THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 137 



part to bad weather, in part to the over-speculation, 

 and in part to the high rents that had been fixed in the 

 good times, there was a period of great depression, and 

 landlords, farmers and labourers suffered together. As 

 a result rents dropped. Then again the tide turned, 

 and during the first forty years of the Victorian era 

 there was a time of general prosperity for both farmers 

 and landlords. Wheat during this time averaged about 

 535. a quarter ; this was lower than it had been, but 

 the improvements of every description that came into 

 widespread use during these years, marked as they 

 were by many good seasons, resulted in the saving 

 of labour and increase of production, and so in good 

 profits for farmers. Rents again went up, reaching 

 their highest figures about 1879, three or four years 

 after the tide had turned against the farmers. Whilst 

 farmers and landlords flourished, labourers continued 

 to live in great poverty, although they managed 

 to slightly improve their position. In 1875 a series 

 of bad seasons commenced and the period of agricultural 

 prosperity drew to a close. 



It is easy to get a good idea of the condition of 

 agriculture and of the farmer's life in the enclosed 

 districts, early in the century, by a study 

 at the of Arthur Young's * County Surveys.' His 



beginning report on Hertfordshire, for example, which 

 century. ne visited in 1801, provides us with much 

 information. Almost all Hertfordshire was 

 by that time enclosed, and let out to tenant farmers in 

 farms of, as a rule, from 1 50 to 400 acres, though there 

 were some larger and many less. Rents and tithes, 

 which latter, though then commuted in this county, were 

 still paid by the farmer, averaged together, Young 



