82 
On Breaking-up Down Land. 
and oil-cake or corn, for cattle to convert the straw into rich ma- 
nure — the land-agent will be backward in recommending the land- 
lord to adopt any changes which will cause him more trouble* — 
the landlord will fear the outlay of money for farm-buildings, lest, 
after all, the land should be exhausted as it has hitherto invariably 
been : but I have not yet seen that any of these three classes have 
any advantage over similar classes in more improved districts ; 
and the poverty of the labourer, arising from a bad system of 
farming, is lamentable to contemplate : they only who have been 
masters of well-paid labourers, as well as of men who only receive 
the miserable pittance of 7s. or 8.9. per week.f can fully ajipreciate 
the advantages to be derived by making work as plentiful here as 
in other parts of the kingdom. The injuiiousness of a system 
that creates so little labour is most apparent by a comparison of 
the different states of the labourer in the north and the south of 
England. In every respect the southern labourer has the dis- 
* No land-agent would, I hope, be influenced by the motive here stated ; 
but his practical iutellig'ence and his duty to his employer may well render 
him cautious in advising the breakage-up of old sward, for the speculative 
advantage to the landlord of obtaining an increase of rent by an outlay of 
capital which may never be repaid. 
I have been for many years well acquainted with the downs of Surrey, 
which, previous to the late war, were almost wholly under turf ; but, during 
the prevalence of high prices for farm produce, a great portion of the land 
was broken up, and afterwards laid down again to pasture wheii the prices 
fell. I have ridden over various parts of the downs very recently, and in 
many instances where the soil has been full twenty years thus relaid to 
grass, I can affirm that the sward is not now of half the value that it was 
originally. 
Lord Portman's plan (as stated in this Journal) speaks nothing to the 
purpose of breaking up down-pasture ; for it was tried upon land not worth 
'2s. 6d. an acre, and although that land will now doubtless bear a fair rent, 
yet it, in fifteen years, has left no profit worth s])eaking of, and if the 
charge of a bailiff were put down, it would have left a loss. It may, indeed, 
be questioned whether it is even now so valuable as if it were in old down 
pasture? But too much praise cannot be bestowed on the beneficent motive 
by which his Lordship was actuated, and the liberal manner in which he 
carried it into effect. — French Burke. 
I think we must be cautious in breaking up very thin down-land, be- 
cause, if it should not answer, and particularly if the lanil be overcropped, 
there will be difliculty in recovering the turf. But where down-land can be 
safely broken up, and is likely to be well-treated afterwards even without 
any extraordinary outlay for manure, I think landlords would do well to 
encourajre this improvement, chiefly with a view to increased employment for 
the agricultural labourer. — Ph. Pusey. 
■I' From this fact, the Northern farmer erroneously supposes that he is in 
every respect superior, as an agriculturist, to the Southern, whereas in no 
part of England is good strong land better farmed than in Wiltshire, par- 
ticularly for wheat ; and all farming operations (except the slow and ex- 
pensive maimer in which horse labour is performed) are conducted in a 
very superior manner. — Tn. Walicden. 
