BRITISH AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 664, 11 January 1881, Page 3

BRITISH AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

- ■.' .. », — — "'.'" The present deplorable Btate of British "-■ .farming may be gathered from a perusal • of the following calculations : The grpssvalue of the agricultural pro'dttce for Sn'SVerage' year is estimated at' enormous sum of £260,737,500. The last :. • ;. four.yearihave fieeirdeficient to the extent . .ofmorethan 20 per cent, Each year there has b'ebii a shortcoming of upwards —of £57,000,000. Lart year, considerably worse than its unfavorable predeceßaors, has fallen with deadly and cumulative force. These losses have absorbed the whole'of the'farmers anticipated profits ... On arable "land,' they have, moreover, eaten into capital. With such annually , . .recurring deficiencies, no wonder the farmers are giving up; that rents are being reduced; and Mat all classes of the agricultural community are in straitened . oirouptanoes, Agriculturalists are poorer ••'•• than : they were four years ago, to the - ■-.. extent, probably,of£2oo,ooo,ooo They have had £50,000,000 a year less to spend than in the latter years, Their restricted ■ purchasing capabilities have told on all departments of trade. The money, which .. with better seasons might have been earned and circulated, has gone with a good deal more to America, to supplement the deficient harvests in' the purchase of ;-.;•. bread stuff and meat. Every lover of his fatherland must fervently hope that the worst ia now past, and that a cycle of prosperous years is about to dawn upon the British hus- • bandman.