reign of George III., before which the whole number was
between 200 and 250, shows how rapidly the break-up of the
common-field husbandry and the cultivation of new land now
proceeded. The disastrous American War for a time interfered
with the national prosperity; but with the return of peace
in 1783 the cultivation of the country made more rapid
progress. The quarter of a century immediately following
1760 is memorable for the introduction of various important
improvements. It was during this period that the genius of
Robert Bakewell produced an extraordinary change in the character
of our more important breeds of live stock, more especially
by the perfecting of a new race of sheep--the well-known
Leicesters. Bakewell's fame as a breeder was for a time
enhanced by the improvement which he effected on the Long-horned
cattle, then the prevailing breed of the midland counties of
England. These, however, were ere long rivalled and afterwards
superseded by the Shorthorn or Durham breed, which the
brothers Charles and Robert Colling obtained from the useful
race of cattle that had long existed in the valley of the
Tees, by applying to them the principle of breeding which
Bakewell had already established. To this period also belong
George and Matthew Culley--the former a pupil of Bakewell--
who left their paternal property on the bank of the Tees and
settled on the Northumbrian side of the Tweed, bringing with
them the valuable breeds of live stock and improved husbandry
of their native district. The improvements introduced by
these energetic and skilful farmers spread rapidly, and
exerted a most beneficial influence upon the border counties.
From 1784 to 1795 improvements advanced with steady steps.
This period was distinguished for the adoption and working out
of ascertained improvements. Small's swing plough and Andrew
Meikle's threshing-machine, although invented some years before
this, were now perfected and brought into general use, to the
great furtherance of agriculture. Two important additions
were about this time made to the field crops, viz. the Swedish
turnip and potato oat. The latter was accidentally discovered
in 1788, and both soon came into general cultivation. In the
same year Merino sheep were introduced by George III., who
was a zealous farmer. For a time this breed attracted much
attention, and sanguine expectations were entertained that
it would prove of national importance. Its unfitness for the
production of mutton, and increasing supplies of fine clothing
wool from other countries, soon led to its total rejection.
In Scotland the opening up of the country by the construction
of practicable roads, and the enclosing and subdividing
of farms by hedge and ditch, was now in active progress.
The former admitted of the general use of wheel-carriages,
of the ready conveyance of produce to markets, and in
particular of the extended use of lime, the application
of which was immediately followed by a great increase of
produce. The latter, besides its more obvious advantages,
speedily freed large tracts of country from stagnant water
and their inhabitants from ague, and prepared the way
for the underground draining which soon after began to be
practised. Dawson of Frogden in Roxburghshire is believed to
have been the first who grew turnips as a field crop to any
extent. It is on record that as early as 1764 he had 100 acres
of drilled turnips on his farm in one year. An Act passed in
1770, which relaxed the rigour of strict entails and afforded
power to landlords to grant leases and otherwise improve their
estates, had a beneficial effect on Scottish agriculture.
The husbandry of the country was thus steadily improving, when
suddenly the whole of Europe became involved in the wars of
the French Revolution. In 1795, under the joint operation
of a deficient harvest and the diminution in foreign supplies
of grain owing to outbreak of war, the price of wheat,
which, for the twenty preceding years, had been under 50s. a
quarter, suddenly rose to 81s. 6d., and in the following year
reached 96s. In 1797 the fear of foreign invasion led to a
panic and run upon the banks, in which emergency the Bank
Restriction Act, suspending cash payment, was passed, and
ushered in a system of unlimited credit transactions. Under
the unnatural stimulus of these extra-ordinary events, every
branch of industry extended with unexampled rapidity. But
in nothing was this so apparent as in agriculture; the high
prices of produce holding out a great inducement to improve
lands then arable, to reclaim others that had previously lain
waste, and to bring much pasture-land under the plough. Nor
did this increased tillage interfere with the increase of
live stock, as the green crops of the alternate husbandry
more than compensated for the diminished pasturage. This
extraordinary state of matters lasted from 1795 to 1814, the
prices of produce even increasing towards the close of that
period. The average price of wheat for the whole period
was 89s. 7d. per quarter; but for the last five years it was
107s., and in 1812 it reached 126s. 6d. The agriculture
of Great Britain, as a whole, advanced with rapid strides
during this period; but nowhere was the change so great as in
Scotland. Indeed, its progress there, during these twenty
years, is probably without parallel in the history of any
other country. This is accounted for by a concurrence of
circumstances. Previous to this period the husbandry of
Scotland was still in a backward state as compared with the
best districts of England, where many practices, only of
recent introduction in the north, had been in general use for
generations. This disparity made the subsequent contrast the
more striking. The land in Scotland was now, with trifling
exceptions, let on leases for terms varying from twenty to
thirty years, and in farms of sufficient size to employ at
the least two or three ploughs. The unlimited issues of
government paper and the security afforded by these leases
induced the Scottish banks to afford every facility to landlords
and tenants to embark capital in the improvement of the
land. The substantial education supplied by the parish
schools, of which nearly the whole population could then avail
themselves, had diffused through all ranks such a measure of
intelligence as enabled them promptly to dhscern and skilfully
and energetically to take advantage of this spring-tide of
prosperity, and to profit by the agricultural information now
plentifully furnished by means of the Bath and West of England
Society, established in 1777; the Highland Society, instituted
in 1784; and the National Board of Agriculture, in 1793.
1815 to 1875.
The restoration of peace to Europe, and the re-enactment of
the Corn Laws in 1815, mark the beginning of another era in
the history of agriculture. The sudden return to peace-prices
was followed by a time of severe depression, low wages,
diminished rents and bad farming. The fall in prices was
aggravated, first by the unpropitious weather and deficient
harvest of the years 1816, 1817, and still more by the passing
in 1819 of the bill restoring cash payments, which, coming
into operation in 1821, caused serious embarrassment to all
persons who had entered into engagements at a depreciated
currency, which had now to be met with the lower prices of
an enhanced one. The frequency of select-committees and
commissions, which sat in 1814, 1821 and 1822, 1833 and 1836,
testifies to the gravity of the crisis. The years 1830-1833
are especially memorable for a disastrous outbreak of sheep-rot
and for agrarian outrages, caused partly by the dislike of
the labourers to the introduction of agricultural machines.
During this period of depression, which lasted till the 'forties,
want of confidence prevented any general improvement in agricultural
methods. At the same time, certain developments destined
to exercise considerable influence in later times are to be
noted. Before the close of the 18th century, and during the
first quarter of the 19th, a good deal had been done in the
way of draining the land, either by open ditches or by James
Elkington's system of deep covered drains. In 1834 James Smith
of Deanston promulgated his system of thorough draining and
deep ploughing, the adoption of which immeasurably improved
the clay lands of the country. The early years of the reign
of Queen Victoria witnessed the strengthening of the union
between agriculture and chemistry. The Board of Agriculture
in 1803 had commissioned Sir Humphry Davy to deliver a course
of lectures on the connexion of chemistry with vegetable
physiology. In 1840 the appearance of Chemistry in its
Application to Agriculture and Physiology by Justus von
Liebig set on foot a movement in favour of scientific husbandry,
the most notable outcome of which was the establishment by
Sir John Bennet Lawes in 1843 of the experimental station of
Rothamsted. Since Blith's time bone was the one new fertilizer
that had come into use. Nitrate of soda, Peruvian guano
and superphosphate of lime in the form of bones dissolved
by sulphuric acid were now added to the list of manures, and
the practice of analysing soils became more general. Manual
labour in farming operations began to be superseded by the
use of drills, hay-makers and horse-rakes, chaff-cutters and
root-pulpers. The reaping-machine, invented in 1812 by John
Common, improved upon by the Rev. Patrick Bell in England
and by Cyrus H. McCormick and others in America, and finally
perfected about 1879 by the addition of an efficient self-binding
apparatus, is the most striking example of the application
of mechanics to agriculture. Improvements in the plough,
harrow and roller were introduced, adapting those implements
to different soils and purposes. The steam-engine first took
the place of horses as a threshing power in 1803, but it was
not until after 1850 that it was applied to the plough and
cultivator. The employment of agricultural machines
received considerable impetus from the Great Exhibition of
1851. The much-debated Corn Laws, after undergoing various
modifications, and proving the fruitful source of business
uncertainty, social discontent and angry partisanship, were
finally abolished in 1846, although the act was not consummated
until three years later. Several other acts of the legislature
passed during this period exerted a beneficial influence on
agriculture. Of these, the first in date and importance
is the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836. Improvement was also
stimulated by the Public Money Drainage Acts 1846-1856, under
which government was empowered to advance money on certain
conditions for the improvement of estates. Additional
facilities were granted by the act passed in 1848 for
disentailing estates, and for burdening such as are entailed
with the share of the cost of certain specified improvements.
Meanwhile much had been done in the organization of agricultural
knowledge. Mention has already been made of the institution
of the Highland Society and the National Board of Agriculture.
These institutions were the means of collecting a vast amount of
statistical and general information connected with agriculture,
and by their publications and premiums made known the practices
of the best-farmed districts and encouraged their adoption
elsewhere. These associations were soon aided in their important
labours by numerous local societies which sprang up in all
parts of the kingdom. After a highly useful career, under
the presidency till 1813 of Sir John Sinclair, the Board of
