THEN AND NOW.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCV, Issue 10912, 21 March 1896, Page 6

THEN AND NOW.

A Forfarshire farmer has supplied to the Dundee Courier a very striking and interesting statement comparing his position now with what it was thirty years ago, when he entered upon his present farm. After every harvest, he remarks, ho has a day’s threshing of barley with the portable threshing mill, and last year the drawings for the day’s work were the least they have ever been, the amount being only £62, whereas in the good old times he could count upon .£IBO. But while tho value of agricultural produce has gone down, the labour bill and other expenses havd advanced. When he entered his farm, the price of a small steer weighing twenty-eight Dutch stone, paid the wages of his foreman, now it requires the price procured for a pair of steers, weighing thirty-four Dutch stone each, to satisfy the claims of that individual; lOqrs of barley paid his foreman then, now it requires 36qrs 12 Jars of .oats discharged that obligation then, nww it takes 50qrs. The rent of his farm has, been reduced 33 per cent, hut he shows that he was much better with bis farm at the high rent then than he would ‘be now with the holding rent free. It requires about the same quantity of beef to pay the low rent now that it took to pay tile high rent then. When he began, I3oqrs of barley paid his rent, now it requires 1700 rs; then 155qrs of oats paid the rent, now it requires 246qrs to pay the low rent. He further shows that, while he is not making anything off his farm, the Government is, and in this way : He grows about twenty acres of barley annually, with an average yield of about XOOqrs, which he sells at less than £IOO to a distillery to be converted into whisky, the yield of whiskey being about two gallons per bushel, or IGOOgal in all. Government charges 11s 6d per gallon of duty, netting a profit of £46 per acre, or £920 in all on'the small quantity grown by him. And be seeks to torn his interesting - calculation to useful purpose by suggesting that out of this handsome profit the Government should give a bonus to barley growers to help them to tide over their present difficulties. ‘ '