,216 LARGE FARMS AND CAPITALIST FARMERS 



Jut this consolidation of holdings threw into the hands of one 

 mant land which had previously been occupied by several. If the 

 'land was laid down to grass, and in the case of heavy land, down 

 to 1790, this was the most profitable form of enclosure, there was 

 also a diminution in the demand for labour, and a consequent 

 decrease in the population of the village. If, on the other hand, 

 the land was cultivated as an arable farm, there was probably a 

 greater demand for labour and possibly an increase in the numbers 

 of the rural population. Arthur Young in 1801 x shows that, out 

 of 37 enclosed parishes in an arable county like Norfolk, population 

 had risen in 24, fallen in 8, and remained stationary in 5. It 

 cannot therefore be said that either enclosures, or the consolidation 

 of holdings, necessarily depopulated country villages. Whether 

 this result followed, or did not follow, depended on the use to which 

 the land was put, though even on arable farms the gradual intro- 

 duction of machinery, at present limited to the threshing machine, 

 tended to diminish the demand for labour. 



If the country was to be fed, more scientific methods of farming 

 were necessary. The need was pressing, and both enclosures and 

 the consolidation of large farms prepared the way for a new stage 

 of agricultural progress. Hitherto bucolic life had been the pastime 

 of a fashionable world, the relaxation of statesmen, the artificial 

 inspiration of poets. But farmers had neither asked nor allowed 

 scientific aid. The dawn of a new era, in which practical experience 

 was to be combined with scientific knowledge, was marked by the 

 lectures of Humphry Davy in 1803. In 1757 Francis Home 2 

 had insisted on the dependence of agriculture on " Chymistry." 

 Without a knowledge of that science, he said, agriculture could not 

 be reduced to principles. In 1802 the first steps were taken towards 

 this end. The Board of Agriculture arranged a series of lectures on 

 " The Connection of Chemistry with Vegetable Physiology," to be 

 delivered by Davy, then a young man of twenty-three, and recently 

 (July, 1801) appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the 

 Royal Institution of Great Britain. He had already made his 

 mark as the most brilliant lecturer of the day, attracting round him 

 by his scientific use of the imagination such men as Dr. Parr and 



1 Inquiry into the Propriety of applying Wastes to the Better Maintenance 

 and Support of the Poor. 



2 The Principles of Agriculture and Vegetation, by Francis Home, M.D., 

 1757. 



