The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-11-23 00:00:00

THE PROSPECTS OF AGRICULTURE.

On the above subject, The Times of Monday publishes the
following letter :

-
Sir,—ln the discussion in The Times upon the pre.
sent condition of British agriculture there are one or
two facts that are altogether ignored
.or very imper.
fectly understood.
- - -

The first is the natural, but very false, impression
that a larger supply of meat will be raised by our
arable land being turned into grass.
In the opinion of some leading agricultural authori-
ties the new grass will not produce nearly as much
meat as the arable land. lam very certain that for a
number of years it cannot possibly make more. So
there is the loss of all the corn without any increase
of meat. Yet ordinary arable land has been and
will be even more extensively turned into pasture,
although the gross value of the produce of the arable
land may be three times that of the pasture. The
reason is not far to seek. Grass pays best ; the cost
of production beats the arable farmer in spite of the
enhanced price of meat. Let us consider for a
moment what it costs the farmer to grow his roots.
The best way to produce sound swedes and man-
golds is to apply a dressing of both natural and artifi-
cial manure. The farmyard manure has probably to
be filled, carted on a heap, packed over, refilled,
carted to the land, set out, spread, and knocked. The
land has to be cleaned and tilled, requiring the pass-
age of the plough, scarifier, roll and harrows many
times over it. The land is now ridged up, the farm-
yard manure is applied, the artificial is sown, the
ridges are split, the seed is drilled and rolled down.
The plants will need three horse-hoeings and at least
two hand-hoeings, besides singling. Most of the roots
intended for the cattle will be pulled, loaded, carted
near the homestead, haled, thatched, and covered with
earth, and then, when wanted, trimmed, loaded,
carted to the turnip-house, and there sliced, shredded,
or pulped before the stock eat them. Contrast all this
with the expenses of the pasture. There the grass
grows, and the stock eat it. The rent, tithes, rates,
and taxes are the same, but there is no seed or tillage,
and hardly any expenditure for horse or manual
labour.

But it may be argued, "Granted all this, still at the
present price of meat, winter grazing ought to pay." I
find my own experience is confirmed by a great many
other farmers in East Anglia, and it is this : that a
winter-grazed bullock, on an average of years, after
paying for his artificial food and attendance, does not
leave more than half-a-crown a week for the roots,
hay, and straw he consumes. At this rate roots cer-
tainly cannot pay, but they must be grown, as they
are the means of cleaning the land and enriching it
with manure. Formerly the profit was looked for in
the succeeding corn crops of the rotation, but with
poor yields and low prices they have not lately
paid their own expenses. But it must not
be supposed that grass farming has no draw-
backs. It is exposed to more vicissitudes and is
more speculative and uncertain than the cultivation of
arable land. It has been computed that ten times
more grass grew this year than in 1868. But, sup-
posing this year to be double an ordinary crop, and
that of 1868 to have been somewhat less than half the
usual growth, we have here a variety of yield that is
rarely met with in corn crops. The result was that in
1868 the stock were starved or killed half fat. This
year the plethora,of grass so raised the price of store
stock that at the. end of the summer cattle were not
worth more than they coat in the spring, leaving
nothing wherewith to pay the rent and other outgoings,
without mentioning profits of the grazier.
The next point that I wish to notice is that, inie-
pendently of the scanty grain crops of the past four
years, the arable farmer's expenses have considerably
and permanently increased. We pay our labourers
nearly 50 per cent, more than we did 25 years ago.
We receive in return shorter hours, less work, and,
what is harder still, muel worse work. It is also
impossible now-a-days to procure female or juvenile
labour to weed our corn or single the turnips. Also,
there is the cost of labour-saving machinery and the
augmented tradesmen's bills. I therefore contend
that, in one way or another, in this item of labour
alone the tiller of the soil is 10s. an acre worse of than
he was even a few years ago; and I need hardly add
that the whole of this additional burden has at present
fallen upon the tenant farmers.
I will not ask if, with the malt tax, Free Trade is
"one-sided," or speculate upon rents falling. The
love of farming (though its pleasures are small indeed
now) and the delights of rural life will, in this rich
country, always command a number of tenants who
will hire land more for amusement than profit. The
law of distre,s, though not without its advantages to
struggling, needy tenants, no doubt tends to keep up
rents and creates a false competition for land. But I
greatly fear that if the tillage farmers of England
have to pass through many years like the last four, a
startling percentag,e of them, instead of demanding a
reduction of rent, will be candidates for the bounty of
the Royal Agricultural benevolent Association.
Ever your faithful servant,
CLARE SEWELL READ,
lioningham Thorpe, Norwich, Nov. 15.