1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



171 



the chairman announced Fi'uit Culture as the 

 subject for the next discussion, when the Hon. 

 Marsh.\ll p. Wilder would preside. 



For the New England Fanner. 



BETBOSPECTIVE NOTES. 



TiiE Relative Value of Different Vari- 

 eties OF Corn. — This communication, wliich the 

 reader will find in the issue of this journal of Jan. 

 ISth, and in the February number of the monthly 

 edition, is deserving of commendation, partly be- 

 cause it puts upon record the results of an impor- 

 tant investigation which go fiir to settle some 

 questions which have long been unsettled, and 

 gives us well-ascertained facts which will be of 

 great use for future reference, and partly because 

 it presents a most praiseworthy example of the 

 right mode of settling questions concerning wliich 

 differences of opinion are found to exist among 

 members of any farmers' club, or among farmers 

 at large — members of the great, though unorgan- 

 ized, Farmers' Fraternity. K the far-lamed Far- 

 mers' Club of the American Institute had adopted 

 a similar plan for the settlement of those differ- 

 ences of opinion as to seed corn, which O. K. so 

 appropriately remarked upon in the January No. 

 of this journal, and in the weekly issue of Dec. 7th 

 of last year — that is, if the members had made pro- 

 vision for testing their opinions and settling their 

 differences by a series of carefully-conducted ex- 

 periments, they would have done Ijetter than they 

 did. A great step in advance would be taken, if 

 all farmers' clubs would imitate the example of the 

 club at Southboro', and whenever differences of 

 opinion or practice are found to exist among the 

 members, some provision were made for settling 

 those differences by submitting them to the test of 

 accurate and faithful experiments. That is the true 

 way to settle such differences. Thanks, then, let 

 us all award to the Farmers' Club of Southboro', 

 for the praiseworthy example it has given of the 

 right and proper way to settle differences of opin- 

 ion and practice among farmers, and to advance 

 the interests of agriculture and agriculturists. 



More Anon. 



The Eddystone Lighthouse. — The Eddy- 

 stone Lighthouse has now withstood the storms 

 of a century — a solid monument to the genius of 

 its architect and builder. Sometimes, when the 

 sea rolls in with more than ordinary fury from the 

 Atlantic, driven up the Channel by the force of a 

 southwest wind, the lighthouse is enveloped in 

 spray and its light is momentarily obscured. But 

 again it is seen shining clear like a star across the 

 waters, a warning and a guide to the homeward 

 bound. Occasionally, when struck by a strong 

 wave, the central portion shoots up the perpendic- 

 ular shaft and leaps quite over the lantern. At 

 other times a tremendous wave hurls itself upon 

 the lighthouse, as if to force it from its foundation. 

 The report of the shock to one within is like that 

 of a cannon ; the windows rattle ; the doors slam ; 

 and the building vibrates and trembles to its very 

 base. But the tremor felt throughout the light- 

 house in such a case, instead of being a sign of 

 weakness, is the strongest proof of the unity and 

 close connection of the fabric in all its parts. — 

 Lives of British Engineers. 



For tite New England Farmer. 

 SMALL AND LARGE FABMS. 

 BY JUDGE FRENCH. 



England produces an average of about 28 bush- 

 els of wheat to the acre, while France produces 

 about half that quantity, and the United States 

 considerably less than France. Why is this so ? 

 An Englishman will aliswer at once that it is be- 

 cause in England the land is owned by a few large 

 proprietors, while in France and the United 

 States it is divided into small tracts among many 

 owners. In England, the i-eal estate of a person 

 dying intestate all descends to the eldest son, 

 while in France, as in this country, it is equally 

 divided among all the children. In England, the 

 tendency of the laws is, to increase the land of the 

 land-owner, to make the rich richer, and if not to 

 make the poor poorer, at least to keep him always 

 as poor as he now is. 



Lavergne, in 1855, estimated that there were 

 about 200,000 farmers, that is, persons who occu- 

 py as tenants of others, in England alone, occupy- 

 ing an average of 150 acres each. Of these, about 

 one-half cultivate their farms themselves, with the 

 assistance of their families. In France, besides 

 the five or six millions of small holdings, below 

 twenty acres each, there are four or five hundred 

 thousand averaging fifty or sixty acres each, and 

 many very large estates, especially near Paris. 

 The difference between the actual extent of the 

 farms, as occupied, in England and elsewhere, is 

 usually exaggerated. A few immense land-owners 

 are referred to as illustrations of British agricul- 

 tui'e. The estate of the Duke of Sutherland, the 

 largest in Great Britain, contains 750,000 acres, 

 but this is in the North of Scotland, a wild and 

 rough country, which does not admit of the fine 

 cultivation of the lowland counties. The immense 

 estates of the Duke of Northumberland are situ- 

 ated mostly in the county of that name, one of the 

 most mountainous and least productive. It is not 

 usually on those immense estates that we find the 

 most profitable cultivation. The large proprietors 

 do not usually manage their own estates, or even 

 keep them much in their charge. They are divid- 

 ed off into farms of 100 to 1000 acres, and leased, 

 and the tenant or fiirmer occupies them as if they 

 were his own. Often, indeed usually, there is no 

 written lease, and the tenant goes on from year to 

 year for a generation, under a sort of custom, and 

 at his death, his widow or son continues in the 

 same occupation, so that the homes of English 

 farmers are even more permanent than those of 

 American farmers. Now, if each of these farmers 

 owned his farm, would he not cultivate it as well 

 for himself and the country, as he now does ? 



It has been often said in England that the best 

 lease is that which makes the tenant most like an 

 owner. Yet, we observed whUe in company with 



