Litchfield enquirer., 1879-10-30
WHOLE NO. 2786

though he was complaining of the high price price of farm produce.
 In rambling through the agricultural districts had many favorable opportunities of making personal inspection of the tools and farm ma chinery of some of the best equipped farms,
 and in every instance they all had the same character-that is the tools were out of pro-
 portion for the work to be done, or the weight or strength needed. The English farmers in
 many respects remind one of the implements and farm machinery they use. They are, as
 rule, solid, substantial and easy going. They
 have taken the world and it's affairs in an easy
 matter of fact way.
 English farmers take little interest in mat ters outside of their own business. They are extremely conservative and are perfectly satis- fled with their home form of government, no
 matter whether they are rich or poor Up to five years ago they made money enough to pay their obligations and live comfortably, and they had enough left over to lay some aside for future use. It is natural, therefore, with labor plenty and cheap, that they should plod
 along in the footsteps of their grandtathers. They do not devote much of their time to agri cultural literature 0he agricultural journals | are poorly supportedD, or bother their heads
 over scientific farming. They grow the same crops in precisely the same way their fathers
 
 same yield and profits. The character and
 results of the wonderful agricultural experi-
 ments of John B. Lawes, LL. D.. of Roth- amsted, are more widely read and better un-
 derstood in the United States than they are among the English farmers They have for | the last five years been losing money, and for some time they could not realize that such condition of things could ever come to pass. But the combined force of bad weather and A Dotiti0n h0n aIl hnk 0riV. en many into state of bankruptcy and be- wilderment. They are thoroughly frightened, | and they have very substantial reasons for
 being so. Their present condition is bad enough, and their prospects gloomy.
 As long ago as 1862, Horace Greeley told me that the time was near at hand when l American farmers, with the aid of improved
 modern labor-saving machinery, could and | would place bushel of American wheat in the Eng lish market at lower figure than it could | be raised by the present methods followed in | England, and, moreover, with fair profit to | the grower. The realization of this fact now stares our conservative consins in the face. The introduction of American cheese beef, and pork has been accomplished in such quan- | titles and at such prices as to make these branches of industry equally unproftable. The l rot in the potato has been so general for the past five years that there has been less reliance
 on that crop, and less surface planted this | year than usual, and there is no doubt that
 large quantities of American potatoes will find 1 their way into the English markets during this fall and winter. As yet there has been no out
 side competition in barley ; and it is the only | crop that has not been affected, and many
 farmers intend to SOW next year twice the sur | face heretofore allotted to it.
 It is safe and certainly within bounds to say
 that American farmers, with their labor-saving
 machinery, can raise produce at third less expense than English farmers can with their l clumsy methods. It is also evident that with | in the next five years large numbers of En- | glsh farmers will be forced to emigrate to ! Australia and the United States. The fact is that agriculture in England, once prominent and vital interest, has now fallen to third or | fourth place. Even the London "Tlmes," once the champion of this industry, now hard- | ly recognizes it's existence, and will devote
 more space in it's columns in one week to a boat race between Oxford and Cambridge stu
 dents than it will in two years to agricultural | interests. There are few enthusiasts among
 the farmers who religiously believe that the l royal commission will recommend to parlia-
 ment duty on American grain. But any | one who is familiar with the sentiment of the
 masses of the people on this point knows there | is not the remotest chance of such action, for the simple reason that where there is one farm-
 CT interested, there are twelve persons who
 want and must have cheap bread and cheese.
 -Scra6ners Magazine.