Import and Export of Agricultural Commodities 



12.1 



far as butter and cheese are concerned is 

 rather a good sign, seeing that as we are 

 neither sending away nor bringing in so much, 

 we must be consuming more at home. Our 

 money returns for butter and cheese in the 

 six months amountecl to ^^i 42,992 and 

 ;^37,2 9o respectively. 



The export of horses is very limited this 

 year as compared with last. Up to the end 

 of June, all we sent away was i6gi, to com- 

 pare with 4616. The value was ^92,633; 

 last year, 154,282. which shews a difference 

 of about ;^20 per head in favour of the sellers. 

 This year the horses averaged ^55, last year 



only £zs- 



The following tables shew the export and 

 values of wool, and the places to which the 

 fleeces were sent : — 



AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



By J. J. IMechi. 



WAKING from her sleep. — What a stir 

 at last in agriculture ! Beet-sugar 

 companies, steam-cultivating companies, land 

 improvement companies, land drainage com- 

 panies, irrigation companies, agricultural 

 tramway companies, and nobody knows what 

 beside ; not forgetting class schools, agricul- 

 tural colleges, tenant-right and labourers' as- 

 sociations. All new in my time, and some 

 predicted by me in my early letters some 

 thirty years ago. London is coming into the 

 country to spend its capital, either in plea- 

 sure or in proiit, or both, and seems also in- 

 clined to cover us with bricks and mortar. 

 Tiptree will be worth more money as soon 

 as the Great Eastern Railway and the Metro- 

 politan Underground shake hands at. Broad 

 Street, and people willbebuildingandliving in 

 Essex, findingoutthatitisnota flat country,but 

 possesses many beautiful and extensive views, 

 and several nice hills, valleys, and rivers. 

 Essex was wont to be identified mentally with 

 ague, fever, and flatness — such judgments 

 having been formed on the water abutting on 



its extensive coast line, and fostered by those 

 antique farmers who insisted that the stiff 

 clays could not be drained ; but we know, and 

 I knew thirty years ago, that they would drain,. 

 if we put in pipes, and so become healthy, in- 

 stead of unhealthy, for man, beast, and plant. 

 The antient prejudice having fast given way, 

 we may be now soon approached. Antiqiia- 

 rian unbelief is gradually disappearing, and is 

 being succeeded by intelligent considerations 

 as to whether the new moves pay ? Of course 

 they do, thanks to steam-power. 



Cow farming is going out, in fact has died 

 out in this neighbourhood, where once there 

 was an abundance of them. Why is this ? 

 Corn farming has come in, and rents have in- 

 creased, and Mr Mechi's false idea about 

 poor grass land has proved to be a correct 

 one. Poor grass land and no cultivation 

 will not pay " improved " rents and rates and 

 taxes, although cultivation, corn, roots,_ and 

 artiflcial grasses will do so. Farmers have 

 gradually realized the fact (predicted by 

 chemistry) that cow manure is poor, and will 



