CHAPTER XVII. 

 HIGH FARMING. 1837-1874. 



Condition of agriculture in 1837 ; current explanation of the distress ; pre- 

 paration for a new start in farming ; legislative changes ; development of 

 a railway system ; live-stock in 1837 ; the general level of farming ; 

 foundation of the Royal Agricultural Society ; notable improvements, 

 1837-74 ; extension of drainage ; purchase of feeding stuffs ; discovery 

 of artificial fertilisers ; mechanical improvements and inventions ; Repeal 

 of the Corn Laws ; the golden age from 1853 to the end of 1862 ; rapid 

 progress in the " Fifties " ; pedigree mania in stock-breeding. 



THE reign of Queen Victoria began in the midst of a transition stage 

 from one state of social and industrial development to another. 

 A complete change of agricultural front was taking place, which 

 necessitated some displacement of the classes that had previously 

 occupied or cultivated the soil. The last ten years of the present 

 century have raised the question whether agriculturists are not now 

 passing through another transition stage which, like its predecessor, 

 may effect another agricultural revolution and result in another 

 disruption of rural society. 



Roughly speaking, the first thirty-seven years of the new reign 

 formed an era of advancing prosperity and progress, of rising rents 

 and profits, of the rapid multiplication of fertilising agencies, of 

 an expanding area of corn cultivation, of more numerous, better 

 bred, better fed, better housed stock, of varied improvements in 

 every kind of implement and machinery, of growing expenditure on 

 the making of the land by drainage, the construction of roads, the 

 erection of farm buildings, and the division into fields of convenient 

 size. So far as the standard of the highest farming is concerned, 

 agriculture has made but little advance since the " Fifties." The 

 last twenty-six years of the reign, on the other hand, were a period 

 of agricultural adversity of falling rents, dwindling profits, con- 



