768 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



It is not to be denied that other causes contributed to depress 

 agriculture in England causes which operated on every form 

 of industry and commercial activity. The Franco-Prussian War 

 checked exports to two very good customers of English industries; 

 the financial crisis of 1873 was world-wide in its influence; in 1875 

 came the collapse of many foreign loans, ending in default, ruin, 

 and great suffering to the many who had put their savings into such 

 risks. In 1877 Russia and Turkey went to war, one of the effects 

 of which was to close the ports of both countries and thereby lessen 

 the quantity of wheat exported. In 1878 the City of Glasgow Bank 

 failed and produced a commercial crisis the last of the important 

 events before the revival of trade and industry began to make itself 

 felt in 1879. But it was the climatic conditions that weighed most 

 heavily upon the farmer, preventing him from meeting his losses, or 

 even from putting himself in a condition to meet the competition of 

 the foreigner. He no longer enjoyed a natural protection of dis- 

 tance. That margin had long since been wiped out by falling prices 

 in the home market, in the places of production, and in the cost of 

 transportation. In 1872 the gazette price of wheat was 57s. the 

 quarter, and the quotation did not fall below 55s. until 1875, when 

 45s. 2d. was given a low return in comparison with the previous 

 ten years. A rise brought it up to 56s. 9d. in 1877, but a fall to 

 46s. 5d. in 1878, severe as it was, gave a price that has not since 

 been recorded. From that year the market value of wheat steadily 

 declined. 



The English farmer thus contended against a double pressure 

 bad seasons and a foreign competition that was in a position to dictate 

 prices. Against both he was powerless, though he could break the 

 full force of the blow from competition by changing his culture, as 

 in growing barley in place of wheat, or by more carefully selecting 

 his lands, and appropriating them to the most distinctly suitable form 

 of crop. As a fact, these measures were adopted on an extensive 

 scale. In England the period 1870 to 1879 gave a decreased acre- 

 age under wheat of 529,000 acres, and an increased acreage under 

 barley of 229,000 acres. 



At the instance of the royal commission, two of its members 

 visited the United States, and in an able report gave figures to prove 

 that wheat could not be grown in the United States in an average 

 of years and delivered in Great Britain much below 48s. a quarter. 

 This would have been comforting had it been capable of demonstra- 

 tion. Unfortunately for the farmer, the market quotations and 

 the import movement of wheat directly disproved such a hard-and- 

 fast limit. The highest authority on agriculture, Mr. Caird, reiter- 

 ated his warnings of continued pressure : " Our system of agricul- 



