ECCENTRIC AGRICULTURE.*

Do any of our readers relish a queer book ? If so, they will find one in Ten Years of Gentleman Farming. Let them not be deterred by the title, whatever be the depth of their ignorance in agricul- tural matters,—though they should not know wheat from barley, a swede from a mangel-wurzel, a threshing-machine from a road- crusher. Let them skip, if they please, all the figures, all the hard terms of Cumberland agriculture,—we promise that what remains shall have a relish for them, as that of the liquid con- tents of a bottle of well-iced champagne. Their real difficulty in reading will not be that of figures or hard words, but of believing that what is told them relates really to a rural parish Ten Tears of Gentlenian-Farming at 131ennerhasset, with Co-operattee Objects. By William Lawson, Charles D. Hunter, F.C.S., and others. London: Loup-law, Green, and Co. 1874.

in Cumberland, under Skiddaw, and is not the story of some voyage by M. Jules Verne to another planet.

Let it not be supposed for a moment, from the comparison with M. Jules Verne's wonderful voyages, that the author, or authors, or editor of this book—for it is one of its oddities that it seems to be the work of nobody in particular—are to be sus- pected of the very slightest tendency to exaggeration or imagina- tive writing. On the contrary, its greatest charm lies in its

simplicity of description, which might deserve to be called Homeric, combined with a moral candour which one was afraid had died out of the world. The writers seem never satisfied until they have put everything in the worst light against themselves, quoted the hardest things said of them by their opponents; and the most sarcastic of critics will gain nothing by laughing at them, for they show you clearly that out of every one of their blunders they have had their own quiet laugh first. And yet, though the sense of humour never deserts them through all their undertakings and failures, the book is at bottom a thoroughly serious, earnest, noble one.

The title of the work, even in its extended form—" Ten Years of Gentleman Farming at Blennerbasset, with Co-operative Objects "—can give no real idea of the contents. For there certainly never was before, and probably never will be again, such gentleman farming as that of Mr. W. Lawson ; and there certainly never was before, and probably never will be again, such co- operation as was there sought to be realised. Mr. Lawson—who is a brother of the popular baronet, the wit of teetotalism—tells us that in May, 1861, when in his twenty-fifth year, "without the re- putation of having been successful in any undertaking, except that of the mastership and huntsmanship of his brother's fox-hounds," he rode up to London, heard there of Mr. Mechi's farm at Tiptree, visited it, became enthusiastic for the Tiptree system, tried in vain on his return to impress its beauties on his Cumber- land friends, was offered a farm to experiment on, about October, 1861, and accepted the offer. "Had 1 been differently circum- stanced," he says, "my ignorance of farming might have seemed a great objection ; but it seemed to me then to be of the never-go into-water-till-you-know-how-to-swim kind ; besides, anybody could carry on what he understood, while it would re- quire some cleverness to carry on what one did not under- stand." So he diligently tested the quality of the soil, spent some weeks in travelling for agricultural information, en- gaged his father's coachman as head man, bought a steam plough and ten tons of cheap guano, and then fell in with a clever agricultural engineer, who told him be had made three great mistakes already,—the steam plough, the cheap guano, and worst of all, the coachman farmer. "And how profusely I laid out money, pulling down miles of old fences ; making thou- sands of yards of good new roads ; draining the land five feet deep and ten yards apart ; and taking thousands of tons of stones out of the ground ; how, during several years, I bought and fed animals and sold them at a loss ; how I deceived myself and was deceived by others in various ways, can be sufficiently well imagined without being described." But besides that, another estate, called the Prior Hall Estate, about four miles from Blennerhasset, was also purchased, of which Mr. Lawson candidly says that he had "great pleasure" in it whilst he occupied it, "for whether I made money by it or not, I easily had my own way in the management of it." The farming proper soon branched out into a number of different businesses. Twelve acres were laid out as a market garden; the steam plough travelled about for hire ; manure works were established, then a flax mill, then a starch factory, besides gas works, which are classed only among the minor departments, though they supplied gas not only- to the farm, but to the village. Two shops were set up at New- castle and Carlisle for the sale of farm and garden produce ; two others at Blennerhasset and Ireby, apparently for the sale of groceries and other purchased goods ; cottages were built and let. Lastly, a department was opened of "American Invest- ments," which is understood to have alone survived ; for the farm buildings were ,burnt down in August, 1871, and about the end of that year, says Mr. Lawson, "it seemed clear that my farming was very far from being remunerative, and from giving prospect of becoming so," and he therefore sold his farm to his brother.

From an agricultural, or, to speak more largely, a business point of view, the value of the work consists in the careful details of each experiment, and the elaborate tables of results obtained. It will be sufficient under this head to give the names of chapters :— " Farming Losses," "Manufacturing Profits and Losses," "Shop- keeping and other Ventures," "Varieties of Farm Cropping,' 4‘ Field and Crop Balance-sheets," "Manures and their Value," "Farm Labour and its Cost," "Experiments on Grass Manur- ing," "Field Experiments on Potatoes." One curious question

raised by the Blennerhasset experience is that of "farming with- out cattle," though Messrs. Hunter and Tiffin only claim to say :— " The nearer we approached to profitable farming, and the more carefully we sifted our facts, the more convinced we became that on some soils crop-farming would yet prove more profitable than cattle-fanning." Even under its business aspect, the story, in spite of all figures and technicalities, will be found to offer many a feature of interest to the unlearned. The chapter on "The First Steam Plough in Cumberland, its Adven- tures and Vicissitudes," in particular, is a perfect burlesque epic, which ends by making the reader almost as much interested* in the machines employed as in the men who work them, or in their sacer votes, Mr. Miller Tiffin ; nor should the chapters on "Manufacturing Profits and Losses," or on "Shop- keeping and other Ventures" be passed over, containing as they do some of the most characteristic incidents in the book. But it is under its social aspect that the story will probably interest the largest number of readers.

Mr. Lawson was determined that the labourers on his farm should partake directly in the profits. He began by taking their Tote by ballot. "Our voting-urns were two bottles ; one was ticketed with the word 'Co-operation,' and the other bore the inscription, 'Every man for himself.' What, then, was the result with these eleven people? Actually ten of them voted for Every man for himself,' and only one put into the ' Co- operation ' bottle." After twice again trying the experiment of a vote, to which not the labourers interested only, but all the in- habitants of the village were now invited, Mr. Lawson at last, in 1866, "offered co-operation to all comers," in the shape of one-tenth of the profits for the workers. It had from the first been "the practice to call together for consultation some of the chief officials," then "all the regular male and female labourers" (to say nothing of a standing offer of half-a-crown to any ordinary labourer for any valuable idea). This now developed into an "Open Council," in which "the right to discuss and vote was not limited to the workers, but any one was welcome to attend and give the benefit of his or her advice," and which ulti- mately took the name of the "Blennerhasset Parliament." And

-the co-operation practised became "free co-operation," i.e., a working together "for the public good, irrespective of all con-

sideron of party or of accidental and artificial distinctions." "To this purpose Mr. Lawson declared himself ready to devote all the profits above 21 per cent. per annum on a stated amount of his capital, during a certain time, and the disposal of this amount seems to have been left with the "Parliament." And thus,—

" Not only did it discuss farming affairs, or things over which the establishment had control, but questions of outside interest. The want of a post-office or receiving-box in the village was felt, and a resolution to that effect being passed, led to a Government Inspector making his appearance, and a receiving-box was soon afterwards established. several free reading-rooms, a free library, the Blennerhasset free school, and the free night school were also established through the "Parliament.' Through it. too, a number of Cumberland people were enabled to visit the great Exhibition at Paris in 1867 Sometimes

petty disputes of the neighbours were introduced for discussion If Jane Jones supposed herself to have a grievance with her next-door

neighbour, Mary Smith, she determined to bring it before the 'Parlia- ment,' and gave notice of it to the Secretary, for him to placard it in the -village the day before the meeting. Often, too, when workers thought themselves aggrieved, and wished to make long-winded complaints privately, it was found very convenient to refer them to the 'Parliament' . . . . During the latter days of our' Parliament.' it instituted a system of mutual criticism, by which whoever chose might be publicly criticised in 'Parliament.' . . . . There was freedom of speech, not only in name, but in reality, and occasionally the cool and pointed way in which work-people of the establishment criticised those who were in authority over them was diverting, but might have been otherwise, but for the quiet way in which those criticised stood fire."

It will be admitted that the idea of farming by the advice of a Village Parliament reads like an importation from a world which is not this sublunary one. Accordingly, Mr. Lawson's first farm bailiff, Mr. Thomas Bell, sees a sufficient cause of past failure in the "Parliament" :—

"Here was a motley mixture of boys, girls, women, and men, of all, trades and no trade or profession, indiscriminately drawn together into a council-chamber, for the purpose of discussing and deciding upon the most important subjects regarding farming operations, though eight-

tenths of them were quite ignorant and inexperienced they have nothing invested, therefore they can lose nothing How do they

act? Just as they are carried away by the prejudice or excitement of the moment. The vote of the meeting is taken, and of course the vote of the most ignorant and inexperienced counts equally -with that of the wisest and most judicious man in the assembly."

On the other hand, Mr. George Glassbrook, who was bailiff from

1868 to the sale of the estate, does not seem to lay any of the blame of failure upon the '4 Parliament," assigning as "the main

cause of Mr. Lawson's non-aness" that "as soon as any new scheme was got into working order it was laid aside." He says expressly :—

"Mr. Lawson co-operated with his workers very successfully, all his offers to them being highly appreciated and well wrought for, and the workers were just beginning to have full confidence in their employer, when the establishment was broken up. The class of workers on the farm were quite a superior body, and well worthy of co-operating with."

And Messrs. Charles D. Hunter and Miller Tiffin, authors of the chapter on "Farming Losses," point out that a steady decrease in wages per acre took place between 1866 and 1871, from 25 is. 31d. per acre to /1 16s., and they think (or one of them thinks, for though the authorship is joint, the singular pronoun is used,) that co-operation "should be credited with a share" in this improvement, as "after the first taste of bonus-money in 1869, there was more faith exhibited in it by the work-people, and in many cases a real endeavour was made to keep down the expenses and further the business." That a process of moral education was really going on may be judged of by a single fact. For several years, relays of London City Missionaries were, by vote of the "Parliament," provided with board and lodging at the farm in summer-time, out of the public-good expenditure,—i.e., in cur- tailment of the workers' bonus. When one of the Missionaries had the bad taste to find fault in the "Parliament" with the labourers for voting higher wages to themselves out of Mr. Lawson's pocket, one of them gave him the quiet rebuke, "Perhaps the gentlemen forget that we pay for thee." The extremely interesting chapter on the "Public-good Depart- ment" can only be here referred to, one of its oddest details being a sentence by the "Parliament" of Tom Paine's works to the flames, which was carried out after two years' delay ; as well as a droll Chapter on the "History of the Blennerhasset Festivals," which began by being purely vegetarian, but lapsed into beef and ham.

Of course no conclusions can be drawn from the book either for or against co-operation as applied to agriculture. There is no method whatever in Mr. Lawson's co-operation. He feels—what every Christian man should feel—that his property is a trust. He is very benevolent and sincere, superbly indifferent to Mrs. Grundy, but he appears also to be wilful and unsteady. He has had plenty of money, and has been able to try a number of experiments with things and men, the former probably valuable, the latter very in- teresting and often very diverting. He has done good, for after ten years he seems clearly to have left both the land and the men better than he found them. His book, through its noble outspoken- ness, is itself a good action. One can only hope that in another ten years he may have as racy a record of fresh experience to offer the public as that which is contained in the present volume, and that he may always have plenty of money to spend, as itis to be feared that he is little likely to make it.