FARMING AT HOME.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1144, 25 October 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

FARMING AT HOME.

Statistics have been published showing the declino in British Agriculture during the lust thirty years. Without going too deeply into details, it may be sufficient to say that in tho.ten years from 1849 to 1858 inclusive—those which immediately folllowed the complete acceptance of Free Trade in this country, and which included the Crimean war—the average return per acre to the grower of wheat was £0 12s 7d. In the decade from 1859 to 1868 inclusive, taking in the period of the American war, the average return was £9 Is 4d. In the last ten years from 1869 to 1878 tho average return had fallen to £8 3s 3d. If we look at the last six years', aa either with tbe

average of the preceding six years, or with that of the entire period of thirty years, the decline is still more marked. These six years comprise four bad harvests, in each of which the yield of the wheat crop fell short by one-fourth or one-fifbh —harvests so bad that in the preceding twentyfour years they were parallelled only four times. It is not surprising to learn that the losses of the British farmers upon the 3,300,000 acres of laud under wheat cultivation in the United Kingdom have amounted to £37,620,000. For not only has the yield been poor, but the price has been continuously low. In former days a bad harvest sent up the price of grain at once; but this has not been the case lately. The returns relating to the growth of barley and oats differ somewhat from those relating to wheat. The average market price has risen considerably during the past twelve years, but during the past six years this advantage has been lost through a deficiency in the yield. The gross returns shew an annual falling-off amounting to moro than seven millions sterling during 1573-78, as compared with 1867-72. Taking the average of the gross returns of all grain crops togolher, it appears that tho farmers obtained from this source 85 millions a year from 1819 to 1866, 90 millions a year from 1867 to 1872, and only 75 millions a year from 1873 to 1878. There has been a reduction in recent years of the acreage under grain crops, but unfortunately this had not been simply tho effect ol a change in the system of farming and of the conversion of arable into pasture land. While the acreage under grain crops has been diminished during the last six years by somo 500,000 acres, there has been no corresponding increase in the number of cattle and sheep. In point of fact, the number of cattle in the country has been reduced since 1872 by 521,000, and the number of sheep by 2,666,000 ; a diminution, it j is calculated, of the farmers' capital, amounting to uofc less than four | millions sterling a year. Fortunately for British agriculture the price of meat has iucreased, though the producing power has been diminished. The price of beef has increased by sevenpenco per stone, and the price of mutton by tenpence per stone, within the last six years, as compared with an equal period immediately preceding. If the comparison be extended to the twenty years from 1849 to 1858, the increase must be taken as nearly double.