A short period of low prices followed the repeal of the Corn

Laws, wheat averaging only 38s. 6d. a quarter in 1851, but

the years from 1852 to 1875 were the most prosperous of the

century. The letters written by Sir James Caird to The

Times during 1850, and republished in 1852 under the title

English Agriculture in 1850-1851, give a general review of

English agriculture at the time. The scientific and mechanical

improvements of the first half of the century were widely

adopted, while the prices of the protectionist period showed

little decline. Amelioration in all breeds of domesticated

animals was manifested, not so much in the production of

individual specimens of high merit as in the diffusion of

these and other good breeds over the country, and in the

improved quality of live stock as a whole. The fattening of

animals was conducted on more scientific principles. Increased

attention was successfully bestowed on the improvement of field

crops. Improved varieties, obtained by cross-impregnation

either naturally or artificially brought about, were carefully

propagated and generally adopted, and increased attention was

bestowed on the cultivation of the natural grasses. The most

important additions to the list of field crops were Italian

rye-grass, winter beans, white Belgian carrot and alsike clover.

Agriculture since 1875.

The last quarter of the 19th century proved, however, a

fateful period for British agriculture. The great future

that seemed to await the application of steam power to the

tillage of the soil proved illusory. The clay soils of

England, the latent fertility of which was to be brought into

play in a fashion that should mightily augment the home-grown

supplies of food, remained intractable, and the extent of

land devoted to the cultivation of corn crops, instead of

expanding, diminished in a marked degree. British farmers of

long experience look back to 1874 as the last of the really

good years, and consider that the palmy days of British

agriculture began to dwindle at about that time. The shadow

of the approaching depression had already fallen upon the

land before the year 1875 had run its course, and the outlook

became ominous as the decade of the 'seventies neared its

close. One memorable feature was associated with 1877 in

that this was the last year in which the dreaded cattle plague

(rinderpest) made its appearance in England. The same year,

1877, was the last also in which the annual average price of

English wheat (then 56s. 9d.) exceeded 50s. a quarter. With

declining prices for farm produce came that year of unhappy

memory, 1879, when persistent rains and an almost sunless

summer ruined the crops and reduced many farmers to a state of

destitution. Much of the grain was never 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 appointed in 1879, under the chairmanship

of 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 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, linseedcake

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 British Dairy Farmers' Association (formed in

1875). 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 in

search of work continued unchecked (see below, Agricultural

Population) . In 1883 foot-and-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 Department'' was substituted, but no alteration was

effected in the work of the department, so far as it related to

animals. In 1889 the Board of Agriculture (for Great Britain)

was formed under an act of parliament of that year (see

AGRICULTURE, BOARD OF). 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 (see

below, Agricultural Education.) It was 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. Cattle-breeders 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 cases it was practically ruined. This

gave a stimulus to the trade in imported hay, which rose

from 61,237 tons in 1892 to 263,050 tons in 1893, and despite

some large home-grown crops in certain subsequent years (1897

and 1898) this expansion has never since been wholly lost.

The misfortunes of 1892 proved to be merely a preparation for the

disasters of 1893, in which year occurred the most destructive

drought within living memory. Its worst effects were seen

upon the light land farms of England, and so deplorable was

the position that a royal commission on agricultural depression

was appointed in September of that year under the chairmanship

of Mr Shaw Lefevre (afterwards Lord Eversley). Thus, within

the last quarter of the 19th century--and, as a matter of

fact, only fourteen years apart--two royal commissions on

agriculture were appointed, the one in a year of memorable

flood, 1879, and the other in a year of disastrous drought,

1893. The report of the commission of 1893 was issued in March

1896. Amongst its chief recommendations were those relating

to amendments in the Agricultural Holdings Acts, and to

tithe rent-charge, railway rates, damage by game, sale of

adulterated products, and sale of imported goods (meat,

for example) as home produce. Two legislative enactments

arose out of the work of this commission. In the majority

report it was stated ``that, in order to place agricultural

lands in their right position as compared with other ratable

properties, it is essential that they should be assessed

to all local rates in a reduced proportion of their ratable

value.'' The Agricultural Rates Act 1896 gave effect to this

recommendation. Its objects were to relieve agricultural

land from half the local rates, and to provide the means of

making good out of imperial funds the deficiency in local

taxation caused thereby. It was provided that the act should

continue in force only till the 31st of March 1902, but a

further act in 1901 extended the period by four years, and

in 1905 its operation was extended to the 31st of March

1910. The other measure arising out of the report of the

royal commission of 1893 was the Agricultural Holdings Act

1900. This was an amending act and not a consolidating act;

consequently it had to be read as if incorporated into the

already existing acts. As affecting agricultural practice there

were three noteworthy improvements in respect of the making

of which, without the consent of or notice to his landlord,

a tenant might claim compensation---(1) the consumption on

the holding ``by horses, other than those regularly employed

on the holding,'' of corn, cake or other feeding-stuff

not produced on the holding; (2) the ``consumption on the

holding by cattle, sheep, or pigs, or by horses other than

those regularly employed on the holding, of corn proved by

satisfactory evidence to have been produced and consumed on

the holding''; (3) ``laying down temporary pasture with clover,

grass, lucerne, sainfoin or other seeds sown more than two

years prior to the determination of the tenancy.'' A further

act was passed in 1906 (the Agricultural Holdings Act 1906)

which improved the tenant's position in respect of freedom of

cropping, disposal of produce and compensation for disturbance.

After 1894, in which year the brilliant prospects of a bountiful

harvest were ultimately extinguished by untimely and heavy

rains, all the remaining seasons of the closing decade of

the 19th century were dominated by drought. A fact that was

amply illustrated, moreover, is that the period of incidence

of a drought is not less important than its duration, and

the same is true of abnormal rainfall. A spring drought, a

summer drought, an autumn drought, each has its distinctive

characteristics in so far as the effect upon the crops is

concerned. The hot drought of 1893 extended over the spring

and summer months, but there was an abundant rainfall in the

autumn; correspondingly there was an unprecedentedly bad yield

of corn and hay crops, but a moderately fair yield of the main

root crops (turnips and swedes). In 1899 the drought became

most intense in the autumn after the corn crops had been

harvested, but during the chief period, of growth of the root

crops; correspondingly the corn crops of that year rank very

well amongst the crops of the decade, but the yield of turnips

and swedes was the worst on record. It is quite possible

for a hot dry season to be associated with a large yield of

corn, provided the drought is confined to a suitable period,

as was the case in 1896 and still more so in 1898; the English

wheat crops in those years were probably the biggest in yield

per acre that had been harvested since 1868, which is always

looked back upon as a remarkable year for wheat. The drought

of 1898 was interrupted by copious rains in June, and these

falling on a warm soil led to a rapid growth of grass and, as

measured by yield per acre, an exceedingly heavy crop of hay.

With the exceptions of 1891 and 1894, every year in the period

1891-1900 was stricken by drought. The two meteorological

events of the decade which will probably live longest in the

recollection were, however, the terrible drought of 1893,

resulting in a fodder famine in the succeeding winter, and

the severe frost of ten weeks' duration at the beginning of

1895. Between these two occurrences came the disastrous

decline in the value of grain in the autumn of 1894, when

the weekly average price of English wheat fell to the record

minimum of 17s. 6d. per imperial quarter. As a consequence,

the extent of land devoted to wheat in the British Isles

receded in 1895 to less than 1 1/2 million acres. The year

1903 was memorable for a very heavy rainfall, comparable

though not equal in its disastrous effects to that of 1879.

Successful trials of sulphate of copper solution as a means

of destroying charlock in corn crops took place in the years

1898-1900. Charlock is a most persistent cruciferous weed,

but if sprayed when young with the solution named it is

killed, the corn plants being uninjured. In 1901 the formation

of the Agricultural Organization Society marked the first

systematic attempt to organize co-operation among the farmers

of Great Britain. In the subsequent years the principle,

which had already made great progress in Ireland, began to

obtain a hold in England and Wales, where, in 1906, there

were 145 local co-operative societies with a turn-over of

Amongst legislative measures of importance to agriculturists

mention should be made, in addition to those that have been

referred to, of the Tithe Rent-charge Recovery Act 1891,

which transfers the liability for payment of tithe from

the occupier to the owner. In the same year was passed the

Markets and Fairs (Weighing of Cattle) Act. The object of

the Small Holdings Act 1892 was to facilitate the acquisition

of small agricultural holdings. It provided that a county

council might acquire any suitable land, with the object of

allotting from one to fifty acres, or, if more than fifty

acres, of an annual value not exceeding L. 50, to persons who

desired to buy, and would themselves cultivate, the holdings.

If, owing to proximity to a town or otherwise, the prospective

value were too high, the council might hire such land for the

purpose of letting it. (See ALLOTMENTS AND SMALL HOLDINGS

for this and other acts.) The Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs

Act 1893 compelled sellers of fertilizers (i.e. manures),

manufactured or imported, to state the percentage of the

nitrogen, of the soluble and insoluble phosphates, and of

the potash in each article sold, and this statement was to

have the effect of a warranty. Similar stringent conditions

applied as regards the sale of feeding-stuffs for live

stock. The Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs Act 1906, amending

and re-enacting the act of 1893, provided for the compulsory

appointment by county councils of official samplers. It

also provides penalties for breaches of duty by the seller,

but grants him protection in cases where he is not morally

responsible. The Finance Act of 1894, with its great changes

in the death duties, overshadowed all other acts of that

year both in its immediate effects and in its far-reaching

consequences. The Copyhold Consolidation Act 1894 supersedes

six previous copyhold statutes, but does not effect any

alteration in the law concerning enfranchisement. The

Diseases of Animals Act 1896 provided for the compulsory

slaughter of imported live stock at the place of landing.

The Light Railways Act and the Locomotives on Highways Act

were added to the statute book in 1896, and various clauses

in 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 the

Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Ireland.

The year 1900 saw the passing of a Workmen's Compensation Act, which

extended the benefits of the act of 1807 to agricultural labourers.

Acreage and Yields of British Crops.

The most notable feature in connexion with the cropping of

the land of the United Kingdom between 1875 and 1905 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 1/2 million acres; at the close it did

not amount to 8 million acres. There was thus a withdrawal

during the period of over 2 1/2 million acres from cereal

cultivation. From Table I., showing the acreages at intervals

of five years, it will be learnt that the loss fell chiefly

upon the wheat crop, which at the close of the period

TABLE 1.--Areas of Cereal Crops in the United Kingdom

-- Acres

YEAR. WHEAT. BARLEY. OATS. TOTAL.

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

1905 1,836,598 1,872,305 4,137,406 7,846,309

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, was not the

case, for a fairly uniform decrease in the barley area was

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 from 1875 to 1905, calculated upon returns from

the 190 statutory markets of England and Wales (Corn Returns Act

1882). These prices are per imperial quarter,---that is, 480

lb. of wheat, 400 lb. of barley and 312 lb. of oats, representing

60 lb, 50 lb. and 39 lb. per bushel respectively. After 1883

the annual average price of English wheat was never so high as

40s. per quarter, and only twice after 1892 did it exceed 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

TABLE II.--Gazette Annual Average Prices per Imperial Quarter

of British Cereals in England and Wales, 1875-1905.

Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats.

s. d. s. d. s. d.

1875 45 2 38 5 28 8

1876 46 2 35 2 26 3

1877 56 9 39 8 25 []

1878 46 5 40 2 24 4

1879 43 10 34 0 21 9

1880 44 4 33 1 23 1

1881 45 4 31 11 21 9

1882 45 1 31 2 21 10

1883 41 7 31 10 21 5

1884 35 8 30 8 20 3

1885 32 10 30 1 20 7

1886 31 0 26 7 19 0

1887 32 6 25 4 16 3

1888 31 10 27 10 16 9

1889 29 9 25 10 17 9

1890 31 11 28 8 18 7

1891 37 0 28 2 20 0

1892 30 3 26 2 19 10

1893 26 4 25 7 18 9

1894 22 10 24 6 17 1

1895 23 1 21 11 14 6

1896 26 2 22 11 14 9

1897 30 2 23 6 16 11

1898 34 0 27 2 18 5

1899 25 8 25 7 17 0

1900 26 11 24 11 17 7

1901 26 9 25 2 18 5

1902 28 1 25 8 20 2

1903 26 9 22 8 17 2

1904 28 4 22 4 16 4

1905 29 8 24 4 17 4

weekly average prices of English wheat in 1898 fluctuated

between 48s. 1d. and 25s. 5d. per quarter, the former being

the highest weekly average since 1882. The minimum annual

average was 22s. 10d. 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 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 the wheat crop of the United Kingdom was harvested

upon the smallest area on record--less than 1 1/2 million

acres. In only one year, 1878, did the annual average price

of English barley touch 40s. per quarter; it never reached

30s. after 1885, whilst in 1895 it fell to so low a level

as 21s. 11d. The same story of declining prices applies to

oats. An average of 20s. per quarter was touched in 1891 and

1902, but with those exceptions this useful feeding grain

did not reach that figure after 1885. In 1895 the average

price of 480 lb. of wheat, at 23s. 1d., 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 shows, at intervals of five years, the imports of

TABLE III.--Imports into the United Kingdom of Wheat Grain,

and of Wheat Meal and Flour--Cwt.

Year. Wheat Grain. Meal and Flour. Total.

1875 51,876,517 6,136,083 58,012,600

1880 55,261,924 10,558,312 65,820,236

1885 61,498,864 15,832,843 77,331,707

1890 60,474,180 15,773,336 76,247,516

1895 81,749,955 18,368,410 100,118,365

1900 68,669,490 21,548,131 90,217,621

1905 97,622,752 11,954,763 109,577,515

wheat grain and of wheat meal and flour into the United

Kingdom. The import of the manufactured product from 1875 to

1900 increased 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, was thus retained abroad instead of being

utilized for stock-feeding purposes in the United Kingdom.

In the five subsequent years the proportion was fundamentally

altered, so that with a greatly increased importation of

grain, that of meal and flour was in the proportion of about

one-ninth. The highest and lowest areas of wheat, barley and

oats in the United Kingdom during the period 1875-1905 were the

Wheat . 3,514,088 acres in 1875; 1,407,618 acres in 1904.

Barley . 2,931,809 acres in 1879; 1,872,305 acres in 1905.

Oats . 4,527,899 acres in 1895; 3,998,200 acres in 1879.

These show differences amounting to 2,106,470 acres for

wheat, 1,059,504 acres for barley, and 529,699 acres for

oats. The acreage of wheat, therefore, fluctuated the

most, and that of oats the least. Going back to 1869,

it is found that the extent of wheat in that year was

3,981,989 acres or very little short of four million acres.

The acreage of rye grown in the United Kingdom as a grain crop is

small, the respective maximum and minimum areas during the period

1875-1905 having been 102,676 acres in 1894 and 47,937 acres in

1880. Rye is perhaps more largely grown as a green crop to be

fed off by sheep, or cut green for soiling, in the spring months.

Of corn crops other than cereals, beans and peas are both

less cultivated than formerly. In the period 1875-1905

the area of beans in the United Kingdom fluctuated between

574,414 acres in 1875 and 230,429 acres in 1897, and that

of peas between 318,410 acres in 1875 and 155,668 acres in

1901. The area of peas (175,624 acres in 1905) shrank

by nearly one-half, and that of beans (256,583 acres in

1905) by more than one-half. Taking cereals and pulse

corn together, the aggregate areas of wheat, barley, oats,

rye, beans and peas in the United Kingdom varied as follows

over the six quinquennial intervals embraced in the period

Year. Acres. | Year. Acres.

1875 . . 11,399,030 | 1890 . . 9,574,249

1880 . . 10,672,086 | 1895 . . 8,865,338

1885 . . 10,014,625 | 1900 . . 8,707,602

| 1905 . . 8,333,770

Disregarding minor fluctuations, there was thus a loss of

corn land over the 30 years of 3,065,260 acres, or 27%.

The area withdrawn from corn-growing is not to be found under the

head of what are termed ``green crops.'' In 1905 the total area

of these crops in the United Kingdom was 4,144,374 acres, made up

Crop. Acres.

Potatoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,236,768

Turnips and swedes . . . . . . . . . 1,879,384

Mangel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477,540

Cabbage, kohl-rabi and rape . . . . 225,315

Vetches or tares . . . . . . . . . . 139,285

Other green crops . . . . . . . . . 186,082

The extreme aggregate areas of these crops during the

thirty years were 5,057,029 acres in 1875 and 4,109,394

acres in 1904. At five-year intervals the areas

Year. Acres. | Year. Acres.

1875 . . 5,057,029 | 1890 . . 4,534,145

1880 . . 4,746,293 | 1895 . . 4,399,949

1885 . . 4,765,195 | 1900 . . 4,301,774

| 1905 . . 4,144,374

These crops, therefore, which, except potatoes, are

used mainly for stock-feeding, have like the corn

crops been grown on gradually diminishing areas.

The land that has been lost to the plough is found to be

still further augmented when an inquiry is instituted into

the area devoted to clover, sainfoin and grasses under

rotation. The areas of five-year intervals are given in

Table IV. Under the old Norfolk or four-course rotation

(roots, barley, clover, wheat) land thus seeded with clover

or grass seeds was intended to be ploughed up at the end of a

year. Labour difficulties, low prices of produce, bad seasons

and similar causes provided inducements for leaving the land

in grass for two years, or over three years or more, before

breaking it up for wheat. In many cases it would be decided

to let such land remain under grass indefinitely, and thus

it would no longer be enumerated in the Agricultural Returns

as temporary grass land, but would pass into the category of

permanent grass land, or what is often spoken of as ``permanent

pasture.'' Whilst much grass land has been laid down with

the intention from the outset that it should be permanent,

at the same time some considerable areas have through stress

of circumstances been allowed to drift from the temporary

or rotation grass area to the permanent list, and have thus

still further diminished the area formerly under the dominion

of the plough. The column relating to permanent grass in

Table IV. shows clearly enough how the British Isles became

TABLE IV.--Areas of Grass Land (excluding Heath and Mountain

Land) in the United Kingdom--Acres.

Permanent

Year. Temporary (i.e. (i.e. not broken up Total.

under rotation). in rotation).

1875 6,337,953 23,772,602 30,110,555

1880 6,389,232 24,717,092 31,106,324

1885 6,738,206 25,616,071 32,354,277

1890 6,097,210 27,115,425 33,212,635

1895 6,061,139 27,831,117 33,892,256

1900 6,025,025 28,266,712 34,291,737

1905 5,779,323 28,865,373 34,644,696

more pastoral, while the figures already given demonstrate

the extent to which they became less arable. In the

period 1875-1905 the extreme areas returned as ``permanent

pasture''--a term which, it should be clearly understood,

does not include heath or mountain land, of which there

are in Great Britain alone about 13 million acres used for

grazing---were 23,772,602 acres in 1875, and 28,865,373 acres in

1905. Comparing 1905 with 1875 the increase in permanent

grass land amounted to over five million acres, or about 21%.

On account of the greater humidity and mildness of its climate,

Ireland is more essentially a pastoral country than Great Britain.

The distribution between the two islands of such important crops

of arable land as cereals and potatoes is indicated in Table V.

The figures are those for 1905, but, though the absolute acreages

TABLE V.--Areas of Cereal and Potato Crops in Great Britain

and Ireland in 1905.

Wheat. Barley.

Acres. Acres.

Great Britain . 1,796,993 1,713,664

Ireland . . . . 37,860 154,645

Total . . . . . 1,834,853 1,868,309

Oats. Potatoes.

Great Britain . 3,051,376 608,473

Ireland . . . . 1,066,806 616,755

Total . . . . . 4,118,182 1,225,228

vary somewhat from year to year, there is not much variation

in the proportions. The comparative insignificance of Ireland

in the case of the wheat and barley crops, represented by 2

and 8% respectively, receives some compensation when oats and

potatoes are considered, about one-fourth of the area of the

former and more than half that of the latter being claimed by

Ireland. It is noteworthy, however, that Ireland year by

year places less reliance upon the potato crop. In 1888

the area of potatoes in Ireland was 804,566 acres, but it

continuously contracted each year, until in 1905 it was only

616,755 acres, or 187,811 acres less than 17 years previously.

A similar comparison for the several sections of Great

Britain, as set forth in Table VI., shows that to England

belong about 95% of the wheat area, over 80% of the barley

area, over 60% of the oats area, and over 70% of the potato

area, and these proportions do not vary much from year to

year. The figures for cereals are important, as they

indicate that it is the farmers of England who are the

chief sufferers through the diminishing prices of corn; and

particularly is this true of East Anglia, where corn-growing

is more largely pursued than in any other part of the

TABLE VI.--Areas of Cereal and Potato Crops in England, Wales

and Scotland, and in Great Britain, in 1905.

Wheat. Barley.

Acres. Acres.

England . . . . 1,704,281 1,410,287

Wales . . . . . 44,073 91,243

Scotland . . . 48,641 212,134

Great Britain . 1,796,995 1,713,664

Oats. Potatoes.

England . . . . 1,880,475 434,773

Wales . . . . . 207,929 29,435

Scotland . . . 962,972 144,265

Great Britain . 3,051,376 608,473

country. Scotland possesses nearly one-third of the area

of oats and nearly one-fourth of that of potatoes. Beans

are almost entirely confined to England, and this is even

more the case with peas. The mangel crop also is mainly

English, the summer in most parts of Scotland being neither

long enough nor warm enough to bring it to maturity.

The Produce of British Crops.

Whilst the returns relating to the acreage of crops and the

number of live stock in Great Britain have been officially

collected in each year since 1866, the annual official estimates

of the produce of the crops in the several sections of the

kingdom do not extend back beyond 1885. The practice is for

the Board of Agriculture to appoint local estimators, who report

in the autumn as to the total production of the crops in the

localities respectively assigned to them. By dividing the

total production, say of wheat, in each county by the number

of acres of wheat as returned by the occupiers on June 4, the

estimated average yield per acre is obtained. It is important

to notice that the figures relating to total production and

yield per acre are only estimates, and it is not claimed

for them that they are anything more. The fact that much of

the wheat to which the figures apply is still in the stack

after the publication of the figures shows that the latter

are essentially estimates. The total produce of any crop in

a given year must depend mainly upon the acreage grown, whilst

the average yield per acre will be determined chiefly by the

character of the season. In Table VII. are shown, in thousands

TABLE VII.--Estimated Annual Total Produce of Corn Crops in

the United Kingdom, 1890-1905 --Thousands of Bushels.

Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Peas.

1890 75,994 80,794 171,295 11,860 6313

1891 74,743 79,555 166,472 10,694 5777

1892 60,775 76,939 168,181 7,054 5028

1893 50,913 65,746 168,588 4,863 4756

1894 60,704 78,601 190,863 7,198 6229

1895 38,285 75,028 174,476 5,626 4732

1896 58,247 77,825 162,860 6,491 4979

1897 56,296 72,613 163,556 6,650 5250

1898 74,885 74,731 172,578 7,267 4858

1899 67,261 74,532 166,140 7,566 4431

1900 54,322 68,546 165,137 7,469 4072

1901 53,928 67,643 161,175 6,154 4017

1902 58,278 74,439 184,184 7,704 5106

1903 48,819 65,310 172,941 7,535 4812

1904 37,920 62,453 176,755 5,901 4446

1905 60,333 65,004 166,286 8,262 4446

of bushels, the estimated produce of the corn crops of the

United Kingdom in the years 1890-1905. The largest area

of wheat in the period was that of 1890, and the smallest

was that of 1904; the same two years are seen to have been

respectively those of highest and lowest total produce. It

is noteworthy that in 1895 the country produced about half

as much wheat as in any one of the years 1890, 1891 and

1898. The produce of barley, like that of oats, is less

irregular than that of wheat, the extremes for barley

being 80,794,000 bushels (1890) and 62,453,000 bushels

(1904), and those for oats 190,863,000 bushels (1894) and

161,175,000 bushels (1901). Similar details for potatoes,

roots and hay, brought together in Table VIII., show that the

TABLE VIII.--Estimated Annual Total Produce of Potatoes, Roots

and Hay in the United Kingdom, 1890-1905--Thousands of

Tons.

Year. Potatoes. Turnips. Mangels. Hay.

1890 4622 32,002 6709 14,466

1891 6090 29,742 7558 12,671

1892 5634 31,419 7428 11,567

1893 6541 31,110 5225 9,082

1894 4662 30,678 7310 15,699

1895 7065 29,221 6376 12,238

1896 6263 28,037 5875 11,416

1897 4107 29,785 7379 14,043

1898 6225 26,499 7228 15,916

1899 5837 20,370 7604 12,898

1900 4577 28,387 9650 13,742

1901 7043 25,298 9224 11,358

1902 5920 29,116 10,809 15,246

1903 5277 23,523 8212 14,955

1904 6230 28,033 8813 14,860

1905 7186 26,563 9493 13,554

production of potatoes varies much from year to year. The

imports of potatoes into the United Kingdom vary, to some

extend inversely; thus, the low production in 1897 was

accompanied by an increase of import from 3,921,205 cwt.

in 1897 to 6,751,728 cwt. in 1898. No very great reliance

can be placed upon the figures relating to turnips (which

include swedes), as these are mostly fed to sheep on the

ground, so that the estimates as to yield are necessarily

vague. Mangels are probably more closely estimated, as these

valuable roots are carted and stored for subsequent use for

feeding stock. Under hay are included the produce of closer,

sainfoin and rotation grasses, and also that of permanent

meadow. The extent to which the annual production of the

leading fodder crop may vary is shown in the table by the

two consecutive years 1893 and 1894; from only nine million

tons in the former year the production rose to upwards of

fifteen million tons in the latter, an increase of over 70%.

Turning to the average yields per acre, as ascertained by dividing

the number of acres into the total produce, the results of a

decade are collected in Table IX. The effects of a prolonged

TABLE IX.--Estimated Annual Average Yield per Acre of Crops

in United Kingdom, 1895-1904.

Year. Wheat. Barley. Oats. Beans. Peas. Potatoes.

Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Bush. Tons.

1895 26.33 32.09 38.67 22.98 22.62 5.64

1896 33.63 34.16 37.97 25.69 25.34 4.93

1897 29.07 32.91 38.84 28.91 27.55 3.47

1898 34.75 36.24 42.27 31.13 27.60 5.23

1899 32.76 34.64 40.57 30.19 27.22 4.82

1900 28.61 31.67 39.97 28.18 25.89 3.77

1901 30.93 31.70 39.35 24.29 25.97 5.81

1902 32.91 35.83 44.50 31.49 28.51 4.92

1903 30.15 32.38 40.81 31.27 26.56 4.45

1904 26.97 31.25 40.80 23.23 25.75 5.24

Mean,

10 Years 30.85 33.28 20.35 27.68 26.24 4.84

1905 32.88 34.79 40.38 32.33 25.71 5.86

Turnips

and Hay, Hay,

Year. Swedes. Mangels. Rotation. Permanent.

Tons. Tons. Cwt. Cwt.

1895 13.11 16.44 29.08 25.21

1896 12.79 14.99 27.95 24.14

1897 13.90 18.03 32.53 30.71

1898 12.74 17.71 36.49 34.27

1899 9.97 17.41 31.04 29.11

1900 14.29 19.97 32.42 30.98

1901 12.95 19.37 28.98 23.85

1902 15.35 20.85 35.29 32.57

1903 12.44 17.19 33.07 31.27

1904 14.83 18.57 33.43 31.04

Mean,

10 Years 13.21 18.18 32.06 29.32

1905 14.19 19.91 32.24 28.37

spring and summer drought, like that of 1893, are exemplified

in the circumstance that four corn crops and the two hay crops

all registered very low average yields that year, viz. wheat

26.08 bushels, barley 29.30 bushels, oats 38.14 bushels, beans

19.61 bushels, rotation hay 23.55 cwt., permanent hay 20.41

cwt. On the other hand, the season of 1898 was exceptionally

favourable to cereals and to hay. The effects of a prolonged

autumn drought, as distinguished from spring and summer

drought, are shown in the very low yield of turnips in

1899. Mangels are sown earlier and have a longer period of

growth than turnips; if they become well established in the

summer they are less susceptible to autumn drought. The hay

made from closer, sainfoin and grasses under rotation generally

gives a bigger average yield than that from permanent grass

land. The mean values at the foot of the table--they are

not, strictly speaking, exact averages--indicate the

average yields per acre in the United Kingdom to be about

31 bushels of wheat, 33 bushels of barley, 40 bushels of

oats, 28 bushels of neams, 26 bushels of peas, 4 3/4 tons of

potatoes, 13 1/4 tons of turnips and swedes, 18 1/4 tons of

mangels, 32 cwt. of hay from temporary grass, and 29 cwt. of

hay from permanenet grass. Although enormous single crops of

TABLE X. Decennial Average Yields in Great Britain of Wheat,

Barley and Oats--Bushels per Acre.

10-Year

Periods. Wheat. Barley. Oats.

1885-1894 29.32 33.02 38.21

1886-1895 28.81 32.68 38.23

1887-1896 29.49 32.82 38.13

1888-1897 29.19 32.97 38.51

1889-1898 29.86 33.26 38.86

1890-1899 30.15 33.50 38.81

1891-1900 29.92 33.13 38.46

1892-1901 29.83 32.80 38.26

1893-1902 30.53 32.83 38.64

1894-1903 30.95 33.16 39.05

1895-1904 30.56 32.82 38.81

1896-1905 31.21 33.04 38.92

mangels are sometimes grown, amounting occasionally to 100

tons per acre, the general average yield of 18 1/4 tons is

about 5 tons more than that of turnips and swedes. Again,

although from the richest old permanent meadow-lands very

heavy crops of hay are taken season after season, the general

average yield of permanent grass is about 3 cwt. of hay per

acre less than that from clover, sainfoin and grasses under

rotation. The general average yields of the corn crops are

not fairly comparable one with the other, because they are

given by measure and not by weight, whereas the weight per

bushel varies considerably. For purposes of comparison it

would be much better if the yields of corn crops were estimated

in cwt. per acre. This, indeed, is the practice in Ireland,

and in order to incorporate the Irish figures with those for

Great Britain so as to obtain average values for the United

Kingdom, the Irish yields are calculated into bushels at

the rate of 60lb to the bushel of wheat, of beans and peas,

50lb to the bushel of barley and 39lb to the bushel of oats.

The figure denoting the general average yield per acre of

any class of crop need re-adjustment after every successive

harvest. If a decennial period be taken, then--for the

purpose of the new calculation--the earliest year is omitted

and the latest year added, the number of years continuing at

ten. Adopting this course in the case of the cereal crops

of Great Britain the decennial averages recorded in Table

X. are obtained, the period 1885-1894 being the earliest

decade for which the official figures are available.

It thus appears that the average yield of wheat in Great

Britain, as calculated upon the crops harvested during the

ten years (1896-1905), exceeded 31 bushels to the acre,

whereas, for the ten years ended 1895, it fell below 29

bushels. A large expansion in the acreage of the wheat crop

would probably be attended by a decline in the average yield

per acre, for when a crop is shrinking in area the tendency

is to withdraw from it first the land least suited to its

growth. The general average for the United Kingdom might then

recede to rather less than 28 bushels of 60 lb. per bushel,

which was for a long time the accepted average--unless, of

course, improved methods of cultivating and manuring the

soil were to increase its general wheat-yielding capacity.6

Crops and Cropping.

The greater freedom of cropping and the less close adherence

to the formal system of rotation of crops, which characterize

the early years of the 20th century, rest upon a scientific

basis. Experimental inquiry has done much to enlighten the

farmer as to the requirements of plant-life, and to enable

him to see how best to meet these requirements in the case

of field crops. He cannot afford to ignore the results

that have been gradually accumulated--the truths that have

been slowly established--at the agricultural experiment

stations in various parts of the world. Of these stations

the greatest, and the oldest now existing, is that at

Rothamsted, Harpenden, Herts, England, which was founded in

1843 by Sir John Bennet Lawes (q.v.). The results of more

than half a century of sustained experimental inquiry were

communicated to the world by Lawes and his collaborator,

Sir J. H. Gilbert, in about 130 separate papers or reports,

many of which were published, from 1847 onwards, in the

Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.7

In the case of plants the method of procedure was to grow

some of the most important crops of rotation, each separately

year after year, for many years in succession on the same

land, (a) without manure, (b) with farmyard manure and

(c) with a great variety of chemical manures; the same

description of manure being, as a rule, applied year after

year on the same plot. Experiments on an actual course of

rotation, without manure, and with different manures, have

also been made. Wheat, barley, oats, beans, clover and other

leguminous plants, turnips, sugar beet, mangels, potatoes and

grass crops have thus been experimented upon. Incidentally

there have been extensive sampling and analysing of soils,

investigations into rainfall and the composition of drainage

waters, inquiries into the amount of water transpired by

plants, and experiments on the assimilation of free nitrogen.

Cereals--Amongst the field experiments there is, perhaps,

not one of more universal interest than that in which wheat

was grown for fifty-seven years in succession, (a) without

manure, (b) with farmyard manure and (c) with various

artificial manures. The results show that, unlike leguminous

crops such as beans or clover, wheat may be successfully

grown for many years in succession on ordinary arable land,

provided suitable manures be applied and the land be kept

clean. Even without manure the average produce over forty-six

years, 1852-1897, was nearly thirteen bushels per acre, or

about the average yield per acre of the wheat lands of the whole

world. Mineral manures alone give very little increase,

nitrogenous manures alone considerably more than mineral

manures alone, but the mixture of the two considerably more

than either separately. In one case, indeed, the average

produce by mixed minerals and nitrogenous manure was more

than that by the annual application of farmyard manure; and

in seven out of the ten cases in which such mixtures were

used the average yield per acre was from over two to over

eight bushels more than the average yield of the United

Kingdom (assuming this to be about twenty-eight bushels of

60 lb. per bushel) under ordinary rotation. It is estimated

that the reduction in yield of the unmanured plot over the

forty years, 1852-1891, after the growth of the crops without

manure during the eight preceding years, was, provided it had

been uniform throughout, equivalent to a decline of one-sixth

of a bushel from year to year due to exhaustion--that is,

irrespectively of fluctuations due to season. It is related

that a visitor from the United States, talking to Sir John

Lawes, said, ``Americans have learnt more from this field

than from any other agricultural experiment in the world.''

Experiments upon the growth of barley for fifty years in

succession on rather heavy ordinary arable soil resulted in

showing that the produce by mineral manures alone is larger

than that without manure; that nitrogenous manures alone give

more produce than mineral manures alone; and that mixtures

of mineral and nitrogenous manure give much more than either

used alone--generally twice, or more than twice, as much as

mineral manures alone. Of mineral constituents, whether used

alone or in mixture with nitrogenous manures, phosphates are

much more effective than mixtures of salts of potash, soda and

magnesia. The average results show that, under all conditions

of manuring--excepting with farmyard manure--the produce

was less over the later than over the earlier periods of the

experiments, an effect partly due to the seasons. But the

average produce over forty years of continuous growth of

barley was, in all cases where nitrogenous and mineral manures

(containing phosphates) were used together, much higher than

the average produce of the crop grown in ordinary rotation

in the United Kingdom, and very much higher than the average

in most other countries when so grown. The requirements of

barley within the soil, and its susceptibility to the external

influences of season, are very similar to those of its near ally,

wheat. Nevertheless there are distinctions of result dependent

on differences in the habits of the two plants, and in the

conditions of their cultivation accordingly. In the British

Isles wheat is, as a rule, sown in the autumn on a heavier

soil, and has four or five months in which to distribute its

roots, and so it gets possession of a wide range of soil and

subsoil before barley is sown in the spring. Barley, on the

other hand, is sown in a lighter surface soil, and, with its

short period for root-development, relies in a much greater

degree on the stores of plant-food within the surface soil.

Accordingly it is more susceptible to exhaustion of surface

soil as to its nitrogenous, and especially as to its mineral

supplies; and in the common practice of agriculture it is found

to be more benefited by direct mineral manures, especially

phosphatic manures, than is wheat when sown under equal soil

conditions. The exhaustion of the soil induced by both barley

and wheat is, however, characteristically that of available

nitrogen; and when, under the ordinary conditions of manuring

and cropping, artificial manure is still required, nitrogenous

manures are, as a rule, necessary for both crops, and, for

the spring-sown barley, superphosphate also. Although barley

is appropriately grown on lighter soils than wheat, good

crops, of fair quality, may be grown on the heavier soils

after another grain crop by the aid of artificial manures,

provided that the land is sufficiently clean. Experiments

similar to the foregoing were carried on for many years in

succession at Rothamsted upon oats, and gave results which were

in general accordance with those on the other cereal crops.

Additional significance to the value of the above experiments

on wheat and barley is afforded by the fact that the same

series, with but slight modifications, has also been carried

out since 1876 at the Woburn (Bedfordshire) experimental

farm of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, the soil

here being of light sandy character, and thus very different

from the heavy soil of Rothamsted. The results for the

thirty years, 1877-1906, are in their general features

entirely confirmatory of those obtained at Rothamsted.

Root-Crops.--Experiments upon root-crops--chiefly white

turnips, Swedish turnips (swedes) and mangels--have resulted

in the establishment of the following conclusions. Both the

quantity and the quality of the produce, and consequently

its feeding value, must depend greatly upon the selection

of the best description of roots to be grown, and on the

character and the amount of the manures, and especially on

the amount of nitrogenous manure employed. At the same time,

no hard-and-fast rules can be laid down concerning these

points. Independently of the necessary consideration of the

general economy of the farm, the choice must be influenced

partly by the character of the soil, but very much more

by that of the climate. Judgment founded on knowledge and

aided by careful observation, both in the field and in the

feeding-shed, must be relied upon as the guide of the practical

farmer. Over and above the great advantage arising from the

opportunity which the growth of root-crops affords for the

cleaning of the land, the benefits of growing the root-crop

in rotation are due (1) to the large amount of manure applied

for its growth, (2) to the large residue of the manure left

in the soil for future crops, (3) to the large amount of

matter at once returned as manure again in the leaves, (4)

to the large amount of food produced, and (5) to the small

proportion of the most important manurial constituents of

the roots which is retained by store or fattening animals

consuming them, the rest returning as manure again; though,

when the roots are consumed for the production of milk, a much

larger proportion of the constituents is lost to the manure.

Leguminous Crops and the Acquisition of Nitrogen.--The fact

that the growth of a leguminous crop, such as red clover, leaves

the soil in a higher condition for the subsequent growth of

a grain crop--that, indeed, the growth of such a leguminous

crop is to a great extent equivalent to the application of a

nitrogenous manure for the cereal crop--was in effect known ages

ago. Nevertheless it was not till near the approach of the

closing decade of the 19th century that the explanation of

this long-established point of agricultural practice was

forthcoming. It was in the year 1886 that Hellriegel and

Wilfarth first published in Germany the results of investigations

in which they demonstrated that, through the agency of

micro-organisms dwelling in nodular outgrowths on the roots

of ordinary leguminous plants, the latter are enabled to

assimilate the free nitrogen of the air. The existence of

the root nodules had long been recognized, but hitherto no

adequate explanation had been afforded as to their function.

Since Hellriegel's striking discovery farm crops have

been conveniently classified as nitrogen-accumulating and

nitrogen-consuming. To the former belong the ordinary leguminous

crops--the clovers, beans, peas, vetches or tares, sainfoin,

lucerne, for example--which obtain their nitrogen from the air,

and are independent of the application of nitrogenous manures,

whilst in their roots they accumulate a store of nitrogen which

will ultimately become available for future crops of other

kinds. It is, in fact, fully established that these leguminous

crops acquire a considerable amount of nitrogen by the fixation

of the free nitrogen of the atmosphere under the influence of

the symbiotic growth of their root-nodule-microbes and the higher

plant. The cereal crops (wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize);

the cruciferous crops (turnips, cabbage, kale, rape, mustard);

the solanaceous crops (potatoes); the chenopodiaceous crops

(mangels, sugar-beets), and other non-leguminous crops have,

so far as is known, no such power, and are therefore more

or less benefited by the direct application of nitrogenous

manures. The field experiments on leguminous plants at

Rothamsted have shown that land which is, so to speak,

exhausted so far as the growth of one leguminous crop is

concerned, may still grow very luxuriant crops of another

plant of the same natural order, but of different habits of

growth, and especially of different character and range of

roots. This result is doubtless largely dependent on the

existence, the distribution and the condition of the appropriate

microbes for the due infection of the different descriptions of

plant, for the micro-organism that dwells symbiotically with one

species is not identical with that which similarly dwells with

another. It seems certain that success in any system involving

a more extended growth of leguminous crops in rotations must

be dependent on a considerable variation in the description

grown. Other essential conditions of success will commonly

include the liberal application of potash and phosphatic

manures, and sometimes chalking or liming for the leguminous

crop. As to how long the leguminous crop should occupy the

land, the extent to which it should be consumed on the

land, or the manure from its consumption be returned, and

under what conditions the whole or part of it should be

ploughed in--these are points which must be decided as

they arise in practice. It seems obvious that the lighter

and poorer soils would benefit more than the heavier or

richer soils by the extended growth of leguminous crops.

Remarkable as Hellriegel's discovery was, it merely furnished

the explanation of a fact which had been empirically

established by the husbandman long before, and had received

most intelligent application when the old four-course (or

Norfolk) rotation was devised. But it gave some impetus to

the practice of green manuring with leguminous crops, which

are equally capable with such a crop as mustard of enriching

the soil in humus, whilst in addition they bring into the

soil from the atmosphere a quantity of nitrogen available

for the use of subsequent crops of any kind. In Canada and

the United States this rational employment of a leguminous

crop for ploughing in green is largely resorted to for the

amelioration of worn-out wheat lands and other soils, the

condition of which has been lowered to an unremunerative

level by the repeated growth year after year of a cereal

crop. The well-known paper of Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh (1861),

``On the Sources of the Nitrogen of Vegetation with special

reference to the Question whether Plants assimilate free or

uncombined Nitrogen,'' answered the question referred to in the

negative. The attitude taken up later on with regard to this

problem is set forth in the following words, which are quoted

from the Memoranda of the Rothamsted Experiments, 1900 (p. 7):--

``Experiments were commenced in 1857, and conducted for several

years in succession, to determine whether plants assimilate

free or uncombined nitrogen, and also various collateral

points. Plants of the gramincous, the leguminous and of

other families were operated upon. The late Dr Pugh took a

prominent part in this inquiry. The conclusion arrived at

was that our agricultural plants do not themselves directly

assimilate the free nitrogen of the air by their leaves.

``In recent years, however, the question has assumed quite

a new aspect. It now is--whether the free nitrogen of the

atmosphere is brought into combination under the influence of

micro-organisms, or other low forms, either within the soil or

in symbiosis with a higher plant, thus serving indirectly as

a source of nitrogen to plants of a higher order. Considering

that the results of Hellriegel and Wilfarth on this point were,

if confirmed, of great significance and importance, it was

decided to make experimenis at Rothamsted on somewhat similar

lines. Accordingly, a preliminary series was undertaken in

1888; more extended series were conducted in 1889 and in 1890;

and the investigation was continued up to the commencement

of the year 1893. Further experiments relating to certain

aspects of the subject were begun in 1898. The resuits have

shown that, when a soil growing leguminous plants is infected

with appropriate organisms, there is a development of the

so-called leguminous nodules on the roots of the plants,

and, coincidenrly, increased growth and gain of nitrogen.''

The conclusions of Hellriegel and Wilfarth have thus been

confirmed by the later experiences of Rothamsted, and since that

time efforts have been directed energetically to the practical

application of the discovery. This has taken the form of

inoculating the soil with the particular organism required by the

particular kind of leguminous crop. To this end the endeavour

has been made to produce preparations which shall contain in

portable form the organisms required by the several plants, and

though, as yet, it can hardly be claimed that they have been

generally successful, the work done justifies hopes that the

problem will eventually be solved in a practical direction.

Grass.--Another field experiment of singular interest

is that relating to the mixed herbage of permanent meadow,

for which seven acres of old grass land were set apart in

Rothamsted Park in 1856. Of the twenty plots into which

this land is divided, two were left without manure from the

outset, two received ordinary farmyard manure for a series

of years, whilst the remainder each received a different

description of artificial or chemical manure, the same being,

except in special cases, applied year after year on the same

plot. During the growing season the field affords striking

evidence of the influence of different manurial dressings.

So much, indeed, does the character of the herbage vary

from plot to plot that the effect may fairly be described as

kaleidoscopic. Repeated analyses have shown how greatly both

the botanical constitution and the chemical composition of

the mixed herbage vary according to the description of manure

applied. They have further shown how dominant is the influence of

season. Such, moreover, is the effect of different manures

that the gross produce of the mixed herbage is totally different

on the respective plots according to the manure employed,

both as to the proportion of the various species composing

it and as to their condition of development and maturity.

The Rotation of Crops.

The growth, year after year, on the same soil of one kind of

plant unfits it for bearing further crops of the kind which has

exhausted it, and renders them less vigorous and more liable to

disease. The farmer therefore arranges his cropping in such a

way that roots, or leguminous crops, succeed the cereal crops.

It is not only the conditions of growth, but the uses to

which the different crops are put, that have to be considered

in the case of rotation. Thus the cereal crops, when grown

in rotation, yield more produce for sale in the season of

growth than when grown continuously. Moreover, the crops

alternated with the cereals accumulate very much more of

mineral constituents and of nitrogen in their produce than do

the cereals themselves. By far the greater proportion of those

constituents remains in circulation in the manure of the farm,

whilst the remainder yields highly valuable products for sale

in the forms of meat and milk. For this reason these crops

are known as ``restorative,'' cereals the produce of which

is sold off the farm being classed as ``exhaustive.'' With

a variety of crops, again, the mechanical operations of the

farm, involving horse and hand labour, are better distributed

over the year, and are therefore more economically performed.

The opportunities which rotation cropping affords for the

cleaning of the land from weeds is another distinct element of

advantage. Although many different rotations of crops are

practised, they may for the most part be considered as little

more than local adaptations of the system of alternating

root-crops and leguminous crops with cereal crops, as exemplified

in the old four-course rotation--roots, barley, clover, wheat.

Under this system the clover is ploughed up in the autumn, the

nitrogen stored up in its roots being left in the soil for the

nourishment of the cereal crop. The following summer the wheat

crop is harvested, and an opportunity is afforded for extirpating

weeds which in the three previous years have received little

check. Or, where the climate is warm and the soil light,

a ``catch-crop,'' i.e. rye, vetches, winter-oats or some

other rapidly-growing crop may be sown in autumn and fed off

or otherwise disposed of prior to the root-sowing. On heavy

soils, however, the farmer cannot afford to curtail the time

necessary for thorough cultivation of the land. The cleaning

process is carried on through.the next summer by means of

successive hoeings of the spring-sown root-crop. As turnips or

swedes may occupy the ground till after Christmas little time

is left for the preparation of a seed-bed for barley, but as

the latter is a shallow-rooted crop only surface-stirring is

required. Clover is sown at the same time or shortly

after the cereal and thus occupies the land for two years.

The rotations extending to five, six, seven or more years are,

in most cases, only adaptations of the principle to variations

of soil, altitude, aspect, climate, markets and other local

conditions. They are effected chiefly by some alteration in the

description of the root-crop, and perhaps by the introduction

of the potato crop; by growing a different cereal, or it may

be more than one cereal consecutively; by the growth of some

other leguminous crop than clover, since ``clover-sickness''

may result if that crop is grown at too short intervals, or

the intermixture of grass seeds with the clover, and perhaps

by the extension by one or more years of the period allotted

to this member of the rotation. Whatever the specific

rotation, there may in practice be deviations from the plan of

retaining on the farm the whole of the root-crops, the straw

of the grain crops and the leguminous fodder crops (clover,

vetches, sainfoin, &c;) for the production of meat or milk,

and, coincidently, for that of manure to be returned to the

land. It is equally true that, when under the influence

of special local or other demand--proximity to towns, easy

railway or other communication, for example--the products

which would otherwise be retained on the farm are exported

from it, the import of town or other manures is generally

an essential condition of such practice. This system of

free sale, indeed, frequently involves full compensation by

purchased manures of some kind. Such deviations from the

practice of merely selling grain and meat off the farm have

much extended in recent years, and will probably continue to

do so under the altered conditions of British agriculture,

determined by very large imports of grain, increasing imports

of meat and of other products of stock-feeding, and very

large imports of cattle-food and other agricultural produce.

More attention is thus being devoted to dairy produce, not

only on grass farms, but on those that are mainly arable.

The benefits that accrue from the practice of rotation are well

illustrated in the results obtained from the investigations at

Rothamsted into the simple four-course system, which may fairly

be regarded as a self-supporting system. Reference may first

be made to the important mineral constituents of different

crops of the four-course rotation. Of phosphoric acid, the

cereal crops take up as much as, or more than, any other crops

of the rotation, excepting clover; and the greater portion

thus taken up is lost to the farm in the saleable product--the

grain. The remainder, that in the straw, as well as that in

the roots and the leguminous crops, is supposed to be retained

on the farm, excepting the small amount exported in meat and

milk. Of potash, each of the rotation crops takes up very

much more than of phosphoric acid. But much less potash than

phosphoric acid is exported in the cereal grains, much more

being retained in the straw, whilst the other products of

the rotation--the root and leguminous crops--which are also

supposed to be retained on the farm, contain very much more

potash than the cereals, and comparatively little of it is

exported in meat and milk. Thus the whole of the crops of

rotation take up very much more of potash than of phosphoric

acid, whilst probably even less of it is ultimately lost to the

land. Of lime, very little is taken up by the cereal

crops, and by the root-crops much less than of potash; more

by the leguminous than by the other crops, and, by the clover

especially, sometimes much more than by all the other crops

of the rotation put together. Very little of the lime of

the crops, however, goes off in the saleable products of

the farm in the case of the self-supporting rotation under

consideration. Although, therefore, different, and sometimes

very large, amounts of these typical mineral constituents

are taken up by the various crops of rotation, there is no

material export of any in the saleable products, excepting

of phosphoric acid and of potash; and, so far at least

as phosphoric acid is concerned, experience has shown that

it may be advantageously supplied in purchased manures.

Of nitrogen, the cereal crops take up and retain much less

than any of the crops alternated with them, notwithstanding

the circumstance that the cereals are very characteristically

benefited by nitrogenous manures. The root-crops, indeed, may

contain two or more times as much nitrogen as either of the

cereals, and the leguminous crops, especially the clover, much

more than the root-crops. The greater part of the nitrogen

of the cereals is, however, sold off the farm; but perhaps

not more than 10 or 15% of the of either the root-crop of

the clover (or other forage leguminous crop) is sold off in

the animal increase of in milk. Most of the nitrogen is the

straw of the cereals, and a very large proportion of that of

the much more highly nitrogen-yielding crops, returns to the

land as manure, for the benefit of future cereals and other

crops. As to the source of the nitrogren of the root-crops--the

so-called ``restorative crops''--these are as dependent as any

crop that is grown on available nitrogen within the soil, which

is generally supplied by the direct application of nitrogenous

manures, natural or artificial. Under such conditions of

supply, however, the root-crops, gross feeders as they are,

and distributing a very large extent of fibrous feeding root

within the soil, avail themselves of a much larger quantity of

the nitrogen supplied than the cereal crops would do in similar

circumstances. This result is partly due to their period

of accumulation of nitrates in it is the greatest. When a

full supply of both mineral constituents and nitrogen is at

command, these root-crops assimilate a very large amount of

TABLE XI.--The Weight and Average Composition of Ordinary Crops,

in lb. per Acre.

Weight of

Crop. Total Nitro Sul-

Crop. At Pure -gen. phur. Potash.

Harvest. Dry. Ash.

Wheat, grain, 30 bushels 1,800 1530 30 34 2.7 9.3

Wheat, straw 3,158 2653 142 16 5.1 19.5

Total crop 4,958 4183 172 50 7.8 28.8

Barley, grain, 40 bushels 2,080 1747 46 35 2.9 9.8

Barley, straw 2,447 2080 111 14 3.2 25.9

Total crop 4,527 3827 157 49 6.1 35.7

Oats, grain, 45 bushels 1,890 1625 51 34 3.2 9.1

Oats, straw 2,835 2353 140 18 4.8 37.0

Total crop 4,725 3978 191 52 8.0 46.1

Maize, grain, 30 bushels 1,680 1500 22 28 1.8 6.5

Maize, stalks, &c. 2,208 1877 99 15 .. 29.8

Total crop 3,888 3377 121 43 .. 36.3

Meadow hay, 1 1/2 ton 3,360 2822 203 49 5.7 50.9

Red Clover hay, 2 tons 4,480 3763 258 98 9.4 83.4

Beans, grain, 30 bushels 1,920 1613 58 78 4.4 24.3

Beans, straw 2,240 1848 99 29 4.9 42.8

Total crop 4,160 3461 157 107 9.3 67.1

Turnip, root, 17 tons 38,080 3126 218 61 15.2 108.6

Turnip, leaf 11,424 1531 146 49 5.7 40.2

Total crop 49,504 4657 346 110 20.9 148.8

Swedes, root, 14 tons 31,360 3349 163 70 14.6 63.3

Swedes, leaf 4,704 706 75 28 3.2 16.4

Total crop 36,064 4055 238 98 17.8(*) 79.7

Mangels, root, 22 tons 49,280 5914 426 98 4.9 222.8

Mangels, leaf 18,233 1654 254 51 9.1 77.9

Total crop 67,513 7568 680 149 14.0 300.7

Potatoes, tubers, 6 tons 13,440 3360 127 46 2.7 76.5

Mag- Phosph- Chlor-

Crop. Soda. Lime. nesia. ric Acid. ine. Silica.

Wheat, grain, 30 bushels 0.6 1.0 3.6 14.2 0.1 0.6

Wheat, straw 2.0 8.2 3.5 6.9 2.4 96.3

Total crop 2.6 9.2 7.1 21.1 2.5 96.9

Barley, grain, 40 bushels 1.1 1.2 4.0 16.0 0.5 11.8

Barley, straw 3.9 8.0 2.9 4.7 3.6 56.8

Total crop 5.0 9.2 6.9 20.7 4.1 68.6

Oats, grain, 45 bushels 0.8 1.8 3.6 13.0 0.5 19.9

Oats, straw 4.6 9.8 5.1 6.4 6.1 65.4

Total crop 5.4 11.6 8.7 19.4 6.6 85.3

Maize, grain, 30 bushels 0.2 0.5 3.4 10.0 0.2 0.5

Maize, stalks, &c. .. .. .. 8.0 .. ..

Total crop .. .. .. 18.0 .. ..

Meadow hay, 1 1/2 ton 9.2 32.1 14.4 12.3 14.6 56.9

Red Clover hay, 2 tons 5.1 90.1 28.2 22.9 9.8 7.0

Beans, grain, 30 bushels 0.6 2.9 4.2 22.8 1.1 0.4

Beans, straw 1.7 26.3 5.7 6.3 4.3 6.9

Total crop 2.3 29.2 9.9 29.1 5.4 7.3

Turnip, root, 17 tons 17.0 25.5 5.7 22.4 10.9 2.6

Turnip, leaf 7.5 48.5 3.8 10.7 11.2 5.1

Total crop 24.5 74.0 9.5 33.1 22.1 7.7

Swedes, root, 14 tons 22.8 19.7 6.8 16.9 6.8 3.1

Swedes, leaf 9.2 22.7 2.4 4.8 8.3 3.6

Total crop 32.0 42.4 9.2 21.7 15.1 6.7

Mangels, root, 22 tons 69.4 15.9 18.3 36.4 42.5 8.7

Mangels, leaf 49.3 27.0 24.2 16.5 40.6 9.2

Total crop 118.7 42.9 42.5 52.9 83.1 17.9

Potatoes, tubers, 6 tons 3.8 3.4 6.3 21.5 4.4 2.6

(*) Calculated from a single analysis only.

carbon from the atmosphere, and produce, besides nitrogenous

food materials, a very large amount of the carbohydrate sugar,

as respiratory and fat-forming food for the live stock of the

farm. The still more highly nitrogenous leguminous crops,

although not characteristically benefited by nitrogenous

manures, nevertheless contribute much more nitrogen to the

total produce of the rotation than any of the other crops

comprised in it. It is the leguminous fodder crops--especially

clover, which has a much more extended period of growth,

and much wider range of collection within the soil and

subsoil, than any of the other crops of the rotation--that

yield in their produce the largest amount of nitrogen per

acre. Much of this is, doubtless taken up as nitrate, yet the

direct application of nitrate of soda has comparatively little

beneficial influence on their growth. The nitric acid is most

likely taken up chiefly as nitrate of lime, but probably as

nitrate of potash also, and it is significant that the high

nitrogen-yielding clover takes up, or at least retains, very

little soda. Table XI., from Warington's Chemistry of the

Farm, 19th edition (Vinton and Co.), will serve to illustrate

the subjects that have been discussed in this section.

For further information on the routine and details of

farming, reference may be made to the articles under

the headings of the various crops and implements.

British Live Stock.

The numbers of live stock in the United Kingdom are shown at

five-yearly intervals in Table XII. Under horses are embraced only

unbroken horses and horses used solely for agriculture (including

mares kept for breeding). The highest and lowest annual totals for

the United Kingdom in the period 1875-1905 were the following:--

Highest. Lowest. Difference

Horses 2,116,800 in 1905 1,819,687 in 1875 295,113

Cattle 11,674,019 in 1905 9,731,537 in 1877 1,942,482

Sheep 33,642,808 in 1892 27,448,220 in 1882 6,194,588

Pigs 4,362,040 in 1890 2,863,488 in 1880 1,498,552

After 1892 cattle, which in that year numbered 11,119,417,

and sheep declined continuously for three years to the

totals of 1895, the diminution being mainly the result

of the memorable drought of 1803. Sheep, which numbered

32,571,018 in 1878, declined continuously to 27,448,220 in

1882--a loss of over five million head in five years. This

was chiefly attributable to the ravages of the liver fluke

which began in the disastrously wet season of 1879. Pigs,

being prolific breeders, fluctuate more widely in numbers

than cattle or sheep, for the difference of 1,498,552 in their

case represents one-third of the highest total, whereas the

difference is less than one-seventh for horses. less than

one-sixth for cattle, and less than one-fifth for sheep. The

TABLE XII.--Numbers of Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Pigs in the

United Kingdom.

Year. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.

1875 1,819,687 10,162,787 33,491,948 3,495,167

1880 1,929,680 9,871,533 30,239,620 2,865,488

1885 1,909,200 10,868,760 30,086,200 3,686,628

1890 1,964,911 10,789,858 31,667,195 4,362,040

1895 2,112,207 10,753,314 29,774,853 4,238,870

1900 2,000,402 11,454,902 31,054,547 3,663,669

1905 2,116,800 11,674,019 29,076,777 3,601,659

relative proportions--as distinguished from the actual numbers

--in which stock are distributed over the several sections

of the United Kingdom do not vary greatly from year to

year. Table XIII., in which the totals for the United

Kingdom include those for the Channel Islands and Isle of

Man, illustrates the preponderance of the sheep-breeding

industry in the drier climate of Great Britain, and of the

cattle-breeding industry in the more humid atmosphere of

Ireland. In Great Britain in 1905, for every head of

cattle there were about four head of sheep, whereas in

Ireland the cattle outnumbered the sheep. Again. whilst

Great Britain possessed only half as many cattle more than

TABLE XIII.--Numbers of Horses, Cattle, Sheep and Pigs in the

United Kingdom in 1905.

1905. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.

England 1,204,124 5,020,936 14,698,018 2,083,226

Wales 161,923 738,789 3,534,967 211,479

Scotland 206,386 1,227,295 7,024,211 130,214

Great Britain 1,572,433 6,987,020 25,257,196 2,424,919

Ireland 534,875 4,645,215 3,749,352 1,164,316

United

Kingdom8 2,116,800 11,674,019 29,076,777 3,601,659

Ireland, she possessed six times as many sheep. The cattle

population of England alone slightly exceeded that of

Ireland. but cattle are more at home on the broad plains of

England than amongst the hills and mountains of Wales and

Scotland. which are suitable for sheep. Hence, whilst in

England sheep were not three times as numerous as cattle,

in Wales they were nearly five times, and in Scotland nearly

six times as many. Great Britain had twice as many pigs as

Ireland, but the swine industry is mainly English and Irish,

and England possessed more than six times as many pigs as

Wales and Scotland together. the number in the last-named

country being particularly small. One English county alone,

Suffolk, maintained more pigs than the whole of Scotland.

British Imports of Live Animals and Meat.

The stock-breeders and graziers of the United Kinudom have, equally

with the corn-growers, to face the brunt of foreign competition.

Up tp 1896 store cattle were admitted into the United

Kingdom for the purpose of being fattened, but under the

Diseases of Animals Act of that year animals imported

since then have to be slaughtered at the place of landing.

The dimensions of this trade are shown in Table XIV.

TABLE XIV.--Numbers of Cattle, Sheep and Pigs Imported into the

United Kingdom, 1891-1905.

Year. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs.

1891 507,407 344,504 542

1892 502,237 79,048 3826

1993 340,045 62,682 138

1894 475,440 484,597 8

1895 415,565 1,065,470 321

1896 562,553 769,592 4

1897 618,321 611,504 ..

1898 569,066 663,747 450

1899 503,504 607,755 ..

1900 495,645 382,833 ..

1901 495,635 383,594 ..

1902 419,488 293,203 ..

1903 522,546 354,241 ..

1904 549,532 382,240 ..

1905 565,139 183,084 150

The animals come mainly from the United States of America, Canada

and Argentina, and the traffic in cattle is more uniform than that

in sheep, whilst that in pigs seems practically to have reached

extinction. The quantities of dead meat imported increased

with great rapidity from 1891 to 1905, a circumstance largely

due to the rise of the trade in chilled and frozen meat. Fresh

beef in this form is imported chiefly from the United States

and Australasia, fresh mutton from Australasia and Argentina.

Table XV. shows how rapidly this trade expanded during the decade

of the 'nineties. The column headed bacon and hams indicates

clearly enough that the imports of fresh meat did not displace

those of preserved pig meat, for the latter expanded from

4,715,000 cwt. to 7,784,000 cwt. during the decade. The column

for all dead meat includes not only the items tabulated, but also

TABLE XV.--Quantities of Dead Meat Imported into the United

Kingdom, 1891-1905--Thousands of Cwt.

Year. Fresh Fresh Fresh Bacon All

Beef. Mutton. Pork. and Hams. Dead Meat.

1891 1921 1663 128 4715 9,790

1892 2080 1700 132 5135 10,300

1893 1808 1971 182 4187 9,305

1894 2104 2295 180 4819 10,610

1895 2191 2611 288 5353 11,977

1896 2660 2895 299 6009 13,347

1897 3010 3193 348 6731 14,729

1898 3101 3314 558 7684 16,445

1899 3803 3446 669 7784 17,658

1900 4128 3393 695 7444 17,912

1901 4509 3608 792 7633 18,764

1902 3707 3660 655 6572 16,971

1903 4160 4017 706 6298 17,498

1904 4350 3495 610 6696 17,517

1905 5038 3811 506 6817 18,680

the following, the quantities stated being those for 1905:--Beef,

salted, 142,806 cwt.; beef, otherwise preserved, 598,030 cwt.;

preserved mutton, 30,111 cwt.; salted pork, 205,965 cwt.;

dead rabbits, 656,078 cwt.; meat, unenumerated, 875,032 cwt.

The quantities of these are relatively small, and, excepting

rabbits from Australia, they show no general tendency to

increase. The extent to which these growing imports were

associated with a decline in value is shown in Table XVI.

The trend of the import trade in meat, live and dead (exclusive

of rabbits), may be gathered from Table XVII., in which are

given the annual average imports from the eight quinquennial

periods embraced between 1866 and 1905. An increase in live

cattle accompanied a decrease in live sheep and pigs, but the

imports of dead meat expanded fifteen-fold over the period,

The rate at which the trade in imported frozen mutton

increased as compared with the industry in home-grown mutton

is illustrated in the figures published annually by Messrs

W. Weddel and Company, from which those for 1885 and 1890 and

for each year from 1895 to 1906 are given in Table XVIII. The

home-grown is the estimated dead weight of sheep and lambs

slaughtered, which is taken at 40% of the total number of sheep

and lambs returned each year in the United Kingdom. In the

TABLE XVI.--Average Values of Fresh Meat, Bacon and Hams

Imported into the United Kingdom, 1891-1905--per Cwt.

Year. Fresh Fresh Fresh Bacon. Hams.

Beef. Mutton. Pork.

s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d. s. d.

1891 42 1 39 6 47 6 37 11 46 4

1892 42 5 40 6 46 11 40 10 47 4

1893 42 4 39 3 50 0 53 0 58 5

1894 40 0 37 10 48 5 43 10 49 1

1895 39 0 35 2 46 1 39 0 44 11

1896 37 10 32 7 45 11 34 6 43 0

1897 38 5 30 3 44 0 35 5 42 8

1898 38 2 29 7 41 10 36 2 39 6

1899 38 8 31 7 41 11 35 10 41 5

1900 39 7 34 5 43 0 41 9 46 10

1901 39 6 36 7 43 4 47 1 48 8

1902 42 8 37 9 44 2 52 9 52 1

1903 40 3 39 0 44 1 52 10 55 1

1904 37 1 39 3 45 2 47 1 49 11

1905 35 6 38 6 46 0 46 6 47 4

imported column is given the weight of fresh (frozen) mutton

and lamb imported, plus the estimated dead weight of the

sheep imported on the hoof for slaughter. The quantity imported

in 1899 was double that in 1890, and quadruple that in 1885.

Moreover, in 1885 the imported product was only about one-seventh

TABLE XVII.--Average Annual Imports of Cattle, Sheep and Pigs,

and of Dead Meat, into the United Kingdom over eight 5-yearly

periods.

Period. Cattle. Sheep. Pigs. Dead Meat.

No. No. No. Cwt.

1866-1870 194,947 610,300 64,827 1,155,867

1871-1875 215,990 864,516 74,040 3,134,175

1876-1880 272,745 938,704 44,613 5,841,913

1881-1885 387,282 974,316 24,355 6,012,495

1886-1890 438,098 800,599 19,437 7,681,729

1891-1895 448,139 407,260 967 10,436,549

1896-1900 549,818 607,086 91 15,785,354

1901-1905 510,468 319,272 30 17,384,366

as much as the home-grown. whereas in 1890 it was more than

one-fourth, and in 1906 close on two-thirds. This large import

trade in fresh meat, which sprang up entirely within the last

quarter of the 19th century, has placed an abundance of cheap

and wholesome food well within the reach of the great industrial

TABLE XVIII.--Home Product and Imports of Sheep and Mutton

into the United Kingdom--Thousands of Tons.

Year. Home- Imported. Year. Home- Imported.

grown. grown.

1885 322 47 1900 332 179

1890 339 92 1901 330 191

1895 319 157 1902 322 191

1896 329 164 1903 318 2109

1897 327 175 1904 311 185

1898 333 182 1905 312 195

1899 339 187 1906 313 207

populations of the United Kingdom. At the same time it

cannot. be gainsaid that it has opened the way to fraud.

Butchers have palmed off upon their customers imported

fresh meat as home-grown, and secured a dishonest profit

by charging for it the prices of the latter, which are

considerably in excess of those of the imported product.

Sale of Cattle by Live Weight

In connexion with the internal live stock trade of Great

Britain attention must be directed to the Markets and Fairs

(Weighing of Cattle) Act 1891. The object of this measure

is to replace the old-fashioned system of guessing at the

weight of an animal by the sounder method of obtaining the

exact weight by means of the weighbridge. The grazier buys

and sells cattle much less frequently than the butcher buys

them, so that the latter is naturally more skilled in estimating

the weight of a beast through the use of the eye and the

hand. The resort to the weighbridge should put both on an

equality, and its use tends to increase. Under the act,

as supplemented by an order of the Board of Agriculture

in 1905, there were in that year 26 scheduled places in

England and 10 in Scotland, or 36 altogether, from which

returns were obtained. The numbers of cattle (both fat

and store) weighed at scheduled places in 1893 and 190510

were respectively 7.59 and 18% of those entering those

markets. The numbers for Scotland are greater throughout

than those for England, 72% of the fat cattle entering the

scheduled markets in Scotland in 1905 (2) having been weighed,

while in England the proportion was only 20%. Little use is

made of the weighbridge in selling store-cattle, sheep or

swine. As the main object of the act is to obtain records of

prices, it follows that only in so far as statements of the

prices realized, together with the description of the animals

involved, are obtained, is the full advantage of the statute

secured. In 1905 the average price per cwt. for fat cattle in

Great Britain was 32s. 11d. as compared with 35s. 2d. in 1900.

Food Values and Early Maturity.

In the feeding experiments which have been carried on at

Rothamsted it has been shown that the amount consumed both

for a given live weight of animal within a given time, and for

the production of a given amount of increase, is, as current

food stuffs go, measurable more by the amounts they contain

of digestible and available non-nitrogenous constituents than

by the amounts of the digestible and available nitrogenous

constituents they supply. The non-nitrogenous substance

(the fat) in the increase in live weight of an animal is,

at any rate in great part, if not entirely, derived from the

non-nitrogenous constituents of the food. Of the nitrogenous

compounds in food, on the other hand, only a small proportion

of the whole consumed is finally stored up in the increase of

the animal--in other words, a very large amount of nitrogen

passes through the body beyond that which is finally retained

in the increase, and so remains for manure. Hence it is

that the amount of food consumed to produce a given amount

of increase in live weight, as well as that required for

the sustentation of a given live weight for a given time,

should--provided the food be not abnormally deficient in

nitrogenous substance--be characteristically dependent on

its supplies of digestible and available non-nitrogenous

constituents. It has further been shown that, in the exercise

of force by animals, there is a greatly increased expenditure

of the non-nitrogenous constituents of food, but little, if

any, Of the nitrogenous. Thus, then, alike for maintenance, for

increase, and for the exercise of force, the exigencies of the

system are characterized more by the demand for the digestible

non-nitrogenous or more specially respiratory and fat-forming

constituents than by that for the nitrogenous or more specially

flesh-forming ones. Hence, as current fattening food-stuffs

go--assuming, of course, that they are not abnormally low

in the nitrogenous constituents--they are, as foods, more

valuable in proportion to their richness in digestible and

available non-nitrogenous than to that of their nitrogenous

constituents. As, however, the manure of the animals of the

farm is valuable largely in proportion to the nitrogen it

contains, there is, so far, an advantage in giving a food

somewhat rich in nitrogen, provided it is in other respects

a good one, and, weight for weight, not much more costly.

The quantity of digestible nutritive matter in 1000 lb. of ordinary

feeding-stuffs when supplied to sheep or oxen is shown in Table

XIX. This table is taken from Warington's Chemistry of the

Farm, 10th edition (Vinton and Co.), to which reference may

be made for a detailed discussion of the feeding of animals.

In the fattening of animals for the butcher the principle of

early maturity has received full recognition. If the sole

purpose for which an animal is reared is to prepare it for

the block--and this is the case with steers amongst cattle

and with wethers amongst sheep--the sooner it is ready for

slaughter the less should be the outlay involved. During the

whole time the animal is living the feeder has to pay what

has been termed the ``life tax''--that is, so much of the

food has to go to the maintenance of the animal as a living

organism into what will subsequenctly be available in the

form of beef or mutton. If a bullock can be rendered fit

for the butcher at the age of two or three years, will the

animal repay another year's feeding? It has been proved at

the Christmas fat stock shows that the older a bullock gets

the less will he gain in weight per day as a result of the

feeding. With regard to this point the work of the Smithfield

Club deserves recognition. This body was instituted in 1798

as the Smithfield Cattle and Sheep Society, the title being

TABLE XIX.--Digestible Matter in 1000 lb. of Various Foods.

Total Nitrogeneaous Soluble

Organic Substances. Fat. Carbo- Fibre

Matter. Alba- Amides, hydrates

minoids. etc.

Cotton cake

(decorticated) 691 374 18 128 158 13

(undecorticated) 422 150 13 50 177 32

Linseed cake 655 230 11 103 266 45

Peas 747 175 25 12 499 36

Beans 733 196 28 12 446 51

Wheat11 786 92 13 15 656 10

Oats 600 81 7 45 441 26

Barley 715 70 4 19 607 15

Maize 786 73 6 44 651 12

Rice meal 612 67 10 102 411 22

Wheat bran 585 90 20 27 426 22

Malt sprouts 681 114 71 11 379 106

Brewers' grains 137 34 2 14 67 20

'' (dried) 529 136 8 57 266 62

Pasture grass 156 19 11 6 84 36

Clover (bloom beginning) 123 17 8 5 63 30

Clover hay (medium) 440 47 25 13 242 113

Meadow hay (best) 511 60 18 13 269 151

(medium) 485 40 12 12 269 152

(poor) 460 29 5 10 242 174

Maize silage 124 1 7 7 75 34

\ /

Bean straw 412 40 6 211 155

Oat straw 381 7 5 7 163 199

Barley straw 426 4 3 6 211 202

\ /

Wheat straw 351 4 4 150 193

Potatoes 213 5 9 1 195 3

Mangels (large) 89 1 8 1/2 74 6

(small) 109 2 6 1/2 96 5

Swedes 87 2 7 1/2 71 6

Turnips 68 1 5 1/2 56 5

changed to that of the Smithfield Club in 1802. The original

object--the supply of the cattle markets of Smithfield and

other places with the cheapest and best meat--is still kept

strictly in view. The judges, in making their awards at the

show held annually in December, at Islington, North London

(since 1862), are instructed to decide according to quality of

flesh, lightness of offal, age and early maturity, with no

restrictions as to feeding, and thus to promote the primary

aim of the club in encouraging the selection and breeding of

the best and most useful animals for the production of meat,

and testing their capabilities in respect of early maturity.

At the first show, held at Smithfield in 1799, two classes

were provided for cattle and two for sheep, the prizes offered

amounting to L. 52 : 10s. In 1839 the classes comprised seven

for cattle, six for sheep, and one for pigs, with prizes to

the amount of L. 300. By 1862 the classes had risen to 29 for

cattle, 17 for sheep and 4 for pigs, and the prize money to

L. 2072. At the centenary show in 1898 provision was made for

40 classes for cattle, 29 for sheep, 18 for pigs, and 7 for

animals to be slaughtered, whilst to mark the importance of the

occasion the prizes offered amounted to close upon L. 5000 in

value. In 1907 there were 38 classes for cattle, 29 for sheep,

20 or pigs and 12 for carcase competitors, and the value of

the prizes was L. 4113. The sections provided for cattle are

properly restricted to what may be termed the beef brands;

in the catalogue order they are Devon, South Devon, Hereford,

Shorthorn, Sussex, Red Polled, Aberdeen-Angus, Galloway, Welsh,

Highland, Cross-bred, Kerry and Dexter, and Small Cross-bred.

It will be noticed that such characteristically milking

breeds as the Ayrshire, Jersey and Guernsey have no place

here. Provision is made, however, for all the well-known

breeds of sheep and swine. In the cattle classes, aged beasts

of huge size and of considerably over a ton in weight used

to be common, but in recent years the tendency has been to

reduce the upper limit of age, and thus to bring out animals

ripe for the butcher in a shorted time than was formerly the

case. An important step in this direction was taken in 1896,

when the senior class for steers, viz. animals three to four

years old, was abolished, the maximum age at which steers

were allowed to compete for prizes being reduced to three

years. The cow classes were abolished in 1897, and in the

schedule of the 1905 exhibition the classes for each breed

of cattle were (1) for steers not exceeding two years old,

(2) for steers above two years and not exceeding three years

old, and (3) for heifers not exceeding three years old. The

single exception is provided by the slowly-maturing Highland

breed of cattle, for which classes were allotted to (1) steers

not exceeding three years old, (2) steers or oxen above three

years old (with no maximum limit), and (3) heifers not

exceeding four years old. As illustrating heavy weights,

there were in the 1893 show, out of 310 entries of cattle,

four beasts which weighed over a ton. They were all steers of

three to four years old, one being a Hereford weighing 20 cwt.

2 qr. 4 lb, and the others Shorthorns weighing respectively

20 cwt. 2 qr., 20 cwt. 3 qr. 21 lb, and 22 cwt. 2 qr. 18

lb. In the 1895 show, out of 356 entries of cattle, there

were seven beasts of more than a ton in weight. They were

all three to four years old, and comprised four Shorthorns

(top weight 21 cwt. 1 qr. 18 lb), one Sussex (22 cwt. 3

qr. 7 lb), and two cross-breds (top weight 20 cwt. 3 qr. 24

lb). In the 1899 show, with 311 entries of cattle, and the

age limited to three years, no beast reached the weight of a

ton, the heaviest animal being a crossbred (Aberdeen-Angus

and Shorthorn) which, at three years old, turned the scale

at 19 cwt. 1 qr. 5 lb. Out of 301 entries in 1905 the top

weight was 19 cwt. 1 qr. 25 lb in the case of a Shorthorn

steer. Useful figures for purposes of comparison are obtained

by dividing the weight of a fat beast by the number of days

in its age, the weight at birth being thrown in. The average

daily gain in live weight is thus arrived at, and as the animal

increases in age this average gradually diminishes, until the

daily gain reaches a stage at which it does not afford any

profitable return upon the food consumed. At the centenary

show of the Smithfield Club in 1898 the highest average daily

gains in weight amongst prize-winning cattle were providrd

by a Shorthorn-Aberdeen cross-bred steer (age, one year seven

months; daily gain 2.47 lb); a Shorthorn steer (age, one year

seven months; daily gain, 2.44 lb); and an Aberdeen-Shorthorn

cross-bred steer (age, one year ten months; daily gain, 2.33

lb). These beasts, it will be observed, were all under two years

old. Amongst prize steers of two and a half to three years

old, on the same occasion, the three highest daily average

gains in live weight were 2.07 lb. for an Aberdeen-Angus,

1.99 lb. for a Shorthorn-Aberdeen cross-bred and 1.97 lb. for a

Sussex. In the sheep section of the Smithfield show the

classes for ewes were finally abolished in 1898, and the

classes restricted to wethers and wether lambs, whose function

is exclusively the production of meat. At the 1905 show,

sheep of each breed, and also cross-breds, competed as (1)

wether lambs under twelve months old, and (2) wether sheep

above twelve and under twenty-four months old. The only

exception was in the case of the slowly-maturing Cheviot and

mountain breeds, for which the second class was for wether

sheep of any age above twelve months. Of prize sheep at the

centenary show the largest average daily gain was 0.77 lb. per

head given by Oxford-Hampshire cross-bred wether lambs, aged

nine months two weeks. In the case of wether sheep, twelve

to twenty-four months old, the highest daily increase was

0.56 lb per head as yielded by Lincolns, aged twenty-one

months. Within the last quarter of the 19th century the

stock-feeding practices of the country were much modified

in accordance with these ideas of early maturity. The

three-year-old wethers and older oxen that used to be common

in the fat stock markets are now rarely seen, excepting

perhaps in the case of mountain breeds of sheep and Highland

cattle. It was in 1875 that the Smithfield Club first provided

the competitive classes for lambs, and in 1883 the champion

plate offered for the best pen of sheep of any age in the

show was for the first time won by lambs, a pen of Hampshire

Downs. The young classes for bullocks were established in

1880. The time-honoured notion that an animal must have

completed its growth before it could be profitably fattened is

no longer held, and the improved breeds which now exist rival

one another as regards the early period at which they may be

made ready for the butcher by appropriate feeding and management.

In 1895 the Smithfield Club instituted a carcase competition

in association with its annual show of fat stock, and it

has been continued each year since. The cattle and sheep

entered for this competition are shown alive on the first

day, at the close of which they are slaughtered and the

carcases hung up for exhibition, with details of live and dead

weights. The competition thus constitutes what is termed

a ``block test,'' and it is instructive in affording the

opportunity of seeing the quality of the carcases furnished by

the several animals, and in particular the relative proportion

and distribution of fat and lean meat. The live animals are

judged and subsequently the carcases, and, though the results

sometimes agree, more often they do not. Tables are constructed

showing the fasted live weight, the carcase weight, and the

weight of the various parts that are separated from and not

included with the carcase. An abundance of lean meat and a

moderate amount of fat well distributed constitutes a better

carcase, and a more economical one for the consumer, than a

carcase in which gross accumulations of fat are prominent.

To add to the educational value of the display, information

as to the methods of feeding would be desirable, as it would

then be possible to correlate the quality of the meat with the

mode of its manufacture. A point of high practical interest

is the ratio of carcase weight to fasted live weight, and

in the case of prize-winning carcases these ratios usually

fluctuate within very narrow limits. At the 1890 show, for

example, the highest proportion of the carcase weight to

live weight was 68% in the case of an Aberdeen-Angus steer

and of a Cheviot wether, whilst the lowest was 61%, afforded

alike by a Shorthorn-Sussex cross-bred heifer and a mountain

lamb. A familiar practical method of estimating carcase

weight from live weight is to reckon one Smithfield stone

(8 lb) of carcase for each imperial stone (14 lb) of live

weight. This gives carcase weight as equal to 57% of live

weight, a ratio much inferior to the best results obtained

at the carcase competition promoted by the Smithfield Club.

Breed societies.

A noteworthy feature of the closing decades of the 19th

century was the formation of voluntary associations of

stockbreeders, with the object of promoting the interests of

the respective breeds of live stock. As a typical example of

these organizations the Shire Horse Society may be mentioned.

It was incorporated in 1878 to improve and promote the breeding

of the Shire or old English race of cart-horses, and to effect

the distribution of sound and healthy sires throughout the

country. The society holds annual shows, publishes annually

the Shire Horse Stud Book and offers gold and silver medals

for competition amongst Shire horses at agricultural shows

in different parts of the country, The society has carried

on a work of high national importance, and has effected a

marked improvement in the character and quality of the Shire

horse. What has thus voluntarily been done in England

would in most other countries be left to the state, or would

not be attempted at all. It is hardly necessary to say

that the Shire Horse Society has never received a penny of

public money, nor has any other of the voluntary breeders'

societies. The Hackney Horse Society and the Hunters'

Improvement Society are conducted on much the same lines as

the Shire Horse Society, and, like it, they each hold a show

in London in the spring of the year and publish an annual

volume. Other horsebreeders' associations, all doing useful

work in the interests of their respective breeds, are the

Suffolk Horse Society, the Clydesdale Horse Society, the

Yorkshire Coach Horse Society, the Cleveland Bay Horse

Society, the Polo Pony Society, the Shetland Pony Stud Book

Society, the Welsh Pony and Cob Society and the New Forest Pony

Association. Thoroughbred race-horses are registered in the

General Stud Book. The Royal Commission on Horse Breeding,

which dates from 1887, is, as its name implies, not a voluntary

organization. Through the commission the money previously

spent upon Queen's Plates is offered in the form of ``King's

Premiums'' (to the number of twenty-eight in 1907) of L. 150 each

for thoroughbred stallions, on condition that each stallion

winning a premium shall serve not less than fifty half-bred

mares, if required. The winning stallions are distributed

in districts throughout Great Britain, and the use of these

selected sires has resulted in a decided improvement in the

quality of half-bred horses. The annual show of the Royal

Commission on Horse Breeding is held in London jointly. and

concurrently with that of the Hunters' Improvement Society.

Of organizations of cattle-breeders the English Jersey Cattle

Society, established in 1878, may be taken as a type. It

offers prizes in butter-test competitions and milking trials

at various agricultural shows, and publishes the English Herd

Book and Register of Pure-Bred Jersey Cattle. This volume

records the births in the herds of members of the society,

and gives the pedigrees of cows and bulls, besides furnishing

lists of prize-winners at the principal shows and butter-test

awards, and reports of sales by auction of Jersey cattle.

Other cattle societies, all well caring for the interest of

their respective breeds, are the Shorthorn Society of Great

Britain and Ireland, the Lincolnshire Red Shorthorn Association,

the Hereford Herd Book Society, the Devon Cattle Breeders'

Society, the South Devon Herd Book Society, the Sussex Herd

Book Society, the Long-horned Cattle Society, the Red Polled

Society, the English Guernsey Cattle Society, the English Kerry

and Dexter Cattle Society, the Welsh Black Cattle Society,

the Polled Cattle Society (for the Aberdeen-Angus breed), the

English Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Association, the Galloway Cattle

Society, the Ayrshire Cattle Herd Book Society, the Highland

Cattle Society of Scotland and the Dairy Shorthorn Association.

In the case of sheep the National Sheep Breeders' Association

looks after the interests of flockmasters in general, whilst

most of the pure breeds are represented also by separate

organizations. The Hampshire Down Sheep Breeders' Association

may be taken as a type of the latter, its principal object being

to encourage the breeding of Hampshire Down sheep at home and

abroad, and to maintain the purity of the breed. It publishes

an annual Flock Book, the first volume of which appeared in

1890. In this book are named the recognized and pure-bred

sires which have been used, and ewes which have been bred

from, whilst there are also registered the pedigrees of such

sheep as are proved to be eligible for entry. Prizes are

offered by the society at various agricultural shows where

Hampshire Down sheep are exhibited. Other sheep societies

include the Leicester Sheep Breeders' Association, the

Cotswold Sheep Society, the Lincoln Longwool Sheep Breeders'

Association, the Oxford Down Sheep Breeders' Association,

the Shropshire Sheep Breeders' Association and Flock Book

Society, the Southdown Sheep Society, the Suffolk Sheep

Society, the Border Leicester Sheep Breeders' Society, the

Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Breeders' Association and Flock

Book Society, the Incorporated Wensleydale Blue-faced Sheep

Breeders' Association and Flock Book Society, the Kent Sheep

Breeders' Association, the Devon Longwool Sheep Breeders'

Society, the Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders' Association, the Cheviot

Sheep Society and the Roscommon Sheep Breeders' Association.

The interests of pig-breeders are the care of the

National Pig Breeders' Association, in addition to which

there exist the British Berkshire, the Large Black Pig,

and the Lincoln Curly-Coated White Pig Societies, and

the Incorporated Tamworth Pig Breeders' Association.