AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 67, 17 November 1855, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

[Prom the Illustrated London News.}

The value of agricultural statistics has only received of late years its due appreciation from the Government of this country. In 1836, Mr. Porter expressed his regret that, while we were rich in the possession of facts connected with, many branches of social economy, we were almost wholly uninformed with regard to the productions of the soil. " The knowledge we have on that most important subject," he observes, " the quantity of land in cultivation within the kingdom, is entirely due to the industry of an individual whose estimates have never been either confirmed or questioned. What proportion of the cultivated land is applied to the production of any one article of food it has never been attempted to ascertain. We know every rood that is employed for the cultivation of hops, because of the direct financial interest which the Government has in ascertaining the fact ; but it does not appear to be sufficiently understood how the national interest can be concerned in any kind of knowledge that does not yield money to the Exchequer."

The United States have long been free from this reproach. They collect annually complete returns of their agricultural productions, and return the number of bushels of wheat, rye, Indian corn, barley, buckwheat, pease, beans, and potatoes ; nor does the enumeration stop with those articles. There is an equally faithful record of pounds of rice, tobacco, wool, flax, and maple sugar, and an exact register of bales of cotton.

The French Board of Agriculture is almost equally diligent in recording the annual results of rural industry; and a similar system is adopted in Belgium, Prussia, and Lombardy. Even Russia has shown a laudable spirit of inquiry in this direction, as is manifested in the work of Kosegarten, and the more recent publication of Tengoborski. Dilatory, however, as England has been in the collection of agricultural statistics, it is only an act of bare justice to the memory of the late Sir John Sinclair to state that, towards the close of last century, he instituted some most useful researches into the rural economy of Scotland, in which he was assisted by the clergy, who prepared the accounts of their respective parishes — the record of which was known under the name of the "Statistical Account of Scotland." It is worthy of remark, because many English farmers refuse to give any information, from some vague fear of injuring themselves, that in every parish in Scotland great improvements have been effected, and no ■damage whatever has resulted from what has ■been ignorantly denounced as an " inquisitorial system." During the late administration of the Earl •of Aberdeen, it was decided that a register of ■agricultural statistics should be annually prepared, and the execution of the task was intrusted, in 1853, to the Poor-law Board, whose first report is now before us. In a letter addressed to Viscount Courtenay, by the office of " Committee of Privy Council of Trade," it is said their lordships " feel assured, from the experiments already made, that there is no department of the state so well calculated to bring this further important experiment to a successful issue as the Poor-law Board j" and their lordships add, that they "presume, on the present occasion, the agency of the Boards of Guardians and their officers would be again employed, under the superintendence of the Poor-law Inspectors." This confident hope has been disappointed: for, though some valuable information has been obtained, the general results are unsatisfactory. The returns embraced in the report extend over nine districts, comprising twelve counties ; •and seven of the nine inspectors avow that the ■machinery employed is objectionable, on various grounds. Before we enter on details, it is right to observe that, on the very cover of the report, a glaringly false statement is emblazoned; nor can we imagine why it was perpetrated, unless, indeed, deception is one of the inflexible rules of red tape. On the cover .twe these words : — " Presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of her Majesty, 11th August, 1854." The fact is, that the earliest of these reports is dated in January, 1855 — that for Berkshire, on the 20th March ; that for Salop and Denbigh, on the 30th March; and that for Worcestershire and Brecknockshire, on the 27th April.

The failure in this experiment consists in its •being very imperfect — many farmers refusing to give any returns, for which the obvious and •only remedy is compulsion. Mr. Hawley, the Inspector for Hampshire and Wiltshire, has stated, \inder the following heads, the causes of hostility: — Ist, the inquisitorial nature of the proceedings for obtaining returns; 2nd, the impossibility of carrying out a measure of such importance wltih any prospect of success under the voluntary -system ; 3rd, unfitness of the machinery of Boards of Guardians for conducting the proceedings, their interference with the ordinary business of the boards ; 4th, the ill-feeling created in the minds of the ■ ratepayers against the guardians and their officers ; sth, distraction of the relieving officers, in the capacity of enumerators, from their general duties, and particularly those which have reference to the relief of the poor ; 6th, inadequacy of the remuneration made to the officers for their services. The whole machinery is thus condemned. Economy does i not consist in giving little money for much labour, for, in such a view, the work must be done by incompetent functionaries, whose services are dear at any price; but a wise economy looks to the end sought to be accomplished rather than to the remuneration ♦warded, and that end is accuracy and copiousness combined. Now what did the Poorlaw Board consider as a fitting compensation ? Just ten shillings for one hundred schedules to the classifiers, and forty shillings for one hundred schedules to the enumerators !

The gross total of the statute acres in the districts comprised in this report is 7,743,850 ; the quantity under tillage and fallow is 2,581,312 acres; under grass, 3,156,096 acres. In the aggregate of acres in houses, gardens, roads, fences, waste, wood and plantation, and in holdings of less than two acres, is 2,006,442. The total number of schedules issued was 118,287— 0f which 93,117 were filled up by occupiers, 17,042 by the enumerator*, and of 9,128 no information was

received. There is also a return of live stock, distinguishing different animals in separate columns, which we omit, preferring to give an approximate enumeration of the whole throughout England and Wales. It appears, from the last census, that there are in England and Wales 37,324,615 acres. The subjoined estimate is based on the ascertained returns obtained from the twelve counties comprised in the report, in an ordinary rule of proportion ; or, as the 7,743,850 acres examined bear a relation to the 37,324,915 acres which include the whole area : — UNDER CEOP. Acres. Wheat .... 3,807,818 Barley .... 2,667,776 Oats .... 1,302,782 Rye .... 73,731 Beans and pease . . 698,188 Vetches .... 218,551 Turnips . . ■ . . 2,267,200 Mangold . . . 177,263 Carrot . . . 12,638 Potatoes .... 192,287 Flax .... 10,156 Hops .... 18,978 Osiers .... 1,079 Other crops, auch ai cabbages, &c . . . 97,334 Baro fallow . . . 895,969 Total under tillage 12,441,776 T7NDEB GRASS. Artificial grasses . . 2,820,066 Permanent pasture . . 8,874,946 Irrigated meadowi . . 1,292,329 Sheepwalka . . . 2,224,862 Total under grass . 15,212,208 Houses, gardens, roads . 976,197 Waste .... 786,658 Wood and plantation . 1,697,362 Commons . . . 1,937,164 Holdings of less than two acres .... 459,447 Not accounted for . . 3,814,108 9,669,938 Total area .... 37,324,915 X.IVB BTOCK. Horsoi . - . . . 1,050,931 Colts .... 285,479 Milch cows . . . 1,376,703 Calves . 707,192 Other cattle, including working oxen . . . 1,339,270 Tups 244,106 Ewes .... 7,299,915 Lambs .... 6,987,982 Other sheep . . . 4,159,085 Swine .... 2,363,724 We have already stated that this aggregate estimate is only approximative to correctness, for it assumes that the fertility of the soil all over England and Wales is of the same average quality as that of the twelve counties that have been tested. Perfect accuracy can only be obtained after a careful survey of each county separately. However, what is here stated gives a rough view of the importance of agricultural statistics, the object of which is to show, from year to year, the amount of food on which the country may depend from its own resources, irrespective of foreign supplies. This knowledge, circulated through the newspapers, will always prevent panics propagated by speculators in the markets : and when a real deficit appears in years of failing crops, timely notice will be given of danger, so that evil may be averted by foresight. Our merchants and manufacturers are always vigilant in ascertaining the state of the cotton crop in the United States, and the system here recommended will make us equally watchful in regard to the produce of vegetable and animal food. Lord Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, is preparing measures which, we hope, may be wiser than those of the Poorlaw Board, and they may be expected to be brought into operation at an early period of the ensuing year.

There is some information in the report relating to Ireland which is too interesting to be omitted, as illustrative of the utility of agricultural statistics. In that country, the total value of stock, in 1849, was 25 millions sterling; in 1850, 26 millions; in 1851, 27 millions; in 1852, 29 millions; and in 1853, 31 millions. The returns for 1853 show the increase over 1852 to be — of the total increase of horses, 14,697; of cattle, 288,242; of sheep, 528,713 ; of pigs, 72,287 ; of goats, 17,738; and of poultry, 484,834. These returns are collected by the Irish constabulary. These are the statements which silence demagogues and preserve order, and demonstrate the conservative character of knowledge, which silly rulers have so long desired to suppress.