New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-21
AN AGRICULTURAL REVIVAL.

Attention has frequently been called TO the
noteworthy revival of agricultural industry now
In progress In Ireland. similar phenomenon,
no less striking and in some respects even more
significant. Is observable elsewhere In the
United Kingdom. For years the stock cry has
been that the time Of British agriculture IL
past. There has been and Is. beyond doubt,
much agricultural depression. Nevertheless,
there is also in more than one place marked
agricultural revival. Perhaps we might call 1t
n reformation or revolution. For it Is not so
much a restoration Of prosperity on the old
lines rs n creation of new and greater pros
perity on new lines Mr.. Gladstone's famous
dctum that rural Britain must find salvation
in lam. contained at least part Of a great
truth. applicable TO other lands than Britain
The character Of agricultural industry must
change. in accord with other industrial changes.
Lands that once grew wheat must now grow
something else, even the Gladstonan Jam.
And methods Of conducting agricultural bust
ness must similarly change, keeping abreast
Of the times.
The English county Of Essex presents most
instructive object-lesson on these points. SIX
wears ago it was in dlstressful plight Much
of II was out of cultivation, and that area was
rapldly increasing The cost Of cultivation
would exceed the value OF the produce. so the
farms were abandoned. Many farms were
leased for a shilling an acre and the taxes, and
the leases were thrown up by the holders be-
cause even on such terms the farms could not
he made 10 pay Now, however, abandoned
farms are few and land commands good
rental and there is an air of prosperity on all
sides. The secret of the change is twofold. In
the first place the farmers have given up rails
ing grain and other things in which they would
have TO meet foreign competition, and have
gone into the production OF milk, In which dis
tant competition is impossible. And In the
second place they have formed practically
universal combination among themselves TO
keep up prices and TO put the bulk of the
profts into their own. instead OF middlemen's
| pockets.
How great the profits Of the middlemcn have
been may be reckoned from the fact that while
they have paid the producer at the rate OF
only from shilling TO shilling and half
for barn gallon they have charged the
consumer never less than fourpence a quart
Now a "barn gallon" Is seventeen pnts. II
| is evident, therefore, that II the middlemaI
paid shilling, or twenty-five cents for
barn gallon" and resold at fourpence oil
eight cents. a quart, he made 1G6 per cent
profit. That fact explains the great value
OF an established milk business. The cap
ita Of such a business is reckoned at from
SEQ 10 5000 for every fallon-imperial, not
barn gallon, this tlme-sold daily Thus.
milk route selling 100 gallons. or ten OF out
4O-quart cans, daily is with from $4,000 tC
$4,000 according to the part Of the city II
which IT Is situated. Now the Essex farmer:
have formed what might almost be called
trust" They will not sell milk below a Ger
tain figure and II any Of their number canno
dispose Of his product at that figure the Others
pay him, for II at that rate and then feed II I,
the hogs, or pour II into the siDk-anythin.
rather than let the mlddlemen get II nj too low
a price. The result Is that the farmers ar,
now getting good prices for their milk. and ar,
making a fair profit on Its production. Will,
the consumers In the city do not have TO pa
a farthing more. The loss is the mlddlemans
but as he still makes cent per cent profit M
tears need be shed over his miseries. To wha
extent the example OF the Essex farmers nigh
profitably be followed elsewhere IL n question
which each community must answer for itself