ABSTRACT
Some elementary description of British agriculture may be found useful in considering the reports on several farms that follow and in appreciating the work of the National Agricultural Advisory Service. The Ministry of Agriculture prefer to measure ‘the standard labour requirements for the cropping and stocking of a farm, using as the unit of measurement the standard man day’. The total number engaged in agriculture is about 800,000 representing 3 per cent of the total employed labour force and provides 3 per cent of the gross national product. The most important policy concerns the annual review of prices carried out in accordance with the Agriculture Act 1947. Governments since the war have preferred to help farmers by allowing the ordinary channels of trade to flow freely. There are about 1,300 farmers’ machinery syndicates through which farmers have the use of expensive equipment without tying up their own capital.
