35—1846.] THE 
AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
587 
labourer, between poverty and daily bread: the pos- 
Session of the treasure is to him a rise in the affairs 
of life, it has a cheering influence upon the inmates of 
the cottage circle, and a commanding influence in his 
own private circle of friends. And when some kind 
neighbour leaning over the sty, asks how the pig goes 
on—hbefore any inquiries are made after the family—the 
self-satisfied response of * Why, he’s thriving "—dis- 
Plays a fervency of good feeling and of thankfulness, 
Long may thy hardy sons of toil, oh, happy England! 
Possess this time-revered reward of their honest labours, 
There is no doubt but that the object here descanted 
Upon is one of the most valuable productions in agri- 
cultural affairs. As food it is a longer relished article, 
and a more general diet in this country than any other 
animal food, and yet the creature itself, like other useful 
nudges, is not looked upon by the million in a respect- 
able comparison with his brethren of the yard and the 
fold ; although he may be treated contemptuously while 
living, yet the most fastidious fancier of his vulgarity 
will condescend to partake of his dried haunches, and 
will, like the pul Mak d at length 
eat up the hog."—S. C. 
Witney. 
THE PROFITS OF FARMING, 
[See pages 505, 522, 526.] 
You assert that land can be permanently raised in 
Productiveness 5 bushels per acre, at an annual cost 
not exceeding 5s. per aere, by marling. That such is 
Only a theoretical statement I can clearly prove. In 
the first place, then, marling is always in a certain de- 
gree doubtful in its results ; its object would be, in the 
instance you mention, to change the nature of the soil 
by the addition of another soil to the extent of 100 eubie 
Yards per acre. It is a homely saying, * That you can- 
Not make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear,” neither can 
you make sterile land permanently fertile by the addi- 
tion of any such limited amount of one particular soil, 
Read what is said of marling in the work on * British 
Husbandry,” published by the Society for the Diffusion 
of Useful Knowledge, if what is there stated had been 
fresh in your memory, you would scarcely have brought 
forward such an instance to prove any general state- 
Ment, as the expence attending so heavy a work must 
Necessarily be varied, depending on position, and many 
other local cireumstances. But admitting that the land 
Could be marled to the extent of 100 cubic yards per 
Sere for an outlay of 5/; per acre. [It should have 
been 505. The cost is 6d, per cubic yard, so there is 
10 per cent. for you at once. But we do not admit the 
Justice of your claim to 10 per cent.—that would be re- 
quiring two profits on your money, lst, the 5 bushels 
Per acre, and 2d, the extra per centage.] I ask what 
man would be satisfied with 5 per cent., making 5s. per 
Acre per annum on his capital so expended. You must 
Suppose such expense to be ineurred by the landowner ; 
now any landowner can and ought to make 10 per cent. 
d Money judiciously expended in draining, which is 
One at a cost of 4l. per acre ; you cannot for a moment 
doubt that draining is the more certain, and likely. to 
be the more permanent improvement; yet you only 
allow 5 per cent. on the outly for marling, which is to 
be done at an expence of 10/, per acre; to make it a 
Profitable speculation it ought to show a probable re- 
turn of at least 20 per cent. on the outlay, whieh would 
Take the interest IZ. per acre per annum. I just men- 
tion here that, supposing the land to be marled, and 
that tho operation was successful in fertilising the soil, 
it would also bring into vegetation additional weeds to 
the kept down, additional corn to be cut, harvested, 
rashed, and taken to market, all of which expences 
you have again overlooked. The other instance you 
Bive, that an outlay of 57. in manure may be termed a 
permanent improvement, if it be followed up by good 
dM RIS is too vague and undefined for me to fol- 
3 As regards ‘the doubt I expressed whether the ave- 
AS Increase of produce to be expected on an average 
di years to p 2 pensive operation of 
on) and the employment of sufficient capital for 
5 © cultivation of the soil, would exceed 5 bushels per 
Ey per annum, you refer meto * C. W. H.’s” account 
i Us own experience, and say that it can be paralleled 
n hundreds of cases. Alas! for the present state of 
ierieultural Statisties ; I believe it istoo true. I must 
one, first mention that the dictum of “C. W. H.,” that, 
n Similar land, * the producer of 30 bushels can afford 
T sell his corn 1s. per bushel cheaper than the pro- 
ucer of 25 bushels per aere, and jog home from 
Market 107. a better man,” first inspired me with the 
ng 80 monstrous an “ arithmetical para- 
dox," and brought me into the arena of EET 
Where I appear opposed to « C. W. H." 
I have read and will endeavour to epitomise the pro- 
duction from the pen of « C. W. H.," which appeared 
i your Gazette of January 4, 1845. He first states 
mee in Great Britain, there is a redundancy of mois- 
MES from excess of rain, a redundaney of unemployed 
abour during half, and a redundancy of capital the 
Whole of the year round ; which would lead one to 
Xpect a perfect system of drainage the first essential of 
*sticulture. But it is one of the anomalies of agricul- 
ane that John Bull’s cash wanders everywhere, seeking 
ployment at per 5 cent., but in draining, fid itis 
uh ascertained fact that 10, 20, 30, 50 per cent. is no 
dran return; nay, a single erop has in many 
ue ig known to repay the whole expenses, and two 
Toa d one it with ordinary frequency, yet the incredu- 
5 John. Bull will not trust his money in such © wet 
places.” He then proceeds to describe a field of 15 | light work, I think. In fact, it is well known that men 
acres which he had drained, and the manner of doing 
it; by aid of drainers, pick-axe, subsoil plough, spirit 
level, deepening of brook (600 yards in length), two 
main drains, tiles covered with Gorse and prunings of 
Larch, &e;, the field is satisfactorily drained at a cost 
of * as nearly as possible 4 guineas per acre.” He tells 
us “ the ridges were then cast down, and the clay, marl, 
and sand from the cuttings spread over the surface, as 
exposed by the plough, to abide the winter’s frost. 
In the following spring. the drag-harrows and clod- 
crusher completed the work of levelling, mixing, and pul- 
verising ; the clay and marl having been broken down 
almost to powder under the dry exposure to the aetion of 
the weather, and requiring only the addition of lime to 
make a valuable dressing and refreshment to the ori- 
ginalsoil. The field was also subsoiled across in part 
with the three-soled subsoil plough, invented by Messrs. 
Barrett and Co. We are not yet able to state the ex- 
act acreable increase of crop, which was a spring one, 
Oats and Peas; that it very nearly doubles any that the 
field ever bore before, and this in spite of the most un- 
favourable season ever remembered for Lent crops, our 
stackyard and the testimony of all who saw the field in 
crop, and had known it before, will amply verify." Now 
in all this I have nothing to say against the skill and 
knowledge put into practice by ''C. H? Ihave 
only to call attention to the eapital expended, and to the 
most unsatisfactory state in which “C. W. H." has 
left matters by his not being able to give the exact 
aereable produce of his crops of Oats and Peas, and the 
price he obtained for them, without which the year's 
account cannot be balanced. Of the expenses incurred 
in rendering the ground fit for cropping, I can form 
some estimate, when he tells me that he incurred an 
expense of 4/. 4s. per acre in draining ; he levelled, cast 
down the ridges, and spread the soil from the cuttings 
i hed 
can work (and do their employers and themselves jus. 
tice, too) for 16 hours a day, if it is required of them 
in busy times; and the industrious man that cultivates 
his allotment well, is a very likely man to be able to 
bear the burden and heat of the day, for he can afford 
himself a good bit of bacon, or some meat, with his 
bread, instead of a large piece of bread and a very 
small piece of meat. And as to the cultivation of the 
labourer’s mind, it is very evident that there are a 
great many evenings at this time of the year in which 
there is plenty of opportunity for him to amuse and 
instruct himself with books. When the evenings are 
long and dark, poor people are not very fond of adding 
to their expenses. by sitting up to read by candle-light; 
of this, however, I feel persuaded, that the man who, 
after his day’s work, is enabled by his industry to have 
2 good supper, is much more likely to take up his Bible 
and instruct himself, than the man who, from want of 
full employment, has very often to finish his day with 
only half a meal. You never see a man with an empty 
stomach sitting still.—4 Northamptonshire Labourer. 
Condition of the Agricultural Labourer.—1t was re- 
cently boasted by an Oxfordshire farmer, who laid a 
complaint at the petty sessions against one of his la- 
bourers for leaving service, that he could have men at 
8s. a week who had a wife and four children to keep ; 
and that if he paid single men 6s. per week, that was as. 
well as 8s. to married men. Unhappily among some 
agriculturists such a system of oppression is too fre- 
quently resorted to against the poor labourer who, 
powerless, is unable to withstand it. This arises, I ap- 
prehend, from. the want of protection to insure fair 
wages, and from the want of temporary pecuniary aid, 
which if afforded would act as a counterpoise. In the 
latter case I allude to what are denominated charitable 
loan funds in connection with savings’ banks. In former: 
over the surface top dressed with lime, ploug 
across, all of which are expensive operations, and I will 
venture to assert that if “C. W. H.” sold this corn 
arising from his crop (which he does not lead me to 
suppose was first-rate, for he says the season was most 
unfavourable, and the crop not so good on the ridges as 
in the furrows), 1s. per bushel cheaper than his neigh- 
bours, that on a proper statement of accounts he would 
find the crop was unprofitable. I have gone through 
such operations myself, and I have found the result to 
be as I have before stated, that skill and knowledge can 
only be made available by such additional capital and 
outlay as will have the effeet of raising the cost of pro- 
duction, and nearly equalising it, taking into account 
the extra produce obtained. To this conclusion I still 
adhere, and at some future time I ma; 
of mine it has been shown how savings? 
banks can be made to produce an equalising and ele- 
vating power on the wages of labour among our indus- 
trious population. But as it would be preposterous to 
assume that all are able to save, I propose to consider 
the way in which these institutions can be rendered 
available for further improving the condition of the 
labouring classes, i. e., by means of these loan funds. 
* The poor man perisheth because of his poverty" isa 
very applieable text to this subjeet, and wil enable 
everyone who has taken any interest in the affairs of 
the poor to recal to mind numerous instances illustra- 
tive of it. How often is the hard-toiling labourer not 
obliged to submit to an arbitrary paymaster? Or what 
diffculty does he not often experience in buying a pig ? 
io 
show that there is a natural cause for it. The agricul- 
turist deals with nature, the manufacturer with art.— 
G. R. W., August 19. 
Home Correspondence. 
Allotment System.—1f you think the following on this 
subject worth publishing, perhaps you will put it in 
your Paper shortly. I have been induced to make 
these remarks for fear any one on the point of letting 
allotments should be dissuaded from doing so on account 
of the observations made by “A Dorset Labourer ” 
in your Paper of May 30. I know there are cases 
where land is let to poor people at 1s. per perch, but 
they are very scarce ; and I am sure that where you 
meet with,one acre let at that price, you will fin 
50 acres let at from 3d. to 6d. But “A Dorset La- 
bourer" says, “Supposing allotments are let at the 
same price as the farms adjoining, are they the great 
blessing which some would make them out?” My an- 
swer to this is, that poor people do consider them a 
very great blessing ; they are very eager to get them, 
and most unwilling to give them up. “A Dorset La- 
bourer” also says, * that if a man works well and fairly 
for his employer for 10 or 11 hours, he cannot work 
four or five hours more, even for himself, and do him- 
self justice." This observation induces me to think 
that “A Dorset Labourer” is not a practical, but a 
theoretical one, A person unacquainted with the real 
facts would imagine that it was necessary for a labourer 
occupying 40 perches to spend four hours every day on 
it to cultivate it. Supposing the allotment consist of 
40 perches, the occupier, in all probability, apportions 
it off thus: 15 perches for Wheat, 20 perches for Po 
tatoes, and the remaining 5 perches for Peas, Cabbages, 
Onions, &e. The Wheat ground is dug and set by the 
end of October or beginning of November, and there- 
mainder is dug and cropped by the end of March. 
After that there is very little work required to be done 
by the man, for the weeding ean be done well by the 
children ; for nothing remunerates a cottager niore than 
picking the weeds by hand and burning them; 20 
perehes of Potatoes do not take a very long time to 
chop over and earth up, nor is it a very fatiguing job ; 
and it is done about the end of May, when the evenings 
are long and generally fine. But I deny * A Dorset 
Labourer’s” statement, when he says a man cannot 
work 10 hours for ‘his:employer and four for himself. 
If * A Dorset Labourer’s” remark is true, how does he 
account for the fact that mowers can work from three 
o'clock in the morning till nine o'clock at night, with a 
rest of about two hours in the middle of the day, and 
do themselves justice ; and this,-too, from Monday till 
Saturday without ceasing: How do men in the hay 
field get through their laborious work when the hay 
is being carried? They work from six o'elock in the 
morning till nine at night, and. pitching hay is not very 
Or imp: g his allotment? Orto procure even the 
common necessaries of life, perhaps in consequence of 
becoming incapacitated from work by sickness or acci- 
dent, from the want of a little fund, which either him- 
self, the other members of his family, or his relatives, 
would repay by weekly instalments. In these and other 
instances the well-timed application of a small sum by 
way of loan will often improve a deserving man’s con- 
dition, and otherwise effect an inconceivable amount of 
good. These benevolent societies wherever they have 
been already established have been attended with the 
greatest success. I think the advantages of the plan 
are too obvious to require further pointing out. The 
Liverpool Savings’ Bank has, I believe, taken a promi- 
nent lead ; granting loans from its surplus deposits to 
the needy (while rejecting the less deserving applicants) 
at a nominal rate of interest ; but unfortunately, for the 
general adoption of the plan by savings’ banks, there is 
no legislati tment in ion with these insti- 
tutions which sanctions it, and consequently where it is 
carried out it is attended with some degree of risk to- 
wards those philanthropists who have set so eommend- 
able an example. This frustration of so praiseworthy a 
design may, however, be counterbalanced by the forma- 
tion of loan funds from the temporary contributions at 
the outset of the more influential and wealthy residents 
in our parishes and other rural districts. I hope the 
day is not far distant when charitable loan societies in 
connection with savings’ banks, and by the promotion 
of the philanthropist, will become more general, and 
when the benefits to be derived from them will be ex- 
tended to every parish in the kingdom.-—J. H. 
Wheat in Shropshire.—1 have read your report of 
crops for Salop, and must say (with due deference to 
Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Davies, and your other correspondent), 
that I certainly think, from what I have seen, that 
there will not be an average yield. The seed of last 
year gave a thin-bladed plant full of sap, like after- 
math drawn up. Had there been as severe a frost 
this winter as in the previous one, I believe more than 
half would have been carried off. As it happened to 
be an extraordinarily mild winter, we escaped ; but the 
straw is very light in this neighbourhood. In some 
ases, as in my own, the heads are remarkably good, 
and well filled even to the top or point ; but a good deal 
is sadly different to this, having deficient grains in the 
ear; and in some that I have handled; off dirty and 
poor land, there is an entire deficiency of grain from. 
the point downwards for one-fourth or even one-third 
of the ear—it being, so far, nothing but ehaff.—C. C. 
Potato Disease. Imagining that the peculiar season 
of last year had caused the disease, I was not deterred 
from planting 90 acres this year; but I was careful ip- 
selecting my seed, which was saved from a marsh soil, 
and planted on a dry, gravelly, sandy loam, of which 
my farm consists. My early Potatoes were uncom- 
monly good, having had little or no rain, and fetched: 
