Kent:—“More weeds grown last year than I ever saw before.”
Monmouthshire:—“Land going out of cultivation, stock reduced in quantity, only necessary work done.”
Northamptonshire:—“The results of the two last seasons will not supply means for substantial improvements.”
Northumberland:—“An immense deal of land producing nothing, I may say, simply out of cultivation.”
Oxfordshire:—“The land is very foul and poor, partly from the continuous rains and the shortness of stock.”
Shropshire:—“Very few farmers, if any, paying their way.... Hand-to-mouth farming.”
Sussex:—“The land generally is not so clean or so well-cultivated as it was a few years since.”
Lord Derby estimates that, with proper farming, we should obtain twice as much produce as we now get.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] Fortnightly Review, April, 1873.