554 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



be and is sheer folly. Who is to insure another good 

 landlord when this one meets the common lot ? Who 

 to guarantee the same fair terms, or even continued 

 possession, to the tenant who has neither lease nor 

 agreement ? But this is an old story ; and we are sorry 

 to see Mr. Beasley go out of his way to revive it. 

 This illustration here of a good landlord, if it have any 

 value, is like that of the buoy on the coast— more to 

 avoid tlian attract. Let people be ever so good, let 

 them have the finest sympathies and warmest likings 

 for each other, they cannot have too clear an under- 

 standing of how they mean to go on with each other. 

 Let them, as the homely phrase says, " put it in black 

 and white," and they are safe and sure. Without it, 

 why sympathy and philanthropy and high-mindedness 

 may fly away with a cock-pheasant, or look blue or 

 turn yellow at an election for the Shire. 



By far the best thing in the whole pamphlet is the 

 story, well told and well pointed, of how the famous 

 Bakewell of Dishley got his friend out of a difficulty. 

 It is rather long to extract ; but as our quotations, so 

 far, have not been very favourable, we are in justice 

 bound to give it : — 



" On one occasioa an old friend went to pay him a visit, 

 for the purpose of explaining to him his position, and at 

 the same time begging that he ■would recommend him what 

 to do. He had lived all his life upon his own farm of one 

 thousand acres ; he lived very well, but he had never saved 

 a shilling. He had three daughters, and the eldest was 

 about to be married; he highly approved of the match, 

 but the intended husband expected some portion, and he 

 had nothing to give him. Should he mortgage his estate, 

 or what should he do ? Mr. Bakewell begged of him to 

 spend the night with him, and promised the next morning 

 to give him the result of his cogitations. Accordingly, the 

 next morning, when they met at breakfast, Bakewell said, 

 ' I have madeup my mind what you ought to do ; give your 

 son-in-law one-fourth of the farm, keep the remaining three- 

 fourths, and do not part with any portion of your capital 

 and stock, and work the remaining three-fourths with it. 

 Do it better than you have hitherto done, and your in- 

 come will be rather increased than diminished.' His friend 

 followed his advice ; but at the end of two or three years, 

 another daughter would be married, and the perplexed 

 father again resorted to his friend Bakewell for advice, 

 under this ntw difficulty. Bakewell coolly said, he had 

 watched hia proceedings, and seen their results ; he must 

 do in this case as he had done before, he must give up 

 another fourth of his farm, and keep the original capital and 

 stock. The father seemed somewhat puzzled, but as the 

 first experiment had succeeded, he determined to try it in 

 this case also. Last of all the youngest daughter was to 

 be married, and, in utter despair, the poor father paid an- 

 other visit to Dishley to explain his perplexity. ' Well,' 

 said Bakewell, 'tell me honestly whether your income has 

 diminished by having reduced your farm by one-half.' The 

 father acknowledged he thought it had not. ' Then,' said 

 Bakewell, • you must give up another fourth of your farm, 

 and keep your house and the remaining 250 acres for your- 

 self, and, to tell you the truth, you will then have just such 

 a farm as your stock, your capital, and your head are fit 

 for, and will be a better and happier man than ever.' Old 

 Bakewell used to tell the story with great glee, and de- 

 clared his friend left as much stock and capital upon the 

 250 acres as he had ever had upon the 1,000, and, as he be- 

 lieved, made a better income out of it." 



We wish the rest of the pai)er was equal to this. 

 But in plain truth it is not. We allow Mr. Beasley 

 every credit for good intention and moral purpose. 

 His address, however, is vague and abounding in gene- 

 ralities that can make little or no permanent impres- 

 sion. He has been only too careful not to give the 

 least possible chagrin or alarm to anyone, and he be- 

 comes in proportion ineffective as he is inoffensive. 

 From such a man_ the world expected some far more 

 decisive dicta on the several duties of landlords and 



occupiers. We would echo his own words to him, and 

 counsel him the next time he addresses an agricul- 

 tural audience to speak out a little more freely, to 

 avoid " commonplaces," however excellent they may 

 be, and to take as his motto more " Attention to de- 

 tails." 



REPORT OF EXPERIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT 

 MANURES, ON PERMANENT MEADOW-LAND; 

 with Tabular Appendix. 

 By J. B. Lawes, F.R.S., F.C.S,, and Dr. J. H. (tilbert, 

 F.C.S. From the " Journal of the Royal Agricultural So- 

 ciety," Vol. xis., Part 2, and Vol. xx., parts 1 and 2. 

 (London : printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford street and 

 Chariny-cross.) 

 There are no better or more useful friends to agriculture 

 than the men who institute experiments such as those re- 

 corded in this volume. To the grazier they will prove inva- 

 luable, by showing not only what manures are beneficial to 

 pasture-lauds, but what are adapted to the production of the 

 moat nutritive plants, which spontaneously take the place of 

 the extirpated weeds. By following up the experiments of 

 these ingenious aud persevering savans, you may promote the 

 growth either of graminaceoua or leguminous vegetation, there 

 being a species of manure adapted to either. Complex as 

 the herbage of a pasture or meadow is, it is important that 

 those plants which afford the most nourishment should predo- 

 minate, and, above all, that promiscuous or useless weeds 

 should be exterminated. The increase of the former is sure 

 fo decrease in an equal proportion, if not entirely destroy, the 

 latter. The importance, therefore, of the Rothamsted Park 

 experiments and their results, as set forth at large in this 

 book, cannot be over-estimated. 



THE LARCH DISEASE, AND THE PRESENT CON- 

 DITION OF THE LARCH PLANTATIONS IN 

 GREAT BRITAIN. 

 By Charles McIntosii, Garden Architect, Landscape 



Gardener, &c., &c. 

 CWilliam Blackwood Sj' Sons, Edinburgh and London. 1860.^ 

 Can it indeed be true that a forest tree that has been ac- 

 climated for a century in tha United Kingdom, and especially 

 on the high grounds of Scotland, which approximate so near to 

 its native climate, is destined to become extinct ? We should 

 deeply regret that this, the most elegant of the Coniferse, 

 should be subject to such a fate ; aud we are glad to find that 

 the author of the work before us rejects the idea, and imputes 

 the decay of this useful tree to the change of soil at its 

 original introduction, from the Alpine heights of Switzerland 

 to the rich soil and murky climate of Wimbledon, where they 

 were first raised in this country, and from whence the stock 

 was distributed over the kingdom. It certainly is a remark- 

 able fact, that of the estimated number of twenty-eight 

 millions of larches planted by four landowners in Scotland 

 within a century, not fifty remain alive, although its natural 

 term of life is from 150 to 200 years in its native country. 

 This extinction of the larch in less than half its natural time 

 certainly indicates something wrong in either the soil, climate, 

 or treatment. Among the nine causes to which the author 

 ascribes the mischief, six are placed to the account of treat- 

 ment, and the other three to injury done by game and cattle, 

 the attacks of insects, and accidental misfortunes. The subject 

 ss important, as no other timber tree is so well adapted fcr 

 sleepers on railways as the larch. Mr. Mcintosh mentions, 

 some properties in Scotland, on which the loss will probably 

 amount to from £10,000 to £20,000, if the disease is not 

 arrested. 



HAND-BOOK OF THE MECHANICAL ARTS 

 CONCERNED IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND 

 ARRANGEMENT OF DWELLING-HOUSES AND 

 OTHER BUILDINGS, WITH PRACTICAL HINTS 

 ON ROAD-MAKING AND THE INCLOSING OP 

 LAND. 



By R. S. Burn, Engineer, one of the Authors of the " Book 

 of Farm Implements and Machines," and Author of 

 " Dwellings for the Working-classes." Second edition. 

 (W. Blackwood §■ Sons, Edinburgh and London. 1860.^ 

 Mr. Burn has done good service to those of his own pro- 



