The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1864-01-26 00:00:00

nuessity of agricultural statistics generale,
that he had
neeer samtioned the system adopted by the (Conn-
ivent. He had been more or less oppowsd to the
piiociple. He had always tholght. and was of the
opinion atilt that if the English fanner opposed the
question of agricultural statistics upon the general,
broad, hornet principle of liberty, of which every 0114
was proud to boast of "that an Englishman s bowie
was his castle," that no Government had any right to
interfere and ask inquiethorially as to what his produe-
Lion might be. Wes there no other way to get these
agricultural statistics if the or:tunny really required
them He believed there was and nothing would be
more easy if people would throw aside their prejudices
and consult together as to the best method to be
adopted. Without going fully into the 'object he
would say that there was no class of Persons an
well adapted to obtain these statistics as Boards
of Guardians. They were the representatives of the
*Oby the Guardians. be could not help thinking it would
wn
firddee iallneeesPoefetheypeoaple.the If seetaPatisYticeem. coanudld "beiLtortde
tend for the general good. The course would no longer
be inquisitorial if Boards of Guardians would eaten the
corn returns, and he believed such a step would be for
the benefit of the community at large, and be could not
au any ritual why it should not be done. It was
strange that id • country like thigland, where every
kind of knowledge was eagerly sought after, so little was
known of the production of its soil. This was • feat,
and he would venture to say, that if he were to ask soy
gentleman present as to what his ideas on the subject
were, there would be u many opinions given as there
were friends present, as to whet was the production, and
it would be impossible to say if they would be right after
al.lllo..Hheimeontold
gonotaseentatheatoutthisawashisrigahirect. t would
course with
regard to statistic& because the subject was a very abort
one of itself, and he would refer in passing to a
excellent friend, Mr. Harding, two months since. with
mut interesting subject brought forward by their
, regard to sheep statistics. They were aware that Mr.
Harding introduced the subject in a very pleasant
manner as ha did everything else, but that he
floundered as to the quantity of sheep
kept within an area of six miles of Dominator.
Mr. Harding, quoting from an old authority, said there
were 600,000. Ile (Mr. Damen) returned home and con-
salted an old work on the agriculture of Dorset. and
he there found that the county was famous for its sheep;
be also found that Ha population was 180,000. and the
number of sheep was estimated at 117.000. That was
a different sort of thing from having 600,000 within mix
miles of Dorchester. He happened to know. and bad
great plumes in knowing, every sheep farmer within
six miles of Dorchester, and he took the liberty of
seeertaining the number of sheep kept by them He
counted them by the thousand and he brought the
number to 82,000. Although these six miles only
embraced an area of one-eighth of the county, he came
to the conclusion that it contained &boat one-fourth of
the number of sheep kept. If that was the case the
dumber of sheep in the county would be something
ender 350,000. He would nay here,as he was addressing
agricultural gentlemen connected with sheep, that he
counted every ewe as 14,n0t tanning the lambs,becenee
It was only one part of the year the had a double
quantity. He put down every 1,000 as 15,000.
They were told that the quantity of sheep in the
country was getting less. If so it was • great misfor-
tune for they might be sowed if the consumption of
anlu:sl food increased in the country, it most be the
duly as well as the interest of English farmers to see
, that that buenae was met by themselves and not by
foreigners. It was said that at the present time every
second person they met with had to be fed with foreign
heel and mutton; and it *as equally the ease that every
sound person was fed with foreign wheat. The in-
creased importation of beef and mutton last year was
very great, there being 101,000 sheep and 24,000 oxen.
Perlis's@ the quantity of sheep was equal to the sheep
sold out of the county of Dorset, if they reckoned one-
fourth of the number kept. He apprehended that the
number of sheep sold and consumed in the county was
about equal to the importation last year. They would
encase him for making this digression, but if
they knew no little about the statistics of sheep
and cattle in this country, much lest did they know of
corn statistics, and yet there was no data except thus
miserable corn returns to guide them, and all classes of
the community suffered from this want There was no
country in Europe without statistics upon which the
people could rely. In America they had agricultural
statistics which were extraordinarily correct. Indeed
this year agricultural statistics were taken before the
harvest, and it was well-known that in the so-called
United States the growth of Indian corn was very defi-
cient, bat when the return came to be made up, after
the test of threshing, it was not a large portion/rum the
first estimate, and the deficiency averaged something
like 16.010,000 quarters. In France, the best possible
statistics were kept, cod he alluded to the speech made
by the Emperor when corn was very wares in this
country, showing the correct manner in which the con-
sumption of the French population could he estimated,
and the quantity of wheat that could he spared for ex-
portation. No clefs of teen ethept speculators got any
advantage from great fluctuations. Growers of earn
derived no advantage from them. It was certain that
whatever fluctuations there might be the great body of
the people had to sell their corn as they could get •
market and wanted money, whilst it was only a few who
would get any advantage on the fluctuation of price.
To show the loss sustained by these fluctuations
he mentioned that in 1847 France came into this ,
country and bought • large quantity of wheat at 60s.
per quarter. Within a few months of that time wheat
rose to 100 t., a quatter, and in many cases even higher
than that. The people became afraid of starvation, and
the Queen went upon a short allowance of bread as an
example to her subject& But after all there was no
famine. What followed this panic? In a few months
wheat went back 100 per cent., and it was found that
this country had imported several million quarters of
wheat more than it wanted. The fact was a great
depreciation in price, as it would always be if
more corn was tmported than was required. It
must be sold whatever the price might be, therefore
high prices were sure to bring corresponding 1414 0040
in a year or two. He hoped he had convinced this
that the producers must be most interested in thus
statistics. His duty would now be to point out to
them the principle of these corn returns as briefly as
possible. They were awns that all millers and
maltsters Were required by law to make • declaration
when commencing business that they would make a
fair return of the corn bought by them in the
different markets they attended. This declaration
only referred to 291 towns, but why for these 290 places
no man could say, because sines this Ace was passed
some (sutures ago, • greet number of market towns had
rietn up in England and a great many bad gone down,
so much so that towns like Poole, where suroely a
quarter of urn was sold, were included in the list,
whilst Yeovil and a great many large market town&
where • large quantity of corn was sold, there was not
one quarter ever returned. Notwithstanding, these
small towns were retained, where returns were sup-
posed to be made, and where no corn was bought and
sold, and where there was • corn inspector, whilst in
large towns that had grown up there was eo inspector,
and no one to receive the statistics. With regard to
this declaration which corn factors were obliged to make,
he said he could amen them that • great numher of
people buying eons in large markets were never asked
to make such declaration, and • great many had told
hirn, who were large buyers of corn in different wanting,
they had never made any return in their lives. They
could not therefore wonder that these things went
•rong, and that altogether there should be such
loose, bad management, and everything the
the kind. As rents were sometimes regulated fry
them returns, and also tithes and valuations of in-
comings and outnoings of tenants, it must be to all of
great sonsuence that they should be as correct as
posible They could hardly believe that sensible men
should submit to the system which had been pursued
and adopted up to the present time. It was thought
that everything was managed so well id this county,
that it was hardly possible to believe that sensible men
like Englishmen should submit to such • system for so
lengthy I time. In the absence of all other authentic
corn statistics, it was difficult to state the deficiency in
the existing returns, except from the fact of the known
consumption of the country. It bad been said, and he
believed truly, that this was about six bushels of wheat
to each of the population. This six bushels, as was
well known, would produce one sack of !lour or VO
and 280 tba would give 91 loaves, which multiplied by
four, would give Üb. of bread per day for each of the
population. Thus wen facia. If they eramined these
calculations by the consumption in their own families,
they would find that four in a family consumed • 41b.
loaf • day. The population of the country, as they
were well aware, was about 30,000,000. These, at six
bushels each, would consume about 224 millions of
quarters of wheat in a year, but after making some
allowance for the consumption of Indian corn in Ireland,
and oatmeal in Scotland, the consumption would be
about 20.000,000 quarters M'Culloch, however, had
put it at 1411 s. to each individual, but he (Mr Damen)
thought—looking at it in every point of view, consulting
both the rich and the poor, the poor would consume
more bread than the rich, as they lived more upon ;
that article of food—that the estimate be had given
would about meet the consumption. Let them now
look from whence these 20,000,010 quarters of wheat
came. The quantity returned florins the last six years
by those 220 towns, just amounted to 4,700,000
quarters annually. Dunne the first three of the six
years, the average importation was 5,000,000 quarters
in round numbers, but during the unfortunate years
of 1860-1-2, bad harvests, the importation of wheat
and flour was 10,000,000 quarters, or half of the
home consumption, so that every second man
waa fed upon foreign wheat. Whilst the
consumption of the country had been, putting
it at the lowest possible point, 20.000,000 quarters,
the importations had been 10,000.000 quarters;
but reckoning the first three of the six years for the
importations to have been 5,000,000 quarter., and the
second three at 10,000,000, it would give an average of
74,000,000. To this must be added 600.000 quarters
from Ireland, and 75,000 quarters grown in Scotland.
He would say that in Ireland the statistics were pretty
correct, and were taken every year, but they had been
leas on every occasion on account of had seasons. Since
1857 no statistics had been taken in Scotland, owing to
the meddling interference of the Government with the
Highland Agricultural Society. The last return was
taken in 1857' when only 75,000 quarters were returned.
Adding the 44,000,000 quarters returned as British
produce, and 74,000.000 imported upon the average of
mx years, with 1,600,00.1 quarters from Ireland, and
75,04) from Scotland, it would just make 144,000,000
quarters. This left the great deficiency of 54,000,000
quarters to make up the 20,000,000 quarters known
as the home consumption. It must be borne in mind
that only 44,00000 quarters were returned at all,
and the very least consumption besides had been
54,000,000, therefore much less than one-half had never
been returned at all. The average nturo of barns
was 2,200,000 quarters from the 290 towns. They
knew from the official reports that 5,000,000 quarters
• year was malted, and something like another
5,000,000 quarters had beset what he celled, muddled
away with in consequence of that unjust tax the malt
tax. Therefore it might be seen that in then 2,200,000
voider*, only one-fourth part of the barley grown in
the country during the last six years had been returned.
He thought it was fair to presume that men like Bus
and other large brewers in the country, who managed
their business in a seiantifie manner, made
their nouns, but a large number of small
maltaten in the country were math worse than
corn factors and millers in making their returns.
Hs had no buitetion in saying that whatever payreeede
might have been regulated by these barley returns, and
whoever celealined upon these returns, this mimed