1232 STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. Part IV. 



7973. A reasonaUe degree of security against the cns7talties of life mav bo anTorded to a working man 

 about to enter into the married state and his family for the sum of "lOO/., which it is shown he might save 

 by the age of twenty-eight. That sum would be disposed of thus : 



Furniture, exclusive of what was provided by the wife - .. .^30 



Annuity for himself in old age of 20/. per annum . . 17 



Annuity of 10/. per annum for his widow - . - S3 



Provision for four children - . ... -20 



.^100 



Therefore, let no man whatever, not even the most humble country labourer, think of marrying before he 

 has saved 100/. ; and let him beware of spending any part of this sum, even that part which is allotted for 

 his furniture, before he has provided for the four casualties of the married state. 



7974. To carry this scheme into e^ff'ect, mutual assurance societies by the working classes themselves, or 

 benefit societies, would probably be the best mode, and government and the more wealthy members of 

 society ought to lose no time in assisting in their formation. It is justly observed, however, that it cannot 

 be too often inculcated upon the working classes, that the improvement of their condition must be their 

 own work. Were this .'scheme carried into practice, " it would diminish their numbers relatively to capi- 

 tal, and as a consequence, their wages would rise. Secondly, it would rescue them and their families from 

 extreme poverty, give them independence of character, secure to all of them the advantages of education, 

 and thus break down the barrier which confines them to the sphere they are born in, and precludes them 

 from obtaining any of the higher prizes in the lottery of life. To society the system would be equally 

 beneficial; poor's rates, with all the abuses they engender, would be done away; crimes would be rare 

 when pauperism was eradicated; and by the Qniversal diffusion of education, all the talent in society 

 would be made available. And last, not least, when every grown-up man had either a small stock of 

 savings in hand, or investments in a commoii fund, we should have the very best guarantee for the public 

 tranquillity. Did the working classes fully understand this scheme," its excellent author continues^ 

 " nine tenths of all the poverty, misery, and crime which we see around us would disappear; we should 

 in fact find ourselves in a new woild, full of intelligence, peace, and good order, in which life and property 

 would be ten times more secure, happiness more equally distributed, and an admirable foundation laid for 

 the further amelioration of the lot of mankind." {Scots?nan, 'Hov. 13. 1830.) 



7975. The plan of life for the directive class of agriculturists need hardly be pointed out ; (he rise from 

 a farm bailiff to a steward's bailiff, or to a demesne bailiff or steward, and thence to tlie general steward or 

 factor of an estate, is an obvious object of ambition. In another direction he may rise through the differ- 

 ent gradations of the commercial agriculturist, or, adopting the rank of counsellor or artist, he may be- 

 come a salesman, appraiser, timber or land-surveyor, land- valuer, agent, or agricultural engineer : rarely, 

 however, can he attempt the veterinary profession, or that of draftsman, author, or professor. 



7976. The retnuyieration to which a directive agriculturist is naturally entitled^ should be regulated by 

 his professional abilities and experience; that which he will commonly receive will be regulated by the 

 quantity of agricultural talent and experience in the market ; it ought always to be such as will render it 

 worth his while to be honest, assiduously attentive to the interest of his employer, and of polite and 

 obliging manners. A handsome salary to such a servant is wise economy. 



7977. The object of the artist or counsellor agriculturist may be pither to ascend to the rank of author 

 or professor, conditions of more honour than profit ; or to realise property and become a proprietor culti- 

 vator. For a rent-paying farmer, no artist or author is at all adapted- 



7978. The legitimate object of a commercial agriculturist is to rise in the different grades of his class, 

 and become either a large farmer, a gentleman farmer, or, best of all, a proprietor cultivator. 



7979. The profits to which a commercial agriculturist is oitit/ed, comparatively with those of other com- 

 mercial men, are theoretically determinable by the risk attending the employment of his capital, and the 

 skill requisite to prosecute his art; but, practically, this remuneration will depend on the quantity of 

 skill and capital in the market. The risk attending capital employed in the culture of the useful products 

 of the soil, is evidently less than the risk of capital employed in many or perhaps most manufactures; 

 and the skill requisite to enable any one to become a farmer, according to the customary practices of the 

 country surrounding him, is less than that required for almost any branch of manufacture. In conse- 

 quence of these things, there are men every where ready to become farmers ; hence the profits of farm- 

 ing are naturally less than those of most other pursuits ; but, to counterbalance this, the farmer has 

 several advantages peculiar to his profession. First, the nature of his residence in the country, which 

 assumes a certain degree of consequence from its connection with a considerable group of out-offices, sur- 

 rounded by a garden, orchard, fields, woods, and other rural scenery, all in his occupation, and inhabited 

 by servants in cottages, horses, cattle, sheep, and other domestic animals, in subjection to him, gives him 

 a degree of consequence both real and apparent ; and assimilates him more nearly to a lord of the soil, 

 and to the possessor of that sort of rural retirement and independence which is the object of almost every 

 commercial man's ambition, than any other mode of life could do. Secondly, many trades and professions 

 preclude (according to general prejudices) their followers from being gentlemen : wliereas, though every 

 farmer is not a gentleman, yet any gentleman may become a farmer, without in any degree lowering his 

 rank and character ; a farmer may, therefore, if he chooses to adopt the habits and manners of a gentle- 

 man, be reckoned as such. Thirdly, the farmer's products are in universal demand, and he is sure of a 

 market at some reasonable rate, a fact otherwise with many manufactures. Fourthly, he is sure of a 

 home, of the necessaries of life, and, in general, of most vigorous health. Fifthly, he is generally a man 

 of more parochial influence than the tradesman or manufacturer. 



7980. Scarcely any farmer makes a fortune by his profession : the utmost exertions of the most skilful 

 and industrious men, in the most improved districts, seldom do more than enable them to keep pace with 

 the times ; and the great majority, in all countries, lead a life of great labour and anxiety, and end as 

 they began. No farmer, in a general way, can raise more than one corn crop in a year, and in this respect 

 the farmer of Russia and Poland has the advantage of the British farmer; for the lands of the former 

 being from five to eight months under snow, all root-weeds are destroyed, and the ground so loosened by 

 the frosts and thaws, as to require very little stirring for the seed : the rapid summer which suceeeds 

 ripens all annual plants that will grow there, nearly as well as in England, and better than in many parts 

 of Scotland and Ireland. The British farmers, however, have the great advantage of perpetual pastures, 

 owing to the mildness of our winters; but still no art of man will shorten the period of animal gestation, 

 and originate a lamb or a calf in shorter periods than five months and forty weeks. How often does the 

 tradesman or manufacturer turn his capital in that time ! There are three varieties of professional 

 farmers, however, who occasionally realise some property : the grazier who feeds with oil-cake, grains, 

 and other artificial foods ; the dealer in corn or cattle, who has the art to buy at a falling and sell at a 

 rising market ; and the dealer or jobber in farms, who sublets or sells his lease, or in purchases of land, 

 who subdivides and sells estates. The profits of the first are not great, and those of the last two are at- 

 tended with great risk : the only farmer whose lot is to be envied, hves under a landlord who does not 

 take the full marketable price for his lands : such as Burdett, Coke, Bedford, Northumberland, and many 

 others in the south j but few in the north, or in the west. * 



