Evening star., 1926-08-22
GRANDAD OF FARMS
MAY Be ABOLISHED
English FeudaI Estate Con.
traSted With American
and French.

| the grandfather OF farms. 1t is the
| feudal farm OF Lord Manvers in Not
tinghamshire. If it goes, living pic
ture Of what the English countryside
looked like in the Dark Ages will dis
appear
This feudal farm. some American
farms. and a 35.O00-acre ranch for
| ma nufacturing wheat" are contrast
ed in a bulletin of the National Geo
graphic Society.
The American Corn Belt farmer.
who seldom deals in smaller units
than the back 40' acres. or the west
! So would laugh heartily at one. Of
[ ord Manvers' feudal farm plots" says
! the bulletin. Although the Noting
! hamshre Manor has. in alr 900 acres,
| quite satisfactory farm even by corn
| belt standards. 1t is divided into l 200
parcels Of land. Each plot. averaging
, three-fourths Of an acre. is separated
! from it's neighbors by path OF dyke
| of sod The plots are grouped in
/ three fields of 800 acres each.
Waste of Feudal Plan.
The American farmer would be
! shocked by the utter wastefulness of
the feudal system of agriculture. One
Of the three 300-acre fields lies fallow
! each wear To the feudal farmers
| limited knowledge that was the only
way Of enabling land to recover its
! strength. The strips are too narrow
| to permit proper cultivation by cross
! narrowing. Moreover, the tenants
strips are all mixed up with Lord
| NanverS' strips. so that a cultivator
! must spend a good portion OF the day
| walkin" from one job to another. O1
! course he must help work Manvers'
nlots. too No Manvers tenant lives on
his rented land, since the plots are re-
] allotted each wear. The tenant cot
taces are tucked up close to the dig
nitied and protecting walls OF the
manor castle.
| "Dictionary CnmpilerS are taxed to
! define farm as ii is understood in the
! United Sites \ farm in New Hamp-
shire H. different from Il farm in the
corn belt States and neither ofs these
| tvpes has q speaking acquaintance
with California farm. One of the
chief farm implements in New Hamp-
! shire is "A crOwbar. But your New
! uampshire or Vermont farmer at
least has the satisfaction Of perma'
! ncrt monument in stone fences to his
work of sitting soil from rocks.
California Farm Ideas.
in California a farm is a freak
| establishment. If you own land
| which raises cranes or lemons IL Is
! q grove If voN H,ise cattle, hogs
: beans. heets or the like. 1t is ranch.
: Eut if vo,, grow alliga tors you operate
an alligator farm Southern Califor-
MIA boasts OF ostrich farms. goldfish
! farms. frog farms. rabbit farms,
pigeon farms and two butterfly farms.
! R,It exhibit a in farms is the lion
! farm at FL Monte. About 10 lions
thrive there on fiVe-acre tract. which
is planted with North African shrubs.
; The lion farmer sells his stock on the
! hoof to the movies. ZOOS ana clfcuSeS.
! ne. at least. is a farmer who does
not care what the weather VIII be To-
/ morrow.
F, America is in the province or Que
hoo Canada. Agriculture east of the
,ity Of Quebec. on the northern banks
. of tho ST Lawrence River. is con-
! fne.I to a. narrow strip between the
! Iourentian Mountains and the river.
The typical farm of trench hapl-
| ,ant an this Beaupre coast is one
arnent or two hundred feet. wide and
from two to three miles long: rms
curious. unwieldly shoestrinG farm Is
= direct survival Of French coloniza-
! tion previous 10 Tue Caplute uA S"o
| bee by Wolf in 1893.
"In early colonial times the ST. Law
rencn River was the only road so the
residents. like the Dutch PATRONS on
tho hudson. and the Virginia plant
ers on the James. insisted on having
! Iand fronting on river. Whfle no
nioneer was a greater roamef ana
! adyenturer in strange places tnan tue
French fur trader. the french haoi'
tant clunc 10 his land as tenaciously
&c his kinsmen do in France. Many
~ the Beaupre farms, with tneir
/ fences running together at the noun
tains like railroad tracks. nave beeh
! held in the same families for more
than coo years.
Small Farms Predominant.
I'm France itself the financial
.,,ii,es of the whole nation are often
.t,rihuted to the small size or tne
far,ps Two.thirds of the 1o"ooo
[arn,ers Of France own less than 20
90 1a,ns ONLY 30.2S0 farmers own
&c than $50 acres. and less than
oo0 individuals have more tnan 'oo
acres. The French custom OF olNiuiiN
the land among the children IS ssio u
result in minute olElsioii "
Vat neither the feudal land parcels
,ha staircase farms of the lncas. ne
IL, Indian. most remarkable OF all
la,.ic,,lt,rists the world has ever seen
.en,aCe.} mountain sides sleeper thah
- a,,orace slope of q roof. He grew
os ~. corn peanuts. lima beans
nina.nnles sweet potatoes ana cottoh
IN ARTIFICIAL rock shelves sometimes as
,,a,.ro,y as three or four feet. he was
a modern farmer at the tme our Eu
hi N
,onean forefatherS sun shiNeIeu III
slins and lived by the spear. Ihe
\ational Geographic Society eNpedl-
,ion to Machu Picchu. capltal OF the
Incas found many banks with 90 or
,,.ora terraces 10 feet high. This IS
en,Ial 10 500 feet SO any one VINO mas
>i;,,,hed the S9S steps OF the Washing
tom Monument can appreciate tne TASK
NJ ,he Inca farmer merely in going TO
work.
MARYLAND Once One Farm.
Probably the largest single farm.
IL !, may he called such, which has
hsen held in the United States. Is
MARYLAND. Lord Baltimore was the
sole proprietor of the grant. ana To
This Jav all deeds in the State so back
Io his title. The English settlers COM
inc to the Southern colonies had pas
sion for land. They liked to be lords
~ All they surveyed and placed their
manor houses accordingly. One of the
most famous land owners was VIII
liam FitZhugh. who acquired more
than 10000 acres. George Washing
tons Mount Vernon farm Of 5000
,~r.S ,uas xuali hesfde this"