THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



411 



from (he ports of Hull and Newcastle across the German 

 Ocean ? And if it be, true, as has been said, that >Oiiie 

 centuries after, a herd of cattle was found there n;really 

 resembling our native shorthorns, whence may it not 

 fairly be assumed the originals came ? And when, us it is 



said— for it rests only on tradition — some of these were 

 brought into this country, what was this but a 

 re-importation, what was it hut that England had her 

 own again? I rciuaiu, Yours, &c., 



DUNELMENSIS. 



THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE FARMER. 



The farmer is proverbially prosperous. He has a 

 conventional character to maintain for being well-to- 

 do, that has stuck to him ever since " the war.'' Just 

 as the Jack Tar is joU}', the lawyer learned, and the 

 soldier gallant, is he to be associated with the making 

 ot money. No matter how miicli he may complain at 

 times, the world always knows bettter. Whatever 

 difficulties he has to encounter, wo think only of what 

 wheat was fetching a tew years ago. Tradition has 

 told us how, in eighteen hundred and .-omething, a 

 Hampshire man drove into Iiis market ordinary willi a 

 pair of liorses t<> his phaeton, and wo never lose sight 

 of them. In a word, we are always ready to take the 

 farmer's position at a premium. When he is doing 

 ■well we make the most of it, and when he is doing 

 badly we say nothing about it. 



There are few, not directly interested in the pursuit, 

 who would care to think it was just now somewhat hard 

 times with farmers. On the contrary, the public remem- 

 ber nothing but the high prices of a year or two since. 

 Indeed, to their credit be it said, the tenantry them- 

 selves have not forgotten them. The turn they had 

 still enables them to hold on. Let there come a com- 

 mercial crisis, and people yield at once to the pressure. 

 It is only in the common course of things that Houses 

 should ''go" right and left, notwithstanding what they 

 may have jjrotited by previous speculations. All our 

 sympathies are with them. We see and feel what they 

 have had to contend against, and commiserate with 

 them accordingly. But the mere cultivators of the 

 Lnd come in for no such consideration. We only Lear 

 in mind how dear bread was, and how much they ought 

 to have saved. And then, again, the weather has been 

 so much in their favour; another point we are always 

 ready to make the most of. " Fine weather for you 

 farmers," said a cockney tourist to a friend of ours he 

 met in one of his own fields lastautumn. " And not 

 very bad for you excursionists," was the apt rejoinder. 

 People are always patronizing his prosperity. 



But there is occasionally something far worse in 

 this making the most of it. Landlords, and land- 

 agents especially, are by no means loath to look always 

 on the sunny side. We hear, even very recently, of 

 rises in rent, consequent on the visitation of an ex- 

 peiienced valuer. A correspondent recently referred 

 to several landlords who last year gave their 

 tenants notice to quit in order to raise their rents, 

 " tho comparatively high prices of the year or 

 two previous having made them uneasy." The ques- 

 tion is whether the present low rates will make them 

 feel more easy again ? Or, will it be the old story of 

 the boot-maker and his customer — "Well," said the 

 latter, "now they have taken the ta.x off leather I sup- 

 pose I shjll get shod a little cluaper?" "No, sir," 

 was tlic answer, " I was just about to raise the price 

 when they did it, so we shall go on as before." Sumo 

 landlords, perhaps, who were about to rai!-e the price 

 will now go on as before; but at most they must be 

 content with this. 



After all, what is it the farmer has to fall back upon ? 

 Have the opportunities of the last few years been really 

 80 great as the world at large would appear to imagine ? 



The authority we have already referred to runs on thus : 

 " Let us consider what these high prices have been. 

 Wheat has been higher than other grain, the crop of 

 barley of '.JG alone excepted. Now, will the average 

 of wheat for the last 10 years exceed oOs. per quarter ? 

 if not, there certainly can be no reason for a rise on 

 that score. The fact is, wheat was very dear in 1834- 

 53, from the very deficient harvest of '33, which of 

 course is no benefit to the farmer, to receive a high 

 price for a short crop. I heard of good wheat land 

 that year growing only 3 sacks, that usually grows 9 

 per acre. Landlords should recollect that high prices, 

 in such cases, are not so beneficial to the farmer as 

 good crops and lower ones." A short crop of wheat, 

 then, does not tell like a bad hop year, although some 

 peo; le really argue as if it did. Even keeping to this 

 question of price, let us see how much the balance of tho 

 good times has actually been in favour of the producer. 

 Let us date it from that golden age which came in with 

 Tree Trade. In our last week's summary of the busi- 

 ness done, it is thus written : " In reviewing prices since 

 the last Corn Bill came into existence, we tind tlie ave- 

 rage price for the whole eleven years amounts to 35s. 

 lOd , the extremes being 39s. 5d. per qr. in 1831, and 

 73s. Id. in 1830. As the last weekly averages were 

 44s. 3d., wc are lis. 7d. per qr. below this 11 years' 

 average. Now as only one year and a quarter has 

 elapsed since the highest range, the fall in such a course 

 of time is greater than has occurred before in this short 

 period." We shall be bold to say that, if such a 

 change had occurred in the commercial instead of the 

 agricultural woild, we should have heard a vast deal 

 more of its effects. As it is, we must not neglect the 

 signs of the times. 



Amongst the most valuable intelligence, wc cer- 

 tainly regard the monthly County Reports. Wo 

 are justified in announcing them as supplied by 

 the best men of their several districts. They appear, 

 moreover, invariably in that form in which they are 

 forwarded. No attempt is ever made to dove-tail the 

 opinions in one with that of another. They are, in 

 fact, the independent testimony of men fully qualified 

 to speak on the subject matter of their communications ; 

 and it may be well worth our while to see what their 

 latest advices ofier on the state of the case. Let us take 

 them as they come, and begin with Lincolxshire : 

 "As to our own supplies, hundreds thrashed their all 

 immediately after harvest, and it is gone. Beef, 

 mutton, pork, and wool are all lower in price; the 

 latter not much in request. It is customary to compare 

 the early spring stock markets. We find u])on the average 

 tie difference in price as compared witli tlie two pre- 

 ceding years, in cattle and sheep, is about thirty per 

 cent. This is a great depreciation in the value of agri- 

 cultural produce, and will ere long show itself in many 

 distressing case.> of individual suffering. We have seen 

 so much of this class of trial and misfortune as to make 

 us tremble for one's friends and neighbours, each of 

 whom having suffered a loss of one-third of their pro- 

 perty in a few short months." 



NouTHU.MBEKLAKU cndorses these fears with yet 

 more startling facts : — " The monetary crisia that 



