The English farmer, besides the payment of his rent to his landlord, is subject to the payment, in most cases, of tithes and poor rates. The latter vary very much in different parishes, and even sometimes in the same pa rish, at different periods. The former are more steady and regular in their amount. Perhaps, together, they may amount to one half, or 3-5ths of the rent.
The ordinary term of entry to a farm in England is Lady-day; but Candlemas, Whitsuntide, and Michaelmas, are also common terms in some parts of the kingdom. Michaelmas and Lady-day arc the customary terms of payment ; the first payment commences six months af ter entry to the possession of the farm. Letting lands for a term of years for a former rent, hut making the farmer pay a considerable sum by way of fine, was for merly a very common custom, hut it is now chiefly con fined to the crown and church lands.
lInviNG premised these general remarks, we shall now proceed to an account of the agriculture of Eng land. This kingdom, not including Wales, in an agri cultural point of view, may very properly be divided in to six departments or districts : by an agricultural dis trict, meaning that tract, which is distinguished from other parts of the kingdom, by a uniformity or similari ty of practice, whether it be characterised by grazing, sheep-farming, arable management, or mixed cultivation ; or by the production of some particular article, as dairy produce, fruit-liquor, &c. The six agricultural depart ments distinguished from one another in this point of view, are the northern, the western, the midland, the east ern, the southern, and the south-western.
The northern agricultural district includes the prin cipal parts of Northumberland and Durham, the whole of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Lancashire, and York shire, (excepting the fens and marshes bordering on Lincolnshire,) with parts of Cheshire, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire. This department is distinguished by a cool ness of climature, and a backwardness of seasons, as compared with the more southern parts of the island ; but its most striking natural feature is derived from its mountains. As a field of rural economy, it is also strong ly distinguished from the other agricultural districts. On its western side, manufactures, indeed, have prevail ed over agriculture ; but on its eastern side, all the branch es of the latter flourish. It would not, indeed, be easy to point out any portion of the kingdom, in which a greater degree of agricultural skill and industry is dis played, than in the northern parts of Northumberland, and on the banks of the Tees.
The western department extends from the Mersey to the banks of the Somersetshire Avon; being bounded On the west, by the Welsh mountains ; on the east, by the lower hills of Staffordshire, and the uplands of Warwickshire and Oxfordshire; and on the south, by the chalk hills of Wiltshire, and the Sedgemoors of Somer setshire. Nearly the whole of this agricultural depart
ment, comprises an uninterrupted succession of vale dis tricts, formed by the passage of the Severn, the Avon, the Dee, and the Mersey, to the sea. It is no less dis tinctly marked by agricultural produce, as the whole of it, with the exception of the high lands of Shropshire and Herefordshire, the Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire, and the Mendip hills in Somersetshire, may be almost said to be applied to the produce of the dairy. It is also distinguished as an agricultural district, by its fruit-liquor.
The midland department is bounded by the moun tains of the northern, and the chalk hills of the south ern departments, in its length ; and by the rising grounds, which separate it from the western depart ments, and the banks of the marshes, where the eastern department commences, in its breadth. Compared with the great variety of soil and surface, exhibited by the other departments, this may be regarded as one widely extended plain of fertile lands, without a single emi nence, except the Charnwood hills. In its agricultural character, it is distinguished by its mixed cultivation, to which the nature of its soil and surface is almost uniformly suitable. " As a wide field of agriculture, (to use the words of Mr Marshall,) in which every branch of the profession is highly cultivated, it has been long popularly known. Here not only the spirit of improvement, but of enterprize, may be said to inhabit. The art, science, and mystery of breeding has here been carried to a height, which in any other country probably it has never attained same enterprising spirit, which led to this pre-eminence, still continuing, with little or any abatement." The eastern department is not more strongly marked in its natural, than in its agricultural character ; in the former, its fens and marshes, as well as the light sandy quality of its uplands, features that arc united in no other district of the kingdom, mark it out ; in the latter, the turnip husbandry is the most distinguishing feature. The agricultural pursuits of the eastern department, are directed, in a principal manner, to grazing, not only in the marshes and lower grounds, but on the uplands. Sheep, as well as cattle, are grazed here ; and it may also be remarked, that in a very considerable portion of this agricultural district, arable husbandry is my ex tensively and intimately connected with the fattening of sheep and cattle. Its boundaries are distinctly marked, including the fen lands of Lincolnshire, Northampton shire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and Norfolk, as well as the rest of Norfolk, and the counties of Suf folk in Essex, with those parts of the adjoining counties which lie close to them.