1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



165 



system one-half the land remained in pasture, and 

 the other half was divided between wheat and fal- 

 lows. But, by-and-bye, the idea of the cultivation 

 of certain grasses and roots exclusively intended for 

 the food of cattle suggested itself, and the fallows 

 were reduced by this cultivation. After a time, the 

 land given to wheat and oats -was reduced, and 

 more given to grass and roots, till a fifth of the soil 

 only was given to oats and wheat. Thus the cattle 

 increased, but the harvests of wheat and oats in- 

 creased also, on a diminished breadth of soil, owing 

 to an increase of manure. 



Finally, through the genius of Arthur Young, the 

 cultivation of England settled down into the Nor- 

 folk system, so called, of the rotation of crops. 

 Half the cultivated soil is maintained in permanent 

 grass — that composing Avhat is called arable land, is 

 put the first year, in roots, turnips or potatoes ; sec- 

 ond year, in oats or barley ; third year, in artificial 

 grass and clover ; fourth year, wheat. For exam- 

 ple, upon a farm of 175 acx'es, 75 would be in per- 

 manent grass — 20 in potatoes and turnips — 20 in 

 barley and oats — 20 in clover and 20 in wheat. 



In this consists the whole system of English 

 farming. A large extent of grass, whether natural 

 or artificial, occupied for the most part as pasture, 

 — two roots, the potato and the turnip — two spring 

 cereals, barley and oats, and a winter one, wheat ; 

 all these plants linked together by an alternating 

 course of cereals with green crops, commencing 

 with roots which require hoeing, and ending with 

 wheat. And the Enghsh have established this ag- 

 ricultural law, that to reap largely of cereals it is 

 better to reduce than to extend the breadth of 

 land sown ; and that, by gi^'ing the greatest space 

 to the forage or green crops, not only is a gi'eater 

 quantity of butcher's meat, miik and wool obtained, 

 but a larger production of wheat also. 



The extent of pastures is certainly one of the 

 most striking features of British farmmg. Com- 

 paratively little hay is made in England, the winter 

 food of cattle being chiefly obtained from the arti- 

 ficial meadows and from roots. Three-fourths of 

 the English meadows are grazed, and as one-half 

 the artificial grasses are also, and as turnips are, to 

 a great extent, eaten off the ground by sheep, and 

 as the uncultivated lands cannot be turned to ac- 

 count except in the shape of commons, two-thirds 

 of the whole soil are thus given up to livestock. In 

 this consists the peculiar charm of British fields. A 

 land has a smiling aspect, whose greensward is de- 

 pastured by fine animals, at large. 



The system of pasturage has many advantages in 

 the eyes of English farmers. It saves manual la- 

 bor, is favorable to the health of animals, admits of 

 turning to account lands, which otherwise would 

 give but small returns, and which are, in course of 

 time, improved by the deposits of the cattle ; it 

 supplies food always springing up afresh, and the 

 sum of which is found, in the long run, to equal, if 

 not exceed, that which would have been obtained 

 by the scythe. Great importance is, therefore, at- 

 tached to having on every farm a sufficient extent 

 of good pasture. No where has the art of improv- 

 ing meadows and pasture lands been carried to such 

 extent as in England; they have been rendered 

 sound by draining, fertilized by irrigation, manur- 

 ing, subsoil plowing, and improvements of every 

 sort, for the encouragement of nutritious plants and 

 the destruction of weeds. 



The turnip crop is the starting point of the Nor- 



folk rotation ; upon its success depends the rest of 

 the course. Not only is it capable of insuring the suc- 

 ceeding crops, from the abundance of manure given 

 by the numljer of cattle it can feed ; not only does it 

 produce much butcher's meat, milk and wool, from 

 the quantity of food it supplies for all domestic ani- 

 mals ; but it clears the land, by the frequent dressings 

 it requires, and by the nature of its growth. The 

 English farmer spares no pains on his turnip 

 crop ; to it he gives almost all his manure, the 

 most thorough weeding and his most assiduous care. 

 The turnip requires a light soil and wet summers, 

 and England has both. 



Such are the results of the crops we have men- 

 tioned in the English system of agriculture, that 

 the British Isles produce more food for cattle than 

 the whole of France with twice the extent of acres. 

 The quantit}' of manure is proportionally three or 

 four times greater in England than in France, yet 

 this mass of manure is not considered sufficient. 

 Everything fitted for increasing the fertility of the 

 soil, — bones, blood, rags, oil-cake, the refuse of 

 manufactories, all kinds of animal and vegetable 

 waste, gypsum and lime, are assiduously collected 

 and put into the ground. Ships go in quest of 

 guano — chemistry works to discover new manures, 

 and a round sum, every year, figures in the far- 

 mer's accounts, for the purchase of fertilizing ma- 

 nures. 



Land requires not only manure and fertilizers, 

 but it must be dug, pulverized, levelled, weeded, 

 drained, worked in every direction, so that the wet 

 may pass thi-ough without lodging, be rendered 

 pervious to the atmospheric gases, in order that 

 the roots of plants may strike down and extend 

 themselves. A host of implements and machines 

 have been invented in order to facilitate these vari- 

 ous operations, which economize labor and supply 

 the place of a large number of hands. These filled 

 a large space at the great exhibition. 



Gardens and orchards occupy, as compared to 

 other countries, a small space in England, and 

 their produce is much inferior to om's. The En- 

 glish are not great consumers of fruit and vegeta- 

 bles ; and they are right, for both the one and the 

 other with them are very tasteless. All their eat- 

 ing as well as production, is confined to a few arti- 

 cles obtained in great abundance. In fact, the na- 

 tional genius of England, in agriculture as well as 

 manufactures, and everything, aims at quantity in 

 uniformity — in agriculture it produces two or three 

 large crops upon a large scale by great simplicity 

 of means ; in manufactures, it produces the great 

 staples of woollens, cottons and iron ; in food, it 

 delights in beef and mutton, and the potato, fol- 

 lowed by crackers and cheese, wliile the French 

 genius in all these things and others, aims at quality 

 in variety. 



Let me ask here a few questions. Have we any 

 system of agriculture in New England ? I thmk 

 the answer must be, we have none. Probably suf- 

 ficient capital is not yet applied with us to agricul- 

 ture to develop one ; probably neither labor nor 

 capital are yet cheap enough with us to be so ap- 

 plied ; perhaps until within a few years, the mar- 

 kets for farm produce -with us have not been high 

 enough to demand a good agricultural system. 

 Shall we ever have one ? I think so. The fertile 

 West is against us. But the cost of transporting 

 farm produce from the West is large. The markets, 

 which our manufacturing, mechanical, city and town 



