ABSTRACT
In some sense the farmers of Britain have endured the vicissitudes of prosperity and depression and the distractive force of technological change during the twentieth century better than other social groups in agriculture. In 1971 there were about 270,000 farmers and salaried managers in England and Wales, and in 1981 237,031. In the 1980s the number of part-time farmers in Britain as a whole was actually increasing while those in full-time possession of the holdings were in retreat. By 1985 it is estimated that one-third of all farmers were part-time. The close connection between farming and its service trades is obvious, but the interaction that led to recruitment into farming also worked in the opposite direction. Farmers, and more particularly farmers' children, passed into trades with which they were already familiar.
