Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1858-05-20
English Farming.


short-horned cattle, of swine, and Suffolk cart
horses in that part of England. | spent seve-
raj DAYS under his hospitabe roof, and gave
his stock of animals pretty thorough examl-
nation. He farms about 5000 acres and has
hundreds of cattle and horses and thousands
of sheep Perhaps a ride round the farm, for
it is quite too large to walk over, may give an
idea of a large farmers affairs in that part of
England. Mr. Crisp is like most farmers, a
tenant and not the owner of the land he Occu-
pies. These tenancies, usually find, are not
by written lease, but by a sort of under
standing, not quite definite enough for my
taste, and regulated much by the customs Of
the particular estate. A large proprietor,
| Lord somebody or the Duke of something owns
some 20, 600 or 80, 600 acres which has been
in the family thousand years, or at least
from the time of William the COnquerer-
This proprietor usually gives no personal at
! tention to his estates, so far as the rents are
concerned, but intrusts all such affairs to q
steward, who makes bargains with the tenants
and the lord Of the domain sometimes Goes
not even visit farm in a generation the
tenant occupies at fixed rate, which he pays
half yearly in cash and although neither par
ty is bound for more than the year. the ten
ant often occupies for his lifetime and his
son takes the farm at his deceaSe. Landlords
are willing to give long leases, but tenants
1 seem to prefer the yeGrly system, so far as
| have observed.
The tenant farmer seems to go on and make
the permanent improvements, often at great
expense, and lays out his work as if he owned
the fee-smpe and on the whole homes are
more permanent in this land Of mere tenants
than in the land of fec simple owners, with mi
! gratory habits The farmer pays rent Of
! Saw five dollars an acre annually for his land,
and conducts his operations in his own way,
provided he does not cut down trees, plough
up any pasture land, or disturb the game, such
as hares, partridgeS and pheaSantS, which go
where they please, and do as much damage as
! they like, uumolested.
A keepcr-that is, a game-kecper-lives on
the estate, whose business it is to protect the
game and catch the poacherS who presume to
touch these animals. which are held rs sacred
as the geese in Eome's capital The game
laws are. and ever have been, a fruiteSs source
of crime and suffering, and always will be, till
human nature is thoroughly changed. On eY-
cry estate where have been | have noticed
with Indignation the ravages of those useless
animals called game in che fields Of the finest
wheat, while neither farmer nor laborer dares
even drive them away, on penalty of his lords
displeasure. and the loss of his lease next year
| will say however, that properly viewed this
waste of human food is not the loss of the far
mer, but of the landlord, because land not
subject to the preservation of game is for that
reason leased at a higher rent.
There are no large barns for grain and hay
is the south of England as with us, but those
products Which we so carefully protect are
never housed ! have discussed the topic a
| good deal with farmers here and they have
reasons for their course some ! cannot ven
ture to answer. They say they cannot afford
the expense of barns, and that if they could,
hay would heat and burn up by spontaneous
combustion if put in them. The climate there
| is much more moist than ours, and | think the
storms are not so violent Hay does not dry
so readily nor iniure SO much III the stack as
with US, and on the whole, if English farmers
! like their own mode best, we Will find no
fault with their judgment but | am sure it
is poor economy for New EnglanderS to follow
their example in that particular. The low
price oe labor and the high price Of building
material in England make in favor of stacks
and against barns
In Mr. Crisp's farm yard | saw an original
Of the farm-yards in which Inndscer and Her
ring and other painters Of animals so much de-
light. Around in some order, though with
no great regularity are huge stacks of wheat,
barley, hay, and straw, as large as goody siz-
cd barns, all neatly tlatched and trimmed.
There is donkey, quietly meditating on
the better condition of half dozen cart-hCTses
that are standing to their knees in straw, eat
ing rye, grass and clover from the rack ; and
there are dozen black pigs, of two months,
with their maternal relatiTc, roofing about the
feet Of the horses Flocks of ducks are wad
ding about in the same yard, and hens and
chickens mix into the scene in crowds. y big
dog is chained to the gate, ard a smaller is
barking to any stranger that approaches
Under the long, tilcroolcd she'd dozen carts
keep company with as many onghandled,
Iong-noScd, long-beamed poughS.
A steam engine is pulling away, quietly ard
buSy with a thraShiug machine. Two or
three men are passing up the sheaycs from the
rick, and two women on the top Of the thrcSh-
cr received it and unite the bands while two
more men are pitching the straw on TO new
stack about aa large and high up as forty
foot barn while on top of the same stack a
boy is mounted on horse Of near ton weight.
riding constantly about to tread down the straw,
The horse aud rider remind you of an equestrian
statute on a very large pedestal and as the
horse is gradually rising higher and higher,
YOU wonder how he is ever to get down again
seeing that the stack is perpendicular on every
side, and fifteen feet high already. Every
where is straw foot thick-about the yards,
in the stables, in the COW stals-the great
object seeming to be to tread it down foE
manure.
We went down to the tide water which
bounds one side Of the farm, and examined the
cmbankment against the sea The emhank
mcnt extends p miles, and the 8 marshes as