Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-04-26

actually to have caused an increase in work
men of fesh and blood. Before the intro
ductlon of machinery there were only 1000
or 5000 workmen engaged in spinning and
weaving cotton In England. Ten years after
its introduction there were 100000. Doubt
less they left other work to engage In this
new branch OF labor, which paid the better.
But their places were filled, and as wages
rose, 1t became easier to get ones livelihood,
people got married, and, as they say in the
talry tales, had many children. Playfair said
10 1891, that machinery answered for the la
Dor or o.UOO,CO0 persons. Since that time
the number of ''inanimate workmen' has
greatly increased. In 1871 the fixed ma
chlnery represented force of 936 4O5 horse
power, and If we value one horse power as
equal to the work of twenty-one men, steam
power would then supply the labor of over
nineteen millions of men, and this exclusive
OF locomotives and steamships. But while
the English population has increased in the
most surprising manner during the century,
it lacks certain conditions of progress be-
cause it has ceased to be in a normal situa-
ton. Industry has no longer at its back the
support OF an enormous rural population,
and it is impossible that the cultiyatots
of the soil will again form the dense
and cohesive masses which the eighteenth
century would put into line. AT the last cen
sus of England, out of %, 712, 266 souls, the
class of persons who possess or work land
and are occupied In cultiVating grain, fruit or
meadows, or In raising cattle, or in furnish
ing other agricultural productions" formed
group Of ], 559, 1887 individuals only, of both
sexes. Twenty-Five years ago, out of 1000
Engllshmen, ~ were occupied In agriculture;
In 1877 only 20. In the last fifty years the
number OF agricultural laborers has dImin-
ished by half. According to some English
communists this diminution is an advantage
They say that while in France one out of
W. 10 Iob
in Great Britain 20 laborers are enough to
provide food for 1000 inhabitants. This
opinion III. Block does not agree with, for
English agriculture produces food for only
six months. The only good side to the
dImlnulon OF agricultural laborers is that II
has increased their wages without injuriDg
the farmers, who wei c, at the same time,
through the competition of grain imported
from abroad, obliged to have recourse 10
those scientific improvements which have
been of such advantage to agriculture.
THE ENGLISH FARMER.
But everything has limit IN this world,
even the progress of English agriculture.
The extent of arabic laud cannot be enlarged
at will. Efforts can only be made to increase
the product; and the result of conscientious
efforts in this direction, accordingSto Mr..
Card, has been to increase the production
per acre from twenty three bushels, which 1t
was century ago, to maximum of twenty
the maximum because it has rot been greatly
exceeded, and because the product per acre
has diminished during the last thirty years.
In MIR. Cards table of the mean product
per acre of the years IS49 to 1873 we find
that, taking twenty-eiaht bushels per acre
as a fair estimate, for the first decennial
period, from 1919 to 1853, there was an ex-
cess OF four per cent; in the second deem
NAL, from 1859 to 1868, there was an excess
only of three per cent, while IN the third de-
cennial period, 1869 to 1873, there
was a deficit of eight per cent, max
ing a total diminution of twelve per cent.
The English farmer, toe, despairs of IN
creasing his products, for production can only
be increased by an increase Of expenses,
and that through the importation of i'm
mense quantities of grain; the prices are too
low to admit of this extra expenditure. For
that reason much arabic land has b.en turned
into grazing land; four hundred thousand
acres have already been Withdrawn from Gull
ture, and the movement Is going on. At
one time the dimIDuton Of culture in Eng
land was not regarded with disfavor, because
it was said that the distant regions of Amer
lea, Africa and Australia were only SO many
suburbs to Manchester, Sheffield and London;
but with the high protective tariffs which
even the colonies have made against Their
mother country, people have opened their
eyes to the necessity of endeavoring to restore
the equilibrium between industrial produc-
ton and agricultural consumption.
II. BLOCK ON AMERICAN INTERESTS.
III. Block calls attention also to the
want of equilibrium between the agricultur-
lists and the other members of the community
in the United States. He does not find il
such pralseworthy thing that cities spring
up and grow fast In America, for this, he argues,
IE done at the expense Of agriculture. Ac-
cording to the census of 1870 ne finds that out
of % 200, 600 over ten years of age only $780,
coo are occupied with agriculture. This
proportion is greater than that shown by the
census of 1850; but this fact should be no
dced-the agTiculturists in ten years have
only increased eighteen per cent, mechanics
and factory workmen, twenty eight per cent,
and the mercantile class, torty-four per cent
Now, the fecundIty of the rural population
is superior to that of the town population,
and the desertion of rude agricultural work
is plainly shown. "Are we not then right In
saying that the equilibrium is broken be.
tween the agricultural and manufacturing
and commercial industries? The difficulty
threatens to become greater since the pro-
hlbltive tariff has caused the multiplication
of factories In very abnormal manner. If
not the direct cause of the crisis, 1t is at least
an explanation of its duration, and Is, at the
same time, as people begin to recognize, the
indication of the remedy"
RANFTATsRE