The Cost of Wheai-groxoing. 
173 
Before 1890 The last five years 
£ $. d. £, s. d. ' & s. d. 
Brought forwtlrd 3 3 10 Brought forward 3 3 10 
Rent . . .1 5 0 30 % fall . 17 6 less 10 % 6 4 
Tithes, rates, and 
taxes . . 10 0 25 % „ . 7 6 2 17 6 
Seed. 2 bush.® 7... M 0 tl' 1 ' ' 
9 0 
1 14 0 
5 12 10 4 11 6 
4 11 C 
114 dimini.shed cost of production. 
£ d. \ £ d. 
Produce. Produce. 
2S bush. @ 48«. per qr. 8 8 0 I 28 bush. @ 324\ per qr. 5 12 0 
Kxpenditure . . 5 12 10 ; Expenditure . . 4 U (5 
2 15 2 10 6 
The resulting diminished cost of production, \l. Is. id., leaves 
V. lis. 8d., a deficiency that has to be put up with by the farmer 
as against his position prior to 1880. In other words, he made a 
profit in the first period of 21. 15s. 2d. per acre ; he now only 
makes 1/. 0*. 6d. 
The first table is taken from the Ayrlcidturnl Gazette of Feb- 
ruary 21, 1881; and it was then drawn up with the view of reducing 
the usual imaginary scale of expenses for growing an acre of wheat 
to a practical figure that might leave a margin of profit. In the 
second table it is estimated that there has been since, on corn-grow- 
ing lands, a fall of rent of 30 per cent. ; of tithes, rates, and taxes of 
25 per cent. ; and of labour, including money actually paid to the 
labourer, cost of horses, horse keep, and cost of implements and 
machinery, of 10 per cent. 
There is no doubt a veiy considerable variation in the apparent 
cost of growing an aci'e of wheat in different parts of the kingdom, 
and there is also a very different resuU ; but it may be allowed that 
when there is an increase of expenditure there is a more valuable 
crop, and that a cheaply-grown crop is not a heavy one. 8o that a 
generalisation is the only way to get at figures that are likely to be 
near the truth. 
The fact of Avheat being grown at a profit at all now is one not 
often admitted, and yet it cannot be that farmers have gone on 
year after year cultivating it at a loss. They have been much dis- 
couraged by the continual fall in price, and until rents, and tithes, 
and other expenses fell in sympathy, the cropcertainly did not pay 
to grov^ ; but now that there has been a general reduction, an average 
yield should apparently be profitable, though the small profit accru- 
ing does not leave much margin to balance the outlay on the crops 
that are frequently grown chiefly in preparation for wheat. Turnips 
fed off by sheep, and heavily manured, if followed by wheat should 
make it produce above the average ; but unless the expense of the 
turnip tillage is spread over the rotation, it is impossible to regard 
