ENCLOSURES : ESSEX AGRICULTURE, 1500-1900. 21
since Wright in 1840 mentions that Fowlness and the adjacent
mainland was being continuously increased by silt laid down
by the sea. He further records that the draining of this marine
silt provided valuable fertile land. It appears that the increase
in the area of arable land occurring both here and in those few
localities in the Boulder Clay country, to which reference has
already been made, were the only districts to change from pastoral
to arable farming during a period when the price of wheat was
falling.
The middle years of the nineteenth century saw the building
•of the first railways in the County. The time, however, was
not propitious for the improvement of agriculture. The fifties
saw the beginning of the rapid fall in wheat prices and the
consequent decline of Essex, which had not fostered and could
not sustain any large-scale industry to balance its agricultural
losses. It must also be remembered that Essex was heavily
burdened by the tithe and land tax, and their effect accelerated
the decline as soon as the high agricultural prices failed.
These many changes occurring during the years 1801-61 have,
so far, been correlated with the varying price of wheat. It
should, however, be borne in mind that there must have been a
steady drain of men to the rising industrial towns in the north
of England. While it seems certain that these two factors
affected the agriculture of the district, the bulk of the land was
still under arable farming in the first year for which figures are
available (1866). Throughout the greater part of the region
70 per cent, of the land was devoted to arable farming. With
the exception of two parishes in the extreme south, that have
extensive areas of saltings, only one parish had below 45 per cent,
of its area in arable farming. The parish in question—Marks-
hall—was, however, largely occupied by a private park. Great
Braxted to the south-east had its arable percentage lowered
by similar causes. Since 1840 (time of tithe maps), however,
there had been a general reduction in the amount of arable
land from about go per cent, to a figure approaching 75 per
cent. This extensive reduction is sufficient to account, in large
part, for the steady decline in population in the first half of
the nineteenth century.
The remaining years of the nineteenth century (1860-1900)
and the first three decades of the present century witnessed