On Breaking up Grass Lands. 
197 
mand of the landowners and farmers of England and Wales, pro- 
vided they will adopt the proper means of obtaining it, I have 
considered my legitimate business ; but whilst pointing this out 
to them, I feel the necessity of advising that it may be set about 
with judgment, caution, and deliberation. Men who duly delibe- 
rate first, and proceed with caution afterwards, seldom fail in 
their undertakings ; and to such only should I trust the breaking 
up of lands and their future management, especially those lands 
the soil of which is of a doubtful character. 
The Advantages to the Labourer in Employment and to the 
Country in Food. 
It has been usual to assume that one man will be required for 
every 25 acres on an arable farm ; but this is seldom or never 
realized. Probably not more than one man to 50 acres is really 
employed on light soils, and not a much greater proportion on all 
moderately heavy soils : but to follow out the system I propose 
by abandoning summer fallow, and occasionally, if not every sea- 
son, using the fork and practising hand-picking, will require a 
larger proportion of labourers than has hitherto been employed 
on the same extent of land. On an average one man to every 20 
acres will not be found sufficient on lands of similar character to 
those referred to in the Estimates 4 and 5. Shed-feeding sheep, 
stall-feeding cattle, and soiling, are practices which will gradually 
force themselves on the farmer's notice. It is also more profitable 
to keep working horses and oxen in yards on clover, vetches, and 
sainfoin ; and were the plan to be generally adopted, all the land 
on which they have hitherto been grazing would be better broken 
up. Those lands are, generally speaking, not of the best quality,, 
and for that, amongst other reasons, would answer better under 
the plough than in pasture. It may be so said of dairy cows, but 
that cannot be realized until we shall have advanced some steps 
further in agricultural science, and are enabled to make good 
butter and cheese from seed pasture, vetches, sainfoin, clover, and 
roots. If we could accomplish this, cows might be soiled in yards, 
and supplied with food from the arable land, which would be the 
means of creating a vast amount of additional employment for the 
labourer, independent of the breaking up of their former pastures. 
Nearly all the lands occupied by dairy farming might then be 
broken up, without fear of a scarcity of cheese, butter, or milk. 
Should the time ever arrive when even half of the land thus occu- 
pied can be spared to be converted into arable, we shall increase 
our produce of food for man and beast to an amazing extent, and 
there would not be found a man, who is willing and able to work, 
out of employment : and what is more, the labourer would obtain 
fair wages for his services, in consequence of the removal from the 
