66 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



devoted to drainage and the general 

 improvement of the land. 



The best proof of the progress in agri- 

 culture is the fact that during the 

 seventeenth century the population of 

 England doubled. It could not have been 

 more than o,\ millions at the end of the 

 reign of Elizabeth ; it was nearly 5 J 

 at the accession of Queen Anne. (Rogers.) 

 As the country was, up to the last quarter 

 of the eighteenth century, self-supporting, 

 and, indeed, an exporter on balance of 

 corn, the rise in population was only 

 possible with an increase in the agricultural 

 produce. 



Still more, however, is the eighteenth 

 century marked by improvements in agri- 

 culture. One chief characteristic was the 

 use of clover and rye - grass and the 

 extension of artificial pasture. Writing in 

 1772, Arthur Young said: "I do not 



