29. AGRICULTURE SINCE THE 18TH CENTURY. History.— The close of the 18th century saw the English system of farming fully established, with its charac teristic division of the landed interest into the three classes of landlord capitalists, ten ant farmers, and laborers. Agricultural im provement had indeed made great strides dur ing the 18th century, and in some parts of the country, as in Norfolk and Herts, the change from the old open field system to large enclosed farms had already been accomplished, but it was the high prices for food, prevailing at a time when the rapid growth of a manufacturing population coincided with the Napoleonic wars, which finally swept away the village-community style of farming and replaced it by the large tenant holdings as known to-day. The old sys tem, while it supported a good many poor men on the land, was a very inefficient method of feeding the nation. The first condition of agri cultural improvement was the investment of capital in the land, and the most economical way of doing it has proved to be to allow the land lord to use his money on the permanent amelior ation of his property, leaving the whole of the tenant's resources free to be employed in his business of farming. The advantage of this system lies in the fact that the tenant's capital is kept in a liquid condition; he becomes a man ufacturer of meal and corn, who hires land and buildings as tools in his business. The develop ment of improved breeds of live stock and supe rior strains of crops has been made possible by the existence of a race of tenant farmers with both the means and the temperament to specu late in the development of their industry. The system has of course its drawbacks; it demands that the landlord should possess capital and some understanding of the agricultural situa tion; it lacks flexibility when a great economic change takes place like the fall in prices after 1876; it encourages too conservative a style of farming, for it checks the initiative of tenants by giving small security that they will reap the benefit of any increase in the value of the farm due to their improvements. Its intense individuality, from which so much has been gained in the past, becomes a drawback now that the farmers of a country are no longer competing with one another, but have to be organized to maintain their position in the com mon market of the world.
The agricultural history of the 19th century in Great Britain may be divided into four epochs, beginning with the period of inflated war prices which lasted up to 1816, during which time the great work of enclosing the common lands and forming large farms was practically completed. This was also a period of great ac tivity in the improvement of farming; the foun dations of most of the British breeds of live stock were then laid; machinery began to be applied to agriculture, and the reclamation of the Wastes, practically the creation of good arable soil out of barren sands and intractable clays, proceeded with vigor. The value of marl on the light sands, and of chalk and lime upon the clays had long been known, but at this time such ameliorations were being carried out wholesale and with a thoroughness of which the British .farmer is still reaping the benefit. There fol lowed a period of 20 years of unexampled de pression when the great break in prices, conse quent on the end of the war, was aggravated by a succession of bad seasons. Little by little this depression was removed as the obligations in curred during the time of inflation became void, as the weaker farmers and small holders became squeezed out, and particularly as the consuming population in the manufacturing towns grew in number and wealth. The 40 years from 1836 to 1876 may be described as the Golden Age of British farming. The making of the soil by marling. claying, chalking, etc., went on apace; something like 3,000,000 acres were tile-drained in England alone between 1830 and 1870; simul taneously also science and the industries put at the service of the farmer nearly all the mod ern range of fertilizers and feeding stuffs — guano, nitrate of soda, phosphates and the oil cakes. The modern breeds of live stock became clearly defined, and had their herd and flock books established during this period, and amongst the best practitioners fanning became a fine art attaining the polish characteristic of a well-kept garden. Rents rose steadily with the competition for farms among not only the farming classes but also the tradespeople of the country towns, who saw in agriculture the road to wealth and an easy life; indeed, on the great estates where the tradition was against rack renting the sound farmers were realizing very considerable fortunes..