Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/445

Rh C O It N T It A D E 415 Previous to the adoption of free trade in corn, tins in formation was a subject, not of official inquiry from farm to farm, but of general estimate, which could not but err considerably. There is thus a difficulty in tracing the exact effect of a free and increasing import of foreign grain on the domestic tillage ; but the difficulty is not so great as might be supposed, nor is it of much impor tance in view of the authentic data available during the greater part of the period in question. M Culloch, in his article on the Corn Trade, in the eighth edition of this work, estimated the acreage under wheat in England in 1852-53 at 3,000,000 acres, in Scotland 350,000, and in Ireland 400,000 acres or 3,750,000 acres for the three kingdoms. The agricultural returns for 1867 gave 3,640,000 as the total wheat acreage of the United King dom. M Culloch s estimate of the extent under barley in England, viz., 1,000,000. acres, was probably wider of the mark than his estimate of the area of wheat crops. The agricultural returns for 1867 at least gave 2,000,000 acres of barley in England ; it must be remembered, however, that in the intervening years British barley had been in increasing demand for malting, and had been commanding higher prices relatively to the prices of wheat. There is a medium authority, between M Culloch s estimate and the undisputed agricultural returns, in the estimates of Mr Caird, who had peculiar advantages of ascertaining the acreage under every condition of crop in England as early as 1850. The result of his estimate of the agricultural arrangement in England and the ascertained facts in the returns of 1867 was that, in the interval, there had been a diminution in wheat of 280,000 acres, in oats 450,000, in beans and pease 320,000, and in bare fallow 247,000 in all, under these heads, a diminution of 1,297,000 acres; but, on the other hand, an increase of barley 500,000 acres, of root crops 300,000, and of clover 20,000 in all an increase of 820,000 acres, leaving a net diminution under tillage of 477,000 acres, which may be supposed to have gone into permanent pasture. In Scotland and Ireland the effects on the area of tillage were more marked than in England. The production of wheat fell off in these countries about one-half. The loss in production of wheat in Scotland appears to have been recovered by a nearly equal increase in barley and oats ; but in Ireland, besides the decrease in wheat, there was a decline of about one- sixth both in barley and oats. The returns conducted by the registrar-general of Ireland since 1848 show that the estimated yield of corn of all kinds fell from 11,500,000 quarters in 1857 to 8,800,000 quarters in 1866, and of potatoes from 3,500,000 to 3,000,000 tons in these ten years. But in the same period there was a great increase of live stock 120,000 head of cattle, 1,000,000 of sheep, and 278,000 swine. The growth of flax and of various green crops had also been extended ; and the number of population depending upon agriculture had been diminished by a constant emigration to England and Scotland and abroad. There can be no doubt that the greatest change under free trade in corn fell upon the agriculture of Ireland ; b.it there is no reason to believe that the total value of the produce of the soil in Ireland lost ground, while it is cer tain that in the later development it has greatly increased. The annual produce of land is shown in one of Mr Caird s tables to be 52, 17s. in Ireland, 60, 12s. in England, and 66, 15s. in Scotland, per head of all persons owning, farming, or assisting in the cultivation of farms. The diminution of tillage in the United Kingdom under Kingdom. Mr Caird, at the request of the Statistical Society of London, prepared a paper on &quot; Our Daily Food, &quot; -which was published; and he contributed a second paper on the same subject, -which appeared iu the Journal of the Statistical Society, March 1869. Both of these papers contain valuable information. unlimited competition with foreign corn is so email as, when closely examined, to become almost imperceptible. For it must be borne in mind that the extension of large towns in these thirty years has occupied in building area alone what would form a considerable county, and has been spreading market gardens over always increasing spaces of what was formerly agricultural land. What has happened is that the poorer class of lands, from which crops of wheat and other corn were systematically taken, have been turned partially into pasture, and in still larger proportion into a more various and profitable culture both of white and green crops, barley in some instances having the preference over wheat, and bare fallow in others being economized in favour of the general productive interests of the farms. Nor have the British farmers hesitated to extend greatly their wheat area from time to time, when the state .of supply and the rate of prices gave a necessary stimulus. After deficient harvests and higher prices, the acreage under wheat was increased from 3,640,000 in 1867 to 3,951,000 in 1868, the harvest of which latter year was so bountiful that, what with the increased acreage, the larger average crop, and the greater weight per bushel of the finer grain, the total produce of wheat was 16,436,000 quarters of 488 fi&amp;gt; as compared with 9,380,000 quarters in 1867. The increase of one harvest, indeed, was equal to one-third of the total annual consumption of home and foreign wheat. The average price, which in May of that year, when it reached its maximum, was 73s. 8d., had fallen in December to 50s. Id. The acres under wheat in Great Britain have fallen from 3,630,300 in 1874 to 2,994,958 in 1876, but the acres under barley have increased in the same period from 2,287,987 to 2,533,106, and under oats from 2,596,384 to 2,789,583. If the price of corn under free trade be considered, it will be seen, indeed, how little reason there could be for any material displacement of the domestic production ; for though there has been a small decline of the price of wheat, it has been more than met by the increase of the price of barley and oats, to the surprise of those alarmists who forget that corn can nowhere be produced without much cost, that nowhere is the average produce per acre so great as in England and Scotland, and that to its cost of produc tion in the most fertile or distant regions there have to be added freight and other charges, besides the ordinary rate of mercantile profit. This is clearly shown by a com parison of the septennial average prices of grains, returned in the Gazette by the tithe commissioners. In the seven years ending Christmas 1846, the prices per imperial bushel were Wheat. 7s. OJd. Barley. 4s. Oats. 2s. 8Jd. ... 13s. 9d. The average Gazette prices per imperial bushel in the seven years ending 1875 were Wheat. Barley. Oats. 6s. 6|d. 4s. lOd. 3s. 2d. ... 14s. 7Jd. When the various elements of agricultural improvement are taken into account amelioration of the soil by drainage and manure, better methods, improved implements, and not least (since this has involved but little capital outlay) the greater economy, speed, and safety with which harvests are gathered, as well as sent to market the production of wheat in England must be held to be as profitable now as it ever was, though the greater consumption and the rise in the price of barley have made that grain a more re munerative crop than wheat on soils suited to the produc tion of fine quality. This would not in itself account, however, for what all are cognizant of, viz., a great increase of agricultural pros perity since 1846 ; and the truth is that the free trade