for general culture, as it requires much labour to keep it from grass and weeds.

Sainfoin is a perennial plant, with showy red flowers. It is a native of England, on dry chalky soils. Its peculiar value is, that it will grow on poor soils unfit for tillage. It is good for pasturage or hay, and is generally considered a most valuable plant.

166

DEALING AND MONEY MATTERS.

AND now, as we farmers, hearty and hungry as we are, by reason of our rural labours, do not grow all this corn and all these cattle for our own eating, it remains to shew in what way we gain or lose by the disposal of the produce, or by our various receipts and payments.

Farming, considered as a trade in commodities, has been a business in which a man of moderate means and capacity might, with industry, get wealth. At present those are

reckoned prosperous farmers who manage to retain their property undiminished and to keep out of debt.

I will now mention a few of those persons, with whom the farmer has to settle, before he can reckon his profits. These are chiefly the King, the landlord, the clergyman, the overseer, the labourer, and those of whom he purchases his stock, materials, and imple

ments.

The King's taxes are not, I am thankful to say, what they used to be: for, at one time, our agricultural horses, and some carts, paid duty. The chief thing remaining now is the land-tax.

The landlord, as proprietor of the soil, has an undoubted right to put any price he may think proper upon it. It is for the farmer to consider, before the bargain is made, what it will suit him to give, taking other expenses into the account. I may say, in a rough way, that land, in England, varies from

one pound to two or three pounds an acre, according to circumstances of soil, situation, and other particulars. The farm-house and buildings are always included in the rent of the land. We reckon that our four hundred acres are worth about £500 per annum.

The engraving represents the farmer paying his rent to the steward, who, pen in hand, awaits the slow process of extrication, by which the tenant draws the money from his pocket. In the adjoining room an entertainment is provided. This transaction is called the rent audit.

The rent and other matters being agreed on, a written engagement for a term of years, which binds the landlord to let, and the tenant to hold, on certain conditions, is drawn up by a lawyer. This, I suppose, I need not say, is called a lease. The conditions are called