kingdom]
AGRICULTURE
the Finance Act effected reforms in respect of the death duties, the land-tax, farmers’ income-tax, and the beer duty. The Chaff-cutting Machines (Accidents) Act, 1897, is a measure very similar in its intention to the Threshing Machines Act, 1878, and provides for the automatic prevention of accidents to persons in charge of chaff-cutting machines. The Sale of Food and Drugs Act, 1899, has special reference in its earlier sections to the trade in dairy produce and margarine. In 1899 was also passed the Act establishing a department of agriculture and technical instruction in Ireland. The Acreage of Crops. The most notable feature in connexion with the cropping of the land of the United Kingdom during the last quarter of the 19th century was the lessened cultivation of the cereal crops, associated with an expansion in the area of grass land. At the beginning of the period the aggregate area under wheat, barley, and oats was nearly 10| million acres; at the close it did not much exceed 8 million acres. There was thus a withdrawal during the period of considerably over 2 million acres from cereal cultivation. From Table I., showing the acreages at Table I.—Areas of Cereal Crops in the United Kingdom —Acres. Year. Wheat. Oats. Total. Barley. 1875 3,514,088 2,751,362 4,176,177 10,441,627 1880 3,065,895 2,695,000 4,191,716 9,952,611 1885 2,553,092 2,447,169 4,282,594 9,282,855 1890 2,483,595 2,300,994 4,137,790 8,922,379 1895 1,456,042 2,346,367 4,527,899 8,330,308 1900 1,901,014 2,172,140 4,145,633 8,218,787 intervals of five years, it will be learnt that the loss fell chiefly upon the wheat crop, which at the close of the period occupied barely more than half the area assigned to it at the beginning. If the land taken from wheat had been cropped with one or both of the other cereals, the aggregate area would have remained about the same. This, however, has not been the case, for a fairly uniform decrease in the barley area has been accompanied by somewhat irregular fluctuations in the acreage of oats. To the decline in prices of home-grown cereals the decrease in area is largely attributable. The extent of this decline is seen in Table II., wherein are given the annual average prices, calculated upon returns from the statutory markets of England and Wales (numbering 196 1 since 1890, under the Corn Returns Act, 1882). These prices are per imperial quarter,—that is, 480 lb of wheat, 400 1) of barley, and 312 lb of oats, representing 60 lb, 50 lb, and 39 lb per bushel respectively. Since 1883 the annual average price of English tvheat has never again been so high as 40s. per quarter, and only twice since 1892 has it exceeded 30s. In one of these exceptional years, 1898, the average rose to 34s., but this was due entirely to a couple of months of inflated prices in the early half of the year, when the outbreak of war between Spain and the United States of America coincided with a huge speculative deal in the latter country. The weekly average prices of English wheat in 1898 fluctuated between 48s. Id. and 25s. 5d. per quarter, the former being the highest weekly average since 1882. The minimum annual average was 22s. lOd. in 1894, in the autumn of which year the weekly average sank to 17s. 6d. per quarter, the lowest on record. Wheat was so great a glut in the market that various methods were devised for feeding it to stock, a purpose for which it is not specially suited ; in thus utilizing the grain, however, a smaller loss was often incurred than in sending it to market. In 1894 the monthly average price for October, the chief 1 Altered to 190 on 1st January 1901.
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month for wheat-sowing in England, was only 17s. 8d. per quarter, and farmers naturally shrank from seeding the land freely with a crop which could not be grown except at a heavy loss. The result was that in the following year Table II.—Gazette Annual Average Prices per Imperial Quarter of British Cereals in England and Wales, 1875 to 1900.
the wheat crop of the United Kingdom was harvested upon the smallest area on record,—less than 14 million acres. In only one year of the last quarter-century, 1878, did the annual average price of English barley touch 40s. per quarter; it has never again reached 30s. since 1885, whilst in 1895 it fell to so low a level as 21s. lid. The same story of declining prices applies to oats.. An average of 20s. per quarter was touched in 1891, but with that exception this useful feeding grain has not reached that figure since 1885. In 1895 the average price of 480 lb of wheat, at 23s. Id., was identical with that of 312 lb of oats in 1880, and it was less in the preceding year. The declining prices that have operated against the growers of wheat should be studied in conjunction with Table III., which Table III.—Imports into the United Kingdom of Wheat Grain, and of Wheat Meal and Flour—Cwt. Y’ear. Wheat Grain. Meal and Flour. Total. 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900
51,876,517 55,261.924 61,498,864 60,474,180 81,749,955 68,615,990
6,136,083 10,558,312 15,832,843 15,773,336 18,368,410 21,542,035
58,012,600 65,820,236 77,331,707 76,247,516 100,118,365 90,158,025
shows, at intervals of five years, the imports of wheat grain and of wheat meal and flour into the United Kingdom. The import of the manufactured product is increasing at a much greater ratio than that of the raw grain, for whilst in 1875 the former represented less than one-ninth of the total, by 1900 the proportion had risen to nearly one-fourth. The offal, which is quite as valuable as the flour itself, is thus retained abroad instead of being utilized for stock-feeding purposes in the United Kingdom. The highest and lowest areas of wheat, barley, and oats in the United Kingdom during the period 1875-1900 were the following :— Wheat . . 3,514,088 acres in 1875 1,456,042 acres in 1895 Barley. . 2,931,809 acres in 1879 2,068,760 acres in 1898 Oats . . 4,527,899 acres in 1895 3,998,200 acres in 1879
