THE SOUTHERN PLANTER . 



425 



molish the chateaus, and kill or drive out their 

 proprietors. English farmers exhibit more 

 patience and moderation, and they are no less 

 successful in attaining their end without vio- 

 lence. Their only weapon is the obstinate 

 representation of their grievances. They qui- 

 etly calculate how many acres of land are 

 thrown out of cultivation by large hedges — 

 how many hares it takes to consume the food 

 of one sheep. It is a common frequent saying 

 among them, that they are obliged to pay 

 three rents — the first to the proprietor, the 

 second to his hedges, and the third to his 

 game. In some districts they have clubbed 

 together to purchase the right of shooting, 

 and have then set about exterminating the 

 hares, which pays better than killing the land- 

 lords. 



construction of 



All these works of drainage 

 buildings for stabulation, erection of steam-en- 

 gines, &c, involve great outlays. The expense 

 to the proprietor may be estimated at about 

 £8 ($40) per acre, and that of the farmer £4, 

 ($20.) On the strong lands it must necessa- 

 rily be more, but on the light much less. This 

 fruitful outlay accomplished and well execu- 

 ted, of course rents and profits rise beyond their 

 former figure, and that even in places where 

 they have been the least affected by the fall ; 

 it also produces an adequate return upon the 

 new capital put into the soil. The land will 

 then produce at least one-third more of ali 

 mentary substances. The gross average pro- 

 duction, which was equal before to £3 ($15) 

 per acre, will then be £4, 10s., ($22 50 

 while the average rent will probably rise to 

 30s., ($7 50,) and the farmer's profit to 18s. 

 ($4 00) per acre. 



The only question is this, Are proprietors 

 and farmers in a condition to furnish the re 

 quired capital? The question is one involv- 

 ing no less an amount than four or five hun- 

 dred millions sterling. For any other country 

 than the United Kingdom such an undertaking 

 would be impossible ; for her even it is an ar- 

 duous one, but only arduous. The nation 

 which, in the course of a quarter of a century, 

 has spent £240,000,000 ($1,200,000,000) upon 

 railways alone, may well employ twice that 

 amount in renewing its agriculture. 

 ^ The Government felt the necessity for set- 

 ting the example. In 1846, at the time when 

 it was thought desirable to bring about lower 

 prices, it allowed itself to depart from its es- 

 tablished principle of non-interference with 

 private enterprize, and proposed to the pro- 

 prietors to lend them £3,000,000 ($15,000,000) 

 % draining, to be secured on mortgage, re- 

 deemable by payment of interest for twenty- 

 two years at the rate of 6* per cent, per an- 

 num — a principle very like our General Land 

 Loan Association (Societe general de credit 

 fonder.) This first loan having succeeded, 

 Government made others, and a great number 

 of proprietors in the three kingdoms have lai 



availed themselves of the advance. Private 

 capital has followed the impulse. The suffer- 

 ing proprietors who were possessed of personal 

 property, or had securities upon which they 

 could borrow, passed through the crisis 

 with credit ; but those who were already em- 

 barrassed,* struggled sorely. About a tenth of 

 the English proprietors found themselves in 

 this latter position, and for these, economists 

 and agricultural authorities discovered no bet- 

 ter remedy than to help them to the sale or 

 division of their real property. 



To do this at the present day is a difficult 

 and expensive proceeding, owing to the un- 

 certainty of titles. A class of lawyers live by 

 the examination of titles, and the confusion 

 which there reigns. It was proposed to adopt 

 a system of registration like ours, in order to 

 regulate and facilitate transfers : the ideas 

 promulgated upon this subject are of the radi- 

 cal kind. They go the length of requiring 

 that landed property should be transferred as 

 easily as the funds or other movable property 

 and demand no less than that a book should 

 be opened for the registration of real property, 

 legal extracts from which shall constitute ti- 

 tles, and these to be transferable by endors- 

 ation. Everybody must admit that we are far 

 from holding antiquated ideas upon the fixity 

 of property, and tlibse who propose this re- 

 form are not visionaries, but serious writers, 

 and justly respected. The subject is even 

 under the consideration of Government. 

 ■ For the farmers, leases of twenty-one years 

 are asked, which -will allow them to make the 

 necessary advances, with a certainty of reim- 

 bursing themselves. At the same time it is 

 proposed to do away with the farms of too 

 limited extent where the tenants have not suf- 

 ficient capital, and to effect a subdivision of 

 the too large for the same reason. Those 

 farmers who. have not sufficient capital drop off 

 like the involved proprietors ; such as remain 

 close the ranks as in a combat, and in a short 

 time all will disappear. 



All this, no doubt, constitutes an immense 

 revolution. Agriculture changes from a natu- 

 ral, and becomes more and more a manufactur- 

 ing process ; each field will henceforth be 

 a kind of machine, worked in every sense 

 by. the hand of man, pierced below by all 

 kinds of canals, some for carrying off wa- 

 ter, others for bringing manure, and — who 

 can tell ? — perhaps also to convey hot or cold 

 air as required, for effecting the most rapid 

 changes on its surface ; the steam-engine sends 

 forth its columns of smoke over the green 

 landscapes celebrated by Thompson. The pe- 

 culiar charm of the English fields threatens to 

 disappear with the green fields and hedges ; 



The crisis alluded to was the repeal of the corn 



