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«? tting asidefor the present a personal tax , and confining r attention'to .-a tax on realized and tangible property , the first and chief principle is , that property should be f xed in the hands of its actual possessor , irrespective f questions of title , participation , or iricumbrance . That which may ordinarily "be seen by a servant , or alued for insurance , may be seen and valued for taxa tion without violation of privacy . Cohcealable property , if it has not been declared and taxed , ought to my a heavier tax on occasion arising for the action of the State on its account—that is , in the event of theft , violence or litigation , where the higher power steps in . Deeds mortgages , rent charges , bonds , loans , bank
, notes , and securities in general , are only representatives of property already taxed in other hands . Money , in actual coin , is always of inconsiderable amount compared with the total value of other property ; and , except so far as it is the express object of commerce , it is held in very variable amounts at different times by the same person ; it may , therefore , be exempt from taxation , unless , indeed , under the rule * which applies to concealable property . Ships aud cargoes , to whomsoever belonging , would pay like other property for the time they remain under cover of our laws . These seem to be the chief considerations requisite for regulating the practical details .
Under such a system , every movement would be perfectly free . Exports , imports , inheritances , bequests , education , locomotion , industry , enterprize , and enjoy , ment of every kind , would suffer no greater impediment from taxation , than from natural and inevitable costs of any other kind . . Nor on such a plan could changes of fiscal policy disturb , as now , the value of property . Two or three generations ago , we laid heavy imposts on bricks , timber , and windows . Recently we have abolished some of these taxes , and have sensibly reduced the others . Houses built under the old system , will soon have to compete disadyantageously with those erected under the new . We know not how soon some State
necessity , or change of opinion , may bring fresh unforeseen changes , and again disturb the relations of property ; it may easily happen , on existing principles , that a new burden may be laid , where , on the Occasional pressure passing away , its retention or remission may equally work evil . Not so if property , as propertyywere taxed : the only question would be the amount to be raised , and the consequent ratio of contribution'for the year . The last-mentioned consideration discloses the
extreme simplicity of fiscal legislation on this plan , with the proportionate abridgment of the labours and differences of legislative bodies . One question , or at most a few , would represent the endless multiplicity of our financial debates . Given the year's expenses ' and the known amount of realized and taxable property , and the wholo question is that of the rate for the year , or at most of a few rates , if diversity in cost of governing for different kinds of property should establish practically the justice of a difference .
How much the substitution of a single question for endless agitations on window-tax , malt-tax , taxes on knowledge , &c ., would gain for the consideration of deep and vital questions in relation to justice , right , and safety , we are perhaps not in a condition to calculato ; but we know that instances daily occur of wrong sustained through the complexity , costliness , or want « f adaptation of our legal processes—that on every hand the practicable development of industry meets with obstructions from mistaken policy or obscure perceptions of right in the laws themselves ; and that every whore the law is not so much a rule of conduct ( for it is too cumbrous to be thoroughly known even to its licensed expounders ) as a trap bristling with
penalties : these things no one ignores , nor desires ; wo cannot therefore but include amongst the evils of indirect taxation that absorption of the time and thoughts of our legislators , which distracts them from the radical euro of evils , ondured only because wo havo become blunted by usage to thoir oppresflivonoss . Wo «»» got but a meagre and nibbling roforin of Chancery , » ono of the obstructive laws of partnership , and worse Man none of the general order and frame of our laws , becauHo beer , malt , paper , timbor , sugar , and the rest , havo ouch an annual fit of restivonoss under imposts . ( * ivo us direct taxation , and with it wo shall gain some attention to tho vast social necessities for the sake of which alone taxation itaolf exists .
Wo havo yot to pursuo briefly other views of the « "bject , especially tho practical application of the prin-Cll > lo 3 wo havo advocated to our own national taxation .
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ON THE CULTIVATION OP FLAX . It is now time that wo Bh ' ould revert to tho puroly jyriculturftl portion ' of our subject , having treated l | wt of tho manipulation of flax thus early in our "' ( "narks in order to exhibit as fairly as we could some
of the profits likely to result froin its culture , and thus to lead intelligent farmers to give that consideration to the subject which its peculiar advantages appear to us to demand . Although no doubt the alluvial deposits of rivers will furnish / the fibre best suited for the manufacture offine : yarns ,, there is scarcely any limit to the variety of soils in which flax is found to flourish , as will be readily perceived on reference to the following table ,, the result of the labours of Sir K . Kane and Messrs . Mayer and Brazier , and . quoted by Mr . M'Adam in his interesting lecture : — Russia . Belgium . Ikeland . Per 4 ~ ~ | , Cent . of . 3 § 8 _ j £ £ > . £ , - § , I S 1 ¦«¦ ¦ &' § & fl . _ JL . _ JL _ * L ^_ & ^ Silica ...... 79-34 85 ' 09 75-08 92 * 78 60-94 6493 7372 lime Traces ' 89 " 35 ' 35 -36 304 167 Alumina ... 11-62 2-24 2 ' 10 -48 j 5-62 665 8-97 Iron Trace Traces 3 . 29 l' 2 O | 604 -60 * 31 However true this may be , it is by the judicious treatment of the soil , mechanically as well as chemically considered , that the agriculturist arrives at the most perfect results . Although not nice as to the quality of its food , the flax plant is somewhat tenacious as to its quantity ; and the more it is developed in its inorganic constitution the more largely will it be capable of assimilating those constituents of the atmosphere which almost alone contribute to the formation of a pure fibre . Hence we are led to the conclusion that , apart from the deep drainage , without which no plant will really flourish , a deep tillage is especially desirable for this crop ; and , at the risk of offending the wellworn prejudices of large farmers ^ we pronounce at once , and without reserve , in favour of either spade or fork cultivation in preference to the plough , and for the following reasons ; - - With all respect for this tnne-honoured implement of agriculture , a pair of stout horses and a well constructed plough will give a tillage varying in depth from six or seven to at most nine or ten inches . At the bottom of this tillage the plough leaves , in most strong soils , what is termed a " pan , " or hard crust , through which the fibrous roots of delicate plants find some difficulty in penetrating . The roots , consequently , strike out in a lateral direction , and the plant becomes stunted in growth from lack of food . Break through this crust with the point of a spade or fork and the finest roots descend to a depth nearly equal , in many cases , to the height of the stems above the ground . It is true that by the free use of the sub-soil plough this facility may be given , but it is weary work , dragging along a heavy implement through a tenacious clay , and farm horses bitterly complain of being called upon in this case to perform what might be more efficiently done by the men who drive them . Let us see how the account would stand as far as money expended is concerned . A sub-soil plough requires , in ordinary land , from four to six horses to draw it , with a man to guide it , and at least ono boy to drive tho team ; frequently another attends to clear away roots , &c . from the coulter . After this operation is effected , tho ground has to bo levelled down by heavy drags , rollers , clodcrushers , and the thousand and one implements in which agricultural machinists take their delight at county exhibitions . Then it has to be re-ploughed , harrowed , and rolled—the seed sown and harrowed and rolled again . ( Our readers must remember that wo aro not describing the ordinary mode of preparing land for flax with tho common plough , but that we are speaking of tho operations usually adopted by farmers when it is necessary to arrive at a tillage of from fourteen to eighteen inches by sub-soiling ) We believe wo aro within the mark when wo fix the cost of all these operations at 30 s . por aero at tho very lowest , without charging for wear and tear of horses or implements . Wo havo already said that flax rejoices in a sound loam or a clay subsoil . Tho former wo will suppose to be about tea inches in depth , and tho latter to bo of a friable nature , capablo , after exposure to the atmosphore , of being , by gradual cultivation , mixed up with it—the depth , agriculturally considered , boing unlimited . Now for our estimate of tho cost of digging an aero of this land with a fork weighing nevon-and-a-half pounds , with three stout prongs fourteen inches long , and steeled at tho points . * Wo shall not bo dealing illiberally with the labourer if wo require him to cam , by pioco-work , 2 s . in ton working hours . An ablo-bodiod man will turn over , to tho full depth of tho fork , on tho average , ton poles of ground por day , and , at % \ d .
per pole , the price at which we have ourselves procured the willing services of stout Middlesex labourers , a man ' s daily earnings will amount to 2 s . 1 < & , although by working extra hours , which he will readily do if permitted , he may , in some soils , make a considerable addition to his gains , which the farmer ought not to grudge . At this rate , the cost of a fourteen-inch tillage , in which every clod is broken and every weedroot thrown out , will amount to 1 / . 13 * . 43 . per acre , or only 3 * . 4 d . over that of the laborious and often
inefficient operation of subsoiling . As there are 160 poles in an acre , it will take a man sixteen days to finish it , or , in other words , sixteen men will dig an acre in ten hours . Here there is no hard crust left at the bottom of the work . The point of the fork crumbles such of the subsoil as it does not bring to the surface , and the roots descend through it , and through the myriads of imperceptible crannies and holes formed by the labours of the insect world , in search of nutriment and life .
It is no Ie 3 s by a prpcess such as this than by the fattening qualities of the unseed that Sir James Graham truly stated that flax is " peculiarly adapted to increase the fertility of the soil . " It is the additional five or six inches of subsoil brought up to be blended with the surface which increases and freshens the whole staple , and augments the produce of » the farm . It is thus , indeed , that " in the sweat of his brow shall man eat bread . "
We recommend this operation to be performed on land intended for flax , shortly after harvest , and at any rate before Christmas;—during that pinching season when it is the fashion to reduce wages— -when the harvest earnings are well nigh spent , and the workhouses begin to fill—when the " odd hands" are directed to be discharged , and when horses , costing 1 * . per day for maintenance , are preferred to honest English labourers , ready to work as hard for the same or even a less
amount . Then is it that the hitherto inert subsoil should be thrown upon the surface to receive the " treasures of the hail" and the vivifying influence of frost and snow . Here let it lie > untrodden by man or beast , until the first spring vegetation appears in the longhidden seeds of . weeds and natural grasses . Then clean the land by getting more men to " point" it over with the same implements , at Id . per pole , six or eight inches deep , thus bringing up a little of the original surface-soil once more .
By this time the clod-encumbered field wUl have assumed the appearance of a garden , and in this condition what will not grow in it ? Flax certainly will ; and if there is an additional outlay of 10 s . or 15 s . per acre on this portion of the farm , is there not a crop to be harvested which can well afford it , or more ? But it is not to this crop alone that we look for reimbursement . It is also to the extra quarter of wheat , or the five tons of Swedes , or the extra load of clover per acre , that we look with at least as much confidence as that , in all human probability , the sun will rise early tomorrow morning . The effect is as certain as tho cause is just—not more just in the principles of agriculture than in those moral principles which seem to argue a
blessing to tho master when tho man is fairly waged . And when we reflect that this is a process which should be repeated , at least , once in five or six years upon tho same land ; and that , in the ordinary rotation of crops , the entire farm will participate in its accompanying advantages , who shall venture to place a limit to tho producing powers of English land ? This is tho true way of preventing a recurrence of such scones as that described in last week ' s Leader of a Bedfordshire labourer—his wife with a child at her breast , and three more youngsters—all emaciated , and the children alone careless—flying from thoir country and Is . per week as if from a pestilence ! Talk of over-population ! If our theory is as correct as study and practice teach us it is , the country is not half populated to carry it into
effect ! In ono of tho half-arable , half-grazing , or hay-producing parishes in Middlesex , tho poorVrato amounted , two or three years back , to 4 y . 6 d . in tho pound . Labourers in regular employment submitted to a reduction from 12 a-. to 10 s . por week , and tho workhouses were crowded with tho unwilling idle , while tho jails wore crammed with poachers and potty thieves . Tho farmers complained no less of tho price of hay than of that of wheat . Many able-bodied men , while they
rejoiced in , and wore grateful for " chodp bread , " lacked tho whorowithal to' purchase it . Would this atato of thingH have hopponed- —will they over happen again , if tho mm of Middlesex will cultivate thoir land as Nature intended , and adopt tho growth of flax us an excuse , if any bo required P T )> o remedy is simple . Lot any three or four influential landlords , or largo farmers , in this or any other county , adopt tho motto , for tho nonce , of " flax versus wheat "—let them publish their accounts in tho London or local journals , and
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* Our readers may loarn whoro to proouro this fork by applying to Mr . John PiUotfc , of Kolaolo , near Saxmundhara , Suffolk .
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r Juke 5 , 1852 . ] * H ^ 539
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 5, 1852, page 539, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1938/page/15/
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