162 
Continental Farming. 
and a large flock of sheep, which aie folded on the same land 
48 hours, eating mown tares and cake or corn mixed with a 
little chaff : directly the sheep are off, the land is ploughed, 
pulverized, manured and sown with turnips ; thus the field is 
got over as fast as the tares are consumed. Part of the crop was 
up, the drills showing well, and proving by their straightness that 
the drill had been guided by a good workman ; indeed I saw 
Garrett's drill and horse-hoe, both, managed by Hungarian 
ploughmen as well as I have ever seen them in England. They 
were using the horse-hoe among the mangold-wurtzel the second 
time before thinning, which operation was also being performed 
in a most satisfactory way. It was gratifying to see the efficiency 
and expedition exercised by these poor ill-used people when 
propeily treated. 
]VIr. Smallbones' farming is first-rate; he drills his roots 16 inches 
apart and his grain 10 inches, and horsehoes the whole. Well- 
ordered economy is the rule of his establishment. 
He has several German, Austrian, and Hungarian gentlemen's 
sons learning: the art of agriculture with him. 
I may state that he finds that the proper way of making oxen 
work is by pushing their forehead against a padded board, to 
the ends of which the traces are attached, as is the universal 
system throughout nearly all the continental nations. The oxen 
so worked are in no way injured for the butcher ; they can also 
travel faster, chewing their cud at the same time ; and can work 
longer hours without being overtired. He also finds that the 
plough in general use is much better than ours for moving and 
pulverising the soil ; and that the rude waggons of the country 
are as economical as our more powerful and highly-finished ones 
made in England, from their only weighing half the weight of ours. 
Weight is of paramount importance where the roads are generally 
mere tracks across the country ; also, where produce has to be 
drawn a great distance to market, the proportion of power con- 
sumed in drawing the carriage to and fro is of vast importance, 
therefore this people adopt as a rule, in which he agrees with 
them, and so do I, that the carriage should never exceed one-fifth 
the gross iceight of the load. These are, I believe, the only 
implements in which the continental nations excel us. 
After 1 left Mr. Smallbones I observed that the farming: was 
much better near his farm, and that it gradually declined as we 
got further from him : there was, however, occasionally to be seen 
amongst the large owners one who was taking example by him, 
and had imported some of our best implements, such as Hornsby's 
drills, Garrett's horsehoes, and Crosskill's clodcrushers, and was 
also draining his land and enclosing it in proper fields for rotation 
husbandry. This I have little doubt will soon become the rule 
