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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



rious ingredients for mult ; I say how these obstructions to 

 our enterprise, and how the burden of a lieavy tax upon our 

 produce (though paid if you please by the consumer), I say 

 how all these advantages are blessings rather than curses, I 

 cannot for the life of me conceive. 



I believe, too, that this question of the malt-tax is of un- 

 usual importance at the present time ; for in times of peace, 

 it is quite clear, we can much more effectually compete 

 with continental nations in the articles barley and meat, 

 than we can in the production of wheat. Wheat is of 

 universal culture, while barley is restricted to localities. 

 We can produce barley to perfection in the eastern coun- 

 ties of England ; and we naturally desire an increased de- 

 mand and increased price, that we may partially substitute 

 barley for the culture of wheat ; and as it is, practically 

 speaking, a less difficult, a less expensive, and a less 

 exhaustive crop to produce than wheat, the abolition of the 

 malt-tax would be of signal service to the barle3'-producing 

 districts. Again, why, if ordinary malt as a condimaait in 

 these straw- consuming days would be useful in growing 

 meat, or if for f ittening purposes it would act as a stimulant 

 in the manufacture of beef or mutton, why should it not be 

 freely used ? We are unjustly debarred from availing our- 

 selves of its advantages. 



Again, why should the beer of the man we employ — the 

 poor man's especial beverage — be oppressively taxed.' 

 Government may pronounce beer a luxury ; but to me it is 

 perfectly clear that to the poor man, with his difficult 

 weekly practical problem to solve — with his wife, children, 

 and himself to be maintained upon his 8s. to 10s. a week — 

 beer is a necessary comfort rather than a superfluous 

 luxury. Tax wealth, tax competency, tax the luxuries of 

 the great and the luxuries of the middle classes ; but, in 

 fairness and honesty, spare the essential comforts and the 

 necessaries of the poor : for if we cannot alleviate their lot, 

 let us scorn to increase artificially their burdens. The 

 malt-tax is unfair, as restricting agricultural profits ; it is 

 unjust, as taxing the beer of the man we employ— the poor 

 man's especial beverage; and it is immoral in its tendency, 

 acting as a premium upon nefarious adulteration. As an 

 important barley-producing county, we require to take a 

 very prominent position upon the malt-tax question : it is 

 for us to lead in the battle, and fight it to success ; and I 

 am glad to be able to say that Major Parker, the newly- 

 elected member for West Suffolk, recently informed me of 

 his resolve to stand up for the abolition of the malt-tax 

 with indomitable perseverance. I trust Lord Ilenniker, 

 Sir Fitzroy Kelly, and other county members with consti- 

 tuencies interested in the cause, will join in one united 

 phalanx to support it. It must fall. Wh.y, as an indica- 

 tion, only during the late reform debate, Mr. Drummond 

 and Mr. Bright were each accusing the other as being by 

 party the preventive to the passing such a measure, where- 

 by it was perfectly clear they were both willing to acquiesce 

 in its abolition. In Kent, I am glad to observe, lai-ge meet- 

 ings, to the number, upon some occasions, of 3,000 persons, 

 have occurred, to agitate the repeal of the hop-duty. I 

 heartily wish them success ; and I trust gentlemen in the 

 barley-growing districts, and the community at large, will 

 not lack the necessary public spirit to suppress the malt- 

 tax, which is specially unfair as a special tax upon agricul- 

 tural enterprise, and specially unjust as a tax upon the poor 

 man's especial beverage. I pass over other subjects which 

 would properly rank under the heading of " agricultural 

 politics." I think our political force needs concen. 

 tration; and the most desirable point upon which firiat 



to combine and try our power is the abolition of the 

 malt-tax. 



I now arrive at the consideration of the last question pro- 

 posed, viz, can the position of Agriculture be improved 

 practically by improved practice ? I observe the pasture farm- 

 ing in this county is grievously defective ; I see that in these 

 stock-paying days we arc losing one chief source of profit ; our 

 pastures are producing but a third of their capabilities both in 

 quantity and quality; they are producing comparatively 

 nothing in milk, meat, or wool. We all know that they ought 

 to be a capital source of revenue. We all know how much we 

 prize pasture lands. When we want to hire a farm, do we not 

 anxiously ask " How much pasture ?" and we all know how 

 sadly we in general mismanage them. I am speaking in a 

 sweeping manner, but I see but few exceptions to the general 

 mistake; and I know, gentlemen, you will agree with me in 

 the assertion, that good management of pasture lands is the 

 exception, and not the rule. I seldom see the dung cart in the 

 pasture field, with its liberal supply of manure, repaying the 

 annual extraction of hay, beef, and mutton, from the soil; but 

 I see a yearly erroneous system of eiaction and robbery. 

 Upon the cold clays we have arrived at the minimum point of 

 production, and I c.^u plainly perceive we have come to an 

 important period when something must be done. And what 

 must that something be? It requires to be no partial 

 measure ; upon much of the cald clays and upon some of the 

 moss-poisoned mixed soil, attempted renovation must be a slow 

 and tedious remedy — they want to be broken up in toto, and 

 the old natural starved-out grasses supplanted by modern 

 grasses of a very different quality. Why, only last month I 

 was examining a pasture thus treated, and the occupier in-- 

 formed me that in the second year after its breaking up, iu 

 that one year it had produced more grass than in any two 

 years previously. I believe that breaking up and relaying, 

 followed by fair and reasonable manuring, would, in the course 

 of years, yield 30 per cent, per annum upon the outlay. There 

 is no necessity for me to tell you that breaking up and re-laying 

 pasture land is no joke; but I am convinced, in many cases, it 

 is the best course to pursue, yet no tenant is justified in risk- 

 ing such an expense without security. The other day I found 

 a friend improving his pastures 300 per cent., at a heavy cost, 

 as you may imagine. I said " You have a lease, of course, or 

 a clause for the payment of unexhausted improvements upon 

 quitting r" He replied " I have neither one nor the other, and 

 I may have notice to quit my farm, and be compelled to leave 

 the entire capital sunk, without receiving a farthing as an 

 equivalent ; or an increased rental may at once be demanded, 

 in which case quit orpay will be my poor choice of alternatives." 

 I hold also the opinion upon the subject of breaking up land, 

 that the time has now fully arrived when the larger proportion 

 of our uncultivated heaths in Suffolk will, if allowed to continue 

 as such, be a disgrace to Suflfolk enterprise ; and though I have 

 the notion that making such lauds stock-producing rather than 

 corn-producing v/ould be the best course, yet I believe, with 

 judgment under either plan, they would amply repay the 

 tenant for his outlay, while after the expiration of a thirty 

 years' lease the land would bs found to have increased in value 

 200 per cent. I should not desire a better investment than 

 to purchase some of such heath lands as freehold, at twenty- 

 eight years' purchase of their present rental. I believe we are 

 asleep upon this point, for with the increased demand for land, 

 the prevailing anxiety for stock farms, the increased value 

 (relatively) of sheep stock and of barley, the discovery of 

 artificial manures, the ease by which such heath lands can now 

 be brought into cultivation by the steam plough, these facts have 

 totally altered their position ; audit is most undesirable that such 



