CHAPTER V. 



The Economic Position of Farming in 

 Combating Low Prices. 



The general position resulting from the fall of prices 

 is necessarily before us in a clearer and more precise 

 form than the degree and manner in which the out- 

 goings of farming have been, or can be, re-adjusted so 

 as to leave some profit on the working. Though exact 

 accounts are not generally kept by farmers, a considerable 

 number of accounts which appear to be fairly trust- 

 worthy have been obtained. And it may be taken 

 that where accounts are kept, in those cases generally 

 there will have been more organised and persistent effort 

 to make ends meet. So that, though the number of 

 accounts is not large, they may be taken as fair illustra- 

 tions of how far outgoings have been brought into line 

 with incomings under present circumstances. 



Estimates of the cost of growing cereals vary 

 considerably according to local conditions, and to the 

 allocation, in farm accounts, of various items of outgoings 

 to the several crops. A Lincolnshire farmer of experience 

 puts the cost of an acre of wheat at £'j os lod ; barley, 

 £^ \is 2^d ; oats, £j 3s 6\d.. In 1894, seed costing less, 

 wheat took £6 i8s to grow; barley, £^ los. At the 

 autumn prices of 1894 the cost of producing wheat ex- 

 ceeded the returns by ^3 17s 4|d an acre, while barley 

 cost £2 1 6s lod per acre more than it fetched.^ 



Taking a five years' average of yield and price, 1889- 

 93, an acre of wheat made £^ 3s 4d, an average loss of 

 £1 17s 6d an acre. For barley the average return was 

 ;^5 2s II |d, and the loss 3s 2fd per acre. This esti- 



' Wilson Fox, Lincoln, p. 46. 



