Farm Capital. 
185 
recoipts from stock on the ono li.uul, and decrcasod outlay from 
economical cultivation on the other, it is of the hig^hest import- 
ance tliat every man should do his utmost to approach as nearly 
as possible to the theory of perfection, viz., single inversion of 
the soil. 
To this end it is imj)ortant that those interested in the question 
should confer and compare notes, and no better means to this 
end can be suggested, than that the local societies which are in 
the habit of offering prizes for the best fields of roots, should, for 
a while, restrict tlieir award to the best and cleanest field f/rown 
with a siiH/le iiirersiou of the soil ; competitors generally, and the 
prizeman in particular, being called upon to state the processes 
of cultivation employed, their cost, their date, and also the im- 
plements employed and the chief weeds eradicated. 
If a prize were likewise given for the best communication con- 
taining a record of failure, with explanations of the causes to 
which that failure was assignable, it would perhaps contribute as 
much to the advancement of agriculture as those awarded to 
successful merit. 
Under the second head it may be affirmed that a custom 
which empowers the outgoing tenant to perform acts of tillage 
otherwise than as directed by the landlord or his delegate, and to 
charge at a rate which leaves a profit, is a part of tenant-right 
which has hardly a redeeming feature, and acts prejudicially 
on the recognition of other allowances which may more justly 
claim to be made for mutual benefit ; although its abolition must 
be attended with this limitation — that the tenant must be em- 
powered to proceed according to the custom of the country, if 
not otherwise instructed in due time. 
Where allowances are made for manures purchased, or rich 
feeding stuffs consumed in preceding years, the allowance, even 
if somewhat in excess of the benefit realized, or liable to abuse, 
tends to keep the soil at that artificial pitch of fertility, which is 
found to give the best economical results, and from which it is 
never depressed without far greater subsequent loss to the man 
on whom the restorative process devolves, than immediate gain 
to him who perhaps feels that he is only extracting what he 
himself had deposited. 
The object of maintaining land constantly in a clean state by 
tillage is probably of equal importance with the preceding, but 
the machinery at present in use to secure this end is at best very 
imperfect, and, under the form here considered, has no influence 
in checking that supineness to which the withdrawal of the 
stimulus of self-interest naturally leads, but is merely a clumsy 
stopgap to prevent an utter standstill. In this, as in other 
respects, the prospect of change will tell unfavourably on the 
