670 
On  the  Farming  of  Somerset. 
but  among  them  are  some  very  industrious  men,  who  have  been 
enabled  to  turn  the  corner,  and  to  save  enough  to  begin  to  im- 
prove their  turnips  and  their  stock. 
The  largest  farms  under  the  third  head  are  generally  in  the 
hands  of  men  possessed  of  capital  and  intelligence,  while  the 
occupiers  of  the  farms  of  intermediate  dimensions  (the  most 
numerous  class)  are  endowed  with  those  needful  requisites  in 
very  various  proportions  to  their  respective  holdings. 
Of  the  tenants  generally,  it  must  be  said  that  they  show  feelings 
of  warm  attachment  to  those  with  whom  they  have  been  long 
connected  and  who  have  gained  their  confidence.  There  is, 
moreover,  about  the  genuine  hill-countryman  a certain  activity 
and  a shrewdness  which  rarely  forsakes  him — qualities  not  incon- 
sistent with  slovenly  habits  of  farming  and  a limited  circle  of 
ideas,  all  more  or  less  the  result  of  his  circumstances,  and  con- 
taining, like  the  soil,  the  elements  which  repay  and  those  which 
retard  the  success  of  patient  cultivation.  He  is  many  miles  from 
a market  town,  with  the  sea  on  the  north  and  the  forest  on  the 
west ; he  has,  therefore,  comparatively  few  opportunities  for 
intercourse  with  others,  and  is  chiefly  dependent  for  his  ideas  on 
the  traditions  of  former  generations,  his  own  observation,  and  the 
improvements  which  may  be  brought  into  the  district  by  owners 
of  property  or  new  tenants. 
I will  endeavour  faithfully  to  exhibit  the  merits  and  the  faults 
of  the  traditional  practice,  and  the  improvements  which  practical 
men  have  introduced  into  the  district,  and  in  doing  so  to  notice 
the  points  prescribed  by  the  Council  for  consideration  in  this 
Report,  viz.  : — 
1.  The  alternate  system  of  corn  and  grass; 
2.  Catch-meadows ; 
3.  Turnip-husbandry;  and, 
4.  Reclamation  of  moors. 
The  alternate  system  of  arable  and  grass  cultivation,  and  the 
advisability  or  otherwise  of  abandoning  it." 
It  is  necessary  first  to  understand  what  is  the  system  referred 
to.  There  is  on  some  estates  an  alternation  of  tillage  and  grass 
which  hardly  deserves  the  name  of  a system  of  cultivation,  being 
in  fact  only  a habit  of  extracting  from  the  earth  all  its  spon- 
taneous produce  in  corn,  and  then  leaving  it  to  rest — that  is, 
to  accumulate  vegetable  matter  and  ammonia  from  the  atmos- 
phere. About  such  a practice  there  need  be  no  question. 
As  a system,  it  is  confined  to  farmers  of  no  capital,  who  adopt 
it  because  they  cannot  carry  on  a regular  system  of  green  crop 
cultivation,  or  by  farmers  who  occupy  more  land  than  they  can 
keep  in  a regular  course;  and  who,  tilling  their  best  land  re- 
