86 Freedom and Progress 



in 1849 took place, and an exceptionally wet season, which wasted 

 the crops and caused the death by fluke or * rot ' of millions of 

 sheep, put a definite end to the prosperous period. The depres- 

 sion which -followed lasted for over twenty years, and provided 

 an argument against any general increase in wages. 



In most of the things they produced British farmers were 

 competing with farmers all over the world, who had any surplus 

 supplies to send here. Besides this the demand for agricultural 

 produce in this country had fallen. Trade was bad. Speculation, 

 when prices were high during the different wars, brought about 

 failures of business firms and of banks. The wages of the working 

 people in other industries were low and irregular, and they were 

 unable to purchase as much as they formerly did. Farmers had 

 therefore not only to share their market with a new set of 

 producers ; the market itself was less good. 



10 



Bad Times and Recovery 



FARMERS who had a reasonable amount of capital, who were 

 good managers, and whose standard of living was not extravagant, 

 were able to keep their farms. Men who started to farm with 

 little capital in a small way, who were intelligent and hard-working, 

 made progress. Farmers who had accustomed themselves and 

 their families to an expensive style of living, whose costs of 

 production were suited to a period of high prices, and who did 

 not alter their management, lost money. The years from 1879 

 to 1894 were a testing, purging time. Thousands of farmers had 

 to give up their farms, and land went out of cultivation. They 

 held on as long as they could in the hope that things would 

 improve, and rents were frequently maintained at too high a level 

 in this hope, but the prices of corn, meat, and wool continued te 

 fall. In 1894 the average price of wheat was 22J. lod. a quarter, 



