The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-09-21 00:00:00

THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS ON FARMING.

On Saturday afternoon the Right Hon. the Speaker
presided at the annual harvest-home feast in Glynde-
park, his Sussex seat. In replying to the toast of his
health he said it would be in their recollection that
some five years ago he made to the labourers Iln his
farm a proposal in effect to take a share in the profits
of the farm in the manner he then stated. When
he made the proposal he had been fortunate enough
to make a profit on the farm for five or six pre-
ceding years amounting to something like 5 per cent.
He thought in making the offer he was conferring a
substantial boon on the labourers. He was sorry to
say that since that period he had not found the-profits
of farming so good, and that was the reason why he
had not pressed upon his labourers the propriety and
expediency of accepting the offer he had made them.
He could very well understand that there might be
many reasons why they should not have accepted that
offer. Perhaps the first consideration they would have
would be this—was the Speaker making any profit on
his farm? He was bound to say that the profit he had
made in the last four or five yeors had not been
of a character to tempt them to join in the under-
taking. He would endeavour to explain the reason
why he could understand very well that they would
not join the undertaking unless they thought he could
show a pretty good balance-sheet. As they all knew,
the farm consisted of something like 670 acres. About
one-fourth was down land in its natural state, another
fourth was light -land under tillage on the slopes of
the downs, the remaining half strong grass land,
with the exception of about sixty acres which had
been under tillage from twenty to thirty years. He
thought his profits for the last five or six years had
been very much affected by the small returns
from these sixty acres of heavy land. In dry
seasons the returns from that land had been un-
usually large. As they all knew, the season-; for
some years had been rather wet than otherwise.
Last year was exceedingly wet in the winter, and in tha-
w ing we had a great deal of rain, and the produce of
that heavy land was very light. As a sensible man,
what was he called upon to do? Well, not to continue
to endeavour to resist the course of nature and the
seasons. He found that the seasons—three out of
four, or four out of five—were of such a character that
the returns from that land were small; therefore he
proposed at once to lay all that land down to pasture.
He mentioned this resolve because he did not want to
keep back what was on his mind in reference to his
farming. That land was broken up from grass years ago,
in times he well remembered, when the price of wheat
was much higher than now and the price of meat much
lower. As he should look forward to raise much more
meat and less eorn, he thought the result must
be of a profitable character. They would perhaps say
that would concern him more as landlord than the
labourers. He denied that altogether. He believed
they all rowed in the same boat—landlords, tenants,
and workmen. If the landlord succeeded, if the tenant
succeeded, so much the better for the labourers.
They might be quite sure of this—that the wages of
the labourer Game from funds derived from, and the
profits of the farms; and if the profits were small and
inadequate, the labourer must suffer in the amount
paid him for the demand for his services.

The Times of Wednesday has a leader on the
Speaker's farming experiences, from which we sake
the following extracts :
Some years ago the Speaker surprised and amused the
world by a public announcement of his wish to take h 6
labourers into partnership in the profits of his farming. The
offer was as honest as it was oeurageous ; and it was made
tinder the conviction, :which somehow the Speaker had come
Vot, that ho had tal yiare bun walking his farm at a very

!'' -'

MEI=

high profit. . . . When this offer was made the universal
remark made upon it was that the lal4ourers would
not accept it, and that if they did they would have
to thank their landlord for nothing. The labourers
would not care for 5 per cent., and if they did they
would not get it. Mr. Brand's experience was so contrary
to the experience of all the gentlemen farmers in England
that they were sure he had overlooked and omitted many
items in the calculation which a gentleman is apt to take no
thought of, but which have to be estimated exactly in a real
debtor and creditor account. The world, as usual, was in the
right, and the Speaker has to confess, not that he was wrong
in his old calculations, for he seems to adhere to
them still, but that during the whole of the period
in which he subjected himself and his farm to
the public scrutiny he has had no profit. More he
does not say. His reasons are grave ones; for, if they are
sufficient to account for a failure, it is hard to say what
description of farm money can be got upon. Many a farmer
would "smack his lips" at such a holding as 670 acres an
hour or two from the metropolis, one-fourth down laid in
its natural state, another fourth-light land under tillage on
the slope of the downs, the remaining half strong grass land,
with the exception of about 60 acres that have been under
tillage from twenty to thirty years. There is here every
variety, and variety suits best the conflicting requirements
of modern farming. The 60 axes of heavy land have
ruined the whole concern, considered as a paying one. It
was always either too dry or too wet for them. They returned
less than no profit—a minus quantity to be deducted from
the profits of the rest of the farm, such as they were. The
conclusion the Speaker has come to is that he had better let
those 60 unproductive acres of tillage return to the pasture
they were thirty years ago. He is sorry his labourers should
lose the employment given by this quantity of tillage, but
takes comfort in the grand economic maxim that what is good
for the landlord is good for everybody under and about
him. . . .

The five fat years raised such a confidence in the Speaker
that be felt a positive repugnance at monopolizing such an
exorbitant profit, and invited his labourers to share it with
him. The five lean years that have followed have driven
him to very despair, and he proposes to throw back into
pasture the sixty acres of heavy land most to blame
for his losses. Parhaps this conclusion may be as
hasty as the other is now proved to have been ; but
there certainly does preva:l a very general belief that
much of the land added to tillage in the course of this
century has ceased to be profitable, or not so profitable
as it would be in pasture. At CO short a distance ha ra the
metropolis, Mr. Brand would have a sure market for all the
products of pasture; and even if he has to compete with
all the world, he would do it at a great advantage. In
the house counties tillage cauonly be regarded as subsidiary
to pasture—that is, to beef, mutton, and the even more
Important and profitable products of the dairy. Within this
century agriculture has twice altered the face of nature
In our northern counties. It began with reclaiming hun-
dreds of thousands of acres from the moor and the heath
to the reign of the plough. It has since reversed the
process. Now, and for more than a generation, the plough
has been receding fast and fvr from the populous seats of
manufacturing industry. Whole populations, as familiar
with the steam-engine as they are with the tea-kettle, know
no more tithe plough than what they see in pictures or
read in their school-books. Mr. Brand's course is obvious.
He is under great and singular temptation to try something
new. For half a year it is his hard, fate to sit still and
silent while new ideas are started and new schemes pro-
pounded all around him. Nature itself must raise within
him an inextinguishable desire to say, do, and be some-
thing more than a mute soul of order breaking silence at
long intervals. When the Vacation comes he, too, has his
say. He must, however, condescend to take counsel, and
to inquire, What are his neighbours doing? Do any of them
farm to a profit, or possess farms whl.ch are worked to a
profit? If he cares for profit at all, he will have to do what
they do in the end, if not now.

"A Bedfordshire Farmer" writes to The Times :—" I
feel bound to 'challenge the Speaker' when he makes the
following statement :---; If the profits (of the farm) were
small and inadequage, the labourer must suffer in the
amount paid him for the demand for his services. Why,
Sir, during the last few years I imagine that the profits of
farming have been smaller, and the wages of labourers
higher than at any other period during the present century.
How long this anomalous state of things can continue is
another matter. It is the opinion of not a few that the
question of rents must soon come under consideration."