State Intervention in Agriculture

Abstract

IN his presidential address to Section M (Agriculture), Mr. J. M. Caie first shows the position occupied by agriculture in the State, by giving statistics of areas, holdings and populations, the output of food from our farms, and the contribution they make to the food consumption of the people. Corresponding figures for Denmark and Norway are given for purposes of comparison. Specially notable facts are that the number of persons per acre of cultivated land in Great Britain, 1·5, is relatively high, while the proportion of the population engaged in British agriculture, about 6 per cent, is very low, as compared with 29 and 30 per cent in the other two countries ; that the products of animal husbandry represent about 72 per cent of the output of our land ; that the value of the output per acre of land is about £8 in Great Britain and Norway, and £11 in Denmark, while the annual output per person in British agriculture is £200 and in Danish £150 ; that in respect of most products, except liquid milk, oats and potatoes, we require to import very considerable quantities ; and that agriculture buys from other industries goods valued, roughly, at twenty to thirty million pounds a year.