17 Oct 1836 State of Agriculture - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

17 Oct 1836 State of Agriculture

THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN ENGLAND AND WALES.
                            REPORT

FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS APPOINTED TO
   INQUIRE INTO THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN ENGLAND AND WALES.

[Here follows evidence given by a Mr. William JACOB, controller of corn returns
for the Board of Trade - not transcribed.]

     Mr. WILLIAM BLAMIRE, a Member of the House of Commons, attending, is
examined as follows: -

You are a member of Parliament for the Eastern Division of the county of
Cumberland? - I am.

Are you acquainted with agriculture? - I have had considerable experience in all
rural matters for upwards of 20 years past.

What sort of land is there in that county generally?- We have every variety of
soil, from lands not worth more than 2s. 6d. an acre, to lands worth 3L. an
acre, or upwards.

What is the state of the farming interest in that part of the country? - The
state of the farming interest in the county of Cumberland is generally extremely
depressed, more perhaps than in many other counties, from this circumstance,
that very large tracts of common land have in the last 15 years been brought
into cultivation, not containing in themselves a sufficient innate fertility to
continue permanently to produce good crops; those crops have very much fallen
off, and the tenants have become extremely depressed, and been driven to have
recourse, in order to raise the rent for the landlord, to improper modes of
cultivation, occasioning the exhaustion of the land.

Cross-cropping, as it is called? - Yes; taking too large a quantity of corn.

What is the state of farmers on other lands not of the description you have now
mentioned? - The state of the farmers on the better land is not very materialy
different to that it has been for a number of years past. I conceive great
exertions have been made in recent years to put the lands of the first quality
into a high state of cultivation, from a greater quantity of draining, from the
purchase of more artificial manure, and that the product on those lands has not
deteriorated; but on the inferior soils there is a very great difference indeed;
and, generally speaking, the agricultural interest in the county of Cumberland
is very much reduced.

Which is the largest proportion, the poor lands or those of a better quality? -
The inferior lands bear the largest proportion.

Then you would say, generally speaking, the agriculturists in that part of the
country are depressed? - Yes.

What is the state of the labourers? - The state of the labourers, more
especially in the county of Cumberland from various local circumstances, is
better than it has usually been, from the accidental circumstances of railways
and canals, the demand for an unusual quantity of labour; and that description
of labourers has not felt the adversity of the farmers to the same degree one
would suppose he might.

Has the cultivation of land in Cumberland been decreased? - A considerable
quantity of inferior land is thrown out of cultivation.

How do the poor find employment in the country where that has taken place? - We
have in the county of Cumberland no surplus labour; we import, if I may so say,
a quantity of labour at various seasons of the year; the demand for labour has
been remarkably great, so much so, that if the farmer did not give employment to
the people about him, they immediately found it elsewhere; but that is owing to
the adventitious circumstance of railways and canals, and various demands for
labour created there.

Are the tenantry in general in a bad or good state? - The tenantry are in a bad
state, a very depressed state.

Can they pay their rents except by cropping their lands in the way you speak
of? - The tenants of inferior soils cannot pay their rents without giving up to
their landlord a part of the fee simple every year.

You mean by taking too much off? - Yes; if the estate were for sale, it would
probably sell for about as much less at the present moment as difference as
compared with what it would a few years ago, when it was in a better state.

Have rents been reduced in that county? - Rents have been reduced, but not to
the great extent one might have supposed they ought to have been, and that they
necessarily would have been but for the great competition for farms.

The competition for farms has kept up the rents? - Yes.

How do you account for that competition, when farming is so unprofitable a
business? - I conceive it is solely to be accounted for in this way, that the
pressure of the population against the cultivated lands of the country is so
great, that it is not in every man's power to find a situation for himself to
fix on; and that makes a competition for lands greater than I ever before knew
it.

They will not quit their lands although they can get nothing for the cultivation
of them? - Although they are quite certain they must be ruined, or at all events
certain they shall have no return for their labour, they are necessitated to
have some place on which to live, and they have no means of turning themselves
to any thing else.

Do you know any instances of farmers being already ruined? - Great numbers.

Reduced to the greatetst distress? - Yes; and in that part of the country we
have a great number of small estates men.

You mean men who have a small farm of their own? - A small property of their
own.

They are yeomen, in fact? - Yes.

What is the condition of those persons? - The position of those persons is,
generally speaking, most pitiable at the present moment; they are as a body, in
fact, ceasing to exist at all, the pressure of the times has been so great upon
them; and from the unfortunate circumstance of the father of a family having
settled a provision for his younger children upon the estate, in many instances
an inducement, during the high prices of the war, was held out to them to
improve their farms in every possible way. Their condition at the present moment
is truly lamentable. A vast number of those properties has passed from the
possession of the yeomen, and there are others that must ere long pass away.

Have those who still retain possession of their lands incumbered them by
mortgages? - There are very few men in that rank of life who have not, to a
greater or less degree, incumbered their property.

Is not that the case with the gentry and small freeholders? - It is.

Have any landowners of the county gone to reside in more humble situations? -
There are some instances of yeomen having sold their properties and gone abroad,
but not in that part of the county many instances of gentlemen having done so.

From your observation, is the emigration of those persons and their parting with
their property the effect of any imprudence on their part, or merely the
pressure of the times? - By no means the effect of any imprudence on their part,
but solely from the pressure of the times; I believe there is no set of men in
the world who live so poorly as that class of persons do in comparison to the
work they undergo.

Do they manage their farms well? - They manage their farms as well as men so
circumstanced can be expected to do, with as much reference to frugality and to
every sort of management and desire to produce crops as can be seen anywhere;
more capital might, no doubt, be advantageously expended on the farms.

Is there any want of good management, or is that occasioned by the distress of
their circumstances? - Certainly, and not by the want of competence and
knowledge; there is no man to be found who does not know how to make the utmost
of his land under the circumstances, if he had the means.

Do you state that many of the lands are overcropped? - Very much overcropped.

Has the cultivation of other lands been given up in consequence of the poverty
of the tenants? - In consequence of the poverty of the tenants some have ceased
to be cultivated at all, and I conceive a much greater portion of land would
cease to be, but that it is not unusual for the landlord to say to the tenant,
instead of giving any greater reduction of rent, I will expend a certain amount
of money in draining, or in the purchase of artificial manure, which is to you
equivalent to a reduction of rent, and from my pleasure in seeing my estate
improved and looking better: that has been done to a considerable extent by the
more wealthy landlords.

Has that been to such an extent as to account for the difference of rent now and
formerly? - No, I do not think it has altogether; it has had a considerable
effect; but I think the high proportion the rents at the present moment bear to
the proportion they ought to have borne when compared with the price of produce,
is to be attributed more to the pressure of the population than to that
circumstance of the rents appearing nominally higher, which the landlord really
does not put into his pocket.

You say those improvements have been attended with considerable expense to the
landlord? - No doubt.

That would justify some rise of rent of course? - Not a rise of rent, but a
continuance of the old rent, on an understanding on the part of the landlord
that he will expend a part of that rent in the improvement of the land for the
farmer.

Since what time has the great depression in the agricultural interest taken
place? - Since the year 1816.

From what do you supose that originated? - The alteration of the currency was
the first affecting cause, I conceive.

Speaking from your own observation, can you take upon yourself to attribute it
to that principally? - I feel very confident that that was the case.

Do you attribute it to any other cause - importations from other countries, for
instance? - No doubt there was a very great importation in the year 1815, which
had a very considerable effect; and the consumption has materially increased.

From whence was that importation? - From various parts of the continent.

Do the Irish importations reach you? - On our side of the kingdom we are very
materially affected by Liverpool being virtually the granary of Ireland.

Have the importations from Ireland, in your opinion, depressed the prices of
agricultural produce in the English market? - They have had a very striking
effect, and perhaps a more conspicuous effect on the price of animal food than
on the price of corn.

Has it been great on the price of corn? - No doubt it has since the passing of
Sir John NEWPORT's Act.

That was in 1826? - I think it was.