Capital 65 



necessary quantity of manure ; nor money to purchase the ar- 

 ticles required for the farm, he must, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, live in a state of penury and hard labour ; and the 

 first unfavourable season, or other incidental misfortune, will 

 probably sink him under the weight of his accumulated bur- 

 dens (*). Farmers are too generally disposed, to engage in 

 larger farms than they have capital to stock and cultivate. 

 This is a great error ; for it makes many a person poor upon 

 a large farm, who might live in comfort and acquire property, 

 upon one of less extent ( 3 ). No tenant can be secure with- 

 out a surplus at command, not only for defraying the common 

 expenses of labour, but those which may happen from any 

 unexpected circumstance ( 4 ). When a farmer, on the other 

 hand, farms within his capital, he is enabled to embrace every 

 favourable opportunity of buying, when prices are low, and of 

 selling when they are high ( 5 ). 



The amount of capital required, must depend upon a variety 

 of circumstances ; as, 1 . Whether it is necessary for the far- 

 mer to expend any sum in the erection, or in the repair of his 

 farm-house and offices ; 2. What sum an incoming tenant has to 

 pay to his predecessor, for the straw of the crop, the dung left 

 upon the farm, and other articles of a similar nature ; 3. The 

 condition of the farm at the commencement of the lease, and 

 whether any sums must be laid out in drainage, inclosure, 

 irrigation, levelling ridges, &c. ; 4. Whether it is necessary to 

 purchase lime, or other extraneous manures, and to what ex- 

 tent ; 5. On the period of entry, and the time at which the 

 rent becomes payable, as this is sometimes exacted, before 

 there is any return from the lands, out of the actual produce 

 of which it ought to be paid; and, lastly, on its being, 1. A 

 grazing; or 2. An arable farm; or, 3. A mixture of both ( 6 ). 



1. Grazing farms. In pasture districts, the common mode 

 of estimating the capital that may be necessary, is according to 

 the amount of the rent ; and it is calculated, that in ordinary 

 pastures, every farmer ought to have at his command, from three 

 to five times the rent he has agreed to pay. But in the more 

 fertile grazing districts, carrying stock worth from L.20 to 

 L.30, and even upwards, per acre, (as is the case in many 

 parts of England), five rents are evidently insufficient. When 

 prices are high, ten rents will frequently be required, by those 

 who breed superior stock, and enter with spirit, into that new 

 field of speculation and enterprise ( 7 ). 



2. Arable farms. The capital required by an arable far- 

 mer, varies according to circumstances, from L.5 to L.10, or 

 oven L.lbper English acre ( 8 ). An ignorant, timid, and penu- 



