TEANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 



473 



Oxen, Cows, Sheep, Lambs, and"! 

 Swine imported in 1878 . . / 



"Wool lbs. 



Butter .... cwts. 

 Cheese .... „ 



Eggs . . great hundreds 



No. 



1,201,500 



395,461,286 

 1,795,413 

 1,965,949 

 6,529,036 



No. 



Increase 



Decrease 

 Increase 



103,206 



10,487,875 

 157,474 

 314,861 

 271,144 



Imported in 1878 



Meat 



Wheat, Beans, Barley, Maize, 

 Oats, Peas, and Flour 



Cwts. 



1,307,954 

 | 88,238,700 



Declared value 



Increase in cwts. 



£3,493,471 

 58,372,624 



Whilst the decrease in declared value is only . 



30,268 



Decrease in cwts. 

 35,740,804 



£4,836,884 



The average price of wheat in the years 1863, 1864, and 1865 was 4s. 2d. below 

 the average of 1878, whilst that of barley was 10s. per quarter lower in these years 

 than in 1878, and for the said years 1863, 1864, and 1865 oats were 3s. Id. per 

 quarter below the year 1878. Meat averaged about three farthings per lb . more in 

 1865 than in 1868, and Id. more in 1878 than in 1868. As no nation can allow 

 its population to perish of hunger, or to suffer the terrible evils of and following 

 upon scarcity and famine, it is an evident necessity to attend to these statistics. 



From September 1, 1878, to the last week in July 1879, viz., ten months, 

 the import of cereal produce was 102,747,256 cwts., of the declared value of 

 41,256,3562. Our exports were 2,286,869 cwts. in the ten months. 



The tenant farmers of the United Kingdom are about 1,000,000, employing a 

 capital of or about 400,000,000/. sterling. "With security on judicious outlay it 

 might be increased to five or six hundred millions, when they might farm at a 

 profit instead of a loss, as we are continually told many are doing at present. 



Peru was formerly the foremost as regards agricultural statistics, to its great 

 advantage, and now our own magnificent Australian Colonies are pre-eminent for 

 their elaborate and minute agricultural statistics. In all probability had a good 

 system of that sort been established in India at a former period, the entire cost of 

 the two famines — 17,000,0002. sterling — might have been saved. 



The importance of the subject of this paper is recognised by the mercantile 

 and shipping interests as well as by that powerful engine and interest the press, 

 and it was observed by the chairman at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural So- 

 ciety in December, 1877, that the earlier publication of our agricultural statistics 

 was due to the papers read thereon before the British Association ; and on May 22, 

 1879, at the meeting of the same Society, a prominent member advocated the ob- 

 taining, at any cost, by the Royal Agricultural Society of England, statistics of the 

 agricultural produce of every clime and country in the known world, as essential to 

 the interests of manufactures, commerce, shipping, and agriculture. 



The fear of advance in rent, from these returns, is becoming less as knowledge 

 advances. 



Long and equitable leases, i.e., security of tenure, will materially assist the 

 onward improvement in agriculture, which, with compensation for all unexhausted 

 improvements, will attract and bring more men of skill, capital, and enterprise into 

 agriculture, and we shall then cease to hear the farmer calling for Parliamentary 

 assistance, to which we must add that the game should be under the control of the 

 tenant. With those equitable adjustments, the farmer need not fear foreign or colo- 

 nial competition or prices. Moreover, as we have seen greater depression many 

 times before, so when the other great industries revive agriculture will also 

 improve. 



