The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-19 00:00:00

:31tn.

LONDON:
.MONDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 19, 1842.

We have copied from the Manchester Guardian
of Wednesday an interesting letter on farming
in the Lothians, of Mr. R. HYDE GREG, the
brother, we believe, of the late Member fur
Manchester, which we consider to be well

:worthy of the attention of the agriculturists, and
of all persons who. take an interest in agriculture
throughout the empire. We especially recom-
mend it to the consideration of our Tory Con-
-6mporaries, who frequently rave and rail, as we
think, in favour of agriculture and against manu-
factures, without much reflection, and without
any- knowledge of the subject. For example,
they continually talk about employing more
hands in agriculture, while Mr. GREG shows
that the agriculture of the Lothians is much

superior to that of England ; that it employs
fewer hands; that it is carried on manufacture-
-wise, and that it is essential to the improvement
of agriculture in England to economise labour, or
in proportion
to employ to the produce still
fewer hands. _

The' rent of the Lothian farms (he 'says) is
from 3/. 10s. to 71. per acre ; and these high rents the
but thrive upon ;
farmer's not only pay, indeed, a more
-thriving set of men I never met with. They are
enabled to pay these rents, and thrive ; partly by the
heavy crops arising tram skilful cultivation, and partly
by economy of management in every department.
' Actual wages, however, are as high as in England,
h namely, 10s. to 1 Is. a-week for a common labourer ;
Ins. for`a ploughman, and ninepence a-day for wo-
:A tnett ;.• ten hours to the day. As to the great amount
" aproduee,it must be remembered, that all the land is
-under the plough.
good , , pFive quarters
of wheat are reckoned
a average; but some fields turn out six to the
care. Ten r
`n-
po
eleven quarters of oats, eight to ten
tons of tatoes
reced good fair cr
kon ' and 26 to 30 tons of turnips, are
is shown in many wayosps. Economy of management
1. In the poltion and
idle
of farm buildings,
0 y .
is having no land lying idle
or-unproductive, and in
the use of machines and horses
un.pro 9 _ 1
admit
ttoer
it. of numutu
labour, wherever circumstances ;
He mentions also that steani.en ines of six or
n
eight horse power are erected g
-n almost every
authorities that
farm; and we know from other
where. the farms do not contain fficient arable
land to justify erecting a steam-engine or a
1 farm
that thrashing-machine on ea 1 '
c,
that the steam or water-power is let out, and a
man sends his corn to be thrashed as he sends it
to the miller to lie ground. In the improved
system of Scotland, which agricultural societies,
coanposed of landlords, are properly striving to
introduce into England, less, not more, labour is
,employed than in the English system, and for
our agriculture to pay those who carry it on it is
i"disPcusiblei that it become less costly, or ern-
ploy feWer hands and produce more.
it is kt fact, however, that agriculture can-
. not employ all the hands which now seek em-
ployment in the agricultural districts. In them
both the poor-rates and the number of labourers
are excessive. At present the interest of money
on such good security as landlords and farmers
can in general offer, is riot more than 3 or 4 per
cent. For several years the average has not been
above that; and no other reason, we believc,_ can
be assigned why capital, which hunts after profit
with an almost ruinous eagerness,
has not gone
in Great masses into the agricultural districts, and

there set to work the labburers wanting employ-
ment, but the simple yet powerful reason that
na profit is to be made by employing more labour
in agriculture. In the present condition of
society, however, where profit cannot be made,
labour will not, and cannot be employed;
and to employ more hands in agriculture, obtain
more produce to feed an increasing population,
and preserve the present right of property, all
of which are aimed at by the Tories, are incom-
patible, one with another, if not absolutely im-
possible.

The mode of carrying on agriculture manufac-
ture-wise, is thus alluded to by Mr. GREG.
Economy of management is shown-
2. By confining attention to as few points as pos-
sible. Thus, instead of buying stock to feed off the
grass during the two years the land is seeded down,
it is let off to stock-feeders or butchers, at generally
about 61. per annum the acre, and the farmer's atten-
tion and capital is thereby saved from distraction and
division. They contract, in like manner, to supply
turnips, or both stalls and turnips, &c., for the winter,
at so much the toa for turnips, or at so much the
head, to the stock-feeder ; and so the stock-feeder, in
his turn, becomes limited to his own peculiar branch
of business. The dairyman, in the same way, hires
the fields in grass by the year, or for the summer, and
contracts for his turnips during winter : thus at-
tending to nothing but his cows, which, by the bye,
he scrupulously milks three times a day for, at least,
half the year. In a similar spirit also, instead of get-
ting up his potatoes himself, and with a fork as is done
with us, the Lothian farmer sells his crop of potatoes
at 141. to 201. per acre, according to the crop and state
of markets, to a dealer. The farmer then turns up
tlia potatoes with the plough ; the dealer appears with a
hundred women and children, and 'sacks and scales ;
and the whole crop is transferred from the field to the
market, or shipped for London in one-tenth the time,
and at one-tenth the expense, which would be required
in England.
It is clear that a part of this system depends
on a town population. The butcher;, the dairy-
man, the potatoe-dealer in the large way de-
scribed by Mr. GREG, are all rather inhabitants
of towns than of the agricultural districts; and
when we know how numerous is the town
population of Lancashire, and of England gene-
rally, our surprise is increased to learn that such
a system should prevail in the Lothians and not
in Lancashire. We are not much acquainted
with the agriculture of that county, but in the
following passage Mr. GREG implies that the
mode of carrying on agriculture manufacture-
wise is not known there :

The general conviction which remains upon my
mind is, that with a system equal to that of the
Lothians, established throughout England, landlords
might receive double rents, farmers bo rich and pros-
perous,• and the country be rendered, for twe, genera-
tions, independent of foreign supplies, notwithstanding
an abolition of all protective duties. lam confident
the agricultural produce of England, Wales, and the
West of Scotland, might be doubled; and that of
Lancashire and Cheshire be tripled, and this without
any material addition to the agricultural population.
In Kent, and the counties in the neighbour-
hood of the metropolis, some specimens of it may
be found. It is common for the fruit-growers to
sell their fruit on the trees, while the buyer
gathers it, and brings it to market. Food for

cattle is sold in the same way. We are inclined
to suppose that this sort of division of labour
must be extended in agriculture to make it more
profitable. Farmers will then . require less
capital to follow out one branch of business, and
will be able to carry that one out more effectually.
Why must nearly every farmer in Kent, for
example, be a corn-farmer, a grazier, and a bop-
mrower ? He must, moreover, be, to a certain
extent, a manufacturer, and be must apply the
principles of chemistry in drying hops and in ,
making cyder. Such a multitude of occupations,
while, in fact, the man has a very limited educa-
tion, requires a most enlarged knowledge, and we
cannot feel much surprise at the slow progress of
men whose attention is distracted by many pur-
suits. According to Dr. SMITH'S remark they
lose time by changing their tools, and can never
acquire skill by dissipating their attention.
Would it not be wiser for the apple-growers
and the hop-growers, instead of each man hav-
ing a press and an oast-house on his own pre-
mises, to sell his fruit to some cyder•manufac-
turer and his hops to some dryer ? The build-
ing and the machine, with all the casks and
sacking he must keep, make a so much larger
capital necessary for farmers, and to that extent
prevent competition, which is the soul of im-
provement. The capital for manufacturing
cyder and manufacturing hops, and probably
for supplying cattle, ought to be supplied by
another class of capitalists, and the farmers in
England, as in Scotland, should direct their
attention to. one pursuit. The public at large is
deeply indebted to Mr. GREG for bringing this
important principle clearly into light, and it is
only, we believe, by acting on it, and extending
division of labour in agriculture as in manufac-
tures, that the art can be effectually improved.

We must not omit to state that Mr. GREG is
on these subjects an excellent authority, for he
is, as the Manchester Guardian says, 44 A man
not only familiar with the art and mystery of
the cotton trade, but also a very considerable
farmer and landowner; and who may therefore
be regarded as free from any undue bias in the
view he takes of this question." '
In the conclusion of his letter Mr. GREG ad-
verts to the difficulties of introducing the Scotch
sykem into England, a subject which is worthy
of consideration, but on which we shall reserve
our remarks till a future day.