Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-29
THE OUTLOOK DARK
English Agriculture APP
proaching Ruin.
FARMERS ARE HOPELESS
~
FREIGHT RATES high, IMPORTED
PRODUCTS CHEAP.
No Encouragement by the Government
Opposite Policy Pursued.
in Denmark.
Of The Evening Star,


Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
LONDON, September 20. 1902.
English agriculture Is fast approaching
state resembling ruin. The land owners
are not only without profit from their hold
ingsl but in many cases are out of pocket
each year through the fact that they own
farming land. The farmers, both tenants
and frseholders, are making a hard living.
but this Is the best that can be said The
agricultural laborers find easy employment
and comparatively easy work. The limit Of
wages Is so low. however. that good labor
all goes to the city. The result is a labor
famine on the farms. and still further loss
to the land owner and the farmer.
High Local Freight Rates.
A great cause for this ruin Of British
agriculture Is competition with new coun-
tries. There are local causes however
which render this competition more acute
First and foremost Of these is the attitude
Of British railroads toward local freight.
1t costs less to ship cattle from Chicago 10
Liverpool than from 100 miles inland to
Liverpool. 1t costs more to ship goods
from England to Ireland than from Eng
land to Japan. Denmark can land her agri-
cultural products in London for less freight
than the same goods can be sent to London
from thirty miles back in the country.
The railroads make effort to ercour-
age local trade. They offer no facilities for
shipping market produce. Their system of
collecting freight Is an absurdity in view of
what can be DONE The railroad managers
appear to regard with Indifference the pcs
slpilitfes offered by a free and fair ex-
change of commodities between the rural
districts and the great city Of London
where seven million people are dependent
upon Iorelgn supplies Tor what they eat.
A Good Farming Country.
England Is good farming country The
climate Is not SO favorable as might be, but
lean years are the exception An ayerag,
of forty bushels of wheat to the acre com
pares favorably with the eighteen bushels
OF the United States. or even the twenty
hve bushels Of the northwest. Englishmen
are good farmers. IT, they were not the
land would have all been abandoned to the
rabbit and the pheasant long ago. Even
with their acknowledged skill, however. the
English farmers haye been driven back fy
the superior forces at work against them
Since 1872 the area Of land under cuItiva-
tlon has progressively declined. In thirty
years over 3,UOO,OUOB acres have gone back
from the pillow to permanent pasture. The
acreage OF an crops excepting potatoes and
rye has decreased enormously. Seven
eighths Of the land Is occupied by tenants
and only one-eighths Is farmed by owners
NO land owners are making interest upon
eiAeAi cotilcul equal 10 lnat returned
from government bonds. few Of them are
making interest at all and many of them
are paying for the privilege OF owning land.
Rent Paid for Land.
The rent paid for land, Is high, running
from "a to s12 per acre.. This rental is
eaten up for the owner by taxes and the
cost OF improvements The taxes are enor-
nous and the cost of Improvements may be
realized when it is known that to get
hfty-acre farm ready for tenant at least
G,JOO must be spent for buildings. On the
part OF the tenant the rent is far beyond
the net earning power of the lond. The
landlord must get the amount or let his
land lie idle. The tenant must farm to live
and trust to good luck and lenient land
lord to pull through the year.
Agricultural labor is scarce because the,
farmers cannot pay wages sufficient to
counteract the attractions of city life with
its opportunity for greater earnings and a
chance to spend them in ivelier manner.
The city laborer gets an average Of from
81 to 80 per week. The farm laborer gets
an average of from s. to IS per week. Each
Of these pays for his own living out of the
money received. The farm laborer has
better home and lives cheaper.
There Is no real poverty in rural Eng
land. In fact it would seem miracle to
American farm laborer did he know
what the English farm laborer accom-
plishes with his apparently inf1nitesimal
and clothes for himself and family. But he
can get more money in the city and take
part in the excitements Of life in great
metropolis. The evils do not impress him,
for after all 1t needs intelligence to live hap
PLY in the country, and the English farm
laborer as rule is not intelligent. He
could not very we'll be so, born and brought
up in the deadly mental atmosphere OF his
class in England.
Cost of Raising Farm Produce.
There seem to be very few statistics as
to what it actually costs to raise farm pro-
duce in England. In general way this or
that farmer says he Is losing money II he
does not get certain stipulated prices for
his products. These prices would sound
high to American farmers, as, for instance,
II there was guarantee Of ~ cents
bushel for wheat or barley the grain-grow-
ing sections of the United States would
overflow with money, and yet the English
farmer says he Is losing money If he sells
for less, and he undoubtedly Is. Unre-
stricted competition with new countries
renders his case apparently hopeless.
Protection for agriculture by heavy I'M
port duties is held by some to be the rem
edy, but this cannot be secured. The farm
erS are few and the consumers are many.
There not enough farmers to form a
great agrarian party, hence the govern
ment is needless of their political needs.
It would also be a questionable method OF
tdAiHS the MANY 1oI tle lew thouSn TIC
general conditions throughout rural Eng
land would respond favorably to such
policy.
What Denmark is Doing.
There are causes at work to ruin Eng
lands agriculture other than free trade and
foreign competition, sfor Denmark, small
and equally exposed, country. has built up
a magnificent agricultural Industry In spite
Of free trade policy. II Denmark has
far-reaching SYSTEM of agricultural educa-
ton, government which devotes all its
energies to assisting the. farmers, cheap
transportation. lower taxes and small land
holdings. With an area Of less than ten
million acres and population of less than
two and one-half million Denmark has
nearly 100000 cultivated holdings Of vary
ing size; nearly all owned by the cultiva-