54 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



A number of great agricultural writers began to publish books 

 on various branches of husbandry. Fruit growing increased in 

 the southern counties. The practice of applying lime and marl, 

 seaweed, oyster shells, etc., to the land increased generally. But 

 none of these other improvements approached in importance the 

 the introduction, already mentioned, of clover and root crops. 

 This prepared the way for the still greater improvements which 

 were to take place in the eighteenth century. 



Parallel development in other industries. The eighteenth 

 century was a period of wonderful awakening in manufacturing 

 as well as in agriculture in England. In fact it is doubtful if any 

 quarter of a century, either before or since, has seen more rapid 

 and far-reaching changes in the manufacturing industries than 

 that which elapsed between the years 1760 and 1785. At about 

 the former year began the era of canal building under the lead- 

 ership of the great engineer Brindley, whose dictum that " the 

 natural use of rivers is to feed navigable canals " became historic, 

 though the more recent development of the railway has destroyed 

 its original importance. At that time the building of canals 

 greatly cheapened transportation within the kingdom. In 1765 

 Watt discovered the principle which was to make the steam 

 engine a commercial success. The way was prepared for the 

 enlarged use of the steam engine and of machinery by Roebuck's 

 blast furnace (1760) and the substitution of coke for charcoal in 

 smelting, followed by Cort's method of puddling and rolling in 

 1784, by means of which the production of iron was greatly 

 cheapened. Then came in rapid succession a series of epoch- 

 making inventions in the textile industries, the flying shuttle 

 in 1760, Hargreave's spinning jenny in 1767, Arkwright's 

 spinning roller in 1769, Crompton's mule spinner in 1779, 

 and Cartwright's power loom in 1785. A cotton factory was 

 driven by steam for the first time in 1785. Wedgewood gave a 

 great impetus to the pottery industry, and a number of other 



