XVI INTRODUCTION. 



fitable, and by the year 1893, the value of wheat in British agricul- 

 ture had suffered a remarkable diminution. In that year the area 

 under wheat in the United Kingdom had fallen to 2,215,355 acres. 

 The yield was estimated at 67,717,160 bushels, and the price was 

 3s. 3 ^d. per bushel. The total value of the home-grown crop 

 (grain only) in 1893 was, therefore, a little over 11,000,000 ster- 

 ling, or less than a third of its value fifteen years previously. A 

 similar, though less extreme, change had in the meantime taken 

 place in the prices of barley, oats, and other less extensively grown 

 grains; and other of the more important sources of farm income had 

 undergone a similar depreciation in value. Beef, which along with 

 grain constituted a chief source of income on the greater part of 

 arable area in Britain, also suffered a serious fall in value in the 

 same period. This heavy depreciation in values told not less 

 seriously on the agriculture of Canada and of America than on that 

 of Britain. Over a very large area, in both of these countries, the 

 income of the farmer depended primarily on the price of wheat; and 

 as the price has suffered year by year a steady decline, the position 

 of the farmer has been constantly changing for the worse. Mean- 

 time, while all departments of agriculture have suffered more or less 

 severely from the heavy fall in the value of beef, mutton, and 

 grain, farmers whose income depended more largely on returns 

 from dairy produce, remained, up till 1894, in a relatively prosperous 

 condition. Not only have cheese and butter continued at high prices, 

 but, with the steady increase of the population of the United King- 

 dom, as well as of America and of the Colonies, a much-increased 

 demand has developed for articles of dairy produce, such as milk 

 and cream, in which there has been no foreign competition of such 

 a character as to affect prices seriously. Moreover, apart from 

 increase of population, the practice of using milk as a regular article 

 of diet has undergone a remarkable development during these years. 

 This has probably originated in a more extensive knowledge of the 

 value of milk as a food, and its intrinsic cheapness as compared with 

 other foods; but it has also been encouraged in great measure by 

 improvements in the supply, brought about by the development 

 of railway enterprise, and by the guarantees of good quality which 

 have been secured in all our large towns by the strict and careful 

 enforcement of the measures and stringent regulations prescribed 

 by local authorities for the construction of byres, the arrange- 

 ment of dairies, and for the control of the milk supply and the 



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