294 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



The year 1879 will long be remembered as 'the Black 

 Year '. It was the worst of a succession of wet seasons in 

 the midland, western and southern counties of England, the 

 average rainfall being one-fourth above the average, and 1880 

 was little better. The land, saturated and chilled, produced 

 coarser herbage, the finer grasses languished or were destroyed, 

 fodder and grain were imperfectly matured. Mould and ergot 

 were prevalent among plants, and flukes producing liver-rot 

 among live stock, especially sheep. In 1879 in England and 

 Wales 3,000,000 sheep died or were sacrificed from rot, 1 

 by 1 88 1 5,000,000 had perished at an estimated loss of 

 ^10,000,000, and many, alas! were sent to market full of 

 disease. Cattle also were infected, and hares, rabbits, and 

 deer suffered. In some cases entire flocks of sheep disappeared. 

 The disease was naturally worst on low-lying and ill-drained 

 pastures, but occurred even on the drier uplands hitherto 

 perfectly free from liver-rot, carried thither no doubt by the 

 droppings of infected sheep, hares, and rabbits, and perhaps 

 by the feet of men and animals. Apart from medicine, con- 

 centrated dry food given systematically, the regular use of 

 common salt, and of course removal from low-lying and damp 

 lands, were found the best preventives. 



Besides this great calamity, this year was distinguished by 

 one of the worst harvests of the century, outbreaks of foot 

 and mouth disease, of pleuro-pneumonia, and a disastrous 

 attack of foot-rot. The misfortunes of the landed interest 

 produced a Commission in_i89 under the Duke of Richmond, 

 which conducted a most laborious and comprehensive inquiry. 

 Their report, issued in 1882, stated that they were unanimously 

 convinced of the great intensity and extent of the distress 

 that had fallen upon the agricultural community. Owner 

 and occupier had alike been involved. Yet, though agricultural 

 distress had prevailed over the whole country, the degree 

 had varied in different counties, and in some cases in different 

 1 R.A.S. E. Journal, 1881, pp. 142, 199. 



