FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART XI. 673 



lated by competition to an improvement of their domestic animals the 

 Improvement of the soil is sure to follow. No instance in the history 

 of agriculture can be pointed out where an improved agriculture did not 

 follow in the wake of improved domestic animals. For a long period the 

 agriculture of England languished and the yield of agricultural products 

 in the United Kingdom was reduced to such a low point as .to threaten 

 the very existence of the nation. 



Every well-informed man kriows that at the beginning of the eigh- 

 teenth century the agriculture of England was of the rudest character. 

 The land, for the most part, was unenclosed. Stock of all kinds ran 

 together upon the commons, the fields were cropped in succession until 

 they were well-nigh exhausted. The quarter of a century immediately 

 following 1760 is memorable in the history of English agriculture for 

 the many improvements made. To the genius of Blakewell is due the 

 extraordinary improvement made in domestic animals, and especially 

 in the character of sheep, which proved the foundation stone of a new 

 agriculture. With sheep came turnips, and with the depasturing of 

 turnips came improvement to the soil. Longhorn cattle were succeeded 

 by shorthorn or Durham cattle. Merino sheep were introduced by 

 George III., who, however inefficient as a statesman, was an energetic 

 and zealous farmer. The Bath and West of England Society was estab- 

 lished in 1777, the Highland Society in 1784, and the National Board 

 of Agriculture in 1793. These various societies by their exhibitions and 

 publications infused such a measure of intelligence and inquiry through 

 all ranks of society as to bring about a wonderful progress in agricul- 

 tural development. 



Through the influence of these societies and the stimulus given to 

 agriculture by the Napoleonic wars the rental of land in Scotland rose 

 from £2,000,000 in 1795 to £5,278,685 in 1815. The live stock interest in- 

 creased more rapidly than any other. The consumption of meat was out 

 of all proportion to that of bread grains. To meet this demand there 

 were more green crops and more live stock, from which resulted more 

 wool, more meat, more manure and more grain crops. The productive- 

 ness of the soil was greatly increased. Land was made to do quadruple 

 the duty it performed a century before. Agriculture as a science and 

 an art was steadily advanced, and to the numerous local agricultural asso- 

 ciations which sprang up all over the United Kingdom collecting and 

 disseminating information and giving exhibitions of live stock and agri- 

 cultural products are these great improvements to be ascribed. 



With agricultural fairs will come, first, improvement in live stock. 

 With improvement in live stock will come increased fertility in the soil. 

 With increased fertility in the soil will come agricultural prosperity and 

 development. Where fairs are encouraged and the live stock interest 

 promoted every other branch of agriculture will flourish. 



Not only that, but the social value of fairs is not to be overlooked. 

 They attract men of intelligence, of observation, of experience and of 

 progressive thought. They bring the people together from various por- 

 tions of the State and make them acquainted with one another. A fair is» 

 therefore, broadening in its effect and patriotic in its tendencies. It 

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