FARMERS' REGISTER 



207 



employment throughout the year, there are em- 

 ployed, in winter, a man to assist the shepherd, and 

 two boys to dock up lurnips for the sheep ; and in 

 the months of March, April and May, not less 

 than filieen men, women, and boys, to rake what 

 has been pared lor b-jming and to burn it, to hoe 

 beans and wheat, weed corn, clear up the grass- 

 land, pick up stones, &c. — An additional number 

 ofhands is always put on when required. During 

 the hoeing of turnips this year in July, the whole 

 number employed on this larm was sixty-seven. 

 Jn harvest, such an addition is made to the hands 

 as is sufficient to execute the work in proper time ; 

 and in reaping wheat, we have seen a hundred 

 employed, besides those occupied in mowing oats 

 and barley, and in the other operations of the field. 

 Most or these laborers receiving beer, a consi- 

 derable quantity is consumed ; but to reduce it, a 

 good deal of piece-work is bargained lor, without 

 beer. But although this plan is adopted as much 

 as possible, yet we find that, on the average of 

 several years, a sum equal to 581. 9s. lOd. a year 

 has been paid for malt and hops, lor beer for the 

 laborers on this farm. The greatest sum lor this 

 purpose (9'^/. 8s. 6d.) was expended in the year 

 1826, when malt was 9s. 6d. per bushel. 



Implements. — The plough used on this farm 

 and in the neighborhood is the J3everston plough, 

 invented by Mr. Tugwell. Wooden mould-boards 

 are much in use, particularly where the soil is ad- 

 hesive, as it does not stick so much to wood as to 

 iron. The plough is short, with one wheel, and 

 made of wood. It is worked with three horses, or 

 four oxen, although one horse ploughed, in lour 

 hoars and thirty-five minutes, one acre of two- 

 year-old clover, before the committee of the Bath 

 Society, in this neighborhood, in 1808. Iron 

 ploughs have been introduced in this district; but 

 the first cost and the difficulty of repairing them 

 prevent their general adoption. Lord Somerville's 

 double ploughs are used lor plouahing the turnip- 

 land a second time in spring: they are drawn by 

 six oxen or four horses; and, where the work is 

 light, they are of great advantage, as they get 

 over the work twice as fast as the common plough. 

 Both horses and oxen, when at work in the plough, 

 are yoked before each other and walk in the iur- 

 row. The oxen do most of the ploughing; the 

 horses, the harrowing, carting dung to the field, 

 and corn to the market. 



Thrashing. — The wheat only is thrashed with 

 a machine, which does at the rate often or twelve 

 quarters a day. It is driven by lour horses, and 

 four men, three women, and a boy are required to 

 attend it; so that as many hands are employed as 

 would be required to perform the operation with 

 the flail ; and the expense is, at least, as great. 

 The only advantage of the machine is, that the 

 work can be done in a much shorter time, and that 

 a saving is effected in the quantity of the grain. 

 The oats, barley, and beans are always thrashed 

 out with the flail. 



Manure. — The improvement of the soil which 

 he occupies ought to be the object of ever}"- farmer. 

 Land, in a natural state, if dry, undergoes a grad- 

 ual improvement from the yearly growth and de- 

 cay of the vegetable substances which grow upon 

 it. But if the vegetable substances that grow 

 upon it are eaten ofl' by sheep, which drop their 

 dung in return and in small portions at a place, the 

 improvement goes on much more rapidly. Ht?nce 



land, that is always pastured by sheep, is always 

 improving, while that which is always mown is 

 deteriorating. The number of sheep, iherefore, 

 kept on this farm, tend much to its gradual im- 

 provement ; and the regular deposition of the 

 sheep's dung over so great a portion of the farm, 

 every year, in consuming the turnip crop, is an 

 excellent preparation lor the course of cropping 

 that is to ibllow. The double manuring which the 

 land thus gels, in the same, year may be thought 

 by some to be loo much ; but the land of this farm 

 and of the whole district is so thin and brashy, 

 that it can hardly be overdone with manure. 



Nearly all the manure that is made on this farm 

 being applied to the land that is prepared for tur- 

 nips, is generally carried out into the field, which 

 comes in course for the crop, in the end of autumn 

 or in winter ; it is laid upon road-scrapings and 

 other earth, that has been previously conveyed to 

 the place, and is well mixed with them by turning 

 the whole over with the spade. This is generally 

 done twice, to gel the whole well mixed and rot- 

 ted, it being found by experience, that well rotted 

 dung is the best manure for turnips on this land. 

 The dung from cow, ox, and young beast-courts, 

 from the stable-yard, and what is made in the 

 sheep-lambing fold, are all carried to the field, 

 intended for turnips, and prepared as above de- 

 scribed. Besides this and that which is dropped 

 by the sheep, when folded upon turnips and vetch- 

 es, the ashes produced from the paring and burning 

 of the old saintfbin, when it is broken up, and 

 from the stubble that is overrun with black cootch, 

 when it is pared and burned, act as a manure, 

 and are an excellent preparation for turnips. If 

 the ashes are abundant, they produce a crop of 

 these, equal if not superior to what would be pro- 

 duced by fifteen loads of good rotten dung. 



Proper size of a farm. — Of late years large 

 farms have been cried down, as depriving the la- 

 boring class of employment; and much has been 

 said on this head, without, as it appears to us, 

 due examination into the subject. If we look at, 

 the number of hands that are constantly employed 

 on this farm, and compare it with the number em- 

 ployed on a number of small farms, which toge- 

 ther would make thirteen hundred acres of land 

 of such kind and quality as this is, we have no 

 doubt but that the number on Beverston farm 

 would be found much the greater. The large 

 farmer has capital sufficient lor all the expense 

 required to cultivate his land properly, and in a 

 proper time ; but this is not always the case with 

 small farmers. 



Small farms are generally let at a greater pro- 

 portionate rent, it is said ; if this is the case, the 

 landlord, on the other hand, is put to a greater 

 expense in erecting buildings, &c., and the rents 

 are generally worse paid than those of large farms. 

 Mr. Hay Vizard's opinion with regard to the size of 

 a farm is, that " it cannot be too large, if it be 

 well done to j nor too small, if not well done to.''' 



Tithes. — The tenants of this parish have a 

 lease of the tithes lor fourteen years, at a corn-rent, 

 the yearly average price of corn determining the 

 sum which ihe tenant has to pay lor his tithes. 

 This is an excellent arrangement, and if the tithe- 

 (luestion were settled in this or some similar way, 

 a great agricultural improvement would Ibllow, 

 sufficient perhaps to give to England a supply of 

 corn sufficient lor her population, and enabling her 



