Home Supplies. Foreign Supplies. qrs. qrs. 1839-40 4,022,000 1,762,482 1840-1 3,870,648 1,925,241 1841-2 3,626,173 2,985,422 1842-3 5,078,989 2,405,217 1843-4 5,213,454 1,606,912 1844-5 6,664,368 476,190 1845-6 5,699,969 2,732,134 (Tooke, _History of Prices_, iv. 414.) 1844-5 was a very abundant crop, and the threatened repeal of the Corn Laws induced farmers to send all the corn possible to market. [632] Tooke, _History of Prices_, iv. 32. [633] Cobden's Speech, March 12, 1844. [634] Tooke, _History of Prices_, iv. 142. [635] From evidence collected by Mr. Austin in the southern counties. [636] _Progress of Nation_, pp. 137 sq. For the amount imported before that date, see Appendix 2. [637] Walpole, _History of England_, iv. 63 sq. Cobden apparently never contemplated such low prices for corn as have prevailed since 1883. In his speech of March 12, 1844, he mentioned 50s. a quarter as a probable price under free trade, and he died before the full effect of foreign competition was felt by the English farmer. [638] McCulloch, _Commercial Dictionary_, 1847, p. 274. See below, pp. 325 sq. [639] Caird, _English Agriculture in 1850-1_, p. 498. [640] Ibid. p. 490. [641] _Victoria County History: Warwickshire_, ii. 277. [642] Caird, _op. cit._, p. 481. [643] Caird, _op. cit._ p. 507. [644] Hasbach, _op. cit._ pp. 220, 226. [645] Cobden's Speech, March 12, 1844. [646] Mr. Pusey, one of the best informed agriculturists of the day, estimated the produce of wheat per acre in 1840 at 26 bushels.--_R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1890, p. 20. [647] Caird, _English Farming in 1850-1_, p. 474. [648] _Progress of the Nation_. [649] Thorold Rogers, _History of Agriculture and Prices_, v. 29. [650] _Progress of the Nation_, pp. 137-9. [651] Yet as the growth of population overtakes the corn and meat supply, these prophets may in the end prove correct. [652] The Great Exhibition of 1851 was said to have widely diffused the use of improved implements.--_R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1856, p. 54. [653] _R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1890, p. 34. [654] _R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1856, p. 60. [655] Ibid. 1901, p. 30. See below, p. 343. [656] _Board of Agriculture Returns_, 1878, and _R.A.S.E. Journal_, 1868, p. 239. Young estimated the number of cattle in England in 1770 at 2,852,048, including 684,491 draught cattle.--_Eastern Tour_, iv. 456. [657] _R.A.S.E. Journal_, (2nd ser.), ii. 230. [658] Ibid. iii. 430. [659] _R.A.S.E. Journal_ (2nd ser.), ii. 270. [660] See _Autobiography of Joseph Arch_. [661] Ibid. ix. 274. [662] In many districts, however, his food was better than this. [663] Hasbach, _op. cit._, pp. 276-7. [664] Hasbach, _op. cit._, pp. 193, et seq. The Gangs Act (30 & 31 Vict. c. 130) had already brought the system under control. CHAPTER XXI 1875-1908