M.—AGRICULTURE. 237 
kind, and it remained in use till 1914. Unfortunately the original barn 
was pulled down by Lawes, so that we are deprived of what would otherwise 
have been a wonderful historic memorial. 
Had Rothamsted simply been a place for the demonstration of artificial 
fertilisers, its usefulness would soon have passed. But from the outset it 
was much more. Like Daubeny’s plots at Oxford, to which their general 
plan seems to owe a good deal, and like the very important farm at 
Bechelbronn, where Boussingault was carrying out his fundamental 
researches on agricultural science, the purpose of the work was a search 
‘after causes,’ a search for knowledge. Lawes emphasised this very 
clearly in his speech in 1855 at the opening of the new laboratory. ‘I 
must explain to you, gentlemen,’ he said, ‘ that the object of these experi- 
ments is not exactly to put money into my pocket, but to give you the 
_ knowledge by which you may be able to put money into yours, to enable 
you to judge the properties of all your several crops . . . to give you that 
knowledge which will enable you to pursue that course which would be 
most profitable to you.’ Throughout the stress is on the gaining of 
knowledge. This early recognition that the purpose of agricultural 
experiments is to provide information which farmers can use for them- 
selves accounts for the rapid success achieved. 
Armed with this new knowledge and the new fertilisers, British farmers 
’ continued to increase their production, and the towns continued to buy 
i 
still more food. The Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1849,‘ while it lowered 
corn prices on the whole, did not bring them lower than farmers had 
known, and improved transport and growing demands made sales much 
easier. 
One of the great obstacles of the day was lack of drainage, but in 1845 
Scragg had invented the pipe-making machine, and by 1850 there was 
sufficient money in the countryside to begin those extensive drainage 
schemes which did so much for our countryside. 
All this time the livestock of the country was steadily improving ; the 
Shorthorn was displacing the Longhorn, other important breeds were 
defined and their special qualities developed. The standard of farming 
rose high, prosperity increased, land was brought into cultivation, and 
if there ever was a golden age for agriculture it was in the 60’s and 70’s 
of the nineteenth century. Experts came from many other countries to 
see and to learn. In 1872 the area of land under arable cultivation in 
Great Britain was no less than 18-4 million acres, the highest it ever 
reached. The nation was made as nearly self-supporting as was possible. 
_ The system required a considerable demand for wheat at 50s. to 55s. per 
' quarter, and a considerable supply of good agricultural labour at about 
10s. to 12s. per week; so long as these conditions were satisfied it could 
continue successfully and indefinitely. 
But at the height of its glory the system collapsed. Two causes 
operated. Labour was not content with the standard of living implied 
4 The Bill was passed in 1846, but did not become operative till February 1849. 
‘Trevelyan states that the chief factor was the potato blight in Ireland, which had 
_ destroyed the potato crop on which the peasants fed and made cheap wheat vitally 
necessary. He records Wellington’s comment: ‘ Rotten potatoes have done it; 
they put Peel in this d—— fright.’ 
