Farming of Vorh/tirc. 
101 
farm within a given distric t lias been less common. When they 
were offered the great number of competitors testified to the esti- 
mation in which such prizes were hekl. The result was certainly 
beneficial in exciting a sj)irit of emulation and inquiry. Wo 
hope to sec it revived ; a few pounds expended in this way is 
money well laid out, but the credit and renown gained by the 
successful candidate is more valued by him than money or plate. 
II. Tenants' Improvements. 
We now arrive at the second part of our subject, viz. " Tenants 
Improvements "■ — a field so varied and extensive that, for the sake 
of clearness, we purpose to treat separately of the high-land 
and low-land farming. Before, however, entering into details, 
we must pay the same tribute to the merits of the generality of 
our tenant farmers as we have previously paid to improving 
landlords. Amongst this class are found men of enlarged views, 
of sound and practical information, who carry on their im- 
provements with a spirit and energy not surpassed in any pro- 
fession. That there will be exceptions is evident. Bad farm- 
ing is still to be met with, and often in close neighbourhood with 
the best. On such farms the carelessness or ignorance of the 
manager is visible to every eye. Hedgerows are left unrepaired, 
ditches stopped up, ploughing is carried on in the old way three 
inches deep, the land yielding half crops, few or no roots are 
grown, and the stock consequently are few in number and 
poor in kind. If such men are supplanted and their farms 
given to others, have they any one to blame but themselves? 
To such men no mercy can or ought to be shown. Landlords 
do a public service in removing such tenants.* The worst 
managed farms are generally the lowest rented : the tenant's 
reasoning being that, if he improves, the rent will be raised, — 
a reasoning at once fallacious and unjust, such as, even if true, 
could not possibly be a justification for negligence and idle- 
ness. Such farmers work their land with the smallest possible 
* Besides the general duty of promoting the public wealth, there is another, 
■which, being more personal, is more likely to come home to the feelings of a 
kind-hearted landlord when hesitating to take the inevitably harsh step of dis- 
missing a tenant — I mean the duty of consideration for»the labourer. When the 
tenant only makes ends meet by extreme parsimony, the workman is sure to be 
pinclied; when he is driven to makeshifts, these fall most severely on that 
dependent who can, in some sort, shift for himself. Uncertain employment, days' 
work cut short by rain, small chance of superior earnings by piece-work, undue 
advantage taken of the position of unmarried lads— some of the positive evils 
attendant ou beggarly farming — are hardly more demoralising than the negative 
side of the picture ; for the absence of good training in the work of the farm, of a 
good plain education, and consequently of openings for other forms of service, 
together lead to a state of stagnation, which almost obliterates the distinction 
betv/een the condition of the labourer and the serf. — P. H. F. 
