The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1851-03-25 00:00:00

DO THE GRAIN AVERAGES SHEW THE REAL

CONDITION OF THE FARMER?

We believe that there are few of the statistical compila-
tions of the present day which are less to be relied on,
as exhibiting the true position of the agricultural body,
than the weekly Gazette averages of the price of grain.
In the first place, they are obviously made up in a very
imperfect manner. In proof of this we refer to the re-
turn for the week ended March the Bth, from which we
find that the quantity sold in Yorkshire was 10,329 qrs.,
whilst in Lancashire it was only 503 qrs., in Bedfordshire
32 qrs., in Staffordshire SS qrs., in Westmoreland 55 qrs.,
and in the whole of Wales 286 qrs. Such a disparity
cannot be supposed to exist as that shown between the
quantities sold in Yorkshire and in Lancashire, or be-
tween these and some other grain growing counties. The
large sales in Yorkshire undoubtedly include grain for-
warded from the neighbouring midland counties, for sale
in the markets of Wakefield, Doncaster, &c. ; and the
high average price of 375. Bd. in Yorkshire obviously
includes the transport to those markets, brokerage, &c. ;
and does not all represent what goes into the grower's
pocket. Thus, we have quoted, as sold at high prices in
the Wakefield market, the wheats of Suffolk, Essex, Kent,
Norfolk, Hunts, Lincolnshire, and Cambridgeshire, whilst
prices where they are grown are several shillings lower.
Norfolk and Hants are quoted et Wakefield, red 363. to
38s. ; extra, 395. ; white, 38s. to 425. ; extra, 455. The
averages are in Norfolk, 355. 10d. ; and in Huntingdon-
shire, 335. 2d. The prices, at akefield, of Lincoln-
shire and Cambridgeshire are, red, 325. to 375. ; extra,
38s. ; white, 345. to 395. ; extra, 41s. The prices of these
wheats, in their own respective counties, are, Lincoln-
shire, 335. 6d., and Cambridgeshire, 325. It is obvious,
from the above facts, that the real position of the British
farmer is not to be arrived at from a consideration of the
average prices of grain throughout the kingdom, as at
present made up. If we could deduct from the rates in
such markets as London and Wakefield the amount per
quarter paid for railway and canal transit from the places
of growth, the coasting freights, brokerage, &c., we
should then arrive more nearly at the nett amount which
goes into the pockets of the farmers, and which, we ven-
ture to say, would not he mach less than 2s. to 3s. per
quarter below the Gazette averages. In another respect
these averages are fallacious, under our present system of
Free Trade and large importations. Formerly, when we
depended more upon our home growth, the consequences
to the farmer of a deficient harvest in any particular
county or district, were to some extent 4eutralized by the
higher prices obtained for the crop, checked however to
some extent by supplies afforded from adjoining districts.
At present, however, this operation does not take place.
If a midland county has a deficient harvest, and to make
up for that deficiency draws upon another so as to raise
prices, the importers along the coast immediately pour in
supplies of foreign sufficient to swamp the markets. In
this way the farmers of Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire,
and the counties bordering upon our eastern coasts are
realizing just now little above 335. 4d., although it is
notorious that their harvests were last year fully one-
third below an average. The balance sheet in these
counties will show some rather disastrous results.

CAN WHEAT BE GROWN AT PRESENT PRICES
WITH THE LAND RENT-FREE ?

An interesting wager has recently been decided between
two Cumberland gentlemen, Mr. Thos. Rome of Baurgh,
and Mr. John Irving of Carlisle,—the former maintain-
ing, and the latter adopting the reverse of the assertion,
" that wheat could not be grown on the average of soils
in Cumberland at 14s. the Carlisle bushel of three impe-
rials, the farmer having the land rent-free, but subject to
the usual rates and taxes." The jury who were to decide
the question consisted of two Cumberland landowners
farming their own land, one land-steward and farmer,
and four tenant-farmers. Mr. Rome, in support of his
case, put in three statements, which he had obtained
from different parts of the country, the first of which
showed a loss of Is. 3d. per acre on a crop of wheat after
bare fallow ; the second of 95., and the third of 15s. 3d.
per acre—the average being thus Sc. 6d. Mr. Irving
produced four statements, the result of which showed an
average profit on wheat after bare fallow of 13s. std. per
acre, and on wheat after green crops of LI 18s. 7i-d.
The discrepancy between the parties appeared to result
from Mr. Irving's witnesses debiting the wheat crop with
only a portion of the manure put upon the land, and
spreading the rest over the whole five years of the rota-
tion ; and also calculating upon larger crops. The jury,
after a long and patient investigation, returned the fol-
lowing verdict :
" That to cultivate wheat after naked fallow, and sell it at
14s. the Carlisle bushel of three imperials, will entail a loss of
55. 6d. per acre. That to cultivate wheat after green crops, and
sell it at 14s. the Carlisle bushel of three imperials, will leave a
profit to the grower of Bs. 6d. per acre. Assuming that as much
wheat is grown after bare fallow as after green crop, there ne-
cessarily is a profit of three shillings upon•two acres so culti-
vated, which is equal to a profit of ls. 6d. upon one acre. The
decision, therefore, is in favour of Mr. Irving."
One and sixpence per acre What becomes of the rent?
How is the farmer's living to be provided for? The
statements given on this occasion are of the average yield
of land in a high state of cultivation, and under the best
management. A very different account would have to be
given of the result of farming upon poorer soils.

The Bishop of Chester will preach a sermon, on Thurs®
day next, in St. Peter's Church, in aide of the fund for
building an asylum for orphan boys in this town.
A young man, named Hudson, mate of the Pre-
cursor, and a passenger, named Smith, were, yesterday,
each fined twenty shillings for smuggling cigars.
Romistt ZEAL.—A sum of £23 was collected in a cha-
pel in Preston last week for St. Edward's College at
Everton. .

Messrs. Roe and Jacob, of Church-street, exhibit in
their window three pieces of Californian gold, valued at
£lOB.
Several cases of pocket-picking were brought before
Mr. Rushton, yesterday. The public cannot be too much
on their guard. A young man, of respectable exterior,
was remanded on a charge of committing the offence in
Lucas' Repository. He is eaid to be well connected in
Chester.
The annual meeting of the friends of the Liverpool
Industrial Ragged Schools will be held tomorrow, (Wed-
nesday,) in the hall of the Collegiate institution. T. B.
Horsfall, Esq. will preside. The institution, we are glad
to perceive, is very highly patronized. The principal
speakers at the meeting will be Dr. M`Neile, Dr. Guth-
rie, and Samuel Holme, Esq.
STEAM BETWEEN LIVERPOOL AND CALIFORNIA.—
Various lines of screw steamers are already organized for
the trade between Liverpool and the Mediterranean. A
similar comprehensive project, but on a still more enlarged
scale, is shortly to connect Liverpool and California :
the well-known and much-respected mercantile firm of
Messrs. Campbell, Arnott, and Co., (formerly J. and G.
Campbell and Co.) of this town, are making arrangements
for establishing a line of powerful screw steamers between
this port and Chagres. Thence, goods and passengers
will ere long, in two or three hours, be whirled across the
isthmus, by railway to Panama. At this latter place
Messrs. Campbell, Arnott, and Co., have already estab-
lished a branch house. They will attend to the forward-
ing, by the Pacific steamers, from thence to San Fran-
cisco, and vice versa. From the latest Panama papers, it
appears that the first section of the railway, from Navy
Bay near Chagres, to Gatoon, is to be opened by July
next; a further section, thence to Gorgona, by next Jan-
uary ; and the remaining portion to Panama by 1853. It
is calculated that a first-rate line of screw steamers will
perform the Atlantic voyages in as little or less time than
the irregular, cumbrous, and costly West India Mail
Steamers—and certainly at only two-thirds of their

charges.
BEAUTIFUL BABOMETERS.—Messrs. Gray and Keen,
the celebrated opticians, of this town, have prepared for
the Great Exhibition three elegant barometers, of very
tasreful design. The first consists of a design for naval
institutions, representing an anchor and cable, the flukes
of which support the dial, whereon his engraved a centre,
consisting of Britannia borne on a sea horse, accompanied
with water-nymphs and tritons ; and the surrounding
letters, indicative of the state of the weather, assume the
characters in coils of rope. The set-hand is moved by a
brass steering-wheel, through which are seen mother-of-
pearl points of the compass. The indicative hand consists
of a trident and coils of rope springing from the globe,
with equator and meridian lines. It is a fac simile of the
massive one presented to the Sailor's Home by these gen-
tlemen. The second and third are of the Gothic order,
illustrative of the curvilinear and angular, the former
lowing a most elaborated dial, in which architecture of the
florid style is represented, and letters are also introduced
from Mr. Gray's new Gothic alphabet. The base is a
cross, being typical of the support that order received
from Christianity. The third has also a richly-ornamented
disc, and the base on which it rests forms a beautiful
foliated bracket. Their ideas in the structure of the latter
was not only to make an innovation upon antiquated per-
petuations, in the designs of these instruments, but to re-
duce the apparently lengthy form ; in fact, they have
endeavoured to render them an embodiment of the useful
and the beautiful.
DARING BURGLARY AND ATTACK ON A POLICE-
OFFICER.—On Friday evening a most daring outrage was
committed at Allerton-farm, occupied by Mr. Atherton
Green, some five miles from Liverpool. About eight
o'clock Mr. Green, with his wife and family, a female
servant, and a farm-servant, were in the kitchen, when six
or seven rough-looking fellows, armed with bludgeons and
pistols, entered and immediately secured the inmates. The
men were knocked down and held in different corners of
the room, with sacks over their faces. Mr. Green's
brother and another farm-servant, who entered shortly
afterwards, were secured in a similar manner. The bur-
glars then demanded the keys from Mrs. Green, and having
obtained them, ransacked the drawers, and succeeded in
finding £6O in gold and silver, with which they decamped,.
leaving other valuable property untouched. It is supposed
that they remained in the house more than half an hour,
and that they had accomplices to watch outside whilst they
effected their purpose. About an hour after the robbery
one of the country police, named Banks, whilst on his beat
in the neighbourhood of Smithdown-lane, met ten men,
and, deeming their appearance suspicious, stopped them.
Their answers to his interrogations not being satisfactory.
he called in the assistance of a farmer, named Aspinall,
who was with him, and endeavoured to secure two of them.
The men offered considerable resistance, but Banks wrested
a heavy bludgeon from one of them, and gave it to Aspi-
nall. He and his assistant were, however, eventually
overpowered. One of the fellows fired a pistol, which
passed by Banks' ear, and a second was fired at him, but
flashed in the pan. One of the men had a gun, and they
all appeared to be well armed. The men, immediately
the two were liberated, started across the fields in the div
reotion of, Liverpool.