The Portland daily press., 1886-09-07
FARMING ABROAD.
American Competition and the LOT
of the English Farmer.
l otter 70 Boston Commercial BulletIn.

Letter to Boston Commercial Bulletin
Let the farmers of Great Britain say what
they please about their independence OF the
United States in the matter of food supply
Let them parade at will the statistics ot the
production of their home fields and lndla'
Canada, etc, there is little difficulty IN dls-
cerning. ON the part of the traveller in Eng
land from the States, that our exportations
of wheat, corn, hog and dairy products are
tearing their markets all to pieces, and de-
pressing their rents and prices Of their agri-
cultural lands to an extent that Is alarihins
the social economists of the Kingdom
The upper most economic topic in English
Parliament press and social science circles
at the present time is the one great TACT that
English farming must undergo an entire rev.
olution in its methods and machinery if it
homes to meet with any degree of success the
vicissitudes through which it is now pass
ing, as consequence of its encounter with
the farming competition OIL the united
States. ,., -
I have never been so impressed with the
food-producing strength OF my own country,
as [ have been when wandering Tor days
over the wharves and among the stoTehouses
of the great docks of Liverpool, where
mountains of American wheat, corn, cheese,
pork, butter and beef rose about me on every
hand in those localities where the great liners
OF the Atlantic fling out their American car
goes. How many Americans fully appre-
ciate the extent of the increase In American
forming breodth and strength that has taken
place even since 1870.
In the ten wears running between 1870 and
1880 our farming lands have widened 81 per
cent. In the same decade our yield Of wheat
alone has advanced 100 per cent.-from 2oI,-
100000 to 456,000,000, while corn has leaped
from 200, 100000 to 1,772, 100000.
Out of eur II millions of laborers in the
United States, millions are scratching up
on the land, proportion which is as it should
be, since of the l$47, 900, 100000 estimated
wealth of the country, farms and their equip
ments count up about One-fourth of the en-
tire value named.
have entered the low, thatched roof cot
tage of many an English farm laborer-the
typical home of the typical Hodge, about
which so much has been written. Such
cottage is apt to stand near the hedge lined
roadside, under spreading trees and In
quiet retired locality. My tarryings at
iaborers were apt to be in the mgr s-s-.s
some long spring day, when the man OF tne
house was at work far away on lands OF tne
estate to which his hut belonged, tne cnll-
dren, of which there was generally large
family, off at the national or enuren scnool
of the district, and only the hard-working
mother of the household at home 10 receive
The doors of these simple houses were aptto
stand invitingly open, and the good woman
All the head was not apt to wear a forbidding
aspect A pitched thatched roof, often OF
very ancient aspect-a roof OF great ~ tnlcK- ana1,
growing, and in which birds were some-
times nesting surmounted the lowly nome.
Its walls were of rubble or brick, and brown
and messy with age. Vines were frequently
to be seen clambering over it, little curtains
Of muslin were in most instances stretcned
across the lower halves of the small windows
whose easements were Of lead and whose
panes we're diamond shaped.
A very picturesque and a very attractive
and aesthetic home in the0ry-in one OF Ber-
ket Fosters beautiful sketches. But with
me enter one of these humble tenementSr
and see for yourself what really misezable
accommodations they furnish for the hard
working and poorly paid family who live IN
them On the ground floor they contain one
single living room, which is cooking room,
eating room, sitting room and parlor COM
bined, the floor of which is Of uneven nag
stones, and the walls of which are Of rough
stone or brick bearing traces OF having once
been whtewashed. A huge chimney place
intrudes into the little space of this room-a
room containing furniture OF the rudest ana
scantiest type. We should catalogue it as
deal table, swinging deal shelf, two or
three fixed shelves, rough old bench, three
OF four cheap chairs, a stool, a few hldeous
crockery figures on the mantel board, behind
an old curtain the meagre table crockery Of
the family, and the family dron) plate.
At the back of the living room door opens
on a little pnreh- Ike room three or four feet
square, from which stairs to the attic ascend.
In this attic, single room, the sleeping ae---
eommodations of the entire family will often
be found. Here, upon a low bed benches
and settees, they all manage to bestow them
selves o'nights, in a very promiseuous man
ner. AS the head of this household may not
be in the receipt of more than sixteen shil-
lings a week its living accommodations-its
food, clothing and sleeping nxtures, must
necessarily be of the most wretched charac-
ter.