Improvements required. 
315 
fines, &c., bringing tho receipts up to 92/., leaving the sum of 
94/. to be supplied from the surplus fund, 43/. of which is fur- 
nished by the interest of the balance. The members' fund shows 
a clear gain of 308/., while the year's interest amounted to 254/., 
so that after paying the above 94/. for the management, the increase 
of the stock for tl)e year was 468/. Such societies as these are of 
incalculable benefit to the poor, and the want of method, common 
honesty, and solvency, which characterises most of the labourers' 
medical clubs, contrasts strangely with the able management and 
flourishing condition of the South Bucks Friendly Society. 
, Improvements Eequired. 
Considerable improvements have been made in the farming of 
Buckinghamshire since the Report of 1809, especially during the 
last ten years. Still the progression is far from wonderful, and not 
to be compared for a moment with the rapid strides agriculture 
has made in other counties. The last annual meeting of the 
Royal Agricultural Society was held in a district whose progress 
has rightly been the theme of much admiration. One of the prin- 
cipal reasons assigned for that progression was the variety of soils 
in the county. But in Bucks there are chalks, clays, rocks, sands, 
gravels, loams, fertile pastures, cold grass-lands, flooded meadows, 
and barren heaths. Why not the same amount of progression, for 
surely the variety of soils is sufficient? There is but one real 
answer : in one county the tenant has security for his capital ; in 
the other comparatively none. Wherever great progress in agri- 
culture has been made, there security to the tenant in the shape 
of leases, tenant-right, compensation-clauses, or something of the 
kind, exists. As the rule seems almost without any exception, 
it is singular that almost every probable and improbable cause 
should be thought of and discussed before the real one is men- 
tioned. The cliief improvements in Bucks are the inclosures, the 
removal of useless hedges and timber, the use of corn and cake 
for sheep, the extended cultivation of root-crops (not above 
1000 acres were grown in 1809), the operations of the New Poor 
Law, and latterly the almost total destruction of game. On the 
latter head it must be observed, that, however great the regret at 
seeing the first and most splendid estate of the county pass into 
other hands, much good has resulted to the farming interest from 
its division. When that ducal estate was entire, the whole 
country was one large preserve ; since then hardly a tenant has 
to complain of any injury he has sustained from game. The stag- 
hounds are considered by the farmers in the Vale of Aylesbury a 
sad nuisance. The pastures during the winter are covered with 
ewes heavy in lami), and in addition to the common evils of turning 
