The prices of corn in England have been regular ly noted only since the middle of the seventeenth century; yet this comparatively short record is of im- , portance, as indicating very remarkable fluctuations. The price of wheat, which, in the beginning of last century, was 50s. became reduced to 40s. 30s. and eventually, in the ten years between 1740 and 1750, to so low a rate as 24s. a quarter. No wonder that the culture of corn should now receive a check, and that a large proportion of our arable land should be transferred from tillage to grazing. The effect of this conversion, and of an increasing population, raised the price of corn in the ten years from 1750 to 1760, to an average of 42s. 6d.; and, in a few years more, turned the scale from export to import; a change which, with more or less fluctuation, has continued ever since. From 1764 to 1790, the ave rage price of wheat varied from 42s. to 50s.; our annual imports from 200,000 to 500,000 quarters of all kinds of corn. But since 1792, the average prices have been from 50 to 60, 70, 80, 90, and even 98s. :* our annual imports from half a million to two millions of quarters of corn of all kinds.
These periodical statements are useful in showing the proportion that our corn produce has at different times borne to our population. Another mode of forming an idea of the progress of agriculture is by the number of acts of Parliament passed annually for inclosing common-land. The first parliamentary act that seems to have been thought necessary, or of which we have a record, was in the reign of Charles II.; the next in that of Queen Anne. From this time forward, such legislative permissions were ac counted indispensable preliminaries to enclosing com mons. We subjoin a list of them from the proceed ings of Parliament.
The total superficial extent inclosed, in virtue of acts of Parliament during the last 100 years, may be calculated, or rather guessed, at nearly five millions of acres. These acts relate only to England and Wales ; for in Scotland such improvements do not require a special authority.
We have already, in the article AGRICULTURE, treated of the points of superiority in our husbandry over that of the Continent, ascribing it to various causes, and to none more than the medium size of our farms, which differ equally from the large un manageable tracks held by Polish noblemen, and the diminutive occupancies so common among the French peasantry, particularly since the Revolution.
The size of farms in England is greatest in the best cultivated districts; that is, in the counties to the east of the metropolis,* viz. Kent, Essex, Suiftlik, and Norfolk. Farms are extensive, also, in Noith umberland. In these counties, the engagements of farmers are fbr larger sums than in &it Lothian, Berwickshire, or any part of Scotland ; rents being frequently from L.800 to L.1200 and L.1500 a year. In more retired districts, particularly in Cum berland, Westmoreland, and Wales, the occupancies, whether farmed or held in property, are in general very small ; and an average of all the farms of England and Wales would not much exceed L.150 a-year.
Leases in England are, with the exception of par ticular districts, granted for seven years only ; when the term is longer, the case is peculiar, and applies to land thatevidently requires very extensive improve ment. Farms are also let occasionally from year to year. There is in such cases something like an assurance, on the part of the landlord, that the ten ant shall not be removed for a certain number of years, or that otherwise the improvements shall be considered and allowed for. When a tenant holds
from year to year, there is a written agreement, with scified covenants ; the tenant being subjected to fines in the event of a deviation from them.fi Both methods are highly injudicious • and it is in the pre valence of them, more than in the existence of tithes and poor's rates, that we are to look for the back ward state of agriculture in many of our finest coun ties. No class of men have more liberality than the English landholders ; but it would be in vain to ex pect a tenant to lay out much capital on the im provement of a farm of which his tenure comes to an end in seven years, or may be disturbed by the com mission of a trespass, or the occurrence of a death. A tenant so situated loses the habit of reflecting on improvements, and even of carrying into effect those which he is aware would, in time, be advantageous. If he succeed in saving money, he is much more like ly to place it out at interest than to employ it in his own business.
The expence of cultivation has increased great ly during the present age; the enhancement con sequent on war and taxation not having been coun teracted in agriculture, as in manufactures, by in genious discovery, improved machinery, or any great augmentation of capital. The following table contains the averages of three distinct years, at pe riods considerably remote from each other.
The last column may be taken as a fair represen tation of agricultural expence at the present time. There have been reductions in some particulars, especially labour and taxes ; the tax on horses em ployed in husbandry (17s. 6d. a-head during the war) having been materially reduced in 1816; but this is balanced by some additional expences, particularly the charge for manure, which is not fully stated in the above column. Surveyors are accustomed to calculate the produce of land with reference to the rent : highly cultivated land ought to produce three rents, that is, one-third of the gross produce should go for the rent, another for the expences, and the remainder for the farmer's profit ; inferior land, re quiring additional expence in cultivating, the rent is in general only a fourth, sometimes only a fifth, of the gross produce.' It was in 1818, after the dis comfiture of Bonaparte in Russia, that land survey ors began to lower their estimates of rent, in the prospect of peace.t A century ago, our cattle, from feeding on wastes and commons, were not one-half, sometimes even not one-third of their present weight. To calculate the number of cattle in England is a matter of consider. able difficulty. It is commonly computed to contain from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 oxen. Horses are, of course, much less numerous, and do not appear to ex ceed 1,500,000, of which about 1,000,000 are used in husbandry, 200,000 are kept for pleasure, and 300,000 are colts and breeding mares. In all these depart ments of rural economy, an increase of number takes place as improvements are introduced, and pasturage ameliorated ; but, in one of the humbler objects of a farmer's care, we mean poultry, the progress of so ciety operates to produce a reduction. This is owing chiefly to the number of farm houses diminishing as farms increase in extent, and to the abridged supply of that waste provision which forms the chief food of poultry.