PRODUCTION AND PRODUCERS 319 



In the matter of poultry and eggs, Dr. Levy- 

 finds that the English farmers have made a sub- 

 stantial advance of late years ; and he deals, 

 also, with the opportunity offered to them for 

 supplying the wants of the English people in 

 regard to fruit and vegetables, the consumption 

 of which, as he demonstrates, has enormously 

 increased throughout Great Britain. He shows 

 that not only has far more land in England been 

 devoted to fruit and vegetables, and especially 

 to potatoes, but the yield per acre has improved 

 owing to the introduction of better varieties 

 and the resort to improved methods. 



So the crisis brought about in 1879 led to im- 

 portant changes in production. But it led, also, 

 as Dr. Levy next shows, to no less significant 

 changes in regard to the producers. Dividing 

 the agriculturists of England into two classes, 

 " gentleman farmers " and " working farmers," 

 he defines the gentleman farmer as the product 

 of those days of agricultural prosperity when 

 native-grown corn fetched a high price, and the 

 demands on the grower's own energies were 

 but few. 



With the advent of the crisis came the decline 

 of the gentleman farmer. He had no longer 

 the same role to fill, in the economy of the new 

 agriculture, which, with its breeding and feeding 



