kingdom]
AGRICULTURE
harvested, whilst owing mainly to the excessive floods there commenced an outbreak of liver - rot in sheep, due to the ravages of the fluke parasite. This continued for several years, and the mortality was so great that its adverse effects upon the ovine population of the country were still perceptible ten years afterwards. A fall in rents was the necessary sequel of the agricultural distress, to inquire into which a royal commission was Royal . appointed in 1879, under the chairmanship sion, 1879. °f the duke of Richmond and Gordon. Its report, published in 1882, testified to “the great extent and intensity of the distress which has fallen upon the agricultural community. Owners and occupiers have alike suffered from it. No description of estate or tenure has been exempted. The owner in fee and the life tenant, the occupier, whether of large or of small holding, whether under lease, or custom, or agreement, or the provisions of the Agricultural Holdings Act — all without distinction have been involved in a general calamity.” The two most prominent causes assigned for the depression were bad seasons and foreign competition, aggravated by the increased cost of production and the heavy losses of live stock. Abundant evidence was forthcoming as to the extent to which agriculture had been injuriously affected “by an unprecedented succession of bad seasons.” As regards the pressure of foreign competition, it was stated to be greatly in excess of the anticipations of the supporters, and of the apprehensions of the opponents, of the repeal of the Corn Laws. Whereas formerly the farmer was to some extent compensated by a higher price for a smaller yield, in recent years he had had to compete with an unusually large supply at greatly reduced prices. On the other hand, he had enjoyed the advantage of an extended supply of feeding-stuffs—such as maize, linseed cake, and cotton cake-—and of artificial manures, imported from abroad. The low price of agricultural produce, beneficial though it might be to the general community, had lessened the ability of the land to bear the proportion of taxation which had heretofore been imposed upon it. The legislative outcome of the findings of this royal commission was the Agricultural Holdings Act 1883, a measure which continued in force in its entirety till 1901, when a new Act came into operation. The apparently hopeless outlook for corn-growing compelled farmers to cast about for some other means of subsistence, and to rely more than they had hitherto done upon the possibilities of stock-breeding. It was in particular the misfortunes of the later ’seventies that gave the needed fillip to that branch of stock - farming concerned with the production of milk, butter, and cheese, and from this period may be said to date the revival of the dairying industry, which received a powerful impetus through the introduction of the centrifugal cream separator, and was fostered by the newly-established British Dairy Farmers’ Association. The generally wet character of the seasons in 1879 and the two or three years following was mainly responsible for the high prices of meat, so that the supplies of fresh beef and mutton from Australia which now began to arrive found a ready market, and the trade in imported fresh meat which was thus commenced has practically continued to expand ever since. The great losses arising from spoilt hay crops served, to stimulate experimental inquiry into the method of preserving green fodder known as ensilage, with the result that the system eventually became successfully incorporated in the ordinary routine of agricultural practice. A contemporaneous effort in the direction of drying hay by artificial means led to nothing of practical importance. By 1882 the cry as to land going out of cultivation became loud and general, and the migration of the rural population into the towns
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in search of work continued unchecked. In 1883 footand-mouth disease was terribly rampant amongst the herds and flocks of Great Britain, and was far more prevalent than it has ever been since. It was about this time that the first experiments were made (in Germany) with basic slag, a material which had hitherto been regarded as a worthless by-product of steel manufacture. A year or two later field trials were begun in England, with the final result that basic slag has become recognized as a valuable source of phosphorus for growing crops, and is now in constant demand for application to the soil as a fertilizer. In 1883 the veterinary department of the Privy Council—which had been constituted in 1865 when the country was ravaged by cattle plague—was abolished by order in council, and the “ Agricultural Depart- Board of ment” was substituted, but no alteration was Agrieffected in the work of the department, so far culture, as it related to animals. In 1889 the Board of t889Agriculture (for Great Britain) was formed under an Act of parliament of that year (52 & 53 Yict. c. 30), and the immediate control of the Agricultural Department was transferred from the clerk of the Privy Council to the secretary of the Board of Agriculture, where it remains. A Minister for Agriculture had for years been asked for in the interests of the agricultural community, and the functions of this office are discharged by the president of the Board of Agriculture, whose appointment of course is, like that of the president of the Board of Trade, a political one, and may or may not carry with it a seat in the Cabinet. The Board of Agriculture, on its establishment, took over from the Privy Council the responsibilities of the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Acts, besides the comprehensive duties of the Land Commission, and the authority and responsibilities of the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Works and Public Buildings under the Survey Act of 1870. The Board is entrusted with the collection and preparation of statistics relating to agriculture and forestry, the inspection of schools (not being public elementary schools) in which technical instruction is given in agriculture or forestry, and the instituting of such experimental investigations as may be deemed conducive to the progress of agriculture and forestry. The election took place in the same year (1889) of the first county councils, and the allotment to them of various sums of money under the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 1890 enabled local provision to be made for the promotion of technical instruction in agriculture. It was at about this time that the value of a mixture of lime and sulphate of copper (bouillie bordelaise), sprayed in solution upon the growing plants, came to be recognized as a check upon the ravages of potato disease. The general experience of the decade of the ’eighties was that of disappointing summers, harsh winters, falling prices, declining rents, and the shrinkage of land values. It is true that one season of the series, that of 1887, was hot and droughty, but the following summer was exceedingly wet. Nevertheless the decade closed more hopefully than it opened, and found farmers taking a keener interest in grass land, in live stock, and in dairying. Cattlebreeders did well in 1889, but sheep-breeders fared better ; on the other hand, owing to receding prices, corn-growers were more disheartened than ever. With the incoming of the last decade of the century there seemed to be some justifiable hopes of the dawn of better times, but they were speedily doomed to disappointment. In 1891 excessively heavy autumn rains washed the arable soils to such an extent that the next season’s corn crops were below average. Wheat in particular was a poor crop in 1892, and the low yield was associated with falling prices, due to large imports. The hay crop was very inferior, and in some
