726 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



lated to resist pressure ; and mortises, so likely to weaken the wood, should, as much as 

 possible, be avoided ; at the same time, implements should be made as light as is con- 

 sistent with the strength that is necessary. Their price should be such, that farmers in 

 moderate circumstances can afford to buy them ; yet for the sake of a low price, the ju- 

 dicious farmer will not purchase articles, either of a flimsy fabric, or a faulty form ; and 

 implements ought to be suited to the nature of the country, whether hilly or level, and 

 more especially to the quality of the soil ; for those which are calculated for light land, 

 will not answer equally well in soils that are heavy and adhesive. [Code.) 



4489. In the choice of seed corn regard must be had to procure it from a suitable soil 

 and climate, and of a suitable variety. A change from one soil to another of a different 

 quality, is generally found advantageous ; but this is not always the case as to climate. 

 Thus some of the varieties of oats, as the Angus oat, which answers well in most parts of 

 Scotland, is found not to fill in the ear, but to shrivel up after blossoming in the south of 

 England. In like manner, the wooUey-chafed white wheats of Essex and Kent, rot in 

 the ear, when grown in the moist climate of Lancashire. In settling on a farm in a coun- 

 try with which the farmer is little acquainted, he will often find it adviseable to select 

 the best seed he can find in the neighborhood, and probably to resift it and free it from the 

 seeds of weeds and imperfect grains. Particular care is requisite in selecting the seed of 

 the bean and pea, as no crop depends more on the variety being suited to the soil and cli- 

 mate. Thus, on hot gravelly soils in the south, the late grey pea would produce little 

 haulm and no pulse; but the early varieties, or the pearl pea, will produce a fair propor- 

 tion of both. 



4490. The only small seeds the farmer has to sow on a large scale, are the different va- 

 rieties of turnip, and probably the mangoldwurzel and carrot. No expense or trouble 

 should be spared to procure the best turnip seed; as if that is either mixed by impregna- 

 tion with other varieties of the Brassica tribe, or has been raised from a degenerate small 

 bulbed parentage, the progeny will never come to any size. The same may be said of 

 carrot or mangold seed, raised from small misshapen roots. Even rape seed should be 

 raised from the strongest and largest bulbed plants, as^ these always produce a stronger 

 progeny. 



4491 . Of the plants which the farmer has to choose for stock, the chief is the potatoe, and 

 every one knows that no circumstances in the soil, climate, or culture will compensate for 

 planting a bad sort. The potatoe requires a climate rather humid as otherwise , and 

 rather moderate and equable in temperature than hot : hence the best crops are found in 

 Lancashire, Dumfriesshire, and Ayrshire in Britain, and in Ireland where the climate is 

 every where moist. Excellently-flavored potatoes are also grown on mossy lands in most 

 parts of the country. The prudent farmer will be particularly careful in choosing this 

 description of plant stock, and also in changing it frequently so as to ensure prolificacy 

 and flavor. 



Sect. III. Of the Choice of Servants. 



4492. On the moral and prof essional character of his servants much of the comfort of the 

 farmer depends, and every one who has farmed near large towns, and at a distance from them, 

 knows how great the difference is in every description of laborers. The servants required 

 in farmeries are the bailiflf or head ploughman, common ploughmen, shepherds, laborers 

 of all work, herdsmen, and women. Sometimes apprentices and pupils are taken j but 

 their labor is not often to be much depended on. 



4493. A bailiff h required only in the largest description of farms, occupied by a pro- 

 fessional farmer ; and is not often required to act as market man. In general young men 

 are preferred, who look forward to higher situations, as gentlemen's bailiffs or land stew- 

 ards. Most farmers require only a head ploughman, who works the best pair of horses 

 and takes the lead of, and sets the example to, the other ploughmen in every descrip- 

 tion of work. 



4494. Ploughmen should, if possible, be yearly servants, unless they are married and 

 have families. Weekly or occasional ploughmen are found comparatively unsteady; they 

 are continually wandering from one master to another, and are very precarious supports 

 of a tillage farm : for they may quit their service at the most inconvenient time, unless 

 bribed by higher wages ; and the farmer may thus loose the benefit of the finest part of 

 the season. Where day laborers, however, are married, they are more to be depended 

 upon, than unmarried domestic servants, more especially when the laborer has a family, 

 which ties him down to regular industry. 



4495. The mode of hiring servants at what are called public statutes, so general in many 

 parts of England, is justly reprobated, as having a tendency to vitiate their minds, en- 

 abling them to get places without reference to character, exposing good servants to be 

 corrupted by the bad, promoting dissipation, and causing a cessation of country business 

 for some days, and an awkwardness in it for some time afterwards. When hiring servants, 

 it would be extremely important, if possible, to get rid of any injurious perquisites, which 



