THE QUESTION OF WHEAT. 



769 



ture is thus already beginning to accommodate itself to the change 

 which American competition will certainly render necessary. In 

 the northern and western parts of the country, where live stock pre- 

 dominates over corn, and where the labor bill is comparatively mod- 

 erate, the effects of this connection are little felt, and the suffering 

 that has arisen of late years has been more the result of ungenial sea- 

 sons and grazings unthrifty for the herds and flocks. In the corn 

 districts the loss has been greater, because not only were the 

 crops inferior, but prices were low, while the labor was very costly. 

 In the least fertile tracts of poor clay, where every operation is ex- 

 pensive and the land is unkindly for grass, it must either go out of 

 cultivation or be turned to some other purpose than that of growing 

 food. It is hopeless to expect that such soils can maintain their old 

 position. Indeed, nothing but the greatest prudence and freedom 

 of action will carry our landowners and farmers, on even the better 

 class of corn lands, through the earlier years of the competition on 

 which they are entered." * 



The estimates of the losses suffered by the British farmer through 

 the succession of " calamitous " seasons from 1873 to 1879 varied 

 widely, but all agreed in naming a very large amount. Only two 

 good crops in ten years, and the last of the series, that of 1879, the 

 " worst of the century," naturally gave a severe and, as it proved, a 

 lasting blow to wheat-growing in England. Indeed, the loss was 

 placed at one third of the total farming capital of the kingdom, and 

 in many corn (or wheat) districts more than one half of the farmers' 

 capital had disappeared. The acreage under wheat, the gazette 

 price, and the imports of foreign supplies during this period make an 

 interesting and suggestive study. 



Year. 



1871 

 1872 

 1873 

 1874 

 1875 

 1876 

 1877 

 1878 

 1879 

 1880 



Wheat acreage. 



Acres. 

 3,571,894 

 3,598,957 

 3,490,380 

 3,630,300 

 3,342,481 

 2,995,957 

 3,168,540 

 3,218,417 

 2,890,244 

 2,909,438 



Total import*. *XS"" 



Cwt. 

 39,389,803 

 42,127,726 

 43,863,098 

 41,527,638 

 51,876,517 

 44,454,657 

 54,269,800 

 49,906,484 

 59,591,795 

 55,261,924 



Cwt. 

 20,667,593 

 26,543,585 

 14,392,135 

 10,109,357 

 18,981,444 

 13,208,705 

 19,642,475 

 14,614,540 

 11,908,821 

 4,658,807 



These figures alone vrould be sufficient to indicate a revolution in 

 the wheat interests of Great Britain. The acreage under wheat 



* Address as President of the Royal Statistical Society, 1880. 

 vol lii. 57 



