1 66 A Walk from 



who will gladly and ably fill the post of under-foreman 

 for a shilling or two a week of advanced wages. Then, 

 by the constant absorption of small holdings into large 

 farms, which is going on more rapidly from this in- 

 creased facility of managing great occupations, a very 

 considerable number of small farmers every year are fall- 

 ing into the labor market, being reduced to the neces- 

 sity of either emigrating to cheaper lands beyond the 

 sea, or of hiring themselves out at home as managers, 

 foremen, or common laborers on estates thus enlarged 

 by their little holdings. From these two sources of 

 supply the English tenant-farmer, beyond all question, 

 is able to cultivate a larger space, and conduct more 

 extensive operations than any other agriculturist in the 

 world, at least by free labor. 



The first peculiarity of this large occupation I noticed, 

 was the extent of the fields into which it was divided. 

 I had never seen any so large before in England. 

 There were only three of the whole estate under 60, 

 and some contained more than 400 acres each, giving 

 the whole an aspect of amplitude like that of a rolling 

 prairie farm in Illinois. Not one of the little, irregular 

 morsels of land half swallowed by its broad-bottomed 

 hedging, which one sees so frequently in an English 

 landscape, could be found on this great holding. The 

 white thorn fences were new, trim, and straight, occu- 



