298 Norfolk Farming. 



happened that in 1853 and 1854 the agricultural statistics of 

 this county were collected ; and the value of such tables is 

 shown by their furnishing such facts as these, that in 1854 there 

 were 13,089 acres more tvheat than in the preceding year, 7594 

 acres less of hare falloiv, and nearly 10,000 more bullocks kept in 

 the county I Farmers delight in the idea of producing large 

 supplies of grain and meat for the increasing multitude ; but 

 their business-object in manufacturing these necessaries is not to 

 feed the public, but to make farming pay. At reasonable rates 

 this high farming will answer ; with very low prices it cannot. 

 The same laws which govern the manufacturing world operate 

 not less surely, though more sloivly, on the farming interest. If 

 the production of any article answers, that article will be pro- 

 duced. If it does not pay the cost of production, the manufacture 

 of it declines, and not till remunerative prices return will the 

 supply of it increase. Among the many leading agriculturists of 

 the county who have been consulted, not one of them but says 

 that farming requires more capital than ever ; but the profits on 

 the money invested are much smaller than formerly. Farmers' 

 expenses increase, and though, of course, their receipts are also 

 more, they have not yet increased in the same proportion. I'here 

 can be very little doubt of the truth of this conclusion. Improved 

 farming means, in other words, thfe judicious application of more 

 capital to the cultivation of the soil ; and as the broad acres of 

 Old England cannot be made broader, it is the business of every 

 British veoman to make them more productive ; but he wants, 

 like other producers, to live by his occupation, and expects to be 

 paid for his time and his capital. If the nation require the 

 farmer to produce more of the necessaries of life, every obstacle 

 which now hinders improved agriculture should be removed, and 

 every facility afforded for the security of that capital which the 

 tenantry must now, more than ever, embark in the cultivation of 

 their farms. 



Statistics and figures are dry things, but are nevertheless very 

 useful. Mention has been made of the Norfolk statistics which 

 Sir John Walsham so ably collected in 1853 and 1854. From 

 these some idea may be gathered of the productive power of this 

 county, and they form a reliable source of information as to 

 the state of the crops and the number of stock then kept. Com- 

 parisons, if they are not always odious, are seldom pleasing, and 

 so but one will be attempted. It is simply this: that in 1854 

 there were 267,000 more acres of wheat and barley grown in 

 Norfolk and Suffolk than in the whole of Scotland ; and the 

 county of Norfolk alone produced 1,290,373 more bushels of 

 wheat than all the land north of the Tweed. 



