Bad Times and Recovery 87 



and there are still farmers who tell how they sold it in that year 

 for i8j. a quarter. 



This great and long-lasting fall in prices made changes in 

 farming necessary. The farmers who had grown corn on strong 

 land and fed bullocks in yards, and who failed to adapt them- 

 selves to the new conditions, gave place to farmers from Scotland 

 and from the northern and western counties of England, who 

 turned the land to the production of milk and of potatoes where 

 the soil was suitable. Dairy-farming meant harder work, but 

 the prices of milk were steady, and there were profits even if they 

 were small. The depression reached its lowest point about 1894. 

 Things got no worse after this, even if they improved little. By 

 adopting new methods, and by working hard farmers held their 

 ground, or gained something, and occasionally, by exceptional 

 enterprise in some new line, individuals prospered. About 1906 

 the slow and steady improvement became more marked. The 

 demand for farm produce was increasing, the number of people 

 not engaged in agriculture all over the world was growing, trade 

 was reviving and prices gradually rose. Farmers who had been 

 trained in the severe school of the depression were able to make 

 profits. They increased their capital by degrees, employed more 

 labour, spent more on manures and implements, and much of 

 the land was farmed better than it had been for years. 



The bad times between 1879 anc ^ J 96 differed from those 

 between 1815 and 1836. They were more straightforward. 

 They kept on getting worse for about fifteen years, and remained 

 steadily bad for ten or twelve more. There were no great 

 fluctuations, with high prices in one year and low prices in the 

 next. They did not hold out false hopes, or encourage specula- 

 tion. Two Royal Commissions sat to consider the distress in 

 agriculture, one from 1879 to ^83, the other from 1893 to 1897, 

 but little or nothing was done as a result of 'their inquiries. 



The explanation of these great changes was that British 



