“Home trade is bad, mainly, or entirely, because harvests have been bad for several years. The remedy will come with more sunshine and better yield of land, without this it cannot come.[39]
“I believe the agricultural owners and occupiers of land have lost more than £150,000,000 sterling through the great deficiency of harvest.”
Bravo, Friend Bright! you are approaching the truth. Without improvement in agricultural prosperity “the remedy for bad trade cannot come.”
But England is not celebrated for sunshine, the sunshine we require is that of protection.
Taking the nine years ending 1881, I find that, in only one year, the rainfall of the United Kingdom has been largely (7¼ inches) above the average of the last seventeen years. In five out of the nine, the rainfall has been a little below the average; in one year, ¼ of an inch above, and in another year, not quite 2 inches above, the average.
There is no doubt that the average produce of farming in England has, of late years, been below the average of former years; but the Mark Lane Express returns show that, in all these years, there has been a considerable percentage of cases in which the crops have been equal to or over the average. From this we may assume that the sun is not wholly to blame, but that want of sufficient capital to farm properly and to recover the results of bad years has been a very important factor in the deficiency of crops. This may be gleaned from the replies to the questions circulated by Mr. Bear as to the condition of the farmers in 1878.
Bedfordshire:—“Farmers are losing heart, and the land is in a much worse state than formerly.... There has been a serious inroad upon capital account during the last few years, and the land has seriously gone back in cultivation.... The condition of the land has sunk.”
Cumberland:—“The last season has been a good one; but the present prices are not satisfactory, and the general depression in trade is now having its influence on farming.”
Essex:—“Farmers suffering from low prices, general depression of trade, the rise in wages.... The work all round is carried on languidly, and year by year the condition of the land is becoming poorer.... A large quantity of the kind very badly farmed.”