The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-10 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER

Farmers have been actively engaged in threshing on
the fields, bringing all the corn to the market, and
this will no doubt be done to a much larger extent if
the weather continues favourable, as it is natural
growers should wish to realize, prices at present being
7s. 10d. per quarter above last year's average. A
large export trade has been done in America, and the
price of red winter is new offering at 535. 6d., includ-
ing cost, freight and insurance. The shipments of
last week amounted to 395,500 quarters. The imports
from abroad during the week were 1,098,337 cwt.,
against 976,431 zwt. the previous week.

Rabbits were more profitable than wheat. These
places, being ploughed up, were let at a low rent, but
found useless when the stress of bad times came. They
have practically returned to their original state; and
we hear now and then of the t. wners contemplating the
breeding of rabbits. When such a farm as this falls out
of cultivation and no one will take it, it is no proof at
all of a loss of confidence throughout the country.
In really good districts where the land is fairly rich
the instances of farms being out of cultivation,
though they may temporarily be out of occupation,
are not at all common. For the most part they may
be found to be tracts of chalk with soil an inch
deep; tracts of dry, hungry sand; or marshy spots
where drainage without vast expense is impossible.
These tracts in favourable times are pressed into
use and bear crops which are not natural to the
spot, as the short straw or spindly roots demon-
strate. It is no great loss to agriculture at large
if such forced growth is abandoned. Indeed, it is
probable that the severe depression under which
agriculture has passed will have the effect of bring-
ing these tracts into a more natural condition. For
a large amount of land may be said to be cultivated
on a traditional system without much regard to its
natural use. There are acres and acres of land at
this day bearing weak crops of cJrn which would be
better employed sustaining sheep by grazing on the
sweet herbage it originally afforded. Acres and acres
of capital meadow land are ploughed deep, and had
better be grass again in these rainy seasons. Acres,
too, of pasture in some places might bear roots
with advantage where the proportion of arable is not
sufficient for the tenant. The sharp compression of
events which has forced cereal crops from places where
they formerly appeared has not been altogether in-
jurious. Moderately well-to-do pasture or dairy
farmers are to be preferred to sinking arable tenants,
with one year of plenty and six years of depres-
sion. The proportion of arable to pasture on very
many farms is quite arbitrary, and the opportunity
of adjusting it will be seized by those tenants who
have succeeded in su,staining the brunt of their
losses. Still, there are quite enough farms out of
occupation, and enough land on sale at depreciated
prices, to give any one who his a mind a chance of
attempting the minute cultivation practised in France,
and sometimes held up as the best remedy for our
agricultural disasters. But now that there is an
opportunity of applying it we do not hear much of
efforts in this direction. The general impression
seems to be that, although many changes and many
additions might be made to the present system of
agriculture, on the whole it will always be best con-
'ducted on a moderately large scale and with consider-
able capital. It is some consolation, at least, to
observe that there is no public outcry against the
tenant farmers as a body of any abuse of their posi-
tion, or of any neglect to do their hardest. It is
admitted that they have done their best, and that they
are ready with English resolution to try again.
Having made these observations, not without hope
in the ultimate recovery of agriculture, there remains
one serious warning to be delivered. This concerns
the singular spread of foot-and-mouth disease and the
constant re-appearance of other diseases in various
parts of the country. A visitation of disease among
animals would prove in all probability far more terri-
ble a business than the worst of harvests. A grain of
wheat speedily multiplies and a hundredfold is gar-
nered. But cattle or sheep once lost are not so
quickly renewed. It is a matter of years to get up a
good stock of either—a fact so obvious that those
who are now hanging back from re-entering upon
farming are far more likely to be frightened at this
new danger than at the old one, to which they
have become accustomed. What is to be done is,
indeed, a difficult question to answer. It would
I seem as if the county authorities are chary of
closing markets and fairs because they are so well
aware of the losses already sustained in their dis-
tricts, and are naturally disinclined to prevent
farmers from obtaining a good price for their pro-
perty. Yet in wider interests it seems necessary
that stringent regulations should be made. Disease
among cattle and sheep would throw more land
out of cultivation than any possible loss from
cereal crops. It is to his stock that the farmer
looks now for his profit, and if he or his friends
will not protect that stock it must be done for him
and against his will. This is the most serious
cloud on the horizon, otherwise, as already men-
tioned, there is no ground at all for despair be-
cause some farms in places where the soil is in-
different are fallen out of cultivation. Could these
be planted with wood (if wood will grow upon
them) it would be an advantage to the neighbours
and a profit to the proprietor, and probably this
would at once be done, only wood is some years
coming to the required size. If the proprietor can
wait he will most likely rind wood more profitable
than rabbits, which in wet seasons are apt to die
of a miserable affliction. Wood, too, will keep till
there is a market for it. The terror of a few farms
out of cultivation should not be allowed to frighten
those who have stoutly held on from their hold-
ings. They should adhere the more tenaciously;
for with rents a quarter or more lower than for-
merly they must in time recoup themselves. But
while the terror of those farms out of cultivation
continues is the time for rctirine.b capitalists to
buy land, for it is never likely to be cheaper, and
with, comparatively speaking, so little reason. The
panic in land is, indeed, unaccountable, and the price
has dropped out of all proportion to the real deprecia-
tion. Looking back through the history of many
eminent county families, it will be found that their
ancestors made use of opportunities in bygone cen-
turies to purchase large tracts for a song while in-
security or panic reigned. This is just one of
those times. The census assures us that our population
rapidly increases, and while that increase continues
land must of necessity soon return to its former
value, and probably to higher values still.