ABSTRACT
Victorian farming was essentially commercial, fundamentally geared to the demands of the urban population. There were very many small farms, as well as many thousands of holdings too small to be described as farms. Cities and towns were growing as the country's population multiplied, and an increasing proportion of people moved to towns to find a livelihood. Livestock formed the main support of British farming. Formerly the farmer had looked to his landlord to help him through bad times and to assist him in farming more efficiently by spending money on such basic improvements as drainage and new farm buildings and cottages. The farmworkers, lastly, rarely owned or occupied any land other than a rented vegetable allotment or garden attached to the cottage. In standard historical accounts the farm labourers are often lumped together as one amorphous mass, alike in their poverty and hopelessness.
