24 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



these undergo when subjected to altered conditions, whether in regard 

 to weather or the effects of mechanical operations. Most people 

 engaged in business keep regular accounts of income and expenditure 

 connected with their transactions, so that at the end of the year they 

 are able to understand exactly how matters stand ; but there are com- 

 paratively few farmers who attend to this essential point, or who can 

 at any stage of their business give a correct statement as to the profit 

 or loss on it. If this is truly the state of things in regard to a very 

 large proportion of the farmers of our country and I believe no one 

 will deny that it is so then it is certainly high time that a higher 

 degree of intelligence and more correct business habits prevailed amongst 

 them. Suitable education and training for the profession can alone effect 

 improvement in those respecjts in the cultivators of land in this country. 

 Without suitable education and training in the case of our farmers, as 

 a class, it is impossible that the agriculture of Britain can make the 

 great and rapid progress which its importance demands in the interests 

 of a rapidly-increasing population, who may be said to have a right to 

 expect cheap food, and a plentiful supply of it, from those who have the 

 land in their hands, and who profess to cultivate it to the best advan- 

 tage of all concerned. If a certain degree of education and training is 

 requisite in the case of the land-agent, to fit him for the proper dis- 

 charge of his part in the business of estate management, the "same is 

 equally necessary to prepare farmers for the proper and profitable dis- 

 charge of their duties. The question, therefore, is, What kind of educa- 

 tion is best fitted to insure the farmer being able to carry out a system 

 of high cultivation profitably for himself and for all concerned ? 



In the case of a farmer, as well as in that of a land-agent, the first 

 preparative step is a good general education, embracing all the usual 

 branches of English instruction, including book-keeping and some 

 knowledge of mathematics, which can always be obtained in this coun- 

 try at a moderate cost in most towns. The young man who intends to 

 make farming his business should next place himself under the instruc- 

 tions of some really good and intelligent practical farmer unless he is 

 the son of a farmer of good abilities on whose farm he is likely to see 

 all the details of the business systematically carried out on the most 

 approved principles. On such a farm he should remain at least one full 

 year, working with his own hands in every branch of operations, so that 

 he may be able to know not only how each branch ought to be gone 

 about, but also how to perform it properly himself. I hold that this 

 working with their own hands is a great advantage to young men who 

 are to follow farming in after-life, as it gives them an acquaintance with 

 the different works which they cannot obtain otherwise. It is not ab- 



