55 



CHAPTER VI. 



AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY : 

 ARTHUR YOUNG AND THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE. 



Before 1780 the Eastern counties and Leicestershire 

 had alone profited to any substantial degree by improve- 

 ments in agriculture or stock-breeding. The character of 

 the farmers, the size of their holdings, the small number 

 of open fields, the terms of land-letting, will explain the 

 keenness of their spirit of progress. Young and Marshall 

 agree that, in these counties, farms were large, and 

 landlords and tenants enterprising. The farmers in 

 Norfolk occupied ' the same position in society as the 

 clergy and smaller squires ; ' in Lincolnshire ' many had 

 mounted their nags and examined other parts of the 

 country ; ' in Leicestershire they ' had travelled much 

 and mixed constantly with one another.' Throughout 

 these districts farmers were well educated, and possessed 

 sufficient capital and confidence, though generally only 

 holding at will or from year to year, to expend large sums 

 of money on their land. In all the other counties 

 agriculture languished, owing to the prevalence of wastes, 

 the absence of leases, the ignorance of the people, the 

 difficulties of communication, the obstinacy of traditionary 

 practices. 



The ancient forest of Sherwood, which recalled the 

 days of Robin Hood and Little John, still occupied the 



