Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-09-20
ENGLISH AGRICULTURE.
A Contest Between British and
American Systems.
Ne,r York Ereninn Post

The English Board of Trade has inst
published a summary Of the returns co..
lected last June, showing the general
situation of agriculture at that time.
with special reference to the number of
acres under each crop. For many years
1t has been recognized that the agrlcultlI-
raj interests of England were in a very
critical condition, and that, apart from
the suffering which has been brought
upon the small farmers through bad sea.
sons and consequent partial failures in
the crops, a quiet revolution in English
agriculture is being wrought out, in
which the United States PLAYS no
unimportant part. 1t is practically
a contest between the costly in
tensive farming as practiced in Great
Britain, and the extensive system of this
country; and so long as the contest is
thus limited there can be little doubt
regarding the issue. The returns for
last June show that there were 8. OO3. 915
acres under wheat, against 2,8O5. 500
acres in 1881. This represents an in.
crease of per cent, and taken by itself
would show marked improvement.
But on comparing the figures for 1882
with those for 1880, the increase is ouly
somewhat above per cent. This would
show that the increase over 1881 was
due to an exceptional cause, and this
cause was undoubtedly the heavy rains
of the autumn OF 1880, which seriously
affected the acreage of wheat in the fol-
lowing year, by discOuraging farmers
from planting
Not only is there an increase IN the
acreage of wheat, but there is also an
increase in the product. The average
yield per acre, which is usually taken as
a standard in making forecasts" is
twentyeight or twenty-nine bushels.
But the return has been nothing like as
large for ten years back. Thus Mr..
Card (and no authority stands higher
estimates that between the years 1859 and
1868, the average yield per acre was
tWenty-nine bushels, and in the previous
decade was even somewhat larger But
the average during the period of 1869
1878 was only twenty-five and one-half
bushels, and in 1879 had fallen to about
sixteen bushels per acre. Mr..
Card then wrote that it had
become cheaper for Great Britain
to work only the richer soils
ana 10 depend Tor whatever surplus was
needed upon the produce of America.
Russia or India. While there is no re
turn as yet showing the average yield per
acre, it is not likely to be such as to
affect in any way the question of i'm
porting wheat. A certain amount must
be imported, for the home product can
never be made sufficient to satisfy the
needs of the population. Though there
is no immediate danger of any failure in
such imports, yet it must be recognized
that the nations that now export wheat
consume, year after year, larger
quantity of their produce, which in turn
tends to limit the sources from which
such country as Great Britain draws
its supply. A striking instance of this
is presented by Germany, which was
until 1871 a wheat exporting country.
But since 1872 the import of wheat and
cattle has greatly exceeded the export,
and in 1879 the excess amounted to
$50, 900, 900 marks, such an importation
being aided by the tariff which was to
go into operation in 1880.
A general idea of the condition of the
crop may be gained from the reports
collected by the Marx Lane ErDress dur
the past five years: