AGRICULTURE. 



this character are most to be distinguish- 

 ed. They will yield large crops of beans 

 and wheat, but the sight of these should 

 always be blended with the consideration 

 of the immense expense at which they 

 are necessarily raised. There are many 

 variations of peat, bog, and fen, and all 

 may be found exceedingly profitable ; and 

 if marl or lime be in the neighbourhood, 

 that circumstance is a most important 

 inducement to undertake the manage- 

 ment of them. 



With regard to grass lands, they are to 

 behest examined at several seasons, in 

 order to ascertain their character. If 

 they be too wet, this is shown by walking 

 over them in winter, and by rushes, flags, 

 and moisture, which, in a greater or less 

 degree, are always observable upon them. 

 The grass is general!} blue at the poinis, 

 and always coarse. Draining may correct 

 stiff loams, but the stiff tenacious clay is 

 scarcely susceptible of cure. Grass, on 

 gravelly soils, will inevitably burn in hot 

 summers, but will extremely abound on 

 loams in wet ones. On the banks of 

 brooks and rivers, meadow of almost any 

 soil may be considered good, but the cir- 

 cumstance of their liability to summer in- 

 undations ought never to be forgotten. 



The herbage on many fields is some- 

 times composed of weeds and the coarsest 

 and worst of grasses, which are at all 

 times discernible, and indeed glaring. 

 Under a prohibition of arable, which is 

 sometimes and not unfrequently the case, 

 fields of this description are worth little or 

 nothing. A river, well restrained within 

 its banks, running through a farm, is a cir- 

 cumstance decidedly favourable The 

 grass lands may thus be presumed to have 

 water for the accommodation of cattle. 



The quantity, as well as the nature of 

 the soil, is likewise to be considered, and 

 no larger quantity should be occupied 

 than can conveniently be stocked. The 

 bad management, and the perpetual em- 

 barrassment occurring in the contrary 

 situation, are often ruinous to the health 

 and to the fortunes of those who are in- 

 volved in it. 



The disjoined situation of the various 

 fields of a farm is a circumstance attend- 

 ed with great vexation and expense. 

 Compactness of estates will always ren- 

 der them far more valuable ; and oppor- 

 tunities of producing this compactness, 

 by purchasing at a fair valuation, will 

 never be neglected by vigilant and weal- 

 thy landlords. 



To estimate the rent correctly, it has 

 been judiciously recommended to con- 



nect it with tithes and poor rates. What- 

 ever sum be intended to be invested in 

 the farm, its interest may be fairly calcu- 

 lated at not less than ten per cent. A va- 

 luation of the expense and the produce 

 should, for the next step, be carefully 

 made : and, after the former is deducted 

 from the latter, what remains will be the 

 sum which can be allowed for the de- 

 mand of rent, in the three different forms 

 above mentioned. If the amount of tithes 

 and rates be deducted from this, what 

 remains will be the sum which the occu- 

 pier can afford to pay the landlord. 



The nature of the covenanis required, 

 which are sometimes only absurd, and 

 therefore admissible without difficulty, 

 but sometimes equally absurd and mis- 

 chiveous, ought ever to be considered in 

 connection not only with general but lo- 

 cal and peculiar circumstances. The un- 

 reasonableness of the conditions propos- 

 ed will sometimes be a valid objection 

 to that occupancy, which rent and situa- 

 tion, and all other circumstances, might 

 render highly eligible, and compensation 

 injdmi'mished rent will be necessary, to in- 

 demnify for tying dow r n the farmer from 

 modes of cultivation uninjurious to the 

 land- and inexpressibly the most benefi- 

 cial to the occupier. 



From three to five pounds per acre 

 was, about forty years since, considered 

 adequate to the stocking of any farm, 

 partly grass and partly tillage, of the 

 average fertility. The increase of rents 

 and of rates, the higher composition for 

 tithes, the advance upon all implements 

 of husbandry, and upon every species of 

 sheep and cattle, may be justly consider- 

 ed as having raised the sum necessary 

 for the above purpose to seven or eight 

 pounds. To form calculations upon this 

 subject as accurately as possible, and 

 ascertain that the requisite capital is 

 possessed, for the due management of 

 the land to be occupied, cannot be too 

 emphatically insisted upon. The profit 

 attending an increased expense in stock- 

 ing will, in some cases, more than double 

 the ratio of profit before that increase; and 

 if the farmer be incapable of availing him- 

 self of striking opportunities for improve- 

 ment, by the purchase of litter or of ma- 

 nure, and indeed by a variety of circum- 

 stances which may easily be suggested, 

 for want of capital, his situation must be 

 highly disadvantageous. 



The choice of servants is a point re- 

 quiring extreme attention. Where the 

 assistance of a bailiff is required, as in all 

 farms of very considerable extent, he 



