Failures in other kinds

of farm

produce.

Foreign competition in meat.

led to an extensive migration from the industrial centres to the fertile lands in the Western prairies, and partly by the unprecedented abundance of the last two harvests in America. The importation of wheat has apparently been checked by the fall in prices. The Illinois farmer has found, says the 'Economist,' that the cost of conveying his grain to London absorbs nearly the whole of the price obtained here. Hence the import of wheat and flour has diminished about 22 per cent., while the price, which we are paying for that smaller quantity, is reduced by 37 per cent. The recent collapse in the corn trade confirms the statement of Mr. Caird that the cost of transport from the grain-growing countries to England is equal to the rent ordinarily paid by the British farmer. In average years he will have nothing to fear from foreign competition.

The difficulties of our agriculturists have not been confined to the bad harvests and the unprecedented fall in the price of wheat. The grain and root crops had partially failed, and a considerable diminution in the number of cattle and sheep had ensued. In Great Britain between 1874 and 1877, there was a total reduction of 427,000 on a stock of 6,125,000 cattle, or about seven per cent. The number of sheep was reduced by 2,153,000 on a stock of 30,314,000, or seven per cent. in three years.

Not only have their flocks and herds decreased, but the British farmers, for the first time in our experience, have been brought face to face with competition in the production of meat. The quantity of meat imported

in 1876 was 788,973 cwts., showing an increase of 257,065 cwts. over 1875. In 1877 the quantity was 1,277,686 cwts., being 488,713 cwts. in excess of the imports in 1876.

raising in

A permanent failure in this new field of competi- Stocktion would undoubtedly be fraught with the gravest England. consequences to the British farmer. The importance

of the cattle trade is shown in the subjoined extract
from the Statist : 'Since the repeal of the Corn Laws
the farmers have been more and more giving up the
cultivation of wheat and concentrating their efforts
upon the breeding and fattening of cattle. In Ireland
and Scotland wheat has almost gone out of cultivation,
and in the western half of England also it is less and less
grown. In Great Britain alone the land in tillage has
decreased 400,000 acres in the last nine
years, while
the permanent pastures have increased 1,800,000 acres.
Much more than the addition to the cultivated area
has thus been laid down in grass, and the energies of
British agriculturists are being devoted to the rearing
and feeding of stock. So long as they had only
Continental competition to contend with, they felt no
apprehensions. But here also the American panic has
had unexpected consequences. The vast Atlantic trade.
had called into existence great railways, built at im-
mense expense, to connect the principal Atlantic ports
with the West, and also splendid fleets of steamers to
ply regularly between this country and the United
States. When the regular traffic failed, enterprising
speculators were tempted by the low fares to send
American cattle and American dead meat across the

Cost of transport

from

America.

ocean.

The venture proved profitable, was repeated,

and rapidly developed into an important trade.'

Here again we find a reassuring opinion as to the future prospects expressed by Mr. Caird. He estimates ing cattle the cost of transportation for cattle from America at 41. per head, an ample sum, in his judgment, to enable our agriculturists to compete against the foreign produce. In the case of wheat, however, the charge for freight is a less adequate equivalent for the rent and the higher cost of cultivation which the British farmer has to bear.

Wheatgrowing in America.

6

In connection with this subject it is interesting to compare the cost of growing wheat in England and in the United States. Ample materials for such comparison are supplied in a recent article in the Economist,' where the writer points out that the cheapest growers of wheat, under the present conditions of agriculture in the West, are men little, if at all, above the position of artisans. In the last two years they have been largely recruited from the ranks of the unemployed operatives of the Eastern States, and, until a wonderful change comes over manufacturing industry in America, no other field of labour has greater inducements to offer. The main advantage of the American farmer seems to lie in the cheapness with which he obtains his crop. It is somewhat surprising to find that wheat grown in the Far West still pays as much freight, before it can be placed in the English market, as the rent charge amounts to at home. The average yield of an acre of land in England is 30 bushels, against 13 in the Western States. The American farmer must therefore

cultivate 2 acres before he can sell as much produce as is grown on a single acre in England. This, however, he does at an incredibly small outlay. The difference in tillage is most striking. An English farmer accustomed to drive three or four horses painfully over a stiff clay, can scarcely imagine the ease with which a light plough runs through the rich loam of a Western State.'

its cheap

But the cheapness with which land is cultivated in Reason of the United States is due not alone or chiefly to the ness. quality of the soil; it is because the ownership of land and the labour of cultivation are generally associated together that such a remarkable economy has been secured. The influence of this favourable economic condition of agriculture is equally felt in every quarter of the globe.

manage

small

In his essay on the Position of the British Labourer, Personal Mr. Fawcett observes: In Switzerland, France, ment of Flanders, and the Rhineland, the small proprietors farms. who cultivate their own land economise their time with the most scrupulous care; they earnestly strive to turn every half-hour to the utmost possible advantage; they work early and late, and their labour exhibits a watchfulness, and a fostering attention, which is never acquired by hired labourers. Magical is the influence which the feeling of property exerts. And truly indeed has it been said by Arthur Young, that it is potent enough to turn sand into gold, and convert a desert into a garden.'

Practice

of the

The American farmer, as we learn from the correspondent of the Economist,' as a rule does his own American

farmer.

Conces

sions to the English farmer.

Prospects of British agriculture.

work, or the greater part of it. The amount of wages
paid in actual money is comparatively small. If he
cultivates 50 acres of wheat, and has growing sons, he
may manage without any help, except at harvest time,
when he hires an extra hand for a month. If he has
no family to assist him, he will probably hire a hand for
the year at $12 or $15 a month. In all cases board
and wages are included; the hired men sitting down
to meals with the farmer and his family. We may
fairly estimate, then, the capital of 127. required by an
English farmer to cultivate properly a single acre of
land will not more than suffice to purchase and cultivate
the 2 acres which will yield the same amount of wheat
in America. Up to this point neither competitor has
a decided advantage, and, if anything, the difference is,
in our opinion, on the side of the home agriculturist.
But the heavy yield in England is only obtained by the
application of costly manures, and this outlay is spared
the American grower. At present only the richest
lands are cultivated, and the earth yields her increase
without any assistance at his hands.
assistance at his hands. Of course this will

.

not last for ever. But until this stage of exhaustion is reached in the Western States, the English farmer will require something more than the set-off of freight against rent-charge. . . It lies entirely at the option of the landlords whether this shall be wholly given in abatement of rent, or partly take the form of security of tenure and protection to the occupier's capital.'

While security of tenure would undoubtedly be the most satisfactory mode of meeting the just claims of the