64 



CHAPTER VII. 



AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY — 

 THE SECOND AGRICULTURAL CRISIS — ENCLOSURES OF 

 OPEN FIELDS AND COMMONS FROM 1770 TO 1820. 



The second agricultural crisis was due to the reaction 

 from pasture to tillage in the latter half of the eighteenth 

 and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. England 

 returned from sheep to arable farming under new conditions 

 and changed circumstances, which rendered it a matter of 

 national necessity to break up open fields, consolidate small 

 holdings, and enclose wastes and commons. Without large 

 farms, capital, and increased production, it would have 

 been impossible for England to feed her growing popula- 

 tion, or to attain her commercial prosperity. 



The blow fell in the first instance on the agrarian asso- 

 ciations which still farmed the common fields. When 

 Young commenced his tours few counties had changed 

 their external features or agricultural practices for cen- 

 turies. Hitherto the slow increase of a rural population 

 had been the sole incentive to improvement. Watt, Ark- 

 wright, and others changed the condition of society with 

 the suddenness of a revolution. Population was advancing 

 by leaps and bounds ; a market was opened for agricultural 

 produce. The farmer lay down at night confident that he 

 could supply his family with food ; he woke in the morn- 

 ing to hear the clamour of crowded manufacturing cities 



