486 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



an increased consumption consequent on that influx 

 stimulating production, the cause is evident enough. 

 The following was the estimate made by Mr. Tooke of 

 the advance in prices Jn the year 1856, and which he 

 ascribes directly to the increase of specie. 



INCREASE OF WAGES IN GLASGOW, 1850 TO 1856. 



Skilled builders 20 per cent. 



Unskilled do 48 „ 



Engineers 17 „ 



Furnace keepers (Iron-works) . . 60 „ 



Quarriers 30 ,, 



Cotton spinners 25 „ 



Power-loom weavers 15 ,, 



Farm labourers 40 „ 



COMMODITIES. 



1848. 



Sugar B.P. per ewt. 21s. to Sis. 



Do. Havana (do.) ISs. to Sis. 6d. 



Tea Cougou per lb. 8d. to Is. 8d. 



Do. Hyson (do.) lid. to 3s. 7d. 



Tobacco (do.) 2^i. to 6d. 



Cork butter per ewt. TOs. to 903. 



1856. 



233. to 33s. 



243. to 483. 



9d. to 2s. 4d. 



Is. to 48. 



4d. to lUd. 



1029. to 112s. 

 Oilpalesearperton£24 5s. to £30 5s.... £50 to £56 lOs. 

 Tallow per ewt. 443. to 533. 6d. ... 508. 6d. to 58s. 



Short English wool 



perpack2401bs.£ll to£12 103. ... £14 lOa. to £19 

 Copper per ton £79 lOs. to £88 ... £107 to £126 

 Lead (do.) £17 to £18 ... £24 to £26 lOs. 



Wheatperqr. 49s. to 533.4d. ... 68i.to778.9d. 



The first of these tables refers to the price of labour 

 in only one section of the kingdom — Glasgow. But 

 Mr. Tooke estimated that the advance throughout the 

 kingdom averaged from 15 to 25 per cent., and that 

 the bulk of the increase is expended in the purchase of 

 articles of comfort, convenience, or luxury. These 



furnish the immediate cause of the advance in price of 

 the commodities in the second table. Still, as we have 

 already stated, there are counteracting agencies at 

 work, as is proved by the fall in the price of wheat 

 after the year 1856, which continued till the close of 

 last year 1859. Whether the price would have fallen 

 still lower, had not the influx of gold taken place, it is 

 impossible to ascertain. Still, it is certain, that 

 such is the influence of that powerful regulator of 

 commerce, the paper currency, the medium of all 

 speculations in produce, whether British or foreign, 

 that fluctuations are far less frequent than formerly, 

 and infinitely less so than before the discovery of 

 America and its gold mines. When wheat has been 

 sold at one time at eight-pence per quarter, a short time 

 after at £5, and in a scarce year has even risen to j^l7 

 per quarter ! The efiect, therefore, is greater upon 

 labour than on those commodities, the supply of which 

 can be increased in proportion to the demand. 



At present, no advance has taken place in the price 

 of gold, the demand for other commodities having fur- 

 nished a ready outlet for whatever surplus may have 

 been received. A time must come, however, if the 

 supply continues as large for many years, when the 

 wants of other nations will have been satisfied. In 

 such a case a glut in the producing countries will cause 

 a decline in the value of bullion, thai in coin having 

 already been efi^ected in the advance of labour and 

 produce. Upon any such a coming superfluity, it is 

 idle here to speculate, and we leave the question to 

 those whom it more immediately concerns. 



THE FARMING OF DEVONSHIRE. 



His Royal Highness was a practical farmer, of whom British 

 yeomen ought to be proud. The Prince farmed about four 

 thousand acres of land, and farmed them exceedingly well. 

 He had been over most of the royal farms, and be honestly 

 confessed he never saw better farming. He was informed 

 that Prince Albert was in the habit of walking over his fields, 

 and if he found the land was not properly farmed, he would 

 not hesitate to tell his bailiff so at once. No one could have 

 done more than His Royal Highness to improve the breed of 

 stock. Upon one farm they found he had the best Durhams, 

 the best Devons upon another, and the best Hereforda upon 

 a third; and he was ever one of the first and foremost to en- 

 courage the euterprize of the best cattle breeders of this country 

 He had been a farmer in his own county — Devonshire — (or 

 more than forty years, aud although there was both good and 

 bad farming to be found in most places, he believed that at 

 the present time the land produced more than double the 

 amount of the necessaries of life it did some fifty years ago. 

 He had seen improvements going steadily on during the 

 greater part of hia life, which all tended to increased powers of 

 cultivation. When he first began farming he was bold enough 

 to buy a turnip drill, and he could assure them a very 

 primitive sort of thing it was ; and yet a very old and near 

 neighbour of his had no hesitation in saying his (Mr. Tur- 

 ner's) father allowed him more money than he ought, if he 

 was permitted to speud it in such fooHsb " nick-nacks " as 

 that. And when he began the innovation of hoeing turnips. 



and cut them out so as to leave the roots eighteen 

 inches apart, that was looked upon as worse than sacrilege. 

 The ploughing at that period was very primitive too, and no- 

 body could see any work half so well done as the worst they 

 had seen that day, so rude was the character of the imple- 

 ments employed. The altered state of things had arisen from 

 the great stimulus given by these societies generally. Some 

 of them knew what was the state of that district forty years 

 ago ; those who did not remember it had perhaps been told 

 by their fathers, and he believed he was warranted in saying 

 that fewer districts of the kingdom had advanced with the 

 times more than that immediate neighbourhood. He knew 

 thousands of acres of land there, when he came among them, 

 not worth 5s. an acre, and now they found upon it as fine crops 

 of corn, of turnips, and mangold as any man would wish to see. 

 He f dvised his brother-farmers to grow less wheat, and more 

 barley and oats, which were more wanted, and paid better. 

 Moreover, while this country could depend on the foreigner 

 bringing in wheat, the British farmer would find his account 

 in growing more spring corn and more beef aud mutton. The 

 land, in facf, was sick of wheat, sick of turnips, and sick of 

 clover, and he thought it high time for them to vary in ecme 

 way the rotation of crops. He also strongly advised them to 

 pay more attention to their young stock, and not sacrifice 

 them in the future for the present doubtful advantage of fat- 

 tenicg a few old cowp. — Mr. George Turner, at the Mol- 

 land Meetiiig. 



