1188 STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. Part IV. 



vidual, the hope of bettering his condition in life is : it cheers him in adversity, encourages his industry, 

 promotes his content, yet from this hope the major part of the agricultural laborers of England are 

 excluded ; they toil indeed, but it is to continue, not to better their existence." {Essay on the beneficial 

 direction of rural expenditure, p. 170. ; see also the succeeding chapters of these judicious and intelligent 

 essays.) 



7169. The plan qf life for the directive class q/" a^r/'cw/^Mm^s need hardly be pointed out ; the rise from 

 a farm bailiff to a steward's bailiff, or to a demesne bailiff or steward, and thence to the general steward or. 

 factor of an estate, is an obvious object of ambition. In another direction he may rise through the differ- 

 ent gradations of the commercial agriculturist, or, adopting the rcjnk of counsellor or artist, he may be- 

 come a salesman, appraiser, timber or land-surveyor, land-valuer, agent, or agricultural engineer : rarely, 

 however, can he attempt the veterinary profession, or those of draftsman, author, or professor. 



7170. The remuneration to which a directive agriculturist is naturally entitled, should be regulated by his 

 professional abilities and experience ; that which he will commonly receive will be regulated by the 

 quantity of agricultural talent and experience in the market ; it ought always to be such as will preserve 

 him in a distinct class from the operatives, and render it worth his while to be honest, assiduously atten- 

 tive to the interest of his employer, and of a polite and obliging manner. A handsome salary to such a 

 servant is wise economy. 



7171. The object of the artist or counsellor agriculturist, may be either to ascend to the rank of author or 

 professor, conditions of more honor than profit ; or to realize property and become a proprietor cultivator. 

 For a rent-paying farmer, no artist or author is at all adapted. 



7172. The legitimate object of a commercial agriculturist is to rise in the different grades of his class, and 

 become either a large farmer, a gentleman farmer, or, best of all, a yeoman, or proprietor cultivator [pro- 

 prietaire cultivateur). 



7173. The profits to which a commercial agriculturist is entitled, comparatively to that of 

 other commercial men, are theoretically determinable by the risk attending the employ- 

 ment of his capital, and the skill requisite to prosecute his art; but practically, this remu- 

 neration will depend on the quantity of skill and capital in the market. The risk attending 

 capital employed in the culture of the useful products of the soil , is evidently less than the 

 risk of capital employed in many or perhaps most manufactures ; and the skill requisite 

 to enable any one to become a farmer, according to the customary practices of the 

 country surrounding him, is less than that required for almost any branch of manufac- 

 ture. In consequence of these things, there are men every where ready to become 

 farmers ; hence the profits of farming are naturally less than those of most other pur- 

 suits ; but to counterbalance this, the farmer has several advantages peculiar to his 

 profession, First, from the nature of his residence in the country, which assumes a cer- 

 tain degree of consequence, from its connection with a considerable group of out-offices ; 

 these, surrounded by a garden, orchard, fields, woods, and other rural scenery, all in his 

 occupation, and inhabited by servants in cottages, horses, cattle, sheep, and other domestic 

 animals, all in subjection to him ; all these things give him a degree of consequence both 

 real and apparent, and assimilate him more nearly to a lord of the soil, and to that sort of 

 rural retirement and independence, the object of almost every commercial man's ambition, 

 than any other mode of life short of the thing itself. Secondly , many trades and professions 

 preclude (according to general prejudices) their followers from being gentlemen ; whereas, 

 though every farmer is not a gentleman, yet any gentleman may become a farmer, 

 without in any degree lowering his rank and character ; a farmer may, therefore, if he 

 chooses to adopt the habits and manners of a gentleman, be reckoned as such. 

 Thirdly, the farmer's products are in universal demand, and he is sure of a market at 

 some reasonable rate, a fact otherwise with many manufactures. Fourthly, he is sure 

 of a home, of the necessaries of life, and in general, of most vigorous health. Fifthly, 

 he is generally a man of more parochial influence than the tradesman or manufacturer. 



7174. No farmer ever makes a fortune by his profession : the utmost exertions of the 

 most skilful and industrious men in the most improved districts, seldom do more than 

 enable them to keep pace with the times; and the great majority, in all countries, lead a 

 life of great labor and anxiety, and end as they began. No farmer, in a general way, 

 can raise more than one corn crop in a year, and in this respect, the farmer of Russia 

 and Poland has the advantage of the British farmer ; for the lands of the former being 

 *from five to eight months under snow, all root-weeds are destroyed, and the ground so 

 loosened by the frosts and thaws, as to require very little stirring for the seed ; the rapid 

 summer which succeeds ripens all annual plants that will grow there, nearly as well as in 

 England, and better than in many parts of Scotland and Ireland. The British farmers, 

 however, have the great advantage of perpetual pastures, owing to the mildness of our 

 winters, but still no art of mail will shorten the period of animal gestation, and originate 

 a lamb or a calf in shorter periods than 5 months and 40 weeks. How often does the 

 tradesman or manufacturer turn his capital in that time ? ITiere are three varieties of 

 professional farmers, however, which occasionally realize some property ; the grazier 

 who feeds with oil cake, grains, and other artifical foods ; the dealer in corn or cattle, 

 who has the art to buy at a falling and sell at a rising market; and the dealer or jobber in 

 farms, who sublets or sells his lease, or in purchases of land, who subdivides and sells es- 

 tates. The profits of the first are not great, and those of the two last are attended with 

 great risk : the only farmer whose lot is to be envied, lives under a landlord who does not 

 take the full marketable price for his lands : such as Burdet, Coke, Bedford, Northum- 

 berland, and many others in the south, but few in the north or the west. 



