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

FARMS OUT OF CULTIVATION.

The Times has published the following article from a Cor-
respondent, which at the present crisis may be read with in-
terest :

The crowd of people in this country with some small
capital which they are anxious to invest is at least a
partial guarantee against much land going permanently
out of occupation. Very few agriculturists possess
enough capital to be able to live entirely upon the in-
terest, and as they, of course, desire to avoid trenching
upon their store, they are always on the look-out for
an opportunity. Plentiful opportunities for re-entering
the business of farming are 110 W open to them; but it
is a curious fact that the same man who, when in a
farm, will put up with every kind of inconvenience
rather than change, if once out is hypercritical in
the choice of another. In his old farm the tenant
endured a dilapidated homestead, ill-construeted
sheds, and a cold, " unkind" soil. Some of the fields
were apart from the rest, causing much trouble to
attend to cattle or collect the crops. The rent was
high, and there was not much disposition to make im-
provements. A succession of bad seasons forced him
to leave, and now, seeing a number of farms offered on
favourable terms, he travels about from place to place,
but finds fault with every one of them. This is too
strong, the soil would want more labour than can be
expended upon it in these days. This is very poor,
thin ; a large crop could never be got off it. A third
is so :far from a station ; a fourth, not well
supplied with water. In short, he wants a farm
made for hiM, and is not likely to get it. His
very experience suggests a hundred inquiries and
leads him to see drawbacks everywhere. So he
searches about, and will, perhaps, at last, if he ever
settles again at all, alight in a third-rate tenancy and
with capital diminished by so long an absence from
business. Land agents and country solicitors are
familiar with this type of farmer. Specimens are at
this hour traversing the counties to and fro, well
aware that they are scarcely ever likely to see lower
terms during their lives, and yet unable to make up
their minds. It is this singularity of character on the
part of farmers that makes a landowner dread seeing
his farms vacant; for, grant what concession he will,
the applicant is still discontented. The very number
of open farms is the reason of their not filling up;
the wandering tenant says he will call again, and
meantime goes further on. But in time the
tenants themselves will lose more heavily by ab-
staining from farming than they could by even yet
worse harvests. Worse harvests would simply drive
the owner to again reduce his rent. Abstention
froui business on the part of the tenant means the
gradual diminution of capital, the loss of the best
years of his life, and of opportunities to place his
sons out to advantage. The farmer would lose no
more by a bad harvest than he would by living
for a year out of capital, meaning, of course, now
rents are lowered. Upon every consideration it
does appear that farmers, once so eager to compete
for farms, are now over-cautious upon the other
side. After a while they will find their places
taken by men, not farmers by profession, but re-
solute enough to take their chances in a business
to which they were not bred up. Tradesmen in
country districts not infrequently become tenant-
farmers, and, as they see the lands lying vacant
around them, cannot but feel that this is an occasion
not to be overlooked. In great cities there are scores
of young gentlemen with a few hundred pounds or
more of capital whose friends are not at all averse
from their becoming gentlemen farmers, and, whether
they succeed or not, they may probably make the
trial. If they do so, and if the run of bad seasons
should cease, or if the haivest for one year should fail
in the United States, they would certainly be well re-
paid for their courage.
For the reason, therefore, of the great number of
persons with some capital seeking an investment for it
and a home for themselves, it does not appear possible
for any land worthy of cultivation to remain
neglected for a lengthened period. Though the harvest
is spoiled this year, still wheat is rising in price,
bread has risen as of old time—though happily not
to that pitch ; and these are signs which will not re-
main without effect. They point with unmistakable
clearness to the possibility of profits, and even now
it is not altogether forgotten that the British farmer
was once the symbol of plump prosperity. Many of
the farms at this moment lying unoccur ied are situated
in portions of certain counties never very famous for
fertility. There are numerous farms the names of
which to this day show that in the estimation of our
forefathers they could not have been regarded as of
much natural value. The name of " Warren " sticks
to them, and warrens generally, not always, were
places where the soil was thin and poor in quality,