138 THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE.. 
[Fzs. 28, 
whole water sinking down when it falls, and very little 
running in the furrows. Now, thorough draining will im- 
part these conditions to any soil, with this difference, 
that the whole of the rain will sink where it falls, and the 
surplus escape by the drains, instead of the furrows.— 
J. W., Berwickshire, Sept. 17. 
ON THE STATE OF HUSBANDRY IN LOWER 
BRITTANY. § 
WITH INCIDENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONDITION OF 
THE FARMING POPULATION THERE, COMPARE] WITH 
THE SOCIAL STATE OF THE ANALOGOUS CL, 5 IN 
IRELAND. 
By MARTIN DOYLE, 
(Continued from p. 122 ) 
Wuite pursuing the remarks already published un- 
der this head, I have met in the Agricultural Gazette 
with some pithy aphorisms “On Leases and Corn 
Rents, &c." which are pertinent to tlie pointiu 
immediate consideration. 
“Itis absurd to suppose that any one. would grant a 
lease without deriving thenceforth, or in prospect at the 
expiration‘of the se, some advantage to himself be- 
yond what he would derive from an annual letting of 
land; and whoever instils into the farmers’ minds that 
they are to expect lease 
nder our 
common sense may tel] them will never be realised.” 
“The length of the term should depend on the im- 
provements covenanted to be effected by the tenant.” 
If a tenant, not knowing his business, undertakes the 
management of a farm and fails of success, or if, though 
sufficiently skilful, he becomes bankrupt by extrava- 
nce and carelessness, it would be hard that his land- 
lord should suffer “ for the ignorance of his tenant," or 
be a loser by his wilful neglect. 
Leases for a short time to preserve the landlord from 
suffering by the neglig insuffici , or dish y 
of a tenant, have long been usual in Great Britain, 
where the landlord keeps the farm-buildings, &c. in 
repair, allowing also liberally for permanent improve- 
ments. In Brittany (as throughout France) leases for 
Seven or nine years have superseded the old contracts 
(which were practically of long duration), beeause the 
relations of landlord and tenant became entirely changed 
at the ion, which i l in place of the 
hereditary lords of the soil, who were regarded with 
respect and whose words were as bonds, a new pro- 
prietary elass, who obtained the land by purchase from 
the state, and who in many instanees were detested by 
the peasantry for their intrusion. The contracts be- 
tween landlord and tenant thenceforth became a matter 
of mere commercial interest on both sides, and the 
i of their ion became mo further de- 
sirable than it was rendered so by motives of mutual 
convenienee. 
One of the old usages has continued, however, in 
force, and its influence has a very beneficial effect in 
preventing the exhaustion of a farm by a tenant holding 
on a short iease, and the consequent injury to the 
owner, and probable loss, with certain ineonvenienee to 
e succeeding occupier. 
This is termed the usage of revenant bon which is 
analogous to the arrière grasse of Flanders, and “con- 
sists prineipally in the value of the manure on the 
farm whether aceumulated on the premises or incor- 
porated with the land, and unconsumed by crops. 
Straw, standing timber, and (negatively) the repairs 
with which the tenant is chargeable by his lease and 
which he leaves to be executed by his successor. But 
the'essential point is the just estimation of the quantity 
of humus contained in the soil. Now those only who 
know by experience the difficulty and expense of 
renovating an exhausted soil, can fully appreciate the 
general and individual advantage of a usage the effect 
of which is to combine the interests of the out-going 
with those of the in-coming tenant, and their united 
interests with those of the proprietor and the publie."* 
The awards of the revenant bon are made by two ex- 
perienced valuators, and in case of disagreement an 
umpire is called in. 
The custom of taking largefines, with lowrents,on each 
xenewalof alease is not uncommon in Brittany, especially 
in Bas Leon, where it is not unusual, as M. Sousvestre 
states, to pay ten times the yearly rent in a single fine. 
This is a miserable system, by which the tenant is de- 
prived of the capital necess, ry for his operations, but 
advocated by needy or avaricious proprietors on the 
ridiculous plea that it tests the solvency of the tenant. 
So it does, with a vengeance ; it treats him like the 
horse which was brought by degrees to live on a single 
Straw per diem ; but then he died of inanition. 
The old Irish covenants—remmants of feudality— 
respecting the payment of duty on fowls, pigs, &c., are 
often introduced into the Breton leases of modern 
times ; a fruitful source of discontent and disputation 
between the parties concerned. 
Sousvestre deseribes an amusing seene at which 
he was present. A friend of his, who had just con- 
eluded the terms of a lease with a peasant, demanded 
over and above a fat pig yearly. The other demurred, 
declaring that if he were to aecede to this he would be 
with the petty proprietors, The landlord provides the 
capital and divides the profits with the tenant, the 
returns being commonly made in kind; the landlord 
has his own stores for grain, &c., and only receives in 
cash his share of the sales made at the cattle and 
horse fairs. This primitive mode, which can never 
establish an independent yeomanry, is highly objection- 
able, and ought never to exist except under the unfa- 
vourable circumstances of a new county. Yet the 
peasantry, who thus submit to the continued and sus- 
picious surveillance of their masters, are, though de- 
pendent in some respects, better off than day labourers 
anywhere, and far more comfortable than the majority 
of the small farmers in Ireland. 
The class which most nearly resembles them in the 
latter country is that of the dairymen, who pay for each 
cow a fixed sum, or a given number of firkins of butter 
to the graziers, who hire out to them the dairy cow, 
and provide pasturage and winter keep for them ;—a 
class of the Irish peasantry too in Connemara enter into 
with the proprietors and larger farmers to 
plant the Potatoes, manure the land, and give half the 
erop to the landlord; this usage, however, loses its 
analogy with that on Brittany in two important parti- 
culars—the duration of the agreement, which is but for 
a single year, and its application to Potatoes alone. 
Mr. Jagoe, one of the most intelligent witnesses ex- 
amined before Lord Devon and the other Land Com- 
missioners, has recorded his opinion that “If that 
system were introdueed more generally, it would be a 
ery fi ble change jin pari: 0 the con-acre 
system.” He continues thus without perhaps knowing 
of the existence of the same usage in Brittany. 
“Through the greater part of Italy land is cultivated 
on the Metayer system, which is, that the landlord 
bailds a house, and drains the farm if requisite, and the 
tenant and landlord at the end of the season divide the 
crop or the produce of the farm. The Metayer is bound 
to send the landlord’s portion of the crop either to the 
market or to the landlord’s granary.” 
He does not even always find the seed, and only pays 
half the land taxes. Yet, if the tenant has sufficient 
capital, it is better for him to cultivate upon his own 
account. We like the notion of independence, and 
would therefore endeavour to save him from the con- 
tinued and vexatious inspections of the land 
his bailiff. There is under this system a want of per- 
petuity or reasonable certainty of continued tenure. 
If the tenant portion of the Breton farmers who, from 
the termination of the exactions of the feudal system in 
the 14th century to the revolution at the close of the 
last, were unable or unwilling to reclaim the lands, it is 
not to be wondered at,'that with very short leases and 
some uncertainty of possession, they should have made 
but little progress in cultivating them, or even in drain- 
ing or otherwise improving their meadows and arable 
fields. Under the previous circumstances the seigneurs 
and their tenants were connected by the strong bonds of 
hereditary attachment ; the latter had no apprehension 
of being dispossessed of their farms, nor the former any 
disposition to remove them, As far as mutual confi- 
dence was concerned, a strong motive to industry was 
not wanted ; yet apathy, ignorance, prohibitory clauses 
against innovation in the existing usages, and blind 
attachment to the primitive system of grazing, which 
required no exertions of labour (and which was perhaps 
inevitable from the paucity of labourers comparatively 
with the extent of country), concurred to prevent the 
introduction of improved methods of husbandry. To 
these obstacles must also be added the poverty of the 
province, the almost impassable state of the farm-roads, 
the total dearth of caleareous manure in the interior of 
the country, and the want of chemical knowledge to supply 
artificial fertil Such a combination of circum- 
stances has always rendered it exceedingly difficult and 
uninviting to the owners of those wild tracts individually 
to undertake the reclamation of them. 
At the first revolution, too, many of the titles of the 
proprietors to their estates were lost, intentionally de- 
stroyed, or so intermingled with enormous masses of 
deeds scattered so promiscuously in the bureaus, that 
their recovery was a mere chance, and the arrange- 
ments between parties concerning the properties affected 
by them, often became subjects of hard dealing, dis- 
honesty, and compromise of rights ; fraud, imposition, 
and chicane aided in prolonging difficulties as regarded 
the rights of individuals, and years passed before order 
was restored. t 
The industrial resources of the province are now in a 
course of progressive, thougl l 
4 
2 
a 
it would be almost impossible to purchase their different 
shares * so as to enclose them in one ring fence ;: for if 
any intermediate owners were indisposed to sell their 
lots or asked extravagant prices for them, a difficulty 
somewhat similar to that which the Irish land pro- 
rietor finds in squaring his farms and concentrating 
detached holdings would meet him and prevent the 
desired alteration. 
auy communes (or parishes) possess rights of 
commonage on the landes which they obtained from 
time to time from the seigneurs, and as their inhabi- 
tants obtain from the surface heath sufficient to thatch 
their cabins, litter for their cattle, and a little scanty 
herbage for their stunted cows and sheep, they would 
think it unnecessary to teaze the ground with ploughs 
and harrows, or to drive a spade into it, even if by 
some mutual und gs with their neigh they 
obtained the privilege of enclosing allotments—such is 
the indolence and stupidity of these people. 
The want of enterprise and adequate capital among 
the natives for large operations, especially if the results 
be problematical, 
5. The marked dislike which they have to the inter- 
ference of strangers among them, especially if these 
have not Breton blood, and be ignorant of the Breton 
tongue. 
(To be continued.) = 
THE DEANSTON SYSTEM OF DRAINING 
AND DEEP WORKING. X 
[We take the following important communication 
from a report in the Dublin Farmers’ Gazette, of a late 
Council meeting of the Agricultural Improvement: 
Society of Ireland.] 
* The great leading proposition of the Deanston Sys- 
tem is, that the land for agricultural purposes shall be 
rendered uniformly and thoroughly dry, and that the- 
soil shall be deeply worked. In order to obtain these 
important objects, it is necessary that the following 
rules be implicitly followed ; for an imperfect adoption 
of the principles laid down, or a defective execution of 
the work to be performed, will, in effect, destroy the 
character of the system. The first point to be attended 
to is to see that a sufficient outfall for the drainage 
water is available, for the extent of land to be thoroughly 
rained, whether a district, a farm, or a field. In many 
situations the rivers and brooks which afford an outlet 
for the natural surface drainage are too high in the 
surface of their beds, even for complete surface drain- 
age, and especially in times of flood in flat! districts, 
When under-draining is to be effected, a fall of at least 
4 feet from the surface is requisite, to ensure at all times 
a free discharge for the drainage water. The improve- 
ment of the outfall by the larger rivers beeomes a public 
work, and has so far in Ireland been accomplished 
under the Commissioners of Work The outfalls by 
the lesser streams, and by artificial cuts, or water | 
courses, is so far provided for by the Drainage Act. 
There still remains the immediate outfall, which ean only 
be provided for by the large proprietors, who possess 
whole drainage districts, or by the wise and friendly 
co-operation of smaller proprietors, where the drainage 
district is divided into separate possessions, The direc- 
tion of plans for such operations will require special 
engineers for each respective locality, all, however, sub- 
ject to these general rules. That all natural or artificial 
barriers to the free flow of the stream should be re- 
moved or modified, as far as eireumstances will allow— 
that the channels of the rivers or streams should be 
made as ample as cir will it—that 
the line of direction shall be as straight as the 
nature of the ground will allow, and that an 
uniform width of ehannel shall be adopted. When 
rivers continue their course in along valley, where 
there is much flat and valuable land, and where the 
channel of the river cannot be got sufficiently deep 
to avoid overflowing in floods, then embankments should 
be raised up to protect the low lands from overflowing, 
and the outfall for the under-drainage of such lands 
should be provided for by am artificial cut, having its 
outfall into the river, at the lowest point which ean be 
reached. The outfall being sufficient from the natural 
position of the ground, or having been obtained by arti- 
ficial means, the district, farm, or field is in a position 
for the effective carrying out of the Deanston system, 
The surface of the water in the main outlet of the farm 
should, in itswhole course, never be less than 4 feet 
under the surface of the ground. Circumstances, how- 
ever, in many cases, will not admit of so much, and 
the li 
is producing her fruits in ci 
a 
surface consists principally of Heath (Erica vulgaris), 
ruined. He offered a sucking pig. however; this did 
not satisfy the proprietor. The result was, the notary | 
who wrote down the terms of the agreement, inserted | 
un cochon, raisonnable. 
Farming on sha s common in this poor country 
ete A de: a peered 
— | 
i 
"usvestre, 
| and Furze (Ulex europzus), no very promising kind of 
soil it must be admitted for cultivation. 
2. When property was sold after the state of anarchy 
alluded to, a considerable part of the “ landes ? had been 
confiscated with other property of the seigneurs, which 
were purchased by numerous smal! farmers from whe 
with this rule must, therefore, be 
judged in reference to the peculiar circumstances of 
each case. The frequent draing designed. to give the 
character of thorough drainage to the land should be 
set off in the direction of the greatest descent as indi- 
cated by the general inclination of the surface of the 
field. They should be set off strictly parallel tó each 
other, and where not interfering much with the proper 
line of declination, they should be parallel to the fences. 
The lines of drains should be carried uniformly over 
the whole surface of the field, without reference to the 
apparent wet or dry condition of the soil. There should 
be a receiving drain formed at the bottom of each 
field, which drain should be 9 feet or thereabouts dis- 
tant from the fence, especially if it is a live fence, or if 
there be any hedgerow trees. "This drain should be at 
east 6 inches lower in the level of its bottom, than the 
bottoms of the frequent drains, which discharge their 
à to live in fe great 
nt proprietors of the 
cing'about the terms 
s concerned, 
