<52 THE EQUIPMENT OF THE FARM. 



He must have at his disposal the means of meeting all 

 these requirements "before he takes his farm. The rent 

 and taxes may be so low as 20s., so high as 5 per acre. 

 The lahour bill may be so low as 10s. an acre on grass 

 land, or even less on mere grazing ground, and it may 

 be so high as 3 per acre. The manure bill may vary 

 from to, say, 1 an acre ; indeed, even excluding 

 market gardening from the view, the manure and labour 

 bill sometimes exceeds even 10 an acre. The seed may 

 <;ost nothing, as on a grass-land farm, or it may cost 10s. 

 an acre all over the farm, as in the case of a farm wholly 

 arable. The bill for purchased food is often 1 an acre, 

 sometimes more, but of course it may be very much less 

 according to the style of management adopted. We have 

 already reached on the whole an alternative of 80s. on the 

 one side, and (supposing all the maxima to come together) 

 ^10 10s. per acre on the other; and we have not yet 

 even started our farm as it is called, i.e., provided it with 

 live stock and machinery. 



The former may cost 3 an acre beside the horse-power, 

 which, at a team for every 60 acres of arable land, may be 

 1 an acre on light arable land, or even 2 per acre on 

 heavier soils. In our ideal farm of 500 acres we found 

 food for at least 2 sheep per acre ; and these may be 

 supposed to cost 4: ; and if converted, as we imagined, into 

 the maintenance of 16 horses, 12 cows, 12 calves, 12 

 yearlings, 12 2-year-old, 6 3-year-old, and 550 sheep, 

 besides pigs, the total value can hardly be less than 

 ^62000, or 4: per acre, as already stated. 



This is in the case of a fairly stocked farm of 500 acres 

 of good arable land. Take the case of the best grazing 

 grounds, where an ox and a sheep can be fattened per acre, 



