The colored patriot., 1882-05-18


conveniences accruing. Up to the pres
ent time they have had their own way
about this, the farmers playing into
their hands. For if one of these came
to grief and had to turn out, there was
no fear of his farm lying unoccupied.
The farmer bordering upon it was only
too ready to take it in, as an addendum to
that he already held, at the same or
even an increased rental. In the wav
Of land, the English farmer is as Oliver.
"eyer asking for more.' Never knew
| one who, in his own estimation, had
enough, and scarce know one who has
not nearly double the quantity he is
capable of cultivating as it should be cul-
tivated. could point to many who, year
after year, have large fields lying fallow
and unproductive, simply because they
lack the strength in hands and horses to
crop them at the required time. En-
gland 5 weatheris proverbially tickle, and
he who has not the means to take adj
vantage of its fayoring spells may lose
largely by the want of them. Money
will nearly always accomplish this-the
ready cash to pay laborers' wages and
call them up as by drum-beat But if
the money be not there, and week of
fine weather be missed, or sometimes
only a single day, there may be no other
chance for seed to be got into the
ground as it should be, or crop taken
off it. From just such cause I have seen
91OO worth of hay lying rotten on the
meadows of single farm, and in a
season by no means exceptionally
unfavorable for hay-making. In
point of fact the holders of
small farms, not thus handicapped, are
they who succeed best, though it be
only in a small way And better is
it for them in the end than for those
with large ones without the capital to
work them. This truth, almost self
evident, is at length beginning to dawn
Oh the perception of the English farmer
not very acute one But his pres
ent difficulties and necessities have
| summoned up the strength of his intel
lect, and should he succeed in master
ing the problem, and find out the mis-
take under which he has been long lab
Oring-then a new state of things will
arise; and large farms will be subdivid-
ed into small ones, with a separate
homestead erected on each. When
this comes to pass-if it ever dO-yOur
Emigration Commissioners of Castle
Garden will have less work on their
hands, at least as regards looking after
emigrants from England. Taking En-
glish farms as they are now. one of 500
acres would not be considered an ex-
traordinarily large one, though above
the average The orthodox average
-. L -
acres; and to such, be it understood,
are the remarks that follow chiefly con-
fined.
Approaching the homestead of an
English farmer. the traveller, if q
stranger to the country, will be surprised
to see it placed in seemingly the very
worst spot on the farm, the most incOn-
venient for its purposes. Nor is this a
seeming, but reality: the site in a
majority of cases being against a steep
declivity, where there is barely enough
level ground to turn a wagon about
upon. Why this is | cannot tell, nor
can any one else whom | have consult
ed on the subject. 1t is one Of those
obscure and perverse things whose very
perversity courts inquiry while defying
explanation. English roads often run
straight up the steepest face of hill,
when slight turn to right or left would
conveniently avoid it. But for this
there is an assignable reason; they are
on the routes of the ancient "track-
wavs,n before wheels came into
use, traversed only by the pack
horse, and that under saddle. But
the farmhouse, hung, as it were,
on the hillside, where it has been
hanging for period beyond memory, is
a puzzle even to the archROlOglSt. In
itself it is a structure Sui geneylS, unlike
anything else in the way of dwelling
place. The eye encounters grand ar
ray of walls, six to ten feet high, with
several red-tiled roofs, sometimes slated,
rising above them; one of these being
the barn, often big as town-hau or
church. Others of less dimensions are
the stable, cOw-hOuse and cart-sheds. all
set around and partially inclosing the
farm-vard or folder" This is a large,
uupaved space, Uttered all over with
straw, in which cattle and cart-horseS
stand knee-deep. In winter and wet
weather it becomes "muck, when the
farm laborers. who must needs pass
through, walk in it up to their ankles.
Outside is the rick-yard, or "rick-fOld-
er," where the eye is feasted on like
prodigality of straw, put TO still less
profitable use, or rather to no use at all
stacks of il left unthatched, and rotting
under the winters rain! Yet taken TO
market when in good condition, or
offered for sale where it stands, it would
command price Of two pounds and ten
shillings sterling per ton, almost as
much as hay. But there is clause in
the farmers agreement of tenancy
which hinders his selling the straw
"off the land" 1t must be consumed
on it; and the cottager living close BY,
who wants q "botting' to bed his pig,
or bait his donkey with, cannot get It
there. but must often 90 miles Tor the
commodity, to some other farmer who
chances to be a freeholder. This with
holding the right to dispose of his straw
as he pleases-the reason. to prevent
impoverishment of the lands one OF
the English farmers grievances; no
slight one either, and may often be the
''straw which breaks the camers back, :
forcing him into bankruptcy.
In the midst of the farm buildings, or
a little to one side of them, is the dwell
ing itself, inconspicuous, and generally
Of mean appearance. Enter il, and u
| -. r...tI 10 ,,eiay-r1 iptp tho