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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



EDUCATE YOUR FARMERS' SONS, AND 

 IMPROVE THE CONDITION OF THE 

 LABOURING CLASSES. 



At the meeting of the Bridgnorth Agricultural Society, 

 the Earl of Dartmouth said : 



He was tempted to ask their indulgence while he made a 

 few remarks which may possibly have a bearing upon 

 practical farming, of which perhaps every person in that 

 room was more qualified to speak than himself. He wished 

 to impress upon them how much the welfare of the country 

 generally, and the agricultural portion of the community 

 more especially, depended upon education. He believed it 

 was generally acknowledged that there were not the same 

 facilities for the tenant farmer to educate his children as 

 there were for almost every other class. He trusted, how- 

 ever, this evil was fast going away, and he would himself 

 do all in his power to promote a proper scheme of education. 

 But there was considerable doubt as to what was the proper 

 system. It had been urged — whether rightly or wrongly 

 he did not say— against some of the proposed measures, 

 that they were intended to adrance a particular party to 

 the church. He regretted that such an opinion should ever 

 have been entertained, and still more if there were any 

 grounds for such a belief. The evil example set by these 

 dissensions it would be well to avoid ; and endeavour to 

 profit by the mistakes of those who had attempted to 

 establish a good scheme of education. The education 

 they wanted was not that kind of over education which 

 unfits a man for his station, puffs him up, makes him proud 

 to those of his own class, overbearing to those he may con- 

 sider his inferiors, insulting to his superiors, and an useless 

 member of society. What is wanted is a good, sound, 

 practical, and religious education, which should make a man 

 a good christian, and that should give him— whatever his 

 station may be— some of the feelings of a gentleman. No 

 man, he contended, could do his duty properly unless pro- 

 pcrlj' taught. For instance, it was only by education, that 

 the sons of farmers could do their work thoroughlj'. They 

 should have what by some was called a smattering of the 

 elements of chemistry, so as to ascertain for themselves 

 what kind of manure was best suited to the geologj- of their 

 farms ; what sort of crop most exhausted the soil ; and 

 what was best adapted to recover the land fi-om its exhausted 

 state. The farmer's son should also know how to keep a 

 clear and correct account against himself and against his 

 farm ; he ought also to acquire a knowledge of common 

 things. He (the noble Chairman) said it without any- 

 thing like reproach, but he thought it would be well if 

 tenants' sons knew if corn ricks were left in the field for 

 an unlimited period they would find rats there when they 

 remove it. It would be also well to learn that dead stufiF 

 put into a live hedge will not grow ; and that a hedge 

 planted upon a bank would not have the same chance of 

 vegetating as if planted on lower ground. He also thought 

 they should be taught — for some of them may become parish 

 officers— that the best material for mending roads is not 

 soft sand, even if there were large round stones plentifully- 

 strewn about it. It was also important to teach them that 

 good crops and weeds could not exist together, even where 

 the land was highly manured. The chairman said he was 

 not a practical farmer : these were merely a few things 

 •which had struck him ; and these suggestions he threw out 

 to show them what might be done under an improved system 

 of education. Descending a little lower, he would for a 



moment speak of the labomers ; and being connetieu with 

 a large and populous manufacturing district, he believed 

 that everyone in his station should take all the opportuni- 

 ties he possibly could of improving the condition of our 

 labouring classes. How could they expect that a man 

 should go fresh to his day's labour, if he rose from a squalid 

 bed in an ill-ventilated chamber, where, it may be, his wife 

 and family had slept too ? Men would always leave their 

 homes for the beer-shop unless their homes were made 

 happy and comfortable. What could be expected but that 

 a man should leave his wretched home for the beer-house 

 which was well lighted and warm ? But he here met with 

 dissolute companions ; and in addition to not giving his 

 master a proper return for his wages, he often became a 

 poacher and vagabond, if not something worse. The value 

 of education was exemplified by Lord Hatherton's school? 

 where the boys received instruction for two hours — from six 

 to eight — before going to work, and they did more work 

 than those who worked longer, but did not go to school. 



PRACTICAL TESTIMONY TO THE VALUE 

 OF THE STEAM PLOUGH.— Almost at the close of 

 the Evesham Society's meeting, where practical discussion 

 elicited much valuable agricultural information, Mr. Ran- 

 dell was called on to give his experience in the use and 

 value of the steam plough. He said : Although late in the 

 evening, he would most willingly^ state what few facts he 

 had gathered from his experience of steam ploughing so far. 

 The quantity of land which they could plough per day when 

 regularly employed at work was, including stoppages, about 

 four acres. The cost of this in labour, coal, blacksmith's 

 work, and so forth, was nearly as possible £1 per day, or 

 OS. per acre. The cost of the steam engine, with the 

 plough and apparatus, was about £400; and the question 

 then was, what interest should be charged upon it, in- 

 cluding wear and tear. He had fixed 15 per cent., which 

 would amount to about £60 ; and supposing the plough was 

 worked 150 days in the year, and accomplishing in that I 

 time something like 500 acres of ploughing, it would 

 amount to 2s. 6d. more, or, in the whole, to 7s. 6d. per 

 acre. But it was most important to consider the manner in 

 which the ground was left after the ploughing. It was not 

 merely that the land had been ploughed, but it had been 

 ploughed back again, as it were; and the "scutch," 

 instead of being buried at the bottom, was brought to the 

 surface, where it was left. If they could not, therefore, 

 keep their land clean after the use of such an instrument, 

 they must be very clumsy fellows indeed. Upon clay land 

 the advantages were greater than upon such land as they 

 had tried it on that day. He had broken up hilly land this 

 year with the steam plough which he could not have done 

 with horse labour, and a fallow had thus been made most 

 effectually; indeed, it was the best piece of agriculture he 

 had ever accomplished. As regarded the supply of a 

 liberal quantity of manure to the land, he would state that 

 that field never had manure upon it in the memory of man, 

 yet it had grown wheat, at twelve bags to the acre. His 

 impression was, that clay land could be farmed, in many 

 respects, without manure. He was so delighted with the 

 steam plough, and had such a sense of obligation to the in- 

 ventors, that he could not find words to express his ad- 

 miration of its merits. He was quite satisfied he should 

 now make a farmer. 



