201 
DEPRESSED CONDITION OF ENGLISH FARMING.—The Mark Lane Ex- 
press says that farmers are keeping down expenses by every possible 
method of economy, and that the number of farm-laborers out of employ 
exceeds that of any former season, at least for several years past. © 
Many are preparing to give up their leases, and an unusual number of 
farms to let are advertised. The land-owners still contend for rates of - 
rental out of all proportion to the profits of cultivation. The general 
opinion among British farmers is that land is worth far less for purposes 
of cultivation than it was twenty years ago. Judging from the past, 
the Express comes to the uncomfortable conclusion that nothing but a 
panic will bring down British farm rents. ‘“ They have generally come 
down with a run when they have been reduced at all, and the run has 
invariably been preceded by a stampede of tenants.” Perhaps a sufficient 
appreciation of the situation is still practicable by British land-owners, 
leading them to meet the present demand for lower rents with a prudent 
if not gracious compliance. If farming enterprise is to be hampered with 
this heavy tax of capital in real estate, it will be compelled to yield to 
the active competition of other countries, and the agricultural interest 
of the United Kingdom will receive a severe check. 
DESTRUCTION OF LOCUSTS.—The Spanish government, by the col- 
lapse of the Carlist rebellion, founditself with a large army. An inva- 
sion’ of locusts suggested the novel employment of the troops in their 
destruction. Soldiers were sent by thousands into the infested districts 
to dig trenches in the line of march of those pests, and as they fell in to 
cover them with earth or turn pigs into the trenches to devour them. 
The contest promises to be as tedious as the Carlist war. 
FACTS IN BRITISH AGRICULTURE.—Theé following statistics are con- 
densed from recently-published official reports in Great Britain for 1875. 
Proportion of farms of different sizes.—The holdings, or farms occupied 
by individual cultivators, are reported in three classes. The first, in- 
cluding those under 50 acres, constituted 71 per cent. of the whole 
number in England, and 70 per cent. each in Wales and Scotland. The 
second, including those having not less than 50 and not over 300 acres, 
in England, 25 per cent.; Wales, 27; Scotland, 27. The third, includ- 
ing those haying over 300 acres, in England, 4 per cent.; Wales, 1; 
Scotland, 3. , 
Relative extent of cultivation’ and production by the different classes of 
farmers.—Of the total acreage under crops, fallow, and grass in Eng- 
land, the small farmers, geing 71 per cent. of the whole number, culti- 
vated 15 per cent.; the medium farmers, 25 per cent..in number, culti- 
vated 56 per cent.; the large farmers, 4 per cent. in number, cultivated 
29 per cent. In Wales the 70 per cent. in the first class cultivated 23 
per cent.; the 29 per cent. in the second class, 68 per cent.; the 1 per 
cent. in the third class, 9 per cent. In Scotland the 70 per cent. in the 
first class cultivated 14 per cent.; the 27 per cent. in the second class, 58 
per cent.; the 3 per cent. in the third class, 28 per cent. 
Of the horses used solely in agriculture, or still unbroken, in England 
the first class held 19 per cent.; the second, 57; the third, 24. In Wales 
the first class, 27 per cent.; the second, 67; the third, 6. In Scotland 
the first class, 26 per cent.; the second, 57; the third, 17. 
Horses were on the increase, as they had been for several years. In 
Great Britain the chief increase had been “in the class of mares kept 
solely for breeding, and of unbroken horses. The number of this class 
in 1875 was 388,000-against 367,000 in 1874 and 314,000 in 1871, so that 
between 1871 and 1875 there has been an increase, chiefly young horses, 
