A Short History of English Agriculture Part 28

Such is the picture of agriculture after twenty years of high prices and protection.[558] One may naturally ask, if much money had been made by farmers during these years, where had it all gone to that they were reduced at the first breath of adversity to such straits? Some allowance must be made for the fact that these accounts come from those interested in the land, who were always ready to make the most of misfortune with a view to further protection, and the farmer is a notorious grumbler. It seems, however, that most landlords and tenants believed that the high prices would last for ever, and lived accordingly, and, as we have seen, many made no profit at all because of their increased burdens. As a matter of fact, both were grumbling because prices had come back to their natural level after an unnatural inflation.[559]

Hemp at this date was still grown in Lincolnshire and Somerset, and Marshall tells us that in 1803 there was a considerable quant.i.ty of hemp grown in Shropshire.[560] In that county there was a small plot of ground, called 'the hemp-yard,' appendant to almost every farm-house and to many of the best sort of cottages. Whenever a cottager had 10 or 15 perches of land to his cottage, worth from 1s.

6d. to 2s. 6d. a year, with the aid of his wife's industry it enabled him to pay his rent. A peck of hempseed, costing 2s., sowed about 10 perches of land, and this produced from 24 to 36 lb. of tow when dressed and fit for spinning. A dozen pounds of tow made 10 ells of cloth, worth generally about 3s. an ell. Thus a good crop on 10 perches of land brought in 4 10s. 0d., half of which was nett profit.

The hemp was pulled a little before harvest, and immediately spread on gra.s.s land, where it lay for a month or six weeks. The more rain there was the sooner it was ready to take off the gra.s.s. When the rind peeled easily from the woody part, it was, on a dry day, taken into the house, and when harvest was over well dried in fine weather and dressed, being then fit for the tow dresser, who prepared it for spinning. After the crop of hemp the land was sown with turnips, a valuable resource for the winter.

Since 1815 little hemp or flax has been grown in England[561]; in 1907 there were, according to the Agricultural Returns, 355 acres of flax grown in England, and hemp was not mentioned.

FOOTNOTES:

[504] _R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1896, p. 1, and 1898, p. 1.

[505] _Autobiography_, p. 242.

[506] Eden, _State of the Poor_, i. 18.

[507] 'Had his industry been under the direction of a better judgement, he would have been an admirable president.'--Young, _Autobiography_, p. 316.

[508] _The Report of the Committee on Waste Lands_, 1795, estimated wastes and commons at 7,800,000 acres, p. 221.

[509] The Merino was largely imported into England by the efforts of George III, and a Merino Society was formed in 1811; but many circ.u.mstances made it of such little profit to cultivate it in preference to native breeds, that it was diverted to Australia.--Burnley, _History of Wool_, p. 17.

[510] The first, the Bath and West of England, was established in 1777.

[511] _R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1899, p. 7.

[512] Higher prices had been realized for the improved Longhorns; in 1791, at the sale of Mr. Fowler of Little Rollright, Sultan a two-year-old bull fetched 210 guineas, and a cow 260 guineas; and at Mr. Paget's sale in 1793, a bull of the same breed sold for 400 guineas.--_Culley on Live Stock_, p. 59.

[513] _R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1899, p. 28.

[514] _Culley on Live Stock_ (1807), pp. 46-7.

[515] _Culley on Live Stock_, p. vi.

[516] _R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1892, p. 27.

[517] Morton, _Cyclopaedia of Agriculture_, ii. 964.

[518] _Northern Tour_, iii. 49. Clarke also experimented on the effect of electricity on vegetables, electrifying turnips in boxes with the result that growth was quickened and weight increased.

[519] _R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1896, p, 93.

[520] Tooke, _History of Prices_, p. 182.

[521] _Autobiography of A. Young_, p. 256.

[522] _State of the Poor_, i. 565 et seq.; Thorold Rogers, _Work and Wages_, p. 487. It is difficult to calculate the exact income of the labourer; besides extras in harvest, and relief from the parish, he might have a small holding, or common rights, also payments in kind and the earnings of his wife and children.

[523] Hasbach, _op. cit._ p. 181; Eden, _op. cit._ li. 27.

[524] Imports of wheat and flour in 1796 were 879,200 quarters.

[525] Yet imports were comparatively large; 1,264,520 quarters of wheat, against 463,185 quarters in 1799.

[526] Tooke, _History of Prices_, p. 219.

[527] _Farmer's Magazine_, 1817, p. 60.

[528] Thorold Rogers, _Work and Wages_, c. 18.

[529] _Annals of Agriculture_, x.x.xvii. 265. In 1805, in Herefordshire, the labourer was getting about 6s. 6d. a week--See Dunc.u.mb, _General View of Agriculture of Herefordshire_. Those who lived in the farm-house often fared best: in 1808 the diet of a Hampshire farm servant was, for breakfast, bacon, bread, and skim milk; for lunch, bread and cheese and small beer; for dinner, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., pickled pork or bacon with potatoes, cabbages, turnips, or greens, and broths of wheat-flour and garden stuff. Supper consisted of bread and cheese and a pint of ale. His bread was usually made of wheat, which, considering the price, is remarkable. On Sundays he had fresh meat. The farmers lived in many cases little better; a statement which must be compared with others ascribing great extravagance to them.--Vancouver, _General View of the Agriculture of Hants_ (1808), p. 383.

[530] Tooke, _History of Prices_, i. 236.

[531] Thorold Rogers, _Work and Wages_, c. 18. In many cases he was getting 15s. and 16s. a week all the year round. The Parliamentary Committee of 1822 put his wages during the war at from 15s. to 16s. a week. _Parliamentary Reports Committees_, v. 72; but it is difficult to say how much he received as wages, and how much as parish relief.

Recruiting for the war helped to raise wages, as did the increased growth of corn.

[532] McCulloch, _Commercial Dictionary_ (1847), p. 438. See Appendix, ii.

[533] Tooke, i. 319, and _Pamphleteer_, vi. 200 (A. Young). Since 1770, says the latter, labour by 1810-11 had doubled, but meat had risen 146 per cent., cheese 153 per cent., bread 100 per cent. Wages therefore had not risen in proportion to prices.

[534] _Inquiry into Agricultural Distress_ (1822), p. 38.

[535] _Thoughts on Present Depressed State of Agricultural Industry_ (1817), p. 6.

[536] Vancouver, _General View of the Agriculture of Devon_, p. 357.

[537] See 14 Eliz., c. 11, and 39 Eliz., c. 18.

[538] _Transactions of the Devon a.s.sociation_, xxix. 291-349.

[539] Average annual prices of wheat were: 1812, 126s. 6d.; 1813, 109s. 9d.; 1814, 74s. 4d.; 1815, 65s. 7d.

[540] Porter, _Progress of the Nation_, p. 149.

[541] _A Defence of the Farmers and Landowners of Great Britain_ (1814), p. 49.

[542] Ibid. p. x.

[543] Ibid. p. 7.

[544] _Agricultural State of the Kingdom_, p. 67.

[545] _Parliamentary Reports (Committees)_, v. 72.

[546] _Thoughts on the Present Depressed State of the Agricultural Interest_ (1817), p. 4.

[547] Dunc.u.mb, _General View of the Agriculture of Hereford_, 1805.

The writer of _A Defence of the Farmers and Landowners of Great Britain_ (1814) puts the average crop of wheat in the United Kingdom at 15 or 16 bushels an acre, p. 28. A very low estimate.