FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9975, 12 November 1895, Page 3

FARM NOTES FROM ENGLAND.

[BY OUR ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL TORRES'

PONDENT.] London, September 7. PROSPECTS OF THE BUTTER TRADE. Messrs, Reynolds and Co, inform me that the first shipment of the coming season from New Zealand is likely to meet a fair market, as there is no stored butter held over from last season. Bub after November a steady fall in prices is expected, because very heavy shipments will thentn[9.\ arrived. . MORE ABOUT AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION. A report on the condition of agriculture in Cambridgeshire has just been issued by the Royal Commission on Agriculture, the writer being Mr. A. Wilson Fox. He divides the county into the Northern of Fen district, and the Southern, and describes the condition of agriculture in the former as "critical," while that of the latter is declared to be " mosb deplorable." The Fens, it is hardly necessary to say, are very fertile, and even for corngrowing they are far superior to the ordinary land of the country. But a large portion of them is well fitted for the growth of potatoes and other culinary vegetables and fruit, co thab many of the cultivators have more profitable crops than corn to help them. Then it happens that, although they have felt the general fall in prices, they have been able to pay their way. Rents on the besb fen land are from 35s to 40s an acre for large farms, being only about 15 per cent, less than they were fifteen years ago, while small holdings, where the land is well suited to market gardening let at £2 to £3 an acre, or even more if close to a town, and fruit plantations in full bearing, where nob owned by the cultivators, aro worth from £3 to £4 an acre. Bub on the land, apart from the Fens or the greensand, there are thousands of acres leb at fls an acre or less, rents having fallen 50 to 75 per cent, since 1879. A great deal of land is on the landlords' bunds, because ib cannot be leb, and much of this is practically uncultivated, having been left to run down to grass, which is fed by sheep. In some cases the landlords have to pay nearly as much in tithe as they get in rent, and several of them havo had to leave their mansions and go abroad—to economise. A good many farmers have been ruined, and more aro really insolvent, bub manage to hold on by the indulgence of their landlords or their bankers. On some estates there are heavy arrears of rent which will never bo recovered. The small holders, except on land suitable for vegetables or fruit, complain that they work twice as hard as farm labourers, and earn less. They declare that they must have protection, and nearly all the farmers say that they need ib, though they know there is no chance of their getting it, Others pin their faith to bimetallism as a means of raising prices. Other remedies asked for, and more likely to be secured, are the abolition of preference railway rates on imported produce, a stringent law against adulteration, the manufacture of beer from malt and hops, Government advances of money ab low interest for permanent improvements, the reduction of the burdens on land, tho marking of foreign meat, light railways, and an old-age pension scheme for labourers, The wages of ordinary labourers are generally only 10s to 12s a week, with extra for piecework and in harvest, and in some places only 9s a week in winter, wages having fallen since 1892. Horsemen and stockkeepers geb more. Labourers are now sharing in the ill results of agricultural depression. Not only is their pay lesr than it was, but more men are out of work in the slack season. AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION. The discussion of agricultural co-opera-tion at the International Co-operative Congress, bo far as there was any discussion, was disappointing, because there was no time to read nearly all the papers thab had been prepared by representatives of different countries, still less to discuss them. Part of the morning was taken up with a subject adjourned from the previous day, and at two p.m. those presont had to leave to attend at the opening of the Co-operative Flower Show at the Crystal Palace. Thus the only important proceedings were the reading of a paper on " Agricultural Cooperation in Ireland," by the Hon. Horace Plunkett, M.P., and the delivery of a long speech on the Agricultural Syndicates of France by the Comte de Rocquiguy, President of the Union of French Agricultural Syndicates. Mr. Plunkett gave a very interesting account of the movement in Ireand, which he initiated. He started among the dairy-farmers, because buttermaking is easily made co-operative. Bub ab first he had groat difficulty in inducing farmers to co-operate, and he had addressed fifty meetings before the first co-operative creamery was established in 1889. At thab time only fifty farmers had become members of co-operative undertakings, and there was no progress in the next year. But in 1891 the number rose to 850, in 1892 to 1050, in 1893 to 1250, and in 1894 to 1650. In May, 1894, after the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society had been formed, travelling organisers were appointed, and so successful were they that by the end of March last the members of co-operative societies had risen to 3800, and at the present time it is 8200. There are now ninetyone co-operative undertakings at work or in course of formation. Forty-nine cooperative dairies are at work, and twentyseron more are boing formed, while there are eleven associations apart from dairying, and four agricultural credit banks either at work or about to open. The benefits to Irish farmers are already considerable; but Mr. Plunkett and his associates in the Organisation Society, which is well supported,'do not mean to rest; until thero is a widespread system of co-operation for tho sale of all classes of farmers' produce in Ireland, and for the purchase of commodities which farmers require. In the course of his long address, tho Comte de Rocquiguy said thab the French Agricultural Syndicates, or co operative societies as we should call them here, were not made lawful till 1885, when 39 were formed. Now there are about 1500, with a membership of 600,000. They have been of the utmosb advantage to the farmers and small cultivators of France. BUTTERMAKING IN SWEDEN.

According to a Foreign Office Reporb, the buttermakors of Sweden cannot bo making much money by exporting butter to this country. In 1894 the averago price realised was not quite 10£ d a pound, and if they get a pound of butter from 2.| gallons of milk, they'received only a fraction ovor 4d a gallon from the sale of their butter, and there must have been expenses to be deducted from their returns, besides those of making the butter. In all probability tho net receipts from their factories did not exceed, if they reached, 3d a gallon tor the milk, which could hardly havo paid them. They are talking of combinations to raise prices; but they have no power to do anything of the kind. If they lend butler to this country, they must compete with the supplies from other European countries and Australasia.