I

172 LANDS OCCUPIED BY THE PROPRIETORS

ly diminished, and many of them are now appropriated to thefeeding of sheep.

2. Where a proprietor possesses a considerable landedestate, a part of which he proposes to occupy, it has beenfound more advantageous for him, to raise only as much comas is necessary for his domestic purposes; and, after inclosinghis lands, and laying them down in grass, to let them tofarmers or graziers, reserving only what is absolutely neces-sary for his own accommodation.

3. Some proprietors have cultivated a considerable tract ofarable land, but seldom successfully. They rarely attend toall those ipinutiae which a t corn-farmer must not neglect.Neither do they regularly oversee their servants, examine thestate of their working cattle, attend fairs and markets, norpersonally superintend the progress of all their farming ope-rations. These duties therefore commonly devolve on a bailiff,who is seldom sufficiently qualified for them all, or able tomanage his master’s affairs with that economy and frugality,which a prudent and well-informed farmer, whose personalinterest is concerned, must exercise in all his transactions.The other avocations of a great landed proprietor, must alsopreclude him from paying that attention to minutiae, withoutwhich it is impossible that he should farm to advantage upona great scale.

4. In the more remote and unimproved districts, some land-lords have found it necessary to take farms into their ownhands, with a view of showing an example of correct husbandryto their tenantry; and they look for profit, not from the pro-duce of the farm they occupy, but from the general improve-ment of their estate. Others are of opinion, that instead ofthis kind of experimental farming, it would be of more ad-vantage, both to the proprietor and to the district, to encou-rage a farmer from another county to set the example, asfarmers are, in general, more ready to imitate the practiceof their equals, than that of a large proprietor, who is so far