246 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



whole it may be doubted if the bulk of the farmers of England 

 made large profits during the war ; many no doubt profited 

 by the extraordinary fluctuations in prices, and it was those 

 men who ' kept liveried servants ' ; but there must have been 

 many who lost heavily by the same means, and the rise of 

 rent, taxes, rates, labour, and tradesmen's prices largely dis- 

 counted the prices of corn and stock. The landowners at 

 this period have generally been described as flourishing at the 

 expense of the community, but their increased rents were 

 greatly neutralized by the weight of taxation and the general 

 rise in prices. A contemporary writer says that owing to the 

 heavy taxes, even in the war time, he ' often had not a shilling 

 at the end of the year.' l 



The following accounts, drawn up in 1805, 2 do not show 

 that farmers were making much money with wheat at lew. 

 a bushel : 



Account of the culture of an acre of wheat on good fallow 

 land : 



Cr. 

 20 bushels of wheat 



at los. 



The straw was set 

 against the value of 

 the dung. The tail- 

 end wheat was eaten 

 by the family ! 







d. 



IO O 



O O 



1 Thoitghts on the Present Depressed State of the Agricultural Interest 

 (1817), P. 4- 



2 Duncumb, General View of the Agriculture of Hereford, 1805. The 

 writer of A Defence of the Farmers and Landowners of Great Britain 

 (1814) puts the average crop of wheat in the United Kingdom at 15 or 

 16 bushels an acre, p. 28. A very low estimate. 



