i 



CHAPTER XX 



1837—1875 



REVIVAL OF AGRICULTURE.— THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL 



SOCIETY.— CORN LAW REPEAL.— A TEMPORARY 



SET-BACK.— THE HALCYON DAYS 



The revival of agriculture roughly coincided with the 

 accession of Queen Victoria. 



It was proved that Scotch farmers who had farmed highly- 

 had weathered the storm. Instead of repeatedly calling on 

 Parliament to help them they had helped themselves, by 

 spending large sums in draining and manuring the land ; they 

 had adopted the subsoil plough, and the drainage system of 

 Smith of Deanston, used machinery to economize labour, 

 and improved the breed of stock. This was an object-lesson 

 for the English farmer, and he began to profit by it. It was 

 high time that he did. In spite of the undoubted progress 

 made, farming was still often terribly backward. Little or no 

 machinery was used, implements were often bad, teams too 

 large, drilling little practised, drainage utterly inefficient ; in 

 fact, while one farmer used all the improvements made, 

 a hundred had little to do with them. But better times were 

 at hand. 



About 1835 Elkington's system of drainage, which among 

 the more advanced agriculturists, at any rate, had been used 

 for half a century, was superseded by that of James Smith of 

 Deanston, a system of thorough drainage and deep ploughing, 

 which effected a complete revolution in the art of draining, 

 and holds the field to-day. Hitherto the draining of land had 

 been done by a few drains where they were thought necessary, 

 which was often a failure. Smith initiated a complete system 

 of parallel underground drains, near enough to each other to 

 catch all the superfluous water, running into a main drain 



