CHAPTER XII.

AGRICULTURAL PROSPECTS.

SINCE the last edition of this work appeared, we

have had in the harvest of 1879 the worst crop

The har

vest of

1879 the

worst in

experi

in the memory of the present generation of modern farmers. The wheat crop of 1853 was perhaps ence. less in bulk per acre; but it was better in quality, and the extent was one fourth greater. After deducting seed, it yielded one-half more food than that of 1879, a large proportion of which was unfit for bread. The importations of 1853-4 were six million quarters, and the average price 72s. The population was six millions less than at present, but the quantity available for consumption was only 4 bushels per head. It has never since fallen so low. After the abundant crop of 1868, when the population was three millions greater than in 1853, there was over six bushels per head, and the price had fallen to 48s. With the exception of 1870 and 1874, the history of the home

wheat crop since 1868 has been one of diminishing acreage, and acreable produce, but attended by such increasing importations as have kept the supply close upon six bushels a head.

Nothing like the present depression among the farmers has been seen since the repeal of the corn laws. There have not before been so many farms thrown on the market, and never till now in our time have been seen in England farms tenantless and uncultivated. The continued rain and low temperature of 1879 not only acted destructively on the corn and green crops, but damaged the hay crop beyond measure, and over many English counties left behind it the seeds of disease, which, in the winter and spring carried off by rot many thousands of the sheep stock. The inferior quality of the fodder crops shows itself in the reduced condition of all kinds of live stock. In nine years there have been seven defective harvests, the last culminating in intensity, and including in its grasp a portion of the animal in addition to the vegetable produce of the land. It is no comfort to the British farmer

AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION.

159

to be told that there is similar depression in the agricultural districts of France and Germany, nor is it any satisfaction to him to hear of the rapid growth of agricultural wealth in the Western States across the Atlantic, the competition of which has prevented that rise of price which has hitherto been some compensation to him for unfavourable harvests. In England itself, where the bulk of the wheat crop of the kingdom is grown, there has been lost in the last ten years, by unfavourable seasons, a fourth more than a whole year's wheat crop; a loss of over thirty millions sterling to the British wheat growers, which has heavily crippled their re

sources.

tion of

stimulated.

That loss which has been brought upon us Producby natural causes we may trust to nature with America time to repair. But the agriculture of America has been stimulated in an extraordinary degree by the rising demand occasioned by this longcontinued diminution in our own crops, and in those of Western Europe generally. The magnitude which this has attained within the last twenty years is shown by the average

exports for the first half of that period compared with those of the last. Wheat has in

creased three-fold, Indian corn four-fold. But the increase in the last three years has been unprecedented. The United States have at present ten times the acreage of wheat compared with that of the United Kingdom. They produce double the quantity of corn of all kinds compared with that of England and France together. They have twice the number of horses, one third more cattle, and nearly four times more hogs than both countries.

following table shows this in detail :

The

PRODUCE OF CORN IN BUSHELS, AND NUMBERS OF LIVE STOCK, IN 1878.

In addition to these vast products the people

of the United States raise cotton, tobacco, and

sugar, worth nearly fifty millions sterling.

THE "FERTILE BELT" OF THE GREAT WEST. 161

This prodigious development of agricultural wealth has practically an unlimited power of expansion. For, in addition to the vast areas of the United States still untouched by advancing agriculture, there is the great region of Manitoba and the "fertile belt" of North Western Canada, stretching in a block of fertile land 700 miles westward from the Red River of the North, watered by navigable rivers, in extent many times larger than the British Islands, with abundance of coal, now at last brought into prominent notice by the Canadian Government.*

The war in America interrupted progress for a time, but its attractions are now beginning to be realised. A railway from Lake Superior to the Red River is completed, and another in progress which will tap the produce of this vast region, and, after a run of 500 miles of landcarriage, place it on board large steamers which, traversing the lakes and the St. Lawrence, will tranship it to ocean-going steamers

* See Appendix, page 181, for description of this new country.

L