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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



made the operator, upon his own resources, is a perfect 

 fallacy. Much has been written and urged with the best 

 intentions concerning the condition of the English 

 agricultural labourers. That their position is capable of 

 and demanding great improvement there cannot be a 

 question. The condition of the small farmers in Wales 

 is quite as much, and in some respects more, an object 

 for consideration. Their education is quite as imperfect, 

 their habits of life harder, their deprivations greater, their 

 returns more precarious. Take, as an example, a young 

 married man occupying a little farm of badly-cultivated 

 land, the extent of which may be fifty or sixty acres, his 

 capital as many pounds. According to the prevailing 

 custom of the country he is enabled to purchase at sales 

 by auction a portion of his stock of cattle, sheep, or 

 horses on credit. This is considered by him, being a bad 

 financier, a boon ; but it is his greatest enemy. For this 

 credit he has to pay a great per-centage, inasmuch that 

 it occasions great competition, and he bids far beyond 

 the intrinsic value of the lot ; and it often happens that 

 stock so purchased is sold to meet the payment, after six 

 months' keep, for very little more, and sometimes for 

 less, than it actually cost him. As to cultivating his 

 farm so that it will produce anything equivalent to the 

 quantity it is capable of producing, that is quite out of 

 the question. He grows a few acres of wheat at the 

 rate of ten or twelve bushels per acre, nearly the whole 

 of which is consumed by his family. Oats and barley 

 are cultivated without producing adequate returns. His 

 potato crop is simply a provision for his household, A 

 small quantity of butter finds its way to market; the 

 butter-milk is his principal beverage — " cwrw da" is to 

 him a phantom. A few sheep find their way to market, 

 also the oats and barley : in course of time perhaps a two 

 or three-years-old pony, and a few heifers which he has 

 contrived to keep alive, but in miserable condition, are 

 all condemned to make up the rent. Subsisting upon 

 the hardest fare, he tills the land himself, probably as- 

 sisted by wife (who works in the field), his sons, or 

 younger brothers. He cannot afford to purchase the 

 implements necessary for his use ; and even if he could, 

 on so small an occupation, the cost of many which are 

 necessary to successful husbandry would be greater than 

 the profits of his little farm would reimburse. The pur- 

 chase of artificial fertilizers is an item which his ex- 

 chequer cannot tolerate. Dependent solely upon his 

 owQ resources for manures which are never manufactured 

 to the best advantage, his land is very inadequately sup- 

 plied. These are not fictitious exaggerations : they are 

 facts well-known to all those who are conversant with 

 their present state. Providing the visionary phantoms 

 of those who advocate small farms as the means of im- 

 proving the condition of mechanics and labourers could 

 be realized, it would be highly gratifying to trace the 

 honest young labourer and his industrious wife from 

 servitude to a small farm, rising by degrees to the posi- 

 tion of the worthy farmer, supporting his family as be- 

 comes their station ; but, as a principle, the system will 

 not harmonize with reality, ostensibly from want of capi- 

 tal, and the impracticability of cultivating such small 

 farmsoa advantageous terms — an obstacle which must in- 



crease with thecustoms and improvements of modern days. 

 This is an era of progress. In every undertaking worthy 

 of notice, "Forward I" is the cry. The improvement of 

 waste lands has been a service of somewhat tedious adve.i- 

 ture. It appears that during the lengthened period of 14o 

 years 8,000,000 acres of land have been brought into cul- 

 tivation, and it is natural to conclude that this quantity 

 comprises generally the most favourable portion. Upon 

 this calculation, assuming 4,000,000 acres to represent 

 the quantity in England and Wales capable of cultiva- 

 tion, it will at a similar rate occupy 70 years more to 

 bring about that desirable object. But it is wanted more 

 speedily. We want extended opportunities for growing 

 corn, and most essentially for raising stock : the high 

 prices proclaim this, together with the gradually de- 

 creasing supplies as compared with the demand. 



Civilization is also intimately'connected with the culti- 

 vation of the soil. It may be almost invariably remarked 

 that in those districts where the soil is deficient in culti- 

 vation, the inhabitants partake in equal ratio with the 

 rude and uncultivated condition of their native land. 



Companies have been formed for most speculations 

 wherein considerable sums of money are capable of 

 being profitably invested, but not one company has ever 

 been established for the purpose of farming. This may 

 be opposed on the principle of monopoly ; but I contend 

 that it could not bear such a construction if properly 

 carried into effect. It would not be with an object to 

 secure the profits of a specific trade : quite the reverse. 

 It would be for the purpose of improving the cultivation 

 of land more effectually than it can be accomplished by 

 individual enterprise, and by so doing supplying the 

 wants of the community. The object of agricultural 

 companies would be for the purpose of cultivating lands 

 at present uncultivated, and lands which are badly, or as 

 it may be termed only partially cultivated, and which 

 latter does not produce one-fourth, perchance in some 

 cases one-sixth of what it may be made to produce. By 

 extensive improvements of this nature the advantages 

 would be diffused, not only in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, but throughout the kingdom. For these purposes 

 companies would combine many very important features. 

 The very best systems of agriculture would necessarily be 

 adopted; and in the event of badly-cultivated small 

 farms being included in the undertaking, the unsuccess- 

 ful occupants of those farms would be eligible for em- 

 ployment in various departments suited to their re- 

 spective abilities. They would not, in fact, under those 

 circumstances, be expelled from their homes, to which 

 they might be united by any associations of olden 

 times ; and with fixed salaries under the employment of 

 a company they would be in a far more prosperous con- 

 dition than toiling on their own account with precarious 

 profits. Their children likewise would be capable of 

 fulfilling the lighter occupations ; and being constantly 

 under the supervision of experienced teachers, the neces- 

 sary agents of a well-organized system, they would learn 

 to perform their various duties upon the most approved 

 principles. It is one of the prevailing difficulties con- 

 nected with the satisfactory working of education among 

 the rural classes, to combine the studies of the school- 



