MR CAIRD ON THE SUPPLY OF FOOD.*
IN this unpretending little volume, we have what it is rarely the good-fortune of the reviewer to find,—a subject both in- teresting and important, discussed by a writer of the highest authority. In form, Mr. Caird's work is "a general view of British agriculture, for the information of European agricul- turists at the International Agricultural Congress of Paris in 1878." It is not, however, as might, perhaps, have been ex- pected from the avowed purpose with which it was written, a compendium of farming lore, intelligible only to agricultur- ists. Mr. Caird, it is true, devotes a couple of chapters to an account of the latest improvements in the processes of cultiva- tion, in which he investigates the degree of increased productive- ness which may be given to the soil by the use of machinery and nitrogenous manures. But even these parts of the book, which are necessarily somewhat technical, are not without interest to the general reader. Mr. Caird shows, 'for instance, incidentally, as an illustration of the change which the introduction of nitrate of soda and other chemical manures has brought about, in enabling the farmer to grow successive corn crops on the same land, that if we were to go to war with Russia, and our supplies of wheat from that quarter were consequently cut off, the whole loss could at once and without difficulty be made good, by raising an additional wheat crop on a twentieth part of the corn land of the United Kingdom. In the same way, if the whole of Europe were shut against us (a thing which very nearly happened in the time of the First Napoleon), the increased home demand could be met by double- cropping to the extent of one-tenth of our corn land. The notion that in the event of war we might find that our Free-trade policy had landed us in a state of semi-starvation—a notion which was once widely prevalent, and which probably still finds favour in some quarters—is thus deprived of whatever plausi- bility it has ever possessed. Great, indeed, are the virtues of nitrate of soda, and even a non-bucolic mind, to which top- dressings are a mystery and superphosphates an empty name, .cannot but feel interested in the achievements of a drug which .bids fair to destroy one of the last strongholds of Protection.
Mr. Caird, however, deals with other topics which are of still greater interest to the economist and the politician. He begins by inquiring into the sources of our supply of food, his object being to discover at the outset what proportion of it is grown at home, and to what extent and from what causes our foreign imports have increased. Between 1857 and 1876, the annual value of imported cereal and animal food rose from 235,000,000 to 2110,000,000, and in the latter year nearly one-third of all the agricultural produce consumed in the United Kingdom was brought from abroad. Of course much the larger pro- portion of the total quantity imported is grain, in one form or another ; indeed, Mr. Caird calculates that half our bread is made from foreign wheat. The total acreage of the United Kingdom under corn has slightly decreased in the last ten years, which seems to show that the poorest soil, which it is, under present conditions, profitable to use for this form of production, has long since been brought into cultivation. Mr. Fawcett has recently dwelt on the "natural protection" which -the home producer enjoys by virtue of his proximity to the con- sumer, and of this Mr. Caird gives a very pointed illustration, when he remarks that the cost of transporting, from any of our chief foreign sources of supply, a quantity of wheat equal to the produce of an acre in England, is rarely less than 40s., which is about the average rent of an acre here. Although our imports of cereal food are much greater in the aggregate than those of animal food, yet the latter have increased, and are increasing, at a more rapid rate. Ten years ago, nine-tenths of the meat and dairy produce consumed in the United Kingdom was raised at home ; last year, the home supply could only satisfy three- fourths of the demand, and the remaining fourth came to us from abroad. The causes of this enormous increase are not 4lifficult to trace :—" Thirty years ago," as Mr. Caird reminds us, "not more than one-third of the people 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 in- crease of population is considered, has probably trebled the total consumption of animal food in this country." (p. 30.) But for Free-trade, the growing demand could not have been met, and even with Free-tra,de—so great is the risk and expense of • The Landed Interest and the .Supply of Food. By James Caird, 0.B., F.E.S. London: cased!, Potter, and Gaon. transporting meat, whether dead or alive, over great distances— it was not for fourteen years,—not, in other words, until the advancing rate of consumption had forced up the price to a point which would remunerate the cost of carriage, that foreign countries began seriously to compete with the home producer in the supply of animal food. Quite recently we have seen the rise of the fresh-meat trade with America, —from which, we may observe in passing, that Mr. Caird does not expect that fall in the price of meat which many persons are sanguine enough to anticipate. He remarks that the Americans, who are much greater consumers of meat even than we are, will probably, when their prosperity returns, require more for home consumption ; that the English market takes only the best quality ; and that the cost of transport averages at least a penny a pound. (p. 4.) These considerations lead to the conclusion that the beneficial effects of the new trade will probably be confined to preventing a further rapid rise in the price of meat. The growing demand for animal food, accompanied as it has been by a considerable rise in agricultural wages, has made grazing farms and market-gardens the most profitable agricultural investment for capital. Within the last twenty-five years the capital value of the live-stock of the United Kingdom has almost doubled. The permanent pasture has increased since 1867 by about two million acres, or eight per cent. Not more than a quarter, probably not so much, of this addition represents arable land thrown into grass. When, therefore, we take into account the encroachments made during the same period by spreading towns and new railroads, it is obvious that the reclamation of waste land, and its conversion into pasture, is going on upon a considerable scale. We enter- tain little doubt that at the end of another ten years both land.- owners and farmers will have attained a better understanding of their true interests than they seem to have at present, and that the result will be a large diminution in the area of arable land, and a proportionate increase in the extent of pasture.
In one of the useful tables which Mr. Caird has appended to his book, he calculates that the value per head of the population of the foreign food imported into the United Kingdom in 1877 was nearly 23. In other words, every householder paid in that year at least 215 to foreign countries for the necessaries and simplest luxuries of life. This is a state of things which may well give us pause. At a moment of commercial depression like the present, when there are few of the great productive in- dustries of the country which are not working short time, when American calico is being sold in Manchester, and Belgian iron is being used at Sheffield, even the careless mind cannot ignore the gradual but unmistakable " shrinkage " which is going on in the purchasing power of our leading pro- ducts. The process may be only a temporary one,—the natural and inevitable Nemesis which follows on a period of wasteful expenditure, over-production, dishonest workmanship, and ficti- tious credit. But even if this be so—even if those gloomy pro- phets who tell us that the days of our industrial hegemony are numbered may be safely disregarded—it is none the less prudent and timely to inquire how our gigantic indebtedness to foreign countries in respect of food may be reduced. British agri- culture, whatever be its shortcomings, does not suffer from lack of capital. The property of the landowners of the United. Kingdom (exclusive of minerals) is estimated by Mr. Caird to have a capitalised value of two thousand millions, to which must be added the four hundred millions invested in the land by the tenant-farmers. The condition of the labourers —partly from their growing intelligence, partly from the in- creased facilities for free migration—has greatly improved, and during the last thirty years, while the average price of wheat has been almost stationary, their wages have risen 60 per cent. There can be no doubt that the State loans for drainage and reclamation instituted by Sir Robert Peel have been gener- ally taken advantage of, with the most beneficial results. Mr. Caird, indeed, is of opinion that, tested by its results, our system of cultivation by landowners, farmers, and labourers contrasts favourably with that of other countries. "Our average pro- duce of wheat," he says (p. 69), "is twenty-eight bushels an acre, as against sixteen in France, sixteen in Germany, and thirteen in Russia and the United States. We show a similar advantage in live-stock, both in quantity and quality." It is obvious, however, that the true explanation of our superiority in this respect is to be found in the fact that the co-existence of a dense population and a narrow area, has made it profitable to apply a greater amount of capital to the cultivation of a given piece of land here than elsewhere. Mr. Caird shows that vastly more might be done than has been done, in England, at any rate, and that little progress can be looked for until we have altered our present system in many respects. He points out that the English landowner is rarely trained to his business, that his education does not give him the special knowledge necessary for a skilful application of his capital, and that con- sequently he too often intrusts the management of his property to an agent, with instructions, express or understood, to secure the largest rental at the least cost. Even if a landlord under- stands how to make the best use of his capital, the foolish re- strictions of his settlement and the legal difficulties of transfer deprive him of the power of free disposition, and hamper his best-intentioned schemes. The Land Improvement Acts, use- ful as they have been, are but a palliative to a system which is radically wrong; and the soil of England will never yield its due return until the English landowner, like every other capitalist, can buy and sell and exchange in a free market. The farmer, again, notwithstanding the illusory concessions of the Agricultural Holdings Act, is still in practice a yearly tenant, with no security that he will reap the fruits of his invested capital and skill. "Time is required in the operations of agriculture. Drainage, clean cultivation, manures of the more lasting kind, and the costly and skilful formation of a suitable live-stock, each demand a considerable period of years for profitable realisation." (p. 151.) It is essential to the farmer's interests that a lengthened leasehold tenure should be introduced, such as that which prevails in Scotland, and is already found on well-managed properties in England, like Lord Leices- ter's and the Crown Estates. Still better, in Mr. Caird's opinion, would be the result, if the Bright Clauses of the Irish Land Act could be extended to England, and provision made for substituting in many cases the ownership of the resident farmer for that of the absentee landlord. As for the labourer, the great advance which he has made, not only in material comfort, but in intelligence and the sense of social duty, might be indefinitely improved, if he, too, could be given a more direct interest in the soil and its produce. Whether co-operation, or a system of industrial partnership, or the gradual creation of small tenements be the best means to the end in view, may still be a matter of some doubt. Mean- while, one thing is sure,—that the land will never yield its best until it is tilled by men who are free to think and to act, and who can feel that they are living members in the body of the State.
Previous page
