PLOUGH v. GRASS.
What will most surprise the less technical student is that in no group of the 205 dairy farms investigated did the excess of income over expenditure fall below 12 16s. an acre ; and it rose as high as £4 .5s. This figure, taken in connexion with the yield of the cows, is surprisingly high. The farms with the largest proportion of amble showed highest milk yield and the least amble the lowest ; but even the highest were low —I should say—compared with many Dutch and Danish averages. The average was 566 gallons a year. Many Scandinavian and a good many English herds are graded up to 750 gallons and more. There would seem to be more
• expectation of increased profit by grading up the quality of the animals than by intensifying amble cultivation, though the two are not altogether separable. The enquiry was well worth making and the detailed results are worth close study ; but the immediate crisis in farming is an Eastern, distinctly
not a Western crisis. It is in East Anglia where land is tumbling in value (some has been sold for 35s. an acre, free- hold !) ; and where farmers themselves have begun to tumble like nine-pins ; where the banks—if there were any profit in foreclosing—would become bigger landowners than the nation itself or the Dukes themselves !
Previous page
