The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-12-13
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.
Farming In England.

Thomas Meehan, the AGRICULTURAL SdiE-
or of the Philadelphia Press who is now
on a visit to England, has written several
interesting letters to that p8perg ffom
one of which we make the following ex-
tracts. After speaking of the prejudice
against improved machinery among the
laborers, especially the moving machine
and hay tedder, he says:
There are some few very large farms
operated by very wealthy owners, where
l saw steam plOws, steam threshets and
other laber-saving farm machines, but
they are not generally difiused-ihdeed
not at all diffused-among the general
cuItivators. / asked a farmer OF some
$50 acres why he had not some OF these
machines, and he thought his farm was
too small. He was astOnished when l
told him that farmers of much less than
100 acres with US depended mainly on
these machines. Another farmer told
me he would have long ago had some
of them, but he was afraid the laborers
would burn down his stacks and barns
if ne introduced them. The farmers, l
find, are very much at the mercy of the
farm labOrers, much more so than they
are here. They hesitated to introduce
machinery out of sympathy with the
AdDOACAB ESAlA LII" Xix nave NV al
sympathy with him. | was on one farm,
looking about with the owner, when
! three hired labOrers came in a half hour
alter the time agreed on for work, and
! the farmer expOsJulated, but in quite
mild terms 1 thought, but as we were al
tea, he was called out by the men, who
wanted their immediate pay. They were
"nOt going to work for man who
talked to them in that way" They were
paid and my friend declared that he haC
said " as long as he could get one mar
in England to NOW he would never have
a Yankee mower about" He is cureC
now and the mower is in his hands.
Still the influence eff good exampl,
tells. Sir Robert Peel once told hi
tenantry he would give them the irol
Plows if they would discard their ole
clumsy wooden ones. He found then
year or so after rusting in waste pla
ces. They excused themselves The,
make the weeds grow. They went deepe
than the old plows, and brought up oil
seed that had been waiting years for
chance to grow" But / was pleased +
see on a visit to TamwOTth that Sir Robert
; efforts had done good for certainly tn
farming here is above the average of En-
} glish farming especially in the matte
of freedom from weeds. In the matter {
cleanliness, freedom from weeds, Amer
can farming is far ahead of English
| Thousands of acres are 50 filed by butter
cups, which no cattle will touch, that nc
tenth part of the ground can be Craze
, by cattle. The yellow charlOck, a sol
? of mustard, is 80 abundant that grain
fields are of such golden yellow with thel
/ that the lUstre can be seen for man
! miles away, and the person not KNOWN
, that the grain was beneath would thin
the weeds were the crop, and the crOI
. the weeds that should be torn out. POI
= pies, blue bottles and corn cookies, wit
, numerous other things abound, and a
. not wrong in saying that one-tenth of q
the farm land of England is given I
I To weeds. The American would adm
r OF the hoe and harrow, and in this Wa
in a season or two, get rid of the who
? stock, but here such machinery won
/ interfere too much with the rights
] labor. In many eases where these weet
had been cleared from the growing gra
/ they had been taken out by the haI
g labor of women and children.
l 1 cannot go into details in a short lett
e like this, but I will say that, except in
= few cases, not enough to be perceptib
s to the general locker on, English faTmi1
8 is long, long way behind America farI
Il ing. With the same amount of ca
II capital per acre, the American farm
e will produce double the results. And
IS say this after going to England with Il
e contrary impression.
e There are great many excellent thin
y we might copy from the English to q
'e vantage, but English beer-drinking, En-
l. fish railroading, and English farming a
not among them Western Farm jon
nal