188 AGEICULTURE. 



tioris upon it ; but no farmer who ever lived, ancient or 

 modern, has relied on it so little in practice. His boxed 

 bullocks, shedded sheep, and pampered pigs, are a standing 

 contradiction to his claim of a continuous yield of 16 bushels 

 per acre. This, according to Roman husbandry, would be 

 32 bushels per acre in alternate years ; with the addition 

 (which we cannot stop to calculate, but the data for the cal- 

 culation are given in Mr. Hux table's pamphlet) due to a 

 manuring once in six years. To Mr. Huxtable's assumption 

 we oppose Roman results. He cannot cultivate better than 

 they did ; and between the time of- Varro, and that of Colu- 

 mella, they reduced the yield from 23 bushes per acre to 

 about 12 ! What shall we say to Mr. Mechi ? Nine hundred 

 to a thousand quarters of corn bought annually for con- 

 sumption on a farm of 170 acres.* Does not the sbade of 

 old Cato haunt his dreams ? " Patrem familias vendacem 

 non emacem esse oportet." When we descend to instances 

 which are less controverted, we find that the practice of 

 Mr. Hutley in Essex, Mr. Hudson of Gastleacre, and, in 

 short, of every successful arable farmer in Norfolk, Lincoln- 

 shire, or the Lothians, is founded on conviction that land 

 which exports corn continuously is not self-sustaining. 

 Such of our agricultural readers as have the misfortune 

 or the advantage of forty years' recollection, will confirm 

 our statement that the great bulk of the English common 

 fields more particularly those which ran the rain off their 

 surface were, on the eve of enclosure, reduced to the 

 state, described by Columella, of a return of about four for 

 one. In fact, the common-field system, which was one of 

 a continuous carrying off of corn with no other aid but 

 fallowing, and a little light adventitious manure, soot, and 

 so forth, had worn itself out. 



And here we remark the great distinction between Roman 

 agriculture and ours. Theirs was correct, precise, regular, 

 persevering, careful, but altogether unelastic. Ours, coarse, 



* We speak on the authority of the " Times" Agricultural Commis- 

 sioner. 



