8o Freedom and Progress 



His picture of agriculture, compared with that given in the 

 reports of Young and others at the beginning of the century, 

 shows that great progress had been made, that the industry was 

 already organized much as it is to-day. 



One thing which was assisting farmers and changing their 

 methods was the development of railway communication. The 

 county of Norfolk supplied London with much of its meat during 

 the months of spring, as it still does. On the long journey by 

 road fat bullocks lost considerable weight, and it saved the 

 farmers' money and meat for the country, when they were carried 

 by railways in a few hours. ' Formerly,' said Caird, ' when 

 several days were occupied in driving (fat stock) to London, a sheep 

 was found on the average to have lost 7 Ib. weight and 3 Ib. inside 

 fat, and a bullock 28 Ib.' This revolution in transport brought 

 thousands of farms within easy reach of growing cities for the 

 marketing of even such a perishable commodity as milk. It was 

 not until the epidemic of rinderpest in 1865 had swept away 

 most of the cows in the London dairies that the change took 

 full effect. Many of the dairies were never set up again. The 

 dealers went out through the nearest counties and offered prices 

 for milk which induced farmers to sell it to them and to abandon 

 the manufacture of butter and cheese. 



The contrast between the old and new systems of transport 

 may be realized from an account of the old given by the Rev. T. 

 Mozley in his Reminiscences of Towns and Villages. He was 

 rector of Moreton Pinkney in Northamptonshire about 1832, 

 and he tells what the farmers produced then, and how it went 

 to market. ' Butter, pigs, and calves ', he says, i were the chief 

 products of the parish, and they went mostly to London. My 

 nearest neighbour, the farmer occupying the old manor-house, 

 had sent up his butter many years to the dealer in Newgate 

 Street who supplied George IV, and he had lost a hundred pounds 

 through the irregularity with which the King, then Regent, had 



