384 ADVERSITY, 1874-1912 



sted and Sawbridgeworth have shown that it is possible to grow 

 corn year after year, without rotations of crops, without stock- 

 keeping, and without deterioration of the soil. But the experiment 

 has proved to be of little practical value, because at present prices 

 it is too costly to keep the land clean for continuous corn-growing. 

 In live-stock, improvements have been continuous, and have even 

 received a fresh impulse from the prolonged collapse of corn- 

 growing. Old breeds have been revived and brought into com- 

 petition with then 1 established rivals ; societies and pedigree books 

 have become almost universal. Some of the most important of the 

 new foundations are the Hunter Improvement Society (1885), the 

 Suffolk Stud-book Association (1877), the Hackney Horse Society 

 (1884), the Cleveland Bay Society (1884), the Yorkshire Coach 

 Horse Society (1887) ; the Galloway Cattle Society (1877), the 

 Highland Cattle Society (1884), the Guernsey Cattle Society (1885), 

 the Kerry and Dexter Herdbook (1890 2), the Welsh Black Cattle 

 Society (1904), the British Holstein Cattle Society (1909). Flock- 

 books were published for Shropshire Sheep (1883), Oxford Downs 

 (1889), Hampshire Downs (1890), Dorset Horns (1892) and Downs 

 (1906),Lincolns and Cotswolds(1892),Leicesters and Cheviots (1893), 

 Romney Marsh (1895), Border Leicesters (1899), Welsh Mountain 

 Sheep (1905). Cross-breeding for mutton with the hardy mountain 

 breeds has been introduced into the North, and extensively prevails. 

 The popularity of polo has created a new industry. The Polo Pony 

 Society (1893) will probably develop and improve such hill and 

 mountain breeds as those of Dartmoor, Exmoor, the New Forest, 

 or Wales, all of which already have then- associations or societies. 



The branches of farming which had been comparatively neglected 

 in the past were naturally those in which recent improvements 

 have been most marked. To the treatment of pastures, for example, 

 increased attention has been paid since De Laune and Carruthers 

 did their pioneer work. Their management is now better under- 

 stood. In manuring grass-lands, the necessity of studying their 

 characteristic vegetation, the different needs of meadows and 

 pastures, the use of occasional liming, the value of basic slag (1883) 

 have been demonstrated, and based on scientific principles. The 

 increased importance of poultry-farming and market-gardening, 

 again, has been illustrated by the care and pains bestowed on their 

 improvement. In all the new as well as the old departments of 

 farming, science and mechanical ingenuity have not stood still. 



