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. 



