28 Rents , Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



landowners of England became also great 

 improvers. 



In the next century the eighteenth the 

 wealthy landowners were keenly interested 

 in new methods of cultivation and in 

 improved implements and buildings, and 

 their efforts were eventually seconded by a 

 growing class of substantial tenants, or we 

 may say scientific farmers. 



But the lead was taken by the spirited 

 proprietors, who had to contend with the 

 time-honoured prejudices of those who had 

 always practised the traditional methods. 

 In this century we have new roots and 

 grasses introduced, and a better system of 

 rotation and of tillage. In connection with 

 the adoption and extension of these im- 

 provements, the great landholders found it 

 expedient to consolidate holdings, and in 

 many cases large farms were made by the 

 amalgamation of the smaller. 



