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notice of farmers, who have been accustomed in other counties to 

 occupy farms of this description on a very large scale. These, by 

 a system of management adapted to the foregoing purposes, founded 

 on experience, and prosecuted with vigor, will soon convince those 

 of the neighbourhood, that Me ndip farms, thus appropriated, of al- 

 most any extent, may be occupied with as much safety and advan- 

 tage as can be reasonably expected or desired. 



Having stated 300I. as the sum requisite for buildings to accom- 

 modate 100 acres of land, I would observe, that 400I. would ac- 

 commodate 200 acres, 500I. 400 acres, and 6ot>l. 500 acres ; so 

 that this expence decreases by an inverse ratio as the farm is aug- 

 mented : and in like manner that of fencing, as a large farm re- 

 quires less subdivision than a small one. Both these circumstances 

 further tend to justify the predilection for large farms. 



I shall conclude this head, by adducing an instance to ex- 

 emplify the necessity and importance of raising Mendip inci- 

 sures to separate and distinct farms. 



About 20 years since near 600 acres of Mendip land were in- 

 closed, the property of a gentleman of large landed estate in the 

 neighbourhood. For situation and quality, it could not be sur- 

 passed by any land of this sort. The contiguity to markets with 

 good roads was another privilege ; the quantity was equal to a re- 

 spectable farm, and 700I. was judged sufficient to provide the ne- 

 cessary buildings, in the opinion of those who recommended the 

 measure. A gentleman farmer from Norfolk, of considerable pro- 

 perty, was so much struck with the soil, situation, and other cir- 

 cumstances, as to declare, that as a farm he would give 15s. an acre 

 for a term of 21 years; this was refused, nor have any buildingi 

 been erected since. The land was let to the proprietors tenants of 

 the adjacent farms in different proportions, at not more than 1 2s. 

 per acre for the first 9 or 10 years, but since, for not more than 10s. 

 Great expectations were formed on the improvement of the old 

 farms, by the produce of die new inclosure being entirely consumed 

 thereon. These however are not realized, for the straw was for 

 the most part sold to the adjacent towns, and during the first 7 

 years of tillage, it was no unusual practice to crop with cats 3 

 and 4 years successively ; yet such was the fertility of soil, and its 

 aptitude for this species of grain, that the produce in favourable 



seasons 



