industrial revolution that then took place in England.  Owing to mechanical inventions and the consequent growth of the factory system, the great manufacturing towns arose, whence came a great demand for food, and, to supply this demand, farms, instead of being small self-sufficing holdings just growing enough for the farmer and his family and servants, grew larger, and became manufactories of corn and meat.  The century was also remarkable for another great change.  England, hitherto an exporting country, became an importing one.  The progress of the century was furthered by a band of men whose names are, or ought to be, household words with English farmers:  Jethro Tull, Lord Townshend, Arthur Young, Bakewell, Coke of Holkham, and the Collings.  Further the century witnessed a great number of enclosures, especially when it was drawing to its close.  According to the Report of the Committee on Waste Lands in 1797, the number of Enclosure Acts was:  under Anne, 2 Acts, enclosing 1,439 acres; under Geo. I, 16 Acts, enclosing 17,960 acres; under Geo. II, 226 Acts, enclosing 318,778 acres; from 1760 to 1797, 1,532 Acts, enclosing 2,804,197 acres.

The period from 1700 to 1765 has been called the golden age of the agricultural classes, as the fifteenth century has been called the golden age of the labourer, but the farmer and landlord were often hard pressed; rates were low, wages were fair, and the demand for the produce of the farm constant owing to the growth of the population, yet prices for wheat, stock, and wool were often unremunerative to the farmer, and we are told in 1734, ’necessity has compelled our farmers to more carefulness and frugality in laying out their money than they were accustomed to in better times.’[368] The labourer’s wages varied according to locality.  The assessment of wages by the magistrates in Lancashire for 1725 remains, and according to that the ordinary labourer earned 10d. a day in the summer and 9d. in the winter months, with extras in harvest, and this may be taken as the average pay at that date.  Threshing and winnowing wheat by piece-work cost 2s. a quarter, oats 1s. a quarter.  Making a ditch 4 feet wide at the top, 18 inches wide at the bottom, and 3 feet deep, double set with quicks, cost 1s. a rood (8 yards), 10d. if without the quick.[369] The magistrates remarked in their proclamation on the plenty of the times and were afraid that for the northern part of the county, which was then very backward, the wages were too liberal.  Wheat was, unfortunately, that year 46s. 1d. a quarter, but a few years before and after that date it was cheap—­20s., 24s., 28s. a quarter—­and fresh meat was only 3d. a lb., so that their wages went a long way.[370] A considerable portion of the wages was paid in kind, not only in drink but in food, though this custom became less frequent as the century went on.[371]