FARMS. 3 : 



subdivided into ten equal portions, as fields ; this gives each a square of 10 

 acres to be surrounded by a fence. Take, on the other hand, a farm of 

 300 acres for subdivison into fields. One of this extent would probably 

 be laid off into compartments of about 25 acres each, so that on 

 it there would be a fence surrounding each square of 25 acres 

 only, instead of each 10, as in the other case. This makes a vast differ- 

 ence in the expense of managing a large property, inasmuch as the 

 larger the farms on it are made the fewer fences will fall to be erected 

 on them, and therefore the expenditure from this source will be less on 

 them both for the present and future. Taking the items of buildings 

 and fences as described, where these have to be dealt with in connection 

 with small farms, they are a continual drain on the purse of the pro- 

 prietor, as well as a constant source of annoyance and anxiety to the 

 parties who have to look after them and keep them in order. 



Although the objections already stated against having a large propor- 

 tion of small farms on an estate may be considered sufficient to prove 

 their general unfitness where economical management is an object on an 

 estate, still there is another objection which I have yet to bring forward 

 against them, and which is a great bar to the improvement of a property on 

 which they exist namely, that they can be occupied only by an inferior 

 class of tenants. The men who occupy small farms I do not speak of 

 gentlemen who may hold small pieces of land in the country in connec- 

 tion with their dwellings, but of tenant-farmers only, who make their living 

 by the cultivation of their respective holdings are generally those who 

 have not sufficient capital for larger farms, and who are therefore, from 

 necessity, mere labourers on their small holdings. Speaking from my 

 own experience in regard to tenants of this kind, I have in most cases 

 found them obliged to work much harder than labourers generally do, 

 while they are oppressed with anxiety on account of the fear they have 

 that the value of their substance probably may not meet the demands 

 which will fall to be made on it at the end of the year. 



There can be no doubt that small farms are useful as a field of em- 

 ployment for a large number of industrious men with small capital ; 

 but it is evident that it is not advantageous in the economy of the 

 estates on which they exist, to have too many of them in proportion to 

 the size of the estate. No proprietor, having only small farms on 

 his estate, can induce intelligent and moneyed men to become tenants 

 with a view to their making agricultural pursuits their business. It is 

 only the proprietor who has large subjects to offer who can command 

 the intelligence and capital of a superior class of tenants to assist him in 

 the improvement of his property; while, on the other hand, the pro- 

 prietor who has only small subjects to offer must be content with a 



