The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-11-27 00:00:00

tiZe tourbribge Oburber,

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1886.

THE AGRICULTURAL CENSUS.

TUE annual buff-book of the Agricultural
Department. which possesses a fund of in-
formation for all who take an intelligent
interest in our most thoroughly national
industry, has now been issued. Part of the
contents of the exhaustive yearly returns
have already been published. A summary
of the main figures saw the light in August,
and later the details concerning allotments
were forwarded to the papers, but the full
return just now sent out affords the first
opportunity o: an exhaustive review of
agricultural doings in Great Britain for the
year last completed. Now that agricultural
depression has become far too patent a fact
to be questioned at all, it will be a surprise
to many to find that there is actually an in-
crease of acreage under cultivation in the
country. We have had reporis of farms in
ninny districts becoming so unprofitable,
either from want of capital or otherwise, that
they have been given up by the tenant-tiller
in despair. Not seldom, too, the landlord,
already oveeburdened with unproductive
property, has permitted the farms thrown
thus upon his hands to remain unworked
and wasting. Such being the case, no one
would have been surprised, when the
total came to be struck, to discover that
agriculture was being pursued upon a con-
siderably-reduced acreage, as compared with
this time twelve months back. Not so, how-
ever, for -taking the aggregate,7lw, have
actually, in this respect, not only he'd our
own, but made slight headway. 'net e are
some 36,800 acres more Tinder crops of some
sort than at the time of the last retarn,
which carries the space worked upon by
agriculturists to 32,591,000, taking Great
Britain alone, and to a grand total of
47,932,000 acres for:the whole 'United King-
dom. It is greatly to be regretted however
that the produce of the added acres is small,
and that there is a general tendency lo de-
crease the corn land acreage, and to swell
the extent of grass land. c'lf pasture lands
were mainly well farmed with a succession
of clover or rotation grasses there would be
no cause for alarm in such a desertion of
grain culture; but a great part tf the
pasture land under grass is occupied by
poor or under-cultivated grasses, to which
little or no stimulating food is supplied.
In such cases the starving out of the farmer
is only a question of time. Neglect will
never pay ia agriculture. If a man's cap-
ital runs lower and lower, and he converts
his holding gradually into a waste, its many
unfortunate farmers have done, it is very
misleading to describe him as a tenant
ferming so many acres. He is, more cor-
rectly speaking, keeping so many acres out
of cultivation. While there are recorded in
the returns a few actual and honest recla,m-
etions of hitherto unproductive land, as
well as the turning of a considerable quan-
tity of corn land into permanent pasture,
there is referred to also a good deal of change
consisting simply of drifting into weedy and
natural grass of a _profitless description.
This is not at all promising, for under the
conditions which-must of necessity ensue,
the farmers cannot bat find stock keeping rs
little likely to pay as cereal culture without
the aid of manure or proper tillage would be.
There have been about as many acres less
under wheat in Great Britain in the year
4' ea! t with as thei e have been acres added to
the grassland total, 192,000; while bailey
has been grown on some 16,000 less acres.
Oats, however, on the other band, have
iii-
creased, for we have had 141,000 more acres
of that cereal than were recorded in the la, t
retain. Barley has never been so little
grown for eighteen years, excepting in 1884;
and the -United Kingdom total of oats
reaches the high figures of 4,419 000 acreq
possessing money value distancing that of
the wheat crop, which now monopolises only
2,358,000 acres. It is somewhat surprising
to learn that in Suffolk and Cornwall, both
of which counties have had to join very
audibly in the wail of agricultural disteess,
there is an actual addition of acreage under
wheat. Green crops, other than grass and
clover, have decreased sensibly all through
the kingdom, though, taking Ireland alone,
it is notable that potato culture has been
pursued on an area increased by 2,700 acres.
There is a slight increase in cattle, though
we should have been glad to have seen it
more largely indicated in the column devoted
to cows and heifers in milk and calf. Of
those the addition recorded is only 7,668,
while young cattle—the best index of borne
breeding—shows a decrease of about 21 per
cent., or 68,327 head. The scarciV of feed
is the probable explanation of this decline in
tee quantity of calves being now reared in
Grcat Britain, •ana the same circumstance
has doubtless much to do with the loss of
over a million s! eep and lambs front the
185 aggregate; both very mil:leasing details
of the return Horses ueed .n agi riulture
haee increased i reindict. ill (Ireat I:riiiiiit
by 16,500, and in lrelatel I.L.- 1 This
year the poultry rt. turt.s a: not rs
the department does tot cii Si ICS tit, ye re j..
able. It secres hat, many farmers St sented
- the close inqniry -which tiled for an cut:pier-
. ation of even their t se, duels, rt. 4-1 fo‘‘ is.
Eitilqeemt; we MI% state dud, taking the

country through', :Is naniy. Its 20,00 U i:CCU-
piers either reftmd r pcglected,„ trakv
returns, and in tht j $ Ltd 10

be made in the but n net. pos:-il h vithiti
the farmers' assist:Alee. e i li stati:- tit s
are ofnivelt jlitcr Iti the economist
be pleased to gather therefrom that there are
now 1,605 of useful scientific adjuncts
to agriculture in ap-,itinst I,H-3
last year. These silos possess a total capceity
Of over four and a half milliou cubic feet.
The return consists, besides a vast mass of
dttnil- concerning what we have tom:lice:
ten, and a man of kindred topics, the impori
:b.altof bath grain and meat for the ytar,

anti ma., ~,,red quite a mine of agri-
cultural satistics. from which the thoughtful
might learn many a useful lesson.

COMMENTS ON -CURRENT TOPICS.

THK insurrection of the Ghilzais in Af-
ghanistan is a regrettable incident which
seems to be assuming serious proportions.
The Ameer is not unlikely to have a good
deal of trouble ahead NV ith this warlike
t:ibe, which has already, according to ad-
vice received, defeated the loyal troops with
considerable loss. We are told that the in-
surgents are actuated by religious fanatic-
ism, and fiercely resist the Ameer's friendly
attitude towards the Indian Government.
Bitter rancour, arising from the conflict of
the ardent holders of native faiths with the
professors of Christian principles, has ere
now wrought sad havoc in the East, but we
trust that Afghanistan will be spared the sad
experience of a war in which semisaxage
valour would be made terrible by the ac-
companiment of relentless MosleM hate.

DAY after day many columns of thg daily
newspapers have been occupied by the de-
tails of the Adams-Coleridge libel case,
which, after all, contained nothing of public
interest. Had not the parties occupied such
a prominent position we may safely con
dude that the matter would have been given
very little attention indeed by the reporters;
bat to see the Lord Chief Justice of Englantl
brought to the bar of his own court to an-
swer a heavy claim was far too much a sen-
sation for our sensation living age to be
allowed to pass without every possible pub-
licity. The matter was a purely
_private
one, and we hold that it might with advant-
Ewe have been either held in camera, or gone
unreported. The bare result, or at most, a
short summary of the family suit, would
have been quite sufficient to publish for all
purposes of justice. But there can be no
denying that the people are growing more
and more expectant in their demands for the
minutia 3 of every trial which has the spice of
scandal. It is an unhealthy and far from
pleasing sign of the sentiment of the times.
so much so that the thoughtful are seriously
inclining to the opinion that the details of
such causes celebres as, say, the Scott-Se-
bright suit, or the Colin Campbell divorce
case, would be far better kept out of the
newspapers. Their publication down to the
smallest particular to satisfy a morbid crav-
ing or mere idle curiosity is decidedly hurt-
ful to the community. We regret to see
that no really decisive attempt has yet been
made to stay this growing appetite for the
sensational, which would have severely
shocked our grandparent's sense of propriety
had it obtained in their young years.

ALL readers will mentally congratulate
the Queen on the birth of a son to her
youngest child, upon the eve of the celebra-
tion of the jubilee of her Majesty's gracious
reign. It would have greatly darkened a
joyous year had the shadow of a sorrow
fallen across the threshhold of the Royal
household. Bat gladness has given place
to the anxiety which is inseparable from the
first accouchment of any young mother, and
a tiny new link now binds the heart of Eng-
land to the family of our loved Sovereign.

-FROM England's Characteristic reluctance
to take high-handed. action - against the mal-
practices of the subjects of a foreign State,
both Belgian and French fishermen seem to
have inferred that they may indulge in all
manner of impreprieties upon common
waters with impunity. Things have mil
taken such a turn that serious steps arh
requisite. if French or Belgian trawlers
maliciously destroy the nets of English
fishermen they must be brought to book,
punished, and made to repair the damage
done. We cannot think that foreign govern-
ments would protect miscreants of this class
from proper penalisation. If our own Board
of Trade does not stamp oat this evil, it
does not seem at all unlikely that the sturdy
trawlers of Ramsgato and Lowestoft will
take the law into their own hands.

We have obtained another addition to our
already vast realms, in the form of a little
semi-ocean island lying in the vicinity of the
Red sea. This newest and almost smallest
of one colonial possessions is the island of
Socotra, and will perhaps some day secure us
in our grip upon the command of the Suez
Canal. Were a war ever to break out among
the nations of Europe, the holding of Socotra
mi4ht, serve its sovereign well, for the island
Presents a fine situation for a military Port..
Ia that it is ours it is not, however, of very
high value; but in that it is thereby kept out
of the possession of other countries which
might unhappily in the future put on battle
array against us, Socotra is at least well
worth the hlving.

rHE Socialist scare passsed over London
without leaving a hart behind. The leaders
of the so-called Federation had their stereo-
typed fling against all tliings respectable,
made their usual demand for impossible as-
siAnnce froin the State in imagiu-try neces-
sity, flattered themselves that they had made
au impression, and then -ingloriously went
home. The police authorities vindicated the
law in a dignified and strong-handed, yet
withal gentle manner. With this sort of
treatment, regarding the Socialists as the
feeble, mistaken folk that they are, and alto
gether refusing to take them at their own
valuation, the clap-trap movement will
speedily sink to its proper dimensions. But
if the newspapers play into the hands of the
noisy demagogues by giving them the-pub-
licity for which they clamour, this Social
Democracy may te3ome a menace to order,
not in London only, but in all the great in.
dnstrial centres also. Sir Charles Warren
and his masters at the Home Office have
done well to refrain from elevating the
Hyndmans and the Champions to cheap
martyrdom.