The Mismanageinent of Landed Property. 363 



promotes population, but that of men wlio have families, and 

 this circumstance must operate strongly in giving so great 

 a superiority to large farms." 



But what most astonished Young, while it confirmed his 

 views in favour of large farms, was the regular increase in 

 producing capabilities of the various holdings in direct ratio 

 to their rents. Farms from £50 to £100 per annum averaged 

 a yield of 27 bushels per acre of corn and pulse ; those from 

 £100 to £200, 28 bushels ; those from £200 to £300, 29 bushels 

 and those above £300, 34 bushels, and wherever the rents 

 were low he found the husbandman a sloven. This induced 

 him to preach the harsh doctrine of high rents and low wages, 

 for which he is more than once taken to task by fellow 

 agriculturists in their correspondence with the Board of 

 Agriculture.^ 



The fashion of sowing considerable quantities of super- 

 fluous seed per acre seems to have been general, though of 

 course the broadcast system requires more than that of the 

 drill. It is doubtful if the following table of Young taught 

 the husbandman to mend this practice. 



* Vide, for example, the Report from Cheshire, 1794. 



