penditure that ap])ears to us enormous, if not 

 Utopian, is, when directed by sound judgment 

 and experience, productive of a maximum profit. 

 It has been said " that the soil is always grateful, 

 but it will have sOiiiething to be grateful for." 

 Tenant-farmer^ in Britain may generally be said 

 to have a working capital of from eight to ten 

 pounds sterling per acre, the amount depending 

 greatly on the system pursued. I was told last 

 year, by an English tenant-fiirmer pursuing the 

 mixed husbandry, tliat he had sixteeri pounds an 

 acre, and he felt confident that his business could 

 be made more profitable by increasing his cap- 

 ital. Yet, even in England, one constantly hears 

 the complaint that too little capital is invested 

 in the management of land, and practical men 

 generally endorse the sentiment. Certainly on 

 this side the Atlantic our farming capital gener- 

 ally is miserably deficient, and farmers, as a rule, 

 could make no investment of their savings so safe 

 and profitable, as to use them for the further de- 

 velopment of their own freeholds. 



We must be careful, however, in drawing 

 practical conclusions from analogical reasoning 

 founded on the conditions and practices of British 

 agriculture, as applying to our own, under dift\^r- 

 ent circumstances. What might pay well to do 



