18 



had arisen from the industry, enterprise and expenditure of 

 capital of its tenant farmers. The capital of great mill owners 

 is always to be seen in their great factories, warehouses, and 

 their machinery perpetually in motion, — all of which strikes 

 the eye. Whereas the capital of the tenant farmer is literally 

 buried in the earth. In a work upon agriculture of the two 

 great border counties of Roxburgh and Berwick, I find that on 

 one farm the tenant had expended in the first three or four 

 years of his tenancy £9000 in draining and artificial manures, 

 and on a farm of less extent, another tenant farmer had expen- 

 ded £5000 in a similar manner ; and unless these men had 

 been confident that in the course of their leases they would 

 have got their money back with interest, they would not as 

 Scotsmen have so spent their money." 



As an illustration of what courage and energy, directed by 

 scientific knowledge, will do in the cultivation of the soil, I 

 need but refer you to the well known Tiptree Hall Farm of 

 Essex County, England, the property of Alderman Mechi, of 

 London, who, some twenty years ago, purchased about one 

 hundred and thirty acres of barren heath land, supposed to be 

 worthless for the purpose of agriculture ; but with an industry 

 and an amount of capital expended that would frighten many 

 of our boldest business men, he has converted that barren 

 waste into fields unsurpassed in richness, and wrought it to 

 such a state of productivenesss, that he is now annually in re- 

 ceipt from it for all his capital invested in the land and im- 

 provements, nearly three-fold the rate of interest then paid for 

 the use of money. For a brief description of this farm and its 

 wonderful improvements under the direction of its bold and 

 successful owner, I would refer you to the statements concern- 

 ing it, made by the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Ag- 

 riculture, as contained in his interesting report of his visit to 

 Europe in 1862, a report well worth reading, both from the 

 pleasure and profit that may be derived from its perusal. 



It is not to be expected that our fiirmers, generally, can as 

 yet compete in wealth, or the ability to make improvements. 



