Agricultural Column.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 362, 5 April 1871, Page 8

Agricultural Column.

CAPITAL IN AGRICULTURE. , While treating of this subject in a late issue of 'The Australasian,' and quoting* &om an address to the Gloucestershire Chamber of Agriculture, by Mr Daniel ■Long} one of the members of that body, reference was made to an opinion that 'one of the principal obstacles to the investment ot capital in agriculture was insecurity uf tenure. In this part of the world that cause has certainly operated very injuriously on the squatting 1 interest, by disinclining the Crown tenants to invest in permanent improvements, such as wellsinking, superseding the natural by artificial grasses, where that could be done with ■advantage, by fencing, subdividing, arid 'other methods of augmenting the yields, improving its quality, and lessening the •cost and risk of management. A great dumber* however (by far the larger proportion), of our larmers can lay claim to no 'such excuse ; they are thoir own landlords, 'and ought to be in a position to improve : their property in every desirable way. The knowledge that they had an insufficiency of capital should have prevented them investing it as they have done on areas too large tor their means. But not only have they chosen to ignore that disability; they have also continued to employ too*little capital when they had not the same excuse 'for doing so. When by dint of simple ploughing and sowing, and by saving in the matter of fencing, they have succeeded in raising capital during the first two or three seasons, they have not applied it to the improvement of the farms whence it was extracted, but have rushed hither •and thither for more land, the value of the original purchase being meanwhile diininisbing'Very nearly in proportion to the amount of capital extracted from it. Thus, 'in every direction in the older settled districts, are seen dilapidated' fences, snrTounding land that in ordinary seasons appears capable only of sustaining a goat 'to the acre ; the owners have gone westward to seek Other land,.just as a similar '■class of men have done in America. The most satisfactory item in this matter is- the fact of the area ot the new land acapted for such farming as they desire to practise being limited, so that many such moves cannot be made. It was not of men of this class that Mr Long was treatiyg, nor is such farming as theirs worthy the name of husbandry. After a time, when the exhaustive process has been finished, they will have to adopt a restorative one, and 'as many of them by that time will have ceased to be their own landlords, they will have an interest in considering the causes 'which operate to prevent., the due investment of capital in agriculture. To these we now return on behalf of a class already numerous, and yearly increasing —we mean the tenant farmers, those who perforce are tenants because the land they 'occupy, being in the vicinity of large -centres of population,' is indispensable for their purpose. Many of these men have still to pay annually a sum, by way of rental, equal to the original cost of the -land ; the majority have managed to do so for several years. Lesser yields and lower prices have at length induced a spirit of as to the best method of meeting the altered state of things. By one leases ; are advocated, by another compensation "for unexhausted improvements. Both are good in their way, bnt of the two, the latter is really the best, and the most equitable, both for landlord and tenant, as we shall easily show. The result of the leasing system in this colony has been precisely that which it is desired to avoid. Men have taken new land on a seven or 'ten j r ears' lease, the task of building a homestead and of fencing the land being left to be performed by them in any way 'they might choose ; the rent and nothing else being stipulated for, except that whatever buildings and fences were erected, should be the landlord's property at the •termination of the lease. Under such an ■agreement, the practice of annually croppina: the soil with wheat or oats, and returning nothing to it, has been developed : and so thoroughly perfected, that at the termination of the leases, the land, ex''cepfing in rare cases, was not worth retaking; in every instance its ability to 'bear profitable crops was seriously impaired, and the soil, instead ot being improved, as it is under the borne system of i agriculture, was defertilised. And who shall lay blame on "the tenant ? Had he invested his capital in improving the landlord's soil, what security had he for its return at the end of the lease? He had not only no security for his capital, but the certainty that whatever improvements remained unexhausted would be lost to him. He > therefore, wisely took as much out of the land as he could, and put nothing in that would not be extracted befof e the expiration of his lease. In contradistinction to this unsatisfactory result, let us set that of the annual tenancy system, with compensation to the out-going tenant "for the'value of unexhausted improvements, both permanent and temporary. In the ; 'latter are included acts of husbandry and 'crops unconsumed. Let us take an ex ample from a Cotswold farm. Say that the tenancy is a Michaelmas one, and the rarea -600 acres '; that of this 150 are in pasturage'; that 200 are stubbles, or in preparation for next grain crops, on which ;a certain amount ol labor has been done ; 'that 150 are in seeds and sainfoin of various ages, and the rest in root crops, chiefly : in turnips and swedes. The outgoing tenant would be entitled to. receive from iris successor — 1. Payment fur any plough- , ing or harrowing, that may have been done for the next year's grain crops. 2. Paymenit of the cost 'of the seeds (clovers, sainfoin/grasses; #c.) in their first year, i.g., those which were sown in the previous year's grain crops?) and which are now to be found in part of the stubbles ; (3) payment for seeds and sainfoin of greater age , (4) payment for tble tfhole of the root 1

crops, including those' already consumed, by sheep upon the land, a difference being made in the valuation ; (5) payment for, the hay and straw"; (6) payment "for dung heaps. As all the strawj hay-, and roots, must be consumed upon the farm, the feeding value only of these' is paid to the outgoing tenant. In some cases the latter is allowed the use of stockyards and sheds to consume the straw until the next Ladyday. For bonedust applied to the turnip crop, the full value is paid the first year. In Borne cases an allowance is made for bonedust applied two years previously, and thai: is nothing more than equitable. There is one landlord who allows full price the first year, half the second, and a fourth "the third year, for bonedust ; but this case is unique. From this it will be easily understood that the valuation for " acts of husbandry " on a farm of 600 acres, where such is the custom of the country, often amounts to from Ll 10s to L 2 per acre ; rarely does it fall so low as Ll. Is nor this better security for the tenant than a lease, and has not" the landlord far better security for his rent than under the colonial tenure ? — ' Australasian,*