320 
Farming of Hampshire. 
grubber. It is all the difference between 800Z. and 8/. To utilise 
the speculations of science there is no workman like steady old 
Time, and some may not unreasonably think that, in so important 
a matter, he has hai'dly yet had sufficient latitude given him. 
The present requirements of the tenant-farmer would best be 
met by hiring steam cultivators, as now steam threshers. The 
implement-makers should look to it in this county. The farmers 
are waiting. " Let 'em come along my way," said one to me, 
" and I'll give 'em 20j?. an acre to plough my land ten inches." 
"A pound an acre?" "Yes, and thank 'em besides." 
2. The object of prescribed rotations, and of compulsory con- 
sumption of the whole of the produce, except the grain, on the 
farm, is by a system of alternate grain and green crops, and by 
the maintenance of more live stock, to enable, and even compel, 
the farmer to maintain the fertility of the soil. Thus the four- 
field system allows one-half of the land to be sown with corn, 
one-fourth with grass, and one-fourth with roots — all the produce 
except the corn to be consumed on the premises ; that is, one- 
half of the land is applied to profitable, the other half to 
fertilising crops. Now, where the land has been improved in 
quality, and is not capable of much further improvement (for it 
is a vulgar error to suppose the resources of the soil to be illi- 
mitable), is not the time come for giving a gi'eater latitude to a 
tenant of approved skill and success ? Might not rotations be 
considered less matters of inflexible legal determination, and 
more of climate, soil, and even of seasons? Might not the land- 
lord be protected against the deterioration of his land, and even 
be assured of its yet further development, if possible, by requir- 
ing the tenant to keep a certain head of stock, but allowing him 
to feed them how he likes ? We see this practically the method 
pursued by owners farming their own property (as, for instance, 
wheat every third year on the chalk soils, and wheat and potatoes 
alternately on the Bracklesham beds), and we may assume it 
is found profitable to them, and not injurious to the soil. Of 
course it may be objected, that a lease is not only to an unques- 
tionable tenant, but also to his executors ; and that stock may be 
here to-day and gone to-morrow. But in Hants twelve years is 
the usual duration of a lease, which is not so very long a period ; 
and the landlord might reserve to himself a veto on any suc- 
cessor, or regulate the cropping for the last two years. The 
suggestion as to a head of stock is merely an extension of an 
existing stipulation in Hants leases, which almost invariably 
require a certain number of sheep to be kept, adding the some- 
what unnecessary proviso of cropping for their keeping. 
3. Among "recent changes and improvements lately intro- 
duced," and in some places "still required," the cultivation of 
