76 Large and Small Holdings 



corn-prices appears extraordinary. The prices per quarter were as 

 follows 1 : 



Years Wheat Barley Oats 



1877 to 1879: 49.$-. 37.9. \\d. 24^. 



1900 to 1902: 27 j. 3</. 2$s. 3^. i8j. %d. 



But besides the improvement in the means of transport, methods 

 of transport have also made enormous progress. Not only can 

 durable commodities be sent huge distances, but even animal food, 

 whether in a natural or frozen condition, can be sent from one end of 

 the earth to another. Consequently meat-prices have also fallen in 

 all markets where foreign imports have been admitted. In England 

 the poorer qualities of beef had fallen by 1894-5 to 4 P er cent, 

 below the prices of 1876-8, and the poorer qualities of mutton by 

 31 per cent 2 The better qualities had also fallen in price, though 

 not so much ; viz. by 24 and 17 per cent, respectively. Taking the 

 year 1900 as= 100, the following table shows the movement of prices 

 in the twenty years 1883 to 1902 for wheat, flour and meat (irrespec- 

 tive of quality) 3 : 



Year Wheat Flour Beef Mutton 



1883 154 161 125 120 



1887 120 118 91 87 



1891 137 129 101 97 



1895 85 89 93 98 



1899 95 99 93 94 



1900 100 100 ioo ioo 



1901 99 97 94 91 



1902 104 97 101 95 



Thus a very marked fall in the price of all these agricultural 

 products had taken place since 1880. From 1895 there was a slight 

 rise both in wheat and meat-prices up to the year 1900, but nothing 

 as compared with the fall already experienced : and the same is true 

 of the rise of the last few years. 



Such a change in prices inevitably shook the existing agricultural 

 organisation to its foundations. Corn-growing became increasingly 

 unprofitable, especially on the poorer soils. Stock-feeding too, so far 

 as it was directed to the production of meat of anything except the 

 best quality, brought only diminishing returns. The whole move- 

 ment of the past hundred years, culminating as it had done in the 



1 Agricultural Statistics, 1903, p. ioo. 



2 Final Report of 1897, pp. 46 and 49. 



3 Memoranda, Charts etc., p. 234. 



