32 



THE GROUNDSWELL. 



and ditching, by persons who will make these their exclu 

 sive occupations. 



From&quot; the Dark Ages until within the last fifty years there 

 was no great and general advance of agriculture. There 

 were improvements in various localities, it is true, but, at 

 the close of the seventeenth century, England, then begin 

 ning to= secure the mastery of the seas, had but one-half 

 the area of the kingdom in arable and pasture laud, the 



English Farm Scene. Shepherd and Flock. 



remainder consisting of moor, forest, and fen. As late as 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century much of the land 

 in England either remained in forest or else was exhausted 

 of its &quot;fertility. But all this is changed, and now, as Ma- 

 caulay remarks, a hundred acres, which, under the old sys 

 tem, produced annually, as food for cattle and manures, not 

 more than forty tons, under improved culture yields the 

 vast increase of 577 tons. 



