1868. ] Agriculture. 203 
Mr. W. Davison lately read a paper on the “ Waste Lands of Ireland ” 
at the former club, wherein land-drainage, for which Government 
aid is offered, was described and recommended, along with the sub- 
sequent cultivation of rape and other green crops; and the granting 
of long leases, for the encouragement of tenants with capital, was 
urged upon the landlord. As to the ultimate advantage of the 
process to all concerned, he quoted an instance where land, the 
property of Mr. La Touche, worth 5s. an acre, had been let, after 
1,8002. had been spent on 140 acres of it, at 22s. an acre to a 
tenant, who was shortly afterwards offered 400. for his interest in 
it. It is the relation of landlord and tenant, after all, which is at 
the bottom of all agricultural energy and enterprise. 
The Morayshire Farmers’ Club, which has heretofore taken the 
lead in introducing many agricultural improvements, was lately 
addressed by Mr. Geddes, of Orbliston, on the vexatious cropping 
clauses in leases, which often hinder the full use by the tenant of both 
his capital and his intelligence. He stated it as matter, not merely 
of opinion but of fact, which had arisen within his own experience, 
that land, however well cleaned and manured, tires of the same con- 
tinued round of crops which the lease prescribes; that those who 
have most liberty of action in regard to the cultivation of the land, 
obtain the most produce and maintain the highest fertility, and are 
thus most serviceable to the country, the landowner, and themselves. 
He pointed out the Lothians as an example of the profits arising 
to everybody from liberal cropping clauses in agricultural leases. 
Elsewhere there is as good a climate and soil, originally as fertile, 
and where freedom and scope in the management of the land is given 
to the intelligence and enterprise of the tenantry, a larger capital 
will be attracted to the work of cultivation of it, larger produce will 
be obtained from it, and larger rents will be given for it. 
At Cirencester, the other day, a very interesting lecture was 
given by Professor Wrightson, of the Royal Agricultural College 
there, before the Chamber of Agriculture, on the use to be made of 
books by practical farmers. He declared, from personal experience, 
that much time is lost in agricultural education from the student 
resident on a farm receiving no such preliminary instruction as 
books would give him, but being suffered to wander from field to 
field to gather such information as unassisted observation might 
give him. At the Central London Farmers’ Club, steam cultiva- 
tion, the risks of the foreign cattle trade, the policy or impolicy of 
a compulsory system for the education of country children, the ad- 
vantages of the American cheese factory over ordinary English dairy 
management, the influences of railways upon agriculture, and the 
undeveloped power of British agriculture are among the subjects 
named for discussion during the year. The Chambers of Agricul- 
ture are engaged with the impolicy of the turnpike system and the 
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