I 



120 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



clover, seeds, beans and peas, producing 3,701,740: Is.; sugar, that cost in 1840 6d. a pound, can now 

 quarters, and one-fourth in mangold, rape and fai- be bought for 3d. a pound. 



low; total 29,718,275 quarters. The wheat pro- The writer expresses great confidence in the 

 duced gives a fraction less than five bushels to each i ability of the British agriculturist to meet foreign 

 individual of the present population. The average I competition; but to do it he must depend, not on 

 produce of wheat this writer estimates at only! legislative protection, but on individual energy ; on 

 26 3-4 bushels the acre, which is lower than it is improved cultivation, security for his investments, 

 commonly estimated at by about six bushels. It and a reasonable adjustment of his rent. He does 

 is a singular fact that the produce of corn of all not, however, go to the bottom of the whole mat- 

 kinds is estimated at two millions of quarters less ter — the abolition of entails, and the creation of a 

 than it was estimated by Arthur Young in 1770. 1 free and independent yeomanry — the owners of the 

 The annual produce of corn, say 30 millions of i land they cultivate with the right to bequeath 

 quarters, may vary to the extent of one-fourth or them to their children. 



7 1-2 millions of quarters, by the effects of a cold, 

 ungenial summer. Taking into account the falling 

 off in the quantity and quality in cold seasons, and 

 it amounts to eight bushels the acre. A late re- 

 turn as to Ireland shows a falling off in one year, 

 1847, of ten bushels the acre. It is not uncom- 

 mon to see a falling off of five bushels, or an amount 



WINTER SCHOOLS. 



Many persons who have become distinguished 



for learning and great usefulness, never enjoyed 



the advantages of a liberal or college education. 



Living in villages and rural districts, their only 



equivalent to the sustenance of one-sixth part of! opportunities for systematic study under the care 



the population. . . of regular teachers, were during the three months 



The whole land of England, it is well known, is i » ? . , mi . ,° „ , , 



held by about forty or fifty thousand landlords. of W1 ? ter ' each vear - Thls term was found to 



They let to farmers either on leases or on a yearly j be quite as long, in many instances, as the money 



tenure — the former system being preferred of 

 course by the farmer, the latter by the landlord. 

 The great proportion of English farms are cultiva- 

 ted on a tenure that may be terminated on either 

 side by a six months notice. Still tenants, in many 

 instances, do not scruple to invest a large amount 

 of capital when years must elapse ere they can ex 



would hold out to pay "the master," for which 

 the good people had assessed themselves. But 

 the studies during these short periods were pur- 

 sued by vigorous minds in vigorous bodies. They 

 were entered into with the whole energies of both , 

 and long before ciphering or parsing began to 1 ilunt 



pect to get an adequate return in the improved j their desires and pall upon the senses they were 



valueof the land. In these cases their sole reli- L alled from the school to tne low but althoua;h 



ance is on the character of the landlords, and then- r ,, , , , ,, ., J 3 



condition therefore is one of dependence. It is not awa 7 from the class teacher and the recitation 



always the case that the landlord is the gainer. 

 When a tenant enters a farm, the value of the im- 

 provements made by the last occupant is estima- 

 ted, which he has to pay for at the appraisal ; and 

 no little money has been made by shrewd farmers 

 taking farms, "working up to a quitting," and, 

 by connivance with the appraisers, getting a large 

 profit when they leave in the difference which they 

 demand above what they paid when they entered 

 on the farm. This system leads to fraud, bad 

 farming and political slavery. 



There is great disparity of condition in the la- 

 borers on the farms. The highest rate of wages 

 this acute observer met with in all England was 

 in Lancashire, where 15s. a week was paid — the 

 lowest was in South AVilts, where the wages were 

 0s. a week. The average rate of agricultural wa- 

 ges in England is ( .>s. 6d. a week — it being the 

 greatest in the manufacturing and mining districts. 

 The latter result is clearly shown by comparing 

 the state of wages in those counties where manu- 

 facturing has most prospered. The wages in these 

 counties has increased 100 per cent, since 1770. 

 While in all the northern counties of England the 

 increase has been 06 per cent., in some of the 

 southern counties there has been no increase what- 

 ever — the wages being precisely the same as they 

 were eighty years ago. There has been one thing, 

 however, that has operated in favor of the laborer, 

 adding immensely to his comforts, namely, the de- 

 "in the price of food. This in the last ten 

 years lias been, in most articles he consumes, uj 

 wards of 30 per cent. In 1840, for instance, a 

 stone of flour cost him 2s. 6d.; in L852, Ls. 8d.; in 

 1840 good tea was 2s. 6d. a pound; in 1852, it is 



room, they did not leave their studies. They only 

 emerged from the contracted rules of men, into 

 the boundless expanse of nature — into the field of 

 first principles, to go through their recitations be- 

 fore the Great Preceptor of all, amid the breathing 

 flowers of unfolding spring. 



The winter school is the stejiping-stone to intel- 

 ligent labor in farming as well as to the professions 

 or the quarter- deck. There often dawn the first 

 longings after immortality, and the desires for use- 

 fulness and distinction are kindled into fixed prin- 

 ciples for future action. It was there that the 

 over-riding genius and ambition of Napoleon first 

 manifested itself in commanding his forces at the 

 snow fort, in the winter school at Brienne. 



But the winter school, after all, is like an epi- 

 sode in a poem, turning the mind aside for a time, 

 from the great school-room of nature, to a more 

 limited course of thought. It is excellent in its 

 way and as far as it goes ; laying the foundation 

 of the noble superstructure to be -erected in after 

 years. It must not be considered as sufficient. 

 therefore, to satisfy the wants of the child, but on- 

 ly as a help to the studies which he is to pursue 

 in all places and at all after times. He has only 

 entered the vestibule — the rich treasures of knowl- 

 edge lie hidden far beyond, and are only to be 

 gained by unceasing application. 



It is at the close of these schools that a great 

 error is committed by many. There is a sort of 



