130 Improved Fanning System Described. 



tenants holding above 50 acres of land who are now 

 liable to be driven from their homes to make room for 

 small holders. 



It is of great importance that the landlord should farm 

 the most inferior portions of his property in order, by 

 his example, to show what can be done under the worst 

 conditions, because it is obviously of the utmost 

 importance to improve the inferior portions of the 

 property, and lastly because this inferior land could only 

 be profitably farmed on my system, and such land, even 

 after being improved on my system, would not be at all 

 suitable for small holdings. If he wishes, practically, 

 to observe what can be done with poor run-out lands he 

 has only to visit my Clifton-on-Bowmont farm, and 

 contrast it with some of the farms adjacent to it which 

 are being farmed on the old system. The improved 

 system carried out on my farm may be briefly described 

 by saying that it is one which (1) acquires all the manure 

 possible from the air, (2) grows manure in the shape of 

 deeply-rooted turf, (3) deeply stirs and pulverizes the soil 

 by the agency of roots, (4) adds small quantities of 

 artificial manures to stimulate growth, and so overcome 

 tlie defects of an uncongenial climate, (5) adds small 

 Quantities of mineral manures when required, (6) ob- 

 literates aU weeds, and (7) finally, employs such a 

 combination of plants for growing turf as will at once 

 improve the health and supply the greatest possible 

 amount of food for stock, the largest amount of humus 

 for the soil, and the deepest possible cultivation, and 

 drainage of the land. 



To elucidate my recommendations to landlords and 

 others who, in my opinion, should farm in a way that 

 will expose them to the smallest possible risk of loss 

 combined with a steady improvement of the soil, I may 

 make the following references to my Clifton-on-Bowmont 

 farm. This consisted, when I took it over, of about 

 1,250 acres — about 450 arable, and the rest hill pasture, 

 with hardly any heather on it. It carried throughout a 



