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11. — Account of Hall Farm, near Sevenoaks, Kent, for Eight 

 Years, from March 25, 1838, to March 25, 1846. 



To Lord Amherst. 



Alvechurch, near Bromsgrove, May 9, 1846. 

 My Lord, — I have great pleasure in submitting to your consi- 

 deration the following account relative to Hall Farm, and the 

 more so, as I consider it a remarkable instance of what can be 

 accomplished by the judicious application of skill and capital. 

 The character of the farm, consisting as it does to a considerable 

 extent of a very inferior soil, and part of it a perfect sand-bed, 

 is too well known to your Lordship, and to all those in its imme- 

 diate neighbourhood, to require any comment from me ; but it 

 will be well, before I proceed to the more practicable part of the 

 business, to give a short history of the farm for some time before 

 it came under the excellent management of your present bailiff, 

 Mr. Robert Jones. 



Hall Farm is free of corn-tithes, and contains 250 acres, 3 roods, 

 and 2 poles, and is divided as follows : arable, 190 acres, 5 poles ; 

 pasture, 40 acres, 2 roods, 37 poles ; hop-ground, 20 acres. The 

 buildings are complete for the occupation of the farm and hop- 

 grounds, and have always been kept in repair by the landlord. 

 Previous to the year 1827, the farm had been for a long time in 

 hand ; and by reference to the accounts it will be clearly seen 

 that during that period a great loss was annually sustained. In 

 the year 1827 it was let upon lease lor fourteen years, at a rent 

 of 200/., but the tenant, after holding it for six or seven years, 

 requested permission to give up his lease, upon the ground of his 

 losing at least 300/. per annum by it ; and although the farm was 

 offered him for the remainder of his lease at the reduced rent of 

 lOOZ., he still urged his request for permission to give up his hold- 

 ing immediately, expressing a fear, that if compelled to occupy 

 the farm till the termination of his lease, he should sink the re- 

 mainder of his capital. He was allowed to give up his lease, and 

 in 1835 the farm was again taken in hand. From 1835 to 1838, 

 the farm being under very indifferent management, and no founda- 

 tion laid for future profit, the result was as in previous cases, 

 a great loss, amounting in the two years of 1835 and 1836 to 

 973/. Os. 10(/., and in the year 1837 to no less than 602/. \s. 8c?. 



In the spring of 1838 Mr. Robert Jones took the manage- 

 ment of the farm, and I will now proceed to show the state in 

 which he found it, and the means pursued by him to better its 

 condition. 



The state of it was such that it was found necessary to summer- 

 fallow nearly the whole of the land for two years in succession ; 



VOL. VIII. D 



