ENGLISH AGRICULTURE ***

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A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE

BY

W.H.R. CURTLER

OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1909

HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH, NEW YORK TORONTO AND MELBOURNE

PREFACE

'A husbandman', said Markham, 'is the master of the earth, turning barrenness into fruitfulness, whereby all commonwealths are maintained and upheld. His labour giveth liberty to all vocations, arts, and trades to follow their several functions with peace and industrie. What can we say in this world is profitable where husbandry is wanting, it being the great nerve and sinew which holdeth together all the joints of a monarchy?' And he is confirmed by Young: 'Agriculture is, beyond all doubt, the foundation of every other art, business, and profession, and it has therefore been the ideal policy of every wise and prudent people to encourage it to the utmost.' Yet of this important industry, still the greatest in England, there is no history covering the whole period.

It is to remedy this defect that this book is offered, with much diffidence, and with many thanks to Mr. C.R.L. Fletcher of Magdalen College, Oxford, for his valuable assistance in revising the proof sheets, and to the Rev. A.H. Johnson of All Souls for some very useful information.

As the agriculture of the Middle Ages has often been ably described, I have devoted the greater part of this work to the agricultural history of the subsequent period, especially the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.

W.H.R. CURTLER.

_May 22, 1909._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Communistic Farming.--Growth of the Manor.--Early Prices.--The Organization and Agriculture of the Manor

CHAPTER II

The Thirteenth Century.--The Manor at its Zenith, with Seeds of Decay already visible.--Walter of Henley

CHAPTER III

The Fourteenth Century.--Decline of Agriculture.--The Black Death.-- Statute of Labourers

CHAPTER IV

How the Classes connected with the Land lived in the Middle Ages

CHAPTER V

The Break-up of the Manor.--Spread of Leases.--The Peasants' Revolt.--Further Attempts to regulate Wages.--A Harvest Home.--Beginning of the Corn Laws.--Some Surrey Manors

CHAPTER VI

1400-1540. The so-called 'Golden Age of the Labourer' in a Period of General Distress

CHAPTER VII

Enclosure

CHAPTER VIII

Fitzherbert.--The Regulation of Hours and Wages

CHAPTER IX

1540-1600. Progress at last--Hop-growing.--Progress of Enclosure.-- Harrison's _Description_

CHAPTER X

1540-1600. Live Stock.--Flax.--Saffron.--The Potato.--The Assessment of Wages

CHAPTER XI

1600-1700. Clover and Turnips.--Great Rise in Prices.--More Enclosure.--A Farming Calendar

CHAPTER XII

The Great Agricultural Writers of the Seventeenth Century.--Fruit-growing. --A Seventeenth-century Orchard

CHAPTER XIII

The Evils of Common Fields.--Hops.--Implements.--Manures.--Gregory King.--Corn Laws

CHAPTER XIV

1700-65. General Characteristics of the Eighteenth Century.--Crops. --Cattle.--Dairying.--Poultry.--Tull and the New Husbandry.--Bad Times.--Fruit-growing

CHAPTER XV

1700-65. Townshend.--Sheep-rot.--Cattle Plague.--Fruit-growing

CHAPTER XVI

1765-93. Arthur Young.--Crops and their Cost.--The Labourers' Wages and Diet.--The Prosperity of Farmers.--The Country Squire.--Elkington.--Bakewell.--The Roads.--Coke of Holkham

CHAPTER XVII

1793-1815. The Great French War.--The Board of Agriculture.--High Prices, and Heavy Taxation

CHAPTER XVIII

Enclosure.--The Small Owner

CHAPTER XIX

1816-37. Depression

CHAPTER XX

1837-75. Revival of Agriculture.--The Royal Agricultural Society.--Corn Law Repeal.--A Temporary Set-back.--The Halcyon Days

CHAPTER XXI

1875-1908. Agricultural Distress again.--Foreign Competition.-- Agricultural Holdings Act.--New Implements.--Agricultural Commissions.--The Situation in 1908

CHAPTER XXII

Imports and Exports.--Live Stock

CHAPTER XXIII

Modern Farm Live Stock

APPENDICES

I. Average Prices from 1259 to 1700

II. Exports and Imports of Wheat and Flour from and into England, unimportant years omitted

III. Average Prices per Imperial Quarter of British Corn in England and Wales, in each year from 1771 to 1907 inclusive

IV. Miscellaneous Information

LANDMARKS IN ENGLISH AGRICULTURE

1086. Domesday inquest, most cultivated land in tillage. Annual value of land about 2d. an acre.

1216-72. Henry III. Assize of Bread