AGRICULTURE 



of acres was 2,812, but in 1906 this area had diminished to 1,594, the lowest figure since the 

 Returns were initiated. The year 1885 showed a temporary rise to 2,453 ^^res, but in the 

 following year the total went down to 2,226, and since then has steadily descended to its present 

 level. 



Swedes and turnips, surely one of the most profitable crops for a sheep-rearing county such as 

 Dorset is, show a decline of in round figures 10,000 acres since 1873. At no time do the Returns 

 show any check to the steady diminution in the area. Bad seasons have not been responsible for 

 the decline in the number of acres ; the rate of decrease has been steady and permanent. Dorset, 

 as a county, was rather slow to take up the cultivation of turnips, but with the general practice 

 prevalent in the county of feeding sheep off the land, it is difficult to see what sufficient reason 

 there is for the diminished area. Of course the smaller number of sheep kept and the larger number 

 of cattle is responsible primarily, but even this would hardly be the explanation of the full reduction. 

 Labour difficulties have also played their part, and the consequence is that a crop which is essential 

 to a sheep-breeding county is slowly declining. The acreage shown in the Returns for 1873 was 

 42,750 ; in 1879 40,680, and about that figure in 1880. The year iSgo showed a reduction to 

 36,919 acres, but in 1894 the area had risen to 37,150 acres. In 1900 the area was 32,371, 

 whilst in 1906 the figures had reached their present level of 30,709 acres. 



Whilst one notes with regret the decline in the acreage of swedes and turnips, the increase 

 which has taken place in the cultivation of the mangold is a satisfactory feature. It may be that its 

 increased popularity is due to the greater results it gives to heavy manuring and the fact that it is a 

 hardier crop. In any case the extended area under cultivation for mangolds compensates in some 

 degree for the decreased area of swedes and turnips in so far as sheep feed is concerned. The year 

 1873 gives the total acreage as 5,183, and with the exception of the years preceding and immedi- 

 ately following 1880, when the acreage went down to 4,826, that figure has remained the lowest 

 total. The biggest jump occurs in the year 1900, when the total was 6,167 ^cres as against 5,769 

 in 1899. It may be taken that the increase is of a permanent nature, for the 1906 figures give 

 6,475 acres. 



In regard to the minor crops no comparisons of any value can be given, but it is worth while 

 recording that of the minor green crops only one, to wit tares, has received any great degree 

 of attention from the Dorset agriculturist. Cabbage, which included thousand-headed kale, &c., 

 is grown very little, and kohl rabi hardly at all. The latter does not find much favour amongst flock- 

 masters, as the trouble necessary to prepare it for feeding is not recompensed by the value of the 

 food. Lucerne is practically only grown as a stand-by, though its cultivation can be traced back to 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century, for Arthur Young in his Six Weeks' Journey through the 

 South of England speaks of a fine field of lucerne near Wareham. 



Dorset in 1873 devoted 712 acres to flax, 9 acres to hops, and left 7,652 acres of arable land 

 uncropped. In the earlier part of the nineteenth century one or two years' fallow was looked upon 

 as being necessary to the well-being of land, but the agricultural scientists who have been teaching 

 that bare fallow is unprofitable and bad farming may claim, in this agricultural county at all events, 

 to have done good service, for in 1906 there were but 3,310 acres uncropped. In regard to hops, 

 that culture has died out, foreign competition being too strong. The cultivation of flax, too, has 

 been relegated to the past, foreign competition being one cause, and scarcity of labour, combined 

 with the expensiveness of production, being another. As late as 1893 we get 36 acres of flax in 

 the Returns, but for the past twenty years the cultivation of flax in Dorset may be said to have been 

 discontinued. In 1838 there were eighteen flax mills in Dorset, employing 656 hands. Eighty 

 tons of flax were used weekly in a circuit of 20 miles round Bridport, one-tenth of which was 

 grown in the neighbourhood. 



Dorset, as a county, has not followed the culture of fruit to any great extent. The total of 

 orchards in 1873 was 3,446 acres, and in 1906 4,492. Apples are grown, chiefly for cider, and 

 the orchards are mostly situated in the west of the county. Nursery and market gardens, too, are 

 but a minor consideration, the distance from any of the great centres of population being too great 

 to allow of a lucrative return. The total does not much exceed 500 acres. 



It is in considering the figures in regard to the acreage under grass that the great change which 

 has overtaken the pursuit of agriculture in Dorset is most apparent. The scarcity and high cost 

 of labour, the great increase in dairy-farming, and the unremunerative prices of corn crops have all 

 aided in inducing the farmer to let his land go out of cultivation of grain and root crops. It might 

 be imagined that some part of the increase is due to the greater recognition of the value of grass 

 and clover as a rotation crop, but when figures are examined it will be found that less land has 

 been broken up for clover and grasses and that the total acreage of permanent pasture has consider- 

 ably increased. Rotation grasses have decreased in area by about one-sixth, whereas meadow and 

 permanent grass lands have increased by nearly one-half. Out of, roughly, 480,000 acres cultivated 

 in Dorset, pastures are responsible for 352,877 acres, leaving but some 130,000 acres for cultivation 



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