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4. I cannot stand alone but on four legs, yet frequently support my burthen standing upon two only.

5. I never breathe but through my nose, and I never breathe without snoring.

For the Literary Magazine.

A SPECIMEN OF AGRICULTURAL
IMPROVEMENT.

the most eminent mathematicians ed to lean against a wall, and that, have not disdained to devote a great aukward as it is, is my usual posdeal of time and labour to the solu- ture. tion of mysteries, which deserve no better name than riddles. The famous puzzle of squaring the circle has perhaps obtained some attention from every pupil of the mathematics. The greatest abilities have been occasionally employed in making the knight move into all the squares of the chess-board, in succession, without passing twice over the same. Volumes have been written to show the number of ways in which the words in the following hexameter" Tot tibi sunt dotes, Virgo, quot sidera cælo," may be differently arranged, without destroying the measure. Now the merit of such questions as these, the claim they have to our attention, seems to consist altogether in their difficulty, a difficulty which requires nothing but perseverance in calculation to surmount. But those riddles, of which Swift's enigmatical description of "a pen" may be mentioned as an example, seem in their discovery to add much more materially to our stock of ideas, and to be far more excusable engrossers of our time, than the mathematical enigmas.

I cannot help avowing my approbation of riddles in a speculative way, and this, Mr. Editor, you will probably think rather an adventurous undertaking. And yet I feel disposed, just now, to be guilty of a deed of still greater temerity, and not only to justify the propounder of enigmas, but to become myself an actual propounder. The following, I believe, if not absolutely new, are yet far from being hacknied, and may afford momentary diversion to some of your less austere readers.

1. I always stand upon four legs, and move about upon eight.

2. I have three legs, two of which support myself, and the third supports me and the burthen laid upon

me.

3. I have two legs, yet cannot stand without support. Unless upheld by some kind hand, I am oblig

Extracted from the correspondence of a traveller in Scotland.

-THE northern estate called C, contains about twenty-five thousand acres, and consists of a roundish piece of land, jutting out into the Irish sea, connected, by a narrow peninsula, with the main land of

-shire. The wonders wrought in this little territory, by the genius of the proprietor, are still more remarkable than those effected in W, because its condition was far more desolate and forlorn, when it came into his possession. Its general aspect was that of sterile mountains, whose summits were roughened with rocks, and whose sides were covered with bog and moss, and overrun with heath and fern. Scarcely a fruit or timber tree was any where to be seen..... Near the coast a species of negligent and slovenly cultivation took place. About ten thousand acres, or two-fifths of the whole, was divided into two hundred farms, each, on an average, consisting of fifty acres, and containing, on the whole, about fourteen hundred persons..... Four hamlets, or villages, composed of cottagers and petty tradesmen, contained, in all, one hundred and eight miserable dwellings, and about six hundred inhabitants. The chief town was C, containing five hundred houses, and two thousand seven hundred people. The method of culture, with the farmers,

was as defective, and the style of living among all classes in this district was as mean and comfortless, as can well be imagined. The whole was divided into five parishes, the town of C▬▬▬▬ being one. The pastors in each gleaned a miserable pittance of about fifty pounds a year, and the people being of the English church, the stipend of the clergy consisted, except in the town, of the contribution called tythe. Five little schools subsisted, one in each parish, where the clements of knowledge were taught for the scanty recompence of twenty pounds a year.

Previous to sir A's time the landlord resided wholly in London, and the only functions of a landlord he ever dreamt of exercising, were those of naming a steward to collect his rents. In this choice he was directed only by pecuniary calculation. He who made the most punctual and liberal remittances was the most acceptable. To the steward, frequently ignorant and mercenary, was transferred all the power of the landlord; and, as his conduct was under the influence of only two motives, to enrich himself, and to satisfy the cravings of his principal, we may easily imagine under what vexations and oppressions the poor tenantry laboured. Notwithstanding the ingenuity of these stewards, not a little sharpened by their own wages being fixed at a certain proportion of the sums raised, they were never able to collect a larger annual sum than seven thousand five hundred pounds. The cultivated land paid about five shillings an acre, the cottages and gardens, annexed to them, about forty shillings a piece; and the houses in town about ten pounds a piece. Out of this sum, however, little more than five thousand ever came into the hands of the proprietor, with which his indolence was satisfied.

Such was the condition of the cultivated portion of the estate, while two-fifths of the whole was a naked and dreary waste, from which the neighbouring farmers and cottagers

were allowed to collect a little peat and a few sticks as firing, and on which a few sheep and cattle browzed in summer time. In the midst of this wild, which was dignified with the name of Cforest, was situated an old crazy mansion, a part of which was kept in habitable order by the steward, for his own residence, but whose outworks and enclosures had been long gone to decay.

The marriage of the heiress of the C-s to sir A, put this large estate, with all the authorities and territorial jurisdictions annexed to it, into his hands. It afforded him a noble field for the exercise of his talents, and he lost no time in carrying his schemes of improvement into execution. He visited C

in person, took a careful survey of the whole, banished all the official vermin who had hitherto preyed upon the vitals of the people, and supplied their place by agents whose capacity and integrity had been well tried.

After rectifying the obvious errors and abuses which had crept into the stewardship of this domain, he turned his thoughts to the condition of the waste land. An exact survey being made of Cforest, it appeared that, among the fifteen thousand acres of which it consisted, not more than seven hundred and fifty were absolutely incapable of being cultivated. These were so encumbered with bare rocks as to make them altogether refractory.

Of the residue about three thousand acres were devoted to plantations. Spots, incapable of producing a single blade of corn, were found able to support the stately pine or spreading oak. The soil beneath improved yearly in fertility, from the leaves which fell, and the shelter afforded by wood. Thus a considerable extent of ground became really entitled to the appellation of forest, which had formerly been conferred upon the whole. In the course of forty years the ground was overshaded by lofty trees, whose

loppings afforded firing to the whole district, and whose superfluous growth afforded, for all the purposes of the carpenter, the timber which the district had formerly been obliged to procure at a dis

tance.

At the end of twenty-five years this wood began to reward the planter by a revenue of at least five shillings an acre, so that he derived, from what had been wholly unproductive before, an income of seven hundred and fifty pounds a year.

The larger portion of the waste, about seven thousand acres, was a wet and spungy soil, which had always been deemed worthless and irreclaimable. The spade, however, was now diligently set to work, and, in a short time, all the superfluous moisture being drawn off, the whole was converted into excellent upland pasture. The land, properly prepared and enclosed, was divided into seven sheep farms, and an ample stock of the suitable breed of sheep was imported from the heights of Cumberland. By placing these farms under provident and skilful management, for several years together, the produce of this tract, in wool, peltry, and mutton, has been more than equal to fifteen shillings an acre, one third of which has been fixed as a reasonable proportion for the rent, so that, by this method of improvement, seven thousand acres of moor has been made to produce an annual income to the landlord of two thousand three hundred pounds, and of twice that sum to the immediate cultivators. The hands necessary to each of these farms, and their families, amount to about twenty persons, and their stock to two thousand sheep, five cows, and five horses, with swine and poultry in abundance. By these means thirty-five horses, and thirtyfive cows, and fourteen thousand sheep were added to the stock, and one hundred and fifty persons to the population of the barony. The annual produce has generally been about thirty-five thousand pounds of wool, and thirty-five hundred sheep.

The greater part of the wool being exported, this branch of commerce, though inconsiderable, contributes to increase, in some degree, the employment and thrift of the town and its inhabitants.

The surface of the whole waste appeared at first to be wholly barren and uncultivable. On the experiment being made, however, a stratum of excellent marle was found in many places, beneath the surface. By a proper use of this valuable substance, no less than twenty-two hundred and fifty acres were converted into excellent arable land. This portion was divided into small farms or homesteads of five acres.

-'s

These little farms were furnished with neat and substantial dwellings and barns, the fields were completely hedged, or fenced, or ditched, and tenants admitted, under strict conditions as to the mode and objects of their cultivation. Each farm was divided into five fields, and a certain rotation of crops established in each. It was sir Anotion that this quantity of ground could be adequately tilled and managed without the aid of the horse and plough, and with the spade only, by the farmer and his family alone, leaving them, at the same time, a large portion of their time to be employed either in some mechanical occupation, or in labouring for their neighbours, whose farms were of greater extent.

Each of these farms maintain a cow and calf, a sow with a brood of pigs, with abundance of poultry. It affords potatoes and garden products, forming an ample subsistence, in this kind of food, for a numerous family, and a quantity of grain equal to fifty bushels at least.

These farms are not intended to enrich the possessors, nor to afford them their whole employment..... They are merely to afford a sure refuge from that poverty, which the want of regular employment might produce to the journeyman or labourer, to enlarge his comforts, promote his health, and encrease his

independence, and all these valuable ends are fully accomplished by this arrangement.

The advantages of such an establishment to the sober and thrifty poor are so obvious, that sir Afound no difficulty in filling his little farms with industrious tenants, the moment they were ready to be occupied, and, by this means, he has increased the useful population of his territory by very near three thousand persons; he has enlarged its farming stock by near a thousand head of cattle; he has added to its annual produce twenty-two thousand five hundred bushels of grain, which the corn-dealer eagerly accepts for a sum not less than six thousand pounds; and he has added to his own revenue, as rent, upwards of two thousand five hundred pounds a year.

The remainder of this waste has been converted, by an elaborate system of draining, into excellent watered meadow. This tract amounts to two thousand acres, has been devoted to breeding cattle, and produces a clear rent of three thousand pounds a year.

It thus appears, that a naked and desolate waste, always dreary to the eye, injurious to the health, and detrimental to the climate, has been converted into a smiling and busy scene of cultivation; that, in the course of a few years, upwards of three thousand persons were added to the population of the district, and a clear annual revenue created of eight thousand five hundred and fifty pounds.

These schemes of improvement, however, were far from engrossing the proprietor's attention. He, at the same time, was active in devising means for improving the fertility of the portions already cultivated, and bettering the condition of the inhabitants. The farms, whose extent already was, in general, about fifty acres, he divided into portions of twenty-five acres; he not only erected new buildings on the new farms thus created, but he demolish ed the hovels which previously ex

isted on the old farms, and supplied their places with new, commodious, and substantial edifices. By a judicious system of rewards, by importing farmers from his English estate, whose example was a visible and intelligible lesson to his ancient tenants, he quickly banished the old defective modes of cultivation, with the indolence and poverty which followed it.

Under their ancient lords, the principal employment of the peasantry was fishing. They were satisfied if they could glean from their fields a miserable harvest of oats, just sufficient to provide the year with bread, and of barley sufficient to keep a distillery of whiskey employed, and to supply their own cravings for that infatuating liquid, and of hay for winter's food to a horse and cow. On the produce of their fishery they relied for the annual portion of their food, and by the sale of the surplus in the neighbouring towns, they were enabled to pay their rent, and purchase such clothing as they could not do without. Agriculture was an object of secondary importance in their view: they applied to it with murmuring and reluctance. If fifty acres supplied them with bread and whiskey, it was all they exacted from it. About two acres in oats, two in barley, and four or five in grass for hay, with the rest of the farm in pasture, was the ordinary state of things. The use of manure was too troublesome and artificial. They moved the plough yearly from one portion to another, and each field enjoyed a fallow of six or eight years.

Sir A, by introducing potatoes, turnips, and carrots, by establishing a rotation of crops, and by carefully collecting and applying manures, has raised the produce of twenty-five acres to five times the produce of the ancient farm of fifty. Each family derives its whole vegetable and animal subsistence and clothing from a field of five acres, while the produce in corn and cattle of the remaining twenty is gene

rally equal in value to five pounds an acre, or a hundred pounds in the whole. Only one fourth of this is demanded by the landlord as rent. The remaining seventy-five pounds may be laid up, expended in additional improvements, or a revenue derived from it as stock in trade, or a capital at interest, or employed in luxury and show.

The ancient tenant found it difficult to scrape together twelve pounds ten shillings, in ready money, to answer the yearly calls of the steward. He owed this difficulty to his slothful and intemperate habits, and his attachment to the precarious and unprofitable life of a fisherman. The present tenant has been weaned from the sea by the superior profits and security of tillage, and sir A— allows no spirits to be distilled within his barony, and none to be imported or sold within his jurisdiction. For a farm of half the extent he pays double the rent, and still finds himself surrounded with comforts, and growing in opulence.

As the indispensable motive to industry is the power of exchanging its products with facility, sir Apaid particular attention to that class of his tenants who supplied the rest with articles imported from a distance, or manufactured by themselves, in exchange for the produce of the land. The want of capital, knowledge, and industry among his tenants, compelled him to supply the deficiency from his own purse, and from his own mental resources. Formerly nothing had been exported, in considerable quantity, but fish, and bread had sometimes been imported. Fish, under the new system, was wholly neglected, and a considerable surplus, in the products of husbandry, remained after the wants of the district were supplied. This surplus found ready purchasers, at fixed and reasonable prices, in the agents of sir A. As the population of the villages and town rapidly encreased, in proportion to the population and produce of the country,

and in consequence of the wise and equitable maxims of government adopted by the lord, this surplus of agricultural products gradually lessened, till it ceased altogether. As this product was more than sufficient to purchase all the articles of manufacture consumed within the district, or imported into it, a new class of workmen or manufacturers began to be formed, whose produce was sent abroad, and exchanged for money, and the population continued to encrease, till that point when it was sufficient to consume all the grain, though not all the meat, which the territory produced. In short, in thirty years after these improvements commenced, the villagers and townsmen exceeded eleven thousand five hundred, and the whole population of the estate, as ascertained by an exact census, was distributed as follows:

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The population, under the ancient family, amounted, as we have seen, to four thousand seven hundred persons. This number the wisdom of the present lord has more than quadrupled, and between the happiness, the moral and intellectual dignity of the present generation and the last, there is, as you will readily imagine, still less similarity than there is in point of numbers.

It was a maxim of the C-s never to alienate any portion of their landed property, or to part with any of the rights and privileges they possessed as territorial lords. Their estate, whether house or land, was occupied, universally, by tenants at will, nor could any motive, springing from indolence, facility, or avarice, induce them to grant leases for a longer term than a year. This system can only be ascribed to the lust of power, for the rights of a landlord, extending over a consider

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