HIGH FARMING. 207 



farming, because there is no loss. It is a favourable 

 specimen of amateur farming, because the amusement 

 costs nothing. This is an instance founded on existing 

 prices ; and the circumstance that it turns out about a 

 drawn game renders it, perhaps, the more suited to our 

 purpose, because it places in the simplest form before our 

 readers the only elements on which success depends the 

 cost of the operation and the value of the increased pro- 

 duce. If Peruvian guano should fall fifty per cent, (the 

 market value of hay remaining constant), then, buying hay 

 at a little above 30s. per ton, and selling it at 60s., we should 

 enjoy a profitable trade. If guano should rise fifty per 

 cent., buying at 90s. and selling it at 60s., we should 

 be speedily ruined. And, on the other hand, guano 

 remaining constant, variations in the market value of hay 

 would produce corresponding results. If all the operations 

 of high farming could be reduced to this simple form, there 

 would be, no doubt, no dispute. The oracle from Auchness 

 would have been silent ; the Times would not have 

 commissioned ; Huxtable would not have preached ; Por- 

 cius would not have grunted ; Milne would not have 

 reported ; Pusey would not have moderated ; and we 

 should not have written this article. But unfortunately, 

 the complications of high farming are very numerous and 

 very difficult to define. We will only state two instances. 

 Every agriculturist knows that a Dr. and Cr. account of 

 all the stall-fed cattle in Great Britain would exhibit a 

 large balance of loss. It is possible, though not very easy 

 to determine, that the money which is lost on the bullock 

 is received back with usury in the barley ; but in the case 

 of a progressive farm there will always be abundant scope 

 for difference of opinion on .the question, whether the 

 balance which is lost at the banker's can be found in the 

 land ? Any man who undertakes to make a balance-sheet 

 on either a progressive or on a retrogressive farm will find 

 himself frequently at fault. The question of capital and 

 revenue will constantly occur'. He will find that it is as 



