TOtm IN ENGLAND.— NO. XVII. 
3f 
pipes and beer, but set down at once, and did am¬ 
ple justice to all before us. When we retired, 
we were shown to a low chamber in the gable* 
end of the attic. It was sufficiently roomy, and 
perfectly neat—the linen, spread, and curtains of 
the bed as white as the driven snow. On a small, 
half-round table lay a few books, which were pre¬ 
cisely those, with one exception, we are most cer¬ 
tain to find at the farm-houses of our own country ; 
being the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, Baxter’s Saints’ 
Best, Tusser’s One Hundred Points of Good Hus¬ 
bandry, and a volume of Tracts, among which the 
first we opened to was that beautiful tale, by the 
Rev. Leigh Richmond, of the Dairyman’s Daugh¬ 
ter. This we first read when a mere child, with 
an impression and interest that no story in our 
subsequent multifarious reading has ever surpassed. 
Reposing upon our pillow, we snuffed the flicker¬ 
ing candle, and here, in the country which gave 
the author birth, and not far from the scene of the 
tale itself, again went over its absorbing incidents. 
How many brilliant romances, filled with the vani¬ 
ties of this world, will rise and fall—even the very 
names thereof perishing from the earth, when this 
true and simple story, of a meek and lowly Chris¬ 
tian maiden, shall become more and more widely 
known, and flourish. God bless the authors of 
such heavenly tales! 
The farm, as we said, contained 79 acres; the 
four-course system was adopted upon it, and in 
most things it was a model of cultivation. The 
first year the land was manured and sowed with 
turneps and mangel-wurzel. These were princi¬ 
pally fed off by sheep consuming them on the 
ground, and of course richly manuring it with 
their droppings. This was sowed with barley 
and oats, with grass-seed or clover in the spring, 
which occupied the second year. The third year, 
the grass and clover was pastured by enclosing 
the sheep with a moveabla hurdle-fence, on an 
acre or so of the grass, and as soon as this was 
eaten, the fence was moved on to another acre, 
and so continued till the grass was all fed off. 
The sheep thus leave their manure scattered over 
the land as evenly as it can be done with the 
shovel; it is then plowed and sowed to wheat. 
Wheat, we were informed, after clover fed off by 
sheep, is found to suffer less from mildew, rust, 
the fly, and indeed all diseases to which it is liable, 
than by any other preparation by which it is grown 
in England. This is a much superior method to 
plowing in clover for wheat as practised in our 
own country. Green crops beneath the earth un¬ 
dergo a rapid fermentation, and turn all their su¬ 
gar and starch into gases, which are lost in the 
air, and vinegar which washes away, and leaves 
the soil so sour as not unfrequently to require rest, 
or the application of lime to restore it to a fit state 
for cropping. How much wiser the English to 
turn the sugar and starch of their grass into mut¬ 
ton and wool, and then have their land left in a 
much more perfect state for a wheat crop. We 
are satisfied that the system of feeding off clover 
in our own country with sheep, preparatory to a 
wheat crop, would pay as well as in England. 
We have strongly urged the measure upon several 
of our friends since our return, but have not yet 
succeeded in getting one to adopt it; we hope to 
be more successful hereafter. But to return to 
our subject. 
This young man paid in rent and taxes for his 
land 375. 6d. per acre, which is £143. 2s. 6d. (say 
$700.) The first year he took the farm he had 
15 acres of wheat, which averaged 29 bushels per 
acre; but by superior management, on the third 
year he had increased the crop to 41 bushels per 
acre, and had 20 acres in wheat. This, the fourth 
year, he calculated confidently the wheat would 
average 43 bushels per acre, and judging from the 
appearance of the crop when we looked at it just 
before harvesting, we thought he had not over¬ 
rated it. His wheat was of a superior quality, and 
would be worth, as soon as he could get it to mar¬ 
ket, 73s. the quarter, or in round numbers, $2 per 
bushel our money ; allowing that the 20 acres only 
yielded 40 bushels per acre, this would be 800 
bushels, worth $1,600. Then he had 20 acres in 
barley and oats: the former did not look so well, 
and would not be over 27 bushels per acre, which 
was attributed to bad weather and late sowing; 
but the latter made ample amends, and he estima¬ 
ted them to yield over 70 bushels per acre. That 
we may be fortified in our statements, we shall 
add, that a neighbor of his with whom we con¬ 
versed, and a very reputable man, informed us 
that he had raised 96 bushels of Tartary oats to 
the acre, 50 of wheat, 58 of barley, and 51 of beans. 
What the value of the oats and barley were likely 
to be we neglected to note. Twenty acres wer 
in turneps and other roots; 15 acres in vetches, 
clover, and grass, with which he was feeding off 
his sheep, and 4 acres for buildings, garden, and a 
small paddock for two cows. He kept a flock of 
about 50 sheep, on which he probably cleared $3 
per head, he not breeding them, but buying in and 
fattening, and then sending them to market. This 
made $150 more. In addition to these he had a 
few pigs, two cows, and four horses. The horses 
