286 On the Maintenance of Fertility in new Arable Land. 
ment, would then go annually to increase the fertility of the land. 
It is the liability of arable land to the mismanagement I speak 
of, which has hindered the conversion of thousands of acres of 
grass-land, at a time when the larger acreable produce of good 
arable culture is so much wanted. ^iaj^ we not hope that the 
greater capability of improvement, which is also characteristic of 
cultivated land, will, as agricultural intelligence extends, be effi- 
cient, for the future, in inducing owners of pasture lands rapidly 
to bring them under the plough ? 
The following particulars regarding the cultivation of Whit- 
field farm, and its results, fully bear out the views which I have 
quoted from Professor Johnston and Dr. Daubeny : — 
It may be well first to state some circumstances in the history 
of this farm, which have already been published elsewhere. In 
1838 it consisted of 232 acres, of which 68 were arable; the 
farm-buildings, then, were few and nearly in ruins ; most of tlie 
land was wet and undrained ; much of it was occupied by hedge- 
rows, its extent being divided into 63 fields, and these being 
surrounded by wide straggling fences containing many timber- 
trees ; the brook which traversed the farm ran a most tortuous 
course, and was buried under alder, and willow, and hazel ; several 
willow-beds, of considerable extent, occurred at intervals by its 
banks ; portions of the eastern side of the farm were covered with 
coppice-wood and bramble; the soil on that side was dry; on the 
highest land shallow, on limestone subsoil ; farther down, deeper, 
on sandstone ; in the valley the land was very wet, containing 
springs of water in many places, and being liable to fiequent 
floods from the brook ; on the western side, also, it was very wet, 
lying on a variable subsoil, chiefly clay, though occasionally com- 
posed of alternating beds of clay and sand. Such was the condi- 
tion of th6 land in 1838. Early in the following year the hedge- 
row timber was sold, realizing the enormous sum, for so small an 
extent, of 3300Z. Preparations were then made for the drain- 
age of the land, the grubbing up of the hedge-rows, the erection of 
farm-buildings, the making of good roads through the farm, the 
conversion of the grass lands, and the due cultivation of the whole. 
Since that time about 30 acres have been added to the farm ; the 
plans above referred to have all been carried into effect, and the 
time which has elapsed is so considerable, that, as regards the 
policy which has been pursued, the present condition of the land 
may fairly be taken as determining the permanence of its results. 
Its results are these : — 
1st. As regards the Landowner. A large and permanent, if 
not advancing, increase of fertility in the land. I do not here 
enter into any statement of the cost at w hich that increase of fcr- 
