494 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



to convince our readers; but we are dealing with a 

 proposition, wliicli every one can dissect as well 

 as ourselves. Assume 100 acres of arable land as the 

 quantity cultivated, then £1,000 will represent the 

 investment, and £500 the return, i,'10O will be the 

 labour, £100 the horse labour, i,nOO the rent, £100 

 tithes, rates, taxes, seed corn, and tradesmen's bills, 

 and the remaining £^100 the interest of capital and 

 profit. Examine all these separately, and reduce the 

 returns to £400, and then see from which of the before- 

 named payments the difference in outlay is to be ob- 

 tained, three out of five bein;; fixed payments, and not 

 admitting of any reduction whatever. 



It is not our intention to throw cold water upon 

 a pursuit which every one admits to be the most natu- 

 ral and most pleasurable; but most persons who 

 enter upon it to make money, we have little hesita- 

 tion in stating will bo deceived. Just weigh the con- 

 sequences before we proceed: — £1,000 invested, re- 

 turns £oOO in 12 months, of which £100 only can 

 be calculated upon as interest of capital and jirofit, 

 while the difference in result must be looked for rather 

 in the time the return occupies than in the profit itself. 

 The sum invested might, in trade, be returned from four 

 to six times in one year, with a like profit of ten per 

 cent, each time. B. 



THE ENGLISH FARMER IN FRANCE. 



Sir, — In my first letter I described the appearance of 

 the country in autumn ; it then looked like an immense 

 ploughed field. Now that it is covered with various 

 coloured crops, your readers may think it is like harle- 

 quin's jacket; but no such thing. .Since writing to you 

 last I have been in England for a few days, and I am 

 sure the average size of the pieces is not smaller than 

 the fields in the Weald of Sussex, or in our manufac- 

 turing districts, and unincumbered with the useless 

 bustleheaded trees the hedges are filled with. It really 

 is extraordinary how in 1858 any landlord can be so 

 blind to his oion interest and the interests of his ten- 

 antry, as to allow his property to be so wasted and 

 destroyed without any one reason for it, but, on the 

 contrary, causing to all parties a serious loss. 

 The amount of rent must be much reduced by it, and 

 such timber when sold must fetch a mere nothing. I 

 believe the worst trees do the most injury. 



Had I an estate of this nature, I would immediately 

 give all the timber below a certain size to the ten- 

 ants to assist in paying the expense of grubbing all the 

 trees and hedgos on the farms, &c., engaging within a 

 certain time to replant quicks — where, and how, may be 

 previously agreed on. I say previously, as this is just 

 such a matter as would be likely to bring the tenants 

 and the steward into collision ; but if the new lines of 

 fences were mapped out, no dispute as to the direction 

 of them could arise. The mode of protection should be 

 entirely left to the tenant ; as, if he binds himself to do 

 so, he should certainly have the choice of "how." I 

 do not suppose any tenants would be found to object, 

 but did they, it is no reason why they should not have 

 the off'er ; but in that case I think charcoal burners 

 might be easily found who would gladly contract to 

 do it. 



As nay remarks arc meant as comparisons between the 

 husbandry of Flanders and England, that your readers 

 (who have never visited the former) may think and 

 judge for themselves as to the expeditncy of adopting 

 or improving on them, I will make a short calculation 

 (open to correction always) of tlu; quantiiy of land lost 

 to all profitable uses, and also the rod wide on each side 



I the hedge injured by the roots, shade, and drippings, 

 aye, and I may add, fallen leaves in autumn. 



Now, let us suppose the average of the fields in the 

 Weald of Kent and Sussex to be 6 acres (query, is it as 

 much ?) each, an oblong of 36 rods by 28 (we will only 

 take two sides of each field, and will also leave out the 



' outside hedge of two sides of the whole farm) : this 



I is 04 rods round one side and top of every field. 



j Now, we will say, hedge, ditch, and brovj take a rod; 

 the shade and roots, &c., spoils another rod on each 

 side ; this is 3 rods, or exactly one-fifth of the whole 

 farm ; either the tenant pays one-fifth more rent than 

 he ought, or (if it was deducted when the rent was 

 " set") the landlord receives one-fifth too little. If the 

 former is the case, he can abstain from thus injuring his 

 tenant for the future ; and if the latter is the case, he 

 can absolutely increase his rent-roll twenty per cent. 

 with popularity and benefit to his tenant ; for what 

 farmer would not rather pay one-fifth more rent to be rid 

 of such nuisances, and have a fifth more land ? and the 

 best land too on all the farm. Where an old hedge-row 

 has once been, may always be known by the better crop 

 on that spot. 



The corners of these little fields — indeed, nearly all 

 fields — are not considered worth cultivating, and are con- 

 sequently a nursery for docks and thistles. Now, in 

 Flanders the corners and outsides of the pieces of grain 

 arc the best, if there is any difference, as there is the 

 more air ; and consequently, as regards the general crop, 

 the more the land is subdivided the better, as the more 

 air surrounds the corn — following out somewliat the 

 principle of old Tull, of having fallow spaces between 

 his " stetches" of wheat, which, when headed, arched 

 over these unsown alternate fallow ridges, and so the 

 ears had double the space of the roots, and by this means 

 be attempted to grow wheat every year, in the same 

 fifld, but not on the same land. 



Any gentleman having an estate of small farms should 

 come here. I expect there is not a worse cultivated 

 tract in Europe than the small farms of Kngland. The 

 tenants are not all to blame. Tliey want the three things 

 needful — capital, knowledge, enterprise ; and unfortu- 



