William Marshall's "Practical Remarks on Executing the Improvements of Farm Lands," 1804

(William Marshall, On the Landed Property of England, 1804, pp. 301-305 in A. Aspinall and E. Anthony Smith, eds., English Historical Documents, XI, 1783-1832, New York: Oxford University Press, 1959, pp. 470-72.)

The first step toward the execution of every improvement is to ascertain its reality; by calculating the advantages to arise from it, and estimating the expense of carrying it into effect. If the former, taken in their full extent, do not exceed the latter, the proposed alteration cannot, in a private view, be considered as an improvement. The next point to be ascertained is the practicability, under the given circumstances of a case, of executing the plan under consideration. There are three things essential to the due execution of an improvement. 1. An undertaker; or a person of skill, leisure, and activity, to direct the undertaking. 2. Men and animals with which to prosecute the work. 3. Money, or other means of answering the required expenditure. A deficiency, in any one of these, may, by frustrating a well- planned work, after its commencement, be the cause, not only of its failure, but of time, money, and credit being lost. Let us therefore take a view of the different means, whereby a man of landed property may execute the higher improvements of farm lands. There are various methods by which he may promote the permanent improvement of his estate: namely, By granting long leases to tenants; letting them find the requisites of improvement, and take the advantages, during their terms. By granting shorter leases to tenants; with a covenant of remuneration, for the remainder of such improvements as they have made, at the time of quitting. By granting leases, at a low rent, for the first years of the term, -to give the tenants time, and ability, to improve at their own expense. By advancing money to tenants at will, or, which is the same, making allowances of rent, for specified improvements, to be executed by them; under the inspection and control of the manager: they paying interest for the money advanced, or allowed. By employing workmen, on tenanted farms; the tenants in like manner paying interest on the money expended. The proper interest, in ordinary cases, is six percent; thus estimating the value of the improvement, at sixteen years purchase. By taking farm lands into hand; making the required improvements; and letting them, at an advanced rent, in their improved state. And, lastly, by improving the minds of his tenants. By infusing among them a spirit for improvement. This is to be done, by a proprietor, or by the manager, of an estate, who has a knowledge of rural affairs, and who possesses the goodwill and confidence of its tenantry, in various ways. By personal attention, only, much is to be done. By reviewing an estate, once or twice a year; -by conversing with each tenant in looking over his farm; -and by duly noticing the instances of good management which rise to the eye, and condemning those which are bad;-vanity and fear, two powerful stimulants of the human mind, will be roused, - and an emulation be created among superior managers; while shame will scarcely fail to bring up the more deserving of the inferior ranks. If, after repeated exhortations, an irreclaimable sloven be discharged, as such, and his farm given to another, professedly for his superior qualifications as a husbandman, an alarm will presently be spread over the estate, and none, but those who deserve to be discharged, will long remain in the field of bad management. Even by conversation, well directed, something may be done. If, instead of collecting tenants to the audit, as sheep to the shearing, and sending them away, as sheep that are shorn;-or if, on the contrary, instead of providing for them a sumptuous entertainment, and committing them to their fate, in a state of intoxications repast, suited to their condition and habits of life, were set before them; -and if, after this, the conversation were to be bent towards agriculture, by distributing presents to superior managers, specifying the particulars of excellence, for which the rewards or acknowledgments were severally bestowed;-a spirit of emulation could not fail to take place, among the higher classes; while the minds of the lower order of tenants, and of the whole, would be stimulated and improved, by the conversation. By encouraging leading men, in different parts of a large estate, -men who are looked up to, by ordinary tenants; -by holding out these as patterns to the rest; -by furnishing them with the means of improving their breeds of stock; by supplying them with superior varieties of crops, and with implements of improved constructions. And, in recluse and backward districts, much may be done by tempting good husbandmen, and expert workmen, from districts of a kindred nature, but under a better system of cultivation, to settle upon an estate. By an experimental farm, to try new breeds of stock, new crops, new implements, new operations, and new plans of management: such as ordinary tenants ought not to attempt, -before they have seen them tried. To this important end, let the demesne lands of a large estate, or a sufficient portion of them, be appropriated to a nursery of improvements, for the use of the estate; to be professedly held out as such, and be constantly open to the tenants; more particularly to the exemplary practitioners, the leading men of the estate, just mentioned; who, alone, can introduce improvements among the lower classes of an ignorant and prejudiced tenantry. It is in vain for a proprietor to attempt it. On the contrary, the attempt seldom fails to alarm, disgust, and prevent the growth of spontaneous improvements. Under the present plan of demesne farming, the tenants see expensive works going forward, which they know they cannot copy, and hear of extraordinary profits, by particular articles, which they are certain cannot be obtained, by any regular course of business. They therefore conclude that the whole is mere deception, to gain a pretext for raising the rents of their farms, above their value. Whereas, if the demesne lands were held Out, as trial grounds, for their immediate benefit, and conducted, as such, in a manner intelligible to them, they would not fail to visit them. Instead of large proprietors attempting to rival the meanest of their tenants, ill farming for pecuniary profit, which, on a fair calculation, they rarely, if ever, obtain, let their views in agriculture be professedly, and effectually, directed toward the pecuniary advantages of their tenants: for front these, only, their own can arise, -in any degree that is entitled to the attentions of men of fortune. Instead of boasting of the price of a bullock, or the produce of a field, let it be the pride of him, who possesses an extent of landed property, to speak of the flourishing condition of his estates at large, -the number of superior managers that he can count upon them, -and the value of the improvements which lie has been the happy mean of diffusing among them. Leave it to professional men, to yeomanry and the higher class of tenants, to carry on the improvements, and incorporate them with established practices, -to prosecute pecuniary agriculture in a superior manner,-and set examples to inferior tenantry. This is strictly their province; and their highest and best view in life. It has been through this order of men, chiefly or wholly, that valuable improvements in agriculture have been brought into practice, and rendered of general use. The possessor of an extent of territory has higher objects to view, and a more elevated station to fill. As a superior member of society, it may be said, he has still higher views than those of aggrandizing his own income. But how can a man of fortune fill what may well be termed his legitimate station in life, with higher advantage to his country, than by promoting the prosperity of his share of its territory; by rendering not one field, or one farm, but every farm upon it, productive? This is, indeed, being faithfully at his post. And it is a good office in society which is the more incumbent upon him, as no other man on earth can of right perform it; -valuable as it is to the public.