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soil of Ireland, and the climate does not appear to be superior. To the soil and climate, therefore, the Belgian does not own his superiority in comfort and position over the Irish cultivator. The difference is rather to be found in the system of cultivation pursued by the small farmers of Belgium, and in the habits of economy and forethought of the people. The cultivation of the small farms in Belgium differs from the Irish-1st, In the quantity of stall-fed stock which is kept, and by which a supply of manure is regularly secured; 2d, In the strict attention paid to the collecting of manure, which is most skilfully managed; 3d, By the adoption of a system of rotation of five, six, or seven successive crops, even on the smallest farms, which is in striking contrast with the plan of cropping and fallowing the land prevalent in Ireland.

In the farms of six acres, we found no plough, horse, or cart; the only agricultural implement, besides the spade, fork, and wheelbarrow, which we observed, was a light wooden harrow, which might be dragged by the hand. The farmer had no assistance besides that of his wife and children, excepting sometimes in harvest, when we found he occasionally obtained the assistance of a neighbour, or hired a labourer at a franc per day. The whole of the land is dug with the spade, and trenched very deep; but as the soil is light, the labour of digging is not great. The stock on the small farms which we examined, consisted of a couple of cows, a calf or two, one or two pigs, sometimes a goat or two, and some poultry. The cows are altogether stall-fed on straw, turnips, clover, rye, vetches, carrots, potatoes, and a kind of soup made by boiling up potatoes, peas, beans, bran, cut hay, &c., into one mess, and which, being given warm, is said to be very wholesome, and to promote the secretion of milk. In some districts the grains of the breweries and distilleries are used for the cattle; and the failure of the Belgian distilleries has been reckoned a calamity to the agriculture of the country, on account of the loss of the supply of manure which was produced by the cattle fed in the stalls of these establishments.

The success of the Belgian farmer depends mainly upon the number of cattle which he can maintain by the produce of his land, the general lightness of the soil rendering the constant application of manure absolutely necessary to the production of a crop. The attention of the cultivator is always, therefore, especially directed to obtain a supply of manure. Some small farmers, with this view, agree with a sheep-dealer to find stall-room and straw for his sheep, to attend to them, and to furnish fodder at the market price, on condition of retaining the dung. The small farmer collects in his stable, in a fosse lined with bricks, the dung and moisture of his cattle. He buys sufficient lime to mingle with the scourings of his ditches, and with the decayed leaves, potato-tops, &c., which he is careful to collect, in order to enrich his compost, which is dug over two or three times in the course of the winter. No portion of the farm is allowed to lie fallow, but it is divided into six or seven small plots, on each of which a system of rotation is adopted; and thus, with the aid of manure, the powers of the soil are maintained unexhausted, in a state of constant activity. The order of succession in the crops is various; but we observed on the six-acre farms which we visited, plots appropriated to potatoes, wheat, barley, clover (which had been sown with the preceding year's barley), flax, carrots, turnips or parsnips, vetches, and rye, for immediate use as green food for cattle. The flax grown is heckled and spun by the farmer's wife, chiefly during the winter ; and we were told that three weeks' labour at the loom towards the spring enabled them to weave into cloth all the thread thus prepared. The weavers are generally a distinct class from the small farmers, though the labourers chiefly supported by the loom commonly occupied about an acre of land, sometimes more, their labour upon the land alternating with their work at the loom. In some districts, we were informed, every gradation in the

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extent of occupancy, from a quarter or half an acre to the six-acre farm, is to be found; and in such cases more work is done in the loom by the smaller occupiers.

The labour of the field, the management of the cattle, the preparation of manure, the regulating the rotation of crops, and the necessity of carrying a certain portion of the produce to market, call for the constant exercise of industry, skill, and foresight, among the Belgian peasant-farmers; and to these qualities they add a rigid economy, habitual sobriety, and a contented spirit, which finds its chief gratification beneath the domestic roof, from which the father of the family rarely wanders in search of excitement abroad. It was most gratifying to observe the comfort displayed in the whole economy of the households of these small cultivators, and the respectability in which they lived. As far as I could learn, there was no tendency to the subdivision of the small holdings. I heard of none under five acres held by the class of peasant-farmers; and six, seven, or eight acres, is the most common size. The provident habits of these small farmers enables them to maintain a high standard of comfort, and is necessarily opposed to such subdivision. Their mar riages are not contracted so early as in Ireland, and the consequent struggle for subsistence among their offspring does not exist. The proprietors of the sol retain the free and unrestricted disposal of their property, whether divided into smaller or larger holdings. The common rent of land is about 20s. an acre, and the usual rate of wages for a day labourer is a frame (or 10d.) a-day.

A small occupier, whose farm we examined near Ghent, paid 225 francs per annum for about two bonniers, or six acres, of land, with a comfortable house, stabling, and other offices attached, all very good of their kind; this makes the rent (reckoning the frane at 10d.) equal to £9, 7s. 6d. sterling per annum; and if we allow £3, 7s. 6d. for the rent of the house, stabling, and other offices, there will be £6, or £1 per acre for the land, which accords with the information we obtained at Antwerp, Brussels, and other places, as to the rent of land in the flat country, the soil of which is generally of the same quality throughout. This farmer had a wife and five children, and appeared to live in much comfort. He owed little or nothing, he said; but he had no capital beyond that employed on his farm. We questioned him respecting his resources i case of sickness. He replied, that if he were ill, and if his illness were severe and of long duration, it would press heavily upon him, because it would interrupt the whole farm-work; and in order to provide for his family and to pay the doctor, he feared he should be obliged to sell part of his stock. If his wife and family were long ill, and he retained his strength, the doctor would give him credit, and he should be able to pay him by degrees in the course of a year or two. The thought of applying for assistance in any quarter ap peared never to have entered his mind. We suggested that the Bureau de Bienfaisance, or charitable individuals, might afford him aid in such a difficulty; but, with evident marks of surprise at the suggestion, be replied cheerfully that he must take care of himself If a sick club or benefit society were established among these people, so as to enable them by mutual assurance to provide for the casualty of sickness, the chief source of suffering to their families would be obviated, and there would be little left to wish for or amend in their social condition."

Comparative Value of Spade Husbandry.

It is, we believe, an indisputable fact, that a garden produces heavier crops, space for space, than a field under ordinary culture with the plough." In regard to difference of produce, an experiment was tried in the neighbourhood of Hamilton, expressly to ascertain that point. A field was taken, which had been cropped with beans the preceding year, and the previous year with oats. Two ridges were dug, and two ploughed

alternately, and the whole was sown on the same day. A part both of the ploughed and dug was drilled with the garden-hoe. The whole was reaped the same day, and being thrashed out, the result was, that the dug land sown broadcast, was to the ploughed sown broadcast as fifty-five bushels to forty-two; while the dug and drilled was as twenty and a quarter bushels to twelve and a quarter upon the ploughed and drilled. The additional grain produced was not the only beneficial result gained by digging; for in this instance there was also a great deal of straw, and the land was much more free of weeds, and more easily cultivated next year."-Sir John Sinclair's Code of Agriculture.

Some soils, however, are unsuitable for spade husbandry; as, for instance, heavy wet lands liable to inundation; stony, gravelly, or shallow soils, more especially if incumbent on chalk. Manual labour is also inapplicable where the climate is precarious, and it is necessary to be expeditious in tilling the land, and in sowing and harrowing for a crop. On these accounts, spade husbandry cannot be universally resorted to with advantage either to the culturist or the community. With respect to its economy, where it is available, there are two questions.

First, Whether the cottage farmer with his six acres can raise as much produce, and at as cheap a rate, as the capitalist can from any given six acres on his farm? If he cannot raise so much at so cheap a price, and cannot pay the same proportion of rent, cottage farming is decidedly injurious to the community; but if he can compete on all these points, there can be no solid objection against the practice. From the foregoing evidence of Sir John Sinclair, and from what is known respecting spade husbandry in Belgium and some other continental states, it is placed beyond a doubt that more produce is raised for human subsistence-space, soil, and climate being equal-by small farmers using only manual labour, than by large farmers with horses and ploughs; and it is certain that the produce is always more accessible to the public than that of large farmers, who, by means of their capital, which is very frequently not their own, but borrowed from banks, can hold themselves indifferent respecting sales, till, by a fortunate contingency, the prices rise and become highly remunerative.

Second, How far is spade husbandry available in the shape of paid labour to the capitalist farmer? We are unable to answer this question from our own experience, and therefore refer to a paper written by a competent authority on the subject. This is an essay by Mr Archibald Scott of Southfield, near Haddington, who obtained a prize of L.100, which the Rev. C. Gardiner, a clergyman of the church of England, had proposed to grant for the best plan of giving employment to the poor.

"I am quite convinced," proceeds Mr Scott, "there 18 but one way of employing the surplus population of England and Ireland, and that is by a judicious introduction of spade husbandry.

To show that I am not a mere theorist, but a practical man, I may mention that I rent a farm from the Earl of Wemyss in East Lothian, consisting of 530 Scotch acres; that I have cultivated land to a considerable extent with the spade for the last three years, and that the result has exceeded my most sanguine expectations. In 1831, I determined to ascertain the difference of the expense and produce between trenching land with the spade and summer fallowing with the plough in the usual way: I therefore trenched thirteen acres of my summer fallow-break in the months of June and July; I found the soil about fourteen inches deep, and I turned it completely over, thereby putting up a clean and fresh soil in the room of the foul and exhausted mould, which I was careful to put at the bottom of the trench: this operation I found cost about £4, 10s. per Scotch aere, paying my labourers with 1s. 6d. per day. The rest of the field, which consisted of nine acres, I wrought with the plough in the usual way, giving it six furrows, with the suitable harrowing. I manured the

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I now saw, that though it might be difficult to trench over my fallow-break during the summer months, it was by no means making the most of the system, as the operation was not only more expensive, owing to the land being hard and dry during the summer, but that it was a useless waste of time to take a whole year to perform an operation that could be as well done in a few weeks, provided labourers could be had; and as in all agricultural operations losing time is losing money, as the rent must be paid whether the land is carrying a crop or not, so that in taking one year to fallow the land, and another to grow the crop, two years' rent must be charged against the crop, or at least there must be a rent charged against the rotation of crops for the year the land was fallow. As I felt satisfied that, by trenching with the spade, the land would derive all the advantages of a summer fallowing, and avoid all the disadvantages attending it, I determined on trenching thirty-four acres of my fallow-break immediately on the crop being removed from the ground, and had it sown with wheat by the middle of November 1832. I may here remark, that I did not apply any manure, as I thought the former crop was injured by being too bulky. As it is now threshed out and disposed of, the crop per acre stands as follows:

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The advantages of trenching over summer fallow are, in my opinion, very decided, as it is not only cheaper, but, as far as I can yet judge, much more effectual. Í am so satisfied of this, not only from the experiments above noticed, but from the apparent condition of the land after it has carried the crop, that I have this autumn cultivated about a hundred acres with the spade, and the crops at present are very promising. When I first commenced, I was laughed at by my neighbours, but now when they see me persevering in what they considered a very chimerical project, they are suspending their judgment, and several of them have made considerable experiments this year. I should think there are at least 250 acres under crop cultivated in this way this season in East Lothian; in 1831, the year I commenced, there was not a single acre. I have therefore the satisfaction of knowing that I have been the means of causing £1000 to be spent this year amongst the labouring classes in my immediate neighbourhood; and I feel confident, that should the season turn out favourable for the wheat crop, and fair prices obtained, their employers will be handsomely remunerated for their outlay. I do not say that this system will succeed in every description of soil, as it must

necessarily be of some depth to admit of the operation; | but there are few districts where such soil will not be found in sufficient abundance to give ample employment to the surplus population of the neighbourhood. Now, this is going on in a county where agricultural labourers are better employed than almost any other in Great Britain. The system was not introduced, nor is it persevered in, for the purpose of giving employment to the poor, but entirely for the benefit of the employer. The East Lothian Agricultural Society are now offering premiums for the most satisfactory reports on the subject. I last year received a medal from the High-repeat, that if these latter remarks possess any accu land Society of Scotland for introducing the system; and, what I value still more, I received a piece of plate from the labourers I employed, as a token of their gratitude. The system, I admit, is only in its infancy, but I have this year put it completely to the test; and should it succeed as well as it has done hitherto, it must take root and spread over the kingdom; and the landed interest in those districts of England where the poor-laws are so oppressive, and still more, the Irish proprietors, will do well to investigate the system, and have it introduced with the least possible delay, that what is now a burden on their estates may become a source of wealth, and what is now a curse may become a blessing.

one department of labour. Time is money to a farmer; let him lose a week in a critical season, and the de may be highly injurious to him in many respects, Promptitude and dispatch are essential to his com. pletion of farm labours at the proper times: without the aid which improved machinery affords him, it would be utterly impossible for him to get through his work in due course. Let him abandon the more rapid y working plough, and take the tedious spade, and he wi soon heartily regret his exchange. After what we have premised on this subject, it is almost superfluous to racy at all, they are merely true in their application to large farmers, and not intended by any means to affect the subject as it is connected with the cottier or smal farmer, who has rarely any capital but his labour, and needs no other if he be suffered to use it freely a 1 fairly.' What is the limit, then, to the capital of h labour? What sized farm should he have that wil make it the most productive? Why, the exact amours, and no more, to which he can apply all his capital. Has he a family, he may then have more capital of labour a bestow by their assistance; consequently a larger all ment will be needed to employ all the capital of more extended labour. If he be single, then less, of course, will suffice."

This system, if it succeed to my expectation, posses. The only point that remains to be settled is one con ses all the requisites you require; it furnishes employ- nected with political economy. It is alleged by the ment for the surplus population by substituting manual leading political economists of England, that cottage labour for that of horses and certainly, if there is a farming (see article Cottage System in the Encyclopa 1. lack of food for both, it is desirable that the one should Britannica), while calculated to promote the growth give place to the other. It will make bread plenty, as a population of paupers, is only distracting mana the naked summer fallows of Great Britain will be co- labour from its proper field of employment. But th vered with grain instead of lying waste for a season; it allegation proceeds on an unproved assumption. If will render corn laws unnecessary, as we will be then could be shown that every able-bodied man could mai independent of foreign supplies; farmers will be en- five shillings a-day by working as a weaver, at a fe riched who are enterprising and industrious, and they tory, or any other branch of labour, the assertion wi only deserve to be so; it will raise rents, by increasing in part be correct; but such is not the case. There the capabilities of the soil, enabling the farmer to cul- are countries in which remunerative employment car tivate wheat to double the present extent; it will raise not be permanently had, and in such situations-t up a home-market for our manufactures, as the paupers, which society in England seems advancing-the choice who are at present starving, or living a burden on the is in a great measure between spade husbandry an! parish, will find employment, and thereby be enabled starvation, not between spade husbandry and weli-¡1.1 to procure the necessaries and comforts of life; it will employment. Besides, the political economist entire y check the poor-laws, as there will then be none but the overlooks the fact, that the cottage-farmer derives aged and the helpless dependent on parochial aid." immense advantages from the labour of his wife an children, not one of whom, most likely, would be a to earn a penny at any kind of labour in towns. is by calling up these engines to assist him that b can outdo the large farmer with all his capital and machinery-a fact distinctly proved, at least as respect the keeping of cows and selling their produce; joint-stock company of cowkeepers being able to cu pete with the miscellaneous and unmarketable labo of a humble dairyman and his family. As to the su gation that cottage-farming would cause a deteriorate in society, it is also founded on narrow views. In sax parts of the canton of Vaud and elsewhere in Switzerland, where the farms are all small, and mostly wrough by their proprietors, there is no pauperism worthy of the name, no overplus population; and who wo compare the orderliness of manners, the sobriety an thriftiness of the people, and the small amount of cr in that country, with the vice, intemperance, poverty, for which England and Scotland, with all the large and splendid farms, are now becoming unhapp! distinguished? It might be difficult to prove that larg farms have been, in any material degree, the cause of the social evils now exciting so much attention; but 4 is clear that they have not prevented those evis Without going so far as to say that cottage-farming would furnish a universal remedy, we think that, inde pendently of its use in increasing the productive sur face of the country, it would at least afford some rele and add to that section of the population which is st in a healthful moral condition."

Stronger testimony in favour of spade husbandry could not well be adduced, but we doubt its being generally practised with success in the ordinary routine of agriculture. It seems to be best suited for mere cottage farming, in which the labour is of little exchangeable value. Referring to this point, the Rev. Mr Hickey (Martin Doyle), in his Cyclopædia of Practical Husbandry, observes —“On even an extensive scale of farming, we recommend spade husbandry in potato or cabbage culture, but not for general crops. However gratifying to the benevolence of an individual farmer it may be to employ a vast number of men to dig his land in preference to the usual course of plough and horse-labour, he must consider that there is a limit beyond which he cannot multiply his labourers without occasional inconvenience and perplexity to himself, and without unceasing superintendence. Should any of the numerous causes which may occasion a change of occupiers on a given farm, or a change of system occur, what is to become of the numerous families collected by an individual who has largely introduced the practice of manual labour, and confined his operations to that system alone? What is to become of an excessive population of agricultural labourers, if their services be no longer required by the successor of the spade-husbandry farmer? If any one replies, Oh, let the system be generally introduced, and there can be no danger of their want of employment somewhere,' the answer is plain. If you substitute the spade for the plough to such an extent, you aise the price of labourers beyond what you can afford ay, and you diminish the chances of success in your al farm operations, by giving up too much time to

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there may be supposed to be an arbour or summer- | ber and melon pits, partially secluded by bushes. In house, overhung with trailing plants and honeysuckle, and fitted up according to taste.

The regular walks in all moderately sized gardens should be not wider than three feet; any thing wider is a mere loss of ground. Much care is required to keep walks in order, for they are very liable to show crops of weeds and grass; but the best remedy is to bottom the walks well with broken cinders from a coal fire; this effectually prevents worms coming up, and also stops the growth of weeds. Over a smooth bed of cinders, put a layer of small gravel that will bind, or, failing this, a layer of brayed yellow ashes from a furnace, if they can be procured. Smooth all with the rake, and flatten with a roller. Many small flowering plants, such as daisies and thrift, are used for edgings to walks; but if not constantly attended to, they straggle over the borders. The most effectual and also the prettiest edging is dwarf box. It is easily set in an even row, grows regularly, requires little trouble in trimming-for it should not be always close shaved-and, summer and winter, is ever fresh and green.

No precise directions can be given respecting garden tools and apparatus; the following are the articles required in moderately sized gardens of a mixed kind:Spades of three sizes, a trowel for lifting flowers, Dutch and common hoes, a broad iron rake, a rake with short teeth for the walks, a small rake for flower borders, a strong clasp-knife for pruning, a pair of strong pruning shears, an axe, a hand-saw, a hammer and nails (those made of zinc are best), a wheelbarrow, a wooden scuttle for carrying a little earth or manure, a roller, a pair of large compasses, a dibble and line, a watering pot, | and a ladder. Flower pots of different sizes, conical earthenware blanching pots, bell-hand glasses, and glazed frames of different sizes. These frames are among the most serviceable parts of a garden apparatus, and may be had either in one piece or with a moveable top, as in fig. 2. A neat small kind, framed in zinc, useful for protecting early seedlings or flowers, may be had in London for 1s. 6d. each. Other utensils employed by garden

Fig. 2.

ers, such as forcing pumps to wash wall trees, fumigating bellows, &c., need not be particularised. A person possessing only a small garden will shortly discover by experience what are the articles required in his operations. For gardens in which cucumbers and melons are to be grown, glazed frames and brick-built pits will be necessary. It is a great advantage for every garden to have a command of good fresh water for the purpose of irrigation, and also a small pond in which aquatic plants can be grown. If water is procured from a pump-well, it should be allowed to stand in the open air in a trough for at least a day, before being poured on the plants.

A garden is in all cases laid out according to the taste or fancy of the proprietor; but there are certain general rules which all follow. The wall is reserved for fruit trees. As fruit trees require much air and sun, the borders must not be clogged up with bushes, peas, or any other tall vegetables. The borders should contain only small articles which are delved up yearly; because the soil at the roots of the trees requires occasional renewal and loosening, and these operations cannot be done if the ground is encumbered with permanent plants. If a row of gooseberry or other small fruit bushes be placed on the borders, they should be near the outside, and not less than ten feet apart.

The body of the garden within the walks is laid out in larger or smaller plots, according to taste. These plots are generally oblong, and are subdivided into sections, rows, or beds for the different kinds of kitchen vegetables. In the corner of one plot are the cucum- |

different corners are plots, and round the edgings are the flower parterres, disposed to meet the eye, and to be easily accessible from the walks. In some gardens, much of the ground is overshadowed by fruit trees. This is seriously detrimental to the growth of the plants beneath, exhausts the soil, and prevents the proper flowering and fructification of every vegetable within reach. Permit no tree to overshadow your ground; the only allowable places for trees are the walls and narrow espaliers running up one side of the central plots. When a garden possesses the addition of an outside strip, enclosed by a hedge, the exterior sides of the walls may be lined with fruit trees, and the ground laid out for potatoes and other common classes of vegetables; it will also afford the most proper site for compost dung-heaps and forcing pits.

SOIL-DIGGING-COMPOST.

The soil of a garden should be deep, rich, and easily penetrable. Whatever it may have been originally, the soil admits of vast improvement, and no trouble can be considered too great to bring it into a good condition. If shallow, trench it according to the plan mentioned in the previous sheet on Spade Husbandry, so as to loosen the subsoil, and gradually bring it into operation above. In many instances the soil is too stiff or clayey. Such a soil may not be unfit for plough husbandry, but is out of place in a garden. The method of loosening and meliorating a clayey soil is to give it a large volume of sand and vegetable manure, which may be delved in at the winter digging, and, at the spring digging, the new and old materials will be well mixed. In general, far too little attention is paid to giving sand as a restorative; such is absolutely necessary in all soils but those of a very sandy nature, because every crop actually carries away a certain proportion of the silica lodged in the soil. If the soil be already too sandy, it may be assisted by clay, mud from ditches, &c. What ever be the nature of the soil, it should be thoroughly pulverised. Lumps thrown up by digging at the commencement of winter are meliorated by the frost, and have imbibed nutritious gases from the atmosphere. In spring all should be well delved, dashing every spadeful as it is turned down, and leaving no hard part impervious to the tender roots of the vegetables. A garden should not contain a single stone the size of a boy's marble. Every particle of soil should be capable of doing duty in feeding the plants. It will save much future trouble in lifting stones by the hand, if you would begin by putting every spadeful of mould through a sieve. Persons owning small gardens ought to pay particular attention to this. A working man having only a small patch for his amusement at leisure hours and holidays, could not do any thing more serviceable than to trench his ground bit by bit, and riddle every part of it as he proceeds.

No garden can be conducted with the least advantage without giving it a regular manuring. If you hunger a garden, it will hunger you in return. In connexion with every rightly-managed garden, there must either be a compost heap, in which dung is preparing for use, or there must be some means of readily purchasing old manure when it is required. The manures employed are the same as in agriculture (see article on that subject), but being required for a more delicate purpose, they must in general be well rotted and ready to unite with the soil. A compost dung-heap is prepared by putting alternate layers of stable dung, or night soil, &c. with earth, weeds, and general offal of vegetation-turning the whole occasionally till the mass appears to be ready for use. A small quantity of this stuff will often be required to place at the roots of plants.

The practice of professional gardeners as respects composts, may be learned from the following brief notice in the "Encyclopædia of Gardening :"-" Composts for particular plants may be reduced to light sandy loam from old pastures; strong loam, approaching nearly to brick earth, from the same source; peat earth, from the

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