The Cod of Wheat-growing. 
175 
represent its cost of cultivation ; an estimate only can be made, 
various other things being taken into consideration. In dealing 
with the new grounds of new countries, where they merely plough, 
sow, reap, and thresh year after year until the land is exhausted, 
there is no difficulty. But, grown as wheat is grown in England, one 
crop in a rotation, taking its share in the manuring, cleaning, sheep 
feeding, it is hard to do anything but to put the expense of the 
whole rotation on one side, and the receipts on the other. That, 
naturally, would be beyond the scope of this paper, which is more to 
find out whether the actual mechanical operation of growing and 
harvesting an acre of wheat, including rent, rates, and taxes, has 
become a cheaper one to nearly the same extent as the pi-oduce has 
declined in value. 
The table quoted from the Agricultural Gazette of February 21, 
1881, would have been considered before that time to be decidedly too 
low. It used to be a common saying that it Avould not pay to grow 
wheat for less than 50s. per qr., and then it came to be said that it 
could not be gi'own below 40s. per qr. At twenty-eight bushels, the 
money value of these two prices comes to %l. 15s. and 11. per acre, 
and both of them show a profit on an outlay of 12s. lOd. as in 
the table. 
In reply to a circular sent to a few large growers of wheat, the 
answers show that the average from widely distant parts of England 
of the actual expense, without any charge for manure, is il. lis. Id. 
This is singularly near the estimate made of the last five years. 
The figures compare as under : — 
Average of answers Last five years 
& s. >1. & s. 'd. 
Cultivation and seed . . , . 1 19 1 1 19 (J 
Harvesting, threshing, and marketing .14 1 17 0 
Kent, tithe, rates, and taxes . . .18 5 15 0 
4 11 7 4 11 6 
James A. Caird. 
PINK EYE AMONG HORSES IN 1890. 
Influenza, in that peculiar form now known as "Pink Eye," has 
been largely prevalent during the past winter. 
My attention was first directed to it in a large stud of horses in 
the north of England in October last, after which it spread in all 
directions, and there is perhaps hardly a provincial town of any size 
in which it has not prevailed to a greater or less extent It also has 
been prevalent in many country districts, where serious losses have 
been su.^tained. In London the mortality, I believe, was never 
greater than during the recent outbreak. This has been shown by 
the plethora of dead horses received at the slaughtering establish- 
