Originally published in 1966, this work by G. E. Fussell is a thorough examination of the role played by the English dairy farmer over the past four hundred years. Beginning his study with the cow he gives an account of the improved breeding and feeding methods that make today's cow a totally different beast to that of the Tudor farmer. A chapter is devoted to the cultivation of fodder crops and another to the comfort of the cow for, as the author states, pleasant conditions are an important factor in encouraging its productivity. The dairy industry, no less than any other in the nineteenth century, was the scene of numerous devices and inventions designed to improve milking methods. This, together with the development of the sale of milk in a liquid form, is discussed in later chapters. The practical difficulties of transporting milk had until about 1850 caused the major part of the milk produced to be turned into butter and cheese and the varying products of differing regions are fully described. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, however, the number of dairies prepared to retail milk grew in number to accommodate an ever increasing rate of milk consumption. Numerous farming textbooks published during the period and contemporary descriptions of the farming scene form the background for this scholarly appraisal. No other book has treated the English dairy farmer in such detail and, in drawing upon such a wealth of illustrative material to support his conclusions, G. E. Fussell has produced a work which will be valued by all agricultural historians.

This detailed and original study of early-modern agrarian society in the Somerset Levels examines the small landholders in a group of sixteen contiguous parishes in the area known as Brent Marsh. These were farmers with lifehold tenures and a mixed agricultural production whose activities and outlook are shown to be very different from that of the small 'peasant' farmers of so many general histories. Patricia Croot challenges the idea that small farmers failed to contribute to the productivity and commercialization of the early-modern economy. While the emergence of large capitalist farms was an important development, these added to the production of existing small cultivators, rather than replacing them. The idea that only large-scale, specialized farmers were involved in agricultural progress, or that their contribution alone was enough to account for the great increase in food production by the late 17th century is questioned; small farmers continued to make a living, contributed to the market, and survived alongside the new, bigger farms. Croot's in-depth study not only adds to our knowledge of agrarian society generally, but shows that far from being backward and interested primarily in subsistence farming, small producers in this area sought profit in making the best use of their resources, however limited, being flexible in their production and growing new or unusual crops. The main land tenures, copy and lease for lives, are also covered in detail, contributing to current debates on landholding and sub-tenancy. The author shows the uses to which lifehold tenures could be put, resulting in the increasing financial strength of copyholders and their dominance in local society. The effects of the tenure and profits of farming can be seen in the way that families were provided for, as well as in the roles that women played and the responsibility they had in economic and social life, while the wider interests of the inhabitants are shown in their religious and political engagement in events of the 17th century. Patricia Croot's meticulous study is a valuable contribution to English agrarian history, and in particular to the history of this under-researched region.

First Published in 1983. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 1983. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This set of 25 volumes, originally published between 1805 and 1992, amalgamates original nineteenth-century material and more recent research and analysis on the development of social welfare in Britain and Europe. From Elizabethan poor relief, through the Poor Laws of the nineteenth-century, to the establishment of the British National Health Service in the mid twentieth-century, this set provides a comprehensive overview of the germination and establishment of modern social welfare. Although the set mainly focuses on social welfare in Britain, it also contains some work on welfare in Europe. This set will be of keen interest to those studying the history of social welfare, social policy, poverty and class.