The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1872-01-09 00:00:00

THE PRACTICAL RESULTS OF OUR FARMING

AND ITS FAILURES.

The Agriculture of Greet Britain is undoubtedly the
foremost of the world. Our climate is not better, nor
are onr soils more fertile; hut our average mope are
heavier than are resilleed elsewhere. OUT breeds of
cattle, sheep, and pigs are superior to any other. Oar
agricultural maebin..ry is unrivalkol. The capital
employed by our fawners is in co other country, as •
whole, so large. On to the Continental agricultural
shows and you will lee our threshing-mashinee, our
ateam-enginee, Our ateam.ploughs, our reapingomaehines
salt may be contended, even our implements and tools
of oultivation—plougba harrows, cultivators, horse-hoes,
rollers, rakes—our Bhortborne cattle and Lela-star
sheep, or crows of them—all representing the most
advanoed st.g., or perhaps one step bey.md that, of
the agricultural progrou of the foreigner. That great
agricultural improvement of meet soils—the subsoil
drainage of the land—originated with us; end here,
first, has been that limn, we .me, lopment of the use
and manufaetare of artificial manure, which the present
gerseration of farmers haw, witnemod.
But there is another Nide to this picture. What
shall we say of the agrieulture f a Gauntry so out.
raelsonely unable to feed Its inh,ohi!•nts as onrs has
proved? We have 30,407,579 owe pied acres, and only
26,061721 people in Great Britain. We have even
17,250,172 arable awes for the malotennom of that '
population. ¶aktsg the whole United Kingdom, we
have 46 177,370 aerie in the hands of farmers, and only
31.465,470 people he be fed. Let cry one who knows
the prodeoe of hie own quarter...4re garden, and what
i: dote towards the maintenance of his family, contrmt
wsh it this enormous acreage, arohlo ant posture-6.3
acres for y f•mily of five of all apes t'irougliont the
country—and say what he think, of the for, that out
of every 100 loaves that family consume., not more
the, 6,1 have been produced by English soil. West
w.II he ssy of the feet that sine. 1856 62, when the
number of animals, i e., "oasis, cows, and 'elves," Imo
ported varied from 10,000 to 100,000 annually, this
number, ezoluding the cattle plague years, has eines
'nee to upwards of 900.000 Donnelly, and 241,116
hove been Imported during II months of 1871? Or of
the feet that whereas in 1856.7-8, the number of sheep
imprrted varied fro.n 150.000 to 180.000 aanually,
of late years the number has eseemided half •
million, and In the 1.1 months of last year no
fewer than 882,260 landed on our chore.? Or,
to take any other of our staple azrlesltural,
product. as tho test of nor growing or our waning
power, of sgrieultaral produce, we have for many years
been more or less dependent on ether countries for our
supplies of bawls, beef, butter, and cheese. Our
Imports 12 or 15 years ago were 25.000 tons of boson
anti pork, 700.1 or 8000 tons of beef, 20.000 to 30.000
tans of butter, and as mash obese ; since then the
quantities have been more than doubled, and in the 11
months of 1871, of which alone the statistics have yet
been published. nearly 60.000 tons of pork and boeen,
12,000 tons of beef, 60,000 tons of butter, sod nearly
as mush cheese, have been imported from abroad. Or
growing imports of wheat have been inferred from our
remark. on the bread eonsumed. They now amount to
Iron 34.) to 38 million cwt, of whest, and three to five
million cert, of wheat dour, not to 'meek of nearly es
much In point of weight of barley, oats, and maim,
addiog the three together; aril our whole home growth
cannot he pot at more than 55 000 000 out, of cheat,
42,000,00 U cwt, of burley, n0.w0.00 owl, of cot.. We
seed 15 years ago to import from 70 to 80. b. l whoat,
or wheat flour for every individual of our population ;
we now import from 1001 b. ia good years to 150112.
aide*e to bad no's: and in the last 11 months we have
Imported 36,469,535 cwt, of wheat, aroi 3,645,084 cwt.
of 6 our—the highest import previously recorded for •
whole 12 months haviog beer, in 1869, 37,695,828 cwt.
of wheat, and 5,401,535 owt. of 0 ur.
This ecormous import—this great dependence on
other couutries for our food 'apply—dowel{ look like •
prosperous or growing agriculture. It is • paltry com-
fort after all that is gathered from the proof that we
are better farmers than our neighbours., Taken, not
oomparatively, but abeolotely, and considering both
what our land prods's°e on the whole and what It
actually protium. In particular examples, its ootrageons
failure to prodoe. mita-fent for the w nts of the people
living on it is nothing le 4 tha-
There is nothing like it in any ocher of our manatee-
tures, in hardly any other thiag whir* we °Quid produce
for ourselves are our imports oonel/41srable. When the
raw material has to be dug out of tho very bowels of
the earth, or even imported from the other aide of it,
we supply the whole world with our diddled goods
ever and above our own immediate wants. When it
lies immediately beneath us and around es—in the soil
on which we treed, or in the very air we breathe
somehow the usual triumphant 1111.3.14 of fingliob pluck
and perseveranos Is &wanting. We do not even meet
oar own dernauds—still less oan we pretend to supply
the wants of others.
This not only strikes the student of our manafacitaring
industry ; it Is admitted by all our agricultural
authorities. We could hardly quote one more trust.
worthy on this subject than the Bort of Leicester —a
great landowner, • good practical farmer, and a traveller.
Be lately said
:
I have travelled much through goal end and through parts
of kotl..d nod, taking Into °noel !oration the whole of the
lend that I have seen wader cultivati-n, I think I may safely
data that the produm of the lend might be nearly doubled
under a pose( system of agriculture. I have observe I • want
of capital and dull ou the part of the occupier, and an apparent
want of easietanoe and encouragement on the part of the
owner. The buildings were bed and inconvenient, the fields
toe rasa and Ili-erranged. and too often covered with useley
timber. But the twe greaten evil, that in my opinion, pre-
vented the growth of larger crop. were—inferior drsivage end
shallow cultivation'
We do not quote this for tho lesson which it offers
bat for the fast to which it bears witness. The lisnol
is about hall cultivated— that tithe end to which "the
foremost agriculture of the world" has at leeKth
attained I