In proceeding with our Cornish examination, let us first travel from Penzance towards the far west before we turn towards the most suotherly point of England. In the nine or ten miles between this town and the Lands-end, various interesting scenes present themselves. During the first two or three miles the country is well wooded, the hedgerows crowded with ferns and the ordinary hedge plants, the little vallies deep, the root crops excellent. The traveller, however, soon begins to ascend the high table land which rests on the noble granite formation of the Lands-end, and here the farming becomes rather primitive. The fields are now mostly in pasturage. but are very productive, commanding in many places a rent of 60s. per acre. The holdings, however, like the fields, are small, commonly consisting of not more than from ten to thirty acres, and seldom more than one hundred or one hundred and thirty; these have a thin but very fertile soil, composed of the decomposed granite, a rock which commonly is so close to the surface that it frequently protrudes through the soil in large blocks, which defy all the farmer's efforts to remove them. These granite rocks are not always composed of one piece: they are often divided by large fractures into layers. It was very close to one of these great heaps of stones, each weighing perhaps from five to twenty tons, that at the Lands end I found the house of a little farmer placed. In remarking to his good housewife upon the shelter from the wind thus afforded to her dwelling by these rocks, she complained sorely, not only of the way in which the eddies of wind they caused made her kitchen fire smoke, but of the inattention of her lord and master to all her requests to remove these huge eddycausing blocks of granite. Granite in the neighbourhood of the Lands-end forms the chief building material; here you find granite houses granite homesteads,granite fences. It is this which forms the flooring of their houses, this which closes the openings into their fields. As granite is worked only by considerable labour, the builder naturally bestows as little upon it as he can possibly avoid. The large size and roughness, of outline of the blocks of stone which are displayed in some of these houses and walls, would astonish some of my neighbours in the county of Surrey. These walls are, in fact, often formed of blocks of granite either placed like posts upright in the ground, or piled without any mortar one upon another, their mere weight enabling them to maintain their position against the attacks of the cattle. Perfectly free from soil, however, as are these piles of stone, for they are kept clear of decomposing matters by the driving rains of this elevated Peninsula, still, from between the interstices of these over-lapping blocks the little wall pennywort (Cotyledon umbilicus) establishes itself, its little circular succulent leaves vigrously creeping out in all directions. At the extreme point of the Land's End, about halfa-mile in breadth of uncultivated land encircles the cape. This long belt is chiefly tenanted by the furze, heath, and mosses which grow amidst the protruding granite rocks. It is in a little glen of this strip of heath land that we find a comfortable little cottage and outbuilding, which form the most westerly homestead of England. This is surrounded by a little farm of not more than six acres, which has been gradually enclosed from the waste, is supplied with water by a little streamlet, supports a horse and a cow or two, which are fed with the grass in summer, and rough hay and unthrashed oats in winter. The land is divided into six or seven little fields, and is held on lease at only about 60s. a-year. It might interest, and deeply too, some of our great modern agriculturists from fertile diluvial soils to behold this most primitive of little farms; its rude, healthy, yet modest appearance; all its inmates, like its own huge granite cliffs, so simple, yet so bright. Such a visitor when he looks over these deep, picturesque cliffs which have ever stood as our island's breast work against the rolling surges of the Atlantic, will feel mingled sensations of admiration and gratitude. In travelling from Penzance round the eastern side of Mounts Bay to Helstone, and thence to the Lizard, we cross the soils of the Serpentine. Here we find a large extent of uncultivated, undrained land. On these wild moors we find the dwarf furze, the Cornish heath (Erica vagans) peculiar to the Serpentine, the cross-leaved heath, and the common fine-leaved heath, and the heather. From the vigour with which these wild plants grow I am led to conclude that the soils resting on the Serpentine rock might be rendered, by drainage, and perhaps by dressing with mineral and organic manure, far more profitable to their owners than at present. It was when descending the deep ravine that leads to Kinancecove, that my guide pointed out some hill-side heath land that is now let for about 1s. an acre. The visitor to this romantic cove, environed by its dark red-tinged Serpentine cliffs and wildly insulated rocks, will feel well repaid for all the labour of his pilgrimage. Let him select, if he can, a bright sunny day, with a stiff westerly breeze, and then he will behold a scene of noble blue waves foaming against these huge Serpentine rocks, worth all the pains he has taken to reach this remote portion of our sland. Let him not fear lest he shall not meet with a welcome inn, for just at the Lizard Point he will find a comfortable little hostelry, whose mistress, Mrs. Skewes, will make him feel at home before he has fairly taken his seat under her roof. Sea-sand and the weeds left on the shore by the waves are largely used as dressings in the Penzance districts. The avidity with which the cultivators in this neighbourhood collect from the shores of Mount's Bay the sea-weed, is well worthy our attention. On my arrival, a brisk south-easterly wind was driving the weeds in considerable quantities on the shore between Penzance and the village of Newlyn, and as the tide receded, there were several men employed in raking the weeds together into heaps, others in loading carts, whose contents were either directly mixed with farmmanure, or deposited for a while on the shore out of the reach of the sea. The cultivators of the neighbourbood employ these weeds as manure, either in their fresh state, or mixed with ordinary dung, and they naturally enough seemed rather surprised to be told that sea weeds or "tang" were deemed by the farmers. of some districts of eastern England to possess but little fertilizing power. The saline weeds are used, as I have described, mixed with the weeds and the other rubbish gathered off the surface of the land, a compost which, after being turned over once or twice, forms a good dressing. If, however, neither dung or these rakings are available, they apply these sea weeds in their green state, turning them into the soil when In returning from the far west, the tourist will bring with him mingled feelings of pleasure and instruction. The grandeur of the cliffs of the serpentine and the granite, the lovely wooded vallies of Cornwall and Devon, will long dwell in his remembrance; he will reflect that it was amidst such scenery that some of England's noblest children were bred; that it was here that the Devon and Cornish sailors, led on by Drake and Howard, made England's first onslaught on the Spanish Armada; that here was bred Pellew and Keats, and other gallant modern sailors, who have stood well by their country on many a glorious day. Here, indeed, are nurseries of seamen worthy of our country. Let my reader, during his pilgrimage, make a detour to Torbay; let him take a glance at Brixham, the St. Ives, and the Newlyn fishermen, and he will need no explanation where England's ablebodied seamen are reared. And when he sees what capital roads are made of the broken granite and the limestone; the crops these formations are made to produce; to what a profitable use the sand, and the weeds of the sea shore are applied, he will, perchance, make sundry entries in his note-book, to which he may hereafter very profitably recur when he arrives at home, and is trying to improve better and far more easily cultivated soils. AUTUMN TILLAGE. BY A YOUNG NORFOLK FARMER. 1448 In farm practice it is impossible to draw out a code more harm than good. Of course, we are supposing of laws that will suit all soils and all climates. Prac- that the stubbles are clean, and that they do not require tical farmers know this, and, therefore, when they read tillage in the autumn for the purpose of eradicating of any novelty in their agricultural books and papers, root weeds. When land is foul it must be stirred some they consider well whether this new improvement or time or another in order to clean it, and the best time that fresh discovery is at all likely to be suited to their for doing this is certainly directly after harvest; not farms, before they venture much in any new dodge. only because it is the easiest time for eradicating and But some earnest and go-a-head men will have all the far-killing weeds, but also because a moist and firm seedmers to be constantly trying every fresh experiment, bed may be obtained for the root crop, which cannot and some are so unreasonable that they will have it that always be secured when land has to be cleaned in the it is useless to adopt an improvement, unless it be car- spring. ried out by one universal rule. The propagation of such arbitrary laws retards instead of pushes on agricultural improvements. For instance, the thin sower says, Never use more than one bushel of seed per acre; the drainer tells us to put all drains 4 feet deep; the steam-cultivator orders us to smash up all sorts of land some 10 or 12 inches deep; the autumn tiller advises us to stir, pull about, and thoroughly expose all descriptions of soils, in every climate. There is no doubt that autumn fallowing has done a great amount of good, and has perhaps conferred more universal benefit on agriculture than any improvement of our day. But to say that it is equally adapted for all lands is an absurdity. Some soils require exposure to the air, and there are others that are weakened and rendered more sterile by being over tilled in hot and dry weather. We are sure that the great majority of the light lands in East Anglia are among those soils that cannot bear exposure to a long autumn drought; and on such soils repeated stirrings in the fall of the year do Well; suppose a light-land stubbl is foul; there is no necessity, in order to clean it, to move more than 2 or 3 inches of the soil. By deeply smashing up such land there is much more difficulty in freeing the weeds from the mould and keeping them all on the s irface, and moreover the deep cultivation is positively injurious. Directly after harvest the rootlets of the couch g rass are close to the surface, and a good scarifier is bette⚫ than a plough for loosening their hold of the ground. Should the land be soft, almost any kind of broadshare, parer, or scarifier will do; but if it be hard and dry, nothing makes such perfect work as Coleman's scarifier. To complete this sort of tillage, the cultivator should, after the interval of a few days, cross its work, and then with some good harrowings all the root weeds will be on the surface of the land. No roll is ever needed on light land for autumn tillage; the chain harrows are far better, and will, in one operation, more thoroughly knock all the mould out of the fine grass, than half-a-dozen ordinary harrowings and rollings. And in a season like this, all the weeds so exposed will soon be rooted up, and the | is grown, the greatest fear is that its removal or conland is speedily, cheaply, and efficiently cleaned, and yet not injured by unnecessary exposure to the sun. It is the greatest mistake in the world to burn the stubble and grass, and it is also expensive and unnecessary to cart them off; let all the dead vegetable matter lie on the surface of the ground (giving it now and then a turn with the harrows); and when ploughed in, it will do as much good as a slight coat of manure. And even if the grass be not all dead, a good deep furrow with a skim-coulter will place it where its weakened vitality will soon be smothered, and in spring hardly a living bit of grass will be seen. But, suppose a light-land stubble is clean, or has only a few bunches of grass in it? those few knots are best forked out by hand. We are sure that all such stubbles are much better left undisturbed till they receive their winter furrow late in the year. The surface of such soils is invariably sufficiently fine and soft to receive and absorb all the beneficial influences of the heavy autumnal dews. Our experience, too, of other mixed soils not altogether light is decidedly against stirring them in autumn, with a view to increase their fertility; and we have invariably found that those stubbles which are not cultivated in the fall of the year are always more free from wireworms, and much kinder for a full plant of turnips. We must remember that light | soils delight rather in shade than sunshine. Should turnips fail on weak land, we have invariably found that no amount of artificial manure will make up the loss to the succeeding barley crop. And we contend that this is owing to the absence of the grateful shade of the turnip and the healthy consolidization of the friable soil by the sheep's feet. Now, stiff land rejoices in just an opposite treatment; clays cannot have too much sun, and always like a summer's fallow. And when a root-crop sumption may be productive of barm. It is on the retentive and heavy lands that deep autumn tillage and steam cultivation will work wonders; but it by no means follows that the system which will be beneficial to our clays should answer on sands and gravels. Soils that are so utterly dissimilar may require a totally different treatment; we believe that not only in tillage, but also in the application of manures. We believe that manuring light lands for the root crop in winter is a mistake. They have not the power to absorb and retain the soluble properties of the manure, and the heavy and oft-repeated rains of winter wash through the porous earth, and carry the most fertilizing gases with them deeply into the subsoil. In a recent number of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal there was a supposed cure for clover sickness. The remedy was easy, for it was merely to well-tread the seeds in the winter, and the plant would then in all probability stand. It was argued that there must be some truth in the proposed remedy, as clover hardly ever fails on a firm headland or near a well-trodden gateway. But in light-land Norfolk, where we perhaps suffer more from clover sickness than any other county, it has always been the custom, time out of mind, to stamp our young clovers with cattle and sheep in the autumn and winter. Of course we do not extend this treatment to heavy land, or to trefoils on any soils. Solidifying the ground certainly appears to agree with the clover; but as to its averting its disease and death, that is a fallacy. Treading may render the land so firm, that the clover probably flourishes better than it would in looser soil; but we never yet found that any amount of compression would prevent the plant falling away on land that was really clover sick. Michaelmas, 1862. PRIZE AGREEMENTS AND MODEL LEASES. All is not barren. Lord Lichfield has offered a premium for the best-drawn agreement, and Mr. Randell proposes a code of tenant-right for the Vale of Evesham. It is indeed remarkable how, amidst all the mere flow of words with which we have been inundated, the question of landlord and tenant has come to be considered. Let us not here be too nice in probing the cause which may have conduced to such a discussion, but rather let us commend the evident expansion of men's minds upon the subject. Term it as we may-security for capital-tenant-right-long leases or equitable covenants the farmer's position is in a fair way of being more properly recognized. We do not mean to say that the Government contemplates any especial act on his behalf. We do not know that the county member has any idea of doing anything more than he has done in this way; and we cannot speak to any organized movement amongst the tenantry themselves. Those, however, chiefly interested have begun to talk the matter over one with another, and landlords have now been the first to introduce such a topic. It is gratifying, moreover, to notice not only how people's ideas have developed, but with how little prejudice we can here in England bring ourselves to an unbiassed deliberation of the aim to be arrived at, and the means to be employed in its attainment. While we are bound down to no one peculiar panacea, in Ireland they run wild over their tenant right, and in Scotland they cling as doggedly to their leases. Either may work well enough under different habits and customs. The tenant-right flag-the system of equitable compensation-is one that we have fought under for more than twenty years. It stands, indeed, as one of our landmarks still at the head of this column, but we will not go to affirm, because the best-cultivated districts in England are farmed without leases, that leases are never needed; no more than we maintain that from the tenant-right principle being abused in some parts it should never be exercised elsewhere. There is happily more than one way to due liberty of action and security of position, and a man may be more hampered by a north-country lease than by a yearly agreement with remunerative covenants. Sir John Pakington put this well at Worcester: "He did not argue in favour of any particular form of lease; he did not even argue for any lease at all; he simply said, have security: whether that security was in the shape of a wellconsidered lease, or whether it was in the shape of a well-considered agreement for the repayment of the unexhausted amount of capital invested in the soil, was comparatively immaterial. The point he urged was, that they should have good security. If they wanted good farming, they must have good security; and they would not have, in that district or any other, where the year-to-year system prevailed, satisfactory farming, unless they got rid of occupations without security." This is straightforward sound common-sense reasoning, and we only hope that it will be fully acted on. Lord Lichfield was rather for the agreement: "He believed that where a landlord had a farm in bad condition, and re quired a considerable sum of money laying out upon it, if he was unable to expend the necessary amount, the best thing he could do was to grant a lease; but as long as he had it in his power to make the requisite improvements, he thought it better there should be no lease. But then the question arose, supposing there was no lease, should there be an agreement? He considered that they not only wanted agreements, but mutual agreements, which should prove equally beneficial to the landlord and the tenant; he meant agreements which should give ample security, both to the landlord that his land should undergo no depreciation in value, and to the tenant for compensation for unexhausted outlay upon it. With such an understanding, he entertained the firmest conviction that the land throughout the country would be better cultivated. When he ventured to advocate this view of the subject at Newcastle, the only answer he got was in effect that if confidence already existed between landlord and tenant you required no agreements. Well, all he could say with regard to that was simply this, that it was not practical at all; because he did not suppose anybody would tell him that every tenant was perfectly certain that he should always have a good landlord, or every landlord that he should have a good tenant." This is all very business-like, saving only that monstrously absurd commentary which his lordship's remarks actually elicited from a tenant farmer. It was Mr. Swaffield, who in some sensible second-rate suggestions as to a landlord keeping a good bull and so forth, declared that if a tenant had the confidence of his landlord, it was not required to tie him down to any agreement whatever! Only picture a man like Lord Lichfield, who wished to do right, having his offers met with such a cold-water welcome as this! Mr. Swaffield, who does not want any agreement, would appear to agree rather better with Lord Elmley, who does not seem very anxious to give one. "He should not go into the question of leases; but his own opinion was, that it was entirely a personal matter between a landlord and his tenant. The noble lord had referred to a system of arbitration, where the two contracting parties could not agree. He (Lord Elmley) did not know what it was in agriculture, but he was aware that in other things it was difficult to find men well qualified to judge. He supposed it to be the same in the agricultural as in the medical world. They knew that doctors did not agree;' and on the question to which the noble lord had alluded one person might consider a certain kind of cultivation to be good husbandry, while another might look upon it as the reverse, and he could not exactly see how matters were to be satisfactorily arranged between them." We are so far at variance with his lordship as to think that one of the most wholesome signs of the times in which we live is the readiness to discuss the question of landlord and tenant not " entirely as a personal matter," but one over which infinite good may be arrived at, if only in enlightening landlords as to what a system of arbitration may do for agriculture. The other noble lord here referred to is Lord Lyttelton, who gave a really admirable outline of what a model lease should be. His opinion was, that "where long leases were given there should be the least possible restriction put upon the processes of cultivation. It had been generally the custom for landlords when drawing up leases to believe that at the moment of doing so they were fully cognisant of what was and what would be for 14 or 21 years to come the very best system of cultivation for the land, and therefore a minute system of rotation of crops and other processes of agriculture was laid down in those leases. Every lease necessarily contained a great number of restric tions, but he thought they should not relate so much to a system of cultivation year after year as to the protection of the landlord against wilful waste or alteration of the character of his estate, such as changing it from arable to pasture, or vice versa. During the last three or four years of a lease, a tenant (if aware that he was about to leave) would perhaps be tempted to abandon the proper system of cultivation, and to exhaust the land so as to get all he could from it. To meet such a contingency it would always be necessary to lay down the most careful restrictions; but, as to the proper mode of cultivation from year to year, the less restriction was made the better. He had caused his own leases to be prepared on that plan, simply on the ground that agriculture was a progressive science. A landlord might be able to tell what in his opinion was good cultivation now, but how could he tell what it might be some fourteen or twenty-one years hence? He therefore had laid down in his leases no specific system of cultivation to be followed, but simply bound the tenant to the common rules of good husbandry for the time being. At any time, therefore, it would be open to the landlord to show that his farms were not being cultivated according to the rules of the existing mode of good husbandry, and open to the tenant to show the contrary. Such cases should be referred to competent private arbitration, and not be decided by inflexible and obsolete rules." We have certainly occasionally heard some farmers talk like this, but never more to the purpose; and we have read of such arguments in essays and reports, but this is the first time we can congratulate a landlord on volunteering so much, and pointing what he said with his own practice. All is not barren when we have such agreements as Lord Lichfield's, with compensation clauses as their great consideration; and leases like Lord Lyttelton's, where liberty of action is the first point insisted on. From all this we are more and more convinced that the great principle of right and justice for which this journal has so unceasingly and uncompromisingly contended is gradually extending, and never more gracefully than when, as in these cases, at the instance of the landlord himself. And two such examples, moreover, are the more happy and acceptable, as differing, in some slight degree, as to the means by which the principle should be upheld. It will be hard indeed if a farmer cannot do the best by his capital with such an agreement as that Lord Lichfield is anxious to obtain; and it will be equally strange if Lord Lyttelton's open lease should not work well. We want fresh agreements in the place of obsolete forms, or in the absence of any whatever; and the established lease as clearly requires remodelling. Both are effective enough when put into fair working order, while it is simply idle to attempt to set one up at the expense of the other. Perhaps in no other pursuit do the differences of custom and locality demand so much careful consideration; and if leases tell in the Lothians, tenant-right can show as much for Lincolnshire. SCOUR IN CATTLE.-I have proved the following cure for many years with great success: Mix friar's balsam, 3 oz.; spirits of turpentine, 2 oz.; linseed oil, 1 quart. Keep the cattle without food 12 hours before giving the medicine, observing to shake the bottle well. Give 14 tablespoonful to a lamb, two to a sheep, and three to a calf two mornings following, which in general will stop it, if not, stop one morning and repeat again. J. W. T., Dungarvan, October 22, 1862.-In Irish Farmer's Gazette. |