AGRICULTURE. 



BOOK I. 



alone would tend to destroy liberty. The consequence of small 

 farms alone would occasion great variation of prices and occa- 

 sional dearths. These things will appear plain to every one 

 who chooses to reflect a little upon the subject. The general 

 conclusion which I draw is in favour of all sizes of farms ; not 

 all sizes upon each estate, though something of this sort a pru- 

 dent landlord will attend to also ; but I wish, principally, all 

 sizes to be found in the country in general. Some countries 

 require to be laid out almost entirely in large farms, as sheep- 

 walks ; others in small ones, as wherever particular crops are 

 attended to, as hops, orchards, &c. In stiff and moist clayey 

 soils, as well as in very dry ones, large farms are highly advan- 

 tageous, as giving the farmer a command of strength to en- 

 able him to work these soils at the proper seasons. In small 

 farms these soils seldom yield theirfull produce: the moist clay is 

 laboured when too wet, and the dry loam cannot always be over- 

 taken in time, particularly in the culture of turnips and barley ; 

 by which means it loses the sap or moisture, and thence the 

 crop either fails entirely or is materially injured. Middling 

 soils, that is, such as are free, deep, and of moderate moisture 

 and easily laboured, are in every case the best for small farms. 

 The proper way, upon the whole, with this as with many other 

 things in political economy, is to leave the business entirely to 

 itsel£. 



