PROSPEROUS PERIODS 31 



tion. And it did so through alternate periods 

 of prosperity and adversity. From 1780 to 

 1813 agriculture was prosperous, though the 

 poor suffered from high prices ; from 1814 

 to 1836 it \vas extremely depressed. Mr. 

 Prothero attributes the prosperity of the first 

 period mainly to the weather and the war, 

 which sent up prices ; after the war taxation 

 and the fall of prices brought adversity. Each 

 in turn seems to have stimulated effort- 

 prosperity by the hope of gain, adversity by 

 the pressure of necessity. After 1836 agri- 

 culture began to look up again, and in 1852 

 entered on another golden age, which lasted 

 in full for ten years and did not finally dis- 

 appear in the gloom of a long and deep 

 depression until 1874. It was a time of great 

 activity, in which mechanical invention, 

 having developed urban industries, extended 

 its influence to agriculture in the form of 

 steam transport and farming implements. 

 The improvements noted by Porter were 

 extended ; high farming, which was still the 

 exception when he wrote, became general. 



Deficient Production. 



In view of all this, Porter's expectation that 

 production would continue to increase and 

 keep pace with the population is intelligible 

 and not unreasonable ; but what happened 

 was the reverse. Home production became 



