THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR, 



87 



it is now said to be more Ihan'lbrty thousand 

 pounds, or exceeding two Imndred thousand dn]- 

 lars. In adding this great increase to his woallh, 

 Mr. Coke lias not made thousands poor, as he might 

 have done if his estate had been money, and tliat 

 money Iiad accumulated from use even at no more 

 than tlie lawful interest. The value of his prop- 

 erty has been increased in tlie course of the time 

 of his active life from thirty to forty fold; and no 

 human being under the sun is tlie poorer for it. 

 He iias lived all the time in a style of princely 

 magnificence ; and even what has been expended 

 in mere ornament lias made the world no poorer, 

 but dispensed favors to the poor who receive in tiie 

 expenditure not wliat is wrung from the hard hand 

 of labor, but the surplus that has been left after la- 

 bor had received its full remuneration. 



The wealth of Mr. Coke has been the increase 

 of the capital of thn country. The acre of ground 

 that is now worth twenty and thirty for one is 

 worth nothing lees to the community in which he 

 lives than to himself — its increased value tq, him is 

 also increased value to them. 



A great outlay uot lost. 



One point I would notice in the British improv- 

 ed system is the great outlay applied in tlie first 

 instance. To apply an expenditure greater than 

 the cost of the soil itself would be treated as an act 

 of temeritj' in this covintry by prudent cultivators, 

 which public opinion would tolerate only in such 

 as had plenty of money to throw away. The com- 

 mon man who should do it, in the fear that himself 

 and family would become a public charge, would 

 have iiis property and his person placed under 

 guardianship. The reason public opinion on this 

 subject has been opposed to the improvement is, 

 that in the first setlement of the country there was 

 no spare capital to authorize such an expenditure ; 

 and so long as there was new virgin soil to he oc- 

 cupied a man could gain little in attempting to im- 

 prove the soil already occupied. Yet the time haa 

 arrived when ii will come home to the business 

 and bosom of every farmer that there is a strong 

 necessity for improvement; and that without im- 

 provement the very best farms in the course of a 

 few years will become of little value. 



1 he discouraging prospect presented to him who 

 sees iiis arable, mowing and pasture grounds be- 

 coming year after year less productive, is a con- 

 stant obstacle in the way of every man's enjoy- 

 ment who has a concern for iiis own interest, and 

 the welfare of those who are his dependents. Such 

 a man may not have the capital to make desirable 

 improvements ; but it will be manifest if he shall 

 apply in labor and in the manure which labor can 

 procure to a single acre in a year what may be 

 worth the original value of the acre and thereby 

 increase the capacity of that acre for a series of 

 years, say for five successive crops in rotation, to 

 produce two, three, four and ten for one, that this 

 first improvement will make room and furnish aid 

 for the second, so that by the time his rotation 

 comes round with five improved acres in as many 

 years, the capital to commence a second rotation 

 with five times as many acres will be furnished 

 him from his own means. 



In Great Britain if a tenant rent a farm of a 

 thousand acres, it is expected he will find a capital 

 of twenty thousand dollars for the outlay. He must 

 have money to purchase his mnnure, his stock of 

 cattle, sheep, «Itc., his teams of iiorses, his farming 

 utensils, to pay his hired help, and for every thing 

 saving the naked soil and buildinjjs pertaining to 

 his establishment. A tenant in that country must 

 be a man of more wealth than we find the owners 

 of farms generally to be in this country. Such a 

 man, managing his atfairs witli the system and pru- 

 dence tnught by scientific men, may be as sure of 

 gaining wealth as in any otiier business. He can 

 see his way clear to discharge tlie great annual 

 rent, the expenses, and to regain the amount he has 

 expended in the outla}', besides adding by the time 

 of the expiration of Iiis lease other thousands 

 to his first investment. 



Great outlay of otir first settlers. 



In this country Iiundrcdi and thousands began 

 the business of farming with little or no property : 

 — the country was settled by men who made their 

 first pitch in the wood<? after having run in debt 

 for their land. They had no capital for outlay — 

 they had nof*the means to purciiase the most sim- 

 ple farming utensils, much less to buy ample stocks 

 of cattle and teams, and to hire laborers upon their 

 lands. Before they could prepare the land for a 

 crop, an expenditure in labor for clearing oft* the 

 immense trees of the forest must be made greater 

 than the value of the land itself. Here was a first 

 investment larger in amount in proportion to the 



ability tiian the iiighest investment of the British 

 tenant firmf^rs ; and could it be expected, when he 

 had gathi-red from the first fruits the means of a 

 comfortable living, that in his life-time he slmuld 

 volunteer to encounter a second expenditure on 

 the same ground greater than the first .^ The intiii 

 who first chopped the trees and gathered and roll- 

 ed together the large piles for conflagration — the 

 man who labored hard and long to obtain a first 

 crop to pay for his land, — may perhaps be excused 

 for dreading to make a second great outlay on the 

 ground he at first cleared when successive crops 

 ehall have exhausted its first fertility. His chil- 

 dren and successors will not bo entitled to so much 

 courtesy. Would theybe miserably poor, they may 

 continue on the same ground in a succession ofex- 

 hausting crops until necessity and poverty shall 

 drive tliem from it. If they have not capital for 

 an outlay equal to the British tenant, they may 

 have a mind to resolve, and strength and nerve of 

 arm to execute a determined renovation : they may 

 change the old husbandry for the new, and while 

 thpy give to their land a double, treble and con- 

 stantly increasing value, they will find the means 

 of competence enlarging and growing on every 

 liand. In many places of our country this work has 

 already commenced. The opportunity of obtaining 

 wealth is not given exclusively to the miser and 

 usurer who gains what others lose and gathers rich- 

 es by taking from the mouth of labor the bread it 

 has earned : it is extended to the farmer, who works 

 in the earth, who increases the capacity of the 

 earth toyield the foundation of all capital, the means 

 of man's sustenance. We sec such men in vari- 

 ous directions, the true conservators of our coun- 

 try, the men who make that which strengthens 

 them the means of strength to the country, who 

 are really doing the world a greater benefit than 

 their humble pretensions had ever aspired to be- 

 come the authors of. 



Division and application of labor. 



Another peculiarity in the system of husbandry 

 which has greatly elevated the character of British 

 Agriculture is the proper division and application 

 of labor. Their example in this respect may be 

 worthy of our imitation. I never wish to see the 

 time when the labor of human hands in this coun- 

 try shall be reduced to as low an ebb as it is in 

 Great Britain. The labor and support of a horse 

 there costs twice as much as it does here : the la- 

 bor of a man here is worth more than twice as 

 mvich as it is there. A revolting feature in tlie 

 character of the British government is that its ag- 

 ricultural labor is performed by men and women 

 who are treated generally little better than the ne- 

 gro slaves upon the cotton plantations of Alabama 

 and Mississippi, and not as well as the negro labor- 

 ers in Virginia and Marj'bmd — they are not paid 

 enough to feed them with meat, and they are 

 obliged to subsist on the refuse of the land which 

 is burdened with food for man by their means. They 

 are hnvvever hardly in as bad condition as the mis- 

 erable inmates of the manufacturing establishments. 

 Still there is something commendable in the sys- 

 tem and method by which the British farmers bring 

 forth a great product for a small amount of human 

 labor. 



Turnip Husbandry in England and 

 Scotland. 

 The farms in England and Scotland are man- 

 arrotl with a system whichis worthy of our imita- 

 tion. Their fu Id cultivation is difi'erent from ours 

 — other crops there supply the plnce of our Indian 

 corn, as potatoes, tares, turnips and green crops 

 generally, when they apply their manures. The 

 turnip crop, the common English turnip, in that 

 country has been the greatest instrument of reno- 

 vation in tho new husbandry, strange as it may 

 seem here where that vegetable is deemed to be of 

 little value. The turnip husbandr}' has added vast- 

 ly to the cattle and sheep of England and Scotland, 

 and has been a most potent agent to increase the 

 quantity of manures. It is fed out in the open fields 

 through the v/inter, except, which rarely happens, 

 the ground is covered w^ith snow : it is fed in the 

 field, being dug out of the ground as it is fed, the 

 cattle and sheep leaving at the place of feeding the 

 means of enriching the ground. Since the rota- 

 tion of crops, the turnip husbandry being adopted 

 in all cases of light soil before a white or iira\n crop, 

 a great portion of the feed ff cattle and sheep is sim- 

 ple English turnips. The climate of England dif- 

 fers t'rom ours in having much milder winters and 

 cooler summers — their vernal season is much more 

 wet than ours, and although they are several de- 

 grees further north, so mild is their climate in win- 

 ter that in the agricultural parts of England and a 

 great portion of Scotland there is 'not sullicient 

 frost to prevent tho feeding of turnips to the sheep 



until the time of sowing in the spring. The fields 

 for spring wheat are commonly cleared early in 

 the month of March. 



But tlie beauty of husbandry on the great Brit 

 ish farms is that every man and beast and imple 

 ment has the proper place. The ploughmen and 

 carters do little other work than that in which their 

 horses are engaged : all other v/ork is performed by 

 laborers either by the day or the job. In the spring 

 and summer the horses work ten hours per diem. 

 The ploughmen are in their stables a little after 

 four o'clock in the morning, to clean them out and 

 to dress and feed their horses. They start at work 

 by five — between seven and eight their breakfast, 

 consisting of milk and sometimes porridge, is sent 

 to them in the field. At ten the horses are unyok- 

 ed, and remain in the stable until two, when they 

 again start for the afternoon, which lasts till seven. 

 Thus the horsss rest during the day, and in the in- 

 terval thf ploughmen, by turns, cut clover or other 

 green Cvcii for the horses, which is carried home by 

 a supernumerary iiorse. In tlie winter, wiien the 

 weather admits, the horses are in yoke, with the 

 exception of one hour and a half in the middle of 

 the day, as long as there is day-light. 



By this regular course, witliout interference or 

 being called oif tor any other service, a single team 

 of horses is able to bring about an almost incredible 

 qviantity of work with the plough and cart in pre- 

 paring the ground and transporting manure. Fifty 

 acres of land to a team is considered an average 

 task for the season. When the wheat, ^the barley, 

 or other crop is to be got in, teams and laborers are 

 at work at the same time — the smooth fields, one 

 after the other as they are completed, make a most 

 beautiful and workmanlike appearance. So when 

 the ground is to be stirred and cleared of weeds, 

 the plough or drill harrow goes first, and the la- 

 borers, men, women and children, follow after to 

 clear and smooth off* whatever the instrument has 

 left : and in gathering the potatoes or other root 

 crops the plough and horses do the work of our 

 hands and hoes. When the wheat and barley har- 

 vest comes, every hand that can work is put in re- 

 quisition — the grain is gathered and secured in vast 

 stacks, when the business of thrashing and clean- 

 ing generally by machines becomes the work for 

 the winter. 



In the largest fanning establishments there is an 

 overseer of the wiiole, who is often the proprietor 

 of the lease. He has a most arduous duty to per"^ 

 form : he rises in the morning before day -light and 

 lays out the work for the day, pointing out tlie place 

 and duty of each and every laborer, and givingout 

 his orders in writing. The laborers are divided in- 

 to parties, each squad having a particular superin- 

 tendent under the direction of the main overseer. 

 Tiie latter in all busy times is on horse back in the 

 fielcf giving directions. Under such a superinten- 

 dence every one knows his duty ; and it is a mat- 

 ter of great difficulty for him or her to slight the 

 work or do lesstiian the ordinary task. 



Order and System, 



The greater order and regularity of the extend- 

 ed Britisli farm gives it a very decided advantage 

 over our farms for the performance of work in due 

 season, especially ploughing, sowing and planting. 

 A single field of wheat of an hundred acres and 

 more, the same amount of barley to follow, and 

 beans or potatoes to succeed the barley, and then 

 a field of turnips to follow the others — having each 

 attended to in its proper time — the whole is com- 

 pleted in that assured workm.anlike and proper 

 manner that makes a crop as certain as a favorable 

 season. 



Fidelity and Diligence rewarded. 



The low condition of the British agricultural la- 

 borers is such a condition as we would never de- 

 sire to see that of the most degraded class of la- 

 borrrs in this country. Happy is it for us that the 

 laws for the distribution of property give the poor 

 man here an equal chance with the rich ; and so 

 oreat is the encouragement to self dependence here 

 that the son of a poor man is quite as likely to be- 

 come a man of wealth and influence as the son of 

 the rich man. But there is among the laborers 

 upon British farms a commendable fidelity and in- 

 dustry which it may be well for all employed men 

 in this country to imitate. Those who labor in the 

 earth of this country for wages — the young man 

 who either serves under age in his father's employ- 

 ment or under the employment of another — may 

 by taught a lesson of fidelity and obedience by the 

 foreigners — that it can be no disparagement to their 

 independence or prosperity in after life, no reproach 

 to their character, and might be truly commenda- 

 ble, to follow. The young men who let out their 

 services on wages, tiie youth who are employed in 

 the service of farmers, in many cases do not pur- 



