THE RURAL PROBLEM. 



I. THE ORGANISATION OF PRODUCTION. 



The main structure of the organisation of agriculture was 

 erected during the period 1780-1830. The old common-fields 

 disappeared, farms were made larger, and the three classes of the 

 agricultural community74i=^propertyless labourer, tenant farmer, and 

 landowner-^T^'ere separated and defined during that period. The 

 Napoleonic wars caiised a great demand for greater production, 

 especially of corn ; methods of cultivation were changed to meet 

 the demand, stock was improved, and waste land brought imder 

 cultivation. With some fluctuations the process of improving 

 methods of cultivation and increasing the area under crops con- 

 tinued till about 1875, and the arable area was increasing most of 

 the time. The improvement of stock has been a continuous pro- 

 cess. But it is with changes in production during the last quarter 

 of the nineteenth century that we are chiefly concerned. 



The total production of land depends very largely on the pro- 

 portion under the plough, for the fact that land is subject to a 

 rotation of crops, of which cereals form the main object, does not 

 necessarily mean that live stock are absent. From 1872 to 1914 

 the area under the plough in England and Wales fell from 

 13,839,000 to 10,306,000 acres ; or a loss of 3,500,000 acres, repre- 

 senting 26 per cent of the total ; and since 1892 the total area 

 under crojis and grass has been diminishing at the rate of about 

 40,000 acres per annum. The area under wheat in England and 

 Wales fell from 3,463,000 acres in 1872 to 1,702,000 in 1913 ; that 

 of barley fell from 2,064,000 to 1,559,000 acres. The number of 

 sheep and pigs declined with the area under the plough. But 

 important increases in milch and other cattle have occurred. Also 

 there has been considerable development in the "production of 

 vegetables and fruit for market, both in the area under these crops 

 and the yield. But the total increases in both quantity and quality 

 of cattle and garden produce have not been sufficient to compen- 

 sate for the decreases in production of cereals, mutton and bacon.* 

 Thus we have the unique situation of a decline in agricultural 

 production at a time when population was growing in numbers, 

 and purchasing power was increasing in greater proportion than 

 population. The chief reason for this declme was the influx of 

 cheap foreign produce. The opening up of the great American 

 prairies by the railways and harvesting machinery" made possible 

 the production of wheat and other cereals at prices with which the 

 British farmer could not compete. Later, the development of 

 cold-storage facilities made it possible to convey meat from North 

 and South America and Australasia in practically a fresh condition. 

 A coincidence of the mflux of cheap cereals at the end of the 



• See A. D. Hall, ' Agriculture after the War,' ch. ii. ; and ' The Industrial 

 Outlook,' ed. by H. S. Furniss, pp. 210-212. 



