40 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



In general they have brought their Ayrshire cows, 

 which thrive well, and are good milkers, and have to 

 some extent replaced them year by year from Ayrshire, 

 though latterly they are taking to crossing with short- 

 horns to improve the returns from cow beef. 



And those who have succeeded have brought with 

 them sufficient capital for exactly the type of farming 

 they aimed at, and have not been tempted to lay out a 

 farthing without seeing a chance of a prompt though 

 small return of profit. 



Mr Pringle gives some instances in which this type 

 of farming pays well. 



Thus the balance sheets of a farm of 6^6 acres, worked 

 by a Scotchman in Essex, composed of 318 acres of old 

 grass, 247 of temporary pasture, and 71 acres arable, 

 between the years 1884 and 1893 inclusive, with a 

 capital of only £345^, and at a rent of £600, reduced 

 afterwards to i^soo, shows an average annual profit of 

 about I2| per cent. The labour bill was kept between 

 15s and 20s an acre. Hay and straw were sold off 

 The rotation on this and similar Scotch managed farms 

 would be: (i) oats after grass; (2) roots ; (3) wheat or 

 oats with grass seeds. Such success is not achieved by 

 many. Mr Pringle does not think that most of the 

 Scotch farmers are more than holding their own by 

 extreme industry and frugality, and by cutting down 

 expenses to an irreducible minimum. Some " have had 

 to succumb to the bad times."^ 



Besides the extension of temporary pasture, the 

 low price of corn has to some extent increased, and 

 helped dairy farming, as the second-class wheats and 

 barleys have brought more, when fed to cows, in the 

 production of milk than in the markets. 



But the relief to agriculture from the sale of milk has 

 its limits. Mr Pringle is of opinion that " this branch of 

 husbandry has in Essex already assumed dimensions 

 sufficiently large for the welfare of those engaged in it, 

 and to still further add to the output of milk for London, 

 would be not only to cripple the affairs of those already 

 ' Notes of Chairman on visit to Essex, p. i. 



