ON THE BEST OF THE EXISTING METHODS

but in the midst of a well cultivated

LEDGE OF PRACTICAL HUSBANDRY.

1. No doubt exists, I believe, that the best way, among existing ones, for a young man to acquire a thorough knowledge of farming, is to become a pupil in the house of a good practical farmer. On a fine farm, and with a competent tutor, the pupil will not only live comfortably, but may thoroughly learn any system of husbandry he chooses. The choice of locality is so far limited, that he must take up his residence in a district in which the particular system he has chosen is practised in a superior

manner.

2. Many farmers are to be found who accept pupils, amongst whom a proper selection should be made, as it would be injudicious to engage with one who is notoriously deficient in the requisite qualifications and those qualifications are numerous. A tutor-farmer should possess a general reputation of being a good farmer-that is, a skilful cultivator of land, a successful breeder, and an excellent judge of stock. He should possess agreeable manners, and have the power of communicating his ideas with ease. He should occupy a good farm, consisting, if possible, of a variety of soils, and situate in a tolerably good climate,-neither on the top of a high hill nor on the confines of a large moor or bog, nor in a warm sheltered nook,

VOL. I.

locality should be requisites in a farm intended for the residence of pupils. The top of a hill, exposed to every wind that blows, or the vicinage of a bog overspread with damp vapour, would place the farm in a climate in which no kind of crop or stock could arrive at a state of perfection; while a very sheltered spot and a warm situation, would give the pupil no idea of the disappointments experienced in a precarious climate.

3. The inexperience of the pupil renders him unfit to select these requisites for himself in either a qualified farmer or a suitable farm: but monitors are never awanting to render assistance to their young friends in every emergency; and as their opinion should be formed on a knowledge of farming, and especially on an acquaintance with the farm, and the personal qualifications of the farmer they recommend, some confidence may be placed in their recommendations. For the pupil's personal comfort, I would advise him to choose a residence where are no young children.

4. A residence of one year must pass ere the pupil can witness the course of the annual operations of the farm. His first engagement should, therefore, be made for a period of not less than one year; and at the expiry of that period he will not be qualified to manage a farm. The time he

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would require to spend on a farm must be determined by the competency of the knowledge acquired of his profession.

5. The pupil may enter on his pupilage at any time of the year; but since farming operations have a regular period for beginning and ending every year, it is evident that the most proper time to begin to view them is at the opening of the agricultural year-that is, in the beginning of winter. It may be incongenial to his feelings who has been accustomed to pass the winter in town, even to contemplate, and far more to participate, for the first time, in the labours of a farm on the eve of winter. He would naturally prefer the sunny days of summer. But the commencement of winter being the time at which all the great operations are begun, it is requisite to their being understood to see them begun; and to endeavour to become acquainted with. complicated operations after the principal arrangements for their prosecution have been formed, is purposely to invite wrong impressions of them.

6. There is really nothing disagreeable to personal comfort in the business of a farm in winter. On the contrary, it is full of interest, inasmuch as the welfare of living animals is presented to the attention more forcibly than the cultivation of the soil.

The well-marked individual characters of different animals engage the sympathy; and the more so, that animals seem more domesticated under confinement than when at liberty to roam in quest of food and shelter. In the evening, in winter, the hospitality of the social board awaits the pupil at home, after the labours of the day are over. Neighbours interchange visits in that social season, when topics of conversation common to society are varied by remarks on professional management, elicited by modified practice, and from which the attentive pupil may derive much useful information. Should society present no charms, the quieter companionship of books, or the severer task of study, is at his command. In a short time, however, the various objects peculiar to the season of winter cannot fail to interest him.

7. The first thing the pupil should become well acquainted with is the physical geography of the farm,-that is, its position,

exposure, extent;-its fences, whether of wall or hedge;-its shelter, in relation to rising grounds and plantations ;-its roads, public or private, whether conveniently directed to the different fields, or otherwise;-its fields, their number, names, sizes, relative positions, and supply of water;- the position of the farm-house and farm-offices. Familiar acquaintance with all these particulars will enable him to understand more readily the orders given by the farmer for the work to be performed in any field. It is like possessing a map of the ground on which certain operations are about to be undertaken. A plan of the farm would much facilitate its familiar acquaintance. The tutor-farmer should be provided with such a plan to give to each of his pupils; but if he has none, the pupil can construct one for himself, which will answer the purpose.

8. The usual fee for pupils is about £120 per annum for bed, board, and washing, with the use of a horse to occasional markets and shows. If the pupil desire a horse of his own, about £30 a-year more are demanded. On these moderate terms pupils are very comfortably situated.

9. I think it bad policy to allow the pupil a horse of his own at first. Constant attention to field-labour is not unattended with irksomeness, while exercise on horseback is a tempting recreation to young minds. The desire to possess a horse of one's own is so very natural in a young person living in the country, that, were the pupil's inclinations alone consulted, the horse would soon be in his possession; and when the choice is given to an indifferent pupil, he will certainly prefer pleasure to duty. The risk is, that the indulgence will confirm a habit that will lead him astray from attending to his business; such as following the hounds, forming acquaintances at a distance from home, and loitering about towns on market-days,-and the evil of this roving life is its being an easy introduction to one of dissipation and extravagance. This consideration should have its weight with parents and guardians, when they accede to the request of the pupil for the luxury of a horse, on placing him under the roof of a farmer. It is enough for a young man to feel a release from parental restraint,

without having the dangerous incentive of an idle life placed at his disposal. They should consider that upon young men arrived at the years when they become farming pupils, it is not in the power, and is certainly not the inclination, of the tutor-farmer to impose ungracious restraints. It is the duty of their parents and guardians to impose these; and the most effectual way I know of, in the circumstances, to avoid temptations, is the denial of a riding-horse. Attention to business in the first year will, most probably, excite a desire to pursue it with pleasure in the second, and then the indulgence of a horse may be granted to the pupil with impunity, as the reward of diligence. Until then, the conveyance occasionally afforded by the farmer to attend particular markets, or pay friendly visits to neighbours, should suffice; and then it is quite in the farmer's power to curb in his pupils any propensity to wander abroad too frequently, and thereby to support his own character as an exemplary tutor. Such precautions are, of course, only necessary against pupils who show lukewarmness in acquiring their profession. The diligent pupil, who desires to learn his profession in as short a time as practicable, will daily discover new sources of enjoyment at home, far more exhilarating, both to body and mind, than in jogging along the dirty or dusty highways, until the jaded brute he bestrides is ready to sink under its burden.

10. The pupil should provide himself with an ample stock of stout clothing and shoes, capable of repelling cold and rain,

and so made as to answer at once for walking and riding.

11. Three years, in my opinion, are requisite to give a pupil an adequate knowledge of farming,-such as would impress him with the confidence of being able to manage a farm; and no young man should undertake its management until he feels sufficient confidence in himself. Three years may be considered as too long time to spend in learning farming; but it is much less time than is given to many other professions, whose period of apprenticeship extends to five or seven years; and however highly esteemed those professions may be, none should excite a deeper interest, in a

national point of view, than that of agriculture. There is one condition attendant on the art of farming, which is common to it and gardening, but inapplicable to most other arts,—that a year must elapse before the same work is again performed. This circumstance, of itself, will cause the pupil to spend a year in merely observing current operations. This is the first year. As the operations of farming are all anticipatory, the second year will be fully employed in studying the progress of work in preparation of anticipated results. In the third year, when his mind has been stored with every mode of doing work, and the purposes for which it is performed, the pupil may put his knowledge into practice, under the correcting guidance of his tutor. Whatever may be the ability of the pupil to acquire farming, time must thus necessarily elapse before he can have the opportunity of again witnessing a bygone operation. No doubt, by natural capacity he might acquire in two years the art to manage a farm; but, the whole operations necessarily occupying a year in their performance, he is prevented acquiring the art in less time than three.

ON THE DIFFICULTIES THE PUPIL HAS TO ENCOUNTER IN LEARNING PRACTICAL HUSBANDRY, AND ON THE MEANS OF OVERCOMING THEM.

12. The pupil, if left to his own guidance, when beginning to learn his profession, would encounter many perplexing difficulties. The difficulty which at first most prominently obtrudes itself on his notice, consists in the distribution of the labour of the farm; and it presents itself, in this way:-He observes the teams employed one day in one field, at one kind of work; and perhaps the next day in another field at another work. He observes the persons employed as field-workers assisting the teams one day; and in the next perhaps working by themselves in another field, or elsewhere. He observes those changes with attention, considers their utility, but cannot discover the reasons for making so varied arrangements-not because he entertains the least doubt of their propriety, but, being as yet uninitiated in the art of farming, he cannot foresee the purpose for which those labours

are performed. The reason why he cannot at once foresee this is, that in all cases, excepting the finishing operations, the object of the work is unattained at the time of his observation.

13. The next difficulty the pupil encounters is in the variety of the labours performed. He not only sees arrangements made to execute the same sort, but various kinds of work. He discovers this difference on examining more closely into the nature of the work he sees performing. He observes one day the horses at work in the plough in one field, moving in a direction quite opposite, in regard to the ridges, to what they were in the plough in another field. On another day he observes the horses at work with quite a different implement from the plough. The fieldworkers, he perceives, have laid aside the implement with which they were working, and are performing the labour engaged in with the hand. He cannot comprehend why one sort of work should be prosecuted one day, and quite a different sort the next. This difficulty is inexplicable for the same reason as the former-because he cannot foresee the object for which those varieties of work are performed. No doubt he is aware that every kind and variety of work performed on a farm are preparatives to the attainment of certain crops; but what portion of any work is intended as a certain part of the preparation of a particular crop, is a knowledge which he cannot acquire by intuition. Every preparatory work is thus perplexing to a pupil.

14. Field-work being thus chiefly anticipatory, is the circumstance which renders its object so perplexing to the learner. It is in the exercise of the faculty of anticipation that the experienced and careful farmer is contradistinguished from the ignorant and careless. Indeed, let the experience of farming be ever so extensive -or, in other words, let the knowledge of minutiæ be ever so intimate-unless the farmer guide his experience by foresight, he will never be enabled to conduct a farm aright. Both foresight and experience are acquired by observation, and though observation is open to all farmers, all do not profit by it. Every farmer may acquire, in time, sufficient experience to conduct a farm in a passable manner; but many

farmers never acquire foresight, because they never reflect, and therefore never derive the greatest advantage from their experience. Conducting a farm by foresight is thus a higher acquirement than the most intimate knowledge of the minutiae of labour. Nevertheless, as the elements of every art must first be acquired by observation, a knowledge of the minutiae of labour should be first acquired by the pupil; and, by carefully tracing the connexion between combined operations and their ultimate ends, he will acquire foresight.

15. The necessity of possessing foresight in arranging the minutiae of labour, before the pupil can with confidence undertake the direction of a farm, renders farming more difficult of acquirement, and a longer time of being acquired, than most other arts. This statement may seem incredible to those who are accustomed to hear of farming being easily and soon learned by the meanest capacity. No doubt it may be acquired in time, to a certain degree, by all who are capable of improvement by observation and experience; but, nevertheless, the ultimate ends for which the various kinds of field-work are prosecuted are involved in obscurity to every learner. In most other arts, no great time usually elapses between the commencement and completion of a piece of work, and every piece of work is continued in hand until finished. The beginner can thus soon perceive the connexion between the minutest portion of the work in which he is engaged, and the object for which the work is prosecuted. He is thus led, by degrees, from the simplest to the most complicated parts of his art, so that his mind is not bewildered at the outset by observing a multiplicity of operations at one time. He thus begins to acquire true experience, and even foresight, if he reflects, from the outset.

16. The pupil-farmer has no such advantages in his apprenticeship. There is no simple easy work, or one object only to engage his attention at first. On the contrary, many minutiæ connected with different operations in progress claim his attention at one and the same time, and if the requisite attention to any one of them be neglected for the time, no opportunity for observing it occurs for a twelvemonth.