18S0.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



27 



baiulry, in these islands, and in our settlements abroad, it was well 

 said there was room for many men of good training. This lias 

 been found to be so; and notwithstanding the stoppage of railway 

 and otiier works, we believe tliere are now more engineers in per- 

 manent employment than there were five years ago. 



Nevertheless, the field is still untilled; for in our mines, in our 

 works, and in tlie country districts, there are not so many skilled 

 men employed as there ought to be. This must be set down 

 mostly to two causes — the first, that young men start witli the 

 notion of becoming resident engineers, assistant engineers, or 

 engineers-in-chief, with very liigh pay; and next, and following 

 from the first, that all their time is given to railways or machinery; 

 and without thinking of what is wanted to be a good mine captain, 

 manager of a factory, or country engineer. The truth is, we liave 

 too many of the silver-fork men. AV'hen tliere was a good start 

 given to engineering by the railways, papas and mammas thought 

 there was an opening to put in some of those idle young men who 

 want tlie lu.xuries of life with as little Iiard work as may be. Papa 

 was quite willing to give a thousand pounds premium to a first-rate 

 engineer, or to pay two hundred a-year at an engineering college, 

 if liis son were to get an appointment of five hundred or eight 

 hundred a-year. The class of people who put one son in tlie army, 

 another at the bar, send one to India, and buy a living for a fourth, 

 thought a new land of promise was opened to them, — but which 

 has turned out a land of disappointment to many. The end is, 

 tliat all are looking after one wall< of tlie profession, leaving seve- 

 ral others less promising, but more sure, quite unoccupied. If a 

 young man will content himself to make, as in otlier professions, a 

 smalf beginning, we believe that, with a little capital to help him, 

 there is enough to be done. 



Tlie alterations in the corn laws have served more than anything 

 to show the English the need of more scientific, and we may say 

 more mechanical, farming. This is now veiy fairly acknowledged 

 — but how is it to be done.'' Not by the farmers, for tliey are the 

 M'orst taught, least teachable, and least knowing of tlie community. 

 It can be done and will be done by the engineers, if the latter will 

 bestir themselves. They have already got work under tlie Boards 

 of Health and in the colonies ; now they must strive to get work 

 from the landowners. 



JMr. AV^illiam Thorold is a member of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, but he was brought up as a Norfolk farmer; and in tliis 

 strait of free trade lie comes forward to help his former brethren, 

 by showing them how much is to be done: and as tlie few leaves 

 he has written are mostly of an engineering character, our readers 

 will like to hear something of what he says. We will not trouble 

 them with Mr. Thorold's politics, and we will not give any of our 

 own; but to put our readers in mind how the industry of the 

 country is neglected, and how the true end of government is lost 

 sight of, by the factions who hold the reins of power, we will 

 simply say that in these islands 



The labour of Five Millions of people is wasted, and heavy poor- 

 rates paid, althougli the country might be ))rovided with rail- 

 roads, canals, harbours, docks, piers, breakwaters, bridges, 

 drainage, churches, and schools, and witli a good house for 

 every man, rich or poor. 

 Millions of acres of improvable land are left waste, because 

 those who would improve it are not allowed to do so. Hun- 

 dreds of thousands of acres of rich land might be recovered 

 from the sea and rivers, but tlie government gives every hin- 

 drance.* 

 Manure sufiicient to grow food for Five Millions of people is 



yearly wasted. 

 Speaking of the re-arrangement of farms, Mr. Thoi-old says — 

 It will then be practicable to arrange the several farms in a more contigu- 

 ous and compact manner, and the buildings as near as possible being in the 

 centre of the occupation, it will probably turn out that several fields cannot 

 be brought into an occupation, being too far from the huililings. These can 

 frequently be let off at a higher rent to tradesmen and others, as accommo- 

 d;ition lands ; or converted into small farms and let to deserving tenants, 

 who by perseverance in well-doing, will ultimately become competitors for a 

 larger one ; or it may even appear more desirable to take the ont-laying 

 fields from several adjoining occupations to make an additional farm. 



It can hardly be expected that this system can be carried to its fullest 

 extent without an act of parliament being obtained to exchange lands by 

 consent of the parties in possession, regardless of the tenure and condition 



* The Woods and Forests have lately claimeil the lanj recovered by the Cork and Pas- 

 sage Railway in Cork Harbour, but without offering to pay the expense of its reclama- 

 tion. It is not 80 long a.o since they made the Corj.oratlon of Liverpool comnound with 

 them for ^elOO.UUO, lor land reclaimed at Birkenhead.— The recovery of 30,U0U acres of 

 land in niorecanibe Bay was prevented by the Crown and Duchy of Lancaster claiming It, 

 it recovered. 



under which lands may be then held. Nothing can be more easy than to 

 take powers in that act to secure all incumbrances, settlements, Sec, upon 

 the exchanged land that existed upon the original. Powers also might he 

 taken to borrow a limited sum of money (as has been already done by tlie 

 Drainage Act) to carry out the exchange and improvements inherent 

 thereon. 



In carrying out these arrangements, the landowner will do right to have 

 farms of different sizes, according to the extent of his estate, in order, as 

 has been before hinted, to keep up a wholesome emulation and materials for 

 competition, when necessary; and it should be a principle universally acted 

 upon, that upon any farm falling into the landowner's hands, the first offer 

 of it should be given to the most deserving and suitable tenant, then in the 

 occupancy of another farm upon the same estate. 



The next sacrifice is with regard to the timber and hedges upon the re- 

 arranged farms. It is an essential part of the new system of farming, that 

 trees, excepting those around the homestead, and in the boundary and fences 

 next public roads, should all be cleared off the land ; and in like manner the 

 hedges and ditches also, except those forming the common out-fall drain of 

 the district. The old ditches used as master drains upon wet soils, will, of 

 course, have to remain as pipe drains of larger diameter. 



It is not intended to have permanent pastures, except in particular locali- 

 ties, where it is obviously most profitable from the advantage that can be 

 obtained by the frequent application of liquid manure, so as to produce two 

 or more crops of grass in the same season ; in all other circumstances, it has 

 long been known that great injury has been sustained by both landowner 

 and tenant, in retaining old hide-hound upland pastures, and most kinds of 

 meadow land — whereas by a constant succession of corn and green crops, 

 more food for cattle can be produced with the addition of a crop of corn 

 every alternate year. 



lu carrying out all these arrangements, the landowner and tenant must 

 cordially co-operate, the first supplying the capital for all permanent im- 

 provements, and the tenant paying interest upon the amount. Great care 

 and judgment should be exercised in the execution, and they should be con- 

 stantly under cfiicient supervision, not from any want of good intentions, but 

 to avoid the possibility of failure. The author is sorry to say his impression 

 goes to show that tenants with matured judgment are the exception, and not 

 the rule. 



It must also be a consideration in the first instance, whether the tenant, 

 from his previous habits of business, not only can, but also will carry out, 

 both the new arrangement of his farm, but likewise apply himself to the 

 best modes of cultivation, and the application of manures to the growth of 

 green and corn crops alternately, according to the best examples, it is pre- 

 sumed, he will see around him ; if there is no prospect of a tenant's fulfil- 

 ing all these desiderata, there is no alternative but for him to leave the 

 estate, for " Why curahereth he the ground ?" — Landowners having quite as 

 much right in taking the means offered for their own defence, as a party 

 would in defending an action at law. 



It is also essential in carrying out this system, as before stated, that the 

 farm-huildings should be as near the centre of the farm as possible, which, 

 if it cannot be obtained by exchange, addition, or reduction, the buildings 

 necessary for occupation should be removed or built anew. The old farm- 

 house can remain as a residence, or he converted into cottages, as may be 

 most convenient in the preliminary stage of proceeding, and as it will fre- 

 quently happen that where cottages are wanted, it will be a question whether 

 the old farm-houses that are now on the outside of the farm, and conse- 

 quently badly situated for the farmers' occupation, will not be in the most 

 proper position for cottages .=■ It is also necessary that good hard roads 

 should be made, so as to approach one side of every field in all weathers, and 

 a drift road made from the buildings to the most frequented public road. 



Mr. Thorold proceeds to describe his plan for farm buildings: — 



It will be impossible in an essay of this kind, to give general directions as 

 to what buildings will be required, for in some instances, the old buildings 

 may be made available to the new system, by means of internal alterations, 

 and in other cases many buildings will bear the expense of removal; but by 

 way of filling up a blank, the author has prepared a design for new farm- 

 buildings, which is appended herewith, and as an explanation of this design 

 will tend in some degree to elucidate part of the new system, he will proceed 

 with the description. 



The object of this design is to convert all the straw, hay, and green crops 

 into manure, and to retain or prevent the loss of such' manure after it is 

 obtained, in the most effectual and economical manner; it is applicable to 

 any sized farm, by merely increasing or diminishing the feeding and storing 

 departments ; but in all cases it should be limited to farms not exceeding a 

 convenient length or breadth from the homestall, on account of the expense 

 of road making and carriage. Steam power is intended to be applied to 

 thrashing, dressing, grinding, and bruising corn, steaming food, cutting hay 

 and stiaw into chaff, pumping water and liquid manure, slicing turnips, 

 breaking oil cake, sawing wood, raising manure from the house by an 

 inclined plane, to load the carts instantly, and prevent the horses waiting for 

 the same ; and probably for the purpose of exhausting foul air from the 

 feeding houses, to excite hunger in cattle, and thereby diminish the time of 

 fatting. It is here necessary to inform our readers, that this last plan has been 

 adopted in factories as a principle of ventilation, and the only objection to it 

 has been, that it makes the work-people always hungry, the very thing of all 



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