36S 



The Country Gentleman s Magazine 



unable to afford them such sums as would 

 enable them to stock respectable farms. 

 The present state of the game and other 

 land laws, and the clauses anent them 

 which are inserted in almost all leases, 

 is certainly discouraging and humiliat- 

 ing in many cases to the farmer. The least 

 that can be said of it is, that it is unfair to 

 extort the highest agricultural rent for land, 

 and to burden the tenant with an overstock 

 of game. Several of my friends who have 

 large farms, the proprietors of which live at 

 a distance, and have little or no interest in 

 the game laws, have occasionally the kind- 

 ness to give me a day's shooting. On 

 these farms I find there is always a 

 good stock of game with no appreciable 

 damage to crops, and I hold that a 

 fair and sufficient head of game can be kept 

 up without any very apparent damage. With 

 regard to rabbits, from whose devastations 

 I have suffered largely, I should say the 

 farmer who signs away his right to destroy 

 them is more than foolish, as no valuation 

 whatever can compensate him for the ravages 

 of these vermin. I should be sorry to see 

 the game laws entirely done away with, as in 

 my opinion, no Trespass Act would suffice to 

 prevent many people of indolent habits from 

 leaving their legitimate occupations and in- 

 dulging in those pursuits that become doubly 

 attractive when the gain they produce is 

 added to the pleasure of the sport in ob- 

 taining it ; and, moreover, I think that were 

 these laws abrogated, game would speedily 

 be exterminated altogether. It is, how- 

 ever, absolutely necessary that all who 

 pay an agricultural rent for land, and who 

 keep these animals under the head of game, 

 should have an equal right with the pro- 

 prietor, at any rate, to the ground game, if 

 not also to the winged. With a proper 

 selection of m.en as tenants, I have every 

 confidence that a fair stock of them would be 

 kept up. The young farmer of former times 

 did in many cases with little or no education, 

 but the young farmer of the present day, and 

 those looking forward to fill the places of 

 their parents, must, or ought to, have a good 

 and expensive education. 



TO :\IANAGE PROFITABLY. 



Though it is essentially necessary that the 

 agriculturist of the present and future day 

 should be able to deal liberally with whatever 

 subject he has in hand, it is also of much 

 consequence that a proper economy be exer- 

 cised with a view to bring what capital he 

 has to bear fruit as early as possible. It is 

 well to understand the proper cultivation of 

 the land, though the best of farmers, with 

 adverse seasons, will be disappointed, even 

 with the most sanguine and arduous endea- 

 vours. Many hard-working men are, how- 

 ever, " penny wise and pound foolish," They 

 will agree to pay several pounds of rent per 

 acre for their land, for whicli they will pur- 

 chase several pounds worth of foreign manures 

 after having drained, and probably limed, it 

 at a very considerable expense ; but with a 

 view of saving they will often plough the land 

 wet and out of condition, and thereby re- 

 produce the very acidity for "which they had 

 purchased the lime, and in a manner destroy 

 the productive powers of the land for, at 

 least, one rotation to come. Targe sums 

 have been expended by some in the purchase 

 of steam-engines with ploughs and other im- 

 plements for the deep cultivation of the land. 

 Since the introduction of these we hear of 

 land being tilled to the depth of from fifteen 

 to twenty inches. Deep ploughing is, no 

 doubt, in many cases of great importance 

 where it is done judiciously, and ultimately 

 has a permanent effect in increasing the 

 capital in the soil, by enlarging its powers of 

 filtration, &c., but the man who thinks of 

 cultivating his land in such a manner ought 

 to consider, first, his capital in hand ; second, 

 the subsoil and strata with which he has to 

 deal ; and third, the length of time he is to 

 have an interest as tenant in the land. The 

 expense of cultivation is very much greater, 

 and the quantity of manures for a time also 

 requires to be considerably augmented, and in 

 many cases the land will produce less for the 

 first and often second rotations than it 

 would have done with ordinary cultivation. 

 I do not mean to condemn deep cultivation 

 on certain classes of land, but a good close 



