■53-4 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XLIII. 



for the Chinese markets, while the fur of the remainder is used by the bat- 

 ters, fluctuates so much as to render tliis branch ot rural economy rather 

 precarious : vet fortunes have, nevertheless, been made by it. 



Tiie capital, including the purchase of the stock of rabbUs, and a whole 

 year's rent upon 1700 acres, was calculated, in 1813, at 1395/. 8.s. id., and 

 the profit estimated as follows : — 



Expenses.— Three regular warreners, with extra assistance £• s. c/. 



,,^^'''"-^' : 45]S 2 



Rentes li in n 



Winter food f^ 10 » 



Nets, traps, &c I, t t 



Delivery J' n n 



Rent, at 7s. per acre =^;^ " " 



Interest of capital, at 5 ptr cent. . . • f)J 5 U 



869 13 4 

 Produce.— 10.000 couple, at 2^. 4,/ ^^^^ ^^ "^ 



Balance £ 297 



Thus leavintr more than 20 per cent., besides the payment of common 

 interest: the'rent is, besides,— for such land,— extravagantly rated, and the 

 real profit is supposed to have been much greater than that stated*. 



Chapter XLIII. 

 ON FARM FENCES. 



Nothing contributes so much to the comfort, the convenience, and the 

 successful prosecution of the business of husbandry, as the proper subdi- 

 vision of farms with the fields separated by suitable and durable fences. 

 In looking over the earliest enclosed districts of this country, it would 

 appear that the fields were rather formed out of the original forests, than 

 that the intervening fences have been traced and planted by the hand of 

 man. No doubt the first paths and roads, and natural drains often deter- 

 mined the form and extent of arable fields, so that rectangular boundaries, 

 so convenient for the operation of the plough, could not in every instance 

 be attended to ; and therefore it is that we see an extravagant waste of 

 surface occupied with useless brushwood instead of an effective fence, and 

 at the same time serving as a nursery for the worst kinds of weeds and a 

 covert for the most mischievous of birds, insects, and other vermin. 



Tlie subdivisions of ancient farms, it is obvious, have, therefore, been 

 very cenerallv the work of accident rather than design — neither in due 

 proportions to the size of the fimn, nor to the best system of cropping 

 which experience may have determined to be proper. Every farm has 

 some local advantage or disadvantage, and the skilful cultivator will always 

 endeavour to secure the first and mitigate the last. Nothing can so much 

 facilitate and obtain these results as the proper size of his fields and the 

 direction of his fences. On the proportiona.e size of the fields the advan- 

 ta.o-es of a judicious rotation of cropping depends; and, by the direction of 

 the fences efficient drainage is secured. Few arable farms are so level as 

 that the direction or place of the boundaries is a matter of indifference. 



* Liucolnshire Report, p. 439. 



