20 
Lmidmarlis in British Farmhig. 
actually decline. Not more tlian six patents were taken out 
between 1640 and 1760. Yet if the period from 1600 to 1760 
was comparatively barren in performance, it was rich in 
preparation. 
Most of the subsequent improvements of 1760-1815 were 
locally applied with success. In point of material comfort this 
period was the Golden Age of the agricultural classes. More 
produce was raised from the soil, and England turned from the 
growth of wool to become the granary of Europe with a large 
export trade in corn. Population increased more slowly than 
the productiveness of the soil. The poor rates fell, the purchas- 
ing power of wages rose, the standard of living improved among 
all classes. No great civil war disturbed the prosperity of the 
period. The darkest sides to the picture were the terrible out- 
breaks of rot in 1735 and 1747, and the cattle plague which three 
times in quick succession travelled from Bohemia through France 
to England. Ellis (Shepherd’s Sure Guide, 1749) gives an account 
of the devastation caused by the rot in 1735. He speaks of it as 
the most general one that has happened in the memory of man, because it 
rotted those deer, sheep, lambs, hares, and coneys, that fed on lands where 
rain-waters were retained on or near the surface of the earth for some time ; 
and the dead bodies of rotten sheep were so numerous in roads, lanes, and 
fields, that their carrion stench and smell proved extremely offensive to the 
neighbouring parts and to passant travellers. 
In the first sixty years of the eighteenth century landlords 
began to take the lead in agricultural improvements ; Scotland 
awoke from a lethargy which had allowed farming to remain 
unchanged since the Battle of Bannockburn ; enclosures went 
on apace, and the area of uncultivated ground was diminished ; 
Jethro Tull conducted his experiments in the drilling of turnips 
and in agricultural machinery ; Townshend practised the 
Norfolk, or four-course, system of husbandry, which made 
clovers and turnips the pivots of English farming ; Bake well 
commenced those experiments in stock-breeding that created 
the grazier’s art. Each of these points might well repay 
separate treatment. Here they can only be briefiy handled. 
The landlord whose name is most intimately associated with 
the agricultural changes of the period, was Lord Townshend, 
whose devotion to turnips gained him the nickname of “ Turnip 
Townshend.” But other landowners, among whom Lord Ducie 
was conspicuous, interested themselves in the cultivation of the 
soil. The eccentric Lord Peterborough was devoted to farming. 
He was also an enthusiastic gardener. His gardens, which 
covered twenty acres at Parsons Green near London, were filled 
with rare fruits, flowers, and plants. His daughter. Lady 
