CAIRO'S TOUR 281 



strictly prohibited,^ but in that year the prohibition was 

 withdrawn and they were allowed to enter the country on 

 a payment of 20s. a head on oxen and bulls, J^s. on cows, 

 3J-. on sheep, ^s. on hogs ; which duties continued till 1 846. 



It is interesting to find that so shrewd an observer as 

 McCulloch did not expect any great increase in the imports 

 of live animals from the reduction of the duties, but he antici- 

 pated a great increase in salted meat from abroad ; cold storage 

 being then undreamt of. 



The full effect of this momentous change was not to be 

 felt for a generation, but the immediate effect was an agricul- 

 tural panic apparently justified by falling prices. In 1850 

 wheat averaged 40s. ^d. and in 1851 38^. 6d. On the other 

 hand, stock farmers were doing well. But on the corn lands 

 the prices of the protection era had to come down ; many 

 farms were thrown up, some arable turned into pasture ; dis- 

 tress was widespread. Owing to the depressed state of 

 agriculture in 1850, the Tbncs sent James Caird on a tour 

 through England, and one of the most important conclusions 

 arrived at in his account of his tour is, that owing to protection, 

 the majority of landowners had neglected their land ; but 

 another cause of neglect was that the great body of English 

 landlords knew nothing of the management of their estates, 

 and committed it to agents who knew little more and merely 

 received the rents. The important business of being a land- 

 owner is the only one for which no special training is provided. 

 Many of the landlords, however, then, as now, were unable to 

 improve their estates if they desired to do so, as they were 

 hopelessly encumbered, and the expense of sale was almost 

 prohibitive. The contrast between good and bad farmers was 

 more marked in 1 850 than to-day, the efforts of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society to raise the general standard of farming 

 had not yet borne much fruit. In many counties, side by side, 

 were farmers who used every modern improvement, and those 



' McCulloch, Commercial Dictionary y 1847, p. 274. See below, pp. 325 sq. 



