358 HIGH FARMING, 1837-1874 



arranged in cart-rows for pitching and loading. Women, working 

 behind the carts, allowed scarcely a blade to escape their rakes. 



The farmer in 1837 had a reaper at his command, but he did not 

 value the gift. Its sudden popularity illustrates a point which is 

 perpetually recurring in the history of agricultural machinery. As 

 soon as the want is created, the machine is not only discovered but 

 appreciated. Many attempts were made to perfect a reaper. But 

 none met with any real success till machines not only cut the 

 corn but laid it in sheaves, till fields were enlarged, till thorough 

 drainage was adopted, and, as a consequence, the old high-ridging 

 system abandoned. It is a sign, and a consequence, of changes 

 in farming that the Rev. Patrick Bell's reaper, invented in 1826, was 

 not really appreciated till it was manufactured (1853) by Crosskill 

 as the " Beverley Reaper." Threshing and winnowing machines 

 were to be found on a few large farms, or travelled the country on 

 hire, worked by horse, water, or steam power. For feeding stock, 

 chaff-cutters and turnip-slicers were already known ; but they made 

 their way slowly into use. Chaff was still generally cut, and turnips 

 split, by a chopper. If cattle or sheep were unable to bite, they ran 

 the risk of being starved. 



No one who studies the agriculture of 1837 can fail to notice the 

 perpetual contrast, often in the most glaring form, between the 

 practices of adjoining agriculturists. A hundred farmers plodded 

 along the Elizabethan road, while a solitary neighbour marched in 

 the track of the twentieth century. Discoveries in scientific farm- 

 ing, put forward as novelties, were repeatedly found to be in practice 

 in one district or another. The great need was the existence of 

 some agency which would raise the general level of farming by making 

 the best practices of the best agriculturists common knowledge. The 

 problem was not readily solved. To diffuse scientific and practical 

 information among agriculturists was difficult seventy years ago. 

 Books were expensive, and those for whom they were written were 

 often unable to read. Few of the agricultural works published 

 before the reign of Victoria were produced by men of practical 

 experience. Extravagant promises or incorrect science too often 

 discounted the value of useful suggestions. What was really wanted 

 was ocular demonstration of the superiority of new methods, or the 

 example of men of authority who combined scientific with practical 

 knowledge. Some of the agricultural societies already in existence 

 were doing good work in communicating the results of experiments, 



