170 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



He concludes by showing how lie proceeded to 

 improve the condition of the small liirmers on 

 Jjord Gosford's estate. 



" In this, I hope, I have at least so far succeeded as 

 in some degree to weaken your attachments to old cus- 

 toms, and dispose you to follow such instructions as 

 may be given to you ; and in order to set aside any 

 excuses that might be made, either on account of ig- 

 norance or inability, I have, with the concurrence of 

 your landlords, engaged two Scotch farmers, or agri- 

 culturists, for the purpose of giving the instructions 

 you so much require. You will find them to be prac- 

 tical men, who have had experience of every j<ind of 

 soil, and know how each should be treated. After 

 minutely examining your different farms, they will 

 point out to you how they are to be drained, cleaned, 

 and prepared for the growth of green crops, so as to 

 introduce the plan of house-feeding and accumulating 

 of manure, which has been already insisted on. Thus 

 your want of skill in the management of your land will 

 at once be remedied ; and then, to provide you with 



which may call for the introduction of other crops. 

 Thus cabbage, field peas and beans, mangel wurzel, 

 and many other things which I have not taken into ac- 

 count, may, in many cases, be found more desirable 

 than those I have adopted. Where manure is scarce, 

 kale, and thousand-headed cabbage, are particularly 

 valuable ; they will grow with great luxuriance upon 

 the back of a new made ditch, without manure of any 

 kind, which proves that nothing more is required to 

 insure a crop than to turn up new earth, by deeply 

 trenching the ground before the frost sets in. Curled 

 kale should be sown the last week in July, or the first 

 week in August, and planted out as early in March as 

 any soft weather takes place; thousand-headed cab- 

 bage should be sown in March, and planted out in 

 June or July, as soon as the plants are sufficiently 

 grown; both will give a plentiful crop of leaves at 

 November, and also the following spring, besides giv- 

 ing a large after-cutting, in the manner of rape, when 

 shooting up to go to seed. But, in whatever way the 

 object is accomplished, still the principle of house- 

 feeding, and a rotation of crops, must be equally at- 

 tended to. 



"I am fully aware that a person whose resources 

 enable him to buy lime or other manure, may at once 

 succeed in making his entire farm productive, without 

 waiting for the slower process, which, to his poorer 

 neighbor, may be quite indispensable ; but the person 

 with such resources, although he may hold a small 

 farm, does not fairly belong to the class of those by 

 whom the question was supposed to be put, and the 

 answer therefore seems properly restricted to the sin- 

 gle object of showing all those to whom it was ad- 

 dressed, that they might get on by their own industry, 

 without any outlay beyond the means they may be 

 fairly supposed to possess ; and that if they do not bet- 

 ter their situations, it is not by reason of 'its being out 

 of their power so to do: such being the case, persons 

 so circumstanced, I trust, will not shut their eyes to 

 what is so plainly for their advantage to see. If their 

 farms should be somewhat larger than the case stated, 

 it may perhaps take a little longer time to bring them 

 round, but still the improvement will be progressive, 

 and they will be encouraged as thev proceed, by see- 

 ing that every step is not only attended with its own 

 peculiar advantages, but likewise facilitates that which 

 is to follow; and I therefore cannot but hope, that any 

 among you whose cases may resemble that which has 

 been stated, may be induced to take what has been 

 said into their most serious consideration, and to try 

 the effect of the proposed change in their system of 

 cultivation, notwithstanding the obstacles which may 

 be started by those who are too indolent to exert 

 themselves, or so much prejudiced in favor of old ha- 

 bits as to think they cannot be improved." 



[No. 3 



manure, (the want of which, at present, I am aware 

 would incapacitate you from cultivating the crops re- 

 commended,) your "landlords have kindly consented to 

 lend such of you as may require assistance, as much 

 lime as will be sufficient to insure you as many pota- 

 toes as you may require for your families ; on condi- 

 tion that the house manure you may be possessed of 

 shall go to the other crops which the agriculturist may 

 point out. Thus nothing will be wanting to the per- 

 fect cultivation of your farms, but your own industry 

 and that of your families ; for the above-mentioned 

 assistance will be continued to all such as show them- 

 selves deserving of it, until they are brought into a 

 situation no longer to require it. My employers, 

 therefore, I repeat, having gone to such expense and 

 trouble to better the condition of the small farmers on 

 their estates, and the benefit to be derived by following 

 some better plan of cultivation being so evident to 

 the commonest understanding, no one who, by his own 

 want of industry, fails to take advantage of the assist- 

 ance offered, can have just grounds of complaint, if 

 the land, which he refuses to cultivate, is taken from 

 him, and given to some of his more industrious neigh- 

 bors, which will most assuredly be the case, when a 

 fair time for making the experiment has been allowed." 



We earnestly recommend the Essay of Mr. 

 Blacker to all those who are anxious to preserve 

 the small iiarmers and cotters, "the bold pea- 

 santry," who should be "their country's pride," 

 on the land. Its principles are as applicable in 

 England as in Ireland. D. 



ROUTE OF THE MICHIGAN AND ILLINOIS 

 CANAL. 



[The following is the most particular account of 

 what will be (when completed) the most grand and 

 remarkable public work in the world. The opening 

 of navigation from the great northern lakes to the 

 Illinois river, and thus connecting the Atlantic, by way 

 of the Hudson and the St. Lawrence, with the Mississip- 

 pi and the Gulf of Mexico, would of itself be a very 

 great work, and of incalculable value, when the great 

 and rich north-western region shall have been brought 

 generally under cultivation. But the economical ef- 

 fects of this work, great as they will be, are far less 

 striking to the imagination, then the manner in which 

 the navigation will be made; which is by giving to the 

 water of Lake Michigan a new and opposite direc- 

 tion, down the Mississippi. According to the state- 

 ments given below, of the levels of the waters, and 

 the intervening land, it is practicable, by increasing 

 the depth of the artificial canal, to draw off" any quanti- 

 ty of the water of the great lakes Michigan, Superior 

 and Huron, down the channel of the Mississippi; and 

 even to make this new outlet, the principal one of 

 these great sources of the St. Lawrence; if there were 

 any sufficient object for directing these waters to the 

 Gulf of Mexico instead of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

 The world perhaps does not afford so magnificent a 

 subject, for the art and labor of man to change and 

 control the appearance and the action of nature. One 

 of the ancient kings of Abyssinia made a vain effort 

 to convey the waters of the upper Nile, by a canal, 

 into the Red Sea, for the purpose of depriving Egypt, 

 of that source of fertility, and even of existence. In 



