192 Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
qunntity of human food wliich they could be made to yield by suitable tillage. 
One of the causes of this state of things is the absence of proper tenures. A 
lease becomes of comparatively less value when land is kept constantly in 
grass. Such land requires little expenditure, which cannot be replaced within 
the year ; and tlie security of long possession is not absolutely necessary to 
enable men to rear and fatten sheep and cattle. Hence it is that so much of 
tlie land of England remains imcultivated ; and hence it is that, while the 
formers of England are eminently successful in the branch of husbandry which 
relates to live-stock, they are eminently deficient in tliat which relates to the 
jiroper cultivation of the soil." 
The reports of counties in this Journal amply confirm the 
truth of these remarks. Next to the poor pastures, the most 
unproductive lands are the heavy arable clays, which by the 
expenditure of capital in draining and deep tillage would be- 
come the most productive of corn and roots. The light lands of 
Hampshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, &c., are chiefly in large 
holdings, and farmed by men of capital. The return on outlay 
on such soils is comparatively quick ; the extent of farm- 
buildings is small compared to those required on heavy lands, 
because the root-crops are eaten on the land ; the expenses of 
drainage and of deep tillage and costly cultivation are saved ; 
the storage and heavy cartage of roots for winter-feeding, and 
the recartage of manure from the farmyards, are partly avoided ; 
all incidental expenses are less than on heavy land ; the saving 
in horse and manual labour is from 25 to 30 per cent. On light- 
land farms the tenant's capital lies comparatively at the surface ; 
his land is cleaned, and his fallow-crops are grown (often with 
light manures only) at a small relative cost ; the crop is eaten 
and the land manured at the same time by sheep, the most 
profitable of all stock. The succeeding crop of corn draws from 
the soil most of the goodness which it has just received, and the 
tenant's outlay returns to him quickly. 
The heavy-land farmer must bury his capital deeper to get 
the same returns; as a rule he only skims the surface, hence 
the small average amount of capital employed in farming com- 
pared to the number of consumers.* Large imports ought to 
increase fertility, and lessen the cost of production just in pro- 
portion as the soil of the exporting country becomes poorer. 
The addition to fertility that would accrue from importations 
* In Fuller's ' Worthies ' the proportions of heavy and light land are thus 
defined : " The sand hardly amounteth to a fifth part of England, therefore a 
drought never causeth a dearth. 
' When the sand feeds the clay, England cries ■well-a-day ! 
But when the clay feeds the sand, it is merry with England,' 
because a wet year which drowneth and chilleth the clay, maketh the sandy land 
most fruitful with corn ; but it is harder for one to feed four than for four to feed 
one."— H. E, 
