What were the main developments in agriculture during this period?
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• A major survey of agriculture by Caird in 1850-51 showed a lot of backward husbandry, and many cases where bad landlords and poor agents had neglected to develop and improve.
• However in some areas neglect decline and effective use spread. It was an age of real capital investment.
• The graduates of the new Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester (founded 1845) came out on to the job market, and ideas from the Rothamstead Agricultural Research Station (founded in 1843) began to spread as well. Membership of the Royal Agricultural Society (founded in 1838) grew and blossomed under royal support. There was a growth in professional standards among the agents who managed the great estates for their aristocratic owners.
• There was a huge increase in drainage projects, always expensive, to improve both the quality of land and the amount of land that was cultivated. In this period in the region of £20 million was spent on draining over 4 million acres of land.
• There was a growth of technical efficiency: some have called it another agricultural revolution, with much more intensive farming, designed to produce a much higher output per acre.
• There was development in the use of fertilisers (including imported ones like guano) and a lot of thought went into the correct feeding of animals and the way in which the land was used and the crops rotated.
• Machinery such as the steam driven threshing machines appeared on larger farms.
• There was also a much greater awareness of the needs of the market place, and the speed with which farmers adapted to the arrival of the railways was impressive. Cattle were shifted to market quickly without the need for long-distance droves that weakened them and reduced their weight and price. The Vale of Evesham in central England rapidly adapted to the provision of fruit and vegetables for the London markets.

Other Notes in this Category

1. How important were the railways to Great Britain?
2. To what extent was this a boom time for British agriculture?
3. To what extent was this a period of industrial boom?
4. What was the impact of the repeal of the Corn Laws?
5. What were the main developments in agriculture during this period?
6. What were the main weaknesses in British agriculture during this period?
7. Why was this such a period of growth for British industry?

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