TILLAGE.—SIZE OF FARMS.—CONDITION OF
LABOURERS.—FENCES.—HEDGES.—SURFACE DRAINAGE.—UNDER DRAINAGE.—VALUABLE
IMPLEMENTS FOR STIFF SOILS, NOT USED IN THE UNITED STATES.
[Sidenote: _GENERAL AGRICULTURAL CHARACTER._]
I should think that more than three-quarters of the land we have seen
was in grass and pasture. I suppose that it would be more productive
of human food, and support a much larger population, if it were
cultivated; but the farmers being generally men of small means, barely
making a living, are indisposed to take the trouble to break up and
till the tough sward and stiff soil from which, while it is in pasture,
they are always sure to realize a certain product of cheese without
any severe labour. The cultivation is not, either, very thorough,
because the strongest and most efficient implements and great brute
forces are needed to effectually act upon such a soil. Accordingly
we have observed on the large farms, where the extent of ground to
be, of necessity, cultivated, warranted the purchase of clod-crushers
and other strong and expensive implements, and made it necessary to
employ a considerable number of labourers, the proportion of land under
tillage was more extensive, and much more thorough work was made with
it.
I wish I could say that the condition of the labourers appeared to
be elevated with that of agriculture, by the leasing of the land
in larger tracts, and to men of larger capital. It is true that the
tendency is to increase the rate of wages and give employment to more
hands, but it is also evident that by the engrossment of several small
farms in one large one, a number of persons must be reduced from
the comparatively independent position of small farmers to that of
labourers, and I cannot see that for this there is any compensating
moral advantage.
[Sidenote: _HEDGES.—THOROUGH DRAINAGE._]
Another evil of the small farms (not exclusively, however), is
the quantity of land injured or withdrawn from cultivation by the
fences. These are almost universally hedges, and not only are they
left untrimmed and straggling, thereby shading and feeding upon the
adjoining land, but a great many large trees have been allowed to
grow up in them, of course to the injury of any crops under their
branches. These are sometimes kept low, the limbs being trimmed off
for firewood (in which case they are called _pollards_), or are left
to grow naturally. In the latter case, of course, they add exceedingly
to the beauty of the landscape, and eventually become of value for
timber; but high as this is here, I cannot at all believe it will ever
compensate for the loss occasioned to the farm-crops. Where every five
or ten acres is surrounded by a hedge and ditch, the damage done cannot
be slight. By way of improvement we have seen where lately some hedges
have been grubbed up, two old fields being thrown together. We have
also seen a few wire fences in use. These latter were very slightly set
up, and could hardly be intended for permanence. We have also seen some
fine, low, narrow hedges, taking up but little room, and casting but
little shade. When a hedge is thus well made and kept, I am inclined to
esteem it the most economical fence. The yearly expense of trimming it
is but trifling (less than one cent a rod), and it is a perfect barrier
to every thing larger than a sparrow. I should add that the farmers
seem to set much value upon the shelter from cold winds which the
hedges afford.
_Drainage._—The need of thorough draining is nowhere so obvious as
upon clay soils with stiff sub-soils. There will be but a few weeks
in a year when such soils are not too wet and mortary, or too dry
and bricky, to be ploughed or tilled in any way to advantage. In the
spring, it is difficult to cart over them, and in the summer, if the
heat is severe and long-continued, without copious rain, the crops upon
them actually dwindle and suffer more than upon the driest sandy loams.
To get rid of the surface water, the greater part of the cultivated
land of Cheshire (and, I may add, of all the heavy land of England)
was, ages ago, ploughed into beds or “_butts_” (’bouts). These are
commonly from five to seven yards wide, with a rise, from the furrows
(called the “reins”) to the crown, of three or four inches in a yard.
The course of the butts is with the slope of the ground; a cross butt
and rein, or a wide, open ditch by the side of the hedge, at the foot
of the field, conducting off the water which has collected from its
whole surface. When the land is broken up for tillage, and often even
after thorough under-drainage, these butts are still sacredly regarded
and preserved.
Thorough under-draining, by which all the water is collected after
filtering through the soil to some depth, was introduced here as
an agricultural improvement within the last eight years. The great
profit of the process upon the stiff soil was so manifest that it was
very soon generally followed. The landlords commonly furnished their
tenants with tile for the purpose, and the latter very willingly
were at the expense of digging the drains and laying them. Wishing,
however, to do their share of the improvement at the least cost, the
tenants have been too often accustomed to make the drains in a very
inefficient manner, being guided as to distance by the old reins, and
laying their tile under these, often less than eighteen inches from
the surface. The action of the drains was thus often imperfect. It is
now customary for the landlords, when they furnish tile, to stipulate
the depth at which they shall be laid. They sometimes also lay out
the courses and distances of the drains. The Marquis of Westminster
employs an engineer, who appoints foremen, and, to a certain extent,
suitably-trained labourers, to secure the drainage of his tenant-lands
in the most lastingly economical and beneficial manner. Last winter he
had two hundred men so employed, in addition to the labour furnished by
the tenants themselves, and over one million tiles were laid by them.
I heard nowhere any thing but gratification and satisfaction expressed
with the operation of the thorough-drains.
[Sidenote: _IMPLEMENTS FOR STIFF SOILS._]
_Implements._—After breaking up the sward of these heavy lands with
a deep, narrow, furrow-slicing plough, a most admirable instrument,
quite commonly in use and everywhere spoken well of, for crushing and
pulverizing the soil in a much more effectual and rapid manner than the
harrow, is
[Illustration: CROSSKILL’S PATENT CLOD-CRUSHER ROLLER.]
“This implement,” according to the inventor’s advertisement, “consists
of twenty-three roller parts, with serrated and uneven surfaces, placed
upon a round axle, six feet wide by two and a half feet in diameter.
The roller-parts act independent of each other upon the axle, thus
producing a self-cleaning movement. Of course the roller must only be
used when the land is so dry as not to stick.
“The following are the various uses to which this implement is applied:
“1.—For rolling corn as soon as sown upon light lands; also upon strong
lands, that are cloddy, before harrowing.
“2.—For rolling wheats upon light lands in the spring, after frosts and
winds have left the plants bare.
“3.—For stopping the ravages of the wire-worm and grub.
“4.—For crushing clods after turnip crops, to sow barley.
“5.—For rolling barley, oats, &c., when the plants are three inches out
of the ground, before sowing clover, &c.
“6.—For rolling turnips in the rough leaf before hoeing, where the
plants are attacked by wire-worm.
“7.—For rolling grass lands and mossy lands after compost.
“8.—For rolling between the rows of potatoes, when the plants are
several inches out of the ground.
“Cash prices, with travelling wheels complete, 6 feet 6 inches, £21; 6
feet, £19 10_s._; 5 feet 6 inches, £18.”
For still more deeply stirring, and for bringing weeds to the surface
of soil recently ploughed, a great variety of instruments entirely
unknown in America are in common use here. They all consist of sets of
tines, or teeth, placed between a pair of wheels, and so attached to
them that, by means of a lever, having the axletree of the wheels for
a fulcrum, the depth to which they shall penetrate is regulated, and
they may at any time be raised entirely above the surface, dropping
and relieving themselves from the weeds and roots which they have
collected. Thus they may be described as combining the action of the
harrow, the cultivator, and the horse-rake. (The wire-tooth horse-rake
is used as an instrument of tillage by Judge Van Bergen, at Coxsackie,
N. Y.) They are designated variously by different manufacturers, as
grubbers, scarifiers, extirpators, harrows, and cultivators. The “ULEY
CULTIVATOR,” of which a cut is appended, is one of the simplest and
most efficient. In this the tines are raised by turning a crank, each
complete turn of which raises or depresses them one inch. The depth
to which they are penetrating at any time, is marked by a dial near
the handle of the crank. Something of the kind more effectual than any
thing we yet have, is much needed to be introduced with us. Clean and
thorough culture of stiff clay soils can hardly be performed without it.
[Illustration: THE ULEY CULTIVATOR]
I should remark of English agricultural implements in general, that
they seem to me very unnecessarily cumbrous and complicated.
I have lately had in use on my farm, a plough furnished me by A. B.
Allen & Co., of New York (“Ruggle’s Deep Tiller”), which, I think, has
all the advantages of the best English ploughs, with much less weight,
and which is sold at half their cost.