Market Conditions and Production 87 



This technical progress corresponded to a revival of agricultural 

 prosperity. People had long been accustomed to think of agriculture 

 as distressed : but now all the signs pointed the other way, as was 

 already shown in 1899 by Mr P. Anderson Graham's book, The 

 Revival of English Agriculture, which has been frequently quoted 

 above. Mr Graham found his views confirmed by his tour in Essex in 

 1903. Mr A. Wilson Fox stated in that same year that "men of large 

 experience in the agricultural districts" had told him that farming 

 was " getting on to a sounder basis 1 ." Nothing more was heard 

 about an agricultural crisis. Thus a large Gloucestershire landowner, 

 Mr G. E. Lloyd-Baker*, assured me, in the year 1903, that in all parts 

 of the country known to him there was a definite upward movement 

 to be remarked in agriculture. 



The same tendency has most distinctly manifested itself in the 

 last few years. An official Report of the year 1909 speaks of the 

 " increased prosperity of agriculture during the last few years," and 

 states that " the demand for farms is keener at the present time than 

 it has been for many years past, and there has been a corresponding 

 appreciation in the value of agricultural land 8 ." One of the greatest 

 experts on agricultural conditions, Mr R. A. Yerburgh, M.P., said 

 a short time ago that " If the average farmer were asked what were 

 the present prospects in England, he would probably reply ' Well, not 

 so bad as they might be.' The proverbial pessimism of his class 

 would not allow him to go further than that ; but in the mouth of 

 a farmer it means that agriculture has travelled very far from the 

 black days of depression 4 ." 



A new stage of development has been reached, or rather, perhaps, 

 there has been a return to the branches of production which had been 

 most flourishing at an earlier period. For the first time in more than 

 a century corn growing has lost its pre-eminence. It has now to 

 make way for commodities which it had once swept almost out of 

 existence. Pasture farming and small culture have gained the upper 

 hand. 



1 Wilson Fox, in Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 1903, p. 311. 



2 H. Levy, Die Lage der englischen Landwirtschaft in der Gegenwart, in Conrad's 

 Jahrbiichern, December 1903. 



3 Annual Report of Proceedings under the Small Holdings Act, 1909 (Cd. 4846), p. 5. 

 * Warwick Advertiser, May yth, 1910. 



