Our Imports of Hay. 
401 
of hay in the year ended May 31, 1894, were equivalent to nearly 
one-tenth of last year’s hay crop in England and Wales. 
The figures which have been given possess an intrinsic interest, 
but it is not exclusively for this reason that they have been quoted. 
English farmers know only too well that, when the lines have once 
been laid, there is little difficulty experienced in continuing to 
transport along them any kind of foreign produce into this country. 
Now that the growers beyond the seas have learnt the possibilities 
of expansion in the hay trade, they will certainly make an effort, 
not only to retain the position they have already acquired, but to 
strengthen their interest in our market. In a Free-trade country 
like Great Britain the only way to meet this threatened invasion of 
foreign hay is to increase the home output to such a degree that the 
prices will tend to check rather than to encourage a further develop- 
ment in foreign imports. The season is yet young enough to permit of 
our farmers increasing their reserves of hay to a greater extent than, 
perhaps, they had intended. If, then, a return to moderate prices 
should cause the foreign hay trade to shrink back within its old limits, 
the lessened price of home-grown hay would bring with it its own 
compensation, for its greater quantity would enable farmers to feed 
hay largely to their stock, and thus to effect a substantial reduction in 
the corn and cake bill. On the other hand, it is not unreasonable to 
anticipate that, unless the foreign hay trade should receive some 
such check as has been suggested, it must continue to grow in 
volume, until the produce of grass lands beyond the seas is poured 
into this country as regularly and as persistently as the grain 
from the wheatfields of North America and Argentina, of Russia 
and India. 
W. Fream. 
12 Hanover Square, W. 
RECENT AGRICULTURAL INVENTIONS 
The subjects of Applications for Patents from March 12 
to fane 9, 1894. 
N.B. — Where the Invention is a communication from abroad, the name of 
the Inventor is shown in italios, between parentheses, after the name of the 
applicant. 
Agricultural Machinery and Implements, &c. 
Application, Name of Applicant. Title of Invention. 
Year 1894. 
5382 Turner, H. E. . Cultivators, &c. 
5485 C ASHMORE, T. J. and anr, Chaffcutter, &c. 
5545 Blackstone, E. C. . Root-cutters. 
6900 Thornton, J. and anr. . Steaming wheat, &c. 
6983 Fleming, H. B. , . Elevating hay, &c. 
