The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-10-28

and could not prevent the farmer
from turning arabic land into grazing
lahu II labor became too dear. Again,
assuming that the state assisted the
local authorities in establishing small
hololngs on farms, these small hold
eFS would reap no substantial benefit
unless English agriculture can be
made to pay much better than it does.
The conclusions that it is capable of
uolnS SO IS based upon the experience
OF who work harder and ap-
parently on more scientific lines else
where, as, for example. in Denmark.
f1oliand and the Netherlands. where
FARMERS can get $1o0 worth of produce
on an average from every acre OF land,
While in England the average product
per acre is said to be only $40,
This great disparity Is said to be
for by the fact that farm
efs on the other side Of the North sea
nave Tor years made use of much
more u~p-to-date methods than farm
ers in England. And yet it is not
much more than a century since Eng
!and ceased to export wheat. I'm to
1ts3 a good season still produced a
superabundant supply for the needs
OF the English population and the ex-
cess was exported. The change from
an exporting to an importing country
was even then in process, and 1892
is usually referred to as the last occa-
sion on which English farmers found
relief in foreign markets for an over
stock of grain. The price of
wheat mat year was between AIS and
45s-an exceptionally low price for
the period, when prices were leaping
up toward the high water mark of
LIS I'd, which they reached In 1901.
But IN spite of high prices and the
very rapid growth of the population
at the beginning of the nineteenth cen
fury, importation remained very low
and was practically stationary for
many years. There was evidently an
increased attention paid to scientific
methods of farming about this time,
since the number of persons fed on
homegrown wheat, assuming a year
" CONSUMPTION of eight bushels a
IN lS0l-10 to 1850. 006 in 1s31-40,
rms evidently resulted from the m
ployment Of capital in improving the
SOIL, in draining and manuring; from
the use of improved instruments of
nusnandry and the employment of a
!neteer system of cropping by rota-
ton. In 1882 English agriculture en-
tered on a revival of it's golden age,
ana experienced a term of prosperity
whlch lasted for ten years and did not
nnaliy disappear in the gloom of a
long n deep depression until 1874
/ II was a time OF great activity. in
] which mechanical Invention HAVING
: developed urban industries extended
Is influence to agriculture in the
I, form OF steam transportation and
= FARMING implements. In the judgment
:. or the best authorities the abolition OF
: the corn laws had very little to dc
! WIN the prosperity, or the reverse, Of
7 conforming to the general truth that
laws have a trifing influence compar
: ed with the large forces which really
: Soyern the conditions of life.
{ speaking Of the great fall in price:
: ana the prolonged agricultural depres,
sion which set in after 1874. a conpe.
= tent English authority insists that The
Y landowners and farmers have suffered
0 more thar the laborerS. The difficult,
r OF meeting foreign competition fel
y heavily on both tenants and owners o
q land. The small owner suffered mos
; or all because he had no hope of meet
: ing his losses either by a saving of rem
or out of his private means. But in
!. cases where the owner was not the cri
: tivator, the farmer was to some extern
assisted by securing a reduction il
rent. The natural tendency was NOR,
! n more to shift the burden from TIL,
: occupier back to the owner of the soil
The annual value of land in Grea
!. Britain. according to the income ia.
= returns, fell by over 10, $685. 900 sterlinl
q between 1875 and 1894; n in tn
: same period the capital value OF Ian
g is said to have fallen from thirty t
e eighteen years purchase of annual val
4 ne On this basis 1T would appear tina
Y the capital value of land fell between
te 1875 and 1894 from Is {, 007 $50, 900 t
IS e1,0I1,s29,2I2-a decrease of 1895.
E. 500, TSS, or about so per cent. On
). feature Of the process of change whicI
{; has been going on is that land own
t ership without cultivation has passe
lin Great Britain from being d grea