CHAPTER XXI

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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Another evil of the small farms (not exclusively, however), is the quantity of land injured or withdrawn from cultivation by the fences.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.

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