THE AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION AT HOME.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 6

THE AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION AT HOME.

Mr Chaplin, speaking at the recent agricultural conference, said that things were going from bad to worse. In 1886 a commission was set up to inquire into the great depression in trade. Amongst those who were called upon to give evidence was Sir James Caird, who had the information collected for him by inspectors acting under the then Land Commission. Sir James Caird went through the counties of England seriatim. He began with Northumberland, and he estimated that on arable farms land owners had lost in recent years 40 per cent of their spendable income, and that the tenants had lost more. In Yorkshire and Durham the lando fvners had lost 30 per cent, and the tenants 50 per cent. In Lincolnshire, Bedfordshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire, the landowners had lost 30 per cent, and the tenants from 20 to 60 per cent. In Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire the landowners had lost in the Fen districts 40 per cent, and in the highland districts 33 per cent, and as to the tenants, he said, they had actually received no profits of any kind at all. The evidence with regard to the last named counties came from an inspector who had recently sat for four days as Chairman of the Income Tax Commissioners in a division of 100,000 acres, and who had heard numerons appeals against assessments. That inspector knew also, he said, of seven farms of 2300 acres, let at a reduction of 47 per cent, and of one farm of 1000 acres, which used to let for £750, but did not then pay even the rates and taxes, and which, of course, was in the landlord’s hands. He knew of other farms in the same districts which produced neither rent nor interest of any kind. The other English counties showed similar losses more or less. Deferring to Scotland, Sir James Caird said that in Perthshire, Forfarshire, and Fife the landlords had lost from 25 to 33 per cent, which loss was increased to 5Q or 60 percent by the large demauds for outlay on improvements. The landlord’s power of spending was, therefore, reduced hy 50 to 60 per cent. The tenants in those counties bad lost the whole of their spendable income. In all, Sir James Caird estimated that the landowners had lost 30 millions, or 20 per cent of their income ; that the tenants had lost 20 millions, or 60 per cent of their income; and that the labourers had lost £2, 800,000, or 10 per cent of their spendable income, making a total loss to the landed interest of spendable income of no less than 4=52,800,000, and speh was the condition of things six years ago. The mischief had been steadily increasing, and he had seen some figures that had been published quite recently by his friend Mr Clay, a recognised leader of the agriculturists of the country. Mr Clay estimated that in 1891, as compared with twenty years ago, there was upwards of a loss of 77 millions in the annual value of agricultural produee, and then he showed a very large loss in the capital stock, which was, of course, entirely the property of the occupiers,

It is the experience of generations of breeders, that the first young produced by an animal, especially when that animal is herself immature, is not so strong and well developed as the offspring of those more mature. This is why it is not usual to save for breeding purposes the heifer’s calf, the gilt’s pig, &c., and no doubt there is wisdom in it. There may well be exceptions as there are to every rule; and if a heifer is of a fair age when served, is well grown, and the calves look likely, it would be folly to sacrifice them if valuably