212 AGRICULTUKE. 



be reasonable, which we have no reason to doubt, that 

 should he attempt to act on his own illustration, it will 

 break down under him. He shall be a fortunate youth 

 just popped into the occupation of land at 28s. 4</. per 

 acre rent and taxes, free from couch, the natural produce 

 of which is 1 6 bushels of wheat per acre. We will not 

 inquire into the previous history of the land. Mr. Hux- 

 table shall occupy it as he proposes, and at the end of the 

 first year, when he has paid 10s. for management, and 12s. 

 for interest, repairs, and replacement of implements, 

 horses, and machinery, which payments he cannot escape, 

 he will remain with 16s. Qd. in hand, and there we advise 

 him to keep it, for it will soon be required. Does he 

 think, that when for four or five years in succession he has 

 grown a wheat crop with one ploughing, given as a seed- 

 furrow in the months of October or November, with as 

 much money expended in hoeing as it can claim from the 

 charge " birdcatching and hoeing 5s." (for we are not told 

 on what terms these two items associate), his land will still 

 remain free from couch ? How much of his precious am- 

 monia will, after the first year, have been occupied in 

 growing weeds and not wheat? To what amount will 32 

 bushels per acre have dwindled ? Will the land in five 

 years be anything but a mat of weeds ? Will anything 

 less than the accumulated sixteen-and-sixes restore it to 

 its former state of purity ? We really thought that grow- 

 ing successive corn crops had gone out of fashion even as 

 an illustration. We hope that Mr. Huxtable will not 

 think that we trespass on his province when we remind 

 him "Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to 

 thee." " Tn the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." 

 He appears to us to propose to eat bread without the 

 sweat of his face. He says this is " not certainly an in- 

 stance of good husbandry." Certainly not, for it will not 

 pay. But it is not even a good illustration, for it will not 

 work. The land under this management will not produce 

 permanently 32 bushels. After five years it might graze 



