Agricultural Statistics 



77 



Now we stated [Saturday Rrc'icic, November 27, 1867) 

 that the average of the estimate of its correspondents 

 in England and Wales gave 24. 4 bushels per acre as 

 to the yield for 1867. But to this 24.4 are to be added 

 2 bushels per acre as a correction, because, ' remem- 

 bering the several soils under cultivation, the fact must 

 not be passed over that an average taken from the 

 aggregate averages' (of each kind of soil) ' cannot 

 possibly be correct, since the wheat lands are fully 

 tvi'o-thirds of the drift, tertiary, and cretaceous groups, 

 and these this year give an average of 28 bushels per 

 acre, which is lowered by the poorer averages of the 

 soils of Devonshire, Durham, and other counties, &c. 

 &c.' This estimate, then, gives 26.4 bushels per acre 

 as the yield for 1867, and that yield is recognised as 

 being fully 20 per cent, short of an average crop, or, 

 in other words, 4-5ths of an average. Adding to this 

 26.4 bushels %\.h.oi itself, or 6.6, we obtain 33 bushels 

 per acre as the figure representing an average annual 

 crop of England and Wales, if T/w Fanner's corres- 

 pondents were correct (in the month of November, 

 and after experiment had been made) in their estimate 

 of the 1867 crop, and if general opinion, in which Mr 

 Caird appears to concur, does not err in setting down 

 the deficiency at 20 per cent. This figure agrees so 

 remarkably with those which, we are informed, have 

 been obtained by diligent jprivate inquirers, that, for 

 our part, we are inclined to place greater faith in it 

 than in the estimate which Mr Caird somewhat dog- 

 matically put forth of 28 bushels per acre, without 

 giving his hearers the materials on which it had been 

 based. There are, however, no means of judging 

 whether either Mr Caird's or any other estimate be the 

 truth, and there will not be until we shall have been 

 provided for a series of years with an account of the 

 actual results of the industry of our farmers. The wide 

 difference between the figures adopted by various re- 

 spectable authorities is so important as to be in itself a 

 sufficient argument for the supply of an authoritative 

 statement of what an average crop of wheat really is, 

 based upon facts collected from the whole of the cul- 

 tivators. When the public have that, then, as Mr 

 Caird said. Government may leave all parties interested 

 to ascertain for themselves the relative yield of each 

 harvest." 



The following remarks on this subject appeared in 

 DornlmscJis Floating List of the 19th ult. :— 

 "To obtain correct information of this year's harvest, 

 will be of far more importance than in ordinary years, 

 from the fact of the ruling high prices— the general 

 exhaustion of stocks of all kinds of grain, and the at 

 present doubtful prospects of next harvest. It is 

 therefore very desirable and important to the nation, 

 that all the farmers and occupiers of land should assist 

 in rendering this information as complete as possible, 

 and it is to be hoped that enlightened persons in every 

 locality will use their influence to remove whatever 

 prejudice may still exist in the minds of some farmers 

 on the subject of agricultural statistics. The idea 

 of some farmers, and other persons too, that to afford 



little or to give no information to the public can in any 

 way be advantageous to tliemselves, is a fallacy which 

 must disappear in proportion as the immense value of 

 statistics becomes better understood. Not less absurd 

 is the idea, that such information would be used as 

 an engine against farmers for purposes of special taxa- 

 tion. The nation at large is the farmer's best customer. 

 All the million-mouthed breadeaters and consumers of 

 agricultural produce which to human existence is as neces- 

 sary as air and water — are deeply interested in obtain- 

 ing cheap food. But cheap food cannot be had, if the 

 producer is heavily taxed. In the price paid for 

 an article is included the sum total cost of production, 

 so that the consumer always pays, in the last instance, 

 all expenses incurred up to delivery at his door, not 

 excepting any taxes, which the producer is called upon 

 to pay. The advantages of agricultural information are 

 not confined to a single class only, but the whole 

 community shares in it. In the present state of statis- 

 tical ignorance — uncertainty and anxiety constantly 

 perplex the farmer as well as the corn-merchant, and 

 frequently entail on both heavy losses, which might 

 easily be lessened or avoided — by the information now 

 sought for. At present, prices rule very irregular and 

 are subject to many changes, because governed by no 

 fixed principle, but decided on no better gi-ound than 

 the rule of the thumb. Most calculations are mere 

 guess work, and men of business, amongst whom 

 farmers also rank, are obliged to conduct their opera- 

 tions in a haphazard way, instead of basing them on 

 a real foundation of positive knowledge. Individual 

 fanners cannot, in their isolated position, form an 

 accurate opinion of the value of their own produce, 

 which can only be ascertained by the aggregate yield 

 of a whole country. They cannot judge of values by 

 merely taking account of the extent of crops on 

 their own farms or the immediate neighbourhood 

 in which they live. This might have been the 

 case when their market town was the centre of 

 attraction, when roads were few and the range of com- 

 munication confined within a small circle. Steam, 

 railways, electric cables, and telegraphs have changed 

 all these things. The farmer is compelled to look 

 beyond his own homestead, or he will be left behind in 

 the onward march of the world. He must ascertain 

 not only what has been growing on his own farm, but 

 how his brother-farmers all over the country have 

 fared — and the more extensive his information is, the 

 more correct will be his deductions and conclusions, 

 and the better able will he be to shape his operations. 

 The price of corn is regulated by the sum-total of all 

 circumstances combined, extending over the whole 

 country, modified by foreign importation. The agri- 

 culturists are quite as much interested in knowing 

 accurately the real state and extent of their crops and 

 the volume of their produce as the grain merchant 

 and consumer ; and the small occupier of land has not 

 less an interest in it than the large farmer, for he, the 

 small occupier, may also, by making good use of agri- 

 cultural statistics, one day become a large farmer. No 



