Abstract
THE report on an “Economic Survey of Agriculture in the Eastern Counties of England” issued by the Department of Agriculture, University of Cambridge, and published by Messrs. Heffer and Sons, Cambridge, price 2s. 9d. post paid, presents an analysis of the financial results for 1931 of nearly a thousand farms in the province. During the year farmers in this area experienced heavy losses. The general price level of agricultural produce averaged 18 per cent below that necessary to provide occupiers with a reasonable return for their own labour and capital investment. The majority of those farmers who were fortunate enough to secure a profit enjoyed special marketing facilities, retailed milk or concentrated on the production of livestock and livestock products, or both. As the eastern counties are generally described as a grain-growing area, it is rather surprising to find that while sales of cereals amounted to less than 14 per cent of the gross income, sales of livestock and their products represented nearly 70 per cent. The very low prices obtainable for the 1931 cereal crops influence these proportions, but even taking this into consideration, cereals can be described as an important cash product on the larger farms only. The success of the small farmer, and these form the majority, is more dependent on the price of livestock and feeding stuffs than on those of cereals. Interesting comparisons are made of the organisation of the agriculture of the principal farming localities of the province: for example, central Norfolk light loams, the Norfolk ‘breck’, central Suffolk heavy soils, south Essex London clays, south Cambridgeshire gravels, etc. The most depressed areas are the boulder clays of Essex and Suffolk, and the clays in west Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. The report deals further with main factors influencing profits and with many other subjects of interest to administrators and to farmers.
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Agriculture in the East of England. Nature 130, 503–504 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130503d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130503d0