January 2, 1882.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
573 
THE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST OF THE 
« UNITED KINGDOM, AND A WORD 
FOR THAT OF CEYLON. 
" Ships, colonies and commerce," and especially 
commerce, have contributed so largely to the wealth 
and the greatness of the British Isles, that a va^ue but 
very general idea has obtained possession of large 
numbers that home agriculture occupies but a very 
minor compamtive position. Those who have studied 
the question know how fallacious this idea is. It is 
very true that neither England nor Scotland is so ex- 
clusively dependent on the land and its products as, 
unfortunately, the inhabitants of the sister isle are. 
On the other hand, more capital, more science and 
more of steady, well-directed labour have been devoted 
by the English and Scotch in doing "justice to the 
land" than has ever been the case in unhappy and, 
until in recent years, misgoverned Ireland. The fact 
that, under the feudal or rather the patriarchal system 
which prevailed amongst the Celts of Ireland as well 
as those of the Highlands of Scotland, the land was 
never considered the absolute property of an individual 
—the Chief or Head of the Clan merely held it in 
trust for the whole body— must never be forgotten. 
The possession of land, too, however acquired, involves 
duties and responsibilities, aa well as privileges. These 
principles, as well as lessons drawn from the tradi- 
tional land laws of the Indian branch of the great 
Arvau family, no doubt guided Messrs. Gladstone, 
Bright and their associates in making concessions to 
Irish lenauts which, in the estimation of many, have 
approached the verge of confiscation. Having made 
all the concessions which are possible, with due regard 
to justice to the landholders, those who rule the nation 
will be fully sustained in the position they have now 
assumed towards a conspiracy which had for its object 
nothing short of spoliation and anarchy. But it was 
inevitable, especially in view of the disastrous con- 
sequences of a succession of abnormally wet years on 
the agricultural interest of Britain, that the question 
should be raised of -applying to farming in England 
and Scotland the main principles which are deemed 
just and beneficial in the case of Ireland. Accordingly 
movements have taken place both in Scotland and 
England for a reform of the land laws which will surely 
bear fruit. Abolition of those laws of entail and 
primogeniture which in too many cases have converted 
the nominal holders of land into mere genteel paupers, 
utterly destitute of capital necessary to improve or 
keep up the condition of their estates, in the case of 
land held directly by themselves or rented as farms, 
is but a question of time. So with the game laws, 
except in coses where L.ame alone can render vast 
tracts of barren moorland productive. Such tracts 
there are in the Highlands of Scotland, but even 
Here publio opinion will demand that the welfnre 
of human beings, w hen at stake, should be pro f err. d to 
the existence of herds of deor or (locks of ptarmigan 
or grouHO. Justico to tenants as well as justice to 
buadl rds, which are quite compatible, will be insistod 
OB ; every obstacle being removed and every induce- 
meut offered for the expenditure of more and more 
capital on the toil, tho pasturo and the Hocks 
III 
and herds, so as largely to increase production which 
even now is enormous. A falliug olf in the export 
trade of Britain excites unr eraal attention and concern, 
but few take account of the market for manufactures 
and products of all kinds which baa been lost or 
diminished by the evil times which have affected 
home agriculture since the culminating point of pro- 
sperity in 1874. As more and more foreign corn was 
introduced, it would naturally be expected that British 
farmers would more and more turn their attention to 
the breeding of animals. But just as the Ceylon 
planters have been compelled to re-trict the use of 
fertilizers at the very moment when such substances 
were most required, so the farmers of the Unit< i 
Kingdom have been unable not only to increase their 
stock of animals but to preveut a serious diminution 
of their own and their country's w alth. Figures 
given by a farmer, writing lo the London Time*, shew 
that the loss by decrease in the seven years bus be', n 
377,(100 cattle (out of 10,281,000), valued at 4^ millions 
sterling ; 6,937,000 sheep (out of 34,837,000), valued at 
£13,875,000; and 387,000 swine (out of 3,537,000), 
valued at £581,000. The total decrease is equal to 
a loss of little short of nineteen millions sterling. 
That this loss will be recovered we cannot doubt, 
but this is only one direction in which agriculturists 
have been adversely affected. Of curse the legislature 
cannot provide against abnormal seasons, in the British 
Isle any more tbau in this eastern isle, but it is the 
duty of Government here as there to miti s ate the 
disastrous effects of providential visitations of an ad- 
verse character, not by the imposition but the removal 
of burdens, restrictions aud disadvantages. Numerically 
the agricultural classes in the United Kingdom, with 
those dependent on them, are equal to 8A millions 
or one-fourth of the total population. Their capital, 
it is affirmed, is in exactly the same proportion to 
the realized wealth of the nation. How enormous the 
aggregnte is, becomes apparent when it is necessary to 
represent it by figures which stand for ?ii/ie thousand 
millions of pounds sterling ! The share of the agricult- 
ural classes is stated at 2, '281 millions. Here we must 
quote : — 
The agricultural capital is thus apportioned : — The 
gross yoarly rental assessed for income-tax — namelv, 
£G2,000,000-cousist3 of about £ 10,000,000 of rent for 
the land and about £10,000,000 interest of sums laid 
out lor iuclosure, buildings, drainage, roads, fences, 
and water supply ; aud capitalizing the former amount 
at 30 years and the latter at 25 years' uurchase, we 
have the landlords' property of £l,3SO,O0b,000 in the 
soil aud £400.0;>0,000 in improvements, or£l,7S0,000,000 
together. The lay aud clerical tithe-owners take re- 
venues from the soil amounting to about £5,000,000 
a year; which, capitalized at 25 years' purchase, re- 
present £125,000,0110 more, or a gross aggregate value 
of agi icultural land and whatis uoon it of £l,<K>5,000,000. 
Tenants' capital, Major Craigie takes at £S per acre 
on 47,000,000 acres ; giving a sum of £370,000,000. 
The whole capital of the proprietors and occupiers of 
the agricultural land of the United Kingdom is thus 
estimated at £2,281, 000, "00. 
The capital wealth of Britain being represented by 
thousands of millions ; and her people, even with the Irish 
chile ill counted, being enterprising and industrious 
to a degree, we are, perhaps, somewhat prepared to 
learn that the ami licit luc ntt of the 3-1 millioi s who 
