Landraarlis in British Farming. 
25 
to any other breed for their fattening propensities and early 
maturity. He discovered the principle of selection, and the 
secret of breeding “ in and in,” and made it his object to breed 
animals which weighed most in the best joints and quickest 
repaid the food they consumed. Though his long-horned Lei- 
cester cattle were good milkers, they proved to be little else. 
But his example and practice were invaluable. His standard 
was a true one : it was his material, not his system, which 
failed. The improved South-downs of Ellman of Glynde and 
Webb of Babraham, or the Durham short-horns of Charles 
Collings, the Herefords of Tomkins, and the Devons of Lord 
Leicester and Mr. Quartly, were really his creation. 
Third Period — 1760 to 1815. 
It has been shown that, during the interval from 1600 to 
1760, turnips and artificial grasses had been locally introduced 
into field cultivation, that the theory of drainage had been 
ably discussed, that the art of stock-breeding had been dis- 
covered, that the advantages of enclosed over open-field farms 
had been practically demonstrated, that the work of reclaiming 
wastes and commons had begun. The diffusion of these 
improved practices was the useful work of Arthur Young from 
1760 to 1815. The knowledge which he expounded and 
disseminated, Mr. Coke of Holkham and other gi-eat landlords 
illustrated practically. Under the pressure of advancing popu- 
lation, agriculture advanced by leaps and bounds. Cut oft' from 
foreign markets by wars or commercial policy, England was 
compelled to supply from her native resources the needs of vast 
manufacturing towns. Every available acre of soil was needed. 
The old open-field system which only provided food for the 
producer was inevitably doomed. The flail could no more 
compete with the threshing-machine, or the scythe with the 
mowing-machine, than the hand-loom could hold its own against 
the power-loom. Enclosures, reclamation of wastes, partition 
of commons, large farms, long leases, capitalist farmers, became 
the cry as soon as the need arose for the manufacture of bread 
and meat for the million. The change convulsed rural society, 
but it was made under the pressure of overmastering necessity. 
The alternative was presented between the collapse of nascent 
industries or appalling famine. 
The first objects to be attained were the recovery of waste 
lands and the abandonment of the open-field system. Until 
these results were attained, no general progress was possible. 
In 1760, millions of acres lay unoccupied, or in common pasture, 
