In 1700 most farmers followed a rotation of crops which had existed since the Middle Ages virtually unchanged. This is known as the triennial rotation where every third year the land is left fallow, animals will be put onto the land so that their manure will revive it. By 1750 the Norfolk four course rotation was becoming popular. The first year land was used for wheat, second was turnips, third was barley and finally in the fourth year clover. This kept the soil in good condition without having to leave it unproductive for a year. Because of the differences in soils this method did not suit all farms. In the Midlands where the soil was heavy clay they adopted a system called lay farming. This was a longer process which took twelve years to run, several years of grain crops were followed by seven years of the field laying under turf grazed by cattle.
The second stage of improvement was selective breeding with the aim to produce better quality sheep and cattle. Robert Bakewell has the highest reputation of all the eighteenth century breeders. He pioneered breading methods which were to be later adopted and improved on by other breeders. His aim was to breed a sheep that would fatten quickly as it currently took 4-5 years for sheep to be fat enough to go to the butcher. The result wasn’t a great success. Although the weight was gained quickly the mutton was very fatty and had to be sold at a reduced price. About 1780 John Ellman improved on Bakewell’s method and bred the highly successful Southdown sheep. This produced good mutton and wool. The Colling brothers in Durham bred good beef cattle out of shorthorn stock which was also good for milk.
At the start of the eighteenth century most of the arable land was still farmed in open fields and it was thought that if agriculture was to advance a new field system would have to be adopted. Under the open field system it would be nearly impossible to use crop rotation and new breeding methods. The answer was enclosure.
In the Midlands farming was very much a communal activity. It is suggested that each farmers land was laid out in a strip running through the huge open fields. They all had to grow the same crops, ploughing and harvesting was a community event as they all shared equipment and labour. When landlords decided to enclose land they usually had to do it by Act of Parliament. It was a quick but expensive process that aloud large landowners to bully the smaller landowners. And due to everyone that owned land having to split the cost: legal fees; the commissioners’ expenses; cost of fencing (donated to the church) and the cost for digging a ditch, it could leave small landowners bankrupt. If they decided not to partake in the enclosure then the only choice left was to sell out to larger landowners.
The open field system was not without its faults. It took a long time to get between widely scattered lands; the waste in land used to make the pathways and tracks among the fields; farmers who let weeds grow or plant dieses could affect others and damage to crops caused by unfenced animals. These were possible effects and still didn’t change people’s opinions that the open field method was better.
The poem “The desert village” by Oliver Goldsmith suggests that the working man or the pheasants did not appreciate the changes. They felt angry and their land and their lives have been taken from them without much choice,
“But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied”.
The larger landowners however where grateful of the changes which brought them better productive land and therefore more money. As the population grew and grew produce was in high demand leaving landowners the ability to raise prices and make even more money.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BRITAIN SINCE 1700: THE RISE OF INDUSTRY – HOWARD MARTIN
BRITISH SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 1800-1900 – NEIL TONGE & MICHEAL QUINCEY
BRITAIN TRANSFORMED. AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY 1700-1914 – MALCOLM FALKUS
