LAISSEZ FAIRE 
prosperity, and they had been encouraged to do their best. 
There had been steady progress during the eighteenth 
century, and this continued in the nineteenth. The chief 
new departure! which occurred was the systematic introduc- 
tion of thorough drainage. This practice Irad been locally 
pursued in Essex since the seventeenth century; but it was 
made the subject of experiments by Mr Smith of Deanston. 
By taking the water off the land, he improved the quality of 
the soil, and greatly increased the number of days when it 
was available for working. His experiments were first pub- 
lished in 1834; but so rapidly did they take hold of the 
public mind that, in 1846, Parliament consented to grant 
loans to landlords to carry out these improvements? 
It was no longer the case that improvement was intro- 
duced exclusively, or even chiefly, by the landlord class; a 
new class of tenant farmers had arisen® who were not only 
possessed of capital, but capable of employing it in introducing 
scientific methods of farming. They were ready to have 
recourse to manures of many kinds, in order to restore the 
fertility of land from which large crops were frequently 
extorted, and they were able to make the business pay, by 
combining corn-growing with the raising of stock. The full 
effects of foreign competition were not felt immediately, as 
the Russian war cut off the Baltic supply for a time, and the 
American Civil War checked the growth of the grain trade 
ore from the United States. Since 1874, the prices of corn and 
gers of of stock have been alike affected by greatly increased im- 
rompatition POTtation from abroad ; the free-trade policy at length resulted 
were felt: in a state of affairs in which the farmer could no longer pay 
his way, and a fall in rents became inevitable. The depres- 
sion of the landed interest has been so serious, that proprietors 
have been without the means of attempting to introduce 
improvements. while there 1s less reason than formerlv to 
344 
A.D. 1776 
~1850. 
but the 
work of tm: 
provement 
was taken 
up by sub- 
stantial 
tenants 
1 There was also a great increase in knowledge of methods of manuring the 
land, since agricultural chemistry was coming to be pursued as a branch of 
science and not treated as mere rule of thumb. It was found that there were 
valuable elsments in all sorts of refuse, as for example in bones, while the better 
means of communication rendered it more possible for farmers to avail themselves 
of fertilisers which were not native to their own district. Prothero. Pioneers. 99. 
R Prothero. on. cit. 97-98. 3 Th. 111.