Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
horse-drawn wagons and, in the 1920s, even less for combustion-engine
automobiles and trucks.
R ailways and Agricultur al Change
Gauging the benefits of rural railways for agriculture is a more com-
plicated task. In Britain and France farmers were as convinced as was
Jefferies that their increasing losses resulted from the intensified in-
ternational competition in agricultural products. From 1867 to 1892
wheat acreage in the United States expanded threefold, while in the
whole of the United Kingdom from 1872 to 1895 it declined by more
than half in response to the falling prices caused mainly by American
imports that arrived duty-free in open markets. Comparatively speak-
ing, wheat production remained fairly stable in France and increased in
Germany - two countries in which tariffs reduced foreign competition,
as shown in table 1.2.
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As the profitability of wheat cultivation declined, British and French
cereal farmers, in regions of suitable climate and ecological conditions,
looked increasingly to catle raising and dairy farming to minimize losses,
transforming cropland to pasture and reducing their wage bills in the
process. Profits from these activities were more likely in the offing be-
cause of the rising demand for meat, buter, and fresh milk in cities - a
demand enlarged further as workers' rising real incomes permited the
consumption of higher-protein foods.
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Britain and Dorset County
Although railways, steamships, and telegraphy powered the globaliza-
tion of foodstuffs and the increased competition that struck cereal farm-
ers particularly hard, rail transit was nonetheless a crucial factor in the
expansion and intensification of livestock and dairy farming. For dairy
farmers in outlying counties such as Wiltshire, Dorset, and Derbyshire,
rail transport permited the shipment of fresh milk to London, Leeds,
Manchester, and other cities. Similarly, catle farmers in outlying coun-
ties stood to beneit because they could faten their stock on-site and
then ship the animals to market by train, avoiding the traditional and
