222 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



All our agriculturists who have visited London have 

 been to see Mr Mechi's farm : it is now very generally 

 known even in France. All that the inventive spirit of 

 the English could imagine to make the soil produce to 

 its utmost extent, and especially to overcome the resist- 

 ance of clay lands, is directly employed by that indefati- 

 gable inventor. It must not be supposed, however, that 

 Tiptree Hall presents the true state of English agriculture ; 

 it is not even that which is likely to prevail over the 

 greater portion of the country, for some of its principal 

 features are there wanting entirely. But it is one of the 

 most complete resumes of the vigorous efforts making for 

 some time past to improve stiff land, and at the same 

 time affords a striking example of the social and political 

 character of the revolution now going on in agriculture. 

 It was a movement essentially of an aristocratic character 

 which, since the time of Arthur Young, has so greatly 

 advanced English agriculture : that which promises at 

 the present day to cause another stride, and of which Mr 

 Mechi is one of the most active agents, is, I will not say 

 democratic, but urban (bourgeois). 



Mr Mechi's farm, which is his own property, contains 

 one hundred and seventy acres, the average size of both 

 property and farming in the county ; but in one respect it 

 does not keep to the average, and that is in the disburse- 

 ment account. Mr Mechi purposely chose his farm upon 

 marshy land which had hitherto resisted all kinds of 

 culture ; and he has taken care to leave all around a 

 specimen of the land as it was, to show its former state. 

 Everything had to be made ; first, the soil, which Mr 

 Mechi relieved of the stagnant water by thorough-drain- 

 ing, and then turned it up to the depth of two feet, and 

 transformed it by means of the most powerful fertilisers. 

 Mr Mechi has built an unpretending house upon the pro- 



