302 THE RURAL POPULATION, 1780-1813 



or two. With the gloomy forebodings of the " Country Gentleman " 

 may be contrasted the triumphant hopefulness of Arthur Young. 

 Both wrote at the same date ; yet the gloom of the one and the 

 hopes of the other were equally well founded Ln the districts to which 

 they respectively refer. What, asks Young, will opponents " say 

 to the inclosures in Norfolk, Suffolk, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, 

 Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, and all the northern counties ? What say 

 they to the sands of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Nottinghamshire, which 

 yield corn and mutton and beef from the force of INCLOSURE 

 alone ? What say they to the Wolds of York and Lincoln, which 

 from barren heaths at Is. per acre are by INCLOSURE alone 

 rendered profitable farms ? . . . What say they to the vast 

 tracts in the peak of Derby which by INCLOSURE alone 

 are changed from black regions of hng to fertile fields covered 

 with cattle ? What say they to the improvements of moors in 

 the northern counties, where INCLOSURES alone have made 

 those countries smile with culture which before were dreary as 

 night ? " 1 



In 1774, when both Arthur Young and the " Country Gentleman " 

 were writing, improved methods of arable farming and the use of 

 roots, clover, and artificial grasses had not extended beyond a few 

 favoured districts ; corn and cattle were still treated as distinct 

 departments of farming, impossible on the same land ; the ten- 

 dency was still strong to convert arable land into pasture ; the 

 science of stock-breeding and stock-rearing was still in its infancy ; 

 improved means of communication had not reHeved farmers in 

 almost every district from the necessity of devoting the greater 

 part of their holdings to corn-growing, or enabled them to put 

 their land to the best use by facilitating the interchange of arable 

 produce ; above all, no urgent demand for meat and milk, as weU 

 as bread, was as yet made by a rapidly growing class of artisans. 

 In another twenty years these conditions had been changed, or 

 were altering fast. But it is to this early period, when arable 

 land was being converted to pasture, and the superiority of the 

 new agricultural methods was stiU disputed, that nearly all the 

 writers belonged, who are most frequently quoted for or against 

 enclosures. After 1790 no voice is raised against the movement 

 on any other ground than the moral and social injury inflicted 

 upon open-field farmers and commoners. The economic gain is 

 ^Political Arithmetic (1774), p. 150. 



