240 



THE GENESEE FAKMER. 



onship, and such men as the Duke of Richmond 

 have assisted at his annual dinners. Indeed, there 

 are not wanting those ungenerous enough in sup- 

 plying motives for the actions of their neighhors, 

 to accuse some men of wealth of having taken up 

 agricultural pursuits as a simple, though often 

 exceedingly costly Avay of acquiring associations, 

 which, in England, money alone can not huy. Mr. 

 Meohi, for example, the widely advertised vendor 

 of razors and razor-strops; Mr. Meohi, the influ- 

 ential alderman, might have gone down to the 

 grave with other dealers in fancy wares and con- 

 sumers of turtle soup ; hut Mr. Mechi, the farmer 

 of Tiptree Hall, is invited to Sir Robert Peel's 

 with 'lords of high degree,' and comes to he 

 looked upon, as he mournfully says himself, in be- 

 wailmg, perhaps somewhat ironically, the responsi- 

 bilities and 'miseries' of the position, in the light 

 of a ' public improver.' " 



The third reason mentioned is the comparatively 

 small area of land suitable for agricultural purposes, 

 and the necessity of increasing its productiveness 

 to supply the yearly increasing population. 



There are few— indeed, scarcely any— farmers in 

 England who own the land they cultivate. Farm- 

 ers of capital prefer to rent a large farm to owning 

 a small one. The rent received by the landowner 

 is not more, as a general rule, than from 2i to 3 

 per cent, a year on its money value. The average 

 annual rent of farming lands is about $6 per acre. 

 "The cheapest lands," says Mr. T., "are the wilds 

 of Northern Scotland, generally let, I was told, in 

 tracts according to the number of sheep they will 

 carry, at so much per head for the sheep. Then 

 we progress to farms in different localities and of 

 different value, from two dollars and a half per 

 acre in the north, Cumberland and Westmoreland, 

 to $3.75 in some parts of the south, Sussex, Surrey 

 and Hampshire,— $7.50 in all the central counties, 

 with |10, or even $12 and $15 for the best,— from 

 §10 to $20 in the Lothians, and almost fabulous 

 sums for the rich irrigated meadows near Edinboro', 

 which are bid off annually at auction, mainly to 

 the city milkmen, at from $100 to $150, and even 

 still higher rates for each acre." 



English farmers perform little manual labor 

 themselves. Mr. T. says: "I found them expect- 

 ing, as a general thing, to make a circuit of their 

 holdmgs once or twice a day, giving directions, if 

 necessary, letting the men feel that the master's 

 eye may at any time detect the laggard, and ascer- 

 taining whether the soil or crop is suitable for the 

 particular operations put down for the day's work, 



in order that any requisite change of programme 

 may be made. In Scotland, the farmers work more 

 themselves, I think; but in England they live inde- 

 pendently, not seeking the companionship of gen- 

 tlemen of leisure, nor affecting their habits, but 

 mindful ot their own affairs, attentive to the stran- 

 ger who is furnished with a proper introduction ; 

 and, so far as my observation went, entirely free 

 from those proverbial peculiarities, which, as man- 

 ifested by many English travelers, have given the 

 whole nation something of that repute with others 

 which should properly belong to a very small class 

 among them, and which may be more nearly char- 

 acterized by their own word ' snobbery,' than by 

 any other. The farmers enjoy out-door sports 

 where they can; if the ' two ends won't meet' one 

 year, have capital enough to carry them on to thf 

 nest; love to grumble, just the least bit in th( 

 world, about the weather and prospects, like th( 

 farmers ©f every country lut our oic7i, and, to sue 

 ceed in the midst of the competition about them 

 had need to be active and wide awake." 



Mr. Tucker's descriptions of individual farms h 

 visited are very interesting. We make a few extract 

 from his account of the "home farm" of TnoiiJi 

 Crisp of Butley Abbey, Suffolk, which contaii 

 about 1,000 acres. 'Mr. C. holds two other farn 

 in the vicinity of nearly equal extent— or a total ( 

 some 3,000 acres: 



" Of the home farm, about 280 acres were 

 wheat, 150 to 180 in turnips, 150 in barley, 150 

 ' layer ' or clovers and grass, together with bear 

 peas etc., while of the remainder a part is perm 

 nent marsh pasture, and the rest lies in open she^ 

 walks. The latter are generally blowing sane 

 with not much herbage except the furze (gorse 

 whins, as it is also called), which serves probab 

 to lessen or obviate the action of the wmd. T 

 bushes of this furze are eaten off by the shee 

 which nibble away at the outer shoots until the 

 in the centre grow up beyond their reach, perha 

 four or five feet high; it is nutritious, and otli 

 animals are said also to be fond of it. But t 

 spines of the foliage are sharp, and require to _ 

 bruised before they can be eaten by cattle wi 

 any comfort, and the sheep musttiave become w 

 toughened to them, one would think, to enjoy 

 Of these moors the furze is the natural produ 

 but I beheve it is sometimes grown for fodd 

 while machines for bruising it are catalogued 

 the dealers. During the day the sheep stray ab( 

 these unenclosed tracts, and with the aid of 

 dogs the shepherd collects them at evening to " 

 folded. We went out at dusk for a walk over ' 

 farm, and saw a flock coming in, unless my mc 

 ory is at fault, numbering sLrteen hundred or the • 

 abouts, and I was told that it is rarely the casei 

 collecting even so many as this, that the dogs <"' 

 shepherd leave behind a single one. 

 The sheep of this part of England are proJ ^ 



