- , 
 
New York 
 
 State College of Agriculture 
 
 At Cornell University 
 
 Ithaca, N. Y. 
 
 Library 
 
Cornell University Library 
 S 455.B36 
 
 The British farmer and his competitors, 
 
 3 1924 000 905 475 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000905475 
 
PUBLISHER'S NOTICE. 
 
 It is the intention of the Cobden Club to 
 publish a series, of books and pamphlets, 
 of which this is the first, suggesting how 
 Agricultural Prosperity, under Free Trade, 
 may be promoted by the development of the 
 resources of the Soil. 
 
THE 
 
 British Farmer 
 
 AND 
 
 His Competitors. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM E. BEAR. 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited 
 
 LONDON, PARIS, NEW %ORK & MELBOURNE. 
 
PREFAC K. 
 
 The author has to thank the Publisher ot the Quarterly 
 Review for permission to republish articles which appeared 
 in that periodical during the year 1887, and which form a 
 considerable portion of the presenf volume. .Those portions 
 of the work, however, have been enlarged, revised, and 
 brought up to date as far as possible, the statistics for 1887 
 and part of 1888 being in most instances substituted for those 
 of 1886. There are, in addition, some new chapters, though 
 two of them contain extracts from papers read before the 
 London Farmers' Club and the Farmers' Alliance during the 
 present year. 
 
 In preparing this little book for the Cobden Club, the 
 author desires to state that he alone is responsible for the 
 opinions expressed in it. 
 
 Streatham, July, 1888. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. — The Condition of British Agriculture 
 II. — A General Review of Agricultural Competition 
 III. — Competition in Wheat-Growing... 
 
 IV. — Our Meat Supply 
 
 V. — Dairy Produce 
 
 VI. — Vegetables, Fruit, and Flowers 
 VII. — The Farmer's Share in his Produce 
 VIII. — The Protectionist Delusion 
 
 IX.— Concluding Remarks 
 
 Appendix 
 
 Index 
 
 9 
 
 20 
 29 
 71 
 
 97 
 132 
 
 140 
 
 155 
 160 
 164 
 165 
 
The British Farmer and His 
 Competitors. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CONDITION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE. 
 
 This country has been suffering from agricultural depression 
 in its acute stage for fully nine years. For some time before 
 1879 there were complaints of the unremunerativeness of 
 farming ; but in that year veritable disaster was experienced, 
 and although the failure of crops has never been quite as com- 
 plete since, lean harvests have been more common than fat 
 ones, and prices have been generally falling. There is, unfor- 
 tunately, no doubt that thousands of British farmers have 
 been ruined, and that most of the rest have lost a great part 
 of their capital. As for the owners of land, it is certain that 
 their rentals have been greatly reduced even when they have 
 been paid in full ; and frequent announcements in the papers 
 have told us of liberal remissions of rent, granted year after 
 year by most of the great landlords, while to many arrears of 
 rent which they will never recover are still due. 
 
 The latest Report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue 
 states that the annual value of " lands " assessed under Schedule 
 A, in the United Kingdom, was highest in 1879-80, when it 
 was ^69,548,793. In 1885-6 the amount was ^63,268,679, 
 showing a fall of £6,280,117. To this the Commissioners 
 add £732,000 as representing allowances made on account of 
 agricultural distress, thus bringing the total to ,£7,012,117. 
 Now, if these figures could be taken as showing the full amount 
 
IO THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 of the loss suffered by landowners, they might still rejoice at 
 having retained a considerable proportion of the increase m 
 rents caused by" the Russian War. Previous to that war in 
 1852-3, the gross assessment of lands, gardens, and nurseries 
 in occupation for income tax under Schedule B in Great Britain 
 (there has been a change in the assessment for Ireland which 
 renders comparison for the United Kingdom difficult) was 
 ^46,571,887 ; in 1879-80, it was ^59,402,479 ; and for 1885-6, 
 it was ^53,359,177- It is clear, then, that up to the latest 
 year of which we have the details the agricultural rental of 
 Great Britain was still nominally higher by several millions than 
 it was before the Russian War. What reduction the aggregate 
 of temporary remissions and landlords' losses would make can- 
 not be ascertained, and if the figures are misleading, landlords 
 have only themselves to blame for not granting permanent 
 reductions of rent after many years of agricultural distress, 
 instead of merely temporary remissions ; for of course, assess- 
 ments follow rents, as a rule, with very little delay. Every one 
 knows that in most new lettings rents have been greatly reduced ; 
 but, unfortunately, tenants who hold under old leases or agree- 
 ments are too generally bound, nominally, at any rate, to pay 
 rents fixed in more prosperous times. Now, it is quite certain 
 that land in this country is not worth nearly as much to farm 
 as it was for many years before the Russian War, and that the 
 total assessment under Schedule B would be less instead of 
 more than it was in LSff-Se, if the fall in rents had been as 
 great as it should have been in proportion to the actual 
 value of land. 
 
 This is a very important question in relation to the 
 position of the British farmer, for whom there is no pros- 
 pect of prosperity until all his expenses have been reduced, 
 as many of them have been, in proportion to the diminished 
 returns derived from his produce. A temporary remission, 
 however liberal, is not equivalent to a permanent reduction of 
 rent, in the first place, because it is uncertain, being dependent 
 on the goodwill of the landlord or the advice of the agent of 
 the property ; and, secondly, because it does not give equal 
 courage and hopefulness in the conduct of the tenant's business. 
 Many a farmer is so utterly depressed by his liability to a high 
 rent which he knows he will not be able to pay in full, that he 
 has nearly all the energy taken out of him. It may even occur 
 
THE CONDITION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE. II 
 
 to him that he will be no better off for any efforts he may 
 make, because if he has good crops in any year he may get no 
 remission of rent, whereas he would obtain one if his crops . 
 were under average. On the other hand, if his rent were 
 permanently and sufficiently reduced, he would feel that he had 
 a chance of making ends meet, and he would see, moreover, 
 that whatever advantage he could obtain by extra exertion and 
 enterprise would be a clear gain to him, as he would have no 
 landlord's relief to look to in the event of loss on the year's 
 farming. It is not unreasonable to believe, then, that it would 
 be to the advantage of landlords, in the long run, not to insist 
 on their full rights of contract as to rent in the cases of sitting 
 tenants, holding under old agreements, but to make permanent 
 reductions wherever they are necessary to afford those tenants 
 a fair chance of making their farms pay. 
 
 It is contended by many authorities that the fall in farm 
 rentals indicated by the Reports of the Commissioners of 
 Inland Revenue gives no idea of the losses which landowners 
 have suffered. For example, Sir James Caird, in 1886, in his 
 evidence before Lord Iddesleigh's Commission, estimated the 
 loss of the agricultural classes in spendable income, as com- 
 pared with what it was ten years before, at nearly ^43,000,000 
 per annum, of which he apportioned ^20,000,000 among 
 landlords, ^20,000,000 among tenants, and ^2,800,000 
 among labourers. According to this estimate, made after con- 
 sulting authorities in various parts of the kingdom, in order to 
 place farmers and labourers in the position they occupied ten 
 years before 1886 in respect of money income; rents should 
 have been reduced by ^22,800,000, instead of by a great deal 
 less than half that amount. It is not contended, however, that 
 landlords should bear all the loss caused by the bad times ; and 
 it is also to be borne in mind that farmers and labourers do 
 not require as much spendable income now that nearly every- 
 thing they have to pay for is greatly reduced in price, as they 
 needed formerly, in order to obtain a given degree of comfort. 
 With all due allowance on this score, however, it is obvious that 
 rents in very many instances have not been nearly enough 
 reduced to afford British farmers a fair field in their conflict 
 with their foreign competitors. In time, of course, rents will 
 come down to their commercial value by the action of supply 
 and demand, and the only choice which landlords have is one 
 
12 THE BRITISH FARMED AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 between allowing their old tenants to be ruined first and then 
 accepting reduced rents, or granting the reductions soon enough 
 to save men in whom they have reason to feel some confidence 
 from the fate to which the exaction of contract dues must drive 
 most of them if prices do not rise. It may be said that a sitting 
 tenant who holds under a yearly agreement may at any time 
 insist upon a reduction of rent, and that many have obtained 
 reductions. This is true in part only. All who have felt strong 
 enough have insisted, when necessary, on reductions ; but those 
 who need relief most are precisely the men who have least 
 power to drive hard bargains. Indebted to their landlords, as 
 too many of them are, and nearly, if not quite, insolvent, they 
 fear that the. unsettlement of a flitting might mean absolute 
 ruin, and therefore they are constrained to hold on as long as 
 possible, even under exorbitant rents, in the hope of better 
 times, rather than face a positibn which they feel to be 
 dangerous in the extreme. This is the reason why, in many 
 parts of the country, rents have been kept up to pretty well 
 or quite their old level. 
 
 It has frequently been contended that a vast area of land 
 in this country could not be farmed at a profit if held rent-free ; 
 but a good deal of exaggeration has been indulged in upon this 
 point. That it is true in the case of some poor, heavy land, 
 expensive to work, not well suited for live stock, and burdened 
 with a heavy tithe rent-charge, may be admitted. The area of 
 such land, however, is very small. If a return were made of 
 farms in Great Britain which have been offered rent-free and 
 refused, I believe it would show a number ridiculously small. 
 Certainly, the acreage of land out of cultivation is quite insig- 
 nificant. The Agricultural Returns for 1887 showed that the 
 area of arable land in England and Wales unoccupied by either 
 landlord or tenant was only 25,284 acres, as compared with 
 43,817 acres in 1881. It is true that these figures do not 
 prove that the land farmed by landlords is farmed at a profit ; 
 but they do prove that there is very little land in the country 
 which no one would farm if rent-free. 
 
 This question of rent has been dwelt upon, to begin with, 
 because it stands at the threshold of any useful inquiry into 
 the position and prospects of British agriculture. The British 
 farmer needs relief from his present difficulties first, and then 
 such encouragement to energy and enterprise as just laws 
 
THE CONDITION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE. 1 3 
 
 and other conditions can afford him. Now, the most substantial 
 relief beyond that already derived from the general fall in the 
 expenses of farming which the farmer can hope to obtain consists 
 in a reduction of rent. Tithes and rates count as rent, and it 
 is certain that no great amount of relief can be expected as far 
 as these burdens are concerned. Tithes have fallen with the 
 price of corn, and relief to local taxpayers is expected from 
 this year's legislation ; but these advantages are small, and in 
 course of time any benefit of this kind will be swallowed up in 
 rent. On almost every other item of the farmer's expenditure 
 there has been a substantial reduction. Wages have fallen 
 low enough in all conscience, and if the percentage of reduc- 
 tion is small, the economy of labour forced upon the farmer 
 has been generally considerable. Implements, feeding-stuffs, 
 manures, household requisites, and even doctors' and school- 
 masters' charges, have been greatly reduced, to farmers at any 
 rate, since the bad times commenced. Then, if rent, tithes, and 
 rates, taken together, were sufficiently reduced throughout the 
 country for old tenants as well as for new ones, the finances of 
 farming would closely approach that general level which would 
 render diminished returns in money equivalent to the larger 
 returns received when all expenses were higher. I do not say 
 that the level will be quite reached - for a long time, at any rate, 
 as there are many fixed or customary prices or fees which are 
 not readily altered. It may be, too, that competition for land 
 will be keen enough to prevent rents from coming down suffi- 
 ciendy for the level to be attained, and that farmers will have 
 to be contented with smaller profits than their forefathers 
 enjoyed, unless they show more energy or intelligence than 
 was usual in the farming of the " good old times." But, that 
 the levelling-down of expenses sufficiently to make farming 
 remunerative again, even at current prices for agricultural 
 produce, may and will take place appears to me certain. 
 
 A sufficient and general reduction of rents not already suffi- 
 ciently reduced would, I believe, with the fall in other expenses 
 of farming, suffice to change that attitude of despair which has 
 too long oppressed the cultivators of the soil in this country into 
 an attitude of hope and sturdy resolution. But other changes 
 are necessary to give our farmers a fair chance of holding their 
 own against their numerqus foreign competitors. Railway 
 charges must be reduced, and for my part I should be 
 
14 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 prepared to* advocate the State ownership of railways, if by no 
 other -mean's the hampering charges on the transport of agricul- 
 tural"' prMtie'e. can be brought sufficiently low. It is of the 
 utmost importance to the nation as a whole, and not merely to 
 the -owners" and occupiers of the land and those who work on 
 it, that the cultivation of the soil should be profitable ; that 
 the forty-tfiree millions a year which Sir James Caird believes 
 to have-been lost, or its equivalent in relation to commodities, 
 should be again available for home expenditure ; and that the 
 excessive exodus of people from the rural districts to the towns 
 should : be stopped. We cannot give Protection to agriculture ; 
 but we can insist on rail charges being made reasonable, and, 
 above all, we can prevent the monstrous injustice of protecting 
 I the foreign producer by preference rates on his commodities. 
 
 Excessive railway charges form one portion of the vast sum 
 which is taken by middle men between producer and customer. 
 That subject will be separately dealt with in a subsequent 
 chapter, and need not be referred to in detail now. A better 
 system of distribution, even under existing circumstances, 
 would turn many losses into profits. 
 
 More important than any other changes required, however, 
 are reforms in the laws and customs of land tenure. Our 
 farmers must have complete security for their capital invested in 
 improvements, and freedom of enterprise as well, if they are 
 to do the best they can with the land. The Agricultural 
 Holdings Act is of very little value, except as an inducement 
 to landlords to allow a small and quite inadequate amount of 
 compensation for unexhausted improvements. The Act affords 
 no security for permanent improvements unless undertaken 
 with the landlord's consent, and it needed no Act of Parliament 
 to authorise a landlord to agree to his tenant making improve- 
 ments which are to be paid for if he quits the farm. Farmers 
 are condemned for not showing enterprise, when, in reality, 
 they can only be enterprising at a serious risk of the confisca- 
 tion of their capital. They are urged, for example, to plant 
 fruit trees, or go to enormous expense in market garden- 
 ing ; but many varieties of fruit trees are several years in 
 coming into full profit, and it is absurd to expect men 
 to sink ^20 to ^40 an acre in other peoples' property 
 without security. It may be contended that it would be a 
 hardship to an owner to require him to pay a very large 
 
THE CONDITION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE. IS 
 
 sum in compensation for fruit plantations which he : did not 
 authorise. Perhaps it would be, thou'gh : nothing would be 
 more certain to lead to the ready letting of his land at a 
 high rent. But if it would be a hardship, because it might 
 embarrass the owner to be called upon to pay a large sum 
 of money, this only shows the weakness of the valuation prin- 
 ciple embodied in the Agricultural Holdings Act: If the 
 principle of free sale had been adopted instead, it would have 
 been for the tenant to find a purchaser for his improvements, 
 the landlord having pre-emption, but not being compelled 
 to purchase. Even in respect of the limited range of improve- 
 ments for which the Act allows a claim to compensation, the 
 valuation system has utterly broken down, and the Act, so 
 far as it has been carried out in cases before arbitrators 
 or courts of justice, has become a laughing-stock. In only 
 one instance that has come under my notice has a tenant 
 obtained substantial compensation under the Act. As a rule, 
 the tenant has brought an extravagant claim for unexhausted 
 improvements into court; the landlord has retaliated by 
 making a counter-claim, nearly or quite equal to the tenant's 
 claim, for alleged dilapidations and deterioration or mis- 
 cropping ; and the judge or arbitrator has reduced each 
 amount to a mere fraction of its original total, so that the 
 balance of one diminished sum over the other has not sufficed 
 to pay expenses. This is no exaggeration, but a fair descrip- 
 tion of a typical instance of litigation under the Agricultural 
 Holdings Act. The fact is, that it is impossible to value 
 satisfactorily, except by means of " the higgling of the market," 
 the improvements made by a good farmer in a long course 
 of years, or even in a few years. If it were possible, so long 
 as the law sanctions the monstrous penalties imposed upon 
 tenants who infringe antiquated and absurd cropping restric- 
 tions, litigation under any such measure as the Agricultural 
 Holdings Act would still be an act of folly. 
 
 Before this country will be cultivated to the best advan- 
 tage, those who cultivate it must be either the owners of their 
 farms, or tenants who are entitled to sell their improvements 
 to the highest bidder, and who are free to crop the land 
 as they please, provided that they be liable for actual damage 
 done to the property of the owner. Not long ago a tenant 
 had to pay a heavy penalty for infringing cropping restrictions, 
 
l6 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 although it was admitted that by his infringement he had 
 actually benefited the landlord. Contracts binding men in 
 this absurd and inequitable manner are " in restraint of trade " 
 and injurious to the community. They could be rendered 
 void by some such enactment as the excellent Land Bill pro- 
 posed and published some time ago by the Farmers' Alliance, 
 in which it was laid down that no penalty for breach of covenant 
 should be claimable except to the extent of actual damage 
 proved. The same Bill fairly and effectually provided for the 
 free sale of tenants' improvements, with only such interference 
 ,with rent and such security of tenure as are absolutely necessary 
 to prevent the confiscation of what the tenants have to sell. 
 
 The passing of such an effective Land Bill as that just 
 referred to would do more than any probable change in the 
 law as to the ownership of land to divide farms that are too 
 large into small ones, because it would make intensive farming 
 as secure as the law can make it. A tenant under such cir- 
 cumstances would have all the advantages, as a farmer, which 
 ownership confers, and all the inducement to develop the 
 resources of the land to the utmost profitable extent; and, 
 with a given capital and acreage, he would have more ability 
 to improve, because none of his capital would be sunk in the 
 purchase of the fee simple. 
 
 Free trade in land alone would do but little to place small 
 farms within the reach of industrious and thrifty labourers. 
 No doubt, if the owners of land desire to retain their rights, 
 they will have to consent to the removal of all restrictions 
 upon its simple and cheap transfer ; otherwise demands now 
 regarded as " socialistic " will become irresistible. But so 
 long as private ownership in land is allowed, a satisfactory 
 division of it cannot be hoped for without the enactment of a 
 just and effective measure of Tenant Right. Free trade in land 
 would mean the multiplication of small landlords, who are 
 generally the most exacting and oppressive of landlords, so 
 that the effectual protection of tenants would be more necessary 
 than ever if all restrictions upon the sale and transfer of land 
 were removed. Unless the letting of land were prohibited by 
 law, no division of ownership would ensure the multiplication 
 of yeomen and peasant proprietors in a rich country like this, 
 because they cannot multiply except when agriculture prospers, 
 and when that is the case the inducement to buy land merely 
 
THE CONDITION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE. 17 
 
 as an investment is too strong for cultivators to compete with 
 wealthy men for its possession. 
 
 Advocates of the multiplication of small holdings, then, 
 should be among the strongest advocates of Tenant Right. For 
 one man who can buy a few acres of land there are a hundred 
 who can hire them. One of the great objections of landlords 
 to letting land in small lots is the expense of building farm 
 steadings ; but many a small tenant would himself erect the 
 few buildings he requires if he had the right to sell his im- 
 provements.' 
 
 In spite of. ail that has been said about the number of 
 allotments existing in most parts of the country, there is in 
 many districts a great difficulty in getting land in small pieces 
 near the dwellings of the people. Farmers who oppose efforts 
 to place land within the reach of industrious and thrifty 
 labourers make a great mistake. If the exodus of the flower 
 of the rural labouring population is to be stopped, what has 
 been well said to be their great want — a career — must be sup- 
 plied. Able and intelligent young men will not stop in the 
 rural districts if their only prospect remains one of labouring 
 during their prime for a bare subsistence, and ending their 
 days in the workhouse. There must be some prizes as well as 
 blanks . in the farm labourer's lot if the unhealthy drain from 
 the country to the town is to be stopped. Moreover, small 
 cultivators are well fitted for those branches of agricultural 
 enterprise which require constant attention and arduous 
 industry, such as the growth of fruit and vegetables. They are 
 well fitted, too, for the breeding and rearing of poultry, and 
 for the sale of milk by retail. In the Channel Islands, where 
 enormous rents are paid for land, there are no large farmers. 
 The average size of a holding in Jersey is about 7 J acres, while 
 in Guernsey it is only slightly over 4§ acres. Yet the occupiers 
 manage to live and to save money, while it is the general 
 testimony that only farmers who work on their land, with the 
 few men they employ, can make farming pay in those islands. 
 
 It would be absurd to suppose that land in this country, 
 where the climate is as well fitted as it is anywhere for agri- 
 culture, taking all kinds of produce into consideration — meat, 
 dairy produce, fruit, and vegetables, as well as corn — and 
 where there are the best markets of the world for the disposal 
 of that produce, will go out of cultivation. 
 
 B 
 
1 8 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS! 
 
 Mr. James Howard, when representing Bedfordshire in 
 Parliament, for the first time gave a clear and comprehensive 
 statement of this fact, strange though it was that no one should 
 have anticipated him in what appeared obvious to all well- 
 informed agriculturists when the remarks were placed before 
 them. He made the statement very much as I have just given 
 it, in a speech delivered in the House of Commons on the 
 second reading of the Agricultural Tenants' Compensation Bill 
 on the 23rd of March, 1881 ; and he amplified it in an address 
 given at a meeting of the Farmers' Alliance in 1885, as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 "Notwithstanding the difficulties with which British agri- 
 culture is at present surrounded, I cannot close without passing 
 in review the several permanent advantages which, as a country, 
 we possess. 
 
 " (1) Notwithstanding the fitfulness of our climate, for arable 
 and pastoral pursuits combined — corn, roots, and grass — it is 
 equal if not superior to any in the world. 
 
 "(2) Although much of the land of the kingdom is poor or 
 of medium quality, difficult and expensive to till ; as a whole it 
 is highly productive, as is shown by the high average yield as 
 compared with other countries. 
 
 " (3) An abundance of labour, and of a more skilful kind, is 
 available at much less cost than is within reach of the farmers 
 of America, or most other of our competing countries — India 
 excepted. 
 
 " (4) With probably the exception of Belgium, we are better 
 supplied with railways, and have greater facilities for carriage 
 than any other country. 
 
 " (5) Our breeds of cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses are the 
 best and most profitable in the world. All other countries re- 
 sort to us for blood wherewith to improve and renovate their 
 own stock. 
 
 " (6) No other country possesses a class, equal in number, 
 capital, or skill to the tenant farmers of England and Scotland. 
 
 " (7) In no other country is there, as in this, a demand at 
 home, not only for all that the land will produce, but more 
 than it is capable of yielding." 
 
 There must be a way of making the land pay, even if no 
 better way than that of bringing its value down to that of the 
 American prairies, and cultivating it upon the rough-and-ready 
 
THE CONDITION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE, ig 
 
 American plan. For my part, however, I believe that we must 
 look in the opposite direction for the solution of the difficulty. 
 Rents, no doubt, must be low as long as land is only slightly re- 
 munerative ; but what should be aimed at is the production 
 of the greatest quantities of food under the most economical 
 methods, which are not necessarily the least costly. With 
 such reforms as have been above suggested, there is every 
 reason to believe that farming would pay fairly, and that good, 
 as opposed to extravagant — intensive, as contrasted with waste- 
 ful-^farming would pay best. I am no believer in a universal 
 system of small farming, though there is no doubt that the 
 mistake in this country has been that of taking more land 
 than can be properly managed with the amount of capital avail- 
 able. This mistake has been brought about by the lack of 
 security for intensive farming. But we need farms of all sizes 
 for the most successful pursuit of the various branches of 
 agricultural industry. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 A GENERAL REVIEW OF "AGRICULTURAL COMPETITION. 
 
 Consular reports and other publications in abundance have 
 lately shown us that agricultural depression has affected our 
 rivals in nearly all countries as severely, or almost as severely, 
 as it has ourselves. If we have suffered most, our bad land 
 system and our dear railways and extravagant system of dis- 
 tribution are sufficient to account for our having been worse 
 off than others in spite of our many advantages. Under fair 
 conditions, and with the enterprise and resourcefulness that 
 such conditions would engender, British farmers, I am con- 
 vinced, can defy the competition of the whole world. Several 
 of their foreign competitors, as will be shown hereafter, have 
 lately fallen behind in the struggle. It will also be pointed 
 out that in respect of such commodities as butter, cheese, and 
 some kinds of fruit and vegetables, it is owing to neglect on 
 the part of producers here that foreigners have gained so much 
 ground in our own markets. Moreover, the records of the 
 last ten years show that the quantities of many kinds of 
 agricultural imports have fallen off, as compared with those 
 of previous years. The table on the next page gives the 
 figures for 1877, for the year of maximum jmports for each 
 item, and for 1887. 
 
 In this list of imports there is an increase for 1887 as 
 compared with 1877 in all but six items — beans, salt pork, 
 unenumerated meat, butter, hides, and potatoes. But the 
 increase in many items is small, and in only eight — peas, 
 mutton, fresh pork, margarine, onions, unenumerated vege- 
 tables, poultry and game, and eggs — were the quantities 
 greatest last year. In most cases the decline since the year 
 of maximum imports has been more or less regularly pro- 
 gressive, or, at least, continuous. The receipts of wheat and 
 flour have fluctuated a good deal; and, of course, with a 
 
REVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL COMPETITION. 
 
 Principal Agricultural Imports. 
 
 Items. 
 
 1877. 
 
 Year of Maximum. 
 
 18S7. 
 
 Wheat & Flour as Wheat. Qrs. 
 
 14.793,740 
 
 1883. 
 
 .9,825,627- 
 
 -18,429,248 
 
 Barley ... . 
 
 
 »> 
 
 3,628,667 
 
 11 
 
 4,609,171 
 
 3.997.6io 
 
 Oats 
 
 
 
 ,» 
 
 4,694,560 
 
 n 
 
 5,512,742 
 
 5,261,360 
 
 Beans 
 
 
 
 ,, 
 
 1,070,847 
 
 1877 
 
 1,070,847 
 
 578,030 
 
 Peas 
 
 
 
 »» 
 
 338,142 
 
 1887 
 
 664,510 
 
 664,510 
 
 Maize 
 
 
 
 ,, 
 
 7,111,490 
 
 1878 
 
 9,723,9" 
 
 7,265,460 
 
 Cattle 
 
 
 
 No. 
 
 201,193 
 
 1883 
 
 474,750 
 
 295,961 
 
 Sheep 
 
 
 
 99 
 
 874.655 
 
 1882 
 
 1,124,391 
 
 971,403 
 
 Pigs 
 
 
 
 »» 
 
 20,037 
 
 1878 
 
 55,9H 
 
 21,965 
 
 Fresh Beef . 
 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 468,887 
 
 1885 
 
 902,951 
 
 657,574 
 
 Salt „ 
 
 
 11 
 
 209,618 
 
 1880 
 
 290,564 
 
 218,437 
 
 Mutton (a) . 
 
 
 9\ 
 
 — 
 
 1887 
 
 784,841 
 
 784,841 
 
 Fresh Pork . 
 
 
 99 
 
 8,754 
 
 »» 
 
 153,735 
 
 153,735 
 
 Salt „ 
 
 
 J» 
 
 294,980 
 
 1879 
 
 400,068 
 
 273,832 
 
 Bacon ... 
 
 
 99 
 
 2,395.223 
 
 1880 
 
 4,387,082 
 
 3,000,811 
 
 Hams ... 
 
 
 ... ,, 
 
 425,259 
 
 99 
 
 947,566 
 
 920,617 
 
 Preserved Meat 
 
 9> 
 
 469,003 
 
 )» 
 
 655,800 
 
 519,180 
 
 Unenumerated dit 
 
 to ... „ 
 ... ... ,, 
 
 130,178 
 
 1881 
 
 178,256 
 
 47,o35 
 
 Total Meat 
 
 4,401,902 
 
 1880 
 
 7,566,681' 
 
 6,576,062 
 
 Butter 
 
 1.637,403 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 1,514,905 
 
 Margarine (b) 
 
 9 9 
 
 — 
 
 1887 
 
 1,273,095 
 
 1.273.095 
 
 Cheese 
 
 99 
 
 1,653,920 
 
 1878 
 
 1,968,859 
 
 1,834,467 
 
 Wool (net) . 
 
 
 99 
 
 1,986,880 
 
 1886 
 
 2,540,000 
 
 2,319,700 
 
 Hides (net) . 
 
 
 ,j 
 
 790.395 
 
 1880 
 
 806,613 
 
 661,951 
 
 Hops ... . 
 
 
 ■ ■ " ■*■ it 
 
 250,039 
 
 1882 
 
 319,620 
 
 145,298 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 
 j) 
 
 7,964,840 
 
 ,, 
 
 9,754,5 I 4 
 
 2,762,958 
 
 Onians ... . 
 
 
 r. Bush. 
 
 L544.807 
 
 1887 
 
 3,649,471 
 
 3,649,471 
 
 Apples (c) 
 Fruit unenum 
 
 jrat< 
 
 •d ".'.}•> 
 
 4,045,691 J 
 
 1886 
 1883 
 
 3,261,460 
 2,660,475 
 
 1,948,843 
 2,479,004 
 
 Vegetables, ditto 
 
 <t) ... £ 
 
 216,463 
 
 1887 
 
 600,882 
 
 600,882 
 
 Poultry and Gam* 
 
 (d)... ,, 
 
 319.994 
 
 if 
 
 721,049 
 
 721,049 
 
 Eggs 
 
 .. Thous. 
 
 751,186 
 
 99 
 
 1,088,380 
 
 1,088,380 
 
 (a) Not separately enumerated till 1882. 
 
 (£) Not separately enumerated till 18S6. 
 
 (c) Apples included with unenumerated fruit till 1882. 
 
 (rf) Quantities not given. 
 
22 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 reduced wheat-acreage and an increasing population, there 
 must be a permanent increase of imports, taking a late series 
 of years with an early one. During the last five years the 
 imports of wheat and flour. have been equal to 88,323,697 qrs., 
 whereas those of the previous five years were equal to 
 82,504,975 qrs., or nearly six millions less. In the case of 
 barley, the average yearly imports for the last five years have 
 been not quite four million quarters, as compared with a little 
 over three and a half millions in the preceding five years. In 
 the imports of oats, the corresponding figures are 3,804,000 qrs. 
 and 3,026,000 qrs. On the other hand, the receipts of maize 
 have decreased by about a million quarters a year in the later 
 period. The falling-off in beans has been continuous since 
 1883, while peas have been coming in larger quantities since 
 that year. 
 
 Cattle have been imported in reduced numbers since 1883, 
 year after year, and the same is true of sheep since 1882, 
 except for a temporary rise in 1886. Pigs are received in too 
 small numbers to count for much, but have never recovered 
 half their number for 1878 and each of the two following years. 
 In the case of fresh beef, the decline has been only since 1885, 
 while the receipts of salt beef have been practically stationary 
 for a long time, taking three or four years to compare with 
 an equal earlier period. Mutton, on the other hand, shows a 
 continuous advance, and so does fresh pork since 1882, while 
 salt pork has come in reduced quantities during the last five as 
 compared with the previous five years. Bacon has never come 
 as freely as during the four years ending with 1881. Hams, 
 after falling off considerably from the quantity for 1880 and 
 the two preceding years, began to run up again in 1885, came 
 close to the maximum in 1886, and again declined in 1887. 
 Taking the total imports of meat, it will be seen that the 
 maximum was reached in 1880, and in five years out of the 
 ten since 1877 it has been greater than in 1887; the decline 
 having been continuous since 1885. 
 
 Turning to dairy produce, the case of butter is complicated 
 by the inclusion of margarine during the first few years of its 
 importation ; but it is certain that we imported at least two 
 million hundredweights of butter alone in 1879 and two or 
 three following years, and that the quantity has fallen off 
 with the increase of margarine. Cheese imports have been 
 
REVIEW OB 1 AGRICULTURAL COMPETITION. 23 
 
 fluctuating, without making any permanent advance, for more 
 than ten years. The net, instead of the gross, imports for 
 wool and hides are given, because we re-export a great deal 
 more than half the wool and nearly half the hides we import. 
 There has been a general advance in the net imports of wool 
 since 1877, of course with- fluctuations. No general increase 
 in hops has taken place for a long time, but a decline for the 
 last two years. In the case of potatoes, the falling-off since 
 the five years ending with 1880 has been enormous, the average 
 for those years having been over eight million hundredweights 
 per annum, whereas in the last four years it has been under 
 two and a half millions. Onions, on the other hand, have 
 been coming in greater and greater abundance since 1882, 
 and so have unenumerated vegetables since 1883. As far 
 as can be judged from values, the same is true of poultry and 
 game ; while the^ imports of eggs have been continually in- 
 creasing since 1879. 
 
 Except for wool and hides, it was not worth while to deduct 
 exports and to give net imports, because, as the exports of 
 other commodities have been both small and without important 
 fluctuations, as a rule, they do not materially affect the question 
 of foreign competition. It may be remarked, however, that, 
 while we import a few more horses than we export, the value 
 of those we send away is more than double, and in 1887 was 
 more than treble, that of the animals we receive. 
 
 The proportion of the foreign to the total supply of wheat 
 and flour, all reckoned as wheat, was a little less than two- 
 thirds in the first five years after 1877, and a little over two- 
 thirds in the last five years. Of barley the proportion was 
 about two-sevenths during the last three years, and of oats not 
 quite one-sixth. According to Major Craigie's paper on " Our 
 Foreign Meat Supplies " the total foreign supply of meat, if 
 the rate of consumption had remained constant, would have 
 sufficed to feed 27 per cent, of the population in 1886, as 
 compared with about 8 per cent, twenty years before. He subse- 
 quently shows, however, that the foreign importation must not 
 be put as high as 27 per cent, of the total meat supply for 
 1886. Indeed, he put it at 25-3 per cent, for 1885, and as the 
 imports of meat alive and dead were smaller in 1886 than in 
 1885, while the home supply was not much less in 1886 than 
 in the previous year, the proportions for the two years cannot 
 
2/| THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 be far apart. In a calculation which I made for 1886, I 
 brought out a percentage of 25-4 as the proportion ot the 
 foreign to the total supply. Sir James Caird made a calcula- 
 tion for 1877 which brought out a percentage of 207 as that 
 of the foreign supply. Then, if it was 8 for 1866, 207 for 
 1877, and 25'4 for 1886, the increase was 127 per cerit. in the 
 eleven years ending with 1877, and only 47 per cent, in the 
 nine years ending with 1886. It is to be borne in mind, too, 
 that half our imports, according to Major Craigie, consists of 
 the flesh of the pig, so that when allowance is made for 
 preserved meat, it is obvious that the foreign proportion of our 
 supply of what is called "butcher's meat" is but small. 
 Major Craigie makes the foreign beef 16 per cent, of all the 
 beef consumed, or about 8 per cent, of the total meat supply, 
 as far as I can make out from his figures showing the proportion 
 of the population fed by foreign beef. As to mutton, the 
 percentage is somewhat less. As nearly as I can tell from 
 Major Craigie's figures, it is about 14 per cent, of the total 
 mutton consumed in 1886, and less than 4 per cent, of the 
 total meat consumption. These and other calculations are more 
 fully dealt with in a subsequent chapter, and are only summarily 
 referred to here as bearing upon the general view of agricultural 
 competition. 
 
 As there are no means of ascertaining with any approach 
 to exactness the quantities of butter and cheese produced in 
 the United Kingdom, it is impossible to state accurately the 
 proportions of the foreign supplies. Following a calculation 
 made by Professor Sheldon for 1876, and allowing for difference 
 in the number of cows, in getting at the home production, 
 while taking official figures for the imports, I have calculated, 
 as will be seen from the details supplied in a subsequent chapter, 
 that the home supply of butter was equal to 6-05 lb., and the 
 foreign supply of butter and margarine to 5-52 lb. per head of 
 the population in 1876, while the corresponding figures for 
 1886 are 5-85 lb. home and 7-16 lb. foreign. Thus the foreign 
 proportion has considerably advanced, though only through 
 the consumption of margarine, as already pointed out. The 
 corresponding figures for cheese are as follows : — Home pro- 
 duce, 8-53 lb. per inhabitant in 1876, and 8-27 lb. in 1886 ; 
 foreign, 5-01 lb. in 1876, and 5-14 lb. in 1886. In cheese, 
 then, as well as in butter, if these figures are approximately 
 
REVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL COMPETITION. 
 
 25 
 
 correct, the home supply has failed to keep pace with the 
 population. 
 
 What conclusions are to be derived from the statistics here 
 presented? As a whole, of course, they show that foreign 
 competition has been in great part accountable for reduced 
 prices, and this is especially true of wheat and flour. But a 
 few remarks will suffice to show that the fall in values is much 
 greater than any increase of imports can account for. Even 
 in the case of wheat and flour together, there is by no means 
 so close a connection between the quantities imported and the 
 prices realised as is commonly supposed. In the following 
 table I show the imports and average price for each of the last 
 eleven years, side by side : — 
 
 Imports of Wheat and Flour. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Flour as Wheat. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Average 
 Price. 
 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 1877 
 
 12,523,800 
 
 2,269,940 
 
 14.793.740 
 
 56 9 
 
 1878 
 
 11,516,881 
 
 2,408,640 
 
 13.925.521 
 
 46 5 
 
 1879 
 
 13,752,000 
 
 3,301,000 
 
 17,053,000 
 
 43 10 
 
 1880 
 
 12,752,752 
 
 3,248,719 
 
 16,001,471 
 
 44 4 
 
 1881 
 
 13.187,984 
 
 3.494.589 
 
 16,682,573 
 
 45 4 
 
 1882 
 
 14,824,900 
 
 4,017,510 
 
 18,842,410 
 
 45 1 
 
 1883 
 
 14,801,223 
 
 5,024,404 
 
 19,825,627 
 
 41 7 
 
 1884 
 
 10,916,805 
 
 4,639,400 
 
 15,556,205 . 
 
 35 8 
 
 1885 
 
 14,181,646 
 
 4,871,644 
 
 i9,o53. 2 9o 
 
 32 10 
 
 1886 
 
 10,939,464 
 
 4,519.863 
 
 15.459,327 
 
 31 
 
 1887 
 
 12,873,389 
 
 5.555,859 
 
 18,429,248 
 
 32 6 
 
 I have already compared the total for the last five years with 
 that of the first five after 1877. If we add the estimated home 
 supplies available for consumption, we get at totals of 1 28,800,975 
 qrs. for the earlier period, and 130,418,697 for the later one. 
 This increase of a little over one and a half million quarters, or 
 about three-tenths of a million per annum, is scarcely sufficient 
 to account for a fall from 44s. id. in 1882 to 32s. 6d. in 1887, 
 because the increase was only just about sufficient to feed the 
 increase in the mean population, which was nearly two millions 
 greater for the later than for the earlier period. Moreover, 
 apart from any difference in reserve stocks at the beginning of 
 
26 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 one period as compared with the other (which could not have 
 amounted to much for five years), the quantity per head of the 
 population was less in the second period than in the first. It 
 may be said that we could have had more in the second period 
 if we had wanted it, and that the fall in price was affected by 
 the knowledge of that fact. Perhaps this is true ; but the world's 
 supplies of wheat relatively to population have certainly not 
 been as large during the last five years as they were in the 
 previous five, and there was evidently less disposition on the 
 part of foreigners to send us more than we required in the 
 second period of low prices than there was in the first period 
 of moderate prices. 
 
 With respect to barley, the small addition to our total sup- 
 plies due to foreign imports can scarcely be said to account for 
 a fall from 40s. 2d. in 1878 to 25s. 4d. in 1887. The use of 
 malt substitutes in brewing, and the cheapness of feeding stuffs 
 which have taken the place of barley, have had more to do with 
 its fall. The latter cause may also be said to have had more 
 effect upon the price of oats — 25s. nd. in 1877 and 16s. 3d. 
 in 1887 — than the increase of imports. 
 
 As to the fall in the prices of cattle and fresh meat, it has 
 been actually contemporaneous with a decrease in the supplies. 
 It is only within the last three years that prices have been low, 
 and our imports have been actually smaller, taking live stock 
 and fresh meat together, during that period than they were 
 during the preceding three years. The cattle imported in the 
 last three years amounted to a total of 988,661, as compared 
 with 1,243,956 in the previous three years ; sheep numbered 
 2 >7 6l , 2 54 in the later period, against 3,185,548 in the earlier 
 one; and pigs, 59,838, against 81,070. These decreases 
 together imply a reduction of nearly two and a half million 
 hundredweights of meat, against which we have to set increases 
 of 280,294 hundredweights of beef, 1,081,619 of mutton, and 
 I 75>S 1 4 of f resn pork, or about one and a half million hundred- 
 weights altogether for the last three years as compared with the 
 preceding three. Thus, there is a net decrease of about a 
 million hundredweights. What, then, has caused the fall in 
 prices of live stock and meat ? Chiefly, I believe, the general 
 depression of trade, and the lack of full employment for the 
 people, besides which we have to reckon the appreciation of 
 gold, which has affected the value of nearly all commodities. 
 
RKVIEW OF AGRICULTURAL COMPETITION. 2? 
 
 The recent low price of butter may be attributed almost 
 entirely to the fraudulent sale of the bogus article as the real 
 one. It remains to be seen whether the Margarine Act will 
 check the consumption of margarine. At present, there has 
 not been time for the influence of the measure to be ascertained. 
 There is no objection to the sale of the commodity under its 
 proper name, and if consumers choose to buy it instead of pure 
 butter, dairy-farmers must accept their verdict. Good butter, 
 however, has this year kept up its price pretty well. Cheese, 
 like butter, is selling well now, but was a little lower in value in 
 1885 and 1886 than it had been for some time before. This, 
 however, was not because of increased foreign competition, 
 for the total imports of the last three years have been 5,403,189 
 cwts., against 5,421,516 cwts. for the previous three years. No 
 doubt the people have eaten more margarine and less cheese, 
 or the home supplies of the latter have become greater, or we 
 must account for the fall by the appreciation of gold. There 
 is no getting over the fact that the prices of dairy produce were 
 satisfactory till three years ago, and that since then the imports 
 of genuine butter and cheese have fallen off. They will have 
 to increase again, however, unless our dairy farmers meet the 
 demands of the growing population. 
 
 With respect to hops, the recent low prices certainly cannot 
 be attributed to increase of imports, but are due rather to the 
 use by brewers of "hop substitutes'. Foreign competition in 
 vegetables, excepting potatoes, has continued to increase, the 
 maximum imports being those of 1887. They consist chiefly 
 of early produce, of which we might grow more at home if we 
 adopted the system of forcing pursued in the Channel Islands 
 and France. In proportion to the total supply, our imports 
 of vegetables are extremely small. Potatoes, as the total 
 shows, came from foreign countries in 1887 in much smaller 
 quantity than in 1882, and there has been a large decrease from 
 the maximum in other years. It is chiefly new potatoes, from the 
 Channel Islands and elsewhere, that we import, and in the 
 south of England and Ireland tubers nearly, or quite, as early 
 could be grown — as some are in Cornwall. There has been a 
 steady increase in imports of fruit, though with fluctuations, 
 especially in the case of apples. Australia and Tasmania are 
 now preparing to increase our fruit supply ; but our garden 
 farmers might keep out a great deal of the foreign and Colonial 
 
28 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 contributions if they showed more enterprise. The lack of 
 security for tenants' improvements, as has already been pointed 
 out, is a great impediment to the increase in the home supply 
 of fruit. When security can be obtained, the production of 
 the best varieties of apples and pears would pay well ; but 
 great improvements are needed also in the storing, sorting, and 
 packing of fruit. Recently attention has been called to this 
 subject among the Kent growers, and to the drying and 
 preservation of fruit in various ways. With respect to poultry 
 and eggs, there is nothing so likely to increase home production 
 as the multiplication of small holdings. Wool and hides our 
 stock-keepers must be content to regard as by-products ; their 
 main objects being the production of meat, milk, butter, and 
 cheese. Our Colonies and North and South America can 
 unquestionably produce hides and wool more cheaply than 
 farmers in this country can. 
 
 Having shown in this general review of agricultural 
 competition that the positions of the British produce is by no 
 means one of despair, I proceed to deal more in detail with 
 the principal divisions of agricultural production. 
 
20 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 
 
 Growing wheat at a loss is an operation that cannot be per- 
 sisted in by farmers on an extensive scale for a prolonged 
 period, and it is not surprising that, after four years of un- 
 remunerative prices, many British growers of the principal 
 cereal are disposed to regard their struggle with foreign and 
 Colonial competitors as almost, if not quite, hopeless. That 
 but very few farmers in the United Kingdom have been able 
 to grow wheat without loss during the four years in question is 
 generally admitted. Indeed, when the high rents and other 
 expenses of years further back are considered, it is not too 
 much to say that wheat-growing has failed to yield a living 
 profit in this country for the ten years ending with 1887. Any 
 one doubting this statement has only to look at the figures in 
 the Agricultural Returns — bearing in mind the fondness of 
 farmers for wheat, as a ready-money crop, and as almost indis- 
 pensable on account of the usefulness of its straw — and he will 
 doubt no longer. Since 1877 the area of the wheat crop of 
 the United Kingdom has decreased by 851,216 acres, or by 
 nearly 27 per cent. ; and this was not because other corn crops 
 paid well, for the net decrease in the area under all kinds of 
 corn during the period has been 1,064,235 acres, which quan- 
 tity has been absorbed in the increase of permanent pasture, 
 cultivated grasses, and clover. But rents have gone down 
 greatly since 1876, and farmers have learned how to cut down 
 expenses in many ways, so that wheat would probably be 
 grown now as extensively as it was cultivated ten years ago, 
 and perhaps a great deal more extensively, if farmers expected 
 prices to range as they were from 1876 to 1882 inclusive. 
 During that period the lowest annual average price was 44s. 4d. 
 a quarter, and the highest 56s. od., the latter price being 10s. 
 more than that of any other year of the seven. It might even 
 
30 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 be expected that the wheat area would become larger than it 
 is, if there existed a general belief that the average price would 
 not usually be below 40s. a quarter, provided that British 
 farmers were placed in a fair position for producing as cheaply 
 as possible. 
 
 It is obvious that the rents readily paid when the average 
 price of wheat usually ranged above 50s. cannot be expected if 
 prices are likely to be 20 per cent, lower. As already stated, 
 rents have fallen very generally in most parts of Great Britain, 
 to say nothing of Ireland, and the fall has been greatest in the 
 principal wheat-producing counties. When the rents paid by 
 sitting tenants have been brought down to the level of those 
 charged in new lettings, there will not be much cause for com- 
 plaint on* that score. Next, it may be stipulated that enterprise 
 should be more generally encouraged than it is, by granting the 
 reforms referred to. as necessary in the first chapter. As it is 
 certainly very much to the disadvantage of the country that 
 land should be diverted from arable cultivation to grass, the 
 non-agricultural classes will be wise, even from a selfish point 
 of view, if they not only refrain from . opposing, but earnestly 
 help forward, any reasonable reforms or concessions which will 
 give farmers a fair chance of meeting foreign competition. 
 
 In proceeding to consider what grounds there are for 
 expecting that, under fair conditions, wheat in the future may 
 be profitably produced in this country, the cost of growing the 
 crop is, of course, the first point to be dealt with. Now, the 
 circumstances of farming, under the general heads of expenses 
 and returns, vary so greatly, even in our own country, that it is 
 impossible to state with precision what the minimum or the 
 average cost of producing an acre of wheat is. Indeed, it is 
 not too much to say that very few farmers know what it costs 
 them individually to grow wheat. This is not so surprising as 
 outsiders might deem it, as it is by no means easy to calculate 
 the cost of one crop out of a series. For instance, it is not 
 easy to calculate the cost of manure made in the farmyard and 
 applied to the wheat crop, and it is a much less simple matter 
 to estimate the value of the residue of fertility left from the 
 manure applied to a preceding crop. Again, it is difficult to 
 apportion the miscellaneous expenses of a farm, which cannot 
 be charged to any particular crop or even field. Yet, if certain 
 rules of valuation were uniformly followed, estimates close 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 31 
 
 enough for their purpose might be made. An effort to obtain 
 such estimates from growers of wheat in all the principal pro- 
 ducing districts of England was made- by the Mark Lane 
 Express in 1885, and the returns collected were published in 
 that journal. Although, unfortunately, many of the con- 
 tributors failed to follow the directions intended to secure 
 uniformity of method, there is safety in numbers, and it may 
 perhaps be assumed that the errors were mutually corrective to 
 a great extent. At any rate, the returns are the most complete 
 of their kind ever collected, and it is worth while to give them 
 some consideration. 
 
 For all England the average expense of producing the 
 wheat crop came out at ^8 os. 7& an acre, and the average 
 returns at £8 2s. 7d., wheat being uniformly valued at 36s. a 
 quarter. There was thus an average profit of 2s. an acre ; but 
 no interest on capital was charged, and comparatively few 
 returns showed any profit, except when straw was sold. It is 
 also to be observed that, out of 200 returns, only a dozen put 
 the rent at less than ^ian acre, although thirty-seven out of 
 the forty English counties were represented. Several charged 
 for rent over £2 an acre, and some much higher amounts. If 
 similar returns were collected now, rents would undoubtedly 
 come out lower, and if wheat-growing is to pay in England, 
 the average rent should be below, rather than above, jQ\ per 
 acre. Tithe rent-charge varied from a few pence to 10s. an 
 acre, the average being a little over 4s. Rates and taxes 
 ranged in amount from is. 2d. to 11s. in extreme instances, 
 though the average, when taken for three groups of counties, 
 the Eastern and South-Eastern, the Western and South- 
 Western, and the Midland, came out at 4s. 6d. an acre in e*ach 
 case, while it was 3s. 6d. for the North- Western group. The 
 cost of manuring was most commonly put at £2 to ^3 an 
 acre: Now, the higher of these amounts is not enough to 
 charge for farmyard manure, if the selling value of the straw 
 used in making it be charged ; but then a large proportion of 
 the correspondents could not sell straw, their agreements for- 
 bidding the sale, and in their case it was proper to charge only 
 consuming value. Besides, the whole value of a good dressing 
 of farmyard manure ought not to be charged to the crop to 
 which it is applied. In this connection it may be mentioned 
 that wheat has been grown continuously for several years on 
 
32 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 certain plots at Woburn, under the management of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society, at a cost of less than £2 per acre for 
 manure, yielding, on an average, during the last five years, 
 30*9 bushels per acre, which is two bushels above the " ordinary 
 average" yield for England, according to the Agricultural 
 Department. Under a system of rotation of crops, land less 
 fertile than that at Woburn, if kept as free from weeds, would 
 yield as well with the same manuring. 
 
 In order to afford some idea of the general run of the esti- 
 mates, we give the average expenses, under general heads, as 
 returned by eighty-five growers living in eleven of the principal 
 wheat-producing counties — Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Norfolk, 
 Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Kent, Berkshire, Surrey, Sussex, 
 and Hampshire : — 
 
 Rent and tithes 
 
 Rates and taxes 
 
 Manure 
 
 Seed, cultivation, &c. 
 
 Total expenses per acre £& 10 9 
 
 It will be seen that the expenses in these counties were higher 
 than the average for England as a whole. The receipts were 
 also a little over average, but not sufficiently above to prevent 
 loss, as shown below : — 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Grain 6 16 o 
 
 Straw 1 12 o 
 
 £ *■ 
 
 d. 
 
 1 15 
 
 7 
 
 s 
 
 
 
 2 12 
 
 6 
 
 3 «7 
 
 8 
 
 Total receipts per acre j£8 8 o 
 
 The last item in the expenses, it may be explained, includes 
 the cost of ploughing, drilling, harrowing, hoeing, harvesting, 
 thatching, threshing, dressing, and marketing. The rent was 
 far too high for the circumstances of farming, and straw, in 
 most cases, must have been consumed on the farms. The 
 average yield was 3of bushels an acre, and with that rate of 
 production 40s. a quarter would have turned the loss of 2 s. yd. 
 an acre into a profit of 1 2s. 3d., from which, however, interest on 
 capital ought to be deducted, as it is not charged in the expenses. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that nearly all the contributors to the 
 returns who showed a profit of over^i an acre — and several 
 showed one of £2 to £$ — were allowed to sell straw, and 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 33 
 
 charged it at selling price on the credit side of their balance- 
 sheets. In several instances straw was valued at £3 10s. to 
 £4. 10s. per acre, and in two or three at over ,£5, or about 
 three-fourths as much as the value of the grain. The liberty to 
 sell straw, therefore, is an important element in the- question of 
 the ability of British farmers to meet foreign competition in the 
 production of wheat. Unfortunately the rail rates for straw are, 
 as a rule, so enormous, that if it is worth only 30s. a ton in the 
 Eastern Counties, and sells at £4 or more in the Potteries, the 
 rail expenses are too heavy to allow of its being sent to the 
 dearer market. This is one of the numerous examples of the 
 repression of agricultural enterprise by railway companies' ex- 
 tortions. As a rule, it does not pay farmers who are distant 
 from a large town to sell straw, unless they have water-carriage. 
 In his evidence given before the Royal Commission on 
 Depression of Trade and Agriculture, Sir James Caird ex- 
 pressed the opinion that " good wheat land, when the rent is 
 re-arranged, will continue to be cultivated even at 36s. a 
 quarter," as the price of wheat. " The straw," he added, " is 
 of considerable value in many parts of the country," and the 
 possibility of selling it at a good price evidently entered into his 
 calculations. Now,_36s. a quarter was the price taken for the 
 valuation of the grain in the returns above referred to, although 
 it was above the average market price which was then or has 
 been since (up to the end of July, 1888) generally current; and 
 it has already been stated that several correspondents showed a 
 satisfactory profit through the sale of straw. But at 36s. only the 
 best of the wheat lands would pay a living profit, and the wheat 
 area will certainly continue to decrease in this country if that is 
 to be the maximum quotation for the grain. Even with rents 
 and other expenses reduced (and they have been reduced since 
 the estimates above referred to were made up)> it is doubtful 
 whether wheat can be grown in this country at much, if any, 
 less than an average of ^7 10s. an acre, including interest on 
 capital and other charges apt to be lost sight of in drawing up 
 a balance-sheet. Any farmer who keeps strict accounts knows 
 that there are heavy expenses on a farm which cannot be 
 charged to any particular crop ; such as repairs, the cost of a 
 hackney, the wages of a groom and foreman, insurance, the 
 farmer's expenses in going to market, and various other items, 
 which amount altogether to a considerable sum in a year, 
 C 
 
34 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Scarcely any of the correspondents appear to have charged 
 enough for their wheat crop's share in these miscellaneous 
 expenses. Then, in charging the rent, it is not enough to 
 debit the average rent per acre of the whole farm, outside 
 measurement, to the wheat crop, which is grown on the best of 
 the land. It is usual to reckon on 10 per cent, of loss on the 
 landlord's measurement in roads, fences, yards, and waste, and 
 often there is besides more or less land that is a "make- 
 weight " to the farm, not paying for the average rent. To get 
 at the real rent of the working and paying acreage, then, it is 
 necessary to divide the gross rent by the number of acres which 
 can be relied upon to pay the rent. Suppose, for instance, that 
 a farm of 250 acres is let at ^250 per annum, it will usually 
 be necessary to deduct 25 acres, leaving 225, and charging 
 these with a rent of £1 2s. instead of £1 an acre. 
 
 The "ordinary average" yield of the wheat crop in England; 
 is nearly 29 bushels an acre, which, at 36s. a quarter (4s. 6d. a 
 bushel^, would return £fi 10s. 6d. If we allow £2 an acre for 
 straw (which is as much as ought to be allowed on the aver- 
 age, seeing that a farmer requires some of his wheat-straw for 
 thatching, and has to deduct the cost of binding and carting- 
 out from the gross receipts), the total amounts to £8 10s. 6d., 
 leaving a profit of only^i os. 6d. if the expenses are ^7 10s. 
 That is scarcely a " living profit." Bearing in mind the fact 
 that crops fed on the land or in the yards, as a rule, do not 
 yield any profit beyond the manure left by the animals which 
 have consumed them, it is not extravagant to name £2 an acre 
 as a minimum satisfactory margin for interest and profit on the 
 wheat crop, at any rate, when straw as well as grain is sold off 
 the land, and to insure such a return the price of wheat should 
 be about 40s. a quarter. Probably the present area of the 
 wheat crop would be kept up at a lower price ; but to restore 
 the acreage of 1877, at least 40s. would probably be necessary. 
 On the whole, it can scarcely be profitable to grow wheat here 
 at a lower range of prices than 36s. to 40s. 
 
 No doubt many readers will be disposed to regard this 
 statement as a verdict of extinction for wheat-growing in 
 England. It is the object of this chapter,. however, to show 
 that the foreign wheat supply is not any more likely to be 
 kept up than the home supply is at a lower range of prices 
 than the one referred to. During the period of our vanishing 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 35 
 
 wheat acreage, imports of wheat have increased so enormously, 
 in spite of falling prices during a portion of the period, that 
 people are apt to think that we can obtain all we require at 
 almost any price. la 1866-7 our imports of wheat and flour, 
 less exports, were equal to only 7,600,000 qrs. of wheat, and 
 it was not till after 1872 that we began to receive over ten 
 million quarters. In 1882-3 the quantity was 19,953,000 qrs. ; 
 in the following year, 15,816,000 qrs. ; in 1884-5, 18,001,000 
 qrs.; in 1885-6, 15,209,515 qrs.; and in 1886-7 i' was over 
 17,000,000 qrs. These figures are for the harvest years 
 ending with August. The last four quantities have been 
 obtained with wheat at a much lower average price than 
 40s. a quarter, the average for the calendar year 1884 being 
 35s. 8d., while that for 1885 was 32s. iod., that for 1886 was 
 31s., and that for 1887 was 32s. 6d. But it does not follow , 
 that wheat will continue to come to us in large quantities 
 at such miserably low prices. My contention is that this 
 foreign wheat, with the possible exception of that sent from 
 India, has been supplied at a loss to the growers, and that 
 the wheat-growing area of the world has already begun to 
 contract, and will be seriously diminished unless the average 
 price is about 40s. a quarter in England. In support of this 
 contention there is such a mass of evidence available, that the 
 collector of it is embarrassed by its volume. 
 
 It is no wonder that wheat has become a drug in the 
 markets, for the wheat-acreage of the world had been in- 
 creasing enormously for several years up to 1880, and, less 
 uniformly, up to 1883. In the ten years ending with 1880, 
 the wheat area of the United States rose from a little under 
 nineteen millions to nearly thirty-eight millions of acres. This 
 was a gain of nineteen million acres -in one country alone. In 
 Australia, in the ten years ending with 1884, there was an 
 increase of over two million acres of wheat. What the in- 
 crease in British India has been, the statistics of that great 
 Empire are not perfect enough to enable me to state. An 
 official report, however, states that the acreage in Bombay 
 is believed to have been doubled during the last twelve years. 
 The wheat area of all India, including the Native States, was 
 over twenty-seven million acres in 1886, and nearly that area in 
 1888; and it is a very moderate estimate to assume that there 
 has been an increase of one-fourth of that large acreage since 
 c 2 
 
36 
 
 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 1874, when India first began to export wheat on anything like 
 an extensive scale. Egypt helped to glut the wheat markets of 
 Europe for several years after 1871, though in a fitful manner, 
 and. during the last three years the Egyptian supply has been 
 a mere trifle. Chile, again, made a great advance as a wheat- 
 exporting country in 1872, and has about kept up-to it, on the 
 average, since, without making further progress. The increased 
 supplies from the countries named have been far more than 
 sufficient to supply the needs of the increased population of 
 Europe. But will these supplies keep up at anything like 
 current prices ? My argument is that they will not, and that 
 they have already begun to fall off. 
 
 Our principal sources of wheat and flour supply may be 
 ranked in accordance with the quantities which we received 
 from them in the last three calendar years including every 
 country which sent us in either year as much as a million 
 hundredweights. Flour imports, in the following list, are con- 
 verted into wheat equivalents, and added to wheat imports, 
 and the total is computed in quarters of eight bushels instead 
 of in hundredweights. It must be explained that insignificant 
 quantities of flour from certain countries, added for 1385, could 
 not be added for 1886 and 1887 when the calculations were made, 
 because the full details were not available. The total quantity 
 to be divided, however, was only 201,894 cwts. in 1886, some 
 of which came from countries not in the list which follows : — 
 
 Wheat and Flour Imports. 
 
 Source. 
 
 1885. 
 
 1886. 
 
 1887. 
 
 United States 
 
 India 
 
 Russifi 
 
 Australasia 
 
 Germany 
 
 Austrian Territories 
 
 Canada, &c 
 
 Chile 
 
 Qrs. 
 
 8,985,830 
 
 2,809,675 
 
 2,788,244 
 
 1,256,213 
 
 865,201 
 
 544,251 
 
 483,548 
 
 374,5o8 
 
 Qrs. 
 8,991.396 
 2,545.067 
 856,177 
 170,469 
 539,763 
 392,967 
 935,567 
 392,700 
 
 Qrs. 
 11,615,950 
 
 1,963,637 
 
 1,282,312 
 
 310,881 
 
 527,250 
 
 397,315 
 
 1,188,964 
 
 509,140 
 
 Total from principal sources 
 All other Countries 
 
 18,107,270 
 651,941 
 
 14,824,106 
 369,358 
 
 17.795,449 
 286,558 
 
 Grand Total 
 
 18,759,2a 
 
 15, 193,464 
 
 18,082,007 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 37 
 
 In the case of Austria, the decrease in' 1866 and 1887 was 
 not. quite so great as it appears to be in the list, as the small 
 quantity of wheat grain we import from that country is not 
 separately enumerated in the Board of Trade Returns. The 
 apparent increase in the case of Canada may be assumed 
 to represent American wheat, and flour sent from Canadian 
 ports, as will be explained hereafter. The quantities sent 
 from " all other countries " do not amount to a large ' pro- 
 portion of our foreign wheat supply, and, as it may be pre- 
 sumed that the greatest pessimist in relation to the future 
 of wheat-growing in England will admit that the consumption 
 of wheat by the population of Europe will almost certainly 
 increase at least in equal proportion to the increase in 
 production, if any, it will not be necessary to consider the 
 minor European sources of our wheat supply in the sub- 
 sequent portion of this chapter. With the Argentine Republic 
 it is different, as that is one of the many countries at one 
 time proclaimed as the " future granary of the world." Thence 
 we received 77,421 qrs. in 1885, after many years of wheat- 
 growing, and less in 1886; but in 1887 the quantity was 
 greater. Even then, however, after the- greatest harvest ever 
 gathered in the country, the total exports of wheat were only 
 about 790,000 qrs., of which we received 234,000 qrs. Egypt 
 and other African countries, and Persia, are also possible 
 sources of increased wheat supply in the remote future ; but 
 this is purely a matter of speculation. If, coupling the Argen- 
 tine Republic hereafter with Chile, I deal with the sources of 
 all but about 3 per cent, of our foreign wheat supply, it will 
 suffice for the purpose of my argument. Let us consider, 
 then, the prospects of wheat-growing in each of these exporting 
 countries. 
 
 The United States, 
 
 Does wheat-growing pay in the United States at current 
 prices, or has it paid at the prices of the last four years ? In 
 reply, I will cite first the opinion of Mr. J. R. Dodge, the very 
 able Statistician of the American Department of Agriculture, 
 who, in his Annual Report for 1885, wrote as follows : — 
 
 " The value of an acre of wheat averaged only 8 "38 dols. on an average 
 yield of thirteen bushels last year (1884), the lowest return of which there 
 is any record, and a figure lower than the accredited estimate of the cost 
 
38 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 of production. It may confidently be assumed, therefore, that there is no 
 profit in wheat production at present prices. But there is a class of farmers 
 who made a profit on wheat in 1884. Those who secured twentyfive 
 bushels per acre, or twenty, obtained a small profit, provided the cost of 
 fertilisers was not too large an element of it." 
 
 Now, this is said of the greatest total crop of wheat ever 
 produced in the United States, and of a yield per acre in excess 
 of the average, which was only 12-3 bushels per acre for the 
 twenty-four years ending with 1885. And if wheat-growing did 
 not pay generally in 1884, when the average yield was 13 
 bushels, and the "farm value" 8-38 dols. an acre, according 
 to the Department of Agriculture, much less could it have paid 
 in 1885, when the yield was only 10-4 bushels, and the value 
 8 - o2 dollars; and there was no appreciable improvement in 
 1886, when the yield was estimated officially at 12-4 bushels, 
 and the value at 8-54 dollars per acre; or in 1887, when the cor- 
 responding figures were i2 - i bushels and 8-25 dollars. As to the 
 comparatively few farmers who grew 20 to 25 bushels an acre 
 of wheat getting a small profit, if they had not spent much in 
 fertilisers, that does not amount to much, as there were farmers 
 in England who made a profit, even in 1886 and 1887. In 
 considering the question whether wheat-production is likely to 
 be kept up in a country or not, at a given price or range of 
 prices, exceptional instances like those referred to do not weigh 
 at all in the argument. In the year referred to by Mr. Dodge, 
 only one whole State or Territory yielded as much on an 
 average as 20 bushels of wheat to the acre, namely,, Colorado, 
 in which only 117,420 acres , were produced. One State gave 
 only 5 bushels to the acre, five less than 7 bushels, and eight 
 States in all, under 9 bushels. The loss on the wheat crop in 
 those States — all in the South — must have been very heavy. 
 But let us see what the great wheat-producing States yielded 
 in an exceptionally prolific year, taking those only which grew 
 over a million acres. California, with over three million acres 
 of wheat, gave an average of 13-2 bushels ; Illinois, which ranks 
 next in respect of wheat acreage, 1 1 -6 bushels ; Minnesota, 
 15; Indiana, 12-5; Ohio, 15-3; Iowa, iz'o; Missouri, n -8; 
 Kansas, i6'S ; Nebraska, 14-5; Michigan, 16-5; Dakota, 
 14-5; Pennsylvania, 13 -6; Wisconsin, 14; Tennessee, 7; Ken- 
 tucky, io-6. These States contained considerably more than 
 three-fourths of the wheat acreage of the country, or over 32 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 
 
 39 
 
 million acres out of the unusually large acreage of nearly 39! 
 millions. According to Mr. Dodge, wheat-growing did not pay 
 in any one of these great fields of wheat production as a whole, 
 but only in Colorado, where probably the cost of irrigation ate 
 up all the supposed profit. Only four of these States, it will be 
 noticed, come up to three-fourths of the minimum paying 
 wheat yield. Yet 1884 was an unusually productive year. 
 
 It appears to be the opinion of certain writers that American 
 farmers plant wheat without any consideration of price, and that 
 they will go on growing increasing quantities at such miserably 
 low prices as have lately prevailed. A glance at the official 
 statistics, however, is sufficient to prove how mistaken this 
 idea is, if proof be needed to refute what is inherently absurd. 
 The following table shows the acreage, average yield per acre, 
 average price per bushel realised by the farmer, and average 
 value per acre of the produce for each year from 187 1 to 1887, 
 inclusive, of the wheat crop of the United States : — 
 
 Year. 
 
 Area of Wheat Crop. 
 
 Average 
 
 Yield 
 per Acre. 
 
 Average Price 
 per Bushel. 
 
 Average Value 
 of Produce 
 per 'Acre. 
 
 
 Acres. . 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Dollars. 
 
 1871 
 
 19.943.893 
 
 ii-5 
 
 125-8 
 
 14-56 
 
 1872 
 
 ' 20,858,359 
 
 11-9 
 
 I24'0 
 
 14-87 
 
 1873 
 
 22,171,676 
 
 127 
 
 115-0 
 
 I4'59 
 
 1874 
 
 24,967,027 
 
 12-3 
 
 94'i 
 
 n-66 
 
 I87S 
 
 26,381,512 
 
 I I/O 
 
 IOO'O 
 
 ii-i6 
 
 1876 
 
 27,627,021 
 
 io'4 
 
 1037 
 
 10 -86 
 
 1877 
 
 26,277,546 
 
 i3'9 
 
 I08 - 2 
 
 15-08 
 
 1878 
 
 32,108,560 
 
 131 
 
 777 
 
 io'i6 
 
 1879 
 
 32,545,950 
 
 13-8 
 
 uo-8 
 
 I5-27 
 
 I880 
 
 37,986,717 
 
 131 
 
 95-1 
 
 12-48 
 
 l88l 
 
 37,709,020 
 
 IO'I 
 
 119-3 
 
 12-03 
 
 1882 
 
 37,067,194 
 
 13-6 
 
 88-2 
 
 11-99 
 
 1883 
 
 36,455*593 
 
 n-6 
 
 91-0 
 
 10-56 
 
 1884 
 
 39,475.885 ' 
 
 13-0 
 
 65-0 
 
 8-38 
 
 1885 
 
 34,189,246 
 
 io'4 
 
 77-1 
 
 8-05 
 
 1886 
 
 36,806,184 
 
 12-4 
 
 68-7 
 
 8-54 
 
 1887 
 
 37,400,000 
 
 I2'2 
 
 68-i 
 
 8-35 
 
 The increase in acreage up to 1880 had been going on 
 since 1862, when the total was a little over 11,000,000 acres, 
 the value of the crop per acre never having been as low 
 as 12 dollars up to that year, and only twice below 14 
 
40 THE BRITISH PARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 dollars, The first serious check, it will be noticed, was 
 in 1877, after three years of lpw returns per acre; but the 
 farm value of the produce of the wheat crop in that year 
 being over 15 dollars per acre, there was a great jump of 
 nearly 6,000,000 acres in the area of the next wheat crop. 
 Then, as 1878 was a year of low returns, the acreage re- 
 mained practically stationary in 1879, when a return of over 
 15 dollars per acre again caused an increase of over 5,000,000 
 acres. Since 1880, however, returns have been low, and the 
 acreage has decreased, except in 1884, when pretty well every 
 acre sown was reaped, owing to the favourable character of the 
 winter. In 1885 the area sowri was over 38,000,000 acres; 
 but about 4,000,000 acres had to .be ploughed up, chiefly on 
 account of "winter-killing." For 1886 the area harvested was 
 36,806,184 acres, very little having been ploughed up ; in 1887 
 it was 37,641,783 acres; and, for the current year, 1888, the 
 area standing in July was stated in an official report to be 
 36,300,000 acres. 
 
 The wheat acreage of the United States, then, has been 
 reduced since 1880, in spite of the increase in the newly- 
 settled land of the North-Western States. It may be said 
 that wheat is the only crop to be grown on land broken up 
 from the prairie, and it is quite clear that, but for the new 
 land, the wheat acreage would have shown a great decrease 
 since 1880... Indeed, the winter wheat area sown fell from 
 27,450,000 acres in 1881, to 25,265,297 acres in 1886; while 
 spring wheat, grown chiefly in the North-Western States, 
 where the • new land has been cultivated, increased from 
 10,259,000 acres to 1 2,037,000 acres. But for the newly settled 
 land, then, the wheat acreage would have decreased by at least 
 2,000,000 acres, and in all probability by a much larger area, 
 as the quantity named is much less than that of the land 
 broken since 1881. 
 
 The effect of low prices upon the production of wheat in 
 the United States is strikingly shown in the statistics of the 
 eight years ending with 1887. During that period, although 
 the population increased by over n| millions, the acreage and 
 production of wheat absolutely decreased, and of course the 
 exports also. Below I give the acreage, produce, and exports 
 for the last eight years in two periods of four years each, with 
 the explanation that the exports are for the financial years 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 
 
 41 
 
 ending June 30, while the other figures are for the calendar 
 years named : — 
 
 Area, Produce, and Exports of Wheat, United States. 
 
 Year. 
 
 Area. 
 
 Produce. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 1880 
 
 1881 
 
 1882 
 
 1883 
 
 Acres. 
 37,986,717 
 37,709,020 
 37,067,194 
 36,457.593 
 
 Bushels. 
 498,549.868 
 380,280,090 
 504,185,470 
 421,086,160 
 
 Bushels. 
 180,934,478 
 186,475,251 
 122,597,997 
 148,785,696 
 
 Total first four years 
 
 — 
 
 1,804,101,588 
 
 638.793.422 
 
 Average 
 
 37,305,131 
 
 451,025,397 
 
 . 159.698.35S 
 
 1884 
 
 1885 
 
 1886 
 
 1887 
 
 39,475.885 
 34,189,246 
 36,806,184 
 37,641,783 
 
 512,765,000 
 
 357,112,000 
 457,218,000 
 456,329,000 
 
 111,636,302 
 132,851,835- 
 
 94,913.395 
 153,804,929 
 
 Total last four years 
 
 — 
 
 1,783,424,000 
 
 493,206,461 
 
 Average 
 
 36,967,804 
 
 445,856,000 
 
 123,301,615 
 
 The exports, it is scarcely necessary to state, are not those 
 from the crops given side by side with them, but in each case 
 from the crop of the preceding year. That, of course, does not 
 affect my object, which is simply to show the totals and averages 
 for the last eight years, and there are- no statistics showing 
 exports for the calendar years. It has already been stated 
 that the area of the crop for 1888 is about 36 million acres. 
 
 It is not surprising that an average gross return of about 
 33s. an acre, obtained in 1884 and 1885, did not prove satis- 
 factory to the American wheat-grower. Out of that return there 
 is to deduct the expense of carting the wheat, often for a great 
 distance, to a railway or the nearest elevator. The straw is 
 burnt in most parts of America, and where it is not, the expense 
 of growing wheat is increased by the labour of manuring the 
 land. If the gross return were all profit, the wheat-grower 
 would not become rich very rapidly, and 33s. an acre would be 
 only a very moderate profit for a year's labour. The most 
 common size of a farm in America is 80 to 160 acres, and of 
 
42 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 course not nearly all the land is cropped with wheat in the 
 same year, some of it usually lying fallow. It is a startling 
 fact that the gross returns of a farmer getting the average yield 
 from 50 acres of wheat during the last four years have been 
 less than the earnings of a farm-labourer in many States. 
 
 We have seen that, in the opinion of the Statistician of the 
 Department of Agriculture, only those farmers who have grown 
 twenty bushels an acre or more have obtained any profit in 
 recent years. If all the rest ceased to grow wheat, America 
 would become an importing country ; and even if the result of 
 a continuance of present prices were only to cause the cessa- 
 tion of wheat-growing on all land which does not produce the 
 present average yield, America would not produce enough to 
 feed her own population. 
 
 During the decade 1870-80, the population of the United 
 States increased from 38,558,871 to 50,155,783. At the same 
 rate of increase, the number in 1890 will be nearly 66 millions. 
 It was about 62 \ millions at the beginning of 1888. During 
 the five years ending with 1884, the average annual consump- 
 tion was nearly 324,000,000 bushels, and the average export 
 140,000,000 bushels. If the production in the five years 
 ending with 1894 does not become greater, all but 43,000,000 
 bushels per annum, or less than 5J million quarters, will be 
 required- for home consumption, and the surplus will not suffice 
 for the increased population of the next five years. Before 
 the end of the present century, then, the present production 
 of wheat in the United States will be insufficient for home 
 requirements, and the people of Europe will have to look else- 
 where for that main portion of their foreign supply which now 
 comes to them across the Atlantic. But Europe cannot affprd 
 to lose the American surplus, and will not lose it. A continu- 
 ance of low prices for a few more years would not only pre- 
 vent that surplus from keeping up to its recent average, but 
 would prevent its production altogether. As already intimated, 
 however, such a result is not to be apprehended, as the increas- 
 ing demand of the world for wheat must send prices up to a 
 remunerative standard, and then American production will 
 once more advance steadily. 
 
 Taking the average value of the English wheat crop at 
 recent prices to have been £$ an acre, and that of the American 
 crop to be 33s., is there any reason why American competition 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 43 
 
 should drive our wheat-growers from their accustomed industry? 
 I think not, and I maintain that English farmers can continue 
 to grow wheat at £?> an acre longer than American farmers 
 can keep on growing it at 33s. If the game of "beggar my 
 neighbour " is to go on, the American will be the first to throw 
 up his hand. It is absurd to suppose that there is necessarily 
 a difference of £6 7 s. an acre in the cost of wheat-growing in 
 the two countries. Our climate and soil are both' better for 
 wheat than those of America, and the crop here is much less 
 liable to serious damage or partial destruction. If we used no 
 manure for wheat we should grow about double the American 
 average yield, by keeping to our rotation of crops. At present, 
 English farmers are handicapped by. high rents, tithes, rates, 
 and railway rates ; but all these can be reduced. And wages 
 are only about half as high here as on the other side of the 
 Atlantic, while almost everything that the farmer has to buy is 
 a great deal cheaper in this country, in consequence of the 
 Protectionist tariff of the United States. Mr. Bookwalter, a 
 high financial authority in New York, and one who has farmed 
 for twenty years in a Western State, writing in 1884, estimated 
 that the produce of one acre of wheat-land in England would 
 purchase as much of the farmer's requirements as four to six 
 acres in America ; and in this reckoning he allows two dollars 
 an acre for straw, though he admits that it is not generally a 
 source of profit in his own country. Mr. Bookwalter adds : — 
 
 "The real advantages heretofore possessed by the American agriculturist, 
 cheap lands (the rapid rise of which, in recent years, and not the profits of 
 farming, being the real source of his present wealth) and natural fertility 
 are rapidly disappearing, and unless his Government removes the cause 
 which operates to artificially increase cost of production, the English 
 farmer will have year by year less cause to fear serious competition from 
 America." 
 
 I have before me a large number of estimates of the cost of 
 growing wheat in different parts of the United States, but can 
 only refer to them briefly. In considering them, it is always 
 to be borne in mind that whereas English farmers are given to 
 grumbling, American farmers are disposed to brag. No one 
 who is in the habit of reading crop reports in American papers 
 can fail to observe their generally optimistic tone. Such 
 phrases as " Look out for a bumper crop from this section " 
 are common, and the growing crops are nearly always over- 
 
44 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 rated early in the season. One reason of this is, that the 
 American farmer is nearly always a prospective seller of his 
 farm, if he owns it, and if not, a man is regarded as a traitor 
 who depreciates the prospects of the district he lives in. 
 Messrs. Read and Pell, when visiting the United States as 
 Assistant-Commissioners to the Duke of Richmond's Commis- 
 sion on Agriculture, found that, in order to see the "seamy 
 side '' of the agriculture of any district, they had to inquire about 
 it in another district, as they could never get the residents to 
 admit anything to its disadvantage. American farmers, too, 
 and their representatives in the Press, are desirous of impress- 
 ing the world with the notion that theirs is the country which 
 can "lick creation" in wheat production. This desire was 
 openly expressed — to give one example — in a report issued by 
 the Secretary of the Michigan Board of Trade in 1884, when, 
 in response to an application from the Belgian Consul, he 
 obtained a number of returns of the cost of wheat-growing in 
 different parts of the State. In his introductory remarks the 
 Secretary said ;— 
 
 "The best policy would seem to be to figure cost as low as possible, 
 consistent with the truth, that wheat-growers in Western Europe may be 
 advised of the hopelessness of competition, and reduce their wheat acre- 
 age." 
 
 This gentleman is more patriotic than discreet, or he would 
 have kept the bias of this report to himself. "Consistent with 
 truth," however, as he puts it, he was not able to " figure " the 
 cost of an acre of wheat in Michigan at less than 14 dollars 
 n cents, or not quite 80 cents per bushel on a yield of 
 1776 bushels an acre. The price at the time was 77 cents a 
 bushel, so that there was a loss after all. The yield given above 
 is much greater than the average for Michigan, according to 
 the Department of Agriculture, which returned it at only 16-5 
 bushels, even for the great crop of 1884. This quantity at 
 77 cents a bushel gave a return of 12 dollars 65 cents (the 
 Department of Agriculture puts the amount at 12-21 dollars), 
 or 1 dollar 46 cents (say 6s.) less than the alleged average 
 cost of production. In spite of his declared intention of 
 making out as good a case as possible for American wheat- 
 growers, the estimate of the Michigan Secretary is much more 
 fairly drawn up than most of the estimates obtained from 
 various other sources. He charges rent, or interest on capital, 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 45 
 
 which is commonly omitted, and he even allows a trifle for 
 repair of buildings and fences. About 4 cents per acre he 
 allows for purchased fertilisers, while farmyard manure is not 
 charged; only one-third of the cost of its spreading being 
 debited to the wheat crop. When straw is used, and not 
 valued in the returns, it is quite fair not to debit the manure 
 made from it, unless there is a loss in producing it. The 
 following summary of the cost of growing an acre of wheat in 
 Michigan is given : — 
 
 Labour 9/05 dollars. 
 
 Repairs, manuring, &c. ... ... ... C59 „ 
 
 Rent 270 ,, 
 
 Transportation and trade changes 177 „ 
 
 Total 14-11 „ 
 
 The rent is got at in this way : the returns represent the 
 average value of wheat land in Michigan as 60 dollars, or ^12 
 per acre. Only 4 per cent, is charged on this, although the legal 
 rate of interest in the State is as high as 10 per cent. Thus 
 the rent is made only 2 dollars 40 cents. But as about one- 
 fourth of the wheat-growing area is usually in fallow, half the 
 rent of that is added to the rent of the cropped land. The 
 principle of the computation is fair enough; but at least double 
 the 4 per cent, ought to be charged as interest on the capital 
 value of the land to represent rent — 8 per cent, being easily 
 obtainable on landed security in most parts of the United 
 States. Such an alteration would make rent in Michigan a 
 little over 19s. per acre, and the cost of producing an acre of 
 wheat about £$ 6s. But there are still taxes to charge, and 
 there is also the heavy item of miscellaneous expenses, which 
 is omitted in nearly every account that I have seen. Upon 
 this latter point, which is one of great importance, more will be 
 said hereafter. Enough has now been stated to show that, 
 even according to the numerous returns collected by the Secre- 
 tary of the Michigan Board of Trade, wheat-growing, at such 
 prices as have lately prevailed, does not pay in a State which 
 stands seventh in rank as a wheat-producer in point of gross 
 quantity, and at least as high, on an average of seasons, in 
 yield per acre ; and that if the proper additions to the expenses 
 allowed by the Secretary were added, the balance would show 
 a very serious loss on wheat-growing in that State. 
 
46 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 It will have been noticed that the item of rent, when pro- 
 perly charged, is a serious one in settled parts of America, like 
 Michigan, and not the mere trifle that it is commonly repre- 
 sented to be. In an account from Illinois, the amount entered 
 for rent is 24s. per acre, and the cost of growing an acre of 
 wheat is said to amount to £$ 12 s. Another account from 
 the same State makes the cost £2. The farm value of the 
 Illinois wheat crop in 1884, according to the American Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture, was a little under £1 10s. per acre. It is 
 not surprising, then, fo find an Illinois farmer ■ complaining, in 
 the St. Louis Journal of Agriculture, of a loss of ns. an acre 
 on the wheat crop, without charging any rent. 
 
 One account from Minnesota makes the cost 40s., and 
 another 44s., an acre; whereas the value, as officially stated, 
 was only 30s. in 1884. An Ohio farmer, writing in the Albany 
 Cultivator and Country Gentleman, states that the figures in 
 the reports of the Washington Department of Agriculture and 
 single State departments make the average cost of producing 
 an acre of wheat in America \o\ dollars, or 42s., which is 10s. 
 more than the average value of the crop per acre in 1885, 
 according to the Department. Here, then, we have evidence 
 from official sources leading to the conclusion that the Ameri- 
 can wheat crop of 1885 was grown at a loss of over seventeen 
 millions sterling. As the reports on the cost of wheat-growing 
 on which the official estimates are based are probably too low 
 by at least 10s. an acre on an average, the loss on the crop of 
 1885 may be put at fully double the amount just stated, or 
 ^34,000,000. The reasons for coming to that conclusion will 
 appear more fully presently. 
 
 The estimates for Iowa and Dakota are usually lower than 
 those of any other State. Two Iowa estimates are as low as 
 28s. ; but even then one of the estimators shows a loss of 12s. 
 an acre, having sold his wheat at 40 cents a bushel in 1884. 
 Another estimate for the same State is 39s. For Dakota, one 
 estimate is as low as 20s., no rent or interest beiug charged, 
 while others are 36s. and 39s. respectively. There, again, the 
 wheat was sold at 40 cents a bushel in 1884, and even Mr. 
 Dalrymple, of the Dakota Mammoth Wheat Farms, does not 
 go further than to say that he can produce wheat at 65 cents 
 a bushel without absolute loss. The Department of Agriculture 
 gives 46 cents as the average price realised by Dakota farmers 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 47 
 
 in 1884, and 14J bushels as the average yield of the wheat 
 crop, thus making the return per acre about 26s. 4d., or from 
 9s. 8d. to 12s. 8d. an acre less than two of the estimates of 
 cost. 
 
 A Missouri farmer computes the cost of growing wheat in 
 that State at 44s., or 92 cents, a bushel. The official report 
 gives 30s. as the value per acre, and 62 cents a bushel as the 
 average price. Here,' again, a heavy loss is obvious, even sup- 
 posing that the estimate of cost is high enough. 
 
 An account from California represents the cost of an acre 
 of wheat to be 64s., and the returns in 1885 not quite 50s. 
 The San Francisco Chronicle said that there was a loss of over 
 13s. an acre in 1884 on the Californian wheat crop, the total 
 loss being computed at ^3,000,000 for that State alone. 
 
 Some of the estimates referred to show a small profit ; but 
 if that has been obtained in individual instances, the evidence 
 against its having been secured on an average in any State or 
 large district, is overwhelming. Moreover, all but a very few 
 of the estimates of expenses are obviously insufficient, because 
 they do not include rent or interest, taxes, or miscellaneous 
 expenses, and only one charges a proportion of the cost of the 
 fallowed portion of the wheat land. Now, these are very heavy 
 items to be left out of the accounts, and it is mainly because 
 they are omitted that the loss on wheat-growing in America 
 has been estimated above at an average of at least £i an acre, 
 instead of at 10s. An American farmer, with, his hired man, 
 and perhaps a son or two, may be occupied nearly half the 
 year in work that he cannot charge to any particular crop, and 
 the wages he pays, and the cost of feeding and clothing himself 
 and his family (or fair wages for those who work), should be 
 charged against the crops that he sells off the land. So should 
 the cost of repairs to buildings and fences, of wear and tear of 
 implements and harness, insurance, and other items that have 
 to be paid for, but do not form part of the expenses charged 
 against any crop. Probably 10s. an acre is not too much to 
 charge against the wheat crop for all kinds of miscellaneous 
 expenses. The Chicago Tribune, referring to such reports as 
 are criticised above, says that something should be added for 
 the expenses of the farmer's household during the large portion 
 of the year when no work is done in connection with the wheat 
 crop. 
 
48 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Abundance of evidence showing the poverty of American 
 wheat-growers is to be found in American papers ; but only a 
 few examples can be cited here. The St. Paul (Minnesota) 
 correspondent of Bradstreet's — one of the principal financial 
 papers in the United States — writing in October, 1884, 
 said :— 
 
 " The farmer is not making money this year (a great crop year). With 
 the prevailing range of grain prices, the only questions that have practical 
 interest are — how narrow is the margin that is left him for actual sub- 
 sistence ? how far he will be able to meet or defer pressing obligations 
 incurred ? what are the hopeful circumstances of this time of depression ? 
 and what are the remedies by which he will be likely to better his con- 
 dition ? " 
 
 What was true in 1884 was equally true in 1885, 1886, and 
 1887. In 1884, when the price of a fair grade of wheat was 
 63 cents at Minneapolis, the writer adds, the average North- 
 Western farmer was not receiving more than 48 cents, after 
 paying rail and trade expenses. Some good authorities in 
 America have declared that the farmer does not get a living 
 profit when wheat at such centres as Chicago sells at less than 
 a dollar per bushel, and that is equivalent to about 42s. a 
 quarter in London — the price fixed by Mr. C. S. Read and 
 Mr. Albert Pell, when they visited the United States as 
 Assistant-Commissioners to the Royal Commission on Agri- 
 culture in 1880, as the minimum at which the general run of 
 American producers could sell in London with profit. At a 
 recent meeting of the London Farmers' Club, these good 
 judges declared that they had seen no reason for altering their 
 opinion. It is nothing to the purpose to state that wheat has 
 lately been often brought as ballast, free of charge. That is 
 an accident, when it occurs, and, as it can never be counted 
 on, does not benefit the producer by a single cent. As it is 
 notorious that railways in America and shipping companies 
 have for some time been carrying wheat at a loss, there is more 
 reason to expect an increase of the cost of sending wheat from 
 the interior of America to Europe than to suppose that it will 
 become less. At the time when the correspondent of Brad- 
 street's stated that the North-Western farmer was getting only 
 48 cents, a bushel, or 15s. 4d. a quarter, for his wheat, the 
 average price of American spring wheat in London was 33s. 6d. 
 — a difference of 18s. — and that was at a time when rail and 
 
competition in Wheat-growing. 49 
 
 sea freights were ruinously low. Between Chicago and London 
 quotations for a given grade of American wheat the difference 
 is usually 10s. per quarter, or a little more. 
 
 Mr. Frank Wilkeson, also writing to Bradstreet's at the end 
 of 1884, said : — 
 
 " The wheat- farmers of America are to-day practically bankrupt. In 
 the interior markets of Kansas wheat is selling for from 16 to 40 cents per 
 bushel. . . . The demand for money at 3 per cent, per month in all 
 the towns within the wheat-belt far exceeds the supply. Teams, tools, 
 stock, grain, all are being rapidly mortgaged." 
 
 He had previously stated that Western farmers generally 
 had been obliged to mortgage their farms to meet their living 
 expenses. He also declared that the apparent prosperity of 
 Dakota was based on the expenditure of the capital procured 
 by mortgaging the farm lands, and that the farmers were 
 "spending their farms." The mortgages were at 8 to 10 per 
 cent., he said, and the impoverished farmers had to pay an 
 additional 10 per cent, on renewal, so that their interest was 
 really n to 12 per cent. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Sinnett, of Muscatine, Iowa, writing to the 
 Dublin Farmers' Gazette, says that more than half the farms in 
 the West are mortgaged, and that all business is done on 
 credit, " on which 10 per cent, is charged, and as much more 
 to meet the risk of loss." It may be observed in this connection 
 that in some States there is a legal maximum of interest, varying 
 from 8 to 1 2 per cent., while in a few any rate may be agreed 
 upon in writing. 
 
 Worse than the farm mortgages are the crop mortgages, 
 equivalent to our bills of sale, which are becoming so common 
 in some parts of America that, according to the St. Louis 
 Republican, there is 
 
 " more or less clamour for legislation to regulate or prohibit the practice. 
 Farmers who have rented land, or whose land is encumbered, it is said, 
 give these crop mortgages as securities for supplies which they must have, 
 and it is a common thing for them to use this credit to the extreme limit 
 that the storekeeper will allow." 
 
 When the crop is harvested, " its entire proceeds often fall 
 a little short of paying the mortgage, and the farmer is not 
 only again without money or credit, but is actually in debt and 
 under obligations to the storekeeper who has accommodated 
 him." Such a system, of course, as an American journal in 
 D 
 
SO THE BRITISH PARMER AMD HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 commenting upon the statement says, " means high interest and 
 high prices for everything the farmer buys." 
 
 Further evidence as to the embarrassed condition of 
 American farmers is to be found in great abundance in 
 American papers. It is well known that in the North- West, 
 and in other parts of America, the system of landlord and 
 tenant has lately been very much extended, owing to mort- 
 gagors being unable to pay their interest, and giving up their 
 farms to the mortgagees, afterwards becoming tenants. De- 
 serted farms, again, have become more numerous than ever 
 before, and bankruptcies among farmers in the wheat-growing 
 States have been so common as to excite comment. A writer 
 in the Albany Country Gentleman, as long ago as December, 
 1885, said: "For a month or more hardly a day has passed 
 but several of these wheat-growers have filed petitions in 
 insolvency." Small crops, low prices, and high rates of interest 
 on mortgages and other loans are the causes assigned. As to 
 the " small crops " referred to, the writer explained himself by 
 pointing out that in the early days of settlement in San Joaquin 
 County 40 or even 60 bushels of wheat per acre were often 
 harvested, whereas now, owing to the exhaustive system of 
 farming pursued, the yield has dwindled till it is more often 
 only 14 to 15 bushels, in this highly-favoured district. Similar 
 evidence is given by Mr. G. W. Franklin, of Cass County, 
 Iowa, as to the waning productiveness of that State ; and it is 
 the same wherever continuous wheat-growing is practised. 
 
 On all sides American farmers have been advised to grow 
 less wheat, and to devote their attention to mixed husbandry. 
 Mr. J. R. Dodge, Statistician of the Department of Agriculture, 
 in a recent article in the New York Tribune, says : — 
 
 "It is foolish to extend any crop beyond the probability of demand, 
 and reduce the price below the cost of production. . . . The low price of 
 wheat will be a benefit to agriculture if it result in reducing the wheat area 
 within 10 or 15 per cent, above the requirements for home consumption, 
 and a better distribution of rural labour in the North-West, in the direction 
 of meat, wool, oil and oil-cake, butter, cheese, and other products easy of 
 transportation, as they should be required at paying prices." 
 
 The Pacific Rural Press says : — 
 
 "The prairie lands of the West are already beginning to feel the blight 
 of the single-crop system, and will soon have to be planted with other forms 
 of vegetation to preserve their value for agricultural purposes. . . . The 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 51 
 
 same process is already seen in California, particularly in the central por- 
 tions of the Sacramento and in the Santa Clara and Napa valleys. Fruit 
 is largely taking the place of wheat, and the more diversified is the new 
 departure in the cultivation of those valleys, the more will their value in- 
 crease." 
 
 Another authority says that wheat-growers in California are 
 growing poorer and poorer, while many fruit-growers have saved 
 fortunes. Professor Henry, in a recent lecture at Richmond, 
 Wisconsin, referred to the " wicked habit of blighting prairie 
 soil with annual wheat, and then adding insult to injury by 
 burning the straw. This practice," he added, " will keep any 
 people down." One of the richest prairies in America, he 
 pointed out by way of illustration, is that of the St. Croix 
 River, and wheat-growing there was carried on for a long time 
 under exceptional advantages. But 
 
 " to-day the richest part of it is almost without fences ; the majority of the 
 farm buildings, especially the barns, are poor, and the people complaining 
 bitterly of hard times. . . . Had the people had smaller farms and a less 
 fertile soil, enforcing mixed farming and attention to live stock, they would 
 have been far better off." 
 
 The National Live Stock Journal of Chicago, in its issue 
 for November 30th, 1886, says : — 
 
 " There is no denying the fact that, under the influence of depressed 
 prices, a large proportion of the farmers of the country have been exceed- 
 ingly restive. . . . Wheat at the prices that prevail in the interior — that is, 
 in the States west of the Mississippi River — is grown at a loss." 
 
 It is generally admitted that the American farmer's life, as 
 a rule, is one of excessive and almost incessant toil, and the 
 scantiest reward — in money, at any rate ; while his wife is held 
 up in America as a common object of pity. The difficulty of 
 keeping farmers' sons on the land in America has long 
 been notorious; whereas, in this country, the difficulty, until 
 recently, was to get them to adopt any other pursuit than 
 farming. 
 
 Although I have not cited a tenth part of the evidence at 
 my disposal, tending to show that the wheat-grower in the 
 United States has suffered at least as severely as the British 
 wheat-grower from the extremely low prices of recent years, 
 enough has been given to prove that, under fair conditions, 
 above described, the wheat-grower in this country may fairly be 
 expected to hold his own against American competition. 
 d 2 
 
52 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 India. 
 
 It is generally admitted that to the large increase in the 
 supply of wheat from India, during recent years, the extremely 
 low prices that have prevailed are mainly attributable. It is 
 true that, owing to climatic, conditions and occasional famines, 
 India is an uncertain source of supply. For instance, after 
 having sent us about 1,400,000 qrs. in 1877, the quantity fell 
 off to less than 240,000 qrs. in 1879, and was only a little over 
 700,000 qrs. in 1880, when we were in need of a larger foreign 
 supply than ever before, on account of the extremely unproduc- 
 tive harvest of 1879 in this country. Since 1880, however, the 
 supply has not been less than 1,600,000 qrs. for any year, and 
 in 1885 it was about 2,800,000 qrs., a larger quantity than ever 
 previously sent to us from India. In 1886 the supply was 
 about 230,000 qrs. less than in the previous year, and in 1887, 
 after a short crop, the quantity fell off to about two-thirds of 
 that sent to us in 1885. The area of land under wheat in 
 India has greatly increased when compared with that of ten 
 years back, though, owing to the defective character of agri- 
 cultural statistics in the past, no one can tell with any approach 
 to accuracy what the increase has been. The total area under 
 wheat in India in 1886 was not quite 27^ million acres, and 
 the yield about 32 million quarters, or 9-3 bushels per acre. 
 In 1887 the area was not quite 26f million acres, and the pro- 
 duce was estimated at 29I million quarters. For 1888 the 
 estimated area was 26,854,882 acres, and the produce is put at 
 about 32,546,600 quarters. The normal area, as it is termed, 
 is about 27I million acres, and the normal or ordinary average' 
 yield is about 32f million quarters. Since 1883' there is 
 no reason to suppose that any large increase in the wheat 
 area has taken place ; but the.fact that, with such a small 
 yield, Indian cultivators have' extended their wheat fields at 
 all during the prevalence of extremely low prices in Europe 
 needs explanation. The explanation is very simple.* The 
 reduction in the gold value of silver, together with the main- 
 tenance of the purchasing power of the rupee in India, has 
 had the effect of a handsome bonus on the export of wheat 
 
 * The writer is alone responsible for the opinions of this essay, but deems it 
 desirable to state particularly that the Committee of the Cobden Club are not 
 committed to the opinion expressed in relation to the effect of currency dis- 
 turbances upon the export of wheat from India. 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. $$ 
 
 from India, There is an additional benefit in respect of the 
 State-owned and State-guaranteed railways of India ; but that 
 is chiefly at the expense of Indian tax-payers, so that the 
 benefit to the cultivators of the soil, who pay a very large 
 proportion of the taxes, cannot be very great. The effect of 
 the depreciated gold value of silver upon the export trade in 
 Indian wheat, however, is so obvious that it is surprising to 
 see it disputed. But for that depreciation, the export of 
 wheat from India during the last four years must have been 
 discontinued or carried on at a loss to producers, middle men, 
 or exporters, or to all of them. In this opinion I am sup- 
 ported by all the large shippers of Indian wheat whom I have 
 consulted, and by nearly all the authorities on the subject 
 examined before the Gold and Silver Commission, many of 
 them monometallists. For my own part, I have no idea of 
 advocating bi-metallism, but simply wish to state what I 
 believe to be facts. 
 
 To estimate the cost of wheat-growing in a country like 
 India, with its widely-varying circumstances, is very difficult, 
 if not impossible. In a circular issued by the Government of 
 India in 1884, a calculation made by an expert is given 
 for what it is worth. In Northern India, in a district traversed 
 by railways, he estimates the cost of producing a quarter of 
 wheat on irrigated and manured land at 12 s. ; and a market 
 rate of 18s. 6d. a quarter, he adds, would probably mean to 
 the producer a price not exceeding 15s. or 16s. He takes the 
 exchange value of the rupee to be is. 8d. in the calculation ; 
 so he estimates that the ryot of Northern India gets a fair 
 profit when wheat sells at about 11 rupees a quarter in an 
 inland market. Now, in the same circular the Indian Govern- 
 ment state that in March, .1884, wheat was selling "at 22 J 
 seers the rupee, or about 18s.. 6d. the quarter at Jubbulpore — 
 a price which gave a good margin for profit to the exporter 
 when the London rate was 43s. the quarter," but not when the 
 London rate had fallen to from 33s. to 36s. for Indian wheats. 
 No doubt there was but a very small margin for profit, and our 
 imports from India were more than 700,000 qrs. less in 1884 
 than in 1883 ; but the rate of exchange kept falling, and 
 freights fell also, so that exporters were not obliged to cease 
 operating altogether, though some heavy losses were incurred, 
 any slight fluctuation in the rate gf exchange making all the 
 
54 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 difference between profit and loss. It is almost certain that 
 a decrease in merchants' and native dealers' profits, as well 
 as a fall in freights and in the gold value of silver, helped to 
 keep up the wheat exports of India. My contention is that, if 
 it had not been for the low exchange value of the rupee, ex- 
 porters of Indian wheat would not have been able to offer 
 enough for it to pay the cultivators' expenses, and that there- 
 fore the cultivation of wheat in India would have fallen off, 
 or prices would have been forced up. 
 
 The main facts bearing upon the case are very simple. It 
 is since 187 1, when Germany commenced the demonitisation 
 of silver, that the export trade in Indian wheat has grown to 
 large dimensions, and since that year the gold value of silver 
 has been gradually falling. - According to a despatch on the 
 Silver Question sent from the Indian Government to the 
 British Treasury in January, 1886, the average gold value of 
 the rupee in 1871-2 was 23^., while in 1886 it was below 
 i8d., and sometimes as low as i6d., or a very small fraction 
 above. Since 1872 there had been a fall of at least 6d. in 
 the gold value of the rupee ; that is, from about 23d. to about 
 i7d. That is a fall of 26 per cent.; but, for the sake of 
 convenience, and to be on the safe side, let us take it at 
 25 per cent. No one can deny, then, that the exporter of 
 Indian wheat could afford to ship it to London in 1886 at 
 25 per cent, less than in 1872, supposing that he bought 
 it at the same rupee price. That reduction is entirely due to 
 depreciation in the gold value of the rupee, and to that extent, 
 at any rate, the fall in silver, in terms of gold, has had the 
 effect of a bonus of 25 per cent, oh the export of Indian 
 wheat. The average price of wheat in England was more 
 than 40 per cent, less in 1886 than in 1872, so that difference 
 in exchange was not sufficient by itself to preserve the exporter 
 from loss ; but sea-freights were reduced by about, one-half, 
 and so he was able to struggle on, though it is well known in 
 the trade that he was frequently unable to buy wheat in India 
 during the year at a price which would ensure him a profit in 
 London. 
 
 It is worthy of notice that the Indian Government, although 
 anxious to make out that India has been in all respects injured 
 by the depreciation in the gold value of the rupee, volunteers 
 this admission :— 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 55 
 
 •" We do not believe that the entire fall in the English prices of either 
 wheat or cotton is due to the fall in the rate of exchange ; but we see no 
 reason to doubt that the rate of exchange has had a material influence in 
 bringing about this fall. As an illustration of the far-reaching effects of 
 any considerable change in the relative value of gold and silver, and of the 
 economic disturbance which it causes, we would call your Lordship's 
 special attention to the fact that the Indian cultivator of wheat and cotton 
 appears to have actually gained, while the English and American producer 
 of these commodities has suffered by the fall in the rates of exchange." 
 
 That English, American, and other producers of wheat 
 are heavy losers by the fall in the rate of exchange is certain ; 
 but it is doubtful whether the Indian grower is benefited in 
 the long run. If the rate of exchange went up, so that he 
 could not sell wheat to be sold again at prices now current 
 in London, jprices would speedily rise there, as we could not 
 dispense with the Indian supply, and the ryot might then 
 get as many rupees for a quarter of wheat as he gets now, 
 or possibly more. He gets as much, in rupees, now as he 
 received when the exchange rate was 6d. per rupee higher 
 than it is. To show how little prices in the interior of India 
 are influenced by either English prices or the rate of exchange, 
 it is worth while to state that the average of prices at eight 
 important markets, given in the Gazette of India for -the 
 first half of January, 1882, when the average price in England 
 was 44s. 6d. per quarter, was only one-third of a rupee higher 
 than in the corresponding period of 1884, when the English 
 average was not quite 39s., and exchange was lower. Evidence 
 seems to show, too, that the purchasing power of a rupee, in 
 India, for commodities generally is greater now than it was 
 when its gold value was much higher. Mr. J. E. O'Conor, 
 Assistant - Secretary to the Indian Finance and Commerce 
 Department, while endeavouring to prove that a low rate 
 of exchange does not benefit the export trade or injure 
 the import trade, states that prices have fallen in India by 
 about 10 per cent, all round. With extraordinary logic, Mr. 
 O'Conor contends that the low rate of exchange cannot have 
 had the effect of stimulating the export trade, "because the 
 prices of almost all Indian produce in European markets have 
 fallen in greater ratio than the rate of exchange, and the whole 
 advantage resulting from a low rate of exchange has been 
 neutralised." It is strange that he cannot see that it is only 
 by the help afforded by the low rate of exchange to exporters, 
 
56 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 in addition to the reduction of their own and other middle- 
 men's and ship-owners' profits, that they have been able to keep 
 on exporting at all. In reality, he completely refutes his own 
 statement when he admits that " the low rate of exchange has 
 counterbalanced, to the extent of about two-thirds (roughly), 
 the disadvantage of low prices in the consuming markets." 
 Here we have the case in a nutshell. No one pretends that 
 exchange alone has enabled exporters to keep on their opera- 
 tions. Increased railway communication in India, diminished 
 profits to dealers, and reduced sea-freights have helped them ; 
 but these advantages, according to Mr. O'Conor, make up for 
 only about one-third of the fall in prices in consuming coun- 
 tries, leaving two-thirds (which is more than I estimate) to be 
 made good by the depreciated value of the rupee. One more 
 extract from Mr. O'Conor's statements. He says that " prices 
 of Indian exports at the ports of shipment have not fallen in 
 anything like the ratio of the fall in the consuming markets." 
 Of course they have not. If they had, the argument as to 
 the effect of low exchange would fall to the ground, as, under 
 such circumstances, exporting would have been profitable 
 without a fall in the rate of exchange. It is because the 
 exporter has been able lately, to all effects and purposes, to 
 get more than twenty-five shillings' worth of Indian wheat for 
 a sovereign in gold that he was able to pay the comparatively 
 high rupee price in India, and sell at the low gold price in 
 England. 
 
 As to the question whether the Indian cultivator is bene- 
 fited by the low rate of exchange which allows of wheat 
 exportation with the barest margin of profit to all concerned, 
 Mr. A. R. Connell, who read a very able paper on "Indian 
 Railways and Indian Wheat" before the Statistical Society 
 a short time ago, appears to think that they are not. He 
 contends that the peasantry grow their grain crops primarily 
 for subsistence, and only to a small extent for sale ; that 
 is only the small surplus over, after supplying the wants ot 
 themselves, their labourers, and their cattle, that is affected 
 by market prices; and that the largest part, if not all, of 
 that surplus goes to the money-lender. Indeed, he appears to 
 be of opinion that wheat-growing does not pay the ryot, but 
 that the poor man is forced by the money-lender to grow the 
 crop as the best means of obtaining ready money for the 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 57 
 
 satisfaction of the usurious demands of his creditor. The 
 cultivator's assessment is raised on account of the alleged 
 rise in the value of the holding, owing to increased railway 
 communication and the development of the wheat trade, and 
 Mr. Connell gives strong reasons for doubting whether the 
 stimulus to wheat-growing in India is not altogether an un- 
 healthy one, as far as the peasantry are concerned. 
 
 The . inevitable conclusion from the facts, figures, and 
 arguments given above seems to be that British wheat-growers 
 cannot compete with Indian producers when the rupee is less 
 than about is. iod. in exchange value, but that, if silver were 
 not depreciated in proportion to gold, they would have no 
 reason to fear Indian competition. There will always be a 
 considerable European demand for the hard wheats of India, 
 and wheat would be exported from that country in moderate 
 quantity if the rupee went up to its old price of 2s. in gold 
 value. As long as it remains greatly depreciated, European 
 and American wheat-growers will have a hard struggle to main- 
 tain their industry. 
 
 Russia. 
 
 That wheat-growing does not pay in Russia at such prices 
 as have prevailed during the last three years is certain. The 
 Russian Agricultural Department, in a recent report, admits 
 that the producer receives only one-third of the price paid 
 in London, and that this, in many cases, is hardly sufficient 
 to cover cost of production and transportation to the nearest 
 railway station or river wharf. Other evidence goes further 
 than this, and represents the condition of the agricultural 
 classes of the Empire as miserable in the extreme. In the 
 autumn of 1885 the Russian Government, to avert the ruin 
 with which millions of the cultivators of the soil were 
 threatened, deemed it necessary to offer loans of money on 
 the security of the crops at the not very, charitable rate of 
 interest at 6 per cent. Mr. J. Randich, a grain merchant 
 of Odessa, writing in " Dornbusch's List " in July last year, ex- 
 presses the opinion that, although cereal production has not 
 been checked in Russia, wheat-growing does not pay. Nume- 
 rous complaints to that effect, he adds, have been made 
 during the last two years, both in the assemblies of the 
 zemstvos and in the small homesteads. It is, however, 
 
58 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 difficult to substitute any other crop for wheat — at any rate 
 in Southern Russia, with its triennial rotation of crops — and 
 the cultivators keep on producing the cereal at a loss, hoping 
 for higher prices. Like the ryots of India, the Russian 
 peasants are not, as a rule, free agents in the matter of crop- 
 ping the land, being terribly oppressed by usurers, who prac- 
 tically compel them to grow crops that will bring in money 
 promptly, whether at a profit or at a loss. Of course, unless 
 prices rise, the end of this state of affairs is only a question of 
 time. " Stepniak," in a remarkable series of letters on " The 
 Russian Agrarian Question," recently contributed to the Times, 
 says, on the authority of Jansonj that in thirteen provinces of 
 Central Russia there has been a reduction of 27-8 per cent, in 
 the quantity of harvested corn since 1864, in spite of an 
 increase of 6 -6 per cent, in the population, many peasants 
 having entirely given up husbandry. The same writer states 
 that it is common for the peasants to sell corn at a low price 
 in September, only to buy some of it back at an advance 
 of 30 to 50 per cent, to supply their needs during the winter 
 and spring. To obtain what they need, it is their usual prac- 
 tice to place themselves in bondage to the koulaks or " mir- 
 eaters," engaging to do an utterly -unreasonable amount of 
 labour on the land in lieu of paying in money, which they 
 do not possess. It is by this means, to a great extent, that 
 the cultivation of the crops is kept up, and the system is not 
 one that can last. 
 
 The agriculture of Russia is wretched in the extreme, the 
 large landowners alone employing machinery or using manures. 
 The yield of the wheat crop appears to be below 8 bushels an 
 acre, as a rule, and sometimes below 6 bushels. Any approach 
 to exactness in Russian statistics is hopeless, no two accounts 
 of crop areas or produce coinciding. According to official 
 figures, the wheat area of European Russia, exclusive of 
 Poland, in 1872, was a little under 29,000,000 acres, and the 
 yield not quite 158,000,000 bushels, or less than 6 bushels per 
 acre. In 1870-79, and in 1881, almost exactly the same 
 acreage was returned, and in 1885 it was under 31,000,000 
 acres. The produce has varied during the whole period since 
 1870 as much as from 158,000,000 to 258,000,000 bushels. 
 The latter quantity, returned for 1884, was quite unusual — in 
 fact, the greatest crop ever grown in Russia ; yet the yield was 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 59 
 
 less than 9 bushels an acre. Mr. Henry Ling Roth, in his 
 interesting "Sketch of the Agriculture and Peasantry of 
 Eastern Russia," gives 499 lb., or 3 lb. over 8 bushels of 
 62 lb., as the average produce of wheat per acre during 
 thirty-two years on black soil. This, he says, is above the 
 mean yield for Russia as a whole, as the soil and management 
 of the farm in question are much above average. The same 
 writer states that 10 r. per sorokaya dessiatin, or 7s. 2d. per 
 acre, would be considered an average profit. This he says' in 
 reference to the year 1877, when the average price Of wheat in 
 England was nearly double what it was in 1886— 56s. 9d., as 
 compared with 31s. Unless expenses have been greatly re- 
 duced, ' the loss at recent prices must have been very heavy. 
 No doubt, as Mr. Randich says in the article previously 
 alluded to, the low rate of exchange for silver, as well as the 
 reduced freights, helps the export trade in Russian wheat, but 
 not sufficiently to make its production profitable at recent 
 prices. 
 
 Our imports of wheat and flour (nearly all grain) from 
 Russia during the past ten years have varied extremely. In 
 1877 they amounted to nearly 2,538,460 qrs. ; in 1883, to over 
 3,000,000 qrs. ; and in 1885, to over 2,769,230 qrs. ; whereas 
 in 1880 they were under 700,000 qrs. ;• in 1884, about 1,270,000 
 qrs.; in 1885, 2,788,244 qrs. ; in 1886, 856,177 qrs.; and in 
 1887, i,282j3I2 qrs. The partial failure of the rye crop — the 
 source of the staple food of the Russian peasantry— in any 
 year necessitates the home consumption of a very large pro- 
 portion of the wheat produced ; and of the portion exported 
 a great deal goes to Germany, Italy, and France. For these 
 reasons, as well as from the great variation in the produce 
 of the wheat crop in Russia, we cannot rely with any cer- 
 tainty upon that country for our supply of breadstuffs. The 
 depreciation in the gold value of the paper rouble is believed 
 by* many authorities' to stimulate the export of wheat ; but 
 there is no sufficient evidence within my knowledge that the 
 Russian rouble has retained its old purchasing power in Russia, 
 as the rupee has in India. Agricultural depression in Russia 
 is probably worse than anywhere else in the world, and there is 
 no reason to suppose that the Russian cultivator can profitably 
 lay down wheat in England at a lower; price than that at which 
 our own farmers can grow it. 
 
66 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Austria and Germany. 
 
 There is no reason to fear increased competition from 
 Austria-Hungary or Germany. The extra-fine quality of Hun- 
 garian flour gives it a market as a luxury in this and other 
 countries. This is partly due to the .high quality of the wheat, 
 but also in great measure to the superiority of the milling 
 machinery. Nearly all the breadstuffs we import from Austria- 
 Hungary come as flour, the quantity of wheat as grain being 
 quite insignificant. It was only 12,000 qrs., in round figures, 
 in 1886. Recently the millers of the United Kingdom have 
 made a great advance in the perfecting of their machinery, and 
 as they can get wheat of fine quality from various sources, 
 they are now in a position to compete with the Hungarian 
 millers. Our imports of wheat and flour from Germany 
 have for a long time been decreasing, the total for the six 
 years ending with 1885 having been only two-thirds of 
 that for the previous six years, and less still, per annum, 
 .since 1885. Besides, Germany is a wheat-importing country, 
 her net imports of wheat and flour in 1884-5 having 
 been equal to nearly 3,000,000 quarters of wheat; while the 
 net exports of Austria-Hungary for the same cereal year were 
 only equal to 500,000 quarters of wheat. That the recent low 
 prices have very seriously affected the wheat-growers of these 
 countries there is abundant evidence to show ; but it is suffi- 
 cient to point out that both have recently raised their import 
 duties on grain and flour. As population increases in these 
 and other European countries, their ability to compete with 
 British wheat-growers becomes less and less ; and this remark 
 applies to the Danubian Principalities and Turkey, from which 
 we receive comparatively small quantities of wheat. Russia is 
 the only great wheat-exporting country of Europe. Even with 
 Russia, it must be borne in mind, Europe is not self-supporting 
 in respect of wheat. A report recently issued by the American 
 Department of Agriculture puts the average production of 
 wheat in Europe at 1,144,000,000 bushels, and the con- 
 sumption at 1,312,000,000 bushels, leaving a deficiency of 
 168,000,000 bushels. Since 1881 the wheat area of Europe 
 appears to have increased by about 3,000,000 acres, a quantity 
 far from sufficient to supply the needs of the increased popu- 
 lation. 
 
Competition in wmeat^growing. 
 
 61 
 
 Australasia. 
 The total wheat area of the Australasian Colonies was less 
 by over half a million acres in 1885-6 than in 1883-4. For 
 the later year, unfortunately, there were no official statistics for 
 South Australia, and the estimate of the wheat acreage for that 
 Colony given by the Adelaide Observer, after collecting returns 
 from farmers in all districts, is the best that is available for the 
 year in question. The maximum wheat acreage was attained 
 in 1883-4 (harvest beginning in November, and finishing early 
 in January), in which year 3,698,817 acres were produced. 
 There was a smallreduction in 1884-5, and a larger and more 
 general one in the following year. The figures for the three 
 years are given .below : — 
 
 Area of the Wheat Crop in Australasia. 
 
 Colony. 
 
 1883-4. 
 
 1884-5. 
 
 1885-6. 
 
 New South Wales 
 
 Victoria 
 
 South Australia 
 
 Queensland 
 
 Western Australia 
 
 Tasmania 
 
 New Zealand 
 
 Acres. 
 
 289,757 
 
 1,104,392 
 
 1,846,151 
 
 10,742 
 
 28,768 
 
 4i,30i 
 
 377,706 
 
 Acres. 
 
 275,249 
 1,096,354 
 
 1,942,453 
 15,942 
 29,416 
 
 34,091 
 270,042 
 
 Acres. 
 
 264,867 
 
 1,020,082 
 
 1,630,000 
 
 13,299 
 
 29,5" 
 
 30,266 
 
 173,891 
 
 Total 
 
 3,698,817 
 
 3,663,548 
 
 3,161,916 
 
 Comparing the areas of the last two years, it will be seen 
 that there was a decrease in every colony, except Western 
 Australia, where the wheat crop is insignificant. In South 
 Australia, where about half the wheat grown in the whole of 
 Australasia had beert for several years produced, the decrease 
 was nearly one-sixth ; while in New Zealand less than half the 
 wheat area of 1883-4 appears for 1885-6. In 1886-7 there 
 was a recovery, according to Mr. Hayter, statistician for 
 Victoria. He puts the total wheat area of Australasia at 
 3,652,045 acres, though, as no statistics have been collected in 
 South Australia since 1884-5, be takes the figures for that 
 year, and enters them for 1886-7. The complete figures for 
 1887-8 are not available at the time of writing. 
 
62 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 In every one of these colonies; except Tasmania, there had 
 been a steady, though not in all cases regular, increase in wheat- 
 growing for the ten years ending with 1883-4, and there is 
 every reason to believe that the falling-off after that year was 
 attributable to the great fall in price which took place in 1884. 
 The wheat crop ceased to pay, and less of it was grown. South 
 Australia, dependent mainly upon wheat-growing, increased her 
 acreage in desperation in 1884-5, an( * has been nearly ruined 
 by her losses, which culminated with the failure of the harvest 
 of 1885-6, when the average yield of wheat was under 3 J 
 bushels an acre. The partial recovery of the wheat acreage in 
 Australasia as a whole in 1886-7 mav De attributed to the 
 comparatively high prices which prevailed in the Colonies 
 during the previous year, when there was actually a scarcity. 
 The average yield of the wheat crop in South Australia during 
 the last fourteen years has been only 7f bushels per acre, and 
 it needs no evidence to prove that, with such a miserable pro- 
 duce, wheat-growing for export cannot possibly pay when the 
 grain is selling in England at any price less than 40s. ; while 
 there cannot be much profit, if any, at that price. When the 
 average price in England is 40s. a quarter, or 5s. a bushel, 
 Australian farmers would not get more than 4s. a bushel at the 
 outside, at the nearest railway station, and at that price the 
 average return would be less than 30s. an acre. Some South 
 Australian writers declare that wheat can be grown in their 
 colony at less expense than anywhere else in the world. If 
 that be true, it does not follow that, with the miserable yield 
 obtained, the grain can be grown at less per bushel, and if there 
 is not an actual loss on a crop that brings in less than 30s. an 
 acre, there cannot be a living profit. What,, then, must be the 
 consequence when wheat is selling in England at an average of 
 30s., or even at that of 35s. ? The result must be ruin if wheat 
 for export is relied on for a livelihood, and ruin has actually 
 overtaken numbers of South Australian farmers. They have 
 had to go to their Government more than once for relief from 
 even the low rents which they contracted to pay, and in 1886 a 
 number of them appealed to the Government for a loan to 
 enable them to buy seed-corn. In 1885-6 Australia did not 
 grow wheat enough for home consumption, and had to import 
 for the first time from India, as well as from California. In 
 consequence of scarcity wheat was higher in price in the 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWINO. 63 
 
 Australasian Colonies than in England. Still, the yield was so 
 extremely small that there must have been a very heavy loss on 
 the production of the crop, at any rate in South Australia. 
 
 For some years the journals which circulate among Australian 
 farmers have been urging them, and particularly South Austra- 
 lian farmers, to apply themselves to mixed farming, and not to 
 rely too much on the wheat crop. Lately the ruinous conse- 
 quences of disregarding this good advice have been frequently 
 dwelt upon in the Colonial papers. 
 
 Victoria is the only Australian colony besides South Aus- 
 tralia which, in an average of seasons, grows more wheat than 
 is required for home consumption, unless Western Australia 
 has an utterly insignificant surplus. New South Wales and 
 Queensland never produce sufficient for home use, but import 
 from South Australia and Victoria. The average yield of wheat 
 in Victoria for the twelve years 1873-84 was i2| bushels an 
 acre ; consequently, although the crop costs more per acre to 
 produce than in South Australia, it is probably grown at a lower 
 cost per bushel. No one pretends, however, that wheat-growing 
 has paid in Victoria during the last two or three years. 
 
 In New South Wales the twelve years' average was within 
 a very small fraction of 15 bushels an acre; but as the colony 
 does not export, the difficulty being to induce the farmers to 
 grow wheat rather than to prevent them from growing too much, 
 it may be left out of the question before us. Queensland and 
 Western Australia both produce between 1 1 and 1 2 bushels an 
 acre on an average, while Tasmania rises above 18 bushels; 
 but these colonies, again, maybe passed over, as not competitors 
 with British wheat-growers. 
 
 New Zealand, with its fertile soil, and a twelve years' average 
 of over . 26-| bushels of wheat to the acre, or within about 
 \\ bushels of the " ordinary average " of the United Kingdom, 
 might have been regarded as a formidable competitor to the 
 British grower. The figures given previously, however, show 
 that the farmers of that colony were not disposed to send us 
 wheat at recent prices. The acreage of the wheat crop fell off 
 by more than one-half in two years after 1883-4, and the inevit- 
 able conclusion is that the farmers of New Zealand cannot 
 profitably send the grain to us when our average is under 40s. ; 
 for it was but little under that price when the New Zealand 
 crop of 1884-5 was sown, and yet there was a decrease in the 
 
64 THE BRITISH FARMER ANB HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 acreage of more than one-fourth, as compared with that of the' 
 previous year. It is well known that they have suffered from 
 agricultural depression, in common with grain producers all the 
 world over, during the last four years. They have been turn- 
 ing their attention lately to the increased exportation of mutton, 
 wool, and dairy produce, the last being sent in considerable 
 quantity to Australia and this country. 
 
 Australian and New Zealand wheats in good condition sell at 
 prices above the English average ; but, in spite of this advantage, 
 due to fine climate, all evidence goes to show that the farmers of 
 those colonies cannot profitably send us wheat when our average 
 is less than 40s. a quarter, and it is doubtful whether they would 
 again send and keep up the supplies they sent us a few years 
 ago even if our average could be fixed at that amount. Probably 
 they will require the incentive of an average rising occasionally' 
 at least as high as 45s. to induce them to make a business of 
 growing extensively for our markets. 
 
 Canada. 
 
 In spite of all that has been written in glorification of Canada 
 as an agricultural country, it is safe to assert that British wheat- 
 growers have no reason to fear the competition of that colony. 
 In 1874 we imported from the whole of British North America 
 wheat and flour equal to 991,919 qrs. of wheat; by 1879 the 
 quantity had risen to the highest point it has ever attained, 
 1,235,469 qrs. ; and in 1885 the total was only 483,548 qrs. In 
 the following year the quantity was 935,567 qrs. ; but as the 
 production of wheat in Canada was smaller in 1885 and 1886 
 than in 1884, this apparent partial recovery must be due to an 
 increase in exports of American wheat shipped from Canadian 
 ports. The decline in exports from Canada to the United 
 Kingdom, however, is far from being the most fatal exposure 
 of the pretensions of the Dominion as a wheat-exporting 
 country. In the fiscal year ended June 30th, 1885, Canada 
 imported 3,128,143 bushels of wheat and 565,562 barrels of 
 flour, as compared with 2,340,956 bushels of wheat and 
 123,777 barrels of flour of home production exported to all 
 countries. Still, as her total exports, including foreign pro- 
 ducts, amounted to 5,423,805 bushels of wheat and 161,054 
 barrels of flour, there was a small balance of exports, and but 
 a small one indeed. The balance of wheat exported was 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 
 
 °5 
 
 2,295,662 bushels, equal to 286,958 qrs. ; and the balance of 
 flour imported was 404,508 barrels, equal to 202,254 qrs. of 
 wheat. The net balance of exports, then, was only 84,704 
 qrs.; in 1885-6 the balance was 453,178 qrs. As the 
 deficiencies of the last two harvests . were much greater than 
 this last balance of exports, there must have been, one can 
 only conclude, a balance of imports for the years 1886-7 an d 
 1887-8. After all, much as it would surprise most people to 
 learn that Canada is a wheat-importing country, there would 
 be nothing new in an excess of imports over exports. In 
 five years out of the twelve ending with 1884, the imports 
 of wheat exceeded the exports of home-grown and foreign 
 together, while the imports of flour were in nearly every year 
 in excess of the exports. The low prices of recent years have 
 brought matters to a climax, and Canada has lately grown but 
 little if any more than enough wheat for her own consumption. 
 
 With this statement it may seem that the question of 
 Canadian competition with British wheat-growers might be 
 considered as settled ; but as we do import from the Dominion 
 small quantities of wheat and flour, to all effects and purposes^ 
 borrowed from the United States to be sent to us, a few figures* 
 and statements in relation to the Provinces of Ontario and 
 Manitoba are desirable. 
 
 In 1 88 1 nearly two million acres of wheat were grown in 
 Ontario, and only a little over fifty-one thousand acres in 
 Manitoba. By 1886 the area in Ontario had been reduced by 
 nearly half a million acres, while that of Manitoba had in- 
 creased by less than two-thirds of the decrease in the other 
 Province. The acreage and officially estimated produce for 
 the three years ending with 1886 are given below : — 
 
 
 1884. 
 
 1885. 
 
 1886. 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Ontario 
 Manitoba 
 
 1,586,387 
 307,020 
 
 35.327,292 
 6,174,172 
 
 1,674,599 
 367,429 
 
 30,608,162 
 7,014,219 
 
 1,463,867 
 380,247 
 
 27,585,577 
 5,829,186 
 
 Totals 
 
 1,893,407 
 
 41,501,464 
 
 2,042,028 
 
 37,622,381 
 
 1,844,114 
 
 33,414,763 
 
66 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Here there appears a continuous decrease in produce, though 
 the acreage was a little larger in 1885 than in 1884. In 1886 
 the wheat area dropped below that of 1884. In 1887 the area 
 in Ontario was reduced to 1,382,564 acres, and the produce 
 was only 20,073,728 bushels. In Manitoba the area was 
 432,134 acres, while the harvest was so unusually prolific that 
 the total produce was estimated at 12,099,864 bushels. Thus, 
 the totals for the two Provinces were 1,814,698 acres and 
 32,173,592 bushels, showing a further decline in area and 
 produce. Statistics for the other Provinces of the Dominion 
 are published, only at wide intervals ; but it is well known that 
 wheat-growing has declined in them. Apart from Ontario and 
 the North-West, Canada is not nearly self-supporting in wheat- 
 production. In the area for 1886 in Manitoba, there were 
 included 16 acres of winter wheat, all that survived out of 39 
 acres planted by way of experiment. This year a surplus is 
 announced for Manitoba and the rest of the North- West, but 
 not sufficient to cover the deficiency in the rest of the Dominion, 
 I believe. Clearly Canada is falling more and more behind in 
 .her efforts to supply her own population with wheat, to say 
 nothing of " feeding Europe " — a feat which it has been boasted 
 that Manitoba alone could accomplish. 
 
 A substantial rise in the price of wheat would, no doubt, 
 send the acreage of the crop up to a higher level than it has 
 ever before reached in the Dominion; but it is doubtful 
 whether Canada will ever become a great wheat-growing country. 
 In Ontario the acreage of the crop decreased before prices were 
 low enough to cause depression in other countries, simply be- 
 cause it paid the farmers better to grow barley and peas (which 
 they produce in great abundance and of high quality), and to 
 devote their attention to dairying, in which they have made 
 much progress. The average yield of wheat in Ontario was 
 stated by an Agricultural Commission, which sat some time 
 before 1882, to be only n \ bushels an acre, while that of 
 Manitoba was estimated by the Agricultural Department of 
 that Province at 29 bushels. Unless Ontario was wronged and 
 Manitoba unduly exalted, there has been great improvement in 
 the fertility of the former, and serious deterioration in that of 
 the latter Province— that is, if the figures representing acre- 
 age and total yield are approximately correct. If the number 
 of bushels officially, returned be divided by the number of 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 
 
 6 7 
 
 acres for each year from 1880 to 1886, the following results 
 will be obtained : — 
 
 Average Yield of Wheat in Bushels. 
 
 
 1881. 
 
 1882. 
 
 1883. 
 
 1884. 
 
 1885. 
 
 1886. 
 
 Ontario ... 
 Manitoba 
 
 r. 
 
 14-1 
 
 20-2 
 
 23-1 
 
 127 
 237 
 
 22-2 
 20I 
 
 18-2 
 
 I9-I 
 
 18-8 
 iS-3 
 
 The mean for Ontario for six years is 18-2 bushels per acre; 
 that for Manitoba for five years is 197. The figures up to 1884 
 are taken from the Colonial Abstract, and those for the two 
 remaining years from the reports of Canadian officials. In the 
 " Report of the Department of Agriculture of Manitoba for 
 1882," the area of the wheat crop does not appear; therefore 
 the gap in the Colonial Abstract cannot be filled up. It is 
 extremely difficult to verify the statements made by officials, 
 because the statistics supplied are so defective. For instance, 
 the " Annual Report of the Ontario Department of Agriculture 
 for 1885 " does not give the acreage of any crop, and a similar 
 omission in a Report for Manitoba has already been noticed. 
 Thus, when Manitoba is officially declared to be " the premier 
 wheat district of the world," with an average yield of 29 bushels 
 to the acre, the means of contradicting that ridiculous exaggera- 
 tion are not so ready to hand as they should be. 
 
 That wheat-growing in Ontario has not been remunerative 
 during the last three years is generally admitted in Canada. To 
 give one extract out of a large number which might be quoted, 
 the Toronto Globe of February 12th, 1886, said : — 
 
 " It must be borne in mind that the condition of Ontario agriculture 
 has already become identical with that of England in one respect — very 
 few farmers in either country can make money out of wheat. Undoubtedly 
 the change necessitated by the growing of enormous bodies of wheat on 
 the Western and North- Western prairies will force Ontario farmers to 
 follow in the lines laid down by British experience. Those will be wisest 
 who take advantage of this experience without waiting till they are com- 
 pelled to fly to it as a refuge from bankruptcy." 
 
 In May, 1888, the Globe declared that the sooner Ontario 
 farmers recognise the fact that their business as grain-growers 
 is disappearing as the North-West becomes populated, the 
 E 2 
 
68 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 better it would be for them, and urged them to turn their 
 attention, more generally than heretofore, to sheep-breeding. 
 The same journal recently said that " few farmers in Ontario 
 consider it pays to sell wheat at less than one dollar a bushel;" 
 that is, 32s. a quarter. During recent years, many of them 
 have had to accept about half that price. No wonder if, as Sir 
 Richard Cartwright said in 1887, farm lands in Ontario were 
 not worth so much by millions of dollars as they were six years 
 before. As in the United States, the farmers of Ontario, and 
 of Manitoba too, have been on all sides advised to devote their 
 attention more to the production of meat, milk, cheese, and 
 butter, and less to wheat. 
 
 The soil of Manitoba is undoubtedly very fertile ; but the 
 climate is too arctic even for wheat. In four years out of the 
 six, ending with 1886, the crop was more or less seriously 
 injured by being frozen just before it was ripe. Crops caught 
 thus by frost are greatly diminished in yield, and the grain 
 produced is shrivelled, and of but little value. This risk, in 
 addition to a short and precarious period for seeding, is more 
 than sufficient to counteract the advantage of a fertile soil. In 
 1886, according to Mr. Aubrey, of Broadview, North- Western 
 Territories, drought caused a "total failure" of the crops in 
 " thousands of cases," thousands of acres not being worth 
 cutting, and not having been cut. " Throughout the country," 
 he adds, "times are very hard, from Winnipeg away west to 
 the Rockies." His letter, dated November 28th, 1886, was 
 published in the Suffolk Chronicle. A correspondent of an 
 English agricultural paper, who resides in Manitoba, says :— 
 " The great obstacle to farming is the long winter. From 
 November to April you can do nothing, and the horses are 
 standing idle, so that to farm fifty acres you need to have one 
 hundred broken, and crop it alternately, fifty each year." 
 Where such a system is pursued, the expenses of the whole 
 acreage should be charged against the cropped portion, and 
 this is never done in the fantastical estimates of the cost of 
 wheat-growing in Manitoba and the rest of the Canadian 
 North- West, which have appeared from time to time in English 
 papers. According to Major Bell and his numerous English 
 admirers, a large profit was obtained on the great Bell Farm, 
 Qu'Appelle Valley, by growing wheat at ns. 2d. a quarter. At 
 least, it was said that 8 per cent, on the capital was returned by 
 
COMPETITION IN WHEAT-GROWING. 69 
 
 crediting that amount to each quarter grown. Unfortunately 
 the great Bell Farm has gone the way of nearly all the other 
 " Mammoth farms " of the North American Continent, and has 
 been disposed of. The shareholders apparently were not 
 satisfied with 8 per cent. 
 
 There are always dissatisfied people in a colony ready to 
 abuse it, and Manitoba can scarcely be so black as it has been 
 painted by some writers, while it certainly is not the agricultural 
 El Dorado depicted by others. The correspondent of an agri- 
 cultural paper previously quoted said, in 1885, that there were 
 300 farms in a single county near Winnipeg, to be sold for 
 taxes. That may have been an exaggeration ; but that farms in 
 considerable number in Ontario and Manitoba alike have been 
 sold to satisfy the demands of tax-collectors is a fact beyond all 
 dispute. When it is seen that the total value of agricultural 
 products exported from Canada fell from 31 million dollars 
 in 1881-2 to a little over 14J millions in 1884-5, it would be 
 strange indeed if the country had not suffered from agricultural 
 depression. 
 
 Even if all the accounts of destitution among settlers in 
 Manitoba be discredited, it is obvious that the country which 
 added to its wheat area only 125,114 acres in the three years 
 ending with 1887, will be a long time in becoming the "granary 
 of the world." The fact is, that nothing short of the prospect 
 of a handsome fortune will tempt a large population to a colony 
 far colder than Siberia, and it is certain that no fortunes have 
 yet been made by wheat-growing in Manitoba. As in most 
 parts of the United States, it is land-jobbing, and not farming, 
 which has enriched the few who have made much money in the 
 agricultural districts of that Colony. 
 
 South America. 
 Twenty years ago, Chile and the Argentine Republic were 
 each described as " the future granary of the world." From 
 Chile in 1874 we received over two million hundredweights of 
 wheat, and except in 1883 and 1887 we have never received 
 nearly as much from that country since. In 1886 the quantity 
 was 1,701,695 cwts., or less than 400,000 qrs., not enough to 
 feed the people of the United Kingdom for six out of the 365 
 days in a year. The following year gave the best harvest ever 
 gathered in Chile and the Argentine Republic ; and from the 
 
70 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 former country we received during the year 509,140 qrs. 
 According to a recent Consular Report there has been very little 
 advance in Chilian agriculture in recent years. The farmer 
 still ploughs with a pointed piece of wood, and his harrow is a 
 bundle of bushes. The yield of wheat averages about 4 bushels 
 to the acre, including a large proportion of dirt. In 1880, the 
 wheat area was about 6,000,000 acres, and there appeared to 
 be no increase in 1885. 
 
 The Argentine Republic, as stated in a previous portion 
 of this chapter, sent us 77,421 qrs. of wheat in 1885, a little 
 over a day's consumption for the United Kingdom, and that 
 is the largest quantity we received from that country until 
 1887, when the exports were quite exceptional. In 1886 
 wheat was so scarce in the Republic that it was 6s. 6d. 
 per bushel of 56 lb., or 54s. per English quarter, and there 
 were outcries for the removal of the duty of 40 per cent, 
 levied on foreign wheat. The Buenos Ayres Standard admits 
 that the River Plate Provinces cannot compete with the United 
 States in the production of wheat for export, and recommends 
 the devotion of an increased proportion of the capital of the 
 country to pastoral industry. 
 
 Deductions. 
 
 It has been too hastily assumed that, in the struggle for 
 existence among wheat-growers, the British, the best farmers 
 in the world, will not be among the fittest who will survive. 
 The evidence adduced in the foregoing remarks appears to show 
 this assumption to be unfounded. Everywhere, with the doubt- 
 ful exception of India, wheat-growers have been partly or 
 wholly ruined by the long period of low prices, and British 
 growers have only suffered with the rest. If we are to have 
 another year of such low prices as had prevailed for four years up 
 to the end of 1887, the wheat area of the world will probably 
 be contracted by many millions of acres, and bread once more 
 may become temporarily dear. At the time of writing, however, 
 there is reason to expect a sufficient rise in the price of wheat 
 to encourage farmers everywhere to sow at least their usual 
 acreage for another year. A very great rise in price is neither 
 to be expected nor desired, even in the interest of growers, as it 
 would infallibly lead to over-production once more. 
 
7i 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 
 
 Until about five years ago the live-stock interest ot this 
 country had for a long time been in a generally flourishing 
 condition, though subjected to occasional losses through the 
 prevalence of cattle disease. Breeding undoubtedly paid well 
 during the ten years ending with 1883, and if high prices 
 meant satisfactory profits, the fattening of cattle and sheep was 
 also remunerative. The last point, however, has always been 
 a difficult one to decide, because but few farmers keep exact 
 accounts of their business. It was a common remark among 
 farmers during the period in question that the right thing to 
 do was to give up corn-growing to some extent, and to produce 
 meat on a larger scale ; but when those who made that state- 
 ment were pressed to give reasons in pounds, shillings, and 
 pence for their contention, their replies were almost invariably 
 unsatisfactory. Lean cattle and sheep were high in price, 
 commonly costing more per pound than was obtained for the 
 same animals when fat, so that the value of the increase in 
 weight could not all be set against the cost of fattening. The 
 farmer was generally satisfied if the animals paid him well for 
 the root or other green crops consumed ; and if he was also 
 repaid half his expenditure on cake or other purchased food, he 
 considered he had done exceptionally well. If asked to show 
 his actual profit, he would point to his manure-heap or his 
 sheep-folded fields, thus proving that, although he declared that 
 corn-production did not pay and meat-production did, he in 
 reality looked for his profit to the increased crops produced by 
 the manure. Of course, on those rare pastures which will 
 fatten cattle without extraneous food, or even with a little of it, 
 the case was different, and the summer feeding of sheep in the 
 fields, on clover or some other green crop, was often remunera- 
 tive. Occasionally, too, when store cattle were bought on 
 
72 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 favourable terms, a direct profit was made by fattening them 
 in stalls or yards, after charging all their food and attendance. 
 But this was exceptional, and, as a general rule, it may safely 
 be said that meat production, apart from breeding, was not 
 directly remunerative in the ten years of high prices referred 
 to, though it was profitable in conjunction with corn-growing 
 until the prices of corn came down too low. 
 
 Since the end of 1883, the value of cattle and sheep had 
 been declining until the autumn of 1886, when a rise in the 
 price of wool led to a partial recovery in the value of sheep. 
 The fall affected lean stock more seriously than fat animals, and 
 breeders accordingly had their full share of bad fortune. In- 
 deed, it is a question whether they were not the only sufferers, 
 as graziers pure and simple bought their stores at low prices, 
 while feeding-stuffs were extremely cheap. But it is scarcely 
 necessary to say that there is not, as a rule, a sharp dividing-line 
 between breeders and graziers, most breeders, except in Ire- 
 land and the hill districts of Wales and Scotland, and dairy 
 farmers who sell young calves, being also engaged in fattening. 
 Consequently, the majority of stock-keepers have suffered to 
 some extent from the fall in prices, though less, there is reason 
 to believe, except in the purely breeding districts, than is com- 
 monly supposed. In short, it seems that those who contrast 
 the recent bad times for stock-keepers with the supposed good 
 times previous to 1884, exaggerate alike the gains of the earlier 
 period and the losses of the later one. It is to be borne in 
 mind that rent and wages, as well as the prices of purchased 
 feeding-stuffs, have fallen since the end of 1883, while the 
 comparatively new practice of making cattle and sheep fit for 
 the butcher at an early age has been getting more and more 
 common. Losses from cattle disease, again, have been fewer 
 since the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act of 1883 was 
 passed. Thus, the cost of producing meat in this country has 
 undoubtedly been reduced, sufficiently, probably, to render 
 fattening as profitable, or as little unprofitable, as during the 
 decade of high prices. During the present year, too, the 
 prices of lean cattle and sheep have advanced considerably. 
 I have not included pigs in the contrast of values before 
 and since the end of 1883, because the prices of those animals 
 have fluctuated greatly in both periods, though they were lower 
 than usual in 1884 and 1885. The advantage of cheap feeding. 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 73 
 
 stuff, however, has been greater in the fattening of pigs than in 
 that of cattle or sheep, because they are extensively fed on 
 corn. At present it is generally admitted that pigs pay well 
 for breeding and fattening if the requirements of bacon-curers 
 are met. 
 
 Coming to details of -prices, the latest official statistics take 
 us only to the end of 1886. During the decade ending with 
 1883 the mean annual price of beef of medium quality in the 
 Metropolitan Cattle Market varied from 4s. nd. to 5s. 8d. per 
 8 lb., but was below 5s. sd. in only two years out of the ten. 
 In 1884 it was 5s. 4d. ; in 1885, 4s. 9d. ; and in 1886, 4s. 3d. 
 During the ten years the average yearly price of medium 
 mutton ranged from 5s. 5d. to 6s. 9d. per 8 lb., the minimum 
 being exceptional, and foreign sheep being included. In only 
 three years was the price under 6s. 4d. In 1884 it was 
 5s. 1 id. ; in 1885, 5s. 2d. ; and in 1886, 5s. 5d. The price of 
 pork of second quality varied from 4s. 4d. to 5s. 3d. up to the 
 end of 1883. . In 1884 it was 4s. 2d. ; in 1885, 3s. rod. ; and 
 in 1886, 3s. 9d. No approach to complete records of the 
 prices of lean stock are available, the best being those given 
 for Ireland in Thorn's and Purdon's Almanacs. According 
 to the latter authority, two-year-old cattle sold at from ^9 to 
 ;£i8 each, as the extreme prices, during the ten years ending 
 with 1883, in which year the prices given are from £,\ 1 to ^18. 
 In 1884 there was a fall to £& as the minimum and ;£i6 5s. 
 as the maximum; in 1885 the range was from ^7 to ^13; 
 in 1886 it was j£$ 10s. to ^13 5s. ; while in 1887 it was 
 £6 to £io 15s. Lambs, which were 24s. to 52s. in 1883, 
 and had been nearly as dear in most of the previous nine 
 years, fell to from 20s. to 48s. in 1884, and sold at 18s. to 50s. 
 in 1885, at 16s. to 42s. 3d. in 1886, and at 20s. to 43s. in 
 1887. Wether sheep of second quality, after falling from 
 j£$ 5s. in 1882 and £2 18s. in 1883 to J~2 14s. in 1884, re- 
 covered in value to £2 15s. in 1886, and fell again to 
 £2 12s. 6d. in 1887; and there was a corresponding fluctua- 
 tion in the case of ewes. At the Birmingham Shorthorn Show 
 and Sale, the average price of cows over three years of age was 
 ^31 ios. in 1877, ^37 5s. in 1884, and ^25 5s. in 1887. 
 For heifers over two and under three years, the averages in the 
 • same order were ^34 5s., ^35 19s., and ^29 9s. ; for heifers 
 over one year and not over two years, ^26 12 s., ^32 8s., and 
 
74 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 ^28 14s. Either 1882 or 1884 was the year of the highest 
 average since 1877. Store cattle and sheep have sold better 
 in the first half of 1888 than in 1887. The small rise in the 
 price of wool which began in the early autumn of 1886 caused 
 an advance in the values of store sheep, which was not pro- 
 portionately gained in the case of fat sheep. Of the price of 
 store pigs there are no tabulated records. In 1887 the prices 
 of fat cattle, sheep, and pigs alike were generally lower than in 
 1886. During the first half of 1888 prime fat cattle have sold 
 better than in 1887, and inferior cattle worse. Sheep were at 
 first lower in price, but recently have become higher — at any 
 rate, for good quality — while pigs have further declined in 
 value. 
 
 It is a fact requiring explanation, that the fall in the values 
 of cattle and beef up to the end of 1887 was contemporaneous 
 with a decline in the imports, as will be seen from the table 
 given below. The anomaly referred to does not pertain to the 
 case of sheep and mutton, which, taken together, have been 
 imported in increasing quantities since 1883 ; but it does in 
 small degree apply to pigs and pork, which, in spite of a large 
 increase in the receipts of bacon and hams, have come to us 
 in diminished quantity for the last three years, as compared 
 with the average for the previous seven years. 
 
 The following table shows the number of cattle, sheep, and 
 pigs in the United Kingdom, and the imports of the same, alive 
 and dead, for each of the ten years ended with 1887 : — 
 

 Live Stock in United Kingdom. 
 
 
 
 Imports. 
 
 
 Cattle. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Pigs. 
 
 CattlBi 
 
 Beef. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Mutton. 
 
 Pigs. 
 
 Pork. 
 
 1878 
 
 9,761,288 
 
 32,571,018 
 
 3,767.960 
 
 253,462 
 
 Cwts. 
 729,123 
 
 892,125 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 55.9" 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 4,684,590 
 
 1879 
 
 9.961,536 
 
 32.237,958 
 
 3,178,106 
 
 247.768 
 
 812,237 
 
 944,888 
 
 
 52,366 
 
 5,358,840 
 
 1880 
 
 9.87I.IS3 
 
 30,239,620 
 
 2,863,488 
 
 3891724' 
 
 1.017,956 
 
 941,121 
 
 
 5I>I9I 
 
 5,743.915 
 
 1881 
 
 9,9°5> OI 3 
 
 27,896,273 
 
 3,H9,I73 
 
 3ig ( 374 
 
 1,068,599 
 
 935, J44 
 
 
 24,283 
 
 4,009,010 
 
 1882 
 
 9,832,417 
 
 27,448,220 
 
 3,956,495 
 
 343(699 
 
 692,383 
 
 1,124,391 
 
 189,847 
 
 15,670 
 
 3,194,987 
 
 1883... 
 
 10,097,943 
 
 28,347,560 
 
 3,986,427 
 
 474i75o 
 
 1,094,008 
 
 1,116,115 
 
 236,496 
 
 38,863 
 
 4,072,891 
 
 1884 
 
 10,422,762 
 
 29,376,787 
 
 3,906,205 
 
 425t5o7 
 
 1.090,739 
 
 945,042 
 
 503,194 
 
 26,437 
 
 3,755.956 
 
 1885 
 
 10,868.760 
 
 30,086,200 
 
 3,686,628 
 
 373,078 
 
 1,141,866 
 
 750,866 
 
 572,868 
 
 16,522 
 
 4,442,090 
 
 1886 
 
 10,872,811 
 
 28,955,240 
 
 3.497,165 
 
 319,621 
 
 1,001,931 
 
 1,038,967 
 
 652,289 
 
 2I.35 2 
 
 4.570,499 
 
 1887 
 
 10,639,960 
 
 29,401,750 
 
 3,720,957 
 
 295i96i 
 
 876,011 
 
 971,403 
 
 784,841 
 
 21,965 
 
 4.348,995 
 
7 6 
 
 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 It was not until 1882 that the trade in frozen mutton from 
 Australasia began in earnest, and it was not till three years 
 later that the contributions were considerably swollen by sup- 
 plies from the River Plate. The imports of tinned, potted, 
 arid unenumerated meat are not included in the table, because 
 there are no means of differentiating this portion of the supply. 
 The quantities, however, have not varied very greatly, com- 
 paring those of the later and earlier years of the period. 
 
 For 1887, as compared with 1878, there was an increase in 
 the home and foreign meat supply together, and that to an 
 extent more than sufficient to make up for the increase in the 
 population. 
 
 Taking the official statistics of live-stock in the United 
 Kingdom, and the imports of live and dead meat for 1877, Sir 
 James Caird estimated the total meat supply at 30,800,000 cwts. 
 It is usual to assume that 25 per cent, of the cattle in the 
 country, 40 per cent, of the sheep, and 116 per cent, of the 
 number of pigs enumerated, come into consumption within the 
 year. Probably the proportions of cattle and sheep sent to 
 the butcher are now above these estimates, in consequence of 
 the progress made in promoting early maturity ; but as the 
 weight per head is decreased for the same reason, the calcu- 
 lation is not appreciably affected. On this basis, for 1885, 
 Major Craigie, taking the official figures, estimated the total 
 supply of home and foreign meat at 36,460,000 cwts., or almost 
 exactly one hundredweight per head of the population. An 
 estimate which I made in 1886 came out at less than that for 
 1885, the home arid foreign supply having both been a little 
 smaller. 
 
 The figures for the three periods, including the population 
 at the middle of each year, stand thus : — 
 
 
 Home Supply. 
 
 Foreign Supply. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Population. 
 
 1877... .... 
 
 1885 
 
 1886 
 
 Cwts. 
 24,500,000 
 27,220,000 
 26,682,000 
 
 Cwts. 
 6,300,000 
 9,240,000 
 9,IOO,000 
 
 Cwts. 
 30,800,000 
 36,460,000 
 35,782,000 
 
 33,446,930 
 36,331,119 
 36,707,418 
 
 In 1877, according to Sir James Caird, the consumption of 
 meat per head of the population was 103 lb. per annum ; by 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 77 
 
 1885 it appears to have increased to 112 lb.; and in 1886 it 
 had fallen to a fraction over 109 lb. The increase in con- 
 sumption between 1877 and 1885 was to be expected, as 
 bread had become very cheap at the latter period, thus 
 allowing wage-earners a wider margin for luxuries, and simul- 
 taneously meat had also fallen in price, foreign mutton espe- 
 cially being obtainable at very cheap rates in the large towns. 
 In 1 886 the general depression, the lowering of wages in some 
 cases, and the lack of constant employment in others, appear 
 to have diminished the demand for meat, and, prices having 
 again fallen, the supply from foreign countries fell off slightly, 
 instead of increasing. The small reduction in the home 
 supply was chiefly due to the decrease in the number of sheep 
 in the country. A similar calculation for 1887 would make 
 the total supply less, but only by a comparatively insignificant 
 quantity, the home supply having been a little larger. 
 
 The proportion of the foreign to the total supply of meat 
 increased from 207 per cent, in 1877 to 25-3 percent. in 1885, 
 and to 25-4 per cent, in 1886. For 1887 it was a fraction less 
 than in 1886. The increased proportion is not a large one 
 for ten years, considering the great efforts made by foreign 
 countries to supply our markets. Bearing in mind the fact 
 that the foreign total includes all the bacon, hams, and tinned 
 and otherwise preserved meats which are received, there is 
 some satisfaction in the consideration that our farmers still 
 -supply the ^country with about three-fourths of the meat con- 
 sumed. . When American cattle and beef first began to come 
 •i'ri; large quantities, and again when the Australasian traffic in 
 •frozen mutton was started, it was predicted that home pro- 
 ducers would be- speedily, driven out of the competition. In- 
 stead of such a result -.haying been brought to pass, it will be 
 seen from the figures; given above that British and Irish 
 breeders and graziers supplied more than two millions of their 
 fellow-countrymen with meat in 1886 in excess of the number 
 supplied by them ten years before. 
 
 It is impossible to state, with any approach to precision, the 
 cost of producing any kind of meat in this country, because it 
 varies with the prices of lean-stock and purchased feeding-stuffs, 
 the rent of land, the wages of workmen, and the produce of 
 feeding-crops grown on the farm. If breeders generally kept 
 accurate accounts of the cost of production, it would be 
 
78 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 possible to obtain some instructive averages in the course of 
 a few years ; but, as it is, very few such accounts have been 
 published, and those which have appeared have seldom been 
 given in sufficient detail. It has been commonly estimated 
 that British farmers can produce beef and mutton without loss 
 at 6d. a pound, and the average has not been as low as that 
 in recent times, taking the wholesale prices of all qualities in 
 account. Indeed, the minimum annual price (sinking the 
 offal) at the Metropolitan Cattle Market during the last ten 
 years has only thrice been below 6d. per pound for beef,, 
 and only twice for mutton, and then only for small quantities. 
 No doubt many producers obtain less than the average 
 London quotations ; but there is a sufficient margin to allow 
 for the profits of dealers and rail expenses on the cattle, 
 still leaving it safe to say that beef and mutton have not 
 returned less than 6d. a pound to producers as a whole in 
 any recent year, while the average, until quite recently, has 
 usually been nearer 7d. or 7 £d. for beef, and 8d. or 9d. for 
 mutton. The fall in prices since 1883, as already intimated, 
 has been to a great extent met by the cheapness of feeding- 
 stuffs, and by the cheapness of lean stock too, until recently, 
 as far as the mere fattening is concerned. 
 
 In a calculation recently published by Sir J. B. Lawes in 
 the Scottish Agricultural Gazette (now entitled the Farming 
 World') it was shown, from data derived from the feeding of a 
 number of cattle in 1886, that lean stock bought at 3s. 6d. per 
 stone of 14 lb. live weight, and led on oats, oat-straw, and 
 decorticated cotton-cake, at the prices then current for the 
 feeding-stuffs, would pay fairly if the beef sold at 6d. per 
 pound. This allows something for the value of the manure, 
 which a farmer must have from some source, and may as well 
 buy of his live stock as of the manure merchant. 
 
 In the most recent experiments in cattle-feeding carried 
 out by the Royal Agricultural Society at Woburn, one lot of 
 four Hereford bullocks, fed on hay, decorticated cotton-cake, 
 and maize-meal, with water ad libitum, gave an increase in live 
 weight of 175 lb. each in 84 days. During the period, 
 eating all the hay they liked, with 3 lb. cake and 5 lb. 
 maize-meal per day each, they consumed per head 15J cwts. 
 hay, 2$ 2 lb. cake, and 420 lb. meal. At recent prices 
 the cake and meal would both cost 3|d. per pound, allowing 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 79 
 
 something for carriage to the farm, and the hay —ordinary 
 meadow hay — may be valued for use on the farm at 3s. a cwt. 
 At these rates the cost of the food for each animal was 
 £$ 19s. 4d. The increase in live weight, being chiefly meat 
 rather than offal, may be converted into dead weight by taking 
 the latter to be 70 per cent, of the former, at which rate there 
 would be 1 22! lb. At 6d. per pound this comes to £3 is. 3d., 
 leaving 18s. id. to be charged to the manure. If we add a 
 shilling a week for attendance, the cost of the manure comes 
 to 25s. id., or fully two-thirds of the cost of the purchased food. 
 It is scarcely fair, however, to charge only 6d. a pound for the 
 meat added, as if it were worth no more than the average of 
 the dead weight. In any case it is impossible to say whether 
 there was a profit or a loss at 6d. a pound without knowing the 
 market value of the animals at the commencement of the 
 experiment. Most of the accounts I have seen are more or 
 less faulty, omitting some detail which should be given ; but 
 I gather from them that there would scarcely ever be any 
 profit apart from the manure if the beef were sold at 6d. 
 a pound, and that in most cases the manure would not be ob- 
 tained gratis. Indeed, I am disposed to conclude that 6d. a 
 pound is the minimum price at which British farmers will keep 
 up the home supply of beef. The same may be said with respect 
 to mutton, supposing wool to continue at about its present value. 
 By far the best way of estimating the cost of producing beef 
 is by keeping account of the expenses incurred by those who 
 breed or wean calves, fattening them gradually from the first, 
 and finishing them off at from fifteen months to two years of 
 age. Mr. Henry Evershed, in his interesting pamphlet on 
 "The Early Maturity of Live Stock," gave several instances of 
 satisfactory returns, but was seldom able to gain much trust- 
 worthy information as to cost of production. He gave in- 
 stances in which, when the top price of beef was 6s. 2d. per 
 8 lb., Shorthorn steers of fifteen to eighteen months sold at 
 prices which left 7s. to 8s. 4d. per week for their keep from 
 birth. As the animals were sold by auction, it is uncertain 
 whether they realised as much as the top price or not ; but they 
 must have paid well, as the cost of their keep during the early 
 portion of their life was but small. Prices were high when this 
 account was given, some purchased feeding-stuffs being double 
 their present cost, and rents were much higher than they are now, 
 
80 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 so that a considerably smaller return would be remunerative 
 under existing circumstances. 
 
 Mr. Ellis, ' of Summersbury, near Guildford, has been re- 
 markably successful in maturing cattle at an early age, and his 
 results convey the impression that they must be profitable. 
 Unfortunately, he has not kept, or, at any rate, has not 
 published, exact accounts of the cost of feeding. It requires 
 very little consideration, However, to convince any investigator 
 that, unless cattle can be reared at very small cost, as on free 
 or cheap prairies in America or mountain pastures in this 
 country, the system of early maturity must be more profitable 
 than the old plan of keeping the animals till they were three 
 years old before commencing to fatten them. The records of 
 ages and weights of animals exhibited at cattle shows here and 
 in the United States clearly prove this, at least as far as show 
 cattle are concerned, the daily gain in live weight of the 
 youngest classes of animals being frequently nearly double 
 that of the older ones, while the cost of keep for the early 
 years of an animal's life is, of course, less than it is later. At 
 the Smithfield Cattle Show in 1886 a Shorthorn 588 days old 
 weighed 1,484 lb. alive, thus giving a daily increase in live 
 weight (giving the birth-weight in, as is done in all cases) of 
 2*52 lb., and there have been higher records. The best result 
 for any Shorthorn over three years of age was a daily gain of 
 173 lb. The animal giving the latter result was 745 days 
 older than the other, and weighed only 828 lb. more. At the 
 same show other cattle under two years of age gave daily gains 
 of 2-45 lb., 2-35 lb., 2-33 lb., and 2-32 lb. At the previous 
 show a Hereford 542 days old weighed 1,456 lb., and showed 
 a daily gain of 2-69 lb.; while other records were 2-63 lb., 
 2-53 lb., 2-49 lb., 2 -45 lb., and so on, twenty-three being 
 2 - 2i lb. and upwards. On that occasion the highest record 
 for an animal over three years, was r8o lb. At the last great 
 cattle show at Chicago a calf 323 days old weighed 1,075 lb., 
 thus showing a daily gain of 3-33 lb., and another record was 
 3-02 lb. These are instances of the production of what has 
 been termed "baby beef" with a vengeance, and cannot be 
 held up for imitation. 
 
 With respect to advance in securing early maturity, the 
 Field, in 1886, said: — "Modern treatment has resulted in a 
 gain in point of time of something like 33 per cent. — i.e., that, 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 
 
 both as regards cattle and sheep, it is possible to obtain a given 
 weight of carcase in one-third less time. This is a very im- 
 portant fact, because all our accounts prove that young animals 
 give a better account of their food than older ones." Un- 
 fortunately, the writer has to follow these remarks with the 
 lamentation that " what we do not know, and ought to know, 
 in order to realise to the full what early maturity means to us, 
 is the comparative cost under the two systems." This is true, 
 and every writer who has taken up the subject of meat-pro- 
 duction has found himself baffled when seeking to acquire 
 precise information in relation to the important question of 
 the cost of production. In the United States, however, the 
 records of competitions at which the cost of feeding has had to 
 be given show very distinctly the financial advantage of finish- 
 ing cattle for the butcher at a comparatively early age. 
 
 Professor Stewart, of New York State, has collated the 
 figures showing ' the ages and weights of cattle exhibited at 
 seven fat-stock shows held at Chicago ; also the records of 
 cost of feeding the animals shown in classes for which the 
 details were furnished. With respect to age and daily gain, 
 the following table shows the averages : — 
 
 Summary of Seven Shows. 
 
 Animals. 
 
 Average Age 
 in Days. 
 
 Average 
 Weight. 
 
 Average 
 
 Gain per 
 
 Day. 
 
 25 Steers 
 
 "9 
 
 99 
 
 92 ,, 
 
 300 
 
 625 
 
 926 
 
 1,278 
 
 lb. 
 780 
 
 i,3Si 
 
 1,671 
 
 1,893 
 
 lb. 
 2'6o 
 
 2-16 
 1-74 
 1-48 
 
 Gain in Periods. 
 
 
 No. of Days 
 
 
 
 
 in Period. 
 
 
 
 
 
 lb. 
 
 lb. 
 
 1st Period 
 
 300 
 
 73° 
 
 260 
 
 2nd , 
 
 325 
 
 57 1 
 
 1-76 
 
 3«1 ,, 
 
 301 
 
 266 
 
 080 
 
 4th 
 
 352 
 
 276 
 
 078 
 
82 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Here the diminishing gain per day as age advances is clearly 
 to be seen. What is of still greater importance, however, is 
 the evidence cited by Professor Stewart as to cost of produc- 
 tion. At two of the shows prizes were offered for the best 
 results in proportion to cost. Each competitor had to show 
 the expenses of keep and attendance for each animal ex- 
 hibited, and as the age and weight were known in each 
 instance, the cost per pound of the gain in weight from birth 
 could be easily calculated. Several steers and heifers of the 
 various breeds were in the competition, and the' average cost 
 per pound of live-weight is given for the whole in three classes 
 according to age. For the cattle not over twelve months the 
 average cost was 4/04 cents a pound ; for those over twelve 
 but not over twenty-four months, 5*05 cents ; and for those 
 over twenty-four but not over thirty-six months it was 7 '49 cents 
 a pound. Three of the best beasts cost only 3! cents a pound 
 for the first twelve months, 5^ cents for the second year, and 
 7\ cents for the third year. Professor Stewart's conclusion is, 
 that as good beef can be produced at the age of two years, 
 this must be considered the limit of the most profitable pro- 
 duction, the same cattle having cost 50 per cent, more for 
 each pound of increase in the third than up to the end of 
 the second year. There were 119 animals, with an average 
 weight of 1,351 lb. at the average age of 625 days, or a little 
 over twenty-one months. Seeing that this weight suits the 
 market well, and can be produced at 4^ cents a pound, the 
 Professor maintains that the advantage of selling not later than ' 
 the end of the second year is beyond all question. As to 
 quality and suitability of this young beef to the taste of the 
 public, there is a great abundance of evidence derived from 
 experience on either side of the Atlantic. Mr. Evershed 
 records some of it in his pamphlet in relation to English 
 experience. As to American evidence, it must suffice to 
 quote the National Live Stock Journal of Chicago, which, in 
 commenting upon a recent great show at Chicago, says : — 
 
 " The fact that in the slaughtered carcases the proportion of fat to lean 
 meat was less in the yearling (over one year and under two years) class 
 than in the older classes, and that, on the whole, these younger cases were 
 better marbled, and, therefore, the meat was more acceptable to consumers 
 than the fatter ones, showing that the tendency in the future must be 
 towards earlier maturity and marketing. " 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 83 
 
 If this is the case with pampered and forced show animals, 
 still more likely is it to be so with cattle moderately fed for 
 the. butcher. The Journal adds : — 
 
 " This result is also quite in keeping with natural principles. While 
 the young animal is rapidly growing, it is laying on weight of muscle and 
 bone, if its food is appropriate to that purpose. And if the young steer is 
 generously as well as appropriately fed, its lean flesh is likely to become 
 thinly marbled by the deposit of fat among the muscles. If, however, the 
 young animal is plied strongly with the most fattening food, such as corn 
 (maize), it will be likely to show an abnormally large proportion of fat." 
 
 I have dwelt upon this question because the early maturing 
 of cattle appears to be the best means which our breeders and 
 feeders can adopt for meeting the fall in prices if it should be 
 permanent, or of increasing profits if not so. 
 
 With respect to sheep and lambs, the evidence in favour 
 of early maturity is at least as strong as it is in the case of 
 cattle, and the advance, as shown by the remarkable records 
 of lambs, especially Hampshires and Crossbreds, exhibited 
 at the London cattle shows, has been greater in recent years 
 with sheep than with oxen. With respect to pigs, it is much 
 the same as far as the production of fresh pork is concerned, 
 but scarcely so in relation to the bacon hog, which must have 
 time to grow, with plenty of exercise, in order to attain the 
 highest honours at Calne or Limerick. 
 
 Although 6d. a pound for beef or mutton is a price that 
 would have been deemed satisfactory by the farmers of the 
 last generation, it is by no means certain that a higher average 
 will not be common in the future. As already pointedout, 
 the average price of beef in the Metropolitan Cattle Market 
 has not gone down to that price in any recent year for which 
 we have complete statistics, while the mean price of mutton 
 has not been as low as 7d. Yet the supply of foreign beef, 
 alive and dead together, has been falling off during the last 
 three years, in ten of which the mean London price was over 
 7& a pound. As for mutton, in which foreign competition is 
 now keenest, it is doubtful whether supplies from Australasia 
 and the River Plate will be kept up at current prices. The 
 fact is that the meat export trade from America and Canada, 
 which supply us with beef, and from the mutton-exporting 
 countries also, has for some time been more or less generally 
 unprofitable. American papers during the last three years 
 f 2 
 
84 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 have frequently referred to losses incurred by shippers of cattle 
 and meat, prices in this country not having been high enough 
 to cover expenses in many instances. The decrease in the 
 trade, moreover, suffices to prove that it is not generally 
 remunerative. In 1887 only 94,642 cattle were sent to us 
 from the United States, as compared with 113,756 in 1886, 
 137,324 in 1885, 139,213 in 1884, and 155,040 in 1883. The 
 receipts of American fresh beef, too, fell off from 851,210 cwts. 
 in 1885 to 762,147 cwts. in 1886, and to 644,700 in 1887. 
 Since the middle of 1887 there has been a great drop in the 
 values of cattle in the United States, and during the first half 
 of 1888 the shipments to this country have increased in con- 
 sequence ; but this is probably only a temporary movement, 
 the general belief on the other side of the Atlantic being that 
 there will be a sharp reaction in values there before long. 
 
 It is notorious that the cattle interest in the United States 
 has suffered from severe depression. A few years ago, when it 
 was at the end of a long period of prosperity, and far-seeing 
 owners of ranches could see that a bad time was coming, 
 British " tenderfeet " were induced to invest a great deal of 
 capital in the business. There was quite a rage for ranch and 
 range cattle companies, and several were started in Scotland 
 and a few in England. The result has not been satisfactory to 
 the shareholders, heavy losses having been shown at the last 
 annual meeting by each of several companies whose statements 
 I have seen. In some cases high prices were paid for so- 
 called rights of grazing on the free ranges which were not rights 
 at all, and the privileges of the " Cattle Kings " have been to 
 some extent, and are likely to be much more narrowly, restricted 
 by the American Government. The losses of cattle through 
 exposure to cold, or through starvation when the grass has been 
 covered with snow, or during prolonged droughts in summer, 
 have been so frightful in recent years that public opinion has 
 been scandalised, and there is a general feeling against a 
 system of keeping immense herds of cattle without making any 
 provision against such catastrophes. In the year ending on 
 April 1st, 1887, the loss of cattle, according to the Department 
 of Agriculture, amounted to 2,086,933, or 4"4 per cent. The 
 severity of the winter was the chief cause of death. During 
 three previous years in backward order the percentages of loss 
 have been 3-64, 4-19, and 4-26. In the range districts alone 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 
 
 85 
 
 the proportion of loss has been much higher, amounting in 
 some places to twenty per cent. Again, the high-handed 
 .conduct of the range-men, in endeavouring to keep settlers off 
 immense tracts of country by force, or by monopolising the 
 water supply, has caused general indignation, so that it is 
 commonly believed that the days of the free-range system are 
 numbered. The country is wanted for settlers, and settlers 
 will have it. When there is no more free grazing in America, 
 the time of cheap cattle-raising will be at an end. Even the 
 live-stock journals, as a rule, favour the claims of men who 
 would establish small ranches in the range country, and such 
 headings as " The Range Must Go " have for some time 
 been familiar to the readers of those papers. It is not un- 
 likely that the careful treatment of cattle will pay better in the 
 long run than the inhuman neglect that has been common 
 hitherto ; but as the grazing grounds are trenched upon 
 year after year by settlers, the cost of producing cattle must 
 approach that of other thickly populated countries. 
 
 During the last ten years there has been an enormous 
 increase of cattle in the United States, as shown below : — ■ 
 
 
 Milch Cows. 
 
 Other Cattle. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1878 
 1888 
 
 11,300,100 
 14,856,414 
 
 19,233,300 
 34,378,363 
 
 30,523,400 
 49.234.777 
 
 It is to be borne in mind, however, that the population has 
 largely increased, that the consumption of meat in America is 
 enormous, and that the proportion of animals sent to the butcher 
 in a year to the total number is much smaller than it is in the 
 United Kingdom, owing to the keeping of store animals three 
 or four years on the ranges before selling them to be fattened. 
 At any rate, with all the increase noticed above, the advance 
 in the exports to all countries since 1878 is comparatively 
 trifling. There was a decrease after. 1881 for two years, then 
 a rise to the greatest number ever exported in twelve months, 
 and then a decline for the last three years for which the official 
 figures are available. I give the total numbers of cattle exported 
 from the United States in the years of the greatest fluctuations, 
 adding the exports of beef : — 
 
86 
 
 THE BRITISH FARMER -AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Year.* 
 
 Cattle. 
 
 Fresh Beef. 
 
 Salted Beef. 
 
 1878 
 1884 
 1887 
 
 No. 
 
 80,040 
 
 190,518 
 
 106,459 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 476,256 
 
 1,046,040 
 
 7",4I9 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 357,3" 
 327,690 
 
 371,939 
 
 * Year ending June 30 for Cattle, and calendar year for Beef. 
 
 If during the past, when the herds of the United States 
 were increasing rapidly on the immense free-grazing grounds, 
 the exports have been as just shown, there seems to be no 
 reason for British beef-producers to fear serious injury from 
 American competition in future. 
 
 With respect to mutton, the United States need not be 
 considered in relation to our meat supply, the imports of sheep 
 being in excess of the exports of sheep and mutton together, 
 and all the figures being very small. 
 
 It is quite different in the case of pork, in the production 
 of which our American cousins unquestionably distance all 
 competition, as far as cheapness is concerned. No live pigs 
 worth mentioning are now sent across the Atlantic ; but the 
 bulk of the heavy and increasing supplies of pork, hams, and 
 bacon, shown in my first table,. comes from the United States. 
 The number of pigs in that country increased from 28,077,100 
 in 1877 to 44,612,836 in 1887, and fell to 44,346,525 in 
 1888. Strange to say, there has been no considerable in- 
 crease since 1882, when the number stood at 44,112,200. 
 In 1886, it is true, the total reached 46,092,043, but in 1887 
 there was a decrease, partly owing to the ravages of hog cholera. 
 Great as the exports of pork, bacon, and hams are, they were 
 much heavier in 1881 — when'the total was no less than 7,624,000 
 cwts. — and 1882 than they have been since, and for the year 
 ending June 30th, 1886, the total exports of pork in all its forms 
 stood at 4,530,000 cwts., in round figures, as compared with 
 4,730,000 cwts. in 1877. The exclusion of American pork 
 from France and Germany has, no doubt, had a great effect 
 upon the exports, and, for the rest, it is not unlikely that the 
 very low prices realised here in some recent years have chilled 
 the ardour of exporters.- Still, I will not venture upon any 
 prediction as to the future of American competition in pork- 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 87 
 
 production. The commodity in all its forms — fresh or salt 
 pork, bacon, and hams — is greatly inferior to English or 
 Irish, at any rate in flavour; and our native produce will, 
 therefore, always command better prices than American unless 
 the latter should be improved. But, at the best, the American 
 supply is at any time likely to glut our markets to such an 
 extent as to bring prices down to a point unremunerative to 
 producers. This has happened frequently in the past, and 
 probably will often happen in the future. 
 
 Canada stood next to the United States in 1887 as the 
 source of our imports of cattle, having sent us 65,154 in 1887, 
 or about two thousand fewer than in 1886. Her total net 
 exports of cattle in the year ending June 30th, 1886, were 90,025. 
 Her imports of beef in its various forms, as distinct from live 
 catde, are larger than the exports. The number of sheep and 
 lambs sent to us by Canada in 1887 was 35,473 as compared 
 with 94,343 in 1886, 39,725 in 1885, and 60,898 in 1884. The 
 exports of sheep and lambs from the Dominion to all countries 
 in the year ended June 30th, 1886, deducting exports, num- 
 bered 328,999. As a source of our foreign supply of pork in 
 its various forms, Canada is not separately mentioned in the 
 Board of Trade Returns ; but the Canadian Returns for the 
 year ending June 30th, 1886, show exports to this country of 
 72,600 cwts. of bacon, 3,700 of hams, and 900 of pork, besides 
 insignificant quantities of canned meat and tongues. In this 
 connection it may be desirable to ask provision dealers, how 
 it is that they are able to offer immense quantities of what they 
 call Canadian hams to their customers. We receive over two 
 hundred times as many hams from America as we obtain from 
 Canada, and yet it is rare to see American hams in the shops, 
 if we are to believe the salesmen. The fact is, that in conse- 
 quence of the scare about trichinae in American pig products, 
 they become transformed to a large extent into "Canadian" 
 in our shops. 
 
 As wheat-growing for export does not now pay in Canada, 
 the tendency among farmers is to devote increased attention 
 to the -production of meat. But the number of live-stock in the 
 country, as far as we can judge from the incomplete statistics, 
 increases very slowly, if at all, in respect of sheep and pigs. It 
 is doubtful, too, whether the export of cattle has lately been 
 profitable. The Toronto Globe recently stated that only the 
 
88 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 best farmers were able to make cattle pay. On the whole, 
 there seems to be no reason to expect the Canadian supply 
 of meat to increase at prices unprofitable to British pro- 
 ducers. 
 
 Denmark takes the third, and sometimes the second, place 
 as a source of our supply of foreign cattle, having sent us 
 58,704 in 1887, against 68,885 in 1886 and 67,730 in 1885. 
 From Denmark we received last year 31,945 oxen and bulls, 
 32,311 cows, and 4,629 calves. The imports have greatly 
 fallen off since 1884, however, when the total number of cattle 
 received was about 27,000 more than in 1886. Denmark also 
 stands third as a source of foreign sheep, of which she sent us 
 120,584 in 1886 — a great increase on the number sent in either 
 of the two previous years, but only 97,845 in the following 
 year. Careful provisions against cattle disease, long carried out, 
 have greatly advanced the live-stock industry of Denmark. 
 
 From Germany we have usually received the largest number 
 of imported sheep and lambs, though Holland, by doubling 
 her average contribution, stood first in 1886, with 468,373 
 sheep. Germany sent us only 339,719 sheep in 1886, but 
 501,509 in 1884, when Holland sent only 254,563. In 1887 
 we received 321,085 from Germany, and 501,701 from.Holland. 
 The supply of cattle from Germany has lately fallen off, only 
 10,136 having come to us thence in 1887. Holland sends us 
 from 30,000 to 40,000 calves in the year, and nearly all the 
 few live pigs we import, but is not honoured with separate 
 enumeration in the returns for oxen or cows. On the other 
 hand, Holland stands alone in the Board of Trade Returns 
 as a European country separately mentioned as supplying us 
 with carcases of mutton, though only to the amount of 62,887 
 cwts. in 1887, or not much more than half the quantity received 
 in 1884. Holland and Belgium send us nearly all the fresh 
 pork we import. The former sent 117,924 cwts., and the 
 latter 29,773 cwts. Germany is the only European country 
 from which we import bacon extensively, and that comes in 
 diminishing quantities. No beef in the carcase form worth men- 
 tioning is imported from any European country but Russia. 
 
 With the possible exception or Holland, which has a large 
 area of rich pasture, no country in Western Europe has superior 
 advantages to those of the United Kingdom. On the contrary, 
 the high duties on foreign corn maintained by most of the countries 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 
 
 8 9 
 
 place them at a great disadvantage as meat-producers. Several 
 attempts have been made to supply this country extensively 
 with meat from Russia and other parts of Eastern Europe, but 
 they appear to have come to little. Russia sent us a trifle ot 
 2,782 cwts. of fresh beef in 1887. This was a great decline 
 from nearly 32,000 cwts. sent here by Russia in 1884, and 
 from nearly 22,000 cwts. sent in 1883. Mutton is not men- 
 tioned, and although carcases from Russia have occasionally 
 been sold in the Metropolitan Meat Market, the quantity must 
 have been insignificant. There appears to be no reason, then, 
 for British meat-producers to fear permanently increasing com- 
 petition from the continent of Europe. On the other hand, it 
 will be unfortunate for consumers if the existing competition 
 should grow less. 
 
 The greatest scare among home meat-producers has been 
 occasioned by the increasing imports of frozen meat — first from 
 Australasia, and latterly from the Argentine Republic and the 
 Falkland Islands. The imports of frozen beef are scarcely 
 worth mentioning, as we received only 16,622 cwts. from Aus- 
 tralasia and 930 cwts. from the Argentine Republic in 1885 ; 
 and in 1887 the total receipts of fresh beef from all countries 
 besides the United States amounted to no more than 12,874 
 cwts., most of which came from Canada and Russia. Frozen 
 beef, in fact, does not " take " in this country, being sappy and 
 tasteless. The fresh beef sent from the United States is 
 preserved, not by freezing, but by the cold-dry-air process, 
 which does not deteriorate the quality or flavour. In was in 
 1882 that frozen mutton first came from Australasia in con- 
 siderable, quantity, namely, 37,283 cwts. In the following year 
 imports from the Argentine Republic were first enumerated, 
 and I give the receipts for that and each succeeding year : — 
 
 Imports of Frozen Mutton. 
 
 
 
 
 1883. 
 
 1884. 
 
 1885. 
 
 1886. 
 
 1887. 
 
 Australasia ... 
 Argentine Republic 
 
 fa' 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 103,689 
 3.571 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 304,124 
 
 40,236 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 338,587 
 112,223 
 
 Cwts. 
 383.317 
 190,409 
 
 Cwts. 
 441,289 
 
 251.273 
 
 The number of carcases reported by the New Zealand Loan 
 and Mercantile Agency Company to have been received in 
 
90 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 London from the River Plate in 1886 is 332,927, the weight 
 being under J cwt. per carcase. In 1886 we received 30,000 
 carcases from the Falkland Islands; but the supply has not 
 been continued. We have before had instances of countries 
 sending a cargo or two in one year, and dropping out of the table 
 of imports afterwards. In 1883 we imported 2,559 cwts - °f 
 mutton from Peru, and in 1884 Uruguay sent us 8,476 cwts. 
 Neither country has since been mentioned as a source of supply. 
 Since 1884 the supply from Australia has fallen off, and 
 although there has lately been a revival in the Australian trade, 
 it is only the New Zealand mutton which has caused the 
 Australasian increase. From that colony and the River Plate 
 the quantities have been gradually increasing ; but the trade 
 during the last year or more has been so disastrous that, if 
 prices do not improve, it will probably be greatly diminished in 
 extent, if it does not cease entirely. Early in 1886, "A New 
 Zealand Colonist/' writing to the Otago Witness on the pros- 
 pects of the frozen-mutton trade, said : — 
 
 "The producer, when he sends his meat to London, realises about 
 4^d., perhaps only 4d. per pound ; and when he deducts expenses — 
 say 2§d. — he has only about ijd. per pound for the choice of his 
 flock. Now, this will not pay him, and some of our largest exporters 
 of meat have decided ,that it will not pay them to send home their meat." 
 
 The owner of a large estate, he adds, who has spent ^40,000 
 in preparing for the trade, is compelled to give it up, as his 
 mutton sold at only 4d. a pound. Now, 2f d. per lb. is by no 
 means too much to reckon for expenses. The sea freight is' 
 from 1 £d. to ifd., and id. to 1 Jd. is not much to add for cost 
 of slaughtering and freezing in New Zealand, unloading, and 
 often storing in freezing-chambers at the docks for a month or 
 more at ^d. per lb. per month, and for commission. An estimate 
 of the various expenses, amounting to 3^ per lb.,* submitted to 
 one of the highest authorities in this country, has been endorsed 
 as a fair one. But even if it be only 3d., the fortnightly lists of 
 prices realised for the several cargoes, issued by the New 
 Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, convey the 
 impression that, during the past twelve months, the average 
 gross return has not been more than 4d. a pound at the out- 
 side, thus leaving only id. for the producer. Taking a recent 
 list, I see that 800 carcases of Australian mutton were sold at 
 * See Appendix. 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 9 1 
 
 3M. a pound, 2,000 from the River Plate at 3fd. to 3f d., 
 13,200 from the Falkland Islands at 3|d. to 4^d., and portions 
 of several cargoes from New Zealand — many thousands of 
 carcases in all — at prices ranging from 3d. to sd. Probably 
 4^d. has been about the average for meat in good condition, 
 but a considerable proportion of the cargoes are described as 
 " irregular," and I doubt whether a fraction over 4d. has been 
 received, on the average, for all the mutton sent from New 
 Zealand during the year 1887, while the average for Australia 
 would be less, and that for the River Plate lower still. The 
 Otago Witness recently said that " shippers, after paying for 
 freezing freights and charges, have no margin left, 1 ' which I 
 take to mean no margin over boiling-down price. With respect 
 to Australia, some of the large companies engaged in the frozen 
 meat trade have failed. 
 
 It has been boasted that, even if Australasian shippers 
 could not stand up against the fall in prices, the great flock- 
 masters of the River Plate would be able to supply us with an 
 almost unlimited quantity of mutton at recent market rates. 
 No doubt they are in a position to sell at low prices, but, 
 apparently, not at such extremely low rates as they have had 
 to put up with. At the last meeting of the River Plate Fresh 
 Meat Company a loss of ,£37,000 on ten months' trading was 
 declared. 
 
 If the frozen mutton trade should be ruined, it will be a 
 great misfortune to the poor, and to many who are not ranked 
 as actually poor people, in this country. The New Zealand 
 mutton is good, and the lamb is excellent. The River Plate 
 mutton is much inferior, and although breeders in that country 
 are improving their flocks by importing some of the best rams 
 they can buy in England, it will be many years before they 
 will be in a position to ship a large supply of mutton suitable 
 to the tastes of the British public. As to beef, there is very 
 little indeed in the River Plate fit for our markets, and that is 
 wanted at home. 
 
 With respect to meat " preserved otherwise than by salt- 
 ing" — mostly tinned meat — the chief source of our supply 
 is the United States, whence we received 227,435 cwts. in 
 1887. In this branch of trade Australasia fell off suddenly 
 in 1886, having supplied us with only 57,376 cwts. of preserved 
 meat, as compared with 198,279 cwts. in the previous year ; 
 
92 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 but in 1887 the quantity was 167,177 cwts. Uruguay con- 
 tributed nearly 22,000 cwts. of this meat to our supply in 1886, 
 and the Argentine Republic nearly 11,000 cwts. For 1887 the 
 figures are not available, these countries not being separately 
 enumerated in the Board of Trade Returns. 
 
 But, to return to the question of prices, the mischief is 
 that the middleman in this country gets a great deal more 
 than the producer out of the frozen mutton, as, indeed, he 
 does on the meat supply generally. A great deal has been 
 written lately about exorbitant butchers' profits, and no one 
 who knows anything about wholesale and retail prices can 
 doubt that they are enormous. This is doubly injurious to 
 producers, for, in the first place, they do not obtain their fair 
 share of what consumers pay; and, secondly, the extreme 
 prices charged by the butchers reduce the demand for meat, 
 and thus tend to keep down the prices which producers can 
 command. But there are other middlemen besides the 
 butchers, and British and foreign meat alike often passes 
 through several dealers' hands before it gets to the consumer. 
 There has been some talk about farmers combining to sell 
 their own meat by retail, and this is being done to a limited 
 extent. If the venture becomes successful, it will be exten- 
 sively imitated. In this direction, in the promotion of early 
 maturity, in scientific feeding, in the prevention of cattle 
 disease, and in the introduction of the universal practice in 
 America of selling cattle by live weight, the best hopes of 
 British meat-producers appear to me to lie. I believe that 
 the difficulty of meeting foreign competition has been greatly 
 exaggerated. We have in this country the best cattle in the 
 world, and one of the best of climates for meat-production ; 
 we have an abundant supply of cheap feeding-stuffs ; and we 
 have the best markets in the world for meat of good quality. 
 There may be new countries, especially in South America, to 
 compete in the meat supply of the future ; but the question 
 of quantity does not really matter very much. America and 
 Australasia alone could supply us with double the meat we 
 consume if it paid them to do so ; but it barely paid them to 
 send the best of their beef and mutton to us when prices were 
 at their highest, and only the best will suit our markets. It 
 must always be expensive to ship cattle or meat from distant 
 countries ; losses on the voyage must always be heavy ; and 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. 93 
 
 the meat can never be worth as much as the best of our home 
 produce. In 1886, when the casualties of the Atlantic cattle 
 transit were not more than usual, 5,907 animals were thrown 
 overboard, 281 were landed dead, and 279 were so much 
 injured or exhausted that they had to be killed at the place of 
 landing, making a total of 6,467. The traffic is an inhuman 
 one, and there is but little excuse for continuing it, as the 
 transit of carcases is more economical, and the meat is well 
 preserved by the cold-dry-air process. Dealers and butchers 
 on this side, however, prefer the live cattle traffic, as they get 
 more profit out of it. 
 
 The question of cattle disease prevention has so important 
 a bearing upon the economics of our meat supply that it de- 
 mands more than a passing notice. By means of sanitary 
 regulations, vehemently resisted by the friends of free trade in 
 diseased foreign animals, we have got rid of foot-and-mouth 
 disease, and if we can keep fresh infection out of the country, 
 we shall remain permanently free from what has been a source 
 of enormous loss and heavy expense in the past. The ignorant 
 belief in the " spontaneous " origin of this purely infectious 
 disease has been proved by experience to be as baseless as all 
 veterinary authorities had declared it to be. The prediction 
 of the opponents of stringent regulations against the entrance 
 of diseased foreign cattle, moreover, to the effect that the price 
 of meat would be greatly increased — to half-a-crown a pound 
 Professor Rogers prophesied — by the check to imports of live 
 animals, has been falsified, as meat has become cheaper and 
 cheaper ever since the Cattle Diseases Bill of 1883 was passed. 
 Recently the Government has ordered the disease to be 
 " stamped out," and it is to be hoped that they will persevere 
 in their efforts. Holland has got rid of the disease by the 
 stamping-out process, after vainly trying inoculation and other 
 half-measures for years. The cost of purging the country of 
 these diseases will be heavy for a year or more, but a mere 
 trifle compared with the constant loss certain to be incurred by 
 their permanence, or even with the heavy expenses of our 
 present ineffective sanitary arrangements, left to the caprice 
 and vacillation of the various local authorities. In 1886 
 pleuro-pneumonia was reported to exist in forty-eight counties 
 in Great Britain, and in various parts of Ireland also. There 
 were 553 outbreaks in Great Britain alone, and 2,471 animals 
 
9 4 
 
 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 were attacked, all of which, it is to be presumed, either died 
 or were slaughtered. In 1887 there were 293 outbreaks in 
 England, and 324 in Scotland, 2,427 cattle being attacked 
 altogether. The discouragement to breeding caused by this 
 wide extension of the disease, and the loss and inconvenience 
 occasioned by the necessary restrictions upon traffic which it 
 entailed, cannot be measured by the number of animals attacked 
 and slaughtered. 
 
 With respect to swine fever, there were 6,813 outbreaks in 
 Great Britain in 1886, 35,029 pigs being attacked; while in 
 1887 no fewer than 41,973 of the animals were affected. This 
 disease, like pleuro-pneumonia, can be got rid of only by 
 slaughtering all affected animals, and all which have been in 
 contact with them. British meat-producers will not be placed 
 under the conditions most favourable for competing with 
 foreigners, and for increasing the home supply of animal food, 
 including dairy produce, until the necessary means have been 
 adopted for ridding the country, once for all, of, both these 
 fatal diseases. 
 
 Poultry and game form an important addition to our meat 
 supply ; but, unfortunately, there are no means of estimating 
 the quantities produced at home, while those sent from foreign 
 countries can be only guessed at from the values, which alone 
 are given in the official statistics. In 1884 and 1885 the 
 Agricultural Department collected returns as to the number of 
 poultry in Great Britain, with the important exception of those 
 kept in towns and by people occupying less than a quarter of 
 an acre of land. Added to these figures for Ireland, which are 
 supplied every year, the totals for 1885 came out as follows : — 
 Turkeys, 1,288,174; geese, 3,029,137; ducks, 5,080,325; 
 fowls, 20,542,564. No doubt some millions would require, to 
 be added to the number of fowls to allow for those kept by 
 people who have less than a quarter of an acre of land. But 
 even with that addition, the number of poultry at any one date 
 affords no approximately exact account of the number produced 
 or killed in the year. Besides; the Agricultural Department 
 ceased to publish the poultry statistics in 1886, on the avowed 
 ground that they were not trustworthy. I shall not attempt to 
 estimate the quantity of meat contributed annually by producers 
 of poultry ; while as to native game, there are no statistics of 
 any kind. Our foreign supplies of poultry and game, including 
 
OUR MEAT SUPPLY. £5 
 
 rabbits, appear to have been increasing for several years. In 
 1881 the value was ,£456,124, in 1886 it was £638,775, and 
 in 1887 it rose to £721,049. In 1886, for the first time, the 
 quantity as well as the value of rabbits imported was sepa- 
 rately returned, the former being 104,226 cwt., and the latter 
 £287,576. Nearly all the rabbits familiar to housekeepers in 
 the not inviting skinned form of exposure in provision shops, 
 and vulgarly known as " Ostend cats," come from Belgium. 
 That country supplies us, too, with some poultry, the bulk of 
 which, however, comes from France. Russia, Germany, 
 Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the United States are also 
 contributors of poultry or game, or both. 
 
 The people of France have great advantages over us in the 
 production of poultry, not only in respect of climate, but also 
 because of the large number of small holdings. Large poultry 
 farms have almost invariably failed wherever they have been 
 tried, and it is well known that poultry do best when kept in 
 small bands, and when careful individual attention can be given 
 to them. Our large farmers have too commonly entertained a 
 lofty contempt for poultry as a source of profit, and have ne- 
 glected them in consequence. No doubt, if small holdings and 
 allotments increase in the country, the supply of poultry will 
 become much greater than it is. In Ireland poultry are much 
 more numerous in proportion to area than in Great Britain, 
 though there is room for a great increase in the former country. 
 The climate of the south of Ireland is well suited to the pro- 
 duction of early spring chickens, and the Irish peasant women 
 are exceptionally good rearers of poultry. It is a pity that the 
 small farmers of Ireland do not enter more systematically 
 into the business of supplying England with poultry and eggs. 
 They do a good deal in this way, but might do much more. 
 Our imports of eggs have risen from 756 millions, valued at 
 £2,322,607, in 1881, to 1,088 millions, worth £3,080,561 in 
 1887. France is by far the greatest contributor, Germany 
 coming next, and Belgium third. Admitting the advantages 
 of the south of France and Italy for the production of eggs as 
 well as poultry, I fail to see why Germany and Belgium should 
 be able to beat England in this branch of business, while the 
 south of Ireland, with its mild climate and comparative im- 
 munity from frost, has a great advantage over the countries 
 referred to. 
 
96 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Unfortunately the differences between prices paid by con- 
 sumers and realised by producers of poultry and eggs are even 
 greater than those previously referred to in connection with 
 butchers' meat. For chickens sold at 3 s. to 4s. in the poulterers' 
 shops, farmers in remote country districts receive only is. 6d. to 
 2s. ; and often when new-laid eggs are selling in the country at 
 eighteen to twenty a shilling, they are i^d. or 2d. each in 
 London ; even what are humorously termed " fresh country 
 eggs " being retailed at ten or twelve a shilling. 
 
 A more economical system of distribution is needed for 
 nothing more than for the products of the land, the main 
 necessaries of life, and for the animal food supply most of all. 
 The land of this country will not bear all the burdens laid upon 
 it in more prosperous times. Too many classes are endeavour- 
 ing to live out of it, each taking toll from its produce : unneces- 
 sary distributors, or even mere speculating interlopers, often 
 getting most of all. The meat producer, who keeps and attends 
 to a bullock for two or three years, or to a sheep for twelve or 
 eighteen, months, commonly obtains less profit than the dealer 
 who speculates in it, or the butcher who cuts it up and sends 
 it round to his customers in the course of a day or two. This 
 is not as it should be, and all but interested persons must wish 
 success to the efforts now being made to bring producers and 
 consumers more closely together. 
 
97 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DAIRY PRODUCE. 
 
 About twelve years ago a great revival of interest in the 
 dairy farming of this country commenced. The British. Dairy 
 Farmers' Association was founded in 1876, commenced to 
 hold its annual show in London, and soon afterwards started 
 its " Journal " for the publication of articles on practical and 
 scientific dairying. Old local associations of a like character, 
 almost forgotten, and a few new ones, came into prominence. 
 The agricultural papers, which, with one exception, had long 
 neglected the dairy interest of the country, all at once recog- 
 nised- its vast importance, and began to devote a fair portion 
 of their space to it weekly. Cattle breeders, who had been 
 devoting their attention almost exclusively to the production 
 of beef, awoke to the fact that tlje milking qualifications of cows 
 .were worth some consideration. Cheese and butter factories, 
 after the American example, were established, and before long 
 two dairy schools were opened in Ireland, where Canon Bagot, 
 Professor Carroll, and others have for several years made great 
 efforts to improve the dairy practice. Model dairies, elegant 
 fittings, milk conveyances resplendent with all the colours of 
 the rainbow, new churns and butter-workers, various utensils and 
 appliances for the manufacture of butter and cheese on the most 
 approved principles, and scientific apparatus for testing and 
 analysing milk, were exhibited in greater variety year after year. 
 Inventors turned their attention to the mechanics of dairying ; 
 and the centrifugal cream separator, one of the most important 
 inventions of modern times as far as agriculture is concerned, 
 was introduced, besides other novelties of more or less import- 
 ance. Before long the great agricultural societies, by which 
 dairying had been scandalously neglected, began, though in a 
 very economical manner, to offer prizes at their shows for milch 
 cows and dairy produce, and to exhibit a working dairy in the 
 c, 
 
98 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 showyard. Even in the customs of the people, the enhanced 
 interest in dairying became obvious, not only through the in- 
 creased consumption of milk by children, but also in the intro- 
 duction of " soda and milk " as a fashionable beverage. In 
 short, in American phraseology, there was a " boom " in dairying 
 which has lasted to the present day, and shows no sign of 
 abatement. 
 
 The revival came none too soon. The rage for pedigree 
 cattle, and especially for such as by their fine proportions and 
 aptness to fatten were able to carry off prizes at agricultural 
 shows, had deteriorated the milking qualifications of our cows, 
 excepting those, such as the Ayrshires and Jerseys, which are 
 bred exclusively for dairy purposes. Dairying, too, had gone 
 out of fashion in some of the principal arable districts, such as 
 the Eastern Counties. When grain was high in price, as in 
 the days of Protection, and during and after the Russian war, 
 pasture was converted into tillage, and dairying was given up 
 on thousands of farms except for household purposes, and 
 often entirely. The wives and daughters of extensive farmers 
 became too proud or indolent to take part in the work of the 
 dairy, and even the servants shrank from.it, so that it became 
 difficult to get maids who would milk cows, or even to get 
 dairymaids who understood their business at all. So serious 
 had the neglect of dairying become, that in many rural districts, 
 it was difficult for those who did not keep a cow to get fresh 
 milk, and it was not at all uncommon to see condensed milk 
 from Switzerland on farmhouse tables. The children of the 
 poor suffered seriously from this milk famine, which still exists 
 in some parts of the country, though to a smaller extent than 
 before the revival of dairying set in. Even in the dairy dis- 
 tricts, according to high authorities, the arts of cheese and 
 butter-making had retrograded, instead of advancing. Cheese 
 especially, it was declared, was generally inferior to that pro- 
 ■ duced in the early part of the present century. The number 
 of cbw-S used for dairying purposes had not kept pace with the 
 increase in population, if there had not been actually a decrease. 
 The Agricultural Returns were first published in a complete 
 form in 1867, when there were 3,572,994 cows in the United 
 Kingdom. Mr. Morton, in his " Handbook of Agriculture," 
 published in i860, estimated the number at about 3,500,000. 
 In 1876 the number had risen only to 3,775,203. Now, the 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 99 
 
 population had risen from not quite 29,000,000 in i860, to 
 33,093,439 in 1876, and if Mr. Morton's estimate was approxi- 
 mately correct, there was thus a considerable decrease in the 
 ratio of cows to people. In 1867 the ratio was one cow to 8-5 
 people, and in 1876 it had fallen to one to 877. That was a 
 small difference ; but there is reason to believe that it does not 
 accurately show the falling off in the number of cows used for 
 dairy purposes. More of the heifers were probably killed for 
 beef in the later than in the earlier year, and more, too, were 
 used for rearing calves. But the failure of our home stock of 
 cows to keep pace with the increasing demands of the popula- 
 tion for dairy produce is most strikingly shown by the statistics 
 of imports. In 1850 we imported only 330,579 cwts. of butter, 
 and 347,803 of cheese; by i860 the quantities had risen to 
 840,112, and 583,283 cwts.; and by 1876 to 1,659,402, and 
 1,531,404 cwts. Thus in the twenty-six years ending with- 
 1876 the imports of butter had increased five-fold, and those of 
 cheese more than four-fold. In addition, there were in the last 
 year of the period imports of 886,573 cwts. of margarine. In 
 1887 the butter imported fell to 1,514,905 cwts. and the 
 margarine rose to 1,273,095 cwts. ; but in the first five months 
 of 1888 there was an increase of butter, and a slight falling off 
 of the imitation article. Imports of cheese in 1887 amounted 
 to 1,834,467 cwts. 
 
 Although a revival of dairying set in shortly before 1876, 
 when the British Dairy Farmers' Association was started, its 
 effect has not sufficed to increase the number of cows so as to 
 keep pace with the increase of population, for in 1886 there 
 were only 3,974,476 cows to 36,707,418 people, or one 
 to 9 - '24. 
 
 On working out the ratio of cows to people in several Euro- 
 pean countries, I find that in Italy alone among those for 
 which the statistics are available is there a smaller relative 
 supply of cows than in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, 
 the numbers of people and cows respectively are not in all 
 cases available for the same year ; but where that is the case 
 I have taken the population of the nearest year for which I 
 can ascertain it. Thus, although the ratio in some cases may 
 not be exactly correct, it can scarcely be wrong by more than a 
 small fraction, as the number of cows does not vary vesy ffi>j41ft r 
 The following table gives the number of cowl-«Pdltfrr' 
 c 2 
 
IOO THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 country for the year of the latest return available when it was 
 compiled, and the number of people to each cow : — 
 
 Country. 
 
 Austria Hungary 
 Belgium . . . 
 Denmark 
 France . . . 
 Germany 
 Holland... 
 Italy 
 
 Norway . . . 
 Sweden ... 
 Switzerland 
 United States 
 United Kingdom 
 
 Year of 
 Return. 
 
 1880 
 1880 
 1881 
 1882 
 1883 
 1884 
 1881 
 
 I87S 
 1884 
 1884 
 1887 
 
 1886 
 
 Cows. 
 
 6,173,842 
 
 796,178 
 898,790 
 
 7,261,726 
 
 9,087,293 
 890,168 
 
 i,864,-827 
 74I.S98 
 
 1,492,977 
 
 552,427 
 
 14,522,083 
 
 3,974,476 
 
 People to 
 each Cow. 
 
 6'3 
 7'3 
 
 2 '2 
 
 5-2 
 S-o 
 4-8 
 
 157 
 2-6 
 
 3'i 
 5'3 
 4'3 
 92 
 
 As there was a decrease of 28,217 cows in 1887, and an 
 increase of population, the number of people to each cow was 
 fractionally increased. All in-calf heifers, moreover, were in- 
 cluded in this latest enumeration for the United Kingdom, and 
 it is doubtful whether they were all reckoned in when the earlier 
 statistics were collected. At the same time, it may be regarded 
 as certain that a good many more cows were kept for dairy pur- 
 poses in 1886 than in 1876. Yet by the later year the gross 
 imports of butter and margarine had risen to 2,431,540 cwts., 
 and those of cheese to 1,734,890 cwts. There is no doubt that 
 the consumption of butter per head has increased, whatever may 
 be the case in respect of cheese, because even if we made only 
 the same quantity of butter at home in 1886 as in 1876, the 
 increase in imports shows a greater consumption per head in 
 the later year. The important fact, however, is that foreigners 
 have been enabled not only to retain the hold which they 
 obtained in our markets many years ago, but also to supply an 
 increased proportion of the demand. There are no means of 
 ascertaining with any pretence of accuracy the quantities of 
 cheese and butter produced in the United Kingdom. Professor 
 Sheldon, in his " Dairy Farming," roughly estimates the quanti- 
 ties for the year 1878 at 1,785,700 cwts. of butter, and 2,520,000 
 of cheese. Professor Carroll, of Glasneviii Model Farm and 
 
DAIRY PkODtJCE. 
 
 Dairy School, in a paper read at the Dairy Conference in 
 Dublin last spring, gave the home production of butter as 
 1,800,000 cwts., and the total consumption at the rate of 1 3 lb. 
 per inhabitant. Mr. Mulhall, in his " History of Prices," pub- 
 lished in 1885, puts the annual consumption per head at 
 261b. ; but that, although given with confidence as an ascer- 
 tained fact, is obviously a very wild guess, for, after allowing for 
 imports, it implies a home production of over' 660,000,000 lb., 
 which- would require all the milk given by the cows of the 
 United Kingdom, leaving none for use as milk or for cheese. 
 If we adopt Professor Sheldon's estimates as applicable to the 
 home production of 1876 (when the quantities of butter and 
 cheese were about the same as in 1878), and follow his method 
 of calculation for the increased number of cows in 1886, we get 
 at the following comparison of the home and foreign supplies: — 
 
 
 Estimated Home Produce. 
 
 Net Imports. 
 
 
 Total. 
 
 Per 
 
 Inhabitant. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Per 
 Inhabitant. 
 
 Butter, &c. : — 
 
 1850 
 
 1876 
 
 1886 
 
 Cheese : — 
 
 1850 
 
 1876 
 
 1886 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 1,785,700 
 1,918,660 
 
 2,520,000 
 2,710,000 
 
 Lb. 
 
 6-05 
 5-8 5 
 
 8 : 53 
 
 827 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 330,579 
 1,636,379 
 2,348,850 
 
 347,803 
 1,486,266 
 1,728,253 
 
 Lb. 
 1-38 
 
 5'5| 
 7-16 
 
 1-42 
 5-01 
 5"«4 
 
 Here the enormous increase in imports during the thirty-six 
 years is to be seen at a glance, and with it the increase in the 
 foreign supply per head of the population. If the estimated 
 home supply may be taken as approximately correct, the con- 
 sumption of butter and margarine per inhabitant rose from 
 njlb. in 1876 to 131b. in 1886, while that of cheese fell 
 from 13^ lb. to a small fraction less. The imports of cheese, 
 it may be mentioned, were smaller in 1886 than in any one of 
 the three previous years. The imports of butter, apart from 
 margarine, fell off slightly as compared with the quantity re- 
 ceived in the previous year ; but a large increase in margarine 
 
102 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 more than made up for the difference. A similar calculation 
 for 1887 would have shown such slightly different results from 
 those given above for 1886, that it is not necessary to make it 
 
 The values of the gross imports of butter and margarine were 
 £9,718,226 in 1876, £11,103,702 in 1886, and £11,886,717 
 in 1887, showing a considerable rise in spite of a fall in the 
 price of butter. . On the other hand, there was a fall in the value 
 of cheese imported, from .£4,237,763 in 1876 to £3,871,359 
 in 1886, but a rise to £4,508,937 in the following year. The 
 value of the exports of British and Irish butter was £211,439 
 in 1876, and £165,176 in 1886 ; the corresponding figures for 
 cheese exports being £70,230 and £51,056. In 1887 the 
 amounts were £155,901 for butter, and £56,700 for cheese. 
 The quantities of dairy produce exported were always insigriifir 
 cant, and they are now onlyabout half what they were fifteen 
 years ago. 
 
 One great obstacle to an increase in the home production 
 of butter in recent years has been the unfair competition with 
 margarine sold as butter, which has come to us in ever-in- 
 creasing quantities. The first year for which this spurious 
 article is separately enumerated in the Board of Trade Returns 
 is 1884, when 733,342 cwts. were "declared," 658,026 cwts. of 
 it having come from Holland, 33,348 cwts. from Belgium, and 
 28, 1 18 cwts. from Norway. In 1886 we imported 887,974 cwts., 
 or more than half as much as the imports of butter, and in 
 1887 the quantity was 1,273,095 cwts. The increase was all 
 the greater, because for some time this country was almost the 
 only one in which margarine could be freely sold as butter, 
 Acts to regulate its sale having been passed in most European 
 countries and in America. Consequently, this country was 
 rapidly becoming the common receptacle for the greasy refuse 
 of the world. 
 
 Fortunately, last year the Margarine Bill was passed, and 
 all imitation butter has now to be sold under the name of 
 Margarine, and with that name legibly marked on all packages 
 or wrappers containing it When margarine is properly made 
 from the fat of healthy animals, it is, no doubt, wholesome 
 food ; but as it is never heated to the boiling point, the vitality 
 of any germs of disease which it contains cannot be destroyed. 
 Now the fat of diseased animals is very likely' to be used while 
 it is sweet in the manufacture of the oleomargarine oil of which 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 103 
 
 margarine is mainly composed, and it has often been declared 
 that the fat of pigs which die of hog cholera (swine fever) in 
 America is so used, though whether truly or falsely I cannot 
 say. At any rate, as the "germs of disease are peculiarly likely 
 to lurk in the internal fat of animals, or in other internal organs, 
 from which they may be scattered upon the fat in the process of 
 slaughtering, there is good reason for carefully inspecting mar- 
 garine factories. In most civilised countries such inspection is 
 now the rule,, and it was provided for in the Margarine Bill as 
 it left the Commons. Unfortunately, the Lords struck out the 
 inspection clause, and there is therefore no control over the 
 manufacture of margarine in this country. However, the ob- 
 ject of the promoters of the Bill was not to prohibit the sale of 
 margarine, but to prevent its sale as butter, or under a. name so 
 similar to that of butter as to deceive ignorant purchasers. That 
 object has, happily, been attained, and margarine will in future 
 be sold on its own merits, and at its market value, and not as 
 butter, and at the price of butter, as most of it has hitherto been 
 sold. The manager of the Manchester Wholesale Co-operative 
 Society, which has eight hundred branches, and deals with 
 4,000 cwts. of butter a week, prepared a table for the Committee 
 on the Butter Substitutes Bill, showing the wholesale and 
 retail prices of margarine during 1884, 1885, 1886, and six 
 months of 1887. The wholesale price varied from 60s. to 94s. 
 per cwt, or less than 6d. to iod. a pound, and the retail price 
 from rod. to is.'2d. ; thus showing an average profit of 4d. per 
 lb., which is 66 per cent, on the lower range of prices. When 
 it has been disposed of as Danish, or other high-class butter, 
 the profits have been enormous, and we may readily credit the 
 statement that large fortunes have been speedily made by deal- 
 ing extensively in margarine. Until 1883, when the competi- 
 tion of margarine became formidable, butter had been selling 
 remarkably well for more than thirty years. In that year prices, 
 especially for low qualities, with which margarine specially 
 competed, fell greatly, and since then values have been ex- 
 tremely low during the spring and a portion of the summer. 
 
 Now that the Margarine Bill has become an Act; the butter- 
 makers of the United Kingdom have a fair field before them, 
 and it will be their own fault if they are beaten in their own 
 markets by any foreign competitors. We have pastures and 
 cows at least as good as those of any country in the world, and 
 
104 THE DRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMI'liTITORS. 
 
 Ave have cheaper feeding-stuffs than any Protectionist country. 
 Rents with us, too, are lower than with our chief competitors,, 
 whether they pay as rent or as interest on land bought at a 
 high price. What the rank and file of our dairy farmers have 
 lacked hitherto has been that "infinite capacity of taking 
 trouble," which is certainly the genius of business. In this is 
 included the trouble of learning the art of scientific butter- 
 making by those who are ignorant of it. The rules are simple 
 enough, and the chief trouble is in their careful and intelligent 
 observance. For some years past they have been taught " upon 
 the house-tops," and it is the fault, and not the misfortune, of 
 dairy farmers who can read if they are ignorant of those rules. 
 Unfortunately, the ignorance of too many dairy farmers is of 
 the worst possible form, the lack of knowing their ignorance. 
 Probably not one in ten takes an agricultural paper or reads 
 any of the numerous publications on dairying recently issued, 
 unless it be copied into a local paper. Too many have a con- 
 tempt for " book-knowledge," and conceitedly think that they or 
 their wives know a good deal more about dairying than any 
 " Professor " can teach them. So they keep on setting milk 
 and making butter in dairies close to muck-hills or pigs'-courts, 
 or containing meat and other things which contaminate milk ; 
 churning irregularly and at haphazard temperature; and 
 working the butter with the hands and thus contaminating 
 it, while leaving a great deal of buttermilk in it at the same 
 time. The best butter cannot be made everywhere, as flavour 
 depends to some extent upon pasturage; but no one needs 
 to make bad butter. Some very fine butter is made under 
 the " rule of thumb," no doubt ; but as a rule the old-fashioned 
 butter- makers are never certain of producing a good com- 
 modity. Their butter may be delicious at one churning, and 
 abominable at the next. It may be nice when the weather is 
 cool, and " strong " when the summer heat is high. In short, 
 dairy managers who do not follow good rules rigidly, whether 
 learned by experience or from books, are at the mercy of all 
 kinds of chances. 
 
 Now, it is precisely the uncertain quality of British and 
 Irish butter which has opened the way for the foreigner. The 
 best butter in the world is made in the United Kingdom ; there 
 is no foreign butter in any considerable quantity to compare 
 with it. The mischief is that there is not enough of it, and 
 
t)AlRY PRODUCE. IO5 
 
 that comparatively few dairies send it out regularly. A butter- 
 man needs above all things to be able to guarantee what he 
 sells, and he must have uniformity of quality in order to 
 satisfy his customers, who of course complain, and perhaps 
 leave him, if he sends them "strong'' or rancid stuff for the 
 " best fresh." Some of the most extensive butter dealers of 
 London, and managers of large hotels in various parts of the 
 country, have stated that they are obliged to rely chiefly upon 
 the foreign supply, and especially upon Normandy butter, for 
 uniformity of good quality. In many hotels, indeed, no butter 
 but Normandy is used. Its flavour is seldom, if ever, equal to 
 that of the best English or Irish fresh butter, and its merit 
 consists in its inoffensiveness rather than in any positive deli- 
 ciousness, though it is pleasant to those who have learned to 
 like a comparatively tasteless butter, more like cream irLflavour 
 than really good English butter. 
 
 That there has been some improvement in English and Irish 
 butter since the revival of dairying commenced is generally 
 admitted. The great efforts made to spread the knowledge of 
 scientific butter-making have borne fruit without doubt. In 
 Ireland especially, where the worst as well as the best butter 
 is made, a decided levelling-up of quality has been remarked 
 upon by the Committee of Cork Butter Market. The Irish 
 claim that the nutty flavour, so highly prized by epicures, is 
 peculiar to the best of their butter, and it is true that no butter 
 superior to the very best Irish is made anywhere. But there is 
 still an immense margin for improvement in Ireland and Eng- 
 land alike. How can it be otherwise, in Ireland especially, when 
 milk is set in rooms where the people, and often their cattle and 
 pigs also, live and sleep ? I have seen milk set for cream in 
 the living-room of an Irish cabin, full of peat smoke (which 
 makes butter bitter), and redolent of the cows, pigs, and 
 poultry kept in the place ; and I have seen it set in the 
 bedroom where a whole family slept. In some cases, indeed, 
 the milk is set under the beds. It is impossible that even 
 tolerable butter can be made under such conditions ; and as the 
 small farmers of Ireland are so hospitable that- they will enter- 
 tain their domestic animals in their dwellings, and will raise 
 cream there too, even when they have separate buildings better 
 suited for both purposes, the establishment of butter factories in 
 that country is the most hopeful means of speedy improvement 
 
Io6 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 in butter-making. One thing, however, is essential in the 
 establishment of factories, if they are to benefit farmers in the 
 long run ; that is, that they should be managed on co-operative 
 principles, so that the farmers who supply the milk, cream, or 
 butter will take all the profits. The introduction of proprietary 
 factories would only increase the middleman element, already 
 far too general in relation to farming. It is satisfactory to learn 
 that the factories which Canon Bagot has been mainly instru- 
 mental in starting in Ireland are managed on co-operative 
 principles. 
 
 Factories, as explained by Canon Bagot in a paper read at 
 the recent Dairy Conference in Ireland, are of three kinds, 
 distinguished by him as milk factories, creameries, and butter 
 factories. In the milk factories, which are becoming common 
 in the south of Ireland, the whole milk is purchased from the 
 farmers, the price paid lately being 4d. to 4^d. a gallon, and 
 the separated milk, after the cream has been extracted by the 
 mechanical cream separator, is taken back by the farmers at 
 id. to 2d. a gallon for the feeding of pigs. The price is low, 
 but is said to satisfy the farmers, who, besides, share in the 
 profits of the factories, of which they are required to be share- 
 holders. Canon Bagot is qf opinion that the best butter is 
 turned out under this system, as the mechanical separator allows 
 of dealing with large quantities of milk and producing cream 
 under the best conditions. The chief drawback is the necessity 
 of having the milk delivered at the factory twice daily, so that 
 only farmers near a factory can with advantage send their milk 
 to it. There is also the necessity of keeping an analyst, as each 
 lot of milk has to be subjected to a complete analysis, in order 
 to settle its value. Under the creameries system, the farmers 
 send the cream only, each man's cream being churned sepa- 
 rately; and the butter being paid for according to quality. 
 Strict rules have to be observed by the farmers as to the manage- 
 ment of the milk and the cream. This system is a good one 
 where the farmers have proper places in which to set their milk, 
 and can be induced to use them. There is a great saving of 
 labour as compared with that required in supplying milk, as the 
 cream is comparatively small in bulk, and requires to be sent 
 only every second day, while six or eight farmers can take it in 
 turns to provide a horse and cart to take the cream of all to the 
 factory. The farmers, it is said, have realised 2d. a pound more 
 
. DAIRY PRODUCE. I07 
 
 for their butter by means of the creameries than they could obtain 
 by churning at home. For the third class— the butter factories — 
 there is not much to be said, from the farmer's point of view, 
 except that they help to send out butter of regular grades of 
 quality, and improve the consistency of it by skilful manipula- 
 tion. They receive butter from the farmers, work it up, and 
 find a market for it. There are several proprietary factories ot 
 this kind in Ireland, the owners of which buy lots of butter at 
 the lowest prices possible, work them up together, and make 
 good profits on the sale. It is under this system that the 
 butter of Normandy has acquired its reputation for uniformity 
 of quality according to brand ; but the commodity to work 
 upon is much better, as a rule, in Normandy than in Ireland, 
 •because the dairy farmers in the former country are very skilful 
 and careful butter-makers. 
 
 Canon Bagot considers the creamery system best adapted 
 to districts in which farms are scattered, as is the case with 
 the mountain dairy farms of Ireland. As an instance of the 
 advantage derived by farmers from creameries, he states that 
 on the occasion of a visit which he made to the Galbally 
 Creamery, in Tipperary, the ayerage price paid to the farmers 
 for the day's butter was is. per pound, whereas on the same day 
 the average price paid in Cork Butter Market was 7d., from 
 which a halfpenny had to be deducted for firkins and commission. 
 
 Up to the middle of June, 1887, ten creameries had been 
 affiliated to the Creameries Association of Ireland, and there 
 were other factories started by private enterprise. In England 
 and other Continental countries than Normandy the milk- 
 factory system is the one generally adopted. At present, 
 however, there are but few butter factories of any kind in 
 England or Scotland except those of the large dairymen in 
 towns, who receive milk by rail from farmers, and use some of 
 it for the making of butter. 
 
 The only English butter factory I have visited is that which 
 Lord Hampden has established on his estate at Glynde, near 
 Lewes. My visit was made at the instance of the Chairman 
 of the Cobden Club, and an account of it, from which the 
 following details afe taken, appeared in the Agricultural 
 Gazette of July 2nd, 1888 : — 
 
 On the occasion of my visit, arranged beforehand with 
 Viscount Hampden, his lordship was, unfortunately, called 
 
I08 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 away unexpectedly, and I was disappointed at not having the 
 pleasure of meeting a nobleman whose efforts to improve the 
 position of his tenants and labourers are well known. The 
 manager of the factory, Mr. F. Mayger, however, very 
 courteously showed me all that there was to be seen, and gave 
 me all possible information, answering all questions without 
 reserve. One thing I was not able to obtain — a balance-sheet 
 of the business, that being only now in course of preparation. 
 It is scarcely to be expected that a profit will be made on' the 
 first year's working, but it is important to know whether there 
 is a prospect of profit. Judging from the prices obtained for 
 the produce of the factory, I am disposed to expect it to pay 
 well. At any rate, it is to be hoped that it will pay, because it 
 is of great advantage to the tenants on the estate and other 
 farmers in the district. This will be obvious to all readers 
 when I state that the price paid for milk was gd. per imperial 
 gallon during the winter months — fully half the year, I believe 
 — while recently 7d. per gallon has been paid for Shorthorn 
 and 8d. for Jersey milk. Lord Hampden himself keeps a herd 
 of each breed. Some extra milk, which Lord Hampden has 
 been urged to take at any price, is not so liberally paid for, 
 because until the factory has been enlarged it is an inconve- 
 nience to have more than the regular quantity — about 800 
 gallons a day. But jd. and 8d. are good prices to be paid at 
 Glynde, at a time when a good deal of milk is being sold in 
 London at 6d. or less. When the alterations are finished, the 
 factory will be capable of dealing with 2,000 gallons per day. 
 About 2,000 lb. of butter per week have been made lately, and 
 sold at good prices. For six months up to the end of March 
 the price obtained was is. 6d. per lb., and it was is. 4d. up to 
 the end'of May, while since it has been is. 2d., at which price 
 buyers are willing to take any quantity that can be turned out. 
 
 Mr. Mayger, the manager, was trained in Lord Vernon's 
 factory, while the head dairymaid, Miss Rusk, was for some 
 time with Professor Carroll, at Glasnevin. The butter made 
 on the occasion of my visit was excellent, and I understand 
 that it is regularly good. 
 
 There are two Danish separators in the factory, each of 
 which will deal with 160 gallons of milk per hour in warm 
 weather, and about one-third less in cold weather. A much 
 larger separator of the same kind is ordered. The churn, 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 
 
 109 
 
 worked by steam like the rest of the machinery,. is a Bradford's 
 diaphragm, which will churn thirty gallons of cream at a time ; 
 but a larger churn is ordered. In cool weather a Delaiteuse is 
 used. One of Bradford's butter-makers was in use on the 
 occasion of my visit, and the butter, taken out of the churn in 
 granules, of course, was salted with dry salt on the worker. 
 The temperature at which the cream was churned was 6o° Fahr. 
 During the winter months 1 lb. of butter was produced from 
 2\ to 2J gallons of milk, but it is to be borne in mind that a 
 good many of the cows on Lord Hampden's estate, and some 
 on his tenants' farms, are Jerseys. One of Mr. Jasper Stephen- 
 son's sample churns is used for testing the milk. Hot and 
 cold water and steam are available all over the factory, and 
 outside there is a capital arrangement for using water and steam 
 in cleaning the cans in which milk is brought to the factory. 
 
 There is no difficulty in getting rid of the separated milk, 
 about 3d. per gallon net at the factory being obtained for it. 
 Most of it is sent to Lewes, Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, 
 and Tunbridge Wells, and only a little to London. That sent 
 to London pays least. The people of the Glynde district have 
 all they like at a penny a quart, while for new milk they are 
 charged 4d. Lord Hampden is anxious to have the separated 
 milk sold at a reasonable price in the towns, and for that reason 
 he makes an arrangement which is not of a rigidly commercial 
 character. Dealers who retail at 2d. a quart get their milk 
 delivered at a price (about 4d. a gallon usually) which leaves 
 3d. net; but if they sell at i|d. a quart they pay less — about a 
 halfpenny less. In winter the price at the factory is 3§d. a 
 gallon. The average net price for the year is fully 3d. ; which 
 is satisfactory. The separated milk is scalded, at a temperature 
 of i6q degrees, one of Lawrence's scalders being used. It is 
 then cooled down to 60 degrees before being sent away. 
 
 The jug cream trade is being started at the factory. Neat 
 little half-pint and quarter-pint jugs, corked down and covered 
 with silver paper, are sent out. The thick cream is intended 
 to be retailed at 6d., and thin at 5d. a quarter-pint. Jugs, corks, 
 silver paper, carriage, and agent's commission take about half, 
 leaving 3d. a quarter-pint for the . thick cream. This, of 
 course, pays better than butter-making, if a regular demand 
 can be met with for a large quantity ; but there is a good deal 
 of work and trouble in this branch of the business. 
 
110 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Every one must wish success to an undertaking carried on 
 under circumstances so beneficial to all concerned in it, and 
 judging from the management and the work, there is every 
 reason to trust that success will be realised. A dairy factory 
 in the hands of an ordinary middleman, whose only object is 
 to buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest, is, in 
 my opinion, a source of injury to dairy farmers; but Lord 
 Hampden's undertaking is of a very different character, for he 
 desires only bank interest on his capital, and he may be trusted 
 to pay his tenants as much for their milk as he can afford to 
 give without being a loser. 
 
 The introduction of the centrifugal cream separator marks 
 an era in dairying. A machine of this kind, of primitive con- 
 struction — Lefeldt's separator — was first exhibited at the Inter- 
 national Dairy Show, held at Hamburg in 1877. It was 
 speedily improved upon; and in 1879, at the Kilburn Show 
 of the Royal Agricultural Society, the Laval or Swedish sepa- 
 rator was introduced. The late Dr. Augustus Voelcker, who 
 tested this machine for the Society, reported that, by its use, 
 93 per cent, of the butter fat of the milk had been obtained in 
 the cream, as compared with 78^ per cent., the average result 
 of the common system of skimming; or, in other words, that 
 only 7 per cent, of butter fat had been left in the separated 
 milk, against 2i| per cent, in the skimmed milk. A test 
 carried out later at the London Dairy Show gave results still 
 more strikingly in favour of the separator! only about one- 
 fourth as much fat being found in the separated as in the 
 skimmed milk. There is a great saving here ; and as the cost 
 of using a separator after it has once been paid for is not 
 greater than that of the work involved in the skimming system, 
 and the separated milk, being quite fresh, is worth more 
 than skim milk, the result of this wonderful invention is equi- 
 valent to the creation of a vast quantity of butter. Petersen's 
 separator, commonly known as the Danish, has produced as 
 good results as the Laval machine, and both are now exten- 
 sively in use in this and other countries, the Laval being most 
 common in England. Recently a new separator, named the 
 Victoria, manufactured in Scotland, has been tried with much 
 success. All work on the same principle, which is one of 
 centrifugal force acting upon the different gravities of the 
 component parts of milk. The milk is conveyed in a con- 
 tinuous stream into a cylinder which is made to revolve very 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. Ill 
 
 rapidly — over 6,000 times per minute in the case of the Laval 
 machine. The gravity of the skim milk being greater than 
 that of the cream, the former is thrown to the circumference, 
 while the latter collects in the centre, each being caused to 
 flow out as it rises to a certain level through a separate tube. 
 Professor Long has given the results of six hundred experi- 
 ments made with the Danish separator, and the most approved 
 systems of skimming by Professors Fjord and Storch, of 
 Copenhagen. When the separator was used, the quantity 
 of milk required to make a pound of butter was 24^4 lb. ; 
 when the whole milk was churned, 267 lb. ; with cream raised 
 upon the ice system in twenty-four hours, 27^5 lb. ; under the 
 same system in ten hours, 29-5 lb. ; under the cold-water system 
 in thirty-four hours, 32^4 lb. It is to be observed that, except 
 with respect to the churning of the whole milk — a plan not to 
 be commended if quality rather than bulk of butter be desired 
 — the trial was, with cream-raising systems, supposed to be in 
 each case a great improvement upon the common shallow-pan 
 system. At a trial made in the Munster Dairy School, the 
 averages of forty-three experiments with a given quantity of 
 milk were 100 lb. of butter from the Danish separator, as com- 
 pared with 59 lb. from milk set in open pans for twenty-four 
 hours, 66 lb. when it was s,et for thirty-six hours, 73 lb. when 
 the skimming extended over forty-two hours, and 76 lb. after 
 fifty-four hours. Colonel Curtis Hayward, of Quedgeley, 
 Gloucester, who uses a Laval separator, is of opinion that 
 its use gives him 20 to 25 per cent, more cream than any 
 system of skimming, and finds that from his forty-two cows, 
 milked for forty weeks in each year, he gets, on the average, 
 1 lb. of butter per cow per week more than he obtained before 
 he used a separator. If, with Professor Sheldon, we assume 
 that one-third of the cows in the country are used for the produc- 
 tion of butter, or one-third of the milk of all the cows, which 
 amounts to the same, the gain by the , universal use of the 
 separator, on Colonel . Hayward's showing, would be about 
 53,000,000 lb. of butter per annum, or nearly i£ lb. per head 
 of the population. Until recently all the separators have been 
 worked by' steam or horse-power. Now, however, the Laval 
 machine is made to be worked by a man, and one of these 
 little machines was honoured by a medal at the Dorchester 
 Show of the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society, 
 and by a prize at the Newcastle meeting of the Royal Agri- 
 
112 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 cultural Society, after a careful trial in each instance. It is 
 estimated that any farmer who keeps as many as ten cows may 
 profitably use one of these machines. But a further step has 
 been made by the ingenious inventor since the summer shows 
 were held. A little separator, named the " Baby," to separate 
 twelve gallons of milk in an hour, and easily worked by a boy 
 or girl, was introduced at the exhibition of the Finland Agri- 
 cultural Association, held at Vibourg in 1887, and afterwards 
 at the London Dairy Show. Thus the centrifugal separator 
 has been brought within the reach of the smallest 'dairy farmer, 
 and it is probable that before very long the skimmer will be as 
 little used as the flail. 
 
 The principal competitors .of British and Irish butter- 
 makers are the French, Danes, Dutch, and Germans; but 
 Sweden is now making great advances, and we receive con- 
 siderable quantities also from Norway, Belgium, and Canada. 
 The following table shows to what extent the imports from 
 these sources increased or decreased in the ten years ending 
 with 1886, the latest year for which complete details are avail- 
 able at the time of writing. Margarine is included, because 
 not distinguishable in the statistics for some countries : — 
 
 Imports 
 
 of Butter 
 
 and Margarine.* 
 
 
 
 1876. 
 
 1886. 
 
 Increase. 
 
 Decrease. 
 
 From — 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 France 
 
 622,488 
 
 402,625 
 
 
 219,863 
 
 Holland 
 
 402,984 
 
 1,194,35° 
 
 791,366 
 
 
 'Denmark 
 
 205,195 
 
 400,556 
 
 195,361 
 
 
 Germany 
 
 1 1 1,962 
 
 122,195 
 
 10,233 
 
 
 Belgium 
 
 65.309 
 
 46,342 
 
 
 18^967' 
 
 Sweden 
 
 29,412 
 
 148,651 
 
 119,239 
 
 
 Norway 
 
 584 
 
 28,061 
 
 27,477 
 
 
 Channel Islands 
 
 3,708 
 
 5 2 9 
 
 
 3. > 79 
 
 United States 
 
 118,131 
 
 42,390 
 
 
 75,741 
 
 Canada 
 
 98,579 
 
 3<>522 
 
 
 67,057 
 
 Other Countries 
 
 1,050 
 
 i4,3>9t 
 
 13,269 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1,659,402 
 
 2,431,540 
 
 772,138 
 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
 t Including 2,814 cwts. of butter and 7,490 of margarine from Russia, and 2,125 cwt-\ 
 of butter from the British East Indies. 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 113 
 
 Holland would stand first as a source of our supply if bulk 
 alone were considered, in consequence of the enormous quanr 
 tity of margarine we have been receiving from that country, 
 amounting in 1886 to 835,328 cwts. ; but the quantity of butter 
 received from that source last year was only 359,022 cwts., or 
 about the same as before the margarine trade was commenced. 
 To show that Holland has lately been devoting attention to 
 "ox butter" rather than to the genuine article, it is only 
 necessary to state that her cows fell off in number from 914,800 
 in 1876 to 890,200 in 1884, the latest year for which the figures 
 are available. The quantities of margarine included in the 
 figures for Norway and Belgium for 1886 are over 20,000 cwts. 
 each. In the supply of butter, France was first up to the end 
 of 1886 ; but I notice that Denmark sent the largest quan- 
 tity last year, as may be seen from a table given in the 
 Appendix. To return to the imports up to the end of 
 1886, I find that while those of France have diminished 
 during the last ten years by more than one-third, our re- 
 ceipts from Denmark have nearly doubled. It is worth 
 while to mention in this connection a fact which will proD- 
 ably surprise most people, namely, that France imports more 
 fresh butter than she exports, the quantities for 1886 being 
 125,508 cwts. imported, against 107,770 cwts. exported. 
 The exports of salt butter, on the other hand, are nearly five 
 times as much as those of fresh, while the imports are quite 
 insignificant. Our imports from Germany had advanced to 
 146,000 cwts. in 1884, but fell off slightly in 1885, and heavily 
 in 1886. For 1887 apparently they were greater than ever 
 before, the receipts during eight months having been 124, 835 
 cwts. Norway owes her considerable advance in the table 
 chiefly to margarine, of which she sent us 20,875 cwts. in 1886. 
 The great falling off in the receipts from the United States and 
 Canada has been gradual during the last three years. In the 
 case of the latter country, it is desirable to state, the quantity 
 in 1876 was exceptionally large. On the other hand, from the 
 United States we received as much as 219,794 cwts. in 1878. 
 Although the number of milch cows in the United States in- 
 creased from 11,085,400 in 1876 to 14,235,368 in 1886 (the 
 number for 1887 was 14,522,083), the addition to the dairy 
 produce appears not to have kept pace with the increasing 
 demands of the population. Statistics for the whole of the 
 
 H 
 
114 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Dominion of Canada are not available, but bur diminished 
 imports of butter from that colony seem to indicate that pro- 
 duction relatively to population has decreased. Besides, the 
 general quality of Canadian butter is not good enough to 
 command a ready market, and it is the competition of foreign 
 fresh butter which English dairy farmers have most to fear. But 
 why should they fear it ? If countries in which there is abund- 
 ance of cheap land and cheap food, such as America and Canada, 
 are falling behind in the commerce of the dairy, British 
 and Irish dairy farmers may reasonably be asked to make 
 up their minds to defy the competition of the whole world. 
 
 It has already been explained that the ready sale of Nor- 
 mandy butter in this country is due, not to its excellence, but 
 to its uniformity of inoffensiveness. Upon this point Canon 
 Bagot says : — 
 
 "The great success of the Normandy butter is its never-changing 
 character and uniformity, the large factories there always turning out the 
 same article ; and though, in my opinion, one far inferior in quality to 
 that produced at our large factories, where the separator is used, , yet 
 has succeeded in getting a grip as it were on the London market by ife 
 ever-constant uniformity, which is all the more remarkable from its being 
 made up of purchased lumps of butter mixed together by a powerful 
 butter worker." 
 
 The Canon, who has established a business for the sale of 
 dairy produce in Dublin, goes on to say that some time ago, 
 being short of fresh butter, he purchased some of the best Nor- 
 mandy he could get, but found it not good enough to send out 
 in place of the best Irish fresh. " Yet," he adds, " it is more 
 than probable that the Londoner would have given is. od. for 
 it before he would give is. 6d. for ours, which goes far to prove 
 that public taste can be educated to take an inferior article (in 
 preference) to a superior." The truth is that consumers had 
 become so used to a bad flavour in English and Irish butter 
 that they welcomed a comparatively flavourless commodity as 
 an agreeable change. I do not mean to say that butter of 
 first-rate quality is not made in France, for a great deal of 
 delicious butter is made there. Nearly all the best, however, 
 is retained for home consumption. 
 
 As to Denmark, Canon Bagot believes that the great success 
 of the butter-makers of that country arises solely from the edu- 
 cation given in the schools and colleges. But dairy education 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. IIS 
 
 does not end in the dairy schools, for nearly every large dairy 
 farm in the country is a practical school of dairying, to which 
 young men and women, after passing through the regular 
 schools, are sent to complete their training. There are now 
 numerous butter factories or creameries in Denmark which are 
 turning out great quantities of excellent butter. If our farmers 
 can beat the Danes in British markets they can beat the world, 
 and if they will study as thoroughly and take as much trouble 
 as the Danes, they will gradually recover the ground which 
 they have lost 
 
 There is one point in connection with competition in butter 
 not yet mentioned to which brief reference must be made, 
 namely, the manner in which it is prepared and packed for 
 market. In this respect British and Irish dairy farmers have 
 much to learn, as it is necessary that their butter should not 
 only be at least as good as the best foreign produce, but also 
 that it should be as attractively placed before the public. The 
 admirable manner in which butter from both Normandy and 
 Brittany is sent to our markets is well known to purchasers, and 
 the example thus set is being followed in Holland and other 
 countries much more rapidly than it is here. Mr. Jubal Webb, 
 in a paper on " Preparing Butter for Market," published in a 
 recent number of the Journal of the British Dairy Farmers' 
 Association, has a great deal to say upon this topic, upon which 
 his extensive experience renders him a high authority. Mr. 
 Webb says that, for fresh butter, little wooden boxes, holding 
 twelve lumps of 2 lb. each, in which Normandy butter is sent, 
 are the best packages. In the packing of salt butter, too, there 
 is much room for improvement. 
 
 Although the butter-makers of Great Britain and Ireland 
 may be congratulated upon a gradual improvement in their 
 practice, the cheese"-makers cannot be similarly complimented. 
 Professor Sheldon, and other authorities, support the common 
 impression that English cheese, as a whole, is not as good as 
 it was a generation ago. Alarmed by American competition, 
 which at one time threatened to ruin them, many of our cheese- 
 makers have made the mistake of following the least desirable 
 practice of American makers, not only in manipulation to pro- 
 duce early ripening, but also in robbing the cheese of a portion 
 of the cream that would be contained in whole-milk cheese. 
 The cheese factories, the first of which was established in 1870, 
 h 2 
 
Il6 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 in imitation of the American system, have been foremost in the 
 production of cheese similar to second-class American, so that, 
 instead of improving the dairy practice of the country, as it was 
 hoped they would, they have rather helped to degrade it At 
 the best, the factories have not produced cheese equal to that of 
 the finest made in private dairies, arid it is supposed that, owing 
 to the mixture of milk supplied to them, they cannot hope to 
 attain the highest perfection. As a rule, however, they have 
 not aimed at it, and dairy farmers, too, generally have not been 
 more ambitious. They ought to know their own business better 
 than any outsiders, and yet it is ' generally agreed by the best 
 authorities among them that they have been pursuing a mistaken 
 policy. Our best Cheddar, Cheshire, Stilton, and Leicester 
 cheeses are almost untouched by foreign competition; whereas in 
 cheese of the second and third qualities there is usually a glut 
 in our markets, from the American, Canadian, and Dutch sup- 
 plies. The Americans and, more notably still, the Canadians, 
 have lately been imitating the Cheddar with increasing success ; 
 but while they have sent us an abundance of cheese equal to the 
 second quality of that variety, they have sent little, if any, equal 
 to the best. The reputation of genuine Stilton, still accounted by 
 many epicures to be the finest cheese in the world, has beengreatly 
 injured by base imitations made in other English counties than 
 Leicestershire, and in foreign countries. Here, again, the object 
 has been cheapness of production rather than supreme excellence; 
 and the uncertainty of getting a good Stilton, even when the 
 price of a good one is paid, has greatly helped the sale of 
 Gorgonzola and other fancy cheeses of foreign production, in 
 which there is a nearer approach to uniformity of quality. 
 Leicester cheese still ranks as high as any English make after 
 the best Stilton, with which, as the latter is a double cream 
 cheese, it does not compete ; but there is now less of the best 
 than formerly could be obtained. The same may be said of the 
 Gloucester, another excellent cheese when well made. Derby 
 cheese, although of high quality as turned out by some dairies, 
 has never had the highest reputation, except in certain districts 
 of the country, where it has been, and still is to a smaller extent, 
 a great favourite. As the practice of taking away part of the 
 cream in making this cheese has grown, the stress of foreign 
 competition has been more and more severely felt by the makers. 
 In cheese-making as in butter-making and other careers, it is 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 
 
 117 
 
 peculiarly true in these modern times that " there is plenty of 
 room at the top," whereas for bare mediocrity there is but little 
 chance of success. The indigestibility of the badly made cheese, 
 which forms the bulk of the supply, may be held accountable in 
 great measure for the diminished consumption of that article of 
 food among the middle and upper classes. 
 
 The principal competition in the cheese supply of the United 
 Kingdom comes from America, Canada, and Holland ; France, 
 Italy, and Switzerland, a long way behind as to bulk of supplies, 
 contributing most of the fancy cheeses, such as Camembert, 
 Brie, Bondon, Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Parmesan, Gruyere, and 
 other varieties less generally known in this country. It has 
 been seen that the imports of cheese have not advanced pro- 
 portionately with those of butter since 1876, for while the 
 supplies from some countries have increased, those from others 
 have fallen off considerably. In the following table will be 
 found the quantities from each of the principal sources of supply 
 for 1876 and 1886, with the increase or decrease in the latter 
 year : — 
 
 Imports of Cheese.* 
 
 
 1876. 
 
 1886. 
 
 Ir.c. 
 
 Tec. 
 
 From — 
 
 Cwts, 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 United States ... 
 
 936,203 
 
 856, 109 
 
 
 80,094 
 
 Canada 
 
 250,072 
 
 508,112 
 
 258,040 
 
 
 Holland 
 
 330.43S 
 
 318,743 
 
 
 11,692 
 
 France ... 
 
 •8,744 
 
 32,103 
 
 23,359 
 
 
 Belgium 
 
 747 
 
 ",497 
 
 10,750 
 
 
 Denmark 
 
 563 
 
 4,536 
 
 3,973 
 
 
 Germany 
 
 2,156 
 
 349 
 
 
 1,807 
 
 Russia ... 
 
 i,S23 
 
 2,048 
 
 525 
 
 
 Italy 
 
 67 
 
 336 
 
 269 
 
 
 Other Countries. 
 
 7,96s 
 
 1,057 
 
 
 6,908 
 
 Totals 
 
 1,538,475 
 
 1,734,890 
 
 196.415 
 
 
 It will be seen that the contributions of other countries than 
 the first four are insignificant, amounting in 1886 to less than 
 20,000 cwts. altogether. As in the case of butter exports to this 
 country, America has been falling off in the supplies of cheese, 
 
 * See Appen lix, 
 
n8 
 
 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 and as that source of competition is of great importance, it will 
 be interesting to compare the quantities for each year from 
 1876 to 1886 inclusive, adding those we have received from 
 Canada and Holland. In this case the figures for 1887 are 
 available, and are therefore added : — 
 
 Year. 
 
 United States. 
 
 Canada. 
 
 Holland. 
 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 1876 
 
 936.203 
 
 250,072 
 
 330,435 
 
 1877 
 
 
 
 1,082,844 
 
 214,215 
 
 341,980 
 
 1878 
 
 
 
 1,345.745 
 
 252,336 
 
 355.159 
 
 1879 
 
 
 
 1. 214.959 
 
 277,663 
 
 275.039 
 
 1880 
 
 
 
 1,171,498 
 
 281,565 
 
 288,666 
 
 1881 
 
 
 
 1,244,419 
 
 299,469 
 
 264,626 
 
 1882 
 
 
 
 969,502 
 
 382,352 
 
 310,735 
 
 1883 
 
 
 
 99o,963 
 
 482,183 
 
 292,515 
 
 1884 
 
 
 
 976,190 
 
 589.237 
 
 319.441 
 
 1885 
 
 
 
 844,205 
 
 606,769 
 
 336.158 
 
 1886 
 
 
 
 856,109 
 
 508,112 
 
 318,743 
 
 1887 
 
 759,463 
 
 631.837 
 
 362,014 
 
 The table shows that the imports of cheese from the 
 United States reached the maximum in 1878, when they 
 brought prices down to an unremunerative limit, and lower 
 still in 1879. Shippers must have suffered heavy losses in 
 those years, and especially in the latter. They have been 
 more cautious since, but have more than once again glutted 
 our markets, and been punished in pocket. In 1886 they sent 
 us let s by about one-third than we received from them in 1878. 
 Canada, on the other hand, has doubled her exports of cheese, 
 having improved the quality, and gained in reputation ; while 
 the Americans have been ruining the reputation of their cheese 
 by depriving a great deal of it of cream, and introducing lard 
 and other kinds of fat. The Dutch supply, it will be seen, has 
 fluctuated. France, with her small exports of cheese, has made 
 a great advance since 1876, owing to the popularisation of her 
 delicious soft cheeses. It is not generally known, however, that 
 France is a great cheese-importing country, having imported 
 421,932 cwts. in 1886, against 88,790 cwts. exported. The 
 imports are chiefly from Holland, Germany, and Switzerland. 
 In no other country, however, are there as many varieties of 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 
 
 II 9 
 
 cheese made as in France. Professor Long, in his " British 
 Dairy Farming," mentions " forty or more," and describes the 
 methods of making the more important varieties. He is of 
 opinion that many of them might with advantage be made in 
 this country, and he himself has made and exhibited a few. 
 We have not much to learn from the cheese-makers of Holland; 
 but the Italian Gorgonzola, I believe, has been imitated in 
 . England, and there would be no difficulty in imitating the Swiss 
 Gruyere. Apparently we obtain the Gorgonzola and Gruyere 
 which we consume chiefly through France, our imports of 
 cheese directly from Italy being insignificant, while none from 
 Switzerland are separately enumerated in the accounts of the 
 Customs House. The soft cheeses which we import command 
 comparatively high prices, and,' if well made here, would pro- 
 bably be remunerative ; but whether it would pay better to 
 make them than to manufacture the best English sorts in the 
 best possible way is a question which must be left to dairy 
 farmers to decide. 
 
 The price of cheese has varied greatly at different seasons of 
 the year, and in different years since 1876. There are no 
 collected statistics showing the average values of home produce, 
 and the only official figures are those relating to imported 
 cheese. As these figures are obtained by dividing the total 
 declared value of all the cheese by the total quantity, and the 
 declared value does not indicate prices very exactly, the fluctua- 
 tions appear smaller than they have actually been. Still, as 
 the only figures available, I give the average declared value 
 of imported cheese per cwt. for each year from 1876 to 1887 : — - 
 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 1876 
 
 2 IS 4 
 
 1880 
 
 2 17 4 
 
 1884 
 
 2 II IO 
 
 1877 
 
 2 17 8 
 
 l88l 
 
 2 17 O 
 
 1S85 
 
 244 
 
 1878 
 
 2 IO 3 
 
 1882 
 
 2 16 I 
 
 1886 
 
 248 
 
 1879 
 
 2 2 9 
 
 1883 
 
 2 14 4 
 
 1887 
 
 292 
 
 The average was low for 1885 and 1886, but recovered 
 considerably for 1-887. 
 
 Milk sold in its natural state has been left last for considera- 
 tion among dairy products, because it is not a subject of foreign 
 competition, except so far as condensed milk is "Concerned. 
 The supply of fresh milk is entirely in our farmers' .hands, and 
 
120 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 is likely always to be so — milk being at once too bulky and too 
 rapidly perishable to be imported in the fresh form. A short 
 time ago there was an attempt to get up a company in Holland 
 to supply London with milk, and there was a great deal of 
 "tall talk" as to the facility with which the Dutchmen could 
 beat English milk-producers in their own markets. Fortunately, 
 however, the project was too ridiculous for sane people to put 
 their money in it. Those who brought it forward could not 
 have known the extremely low rates at which our farmers 
 supply London and other large towns with milk. More 
 recently milk, preserved by the use of some chemical sub- 
 stance, has been brought from Norway or Sweden, but 
 nothing has been heard of it since the experiment was first 
 noticed. Last year, the extremely low price of milk was 
 brought prominently before the public through the formation 
 of unions among dairy farmers, to enable them to make better 
 terms with the dealers who retail milk in towns. In London, 
 where milk is for the most part sold at 46. or sd. a quart, it was 
 a surprise to consumers to learn that the dealers had been pay- 
 ing, during the spring and summer, only i|d. to ifd., or perhaps 
 as much as 2d. in a few instances. These were the prices paid 
 for milk delivered in London or Manchester ; the farmers 
 having to cart it to their local stations, and pay the rail car- 
 riage, amounting to Jd. to ifd. per gallon, according to the 
 railroad and the distance. Thus, the dealers received for one 
 quart in many cases as much as the farmers obtained for four 
 quarts, after allowing for rail freights. In several provincial 
 towns, and in the poor districts of London, it is true, some milk 
 was retailed at 3d. a quart ; but it is a question whether it was 
 not partly separated milk, from which the cream had been 
 taken by the centrifugal machine. Apart from the question of 
 adulteration, however, and on the very liberal supposition that 
 all the milk was sold as pure as it was received, the profits of 
 the dealers must have been enormous. Those who bought at 
 6d. a gallon, and sold at is., charged 100 per cent, on their out- 
 lay for distribution ; those who paid 6d., and sold at is. 4d., 
 charged 166 per cent. ; and those who paid 6d., and sold at 
 is. 8d., charged 233 per cent. Probably few, if any, who paid 7d. 
 sold at less than is. 4d., and in that case there was 128 per cent 
 for distribution ; while those who paid the same, and sold at 
 is. 8d., took 185 per cent. Even the few who paid 8d. a gallon, 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 121 
 
 and sold at is. 4d. or is. 8d„ netted 100 or 150 per cent, for 
 expenses and profit. As the dealer turns his capital over several 
 times in a year, it is easy to imagine that he obtains very hand- 
 some profits, and there is no reason to be surprised that a new 
 resident in a district should be besieged by rival milkmen 
 seeking his valuable custom. When a large dairy company 
 recently declared a dividend of 18 per cent, per annum, the 
 only reason for surprise was that it was not larger. The great 
 companies are lavish in their expenditure on their model dairies, 
 their gorgeous milk-carts, and other appurtenances, and they 
 no doubt, pay many expensive servants. They give long credit, 
 too, to some of their customers of the well-to-do and " genteel " 
 classes, and they make some losses in bad debts, though not 
 heavy ones, as their trade is chiefly for ready money, or weekly 
 payments. Still, making all possible allowances, their managers 
 must do very badly if the shareholders do not obtain handsome 
 dividends. As for the small men, who make little or no dif- 
 play, and superintend their own business, they must grow rich 
 very rapidly. In spite of the combinations formed a year ago, 
 wholesale prices in London during the spring of 1888 were 
 nearly, if not quite, as low as ever. Probably, as usual, the 
 farmers failed to act together, and, of course, if the supply 
 exceeds the demand, they cannot keep up prices by combining. 
 In reality, however, the supply would not be at all excessive if 
 milk were sold at a moderate price to consumers. 
 
 The case of the farmers in the summer of 1887 was all the 
 harder because, on account of the drought, they obtained only 
 about two-thirds of the usual quantity of milk from their cows, 
 and at the same time had to go to extra expense for purchased 
 food. Under the most favourable circumstances as to feed, there 
 is certainly something very wrong about a system under which 
 the man who simply takes milk round the streets and sells it 
 receives as the margin for distribution from as much to more 
 than double as much as the farmer who pays the whole cost of 
 production and the rail freight takes altogether. The wholesale 
 contract prices for the winter months sometimes rise to iod. a 
 gallon, while retail prices remain the same as in summer; 
 but even then the margin is far too large. Whether the farmers 
 will be able to obtain fair terms in the long run by combining 
 remains to be proved. If not, they may find a remedy in 
 co-operating to sell their milk by retail. This plan has been 
 
122 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 adopted in America and some European countries with great 
 success, and British and Irish milk-producers would do well to 
 adopt it where they can raise the necessary capital. Milk is 
 well worth 4d. a quart as food, and at that price farmers would 
 reap a handsome profit by retailing it for themselves. 
 
 Our milk trade is one of very large dimensions. Professor 
 Sheldon estimates the consumption as a beverage and in cookery 
 at one-third of a pint per day, or fifteen gallons a year per head 
 of the population. That would make the consumption for the 
 current year about 555,000,000 gallons, which, at an average 
 of only is. 2d. a gallon, would be worth upwards of thirty-two 
 millions sterling, in addition to which consumers pay a large 
 sum for condensed milk. 
 
 There is no doubt that the consumption of milk is increasing, 
 and that it would increase much more rapidly if pure milk 
 were sold at a moderate price. Owing to numerous prosecu- 
 tions of milk-dealers for adulteration, the milk supply is better 
 than it was formerly ; but it is still far from pure as a whole. 
 Any person who has purchased milk from different dealers must 
 have noticed great differences in quality, which cannot be 
 wholly accounted for by the natural superiority of the milk of 
 some dairy herds or districts to that of others. What becomes 
 of the large quantity of separated milk produced in London ? 
 A small proportion of it is sold for what it is ; but the rest is 
 used to adulterate the fresh milk, sold as whole milk to house- 
 holders. This form of adulteration is the safest of all, as it can 
 hardly be detected, if done in moderation, without a complete 
 analysis. Separated milk, having lost scarcely anything but 
 its fat, is a valuable article of food, and an abundant supply of 
 it at a fair price, say a penny a pint, would be a great advantage 
 to the poor, if they could be induced to avail themselves of it ; 
 but the mixture of this milk with whole milk is a fraud which 
 inspectors under the Food and Drugs Act should make all pos- 
 sible efforts to detect and punish. As the consumption of milk 
 in the country increases, the home supply of butter and cheese 
 must inevitably be diminished unless the number of cows is 
 proportionately increased. But we might well aim at a great 
 deal more than such an increase as will keep pace with the in- 
 crease of population and demand for dairy produce ; the object 
 should be to recover the ground lost by the advancing tide of 
 the foreign supply. It has been shown that our dairy farmers 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 1 23 
 
 have a monopoly in the supply of fresh milk; that America 
 and Canada, the only countries supplying us largely with butter 
 which possess natural advantages for cheap production superior 
 to our own, are falling behind in the supply of that commodity ; 
 and that America is also falling off in the export of cheese. • It 
 is not to be supposed, even if it is to be wished, that any in- 
 crease in the supply at home will entirely shut out the foreign 
 supply of butter and cheese. Certain brands of butter probably, 
 and certain varieties of cheese certainly, will continue to come 
 to us from foreign countries, however great the supply of our 
 own brands and varieties may be. But such contributions 
 might be reduced to narrow limits, so as merely to balance our 
 exports of dairy produce perhaps. The only question is whether 
 the necessary increase in the number of cows kept in the United 
 Kingdom would be remunerative, and here we approach a sub- 
 ject of some intricacy. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to say that the -cost of producing 
 milk, butter, and cheese varies with circumstances, such as the 
 rent and fertility of land, the price of labour, the price and 
 milk-producing qualifications of cows, the cost of purchased 
 food, and the economy of management ; while the cost of sup- 
 plying these commodities to the markets is affected by distance 
 from a railway station, rail freights, and systems of marketing. 
 To simplify the subject, I may dismiss with a few words the 
 question of the cost of sending milk and its products to market. 
 A farmer far distant from a railway station or a town has, of 
 course, no chance of competing in the supply of milk with 
 those more favourably situated, and the same remark applies 
 to a farmer who is near a station which is a very long way off a 
 town in which there is a demand for milk in excess of the local 
 supply. On the question of rail charges a good deal might be 
 written ; but the subject is too large to be dealt with efficiently 
 on the present occasion. In a paper recently read at Tun- 
 bridge Wells, Mr. George Barham, managing director of the 
 Dairy Supply Company, told his hearers, who are served by 
 the South-Eastern and Brighton Railways, that on a hundred- 
 acre farm keeping twenty cows % the cost of sending the whole 
 of the milk to London from that district would be ten shillings 
 an acre more than from a farm equally distant from London, 
 but served by one of the Northern railways. As to rail freights 
 on cheese and butter, it is notorious that the railway companies 
 
1-24 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 give great advantages to foreign producers, as they do with all 
 commodities in which foreign competition is keen. These 
 grievances farmers may fairly look to Parliament to redress. 
 With rail freights as they are, however — and, in justice to 
 railway companies, it must be said that the charges for milk 
 are very low on most railways — there is no doubt that the 
 average retail prices now current would handsomely remunerate 
 farmers who supply milk if they obtained their fair share of the 
 profits. By co-operating to supply consumers directly, I 
 believe they could profitably sell at an average of 3d. per quart 
 in summer and 4d. in winter. 
 
 If we could ascertain exactly the lowest price at which a 
 large supply of milk of average quality could be produced in 
 this country, it would be easy to state the corresponding costs 
 of producing butter and cheese. No such exactness is possible, 
 however, and even an approximate estimate is beset by difficul- 
 ties. No one has yet pretended to say what is the average cost 
 of keeping a cow, or the average quantity of milk she produces. 
 A little Kerry is scarcely half the size of a Shorthorn, and, of 
 course, costs much less to keep, and produces much less milk. 
 But the production of milk is by no means in regular propor- 
 tion to size, many a Jersey, or even a first-rate Kerry, yielding 
 more than an' inferior Shorthorn. I have before me a great 
 collection of milking records ; but it would not by any means 
 do to strike an average from them, and declare it to represent 
 the average production of milk per cow in the United King- 
 dom, for these records are kept by the most intelligent class of 
 dairy farmers, most of whose herds are vastly superior to the 
 common run. Records vary from under 300 to considerably 
 over 2,000 gallons per annum — to take extreme cases, and to 
 exercise a strong faith in the wonderful stories of the yield of 
 miraculous cows in America. Professor Sheldon estimates the 
 average produce of the cows of the United Kingdom at 440 
 gallons each per annum, and, considering what large numbers 
 of inferior cows there are in the country, including the miserable 
 half-bred Kerries that are so numerous in Ireland, the quantity 
 seems sufficient, although by no means satisfactory. In any 
 attempt to ascertain the cost of producing milk, however, it is 
 best to leave out of account such extreme cases as little 
 mountain cows, kept at very small expense, arid producing 
 comparatively little milk, If the milk of all the cows in 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 125 
 
 England only were measured for a year, including that of 
 heifers after producing their first calf, the average would pro- 
 bably be found not to exceed 480 gallons each. There are 
 numerous records from dairies in which the average yield per 
 cow has exceeded 600 gallons a year, and several in which it 
 has exceeded 700 gallons. Mr. Primrose McConnell, of Ongar 
 Park, Essex, stated in some returns collected from dairy 
 farmers in various parts of the kingdom, arid published in the 
 Live Stock Journal last year, that his large herd of Ayrshire 
 cows had given milk at the average rate of 600 gallons . each. 
 Mr. Smith Barry, of Cork County, records an average of 616 
 gallons for his cross-bred cows. Mr. Scott, of Drunadd, 
 Armagh, estimates the average produce of his half-bred Short- 
 horns at over 600 gallons each. Shorthorns kept by Mr. 
 Hobbs, of Maiseyhampton, Fairford, gave an average of 755 
 gallons each in nine months. Professor Sheldon states that on 
 his own farm in Staffordshire, some years ago, the Shorthorns 
 kept yielded fully 750 gallons of milk per annum each. Mr. 
 Gooderham, of Monewden, Suffolk, gives the high returns of 
 804 gallons as the average for his Red Polls per annum during 
 three years. Even the little Jerseys have records up to 600 
 gallons as the average of a number, as those kept by Mr. J. F. 
 Hall, late of Erleigh Court, Reading. If we turn to records 
 published elsewhere than in the journal named above, we find 
 such examples as an average of 635^ gallons per cow on the 
 Duke of Westminster's Eaton Hall estate, where forty-one 
 half-bred Shorthorn cows are kept on two farms ; and averages 
 of 717 gallons in 1885, and 743 in 1886, from thirty-four 
 Shorthorn and Ayrshire cross-bred cows kept at the Munster 
 "Dairy School. With such results before us, it is not unreason- 
 able to expect that, by careful selection and breeding, the 
 general average yield of the best breeds of large milch cows in 
 the country may be raised to 600 gallons. Certainly no farmer 
 should be satisfied with a cow of a large breed which gives 
 much less than that quantity. At present, however, as already 
 stated, it is probable that the average yield of the cows and 
 heifers kept in England does not exceed 480 gallons a year 
 each. 
 
 What does this quantity of milk cost to produce ? Here, 
 again, we are perplexed by widely varying estimates as to the 
 cost of keeping a cow for a year. Professor Long reckons it, 
 
126 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 to an " amateur " cowkeeper, as high as ^28, while one of the 
 contributors to the estimates in the Live Stock Journal puts it 
 as low as £% 15 s. 10s. for Red Polls, which are cows of 
 medium size and not as large consumers as Shorthorns. 
 These are extremes ; and while we may be sure that Mr. Long 
 would not say that it costs a farmer .£28 a year to keep a cow, 
 it is equally certain that no cow, except a little Kerry or other 
 small animal, can be kept properly for as little as £& 15 s. iod. 
 Another estimate is £9 10s., only ^3 being allowed for summer 
 grass. Mr. Primrose McConnell reckons the expense of keep- 
 ing his Ayrshires at jQx?> 18s. each. Lord Braybrook, for his 
 Jerseys, says jQi6 15s. 2d., without labour. All these gentle- 
 men are liberal feeders, who get much above the average yield 
 of milk. Probably Mr. McConnell's estimate would be a fair 
 average for cows of full size highly kept, though it seems high 
 for Ayrshires ; but he includes the cost of attendance, depre- 
 ciation, and probably occasional losses. There is another way 
 of giving an estimate, which is perhaps more satisfactory than 
 a comparison of widely differing accounts. A cow of full size 
 can certainly be well kept on the produce of three acres of 
 ordinary lands, or partly on that produce and partly on food 
 obtained in place of some of the produce sold off, and ^15 
 would be ample to allow for rent, rates, taxes, and the cost of 
 cultivating the portion not in grass. The manure and the 
 annual calf would fully compensate for the expense of labour, 
 medical attendance, depreciation, and the occasional loss of a 
 cow ; and I believe it is safe to say that the average expense 
 of keeping a full-sized cow is about ^£15 a year. But then 
 cows large and small, and heifers yielding milk, are included 
 in the estimate, which allows 480 gallons of milk per cow; 
 and as small cows and young heifers cost much less than 
 full-sized and older cows, the average cost may be put at ^14 
 a year. 
 
 Taking the average cost of production at the sum just 
 named, and the average yield of milk from cows in England 
 at 480 gallons a year, the cost per gallon comes out at exactly 
 7d. In the returns, referred to above, the cost is put by 
 different contributors at 6d., 6£d., 7§d., and 8d., the mean of 
 which is 7d. Now, most farmers who sell milk have lately 
 been getting only 8d. a gallon, taking winter and summer 
 prices both into account, and out of that they have had to pay 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 1 27 
 
 the expense of carting to a railway station, and the rail freight. 
 It seems clear, then, that those whose milk cost 7d. or more 
 to produce, have obtained no profit, if they have not lost 
 money, while the men who have been able to produce at 6d. 
 to 6|d. have realised a small gain. But this is not the worst 
 of the case under consideration, for farmers who are not con- 
 veniently situated for sending milk to the large towns, have, in 
 many cases, received less than 8d. a gallon on the average for 
 their produce. For instance, those who supply the English 
 cheese and butter factories have lately been paid only 4^d. to 
 5d. per gallon during the spring and summer, and probably 
 their average for the year has only been 6d, or less. It is true 
 that farmers who supply butter factories receive back the 
 separated milk at a low price for pig-feeding; but, even so, 
 their business can scarcely be profitable. Let us now see 
 whether farmers, who make butter or cheese at home, can do 
 better than those who sell milk. 
 
 A pound of butter has often been made from less than 2 
 gallons of rich milk ; but, on the other hand, 3 gallons of poor 
 milk, or even more in extreme cases, are required to make a 
 pound of butter. It is a somewhat favourable estimate to say 
 that a pound of butter is made from z\ gallons of fairly good 
 milk, although where a cream separator is used, as it might be 
 now in every dairy, the ratio may be reckoned a fair average. 
 At that rate, and reckoning the milk at 7d. a gallon, the cost 
 of a pound of butter would be is. sjd., less the value of the 
 skimmed or separated milk, usually reckoned at 2d. a gallon 
 for pig-feeding, but realising more where it can be sold. If 
 we take this as reducing the cost to is., and add only a penny 
 for the expense of making, the cost of a pound of butter comes 
 out at is. id. Now, it is certain that, during the last two or 
 three years, English dairy farmers have not obtained as much 
 as that for their butter, salt and fresh together, all the year 
 round. Therefore, we have to conclude that butter, at prices 
 prevailing for some time previous to the recent rise, and at the 
 average cost of production, has not been remunerative to the 
 dairy farmers as a whole. Let us now see if cheese-making 
 has been profitable. 
 
 A gallon of milk will make a pound of whole-milk cheese, 
 and even supposing that the whey pays the cost of making, the 
 whole cost, with milk at 7d. a gallon, is that amount per pound 
 
128 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 of cheese. During the present year cheese has been selling 
 fairly ; but the average price received by farmers for whole- 
 milk cheese during some recent years has scarcely been 6d. a 
 pound. Mr. T. Carrington Smith, of Admaston, Rugeley, a 
 cheese-maker of great experience, states that, while for the first 
 twenty-nine years of his tenancy his cheese sold on the average 
 at 7^d. per lb., for the two years ended on Lady Day, 1887, the 
 price will come out at about 5|d. Cheese, made with milk, 
 from which a portion of the cream has been taken of course 
 costs less to make, but its selling price has been more than- 
 correspondingly low. 
 
 The conclusions to be derived from these calculations are 
 of great importance to the future of dairy farming in this 
 country. It is clear, in the first instance, that unless prices 
 are to be higher than they have been in recent years, milk 
 must be produced at 6d. a gallon, or less. Rents, which have 
 been kept up in the dairy districts, or have fallen but slightly, 
 while land in other parts of the country has fallen very seriously, 
 will have to come down. Inferior cows will require to be 
 weeded out, and the utmost attention must be paid to breeding 
 good milkers. Farmers will need to keep milking records, in 
 order to tell which of their cows it pays to keep for the dairy, 
 and which should be fattened for the butcher. Those who 
 make butter will require to use the best appliances — the cream 
 separator especially — in order to obtain a maximum of butter 
 from a given quantity of milk; and they will, above all, have to 
 follow the most approved methods of dairying — from the feed- 
 ing of the cows to the packing of the butter — in order to supply 
 the good quality in good condition, which alone is remunera- 
 tive. Similar remarks would apply to cheese-makers, who 
 need, above all things, to aim at making cheese superior to that 
 which comes to us from the United States, Canada, or Holland. 
 In order to recover the ground gained from them by 
 foreigners, the dairy farmers of this country need to make 
 good fresh butter at an expense not exceeding is. a lb., and 
 good cheese at 6d., if they are to obtain a fair profit on the 
 sale of those commodities. Possibly salt butter may be made 
 in Ireland at less than is. a pound. At any rate, the average 
 price for every year since 1876 has been considerably less than 
 a shilling , indeed, I fear that the price received by the small 
 farmers has not lately been more than 8d. or 9d. on the average 
 
b.-URV pkODuCE. 129 
 
 for a whole year. But we cannot base calculations upon prices 
 realised in Ireland, where large numbers of small occupiers 
 have runs of rough pasturage for a little money, and have no 
 idea of the cost of producing butter. Living chiefly upon the 
 produce of their potato plots, and not reckoning the value of 
 their labour, they take what they can get for the small quanti- 
 ties of butter they make, and when prices are low the chief 
 difference is that they are unable to pay their rents, or the 
 shopkeepers' bills. I doubt whether the most favourably situ- 
 ated working dairy farmer in the United Kingdom, if he 
 values his labour at only a shilling a day, can produce butter 
 profitably at less than iod. per lb. 
 
 The milk-sellers, who have no foreign competition to en- 
 counter, have the means of obtaining a profitable business 
 at their option. If they will co-operate to supply milk directly 
 to consumers, they will be handsomely paid at current prices, 
 and should the supply at any time exceed the demand, they 
 can speedily check it by converting the surplus milk into butter 
 or cheese. But if dairy farmers are to combine to sell milk by 
 retail, they might well include the sale of butter and cheese 
 in their scheme of operations ; for after all that may be said 
 as to improvement in the economy of making the two latter 
 commodities, and in their quality also, it is not likely that 
 foreigners can be beaten out of our markets except by under- 
 selling them. Now, British and Irish dairy farmers could 
 undersell foreigners by means of co-operation for the direct 
 supply of consumers ; for the only reason why they have lately 
 been receiving unremunerative returns for their butter and 
 cheese is that they have not obtained their fair share of what 
 consumers have been paying. Butter for which farmers have 
 been paid nd., or less, has been sold in the large towns at 
 is. 4d. to is. 6d. Indeed, I am able to state, as an incident 
 which has come under my own observation, that butter sold 
 by an Irish landowner and farmer at 8d. in May, 1887, was 
 superior to the bulk of the fresh butter for which Londoners, 
 at the same time, were paying is. 6d. In short, the margin 
 obtained by butter dealers is enormous, and it is at least as 
 great in the case of cheese. If our dairy farmers would com- 
 bine to sell good fresh butter to consumers at is. 3d. to is. 4d. 
 a lb., and cheese of satisfactory quality at 8d. to 9d., they 
 would be better paid than they are now, and their foreign 
 1 
 
130 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 competitors would find our markets undesirable places for the 
 consignment of anything like a large proportion of their 
 produce. The victory for our home-producers would, of 
 course, be a gradual one, as we have not at present nearly 
 enough cows in the country to enable us to dispense with 
 ■ foreign supplies of dairy produce. 
 
 It remains to consider to what extent the State can reason- 
 ably be asked to help the advancement of the dairy farming 
 interest If by a moderate expenditure of money there is 
 reason to expect an immense gain to the country through the 
 development of its resources in the production of butter and 
 cheese, no one can fairly object to 'the outlay. At present we 
 are losing hundreds of thousands of pounds yearly through the 
 non-production of milk that might be obtained, and the waste 
 of a portion of the quantity produced. There is a general 
 agreement that technical education is to be fostered by the 
 State, and it is needed for no industry more than for dairy 
 farming. In all the principal dairying countries in Europe, 
 except our own, the State helps the industry, more or less, by 
 providing for the instruction of those who are to engage in it ; 
 and in Denmark, where that industry has recently made the 
 greatest strides, the system of training is admirable. Sweden 
 is now making great efforts in the same direction. Two dairy 
 schools were established in the country about four years ago, 
 and in 1885 a dairy instructor was appointed for every county, 
 who is constantly travelling about to instruct the farmers and 
 their servants in all that pertains to dairying whenever required. 
 Girls, too, who desire to become dairymaids, are sent by the 
 Government to well-managed dairies to be trained. In England 
 at present there are only three dairy schools, those of Sudbury, 
 near Derby, and the Dairy Institute, and another dairy school 
 in Cheshire, at present supported entirely by voluntary contribu- 
 tions and fees, though the Government has promised a grant 
 to the Cheshire Dairy Institute. Other institutions of the 
 kind are being founded. In Scotland three or four dairy schools 
 have recently been started. Two excellent institutions, sup- 
 ported by the State, have for some time been doing good work 
 in Ireland — the Glasnevin Agricultural Training Institution, 
 near Dublin, which includes a dairy school, and the Munster 
 Dairy School, near Cork. At the Glasnevin Dairy School 
 females are instructed at the low fee of ^3 for the session of 
 
DAIRY PRODUCE. 13I 
 
 six weeks, including board, lodging, washing, and medical attend- 
 ance. There are two sessions in the year. The fee is the same 
 at the Munster Dairy School, where there are now three succes- 
 sive sessions of two months each for girls, the rest of the year 
 being devoted to the male students, who are instructed in 
 agriculture generally. At first the girls' fees were paid by 
 patrons ; but the school has obtained so high a reputation, that 
 the demand for admission is very keen, and all the students are 
 now paid for by their natural guardians. The dairy department 
 of the institution, to which, as at Glasnevin, a model farm is 
 attached, was started in 1880, since which period a large 
 number of girls have been admirably trained in it. Up to last 
 May over 500 girls had passed through the school. There is 
 a great demand for the girls as dairymaids, but most of them 
 give their services to their parents, or to their husbands when 
 they marry. The consequent improvement in the dairying 
 of the south of Ireland is already very striking. The institu- 
 tion has hitherto received from the Government, through the 
 Irish Board of Education, an annual grant of ^2,000, of 
 which it is estimated, according to Colonel King-Harman, 
 that only ^750 is the net cost to the State, the remainder, 
 it is to be presumed, being made good by the fees and the 
 produce of the farm. Last session an additional grant of 
 ^2,000 was made by the Government. The number of dairy 
 schools in Ireland might with advantage be increased. More 
 are needed also in England, Wales, and Scotland, where they 
 could be maintained at much less expense to the State than 
 their cost in Ireland, because the fees might be higher. The 
 elements of theoretic dairying, and the sciences related thereto, 
 might also be taught in the elementary schools, with instruction 
 in other branches of agriculture. 
 
 Competition in the dairy industry is now so keen that no effort 
 must be spared if our farmers are not to sink further behind 
 in the contest for supremacy in their owri markets. It has 
 been shown how much they have to do, and can do, for them- 
 selves, and it is not unreasonable to ask the State to undertake 
 something more than the very little that has yet been attempted 
 to encourage and help them. With such assistance, which is not 
 more than is demanded on behalf of the other leading industries 
 of the country, there would be every reason to feel confidence in 
 the future prosperity of dairy farming in the British Isles. 
 1 2 
 
13* 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 VEGETABLES, FRUIT, AND FLOWERS. 
 
 The details of the supply of these productions are too volu- 
 minous to be given fully within the limits of the space at my 
 disposal, and perhaps I may be .allowed to refer readers in- 
 terested in particulars as to the principal sources from which 
 we derive vegetables, fruit, and flowers of the various kinds to 
 an article on " Garden Farming" in the April (1888) number 
 of the Quarterly Review. 
 
 It has already been remarked, in a previous chapter, that 
 although foreign competition in respect of vegetables (except- 
 ing potatoes) and fruit has continued to increase of late, the 
 great bulk of the supply is produced at home, and this is still 
 more emphatically the case with flowers. The figures supplied 
 by the Agricultural Department, although they are not com- 
 plete, especially for fruit, show that there has been a consider- 
 able increase in production during the last twenty years. 
 According to the Agricultural Returns, the areas of land 
 devoted to orchards, market gardens, and nurseries, in Great 
 Britain, were as follow at the dates given : — 
 
 
 1867. 
 
 1877. 
 
 1887. 
 
 Market Gardens 
 
 Orchards 
 
 Nurseries 
 
 Acres. 
 
 36,204 
 
 148,221 
 
 ".779 
 
 Acres. 
 
 37.849 
 
 163,290 
 
 11,952 
 
 Acres. 
 
 62,666 
 
 202,234 
 
 12,478 
 
 Here the increase since 1877 is by far the most striking 
 amounting to 24,817 acres in the case of market gardens, 
 38,944 acres in that of orchards, and 526 acres for nurseries. 
 In 1887 the areas were divided as follows, the figures for the 
 Isle of Man and the Channel Islands being added : — 
 
VEGETABLES, FRUIT, AND FLOWERS. 
 
 133 
 
 
 Market 
 Gardens. 
 
 Orchards. 
 
 Nurseries. . 
 
 England 
 
 Wales 
 
 Scotland 
 
 Acres. 
 
 57,572 
 
 860 
 
 41,234 
 
 Acres. 
 196,986 
 3,408 
 1,840 
 
 Acres. 
 10,669 
 277 
 1,532 
 
 Great Britain 
 
 Isle of Man 
 
 Jersey 
 
 Guernsey, &c 
 
 62,666 
 
 218 
 
 97 
 
 159 
 
 202,234 
 
 40 
 
 1,015 
 
 413 
 
 12,478 
 
 6 
 
 23 
 26 
 
 Total 
 
 63,140 
 
 203,702 
 
 12,533 
 
 Small holdings and gardens under a quarter of an acre are not 
 included ; nor are there any statistics for Ireland, where the 
 cultivation of culinary vegetables (excepting potatoes) and fruit 
 is sadly neglected. It. may be pointed out, moreover, that the 
 increase in the areas under vegetables and fruit is certainly 
 much greater than appears in the first table, because it is well 
 known that, owing to the defective classification of headings 
 in the schedule which occupiers of land are required to fill in, 
 large acreages of vegetables, and larger areas of small fruit, 
 fail to get returned. 
 
 The important potato crop first claims attention in this 
 division of my subject, and at the outset we are confronted 
 with a fact which requires explanation. While the area of 
 land under potatoes in the United Kingdom has decreased in 
 each of the last two decades, the imports in the latter ten 
 years have diminished also. The figures showing the acreage 
 are given on page 134. 
 
 It will be noticed that the decrease in the area in 1887, as 
 compared with that of 1867, is owing to the diminished culti- 
 vation of potatoes in Ireland chiefly, but also in Wales, Scot- 
 land, and the Isle of Man, while there have been additions in 
 England and the Channel Islands, though in Guernsey during 
 the last decade for which we have complete returns (up to 
 1887) there has been a reduction. Including the receipts 
 from the Channel Islands, our imports of potatoes have fallen 
 from 7,964,840 cwts. in 1877 to 2,762,958 cwts. in 1887. 
 This is no accidental difference, for since 1880, when our 
 
134 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Area of the Potato Crop. 
 
 
 1867. 
 
 1877. 
 
 1887. 
 
 England 
 
 Wales 
 
 Scotland 
 
 Acres. 
 289,611 
 
 45.-077 
 157,529 
 
 Acres. 
 
 303,964 
 42,942 
 
 165,565 
 
 Acres. 
 369,243 
 40.570 
 149,839 
 
 Great Britain 
 
 Ireland 
 
 Isle of Man 
 
 Jersey 
 
 Guernsey 
 
 492,217 
 
 1,001,781 
 
 4,011 
 
 2,062 
 
 789 
 
 512,471 
 
 873.291 
 3,741 
 4,006 
 1,044 
 
 559,652 
 796,939 
 
 3,345 
 6,488 
 
 877 
 
 United Kingdom 
 
 1,500,860 
 
 1,394,553 
 
 1,367,301 
 
 imports of potatoes reached the maximum of 9,754,514 cwts., 
 we have in only one year imported half that quantity, and 
 since 1883 the total has not once reached 3,000,000 cwts. 
 No doubt there has been a diminution of consumption, espe- 
 cially in Ireland, where the population has declined, and 
 where, too, the cheapness of wheat and maize has led to a less 
 general reliance on the potato as the diet of the poorer classes 
 than was compulsory when corn was dear. The decline is 
 less, however, than a deduction from the mere figures would 
 lead us to suppose, because, owing to the introduction of 
 disease-resisting varieties, the damage done to the crop is 
 much less than it was ten years ago, and the yield is accord- 
 ingly greater. Allowance must also be made for the inferior 
 productiveness of the crop in England, where the acreage has 
 increased. Still, the consumption of potatoes per head of the 
 population has apparently fallen off to a small extent. 
 
 It is pointed out in the Quarterly Review that the propor- 
 tion of the outside supply of potatoes, including that of the 
 Channel Islands, is very small, In Great Britain and Ireland 
 we grow from 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 tons of tubers annually, 
 while we have imported only 115,000 to 138,200 tons annually 
 during the last three years. It is only in the supply of early 
 potatoes that outside competition is formidable, and in that 
 respect countries enjoying a climate warmer than our own have 
 
VEGETABLES, FRUIT, AND FLOWERS. 1 35 
 
 an advantage. After all, however, our own Channel Islands 
 contributed 1,288,961 cwts. out of a total of 2,707,889 cwts. 
 imported in 1886, France coming next with 900,197 cwts., 
 then Germany with 305,874 cwts. ; no other source of supply- 
 contributing as much as 100,000 cwts. Holland, Malta, 
 Portugal, Belgium, Algeria, and the Canary Islands are also 
 contributors to the potato supply. Our growers cannot com- 
 pete in the production of early potatoes without following the 
 example of the enterprising farmers of the Channel Islands and 
 especially those of Guernsey, who grow the crop extensively 
 in glass houses, with artificial heat to a small extent, but more 
 extensively without it. Jersey is the source of a much larger 
 supply than that sent by Guernsey, but chiefly of out-door 
 potatoes, for the production of which soil, climate, and an 
 abundance of sea-weed on its coast, are exceptionally advan- 
 tageous. In Cornwall, however, the conditions are nearly as 
 favourable, and Cornish potatoes in some seasons are as early 
 as all but the very earliest (a small quantity) of out-door Jersey 
 tubers. But if it pays in the Channel Islands, where land is 
 very much dearer to buy or hire than it is here, to force potatoes 
 for sale in Covent Garden market in January, at 6d. to is. a 
 pound, why should it not pay in England ? And if it pays 
 hundreds of small farmers in Guernsey to erect cool glass 
 houses for growing potatoes to send here early in May, why 
 cannot our market gardeners do likewise ? The answer appears 
 to be that it is only men who own the land they occupy, or 
 have all the security of ownership, who dare to cover it with 
 glass. 
 
 During the last two or three years the price of potatoes 
 have been very low in this country ; yet the acreage in Eng- 
 land is increasing, and growers who are near a large market 
 seem to find the crop profitable. Those who are distant 
 from the great centres of consumption often find their profit 
 absorbed by heavy railway rates. In Jersey the expense 
 of growing an acre of potatoes is about ^45, according 
 to the best authorities, rent being often as much as ;£io, 
 and in some instances j£\2 to £1$, and the cost of labour 
 and manure heavy. In England the expense is supposed 
 to vary from £8 to ^20 an acre. The difference in the 
 returns,' however, is very great, as all the potatoes in Jersey 
 are sold early, as " new " potatoes, the prices of which are, of 
 
136 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 course, much higher than those of the main crop. In 1887 the 
 gross returns on the potatoes exp^ted from Jersey were equal 
 to over £67 per acre upon the whole area under the crop. 
 There were expenses to come off; but, on the other hand, a 
 considerable quantity was consumed in the island while the 
 exportation was going on. This year has been a very unfor- 
 tunate one for the Jersey growers, the crop being late, and 
 prices extremely low. 
 
 Although our imports of " unenumerated " vegetables (all 
 sorts except potatoes and onions) have increased greatly during 
 the last ten years, the bulk of them is extremely small in com- 
 parison with the home supply. Quantities are not given in 
 the official returns; but the value rose from ,£216,463 in 1877 
 to £600,882 in 1887. As in the case of potatoes, the foreign 
 supply consists chiefly of early produce. France is by far the 
 largest contributor, our receipts from that country in 1886 
 having been valued at £294,848, out of a total of £517,731, 
 paid for unenumerated vegetables. Considerable contributions 
 from Algeria come to us under the heading of French imports. 
 The Channel Islands, however, are making great headway in 
 this direction, as they send us increasing supplies of beans 
 and peas grown under glass. Here, again, the question arises 
 as to why, if these enterprising small farmers, by the free use 
 of glass, can compete with growers in semi-tropical countries, 
 our market-gardeners cannot do the same. I do not imply that 
 market-gardeners in this country, when near a large market, 
 fail to do well ; but they complain that foreigners " take the 
 cream off the market " by means of supplies of early produce, 
 and the Guernsey and Jersey men are among the chief con- 
 tributors of that early produce. 
 
 Imports of fruit, excluding oranges and lemons, advanced 
 from 3,053,724 bushels, in 1877 to 4,427,847 in 1887. In 
 the latter year, moreover, they were smaller than usual, on 
 account of the falling-off in the receipt of apples from the 
 United States, where the crop was a very short one. In 
 1886 the quantity was 5,885,434 bushels, and in 1885 it was 
 5,220,792 bushels. Apples were not separately enumerated 
 until 1882, since which date imports have not varied greatly, 
 except in 1886, when we received 3,261,460 bushels of foreign 
 and Colonial apples. The quantity fell off to 1,948,843 cwts. 
 in 1887 ; but that was an accidental decrease. During the 
 
VEGETABLES, FRUIT, AND FLOWERS. 1 37 
 
 past winter and spring considerable quantities have come for 
 the first time from Australia and Tasmania, and we may expect 
 the outside supply to increase until the home supply of good 
 varieties has been' largely augmented. All authorities agree 
 in stating that there is a great demand for apples of good 
 quality beyond the present supply. If it be regarded as 
 natural that the United States and Canada should send us 
 their surplus apples, why should thickly-populated countries 
 like France and Belgium be able to fill our markets better 
 than English growers after the first glut is over? Compara- 
 tively few home growers have any proper facilities for storing 
 apples, and the consequence is that during the late winter, 
 when prices are highest, foreigners who have stored their fruit 
 come in and get the advantage. It is the same with pears, 
 as far as this question of storing is concerned, though a com- 
 paratively small proportion of our pear supply is foreign, except 
 in February and March, when the home supply is pretty well 
 exhausted. Foreign contributions of bush fruit, strawberries, 
 and plums, are but small. 
 
 The greatest recent development of competition in fruit- 
 production is that affecting grapes and tomatoes ; but in this a 
 few Englishmen are vigorously taking part, and holding their 
 own well. The plan of growing tomatoes in the same houses 
 with grapes until the latter completely cover the roofs is an 
 economy which has greatly conduced to the increased growth 
 of both kinds of fruit, especially in the Channel Islands. One 
 large grower in Jersey — Mr. Bashford — sends eighty tons or 
 more of tomatoes to London in a season, and expects to send 
 half as much again now that he has covered twelve acres of 
 land with glass-houses and the necessary borders for vines. 
 The same grower sent twenty-five tons of hot-house grapes to 
 London last year. One English grower — Mr. Ladd, of Swanley 
 and Bexley Heath — rivals Mr. Bashford in the production of 
 tomatoes, and grows more grapes, having sent fifty tons to 
 London in a year. 
 
 The list of countries contributing to our fruit supply is a 
 long one, and it is given below, with quantities and values for 
 the year 1886, the latest for which the complete details are 
 available at the time of writing :— 
 
i38 the british farmer and his competitors. 
 Imports of Unenumerated Raw Fruit, 1886. 
 
 Source. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Spain 
 
 906,095 
 
 396,538 
 
 France 
 
 537.670 
 
 437.667 
 
 Holland 
 
 371,962 
 
 146,867 
 
 Germany 
 
 342,560 
 
 102,238 
 
 Belgium 
 
 229,367 
 
 7I,3« 
 
 Portugal 
 
 82,230 
 
 37,4IO 
 
 Channel Islands 
 
 52.059 
 
 39,526 
 
 Azores 
 
 23,076 
 
 23,090 
 
 British West Indies 
 
 18,306 
 
 12,219 
 
 Madeira 
 
 12,605 
 
 11,156 
 
 United States 
 
 9.163 
 
 5,424 
 
 Italy 
 
 5,408 
 
 2,069 
 
 Canary Islands 
 
 4,653 
 
 2,301 
 
 Malta 
 
 2,932 
 
 955 
 
 Other Countries 
 
 3, 2 48 
 
 ",443 
 
 Totals ... 
 
 2,601,334 
 
 £1,290,214 
 
 The prices of fruit have fallen in recent years, like those of 
 nearly all other commodities. In 1886, a year of enormous 
 crops, there was a great fall in values, from which only a 
 partial recovery took place in the following year. 
 
 Some idea of the enterprise of the growers of fruit and 
 early vegetables in the little island of Guernsey may be ob- 
 tained from the Report of the Chamber of Commerce for the 
 year 1887, which shows exports of 1,000 tons of tomatoes, 
 over 500 tons of grapes, 50,000 tons of potatoes, and radishes 
 and broccoli valued at ,£9,250. Flowers to the value of £3,000 
 were also sent out of the little island in the year named. With 
 the smaller islands, the total area of land is only 11,773 acres, 
 and nearly all the early produce, valued at over £100,000, 
 was produced in Guernsey alone. 
 
 A great development in the flower trade has taken place in 
 recent years ; but in this business our florists and market 
 gardeners — many of whom grow hardy flowers extensively — 
 are well able to hold their own. A commencement has been 
 made, too, in the growth of flowers on farms not otherwise 
 cultivated as market gardens. The demand for flowers has 
 
VEGETABLES, FRUIT, AND FLOWERS. 1 39 
 
 grown rapidly, and seems likely to grow in the future. Im- 
 ports of cut flowers, especially hyacinths, tulips, and other 
 bulbous flowers from Holland, are on a large scale, and other 
 varieties are imported from France and elsewhere, but not in 
 sufficient quantity to cause alarm among home growers. 
 
 No class of producers in this country suffers more from 
 our extravagant and wasteful system of distribution than the 
 growers of fruit and vegetables. If they obtained half what 
 consumers pay, they would reap very handsome profits ; but 
 railway rates, auctioneers' charges, and retailers' profits, absorb 
 most of the gross returns. Of late jam factories have been 
 established in Kent and elsewhere by fruit growers, and this is 
 a move in the right direction. This year, too, efforts are being 
 made to induce growers of fruit to co-operate for the more 
 advantageous sale of their produce, including improvements in 
 storing, sorting, and packing, as well as the drying and various 
 other methods of preserving fruit practised in other countries. 
 The demand for good fruit and vegetables at moderate prices 
 is practically unlimited ; or, in other words, it is so great that 
 it will not be overtaken for many years, even if the increase of 
 production should become much more rapid than it is. If 
 producers and consumers can only be brought more closely 
 into connection, a great future is in store for the growers of 
 fruit and vegetables in this country. 
 
J4o 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FARMER'S SHARE IN HIS PRODUCE. 
 
 What is the cause of the general depression in all branches of 
 industry throughout the world ? It cannot be over-production, 
 so long as the vast majority of people have not half enough of 
 the good things of this life, while a very large number have not 
 enough of the bare necessaries. Of course, there may be 
 temporary over-production of certain commodities ; but as the 
 depression extends to all branches of production, that is not 
 a sufficient answer to the question. Low prices would not 
 matter in the slightest degree if all were proportionately low ; 
 therefore no explanation relating to currency or to Free Trade 
 or Protection can be an answer to my question, because there 
 is depression in every country that we know anything about 
 But if the explanation is not over-production, it must lie in 
 some enormous drain on the profits of producers, and that I 
 believe is the case. The answer I give is this : — The pro- 
 ducers of the world are supporting vast numbers of non-pro- 
 ducers, and the burden has become too great to be borne 
 without severe suffering. It is not only those who neither toil 
 nor spin that I refer to. They live on the accumulated wealth 
 produced by their forefathers or themselves, and their capital, 
 except when used to the injury of their fellow creatures, is a 
 help to actual producers. The enormous tax levied on the 
 people of the world by those who have got possession of the 
 land, and are so able to appropriate a very large proportion of 
 the earnings of every community, especially in cities and towns, 
 is one great cause of the depressed condition of the people 
 everywhere. But, as has already been said, it is not these men 
 alone that are referred to. It is also the vast hordes of specu- 
 lators and other unnecessary middlemen who live out of the 
 producers. Every member of these classes who is not neces- 
 sary as a distributor is as much a burden upon his fellow-men 
 
tHE Farmer's share iN his produce. 141 
 
 as if he were a pauper — or rather as a score, a hundred,, or a 
 thousand paupers, according to the cost of his style of living. 
 Think of the swarms of mere gamblers, on the stock exchanges 
 and the corn and other produce exchanges of the world ; 
 of the professional book-makers and others who get a living 
 out of racing and other sports ; and of the millions of un- 
 necessary dealers, agents, shopkeepers, and pedlars, all of 
 whom have to be supported by existing producers, except so 
 far as they live on the stored wealth of past producers. These 
 men intercept so large a share of produce or money, while it is 
 passing through their hands, that they commonly derive far 
 greater profits than the persons who actually create all the 
 wealth. Very often in a transaction occupying only a few 
 days, or even only a few minutes, they get more profit than 
 the producer gets for a year's labour and attention. This I 
 believe to be the great fundamental cause, underlying all minor 
 causes, of the depression which exists throughout the civilised 
 world. Of course we must have distributors ; but probably we 
 could do with one distributor where we now have a hundred 
 distributors and speculators — the latter being entirely useless 
 members of society, if they are not mere gamblers living upon 
 gambling profits, as most of them are. No one who walks 
 through some of the back streets of London and notices the 
 thousands of little shops can fail to wonder how they find 
 customers, and it must be obvious to the observer that not one 
 in ten is really needed. Well, the keeper of every one that is 
 not needed, if he gets his living by it, is a burden on the com- 
 munity, and the same is true of all unnecessary middlemen of 
 all classes. The most hopeful remedy for the poverty of the 
 people, then, is the gradual elimination of these useless mem- 
 bers of society, who are no better than mere drones in the 
 hive, for, although many of them are far from idle, their work 
 is misapplied, and is of no value to the community. 
 
 Now, it is generally acknowledged that, of all producers, 
 those who apply their energies to the cultivation of the soil 
 are the worst paid. Probably it will always be so, because 
 their pursuit is more generally attractive than any other ; but 
 of late the strain upon them has become unendurable, and it 
 is quite time that a great effort shuold be made to relieve it. 
 The subject of this chapter is the farmer's share in his produce, 
 and I shall not enter into the question of the labourer's share. 
 
142 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Nor can I state with any pretence to exactness what the 
 farmer's share is. It is possible to tell approximately what he 
 receives, but there are no data which enable us to tell any- 
 thing like as closely what the consumer ultimately pays for the 
 farmer's produce. I shall, however, attempt to give a rough 
 idea of the difference in the two sums as far as the farm pro- 
 duce of the United Kingdom is concerned. 
 
 For my purpose I take the valuable estimate of the annual 
 value of the farm produce of the kingdom j ust ^prepare d by, 
 Mr. James Howard, of Clapham Park, BedfordshiFe, to whom 
 all farmers and others who take an interest in the subject are 
 indebted for the great trouble he has taken in preparing his 
 figures. I give it, as it stands, with Mr. Howard's introductory 
 explanation and notes : — 
 
 " The following estimate of the annual value of the farm 
 products of the United Kingdom has been prepared in response 
 to a request from a friend, an eminent political economist, who, 
 for a forthcoming publication, desired to know the saleable 
 value of the productions of the farm under the present altered 
 conditions of agriculture. 
 
 " The whole land- of the United Kingdom is treated as one 
 gigantic farm, no account being taken of what one farmer sells 
 to another, inasmuch as such sales are simply a transference of 
 products from the farm of one producer to that of another. 
 The calculations, therefore, iriclude only such products as are 
 sold off the farm to the public outside agriculture. 
 
 " It is not to be expected that in an estimate of this kind 
 absolute exactness is attainable ; the varied' conditions of the 
 three kingdoms render the task a difficult one. For instance, 
 - the amount of hay and straw required for various purposes at 
 our great centres of industry, and for horses wherever kept, 
 is not easy to compute — a certain amount of guess-work upon 
 this and other items is unavoidable. However, after all the 
 various circumstances have been considered and balanced, 
 some approximation towards the fact has probably been arrived 
 at. 
 
 " The yields per acre of the corn crops are those of the 
 Government ' Produce Statistics,' and the acreage of the 
 various crops, as well as the number of animals, are from the 
 Government ' Agricultural Returns ' — the average for the past 
 three years in all cases having been taken. 
 
the farmer's share in his produce. 143 
 
 "Estimate of the Annual Amount Realised by the 
 Sale of the Farm Products of the United King- 
 dom, including Market Gardens, Orchards, and 
 Fruit Grounds; Calculated upon the Average of 
 the Seasons of 1885, 1886, and 1887 : — 
 
 Corn Crops. 
 Wheat. 
 
 2,432,835 Acres ; at 30 bushels per acre, and 
 
 32s. id. per quarter £14,635,023 
 
 Deduct one-eighth for Wheat used upon Farm .£1,829,378 
 
 £12,805,654 
 
 One-fifth portion of Straw sold ; at 2 loads per 
 
 acre, and 25s. per load £1,216,417 
 
 Barley. 
 
 2,378,391 Acres ; at 33 bushels per acre, and 
 
 27s. 4d. per quarter £13,408,179 
 
 Deduct one-fourth for Barley used upon Farm £3,352,045 
 
 £10,056,134 
 
 One-sixteenth portion of Straw sold ; at 2 loads 
 
 per acre, and 20s. per load £297,298 
 
 N.B. — Upon Farms where much Live Stock is reared 
 the consumption of Barley is unquestionably far more 
 than one-fourth ; but those Farms have to be reckoned 
 with upon which every handful of Corn except the, 
 " tail" is sold off. 
 
 Barley Straw, owing to its softness, is much use! for 
 packing merchandise. 
 
 Oats. 
 
 4,373,500 Acres ; at 36 bushels per acre, and 
 
 18s. 7d. per quarter £18,286,696 
 
 Deduct one-half for Oats used upon Farm ... £9,143,348 
 
 £9.143.348 
 
 One-eighth portion of Straw sold ; at 2 loads 
 
 per acre, and 25s. per load £1,366,718 
 
 N.B. — In the southern portion of England the con- 
 sumption of Oats is perhaps more than one-half but as 
 the proportion of Oats in Scotland and Ireland is above 
 8o per cent, of the total cereal crop, and also very large 
 in some of the northern counties of England, an average 
 consumption of one-half for the United Kingdom is 
 probably a liberal estimate. 
 
144 THE BRITISH FARMER AMD HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Rye. 
 
 63,949 Acres ; at 32 bushels per acre, and 24s. 
 
 per quarter £3°6,955 
 
 Deduct one-sixth for Rye used upon Farm ... A 5 1,1 59 
 
 £255.796 
 
 One-fourth portion of Straw sold ; at 2 loads 
 
 per acre, and 35s. per load £55.954 
 
 N.B. — Rye Straw is much in demand for gunpowder 
 manufacture, horse-collars, brick-yards, &c. &c. 
 
 Beans. 
 
 4 OI >973 Acres ; at 24. bushels per acre, and 
 
 34s. per quarter £2,050,062 
 
 Deduct one-half for Beans used upon Farm ... £1,025,031 
 
 Peas.* 
 
 225,622 Acres ; at 24 bushels per acre, and 32s. 
 
 per quarter ... £1,082,985 
 
 Deduct one-half for Peas used upon Farm ... £541,492 
 
 £1,025,031 
 
 £541.492 
 
 Total Amount £36,763.834 
 
 * The extra value of Green Peas sold from fields has not been taken into account. 
 
 Green Crops. 
 
 Potatoes. 
 
 1,362,465 Acres ; at 4^ tons per acre (477 
 tons per acre is the average of the Govern- 
 ment "Produce Statistics"), and ,£3 5s. 
 per ton £21,033,053 
 
 Deduct one-fourth for Potatoes consumed upon 
 
 Farm £5.258,263 
 
 N.B. — As several of my correspondents expressed the opinion that 
 65s. per ton is too high an average I consulted a neighbour, a large 
 grower, who thought my figures well within the mark, and informed me 
 that at the present time he 15 making (delivered in London) £7 per ton of 
 a crop of " Beauty of Hebron," fifty acres in extent. It has to be borne 
 in mind that although ' ' Champions " and other varieties fetch low prices, 
 the large quantities of new or early potatoes, and those of high quality, 
 bring up the average. 
 
 From the Tables of Food Products in The Economist of July 2, 1887, 
 and January 7, 1 888, the average price of Potatoes in London for the year 
 1887 is £5 per ton. 
 
 The proportion of Potatoes consumed upon the Farm may appear 
 large, but in many parts of Ireland the whole of the crop grown is con- 
 sumed upon the Holding 
 
THE FARMER'S SHARE IN HIS PRODUCE. 1 45 
 
 Turnips, Swedes, and Mangolds. 
 
 2,700,439 Acres. Proportion sold (principally White Turnips 
 for Cities and Towns), estimated at 2 per cent., and £10 
 per acre £540,088 
 
 N.B. — The great bulk ff Mangolds and Turnips sold by farmers go 
 to town dairies, and as'their value is shown under ihe head of Meat or 
 Milk, it is not included in this calculition. 
 
 Carrots. 
 19,899 Acres. Proportion sold estimated at 75 per cent., 
 
 at £*7 IOS - P er acre ,£261,174 
 
 Cabbage, O.sioxs, Kohl-Rabi, and Rape. 
 
 200,901 Acres (Onion Crops not included in Acreage). Pro- 
 portion sold (principally Cabbage and Onions) esti- 
 mated at ... ... ... ... ... ... ... £300,000 
 
 Vetchfs, etc. 
 452,403 Acres. Proportion soil estimated at 12^2 percent., 
 
 at £10 per acre £5°5.5°3 
 
 Total Amount £l7,44l,555 
 
 Hay, Flax, Hops, Orchards, and Market Gardens. 
 
 Hay. 
 
 From permanent pastures and arable land, including Grass 
 and Clover Seeds; 8,920,262 Acres. Proportion sold 
 estimated at 35 per cent., at £4 per acre £12,488,366 
 
 N.B. — Agistment— the value of the grass consumed by horses (used 
 for other than agricultural purposes) turned out to graze — has not been 
 taken into account, as no data exist. 
 
 Flax. 
 125,159 Acres, at £12 per acre £1,501,908 
 
 Hors, Orchards, and Market Gardens. 
 
 335,550 Acres, at £20 per Acre £6,711,000 
 
 N.B. — Nursery Grounds not included in calculation. 
 
 Total Amount £20,701,274 
 
 Meat, Hides, Skins, -and Wool. 
 
 Cattle and Calves. 
 
 10,793,844. Of which it is estimated that 25 per cent, are 
 
 annually slaughtered ; price per head, £15 £4°>476,9I5 
 
146" 
 
 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 Sheep and Lambs. 
 
 29,481,063. Of which it is estimated that 42 per cent, are 
 annually slaughtered ; price per head, 36s 
 
 N.B. — Several of my correspondents have expressed the opinion that 
 the average ought not to be less than 405. ; the proportion of Lambs and 
 Mountain Sheep, however, have to be reckoned, and these bring down 
 the average considerably. In addition, 4s. per head is found under the 
 item of Skins. 
 
 Pigs. 
 
 3,634,917. According to Ihe researches of the late Sir H. 
 Meysey-Thompson, Bart., 87 j£ per cent, of the number 
 given in the Government Returns are annually slaugh- 
 tered, and to these — viz., the Pigs enumerated in the 
 Government Returns — it is necessary to add 33 per cent, 
 for the roasting pigs and porkers born after one census 
 and killed before ihe next. The total number annually 
 slaughtered is therefore 1 16 per cent, of those enumerated 
 in the Government Returns=4, 216,503 Pigs; average 
 weight per carcase, 134 lbs., at 5^d. per lb 
 
 N.B. — If the total weight of Pork produced in the Kingdom were 
 estimated, it would be necessary to add a considerable amount for Pigs 
 kept in Towns and by Villagers occupying less than a quarter of an 
 acre of land, which are not enumerated in the Government Returns. 
 
 2,000,000 at 18s. each 
 10,000,000 at 4s. each 
 
 Bullock Hides. 
 
 Sheep Skins. 
 
 Wool. 
 
 I3S.73 I .79° lbs., at 9>^d. per lb. 
 Total Amount 
 
 ... £1, 800,000 
 ... ,£2.000,000 
 
 ■•■ £5.372,71° 
 ... £84,885,492 
 
 N.B. — The home production of Meat, according to. the above calculations (in which 
 the Pork produced by Villagers and others referred to above is not included), amounts to 
 about 84 lbs. per head of the population, and the foreign supply may be computed at 
 about 26 lbs. per head — thus showing a consumption per head of iro lbs. per annum, 
 about 23 per cent, of which is foreign Meat. 
 
 Horses. 
 
 The Horses of various descriptions enumerated in the Govern- 
 ment Returns as used solely for Agriculture, or kept 
 upon Farms, average 1,924,550. In addition to these, a 
 considerable number of Mares throughout the country, 
 thoroughbred and others, are used for breeding and 
 
THE FARMER'S SHARE IN HIS PRODUCE. 147 
 
 turned out with their foals upon pastures. It is there- 
 fore computed that not fewer than 300,000 Brood Mares 
 of various kinds are kept, and that therefrom 150,000 
 Horses are reared and marketed annually at an average 
 price of 33 guineas each £St I 97>5 00 
 
 N.B. — Probably 33 guineas is a low average, seeing that the Esti- 
 mate includes hunters, hack , carriage, and the best cart horses, which, 
 as a rule, are those parted with by the farmer. 
 
 No account of Mules, Asses, or Goats has been taken, as sufficient 
 data do not exist. The numbers of Mules, Asses, and Goats are given 
 in the Statistical Returns for Ireland only ; similar tables for Great 
 Britain would not be uninteresting. 
 
 Dairy Produce, 6°r. 
 
 .Milk. 
 550,000,000 Gallons, at 7jd. per Gallon ^17,343,750 
 
 Cheese 
 2,710,000 Cwts., at 5jd. per lb. ... £6,955,666 
 
 BUITER. 
 
 1,918,660 Cwts., at is. per lb ^10,744,496 
 
 Poultry, Pigeons, & Eggs ,£7,000,000 
 
 N.B. — One of my correspondents, the Ed'tor of a Newspaper devoted 
 to Poultry, has, by a different method of calculation, estimated the value 
 at ^7,239i35o. 
 
 Total Amount ^42,043,912 
 
 Summary. 
 
 Corn Crops ... £36,763.834 
 
 Green Crops 17,441,555 
 
 Hay, Flax, Hops, Orchards, and Market Gardens 20,701,274 
 
 Meat, Hides, Skins, and Wool 84,885,492 
 
 Horses 5i I 97.Soo 
 
 Dairy Produce, &c. . 42,043,912 
 
 Total Amount £207,033,567 
 
 N.B. — Timber, Underwood, Water-cress, Game (Deer), Rabbits, and Honey, al- 
 though products of the land, are regarded as outside the scope of this Estimate. 
 
148 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 It would occupy far too much space to go into the question 
 of what the farmer retains out of the sum which Mr. Howard 
 credits to him. Rent, tithes, rates, and taxes, absorb fully one- 
 third of it, and labour takes another large slice. When all 
 other expenses are deducted, there cannot be much left for the 
 farmer to live upon, and, as to saving, that for the farmers, 
 as a whole, has been out of the question for more than ten 
 years. Mr. Howard's figures represent the average value to 
 the farmer of produce sold off the land during the last three 
 years, and I propose to make as close a guess as I can at what 
 the consumer pays for it. 
 
 The saleable produce of wheat comes to about 8,000,000 
 quarters, and reckoning 75 per cent, of it as the equivalent in 
 flour, we get 10,285,714 sacks, which, at ninety quartern loaves 
 to the sack, will produce 925,7 14,260 quarterns of bread. Now 
 ninety quarterns is rather a small allowance for a sack of flour, 
 especially as potatoes are used very extensively by bakers. 
 Some people say ninety-four quarterns ; but it is well to be on 
 the safe side. Now, as to price. Considering the high value of 
 biscuits, cakes, and other products into which flour is made, it 
 will be a low estimate to take the value per quartern — assuming 
 all the flour to be made into bread for the purpose of the 
 estimate — at 5d. (it is 6d. in many places), and that makes the 
 saleable wheat come to ^19,285,700. Of course, all the flour 
 is not made into bread, biscuits, or cakes, by bakers ; a good 
 deal is used in households for home-made bread and other 
 kinds of food, and this portion does not come to as much 
 money as what the baker sells. But then there is the value of 
 the offal, a large sum, which is not estimated, and which may 
 be taken as more than a set-off to any excess arising from 
 valuing all the flour as if it were made into bread, &c, by 
 bakers. Giving this large sum in makes my estimate low 
 enough, at any rate. As to the straw, some of which is sold as 
 chaff, it realises at least 10s. a load more by retail than the 
 farmer receives, which brings the total up to ^"1,702,984. The 
 price of barley to the consumer is more difficult to calculate. 
 A good deal is sold for feeding pigs in towns, and on that the 
 profit is not large ; while more is used as malt. It will be 
 below the mark to reckon only 20 per cent, addition, for if the 
 value in the form of beer and whisky were calculated, the 
 increase would be an enormous one. For barley the sum as 
 
149 
 
 increased, stands at ,£12,067,360. To the straw 10s. a load 
 may be added to get at the retail value, bearing in mind the 
 high price paid in the manufacturing districts for barley straw 
 for packing, and this makes the sum ,£445,947. Putting upon 
 the oats only 2s. a quarter makes the total ,£10,127,385, 
 though this does not leave much margin for the value of oat- 
 meal. The oat straw may be put at fully £1,913,405; The 
 value of rye and rye straw is a small item, and I will only add 
 10 per cent, to the value put down by Mr. Howard, making 
 the amount paid by consumers £342,925 ; and the same plan 
 is adopted with beans, bringing the amount to ^1,127,534. In 
 the case of peas I add 20 per cent, because a large quantity 
 is sold for soup and other culinary purposes, and the peas sold 
 for town use are much higher in value than those used on the 
 farm. This brings peas up to £'649,790. Considering the 
 high prices at which early potatoes are sold, iod. a stone, or 
 _£6 13s. 4d. a ton, is a very moderate estimate of the retail 
 price, and, so reckoned, the consumer's payment for the potato 
 crop comes to .£32,358,706. This may appear an insufficient 
 advance upon Mr. Howard's estimate of the farm value, as the 
 heavy item of rail carriage has to be added ; but then I should 
 put the farm value of potatoes at 50s. a ton instead of 65s. for 
 the United Kingdom, as the quantity of high-priced new potatoes 
 is too small to raise the average materially. Turnips, mangolds, 
 carrots, onions, &c, sold for town use may fairly be put at 50 per 
 cent, over Mr. Howard's estimate, and that makes ,£1,651,893. 
 Tares are usually sold directly to the consumers, so we may 
 keep Mr. Howard's valuation unaltered. Hay, a great deal 
 of which is sold in small quantities, may be put at fully 25 per 
 cent, above the farm value, especially as rail carriage is heavy. 
 Probably that is not enough increase, but let us take it so, and 
 charge ^£15,610,457 for hay. Flax appears to be valued as 
 partly scutched, as the straw does not come to the .£12 an 
 acre allowed in the estimate before me ; but when all is manu- 
 factured up to the stage when it goes to the spinner, the value 
 may well be put at one-fourth more, or .£1,877,385. I entered 
 closely into the calculation of the cost and returns of flax- 
 growing some time ago, and I made prepared flax and linseed 
 come to ,£15 13s. 6d. an acre. Mr. Howard's estimate of the 
 value of fruit and market garden produce seems to me as 
 much too low as that of potatoes is too high. Bearing in 
 
ISO THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 mind that market garden produce sometimes comes to ;£ioo 
 per acre or more, it may be averaged at fully ^30 an acre, 
 even with hops included. Besides, the area returned by the 
 Agricultural Department is not nearly large enough, as it does 
 not include that of any small fruit not grown in orchards. But 
 if the sum allowed by Mr. Howard for these items is made 
 half as much again, it would not be too much to treble the 
 sum to get at what the consumers pay, though that will not 
 be done for hops, of course. Therefore I make the total 
 ^£20, 133,000. With the value of all the imports added, the 
 total will not come to 13s. per head of the population, which 
 is surely not too much for all the fruit, market-garden produce, 
 and hops consumed in a year. For meat Mr. Howard reckons 
 that farmers receive ^72,712,766. Now, several estimates 
 prepared independently, make the total home supply of beef, 
 mutton, and pork, about 27,000,000 cwts. per annum. What 
 is the average price per cwt. or per lb. paid by consumers ? 
 Judging from several reports, including a series obtained not 
 long ago from a large number of householders by the North 
 British Agriculturist, it appears that the average obtained by 
 the butchers is nearly, or quite, od. per lb., and fully that 
 amount if we give in the offal, exclusive of hides and skins. 
 That makes the cost of meat to consumers ;£i 13,400,000 
 annually. To Mr. Howard's estimates for hides, skins, and 
 wool, let us merely add 10 per cent, for dealers' profits, as 
 there are no means of ascertaining the profits of those that tan 
 skins and prepare wool for the manufacturers. For the three 
 items the amount thus increased comes to ^10,089,987. As 
 for horses, if farmers are paid ^5, 197,500, it will be safe to 
 assume that dealers get ^6,000,000, as there are heavy profits 
 on horses sold in towns and for export For milk Mr. Howard 
 allows the farmers 7jd. a gallon. Many people pay is. 8d., 
 and probably the average to consumers is over is. 4d. ; but let 
 us take that price, and that makes milk come to ^37,000,000. 
 English and Scotch cheese, it may be assumed, is retailed at 
 not less than 9d. a pound, instead of the 5^d. allowed by Mr. 
 Howard as the price paid to farmers. The cheese is bought 
 at per 120 lb. and sold at per 112 lb. for a hundredweight ; but 
 Mr. Howard reckons at the standard weight. Now 9d. per 
 lb. would be 72s. 8d. per imperial hundredweight, and if we 
 allow the 2s. 8d. off for waste in cutting up, we leave the retail 
 
THE FARMER'S SHARE IN HIS PRODUCE. I$I 
 
 price at 70s., which brings the total out at ^9,485,000. It is 
 doubtful whether farmers all round have averaged is. a pound 
 for butter during the last three years, as vast quantities have 
 been sold at 6d. and 7d. in Ireland, and a good deal at 7c}. 
 and 8d. in England. But if they have got that price we may 
 safely put the retailer's average at is. 4<i, and it is only when 
 the supply is extra large that good butter can be obtained in 
 towns at that price. The price in the suburbs of London is 
 is. 7d. to is. ad. in winter and is. 4d. to is. 6d. or is. 7d. in 
 summer. At is. 4d. the amount is ^14,325,994. On poultry, 
 pigeons, and eggs, we may safely put 50 per cent, as margin 
 between what is paid to the farmer and what is charged to the 
 consumer, which is often double what the farmer receives. 
 This makes poultry, pigeons, and eggs come to ^10,500,000. 
 The items may now be given together : — 
 
 The Value of Farm Produce. 
 
 Produce. Received by Paid by 
 
 r armers. (_ onsumers. 
 
 Wheat ,£12,805,645 ... ,£19,285,700 
 
 Wheat-straw 1,216,417 ... 1,702,984 
 
 Barley 10,056,134 ... 12,067,360 
 
 Barley-straw 297,298 ... 445,947 
 
 Oats 9,143,348 ... 10,127,385 
 
 Oat-straw 1,366,718 ... 1,913,405 
 
 Rye and Rye-straw 31 1,750 ... 342,925 
 
 Beans 1,025,031 ... 1,127,534 
 
 Peas 54',493 ■•■ 649,790 
 
 Potatoes I5.774.790 ... 32,358,706 
 
 Various Green Crops ... 1,101,262 ... 1,651,893 
 
 Vetches 565, 503 ... 565,503 
 
 Hay 12,488,366 ... 15,610,457 
 
 Flax 1,501,908 .. 1,877,38s 
 
 Fruit, Vegetables, and Hops 6,711,000 ... 20,133,000 
 
 Meat 75,712,776 ... 113,400,000 
 
 Hides, Skins, and Wool ... 9,172,716 ... 10,089,987 
 
 Horses 5.i97,i>oo ... 6,000,000 
 
 Milk 17,343.75° ■■• 37,000,000 
 
 Cheese 6,955,666 ... 9,485,000 
 
 Butter 10,744,496 ... 14,325,994 
 
 Poultry, Eggs, &.C 7,000,000 ... 10,500,000 
 
 £207,033,567 £320,660,955 
 
 Taking Mr. Howard's estimate to be a fair one, I am con- 
 fident that my own is not excessive, but puts the amounts paid 
 by consumers at less rather than more than their actual pay- 
 
|2 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 ents. It appears, then, that the farmer's share in produce sold 
 over 320 millions sterling is not much over 207 millions, leaving 
 [3 millions to the middleman, and that without carrying the 
 anufacturing process of such things as barley, hops, hides, 
 ins, wool, and flax to the stage in which they are used by 
 msumers. If we could carry them to that ultimate stage, 
 lowing for the actual cost of manufacture, it would certainly 
 : found that the consumer's payment for farm produce is 
 ore than double what the farmer receives. It will be under- 
 ood that, in not giving round figures for some of the items, I 
 ake no pretence to exactness, but merely give the amounts 
 which certain percentages of increase upon Mr. Howard's 
 timated farm values bring the totals. 
 
 Now, among the middlemen there are, of course, the rail- 
 ly companies, whose expenses are very heavy, but whose 
 larges are often excessive and sometimes preferential in the 
 terest of the British farmer's foreign competitors. That 
 )int has been previously alluded to, and it would be im- 
 >ssible to go into the subject in detail in a small treatise, 
 irliament has legislated upon the subject during the present 
 ;ar, and it remains to be seen whether the new Railway Act 
 ill effect its purpose. 
 
 The important question is this — How is the farmer to get 
 larger share in the gross value of his produce ? The ex- 
 inses of production do not come into the question im- 
 ediately under consideration, but have been referred to in 
 previous chapter. The problem before us is that of deter- 
 ining how the farmer can obtain a larger proportion of what 
 ie consumer pays for farm produce. Whether the farmer 
 ould retain a larger share if he got it is another question ; 
 it, at any rate, he must get it before he can attempt to retain 
 The most hopeful, if not the only, means of attaining the 
 id in view seems to be co-operation for the sale of farm 
 roduce to consumers. Co-operation for the purchase of 
 hat is required by farmers should go with co-operation for 
 ie disposal of what they have to sell, economical purchase 
 fecting their net receipts equally with advantageous sale ; but 
 ie latter is the point just now before us. How much of the 
 lormous difference between the cost of farm products to con- 
 lmers and the money received by farmers is due to neces- 
 iry expenses, and how much to the profits of unnecessary 
 
THE FARMER'S SHARE IN HtS PRODUCE. 153 
 
 middlemen, and to the excessive profits of the rest, I cannot 
 pretend to say; but I am convinced that if farmers would 
 co-operate to sell their own produce to consumers as far as 
 possible, they would find the retailing branch of their business 
 far more profitable than the producing branch. 
 
 There are some half-dozen genuine farmers' co-operative 
 associations for selling produce in this country, as well as 
 several sham ones — mere share companies, trading on the 
 farmer's name. There is one of the genuine class at War- 
 rington, which is supposed to be quite a success. Then the 
 Hon. J. Bateman has established a shop at Brightlingsea, in 
 Essex, for selling the farm produce grown by himself and 
 others to consumers. He informs me that he makes, on an . 
 average, 30s. for every bullock, 5s. for every sheep, 2s. 6d. 
 for every pig, and 3d. for every gallon of milk more than he 
 could obtain if he did not sell by retail ; and this is in a very 
 small country town where farm produce is cheap. The whole 
 cost of starting the business — including the cost of the land, 
 buildings, fittings, tools, horses, carts, &c. — was only ^917. 
 
 The best instance of a farmers' co-operative association, 
 however, that I know of, is that of the Farmers' General 
 Supply Company, whose headquarters are at 245, Tottenham 
 Court Road. All the members are owners or occupiers of 
 land ; but there are not nearly enough of them to carry out the 
 project fully at present. It is intended to establish branches 
 in several parts of the metropolis, but only one branch (in 
 High Street, Kingsland) has yet been started. The Managing 
 Director is Professor Long, and the other Directors are Captain 
 Adcock (proprietor of the Melton Mowbray Cheese Factory), 
 Mr. Frank Garrard (of Framlingham Hall, Suffolk), and Mr. 
 Robert Long (of Stondon, Beds.). The nominal capital is 
 ,£20,000, which ought to be increased ten-fold to enable the 
 Company to extend the business. Meat, home-cured bacon, 
 hams, milk, cream, butter, cheese, potatoes, vegetables, corn, 
 flour, hay, straw, poultry, game, eggs, and bread, are the 
 principal items of sale to customers. These goods are chiefly 
 obtained, and should be entirely procured, from members of 
 the association, who are paid the highest prices that can be 
 afforded profitably ; and, of course, there is to be a division of 
 any surplus profit among the members when it is available. 
 This, however, is only one part of the business, for the Com- 
 
154 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 pany sell, to members and others, implements .of all kinds, 
 manures, feeding stuffs, seeds, and almost everything else that 
 the farmer requires for the cultivation of the soil and the 
 management of live stock and the dairy. Cream is separated 
 by steam-power on the premises in Tottenham Court Road, 
 and butter is made by a first-class dairymaid. There is no 
 difficulty in disposing of all the milk and other produce 
 received, and, indeed, the supply of some kinds is not nearly 
 equal to the demand. Why should not landowners and 
 farmers rally round this association, and make it a splendid 
 success ? It is capable of indefinite extension in the metro- 
 polis, and its success could be followed by the establishment 
 of similar undertakings in various parts of the kingdom. There 
 are two or three other Companies of the kind, but none quite 
 as comprehensive in scope as this. 
 
 It is surprising that so little has been done in this way at 
 present in our own country. In France there are agricultural 
 co-operative associations scattered all over the country, called 
 "agricultural syndicates." At the end of 1887 about 200 of 
 them had joined the Union of Syndicates, and according to the 
 Revue des Deux Mondes for September, 1887, there were then 
 over 400 in the country, though the Act authorising their forma- 
 tions had been in existence only three years. They are associa- 
 tions for buying what farmers need, of guaranteed quality and 
 at wholesale prices, and they have been of great adv.antage to 
 French farmers. They are now extending their operations to 
 promoting the direct exchange among farmers of what they buy 
 of each other's productions, so as to avoid the extra charge of 
 intermediaries ; and some are about to engage in the sale of 
 farm produce, I believe. At any rate, what we require here is 
 associations to buy and sell — to buy what farmers need, in 
 order to supply them on the most advantageous terms, and to 
 sell what they produce likewise. Too many — a great deal too 
 many — people are living, or trying to live, out of the land. 
 They cannot all do it, and hitherto it has been the farmer who 
 has been squeezed out. It is for him, therefore, to see that 
 less necessary members of the body sharing the produce of the 
 soil are squeezed out in future. It is, indeed, necessary that 
 farmers should combine for this purpose, for "their very existence 
 as farmers depends upon their obtaining a larger share in their 
 produce than they secure at present. 
 
155 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE PROTECTIONIST DELUSION. 
 
 It is lamentable to see the farmers of this country, in con- 
 siderable numbers, being once more led astray in the quest 
 of Protection. Those who are thus misled are the victims 
 of a double delusion. In the first place, they are deceived 
 in being led to hope that this country will some day return 
 to the Protectionist policy of the past, and in the second 
 place they are mistaken when they suppose that Protection 
 would be beneficial to tenant-farmers. Against all the efforts 
 of the so-called Fair Traders, the Free Traders, secure in their 
 strength, have not found it necessary to make any considerable 
 exertions, and yet the leaders of both political parties have 
 been constrained to snub the Neo-Protectionists unmercifully. 
 At present the leaders of the reactionary movement are utterly 
 discouraged ; but they endeavour to keep up the spirits of 
 their followers by assuring them that the question they desire 
 to make paramount in the country is only in abeyance ; and 
 that when the next General Election comes they will see 
 wonders. In reality, there are no signs of coming wonders. 
 A really popular movement does not collapse, as the one 
 under consideration has done, at the mere utterance of a few 
 words from a Prime Minister or even at the bidding of a 
 number of party leaders. Where are the multitudes who 
 desire Protection ? Certainly not in the rural districts, for the 
 farm labourers are the last men to encourage anything that 
 would make food dear, while the farmers are divided on the 
 question. In the manufacturing districts there are, of course, 
 many men who would like Protection for what they produce, 
 and it has not been difficult for them to win over some of 
 their workmen ; but the idea of duties on the staple food-stuffs 
 of the country is as intolerable to these town workmen as it is 
 to the farm labourers. They are suffering, they say, from 
 
156 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 foreign competition, and they can scarcely be so dull as not 
 to see that the remedy does not lie in an increase of the cost 
 of production in this country, which duties on food would un- 
 questionably cause. As far as the home market for their 
 manufactures is concerned, they might hope to raise prices 
 sufficiently to repay the increased cost of production ; but they 
 would lose any advantage which they now possess in foreign 
 markets. Apart from this last point, moreover, it seems to 
 me that a mere statement of what England would lose by 
 ceasing to be the great Mart of the World, as she would cease 
 to be if she gave up Free Trade, would by itself suffice to 
 convince a vast majority of the people, if they needed con- 
 vincing, that any attempt to revive Protection is a piece of folly 
 of which sensible men should be ashamed. 
 
 But if farmers could get Protection, it would not do them 
 any good as a class. Very few of them own the land they 
 cultivate, and Mr. I. S. Leadam has conclusively shown in 
 his excellent book, "What Protection does for the Farmer 
 and Labourer," that tenants never have been, and have no 
 reason to expect to be, benefited by duties on imported farm 
 produce. That owners of agricultural land would be benefited, 
 so long as the people submitted to be taxed for their advan- 
 tage, is true; but the tenant-farmer, who holds on a yearly 
 tenancy, would speedily find his rent and other expenses raised 
 —at least, sufficiently to balance his increased returns. There 
 would be a rush for farms, and farming would become a 
 gambling business, as it was under the Corn Laws. Labour, 
 as well as rent, would go up in price ; and implements, manures, 
 cakes — everything which is manufactured — would, of course, 
 become much dearer, not only through the duties upon foreign 
 manufactures, but also through the increased cost of labour. It 
 is dreary work to have to repeat such stale platitudes in the 
 last quarter of the nineteenth century ; but the old arguments 
 apply to old fallacies as forcibly as ever. 
 
 Old as the controversy between Free Traders and Pro- 
 tectionists is, however, and thoroughly threshed out as it has 
 been in its main aspects, there are two or three -objections to 
 Protection from a farmer's point of view which have not often, 
 if ever, been fully stated. Among the delusions which Pro- 
 tectionists fondly cherish is one to the effect that they would 
 be able to tax some commodities and let others in free, to 
 
THE PROTECTIONIST DELUSION. 1 57 
 
 suit their purposes. Now, a little reflection will show that this 
 is impracticable. The interests of different sections of the 
 population are so diverse in respect of tariff provisions that, 
 if we have Protection at all, we must have it upon nearly 
 everything we import. In the struggle farmers, who have 
 never been able t^p hold their own in the world of politics, 
 may be sure that their interests would not be paramount. 
 What they produce, being mainly the staple food of the 
 people, would be grudgingly protected ; while the sections of 
 voters in favour of putting heavy duties on imports which 
 farmers, in common with others, purchase would be all- 
 powerful. Divided as the agricultural party would be, and 
 with the numerical majority of its voters — the farm labourers 
 — against high duties on food, the landowners and farmers 
 would inevitably be worsted in the struggle. Thus the prices 
 of what farmers purchase would be raised more, in proportion, 
 than the prices of what they sell ; and the former, it is to be 
 borne in mind, would be raised, not only by the direct effect 
 of duties, but also indirectly by the extra cost of producing 
 caused by the enhanced expense of food for the producers. 
 Nor is this all, for there are some classes of imports of which 
 farmers are the principal consumers, and the like of which 
 the majority of them do not produce at all. 
 
 To begin with, 26,698,739 out of the total cultivated area 
 of 47,874,369 acres (crops, bare fallow, and grass) in the 
 United Kingdom in 1887, or about four-sevenths, were under 
 permanent pasture, and the interests of the whole of the owners 
 and occupiers of that preponderating proportion, per se, would 
 be opposed to any duties on corn and other produce of arable 
 land. It is true that they might be consoled by duties on 
 meat and dairy produce ; but that does not alter the fact that 
 their interests, like those of all other non-producing consumers 
 of the crops in question, would be adverse to those of the 
 farmers of arable land, or adverse to the supposed interests 
 of that body from the Protectionist point of view. Particu- 
 larly, it may be pointed out, the interests of all but an in- 
 significant minority of the agriculturists of Scotland and 
 Ireland, who together grow but little over 100,000 acres of 
 wheat, would be opposed to duties on wheat and flour, which 
 English Protectionist farmers desire most of all to tax. 
 
 Then there are imports of agricultural produce which it is 
 
158 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 advantageous to all classes of farmers to get as cheaply as 
 possible, such as maize, oil-seed cakes and the seeds of which 
 they are made, hemp and jute for sacks and sail-cloths, and 
 various feeding-stuffs of less importance than those mentioned. 
 Again, there are such manures as nitrate of soda, guano, and 
 bones, which cannot be too cheap for farmers. No doubt 
 many agricultural. Protectionists hope that these commodities 
 might be exempted from duties, while those they grow would 
 be protected ; but this would not be possible. If maize, for 
 instance, were exempted, it would be used for brewing, dis- 
 tilling, and as food for horses in towns more extensively than 
 it is now, and even to mix with wheat in making flour ; so 
 that there would soon be an outcry from the growers of wheat, 
 barley, and oats.. Similarly, the home growers of flax and 
 linseed would object to oil-seeds, hemp, and jute coming in 
 free; while the manufacturers of manures would as strongly 
 oppose the exemption of the foreign manures named above. 
 
 Many English farmers use foreign oats extensively for their 
 horses, and grow very little of that grain themselves. But if 
 we assume, in a rough estimate, that all the maize and maize- 
 meal imported are consumed on farms (as by far the greater 
 . portion is), we may give in the foreign oats to allow for 
 the maize used in towns for horses and for manufacturing 
 purposes. Let us see, then, what the value of the commodities 
 referred to amounted to last year. 
 
 The imports were valued as below : — 
 
 Maize and Maize-meal 
 Oil-seed Cakes ... 
 
 Linseed 
 
 Cotton Seed 
 Rape Seed 
 
 Hemp 
 
 Jute 
 
 Nitrate of Soda . . . 
 
 Guano 
 
 Bones 
 
 £7,540,880 
 1,560,483 
 4,296,868 
 I.S43.645 
 457.999 
 2,147,118 
 
 3.699.390 
 832.541 
 185,526 
 254,284 
 
 Total £24,518,744 
 
 Here, then, are three sets of imports — amounting in value 
 to more than half the cost of all the grain and flour imported — 
 which it is to the farmers' interest to get as cheaply as possible, 
 but which would be raised in price under a system of Protec- 
 
THE PROTECTIONIST DELUSION. 1 59 
 
 tion. Of course farmers do not pay for all, or anything like 
 all, the seeds used for making oil first and cake afterwards, or 
 for all the hemp and jute ; but it is to be borne in mind that 
 the cost of home-produced feeding-stuffs and manures would 
 be raised by Protection, as well as those imported ; also that 
 all classes of imports, and the corresponding home products 
 which farmers use — not specially, but in common with other 
 classes — would also be advanced in price. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be contended that the farmers, as a body, 
 receive more money than they pay away in a year, and that, 
 therefore, a general rise in prices, leading to larger receipts as 
 well as enhanced payments, would be to their advantage. 
 That, however, is not a conclusive argument ; for, in the first 
 place, there are grave reasons for doubting whether, with rents, 
 cost of labour, and all other expenses increased, they would 
 not lose as a body. Even if it should be otherwise, a given 
 amount of savings in money, which is valuable only as repre- 
 senting what it will purchase, would be worth less under Pro- 
 tection than it is worth under Free Trade. 
 
 Lastly, as far as the question immediately before us is 
 concerned, it is certain that our foreign commerce would be 
 greatly reduced in value under Protection, and that the country 
 would lose a considerable proportion of the large profits thence 
 derived, while it is beyond the bounds of common sense to 
 suppose that sufficient extra wealth from the soil and other 
 sources to make up for the loss could be produced. Thus the 
 country would become poorer, and there would be less de- 
 mand than there is now for such comparative luxuries as meat, 
 dairy produce, fruit, and choice vegetables, so that the prices 
 of those commodities, in spite of duties on imports, might fall 
 instead of rising. Apart from that special consideration, it 
 may, at any rate, be concluded that farmers would not escape 
 their full share of the losses which would ensue upon the 
 partial impoverishment of the nation caused by Protection. 
 
i6o 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 In the preceding chapters reasons have been given for con- 
 cluding, not only that the farmers of this country would be 
 worse off under Protection than they are now, but also that, 
 with such reforms as have been suggested, they would have no 
 reason to fear competition with their foreign rivals under Free 
 Trade. A reduction of rents, where not already sufficiently 
 conceded, would give hope ; security for capital would insure 
 a development of enterprise ; reduced railway rates and co- 
 operation in buying and selling would increase profits ; and 
 better education in agriculture and dairying would bring to 
 pass a more intelligent and efficient direction of agriculture as 
 a scientific system of production and of farming as a business. 
 Neglect of resources in certain directions has been pointed 
 out, though, as a rule, I have avoided the presumption of 
 attempting to teach farmers their business. 
 
 One subject whch has not been alluded to is the assistance 
 lately given by the Government with a view to the encourage- 
 ment of horse breeding in Great Britain and to horse and 
 cattle breeding in Ireland. Great as the attention is that has 
 been paid to breeding, under the encouragement of our great 
 agricultural societies, there is an immense scope for further 
 improvement. The neglect of care in the breeding of cart- 
 horses in many parts of the country is especially striking, 
 because the production of such horses, if well-bred, has for a 
 long time been one of the most remunerative branches of the 
 farmer's business. Whether the encouragement offered J;o 
 farmers to produce half-bred horses, mainly for our cavalry, 
 will make that particular branch of enterprise successful or not 
 remains to be seen ; but it must be a great advantage to have 
 sound and otherwise satisfactory stallions distributed through- 
 out the country for farmer's use at low fees. Many persons 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS.. l6l 
 
 object to any such State patronage of farming, as to State 
 patronage of any other business; but if by a small annual 
 expenditure in premiums the live stock of the country can be 
 improved, the money could scarcely be more profitably ex- 
 pended in the interests of the nation. Besides, when the 
 question is also one of furnishing our cavalry with suitable re- 
 mounts, it manifestly assumes a public character. 
 
 In another way, and one in my opinion much more im- 
 portant, the Government have promised to help agriculturists. 
 In Ireland, for many years past, money has been contributed 
 by the State in aid of agricultural education, and it is uni- 
 versally acknowledged that the institutions at Glasnevin and 
 Cork have done a great deal of good. In Great Britain, on 
 the other hand, nothing has been done by the State for agri- 
 cultural education except very imperfectly under the Science 
 and Art Department and in the elementary schools to a limited 
 extent. The agricultural classes held under the auspices of 
 that Department and in the schools are for the most part con- 
 ducted by persons who have no knowledge of the practice of 
 agriculture, and but little good can be done under such a 
 system, the imperfections of which have been fully admitted 
 by the principal officials connected with it. Yet when the 
 Commissioners on Agricultural and Dairy Schools, instigated 
 by evidence brought before them, proposed a sensible and 
 moderate scheme, including the institution of a Central School 
 with farm attached, in which those who are to be teachers of 
 agriculture could be properly trained— practically as well as 
 theoretically — most of the agricultural papers, misled by a few 
 self-interested persons who have private agricultural schools or 
 classes, condemned the scheme. , The Government, without 
 committing themselves to the scheme, have offered ,£5,000 in 
 aid of agricultural or dairy schools already in existence or 
 founded before the close of the present year. The sum is a 
 mere trifle for the whole of Great Britain, and it is actually 
 no more than the Colony of Victoria devotes to the use of a 
 single travelling dairy. But if local effort establishes an in- 
 creased number of agricultural and dairy schools, it is probable 
 that a larger grant will be made next year to help them. 
 
 In my opinion this question of agricultural and dairy 
 education is one of very great importance, and the way in 
 which it will be met will have a potent bearing upon the ability 
 
162 THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS COMPETITORS. 
 
 of the farmers of the future in this country to hold their own 
 against their foreign competitors. There is scarcely a civilised 
 country in the world besides our own in which great efforts 
 have not lately been made by the Government to encourage 
 and extend agricultural and dairy instruction, and, as has been 
 pointed out in a previous chapter, the great success of some 
 of the foreign contributors of dairy produce to British markets 
 is the direct result of such teaching. 
 
 Although there are among the ranks of Free Traders some 
 of the greatest sticklers for the now all but defunct principle of 
 laissez-faire, men who believe so fanatically in self-help that 
 they would leave people to help themselves or perish, it has 
 always seemed to me that those who oppose Protection should 
 be the most anxious of all people to place their fellow-country- 
 men upon as good a vantage ground" in the battle of competi- 
 tion as can be found. We open our ports to the productions 
 of foreigners freely, and they put heavy duties on what our 
 home producers send them in return. We rightly refuse to 
 entertain the idea of reciprocity for the protection of home 
 producers, because that would be injurious to the national 
 well-being ; but while we make that refusal we should be, 
 because of it, the more anxious to do all that we can to teach 
 those of our producers who need teaching how they can stand 
 up and maintain their struggle without Protection. For my 
 part, I cannot conceive of any more legitimate use of public 
 money than the devotion of a moderate sum in training our 
 producing classes to increase the creation of wealth in the 
 country, and there is no more beneficial creation of wealth than 
 that which arises from the complete development of the re- 
 sources of the soil and the proper manipulation of its products. 
 
 But whatever else Parliament does for the benefit of 
 agriculture, or leaves undone, there is one thing needful above 
 all others — a system of land tenure based upon just and 
 enlightened laws. Security for capital invested in the im- 
 provement of land is essential as an incentive to enterprise, 
 and without it enterprise is risky and. rash. To urge our 
 farmers to engage in what is termed "intensive farming" 
 without better security than the law affords them at present is 
 something like asking them to make bricks without straw ; for 
 capital will never flow freely where it is insecure. The best 
 way, as I conceive it, of affording such security has already 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 1 63 
 
 ucen stated, and reasons have been given for believing that 
 such a reform would go far to lead up to a moderate degree 
 of division of estates and large farms, so as to bring land in 
 areas of all sizes within the reach of those best capable of 
 using it to advantage. To say this is not to contend that 
 Parliament should neglect to adopt more direct means for 
 placing small farms in the market for the benefit of industrious 
 and thrifty labourers, such as that of empowering local authori- 
 ties to acquire land in the vicinity of towns and villages, to let 
 to men who wish to hire it. I desire, however, to let my last 
 word be an urgent demand for such legislation as will secure 
 the value of every improvement to the man who makes it, and 
 so prevent for all future time the enterprise-checking system of 
 renting farmers upon what should be in law, as it is in equity, 
 their own property. With this great reform — which would 
 involve complete freedom of enterprise in farming — accom- 
 plished, and the minor but still important changes already 
 indicated as necessary also brought to pass, there would be 
 reason for complete confidence in the ability of the cultivators 
 of the soil in the United Kingdom to maintain a successful 
 struggle in their own markets — the best in the world — with 
 rivals, distant and near, who are engaged in the business of 
 supplying our population with food, 
 
 k 2 
 
1 64 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 IMPORTS OF DAIRY PRODUCE IN 1887. 
 
 Since the chapter on Dairy Produce was prepared the Annual 
 Statement of Trade for 1887," giving details of imports, has 
 been issued. I therefore give those relating to butter, 
 margarine, and cheese : — 
 
 From 
 
 Butter. 
 
 Margarine. 
 
 Cheese. 
 
 Denmark 
 France ... 
 Sweden ... 
 Holland ... 
 Germany 
 United States 
 Canada ... 
 Belgium ... 
 Norway ... 
 Australasia 
 East Indies 
 Russia . . . 
 Italy 
 
 Channel Islands 
 Other Countries 
 
 
 Cwts. 
 487.536 
 416,255 
 
 163,559 
 
 162,471 
 
 156,506 
 
 52,392 
 
 32,673 
 
 23,535 
 
 7,228 
 
 6,201 
 
 2,057 
 
 1.323 
 
 697 
 
 481 
 
 220 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 1,686 
 47.163 
 
 1,175,087 
 8,984 
 
 307 
 22,927 
 16,650 
 
 2,872 
 
 464 
 
 Cwts. 
 
 9,494 
 30,260 
 
 2,539 
 362,109 
 
 760,920 
 
 632,886 
 
 23,079 
 
 10,317 
 
 3,474 
 
 1,711 
 
 Total 
 
 
 
 I.5"3.I34 
 
 1,276,140 
 
 1,836,789 
 
 It will be noticed that Australasia is now enumerated 
 among the sources of our supply of butter and cheese. This 
 is a new trade, and it is increasing, especially as far as New 
 Zealand is concerned. I am indebted to the Commissioners 
 of Her Majesty's Customs for the following details of the 
 Australasian supply of dairy produce : — 
 
 Butter Imported in 1887. 
 
 From Cwts. 
 
 New Zealand 3,585 
 
 Australia 2,616 
 
 Value. 
 ;£l3.«8 
 8,893 
 
 Total Australasia 
 
 6,201 
 
 £22,011 
 
appendix. 165 
 Cheese Imported in 1887. 
 
 From Cwts. Value. 
 
 New Zealand 10,126 .. £24,193 
 
 Australia 191 .. 505 
 
 Total Australasia ... 10,317 ... £24,698 
 
 THE AUSTRALASIAN MUTTON TRADE. 
 
 Since the chapter on "Our Meat Supply" was written, the 
 shipping companies have reduced their charges for carrying 
 mutton in a frozen state from Australia and New Zealand to 
 England, while prices here have improved. Whether either 
 or both of these altered conditions will prove lasting or not 
 remains to be seen. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Acreage of Wheat Crop in the 
 United Kingdom, 29 ; in Austral- 
 asia, 61 ; in Canada, 65-66 ; in 
 India, 52 ; in Russia, 58 ; in the 
 United States, 39-41. 
 
 Advantages of British Farmers over 
 American, 43. 
 
 Agricultural Competition, General Re- 
 view of, 20-28. 
 
 Depression, 9. 
 
 Education, 161-162. 
 
 Holdings Act, Insufficiency of, 
 
 14. IS- 
 
 Imports, si. 
 
 America, Population, Wheat-pro- 
 ducing in, Live Stock and Dairy- 
 ing in, see United States. 
 
 American Farmers, Embarrassed Con- 
 dition of, 50, 51. 
 
 Appendix, 164. 
 
 Australasia, Wheat-Growing in, 61-64. 
 
 Imports of meat from, 8q, 165. 
 
 Austria, Wheat-Growing in, 60. 
 
 British Agriculture, Condition 
 of, 9. 
 
 Butter, Consumption of, 101 ; Cost of 
 Producing, 127; Factories, 106- 
 110; Imports of, 101, 112; Im- 
 provement of, us ; Making, Need 
 of Improvement in, 104 ; Prices 
 of, 27, 102, 114, 147, 130-151 ; 
 Supply, 101-112, 115, 147. 
 
 Caird, Sir J. , on Wheat-Growing, 
 33 ; on Meat Supply, 76. 
 
 Canada, Imports of Butter from, 112- 
 114 ; Imports of Cattle and Meat 
 from, 87-89; Cheese from, 116- 
 118 ; Imports of Wheat from 64, 
 65 ; Wheat-Growing in, 64-69. 
 
 Cattle, Disease among, 93-94 ; Imports 
 of, 26, 75 ; Exports from United 
 States, 86 ; in United Kingdom, 
 85 ; in United States, 85 ; Interest 
 in United States Depressed, 84; 
 Prices of, 71-74. 
 
 Channel Islands, Production of Fruit 
 and Vegetables in, 133-138. 
 
 Cheese, Cost of Producing, 127-128 ; 
 Factories, 116 ; Prices of, 27, 119 ; 
 Supply of, 101, 102, 117, 147. 
 
 Competition in Wheat-Growing, 29- 
 70. 
 
 Concluding Remarks, 160-163. 
 
 Condition of British Agriculture, 9-19. 
 
 Co-operation among Farmers, 153- 
 154 ; in France, 154. 
 
 Cows, Cost of Keeping, 124-126; 
 Number of, in proportion to popu- 
 lation in several countries, 99-100 ; 
 Number in United Kingdom, 99 ; 
 Number in United States, 85. 
 
 Cream, Sale of, 109. 
 
 Crop Mortgages in United States, 49. 
 
 Dairy, Education, 115, 130-131 ; 
 Interest, Revival in, 97-99 ; Pro- 
 duce, 97-131. 
 
 Dairying, State-help to, 130- 131. 
 
 Deductions on Competition in Wheat- 
 Growing, 70. 
 
 Dodge, J. R. , on Wheat-Growing in 
 United States, 37-39. 
 
 Early Maturity in Live Stock, 
 
 79-83- 
 Early Production of Fruit and Vege- 
 tables in Channel Islands, 135- 
 138. 
 
 Farm, Mortgages in United States, 
 
 49 ; Produce, Cost to Consumers, 
 
 151-152 ; Produce, Value of, 140- 
 
 152. 
 Farmers' Co-operative Associations, 
 
 153-154 ; Share in their Produce, 
 
 140-154. 
 Flour Imports, 25, 36. 
 Flowers, Home Production of, 138 ; 
 
 Imports of, 138-139. 
 Fruit-Drying, 28 ; Increased Area of, 
 
 133 ; Imports of, 136-138. 
 Free Trade in Land, 16. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 167 
 
 Germany, Wheat-growing in, 60. 
 
 Glasnevin Agricultural College and 
 Model Farm, 130-131. 
 
 Guernsey, Area of, in Market Gardens, 
 Orchards, &c, 133 ; Early Pro- 
 duce in, 133-135 ; Exports of 
 Fruit, Vegetables, and Flowers 
 from, 138. 
 
 Home and Foreign Supply of Dairy 
 Produce, 121-122 ; of Meat, 76-77 ; 
 of Wheat and Flour, 23, 25, 35-37. 
 
 Hops, Fall in Price of, 27 ; Imports 
 of, 21. 
 
 Howard, James, on Agricultural Ad- 
 vantages of United Kingdom, 18 ; 
 Estimate of Value of Farm Pro- 
 duce in United Kingdom, 142-147. 
 
 Imports of Dairy Produce, 21, 22, 
 101, 102, 112, 117-119 ; of Live 
 Stock and Meat, 2r, 22, 24, 75-77 ; 
 of Principal Agricultural Products, 
 21 ; of Vegetables, Fruit, and 
 Flowers, 21, 134-139 ; of Wheat 
 and Flour, 21, 25, 36-37. 
 
 India, Area and Yield of Wheat in, 52 ; 
 Cost of Growing Wheat in, 53, 55 ; 
 Prices of Wheat in, 53 ; Wheat- 
 growing in, 52-57. 
 
 Indian Wheat Export and the Cur- 
 rency, 54-55. 
 
 Jersey, Area of Market Gardens, 
 Orchards, &c, , in, 133 ; Area of 
 Potato Crop in, 134 ; Cost of 
 Growing Potatoes in, 135 ; Fruit- 
 Growingin,i37; Returns of Potato 
 Crop in, 137. 
 
 Land in England and Wales Un- 
 occupied, 12 ; Small Plots of, not 
 everywhere attainable, 17. 
 
 Land Tenure Reform. Needed, 14, 16, 
 162-163. 
 
 Live Stock, Imports of, 2r, 22, 75, 
 87-88 ; Prices of, 71-74. 
 
 Manitoba, Wheat-Growing in, 65- 
 
 67. 
 Margarine, Competing with Butter, 
 
 27, 103 ; Prices of, 103. 
 Market-Gardens, 132-133. 
 Meat, Home and Foreign Supply, .13- 
 
 14, 75-77 ; Imports of, 26, 75-77, 
 
 89-91 ; Prices of, 29, 72-74, 78-79, 
 
 83- 
 
 Middleman's Profits on Farm Pro- 
 duce, 152 ; on Meat, 92 ; on Milk, 
 
 T20-I22. 
 
 Milk, Adulteration of, 120, 122 ; 
 Consumption of, 122 ; Cost of 
 Producing, 123-127; Prices of, 
 120-121 ; Quantity per Cow, 124- 
 126 ; Quantity per pound of 
 Butter and per pound of Cheese, 
 127 ; Separated, Sale of, 109, 122 ; 
 Separators, 110-122 ; Supply of, 
 122, 147. 
 
 Munster Dairy School, in, 130-131. 
 
 New South Wales, Wheat-Grow- 
 ing in, 63. 
 
 New Zealand, Wheat-Growing in, 63 ; 
 Dairy Produce Imported from, 
 see Appendix, 164. 
 
 Ontario, Wheat-growing in, 65-67. 
 Orchards, Area of, in Great Britain, 
 
 123 ; in United Kingdom, 133. 
 Our Meat Supply, 71-96. 
 
 Potato Crop Area in United King- 
 dom, 134. 
 
 Potatoes, Decline in Imports of, 27 ; 
 Prices of, 135-136. 
 
 Poultry, Supply of, 95, 147. 
 
 Preface, 7. 
 
 Prices of Fruit, 138 ; of Dairy Pro- 
 duce, 27, 102, 114, 119, 147, 150- 
 151 ; of Live Stock and Meat, 
 71-74 ; of Wheat, 29, 30. 
 
 Protectionist Delusion, The, 155-159. 
 
 Railway Charges, 13, 14. 
 
 Read and Pell, Messrs., on Cost of 
 Wheat-growing in the United 
 States, 48. 
 
 Reform in Land Tenure, 14. 
 
 Rent of Land, 9-13. 
 
 Russia, Agriculture of, in Wretched 
 Condition, 58 ; Wheat-Growing 
 in, 57 ; Imports of Wheat and 
 Flour from, 59 ; Only Great 
 Wheat - exporting Country in 
 Europe, 60. 
 
 Security of Tenants' Capital Needed 
 
 14, 17, 162, 163. 
 South America, Wheat-Growing in, 
 
 61-62 ; Meat Imports from, 89- 
 
 92. 
 
i68 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 South Australia, Wheat-Growing in, 
 
 61-62. 
 States of America, Yield of Wheat in 
 
 several, 38. 
 Straw, Sale of, 33 ; Value of, 34. 
 
 United STATEsArea.Yield.and Value 
 of the Exports of Wheat in, 39-41 ; 
 Cost of Growing Wheat in, 43-51 ; 
 Population in, 42 ; Bankrupt Con- 
 dition of Wheat-growers in, 49 ; 
 Cattle and Meat from, 86 ; Cows 
 in, 85; Butter from, 112; Cheese 
 from, 117, 118. 
 
 Vegetables, Foreign Competition 
 in, 27 ; Imports of, 136. 
 
 Vegetables, Fruit, and Flowers, 132- 
 
 139- 
 Victoria, Wheat-Growing in, 13. 
 
 Wheat, Decrease in Area of, 29 ; 
 Increase of in, the Past, 35 ; Im- 
 ports of, 25, 35-36 ; Price of, 29- 
 30 ; Supply of, 23 ; Value of 
 Crop of, in United Kingdom, 143 ; 
 Yield of, in England, 34. 
 
 Wheat-Growing, Competition in, 29- 
 70 ; Cost of, 31-34 ; in Austral- 
 asia, 61-64 ! 'n Austria and Ger- 
 many, 60 ; in Canada, 64-69 ; in 
 India, 52-57 ; in Russia, 57-59 ; 
 in South America, 69-70 ; in the 
 United States, 37-51. 
 
 Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C. 
 

 
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