Farming of Cambridgeshire. 
39 
but also giving^ full employment for our labourers, which is the 
only means of producing a happy and contented peasantry : and, 
if not out of place, I would wish to draw the attention of the 
landed proprietors and my brother farmers to the great benefit to 
themselves and their country that must follow the full employ- 
ment of our labourers. It is the bounden duty of owners of 
landed property to see that all who are willing to work have the 
means of obtaining an honest livelihood, as it is the duty of the 
farmers to provide them with such means. If this principle were 
fully carried out, it would lend more to improve the social system 
and strengthen the framework of society, than any other steps 
that can be taken. And so long as the occupiers of the soil 
receive remuneration for the employment of their skill and capital, 
so long are they bound to strain every nerve to produce suffi- 
cient food for a largely increased and last- increasing population. 
Now, much as the produce of this county has been increased 
(and the increase, I admit, is great), still I feel no hesitation 
in saying that a wide field is yet open before us ; and although 
on many farms improvements and high farming have been carried 
on to the full extent that can be done with safety to the tenant, 
yet other farms and districts are as yet badly cultivated. 1 should 
like to ask to whom is the credit due for past improvement? 
Why, to the energy, zeal, and perseverance of the tenant farmers, 
who by the judicious application of capital have rendered vast 
tracts of comparatively barren land productive. But this can 
only be done under the security of long leases and good faith 
between landlord and tenant ; for if the tenant, even under the 
security of a long lease, has, by a very considerable outlay of 
capital, permanently improved his farm, greatly augmenting its 
productive powers, and the landlord, at the ex})iration of that lease, 
takes unfair advantage of the tenant's improvements by demanding 
a largely increased rent, surely no one need be surprised if the 
tenant farmers do not fearlessly carry on those permanent im- 
provements to a greater extent. 
I shall now proceed to treat of the system of farming carried on 
in the light land district, which commences at Royston, on the 
south-west border of the countv ; and at Ickleton, on the south- 
east, running in a northward direction beyond Newmarket to the 
border of the county of Suffolk ; and in an eastern direction to 
Linton. The western ends of the parishes of Balsham, West 
Wratting, Weston Coleville, Carlton, Brinkly, Westly, Dulling- 
ham, and Stechworth, all abutting upon the Newmarket and 
London road, are light, tender, weak lands, consisting of diluvial 
deposits of sands and gravels on chalk ; whilst the lands round 
the villages, and in an eastern direction, are heavy clay and mixed 
soil lands. On the western side of the district we include part 
