September 15.1881. ] JOURNAL OF EORTIOULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
257 
districts the iambs are not required to fall before the spring grass is 
ready for feeding. This observation applies chiefly to the midland, 
western, and northern counties. In south-western counties, where 
the horned Dorset and Somerset breeds are kept, these ewes are now 
for the most part forward in lamb, and will commence lambing in 
October—that is to say, those which are off-going stock and sold to 
the graziers in the home and southern counties for supplying the 
London and other markets with early lambs, commencing the sale ot 
them about Christmas, and through January, February, and March. 
The breeding flocks, however, of these horned sheep are not often 
required to lamb much before December, and are mated with the 
rams accordingly. It is now a good time to look out for half-fat 
steers, just beneath the butcher’s quality, for putting in the boxes for 
winti r feeding ; for these may often be made to come out during 
January and February, and can always be kept at a better profit than 
by taking up poor animals. All the stock of the farm may now be 
assisted with roots—working horses receiving Carrots, bullocks hy¬ 
brid Turnips, young stock common Turnips, sheep early Turnips or 
Mangolds, for it is a plan now adopted to give wether sheep cut Man¬ 
golds in the field where they grew cut and mixed with bean or barley 
meal, or else decorticated eolton, or a mixture of all. The Mangold 
roots, however, we pull and stack between hurdles for ten days or a 
fortnight before being used. Dairy cows should now have Cabbages 
in the racks at milking time cut and mixed with meal or bran. 
CORN OR CATTLE. 
[Read at the British Association, York, September 1st, 1881, by William E. A. 
Axon, M.R.S.L., P.S.S.] 
It is abundantly shown by statistics that the people of Great 
Britain are very largely dependant for their daily bread upon sup¬ 
plies from foreign sources, and that the proportion of imported over 
home-grown foods is steadily increasing. So marked, indeed, has 
this tendency become in late years that many appear to think our 
islands really incapable of feeding their inhabitants. Thus, an 
American publicist has roundly asserted that ‘'if every acre of land 
in the British Isles were cultivated to its utmost capacity, the inhabi¬ 
tants could not raise food to supply the common necessities of life.” 
It may not be without interest to test such statements as these, and 
it will easily be seen that they are very wide of the mark, and that 
under suitable conditions Britain is still able not only to maintain 
her present population but to find food for an enormous increase. 
The agricultural returns show that the total acreage of the United 
Kingdom, including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, is 
77,828,918, of which 47,580,700 are returned as under “crops, bare 
fallow, and grass.” The corn crops cover 10,672.080 acres, the green 
crops 4,746,293. Clover and grass under rotation amount to 6,389,225 
acres, and the permanent pasture, exclusive of heath or mountain 
land, is not less than 24,717,092 acres. Orchards have 180,000, and 
market gardens 44,000 acres. 2,409,000 acres are devoted to woods 
and plantations. In the ten years between 1870 and 1880 nearly 
591,000 ac es have ceased to be used for Wheat-growing. In the 
same period there has been an increase of nearly 2£ millions in per¬ 
manent pasture. 
The following table shows the land extent of crops, and gives an 
estimate of their average produce per annum. The calculation as to 
the amount raised from each acre is based upon the figures given by 
Mr. Robert Scott Burn (Outlines of Modern Farming. London, 1869. 
Yol. I., p. 22). 
Estimate of the production of vegetable foods in the United King¬ 
dom, including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, in 1880 :— 
Acres. Produce per acre. Total produce. 
Wheat . 3,065,895 . 
Barley . 2,G95,000 . 
OATS. 4,191,716 ... 
Beans and Peas— 
Beans . 436,361 
Peas . 235,177 
671,638. 
( 16H01t>s.5,150 703,600 lbs. grain. 
| 2576 lbs.7,897,745,520 lbs. straw. 
1089 lbs.2,934,855,000 lbs. grain. 
2016 lbs.5,433,120,000 tbs. straw. 
1360 lbs.5,700,733,760 lbs. grain. 
2240 lbs.9,389,443,840 lbs. straw. 
(1550 lbs...;.. .1,040,883,900 lbs. grain. 
( 2240 lbs.. .1,504,245,120 lbs. straw. 
The amount of land in the United Kingdom devoted to permanent 
pasture is 24,717.092 acres, calculated to pioduce at the rate of 50 tbs. 
of flesh meat per acre, 1,235,854,600 tbs., which at Mr. Greg’s estimate 
of consumption of 3 tbs. per day, shows a sustaining power for 
1,128,634 persons per annum. 
The corn crops co^er 10.672,086 acres, and the average yield of 
grain would be 17,929,104,480 tbs., which at |2 tbs. per head per day 
would feed 24,560,417 persons. Hence, without reckoning at all on the 
green crops, we have a sustaining power for 25§ millions of persons. 
There have been various estimates as to the extent of English food 
production. Mr. Caird supplied figures from which, in 1877, Mr. 
S. Bourne calculated the average corn growth at 54,000,000 cwts. ; 
but it is a gradually decreasing quantity. Mr. Bourne further reckons 
the growth of English flesh meat at 25£ million cwts., h much higher 
estimate than would follow from the basis a/Iopted by Mr. Greg. It 
may be well then to say here, that Mr. Bourne counts the home pro¬ 
duce of Wheat at 54 million cwts.. the foreign supply at 53 million 
cwts., home-grown flesh meat at 26 million! cwts., foreign supply at 
million cwts., home-made cheese and buttfer at three million cwts., 
foreign supply at three million cwts., home-grown Potatoes at nine 
million cwts., foreign supply at half a million. From a further cal¬ 
culation he came to the conclusion that in 1877, of the 33 million 
persons of the United Kingdom, 18 millions might be sustained on 
food grown at home, and 15 on that received from abroad. What¬ 
ever estimate be adopted, it would seem that the American criticism 
already quoted had some justification. 
But let us suppose that the present process by which corn-growing 
districts have gradually been converted into grazing lands to continue 
until the entire available surface is devoted to cattle-raising. 
The total of arable and pasture acreage of the United Kingdom in 
1880 was 47,586,700, which, at a production of 50 lbs. weight of 
butchers’ meat per annum, would give a nett result of 2.379.335,000 lbs., 
or an amount sufficient, at 3 lbs. per day, to feed 2,172,908 persons. 
If mankind were exclusively carnivorous, a much larger quantity 
would be required. The Canadian boatmen and the Esquimaux, 
when deprived of other food, consume from 6 lbs. to 8 lbs. daily. 
If, however, instead of being devoted to cattle-raising, we suppose 
the same acreage to be under corn crops, and to produce on an average 
1420 lbs. to the acre, we have an annual return of 67,673,114,000 lbs., 
or an amount sufficient, at 2 lbs. per day, to feed 92.702,896 persons. 
After leaving an ample margin for any diversity of opinion as to the 
bases of such calculations, it is clear that there is sufficient material 
in our own land for the food of its people. The real remedy for over¬ 
population is food reform. This assertion is corroborated by a careful 
estimate of Dr. C. D. Hunter, who argues that forty-four men could 
be supported on 100*’acres devoted to sheep-raising. 53 on a dairy 
farm. 250 on Wheat, and 683 on Potatoes. 
The British farmer, in face of the competition of cheap foreign- 
grown corn, has turned his attention more and more to cattle-; aising, 
but there are not wanting signs that in the future he will encounter 
an equally keen rivalry in the production of flesh meat. 
At the present moment we are spending enormous sums on needless 
luxuries. The self-imposed taxation in intoxicants and narcotics, 
including their direct and indirect consequences, would pay off the 
national debt in three or four years. The sewage, which should be 
returned to the land as a fertilising agent, is thrown away at an 
estimated waste of £30,000,000 per year. A similar evil tendency has 
been shown in the matter of food, in which the poor and dear has 
been selected, to the neglect of the cheaper and better. The ignorant 
have taken cost as a measure of value, and, aping the luxurious 
habits of their wealthier neighbours, the poor are spending upon 
beef and bacon the money which would be much better employed in 
the purchase of the kindly fruits of the earth. The diffusion of 
knowledge on the relative values of various kinds of food may be 
expected to correct some of the evils arising from the present vulgar 
delusions as to the necessity of a flesh diet, or its superiority over one 
derived from fruits or cerea’s. 
The testimony of history is clear, that population and civilisation 
incease only when the nomadic hunters settle down as cultivators 
of the soil. The welfare of the nation is indissolubly connected with 
the economy of its food supply. The productiveness of the land 
might be improved by the removal of legislative hindrances to its 
free culture, and by returning to it the excreta of our teeming popula¬ 
tions. The encouragement of fruit-growing is as legitimate an object 
of national concern as the development of fisheries. If such steps 
be taken we may hope to see England no longer dependant upon 
foreign nations for food supply, but able, by her green orchards and 
yellow corn fields, to find an ample and healthy support for her 
children and her children’s children. 
A QUARTER OF A CENTURY AGO. 
It is interesting to compare the poultry fancy of to-day with 
that of some years ago. We are perhaps inclined to think it has 
meanwhile made more progress than it really has. Through the 
kindness of a fancier of very long standing—still a fancier we are 
glad to say, though no longer an exhibitor of Dorkings—we have 
been able to peruse a number of the “ Poultry Chronicle ” of 1854. 
The publication must now be very scarce indeed, so we are tempted 
to cull some notes and extracts from it. To begin with, in this 
number of December 6th. no less than nine large poultry shows 
are advertised as to be held in the month of December—viz , those 
of the Dublin Amateur Society : South Durham and North Riding 
of Yorkshire at Darlington ; Nelson, Lancs.; Bath and We9t of 
England at Bath ; the sixth Birmingham Show, Nottinghamshire 
Association at Southwell, Kendal, Essex Association at Colchester, 
and Manchester. 
From an article on the then forthcoming Birmingham Show we 
gather the curious fact, that whereas hitherto an exhibitor had 
been allowed to show six pens, only four would that year be 
received from one exhibitor. 
Some prize lists differ but little from those of the present day ; 
