The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-07 00:00:00

of competition our Wheat grow woo vnt hive to-mekt:
and in moderately productive lIIMICOM they nay &i-
-odate on a price of from 455. to 30a. per quarter.
When the price is below that rate, it can only be
produced by greater abundance of the home growth.
And this, inlact, is the competition with which far-
mere who do not advance—farmers who from any
cause are compelled or content to follow an inferior
system of husbandry—will have to contend.
But will any good farmer assert that he cannot
grow wheat upon any land in this country now under
tillage, aye, and on wide tracts never yet tilled, at 45a.
per quarter ?
We do not say that, according to the system pur-
sued by the great body of farmers, they do now grow
wheat at such a cost that 455. a quarter will remu-
nerate them But that arises from two causes. First,

they rely too exclusively on grain as the source
of their profit; secondly, they occupy too much
land for the capital employed. Both these errors
may be traced to the system which grew up under
the high prices of the war, and the perpetuation of
that system attempted by the corn-laws. And it is
invariably found that, in proportionas farmers abandon
that erroneous system, they become prosperous. This
was forcibly statedby many of the witnesses examined
before the committee on agricultural distress in 1836,
of which the present Speaker of the House of Com-
mons was chairman, one of whom, Mr. TisoN, of
Norfolk, in answer to the question, " whether it
would be possible for farmers to grow wheat to any
extent at 40s. a quarter," said, " I know farmers,
young, enterprising, skilful men, who say they can
grow wheat at 40s. a quarter ; but those are young
men of skill and intelligence ; and the fact is, they
make their rent, or nearly so, by stock. The great
error of the old race of farmers is, that they go, as it is
called, to the barn-door for everything." It was abun-
dantly proved before that committee that no amount
of mere plodding industry, such as is the marked cha-
racteristic of our inferior farmers, can be any effective
substitute for skill and capital.
What was it that so long rendered Norfolk farming
proverbial for its superiority but the greater capital to
the acre employed ? In like manner, the Lincolnshire
and Northumberland farming, which is now ahead of
that in Norfolk, owes its advance entirely to the
extension of the system of stock feeding and liberal
applications of capital. Indeed, the enterprising
farmer who farms highly is the only one who makes
his business profitable. Mr. PCSEY, in his account of
"Agricultural Improvements of Lincolnshire," in the
4th volume of the Royal Agricultural Society's Jour-
nal, after describing the improvement of farms on
Lincoln Heath by liberal ontlays, says:

"Nor has the spiritod outlay on the pert of the farmers been with-
out Its return. The parish of Umber, 4,000 acne, was formerly let
to four tenants at 1232. each, or 2e. 6d. an acre, and all four became
bankrupts. It has been enclosed, is now well fanned, excepting what
has been planted, and at the present rent (2.55. per acre) the tenants
are clang well. In some instances considerable fortunes even have
been made. I mar ate the case of Mr. B. Dawson, well known In the
count , who occupied the entire parish of Wltheall, 1,600 acres of
plc ghed grotmd, with one barn at the homestead. He was one of
the gnu who ventured a heavy outlay upon his land ; his yearly bill
for bones alone was from 1,500/ to 1,11001. A friend who *eyed at
his house for three day. in ISIS, tells me that Mr. Dawson's manage.
meat was the very perfection of firming; and you might see a single
field of 650 acres in turnips. He died a few years since, and left a
large fortune."
- - - -

Mr. PUSEY also speaks of a farm in the same dis-
trict, of 1,000 acres, over which he went; on which
the tenant kept 110 beasts, and consumed eighty
tons of oilcake in the year, and also wintered 3,000
sheep on 250 acres of turnips. We could mention
various other instances of high farming which have
come ander our own observation, and we have always
remarked that the men who farm highest are the
most prosperous. It may be said that such a system
of high farming can only be carried out by men of
great capital and who farm upon a large scale; but
that is quite a mistake. It is no doubt true, that the
occupier of a large farm, provided he has a propor-
tionably ample capital, can work his business with
greater advantage than a smaller farmer. The com-
binations of labour, and the divisions of employ-
ment, are more complete on the large farm than
lon the small one. But the smaller farm, with a
larger proportion of capital, will prove more
profitable than a larger farm with less capital in
proportion is its extent. For instance, the occupier
of 300 acres, with a capital of 10/. per acre, will make
a larger net profit than the tenant of 500 acres with a
capital of 61. or 71. per acre. And if by diminishing
his occupation he could employ 121. or 15/. per acre,
we are convinced his profits would be increased.
When we look into the detail of farming operations,
the reason of this is plain enough. The farmer em-
ploying a comparatively large capital, grows a great
proportion of roots and green crops for the mainte-
nance of cattle and sheep, and in so doing he cleans
and brings his land into the best mechanical state
for producing grain; then he buys oil-cake or other
artificial food on which his stock is fed, together
with the roots and green food ; and thus plenty of
manure of good quality is at his command. Now,
land highly farmed produces at least one-third more
of grain to the acre than land only moderately
farmed; while the cost of the acts of husbandry, the
rent, the taxes, the labour, and the seed, is not greater,
perhaps, when the land is in thoroughly good condi-
tion ; indeed, in some respects, the cost is not so much
per acre in high as in inferior farming. There is a
greater net profit for the farmer than he would re-
ceive from the same amount of capital employed on a
larger area. This must therefore henceforth be the
main object of the farmer. Ile must disregard price,
and seek his profit from the quantity of his produce.
Nor does this imply any such change of tenantry, or
revolution in husbandry, as Protectionist alarmists
would have us believe. There has been for several
years past a change going on amongst the average
class of farmers in the direction we have indicated ;
and we are satisfied that there are arrangements to be
made between landlords and their present tenants,
even the poorest, by which their business would be-
come a far better source of livelihood than it has ever
yet been.

By the usual Peninsular mail packet arrived at
Southampton, we have advices from Gibraltar of
Aug. 27th ; Cadiz, 28th ; Lisbon, 30th ; Oporto, 31st ;
Vigo, Sept. 1; and Corunna, 2nd. The north of Por-
tugal is still in a disturbed state, but the capital and
Oporto were tranquil. An official account had been
received at Lisbon of the intended =triage of the
Queen of Spain. At Lisbon, too, a report prevailed
and was generally credited, that another movement
of Spanish troops, to the amount of 3,000, towards
the Portuguese frontiers, was about to take place.

We have received by express our private correspond-
ence and the Paris journals of Friday and Saturday.
The Chamber of Deputies, after a conversation on the
incendiary fires, and a debate without interest on the
electoral law and the elections, voted unanimously, on
Thursday, the address in answer to the King's speech.
There were only 231 votes recorded, the Opposition
deputies having refrained from voting.
The Minister of the Interior made the following
remarks on the incendiary fires :
" I am of opinion that, of the numerous fires which have
troubled certain departments, many are not to be imputed
to malevolence, nor to criminal causes.
"As to criminal causes, justice and the police, which have
been so violently attacked just now, have done all in their
power to detect them; but it is not easy to do this, or to dis-
cover the truth. For my part, I see much danger in discuss-
ing the facts, and in presenting them under the form most
likely to disturb the public mind, as has been done, unfor-
tunately, by some journals. You are all aware what popular
uneasiness is, uneasiness often destitute of common sense, but
still it must be calmed, and especial care should be taken not to
excite or inflame it. Justice is at work, and occupied in dis-
covering the guilty. As to the police, is it true, as has been
asserted, that, absorbed in politics, it has incited the interests
of society in reference to these fires ? Gentlemen, Ido not
hesitate to give this assertion the most unequivocal denial.
The police as constantlT on the alert, and uses every possible
means to detect the guilty ; but you know from cape lence
of the past how difficult it is to arrive at the truth. In
1830, you were enabled to judge of these difficulties ; the
same evil was produced, and the same inability experienced.
The government and the police are called upon too frequently
to demonstrate the reality of alarms which are merely chime-
rical. We see nunserosu accounts of fires more frequently
during seasons of great dryness. When fires multiply, they
may be often imputed to accident, sometimes to nialw ; and