43 



iu drainage, road.s, buildings, clearances, and machinery. So tliat in his 

 exhibit as tenant-fanner, he charges himself with an annual rent of £2 

 per acre. His capital as tenant, December 31, 18G<S, averaged i^er acre, 

 is stated thus : Live stock, £G 10s.; farm-houses, £1 Is.; tillage, manure, 

 &c., £o 15s. Gd.; implements and machinery, £2 10s.; hay, corn, &c., 

 unsold, £2 5s. Total per acre, £1G Is. Gd. The items for live stock 

 a]id tillage may seem large, but the considerable amount invested iu 

 live stock, fed mostly on purchased food, is the key to his large and 

 frequent crops and net profit; tlie large item of tillage, »S:c,, arising 

 from very deep cultivation, and much larger applications of rich oil-cake 

 and corn maniu'e than are generally administered. These methods of 

 outlay account for his production of forty tons of mangold per acre in 

 1800, and for his frefpient production of forty-eight to sixty-four bushels 

 of wheat. Although the season of 1S09 was not a good one, his best 

 two fields of white wheat produced forty-eiglit bushels per acre. 



His statement shows a capital of about £7,800 invested in the farm, 

 for which he charges a landlord's rental of £2 per acre, or nearly four 

 and a half per cent. He employs also a tenant's capital of £2,720, from 

 which he obtains a profit of moi:e than £200, or nearly ten per cent. In 

 a series of years this profit ranges from eight to fifteen per cent. 



But as more outlay for live stock and purchased food is needed to main- 

 tain naturally poor soils in the desired condition of fertility than is 

 required on richer lands, his experience has convinced him that on such 

 land as his own, he could do much better with a capital of £20 to £25 

 per acre than with £16 per acre. Many farmers iu Norfolk and Lincoln- 

 shire employ a capital of £20 to £30 per acre advantageously. 



In respect to the preparation of the soil, Mr. Mechi continues : 



To farm to the greatest advantage, the soil aud siihsoil, to the depth of three feet, 

 shouhl be well manured ; now we only manure the top five or six inches. Our root and 

 green crops can never be over-manured, for they feed in the deep subsoil, when in a 

 fit condition. Market gardeners understand this well ; and around the metropolis they 

 easily grow seventy tons of mangolds j)er acre, and other crops in proportion. 



These are his views upon the economical restoration of land : 



Poor land may be almost immediately made fertile by hea's^ily folding with sheep, 

 consuming £10 or £1.5 worth per acre of oil-cake, corn, hay, roots, &.C., not the prod- 

 uce of the land upon which the sheep are placed ; supposing that there should be a 

 loss even of £3 to £5 per acre, great vnll be the after gain. This system requires cajii- 

 tal ; but where there is capital it is far cheaper than guano or other artificials. AVhere 

 my forty tons of mangolds per acre grew this year, tlie land was autumn-manured with 

 shed manure, at the rate of £"2U Avorth of oil-cake, &c., consumed for every acre 

 manured, and some guano iu addition. This is what I call capital farming, as well as 

 farming with capital. It is the true way to make laud jiay. 



On the 45,000,000 acres, round niunbers, available for cultivation in 

 the kingdom, Mr. Mechi estimates the land-owner's capital to average 

 £33 i)er acre, with an annual rent of 25s. ; while the tenant-farmer's 

 capital can hardly reach an average of £5 per acre, calculated on this 

 entire available area. The gross salable yearly product he estimates 

 to average, on a liberal calculation, less than £1 per acre, being a total 

 agricultural product of £182,000,000 to a population of 32,000,000, or 

 less than £6 per individual inhabitant. 



He regards it as a disgrace to Great Britain, that, while 80,000,000 

 of bushels of foreign wheat are required annually, about one-half, or 

 22,000,000 acres, of the available acreage remains in primitive pasturage, 

 producing a minimum of food, and employing a minimum of labor 

 probably not more than 40s. to 50s. worth of food per acre, while 

 their latent capacity is indicated b^> the fact that on his own naturally 

 poor soil he has frequently realized £15 to £26 per acre iu grain aud 

 straw. 



