Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

27 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

rUE CONTEST AT OLDHAM.

THE RHONDDA DIVISION.

SIR HUSSEY VIVIAN'S CANDIDATURE.

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"A DIARY OF THE OLADSTONE…

DID MR. GLADSTONE OPPOSE THE…

THE AF L< ALLTS OF RICHARD…

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THE MEMBER FOR PEMBROKESHIRE…

MONMOUTHSHIRE ELECTIONS.

TI-IE IRISH LAND LEAGUE.

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CURE FOR HYDROPHOBIA.

FUNERAL OF MR. EDWARD BATH,…

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THE "WHITE SLAVE" AT THE CARDIFF…

_.__---..---------ECCLESIASTICAL…

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SPIRIT OF THE WELSH PRESS.

- DEATH OF THE KEY. DAVID…

THE PONTYPRIDD DOG AND POULTRY…

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CURRENT AGRICULTURAL TOPICS.

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Dyfynnu
Rhannu

CURRENT AGRICULTURAL TOPICS. rBr 41 AGRICOLA" OF THE FILPLD."I The local Chambers of Agriculture are actively engaged in bringing under the notice of Parlia- mentary candidates the manifesto prepared and adopted by the Central Chamber some six months since, and it is worthy of remark that the only question over which that august body wrangled —as to whether candidates should be asked to sanction a Royal or Parliamentary inquiry into agricultural and trade depression—has been com- pletely put out of the way by the very thing in- tended to be asked for having been already obtained. Surely, then, the chambers might have expunged this feature from their document, as it appears somewhat puerile to keep on the cards a so-called grievance after being fully met. Further, in regard to this manifesto, it may be alleged that, although the establishment of County Boards and the relief of local taxation are necessary objects to be kept in the foreground until obtained, it seems unnecessary to make hustings questions of them at a time when public men of all shades of party politics are willing to subscribe to almost anything and everything in reason that local taxa- tion reformers demand. When it is considered, also, that farmers have obtained almost all they want on the cattle disease question, which the document in question also brings into great prominence, it will be seen that the influence the Chamber of Agriculture movement is calculated to produce on the coming general election is likely to be very slight. There remains, it is true, the railway rates question, which is part and parcel of the programme but, then, a great many other bodies, including the Farmers' Alliance, Chambers of Commerce, and even Fair Trade Leagues, arc promoting legislative action on this matter likewise. Still, if the local chambers are wise, they will drive this nail home in good earnest. They will earn immense public gratitude if they can induce candidates in rural districts to promise legislation on the unfair and iniquitous exactions the railway companies are endeavouring to impose, and also to put an end to the unnatural system of conveying foreign produce on English lines at preferential rates. There is a moderate and an extreme party in the Farmers' Alliance no less than in the Chamber of Agriculture organisation, as the London meeting of the former last week sufficiently proved. Mr. James Howard, M.P., after a full exposition of the ruin which seems impending on British agricul- ture, declared his opinion that it could be obviated partly by legislative means, but still more by im- proved systems being adopted. Mr. Howard's legislative remedies would be far different in their Scope and character from those which have exis- tence in the programme of the Chambers of Agri- culture. Not but what he would go just as far as that in relieving local taxation and obtaining fair- and reasonable railway rates and fares, but lie would go much further in demanding justice to the sitting tenant, a full and complete, instead of a sham, security for farmers' capital, the lifting off the burden of the tithe-rent charge from the shoulders of tenant farmers, and an alteration in the Land Laws by the abolition of primogeniture and entail. and the cheaper and more ready transfer of land from hand to hand. More than this, Mr. Howard proposed a resolution to the effect that rents are too high and ought to come down. Yet, because he would be unwilling to pull them down by the strong arm of the law, he was out-voted in his own assembly, and an amended resolution passed that rents ought to be re-ad- justed by an independent authority. This means, of course, setting up a Land Court in England of tho same nature as that already existing in Ireland for the general establishment of fair rents and to give tenants full security to effect improvements and obtain compensation for them. In all probability, we shall hear a great deal about this demand in future, Mr. Barclay, M.P., Mr. Bolton, and those who advocated it at the Holborn meeting are, no doubt, perfectly logical in what they ask for, although whether it is likely to be ever a popular cry in England may be some- what doubtful. "What is sauce for the goose ought to be sauce for the gander," they say, and those who have affirmed that the respective positions of English and Irish tenant farmers differ so much have never yet very clearly explained what they mean. j The very circumstance of such a resolution being passed by two-thirds of those present at this meeting of the Farmers' Alliance shows to what lengths we are driving and how great is the revolution on the wheel of which we are being whirled. Only ten years since a great many pro- fessed themselves shocked at such a moderate measure as that which became subsequently em- bodied in the Agricultural Holdings Act, deeming it an interference with freedom of contract and the rights of property. Now it is proposed that the tenant shall be so thoroughly guarded bjttthe Legislature or by the Land Court to be set up that, so far from any Duke of Newcastle in future being allowed to do what he liked with his own, the landlord after letting a farm would scarcely have any more right over it than one able to hold out his hand annually or half-yearly for a certain amount of rent charge. Has it been fully considered by those who advo- cate tenant farmers' interests that if there were:a reasonable chance of obtaining the object in view it might prove the absolute ruin of that class, or rather its extinction, by the disinclination of land- owners to let their farms at all under such con- ditions ? If it be asked what they would do with them, those who have the necessary capital might turn farmers themselves, and there are always plenty of farm bailiffs to be procured to relieve country gentlemen who do so from the most laborious and unpleasant parts of the work. In fact things are taking this direction to some extent now. Lord Walsingham, for instance, has increased his holding very much of late, and makes it no secret that ho does not care how many poor farms are thrown on his hands. Perhaps the majority of landlords have no means for this sort of thing, but if the laws of primo- geniture and entail be altered they will be able to sell portions of their estates purposely to farm and improve the remaining portions. The English tenant farmer system is said to be almost peculiar to this country, being found to be adopted to only a very slight extent on tho Continent, or any- where else the wide world over. Of course, we have been over ready to persuade ourselves that ours is the most perfect and wisest system, inasmuch as it relieves landlords of business cares and anxieties, and yet causes them to retain a great many privileges over the farms which they let to tenants. Still, possibly this may be a mistake, and too great a tension on any vital part of it may occasion a thorough break- down, with the general result already indicated ensuing. There is a very natural delay in many districts in pursuing an operation generally in active progress just now, which is that of lifting and storing nlang-el wurzel. This is because farmers find them still in active growth, and, owing to the indiffcrentjeharaCter of turnips, they are extremely desirous of getting as much as possible out of their wurzel crops this year. In all cases where the latter were put in late they failed to grow rapidly in July and August, owing to the great drought then prevailing. After the September rains came they put out fresh foliage and their bulbs commenced to swell more, but only somewhat slowly owing to the cold weather. Thus in too many cases they are diminutive even now, and as they have not ceased growing I they will probably get to more size and weight if allowed to stand in the land another month. I A penalty has, of course, to be paid for taking I this course, especially by heavy land farmers,'for I their arable fields arc bad to be trumped by horses and wheeled by heavy-laden carts in the latter end of November. Rather than cut up the land as it is often done in the performance of the work in question, it would be far better to clamp the roots in the fields where they grow, carrying them together into small heaps at short distances by hand. This system of clamping mangolds in the fields where they have grown is very generally pursued by some sheep farmers, who cause their flocks to be evenly breached over the land the ensuing spring, consuming the roots as they go just, as they would a crop of swede turnips. In some cases the field is cropped to rye after the clamping, and in spring roots and rye consumed together.

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GARDENING NOTES.

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MR. B. FRANCIS WILLIAMS AT…