518 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



duty was ttmporarily teduced, thus taraperiujf with the mar- 

 kets, and depriving the home-planter of the exceptionally eu- 

 hauced price which he had been taught to rely upon aa bis 

 only chance of compensation for the exhausting levies paid by 

 him, year after year, in the shape of the Excise tax. 



" Your memorialiata need scarcely remind your Lordships 

 that they were compelled to throw themselves upon the leni- 

 ency of the Right Houourable Chanctllor of the Exchequer in 

 the earlier part of the present year, and to solicit the post- 

 ponement of the collection of the duty of 1857. The right 

 honourable gentleman, upon the urgent represeutalions ad- 

 dressed to him, not only by the hop-planters, but by various 

 other iuflueutial persons, ultimately yielded to the appeals 

 thus made, and consented to postpone the collection of the 

 duty of 1857; one-half until the present mouth (November), 

 and the second half uutil February next. While expressing 

 their gratitude for the consideration evinced by the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer, your memorialists deeply regret to state 

 that, instead of finding themselves in an improved position, their 

 difficulties are enhanced by the fact that the abundant growth 

 of hops just gathered has still further lowered prices, while it 

 casts upon the planters the burden of additional duty of 

 £463,820. In Sussex alone the duty to be raised amounts to, 

 in round figures, £120,000. To provide this sum very severe 

 sacrifices must, under the moat favourable circumstances, be 

 undergone by all ; whilst in a number of cases such sacrifices 

 will entail the break-up and ruin of the planter. 



" With such a state of things aa above described, your rae- 

 moralists feel that the time has arrived when it is imperative 

 to impress upon your Lordships not only the justice, but the 

 absolute necessity of the early repeal of the obnoxious tax 

 which has wrought so much injury and entailed so much dis- 

 tress. In the words of a former memorial, ' it were easy to 

 show how opposed to every sound financial principle, and con- 



aequently to wise and judicious legislation, is the imposition 

 of such a duty ; while evidence is at baud to prove how in- 

 variably all Chancellors of the Exchequer, even while they have 

 accepted the uncertain amount it produced, have compara- 

 tively ignored the impost in their financial calculations, and 

 repudiated it as a stable or reliable source of revenue. Were 

 authorities desired on these points, your memorialists need 

 simply refer your Lordships to the able and valuable sixteenth 

 report of Commissioners of Excise Inquiry in 1835, and to the 

 more recently expressed, but not leaa conclusive, opinions of 

 various members of late governments. But your memorialists 

 are unwilling to trespass upon your time by entering at length 

 on sucli matters. On the contrary, your memorialists rest 

 satisfied that your Lordships will not fail to give to the few 

 brief facts that have been adduced your earnest and impartial 

 consideration; they rely alike on the justice of their case and 

 on the natural desire of all good governments to set industry 

 free from oppressive and injurious restrictions. All that the 

 hop planters ask is to be allowed to carry on their trade un- 

 fettered by the shackles of excise regulations, and unburdened 

 by the pressure of duties which cramp their energies, cripple 

 their best exertions, and defeat their honest industry. They 

 feel — and they are assured that your Lordships will feel — that 

 a tax which runs counter to the beneficent design of Provi- 

 dence — a tax which causes the agriculturist to welcome 

 scarcity as a blessing, and which converts abundance into a 

 curse, can neither be sound in principle nor successful in prac- 

 tice, and that your Lordships will not fail to listen to the 

 prayer of this memorial, nor permit the coming session of Par- 

 liament to pass without making some provision for either 

 the immediate or early, if gradual, repeal of the Excise Duty 

 on Hops. 



" And your memorialists, aa iu duty bound, will ever pray," 

 &c., &c. 



THE VALUE OF WHEAT AS FOOD FOR CATTLE 



SiE, — The question of "how to produce the most meat 

 from a given value of food" is always one which will meet the 

 attention of the farmers of England ; and at the present period 

 every farmer is looking about him to get some profit out of 

 his stock, to compensate for the reduced price at which he is 

 obliged to sell his corn. 



I venture to offer you my experience on the value of 

 wlieat as the cheapest and best food you can at the present 

 time consume, for grazing bullocks and pigs. I have con- 

 sumed a large quantity of this grain since harvest, and I never 

 had my cattle or pigs do better. I should recommend my 

 brother-farmers to boil it, as it is more nutritious in that form 

 than any other. 



A peck of wheat per day will graze an ox, with the addition 

 of a small quantity of root, faster than the same value of the 

 best linseed cake you can buy. I am also feeding all my cart- 

 horses upon it, aud never saw them look better, or kept them 

 at less cost. 



Independently of the advantage of consuming our own pro. 

 duce, and save the cartage to and fro, we keep our money at 

 home, instead of spending it to maintain and enrich foreign 

 countries. 



If the farmers of England will act more upon this principle, 

 iu consuming their own produce, I will engage to say that we 

 shall produce meat at a more reasonable price than it has 

 hitherto left our yards, and at the same time enhance the value 

 of our own stable produce. I know a great many farmers 

 feeding stock of all kinds on wheat, and I should be glad to 

 hear their opinion of its success. If we wanted a scientific 

 guide of this proposition being practicable, there is evidence 

 enough in the various statistics on nutrition, of wheat contain- 

 ing more fattening property iu a given weight than any other 

 food, 



I am, sir, your obedient servant. 



Oct. 28, 1858. 



West Suffolk, 



