III. ARTICLES, SPECIAL REPORTS, ETC. Report on Milk Supply of Finsbury, Dr. Newman, 1903. The Reform of the Milk Supply, Dr. McCleary. Public Health, April, 1905. The Milk Supply of Cities, Prof. Park. Journal of Hygiene, Vol. I. The Milk Supply of Large Towns. British Medical Journal, 1903. The Control of the Milk Supply, Dr. Newman. British Medical Journal Office, 1904; 6d. Die Bekämpfring der Sänglingssterblichkeit Zeitschrift fur Hygiene, Von Ohlen. January 28, 1905. An account of the chief infants' milk depots in Europe and America. Reports on the Health of Liverpool, Dr. Hope, 1898-1903. Reports on the Health of Battersea, Dr. McCleary. Report on the Health of St. Pancras, 1899. Report on the Health of Brighton, 1902. See also other local reports of places where infants' milk depots are Lecture, Dr. R. Jones. Society of Arts Journal, March, 1903. The Hygiene of Milk, Mackenzie. Edinburgh Medical Journal, 1898. Le Lait à Copenhagen, Dr. H. de Rothschild. Paris, 1903. L'Euvre Philanthropique du Lait, Dr. H. de Rothschild. Paris, 1902. Sir R. Douglas Powell. Journal Sanitary Institute, August, 1904. Milk Supply of Two Hundred Cities and Towns. U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1903. Journal of Royal Statistical Society, 1892, pp. 265-7. For average annual consumption of milk. Report of Minister of Agriculture for Canada, 1902. Transactions British Congress on Tuberculosis, 1902, Vol. I., p. 84 Journal of Hygiene, 1891, 1892, and 1903. Report of Medical Officer of Bedfordshire County Council, 1902. The Milk Trade from Within, Charles Hassard. Economic Review, January, 1905. Report of Medical Officer of Health of St. Pancras (Dr. Sykes) on Prevention of Infantile Mortality, 1904. ment of ite Rules and the following publications can be obtained from the Secretary, at the Fabian Office, 3 Clement's Inn, London, W.C. FABIANISM AND THE EMPIRE: A Manifesto. 4d. post free. FABIAN ESSAYS IN SOCIALISM. (35th Thousand.) 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Question Leaflets, containing Questions for Candidates for the following bodies:-20, Poor Law Guardians. 24, Parliament. 27, Town Councils. 28, County Councils, Rural. 56, Parish Councils. 57, Rural District Councils. 102, Metropolitan Borough Councils. BOOK BOXES lent to Societies, Clubs, Trade Unions, for 6s. a year, or 2/6 a quarter Printed by G. Standring 7 Finsbury St. London. E... and published by the Fabian A THE REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE A National Policy for Great Britain. The New Heptarchy Series, No. 4. PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY THE FABIAN SOCIETY. PRICE ONE PENNY. LONDON: THE FABIAN SOCIETY, 3 CLEMENT'S INN, STRAND, W.C. 1 A National Policy of Agricultural Reconstruction. Report of the Agricultural Committee, presented to the Society on 14th July, 1905, by H. W. MACROSTY, the Chairman of the Committee, and adopted. The Decline of Agriculture. THE decline of agriculture in Great Britain began about thirty years ago. The bad harvests of 1876-82 caused widespread ruin, while in the same period the introduction of very cheap ocean transport and the extension of agriculture in America and elsewhere led to a tremendous fall in prices. According to the Board of Trade figures, the fall in 1898-1902, compared with 1871-5, has been 377 per cent. in corn, and 18.1 per cent. in meat, bacon, and dairy produce. The effect on incomes derived from land has been catastrophic. The landlord's share, the gross annual value of lands assessed to income tax under Schedule A (including tithe rent charge, ornamental gardens, gardens exceeding one acre, farmhouses and buildings, etc.) fell in Great Britain from £59,568,253 in 1879-80 to £42,507,895 in 1902-3. The average reduction in rent has thus been 28.5 per cent.. but in some localities the fall has been as much as 60 per cent. The fall in the value of the fee simple is about the same, and small and encumbered owners have suffered most. Farmers' capital was largely swept away in the early years of the decline, and even now they have to live close and can save but little. The estimated amount of farmers' profits fell in Great Britain from £28,405,086 in 1879-80 to 14,288,974 in 1902-3, or one-half. Agricultural laborers alone have gained during the last thirty years; but although the average weekly earnings in England are now 18s. 3d., there is, according to the estimates made by Mr. Wilson Fox, of the Labor Department of the Board of Trade, "a deficit of 2s. old., if the value of food, the, cost of rent, firing, light, clothes, and club is compared with the earnings of the head of the family (without allowing for any expenditure on beer, tobacco, and household requisites)." The balance must be made good from the earnings of wife and children, from t garden, the poultry or the pig. Between 1871 and 1904 arable land in Great Britain has decreased by 3,122,000 acres, and permanent pasture has increased 4,668,000 acres. There has been a great change from corn raising to cattle rearing and dairy farming, with less employment of labor. Simultaneously imports have increased enormously, not only in grain and meat, but also in dairy produce, eggs, poultry, etc., where we might have hoped to hold our own. The Sins of the Landlords. The landlord system must bear a large share of the blame for the decay of agriculture. The bad times found many landlords with burdened estates and no reserve, saved in prosperous times, wherewith to keep their property in a state of efficiency. Placed in the position of the social and economic leaders of the rural districts, they have, as a class, largely devoted themselves to drawing their rents and trying to escape public burdens. They have not compelled their tenants to be good farmers; in fact, by obstructive rules and by annual tenancies, they have often prevented improvements. They have not stood between the agricultural laborers and their employers; on the contrary, by neglecting to provide a sufficient supply of sanitary cottages, they have powerfully contributed towards the rural exodus. Locally they have misused their economic strength for political and sectarian ends; while nationally they have set up a false ideal before the nation. To-day they still draw about £43,000,000, or three times the farmers' profits, from the land of Great Britain, with, as the evidence before the Royal Commission on Agriculture showed, disastrous results to the nation. "The evidence goes to show that over renting (1) has been a chief cause of depression in bringing farmers to ruin, and in deteriorating the condition of the land; (2) is even now very general; and (3) that the opinion that further reductions are necessary and inevitable, is, among farming witnesses, practically universal. ... There is much evidence to show that reductions are by no means universal, and that in many districts and on many estates the system of temporary remissions or abatements, sometimes wholly insufficient to meet the times, is still common. In many cases, even in districts where depression is general, there would seem to have been neither reductions nor abatements of any kind." (Royal Commission on Agriculture Minority Report, F. A. Channing, M.P.) The main work of administration is done by a private service of estate agents, bailiffs, and foremen; and the landlord is a mere parasite on the industry of the country. As a class landlords have failed in their duty as "captains of industry," and it is only fitting that they should be swept aside to make room for some better system. The Faults of the Farmers. Farmers, as a body, have shown a great lack of that capacity and daptability with which men in other occupations have met bad They have clung to the old idea that wheat growing was heir only duty, and stubbornly resisted every attempt to persuade imes. |