Landmarks in British Farming. 
29 
Commons groaned under petitions for relief. Select Committees 
sat to investigate the agricultural crisis in 1820, 1821, 1822, 
1833, and 1836. The evidence shows that the loss was enormous. 
It could scarcely be otherwise, when prices dropped, between 
January 1819 and July 1822, in the following proportions: 
wheat (per quarter) from 74s. to 43s. ; beef (per stone) from 
4s. 6d. to 2s. 5d. ; mutton (per stone), from 5s. 8d. to 2s. 2d. In 
1810, 1824, and 1830-1, the rot swept off vast numbers of sheep ; 
in the latter year it is stated that two million perished. 
Agriculture slowly revived. In 1836 the last of a series of 
committees sat to investigate the crisis. An improvement was 
manifest, though English farmers on clay farms were still in a bad 
state. But the evidence showed clearly enough that those who 
were determined not to continue in the habits of 1790, not to 
expect any hocus-pocus of the currency, and not to look for some 
mysterious aid from Parliament, had no cause for despair. It 
was proved that Scotch farmers, who had adopted a system of 
high -farming, had weathered the storm. They had expended 
large sums in liming, draining, and manuring their land ; they 
had adopted the subsoil plough and drainage system of Smith of 
Deanston ; they had economised their labour bills by the use of 
machinery ; they had brought the breeding, fattening, and 
management of live-stock to comparative perfection. The soil, 
which had been thoroughly drained, turned up mellow and dry ; 
their crops were heavy, and were profitably consumed ; their 
sheep and cattle, well fed and comfortably lodged, enriched the 
land and the owner; their economies in labour, manure, and 
food enabled them to face the fall in prices. The essence of the 
old system was exhaustion of the soil ; the essence of the new 
was the restoration of its fertility. 
Fourth Period — 1838 to 1873. 
The evidence given before the Commission of 1 836 marked 
a turning-point in English farming. The foundation of the 
Royal Agricultural Society in 1838 indicates the turn of the tide 
after the disastrous period from 1815 to 1836, and points the 
new direction in which pi ogress was for the future to move. It 
would be impossible to enumerate the discoveries of the new 
era, in which science was applied to agricultural practice, and 
in which the best methods of high-farming became slowly, but 
generally, diffused. Only some of the leading features can be 
noted. 
Vast capital was expended on farm-buildings. Instead of 
rickety bams and sheds, well-arranged buildings were con- 
