Art. II. BRITISH AGRICULTURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

1. Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. London: 1853-1900.

2. Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. Edinburgh: 1853-1900.

3. English Agriculture in 1850-51. By James Caird. London: Longmans, 1852.

4. Agricultural Returns of Great Britain, 1853-1900.

5. Report of the Agricultural Interests Commission, 1882. (C. 3309.)

6. Reports of the Royal Commission on Agriculture,

1894-7.

7. Wages in the United Kingdom in the Nineteenth Century. By Arthur L. Bowley, M.A., F.S.S. Cambridge: University Press, 1900.

8. The Wages and Earnings of Agricultural Labourers. Report to the Labour Department of the Board of Trade. By Wilson Fox. 1900. (Cd. 346.)

PART II.

IN making the statement with which the first part of this article concluded, to the effect that agricultural prosperity in Great Britain was at a higher level in the ten years beginning with 1853 than it has ever attained and maintained for an equally long period before or since, the prosperity of the first fourteen years of the century was not forgotten. But farmers in 1853 were in a much better position for making the most of their opportunities than their predecessors from 1801 to 1814. Excepting a few

curious survivals, their fields were all enclosed; good roads and railways had vastly improved their marketing facilities; science and mechanical invention had placed the enrichment and perfected cultivation of the soil easily within their reach; and their live stock had become greatly superior to that of their grandfathers. Moreover, they were not subject to the heavy burden of the old Poor Law, or to the embarrassing troubles and disputes of the ancient tithing system. But there is more direct evidence of the correctness of the statement under discussion; for, where

as complaints of agricultural distress were made to Parliament in 1814, and it was wide-spread in the following year, it was not until long after 1862 that the latest period of agricultural depression can be said to have really set in. It is obvious, then, that farmers must have made more money in 1853-62 than in 1801-14, or they would not have been able to stand up so long against a fall in the prices of farm produce.

There are no data for estimating with any approach to accuracy the area of land under crops in 1801; but, as a great expanse in England and Scotland alike had been reclaimed and enclosed by 1853, there must have been a large increase in the cultivated area, including pasture. Probably the area under corn had increased, although it is doubtful whether that of wheat alone had done so. Even in 1850, Caird admitted that there was no certainty in the estimates which he gave. As a matter of fact, it is now known that he was a long way out in his reckoning, as he set the area under crops, fallow, and grass in England at 27,000,000 acres, estimating that about half of it was in grass; whereas the Agricultural Returns, first issued in 1866, made the total only 22,236,737 acres, and in the meantime there must have been an increase in the culti

vated area. Caird put the wheat area in 1850 at 3,416,750 acres for England, while Lawes, two years later, estimated it at 4,058,731 acres for the United Kingdom. In 1866 the official return was 3,126,431 acres for England and 3,661,351 for the whole kingdom. Caird set the average produce of wheat in England at 263 bushels per acre, or 11,317,984 quarters on his estimated area, and he discredited Young's estimate of about two million quarters more. Young certainly exaggerated the production in 1770. If he had been anywhere near the mark, his figures would have shown that much more land was under wheat in 1770 than in 1850, because it is certain that the yield per acre in Young's time was less than it was in Caird's day.

As already intimated, however, the superior resources of farmers in the decade beginning with 1853, as compared with the earlier period of prosperity at the beginning of the century, were not confined to the enclosure of fields. In the draining, tillage, and manuring of the land; in the harvesting, threshing, and marketing of their crops; in the quality of live stock and the means of fattening animals;

and in the directions which science was giving for their advantage, the contemporaries of Caird were far better off than those of Young.

Caird found very little draining with tiles being done in 1850 in some counties, except by advanced landowners, although Smith of Deanston's new system had been perfected by Parkes, with the help of the cylindrical pipes which Reed introduced in 1843, made by a machine invented by Scraggs. Tile drainage, however, was carried on extensively after the depression which Caird investigated had come to an end, the loan facilities provided for landowners by Sir Robert Peel in 1848 for the draining of their estates being used to a considerable extent, though the terms were not very easy, as borrowers were required to pay 6 per cent. for twenty-two years, to cover capital and interest; and drains seldom last longer than that period in effective condition.

Steam was applied to the cultivation of land by John Usher of Edinburgh by means of a rotatory implement, in 1851 or 1852; Smith's steam cultivator did good work in 1856; and Fowler's steam plough, worked by a single -engine and an anchor, gained the prize of 2001. offered by the Royal Agricultural Society in 1857. In the following year Fowler won the Society's prize of 500l. for an improved steam plough, and later he brought out his double-engine system for ploughs and cultivators, which has lasted, with some improvements, up to the present time. The reaping machine was first made effective enough to be used to an appreciable extent in 1852, when Crosskill introduced his improvement on Bell's reaper, invented in 1826; and, after 1860, Crosskill's three-horse machine, which could cut its own way into a field, as it was driven in front of the horses, came into extensive use. In 1872 Samuelson brought out his light and convenient one-horse reaper, and various machines by Hornsby and other makers came soon after into the field, to be followed, after a considerable interval, by the sheaf-binders which are now in general work. Steam had been applied to threshing machines in 1850 to a limited extent, and by 1858 several makers were competing in them. As for the ploughs, harrows, cultivators, and other implements worked by horses, they were improved with great rapidity during the period under notice; but the makers are too numerous to be named. Nor have

we space to notice the very numerous improvers of the several breeds of horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs.

During this period of prosperity, Liebig, Lawes and his colleague Gilbert, Boussingault, Henslow, Lindley, Buckland, Daubeny, Playfair, Johnston, Way, Ville, Mené, Hartig, and Voelcker were popularising science as applied to agriculture; and valuable articles appeared in the 'Journal' of the Royal Agricultural Society and the 'Transactions' of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland. Caird noticed the use of nitrate of soda as a novelty in 1850; but guano, dissolved bones, and superphosphate were becoming common manures; and broken bones had been applied to pastures in Cheshire with wonderful effect. The dairying branch of agriculture received the least attention; but in 1855 the Somerset system of Cheddar-cheese making was introduced into Scotland, marking the beginning of an important industry for that country.

With respect to the tenure of land, leases, though generally too short to afford security for steady improvement, were common in many counties at the beginning of the century, but fell almost entirely into disuse in England during the prolonged period of distress that followed the year 1815, so that Caird found them uncommon in 1850. Nineteen years' leases, however, had come into fashion in Scotland, and in England the leasing system was revived, especially on small estates, when farming became prosperous once more.

The great rise in rents which took place revived the demand for tenant-right, which Lord Portman had raised or represented in 1841, but without success. Mr Pusey, in 1847, followed Lord Portman's lead by introducing a bill giving tenants legal security for their improvements. It was referred to a Select Committee of the House of Commons, before which some very strong evidence in its favour was given. It was clearly shown that tenants were frequently rented on their own improvements, and that this was a source of much discouragement and a deterrent to high farming. The Committee, however, reported against compulsory legislation, and in 1848, when the bill was again brought forward, it was rejected. In 1850, Mr Pusey succeeded in passing his measure through the House of Commons, only to have it thrown out by the

Lords. The passing of the Landlord and Tenant Act in 1860, for the protection of Irish tenants, once more revived the question, which, however, got no further than the discussion stage outside Parliament for some years. In 1872, Mr James Howard and Mr C. S. Read introduced their compulsory Landlord and Tenant Bill for England, but did not persevere with it; and nothing was done in this direction until the Duke of Richmond's Agricultural Holdings Act was passed in 1875. The measure, as it was permissive in principle, was described as 'a homily to landlords'-a true description, as experience proved, for it had no direct operation. It led, however, in some cases, to private arrangements as to compensation for improvements between owners and occupiers of land. Measures somewhat more effective were to be brought into operation many years later.

Agricultural prosperity led to an aggregation of farms, as farmers possessing sufficient capital lost no opportunity of increasing the sizes of their holdings; and landlords were in favour of large farms, because the expense of keeping up buildings and managing estates was diminished by consolidation. Successful traders, too, or 'apron-string farmers,' as they were styled, bought or rented land on retiring from business; and their competition for farms helped to raise rents higher and higher. One of these men, Mr J. J. Mechi of Tiptree Hall, in spite of the many mistakes which he made, was one of the most active and useful of agricultural teachers. Most of the yeomen who had survived the period of depression succumbed to the temptation offered them by neighbouring landlords and rich townsmen who desired to become country squires, to sell their little estates at high prices. By selling they could obtain capital enough to rent large farms, and thus greatly increase their incomes.

Agricultural labourers had but a small share of the prosperity of this period; for, although their wages were raised, the dearness of food kept the purchasing power of their earnings from making any appreciable progress. The Law of Settlement still operated to keep labourers in low-wage districts from migrating to parts of the country in which they could earn more money, as the Union Chargeability Act was not passed until 1865. The period was one, however, in which great attention was paid to the