THE BEST HOME MARKET.--The _Norwich Mercury_ of last Saturday contains
no less than seventy advertisements relating to the sale of farming
stock; and a majority of these are cases in which the tenant of the farm
on which a sale is announced is described as one "quitting the
occupation," or "retiring from business." We should like to know how
many of those parties have managed to amass a fortune, or even to
acquire a moderate competency, under that protective system which, as
they have always been taught to believe, was devised for their especial
benefit. From the ominous newspaper paragraphs, announcing the
liberality of landlords to their tenants, which have lately become so
numerous, we rather suspect that most of those farmers who are retiring
from business do so to avoid greater evils. It is worthy of remark,
however, that, amidst all this agricultural depression, which has now
lasted some twelve months at least, the "home trade"--which the
advocates of the corn law always describe as entirely dependent on the
farmers obtaining high prices for their grain--is in a healthier state
than it has been for several years past. The _Standard_ lately stated,
on the authority of a Mr Spackman, that the United Kingdom contained
20,500,000 individuals dependent on agriculture, and only 6,500,000
individuals dependent on manufactures; and, as we have frequently seen
the same absurd statement brought forward at farmers' clubs as
"agricultural statistics," it is possible enough that many persons may
have been led to believe it. Those who do so, however, would find it
rather difficult to explain, under such a division of the population,
the fact, that during four or five years of high prices, which the Duke
of Buckingham designated "agricultural prosperity," the 20,500,000 souls
should have been unable to create a brisk demand for manufactures; while
a single year of cheap provisions has done so much to improve trade, and
relieve the pressure from the shoulders of the labouring classes. Who
that looks at these two facts can have the slightest doubt in his mind
as to what it is that makes the best home market?--_Manchester
Guardian._
CURIOUS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT.--The following novel and interesting
experiment has lately been successfully made by Mr A. Palmer, of Cheam,
Surrey:--In July, 1842, he put one grain of wheat in a common
garden-pot. In August the same was divided into four plants, which in
three weeks were again divided into twelve plants. In September these
twelve plants were divided into thirty-two, which in November were
divided into fifty plants, and then placed in open ground. In July,
1843, twelve of the plants failed, but the remaining thirty-eight were
healthy. On the 19th August they were cut down, and counted 1,972 stems,
with an average of fifty grains to a stem, giving an increase of 98,600.
Now, if this be a practicable measure of planting wheat, it follows that
most of the grain now used for seed may be saved, and will infinitely
more than cover the extra expense of sowing, as the wheat plants can be
raised by the labourer in his garden, his wife and children being
employed in dividing and transplanting them. One of the stems was rather
more than six feet long, and stout in proportion.
CULTIVATION OF WASTE LANDS.--EMPLOYMENT OF LABOURERS.--A paper was
recently laid before the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, by Lord Portman, which we think deserves a much greater degree
of attention than we believe it has yet received, in that it shows to
what a considerable extent waste lands may, without any very heavy
expenditure of money, be brought into profitable cultivation, and at the
same time, under a well-regulated system of spade husbandry, yield
abundant employment to agricultural labourers and their families. The
following is the substance of the document referred to:--His lordship,
who has large estates in Dorsetshire, found that a tract of land, called
Shepherd's Corner, about 200 acres in extent, was wholly unproductive,
yielding a nominal rent of 2s. 6d. per acre. About fifteen years ago his
lordship resolved to make an experiment with this land. He accordingly
gave directions to his steward that it should be laid out in six
divisions, representing so many small farms, in the cultivation of which
such of the labourers as could not obtain full work from the
neighbouring farmers were occasionally employed. For the three first
years there were no returns, the ground having been merely broken up
with the spade, and the surface soil exposed. In subsequent years this
land was sown chiefly with turnips, fed off by sheep, until it was found
in sufficient heart for the reception of grass and corn seeds, the
crops from which were at first scanty and indifferent, but sufficient,
however, to pay for cultivation. At the expiration of fifteen years the
expenditure upon the whole, inclusive of allowance for rent, at the
original rate of 2s. 6d. per acre, together with all charges on account
of tithes and taxes, amounted to a little more than 10,000_l._; the
returns by crops sold and sheep fed exceeding that sum by 88_l._,
independent of the crops now in the ground, which will come to the
landlord in September. This may appear to be an inadequate return for
the fifteen years' experiment; but, as Lord Portman justly observes, "as
a farmer he has lost nothing, whilst as landlord he is a considerable
gainer, the land being now fully equal to any of the neighbouring
farms." Two objects, both of great importance, have thus been obtained.
These 200 acres have been fertilized, which would otherwise have been of
no present or prospective value; and in the process of cultivation
employment has, during that long period, been provided for several
hundreds of labourers who, but for that resource, must, at some seasons
at least, have become a burden to the parish.