910 



The Exclosire of Opex-Field Faems. [Jan., 



of practical men for book farmers may be explained, if not 

 justified. Until the test of experience had sifted the useful 

 suggestions from the foolish, the farmer answered for his class 

 u-hen he -replied to the suggestion that he should try clover, 



Gentlemen might sow it if they pleased, but farmers must 

 pay their rents," 



What v\-as wanted was a lead, and in the ISth century it 

 was given by the landowners. They initiated experiments, 

 and poured their money into the land. Farms were at great 

 cost adapted to modern methods by new buildings, roads, 

 fences and drainage. Much of the land was literally ' made 

 during the period. A wave of agTicultural enthusiasm rose 

 with each decade of the period, until at last it swept over the 

 country. The introduction of roots, clover and artificial grasses 

 .solved the problem of winter keep. It enabled farmers to 

 carry a larger head of stock. More stock yielded more manure; 

 more manure raised larger crops: larger crops supported larger 

 flocks and herds, which were both better bred and better fed. 

 The agricultural circle seemed to promise indefinite expansion. 



It is not the purpose of this article to describe the agricultural 

 revolution of the latter half of the century. But its effect on 

 open-field farms is ob\"ious. The stream of prosperity passed 

 them by. They were, so to speak, mediawal backwaters. Fnless 

 their system was transformed, they could not adopt the improve- 

 ments which, on enclosed land, were so man*elloasly increasing 

 production. Yet still, so long as population remained stationary 

 and food was abimdant, the old battle was renewed again and 

 again. On one side was pleaded the injury which the break-up 

 of open-field farms and the partition of commons inflicted on 

 small occupiers and commoners. On the other were m*ged. with 

 ever-increaeing force, the obstacles to farming improvements 

 which were presented by open arable fields, the unprofitable use 

 of land occupied in common, and the commercial and productive 

 advantages of enlarged separate holdings. Much was still to be 

 said on both sides. It remained a question of the balance of 

 national advantages. In the early part of the century the open- 

 field farms dropped out gradually and slowly. Inclosure Acts 

 were now the recognised procedure in enclosing open-fields, 

 commons and wastes. From the reign of Anne to the accession 

 of George III their number was small, and some of the earliest 

 included in the Hst were confirmatory of previous arrangements. 

 From 1760 onwards they rapidly multiplied under the pressure 

 of necessitv. England was suddenly becoming a manufacturing 



