38 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



the true characteristic of British fanning, and which is known by the 

 name of mixed husbandry. This system is, generally speaking, that 

 practised in the best cultivated parts of Scotland, and especially in the 

 southern counties ; and it prevails also in the northern counties of 

 England, especially in Northumberland. It embraces all the kinds of 

 farming referred to, and therefore requires a high degree of intelligence, 

 varied skill, and strong sound judgment, with a considerable amount of 

 capital, in the man who pursues it. In taking up any of the other 

 modes described, the farmer has only one particular branch to attend 

 to, and therefore needs to be skilled only in that which he may choose 

 to take up ; but in mixed farming, which combines the cultivation of 

 grain with that of sown grasses, turnips, and potatoes, and also the 

 breeding, rearing, and fattening of cattle and sheep, much ability, skill, 

 and attention are needed to conduct all the branches embraced, so as 

 to make each capable of supplying the demand the one necessarily makes 

 upon the other, and to carry on the proper and profitable working of 

 the whole as one complete and perfect food-producing manufactory, if 

 it may be so called. It is to this kind of farming that I would recom- 

 mend the intelligent and skilful man to devote his energies and capital, 

 because it has in itself advantages not to be found in any other mode ; 

 inasmuch as it enables those who follow it to combine the produce of 

 all the others, and thus secure many chances of realising profits which 

 are not within the reach of those who confine their attention to any 

 particular branch of farming. 



It is very well understood that this kind of farming cannot be car- 

 ried on without a pretty large field of operation, and hence it is that 

 we never find it attended to on small farms with the satisfactory 

 results it produces when followed on a large scale. It is the system 

 which of all others pays best, and therefore it is generally resorted to 

 in farms of all sizes ; but, as already inferred, it is only on a large scale 

 that it is found to be really profitable. In considering the question, 

 What is the smallest extent of land, farmed according to this system, 

 which may be considered fit to make a farm suitable for a tenant of 

 superior skill and education, and possessed of considerable capital and 

 enterprise ? I should say, certainly not less than 300 acres. With this 

 extent of land, and with sufficient capital to provide a superior class of 

 live stock, and all the apparatus necessary for an improved state of 

 arable culture, &c. &c., a clear-headed and skilful man may undertake 

 the kind of farming recommended with every reasonable hope of realising 

 fair profits from the capital laid out on his business. I have known 

 several farmers who followed this system of farming on subjects some- 

 what smaller in extent than I have stated, but these I invariably heard 



