THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



297 



own climate, to hold that as long as we may be en- 

 during one of those cyclical visitations of consecutive bad 

 seasons, so long are we to Ije regarded as lying outside 

 the boundary of profitable wheat-farming, \^'hcn, in- 

 deed, the favourable years ensue in their turn, then, on 

 the otlier hand, may we be said to resume our place 

 within tlie i>ale. Of old, when the ill years prevailed, 

 the inadequacy of yield was compensated to tlie farmer 

 by enhanced prices. For, in that by-gone era of our 

 agricultural history the husbandry of other corn- 

 growing countries, though possessing better cereal cli- 

 mates, was so imperfect, and the means of shipment so 

 limited, that habitually they had no surplus grain to 

 part with ; and when occasionally they had, there were 

 no bottoms in which to freight it to us. But taking 

 account, not of those by-gone circumstances, but of 

 those at present prevailing around us, how do the latter 

 st'ind ? And in replying to this inquiry let us assume 

 for a moment that the late expired season of 18G0, and 

 the alarmingly unpropitious nature of the winter- 

 wheat seed-time of 1801, are foretastes of what may 

 continue in annual succession as many times as 

 did the series of bad years which began with 

 autumn, 1799. In this case, then, the position 

 of the English farmer will be — that, not as 

 before will he sell his wheat at a price so enor- 

 mous as fully to make up for the scantiness of yield, 

 because, in fact, the revolutions and sanguinary wars 

 in which the continent of Europe was the arena at the 

 time permitted of no competition with us in our own 

 markets; but henceforward each progressive rise of 

 one shilling per quarter, telegraphed throughout the 

 world, will become the signal by which countries far- 

 ther and farther in the distance, and not partaking in 

 our climatic disturbance, shall be enabled to determine 

 the exact moment when to ship their garnered stores 

 with the best chance of reaching England in time to 

 meet, and perhaps to satiate, a rising market, and 

 arrest its further upward movement. 



Still, whilst all these uneasy reflections present them- 

 selves in contemplating the prospects existing in the 

 foreground of grain farming in England, the horizon 

 beyond exhibits nothing but brightness and hope, when 

 we turn to reflect on the future of her pastoral hus- 

 bandry. For, be it remembered that the same causes 

 which have ever made our insular seed-times and har- 

 vests precarious, are those which, conjointly with our 

 general fertility of soil, have imparted to English 



pastures an unmatched superiority, and through their 

 productive qualities liavo reared up those breeds of 

 live stock fitted for the shambles, or the dairy, of 

 no less unequalled preeminence. To the markets, 

 too, of this department of agricultural produce, the 

 home producer possesses the inestimable advantage of a 

 quick and short transport, co-opevating alike to carry 

 the animals in unimpaired condition to their destina- 

 tion, and to do so at comparatively little cost. Thus, 

 then, whilst many things are conspiring to render the 

 growing of grain an unthriving industry in England, 

 as many are emerging to place the native grower of 

 animal food, whether as butcher-meat or dairy pro- 

 duce, in all but a position of monopoly. Cropping less 

 and grazing more — restraining his reliance on the now 

 precarious turnip — extending the breadth of his mea^ 

 dows and pastures — trusting to the sure effect of well- 

 seleeted mercantile manures, to impart to inferior grass 

 land all the productiveness of better soils — and resort- 

 ing, when expedient, to supplemental supplies of arti- 

 ficial feeding stuffs. The judicious farmer playing this 

 part would find himself disposing of his grazing products 

 in an ever buoyant market, and, without jealousy, could 

 witness the inpouring of increasing supplies of corn from 

 abroad. And why ? Because he would learn to know that 

 the cheaper the price of bread, the greater the ability of 

 the vast and fast multiplying body of the English popu- 

 lation to gratify their national yearning for animal food. 

 Nor are the by-past statistics of English pastoral and 

 corn farming, when placed in comparison, otherwise 

 than unequivocally indicative of the superiority of 

 grazing to tillage in point of remunerative results. 

 By Caird's investigations of 1850-51, he showed 

 that the average rental of the grazing counties 

 was then no less than 7s. 9d. per acre better than that 

 of the corn provinces. Again, since the date of 

 Arthur Young's prior enquiry in 1770, the rise of 

 rental had been 16s. lid. per annum in the one, and 

 only lis. 6d. in the other. The official rentals ob- 

 tained by Government from the counties of England 

 severally, at various times since the income and pro- 

 perty tax was first imposed, now more than fifty years 

 ago, thoroughly support Caird's facts. We have thus 

 a run of reliable evidence to show that the producing 

 of animal food for the English consumer will be found 

 a much more profitable form of husbandry than com- 

 peting with foreign countries in the growth and supply 

 I of bread-stuffs. 



THE GOVERNMENT AND THE HOP DUTY. 



Among the innumerable incidents of taxation, few 

 are likely to make a deeper impression than those just 

 now occurring. The elite of the agriculturists of 

 England — those who have given to Kent the character 

 of being the garden of Great Britain — with their 

 brethren of Sussex and Worcester — are in the very 

 crisis and agony of their fate. The Minister refuses to 

 see them — to hear them— to hear any one from them — 



and coolly consigns them to the tender mercies of the 

 tax-collector. The harvest was a bad one ; they 

 have nothing wherewith to raise the money to 

 meet the tax; rent and labour must be paid; and 

 hardly have they been put to it to pay them. When 

 they had a plentiful harvest, foreigners came and un- 

 dersold them, 80 that nothing remains from the very 

 bounties of Heaven. They have met in country— in 



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