858 
[Dxc. 26, 
realm, few and powerful, and. standing in about the 
same relation to their country as the Sovereign did to 
the whole realm. Next to them came that class which 
'adually acquired the name of the Commons, and below 
them were the class composed of labourers and artisans. 
Such was the structure of that great establishment, if I 
may so call it, which for many centuries existed, under 
the name of the feudal .system—a system well suited 
to its day, when population was thin, and the classes of 
mankind so few, and so entirely distinet from each 
other. Now it is.easy to see, and it is to this that I 
would draw attention, that.in such a state of society the 
tenure of land was not so much a legal coniract be. 
tween one man and another, asa service or vassalage 
acknowledged as to a superior or lord. ence the 
term land-/ord, which still remains in use, together with 
other vestiges of a system so widely spread and so long 
predominant. The first thing which began the break- 
ing up of this system was the inerease and extension 
of towns, and the gradual accumulation of wealth inthe 
hands of corporate bodies, Kings and barons found 
war an expensive amusement, and were glad to borrow 
some of its sinews from the wealthy burgesses, who took 
eare to make their own bargain in lending it, and ob- 
tained in return from successive Sovereigns and feudal 
lords, charters of incorporation, which inereasing their 
union and therefore their power, their privileges and 
means of securing and extending their trade, laid the 
foundation of that large and influential body which is 
now known under the general name of the middle 
classes of society. You must not suppose that the 
system or course of events to whie have alluded is 
by any means one of such remote antiquity as to be be- 
ond our notice. The beautiful castles which, though 
in partial decay, adorn this and many neighbouring 
counties, are not more visible and evident reords of 
those times than many of the social habits and modes 
of thought and expression which still form part of our 
daily intereourse with each other. 
Now the objeet with which I have drawn your atten- 
tion to this historical sketch, is in order to account for 
that which would otherwise appear unaccountable, 
namely, the uncertain and indefinite state, in the pre- 
sent day, of the relation of landlord and tenant. We 
ourselves can almost remember the day when a man 
who could command a team of horses and a few cows 
thought himself eligible to apply for a farm of 200 or 
300 acres. Those things called * permanent improve- 
ments’ were unheard of ; under-drainage, immensely 
important and necessary as it may now appear to us, 
was a thing comparatiyely unknown ; * bone dust? was 
confined £o the churchyards ; ‘nitrate of soda,‘ guano,’ 
* gypsum,’ and ‘superphospate of lime, were words 
uncoined ; the field cultivation of Turnips, bringing 
with it the winter feeding of stock, and the buildings-ne- 
essary to feed them in, is all comparatively of modern 
introduction ; and the eapital needed to set agoing such 
machinery and such an establishment was, therefore, 
never dreamt of as required by a farmer. In a word, 
many men now living must be able, on looking back, to 
see that a complete revolution has gradually overtaken 
the whole system of agriculture in this kingdom. The 
first person, perhaps, who may be instanced as having 
y os it open deelaration was the celebrated Mr. Coke, of 
orfolk, afterwards Lord Leicester, of whom, it is said, 
that when applied to for a farm, his first question was, 
** What capital have you got? Have you got 107. to an 
aere? If not, it's useless your taking it, I'm told that 
I’m a pretty good farmer, and J couldn't venture to 
take it without ;.so I won't do you the mischief of let- 
ting you do so.” Here we find the first recognition of 
the absolute neeessity of capital in the hands of the te- 
nt. That point onee admitted, the q i 
that the question bas been handled. The speakers 
haye heen for the most part occupiers, who having suf- 
fered under some particular inconveniénce, were a little 
too apt to suppose that the remedy for that evil, what- 
ever it was, would set all right. We are all of us liable 
to be misled by our own supposed interest, and wherever 
that is the ease, are prone to fall into a narrow view of 
the matter at issue. This has shown itself in the re- 
ports. One man thinks:he has got too many hedges in 
his farm, another too many trees; another-thinks he 
should do very well if he had but a lease ; another 
wants to plough up his old Grass land, because they do 
it in Seotland ; another wants the land to be ained 
eptaeles for storing manure, it would, I believe, be 
improved by:being:kept.at least one year before it was 
applied to the land. The straw, which always forms by 
far the most bulky portion of the crude manure, is the 
most difficult to reduce to a friable and portable con- 
dition ; in my-last communication I suggested the use 
of a caustic solution of either potash or soda, for the 
purpose of dissolving the silica of the straw ; it would, 
I think, break up the organic structure of the straw and 
greatl. l its d positi. The elements.of 
the straw itself cannot act as fertilisers whilst in the 
form.of straw ; 4/ must be-decomposed before they.can be 
taken up by the plant. Your correspondent says there 
are various opinions as to the merits of fresh dung, and: 
for him at the sole expense of the prop ne 
man, again, proposes a corn rent, and another a * com- 
pensation-clause,’ as a remedy for all evils ; and it is 
curious to see the confidence and warmth with which 
each nostrum is put forward as the one thing needful ; 
each speaker may indeed be right in his own particular 
ease ; but the error lies in that want of comprehensive- 
ness of view, which prevents his perceiving that his 
remedy may not be applicable to others, or that other 
interests besides his own have to be considered ; or, 
again, that there may be causes in operation which may 
make what is desirable in one place wear a very dif- 
ferent aspect at another, First, with reference to 
Leases: the common lease of 21 years, determinable 
at 7 ond 14, may be all very well, and is indeed un- 
avoidable in the case of church or corporate property, 
where the lessor or grantor is a permanent body with a 
perpetually shifting and renewing interest, neither 
holding nor transmitting any hereditary claim, but as 
an agricultural lease it has not one feature to recom- 
mend.it ; itis the very worst that a landlord could give 
Again, a corn rent may be en- 
enough, where the proprietor has no objec- 
tion to a perpetually fluctuating income, or the 
tenant to an annual inquisition into every bushel 
of corn he sells or consumes in his house or 
stables ; but there are objections to the whole principle 
of a corn-rent more serious than either of these, as I 
will presently show. Again, a compensation clause may 
answer very well, where the proprietor has an entire 
and devisable interest in the soil ; but cases of frightful 
hardship might easily be mentioned, where a lease so 
framed has happened to expire at such a time that the 
widow or executors of a deceased tenant for life has been 
ealled upon to reimburse extensive outlays, the benefit 
of which has gone to the next tenant-in-tail, upon 
whom there is-no law in existence that could throw the 
charge, though he would reap the entire profit. Again, 
the ploughing up of Grass lands is a matter of very 
difficult arrangement in reference to future interests in 
the land, even supposing the fullest capacity to judge of 
its expediency, in the present.owner and. occupier ; and 
in a dairy country might lead to the most injurious con- 
sequences if hastily or ignorantly adopted. I mention 
these instances to show, not that each proposition ma: 
not be in some cases applicable, but merely that they 
are to be received and adopted with caution ; inasmuch 
as a system which may suit particular districts, par- 
ticular proprietors and particular occupiers, and even 
particular farms, may not be suitable to others, and 
that the attempt to lay down one general rule of tenure 
would be as prep asto end to farm every 
description of soil alike. 
‘Tobe continued.) 
MANAGEMENT OF MANURE. 
I reorer the same captious tone in your Cornish 
ipondent's secon ication that there was in 
his first ; his mode of expression is calculated to call 
forth irritable replies, aud to deter timid persons from 
aee miae n e 
nai is 
inevitable. Tf the landlord says to the tenant‘ You 
must have capital: ’ the tenant who has it naturally re- 
plies, * Will you give me security for the investment of 
it?’ The one question is.as fair as the other ; and, 
indéed, follows .owt of it: for I have mo more 
right to ask a man to lay out his capital on my 
land without giving him a security for its investment 
than he has to require me to lend him my land to trade 
without his having the eapital requisite for its proper 
cultivation. Thus the necessity for capital in the hands 
of the tenant, which modern. agriculture requires, puts 
the respective rights of the parties in some measure 
on a new footing. Instead of the tenant holding the 
position of a sort of annual bailiff, as formerly, and pay- 
ing to his landlord a portion of the produce either in 
corn or in money, he now naturally requires a security 
on his own side proportionate fo the joint stock he risks 
in the establishment which the modern requirements 
of agriculture demand. Wonderful it would indeed 
seem that so little should be known and so few princi- 
ples established, as regulating the present relation of 
landlord and tenant: were it not obvious from what I 
have stated, that the very basis and foundation of that 
compact is itself so entirely of modern growth. The 
fundamental cause which has occasioned it is the rapid 
inerease of population, and the demand for a vastly in- 
creased produee from fields that are the same size as 
they used to be, which can only be accomplished by in- 
creased outlay. 
Iremarked just now that this subject has been of 
late much considered at agricultural meetings and 
the reports-with an additional interest as ‘bearing upon 
our discussion to-day ; but I must confess to having 
i some di: i i 
T PP 
g of real utility ; but is it wise 
to write in this style ; will it convince your intelligent 
readers that he is right, and that Lam wrong? I think 
not. I will endeavour to meet the long string of 
objections raised by your correspondent, not expecting 
to convince him, but to satisfy the minds of others who 
have a more niodest opinion of their own judgment, 
that my plan has not absurdity stamped upon the face 
of it, and that it may after all contain something worthy 
the consideration of practical men, The effect pro- 
duced by cattle treading upon litter, is to reduce 
the whole to a pulpy consistence. In this state it cannot, 
I apprehend, be in the form suited as food for plants ; 
it must undergo other changes to fit it for this purpose ; 
there must be a process which renders the whole soluble. 
This can only be effected by the introduction of an 
alkali, or some, substance containing it, Animal matter 
contains nitrogen, water contains hydrogen, the two 
combined form ammonia, the most valuable of the 
alkalies for the purposes of agriculture ; here, then, we 
have the alkali a bond of union betwixt the other ele- 
ments of the manure, and by means of which they are 
rendered soluble in water, and so taken up by the plants, 
How are we to bring about this combination of ele- 
mentary matter, the crude farm-yard manure with the 
alkali? I should say that one way of doing it is, by 
means of fermentation—an exciting of internal motion 
—which separates the component parts of the materials 
forming the crude manure, the simple elements being 
disengaged, enter into new combinations, one of which, 
the ammonieal gas, becomes dissolved in the water con- 
stituting the moisture in the manure. Now, if the fer- 
mentation is carefully conducted, and other means 
employed to prevent the dissipation of the gas into the 
atmosphere, but little of it will be wasted. ‘Time is 
1t in the want of candid | necessary for all this; wherever there are suitable 
tten dung ; it is true there are such opinions on 
this point, but whether fresh or rotten, the decom- 
position must be complete before it ean become food for 
plants. This is what I have always understood must be 
the condition of a fertiliser, and if so, where is the: 
advantage of carting manure to the land in a -crude,and: 
bulky form ? 
Now as regards my mi bin towers, I 
your correspondent to mean that receptacles for manure: 
are of no importance whatever, and that all farm-yards. 
are capacious enough. I do not know what size the 
Cornish farm-yards may be, but here in Yorkshire they: 
are not so very capacious as to render it unnecessary to: 
cart the manure elsewhere until it is required to be 
applied to the land. The practice of leaving manure 
to open exposure in all weathers, does not appear to be 
an objection with Mr. Adams; but it always has been 
objected to by scientific and practical men, and for 
reasons obvious enough and well known to. most of your 
readers. If, therefore, it is desirable to have the 
manure in a perfectly decomposed state, and as a con- 
sequence, in a friable condition and very portable 
form, as I believe it may and ought to be, how can it 
be best accomplished ? Certainly not by leaving it in 
large heaps, subject to waste by exposure to sun, wind, 
and rain ; but by enclosing it within the walls.of. a pit, 
and what sort of a pit must it be that. will hold 250 
cubic yards of manure, if only a few feet deep? I 
should infinitely prefer a high tower to a low pit ; its 
height is an object of no consequence [The labour 
required is, we fear, fatal to the plan: the height is a 
matter of consequence as involving extra labour, 
whatever be the way in which the contents are 
hoisted,] as the facilities afforded by cranes would 
enable men to transport manure with the greatest 
ease and expedition, and this will be admitted by alk 
who have had any experience in the use of them. With 
respect to the fermentation of manure, your eorrespond- 
ent seems to think that it may be carried on as well in 
an open pit as in a tower, Now in order to carry on 
fermentation in a successful manner, there must [?] be 
one uniform degree of temperature kept up during the 
whole period of the process, and how is this to be 
accomplished in an open pit over which the air in the 
course of the 24 hours may vary 30 degrees. A tower 
constructed as I have designed, would afford ‘the 
means of carrying on fermentation much more success- 
fully ; the air could be admitted or excluded, and other 
means employed so as to maintain a tolerably uniform 
degree of heat. If the process was carefully. eondneted, 
(and any man of ordinary capacity could manage it. very 
well), there would be.no waste of elementary matter. 
The utility of receptacles for manure, whether solid or 
liquid, is becoming more apparent every day, and we 
shall, bye and bye, see them constructed in every largo 
town, and the manure, when collected and properly 
prepared, beeome an article of trade between the city 
and the country. If a farmer had a tower containing 
manure in a properly decomposed state, it.might be 
employed as a vehicle for ying other fertili. int 
the soil; for instance, suppose an artificial manure is 
required to be made (you will perceive that Iam anti- 
cipating a period when agricul will be conducted.on 
more scientific principles) to suit a particular description 
of soil, one whose properties are known, and in:which 
certain elements are wanting to enable it to produce a 
crop of a certain description of grain, &c. ; the decom. 
posed manure would in this ease be a valuable material, 
as it might form the basis of all other compound 
fertilizers for particular kinds of soil and grain, a/given 
quantity of it mixed with the mineral fertilizers” by 
means of a mill ; when I say a mill, I do not-mean.à 
mill requiring several horse-power to drive it, but-one 
j occupying a few cubic- feet of space, and easily worked 
by one man. Another mode of employing the:decom- 
posed manure would be, to pour over and mix with it 
| such of the mineral fertilizers as are soluble in water, 
| take for instance the superphosphate of lime, as an 
| example of the utility of a friable and portable manure, 
The superfluous water used in the operation would 
easily be got rid of, —I dare say your Cornish corres- 
pondent will presume this mode of applying fertilizers 
| quite as great an absurdity as that of erecting 
towers, &e.; some one, however, who reads it, 
may be so void of prejudice as to try it, and then it»will 
be seen whether a dry mixture of.a soluble ingredient 
with the decomposed manure, or the same dissolved in 
water in the manner I have described, best, answer the 
purpose of a fertiliser ; the latter plan effects a more 
intimate union of the elements, and if I am correct in 
taking this view of it, they will the more readily be 
taken up by the plant. There will in time be an end to 
the importation of guano, and then agrieulturists will 
be driven to find out substitutes for it ; high cultivation 
is progressing, although but. slowly, andit cannot ibe 
carried on without increased consumption of fertilising 
Adrat 
