AGRICULTUKE, DECLINE OF, IN ENGLAND. 



animals, notwithstanding that sheep are selling 

 for one shilling per pound in their wool, and 

 no farmer can possibly have exchanged breed- 

 ing and grazing for the cultivation of wheat. 

 Is this prostration of husbandry, it is asked, 

 typical of a general degradation of farmers' 

 resources ? And has the process of depletion 

 begun only in the last few seasons, or has it 

 been operative for a decade of years or more ? 



On comparing the stock of sheep in 1881 

 with that in 1868, a tolerably clear view is ob- 

 tained of the loss during those thirteen years. 

 There is not a single county in England with- 

 out a diminution, more or less large, in the 

 amount of sheep-stock. In England there are 

 not three fourths as many sheep as there were 

 in 1868, the decrease being 5,548,000. The 

 loss for Wales is 201,000 sheep, or 7 per cent ; 

 for Scotland, 381,000, or 5 per cent ; for Great 

 Britain, the reduction is 6,130,000, or about 20 

 per cent; for Ireland, 1,564,000, or 32 per 

 cent ; and for the United Kingdom, a loss of 

 7,712,000, or 21$ per cent. The augmentation 

 of cattle-stock does not at all counterbalance 

 this great decrease in sheep-stock. While sheep 

 diminished in England, in thirteen years, 26 

 per cent, cattle increased only 10 per cent, and 

 in the United Kingdom only 9 per cent. 



In the tables furnished, a comparison is 

 instituted between cattle and sheep stock, by 

 estimating each head of cattle as equivalent to 

 six sheep ; and in this way an approximation 

 is made, as nearly as possible, to the true 

 deficit with live-stock in the United Kingdom. 

 From this it appears that the total combined 

 cattle and sheep stock of England in 1881 was 

 less than that of 1868 by a head of live-stock 

 equivalent to 3,268,000 sheep, being a reduc- 

 tion of 7i per cent. Put at 2.10 per sheep, 

 the money loss is 8,170,000 (over $40,000,000). 

 The decrease for Great Britain was 5 per 

 cent; but, owing to some increase in Wales 

 and Ireland, it was for the United Kingdom 

 3 per cent. This is, it must be confessed, 

 a rather sad position of affairs, after all the 

 expense and toil incurred in the application of 

 improved methods of husbandry. Another 

 table gives the acres in the different counties 

 under permanent pasture, as clover, grasses, 

 green crops, etc., showing an increase of over 

 15 per cent in England, and over 10 per cent 

 in the United Kingdom.* This increase in 

 permanent pasture has diminished a large 

 breadth of the area devoted to wheat. Hence, 

 while England has probably 8,000,000 less 

 farmers' capital in live-stock, it has a further 

 4,000,000 loss in wheat-crops than it possessed 

 fourteen years ago. The fact, too, is to be faced 

 that there is now a much lighter stocking per 

 acre in England of animal food-crops, as com- 

 pared with 1868, and this is corrected to only 

 a small extent by the reduced acreage of straw- 



* Rather more than half the cultivated acres of the United 

 Kingdom (say about 25,000,000) are in permanent pasture, be- 

 sides the mountain-lands. In Great Britain, out of 32,211,000 

 acres in cultivation, nearly 15,000,000 are in permanent past- 

 ure, besides the mountain-lands. 



crops. The decline in the stock upon grass 

 and forage crops in England is 20 per cent, 

 in Wales 15 per cent, in Scotland 12 per cent, 

 though in Ireland it is less than 2 per cent. 

 Farmers, no doubt, would have multiplied 

 their head of stock had they been able to do 

 so; but apparently invincible obstacles stood 

 in their way. The great drought of 1868, suc- 

 ceeded quickly by another hot summer in 1870, 

 and this immediately followed by two years of 



freat prevalence of foot-and-mouth disease, 

 rought the herds and flocks very low, except 

 in Wales and in Ireland, and not to such an 

 extent in Scotland as in England. A maximum 

 head of stock was attained in 1874 and 1875 ; 

 then came a decline, partially recovered at the 

 June census of 1879. But since then the fall in 

 numbers has been rapid, sheep-rot and cattle- 

 diseases having made excessive ravages, while 

 the last three or four years' failing wheat-crops 

 destroyed a serious proportion of the capital 

 which would have been otherwise available 

 for raising animal produce. The decrease in 

 breeding, too, has been remarkable, amount- 

 ing to 2,136,000 lambs less in 1881 than was 

 bred in 1868, i. e., about 27 per cent. The in- 

 crease of 116,000 calves does not compensate 

 for the decrease of lambs, since this number of 

 calves is equivalent only to an addition of 696,- 

 000 against a loss of 2,136,000. On a compari- 

 son of small with large holdings that is, farms 

 of 50 and 100 acres and less, compared with 

 those of 1,000 and 2,000 acres it is quite evi- 

 dent that large farms are favorable to preserva- 

 tion and development of live-stock in times of 

 agricultural depression. 



THE QUESTION. It is a grave question which 

 the people of the United Kingdom are called 

 upon to consider at the present time ; yet, de- 

 spite unusual difficulties and trials, there does 

 not seem to be any necessity for undue alarm, 

 or for yielding to any despairing view, or for 

 resorting to any desperate efforts toward ob- 

 taining remedies of existing evils. The Eng- 

 lish farmer must practice his art better and 

 with more intelligence, if he would meet suc- 

 cessfully foreign competition ; and especially 

 should he improve the breed of animals, and 

 stamp out and keep out diseases hitherto im- 

 ported. There is, no doubt, ample room for 

 increasing the efficiency of farming in England, 

 and judicious legislation, particularly in im- 

 proving the outfall of rivers and preventing 

 floods, will materially further this desirable 

 end. In addition, the frank interchange of 

 views, and comparison of interests and advan- 

 tages between landlords and tenants (a begin- 

 ning of which has already happily been made), 

 will greatly aid in reaching the much-wished- 

 for result. The Duke of Argyll expresses his 

 " perfect confidence in the prospcts of British 

 agriculture, provided those who conduct it are 

 left to do so in the perfect freedom which is 

 the fundamental condition of improvement and 

 of success in all industrial occupations"; and 

 an able English writer expresses himself in 



