Ten Years of Gentleman Farming at Blennerhasset : with Co-Operative
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'mm.^ M gtgji^>?gWw)>H.yiwwy-itjtjaiyja^Slg" I! E. LEWIS STURTEVANT. CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 054 695 048 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924054695048 TEN YEARS GENTLEMAN FARMING BLENNERHASSE T, WITH CO-OPERATIVE OBJECTS. BY WILLIAM L AWSO N; CHARLES D. HUNTER, F.C.S.; AND OTHERS. LONDON: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 1874. HI) Gl IS7H " Go, little book, God send thee good passage, And specially let this be thy prayere Unto thejn all that thee will read or hear. Where thou art wrong, after their help to call. Thee to correct in any part or all." Chaucer. PREFACE. The purpose of this book can only be fully understood by the perusal of it. Chiefly, it is intended to correct false impressions ; and to furnish a truer idea of our aims, and of the actual progress of our Farming and Social experiments. There are many reasons, besides those purely local, why we should make public this History of our Ten Years of Gentleman Farming. Many of the field experiments are new, and likely to prove of value to the agriculturist. The Field and Crop Balance-sheets will, we hope, go some way to supply a want which we, in common with most beginners in farming, fdt repeatedly. Many valuable tables and agri- cultural facts and statistics, calculated and condensed from various sources, are also given; which cannot be readily obtained elsewhere, except by those who have the command of a large and varied library. To enable myself to tell a true tale, I have overhauled the archives, re-read Mr. Lawson's diary, examined the " Council" and " Parliamentary" minutes, and analysed and rearranged many of the field experiments. These agricultural experiments were at first intended by Mr. Lawson to occupy the first place in this book ; but it seemed to me, that our Co-operative and Farming History was likely to prove more generally interesting; and should consequently receive, if possible, more attention at our hands, and occupy the foremost place. This arrangement has been adopted,—^perhaps at the expense of making the contents somewhat incongruous; though, indeed, to include VI PREFACE. even the briefest sketch of our varied doings at Blenner- hasset, they could not well be otherwise. The Blennerhasset establishment referred to, existed during ten years—^namely, from 1862 to 1872. It included a farm, extensive farm buildings, a market garden, artificial manure works, steam-ploughing machinery, a laboratory, a free library, a free school, and several grocery shops. Its head- quarters were at Blennerhasset, a village of about 200 inhabitants, on the south side of the little trout stream, the Ellen, about 18 miles west of Carlisle, and about 10 miles east of Maryport. In as far as I am responsible for the matter and arrange- ment of the book, I claim indulgent criticism ; on the ground principally of my inexperience in authorship; and also, because, being wishful to complete some departments of the history, which I had not anticipated having to do, I have written much that I had neither convenient time, nor indeed the necessary knowledge, to write well.* I also desire to record here our indebtedness to Mr. Holyoake, for many useful hints and still more useful exci- sions; without which the book would have been less present- able than it now is. CHARLES D. HUNTER. Glasgow, Seftember, 1874. With regard to portions of this book written by me, I am not only indebted to others for various emendations, but unable to superintend their passage through the press. WILLIAM LAWSON. Warwick, Mass., U.S.A. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY. Difficulties of the Public Service. By G. J. Holyoake, . i CHAPTER I. Commencement of Farming. By William Lawson, . 14 CHAPTER II. A Village Parliament. By William Lawson, ... 25 CHAPTER III. Farm Proceedings—Outside Opinion. By William Lawson, 35 CHAPTER IV. The First Steam Plough in Cumberland—its Adventures and Vicissitudes. By Miller Tiffin 42 CHAPTER V. Free Co-operation. By William Lawson 73 CHAPTER VI. Varieties of Co-operation. By William Lawson, . 86 CHAPTER VII. Personal Incidents. By William Lawson, .... 95 CHAPTER VIII. Public-Good Departments. By Charles D. Hunter, . loi CHAPTER IX. History of the Blennerhasset Festivals. By Charles D. Hunter, 123 CHAPTER X. Farming Losses. By Charles D. Hunter and Miller Tiffin, . 147 . CHAPTER XL Manufacturing Profits and Losses. By Charles D. Hunter, 180 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. Shopkeeping and other Ventures. By Charles D. Hunter, 194 CHAPTER XIII. What our Neighbours think of us. By Thomas Bell and George Glassbrook, 203 CHAPT.ER XIV. The French Excursion. By a Neighbour, .... 212 CHAPTER XV. Varieties of Farm Cropping. By Charles D. Hunter, . 221 CHAPTER XVI. Field and Crop Balance-Sheets. By Charles D. Hunter, . 258 CHAPTER XVII. Manures and their Value. By Charles D. Hunter, . 290 CHAPTER XVIII. Farm Labour AND ITS Cost. By Charles D. Hunter, . .319 CHAPTER XIX. Experiments on Grass Manuring. By Charles D. Hunter, . 330 CHAPTER XX. Field Experiments on Potatoes. By Charles D. Hunter, . 365 Appendix, 396 Index 399 ERRATA. Page 148, line 13, column 1873, read ^36 instead of ;f37. „ .1 13, 1. Total, „ ^43 „ £44. „ r„ 19, „ 1873, „ ;fii53 „ ^,154. I53i n 5t transpose " got" to before " fixed." ' 187, „ 23, read 185 instead of 867. 221, „ 19, „ ^8 „ £3. 326, last line, add "The above list show nothing for potatoes they being taken direct from the pits. Twopence a-weeic may be added for them.'' TEN YEARS OF GENTLEMAN FARMING. INTRODUCTORY. DIFFICULTIES OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE. During Mr. Lawson's last visit to Egypt, I was asked to look over some MSS. left by him, and judge whether it would be useful to publish them. After visiting the place to which the MSS. related, and perusing the narrative by the light of information gathered upon the spot, I had no hesi- tation in thinking that the story of " Ten Years at Blenner. hasset " was worth printing, seeing how scant is the literature of social experiments. I volunteered, moreover, to give my impressions of the story by way of introduction to it ; since what I had observed, in writing a " History of Co-operation in England," had convinced me that the general public " know very little of the " Difficulties of the Public Service in the direction of social improvement; and that if they" knew more, they would judge with less severity than they do, the inevitable errors made in that form of disinterested effort. Those who originate personal experiments in social life, or introduce the social element into industry, have more difficulty to encounter than in attempting some new thing A TEN YEARS OF GENTLEMAN FARMING. Prejudices to be encountered. in manufacture. In discovery, or mechanical invention, sufficient opposition is encountered from persons who dislike any change, and those who are interested in what is already established, and whose property would be damaged if the new system prevailed; while in social experiments further opposition of a more vicious order is met. Prejudices of a political, social, or even of a religious character, have to be encountered ; so that a pioneer in this direction not only gets no help, but meets with active hindrance. He is not only thought to be no wiser than he ought to be, but he is said to be no better than he should be; and it is a very mild form of dissent to suggest that he is eccentric, with a tendency to something very well understood as the further and final stage of that malady. Hence it follows that per- sons who attempt any form of social improvement have commonly very little experience to guide them; for very few experiments have previously been made. Where ten thousand experiments are attempted in art and science, not ten are tried in this department of human progress. The reader will not proceed far before he discerns that Mr. Lawson never hesitates to tell a story against himself— indeed, he writes with self-depreciating candour; and if he does not actually take a pleasure in giving the reader an Impression to his own disadvantage, he does not take any trouble to give him a favourable one. Perceiving how ingeniously and persistently people who have not been successful hide from themselves, and endeavour to hide from others, the causes of their failure, Mr. Lawson, justly dishking this, seems to me to go rather to the opposite ex- treme. This is a better and more honourable course than DIFFICULTIES OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE. Difference between Social and Mechanical experiments. the other ; still the reader who wishes to form a just opinion will notice that it is an extreme. He who ventures to peruse the following pages will find recorded a number of curious social incidents and proceed- ings. In all the literature of British social experiments I have not often met with so many calculated to startle the prosaic and conventional Enghshman. Industrial Partnerships are now accepted facts in com- mercial undertakings. When Mr. Lawson adopted the principle at Blennerhasset, he was probably the only gentle- man in England who had committed his fortune to what was then regarded as certain peril. Better methods exist now of giving the labourer a share of the profits ; but they were mostly unknown then, save as theoretical speculations, such as those Mr. Babbage devised. No scheme was in force for estimating the profits which might accrue from the personal interest and voluntary industry of the labourers, so that they ccmld judge what degree of advantage was likely to accrue to themselves.