MAY, 1834. No. 1.] SPADE HUSBANDRY. TO THE REV. C. GARDNER. [VOL. 1. To shew that I am not a mere theorist, but a practical man, I may mention that I rent a farm from the Earl of Wemyss in East Lothian, consisting of 530 Scotch Acres, that I have cultivated land to a considerable extent with the spade for the last three years, and that the result has exceeded born things," I shall lay before you my system, my most sanguine expectations; "as facts are stubcrops, expences, and profits. Southfield by Haddington, March, 8, 1834. Sir,-On glancing over last week's Newspaper, I observed a reward offered for any better plan than the present Poor Law of Scotland for finding employment for the surplus Labourers of England, consequently making bread plenty, Corn Laws useless, enriching farmers, raising fallen rents, findIn 1831, I determined to ascertain the difference ing a home Market for Manufactures, and saving of the expence and produce between trenching land Irish industry the check of Poor Laws. with the spade, and summer fallowing with the As I certainly felt very much gratified on pe- plough in the usual way. I therefore trenched 13 the advertisement, I determined to forward acres of my summer fallow break, in the months of my views on the subject, not that I had any June and July; I found the soil about 14 inches aation of being entitled to the reward, but be- deep, and I turned it completely over, thereby putI consider your liberal offer entitles you to ting up a clean fresh soil in the room of the foul information on so very important a subject. and exhausted mould, which I was careful to put is impossible, for me at least, to offer any at the bottom of the trench. This operation I found vement on the present Scotch poor laws, and, cost about 4/ 10s resume you are thoroughly acquainted with bourer 1s 6d per day; the rest of the field which Scotch acre, paying my laper workings, I shall forbear any further remark consisted of 9 acres, I wrought with the plough in simply stating that only the aged, the sick, and the usual way, giving it six furrows with the suitable firm, derive any benefit from them, and that harrowing. I manured the field in August, the trenchble-bodied labourer, though he may find it ed got 8 cart loads per acre, the ploughed land 16, ssible to obtain work, has no claim for Paro- the field was sown in the middle of September, the relief. This I think is just as it should be, whole turned out a bulky crop as to straw, particuin reality a great blessing to the Scotch Pea-larly the trenched portion which was very much santry; they are in consequence trained up with lodged; on thrashing them out I found them to notions of independence, as they are aware that they stand as under:have themselves, and themselves alone to look to for support, and the knowledge of this makes them prudent, industrious, and economical. Notwithstanding all this, I am quite aware there are many cases of great hardship and great individiual distress at particular seasons of the year from want of employment, but this I am afraid cannot be satisfactorily remedied by any system of Poor Laws or legislative enactments, it is the Landed Proprietors and their Tenantry who alone can do it, yet it becomes an object of paramount importance to the landed interest of the kingdom. I am quite convinced there is but one way of employing the surplus population of England and Ireland, and that is, by a judicious introduction of spade husbandry, and I am also convinced that a system of management can be pointed out whereby every labourer of Great Britain might be employed with profit to his employer, and advantage to the country. I should think it will hardly be denied by any one at all versant in Agricultural operations that work done by the spade is superior to work done by the plongh, and that the only drawback is the great additional expence. Now, if I can shew that at a particular period of the rotation that spade husbandry is not only superior but less expensive, I shall have got over this difficulty. By trenched Wheat per acre, £. 52 bushels at 6s 9d To two years' rent, at 21 10s per acre 8 cart loads of manure, at 4s ...... 42 bushels at 6s 9d 0 8. d.£. S. d. 0 017 11 0 0 4 10 5411 13 30 1 12 0 0 014 3 10 0 0 0 0 18 9 0 0 0 By ploughed Wheat per acre, £ per acre ...... 313 10 904 030 9 30 000 Now this is going on in a county where agricultural labourers are better employed than almost any other in Great Britain, the system was not introduced, nor is persevered in for the purpose of giving employment to the poor, but entirely for the benefit of the employer. The East Lothian Agricultural Society are now offering premiums for the most satisfactory Reports on the subject, I last year received a Medal from the Highland Society of Scotland for introducing the system, and what I value still more, I received a Piece of Plate from the Labourers employed, as a token of their gratitude. trench over my fallow break during the summer months, it was by no means making the most of the system, as the operation was not only more expensive owing to the land being hard and dry during the summer, but that it was a useless waste of time, to take a whole year to perform an operation that could be as well done in a few weeks provided labourers could be had, and as in all Agricultural operations, losing time is losing money, as the rent must be paid whether the land in carrying a crop or not, so that in taking one year to fallow the land, and another to grow the crop, two year's rent must be charged against the crop, or at least there must be a rent charged against the rotation of crops for the year the land was fallowed.-As I felt satisfied that by trenching with the spade, the land would derive all the advantage of a summer fallowing, and avoid all the disadvantages attending it, I determined on trench-where the poor laws are so oppressive, and still ing 34 acres of my fallow break immediately on the crop being removed from the ground, and had it sown with wheat by the middle of November, 1832. I may here remark that I did not apply any manure, as I thought the former crop was injured by being too bulky: as it is now thrashed out and disposed of, the crop per acre stands as follows: By average of the 34 acres, 44 £. s, d.£. s. Seed Cutting, thrashing, and Mar- 40241 1 £15 0 1 0 10 0 0 0 d. 0 0 0 The system, I admit, is only in its infancy, but I have this year put it completely to the test, and should it succeed as well as it has done hitherto, it must take root and spread over the Kingdom and the landed interest in those districts of England more the Irish proprietors will do well to investigate the system and have it introduced with the least possible delay, that what is now a burden on their estates may become a source of wealth, and what is now a curse may become a blessing. This system, if it succeed to my expectation, possesses all the requisites you require: it furnishes employment for the surplus population by substituting manual labour for that of horses; and certainly if there is a lack of food for both it is desirable that the one should give place to the other. It will make bread plenty, as the naked summer fallows of Great Britain will be covered with grain instead of olying waste for a season. It will render corn laws 00 unnecessary, as we shall then be independent of foreign supplies. Farmers will be enriched who are enterprizing and industrious, and they only deserve to be so. It will raise rents, by increasing the capabilities of the soil, enabling the farmer to cultivate wheat to double the present extent. It will raise up a home market for our manufacturers, as the paupers who are at present starving, or living a burden on the parish will find employment, and thereby be enabled to procure the necessaries and comforts of life. It will check the poor laws, as there will then be none but the aged and the helpless dependent on parochial aid. 8 015 8 0 The advantages of trenching over summer fallow, are in my opinion very decided, as it is not only cheaper. but as far as I can yet judge much more effectual. I am so satisfied of this, not only from the experiments above noticed, but from the apparent condition of the land after it has carried the crop, that I have this autumn cultivated about an hundred acres with the spade, and the crops at present are very promising. When I first commenced I was laughed at by my neighbours, but now when they see me persevering in what they considered a very chimerical project, they are sus pending their judgment, and several of them have made considerable experiments this year. I should think there is at least 250 acres under crop cultivated in this way this season, in East Lothian; in 1831, the year I commenced, there was not a single acre; I had therefore the satisfaction of knowing that I have been the means of causing 1,000 to be spent this year amongst the labouring classes in my immediate neighbourhood, and I feel confident that should the season turn out favourable for the wheat crop, and fair prices obtained, their employers will he handsomely remunerated for their outlay. I do not mean to say that this system will succeed on every description of soil, as it must necessarily be of some depth to admit of the operation, but there are few districts where such soil fwill not be found in sufficient abundance to give ample employment to the surplus population of the neighbourhood. If you should think it worth while to make furher enquiry after the writer or his system, I beg to refer you either to the Marquis of Tweeddale, Lord Lieutenant of the county of East Lothian, or to Robert Stewart, Esq., M. P. for Haddington District of Burghs, both of whom are at present in London, or if you would like a more detailed account of the agricutulral part of my scheme, I shall feel most happy to give every information in my Messrs. Ratcliffe and Joscelyne, who were indefatig- | had neither the tact nor the ability to accomplish their able in their attention. The place chosen was the wishes; but it was to the praise of our Sovereign that great table in the Crown Court. In order to prevent he possessed the ability of carrying his good inteninconvenience and avoid danger, the public were ad- tions into effect. It was to him that we owed the mitted into the Nisi Prius Court, through the Judge's blessing of the Reform Bill. He had stood firm to room over the Bench, and out into New Street. An the cause of the people, amid factions from without exact description of the article may be found in our and whispers within. He had never suffered the mislast number. It is supposed, that in the course of representations of any, however exalted their rank, to the day no less than 4000 persons were present; and divert him from his purpose. He would therefore, so satisfactory was the arrangement, that no difficul- | propose the health of the King and may neither he ty whatever occurred. A great number of ladies at- nor any of his family ever forget the principles which tended, many of them from a distance, and thus af-seated the House of Brunswick upon the throne, and forded evidence of the high respect they entertained towards his Lordship. The following is the inscription on the Plate :- Raised by Subscription among his late Constituents TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES CALLIS BARON WESTERN, OF RIVENHALL, Who, during eleven successive Parliaments, as Member for the Borough of Maldon, and County of Essex, was endeared to the friends of Freedom, and Lovers of their Country, by his indefatigable attention to its best interests, his zealous support of clvil and religious liberty, his judicious protection of Agriculture, and his able advocacy of all measures of improvement; while he acquired the respect of his opponents by the rare consistency and unsullied integrity of his political life: and thus, in a long career of usefulness and honour, secured to his name the praise of posterity, as one of those enlightened Statesmen, whose patriotic and persevering efforts were at length successful in reforming the system of Government, in reducing a lavish expenditure, in correcting abuses in Church and State, in mitigating the Criminal Code, in asserting the equal rights of all classes of Christians, in abolishing slavery throughout the British dominions, and in strengthening the basis of the Constitution by amend ing the Representation of the People. HIS MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY, THE KING WILLIAM IV., in accordance with these sentiments of his Subjects, distinguished him by signal marks of the Royal favor and conferred upon him the choicest gift of the prerogative by elevating him to the Peerage of the United Kingdom, January 14th, 1833. THE DINNER. obtained a Reform in the representation of the people. Drank with three times three. Song. God save the King. The CHAIRMAN then proposed the health of the Queen, who by her private qualities was admirably adapted to set an example to the Court and to the public at large. The CHAIRMAN said that in proposing the health of the rest of the Royal Family, he could not but call the attention of the meeting to one particular member of it who had ever shown himself to be the advocate of freedom, and the ardent lover of civil and religious liberty. He need not say that he meant the duke of Sussex, who was no less distinguished by the pre-eminency of his rank than he was by his munificent patronage of the fine arts, and his unceasing efforts to produce the happiness and prosperity of the nation. He would therefore propose the health of the duke of Sussex and the rest of the Royal Family. Mr. DISNEY then rose on behalf of the general body of Subscribers, to present the plate, and was received with loud cheers. He said, one of the most important of duties had been committed to his hands-the expres sion of the gratitude of a vast portion of the county to an old servant. It was an important trust to represent the interests of the county in the legislative body, and it was likewise so to convey to the distinguished individual who had so long served them a token of their sincere gratitude; and what must he feel on the present occasion who for no less a period than 40 years had faithfully served them. On this occasion it was his duty to recal to their recollection the services of Lord Western, when he was known to them as Mr. Western. (Cheers.) He could not, however, mention one-fourth of those services, yet that would be enough. In 1790, he was first sent to take his seat at one of the most awful periods in history, the time of the French revolution. It was when the thrones of the continental Sovereigns were tottering to their base and when they were overthrown; and even when the very interests of humanity itself were near to total destruction. It was in 1792, that a Minister of the King of England dared to introduce a Bill for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus. The Stuart dynasty had been hunted away by the voice of the people; and yet the Minister of the day had ventured to have recourse to the same policy which had removed them. It was then that Mr. Western had dared to oppose the Government; though, unfortunately, without success. (Cheers.) It was at this period that Lord, then Mr. Grey, introThe Chairman said he rose to propose a toast, duced his famous scheme of Parliamentary Reform. which they, as Englishmen, were always accustomed Mr. Western was found by his side. (Cheers.) In to drink first, and that was the Health of the King; 1794, the Minister again introduced his Bill for susand no Sovereign who ever reigned within these realms pending the liberties of the people. Mr. Western was better calculated to command the affections and was again faithful at his post, and on the celebrated esteem of his people than King William IV. To all 16th of May he divided 11 times against the Govern Sovereigns he would concede the merit of good intenment, though the minority fell off from 24 to 18. Hens, though it not unfrequently happened that they They had happily kept him in his sent until it wer As soon as the exhibition of the Plate had closed preparations were made for the admission of persons intending to dine. Tables were laid in the County Room for 380, which was speedily filled, and a considerable number of persons had to dine in the Grand Jury Room. At 4 o'clock precisely the fish and Soup were brought upon the table. Mr. Barns, of the Lion and Lamb, had made every preparation, and notwithstanding the unexpected overflow, there was accommodation for all. Sir Francis Vincent presided, having on his right hand Lord Western and Lord Petre, and on his left Lord Dacre and Sir Thomas Lennard. The cloth being removed, and the grace, "Non nobis domine,” having been sung, |