Market Conditions and Production 83 



much more difficult and costly than the reverse process had been. 

 At best the farmer had to wait for results, and this necessity ruined 

 many, whose capital had already been lessened by the fall in corn- 

 prices. Often, too, they were ruined by their want of foresight and 

 of capacity for managing a pasture farm, which is quite correctly 

 regarded as an art in itself 1 . The actual laying down to grass was 

 often done in the most careless way, so that good results could not 

 be expected 3 . And if the land were unsuited, e.g. for geological 

 reasons, for permanent pasture, the English farmer had small idea 

 of any other methods of carrying on cattle farming. The consequence 

 of all these personal difficulties was that the extension of either branch 

 of pasture farming was much delayed, and that the farmers suffered 

 heavy losses 8 . Where such difficulties were not present it proved 

 possible, to the great advantage of the agriculturist, to carry out the 

 changes in face of the most adverse external conditions. The history 

 of the Scottish farmers who, at the invitation of some of the landlords, 

 settled in England at this period is most instructive*. They came to 

 the counties which as purely corn-producing districts had suffered 

 most under the falling prices : viz., Essex, Norfolk, Kent, Hertford- 

 shire and others in the east and south-east. They brought with them 

 the peculiar Scottish power of accommodation to all circumstances, 

 They also brought a preference for cows, grass and turnips, as against 

 the prejudice of the Essex farmers in favour of corn and long fallows. 

 They understood how to handle pasture better than did the English- 

 men. Where permanent pasture was not suitable, they introduced 

 convertible husbandry, using a field as pasture for some years and 

 then ploughing it up. This proved most successful in the eastern 

 counties 5 , and contributed greatly to the development of dajry farm- 

 ing as it is now practised in Essex and other counties. From the 

 time of the Scottish invasion the production of butter and fresh milk 

 has increased enormously in districts which were previously in great 



1 R. Hunter Pringle, Reports on Ongar, Chelmsford etc., 1894, p. 131. 



8 J. P. Sheldon, The Future of English Agriculture, 1893, p. 4: "Unfortunately, 

 however, it is only too true that a great deal of such land has not been laid down at all has 

 simply been allowed to lay itself down, and it is of very little use as it is : weeds, weeds, 

 nothing but weeds on much of it." 



8 Final Report, pp. 258 f. 



4 Pringle, op. cit. , should be consulted for the story of the Scottish farmers, if for nothing 

 else. See pp. 43 ff., and passim. 



5 See an article by Mr Graham in the Morning Post of April 1 1 , 1 903, on The Revival of 

 Agriculture, under the head Dairy Farming. For the success of the Scottish farmers even in 

 the worst time of the crisis, cp. Pringle, op. cit. pp. 43 f., 45, 60; also the Report of 1894, 

 qu. 13,890-13,896. 



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