After the Repeal of the Corn-laws 63 



growing made such technical progress valuable, the chances of 

 the large holding increased and those of the small holding fell. 

 In addition, the prices of wool and mutton were rising 1 , and sheep- 

 breeding was always best carried out on a large scale : so that even 

 in grass districts the case for the large farm was stronger than ever 

 before. 



The fact that the profitableness of the large farm did not decrease 

 even when pasture was combined with arable is instructive for those 

 who claim that increasing intensiveness in agriculture must invariably 

 improve the position of the small holding as against the large. 

 "Increased intensiveness" is a very vague term. It is undeniable 

 that the intensiveness of agriculture, that is to say the application of 

 capital and labour to the land, increased considerably between 1846 

 and 1880. But this was the period when the large farm system 

 reached its highest level. The increased intensiveness, in fact, was 

 such as to consist mainly in an increased application of capital. 

 Drainage, the use of labour-saving machinery, and so forth, were 

 matters which made great demands upon capital. The increase of 

 intensiveness which depends on an increased application of labour is 

 quite another thing. Intensivity of capital is the postulate of progress 

 in corn-production. It means a quantitative increase in the applica- 

 tion of one element of production, namely capital, to the land. But 

 increased intensity of labour may mean a qualitative change in that 

 other element, labour : that is to say, not merely that more labour is 

 applied to agricultural production, but that the labour is of a different 

 kind, i.e. is itself more intensive. For an increased intensivity of 

 labour, therefore, the demand is not on things, but on persons. It is 

 not sufficient that the agriculturist should expend more capital on his 

 holding; the labour which he bestows on it must take on a new 

 character. 



But this qualitative intensity of labour has never been of import- 

 ance in arable farming : whereas intensive application of capital has 

 always been of the highest importance to it. Now in the period 1850 

 to 1880 the large arable farmer was obviously in a much better 

 position than the small to make this increased application of capital. 

 The small corn-grower had not the capital necessary for the profit- 

 able use of the technical and scientific improvements in agricultural 

 methods, without which corn-growing could no longer be made 

 to pay. This was why districts where farms were small were 



1 Wholesale and Retail Prices, p. 52. 



