The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-05 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION.

The Times of Wednesday gave an elaborate and instruc-
tive article on "Agricultural Depressinn," which is ex-
tremely well worth perusal at this particular period. We
make the following extract therefrom
"In the face of prevailing complaints,' general
statements as to the unremunerative character of
arable husbandry, estimates of the losses endured,
especially by cultivators of heavy lands, and appre-
hensions of ruin to the farming interest of this
country, it may be well to illustrate the true position
of :affairs by the facts of a particular case.
"The example taken is a fair one ; and it is real
and not ideal, the figures being extracted from
books honestly kept by a bond fide tenant farmer
for his own inforroati,,n in btpiness and never intended
for publication. We say the ease is a fair one. In.
deed, so tar from being an instance ol farming under
exceptional difficulties or with faulty management,
both the soil and the managetant are superior to
those on average English holding; and if earning a
livelihood has latterly been found impossible in this
favourable case, much worse must be the condition of
occupiers farming less valuable land with inferior
capital and skill.

" The farm referred to consists of 600 acres, citiefly
of strong alluvial loam, with a portion inclining to a
peaty nature, and one fifth of the area may be charae-
teHsed as useful though not first-class grass land,. It
lies in a level district, under the tolerably dry skies of
the eastern counties. It is a mixed husbandry occu-
pation With no peculiar features in the stocking or
cropping. No strict rotation of crops is observed, the
tenant being happily unfettered in this respect; and in
favourable seasons, when this means of making some
profit is found practicable,ext ra crops of oats,barley, and
sometimes of brown and white mustard are grown
after wheat. Neither hay, straw, nor roots are sold off;
dairying is conducted on a very small scale; and the
tenant enjoys no special advantages such as pertain to
a pedigree herd or flock, the exhibition of animals for
prizes, or the breeding of hunters or other horses at ex-
ceptional prices. He keeps a breeding flock of about
140 ewes, selling off the lambs in the summer, as in the
district there is found a difficulty in keepine them
alive during autumn; and about 400 sheep are bought
in during spring, to be fed off on grass and coleseed,
Fifteen to twenty calves are raised fa a year, the re-
mainder of the cattle being usually purchased in the
autumn, wintered on straw, roots, and oilcake, and
finished off for the butcher during the following
summer's grazing. That liberal management is
practised appears from the expenditure on artificial
foods and manures, ranging from £4OO to 2,500 per
annum; while large quantities of home-grown corn
also are consumed on the farm. And as to the busi-
ness ability displayed and the economical manipula-
tion of both the horse and manual labour, it is suffi-
cient to say that the occupier is well known as one of
the leading farmers of the eastern counties, that he is
highly esteemed both privately and publicly in his own
county, a man of marked ability in every department
of practical agriculture, a careful supervisor of his
labourers, a cleanly manager of his land, judicious in
his treatment of live stock, and a business-like dealer
alike in the corn and stock markets.

"What is the present position of the farm business
thus described? The accounts show that the gross
returns available for the payment of all out-goings and
for tenant's profit have been for the last three years as
follows :—ln 1876 the total was £3,162; in 1877,
£3,280; and in 1878, £3,158, averaging £3,200 per
year, For the same period the average expenditure
per year which this sum had to meet has been for rent,
tithe, local rates, and imperial taxes, £1,650; f( r
labour, £1,270; for artificial foods and manures and
for seeds, £470; and for tradesmen's farm bills, £l5O
—or, together, £3,540. To this must be added a
considerable amount for repairs and insurance, the
cost of replacing machinery and implements, wear and
tear of the farm horses, and also market expenses, of
which item e the particulars are not before us. It is
plain that the business instead of yielding any interest
whatever on the capital invested, has incurred a dead
loss which looks like £4OO per year at the very least,
and is apparently more; and this for three years in
succession. It will be observed that the outgoings
mentioned de not include any part of • the cost .of
the tenant's living; and, in fact, in .addition to he
above loss on the farming transactions, the whole
of the tenants' household and family expenditure
for three years must have come out of capital. No
matter whether the occupier be a man of handsome
means or not, this is a peocees which cannot long con-
tinue. And it is not surprising that he should write,
'My heart is broken about farming, and I do not
care to throw more good money after bad.' At the
present moment it is too early to determine whether
the corn crops will attain to an average or not, but, so
fur, probabilities are entirely against the prospect of
an abundant harvest. Nor can the tenant taped
with any confidence to find this a handsomely.paying
stock year. 6o that whether the gross returns from
1879 will be somewhat better than those of the last
three years or not, it may be regarded as certain
that they will not bring in enough to recoup any
part of what the tenant has sunk during this disastrous
period.
"Such being a truthful statement of fact as regards
a good farm held under favourable conditions of tenure
and managed with more than usual intelligence,
enterprise, and personal attention, it is easy to accept
the common lament that on a vast number of poorer
farms, and particularly upon heavy wheat soils, arable
husbandry has been losing at the rate of several pounds
per acre during each of the last three unlucky years."
The Times then gives very copious statistics bearing on
the subject, remarking that, "'the figures furnished are so
Instructive that no apology is needed for introducing them
at some length." These figures show the comparative annual
produce per acre, labour, cost, rates, ctc. We quote the fol.
lowing
"The money value of the wheat crop has varied more
than the yield, having ranged from £7 up to £l5
18s, 10d, per acre. The general average for 20 years
has been Ell 3s. 8.1. per acre. The average for seven
years, 1859 to 1865, was £lO Bs. 2d, per acre; the
highest run of good years was from 1866 to 1870, when
the five harvests gave an average value of .214 2s, 7d.
per acre. The next four years 1871 to 1874, averaged
£lO 15s. sd. per acre, considerably below the average
of the whole 20 years: and for the last four years the
average has been only £9 54, 3d,, which is nearly £2
under the general average of the whole perioa, and
less than was realised in any other four years together.
With the exception of 1865, the harvest of 1878,
having a value of only £7 10s. per acre, has produced
the least return of any year in the series,” '
The Times concludes the article (which is of considerable
, length, extending over two "columils)- with the following
observations :

"A remark may be made here in reply to those
who would suggest for the benefit of this farmer a
curtailment of his profitless wheat-growing and an en-
largement of his area of roots for meat-producing. He
has been compelled to reduce his proportion of roots
during the last six years, not only on account of the
mechanical condition of the soil as affected by the sea-
sons, but from the dearness of labour and the extreme
difficulty of procuring the hands indispensable for
manipulating such crops.
"The rent of the farm has remained at the same
rate per acre throughout the whole period ; tithe rent-
chair has fluctuated considerably; but local rates
and imperial taxes have not loaded the farm with any
increase of burdens. Under this latter head a state.
Ent of the exact sums paid in each period of twelve
'll3bnths would be misleading, as the local rates have
.been collected at -irregular intervals, and there has
been, ome change in the collection of property-tax and
licences in lieu of assessed taxes; but taking two
peri.ds, the average for the seven years 1866 to 1872
was 55, 7d, per acre, and for the six years 1873 to 1878
it was ss. sid. per acre. In the year 1866 these public
charges came to ss. 4d.; in 1870, 6s. id,; in 1873,
ss, ; and in 1878, 4s. 7id. per acre.
'Reform in local taxation does not promise any very
material help to this farmer, who requires pounds, not
shillings, per acre in order to retrieve his position and
recover the capital Bunk in business and in household
expenditure during the last four years. At present
the prospect of any such recovery is hopeless. There
are no indications that a larger produce or an im-
provement in price may possibly augment the
tenant's returns for 1879 ; he can make only small
reductions in his outlay for labour, though this is
exceptionally high; and a temporary abatement of
rent will not restore the profitable character of his
husbandry and enable him to make a livelihood in
place of enormous loss. It will be a happy result if the
•
owners and occupiers of land who are convened by the
Central Chamber of Agriculture and the Farmers'
Club to consider, to-day, the practical remedies for
the present depreasion in agriculture,' can point out
how the existing tenant farmers of England are to be
saved, or, if they give up in despair, what better
chances may be offered to their successors."