A Short History of English Agriculture


Short History of English Agriculture, A

The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Short History of English Agriculture
by W. H. R. Curtler This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: A Short History of English Agriculture
Author: W. H. R. Curtler
Release Date: August 25, 2005 [EBook #16594]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH AGRICULTURE ***

Produced by Million Book Project, Juliet Sutherland, Tricia Gilbert and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

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 and Ale.
1272-1307. Edward I. General progress. Walter of Henley.
1307. Edward II. Decline.
1315. Great famine.
1337. Export of wool prohibited.
1348-9. Black Death. Heavy blow to manorial system. Many demesne lands let, and much land laid down to grass.
1351. Statute of Labourers.
1360. Export of corn forbidden.
1381. Villeins' revolt.
1393. Richard II allows export of corn under certain conditions.
1463. Import of wheat under 6s. 8d. prohibited.
End of fifteenth century. Increase of enclosure.
1523. Fitzherbert's Surveying and Husbandry.
1540. General rise in prices and rents begins.
1549. Kett's rebellion. The last attempt of the English peasant to obtain redress by force.
1586. Potatoes introduced.
1601. Poor Law Act of Elizabeth.
1645. Turnips and clover introduced as field crops.
1662. Statute of Parochial Settlement.
1664. Importation of cattle, sheep, and swine forbidden.
1688. Bounty of 5s. per quarter on export of wheat, and high duty on import.
1733. Tull publishes his _Horse-hoeing Husbandry_.
1739. Great sheep-rot.
1750. Exports of corn reached their maximum.
1760. Bakewell began experimenting.
1760 (about). Industrial and agrarian revolution, and great increase of enclosure.
1764. Elkington's new drainage system.
1773. Wheat allowed to be imported at a nominal