Garden Calls. 601 



the one hand, and Petworth on the other, it was very bad; and, indeed, an 

 extensive district in this part of Sussex is only fit for pasture and wood. We 

 may safely say we saw no good agriculture, and only one field of turnips 

 on raised ridglets. Nothing can prove more completely the general igno- 

 rance of the farmers-of England than the slowness with which they admit 

 improvements in their own profession. Compare them only for one mo- 

 ment with Scotch farmers in this respect, or with English manufacturers. 

 The cause is clearly to be found in their general ignorance, which in all 

 trades and professions is the grand obstacle to improvement. Enlighten a 

 man generally, and he will soon bring his knowledge and reasoning powers 

 to bear on the particular subjects of his pursuits, or on whatever concerns 

 his personal interest. Let his knowledge be confined to one subject, and 

 he will rest where he is, nor believe that there is more to be known. The 

 superiority of the Northumbrian method of cultivating the turnip has for 

 nearly fifty years been placed beyond all doubt among the reading farmers 

 of Britain, and scarcely one can be found who cultivates that plant in 

 the broad cast manner, north of York. Yet the practice seems unknown 

 in Sussex ; though, as we shall probably be told, there are some farmers 

 there who grow the turnip in rows. The row culture, however, is quite a 

 different process from the ridglet system, and one attended with compa- 

 ratively few advantages. The only chance that we can see for improve- 

 ment among the Sussex farmers, is through the education of the rising, 

 generation. But, indeed, how can a farmer, whether ignorant or enlightened, 

 be expected to adopt improvements when he is struggling for existence ? 

 The low price of corn and wool, the increase of paupers and of poor rates, 

 and executions for rent and for assessed taxes, were almost the onl^^ sub- 

 jects that we heard talked of, either by farmers or tradesmen; and the 

 influence of those evils we saw every where obvious, both on the land- 

 owners and their gardeners. Almost every farmer seems to be looking to the 

 government, and hoping for relief through new restrictions on importation ; 

 but whoever holds out either to landlord or tenant any relief from the influ- 

 ence of government exercised in this way, in our opinion, takes but a very 

 confined viev? of the subject. If restrictions on corn and wool could do 

 any thing, it would be but a very momentary relief, to defer the crisis of the 

 disease and render it more dreadful. With respect to wool, it is perfectly 

 clear to us, from sources both public and private, that Australia will in a 

 short time undersell not only England but all Europe in this article. It 

 appears to us equally certain that, unless a free trade in corn and every 

 thing else is opened, the manufacturing capital of this country will be 

 carried to others, where it can be employed to greater advantage. No 

 restriction can be imposed that will prevent this result ; and, supposing it to 

 take place, what then would the agriculturist call upon government to do ? 

 The landlord who has not mortgaged his estate, and the farmer who has no 

 lease, has nothing to fear from a free trade in corn, because, as the price of 

 food is, fundamentally, the price of every thing else, each will have the 

 same command of labour then as now. The landlord deeply in debt, and 

 the tenant with a long lease and an inexorable landlord, must unavoidably 

 suffer sooner or later ; but we question if even for these it would not be 

 better to have the evil day over than to have the certainty of its future 

 arrival hanging over them. " When things are at the worst they some- 

 times mend;" and with mortgages and existing leases got rid of, the national 

 debt reduced, and a perfectly free trade in every thing, we have no doubt 

 both landlords and tenants would thrive, in spite of the increasing popu- 

 lation, for a long period. The great object is to effect the contemplated 

 changes with the least quantum of evil to all parties ; and however dif- 

 ficult it may appear to do any thing for possessors of deeply-mortgaged 

 estates and of long rack-rent leases, yet it is practicable to save the agri- 

 cultural and commercial world, by introducing free trade in every thing by 



