266 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



for farmers, and it was stated more than once that the large 

 foreign supply of grain, though only then about one-third of 

 the home-grown, depressed our markets. At the same time, 

 it must be admitted that agriculture, like all other industries, 

 was suffering from the crisis of 1835. In 1830, the country 

 was filled with unrest, in which the farm labourer shared. 

 His motives, however, were hardly political. He had a 

 rooted belief that machinery was injuring him, the threshing 

 machine especially ; and he avenged himself by burning the 

 ricks of obnoxious farmers. Letters were sent to employers 

 demanding higher wages and the disuse of machines, and 

 notices signed ' Swing ' were affixed to gates and buildings. 

 Night after night incendiary fires broke out, and emboldened 

 by impunity the rioters proceeded to pillage by day. In 

 Hampshire they moved in bodies 1,500 strong. A special 

 Commission was appointed, and the disorders put down at 

 last with a firm hand. In 1828 there had been a relaxation 

 in the duties on corn, the object of the Act passed in that/ 

 year being to secure the farmer a constant price of 8j. a bushel 

 instead of los. as in 1815, and by a sliding scale to prevent! 

 the disastrous fluctuations in prices. The best proof of its 

 failure is afforded by the appointment of another parlia- 

 mentary committee in 1833 to inquire into the distressed 

 state of agriculture. At this inquiry many witnesses asserted 

 that the cultivation of inferior soils and heavy clays had 

 diminished from one-fourth to one-fifth. 1 It was also asserted 

 that farmers were paying rent out of capital. 2 Tooke, how- 

 ever, thought there was much exaggeration of the distress, 

 which was proved by the way the farmers weathered the low 

 prices of i 835, when wheat, after a succession of four remark- 

 ably good seasons, averaged 39^. ^d. for the year. In these 

 abundant years, too, he asserts that the home supply was 

 equal to the demand, 3 though the committee of 1833 had 



1 Tooke, History of Prices, ii. 227. 2 Report of 1833, p. 6. 



3 Tooke, History of Prices, ii. 238. 



