November, 1912.J 



395 



which in 1760 supported about eight million inhabitants, in 1831 supported 

 sixteen millions. When we reflect that the implements of husbandry 

 were rude, that thorough drainage had not been introduced, that artificial 

 manures (except crushed bones) we» e scarcely known, that oilcakes were 

 scarce, that grain was too valuable to be given freely to cattle, that in 

 bad seasons live-stock had to be starved so that men might be fed, that in 

 good seasons prices fell rapidly, and with them farming profits, and that 

 credit was difficult to obtain and interest high, those of us who know 

 something about the ordinary work of the farmer can realise the strenuous 

 efforts that must have been necessary to wring from land a sufficiency to 

 feed this rapidly growing nation and to maintain it in health and compara- 

 tive comfort. Even as late as 1886 Porter shows that it would have been 

 impossible to feed any considerable part of the people on imported food. 

 "To supply the United Kingdom with the single article of wheat," he 

 says, " would call for the employment of more than twice the amount of 

 shipping which now annually enters our ports." 



Part of the additional food-supply was obtained by enclosing about 

 seven million acres of land between 1760 and 1834 ; but as more than three 

 times this area must already have been enclosed as much of the land 

 enclosed after 1760 was of poor quality, and as all of it had formerly con- 

 tributed in seme degree to the food-supply of the country, it is obvious 

 that between 1760 and 1834 the rate of production per acre must have been 

 largely increased. 



Improvements in the arts of agriculture cannot be rapidly introduced ; 

 there is first of all an experimental stage and when improved methods 

 have been learned they pass slowly from district to district. Before any 

 marked advance in the art can take place, there must therefore occur a 

 period during which a foundation is being laid. It was about 1760 that 

 our population began to increase rapidly and it was then that agricul- 

 turists were called upon to produce more food. As we have seen, they 

 were able to double the food-supply in seventy years. It cannot be doubt- 

 ed that this marvellous feat was rendered possible by the pioneer socie- 

 ties of the preceding century, or that it was the spirit of the improver, 

 which the early associations had fostered, that animated the men from 

 who oi Arthur Young and Sir John Sinclair learned. If in place of those 

 enterprising agriculturists whose improvements are described in the 

 reports of the first Board of Agriculture, our shires had been occupied 

 by the dull-witted country gentlemen referred to by Lisle, or the "upstart 

 sparks" condemned by Mackintosh, the history of this country must 

 have been very different. Behind the military and naval victories which 

 made Britain a great Power, was a commissariat supported by the agri- 

 cultural classes. For the great industrial army which the genius of 

 Arkwright, Watt and other inventors provided with employment there 

 was raised an ever-increasing food-supply. Political and industrial 

 development alike depended on the rate of increase of the population, 

 and this again on the rate at which the means of subsistence could be 

 raised from British soil. 



The Task of the British Association. 



Although the economic position has undergone a revolution there is 

 still work for the improver ; no longer indeed do our industrial classes 

 depend for subsistence on the surplus products of the British farmer, but 

 after a long period of forget! ulness once again it has been recognised that 



