TIPTREE HALL FARM.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 270, 3 April 1873, Page 8

TIPTREE HALL FARM.

BT ME. J. J. MECIII. In order to remove agitation, excitement, and divergence of opinion as regards the history of this farm, I will simply state the facts, and leave your readers to draw their own conclusions. The farm, when I bought it, was known as Saddler's Farm, becauso a very worthy farmer of that name had occupied it originally for many years. Its name in the deeds was '• Bignore's Farm." It was never called a hall until I so named it after rebuilding the whole of the premises on a new site. My original purchase was 138 acres and some poles, for £3150, or a fraction under £24< per acre. I bought it in 1841 of a respectable land agent, who once farmed it himself, and it was considered a reasonable price. The tenant then in possession paid £120 rent per annum for it. The great and small tithes were commuted (fortunately just before I made my improvements) at 5s per acre. The farm-house was an ancient whitewashed lath-and-plastor building ; tho bed rooms were in the roof, lofty in the centre, and coming down at the caves to about 18 inches, as near as I can remember. The old thatched farm-dwellings were detached from each other, and tho north-east or any other wind had free passage between them. In fact, it was just such a piece of antiquity as one too frequently sees in this and other counties. Tbe land was undrained, the fields and open ditches numerous, and of various and irregular shapes, as are at this moment most of the fields in Essex. There was a bog (unsafe for man or beast) called the Wabbings, and a winding road down from Potter Bow Lane to the premises, having a great hedge and ditch on each side with trees. By-the-bye, I paid £100 for the timber on the farm. There were sundry odd pieces of waste, which I enclosed. I removed altogether about 3 s miles of fences, and filled in ditches, and have now 90 acres in one enclosure, and 42 in another, without a tree ; but I have a shrubbery of some two acres for the birds to breed on. I have no doubt that, in favorable seasons, respectable crops were grown on the arena available for cereals, but a wet season- must have been disastrous, for when I" first visited the farm in September, 184*2, on a wet day, with my old friend Dean (now hearty at eighty-seven), the light land was swampy, and the heavy as loving as birdlime, but as slippery as butter. The men assured me that some of the wheat crops that year yielded only about li to 2qr. per acre, aud, judging by the weak stubble and paucity of stacks, I can easily believe it. Now, owing to my deep drainage, the light land is always dry and workable, and the bog especially so ; and I send down to my neighbors, for many miles, about 40 to 50 gallons of pure water each minute — summer and winter — more in the latter. The late medical man of the district used, jocularly, to say that I had spoiled all his best cases of fever down tiiat line of brook. Anyone who v will take the trouble to inquire of some' of the old men on our heath about the comparative condition and yield of this farm now and formerly, will soon arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. Finding the old buildings too tender for substantial ropair, and otherwise unsuitable, I cleared the lot away — a very easy task — and erected a new house and homestead on higher ground, for wl.«n I first visited the farm I noticed a heap of peas growing from damp in what had been the best room. In fact, the bailiff there lost his wife and several children from fever in a short space of time. In our new buildings health for man and beast for thirty years baa been the order of the day. The moral I draw from my farm operations is that example, good or 'bad, has, after a time, its influence. Thirty years ago I was pronounced to be somebody not very sensible, but now I can • compliment many of my neighbors "upon having adopted the very plans they once condemned. It is really gratifying and almost surprising to see what a change has come over the scene in this immediate neighborhood. The laborers whe know what agricultural improvement menn^, and what it has dove for thnm and their families, express to me, ami, I kuow, feel a deep sentiment of gratitude for the change that has taken place in their condition iv this neighborhood within the last thirty years. It is natural that there should be some jealousy aad dislike on the part of

those who do not believe in modern changes, but cling affectionately to " the good old times." They should, however, try to reconcile and adapt themselves to this steam age, for the bubbling kettle has upset and deranged many a comfortable old prejudice or attachment, and made many people angry; but millions have received and will continue to receive, its comforts and advantages. It is not possible to please everybody, and I never expected to do so. The people of England want more bread, meat and other consumables ; and as the land of England is neither half farmed nor half capitalled, by landowner or by tenant, there must and will be great changes and improvements. Observation and experiments have taught me, especially in this neighborhood, that the grand remedy for this uncomfortable state of things is frequent change of ownership, by which means I new sentiments, and new additional j capital will, as a necessary result, flow into agricultural improvement. Therefore, I am most decidedly opposed to fixity of tenure by the laws of entail and primogeniture. — " Farmer."