i 
768 
To tbe Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
qt appears to me, that your correfpon- 
dents on the fubjeét of large and {mall 
farms, lay down (and acquicfce in) an 
axiom, ‘which I conceive by no means 
true. They ftate, that “ the greater the 
quantity of corn raifed, the more bene- 
fitted is fociety.” Was appears to 
me, that the great thing to be confidered 
as, “* Whether /arge or /mad! farms create 
the greater fum of human bappinefs?” 
Whichever. do that, are undoubtedly 
moft beneficial to the community. - It 
will furely not be denied, that, if feveral 
families can be fupported in a decent 
way upon the fame land, which makes 
but oe man a gentleman, the fum of 
happinefs is greater in the former, 
than the latter cafe, though the gentleman 
farmer may raife the moft corn. I believe 
there is no clafs cf men more virtuous, 
and, confequently, more happy, than 
thofe who are themfelves induftrious, 
and by being fo, are enabled to bring up 
a large family decently, with a little 
{chocl-education, and with acquired ha- 
bits of cleanlinefs, and a fenfe of deco- 
rum. Their fons and daughters make 
the beft fervants in gentlemen’s families 
and in every re{peét they are amongft the 
moft valuable of fubje&ts and citizens. 
It may undoubtedly be ufeful, to have 
Some large farms ; but too great an accu- 
mulation of them mut deftroy this ufe- 
ful clefs, and tend to encreafe the num- 
ber of idle and beggarly poor. For, if 
a decent young man and woman fhould 
Jay up in fervi ice, fuficient to fet them 
up in a /mali farm, but fhould find no 
opportunity of doing it, where is the en- 
couragement to frugality and induftry ; 
Every line of life is running fo faft into 
monopoly’, that a fmall fum of money is 
2lmoft ufelefs; and “therefore, we find more 
of the lower claffes living (as they fay) 
from hand to mouth, and confuming their 
earnings as they get them. ‘The confe- 
quence, I fear, is more idlenefs and pro- 
fligacy, more brutal viclence and diforder 
amongft the sex, and more proftitution 
amoneft the women. 
When waffe land is to be brought into 
tillage, the farmer of /arge capital mutt 
undoubtedly be moft ufeful to the public, 
becaufe the little farmer could not afford 
to venture his {mall fubftance, where the 
return would be fo flow. The enclofing 
of wa/ffe lands muft be beneficial; but 
does it idence follow, that the enclofing 
of commons in 2 well cultivated country, 
is alfo of pubic utility? I fear in fuch 
Small Farms add mofi to the Sum of Happinefs. 
[Nor, 
enclofures, the mtereft.of the /:zi/e land- 
helders is not fufficiently confulted. A_ 
man who has a little clofe for hay, can 
keep his cow in fummer on the commen ; 
and if every cottager was in the fituation 
of being able to keep a cow and a pig, 
he would almoft alwzys be enabled to fup- 
port his family decently. Asenclofures (in 
ep i parifhes) are penecaly ma- 
naged, the cottagers and little landholders 
are ruined. I give due praife to the rea- 
foning and good intentions of your cor— 
refpondents, and only wifh them to be-— 
gin on daia which cannot be cortrovert- 
ed; that they fhould confider the fum of 
human happ-nef, as the fit thing, and 
make a Thien between a// farms be- 
ing large, and only a certain portion, 
and alfo between enclefures im barren 
and wafte lands, and in pacifhes already 
well cultivated. 
¥ at pe, 
Your very huinble fervant, 
Ss. N. 
Cambridge, O&. 14th, 1796. 
\ 
’ SSE 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ANEWMETHOD OF RAISINGWHEAT 
FOR A SERIES OF YEARS, ON THE 
sAME LanD, BY Dr. HUNTER, OF 
York. 
T HE erroneous idea that plants draw 
from the earth fuch particles only as 
are congenial to their own natures, has 
probably occafioned the farming maxim, 
‘© That wheat cannot he raifed for a 
feries of years upon the fame land.” But 
the truth is, that under the broad-caft 
hufbandry, there is not fuficient time 
for manuring and ftirring the earth, be- 
tween the operations of reaping and 
fowing. Such being the cafe, may we 
not remove the cbftacle by fubftitut- 
ing TRANSPLANTATION fcr SOWING. 
wee a view to decide upon this impor- 
ant queftion, a gentleman has inftituted 
te following sata :—In Oéiober 
795) a quart ef wheat was drilled in a 
nice of garden ground, and on the 22d 
of March, 1796, the plants were taken 
up and tranfplanted into afield, which 
before had borne a crop of "potatoes. 
The foil was a light loam, and contained 
fix hundred {quare yards, or half a rood. 
The land was only once plowed, har- 
rowed, and rolled, after which the plants 
were pricked down at the depth ef ene 
inch within the ground, and at the dif- 
tance of nine inches from each other, 
each {quare yard containing fixteen ee 
T ke 
