350 HIGH FARMING, 1837-1874 



steadily diminished, and the poor-rates fell from seven millions in 

 1832 to four millions in 1837. New means of transport had been 

 provided by the opening up of canals. Increased facilities of 

 communication had been supplied by progress in the art of road- 

 construction. Though Turnpike Trusts were proving inefficient on 

 the great highways, the first step towards the improvement of minor 

 roads had been taken by the Act of 1835, which substituted a rate 

 for the old statute labour. Another legislative result of the pro- 

 longed agricultural distress had been the Tithe Commutation Act of 

 1836. The incidence of the charge was shifted ; it no longer operated 

 as a check to the expenditure of capital or a discouragement to 

 skilful and enterprising farming. 



It was a period of preparation, the full significance of which was 

 then imperfectly understood. Few persons in 1837 could have 

 foreseen the imminence of social and industrial changes which 

 introduced to British farming an unexampled era of prosperity, or 

 could have foretold that new markets would not only be opened up, 

 but brought to the doors of agriculturists. Signs of better times 

 were indeed faintly visible. Manufacturing progress was beginning 

 to tell upon agriculture ; steam navigation was stimulating trade ; 

 joint-stock banks helped farmers to face their difficulties ; the new 

 system of poor-law administration was restoring the labour market 

 to healthier conditions ; beef, mutton, wool, barley, and oats sold 

 briskly. Above all, the whole country was beginning to respond 

 to the vast impulse which the introduction of railways gave to its 

 intelligence, its intercourse, its enterprise, its agriculture, manu- 

 facture, and commerce. Without assistance or control by the State, 

 in the face of many difficulties and prejudices, railways were being 

 built piecemeal by private energy and capital. They were still in 

 their infancy. It was not till 1821 that the Act for the construction 

 of the Stockton and Darlington Railway had been passed. The 

 Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened in 1830, and the 

 line from London to Birmingham was completed in 1838. Between 

 those two dates fifty-six Acts had been already passed for laying 

 1,800 miles of rails. 



The era of railways had begun. The real innovations lay in the 

 application of steam as the motive power to movable engines, 

 the construction of new and independent lines of communication, 

 the conveyance not only of goods but of passengers. Rail- ways to 

 facilitate the transport of heavy weights had been in use for nearly 



