THE QUESTION OF WHEAT. 7 6j 



years of one sixth of the area. There was a recovery of about 

 200,000 acres in the years 1877 and 1878, but not only was this 

 recovery lost in 1879, 105,000 acres more went out of wheat culti- 

 vation. The crop returns of these years tell a doleful story. In 

 1875 they reported "much under average "; in 1876, "under aver- 

 age "; in 1877, " much under average "; in 1878, " over average "; 

 and in 1879, thought to be the culmination of a series of bad years, 

 "much under average." From 1866 to 1870 the average yield per 

 acre was 26| bushels, but from 1875 to 1880 this average was twice 

 touched, and in 1879 the complete returns gave a yield of only 18 

 bushels to the acre, a record that marked a year of disaster. 



It will be of interest to show how far these adverse conditions 

 were due to natural causes, and therefore beyond the power of 

 farmer or legislator to modify or even to forecast. The weather of 

 1875 was " cold, ungenial, and unsettled. The spring was one of 

 the coldest, bleakest, and most backward of the century. In July 

 came heavy, chill, and destructive rains, destroying the hay and the 

 roots, and blighting the prospects of any abundant corn crops." * 

 In the next year, 1876, the hot weather of June and July came too 

 late to mature the crops, and the result was not satisfactory — a crop 

 " of a very imperfect character." f 



Conditions were brighter in 1878. The crop was only an aver- 

 age one, but that seemed grateful to the farmers after three bad 

 harvests in succession. Whatever hopes were raised by favoring 

 markets and improved returns were dashed in 1879, a year of disas- 

 ter in agriculture, and giving the worst crop of wheat since 18164 

 As agriculture represented one tenth of the total produce of the 

 country, and hardly a branch of agriculture escaped injury, the 

 mischief was so pronounced as to call for an examination by a royal 

 commission. The London Statist, a conservative and able judge, 

 thus summed up the agricultural operations of 1879, a year that 

 many thought marked the total ruin of the British farmer: " There 

 can be no doubt as regards the corn crops that last season was one 

 of the worst on record. After the harvest each succeeding estimate 

 of the yield of the wheat crop appeared to be worse than its prede- 

 cessor, and these low estimates have been fully confirmed by the 

 remarkable falling off in the quantities brought to market. The 

 reduction of yield must have been at least thirty per cent below the 

 average. . . . The barley harvest has also been most deficient, the 

 result being peculiarly disastrous to the excise revenue. In minor 

 crops, such as hops, there has been quite as serious failure. The sea- 

 son has also been far from favorable to green crops and live stock."* 



* London Economist, March 11, 18*76. f Ibid., March 10, 1877. 



% London Times. * Statist, January 31, 1880. 



