244 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



insisted on being called esquire, and some kept liveried 

 servants. 1 



It is somewhat curious to learn that one of the drawbacks 

 from which farmers suffered at this time was the ravages of 

 pigeons, which seem to have been as numerous as in the 

 Middle Ages, when the lord's dovecote was the scourge of the 

 villein's crops. In 1813 there was said to be 20,000 pigeon 

 houses in England and Wales, each on an average containing 

 100 pairs of old pigeons. 2 



Another pest was the large number of ' vermin ', whose 

 destruction had long before been considered important 

 enough to demand the attention of the legislature. 3 Some 

 parishes devoted large portions of their funds to this object ; 

 in 1786 East Budleigh in Devonshire, out of a total receipt 

 of 20 is. %\d., voted $ los. for vermin killing. That 

 now sacred animal the fox was then treated with scant respect, 

 farmers and landlords paying for his destruction as ' vermin ' 4 ; 

 the parish accounts of Ashburton in Devonshire, for instance, 

 from 1761-1820 include payments for killing 18 foxes and 

 4 vixens, with no less than 153 badgers. 



But the edifice of artificial prosperity was already tottering, j 

 After 1812 prices fell steadily, 5 the abundant harvest of 1813 

 and the opening of the continental ports accelerated this, and 

 by December, 1813, wheat was 73^. ^d. Yet agriculture had 

 made solid progress. The Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons which inquired into the state of the corn trade in 1813 

 stated that through the extension of, and improvements in, 

 agriculture the agricultural produce of the kingdom had 

 increased one-fourth in the preceding ten years. 6 The high 



1 Thoughts on Present Depressed State of Agricultural Industry 

 (1817), p. 6. 



2 Vancouver, General View of the Agriculture of Devon, p. 357. 



3 See 14 Eliz., c. II, and 39 Eliz., c. 18. 



* Transactions of the Devon Association, xxix. 291-349. 

 8 Average annual prices of wheat were: 1812, iz6s. 6d.; 1813, 109^. gd.\ 

 1814, 74.y. 4^.; 1815, 65*. 7d. 

 6 Porter, Progress of the Nation, p. 149. 



