300 LAND REFORM 



tilled by owners, who, by means of bounties, could 

 afford to employ sufficient well-paid labour, and be 

 enabled to highly cultivate the land, there would 

 doubtless be a far larger average yield, thus adding 

 many millions sterling to the credit side of the sug- 

 gested account. Indeed, it is difficult to name a limit 

 to what the kindly soil will yield, when fairly and 

 skilfully treated. 



Arthur Young/ in describing the best-cultivated 

 land he visited, gives an account, now and then, of 

 the labour and manure bestowed on it. The land, he 

 said, is ploughed three or four times for wheat, and 

 receives twenty to thirty loads (of t,^ bushels) of farm- 

 yard dung per acre. One farm of 90 acres employed 

 4 men and i boy regularly, besides extra help during 

 harvest. A farm of 200 acres (60 in grass) had 8 

 horses, 6 regular servants and labourers, besides 

 occasional extra help. Another farm (in Surrey) of 

 300 acres (240 arable) employed 12 horses, 8 oxen, and 

 16 regular servants and labourers. In a number of 

 financial accounts which he gives of different farms, 

 an item of " 5 qrs. of wheat per acre " is almost in- 

 variably entered on the credit side. This refers only 

 to the best-cultivated land. 



Young attaches far more importance to good cultiva- 

 tion than to the quality of the land. He goes on to 

 say how remarkable it is that the average quantity of 

 wheat, on rich land which he refers to, should not 

 exceed 6 J qrs. per acre; while he is able "to state 

 as a fact, with good tillage and plentiful manuring 

 I3|-qrs. of wheat have been produced from a statute 

 acre of land." He continues, "Very poor soils, and 



' "Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales." 

 Arthur Young, 1772. 



