IMPROVED FARMING 29 



" The increased production which is thus 

 seen to have been brought about by a com- 

 paratively small addition of labour has in a 

 great degree resulted from the employment of 

 capital in improving the soil, in draining and 

 manuring, in throwing down a great part of 

 the fences with which our forefathers were 

 accustomed to divide their farms into small 

 patches ; through the use of improved 

 implements of husbandry, and, above all, 

 through the employment of a better system 

 of cropping by rotation." 



He also mentions the assistance given to 

 agriculture by science in the researches of 

 Davy, undertaken at the instance of the 

 Board of Agriculture about the beginning of 

 the century, and those of Liebig later. But it 

 must not be forgotten that between 1800 and 

 1820 over three million acres had been added 

 to the cultivated area through inclosure ; 

 many persons suffered among the peasantry 

 and small holders, but the people were fed. 

 After 1820 the process slackened, and in the 

 next 30 years the total increase was only 

 about one million acres. 



Porter had no doubt that agricultural pro- 

 duction would continue to increase indefi- 

 nitely and keep pace with the needs of the 

 population. He could not, in fact, conceive 

 of a nation dependent for its food on other 

 countries. Writing in 1846 about the growth 



