tailieunhanh - AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS AGAIN IN 1875-1908

About the year 1875 the good times came to an end. The full force of free trade was at last felt. The seasons assisted the decline, and there was now no compensation in the shape of higher prices. In the eight years between 1874 and 1882 there were only two good crops. A new and formidable competitor had entered the field; between 1860 and 1880 the produce of wheat in the United States had trebled. Vast stretches of virgin soil were opened up with the most astonishing rapidity by railroads, and European immigrants poured in. The cost of transport. | AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS AGAIN IN 1875-1908 About the year 1875 the good times came to an end. The full force of free trade was at last felt. The seasons assisted the decline and there was now no compensation in the shape of higher prices. In the eight years between 1874 and 1882 there were only two good crops. A new and formidable competitor had entered the field between 1860 and 1880 the produce of wheat in the United States had trebled. Vast stretches of virgin soil were opened up with the most astonishing rapidity by railroads and European immigrants poured in. The cost of transport fell greatly and England was flooded with foreign corn and meat. English land which had to support the landlord the tithe-owner the land agent the farmer the labourer and a large army of paupers 665 had to compete with land where often one man was owner farmer and labourer with no tithe and no poor rates. Yet prices held up fairly well until 1884 when there was a collapse from which they have not yet recovered. In 1877 wheat was 56s. 9d. in 1883 . and in 1884 35s. 8d. by 1894 the average price for the year was 22s. 10d. 666 Farmers capital was reduced from 30 to 50 per cent. and rents and the purchase value of land in a similar proportion. Poor clays only fit for wheat and beans went out of cultivation though much has since been laid down to grass and much has tumbled down . In fact most of the increased value of the good period between 1853-75 disappeared. The year 1879 will long be remembered as the Black Year . It was the worst of a succession of wet seasons in the midland western and southern counties of England the average rainfall being one-fourth above the average and 1880 was little better. The land saturated and chilled produced coarser herbage the finer grasses languished or were destroyed fodder and grain were imperfectly matured. Mould and ergot were prevalent among plants and flukes producing liver-rot among live stock especially sheep. In 1879 in England and Wales 3