FARMERS' REGISTER 



607 



of one acre to five sheep, which will allow enough 

 /or oxen and o'her cattle, and supposing the losses 

 upon a flock to be 5 per cent. 



ir the breed of sheep be good, all the ewes 

 should be saved, for increasing slock, and the we- 

 thers should be kept until two years old and past, 

 sold fat from two lo three years. On such a plan, 

 a slock increases rapidly, perhaps more so tlian 

 the capital employed. But the conductor ofsuch 

 an undertaking would of course proportion his 

 Hock to his money, so that all the works might 

 be constantly going on, without slop or break; 

 to ed'ect which, would demand no inconsiderable 

 foresight and knowledge ot the business. 



By the plan of letting the lands, as soon as 

 brought into complete cultivation, llie caj)i'.al em- 

 ployed in the undertaking would be exerted to the 

 utmost force and advantage, in spreading the im- 

 provement over the greatest possible breadth of 

 waste. If the lands were all to be kept accumu- 

 lating into one I'arm, it would grow too vast to be 

 managed with profit ; but, by letting, the principal 

 attention, exertion, and force of capital would be 

 always employed where most wanted and most 

 useful ; and it is hardl}' to be believed, by those 

 not accustomed to such observations and inquiries, 

 how great a tract of country- might, in twenty 

 years, be improved. 



Planting colonies of foreigners upon wastes, lias 

 been a favourite nieihod pursued in several coun- 

 tries, particularly in Spain and Russia; such sf)ecu- 

 iations have rarely answered the immense ex- 

 penses bestowed upon them. The lands are 

 usually but half improved ; the husbandry intro- 

 duced is almost sure to be bad ; and the jealously 

 with which the new settlers are viewed by the 

 natives, prevents their practice from ever being 

 imitated. Such a mode of improvement, as is here 

 sketched, would be infinitely more beneficial ; 

 what was done would be well done ; all would be 

 executed by natives; for the only i'oreigner em- 

 ployed in the business should be the director. 

 There would be no probability of the improve- 

 ment not being durable and spreading widely ; lor 

 the lands not being let until the cultivation was 

 completely in train, the profits as well as the me- 

 thod would be seen by every one. 



By executing the improvement of a wasie on 

 these principles, ten thousand pounds would have 

 an infinitely greater effect than a hundred thou- 

 sand expended in any other niethod : in the Ger- 

 man colonies, established in the Sierra Morena in 

 Spain, and in various others in difierent parts ol 

 Europe, much attention has been paid to the esta- 

 blishing of little farms only. I do not want to 

 view such, lo know that the improvement is beg- 

 garly, and the husbandry contemptible : no waste 

 can be really improved, and lo the best advantage 

 but by means of the sheep, powerfully applied ; 

 all other methods are costly, slow, and of weak 

 effect; but no little farmer can have a flock suf- 

 ficient. This paltry idea of establishing nothing 

 but little farms, is the result of most impolitical 

 ideas respecting population, which ought never lo 

 be the object of a moment's attention. If it exist 

 idle, or beyond the proportion of employment, it is 

 the source of poverty and wretchedness ; it is va- 

 luable only in proportion to regular and active em- 

 ployment, and you will have an industrious active 

 population in spite of every obstacle. Bui small 

 farms and little divisible properlies, increasing the 



people, without increasing employment, has no 

 other tendency than lo propagate idle beggars, 

 and to disseminate modes ol husbandry, calculat- 

 ed to exhaust the land, and keep its cultivators in 

 misery. This is not theory but fact, of which 

 almost every province, in France, abounds with 

 glaring instances. But of this more in another 

 chapter. 



There is anothersort of wasteland, that abounds 

 also very much in France, I mean marshes : it is 

 asserted, that there are from 1,200,000 to 1,500,000* 

 arpenis of them in France. The improvement 

 of these is vastly more expensive and more diffi- 

 cult than that of landes, heaths, moors, &c. The 

 drains demanded lor them require a considerable 

 capital. 'I'hese ought to be converted to meadow 

 and rich pasture, by means of draining. Where 

 they admit it, the cheapest improvement of such 

 is by irrigation ; the general drainage of great 

 marshes, if not trusted by the assemblies of the de- 

 partments to the conduct of some one able direc- 

 tor, should be done by commission by constituting 

 a company, as in England, and paying the ex- 

 pense, by a tax on the lands drained. If the rage 

 lor small farms continue, these marshes, in propor- 

 tion as the soil is boggy, will admit of being 

 divided into small portions, that is, of 30 to 60 

 arpents, but it should be under an absolute prohi- 

 bition of the (ilough. The bog, which I saw in 

 passing from Auvergnac to JN antes, and which 

 seems, li-om its appearance on the nifp of Bre- 

 tagne, to be ol a vast exijent, is highly susceptible 

 of improvement, and every acre ofit might be con- 

 verted into rich meadow. 



LUCERNE IN FRANCE. 



From Artlmr Young's Agricultural Survey of France. 



PiCARDY — Boulogne. — Las s twelve to six- 

 teen years; three cuts, very fine and thick; six- 

 teen pounds of seed per measure, about an acre; 

 lour or five horses kept lor five months. 



Breteuil. — Value it more than corn ; three cuts ; 

 in spots lour leei high; lasts ten years; first cut 

 Ibr horses, the rest for cows. 



Isle of France — Arpajon. — Much; three 

 cuts. 



RoussiLLON — Bellegarde — Watering shortens 

 its duration ; give it water every eight days 

 when there is no rain. 



Perpignan. — Watered lucerne in all the bot- 

 toms. 



Pia. — By far the richest crop, and most profita- 

 ble culture ; it is sown largely on two sorts of land 

 the dry stony poor soils that are watered, and also 

 on the rich deep friable loam in the vale between 

 Pia and the calcareous northern mountains, which 

 are not watered ; in ail cases it is sown broadcast 

 and without corn. It is cut, for the first time, the 

 end of April ; and, if watered every forty days 

 afierwards, to the amount of five cuts in all ; if the 

 land be not watered it is cut thrice with a full 

 product ; and a fourth time with an inferior one. 

 If watered it does not last above seven or eight 



* Rapport (lu Comite d'Agriculture, &,c. 7 Fev. 1790. 

 par M. de Lamcrville, depute de Berri. p. 3. De la 

 Necossite d'occuper tons le? gros Ouvriers, 17S9, par 

 M. Boncerf. P. 3. 



