The Labour Bill in Farming. 
67 
turists everywhere will slavishly copy Messrs. Prout and Mid- 
i dleditch's system ; that corn-growing is generally to supersede 
stock-farming ; that auction sales of standing corn are to become 
as common as those of live-stock, or that corn-crops will gene- 
rally be removed from the farm, and all land henceforward de- 
prived of its accustomed supplies of yard-manures. Procrustean 
principles are inconsistent with good farming, which ought to 
accommodate itself especially to changing conditions of markets 
and cost of production. If customers fail to bid for the crops 
at Blount's Farm or Blunsdon, the auction sales can be discon- 
tinued and the corn harvested by the growers. The straw, if 
not required to fodder and litter stock, can, as now, be disposed 
of for paper-making and other purposes, at prices considerably 
above the 16s. or 18s. per ton, which it is worth merely for 
manure. Again, even supposing that liberal foreign supplies 
bring the cereals down to a selling point at which their growth 
ceases to prove remunerative, these farms, so deeply and cleanly 
cultivated, are in an unusually favourable state for growing full 
(Tops of roots and fodder, and maintaining a large amount of 
stock. Meanwhile, ^lessrs. Prout and Middleditch's valuable 
) ^riences inculcate various practical lessons applicable almost 
my system of farming. They inculcate the wide adoption, 
especially on the heavier clays, of the deeper and more effectual 
stirring of the soil ; the economy of steam, as compared with 
horse-power, in the cultivation of the land ; the more systematic 
liberal feeding of the farm-crops with portable manures ; the gain 
resulting from drilling such manures with the seed-corn, and 
thus bringing them into closer contact with the spongioles of 
the young plants ; and the desirability of remunerating the tenant 
for unexhausted improvements effected by his own capital, and 
thus encouraging him to devote to his vocation more brains, 
enterprise, and money. 
III. — The Labour Bill in Farming. By Frederick Clifford. 
For some months during the year 1874 it became my duty to 
follow somewhat closely the strikes and lock-out which occurred 
n the Eastern Counties, to describe the course of farming 
h( re, and set forth fairly the position both of employers and 
employed. The present Paper has not for its object a discussion 
^f any of the controverted questions which arose during that 
jinhappy struggle. Those persons who care to revive their 
•ecollections of what will always be a memorable event in the 
listory of English agriculture may refer elsewhere to a perma- 
F 2 
