I 



CHAPTER XXI 



1875— 1908 



AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS AGAIN.— FOREIGN COMPE- 

 TITION.— AGRICULTURAL HOLDINGS ACTS.— NEW 

 IMPLEMENTS.— AGRICULTURAL COMMISSIONS.— 

 THE SITUATION IN 1908 



About the year 1875 the good times came to an end. The 

 full force of free trade was at last felt. The seasons assisted 

 the decline, and there was now no compensation in the shape 

 of higher prices. In the eight years between 1874 and 1882 

 there were only two good crops. A new and formidable 

 competitor had entered the field ; between i860 and i88o the 

 produce of wheat in the United States had trebled. Vast 

 stretches of virgin soil were opened up with the most 

 astonishing rapidity by railroads, and European immigrants 

 poured in. The cost of transport fell greatly, and England 

 was flooded with foreign corn and meat. English land which 

 had to support the landlord, the tithe-owner, the land agent, 

 the farmer, the labourer, and a large army of paupers ^, had to 

 compete with land where often one man was owner, farmer, 

 and labourer, with no tithe and no poor rates. Yet prices 

 held up fairly well until 1884, when there was a collapse from 

 which they have not yet recovered. In 1877 wheat was 

 S6s. 9^., in 1883 41 J. yd., and in 1884 ^^. 8d. ; by 1894 the 

 average price for the year was 225-. lod.^ 



Farmers' capital was reduced from 30 to 50 per cent., and 

 rents and the purchase value of land in a similar proportion. 

 Poor clays only fit for wheat and beans went out of cultiva- 

 tion, though much has since been laid down to grass, and 

 much has ' tumbled down '. In fact most of the increased 

 value of the good period between 1853-75 disappeared. 

 ^ And an ever increasing burden of taxation. ^ See Appendix III. 



