AGRICULTURE 



Clover, sainfoin, and grasses under rotation 

 comprised 53,031 acres; there were also 14 

 acres of flax, 973 of small fruit, and 9,309 of 

 bare fallow, but not a single acre of hops. 



In all there were 229,575 acres of arable, and 

 215,808 of permanent pasture. 



The diminution in the crops of wheat, barley, 

 and beans, and the increase in oats and in pasture, 

 is common to most counties since the period of 

 agricultural depression commenced. 



The live stock in the same year numbered : 



Horses Cattle Sheep Pigs 



23,241 85,908 167,995 3,235 



a considerable increase in cattle and an extra- 

 ordinary decrease in sheep. 



The acreage in orchards has grown consider- 

 ably in the last quarter of a century, there being 

 in 1905 2,481 acres of arable or grass- land 

 planted with fruit trees. 



The following statistics of the Board of Agri- 

 culture for the same year are also interesting : 

 390,864 acres in the county were occupied by 

 tenants, and 54,519 by owners. From the 

 table of the number of holdings grouped accord- 

 ing to acreage it will be seen that the tendency 

 towards amalgamation, which has been evident 

 all through the history of English agriculture, 

 has been strongly marked in the last quarter of 

 a century : 



50 acres 

 and under 



4,809 



From 50 to 

 300 acres 



2,070 



Above 

 300 



2 4 I 



Average size 

 of holding 



62-6 



And it will be noticed there is also since 1 880 

 a decrease in the largest holdings. Woods and 

 plantations increased in the same period to 

 30,433 acres. 



The Board of Agriculture has carefully com- 

 piled the average yields per acre of various crops 

 in the different counties in England, and com- 

 pares them with the average yield for England 

 for the period 1895 to 1904. According to 

 these figures Nottinghamshire crops are below 

 the average, except hay cut from permanent 

 pasture. 30 



Hay from grasses Hay from permanent 

 Cwt. per acre under rotation grass 



Notts. . 

 England . 



2776 

 28-79 



23-78 

 23-61 



" Of these 1,487 were above I and not exceeding 

 5 acres. 



80 The average yield per acre of wheat in Scotland 

 for the same period was 37-72 bushels, of oats 36-43. 



Nottinghamshire has felt the full effect of the 

 agricultural depression which set in thirty years 

 ago. When Mr. Rider Haggard visited the 

 county in 1901 he found land that had fetched 

 jo an acre in the 'seventies' selling at 30 

 to 45, and rents had fallen 40 per cent, in the 

 south-east and even more in some localities. The 

 picture he painted was dark in the extreme, the 

 agricultural interest was going steadily downhill, 

 several leading agents and farmers were of the 

 opinion that agriculture pure and simple had no 

 future, and only paid when combined with deal- 

 ing or petite culture, and on a farm of 1,000 

 acres in the forest district, where the occupier 

 employed a capital of 14,000, he had for several 

 years only made one per cent, on his money. 

 Few of the old stamp of tenants were left, and 

 though there were few failures, farmers were living 

 from hand to mouth, and one with a long head 

 and a long purse said ' I made money, now I'm 

 losing it, and I'm going out before I lose more. 

 There is no prospect.' 31 



It cannot be said, writing in 1908, that these 

 gloomy predictions have been fulfilled. Rents still 

 remain down, and in some districts have been re- 

 duced slightly in the last few years ; but prices 

 have risen a little and farmers still seem to make a 

 fair living even out of agriculture pureand simple. 

 Near Bingham, for instance, there has been con- 

 siderable improvement during the last ten years, 

 farms are now in fairly good order, there are 

 plenty of applications for any farm that comes to 

 hand, and no farms are to let, while generally 

 speaking there has been no decided deterioration 

 in their cultivation. Rents generally have been 

 reduced about 30 percent, since 1878, though on 

 the clay lands they have often fallen 50 per cent, 

 and the average rent of arable land in the latter 

 is 1 2s. an acre, though permanent pasture lets 

 at from 20*. to 401. The light soils near Ret- 

 ford fetch about 1 51. an acre for tillage, and 2OJ. 

 for permanent pasture. North of Mansfield 

 tillage lets at from 155. to 25*. and permanent 

 pasture at from 30*. to 60;., the latter price, how- 

 ever, being for ' accommodation ' land ; in the 

 loamy soils near Wollaton, 22*. an acre all round 

 is about the present price ; near Southwell about 

 i an acre. 



Farms, apart from what are commonly called 

 small holdings, vary in size from 150 to 500 

 acres, though there are few of the latter figure, 

 and most of them to-day are between 150 and 

 300 acres, the majority following the four-course 

 rotation of crops with variations according to soil 

 and locality. Nearly all are let on yearly agree- 

 ments, and from Lady-Day, some few from 

 Michaelmas. The grass-land is fairly divided 

 between grazing and dairying, a considerable 

 amount of Stilton cheese being made in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Bingham, but except in the Trent 

 valley there is little good feeding land in the 



11 Rider Haggard, Rur. Eng/. ii, 280. 



