ess 



THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 



[April 2- 



denoting quantities from the steward 8 weekly returns ; 

 the credit side will show the number of days worked 

 aurin- the year ; and the total of expense, together with 

 an allowance for wear and tear, divided by that number, 



the close of day by the steward laithiuljy, and cia&si- 

 fied, at the end of the week, under the very few head- 

 ings which any one week's work would embrace, there 

 is no longer any danger of confusion — every item falls 



Hi 



gives, at once, the cost j r diem of each horse's work, into its proper place, and the cost of every simple 



and so checks the arbitrary charge of Is. 6a 7 ., 2s., or , transaction can be at once referred to. I believe that 



*. 8d. usually made. When calculating the cost of every year the necessity of accuracy in farm accounts 



WWt 



Id, usually made. When calculating the cost of 

 farming operations under the next head, milch cows, 

 have the columns for number, description, age, when, 

 where, and how obtained, folio (this leads the eye, at 

 once, to the account of store cattle, or any other from 

 which they may have been transferred ), cost price, live 

 weight, measurement, pasture-fed, as per folio, class ; 

 expense of past are-feeding, house-fed, as per folio, class; 

 expense of house-feeding, cost of attendance, other expen- 

 diture, total. The reference to the folio and cla**s is to 

 the memorandum of stock, pasture or house- fed, where 

 any charge is recorded, such as 8 dairy cows, in field 

 No. 2, from May 1 to November 1 ; from November 1 



o May I in house, getting 4 stone Mangold Wurzel, m „ v 



14 lbs. hay, .3 lbs. oil-cake, per diem. This simple record want a simple and efficient system of farm accounts, 





every year the necessity of accuracy in farm accounts 

 will be more felt, and that agriculturists will owe much 

 to the Earl of Meath for having entered on so expensive 

 an undertaking, which, until the public see its import- 

 ance, would not have found any publishing speculator 

 willing to embark in. Seventy copies were printed, 

 with a view that those most auxious on the subject 

 might have them at a cost of printing, keep them for a 

 year, and then report upon any apparent improvement, 

 so that a future edition might be made quite perfect ; 

 several have been kept for above six months, and seem 

 to work as well as possible. [We believe most readers 



of the above will, after mastering the plan so far as that 

 is possible from a description, agree with us that we still 



adapted for ordinary and general use.] 



lation. at the end of the year, to give the cost of the 

 cows' feeding. The contra side is arranged under columns 



produce, in dairy, average quantity of milk, value, 

 Stock, description, value, when, where, and how dis| osed 

 of, live weight, measurement, price obtained, profit, loss. 

 The dairy account has, on the Dr. stde, the number of 

 cows, average supply of milk, value, total— on the 

 contra side, the value of dairy produce disposed of, as 

 cheese, butter, cream, new-milk, skim-milk, butter- 

 milk, when, where, and how disposed of, value total. 

 This is only a posting in of the summary of the sheet 

 filled in by the dairymaid or housekeeper weekly. 



We now take one of the crop accounts as an example, 

 and let us begin with Wheat ; at the upper part 

 of the left-hand page you will find a place for the name 

 of the field or fields, and the contents ; the columns are 

 manual labour, bortes' labour, other expenditure, and 

 total eost of crop of 1 8 ; same repeated for crop of 

 18 ; so that each year's crop may be followed out as , 



to the completion of expense and returns into the ! outweigh whatever benefits we would give to the few. 

 markets of the succeeding year. The columns on the The deductions from these considerations ("whether 

 contra side are — By carried to stackyard account, folio, 



ON REFORMATORY SCHOOLS. 



By T. Uarwick Lloid Baker, Esq, 



a 



The following are extracts from a paper read at the meeting of 



the British Association at Liverpool.] 



There is one point to be most zealously watched 

 and guarded against, namely, that we do not allow 

 the warm interest we take in the criminals under our 

 care — or our own natural vanity in turning them out as 

 creditai ly to ourselves as may be — to induce us to give 

 them superior advantages, and thus make them an object 

 of envy to the innocent. 



It must always be difficult to avoid this. We are all 

 prone — the educated more than the uneducated — to 

 think others better off than ourselves: but if there were 

 once raised a general feeling that admission to a school 

 of this kind were a thing to be desired, we should, I 

 fear, have done a positive evil to the many which would 



iio. of stacks, c , 



yard, total estimated value— By value of Wheat dis- 

 tributed as per stackyard account, folio, total. There 

 are two accounts ancillary to those crop accounts, which 

 provide against any confusion, it often happens that 

 the preliminary operations upon Which the success of 

 the crop depends — such as autumn ploughing, cleaning, 

 &c.— are performed before it is quite certain whether the 

 season, or convenience of the owner, may lead him to use 

 Wheat, Oats, or barley ; until this is a matter of certainty, 

 the cost ot those operations on each field are posted in the 

 unraised account, and when the decision is come to, the 

 first entry in the Wheat r other account will be — to 

 manual and horse labour, and other expenditure from 

 the unraised account ; the account is then carried on 

 regularly under its own he .ding. When once the corn 

 is carried from ihe lit Id, the farmer enters his calcula- 

 tion of the supposed value of his crop, in order to know 

 the probability of the amount of food and straw that it 

 contains ; but this calculation is checked by the cer- 

 tainty of the produce of the stack-yard, where, accord- 

 ing^as any stack is threshed, the entries of disposal are tion of the tradesmen 



faulty or not may be a matter of opinion) have led us to 



adopt our present system. We hope— and so far as we 



can see, we are borne out in our hope — that the world 



without — the legally honest— will see little to desire in 



the system which separates a child from his parents for 



from two to five years, giving, by the new act, power to 



put all the machinery of the Poor Law Acts in force to 



compel the parent to pay all he can towards the support 



of the child ; while the boy himself is set to steady hard 



work, which will fit him to become, not a proficient in 



one of the more skilled trades, which are an object of 



envy to those of the lower classes, but simply a tiller of 



the soil — a farm-labourer. It is true that we endeavour 



to make our boys as good farm-labourers as possible. It 



is true that a good farm-labourer is, we believe, in a 



really better condition than most artificers. It is true 



that if his wages are lower, his rent and other expenses 



are lower in proportion, and that both his temptations 



to evil and his chance of being thrown out of work are 



less than they would probably be in any other course of 



life. Yet still the general feeling is, and probably will 



be for many years to come, ail in favour of the occupa- 



made «n,*«-i »,„« nraum^ oi w neat ana straw, ace, — as 

 stack No. I, threshed such a day, so many barrels sent 

 to market, so much small corn transferred to poultrv 

 account, so much straw sent to the coach-horse stable, 

 so much to the store cattle, &c. ; thus we follow each 

 stack and the contents of each field out, until we know 

 exactly what the produce in corn and straw has been. 

 I shall now fake one example cf a green crop 



All this appears to point out agricultural employment 

 as the kind peculiarly adapted to institutions whose aim 

 is to unite real advantages to the boy, with the absence 

 of all which may appear even to the ignorant to make 

 the effects of crime desirable. But there are yet other 

 advantages which are quite as important. The mind of 

 a boy fresh from the excitements and passions of the 

 streets of a town — the alternate crime and idleness 



thoroughly firm— and the disco ve7y~wdnch 

 ere long— though they are slow to believe it*** 

 that the managers are doiog their work not f ^^ 

 for love, all tend to soften and subdue the ru d 

 hardened tempers and to bring them into a * n * 

 profit by instruction. *^k ti 



Here also we find a great advantage i u farm u 

 The greater part of the boys come from towns ^T 

 we taught them trades, to towns they must rtt 

 True, we should probably endeavour to place fton^ 

 other towns than those from which they came • * 

 still, to a boy used to the vices of the streets, a jj!! 

 town will always have great temptation. N ow -^ 

 place him with a farmer in the country, all ins h»i* 

 all the objects he sees, remind him of his *chouS 

 where he has been reformed, rather than of his fornix 

 evil courses, and the broken thread is not likely t^I 

 renewed. 



We do not either entirely close the door to 

 light trades. The boys make their own clothesTJJ 

 mend their own shoes very tolerably. They intfe 

 baskets also in wet weather for the use of the farm u4 

 some few for sale. But this is merely done with ik- 

 hope that in their future farm service they niaybeafc 

 tc employ a wet day or a winter evening mare profe. 

 ably to themselves, their fellow-servants, or their matter 

 than they would otherwise be enabled to do. 



I do not come here to talk of my friend and imielf 

 but perhaps you will allow me in a very few wor 

 sketch the history of our own school. About 20 yet 

 ago I became acquainted with the two persona who I 

 believe may be considered as the originators, hi our 

 country at least, of this movement, namely, Miss MBTrar 

 and Capt. Brenton. Their views at first appeared to n* 

 to be grand but wild ; and it was not till I had gomeyew*' 

 experience as a visiting magistrate of a large priar* 

 that I became convinced of the truth of their opinion*, 

 which my later experience has still more coufirmtf. 

 For many years I longed in vain to see the ex per aunt 

 tried again ; till some three years ago (having ctsutlh 

 mentioned the subject to him a year or so before) Mr. 

 Bengough offered to join me in the undertaking. Serenl 

 of the leading magistrates of the county gave us iheir 

 support, advice, and assistance, but the management re- 

 mained solely in our hands. I built very little more 

 than a labourer's cottage in the middle of my on 

 property on a small farm of poor land, which happened 

 to be in my own hands because it was in too bad order 

 to let, so that, had the experiment failed at any time, f 

 might have given up the school, let the cottage to i 

 labourer, and sustained no loss. We commenced thi» 

 in our inexperience, merely because it was the molt 

 convenient plan we could adopt; but our later experience 

 has not shown us any way in which we could have 

 improved it. 



Now let me ask, is there any county in England in 

 which there is not to be found a magistrate who wishes 

 for such a school (if it be needed there), and who can find, 

 at a fair rent, a few acres in the middle of hi* own 

 property, and near his own house, where the experiment 

 may be tried I I shall be told that a magistrate usually 

 has not only the duties of that office but also the otb* 

 business of a country gentleman to attend to, wmcb 

 leave him not time enough to establish such a school. 1 

 know perfectly well that this was my own case ; had it 

 been otherwise I should have attempted my favourite 

 scheme long ago. But can the aforesaid magistral 

 not find some one like my friend Mr. Bengough-* 

 young man who being heir to a good property, does not 

 require a lucrative profession, and yet wishes for em- 

 ployment— who will help him \ Numbers of such mi» 

 now-a-days flock to chambers, and undertake the tolla 

 drudgery of the law to keep them from idlecess, and ^ 

 prepare themselves to become useful country gentlemen 

 in their day. And can none be fouud who, witnon. 

 giving up their fresh couutry sir and exercise, 



without 

 of 



- r ^ r Turnips. 



I he left or Dr. side is exactly the same as that of —the lavish expenditure when lucky, and the cold 



*> heat ; on the contra the coluinite are — quantity sold, want when unsuccessful — is in a state of feverish 



given to horseB, milch cows, store cattle, fat cattle, \ restlessness, which requires to be allayed before 



sheep, swine, miscellaneous, mansion, total quantity it can safely be operated upon. Now, I know of no 



disposed of, value per ton, folio, total. These entries ! employment which will allay the excitement and tran- home > wiil give some three days a week for so wj**^ 

 being made weekly, the farmer at the end of the year quillise the mind, so as to prepare it to be acted upon by interesting and satisfactory, not to say so uselu ^ ^ 



knows, at one fiance, exacly what his Turnip crop has a firm kindness, like steady, hard digging Now honourable occupation, as the reforming the youm 



cost him, dividing the number of tons into that cost he this is one point in which lies/ as I think, the great value county % 



cost him, dividing the number of tons into that cost he 

 gets the cost of each ton ; if he adds the rent and inte- 

 rest of money he knows at what price he can supply his 

 cattle with Turnips ; and by charging them at that rate, 

 and not a fictitious value, he has one element in the cal- 

 culation of the cost of house-feeding provided for, the 

 others follow out of these separate accounts as readily. 

 I need not enter into any detail as to the other account- 

 they are all headed so that the Dr. and Cr. sides contain 

 provision for every possible contingency of expenditure 

 u P on **i»"mg the crop, or allocation of the produce ; and 

 all this is oUaY.ed without learning the art of the 

 accountant, but only fidelity in entering each transaction 

 ** on< f/ n its Proper place ; the tabulation requires no 

 tnoiight, it co, s imt of Jtpolf at the end of the year or 

 mm-} ear. There are six balance-sheets, so as to enable 

 me larmer at any time to make out his accounts, and 

 see how he stands ; and this is done simply by striking 

 the balance on each account, and entering the Dr. and 

 Cr in i the balance-sheet. On the debtor side is charged 

 in add ion, rent, taxes, and interest, &C ; on the credit 



the value of stock in hands; here a great 



mislead of a fa iful one. 



And now I recur to the weekly returns, which 



Tf „™ . ♦ r I™ u- m T te *- V ^ m of ^counts 



Jf wer, act of buy.; , selhng, horse and manual labour, 



division of produce into the various channels of ordi' 

 nary consumption on the farm, ftc is noted iW* «♦ 



leaving altogether the engagements and pleaeuref 

 home, will give some three days a week for so extrew 



side, 



now 

 are the foun 



this is one point in which lies, as I think, the great value 

 of agricultural employment. A boy comes to us, usually 

 quick and energetic by nature (for unless he be so he is 

 not likely to have distinguished himself in evil), and 

 with a restless craving for change and excitement caused 

 by long-continued vagabond and lawless habits. Set him 

 at once to tailoring or shoemaking, and while he feels an 

 apparent confinement of his body within lour walls, his 

 mind has full liberty to return in imagination to former 

 scenes of excitement. But, on the other band, put him 

 to hard and unused bodily exertion ; his energy expends 

 itself, not only harmlessly but profitably, on the stiff 

 clay ; the very feel of the fresh air and the appearance 

 of liberty tend to tranquillise and allay the feverish ex- 

 citement, and when the labour of the day is over he is 

 disposed rather to enjoy his rest in his new career than 

 to revert to his former courses. He may probably ! 

 indeed be disgusted at first with the hard work ; not 

 unfrequently he declares that he'll run away soon ; but 

 the very absence of walls and apparent restraint incline 

 him to put off his intention till by degrees he finds, not 

 only that the bailiff is nearly always in sight, but that 

 even most of the boys would prevent his elopement (for 

 the boys by no means like runaways) ; and, seeing those 

 around him contented and patient, he finds that a life of 

 labour and regular habits is on the whole more to be 

 desired than the excitement of lawlessness. The kind- 

 ness, too, with which they are treated— for the bailiff* is 



and must be, kind and gentle in his manner, though 



I do not mean to say that Mr. Bengough did W* 

 uncommon. When he gallantly undertook the * » 

 the chart was unknown— the perils, like all mi kn^ 

 things, were exaggerated. Many expected that lie ^^ 

 be murdered, and that my henroost would be ro ^ 

 No one could say what difficulties we 8n0U ' d w0 Jd 

 encounter ; and there were perhaps few men who ^ 

 have had the pluck and perseverance to brave 

 known seas. . ^ 



We have made it our object not to take all the^ 

 we could, from w heucesoever collected, but to eii^ 



as far as possible to clear our own county ^ 

 instigators and instructors in juvenile cnI " e .' ien5 far 

 because we hold those of other counties as 4t .^ were 

 whom we care not; but on the same principle urn ^ 

 to go all over the county pulling up a * vee , w0 ulJ 

 man's farm, I should do next to no good ; tn ^ j flp 

 be plenty left everywhere for seed. But il ^^ 

 every weed in my own farm I do a real goo " ^ ^ 

 and my neighbours, by leaving none to go ? ggt'tfufr 

 thus I show my neighbours how they m»)' ^ \$Bb** 

 own farms. The result, so far as we can >' 6t m ^rgerffc 

 satisfactory. In the town of Cheltenham, i ^ i]e 

 our county, and formerly the most product!^ j^ 

 crime (though by no means ^ flr ^ ,n t - *• 



ted to 



■»**! 



of general crime), there were reporteu ju e9 p* 

 police in January, 1 852, about 20 boys un<w ^ ^ 

 14 who had been once convicted, » n(1 a 



« 





