Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
few counties or districts of counties where they do. Mark you, where
they can grow beans on the better and stronger soils, it is not in one
case out of ten that they grow them for the market. They may grow them
for their own use; but where they do not cultivate beans, send them to
market, and turn them into money, those farmers can have no interest
whatever in keeping up the money price of that which they never sell.
Take the article of oats. How many farmers are there who ever have oats
down on the credit side of their books, as an item upon which they
rely for the payment of their rents? The farmers may, and generally
do, grow oats for feeding their own horses; but it is an exception to
the rule—and a rare exception, too—where the farmer depends upon the
sale of his oats to meet his expenses. Take the article of hops. You
have a protection upon them for the benefit of the growers in Kent,
Sussex, and Surrey; but yet the cultivators of hops are taxed for the
protection of others in articles which they do not themselves produce.
Take the article of cheese. Not one farmer in ten in the country makes
his own cheese, and yet they and their servants are large consumers
of it. But what are the counties which have the protection in this
article? Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, part of Derbyshire,
and Leicestershire. Here are some four or five dairy counties having
an interest in the protection of cheese; but recollect that those
counties are peculiarly hardly taxed in beans and oats, because in
those counties where they are chiefly dairy farms, they are most in
want of artificial food for their cattle. There are the whole of the
hilly districts; and I hope my friend the member for Nottingham (Mr.
Gisborne) is here, because he has a special grievance in this matter;
he lives in Derbyshire, and very commendably employs himself in rearing
good cattle upon the hills; but he is taxed for your protection for
his beans, peas, oats, Indian corn, and everything which he wants for
feeding them. He told me, only the other day, that he should like
nothing better than to give up the little remnant of protection on
cattle, if you would only let him buy a thousand quarters of black oats
for the consumption of his stock.... Take the whole of the hilly
districts, and the down country of Wiltshire; the whole of that
expanse of downs in the south of England; take the Cheviots, where the
flockmasters reside; the Grampians in Scotland; and take the whole of
Wales; they are not benefited in the slightest degree by the protection
on these articles; but, on the contrary, you are taxing the very things
they want. They require provender as abundantly and cheaply as they can
get it. Allowing a free importation of food for cattle is the only way
in which those counties can improve the breed of their lean stocks, and
the only manner in which they can ever bring their land up to anything
like a proper state of fertility. I will go further and say that farms
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account