202 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



excellent invention, as it saved seed and facilitated hoeing ; but 

 he said Tull's drill was defective in that the distances between 

 the rows could not be altered, a defect which the writer claims 

 to have remedied. Young's desire for a stronger drill seems to 

 have been soon answered, as the same writer says the barrel 

 drill invented by Du-Hamel and improved by Craik was strong, 

 cheap, and easily managed. 



The tendency of the latter half of the century was decidedly 

 in favour of larger farms ; it was a bad thing for the small 

 holders, but it was an economic tendency which could not be 

 resisted. The larger farmers had more capital, were more able 

 and ready to execute improvements ; they drained their land, 

 others often did not ; having sufficient capital they were able 

 both to buy and sell to the best advantage and not sacrifice their 

 produce at a low price to meet the rent, as the small farmer so 

 often did and does. They could pay better wages and so get 

 better men, kept more stock and better, and more efficient im- 

 plements. They also had a great advantage in being able by 

 their good teams to haul home plenty of purchased manure, 

 which the small farmer often could not do. The small tenants, 

 who had no by-industry, then, as now, had to work and live 

 harder than the ordinary labourer to pay their way. 



Young calculated as early as 1768 that the average size of 

 farms over the greater part of England was slightly under 300 

 acres. 1 



In his Tour in France Young, speaking of the smallness of 

 French farms as compared with English ones, and of the con- 

 sequent great inferiority of French farming, says, ' Where is 

 the little farmer to be found who will cover his whole farm 

 with marl at the rate of 100 to 150 tons per acre; who will 

 drain his land at the expense of 2 to ^3 an acre ; who will, 

 to improve the breed of his sheep, give 1,000 guineas for the 

 use of a single ram for a single season ; who will send across 

 the kingdom to distant provinces for new implements and for 

 1 Northern Tour, iv. 192-202. 



