A Short History of English Agriculture

Short History of English
Agriculture, A

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Agriculture
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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
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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 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.