Time of Entry on Farms. 311 



XII. — Time of Entry on Farms. By the Rev. William 

 Holt Beevor, 



Prize Essay. 



The comparative advantages of entering- upon a farm in Spring, 

 and in Autumn, depend mainly upon the nature of the farm. The 

 Dairy farmer obviously would prefer to enter upon his new taking 

 at a season when he would have the summer grass before him, with 

 the opportunity of raising turnips and beet-root for the winter. 



For entering upon a farm altogether or nearly all arable, 

 Autumn undoubtedly is the season, as there is the winter before 

 the in-comer for preparing the land in a way that he cannot 

 expect from the outgoing tenant except under the rarest circum- 

 stances. 



To the Pastoral farmer, whose occupation is the rearing of 

 sheep and cattle, it is of the same clear advantage as to the dairy 

 farmer to enter upon the houses and the grass at Lady-day, so 

 as to have the summer before him for grazing, haymaking, and 

 the growing of root-crops. 



What we have to consider, then, resolves itself to the question 

 of entering upon a farm of mixed husbandry, which embraces all 

 sorts of farming practised in the country, and which is at once the 

 safest and the most usual mode of farming. In this case also we 

 are of opinion that it is decidedly more advantageous to the new 

 tenant to enter in autumn than in spring. 



When we speak of entry in the spring, we mean an entire 

 entry ; as when we speak of an autumnal entry, we mean an 

 entire entry upon the farm at the separation of the crops. 



The most convenient mode of entry is, doubtless, to come 

 into the houses and grass at Lady-day and to the land at 

 Michaelmas ; or, what is much the same thing in all essential 

 points of view, to the houses and grass at Whit-sunday, and to 

 the land at the separation of the crop from the ground. 



AVhat I regard as the question set for consideration, is that of 

 the comparative advantages of an entire entry in spring and in 

 autumn. In this consideration, I give a decided preference to an 

 entire entry in Autumn, at the separation of the crop from the 

 ground, rather than an entire entry in spring, at Candlemas, or 

 Lady-day. Much depends, of course, upon the different customs 

 and practices of different counties ; such as whether there be 

 allowed compensation for unexhausted improvements to the out- 

 going tenant, and what length of time ; whether too the straw, hay, 

 turnips, &c., can be sold off the premises, or are left by covenant 

 to the in-coming tenant under certain reasonable conditions. 



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