108 



SCIENCE WITH PRACTICE, 1845 TO 1873 



rendered stock-feediBg and corn-growing highly remune- 

 rative.' Even when corn was low the high prices of meat 

 maintained the balance. 



It would be a tedious because monotonous task to enu- 

 merate in detail the improvements effected in agriculture 

 during this jDeriod. Roots and artificial grasses remained 

 the great pivots of high farming. They enabled the 

 farmer to keep more stock, enrich his land with more 

 manure, and thus trebled the growth of corn by bringing 

 into use not only rich soils, but light lands which had been 

 previously valueless ; they drew his attention to compara- 

 tive degrees of maturity in sheep and cattle, and led him 

 to devote himself to breed, precocity, and fattening pro- 

 pensity ; they compelled tenants of stiff wet lands to drain 

 carefully and thoroughly ; they revolutionised the old 

 systems of cultivation by demonstrating the advantages 

 of autumn tillage. Not last nor least of their merits is 

 the continuous employment they provide for agricultural 

 labourers, who are no longer dismissed at the approach of' 

 winter, but earn their wages all the year round. Fresh 



' Average Prices of Butcliers^ Meai\ per stone of % lbs.) at the Metro- 

 politan Cattle Market for 1843-tJ and for 1870-3. 



