76 Rents, Wages, and Profits in Agriculture 



help, even at this date, borrowed from the 

 men of science e.g., the researches of Davy 

 undertaken at the instance of the Board 

 of Agriculture at the beginning of the 

 century, and later the investigations of 

 Liebig. One effect of the new methods 

 was to make land which had formerly 

 been considered poor as productive as the 

 better land, and wheat was grown on 

 land which had formerly been devoted 

 entirely to oats. The improvement in 

 agricultural production generally, and the 

 increase in the gross profits from land, is 

 also shown by the fact that from 1790 to 

 1845 rents, on the average, more than 

 doubled. The rise was even greater during 

 the high prices of the great war, but even 

 with the moderate level of prices after the 

 war, rents had doubled.* The prosperity of 

 agriculture was also shown by the growth in 

 wealth of the towns dependent on agriculture. 



