2 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



wet, and ungenial seasons. These culminated in the 

 worst season ever known, that of 1879. There was for 

 some years a deficiency of crops, and a deterioration of 

 their quaHty. And the persistence of bad seasons got 

 the land into a more or less unworkable condition, or at 

 any rate very much diminished the productive powers 

 and qualities of the soil. These results were, of course, 

 more marked and decisive in the case of the heavy clays, 

 and generally of arable land, but it may be affirmed that 

 no class of farm really escaped, unless it were the pasture 

 and upland farms of Cumberland and some districts in 

 the north, including large portions of Scotland, where 

 the season of 1879 especially was not so disastrous as in 

 England. But, in the later period, the decay of agri- 

 culture has not been marked so much by physical 

 deterioration of the soil from unseasonable weather as 

 by a dwindling alike of the returns and the resources of 

 agriculturists of all classes, showing itself in the inferior 

 working of the soil, and the loss alike in the quantity 

 and the quality of the produce. The physical and 

 economic difficulties of agriculture have not been due so 

 much to Nature as to the increasing poverty of resources 

 and the decreasing margin between returns and cost of 

 production. It is true that the cold summers of 1891 

 and 1892 and the great drought of 1893 have contributed 

 largely to this impoverishment. But in many parts of 

 the country the continuous heat of 1893 had a specific 

 restorative power on arable land of high quality, like the 

 warp lands of North Lincolnshire, and in its after effects 

 on pasture land. In the opinion of many experts, so far 

 as Nature is concerned, though few of the seasons since 

 1882 have been exceptionally good, the average of 

 seasons since 1883 has been such as to gradually restore 

 the tone of the land. 



In the words of Mr Huskinson, who speaks of large 

 estates in several counties, " There has been a progressive 

 improvement ; " " the grass has come round in quality, 

 and arable land never was better." " We were never in a 

 better state with regard to the quality of the land than 

 we are now." But, in spite of this natural restoration, 



