Account of Improvements on Linslade Farm. 341 
after a long^ continued course of bad management, failed upon it), 
and which had been held on by a bailiff put in merely to jjrevent 
it from falling into absolute waste until some opportunity of letting 
it might occur. 
The capital upon the farm when taken in hand was computed 
and taken at 1000/., and the annual value placed upon it, but 
which it was wholly out of the question, without a very consider- 
able outlay on the part of the landlord, to obtain, and which, in 
fact, could not be obtained, was 250/. 
The quality of the land was of a varied character, nearly one- 
half of the arable (the whole being about 170 acres) consisted of 
a strong clayey loam, and the other half of a light siliceous sand, 
but both very wet, and requiring extensive and thorough draining. 
The meadows (40 acres) were of the worst possible description, 
divided into numerous and capricious portions, intersected by 
broad and deep ditches, overgrown with sedges and other aquatic 
plants, and flanked with old and decaying willow-trees; they 
were at all periods of the year liable to be overflowed by a mill- 
stream which half encircled them, and the bed of which had been 
gradually raised by a long-continued deposit brought down by the 
sluggish river Ouzel, the boundary on this side as well of the 
property as of the counties of Bedford and Bucks. 
The fields, as well arable as pasture, were unequal in dimen- 
sions, divided from each other by wide, overgrown, and irregular 
thorn hedges, the ready and constant receptacle of weeds and 
vermin. Upon the whole, the farm was much in the same condi- 
tion as many others in that locality and in other parts of the 
country now are, although from its peculiar circumstances some- 
what below the average. 
In the course of three years, by an improved system of hus- 
bandry, by a greatly increased growth of green cro}>s, and by a 
consequently increased stock both of sheep and cattle, an entire 
revolution in its character and prospects has been effected ; and 
that which was one of the worst is now in the progress of being 
made, and when a set of farm-buildings about to be erected shall 
have been completed, will become one of the best farms for its 
size and situation in the county of Bucks. 
Nearly the whole farm has been thoroughly drained, and the 
principal part of the arable land subsoiled and limed ; indeed, 
more than sixty miles in length, both of tiles and soles, have been 
laid down. The fields have been squared as well as circumstances 
would allow (a curve of the Birmingham railroad passing through 
the centre of the property), the roads have been straightened and 
shortened, and the arable land has been divided into ten fields, 
each as near as may be of 17 acres, fenced with live quick hedges, 
and protected throughout by strong fir railing. The bed of the 
