42-1 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



The expense of the pipes and pumps amount 

 to about 30s. ($7 50) per acre, where earthen- 

 ware pipes are employed, and £4 ($20) where 

 they are made of cast iron. The constr ac- 

 tion, of reservoirs and setting up a steam-ei> 

 gine constitute a separate expense, and ought 

 not to be included in the estimate, since both 

 the one and the other are henceforth indis- 

 pensable in every well-ordered farm. The lay- 

 ing of the pipes becomes then an economy 

 rather than an expense. The outlay for first 

 cost and keeping up is very soon regained 

 by the saving in manual labour and time, and 

 the results obtained are splendid. Vegetation 

 very quickly takes up the enriching properties 

 thus divided and distributed in showers. The 

 effect of the application is in some degree im- 

 mediate ; and it may be constantly exhausted, 

 since it can be constantly renewed. 



This ingenious invention is evidently des- 

 tined to meet with the greatest success. Mr. 

 Huxtable began upon sixty acres ; but now 

 there are- farms, particularly in Ayrshire, 

 where these pipes extend over five hundred. 

 It has the merit of being adapted to all sys- 

 tems of " cultivation, and may be the means 

 even of preventing the doing away with pas- 

 turage : it is capable of application in all 

 climates, and may be carried on in hot coun- 

 tries, where it would effect much greater won- 

 ders. It appears capable of a still wider ap- 

 plication than drainage, and it can hardly be 

 too strongly recommended to the attention of 

 French farmers. 



Owing to this increased quantity of manure, 

 enhanced still further by all the artificial ma- 

 nures which the imagination has been able to 

 discover, the return from cereals may be in- 

 creased in the same proportion as animal pro- 

 duction. Upon lands cultivated under the 

 new methods, the average return amounts to 

 forty-four* bushels per acre of wheat, fifty- 

 five bushels per acre of barley, and sixty-six 

 bushels per acre of oats : as the extent of 

 wheat-sown land is at the same time much in- 

 creased, the total production is more than 

 doubled. These are not mere speculations, 

 but facts realized in many parts of the United 

 Kingdom. In every county there is one farm 

 at least where some rich proprietor is not 

 afraid to make these trials, and the body of 

 farmers observe, study, and, according to the 

 extent of their resources, copy what is suc- 

 cessful. 



The whole of the system can only be ad- 

 vantageously practised in the districts most 

 • favourable to the production of cereals — that 

 is to say, in the south-east, where the crisis 

 told the most severely. In the west and north, 

 cereals are being almost entirely given up. 

 Division of labour thus makes a fresh step ; 



* Five and one-third bushels Virginia measure. 



the cultivation of cereals becomes extended 

 upon the lands most adapted for them, and is 

 diminished on those lea-t favourable to their 

 production. Upon the whole, it does not ap- 

 pear that the proportion of corn-sown lands 

 ought sensibly to change. In those districts 

 where the attention of farmers is being more 

 and more directed to the feeding of cattle, the* 

 results obtained solely by means of stabula- 

 tion and the use of liquid manure, if not bet- 

 ter, are at least more certain. I will quote but 

 one example — the farm of Cunning Park, in 

 Ayrshire. This farm, which is only fifty acres 

 in extent, was, previously to the crisis, in the 

 average condition of England. The rent did 

 not exceed 25s. ($6 25) per acre, and the gross 

 produce £4 ($20) per acre ; now the gross 

 produce reaches £24 ($120) per acre, and the 

 net at least £8, ($40.) Nevertheless, Cunning 

 Park produces only milk and butter ; but as 

 a result of the new methods, it now supports 

 forty-eight in place of ten cows, and each of 

 these cows is much more productive. 



Such are the general features of the present 

 agricultural revolution — high farming, as it 

 is called. I must, however, point out one 

 more circumstance which may serve still fur- 

 ther to characterise the system — the war waged 

 against hedges and game. 



When pasturage was the leading feature in 

 English farming, large hedges had their use, 

 but as stabulation increased that use dimin- 

 ished ; they may, moreover, be replaced by low 

 hedges or other enclosures. Farmers now find 

 them only inconveniences ; they take up a 

 great deal of room, their shade and their roots 

 are both hurtful to the crops, and they give 

 shelter to a host of birds, which devour the 

 seed. The majority of proprietors are still 

 opposed to their destruction ; first, because 

 the primings and thinnings of the hedgerow 

 trees bring "them in an income, and then be- 

 cause these hedges contribute greatly to the 

 beauty of the landscape. But some have al- 

 ready cleared them away, and •th e rest will 

 have to yield, at least to a certain extent ; for 

 the public, impressed with the importance of 

 the question, declares itself more and more 

 every day in favour of the former. A similar 

 fate is evidently reserved for the game, the in- 

 crease of which has hitherto been favoured 

 by the severity of the Game Laws, to the 

 great injury of crops. Opinion, so favourable 

 in England to large property, and at the same 

 time so exacting with regard to it, begins to 

 make it a matter of duty with landlords to 

 sacrifice their pleasure to the new necessities 

 of production. 



While assisting in this peaceable contest, the 

 issue of which cannot be doubted, one cannot 

 help feeling that abuses of the same nature 

 were one cause of the French Revolution. In 

 order to preserve themselves from the ravage* 

 of the seignioral hares and rabbits, our far- 

 mers found no better method than to de- 



