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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 505. 



foreign imports to such an extent as is the case 

 with grain and provisions. British agricul- 

 ture has always been slow to specialize, hence 

 the time-honored rotation system has often 

 persisted until returns disappeared. The re- 

 sulting decline in values had most serious 

 consequences, social, economic and political. 

 It forced population into trade and industry, 

 into cities and into the colonies, until the 

 greatest drawback to successful agriculture is 

 the scarcity of labor. This in turn has given 

 rise to seasonal migrations of rural laborers to 

 and from various sections of the British Isles. 

 It has increased the burden of taxation on 

 rural property, and with the decline of values 

 and rural incomes, has materially lessened the 

 revenue of the national treasury from this im- 

 portant source of public income. Finally, it 

 has given rise to the most noteworthy political 

 agitation since Cobden's time in the form of 

 Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's campaign for the 

 reorganization of the whole imperial fiscal sys- 

 tem on a basis of preferential duties on trade 

 between the mother country and the colonies, 

 as against all other countries. Mr. Chamberlain 

 has always regarded domestic agriculture as a 

 neglected factor in British economic policy. 

 His fiscal scheme has in view the restoration 

 of this aspect of national enterprise, much as 

 Germany and France do now, and also the 

 development of colonial sources of food-stuff 

 supplies, so as to decrease the degree of de- 

 pendence on Russia, the United States and 

 Argentina. 



Below is a report on ' Decline in English 

 Farm Values,' as transmitted by the United 

 States Consul Mahin, of Nottingham, under 

 date of July 12, 1904, relating primarily to 

 Lincolnshire. While this locality has geo- 

 graphically a rather exceptional position on 

 the east coast on account of its remoteness 

 from large markets, it is nevertheless a repre- 

 sentative rural county, and is in that respect 

 typical of rural tendencies generally. 



The excessive importation of food products from 

 foreign countries, the report states, is charged with 

 direct responsibility for a great decrease in the 

 value of farm lands in this county. Recent in- 

 vestigations of values of agricultural land in 

 Lincolnshire disclose an extraordinary decline; 

 possibly, however, not typical of all England, for 



it is believed that in the county named the depres- 

 sion is particularly acute. It is stated that in 

 some instances persons who a few years ago in- 

 vested their all in land, and also mortgaged it to 

 raise money to complete the payments, find now 

 on attempting to sell that they can not get even 

 the amounts advanced on the mortgages. 



Many instances of remarkable decreases in value 

 are given. In one case where a farm of 315 acres, 

 which cost $74,000, was offered at auction the 

 highest bid was $20,000. The owner of an estate 

 which cost him nearly $300,000 is now vainly ti-y- 

 ing to sell it for just one half of that price. An 

 estate of 628 acres, which sold in 1901 for $110,- 

 000, was in May of this year valued for probate at 

 only $43,000. In comparison with years in the 

 distant past the situation appears no better. A 

 farm of 134 acres, purchased in 1881 for $30,000, 

 sold for only $15,000 in 1901, and would probably 

 bring even less to-day. Tliirty-four acres, cost- 

 ing $8,000 in 1860, recently sold for $2,500. A 

 tract of 103 acres brought over $30,000 in 1828, 

 and a mortgage for $25,000 was placed on it; this 

 year, in April, it sold for less than $14,000. But 

 the severest phase is the decline in the values of 

 small farms of from 30 to 100 acres, the property 

 of persons who can least afford the loss they suffer. 

 Many cases are given where sales were for one 

 half and even one third the purchase price, and 

 often the selling price failed to cover the mortgage 

 given upon the property. 



Rent rolls are also suffering. Instances are cited 

 where they have decreased one half and more. In 

 one ease a renter of a farm increased his holdings 

 by leasing an adjoining tract of the same size, 

 and he now pays less rent for the two than for- 

 merly for the one farm. In these cases the chief 

 sufferers are those who can best afford the loss. 



llie cases cited are all in Lincolnshire. The 

 great depression there has caused the farmers to 

 look about for other sources of revenue than those 

 which are so disastrously affected by foreign im- 

 ports, and just now many are turning to straw- 

 berries. Fields hitherto covered with small-grain 

 crops are this year devoted to strawberries. Tlie 

 daily yield of the county is estimated at 250 long 

 tons. Special trains are necessary to carry the 

 berries to market — two or three a day, of 30 to 35 

 cars, each car holding nearly 1,000 six-pound 

 baskets of the fruit. 



Flowers are also being cultivated in Lincoln- 

 shire to a greater extent than ever before. Whole 

 fields, in some cases extending as far as the eye 

 can reach, are devoted entirely to flowers. They 

 are packed in boxes, and it is said that the ship- 



