Reviews of Books. 57 



kinds of farmiug, rotatiou of crops, live stock, capital necessary to farm 

 profitably along with a thoroughly trained knowledge of husbandry, economy 

 of properly laid-off fields and fences, the laying out and construction of farm 

 roads, reclamation of waste land, the relation and duties to each other of the 

 landlord, factor, overseer, tenant, and labourer ; leases and their advantages, 

 the laying out and construction of estate roads and fences, selecting a site for 

 the farm buildings, and theirproperarrangement, illustrated with twoexcellent 

 l^lans; desiguingof cottages andfarmhouses, watersupply,and theconstruction 

 of ponds and reservoirs ; enclosing lands from the sea, river embankments, dif- 

 ferent systems ofirrigating land; plantations for shelter and timber, and the great 

 importance of selecting the kinds of trees best suited to the soil, climate, &c. ; 

 drainage and deep culture of the soil; farmyard manure and compost heaps ; 

 lime audits uses in improving land, mixing of different soils to improve the 

 staple, treatment of pasture lauds, modes of reclaiming various kinds of lauds 

 and their after cultivation, thick and thin sowing of seeds, the great import- 

 ance of good breeds of live stock and their proper treatment, and the improve- 

 ment of exhausted or neglected property, which forms the theme of the con- 

 cluding chapter, in which the author makes the following judicious remarks:^ 

 " Where an estate has been allowed, through a variety of circumstances — 

 some of which will at once suggest themselves to the reader — to be 

 thoroughly worked out, and to have nearly all its departments in a condi- 

 tion the very reverse of well-managed property, it will be a fortunate cir- 

 cumstance for those who are afterwards to inherit it, by right of descent or 

 by purchase, as the case may be, that ' something should happen ' which 

 will permit of its falling into the hands of those who will be inclined to do 

 it justice, and have it brought up to the present standard of modern farming 

 and estate management. Some of our readers new to the subject may be 

 surprised to learn that in our country there should be any estates in the 

 condition we have hiuted at ; but to those whose duties take them amongst 

 farms, &c., &c., the statement will be no new thing, nor will it create sur- 

 prise ; indeed, a very eminent public personage, who knows the subject 

 well, has stated that, taking the farms of Great Britain all round, by a higher 

 style of cultivation and general management their productive powers could 

 be increased fifty per cent. This, however, like such broad statements 

 generally, must be taken with a reservation ; but its main principle is 

 correct, and it will indicate to the student that, considering the large num- 

 ber of estates and home farms splendidly managed and cultivated, the 

 number of those in the opposite category, with a hint at which we opened 

 this section, must be very great. 



" In commencing the work of improvement of an estate, the proprietor, if 

 a wise man, will ascertain before taking any other steps how much money 

 will be required to do justice to the improvement ; and if he finds 

 that he has not sufficient to apply this to the whole area of the estate, he 

 will act wisely in appropriating the amount he can spare to improving 

 thoroughly a small part of it, instead of only half — or perhaps in less propor- 

 tion than this — improving the whole. To nothing is the axiom, ' If a thing is 

 worth doing at all, it is worth doing thoroughly well,' so applicable as to 

 the soil, — an axiom too often forgotten by both proprietors and farmers, and 

 which largely accounts for that deterioration of estates now under con- 

 sideration." 



Such is an epitome of this useful and handy treatise, giving needful hints 

 and suggestions to landlords, estate managers, tenants, labourers, and others 

 whose duties are in any way connected with the management and working 

 of lauded property, and for whose special benefit and ready reference it is 

 remarkably well adapted. 



