Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 14

Sir James Caird's Tables of Comparative Agricultural Values and Comparative Harvests

Sir James Caird's Tables of Comparative Agricultural Values and Comparative Harvests.

1770. 1850. 1880.
Rent of Land per acre 13s. 27s. 30s.
Price of Bread per lb. 1½d. 1¼d. 1½d.
Price of Meat per lb. 3¼d. 6d. 9d.
Price of Butter per lb. 6a. 1s. 1s. 8d.
Wages of Agricultural Labourer per wk. 7s. 3d. 9s. 7d. 14s.
Rent of Labourer's Cottage per wk. 8d. 1s. 5d. 2s.

Comparisons taken from the Books of a Dairy Farm, situate between Lancaster and Garstang.

In 1770 and In 1850.
Rent, 218. an acre Rent, 41s. an acre.
Rates, 3d. per pound. Rates, 3s. 9d. per pound.
Tithes compounded for. Tithes commuted, and included in rent.
4-7ths of farm in grass. 4-5ths of farm in grass.
3-7th8 arable. 1-5th arable.
Annual produce of a cow, £4. Annual produce of a cow, £9.
Six horses in a plough, and do an acre a day. Two, and sometimes three horses in a plough.
First man's wages, £9 a year, and his board. First man's wages, £15 to £16 a year, and board.
Second man, £5 a year, and board. Second man, £10 a year, and board.
Dairymaid. £3 and board. Dairymaid. £7 10s and board.page 132
Bread (oat), 11 lb. for a 1s. Bread, 4d. per 41b. loaf, coarse wheaten bread; 5d per 41b., best.
Cheese, 3d. per lb. Cheese, 5d. per lb.
Butter, 8d. per lb. Butter, 11d. to 1s. per lb.
Beef, 2½d. per lb. Beef, 5d. to 6d.
Mutton, 2½d. per lb. Mutton, 6d.
Labourer's house-rent, 20s. Labourer's house-rent, 50s. to 100s.

Land Assessments.

1857. 1875. Increase Capitalized at 30 years' purchase.
England £41,177,000 £50,125,000 £268,440,000
Scotland 5,932,000 7,493,000 46,830,000
Ireland, from 1862 8,747,000 9,293,000 16,380,000
Gain to Land-owners £331,650,000
Estimated increase of Farmers' capital during same period, through rise in values of Live Stock 114,000,000
Gain to Landed and Agricultural Interest from Free Trade £445,650,000
The gain of wages to Labourers is not included.

Farmers.

Estimated No. in Great Britain 560,000
Ireland 600,000
1,160,000
Aggregate capital employed by the Farming Class, above £400,000,000

Produce of Wheat per Acre.

1849 123
1850 102
1851 110
1852 79
1853 71
1854 127
1855 96
1856 96
1857 124
1858 116
1044
1859 92
1860 78
1861 92
1862 108
1863 141
1864 127
1865 110
1866 90
1867 74
1868 126
1038
1869 102
1870 112
1871 90
1872 92
1873 80
1874 106
1875 78
1876 76
1877 74
1878 108
918
1879 58
1880 90
1881 86
1882 90
1883 95
1884 105

The above table is based upon 28 bushels as an average crop, and reckoning 28 bushels=100. The figures of this and other tables are from Sir James Caird's valuable works on "The Landed Interest" (Cassell and Co.), and "English Agriculture" (Longmans).

From another authority—(Times)—the Harvest estimates, being differently based, appear as follows:—
Estimated Wheat Harvests of the United Kingdom.
Year. Acres. Character of the Yield. Assumed Bushels per Acre. Available for Consumptln after Deducting Seed. Imperial Qrs.
1866 3,661,000 Under average 27 11,400,000
1867 3,640,000 Much under 25 10,390,000
1868 3,951,000 Much over 34 15,790,000
1869 3,982,000 Under 27 12,490,000
1870 3,773,000 Over 32 14,100,000
1871 3,831,000 Under 27 11,970,000
1872 3,840,000 Much under 23 10,110,000
1873 3,670,000 Much under 25 10,550,000
1874 3,833,000 Over 31 13,700,000
1875 3,514,000 Much under 23 9,124,000
1876 3,124,000 Under 27 9,665,000
1877 3,321,000 Much under 22 9,432,000
1878 3,382,000 Over 30 11,825,000
1879 3,056,000 Very much under 18 6,990,000
1880 3,070,000 Under 26 9,114,000
1881 2,967,000 Under 27 9,124,000
1882 3,164,000 Under 28 10,243,000
1883 2,715,000 Under 26 8,124,000
1884 2,751,000 Over 30 9,504,000
1885 2,553,000 Over 31 9,175,000
Average of 19 years. 3,434,000 26¾ 10,666,000
Average of first nine years. 3,798,000 28 12,278,000
Average of nine years ending 1883. 3,146,000 25¼ 9,182,000

"The large farm system embraces nearly twice the proportion of corn, and half the proportion of green crops and grass. In other words, it is doubly dependent on the price of corn as compared with the middle class farm system, which relics to a far greater extent on its dairy produce, its fat cattle, its vegetables, and its hay. The result is, that the latter pays more rent or surplus for the use of the land, and a higher rate of wages to the labourer......A man who has regular employment at wages finds an immense advantage in a good garden allotment beside his cottage, and that is vastly increased when that cottage is on the farm, away from the temptation of the beer shop, and where, as part of his wages, he receives the keep of a cow. This is the system in the border counties, where agriculture is in the most prosperous state, and the agricultural labourer the best fed and clothed, the most educated and intelligent of his class in any part of the three kingdoms."—Sir James Caird (Statistical Society's Journal, March, 1869.)

"To far too great an extent we have been accustomed to measure the so-called 'harvest' generally, and even the entire agricultural position, by the success or failure of the wheat crop alone. When it is remembered that the proportions devoted to this cereal vary so enormously in different parts of the country, and reflect on the fact that though a bad harvest usually means loss on all our grain crops, it by no means follows that all suffer equally, I think I may be allowed to plead for greater prominence being allowed to the records of the yield of our other crops."—Major P. G. Craigie, Sec. Central Chamber of Agriculture (Statistical Society's Journal, March, 1883.)