OLD AND NEW HUSBANDRY. 53 



COMPARATIVE PROFITS OF THE OLD AND NEW HUSBANDRY. 



[We add, at the close of this chapter, the follow- 

 ing statement, given in the London Farmer's Maga- 

 zine from the pen of an eminent English agricul- 

 turist, as exhibiting some of the reasons that induce 

 the adoption there of the New System, and the com- 

 parative profits resulting. That more labour on a 

 given number of acres is required under the new 

 system than under the old, is apparent ; but the in- 

 crease in productiveness is in a still greater ratio, 

 and so are the ultimate profits. By keeping but few 

 acres under cropping, and doing the work of those 

 few acres in the best manner, the farmer gains some 

 important advantages ; he can retain more land in 

 grass, and, of course, can raise more stock ; he is not 

 wearing out his soils by improvident culture ; he re- 

 ceives a far greater interest on the capital invested 

 in his farming operations ; and when, in the course 

 of rotation, his fields are seeded to grass, they are 

 clean, in good tilth, and will not only produce great 

 crops of pasture or grass, but be in fine order for 

 their course in the production of grain crops.] 



It may be proper to premise that my farm consists 

 of about 200 acres, comprising 30 of wood, 42 of 

 pasture, and the rest arable. Of the arable, 85 acres 

 are of good mixed soil, well adapted to turnips and 

 barley, but not considered equal in value to the best 

 wheat land ; the remainder consists partly of a hun- 

 gry gravel and partly of clay, of very inferior quali - 

 ty. It is cultivated on the Norfolk, or four-course 

 system. 



