of the production of mutton and wool with arable land in these districts is clearly marked, for the heavy fall in the ploughed acreage brings in its train a heavy fall in sheep stocks. The sheep industry of this country is carried on mainly under two heads, namely, the grass-fed breeds and the breeds fed on arable crops. In a statistical comparison made recently by Sir Daniel Hall (Journal of the Ministry of Agriculture, May 1921) the fact was clearly established that the decline in the sheep stocks of the country is confined mainly to those breeds which are kept on arable crops. Thus, if a rotation including corn growing and green crops for sheep becomes unprofitable in its corn-growing element, there is a consequent reduction in the sheep stock carried. At the same time the division between the grass breeds and the arable breeds is not sharply drawn as regards systems of farming, for a large number of sheep bred on the hills and in the grass districts are fattened on arable crops, so that a decline in arable acreage, whilst having a direct effect on the numbers in the arable breeds, has simultaneously an indirect effect on the numbers of the grass breeds.

6. Turning now to cattle it will be noted that in both counties the numbers in the class described as "two years and over have remained stationary. These are the beef cattle; and it is noteworthy that the big increase in the area of grazing land has produced no corresponding increase in meat production. On the other hand, there is a decided increase in the cattle class described as under two years,” and an even larger increase in the class " cows in milk or in calf." It is evident, therefore, that the increase in the grass area has been applied to the production of milk and not to the production of meat. This increase in milk production explains the large increase in the acreage under mangolds, to which attention has been called above. The mangold crop is the only arable crop of any importance to show a material increase since 1866, and it is an essential constituent of the winter ration of the dairy cow.

7. To summarise, the decline in the arable acreage has resulted in(1) A decline in all cereal crops, but particularly in wheat and barley.

(2) A decline in all root and fodder crops except mangolds.

(3) A decline in sheep flocks, particularly those maintained on arable crops.

(4) An increase in dairying.

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8. The causes which led to the decline in arable land and also to the modifications of farming practice consequent on it, may be summed up in the word prices." Chart 8* shows the influence of prices on the wheat acreage of the following year, from the years 1868 to 1913. The highest price (1868) corresponds also with the highest acreage, and the lowest price (1894) corresponds with the lowest acreage, and although between these limits there are years when the correlation of price and acreage is not perfect there can be no question about it over the whole series of years.

9. There cannot be the slightest doubt that the price of any agricultural commodity controls the quantity produced. The period covered by the wheat figures was one of the greatest activity in scientific discovery, but all the work of Lawes and Gilbert and their contemporaries failed to bring about an increase in production sufficient to set off the fall in price and so to maintain the area under crops, the market valuation of which was falling. No doubt their discoveries served to check the decline; the work of Professor Biffen and others to-day must operate in the same direction. No doubt a better organisation of the means of production and distribution would also have a steadying effect, but when every allowance has been made for these things the fact remains that the farmer has not the means at his

* Prepared by Mr. A. W. Ashby, of the Institute for Research in Agricultural Economics at Oxford.

disposal for countering a fall in prices by an increase of production which appears to be available in a much greater degree in other forms of enterprise. There is a limit to the extent to which labour may be made more productive by the introduction of machinery. In all its essentials the plough is the same instrument to-day as it was two thousand years ago, and no better implement has been devised for turning up the soil. Nature, which can be utilised but not controlled, plays a bigger part in agriculture than in any other industry; frost is still the only agency for making many soils workable at all; rain, or the want of it, may cause the loss of the year's crop; two crops or more cannot be grown in one year by speeding up the processes of cultivation; nor can the cow or the horse or the ewe be trained to produce offspring more than once in the year; night shifts cannot be worked merely by turning on the electric light.

10. Proof of the overriding importance of price is forthcoming from the developments in agriculture which have occurred since the decline in prices set in. The only important branch of farming which has maintained and improved its position is dairying. In milk production England enjoys a naturally protected market, and milk is the only commodity the price of which has tended to rise rather than to fall during the period under review. In England to day the depression in agriculture is confined to the districts predominantly arable, where corn growing and the production of other arable crops, such as potatoes, is the mainstay of the business. The grass industries, such as dairying, stock raising and meat production, which enjoy a natural protection (for fresh meat may also be said to have this protection) are still profitable to the farmer; and although less productive in gross value and employing less labour than arable industries, they are also more profitable relatively to the fewer men employed.

11. The progress of scientific research and improvements in the internal organisation of the industry, will have some effect on the tillage area of the future in this country; but unless the profits of some new system of manage. ment of arable land, such as, for example, arable milk-production, can be demonstrated, nothing will increase the area of ploughland in England, and with this, production from land and employment on it, except a rise in the price of arable products.

MEMORANDUM VIII.

LAND TENURE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON GOOD FARMING.

By C. S. ORWIN, Agricultural Assessor.

1. At Common Law every improvement effected by the tenant of a holding (whether temporary in character such as preparation for a crop, or more permanent such as the erection of a building) passed to the landlord upon the determination of the tenancy. "Quidquid solo plantatur, solo cedit." Under a primitive system of agriculture it may be presumed that this imposed no real handicap; but in proportion as farming has been developed so has grown up the need for some security to the tenant for acts performed by him, the benefit of which will accrue to another; and obviously recognition of this need has never preceded the occasion of it, whilst very frequently it has lagged far behind.

2. The earliest, and for a long time the only "rights" enjoyed by the tenant were secured to him by custom. Statutory recognition has only been given within the last generation. Customary rights vary, and have always varied, all over the country. Occasionally they are peculiar to a certain estate, at other times they belong to the county; whilst some are met with over the length and breadth of the country. It is not necessary to constitute an agricultural custom that it should be immemorial; but it must be notorious and publicly observed throughout the district to