244 History of the English Landed Interest. 



points for young husbandmen possessed of a scanty patrimony. 

 " Peculiar to husbandry," says this author of the Farmer's 

 Kalendar^ "is the ability of being able to employ small sums 

 of money. What trade can be set up without introduction or 

 partnership in which a man can employ five hundred pounds ? 

 AVith this amount a young farmer could settle down on 

 eighty or one hundred acres of good land, and expect to realise 

 30 to 40 per cent, for his money. Even a smaller quantity 

 of land could be profitably managed and yet a team kept." 

 Young's fundamental principle was, " that there is more profit 

 in a masterly cultivation of a few acres than in the slovenly 

 conduct of many." Near a town, where produce could be 

 removed and sold, and the return journey utilised in the 

 carriage of manures, such paying crops as lucerne, cabbages, 

 carrots, and potatoes, could be cultivated with the greatest 

 possible success. As in the case cited above, so now in his 

 recommendation of market gardening, Young bases his argu- 

 ment on figures, and shows the farmer, by means of a balance- 

 sheet, how to work a small holding in the most profitable way. 



Bearing on this question respecting the returns derivable 

 from various crops, we have about this period, in a work on 

 Practical Husbandry,^ from the pen of the Rev. John Trussler, 

 of Cobham, a few additional statistics. Barley, he maintained, 

 yielded a greater profit than any other crop ; its produce, esti- 

 mated at 4 quarters per acre, returning a surplus of £3 3.s. Qd. 

 over the outlay of cultivation ; wheat at a yield of 2\ quarters 

 per acre returning only £2 lO.s-. profit ; oats at a yield of 

 4 quarters, £1 19s. lOd. ; buckwheat with the same yield, 

 £2 19.S. Id.] beans with that of 3^ quarters, £1 13.s\ Qd.] peas 

 with that of 3 quarters, £1 8,s. ; and hay, £\ 9,s. Qd. A ton of 

 turnips was worth 30.s\ ; an acre of clover, 35.9. From such 

 details the author reckoned that a farm of IBO acres, if pro- 

 perly cultivated, should return an annual profit of £379. 



The Farmer's Kalemlar is in many respects a description of 

 the Norfolk husbandry of the present day. The account of 

 operations in the month of January introduces us to the sheep- 



^ Practical Husbandry, or the Art of Farming witJi a Cei'tainty of 

 Gain. Eev. J. Trussler, LL.D., 1780. 



