224 SYSTEM OF FARMING, 



this instance, I cut holes, as you see here (showing- the block 

 of wood), about 3 inches square, and 1| incb deepj I filled 

 these with decaying- sawdust, to keep up a supply of moisture, 

 and the ashes of burnt Swedes ; and on the top sowed some 

 seed of the Swede turnip. For concealment I placed the 

 plank under a hedge, which kept off the sim in fine weather 

 and g-ave it lots of drip in wet ; still they grew, and here are 

 two of them (he here displayed and sent round the room a 

 portion of the plank and one of the Swedes) about 2 lb. 

 weig'ht. I am certainly rather ashamed of him ; but consider 

 the hard circumstances of his birth and education. Yet 

 surely, here, in this humble experiment, so strikingiy confir- 

 matory of the larg'e one on Sutton Beach, which I described 

 in this room last year, a great principle is involved ; does it 

 not tell us that no land can be so sterile, no rock so barren, 

 no acclivity so steep, but the strong- sinews of our noble 

 labourers, when directed by science and adequate capital, 

 will render them productive and capable of sustaining- human 

 life? I rejoice in the desert spots of our country — they may 

 be hopeless to the plough ; but the pickaxe and the spade, 

 these can till them, and they will afford employment and 

 sustentation to millions yet unborn. Let only the labourer be 

 well paid, and housed, and fed, and with God's blessing- I 

 fear nothing- for our countr3^ Those barren hills, I repeat, I 

 love them — they were intended, I believe, as sharpeners of 

 the human intellect — Labor omnia vincet wqjvohvs. Whence 

 have come all our modern improvements in agriculture ? not 

 from the rich pastures of the lazy Stour, but from stubborn, 

 hopeless lands, where men were forced to think and contrive 

 that they might live. Gentlemen, in these days our fields 

 must do double duty. I will now describe to you how I 

 have tried to get this out of them, both on my chalk and 

 clay farms, in what iised to be called the fallow year. On 

 the chalk farm I essayed to grow peas, between the drills of 

 mangel wiirzel and of Swedes, and I did so with great suc- 

 cess. I will only give the particulars of the beach experiment. 



Per acre. £ s. d. 



Hoeing out drills, 2 feet apart, for the peas, and drilling them by 



hand 10 



Peas, 2i bushels 18 



Harvesting them, by cutting off the haulm with the hoe . .050 



1 13 



Four sacks of white peas at Z2s 6 8 



Gain by this stolen crop • . .4160 



