^§^m^ ^m, r H. E LANDED INTER S' r V LIBRARY iWIVERSITY OF CAUfORNiA SAN DlfOO UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 3 1822 01728 4365 i o Central University Library University of California, San Diego Please Note: This item is subject to recall. Date Due i9sr CI 39 (7/93) UCSD Lib. THE LANDED INTEREST THE SUPPLY OF FOOD. THE LANDED INTEREST THE SUPPLY OF FOOD. )AiA^ JAMES CAIRD, C.B., F.R.S., Author of "English Agriculture in 1850 and 1851. Cassell Petter & Galpin LONDON, PARIS ^ NEW YORK. (i\]\' PREFACE. This Treatise was prepared at the re- quest of the President and Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng- land, to exhibit a general view of British Agriculture, for the information of European Agriculturists at the Inter- national Agricultural Congress of Paris, in 1878. For this purpose it was trans- lated into French by M. de la Trehonnais, and so published in Paris. It will be included, with other contributions on analogous subjects, in the forthcoming number of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. A chapter on the future of the Landed Interests of this country has now been added, and as the subject is one of general concern, an Edition in this form has been prepared. J. c. 8, ()ueen's Gate Gardens, London, September, 1878. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Home and Foreign Supply of Fooa. PAGF. Functions of Government in regard to the Supply of Food — Value of Cereal and Animal Food im- ported from Abroad — Rapid Rise in the Value of Meat — may be checked by Importations from America — Proportion of Home and Foreign Supply of Food in this Country— England now chiefly dependent on Foreign Supplies for further Increase — Cost of Carriage equal to the Rent of Land here — Agricultural Statistics suffi- ciently accurate for use— Their main Features — Diminution of Corn in Ireland — Present Agricul- tural Prosperity of that Country — Extent of the various Crops and Numbers of Live-stock — Quantities and Value of Home and Foreign Produce, respectively, consumed annually in this Country .. ... i — 15 viii Contents. CHAPTER II. Changes and Progress in Agriculture in recent Years. PAGE Reaping and Mowing Machines— Steam-plough — Double - Furrow Plough — General use of Steam-power — Successive Corn-crops — use to which this might be put in time of War — capable of checking a permanent great Rise in Price of Wheat — Autumn Culture and Steam- power, with imported Manures, have given great command of Crops — Mr. Lawes' Experiments : their Value and some of their special Lessons — The Experiments at Wobum — Extension of Land-drainage and Improvement of Farm Build- ings and Labourers' Cottages — Change within 30 years, more in general diffusion of Improved Practice, and better Breeds of Stock, than in the introduction of New Systems — Greatest Change caused by the Prosperity of the Country and the Rise in the Value of Animal Food — vast consequent Increase in the Capital Value of Live-stock and Landed Property ... 16 32 CHAPTER III. Soil, Cli??iate, and Crops. Extent of Country and Proportion of various Crops -—as influenced by Climate, Situation, and Rain- Contents. ix PAGE fall — Weight and relative Value of Corn-crops — Examples of Soils of greatest and least natural Fertility— and of an average Soil unmanured and specially manured — Plants which predominate in uncultivated Land ... 33 — 40 CHAPTER IV. Distribution of Landed Property. Tendency to Diminution in Number of small Es- tates — Proportion of Landowners to whole Popu- lation as one in a hundred — These, being Heads of Families, equivalent to one in twenty— Hence one-twentieth of Population interested in Landed Property — Increased to one-fifth by the Interests of Tenant-farmers as part Owners of Agricul- tural Property— One-fifth of the Land held by the Peerage — Not cultivated by Owners but by Farmers — relative Extent of their Holdings in England and in Ireland — Trade and Colonies enable us to dispense with Checks on Increase of Population — That checked in Ireland by Potato Famine — Decrease in Number of smallest Holdings there on return of Prosperity — Diminu- tion of Agricultural Population — and of Yeomen farming their own Land — Experiment of Peasant Proprietors in Ireland 41 — 55 X Contents. CHAPTER V. Landowner, Partner, and Labourer. PAGE The Landowners, their Position, Duties, and In- fluence — Their Number, and the immense Capital Value of their Property — The Tenant-farmers, the proportional Extent of their Holdings, their Numbers and Capital — The Labourers — Condi- tion now better than at any previous Period, comparing their Wages with the Price of Bread — Each of the three Classes constantly recruited by Changes of Property and Employment — Re- sult of the System,, compared with that of other Countries, shows larger Returns at less Cost — Special Features of System in England — in Scot- land — in Ireland — Tenancy-at-will in England — Leases in Scotland — Middlemen in Ireland, and the Result 56—78 CHAPTER VL Land Improvenieyit. Hindrances by Settlements and Incumbrances — Expedients adopted to overcome the incapacity of Owners to provide Capital for Improvement — State Loans for Land Improvement— Followed by Loans from Land Improvement Companies — Contents. xi PAGE Total Amount so expended — Parliamentary In- quiry into the working of these Loans, and their Results — General Testimony to their remunera- tive Character — Land Drainage the most remu- nerative Improvement — Greater Caution required in Expenditure on Buildings — Labourers' Dwell- ings, judiciously executed and placed, as remune- rative as any other Outlay of Landowner's Capital — Better Cottages wanted rather than more of them — Examples of remunerative Expenditure 79 — 95 CHAPTER VII. Recent Rise m the Value of La?id. Great Rise in the Value of Land since the Repeal of the Corn Laws — only partly due to the Out- lay of Capital in Improvements — Greatest Rise has been in the Grazing Counties, on Grass- lands, and in Scotland — The Cause of this — The Scotch Landowner better trained to his Business — Landowning the only Business in which special Training is not usually deemed necessary — Security for Tenant's Capital required — Admir- able Principle of Drainage Loans — Extended Powers of Sale in the case of Settled Estates desirable — Settlements should be limited to Lives in being ... 96 — no xii Contents. CHAPTER VIIL The Government in its Connection with Agriculture. No Minister of Agriculture, and no Government page Control exercised, or State Schools for Agricul- ture, or Flocks or Herds maintained by Govern- ment — The Inclosure Commission the only State Department connected with the Land — Its various Functions — Main Drainage Commissions for Control of Floods — These beneficial where not permitted to remain too long stagnant — Great Engineering Works seldom required — Ex- change of Intermixed Lands inexpensive and simple in its Operation — Extent to which the Power of Exchange is used ... ... iii — 119 CHAPTER IX. Waste Lands and Copyholds. Inclosure of Waste Lands, its Extent and Results — Quality and Occupation of Persons to whom Waste Lands passed — Extent of Public Roads constructed and Value of Lands devoted to Public Objects, at the Cost of the Owners of Common Rights, equal to one-eighth of Value of the whole Land inclosed — Enfranchisement of Copyhold Lands and Buildings— Number com- pleted — Extinction of this objectionable kind of Tenure desirable — Mode of accomplishing this 120 — 130 Contents. xiii CHAPTER X. Church, Ci-oiuii, and Charity Estates. PAGE Tithes commuted from Payment in Kind to Money — Unexpected Effect of this in preventing a Rise in the Income of the Church, and increasing that of the Landowners — Parish Clergy a Body of resident Landowners equal in Number to more than one-fourth of those over ^200 a year, the removal of whom might prove a Change of great magnitude in its social Effect — Her Majesty's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues managed with great Judgment — and now yield a net Return to the Exchequer exceeding the Civil List paid to the Queen — General Conditions on which the Farms of the Crown are let — Charity Estates, their Extent and Annual Value — now placed under the general direction of Govern- ment — Their Magnitude compared with the Cost of the Civil Administration of the Country 131 — 141 CHAPTER XI. The Future. Home Production of Bread and Meat limited — Country becoming less of a Farm and more of a Garden — Population, at present Rate of Increase, iv Contents. PAGE will in twenty years be forty millions — causing most likely a further Rise in Prices — Prospect of Landowner good — of Tenant-farmer more doubtful — His duty to protect himself by the security of a definite and lengthened Term — Either by Purchase of his Farm or by Lease — Good understandings not likely to resist the increasing Pressure of Competition — Facilities given to Farmers by Government for Purchase in Ireland — if extended to England and Scotland would be more rapidly appropriated — Somehow a definite Term must be secured — Time essen- tial in the Operations of Agriculture — Earl of Leicester's Lease an admirable Example in its principal Features — which admit of Freedom of Management, and provide for Renewal without Exposure to undue Competition — The Labourer, his Work lightened, and Intelligence stimulated, by extended use of Machinery — Cheap Means of Transit, and high Wages of Colonies make him more independent — His political Position likely soon to be improved 142 — 156 APPENDIX. Table showing Rent, Prices, Wages, and Produce in three periods during the last hundred years... 157 Contents. xv PAGE Table showing Acreage of Crops and Number of Live-stock in the United Kingdom, in each year since 1867 158 Table showing Quantities and Value of Foreign Grain, and Live-stock, and Provisions imported, in each of the last twenty years ... ... ... 159 Table showing the Annual Yield of Wheat in the United Kingdom, per acre, during each of the last thirty years, and in three periods of ten years each 160 THE LANDED INTEREST. CHAPTER I. HOME AND FOREIGN SUPPLY OF FOOD. One of the most important functions of Govern- ment is to take care that there shall be no hin- drance to the people supplying themselves with food and clothing, which are the first necessaries of Hfe. And as these are, in one form or another, annual products of the earth, dependent for their abundance on the skill, capital, and labour employed in its cultivation, much of the safety and welfare of a country arises from the condi- tion of its agriculture. That of England has attained an exceptionally high productiveness The best of our land has long been occupied, and, though there is yet much of the inferior class that admits of improvement, it has become 2 The Landed Interest. our interest as a nation to look also for further supplies from the broader and richer lands of other countries, which, to their advantage and ours, the beneficent principle of Free Trade has placed within our reach. Value of The progressive increase of foreign supplies cereal and animal duHng the past twenty years is marvellous, the food im- ported value of foreign cereal and animal food imported from abroad. having risen from ^^3 5, 000,000 in 1857 ^^ ;^i 10,000,000 in 1876. The greatest propor- tional increase has been in the importation of animal food : living animals, fresh and salted meat, fish, poultry, eggs, butter, and cheese, which in that period has risen from an annual value of seven to thirty-six millions sterling. More than half the farinaceous articles imported, other than wheat, are used in the production of beer and spirits. The imports of animal food during the first fourteen years of Free Trade were comparatively small, the difference of price here and in foreign countries not then affording a margin sufficiently encouraging to justify costly arrangements of transit. But as the price of meat in this country Increasing Prices. 3 moved steadily up, rising in a few years from Rapid rise in value of fivepence to sevenpence, ninepence, and even a meat, the compara- shillint^ a pound, enterprise with skill and capital lively high price of were called into rapid action to meet the grow- which pays '■ ° for long ing demand. It became clear that an article so transport. valuable could cover the cost of carriage for much longer distances than corn, a pound- weight of meat being many times more valuable than a pound of corn. All kinds of salted meat were expected, and came ; but fresh meat (ex- cept as live animals), from its perishable nature, was not anticipated in any considerable quantity. The cost of transporting live animals from any great distance must obviously present a very great difficulty. And a further and most serious ob- jection arose, in regard to those from nearer European ports, in the risk of such live animals bringing with them across the seas the contagion of cattle-plague, or other pests, dangerous to the live-stock of this country. All this could be Fresh meat • 1 1 1 • from avoided by the importation of fresh meat, and a America may pre- plan with this object, recently adopted by an vent exces- sive rise of American company, has been attended with a price in Europe. large measure of success. The steam-ships in 4 The Landed Interest. ■which the meat is carried have chambers fitted in such a manner that the meat can be kept fresh during the voyage by currents of air cooled by ice. During the last winter and spring large shipments have thus been successfully made, and most of them have arrived in good condition. Should this plan, in addition to the growing importation of live animals, prove safe and suc- cessful, we shall have the vast prairies of America added to our own pastures as new sources of supply. This will be a great benefit to the con- sumers of meat in this country, but probably more by preventing a further rapid rise in the price of meat than by effecting a reduction upon it. The American people are themselves much greater consumers of meat, man for man, than the English, and when prosperity returns to that country, their home consumption will increase, and the surplus for exportation be diminished. Moreover, the English market will take only the best quality. Under any circumstances the English producer has the advantage of at least a penny a pound in the cost and risk of transport against his Transatlantic competitor — an advan- Proportion of Foreign to Home Supplv. 5 tage equal to £^ on an average ox. Of this natural advantage nothing can deprive him ; and with this he may rest content. The proportion in which the people of this country are dependent for their principal articles of food on home and foreign supply was the '■ subject of an inquiry by me in 1868, in a paper read to the Statistical Society. At that time I Proportion of home found the foreign supply to be in the proportion and foreign supply of of one-fifth of the whole. In the ten years since food in the ■' United that time the importation of meat has more than Kingdom, doubled, butter and cheese have risen nearly one-third, wheat more than a third, and other grain has doubled. More than one-fourth of our total consumption of agricultural produce is now obtained from other countries. But it is a question of interest, both to the home and foreign producer, to ascertain more closely the proportion of the two chief articles, bread and meat. In the past ten years there has been a gradual reduction of the acreage and produce of wheat in this country, and a more than corresponding increase in the foreign sup- ply ; the result of which is that we now receive 6 The Landed Interest. our bread in equal proportions from our own fields and those of the stranger. In regard to meat, and other animal products, ten years ago the proportion of foreign was one-tenth of the whole. It has now risen to nearly one- ' fourth. England This Country thus derives from foreign lands, now chiefly dependent not Only oue-half of its bread and nearly one- on foreign supply for fourth of its meat and dairy produce, but must further ■' ^ increase. ^jgo depend on the foreigner for almost the entire addition that may be further required by an increase of its population. In the last ten years there has been no increase in the acreage or production of corn, and little in that of meat. The extent of green crops and grass has slightly increased, from the double impulse of the rise in wages and the increasing demand for dairy produce and meat. But, excluding good lands capable of being rendered fertile by drainage, we appear to have approached a point in agri- cultural production beyond which capital can be othenvise more profitably expended in this country than in further attempting to force our poorer class of soils. It is cheaper for us as a Cost of Transport Equal to Rent. 7 nation to get the surplus from the richer lands of America and Southern Russia, where the virgin soil is still unexhausted ; or from the more ancient agriculture of India, which, with its cheap and abundant labour more skilfully applied, and its means of transport extended and better utilised, seems destined to become one of the principal sources of our future supply of corn. The cost of carriage depends very much on Cost of carriage distance, and as the chief supply of wheat comes equal to the rent of from great distances — California, the Black Sea, '^"'^ ^^ England. and India — the cost of transporting a quantity equal to the produce of an acre in England is seldom less, and often more, than 40s. Hay and straw are so bulky that they can only bear the cost of carriage from near Continental ports. Fresh meat from America, from the costly methods necessary to preserve it, will, on the produce of an acre, cost equal to 40s. for transport to this country. This natural protection enjoyed by the British farmer in his proximity to the home market, as compared with the foreign farmer who seeks our market for his produce, thus 8 The Landed Interest, gives him an advantage equal to the present average rent of his land, and forms some reasonable compensation for the higher taxes and wages which he has to pay as com- pared with his competitors in most foreign countries. Agricul- The total home produce can now be very tural statis- tics of the correctly calculated from the annual agricultural United Kingdom, returns. The collection of these returns was instituted in Ireland at the time of the potato famine in 1847, ^^^ they have been published continuously since that time. The information is collected by the constabulary, a semi-military force, stationed in all parts of the country, and is arranged by the Registrar-General, and annually printed. Not for twenty years afterwards were there any complete returns from Great Britain. After long perseverance I succeeded in obtaining a Resolution of the House of Commons in favour of the collection of agricultural statistics, which was in consequence carried out for the first time in 1867, the collection of the returns being made by the officers of the Inland Revenue, and their Agricultural Statistics. g arrangement for publication by the Statistical Department of the Board of Trade. The expe- rience gained by ten years' repetition of the various inquiries has created such a fund of local knowledge among the officers of the Inland Revenue that there can now be no 'doubt enter- tained of the substantial accuracy of the returns. Minute accuracy is not expected or required, Their ac- curacy sufi but the comparisons from year to year show the ficient for practical relative accuracy obtained to be sufficient for all "se. practical purposes. It appears from these returns that though Theirmain features. there was an exceptional decrease in the acreage of wheat in 1876, arising from the great floods in the autumn seed-time of 1875, which prevented a considerable proportion of the land being sown, no great change has occurred during the past ten years in the production of wheat in Great Britain. It has somewhat diminished in England, and largely in Ireland, but the diminu- tion is quite made up by a corresponding in- crease in barley. Oats remain much the same, and the total extent of arable is very slightly altered. lo The Landed Interest. Increase of The permanent pasture during the same pasture. period has increased 8 per cent., no doubt from the increased cost of labour and the gradual rise in the value of live-stock and its produce. This increase of 8 per cent., amounting to nearly one million acres, not having diminished the extent of corn, must represent an addition of that breadth gained by reclamation during the ten years ; and, as some considerable extent of land is yearly taken from cultivation by the increase of towns and the construction of new railroads, this shows an important gain by agricultural enterprise. The general extent of green crops has very slightly altered in the ten years, potatoes alone Increase of showing some diminution. A large increase, the man- gold crop, however, in the proportion of mangold is shown by a rise of 100,000 acres more than in 1867. This is a root-crop peculiarly well suited to the deep soils and dry and warm climate of the south-east and southern counties ; and its keep- ing properties, continuing well into the following summer, are a great recommendation to the stock farmer. A rise of 40 per cent, in the Changes of Crop in Ireland. ii breadth cultivated, within so short a period as ten years, is a convincing proof that the great value of this plant is at length beginning to be gene- rally recognised, and there seems a probability of its continued extension. In live-stock there has been a moderate increase in Great Britain during the past ten years. In Ireland the change of crops has been Diminu- tion of com greater than in England or Scotland, the extent and in- crease of of land under corn having diminished in ten grass in Ireland. years by 12 per cent. Wheat has fallen to less than one-half, there is an increase of 28 per cent. in barley, but a decrease of nearly 10 per cent. in oats. Potatoes have fallen 12 per cent., while turnips have slightly increased. On the whole there has been a diminution of 267,000 acres of land under corn, and an addition of 203,000 acres to permanent meadow and grass. The reduction of the acreage of wheat, for which the climate of most parts of Ireland is too moist, and the considerable decline in potatoes, the tempting but precarious crop upon which that country has hitherto too much relied, are evident signs of prudence and prosperity. In the same 12 The Landed Interest. period, though there has been a reduction in the number of sheep, that is much more than com- pensated by an increase in cattle. And as the expenditure on drainage and land improvement. Present and in the building of farm-houses and labourers' great agri- cultural cottages, has been greatly increasing, year prosperity of that by year, the state of agriculture in Ireland, country. chiefly owing to the high price of live-stock, and the increasing demand for store animals to be fattened in Great Britain, now appears to have attained a position of general progress and prosperity greater than has ever been previously experienced in that portion of the United Kingdom. The extent of land under the various crops in the United Kingdom in 1877 was, in wheat, 3,321,000 acres; barley, 2,652,000 acres; oats, 4,239,000 acres ; potatoes, 1,393,000 acres ; other green crops, 3,566,000 acres; flax, 130,000 acres; hops, 70,000 acres; bare fallow, 633,000 acres ; grass under rotation, 6,441,000 acres ; permanent pasture, 24,000,000 acres (besides mountain pastures and wastes) ; woods and plantations, 2,511,000. Value of Home and Foreign Produce. 13 The number of live-stock of various kinds in 1877 was, of horses, 2,834,000; cattle, 9,693,000; sheep, 32,157,000; pigs, 3,964,000. By the aid of the agricultural returns, and those of the annual imports of foreign and colonial produce, I have constructed the following Table, showing the compara- tive quantities of home and foreign growth, and the value of agricultural produce at present required for the annual consumption of the people and live-stock of this country. The grass, green crops other than potatoes, and hay used on the farm, and straw, are not included, nor the value of the increase of horses. The total value of the home crop is consider- Quantity and value ably more than double that which we import, of home and foreign but the proportion of vegetable and animal food agricul- tural pro- is singularly close, as will be seen by this further 'i^^ce, re- spectively, arrangement of the figures : — consumed ° annually m the British Home Growth. Foreign. Islands. Value of corn and vegetable produce .... ;^i25, 737,500 ;^S2,537,5oo Value of animal produce . i35;OCO,ooo 58,170,000 14 The Landed Interest. 00000 00 00000 8 8 8 > 1 o_ o_ o_ 0_ 00 o_ . , 10 0" 0" 0" 0" N? t-^ u-j 10 >o 0" 0" 0" o~ o" o~ q" 10 "Vi t^ CN LO S)8 8 8 -1- 'tj "rt m t^ N IT) oo_ rJ-O 0_ Tf ^ -f -f -f co" t>. 00" K o' d^ t<.\o" 0" ^" ih" ^ H 1 ^O IN CO CO M CO ?00 LO lO t^ 0' 0" 0" 6 ■ t^ •sk 03 10 CI \J-i : : ^ M_ q^ -t- (N 0_ fx t^ M_ 0_ o" ?" 3 CO 10 M d M ^ > ^ « ■^ •^ ^ e , , t^ 0" 0" 0" . 00 II 1 Q •0 1 0" 0' 0" 1 ^03 000; CO "1 CO "^ di ^ M CO 00 CO 0_^ ^\J->0 VO (N ;^ = pf a.oo"vo" t^ vo'co" t~^ covo" >o \6 0" '^^t CO M (N 00 M 00 H M M M3 > "-*? 01 ■^1 00000 0" . 0" Q ^ ■.^ ►^^ "rt 12 0" 0" 0" 0" 0" 8" 0" 'f 0" 1 ■+ ^1 ft t^ : Q M t^ H [J o_ o_ o_ o_ o_ CO 00 c»_ 0" lo^o" d\ 0" 0" VO" rf o' VO 0" 0" t^ IH 10 t^ H lOH M (N N , w •v;; ^ 0000 §8 § g ^ 0000 8 .0000 5 ^ 6 6 6 6 . 0" 0" 4 0" 0" . 8 o' rf "Si ft Q ; ^0000 »o -f 'f "t- Lo4o M 8 OHO ON to CO o~ >o M M « 00 ^ CO ^^ _A_^ 1 : • : M bo c ■^ ^ : : ! rt : : : i-a g : ^ CQ S £ . ,„- . '. d u 3 £ 1! "rt Sii >/, c rt 0> 3'^ K ■■.'2B2 _g:=: rt Indian Corn. 15 The quantity of Indian corn imported in 1876 was nearly 40,000,000 cwt, an amount hitherto exceptional and unprecedented, and therefore not included in its full amount in the preceding estimate. CHAPTER II. The most striking features of recent agricul- tural pro- gress. The reap- ing and mowing machine?. CHANGES AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE IN RECENT YEARS. Before entering on a more detailed descrip- tion of the principles which regulate the agriculture and general management of landed property in this country, it may be useful shortly to notice its more recent progress, and those changes of practice which science or art, or the circumstances of his position in regard to competition or labour, have forced on the British farmer. With a few exceptions the change will be found rather in the more general diffusion of a knowledge of good principles and practice than in any considerable advance upon either. The most striking feature of agricultural pro- gress within the last twenty years has been the general introduction of reaping-machines, Re A PING-MA CHINES. 1 7 one of which can do the work of ten men. This has multiplied the effect of human labour tenfold, and that at the most critical season, the harvest, when the entire crop ripens within a fortnight, and must with all possible expe- dition be saved without loss of time. For hay-making, a similar machine is in the same proportion available. It would be difficult to reckon the vast saving which the introduction of this most important invention has made at these most critical periods, haytime and harvest. Next to it is the steam-plough, which, on The steam- plough, heavy land and in large fields, especially where coal is moderate in cost, and water easily avail- able, is both economical and expeditious. A steam-plough, capable of ploughing ten acres a day, will do the labour of ten men and twenty horses, and, where deep culture is advantageous, will execute the work much more effectively, and with no injurious trampling of the tender soil. But it is as yet a costly implement, beyond the reach of small farmers except when hired as an auxiliary, and not capable of doing its work with economy within small i8 The Landed Interest. The double- furrow plough. General use of steam- power in manipula- tion of crops. Successive corn-crops. enclosures. The saving of labour is great in suitable localities, but it is not so uniformly applicable, nor does it so certainly and quickly repay its cost as the reaping-machine. On light and friable soils the double-furrow plough, balancing itself with greatly less friction in proportion than the single plough, is found to do the same work with one man and three horses as two single ploughs with two men and four horses. This is equal to a saving of 50 per cent, in man-power, and 25 per cent, in horse-power, and it will become more generally available on the lighter soils if any serious pressure arises from scarcity of labour. In the threshing of corn, and cutting of straw and hay for fodder, and the grinding and bruising of corn and cake for horse and cattle food, the aid of steam-power has long been used by the farmers of this country. Next to the economy of labour may be ranked the increase of produce by the expe- dient of taking two corn-crops in succession where the land is clean and in high condition, and can bear the application of special manure, Successive Corn-crops. 19 and where the agriculturist is free to follow a rational system of farming. The four-course system of alternate corn and green crops — wheat, turnips, barley, clover — had two great advantages, first, by alternating restorative and cleansing crops with corn ; and second, by regular distribution of labour throughout the year. The introduction of guano, nitrate of soda, and other ammoniacal and phosphatic manures, has now rendered the farmer compara- tively independent of this alternate system of cropping. As the supply of nitrate is believed to be capable of lasting for a very long period, we may reckon with considerable certainty on its continuance at a moderate price. It misrht tt . ^ •=> Use to become an instrument of great national value if ^^"'^^ '^^^ '-' mignt oe any unforeseen occurrence should cut off one of ofwaV""'^ our main supplies of wheat, that of Russia, for example. If only the twentieth part of the corn land of the United Kingdom were called on to bear an additional wheat-crop, the loss would be at once made good, and with no perceptible strain on our agricultural system. If all Europe were shut against us, we should be quickly able 20 The Landed Interest. to meet the increased home demand by double- cropping to the extent of one-tenth of our corn- land, and without any greater change in the demand for nitrate of soda than has already been met by the advancing supplies of recent years. It is unnecessary to consider the posi- tion of this country were even a heavier calamity to befall us, obtaining as we do from the foreigner so large a proportion of our food, for it is not conceivable that the producers of corn in any country would desire to see the best market in the world long closed to them. But it is clear that we possess in this power of taking a second crop of wheat a latent reserve force which might, on very short notice, be brought into action, and which should dispel all fear of our being starved into submission in case of war ; and this without reckoning anything on the immense reserve power of cereal production which is stored up in the pasture-lands, ready in case of need. Likely to ■'■t ^^ a power, moreover, that will check any check a . , , , . . , . ^ permanent Considerable permanent rise in the price of rise in the , a i i- • i 11 price of wheat. A decline in the acreage under wheat, wheat. when not caused by a bad seed-time, is the Nitrates and Phosphates. 2t natural result of low price ; but when the price rises, increased acreage quickly follows. Were the price to rise steadily, and show signs of permanence, the second-crop system would ex- tend, and continue to do so until the increase of produce was found to check the rise in price. Barley may be taken after barley with more success on many soils than wheat ; and where there is reason to suppose that a second crop of wheat, however carefully the ground may have been managed and manured, may be likely to fail, barley may, with great probability, be expected to succeed. The use of nitrate of soda or other sources of ammonia, combined with phosphatic manures, promises to be a more permanent resource to British agriculture than Peruvian guano, which unites the same properties in itself, but seems likely soon to become exhausted. Autumn Autumn culture, aided by the command of time which andsteam- 1 . 1 ... power, steam-power has given to the agriculturist, with im- ported ma- and that supplemented by spring top-dress- nures,have given great ings of nitrates and phosphates, have made command of crops, continuous corn-cropping possible and profit- 2 2 The Landed Interest. able, without injury to the land, whenever soil and circumstances render such a practice neces- sary. The old plan of relying on the resources of the farm by depending on the manure made upon it, while the corn and meat were sold away, will not answer now. Commerce and mercantile enterprise have provided other means for maintaining fertility at a cheaper cost, and in a more commodious and portable form. One cwt. of nitrate of soda will give a more certain return of corn than fifty times its weight in farmyard-manure, and can be carried to and spread upon the ground at one-fiftieth of the Great labour. The proof of this, in Mr. Lawes' ex- BriitTsh° periments, has been before the country for more agriculture ^, ^i • , j . •. • i i_ • • of Mr. than thirty years, and yet it is only beginning periments. to be generally recognised. To Mr. J. B. Lawes the agriculture of this country is more indebted than to any other living man. For thirty-three years he has con- ducted, at his own cost, a series of experiments on his estate in Hertfordshire, the results of which have been annually published, and the farm itself, with every detail of the work, has Mr. La WES' Experiments. 23 been laid open to public inspection and criticism. Among other valuable results, one most useful fact has been elicited, that of that mass of dark, strongly-smelling substance called dung, its sole property as a manure depends upon the small quantity of chemical salts and of organic nitro- gen which it contains, the bulky organic matter being only useful in making the land work better, and rendering it more capable of absorb- ing and retaining moisture. Beginning in 1844 with wheat, the staff of life in this country, he for eight years concentrated his attention upon it, dividing his experimental field into twenty-two plots, upon two of which no manure has ever been applied, and upon the other twenty a care- fully considered variety of manures has been continuously used. In 1852 he commenced a similar series of experiments with barley, and in 1869 on a smaller area with oats. Experi- ments with leguminous crops had been for a series of years continued, but this species of plant being found, when grown too frequently on the same land, to be peculiarly subject to disease, which no conditions of manuring 24 The Landed Interest. appeared capable of obviating, they were discontinued. With regard to red clover, when the land becomes clover-sick, it was found that no manure could be relied on to secure a crop, and continuous crops of it are therefore impossible. Experiments on the various root-crops were continued for series of years, and the result published ; also on sugar-beet ; and in 1 8/6 a commencem.ent was made with potatoes. His experiments on the corn-crops go on without cessation. In 1856 an important series of ex- periments was commenced on grass-land, which, with very little change on each of the twenty plots, has been continued to the present time. The average of the past twenty years shows that the natural produce may be doubled, and even trebled, by the continuous use of special Some of manures. Seeing that nearly two-thirds of the special Cultivated area of this country, and all the un- cultivated, are in grass, this series of experi- ments is of very great interest and value. After thirty-three successive wheat-crops it is not surprising that the soil begins to exhibit symp- toms of exhaustion. The rotation experiments A Maximum Produce. 25 show that this may be corrected by interposing a heavily dunged green crop, such as mangold, while the introduction of red clover between the corn-crops is also found to add greatly to the corn-producing power of the soil. To attain a maximum paying produce, he finds that the land should be dunged heavily for mangold, to be followed with wheat, or barley, or oats, according to soil and climate, for several years in succession ; then interpose clover, and follow it with corn-crops, keeping the land perfectly clean, and manuring all the corn-crops with nitrate of soda and superphosphate. When the land shows need of change, begin again with heavily dunged green crops. Successive crops of barley he finds to pay better, and are more cer- tain than either wheat or oats, and give more corn in proportion to straw. If a heavily dunged green crop is occasionally introduced, it is not neces- sary to give any other manure to the corn-crops than nitrate of soda and superphosphate. Potash (which may be supplied by dung) is very neces- sary in a grass-manure, especially for clover, which, unlike corn, is injured by ammonia. The 26 The Landed Interest. The Woburn experi- ments. grass experiments show that by giving food to the plants, the strongest and best varieties ap- propriate wliat tliey most need, and, by the law of the strongest, put the weakest down. In the best plots the weeds almost disappear, while on one plot, to which no manure is applied, the weeds form 50 per cent, of the produce. Besides these experiments on crops, Mr. Lawes has carried out investigations on the feeding of live-stock, and on the different values of their food, both as affecting the processes of fattening and the quality and value of the manure. The Royal Agricultural Society has com- menced a series of experiments on the growth of crops and the fattening of live-stock, with a special relation to the manures applied and the food used, and to the effect of the manures resulting from specific kinds of food. The Duke of Bedford, with great liberality and public spirit, has undertaken the cost of these experiments, and has placed suitable land and buildings at the disposal of the Society, whose Council, under the guidance of Mr. Lawes,"^ *■ To the general regret Mr. Lawes has retired from this duty. General Progress of Improvement. 27 and of Dr. Voelcker, their consulting chemist, regulate and superintend them. They are open to public inspection, and under such management the most useful results may be anticipated. There has been a great extension of drainage Extension . . - of land m recent years, and m the construction 01 drainage, and im- improved farm-buildings, and in the better provement of farm lodging of farm-labourers in more commodious labourers' cottages, cottages. And in regard to live-stock there has and housing been a wider diffusion of the best breeds, and for live- stock. generally an earlier maturity obtained in the process of fattening. The use of improved im- plements and machinery has greatly extended, as also has the general application of loco- motive steam-power to the threshing and other preparation of crops for market or feeding purposes. Cheap descriptions of corn are largely employed in the fattening of stock, and also oil-cake, cotton-cake, and rape-cake. For these, and for bones, guano, and nitrate ^aro-e r 1 1 .1 1 annual ex- 01 soda used as manure, the annual expen- penditure ,. - , 1 i 1 Ml- on cattle diture cannot now be less than twelve millions food and portable Sterling. manure. 28 The Landed Interest. ^j^g But, with the exception of the reaping- the"fsV^ machine and steam-plough, and the more gene- more m^"^^ ral use of steam-power, and other implements diffu^ion'^of and machines, there is really little that is new improved . ,, ^- r i i r practices, ^^ the practice of the last quarter of a century. and better „, r ^ • • i live-stock, i ns present system of dramage was previously than in the intro- well Understood. Bones, guano, and nitrate of duction of new soda were fully appreciated by those who then systems. used them. Covered buildings and autumn cultivation had been introduced. Mr. Hudson, of Castleacre, in Norfolk, then manured his land for every crop. In running my eye over the account which I wrote of English agriculture in 1850, I find descriptions of good farming in nearly every part of the country, the details of which differ wQry little from the practice of the present day. Mr. Pusey and Sir John Conroy in Berkshire ; Mr. Thomas in Bedford- shire ; Mr. Beasley in Northampton ; Mr. Paget in Notts ; Mr. Torr in Lincoln ; Mr. Mechi, Mr. Fisher Hobbs, and Mr. Hutley, in Essex ; Mr. Huxtable in Dorset ; Jonas Webb in Cambridge- shire; Mr. Morton in Gloucestershire; the Messrs. Wells and Outhwaite in Yorkshire ; Mr. Fleming Influence of General Prosperity. 29 of Barrochan, Mr. M'Culloch of Auchness, and Mr, George Hope, in Scotland ; Lord Lucan, Mr. St. John Jefifryes, and Mr. Boyd, of Castle- wellan, in Ireland, and many others, then carried out the business of farming in a manner that would bear favourable comparison with the prize-farms of the present year. And, as to breeds of cattle and sheep, the brothers CoUing's and Messrs. Booth's and Mr. Bates's Shorthorns ; George Turner's and the Messrs, Quartley's Devons ; Mr, Bakewell's Leicesters ; Jonas Webb's Southdowns — are not surpassed by the best of the present day. The change has been not in any considerable progress beyond what was then the best, but in a general upheaval of the middling and the worst towards the higher platform then occupied by the few. Towards this end, but beyond all efforts influence upon agri- of the agriculturists themselves, or of the engi- culture of the general neers and chemists who have done so much prosperity of the to aid them in developing the capabilities of country in the rise of the land, has been the influence of the general ^"^ P^'i^e of meat, prosperity and growing trade and wealth of the ^"^ ^^^ ^ ' ^ ° consequent country. Thirty years ago, probably not more ^^^^''^^^e m 30 The Landed Interest . the capital than one-third of the people of this country value of live-stock, consumed animal food more than once a week. Now, nearly all of them eat it, in meat, or cheese, or butter, once a day. This has more than doubled the average consumption per head ; and when the increase of population is considered, has probably trebled the total con- sumption of animal food in this country. The increased supply has come partly from our own fields, but chiefly from abroad. The leap which the consumption of meat took in consequence of the general rise of wages in all branches of trade and employment, could not have been met without foreign supplies, and these could not have been secured except by such a rise of price as fully paid the risk and cost of transport. The additional price on the home-produce was all profit to the landed interests of this country, and is now being shared among them, partly in rise of rent, partly in increase of profit, and chiefly in rise of wages and expenses, and local rates. Within the last twenty-five years, the capital value of the live-stock of the United Kingdom has risen from one hundred and Rise in Value of Live-stock and Land. 31 forty-six to two hundred and sixty millions sterling, a gain of one hundred and fourteen millions. It will be subsequently shown, when treating and in that of land. of the value of land, that within a somewhat shorter period the increase of the land-rent of this country, when capitalised at thirty years' purchase, shows an increased value of three hundred and thirty-one millions sterling. When we add to this the increase of farm-capital, through the rise in the value of live-stock, one hundred and fourteen millions, there is the amazing sum of four hundred and forty-five millions sterling as the gain to the agricul- turists — the landowners and farmers — and, in higher wages, to the agricultural labourers of the United Kingdom, from the improvement of land and the general prosperity of the country. I may, perhaps, be excused for quot- ing the concluding words of my volume, written in 185 I, at a time of great agricultural depres- sion, when I stated that I believed the landlords and tenants of England possessed energy and capacity sufficient to meet and adapt themselves 32 The Landed Interest. to the Free Trade policy, " which, in its extra- ordinary effect on the welfare of all other classes of the community, would, sooner or later, bear good fruits also to them," CHAPTER III. SOIL, CLIMATE, AND CROPS. The total extent of the United Kingdom is Extent of the coun- 76,300,000 acres, of which 26,300,000 are in try and propor- mountain pasture and waste, and 50,000,000 'ions of various in crops, meadows, permanent pasture, and crops, woods and forests. Of the crops, one-fourth is in various kinds of corn, one-eighth in green crops, one-eighth in grass under rotation, and one-half in meadows and permanent pasture. About a thirtieth of the whole surface of the kingdom is in woods and forests. These proportions show the prevailing system of husbandry, and reveal the cause of its increasing productiveness. Three-fourths of the whole are green crops, which feed and clean, or grass, which rests and maintains the remaining fourth in corn. This preponderance of restorative over exhaustive crops greatly exceeds that of any D 34 The Landed Interest. other country, and is very much due to the cHmate. as in- The climate of the eastern side is drier than fluencedby climate, that of the west, the fall of rain at equal alti- tudes being as 25 inches in the east to 35 in the west. The drought and heat are greatest in the east, centre, and south-east in spring and summer. The whole western side of the country is comparatively mild and moist, and specially adapted for green crops and pasture. The east, having generally a deeper soil and greater heat in summer, is best suited to wheat and barley. It produces 64 per cent, of all the wheat and barley grown, and 74 per cent, of the pulse- crops. The west, on the other hand, contains more than twice the extent of permanent pas- ture, and produces nearly double the number of cattle. The waters of the Gulf Stream envelop the British Islands. Their vapours, carried over every part of the kingdom by prevailing west winds, temper the cold of winter and the heats of summer. This favours the growth, on the west especially, of succulent herbage and green crops, and we are free from the extremes Climate and Rainfall. 35 experienced on the Continent. Grass and green crops flourish in all parts of the country, and both in the low lands and on the mountain pastures of the west and north, sheep feed unsheltered and unhoused during both winter and summer. Beasts of prey are unknown. The annual rainfall in the lower parts of the and rainfall. country varies from 25 to 35 inches. In the mountainous districts these figures may be doubled. But, limiting our consideration to the cultivated lands, it must be obvious that an annual rainfall upon an acre of land, in the one case of 2,500 tons and in the other of 3,500 tons, accompanied by corresponding humidity of at- mosphere, will greatly modify the respective systems of husbandry practised. Accordingly, the eastern half of the country may be correctly described as the corn and fattening region, and the western half as the dairy and breeding region of the kingdom. The winter tempera- ture is more severe in the east than the west, and that of the summer warmer and more sunny_, and better suited to the ripening of wheat; 36 The Landed Interest. while that of the west, being less scorching and more cloudy, is better adapted to pasture and oats. The value of live-stock is so much greater than corn, that it is not found profitable to push the limit of cultivation to a greater height than 800 feet in the east and 500 in the west, and these limits are becoming more circumscribed by the increasing cost of labour and the con- tinued rise in the value of live-stock. The soil varies greatly in fertility, and its cultivation is regulated both by the amount it yields and the cost of cultivating it. The most profitable and productive soil is that which is at once fertile and easy of cultivation. A rich Weight loam which yields a ton of wheat to the acre is and relative Jess costly in labour than a poor clay which value of n-crops. yields little more than half that weight. Be- tween corn and straw an average crop of wheat, barley, and oats, will weigh two tons an acre ; about two-fifths being corn and three-fifths straw, though the proportion of straw to corn in wheat and oats is greater than in barley. A ton of wheat, at the average price of the last fifteen years, is worth ^i i 143. ; a ton of barley, cor Relative Value of Corn-crops. 37 £() 1 2s. ; and of oats, £c). But the wheat is more costly to grow, as it is four months longer in the soil, and therefore takes more out of it than either barley or oats, and requires either a better soil or more enriching preparation. On soils of equal quality the average weight of barley and oats yielded by an acre exceeds that of wheat in about the same proportion as it falls short of it in value per ton. Hence, where the soil and climate are equally suited to the production of these varieties of corn, the choice of one or the other is more a ques- tion of convenience than profit, and depends much on the local value of the different kinds of straw. The fertility of a soil may be expressed by Examjiies of soils of examples taken, ist, in the natural state of the great- est and pasture, and 2nd, on similar soils after treat- least natural ment. The maximum of fertility in the natural fertility, state is a rich pasture capable of fattening an ox and two sheep on an acre. Such soils are exceptional, though in most counties they are to be met with. The Pawlet Hams in Somer- setshire, for example, is a tract of rich alluvial 38 The Landed Interest. soil on the River Parrott, stretching along the sea-board. It is in permanent pasture, and is let for grazing at £'^ to £6 of rent an acre. Some of the marsh-lands of Sussex and Kent are of equal fertility. And on certain limestone lands, not alluvial, in various parts of the country, both east and west, feeding pastures of great fertility are met with. Such lands, as they require neither labour nor manure, yield the largest rents to their owners. The profit to the stock-feeder beyond the rent paid to the landowner depends on the skill with which he conducts his business. The minimum of fer- tility may be exemplified by a bleak mountain pasture, where ten acres will barely maintain a small sheep. and of an The artificial maximum and minimum of average soil un^ fertility which result from the treatment of soils manured, and of the same quality is more instructive, and specially manured, may be clearly exemplified by taking two of the experiments which have been carried on by Mr. Lawes of Rothamsted, in Hertford- shire, for the last thirty years. Confining the comparison to the average of the last twelve TVlTH AND WITHOUT MANURE. 39 years, the following is the weight in pounds of an average crop : — Corn. Straw. Total. ist. Wheat grown continuously, with- \ out manure ) and. Wheat grown continuously, with ) special manure ) lbs. 730 2.342 lbs. 1,120 4.928 lbs. 1,850 7.270 The soils here are exactly similar and in the same field, strong land on clay with a sub- stratum of chalk ; the management is the same, in so far as culture is concerned ; both crops are kept equally clean and free from weeds, the same seed is used, and they are exposed to the same changes of weather. The only difference is, that in the one case nature has for thirty years been unassisted by manure, and in the other the soil receives every year the various kinds of manure which have been found most suitable to the crop. The result of this treat- ment is a return of three times the weight of corn and four times the weight of straw, for an expenditure in manure which leaves a profit of 100 per cent, on its cost. In both 40 The Landed Interest. cases the wheat is grown continuously year after year. The plants which predominate in uncul- tivated land depend both on the nature of the soil and on the climate and situation. On poor gravel, furze grows in abundance; on peaty uplands, short heath ; on cold, wet-bottomed soils, rushes cover the ground. Natural woods of birch and oak are found in sheltered High- land glens, and self-sown Scotch firs spread themselves in the neighbourhood of extensive pine forests. CHAPTER IV. DISTRIBUTION OF LANDED PROPERTY. The distribution of landed property in England, Tendency of landed SO far as ownership is concerned, is, by the property to diminution growing wealth of the country, constantly tend- in the number of ing to a reduction in the number of small small estates. estates. This tendency is further promoted by the law, which permits entails and settlements, thus hindering the natural sale of land so dealt with ; and also by rights of primogeniture, which prevent subdivision of landed property among the family in case of intestacy. Culti- vation thus passes out of the hands of small owners into those of tenant-farmers, causing a gradual decrease of the agricultural population, and a proportionate increase of the towns. This has been much accelerated by a policy of Free Trade, which has at once opened up the markets of the world for our commerce, and for the 42 The Landed Interest. produce of our mines and manufactures. These are advantageously interchanged for the corn and other agricultural products of foreign lands. This will go on while the commerce is found mutually profitable. And it will be profitable so long as, by superior skill and enterprise, combined with exceptional mineral advantages, we can undersell other countries in the produce of our manufactories and mines, while they can supply us with corn at a cheaper rate than we can grow it at home. Our present relation with foreign countries is becoming like that of a crowded capital, which draws its fresh supplies of vegetables, milk, and meat, from the market- gardens, meadows, and rich grazings in its vicinity, but looks to more distant lands for the corn and other commodities which bear long transport from cheaper and more distant farms. More than one-half of our corn is now of foreign growth, and nearly one-fourth of our meat and dairy produce ; whilst year by year our corn- land is giving place to the more profitable produce afforded by the milk and grazing and market-garden farms, which are gradually Diminution in Number of Small Estates. 43 extending their circle. Such produce renders the land more valuable, more tempting prices are offered for it to the small landowners, and their numbers decrease. Wealthy men from the mines and manufactories and shipping and colonial interests, and the learned professions, desire to become proprietors of land ; and some competition exists between them and those land- owners whose increasing wealth tempts them on suitable opportunities to enlarge the boun- daries of their domains. Thus small proprietors are bought out, and agricultural landowners diminish in number ; while, side by side with them, vast urban populations are growing up, having little other connection with the land than that of affording the best market for its produce. The Domesday Book for the United King- Proportion of land- dom, lately published, divides the landowners owners to whole into two classes — those who have less than one popula- tion, acre of land, and those who have one acre and 320,000 to 33,000,000 upwards. The former comprise 70 per cent, of the whole ; but as none of this class has so much as an acre, and they hold together less than a two-hundredth part of the land, they may 44 The Landed Interest. be regarded as householders only. Excluding these as not properly agricultural landowners, it may then fairly be said that one person in every hundred of the entire population is a land- owner. Subdividing that figure by the average numbers of each family, it may be concluded that every twentieth head of a family is an owner of land. Increased But the tenant-farmers are entitled also to by the interests of be reckoned as part owners of agricultural pro- tenant- farmers as perty, for in the crops and live and dead stock part owners of they own equal to one-fifth of the whole capital agricul- tural pro- value of the land. Part of this is incorporated perty. with the soil, and it is all as indispensable for the production of crops as the land itself. As cultivators, they employ and possess individually a larger capital than the peasant proprietors of other countries in their double capacity as owners and cultivators. They are 1,160,000 in number, and when added to 320,000 owners of one acre and upwards, make 1,480,000 altoge- ther, engaged in the ownership and cultivation of the soil. When reckoned as heads of families they comprise more than one-fifth of the total One-fifth of People connected with Land. 45 male adult population ; and it is thence not un- reasonable to infer that, in that proportion, the people of this country are more or less interested in the preservation of landed property. When we come more closely to analyse the landowning class, the aggregation of land amongst small numbers becomes very conspi- cuous. One-fourth of the whole territory, ex- cluding those under one acre, is held by 1,200 persons, at an average for each of 16,200 acres ; another fourth by 6,200 persons, at an average for each of 3,150 acres; another fourth by 50,770 persons, at an average for each of 380 acres ; whilst the remaining fourth is held by 261,830 persons, at an average for each of 70 acres. An interesting compilation from the Domesday Books by the Scotsman newspaper, shows that the Peerage of the United Kingdom, One-fifth of the about 600 in number, possess among them rather land held by the more than a fifth of all the land, and between a Peerage. tenth and an eleventh of its annual income. The great bulk of the land in the United Not culti- vated by Kingdom is not cultivated by the owners, but owners but by tenant- by tenant-occupiers. Of these there are 561,000 farmers; 46 The Landed Interest. in Great Britain, and 600,000 in Ireland. Ex- cluding the mountains, wastes, and water, the relative Cultivated land is held by these at an average extent of their hold- of 56 acrcs each in Great Britain, and 26 acres ings in England Jn Ireland. But the proportion of large and Ireland. small farms in the two countries is very different, nearly half the land in Ireland being held in small farms under 15 acres each, while less than a fifth of Great Britain is so occupied. %6 per cent, of the farmers in Ireland hold nearly half the land, while 70 per cent, in Great Britain hold less than a fifth. Agriculture is the prin- cipal occupation of the people of Ireland, the revenue from the land there forming twice as much as that from all other sources, whilst in Great Britain it is but a seventh of the whole. Hence in Ireland the possession and occupancy of land is the great political question, while in Great Britain it has ceased to have prominence. Irade and This country, from its insular position and Colonies ^ ' ^ Elf land ^^ great resources it possesses in minerals of iron with^^^"^^^ and coal, and the outlet it finds in extensive increase colonies, has advantages which have hitherto tion. enabled it to disregard those prudential con- Surplus Population' readily Emigrate. 47 siderations which, in some other countries, have checked the rapid increase of population. Where full employment and the means of subsistence are abundant, population increases in geo- metrical progression, and therefore in a far more rapid proportion than the increased pro- ductiveness of the soil, which, after a certain point, is stationary. The population of England increases more rapidly than that of France, because our enormous foreign trade, amounting in value to ^20 per head of our population, enables us to add the food resources of other countries to our own. Our surplus population, not wedded to the soil by property, emigrate to countries of the same language, at the rate of 100,000 a year ; partly to the United States, and partly to our own colonies. Our agricul- ture is no longer influenced by considerations of the means of finding employment for sur- plus labour, but is now being developed on the principle of obtaining the largest produce at the least cost, the same principle by which the power-loom has supplanted the hand-loom. In this process many ancient ties are loosened, and 48 The Landed Interest. among them that adhesiveness to the soil which for generations has more bound the EngHsh labourer than the owner of the land to the parish of his birth ; the man of most ancient known descent being in very many cases the labourer. The process is a wholesome one so long as the command to multiply and replenish the earth has not been fulfilled. And the general rise of wages among the labouring classes both in town and country, with the diminution of pauperism, in the last five years, would seem to be a satisfactory proof that there is still room in this country, and no need to check the growth of population. Checked Such a check, however, took place in Ireland in IrelanJ, by potato at the time of the potato famine in 1846. The famine in 1846. Its population was then eight millions and a half. results. Within five years it had fallen to six millions and a half, nearly one-fourth of the people having either emigrated or died. The deaths from fever and famine had ceased in 1850, but the emigration continued, partly to Great Britain and the colonies, but chiefly to the United States. The population had fallen in The Irish Famine in 1S46. 49 1 87 1 to 5,412,000, and was then almost the same as that of 1801, seventy years before. There is no darker page than this in the history of our country in the present or preceding century. Millions of money were lavishly spent by the Government in direct relief, and in relief and improvement works to give employment, with a view to palliate the collapse which befell a people who had no resources when the potato failed them. The landowners in the more dis- tressed districts were nearly as much broken down as their tenants. They had either encouraged or not discouraged the continued subdivision of small farms, as well as the rapid increase of the people, by which, so long as the potato could be relied on, their rents were increased. The famine-stricken land was everywhere abandoned by the starving occupiers, and thrown tenantless upon the owners' hands, making many of them bankrupt. An ' Encumbered Estates Act ' was passed, to sell off the lands of those proprietors whose incumbrances had overwhelmed them, and substitute others more capable of fulfilling the duties of landowners. In a few years land 5© Thr Landed Interest. to the value of twenty-five millions sterling was disposed of, twenty-four of which were distri- buted among creditors. In order to secure the landowners' prompt attention in future to the condition of the people, the incidence of the poor-rates, which had previously been placed wholly on the tenant-occupier, was divided equally between him and the landowner. In fifteen years, emigration and the sale of encum- bered estates had removed the most needy class of the population. Prosperity then began again to dawn upon agriculture in Ireland, works of improvement followed the introduction of capital, supplied partly by Government loans and partly by the new landowners. Labour having become less plentiful, was better em- ployed and more liberally paid, and the more energetic of the small farmers were ready to enlarge their holdings on every favourable op- portunity. As time went on, a great change was found to have taken place, the old eagerness for the occupancy of land returned, but not for Decrease its subdivision. In less than thirty years, of smallest holdings 2/0,000 of the smallest holdings were merged I Return of Prosperity. 51 into adjoining larger farms, one-half of the small on the return of holding's of 184S having totally disappeared, prosperity '^ ^^ ^ /it -j^ Ireland. The tide of emigration began to turn, extreme poverty ceased, the proportion of paupers to the population became much lower, and the costs of poor relief nearly one-half less, than in either England or Scotland. This was accompanied by better wages to the labourer, higher profits to the farmer, and a rise in the value of land, all fostered by a growing demand for the kind of produce which the soil and climate of Ireland are specially adapted to yield. But the lesson left by the previous disaster has led to the gravest distrust in the system of very small holdings, in a country producing neither wine nor oil, and where the occupier is not the owner of the land. It is worthy of note that the strictly rural Diminu- tion of agri- parishes of England exhibit some decline of cultural population population. In one-fourth of the registration in propor- tion to districts there has been a diminution of the other classes in agricultural population in the ten years ending England. 1871, amounting altogether to 108,000. And it is quite certain that this continues. It arises from 52 The Landed Interest. the natural draft to the better-paid labour of the mining, manufacturing, and other industrial centres, which are augmented both by this im- migration and by natural increase. Diminished population in the rural districts is followed by a rise of wages ; and this leads to greater economy of labour, both by the introduction of labour-saving machinery and the conversion of arable land to pasture, where the nature of the soil admits. The higher price of meat and dairy- produce also contributes to this change. But the loss in numbers of the agricultural districts is amply made good by the gain in the rest of the country, the population now employed in agriculture being small compared with that of the other industries. Fifty years ago a fifth of the working population of England was engaged in agriculture. At the present time there is less than a tenth. Class of The land of the United Kingdom may be yeomen, farming Said to be now almost wholly cultivated by their own land, now tenant-farmers. The class of yeomen, or small in very small pro- landowners farming their own land, is found portion to that of here and there in England, but scarcely at all Landowners and Tenant-farmers. 53 in Scotland, and now bears but small proportion tenant- farmers. to the whole. Many of the larger landowners retain a farm under their own management for home supplies, or for the breeding of selected stock ; very few as a matter of business, or for profit. The general system is, that the land- owners make the permanent works on their estates, their income being paid in rent by tenant-occupiers ; the tenants in their turn direct the cultivation, provide the farm-stock and implements and all the necessary capital and skill, and employ and pay the agricultural labourers by whose work the land is cultivated. The system is so general in the United King- dom, that we really cannot be said to know any other, and yet, with reference to almost every country but our own, is so exceptional in Europe, that a more detailed description of it will be given in the next chapter. The circumstances of Ireland eight years ago Peasant proprie- appeared favourable for the creation of a class tors in Ireland. of peasant proprietors, and Parliament resolved to give the principle a trial. Two opportunities presented themselves ; first, in 1869, on the 54 The Landed Interest. disestablishment of the Church, which possessed upwards of 10,000 small holdings of land, in the benefices situated all over the country. The pre-emption of these was offered to the tenants on terms most favourable to them, both as to price and payment, and nearly two-thirds of the offers were promptly accepted. Again, in 1870, the Irish Land Act contained provisions ex- pressly favouring the system ; but, though great advantages in regard to terms of payment were also offered by that Act, the results hitherto have been comparatively small. The cause of the difference is very plain. In the first case the disposal of the lands was imperative, and did not occasion the subdivision of property ; while the vendors, the Church Commissioners, having no one to consult but themselves, offered these small holdings at low fixed prices without com- petition. In the second case, on the -other hand, it is the duty of the Landed Estates Court to get the best price they can for the landowner, who may very naturally object to allow small portions to be sold here and there out of his estate to suit the convenience of individual Irish Feasant Proprietors. 55 tenants. The farmers, moreover, begin to find themselves very secure in their possession as tenants, under the clauses of the Act, and have thus less inducement to buy the fee-simple ; and the landowners, participating in the general prosperity, are no longer under pressure to sell at the low prices hitherto realised. It is thus not from any defects in the Land Act, but from the improved condition of the country, and the increased security given to farmers' capital by the Act itself, that this branch of it has become less operative than was anticipated. CHAPTER V. LANDOWNER, FARMER, AND LABOURER, The land- The landowners are the capitalists to whom owners ; their the land belongs. Their property comprises the position, duties, and soil and all that is beneath it, and the buildings influence : and other permanent works upon it, required for the accommodation of the people, and of the working stock employed in its cultivation. Thus, where the land itself may be worth ^35 an acre, the buildings, roads, fences, and drain- age may have cost the landowners ^15 an acre more. The landowner has thus two capitals in the land, one of which is permanent and growing rapidly in value with the prosperity 'l>f the countiy, the other liable to decay and occasioning cost in repair. In nearly all per- manent improvements arising from the progress of agriculture he is also expected to share the cost. And he is necessarily concerned in the The Landowner. 57 general prosperity and good management of his estate, and in the welfare of those who live upon it, with which his own is so closely involved. He takes a lead in the business of his parish, and from his class the magistrates who admi- nister the criminal affairs of the county, and superintend its roads, its public buildings, and charitable institutions, are selected. Nor do his duties end here, for the landowner, from his position, is expected to be at the head of all objects of public utility, to subscribe to, and, if so inclined, to ride with the hounds, showing at once an example to the farmers and tradesmen, and meeting them on terms of neighbourly friendship and acquaintance. The same ex- ample is carried out in his intercourse with the clergy and schoolmaster, and his influence, where wisely exercised, is felt in the church, the school, the farm, and the cottage. This class in the United Kingdom comprises their numlier, a body of about 180,000, who possess among and the immense them the whole of the agricultural land from capital vahie of 10 acres upwards. The owners of less than 10 ^'^'^''' property. acres each hold not more than one-hundredth 58 The Landed Interest. part of the land, and may here be regarded as householders only. The property of the land- owners, independent of minerals, yields an annual rent of sixty-seven millions sterling, and is worth a capital value of two thousand miUions. There is no other body of men in the country who administer so large a capital on their own account, or whose influence is so widely extended and universally present. From them the learned professions, the church, the army, and the public services are largely recruited. The The tenant-farmers are the second class, and tenant- farmers; a much more numerous one. Their business is the pro- portionate the cultivation of the land, with a capital quite extent of their hold- independent of that of the landowner. They ings, and the emula- occupy farms of very various extent, 70 per tion that '- ^ ^ ' / r exists cent, of them under 50 acres each, 12 per cent. among -^ ' '■ ™" between 50 and 100 acres, and 18 per cent, farms of more than 100 acres each. 5,000 occupy farms of between 500 and 1,000 acres, and 600 occupy farms exceeding 1,000 acres. Many of them are men of liberal education, and some of these are found in most parishes and in every I The Tenant-farmer. 59 county. A spirit of emulation exists among them, elicited by county, provincial, and na- tional exhibitions of agricultural stock, and by a natural desire, in a country where everything is open to comment, not to be behind their neighbours in the neatness, style, and success of their cultivation, or in the symmetry and condition of their live-stock. They are brought into the closest relations with their labourers, and although, occasionally, feelings of keen antagonism have arisen, there is generally a very friendly understanding between them. The farmer knows that it is for his interest that the labourers should find their position made so comfortable as to value it. To the farmer is committed the management of the details of the parish, as those of the county to the landowner. His intimate know- ledge of the condition of the labourer, and constant residence in the parish, fit him best for the duty of Overseer of the Poor, member of the Board of Guardians, Churchwarden, and Sur- veyor of the Roads. He is frank and hospitable to strangers, as a rule ; in favour of the 6o The Landed Interest. established political institutions of the country ; loyal as a subject ; generally available in case of need as a mounted yeoman ; and constantly in requisition as a juryman in the Courts of Law. Their The farmers are six times as numerous as numbers and the landowners, there being 560,000 in Great capital. Britain, and 600,000 in Ireland, the holdings there being on a smaller scale. They employ a vast capital in the aggregate, upwards of four hundred millions sterling, and, unlike that of the landowners, much of it is in daily use, circulating among tradesmen and labourers. Land- Between the landlords and farmers there is agents. an intermediate class, the land-agents, to whom on most large estates the details of transacting business with the farmers, and looking after the cultivation and buildings and general condition of the property, are committed. These gentle- men, in most cases, are prepared by a course of special training and education for the very important and delicate duties thus entrusted to them. Where they possess such an amount of general knowledge as enables them to carry La nd-a gents. 6 1 their employer with them in all equitable arrangements for maintaining the property in a state of high agricultural efficiency, they perform a most useful function, and add very greatly to the welfare and comfort of all connected with the estates which they administer. A very eminent living authority rests the tenure of property on the fulfilment of duty ; and a most important part of that duty is to see that no good land upon it is suffered by neglect or mismanagement to remain unproductive. The third class comprises the agricultural The labourers ; labourers, who are necessarily much more numerous than both landowners and tenants. They cannot be said to have any other capital than the furniture of their dwellings, their well- acquired experience in all the details of hus- bandry, and the bodily strength to use it. The English labourer, of the southern counties espe- cially, has hitherto had but little education, except in his business. The Scotch have had their parish schools for three centuries, and the Irish a national school system for the last forty years. The legislation of 1876 has removed 62 The Landed Interest. their state in some of the southern counties long a subject of reproach, but now mending. this blot on the EngHsh system, by enacting that no child shall be employed at any kind of labour until he is of the age of ten, nor above that age unless he can show a certain degree of proficiency in education. This excellent rule is a virtual compulsion of education, as parents and employers alike are liable to penalties for its infringement. And as it is now accompanied in all parts of the kingdom by the establishment of duly regulated schools, no child can avoid an elementary education. The state of the agricultural labourer of the southern counties has long been the subject of reproach, and, till a recent period, not without good reason. In many parishes the average rate of wages was below the means of main- taining a man's bodily strength adequate to good work, and the result was that two men at low wages were kept to do the work of one well-paid labourer. The employer was a loser by this ; and though he might be aware of it, he could not help it, for there was a redundancy of labour seeking employment, and which had to be maintained either by wages or poor-rates. The Agricultural Labourer. ()t^ The labourer himself was uneducated, having little knowledge of any district outside his own parish, no means of moving beyond it, while he risked the loss of his legal right to the parish relief in illness or old age if he left it. In such circumstances it was hardly possible for the agricultural labourer to attain any degree of independence. There was no margin for saving, no surplus out of which an enterprising man could make the venture of moving his labour to places in which it would command a better return. And during the long period that this continued, his condition was low, and still shows itself in his small stature and slow gait. From the pressure of this system he was at last emancipated by the extension of his legal right of relief from the parish to the Union, a district much more extensive, and by the simultaneous increase in the demand for labour arising from the rapid development of the other industrial resources of the country. The great extension of steam communication with America, and the encouragement thereby afforded to emigration, drew off rapidly the surplus agricultural popula- 64 The Landed Interest. tion of Scotland and Ireland ; wages in both countries quickly increased, and this soon ex- tended its influence southwards. Agricultural labourers' unions were formed in the depressed districts just when this wholesome feeling was spreading throughout the country, and to their efforts much of the natural effect of other causes in producing a rise of wages has been ascribed. This increase of wages was attended by a most useful result, for it forced upon farmers the more extensive use of machinery, and, in the end, brought about a higher scale of wages to the labourer, while the additional cost to the farmer is met to some extent by superior skill, and greater economy in the application of labour. It is worthy of note that the increase of agricultural wages has been greatest in Scot- land, where labourers' unions have not taken root. Condition xhe general condition of the agricultural now better tiianatany labourer was probably never better than it is previous period, g^^ present. Compared with that of ^00 years comparing ^ ^ o j the^price^'^ ago, in the time of Elizabeth, wages have risen sixfold, while the price of bread has only Advance in Labourer's Condition. 65 doubled. Two centuries later, in 1770, the farm-labourer's wages was is. 2d. a day, when the price of wheat was 46s. a quarter. In 1846, immediately before the repeal of the Corn Laws, wages were is. 7d., when wheat was 53s. At the present time wages have risen 60 per cent, while wheat has not increased in price. In other words, the labourer's earning power in procuring the staff of life, cost him five days' work to pay for a bushel of wheat in 1770, four days in 1840, and two and a half days in 1870. He is better lodged than he ever was before ; though, in many parts of the country, there is still much room for improvement in that respect. Compared with the labourer in towns, his position is one of greater comfort ; he lives in a better atmosphere, he is more free from anxiety, and has a closer and more friendly relation with his employers, and with the schoolmaster and clergyman of his parish. He is kind to animals, understands how to manage them, and in his family shows a good example, on the whole, of sobriety and industry. 66 The Landed Interest. Each of To these three classes are committed the the three classes agricultural interest and industry of the king- constantly recruited dom. The two first have duties entrusted to by changes ofproperty them by the constitution, for the management and em- pioyment. q^ ^^ public and local interests of their counties and parishes, in addition to their special busi- ness as landowners and agriculturists. Each of the three classes is constantly being altered and recruited by changes and additions. Landed property of the value of several millions sterling a year changes hands, and as there is necessarily a larger body of persons capable of competing for small properties, there is a natural tendency to subdivision on sale. In every county many farms change their tenants at Lady Day or Michaelmas, new men with new ideas being substituted for the old, some of whom have died, some retired from business, and some moved elsewhere. Labourers move about more than they used to do, and learn something useful in each change, and large drafts of them pass off to the other industrial pursuits of the country, and to the colonies. The feeling of being bound to the soil or the parish of his birth Our Mixed System. 67 has lost much of its strength, and every facility- is now presented to the unmarried agricultural labourer for improving his position if he desires to alter it. In short, our system is that of large capi- talists owning the land ; of smaller capitalists, each cultivating five times more of it than they would have means to do if they owned their farms ; and of labourers free to carry their labour to any market which they consider most remunerative. It has been the gradual growth of experience in a country of moderate extent, where land is all occupied, where capital is abundant and constantly seeking investment in land ; and where other industries than agri- culture are always demanding recruits from the children of the agricultural labourer, who find, besides, a ready outlet in those British colonies where the soil and climate are not much different from that which they leave, and where their own language is spoken. And doubtless this facility of language has greatly helped the people of this country in encountering the trials and difficulties of emigration. But the want of 6S The Landed Interest. it may be successfully overcome, as the example of Germany has proved hi the tens of thousands of her people who have gone to the United States. There, and in the vast continent of Australia, there is room enough to take, with advantage, the surplus population of every country in Europe for many generations. In- stead of struggling at home as labourers, or culti- vators of small patches of land where nothing but the most sparing frugality enables them to live, the working men of all countries are invited and assisted by Australia to take a share on equal terms with our own people in the great enterprise of colonising a new continent, where liberty, order, and remunerative employment are offered to all comers ; where the climate is pure and healthy for Europeans, and where every industry, agricultural, manufacturing, or mining, affords a field for enterprise. The result A system is best tested by its fruits. Com- ofthe system pared with all other countries, our threefold compared with that plan of landlord, farmer, and labourer, appears of other countries to yield larger returns, with fewer labourers, and shows larger fj-om an equal extent of land. Our average Comparison with other Countries. 69 produce of wheat is 28 bushels an acre, as returns at less cost. against 16 in France, 16 in Germany, and 13 in Russia and the United States. We show a similar advantage in live-stock, both in quantity and quality. We have far more horses, cattle, and sheep in proportion to acreage than any other country, and in all these kinds there is a general superiority. Our most famous breeders of live-stock are the tenant-farmers. The best examples of farming are found in the same class. The improved breeds of cattle, the Leicester and Southdown sheep, and the ex- tended use of machinery, manures, and artificial foods are chiefly due to them. And the neat- ness of the cultivation, the straight furrow, and the beautiful lines of drilled corn, the well-built ricks and docile horses, exhibit at once the strength and skill of the labourers. If that mode of husbandry which lessens the exchange- able value of bread and meat by an increase of production and supply is the best for the community, from whom a smaller proportion of their labour is required for the purchase of their food, then our system of subdivision of labour 70 The Landed Interest. Dy landowner, farmer, and labourer, the three interests engaged in its production, will stand a favourable comparison with that of any other country. Special There are characteristic features in the features presented business relation between the landowner and by it in each of the farmer which deserve notice, in its application three' ^^ countries ; ^-q ^j-jg three countnes, En";land, Scotland, and in Eng. ' ;= » > land, Ireland. In England the general system is tenancy at will, by which the connection may be terminated on six months' notice. The result is, that the notice is rarely given, changes of tenancy are comparatively few, and systems in Scot- of management are slowly altered. In Scotland land, ,11, there has long been tenancy on a nmeteen years' lease. The certainty of the tenure up to a fixed time prompts immediate enterprise to make the most of that definite period, and changes of tenant at its conclusion have become frequent. There can be no doubt that this has been attended with a more hearty and ready appreciation of improved processes on the part of both landlord and tenant, and a higher scale of wages to the labourer. It still needs, how- Varietv of Tenure. 71 ever, some equitable rules to secure continuance of the tenant's interest in good farming to the close of the lease. And the Scotch tenants are also hampered by an unreasonable law which prohibits them from transferring their leases even to a solvent and unobjectionable successor, and, still worse, from bequeathing the lease to their widows or any of their children except the heir-at-law. Ireland has a system of its i" Ireland own. Till a very recent period the tenant made nearly all improvements, such as they were. He reclaimed the waste, built his own poor habita- tion, and he and his family occupied the land, and subdivided it amongst them. He thus tacitly acquired a hold on the soil much greater than in the sister countries, and which was generally acquiesced in by the landlords, man)^ of whom were non-residents. These three sys- tems were the natural growth of circumstances, and have become deeply intertwined with the habits and feelings of the agricultural classes in the several countries. Three-fourths of the land in England have tenfncy°- long been held by a comparatively small body England. 72 The Landed Interest. of great landowners. From the Revolution in 1688 till the Reform Bill of 183 1, all political power was in their hands. They were the patrons of agriculture, and their tenants, being accustomed to continue undisturbed, neither asked nor expected legal security of tenure. But habit and custom gave such security in reality, though not in law ; and to this day there are families of tenants-at-will who can count back a longer period of unbroken suc- cession in their farms than the great landowner at whose will they hold them. The first Reform Bill gave tenant-farmers, paying a rent of £<-)0 and upwards, the right to vote in the election of members of Parliament, and thus strengthened their hold on the consideration of their landlord, but at the same time gave him an unfortunate interest in the continuance of a system which kept them dependent on his will. This con- tinued for one generation more, until in 1867 the franchise was lowered to £12, and in 1871 vote by ballot introduced. By those measures the numbers and political strength of the tenant- farmer class were largely increased. Household The English System. 73 suffrage in counties is believed to be not far off, and thus the hitherto paramount poHtical in- fluence of the landowner in the counties is gradually being replaced by the wider basis of the representation of each of their varied interests. The first result of the latest extension of the constituency, and their protection by ballot, has been a strong agitation on the part of the farmers to obtain a legal right to be compensated, on removal, for their unexhausted manures and improvements. Simultaneously with it, a labourers' league has been formed in some districts to concentrate the latent power of the dispersed but numerous body of agricul- tural labourers. Both of these movements have been attended with a moderate measure of success. The Agricultural Holdings Act, passed two years ago, recognises for the first time a legal right in the English farmer to compen- sation for unexhausted improvements, cumbered indeed with conditions which have made it unsatisfactory to both parties. A considerable step has, however, been gained, as all parties are brought to look carefully into their position. 74 The Landed Interest. and thus the mutual connection, while losing something of sentiment, will in time gain more of business and enterprise. Land- In Scotland the necessities of the landowners owner's necessities prompted them, at a much earlier period, to prompted leases in seek relief from the embarrassments of entail Scotland. by obtaining legislative power to borrow money for the improvement of their settled property. And, when the means were thus provided for executing permanent works, the energies of the tenant-farmers were wisely enlisted in carry- ing these into remunerative effect by the now well-recognised form of a lease of nineteen years, at a fixed rent, to assure the tenants such a period of possession as should at once evoke their best exertions. This system has now been in practice for three generations, and its results are seen in a higher state of general cultivation than that of the sister countries ; greater compe- tition for farms, and a higher scale of rent ; more independence ; and at least as keen an intelli- gence shown in adopting improvements. For a long period the Scotch landowners have been compelled to look into the management of their The Scotch System. '75 property in a different manner from those of England. Upon them the liabihty was directly placed of finding the money for the public establishments of their counties, the churches, prisons, and police. They had the determina- tion of questions of road-making ; and having to contribute directly a large proportion of the county expenditure, they took an active interest in its administration. This brought them into closer business contact with the farmers ; and recent legislation has tended to increase this connection by the principle of imposing all county rates in certain proportion directly on landowners and farmers, and giving to both a representation at the same county or parish board. There is thus a better fusion of the two interests than in England, and a readier appreciation on the part of the landowner of the outlays requisite on his part to enable his tenant to make the most of the land he farms. The time seems rapidly approaching when the Scotch system of equal valuation and rating, imposed directly upon both landowner and farmer, will be imitated in England, and lead 76 The Landed Interest. to the principle of local administration in each county by representatives of every interest at a county board. Non- In Ireland the relation between landlord residence of land- and tenant is altogether different from that of owners produced England and Scotland. Previous to the famine system of middle- ^f 1846, the great landowners were non-resident, men in Ireland, ^^^ ^^ \2iX\<\ was Still in a great measure in the and Its con- sequent hands of middle-men on leases for lives, with evds. leave to subdivide and sublet for the same time. These men had no permanent interest in the property; their business was to make an income out of it at the least cost, and their intermediate position severed the otherwise natural connection between landlord and tenant. The famine of 1846 prostrated the class of middle-men entirely, and brought the landowner and the real tenants face to face. But the hold which the latter had been permitted to obtain led them to consider the landowner very much as only the holder of the first charge on the land ; and they were in the habit of selling and buying their farms among themselves subject to this charge, a course which, as a matter of practice, was tacitly The Irish System. 77 accepted by the landowner. He had security for his rent in the money paid by an incoming tenant, who, for his own safety, required the land- owner's consent to the change of tenancy, and the landowner's agent then received the " price " of the farm (for that was the term used), and handed it over to the outgoing tenant, after deducting all arrears of rent. This suited the convenience of landowners, the most of whom had no money to spend on improvements, many of them non-resident and taking little interest in the country, and dealing with a numerous body of small tenants with whom they seldom came into personal contact. In the north of Ireland this custom of sale became legally recognised as tenant-right. The want of it in other parts of Ireland produced an agitation which ulti- mately led to the Irish Land Act, under which legislative protection is given to customs capable of proof. The custom of " selling " the farm, subject to the approval of the landowner, by a tenant on yearly tenure, is rapidly gaining ground in Ireland ; and so firmly are the people imbued with this idea of their rights, that the 78 The Landed Interest. clauses of the Irish Land Act, which enable the tenant, by the aid of a loan of Government money, on very easy terms, to purchase the proper ownership of his farm, are rarely acted upon, from the belief that the farm is already his, under the burden of a moderate rent-charge to his nominal landlord. Circumstances have thus brought about a situation in which the landowner cannot deal with the same freedom with his property as in England or Scotland, either in the selection of his tenants or in the fair readjustment of rent, and this has, in a great measure, arisen naturally from the neglect by the landlord of his proper duties, in not himself executing those indispensable permanent im- provements, which the tenant was thus obliged to undertake, and who in this way established for himself a claim to a co-partnership in the soil itself. CHAPTER VI. LAND IMPROVEMENT. Having now endeavoured to explain the respec- Settle- ments and tive positions of the three interests engaged in incum- ^ brances the cultivation of the soil in each of the three h'^ider the free action countries forming the United Kingdom, I of^^'iny ° ^ land- proceed to consider the circumstances which °^^^^'^ '" embarrass the free action of a large proportion |]]en['^f' of the landowners, and the modes by which these perty.^'^°' have been more or less overcome. A very large proportion of the land is held by tenants for life under strict settlement, a condition which pre- vents the power of sale, and it is also frequently burdened with payments to other members of the family, and in many cases with debt. The nominal income is thus often very much reduced, and the apparent owner of five thousand a year may have little more than half of it to spend. In such cases there is no capital available for the So The Landed Interest. improvements which a landowner is called upon to make, in order to keep his property abreast of the advance in agricultural practice. This was pressingly felt at the time of the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the withdrawal of protective Expe- duties from native produce. Parliament, there- dients adopted to fore, when it enacted a free import of the neces- overcome this. saries of Hfe, provided State loans on favourable terms to the landowners for the drainage and reclamation of their estates. The potato disease of 1846 and 1847 ^^'^s a serious calamity at the time, but it was the occasion from which arose the great stride made in agricultural enterprise in this country during the last thirty years. It led at once to the removal of all protective duties on foreign agri- cultural produce, and obtained for the people of this country access to supplies from foreign lands, where wages were lower and good land more abundant. Landowners and farmers be- stirred themselves to meet the inevitable com- petition to which they became exposed ; and their efforts were promptly aided by the State with reproductive loans to tide them over the Loans for Land Lmprovement. 8i early years of trial. As the sums voted by Parliament for these loans became exhausted, Land Improvement Companies were formed to carry on the good work on the principles which had already proved successful, the companies necessarily charging somewhat higher terms than those which the credit of the State had enabled it to afford without loss. The State loans were limited in Great Britain State loans for drain- to drainage and reclamation, the landowners age and re- clamation being left to their own resources for buildings, of land, ^ '^ ' and in roads, and fences. In Ireland these were and i^'"':!^"^ ^^"^ buddings still are included, that country having always ^Jg°^j ^^ been favoured in matters of State assistance, te^ms'^-^ The rate of payment was by annual instalments of 6| per cent., which in twenty-two years re- deemed the principal, and at the same time paid the annual interest at 3^ per cent. In many cases the tenant undertook the whole of this annual payment in addition to his rent, and the landowner thus had his land permanently im- proved, and returned to him free of all charge at the end of twenty-two years. Not unfre- quently the landowner was satisfied with 5 per 82 The Laxded Interest. cent, from his tenant, and paid i|- out of his own pocket for this permanent advantage. Especially was this the case in regard to buildings, the return from which is not so direct or immediate as from drainage or reclamation, followed The same principle is followed by the Land by loans from Com- Improvement Companies, whose loans, like those panics. of the State, are secured by priority over all other charges, but continue for twenty-five or thirty years, according to the rate annually paid. It has been proposed to extend the term still farther, in order to reduce the rate of annual repayment ; but this is a questionable advantage, for each generation has improve- ments of its own to carry out, and it is a good general rule that the cost of the past should be paid off before new charges are placed on the land. Total The total amount of money charged on the amount so expended, land of the United Kingdom for agricultural improvements under the system of periodical redemption, in the last thirty years, amounts to about fifteen millions sterling — twelve in Great Britain and three in Ireland. About eight I Amount Expended. 83 millions of it was advanced by the State, and seven millions by private companies, A large proportion of the first has now been repaid, having been returned to the public exchequer, principal and interest, and is no longer a charge upon the land. Two-thirds of the whole have been spent on drainage, the remainder on farm- buildings, labourers' cottages, embanking, water- courses, farm roads, reclamation, planting for shelter, and enclosing. The expenditure through such loans goes on with great regularity at an average of half a million sterling a year, and the loans are being redeemed and the charge ex- tinguished at about the same rate. The extent of work still to be done far exceeds what has been accomplished, and so many new demands arise to meet the changes in husbandry that the system is likely to be a permanent one. It may therefore be useful to consider its present mode of working, the objections which have been made to it, and whether any improvement can be in- troduced which might facilitate its operation. An inquiry into this subject was undertaken inquiry 1 ITT r T 1 • n -T-i /^ '^y Pa^rlia- by the House of Lords m 1873. The Com- ment into 84 The Landed Interest. the mode mittee comprised men of acknowledged emi- of working these nence on both sides of politics, great landowners loans, and their conversant with such subjects, and having more results. •' ° or less practical knowledge of agricultural affairs. Twenty-three witnesses were examined from various parts of the kingdom, all of whom had experience of the system. Various instances were adduced to show the unremunerative nature of certain improvements, the explanation of which was either injudicious and imperfect execution of the works, or inadequacy of capital, or energy, or knowledge, to follow them up by good culture ; want of knowledge and expe- rience on the part of the landowner or his agent, or the usual circumstances of a similar nature which are found here and there to occur in all large operations, which must often be unwittingly entrusted to weak or dishonest management. As this inquiry embraced the execution of works in all parts of Great Britain, spread over a period of twenty-six years, and embracing an expendi- ture then exceeding ten millions sterling, the comparatively few and exceptional instances of failure might be taken as a strong proof of the I Generally Remunerative. 85 general success of the system. Except in such buildings as required restoration from the con- tinued neglect of landowners to repair — a case very common both north and south — some re- turn seems always to be reckoned upon, even for expenditure on new buildings. On all other General testimony kinds of improvement there was a general testi- to their remimera mony to their remunerative character. And ^ive char- acter. those of the witnesses most competent to speak, the tenant-farmers, who had themselves repaid the cost of the works, declared that they had received from the money spent on land-improve- ment much more than a return of capital and interest. The Committee very truly remark that it is Object of continuing an anomaly that private transactions should be Govern- ment con- submitted to the control of a Government office, troi after issue of This was perfectly legitimate, so long as the public money money advanced was a public loan. When the ceased. supply of public money ceased, and that of private persons or companies was substituted, the existing Government machinery of inspec- tion and control, which had been found on the whole to work well, was continued by Parlia- 86 The Landed Interest. ment on the ground that the improvement of the land of this country was a matter of public interest. But this was not with the view of protecting the interests of the remainder-man and mortgagee, for that is no part of the duty of Government ; but in order to give a first charge on the inheritance, and so enable land- owners, whether under settlement or otherwise, to obtain money for improving their estates, (which is an object of public importance,) at a lower rate of interest than would otherwise have been possible. This preferential charge could be given only with the tacit assent of other parties already creditors of the estate ; and the condition which hitherto has assured that assent has been the certificate, under statutory powers, of an acknowledged Government authority, that their security had not been thereby injuriously affected. The continuance of the Government inspection has thus been wholly in the interest of the landowner, especially if he is under settlement or entail, in which " condition the tenant for life is otherwise unable to raise money for the improvement of his property. Land Drainage Remunerative. 87 Besides the public and private loans spent on land improvement, a much larger sum has been laid out on the same object by landowners from their own resources. It may be useful to consider in their order Land drainage the several objects of land-improvement, and one of the most the return they are capable of yielding under certainly remunera- suitable economical management, tive improve- The first improvement, in all cases where it i^^ents. is required, is drainage, for until the land is freed from stagnant water, and thus rendered capable of yielding its fullest assistance to the further efforts of the agriculturist, all other out- lay is vain. There is never any difficulty in deciding upon the expediency of drainage in these islands, because wherever it is required, and is judiciously executed, it at once becomes remunerative. The under drainage of arable and good grass-land, in a climate where drain- age is advantageous, renders the land so much warmer and more wholesome for plants and animals, everything upon it becomes so much more thrifty, and all operations so much more 88 The Landed Interest. easy and certain in their results, that it is sure to pay. No doubt the increasing cost of labour and materials is seriously felt, but the value of land and of most kinds of agricultural produce is likewise increasing. Greater With regard to outlay on farm buildings, caution required there is not the same certainty of return. Farm in expendi- ture on buildings are of two kinds, those for the accom- farm buildings, modation of live-stock and the manipulation of the crop, and those for the housing of the farmer and farm labourers. In regard to the first, it is only necessary to refer to the increasing prices of live-stock to show the advantage of making adequate and comfortable provision for their food and shelter. But the time has gone by for great corn barns. The corn is now much more economically treated by stacking it in the field where it grows, and threshing it out by loco- motive engine-power when required. The partial conversion of these large barns into feeding-sheds, or in the grazing counties into hay-sheds, is the best mode of turning them to account ; and where farm-buildings have been kept by the proprietor in good repair, their i Farm Buildings and Cottages. 89 conversion to objects of modern husbandry- need not be very costly. It is only where they have been completely neglected, and require entire renewal, that the expense is greater than can be met by the immediate return. Even then it is capable of proof that the economy of labour and of food, the better quality of the manure, and the greater thrift of the stock, will, as a rule, be ample compensation for the charge. Additions to existing buildings for a specific object, planned and executed with judgment, will always be remunerative. But the more common fault of putting up very costly build- ings, planned with little reference to the value and extent of the farm, or little practical know- ledge on the part of land-agent or architect, too surely ends in disappointment to both land- owner and farmer. Labourers' cottages are reckoned the least Labourers' dwellings, remunerative of all. New cottages, even though when judi- ciously built in blocks of two or four together, cannot placed, as remunera- at present be built by contract for less than tive as any other out- £1^0 each, if planned with due regard to com- %ofland- ° owners fort and decency, and at a greater cost if the '^''^P'^^^- go The Landed Interest. expense of haulage of materials is included. To repay this in twenty-five years, both prin- cipal and interest, a weekly rent of 4s. is required. But labourers in the southern counties have been unable to pay more than is. or 2s. out of their weekly wages, so that the land- owner who lets good cottages at that rent is really paying also 2s. or 3s. a week towards the wages of his farmer's labourers. By this, all the parties are misled. The landowner's duty to his estate is to provide it with all permanent buildings required for its proper cultivation. He must do so if he cultivates the land himself, and he ought equally to do so if he lets it to be cultivated by another. The farmer, whether landowner or tenant, must then furnish the farm with the " plant," the live and dead stock necessary for its cultivation. Both parties are entitled to look for a return for their investment ; the landowner's safe and improving capital yielding him a smaller annual return than the farmer's, which is liable to the vicissi- tudes of seasons, and wear and tear, and must also cover his personal industry and skill. The Cottages may be Remunerative. 91 labourers' dwellings are as indispensable as the stables and barns, and no arable farm can be said to be complete which has not the command of an adequate number of cottages for the work- people. These, with the farm and all other necessary buildings, should be let to the farmer at a rent which should include a fair return on the landlord's capital, and the farmer and the labourer should be left to deal with each other on the basis of adequate remuneration for use- ful service, regulated by the ultimate rule of demand and supply. On this footing the return on labourers' cottages will become as remune- rative as that of any other outlay of landowners' capital, because it will be controlled by the real necessity and requirements of the farm. This will apply chiefly in cases where new Better cottages cottages are attached to farms, and fresh outlay wanted rather than for that object is to be made. But, in the vast ^^o^'^ ^^ •• them. majority of cases, labourers' cottages already exist in sufficient numbers. Better cottages are required in many parts of the country, rather than more of them. It has been well ascer- tained that during the last thirty years the 92 The Landed Interest. agricultural population has diminished. The circumstances which have led to that continue in full strength. Increased facilities of locomo- tion between different parts of the country, and for emigration across the seas, tend more and more to carry off the energetic portion of the agricultural population. This has raised the rate of farm wages and the cost of cultivating arable land. The prosperity of the wage-earn- ing class in other occupations has, at the same time, vastly increased the demand for butcher's meat and dairy produce, and so greatly increased the returns from grass land. The natural result is a gradual conversion of suitable arable land to grass, and this diminution of extent is accom- panied also by the introduction of labour-saving machines. There is thus in both ways a ten- dency to a diminution of our agricultural population, the one operating in carrying off the ablest to more remunerative fields of industry, the other in lessening the home demand for agricultural labour. It is a fact of great im- portance in the consideration of this question that, within the period between the census of Decrease of Country Population. 93 1 86 1 and 1871, there has been a decrease of the country population in every county of England except five, and it is only in the suburban counties and in the manufacturing and mining districts that an increase has taken place. Future provision for agricultural labourers' dwellings ought therefore to be in the direction of improvement rather than increase. Abundant proof might easily be adduced from most parts of the country that on the main heads of agricultural improvement there should be no lack of good return. The fact that the outlay goes on without diminution, notwith- standing the great increase in the cost of labour and materials, would alone upset all reasoning, and isolated instances, to the contrary. A very Examples of remu- instructive paper on this part of the subject was nerative expendi- produced by the managing director of the Lands ture. Improvement Company. It showed a return of forty cases of outlays, not picked cases, but taken as they happened to come, with the in- creased rentals subsequent to the improvements. Upon an outlay in the aggregate of ^195,000 there was an increased rental oi £'^1,000. This 94 T^i^ Landed Interest. increase had been obtained within seven to ten years. In only five instances did the increase fall short of repaying the annual charge which redeems the principal as well as the interest. In every other case it left a profit beyond this, in many cases a large profit. On the whole, the increase is equal to a return of 15 per cent, on the expenditure, and if this is capitalised at the common estimate of thirty years' purchase of land rent, the sum expended will be found to have been increased more than fourfold. If land- owners generally could reckon on anything like the average return of these forty cases, they would have the means, under the Lands Improve- ment Acts, of improving their estates, not only without present loss, but with a large immediate profit. But no distinction was made or could be made in this return between that increment which arose from improvements and the general increase of rent due to the prosperity of the country, the increased value of produce, and the development of particular districts by the open- ing of railways and roads. Still in one way or Increasing Value of Land. 95 other the landowner in these cases has been made entirely safe. And in the nature of things in this country- such must be the case wherever reasonable judgment has been shown in expenditure on land improvement. The improver is dealing with a limited article, for the produce of which there is an ever-increasing demand. Nature has given us a climate more favourable to the pro- duction of meat and milk, vegetables and grass, than that of any other European State. These, in proportion to their value, are the least costly in labour, and therefore the least affected by a rise of wages. The growing demand for them, and their consequently increasing value, exer- cise a constant pressure for increased production, which can still to some extent be obtained by improving the land we have. A large propor- tion of the improvable land under cultivation admits of this, and much of that vast tract which has hitherto been left to nature might also be profitably reclaimed for the rearing of sheep and cattle. CHAPTER VII. RECENT RISE IN THE VALUE OF LAND. Great rise THERE has been, within the last twenty years, in the value of a very considerable increase in the value of land land since the repeal Jn this country. The income-tax returns are of the Corn Laws, only most instructive on this point, and, as they partly due f ' > J ^° ^}^^ r show the rental of land in England, Scotland, outlay of & ' ' capital in ^^^ Ireland separately, they afford the means of "^'^'^ ^* comparing the rate of improvement in each country. That improvement does not seem to have begun in England till 1858, the gross annual value of "Lands" in 1857 having been returned at ;^ 50,000 less in that year than in 1846. From 1858 the rise has been progressive and continuous, and with an average increase of ;^470,ooo a year. The rise seems to have begun somewhat earlier in Scotland, and the average yearly increase has been ^^82,000. The returns from Ireland cannot be distinguished prior to HisE IN Value since 1857. 97 1862, and show an average yearly increase, from that year, of ;^39,ooo. The total rise within a period of eighteen years has been a little over 20 per cent. ; but, as will be seen by the annexed Table, the proportion of increase on the Scotch rental has been greater than on that of England; The small rise in Ireland presents a striking contrast to England and Scotland. The capital value of the total increase at the present selling price of land in this country will be reckoned something prodigious, especially by those of us who are old enough to recall the dismal pro- phecies of the agricultural ruin which would surely follow the free admission of foreign corn. Gross Annual Value of Land Assessed to the InCOME-TaX in 1857 AND 1875. 1857. 1875. Increase. In- crease per cent. Capital Value of Increase at 30 Years' Purchase. England... Scotland . . . Ireland, ) from 1 862 J £ 41,177,000 5,932,000 8,747,000 £ 50,125,000 7,493,000 9,293,000 £ 8,948,000 1,561,000 • 546,000 21 26 6 £ 268,440,000 46,830,000 16,380,000 55,856.000 66,911,000 11,055,000 331,650,000 H 98 The Landed Interest. This vast increase in the value of landed property within the short period of twenty years is very remarkable. It has been already shown that the improvement expenditure effected by loans has been fifteen millions. If we assume that even three times as much has been effected during the same period by private capital with- out loans, we here see that the capital wealth of the owners of landed property has been in- creased by three hundred and thirty-one millions sterling in these twenty years, at a cost to them which probably has not exceeded sixty millions. This increase, as elsewhere explained, has arisen chiefly from the great advance in the consump- tion and value of meat and dairy produce, and is thus only in part the result of land improvement. Greatest But though in the aggregate the landowners rise has been in of England have become richer by more than the grazing counties, one-fifth, and those of Scotland by more than and in Scotland : onc-fourth, the progress has not been uniform. the cause of this. jn the purely corn districts, and on the chalk and sands of the drier counties, where grass does not thrive, the increase has been small. On the Greatest in the West and North. 99 poor clays there has been none. It has been greatest in the grazing counties and in the west and north. The increase shown in Scotland deserves special attention. In that country the larger proportion of grazing-land no doubt partly explains this ; but, on the other hand, entails are more strict, and land is understood to be more heavily mortgaged than in England, so that in these respects Scotland has no ad- vantage. It was this greater disability of the entailed Scotch proprietor which drove him earlier to seek a remedy. A little more than a century ago, in 1770, the first Improvement of Land Act was passed, the famous Montgomery Act, the preamble of which clearly explains its origin. " Whereas much mischief arises to the public, which must daily increase so long as the law allowing such entails subsists, if some remedy be not provided," and then it provided a remedy very similar in principle to the Drainage Acts passed for both countries eighty years later. But the power of raising money would not alone have sufficed. It was necessary also to take care that that money should be wisely expended, loo The Landed Interest. and the astute heads which devised the Mont- gomery Act enHsted the aid of the tenant- farmers, by giving them the security of nineteen years' leases, and thus obtaining their co-opera- tion in the execution of the works, and in the subsequent operations necessary to make them remunerative. This co-operation between landlord and tenant in Scotland had been in full action for more than two generations before the Drainage Loans introduced by Sir Robert Peel in 1848, when both landlord and tenant in Scotland at once eagerly availed themselves of the very liberal terms on which these were offered ; and that goes on to this day. The facilities given by the Improvement of Land Act, 1864, which enables limited landowners to operate with their own means without the inter- vention of the Improvement Companies, were at once recognised in Scotland, which has availed itself of them to an extent six times greater, in proportion, than England. In Scotland, as v<^as stated by one of the witnesses, " the tenants are practically the applicants for improvement loans." They readily meet their landlords I W//y Scotland took the Lead. ioi much more than half way in contributing to the repayment ; and instead of lagging behind, or waiting to be spurred on to further enterprise, they compete even too much with each other for the possession of farms on terms which have now become more remunerative to the land- owners than to themselves. There is not in England, generally, a similar spirit of agricul- tural enterprise. To what is this difference between the two The Scotch countries to be attributed ? Chiefly to three landowner better causes, in which the Scotch landowner has the trained to his advantage : earlier education in, and apprecia- business. tion of, the benefits of land improvement; a better knowledge of the business of landowning; and the general system of leases. To the first, reference has already been made. The better knowledge of their business has naturally flowed from it to the Scotch landowners. They are trained to it by fathers who have been in their day likewise taught to look into the manage- ment of their property. Sir Walter Scott mentions the discussions with which his youth was familiar when visiting his country relations, The Landed Interest. Landown- ing the only busi- ness in which special training is not deemed necessary. the comparative merits of "long" and "short" sheep, the reclamation of waste, and the advan- tage in a bare country of sheltering woods. "Aye be sticking in a tree," was the dying advice of an old Scotch laird to his son, " it will be growing when you're sleeping." The "home" farm was always found in the personal occupation of the Scotch landowner, and the Edinburgh University has for many years had a Chair of Agriculture. It is true that among the greater landowners of Scotland the English schools and universities have long had a special attraction, but even their tone has failed to eradicate from the young ScotchmarHs mind the inborn love of the farms and fields, and the country employments of his fathers. This knowledge of business is a matter of great moment to those who employ so vast a capital as the English landowners, a capital far beyond the entire value of our railways, mines, ironworks, canals, and gasworks put together. Men of the highest capacity, with special training and qualifications, are employed in the management of these. Constant watchfulness Want of Special Training. 103 of the progress of invention, by which large results may be obtained on a given expenditure, is absolutely necessary to procure a profit in the general competition. The landowners of large estates entrust the management of their pro- perty to agents, more or less qualified, many very capable, but often hampered by the pressing need of their employer for the largest return of rental at the least cost. The land- owner himself too seldom takes such an active and intelligent interest in the details of manage- ment as would convince him of the need to keep his farms in a similar state of high working order. It is not with him really a question of business. Let us take, by way of comparison, a manufacturer, merchant, or shipowner, employ- ing each a capital equal to that of a landowner who has a rental of ;!^5,ooo a year. What would be thought of the prospects of a woollen manu- facturer who, without the slightest preparation or special knowledge, embarked ^100,000 in that business .'' Or of a man who took over a mercantile concern of the same extent, without havincf ever before wTitten or read a business 104 The Landed Interest. letter? Or of a young military officer giving up his commission to take the direction and respon- sibility of a great shipowning house ? And yet this is in effect what is done every day by the majority of English landowners. They com- plain that the business so undertaken " is not sufficiently lucrative to offer much attraction to capital." And people are surprised that within the narrow limits of the British Isles, with a teeming, wealthy, meat-consuming people, so large a proportion of the cultivated land is still permitted to remain only partially productive. Security The third point of difference between the for tenant's ... capital, two countnes is the system of yearly tenancy whether by leases in England, while leases of nineteen and twenty- or other- wise, one years may be said to be the rule in Scotland should be given. and the exception in England. It is in the nature of a yearly tenancy that there should be insecurity. Agricultural investments demand time to be fully remunerative. How can a man subject at any time to a year's notice to quit be expected to improve .-' That he does so in very many cases is due to the confidence of a long-standing connection between landlord and Tenant and Landlord. 105 tenant. There does not live a more upright honourable man in any class than the average English landowner. But, with every acknow- ledgment of his desire to be just and fair in his dealings with his tenantry, it is vain to look for enterprise and progress where there is no real security. Whether that may be best attained under the Agricultural Holdings Act, or by special agreement without a lease, or by giving such security with two years' notice in addition to a lease, in one way or other security must be given to induce such an adequate flow of capital into the business of farming as will render it effective. Owners in fee-simple, as well as tenants for life, very frequently use the powers given by the Land Improvement Acts. The principle of annual repayment of the loan, by which the estate is at once put under improvement and the debt redeemed, commends itself to every man who desires to retain and improve his property. He borrows, at a fixed rate of interest, on a security the augmenting value of v/hich is all his own. Besides this, there are io6 The Landed Interest. few landowners who have not either inherited, or found it necessary themselves to create, mortgages on their estates. This is common to all countries, and no change in the laws affect- ing land is likely to alter it. The limited owner and the full owner are alike subject to it. If further expenditure is required, the money in the ordinary way must be raised on less ad- vantageous terms than the previous loans. It probably cannot be raised on any terms by the Admirable limited owner. But the admirable principle of principle ofDrain- Sir Robert Peel's Drainage Loans, the essence age Loans. of which is that no charge shall be sanctioned wdiich does not promise a return greater than the annual cost of a gradual repayment of the debt, may, without injustice to the previous creditor, permit them to be made a prior charge upon the land, and will thus secure the most advantageous terms to the borrower, whether he holds under settlement or in fee-simple. Extended But there are many cases of land improve- powers of , , , sale in the ment whicli can be only partially reached by case of settled these Acts, and which require to be dealt with estates would be in a different manner. In the home counties, Extended Powers of Sale required. 107 for instance, and in the neighbourhood of some very advan- of our great centres of population, there are tageous. large tracts of comparatively infertile land, let at low rents as farms, and yielding little satis- factory return to anybody connected with them. Cases may be met with where the limited owner, who has inherited such a property from a succession of men in a similar position of legal incapacity, finds himself, in the midst of general progress, constrained to keep perhaps half a dozen parishes in a state almost of stagnation. The country itself is most likely well-timbered and very picturesque, with easy railway access to the metropolis or town, and highly suitable for residential occupation. He could sell it readily, if he had the power, in small properties for that purpose, retaining still an important family estate. It would not be difficult to point out cases in which this might be done with immense advantage to the landowner, the neigh- bourhood, and the public. Take, for example, a limited owner of 10,000 acres of such land, yielding a gross rent of i^io,ooo. If he were enabled to sell 2,000 acres, which might fetch a loS The Landed Interest. residential price of ;^ioo an acre, or ;:{^200,ooo, retaining his family seat and 8,000 acres : his rental would then be ;^8,ooo, plus the interest at 4 per cent, of ;^200,ooo = ^8,000. These sums together would make an income of ;;^ 16,000, or 60 per cent, more than he had before. He would thus at once find himself in funds and in spirits to go on with the improvement of the remainder of his estate, while the neighbourhood would have the advantage of a circulation of fresh capital and ideas, to brighten a scene formerly rendered gloomy by dissatisfied in- difference. Landowners who are precluded by entail or settlement from using this natural advantage of their position, are deprived of an incalculable benefit to themselves and their families. Settle- To a certain extent this has already been ments should be discovered, and there are probably no settle- limited to lives in ments of land now made without considerable being. powers of sale. The principle is recognised, and may with great benefit be extended and made general. Settlements of land to a limited extent, like settlements of any other kind of Improved System of Land Transfer. 109 property, are likely to continue. I desire to avoid any discussion at present of their advan- tage, or otherwise, as a question of polity, but am anxious to see them, at least, limited to lives in being, with large powers of sale, so as not to hamper in the smallest degree the most beneficial disposition of the land. This, with an improved system of land transfer, long promised and anxiously hoped for by men of all parties, will render the country less dependent on palliative measures, such as the Land Improve- ment Acts. But these have proved, and con- tinue to be found, of indispensable service, as, without them, the improvement of land would still be impossible over a large portion of this kingdom. But even increased freedom for the energies The lar^e r 1 1 1 Mi r -1 -r 1 capital of 01 the landowner will fail if not adequately tenant- 1111 • 11- -I . . farmers backed by an intelligent and enterprising entitled to legal tenantry. The rapid changes which have taken security. place in late years, both in the improvement of live-stock and in the better cultivation of the land, are in the main due to them. The vast business which has grown up in the importation no The Landed Interest. and manufacture of manures and feeding-stuffs shows their willingness to enter upon new lines of expenditure which promise useful results. They have a large capital at stake^ and they justly desire freedom of action in regard to cultivation, and security for that portion of their capital which, being necessarily incorporated with the soil to produce a future return, may be confiscated wherever it remains unprotected by contract or by law. CHAPTER VIII. THE GOVERNMENT IN ITS CONNECTION WITH AGRICULTURE. There is no Minister of Agriculture in Great No Minis- ter of Britain, and no attempt is made by Government Agricul- ture, and to interfere with the cultivation of the soil, or no Govern- ment between the landowners, the tenants, and the control exercised, labourers. There are no State flocks, or herds, or state schools, or horse-breeding; establishments, nor any State °'' ^,^^^^ " ^ flocks or schools of aa;riculture. In Ireland such schools, '^^'".^''^ . , •=• ' maintained and several experimental farms, were established ,j^^gri °^^™" at the cost of the Government, at the time of the potato famine. In the disorganised state in which that country then was, some benefit ensued. But the general principle of our political system is that every trade and business should be self-supporting, subordinate only to the general laws, and controlled by the rule of free competition. The political influence possessed by the landed interests insures for 112 The Landed Interest. them adequate representation in the Govern- ment, and their great wealth endows them with the means of promoting all objects of general interest to them as a class. The Royal Agri- cultural Societies in England and Ireland, and the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot- land, are the self-supporting national institutions of each kingdom for the promotion of agri- culture. And, besides great provincial societies in various parts of the country, there are in every county one or more local Agricultural Societies for the same object. These are all self-supporting, having neither stipend from the State, nor being subject to its control. The good result of this principle is seen in the successful manner in which they have evoked friendly competition amongst all classes con- nected with the land, and disseminated in every part of the country a knowledge of the best breeds of live-stock, and of the most improved instruments and processes of agricultural de- velopment. The Inclo- The only department of the State which sure Com- mission the has a direct connection with the land is the The State and the Land. 113 Inclosure Office, which combhies several objects, only State depart- more or less appertaining to landed property, ment but with no power to interfere except when connected applied to for the means of facilitating improve- ^ ments. The costs of all proceedings effected through this department are provided by those who make use of it. Its original object was to promote the inclosure of waste lands, and thereby to increase the home produce of food, and afford increased employment to the agri- cultural labourers. These objects, so far as they were necessary, have to a great extent been otherwise accomplished, and the agri- cultural labourer has become happily inde- pendent of such aid. The duty of this branch of the office now is not to promote inclosure with the object of dividing the land amongst severalty owners, except in cases where by no other means could its improvement be effected, but to encourage the improvement of " com- mons " under a system of regulation, by which the land may be drained, planted for ornament and shelter, and the surface be improved for pasturage, without excluding the public from its 114 ^^^^ Landed Interest. enjoyment by subdivision into severalty owner- Its various ship. Advantage of the office has from time to functions. time been taken by ParHament for objects of an analogous character. The Drainage and Land Improvement Acts are administered by this Commission, the object of these Acts being, as already explained, to permit landowners to borrow money for permanent improvements, and to charge their lands with the cost of these on the principle of such annual payments as within a definite period will reimburse both principal and interest. The control exercised by the Government department insures that the proposed improvement shall be both beneficial and well executed, and that the future possessor of the property may not find himself on his succession called on to pay for unprofitable outlays made by his predecessor. But any Government control in such circumstances is really the fruit of the artificial system of entail and settlement. Formation The office is also entrusted with the forma- of Main Drainage tion of Commissions for the drainage of districts Commis- sions, liable to floods, under which works embracing II Prevention of Floods. 115 large areas of country are carried out under a general system, the cost being levied on the landowners in proportion to the advantage they receive. In the execution of this duty it has been found that the applicants in many cases have erred in not including the whole of the area which should naturally fall under one control, and so failing to secure uniformity over the whole of the catchment basin affected. Floods in river valleys in autumn, and Floods beneficial, winter, and spring, provide rich irrigation for except where per- the land, the mud in which subsides when the mitted to remain too waters are for a time partially stagnant. They 'o".? ^tag- are very beneficial if not permitted to remain too long. Land subject to such floods should never be broken up from grass, as in no other way can it in this country be more profitably used. Before under-drainage became so general, the floods came down much more loaded with sediment, and therefore much more enriching than now, when the rains of the uplands pass through and are filtered by the soil. Summer floods are injurious, but they are rare, and if once in twenty years they injure or even carry ii6 The Landed Interest. off the hay, there is some compensation in the heavy crops of aftermath that follow. If the natural beds of the rivers were kept free from obstruction there would be far more benefit than injury from floods. But in earlier times, before steam-power was known, water-power was found a valuable aid for both mills and navigation. Weirs and dams were then constructed, and water-rights have grown up which greatly hamper arterial drain- age. Towns on the river-banks, though gene- rally built above flood-mark, are injured by long-continued floods ; and their interests, as well as those of the land, are concerned in removing all artificial obstructions. There is no longer any necessity for these, as steam-power can everywhere be substituted for water-mills, and the tedious delays of barges be superseded by the quicker and more certain conveyance by railways. The barge navigation was attended by one benefit, as, in order to maintain adequate depth of water, it was necessary to keep the bed of the river free from the natural growth of weeds which otherwise impede the current, and Great Works seldom required. 117 cause deposits of mud which gradually contract the outfall. Questions of compensation, how- ever, arise when rights of any kind are touched, and hence the need of some authority to control and reconcile opposing interests. The Inclosure Commissioners have power, upon application being made to them, to recom- mend the formation of drainage districts, which may embrace either the whole or a part of a river-basin. So far as their experience has gone, it is in favour of placing each river-basin as a whole system under competent authority, with power to that authority to form sub- districts for the management of each, with representatives at the general board which controls the whole. As the object is not to Great • 1 r 1 • engineer- prevent floods, but to limit the period of their ing works seldom stagnation, it is seldom that any grand engineer- required. ing operation is required. Another most useful branch of the office is exchange the very extensive power entrusted to the Com- j^j^jg ;„. ^1 ... expensive, missioners to carry out exchanges and partitions and simple of lands. By their aid any two landowners can, operation. ii8 The Landed Interest. at very trifling expense, correct any irregularity in the boundary of their respective estates, or even exchange entire farms or estates. This may be done without risk or investigation of title, by the simple process of attaching to the lands exchanged all the accidents of title, tenure, and incumbrance, which formerly be- longed to each other. The only questions requiring the decision of the Commissioners are : Is the exchange beneficial to the two estates .'' Are the parcels proposed to be ex- changed equal in value .'' or within one-eighth of an equality in value .'' When satisfied of this, the Commission authorises the exchange, and the one parcel immediately, for all purposes, takes the place of the other. So that if the title of either be thereafter found faulty, the person Avho may recover will have, not the land with the faulty title, but that which the Commis- sioners have put in its place, and clothed with all its liabilities. Certain notices must be given ; the order of exchange is not confirmed until three months after the notice, and if during that period any person dissents who is entitled Exchanges of Land. 119 to any estate in, or charge upon, either of the lands proposed to be exchanged, the Commis- sioners withhold their confirmation while the dissent continues. From time to time the powers of the Commission have been extended to comprise all cases omitted from the original statute. All hereditaments, corporeal and in- corporeal, may now be exchanged with ease and at a very moderate cost. Inequality in value to the extent of an eighth may be compensated by a rent-charge annexed to the less valuable, and charged upon the more valuable property. The extent to which this beneficial and Extent to which it inexpensive power is used is very considerable, is made use of. It is mostly in the rectification of boundaries, or the exchange of intermixed lands, and in many cases to facilitate building operations, and em- braces annually from 6,000 to 10,000 acres, having a value of from ^400,000 to i^5 00,000. CHAPTER IX. WASTE LANDS AND COPYHOLDS. Inclosure The past result of the inclosure of waste lands of waste lands : under the control of the Government may be learned from a return to an Order of the House of Commons, made in 1873, which showed the extent of commons and common field lands then in England and Wales to be 2,632,000 acres, about one-fourteenth part of the whole surface of that country. Probably one million acres of the whole are capable of improvement by reclamation, drainage, or planting. Previous to the passing of the General Inclosure Act of 1845, 2,500 inclosures had been sanctioned by private Acts of Parliament, under which 2,142,000 acres of waste land were inclosed. its extent, The inclosures since 1845 have added 600,000 acres, so that up to the present time 2,757,000 acres altogether have been thus redeemed from waste. Besides this, a very large extent of Results of Inclosures. 121 country has been reclaimed without the inter- vention of ParHament. The results of the inclosures since 1845 pre- and re- sults. sent some interesting facts in regard to the subdivision of land, and the addition made to the number of small landowners in the country, and the public works of improvement carried out under the process of inclosure, which are worthy of record. This is altogether indepen- dent of the individual and public advantages arising from the reclamation and agricultural improvement of the land itself. The 600,000 acres dealt with since 1845 have been divided among 26,000 separate owners, in an average proportion of 44^ acres to each lord of the manor, 24 acres to each common-right owner, and 10 acres to each purchaser of the lands sold to defray part of the expenses. In many cases the expenses were raised by rate among the persons interested, but this was optional, since such persons had the alternative of selling a portion of the land for that purpose. With that object 35,450 acres were sold, chiefly in small lots, to 3,500 purchasers. The lords of the 122 The Landed Interest. manors, 620 in number, received as compensa- tion for their rights in the soil, on an average, about one-fifteenth of the acreage of the wastes. These wastes of manors were, under the Act of 1845, made subject to the setting out of allot- ments for public purposes, and in this respect were distinct from the commonable lands, which are undivided private property, and were not made subject to public allotments. Oualitv -^^ ^^^^^ '^ ^^^^ largest and most general nation of' distribution of land into small properties that whom^ l^as taken place in this country in recent times, waste . , . , , - , , . , lands it was desirable to know the quality and occu- pation of the persons into whose hands these lands have passed. To discover this, the legal description both of allottees and of purchasers of sale allotments, was taken from inclosures in which that description is given, one in each of the following counties, viz. Bucks, Cumber- land, Chester, Devon, Essex, Hants, Herts, Lancaster, Norfolk, Oxford, Stafford, Sussex, Worcester, and, in Wales, Carnarvon and Car- marthen. Upon this basis, and so far as such an average can be accepted, the proportionate Creation of Small Landowners. 123 numbers of the dififerent classes of the 26,000 landowners amongst whom the land has been divided are as follows : — Yeomen and farmers, 4,836 ; shopkeepers and tradesmen, 3,456 ; labourers and miners, 3,168; esquires, 2,624; widows, 2^016; gentlemen, 1,984; clergymen, 1,280; artisans, 1,067; spinsters, 800; charity trustees, 704 ; peers, baronets, and sons of peers, 576; professional men, 512; and about 3,000 others in gradually diminishing proportions, but comprising nearly every quality and calling, from the Crown to the mechanic, quarryman, and domestic servant. The influence of this change has not been confined to particular counties, but has been more or less felt in all. It has made an appreciable addition to the number of small landowners in England, bring- ing upon hitherto comparatively unproductive wastes the individual interest and intelligence of a numerous and varied body of persons, by whose industry the best of these lands have been made not only useful to their owners, but have become available for sale and purchase, and^ in their improved condition, for bearing 124 The Landed Interest. Extent of public roads con- structed, and value of lands devoted to public objects, at the cost of the owners of common rights, equal to one-eighth of whole value of the land inclosed. their just share of county and parish rates and pubHc taxes. More than two thousand miles of pubHc roads have been constructed in connection with these enclosures since 1845, at the cost of the common-right owners, in addition to the nu- merous accommodation roads set out for their special use in giving convenient access to their several allotments. Other works of a public nature, such as embanking and straightening the course of rivers connected with inclosures, have been executed. The value of lands devoted to public objects, at the cost of the owners of common rights, is equal to one-eighth of the whole value of the land inclosed. The total estimated value of the wastes inclosed amounts to ;^6, 140,000. The value of the land taken from the best of this for public purposes (comprising land for recreation, field- gardens, public quarries, fuel, schools and churches, burial-grounds, public roads, and other purposes) has been estimated at ^282,140. To this must be added the cash, raised by rate, or sale of property, and expended on the construe- Lands devoted to Public Objects. 125 tion of public roads and other public works connected with inclosures, ^^"473, 500, making together, £"755,640. Comparing this with the fee-simple value above mentioned, it appears that nearly one-eighth of the whole value of the wastes inclosed has^ under the direction of the Commissioners, and with the assent of the pro- prietary interests, been devoted to objects of public utility and convenience. Thus, in the course of one generation, an extent of land equal to that of a county has been redeemed from a condition of waste, and has been divided among a far larger and more varied body of landowners than that of any county in England. Valuable public roads of great extent have been constructed, opening up for business and plea- sure many otherwise inaccessible localities, and at no cost to the public. The area of produc- tion and employment has been increased, and in the same proportion that of public and local taxation has been extended. A great number of small landed properties have been created, and labourers' field-gardens in the rural districts have been afforded in larger proportion to the 126 The Landed Interest. extent of the land than appears by the Agricul- tural Returns to exist elsewhere in England. Though the best of the land was probably- first dealt with, there can be little doubt that much of that which still remains uninclosed may be advantageously brought under the operation of the new law of 1876, which, in the altered state of the circumstances since 1845, provides more fully for the public interests of the neigh- bourhood, and especially of large populations ; and at the same time may yet be found, in less populous quarters, the useful instrument of adding some considerable extent of available land to the solid resources of the country. Enfran- Lands or houses held by copyhold tenure ofcopT-'^ may be enfranchised through the copyhold or build- department of this Commission. These are held by record in the book of the lord of a manor, anciently on certain terms of service, now com- muted into a money payment. The tenants of a manor, which was held by the lord from the Crown under ancient grant, gradually acquired the right to be placed on the court roll of the inc;s. i Enfranchisement of Copyholds. 127 lord on the same conditions as their prede- cessors, and became entitled to demand copies of these conditions, which, so long as they were fulfilled, gave them a title to their estates. The conditions of the tenure are governed by the customs of the manor as shown in the rolls of the Manor Courts, and by constant and imme- morial usage ; and the title is simply a copy of the court roll, authenticated by the steward of the manor. Two conditions are essential : first, that the lands are parcel of, and situated within, the manor ; and secondly, that they have been demised, or are demisable by copy of court roll immemorially. The ease with which a title can be given is the only advantage which this kind of tenure possesses, the uncertain nature of its services, reliefs, escheats, fines and heriots, and rights to timber, being a great obstacle to any kind of improvement. In 1841, the Legislature, with a view of removing these disadvantages, passed an Act for commuting manorial rights, and facili- tating the enfranchisement of copyhold property. This was amended and extended by subsequent 128 The Landed Interest. Number Acts of the Legislature. Since 1841 upwards completed. of twelve thousand enfranchisements have been completed under the Copyhold Acts, and they are now proceeding, through the instrumentality of the Copyhold Commission, at an average rate of 600 a year. Besides these, a very large num- ber have been effected throughout the different parts of the country, without the intervention of the office, owing to the stimulus to voluntary enfranchisement given by the Copyhold Acts. But though the number seems large, it repre- sents probably but a moderate proportion of the whole, as wherever there is a manor there are many copyhold properties ; and much yet remains to be accomplished before this injurious and obstructive kind of tenure shall altogether cease to exist. The Copyhold Commission was formed with the intention gradually to abolish copyhold tenure, beginning by offering facilities for voluntary enfranchisement, after which it should proceed to its object of extinction on the compulsory principle. Accordingly, after ten years' trial of facilities under the voluntary system, compulsory powers were given to either [ Extinction of Copyholds desirable. 129 lord or tenant to demand enfranchisement, with further facihties again in 1858, which led to a rapid increase in the number of enfranchise- ments. Under the present Acts either lord or tenant (except where the copyhold is held without a right of renewal) may now apply to the Copyhold Commissioners to compel enfran- chisement upon terms to be fixed by two valuers, one appointed by each, or by their umpire. And in small cases, not exceeding £20 of annual value, the amount may be assessed by a single valuer, nominated by the Justices of the locality. The complete extinction of copyhold tenure Complete extinction is still far from accomplishment. And a great desirable. bar will be presented to the profitable use of copyhold property so long as any considerable extent of the land of this country, embracing a vast number of the smaller estates and houses, remains subject to manorial fines, whether cer- tain or arbitrary ; to joint rights in timber, under which the tenant cannot cut without leave of the lord, nor the lord enter the land to cut without leave of the tenant ; and to vexatious J 130 The Landed Interest. demands for heriots, and a species of control worse than double ownership. These are evils naturally most felt in the populous parts of the country. The Copyhold Commission has now been in operation for thirty-five years, so that full time has been given to prepare and provide for the final extinction of this kind of tenure, Mode of as originally contemplated by Parliament. The accom- plishing simplest mode of doing so would be by enacting this. that within some definite number of years, say thirty, all copyholds then existing should become freehold. Till the termination of that period the right of either party to compel enfranchisement should continue, and the obvious interest of the lords to make the most of their opportunity Avould quickly bring about this transformation. The Tithe department of this Commission also administers questions connected with tithes for the support of religion. CHAPTER X. CHURCH, CROWN, AND CHARITY ESTATES. In the early period of Christianity in this Tithes for support of country, among other ecclesiastical laws intro- religion in England : duced from the neighbouring Continent, the Scriptural principle of reserving for the support of religion a tenth part of the produce of industry was enjoined. This included not only a tenth part of the produce of the crops and stock payable in gross, but also a tenth of the clear gains from manual occupations and trades. This large proportion of the total produce of those countries which had embraced Christianity was apportioned, more than a thousand years ago, into four divisions : one to maintain the edifice of the church, the second to support the poor, the third the bishops, and the fourth the parochial clergy. Originally all the land in the country was titheable except such as be- longed to the Crown and to the Church itself. At the time of the Reformation, much of the Church lands in this country passed into the 132 The Landed Interest. hands of laymen, and continued exempt from tithe, and from various other causes a consider- able proportion of the lands of the country has become exempted. As the country became more populous, and its demands upon the produce of the soil more difficult to meet^ the payment of tithes in kind was found a great hindrance to improved agriculture, as men were naturally unwilling to expend capital for the purpose of increasing the produce, while others who ran no risk, and bore no part of the toil, commuted had a right to share in that increase. Forty from pay- ment in years ago it was determined that this should kind to a money cease, and it was enacted that, instead of pay- payment. ment in kind, tithes should be commuted into a payment in money, calculated on the average receipts of the preceding seven years, the annual money value to vary according to the annual price of corn on a septennial average, but the quantity of corn then ascertained to remain for ever as the tithe of the parish. A very important change of principle here took place. Up to that time, the income of the Church increased with the increased value i Commutation of Tithe. 133 yielded by the land, the original object that the Church should progress in material resources in equal proportion with the land being thus maintained. From 1836 that increment was stopped. Since that time the land rental of England has risen 50 per cent., and all that portion of the increase which previous to 1836 would have gone to the Church has gone to the landowners. A tenth of that would not^ how- ever, by any means adequately represent the loss to the Church and the gain to the land- owners ; for the tithe in kind was the tenth of the gross produce, which was equal to much more than a tenth of the rent of arable land. In 1836 the money value of the tithe, as com- Unex- pected pared with the land rental, was as four millions effect of this, in sterling to thirty-three. In 1876 the tithe was preventing a rise in still four millions, but the land rental had risen the income of the to fifty. If the old principle of participation t;h"rch, had continued, the annual income of the Church ?^^^^'f^ ' that of would now have been two millions greater than it is. Neither party anticipated a result to such an extent when the Tithe Commutation Act was passed, for not for twenty years after that the land- owners. 134 The Landed Interest. time had the rent of land in England recovered the heavy fall it experienced at the close of the war in 1815. It was not until the vast develop- ment of industry, under a policy of Free Trade, had so increased the general prosperity, that the value and rent of land began steadily to rise. It then became plain that under the operation of a law intended simply to encourage agricul- tural improvement, the community, represented by the Church, are gradually losing a part of their natural inheritance. The same change is in operation in the vicinity of the great cities and towns, where population and wealth increase and accumulate. An acre of land in such situa- tions, which yielded in its natural state a rent to the landowner of iJ"3, and to the tithe-owner of los., when converted to building may produce a ground rent of ^300, besides the reversion to the landowner at the end of a long lease of the whole of the property erected on it by his lessee. No doubt, since the Reformation, the Church has been limited by law to the agricultural increased produce, and was not entitled to demand a share of the building value. But II Parish Clergy. 135 it was not contemplated that the landowners should thus obtain the whole growing value of the land without leaving any part of it for the support of religion. The operation of this change has been chiefly in favour of the better class of lands, those which from their quality and position have risen most in value. On the poorest kinds of arable land — the cold clays, and the thinnest chalk — the increased cost of labour has, in some exceptional cases, brought about a lowering of rent, while the tithe can undergo no diminution. The landowner in such case has to bear the loss, just as in the other he gets the gain. In a country like this, in which the inevitable Parish clergy tendency of increasing wealth leads to the equrvalent in number gradual diminution of small estates, there would to more than one- be some considerable loss to the ranks of small fourth of the resi- resident proprietors by any change which should dent land- owners, lead to the absorption of Church property. In over ^200 ^ a year. every parish of the kingdom there is a resident landowner, who, as the clergyman of the parish, receives in residence, glebe, and tithe, about a tenth part of its rental, which he spends within 136 The Landed Interest. it, and in return for which he is the minister of rich and poor. The number may be about 12,000 in England alone, with an average annual value of ^^300. As their income is in no way affected by the question of rent, their position is one of perfect impartiality between landowners and their tenants, and they are the natural referees of the poorer inhabitants. In proportion to the whole number of landowners in England the removal of this numerous body would strike out more than a fourth of those receiving above i^200 a year, and probably much more than one-fourth of the resident landowners. This, irrespective of the question of religion, would be a change of great magni- tude in its social effect, which deserves careful consideration. CROWN ESTATES. Her Besides the domain and Great Park attached Majesty's , ^ , „ , r -jtt- 1 Woods, to the Royal Castle 01 Wnidsor, 14,000 acres Forests, . • i • i t-» i and Land m extent, there are comprised m the Royal revenue, patrimony upwards of 70,000 acres of land in the kingdom let in farms to agricultural tenants, I Crown Estates. 137 and also house property in London, and land let on building leases, and considerably more than 100,000 acres of Royal forests. For the last twenty years this great property has been managed by two Commissioners, under the superintendence of Her Majesty's Treasury, with great judgment and care, and at the moderate cost of less than 3 per cent, on the total receipts. The gross revenue has for some years shown a steady annual increase, and now amounts to ^469,000. A large expenditure is annually made in maintaining and improving the pro- perty, but the surplus now paid annually to the ^0^^ yjgij Exchequer has risen above, and is likely to revenue to the public continue more and more to exceed the annual Exchequer exceeding amount of the Civil List. This is a sum assured the amount of the Civil by Parliament to the Sovereign, at the beginning List. of each reign, to defray the expenses of the Royal Household, by an arrangement continued from Sovereign to Sovereign from the time of the Revolution in 1688. The surplus income from the hereditary estates of the Crown, which was then precarious and uncertain, is by this arrangement during the reign of the Sovereign 138 The Landed Interest. paid into the public Exchequer, and a fixed sum of ^^385,000 is, in heu of it, annually paid to the Queen for the maintenance of her State, and for the salaries and expenses of Her Majesty's Household. In the period of forty years since the commencement of the present reign, all expenses, both public and private, have largely increased, but no new demand on that account has been made on the public for an increase of the Civil List. And as the hereditary estates are now yielding to the public Exchequer more than the Exchequer pays to the Queen, the remarkable and probably unique example is presented in this country of a great Sovereign whose household and Royal dignity are thus maintained without taxing her subjects. I am indebted to the Earl of Powis for the following interesting particulars in the business relations of the Crown with its agricultural General tenants : — The average rental of the agricultural on which land of the Crown Estates is at present rather Farms are more than 32s. 6d. per acre. Nearly the whole of let. . . 1 . ^ r • • '11 it IS let HI farms of various sizes, on agricultural leases of 21 years' duration, subject to the 1 Crown Farms. 139 reservation of all trees and substrata. The tenants are to reside on the premises ; to culti- vate according to the best mode of husbandry in the district ; within the last three years of the termination of the lease not to sow two white crops in succession, or to plant on the same land more than one crop of potatoes. The tenants to be entitled to one-half of the money expended by them in the last year of the term in the purchase of linseed, cotton-cake, and rape- cake consumed on the premises, but not to an amount exceeding one-half of the average ex- penditure for such articles during each of the three preceding years. The right of shooting and sporting is not reserved from the tenants, except under very special circumstances. New buildings are constructed, and existing buildings improved, and under-drainage, roads, and other permanent improvements executed at the cost of the Crown. Terms of renewal are proposed to desirable tenants, two years before the expiration of lease. Many private landowners would find just and suggestive hints in these arrangements. 140 The Landed Interest. CHARITY ESTATES. Charity The value and extent of land held in trust Estates : for charities, in England alone, is very consider- able. Inclusive of rent-charges and fixed annual payments, the gross annual rental exceeds ;^ 1, 5 5 8,000, derived from 524,000 acres of land, and the houses built thereon. Besides this, the Charity Trusts possess in Government Stock and other personalty, nearly i^20,ooo,ooo, yield- theirvalue. ing an annual income of ;^64o,ooo. Their total income from real and personal property is thus close upon i^2, 200,000. This great property is held in separate en- dowments in all parts of England, in number estimated at about 50,000, which are adminis- tered by various bodies of trustees, such as Municipal Trustees, Ministers, and Parish Officers, and in many cases by persons who may be termed private trustees, or such as are not trustees in virtue of holding any especial office. These have been placed by Parliament under the general superintendence of a Government Department, the Charity Commission, which reports annually to Parliament upon the I Their Objects and Magnitude. 141 administration of the charities over which they possess necessary power of controL The principal objects to which the funds were appropriated by the founders of tlie charities are education, apprenticing, and ad- vancement of orphans ; endowment of clergy, lecturers, and for sermons ; Church purposes and repairs ; maintenance of Dissenting places of worship and their ministers ; public parochial uses ; support of almshouses and pensioners ; distribution of articles in kind and money ; medical hospitals and dispensaries. The pro- perty which has thus in the past been volun- tarily devoted by benevolent persons as an endowment for charitable objects in England, is equal to more than one-half of that possessed by the Established Church. If we add the Their magnitude amount annually expended in the United compa with the Kingdom on the relief of the poor and in aid of cost of the civil education, it appears that the annual expendi- adminis- tration, ture on objects of charity exceeds the whole cost of the civil administration of the country. CHAPTER XL THE FUTURE. Home pro- The questioii of the future for the landed inte- duction of bread and rests and the pubhc, in regard to the supply meat limited. of food, remains to be considered. The landlord and the tenant will settle the rent between them : with returning activity in trade the wages of labour will increase, and that will be followed by increased consumption of bread and meat. Hitherto, there has been no correspond- ing rise in the price of bread with that of meat, because wheat has been poured in upon us from fertile lands in distant countries, where the cost of cultivation is small. The effect of this on home agriculture has been to limit any increase on our production of corn. In ten years, indeed, the growth of corn has declined five per cent., the diminution being entirely in wheat, and that chiefly in Ireland. In other respects the I Changes in Agriculture. 143 annual home growth of corn keeps steady, barley alone showing a gradual increase. The production of bread and meat within these islands appears to have nearly reached its limit. The dairy and market-garden system, fresh milk and butter, and vegetables, and hay and straw, are every year enlarging their circle around the seat of increasing populations. These are the articles which can least bear distant transport, and, therefore, are likely longest to withstand the influence of foreign com- petition. This country is becoming every ten years Country becoming less and less of a farm, and more and more of a less of a farm and meadow, a garden, and a playground. The deer more of a garden, forest, and grouse, in the higher and wilder parts of the country, and the picturesque commons in the more populous districts, are already, in many cases, not only more attractive, but more remunerative in health and enjoyment, than they probably would be if subjected to costly improvement by drainage, or by being broken up for cultivation. The poor clay soils, which are expensive to cultivate, and meagre increase. 144 The Landed Interest. in yield, will be gradually all laid to grass, and the poorer soils of every kind, upon which the costs of cultivation bear a high proportion to the produce, will probably follow the same rule. During the last ten years the permanent pasture in Great Britain has, chiefly from this cause, been increased by more than one million acres. Population On the other hand the population is multi- at present rate of plying at the rate of 350,000 a year, nearly a thousand a day. Their consumption of food improves, not only in proportion to their increase in numbers, but also with the augmenting scale of wages. Twenty-five years ago the agricultural population rarely could afford to eat butchers' meat more than once a week. Some of them now have it every day, and as the condition of the rest of the people has improved in an equal degree, the increased consumption of food in this country has been prodigious. In addition to the whole of our home produce, we imported in 1877 foreign food and corn of the value of one hundred millions sterling, two-thirds of which was in corn, and one- third live and Prospects of Landowners. 145 dead meat. It has become a vast trade, em- bracing not only the nearer ports of Europe, but those of India, Austraha, and America, which in corn has increased threefold, and in meat and provisions sixfold. If this goes on Will in twenty at the same progressive rate for the next years be forty- twenty years, we shall have forty millions of millions, causing a people to feed, which will tax still more the further rise *■ ^ in prices. resources of all those countries which have hitherto sent us their surplus, and can hardly fail to be attended by a considerable increase of the price of provisions. It would seem, under such circumstances, not difficult to forecast the future condition of the landed interests in this country. The Prospects of Land- position of the landowners is a truly advan- owner good, tageous one if they rightly appreciate, and faithfully execute, the public responsibilities of their position. Their property is the only exchangeable article within the British Isles . that adm-its of no increase in extent. So long as England continues the centre of the Empire, the surplus wealth of her great dependencies will flow hither, and aid in that accumulation of K 146 The Landed Interest. wealth which is at once the source and reward of industry. A large portion of that wealth will constantly be seeking investment in land. The climate of this country is not only one of the healthiest in the world, but it admits of out-of-door occupations and amusements for a greater number of days in the year, and thus promotes the attractions of a country life to a greater extent than is found elsewhere. For many centuries landed property has been more secure here than in other countries, and a sense of, and respect for, individual liberty, and obedience to law, better understood. All cir- cumstances combine to increase the future value of land in this country. of Tenant- The prospects of the tenant-farmer, the fanner more sccoud of our landed interests, are by no means doubtful. SO encouraging. While competition for the purchase of land is advantageous to the land- owner, competition for its occupation diminishes the margin of the tenant's profit. And he has to contend against it on both sides, for other attractions and the facilities of locomotion have Of Tenant-farmers. 147 so altered the position of the labourer, that he presses for higher wages. When the landowner is offered a higher rent, and the labourer higher wages, or a better chance of improving his con- dition in our colonies, the position of the middle- man who has to meet the demands of both seems a difficult one. He, like any other capitalist, may no doubt withdraw it from an unprofitable business, and carry it to some other country where good land is plentiful and cheap, and where he may become a landowner, and escape at least one of the competing forces to which he is here exposed. But if the business has these disadvantages, how happens it that there is such competition for the occupation of land .'' It has many attractions. A country life, personal ease and independence, part ownership of agricultural property, a comfortable home where most of the necessaries of life are obtained at producers' prices, and a freedom from that need to study the feelings and prejudices of customers to which most professions and trades are exposed. The farmer is master of his position, has a certain 148 The Landed Interest. weight in his parish and neighbourhood, and is looked up to by the people in his employment. Men in all ranks of life in these islands are attracted by the occupation of a country life. When they become rich enough they buy land, or if they cannot afford to buy they hire it. There is thus a constant pressure of competition to which the tenant-farmer is exposed, and from which, as years go by, it is impossible he can escape, except by becoming an owner of land, or by securing himself in a lengthened leasehold tenure. No tenancy-at-will, or with a year's notice, however favourable the conditions of compensation for unexhausted improvements, can give the farmer security beyond the year. The Agricultural Holdings Bill, with two instead of one year's notice, would be a vast improve- ment on the common practice of yearly tenancy. His duty and so far as it goes will bear good fruit in a to protect _ * himself by forcing landowners and their tenants to adopt a definite andlength- written agreements on a sounder basis. But ened term. the sooner the principle of security of possession, for a definite and lengthened term, becomes generally recognised in England, the better will Increasing Pressure of Competition. 149 it be for the individual and public interests. Writing with the responsibility of a practical experience of forty years, and with a general knowledge both personally and officially of the agriculture of the United Kingdom, and of the relations between landlord and tenant, I ven- ture, with all becoming respect for the opinions of others, to say with confidence that the good understanding which has hitherto as a rule protected the English farmer under a yearly tenancy, will not for many years longer be able increasing pressure of to withstand the inevitable spread and pressure competi- tion. of competition. However unpalatable the truth, the relation is and must become one of business, and not merely of mutual confidence. There are two modes, as I have said, of meeting the difficulty, and we may shortly con- sider the first, that of the tenant becoming himself the owner of his farm. The Irish Land Facilities given by Act provides for such a change, and it has been Govern- ment for recommended by an influential committee of purchase in Ireland. the House of Commons that enlarged facilities for this object should be afforded in that country by an increased proportion of the price being 150 The Landed Interest. advanced out of the public Treasury. If the Ifextended security for repayment of the advance is good to England and Scot- in Ireland, it would be doubly good in Eng- land would be more land and Scotland, and if the infusion amongst rapidly ap- propriated, the body of landowners in the sister country of some proportion of the Irish tenantry is regarded as beneficial, much more would such advantageous results be likely to be secured by the addition of a body of more educated and enterprising agriculturists to the landlords of Great Britain. There is not a single reason in favour of exceptional aid from the public Treasury for Ireland that is not equally ap- plicable to the rest of the United Kingdom, and, if such aid can be given without injury to other interests, the extension of the " Bright ' Clauses" of the Irish Land Act to England and Scotland would be followed by a much more rapid appropriation of their advantages to the farmer than they have yet met with in Ireland. There are landed estates in almost every county in Great Britain, coming from time to time into the market, which are not sufficiently residential to attract great capitalists, but which would be Buying or Leasing Land. 151 very eligible investments for resident tenant- farmers, if they were placed on a par with their Irish brethren in the facilities offered by the Legislature for finding capital to buy them. Outside of such exceptional assistance a British farmer can still employ his limited capital to greater advantage by hiring farms than by buying them. The second mode will probably, therefore, be found in the end the most generally applic- able, viz., that of a lengthened leasehold tenure. Time is required in the operations of agriculture. Time essential in Drainage, clean cultivation, manures of the more the opera- tions of lastinsf kind, and the costly and skilful forma- agricul- ^ ■' ture. tion of a suitable live-stock, each demand a considerable period of years for profitable realisation. A well-organised farm is not only the source of employment to the labour and trades of the neighbourhood, but a school of practical education in which these are trained in the details of work, and become apt in the execution of the views of their employer. Both employer and employed form family connections and local associations, and have their due place 152 The Landed Interest. in the economy of the parish and district. These should not be liable to be lightly broken by the act of an inconsiderate land- owner, or his agent. In some English counties, and notably on the Crown estates in various parts of the country, and on Lord Leicester's fine farms in Norfolk, leases of twenty and twenty-one years have long been given. The system may be said to be universal in Scotland, where the principle has been recog- nised for several generations. In Ireland, as has been previously shown, leases for lives, leases for ever even, are not uncommon, but the rule, now becoming general, is that of leases for twenty-one or thirty-one years. In Security farms under ;^ioo rental, where no lease for against disturb- the usual statutory term of years is given, ance in Ireland. there is a security against " disturbance " or removal, by very stringent conditions upon the landowner, under the late Irish Land Act. No such legal obligations are imposed in England or Scotland, where, on this very important point, the farmer is left, like other members of the community, to make his own bargain. Earl of Leicester's Lease. 153 The example of a lease which is equitable Lord Leicester's to both sides, and under which the farmer lease an admirable obtains reasonable security to continue good example in its chief cultivation from the commencement to the features, close, is to be found in the farm lease of the Earl of Leicester. It fully recognises that continuance of interests to which I have referred, but most properly leaves both parties free to withdraw from the contract at its which admit of termination. The tenancy is for twenty years freedom of manage- from the nth day of October. It is to be ment, and provide for terminable at the end of sixteen years, at the renewal without request of the tenant and with the consent of exposure ■^ to undue the landlord, the intention being that, if both competi- ° tion. parties desire it, a new lease may be granted from the end of the sixteenth year for a fresh term of twenty years, at the old rent for the first four (which completes the original term), and for the remainder at such a rent as may be agreed on. The tenant is to cultivate and manage the farm during the first sixteen years according to his own judgment, and to dispose of the produce as he finds best. A power is reserved to interpose if this freedom 154 The Landed Interest. should be misused. During the last four years, if a renewed lease is not entered upon, he is to bring the farm into the ordinary four-course or Norfolk system, with proper conditions of pay- ment for unexhausted manures. He is to effectually destroy all rabbits on his farm, and other usual conditions, adapted to local circumstances, complete the arrangement. The leading principle of this admirable lease is applicable to all parts of the United Kingdom. It supplies the great defect of most leases, and especially those of Scotland, in giving entire freedom to the action of the farmer in the cultivation and disposal of the produce up to four years preceding the termination, when an opportunity is given to both to consider the question of renewal. If that is satisfactorily arranged, the same freedom of management continues, and the farmer is not exposed to that harassing competition, the fear of which compels him to reduce the con- dition of his land in the closing years of his tenancy. If, on the other hand, it is found expedient ^that a change should be made. I The Agricultural Labourer. 155 the farm is brought into the usual course of husbandry. In regard to the future of the third branch The Labuui^er. of the landed interests, the agricultural labourer, his prospects will now harmonise with the general prosperity of. the country, and the standard of wages. There is no impediment in his way to move to a better field of employ- ment, either in this country or abroad. Great encouragement is offered, and cheap transit, to agricultural labourers, by several of the colonies. The extensive use of machinery His work lightened in the processes of farming has greatly and in- telligence lightened the severity of labour, and stimulated by extend- stimulated the intelligence of the workman, ed use of machinery. Co-operative farming has been much recom- mended, but in one instance only, that I have heard of, successfully carried into practice. The labourer is now much more independent of local employment, and his position in a wealthy country like this will enable him in its future progress to obtain his due share of the rewards of industry and 156 The Landed Interest. skill. The extension to the counties of house- hold suffrage will, ere long, give him that political position to which he is equally entitled with his brethren, the artisans and labourers, who are householders in towns. I APPENDIX. The following tables have been carefully- compiled from authentic sources and Parlia- mentary Returns, and may be found useful for reference : — Table sJiowing the Rent of Cultivated Lajid, the Price of Provisions, the Wages of the Agricultural Labourer, the Rent of Cottages, and the average Produce of Wheat, in three periods duri?tg the last hundred years in England. 1770. 1850. 1878. Rent of Cultivated Land per acre J. d. 13 s. d. 27 .f. d. 30 Price of Bread per lb 4 li ii ,, Meat ,, 3i 5 9 Butter ,, 6 I I 8 Agricultural Labourer's Wages per week 7 3 9 7 14 Rent of Labourer's Cottage ,, 8 I 5 2 Produce of Wheat, per acre, in bushels Bushels. 23 Bushels. 26I Bushels. 28 158 Appendix. S .^'^ J) o u o t^ rt- o \n o PI T(- tX Ov tV tx •s^^ o CO ID VO 01 Tj- t^ H M CO ID CO Tf Th tv 73 T o o\ CO VO 00 CO t>. to •& Th CO t^ CO Ov 00 CO CO CO H 'f ID CO ID CO CO CO OS CO CO M CJ o CO n 01 1- t^ 00 Ov t^ ^ lO t^ 00 'l- ov Tf t^ VO O d CO PI tx LO VO ^ ID ^^ ID O to t^ t^ u VO CO VO PI t^ 01 O o LO CO o 1- oo CO ov ID PI Ov CO CO ^ PI c^ •* Pl Ov 00 -t 01 PI Tl- m w^ -t- PI M PI CO -1- CO PI P) Pl CO CO co CO CO CO CO co CO CO CO CO CO VO PI 01 VO ID o VO t^ Ov t^ t^ c^ 00 in o t^ sr> CO 00 CO PI •«*■ •*• d o PI ID VO o c^ H in 01 M CO CO lO VO 00 CO ^^ PI t^ M CO U ro 00 t^ CO -1- M ID 00 VO OS CO 01 C^ p< co t^ 01 M OV t^ t^ 00 Ov Ov o\ OS Oi o o OS Ov Ov H VO CO t^ M oo M O ^ () PI <■■) CO ■^ to n (/) PI PI CO CO M CO u o J* M CO >D PI PI 8v -t VO Ui CO ON CO VO CO VO K VO VO tN t^ t-. rv 00 00 PI PI PI PI PI 01 01 0) ISI o ■*■ •>*■ "1, lO ID ID •* ■* »D ^ ^ o CO lO w CO CO ID PI -r O VO VO O LO 1-1 lO -i- -1- CO CO CO -1- OV LO 00 M 01 P) ID 00 O M s N Ov o lO CO CO « Ov •*- CO o u m >o ID CO 0\ 01 VO Ov VO C) 'J- VO o t^ CO VO ■. t^ fv tN. r^ CO M CO 00 CO CO CO 00 M CO IH 00 00 M CO CO n Appendix. 159 ^"1 >. ^1 5 >:oo CO 0-, ^^ d, O ._, ■ MM M ^"^iS '^■'2^'^H ^^ ^^ NOOO t^Tj-Mvo O O N roo^ ^•^ o "^OOhhhhhmhmi M W (N M (N N P) Asj'S! f^ 1:' l^ ff> ^" '*' " N voco" O'CO-OO" t^ w" d ro •+• N . ^ iO txco CMow rl-INO O -l-ON-l-Pi Mvo Onnon 00 coco_ (N N -t ro c> .£;-c o « 3 CJ rt (30 NO o onvo p) cj enco pjNO t^ino o -i-mco ont(- NgNONOvo rnt^p) M Looo ONOO o u^ LOGO 5-00 w vn q tN.00 q> pi_ q^ rn n- 0_ en ri- q^ OMH 00 In o pS h ^ '2iS?" S°= ini>,-i-en-:t-ONON in-o (> m ^o n vo 2 cnvq M t>)_oo NO P)_ Lnoo_ m_vo pi no no en rt- pi en pi o H H of « H pf Tt no" inrfpf LnrfLo^iniof^ f;.Ncr 2 fpr2y0<2.9 ^ minoNTj-o\H rt-vo m p) h 00 pi ^ OiooN-fevioocotn-i-pjoo pino h h o c^^ pj CO N_ en q M_ U-) M_ Tj-NO cnNO O m rt-co 00 pJ vo -t- en ^"2 :?.^ 51 £> '^S2 J' 3"^ en in K ON p) en tXra m m MONoqiN,qoo_tNq^cOTi-cniHNO P) iNOOoo in 3; P; in On o" o" ih" CJ\ tC; rr pT H h" m" en m" en Pi co'Tcncncn'^ioininin inNO in p) p) mvo NO en o p- H ON m onno en on -t t^No Pi no en O S^S, ^" '^ enTt-mrf-ONON iH Lo en On in On PI enco lo in H r'ON'^ineninpjoo Pii-T-ft-^iHcn fs.ND" m" t< m" inn-T ,*, JT^S ooornwONinpiOPioinoNOo^pi n. n U t^NO pi_q>Hco o rfONO o ONM ONH ^-ONin Sno i 9X9f^:i "i^X^ 2,5J">s".f> ?■• -i^_'^ N :f pT t< K rf Tj- en lONO ir^ in ^ ^t^o no no t>> t^co o On on o PI "S ^ ^ J>"?5, ^^■'S 00 O Tj- H 00 Tt-NO 00 ONoo in On en i ^ "2. E^i;Oi> S ^°° N o o 00 00 o •+ ON PI rn ON ^- ■* 0_ ^ 0_ oo_ 00 o_ M_ tv, qvo_ M Pi M Ln Pi H S S en S ??, ^ ^, 92. t::* E> "^i on 'f kT pCno" pj" co" co" 00" o" in d co" .*s i2 Jl £* 3" ?^'Q_ rn«ino ^ r-.t^'-'_ininM_p>.qpoin c^oo pi co t^ o no ino 00 S ^ fc^ ^ "^ "♦'^" N no" in On in m" ON !<; en txNO" •+ c5> ^ ^ 52*2. ^ J?^ °^"° m-i-enONOco Pivo w fi. mvo (jenen':tqqrnM_qMvoN0NO ONcnwdo inco •+ m "" t< 10 On w -f en O" en -^ pf IN, o" On Pi" en "" m" -f rf- ^Aj i^ujuNM -rmu en-TTP] rxo Onpi enw m w H Pi Pi Tj-pi Pi Pi PI cncnenroenTt-rj-Tj-in' PI en 'I- invo (~N oooocbcorocnraOToorodora db'ro'oo 00 (»"ro"OT"ca" i6o Appendix. Table showing the Annual Yield of Wheat per acre in the United Kingdom during each of the last thirty years, and in three periods of ten years each, . reckoning 28 bushels as an average crop, a?id representing that by the number 100. Years. Produce per Acre. Each Year. In Ten Years. I . t8j.o 123 ro2 no 79 71 127 96 96 124 116 1 1850 1851 1832 T8^q 18^4. i8^? < i8^6 t8:;7 i8^8 1,044 l8SQ 92 78 92 108 141 127 no 90 74 126 i860 I86I 1862 i86^ 1864 186:; 1866 1867 1868 1,038 i860 102 112 90 92 80 106 78 76 74 108 1870 1871 1872 187^ 1874. 187:; 1876 1877 1878 918 I n 30 years 3,000 A SELECTION FROM C asset I Petfer & Galpins Publications. ' cturesque Europe. Vols. I. to IV. now ready, each containing i Thirteen exquisite Steel Plates from Original Drawings, and nearly 200 Original ' Illustrations on Wood. With Descriptive Letterpress. Royal 4to, cloth gilt,;£2 2S. '' ach ; morocco, ^5 5s. each. . I. and It. 0/ PICTURESQUE EUROPE contain Great Britain afid Ireland complete, and can be obtained boutid together iti One l^o/. , ruliole bound, extra gilt, gilt edi'es, £s ss. -'leasant Spots around Oxford. By Alfred Rimmer. With -> 1 Full-page Plates, and numerous other Original Illustrations. Extra fcap, 4to, oth, gilt edges, 21.S. 'liar Wild Flowers. First Series. Bv F. 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