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This book may be kept out 
 
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 the day indicated below. 
 
 NOV 231904 
 
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 -ItTUEo 
 
AGRICULTURE, 
 
 A HISTORICAL ACCOUJN^T OF ITS PRINCIPLES 
 
 AND PRACTICE, 
 
 EXEMPLIFIED IN THEIR RISE, PROGRESS, AND DEVELOPMENT. 
 
 BY 
 
 SAMUEL COPLAND, 
 
 TITF. " OLP NORFOLK FARJOiR" OF THE MARK LANE KXTRESS. 
 
 VOL. L 
 
 LONDON: 
 VIRTUE AND COMPANY, CITY ROAD. 
 
 1866. 
 
U 30 
 
 V- 1 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Thk practice of Af^ricuUurc foimdcd upOii traditionary cxpcricMicc aloiio, was tlio rule 
 until witiiin comparative!)' a few years; and it is admitted that in tlic hands of a man 
 of intcllifjcncc, the cd'cct of such experience, when the operations are judiciously 
 eondncted, may I)c successful. The experiments, too, of such men, even wlicn not 
 associated with scientific knowledge, have frequently turned to good account. ]}ut the 
 experience tlius actpiircd could be of little use to the agriculturists at large, on account 
 of the isolation of the individuals themselves, and the al)sence of those means of 
 communication by which practical information is disseminated. So far, therefore, as 
 the public benefit was promoted, the efl'cct was confined witJiiu a very narrow circle, 
 and the experiments probably died with the individuals with whom they originated, 
 not every one being, like Tull, able and willing to commit his thoughts to print. 
 
 But there was another, and more powerful, and general cause for tlie little [)rogrc89 
 made by individuals of intelligenee in tlie disstunination of their views, tianiely, the 
 objection of the body of husbandmen to innovation, aiul their stolid indifference, or, 
 rather, aversion to what they termed "book knowledge," which was a j)erfect bugbear 
 to them. Nor is there any cause for surfirisc at thi.s aversion, when we consider the 
 condition of the rural population up to tlie latter part of the last century'. Completely 
 separated by the iiature of their profession from mingling with the world at large, and 
 holding daily intercourse only with a class still lower in intelligence than themselves, 
 and equally wedded to the opinions and practices of their forefathers, — never mixing even 
 with those of their own profession, except at fairs or markets, when the business of 
 the day was too frequently concluded by a low de])auch, — without the means or inclina- 
 tion of receiving or communicating knowledge, they were content to follow in the steps 
 marked out for them by their ancestors, and, as they expressed it, "let well alone." 
 It may be readily conceived with wliat spirit the first attempt to unite Science to 
 Agriculture, theory to practice, was received by the men whom we have described. The 
 large majority scouted the idea ; and even some of the most enlightened doubted 
 whether it could be productive of any practical benefit; and it was only after many 
 years of persevering experiments that Sir Humphrey Davy's propositions were accepted 
 and adopted on the farm. 
 
 We must not blame the husbandman for this tardy acceptance of the boon thus 
 offered to him, when we reflect that it is only during the last two centuries that Science 
 herself has emerged from the dreamy philosophy of the alchemists, and taken that place 
 on tlic pedestal of truth which nature has assigned to licr. With all the means and 
 appliances at hand to direct and assist in their researches, the human race had e.xi.sted 
 neurly six thousand years before chemistry began to emerge from tlie darkness by 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 ■which it was enveloped. Step by step, from the time of Van Helmont,* the last of the 
 alchemists, with painful and persevering industry have the men of science felt their 
 way, grojnng in obscurity, to that broad daylight of knowledge, the results of which 
 have confei-red unbounded benefits on mankind in every department of life, and in none 
 to a more important extent than in that of the husbandman, who is now eager to bring 
 all the physical sciences to bear upon the operations of the farm. 
 
 Practice without Science in Agriculture may be compared to a man with only one 
 arm, and science alone is equally inoperative. As an illustration of this, science 
 demonstrated, by the experiments of Margraaf, that the Silesian beetroot contained five 
 or six per cent, of sugar. This was in the year 1747, but it remained merely a curious 
 fact until the beginning of the present centufy, when the necessities of the French in 
 regard to a supply of sugar suggested turning the discovery to account ; and it is now 
 one of the most important manufacturing industries in that country. Science and 
 practice united prove the truth of the familiar adage, " Knowledge is power." A 
 horse in a mill is a prince of blindfold workers compared with the husbandman who 
 works on, wilfully shutting his eyes to the means offered to him of ameliorating his land, 
 and doggedly persevering in the path beaten for him by his ancestors, equally ignorant 
 with himself The number of such we believe to be now small, and they are diminish- 
 ing every day. Railways and a free press coming in aid of Agricultural Associations 
 have wrought miracles of eniighteiiment upon the minds of the cultivators of the land, 
 and an enemy to science amongst them is as much out of date as the dodo amongst 
 birds, or mastodon amongst animals; he belongs to a fossil age. 
 
 The writer of this Work commenced farming just at the period when new views of 
 the nature of Agriculture began to be entertained. It was a fortunate circumstance for 
 him that his father, who for many years farmed his own estate of nearly 400 acres, 
 in Norfolk, was, what was very unusual amongst agriculturists of that period, a 
 large reader, as well as a deep thinker, and familiar with all the agricultural and general 
 literature of the period. He fell in at once with the views of Arthur Young, so that 
 the writer had the advantage of being able to study the works of that eminent man, 
 and to see his system carried out in practice so far as the nature of the land justified it. 
 At that time, also, the new husbandry, founded on the theorj' of Young, was in full 
 operation on the far-famed Holkham estate, and the successful result of the system 
 began to have its influence on the surrounding country. The annual sheep-shearings, 
 instituted by Mr. Coke, purely in order to give greater publicity to the new method of 
 farming by an exhibition of its practical superiority, aflforded those who attended them 
 an excellent opportunity of studying the difference between an enlightened system of 
 husbandry founded upon scientific principles and one based alone on traditional practice. 
 The writer attended these interesting and instructive meetings for many years, and 
 has since witnessed the universal triumph of the principles first practically exemplified 
 on a large scale by the founder of those noble and patriotic institutions. Chemistry, 
 a perfectly new subject to the agriculturist, first found a patron for its introduction on 
 the farm in the Holkham chieftain ; and Sir Humphrey Davy, and other eminent 
 chemists, appeared at those meetings to establish the fellowship between Science and 
 Agriculture. 
 
 * Van Helmont died in J64-4, at the bko of fi", thereby giving the lie to bis prefensions to tlie possession of a 
 mcdieine by which he conid prolong bis life to an it, definite period. 
 
TREFACE. V 
 
 About the year 1820 the interests of the writer led him to leave the country and 
 reside in the metropolis. Engaged in other pursuits than agriculture^ but still nearly 
 connected with it, and holding intercourse with many agricultaral friends, he continued 
 to watch with a lover's eye the progress of improvement in that his favourite branch of 
 rural industry. After some years, an engagement with a friend caused him to settle 
 in Ireland, where, in addition to the business which took him thither, he occupied 
 himself in cultivating a few acres of land attached to the house in which he resided. 
 In 1848 he made an engagement with the editor of the Advocate newspaper (at that 
 time the best agricultural and industrial journal in Ireland)j as a writer on agricultural 
 and other subjects. This engagement he retained until 1853, when he returned to London, 
 and immediately obtained employment in the same capacity from the editor of the Mark 
 Lane Express, which paper he is still connected with ; and it has brought under his imme- 
 diate consideration the opinions and practical experience of the most eminent farmers in 
 every part of the United Kingdom, as well as on the Continent. With such jii'eparatory 
 experience, he did not hesitate, when called on by the publishers, to undertake the 
 present Work, of which he thinks it proper now to give a brief account, as it differs in 
 some respects from all previous works of the kind. In reading a great number of these, it 
 has occm-red to him that the nature of landed property is seldom or never touched upon, 
 and that where referred to, very slight and inadequate ideas are conveyed respecting it. 
 In Part I., Vol. I., he has therefore given a concise historical account of the origin of 
 property in land, commencing with the patriarchal, which merged into the feudal 
 system, and describing the processes by which the various tenures now existing were 
 established ; also the value of land at different periods of history, and some of the most 
 important laws by which it is governed. Part II. contains, with a short history of the 
 rise and progress of Agriculture in England, a brief sketch of that of other countries, 
 principally adverting to the hindrances existing to its advancement, and the eflforts 
 making to counteract those impediments. Part III. relates to the connection of Agricul- 
 ture with physical science, giving a sketch of those sciences immediately applicable to 
 the farm. Part IV. relates to the domestic animals of the farm, their various species and 
 varieties, and a history of those improvements in the various breeds which have raised 
 their character and value iu every part of the world. Part V. gives a history of the 
 vegetable kingdom, and the various kinds of agricultural produce. Part VI. contains an 
 account of British husbandry, the different kinds of farms, the implements and machines 
 employed in husbandry, the history of steam cultivation, and all the newly invented 
 machines for lessening the amount of hand labour. Part VII. relates to different modes 
 of draining and fencing, manui'es, the dairy, irrigation, soils, seed, &c. 
 
 In Vol. II., Part VIII. commences a calendar of operations under the title of "The 
 Seasons and their Engagements." It is divided into four seasons, namely — 1st, autumn, 
 and early winter ; 2nd, winter, and early spring ; 3rd, spring, and early summer ; and 
 4th, summer, and early autumn. The writer makes the agricultural year begin at the 
 close of harvest, which ought to be early in September, but is too often protracted in 
 many parts of tbe country to the following month. The first season, therefore, is 
 concluded at the end of November, the second at the end of February, the third at 
 the close of May, and the fourth with August, or the harvest month. The operations 
 on the land and at the homestead falling due in each of these periods, each of which is 
 distinctive enough to form a separate scries, are described iu their several order of 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 arrangement. If these are disregarded, and the work of one season unnecessarily 
 thrown forward into the ne.Kt, in many cases it would throw the whole routine of the 
 farm into confusion. The word " unnecessarily " is put in italics because, in some cases, 
 the seasons are so unfavourable that it is impossible for the best management to keep 
 the work ahead so as to secure the execution of every operation in the proper time. 
 Such was the case in 1852-3, when little more than half the breadth of winter wheat 
 could be sown, and much of that which was put in was destroyed. This portion of the 
 work gives general directions for the execution of all the important operations of the 
 farm dui'iug the year, which, however, will be varied to meet the differences of soil and 
 climate. In this respect it is the most practical part of the book as regards the ordinary 
 farm-work, and -will, it is presumed, be found, when coupled with the information 
 scattered throughout the rest of the Work, sufficiently copious for reminding the farmer 
 of the work to be performed, and the manner and time proper for doing it. 
 
 Part IX. contains a list of " auxiliary plants," or those not generally cultivated on the 
 farm, but yet sufficiently so to render a notice of them necessary. Also the treatment 
 of forests and plantations, with a list of forest trees, and the method of cultivating 
 them ; farm buildings, the apiary, the veterinary department, agricultui-al manufactures, 
 insects, quadrupeds, and birds, injurious to the farm ; insurance, farm accounts, and a 
 variety of other subjects of interest to the farmer, some of which are seldom enlarged 
 upon, or even referred to, by writers on agriculture, and will therefore be new to 
 the generality of readers. It has been the Author's endeavour to enliven what is in 
 some respects a somewhat dull detail, by the insertion of anecdotes illustrative of the 
 subject in hand. Many of these he has related from personal observation, whilst others 
 are such as he has met with in the course of his reading, in which case the source from 
 whence they were derived is referred to at the bottom of the page. 
 
 In the compilation of the Work — for it would be presumption and folly in him or any 
 other person to profess to have written such a book from personal experience alone — the 
 writer has availed himself of all the most eminent works of husbandry, ancient and 
 modern, that the noble library of the British Museum supplied. A list of most of these 
 will be given at the end of the table of Contents ; but he wishes specially to mention 
 the aid he has derived from Stephens's " Book of the Farm," and Morton's " Cyclo- 
 peedia of Agriculture," which he considers the best modern works of their several kinds 
 hitherto published : the first as an elementary treatise for the use of the agricultui-ai 
 student, and the second as a book of reference in an alphabetical form. Whilst, how- 
 ever, acknowledging his obligations to other authors, he makes no scruple of stating, 
 that he has in every case exercised his own judgment, and weighed well the substance of 
 the information he has met with, and compared it with his own experience as far as that 
 would go, and with that of his friends, whom he had an opportunity of consulting. 
 
 In some important instances his opinion has materially clashed with those of practical 
 asriculturists, and in none more than on the construction and operation of the modern 
 plough, and on the present and future status of steam cultivation. With regard to 
 this latter subject, he has been censured by the reviewer in a weekly publication,* 
 for having given too much space and too prominent a position to Halkett's C4uideway 
 system, whilst Fowler's, Howard's and Smith's round-about systems, which are «/ 
 present the only ones in full practical operation, have been allotted much less space 
 
 * Gardeners* Chroiticle. 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 in the Work. After reading what the reviewer has said on the subject, and re-considering 
 the matter, he still maintains his opinion, that steam cultivation is in a transition state j 
 that the present working systems, by being limited to one operation of the farm, are 
 as far from developing the power of steam on the land as Handcock's steam omnibus 
 was helpless in the extension of the traffic in goods and passengers ; and that, lastly, 
 the present state of agriculture in regard to the competition in cereal produce with 
 foreign growers, will soon necessitate the adoption of more economical modes of cultiva- 
 tion. The writer is fully convinced that were the Halkett system adopted, the whole 
 of the farm operations would be conducted at half the present expense, whilst the 
 produce of the laud would be greatly increased. This is the only way in which the 
 British husbandman can meet the foreigner, namely, by reducing the expense of cul- 
 tivation to the minimum, and increasing the produce to the maximum. Let these objects 
 be accomplished, aud no foreigner would be able to compete with us. 
 
 Steam cultivation the writer considers the great agricultural question of the day — ■ 
 the turning-point upon which hangs that of profit or loss by the occupation of the land. 
 If the landlords knew their own interest, and cared for that of the tenants, they would 
 not neglect making permanent improvements. But the indifference they display, as a 
 body, iu availing themselves of the facility offered by the Government for draining their 
 lands, affords little prospect of their laying down the land with rails at an expense of 
 eighteen or twenty pounds per acre ; and it would be madness for a tenant-farmer to do 
 so witnotTt a tenant-right guaranteeing to him remuneration at the expiry of his lease. 
 It is therefore probable that only by the combined capital and enterprise of a public 
 company will the Guideway system be inaugurated in the United Kingdom. The writer 
 is too old to expect to live long enough to see it carried out, but he ventm-es to declare 
 his conviction that such a company, uuder proper management, would not only confer 
 a lasting benefit on the country by setting a splendid example, but would prove one of 
 the most profitable enterprises of the present day, if properly conducted. 
 
 The writer considers the present condition of the land of England to be very 
 unsatisfactory, chiefly owing to circumstances which nothing less than legislative inter- 
 ference can rectify. The chief obstacles to the improvement of the land, and the full 
 development of its productive powers, are — first, the law of entail and inheritance, or 
 primogeniture ; secondly, the want of a tenant-right ; thirdly, the game laws ; fourthly, 
 the arbitrary power of the landlord over the tenant. 
 
 The first of these is an impassable barrier to all improvement of estates, by making 
 it imperative, as a matter of justice, for the present owner of an entailed estate to save 
 every shilling in order to provide for the younger branches of his family in case of his 
 death, instead of expending it in permanent works, however reproductive, the benefit of 
 which will accrue to the eldest son, as the inheritor of the property, sooner or later. 
 This more concerns the female than the male children, because these latter are sure, in 
 one way or other, to be fastened upon the country, by official appointments either civil, 
 military, or ecclesiastical, however unfit they may be to fulfil the duties belonging to 
 them. The female members of a high family have but little chance of a settlement in 
 life adequate to their rank, unless they can bring with them a fortune ; and to provide 
 this the noble owner of many an estate is compelled to allow it to remain in an unpro- 
 ductive, or at least half-productive state during his whole lifetime, to the injury of every 
 one concerned in it. 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 The second cause shuts out all permanent improvement by the tenant, who is 
 restricted from cultivating the land he occupies to advantage, being compelled by his 
 own interest to farm, as it were, from year to year, and to expend nothing upon the 
 land but what he can reap an immediate benefit from. 
 
 The third cause, which allows the landowner to keep up enormous heads of game 
 at the expense of the tenant, without any remuneration, or the liberty of killing a 
 single bird or hare for his own use, is bad enough in all conscience ; but it is rendered 
 still more oppressive by the new laws made by certain owners of estates in the Midland 
 Counties, by which their tenants are prohibited from employing reaping and mowing 
 machines, and from ploughing within a certain distance of the fence, or cutting the 
 brushwood on the borders, because all these operations destroy the harbour for the 
 game, and spoil the shooting. We know not whether the tenants of these petty 
 sovereigns have submitted to this tyranny ; but if they have, it is as little to their 
 credit as Englishmen as the laws themselves are to their landlords. 
 
 The fourth cause is equally serious and injurious. The covenants are too frequently 
 stereotyped in all leases and engagements for land ; and, being drawn up by persons 
 ignorant of husbandry, and without any regard to the nature of the land, and the 
 difference of soils existing upon the property, render it imperative on the tenant to farm 
 to great disadvantage. Like the bed of Procrustes, these restrictions are continually 
 cramping his operations, interfering even where the property itself would be the better 
 for a deviation, whilst it would promote the interests of the tenant. These subjects are 
 all ti-eated on at greater length in the Work, especially that of the game laws, which the 
 writer considers to be the most injurious to all parties concerned, and the most requiring 
 the interference of the legislatui-e. If the writer has spoken with bitterness on this 
 subject, it is because he has seen glaring instances of injustice in all parts of the 
 country perpetrated by the upholders of the excessive preservation of game, who roh 
 their tenants to gratify their selfish vanity. We see nothing in such men of the " old 
 English gentleman," who looked upon his tenants as his children and friends, and 
 consulted their interests as well as his own. The game was preserved for fair sporting; 
 and if the tenants were not allowed to shoot it, the lord took care to send them a portion 
 whenever he or his friends had a day's shooting. The game laws are one of the last 
 relics of the feudal system, and the worst j and the sooner they are abolished, the 
 better will it be for the landowner, the occupier, and for the country at large. 
 
CONTENTS OF VOLUME L 
 
 Part I.— LAND. 
 
 SECT. 
 1 
 
 PAGE 
 1 
 
 The history of Iho appropriation of land . 
 
 The nature and origin of freeholds, copy- 
 holds, leaseholds, tenants at ■will ; tenure 
 of land in Ireland, &c 11 
 
 The value of land at different periods of 
 historj- 24 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 4. The aggregation and subdivision of land . 30 
 
 5. Cottage allotments, &c 39 
 
 6. Rural economy. — The farm lahourer, &c. . 45 
 
 7. Poor-laws.— Tithes 52 
 
 8. Game laws 71 
 
 9. Tenitorial customs 84 
 
 Paet II.— the THEOllY OF AGEICULTURE. 
 
 1. The ri.se and progress of agricultural prin- 
 
 ciples in England 97 
 
 2. The agricidture of Scotland 119 
 
 3. Ireland 126 
 
 4. France 135 
 
 5. Prussia 144 
 
 6. The agriculture of Austria 154 
 
 7. the German Union . . 164 
 
 8. Switzerland 168 
 
 9. Belgium 172 
 
 10. Russia 184 
 
 U. 
 
 United States of America 195 
 
 Paet III.— AGEICULTURE IN CONNECTION WITK PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 
 
 1. The subject considered 206 
 
 2. Agricultural physiology 209 
 
 3. The germination and constitution of plants 217 
 
 4. The food, diseases, and remedies of plants . 224 
 
 5. Agricultural chemistry 240 
 
 6. AgTicultural mechanics 253 
 
 7. Hydrodynamics 259 
 
 8. Agricultui-al geology 205 
 
 9. botany 283 
 
 10. Mcteorologj- 290 
 
 Paet IV.— THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
 
 1. Bakewell's system 307 
 
 2. The horse 308 
 
 3. The English horse 310 
 
 4. The race-horse 313 
 
 5. The hunter 316 
 
 6. The hackney, or farmer's saddle-horse . . 322 
 
 7. The agricultural, or cart-horse 328 
 
 8. The Irish horse 331 
 
 9. Galloway cob and pony 332 
 
 10. The ox 337 
 
 11. The middle-horns, the Devon 340 
 
 12. the Cornish 346 
 
 13. the Somerset .... 347 
 
 14. the Hereford .... 318 
 
 15. the Sussex 351 
 
 16. the Welsh 353 
 
 17. the Scotch 357 
 
 IS. The polled catUe, the Galloway .... 365 
 
 19. the Norfolk 367 
 
 20. the Suffolk dun . . . .368 
 
 21. The polled cattle, the Devon nats .... 370 
 
 22. The long-homed cattle 370 
 
 23. The short-horns 377 
 
 24. Foreign cattle, the AJdemey and Brctonne . 384 
 
 25. On the selection of cattle 386 
 
 26. The sheep ; — the Teeswater, the Lincoln- 
 
 shire, the New Leicester, the Cotswold, the 
 Eomney Marsh, the Dartmoor, the Exmoor, 
 the Heath or Black-facod, the Kyeland or 
 Hereford, the Dorset, the AVilt-shire, the 
 Southdown, the Old Norfolk, the Herd- 
 wick, the Cheviot, the Dun-faced, the Shet- 
 land, the Spanish Merino, the Slerino cross- 
 breed 388—414 
 
 27. The pig 414 
 
 28. The British hog : — the Berkshire, the Hamp- 
 
 shire, the Sussex and Kentisli, the Windsor, 
 the White Suflblk, the improved Black 
 Suffolk, the Essex, the Lincolnshire, the 
 Chinese; the Irish pig 416 — 427 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 29. The rabbit 123 
 
 30. The poultry-yard 430 
 
 31. The different breeds of poultry : — the Dor- 
 
 king, the Game fowl, the Polish, the Ham- 
 burg, the Malay, the Spanish, the Bantam, 
 the Frizzled, the Silk, the Shanghae, the 
 
 SECT. PAOE 
 
 Bumpless, the Barn-door, the turkey, the 
 pea-fowl, the Guinea-fowl, the swan, the 
 goose, the domestic duck, the Rouen duck, 
 -the Aylesbury duck, the Buenos Ayrean 
 duck, the farm-yard duck, the Brazilian 
 duck 433—403 
 
 Pakt v.— the vegetable KINGDOM. 
 
 1 . Wheat — its history, its characteristics, its che- 
 
 mical composition, its reproductive power, 
 
 its different species 465 — 482 
 
 2. Barley — common English, Chevalier, Annat, 
 
 Noble, Moldavian, Potter's, Black, the Bat- 
 tledore, Common Bere, Victoria Bere, Sibe- 
 rian Bere, the Oat Barley .... 482—487 
 
 3. Oats 487 
 
 4. Rye 491 
 
 5. Maize, or Indian corn 493-^, 
 
 6. Buck-wheat, or brank 494 
 
 7. The bean 495 
 
 8. The pea 499 
 
 9. Vetches, or tares 502 
 
 10. The cultivated forage plants, the natural 
 
 grasses «03 
 
 11. The artificial grasses 512 
 
 12. The Sorgho, or Chinese sugar-cane . . . 515 
 
 13. Analyses of grasses 517 
 
 14. Formation of pastures 520 
 
 16. The turnip 525-^. 
 
 16. The mangold-wmzel 632-^^ 
 
 17. Kohl-rabi 536 
 
 18. The parsnip 538 / 
 
 19. The carrot S^f^^x/ 
 
 20. The Jerusalem artichoke 542 
 
 21. The cabbage 544 
 
 22. The potato 546 
 
 Pam YL— BRITISH HUSBANDEY. 
 
 1. British husbandry, its definition and progress 560 
 
 2. Of the different kinds of farms 664 
 
 3. The pastoral farms . 565 
 
 4. Arable farms 568 
 
 5. Implements of husbandry. — The plough . 571 
 
 6. The cultivator 584 
 
 7. Steam cultivation 5S9 
 
 8. Steam cultivation — its history 592 
 
 9. The harrow 611 
 
 10. The roller 614 
 
 11. The hoe 617 
 
 12. Sowing machines 619 
 
 13. Dibbling implements and machines . . . 625 
 
 14. Liquid and solid manure distributors . . 029 
 
 15. The threshing machine 631 
 
 16. Harvesting implements and machinery . . 634 
 
 17. The mowing machine 640 
 
 18. The hay-tedding macliine 641 
 
 19. The horse-rake 642 
 
 20. The corn di-essing machines 642 
 
 21. The chaff cutter 644 
 
 22. Root cutting machines 645 
 
 23. Oil-cake crushers, &c 647 
 
 24. The bone-mill 648 
 
 25. The tile-machine 643 
 
 26. The steam-engine 650 
 
 Pakt VII.— DRAINAGE ; MANURES ; THE DAIRY ; IRRIGATION ; SOILS ; 
 
 SEEDS, ETC. 
 
 Drainage 655 
 
 Different modes of drainage 658 
 
 Ai'terial, or main drainage 675 
 
 Fencing 679 
 
 Manures 691 
 
 S. JIanures, their distinctive characters . . 694 
 ;', Farm-yard manure 711 
 
 10. 
 11. 
 12. 
 
 Animal manures — liquid manure — town 
 sewage— 'tillage a substitute for manure . 7i7~ 
 
 The dairy 742 
 
 Irrigation 762 
 
 On soils 772 
 
 Seeds 779 
 
LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 PAor 
 English Farmyaud '. . . Frontispiece 
 
 Harvest Field ................. Vignette 
 
 Irish Cabin 132 
 
 Horses — Shetland, Roadster, Thoroughrred, and Welsh 307 
 
 „ Clydesd.vle, Cleveland, Flemish 328 
 
 Oxen — The Devons, Suffolk, Lancashire 3-10 
 
 „ Galloway, Bretonne, Shorthorns, and Kerry 365 
 
 „ Shorthorns 377 
 
 Sheep — Cotswold, Leicester, amd Lincoln " 397 
 
 Fowls — Dorking and Spanish 434 
 
 „ Spangled and Pencilled, Hamburgh and Gaub 437 
 
 Cochins and Turkeys 450 
 
 Ducks and Geese 458 
 
 Wheat 465 
 
 Barley, Oats, and Wheat 482 
 
 Agricultural Machinery 671 
 
 Agricultural Implements — Ploughs 5"8 
 
 „ „ Hay-making Machine, &c 584 
 
 Steam Ploughing Apparatus 606 
 
 Broadshare, Clodshare, Horse Hoe, Chain Harrows, and Chaff Cutter 611 
 
 Liquid Distributors and Two-edged Drill . . . . . . . . . . . . 629 
 
 Threshko by Machinery 631 
 
 Tukeshino M/chine, PiEAPlng Machine, &c. ............ 631 
 
 Burgess and Key's American Reaper ............. 638 
 
 GoRSE Machine, Root Washer, Chaff Cutter, &c 644 
 
 Portable Steam Engine, &c ... 650 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 Harvest Time - . . . . . Front ispieee 
 
 IIayfield Vignette 
 
 Pigs — Small Yorkshire and Berkshire ............ 50 
 
 Sheep — South Downs, Mountain and West Country Downs 60 
 
 Oak Tree 232 
 
 Farm Buildings erected for the Marquis of Bath 307 
 
 Ground Plan op Ditto 307 
 
 Labourer's Cottage— Single 337 
 
 „ „ Double 337 
 
 Bees and Bee-hives 342 
 
 The Horse — Bones of the Skeleton ............. 407 
 
 X „ External and Internal Anatomy of the Head 408 
 
 „ „ Muscles of the Hind-legs 418 
 
 J, ,1 Muscles op the Fore-legs 422 
 
 „ „ Bones of the Hock, &c 433 
 
 Insects 547 
 
 Pests of the Farm 615 
 
 Farm Buildings erected for Sir H. W. Dashwood, Bart 770 
 
 Ground Plan of Ditto 770 
 
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED IN THE COMPILATION OF 
 
 THIS WORK. 
 
 Sir A. Fitzhubert's "Booke of Ilusbandrie." 
 
 Sir Hugli Piatt's " Garden of Eden," 
 
 Gabriel Pl.itt's " Discovery of Intinite Treasure,"' &c. 
 
 Captain Walter Blyth. 
 
 Samuel Harllib's " Complete Husbandman." 
 
 Sir J. Evelyn's " rbilosophical Discourse of Earth." 
 
 Olivier de Serre's " Le Theatre d'Agriculture." 
 
 I ''l "it f " -Agriculture et Maison Rustique." 
 Davenant. 
 
 Maitland's " History of London." 
 Miller's " Gardener's Dictionary." 
 licckwith's " Frapnenta Antiquitatis." 
 Rennet's " Parociiial Antiquities." 
 Sir J. Eden's " State of the People." 
 Cullum's " Hawstcad." 
 Barnaby Googe, " A Booke of Husbandrie." 
 Sir John Norden. 
 Euggle's " History of the Poor." 
 Bradley, corrected. 
 
 Tus.ser's " Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandrie.*' 
 Worledge's " New System of Husbandry." 
 B. M. L., " Husb.andry and Architecture." 
 Pinkethman's "Authentic Account of the History of Prices 
 of Wheat, Bread, Malt, &c., from the coming of 
 William I., to March, 1745." 
 Grosshead's " Treatise on Husbandrie." 
 Wynkcn de Worde's " One Thousand Five Hundred Pro- 
 perties and Medicines for a Horse." 
 Moldcr's " Chemistry." 
 Sir H. Davy's " Agricultur.al Chemistrj-." 
 G.ay-Lussac's " Chemistry." 
 Nisbct's " Lectures on Agricultural Chemistry." 
 Ure's " Chemistry and Mineralogy." 
 Carpenter's " Vegetable Physiology and Zoology " 
 Orr's " Circle of the Sciences." 
 Sibson's " Agricultural Chemistry." 
 Liebig's " Ciiemistry of Agriculture." 
 Thompson's " Meteorology." 
 Graham's " Elements of Chemistry." 
 Liebig's " Animal Chemistry." 
 Knapp's " Chemistrj- applied to the Arts." 
 Bnussiugault's " Rural Economy." 
 Whewell's " Elements of Mechanics." 
 Eankine's "Mechanics." 
 Nisbet's "Journal of the Chemical Society." 
 Hcrapath's " Chemical Gazette." 
 Jnnrnal of the R. A. Society of Eni/land. 
 Youatt on the Horse. 
 
 on Cattle. 
 
 Culley on Live Stock. 
 
 Laivrence on Cattle. 
 
 Martin on the Siieep. 
 
 Youatt on the Pig. 
 
 Jlenfrey and Griffiths' " Microscopic Dictionary." 
 
 Sir R. Kane's " Industrial Resources of Ireland." 
 
 Marshall's " Agriculture of Norfolk." 
 
 Bradley's " General Treatise on Agriculture." 
 
 Sir F. 'Madden. 
 
 Hugh Bryce's " Mirror of the World." 
 
 Sir John Sinclair's " Statistics of Scotland." 
 
 Welch and Lupton, " The Horse in the Stable." 
 
 Mayhew on the Horse's Mouth. 
 
 Stephens's " Book of the Farm." 
 
 " Book of Farm Implements." 
 
 Sir R. Gordon's " History of the Sutlierland Family." 
 Parkes on Drainage. 
 
 " Essays on the Philosophy of Drainage." 
 Loudou's " Manual of Cottage Gardening." 
 
 " Encyclnpa>dia of Agriculture." 
 
 Morton's " Cyclop.Tdia of Agricidture." 
 C. W. Johnson's " Farmer's Cyclop.i2dia." 
 Macculloch on the Condition of the Labouring 
 Classes. 
 
 Weston. 
 
 Arnot on Physics, 
 
 Kirwau's " Geological Essays." 
 
 Donaldson on Manures. 
 
 Knight's " Food of Man." 
 
 Nicholson's "Journal.'' 
 
 Humboldt's " Central America." 
 
 " Fallacies in Drainage." 
 
 Richardson's " Pests of the Farm." 
 
 Curtis on Farm Insects. 
 
 Evelyn's " Sylva." 
 
 SIrutt's "Sylva Britannica.'' 
 
 Loudon's " Arboretum Britannienm." 
 
 R. S. Burn's "Outlines of Modern Farming.'' 
 
 Sibson's " History of Forest Trees." 
 
 Bloomficld's Poems. 
 
 Sinclair on the Weeds of Agriculture. 
 
 Kirby and Spence, " Introduction to Entomology.'' 
 
 Pe-sclicl's " Elements of Physics." 
 
 Gerard's " Herbal." 
 
 Sturgeon's " Annals of Electricity." 
 
 Brown's " Farriery." 
 
 Mac Gillivray's ""History of British Quadrupedc." 
 
 Cooper's "Modern Domestic Brewer." 
 
 Valentine's " Last Will and Testament." 
 
 Foster's " Researches about Atmospheric Phenomena." 
 
 Francis's " Chronicle of Life Insurance." 
 
 Thomson's " Chemistry of Organic Bodies." 
 
 ■ — " Brewing and Distilling." 
 
 " Annals of Chemistry." 
 
 Rham's " Dictionary of the Farm." 
 
 Smith's " Ctironicon Rusticum," Ac. 
 
 Torrens on Sir R. Peel's Act of 1844. 
 
 Lnccock on Wool. 
 
 Lord Sheffield on Wool. 
 
 Bischoff on Woollen and Worsted Manufactures. 
 
 ■ Foreign Tariffs. 
 
 Columella's " Husbandry." 
 
 Virgil's Georgics. 
 
 Hawker's " Instructions to Young Sportsmen." 
 
 Hunter's " Georgical Essays." 
 
 Duncan on the Currency. 
 
 Darwin's "Zoonomia." 
 
 " Phytologia." 
 
 Gregory's " Economy of Nature." 
 
 Varlo's " New System of Husbandry." 
 " Gleanings from Books of Agriculture." 
 
 Lord Kames' " Gentleman Farmer." 
 
 Graham's " British Georgics." 
 
 I'"or.syth's " Practice of Agriculture." 
 
 Petziioldt's " Chemical Lectures." 
 
 Smith's " Lois-Weedon Husbandry." 
 
 lull's " Husbandry." 
 
 ' Year-book of .American Agriculture." 
 
 ^'ille's " High Farming without Manure.' 
 
 Frcke on the Origin of Species. 
 
 Dumonceaux, " Elements of Agriculture." 
 
 Lavergnc's " Rural Ilconomy of England," &a. 
 
 " Rural Economy of France." 
 
 Eilinhtiryh Jovrnal of Agrindture. 
 
 Journal (TAnriciiUure Pratique. 
 
 Mark Lane Exprcsa. 
 
 Colic's " Institutes." 
 
 Le Couteur on Wheat. 
 
 Arthur Young's " Ann.ils of Agriculture." 
 
 . " Farmer's Calendar." 
 
 Encyclopieilia JSritannica. 
 
 Bees' Encycloi'itdia. 
 
 renuy Cyclojuedia. 
 
 " Returns of the Board of Trade." 
 
 Stephens's " Yester deep Tillage," ito. 
 
 Whewell's "Inductive .Science." 
 
 Kent's " Agricultural Sui-veys." 
 
 Grisenthwaitc's "Agricultural Chemistry." 
 
AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 PART L— LAND. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE APPROPKIATION OF LAND. 
 
 The word "land" lias commonly two main significations. In its broadest and most 
 general sense it implies one of the two grand divisions of tlie surface of the globe, 
 of which it constitutes one-third. In a more restricted sense it signifies that portion, 
 or those portions of the surface which are appropriated by mankind as a possession, 
 for the purpose of raising the means of subsistence. It is in this latter application 
 of the term only that we have at present to treat of it. 
 
 The instinctive claim in the human mind upon the land is not confined to man in his 
 civilised state. It is found as strongly developed in the nomadic tribes, who wander 
 over the hunting-grounds of their native country in search of a precarious existence. 
 There is, in fact, no race of people on the face of the earth so far reduced to a level with 
 the inferior animals as not to feel that they have a claim upon the soil which gave them 
 
2 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Tiirth, or who will not defend that claim to the utmost of their power against the 
 encroachments of others. This feeling may be traced back to the earliest ages of 
 mankind; and we are indebted to the sacred writings for the first historical record 
 of an individual appropriation and sale of land: the narrative of the purchase by 
 Abraham of the cave of Machpelah and the field Epliron from the sons of Heth=!= 
 is interesting, not only for the striking facts it relates, but as a specimen of the 
 primitive manners of Eastern nations at that early age of the world, and of the 
 dignified, honourable, and gentlemanly bearing of the old patriarch, who, feeling 
 the elevation of his position as a man of wealth and influence, courteously refused to 
 accept the possession as a free gift, and paid at once the full price for it, as fixed by 
 the propi-ietors. 
 
 When the patriarchal ages had passed aAvay, and the greater dispersion and 
 increase of mankind began to suggest and extend the idea of a public interest, it was 
 found necessai-y to invest individuals with certain powers that would qualify them 
 to protect the weak from the attacks of the strong, and to promote the general interests 
 and welfare of the society to which they belonged. It was natui-al that, in the first 
 instance, the new government should be modelled upon the patriarchal plan, and that 
 the head of the oldest branch of a tribe should govern the tribe, and hold, in trust, 
 the territorial property belonging to, or conquered by it. But it has been foimd by 
 experience tliat this principle, however applicable to a family, and possibly to a small 
 tribe in a rude and primitive state of society, almost inevitably leads to a condition of 
 slavery; and those nations, in the East especially, who have adhered to it, have 
 invariably in a few generations fallen under the despotic sway of one man, by whom 
 the natural rights of those he governed were disregarded. 
 
 The first instances recorded in profane history of a departure from the patriarchal 
 form of government, are those of the free states of Greece. These placed the supreme 
 power of the state iu laws made by the mutual consent of the people, and the land was 
 divided amongst the latter according to theii' families. Their example was copied by 
 Romulus in establishing a colony at Rome (e.g. 753), the founders of which carried out 
 the principles, both of law and government, they had derived from the Greeks. A portion 
 of land — two jugera t — was allotted to each freeman, that being considered sufficient to 
 support a family ; and laws were enacted to prevent either a subdivision or the 
 amalgamation of the lots. Each lot was the property of a Roman, which could neither 
 be taken from him nor sold by him. As the people increased in numbers, bands of 
 young men were sent out to procure by conquest fresh tracts from the weak states of 
 Italy, by whom Rome was surrounded. Thus their power and influence were extended in 
 every direction, the two arts of war and agriculture being the only" ones to occupy them, 
 there being no commerce. In process of time, however, this plan was found not to 
 succeed, on account of the scarcity of labour in a community where every one was a 
 lu'oprietor, except the slaves, who were inadequate to the task ; consequently, the land 
 was very imperfectly cultivated. As, therefore, the patricians obtained fresh tracts, they 
 compelled theii plebeian debtors, who were numerous, to cultivate it for them, to the 
 neglect of their own lands. The laws of the Twelve Tables, J the first regular code of 
 
 ' See Gen. xiiii. 
 
 t Thejui/i'nim was about three-fourths of an acre, or as much as one yoke of osen could plough iu a day. 
 
 X So called, either because the Romans then wrote with a style upon wooden tables, covered with wax ; or becausa 
 they were engraven oa tables or plates of copper, to be exposed in the most conspicnous part of the public forum. 
 
HISTORY OF THE APPROPRIATION OF LAND. 3 
 
 laws enacted by the Romans, and which originated in the jealousy of the patricians of 
 the power of the plebeians, made provision for the subdivision or alienation of the 
 lauded property of the citizens. Some learned critics, however, have held that the 
 clause which is supposed to refer to the subdivision of the land, had rather an allusion 
 to the dismemberment of the debtor's body, when he could not pay his creditors 
 in money. 
 
 Being destitute of commerce and manufactures, the Romans were continually under 
 the necessity of extending their empire by fresh conquests. By this means, the civiliza* 
 tion of that people communicated itself by degrees over the Continent, and was in 
 process of time conveyed to Britain, upon the conquest of that island by the Romans.* 
 
 Whilst the ancient Germans remained in the woods, the patriarchal system prevailed. 
 The land was the property of the tribe, and was cultivated for the general use. The 
 practice of agricultiu-e, however, was considered degrading, and was, therefore, hateful 
 to the free Germans. Their warlike and predatory habits frequently put them in 
 possession of fi-esh tracts of land ; but these accessions of territory, to a people who 
 despised the arts of peace, and were vmacquainted with a private or individual property 
 in land, were rather burthensome than acceptable. They therefore retui'ned the 
 conquered tracts to the vanquished, on condition of receiving assistance from them in 
 their wars. This principle, applied in the first instance to conquered enemies, was 
 afterwards adopted in the case of weak states. These, dreading the aggressions of more 
 powerful nations, voluntarily resigned to them their lands, and received them back on 
 the same condition of military service. 
 
 The cultivation of the land was performed by one half of the tribes alternately, the 
 other half being usually engaged in war. Thus the whole nation, like the Romans, 
 became expert in both occupations, and at the same time ensured the continuance of 
 their freedom. But when the advance of civilization, consequent on an intercourse with 
 other nations, had introduced the idea of a private property in land, grants of land 
 were made by the sovereigns to military leaders, in return for their services. These 
 allotments were proportioned to the dignity and merits as warriors of the individuals ; 
 and they were again distributed by them amongst their vassals, always on the same 
 condition of military service. In the first instance, these arrangements were subject to 
 the caprice of the grantor, who might, at a moment's warning, deprive his retainer or 
 vassal of his possession. Afterwards, it was assui'ed to him for a year ; then for a term 
 of years; at a later period, for life; and, ultimately, the property was allowed to 
 descend to his heirs. 
 
 These feudal teniu'es gave rise to a variety of terms stUl in use in English courts of 
 law. Thus, fealty consisted in an oath of attachment and obedience to the prince or 
 chief; homage was an acknowledgment on the part of a vassal of his lord's superiority. 
 Wardship arose after the feudal tenure merged into a life-possession, or inheritance. 
 Upon the death of a holder of land, the lord took the infant son and heir under his 
 protection, both for the security of his person in those wild times, and for the improve- 
 ment of his manners. He even exercised a power over his ward in the choice of a 
 wife (or husband, if a female), and he was given in marriage to the most honourable 
 
 * It is remarkable that the Romans never lost a foot of ground they had acquired by conquest. Agriculture and war 
 being their only occapations, their armies were bodies of husbandmen, who settled on the lands they had conquered, and 
 every husbandman vtas necessarily a warrior. 
 
4 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and powerful of his contemporaries. Relief was a fee or present^ given by a retainer or 
 vassal to his superior upon receiving a fief, or portion of territory, which had reverted to 
 the lord upon the death of a former holder. Aids, or benevolences, were voluntary 
 contributions, granted to the prince by his vassals, upon extraordinary occasions — as 
 the marriage of his daughter, the redemption of his captive family, or to fiu-uish a feast 
 upon the introduction of his sons into life. An escheat was the expulsion of the retainer 
 by his prince, or vassal by his lord, as a punishment for perfidy or cowardice, and the 
 term was also applied afterwards to the resumption of a fief by the prince or lord on the 
 failui'e of heirs. 
 
 Such was the nature and origin of the feudal system. In the advance of civilization, 
 and the increase and consolidation of society, military service, by which fiefs were held, 
 was commuted for a consideration in money. The change of manners, the establishment 
 of regular governments, which afforded protection to the persons and property of indi- 
 viduals, the extension of commerce, and the growth of luxury, — all tended to produce a 
 decay of the feudal system. Princes found greater subserviency and submission in 
 hired troops than in their independent and turbulent subjects; whilst the latter, 
 enervated by. the arts of peace and luxuiy, found it, on their part, more agreeable to 
 remain at home and lord it over their vassals, than to risk their persons and estates by 
 war. They therefore compounded for their military services by payment of a sum of 
 money. Thus, in process of time, the relative obligations of prince and retainer, and 
 of lord and vassal were changed, and the more onerous parts of the system were 
 ameUorated, or fell into desuetude. 
 
 The revenues of the Saxon monarchs in the early ages ivere very limited. The 
 decline of the feudal system diminished their influence and authority step by step, until 
 it was reduced exceedingly low. The lands retained by them were inalienable, and the 
 people possessed an interest in them, so that they could not dispose of them, even for 
 pious uses, and still less for private advantage. In some cases it was considered 
 common property, but still held on a feudal tenure. These allodial lands were called 
 by the Saxons, Folk-land, or Reeve-land; whilst the extensive tracts held by written 
 contract were termed Book-land. All history proves that a private property in land had 
 its origin in common property, and that, therefore, the owners have no right in the soil 
 but by permission and for the benefit of the state. 
 
 Nor were the prerogatives of the Saxon kings absolute. They could not declare 
 war or make peace without the consent of the great council of the nation. The crown 
 was considered by them as the gift of the people j and although it frequently descended 
 from father to son, it was by the election of the people alone that the claim of the latter 
 was established. Even after the right of succession began to be admitted, the people 
 sometimes recurred to the same free mode of election when their rights were invaded 
 by the sovereign ; and the crown was bestowed upon a more approved chief. Thus, the 
 regal dignity was made to accord with and subserve the national freedom; and the 
 great principle that the kingly office was established for, and must be subservient 
 to, the public good alone, was recognised and acted upon by those rude warriors who 
 afterwards founded the British monarchy. 
 
 The German nobility were numerous and powerful. They resided in baronial 
 castles, the centres of vast tracts of land, and capable of containing many hundreds, or 
 even thousands of theii- vassals, whence they were able to defy theu" enemies. The 
 
HISTORY OF THE APPROPRIATION OP LAND. 5 
 
 Earls Palatine* possessed a superior authority to the simple earls j their privileges 
 and jurisdiction were imbounded, whilst those of the latter were limited and precarious, 
 and their territorial possessions much inferior. Next in rank to earls were the Com- 
 panions, who in Germany were equal to the Thanef in England; these sometimes 
 obtained grants of laud of great value for their services to the prince in war. The 
 allodial or independent proprietors were Freeholders, and stood next in rank to the 
 Companions. Fighting under a leader of their own choice, they took possession of 
 lands that were pre^dously unoccupied, and appropriated them to their own use. Their 
 jurisdiction was very limited, and they were neither encouraged by the sovereign nor the 
 nobles. Envying, therefore, the superior privileges of the feudal holders of land, they 
 surrendered their fi-ee possessions to the prince, and received them back as fiefs on the 
 feudal tenru'e. The Ceorles were tenants of the lauds of the chief, and paid hini a 
 certain proportion of their corn, cattle, &c. Being tenants at will, they were lialjle to 
 be ejected at pleasm'e; but this power was seldom exercised. The last order of men 
 were Slaves, or Villeins, — the "hewers of wood and drawers of water" of the privileged 
 classes, aud attached by birth and service to the soil. Depending on their masters for 
 subsistence, they could legally possess no property, and were sold or put to death by 
 them with impunity, no price being ever set upon their heads, as was the case with all 
 others. They were, however, generally treated with forbearance by their masters, and 
 in time of war frequently obtained their freedom by their valour. In such cases they 
 were presented with the spear and shield ; and if they remained a year and a day in a 
 privileged town, the laws gave them their liberty. Thus the meanest in the community 
 were not absolutely debarred from improving their condition aud rising in society, the 
 duties of which were consequently performed with greater vigour aud alacrity, and 
 civilization and the arts of life advanced under the fostering hand of freedom. 
 
 It would appear probable that the agrarian law introduced by Romulus into the Roman 
 colony, and previously practised by the states of Greece, were of a much earlier date than 
 either the Greek or Roman commonwealths. From the history of Joseph, in the sacred 
 writings, we learn that the Egyptians possessed lands of their own individually; for when 
 the seven years of famine occui-red, and were in progress, Joseph bought the lands of tlie 
 people for Pharaoh in exchange for wheat, aud afterwards put them again in possession of 
 them, on condition that one-fifth of the produce should belong to the king, and the remain- 
 ing four-fifths to the cultivators, for seed and for food for their families ; and this regula- 
 tion, it is added, 'Mjecame a law in Egypt," at least to the time of the Exodus of the 
 Israelites, which was between four and five hundred years after ; so that during that time 
 the land of the whole country, except that which belonged to the priests, was the property 
 of the sovereign, held by him in trust for the benefit of the whole community, as the terms 
 on which it was returned to the former j)roprietors go to prove. The tenure of the latter, 
 in fact, was very similar to the feudal tenants in Germany, who surrendered their lands 
 to the prince and received them back as fiefs, on the usual condition of military service, 
 which in Egypt was commuted for what may be called a corn-rent. The narrative 
 justifies the assumption that, from the earliest ages of mankind, the state, whether 
 under the patriarchal, monarchical, republican, or any other form of government whatever, 
 
 • The word Fahil'me implies tlie possession of regal privileges and iinmuuitics. 
 
 t TTtane signifies " a servant." Hence the motto of the Prince of Wales, derived from that of a German prince, 
 " Ich dien" or " thien" " I serve," the Germans not being able to pronounce the dipthong ik otherwise than as d. 
 
6 AGRICULTUIIE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 has been the trustee, or custodian, of the land of the country for the benefit of the 
 people at large, and that private property in land is an institution first established by 
 the state, and stiU remains subject, in all respects, to the exigencies of the state; so 
 that no man can have an inalienable right in it, if the welfare of the community 
 requires its sm-render in whole or in part. This claim on the part of the state, however, 
 does not bar that of the proprietor to compensation, to the full extent of the loss he 
 would otherwise suffer. We see this principle acted upon on an extensive scale in the 
 case of railways, canals, public roads, and other works undertaken for the general benefit 
 of the commimity ; and upon a stiU more extended one in that of the " Encumbered 
 Estates" in Ireland, which, by virtue of an act of parliament, have been compul- 
 sorily sold, under the fiat of, and by, the commissioners appointed for the same by the 
 government, to the value of nearly thii-ty millions sterling in ten or twelve years, for 
 the express reason that a large proijortion of them were so hopelessly involved in 
 mortgages, legacies, do-ivi'ies, &c., &c., as to be of little or no value to the proprietoi', 
 the mortgagee, the occupier, or the coimtry at large. 
 
 In the freest country in the world, therefore, a man has no inalienable property 
 apart from the state, except his own person, and that claim upon others arising out of 
 the exalted character of humanity and the general obligations of society. He can claim 
 the fruits of his own labour and skill, because these are portions of himself, the efforts 
 of his head and hands imparted to a given subject in a specific form. But even these 
 are not absolutely inalienable, because the form itself is evanescent; and when that 
 passes away, the right ceases. Thus, a man rears an ox or a sheep ; he knows that if he 
 keeps either beyond a certain age he loses them, or by them, and he therefore disposes 
 of his right in them under the compulsion of that conviction. The money he receives 
 for them is his compensation for the loss of them. If either should die in the mean 
 while, he loses his claim altogether ; and the state also is a loser, because the public 
 good is but an aggregation of private good. No individual member of a community can 
 sufier mthout the state also suffering to a greater or less extent, according to the nature 
 or amount of the individual injury. 
 
 " The state therefore," says Kant, " is not a combination of landed proprietors, for 
 these have become such only by means of the state itself; and it is just as absm'd to 
 derive the existence of the state from something that receives existence from it, as to 
 consider nobility older than sovereignty and independent of it. This is against all 
 history ; for the soil at an early period was common to all the inhabitants, and at a 
 subsequent period it was regarded as the rightful possession of a certain family or com- 
 munity. But the origin of a family property can only be ti'aced to the immediate gift 
 of a higher power. Canaan was promised to Abraham by the dirine Being ; and the 
 American Indians claim the right to their himting-grouuds by the gift of the ' Great 
 Spirit.^ Hence tithes and the division of land into separate properties or possessions, 
 is the natural effect of an increase of population." The British legislatm-e has recog- 
 nised the correctness of the principle here laid down, by abolishing the territorial quali- 
 fication test in the admission of members to the lower house of parliament, — a recent and 
 tardy act of justice, which, had it been rendered a few years sooner, would probably have 
 saved the coimtry from a large portion of tlie national debt. 
 
 All the nations of Europe have acted upon the principles laid down in the foregoing 
 observations, and have not allowed land capable of cultivation to be unimproved. In 
 
HISTORY OF THE APPEOPKIATION OF LAND. 7 
 
 some cases they have carried their interference so far as even to prescribe the mode of 
 cultivation^ and have limited or forbidden the cultiu-e of plants that contribute nothing 
 to the sustentation of man, as tobacco ; and have encouraged that of others. It is, 
 however, a question whether this interference may not be carried too far by too much 
 checking private enterprise, and tampering with the right every man possesses of making 
 the most and best of his skill and industry. 
 
 Tlie nature of the claim or right by which landed property was held in England 
 previous to the Roman conquest of the island is involved in great obscmity. Agriculture 
 had been introduced by the Gauls, who had crossed over from Calais and other points of 
 their coast nearest to that of Albion, and taking quiet possession of unoccupied lands, 
 cultivated them successfvdly, and thus instructed the native Britons in the art. This, 
 according to Cresar,* was about a hundred years before he arrived in the country. The 
 Romans, who were well skilled iu husbandry, introduced their system, and effected 
 great improvements, so tliat large quantities of both corn and wool were exported 
 anmially to the Continent. It is evident from this circumstance that they did not 
 dispossess the natives of their lands, but rather, by taking possession of unoccupied 
 tracts, and cultivating them according to their own methods, conferred a benefit upon 
 them. The smallness of the population compared with the extent of the country 
 rendered land of little value ; and it is probable that the cultivation of a portion for a 
 certain time gave the occupier a title to it. Nor did the Romans annul the laws by 
 which, under the Druidical system, the Britons were governed ; these were the code of 
 Diinwallo Mohnutius, which was enacted about fovu" hundred years before the birth of 
 Christ j and the Romans, instead of cancelling, engrafted many of their own upon it, 
 according to their usual custom. The Britons, therefore, were governed by that code 
 imtil the year 408 of the Christian era, when Constantius, the reigning emperor, finding 
 that the troubles of the empire at home rendered it impossible for him any longer to 
 govern so distant a province, drew together a vast mixed army of Romans and Britons, 
 and with them abandoned the island. 
 
 No sooner were the Britons left without their defenders, than the Picts and Scots 
 ravaged the coimtry without mercy. The natives having in vain implored aid from the 
 Romans, turned their eyes to the Saxons, who about the middle of the sixth centmy 
 landed on the island ; and, having quickly di'iven the Picts and Scots back to their 
 barren fastnesses, subdued, in their turn, the Britons also, and at difterent intervals 
 established the seven independent kingdoms of the " Saxon Heptarchy." 
 
 " No conquest," says Stewart, " made by any tribe of barbarians was half so terrible 
 as that of the Saxons. Other nations lived and mixed with the ancient inhabitants of 
 the countries they subdued ; but the Britons were so entirely exterminated, that few 
 traces remained of their own laws and peculiar customs, or of those which were imposed 
 on them by the Romans ; and philologers have observed that there is not remaining a 
 single British word in our language." 
 
 The few remaining inhabitant natives that escaped the massacres of the Saxons retu-ed 
 into Wales, where, although there was less scope for agricultui'e, necessity compelled 
 them to practise it. Their agrarian laws appear singular at the present day. No man 
 was allowed to guide a plough who could not construct one, and it was enacted that the 
 ploughman should also make the ropes of twisted willow, or osier, with which it was di-awn. 
 
 • Csesar, "De Bell. Giill.," lib. v. c. 13. 
 
8 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 If any person laid dung upon a field with the consent of the proprietor^ the law gave 
 him the use of the land for oue year. If the manure was carried out in a cart in large 
 quantities^ he had the use of the land for three years. If a man cut down a wood with 
 the consent of the owner, and converted it into arable land, he was to have the use of it 
 for five years. If any one folded his cattle for one year, upon a piece of ground belong- 
 ing to another, with the consent of the owner, he was allowed the use of that field for 
 four years. The Britons, therefore, in the barren mountains of Wales, did not lose 
 their love of agriculture; but it was otherwise witli their conquerors, the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 These invaders having exterminated the Britons, and taken possession of, and divided, 
 their lands, found themselves on the point of starvation. Hating agricultm-e and the 
 other arts of peace, they were, nevertheless, compelled to have recourse to it ; but they 
 enacted laws to prevent its being followed by any except women and slaves. The 
 princes and great men amongst them, who had received the largest shares, are said to 
 have divided their estates into two parts, which were called inlands and oidlands. The 
 former, being those which lay contiguous to the mansion-house of the owner, he kept 
 in his own occupation, and cultivated them by his slaves, under the direction of a bailiff, 
 for the purpose of raising provisions for his family and numerous vassals. The outlands 
 were those at a distance fi'om the house, and were let to the ceorles, or farmers, at very 
 low rents. At the beginning of the eighth century, Ina, King of the West Saxons, 
 enacted a law by which " ten hides or plough-lands,"* constituting a farm, was to pay 
 the following rent : — " Ten casks of honey, three hundi'cd loaves of bread, twelve casks 
 of strong ale, thirty casks of small ale, two oxen, ten wedders, ten geese, twenty hens, 
 ten cheeses, one cask of butter, five salmon, twenty loads of forage, and a hundi-ed eels." 
 By this account it appears that the land was both divided into large estates and large 
 farms at this period, as ten hides were equal to from six hundred to twelve hundred acres. 
 
 The most remarkable arrangement of the land of England was made under the reign 
 of Alfred the Great, towards the close of the ninth centmy. Upon the expulsion of the 
 Danes by that king, he divided the whole country into small sections, called titldngs. 
 The towns constituted separate jurisdictions, and were distinguished by the name of 
 toion tithings, whilst the others were called r-ural tithings. The management of each 
 tithing was vested iu all the inhabitants paying " scot and lot," and these also annually 
 elected the magistrates and other local officers. The chief officer of a tithing was charged 
 with the executive authority, but the legislative power was committed to a local coimcil. 
 So excellent, complete, and efficient was the system of internal policy established by 
 this wise and great prince, that it is said, " if a gold bracelet were hung up in a place 
 where four ways met, no man dared to touch it." 
 
 The next arrangement was the union of a number of tithings for military defence, 
 this was called a tuapentake , or weapon-take. The feudal militia consisted of one 
 hundred men out of every wapentake. This body, in the ruder period of the feudal 
 system, uuder the Anglo-Saxon government, was a voluntary service; but under the 
 Norman conqueror, William, when the system of feudalism assumed its full develop- 
 ment, it was exchanged for the tenure of knight-service. 
 
 The third and final division of the laud consisted of a certain number of wapentakes, 
 and was called a shire (or scyre), or one complete share, which united all the tithings 
 in each shire iuto one compact body, subject to the laws and regulations made by the 
 
 * A ^ide of land was variously estimated at from sixty to a hundred and twenty acres, and was equivalent to a carucate. 
 
\ 
 
 HISTOEY OF THE APPROPKIATION OF LAND, 9 
 
 scyre-gemot, or sliire-parliament. This was composed of the chief magistrates of the 
 tithings, who represented the respective districts in all matters in which they were 
 concerned. 
 
 Towards the close of the sixth century, when the Anglo-Saxons had fully estahlished 
 themselves in the kingdom, there arose another power, an imperium in imperio, which 
 profited and strengthened itself by every change, civil or political, that took place from 
 time to time, to the prejudice of every other class of society. Under the ancient order 
 of things, the Druids held nnbounded influence over the people. When the Romans 
 came, the Druidical system yielded partially to that of the less gloomy influence of the 
 thousand deities of that enterprising, but superstitious people. But neither of these, 
 although they claimed a large share in the management of state affairs, appear to have 
 attempted to appropriate to themselves, as a sacerdotal order, the lands of their devotees. 
 It was otherwise when the monk Augustin, at the command of Pope Gregory I., at the 
 close of the sixth century, came into Britain to establish the papal system. Received 
 coirrteously by Ethelred, King of Kent, his mission was successful, and from that period 
 the Church of Rome never relaxed its encroachment upon the landed property of the 
 kingdom. Strengthening their power and influence by usurping a right, in virtue of 
 their office, to a share in the legislature, they passed laws ivhicli forbade the alienation 
 of the smallest portion of their property, under pain of the ban of the church here, and 
 eternal damnation hereafter. 
 
 It is not denied that the immense landed property formerly held by the Chiu'ch of 
 Rome was in general let to the people on easy terms, or that the monks were better 
 landlords than many of the barons, who cruelly oppressed their dependents. The lands, 
 too, held by the monks, in their own occupation, were cultivated by themselves, and 
 were more productive than those held by the laity. But that the system was injui-ious 
 to the material interests of the kingdom, at the same time that it was made instrumental 
 in fettering both body aud mind, and thus placing barriers to the progress of enlighten- 
 ment and knowledge, will not admit of a question. 
 
 The conquest of England by the Danes in 1013 made but little change in the laws of 
 the country. A part of their own laws which were engrafted, like those of the Romans, 
 upon the existing code, was siibmitted to, and adopted by, tlie national council. The 
 difference, however, between the Anglo-Saxon and Danish codes consisted rather in the 
 scales of mulcts and penalties for infractions of the laws, than in the framework of the 
 laws themselves : nor was any great change in the form of government attempted. In 
 fact, the Danes had but little time allowed them for establishing extensive alterations ; 
 for in 1066, upon the death of Edward the Confessor, the Norman William prevaU 
 upon the Pope to confirm a supposed promise of the deceased King Edwa 
 him heir to the crown. Armed with this then formidable sanction, he fitted out a large 
 fleet, and putting on board a numerous and well-appointed army, he crossed the 
 channel and landed at Hastings, where he defeated and slew Harold, who had been 
 elected to the sovereignty by the wittena gemotte, or great national council. 
 
 Whatever forbearance the Danes might have shown in not forcing their laws upon 
 the British, no such weakness was exhibited by William. The lands of the barons who 
 opposed him were wrested from them, and given to his Norman followers ; and this was 
 carried to a still greater extent, when shortly after his accession they revolted against 
 liim. Having overcome them, he put all the leaders to death, and confiscated their 
 
10 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 estates, which were also bestowed upon his warriors. Earl Morton thus became pos- 
 sessed of 793 manors ; Hugh de Ali-insis obtained the whole palatinate of Chester ; 
 Allen, Earl of Brittany, 442 manors; Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, 493; "William, Earl 
 Warren, 228, besides 28 towns or hamlets in Yorkshire; and the large county of 
 Norfolk was divided amongst only 66 proprietors. The owners of these large properties 
 resided almost entirely upon them, except when engaged in war, and usually held the 
 land in their own occupation. The elder Spenser, in a petition to parliament about the 
 year 1580, complaining of outrages vipon his property, states his movable effects to be 
 28,000 sheep, 1,000 oxen, 1,000 cows, 500 cart horses, 2,000 hogs, 600 bacons, 80 
 carcasses of beef, and 600 sheep in the larder, 10 tons of eider, and arms for 200 men. 
 This wiU afford a good idea of the households kept up in the baronial haUs, and the 
 large tracts of land necessary to support them.* 
 
 The practice of sub-infeudation\ was greatly extended, and gave rise to the manorial 
 system. The term maner'ms, or maneriuni, is derived from the Latin word manire and the 
 French memoir, and denotes a large mansion or dwelling. In the Exchequer Doomsday 
 Book it is called a manerium, and in that of Exeter a mansio, both being equivalent to 
 the Anglo-Saxon or French term used by the officers who made the survey. It is, how- 
 ever, to be observed that the characteristics of the English manor were never prevalent 
 enough in France to demand a specific designation. 
 
 A manor is commonly composed of demesnes and services. The demesnes are those 
 lands within the manor, of which the lord is seized or possessed, i. e. of which he has 
 the freehold, whether they are in his own occupation, or that of his tenants-at-ivill, or 
 his tenants-for-years. The services of a manor are the quit-rents aud other services 
 Awe from freehold tenants holding of the manor. These services are annexed with, or 
 appendant to, the seigniory over the lands holden by such freehold tenants. These 
 lands, however, although thus far holden of the manor, are not within, or parcel of it, 
 though within the lord's fee or manorial seigniory. At the present time, a manor 
 rather signifies a jurisdiction or royalty incorporeal, than the land and suit; for a man 
 may now have a manor in gross, that is, the right and interest of a court baron with its 
 perquisites, whilst others possess and enjoy every foot of land belonging to it. In 
 general, however, a manor may be composed of divers things, as a mansion, arable land, 
 pastm-e, meadow, Avoodlaud, suit, advowson, court baron, &c., as possessed by the lords 
 fi'om time immemorial. 
 
 * Dugdale's "Baronetage," and Hume, vol. ii. p. 155. 
 
 t " Sub-iiifeiulatioii— a grsat of laud on feudal conditions to an inferior tenant, by a person holding it himself upon 
 lile conditions of a superior lord." — See Webster. It was, in fact, similar to the sub-letting by middlemen in Irelnr.d 
 the condition in the latter being a money payment instead of feudal service. 
 
SECTION II. 
 
 THE NATUKE AND ORIGIN OP FREEHOLDS, COPYHOLDS, LEASEHOLDS, TENANTS-AT-WILL.— 
 TENURE OF LAND IN IRELAND— TENANT-RIGHT. 
 
 A FREEHOLD, 01' frank tenement {libruni tenementum, in law), is an estate held for life, oi 
 some uncertain period, and of which the possessor cannot legally be deprived under 
 ordinary circumstances. As we have already seen, it was by slow degrees amongst the 
 ancient nations of Germany that the land became allodial, or freehold; merging thus 
 from being the property of a tribe, for the common purposes and support of the 
 community, to that of individuals. Amongst the Franks this word was sometimes 
 restricted to such lands as had descended by inheritance. These were subject to no 
 burthens except that of public defence. They passed to all the children equally, or 
 in their failure, to the nearest kindred. 
 
 In England, during the middle ages, when the people were struggling for that 
 freedom which we now enjoy, confiscations for rebellion against the reigning sovereign 
 were of frequent occurrence, and in some instances to an enormous extent. These 
 wholesale escheats afforded the monarch opportunities for enriching those who steadily 
 adhered to his cause. Thus, as Hallam asserts, " In twenty years from the time of 
 William the Conqueror's accession, almost the whole soil of England was confiscated 
 and divided amongst foreigners, and very few of the original owners were left in 
 possession as vassals of the Norman barons." 
 
 Besides the allodial lauds distributed among the people, others were reserved to the 
 crown ; partly to support its dignity, and partly for the exercise of its munificence. These 
 were called " fiscal lands," and formed the most regular and certain source of revenue 
 to the sovereign. They were, however, generally granted out to favourite subjects, 
 under the title of benefices, the nature of which is one of the most important points in 
 the policy of those ages. It is probable that benefices were most frequently bestowed 
 upon the professed courtiers, — the antrustiones or leudes, — and upon the provincial 
 
12 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 governors. It does not appear that any conditions of military service were expressly 
 annexed to these grants, but it Tras expected that those who were the recipients of them 
 ■would support the monarch in his wars, -whether domestic or foreign. Beneficiary 
 tenants were more closely connected with the crown than the mere allodial proprietors ; 
 and whoever possessed a benefice was considered bound to serve the sovereign in the 
 field. But of the allodial proprietors, only the owners of " three mansi," or manors, 
 were called upon for service. 
 
 By the law of England the possession of the land constitutes a freehold ; and such 
 estate as requires actual possession of the land, and no other, is, legally speaking, 
 freehold ; which actual possession can, by the course of common law, be only given by 
 the ceremony called " livery of seisin," which is the same as the feudal investiture. 
 
 The ancient grants of land were frequently comprehended and expressed in few 
 words in the deeds of gift, and many of them display a whimsical turn for jesting in 
 those by whom they were drawn up. A grant of a large estate in Bedfordshire to the 
 Burgoyne family was worded in the following quaint rhyme : — 
 
 " I, John of Gaunt, 
 Do give and do graunt. 
 To Roger Burgoyne, 
 And the heirs of his line, 
 Sutton and Potton, 
 Until the world's rotten." 
 
 The following is a still more ancient deed of gift by a Saxon monarch : — 
 
 " I, King Athelstane, 
 Do give to Paullane, 
 Odiham 
 and Rodihara. 
 Als guid, and als fayre, 
 AIs ever yay mine wayre. 
 And yarto wilnesse Malde, my wife." 
 
 William the Conqueror too, or his lawyers, aimed at rhymes in their deeds of gift. He 
 gave one of his Norman followers, 
 
 "The hunter, the hop, and the hoptown, 
 With all the bounds, upside and down ; 
 And in witnesse thereof that it was sooth, 
 He bit the wax with his fong tooth." 
 
 We have spoken of the English manor as signifying a mansion-house, the residence of 
 the lord of the surrounding lands, which were originally granted by the king for special 
 military or other services. Some were also granted by the superior lords on similar 
 conditions, with the payment of such fees as by the grant were rcqixired. The grantees 
 of the manors subdivided their lands and let them to inferior tenants, receiving in tlieir 
 turn rent and service from them. The superior lords, under whom the smaller manors 
 continued to be held, were called in such cases, " the lords paramount " over all these 
 manors, and his seigniory is to this day, in some cases, called an "honor," not a 
 manor, especially if it has belonged to an ancient feudal barony, or has been at any time 
 in the hands of the crown. The sudivision, or sub-infeudation, by the inferior lords, was 
 carried to such a pitch, that at length the superior lords interfered, as they thereby lost 
 
NATURE AND ORIGIN OF FREEHOLDS, ETC. 13 
 
 their feudal profits on -wardsliips, marriages, and escheats, which were monopolised by 
 the mesne, or middle lords, who were the immediate superiors of the terre tenants, or 
 occupiers of the land ; and also because the mesne lords themselves were so impoverished 
 thereby, that they were disabled from performing their services to their own superiors. 
 Provision was therefore made in the 32ud chapter of the Magna Charta of the 
 9th Henry III. (not being found in the first charter granted by that king, nor in the 
 great charter of King John), that no man should either "sell or give his land without 
 reserving sufficient to answer the demands of the lord paramount;" and also in the 
 statute of Westminster 3, or Quia Empiores, 18 Edward I., c. 1, which directs that 
 "in all sales or feoft'ments of lands, the feoffee shall hold the same, not of his own 
 immediate feoffor, but of the chief lord of the fee, of whom such feoffor held it." But 
 these provisions not extending to the king's own tenants in capite, the like law is 
 declared by the statutes of Prerogatica Regis, 17th Edward II., c. 6, and by the 
 31th Edward III., c. xv. ; by which last, all the sub-infeodations previous to the reign of 
 Edward I. were confirmed, but all subsequent to that period loere left open to the king's 
 prerogative. Hence it is clear, that all manors existing at this time must have existed 
 as early as Edward I., for it is essential to a manor that there be tenants who hold of 
 the lord. And by the operation of these statutes, no tenant in capite since the accession 
 of that prince, and no tenant of the common lord since the statute of Quia Emptm-es, 
 could create any more tenants to hold of himself. 
 
 A manor is necessarily a freehold tenure in itself; but it is the origin of the copy- 
 hold tenure, for which the possessor has nothing to show but the copy of the roll, made 
 by the steward of the lord's com't. In this respect, however, the title is more valid than 
 those of some freeholds, which, in passing through many hands, may, through the 
 negligence or ignoi'ance of the lawyers, be damnified by the omission of a name,* &c. j 
 whereas on every change of hands of a copyhold estate, it must necessarily be taken up, 
 and the fines paid at the customary court ; and thus the transactions of the manor-court 
 become a historical and reiterated testimony to the validity of the title. The steward 
 of the com-t for the time being is bound to keep and enrol a register of the tenants 
 who are admitted to any parcel of land, or tenements belonging to the manor ; and the 
 transcript which each tenant can demand of his own title is called "the copy of the 
 court-roll." Copyhold is called base tenure, because the tenant holds apparently at the 
 will of the lord. Fitzherbert says, it was formerly called " tenure on villeinage," and 
 that copyhold is but a modern name. 
 
 This was the land which the Saxons termed folk-land, as being held sine scripta, in 
 contradistinction to book-land, or charter land, " terre-ex-scripta," now called freehold. 
 But the distinction is not now strictly correct, because copyhold is not held simply at 
 the will of the lord, but according to the custom of the coimty or the manor ; nor is it 
 held absolutely sine scripta, for the possessor holds a title in the " copy of the coiu-t- 
 roll," which the lord cannot annul, provided the tenant fulfils his part of the service. 
 It is true that copyholds originated in a series of immemorial encroachments on the 
 
 " The writer once purchased a freehold property which had been sold long before under the Bankruptcy C!ourt, and by some 
 strange negligence of the solicitors, both of the sellers and purchaser, the names of the assignees were not appended to 
 the sale 1 Twenty years had elapsed, and only one of the assignees had survived, and he had gone, no one knew where. 
 .\fter lengthened inquiries, his residence was discovered, and his signature obtained. But it cost the lawyers who made 
 the blunder — and who were, as honourable men, quite ready to take the onus upon themselves — much time, trouble, and 
 money to rectify it. 
 
U AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 lord, by whicli the intruders at length estahlished a "customary right to those 
 estates which previously were held absolutely at the will of the lord." To this cause is 
 ascribed, by lawyers the different customs prevailing in different manors, with respect 
 both to the descent of the estates and the privileges belonging to the tenants. This 
 "custom of the manor" is called "the life of copyhold estates;" for without a custom, 
 or if a copyholder breaks the customs, he is then subject to the will of the lord ; and 
 as a copyhold is created by custom, it is also guided by custom. A copyholder who 
 performs his services, and does not break the custom of the manor, cannot be ejected by 
 the lord; if he be, he shall have trespass against liim. Nor can the lord refuse to 
 admit ; for if he does, he can be compelled in the Com't of Chancery. 
 
 In some manors, where it has been the custom to permit the heir to succeed the 
 ancestor in his tenure, the estates are called " copyholds of inheritance." In others, 
 where the lords have been more vigilant in the maintenance of their rights, they remain 
 " copyholds for life" only. The eu.stom of tlic manor has, in both instances, so far 
 superseded the will of the lord that, provided the service be performed, or stipulated for 
 by fealty, he cannot in the first instance refuse to admit the heir of his tenant upon his 
 death ; nor, in the second place, can he remove his present tenant so long as he lives, 
 though he holds nominally by the precarious teniu-e of his lord's will. And if a lord 
 refuse to admit a surrender on account of a disagreement about the fine to be paid, 
 tli(^- Coiu't of B. R.^f^ will grant a mandamus to compel him to admit, without 
 examining the right to fine. But that court will not grant a mandamus to admit 
 a copyholder by descent, because, without admittances, he has a complete title against 
 all but the lord. Copyholds descend according to the rules and maxims of the common 
 law (unless in particular manors there are contrary customs of great antiquity) ; but 
 under the ancient law, such customary inheritances are not assets to charge the heir 
 in actions of dcl)t, &c., though leases for one year of copyhold land, which are warranted 
 by the common law, arc assets in the hands of an executor. There may be an 
 estate-tail in copyhold lands by custom, with the co-operation of the statutes of 
 William II. ; and as a copyhold may be entailed by custom, so by custom the entail 
 may be cut off by surrender. A copyholder cannot convey or transfer his copyhold to 
 another otherwise than by surrender at the general court-baron of the manor. 
 
 Copyholds are held by fine certain or fine arbitrary. Fine certain is when the fine 
 payable to the lord upon taking up an estate, being fixed by the custom of the manor, 
 cannot be increased by the lord, who, upon the amount being paid and the services 
 performed, must admit the new tenant. Fine arbitrary is when the fine is only limited 
 in amount by the lord's own conscience, which is not usually of a very tender kind.f 
 
 One of the ancient obligations of a copyhold tenant was that of grinding at the 
 lord's, or manor mill. In ancient records, mills are spoken of as valuable property; 
 and landlords, in letting the rest of their land, generally reserved the mill-house to 
 themselves, it being frequently appended to the great mansion or manor-house. The 
 following is the account of a mill-house in Barnaby Goodge's "Fourc Books of 
 Ilusbaudrie :" — " When as in a great house there is gi-eate neede of eorn-mylles, and the 
 common myllcs being farre ofiF, the way foule, and I at my owne libertie to grmd at 
 
 • Bancus Segius, or King's Bench. 
 
 + The writer once purchased a small copyhold property under fine arUtrary, and the steward managed to make the 
 Dae and cipenses ainonnt to 80 per cent, of the purchase-money of Ihc jiroperly. 
 
NATUEE AND ORIGIN OF FREEHOLDS, ETC. 15 
 
 home, or when I lyste, thinking to make a mylle here at home, where neither place nor 
 auethoritie will serve me to build either a water-mylle or wynde-mylle, and a quernc, or 
 hande-mylle, doeth but a little goode, and to build a horse-mylle were troublesome ; 
 when I saw the wheclcs which they used to draw water with, turned with asses or men, 
 I thought in the like sort, the wheele of a mylle might be tamed. And after this sort, 
 I divised this engine, which a couple of asses, guided by a boy, do easily turn, and make 
 very fine meale, sufficient for mine owne house, and most times for my neighbours) 
 whom I suffer to grind free of toll." 
 
 The word lease is derived from the French laisser, to let. In law, a demise or a 
 letting of lands, tenements, or hereditaments unto another for life, a term of years, or 
 at will, for a rent reserved. 
 
 A contract for the possession of land, &c., for some determinate period is " an estate 
 for years." If the lease be for one year, half a year, or a quarter, or any less time, the 
 lessee is reputed a " tenant for years," and is so styled in some proceedings, because a 
 year is the shortest term the law takes notice of in this case. A lease for twelve months 
 is only for forty-eight weeks, but if it be for a twelvemonth, in the singular number, it 
 is good for the whole year. These leases or estates for years were originally granted to 
 mere farmers or husbandmen, ivho every year rendered some equivalent in money, pro- 
 visions, or other rent to the lessors or landlords. But, in order to encourage them to 
 cultivate and manm'c the land, they had a permanent interest in it granted them, not 
 determinable at the will of the lord. Their possession, however, was considered of so 
 little consequence, that they were looked upon rather as the bailiffs or servants of the 
 proprietors, and were to account to them for the profits at a fixed price, thaii as having any 
 property of their own, and, therefore, they were not allowed to have a freehold estate in 
 it. But their interest existed after their deaths in their executors, who were to make 
 up the accounts of theii* estates with the lord and his other creditors, and were entitled 
 to the stock upon the fai'm.* 
 
 The question of the necessity of leases, and of their advantages to both landlords and 
 tenants has been well ventilated of late years, and is well understood by most persons 
 conversant with farming upon the modern system, and no liberal or enlightened landlord 
 refuses to grant leases to his tenants ; nor will any improving tenant entrust his 
 property, by expending it in the necessarij permanent improvements on a farm, from 
 which the caprice, or the cupidity, of the landlord might eject him at six months' notice 
 without a shilling remuneration. The danger of such a dismissal is no imaginary one, 
 instances of it being of too frequent occurrence in the country. A recent case in a 
 northern county — in which one of the best farmers in England, and whose family had 
 occupied the farm for many years, was thus summarily ejected without the whisper of a 
 com])laint of his conduct, either in the management of his farm, or his conduct to his 
 noble landlord, and after expending a great part of his property in permanent improve- 
 ments — is sufficient to open the eyes of the farmers to the danger. It was a melancholy 
 satisfaction to the tenant, after being thus plundered of his property, that his 
 neighbours have testified their sense, both of the excellence of his character and of the 
 unjust and mean conduct of his landlord, by presenting him with a valuable and hand- 
 
 * It 13 proper to state that the legal arguments and definitions in the foregoing account of the different tenures are 
 derived from various sources, but chiefly from Rees' " Encycloprcdia," which contains the dearest digest eitantof the laws 
 on the snbject. 
 
16 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 some testimonial, in token of their respect and esteem. His unworthy landlord has 
 shown the motives which actuated him by letting the land to a new tenant at an 
 advanced rent. 
 
 Lord Kamesj in his " Gentleman Farmer/' has strongly insisted on the necessity of 
 a long lease (nineteen or thirty-eight years) to secure the tenant in his possession, and 
 enable him safely to effect those improvements that will at once both benefit the estate 
 and aftbrd him the opportunity of deriving the greatest profit from his capital. The 
 heads of a lease on a liberal plan are given in the work ; and the Board of Agri- 
 culture, which was established iu 1793 (about seventeen years after the publication of 
 Lord Kamcs' book), adopted most of the principles laid down by him. There may be 
 landlords who, while hesitating or refusing to grant leases to their tenants, under the 
 apprehension that it is giving up too much power over their property, who yet are too 
 honourable, and would, therefore, scorn to take an unfair advantage of a good and 
 improving tenant by robbing him of his property, and his future profits upon the outlay. 
 Independent of this, the impolicy of the system is as apparent as its injustice. Good 
 landlords do not live for ever ; and it is unjust to hold a tenant at arm's length, and 
 allow him to expend his property on the laud upon the precarious tenure of his 
 own life, when he does not know but that his successor may be a man of a very different 
 disposition, and disposed to take every advantage of his tenants. We have no hesitation 
 in saying that, if the predecessors of Mr. W.'s late landlord had acted upon the 
 same principle in dealing with their tenants, the estate would not be now worth half its 
 present value. The only safe plan that the present holder of the land can pursue, is to 
 avail himself of Mr. W.'s improvements, and get as much out of the land as possible 
 without expending a shilling upon it in improvements, the profits of which he would 
 probably he deprived of by an ejectment, to make room for another tenant at a farther 
 advance of rent — the landlord's profit upon his outlay. 
 
 Any man conversant with rural affairs is able to judge, as he rides along the high 
 roads, of the nature of the tenure by which the land is held. He has nothing to do but 
 to look over the hedges to determine whether the land is held on lease or at-will. It is 
 astonishing that the owners of laud cannot see, by the different appearance of the fields, 
 the impolicy of preventing the tenants from improving their farms by making it unsafe 
 for them to do so. The interests of landlords and tenants are inseparable, and one can- 
 not secure an undue advantage over the other. A good landlord Avill have, as a rule, 
 good tenants; aud vice versa. It is imfortunately the case that many landlords are 
 governed more by their stewards, or land agents, than by the principles of equity in their 
 dealings with their tenants. These gentlemen have many of them a keen ej'e to their 
 own emolument, and too often set a black mark against those tenants who display any 
 independence of mind, and will not submit to their extortions.* 
 
 Lord Kames justly observes that in a lease of a corn-farm the object iu view should be 
 to restrain the tenant from impoverishing the land, and yet leave him at liberty to 
 improve it. He compares a tenant with a British monarch, who has unboimdcd power 
 
 * The late Earl of 13. employed one of tlicse legal sharks. " 1 am surprised," said his couutess to him on one 
 occasion, when he had sharply lectured his steward for some pecidations, — "I am surprised, my lord, that you keep that 
 man in your employ, when you know he is robbing you every day of your life." " True, my lady," was the reply, " 1 
 know he is a thief, but I also know that he takes good care my tenants shall not rob me. Better to have one rogue to 
 deal with than one hundred and fifty." 
 
NATURE AND OEIGIN OF FREEHOLDS, ETO 17 
 
 to do goodj none to do miscliief. He declaims against tying a tenant down to an 
 invariable course of cropping, wliicli must be regulated by the season^ the variableness 
 of which raay^ for one year^ at least, necessitate a change in an otherwise well arranged 
 system. And although many good tenants may be trusted with unlimited scope in the 
 management of their land, a landlord cannot, as a general rule, tell the disposition of a 
 tenant in this respect beforehand ; and, therefore, it is proper that a decided, but liberal 
 code of covenants should in all cases be adopted to secui'e both the landlord and a 
 profitable cultivation. 
 
 The value and importance of granting suitable and long leases is sufficiently exem- 
 plified by the results on those estates on which it is the practice. Any man, for 
 instance, in passing through the county of Norfolk, where long leases, as a rule, 
 prevail, will be struck both with the high state of cultivation which the fields present, 
 and the wealth, ease, and independence of the occupiers. Perhaps the Holkham 
 property is an exceptional case, the farms being in general very large, and the tenants 
 unusually wealthy. The farm-houses are more like gentlemen's seats than the dwellings 
 of husbandmen, and the fields are many of them large enough to constitute a good 
 sized farm. But it may be safely assumed that the highly prosperous condition of the 
 Holkham estate, which has increased three or four times in value since the late jiroprietor 
 succeeded to it, is entirely owing to the liberal principle on which he acted in letting 
 liis farms, and the twenty-one years' leases on which they were invariably held. The 
 policy of this was proved by the result ; for, probably, there is not a landlord in the 
 Idngdom who has had less trouble with his tenants, or whose tenants have more cheerfidly, 
 at the expiration of their leases, agreed to pay the advanced rent which the diminished 
 value of money rendered reasonable. 
 
 The Earl of Yarborough's property in Lincolnshire is another instance in point. 
 Following the example of the " Holkham chieftain," he has increased its value from 
 £3,000 to j630,000 a year. Most of the farms in Lincolnshire are large ; and although 
 the custom of the county has generally been against leases, the lands being held from 
 year to year, a tacit understanding exists between landlord and tenant, which is seldom 
 broken. We may also mention the Duke of Bedford's estate at Woburn as a proof of 
 the advantage of granting leases. The late Francis Duke of Bedford was the friend 
 and coadjutor of Mr. Coke, afterwards Earl of Leicestex", and adopted his system in 
 every respect. His unfortunate death in 1801,* put a stop to many of the more public 
 measures which he adopted for the improvement of agricultiu'e. But although his 
 immediate successor did not profess himself an agriculturist, he pursued the same liberal 
 course with his tenantry, and the present proprietor follows in their steps. The con- 
 sequence is, the estate has increased in value until it realises £100,000 a year. The 
 present duke, indeed, is a model for landlords to copy from. When agricultm-e had 
 reached a certain crisis, he instituted a valuation of his property, and offered fresh terms 
 to his tenants, to which they readily acceded. He also erected comfortable cottages for 
 the labourers on every part of the estate, with gardens attached, and established schools for 
 their children, and other means of instruction. On the other hand, he has undertaken 
 the expense of permanent improvements, such as di-ainage and other substantial works, 
 for which the tenant willingly pays a moderate per centage. But the most remarkable 
 
 * The duke was killed iu playing at teaais. The ball struck him oa a part that was ruptured, which increased the 
 wound, produced morti6cation, and carried him off in a few days 
 
 U 
 
18 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 concession to the welfare of his tenantry is, his abandoning the excessive preservation of 
 game, and the absurd and un-English battue — a German innovation, which in this 
 highly cultivated country is as senseless and puerile as shooting fowls in a barn-yard, to 
 which it bears a striking resemblance. As we shall have occasion to refer to this 
 silly practice when treating on the Game Laws, we shall say no more about it at present. 
 
 It is in Scotland that the practice of granting leases has received the gi'catest 
 extension, and in no part of the United Kingdom has the benefit been more clearly 
 developed. Agricultiire in that country cannot be said to have existed more than a 
 centurv, for previous to the year 1770 cidtivation was conducted on the most primitive 
 plan. Yet, with very inadequate means, but mth steady economy, pnidence, and per- 
 severance, and with the aid of an excellent system of banking, Scotland has progressed 
 in agriculture faster than England. These advantages, however, would have availed 
 nothing but for the system of leases on liberal terms, which, by inspiring the occupier 
 with confidence, enabled him to prosecute his calling with spirit and success. Most 
 of the leases are granted upon a corn-rent. " Under this system the rent is represented 
 by a payment in kind, converted at the market price, with a maximum and minimum 
 limitation for periods of scarcity or abundance."* In this way the farmer is protected 
 against sudden fluctuations in the value of his commodities, as well as in that of money. 
 " The usual term for renewing leases is Wliitsimtide, as being the most favourable period 
 to prepare for the crops of a new course." t Scotch leases are generally granted for 
 nineteen years, and a lease is considered real property, and as such passes to the heir-at- 
 law. This is an injustice to the younger branches of the family, being equal to an 
 entail ; but, at the same time, it prevents that subdivision of the land which in Ireland 
 produces frequent famines, and in France and other countries of the Continent has 
 prevented progress in agriculture. 
 
 Every estate which must expire at a period certain and prefixed, by whatever words 
 enacted, is an estate for years, and therefore this estate is called a term, — terminus, — 
 because its duration is limited and determined; for every such estate must have a 
 certain beginning, and a certain ending. A lease for so many years as a man may live 
 is void from the beginning, but a lease for twenty or more years, if he shall live so long, 
 is good ; for a certain period is fixed, beyond which it cannot last, though it may be 
 determined sooner by the person's death. An estate for life is a freehold ; but an estate 
 for a thousand years is only a chattel, and is reckoned part of the personal estate. 
 
 EsTATE-AT-wiLL. — This is another kind of estate not freehold, where lands are let by 
 one man to another " to have and to hold" at the will of the lessor; and the tenant by 
 force of this lease obtains possession. Every estate-at-will is at the will of both 
 parties, landlord and tenant, so that either of them may determine liis will, and quit 
 his connection with the other at his own pleasure. 
 
 A lease in writing, though not under seal, cannot be put in evidence unless it be 
 stamped. Leases exceeding three years must be made in writing ; and if the substance 
 of a lease be put in writing and signed by the parties, though it is not sealed, it shall 
 have the effect of a lease for years. Articles with covenants to make a lease, to let and 
 make a lease of lands for a certain term, at so much rent, hath been adjudged a lease. 
 In a covenant with the words " have, possess, and occupy lands in consideration of a 
 yearly rent," without the word " demise," it was held a good lease; and a licence " to 
 
 * De Lavergnc, t Ibid. 
 
NATURE AND ORIGIN OF FREEHOLDS, ETC. 19 
 
 occupy, take the profits," &c., which passeth an interest, amounts to a lease. An 
 agreement of tlie parties that the lessee should enjoy the lands will make a lease ; hut 
 if the agreement hath a reference to the lease to he made, and implies an interest not to 
 he perfected till then, it is not a perfect lease till made afterwards. If a man, on 
 promise of a lease to he made to him, lays out money on the premises, he shall oblige 
 the lessor afterwards to make the lease, the agreement being executed on the lessee's 
 part ; where no such expense hath been, a bare promise of a lease for a terra of years, 
 though the lessee hath possession, shall not be good without some writing. A lease for 
 years may begin from a day past or to come, at Michaelmas last, Christmas next, three 
 or four years after, or after the death of the lessee, &c., though a term cannot commence 
 upon a contingency which depends upon another contingency. If one makes a lease 
 for a year, and so fi'om year to year, it is a lease for two years, and afterwards it is but 
 an estate-at-will ; and if from three years to three years, it is a good lease for six years. 
 
 Tenancies-at-will, or until the customary notice be given by either party to the other, 
 are valid without any written contract or agreement, the only tie between the parties being 
 the custom of the estate or of the county in which it lies, or the common law of the land. 
 This, Marshall conceives, may be considered as the "simple holding which succeeded 
 the feudal or copyhold tenure," but which is now going fast into disuse. A second 
 mode is, of "holding from year to year, under a written agreement, with specific 
 covenants." This, which is a more modern usage, is, on the contrary, becoming more 
 and more prevalent, even where leases for a term of years were formerly granted. A 
 third is, a lease for a term of years, as seven, fourteen, twenty-one, or a greater number 
 of years certain, but without the power of assignment, unless with the consent of the 
 lessor. A fourth is, a lease-for-lives, as one, two, three, or more lives, without the 
 power of assignment. These are rarely granted in England, but are common in "Wales 
 and Ireland, the rent being there settled according to the value of the land at the time 
 of letting, as on granting a lease for a term. In the western extremity of England, 
 what are termed life-leases are still common ; but they are, in fact, rather pledges for 
 money taken up, or deeds of sale for lives, than leases, as nearly the whole estimated 
 value of the land during the life-terra is paid down at the time of purchase, the seller 
 reserving only a quit-rent, or anmial aclcnowledgment. 
 
 "It is a well-authenticated fact," says a modern writer, " that the great and mani- 
 fold improvements which have taken place in agriculture are in those counties where 
 leases for a term of years have been granted."* 
 
 Tenure op Land in Ireland. — The peculiar nature of the landed property in 
 Ireland deserves a passing notice, although, in consequence of the operations of the 
 Encumbered Estates Court, the old system is fast dying out, and a new order of things 
 is succeeding it. 
 
 It is well known that in the various rebellions in that country, — for rebellion was 
 formerly its normal condition, — a very large portion of the land was wrested from the 
 proprietors and bestowed upon the favom-ites of the reigning monarchs, or sold for 
 a sum of money. Thus the Ironmongers' Company obtained by purchase a whole 
 county, which was ceded to it by James I., who confiscated six counties at once, and 
 parcelled them out amongst his fiivourites. Charles I. declared the whole province of 
 
 * The single exception to this rule is a part of Lincolnshire, where yearly tenancy is the rule ; but a tenant-right 
 exists, by which an outgoing tenant is indemnified. 
 
 c2 
 
20 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Connaught tlie property of tlie crown ; and Cromwell seized and appropriated the lands 
 of the other provinces. Ulster was made a plantation for a Scotch colony, and the 
 dispossessed Irish were ordered to go "to heU or Connaught." The object of eveiy 
 government, from that of the Tudors to the accession of William III., had the same end 
 in ^new, of preventing the Irish from holding land in their own country. 
 
 Nearly all the landed property of Ireland was entailed, consequently improvement 
 was checked at the outset; for the owners, being generally poor, would not expend 
 money on improvements by which their heirs-at-law alone would reap the benefit. But 
 the great evil of the land system in Ireland was the absenteeism of the proprietors, who 
 entrusting the management of their estates to lawyers, cared little about their tenantry, 
 provided they received the rental, which they spent in England or on the Continent. 
 The land was let to a large extent to midcUe-men, generally on a lease, who being 
 anxious to make the most of it, underlet it in small farms to the peasantry at high 
 rents. These built their hovels upon the land, and cultivated the potato as the most 
 productive plant for human food. 
 
 The Irish landlord of bygone times was a remarkable character in his way. Reckless 
 extravagance marked his conduct, and, provided he could obtain money, cared little 
 how it came, or where from, or by what means it was made away with. 
 
 Tenant-right. — If the arguments we have used to prove that land, as a national 
 property, is in all cases vested in the cro^vn as the custodian for the common weal, and 
 that private interest must, in law and in equity, give way to the public good, then the 
 legislatiu-e is bound to interfere to prevent the land from deterioration on the one hand, 
 and to promote, by wise and equitable general measures, its improvement. 
 
 We have endeavoui'ed to show that the want of leases is the direct and chief cause 
 of the land of England not being properly cultivated ; tliat no tenant-at-wiU can have 
 any inducement to expend money in permanent, or, in fact, any improvement whatever, 
 of which his landlord may, and fi-equently does, deprive him, allowing him no time for 
 reaping any benefit from his outlay. 
 
 As a national affair, this was formerly of no apparent consequence j because, badly as 
 the land was cultivated, and inadequate as was the produce, compared with what it might 
 have been, it usually exceeded the consumption both of man and beast ; and therefore 
 the injxuy being limited to a restriction of the exporting power, it was less palpable, 
 except in seasons of scarcity, when the deficiency was ascribed to a bad and unproductive 
 harvest. But now that, in consequence of the vast increase of the population, and the 
 improved condition of the operative classes, the consumption has so prodigiously increased 
 as to require, in the present state of agi'iculture, an importation of agi-icultm-al produce 
 (animal and vegetable) amounting on an average to not less than £20,000,000 sterling 
 per year, it behoves the government or the legislatm-e to devise means for preventing, as 
 far as possible, this enormous expenditure from increasing, which it certainly will, unless 
 measm-es are adopted for rendering the land more productive. 
 
 Under the present system of the tenure of land, this can only be done by passing 
 an equitable and liberal law for establishing a system of tenant-right, which whilst it 
 would give to the landlord the full value of any improved outlay the outgoing tenant 
 may justly claim, the latter may fearlessly incur that expenditure without the risk of 
 being deprived of it by a summai-y dismissal from his farm. 
 
 Whilst this principle applies with greatest force to the position of the tenant-at-will, in 
 
NATURE AND ORIGIN OP FREEHOLDS, ETC. 21 
 
 a national point of view, it is to a certain, though lesser extent, applicable to all tenures ; 
 because it is a well-known practice with tenants on leases for years, or of whatever 
 duration, if intending or compelled to quit their farms, to run the land the last three or 
 four years of the term, or at least to put nothing into it ; consequently, the productiveness 
 of such land is for the time greatly deteriorated, and the landlord, the succeeding tenant, 
 and the community at large, are mutual sufferers. 
 
 It is now become a universal opinion that the lands of England, whatever advances 
 may have been already made in agricultiu'e, are far, very far, from ha^^ug reached the 
 maximum of production ; that, in fact, if they were properly cultivated, we should be an 
 exporting instead of an importing coxmtry. Many causes exist to prevent this from 
 being the case, but the chief ruling cause is that the landed proprietors steadily refuse 
 to allow the legislatm'c to interfere with their property, the welfare of the country at large 
 being a matter of secondary or no importance compared with retaining their rights intact. 
 The question, however, will force itself upon the government before long, for in a year 
 of scarcity the consequences are serious. In the last year (1860), for instance, the 
 deficiency was so lai'ge that it will require importations altogether to the value of nearer 
 £30,000,000* than £20,000,000— a sum sufiScient to throw the finances of the country 
 into a state of confusion. 
 
 That an equitable tenant-right, giving the occupier of land, on whatever tenure, at 
 the close of his occupancy, a legal title to the remaining value of his improvements and 
 outlay, would do more for the advancement of agriculture and the increase of the 
 productiveness of the land than any other measure, no one will entertain a doubt who 
 has ever considered the subject. Whilst the light lands of Norfolk and Suffolk are 
 made to produce from four to six quarters of wheat per acre, immense tracts of far 
 superior soils do not produce more than half that amount, simply because the tenure of 
 land is so precarious that the occupier has no inducement to improve it. It is probable 
 that fully three-foui'ths of the land of the country is in this condition, and will continue 
 in the same state so long as the proprietors claim the right of " doing what they like 
 with their own." 
 
 The question of tenant-right has been long and amply discussed in Ireland, where 
 an association, or league, exists for procuring a legislative enactment for its general 
 establishment. Such an act is even more required in that coimtry than in England, 
 although the changes which have recently been effected in the proprietorship of land 
 have, to a considerable extent, altered the condition of real property. As on aU 
 subjects, whether political or social, taken up by the Irish, the ideas entertained by 
 some of the leaders in the movement were most extravagant, and amounted rather to a 
 surrender of the freehold to the tenant, than an equitable claim for compensation at the 
 expii-ation of the lease. Fixity of tenure was combined with a reduction of rent to the 
 minimum value of unimproved or waste land, estimated by these revolutionists at Is. Qd. 
 per acre 1 This fixity of tenure was neither more nor less than an interminable lease, 
 equal to an English copyhold, with a fine certain of Is. &d. per acre as a quit-rent; so 
 that, could this object have been obtained, it would have amounted to a surrender of the 
 laud to the tenants mthout any remuneration to the proprietor, who was looked upon 
 and verbally treated as an interloper and a tyrant. 
 
 * Ten million quarters of wheat and flour, at 50j. per quarter, £25,000,000 ; and barley, oats, beans, pea;, potatoes, 
 End cattle, to the amount of more than the remaining £5,000,000. 
 
22 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 True enougli it is that tlie teuiu'e of land iu Ireland was of a nature to render a change 
 a national necessity, in order to avert tlie normal tendency to famine and scarcity wliicli, 
 up to 18 18j prevailed there. A large portion of the soil was in the hands of middle-men 
 (the owners beiag absentees), whose object was, as a rule, to make the most out of the 
 property, while their lease lasted, without any regard to the mode in which the land was 
 cidtivated. It was therefore let in smaU holdings, as the means best calculated to effect 
 their pru'pose, and the overwhelming excess of the rural population* was favourable to it. 
 Thus the greater part of the country was in the hands of the most ignorant class of 
 cultivators, without means or knowledge to effect improvements, and deriving from the 
 land a scanty supply of potatoes and oats for their own families. The larger farms are 
 sometimes let on lease ; but the proprietor gives himself no trouble, and ■nill, in general, 
 incur no expense in the erection of dwelliug-houses or out -buildings ; the consequence 
 is, that the majority of farm-bnildiugs are such as no Englishman would put iip with, 
 whilst the cabins of the humbler tenantry were not fit for human beiugs to reside ia, 
 being in many cases built with loose stones, without cement, against the side of a bank 
 or hill, which formed one wall of the dwelling. 
 
 It is e^'ideut that nothing but a compulsory law, giving the tenant a claim at the 
 close of his lease for any improvements effected either in the laud or the buildings of a 
 farm, woidd produce any change in this state of things. The people of Ireland were 
 therefore perfectly justified in demanding a tenant-right law ; and had they not in the 
 fii'st instance extended theu- demand to fixity of tenui-e, and what may be called an 
 abrogation of rent, it is probable they might have obtained what was absolutely required. 
 But, listening to incendiary demagogues, they claimed a right to the soil, and, conse- 
 quently, gained nothing. 
 
 In the province of Ulster tenant-right has long been established by custom, and if we 
 may judge by the different state of agrieultm-e in that province from any other part of 
 Ireland, it has certainly woi'ked well, and prevented that deterioration of the soU which 
 was everywhere else apparent. Such however was the demand for land, that the claim 
 for compensation upon the transfer of a lease was iu some instances most extraordinary. 
 As much as fi-om jEIS to £20 per acre has been given for leases of small farms, without 
 reference to any material improvements. Nor can this be considered extravagant in a 
 country where lands were let on the con-acre system,t as high as thirty pounds per acre 
 per annum, and when the lowest rent upon that tenure was i£lO per acre. It is not to 
 be supposed, however, that either these enormous rents Avere always punctually paid, or 
 that the tenants were able to live out of the produce of the land. On the contrary, the 
 payment of the rent was dependent on the contingency of a good crop, and the support 
 of the tenant and his family upon the same, with the additional chance of obtaiuiug 
 harvest work in England. The great catastrophe of 1846 revealed the entii-e rottenness 
 of the land system in Ireland, and the fallacy of the claim of the nominal proprietors of 
 the estates called by their names. The Encumbered Estates Coui't with ruthless baud 
 completed the exposure, and the results of its operations have vindicated the conduct of 
 the legislatLU'e in its iiistitution. 
 
 * la Ireland the rural population amounted, before tlie famine, to 25 to the hundred acres; in Prance, to 10 j 
 England, 12 ; aud the Lowlands of Scotland, 5 to the hundred acres. 
 
 t Con-acre tenure is the letting of a piece of laud well manured to a tenant for one year, generally for the purpose 
 of raising potatoes. The rent ranged from £10 to i30 per acre, according to the quality and condition of the laud. This 
 system was abolished by the famine of lS:l6-8, 
 
NATUEE AND OEIGIN OP FEEEHOLDS, ETC. 
 
 23 
 
 Tenant-right, however, is not unknown in England, for in two counties, Lincolnshire 
 and the Weald of Sussex, it has long been established by custom. In the former it has 
 worked well, for no part of England is better cultivated, or more productive, although 
 yearly tenures are the rule. In the Weald of Sussex agricultui-e is far from being in a 
 flourishing condition, but this is in spite of the tenant-right, and not in consequence of it. 
 If we may judge from analogy, the state of that district would be still worse without it. 
 Sussex is perhaps, in some parts, one of the most difficult counties in England to farm. 
 In a dry season the soil is iron and brass ; and in a wet one, a mass of adhesive mud. 
 A rental of from 4s. to 6s. per acre explains the whole case. 
 
 The objection urged against tenant-right is, that it renders an in-coming tenant— 
 possibly a young man just starting in life — liable to a heavy claim* that will absorb a 
 large portion of his capital, with which he ought to stock his farm ; and that it opens a 
 door for fraud, by " inducing the farmer to look more to the indemnity he claims on 
 leaving his farm, than to good farming while in possession.'''t 
 
 There is certainly truth iu the objection that a young farmer would be compelled to 
 pay a large portion of his capital iu the piu-chase of the tenant-right, and thus cramp 
 his future operations on the farm ; but this will teU in favour of, as well as against, the 
 system. It is surely better to step into an improved farm, with the land in a good — 
 not to say high — state of cultivation, and which will afl"ord an immediate profit, even if 
 he has to pay for it, than into one which has been completely run out the last foiu: or 
 five years of the previous occupation, and wiU require quite as many more before it can 
 be brought into a profitable condition. It would, however, be better perhaps if the 
 landlord would pay the out-going tenant for the permanent improvements, such as 
 draining, marling, claying, fencing, &c., and charge the in-coming tenant a fair per 
 centage upon the outlay, as has been done by the Duke of Bedford and a few other 
 liberal landlords. 
 
 Whether, therefore, we look at the just rights of the out-going tenant, the success 
 of the in-coming one, the prosperity of the estate, or the well-being of the community, 
 as all concerned in the proper cultivation of the soil, all their interests would be pro- 
 moted by a tenant-right, which, while it would prevent the deterioration of the land at 
 the expiration of a lease, would enable the tenant-at-will to farm on the system best 
 adapted to promote his own advantage and the interests of all parties concerned. 
 
 * In Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire the usual claim ia £4 to £4 Ws. per acre, and in Sussex from SOs. to 50s. per 
 acre. The former is moderate, the latter " all the money too dear." 
 t De Laversne. 
 
SECTION III. 
 
 ON THE VALUE OF LA.ND AT DIFFERENT PERIODS, AND THE CAUSES WHICH OPERATE TO 
 
 INCREASE OR DIMINISH IT. 
 
 It appears a strauge tiling to an English farmer to be told that there was a time when 
 land in this country was sold at three or four shillings, and let at one halfpenny, an acre. 
 Yet this is not more strange or extraordinary than that at the present time, excellent 
 land may be purchased in the United States for a dollar an acre ; and that in Canada 
 any person may obtain a grant of two hundred acres of land for nothing, if he will only 
 undertake to clear and cultivate it within a certain period. 
 
 There are various causes operating to aflfect the value of land : such as the relative 
 proportion between the quantity of land and the number of inhabitants ; the scarcity 
 or abundance of money ; the existence of good roads ; the distance from markets, &c. 
 The following particulars are extracted from Cullum's "Antiquities of Hawstead in 
 Suffolk." 
 
 The parish of Hawstead is set down in the Doomsday Book at thirteen carucates, or 
 1,300 acres, of land, being eight furlongs in length and six in width. " In both these 
 particulars," adds the learned historian, "it is wrong; it contains 3,000 acres, and 
 if stated at double the length and breadth, it will be nearer its real dimensions." 
 
 By a survey taken the fouj-teenth of Edward I., it appears there were two manors in 
 Hawstead, that of Fitz-Eustace being called " the Manor," which was valued at 40s. 
 per annum. 
 
 In the same year seven persons held amongst them 968 acres of arable, and forty 
 acres of meadow land ; the rent paid ranged from 7d. to one farthing an acre a year, 
 averaging about 4rf. per acre. 
 
 In the seventh and eighth centuries the ordinary price of an acre of the best land in 
 Cambridgeshire was sixteen Saxon pennies, or about As. of our money. 
 
 In the seventh of Henry V. (1420) the manor was said to be of the yearly value of 
 £42 15*. lOf/., and half a pound of pepper. This last was paid for eleven acres of land. 
 
 " In the twenty-sixth of Henry VI. (1448) John Bokenham sold all his lands and 
 IcncmentSj woods, meads and pastures, rents and services, which were let to one Jolui 
 
VALUE OF LAND AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 25 
 
 Bokenham, brother unto the said John Bokenham^ as they lie in the towns and fields of 
 Hawsteadj Horningshorthe, Newton, and Whipsted in the shire of Suffolke, for the sum 
 of £cx (£110) good and lawful money, to John Marshall, Esquyer, reserving to himself 
 and wife a life interest therein : " this last appears to have been a very large sale, 
 although the number of acres is not stated. 
 
 Thomas France held a messuage and thirty acres of land, arable and pasture, at the 
 yearly rent of 20s., a Christmas offering of 4f/., cocks and hens, and to mow the lord's 
 meadows three days, and have one bushel of wheat and Qd. for drink, and one day's pro- 
 duce of the dairy, and eight whole days in autumn reaping, having every day a wheaten 
 loaf of fifteen to the bushel of wheat, and eleven herrings at nine o'clock. The said 
 Thomas holds another messuage and fifteen acres of arable land, for which he pays 13^. 
 a year. 
 
 About the thirteeuth century, according to Pleta, if an acre of wheat yielded only 
 three times the seed sown, the farmer would be a loser, unless corn should sell dear. 
 Three ploughings Is. Qd., han-owing Id., two bushels of seed Is., weeding \d., reaping 
 5c?., carrying 3ft'., in all 3s. \\d., which is more than six bushels of wheat by l^c?. The 
 same year the price of a bullock was 8s. Qd., a hog 2s. Qd., a pig Qd., threshing a quarter 
 of wheat Zd., of seligo 2\d., barley l\d., peas 2d., draget \d., oats \d. A man's wages 
 for cutting fire-wood two days, 4«?. 
 
 In 1359 the lord of the principal manor held in his own hands fifty-seven acres of 
 arable land, estimated at from 4c?. to 8rf. per acre, and eight pieces of meadow or 
 mowing land, valued at 202s. 4c?. a year, the quantities being about fifty acres; forty 
 acres of wood at Is. per acre, and the cropping of the trees and hedges at 6s. 8c?. 
 per year. 
 
 In 1420 eight acres of arable land were let at Qd. per acre ; thirty-eight acres at 9c?. 
 The hay of an acre was worth 5s. 
 
 In I49I the Abbot of Bury let eighteen acres of pasture to a man and his wife and 
 their executors, for eighty years, at 6s. 8c?. a year, or 4|c?. per acre. 
 
 In 1500 the most valuable land was let at from Is. 4rf. to Is. Qd. per acre. In the 
 reign of Henry VIII. thirty-one and a half acres of arable land were let at Is. per acre ; 
 thirty-foul' and a half of arable and four and a half of pasture for 40s. 
 
 In 1536 four acres of arable land let for 4s. a year, seven acres for 8s., and Clopton's 
 Close in Hawstead (twenty-five acres) for 20s. (now worth £20 — 1813). 
 
 Up to this period, although the discovery of INIexico had opened the gold and silver 
 mines of that country to Europe, the jealousy of Spain of other nations prevented it 
 fi-om acting upon the value of property in England. But towards the close of the 
 sixteenth century an active smuggling trade was maintained between England and the 
 Spanish American colonies, which poured a mint of wealth into this country, the effects 
 of which were soon apparent. 
 
 In 1572 thirty-nine acres were let for twenty-one years for £4 9s. a year, or 2s. Zd. 
 per acre ; and fourteen acres three roods were let for twenty-one years at £2 9s. 3c?., or 
 3s. 6c?. per acre. 
 
 In 1600 Hawstead Hall or Manor-house and 126 acres of land were let to William 
 Crofts, of Bury St. Edmunds, for eleven years for £40 and ten coombs of oats a year, or 
 about 6s. 8c?. per acre. In 1611 the dau-y-house, a barn, garden, several utensils of 
 household, the use of the brewing and baking-house, with four parcels of Hawstead 
 
26 AGRIOULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Park, coutaiiiiug together 155 acres, were let for three yeai's for £85 5s. a year, Avhich 
 is near lis. per acre. 
 
 In 1616 a sm-vey of the manor was taken, and the demesne lands, consisting of 366| 
 acres of arable and pasture land, and thirty-eight and three quarter acres of meadow, 
 in all 405 i acres, were valued at £249 a year, or 12s. per acre ; thii-ty-nine and a 
 half acres of wood at £12, or 6s. per acre. 
 
 We shall now turn to another part of the country. In Bartlett's "Antiquities 
 of Mancester," in Warwickshii-e, ayc find the following notices : — 
 
 " The manor of Ansley in that parish was valued in Doomsday at 100s. In 1791 
 it was sold for £3,000. 
 
 "In the reign of Hemy V. (about 1420) the manor of Wynfield, containing 2,000 
 acres, was valued at £7 9s. lid. per annum beyond reprises. In 1684 it was let at 
 £250 ; and in 1791 it was agaia let on lease for twenty-one years, at £1,500 or 15s. per 
 acre per annum." 
 
 This last entry is a complete series leading to the following observations. In the 
 year 1684, when the second letting took place, the influence of the influx of the precious 
 metals into the country was in fuU operation ; and it is probable that if no other addi- 
 tion to the circulating media had intervened, vei-y little advance in the value of land 
 would have been experienced. But at the close of the seventeenth centmy a new 
 element was introduced into the circulating medium of the country by the establishment 
 of the Bank of England, and the issue of bank notes. For the first fifty years this had 
 but bttle influence upon prices, because the Bank was not allowed to issue notes for a 
 less nominal value than £20 imtil the year 1 759, when the privilege was extended to 
 the issue of £10 and £15 notes. The restriction to £20 confined the circulation chiefly 
 to the higher class of merchants and tradesmen ; but the issue of £10 and £15 notes 
 brought them within the means of the more humble class of traders and agriculturists. 
 The consequence was that land advanced rapidly, so that we find it iucreased in value, 
 in the case of Wynfield Manor, from £250 to £1,500 per annum, or 600 per cent. 
 Probably the same land would now let for 25s. or 30s. per acre, or from 66 to 100 per 
 cent, higher than in 1791. 
 
 Other cii'cumstances, however, have now intervened to increase the value of land. 
 The establishment of the cotton manufactvire, and consequent creation of extensive 
 markets in the northern hives of industry for every kind of agi'icultui-al produce ; the 
 great increase of the population; the establishment of banks of issue in all parts of 
 the United Kingdom ; the vast extension of foreign commerce, by which the wealth of 
 the country has trebled within fifty years ; the institution of the railway system ; the 
 employment of machinery and steam in agricidtural operations ; and lastly, biit not least, 
 the important discoveries of the gold fields of California and Australia ; — all these circum- 
 stances have combined to increase the value of land, and will probably continue to 
 operate as the consumption of the country increases, and the individual accumulation of 
 wealth by commerce and manufactures continues. But wo must give a few more illustra- 
 tions of the progressive increase in the value of real property, to complete the series. 
 
 Anno 1082. Robert de Oily holds Burmester for two manors. Those are fifteen and 
 a half hides of land of twenty-two carucates, of which land three hides are in demesne, 
 wherein are six carucates and five servants, and twenty-eight villaues, with fomteen 
 borderers, and they have sixteen carucates. There ai-e two mills of 40s. rent, and twelve 
 
VALUE OF LAND AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 
 
 27 
 
 acres of meadow. A wood of one quarantine (forty perclies or a fiu-loug) iu leugtli, and 
 one iu breadth. Iu the time of Edward (king) it was worth £15, now it is worth 
 JI6. (See Kennett's " Barchester.") 
 
 " King John, 1203. Brunhall, a manor of King Edward. The land was always twenty- 
 five earucates. In demesne there are three (carucates), there are twenty villanes and 
 eighty-three borderers ; they have sixteen earucates, and there may be five more. There 
 is one mill of 10s. rent ; a meadow of twenty earucates ; wood for 300 hogs. In the 
 wliole, it pays yearly thirty-eight pounds of white silver [i.e., the pure metal before it 
 is coined), and for the forest twelve pounds burnt and weighed {i.e., melted down). In 
 the time of King Edward it paid eighteen pounds in number {i.e., in ready money)." 
 
 1335. Robert, Prior of Bercestre, and his convent, let and demised to John le Mann 
 and Amicia Pekkard, his wife, and Walter Pekkard, their son, one messuage and fifty 
 acres of land belonging to the said priory, to hold for their lives, and the longest liver of 
 them, paying the yeaiiy rent of 24*. quarterly. 
 
 In Grote's "Antiquities of Warwickshii-c" we find the follomng account : — 
 
 "9th Edward II. (1316) 160 acres valued at 3</. per acre; twenty-four acres of 
 meadow at 3*. per acre ; certain pastm'e ground at 20s. per annum ; a water mill at 
 26s. 8(?. per annum ; pleas and perquisites of court 20s. ; one croft at 5s. per annum ; 
 and twenty-four freeholders paying £4 12s. 7d. yearly (quit) rent. The whole valued 
 at £14, 6s. M. per year." 
 
 EENTAL OF LANDS, &c., IN COVENTRY AT FOUR DIFFERENT PERIODS. 
 
 Two Houses in High Street 
 
 Ootterell's Close 
 
 One close and a meadow in Conduit Field . 
 One toft and a piece of pasture .... 
 
 Hyke's Field 
 
 One cottage and garden in Bulliiugton . . 
 One toft and close of pasture there . . . 
 
 Lands in Arley 
 
 One messuage and tenement in Slowly Hills 
 One-third manor of Old Fillingley . . . 
 A farm in Betteswell, Leicestershire . . . 
 Another farm there 
 
 (1556) Ed 
 
 w.VI. 
 
 1613. 
 
 1648. 
 
 1634. 
 
 £ s. 
 
 2 
 
 d. 
 
 
 £ s. a. 
 2 14 4 
 
 £ s. d. 
 2 16 8 
 
 £ s. d, 
 2 10 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 13 4 
 
 6 13 4 
 
 7 
 
 16 
 
 8 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 14 
 
 ] 
 
 
 2 8 
 
 G 
 
 8 11 
 
 25 
 
 26 
 
 9 
 U 
 
 8 
 
 
 13 4-^ 
 
 1 oJ 
 
 10 o| 
 
 4 
 8 ]0 
 
 1 6 
 1 3 
 
 oS 
 
 6 13 4 
 
 6 13 4 
 
 10 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 66 13 4 
 
 77 
 
 1 4 
 1 2 
 
 51 
 10 3 
 
 3 6 8 
 
 17 
 
 20 
 
 20 19 
 
 9 
 
 53 6 
 
 143 16 8 
 
 164 
 
 
 
 Increased 
 2^ times. 
 
 Increased 
 Y times. 
 
 Increased 
 near 8 times. 
 
 In the last statement we see the progressive effect of the discovery of Mexico, with its 
 stores of gold and silver. At the first date it had not begun to operate in England ; 
 but from that time (1556) a continuous advance in the price of land took place, so that 
 in one himdred and twenty-eight years the property referred to had risen in value seven 
 times. This was previous to the establishment of the Bank of England; it is probable 
 that the present value of the property is eight times greater than in 1684, but this we 
 have no means of ascertaining. 
 
 Although we have named amongst the causes of the advance in the value of land the 
 discoveries of the gold mines, or fields, in California and Australia, it is proper to state that 
 the effect of these upon prices in this country has been rather collateral and incidental than 
 immediate and direct. By this we mean, that the addition to the cu'culating medium 
 
28 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 in consequence of them, though large^ would have had no considerable eflPect on prices, 
 because the country possessed a resource in its paper ciu-reiicy that supplied any amount 
 of capital of equal nominal value, and far more convenient. The amount of gold coined 
 in nine years, from 1848 to 1856, inclusive, was c€50,.378,000 sterling, part of which was 
 old gold melted down. The amount was certainly needed for the convenience of trade ; 
 but all larger transactions were, and always will be, conducted by means of paper money, 
 whilst the credit of the Bank of England remains intact. The new gold coin, therefore, 
 only rejolaced so much paper money employed in the retail trade of the country. The 
 total imports of gold into the United Kingdom in nine years, from 1851 to 1859, 
 inclusive, amounted to £175,800,810, so that the quantity coined was not one-third, 
 the remainder being exported, as any other article of commerce might be, to the 
 Continent of Europe and other parts of the world. 
 
 The way, therefore, in which the influx of gold has affected prices is thus : all the 
 gold that comes here must of necessity be paid for in either money or goods j the bulk 
 of it has been paid for in the latter, and thus an extraordinary demand for British 
 manufactures has been created, which would not otherwise have existed. This extra 
 demand required a large additional number of hands to complete the supply, besides 
 furnishing a greater amount of employment for those already engaged. This, again, 
 created a larger consumption of agricultural produce, which immediately caused an advance 
 in the price of both animal and vegetable provisions, and this, in turn, acted iipon the price 
 of land, because it rendered the profits upon its cultivation greater and more certain. 
 
 The increase of population, and with it that of individual wealth also, acts powerfully 
 upon the value of landed property by creating a greater competition for its acquisition. 
 The first desire of a man, when he finds that he possesses a surplus of money beyond what 
 his ordinary pursuits of business require, is to become a landed proprietor. Now there 
 is but a certain extent of cidtivable land in England, which cannot be increased. It is 
 evident, therefore, that with the additional competition which the increase of individual 
 wealth creates, the value of any article for the acquisition of which a general desire pre- 
 vails, and the quantity of which in a country cannot be increased, must become greater. 
 And this is precisely the case with the real property of this country ; for we find, on the 
 one hand, that when a landed estate is to be sold, the competition is so great that the 
 value has risen from eighteen or twenty years' to twenty-eight and thirty years' pur- 
 chase, even at the advanced rents which arc now obtained for land ; on the other hand, 
 no sooner is it known that a farm is, or is likely to become, vacant by the retii'ement, 
 death, or ejectment of a tenant, than the most active competition commences, and every 
 such change is attended with a further advance in the offers for its possession. 
 
 A practical farmer, writing in the Edinburgh Journal of Agriculture (January, 1859), 
 on " The Present Position of Agi'iculture," says, " The greatest enigma at present 
 in agi-iculture is rent. The most expei'ienced farmer, the most avaricious landlord, the 
 most sanguine improver, is deceived in his calculations in this important element in land 
 transactions. Some accuse the landlords of being too exacting and gi-eedy, and others 
 lay the blame on land-valuators for misleading their employers in the value of land ; but 
 the truth is, that both parties are at as great a loss to account for the rise of rents as the 
 most ignorant : for when the former advertises a farm he is sure to get the ofter of a 
 higher rent from men likely to prove good tenants than he ever expected, while land- 
 valuators, to keep pace with the offerers for farms, are obliged to put such a value on 
 
VALUE OF LAND AT DIFFERENT PERIODS. 29 
 
 the subject as may correspond with what it will bring when exposed to public compe- 
 tition, and which is considered its market value, though they do this often against their 
 own judgment. The fact is, the faidt lies with the tenants themselves, or rather with 
 the offerers. No sooner is a farm advertised to be let, than there is a keen competition 
 for it from men who have farmed as tenants all their lives, and from those who have 
 never known the anxieties of the farmer's life. High rents are always offered by the 
 latter, and not unfrequently by the former. What, then, can the landlord do but select 
 from the list sent in to him a good practical man offering a good rent ?" 
 
 This competition for the occupation of land existed to quite as great an extent at 
 the beginning of the present century. The writer, then just setting out in life, was 
 informed that a farm in one of the eastern counties would probably be vacant in a few 
 months, the tenant having engaged, or being about to engage, a larger farm under 
 T. W. Coke, Esq. The agent for the farm in question was Mr. Kent, the well-known 
 steward to his majesty George III. Fiu-nished with a strong recommendation and a 
 whole list of references, he waited upon the great man, and was courteously received, 
 but he was told, " that he might just as well ask for the place of prime minister, for 
 there were at least a himdred applications before him." 
 
 Such was then, and has ever since been at intervals, the competition for land ; and 
 it does not require much consideration to discover the cause. With regard to the 
 future, there is no probability that it will cease whilst agricultural produce continues 
 at the high price we have seen it of late. This applies specially to the animal products 
 of every kind, tlie demand for which, while it annually increases, cannot be met by 
 importations to an extent large enough to reduce the price. With respect also to corn, 
 there appears to be a limit to importation, beyond which the cereal countries cannot go 
 without lea^dng themselves bare, and thus raising the price at home. With the utmost 
 exertion on the part of the importers of wheat, we have never imtil this year (1860-1) 
 been able to procure more than six and a quarter million quarters. This was in the 
 year 1853, when the deficiency was estimated at ten mdlion quarters. The above impor- 
 tation completely cleared out all the foreign granaries, and it is very probable this wUl 
 be the case at the present time without producing much effect upon prices here. 
 
 With regard to the price of corn, it may be said that the low rates at which it was 
 sellmg in 1858 and 1859 is an argument against the eflfect ascribed to the influx of gold. 
 But this is not the case. The low prices were the consequence of abundant harvests, 
 which, with the importations, enabled the producers to meet the demand and retain a 
 surplus in hand besides. Now demand and supply will always regidate prices, indepen- 
 dent of the amount of circulating medium. During the two years in question there 
 was always a sm'plus of corn on the market beyond the immediate demand. The con- 
 sequence was low prices j for, although the influx of gold created an extra consumption 
 by the activity it threw into the commercial and manufacturing departments of industry, 
 that consumption, so far as bread corn was concerned, was met by an over production, 
 and low prices were the result. The reverse was the case with every kind of animal 
 produce, the supply of which has always been less than the demand ; therefore the price 
 has continued to advance. 
 
 The above reasoning, if it possesses any force of truth, applies to all times and all 
 seasons, being based upon the immutable principle that demand and supply are the 
 regulators of prices in all commercial transactions, and to which all the other elements 
 
30 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and incidents are subordinate. We eaunot have a more powerful illustration of tins than 
 that in the earlier periods of English history, notwithstanding the searcity of money was 
 so great that land was to he hired at 3d. per acre, the price of wheat sometimes rose far 
 beyond what it has ever done the last three hundred years. We read in an old author, 
 that in the thirteenth century (the year 1270) it sold at £19 16*. 9d. per quarter, and 
 that two years after, it was £14! 17s. 6d. per quarter. And it is a remarkable fact that 
 the increase of money has put an end to such calamities, the fluctuations in the price of 
 the necessaries of life being infinitely less than in those early times. 
 
 The influence of machinery and steam as employed in husijandry upon the price of 
 land cannot admit of a doubt. Whatever lessens the expenses of production, must in 
 the same proportion increase the value of the producing medium. Now, the substitution 
 of mechanical for animal p'^wer, however far from perfection the present attempts may 
 be, has already virtually reduced the expense of production by increasing the amount 
 of produce. It is i^ot that the wages of labour are lower, or that fewer labourers are 
 employed on the farm by the substitution of machinery, but that the land is better 
 cultivated, and the average yield larger and better economised. With respect to steam 
 culture we shall have occasion to speak of it hereafter, when we come to describe the 
 several systems now in use. We may, however, observe that the principle is yet in its 
 infancy, it being acknowledged that the plans hitherto adopted are far from realising the 
 ultimate mission of steam power in the operations of husbandry. 
 
 
 SECTION I^'. 
 
 THE AGGREGATION AND SUBDIVISION OF LAND. 
 
 Previous to 1790, a large portion of the lands of England was in the hands of small 
 proprietors, who constituted that famous body of men — the British yeomanry : a middle 
 class of independent freeholders, placed between the rural peasantry and the aristocracy, 
 always favourable to liberty, and ready at any time to fight or die for its maintenance ; 
 but at the same time equally devoted to the constitution, and loyal to the sovereign who 
 
AGGREGATION AND SUBDIVISION OF LAND. 31 
 
 respected it. They therefore possessed considerable influencCj both social and political, 
 in the country, which caused them to be much courted by the upper classes, especially 
 upon the eve of an election. Their knowledge, however, of the principles of agricidture, 
 as they have been since developed, was limited to a routine practised by their fathers 
 before them; and any information conveyed to them by books was treated with 
 sovereign contempt. Experimental farming, out of the ordinary course, was considered 
 a strong symptom of folly, bordering upon insanity; and having satisfied themselves 
 that their system was the best that could possibly be devised, they rested contented 
 •\yith a produce which, at the present day, would be accounted almost a failure. 
 
 Whilst peace was maintained in Europe, and the taxation of the country was kept 
 within moderate bounds, these petty "statesmen," as they were called in their localities, 
 managed to support themselves with ease. But when, in 1 792, the war with France 
 broke out, it effected a complete change in the condition of the rural districts. The 
 enormous expenditure which then commenced, and which rendered necessary an 
 adequate augmentation of the revenue, inci-eased the taxation, both local and govern- 
 mental (which fell chiefly upon the land), to such an extent, that it broke down the 
 small proprietors, and it became a question with them whether it would not be more to 
 their advantage to sell their land and become tenant-farmers. Let us suppose, for 
 instance, that a man possessed fifty acres of land unencumbered (a rare case), with a capital 
 of i£500 to work it. Land of good quality would sell at that period at £50 per acre ; 
 so that we may fairly assimie that he had £3,000 laid fast upon his fifty acres. It 
 is true he had no rent to pay; but if he had a family of a wife and five or six 
 children, which every young farmer ought to take into his calculation, he would find it 
 exceedingly difficult to support them, and, besides, pay the numerous taxes, poor-rates, 
 tithes, county rates, &c. &c., with largely advanced prices of 4a,bour, consequent upon 
 the dearness of provisions ; all of which, in fact, were increased in a far greater pro- 
 portion than the increased value of his small produce would cover. Under these 
 circumstances, would it not be more advantageous to sell his land, and hire a farm 
 of 300 or 400 acres, for the proper working of which his capital of £3,000 would, 
 with economy, be quite sufficient? Such was the correct reasoning by which the 
 yeomen fi'eeholders of England were transformed into tenant-farmers, occupying larger 
 or smaller tracts of land, according to the capital they were able to command, whether 
 simply by the sale of their estates, or by adding to what they produced by borrowing. 
 In the same way, the " common lands," which belonged to the general body of pro- 
 prietors in a parish, became first inclosed and parcelled out under acts of parliament, 
 and then, generally speaking, were absorbed by purchase into the estates of the neigh- 
 bouring gentry.* 
 
 The rise of British agriculture may be dated fi'om this period. The large accession 
 of capital thrown into it by the sale of the estates, which, with additions, were frequently 
 let to the former proprietors, enabled the farmers to bestow more expense upon the 
 land ; whilst the high price of all kinds of produce during the war stimulated production, 
 and still farther increased the capital employed on it; and a new race of farmers 
 arose, bringing not only capital, but science and intelligence, to bear upon husbandry, 
 which from that period has not ceased to progress. Every year has added, not only 
 
 * Journal of Agriculture, March, 1859. 
 
32 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 to the knowledge of the principles on which the cultivation and growth of plants 
 are based, but also to the value of land, the productive powers of which have been 
 largely increased. 
 
 The progress of agriculture and the increase in the value of land in Scotland has 
 been still more remarkable than that of England. Proverbially poor, the people had a 
 sterile soil to contend with, and the drawback of an inhospitable climate to overcome. 
 Land was of little value and the cultivation of the best parts was attended with the 
 most meagre results. The union with England, which had been effected at the com- 
 mencement of the eighteenth century, was not sanctioned by the masses of the people, 
 and during the first fifty years afterwards, the country was constantly in an incipient 
 state of rebellion, extremely unfavourable to industry of any kind, and especially to the 
 cultivation of the land. The outbreak of 1745 was the last effort of the Stuart party to 
 recover the ascendancy; and its suppression, accompanied with the death or flight of 
 the leaders, showed and convinced the people that it was worse than useless to waste 
 their time, enei'gy, and resources in so hopeless and visionary a cause. 
 
 It appears to be the natural course of things, that at least two generations must 
 pass away before any great political change in a country which is not acceptable to 
 the people at large, because it is supposed to affect their nationality, can be so far 
 acquiesced in as to allow them to settle down to habits of industry. Sixty years has 
 not wholly calmed down the resentment of the Irish for the insult (as they deemed it) 
 inflicted upon them by the English government, in abolishing the local legislature; 
 and a considerable section of the people are still endeavouring to raise the cry of 
 " repeal," although the measures of the government have for many years been uniformly 
 calculated to promote their welfare. 
 
 Not so the Scotch. No sooner did they find that the Union was un fait accompli, 
 which could not possibly be revoked, than they devoted themselves to the consideration 
 of the best means of turning it to account ; and well have they succeeded. 
 
 " Scotland," says a modern writer,* " exhibits one of the most striking examples of 
 the power of man over nature. I know of only one country that can be compared with 
 it in this respect, and that is Holland. Even Switzerland does not present such great 
 obstacles to human industry; but what adds still more to this marvellous rise of 
 prosperity upon so ungrateful a soil is, that it is all recent. The antecedents of 
 Scotland are different from those of England. Only a century ago, it was one of the 
 poorest and most barbarous countries in Europe ; but now, although the last remains of 
 its ancient poverty have not quite disappeared, it may be said that, upon the whole, 
 there is not a better regulated country under the sun. 
 
 "The total production during the last hundred years has increased tenfold. Agri- 
 cultural products alone have increased at an enormous ratio ; Scotch agriculture is at 
 this day superior to English, in some districts at least. It is to the model farms of 
 Scotland people send their sons to be taught farming. The best books upon farming 
 which have appeared of late years, have been published in Scotland; and when an 
 English proprietor requires a good bailiff, he generally sends to Scotland for one." 
 
 Many circumstances have united to occasion this rapid transition from the most 
 proverbial poverty to general wealth. The basis of it is found, undoubtedly, in that 
 
 * De Lavergne, " Rural Economy of EnglmiJ, Scotland, and Ireland." PiibiUhcd by Blackwood & Son, Ediubtirgh. 
 
AGGKEGATION AND SUBDIVISION OF LAND. 33 
 
 steadiness of character and habits of reflective economy by which the people generally 
 are distinguished ; and it may be said, that to this must be ascribed the singular tact 
 \vith -wliich they established that admirable system of banking which, while by liberal 
 advances of money it rendered assistance to any one who was rich enough in friends to 
 fiud two responsible securities, was managed with so much prudence and foresight, that 
 while the bank failm'es ia England had amounted to between fom- and five hundred, not 
 more than seven or eight had occurred iu the same period in Scotland. Tlie system of 
 leases in Scotland, we have already referred to. With this, the large and middle-sized 
 farms prevail, there being very few of less extent than fifty acres, and not many so 
 small, and thej'^ are foimd chiefly in the Lowlands. 
 
 The tenure by which the lauded proprietors of Scotland hold their- possessions is, in 
 almost aU cases, by fee-in-taU ; and even the leases of farms, if the lessee dies, go to his 
 heir, to the exclusion of the younger children. This is certainly a hardship upon the 
 latter; but there cannot be a doubt that it has prevented that subdivision which has 
 been the bane of Ireland, and is now occasioning so much perplexity in France. The 
 landed estates in Scotland are very large, especially in the Highlands, where they contain, 
 in some instances, 200,000, 400,000, and even 700,000 acres.* The average, however, 
 is about 2,500 acres ; whilst in the Lowlands they do not exceed 500 acres. 
 
 Until the middle of the last century the estates in Scotland were held under the 
 patriarchal system, strengthened by the strictest feudalism. The people in the High- 
 lands were divided into clans, which were, in fact, families — aU the members of the 
 clan being connected by the ties of relationship. The land was vested in the chief, who 
 lield his office of headship of the clan, both by descent and prescription, for the benefit 
 of the clan. The cultivation of the soil was confined to the valleys, and the produce 
 was chiefly oats ; but the people lived more by the fruits of the chase, and by raids upon 
 each other, and especially upon the Lowlanders (such petty warfare being a normal 
 institution of the country), than by honest industry. Trained to this barbarous habit, 
 they despised the arts of peace, and the land was mostly cultivated by the women. The 
 chiefs resided in strongholds, large enough to contain a considerable body of their 
 followers, and strong enough to resist the imperfect munitions of war their equally 
 barbarous neighbom-s could bring to assail them. The battle of Culloden put the 
 finishing stroke to this system ; and, by leading the chiefs to reside part of their time 
 in England, speedily produced an entire change iu the social as well as the political 
 condition of the nation. 
 
 The breaking up of the system of clanship in Scotland, and the appropriation of the 
 land as private property, has led to extensive emigration amongst the Highlanders, who 
 in the United States and Canada, especially the latter, constitute the most intelligent 
 and prosperous portions of the community. On the other hand, land has increased 
 in value to an enormous extent in some parts, near the large cities and towns ; t and 
 
 * De Lavergtic. 
 
 t A striking instance of this is recorded in Anderson's work on Scotland. A gentlemati wlio had aciJuireJ a large 
 fortune in India, purchased upwards of 25,000 acres of land iu the neighbourhood of Aberdeen. It was covered with 
 boulders of granite rock, whilst the scanty grass between, afforded meagre pasturage for a few sheep. This land previously 
 let at 2*. per acre. The new proprietor blasted and removed the boulders, drained the land, which he levelled and 
 linled, and altogether expended £20 per acre upon it,- — the original cost being £5 per acre, or £1 20,000. This land, 
 thus improved, brought the proprietor readily a rental of from £5 to £8 per acre, whilst the neighbourhood itself is 
 changed from a barren desert into a smiling and fruitful ornament to the environs of Aberdeen, 
 
 D 
 
34 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the skilly industry, aud economic habits of the people, being brought to bear upon 
 agriculture^ has changed, not only the face of the country, but even the climate, 
 the winters commencing a month later, and the snow disappearing a month sooner 
 than formerly. 
 
 It is, however, in the Lowlands that the value of land has so much increased. The 
 Lothiaus, which surround Edinbm'gli, and which were formerly considered incapable of 
 bearing any more valuable crops than barley and oats, and brought the proprietor only 
 a few shillings per acre, now let for fi'om 30s. to £5 per acre,* and some of the finest 
 Avhcat in the United Kingdom — and as such sold for seed-Avheat in both England and 
 Ireland — is produced there. 
 
 Such are the results in the two countries, England and Scotland, where the land has 
 been divided into comparatively large holdings, requiring capitals to stock and work 
 them. The advocates of the opposite system assert that this prosperity is not attributable 
 to the size of the farms, but to a variety of circumstances which do not exist in those 
 coiintries where the land is subdivided to infinity. They assert that in the latter a 
 waut of capital will account for the low state of agriculture ; and the same plea is made 
 use of in Ireland by those who arc disposed to support the system, whilst they look 
 despairingly upon its results. The foUowiug observations by a distinguished writer in that 
 country are to the point. " There is another circumstance, so popularly counted on as a 
 most material obstacle to the development of industry iu Ireland, that I cannot leave 
 the subject without briefly adverting to it — that is, the want of capital. This has been 
 the bugbear of Irish enterprise for many years. England has capital, Ireland has nonej 
 therefore England is rich and industrious, and Ii-elaud is poor aud idle. But where was 
 the ca])ital when England began to grow rich ? It M'as the industry that made the 
 capital, not the capital the industrJ^ An idle or ignorant man will lose his capital 
 where an active aud intelligent man will create a capital. We leave om- fields iu barren- 
 ness, our mines unsought, our powers of motion imapplied, waiting for English capital. 
 Labour is capital, intelligence is capital. Combine them, and you more than double your 
 capital. ^Vith such capital England commenced, as Ireland must commence; and once 
 we have begun, and are in earnest, there "will be no lack of capital at om* disposal."t 
 
 The case of Scotland is a sufficient answer to the complaint of the Irish of a waut of 
 capital. No people could be, either individually, or collectively, less Avealthy than they ; 
 and the unexampled prosperity in which we now find them is the result of persevering 
 industry, united with rigid economy, inflexible integrity, and the absence of that absurd 
 pride which leads the Irish to look upon labour as a disgrace, and to aim at being 
 independent gentlemen without ha^ng the means to sustain the character. This has 
 led the smaller gentry to educate their younger sons for the law, or the chm'ch, or the 
 medical profession, rather than for trade or agricidture ; and the consequence is, that all 
 these professions, especially the first and last, have becu overdone in Ireland. We believe, 
 however, that, owing to the efibrts aud teachings of the eminent writer of the paragraph we 
 have just quoted, aud other patriotic and influential men, and above all, by the untiring 
 exertions of the Royal Dublin Society and other kindred institutions, this spirit is fast 
 disai)pcaring, and that industrial pm-suits, with agricidtiu'e in the foreground, are 
 making rapid progress. Nothing could more forcibly illustrate the diflcrent cfl'ccts 
 
 * The Scotch acre la about j j imperial acre. 
 
 + "Industrial Kceources of Ireland," by Robert Kauc, p. 38S. 
 
AGGEEGATION AND SUBDIVISION OP LAND. \ 35 
 
 of large and small farming than the change which has taken place in Ireland since the 
 famine, and the passing of the Encumbered Estates Act. Previous to the year 1846 
 the number and extent of farms in Ireland were as follows : — 
 
 From 1 to 5 acres 309,915 
 
 5 ,, 15 „ 251,128 
 
 „ 15 „ 30 78,954 
 
 Above 30 „ 48,312 
 
 But even these figui'es do not represent the entii'e subdivision of the soil ; many of the 
 smaller holdings beiug still further reduced upon the marriage of the sou or daughter of 
 the lessee or occupier ; in which case a portion of the land is given to the husband for 
 the support of himself and wife^ the father still standing on the books of the proprietor 
 as the tenant for the whole. This system was carried to a great length in Ireland 
 without a legal enactment like that in force in France and other continental countries, 
 but it utterly broke do^vn when tested by the failure of the potato crop, which had 
 previously been almost the entire support of the peasantry in the rm'al districts. So 
 entire was the desolation produced by that calamity that iu 184'9-50 you might travel 
 twenty miles iu many parts of the country, and not meet with a single man, woman, or 
 child, or a single animal of any kind whatever, the human beiugs having been carried 
 off by famine, fever, or cholera, which succeeded each other, or having abandoned a 
 country which no longer afforded them support ; and the cattle, sheep, horses, and pigs, 
 having been either devoiu'ed by the starving population, or sold to purchase other food, 
 or afford the means of emigration. 
 
 Since that awful period a material change has taken place. Many of tlie large 
 estates having been almost forsaken by the tenantry, have since been divided, by a fresh 
 arrangement, into large holdings. Thus, on the estate of the INIarquis of Lansdowne, in 
 Kerry, consisting of 100,000 acres, the population amoimted before the famine to 
 16,000 sovJs. Of these, one-fourth died from himger or disease; another fourth 
 emigrated ; " and it was calculated that the continuance of the exodus would reduce the 
 population of the estate to one-eighth of its original proportion — say 2,000, wliich is 
 quite sufficient to bring the land into value."* So early as 1851 the number of 
 holdings had been decreased in Ireland to the following proportions : — • 
 
 From 1 to 5 acres .... 88,083 Decrease 222,292 
 „ 5 „ 15 „ .... 191,854 „ 60,924 
 
 283,216 
 
 „ 15 „ 30 „ .... 141,311 Increase 01,973 
 
 Above 30 „ . . . . 149,090 „ 100,467 
 
 162,440 
 
 This process has been gomg on ever since, partly by emigration, but chiefly by means 
 of the Encumbered Estates Court, so that in 1856 the numbers stood as follows : — 
 
 Prom 1 to 5 acres 82,035 DecJ-ease G,049 
 
 „ 5 „ 15 „ 179,931 „ 11,923 
 
 17,971 
 
 The larger farms have, of course, increased in proportion, and this increase of the latter 
 and decrease of the former is still proceeding, the peasant farmers having learned by 
 
 * De Lavergae, " Rm'al Economy," &c,, p. 391i 
 
 d3 
 
36 AGEIOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the reports of their friends in America that they can become proprietors there instead 
 of tenants in Ireland. 
 
 "What a contrast is Ireland of 1847 and 1851 with Ireland in 1858 ! No country 
 has ever made such rapid progress in so short a period. There is little or no pauperism, 
 labom-ers are fully employed, though wages are still too low; the farms are fully 
 stocked, and rents are well paid; and many of the farmers have accumulated money. 
 The laws are obeyed and respected, and there is an almost absence of crime; and peace; 
 contentment, and happiness prevail throughout the length and breadth of the land." * 
 
 This extraordinary change has been effected undoubtedly in the main by what must 
 still be considered as a heavy and calamitous visitation of Providence ; and as a result 
 of that calamity, the establishment of the Encumbered Estates Court, the change of 
 proprietary, with new indisputable freehold titles, and a large infusion of Scotch and 
 English farmers, whose example and influence are silently working that revolution in 
 which the eflforts of previous institutions made but slow progress. Between 1848 and 
 1858 there have settled in Ireland, six hundred and sixty Scotch, and ninety-six English 
 farmers — all of them possessing capital and skill, many of them having purchased the 
 farms they occupy. One of these, Mr. Allan PoUok, has been one of the largest pur- 
 chasers in the Encumbered Estates Court. The property he has thus secured, is, wc 
 believe, chiefly in the county of Galway, and the improvements he has made, with the 
 aid of a princely fortune, have rendered him the admii-ation of the whole country. 
 " Plans, skilfully matured, have been carried out with great vigoxu-; no obstacles were 
 suffered to interrupt them ; ample funds were at command for every purpose ; thousands 
 of labourers were employed at good wages, punctually paid ; and an example shown of 
 what can be effected on Irish soil by an outlay of capital, directed by skill, pnidence, 
 and energy. Mr. PoUok is now letting his improved farms to English and Scotch 
 farmers." f 
 
 The great argument of the advocates for small farming is, that the aggregate of 
 produce is greater, and that, consequently, more persons can be supported upon a given 
 quantity of land. We will grant this for the sake of argument, but at the same time 
 observe that it is this very circumstance which originates the worst feature of the 
 system — the constant tendency to produce a redmidant rm'al population, which is the 
 case in every country in which small farming is the ride. That it was so in Ireland 
 previous to the famine is proved beyond a question, both by the misery in which the 
 peasantry lived, the extremely low rate of wages, J and the enormous extent of pau- 
 perism. Theu' chief, and almost only food, Avas potatoes and buttermilk, with a change 
 of oatmeal porridge whilst the oats lasted. The rent of the laud was generally made up 
 by wages in England dm-ing the hay and wheat harvest, the families living the while 
 upon the remains of the previous year's crop. If that lasted, they were fortunate ; if 
 not, they begged of theii- neighbom-s. They now li^c in comfort, having abundance of 
 employment at good wages, and the support of the paupers amounted in 1857 to only 
 £490,000, the rates ranging from 44. to Is. 6d. in the pound for the whole yeai'. 
 
 • " The Agricultural and Social State of Ireland in 1858," by Thomas Miller, p. 30. 
 
 t Ibid., p. 12. 
 
 J During his residence in Ireland the writer has known able-bodied labourers hired by the hundred together at 3^J. 
 and id. a day. "Does your honour want a man?" said a stout fellow to a farmer at Ballinasloe fair. "Well, Pat, what 
 do you aslt for your work?" "Sure an' your honour wou't think id. a day too much?" This passed in the hearing of 
 El frir iifl ftf thf wrilpr'^. 
 
AGGKEGATION AND SUBDIVISION OF LAND. 37 
 
 Nearly half the outlay for the support of the poor-houses was swallowed up by the 
 salaries of officials^ and other expenses than the actual support of the paupers. lu 1856, 
 those salaries, &c., amounted to £215,202. The improved condition of the general 
 body of the riu-al population, and the superiority of their position to that they occupied 
 as peasant farmers, cannot be disputed for a moment by those who knew the country 
 under the old system. 
 
 The tendency we have referred to, of the subdivision of the laud to increase the rural 
 population beyond the means of the soil to support it, is now manifesting itself in a 
 remarkable and rather alarming manner in some of the best departments of France in 
 respect to local advantages. That of the Nord, for instance, possesses a rich soil, culti- 
 vated upon the Flemish system, and productive beyond any other part of France, it 
 enjoys all the advantages of access to the best markets by means of excellent highways, 
 canals, and railroads ; and yet, of this favoured district M. de Lavergne writes as 
 follows : — "Unfortunately, this profitable cultivation has one capital vice, which restores 
 the balance in favour of English farming — the excess of the riu-al population. In spite 
 of the developments of manufactures and commerce, those who subsist by agricidture 
 constitute nearly one half of the population, which gives a proportion of 100 to every 
 100 hectares (or one to every two and a half acres), or more than any country in the 
 world, except China. Such a superabundance of hands is not necessarily the conse- 
 quence of small farming, but it is its natural tendency. If Flanders produces more 
 than England in proportion to its surface, it produces only half relatively with its rural 
 population. There is in no part of the ivorld so many poor as in this rich and productive 
 country. The city of Lille forms a melancholy exception to all that is known in this 
 respect; the third of its inhabitants are supported by the charitable board, and more 
 than one rural commune has an equal proportion of poor. In face of such a scourge, 
 these admirable fields lose much of their merit."* 
 
 Again, in the valley of the Rhine, which is justly considered the best cidtivated 
 part of France, the subdivision of the soil has been carried to such a pitch by the 
 operation of the law of succession, that the department of the Lower Rhine, containing 
 1,124,135 acres, is divided into more than two million parcels or slips of land, and the 
 number is increasing with fearful rapidity. M. Lavergne, in speaking of this region of 
 France, states the opinion of M. Oppermann, and remarks upon it : — " The opinion of 
 M. Oppermann is strongly expressed, but it evidently contains a portion of truth. The 
 extent cultivated has been increased by clearings, but the average retui-n has not 
 changed ; it was formerly as now, nineteen to twenty hectolitres per hectare (seventeen 
 to eighteen bushels per acre) of wheat. The average revenue is rather lower than other- 
 wise. We must retrace our steps, which is not easy." ..." Another writer who has 
 come forward about the same time, M. Pariset, member of the Agricultural Committee of 
 Luneville, gives still more melancholy details respecting that part of Lorraine which joins 
 Alsace. ' The subdivision in this department,' says he, ' has been carried to that extreme 
 length, that many slips do not contain more than fom-, three, or two ares (or, respectively, 
 476, 357, and 238 square yards), and even less still. The ancient triennial system of 
 farming, carried to the utmost, has impoverished the soil. The extent of meadows and 
 pastures has decreased, whilst the arable portion has increased without any corresponding 
 extension of forage crops. Sheep have disappeared, and large cattle do not increase, 
 
 * Lavergne, " Economic Rurale de France," p. 83. 
 
38 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 wliilst tlie average return of wheat is lowered.' The subdivision of the land into slips is the 
 principal cause of these complaints. ' The present system,' says M. Pariset, ' is at an end ; 
 it is leading lis to a condition which calamitous years have revealed^ but not created. Our 
 farmers are getting into debt, and are debilitated in body and mind. Any modification 
 whatever of the crops will be impossible whilst the parcels of land remain entangled 
 as they are. How can artificial pastures be made in the midst of these slips, destitute 
 of roads ? Can anything else than wheat or oats be sown in the soil appropriated to 
 these cereals ? Can we cross over land under crops ? Tlie state of the soil points out 
 the only course we are permitted to move in.' " * 
 
 Plan of Subdivision and Reunion. — The only remedy yet discovered for this 
 evil — for such its most strenuous advocates consider it — is to throw the whole of a 
 district into one parcel, and then, divide it again, so that each proprietor should have 
 his land, whether much or little, in one block. To make the system clear respecting 
 the mode in which the soil is thus cut into slips, let us suppose that a man dies, leaving 
 four children, and possessed of four acres of land, i. e. one acre of arable, one of meadow, 
 one of vineyard, and one of wood. According to the law of France, each of his children 
 can claim a fourth part of each of those acres, by which the man's estate will be divided 
 into sixteen portions, instead of being preserved in one block, as it would be if the eldest 
 son inherited it. This is, in fact, the common case with these small properties. So 
 great is the passion for the possession of land, that very few of the children of proprietors 
 are found who are willing to sell their portions. The remedy we have referred to has 
 been put in practice in Prussia, Bavaria, Hanover, Saxony, &c. &c., but not to any 
 extent yet in France. In Prussia, 50,000,000 journals,t the property of 1,600,000 pro- 
 prietors, have been thus treated j but it is evident that, while the system continues, the 
 same process will have to be repeated in a few years, as the parcelling, subdivision, and 
 consequent entanglement of the land will also take place. 
 
 The eagerness of the French peasant farmers to possess land naturally raises its 
 value ; and we find the WTiters on agriculture in that country exclaiming loudly against 
 this fatal infatuation, which involves the purchasers in heavy debts, that the produce will 
 not enable them to discharge. The common interest paid by the rural proprietors, for 
 money advanced to them upon the pm-chases of land is 6 per cent., whilst the value of 
 land is as high as it is in England, where money can be obtained on mortgage at 3 or 
 3^ per. cent. On the other hand, the produce in the latter is much greater than in the 
 former, and rents are higher ; so that the purchaser of land in England, whether he 
 occupies it himself, or lets it to a fanner, has the double advantage of a better income 
 to receive and less interest to pay. This part of the subject will be more fully treated 
 when we come to speak of French agriculture. 
 
 * Lavergne, p. 168. 
 
 t A journal of land is as much as a plougli can till iu one day, which is about an acre. The term is Sason. 
 
SECTION V. 
 
 COTTAGE ALLOTMENTS. 
 
 Amongst the various schemes aclvoc.itcd and i^artially adopted for improving the 
 condition of the labourer, and enabling him to obtain many of tlie comforts of life, from 
 which, in consequence of tlie low price of agricultural labour, he is otherwise debarred, 
 is that of allotting to every married farm labourer a portion of land, at a certain rental, 
 and larger or smaller, according to the number of his family. As this system has been 
 the subject of controversy, and has many opponents among the agriculturists, we shall 
 review the arguments for and against it. 
 
 The avowed objects proposed by the advocates of cottage allotments are "to increase 
 the resources of the labourer by supplying him with many necessaries and comforts, 
 which he would have difficulty in purchasing from a portion of his wages, and which, 
 even if he coidd do so, he would purchase at a great disadvantage ; and also by enabling 
 him to turn everything to profit, so that nothing need be lost." There are, besides these 
 main objects in favour of the plan, many collateral ones, which in process of time might 
 work a revolution of the most beneficial kind in the character and habits of the agricul- 
 tural labourer. In his present position, with wages inadequate to the wants of a family, 
 or for providing those domestic comforts which render a cottage a desirable home, he 
 is too frequently driven or enticed to the piiblic-house or the beer-shop, — those curses 
 of the rural districts, — still further to abridge the comforts of the family by expending 
 a greater or less portion of his wages in drink. The labourer, in fact, with a family, has 
 nothing to look forward to but the Union Workhouse, if his life is spared beyond his 
 capacity for labour ; and a feeling of this total inability to better his condition and 
 make provision against old age or sickness, too often renders him reckless of conse- 
 quences and indifferent to the wants of his family. 
 
 It appears, therefore, that the acquisition of a portion of land sufficient to occupy his 
 spare time, and that of his family, withovit entrenching upon his regular occupation as a 
 farm labourer, is the very thing that is wanted to effect a moral change in his character, 
 whilst it is calculated to improve his social and material condition of life. With such a 
 
40 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 stimulus, he would feel that the hours he spent iu the dissipation of the beer-shop are 
 so much loss of profit to be obtained from his allotment j and that every hour he spent 
 in its cultivation was so much additional enjoyment to himself and his family. 
 
 Assuming that the plan is worthy of adoption, there are other questions connected 
 with it, upon which its success may be said to hinge. The first is the quantity of laud 
 of which the allotment should consist, and this should be limited to the ability of the 
 allottee to cultivate it without interfering with his regular houi's of laboui' for his 
 employer. To allow him to have more than this, woidd be a positive injmy to him, bj' 
 imsettling him at his regular employment, without materially assisting him iu the cul- 
 tivation of his land. It has been deemed that one half to one fom-th of an acre is as 
 much as one man can well manage to cultivate to advantage ; but if he has a family 
 growing up who can assist him, a larger portion would perhaps be desirable. It is a 
 question, however, whether the interests of the family would not be much better pro- 
 moted by disposing of the children in domestic service as they arrive at the proper age, 
 rather than by keeping them at home to assist in tilling the allotment. This is, beyond 
 a doubt, the case with the female branches of the labourer's family, who, if brought up 
 in a proper manner, are certain of obtaining situations as domestic servants at high 
 wages. And with regard to the male children, it would be far better for their future 
 welfare to be placed under a master, with whom they would acquire regular and indus- 
 trious habits, than to be employed in the desidtory work of the comparatively small 
 portion of land occupied by the family. 
 
 A second question is, whether it would be most advantageous to have the allotment 
 in arable land, so as to produce the vegetable food required for the family ; or in pastiu-e, 
 so as to enable the labourer to keep a cow, the produce of which might in part be sold, 
 and in part go to the maintenance of the family. Perhaps it Avould be better to have 
 half in arable and half in pasture, so as to be able to keep the cow in winter as well as 
 in summer. By this plan the wife and daughters woiild find ample employment, whilst 
 the husband would have less time taken up in cultivating the land. This plan has been 
 tried, and pastm-e land enough to keep one or two cows has been allotted to farm 
 labourers without any inconvenience arising from it. On the other hand, few labourers 
 have money enough saved out of their scanty earnings to pm'chase a cow, or even a pig, 
 and they would, therefore, in the first instance, require assistance for that purpose. 
 
 " Poverty," says a practical man, " will never enter the dwelliug of an industrious 
 laboming man (I proceed on the supposition that he is constantly employed at fi'om 
 9*. to 12s. per week) if he once can obtain possession of an acre of ground at a moderate 
 rent, and a cow, provided that it pleases the Almighty to bless him and his family with 
 health. So numerous are the benefits derived from this inestimable creature, that no 
 man ought to rest satisfied till he has accomplished the object of what ouglit to be his 
 constant and imceasing endeavours. A good cow will supply a large familj' with milk 
 and butter (and a great deal of the latter to spare) for forty weeks, and cheese all the 
 year round. I made from one cow 217 lbs. of butter in thirty-nine weeks. But sup- 
 pose an ordinary cow to produce 180 lbs., and allow 80 lbs for the use of the family, — 
 and no poor family ought to use more, — there will be then 100 lbs. to dispose of, say at 
 8^?. per lb. j* there is upwards of three guineas, at once, ready to pay the rent, &c. &c., 
 or to buy a couple of pigs; for a man who keeps a cow should never have less 
 
 * The price now for good fresh butter averages double that price. 
 
COTTAGE ALLOTMENTS, 41 
 
 than two (pigs) in the sty. A cow produces a great deal of wash for the hog-tuhs. There 
 is the washing of the milk bowls twice a day ; a lot of whey three or four times a weekj 
 for a skimmed-milk cheese should be made twice a -week, while the milk is plentiful ; 
 if the cm'd is made while the milk is sweety it wdU keep well for three or four days with 
 a little salt sprinlded over it^ and covered with a cloth in a cullender. Twice a week 
 there will be the washings of the butter and chm'n ; the little urchins will drink the 
 buttermilk. Indeed the refuse of everything connected with a dairy becomes an excel- 
 lent ingredient in the hog-tubs."* 
 
 To maintain the cow upon one acre of land, the same writer recommends the follow- 
 ing arrangement : — 
 
 r 80 rods of grass land. ; 
 
 1 Acre -l 40 do. mangold wiu'zel. 
 L 40 do. kitchen-garden. 
 
 The following unanswerable reasons for the adoption of cottage allotments are given 
 in the same work : — 
 
 " 1st. Every cottager requii'es, for the consumption and use of his family, a certain 
 quantity of culinary vegetables and fuel. 
 
 " 2nd. Every labourer, mechanic, operative, manufacturer, or small tradesman, has, or 
 ought to have, some hours of leisure every day, for the purpose of health, recreation, and 
 enjoyment. 
 
 " 3rd. Recreation is not idleness, but a change in the kind and degree of la1)our or 
 occupation. 
 
 " 4th. The raising or culture of all his vegetables, including potatoes, for his family, 
 and one or two pigs, and poultry, &c., and fuel, may be made the recreation of the 
 cottager and his family, without infi'iuging one hour on the time allotted to his business. 
 
 " 5th. Being so raised, they will cost the cottager less than what they could be 
 produced for by those who raise them as a matter of business, and not of recreation. 
 
 " 6th. The sense of property, the possession of a comfortable home, and the social 
 affections and local attachments thereby produced, will greatly increase the enjoyments 
 of the cottager, and in every way render him a better member of society."t 
 
 If in expressing an approval of the foregoing arguments for the plan of cottage 
 allotments, it should be said that we are neutralising what we have pre^dously urged 
 against the system of small farming, as practised in Ireland and on the Continent, we 
 reply that in these latter cases the land has been the sole dependence, and furnished the 
 sole employment of the people ; whereas the plan of cottage allotments pre-supposes 
 that the allottee is still constantly employed at his regidar work, and at regular wages, 
 the allotment being an additional and auxiliary source of emolument for his support and 
 comfort, and affording him an interesting and usefid means of employing his leisure time 
 without having recourse to dissipation of the lowest and worst kind, as is now too much 
 the case. It is a well-established fact, too, that those agricultural laboui'ers who have 
 had land enough to provide vegetables and potatoes for their families, or to keep a cow 
 and a pig, have been the last to apply for parish relief. This of itself is a powerful 
 argument in favour of the plan. 
 
 * Loudon's " Manual of Cottage Garden Husbandry," &c., p. 45. 
 t Ibid., p. 4. 
 
43 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 We shall now, in fairness, state tlie objections that are urged to the system of 
 cottage allotments. 
 
 " 1st. Those who erect cottages in the nu'al districts have usually built them 
 attached in rows or streets, which renders it impossible for the allotments in such cases 
 to sm-round the dwellings — a circumstance necessary in order that the cottager shoidd 
 derive full benefit from them. When the land surrounds the cottage the children may 
 be occupied upon it withoiit being removed from the mother's superintendence. The 
 father, who, after a day's work, would hesitate to walk a quarter of a mile and back, 
 may easily apply a little labour to his garden without separating himself from his 
 family. 
 
 " 2nd. The peasantry are ignorant of the value of allotments, and the mode of culti- 
 vating them. These circumstances present difficulties which nothing but an carlv 
 training in industrial schools, arranged for the purpose, can completely overcome. 
 "3rd. The farmers generally have strong prejudices against the system."* 
 The first objection to the plan is not insurmountable, for in some districts the 
 allotments have been all made in one field, lying contiguous to each other ; and it has 
 been found, that so far from the allottees neglecting to cultivate their plots on account 
 of then* not lying round their cottages, the circumstance of their contiguity has created 
 an emulation as to which shall produce the most, or the best quality, of the various kinds 
 of vegetables ; and we find that at the shows of agricultural producCj the cottiers hold 
 no mean place as the growers of the best roots, &c. 
 
 The second objection will undoubtedly hold good, as it applies to mechanics and 
 artizaus, who know nothing of the cultivation of the land ; but even these are not, we 
 presume, above being taught : and as to the farm labom-crs, sm'cly they know enough by 
 experience by the time they arrive at an age to take a wife, to be able to manage half 
 an acre or an acre of land ; and it is these chiefly that are contemplated by the plan. 
 
 The third objection, we believe, is giving way, and that the farmers very generally 
 are satisfied that cottage allotments are as much for their benefit as for that of the 
 labourers ; that it not only gives them more ability and more spirit for labour, but that 
 it makes them better satisfied with their position in society, when they find that their 
 welfare is the object of consideration with those who are above them in the social scale. 
 In Switzerland and those regions of France bordering upon the Alps, where cows 
 are kept by all the cottagers, they have an excellent plan for making the best of the 
 produce. The inhabitants of a commune form themselves into an association, and 
 establish a public dairy, called a. fniUiere. An experienced and trustworthy dairyman is 
 engaged to take charge of the establishment; and every night and morning the cottiers 
 send thither the milk produced by their cows, the exact quantity of which is taken 
 account of and entered in a book, a duplicate of which is kept by the owner. If any one 
 is detected in mixing water in the milk, he is excluded from the association, which is 
 tantamount to being ruined. The milk is all made, in its new state, into large cheeses ; 
 and at the end of the season these are sold in Paris and other great cities, where, being 
 of the finest make and quality, they generally fetch high prices. The proceeds are then 
 divided amongst the cottage proprietors, according to the quantity of milk each one has 
 sent into the dairy. Should the system of cottage allotments of land, half pastixre and 
 half arable, be generally adopted, so as to enable the labourer to keep one or two cows 
 
 * " Penny Cyclopfcdia." 
 
COTTAGE ALLOTJIENTS. 43 
 
 duiing tlie summer, perhaps the French pLiii woukl be wortli a trial for converting the 
 produce^ or a part of it, into either butter or cheese, which wouhl be certain of being of 
 the best make and quality, which is not always, or often, the case with small makers. 
 
 This plan of cottage allotments, we repeat, is quite different from small farming, and 
 may ratlier be considered as gardening, it being the object to raise vegetables of all 
 kinds for the use of the labourer's family, whilst the cow, if he keeps one, supplies them 
 with animal food in the shape of milk, butter, cream and cheese. It has also been 
 rendered necessaiy, as an act of justice to the labourer, by his having been deprived of 
 the commons, iipou which, previous to the war with France, he was able to keep a cow 
 through the summer, and iu some cases, where the cottager had a garden, through the 
 winter also. This was all taken from him by the General Enclosure Act, which, while 
 it ostensibly awarded to him an equivalent portion of the common land, compelled him, 
 by the expense of enclosing, which he was finable to defray, to sell it to his richer 
 neighbour, by whom the greater portion of the enclosed land was absorbed. He has, 
 therefore, a just claim upon the proprietor of land for a compensating allotment on lease, 
 sufficient, but not more, to supply himself and his family with the vegetables that 
 are necessary to sustain them in health. 
 
 It is to the honour of many landowners that they have fvilly recognised this claim, 
 and have allotted to the labourers upon their estates a portion of land sufficient for 
 their domestic purposes. Amongst these. Captain ScobeU, in Shropshii'e, was perhaps 
 one of the first, and the result was so satisfactory to him, and so much appreciated by 
 his neighbours, that twelve other parishes adopted the plan, and upwards of 500 
 agricultural laboui-ers and miners had allotments let to them at a rental of 2^d. to 
 3^d. per square rod, the quantity in few cases exceeding forty or fifty rods, the average 
 being thirty-four or thirty-five rods. Captain Scobell's cottier tenants numbered 179 in 
 the two parishes of High Littleton and JNIidsomer Norton. They all paid their rent 
 regularly, and in three years not one of them had been convicted of any offence against 
 the laws. The land was chiefly tilled by the wives and childi'en, as the men still held 
 their situations as labourers or miners. 
 
 The following single case, recorded by Sir W. Pulteney, and referred to by W. C. 
 Johnson in his " Farmer's Encyclopaedia," is remarkable for its result : — " On Pulley 
 Common, in Shropshire, there is, or there was, a cottager's tenement of about 512 
 square yards, somewhat more than one ninth of an acre. The spade and the hoe are the 
 only implements used, and those chiefly by the wife, that the man may follow his daily 
 labour for hire. The plot of ground is divided into two parcels, wliereon she grows 
 wheat and potatoes alternately. In the month of October, when the potatoes are ripe, 
 she takes off the stalks, which she secures to produce manure by littering lier pig. She 
 then goes over the whole with a rake to collect the weeds for the dunghill. She next 
 sows the wheat, and then takes up the potatoes with a three-pronged fork, and by this 
 operation the wheat seed is covered deep. She leaves it quite rougli, and the winter's 
 frost mellows the earth, and by its falling down in tlie spring it adds vigour to the 
 wheat plants. She has pursued this alternate system of cropping for several years, 
 without any diminiition of produce. The potatoe crop only has manure. In 1804 a 
 year very noted for mildew, she had ffteeyi Winchester bushels of tvheat, from 272 square 
 yards (one seventeenth of an acre), being four times the general average crop of the neigh- 
 boTiring farmers. It is to be wished such instances of cottage industry were frequent; 
 
44 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and more frequent they would be, were proper means made use of to invigorate the 
 spirit of exertion in the labouring class." 
 
 That the bestowment of cottage allotments acts upon the mind of the labouring 
 classes as a powerful stimulant to exertion and a desire to rise above the condition of 
 poverty, which a sole dependence upon the wages he receives as a husbandman, sooner 
 or later, almost ine\'itably involves, there cannot exist a doubt. Those who apprehend 
 that it will render the labourer more independent, and less willing to obey his employer, 
 or fulfil the duties of his station, take a very ignorant and narrow view of human nature. 
 Any plan, on the contrary, which reforms the habits of the peasantry by enabling them 
 profitably to occupy their leisiu-e without having recoiu-se to dissipation and vice, 
 necessarily makes them better, and not worse servants, even if gratitude be left out of 
 the question. We maintain that the concession of a plot of ground binds the peasant 
 more strongly to his employer; whilst the increasing habit of industrial occupation 
 makes even his regular employment as an agricultural labourer less onerous to him. 
 
 It is in those cases where the plot of ground (as in Ireland and in France) becomes the 
 sole support of the husbandman that habits of idleness are displayed. Without sufficient 
 employment to occupy the whole of his time he has no stimulus, when his potatoes are 
 planted, or his oats sown, to find other fields for exertion, because his neighboiirs around 
 him, being equally poor, can aiFord him no means of improving his condition. We have 
 ample evidence in both countries that the system of small farming is injurious to a 
 coimtry; whilst the occupier is far worse off in every respect than the agricultural 
 labourer of England. The only thing wanted by the latter is the allotment of land, to 
 make his position comfortable and advantageous both to himself and to his employer, 
 whose direct interest it is to see that those he employs have no reason to complain. 
 This is especially the case at the present time, now that the agricultural laboui-ers have 
 found their way to the United States and Canada, where most of them had friends who duly 
 reported to them the progress they were making. There is thence a general impression 
 with the labouring class, that unless some improvement is made in their condition by an 
 advance in the price of labour, or the expedient of cottage allotments, it will be better for 
 them to follow their former companions to the new world. This feeling has already been 
 extensively acted upon, and has had a material effect upon the supply of labovu', which 
 in many parts of the country is very inadequate to the demand at certain times of the 
 year. If, therefore, the farmers are desirous of not fm'ther having the supply diminished, 
 they must set about improving the condition of their labourers by giving them the means 
 of increasing their incomes, without a larger advance of wages than the price of produce 
 will allow ; and this can only be done by adopting the allotment system, which, wliilc 
 it will place the laboiu-er in a better position, will attach him to the soil, and render him 
 more contented with his condition of life. 
 
/ ^ 
 
 k> 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 RURAL ECONOMY— THE FARM LABOURER, HIS RIGHTS AND DUTIES. 
 
 Rural Economy has been described as comprehendiug^ in a general way, the amelioration 
 and improvement of every kind of riu'al property. It embraces, therefore, the laying out, 
 enclosing, and cultivating of laud, aud the management of the different practices, 
 operations, and processes which have relation thereto, or to its produce : the regulation 
 of the various kinds of labour which attend them ; the disposal of different articles of 
 provisions raised upon the land, at fairs and markets ; in short, embracing every subject 
 connected with rural affairs and the pursuits of husbandry. This is the definition given 
 of the term in Rees' Encyclopaadia ; but a more modem application of it imparts to it 
 a greater distinctness and a more appropriate meaning. 
 
 A young man, starting in life, finds himself in possession of just sufficient money to 
 stock and carry on a farm of 200 acres, without the means of increasing his capital bj' 
 any chance. It would be good economy for him resolutely to determine not to be tempted 
 to exceed that quantity of land, but rather look below it than above it in the selection of 
 a farm. But another opportunity presents itself of obtaining one of 250 or 300 acres, 
 and he embraces it. This is not economy, but an abandonment of it ; because, at the 
 outset, he finds himself so cramped for capital, that he is unable to effect those 
 improvements which are of so much importance to be done at the commencement of a 
 lease, in order to reap the full benefit of them during the term, and for want of which 
 his fields will never yield their full produce. Many farmers, with just sufficient capital 
 to manage the lands they occupy to advantage, are tempted, by the offer of others 
 contiguous to their own, to increase the size of their farms, by which they find themselves 
 hampered and embarrassed for life, without reaping a larger profit from the additional 
 pxtoiit of land. 
 
46 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 It may be good policy (so far as profit is concerned) in a new country, to occupy a 
 large rather than a small tract of land. "Washington, in reply to Sir John Sinclair, 
 who, in a letter, asked how it was that the rich lands of America produced only eight 
 bushels of wheat per acre, said that " in that country land was so cheap, and labour so 
 dear, that it answered better to cultivate a large quantity badly than a small one 
 well." The farmers of the United States have generally acted upon this principle, and 
 have therefore undoubtedly found it correct, so far as theii- o^vn individual interests 
 are concerned. But in a national point of -view it is destructive of economy, because 
 the lands become exhausted under the system, and thousands of acres have gone out 
 of cultivation in the eastern states, whilst the aggregate produce of those states declines 
 yearly. 
 
 But whatever may be the case in that country, it cannot apply to om* own, where 
 the rent of land, and the expense of stocking and cultivating it exceeds by five or six-fold 
 that of the United States. It is the greatest error a young man can commit on entering 
 into life, to take more land than he has capital fairly to cany it on. It is, perhaps, one 
 of the principal causes of the success of agricultiu'c in Scotland, that no farmer, if he 
 has only money enough to stock, &c., fifty acres, woidd on any account exceed that 
 quantity. Rural economy, in fact, is better understood, and more efficiently carried 
 out, by the Scottish farmers, than by the English, and their success has been the more 
 certain. 
 
 Rm'al economy, then, embraces the entire range of agriculture in theory and practice. 
 In the present state of knowledge of the subject, it includes a certain amount of scientific 
 acquaintance with the principles on which the art is founded, and -ndth the nature and 
 habits of the plants and animals which are its results. Without this knowledge, the 
 farmer of the present day will, like his ancestors, be groping in the dark, and either farming 
 his fields at hazard, or in a stereotyped path, with no other reason to allege for it than 
 that his father practised it before him. Perhaps there is no department in the manage- 
 ment of a farm in which economy is less understood by the generality of cultivators than 
 in the treatment and remuneration of laboui'crs, who are the working wheels, as the 
 master is the mainspring, of the machine. To a consideration of this branch of the 
 subject we shall now direct the attention of the reader. 
 
 That " labom' is the basis and origin of all wealth," — commercial, manufactm-ing, 
 and agricultural, — is an axiom which no man of reflection will controvert. Of what 
 value were the gold-fields of California to the Spaniards during the three hundred years 
 of their possession of that country ? What was it that stamped a value of many millions 
 sterling annually upon them fi'om almost the moment that Spain had abandoned the 
 coimtry (for a small consideration) to the United States government ? What, again, 
 was it that in thirty years raised Chicago from a small village, not considered worth 
 inserting in a gazetteer, to a city containing a wealthy and flourishing community of 
 130,000 inhabitants ? These and such as these results are the eflccts of labour. It 
 is this that stamps a value upon everything that the earth contains or produces, and 
 upon the land itself ; for where no labour is, or where there is a deficiency of labour, 
 there land is of little or no value. In England, as we have akeady shown, whilst the 
 land was in excess of the wants of the population, its value Avas as nothing compared 
 with what it now is. It is labour that has been the chief cause of its present value ; and 
 it is meet that the condition of the class of men who have been instrumental in producing 
 
RURAL ECONOMY, THE FARM LABOURER, ETC. 47 
 
 this result should occupy a large space iu the cousideration of those who reap the heuefit 
 of their labour. 
 
 " Farm lahoiu-ers," says Paley, " being the most valuable class of meu that a 
 populous country possesses, should have every comfort provided for them that is com- 
 patible ■\vith their situation, and conformable to the general interests of the commimity. 
 Their wages ought to be, everywhere and at all times, sufficient for the maintenance of 
 themselves and families while in health, with a sm-plus to provide against the day of 
 sickness, Avithout their being under the debasing necessity of making apijlication to theii' 
 neighbovu's for relief. Persons so essentially useful to society should not merely 
 support existence, but have the comfort of wholesome habitations, with sufficient space 
 of ground to furnish them and their families with changes of proper vegetable food 
 without much expense." 
 
 In an economic point of view, labour is an article of commerce as much as any other 
 production. An excess of labour in a country will reduce the price, on the same prin- 
 ciple as an excess of any kind of manufacturing or agricultural produce will do. On the 
 other hand, a scarcity of labour will as inevitably enhance its price : because, where the 
 labourer is free, and not bound to the soil or to the master, he can, under the circum- 
 stances, avail himself of the competition to obtain an advance of wages. In the present 
 condition of society, however, in England, as the labourer, in consequence of the law of 
 settlement, can hardly be called a wholly free agent, there arc other considerations with 
 an employer to prevent, in a great measure, the employed from reaping the benefit of 
 competition, whilst he has all the disadvantages to bear from an excess of labour. Nor 
 can the economic principles under which labour is brought by the laws of demand and 
 supply, divest the labourer of those claims upon an employer springing out of the fact 
 that, unlike other articles of merchandise — to which labour in the aljstract is not unjustly 
 compared — the labomer himself has an intrinsic, irrespective of the economic, value of 
 his agency, and which entitles him to a consideration beyond the mere commercial 
 remuneration for his brute labour. It arises out of his humanity, which, however low 
 he may be in the scale of intelligence, raises him infinitely above every other class 
 of being aroimd him, and places him upon the same level platform with his employer. 
 
 This question begins to be much better understood, and more generally considered 
 than formerly ; and those employers who continue to treat their labourers as if they 
 were cattle, or worse, form the exception, and not the rule. To " grind the faces of 
 the poor,"* and extract from them the maximum of labom', whilst awarding them 
 the minimum of wages, is no longer found to be good policy, if it ever was ; whilst it 
 is admitted that, as intelligent beings, capable of and possessing the same feelings, 
 capabilities, and aspirations as other human beings, those qualities were not bestowed 
 upon him to be crushed and annihilated, but to be cultivated and improved by moral 
 training. Such is the state of the question between the employer and the employed ; 
 and we shall now point out some of those claims which the former is bound to consider, 
 and to award to the latter. 
 
 * At the commeacemeut of the present century it Was no uncommon thing for the farmers of a parish, iu orJer to 
 tvade the high price of labour, to put the labourers up to auction every Saturday night; when, by an arrangement amongst 
 themselves, they thus obtained their workmen at from Gd. to 8d, a day, and the dilTerence between that and the standard price 
 of labour, which was from 2s. Gd. to Ss. per day, was made up out of the poor's rates ; thus making the non-agricultural 
 part of ihe parishioners pay their labourers. The writer could name two parishes in which, of his own knowledge, the 
 farmers practised this detestable fraud for some years. 
 
48 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The first consideration, in the remuneration of a labourer, is that of his physical 
 wants. His animal nattire, and that of his family, require a certain amount of support, 
 to enable him to sustain, without sinking, the arduous duties of his station. It is 
 evident that it would be bad policy in a master to reduce wages so low as to incapacitate 
 the labourer for properly and efficiently performing his work. On the other hand, as 
 the supply of labour must necessarily be kept up, it is equally incxmibent on an employer 
 so to pay the labourer that he may rear a family in decency and respectability. 
 Wages, therefore, of labour must, as a matter of economic consideration, embrace these 
 two objects — the adequate support of the labourer and his family, so that the former 
 may efficiently fulfil his duties, and the latter be reared in such a degree of comfort and 
 sufficiency as to prepare them at a future period for similar duties. 
 
 The second consideration connected with his physical condition, is that of a decent 
 and healthy habitation, which hitherto has been biit little attended to by agriculturists, 
 although it is perhaps of more importance to the moral and physical efficiency of a 
 labourer and his family than anything else. Uncared for, the peasantry of England, 
 "■enerally, have been compelled to reside, huddled together in hovels, far worse in some 
 instances than those provided for the cattle or pigs, and in which the sexes of the family 
 are mingled in the most immoral and disgraceful manner, to the utter destruction of all 
 decency of feeling in either the males or the females, and frequently leading to crimes 
 of the most abhorrent character. Nor is the injury to the health of the labourer and his 
 family less certain than that to his morals. For a whole family to be crowded up into 
 one bedroom, scarcely large enough for the man and his wife, must be destructive of 
 health, generating fever and other disorders, and incapacitating them for laboixr. Nor 
 is it the least evil arising from tlie want of a decent and comfortable home, that the farm 
 labourer is too frequently di-iven by its discomforts to the public-house or the beer-shop, 
 where he learns to spend his money in dissipation, and moreover gets initiated into 
 crime, as the testimony of all the judges and magistrates of the country goes to prove. 
 Good policy, therefore, dictates to the employers of labourers, or the landowners, that 
 they should — if they wish to lessen the amount of crime, and render their peasantry 
 more efficient and more obedient to the laws — provide comfortable homes for them, so 
 that they may have no, or at least less, temptation to spend their leisure time and their 
 wages in enervatiug and enfeebling dissipation, and in acquiring those habits and practices 
 which too frequently lead to crimes of the worst description. It has been deliberately 
 asserted by country magistrates, as well as the judges of the land, that from eighty to 
 ninety per cent, of the crimes committed in the rural districts have been concocted at 
 the public-house or the beer-shop ; and that if these were done away with, or otherwise 
 controlled, the functions of the magistrate would almost cease. If, then, this cannot be 
 done, let the landlords counteract their evil tendencies by making it desirable for the 
 peasantry to spend their evenings at home, by providing such habitations for them as 
 shall leave no inducement to look elsewhere for enjoyment. 
 
 But the labourer is a moral and intellectual being, however much these qualities 
 have been neglected, and however low they may have ebbed for want of cultivation. It 
 has been a maxim with many persons — themselves of cultivated minds — that to educate 
 the peasantry is equal to making them above the law, and rendering them independent 
 of all authority ; that it would be putting a weapon into their hands, with which they 
 would infallibly leave their proper sphere, and become unfit to fulfil the duties of theu' 
 
RURAL ECONOMY, THE FARM LABOURER, ETC. 49 
 
 station. Such -were the absm-d ideas entertained by the country gentlemen of former 
 generations, and by a few of the present day. But these antiquated ideas are becoming 
 obsolete^ and a more enlightened spirit and policy have supervened. The example of 
 Scotland, where all the peasantry are educated, and are so far from being injm-ed by it 
 in then- moral and industrial character, or elevated above their sphere of life, that they 
 are the most obedient and industrious laboui'ers in the United Kingdom, as well as the 
 most enlightened and intelligent — has not been thrown away or overlooked. Many of 
 om* noblemen and gentry are exerting themselves in theii' several districts to raise the 
 character of the peasantry ai'ound them, by education and other means of enlightenment, 
 and by awarding premiums for good conduct. 
 
 When, however, we speak of education for the rural peasantry, we do not intend to 
 confine that term to the mere mechanical arts of reading and writing. These, it is true, 
 are considered the elementary parts of education ; but, in point of fact, of themselves, 
 they form only one part of that moral training which fits a man for fulfilling worthily 
 the station in life to which he is destined. To render elementary instruction useful and 
 efficient for all the more valuable purposes of life, it must be accompaxiied with an 
 initiation into those moral and religious principles which constitute the basis of worth 
 in society, and which alone can render the acquisition of the highest intellectual attain- 
 ments otherwise than dangerous to the possessor. There never was h. greater error 
 committed by any government than that of enforcing a pm-ely secular education, without 
 any reference to the moral and religious parts of instruction. "The grand object," says 
 a modem writer, " in educating the lower classes, should be to teach them to regulate 
 their conduct with a view to their well-being, whatever may be their employments. 
 The acquisition of scientific information, or even of the arts of reading or writing, though 
 of the greatest importance, is subordinate and inferior to an acquaintance with the great 
 art of ' lining well ; ' that is, of li^dng so as to secm-e the greatest amount of comfort and 
 respectability to indi\dduals, imder whatever circumstances they may be placed."* The 
 principles here pleaded for, should be instilled into the peasant's mind in early childhood, 
 in order to have their full effect. It is therefore good economy for the agriculturist to 
 take care that proper schools are established, in which such moral and religious training 
 and instruction shall be given, as shall fit the future man or woman worthily to fiU the 
 station to which they may be destined. 
 
 The question of the secular education of the rural peasantry has of late years 
 assumed a character of absolute necessity, in consequence of the extended and extending 
 employment of machinery, and especially steam power, in agricultm-al operations. 
 Although for the present it may be desirable, and even necessary, to employ skilled 
 workmen and engineers in the management of the various machines now in use, it must 
 soon occm' to the mind of the farmer that he has a body of workmen at home, for whom 
 it is both his duty and his interest to provide employment, and who are quite as capable 
 of learning the proper method of conducting machinery as other men ; and that all they 
 want is a suitable education. He has therefore a powerful motive to qualify those 
 around him for the employment which he is now compelled to entrust to a stranger ; 
 and the sooner the task is undertaken the better. The work is increasing beyond the 
 ability or the qualification of the right workman to execute it ; and a very few years 
 
 * " A Treatise on the Circumstances wliicli determine tLe Rate of Wages and the Coudilion ot the Lahouring Classes," 
 by J, R. MaccuUoch, Esq. 
 
 B 
 
50 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 will bring about one of the most ■wonderful revolutions in the condition of nu'al affairs 
 that can be conceived. 
 
 Such are the principal claims of the labouring classes upon their employers, Avhose 
 interest is, in fact, as much concerned in their fulfilment as that of the peasantry them- 
 selves. When these claims, united with the system of cottage allotments and suitable 
 habitations, are universally conceded, and not till then, the agriculture of the United 
 Kingdom will become what it ought to be — a system of justice and equity ; and country 
 life will be a scene of miiversal happiness and enjoyment, so far as the events and 
 casualties of life will admit of. 
 
 But the labourers, or husbandmen, have their duties to fulfil as well as rights to 
 claim. The moral obligation is not all on one side ; nor are the claims of the employer 
 weakened or neutralized by those of the employed, although the latter may not be 
 conceded to the full extent of their expectations. This is no excuse for a neglect of 
 those duties, or the commission of those acts of injustice which are too common with the 
 agricultural labourer. It is unfortunate for the character, as well as the welfare of this 
 class, that the law of settlement, as now administered, is nearly equal to the system of 
 serfdom, as it, in a manner, binds the labourer to his parish, and almost to one master, 
 let the latter be as unjust and as brutal as he may. In this case, provided the employer 
 keeps strictly within the verge of the law, the labourer has no redress, the magistrate 
 having no cognizance unless the law is absolutely bi'oken or set at nought. There is not 
 a doubt Ijut that this state of things has, in numberless eases, driven an ignorant labourer, 
 who has never been under aiay kind of moral training, to the commission of oflences ; 
 and while it forms no justification, at least fully accounts for his delinquencies. 
 
 Fortunately for the labourer, there are outlets of which he can still avail himself to 
 seek employment, notwithstanding the stringent law which was intended to confine him 
 to the parish iu which he was born. These are the manufacturing establishments of the 
 country, and emigration to the British colonies, or to the United States of America. 
 The extension of the former has already absorbed a large portion of the rural popula- 
 tions ; and an additional number have gone out to people the wild legions in those new 
 countries, which are rising to social and political iiuportance by the rapidity with which 
 their wealth and populations increase. By these means the condition of those who 
 remain in the country as husbandmen has been greatly improved, both by the advance 
 in the price of labour and by the additional importance attaching to them in the 
 estimation of the master — under the apprehension, that unless by a liberal treatment 
 they can attach them to their present employment, they, too, will aljandon their native 
 country, and follow their former neighbours and friends to the New World. 
 
 We cannot be surprised at the unsettled condition of the agricultural laboiirers in 
 many parts of the country when we consider the crviel harshness with which they are 
 treated. In order to compel the peasants to leave the parishes where they reside, and 
 thus lessen the poor's rates, many landowners pull down the cottages, and thus di'ivc 
 them to reside in neighbouring towns or villages where they can obtain a lodging, and 
 from whence they retm-n to their daily labour. On the contrary, many other noblemen 
 and land proprietors have built comfortable cottages for their peasantry, with gardens 
 attached to them. AVe have already referred to this subject, and instanced a noble duke 
 as one of the foremost in this improved policy. The barbarity and short-sightedness of 
 the former practice cannot be more powerfully illustrated than by contrasting the con- 
 
EURAL ECONOMY, THE FARM LABOURER, ETC. 51 
 
 dition of the peasantry under it with those under the latter ; and it is only astonishing 
 that any man can be so destitute of the eommonest principles of humanity as to sacrifice 
 the comfort of his fellow-creatures, ■vrho are dependent upon him for subsistence, to the 
 sordid and selfish desire of evading the payment of a just tax. Can we be siu-prised 
 that the ignorant peasant should forget his duties, and seek by unlawful or unjust means 
 to increase his comforts, that he should be firofligate, and intemperate, and dishonest, 
 when he sees that his landlord or employer makes no scruple of unjustly, although not 
 illegally, depriving him of the shelter to which, as a native of the parish, he is morally 
 and socially entitled ? 
 
 Under such circumstances it is difficult, we admit, but not impossible, for the 
 labourer to adhere to the straightforward path which it is both his duty and his interest 
 to pursue. Nevertheless, it. is equally true that the injustice of the master is no justifi- 
 cation of a dereliction of duty in the servant. Whatever may be the treatment of the 
 former, the latter, if he continues in his service, is bound by every consideration of right 
 — though not of gratitude — to respect his property, to avoid wasting his time, to execute 
 his orders with promptness and in the best manner in his power, and to treat him with 
 that manly deference which their relative positions demand. On the other hand, his 
 self-respect oi^ght to teach him to abstain from those practices, which, while they waste 
 his scanty wages — at best barely sufficient to support him and his family — lead liiin to 
 forget every moral obligation due either to his employer, his family, or himself. He 
 must avoid the public-house and the beer-shop as he would a pestilence, and as the 
 source of nearly all the moral and physical e\'ils with which the agricultural laljourers 
 are visited. Here it is that every scheme of dishonesty and illegality is concocted ; here 
 the poacher, the fowl-stealer, the wrecker, and the perpetrator of more serious crimes 
 meet, not only to plan their schemes of plunder, and to divide and spend the produce of 
 their criminal pursiiits, but to employ every effort and every base argument to inveigle 
 the young and imwary into their magic circle. They ridicule the idea of resting satisfied 
 with the ordinary and scanty wages of labour, and boast that, with little effort and less 
 danger, they can more than double their incomes, and be able, without starving their 
 families and themselves, to enjoy the comfort of a cheerful glass and good company. And 
 as to the danger of detection and punishment, it is only a short imprisonment, which, 
 after all, is no great matter,* as the parish must in that case support the family. 
 
 Such are the arguments used by the old adepts in crime to seduce aud ensnare the 
 young, and which are too frequently successful. The encoiu-agement held out to the 
 poacher by the excessive preservation of game by the country gentlemen assists the 
 delusion, and thoi;sands of the rural populations are thereby led step by step into courses 
 which end in the ruin of themselves and their families. It is the duty, therefore, of 
 those who have the care of the education of the young peasantry to instil into their 
 minds those principles that will lead them in after life to avoid those places and oppor- 
 tunities of dissipation and intemperance, of which the least e^-ils are the pinching of their 
 wives and children with cold and hunger, whilst they leave the men a prey to enticements 
 which too frequently end in utter ruin, if not in the gallows. 
 
 * The writer once had a poacher in his employment who had been an inmate of every gaol in the county of N., and 
 when asked which he liked best, candidly re])Iied, he had no great fanlt to find with any of them ; but if he preferred 
 one more than another, it was that at W., as they treated a poacher like a gentleman I 
 
 e2 
 
53 AGEICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 POOR-LAWS— TITHES. 
 
 If there is one trutli in social ethics more potent than another, and which has ohtained 
 in all ages, and in aU countries of the world, it is this — that " the poor ivill never cease 
 out of the land." It matters not what form of government a people may exist mider, 
 what may be the richness and productiveness of the soil, what the extent and value of its 
 commei'ce and manufactures, or what the industry and application of the inliabitants — 
 such is the constitution of man, and such the construction of human society, that there 
 will still be a class whose destitute condition claims for them the sympathy and help of 
 those who by a more fortunate arrangement of the circumstance of life are in a more 
 favourable and prosperous state, and whose duty it is to administer to the wants of their 
 indigent fellow-creatm-es. 
 
 . Wlien, however, we speak of poverty, we do not imply merely the want or absence of 
 wealth, or what is called competency. Although the possession of this is generally 
 considered to constitute riches, it does not absolutely render a man rich. In point of 
 fact, one man may be poor though in possession of a valuable estate, whilst another may 
 be rich that seldom has a sovereign in his pocket, or is in the enjoyment of any of the 
 luxuries of life. Neither of these are absolutely poor while they can obtain a sufficiency 
 of the necessaries of life, the want of which, and the inability to obtain them, being 
 what constiti;tes the condition of poverty. 
 
 " A man's life consists not in the abimdance of the things which he possesseth," but in 
 the enjoyment of those advantages which the goodness of Pro\ideuce has bestowed xipon 
 him as the fruits of his laboiu', or the rcsidts of the circumstances in whicli he has been 
 placed. In this sense, the husbandman with his 12s. or lAs. a week may be as happy, 
 and therefore as rich, as the master whom he serves ; and, on the other hand, the noble, 
 maji who numliers his acres by thousands, and his menials by hundreds, may, in reality, 
 be poorer than the humblest labourer who works upon his land. 
 
 Poverty, therefore, in the abstract, is the inability — whether fi'om misfortmic 
 unavoidable, or mismanagement, or imprudence, or profligacy, or crime — to obtain the 
 necessaries of life ; and the poor, whatever may have been the cause of their destitution, 
 may demand, by reason of their humanity, that assistance from society which their 
 abject condition requires. This, and this alone, is the basis and the object of all legis- 
 lation on the subject of the poor. 
 
 Without going into the remote history of the state of society previous to the Norman 
 conquest of Britain, the state of serfdom which existed, necessarily produced a large 
 amoimt of physical suffering, and absolute want of the necessaries of life, rendering 
 the assistance of others indispensable. After the conquest, the strictness with which 
 the feudal system was established and enforced increased the mmiber of those who, 
 whilst they toiled for their daily bread, were continually liable to casualties which 
 reduced them to poverty. For the relief of these there were no legislative or compulsory 
 enactments imposed upon the wealthy classes ; but as the villeins or serfs were at the 
 uncontrolled disposal of their masters or lords, and could be transferred by deed, sale, or 
 conveyance from one owner to another, there was a general understanding based upon 
 
POOR LAWS— TITHES. 53 
 
 custonij and arising out of the common feelings of humanity, that the lord should provide 
 for his villeins in eases of sickness or other accidents that incapacitated them for labour. 
 
 But although the immediate eifect of the couquest was to increase the amount of 
 serfdom as the consequence of the transference of the land from the Anglo-Saxon to the 
 Norman lords, no new slaves were allowed to be introduced by means of captives taken 
 in war ; and this is considered to have ultimately had the effect of abolishing slavery 
 altogether, by causing it to die out for want of a fresh supjily. It is recorded by ancient 
 writers that in the twelfth century a law was enacted in a great council at "Westminster 
 to the following effect : — " Let no man for the future presume to carry on the wicked 
 trade of selling men in market like brute beasts, which hitherto hath been the common 
 custom of England." * 
 
 The clergy of the Chui'ch of Rome frequently induced the lords to enfranchise tlieii' 
 slaves. " Temporal men, by little and little, by reason of that terror in their conscience, 
 were glad to manumitte aU their villeins , but," adds the historian, "the said holy 
 fathers, with the abbots and priors, did not in like sort by theirs, for they had not con- 
 science to impoverish and dispoyle tlie clim'ch so much as to manumitte such as were 
 Ijound to their churches, or to the manors which the church had gotten, and so kept 
 theii's still." " Indeed, such numbers were in their service that no less than 2,000 
 viUeins belonged to some of the richest abbeys."f 
 
 Gradually the state of villeinage merged into that of servile tenants, allowed by theii- 
 owners to occupy small portions of that part of their estates which lay farthest from 
 the mansion, on condition of rendering certain services, such as reaping the lord's corn, 
 cleansing his fish-ponds, &c. While not thus emijloyed in his lord's service, the serf was 
 allowed to work for his own benefit, either on his own land or for others at wages. 
 The introduction of the woollen manufacture into England in the fom-teenth centmy 
 (1331), iinder the sanction and support of King Edward III., helped the process still 
 further by increasing the riches of the people in towns, while the owners of land were 
 in comparative poverty; and the freedom enjoyed by those engaged in mercantile or 
 trading pursuits being accompanied with a superior mode of living, rendered the villeins 
 discontented with their bondage, and led them to combine for the pm-pose of com- 
 pelling their lords to grant them manumission. INIany of them fled into the towns, 
 where they were received and protected by the manufacturers and merchants, who 
 found employment for them. Those who remained were emboldened to treat their 
 masters so insolently that they were afraid to exercise their power over them for 
 fear of losing them altogether. % By this means were the viUeins converted into free 
 labourers. 
 
 The dreadful pestilence which occurred in England in 1339, by decimating the rural 
 population, rendered those who survived more alive to a sense of their value and import- 
 ance to their lords. "The Statute of Labom-ers," passed in the reign of King 
 Edward III., while it gives a good idea of the value of labom-, serves also to show that 
 the free labourer was not a rare or strange being, and that their numbers were 
 sufficiently large to render them an object of legislation ; and although the statute was 
 enacted in consequence of the labom-ers taking advantage of the scarcity of hands 
 
 * Eadmer, vol. iii. p. OS. 
 
 + Sir r. M. Eden, " State of the Poor," vol. i. p. 1 !. 
 
 X Ibid., p. 30. 
 
54 AGRIOULTUEE, ANCIENT AND IIODERN. 
 
 created by the pestilence to demand double wages^ it also prevented the employers from 
 reducing them below the standard fixed by the statute. 
 
 It is evident that with the abolition of ^illeinage and the introduction of fi'ee laboiu', 
 the obligation of the lord to support his former bondsmen ceased, and that the latter 
 were thro^vn, so far as compulsory support was coucernedj upon their own resom-ces. 
 The poor, therefore, in those days had lost Avith their servitude that aid in sickness 
 or other casualties on which they could rely when bound to their lords. In this 
 case, however, the clergy stepped in and supplied the deficiency by raising funds, in 
 virtue of their sacred character, for the purpose ; and previous to the time of Elizabeth 
 they and the convents were the almoners of the public. Independent of these, however, 
 many benevolent individuals made permanent provision for the indigent poor, while 
 others were induced to do the same in expiation of some crime, or for the repose of 
 the souls of their friends. Still, the ecclesiastical body were the chief support of the 
 indigent poor, and by their exhortations — in some cases amounting to command — 
 obtained large sums for that pm-pose ; and not only this, but one third of the livings 
 of the clergy were by law reserved expressly for the support of the poor, so that there 
 was, in fact, a compulsory provision, although no legislative enactment to enforce it. 
 
 The rupture between Henry VIII. and the Pope, or the Chvu-ch of Rome, completely 
 changed the course of things relating to the support of the poor. The convents had, 
 heretofore, been the mainstay of that class, and their suppression cut off their chief 
 dependency. Independent, however, of those who were reduced by reason of old age, sick- 
 ness, or other imavoidable misfortimes, there was a class of sturdy beggars, who roamed 
 the country in a kind of semi-religious character, making a merit of poverty, and claiming 
 by virtue of a vow the charity of the wealthy. These idle vagabonds were patronised by 
 the convents and the Romish clergy in England just the same as they are in Spain and 
 other Catholic countries at the present day. But the Reformation cut off" the resources 
 of these also, and they could no longer resort to the convents, and there claim the aid 
 which the monks were only too willing to accord to them. In future they must depend, 
 while tolerated, on the eleemosynary assistance of those who still adhered to the Romish 
 faith ; but the progress of the Reformation soon drove them either into foreign countries, 
 or to change tlieir habits, and seek by labour to gain an liouest livelihood. There was, 
 therefore, from that time, only tlie really indigent poor for whom a ju'ovision was neces- 
 sary, and these were placed by the Reformation in the most helpless condition. 
 
 The clergy of the Establishment were now the principal almoners of the volimtary 
 contributions, on which alone the poor were supported. Their appeals to their parishioners 
 ■were frequent and urgent ; and dmiug the reign of Henry VIII. several notices of the 
 condition of the jjoor were to be found in the records of parliament. The means, how- 
 ever, raised for the poor were found to be utterly insufficient ; and so urgent did the 
 case become, that in 1601 the compulsory act of the -13rd Elizabeth was passed, -which 
 continued the law, with but few modifications, for two hundred and thirty years, and 
 mitil the present poor-law was jiasscd in the third and fourth years of the reign of 
 William IV. 
 
 This act of Elizabeth arose out of a pressing necessity. The voluntaiy source of 
 support on >\hich the poor relied after the Reformation was nearly dried up, as we may 
 gather from the frequent, ui'geut, and even menacing appeals of the clergy, and theii' 
 reproaches of their hearers for theii' remissness in giving their money. This was the 
 
POOE-LA^VS— TITHES. 55 
 
 necessary and inevitable consequence of its being left to every one to give or notj as it 
 suited bis purpose. People prefer knowing wbat are tbe real moral and legal claims 
 upon tliem, ratber tban to bave tliose claims constantly brougbt before tliem^ witbout 
 any definite knowledge of tbe amount to wbicb tbey are amenable^ or even of tbe precise 
 accouut of tbe manner in wbicb tbey are disposed of. Tbe act, tberefore, of tbe 43rd of 
 Elizabeth was accepted by tbe public as a fair, as well as a necessary, arrangement, by 
 wbicb aU persons would be called ou to contribute according to their cii'cumstances, as 
 shown by a prima facie view of theii- position in society. 
 
 But there was a moral as well as a social necessity for tbe act. In consequence of 
 the system piu'sued by tbe clergy and tbe convents, of entertaining those who were 
 under a vow of poverty, but who were in fact too idle to work, swarms of lazy beggars 
 infested the towns and villages upon the suppression of the monasteries, who preyed 
 upon the industrious without scruple, and, as of yore, demanded that relief to which they 
 assumed that theu- position and character for sanctity gave them a claim. But tbe spell 
 was broken, and people began to question the right of these sturdy beggars to live at tbe 
 expense of their industrious neigbbom-s, destitute, as tbey in general were, of a single 
 qualification that could entitle them to relief. Tbe act, therefore, of the 43rd of 
 Elizabeth at once put a stop to this system, and instead of receiving tbe eleemosynary 
 relief they demanded, tbey were referred to the oflicials appointed under the act, who 
 soon gave them to understand that they were not the persons who could claim the pro- 
 tection vmder its provisions. Nor was this all ; for such persons had been taken cogni- 
 zance of by an act passed iu 1530, wbicb divided beggars into two classes, namely, the 
 aged and impotent, and vagabonds and idle persons. The first were licensed by tbe 
 magistrates, in letters under seal, to beg within a certain precinct, as they should think 
 they had most need. These were registered and certified at the quarter sessions ; and 
 if tbey begged out of the prescribed limits tbey were liable to be set in tbe stocks for 
 two days and two nights, and fed on bread and water j and a similar pimishment was 
 inflicted upon them for begging without a licence. 
 
 But upon tliose beggars who were capable of working a much more severe punishment 
 was inflicted. "Every vagabond, whole and mighty in body, who should be found 
 begging, and could give no account how he got a livdng, was to be tied to a carf s tail 
 and whipped tUI his body was bloody by reason of such whipping ; and then sworn to 
 return to the place where he was born, or last dwelt for tbe space of three years, and there 
 put himself to labour." And in an act of the 27tb of Henry VIII., c. 25, a still more 
 severe pimishment was inflicted upon those termed " rufflers" (noisy, boisterous fellows), 
 and " valiant beggars." For the first offence tbey were simply Avhipped and sent home, 
 as above stated ; but for the repetition of it, tbey were again to be whipped, and have the 
 upper part of tbeii' right ears cut clean oft', and then sent home, as on tbe first occasion.* 
 
 This act appears to have been an imperfect attempt to establish a compulsorj^ support 
 of the iudigent poor ; for it not only calls upon tbe people to subscribe then.' money for 
 that pirrpose, but it directs all ofiicial persons, both in cities, towns, and villages, to 
 coUect alms fi'om benevolent persons, and to dispense them " in such good and discreet 
 wise as that the poor, and others not able to work, may be provided, bolpen, and relieved, 
 so that none of them in no wise be sufiered to go openly in begging." f The clergy, 
 particularly, were enjoined by this act to aid by sermons, collections, biddings of the 
 
 * Sir F. M. Eden, toI. i. p. 87. t IbiJ. vol. i. p. 85. 
 
56 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 beads, as in times of confessions, and at the making of wills or testaments of any 
 persons, at all times of tlie year, in calling on tlic people to be liberal in gi^'ing tlieir 
 money from time to time towards the comfort and relief of the said poor, impotent, 
 decrepid, indigent, and needy people, and for setting and keeping them at work.* 
 
 The above enactments, be it observed, were prior to the Reformation, from which it 
 woidd seem that notwithstanding the encouragement given to begging by the monastic 
 system, the evil had grown to such a height as to call for a measm'e to check it. 
 "Among other bad eflPects," says Sir F. M. Eden, "which attended the monastic 
 institutions, it was not perhaps one of the least (though frequently esteemed quite 
 otherwise), that they supported and fed a very numerous and idle poor, whose sustenance 
 depended upon what was daily distributed in alms at the gates of the religious houses. 
 But upon the total dissolution of these, the inconvenience of thus eneom'aging the poor 
 in habits of indolence and beggary was quickly felt throughout the kingdom; and 
 abundance of statutes were made iu the reign of King Henry VIII. for prodding for the 
 poor and impotent, which, as the preambles to some of them recite, had of late years 
 strangely increased." f Even before the Reformation, the monasteries became alarmed 
 at this increase, and complained of it to the king so early as the time of Henry III. 
 But the system naturally engenders beggary ; to be convinced of which, any person has 
 only to go to those cormtries in which the Roman Catholic religion, and consequently, 
 the monastic system, prevails. There they will see swarms of sturdy beggars, of all ages, 
 and of both sexes, whose only mode of living is the bounty of the charitable, who deem 
 it a religious duty to give to them without any consideration of the merits of the ease. J 
 
 It may be supposed that the breaking up of the monastic system, by which the 
 stiu'dy vagrants who had been supported by them were thrown upon theu- own resom-ces, 
 woidd naturally produce a great amount of crime ; and we find that in the latter part of 
 the reign of Hemy and that of Elizabeth, every part of the kingdom was infested with 
 vagabonds and robbers. To suppress these, the most stringent laws were enacted and 
 put in force. Such was the severity with which these laws were executed, that it is said 
 that 72,000 great and petty thieves were put to death during the reign of Hemy VIII. ; 
 and even in that of Elizabeth, " there was not one year, commonly, wherein 300 or 400 
 of them were not devoui'cd and eaten up by the gallows in one place or other." In 
 Somersetshire (as is related by Stiype), in the year 1596, only five years before the 
 statute of the 43rd of Elizabeth, " forty persons had been there executed in one year for 
 robberies, thefts, and other felonies ; thirty-five burnt in the hand ; thirty-seven whipped; 
 183 discharged : that those which were discharged were most wicked and desperate 
 persons, who never could come to any good, because they woald not work, and none 
 would take them into ser\ice ; that notwithstanding these great numbers of indictments, 
 
 * Sir F. M. Eden, vol. i. p. 84. 
 t Ibid, p. 95. 
 
 i Tlie refrain of the old song would seem to intimate that the professional beggar was quite an independent character 
 in his way ; and, we are bound to say, it is too much the case in the present day : — 
 " Of all the trades in London a beggar's is the best, 
 For when a man is weary, he sits him down to rest. 
 And a begging we will go, will go, will go. 
 And a begging we will go I 
 "I've a bag for my oatmeal, another for my salt. 
 And a little pair of crutches just to see how I can halt. 
 And a begging," &c., &c., &c. 
 
POOR-LAWS— TITHES. 57 
 
 the fifth part of the felonies committed in the county were not brought to trial, and the 
 greater number escaped censure, either from the superior cunning of the felons, the 
 remissness of the magistrates, or the foolish lenity of the people ; that the rapines 
 committed by the infinite number of wicked, wandering, idle people were intolerable to 
 the poor countrymen, and obliged them to a perpetual watch of their sheepfolds, pastures, 
 woods, and corn-fields ; that the other counties of the kingdom were in no better con- 
 dition than Somersetshire ; and many of them were even in a worse ; that there were, 
 at least, 300 or 400 able-bodied vagabonds in every coimty, who lived by theft and 
 rapine ; and who sometimes met in troops to the number of sixty, and committed spoU 
 on the inhabitants, and that the magistrates were overawed, by the associations and the 
 threats of confederates, from executing justice on the offenders."* 
 
 Such was the desperate condition of the country as revealed by the dissolution of 
 the monastic orders and the suppression of religious houses, to the existence of which 
 a large portion of this disorder may justly be ascribed. The indiscriminate relief they 
 afforded, the sanction they awarded, on principle, to vows of voluntary poverty by 
 laymen, and the existence of orders of begging friars, are quite sufficient to account for 
 the large numbers of "valiant beggars" who infested the country, and preyed on the 
 industrious when they found their eleemosynary resoui'ces cut off, and themselves driven 
 to find out other means of securing a livelihood. Accustomed to an indolent life, they 
 were too lazy to work ; and, therefore, when no longer permitted to beg, they took to 
 more violent courses, which ended by leading tbem to the gallows. 
 
 Another cause however existed, which rendered the condition of the honest and 
 industrious labourers more difficult. This was the increasing wealth of the country in 
 consequence of the influx of the precious metals after the discovery of America, and the 
 conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. This circumstance made no alteration in the 
 price eitlier of labour or provisions for nearly a century after it took place. The reason 
 of this was, that Spain took such precautions to keep the supply of gold and silver to 
 herself in the first instance, that other nations of Europe profited but little by the 
 discovery. But when, through the increase of riches, the Spaniards began to relax in 
 their industrial habits, they by degrees foimd themselves compelled to obtain from other 
 countries those manufactured goods, which previously were the produce of their OAvn 
 looms. Thus, the city of Seville alone, when the conquest of Mexico and Peru had 
 opened fresh markets for Spanish goods, employed 16,000 looms; but in a few years, so 
 completely Avere the habits of the people changed, that the looms numbered only 300, 
 and the merchants were compelled to go to England, France, and Holland for those 
 articles, which their own countrymen could no longer supply to them. The following 
 table shows the gradual advance in the prices of wheat and labour at the different 
 periods specified. 
 
 AVEUAGE PRICES OF WHEAT 4Ni) LABOUK FROM THE TEAR 1400 TO 1800. * 
 
 Wheat, per qaarter. Labour, per day. 
 
 £ s. d. £ «. d. 
 
 From 1400 to 1500 6 71 6| 
 
 „ J 500 „ 1600 17 5i 6i 
 
 „ IGOO „ 1700 2 3 s' lOi 
 
 „ 1700 „ 1800 26 ei 013 
 
 Thus, whilst wheat had advanced from 600 to 800 per cent., labour had not advanced more 
 
 * Strvpe's " Annals," vol. ir. p. 290. 
 
58 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 than 150 per cent. This alone will help to account for the large increase of pauperism 
 in England. For, although during the sixteenth century the price of wheat had only 
 risen 200 per cent., that of labour had not advanced at aU. And this state of things 
 became still worse the next two centuries j and the same disproportion between the 
 price of the necessaries of life and that of labour has continued up to the present time. 
 It is very plain that the labourer was far better off in the fifteenth century^ when wages 
 were only 6^d. per day, than when, in the eighteenth, he was receiving Is. 3d. per day. 
 In the first case his wages were equal to nearly tlu-ee pecks of wheat per day; but in the 
 latter they would scarcely purchase one peck. We have, therefore, quite causes enough 
 to account for the necessity existing at the commencement of the seventeenth century 
 for the enactment of the 43rd of Elizabeth for the maintenance of the indigent poor, to 
 the consideration of the working of which we shall next address oui'selves. 
 
 It is a fact well known to those who are acquainted with the histor)' of the agricul- 
 tural labouring class, that up to a certain recent period — say about the year 1800 — per- 
 sons of that class were the last to avail themselves of the legal provision secured to them 
 by the law of Elizabeth. Many circumstances existed to account for this reluctance. In 
 many respects the poor were well oft'j for, in addition to their weekly wages, there were 
 the commons, on which they could keep a cow and a few geese, which helped to support 
 their families in comparative comfort. Besides this, the industrious laboui'er was not 
 the lowest step in the scale of society ; there was always a class who, by their impro- 
 vidence and dissipation, placed themselves out of the pale of regular employment, and it 
 was not allowable that these should starve. The workhouse, therefore, was theii- regular 
 place of resort when they could not procure other means of support. This circumstance 
 rendered parish relief still more odious to the industrious man, who, generally speaking, 
 would make any shift rather than apply to the overseer for relief, in common with the 
 thriftless, the drunkard, or the dishonest, who in many cases were the constant inmates 
 of the poor-house when work was scarce. 
 
 But when, at the beginning of the present century, and during the war -with France, 
 the price of all kinds of pro\dsions rose to an enormous height, and everything used in 
 housekeeping kept pace with it, it became necessary, in order to increase the production, 
 to enclose the commons, and bring them under cultivation, which still further curtailed 
 the resovu'ces of the labouring poor. The consequence was, that such was the distress 
 amongst them, especially those avIio had large families to support, that the spirit of 
 independence for which the peasantry of England had previously been distinguished was 
 broken down. Deficient harvests heightened the calamity brought upon the country by 
 the war ; and out-door relief was administered to such an extent, that a regular scale of 
 allowance was fixed by the magistrates to be given to those who liad families, according 
 to the number of their children. It may be imagined that under such a system not 
 only did the poor-rates become enormously heavy,* but the whole body of the peasantry 
 were reduced to distress ; and acting upon the old snatch of the song— 
 
 " Hang sorrow and drive away care ; 
 The parish is bound to maintain us," — 
 
 they no longer hesitated to receive relief from the parish, but, on the contrary, the 
 
 * The writer was on a farm in Norfolk at that period, the poor's rates of which were exactly equal to the rent, i.e., £350 
 a year. One of his labourers, who had eight children, received by order of the magistrates 20j. a week, from the rates, 
 besides his wages, which were half-a-crowu a day. 
 
 « 
 
POOE-LAWS— TITHES. 59 
 
 object was to obtaiu as mucli as possible by fraudulent means. Sucli impositions always 
 accompany the disposition to live at ease without laboui- ; and the difficulty of detecting 
 them arises from inability to devote the time necessary for inquiiy, and the indolence 
 or indisposition of those whose duty it is to take the trouble of doing so. At the 
 period of which we are now writing, the magistrates throughout the country appear to 
 have been actuated by a conviction that it was impossible for a man to maintain a 
 family by the wages he received for his labour, and they therefore acted upon that 
 principle. Single men they left to shift for themselves, unless in times of sickness, or 
 when unable to procure work. But all the married men were allowed so much a-head 
 for himself, his wife, and each of their children, which system, in fact, was nothing less 
 than paying the just wages of the farm labourer out of the poor's rates to the injury of 
 those who had no land, but were equally assessed. 
 
 But the great evil arising from the system was the injury done to the poor them- 
 selves by thus accustoming them to receive gratuitous relief. " A law of this kind," 
 says a modern writer, " would obviously render all those who by their exertions could 
 at the utmost earn Ijut a bare subsistence averse to industry, which in such a case would 
 be a sacrifice of ease without any increased advantage. If present industry were 
 rendered useless, so would thrift and forethought become a folly, an abandonment of 
 present enjoyment without an object. Every present indulgence that the law allowed 
 would wisely be enjoyed ; good moral habits and bodily skill woidd have little merit, if 
 the law should place those with them and those without them in the enjoyment of 
 the like benefits. What appears desirable for a man's advantage, it is a virtue in him 
 to do also for his ehildreu. The pauper's progeny would be themselves paupers, and 
 the law would present to them every inducement to beget other paupers, and no 
 inducement to refrain. Such we have seen the English pauper — slothful, thoughtless 
 but of his parish pay, sometimes living to see three generations of his progeny paupers, 
 like to, or worse than, himself." * 
 
 There can be no qaestion of tlic rapid demoralization of the working classes under 
 such a system, rendered necessary vmder the old law after the peasantry had been 
 deprived of the advantages they once enjoyed in the exercise of common rights, and the 
 price of provisions had risen to so alarming a height diu-ing the war. The evidence 
 adduced before the commissioners of inquiry are sufficiently explicit on that head. " We 
 have cases of three generations of paupers in the house at once," says one witness, 
 " relieved at the rate of £100 a year." A clergyman in Cumberland speaks of the 
 practice of that county : " A very diflereut description of women have of late years 
 Ijccome the mothers of bastard children. Formerly it was confined to the daughters of 
 cottagers, and girls employed in farm husbandry ; but of late, very respectable fanners' 
 daughters have been in that situation, and have ajjplied to have their ofifspriug taken 
 care of by the parish : " An overseer states, " We, at this time, in om* parish, are sujj- 
 porting two bastard ehildreu, whose mothers have landed property of their own, and 
 would not marry the fathers of their children." Another says, " The daughters of some, 
 farmers, and even landowners have bastard children. These farmers and landowners 
 and children with them, regularly kept back their poor-rates to meet the parish allow- 
 ance for their daughters' bastards."t 
 
 * " EucyclopteJia Britannica," article Poor-Laws, 
 t See Report of Commissioners of Inquiry, &c. 
 
60 AGRIGULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 That the working of the act of the 43rd Elizabeth was as had as it could possibly be, 
 for nearly half a century previous to its repeal, there cannot exist any difference of 
 opinion, and the declaration of Lord Brougham that unless the system was abolished it 
 would soon absorb all the landed property of the kingdom, was fully justified by the 
 annual increase of the sums raised for the relief of the poor. "Whatever wages the 
 labourer received, not one in fifty ever thought of laying by against a time of sickness 
 or slackness of work. One case in the Bedford level is recorded, in which the earnings 
 of the labourers amounted to from £60 to £70 a year ; but upon a stoppage of works by a 
 frost, and generally from November till March, almost every labourer came on the parish. 
 When the farmers remonstrated with the magistrates upon these facts the reply was, 
 " Why, what are we to do ? they spend it all, and then come and say they are starving, 
 and we must relieve them." 
 
 In the northern division of Devonshire, " the practice of granting allowance for 
 children is so general and confirmed, that the pauper is in the habit of giving formal 
 notice to the overseer of the pregnancy of his wife. Should the overseer refuse the 
 application for the fixed sum allowed for the second, third, or fourth child, the magis- 
 trate's single inquiry, on his appearance before him under a summons, would have been 
 as to the custom of the parish or the hxmdred. ' At what number does allowance begin 
 with you ? ' was the common mode of putting the question, as I was repeatedly assured 
 by overseers. The previous or present earnings of the paupei', or of any of his family, 
 ivere never mentioned."* 
 
 " At Freston, in Suffolk, Mr. Stuart stated that ' a child is entitled to relief at the 
 rate of 35. a week, on his own account, from the age of fourteen.' At Bottisham, in 
 Cambridgeshire, a boy of sixteen receives 2s. &d. for the week ; he lives at home mth his 
 father; the family consists of his father, mother, brother, and himself. Seventeen is 
 the age at which a young man is entitled to separate relief as an unemployed laljourer. 
 His pay then is 3^. Qd. The allowance to oiu- single young men out of employ used to 
 be 2s. \0d., according to the scale of four quartern loaves, price %\d. Last November 
 they came in a body to the sessions, and complained to the magistrates of the iusufii- 
 ciency, and it was then raised to 3s. Qd. This sum they received when above a certain 
 age, although residing with their families." f 
 
 By the act 43rd Elizabeth it was not lawful to aflPord relief to any but the impotent, 
 except in retm-n for work ; but this part of the statute appears to have been greatly 
 neglected ; " according to the returns for the year 1832, out of £7,036,968 expended, only 
 £354,000, scarcely one-twentieth part, was paid for work, including work on the roads 
 and in the workhouse." The reasons for this were, that the task of finding work for the 
 pauper was more troublesome and difficult to the overseers than gratuitous relief; that 
 wherever work was to be paid for, there must have been superintendence, but where 
 paupers were the work-people much more than the average degree of superintendence 
 was necessary (it will be easily anticipated that the superintendence Avas very rarely 
 given, and that in far the greater number of instances in which work was professedly 
 required from paupers, in fact, no work was done) ; that collecting the paupers in gangs 
 for the performance of parish work was found to be more immediately injurious to their 
 conduct than even allowance or relief without requiring any work at all. Whatever 
 might have been the general character of the parish labourers, all the worst of the 
 
 • Report, &c., p. 31. t H^'d- 
 
POOR-LAWS— TITHES. 61 
 
 inhabitants were sure to be amongst tbe number ; and it is well known that the effect of 
 such an association is always to degrade the good^ not to elevate the bad. The inter- 
 ference of the magistrates in these cases was always injm'ious. " Under the idea of 
 compelling tlie able-bodied pauper to find work for himself, they restricted the hours of 
 labour for the parish to four or five. This half-work, half-idle kind of lifSj while the 
 pauper was sure of his allowance from the parish, whether he worked or not, produced 
 the worst but necessary effects ; such men became the worst in their several parishes, and 
 were always found ready to join in any scheme of riot or distiu'bance, or of dishonesty, 
 that might be suggested to them : and yet, in many instances, these paupers received 
 more wages than the industrious poor. At Eastbourn, in Sussex, for instance, the average 
 of wages for hard labom- was 12s. a-week, whilst the paupers received for their nominal 
 labour 16s. a-week. Two families received in the year ending Lady Day, 1833, £92 4s., 
 or nearly 17*. 9d. per week each ! No wonder that the wives of the independent 
 labourers regretted that their husbands were not paupers."* 
 
 It is impossible to conceive of a system more calculated to demoralize the whole 
 body of the peasantry of a country than this. By it the idle and dissolute were placed in 
 a condition of material comfort above the industrious independent labourer ; and, with a 
 very imperfect training, it is not likely that the latter should be able to resist the con- 
 taminating influence, and desire to share in the bounty thus awarded to his fortunate 
 neighljour. And this process was accelerated when by illness, or some other casualty, 
 the independent labourer was compelled to have recourse to the parish allowance. In such 
 cases his spirit broke down at once, and his independence was gone. His former reluc 
 tance to subject himself to the ignominy of pauperism gave way to the indifference of con- 
 firmed dependence upon parish relief; and when again at worlc for his regular employer, 
 he felt that the stimidus to industry and good behaviour was gone, and he became as reck- 
 less aiad careless of pleasing as others, with whom he had been associated in his period 
 of abstraction from his regular labour. Early marriages, too, were encouraged by tlie 
 system. The single man, even as a pauper, was allowed barely sufiicient to support 
 life ; but directly he married his prospects brightened. One child was an advantage, 
 but every succeeding one was doubly so. "With three, his wages from the parish were 
 more than equal to the pay of an industriou.s independent workman ; witli half-a- 
 dozen, he arose to the dignity of being entitled by "justice's law" to 16s. a-week, with 
 or vnthout work. " It appeared to the pauper that the government had undertaken to 
 repeal in his favour the ordinary laws of nature ; to enact that the children shoidd not 
 suffer for the misconduct of their parents, the wife for the husband, or the husband for 
 that of the wife ; that no one should lose the means of comfortable subsistence, whatever 
 might be his indolence, prodigality, or vice : in short, that the penalty which, after all, 
 must be paid by some one for idleness and improvidence, should fall, not on the guilty 
 person or on his family, but on the proprietors of the lands and houses encumbered by 
 his settlement. Can we wonder if the uneducated were seduced into approving a system 
 which aimed its allm-ements at all the weakest parts of our natm-e, which offered 
 marriage to the young, security to the anxious, ease to the lazy, and impunity to the 
 profligate ?" 
 
 The reasoning in the above paragraph is abundantly borne out by the evidence given 
 before the Commission of Inquiry, from which we select two cases. " The answers giveu 
 
 * Rejort, &c., p. 39. 
 
62 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 by the magistrates when a niau's had conduct is urged by the overseer against his rehef, is, 
 — " We cannot help that ; his -wife and family are not to suffer because the man has done 
 wrong." . . . . " And whereas it appears that the wife of the said Robert Reed is now 
 confined in the House of Correction at Cambridge, and that he is put to considerable 
 expense in providing a person to look after his said four children, we do therefore order 
 the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the said parish, or such of them to whom 
 these presents shall come, to pay unto the said Robert Reed the sum of eleven shUUngs 
 weekly, and every week, for and towards the maintenance and support of himself and 
 family, for one month from the day of the date hereof. Given under our hands and 
 seals this 20th day of February, 1833."* 
 
 The statute of the 43rd of Elizabeth was certainly not answerable for all this abuse 
 of the power of paying the idle and profligate out of the labour of the industrious. 
 TJndoubtedly the state of the country was widely different at this period from what it 
 was when the poor-law was first instituted, and that extensive alterations were requisite 
 to make it square with the times. But everyone who looks at the question now, at a 
 distance, must condemn the manner in which the law was constituted and carried out, 
 — by which all that were bad of the rural population were encouraged, and the industrious 
 made to contribute to their profligacy, whilst all that were honest and industrious 
 amongst the peasantiy were left to theu' shifts to get through as they could. The 
 system of out-door relief, in fact, as administered by the magistrates during the last 
 thirty years of the existence of the statute of Elizabeth, was an exaggerated imitation of 
 the practice of the monasteries — an indiscriminate distribution of the funds of the parish 
 to all who applied for them, without reference to character or the means possessed by 
 the applicant to maintain himself. The statute neither contemplated nor admitted of 
 such a system as this, but provided that only the indigent and impotent should be 
 relieved. The provisions of the statute were — " Eii'st, — to afford necessary relief to the 
 lame, impotent, old, blind, and such other among them being poor and not able to work ; 
 and, secondly, to provide work for such as are able, and cannot otherwise get employ- 
 ment." For these purposes, the overseers of the poor were empowered to raise funds 
 in each parish suflScient for the maintenance of the poor. Such is an abstract of the 
 intentions of the statute which placed the distribution of the funds in the hands oi 
 the overseers, assisted by the parishioners assembled in vestry ; but latterly the 
 magistrates took the power of distribution fi-om both, and they who raised or paid 
 the money were deprived of the control the act gave them of discriminating between 
 the really and the fraudulent poor. The practice, in fact, was opposed both to the letter 
 and the spii'it of the statute, and was as destructive to the morals as it was to the 
 industrial habits of the labourer, and to the interest of the rate-payers. 
 
 The only excuse that can possibly be given for this is the . unprecedented state into 
 which the country was thrown by the war, and the consequent high price of provisions, 
 without a corresponding rise in the rate of wages. This latter also wants explanation. 
 In the valuation of a farm before hiring, it was usual for the valuers to estimate the rent 
 of the land by the amount of the poor's rate rather than the price paid for laboiu". It 
 was therefore the interest of the farmers that the latter should be low and the former 
 high ; for the magistrates, as if to forward this view of the case, drew oiit a scale of 
 wages according to their own estimate of the value of labour; and every labom'cr 
 
 * Kt-port, p. 69. 
 
POOR-LAWS— TITHES. 63 
 
 receiving less than the scale was entitled to have it made up to him out of the poor's 
 rate, upon the party showing that he depended solely on his wages for the support of 
 himself and his family. This disastrous system, which opened the door to so much 
 fraud on tlic part of the rate-payers (or rather the agriculturists, for they instautly availed 
 themselves of it to reduce the rates of wages), originated with the Berkshu'e magistrates, 
 with benevolent, undoubtedly, but shortsighted motives, to compel the farmers to pay 
 their labourers wages in proportion with the price of bread. It had directly the opposite 
 effect ; for it lowered wages and increased the poor's rates, at the same time destroying 
 the independence and moral feeling of the whole body of the rural peasantry. An 
 .anonymous writer, commenting on this system, says, " It is evident that under it, unless 
 a man does work enough to get higher wages than those of the allowance system, he 
 may (as regards the amount of wages) just as well do no work at all, for all that he 
 gets will be deducted from his allowance, whereas every hour's hard work ought to 
 better a man's condition." 
 
 The only persons, indeed, who suffered under the system were the very men for 
 whose benefit the act was supposed to have been passed — the labourers and their families. 
 Prudence and forethought in them were punished instead of being rewarded. A man with 
 a large family was, by common consent among the rate-payers in rural districts, employed 
 so as to keep his family from being placed upon the poor-rates, rather than the single 
 man, or him who had no family, or who had the means by labour, or otherwise, of 
 supporting himself. Piece-work was refused to the single man, or to the married, if 
 he had any property, because they could exist upon day wages ; it was refused to the 
 active and intelligent labourer because he could earn too much. If he left his parish 
 and sought work where there was a demand for labour, he was di-iven back — however 
 much he and his new employer might suit each other — by some parochial expedient 
 against non-parishioners, to his old home to receive as a pauper perhaps (jd. a day at 
 road-work, at which he might laze away his time and acquire habits that would place 
 him on a level with the lowest of the paupers, to which the miserable pay reduced him 
 in his own estimation. 
 
 The actual effect of this system was that the agricultural labourers were brought to 
 look upon priidence, industry, and economy on their part as objects of punishment by 
 their masters, while recklessness and improvidence entitled them to support and con- 
 sideration. The former, suffering under an undeserved ban, and restricted by the unjust 
 practice of the parish authorities, became, in their turn, reckless ; and, to make up an 
 income adequate to their necessities, took to poaching, or fowl stealing, or other unlawful 
 acts, to which so many of the peasantry have resorted, and which swell the number of 
 criminals at the county assizes or the quarter sessions in the country. It will require 
 two or three generations of this class to eradicate the monster evils of the administration 
 of the old poor-laws, and to convince the peasantry that the new law, if duly submitted 
 to by them, and humanely and properly administered by the authorities, is calcidated to 
 raise him in the scale of moral and social importance as a part of the national family. 
 
 The Commission of Inquiry into the working of the poor-law was appointed by 
 parliament in the year 1831, and during its sitting a body of information was elicited 
 from the evidence given before it of the most valuable and convincing character, and 
 its report is considered one of the most masterly and conclusive documents ever 
 presented to the legislature. The evidence went to prove that the mode adopted of 
 
64 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 giving relief raised tlie paujjcr and depressed the independent labourer^ and tliat the 
 effect had been to cause the latter to abandon his position and character, and place 
 himself on a par with the former. Thus the parish, as the best paymastei', Avas become 
 the first instead of the last resource. They therefore recommended that any legislation 
 on the subject should, above all, reverse the order of things, and place the two classes in 
 their proper position ; that is, the pauper below the independent labourer. The report 
 contemplated no changes in the principle of the ancient poor-law — the alterations proposed 
 by them relating rather to the appointment of more responsible agencj', to assist and 
 control that which had been found so inefficient except for evil. This was the only 
 addition to tlie principle of the statute of Elizabeth; but some useless or injurious parts 
 of the law — which although adapted possibly to the times in which they were adopted, 
 had become no longer so — were repealed. 
 
 The committee recommended, " First, that, except for medical attendance, and subject 
 to the exception respecting apprenticeship, all relief wliatever to able-bodied persons, or 
 to their families, otherwise than in well-regulated workhouses (i. e. places where they may 
 be set to work according to the spirit and intention of the 43rd of Elizabeth), shall be 
 declared unlawful, and shall cease, in manner and at periods hereafter specified, and that 
 all relief afforded in respect to children under the age of sixteen shaU be considered as 
 afforded to their parents." * 
 
 The reason offered for what has since been termed " the workhouse test," was, " that 
 it is demoralizing and ruinous to offer to the able-bodied of the best characters more 
 than a simple subsistence." The person of bad character, if he be allowed anything, 
 could not be allowed less. By the means which we propose, the line between those who 
 do and those who do not need relief, is drawn, and drawn perfectly. If the claimant 
 does not comply with the terms on which relief is given to the destitute, he gets nothing; 
 and if he does comply, the compliance proves the truth of his claim, namely, his desti- 
 tution. If these regulations were established and enforced with the degree of strictness 
 that has been attained in the depauperized parishes, the workhouse doors might be 
 thrown open to all who would enter them and conform to the regidations. Not only 
 would no agency for contending against fraiidulent rapacity and perjury, no stages of 
 appeal (vexatious to the appellant and painfal to the magistrates), be requisite to keep 
 the able-bodied from the parish, but the intentions of the statute of Elizabeth, in setting 
 the idle to ivork, might be accomplished, and vagrants and mendicants actually forced on 
 the parish — that is, forced into a condition of salutary restriction and labour. It would 
 be found that tliey might be supported much cheaper under proper regulations than when 
 living at large on mendicity and depredation.t ' " Little need be said on the next effect 
 of the abolition of partisd relief— in drawing a broad line of distinction between the 
 paupers and the independent labourers. Experience has shown that it will induce many 
 of those whose wants arise from their idleness, to earn the means of subsistence ; repress 
 the fraudulent claims of those who have now adequate means of independent support ; 
 and obtain for others assistance from their friends, who are willing to see their 
 relations pensioners, but would exert themselves to prevent their being inmates of 
 workhouse." J 
 
 The recommendations of the commissioners were adopted, with some slight modifica^ 
 
 ' Si'C Report, pp. 2fil, 2G-3. t IbiJ., p. 204. 
 
 \ Ibia., p. 270. 
 
 / 
 
POOR-LAWS— TITHES. 65 
 
 tions, l)y the legislatui'e, as was also the second specific measure of a " central board, to 
 control the administration of the poor-laws, with such assistant commissioners as may 
 be found requisite. And the commissioners shall be empowered and directed to frame 
 and enforce regulations for the government of workliouses, and as to the natm-e and 
 amount of the relief to be granted and the labour to be exacted in them ; and that such 
 regulations shall, as far as may be practicable, be uniform throughout the country." * 
 Adopting these views, the legislatm-e enacted that a board of three commissioners 
 should be appointed by the king, and these should select assistant commissioners, who 
 should receive the authority of the commission by delegation — the commissioners them- 
 selves having power to control the entire administration of relief throughout England 
 and Wales, especially the government of workhouses. 
 
 The inequality in the populations of parishes, and the inability of many to fiu'nish 
 any, much less a succession of officers to carry out the provisions, suggested the idea of 
 unions of parishes. This was further urged in consequence of the inequality of the sums 
 raised for the relief of the poor. It was found that the largest parishes paid the least 
 per head of the population, the smallest, the most, and the intermediate, a sum between 
 the two. Taking England throughout, the hundred largest, with a population of 
 3,196,064 inhabitants, paid 6s. 7d. per head; the hundred intermediate parishes, with 
 IQ.Sil inhabitants, paid I5s. per head ; and the hundi-ed least parishes, with only 1,708 
 inhabitants, paid £\ lis. \\\d. per head ! 
 
 With the above measures, adopted in the new poor-law, was combined an uniform 
 system of accounts, and the appointment of paid and permanent officers ; an alteration 
 of the bastardy-law, by which the onus of the liability to support the illegitimate child 
 is made to rest upon the mother, the same as in the case of a widow and her lawful 
 children ; and making it necessary to bring collateral evidence with that of the mother 
 to establish her charge against the person she accuses of being the father. f 
 
 With regard to the law of settlement, the principal alterations in it were the repealing 
 the settlement by hii-ing and service, which, in a manner, bound the labourer to his 
 parish, and created a dependence upon it ; the settlement by occupation without pay- 
 ment of poor-rates ; and that by apprenticeship to the sea-service. Some alterations 
 were also made in the law of removal of paupers ; but these are in some cases evaded 
 with great cruelty, and in others legally enforced, with entire disregard to the justice of 
 the case. 
 
 The results of the alterations in the poor-laws are well known, and require no detailed 
 account; but the following statement of pauperism in the twenty unions of Sussex, 
 before, and one year after, the passing of the new act, is worth recording : — 
 
 Population 205,936 
 
 Average annual rates up to the time of forminsj the unions £229,fil3 
 
 Rates for the quarter, Oune to September, 18:36 £27,044 
 
 Number of able-bodied paupers at the time of forming the unions ... 6,160 
 
 Number of ditto, March, 1836 544 
 
 Number of ditto June, 1836 124 
 
 We believe the improvement has been general throughout the country, and that now, 
 
 * Report, p. 296. 
 
 t " Au unmarried girl, npon leaving the workhouse after her fourth confinement, said to the master, ' Well, if I have 
 the good luck to have another child, I shall draw a good sum from the parish, and with what I can earn myself, shall be 
 better off than any married woman in the parish j ' and, the master added, she had met with the good luck she hoped for, as 
 
 F 
 
66 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 after seventeeu years' trials the country is perfectly satisfied with the change. The moral 
 effect is quite as great as the material and social one. The only part of the act which 
 strikes the humane as unjust and harsh, is the separation of husband and wife, and that 
 of parent and children, when necessity compels tli£m to seek an asylum in the workhouse. 
 To an aged couple, past work, this clause in the act is a species of cruelty which is 
 considered by many wholly imnecessary, however plausible may be the reason adduced 
 for it. To separate those who have passed their days together in harmony and love, and 
 whose only remaining consolation is thus wrested from them,— that of sharing each 
 other's sorrows, which would thereby mitigate them, — might surely be, by some trifling 
 arrangement, avoided without increasing the biu'thens upon a union, or distm-biug the 
 general arrangements imder the law. 
 
 Tithes. — The origin of tithes is involved in some obscurity, unless we take it from 
 the practice of the patriarch Abram, who paid a tenth of the spoil he had taken from 
 Chedorlaomer, to Melchizedek, King of Salem.* This, however, was not a tenth of his 
 income, or an annual, or periodical payment, and has therefore no affinity to the tithes 
 under the Mosaic law, or to those now paid to our clergy. The case of Jacob also is 
 alleged, in which he vowed to devote to God a tenth of all that He should give him, if 
 He prospered him in his journey. But in this case also, Jacob, who made the vow, was 
 himself, like Abram, a priest ; and the vow was not to another priest, but to the Divine 
 Being himself. In both these cases, too, the tenths were free and voluntary gifts — in 
 that of Abram, an isolated act of homage to a superior chief, or king, who was also a 
 priest; and in Jacob, a grateful acknowledgment of the superintendence of God in the 
 disposal of the blessings of life. 
 
 The establishment of tithes as a means of support of religion was definite enough iu 
 the history of the Israelites under the Jewish dispensation. They were of four kinds : — 
 first, the tithe of all the fruits was given to the Levites ; secondly, the tithe, or tenth, of 
 the remaining nine parts was set apart in each family, to be taken to Jerusalem for the 
 service of the tabernacle or the temple j thirdly, the tithe of the tithe was to be given 
 by the Levites to the priests ; and, fourthly, tithes of the thii'd year. These were for 
 the support of the Levites, strangers, fatherless, and widows. The Avhole of these tithes 
 are estimated to amount to one-sixth of the Jew's income. 
 
 It is upon the Jewish law, as above stated, that the system of tithes under the 
 Christian dispensation receives its sanction ; but if the two cases are closely investigated, 
 they will be fomid totally difl'erent in principle and in detail. The Jemsh form of 
 government was theocratic, and the Divine command to the Israelites to pay tithes, was 
 closely allied with the ceremonial observances under the Levitical law. Under that law 
 there was a special object in the establishment of tithes as a part of it, namely, the service 
 of the tabernacle, and it was constantly and necessarily connected with the altar and the 
 sacrifices thereon ; and besides, the tithes were not given to the Levites until they had 
 been presented at the altar as " a heave-offering to the Lord," without which they were 
 considered polluted and unsanctified. They were, therefore, a sacrificial oflering from 
 first to last ; for when the Jewish altar and sacrifice were abolished, the tithes ceased, 
 
 she told him, a short tioie before I was at Holbeach, that she was five months gone with chihl. 1 asked what she got 
 for each child ? He answered, ' Two sbiUiugs ; and that women iu that neighbourhood eould easily earn live shillings 
 a week all the year round.' Thus she wiU have fifteen shilliags a week."— Keport, p. 176. 
 * Geu. xiv. 20. 
 
POOR-LAWS— TITHES. 67 
 
 and the Jews have never resumed the practice of paying tithes. It is not a little 
 remarkable, too, and confii'matory of this view of the case, that for the first thi-ee hundred 
 years of the Christian dispensation, tithes were never thought of, or attempted to be 
 re-established ; and it was not until the Christian worship began to be corrupted by the 
 introduction of an altar, and oblations, and lighted candles upon it at noon, that the 
 attempt to renew the system of tithes took place. 
 
 Another peculiarity of tithes under the Mosaic economy was, that although the Divine 
 command was imperative, there was no civil penalty attached to its non-observance. The 
 contributions, in fact, were voluntary, and only morally and religiously binding upon the 
 Jews. Punishments were certainly threatened to be inflicted upon the Jews for the non- 
 observance of any of the Divine commands as given by Moses, and that respecting tithes 
 among the rest ; biit those punishments were divine, not human, inflicted judicially and 
 providentially by Him who was the object of the worship, for the support and maintenance 
 of which the tithes were appointed. This again proves that they were part and parcel 
 of the Jewish ceremonial law, which was abrogated by, and upon, the introduction of 
 Christianity; under which, no intimation is given by its founder of its renewal. On 
 the contrary, it was enjoined upon the apostles to go forth and preach the Gospel ^\-ithout 
 taking any precautions for their own maintenance. In accordance with this, they and 
 theu- successors in the ministry, for three himdred years, were supported entirely by the 
 voluntary contributions of the body of the believers. 
 
 The first intimation in history of the adoption of the system of tithes was in 356, 
 when, at a provincial synod, held at Cullen, they were declared to be " God's rent." It 
 does not, however, appear that tithes were at all introduced into England until the year 
 794, when OfFa, the Danish King of Mercia, gave to the church a legal claim to the 
 tithes of all his kingdom in expiation of the death of Ethelbert, King of the East Angles, 
 whom he had caused to be mui'dered. It is supposed by some that tithes were collected 
 fi'om the time of the arrival of St. Augustine j but there is no proof of this, and the law 
 of Offa is the first intimation in history of their adoption, and of the church obtaining 
 by law a civil claim to them in England. Sixty years after, Ethelwulph extended the 
 right of the clergy to tithes over the whole of England. 
 
 It should, however, be stated, that in 786, that is, eight years previous to the gift of 
 Ofi"a, at a synod, it was decreed that the payment of tithes should be strongly enjoined 
 upon the laity. This was in imitation of Charlemagne, who in 773 had established the 
 system in France. He divided tithes into four parts : — the first, to maintain and repair 
 the edifice ; the second, to support the poor ; the thii-d, for the bishop ; and the fourth, 
 for the parochial clergy. The system was established thi-oughout England by a con- 
 vention of the estates of the realm, consisting of the kings of Mercia and Northumberland, 
 the bishops, dukes, senators, and people. 
 
 Blackstone alleges, as another foundation for the establishment of tithes, the Fcedus 
 Edwardi et Guthruni, or the laws agreed upon between King Guthrim the Dane, and 
 Alfred and his son Edward the Elder, successively kings of England, about the year 900.* 
 This arrangement both legalizes the exaction of tithes by the clergy, and imposes a 
 penalty upon non-payment ; and this was confirmed by Athelstane in 930. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that the heathen nations exacted tithes for the service of theii' 
 gods. Thus, Xcnophon mentions in his "Expedition of Cyrus," that they found a 
 
 * Blackstone'a " Commentaries," b. ii. c. 3, sec. 1. 
 
 f2 
 
68 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 column, on which was an inscription warning the people not to omit offering a tenth of 
 their revenues every year to the 'goddess Diana, whose temple stood near. The Baby- 
 lonians, Egyptians, and Romans paid tithes — the two former to their kings, probably for 
 ecclesiastical purposes ; and the latter gave a tenth of all they took from theii" enemies 
 to the god Mars;* and Festus Pomponiust (a.d. 358) states that the ancients used to 
 give tithes of everything to their gods. 
 
 Such are the facts in history, upon which the present claim of the church to tithes is 
 founded. Still, the question returns of the adaptation of a system which, in the case 
 of the Israelites, was certainly merely ceremonial, and connected with a ceremonial 
 institution which has wholly passed away, to another institution, the Founder of which 
 repudiated compulsory support, and whose disciples and followers acting upon that 
 repudiation, threw themselves upon the free and voluntary contributions of the church 
 at large for tlu'ee centimes after His death ? Taking, however, the system of tithes as 
 an established fact, as well as a law, of long standiug, we shall now state the objections to 
 theu" exaction in kind, which induced the legislature of the country to substitute for it 
 a rent-charge upon the land. 
 
 The subject was brought before parliament in the 6th year of WiUiam IV. It was 
 previously agitated in Ireland, where, by the advice and assistance of O'Connell, who 
 might at that time be termed the de facto " King of the Irish," the people had almost 
 wholly repudiated tithes, and set themselves in defiance of the laws for their collection. 
 So determined and general was this opposition, that the clergy, being reduced to the 
 greatest distress, were anxious for a change ; and the government, yielding to a necessity 
 which was above every conservative consideration, introduced and passed a bill for the 
 substitution of a rent-charge upon the land, payable by the landowner, and not by the 
 tenant, who was from that period exempted from a direct tax, which had always been a 
 source of dissatisfaction on account of the hostility of the majority to the established 
 form of religion. 
 
 The change effected in the tithe system in Ireland produced a movement in England 
 for a similar measui-e. In some important respects, it is true, the cases were by no 
 means analogoiis, the Chiu'ch of England being, in regard to its doctrines, in conformity 
 with the great body of the people. Even many of those who dissented from its ritual 
 regarded the tithes, by reason of their antiquity, as much the property of the impro- 
 priators, whether lay or clerical, as the land was that of the landowners. Notwithstanding 
 this, there were serious objections of a public and national character which, whatever 
 might have been the case in former times, stood in the way of the improvement of the 
 land and prevented its increase in value in proportion with other things. By taking 
 one-tenth of the produce, without deducting anything for the rent, taxes, interest of 
 money, and cultivation of the soil, the tithe, instead of being one-tenth, amounted to 
 nearly (if not quite, in some cases) one-half of the profit of the farmer, and that without 
 any of the anxiety or trouble of raising it. It is evident that this must ultimately fall 
 upon the landlord, because, where the tithes were taken in kind, they always entered into 
 the calculation in the contract for a farm, and were estimated according to the strictness 
 with which the incumbent exacted his dues. 
 
 Nor was their influence less felt in preventing the improvement of the soil. What- 
 ever a tenant might effect in this respect, he was certain that the clergyman would take 
 * Crosar's " Commeutiuies." f " De Verb. Sigaif." 
 
POOR-LAWS— TITHES. 69 
 
 far more tliau liis equitable share of the benefit. For instance : suppose a person takes 
 a farm^ tlie land of wbich, in its unimproved condition, will yield twenty-five bushels of 
 wheat per acre ; but by draining, subsoiling, extra manuring, and superior management, 
 it is brought to produce, say forty bushels ; the tithes upon the latter will be four bushels 
 instead of two and a half, the extra bushel and a half being taken without the receiver of 
 the tithe having participated to the extent of one penny in the expenses the farmer has 
 incurred in rendering the land more productive, and it probably amounts to nearly the 
 profit upon the expenditure by which the increase has been effected; this, too, would 
 continue year after year, as long as the lease continued. 
 
 But this is not all the evil arising from the system in preventing improvement. A 
 farmer, in most covenants of lease, is restricted from selling or otherwise parting from 
 any hay or straw raised upon the land, in order to prevent it from being exhausted ; and 
 any slight deviation from this almost universal covenant would involve the ine^itable 
 forfeiture of the lease, whatever expense he might otherwise have incurred in improving 
 his farm. This is no imaginary case, but one that has repeatedly been the cause of ruin 
 to the tenant who has fallen into the hands of an imscrupulous and unreasonable landlord. 
 Well, here was a system which, without any compensating application to the land in the 
 shape of manure, took equal to the eniir-e year's produce every tenth year, of hay, straw, 
 corn, roots, &c. &e., and without paying one shilling towards the expenses by which the 
 several crops had been raised. It is no alleviation of the injury, that instead of being all 
 taken at once every tenth year, it was levied upon the farmer by degrees ; the evil was 
 quite as great, and as destructive to the land, though less felt, like all progressive evils. 
 Had the custom been changed to every tenth crop of the entii'c farm, the monstrosity of 
 the mischief to the land would certainly have been more palpable, but not less certain. 
 
 The above evils of the tithe system were so fully and ably ui-ged in parliament, that 
 in the 6th and 7th of W^illiam IV. a bill was passed by which the collection of tithes was 
 thenceforth abolished, and a rent-charge substituted. This was denominated " An Act 
 for the Commutation of- Tithes in England and Wales," and commissioners were appointed 
 under it to carry out its provisions. 
 
 The statute substitutes, in lieu of the right to tithes in kind, an amiual money 
 payment, in the nature of a rent-charge upon the land, and payable half-yearly, with 
 power of distress and entry upon the land in default of payment. The commutations 
 are either voluntary or compulsory, being in either case arranged under the superin- 
 tendence of the tithe commissioners. In the first case, meetings of the landowners 
 and tithe proprietors of every parish were convoked for the purpose of coming to, an 
 agreement for the general commutation of the tithes of each parish ; and the act declares 
 that a parochial agreement to the payment of an annual sum by way of rent-charge in 
 lieu of great and small tithes respectively or severally to the respective owners thereof — if 
 executed by the land and tithe owners present, whose interest in the land and tithes of 
 the parish respectively shall not be less than two-thirds of the land subject to the tithes, 
 two-thirds of the great tithes and two-thnds of the small tithes — shall, subject to the 
 approval of the patron and of the tithe commissioners, be an effective commutation, and 
 bind all persons interested, as owners of the tithes and of the land in the parish. 
 
 In the case of compulsory commutation, authority is given to the commissioners after 
 the 1st of October, 1838, to ascertain and award the value of the tithes in a parish in 
 which no previous commutation has been effected, the value to be computed ou an 
 
70 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 average of tithes for seven years preceding Christmas, 1835, dedueting all necessary 
 expenses for the collecting and preparing for market or sale (where the tithes were taken 
 in kind), but making no deduction on account of parliamentary, county, parochial, or 
 other rates and assessments to which tithes have been liable. Power is reserved to the 
 commissioners, in certain cases, to diminish or increase the sum to be paid for commu- 
 tation. Special provisions are made for valuing the tithes of liops, fruit, and garden 
 produce, for the valuation of lands to which a seven years' average ^vill not apply, and for 
 allowing for moduses, compositions, real, or customary, or prescriptive payments in lieu 
 of tithes, in the award. The commissioners are to hear and determine disputes touching 
 the right to tithes and the existence of moduses, &c., and claims of exemption from, and 
 non-liability to, the payment of tithes ; subject, however, to an appeal by an issue at law, 
 or, as the case may be, to the opinion of a court of law. The terms of the award to 
 which the commissioners have agreed, having been made publicly known, and they having 
 heard and considered all objections that have been raised thereto, shall finally confirm 
 the award; and then valuers, chosen by the owners of land subject to tithes, shall proceed 
 to apportion among the said owners the sum awarded. The amount of rent-charge is to 
 be regulated by the corn averages, and land may be given by the landowners in lieu of 
 the said rent-charge. By the 5th of Victoria, c. 15, it is enacted that lands shall be 
 discharged from tithes after the confirmation of the avrard, and previous to the confirma- 
 tion of the appointment, where secm'ity is given by the landowner for the due payment 
 of the rent-charge. The rent-charge is subject to all rates, &c., to which tithes had 
 previously been liable; and these, by the 1st of Victoria, c. 69, are to be assessed on the 
 owner of the rent-charge. 
 
 Such are the main provisions of the bill, which reflects as much credit on the par- 
 liament as it did on those who first originated it. Not only was the tithe system a 
 continual soui'ce of ill-wiU and bad feeling between many of the clergy and their 
 parishioners, but in many cases the means of annoyance resorted to by both parties 
 when disputes arose, were of the most disgraceful character. As a farmer could not 
 remove his own corn until the parson had set out the tithe, the latter has in some cases 
 been known, by way of revenge, to let corn remain imtil it was destroyed by the weather. 
 On the other hand, farmers have given notice to the clergyman of theii' intention to take 
 up turnips or other roots on a certain day, and when the latter has sent his horse and 
 cart, the farmers would draw ten tui'nips and tell the tithing-man to take 07ie, " but it 
 would not suit them to draw any more that day." * 
 
 The injury done to religion itself by such bickerings as these was incalculable. What 
 possible harmony could exist in a parish, or what moral influence could a clergyman 
 possess, where such a spirit was displayed on either or both sides ? The interests, there- 
 fore, of the Establishment itself were as much concerned in procuring the change as those 
 of the landlord and tenant ; and all parties must rejoice that a soiu-ce of so much evil, 
 moral, spiritual, and material, has been abolished. In almost all cases the collection of 
 the tithes in kind excited a hostile feeling against the clergyman, because the very act 
 proved he was determined to claim his rights to the very last farthing, especially when 
 the small tithes, such as eggs, fowls, milk, pigs, vegetables, and other garden produce 
 were collected, which was commonly the case, to the disgrace of the clergyman and the 
 intolerable annoyance of the farmers. There is no doubt that at the time when tithes 
 
 * Report. 
 
POOR-LAWS— TITHES. 71 
 
 were iutroduced into England, they, as well as rents, were paid in kind on account of 
 the scai'city of money. Almost all trade also was at that period carried on by barter ; 
 and the low price of land and of every kind of agricultm-al produce made it an easy 
 matter to pay a tenth of the latter to the clergy. Even so late as Latimer's time (the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century), which was just after the discovery of America, the 
 rent of land was exceedingly low. "My father," says that great reformer, "was a 
 yeoman, and had no land of his o^vn ; only he had a farm of three or four pounds by 
 the year at the iittermost, and hereupon he tilled as much as kept half a dozen men. 
 He had walk for 100 sheep, and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able to, and 
 did, find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, while (until) he came to the 
 place that he should receive the king's wages. He kept me to school, else I had not 
 been able to preach before the king's majesty now. He married my sisters with five 
 pounds, or twenty nobles apiece, so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of 
 God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor, 
 and all this he did out of the said farm." When we compare the abundance of the 
 produce as implied in the above statement, which supj)orted six men, and enabled his 
 motlier to keep thirty cows, &c. &c., with the small amount of money by which the rent 
 and his daughters' fortunes were represented, we may readily conclude that it was far 
 more easy, up to that period, to pay tithes in kind than in money. That the practice 
 should have been continued after money had become more plentiful, and especially after 
 the Reformation, can only be accounted for by the greater difficulty of effecting changes 
 in ecclesiastical than in civil matters, and to the clergyman preferring the practice to that 
 of being paid in money — because in one case he was certain of having all that the law 
 gave him, whilst in the other a fixed sum only was paid, which might, or might not repre- 
 sent his legal claim. The entu-e change in the social condition of the country had long 
 rendered the practice, not merely inconvenient and annoying to the farmer, but unjust 
 and disgraceful to the clergy. Such was the view taken by the legislature when the 
 subject came before it for discussion ; and the result has proved the change to be in 
 accordance with the principles of reason and equity. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 THE GAME LAWS. 
 
 Perhaps there is nothing in the management of landed property more destructive to 
 good husbandry, or more obstructive of agricultm-al improvement than the game laws, 
 as they are now administered by the magistrates in many parts of the country, and the 
 excessive preservation of game on many of the large estates of the nobility. The length 
 to which this latter practice is now carried, and the stringency with which the occupiers 
 of land are debarred from destroying the game which they have fed, or from in any 
 way keeping down the breed of hai-es and rabbits, argues as little for their honesty, as 
 it does for the good sense of the landowners. Perhaps, however, the farmers them- 
 
72 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 selves, after all^ are to blame ; for if they would as a body set their faces against the 
 system^ and one and aU refuse a farm on which the game is strictly preservedj — and 
 which are generally kuown^ — the landowners would soon be compelled to make a change, 
 and bring the system more in accordance with the spirit of the age. 
 
 The " privileges of the chase" are of very ancient standing, having existed from a 
 period long previous to the Norman Conquest. Before the reign of Canute it was 
 almost exclusively a royal prerogative to kill game of any kind, not even the allodial 
 proprietors being allowed to do so, except by hawking. That monarch was the first to 
 extend to the yeoman the right of hunting and shooting with the cross-bow, as well as 
 hawking, on their own land, but not on any royal manor, forest, or chase.* By the 
 13th Richard II., stat. I., eh. 13, a property qualification was instituted, and persons 
 not having to the value of 40s. a-year in land, if a layman, or a benefice of £10 a-year 
 if a priest, were not allowed to keep greyhounds, or use ferrets, or to take hares, rabbits, 
 or other gentlemen's game. This qualification was increased fi-om time to time, until 
 by the act of the 22nd and 23rd Charles II., ch. 25, sect. 3, it was raised to £100 a-yeai- 
 in lands, tenements, &c., or £300 a-year in personal property. This continued the law 
 until I83I, when the property qualification was abolished altogether, and any person 
 taking out a licence was qualified to shoot on any land with the consent of the owner. 
 
 The game laws are a relic of the feudal system, and are held by the lando-\vners with 
 so much tenacity, that while they can command a majority in parliament it will be the 
 last that they will give up ; yet they have been denoimced by some of our first la^vyers 
 as unworthy of the English constitution and code. Blackstone says, " Though the 
 forest laws are now mitigated, and by degrees grown obsolete, yet from this root has 
 sprung up a bastard slip, known by the name of the game laws, now arrived to, and 
 wantoning in, its greatest vigour ; both founded upon the same unreasonable notion of 
 a permanent property in wUd creatures, and both productive of the same tyranny to the 
 commons, but with this difference, that the forest laws established only one mighty 
 hunter throughout the land, the game laws have raised a little Nimrod in every manor. 
 And in one respect the ancient law was less um-easonable than the modern, for the 
 king's grantee of a chase or free warren might kiU game on every part of his franchise ; 
 but now, tliough a freeholder of a £100 a-year is forbidden to kill a partridge on his own 
 estate, yet nobody else (not even the lord of the manor, rmless he has a grant of free 
 warren) can do it, without committing a trespass and subjecting himself to action." f 
 
 The forest laws were severe enough before the Norman conquest, but much more 
 so after it. In creating the New Forest in Hampshire, Wdliam destroyed the country, 
 and drove out the inhabitants of forty-five square miles (12,271 acres). Hollinshed says 
 that all the county of Essex was once a forest. The four principal forests at present are 
 the New Forest, Sherwood, Dene, and Windsor. 
 
 The game laws are almost the only remaining statutory features of feudalism in 
 England, and are in theu- nature perfectly sui generis, there being nothing at all similar 
 
 * la Coke's " Institutes " it is stated that " the forest and chase differ in ciBcers and laws. Every forest is & chase, 
 but every chase is not a forest. Both differ from a park in not being enclosed, vfhich the park must be, as its name 
 implies, being derived from the French verb parquer, ' to pen up or inclose." " It is called in 'Doamii^y parens. In law 
 it signifies a great quantity of ground inclosed, privileged for wild beasts of chase by prescription, or by the king's grant. 
 The beasts of park or chase properly extend to the buck, the doe, the fox, the matron, the roe, but in a common and legal 
 sense to all beasts of the forest.—" Institutes," lib. iii. cap. 5, p. 233, sect. 378. 
 
 t Blackstone's " Commentaries," bk. iv., ch. 33. 
 
GAME LAWS. 73 
 
 to them iu nature in the whole of our social system. The laws that protect propertj% 
 whether real or personal, do not apply, and have no analogy with those for the preservation 
 of game. There is not, and there cannot virtually be, a property in a hare or a pheasant 
 at large similar to that in a sheep, a bullock, or a horse. A landowner may certainly 
 raise a head of pheasants or other game in his preserves, and by dint of feeding them 
 constantly may prevail upon them to remain, or make that spot their home ; but unless he 
 likewise incloses his preserve in an immense aviary he cannot prevent them from flying 
 off to his neighbour's plantations, where they are no longer his, and may be killed by 
 the said neighbour. With all his care and feeding they are wild animals still, and the 
 property of any person to whose ground they choose to resort. He can neither claim 
 them dead or alive, nor prosecute any one for killing them except as a poacher. It 
 would be impossible to make a property of game otherwise than by confining them as 
 we do rare foreign birds in aviaries. Even Colonel Hawker, who is a great stickler 
 for proper game laws, confesses that, much as it would be to his private interest to 
 make them property, he could not " conscientiously say that it would give satisfaction to 
 the public. The most correct man," he says, " would for ever be liable to get into 
 difficulties, by which means there would be more, instead of fewer, disputes between 
 sportsmen and occupiers of land."* 
 
 We have stated that the Game Act of 1831 allows the farmer, with the consent of 
 the landlord, to kill hares and rabbits in any way without a licence ; and this was con- 
 firmed by the act of 1860, when the new regulations respecting the game licences were 
 enacted. These animals are considered by all except the inveterate game preservers, as 
 vermin, and as such they ought to be destroyed by the farmer. But the statute, how- 
 ever intentionally favourable to the occupier of land, is rendered nugatory by leaving it 
 to the decision of the landlord, whether the tenant may or may not destroy these pests. 
 This is a heavy grievance, because in a large majority of cases, the landlord will not 
 allow the tenant to kill hares, whatever he may do in regard to rabbits. In other 
 words, they who feed the game, and in some cases are eaten up by it, are prohibited 
 from shooting or trapping as much as the stranger. " Following up the same bad policy, 
 the landlords make war with the very men who, of aU others, have the power to be our 
 best assistants, who are constantly on the groimd, and about it at all hours, and who 
 have the lower classes under their immediate control — I mean the farmers. They who 
 feed the game are subject to even a greater penalty than the unknown trespasser, and 
 are liable to pay ^£1 for every head of game, in addition to the £2 penalty for trespassing. 
 Can any man of common sense imagine that while such a law exists a farmer will exert 
 himself to prohibit his labourers from poaching, or feel the smallest interest in pre- 
 serving the nest of a partridge ? Impossible \"f 
 
 With respect to the description of animals denominated " game," it has varied at 
 
 * Hawker on Shooting, p. 497. An amusing incident illustrative of the folly of calling game property is given in an 
 admirable paper read before the Farmers' Club by the secretary, Mr. Corbet, and afterwards published as a pamphlet by 
 Ridgway. " A Sussex gentleman I met the other day, not a heavy game preserver, but who has a little quiet shooting of 
 his own, gave me the following anecdote. During the past season he killed a few fine fat pheasants, to which his cook 
 called bis attention as all remarkable for having no hach daw. He could not explain this at the time ; but, meeting the 
 head keeper of a neighbouring establishment a few days after, he began to tell him the story as rather a curious fact iu 
 natural history. He got no further, however, than ' they were in famous condition, and had no hack claws' when the 
 other savagely interrupted him with 'Why, dang it I that was our toe-mark; you've been eating my pheasants,' as no 
 doubt he had."- — Corbet's Tract, p. 10. 
 
 t Ilawker, p. 493. 
 
74 AGEICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 • 
 
 diiferent periods. Under the old forest laws it included almost every bird that flieSj and 
 every animal that runs. In Coke's " Institutes" they are accurately defined. " There be 
 both beasts and fowles of the warren. Beasts^ as hares, conies, and roes, called in 
 records caprioli. Fowles of two sorts, viz., terrestres and aquatiles. Terrestres of two 
 sorts, sylvestres and campestres : campestres, as partridge, quail, raile, &c. ; sylvestres, 
 
 as pheasants, woodcocke, &c. ; aquatiles, as mallard, heme (heron), &c It is 
 
 resolved by the justices and the king's council that cajjrioR id est non sunt bestice de 
 foresta eo quodfugans, alias ferus. Beasts of forest be properly hart, hinde, buck, hare, 
 boare, wolfe, but legally all wild beasts of venery."* 
 
 By the act of the 2iid James I., ch. 27, the term " game " included by enumeration 
 pheasant, partridge, pigeon, hearne, mallard, duck, teal, widgeon, grouse, heath-cock, 
 moor-game, and hare. The water-fowl in this list ceased at a subsequent period to be 
 considered game; but, on the other hand, early in the present century, snipes, wood- 
 cocks, and rabbits were added to the prohibited list, and they still continue to be 
 absurdly called game, although the two first are to a great extent birds of passage, and 
 at best of that migratory character as to render them even less available as property than 
 pheasants and partridges. The framers of the law could only have included them for 
 the express purpose of preventing unqualified and unlicenced persons fi-om carrying a 
 gun. By the act of the 2nd William IV., the occupier of land is allowed (as we have 
 already stated) to kill hares and rabbits with other vermin, without a licence, with the 
 consent of the landlord, which is so frequently withheld, that the legal permission is 
 rendered in a majority of cases nugatory. 
 
 We shall now point out the various objections that are urged against the present 
 state of the game question, and the evils inflicted upon society by the laws. Some of 
 these evils are of such magnitude that a few of our nobility have on accoxmt of them 
 nobly abandoned the system of game preserving. If more have not done so it is because 
 of the selfishness of the advocates of the system, and their desire to withhold from their 
 dependents a privilege they wish to monopolise to themselves. In enumerating these 
 evils we would defend ourselves from the supposition that we consider a due protection 
 of game by law an evil, or that it should be lawful for any one to destroy it without 
 restriction. We believe that if a liberal and honest law were enacted, allowing those 
 who feed the game to kill it for theii' own use, it would meet the approval of the great 
 body of tenant farmers, and that there would be no lack of game on the farms when 
 the occupiers were thus endowed by law with an interest in its preservation. The old- 
 fashioned field-sporting and wood-shooting with dog and gim is conducive to health, 
 imparts a manly vigour and bearing to the character, and afibrds an agreeable variety in 
 the monotony of coimtry life. On the other hand, there would be no justice in allowing any 
 one by laiu, and without leave from the owner or occupier of laud, to run over an estate 
 or a farm for the purpose of killing game, to the rearing of which he has not in any way 
 whatever contributed. This restriction, however, is not intended to apply to those birds 
 of passage and aquatic fowls which come and go, having no settled abode on our shores. 
 These cannot by possibility be anybody's property, or form an exclusive privilege of 
 killing them, and should, therefore, be left free to whoever may consider it worth his 
 attention to pursue them. To abolish entirely the game laws, and allow every one to 
 range the country for the purpose of killing game without reference to the owner or 
 
 * " Institutes," lib. iii., cap. 5, sect. 373. 
 
GAME LAWS. 75 
 
 occupier of a farm, would be productive of as mucli evil as the present system. The 
 appropriation of the land renders it unbearable, if not impossible, that it should be 
 liable at all times to be overrun by any one who can purchase a gun or keep a dog. The 
 interests of agriculture, and, therefore, of the country at large, require that trespasses 
 on private property should not be allowed on any pretence whatever, and that the game 
 should belong — not as property, but as of j)ri\ilege — to the owner or occupier of land, as 
 they can agree between them. It is, therefore, against the excessive preservation of 
 game, and the restriction laid upon the farmer who feeds it, that the observations are 
 directed, and from which all the accompanying e\ ils originate. 
 
 These are comprehended in — first, the injury sustained by the farmer and the nation 
 at large in the destruction of crops; secondly, the encouragement given to poachers; 
 thirdly, the employment of gangs of keepers ; fourthly, the demoralization of the lower 
 classes ; fifthly, the lowering of the character of the landovraers. 
 
 First, — the injury done to the crops of grain and roots is incalculable; but it may 
 be said to be so great as to form no small national consideration, and would probably 
 amount (it it could be estimated) to thrice the value annually of all the game in the 
 country. The late Mr. Pusey estimated that three hares will consume as much as a 
 sheep ; but even this does not half represent the injury done to a crop by these vermin. 
 A hare is a very dainty animal, and in entering a turnip field in a morning, hungry, wiU 
 chip off the rind of perhaps half-a-dozen tm-nips before he makes his selection for a 
 breakfast. Every one of these chipped bulbs is by that act exposed to the action of fi-ost 
 and rain alternately, and if it has done growing will infallibly be rotten as soon as the 
 fi-ost goes away. It may easily be conceived what will be the effect upon fields bordered 
 by coverts in which are kept from 200 to 500 hares, all of which are at full liberty, 
 without molestation, to gratify their tastes as well as their appetites. The injury to the 
 grain crops may not be so palpable to the eye as that to the turnips, but it probably 
 amounts to far more in value. " Look at the progress," says a practical farmer and 
 land agent (Mr. Grey, of DUston), " of a single hare. You see a hare enter a wheat -field ; 
 you see him pick out a stem here and there in his course over the field ; he will nibble 
 an inch or two from this stem, and he does not stop till he has cut off a great many. It 
 is not that the inch he has consumed has any appreciable value whatever, but the ear of 
 corn would have been matured, which the hare has prevented by cutting the stem ofi"; 
 and if you consider the damage which is done by one individual hare in a wheat-field in 
 one night, you will find that the damage done by these animals night after night comes 
 to a considerable sum : it may amount to bushels an acre."* 
 
 Another case is mentioned by Mr. Corbet. "My correspondent," he says, "is an 
 extensive occupier in one of the best farmed coimties in England, but farther than this 
 I shall not care to identify him. I shall allude to hares in the first instance, con- 
 sidering them to be the most objectionable : they are in the habit of congregating 
 together, and may be seen as many as one, two, and three liundi-ed, or more, in fields of 
 from twenty to forty acres, feeding on the produce of the land ; and I need scarcely say 
 they prefer the best and sweetest herbage. Game abounds chiefly on light soils, and 
 dry seasons greatly favour their destructive habits. The cereals being of kinder growth 
 and naturally of sweeter quality, it is here that irreparable injury is done to growing 
 crops, be they wheat, barley, or clover, — constantly eating day and night, and all the 
 
 * Corbet's Tract, p. 12. 
 
76 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 year round, does it not become evident they must consume and destroy what would 
 and should have been additional food for man and beast ? But hares are most destructive 
 to crops in the months of May and June : always on the move, they cut their way 
 through the corn and clovers ; and to such serious extent do they clear off roods, and in 
 some instances acres together, that, literally, I have smelt the perfume arising from the 
 ■withering influence of hot weather in those months. Independently of the loss just 
 mentioned, which appears, as it were, sheer mischief, the com thus prematurely cut off 
 will attempt to grow again, and, if some of it should be so fortunate as to get partially 
 into ear, will always be so far behind the other portion of the field at harvest as to greatly 
 injure the sample of produce already diminished in yield. It may be considered a pretty 
 novel sight to see two or three hundred hares in an enclosure as we travel through the 
 country, just as we view a herd of deer ; but does it strike the beholder they are eating 
 the farmer's produce ? Is it just, I ask, that land capable of providing food for the 
 country should be allowed, I may say, to be monopolised by game ?" 
 
 Rabbits, it may be said, are individually less injurious than hares ; not being of so 
 roving a disposition they keep nearer to their bm-rows. But, on the other hand, in their 
 localities they destroy everything ; and in consequence of their breeding so frequently,— 
 every month or six weeks, throughout the summer, — and having so many at a litter ; 
 when they are preserved, which they too frequently are now, as the perquisite of the 
 keeper, or even as a part of his salary, they very soon overi'un a farm, and lay waste every 
 crop. Both these and hares ought to be considered by the legislatui-e as much vermin 
 as rats and hedgehogs, for they are far more deadly enemies to good husbandry than 
 either of the two latter. At Southacre, in Norfolk, according to the testimony of one of 
 the most eminent farmers in the neighboui-hood, who calls it the " plague spot of the 
 district," it is no uncommon thing for the party there to shoot four hundred or five 
 hundred hares in a day when they shoot those coverts. And as to rabbits, they are sent to 
 Sheffield by half-ton and ton at a time. " But if a fox goes to Southacre he gets his toes 
 
 nipped The place swarms T*ith vermin — rats, rabbits, and hares." The ■writer, 
 
 who is a landowner as well as a farmer, adds, " Preservation to the game — pheasants and 
 partridges ; but destruction to the vermin — rats, rabbits, and hares ! " 
 
 Such is the case with the preservation of hares and rabbits ; pheasants and partridges 
 are generally considered as harmless compared -with them ; yet the excessive preservation 
 of pheasants is kept up at no small cost to the farmer, not^withstanding they are 
 regularly fed by the keepers. At seed time, it is almost in vain to sow wheat in the 
 ■vicinity of a covert where there is a large head of these birds, for they are sure to scratch 
 up and eat enoiigh to spoil the crop. And the case is still w'orse when the corn is ripe 
 and on the shock. Here again we must refer to Mr. Corbet's paper for the following 
 graphic description : — " Occasionally they do a great deal of harm and eat a vast deal of 
 corn. No one M'ho has seen them perched on the shocks, towards the end of harvest, 
 can suppose their investigations, at such a time and place, are directed altogether to the 
 extermination of the wire-worm. And I am assured that during the last season, on the 
 property of a noted game-preserving nobleman in Suffolk, towards the close of an autumn 
 afternoon, three hundred pheasants were counted round a tenant's barley stack. I will 
 not say exactly what they were there for. It might, perhaps, be a public meeting, called 
 by some old cock, to take into consideration what effect the chancellor of the exchequer's 
 proposition for a cheap certificate might have on the long-tailed interest ; or to devise 
 
GAME LAWS. 77 
 
 some measiires against the comiug discussiou at the Farmers' Club. However, as it is a 
 pretty general rule with us to wind up all such proceedings with a dinner, I much question 
 whether this influential gathering separated without partaking of some refreshment. The 
 pheasants shall call the meeting, the marquis shall give the land to hold it on, and 
 Mr. Martyr shall stand the dinner. But these bii-ds do not confine themselves to corn. 
 At a recent valuation on the western Une, for damages done by game, a shepherd declared 
 that, ' in the spring of the year, he believed the pheasants ate as much of the Swedes as 
 his flock of sheep.'"* 
 
 Secondly, — the encouragement given to the poacher by the excessive preservation of 
 game, is in itself an evil that calls loudly upon the legislature to interfere. It is not 
 denied that, whether game is preserved in large or small numbers, thei-e will still be 
 reckless men who will risk the penalty they iucui', for the sake of the exciting pleasure of 
 the lawless pursuit. In fact, it is exceedingly difficult to persuade a peasant that the 
 destruction of wild animals, — as they justly consider them, for they are denominated /«•« 
 natur<E by lawyers, — is any crime. It is hard to con\'ince them that the crime consists, 
 not in the killing of the pheasant or hare, but in the breach of a law, the observance 
 of which involves no moral sacrifice of principle, and which, being passed by the 
 representatives of the nation, ought to be obeyed while it exists. Besides, the breach of 
 any law habitually, whether human or divine, weakens the moral principle, and prepares 
 a man for the perpetration of other ofl^ences without compunction. We thus find that 
 there are very few confirmed poachers who would hesitate to rob a hen-roost, or even 
 take a sheep, if their necessities drive them to an extremity. Poaching, therefore, 
 prepai'es a man for the commission of any crime — too often even that of murder — rather 
 than be taken. 
 
 But, if poacliing would stiU exist if game was less strictly preserved, the inducement 
 is increased tenfold when pheasants are reckoned by hundreds and even thousands in the 
 coverts of the nobility and gentry. "W'here the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered 
 together." A heavy preserve of game is sure to- create a corresponding number of 
 poachers in the neighbourhood j and a large staff of gamekeepers will always be met by 
 as numerous a gang of their sworn enemies. The consequence is, that when these two 
 parties meet, there is a sort of chivahy in the combat that ensues, which ends frequently 
 in mui-der, on one side or the other ; — for we scruple not to say, that to take the life of a 
 man for the crime of killing a pheasant, is neither more nor less than legal murder; and 
 whatever the law may do to exonerate the keeper, the Divine law is above it, and to 
 that the perpetrator will eventually be amenable. It is the game-preserver who is the 
 real murderer, by indulging a selfish passion to that excess as to keep up a stafl" of men 
 for the protection of his pheasants and hares, at the expense of human life, if it cannot 
 be done without. What generally renders these combats between poachers and keepers 
 so deadly, is that the latter are frequently, if not generally, chosen from amongst the 
 most daring and intelligent of the former, on account of their intimate acquaintance with 
 the neighbourhood in general, and of the poaching fraternity in particular. The poacher, 
 therefore, aware that he is known, and can be recognised after the afl'ray, becomes reckless 
 and desperate, and makes no scruple of taking the life of his deadly enemy ; while, on 
 the other hand, the keepers themselves are by no means backward to pay the poacher in 
 his own coin ; and thus it becomes a life and death struggle, for the sake of presei-ving a 
 
 * Corbet's Tract, p. 20. 
 
78 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 wild animal wHch virtually can never be made property except it is caged^ but which 
 belongs to any one upon whose grounds it is found. 
 
 Colonel Hawker, who so " conscientiously" declared that he could not say that game 
 could be made a property, illustrated this difficulty in his advice to a young sportsman : — 
 " It often happens," he says, " that the boundaries of a liberty end with a broad hedge- 
 row, which may be too high to shoot in, and may have land on the other side, belonging to 
 some one who is not on terms with the owner, and towards whose property aU his game fly out 
 on the ivrong side of this little covert. He has then only to sow buckwheat and sunflower- 
 seeds, and plant Jerusalem artichokes, for the pheasants, and Swedish turnips, Dutch clover, 
 or parsley, for the hares, on his own side, and cut down a space broad enough to shoot, 
 on the enemy's side, in the hedge-row, which will soon induce him to compromise on 
 equitable terms. Because, should his competitor even do the same, he will most 
 probably still have his share; and if not, he will get away a great part of his game."* 
 Are we to hear about " my game" after such a systematic method of decoying it as 
 this? 
 
 But do not the landed proprietors themselves encourage poaching, by systematically 
 purchasing pheasants' eggs, and even pheasants, of the poacher ? Mr. Corbet says on 
 this head, " The very game preservers and keepers are known to directly encourage 
 them. For are they not amongst the best of customers for eggs and birds ? inciting, in 
 that selfish spirit so thoroughly identified with the whole business, a clever hand at it to 
 rob any neighboming manor in order to stock his own. Cash on delivery, and no 
 questions asked." He adds, in a note, " We have seen magistrates the receivers of 
 stolen goods — &^g buyers ; gentlemen the intimate companions of keepers and watchers ; 
 tenants with characters traduced, crops consumed, and no redress ; and labourers seduced 
 to evil by the high premium placed upon success in crime, viz., ' Pheasants' eggs bought 
 here at 12*. per dozen !'" — (B. in Mark Lane Express, of March 10, 1860.) f 
 
 With such temptations and such examples before them, is it any wonder that an 
 ignorant peasant should look upon poaching as no oflence against a just law, and that it 
 is the selfishness of the landowner that alone makes it a crime to kill a head of game ? 
 But the most extraordinary part of the case is, that these very magistrates, if a poacher 
 is brought before them, will display the most vindictive and relentless disposition; 
 sentencing them to longer or shorter terms of imprisonment with all the eagerness of 
 the most virtuous dispenser of the law. Nor is it the least unfortunate circumstance in 
 this matter that clergymen of the Established Chiu'ch frequently preside at the petty 
 sessions on these occasions, and display as great eagerness in the conviction and punish- 
 ment of poachers as the most strenuous upholder of feudalism. Let these clerical 
 magistrates reflect upon the mission of mercy to which they have nominally given 
 themselves, and then consider how incompatible with that mission is theii" conduct 
 in thus sitting in judgment upon their neighbours and, probably, parishioners in such 
 cases ; and what must be the efl'ect, in neutralizing theii" exhortations from the pulpit 
 
 * Hawker, on Shooting ; the italics are the colonel's. 
 
 t The writer knew the case of a magistrate, in Norfolk, who, wishing to Stock a new covert, went to a noted house of 
 call for poachers at Norwich, aod inquired of the ostler or the master whether he could procure him thirty head of live 
 hen pheasants ? He was requested to call the next week, when a reply would be ready for him. Accordingly, on the 
 following Saturday, he went again, when the party told him "he could have them any day he liked, and out of any 
 gentleman's covert in the county;" jocosely addiug, "out of one of your own, general, if you please." "No, no, 
 d — them," replied tlic general : " from anywlicre but there 1 " 
 
 { 
 
GAME LAWS. 79 
 
 on the Sunday, by thus assisting in the dispensation of a law, of which the practice of 
 many of their colleagues on the bench is an open defiance. 
 
 Thirdly, — the employment of gamekeepers. This is a necessary consequence of an 
 excessive preservation of game ; but nothing can be more destructive to the welfare of an 
 estate than to have a set of these spies constantly proAvling about, authorised intruders 
 at all times and places on the farms, and looking upon the occupiers of land as their 
 natiu'al enemies, because they know that theii' own business is to see that the destroyers 
 of the farmer's profits are not themselves destroyed or molested. These pests of the 
 farmer usually curry favour with their employers by reporting every action of his which 
 they consider injurious to the game, or even suspect of being so. " One loathes the 
 very name of such an oflBce," says Mr. Corbet. " You must all know the authority he 
 exercises — a power so much above his proper position in life, and that, as a rule, he 
 proportionately abuses it. To him, the commonest act of husbandry is one of suspicion 
 and distrust. He unites the invincible curiosity of our English Paul Pry with the 
 maUcious intent of a spy of tbe Inquisition. The farmer and his men are continually 
 imder his supervision. There is nothing they can do but it is his ' duty,' to overlook 
 them. He stands by the mowers to see they do no harm to his nests. He struts into 
 the reaping field to make sure they do not hurt his birds. The boy ■with his scare-crow, 
 the shepherd with his dog, and the little lass with her kitten, are all alike the objects of 
 his hatred and his tyranny. He has been known to wrench a gun from the hand of a 
 farmer's son for shooting a rat ! He has told the farmer himself he should prefer his 
 not firing at the birds on the corn, as it was ' such a trouble to be always coming to see 
 what he was after.' He has informed against a tenant, whom of course he was watching, 
 when his victim got off and picked up a hare which his horse had killed in her form ; 
 and a bench of magistrates at Newark positively followed tliia up by a conviction ! To 
 the disgust, however, of these Solons, the Commissioners of Taxes promptly reversed the 
 decision. He lays traps for the labourers, as has been proved over and over again, and 
 rejoices, like another Jonathan Wild, or some other such scoimdrel, only in the do^Tifall 
 of his fellow-men. He is the very essence of evil doing. He whispers away characters in 
 the ear of his employer ; he swears them away in open coui-t. He is incessantly making 
 ill-blood between man and man ; and he is the one great blot on our fair English land- 
 scape. I have the experience of an old keeper himself to say that such men are rarely 
 to be believed or trusted.* The rabbits are the keeper's perquisite ; that is to say, the 
 vermin which do the farmer the greatest injury are the animals above all others that 
 the keeper has a direct interest in maintaining a stock of. The vermin which the 
 law declares the tenant has a right to destroy as vermin, the landlord transfers as 
 a right to his servant. We stiU hear of head-keepers clearing their £200 or £300 
 
 * The following case came under the author's own notice. A relative, who occupies a farm of 700 acres in Norfolk, 
 was allowed by his landlord to shoot rabbits. His farm is bounded on one side by the coverts of his landlord, and adjoining 
 them are those of a neighbom-ing landowner. This latter paid his keeper in part in money, and in part with the rabbits, 
 which of course it was his interest to preserve as much as possible. Our friend's rabbit-shooting was therefore a constant 
 source of annoyance, and he determined to put a stop to it. He shot a hare himself, flung it into his opponent's field, and 
 then went and told his employer that he saw the farmer shoot and leave it, " he supposed because he saw him near." 
 The gentleman went with him to the field, found the hare, and without calling for an explanation from the farmer, wrote 
 
 to his landlord, complaining that ]\Ir. was shooting his game. The consequence was a peremptory order to the 
 
 farmer, that he would not in future allow him to shoot rabbits. Some time after, the keeper himself was detected in some 
 malpractices and dismissed, and then the under-keepers told their master the whole aff'air. The latter, however, had not 
 the honesty to explain the matter to the landlord. 
 
80 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 a year by the rabbits; so mucli gain to them being, as a rule, so much loss to the 
 farmer." * 
 
 It is impossible to place the matter in a stronger or more truthful light. The 
 writer has known many keepers, but never known an honest man amongst them, they 
 being, as a rule, selected rather for their daring and physical strength than for their 
 respectability of character. Their vocation is of a piece with that of a common informer, 
 and is estimated accordingly. 
 
 Fourthly, — the demoralization of the lower classes, by the over preservation of game 
 and the operation of the game laws, has already been adverted to ; and to prove it, we 
 have only to look at the statistics of crime in the blue books, the number of convictions 
 at quarter sessions, and the enormous sums expended in the prosecution of poachers, 
 the bulk of which the farmers themselves have to pay in the shape of county rates ; so 
 that they are robbed in every possible way. In 1843 there were, in England alone, 
 4,270 convictions. This was an exceptional and heavy year, for in 1859 the entire 
 number throughout the United Kingdom was only 2,608. The expense attending the 
 prosecution of these men was enormous. Thus the farmer is called upon, first to 
 feed the game at his own expense; next, to pay the cost of the prosecutions for 
 poaching ; and, lastly, to support the families of the poachers during the time they 
 are undergoing their sentences of imprisonment ! Can any system be devised more 
 destructive of the best interests of the country than that of game preserving under the 
 present laws, or that is more damaging to the moral character of the rural peasantry ? 
 " Poaching," says Mr. Corbet, " is an insidious disease, and I have little doubt but that 
 it reduces a man from bad to worse. Habitual idleness, a passion for drink, hen-roost 
 robbing, sheep-stealing, and even graver crimes, have been the not unusual close of a 
 poaeher^s career. The over-preservation of game injures the farmer quite as directly 
 in this wise : it demoralizes his laboiu'ers, tempts the best away from him, and renders 
 them dissatisfied with, and independent of, a fair week's wages, when they can get £3 
 or £4} a night in the woods. . . . We have little sui-plus agricultural labour now-a-days ; 
 every man in a parish can be employed to a vast deal more advantage than as a watcher 
 or beater. . . . One of the points of modern husbandry is the use of more labour, and 
 we shall soon want all we can obtain." f 
 
 Attempts are making by many of our philanthropists to raise the moral character of 
 the rural population by education and the dissemination of books of a moral and religious 
 tendency. The greatest obstruction to the success of their plans are the beer-shops and 
 the game laws. The first, it is true, is the monster evil, from which almost all crime 
 springs, and at which all the offences against society are concocted. It is here that the 
 old poachers congregate to lay their plans and fix their places of rendezvous, and it is here 
 that the young peasant is entrapped into the gang, and initiated into all the secrets of the 
 desperate profession of a poacher. What chance has the friend of the peasant of making 
 any beneficial impression on him, with such drawbacks as the beer-shop and the public 
 house and their influence to contend with ? What hope is there of eflecting a moral 
 change in a class who are daily beset with temptations that appeal to their most assailable 
 weaknesses ? The \'ice of drinking, encom-aged as it is by the legislature, because of the 
 large amount it brings to the revenue, prepares the peasant for the breach of the law ; 
 and the old poacher well kno\\s that if he cannot prevail on a young man to di'owu his 
 • Corbet's Tract, p. 17. t IWd. p. 25. 
 
GAME LAWS. 81 
 
 sense in liquor, he cannot, as a rule, induce liim to risk his safety in the dangerous 
 occupation. He therefore entices him to tlie beer-shop, where he gradually loses all 
 sense of morality, and all compunctions of conscience, and becomes an easy prey. 
 Against siich influences the voice of reason and the efforts of benevolence prove but 
 feeble auxiliaries to preserve the young from their contaraiiiating enticements ; and until 
 an entire change is made in the system of licences as well as in that of game preserving, 
 we can scarcely hope to see any great and general improvement in the moral character 
 of the rural population. 
 
 Fifthly, — the lowering of the character of the landowners. This is not one of the 
 smallest evils that has arisen out of, or been aggravated by, the excessive preservation 
 of game. There was a time when the "old English gentleman" was the model of 
 everything that was noble, generous, and unselfish — the representative of a class, high- 
 minded, and above petty meanness or mercenary motives in their habits, whether of 
 business or pleasui-e; treating their tenants and dependents with kindness and con- 
 sideration ; and spurning everything that could compromise their respectability or bring 
 theii" characters in question as actuated by pecuniary motives in the pursuit of their 
 favom-ite sport — the chaee. In this occupation, the "dog and gim" were the only 
 agents by which the game was found and killed ; and the healthful exercise of following 
 the dogs, whether on foot or on horseback, added to the excitement natural to the 
 pursuit, was an ample reward for the expense he might have incurred in raising a 
 moderate head of game. The produce of the day's sport supplied his own table, 
 and if any remained over, it was despatched, " with the squire's," or " my lord's, 
 compliments," to such of his friends or dependents as had no other means of procming 
 game. 
 
 How stands the case now that the battue has been introduced, rendering necessary 
 the raising and preserving immense heads of game, and a corresponding number of 
 keepers to protect them from the poachers ? This absm-d and butcherly sport, as it is 
 called, was brought from Germany with many other customs. That country is in great 
 part covered with forests, which abound with game of all kinds, some of which are of 
 the larger kind, as wild boars, bears, wolves, &c. It is evident that in such fastnesses 
 as those, inhabited by these animals, it is no child's-play to pursue the sport of himting 
 a I'outrance. It is, therefore, the custom when a nobleman and his friends wish for 
 a day's, or week's, sport in wood shooting, to summon his dependents by hundreds, 
 who surround the wood, or a portion of it, and by continually drawing towards ouc 
 common centre, drive the game before them to the spot where theu' chief and his 
 friends are stationed. Even upon this plan the danger is imminent ; for frequently 
 when these wild beasts find themselves thus brought face to face with their foes, they 
 become desperate, and attack man or horse, or both, with the greatest fury; and not 
 iinfrequently serious accidents and loss of life occiu- in the encounter. At the same 
 time a vast amount of corn-age and prowess is displayed, and large numbers of the 
 terrible game are killed. Each day's sport is wound up with a feast. This is the 
 genuine battue, of which the present English battue is but a sorry imitation. 
 
 What possible analogy there can be between these two practices — except that in 
 both cases the keepers beat the woods— it is impossible to conceive. Nothing can be 
 imagined more insipid or puerile than standing on the edge of a plantation while a gan^j 
 of keepers drive a flock of half-tame pheasants or hares towards you, in killing which 
 
 G 
 
83 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 you have no fiu'ther exercise tlian taking the guns from the man who charges them for 
 you, and blazing a^^ay as fast as the game appears. The sport would be quite as good 
 to stand in the farm-yard and shoot the cocks and hens as they descended from the 
 roost in the morning, or were driven to a corner of the yard for the purpose. They 
 certainly kill large quantities of game in this way, and make a great boast of it in the 
 newspapers. " But let us ascertain the character of the battue in the eyes of the great 
 body of Englishmen. What do nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand 
 think, when they read the Morning Post paragraph of what the Earl of Wholesale and 
 Retail, and three or four ' great guns,' did the day before yesterday, at his lordship's 
 magnificent seat, ' the Slaughter-house,' when in the course of the morning they 
 killed some 200 head of pheasants, 150 hares, 300 rabbits, 2 woodcocks and a water-hen, 
 besides seriously wounding a Jack snipe, as well as an under keeper, and half ruining a 
 tenant farmer ? AVith what kind of feeling is it that we regard such terrible sportsmen 
 who thus blazon forth their wondrous achievements ? Is it with respect ? — with a 
 certain pride in the prowess and manliood of our English gentlemen ? — or rather with 
 something like disgust, and an inclination to ridicule the whole proceeding ? Have they 
 any of the true attributes of sportsmen — the excitement of finding and following the 
 game, the pleasing recollection of how steadily old Dido hunted up to her birds, or how 
 old Brush stood to the winged pheasant in the hedgerow ? Is there the long bracing 
 heat, the healthful fatigue, and the well-won rest that so gratefully crowns the day's 
 sport?"* 
 
 This practice is lowering enough, but is followed up by one still more degrading, — 
 that of selling the game to the London poulterers, which is now tlie universal 
 practice after a battue. What indeed can a man do with a thousand head of dead 
 game all on hand at once, but dispose of them in this way ? But is this compatible -with 
 the high-minded character the English gentleman ought to sustain ? Is it not rather 
 reducing himself to the level of the poulterer to whom he sells the game ? " The 
 squires," said an eminent agriculturist at a public dinner two years since, "are fast 
 degenerating into poulterers. Things are very different now from what they were fifty 
 years ago. Game was then used as a means by which gentlemen afforded amvisemcnt to 
 their guests with whom they filled their houses ; and it was a very charming amusement. 
 Game has now become a commercial afi'air, and he hoped the system would soon end in 
 thorough bankruptcy." f 
 
 That the excessive preservation of game is destructive of good husbandry, will not 
 admit of a question. Not only are the farmer's crops injured and his profits cm*- 
 tailed thereby, but, in many instances, he is restricted by it in the management of 
 the land. Clauses are inserted in leases to prevent the tenant from drilling his 
 turnips, because the partridges will run between the di-ills, instead of getting on the 
 wing. They must not mow their wheat or the stubbles, because it will destroy their 
 shelter. Recently, a nobleman, in a midland county, issued peremptory orders to his 
 tenants not to use a reaping-machine, on the same absurd accoimt. This last outrageous 
 attempt to establish a new and unheard-of species of feudal tyranny was met, as it 
 deserved to be, by the determined resistance of the whole body of tenantry, and the 
 order was either rescinded or allowed to remain ineffective. Endless are the instances 
 of tyrannical interference and petty vexation inflicted upon the tenantry, on some estates, 
 * Corbet's Tract, p. 7. t Ibid. 
 
GAME LAWS. 83 
 
 oa account of the game.* The wonder is that, under such discouragements, agricultiu-e 
 should have made the progress it has done the last fifty years. In fact, we find tliat those 
 estates on which the game is most preserved are, as a general rule, the worst culti- 
 vated and the lowest rented ; atid at those periods when the liopes of the husbandman 
 ought to be on the point of realisation, the fields near the cover, on such estates, exhibit 
 a scene of devastation and failiu'e enough to discourage the most persevering cultivator. 
 
 Upon the game preserver himself, the influence of this excessive attention to a selfish 
 practice, the effect is different, but, in a moral sense, quite as injurious. All his thoughts 
 and feelings appear to be absorbed in this one object. His waking hours are occupied 
 with plans for the protection and increase of his hares and pheasants. His sleep is dis- 
 turbed by %'isions of poachers beating his preserves ; or he is awoke up to the stern and 
 unwelcome reality, by the discharge of guns, and the information that a poacher is killed 
 or a keeper murdered. In youth and manhood, the preservation and pursuit of game 
 form the prmcipal business of life ; and in his declining years and last moments, the 
 puerile and unworthy subject occupies his mind to the exclusion of every higher con- 
 sideration which ought to prevail at those serious periods of life, and in the prospect of 
 leaving the world, f An elegant ^vi'iter of tlie present centuiy, in describing the pleasures 
 of a rural independence, thus expresses himself on this subject : — " It is certain, that, in 
 point of present gratification, every pleasure is such as it is felt to be ; and therefore, if 
 any one finds himself delighted in wandering through the woods ivith his fowling-piece, 
 or in scoui'ing the country along with dogs and horses, and desperate riders, to the terror 
 of an innocent quadi'uped, it would be in vain to dispute against his experience. To what 
 persons, or in what cases, such diversions are allowable, I leave others to determine ; I 
 shall content myself to observe, what I suppose none will deny, that when they are made 
 a principal object, their manifest tendency is to induce an incapacity for nobler enjojr- 
 ments, and so to lay the foundation of a despicable old age. For it would seem difficult 
 to imagine a character more entii-ely sunk, and devoid of all respectability, than that of 
 an old worn-out sportsman, the vigoivr of whose days has been wasted in mere animal 
 exertions, and whose memory is stored with nothing better than the history of hares and 
 foxes, of rustic adventui-es and peiilous escapes ; and who dreams away the evening of 
 life, like the hound sleeping upon his liearth, in retracing the vain images of his wild and 
 sportive excursions." % 
 
 * The writer was once at a farmhouse in Norfolk, standing on the edge of a plantation : some of the farmer's children 
 were amusing themselves (it being holiday time) in firing off a small cannon, with a bore about the size of a quill. Pre- 
 sently came the " squire" with a couiile of keepers, to know who had been shooting. The case was humbly explained by 
 the tenant, who happened to be at home ; but he got a severe rebuke for allowing his children to disturb the game. He 
 himself was not suffered to use a gun, even to frighten the crows off his corn. 
 
 t The writer knew one such character, whose siimmum homim of life was to follow the houuds or beat the covers by 
 day, and join in the debauch at night. The day on which he died, and within an hour or two of the crisis, he expressed 
 his last wish, that he " could see all the wine-bottles he had drank ont placed before him, for he was certain they would fill 
 a large barn ! '* 
 
 X Bates's " Rural Philosophy," p. 240. 
 
 g2 
 
SECTION IX. 
 
 TERRITORIAL CUSTOMS. 
 
 Customs. — lu agriculture, tliis word is either of general or local application, and 
 implies tlie existence of certain rights, privileges, obligations, duties, &c., which, without 
 any specific statute to enforce them, yet by reason of their antiquity, and the common 
 and tacit consent of the people, possess all the force of law. It is, in fact, upon such 
 rights, establislicd by immemorial use and exercise, that the common law is founded ; and 
 tlie exponents thereof are the judges in our several courts, who, by reason of their 
 superior knowledge and lai-ge experience, are considered best qualified to give a decision 
 in respect to the validity or antiquity of a custom, and of the various circumstances by 
 which it can be established. For this purpose a custom must be proved to have existed 
 so long that the memory of man cannot reach its origin, or prove a contrary or hostile 
 practice. If its begiuniug can be spoken to as of date witliin memory, it is void. It 
 must also be continuous ; because a cessation implies a relinquishment on the part of 
 those whose interest or business it is to keep it up : and, in that case, a resumption 
 would be considered a commencement, which may be successfully resisted on the ground 
 of an intrusion and invasion of rights. Tacit or peaceable consent of all parties is 
 another condition for the validity of a custom ; because if disputed, it proves that it is 
 not by common consent that it was established. Lord Chief-Justice Coke says that a 
 custom to be valid must also be reasonable (1st Inst. 6,2). A custom must also be com- 
 jiulsory if established by common consent, and other customs must be in accordance 
 with it, or there will be a clashing of interests that must neutralise one or tlie other, 
 or both. 
 
 The common law of England is comprised of a body of the Lex non Scripta of local 
 customs, first collected by King Alfred, and afterwards by Kings Edgar and Edward the 
 Confessor. In bringing these local customs into harmony, in order tliat tlic whole 
 kingdom might enjoy the benefit of an equal code of laws, tlicre was a general consent 
 of the inhabitants of the several districts to surrender such of their customs as might 
 seem to be inimical to, or to clash with, the interests of the community at large. But 
 owing to causes which it is impossible to explain, and which have long been forgotten. 
 
TEERITORIAL CUSTOMS. 85 
 
 several counties^ cities, townSj manors, and lordships were allowed the privilege of 
 retaining certain of tlieir local customs, which arc difierent from those of the country at 
 large, aud at variance with the statute law of the land, except that they have in many 
 instances been confirmed to them hj acts of parliament. 
 
 Lands held of the sovereign were subject to various customs or services, known in 
 ancient tenure by the names of Grand Serjeanty, Petit Serjeanty, and many other 
 terms. Tenure by grand serjeanty is where a man holds lands of the crown by such 
 services as he ought to do in his proper person to the king — as to carry the banner of 
 the king, or his lance, or to lead his army, or to be his marshal, or to carry his sword 
 before him at his coronation, or to be his carver, or butler, or one of his chamberlains 
 of the receipt of his Exchequer, or to do other like services, &c. We shall now give 
 examples of the various kinds of service and customs by which the land was held, whether 
 of the sovereign, of the lords of manors, or as between man and man as successive 
 owners and occupiers of the soil. 
 
 1. Hugh de St. PhUlibert held the manor of Crcswell, in the county of Berks, by 
 the serjeanty of carrying bottles of wine for the breakfast of our lord the king, and it 
 was called the scijcanty of Huse throughout the kingdom of England. 
 
 3. Ela, Countess of Warwick, held the manor of Hoke Norton, in the county of 
 Oxford, which was of the barony of D'Oyly, of our lord the king, in capite, by the 
 sei'jeanty of carving before our lord the king on Christmas Day, and to have the knife of 
 our lord the king with which she carved. 
 
 3. Hemy de la Wade held ten pounds of land (or land worth or rented at ten 
 pounds) in Staunton, in the county of Oxford, by the serjeanty of carrying a gerfalcon 
 every year before our lord the king whenever he should please to hawk with such falcons, 
 at the cost of the said lord the king. 
 
 4. Reginald de Grey held the manor of Waterhill, in the coimty of Bucks, of our 
 lord the king, by the service of finding one man upon a horse without a saddle, value 
 1*. 3d., and one bow without a string, and one arrow without a head, when the king 
 should command him for his ser^dce for the said manor to be in his army. 
 
 5. Peter Spileman paid a fine to the king for lands which the said Peter held by the 
 serjeanty of finding an esquire with a haubergelle, or coat of mail, for forty days in 
 England, and of finding litter (straw) for the king's bed, and hay for the king's palfrey, 
 when the king should be at Brokenerst, in the county of Southampton. 
 
 6. Robert the Marshal, about the time of Henry II., held one hide of land in Baden 
 (Essex) by the serjeanty of keeping the king's palfrey. 
 
 7. Edmund Willoughby held one messuage aud six bovats* of land in Carleton, in 
 the county of Nottingham, as of the manor of Shclford, by the service of one catapultaf 
 by the year for aU services. 
 
 8. Felicia, wife of William IMartell, died 36th Henry III., holding of the king, in 
 capite, ninety-eight acres of arable, foiu* and a half of meadow, three of pastm-c, and 
 14s. Ad. rent of assize, in Rymehall, by the service of finding one esquii-e with a purple 
 lance and an iron cap for forty days. 
 
 9. Robert Baudet held a certain serjeanty in Redbui'gh, for which he was to pay 
 
 * A bovate or oxganj of land was as much as oue ox could pljugh and till in ouc year, or about fifteen acres, 
 varying according to the soil. 
 
 t Catapulta, an engine to shoot dails with. 
 
86 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 yearly at the Exclicquer ouc liuuclred barbed arrows. And lie also held one yard-land 
 in Yentis and Andover by the same serviee. 
 
 10. Walter de Bm'gh and his partners held sixteen pound lands in Rakey, in the 
 county of Norfolkj by the serjeauty of paying two mues (muids) of red Avine^ and 
 200 pearsj ealled permeines^ to be paid at the Feast of St. Michael^ yearly, at the 
 king's Exchequer. 
 
 11. When the king himself came to Chester, every carucate yielded him 200 fowls 
 and one tun of ale, and one rushin of butter. 
 
 12. William Gardinar held seven acres of land in Lancaster by the service that he 
 should find in (for) the castle pot-herbs and leeks, and his land was worth 2s. 4d. 
 
 13. Thomas de la Puille held on serjeanty in the town of Guldeford, of the gift of 
 Testard, for Avhich he formerly used to keep the laundresses of the king's coui-t ; and 
 he paid at the Exchequer 255. 
 
 14. Margery de Aspervil held one yard-land of our lord the king, i7i capite, in 
 Aylesbury, in the county of Bucks, by the serjeanty of keeping all the distresses made 
 for the king's debt by the summons of the Exchequer. 
 
 15. In the year 1285 it was found that Nicholas Attenasse held a virgate of land 
 by the tenure of providing a pound for the king's bailiff of the hundred to impound 
 cattle, by the sheriff's precept and summons of the Exchequer, and the bailiffs used to 
 receive Qd. 
 
 16. Joan, wife of John King, holds a certain serjeanty in Stainhow, in the county of 
 Norfolk, by the service of keeping bracelettum * deymerettum of our lord the kiug. 
 
 17. Sir Richard Rockesby, Knight, held lands at Seaton, in the county of Kent, by 
 the serjeanty of being the king's vautrerf in Gascony until he had worn out a pair of 
 shoes of the price of 4:d. 
 
 18. Godfrey de Barenton held half a yard-laud in Hethfield by the seijeanty of 
 keeping the king's park and wood in the same town. 
 
 19. John Peckham held the manor of Peckham, in Kent, in capite, of ovu' lord the 
 king by the service of mewing one goshawk yearly. J 
 
 20. Thomas Winchard held land in Coniugton, in the county of Leicester, in capite, 
 by the service of saying daily five pater nosters and five ave Marias, for the souls of the 
 king's progenitors and the souls of all the faithful departed, for all services. 
 
 21 . John Freeman held one yard-land in Harden, in the county of Hereford, by the 
 seij canty of measuring the ditches and works of oui- lord the king at the cost of the 
 said king. 
 
 22. Robert Fitz Alexander held the manor of Wrencholm by keeping the king's 
 hogs from the time of pawnage until they were appraised. 
 
 23. Roger de Lcyburne held Bures, and Robert de Sutton of him, by the serjeanty 
 of scalding the king's hogs. 
 
 24. In the sixth year of King Edward I. (aimo 1278), after the making the statute 
 of Quo Warranto in the parliament held at Gloucester, the king, by his justices, 
 questioning certain of his great subjects by what title they held theii- lands; among 
 others Jolni, Earl Warren and Surrey, being called and demanded by what warrant he 
 
 * From bt-ache, a hound, or beagle. 
 
 t Keeper of greyliouads. 
 
 % A mew Hus a place of confinement where a hawk was kept till he had moulted. 
 
TERRITORIAL CUSTOMS. 87 
 
 held hisj showed them an old sword, and nnslicathing it, said, " Behold, ray lords, here 
 is my warrant ; my ancestors coming into this land with William the Bastard, did obtain 
 these lands by the sword, and I am resolved by the sword to defend them against 
 whomsoever shall endeavour- to dispossess me ; for that king did not himself conquer 
 the laud and subdue it, but our progenitors were sharers and assistants therein." =i= 
 
 25. John de la Haye took of WiUiam Barnaby, Lord of Lastres, in the county of 
 Hereford, one parcel of land of the demesne lands, rendering therefor 20d. yearly, and 
 one goose fit for the lord's dinner, on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, suit of 
 court, and other ser\'ices thereupon due. Blount says, in his " Glossographia," that in 
 Lancashire the husbandmen claim it as a due to have a goose intentos on the sixteenth 
 Sunday after Pentecost, which custom took origin from the last word of the old church 
 prayer of that day — " Tua uos quresimus domine gratia semper prreveniat et sequatur ; 
 ac bonis operibus jugiter prtestet esse intentos." The common people take it for a goose 
 ivith ten iocs. 
 
 26. A farm at Brookhouse, in Langsett, in the parish of Peniston and county of 
 York, paid yearly to Godfrey Boswelle, Esq., a snow-ball at Midsmnmer and a red rose 
 at Christmas. 
 
 27. At Lavenham, in Suffolk, and Maldon, in Essex, the inhabitants have a tenure of 
 land which Littleton, the famous lawyer, calls " Borough-English," namely, that the 
 younger sons inherit the lands and tenements which their fathers had in this manor, if 
 they happen to die intestate. In jMaldon it is limited to the youngest sou. 
 
 28. An estate in the parish of Hedsor, Bucks, called Lambert's Farm, was formerly 
 held under the manor by the service of bringing in the first dish at the lord's table on 
 St. Stephen's Day, and presenting him with two hens, a cock, a gallon of ale, and two 
 manchets of white bread : after dinner, the lord delivered to the tenant a sparrow-hawk 
 and a couple of spaniels, to be kept at his cost and charges, for the lord's use. A com- 
 position is now paid in lieu of this service. 
 
 29. Within the precincts of the manor of Temple Tisoe, in the county of Warwick, 
 is cut, upon the side of Edge Hill, the figm'e of a horse in large shape ; and because the 
 earth is red, it is called the Red Horse, and gives the denomination of the fruitful vale 
 about it, called the Vale of the Red Horse. The trenches about the horse are cleared 
 every year by a freeholder, who holds his laud ])y that service. 
 
 30. In the manor of Gimmingham, Norfolk, the ancient custom of socage is stUl 
 kept up — the tenant not paying his rent in money, but in so many days' work. 
 
 The whole town of Ca-nston, Norfolk, is an ancient demesne, and enjoys the privilege 
 of that tenm'c, as also of the duchy of Lancaster, of which this manor is a member, and, 
 consequently, within its liberty, but was exempted from the jurisdiction of the duchy by 
 John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster ; in token whereof, at this day, a brazen gauntlet (or 
 hand) is still carried before the lord of the manor or his steward whenever they hold 
 court there, on the same day, as the device or rebus of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan- 
 caster, who assigned all the royalties to be held of him by the lords of the manor, and 
 the plough coulter in the hand denotes the manor to be held in free socage, and not in 
 capite, or by knight's sernce. 
 
 * William, first Earl Warreu, was, at the time of makiug the general siu'vey (Doomsday), possessed ot two hundred 
 lordships in several counties of England, whereof Conesborough, in Yorkshire, was one which had twenty-eight towns anfi 
 hamlets within its soke. 
 
88 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 31. The manors of East and West Enborne, Berks, Lave tliis custom — tLat if a 
 eopylaold tenant die, tlie widow sliall have her free bench in all his copyhold lands while 
 she continues sole and chaste; but if she commits incontinency, she forfeits her widow's 
 estate ; yet, after this, if she comes into the next court held for the manor, riding 
 backward upon a black ram, with his tail in her hand, and says the following words, the 
 steward is bound by the custom to re-admit her to her free bench : — 
 
 " Here I am, 
 Biding on a black ram, 
 Like a w — e as I am ; 
 And for my crincum-crancum. 
 Have lost my biucum-bancum ; 
 And for my tail's game, 
 Am brought to this worldly shame ; 
 Therefore, good master steward, let me have my lands again." 
 
 A similar custom exists in the manor of Torre, iu Devonshire, and other parts of the 
 west. 
 
 33. In the manor of Builth, county of Radnor, every tenant paid maiden rent, viz., 
 a noble, at their marriage, anciently given to the lord for his omitting the custom of 
 morchetta, whereby he was to have the first night's lodging with his tenant's wife : but 
 it was more probably a fine for licence to marry a daughter. This tenm-e is stiU sub- 
 sisting ; but the lord generally chooses to tap a hogshead of cider rather than have 
 the virgin. 
 
 33. In town of East Rudham, Norfolk, the custom of all the lands which are held 
 within the borough concerning, — in-penny and out-penny, is this that he who would sell 
 or give the said tenure to any one, shall give for his going out of the same tenure one 
 penny, and the like for the entry of the other ; and that the bailiff of the lord shall be 
 present at the delivery of every livery of seisiu, and if the aforesaid pennies shall be 
 in arrear, the bailiff of the lord may distrain for the said pennies in the same tenure. 
 
 34'. It has been the custom at Eusham, in Oxfordshire, for the townspeople on 
 Whit Monday to cut dovni and bring away (wherever the chm-chwardens pleased to mark 
 it out by giving the first chop) as much timber as could be di-awn by men's hands into 
 the abbey yard, whence, if they could draw it out again, notwithstanding all the impedi- 
 ments that could be given by the servants of the abbey, and since that by the family 
 of the lord, it was then their own, and went, in part at least, to the reparation of the 
 church. And by this custom, as some will have it, they hold both their Lammas and 
 Michaelmas common. 
 
 35. It is the custom of some manors within the honour of Cluu, in the county of 
 Salop, that at the entrance of every new lord of that honour, the tenants shall pay him a 
 certain sum called mise-money. In consideration whereof they claim to be quit of all 
 fines and amercements, which are recorded at that time in the court rolls and not levied, 
 which they call " white books." 
 
 3G. In the manor of Dunmow, in Essex, a custom stiU exists, by vii'tue of which any 
 couple who can make oath that for a year and a day after their marriage they have not 
 had any quarrel, or repented of their marriage, sleeping or waking, can claim a flitch of 
 bacon of the lord or his steward. This custom is said to have been instituted by Robert 
 Fitzwalter, in the time of Henry, son of King John, when the claiming of the flitch was 
 a time of solemnity and triumph with the monks and townspeople; and it is still 
 
TEREITOEIAL CUSTOMS. 89 
 
 kept up, and the bacon has been claimed within a very few years. The following is the 
 form of the oath taken on these occasions : — 
 
 " You shall 3wear by custom of confession 
 If ever you made nuptial transgression. 
 Be you either married mau or wife, 
 If you have brawls or contentious strife, 
 Or otherwise at bed or board 
 Offended each other in deed or word ; 
 Or since the parish clerk said Amen, 
 Yo wished yourselves unmarried again, 
 Or in a twelve-moneth and a day 
 Repented not in thought any way, 
 But continued true in thought and desire. 
 As when you joiued hands in the quire. 
 If to these conditions, without all feare. 
 Of your own accord you will freely aweare, 
 A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive. 
 And beare it hence with love and good leave; 
 For this is our custom at Dunmow well known. 
 Though the pleasure be ours, the bacon's your own." 
 
 37. The custom of the manor of Ham, in Middlesex, is, that if any copyholder will 
 sell his land, and agree upon the price at the next court, the next cleivenor {i. e. he 
 that dwelleth next to him) shall have the refusal, giving as much as another will ; and 
 he which inhabits on the east, first, and the south and the west next, and the north last. 
 
 38. By the custom of the manor of Pannington, an infant of twelve years old may 
 surrender. 
 
 39. By the custom of the manor of Reigate, Surrey, any tenant may fell timber-trees 
 upon his copyhold without licence from the lord, provided such timber be employed about 
 building and repaii-ing his copyhold; and likewise if a tenant dieth seized of several 
 freehold lands and tenements, there is but one heriot due to the lord. And if a tenant 
 die seized of several copyhold lauds and tenements, the lord shall have but one heriot. 
 
 40. The custom of the laanor of Sedgeley, county of Stafford, is, if a copyholder 
 make a lease without licence of the lord, for one year, and dies within the term, it shall 
 be void against the heir ; and this was adjudged to be a good custom by the court, in 
 the case of Turner v. Hodges. 
 
 41. Every tenant of the manor of Writtle, in Essex, upon St. Leonard's Day (Gth 
 November), pays to the lord for every pig under a year old a halfpenny, for every 
 yearling pig a penny, and for every hog above a year old twopence, for the privilege 
 of pawnage in the lord's woods ; and this payment is called avage, or avisage. 
 
 42. In Norfolk there are some grounds which it is not known to what parish they 
 certainly belong ; so that the minister who first seizes the tithes, does, by that right of 
 pre-occupation, enjoy them for that year ; and the land of this dubious nature is there 
 called catch-land, from this custom of seizing the tithes. 
 
 43. At Maldon, in Essex, there is a custom claimed by the name of land-cheap, 
 which is, that for certain houses and lands sold vrithin that borough, 13d. out of every 
 mark (13*. 4:d.) of the purchase money shall be paid to the town ; which cu.stom of land- 
 cheap is claimed by a grant made to that town by the Bishop of London, anno 5th 
 of Hemy IV. 
 
 44. In the manor of St. John of Jerusalem, at Islington {Iseldon, Bernershury) , 
 
90 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 lands descend according to the custom of Borough-English, whereby the youngest sou 
 of a copyholder inherits; or in default of issue, the younger brother. The fines are 
 arbitrary, and at the will of the lord, whose custom is to take two years' improved rent 
 on a descent, and one year and a half on an alienation. No heriots are taken. Widows 
 are entitled to dower of the copyhold.* 
 
 45. Lands in Highbury, Middlesex, descend according to the custom of gavelkind, 
 being equally divided between male heirs in the same degree of consanguinity ; and in 
 default of male heirs, among females in the like manner. The copyholders pay a fine 
 arbitrary at the wUl of the lord. No heritors are now demanded, nor have there been 
 any for many ages ; but 6s. 8d. appears to have been once paid on that account in the 
 reign of Hem-y VII. "Widows are not entitled to dower of the copyhold.f 
 
 46. In the manor of Terringtou, Sussex, the tenants are obliged to do certain work 
 by the rod, which is called rod-gavel. 
 
 47. In the manor of Wadhurst, Sussex^ there are two sorts of copyholds, viz. stock- 
 land and bondland. If a man be first admitted to stockland, and afterwards to bond- 
 land, and dies seized of both, his heir shall inherit both ; but if he be first admitted to 
 bondland, aud afterwards to stockland, and dies seized of both, his youngest son shall 
 inherit. 
 
 48. Most of the grounds round Whittlesea, Isle of Ely, county of Cambridge, are 
 marsh, for which King Canute gave orders to TwikUl the Dane, that every village aljout 
 the feus should have its proper marsh, and so divided the ground that the inhabitants of 
 each village should have just so much of the marsh for its own use as lay right against 
 the farm ground of the said village. He also made an order that no village might dig 
 or mow in another man's marsh vrithout leave ; but, however, that the feediug shoidd 
 be common to all, that is, horn imder horn, for the preservation of peace and quiet 
 among them. The fens at this day are divided among the inhabitants as mentioned 
 in this order. 
 
 49. In the honour of Clun, Salop, sute silver, i. e. a smaU rent or sum of money, 
 if paid, does excuse the freeholders from their appearance at the com-ts-baron withiu 
 the honour. 
 
 50. Two farms lying in the township of Swintou, Yorkshire, and which belong to 
 Earl Fitzwilliam, late in the occupation of John Mercer and Richard Thompson, every 
 year change their parish for one year. From Easter Day at twelve at noon, till next 
 Easter Day at the same houi-, they lie in the parish of Mexbrough; aud then, till 
 Easter Day following, at the same hour, they are in the parish of Wath-upon-Derne, 
 and so alternately. These farms consist of about 302 acres. 
 
 51. In the manor of Kenton, Devon, if the issue of any tenant hold their tenements, 
 one after another, three descents, they may claim the inheritance of the tenement. 
 
 53. In the manor of Kennington, Surrey, lands descend to the youngest sou ; and 
 in default of sons, are divided equally among the daughters. 
 
 53. In the manor of Richmond, Surrey, lands are held by the rod, or copy of com-t 
 roll, and descend to the youngest son, or in default of sous, to the youngest daughter. 
 The same customs prevail in the manors of Petersham and Ham. 
 
 The first twenty-foiu:. of the foregoing cases were of grand and little serjeanty, aud 
 the remaining twenty -nine, manorial customs. The whole were selected from Beckwith's 
 
 * Wilaon's " Iliat. of IsliiiKlou." t Ibid. 
 
TERRITORIAL CUSTOMS. 91 
 
 edition of Blount's " Fragmenta Antiquitatis," and present ample and curious illustrations 
 of the simple manners^ and, in some instances, ludicrous customs, by whicli, in the early 
 periods of oui' history, the tenm'e of real property was accompanied. Some of the 
 former class, and most of the latter, are still in force, and will probably remain so as 
 long as the present law of inheritance and of entail continues — at least on some manors ; 
 Init the act of parliament for facilitating the conversion of copyhold property into 
 freehold, will, to a considerable extent, do away with these feudal tenui'cs, and place the 
 land of the country upon an independent footing, so far as the manorial system is 
 concerned. 
 
 The present law of inheritance and of entail, by which real property descends to the 
 eldest son, is perhaps the most effectual bar to the improvement of the laud that can 
 possibly be conceived, especially when the condition of the real property of the kingdom 
 is taken into the account. It is estimated. that not more than from one-half to one- 
 third of the actual rental of the land remains to the nominal owner — the other half 
 or two-thu'ds being paid to mortgagees, annuitants, jointresses, and other claimants. 
 And when it is further considered, that none of these latter are burthcned with any 
 charges upon their share of the rental, but that the expense of management and 
 whatever losses may accrue are sustained by the proprietor, who has also to ujihold, out 
 of his share, the honom* and dignity of the family, and to make provision for the 
 younger branches, no surprise can be felt at the hesitation of the proprietor of an 
 entailed estate to effect permanent improvements upon a property which, as life is 
 uncertain, may to-morrow go to enrich, by his death, the eldest son, to the injuiy of the 
 rest of his children. 
 
 It is fui'ther calculated that at least two-thirds of the land of England is entailed. Two 
 acts have of late years* been passed to enable the owner of an entailed estate to borrow 
 money of the government, or otherwise, for the purpose of effecting improvements, 
 such as drainage, the erection of buildings, &c., to be repaid by annual instalments 
 sufficient to cover principal and interest in a certain number of years, the debt to 
 remain in shape of a rent-charge upon the property until the whole is paid. This cer- 
 tainly is a move in the right direction ; and many of the landowners have availed them- 
 selves of the acts, finding their tenants very willing to pay an additional rent to enable 
 them to cover the rent-charge. At the same time, the plan establishes a charge on the 
 heir to the estate in manner of a tenant-right; and instead of receiving the property 
 upon a demise clear, or with only the old encumbrances upon it, he finds that he has to 
 pay out of the rental the additional value of the unexhausted improvements effected by 
 his ancestor. 
 
 Another bar to improvement by a tenant of land is the act of the 6th of Edward I., 
 called the Statute of Gloucester, by which it was ordained that "what is fixed on 
 the soil, goes luith the soil." Originally, this stringent law extended to commercial 
 real property, or tenements; but the rule has been relaxed in regard to fixtm'es in 
 dwelling-houses, manufactories, mills, &c., these beiug now accounted the property 
 of the tenant who puts them up, and vdio can take them down again, upon leaving, 
 unless paid for by the landlord or the in-coming tenant. Not so, however, with 
 agricultural fixtures, which having once been fixed to the ground, remain the property 
 of the landlord, however costly they may have been to the tenant. How the distinction 
 * 9th and 10th Vic. c. 101, and 12th aud 13th Vic. c. 100. 
 
93 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND HIODERN. 
 
 between commercial and agricultural property came to be tlius madc^ or what constitutes 
 the difference that entitles one to a claim which is denied to the other, it is difficult to 
 imagine. Be this, however, as it may, the law, in the case of agriculture, is an effectual 
 bar to improvement by a tenant, especially a yearly tenant or tenant-at-will. Nor, 
 indeed, can the o^Tier of an entailed estate guarantee to a tenant his outlay for per- 
 manent improvements, ha\'ing himself only a life-interest in the property, and that 
 under heavy drawbacks and disadvantages. 
 
 Such are some of the principal impediments under the operation of which the laiid 
 of England is suffered to remain, and by reason of which agricultm-e is kept back from 
 that progress and improvement of which it is capable, and by which the produce of the 
 soil might be indefinitely increased. To them may fm-ther be added the system of 
 covenants insisted upon by the proprietors of many estates ; but these will be treated of 
 in the next part of this section, namely, " The relative positions of landlords and tenants, 
 their rights and duties." 
 
 We have already referred to the character of the feudal possession of the land, and 
 traced it from the general ownership of a tribe or its representative, through the various 
 stages of the conventional tenure, until it became the freehold of the possessor, who, by 
 virtue of a legal title, has complete power over it, unless the interests of society at large 
 demand a partial or a total surrender of it,* in which case an equivalent is given. On 
 the other hand, the proprietor of an estate, if not entailed, can sell the whole or a 
 part thereof, or can let it on lease or otherwise, of a longer or shorter date, as circum- 
 stances may dictate. But if an estate is entailed, he can only let the land for the term 
 of his owu life ; but dm-ing that term he is the landlord, and has the power of exercising 
 all the rights which appertain to that relation, in the qualified disposal of it. 
 
 The word "landlord" originated at a period when the possession of land imparted 
 almost a regal power and distinction, and when it was the only property that con- 
 ferred, or admitted of, nobility, or of even a claim to personal freedom. In the earlier 
 periods of our histoiy, after the Romans had withdrawn, and the terrible Saxons had 
 established themselves upon Roman ci^dlization, it might have been expected that they 
 would have adopted the municipal system of their predecessors, and that cities and 
 towns would have been points of attraction to them. Such, howevei", was not the case. 
 The taste of the Saxons was du'ccted to a secluded rural life and the possession of laud. 
 Their dwellings were chiefly placed apart, and wherever a spring or a running stream 
 tempted them to fix it. Voluntary associations were formed for the purposes of mutual 
 protection and mutual benefit; but all their ideas of social life were based iipon a 
 property in land, and every other mode of life, independent of it, was considered inferior 
 and degrading. 
 
 It was therefore in proportion to the extent of land appropriated by an individual 
 that his standing in society was estimated. The term "baron," which now implies 
 
 * Jfany years ago a bill wr.s iutroduced into the House of Commons for the coustructioa of a canal which, according 
 to the plan proposed, would hare passed through the park belonging to the Braybrooke family, at Audley-end, near 
 Saffron Walden. Tlic bill went through its regular stages in the Commons' House ; but when it was taken up to the 
 Lords, the then Lord Braybrooke rose to oppose it. He represented that he had expended immense sums in improving 
 the estate, and in the construction of the ornamental lake, through which, within sight of the windows of the mansion, it 
 wna proposed to bring the canal. Bursting into a flood of tears, he besought their lordships not, by passing the bill, to 
 consent to such a desecration of an ancient estate, on which his family had so long resided, and which to him was doubly 
 valuable for the care he had bestowed upon it to render it worthy of his successors. We believe the bill was at that time 
 thronu out by the Lords. 
 
TEREITORIAL CUSTOMS, 93 
 
 nobility, was originally used to indicate " a freeman." * And on the other hand, the 
 term " landlord," which now simply means the person who lets land or a tenement to a 
 tenant, but of itself involves no further distinction, was very differently understood in 
 ancient times, when, from the scarcity of money and the almost total absence of trade 
 and manufactm-cs in rural districts, the land was the only soui'ce of riches, and the 
 possession of it the only basis of power and influence. In this, as well as in every 
 other case of the kind, we must be understood always to except the church, which, 
 apart from all other portions or classes of society, was possessed of both power, wealth, 
 and influence, their claim to which was tacitly acknowledged by all others. This, how- 
 ever, did not in the least detract from the distinction which the possession of land gave 
 to a layman, or from the power which it enabled him to exercise as the " lord of the 
 soil." And althougli the harsher features of feudalism have long since passed away, 
 there is enough of the spirit of it in our laws at present to impress the tenant of a large 
 landowner with a sense of his dependence. The power, too, that this tacit acknowledg- 
 ment imparts is not unfrequently exercised to the prejudice of the tenant, and as much 
 to the injury of the estate. 
 
 The present relative position of landlord and tenant is not, however, that of a master 
 and serf or slave, nor ought it to be that of a superior and a dependent. The day is 
 gone by when the possessor of laud could, like the Russian lord, reckon the number 
 of his slaves by that of his tenants. The relation these hold to each other is of 
 a perfectly commercial character, and, like all other commercial relations, the more 
 liberally and justly the spirit in which they are conducted, the more advantageous is the 
 connection to both parties. Nor ovight there to be any other sense of obligation on 
 cither side than that universal one which, as members of a community, we strictly owe 
 to each other, and specially to those with whom wc are brought into immediate and 
 close contact. Beyond tliis general law of society, there is no particular claim which 
 the owner of land has upon his tenants apart from the agreements into which they both 
 enter. If A. has a farm to let, and B. is in want of one, and they can agree upon the 
 terms and covenants, there is no special obligation on either side apart from that which 
 attaches to any other commercial transaction. On the other hand, there is a mutual 
 obligation to fulfil the stipulations entered into ; and while, on the one part, the tenant 
 must take care not to do anything to damage the property Ijj^ an injurious system of 
 cultivation, the landlord is bound in honom- and justice to avoid all undue interference 
 with the tenant that will prevent him from faii'ly making the most profit out of the 
 land dm-ing his term in it. 
 
 If these relative duties are not in the present day so universally understood or 
 acknowledged by either party as they ought to be, it is because for a long series of years 
 the landed interest, as it is called, had a paramount influence in the legislature. In 
 former times this was almost a necessary consequence of the position which the pro- 
 prietors of real estates held in the country. Independently of the access which their 
 territorial wealth gave them to the court and the ruling pov.'cr, the leisure it aflbrded 
 them, in being exempt from the labour of business of an ordinary kind, peculiarly fitted 
 them to undertake the otiiee of legislation; and the actual ownership of boroughs 
 enabled them without difficulty or expense to take their seats in parliament. This was 
 still further provided for by a statute of parliament, which rendered landed property to 
 
 * Sec Coke, " On the Inst, of Littleton," lib. i. sect. 1 and 9. 
 
94 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the \'alue of .€300 a year indispensable to the possession of a seat in the House of 
 Commons.* The power thus obtained, and which has been freely made use of in the 
 promotion of the views of the " landed interest," made ample amends for the loss of 
 the feudal rights and prerogatives they had relinquished or been deprived of. 
 
 The annihilation of the class of yeoman freeholders, which was formerly so numerous, 
 and the absorption of their small estates into those of the larger landowners, formed an 
 era in the history of the land of England. It raised \ip a new class of tenant-farmers 
 possessing capital, whilst the great advance in the value and the rental of land conse- 
 quent on the high price of produce and the superior cultivation, was also partly the 
 result of the competition for land which all at once took place throughout the couutry. 
 But notwithstanding this competition, the respectable position of those who thus became 
 converted from freeholders to tenant-farmers, gave them a weight and influence Avith the 
 owners of the property they hired, which greatly improved their condition, and ren- 
 dered them more independent. At the same time, two other interests arose in the 
 country, which, during the last half century, have come into direct collision ^dth that of 
 the land, and effected changes bearing heavily upon the political influence of the landed 
 aristocracy of the country. These are the commercial and the moneyed interests, both of 
 which have assumed so high a position in the country as to outweigh in a financial 
 point of view that of the land ; and one of the most important of those changes was the 
 entire abrogation of the property or landed qu^alification for a seat in the House of 
 Commons. We have no hesitation in saying the abolition of this test was the real and 
 immediate cause of those changes in the commercial policy of the country which have 
 thrown open our ports to the trade of the whole world. 
 
 The position in which the adoption of free trade has placed the agriculturist, neces- 
 sitates a change in the disposition of the land. The free competition to which the 
 cultivator of the soil is subject, renders it imperative that every impediment to his 
 success, and to the improvement of the land, should be removed. While the law of entail 
 and that of primogeniture exist, and are in full force, it is inipossiljlc that progress can 
 be made commensurate with the requirements of the country, or the interests of the 
 occ\ipiers of land. On the other hand, the system of gi-anting leases must supersede the 
 yearly tenancy, or that at-will, both of which arc relics of a barbarous age, ^hen the 
 cultivation of the soil was of a rude kind, and the cultivator himself but one degree 
 above barbarism in knowledge. It may be laid down as an axiom, that no man can 
 farm feai-lessly and well upon a yearly tenure, nor can he afford to give the same rent 
 for the land on such a tenure that he could upon a long lease. And whatever argu- 
 ment a landlord may adduce for adhering to such a system, it cannot contradict the 
 fact that the improvement of the land is impossiljlc under it, and that, therefore, it is as 
 contrary to his interest as it is to that of the tenant. 
 
 On this subject, the following passage from a modern work is much to the piu'pose. 
 " Of all the encouragements to the tenant-occupier that exist, of all the stimulants to 
 individual employment that can be devised, the surest and most legitimate, and, in truth, 
 the easiest and most permanent in effect, is to make every tenant feel to the utmost 
 possible degree that the farm to which he devotes his labour and capital is his owx. 
 ' Give a man the secure possession of a bleak rock,' says Arthur Young, ' and he will 
 turn it into a garden. Give him a nine-years' lease of a garden, and he will convert it 
 
 * Statute 9 Anne, ch. 5. 
 
TERRITORIAL CUSTOMS. 95 
 
 iuto a desert.' Witliout goiug the length of the latter half of this propositlonj wc may 
 nevertheless take the broad principle it asserts as the touchstone of all true suggestion 
 that can be offered in reference to tlie relation that exists between the landowner and 
 the farming-occupier. A relation purely factitious and founded in no natural or neces- 
 sary condition of mankind, open to the action of a perfect!}' free will on either side to 
 arrange its terms by a special agreement, or to accept that which the law supplies, 
 such as it may be, is one, to which the attempt to dictate a string of imported obligations 
 is in the highest degree irrelevant, and loaded with a tendency to mislead those who, 
 like the tenant, most require to be guarded from acting on erroneous assumptions. To 
 be able ' to do as he likes with his owu ' is, fortunately, a definition of human privilege, 
 the boast and extravagance of which exist only in the sound. A thousand obligations 
 and influences surround the will and conduct even of the most apparently irresponsible 
 and unfettered owner, controlling him by an operation far better and less easily evaded 
 
 than legal compulsion, to consult his own interest by consulting that of others 
 
 If it be true that the best tenant is he who treats the land as if it were his own, it can 
 scarcely need proof that the best landlord is he whose tenant is least made sensible that 
 he is not his own landlord. Paradox as this might once have seemed, and may still 
 appear to some, it is the only statement that approaches the whole truth of the case. 
 The relation is one of that class, which, like the fimctions of animal life, are most 
 healthily discharged when tliey are not felt.'^* 
 
 The encumbrances upon the land are a terrible drawback upon its improvement and 
 prosperity : that a vast number of landowners would be far better off if they could sell 
 enough of their real estate to pay off those encumbrances there cannot exist a doubt ; 
 and if any one is disposed to question this fact, we would at once refer him to the 
 operation of the Encumbered Estates Court in Ireland. When the act was first passed it 
 raised an immense clamour from the " landed interest" in that countiy as well as in 
 England ; and its adversaries represented it as an act of spoliation, if not of robbery • 
 and yet, before four years were expired, a large proportion — probably half — of the 
 petitions to the com-t were from proprietors of estates themselves. They had found, 
 from the example of others, that it was far better to have half their properties unen- 
 cumbered, than the whole with a load of debt which prevented all improvement. f Tliat 
 such an act, and such a court is wanted in England begins to be felt by many of the 
 landowners themselves ; and although there would doubtless be a powerful opposition to 
 such a measm-e in parliament, the necessity of the case wiU in time ensure its adoption, 
 unless some other expedient can be found to alter the laws affecting real property, and 
 place it upon the same commercial and social footing as other property. 
 
 Of the game laws, and the system of game preserving now generally adopted, and 
 which are becoming daily more glaringly injurious both to the occupiers of land and to 
 the coimtry at large, we have already spoken. That they are a grievous wrong inflicted 
 
 * See Morton's "Cyclopedia of Agriculture," article "Landlord," p. 200. 
 
 t Oae single case we will adduce in point. The estate of Mr. B. iu County Galway had a nominal rent roll of about 
 £4,000 a year, but so overwhelming were the encumbrances of all kinds that the nominal owner received only £300 
 a year clear. As a pis aller he petitioned the court for a sale. It was a neck-or-nothing throw of the dice, but it 
 succeeded. The worst lands of the property were put up first by the commissioners, and enough having been sold to pay 
 off every claimant in full, Mr. B. found at the close of the business, that instead of an income of £300, he had an 
 unencumbered income of £1,100 a year with a parliamentary title good against the whole world I At the present 
 high value of land, how many English landowners might improve their condition in the same manner if they had such a 
 coiu^ to assist them. 
 
96 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 by the landlord upon liis tenants mil not admit of a question. That they are as 
 injurious to the one as to the other^ in both a moral and a social seuse^ is also 
 indisputable. As the principle arises out of a selfish desire to gratify vanity and the 
 love of amusement at the expense of others^ so the determination to satiate that desire 
 superinduces a general disposition of selfishness in every transaction with the dependents 
 of such a landlord ; and whatever outward forms of respect may be paid by them^ there 
 can be but little real feeling of it when in walking through their fields they Ijehold the 
 waste and destruction of their crops as the result of their landlord's selfishness ; and if 
 policy constrains them to " bless him with their mouths, they curse inwardly " the 
 reckless indifference with which he l)rceds up a stock of vermin called " game" at the 
 expense of others. Thus the bonds of mutual esteem, and the mutual desire to pro- 
 mote each other's welfare are annihilated, and the relationship between landlord and 
 tenant is only maintained " at the point of the bayonet/' as it were — the landlord 
 jealous of the destruction of his game, the tenant of that of his crops ; and both 
 exasperated to the utmost by the espionage and earwigging of the sbirri of the estate, 
 the unprincipled gamekeeper, the great fomenter of disputes between the game preserver 
 and his tenants.* 
 
 The relationship existing between such landlords and their tenants is one of hostility, 
 and not of mutual esteem and consideration ; of tyranny and injustice on the one hand, 
 and of helpless and hopeless exasperation on the other. It was not for such a purpose, 
 or such a condition of things, that the just laws of either God or man created that rela- 
 tionship, or on which the possession of land is bestowed ; the human laws which have 
 subjected the land to such an infraction of those of the universe, and which smite the 
 earth to a certain extent with " blasting and mildew," were the offspring of a barbarous 
 and ignorant state of society totally different to that which now exists ; and it argues 
 but little of either good sense or right feeling, that the evils the game laws have inflicted 
 upon the country should be still further aggravated and increased by the new mode of 
 pursuing the sport, which renders necessary a much larger accumulation of game to 
 make it of sufficient importance. 
 
 The total disregard by many landlords of the obligations under which their 
 relationship to their dependents places them, argues a misapprehension of their position, 
 or a want of principle to lead them to act up to it. " To do as tkeij luill with their oiun " 
 is their favourite maxim, and upon the strength of it they treat their tenants as if they 
 were specially created to promote their pleasure and profit. Without reflecting on the 
 fact that while they are as much interested in the permanent improvement of the land as 
 the tenant, the expenditure of the latter in effecting those improvements gives him a 
 prior claim to the profits, their aim is to avail themselves of the outlay, and make the 
 farmer himself, or a successor, pay for them in additional or increased rent. This is one 
 of the motives for yearly tenvires, and its eftect is to keep the laud in an unimproved state, 
 the tenant having no fuvtlicr interest in it than to get as much out of it as an imperfect 
 system of cultivation will enable him. 
 
 * A friend of the writer's who has suffered by game to the extent of ,£500 a year, and who ean obtain no compensation, 
 is compelled to relinquish his farm on that sole account, being no longer disposed to put up with the interference of the 
 gamekeepers in all his operations of husbandry. 
 
PART II.— THE THEOKY OP AGRICULTURE. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE KISE AND PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 The practice of agriculture is coeval with the history of man, and arises out of the 
 necessities of his nature and constitution. Indirectly or directly, mediately or imme- 
 diately, it is upon the vegetable productions of the earth that all animals are supported. 
 The beast of prey feeds upon those which consume only vegetable food, and thus indirectly 
 and mediately lives upon the same. There is no question of the truth of this simple 
 proposition ; but if we wanted a proof of it we find it in the fact, that the component 
 parts or elements which go to constitute the animal, are also contained in tlie vegetable 
 productions of the earth; and that the laws which govern the one are analogous to 
 those which rule the other. The difference is that one possesses an active, the other 
 a passive existence ; the one enjoys sensation and the means of self-preservation, which 
 are whoUy absent in the other, so far as any perceptible manifestation is concerned. In 
 their rise, progress, and final destiny there is a perfect analogy. Both have theii- 
 infancy, youth, matmity, old age, decay, and death; and both after death, by one 
 process or another, are subject to the same law of decomposition, the inevitable fate of 
 all that is " of the earth, earthy." 
 
 The analogy may be carried still further without diverging from the subject. Both 
 require light, warmth, food, rest, sleep, &c., for their proper aiid healthy growth and 
 development. Thus, if a plant is placed in a pot, in a dark cellar, with only a small 
 opening into the outer air, it will tui-n its head towards the feeble light, and endeavour 
 to reach it with as much perseverance as an animal can evince. Again, plant a vegetable 
 in a poor soil, and bury at a little distance from it a quantity of manure, the roots of the 
 plant will immediately be directed towards the spot untU it reaches it. Every one 
 knows the effect of the warm sunshine and rain upon vegetation, and the injurious effects 
 of a continued absence of them. The joyous apjjearance of the fields, described in the 
 figurative language of the sacred writings by " the little hills skipping on every side," 
 shows that in all ages the phenomenon of the " earth rejoicing " at the bounty of Pro- 
 vidence has been observed. 
 
 The object of agriculture is to multiply the fruits of the earth to the utmost extent 
 of which their nature is capable ; and as man is the only being endowed with reason to 
 enable him to do this, so every production of the soil, whether animal or vegetable, was 
 given to him, and was specially created for his benefit and use. For however few in 
 number may be those plants which are immediately applicable to his support, they all 
 
98 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 contribute iu one way or other to his welfare. He cannot, it is true^ live on grasSj but 
 he consumes the flesh and the milk of the animal that eats it, and is thus indebted to 
 the pasture for the luxuries which animal food confers on him. Even those plants which 
 by their poisonous or nauseous qualities are unfit for animal food, contribute to his 
 comfort either as medicine in a curative capacity, or as materials in the construction of 
 clothing to wear, or furniture for his dwelling. 
 
 The animal creation is equally fitted to contribute in one way or other to his 
 enjoyment. Those of a domestic kind used for food are found to multiply with far 
 greater rapidity than the wild animals or beasts of prey ; and although some of these 
 latter, such as the lion, the tiger, the wolf, &c., are of no use as food, their skins are 
 available in the formation of useful or ornamental clothing. It is, however, only in 
 wild and secluded countries that these latter are found, for history tells us that their 
 extinction keeps pace with the advance of civilization, their presence being found incom- 
 patible with the increasing necessities or the safety of that condition of society. 
 
 "We have no knowledge from history of the mode of cultivation employed in the 
 earliest ages of mankind, having only the simple announcement in the oldest record 
 extant, that " Abel was a keeper of sheep, and that Cain was a tiller of the ground." It 
 is generally supposed that the sheep were not kept for food, but for clothing and the 
 higher purpose of sacrifice. It is, however, difficult to imagine that these objects would 
 alone consume the number of these and other animals of the edible species which their 
 multiplication in a warm and fruitful country would demand ; but whatever may have 
 been the practice of the antediluvians in this respect, there is no doubt but that tlic 
 practice of agriculture was the first and foremost industry of man, and we may assume 
 that the knowledge of its principles were imparted to him, in one way or other by the 
 same Power tliat endowed him with understanding and skill. 
 
 After the flood, we have two important announcements : flrst, that " every moving 
 thmg tliat liveth " was to be meat for him ; and, secondly, that the year after he left the 
 ark he "began to be an husbandman, and planted a vineyard;"* and the promise was 
 given that " seed time and harvest, day and night, summer and winter, shouhl not cease." 
 No further intimation is aS'orded of the kind of cultivation pui'sued by the patriarchs and 
 founders of nations, except incidental mention of the various periods of the agricvdtural 
 year, such as " barley harvest," the baking of cakes upon the hearth, &c., until the time of 
 Joseph, to which we have already referred. There can be no doubt that the nations of 
 antiquity xniderstood Mell, according to the ]ight of science they possessed, the cultivation 
 of the soil, and that it was practised to a considerable extent by the greatest characters 
 of those ages. We learn from the ancient Greek poets,t and specially from the Elgin 
 IMarbles, that Ceres, who was a native of Sicily, went to Athens to instruct the Greeks 
 in the practice of husbandry, and that she deputed her son Triptolemus to go to otlier 
 countries for the same object. This was about 1400 years before the Christian era, or 
 9U0 years after the flood. It would appear from tliis that tlie inhabitants of Greece had 
 lost tlic art after the dispersion of mankind at the IjuUding of the Tower of Babel, and 
 this was the case also with other nations or tribes of jjcople wlio in process of time were 
 
 ' Gentsis ix. 3, 20. 
 
 t liesiod wrote on agriculture 944 years before the Christiau ei'a. Romulus established agriculture iu Home 7o3 B.C. 
 Ilcrodotua wrote on it 412 n.c. ; Xenophon, 33S B.C. ; and Cato, Varro, Virgil, aud Columella in the first century of the 
 Christian era. 
 
PEOGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 99 
 
 scattered over the face of the earth. It would be foreign to our subject to euter into 
 the question of the process by which any people have become so barbarous as to have 
 entirely lost the most primitive and necessary of arts, and one the practice of which 
 appears so obviously essential to the preservation of life. Certain it is, however, that 
 such was the case with our forefathers, the aucient Britons, who, if they practised 
 husbandly at all, did so in the rudest, simplest, and most imperfect manner. But little is 
 known on the subject further than we may judge, that a people who lived in the woods and 
 clothed themselves v.ith the skins of the animals they took in hunting, or painted their 
 bodies to keep out the cold, could not have been much advanced even in the very lowest 
 branch of the arts of civilization. 
 
 It is generally supposed that the practice of agriculture was conveyed to the Britons 
 from Gaul, and that previous to the settlement of the colonists from that country on tjie 
 shores opposite to their coast, it was unkno-mi.* The Romans foimd these colonists, 
 Avhen they arrived, peacefully ciUtivating the land they had taken possession of; and 
 were so far from disturbing them, that they introduced great improvements. Neither 
 the natives nor the Gaulish colonists were unacquainted at that time with the use of 
 manure, for Pliny in his " Natural History," written in the first century, relates that 
 they used both manure and marl, which he says was peculiar to them, and that its 
 effects continued eighty years, for no man was ever known to marl his land twice. As 
 lime was also used in Gaul at that period, as recorded by Csesar in his Commentaries, it 
 is not improbable that this practice also was brought by them into England. 
 
 After the Romans abandoned their conquest, and the incursions of the Picts and Scots 
 became more frequent and destructive, agriculture declined, and instead of large 
 quantities of wheat being exported to the continent, the country was freqiiently visited by 
 famine. The invasion of the Saxons, far from reviving the art amongst the natives, 
 rather sought to exterminate the whole race ; and after an ineffectual struggle, and the 
 massacre of the greatest portion of the people, the remnant retired into Wales, where the 
 invaders, having taken possession of their lands, allowed them to remain unmolested 
 in the mountains and fastnesses of that barren country. 
 
 Notwithstanding the local disadvantages of soil and climate in Wales, the refugees 
 found means to cultivate the land to advantage, and made laws for the proper regulation 
 of the art, affording every encouragement to those who practised it. But the case was very 
 different with the Anglo-Saxons, who had robbed them of their territories. Their 
 fondness for war disqualified them in a great measure for the more sober and peaceful 
 pursuits of agriculture ; and they even passed laws to prevent any freeman from prac- 
 tising it, and to confine the operations of husbandry to the women and slaves. Of these, 
 however, there were not enough to cultivate sufficient ground to support their establish- 
 ments, so that, to avoid being starved, they were soon compelled to assist in the pro- 
 cesses of husbandry. 
 
 In the history of the appropriation of the land we have already adverted to the little 
 that is known on the subject of ancient British agriculture, the materials for which are 
 chiefly those interwoven with the general history of the country. Previous to the intro- 
 duction of the art of printing in 1440 there were no writers expressly on agriculture, or if 
 there were, their works have never come down to us. By the incidental notices, howe\'er, 
 that are found in historical works, and which have been collected by modern writers, we 
 
 * This was the opinion of Cresar upon his l.iiulins in the country. 
 
100 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 may judge ttat both the implements of husbandry and its practice were of the simplest 
 and rudest description. At the time of the Norman invasion the plough was a heavy 
 machine made entirely of wood, having only one handle, with which the ploughman 
 guided it, holding in the other hand a staff or pole wherewith he broke the clods and 
 cleared and mended the plough. In Wales the man who led the horses or oxen (of 
 which from four to six were used*) walked backward. The cattle were fastened with 
 withs to a long whipple-tree, three abreast, the outside ones walking respectively on the 
 ploughed and unploughed land, while the centre ones walked in the furrow. This, 
 however, is less barbarous than the way of ploughing in Ireland in the middle of the last 
 centuiy. " I have very often seen a mare/' says a writer who resided in that country, 
 " and her ofl'spriug, a three year old, two year old, and one year old, colt, ploughing all 
 abreast, two going upon the ploughed land, and two upon the unploughed, with neither 
 hemp nor iron about them ; their whole gearing consisted of a withy or twisted stick 
 tied to the hair of the horse's tail, and so through a hole made in a long pole or stick, 
 which reached the breadth of the four horses, and served by the way of a swingle-tree, 
 Avliicli pole is fastened in the middle loy another Avithy to a hole bored in the end of the 
 plough-beam." t 
 
 The wars, both foreign and domestic, which incessantly ravaged the country, 
 especially "the Wars of the Eoses," were a great bar to agricultural industry. The 
 damage continually sustained by the farmers in the destruction of their crops, and the 
 demands made iipon them, for the use of the sovereign, of large quantities of corn for 
 the support of his armies abroad, gave them a disgust of the cultivation of grain, and 
 it became a common practice to abandon it altogether, and devote the laud to the 
 rearing of cattle and sheep. To such a lengtli was this system carried that a frequent 
 scarcity of bread was felt, in some instances amounting to severe famine. Some of the 
 large occupiers possessed 30,000 or 40,000 sheep, which, as the wool was always in request, 
 were sure to remunerate them. It was considered that cattle or sheep could be more 
 easily removed than corn or other vegetable produce, and were therefore more safe from 
 the ravages of marching troops, as well as less liable to be demanded as a contribution 
 by the sovereign. This system led to the enactment of laws by which the occupiers of 
 land were forbidden to keep more than a certain quantity of sheep, and, on tlie otlier 
 hand, a boimty was allowed upon the exportation of corn ; these measures were 
 absolutely necessary, for to such an extent was the cultivation of cereal crops aljaudoued, 
 that the price of corn rose, and severe scarcity was almost the normal condition of the 
 country. 
 
 The first treatise extant on agriculture or " husbandi'ie " was that of Sii" Anthony 
 Fitzhcrbert, published in 1548. This Avork combines, in a condensed form, all that Avas 
 necessary to be practised on the farm, according to the system of falloAving at that time in 
 fashion, and in the absence of those restorative crops the raising of which is the practice of 
 the present age. Sir Anthony was a lawyer and a judge, but it seems by his work that 
 he found time to practise " husbandrie " for forty years ; and with a Avell-stored and Avell- 
 regulatcd mind, he gives in a concise form his experience on all rural matters, fi-om the 
 
 * An old song coufirma tbia. It begias thus: — ■ 
 
 " I had six oxen to my ploiigli. 
 And pretty ones they were, and I wish I had them now," &u, &c. 
 
 t "A New System of Husbandry," by C. Vnrley, 1774. 
 
PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 101 
 
 preparation and sowing of the land to the breeding and tending of cattle and sheep, and 
 even to the regulation of the domestic ari-angements of the husbandman's family. A 
 strain of unforced and unassuming piety prevails throughout the work, which, however 
 ill placed it might be considered in a treatise of the kind of the present day, is neverthe- 
 less so well introduced as to produce a pleasing effect upon the reader. As a compendium 
 of husbandly it is complete at aU points, and in many respects may be still read with 
 profit. The way in which he insists on the utility of keeping much cattle in order to 
 produce much corn, shows that he fully understood the first principles of the art on 
 which he wrote — so far, at least, as the absence of scientific knowledge admitted. He 
 appears to have paid great attention to the nature and various qualities of soils, and the 
 method of ameliorating them by intermixtures and the application of earthy or mineral 
 manures. He also exercised his philosophic mind in investigating the laws of vegetation, 
 and examined with attention the principles on which the Romans and other nations 
 of antiquity conducted the operations of agriculture. His " Booke of Husbandrie " 
 naturally attracted great attention at the time, and it is generally understood that its 
 appearance formed a sort of crisis in the history of British agriculture, which from 
 that time dates its revival. Whatever errors there may be discovered iu it, they 
 belonged to the times in which the author lived ; and we may safely assume that had 
 Fitzherbert lived in the present day, he would have been one of the first agricul- 
 turists of the age. 
 
 Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's work gave birth to several others. Sir Hugh Piatt appears 
 to have trodden in his steps and to have gone deeply into the subject of both agri- 
 cultm-e and horticultui'c. His "Paradise of Flora" was the only one of his works 
 published during his lifetime, and is a very ingenious performance. His treatise on 
 manm'cs displays a remarkable acquaintance with the fertilizing properties of diflerent 
 substances, and a knowledge of the importance of covering dunghills from the action 
 of the sun and rain. His list of natural manures is almost as copious as ours of the 
 present day, embracing salt, the sweepings of the streets of cities and towns, clay, fuller's 
 earth, peat, stable and yard dung, all kinds of decomposed weeds, hair, vegetable ashes, 
 maltdust, soap-lees, marl, urine, &c. 
 
 Gabriel Plattes lived and wi'ote on husbandry through the reign of Elizabeth and 
 until the Commonwealth. His works possessed great merit, but he was ill rewarded, 
 and died in London in the most abject poverty, without even a shirt to his back — so 
 little was literature, at least agricultural, appreciated at that period. Yet some allowance 
 must be made for the disturbed state of the kingdom dm-ing the latter part of his life, 
 " when," as Hudibras expressed it, 
 
 " Civil dudgeon first grew high, 
 And men fell out they knew not why, 
 , And hard words, jealousies, and fears, 
 
 Brought folks together by the ears." 
 
 In fact, the ci^dl wars of the seventeenth century were as iujm'ious for the time to 
 agriculture as those of " the Roses ;" and the precarious conditions of real property, 
 whilst the balance of power between the two parties in the country was undecided, 
 leading alternately to confiscations on both sides, was a bar to all improvement. 
 
 Two remarkable men appeared as writers in tlie seventeenth century — namely. 
 Captain Walter Blith and Samuel Hartlib. The first of these wrote a book, in 1652, 
 
102 AGIIICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 entitled " The English Impi-over Improved/' and it contains as complete a system of 
 irrigation and of drainage as could be written in the present day. One of the greatest 
 obstacles to hoih these necessary operations he alleges to be the existence of water-mills, 
 which, on the one hand, by damming np the rivers to the very brink, convert good land 
 into bog ; and on the other, by monopolising all the water of the river, deter, by threats of 
 prosecution, those who liave lands adjacent to the stream, fi'om making nse of it in 
 irrigating those meadows or fields lying contiguoiis, that requii-e or would be benefited 
 by it. Thus we find, that two hundred years ago, the very plans which are now 
 proposed as tlie basis of an act of parliament, and which have already been the subject of 
 local acts for diff'erent districts, seem most intelligently insisted on, with the same view, 
 by this clever writer. He proposed the passing of an act to destroy aU the worst mills, 
 and compel the owners of those which remained, to lower their mill-heads, so as to 
 facilitate the proper drainage of the land ; in other words, to carry out a system of 
 arterial drainage similar to that which has been eflccted in Ireland with so much success 
 and advantage. At the time when Captain Blith wrote his work, and for long after, the 
 greater part of the land of England was in open fields, somewhat the same as it is in 
 France at the present time. These fields were in the occupation of numerous persons, 
 and were divided into slips, separated only by a baulk, and having one common road 
 leading to them. It is evident that no stock can be kept by the occupiers of these lands ; 
 but as the road was a public one, the stock that was driven through it in travelling to 
 fairs and markets, occasioned great mischief to the crops of corn. And besides this, the 
 lord of the manor had the right of running his flock of sheep over it, after and diu'ing a 
 certain time of the year, when the young wheats were above ground ; these afforded a 
 considerable quantity of feed on such occasions ; but, at the same time, it was impossible 
 for the owners of the land to farm it otherwise than on one common principle. This 
 was generally a fallow, and a crop of corn, it being out of the question profitably to 
 cultivate any kind of green crop on such lands. Blith saw the evil arising from this 
 " entanglement" of lands, as he calls it, and one of his plans of improvement embraced a 
 general enclosure act, such as was adopted a hundred and fifty years after. 
 
 Another of his plans of improvement was the discovering of simple materials on the 
 lands around, and from manufactories, for making composts. What his ideas on this 
 subject were, may be judged from the following passage : — " And in thy tillage are these 
 special opportunities to improve it, by liming, marling, sanding, earthing, mudding, 
 snail-codding (?), mucking, clialking, pigeon's dung, lien's dung, hog's dung, or by any 
 other means, as some by rags, some by coarse wools, by pitch-marks, and tarry stufis, 
 any oily stuffs, salt, and many things more ; yea, indeed, anything almost that hath any 
 liquidness, foulness, saltncss, or good moisture in it, is very naturally enrichment to 
 almost any sort of land, all which, as to all sorts of laud, they arc of exceeding melio- 
 rating nature, and most of these more particularly." His catalogue of manures therefore 
 embraced every kind of material that was capable of decomposition, and of such mineral 
 or earthy substances as were calculated to disintegrate a heavy, or bind a light soil. 
 Chemistry had not then opened up the treasures of the laboratory to the resources of 
 agriculture ; but so far as natural means of improving the soil are concerned, with the 
 exception of the absence of bone-dust and guano in the list. Sir Walter Blith was as 
 much upon a par with the system of manures of the present day, as he Avas in the ideas 
 he entertained on the subject of drainage and enclosures ; and that he was far in advance 
 
PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 103 
 
 of his timesj is equally clear from the slow and reluctant progress his propositions made 
 amongst his cotemporai'ies. 
 
 Hartlib's book was published about the same time* as that of Captain Blith. Like 
 this latter he declaims against the system of "common lands/' and insists on the 
 necessity of a General Enclosure Act^ not only for those lands which were already 
 under tillage, but for the waste lands— commons, moors, feus, heaths, marshes, &c., a 
 large proportion of which have since been added to the arable and pasture land of the 
 country. One of his plans for the improvement of agriculture excites surprise evrai in 
 the present day, namely, the establishment of an agricultm'al college, for the education 
 of youth in all branches of husbandry. An estimate of the expenses and produce of 
 wheat culture in his work, will enable the reader to form an idea of the results of the 
 system of husbandly then practised. 
 
 EXPENSE ANB PROFIT OF CULTIVATING AN ACRE OP WHEAT. 
 
 S, a. (I. 
 
 lieut 13 4 
 
 Dung, 24 loaJs at Is. 'id 110 
 
 Seed 9 pecks at \s. del 1 .'i fi 
 
 2 ploughings, sowing and liaiTOwing 10 
 
 Weeding Zs., fencing 3s. 4-^/ fi 4 
 
 Heaping 008 
 
 £3 I'J 10 
 Deduct for next crop on account of manure .... 1 
 
 2 19 10 
 
 Return 2, SJ-, or 3 quarters per acre, but the less is llic 
 
 most usual, say 1 G bushels at 5j 4 
 
 Nelt profit ..£102 
 
 This account does not speak very highly for the system of agricultm-e of that day ; but 
 there were then many di-awbacks upon the produce. One of these, of which Hartlib 
 complains, was the number of pigeons kept at the old manor houses, each of which had 
 one large dove-cote. He estimates that every pair of pigeons consumed as much corn as 
 a man, or six bushels a year, and that there were as many pairs kept as there were 
 inhabitants. To this and the immense number of rabbits' warrens, and the waste occa- 
 sioned by the depredations of cattle in the common fields, may be ascribed a large 
 diminution of the cereal produce. 
 
 Gabriel Plattes had the merit of inventing the first recorded model of a drill for 
 sowing corn, and also one for laying up the land in ridges after the wheat is above the 
 ground. His sowing or planting machine, for it was rather a dibbler than a drill, is 
 a very complicated affair, and from its not getting into general use may be supposed to 
 be not a very practical plan. He was, however, followed, fifty years after, by an 
 inventor who, in an anonymous work (signing himself " J. W." +), has given a description 
 of a drilling machine, with a sketch, for drilling one, two, or more rows of corn. This 
 machine is certainly the parent of the present ones ; for however rude and simple its 
 construction may be compared with the modern ones, the principle on which it acts is 
 the same, as may be seen by the annexed plate. Cobbett, in his republished work of 
 
 * It is dated 1651. 
 
 f We believe his name was Worledge, he being mentioned in TuU's work as having invented a drill which was never 
 much in use, 
 
lOJi AGRlCULTUilE, ANCIENT AND IMUDERN. 
 
 Jetliro TuU has given his author the credit of being the inventor of the drill machine ;* 
 but this work which we have now before us was printed in ] 675, which was thirty years 
 before Tull was engaged in agriculture. At the same time it is probable that TuU might, 
 at first, not have read the work of J. W., or heard of his machine ; and as he states that 
 he took his ideas from the finger-board of an organ, and avows himself " the sole inventor" 
 (p. 435), there is no reason to doubt his statement to that effect. He refers, however, 
 in his " notes" (p. 421), to a drill invented by a Mr. Worledge (probably the identical 
 J. W.), a cut of which was shown to him by Dryden, the poet; but this was after he 
 had constructed his own, and he avows that he was not aware before of its existence. This 
 is most likely to be true, because Dryden stated that Worledge's machine was never used. 
 The drill of J. W. would put in either one, two, or more rows, which we believe was the 
 sainc number as was performed by TuU's. It is certain that the latter was a more 
 complete and complicated machine than the formei", but Ijoth undoubtedly were on the 
 same principle as tlie drills of the present day, although ruder in the construction.f 
 
 J. W. follows Blith in recommending irrigation and drainage, and goes more deeply 
 into the subject, and gives sketches of two machines for raising water to the level of the 
 fields or meadows. One of these is the Persian water-wheel ; the other a windmill of 
 very simple and inexpensive construction. He complains bitterly of the evil effects of 
 water-mills, which, as he justly avers, destroy ten times the value of the profit they yield 
 to their owners. His catalogue of manures is even more extensive than those of Blith and 
 Hartlib, and he is the first agricultural writer who includes cattle bones and horn 
 shavings amongst them. " All marrow-bones, fish bones, horn, or shavings of horn, or 
 liquors wherein flesh or fish have lain, or anything whatsoever that hath any oDiness or 
 fatness in it, is useful in husbandry. It were not much labom- to try whether the bones 
 of horses or other beasts, whereof there are great quantities at some dog-kennels, which, 
 if burnt in heaps, with some small addition of fuel, would be of good effect to be laid on 
 land." 
 
 In the absence of modern chemical knowledge, the dissertation in this work of 
 J. W.'s on the principle of animal and vegetable life is curious. There are, according 
 to his theory, three substances employed in the process — the spirit of merciuy, the 
 spu'it of sulphur, and the universal salt. These act by being combined in "that 
 universal spirit or vapour which daily and every moment perspires and proceeds out of 
 every part of the earth, and is in everything, containing in itself the spirit or mercury, 
 the sulphur, and the salt in one body united, and without art indi\dsible, yet some one 
 part or principle abounding more or less in everything ; as the water containeth more of 
 the spiritual or aqueous part; several fruits, plants, flowers, and soils, more of the 
 
 * " It is evident that the author was the original inventor of drills in England, but his description of those he alludes 
 to is purposely left out in the present edition, being superseded by the improvements of late years." — See Cobbett's 
 edition of "TuU's Horse-hoeing Husbandry," note at p. 13. 
 
 t After giving the directions for making the machine, J.W. goes on as follows: — " One horse and one man may 
 work this instrument, and sow land as fast, or faster, than six horses can plough, so that you may with ease compute the 
 expense in case your instrument be single ; but you may, in the same frame, have two shares at twelve inches distance, 
 more or less, as you will have the rows of corn distant from each other, and two pipes out of the same hopper, and two 
 small wheels on the same axis, with other wheels, answerable, every whit as easy to be performed as one, and then yoa 
 may double your proportion of land in a day. This instrument will always keep the same proportion (of seed) you* first 
 set it to, which you must thus contrive : first know the length of the furrow you sow, then cast up how many of these 
 furrows at such distance your instrument is made for (whether a foot more or less) will amount unto an acre, then 
 conclude how much to sow on an acre ; as suppose a bushel, then divide that bushel into so many parts as you have 
 furrows or distances in that acre, then take one or two of those parts and put into your hopper.' 
 
PROGRESS OP AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 105 
 
 sulphureous ; and barks of trees, blood of animals, and several minerals, more of the 
 saline." Here we have the remains of the ancient alchemy, which was like a blind man 
 endeavouring to distinguish colours by the touch or the smell. Half a century afterwards 
 Priestley unfolded the mysteries of the aeriform fluids ; since then, further discoveries 
 have from time to time been made in the laboratory, by which the true principles of 
 vegetable life have been explained, so far, at least, as they are considered capable of it. 
 
 The next writer on agriculture, whose work demands more than a passing notice, is 
 Jethro Tull, who at the beginning of the eighteenth century commenced an entirely new 
 system of husbandry, foimded on principles previously rmknown, and the truth of which, 
 even to the present day, is the subject of warm controversy, namely, that perfect tillage 
 and pulverization of the soil will cause it to receive from the air sufficient nourishment 
 or food for plants to produce crops equal to those obtained by manure with the ordinary 
 tillage. Upon this principle he conducted his own farms of nearly 200 acres, for upwards 
 of thirty years, with so much success that he was enabled to increase his income by 
 letting one farm at above one-third more rent, after practising his own system only nine 
 years, than it had ever before realized. 
 
 Tull had received a liberal and classical education, which brought him to be 
 acquainted with the practice of husbandry by the ancients, especially the Romans. He 
 had intended to pursue one of the learned professions, but an acute and incm'able 
 chronic disease (the stone) incapacitated him for practising at the bar, and compelled 
 him to travel for his health. This was about the year 1712, and his active mind 
 found ample employment when in the south of France and Italy in noticing the system 
 of culture practised in the vineyards, from which he deduced three agricultm-al propo- 
 sitions, namely : — 
 
 " First, — That intercultiu'e amongst the growing crops is a necessary operation in 
 well-conducted farming. 
 
 " Secondly, — That adequate tillage is not only an economical substitute for manure, 
 but that — 
 
 " Thirdly, — Thorough tillage is also competent, with or without the aid of manure, 
 to secure the profitable growth of any given species of cultivated plant year after year 
 in succession." 
 
 This novel conclusion Tull arrived at by the following course of reasoning : — " The 
 vines of low vineyards (i.e., where the plants are kept by pruning in the condition of 
 low shrubs), hoed by the plough, have their heads just above the ground, standing all 
 in a most regular order, and are constantly ploughed in the proper seasons. These 
 have no other assistance but by hoeing, because their heads and roots are so near 
 together, that dung woidd spoil the taste of the wine they produce in hot countries. 
 
 " From these I took my vineyard scheme, observing that indifferent land produces 
 an annual crop of grapes and wood \nthout dung ; and though there is annually carried 
 off from an acre of vineyard as much in substance as is carried off in a crop of an acre of 
 corn produced on land of equal goodness, yet the vineyard soil is never impoverished 
 unless the hoeing culture be denied it ; but a few annual crops of wheat, without dung, 
 in the common management, will impoverish and emaciate the soil. 
 
 " I cannot find, either in theory or practice, any other good reason for this difiference, 
 except that the vineyard soil is more pulverized by hoeing. 
 
 " The soil of the vineyard can never have a true summer fallow, though if has much 
 
106 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 summer hoeing, for the vines live in it, and all over it, all the year ; neither can that soil 
 liave benefit from dung ; because although by increasing the pulverization it increases 
 the crojo, yet it spoils the taste of the wine. The exhaustion of that crop is, therefore, 
 supplied by no artificial help but Iioeing ; and by all the experience I have liad of it, the 
 same cause will have the same effect upon a soil for the production of corn." 
 
 The reasoning in the above passage is complete and conclusive, and displays a mind 
 well trained to thinking, and perfectly independent of all preconceived ideas. In his 
 preface he thus apologises for going contrary to the usual routine : — " I beg pardon of 
 the learned writers from whom if I am forced to differ in opinion as well as in learning, 
 I assure them it is unwillingly and with regret that I do. No canon having limited 
 what we shall think on agriculture, nor condemned any of its tenets for heresy, every 
 man is thereon a freethinker, and must think according to the dictates of his own 
 reason, whether he ■nill or no ; and such freedom is given now-a-days in speculations in 
 natural philosophy, that it is common to see people, even in print, maintain that there 
 are antipodes, that the earth moves round the sun, and that he doth not set in the sea, 
 without being censured for these and many other formerly heterodox opinions ; and any 
 one may now, upon solid arguments, contradict Aristotle himself publicly, anywhere 
 except in the schools. But that mine are such which I bring for maintaining the 
 principles which I have advanced, I dare not affirm, being myself no competent judge of 
 them, as the reader (especially the practising reader) is. To his decision must be left 
 all that is disputable; his partiality I have no reason to apprehend," &c. 
 
 Like all innovators upon established routine, Tull had a host of enemies raised up 
 against him, the most formidable of whom were a society of writers, who took care to 
 remain incognita, but who, from their advocacy of the doctrine of " equivocal genera- 
 tion" of both plants and animals (which Tull humorously combats), he calls the 
 " Equivocal Society," and " Equivocus." However, in spite of opposition, he managed 
 to grow wheat thirteen consecutive years, without impoverishing the land, and produced 
 as large crops by sowing only half of it, without manure, as his neighbours did on the 
 whole, with it. As we shall have occasion to refer to his system at greater length in a 
 more advanced portion of this work, it is unnecessary at present to say more of it. 
 That Tull was far in advance of his age there can be no doubt ; or that the present race 
 of agriculturists are indebted to him for many of the principles which are now recog- 
 nised and established amongst them. "Whatever errors he may have committed in his 
 practice or writings, are to be ascribed rather to the imperfection of scientific knowledge 
 than to a want of discernment on his part. His argument in favour of the circulation 
 of the sap in plants, which was at that period a subject of controversy, and the truth 
 of which the ''Equivocal Society" disputed, shows the openness of his mind to convic- 
 tion, and its acuteness in investigating a philosophical truth. " Since leaves," he say.s, 
 "do so much resemble lungs in the anatomy of their organs, it is very reasonable to 
 believe that they imitate them in their office; though the fineness of the vege- 
 table vessels, and slow motion of the sap, Avill not admit a demonstration of the 
 sap's circulation by ligature; but we have other reasoi^s which do sufficiently 
 prove it."* 
 
 * This proposition was adeocatcd by tlie French philosophers, Perrault, Major, Maiiot.te, and Malpighi, and by the 
 Englishman, Grew, in the last century, but was ably and demonstrably disproved by Dr. Stephen Hales, although opposed 
 by almost the whole body of naturalists of the day. His experiments showed that the sap rises and descends in the same 
 
PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 107 
 
 That Tull's system of cultivation should not have been generally adopted at that 
 period is no cause for sm-prise^ although the triennial fallow was almost universally 
 practised^ and his system embraced the alternate fallowing of half the land yearly. As, 
 however, he was the first agricultm'al writer who broke through the trammels of the 
 established opinions of the day, and who expressed his own sentiments in the language 
 of true science, his career, private and unassuming as it was, may be considered as 
 constituting an era in the history of agriculture, from which may be dated many of the 
 most important improvements, such as horse-hoeing, drilling, the perfect pulverization 
 of the soil, &c. &c. These three operations alone stamp him with the character of a 
 discoverer of no ordinary merit, and entitle him to a niche in the " temple of Ceres." 
 
 It is proper here to mention two important accessions to agriculture that had taken 
 place during the seventeenth century, which in their results have effected a complete 
 revolution in the system of husbandry of England. These are, first, the introduction of 
 clover, sainfoin, and other artificial grasses or green crops ; and secondly, that of the 
 tm-nip as a field product. All these were brought originally from Holland and Flanders, 
 and are mentioned by both Walter Blitli and Hartlib. The former states, in his 
 " Improver," that " in Brabant they kept four cows, winter and summer*, on one acre 
 of clover;" and that in England "foiu- coach-horses, and more, have been kept all 
 summer long on an acre." Hartlib is equally warm in his eulogy of it, and mentions 
 a case in which " six acres of clover did maintain for half a year thirteen cows, ten 
 oxen, three horses, and twenty-six swine, which was valued at £40, besides the winter 
 herbage." 
 
 The turnip was first used in England for culinary piu'posesj but Hartlib, in his 
 " Legacy," speaks of it as having begun to get into use in many parts of the country in 
 field culture for cattle, sheep, and swine. J. W., who wrote twenty-five years after 
 Hartlib and Blith, complains of the very great neglect and deficiency in English 
 husbandry in not prosecuting more extensively the cultivation of tui-nips, seeing that 
 " they supply the great want of fodder that is felt in Tvinter, not only for fatting 
 beasts, swine, &c., but also for om' milch cows." 
 
 Sixty years later, Tull unites on the same subject as follows ; " As far as I can be 
 informed, it is but of late years that turnips have been introduced as au improvement in 
 the field." It appears, however, that the method of cultivating them in his time was 
 very dififerent from what it was a few years after. They sowed them broadcast amongst 
 wheat or barley a little after midsummer, and thinned them out after the croji of corn 
 was harvested. Tull improved on this method, by drilling both the corn and the 
 turnips — the latter between the wide intervals his system of husbandry allowed to the 
 former ; so that by this plan he obtained much superior crops to those of his neighbours. 
 The idea, however, of substituting a green or a root crop for the bare fallow was not 
 then entertained. Tull's system came nearest to this ; and he certainly introduced the 
 proper method of hoeing turnips, which he recommends to be set at the rate of thirty 
 to the square perch, or about one foot to each root. 
 
 Thus, everything to which Tull directed his attention underwent an improvement at 
 his hand. He was eminently a discoverer, and seemed to possess an intuitive perception 
 
 vessels, anJ, consequently, that there caa be no circulation. This, however, does not detract from the merit or reputation 
 of Tull, who died before the doctor had instituted the elaborate experiments by which he discovered the true theory of the 
 sap. Dr. Hales died in 1761, at Teddington. 
 
108 AGKICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 of wliat was fit and proper in wliatever he undertook. He closely studied nature, and, 
 so far as the want of analytical knowledge allowed him, he penetrated into her secrets. 
 Where he failed it was for want of that knowledge, which would have enahled him 
 to perceive that manure was valuable for other properties than that of a mere disin- 
 tegrator of the soil, and that it really contains a superabundance of those elements of 
 fertility — that "pabulum" of plants which he ascribed solely to the atmosphere through 
 the medium of the triturated soil. It was no discredit to Tull that he did not knoAv 
 this truth ; for it has only been brought to light after chemistry had for a centmy, or 
 nearly so, been placed \ipon its proper foundation. Even Arthur Young, at a much 
 later period, and after the discoveries of Priestley, and Franklyn, and others, denounced 
 the idea of chemistry being applicable to agriculture. Enlightened as he was on 
 almost all practical subjects, he was as completely in the dark on that of the laws of 
 vegetable nutrition as TuU was himself. It was not, in fact, until De Candolle and 
 others announced theu* discoveries of the laws of vegetable life, and Liebig had made his 
 researches into the organic structure of plants, that any approach was made to the 
 development of the mystery which Tull failed to perceive. 
 
 The publication of Tull's work made but little impression in England, where it 
 might have been expected to produce the most. It is a remarkable fact, however, that 
 three Frenchmen simultaneously, and without preconcert, or even knowledge of each 
 other's intention, made a translation of it. His system was introduced into Scotland 
 by Lord Belhaven in 1760, and a few years after, into Northumberland by a farmer of 
 the name of Dawson, residing at Frogden, in that county. The latter found the agri- 
 culture of the district in the most barbarous state, and he was, like TuU, -N-iolently 
 opposed and ridicided by his neighboiirs at first; but when they saw that his crops 
 were very greatly superior to their own, they gradually adopted his system. 
 
 We have now reached a period when agriculture underwent one of those beneficial 
 changes which gradually enlisted into the ranks of its adherents a host of men of 
 fortune and intelligence. The accession of George III. to the British crown imparted 
 new life to the occupation of a husbandman. Whatever may be the opinions entertained 
 of this high personage as a sovereign, every one will give him credit for being one of the 
 first agricultmists of the day.* His farm at Windsor, which was overlooked by himself, 
 and managed for many years by Mr. Kent, was a model of neatness and fertility. Here 
 the king might frequently be seen at six o'clock in the morning, inspecting the sheep, 
 or directing the workmen, with as little of state or ceremony, and dressed in as homely 
 a garb, as a common farmer, for which he has frequently been mistaken. He was 
 always back to the castle at eight o'clock, which was punctually his breakfast hour ; f 
 after which his time was devoted to state affairs. 
 
 * Eveu the cynical Lord Byron gives him credit for this virtue, if sncli it can be called. He says, in hi3 parody 
 of Southey : — 
 
 "A better farmer ne'er brushed dew from lawn;" 
 but he adds^ 
 
 " A worse king never left a realm undone I" 
 
 t Tlic following incident was related to the writer by a hairdresser, who lived at a shop at the corner of a lane by 
 which the king frequently went and returned, as a "short cut" to and from the home park. On one morning the barber, 
 being late, was opening his shop, and in turning the corner with a shutter in his hand, ran point blank against the king, 
 and knocked him down. He was so astoimded himself that he had no power to help his prostrate sovereign. Unhurt, 
 however, the latter soon rose, and began rating the barber soundly — not for knocking him down, but fur being so lazy as 
 not to have his shop open before eight o'clock I 
 
PKOGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 109 
 
 Amongst the many writers who followed TuU, on agricultural affairs^ the most 
 eminent was Arthur Young, whose advent iipon the stage constituted an important 
 period in our history. His first work was "The Farmer's Letters to the People of 
 England," published in 1767, from which time he issued a series of the most valuable 
 works containing instructions for the improvement of land. " He commenced his 
 career," says a modern writer, " when a general spirit of inqixiry had arisen amongst 
 agriculturists and men of education. He began to interest them in it. Although he 
 was in the background with regard to chemistry, which he repudiated, his career was 
 one of great service to agricvdtui-e, and the practical farmer was indebted to him for 
 laying the foundation of successful cultivation. The Board of Agriculture was estab- 
 lished in 1793, and Sir John Sinclair was chosen its president, and Arthur Young, Esq., 
 tlie secretary." Under his directions the agricultural surveys of every county in the 
 kingdom were carried out — a most valuable and important imdertaking even at the 
 present time, although the proceedings of the Royal Agricultm'al Society of England 
 have in a measure rendered them somewhat obsolete, so far as practical agriculture is 
 concerned. 
 
 About the same time that Arthur Young made his debut on the theatre of agricul- 
 ture, another star of the first magnitude arose in the same constellation, if we may be 
 allowed to use so high a metaphor. This was Thomas William Coke, Esq., the 
 Holkham chieftain, who, from the period when he placed himself under the guidance 
 of Young, never ceased his endeavours to raise the agriculture of his native country to 
 the highest pinnacle of prosperity. 
 
 When Mr. Coke first went to Holkham as its proprietor, the grounds which now 
 surround the mansion were a rabbit warren, stretching out towards the sea. The whole 
 district was of so sterile and intractable a character, that the land let for 2s. an acre. 
 After effecting some improvements, when the proprietor required an advance of a 
 shilling or two of rent, the tenant abruptly threw up the farm, and Mr. Coke deter- 
 mined to take it into his own. hands. It was an arduous, if not a hopeless task, to look 
 forward to ; but he was not the man to despair.* Under the guidance of Young, he 
 commenced his career of improvement, and speedily converted the barren waste into a 
 fruitful tract, producing the finest croj)s of grain of all kinds in the kingdom. About 
 2,000 acres of the most inferior land were planted with trees, which now constitute 
 woods of valuable timber ; aud it is worthy of remark, that Mr. Coke (afterwards Earl 
 of Leicester) lived long enough to build two ships at the neighbouring port of Wells 
 entirely of oak from trees of his own planting. Many years too before he died, tlie 
 thinnings of the plantations brought in several thousands a year. 
 
 The example and success of this noble proprietor stimulated others, and the whole 
 county of Norfolk soon felt the benefit. The writer has heard old people say they 
 remembered the time when " from Holt to Lynn," embracing a tract forty miles in 
 extent, and comprehending Holkham and Fakenham in its sweep, " there was scarcely an 
 acre of land thought strong enough to bear a crop of wheat." At present there is 
 probably more wheat grown in, and exported from, that district than in any of the same 
 
 * The writer heard Mr. Coke relate the following anecdote in illustratioa of the desperate barrenness of the property. 
 The lady who afterwards became mistress of the mansion was on a visit at the Marquis Townshend's, at Rainham Hall. 
 The Ladies Townshend were bantering her upon the prospect of having to reside at such a barren wilderness. "I was 
 once there," said one of the ladies, " and I never wish to go again, for I declare, that the whole time I stayed, I saw only 
 one blade of grass, and there were two rabbits fighting for it." 
 
no AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 extent in England. " A large part of the credit due to tliis wonderful transformation/"' 
 says a late writer^ " belongs to an extensive proprietor in the county, the friend and 
 disciple of Arthur Young, Mr. Coke, who, in acknowledgment of his services to 
 agricultvu-e, was created Earl of Leicester. He died a few years ago, at an age not far 
 short of a hundred. Mr. Coke had a large property in the west of the county, called 
 Holkham, containing aboiit 30,000 acres. This immense estate, which is now worth 
 at least £1,300,000, was worth no more than ^£300,000 when Mr. Coke inherited it. 
 It was then in the occupation of a great number of small farmers, who paid their 
 rents very badly, although they were very low; and, ultimately, a great many of them 
 abandoned their farms altogether, because they could not make a livelihood out of 
 them. It was then that j\Ir. Coke decided upon farming a portion of these sandy 
 wastes himself; the rest he put into very large farms; and by ofl'ering leases of 
 twenty-one years, held out an inducement to farmers of intelligence and capital to 
 take them. It is estimated that, in the course of fifty years, INIr. Coke expended 
 £400,000 in improvements of all sorts, which caused the farmers to lay out as much 
 more — an excellent investment on the part of both, since they have all made money 
 by it." 
 
 "Any one who wishes to get an idea of this period in the history of English 
 agricultiu-e ought to visit Holkham. The farm, which Lord Leicester personally 
 directed, lies in the park belonging to the mansion. Its extent is 1,800 acres, 500 of 
 which are in permanent pasture ; the rest is arable land, laid out exactly for the four- 
 course rotation. The farm maintains 250 large cattle, 2,500 Southdown sheep, and 
 150 pigs. An equally profitable visit may be paid to Castle-acre, a farm of 1,500 acres, 
 and several others in this district also deservingly famous. The whole of this land 
 formerly gi-ew only rye ; now, it does not produce a particle of that grain, but instead 
 are to be seen the finest wheat crops and the best cattle in the world. Th(3 present Earl 
 of Leicester is a worthy representative of his father." * 
 
 Eai'ly in the reign of George III. another man of eminence in agriculture appeared 
 upon the stage, whose experiments have added a mine of wealth to the coimtry. This 
 was the late, Mr. BakeweU, of Dishley, in Leicestershire, who about the year 1760 
 began that course of experiments in the crossing and rearing the sheep of his native 
 countv, which terminated in introducing a new and beautiful race, which has, as is 
 well known, by its precocity, added largely to the production of meat in the United 
 Kingdom. Like other innovators, Mr. Bakewell was opposed by ridieuJe at first, as an 
 enthusiast. He ^dsited the Continent, and selected some of the best breeds he there 
 met mth, by which he obtained in a few years the object for which he sought — perfect 
 symmetry of form, smallness of bone, and early maturity. In addition to this, the 
 Dishley breed were remarkable for the heaviness of their fleeces, the fineness and 
 length of staple of their wool, and the excellence of their flesh. BakewelPs success was 
 far beyond his own expectation in a pecuniary point of view. So higlily were his sheep 
 appreciated by the flock-masters of England, that in 1789 he let three rams for the 
 season for 1,200 guineas, and the whole produce of his letting that year was 3,000 guineas 
 — one ram obtaining him 800 guineas, besides serving him for his own flock of ewes. 
 Mr. Bakewell died a wealthy man in 1795. His improved breed of Leicester sheep was 
 introduced into Northumberland by Mr. Culley, an eminent farmer and flock-mastei", 
 
 * " Rural Economy of England," by L. de Lavergne, p. 2'25. 
 
PKOGEESS OF AGRICULTUEAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. Ill 
 
 who by strict attention to the rules adopted by Bakewell, was able to prepare his 
 fat sheep for the butcher at little more than a year old. Abovit the same time, 
 Mr. Ellmau, another enterprising flock-master, in Sussex, made similar impi-ovements 
 on the breed of Southdown sheep, which have since been a favom-ite race on all 
 light-soil farms. 
 
 Taking the hint from these improvers in sheep, two brothers, of the names of Charles 
 and Robert Collins, residing at Darlington, in the county of Dm-ham, undertook the 
 improvement in the breed of cattle of that county about the year 1775, and their 
 success was quite equal to that of their prototype, Bakewell. The history and celebrity 
 of the short-horned, or improved Durhams, is too well known to need a page in this 
 work. It is sufficient to state that, on their retiring from business about the year 
 1810, the stock of Mr. Charles Collins sold for .€7,115 175., and that of his brother, 
 Robert, for .£7,858 4s. — a tangible proof of the high estimation in which the cattle were 
 at that period held, and which they have ever since maintained amongst the herds of 
 the United Kingdom. 
 
 The attention paid to agriculture by the sovereign, and the example and success of 
 su^ch men as Coke, the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Yarborough, Sir John Sinclair, 
 and many more eminent men who followed in their wake, produced a most beneficial 
 change m the character of country gentlemen in general. A celebrated nobleman, 
 writing on this subject, makes the following remarks : — "In former times hunting was 
 the only business of a gentleman. The practice of blood made him rough and hard- 
 hearted ; he led the life of a dog, or of a savage — violently active in the field, supinely 
 indolent at home. His train of ideas was confined to dogs, horses, hares, and foxes ; 
 not a rational idea entered the train, not a spark of patriotism — nothing done for the 
 public — his dependents enslaved, and not fed — no husbandly, no embellishment— loath- 
 some weeds round his dwelling, disorder and dirt within. Consider the present mode of 
 living. How delightful the change, ft-om the hunter to the farmer — from the destroyer 
 of animals to the feeder of men ! Our gentry who live in the country have become 
 active and industrious. They embellish their fields, improve their lands, and give bread 
 to thousands. Every new day promotes health and spirits ; and every new day brings 
 variety of enjoyments. They are happy at home, and wish happiness to all."* 
 
 This improvement in the character of the landowner was accompanied by a corre- 
 sponding change in that of the tenant farmer. Through the means of agricultural 
 societies which held meetings from time to time, at which all farmers were invited to 
 attend, that isolation of position in which he was formerly found, gave way to a free 
 intercourse with others of the same profession from all parts of the country. By the 
 interchange of ideas on such occasions between men of intelligence, that opinionated 
 
 * Lord Kames' " Gentleman Farmer," p. 20. There 13 no doubt, however, that the zest for a country life requires a 
 degree of moral training to fit us for its perfect enjoyment. The vivid pictures of rural felicity drawn by poets, anoieut 
 and modern, and the pleasures of " cultivating one's own field," are delightful to the imagination of the citizen who 
 spends his life amidst the smoke and turmoil of civilization in a condensed state; but they are not always realized. 
 Cowley, the poet, had but one object in view (hroaghout life, and that was to spend the latter part of it in retirement on 
 his own estate. He realized this, and what was the result ? " The first night that I came hither I caught so great a 
 cold, with a delluxion of rheum, as made me keep my chamber ten days ; and two after, had such a bruise on my ribs, 
 with a fall, that I am yet unable to move or turu myself in my bed. This is my personal fortune here to begin with. 
 And besides, I can get no money from my tenants, and have my meadows eaten up every night by cattle put in by my 
 neighbours. What this signifies, or may come to in time, God knows ; if it be ominous, it can end in nothing less than 
 hanging I" — See Johnson's " Life of Cowley." 
 
113 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 acllici'ence to local practice and contempt of all innovations, -whicli was the result of his 
 former sechision, yielded to a desire for improvements, and for investigating the plans 
 of others who proposed them. An agricultural literature adapted to the times sprung 
 up calculated still further to ameliorate and humanise the cliaracter of the husbandman, 
 wlio in former times had repudiated "book-farming" as the height of folly bordering on 
 insanity. To crown all, physical science, in all its integrity and truth, allied itself to 
 agricultiu'c, and in the end completed that course of instruction which had begun imder 
 such favourable auspices. 
 
 In point of fact, the physical sciences are all concentred in the word agriculture, 
 which is in itself the body of which each of the sciences is a member or a part. The 
 more this idea is entertained by the agriculturist, and the more he studies to make 
 himself familiar with its bearing upon his practical life, the greater and the more suc- 
 cessful will be the results. For, after all, it is the intimate connection of science with 
 the evcry-day business and necessities of life, its ultimate bearing upon the wants and 
 the well-being of man, that gives it its practical and social value. However desirable it 
 is to study science for its own sake, as an enlarger of the mind calculated to advance it 
 in the knowledge of transcendent truths, and leading the contemplation " from nature 
 up to nature's God," to the masses of mankind, who have not the time or the means 
 of pursuing abstract and metaphysical inquiries, and whose whole li^'cs are spent in 
 procui'ing the means of existence, the fact that science discovers to us the way by which 
 " two ears of wheat can be grown where only one grew before" is the result which 
 imparts to it real utility. The man of reading and reflection finds in the researches of 
 science a fund of amusement and instruction, afi'ording in their development an insight 
 into the history of the works of creation and providence, which without them would 
 be a painful mystery ; but to the practical man there is superadded the stimiilus of a 
 personal benefit to be derived from the study of science ; and the more intimately he 
 makes himself acquainted with the natiu'e of the materials with, or upon, which he has 
 to operate, the more successful will l3c his career. 
 
 The institution of the Board of Agriculture in 1793 took place through the efforts of 
 Sir John Sinclair, who obtained from parliament an annual grant of money, usually to 
 the amount of £3,000. The idea of a "board" was first started by Lord Kames, in his 
 " Gentleman Farmer;" but he proposed it for Scotland, where, at an earlier time (178-1), 
 the Highland and Agricultiu-al Society was established with so much success. The " Board 
 of Agriculture" undertook an agricidtui'al survey of every county in the kingdom, which 
 was completed in little more than one year ; all the county reports were afterwards con- 
 densed into one general report, first of Scotland, and subsequently of England. Papers of 
 great value on all agricultural subjects were published by the board from time to time, 
 which, by obtaining extensive circulation, spread the spirit of inquiry thi'oughout the 
 country. 
 
 Another institution of a local and private character, but perhaps more conducive 
 to the improvement of agricultiu'c than even the " looard," was established about this 
 time. We refer to the " sheepshearings," as they were termed, held at Holkham Hall, 
 the seat of Thomas William Coke, Esq., and also at Woburn Abbey, the seat of the 
 Duke of Bedford, who had united heart and soul with Mr. Coke in his efforts to advance 
 the interests of agriculture. Tiic meetings at Wobiu-n Aljbey were discontinued in 
 1801, upon the death of the noble proprietor, Francis Duke of Bedford, who was sue- 
 
PllOGRESS OF AGEICULTURAL PEINCIPLES IN ENGLAND, 113 
 
 ceeded on the estate by his brother, being himself a bachelor. The Holkham meetings 
 were continued until the year 1821, -when the advanced age of the proprietor of the 
 Holkham estate compelled him to seek that repose in retirement, with which a continu- 
 ance of the show and its accompanying labour and arrangements were incompatible. 
 
 This annual festival will for ever claim a page in tlie history of British agriculture. 
 Although in its origin, arrangement, and entire pecuniary support and maintenance it 
 was strictly a private institution, yet the unbounded public spirit and liberality of its 
 founder gave it a world-wide fame, and drew to its exhibitions men of eminence in every 
 branch of industry, and every station of life, from all parts of the globe; — agriculturists, 
 men of science, statesmen, philosophers, merchants, mechanics, manufacturers, &c., &c., 
 were indiscriminately invited to repair to the noble domain at the appointed time 
 (generally the beginning of June), wliere for three days they were entertained, not only 
 by the display of an assemblage of tlie finest animals the world could produce but on 
 each day the hall was thrown open to 500 or 600 guests, who were specially invited 
 upon a simple introduction from some person known to the proprietor. 
 
 Every new invention or improvement in agriculture, wliether in machinery or in 
 cultivation, here met with tliat attention and scrutiny which tlie efforts of genius and 
 industry, or the results of experiment, should ever claim. Trials were made of new imple- 
 ments, and prizes awarded for those possessing extraordinary merit. Breeders of cattle 
 and sheep were invited to exhibit their peculiar products, by which a spirit of emulation 
 was excited, the influence of which will be felt upon the national agriculture to the 
 remotest ages. Many of the most eminent of the exhibitors of cattle and sheep of the 
 present day, are the sons or grandsons of those who sixty years ago made their debut 
 as breeders of improved stock at the Holkham sheepshearings. 
 
 At the dinner given at the close of each day the subjects that liad occupied the 
 attention of the company in the morning were freely discussed. Here men of rank and 
 eminence, from all parts of the world, exchanged information on the different systems 
 of husbandly practised in different countries and climates. IMen of science here began 
 publicly to apply its principles to the practice of husbandry, and to bring home to the 
 mind of the cultivator the importance of a knowledge of tlie nature of the soil, and of 
 the products that are raised from it. On the other hand, the practical farmer was 
 invited and encouraged, in his own homely language, to express his thoughts and 
 opinions on the different subjects brought forward. Spirited discussions between men 
 of opposite views were frequently entertained, and by this collision of mind with mind, 
 and of experience with experience, men of judgment were enabled to form their own 
 conclusions and regulate their practice. 
 
 More than one generation has passed away since these once celebrated festivals were 
 held, and there are few now living who attended them. Those who enjoyed that good 
 fortune will not only to the latest period of life look back upon them with pleasure and 
 satisfaction, but will be able to trace to them the career which has led to the present 
 imprecedented state of our agricultural prosperity. It was there that the embryo Davys 
 and Liebigs first met with that countenance and encouragement which inaugui-ated the 
 union of practical science with agriculture,* and eventually brought forth those systems 
 
 * One of tbe first of these was \V. Grisenthwaite, a practical chemist of the ueighbouring seaport of Wells, who, iu 
 1819, wrote and published a small volume " On the Theory of Agriculture, and the Nature of Soils, Crops, and Manure." 
 This work he dedicated to Mr. Cuke, who had taken him by the hand and afforded him every encouragemuut, 
 
 I 
 
114 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND JIODERN. 
 
 of agricultural clicraistry ou wliicli tlie present practice of cultivatiou is based. All 
 honour to the memory of the man (in the largest sense of the word) who, more than any 
 one else, assisted in breaking down the barriers which ignorance and prejudice had reared 
 between the cultivator and the man of science, and who prepared the way for that union 
 between them cemented by principles indestructil^le because founded upon truth. 
 
 The war which commenced at the latter end of the last centu.ry, and continued to 
 rage for upwards of twenty years, while it threw back the agriculture of the continental 
 nations, produced an opposite effect ou that of England. Whatever part our govern- 
 ment may have taken in the contest, as the mainspring of the movement against France, 
 the ravages of war, so destructive of all industry, were not permitted to reacli the British 
 soil. The insulated position of England, whilst it rendered a large maritime population 
 a social and commercial necessity, gave her by that very circumstance a naval superiority 
 which effectually protected her shores from the invasion of an enemy. While, therefore, 
 the countries of continental Europe were alternately the seat of a devastating and vin- 
 dictive warfare, which destroyed the fruits, prevented the industry of the husbandman, 
 and drained the rural districts of the very sinews of labour', leaving only the old and 
 infirm men, and the women, to cultivate the soil, England remained at perfect peace 
 within her sea-girt shores, and pursued without molestation those schemes of agricultural 
 improvements which in their progress and completion are the admiration of foreigners. 
 
 One of the most important of those improvements was the general adoption by the 
 light-land farmers of Norfolk and Suffolk of the four-shift course of husbandry, by which 
 the sandy and gravelly soils of those counties were raised in value from 5^. to 25s. per acre.* 
 It was to the intelligent instructions of Arthur Young that this celebrated system owes 
 its rise, previous to which the triennial fallow was almost imiversal. It is to this change 
 of system that the success of the light-land farmers must be ascribed, for by it they are 
 enabled to keep many cattle and sheep, which is the foundation of good culture. The 
 success attending it led to its adoption throughout the country, and everywhere with 
 similar results. Lands that formerly produced no more valuable crops than rye, or, at 
 best, a scanty crop of sixteen or twenty bushels of wheat, will now, under the four-shift 
 husbandry and high cultm-e, yield from four to six quarters per acre of wheat, and corre- 
 sponding crops of other produce. Thus, whilst the actual area of the soil employed in 
 raising cereal produce is much smaller than formerly, the aggregate produce is greater. 
 
 A valuable addition to the compensating substances in the shape of manure came 
 into use about the beginning of the present century. This was bone-dust, which has 
 since obtained an extensive application, and has added greatly to the fertility of the soil. 
 At first bones were reduced to small pieces with hea^^y hammers or mallets, or they 
 were calcined into charcoal, being used in the former case for arable, and in the latter 
 for pasture land. The success which attended their application to turnip land, and the 
 desirableness of a better method of reducing them to powder, soon suggested the idea of 
 machinery, and at the same time rendered the collection and sale of bones an object of 
 considerable mercantile speculation. The A'alue of bones as a manure will form the 
 subject of a paragraph when we are treating of manures in general. As a proof of their 
 importance to agriculture we may state, on the authority of Sir Robert Kane, that 
 " 1 lb. of bones contains as miich phosphoric acid as belongs to 28 lbs. of wheat, or of 
 
 * 'I'his great improvement in llglit-Iand farming, however, had commeaceil sonic years before the war broke out, but 
 ('•as not penerallj' |)rac'ti»ed pievious to that event. 
 
PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 115 
 
 250 lbs. of potatoes ; that this phosphoric acid is indispensable to the healthy growth of 
 the plants, and of the animals by -which they are consumed ; and that hence wiU appear 
 the vital importance to agriculture of preserving as far as possible these valuable 
 materials^ and returning them to the soil."* 
 
 The Tise of bones and oil-cake in the cultivation of cereal and other crops may be 
 considered the first step in the application of condensed manures, which has lately made 
 such rapid progress, especially since the introduction of guano. This has opened the 
 eyes of the farmers more than any other circumstance to the value of chemical know- 
 ledge in agriculture. Up to the commencement of the present century all the ideas of 
 the farmers in general, on the subject of manvu'e, were confined to the farm-yard 
 production of it, and few coidd comprehend how the food of plants — the elements of 
 fertility — could be so reduced in bulk as that one hundredweight of any given substance 
 should possess the virtue or strength of many tons of their favourite compost. f Bulk 
 was their test of utihty, and their motto " Muck's the man after all." The labour and 
 expense of carting the farm-yard dung on to the land was not taken into account, 
 because they had been accustomed to it, and the means and appliances for it were 
 always at hand. Yet the reduced bulk of the home-made manure, by fermentation, J 
 might have taught them that it was possible a still greater condensation could be 
 effected without in any respect diminishing the intrinsic value of the residue. It 
 required nearly half a century to instil this truth into the mind of the husbandman ; 
 and even when guano was introduced, and its wonderful effects were seen, it was difficult 
 to make him understand that that substance contained no other elements of fertility 
 than their own farm-yard manure, only in a much larger proportion, and with a smaller 
 amount of the less valuable materials. 
 
 The drill husbandry, which was inaugurated by TuU at the beginning of the last 
 century, was by no means generally adopted until after the commencement of the 
 present. Dr. Andrew Huntei', in his " Georgical Essays" (published in 1772), has given 
 a paper upon it, in which he says, " From the experience that I have had of the drill- 
 sowing, I can recommend it as a most rational and judicious practice; but as it has 
 many difficulties to overcome, I apprehend it will never be brought into general use. A 
 proper instrument is wanting that would come cheap to the farmer, and have the 
 requisite strength and simplicity to recommend it. The present instruments cannot by 
 any means be put into the hands of common servants. Should we ever be so happy as 
 to see this objection removed, it is probable that all kinds of grain will be cultivated in 
 drills." § At the close of the essay he says, " Mr. Benson, of Stainly, near Ripon, is the 
 Only farmer that 1 know of who conducts his farm in this economical and judicious 
 manner." || So long was it before one of the greatest and most palpably economical and 
 useful improvements made any way in field culture. 
 
 * Kane's " Inclastrial Resources of Ireland," p. 271. 
 
 t One hundredweight of guano is equal in volume to five toBS of farm yard tnauut'e. 
 
 % It is true that in the usual method of prouiotiiig this process in farni-yarj manure, by reiilovlng i( to dinri-iieiJit" 
 and submitting it to fr^queut turninjis, and finally allowing it to lay spread over the field, a large jiurijortiou uf the ainmouia 
 is lost by evaporation. This may be avoided by covering the heaps thickly with earth, so as to coutiue the combuslioUi 
 and thus allowing it to consume the dung into a kind of charcoal; a coating of salt may also be applied, which would attract 
 and fi.i the ammonia, converting itself into sal-ammoniac, the value of which is well-known iu the present day in 
 artificial manures. 
 
 § '* Georgical Essays," vol. iii. p. 124. 
 
 11 Ibd., p. 129. 
 
116 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The use of the threshing machine, worked by horse power, was another improve- 
 ment of the present century, at tlie commencement of which the flail was imiversally 
 used. The loss of grain through the carelessness, or the cupidity of the " tasker," who 
 was generally paid by the quarter, and therefore had an interest in threshing out the 
 head corn, whilst that which was more diflBcult to separate was thrown out, can scarcely 
 be calculated. It has been variously estimated at from five to ten per cent. Even at 
 the lowest calculation the waste was considerable ; for although it is said that the pigs 
 and fowls reaped the benefit of the loss, it is plain that the proportion these animals could 
 collect in a yard in which the straw was trodden down by cattle would be very small ; 
 whilst, in turning over a dunghill, the removal of every layer disclosed the waste in the 
 number of grains uncovered. The improvements made of late years by the invention of 
 combined machines, bj^ which all the operations of the " tasker," from threshing the 
 corn to putting it up perfectly clean into sacks, is a complete triumph of mechanical 
 genius, leaving nothing further to be desired in the process. 
 
 The progress of agricultiu-e during the war was rapid and successful. The high 
 price of all kinds of produce, and the encouragement given to the landed interest in 
 consequence of the impossibility of obtaining supplies from abroad in a scarce season, 
 added to the difficulty attending mercantile and manufacturing operations, caused large 
 capitals to be invested in the purchase and cultivation of land, and men of intelligence and 
 enterprise embarked in it. Farming was no longer looked upon as a low and mean pursuit 
 on account of the uneducated class who once practised it. That class had succumbed to the 
 times, which were unfavourable to the success, or even existence of small farmers. The 
 heavy taxation upon the land fell with crushing weight upon the small occupiers, whose 
 poverty prevented them from cultivating their land to the best advantage at any time, 
 so that their produce now was utterly inadequate to the incessant demands made upon 
 them by the tax-gatherers, local as well as national. They were reduced to the condi- 
 tion of labourers, and their farms added to the large ones in the vicinity. These were 
 from time to time further increased by the enclosure of the waste lands, by which 
 hundreds of thousands of acres were brought under the plough, and rendered productive 
 of cereal and other crops. Much of the land thus reclaimed under the stimulus of high 
 prices, never paid the expenses, and some tracts have ruined successively every occupier 
 who entered upon them ; but, upon the whole, the General Enclosiu'e Act has proved of 
 great benefit to the country at large, as well as to the landed proprietors to whom the 
 land accrued. The rapid increase of the population since the peace has been such, that 
 even the addition of the waste lands to the cidtivated portion has been insuflicient to 
 supply the demand, although the produce, also, has been increased to the extent of 
 many bushels per acre, in consequence of the higher state of cultivation of the soil. 
 
 The peace of 1815, and, still more, the " Currency Bill" of Sir Robert Peel in 1819, 
 which required the Bank of England to pay in cash after the 1st of May, 1823, produced 
 a revulsion in the value of landed property that proved ruinous to thousands who had 
 invested large capitals in it, a considerable proportion of n'hich was borrowed on mortgage. 
 Such was the immediate reduction in the value of land and its produce, that whilst 
 thousands of farmers were ruined at once, many of the proprietors were compelled to 
 sell their estates, which in numerous cases did not bring enough to pay the mortgagee. 
 This was the case with some who, having inherited unencumbered property, had added 
 to it by the pm-chase of adjoining estates, to pay for which they had borrowed money on 
 
PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURAL PRINCIPLES IN ENGLAND. 117 
 
 mortgage of both tlie old and the new property, which on sale were alike sacrificed, the 
 whole not producing more than enongh to pay off the encumbrances. 
 
 It may be supposed that under such circumstances but little progress could be made, 
 for the time, in the improvement of agriculture. The panic of 1825, and the faihire of 
 the banks throughout the country, added largely to the distress and disaster, and a vast 
 number of the farmers in every part of the kingdom became so impoverished by their 
 past losses, and so hopeless of the future, that they realized what little they could from 
 the wreck of their property, and emigrated to Canada or the United States, where they 
 found a better field of enterprise for their industry ; at the same time the competition 
 for farms at home was thereby reduced in an equal proportion. 
 
 It is not, however, in the nature of an Englishman long to sit down in despair, and 
 brood over misfortune. Gradually a more healthy condition of things returned, and the 
 spirit of enterprise and improvement was awakened again. Agricultural chemistry had 
 been familiarised by the essays and experiments of Sir Humphrey Davy in England, and 
 Boussingault, Payen, and other eminent chemists, in France and Prussia. The farmers 
 themselves, generally speaking, were a different class to those of the last century, being 
 mostly educated and capable of appreciating the importance of scientific knowledge. 
 Many had so far made themselves acquainted with chemistry as to conduct an analysis 
 with accuracy, whilst an agricultural periodical literature helped to diffuse valuable 
 information on all subjects connected with the cultivation of the soil. 
 
 The Board of Agriculture had been dissolved in 1819, but almost immediately 
 after, the Smithfield Farmers' Club had been instituted, and has had a most beneficial 
 influence over the agriculture of the country in disseminating improved breeds of 
 stock, new and improved machines and implements of husbandry, and in stimulating 
 the farmers to engage in that enlightened progress which distinguishes the British 
 agriculturists of the present age. One great aim of the leaders in this advance is 
 the substitution of mechanical for animal power in the operations of husljandrj^, and in 
 the prosecution of this enterprise much has been effected. Thus the threshing machine 
 which in the first instance — introduced by Meikle* — only superseded the flail in the 
 hand of man by the machine worked by horses, was very soon after placed under the 
 power of steam ; and from a simple threshing machine now combines, as we have 
 stated, all the operations necessary to the perfect preparation of the grain for market, 
 even to putting it into sacks. On a modern farm, too, the buildings are now so arranged 
 that the various operations of the homestead are performed by a steam-engine, which not 
 only threshes and prepares the grain for market, but also grinds the corn for cattle, cuts 
 the hay, straw, and roots, saws timber, and, in fact assumes the same multifarious agency 
 we see employed in the manufacture of cotton or wool. 
 
 Nor has steam power been confined in its exercise to the operations of the homestead ; 
 of late it has been applied in the field to the cultivation of the soil, drainage, and other 
 work. As, however, we shall have occasion to go into this subject at length, when 
 
 * Meikle, however, was not the man who first inveoted the threshing: machine. A Mr. Menzies, of Culterallers, ia 
 Clydesdale, invented one about the year 1740 ; it was worked by either horse or water power, gave 1340 strokes per 
 minute, and with the attendance of one man would do the work of six flails. Meikle was a miller, at Houston, near 
 Haddington, and a machine was sent to him by Sir F. Kinloch, of Gilmerton, Bart., to be put to work by water, but it was 
 invented by Mr. Ildertou, of Alnwick, in 1775. It was twice torn to pieces, and then Meikle, who was also an engineer, 
 effected an improvement in it, which succeeded. This improved machine was the parent of those now in use. Like many 
 inventors and improvers, Meikle reaped no benefit from his ingenuity. 
 
118 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 describing the various systems of steam ploughing that have been introduced, we shall 
 only now observe that we are at present but on the threshold of steam culture ; and that 
 it cannot stop until the steam-engine has entirely superseded, not only the application of 
 horse power, but adapted itself to the performance of all the most onerous parts of labour 
 now devolving upon the hand of man. That this will eventually be effected, we cannot 
 doubt ; but it will require such an outlay of money, and such an entire remodelling of 
 the land, in order to adapt it to the altered conditions of husbandry the system will 
 involve, that it will probably be many years before the public mind can be brought to 
 entertain the idea that the mission of steam in agriculture, as well as in manufacture 
 and the conveyance of travellers and merchandise, will not be fidfilled until it has 
 banished its rival, animal power, from the farm, and reigns alone. 
 
 The year 1838 may be considered an impoi'tant era in the history of British agricul- 
 tm-e. In that year the Royal Agricultural Society of England was instituted under the 
 auspices of the Prince Consort, who has shown his desire to promote the interests of 
 agriculture by the frank and hearty manner in which he lias given his adherence to every 
 movement for that object. The society has been of infinite service, and has, by its 
 general proceedings, as well as its annual meetings, done more to improve the British 
 farmer, and to render the land productive, than all the previous institutions of the like 
 nature. Just about the time of its inauguratioa, the introduction of guano into the 
 United Kingdom took place, and has completely modified the ideas of the Imsbandman 
 on the subject of manures, by proving that all the most important elements of vegetable 
 nutrition may be so condensed, as to supersede the labour involved in the preparation 
 and distribution of farm-yard dung. 
 
 The Royal Agricultiu-al Society was incorporated by royal charter soon after its 
 institution. Its list of members comprises the most influential persons in the kingdom, 
 especially those who have made agricultm-e in all its branches their study. Its pro- 
 ceedings are published half yearly, and its annual show, which is migratory, has done 
 more for the improvement and invention of implements, and the application of machinery 
 to the processes of agricultiu'c, than any institution in the world. The multiplication 
 of machines, as exhibited at these shows, is truly wonderful, aud speaks louder of the 
 wealth and intelligence of the British farmer than even the condition of the fields, 
 although these are the astonishment of foreigners. Tlie motto of the society, "Practice, 
 with Science," is a fair representation of the objects of its institution. Under its 
 influence the agriculture of England is rapidly becoming a series of scientific operations, 
 in which the laws by Avhich vegetation is governed, and the relative powers and affinities 
 of the three grand elements of production — soil, seed, and manure — are better understood, 
 and more systematically adapted to each other. 
 
HISTORY OP SCOTTISH AGRICULTURE. 119 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 HISTORY OF SCOTTISH AGRICULTURE. 
 
 We have already referred to the ancient tenui'e of land in Scotland, where the patriarchal 
 was blended with the feudal system, and under which the country was divided into 
 baronies of large extent, held by chieftains residing in strong castles. Their estates 
 were managed l^y a chamberlain, and were subdivided into mark lauds, which were cul- 
 tivated by the retainers, who were tenants-at-will nominally ; but the disturbed state of 
 the country, and the dependence of the chieftain iipon his clansmen for the support of his 
 rights, real or assumed, were such, that he neither dare remove or punish them for their 
 evil practices, as well upon his own as on the neighbouring estates. The timber was cut 
 down, not only for purposes of building, but for the bark, — for every one tanned his own 
 leather, — the wood being left to perish on the spot. The cultivation of the land was 
 conducted in a desultory manner by the retainers. In ^Marshall's time this system was 
 in full strength, and the soil was subdivided so as to give room for tlie greatest number 
 of occupiers, and was thus frittered to atoms, and the estates burdened witli a load 
 of tenantry, considered justly a bar to all improvement, or good management. 
 
 The larger estates in the Highlands were divided into officiaries, each of which 
 constituted a barony, containing from one to three square miles of valley land, with its 
 proportion of hill, comprising from ten to twenty towns or farms, v/hich were subdivided 
 into six or eight farmlets. In some instances the farms remained entire. Each officiary 
 had its ground-officer, or bailift", who not only attended to the distribution of orders 
 from the lord or his factor to the tenants, but overlooked the performance of the 
 services, the roads to be kept in repair, the removal of tenants, &c. &c. The birleymen 
 were sworn appraisers, or valuers, who settled disputes between landlord and tenant, 
 or between the tenants, &c. The teuancy-at-will was the prevailing custom ; but if a 
 lease, or tack, was granted, it was for nineteen years. This term is still the favoui'ite 
 one in Scotland, but for what reason that particular number of years is preferred it is 
 difficult to imagine. 
 
 With the exception of the modern sheep-farms, the holdings were invariably the 
 same in character throughout the Highlands. Not the large farms only, but each 
 subdivision, though ever so minute, and whetlier cidtivated by plough-gait, half-plough, 
 or horse-gang, had its pittance of hill and vale, and its share of each description of 
 land — as arable, meadow, pasture, and muir. The valleys were separated from the hills 
 by a stone wall, called the head dyke, running along the brae, or slope, and generally 
 on the upper side of it. The lands were divided, as in the English old manorial system, 
 into in-field and out-field. The manm-e was reserved for the former, and the cattle were 
 folded on the latter — the only mode in which it gained any manure. 
 
 The minute su.bdivision of the land, which was carried to quite as great an extent in 
 Scotland as it was, up to 1847, in Ireland, was productive of similar evils, not the least 
 of which was the continual presence of scarcity at the close of almost every season, and 
 more especially upon a failure of the crops, in which case it sometimes amounted to 
 famine. In one instance it lasted seven years in the extreme remote parts of the north. 
 Marshall's account, too, of the dwellings of the farmers affords a very low estimate of 
 
120 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND IMODERN. 
 
 the domestic comfort they enjoj'ed. " The farmhouses," he says, " ai'e built of stone 
 without cement ; but the crevices are stopped with loam, to prevent the wind from 
 blowing through the walls, which are six feet high, and without glass in the windows. 
 The doorways are so low that an ordinary man must stoop to go in. The same with 
 the barn. The roof is set on with couples, or large principal rafters, stepped in the 
 wall two or three feet above the foundation, generally upon large stones, set to receive 
 their feet. Upon these couples lines of pantrees, or piu-liues, are fixed ; and, resting on 
 these, rough boughs, stripped of their leaves and smaller twigs, are laid rafterwise, and 
 termed cobbers. Upon these, ' di^ot,' or thin turfs, are laid on in the form of slates, 
 and upon this sod covering, a coat of thatch, composed of straw, rushes, heather, or 
 fern — the latter being drawn up by the roots or cut close to the ground in the month 
 of October, and laid on with the roots outwards, making admirable thatch. The 
 gables and ridge are loaded with 'feal,' thick sods, taken from the deepest and best 
 soil." 
 
 The impossibility of effecting any improvement in agriculture under the system which 
 prevailed, led the chieftains, or land proprietors, to convert the Highlands into sheep- 
 farms of large extent, whilst the valleys only were cultivated. This change, which 
 rendered necessary the removal of a great number of the small occupiers, and the entire 
 rearrangement of the estates, met with much opposition from the crofters or small 
 occupiers, who were turned out of their holdings, and compelled to emigrate. There 
 was undoubtedly much hardship inflicted upon these poor people, although the miserable 
 state in which they previously existed might have led them to consider the change 
 beneficial. The most important, because the largest, of the rearrangements of Highland 
 property was that of the Countess of Sutherland's estate, consisting of 800,000 acres, 
 and a population of about 15,000 men, women, and children. 
 
 The countess, who was the last of her race, had made many fruitless attempts to 
 introduce improvements upon her property; but she found the people inveterately 
 wedded to their ancient customs and habits, and so ignorant as to prefer the miserable 
 poverty and wretchedness in which they existed, and which frequently amoimted to the 
 extreme of want, to any alteration in their mode of living. She therefore determined 
 to exercise her rights as suzeraine of the property, and eftect by force those changes that 
 the case required. In this she was powerfully seconded by her husband, the Marquis of 
 Stafford, whose wealth enabled him to expend immense sums in carrying out the plans 
 of Mr. Loch, the factor of the countess. As the leases fell in, the holders were dis- 
 possessed and removed to other parts of the estate on the coast, where the soil was of a 
 better staple, and where the people might also apply themselves to the fishery, there 
 being abundance of fish on the coast. The operation took ten or fifteen years to com- 
 plete, but when fully carried out, proved entirely successful. A great outcry was raised 
 against the countess and her husband, wdio were accused of the most barbai'ous cruelty 
 to the tenants on the property. An investigation, however, showed so plainly that the 
 charges were false, that the marquis was created Duke of Sutherland as a reward for 
 the patriotism and humanity he had exercised in carrying out the alterations, and the 
 large sums he had expended in the enterprise. 
 
 The improvement of agriculture in Scotland, however, dates back to 1760, when the 
 farms began to be enlarged, and to be let on long leases. The system of husbandry also 
 in that country was altered, and root crops were introduced. So early as 1764, Mr. 
 
HISTORY OF SCOTTISH AGRICULTURE. 121 
 
 Dawson, of Frogden, in Roxburghshire, had 100 acres of turnijis drilled on his farm. This 
 was perhaps as large a quantity as coukl liave been found at that time on any English 
 farm of the same size. The formation of roads into every part of Scotland, where 
 previously there was no access to many of the remote districts, contributed largely to 
 improvements in agriculture. Previously it was impossible to use wheel carriages, 
 and produce of all kinds was fetched from the fields on horses, or on the heads of 
 women. The lands were also enclosed by hedges and ditches, or by stone dykes, 
 which not only rendered the keeping of cattle from the crops easy, but by draining 
 off the surface moisture, the land was rendered more productive, and the country 
 generally more healthy. The use of lime began to be introduced, which greatly 
 increased the produce. 
 
 In 1770 an act was passed to modify the law of entails in Scotland, which gave the 
 landlords power to grant leases and improve their estates. The swing plough was 
 introduced about this period, as also the Swedish tui'nip aud the potato oat, which 
 latter was accidentally discovered in 1788, and has proved a source of great wealth to 
 the Scottish farmer. But the most rapid improvement of agriculture in Scotland took 
 place after the breaking out of the war with France, when produce of all kinds took an 
 enormous advance, and gave a stimulus to cultivation which has never subsided, but has 
 raised the agriculture of Scotland to the highest pitch. The almost universal practice 
 of granting long leases enables the occupiers of land to obtain advances from the 
 bankers, and thus to carry out plans of permanent improvement at the commencement 
 of their leases, especially di-aining, which, if the land requires it, is generally done 
 upon the principles laid down by Smith of Deanston, or that of Elkington, both of 
 which have helped to change the face of the country and the character of the climate. 
 Previous to their introduction, all the lowlands were so clogged with water and inter- 
 sected with bogs and swamps, that fever and ague were the constant attendants upon the 
 rural population. Elkington's plan was applicable only to the removal of isolated 
 springs, which left the retentive soils still subject to the deleterious influence of the 
 water retained by them. Smith's plan drained large areas by sinking parallel drains 
 in the direction of the fall, and at equal distances, greater or less according to the 
 nature of the soil. It is estimated that during the last twenty-five years not 
 less than 1,500,000 acres have been thus drained, and that a sum amounting to 
 not less than £9,000,000 sterling, or .€5 10s. per acre, has been expended in this 
 work alone in Scotland, and that it has given a profit of from 15 to 25 per cent, upon 
 that outlay. 
 
 The Highland Society has largely contributed to the spread of improvement in that 
 country, both by its quarterly publications, and its attention to practical husbandry. Its 
 premiums for discoveries in every branch of agriculture, but especially in the chemical 
 department, which is now a regular portion of its functions, have elicited a body of 
 information aud experimental science of the most useful kind. The subject of chemical 
 manures has been a special object of its attention, and perhaps not even in England is 
 so great a proportion used as by the farmers in Scotland. 
 
 The size of the farms in Scotland varies from fifty to 1,000 acres, there being very 
 few below the former, or above the latter, extent. It is, however, a subject of complaint 
 that the system of extreme large farming is gradually becoming more common, and 
 that the landowners prefer having one tenant with many farms, and large capital to 
 
122 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 stock them, than several with moderate sized farms and limited means at their disposal. 
 This system undoubtedly is much less troublesome to the landlord, and probably the 
 produce is greater; but it is, at the same time, injurious to society at large by reducing 
 the amount of employment, and by depriving industrious young men of the means 
 of getting into business. We hear of farms of 2,000 acres and upwards of cultivated 
 land. 
 
 We have already referred to the banking system of Scotland as liaving materially 
 contributed to the prosperity of tlie country. There are, in all, eighteen banks, having 
 their branches all over the country, whilst their head offices are in the principal towais. 
 The number of branch banks is reckoned at about four hundred, or one to every six 
 thousand of the population. All the banks issue notes payable in specie at sight — 
 which might appear a dangerous system in a country possessing a metallic currency of 
 not more than half a million sterling. But such is the confidence of the public, that 
 notes are preferred to cash in either large or small transactions, and a " run " iipon a 
 bank is a thing of very rare occurrence in Scotland. Sucii, in fact, is the stringency 
 of the system in respect to the notes — which the bankers are obliged to exchange with 
 each other hvice a-tveek — that no excess of issue can possibly take place. 
 
 All the banks receive deposits of sums above ^10, for which they pay 2i or 3 per cent, 
 interest. This facility is made largely available by the servants and labourers, who 
 have most of them theii' " banking account," where they deposit their savings, until 
 they have enough to place themselves in business. The deposits, too, are employed by 
 the banks in loans to any respectable persons who can bring two valid sureties for the 
 repayment. The general prudence and economy of the Scottish people render these 
 loans perfectly safe. The securities look after the borrower, who is himself anxious to 
 discharge the debt as soon as possible, so that very few losses are sustained by the 
 lendei's. 
 
 It is by this excellent system that both agriculture and manufactures have made 
 such rapid progress in Scotland, money never being refused where tlie conditions of 
 the borrower are satisfactory. Tlie former poverty of Scotland has been rather an 
 advantage to her than otherwise, for it has taught her people tlie value of money, which 
 is far better understood there than in England or Ireland, its scarcity in former times 
 having superinduced a cool and calculating disposition, exceedingly favourable to a 
 judicious application of the means at disposal, and their power or sufficiency to produce 
 a given result ; from which, when a Scotcliman has formed his conclusions, it would 
 be a very difficult matter to induce him to depart. 
 
 The Lothians, East, West, and ]\Iid, which surround Edinburgh, are considered the 
 most highly cultivated part of Scotland. Tliey contain about 1,200,000 acres, which let 
 at from 30s. to £o per acre, excepting meadow land near the capital, some of which let 
 as high as £30 per acre. These are irrigated with the liquid manm-e of the sewage, and 
 arc, in some years, cut six times, producing each time abundance of grass, and bringing 
 the tenant a return of £40 a year. The wheat grown in the Lothians is of a first-rate 
 quality. One hundred and thirty years ago, a field of wheat of eight acres, about a 
 mile from Edinburgh, was an object of universal curiosity and wonder, the land being 
 considered incapable of bearing anything more valuable than rye. 
 
 Tlie Lothians include tlie counties of Haddington, Edinburgh, and Linlithgow, with 
 the low tract of land along the coast between Berwick and Dundee north and south of 
 
IIISTOKY OP SCOTTISH AGRICULTURE. 123 
 
 the Firth of Forth, and the Carse of Gowrie. The district of Galloway is on the west 
 of this area, and is famous for its breed of polled black cattle, of which large numbers 
 are brought over to the eastern counties of England in the autiimn, to be fattened. But 
 since the railways have been established, and root crops have taken the place of fallows, 
 a great number are fattened in the Lothians and sent to the English markets. They 
 are a small breed, but fatten quickly, and their meat is excellent. The farmers, however, 
 are getting more and more to prefer the short-horned cattle, which, though of an inferior 
 quality of meat, attain to a larger size in a given time, and pay better. Galloway 
 includes the counties of Wigtoun, and Kirkcudbright, and part of Ayr and Dumfries. 
 Like that of Cumberland, which lies on the other side of the Solway Firth, the climate 
 is moist, owing to its exposure to the Atlantic, and it produces grass in abundance. 
 The arable land is also highly cultivated, under a regular course of cropping. In 
 winter, throughout the Lowlands and the Lothians, the cattle are kept under cover, and 
 are tended with great care and attention to their health and comfort. 
 
 Previous to the application of bonc-maniu-e by ]\Ir. Sheriff, of East Lothian (about 
 the commencement of the present century), the turnip cultiu'c was confined to the 
 in-field, or manured portion of the farm ; the out-field being chiefly in grass for some 
 years, and then ploughed up and cropped with cereals successively, till it would bear no 
 longer. To lands thus treated, the application of bone-dust was the very thing wanted 
 to restore fertility. Continually fed by cattle or sheep, year after year, without any 
 compensating return of the elements of production, the cattle being chiefly sent out 
 of the country, which was thus deprived of the phosphates necessary for vegetation, 
 the produce was barely sufficient to pay the expense of cultivation, and the out-field 
 land might be considered as the make-weight, or "weighing piece," without which 
 the farm could not be obtained, but v/hich the farmer Avould willingly have dispensed 
 with. 
 
 The bone manure, therefore, restored, at a comparatively small cost, that element 
 of fertility, without a portion of which no corn can be produced, and the amount of 
 which in a soil determines its ability to produce cereal crops. Applied to the turnip 
 husbandry, its efTects instantly brought it into general use, and the out-field lands 
 were at once placed under the same course of husbandry with the in-field, namely, 
 the five-course shift. These light lands have thus been enormously increased in value, 
 and are quite equal in profitableness to those which had pre-sdously monopolised all the 
 manure and attention of the farmers. 
 
 In no country is labour so well economised as in Scotland, and nowhere is it more 
 efficient. The proportion of persons supported by the cultivation of the land is much 
 less than in England, as the following statement shows : — • 
 
 C05IPAKATIVB DUMBER OJ PEUSONS SUPPORTED BY AGRICULTUP.E IN ENGLAND, SCOTLANH, IRELAND, 
 
 AND FRANCE. 
 
 England 12 to every 100 acres. 
 
 Scotland 5 ,, ,, 
 
 Ireland 24* „ „ 
 
 France .-16 >, .-, 
 
 The superintendence of the master over every kind of labour is incessant, whien 
 ensures its being well done, and vrith as little delay as possible. Most, if not all, of 
 
 * This was some years since ; we btlitve it is now lower. 
 
Ui AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 tlie Scottish farmers are practically acquainted with the various lahoiu's of husbandry, 
 and are therefore well qualified for seeing that they are properly done. The farm- 
 servants and labourers, therefore, know that it is at the peril of losing their employment 
 if they neglect, or lounge over, or improperly perform the allotted task. The labourers, 
 generally, are a well-conducted class, especially on the modei'ate-sized farms, on which 
 the master has a control (if he wishes to exercise it) over the moral conduct of his men. 
 There is, however, one flaw in the system, which has been the subject of much discussion 
 in Scotland, and it is to be hoped it will lead to an alteration. We refer to the bot/nj 
 system, by which all the unmarried servants of the farm are herded together in a hovel 
 that the farmer would think it a disgrace for him to assign to his cattle. Some of the 
 farmers have already improved these places, or erected improved bothies; but the system 
 itself is bad, because it removes the young labom-er from under the immediate control 
 of the master when not at work, leaving liim to the contaminating influence of whatever 
 bad characters he may come into contact with. The employer is as much concerned in 
 preserving him from this as the man is himself, and it is a short-sighted policy that 
 leads him to neglect it. 
 
 In other respects, the rm-al population in Scotland are remarkably steady and 
 respectable in their conduct and behanour. They all receive an education in the 
 parochial schools, which renders them intelligent to an extent far above the same class 
 in England, whilst the attention paid to the Sabbath, and the universal attendance of the 
 whole population on public worship on that day, imparts a steadiness and reflective tm-n 
 to the character very favourable to good moral conduct. The servants arc usually hired 
 for the year or half year, and do not receive their money wages until the expiration of 
 the term. But the usual mode of payment is half in money, and half in produce, so 
 that the labourer has the latter to live on, and receives the former in one sum ; which, 
 after deducting what he requires for clothing, if he is a single man, is placed in a 
 savings' bank to constitute a fund, on which to fall back, on his marriage, or in case of 
 sickness or any other casualty. In some of the counties tlie largest portion of the 
 wages is paid in kind ; in which case, wliile the married men are well provided for, the 
 iinmarried have frequently produce to sell. The Scottish peasant is generally well dressed, 
 and, on the Sunday, turns out to go to church in as good a coat as his master. 
 
 The establisliment of an Agricultural Chemistry Association in Scotland is due to 
 Mr. John Finnic, a farmer at Swanstone, in Mid-Lothian. The object he had primarily 
 in view, was the prevention of the adulteration of artificial maniu'es, which, it is well 
 known, is practised to an enormous extent, and by which the farmers have been shame- 
 lessly plundered. As nothing but a rigid analysis can properly detect this species of 
 robbery, Mr. Finnic conceived the idea of forming an association for the purpose of 
 obtaining and remunerating the services of a first-rate analytical chemist, who would 
 not only determine the value of a manure offered for sale, but by his knowledge of the 
 nature of plants and their pi-oper food, would be enabled to give the farmers information 
 on the application of manures of the homestead, and also on the best methods of feeding 
 live stock according to the properties of the food employed. 
 
 Mr. Finnic, in the first instance, wrote to Sir Charles Gordon, the secretary of the 
 Highland Society, and requested him to lay the letter before the board of directors. 
 The letter contained a rough draft of the plan on which he conceived the measure 
 should be carried out by the society; but "cold water" being thrown upon it by the 
 
HISTORY OF SCOTTISH AGRICULTURE. 125 
 
 board, who replied, " that the object of the association was highly deserving- the appro- 
 Ijation of the society, and the best wishes of the directors for its success," Mr. Finnic 
 drew up a prospectus, which he offered to the farmers at the market at Edinburgh, and 
 had the satisfaction of obtaining the signatures of sixty farmers on the first day as 
 annual subscribers. He then called a meeting at Edinburgh, at which he laid before 
 the persons present the ideas he entertained and the objects of the proposed association. 
 He also sent a letter to every landowner and tenant in Scotland, explaining Its design, 
 and calling on tliem to support it. At a subsequent meeting at Edinburgh, on which 
 occasion Lord Viscount INIelville took the chair, while Lord Dunfermline and many of 
 the most eminent gentlemen of Scotland were present, resolutions were proposed and 
 carried unanimously, and a committee chosen to promote the measure, with power to call 
 a meeting of the subscribers on a certain day for the purpose of formally Instituting the 
 " Agricultural Chemistry Association of Scotland," and appointing the requisite officers. 
 
 This took place on the 11th of January, 1843, and in July following, the society 
 was In full operation, Andrew Coventry, Esq., being appointed honorary secretary, with 
 a numerous committee of noblemen and gentlemen, and a subscription-list of £900 
 per annum, each subscriber guaranteeing his subscription for five years. The committee 
 received applications from ten persons offering themselves as chemical officer; but the 
 selection fell upon Professor Johnstone, of Durham, who having accepted the appoint- 
 ment, entered upon his office at a salary of £500 per annum, and a moderate scale of 
 charges for executing analyses. The association continued In existence five years; at 
 the expiration of which (great bodies moving proverbially slow) the Highland Society 
 began to conceive that a chemical department would be a proper adjunct to their 
 institution. They therefore proposed that the association should be dissolved, and its 
 labours transferred to the society; and upon the assurance of the directors that they 
 would appoint a chemist, and give the tenant farmers the same privileges they enjoyed 
 from the association, this latter was dissolved. Dr. Thomas Anderson was appointed 
 chemical officer; and the results of his labours are now regularly Inserted in the 
 quarterly transactions of the Highland Society, published in Edinburgh.* 
 
 The quantity of land under a rotation of crops in Scotland, In 1857, was 3,556,572 
 acres, distributed in the following manner : — 
 
 Wheat. Barley. Oats. Uve. Bere. Beans. Peas. Tares. Turnips. Potatoes. Fallow. Grass. 
 
 322,152i 198,3871 938,613^- 5,989i 21,607i 39,186 3,087i 18,418^.476,6911 139,819 18,582? 1,4.59,305J 
 
 TABLE OP ESTIMATED GKOSS PUODUCE OF THE PKINCIPAL CKOPS (iN BUSIlELs), 1857. 
 
 Wheat. Barley. Oats. Bere. Beans, &c. Turnips. Potatoes. 
 
 6,154,986 6,524,429 32,750,763 671,778 1,037,760 6,690,109 430,468 
 
 The rotation of crops in the Lothians, and in Stirlingshire, is rigorously kept up, and 
 is generally as follows :— 1st, oats; 2nd, beans or potatoes; 3rd, Avheat; 4th, tuniips; 
 5th, wheat or barley ; 6th, grass. This allows but few animals being kept in summer, the 
 small quantity under grass only fm-nishiug food for the horses and a few cattle or sheep. 
 But in the winter, the cattle and sheep pastiu-ed on the mountains in summer are 
 brought down to the Lowlands to be fattened. In Aberdeenshire the soil and climate 
 are better adapted to forage crops, and the rotation is as follows : — 1st, oats ; 2nd, turnips ; 
 
 * See Morton's Cyclopcedia, article " Scottish Agriculture." 
 
126 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 3rd, oats, barley, or here ; 4th, grass ; 5th, grass ; 6th, grass. Great numbers of fine 
 cattle of the native breeds, or crossed with the short-horned, are fed here for the 
 London market. 
 
 On the Cheviot and Laramermuii" highlands a good deal of land has been brought 
 under cultivation, and a large number of the Cheviot breed of sheep are also fed on the 
 natural pastures. Some have crossed this breed with the Leicester, and produced 
 thereby an excellent type that fattens early to a good size. They are generally got 
 ready for the butcher about the beginning of June. In Berwickshire the five course 
 rotation is observed — 1st, oats; 2nd, turnips; 3rd, barley or wheat; 4th, grass; 5th, grass. 
 
 It appears by the figures of the statistics that the oat crop occupies fully one-fifth of 
 the cultivated land of Scotland under rotation, turnips one-fifth, wheat and barley one 
 fifth, grass nearly two-fifths. On the richer lands of Haddington, Stirling, Pife, and 
 Perth, the extent of beans and peas is larger, being a good preparatory crop for wheat, 
 the proportion of which is also increased. Potatoes also take the place of turnips, which 
 are more cultivated in Banff than in Ayrshire. The western farms are smaller, and 
 the moisture of the climate renders it more suitable for dairies, of which many are kept. 
 
 A very large proportion of the land in Scotland is incapable of cultivation, not only 
 on account of its mountainous character, but owing to its sterility. Great improve- 
 ments have been effected by draining and other methods, Ijy which the natural grasses 
 are rendered more productive, and the moory soils made capable of bearing the cattle 
 and sheep upon them. These highlands are now divided into sheep farms of large size 
 and at low rents, the valleys only being cultivated, of which the proportion is small. 
 These new arrangements necessarily, in the first instance, caused great luieasincss by the 
 dispossession of the old tenants, who most of them emigrated ; but it is certain that 
 the Highlands support and contain a larger population than they did before the new 
 arrangements were effected, and that the material condition of the rural peasantry is 
 much better. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF IRELAND. 
 
 In the history of the wlujlc world there probably never was a more complete failure in a 
 land system than in that of Ireland, or one which in its progress and final disruption 
 inflicted more miseiy and disaster on all involved in it. The causes that have led to it 
 are as numerous as the persons who have undertaken to cx]3lain them ; * and so compli- 
 cated were their nature, and so hopeless the prospect of their removal, that a violent and 
 despotical interference of the legislature was at length found to be the only means by 
 whicli the land could be restored to a condition profitable to the owner, the occupier, or 
 the country at large. 
 
 * These may be enumerated as follows :— Ut, the law of entails ; Snd, the improvlJeuee of the landowners ; Si-d, the 
 system of niiddle-men; 4th, the subdivision of the soil; 5th, the want of a middle class; fith, the abaeulceism of 
 proprietors; 7lh, want of manufactures; 8th, excess of rural population; 9th, continual political and agrarian agitation; 
 lOlh, depeudeuce of the cottiers on one kind of fi'od : Uih, thi^ effect" of fn-ri'^r mM..'.'v<'rnmfnt, 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF IRELAND. 127 
 
 Tlie native agricultural resom-ces of Ireland are, at leastj equal to those of Eugiaiid. 
 The soil is of a generous staple, eapablc, with proper culture, of producing both cereal and 
 all other crops in aloundance, particularly roots, such as mangold- wiu-zel, turnips, potatoes, 
 cabbages, &c. &c. Its pastures are proverbially rich in verdure, and their deep green 
 hue, maintained throughout the year, has given to the country its sylvan name of " the 
 Emerald Isle," by which it is commonly known. Irrigated in all its extent by a 
 thousand rivers, brooks, and springs issuing from the mountain range which occupies 
 the centre of the island from north to south, and watered besides by gentle showers of 
 rain, which, vihilst not in the aggregate greater in amount than that which falls in 
 England, is spread over a greater number of days, a florid vegetation, is sustained 
 throughout the year, exhibiting a freshness in winter, unknown at that season in 
 England. We add to these advantages a mild and equable climate, never either hot or 
 cold in excess, being tempered by the western breezes, which, passing over the tail of 
 the gulf stream, prevail in Ireland at least nine months out of the twelve. "With all 
 these, and a thousand other som-ces of prosperity and wealth, the crisis of 1848 found 
 the landed interest in Ireland steeped to the lips in poverty, helpless and hopeless of 
 extricating itself by any efforts of its own ; and the whole system collapsed like a huge 
 balloon rent by a storm. 
 
 It would be foreign to our purpose to dilate upon the fearful miseries endured by the 
 )'ural population diu'ing that awful %'isitation of famine, fever, and cholera combined ; 
 but we may state that these calamities, added to an extensive emigration, which 
 deprived Ireland of upwards of two millions, or one-fourth of its population,* deprived 
 also, to the same extent, the landowners of their tenantry, and consequently of their 
 rent. And so extensi\ely was this the case, that many large estates, especially in the 
 west and south, had scarcely a tenant left ; in some districts you might have travelled 
 twenty miles without meeting a living man or animal of any description, or seeing a 
 single field in which the operations of husbandry were carried on. It therefore became 
 utterly impossible that the heavy encumbrances upon the estates could any longer be 
 
 * Tljt; writer, vvho resided iu Irclauil during tkat awl'ul crisis, aud had ample ojjportiinity, by his couaectiou with the 
 press, uf leurniug the leading facts, has made the following estimate of the loss of population, and the relative proportions 
 due to disease and emigration : — 
 
 Population according to the census of 1841 8,] 74,031 
 
 Natural increase from 1841 to 1846,— TJ per cent 61:1050 
 
 Estimated population in 1846 8,787,081 
 
 Population according to census of 18Jl 6,550,210 
 
 Actual decrease . . . 2,236,871 
 
 Emigrations from 1841 to 1851 . \ 1,600,000 
 
 Decrease by disease ,, „ 636,871 2,236,871 
 
 The following are the returns in the " Blue Books " of the number of emigrants in the ten years from 1841 to 1851 :— ' 
 
 1842 .... 40,000 Brought forward 332,087 
 
 1843 .... 40,469 184? ... . 220,027 
 
 1844 ..... 58.285 1848 .... 184,410 
 
 1845 .... 86,949 1849 .... 218,699 
 
 1846 .... 106,384 1850 .... 217,460 
 
 1851 ... . 257,841 
 
 832,087 
 
 1,430,521 
 
 Migration to England and Scotland, and not accounted for in the Blue Books— say 169,476 
 
 1,600,000 
 
128 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND HfODERN. 
 
 paid ; and preparations were made throughout the country for throwing tliern into the 
 Court of Chancery, which had already taken a considerable number of properties under 
 its dubious protection. 
 
 Under these circumstances the legislatm'e passed the bill fox- the establishment of 
 the " Encumbered Estates Court," which is considered by all impartial persons as the 
 only measure that has, or could have, saved the lauded interest of Ireland from almost 
 universal bankruptcy. Whatever hardships may have been inflicted in some cases, in 
 the first instance, by the precipitate sale of properties whilst the country was still in a 
 state of collapse, and the value of land at the lowest point, the advantages of making 
 purcliases under the act, soon became so apparent that a spirited competition arose, 
 wliicli soon restored the confidence of the public in the natural resources of the country, 
 and its ability by a new and vigorous development of them, to recover itself and enter 
 upon a course of prosperity. By the division of the large estates submitted to the 
 operations of the act into farms, a considerable proportion of land has been purchased 
 by farmers who occupy and farm it tliemselvesj and thus has been created, what was so 
 much wanted in Ireland, a middle class of yeomanry, whose interest in the welfare of 
 the country is the strongest safeguard of its stability and prosperity. 
 
 Another advantage arising from the ineasure was the infusion of capital, and its 
 direct application to the land in the manner most profitable to the country. Formerly, 
 what with the absenteeism of the landowners, and the large sums paid to mortgagees, 
 annuitants, and other non-resident claimants upon property, a very small proportion of 
 the rental of many estates remained to be spent in the country, whilst the corn and 
 cattle were also in a great measure sent over to England, the population in the rural 
 districts subsisting chiefly upon buttermilk and potatoes. But under the new system 
 the land which had been abandoned by its tenantry, being placed under the operation of 
 the court, was purchased to a great extent by residents, or persons who intended to 
 reside upon theii' newly purchased properties, and to expend the produce in the countrj'. 
 
 Another important alteration in the land system is the amalgamation of the small 
 holdings, so as to form moderate sized farms, by which a better and regular system of 
 husl)andry is rendered possible, which was not the case before. When Sir Robert (then 
 Mr.) Kane, in 184-1-, wrote his celebrated work on the " Industrial Resources of Ireland," 
 the subdivision of the land had reached its culminating point, having been encouraged, 
 and almost enforced, by the political agitators of the time, in order to promote their 
 incendiary purposes. The entire area of land in Ireland, according to Sir Robert Kane 
 (" Industrial Resources," p. 244), was 20,808,271 acres,* distributed as follows : — 
 
 Arable land 13,404,300 acres. 
 
 I'lautations 374,482 „ 
 
 Under towns and villages 43,929 ,, 
 
 Uncultivated 6,295,733 „ 
 
 Lakes and rivers 630,823 „ 
 
 20.808,271 „ 
 
 * The projiortions iu the difl'erent iirovinces were — 
 
 Acres. Roods. Poles. 
 
 Ulster 5,312,189 13 
 
 Munster 4,834,803 1 18 
 
 Leinslcr 5,934,789 2 29 
 
 Connaught 4,233.190 1 t) 
 
 20,315,040 1 20 
 This statement differs from the above, but the latter beiug taken from the " survey," may therefore be considered correct. 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF IRELAND. 
 
 1.29 
 
 The cultivated laud was divided iuto holdings as follows, according to the census of 
 1841 :— 
 
 Farms of from 1 to 5 acres 306,915 'J.-o „,„ 
 
 5 „ 15 „ 251,128) 
 
 " 13 "30 7^'95ih27%0 
 
 „ above 30 „ 48,312 i 
 
 685,309 
 
 These proportions were reduced in 1857 in the following ratio : — 
 
 Farms of from 1 to 5 acres 119,084 ) nqo 017 
 
 5 „ 15 , 179,733 > 
 
 " " 15 „30 „ 139.193] 295,575 
 
 „ above 30 156,383 3 
 
 594,392 
 
 The following is the abstract of the crops for the foui' years from 1855 to 1858 
 inclusive : — 
 
 
 1855. 
 
 1856. 
 
 1857. 
 
 1858. 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Oats 
 
 Barley 
 
 Bere and rye . . . 
 Beans and peas 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 Turnips 
 
 JIangolds .... 
 
 Cabbage 
 
 Parsnips and carrots . 
 Tares and rape . . . 
 
 Flax 
 
 Meadow and clover , 
 
 Acre?. 
 
 445,775 
 2,118,858 
 
 226,629 
 22,817 
 18,485 
 
 982,301 
 
 366,953 
 22,567 
 24,121 
 19.042 
 29,406 
 97,075 
 1,314,307 
 
 Acres. 
 
 529,050 
 
 2,037,437 
 
 182,796 
 
 19,891 
 
 16,034 
 
 1,104,704 
 
 354,451 
 
 22,201 
 
 27,968 
 
 20,734 
 
 29,183 
 
 106,311 
 
 1,302,787 
 
 Acres. 
 
 559,643 
 
 1,980,934 
 
 211,288 
 
 21,374 
 
 13,586 
 
 1,146,647 
 
 350,047 
 
 21,629 
 
 30,011 
 
 21,602 
 
 34,740 
 
 97,741 
 
 1,369,892 
 
 Acres. 
 
 551,386 
 
 1,976,929 
 
 190,721 
 
 16,489 
 
 12,876 
 
 1,160,056 
 
 337,077 
 
 30,027 
 
 33,107 
 
 23,450 
 
 33,441 
 
 91,555 
 
 1,424,578 
 
 And the following is the average produce per acre, for ten years, from 1849 to 1858 
 inclusive : — 
 
 Wheat 5'7 barrels of 20 stone each, equal to 26^ bushels. 
 
 Oats 7-8 „ 14 „ „ BsILj. „ 
 
 Barley 85 „ 10 „ „ 88 „ 
 
 Bere 8" „ 16 „ „ 36 „ 
 
 Rye 7-1 „ 20 „ „ 35 
 
 Beans and peas . . . 2?'j bushels of 8 gallons each. 
 
 Potatoes 39-4 barrels of 20 stone each „ 180 „ r 
 
 Turnips IS'l tons. 
 
 Mangolds . . . .16-6 „ 
 
 Cabbage 13-1 „ 
 
 Flax 35-8 stone of 14 lbs. each. 
 
 Hay 2 tons. 
 
 The entire quantity of land in the possession of freeholders in 1848, according to the 
 Registrar-General's report, was 20,220,502 acres, of which 4,674,423 acres were returned 
 as under bog, or unallotted waste; 2,162,421 in farms under 15 acres; 9,927,959 
 from 15 to 100 acres; 3,232,927 from 100 to 200; and 4,897,275 in farms of 
 upAvards of 200 acres. 
 
 F. 
 
130 
 
 AGEICULTURE, ANOIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The next table gives the number of live stock, and shov6 the increase in foui- years, 
 fiom 1855 to 1858 inclusive :— 
 
 1855 
 1856 
 1857 
 1858 
 
 Horses. 
 
 Cattle. 
 
 Sheep. 
 
 Pigs. 
 
 Value. 
 
 556,287 
 573,403 
 599,782 
 601,717 
 Increase. 
 45,430 
 
 3,564,400 
 3,587,858 
 3,620,954 
 3,601,594 
 Increase. 
 97,194 
 
 3,602,342 
 3,694,294 
 3,452,252 
 3,487,785 
 Decrease. 
 114,557 
 
 1,177,605 
 
 918,525 
 
 1,255,186 
 
 1,402,812 
 
 Increase. 
 
 225,207 
 
 £33,053,478 
 33,120,220 
 33,700,916 
 34,276,175 
 
 Increase. 
 £1,222,697 
 
 One of the largest benefits bestowed by the Encumbered Estates Court upon the 
 land of Ii'eland is the undeniable title it confers upon aU purchases efiected in it. 
 The process is as follows : — When a petition for the sale of an estate is presented to 
 the court, whether by the nominal proprietor or an encumbrancer, his right to do so 
 being ascertained, notice of the fact is given by advertisement in the public joiu'nals, 
 in which claimants upon the property are required to come forward and assert then" 
 pretensions against a certain day, otherwise the sale of the property wiU take place, and 
 they will hereafter be excluded from all participation in the proceeds. Every claim 
 thus ])ut forward is investigated aud argued in open coiu't by professional men, the same 
 as in other courts of law, and admitted or rejected according as the e\"idence estabhshes, 
 or otherwise, a legal or equitable right. The decision of the court is final, and not, we 
 believe, subject to a revision by any other com't; aud these preliminaries being 
 adjusted, the estate is put up, either whole or in parts, aud sold by the commissioners to 
 the highest bidder ; and, the purchase money being paid, a title is given which can 
 never be the subject of litigation, except at the expense and risk of the plaintifl" in 
 the case.* 
 
 Previous to the establishment of this court, there was scarcely an estate in Ireland 
 
 * A remarkable instance of this kind occurred in the case of one of the first (if not the first) estates sold by the court. 
 This property, which consisted of several thousand acres, chiefly of wild mountain-land on the western coast, was sold 
 under peculiar circumstances, at so low a price, that it was urged by the opponents of the act as a proof of the wanton 
 spoliation of property to which the owners of estates would be subject. The price was £500 ; but so little was it 
 considered worth the money, that the purchaser availed himself of some technical quibble and threw up the bargain. It 
 was again sold at a lower price, and again thrown up. A third time, upon being submitted to sale, it was purchased by 
 a wealthy Dublin tradesman for £350, and the bargain was this time concluded, and a title given. 
 
 Soon after, the purchaser went to look over his newly-acquired property, which he found to consist, apparently, of 
 chiefly barren granite rock, in the condition in which nature left it at the creation. In walking along the sea-shore, he 
 thought he perceived indications of some sort of metallic ore. In order to ascertain what it was, he procured some 
 peasants with piek-ases and spades, and soon raised a few tons, which turned out to be very rich copper ore, worth, at 
 Swansea, from £50 to £60 per ton ! The affair soon became known : and in the course of a few weeks the proprietor 
 had let the working of the mine to a mining company at £1,000 per annum. 
 
 It happened, however, that about seventy years before, the then proprietor of the estate had escbanged it with the 
 Marquis of Sligo for some land in the county of Sligo, and the marquis had sold it to the family of the party who placed 
 it in the court, and who was at once owner, petitioner, and solicitor. The descendant of the original owner hearing of the 
 discovery, wrote to the purchaser, requesting to be allowed to visit the old spot. This was granted ; but n hat was the 
 astonishment of the purchaser on being served with an injunction from the Court of Chancery, restraining him and all 
 other persons from working any mines whatever upon the estate, on the plea that the exchange with the Marquis of Sligo 
 extended no further than to the surface, all "mines and royalties" being left out of the deed of contract, and, therefore, 
 reuiaiuing the property of the original owner or his heirs. Had this estate been sold iu the ordinary course of business, 
 the seller could not have given a title that would have covered the "mines and royalties;" but the precautions taken by 
 the commissioners of the court, in advertising for claimants of every descrip/ion, and none appearing, the estate was sold 
 absolutely, with the "mines and royalties" expressed in the deed. The claimant, therefore, came too late, and the Court 
 of Chancery having no power to set aside the deed, the claim was annulled. We understand that the proprietor has 
 discovered another copper mine upon the property, which he has let at the same rent as the first. — See the article " Irish 
 Agriculture," iu the EdMuri/h Journal of Agriculture, by the author of this work. 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF IRELAND. 131 
 
 to which a free and indefeasible title conld be gi^eu, and it was dangerous^ as well as 
 expensive, to attempt to make a piu-chase. The charge for undertaking to search the 
 register for the title of a large property was not less than .€500. In some cases, the charges 
 upon estates dated more than a hundi-ed years back, and in one case that came under 
 the notice of the wi-iter, they numbered a hundred and fifty, embracing every possible 
 description of claim the law could invent or the proprietor grant. The task, therefore, 
 of searching the register implied a tedious and minute examination; and the negligence 
 of a solicitor might involve a purchaser in ruinous litigation. This Gordian knot was 
 cut by the Encumbered Estates Court, by throwing the onus of establishing a claim, by 
 a certain day, upon the claimant, and barring, by its final decision, all future litigation 
 on the question of title. 
 
 The result of this security in purchasing property imder the act has been most 
 beneficial. A large number of English and Scottish capitalists and farmers have hired 
 or made purchases of land in every part of Ireland, and have introduced there the 
 system of husbandry practised in their own country, thereby changing the entu-e 
 appearance of the land. Up to the year 1858, the number of these new settlers 
 amounted to 756, namely, 660 Scottish, and 96 English. As tenants, those of them who 
 have hired farms have been granted long leases (generally thirty-one years) at com- 
 paratively low rents, in order to induce others to come forward. Most of these have 
 taken over -with them Scotch or EugUsh labom-ers or stewards to superintend and 
 instruct the native peasantry. The number of these immigrants, with their families, 
 amount to some thousands, and by their careful and industrious habits, cannot fail to 
 exercise a beneficial influence upon those by whom they are surrounded. 
 
 This migration of British agricultmists, and their distribution throughout the 
 country, is, in fact, producing a complete revolution in husbandry and in the character 
 of the rui'al peasantry. The physical appearance of the land, as well as of the people, 
 is undergoing a remarkable change. Industry has taken the place of idleness ; wages 
 have risen from 4d., 6d., and 8d. per day, to Is., ]s. 3d., and 1*. 6d. ; and at harvest 
 time almost any price may be obtained for eflBcient laboiu'. The large diminution of the 
 rural peasantry, however lamentable may have been the cause, has undoubtedly relieved 
 the country from a load of pauperism and misery that weighed principally upon the 
 land, and prevented all attempts at improvement. The poor's rates, which at one time 
 threatened to swallow up the whole produce of the land, have fallen below those of 
 England, and in some districts are not more than from M. in the pound, as the 
 minimum, to Is. 6d., the maximum ; in very few cases being so high as the latter. 
 According to the census of the present year (1861), the diminution of the population 
 is still going on. Without any other cause than that of emigration, the decrease 
 amounts to 785,667, the emigration in the ten years since 1851 being 1,230,986.* 
 
 * The following statement exhibits the actual stale of the population : — 
 
 Present number, aceording to the census . S,'?64,543 
 
 Emigration in ten years 1,230,986 
 
 Number, if all had remained 6,995,529 
 
 Population according to the census of 1851 6,550,210 
 
 Number due to natural increase 445,319 
 
 This gives only about G| per cent, of births over deaths ; and if the immigration of English and Scotch were deducted, 
 the decrease would have been much larger. 
 
 k3 
 
132 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 This is matter of considerable surprise, there being no weighty cause now existing to 
 render a removal to another country necessary or desirable. The effect, liOTcever, wUI 
 be to raise the price of laboiu-, and, at the same time, cause the increased use of 
 machinery in agriculture. 
 
 We should be failing in a duty we owe to a most beneficial institution if we were 
 to omit to mention the incessant and patriotic exertions of the Eoyal Dublin Society, 
 as well as those of the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, to promote the interests 
 of agriculture in that country. The annual shows of the latter have been productive of 
 a spirit of emidation throughout the country, both in the breeding and rearing of live 
 stock, and in the improvement of the soil. By their efforts and instructions, a more 
 rational system of husbandry is fast gaining ground, and root and green crops are 
 becoming almost universally prevalent as a necessary part of a coui'se of cropping, and 
 artificial manures are extensively u^sed. Some of the richest lands in Ireland, which, 
 previous to the famine, were known to produce upwards of twenty barrels of wheat, of 
 twenty stone each, per acre (amounting to ninety-three bushels per Irish acre, which is 
 about one and a half acres English), were so reduced by exhaustion and the want of 
 lime, that they fell off to a produce of from five to eight barrels, and it became a 
 question with many whether it could ever recover its fertility, and whether wheat could 
 ever again be cultivated to advantage. Lime is found to be an essential dressing for 
 wheat in Ireland ; and it is a remarkable fact, that whilst a large portion of the country 
 lies over a deep limestone subsoil, not a particle of calcareous matter has been dis- 
 covered in the surface soil, proving that it has been formed of the debris of rocks at a 
 distance, in which no limestone exists. 
 
 The societies we refer to, have also employed lecturers to instruct the people in the 
 principles of farming, by which useful information is disseminated. By their efforts 
 too. Chairs of Agriculture have been instituted in all the Queen's colleges j and a great 
 number of youths are in constant attendance upon the lectui'es delivered by the pro- 
 fessors and others on the subject of husbandry. All their efforts, however, were in the first 
 instance baflSed by the innumerable evils under which the landed property of Ireland was 
 weighed down, and prosperity and progress were alike rendered hopeless. Since the 
 breaking down of the system, and the transfer of the land to new owners and occupiers, 
 their exertions have been unremitting; and, having a better material to work upon, success 
 is crowning their efforts. Ireland has made a greater progress during the last twelve years 
 than any country in the world, and, assisted by the aid of general and local Agricultural 
 Associations, must still advance. Both soil and climate are particularly favourable to 
 the breeding and grazing of cattle and sheep, from the luxuriance of its pasture-grounds, 
 and the adaptation of the soil to the cultivation and growth of roots and artificial 
 grasses. The produce of mangold-wurzel, when well manured, is extraordinary, 
 amounting, on some soils, to seventy or eighty tons per acre. 
 
 Hitherto, the north of Ireland has been the best cultivated part, being to a con- 
 siderable extent occupied by the descendants of Scottish settlers. Although the land 
 was as much subdivided in Ulster as in other parts, the rural classes were in a far 
 better state than those of the south and west. This is to be ascribed to the union 
 of manufacture with agriculture which prevailed there, almost all the female part of the 
 population being engaged either in the weaving of linen or in the sewed muslin trade, of 
 which an immense quantity is done in that part of the island. The flax culture and 
 
1=1 
 
 [=1 
 
 1=1 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF IRELAND. 133 
 
 manufacture also employ a lai'ge number of persons of both sexes, and a great amount 
 of money is paid to them as wages, by which their condition is rendered far more 
 comfortable than that of tlieii- countrymen of the other provinces. Although the land 
 in the north is generally less fertile than that of the south and centre, the farms 
 exhibited much better management and system of tillage, so that a traveller, if ever so 
 little acquainted with the country, in going from the south to the north, could not fail 
 to be struck mth the difference. This, however, is much less the case now than it was 
 ten years ago, so greatly has tlie face of the whole country been changed during that 
 period. In remarking upon this improvement Lavergue wrote as follows : " This 
 frightful calamity (the famine) has efi'ected what years of war and oppression failed to 
 do — it has subdued Ireland. . . . What was before impossible in rural economy, hence- 
 forth becomes easy. The too great division of the farms is no longer a matter of 
 necessity. In place of seven hmidred thousand farms, there may be now, and indeed 
 ought to be, only half the number, and, consequently, of twice the size. Where two 
 families of cidtivators were imable to exist, one may in fiitvu-e live in comfort. Potatoes 
 and oats, which had been grown in excess, may now be reduced within proper bounds. 
 The foiu--course system may be more extended, and with it, rural prosperity, of which 
 it is a token. Meadows and pastures, hitherto neglected, begin to receive the attention 
 they merit, and which they ought to repay a hundredfold. Ireland will again become — 
 what she should never have ceased to be — the Emerald Isle, -par excellence ; that is to 
 say, the finest grass country in the world. Cattle, which were never sufficiently 
 encouraged, because the population could not find enough to feed themselves, will now 
 find a more abundant alimentation. Wages being no longer unduly depressed by a 
 superabundance of hands, labour becomes more productive and better paid ; and, 
 provided the impetus imparted to manufactures and commerce for the last few years 
 is maintained and increased, the over-crowding of the fields need no longer be feared, 
 even should the population rise again to its former level."^ 
 
 The above was written in ISS-t, and up to this time the anticipations of the writer 
 have been fully realized, but certainly the whole is not due to the famine. That 
 calamity only prepared the way, and the Encumbered Estates Court has been the main 
 instrument in the renovation of the country. Had the estates been thrown into the 
 Court of Chancery, which they would and must have been but for the institution of the 
 former eom-t, the consequences would have been the most ruinous it is possible to 
 conceive, and instead of a revival of prosperity, the land of Ireland would have been 
 doomed to perpetual sterility and unproductiveness. There is abundant evidence that 
 such would have been the result, m the condition of those estates which had been 
 placed under the superintendence of Chancery. What with the interminable litigation 
 that was sure to follow,* and the abominable management of the agents employed, such 
 
 * The Duke de Grammont asked the Chancellor D'Aguesseau on some occasion, whether, with his eiperience of 
 the chicanery in legal processes, and of their length, he had never thought of some regulation which would put an end to 
 them? " I had gone so far," replied the chancellor, "as to commit a plan of such a regulation to writing; but after I 
 had made some progress, I reflected on the great number of advocates, attorneys, and officers of justice whom it would ruin ; 
 compassion for them made the pen fall from my hand. The length and number of lawsuits confer on the gentlemen of 
 the long robe their wealth and autliority; one must therefore continue to jiermit their infant growth and everlasting 
 endurance" (See Butler's "Reminiscences," p. 58.) The same selfish and unworthy motive caused the strenuous 
 opposition of the Irish lawyers to the Encumbered Estates Acts, and still prevents the passing of a similar measure for 
 England. The contrast between light and darkness is not greater than that between the Encumbered Estates Court in 
 Ireland and the Court of Chancery. 
 
13 i AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 properties became uotliiug else than a prey to tlie ''gentlemen of the long robe" who 
 had the good fortune to be engaged in the suits, and who generally managed to absorb 
 all that was left of them in the expenses. 
 
 The importance of the institution of the Encumbered Estates Court will be at 'once 
 admitted when we consider the vast extent of its operations. The following is a 
 summary of its proceedings during the twelve years that the act has been in force : — 
 
 "In 1848, the Act 11 and 12 Vict., c. 48, to facilitate the sale of encumbered estates 
 in Ireland was passed; but o«ing to the defectiveness of its construction it proved 
 wholly inoperative ; and in the following year, 1849, the Act of 12 and 13 Vict., c. 77, 
 was passed. Under the pro^asions of this act, a royal commission was issued, under the 
 title of ' The Commission for sale of Encumbered Estates in Ireland,' having three 
 commissioners, appointed by the crown ; and to be a Court of Record, with powers to 
 frame rules for regulating its proceedings ; which rules, when approved of by the Privy 
 Council and enrolled in Chancery, were to have the same authority as if enacted by 
 parliament. 
 
 "The commissioners commenced their sittings for the despatch of business in 
 October, 1849. The total number of petitions presented to the commissioners in the 
 eight years ended 31st August, 1857, were 4,413. Of these 1,363 have been lodged 
 by owners, and the com't has made 3,547 absolute orders for sale. The first sale was 
 held on the 21st of February, 1850. 
 
 " In 1858, an act was passed extending the powers of the Encumbered Estates Court 
 for the sale of encumbered properties to properties that are unenciimbered. By this act, 
 the judges and officers of the former coiu't are transferred to a new court, called ' The 
 Landed Estates Court,' which commenced its sittings on the 1st of November. 
 
 "The gross amount produced by sales from October, 1849, up to August, 1859, 
 was £25,190,839. The court has distributed to creditors £24,229,027, inclusive of 
 .€3,692,611 allowed to encumbrancers who became purchasers. A sum of .€961,809 
 remains in hand to satisfy unadjusted claims."* 
 
 The eifect of the liberation of so large an extent of piroperty from the weight of 
 encumbrances \inder which it had lain, and the admission of such an influx of capital in 
 its cultivation as has been already expended, may readily be conceived. The want of 
 this latter was one of the great excuses for the little progress made in agriculture and 
 other industrial piu'suits ; the real fact, however, was, that there was no real want of 
 capital in Ireland, as was proved by the Irish investments in the English funds, 
 amounting to several millions annuallj^ ; and the additional fact, that most of the land 
 sold under the act has been pui'chased by Irishmen and paid for with Irish capital. 
 The main cause was the insecm'ity hanging over the possession of land, whether as 
 proprietor or tenant, but especially the former, on account of the number of claimants 
 who in many cases started upt to dispute a title to lauded property with the nominal 
 owner. On the other hand, it was dangerous for a farmer to take laud as a tenant, lest 
 he should be committing an agrarian crime against the laws of the Ribbon Society, 
 which was sure to be visited with condign punishment. 
 
 * See Thorn's " Dublin Directory," for 1861. 
 
 t A friinJ of the writer's tenanted a property in Ireland, for the rent of which five claimants served him with notices 
 of action if it was not paid to them. The result was, he held the property for some years, and by the advice of a clever 
 lawyer, paid nothing, and was never sued for it. 
 
HISTORY OP FKENCH AGRICULTURE. 135 
 
 These are no fictitious or slight obstacles iii the way of Ireland's prosperity. 
 Numberless instances have occurred in which murder has resulted, or gross outrages 
 at least been committed, upon persons hiring land that was claimed by others as 
 tenants. Nor have piu'chasers under the Encumbered Estates Act lieen in all cases 
 allowed to hold possession with impunity, several lives having been sacrificed to the 
 lawless and vindictive vengeance of the Ribbon Society, whose baneful influence is felt 
 in every part of Ireland, and the existence of which is a standing reproach to the nation 
 at large. There is not a doubt that it is in the power of the Roman Catholic priesthood 
 to put down the society if they chose ; but there is too much reason to believe, that 
 while ostensibly pretending to discountenance, they secretly encourage it. Catholics, 
 when asked why they pay no attention to the denunciations of the priests, reply at 
 once, "Because we do not believe they are in earnest in their denunciations."* Nor 
 is it possible for them to svippose their priests sincere, when the latter denounce the 
 victims of the society at the altar before a murder, and absolve the murderer imme- 
 diately after it, and, in some eases, also before. 
 
 Nothing is wanting to the increase of Ireland's prosperity and happiness but the 
 entire suppression of that agitation which has been all along its bane and its disgrace. 
 " With every element of wealth in its soil, and with a climate incomparable to that of 
 either England or Scotland in salubrity and adaptation to the pui'suits of agriculture, 
 she only wants to be freed from those secret associations which every now and then 
 manifest their presence by agrarian outrages and lawless denunciations, and which have 
 to so great an extent prevented capital and skill from flowing into the country, whilst it 
 has driven some of the most valuable characters to absent themselves from their estates, 
 and to reside where they can live unmolested and at peace. Emigration, it is true, has 
 removed a large portion of the population most addicted to those unmanly and dastardly 
 crimes which inflict so deep a stain ixpon the national character. Recent events, how- 
 ever, unfortunately prove that the spirit is still latent, and that human life is considered 
 of no value, when set in competition with the possession of a patch of land, or any 
 other agrarian object. The cry of ' Ireland for the Irish ' is still acted upon, if not 
 openly pronounced, notwithstanding the advantages the country has derived from the 
 establishment of English and Scottish agriculturists, aud the improved condition of the 
 peasantry consequent on the great advance in the price of labour." f 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 HISTORY OF FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 
 
 It has been remarked by an eminent writer that " the history of the kingdom of France 
 affords a striking example of how little can be done towards the imj)rovement of 
 agricultui-e by the mere efi'orts of government or of speculative men in publishing books 
 
 * See evidence of H. W. Rowau, Esq., before the committee of the Lords ia 1839, 
 t See Journal of Agriculture for 1859, p. 185. 
 
133 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT ^iND MODERN. 
 
 or offering premiums for treatises on the subject." This, however, although true, is not 
 the whole truth. The writer (Forsyth) might have added that the necessity for the 
 interference of a government in agriculture can only exist under a despotism, and that 
 agriculture, as well as every other industry, requires perfect freedom of action to ensure 
 success and progress. France affords a complete illustration of the evils arising from a 
 want, or the absence, of such freedom. 
 
 At the commencement of the seventeenth century great efforts were made in France 
 to revive agriculture in that country. Many eminent writers arose, and works of great 
 merit were published by Palissy, Olivier Deserres, Lebault, and others. The second of 
 these, Deserres, possessed a considerable landed property at Pradel, in Vivarais, where 
 he lived a retired life and cultivated his own estate. His principal work was the 
 " Theatre d'Agricultui-e," which was published in 1600, and is reckoned by Lavergne as 
 the best treatise on agriculture existing in any modern language. " All the good 
 systems of agriculture," says Mr. Lavergne, "were known in Olivier's time. He gives 
 directions which might be followed by our agricultui'ists at the present day. Production 
 made rapid progress iu the course of a few years ' to the great profit of your people,' he 
 says, addressing the king in his dedication, ' dwelling safely under their fig-tree, culti- 
 vating their land; and who, under shelter of your majesty, have justice and peace dwelling 
 with them.'"-*- 
 
 Provence and Languedoc, on the borders of which Deserre's estate was situated, were 
 considered the best cultivated parts of France at this period. The assassination of 
 Henry IV., after a few years, put a stop in a great measure to the prosperity of 
 agriculture. Louis XIII., who succeeded him, was a minor, and at his death in 1643 
 his son, and heir to the crown, Louis XIV., was only five years of age. At this period 
 the country districts of France were inhabited by the nobility, who, in the midst of their 
 peasantry, cultivated the land, and promoted the interests of the rural population, with 
 whom they identified themselves. 
 
 The grandeur of the court of Louis XIV. attracted to the metropolis most of the 
 nobles, and by degrees estranged them from the love of a country life. The enormous 
 expenses and destructive wars of tlie sovereign, who literally made war a game of 
 hazard, exhausted the resources, and threw back the prosperity of France. Its reflux 
 action, too, upon the courtiers, who imitated the splendour of their master, was no 
 less injurious to the industrial portion of the country. All the youth of the rural 
 districts were di-afted off to fill up the ranks of the army, and the entire population 
 decreased. "While in England, after the revolution of 1688, agriculture made such rapid 
 progress that she was enabled to export corn to the amount of from 500,000 to 1,000,000 
 quarters annually, France, which in the seventeenth century supplied England, was 
 scarcely able to feed her own population. 
 
 Nothing is more destructive of agricultiu'e than the war spirit and the passion for 
 " national glory," as it is termed. When once this has taken possession of a people 
 there is an end to industrial prosperity. A constant craving for exciting scenes and 
 exciting news weakens the liands, while the gratification of the desire exhausts the 
 resources of labour. The wars in which Louis XIV. and his profligate successor engaged 
 impoverished France, weaned the country gentlemen from the fondness of a rural life, 
 and thus left the peasantry to themselves, and the merciless superintendence of stewards, 
 ♦ Xavcrgno, " Rural Economy of England and Scotland," &c., p. 3 38. 
 
HISTOEY OF FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 137 
 
 whose only business was to extort from tliem the highest rent their industry would yield. 
 In 1750^ out of 135,000,000 acres (the extent of France without Corsica and Lorraine, 
 which did not then belong to her), only 45,000,000 were cultivated, of which 8,000,000 
 were under large, and thirty-seven under small, farming. By large farms, Quesnay, who 
 makes the statement, means those on which horses were employed for tillage, and farmed 
 on the triennial rotation of wheat, oats, and fallow ; the small farmers being the metayers 
 whose course was biennial, namely, wheat and fallow. " This division," says Lavergne, 
 " ought to be quite correct, for it corresponds with the existing state of things. France 
 continues still divided into two distinct regions, the one in the north, where the lease 
 system prevails, tillage by horses, and triennial rotation more or less modified ; the other, 
 the south, where small holdings predominate, labour by cattle, and biennial rotation ; 
 only since 1750 the first has gained ground and the latter has declined."* 
 
 The reign of Louis XV. was most disastrous to France. The utter disregard of that 
 profligate sovereign to the distresses of his people, and the determination, at all hazards 
 and expenditure, to gratify his own selfish indulgence, laid the foundation of that 
 frightful drama which commenced in 1 789, and is still in progress : for all the changes 
 that have taken place in that distracted country, all the misfortunes and disgraces to 
 which it has been compelled to submit, are but so many acts and incidents of the same 
 drama, the plot of which is by no means wound up ; nor is it likely that any permanent 
 improvement in the industrial interests of the country can be established, whilst the 
 military spirit of the nation predominates — until the ploughshare shall take the place of 
 the sword, and the pruning-hook of the spear. A nation upheld by peaceful industry 
 has a fund of wealth and loyalty to fall back upon when the defence of its territory calls 
 for it ; but one that bases its glory and strength upon the nimiber of its standing army, 
 which constitutes a permanent menace to the surrounding states^ is sure in the end to 
 be compelled to succumb to the enemies it has raised up. 
 
 The condition of the whole population of France, not excepting even the upper 
 classes, or the proprietors of estates, is described as wretched in the extreme in 1750. 
 The net revenue from the arable or corn lands was not more than .€3,200,000, and that 
 of the vineyards about as much more. The rent of the large farms was at the rate of 
 5 lin-es per arpent {\\ acre), and that of the small farms from 20 to 30 sous ; say 3s. Qd. 
 for the first, and 9d. to Is. for the second per acre. The produce of the large farm land 
 was seventeen bushels, and of the small eight and a half bushels per acre. The number 
 of horned cattle was 5,000,000, and those slaiightered for food only from 400,000 to 
 500,000 per year. Previous to this period (1739) the Marquis d'Argenson speaks as 
 follows of the distress of the people : — " The real evil, that which undermines the 
 kingdom and cannot fail to l:)riug ruin upon it, is that at Versailles they shut their 
 eyes too much to the distressing state of things in the provinces. In my own days I 
 have observed a gradual decrease of wealth and population in France. We have the 
 present certainty that misery has become general to an unheard-of degree. While I 
 write in the midst of profound peace, with indications, if not of abundance, at least of an 
 average harvest, men are dying around ns like Jlies of want, and eating grass. The 
 pro\'inces of Maine, Angoumis, Touraine, Haute-Poitou, Perigord, Orleannais, and 
 Berry are the most wretched, and the distress is advancing towards Versailles. The 
 Diike of Orleans lately laid before the council a piece of bread, Avhich we got for him 
 
 * " Rural EcOQOray of Englaud, Scotland," &c-, Ul. 
 
138 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 made of ferns ; in placing it upon the king's table lie said, ' Sire, here is what your 
 subjects live on!' " 
 
 Such was the state of things up to the time when Louis XVI. ascended the throne 
 of France in May, 1774 ; and all impartial historians agree in representing him to have 
 been really desirous of promoting to the utmost of his power the prosperity of the 
 country. Agriculture was encouraged and began to revive, and free scope was given to 
 labour and commerce in grain, which latter was entirely a new idea in France. Many 
 reforms of an useful character had been effected previous to 1789, when the revolution 
 commenced, which soon resulted in the destruction of the monarchy, and the establish- 
 ment of a state of anarchy, which naturally led to a despotism so much worse than that 
 of the Bourbons, that it had its sole foundation in military power and its support in 
 the military spirit. 
 
 Louis XVI. had abolished the feudal rights of the seigneurs, which was confirmed by 
 the law of the Convention of September, 1 791 . It was thereby enacted that " the territory 
 of France in all its extent is as free as the persons who inhabit it, so that all territorial 
 property can be subject only to customs established or recognised by the law, and to the 
 sacrifices required by the public welfare, under the condition of a just and preliminary 
 indemnity;" and that "the proprietors are free to vary at will the cultivation of their 
 lands, to store and keep at will their corn, and to dispose of all the produce of their 
 farms, either at home or in foreign parts, without prejudice to the rights of others, and 
 in conformity to the laws." These principles were scarcely sanctioned and adopted by 
 the Convention, than they were violated by the turbulent governments which succeeded 
 the breaking up of the monarchy. In the convulsion which ensued, all the bonds which 
 held society together were ruthlessly snapped asunder. The lords of the soil were 
 massacred or di-iven from their country. In cither case their estates were forfeited to 
 the republic, and sold so far as pm-chasers could be foixnd. The property of the church, 
 also, and of the ecclesiastical and religious institutions was sold, and amounted, according 
 to Treillard, to nearly £107,000,000 sterling, being in some of the provinces one-third, 
 and in others one-half of the real property. It may easily be conceived, not only what 
 a change the sale of this enormous quantity of land, all thrown into tlie market at once, 
 must have created, but what a hindrance the convulsion which occasioned it, and the 
 confusion which followed, must have presented to the cultivation of tlie soil. To these 
 drawbacks were added the continual drafts upon the rural population of the best men 
 to serve in the immense armaments necessarily kept on foot by the ever- changing 
 governments, on the one hand to keep at bay the enemies of the republic, and on the 
 other to carry the war beyond the frontier, and attack those enemies on their oato 
 ground. 
 
 A levee-en-masse on the 22nd August, 1793, declared that "all Frenchmen will be 
 required for the ser\dce of the republic. Tlie young men will go to battle, the married 
 will forge arms and transport provisions ; the women will make tents and clothes, and 
 attend the hospitals ; the children will convert old linen into lint ; the old men will be 
 taken to the public squares, to rouse the courage of the warriors, and preach hatred to 
 kings and love to the republic," &c. &c. Where then were the hands that were to till 
 the soil ? The natm-al consequence of the revolutionary madness was famine and 
 scarcity. Had the decree been carried out to the letter, there would have remained 
 neither man nor beast to furnish food for the country. 
 
HISTOEY OF FEEiYCH AGEICULTURE. 139 
 
 The subsidence of the first horrors of the revolution brought no respite to the rural 
 inhabitants. Such was the want of a proper and efficient system of police, that bands 
 of robbers infested all the public roads, even up to the very gates of Paris, rendering it 
 dangerous to travel, and even to reside in any secluded situation. These brigands called 
 themselves chauffcvrs, because they made a point of burning the feet of their victims to 
 extort money from them, or compel them to tell where they had concealed it, nor was 
 there any mitigation of these hideous evils until 1803, when Napoleon became first 
 consul, and directed movable columns to traverse the country to try, by military 
 commissions, the robbers they could apprehend. Thus, from the commencement of the 
 revolution to the date just stated, agriculture, as well as every other branch of 
 industry, languished ; and notwithstanding the efforts of Napoleon, first as consul and 
 afterwards as emperor, to resuscitate the industrial spirit, the renewal and continuance 
 of the war, and the universal passion for the phantom of " national glory," as it 
 was called, but which in less courtly phrase might be termed "national madness," 
 neutralised to a great extent the efforts of the government, and caused agriculture to 
 decline. M. de Lavergne shows, by reference to statistics, that whatever progress was 
 made between 1789 and 1815 was during the consulate, and, therefore, that neither to 
 the republic, nor to the empire was France indebted for any addition to the territorial 
 wealth of the country. 
 
 The only redeeming featiu-e in this picture is that the establishment for promoting 
 the breeding of Merino sheep at Rambouillet survived the ravages of the revolution, and 
 to this day remains a monument of the patriotism of Louis XVI., by whom it was first 
 instituted. One other source of wealth was inaiigin-ated at this period, arising rather 
 out of the disasters of the country than from any preconceived notion of improvement ; 
 this was the cultivation of the Silesian beetroot, and the manufacture of sugar therefrom. 
 France had lost, one after another, all her sugar colonies in the West Indies, and in the 
 Indian Ocean. These had been taken by the squadrons of Great Britain, which had 
 thus acquired almost the whole monojioly of sugar. Galled at the idea of having to 
 pui'chase this necessary condiment of his detested rival. Napoleon issued the famous 
 Berlin and Milan decrees, which prohibited all kinds of British produce from the 
 Continent : at the same time prizes were offered for the discovery of the best mode of 
 manufacturing sixgar from European vegetables. Chemists were set to work upon this 
 scheme, and M. Achard, a Prussian, formed the first establishment for the purpose. 
 It succeeded, and the manufactm'e was speedily introduced into France imder the 
 warmest patronage of the emperor, who directed that 100,000 acres, at least, of beetroot 
 should be cultivated for the purpose. The sugar at first produced was of a wi-etchedly 
 inferior quality, and nothing but necessity would have induced the people to iise it. 
 After the peace of 1815 it was ill calculated to stand a competition with the produce of 
 the West or East Indies ; and notwithstanding an almost prohibitory duty ou the latter, 
 the native manufacture for a time declined ; but the ingenuity and perseverance of the 
 French chemists and machinists at length overcame every obstacle, and their efforts were 
 crowned with such success that for many years the beet-sugar manufactu.re has been one 
 of the most profitable and valuable objects of industry in the Northern Departments of 
 France. 
 
 One of the most influential featm'cs of the land system of France, is that arising out 
 of the law of succession, which provides that upon the death of a proprietor intestate his 
 
140 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 real property shall be divided equally amongst all his children, both male and female. 
 We have alluded to the system of small farms already as being more numerous in France 
 even before the revolution than large ones ; but these referred to a great extent to 
 tenant farmers, and not to proprietors. To show the proportion in which the small 
 proprietors in land have increased, we may state that in 1815 there were — 
 
 21,456 families possessing an avera£;e of 2,172 acres. 
 
 IGS.GJS „ „ 153 „ 
 
 217,817 „ „ 54 „ 
 
 256,533 „ „ 29 „ 
 
 258,452 „ „ 19 „ 
 
 361,711 „ „ 12 ,. 
 
 567,687 „ „ 7 „ 
 
 851,280 „ „ 4 „ 
 
 1,101,421 ,, „ 1 „ 
 
 3,805,000 
 
 At the present time the distribution stands as follows : — 
 
 50,000 proprietors holding an average of 737 acres. 
 500,000 „ ., 74 „ 
 
 5,000.000 „ „ 7 „ 
 
 6,550,000 
 These figures speak for themselves, and the subdivision is still going on, leading to 
 an entanglement of property that has created alarm amongst the most strenuous advo- 
 cates of the system.* 
 
 After the restoration in 1815 a season of agricultural prosperity succeeded. The 
 industrial spirit of the people rose with the return of peace, and the cessation of that 
 excitement which the stirring events of the previous twenty years occasioned and kept 
 alive. This prosperity continued imtil the expulsion of Louis Philippe from the throne 
 of France in 1848, after which it has again declined. It speaks but little in favour of 
 the empire that imder both the first and the second industrial pursuits have made no 
 progi'ess, notwithstanding that, under both, the efforts of the government to promote it 
 have been unceasing. Agricultural associations have been instituted, shows have been 
 held, and every inducement put forward for the agriculturists to adopt the best modes of 
 cultivation ; but the efiect has been feeble, and it seems impossible to overcome the causes 
 which appear to weigh down the spii-it of enterprise. M. Lavergne ascribes this, first, 
 to the destruction of the potatoes ; secondly, to the events of 1848 ; thirdly, to the 
 bad harvests of 1853 and 1855 ; fourthly, to the Crimean war ; fifthly, to the cholera ; 
 sixthly, the war in Italy ; seventhly, the public works of Paris and other large towns, 
 which have drained the rural districts of a vast number of the best hands. He might 
 have added to the list the operation of the conscription law, which annually takes away 
 
 * The great evil of small farming is the total inability of the holders to make those improvements which are 
 continually being discovered in rural economy, .\rthiir Young has graphically described this inability of the small farmir 
 in the following «'ords : — " Let mu ask of the advocates of small farms where the little farmer is to be found who will 
 cover his whole farm with marl at the rate of 100 or 150 tons per acre ; who wUl drain all his land at the expense of 
 two or three pounds per acre ; who will pay a heavy price for the manure of towns, aud convey it thirty miles by land- 
 carriage ; who will float his meadows at the expense of five pounds per acre ; who, to improve the breed of sheep, will give 
 1,000 guincasfor theuse of asingle ram forasingle season; who will give twenty-five guineas per cow for being covered by 
 a fine bull ; who will send across the kingdom to distant provinces for new implements, and for men to use them ; who 
 employ and i)ay men for residing in provinces where practices are found which they want to introduce ou their farms ? 
 At the very mention of such exertions, common in England, what mind can be so perversely framed as to imagine for a 
 single moment that such things are to be effected by little farmers? Deduct from agriculture all the practices that have 
 made it fiourishing in this island, and you have precisely the management of small farms." 
 
HISTORY OF FEENCH AGRICULTURE. 141 
 
 SOjOOO of the flower of tlie peasantiy to serve three years in the army. That the effect 
 of this latter upon the population is prejudicial to agriculture there cannot be a doubt, 
 nor is it less injurious to the rural population in a social sense. Such has been the 
 consequence of this draft, coupled with other circumstances, that not less than 
 one-third of the men are rejected because they are incapacitated by disease or other 
 imjjerfection for joining the ranks ; and the standard height, too, has been repeatedly 
 lowered because the race of men has degenerated, and they can no longer find a 
 sufficient number at the former standard."* 
 
 We cannot but consider this conscription law as far more prejudicial to French 
 agriculture than any of the former causes ; and when we add to the whole the sub- 
 division of the land, which fiUs the country with a multitude of cottier proprietors, who 
 are too poor and too ignorant to cultivate the soil to the best advantage, and whose 
 whole aim is rather to save by frugality than to expend their savings in improvements 
 that would be largely reproductive, we can be at no loss in accounting for the backward 
 state of agriculture in France, or the difficulty the government experiences in stimu- 
 lating enterprise amongst the farmers. 
 
 Such is the general condition of agriculture in France as deduced from the admissions 
 of one of the most intelligent and honest writers on the subject in that country.f With 
 a soil and climate far superior to that of the British Isles, and with every facility and 
 means of improvement by the application of natuial and artificial manures to the modern 
 system of husbandry — whilst the extent of arable and pasture land is nearly double that 
 of England, France cannot supply her population with cereal food,- even of the inferior 
 kinds, which are most cultivated. The progress made in the most favoured districts is 
 slow, and the adherence of the farmers to ancient modes of cultivation is with great 
 difficulty overcome. 
 
 It is not denied that in some parts of France considerable progress has been made in 
 agricultural improvements, and it would be strange indeed if it were not so, after all the 
 efforts made by the government to jiromote it. The north-west region is by far the 
 richest, being that in which the capital is situated, and reflects its wealth over the whole 
 region by the large extent of its markets, and the influence of its intelligence and 
 industrial establishments. The consumption of agricultural produce it creates is chiefly 
 supplied by the surrounding districts, which are everyAvhere intersected with highways, 
 railroads, canals, and navigable rivers. Forty-five per cent, of the whole public revenue 
 of France is paid by this region. The department of the Seine, in which Paris is situated, 
 although the smallest in extent of any in the empire, and not more than one-twelfth 
 the average size of the regional departments, contains more than one-fom'th of the 
 population, and pays more than one-third of the taxes. This department, with that of 
 the north and the Pas-de-Calais, are the most floui'ishing and best cultivated portions of 
 France ; this is due chiefly to the ricinage of the capital, but also to the manufacture 
 of beet-sugar, for which the climate is peculiarly adapted. There are in the department 
 of the north alone 340 beet-sugar works, to supply which 50,000 acres of that root are 
 
 * If there is any tnitli in the laws of physiology, this continual draft of the most healthy of the population for the 
 army, leaving only the diseased, the feeble, and the diminutive to cultivate the soil, and sustain by ptocreatiou the species, 
 the system pursued must necessarily deteriorate and diminish the population. Such is, in fact, the case; the rural 
 ])op>i!ation decreases in number, and in physical strength, as is proved by the census, by the lowering of the military 
 standard, and by the rejection of so large a proportion of the peasantry by the conscription. 
 
 t De Lavergne. 
 
142 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 annually ciLlti\'ated. This Lavei'gne considers the masterpiece of rural maniifactui-Cj 
 causing a collateral increase of cereal and animal produce^ raising a large quantity of 
 cattle food, and consequently of manure from the megass or refuse of the works. The 
 rent of land ranges fr-om £\ 14s. in the rui-al districts to £2 \ls. per acre in the 
 neighboiu'hood of the large cities. 
 
 But these departments are under the operation of the small-farm system^ which 
 universally prevails, and is productive of an enl wliich detracts greatly from the admi- 
 ration it would otherwise excite. The population amounts to 86' 17 per 100 acres, half 
 of which, or upwards of forty to the 100 acres, live by agricultm-e, whilst one-third of the 
 lohole are supported out of the public funds, a proportion greater than that of any other 
 country in Em'ope. Lavergne sees no hope of reducing this pauperism but in reducing 
 the population by emigration, there not being any employment for the sm'plus, notwith- 
 standing the large manufactm'ing and other establishments spread over the different 
 dejoartments. 
 
 In the centre and the south of France the metayer system of tenure prevails ; and 
 destitute as they are of markets, or roads to convey the produce to a distance, no other 
 mode of letting or occupying the soil is possible. That such facilities should not have 
 been provided by the government, reflects deeply upon its policy. Whilst millions upon 
 millions are expended upon the embellishments of the capital, and upon an army and 
 navy that constitute a permanent thi'eat to the neighbouring nations, no efforts are 
 made to remedy the defects under which the rural jjopulations of the distant departments 
 are held in poverty and distress. The picture cbawn by Lavergne of the mode of li\ing 
 of the metayer and his landlord is deeply affecting. " The cultivatoi'," he says, " has 
 little or nothing to dispose of ; why does he work ? To feed himself and his master 
 with the produce of his labour. The master divides the produce with him, and consumes 
 his portion ; if it is wheat and wines, master and metayer eat wheat and di-uik wine ; if it 
 is rye, buckwheat, potatoes, these they consume together. Wool and flax are shared in 
 like manner, and serve to make the coarse stuffs with which both clothe themselves. 
 Should there happen to remain over, a few lean sheep, some ill-fed pigs, or some calves 
 reared with difiiculty by over-worked cows, whose milk is disjiuted ■\nth their oftsjjring, 
 they are sold to pay taxes." 
 
 The great misfortune of the rural districts of France is, that with the destruction of 
 the seignorial system by the revolution, and the division and sale of the seignorial estates, 
 there remained no lauded aristocracy to reside amongst the tenantry ; whilst the military 
 aristocracy which succeeded it held agriculture, as well as all other industrial occupa- 
 tions, in utter contempt. In England, if the pictm'es of rural life drawn by Thomson, 
 Akenside, and other poets, are highly coloured, they arc in the main true, and give a 
 faithful, though flattering, idea of the state of the peasantry in many parts of the 
 country. "UTiat a contrast does this present to the description given of the peasantry by 
 the French poet Bruyere, whose career was contemporary with Thomson. " We behold," 
 said he, " throughout the country, a set of ferocious-looking crcatm-es, both male and 
 female, dark, livid, and scorched with the sun, attached to the laud, which they dig and 
 grub with an im tiring pertinacity. Their voice has a resemblance to that of a man, and 
 when they rise on their- feet they exhibit a human countenance ; they are in fact men. 
 At night they retire to their dens, where they live upon black bread, water, and roots. 
 They save other men the labom- of solving and reaping, and certainly do not deserve to 
 
HISTORY OF FRENCH AGRICULTURE. 143 
 
 be mthout that bread which they themselves have produced." M. Lavergne says, " this 
 terrible description will ever remain as a cry of remorse from the Great Age/' — that 
 of Louis XIV. The condition of the centre of France is not much better in the present 
 day, if we may credit the accounts of those who have travelled there. A bad harvest is 
 synonymous to them with a famine, for the metayers have nothing in that case to fall 
 back upon, but, like the cottier fixrmers of Ireland in 1847, succumb at once to the 
 calamity. 
 
 The military hierarchy, which succeeded the seignorial, is still the only aristocracy 
 of France, and is as much opposed to rural life as ever. But few of them who possess 
 estates ever think of residing iipon them, and leave the management to their stewards 
 or men of business. The moving principle of a French military man is national glory, 
 and his great aim, to rise in the army, and obtain the notice and favour of his emperor. 
 When, therefore, not in the camp or the field, the court, and not the country, is his 
 resort. The revenue from his estate, if he possesses one, is spent far away from those 
 who have contributed to it, consequently there is no sympathy between them. " The 
 true ballast of the body politic — the salt of society, that which holds it together — is 
 the country feeling. This feeling, no doubt, is of an aristocratic kind, but it is not 
 aristocracy itself, for both may exist independently. British aristocracy has made common 
 cause with the country feeling, and this is Avhat constitutes its strength : French 
 aristocracy holds itself aloof from it, and herein lies its weakness. In England, the 
 country life of the upper classes has, in the first place, produced energetic and high- 
 miaded habits, out of which the constitution has taken its rise; and then, owing to 
 these very habits, liberty has been prevented from running into excesses. The liberal and 
 conservative element has been wanting with us in France. In our own day, as formerly, 
 absenteeism has effected, even in a political point of view, nearly all the mischief; and 
 this is the reason why these two apparently distinct causes of prosperity — liberty mthout 
 revolutions, and the country feeling — are really but one."* 
 
 The system of agriculture in the southern departments of France is different from 
 that of the north and centre, being adapted to the soil and climate. The produce is 
 chiefly maize, vines, mulberry-trees for the sillcworm, and olives. These of course involve 
 a totally different species of culture from the cereal and root-crops which are produced 
 in the north. The beetroot cannot be grown at all to advantage — the proportion of 
 saccharine it contains decreasing, the further it proceeds south. They have, however, as 
 a substitute, the sorgho,t which yields as large an amount of sugar iu the south as the 
 beetroot iu the north, and a considerable quantity is cultivated for that manufacture. The 
 climate is intensely hot and dry in summer, and the crops of grain frequently suffer 
 from droiight, which, however, is favourable to the -sine, the olive, and the maize. The 
 Rhenish departments are considered the most thickly popidated and closely cultivated 
 of any part of France except the Nord ; but the subdivision of the land has reached to 
 such a degree as to cause extensive emigration, and the authorities have become alarmed 
 for the consequences. The entanglements of the numerous properties, which consist of 
 diminutive slips of land in open fields, intermixed with each other without the slightest 
 regard to proximity of individual ownership, has become so embarrassing and obstructive 
 to agriculture, as to call loudly for a change ; but what that change should be, is a 
 subject of controversy. Whatever is done, it is evident that unless an entire alteration 
 
 * De Lavergne, " Kural Economy of England," &c., p. 149. f Sorghum Saccharatum. 
 
144 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 is effected in tlie law of succession, any modification can be only a palliative^ wliicli it 
 will be necessary to repeat after a few more years. 
 
 In the meanwhile, tbe competition for land is so great that the most extravagant 
 prices are given for it, and in tlic ueighboiu'hood of towns it has brought as much, in 
 some cases, as one hundred years' purchase. This is especially the case in the ■nine 
 districts of Burgundy and the adjoining parts, where most of the properties are 
 excessively small and, formerly, profitable ; but the disease which has attacked the 
 vine for some years past, has greatly impoverished the proprietors as well as deteriorated 
 the produce. Indeed, many of the wine-growers of that fertile district have become so 
 despairing of any beneficial change, that they have displaced the finer types of the viue^ 
 which they formerly cultivated, by the introduction of a more hardy, but greatly inferior 
 species. This may possibly be the means of stopping the disease, but it will materially 
 affect the character of the produce of the district, which formerly was held in such high 
 estimation. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 PRUSSIAN AGRICULTURE. 
 
 The systems adopted by many of the continental governments since the era of the 
 French revolution, and, amongst the rest, by Prussia, are both anti-progressive in 
 regard to industrial pm'suits, and revolutionary in their political tendency. With the 
 latter efFect we have nothing to do, otherwise than to show how they hinder the 
 advancement of agriculture, their chief bearing being upon the land and that portion 
 of the population connected with it. In speaking, therefore, of the agriculture of 
 Prussia, it is impossible to avoid referring to those political circumstances which, we 
 believe, retard or promote, as the case may be, the improvement of the soil, and the 
 increase of its productive capacity. 
 
 The subdivision of the land had long before been introduced into Italy and many 
 of the smaller continental states. We have already endeavoiu'cd to show the effect 
 produced by it in France and Ireland ; in the former of which it is peremptorily provided 
 for and enforced by legislative enactments ; in the latter, by long custom. Prussia has 
 been one of the last to adopt it, and we shall endeavour to show that its influence is 
 not less marked in that country than it is in France. 
 
 At the commencement of the present century, the Prussian government found itself 
 deeply involved in the wars of Napoleon, which, in their progress, threatened the very 
 existence of the nation. At that period the feudal system prevailed in that country in 
 all its rigour, the land being chiefly divided into large baronial estates or seignories, 
 belonging to the nobles. The rural population were serfs or slaves, having no political 
 or social rights, but subject to the uncontrolled authority of the seigneur, who possessed 
 a complete jurisdiction within his seignory, and virtually the power of life and death 
 over them. It is true the serf had the right of appeal to the sovereign in case of 
 injustice on the part of the lord ; but this was attended with such difficulties as to 
 
PRUSSIAN AGRICULTURE. 145 
 
 reucler it almost a dead letter. But whilst on the one hand they belonged to, and were 
 part and parcel of, the estate, which they could not leave for a day without the sanction 
 of the lord, and were liable to be sold like the cattle with the land as a part and parcel 
 of tlie personal property, on the other, they possessed a tacit, customary, and hereditary 
 right in the soil to a certain extent, of which the seigneur could not deprive them. 
 By virtue of this right, they held a small portion of land for which they paid a rent in 
 kind, and performed a certain amount of labour on the domain, with other services. 
 "Whilst these were performed, the seigneur could not eject them from their holdings, 
 nor deprive thera of any property they might acquire. 
 
 Such was the condition of things in Prussia when the state of active wai'fare in 
 which that country became involved with France rendered it necessary to bestow iipon 
 the masses of the population a more free and direct interest in the soil, in order to 
 induce them to make greater exertions in its defence. The Prussian government 
 therefore determined upon the emancipation of the serfs, and a distribution of the land 
 in small quantities amongst them, so as to give them a stronger and more personal 
 interest in the protection of the country. 
 
 Another motive, however, influenced the sovereign in this decision; this was, to 
 break down the power of the landed aristocracy, which, at times, had been found 
 troublesome when opposed to his wishes. The object, therefore, was to render the 
 government more despotic by centring the power in the hands of the sovereign, who 
 threw himself, by the measure, upon the masses of the people. 
 
 It was in 1807 that decrees began to be issued for the purpose, by virtue of which 
 the feudal system was abolished, the whole of the rural population made free from 
 serfdom, and the lords of the soil — the landed aristocracy of the kingdom — compelled, 
 on certain conditions, to transfer to them a share, in perpetuity, of the land ; in some 
 cases, on payment of a fixed sum, either down at once, or by instalments, security 
 being given for such payment. But although the decree was compulsory on the lord, 
 it was made optional on the part of the peasant ; and, in the first instance, many of 
 thera who were under liberal and kind masters, to whom they were attached, preferred 
 to continue upon their old tenures. We believe, however, that such cases were rare, 
 and that there are now very few remaining, if any, who have not availed themselves of 
 the law to become freeholders. The decrees by which this great change in the policy 
 of the Prussian monarchy and in the condition of the peasantry was effected, were 
 completed in 1811. 
 
 This measure was but a first step in elevating the moral and material condition of the 
 rural population of Prussia, and by which, nominally at least, they acquired a political 
 existence and position in the state, as occupying to a certain extent tlie place of the 
 ancient aristocracy. They thus became the most important element of the social body ; 
 but the government, unwilling to surrender any portion of its own power, whilst it 
 annihilated without scrapie that of the landed proprietors, shrank from taking the next 
 step — of granting to the people the constitution which was promised to them at the 
 Congress of Vienna in 1815. Freedom from local oppression was bestowed, and the 
 means of subsistence by their own free labour ; but political freedom -was still withheld, 
 nor were they invested with political influence in any form whatever. No representative 
 legislature, no voice in any measure proposed by the government. In the place of the 
 ancient aristocracy, a numerous body of new functionaries was created, whose interference 
 
 h 
 
146 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 in all the arrangements of social life are qnite as onerous^ and far more annoying, than 
 that of the former lords of the soil. Every social institntion, every civil appointment, 
 even every domestic movement of the people, are under the surveillance of the police, 
 and, thereby, the control of the government, in which is centred the entire pmver 
 over the whole political, civil, and social affairs of the nation, nncontrollcd by, and 
 irresponsible to, any jurisdiction whatever. 
 
 But the Prussian government did not confine itself to the change we have referred 
 to, nor deem the power it had acquired over the masses of the people a sufficient 
 safeguard to the cro^vii and the country. The kingdom of Prussia is composed of 
 various states, each of which possesses a language, a nationality, and habits of life of 
 its own, and, consequently, between them there is but little sympathy. The war 
 with the first Napoleon had taught the government of Prussia its weakness, and the 
 necessity, if it could not create a national feeling amongst the several sections of the 
 kingdom, of endeavouring to amalgamate them in a military organization for the 
 national defence. The conscription law, adopted in France by the republic in 1792, 
 and continued by the successive governments that succeeded it, by which 80,000 oi' 
 the male population were annually enrolled in regiments of the line, suggested the 
 necessity of a similar measure to prepare the kingdom against whatever contingency 
 might arise. With the twofold object, therefore, of national defence against a dan- 
 gerous neighbour, and the desire of uniting as far as possible the discordant elements of 
 which the Prussian dominions were composed, the la/uliveJu' vfns determined on. As the 
 operation of this institution has a most material influence on the general, and an 
 especial one on the agricultural, industry of the country, we shall explain its nature. 
 
 By the decree for the formation and permanent continuance of the landivehr, every 
 male inhabitant of Prussia, whatever may be his rank, wealth, station, profession, or 
 calling, is compelled, when between the age of twenty and twenty-five years, to serve 
 for three years in a regiment of the line. This system was estahlished hy decrees of the 
 3rd of Septemher, 1814, and the 2nd of November, 1815 ; and such is the rigour and 
 impartiality with which it is enforced, that nothing but the most obvious incapacity 
 of body or mind, from natural or accidental causes, can procure exemption. Every 
 conscript undergoes an examination by a local board of commissioners for military 
 affairs, whose proceedings are reported to, and narrowly watched by, a superior pro- 
 vincial board ; and both report upon every claim to exemption, to the war department. 
 Such is the construction of these boards, that no favour or partiality can by anj' 
 possibility be secretly exercised without detection ; nor can any local interest screen an 
 individual from his turn for entering the army for three years, which is determined by 
 lot, drawn by those who are between the prescribed ages, as stated above. Each 
 conscript is appointed to a particular branch of the service, and to a certain regiment, 
 determiiied by his height, constitution, or previous occupation. Officers from each 
 department of the service attend the boards at their sittings to regulate the selection. 
 In special cases, in which so long a service as three years would be destructive or 
 highly detrimental to a person following a particular profession, the period is shortened 
 to two or one year, upon a certificate of the facts being given and the party finding 
 his own clothes and accoutrements. Such instances, however, are very rare and 
 exceptional, and cannot be claimed as a right, being entirely at the discretion of the 
 hiffher authorities. 
 
PRUSSIAN AGRICULTURE. 147 
 
 After the three years have passed, and the conscript has completed his service in the 
 armvj he retiu-ns home on leave of absence, not absolutely as a civilian, but as a 
 supernimicrary, and is liable to rejoin his regiment in case of a war. On reaching his 
 twenty-sixth year he is discharged from the standing army, and is then attached to the 
 army of reserve, or that division of it called erster-aufgelboths, or " first for service." 
 This is considered the effective army of the country, being composed entirely of soldiers 
 of three years' training, and between the ages of twenty-six and thirty-two years. 
 One-third of the standing army is discharged every autumn into this division of the 
 army of reserve, and is replaced in the spring out of the population, by the local and 
 provisional boards of commissioners. The army of reserve is called out for exercise 
 in field manceuvi'es for fourteen days every year, which, however, is sometimes 
 extended to twenty-eight days. After the age of thirty-two, the conscript is turned 
 over from this first to the second division of the army of reserve. In case of war, this 
 division will not take the field, but will do garrison duty, as being composed mostly of 
 men of families and more advanced in life ; and also of half-invalids, who have been 
 found unfit to serve in severe duty. After liis forty-ninth year, the conscript is trans- 
 ferred to the landsturm, or levee-en-masse, which is only mustered or exercised in its own 
 locality, and will only be called out in case of actual invasion or a popular tumult. The 
 whole land is thus one vast encampment, the whole male population one vast army, 
 every man, of whatever age, in whatever situation in life, or in whatever locality, being 
 a drilled soldier, who knows his regiment, his company, his squad, his military place 
 in it ; and he appears under arms at his rendezvous, for duty, with as little delay or 
 confusion, and as complete in all military appointments, as a soldier in any standing 
 army quartered in cantonments.* 
 
 It is impossible to conceive of any national institution more directly subversive of 
 industrial habits, or presenting greater obstacles to industrial progress, whether in 
 commerce, manufacture, or agriculture, but particularly the last, than this of the 
 landwehr in Prussia. Can it be doubtful what must necessarily be the effect upon these 
 interests, to have the entire male population abstracted for three years from their 
 industrial pursuits, just at that age when labour itself is a pastime, and its instruments 
 toys in the hands of the workman ? "What, too, must be the efl^ect on the moral character 
 and habits of the majority of these young men, produced by incorporation with the 
 regular army at that period of life when the mind is most susceptible of impressions, 
 and the profession of a soldier, half spent in idleness and dissipation, and the other half 
 in acquiring a taste for military life, is thus imperiously forced upon him for the whole 
 of his existence ? for such in point of fact is its real diu-ation. Although necessity may 
 compel the conscript, during the intervals of his military service, after leaving the 
 regular army, to work for his bread, the dissipated and desultory habits of the guard- 
 house and the camp will cleave to him through life ; and independent of the time 
 abstracted from the years of useful labour, his industrial qualifications themselves are 
 deteriorated by those acquu'ed in his military capacity. 
 
 Nor does the mischief stop here. The land being thus constantly deprived of the 
 labour of the strongest and most efficient of its hands, is chiefly managed by the 
 women, and those youths or men who are unfit for the army, and is consequently 
 very imperfectly tilled ; whilst the subdivision to infinity, by the same process that 
 
 ' See Laing'3 " Notes of a Tour," &c. 
 L 2 
 
148 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 prevails in France, presents tlie same bar of ignorance and poverty to the progress of 
 improvement.* 
 
 The emancipation of tlie serfs or peasantry in Prussia is, therefore, nothing more 
 than a change of masters effected by breaking up the ancient landed aristocracy, who 
 were to a great extent independent of the crown, and the substitution of a military 
 aristocracy, dependent upon, and under the absolute control of, the crown. The serfs, it 
 is true, have been constituted freeholders upon the land formerly held by the seignem-s, 
 but it was accompanied with the condition of surrendering to the crown their entire ci\'il 
 rights, and of being thenceforth governed, controlled, and overlooked by functionaries 
 created, maintained, and commanded by the crown. Instead of a baronial master, who, 
 whilst standing between the serf and the crown, might be supposed to have had an 
 interest in the welfare of his retainers, these latter are now imder the constant surveil- 
 lance of a set of officials, wlio liavc no other interest to look to than that of giving 
 satisfaction to the power that employs them. 
 
 So far as any social consolidation of the separate provinces of the kingdom is 
 concerned, the system is a complete failm-c. The raw materials — if we may so express 
 it — are aggregated, but not amalgamated; centralised, but not socialised. Composed 
 of different and hostile pro\'inces, conquered or transferred, each retains virtually its 
 nationality and peculiarities in language, manners, and religion ; and the government, 
 which keeps them in unwilling subjection, has no hold upon their sympathies. "It is 
 connected," says Laing, " only by two ties — that of the military army with its officers, and 
 that of the civil army with its functionaries. The material interests of the people, even 
 amongst themselves, are not amalgamated. There are no common interests, common laws, 
 common religion, common voice in the legislature, for their common centre, uniting all." 
 
 Nor has Prussia been more successful in the attempt to raise her military power above 
 that of the neighboiiring states. All the second-rate German states have, of necessit}-, 
 adopted the same principle, so that the effect has been that every government of Europe 
 is compelled to maintain a war establishment in the midst of profound peace, not only 
 to the exhaustion and embarrassment of its financial resources, biit to the injury of every 
 industrial interest, and throwing back the progress of civilization throughout Euroj)e by 
 the overwhelming predominance of the war spirit which it engenders and keeps alive. 
 Far from being strengthened by thus endeavouring to raise her military power above 
 that of her neighbours, Prussia is in reality weakened; whilst adding largely to her 
 expenditure, her natm-al resources are undeveloped through the injury done to the 
 industrial interests of the coimtry, and by the demoralization of its population. With 
 the danger arising to tlie crown itself by thus putting arms into the hands of a people 
 of mixed nationalities, upon the affections of a large proportion of whom it has no hold, 
 but rather the contrary, we have nothing to do here ; om* only object in referring to the 
 subject being to afford a more extended view of the land system in Prussia, and the 
 influences which retard the development of its resources. 
 
 In the year 1825 ]\Ir. Jacob was deputed by the British government to visit the 
 
 * The entanglement of tlic land in Prussia bad arrived at such a pitch a few years siace as to call for a legislative 
 measure to regulate it. 50.000,000 acres (the term used by Lnvergne is jouniaiu; wbicb, in Fleming's and Tibbing's 
 Freneb Dictionary, is stated to be used instead of arpent in many of the rural districts of France: the arpent is an acre 
 in some parts, atul an a^-ic and a half in others), the properly of 1,000.000 proprietors, were thrown into masses, according 
 to the districts, and the i)roportions awarded to each according to Ihclr scparalc chilms. 
 
PRUSSIAN AGRICULTURE. 119 
 
 produces of uortheni Eui'ope, for the purpose of ascertaining the state of agriculture in 
 the grain-exporting coimtries. The system of tlie subdivision of the land amongst the 
 rural population had been in operation eighteen years, so that a fair judgment might 
 be formed of its effect both upon the character of the people, and upon the productive 
 powers of the soil. This would undoubtedly have been the case had not the measures 
 of the government in other respects been at variance with the benefits conferred upon 
 them by the abolition of serfdom. We must, therefore, take the state of things as we 
 find them, being unable to judge except by analogy, how far the low state of agriculture 
 in Prussia is due to the system of small farming or proprietaries, or to the political 
 causes we have described. 
 
 At the period of Mr. Jacob's visit there were in Prussia 314,533 estates under fifty acres 
 in extent, and 2o7,31'7 of from fifty to 250 acres. There were also 608,400 adult male 
 Prussians, some of whom had each a small house of his own, whilst the remainder were 
 labourers for others, and did not possess either house or land, but were allowed by their 
 masters the use of a field for the support of one or two cows. It was possible for the 
 poorest young man, if intelligent, prudent, and self-denying, to pui'chase a farm or 
 garden for himself. 
 
 Mr. Jacob, in his report, does not tell us the state of the land in Prussia in regard to 
 the number or size of the farms, but is very explicit in speaking of the condition of the 
 peasant proprietors, as well as of those who work for wages. Neither of these have 
 their counterpart in any class in England. Their dwellings were built of boards, or of 
 stone put together without cement, and covered with shingles ; their food potatoes, rye, 
 or buckwheat ; their clothing is manufactured by themselves — the linen from flax or 
 hemp grown on their own patches of land, their woollens from the fleeces of their own 
 sheep. An earthen pot that would bear the fire was the most important article of 
 furniture. The honey produced by their bees served as a substitute for sugar; chicory 
 grown on their own land for coffee. Wood abounded everywhere for fuel, and was 
 burned in close stoves. Water was the only general beverage, theii' means not allowing 
 of either spirits or beer in common. 
 
 Nothing can illustrate the efieet of the military system upon the agriculture of 
 Prussia more sti'ongly than the fact that the land is chiefly cultivated by women and 
 girls, and that very few men are to be seen in the fields. The women are found in 
 numbers performing every operation of husbandry, even to digging — the most laborious 
 part — the men being either engaged in their military duties, or idling away tlieir time 
 amongst their comrades of the regiment. The account given by Mr. Jacob of the 
 condition of the rural population is confirmed by Laing and other more I'eeent writers. 
 Without capital or agricultural knowledge, and having no remunerative labour to employ 
 their spare time, the peasant proprietors have no chance of improving their condition. 
 
 The Prussian crown holds large landed property, which in Mr. Jacob's time was let 
 out in large farms at rentals ranging from 8d. to 4*. per acre according to the quality. 
 These crown tenants, however, do not appear to have been in much better condition or 
 circumstairces than the freeholders. ]\Ir. Jacob states that they had allowed the rents 
 to run in arrears for ten years, when the crown, finding that they were imable to pay 
 the back rents, consented to waive its claim, on condition that they would pay in future. 
 This they promised to do; but he states that it does not appear" they had been able to 
 fulfil their engagement. 
 
150 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND JIODKRN. 
 
 Under such circumstances the cultivation of the soil was necessarily at a low ebb. 
 The triennial system — a fallow and two crops of corn — was laniversally adopted, and tlie 
 produce was necessarily small. The following is the amount, according to Mr. Jficob, 
 of the actual return, in Pomerania, of the four principal grains : — 
 
 Bushels. Bushels. 
 
 Wheat sown 155,933 iiroduced 996,224 
 
 Eye „ 1,254,960 „ 4,383,584 
 
 : Barley „ 619,992 „ 2,757.688 
 
 Oats „ 1,245,701 „ 2,975,880 
 
 3,376,588 11,11.3,370 
 
 This gives a produce of only 3-pj of the seed sown of all kinds of cereals taken together, 
 
 or separately — 
 
 Wheat G^ 
 
 Kye 3-1^ 
 
 B^rfey ij% 
 
 Oats 2W 
 
 The value of laud at that period was very low. ]Mr. Jacob speaks of one farm of 
 3,800 acres of good sandy loam, chiefly arable, which was sold whilst he was in the 
 country for .€5,300, or not quite 405. per acre. Another farm of 4,200 acres of land of 
 inferior quality, which was mortgaged for £3,000, was put up for sale upon a foreclosure, 
 when it would not fetch enough to cover the mortgage, aud the creditor was obliged to 
 take it. This cost him little more than 14*. per acre ; but being a wealthy man he 
 could afford to expend j€3,000 more iipou it, and thus probably made it a more profitable, 
 because a more productive, occupation than the former owner had it in his power to do. 
 Such was the value of land in Prussia in 1825, since which the system of subdivision 
 has proceeded rapidly, without any change in the social or political condition of the 
 country, to relieve the peasant proprietors from the heavy ta.'c upon their time and 
 laboru, inflicted by the landwehr. The following was the distribution of the land 
 in 1852 :— 
 
 farms of from 1 to 4 acres .... 936,370 or 4890 per cent. 
 
 4 „ 19 „ . . . . 565,354 „ 2950 
 
 „ 19 „ 189 „ ... . 382,515 „ 1999 
 
 „ 189 „ 378 „ ... . 14,020 „ 073 
 
 ., above 378 , 17,003 „ 088 
 
 1.915,462* 10000 
 
 The above statement, which is taken from the official accounts of the Board of 
 Trade, exhibits an increase of more than 300 per cent, in the number of farms imder 
 350 acres. The following shows the mode in which the land is appropriated : — 
 
 Gardens, vineyards, and orchards 892,079 acres. 
 
 Arable land 30,094,640 „ 
 
 Meadows 5,266,449 „ 
 
 Permanent pastures 5,419,192 ,. 
 
 Forests 13.614,564 „ 
 
 Waste laud 13.529.614 ,. 
 
 68,816,538 
 
 • The Prussian statements are given in morgens, a measure to which we have nothing analogous in English. The 
 morijen coutaius about 101 perches Euglish measure. 
 
PRUSSIAN AGRICULTURE. 151 
 
 The entire produce of the principal crops in the year 1851 was as folloAVS : — 
 
 Wheat 3,674,063 quarters. 
 
 Rye 12,020,250 „ 
 
 Barley 3,600,000 „ 
 
 Oats 14218,125 
 
 Potatoes 52,593,750 „ 
 
 It is erideut from the abo\-e table that wheaten bread forms no part of the common 
 food of the Prussian people. INIr. Jacob states that from the time he left the iSTether- 
 iands, in passing through Saxony, Prussia, Poland, Austria, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, lie 
 never saw, either in the baker's shops, in the hotels, or at private tables, a loaf of 
 wheaten bread. The only form in which it could be obtained was that of small rolls, 
 and they were only seen when foreigners were at table. Since his time it has probably 
 come more into use amongst the wealthy classes, but still the quantity consumed is 
 comparatively small, the produce as stated above not allowing more than two Ijushels 
 per head per annum for the whole population. 
 
 Nor does that produce admit of any exportation of wheat of Prussian growth. It is 
 
 a well-known fact that the wheat exported from Dantzic, Konigsberg, and other 
 
 Prussian ports comes from the Polish provinces of Russia and Prussia, where the land 
 
 is good, and wheat is a principal crop. Rye bread is universally eaten, and, with 
 
 potatoes and buckwheat, forms the principal food of the peasantry, meat being a luxury 
 
 beyond their means. The following was the number of live stock, &c., in Prussia 
 
 in 1849 :— 
 
 Horses 1,575,417 
 
 Horned cattle 5,371,644 
 
 Sheep 16,296,928 
 
 Goats 584,771 
 
 Swine 2,466,316 
 
 Wool 35,853,242 lbs. 
 
 There were brought into cultivation between the years 1849 and 1852 2,768,880 
 acres of land previously waste, which was applied as follows : — 
 
 Gardens, &c 08,228 acres. 
 
 Arable land ; 1,195,110 „ 
 
 Meadow 170,067 „ 
 
 Permanent pasture 192,299 „ 
 
 Forest 1,143,176 „ 
 
 2,768,880 
 
 From the statements given above, it appears that the farms under four acres 
 amounted in 1825 to one half of the entire number, and they probably have considerably 
 increased since. The available land, exclusive of the forests, may now be assigned in 
 the following manner : — 
 
 936,570 farms averaging 2i acres 2,341,425 
 565,345 „ „ 10 „ 5,653,450 
 
 382,515 „ „ 60 „ 22,950,900 
 
 14,020 „ „ 250 „ 3,505,000 
 
 17,003 „ „ 300 „ 8,501,500 
 
 42,952,275 acres. 
 
 This, of course, is only an approximate division, there being no certain data on 
 the subject. It is sufficiently near to show the relative extent to which the different 
 
153 AGRICULTQUE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 grades of agriculturists hold the land. The table of produce is important as exhibiting the 
 agricultural results. It should^ liowever, be stated that the cultivation of the Silesian 
 beetroot for the manufactui-e of sugar, and for distilling, is extensively followed in 
 Prussia. In 1853 the quantity grown in that country and its dependencies, and consumed 
 by the sugar factories alone, amounted to nearly 1,000,000 tons, which, reckoning the 
 average produce at ten tons per acre, require an extent of 100,000 acres of land. The 
 potatoes may be reckoaed at twelve quarters or three tons per acre, which will make 
 the quantity of land under that root 4,049,480 acres. The triennial fallow deducts one- 
 third from the cultivated land, leaving 20,063,094 under crop. The entire produce of 
 cereal crops amounts, in round numbers, to 33,500,000 quarters. If we estimate these 
 at 2^ quarters per acre we have an aggregate of 13,400,000 acres under cereal crops. 
 The following is, therefore, the disposition of the arable land : — 
 
 L:nd under crop 20,0C3,094 acres. 
 
 AVheat, barley, rye, and 0dt3 ... 13 400,000 
 
 Potatoes 4,0-l'J,4S0 
 
 Beetroot ] 00,000 
 
 Other produce 2,513.fil4 
 
 20,003,094 acres. 
 
 The above estimate of the yield of cereal crops appears small ; but when, in addition 
 to the drawbacks upon agriculture we have referred to, it is added that the land of most 
 parts of Prussia proper is liglit and sandy, and that it is frequently subject to drought iu 
 summer, it will not be thought that the produce is understated. The most fertile and 
 best cultivated part of the kingdom is the Rhenish district. A recent estimate published 
 of the crops in those provinces makes the average produce of all the cereals amount 
 to thirty-three bushels per acre, according to the following table : — 
 
 Wheat 26 bushels per acre. 
 
 Rye 26 
 
 Barley .... .35 „ 
 
 Oats 48 
 
 Divided 4) 135 
 
 Average 33| bushels. 
 
 This, however, is an exceptional case, and does not represent the general yield of the 
 kingdom. Mr. Jacob's estimate makes the return only 3-ny of the seed so^m. If wc 
 average this at three bushels per acre it amounts to only IO5 bushels per acre of all 
 cereals, which is a little less than one-third the estimated return given of the Rhenish 
 provinces. Since Mr. Jacob's time, however, great advances have been made in 
 agriculture, through the exertions of the government, by instituting agricultiu-al asso- 
 ciations and shows. There is no doubt that the high price of grain the last few years, 
 and its free admission into the United Kingdom at a nominal duty, lias given a stimulus 
 to agriculture in Prussia, as well as in other maritime states. Incredible exertions have 
 been made in Prussia to stimulate the cultivation of the soil, and to improve the breeds 
 of domestic animals, particidarly sheep. In 1842 the " Landes (Economie Collegium" 
 was organized by the government; this is a consulting committee of agriculture, and 
 has the right of initiating any propositions the interests of agriculture may require. 
 This institution has been of essential service in establishing, and assisting in establishing, 
 various associations and committeesj and other leading measui'es, which have been 
 
PEUSSIAN AGRICULTURE. 
 
 153 
 
 eagerly responded to by the lauded proprietors. Instruction in agriculture \vas first 
 instituted by private individuals, but lias been taken up by the government, and there 
 are now four public agricultural institutions, namely, at Eldena, in Pomerania ; Proskau, 
 in Silesia ; Poppelsdorf, near Bonn upon the Rhine ; and Waldau, near Kouigsberg, the 
 ancient capital of Prussia. The following are some of the details of these institutes :— 
 
 
 Date of 
 formation. 
 
 Extent of 
 
 cultivation in 
 
 morgens. 
 
 Number of 
 professors. 
 
 Government 
 
 praiits. 
 
 Tlialers.* 
 
 1 
 Number of 
 pupils— 1860. 
 
 Eldena .... 
 Proskau . . . 
 Popjiclsdorf . 
 Waldau. . . . 
 
 1835 
 18-I.7 
 184.7 
 1858 
 
 1,605 
 
 8,926 
 
 128 
 
 1,677 
 
 a 
 5 
 5 
 5 
 
 4,720 
 7,070 
 6.951 
 7,000 
 
 50 
 fil 
 
 78 
 5t 
 
 An important measure has been undertaken by the Prussian government at the close 
 of 1860. We have already i-elated the steps taken to emancipate the serfs and give 
 them a portion of the lands formerly held by the seigneurs. This measure, however, 
 was never fully carried out to a complete settlement of the conflicting claims between 
 the emancipated serf and the seiguem*. The cause of this delay is, that in order to 
 avoid as much as possible the increase of the irritation the settlements might occasion, 
 the arrangements were left in a great measure to the amicable agreement between the 
 parties. "When this could not be effected, the law ordained that the metayer having the 
 hereditary beneficial occupation of an agricultural property, should render one-third, 
 and he who had not such hereditary tenure, one-half, to the seigneur. These conditions 
 might be executed either by a real surrender, in kind, of a third or half the land, or be- 
 holding that portion against an annual rent, payable in wheat or in money. A special 
 oflSce, employing numerous agents, was instituted to execute these arrangements, 
 according to the views of the government. 
 
 At the end of 1858 this office had completed the following operations : — 82,137 
 farms, comprising 5,471,629 morgens, were declared the property of the peasants who 
 cultivated them ; and 1,101,469 others had been freed from the onerous dues and 
 services with which they had been burthened. The indemnity paid to the ancient 
 proprietors had risen to 52,617,267 thalers (£8,171,414) iu cash on the spot, a rent in 
 money of 5,162,630 thalers (£756,661), and by a rent in kind, of 282,826 scheffels 
 (53,030 qrs.) of cereals. 1,613,644 morgens of land have been siuTcndered. Apart 
 from these operations relating to compact farms, they have pm'chased or liquidated the 
 several charges, assessed upon 54,852,958 morgens of arable lands, meadows, pastures, 
 forest, and commons. The fines in money have all been settled under the form of letters 
 o/ rewf, negociable, purchaseable, and destined to liquidation." f 
 
 The emancipation of the serfs, and the conversion of the class into freeholders, can only 
 be considered as a first step in the progress of agriculture ; and were there no influences 
 of a counteracting nature existing, to act as a drawback iipou the industry of the 
 country, and prevent the riu^al proprietors from reaping the benefit of the change, we 
 might expect that, in time, they woidd, like the ancient yeomen of England, become 
 sufiiciently enlightened to see the folly of adhering to antiquated systems of cultivation, 
 
 * The thaler is about 3«. IJc/. English. 
 
 t The above account of this important operation, which will effect the complete emancipation of the peasantry and of 
 land, is taken from the French Journal d'Ji/mullure I'raliijife of April 20, 1860. 
 
154 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 1)y which the soil is kept in a half-productive state. But the overwhelming operation 
 of the political institutions of the country, by which the whole population is placed 
 between two armies, civil and militarv^ and subject to the rigorous discipline of both, 
 while attached by constraint to the most poweiful of the two; when every thought, 
 word, and action of the peasant's life is subject to the scrutiny of these institutions, so 
 that the mind, as well as the body, is, in the strictest sense, the property of the state ; 
 when the moral and social character of eveiy individual is a stereotyped production 
 of the centralized power and authority of the government ; when, not content with 
 claiming the youth as soon as he arrives at an age to serve in the army, the government 
 takes charge of him from his infancy, superintending, by its own functionaries, his 
 education, and giving the bias to his mind, and dictating the track in which his every 
 thought must run dm-ing the entire course of his life ; — how is it possible that, under 
 such circumstances, any considerable progress can be made in a profession which 
 requii-es habits of thought and of action, free from any extraneous influence to fetter 
 and confine them to stereotyped rules ? 
 
 But even these are not all the disadvantages luider which the Prussian husbandman 
 labours, and against which he has to contend. His time and energies are monopolised 
 by the government to an extent that totally unfits him for the duties of his calling. 
 His profession of a soldier, to which he is bound for life, interferes with every arrange- 
 ment of his regular business to such an extent that, what with the harassing natui-e of 
 his military duties, and the desultory habits of life created by them, the peasant loses all 
 relish for his regular calling, and spends his time in idleness and dissipation, leaving the 
 cultivation of the laud to the females of the family. 
 
 Under such circumstances, the small properties of the peasants can barely produce 
 sufficient to support existence. Even the produce of the Rhenish farms is raised at an 
 expense that leaves but little profit for the cultivator. It is estimated at 69 fr. per 
 hectare (or 23s. 4d. per acre), and this was under the English system of cultivation j 
 and the narrator justly remarks, "What would this be if, instead of following the 
 precepts of alternate cropping we have indicated, they had obstinately followed the 
 ancient system of Charlemagne ? . . . . The laborious life, therefore, of the peasants of 
 Eifel was far from enriching them previous to the increase in the price of cereals, since 
 the period that supplied the items employed in our calculations. . . . Who knows if, 
 even dui'ing these last years, many of them have not found that the increased price of 
 the little produce they were able to take to the market has not made up to them the loss 
 in the deficiency of the harvest?" 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 AUSTRIAN AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Austria is now the only one of the great European powers (except England) that has 
 not adopted the system of a subdivision of the soil amongst the peasantry as a principle of 
 policy. A few of its dependencies— as Venetia, the Tyrol, and that which it has recently 
 lost, Lombardy — have long been subjected to it, and in these it is still in full operation. 
 
AU.STIUAX AGlilOULTUnE. 155 
 
 But in all the large uorthein states, Upper and Lower Austria proper, Hungary, 
 Bohemia, Moravia, &c., the ancient feudal system prevails in all its force, with the 
 exception of a few modifications; and the land is di^dded into large baronial estates, in 
 part occupied by the owners, and in part let out to tenants. 
 
 Austria, as at present constituted, comprehends twenty provinces, several of which 
 were transferred to her by the Congress of Vienna, in 1S15. At the same period the 
 ancient title of Emperor of Germany, of which the Austrian sovei'eign had been 
 deprived by Napoleon, was restored to him ; so that, in point of real political power 
 and territory, the Emperor of Austria occupied as high a position as at any former period 
 of historj'. This power, however, is based upon the greatness of his military forces, 
 rather than upon the affections of his subjects or the real union of the discordant 
 elements of which the empire is composed. The population, according to the most 
 recent accounts, is stated to be 37,443,633, having increased ten millions since 181G. 
 From this number the population of Lombardy must now be deducted, which will 
 probably reduce it by nearly three millions. The following is the distribution amongst 
 the provinces according to the census of 1852 : — 
 
 POPULATIONS OF THE AUSTRIAN STATES IN 1853: — 
 
 Lombardy 2,670,833 
 
 Venetia 2,257,200 
 
 Bohemia 4,347,902 
 
 Moravia and Silesia 2,250,594 
 
 Lower Austria 1,494,399 
 
 Upper Austria 856,694 
 
 Istria, Gortz, Trieste 500,101 
 
 Galicia aud the Bukoyiue 5,105,558 
 
 Hungary 11,000,000 
 
 Styria 1,003,074 
 
 Transylvania 2,182,710 
 
 Carynthia and Carniola 784,786 
 
 Dal'matia 410,988 
 
 Military frontiers 1,226,408 
 
 The Tyrol 859,250 
 
 The army 492,486 
 
 37,443,043 
 Deduct Lombardy .... 2,678,833 
 
 Total 34,764,210 
 
 Agriculture in Austria is in a very backward state, no progress having been made in 
 it during the last thirty years, if we except, to a certain extent, the archduchy of 
 Austria proper, and a few of the southern pi-ovinces. Many causes, to which we shall 
 have occasion to refer, have contributed to this, not the least of which is the stringent 
 protection granted to the native manufacturers of machinery, amounting to a prohibition 
 of foreign-made implements and instruments of husbandry. This compels the farmers 
 to purchase them at the dearest market, and of inferior construction; whilst the 
 continual interference and super\dsion of the government officials in this, as well as 
 every other industrial occupation, is of itself sufficient to account for the backward state 
 in which agriculture is now found in Austria. 
 
 The entire extent of the Austrian dominions is comprehended in an area of 
 300,000 square miles, or 192,000,000 statute English acres. Of land capable of cul- 
 
luG AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 tivation, tliere are 255,226 square miles, or 163,344,640 acres, of -n-hich 208,570 sciuare 
 milesj or 133,481,800 acres, are actually appropriated iu tlie following manner : — 
 
 Square miles. Acres. 
 
 .\rable land 91,300 58,432,000 
 
 Gardens, &c 3,040 1,94 5,600 
 
 Vineyards 4.090 2,617.600 
 
 Meadon-8 18,390 11,769,600 
 
 Permanent pastures 18,530 11,859,200 
 
 I'oresta 73,220 46,860,800 
 
 208,570 133,484,800 
 
 The following is tLe comparative per ceutage of cultivated land of Great Britain, 
 France, and Austria: — 
 
 Gt. Brilaiu. France. Austria. 
 
 Land under tillage 34 44 31 
 
 Vineyards, orchards, gardens, &c. ... 1 5 3 
 
 Grass land 40 14 17 
 
 Forest, plautations, copses, &c. ... 5 17 2G 
 
 Uuciiltivated 20 20 20 
 
 100 100 100 
 
 Comparative population per square mile . 220 165 130 
 
 The aggi'egate produce of cereals is variously estimated by Austrian statisticians, so 
 that much dependence cannot be placed upon them. The following are the estimates of 
 the most eminent writers on the subject : — 
 
 £ST1S1AT£S OF THE CROPS OF WHEAT, BARLEY, AND OATS l^i AUSTRIA Bt VARIOUS AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Liehlenstein 36,134,000 qrs. 
 
 Blumeubach 43,640,000 „ 
 
 Stein 45,820,000 „ 
 
 Hassell ■ 76,300,000 „ 
 
 MalcUus 88,070,000 „ 
 
 Other writers 93,600,000 „ 
 
 It is considered by those best acquainted with Austrian agricultiu'e, that Malchus is 
 the most reliable authority of any of the above. According to him, the proportions of 
 the produce of wheat, and the inferior cereals, are as follows : — 
 
 Wheat 38,080,000 qrs. 
 
 Barley aud oats 49,990,000 „ 
 
 88,070,000 „ 
 
 The quantity of seed sown to produce these results he estimates at 17,820,000 qrs., 
 which allows a return of about 4?- of the seed sown, taking the three cereals together. 
 The consumption of bread-corn amounts to 32,280,000 qrs., wliich allows six bushels, 
 three pecks, nine pints per head for the whole population. 
 
 Maize is extensively cultivated in Hungary, Galicia, Bohemia, and Lombardy. The 
 quantity produced is upwards of 5,000,000 qrs. Rice is also an object of attention 
 in the islands of the Adriatic around Venice, and many millions of quarters are pro- 
 duced. Tobacco is raised in most parts of the Austrian provinces; but the finest 
 iiuality of that weed is grown in Hungary. The entire quantity grown is about 
 35,000 tons, nearly one-half of which is Hungarian. 
 
 Most of the Austrian provinces are well provided with natural pastures, many of 
 wliich, on the banks of the mountain streams, aie very rich and fertile. But the 
 
AUSTRIAN AORICULTURE. 157 
 
 number of animals kept upon them is by no means adequate to the extent and excellence 
 of the pastures, being estimated as follows : — 
 
 Horsea 2,110,393 
 
 Horned cattle 10,495,456 
 
 Sheep 30,000,000 
 
 Mules and asses 59,000 
 
 The best horses are bred in the Bukovine and Transylvania, where the Turkish races 
 are generally kept. The Hungarian horses are light made, swift, hardy, and durable. 
 Those reared in ^lora^da and Bohemia are chiefly of the hea^y cart breeds. 
 
 The finest races of horned cattle arc bred in Hungary, Transylvania, Lombardy, 
 and Styria. In other parts, the native races prevail ; but the breeders are beginning 
 to cross them with others from Switzerland, Belgium, and other places. The price, 
 however, of butchers' meat is so low, that it holds out but little encoiu'agemeut to the 
 graziers to give much attention to the subject, the chief inducement to keeping them 
 being the raising a quantity of manure. In the purchase of cattle, the buyers look 
 more at the size than at tlie quality of those they select, and pay but little regard to race. 
 
 The rearing of sheep has been long the subject of special attention, both with the 
 landowners and the Austrian government. In the year 1761, during the reign of 
 Maria Theresa, the iSIerino breed was first introduced into Austria upon tlie imperial 
 domains of Mannersdorp and HoUitsch. The barons of Silesia, Moravia, Bohemia, and 
 Hungary followed the royal example, and became extensive flock-masters. Powerful 
 efforts were made to extend the breed, both of ^lerinos and the best of the English 
 types. The most active and eminent of those engaged in the enterprise were the 
 barons Bartenstein and Ehrenfels, Count Wrbna, Prince Lichnowski, counts Colloredo, 
 jMansfeldt, Hemyade, aird Karoly, and Messrs. Christian, Andree, and Bernard Petri. 
 These influential persons contributed largely to extend the breed of Merinos, which 
 from that time became the most important agricultm-al product of the empire, and 
 "the choicest jewel in the Austrian crown." Some of the nobles still possess immense 
 flocks of sheep. About the year 1808 or 1809, the writer was at Holkham .sheep- 
 shearing, when Prince Esterhazy was also present, who, in an after-dinner speech., 
 referred to the large flocks kept in his country. On being asked the number of his 
 own, he said he could not tell within a few thousands ; but he offered Mr. Coke a bet 
 of £10 that he had more shepherds on his estate than Mr. Coke had sheep on his farm. 
 The wager was accepted, and upon writing to his steward for the necessary information, 
 the prince gained it by one shepherd over Mr. Coke's flock. The prince (for he is still 
 alive) can travel sixty miles in a straight line from Vienna on his own land, and his 
 present flock consists of 260,000 ewes, besides lambs. At that time, it was upwards of 
 200,000 — the sheep, with theii' wool, being considered the most convertible produce of 
 the soil. 
 
 Less attention, however, has been paid to sheep of late years, owing to the minds of 
 the landowners having been diverted into other channels, as we shall presently have 
 occasion to show. Since 1818, too, owing to the unsettled state of the empire, both 
 cattle and sheep have declined in numbers and quality. But the recent advance in the 
 price of wool has again given a stimulus to the breeding of the latter, and the farmers 
 and large proprietors are directing their attention to the breeds of fine woollcd sheep. 
 On the other hand, the high price of all kinds of animal food in France and Prussia, in 
 
158 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 consequence of the increasing subdivision and morceUement of the land^ which operates 
 against the breeding and feeding of live stock, is likely still further to promote these 
 objects in Aiistria, especially now that railways are established in the latter country, 
 offering new facilities for the transmission of live cattle and sheep to all parts of 
 Germany, as well as to France. 
 
 There are two peculiarities connected with the agriculture of Austria of sufficient 
 importance to demand special notice, as having already exercised a powerful influence 
 upon its welfare, and being likely to affect it hereafter in a stUl greater degree. These 
 are, the establishment on all the large estates of works for the manufacture of sugar 
 from the Silesian beetroot, and others for the distillation of spirits (alcohol) from grain 
 or potatoes. 
 
 The first of these — the manufacture of sugar — had obtained a firm footing, both in 
 Prance, as we have already shown, and in most of the continental states from the 
 commencement of the present century; so that, without going again into its history, 
 we may state that, in the year 1853, the number of sugar-works, and the quantity of 
 beet consumed, was as follows : — 
 
 No. of works. Beet, in tons. 
 
 Prussia ISl 16,383,235 
 
 Its depeudencies 85 2,358,412 
 
 Bavaria 5 385,107 
 
 Saxony i 15'J,440 
 
 Wurtembm-g 4 628,763 
 
 Baden 2 1,150,789 
 
 Electoral Hesse 4 83,898 
 
 Thuringia 4 155,594 
 
 Brunswick 8 766,101 
 
 Fraukfort 1 27,510 
 
 298 22,067,849 
 
 The sugar produced from it was 1,51.0,^60 cwts., which allows an average yield of 
 7 per cent, of crystallized sugar, independent of the molasses and inegass, or residue, 
 both of which are valuable items in the account. 
 
 In was in the year 1830 that the first sugar-A\orks Avere established in Austria. 
 They were erected by Prince Oettengen-WoUerstein, on his estate at Kleenkerchel, near 
 Prague. About the same period other factories were established by Baron Stratendorf 
 at Bedeskau, in Bohemia; Prince Latour and Taxis at Dobrobit; Count Czernin at 
 Sudkal, Bohemia; Count CoUoredo Mansfeld at Stacy, in Lower Austria, and some 
 others of less note. Between 1830 and 1810, 115 factories were erected; but many 
 of these being on too small a scale to be profitable, they were, as was also the case in 
 France, abandoned. A few years since the number was reduced to 108, which consume 
 annually 303,170 tons of beetroot, from which is extracted 437,380 cwts. of crystallized 
 sugar, 183,100 cwts. of molasses, and 30,316 tons of residue. The latter is employed 
 in fattening cattle and swine. The quantity of land occupied in this culture is 
 13,000 hectares (31,687 statute acres), which allows an average produce of nine tons 
 per acre. The price of the raw beetroot varies from 19*. to oOs. per ton ; the prices 
 of the produce at the factory average about as follows : — 
 
 &, s. d. 
 
 Crystallized sugar 300 per ewt. 
 
 Molasses 5 2 „ 
 
 Residue 12 G per ton. 
 
AUSTRIAN AGRICULTURE. 159 
 
 At these prices, tlie original cost of the nuv beet is' about triplet!, and an ample profit 
 is realized by the manufacturer. It is estimated that the residue and the foliage of the 
 beetroot, which latter is also economised at the continental sugar-works, are sufficient 
 to maintain 6,500 oxen of the average size. Upwards of 20,000 persons are employed in 
 this manufacture during the five winter months, when out-door employment is almost 
 at a stand in northern Germany, and it is likely to be still further extended, having, at 
 present, scarcely been introduced into Hungary, Galicia, Croatia, or Sclavonia. It is a 
 question, howevei', whether it would pay the manufacturer in any latitude below 45° N., 
 it being well understood that the proportion of saccharine decreases as it approaches 
 the south. In the south of France it has been wholly abandoned on that account, the 
 yield of sugar not being large enough to afford a profit. 
 
 We shall next give an account of the introduction, development, and effects upon 
 the rural economy of Austria of the principle of agricultural distilleries, by which, 
 as well as by the beet-sugar movement, the two branches of industry — agriculture 
 arid manufacture — have been miited. 13oth took their rise under the same circum- 
 stances, namely, — the long continuance of extreme low prices of all kinds of agricultural 
 produce in the fifteen years succeeding the peace of 1815, with the exception of two 
 seasons, when the large deficiency in the cereal crops of the Continent rendered the 
 advance in prices unavailing, so far as the profits of the growers were concerned. The 
 ancient and close connection between distillation and husbandry, directed the attention 
 of the great land proprietors to this branch of industry as a last resource for the disposal 
 of the produce of the soil. 
 
 In many respects, Austria, as an agricultural country, was more unfavourably 
 situated than either France, Prussia, or Russia, in that she had no outlets for her 
 produce near to, or convenient for, the great markets of Western Europe. Trieste, at 
 the head of the Gulf of Venice, and the Danube, are the only channels of egress by 
 water she possesses; and at the period to which we refer (1830) there were no railroads 
 in Geimiany, whilst the wretched condition of the public roads, and the great distance 
 it would have been necessary to traverse to get the produce to a good market, were 
 insuperable obstacles — especially when low prices prevailed for a length of time — to an 
 export trade of any value to the landed interest. Both by land and water, therefore, 
 her corn and cattle growers were shut out from the disposal of their produce when its 
 value sunk below a certain ratio. Such was the case up to 1830, after the peace, when 
 the establishment of agricultural distilleries was determined on as the only alternative 
 presenting itself likely to preserve the value of the estates, by affording a means for a 
 profitable disposal of the produce. 
 
 At the present time there are about 16,000 distilleries in the Austrian dominions. 
 These were, we believe, at first, employed exclusively in distillation from grain ; but as 
 the price of cereal produce advanced throughout Europe, it was found more profitable to 
 employ potatoes, on account of the comparative largeness of the acreable yield. The 
 quantity of the tubers consumed, according to the statements from which we quote, 
 amounts to 1,250,000 tons annually, which at the rate of three tons per acre, would 
 require an extent of land of -416,666 acres. The quantity of raw spirit extracted from 
 them is 63,828,039 imperial gallons, being 30 per cent, of the raw material. The residu:- 
 amounts to 462,203,028 gallons, which is employed in fattening cattle and pigs. It is 
 estimated that the above quantity will feed 60,000 head of cattle of the average size, 
 
160 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND IMGDERN. 
 
 tlie dung from -whicli will manure -1'1,968 acres of land. This, lio^rcver, falls far short 
 of the quantity of land employed in the cultivation, as stated ahove ; and it is therefore 
 evident that the manufacture must be exhausting and deteriorating to the soil without a 
 large outlaj^ for other manure. 
 
 It is assumed by the advocates of the system, that these two branches of manufac- 
 ture have alone saved the lauded interest of Austria from utter ruin, and the soil itself 
 from being abandoned to sterility. Whatever might have been the case in 1830, — and 
 it is admitted that the state of the country was one of great difficulty with the 
 agriculturists, — it was the same in other countries as well as Austria ; and we rather 
 fear that, eventually, it will be found that the effects are injurious both to the agricul- 
 turists and to the country at large. That the distillation is profitable is evident ; and, 
 so far, proprietors arc benefited, whilst the labouring peasantry are furnished with 
 employment. But that agriculture will suffer from the exhaustion of the soil, and by 
 the diversion of capital and land from the cultivation of green and cereal productions is 
 equally clear. Nor is it less unfavourable to progress and improvement in agriculture, 
 that the mind and attention of the husbandman is divided between two incongruous 
 occupations, which, although dependent one on the other for success, vrere never 
 intended to be united. The proof of the correctness of the opinion that the soil will be 
 deteriorated, is found in the small return of 4| of the seed sown, of the three cereal 
 crops (wheat, barley, and oats), and the inattention paid of late years to the breeding 
 of cattle and sheep. The temptation of an immediate market for the potatoes and 
 beetroot has led the farmers to neglect other and equally important cultures, to the 
 destruction of good farming, and, consequently, to the material interests of the country. 
 
 Nor is it true that the alternative adopted by the land proprietors of Austria was 
 either the only one or the best that was left to them. It cannot be that the owners and 
 occupiers of the rich and generous soil of Aiistria could be permanently reduced to such 
 a condition as not to be able to derive suljsistence from it, were there not other circum- 
 stances of a social or political nature operating against them. The soil is not so sparing 
 of its gratitude to those who do it justice, as to refuse to the labouring husbandman 
 the due reward of his toil. Unfavourable seasons may and will thwart his efforts and 
 reduce his profits, as is the ease with all industrial employments ; but that where the 
 proper means are used for cultivating the soil, it cannot permanently refuse or cease to 
 yield a profit to the cultivator in so populous a country as Austria is a self-evident 
 proposition. Had the same capital, too, expended in the erection and working of the 
 16,000 distilleries, been bestowed on improvements of the land, and in the purchase and 
 breeding of superior races of animals on the rich pastures of Austria, the value of the 
 estates would have proportionately increased, the returns of produce doubled, and the 
 general results been infinitely more beneficial to the country at large. 
 
 This will be still more manifest if the effect on the moral and physical condition 
 of the rural population is taken into the account. The consequences of having a 
 manufacture of ardent spirits on every estate or large farm in the country, the pro- 
 prietors of which have a direct interest in endeavouring, by all the means in their 
 power, to increase the local consumption of the product, is necessarily calculated to 
 create first a taste, and then a thirst for it; and such has actually been the case in 
 Austria. "\Mth the view of disposing of as much of the alcoholic drink as possible on the 
 spot, the distiller sells to the farmer on credit, to 1)C paid when the crop of potatoes is 
 
AUSTRIAN AGRICULTURE. 161 
 
 ready for sale, out of wliich, lie, being the only purcliaser, pays himself by deducting 
 the amount of the credit from that of the crop. The peasantry are also enticed by 
 the spirit-dealers, who abound in every village and hamlet, to expend -yvith them their 
 earnings. The consequence is, that the whole rural population of the country, both 
 farmers and labourers, have become addicted to the habitual use of ardent spirits, to the 
 debasement and deterioration of both bodily and mental powers, as will readily be 
 believed by those who are acquainted with the common effects arising from an habitual 
 resort to alcoholic liquors. Such a resnlt is inevitable in all cases, and Austria at this 
 moment presents a melancholy illustration of it on a gigantic scale. ''As to the con- 
 sequences," says a late writer, in speaking on this subject, " as to the moral and physical 
 consequences of the immoderate use of brandy, they speak for themselves. Oalicia 
 exhibits examples which deserve to be studied ; and they have been amply exposed and 
 brought to light, in the publications of those writers and temperance societies which have 
 imdertaken to struggle against the use of alcoholic liquors."* 
 
 That a greater attention to the improvement of the soil and the rearing of cattle and 
 sheep in Austria would, in the end, be equally remunerative and far more beneficial to 
 the country, cannot admit of a doubt. The supply of butcher's meat in Austria is much 
 below the demand, and it requii'es a large importation, amounting to one million sterling, 
 to make up the deficiency. The impolicy of thus depending on a foreign supf)ly, 
 abounding, as Austria does, in pastures of the richest description, is evident. Even the 
 breeding of horses is very little attended to, and the selection of stallions and mares, with 
 the exception of a few spirited instances to the contrary, is made without any regard to 
 excellence of race. The same indifference is displayed in the choice of breeding cattle, 
 the native races being still generally adhered to, although very inferior in symmetry and 
 quality of meat. The breeders are said to be guided in their choice by size, rather than 
 by excellence in other respects. 
 
 After the outburst of revolutionary feeling in 1848, the Emperor of Austria con- 
 sidered it politic to make some concessions to the wishes of the landed interest. One of 
 the most important of these was the abolition of the corvee or statute labour, which 
 pressed hea^dly upon the industry of the farmers, whose services were demanded at those 
 periods when their labour was most needed on th sir own land. The increase in the value 
 of agricultm-al produce of every kind, coupled with this concession of partial freedom 
 from feudal service, has stimulated cultivation, and given rise to the establishment of 
 various manufactories of implements and machines of husbandry at Vienna, Prague, 
 Pesth, Limberg, Gratz, Andutz, Hohenmausen, &c. The threshing machine has super- 
 seded the flail, and the drill, hand-sowing, in the more advanced districts : the native 
 plough, too, has been exchanged for one of modern construction ; in short, all the modern 
 instruments of western Europe are gradually finding their way into the rui-al economy of 
 Austria. But whilst, as is the case, the cultivators consider a regular and improved 
 system of tillage ruinous to their interests, it is impossible that any efi'cctual progi'ess 
 can be made ; and the chances against it are still further increased by the general 
 opinion that the prosperity of the landowners depends upon the upholding a domestic 
 manufacture that has already proved destructive alike of the moral and physical welfai-e 
 of the people, and of the productive powers of the soil, whilst it absorbs the capital 
 that might otherwise be beneficially employed in agricultural improvement. 
 
 * Eugene Marie. — See "Journal d' Agriculture Pratique," August 5, 1857. 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 AGKICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OP THE GERMAN UNION. 
 
 The German Union is one of those political combinations forced upon weak neigliljouring 
 states for the general safety of the whole body, or of individual members of the confedera- 
 tion, against the aggressive attacks of the greater powers. Yet there are elements in 
 German politics that render it doubtful whether, in case of such aggression on the part 
 of any one of the great European powers, the Union could be maintained in its integrity ; 
 or whether, at the first hint of war, it would not, as in the time of the first Napoleon, 
 yield at once to the pressure of circumstances ; and each state, guided by self-interest, 
 or self-preservation, decide, as policy dictates, to remain neuter, or even to join the 
 strongest party. The discordant elements of which the Union is composed, have too 
 many individual interests to allow them to act in perfect harmony against what ought to 
 be viewed as a common danger ; and those which, by their geographical position, may be 
 the most exposed to the ravages of an enemy, would probably be the first to endeavour 
 to propitiate the aggressor by deserting the Union and allying itself to the enemy. 
 
 This constant anticipation of war, and the necessity of being prepared to repel an 
 attack, is the great drawback upon the industrial institutions of the continental states, 
 and especially that of agriculture, which depends so much for its success and progress 
 upon the undisturbed efforts and energy of the rui'al population. The maintenance of 
 military establishments, of enormous magnitude, in times of profound peace, involving 
 the compulsory service of the whole, or of a large portion, of the male rural population, 
 in order to prepare them for war, is only second, in its consequences on industry, to a 
 state of actual warfare. Pity it is, that the great powers of the Continent cannot see 
 that the true interests of the people are best secured by the continuance of peace, and 
 that the reduction of those immense armaments which modern policy has reared, would 
 be the surest means to promote the progressive prosperity of their kingdoms.* 
 
 The German Union, as at present constituted, comprises thirty-five sovereign states, 
 two of which, Prussia and Austria, we have already had under review. The largest of 
 those yet to be considered are Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtembm-g, Mecklenburg Schwerin, 
 Hanover, Holstein, Baden, &c. The following is the extent of profitable territory of 
 each, according to the most recent authorities : — 
 
 states. 
 
 Under titlag:e. 
 
 Meadows. 
 
 Garden. 
 
 Wine Land. 
 
 Woods and 
 Forests. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Austria 
 
 Prussia 
 
 Bavaria 
 
 Wurtemburg . . . 
 
 Baden 
 
 Electorate of llesse . 
 Grand Duchy of Hesse 
 
 Nassau 
 
 Saxoner 
 
 Acres. 
 
 15,322,812 
 
 18,887,581 
 
 8,326.641 
 
 2,448,859 
 
 1,444,628 
 
 879,228 
 
 976,564 
 
 433,390 
 
 1,839,939 
 
 Acres. 
 
 5,217,162 
 
 8,074,151 
 
 2,589,024 
 
 686,369 
 
 391,129 
 
 256,757 
 
 266,851 
 
 121,123 
 
 412,578 
 
 Acres. 
 
 326,110 
 
 493,958 
 
 213,859 
 
 94,682 
 
 34,690 
 
 447,906 
 
 365,895 
 
 4,415 
 
 104,090 
 
 Acres. 
 
 413,732 
 
 38,421 
 
 79,487 
 
 64,347 
 
 51,307 
 
 788 
 
 23,341 
 
 9,462 
 
 4,415 
 
 Acres. 
 
 15,850,837 
 
 8,866,652 
 
 5,622,170 
 
 1,493,864 
 
 1,227,641 
 
 948,153 
 
 685,107 
 
 493,327 
 
 1,131,121 
 
 Acres. 
 
 37,130,053 
 36,360,703 
 16,831,181 
 
 4,788,121 
 3,149,401 
 2,532,832 
 2,317,758 
 1,061,723 
 3,492,143 
 
 Carried over . . 
 
 50,559,648 
 
 18,015,144 
 
 2,085,611 
 
 685,300 
 
 36,318,872 
 
 107,664,575 
 
 * In the year 1850, the regular armies of Europe amounted to 3,139,823 men, but they have been largely increased 
 since then. France, for iustance, had only 265,463 soldiers, but has now between 600,000 and 700,000 under arms. 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF THE GERMAN UNION. 
 
 1G3 
 
 states. 
 
 Uuder tillage. 
 
 Meadows. 
 
 Garden. 
 
 Wine Land. 
 
 Woods and 
 Forests. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Brought forward 
 
 50,559,648 
 
 18,015,144 
 
 2,085,611 
 
 685,300 
 
 36,318,872 
 
 107,664,575 
 
 "Weimar 
 
 494,944, 
 
 81,380 
 
 18,294 
 
 473 
 
 225,214 
 
 820,305 
 
 Coburg Gotha . . . 
 
 278,837 
 
 34,690 
 
 7,570 
 
 . 
 
 140,049 
 
 401,152 
 
 Altenburg .... 
 
 212,597 
 
 23,972 
 
 10,724 
 
 
 ■ 66,239 
 
 313,532 
 
 Meineugen .... 
 
 249,187 
 
 43,528 
 
 13,247 
 
 
 226,476 
 
 532,438 
 
 Hanover .... 
 
 2,752,413 
 
 1,600,154 
 
 168,438 
 
 
 1,302,084 
 
 5,829,089 
 
 Brunswick .... 
 
 240,030 
 
 74,440 
 
 15,771 
 
 
 299,655 
 
 629,896 
 
 Oldenburg .... 
 
 464,939 
 
 155,190 
 
 27,126 
 
 
 232,099 
 
 879,354 
 
 Mecklenburg Schwerin 
 
 2,242,261 
 
 287,038 
 
 40,374 
 
 
 372,834 
 
 2,942,507 
 
 Mecklenburg Strelitz 
 
 425,826 
 
 43,528 
 
 7,570 
 
 
 135,633 
 
 612,557 
 
 Luxemburg .... 
 
 281,360 
 
 61,823 
 
 10,093 
 
 1,716 
 
 199,294 
 
 554,286 
 
 Limburg .... 
 
 152,666 
 
 164,022 
 
 8,210 
 
 
 32,804 
 
 357,702 
 
 Holstein .... 
 
 1,463,793 
 
 316,688 
 
 25,234 
 
 
 167,807 
 
 1,973,522 
 
 Lauenburg .... 
 
 173,484 
 
 29,650 
 
 4,418 
 
 
 29,650 
 
 237,202 
 
 Other States . . . 
 Totals . . 
 
 1,186,636 
 
 237,210 
 
 35,327 
 
 i,198 
 
 592,727 
 
 2,053,098 
 
 61,178,621 
 
 21,174,463 
 
 2,478,007 
 
 688,687 
 
 40,341,437 
 
 125,861,215 
 
 The hest cultivated states are Holstein and Mecldenbui'gj where the improved system 
 of husbandry is practised. After these come Hanover, Brunswick, Bohemia, Saxony, &c. 
 In Swartzbm-g, Reuss, Prussia, Bohemia, and Saxony there are extensive manufactures 
 of woollen cloths, which employ a great portion of the populations. In Mecklenburg the 
 land is chiefly divided into large farms, some of them containing 2,000 acres. These 
 are laid out in five or six fields, each of which is wholly sown with one kind of 
 grain, alternately. In Wurtemburg, on the contrary, the soU is subdivided into small 
 properties, many of which do not contain more than from four to sixteen perches each. 
 These are rather gardens than farms, and the occupiers, whether proprietors or tenants, 
 are too poor to attempt any improvements, nor, indeed, can there be much room for it. 
 Nearly three-fourths of the Germans are employed in agriculture, the major part being 
 small owners of the land. These live in a far inferior condition to that of the English 
 or Scotch labourer : their chief food is rye or buckwheat bread, and potatoes, no 
 animal food ever falling to their share. No German peasant can hope to rise above 
 the caste to which he belongs. He may acquire property, and fi-equently does so ; but 
 the possession of wealth can give him no title or privilege beyond that of using his 
 money for his own benefit ; nor does it raise him in the social scale, or add to his political 
 influence or character. He cannot interfere in any political question, however deeply 
 he may be interested, nor take part in any of the national movements of the day. His 
 existence, as a member of the body politic is a blank, and his function in the state is 
 limited to his physical capabilities as a soldier, to which occupation he is inevitably des- 
 tined, after arriving at a certain age, as we have already shown in the case of Prussia. 
 Any strong expression of opinion on political affairs, whether by word of mouth, or 
 writing, or printing, would assuredly bring the delinquent under the ban of authority, 
 and be followed with condign punishment. 
 
 In many respects, however, the Germans are in a far superior condition to the 
 French, in that they have more social and civil freedom, and enjoy more of the domestic 
 element in private life. Their communes, or parishes, are, like those of the United 
 Kingdom, self- governed, the general government assuming no jurisdiction over them. 
 This privilege is of veiy ancient date, having existed from the commencement of the 
 organization of society. It is peculiarly a German institution, from which our own was 
 derived. It is this nucleus of freedom that has enabled the Germans to make what pro- 
 gress they have done, in spite of the adverse influences by which they are held down. It 
 
 m2 
 
164 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 is not, however, consistent with the policy of the governments in other respects, that the 
 industrial institutions of these countries should enjoy freedom. To bring them finan- 
 cially under official surveiUauce the zollverein was established, by which the thirty-five 
 states of the Confederation have adopted a system of customs' duties, which compels 
 the people to purchase at the dearest rate aU articles of consumption and manufacture. 
 
 The outburst of political feeling of 1848 led the continental governments to grant 
 some beneficial reforms ; amongst which were, the abolition of tithes, the corvee, or com- 
 pulsory labom*, and the law of entail. These useful measures have not yet been fully 
 carried out, but so far as they have been, the land is relieved fi-om its most injurious 
 and oppressive burthens, which acted as prohibitory restraints upon improvement, and 
 were harassing in the extreme to the occupiers of land. What is still wanted in Germany 
 is a closer and more general union of industrial interests and institutions, thereby to 
 combine the several states in a grand organization of manufacturing and agricultural 
 enterprise. A plan of this kind was contemplated in 1848, so far as agriculture was 
 concerned, and could it have been carried into effect, all the agricultural societies of 
 Germany would have been centralised, or, at least, brought into communication with 
 each other, which would have afibrded the means of difi'using information on subjects 
 relating to rural economy throughout the length and breadth of the Continent ; but tlie 
 reaction that succeeded the revolutionary movements of that year rendered any 
 measure of the kind impossible, the various governments having imbibed a wholesome 
 horror of all combinations of the people, except in uniform and military array. 
 
 Germany, however, is far from being destitute of agricultural societies. They 
 existed previously to 1848, but in a very inefficient state. Since that year they have 
 sprung into activity in every one of the thirty-five sovereignties of the Union, by which 
 upwards of 120 periodicals on agi-icultural subjects are issued. By these an immense 
 amount of valuable information is disseminated; although, owing to the jealousy of the 
 governments of a free expression of opinion on matters of a political nature, interfering 
 with, and retarding the progress of, industry, these sources of knowledge can never be 
 fully developed. This taboo on all matters relating to the policy of government is the 
 bane of all industrial enterprise on the Continent, poisoning the very sources of pros- 
 perity, and preventing the possibility of national progress. One only of all the agricul- 
 tural societies of Germany can be said to be allowed its full development, — that of 
 Bavaria, which demands a distinct and honoiu'able notice, as being under the patronage 
 of a sovereign, who, contrary to all the established usages of continental administra- 
 tions, is not afraid to allow his people political rights under an organization that 
 would be looked upon by his brother sovereigns as dangerous to their authority, if not 
 to their existence.* 
 
 The Bavarian Agricultural Society had been in existence for some years previous to 
 1852 ; but in that year, under the protection of the sovereign, it was entirely reorganized 
 and formed into a corporation, representing the whole agricultural interest of Bavaria. 
 It is divided into provincial societies and land commissariats, the latter of which are 
 synonymous with the French sub-prefectures. At the head of each of these there is a 
 committee of seven members elected popu^larly by the rest of the members. Each 
 committee selects from amongst themselves a president ; and at the head of the whole 
 
 * The following account is derived from the Journal d' Agricidiure Pralit/tie, and was drawn np by Messrs. Villeroy 
 and Muller. 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF THE GERMAN UNION. 165 
 
 there is, at Municli, a central committee, the members of which are also elected directly 
 by the society. 
 
 Each committee has the right of holding general meetings, at which not only all the 
 members of the society are there of rigid, but all cultivators and friends of agricultui-e 
 are invited to be present. For the decisions adopted in a general assembly, besides the 
 members of the committee, six members chosen by election from amongst the cultivators 
 forming part of the society, vote conciuTently with the committee. 
 
 Each year, at the agricultural fete of the province, the local agricultural societies 
 meet in general assembly, to which each society of the Land Commissariat sends one of 
 its members. These delegates join in the discussion of the questions brought before 
 them, and take the decisions. At the beginning of October the general committee of 
 Munich convokes an assembly, to which each province ought to send two members. 
 To this assembly the government communicates the measures relating to agriculture 
 before submitting them to the Chamber of Deputies, as well as ordinances, however 
 important, before they are definitively adopted. 
 
 At the head of the agricultural society is his Majesty the King, as protector. A 
 regular account of the operations of the society is rendered to him, in which he takes 
 the most lively interest. It is to this circumstance that the society is in a great measure 
 indebted for its rapid development, and that the decisions of the society exist, not only 
 upon paper, but are certainly taken into consideration by the administrative authorities. 
 These latter must be previously made acquainted with all the deliberations of the 
 committee, whether at their regular meetings, or when the whole society is convoked ; 
 and it is required to have a representative present at these assemblies, in order to 
 furnish the intelligence that may be required, and which it has at its disposal. The 
 representative of the administration has no deliberative voice in the assembly. 
 
 The committees are thus corporate bodies and representatives of the administrative 
 authority in all that concerns the interests of agricultui-e. The Committee of the Land 
 Commissariat co-operates with the Land Commissioner; the Provincial with the 
 President of the Regent of the Pro'V'ince, and the general committee with the minister. 
 The society has not only the right of discussing questions submitted to it, but also of 
 offering propositions, and exposing its grievances, if it has any. 
 
 It is evident that a society thus constituted, and enjoying such privileges, may in 
 certain circumstances acquire great national importance. And as it is, above all, 
 composed of proprietors and farmers, it cannot fail to exercise a salutary influence over 
 the government of the state. 
 
 Each section of the society, each society of the Land Commissariat, as of the 
 Province, is completely independent in its internal administration, and dispenses freely, 
 according to the local requirements, of the means it has at its disposal. These means 
 are derived from the annual subscriptions of two florins forty-five cruitzers (about 4s. \0d. 
 English) each membei", and the government grants, those of the Provinces, and the Land 
 Commissariat. The first of these grants is determined by the Chambers, and amounts 
 to 30,000 florins, or £2,600 per annum. 
 
 The members of the society receive a journal edited by the Central Committee, and 
 which appears monthly. The society consists, at present, of upwards of 18,000 members. 
 This is a large number for a state, the population of which is only 4,000,000. It is 
 annually increasing. Up to the present time, it is chiefly by the distribution of prizes 
 
166 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and agricultural shows tliat the society has sought to exercise its influence. These 
 distributions and festivals draw the public attention to agriculturCj stimulate the culti- 
 vatorSj andj above all, tend to improve the breeds of cattle and sheep ; but the shows 
 are too frequent. Each Land Commissariat will have its festival, and the prizes are 
 necessarily so small that they do not tempt the breeders to make serious efforts j 
 besides which they are awarded •without any preconcerted plan, and progress can never 
 be rapid where no determined object is previously held out ; but it must not be forgotten 
 that the society is still young, and that until its plan of operations and designs are well 
 understood by the inhabitants of the rural districts its action cannot be fully developed. 
 The Central Committee of Mimich expends the funds at its disposal in the encourage- 
 ment of special branches ; and it has already done much, particularly in the improvement 
 of the breeds of cattle and sheep, and in the multiplication of fish. 
 
 Such is the history of the Bavarian Agricidtural Society, which as a model institution 
 exercises a considerable influence throughout Germany. All the states have now their 
 organized agricultural institutions, recently established, whilst those that existed 
 previously have received uew life and energy from the Bavarian example. 
 
 There are three systems of husbandry practised in Germany ; first, the three-field 
 husbandry J secondly, the four-field; and thirdly, a system peculiar to Holstein and 
 INIecklenburg, by which the farm is divided into a number of large fields of equal size, 
 which, after several years of eorn-beai'ing, are allowed to remain from three to seven 
 years under a fallow, or in grass for summer grazing. Under the three-field system, 
 a three-coru'se husbandly is managed thus : one third of the land of a farm is under 
 winter corn, another third imder spriag or summer corn, and the third is in fallow. 
 This last is sometimes sown with peas or potatoes. The four-field husbandry appears 
 the most raticmal of the three, the principle being that no field shoidd be sown with 
 corn two consecutive years, or without, at least, one year's fallow intervening. The 
 course of crops is — fii-st year rye, the second clover, the thii-d oats or barley, the fourth 
 potatoes, the fifth winter com. 
 
 The gi-eater part of the wheat grown in Germany is exported, very little wheaten 
 bread being consumed by the growers. Rye, barley, and buckwheat bread, with 
 potatoes, constitute the chief food of the rural population. Even in the large towns and 
 cities it is difficult to procure wheaten bread ; and English travellers usually take some 
 with them if they wish to be supplied with it. 
 
 The -Naneyards of Germany, like those of France, are a soiu'ce of large revenue to the 
 proprietors. The extent of land appropriated to them, as has been already shown, is 
 092,737 acres, of which that of Austria amounts to nearly one-third. The (quantity of 
 mne produced annually in the German imion is 3,000,000 eimers,* the value of which, 
 on the spot, is £3,000,000 sterling. 
 
 We have already spoken of the breeding of sheep in Austria and Prussia; this 
 branch of rural economy has been much attended to in several of the other states, the 
 chief of which arc Saxony, Silesia, and Bohemia. Moravia and Westphalia are famous 
 for their swine ; and the best horses are bred in Mecklenburg and North Hanover. 
 The Spanish Merino sheep were introduced into Saxony about the middle of the last 
 century, and were sedulously attended to by the sovereign, who also patronised the 
 manufacture of woollen cloths. Saxony, as is well known, for many years produced the 
 
 * The Prussian eimer is eighteen imperial gallons. 
 
THE AGEICULTURE OF THE GERMAN UNION. 
 
 167 
 
 best superfine broadcloths in tbe worldj and its wool was eagerly sought for by the 
 English cloth manufacturers. The mountainous parts of the country are particularly 
 adapted to the Merino sheep, and large flocks of them are fed there. Of late years, 
 however, the Australian wool has, to a great extent, taken the place of the continental 
 wools in the English market, being now quite equal to the wools of Saxony in fineness 
 and quality, and of a longer staple. The following table will show the gradual increase 
 of the former, and the decrease of the latter since the year 1815, at intervals of five 
 yearSj up to 1860 : — 
 
 
 1815. 
 
 1820. 
 
 1825. 
 
 1830. 
 
 1835. 
 
 Australian . . 
 German . , 
 
 72,171 
 3,135.438 
 
 99,415 
 5,113,424 
 
 320,995 
 28,799,661 
 
 1,967,309 
 26,073,882 
 
 4,210,301 
 23,798,186 
 
 
 1840. 
 
 1845. 
 
 1850. 
 
 1855. 
 
 1860. 
 
 Australian . . 
 German . . . 
 
 9,721,248 
 21,812,664 
 
 24,177,317 
 18,484,736 
 
 39,918,221 
 9,166,731 
 
 49,142,106 
 6,128,626 
 
 
 The small quantity of German wool imported into the United Kingdom in the two first 
 periods is. fully accoimted for by the state in which Germany was left at the conclusion 
 of the war, after having been ovemm and ravaged by the immense armies alternately of 
 France and of the allied powers. Whether as friends or as enemies, their presence was 
 equally destructive of agricultm-e, and wasteful of the resources of the countries through 
 which they passed. At present the woollen manufactories of Germany consiime the 
 greatest portion of the wool grown there, now that the demand in the United Kingdom 
 is supplied fi-om her own colonies. 
 
 Tobacco is extensively cultivated in most of the German states, but particularly in 
 the Rhenish provinces, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, in Hesse, Bavaria, &c. In Baden, 
 since the disease has attacked the vine, and rendered its culture precarious, the vineyards 
 have been rooted up, and the land cultivated to a considerable extent with tobacco, for 
 which the soil is well adapted. Some of the farmers plant half their land with this 
 exhausting crop, which gives no return of manure, and must therefore necessarily 
 impoverish the soil, unless its fertility is kept up by artificial manures. 
 
 The same cause which has suggested the extension of the tobacco culture in Baden, 
 has given rise to the establishment of breweries, particularly in Bavaria and Rhenish 
 Prussia. A few years ago beer was scarcely seen in old Bavaria, and now the breweries 
 of that coimtry consume upwards of 1,000,000 qitarters of barley per annimi, which 
 allows an average of about 2^ bushels to every head of the population. In the Rhenish 
 provinces a company has been formed for brewing, on a large scale, English porter and 
 ale. It is difficult, however, to induce a people to alter their habits of living ; and it is 
 probable that, should the vine recover its former vigour and health, the population of 
 those comitrics in which it was cultivated will revert to their ancient favourite beverage. 
 
 In Prussia proper, Hanover, and other parts of northern Germany, immense quantities 
 of beer are drank by aU classes. It is almost incredible how much of that heavy 
 beverage some of the most respectable of the middle class will take in the course of 
 one day. 
 
168 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODEEN. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 THE AGRICDLTURE OF SWITZERLAND. 
 
 There are some peculiarities iu the Swiss management of their little properties that 
 render them objects of considerable interest. If there is any country in which the 
 subdivision of the land into small farms is found to be beneficial to the occupiers, it is 
 where they add to it the business of a manufactui-er. It is this that distingiiishes the 
 cottier farmers of the north of Ireland from those of the west and south, nearly all of 
 them, or their families, having other means of gaining a livelihood than that of 
 husbandry. Some of them are linen weavers, others lace makers ; whilst vast numbers 
 of the females are employed in the " sewed muslin trade," which is can-ied on to an 
 enormous extent from Belfast to Dublin, in both of which, and at some intennediate 
 towns, extensive establishments exist for its prosecution. The consequence is, that the 
 condition of the peasantry of Ulster and part of Lcinster is far superior in point of 
 comfort and cleanliness, and the little farms better cultivated, than in the purely 
 agricultural provinces of Munster and Connaught. 
 
 Switzerland presents another example of similar advantages, derived from this union 
 of the two occupations of husbandry and manufacture, by which all the individuals of a 
 family are at all times and seasons profitably employed. During the winter months, 
 when out-door work is suspended, except that of attending to the cattle, the peasantry 
 occupy themselves in different employments peculiar to the different cantons. Thus, 
 in those of Saint Gaul, Appenzel, and Zm'ich, linen and cotton fabrics are woven, whilst 
 in the environs of Basle silk goods are manufactured, and in the Jm-a, of which Geneva 
 is the capital, the construction of clocks and watches is extensively carried on. This 
 latter employment, as well as the two former, is chiefly conducted by females, whose 
 delicacy of touch is found peculiarly adapted to the handling of the small mechanism of 
 the watch. These female watchmakers are thus enabled, with economy, to save money 
 enough to render themselves comfortable iu old age. The produce of their labour is 
 chiefliy exported to the United Kingdom and France ; and it is astonishing the numbers 
 that are annually completed by them. One grand object with them all is, to be able 
 when they marry to possess a few cows, and land enough to siipport them in winter. 
 This is the ultima thule of a female Swiss peasant's ambition. 
 
 The land in Switzerland is subject to a law of inheritance similar to that of France, 
 but it does not appear to be so rigorously carried out there as in the latter country. The 
 chief object of the Swiss proprietors, at least in some of the cantons, is to lay by money 
 enough to be able to give equal portions to all their childi'cn without dividing the 
 estates, which are usually left intact to the youngest sons. If unable to effect this, the 
 laud is stm left to the youngest sons, charged with the encumbrance of an interest 
 equal to that on the sum it is considered the other children ought to have had as an 
 equivalent for a portion of the land. When, however, the subdivision of an estate in 
 land takes place on the death of the proprietor, care is taken to avoid the extreme 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF SWITZERLAND. 169 
 
 morcellement that takes place in France and Germany, by whicli every little slip is liable 
 to be divided into as many portions as there are children. But whichever way the 
 settlement of an estate is accomplished, the system is opposed to the improvement of the 
 soil ; for it is evident that if the father lays up his savings in order to portion off his 
 children, he cannot expend any in improvements beyond what is necessary for his own 
 comfort. Owing, however, to the fortunate position in other respects of the Swiss 
 peasantry, and the remarkably intelligent and judicious manner in which they manage 
 theii- affairs, the injury is less felt there than in either France or Germany, where 
 husbandry is the sole employment of the rural popiilation, and those excellent 
 combinations do not exist which distinguish the Swiss, and which we shall now briefly 
 describe. 
 
 In Switzerland each parish has its alp or common land, as was formerly the case in 
 England. Every inhabitant is entitled to send one cow to pasture on the common fi'om 
 June to October, and this is justly considered one of their most valuable privileges, the 
 cow being an important part of a Swiss peasant's establishment, and one that engages 
 his attention winter and summer. The system pursued in most of the cantons is 
 admirably adapted to secure to them the full value of the produce of their cows. Exten- 
 sive cheese manufactories or dailies are formed in every parish or village, superintended 
 by a person who fully understands the business. The cows, when at grass, are under the 
 care of a cowherd, who drives them night and morning to the cheese-house, where they 
 are milked by the cheese-man and his assistants. "We have already had occasion to 
 refer to this S\viss plan (see page 42) which has also been adopted by the inhabitants of 
 the French Alps; and it is evident that by it the value of the produce is greatly 
 enhanced by the superior quality of the cheese thus manufactured; for it would 
 be impossible for the owner of one or two cows, or even half-a-dozen, to be able 
 to make cheese of so marketable a quality ; whereas upon the Swiss principle cheeses 
 are constantly made, superior to the best Cheshire, which always bring the highest 
 price ia the markets of England and France. Most of the cheese-men are from 
 Gruyere, in the canton of Friburg, from which circumstance aU the cheeses are 
 called " Gruyere cheese." About forty cows is the number attached to each cheese- 
 house ; and the establishment consists of the cheese-man, the press-man, and the herd. 
 The milk is all mixed together, so that only one quality of cheese can be made ; this is 
 rmiform thi-oughout the season, being under the undi^^.ded attention and control of a 
 person fully competent to his work. Sometimes the cheese-man hires the cows, or a 
 part of them, and pays the o^Tiers in either cheese or money, as may be agreed on. 
 The cheese making ends in October, after which, during the winter months, the cows 
 are fed at home with the hay cut ofi^ the meadows dui'ing the summer, which, if the 
 pastures have not been fed ofl", is amply sufficient. Some of the valleys that lie to the 
 sun afford grass almost the year round. The cultivation of cereal crops is quite 
 secondary to the dairy. 
 
 This principle of association — that by which the Swiss acquired their liberty, and have 
 maintained it for upwards of 200 years — is carried into almost every department of their 
 social economy. In the neighbourhood of the large towns, especially Geneva, where 
 the consumption of milk is large, instead of making it into cheese, the farmers have 
 formed themselves into a company, to supply the inhabitants by means of a central 
 dairy, by which a certain sale is secured for the milk at a more remunerating price 
 
170 AGKICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 than if it was made into cheese. A similar association has been established for the 
 sale of forage as well as milk. The price at which the latter is charged to the dairy is 
 22 centimes (2^^) the^so^ of about IJ pint. 
 
 One of the principal objections to small farming is the impossibility of employing the 
 best^ and most expensive, machines to the same advantage as on large farms, where it 
 answers the pui-pose of the farmer to purchase them at great cost. The Swiss 
 peasant farmers have overcome this difficulty by the application of the same principle of 
 associatiouj especially in the commune of Meyrin, in the canton of Geneva. Here a 
 society has been instituted for the pui'chase and use of agricultural machines and 
 implements, towards which the members subscribe or hold shares of 25 francs each. 
 On first starting they purchased a portable threshing machine, a chevalier di'iU, &c., 
 and the profits accruing from the letting of these machines were invested in the purchase 
 of others of the most modem construction, which plan they proposed to pursue, until 
 they had supplied themselves with every essential machine ; after this the profits 
 were to be divided amongst the shareholders. Thus the small farmers of Switzerland 
 have endeavoured by the principle of combination to overcome the difficulties to 
 which the system of which they form a part is liable, and are thereby enabled to enjoy 
 the benefit of those expensive machines which the large farmers of England possess 
 for their o\yu exclusive use. The following account of the rules of the association is 
 interesting : — 
 
 Art. 1. The machines, &c., will be granted, in the first place, to the shareholders, 
 then to the inhabitants of the commune, and lastly to strangers ; they will be sent in 
 the order of registry. 
 
 Art. 2. The shareholder or hirer can have a machine for only one day, if it be 
 required by another shareholder. The threshing machine only can be hired for several 
 days. 
 
 Art. 3. Persons who shall use the machines shall be responsible for accidents caused 
 by their own carelessness ; payment to be made to the secretary. They are taken from, 
 and returned to, the depot at the hii-er's expense. 
 
 Art. 4. A register is kept for each machine, which is the foundation of the accounts. 
 Art. 5. In case of the disarrangement of a machine the term of hire will commence 
 immediately after the repairs are executed. 
 
 Art. 6. The hirer of the threshing machine must fetch it at his own expense, and 
 take it back on the evening of the last day of his term. The same rule applies to the 
 large fan, or winnowing machine that accompanies the threshing machine. 
 
 Art. 7. The threshing machine must be accompanied by the superintendent, who 
 must be boarded and paid by the hirer, according to a rate fixed by the company. 
 
 For example, the rate of charge is, for the di-ill machine, 3 francs per day ; for the 
 threshing machine and its superintendent, 7 francs per day of ten hours, in summer ; 
 4. francs for half a day of five hom's ; 5 francs for a day in winter of eight hours ; or 
 3 fr. 50 c. for half a day of four hours, &c. 
 
 In some of the communes there are public bakehouses and forges, under the super- 
 intendence of a marshal ; at these the work is performed by workmen belonging to the 
 commune at a stated price, as in the case of the machines. There arc also mutual 
 insurance societies or companies against fire, against mortality in cattle, for improve- 
 ments in the culture of the vine, and for supplying the shareholders with butchers' meat. 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF SWITZERLAND. 171 
 
 The latter charge the subscribers for the meat at the cost price, deducting only tlie 
 expenses of slaughtering, rent of premises, &c. This institution is called the " Agri- 
 cultural Butchery," and is under admirable regulations, widely different from those of 
 the Parisian butchery, being conducted by, and under the control of the people 
 themselves, without any interference of the government. Persons not shareholders are 
 allowed to subscribe, and receive the benefits of the association ; the only difference that 
 is made being, that they are obliged to deposit 15 francs on entering their names. No 
 sheep are pastured by the Geneva farmers ; the mutton, therefore, with which the 
 association is supplied is purchased from Savoy and the south of Germany. For this 
 purpose a reserve fund is created out of the capital, or by an additional subscription 
 from the members. By this system the consumers and the producers are brought into 
 direct communication without the intermediation of the cattle jobbers, salesmen, or 
 butchers, and their arbitrary and large profits which add so greatly to the price of all 
 animal food. 
 
 Such are the main principles on which the agriculture of Switzerland is conducted, 
 and nothing can be more admirable than the cordiality and unanimity with which these 
 associations are sustained. It is evident, however, that the social combinations thus 
 formed and worked, owe their origin and success mainly to the character of the Swiss 
 people, superinduced by the peculiar position in which they are placed, and the absolute 
 necessity they have been under to unite and stand, as it were, shoidder to shoulder 
 in support of their freedom and nationality. This brotherhood, in the strictest 
 sense of the word, has created in them the element and principle of association, 
 which it was easy to apply and carry out, when the necessity or expediency of 
 circumstances called for it, in social and economic undertakings. We know, in fact, no 
 other people similarly circumstanced j those nearest approaching to them being the 
 inhabitants of the mountainous parts of France ; but these have never been placed in 
 anything like a similar position with the Swiss, and, therefore, have never had occasion 
 to form those close political combinations in which every individual has an interest in 
 the life and welfare of his neighbour. On the contrary, society in France is separated 
 into different factions, which destroy the element of combination in its purer political 
 form, and thus render more difficult the application of its principle in social life. 
 Agricultural societies will do much to remedy this want, but France can never, in her 
 political or social institutions, exhibit that closeness of brotherhood which binds the 
 inhabitants of Switzerland, both to the soil and to each other, by one common feeling 
 of self-preservation. 
 
172 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 BELGIAN AGRICULTURE. 
 
 The history of tlie " Low Countries" presents as remarkable an instance of the triumph 
 of human industry over the defects of nature as is to he found in any country. It is 
 out of our power to say when agriculture first took its rise in that part of the Continent^ 
 but certain it is, that long before the art was advanced beyond the first rudiments in 
 Englandj the Flemings were practising many of the processes which are now considered 
 indispensable to good husbandry, and which have not long been introduced generally 
 among us. It is known that as early as the thirteenth century the Flemings were far 
 advanced in agriculture, and it is equally true that they have ever since that period 
 served as a model both in England and amongst the continental nations. In those 
 early times books of agriculture were scarcely known, and, therefore, no records were kept 
 of its transactions ; this confined the knowledge of its practice amongst the Flemings to 
 those who visited the coimtry ; and travelling was less easy and less fashionable then 
 than it has been since. "We learn, however, from the history of the times, that Queen 
 Elizabeth, when she wanted vegetables for her dinner, was obliged to send over to the 
 " Low Countries" for them. 
 
 Towards the latter end of the sixteenth, and at the beginning of the seventeenth, 
 centuries several English writers on agriculture went over to Flanders for the pm-pose of 
 studying their system of husbandry. This was the case with Su* R. Weston, Hartlib, 
 and others, who, on their return, published an account of what they saw, and their 
 works remain, at this day, proofs of the advanced state of agriculture in that country. 
 Most of oiu' forage plants, as clover, ray grass, lucerne, turnips, cabbages, &c. &c., have 
 been derived from the Flemings, who probably cultivated them hundreds of years before 
 they were introduced into England, which was not until the sixteenth century, and then 
 the two last were only used as garden plants for the table. 
 
 Belgium, according to the arrangement niade at the time of its separation from 
 Holland in 1830, is divided into nine provinces, namely — Antwerp in the north. West 
 and East Flanders, and Hainault in the west, Namur in the south, Luxembiu'g in 
 the south-cast, Liege and Limbourg in the east, and Brabant in the centre. It has 
 an area of 6,433,477 acres of cultivated land, of which 3,494,507 acres are in the hands 
 of proprietors, and 2,937,970 acres are let to tenants. In West Flanders eighty- 
 five per cent, of the lands are so let, whilst in Luxembourg three-fourths arc 
 occupied by small proprietors. In Antwerp, Brabant, and East Flanders three-fourths 
 are held by tenants. The land is divided into 600,000 properties, in the following 
 proportions : — 
 
 Farms not exceeding Ij acres 43 per cent. 
 J) » '^■i » i-' J) » 
 
 Hi 20 
 
 91 ]) 2o „ 7 47 ft 
 
 „ exceeding the above 853 „ 
 
 10000 
 
BELGIAN AGRICULTURE. 173 
 
 The following proportions (per 1,000 acres) are generally observed in cropping in 
 Flanders, &c. : — 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Cereal and farinaceous crops 337'34 
 
 Alimentary roots 50'6G 
 
 Manufacturing plants 25'22 
 
 Legmniuous plants 26'38 
 
 Fodder plants 59-83 
 
 Prau-ieland 13919 
 
 Fallows 3108 
 
 Gardens 191? 
 
 Wood 186o8 
 
 Waste, or cultivated periodically 124' 5 5 
 
 1000-00 
 
 The country for the most part is very flat, except in the east and south-east^ -where the 
 frontier joins that of France, the mountains of which are continued in Belgium, gradually 
 sloping down until they are lost in the plains. The provinces of Liege, Luxembiirg, and 
 Namiu" present the greatest irregularity of surface-, being intersected in all dii-ections 
 with deep valleys and ravines, ridges of hills and mountain streams. A part of the 
 Ai'dennes reach into Belgium, and dense forests are found in these districts. The inhabi- 
 tants are poor, and subsist chiefly by pasturage of flocks of sheep and lean cattle, which 
 pick up a scanty subsistence on the natural grasses that clothe the high grounds. In 
 leaving these the traveller comes upon a well-cultivated country, and in the west and 
 north-west encounters the far-famed husbandry of the " Low Countries," from which, 
 as a pattern, the young agriculturists of the Continent, and formerly of England, have 
 been directed to look for model farming. 
 
 But however early the Flemings may have been celebrated for the attention paid by 
 them to agriculture, and the success -nith which it has been followed, they have by no 
 means progressed -with the times so far as to originate or adopt any of the newest methods 
 by which the soil of England has been rendered so productive. As a whole, in fact, the 
 Flemish husbandry is rather gardening than farming, the necessary consequence of that 
 subdivision of the land into small properties indicated in the table given above ; and in 
 accordance -with that plan, the object of the cultivators of these small farms is to grow 
 a little of everything that can be useful in the maintenance of a family. Suph patches 
 aflbrd little room or opportunity for improvements or experiments ; and the plans by 
 which former occupiers cultivated their lands are adopted implicitly by their, descendants, 
 without any desire to become acquainted with a better. Science is quite out of the 
 question vnth the great majority of these small holders, who have no scope for the use 
 of modern machinery, even if they had the money to spare to purchase it. 
 
 The peciiliar system of Flemish husbandry naturally involves a large amount of 
 manual labour, and this is sedulously bestowed ; the small farming of this country forms, 
 indeed, a striking contrast with that of the same class in Ireland. In the former, weeds 
 are scarcely to be seen, whilst in the latter they are ia some cases more than tolerated.* The 
 
 * The writer was once travelling from Dublin to Belfast ; and as he passed, one after another, fields of both gi-ass 
 (clover and ray grass) and corn so full of weeds as to make it difficult to tell what the intended crop was, he observed to 
 a farmer, who sat by his side on the coach, that an Englishman would call it bad farming, " Well, sure," he replied, 
 " the weeds might have been pulled out of the corn ; but as for the hay, zcou/d not Ike crop he all the heavier for them ? " 
 The philosophy of this was better than the rhetoric. 
 
174 
 
 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Flemings spare no pains either ia keeping tlieir land clean, or in prociu'ing and preparing 
 mannre for the crops. There is, however, no lack of machines on the few large farms, nor 
 any want of enterprise with some of the occupiers. Straw cutters, root cutters, oil cake 
 crushers, threshing and reaping machines, &c. &c., have been introduced and are 
 becoming common j draining, too, is beginning to be considered a sine qua non in good 
 husbandly, although it has made but little progress at present. Drain tiles are furnished 
 by the state, which has fifteen manufactoi-ies of tiles in difierent parts of the country. 
 Prizes are also offered to those proprietors and farmers who shall execute the largest 
 extent of drainage on the best plan. 
 
 The following table shows the distribution of the laud amongst the different 
 provinces : — 
 
 Provinces. 
 
 Cultivated. 
 
 Uncultivated. 
 
 Covered witli 
 buildings. 
 
 Canals and 
 roads. 
 
 Total acres. 
 
 Limbnrg . . 
 Liege . . . 
 Namur . . . 
 Luxemburg 
 Hainault . . 
 Brabant (South) 
 East Flanders . 
 West Flanders . 
 Antwerp . . 
 
 Totals 
 
 766,582 
 586,523 
 687,292 
 1,144,076 
 879,512 
 782,304 
 654,190 
 733,008 
 487,092 
 
 344,169 
 
 100,848 
 
 145,555 
 
 414,158 
 
 8,529 
 
 3,347 
 
 3,234 
 
 21,453 
 
 179,357 
 
 3,654 
 2,258 
 2,286 
 3,609 
 7,313 
 4,365 
 10,917 
 4,974 
 4,244 
 
 37,729 
 23,818 
 23,209 
 43,378 
 24,179 
 20,784 
 28,739 
 22,132 
 30,014 
 
 1,152,134 
 713,447 
 858,342 
 
 1,605,221 
 919,533 
 810,800 
 697,080 
 781,567 
 700,707 
 
 6,720,579 
 
 1,220,650 
 
 43,620 
 
 253,982 
 
 8,238,831 
 
 Industrial or manufacturing plants form a large portion of the produce of Flanders. 
 Amongst these, colza or rape seed and the Silesian beetroot acre the most extensively 
 cultivated ; the former for the extraction of oil, and the latter for the manufacture of 
 sugar and the distillation of spirits, ilost of the villages have an oil mill, attached in 
 some cases to a wind corn mill, or, in others, erected separately, but stiU generally 
 worked by the wind. The proprietors of the mills either pnrchase the seed and manu- 
 factm'e it on their own account, or they crush it for the grower at a stated price, 
 returning both the cake and the oil, or selling the latter on commission. The expense 
 of the manufacture of the oil by steam power, is about 30«. per ton. The sugar factories 
 are not at present numeroiis in Flanders, but they are increasing as well as the 
 distilleries. 
 
 Chieoiy is another important article of production, and its cultivation is continually 
 on the increase. It supplies the place of coffee entirely with the rural population; aud 
 furnishes in its preparation employment for a great number of hands. 
 
 One of the most remarkable features in Flemish husbandry is the employment of 
 liquid manure, which, while in England agricultm'ists are still wrangling about its value, 
 has been used time out of mind by the Flemish farmers, who employ every method 
 to procure and increase its production. The most approved material employed for 
 this purpose is vidange, or a mLxtiu'c of which the principal ingredient is night-soil ; 
 this is most carefully preserved, and we may say manufactured, in tanks ; into these, 
 also, all the exeretae of horses and other animals arc conveyed by open drains or 
 gutters. Rape cake also is mixed with this enyrals Uquide. The night-soil is collected 
 in the towns, aud carried in carts, sometimes seven or eight miles, by persons who 
 make it their business, and are called commissaires de vidanyes, or night-soil com- 
 missaries. Tanks are also constructed by the road-sides by these commissaries, and 
 
BELGIAN AGRICULTURE. 175 
 
 their contents form an important article of commerce. Wlien opened, either to be filled 
 or emptied, these tanks perfume the air for a considerable space, according to the 
 direction and force of the wind. The fermentation is allowed to spend itself and subside 
 before the vidange is considered fit for use. 
 
 The application of the liquid manure to the land is differently perfonned, according 
 to the means of the farmer, or his advancement in the art of husbandry. The most 
 common method is to convey it to the field in a barrel containing 100 or 120 gallons ; 
 but sometimes in a smaller cask carried by two men, or on a wheelbarrow. When 
 arrived at the field it is emptied into a smaller open tub with handles to lift it to what- 
 ever part of the field it is required. Sometimes it is distributed broadcast over the land 
 with a ladle, and at others it is applied to the roots in the rows of plants, especially 
 tobacco. The peasants are very expert in throwing it into the air so as to make it fall 
 like a shower of rain. One of the chief recommendations in the view of the Belgian 
 farmers of this mode of applying manure is, immediate assimilation and consequent 
 benefit to the crop, whilst it is whoUy free from the seeds of plants inimical to good 
 husbandry. On the large farms, carts, something similar to an English water-cart 
 employed to water the roads with, are used, by which the liquid is more readily and 
 evenly distributed over the land. The principal crops to which it is applied are flax, 
 colza, hemp, and tobacco, and sometimes to cereals, but not commonly. The quantity 
 applied varies from fifty to 200 hectolitres per hectare.* 
 
 This kind of compost is, par excellence, called engrais Flamand ; on the other hand, 
 the common fai-m-yard manure is very little attended to, being thrown from the stable 
 or cattle sheds into the open yards, where it lies exposed to all weathers, by which its 
 fertilising properties are much weakened, the liquid from it being allowed to run to 
 waste. It is only the more intelligent of the farmers who see the folly of this, and 
 by these the stable and cattle-shed dung is carefully kept in covered dung-pits, where it 
 is mixed with earth and other materials in alternate layers. It is left to ferment, after 
 which it is turned over and well mixed. A second fermentation for ten or twelve days 
 finishes the process, and the manure is in a fit state to be applied. The quantity used 
 is about eight cart loads, or sixteen cubic metres per acre.f This is the system pursued 
 by Baron Peers, one of the most enlightened and public-spirited agriculturists in 
 Belgium. In order to retain the fertilising elements of the compost, he employs 
 sulphate of iron at the rate of one kilogi'amme of sulphate dissolved in twenty pints of 
 hot water to. twenty head of cattle. The efiect is to fix the ammoniacal and other 
 volatile salts, and at the same time prevent the pungent smell arising from the lu'ine 
 and dung of horses or cattle, thus rendering the atmosphere of the stables perfectly pure. 
 The increased value of the manure he has proved by experiments carefully conducted. 
 Two lots of ground were manured, one vrith 100 kilogrammes of dung with, and the 
 other with the same quantity without, the sulphate. The former produced 440 kilo- 
 grammes, and the latter only 410 kilogrammes of ruta-bagas, making a diSerence of 3,000 
 kilogrammes per hectare, or upwards of 24 cwt. per acre. 
 
 The solid manure heap is increased by the addition of eveiy vegetable substance 
 that can be collected by the children of the small farmers. For this purpose they scour 
 
 * Tte hectolitre is 22'0096GS imperial gallons; the hectare two acres, one rood, thirty-five perches. — Sjpiers. 
 t See "Notes taken during a Tour in Belgium," by R. S. ^am,\ni'\it Edinburgh Journal of Agriculture, July, 1859, 
 from which and the following numbers our account is chiefly derived. 
 
176 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 tlie highways and canals^ for parings of gi'ass found on the sides of ditches and roads, 
 and anything that is capable of fermentation or rapid decay ; water plants are particu- 
 larly coveted, and are applied to the roots of potatoes, which they materially assist in 
 their growth. Green crops, such as buckwheat, lupins, spuriy, fee, are raised for the 
 piu'pose of being ploughed in as manure in the green state. On the light, sandy soils 
 this has been found to enrich them in a high degree. Cake-meal is used in every variety 
 of methods as top-dressing, mixed with other materials in the lidange tanks, or put in 
 with the seed of beet and other crops. It is applied on meadow as well as arable land ; 
 and clover is top-di'essed with it in a liquid form. In mixing it with other ingredients 
 in the tanks, it is allowed to ferment for a fortnight before being used, by which means 
 it becomes thoroughly incorporated with the whole mass, and comes out a rich compound 
 of chemical matters, in a perfectly assimilable state. 
 
 Spade husbandry is universally practised in Flanders, but not to the exclusion of the 
 plough. Some of the proprietors stipulate with their tenants that a sixth or seventh part 
 of the land shall be dug up every year. A singular method is practised, of a man following 
 the plough and deepening the fiu-rows with the spade, throwing the mould over the 
 ploughed part, where dui-ing the winter it receives the benefit of the frost. Sometimes 
 double ploughing is practised; that is, one plough follows another, thus obtaining a 
 depth of from fifteen to eighteen inches. Deep tillage is, in fact, one of the most striking 
 peculiarities of the Flemish husbandly, and, in conjunction with repeated stu'ring of the 
 soil, and a constant warfare with Aveeds, goes far to account for its success. 
 
 The introduction of the subsoU-plough, about the year 1852, by an agricultural 
 committee, has been attended with great success. Ten of those implements were pur- 
 chased and sold by auction, at a loss to the committee of 100 fi-ancs. The next year- 
 twenty more were purchased, and, in the same way, sold at the cost price ; and now most 
 of the subscribers to the association have them, and find the greatest benefit from bringing 
 up the new soil to the surface. 
 
 Attention is paid by the Belgian government to the breeds of horses and cattle, and 
 through its influence and efforts, a desii-e prevails throughout the country to improve the 
 native races. In West Flanders the Dui'ham race has been introduced, and stations 
 are appointed thi'oiighout the province, for bulls and cows, in order to facilitate the 
 extension of the cross with the native cattle. In 1857 there were at these stations 
 seventy-six bulls, and ninety-two milch cows, of the estimated value of 84,000 francs 
 (£3,500 sterling) . It is calculated that the value of the cattle has been increased to the 
 extent of one-third, and that, at a much lower estimate, the increased value of the entii-e 
 stock in the pro^dnce, in five years, has amounted to 6,000,000 francs (j6250,000), at an 
 expense of only 300,000 fi-ancs. Great merit is due to Baron Peers (to whom reference 
 has just been made) for his untiring efforts to introduce the Durham cattle, of which 
 he has as fine a collection as any English breeder, from whose herds, indeed, his own 
 were carefully selected, without regard to price. Every year he has a sale of these cattle, 
 and if they do not bring such prices as are realized in England, they amply remunerate 
 the enterprising baron for the outlay he has ventured to incur. 
 
 Sheep have been less attended to in Flanders, hitherto, than cattle, the smallness of 
 the farms being one obstacle to their being kept. Two stations have been established, 
 at which one ram and one ewe, of the Hampshii-e-Down breed, were kept in 1859; but it 
 will require some time to convince the small farmers of the superior advantage of sheep 
 
BELGIAN AGEICULTURE. 177 
 
 over bullocks and horses, of whicli latter great numbers are bred ir^ Flanders, con- 
 stituting one of its most important branches of agricultural industry. ]\I. de Lavergne, 
 liowever, questions whether the outlay of rearing is not gi-eater than the sale of them 
 Trill cover, and whether sheep would not prove more advantageous in every respect, and 
 be attended with much less trouble and expense. The favourite maxim of the Flemish 
 farmer is, "Nocattle, no mamu'c; no manure, no corn." It is, however, a well-established 
 fact, that the dung of ruminating animals is more valuable than that of others on account 
 of the more complete mastication of their food, which renders their excretae easier and 
 qixickcr of assimilation by tlie plants. In some experiments, made by M. Boussingault, on 
 the comparative value of different manures in the production of wheat, the results as regards 
 sheep's and horses' dung were as follows : — 
 
 
 Glaten. 
 
 Starch. 
 
 Bran, &c, 
 
 Sheep's duug . . 
 
 329 . , 
 
 . . 42-4 . 
 
 . . 34-7 
 
 Horse dung . . 
 
 . . 137 . 
 
 . . 61-6 . 
 
 . . 24'7 
 
 It is the amount of gluten that determines the value of wheat as an article of human 
 food ; and this experiment shows that the sheep's dung produced more than double of 
 that substance, of what the horse dung yielded. 
 
 There appears to be no uniform course of cropping in Flanders, each farmer following 
 that which appears the most profitable to him. The distinguishing characteristic of their 
 system, and that which stamps its superiority over the French farmer's management, is 
 the entire absence of fallows, whilst every effort is made to increase the fertility of the 
 soil, by the application of abundance of the best manure they can obtain. The following 
 are some of the rotations, according to the nature of the soil : — ■ 
 
 For a light, sandy soil — 1st year, potatoes ; 3nd, rye, with carrots, liquid manure 
 being largely used with the latter crop ; 3rd, flax ; 4th, rye ; 5th, tm-nips ; 6th, oats. 
 
 For a rich, light soil — 1st year, tobacco ; 2nd, colza ; 3rd, wheat with clover, or rye, 
 according to the richness of the soil; 4th, clover; 5th, rye; 6th, oats; 7tli, flax; 8th, 
 turnips. 
 
 For a good clay or strong loam — 1st year, flax ; 2nd, rye or wheat ; 3rd, rye or 
 turnips; 4th, potatoes; 5th, wheat or rye, with clover; 6th, clover; 7th, clover; 
 8th, oats. 
 
 These, however, are varied according to the quality of the soil ; but, in all cases, care 
 is taken to prevent its exhaustion, by compensating dressings, so that the land, although 
 constantly under crop, is never deteriorated. Such has been the practice of the Flemish 
 farmers time out of mind ; and the result proves that, whilst ignorant of the principles 
 on which their practice is founded, experience has taught them that the complete pul- 
 verization of the soil and abundance of manure are all that is necessary to produce a 
 corresponding beneficial result. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Courtrai flax is cultivated to a large extent. Considered by 
 the British farmer as a very exhausting plant, it is quite the reverse with the Flemish 
 farmer. Far from robbing the soil of its fertilising elements, he finds it greatly increases 
 them, besidfes yielding large remuneration to the grower. It is, however, only by the 
 most assiduous attention, and the application of an abundance of manure, that such a 
 result is obtained. The long period during which the Flemands have continued the 
 cultivation, is a sufficient proof that they are correct in their ideas respecting it. All 
 the characteristics of good farming are observable in the flax-eulture ; high manuring, 
 
 N 
 
178 AGRICULTURE, ANCIEXT AND MODERN. 
 
 deep tillage, a -constant warfare with weeds, and particular attention to tlie crop that 
 should precede it, which is either clover, tobacco, hemp, or wheat. Almost any soil 
 appears suitable for growing flax, but the finest and best is produced from a sandy loam ; 
 in all cases the same attention is paid to the above husbandry. The manures employed 
 are those we have already referred to, but oil-cake (rape) enters largely into the various 
 compounds used for this crop. The land is tilled either with the plough or spade ; when 
 the former is used, it turns a furrow about eight inches wide and eleven deep. With 
 the spade the soil is gradually trenched deeper and deeper, till it is pulverised to the 
 depth of eighteen or twenty inches. In the autumn it receives two, and sometimes three 
 workings ; and after the winter's frost has mellowed the surface, it is merely harrowed 
 down, and the seed is then sown. The average produce is 33 to 34 cwt. per acre. That 
 of cereals is — wheat, from 20 to 28 bushels; spelt, 30 to 36 ditto; barley, 60 to 80; 
 oats, 80 to 96. Peas will yield 24! bushels ; beans, 34 ditto ; and potatoes, 250 bushels 
 per acre. 
 
 The richest pastures in Belgium are in the north of West Flanders, on the Durme 
 and Lower Scheldt. These can be overflowed by the tide when required, and are mowed 
 twice a year. The cows are always kept in stalls, summer and winter. In the former 
 season they are fed with clover, and with barley and oats cut in the green state ; in 
 winter, with beetroot and turnips, chopped up together and boiled, and then giveu to 
 them milk- warm. This mixture is called brassin. The cows are generally fattened at 
 four years old. The meadows are mostly held by the large farmers, who rent them as 
 auxiliaries to their farms, which are sometimes at a distance. In order to improve them, 
 they occasionally break them uj), and sow them with oats, two years in succession, 
 obtaining thus heavy crops. They are then laid down again with the best grass seeds 
 they can prociu-e. 
 
 The Polders are an extensive tract of country, recovered by degrees from the sea, and 
 protected by embankments, which extend also along the banks of the rivers Meuse and 
 Scheldt, to prevent their overflowing at the high tides or after the winter rains and 
 snows. The Polders contain nearly 200 square miles, or 128,000 acres, and are con- 
 tinually increasing by the silting up of the creeks and harbours. The soil is composed 
 of sand, clay, and -the debi-is of every kind from the ocean, being found, upon analysis, 
 to contain the following proportions : — 
 
 Calcareous sand, mostly broken shells . . 13 
 
 Siliceons sand 5 
 
 Fine clay and vegetable matter . . . . 81 
 
 Soluble matter, and loss 1 
 
 100 
 
 The Polder farms are from 100 to 250 acres in extent, although many are smaller. 
 The cultivation is very different from that of West Flanders, which may perhaps be ascribed 
 to the goodness of the soil. What West Flanders is, it has been made by the industry and 
 application of the inhabitants, for generally speaking the soil itself is very poor, mostly 
 a barren sand, originally covered with heath, furze, or broom. The soil of the Polders, on 
 the contrary, as may be judged from the above analysis, is naturally rich and fertile, and 
 can be kept in that state by the admission of the tides from the rivers by the numerous 
 sluices erected for that piu-pose in the embankments. There is, therefore, the less 
 occasion for that unremitting attention that the soil of West Flanders requires. Cereal 
 
BELGIAN AGRICULTUEE. 179 
 
 crops may be grown many years in succession ■vvitlioiit manure ; but the course of 
 cropping is also distinguished from tbat of West Flanders by tlie faUo-^F^ the following 
 being the usual routine : — 1st, fallow; 2nd, barley; 3rd, beans; 4th, wheat; Sth, beans; 
 6th, wheat ; 7th, fallow with clover ; 8th, wheat ; 9th, potatoes and carrots ; 10th, oats. 
 Very few cattle are kept, so that but little manure is raised or applied, and the fallow, 
 with irrigation, is chiefly relied on for the renovation of the soil. The meadows fiu'uish 
 abimdance of grass for the cows during the summer, and great quantities of butter and 
 cheese are made. In winter there are no root crops provided for them, and they receive 
 but little care or attention; so that when turned out to grass in the spring, they are 
 the mere skeletons of the animals that were taken into the stalls at the commencement 
 of the winter. 
 
 The almost entire absence of root and green corps is the distinguishing feature and 
 defect of the farming in the Polder district, which is the more calculated to excite 
 surprise from the example they have in West Flanders. The indigenous breed of cattle 
 are well adapted to the country, being apt to fatten, and the eows are excellent milkers. 
 It is therefore the more inexplicable that there should be no winter food provided for 
 them, or that greater attention should not be paid to their improvement. Exertions are 
 making to introduce a better system by the cultivation of root crops, which would com- 
 pletely revolutionise the present routine, and increase the productive powers of the soil, 
 already so rich in all the elements of fertility. 
 
 The Polder farmers have adopted the praiseworthy practice of remunerating their 
 labourers by gi^^ug them small portions of land for raising crops of potatoes, flax, &c. 
 In some cases they even let off a portion of their farms to a labourer, the landlord pro- 
 viding implements, working cattle, and buildings, and the tenant doing all the work. In 
 these cases the produce is generally divided between them. The houses in the Polder 
 district are mostly good and remarkably clean, but less numerous than in West Flanders, 
 because the farms are larger. The farm buildings are poor, and not well kept. The roads 
 are veiy indifferent, and in winter nearly impassable. In that season, however, the river 
 and the canals form the principal high roads for travelling from town to town, at least, in 
 lieu of pedestrianism. There is, however, but little intercom'se kept up between distant 
 places in winter, and the Polder farmer is at best an isolated being. The climate is very 
 unhealthy for strangers, on account of the " Polder fever," which commonly attacks 
 those who have not been acclimated by a long residence in the country. 
 
 The district of the Pay de Waes lies between Ghent and Antwerp. Originally it 
 was nothing but a sterile sand covered with heather, but by persevering industry it has 
 been rendered a marvel of fertility. The spade culture is generally practised, and most 
 of the farms are very small, but the care with which they are cultivated is extraordinary. 
 A cow is kept for every three acres, being fed entirely on artificial grasses and roots. On 
 a farm of six acres, " one acre is trenched twenty inches deep every year, well manured 
 with the dung and urine of the cows, and planted with potatoes, part of an early kind and 
 part of a later, as the land is ready, from the beginning of April to the end of May. If 
 the soil is fit for wheat, this is usually the next crop ; if it is too sandy, rye is sown 
 instead. The taking up of the potatoes gives a sufiicient tillage for the wheat or rye, 
 which is sown as soon as the potatoes are ofl^ and the seed is covered by digging narrow 
 trenches at six or seven feet distance from each other, and throwing the earth over the 
 bed. The land is rolled or trodden with the feet, which last is the best on light soils. 
 
 n2 
 
180 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Half au acre of laud is usually in carrots, wliicli have either beeu sown with the flax, or, 
 ■which is much better, by themselves. The tm-nips are always sown on a stubble. The 
 land which has borne rye is generally preferred for this purpose, because it is the first 
 crop reaped. Sometimes oats are sown immediately after harvest, to be cut green for 
 the cows before winter ; or winter barley for the early spring. The rotation of crops 
 followed by the small spade-farmers varies exceedingly, according to the soil, situation, 
 or other circumstances. Hemp, flax, or colza seldom occur in less than nine or ten 
 years, as they require much manure, and do not succeed if sown too often. Wheat 
 usually occupies a fourth or a third of the land, rye a sixth, potatoes a sixth, clover an 
 eighth. Carrots and turnips are usually secondary crops, although occasionally sown 
 also as principal ones. Tlie successions generally are as follows : — 
 
 "Wheat after clover, potatoes, or beans. 
 
 Rye and turnips after potatoes. 
 
 Oats after turnips, or carrots. 
 
 Potatoes after hemp, potatoes, or carrots. 
 
 Hemp after turnips. 
 
 Colza after flas. 
 
 Beans after wheat or clover. 
 
 Turnips after rye, barley, or oats, the same year. 
 
 Carrots in the rye, or the flas, after clover. 
 
 Clover in flax, oats, or wheat. 
 
 Winter barley to cut green in s])ring, after potatoes. 
 
 When any other produce is raised, such as peas, tares, poppies, cameline, beetroot, or 
 parsnips, they only take the place of those crops that are most nearly allied to them, 
 whether pulse, oleaginous seeds, or roots, without altering the succession. A family of 
 five — the man, his wife, and three children — can cultivate without extraneous assistance 
 six acres of land in this district, living oft" one acre and a half devoted to potatoes and 
 grain, giving an acre for roots and clover for the feed of the cow, and selling the produce 
 of the remaining three acres and a half, which bear tlie best-paying crops, as flax, 
 colza, &c., to pay the rent and clothing expenses."* 
 
 The above passage gives a flattering view of the condition of the small farmers of 
 Belgium, and certainly a very diS'crent one to that given by Lavergne of those of 
 France. The condition of the labouring peasantry is equally gratifying. With wages 
 of 67 centimes (about G^d.) per day and his food he manages to keep his family and 
 himself in sufficient food and good clothing. " Once, and only once," says the narrator, 
 " did we see, during our wanderings in Flanders, both last year and this, a child with 
 ragged clothes ; and rarely in the rural districts are you solicited for alms. None of 
 the sigus of squalid poverty which too often disgrace our villages and hamlets are met 
 with." The secret, however, of this desirable state of things is explained in the next 
 passage but one : " Drunkenness, that great curse of our population, is verij rare, and 
 frugaUty and economy are practised by all." Would to heaven that it was possible to 
 indoctrinate the rural population of England with this Belgian sobriety and prudence 
 the want of whicli is the cause of nine-tenths of the misery and crime with which this 
 country is cursed ! 
 
 The result, too, iu respect to the domestic comfort of the rural population is striking, 
 considering the exceeding slender means of the Belgian peasantry. "The houses are 
 
 • See the Ediniurff/i Jounn! of Ayricitllnrc for July, ISCO, article " Notes taken during a Tour through Belgium, 
 Holland, and on the Uliine," by R. S. Hiini. 
 
BELGIAN AGRICULTUEE. 181 
 
 small ; the general living room is on the ground floors with a small room or closet or 
 two off it for sleeping. A bedi'oom is generally above it in the attic, and lighted with 
 a dormer or roof- window. The furniture is of little amount, very plain, generally of 
 birch ; but cleanliness and a thorough- going air of material comfoi't pervade tlu'oughout. 
 The stove is a prominent feature ; and another not less prominent one is the brass 
 utensils of various kinds, which every Flemish housewife must have, and which are 
 always kept in a condition of the brightest purity. The neat, clean blouse is viniversally 
 worn by the men; wooden shoes by both sexes. The Sunday and /e7e day clothing 
 of the peasantry is wonderfully excellent for people of such apparently limited chances 
 of making money — fine embroidered shirts and black cloth trowsers. The food of 
 the peasantry is of the simplest character. Rye bread is a staple commodity, and 
 sweet and butter-milk is used. Potatoes and onions are partaken of for dinner, to which, 
 at times, a little ham or bacon is added." "What domestic comforts might not the 
 English peasantry enjoy with the same sobriety, economy, and attention to cleanliness ! 
 
 The industry and foresight of the Flemish cottier farmers forms a striking contrast 
 with the character of the same class in Ireland, in which every degree of ^vretchedness, 
 discomfort, and thoughtlessness of the future combine with the most barbarous mode 
 of cultivation to reduce the scale of domestic enjoyment to the lowest point consistent 
 with humanity, and which is not the less painful to contemplate that the subjects of it 
 seem scarcely sensible of its existence. 
 
 The Campine is the largest plain in Belgium, and embraces nearly the whole of the 
 pro\iuces of Antwerp and Limburg. The soil is one continuous covering of driving 
 sand, twisted up by the eddies of wind into large mounds, or driven in clouds before it. 
 In some parts it is thinly covered with heath or marshy plants intermixed with pools of 
 water, stunted firs, or brushwood. Yet in this desolate and barren region the industry and 
 perseverance of the Belgians have succeeded in reducing the apparently incorrigible waste 
 to fertility ; and here and there you meet with their little farms, fenced in by sand 
 heaps from the siirrounding desert, and smiling within its boundaries -ivith verdure and 
 brightness. These farms are multiplying continually, aud bid fair, at no distant period, 
 to convert the sterile desert into a garden, the howling wilderness into an abode of 
 happiness and plenty. The chief means of effecting this important change is irrigation, 
 which is greatly promoted by the numerous canals that have been constructed at a large 
 expense. Extensive tracts of meadows have been formed, and roads are driven in every 
 dii-ection through the plain, from town to town, for the accommodation of the inhabi- 
 tants, the canals being the common medium for conveying away the produce to, and 
 bringing home the manure from, the difterent towns. Nothing, in fact eould be effected 
 without these two auxiliaries, as the Belgian farmers are well aware, whose motto is, 
 " With the water, the grass ; with the grass, cattle ; with the cattle, manure ; with the 
 manure, everything nearly which one desires on a farm [" Since the formation of the 
 Campine Canal nearly 5,000 acres have been brought vmder cultivation in the com- 
 mune of Arendonck alone, where large farms have been established, and hmidreds of 
 head of cattle are fed, and dairies are formed. The value of the land in the Campine, 
 where these improvements or creations have been efiTeeted, has risen from almost nothing 
 to respectable prices. The best heath land, that sold previous to 1830 at 20 francs per 
 hectare,* will now bring from 150 to 250 francs. Many of the richest gardens aud 
 
 * About 6jf. ^d. per acre. 
 
183 AGUICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 most fertile farms in tlie uciglibourliood of the towns of the Campiue were, ten^ twenty, 
 and thirty years since, tracts of barren heath and the dreariest sand. Wherever manure 
 has been easily obtained there it has been the most carefully preserved, and most prudently 
 applied ; and in the history of the facilities of obtaining abundant supplies of manure 
 yoxi read the history of the culture of the deserts of the Campine. 
 
 The soil of the Campine varies from a light white sand, through which the water 
 filters as through a sieve, to a sandy loam. The former is planted in the first instance 
 with fir-trees and broom, the debris of which, annually deposited, forms in time a 
 vegetable mould, and consolidates the surface. Loam or clay is brought in aid, then 
 manure, and thereby a crop of potatoes, or buckwheat, or rye is obtained. From this 
 stage the process gains strength continually, until the defects of nature give way, and 
 victory and success crown the efforts of the indomitable invader. 
 
 In some parts the yellow sand lies upon a hard crust called "tuf," and in England 
 iron or moor-band pan, under which is a good loam. This is a more promising soil, but 
 it involves the labour of deep trenching with the spade, to bring the loam and pan to the 
 surface, when the frost is allowed to ameliorate them, after which they mingle intimately 
 with the surface soil, and at once, with the addition of manure, form an excellent staple 
 for cultivation. Potatoes are first taken, then rye with clover. The land is trenched 
 upwards of twenty-seven inches (seventy centimetres) in depth with the spade, the turf 
 being buried with the grass uppermost, to form in its decay a fertilizer for the future 
 crop. The Campiuoise farmers are said to excel even the Flemish in the collection and 
 preparation of manures. All the cattle are stall-fed, and every description of vegetable 
 capable of being reduced to manure is employed as litter, with which mould is also 
 mixed to increase the bulk. The whole is kept under cover until it is wanted to be 
 spread upon the land. An excellent compost for toj)-dressing the meadows is made by 
 placing layers of vegetable earth on the stable floors to absorb the urine, to be afterwards 
 mixed with other mamire. The best rotation of crops recently introduced is as 
 follows : — 1st year, beetroot ; 2nd, colza ; 3rd, winter barley ; 4th, rye with clover, or 
 oats with do. ; 5th, clover ; Ctli, wheat. This, however, is exceptional, as in general 
 the cereal crops are too numerous, to the exclusion of root crops that require hoeing, so 
 that the land is apt to become foul, which in some seasons materially affects and reduces 
 the produce. 
 
 Rye is the principal cereal cultivated in the Campine. The seed is usually brought 
 from a distance, and is sown at the rate of about 2\ bushels per acre. The average 
 crop is about 24 bushels, but instances are related in which, by the application of an 
 abundance of manure, as much as 74 bushels per acre have been obtained. Wheat has 
 hitherto been an exceptional crop, but is now beginning to be generally cultivated, 
 being rather more largely manured for than rye. The produce ranges from 20 to 
 28 bushels per acre. Barley is very little cultivated, but oats and buckwheat both form 
 important articles of produce. The former yields from 33 to 06 bushels per acre; 
 the latter from 28 to 33 bushels. 
 
 The distinguishing features in Femish agriculture are the cultivation of manufac- 
 turing plants, as linseed, colza, and beetroot. The former is principally grown for the 
 flax which it yields, and is manufactured into linen, one of the staple articles of indus- 
 trial produce of Belgium. Of the colza there are several kinds cultivated, as the colza 
 d'hiver, colza d'ele,7iavc(te, caineUnc, and pavol ; but the colza d'hiver, or winter colza, is 
 
BELGIAN AGEICULTUllE. 183 
 
 tlie most general and may be grown on any soilj except a very wet one. It is a very 
 productive crop, yielding from forty to forty-five bushels per acre. It is generally ready 
 in June or July, and is frequently threshed on the ground in the open air. The plants 
 are usually raised in seed-beds, and afterwards planted out. They are sown from July 
 to August, and planted about the end of September. This operation is performed 
 either with the spade or the plough. If the former is used it is tlirust into the loosened 
 soil and the handle pressed forward, which opens a square gap. At each corner of this 
 a plant is put in. When the plough is employed, women place the plants in the furrow 
 about ten inches apart, and the next timi of the plough covers them up. The culti- 
 vation of all the brassica kind of plants is nearly the same. 
 
 The beetroot is also a special object of the attention of the Flemish farmer, who calls it 
 une plants precieuse, and with good reason, it being found equally valuable, whether as 
 manufactured into sugar, or as food for cattle. In the former case the residue is found very 
 nutritive as containing at least five per cent, of sugar, and it is sold to the graziers, or 
 employed by the owners of the sugar works in fattening cattle and pigs. The kinds 
 usually grown are the rose a chair blanche (red with white flesh), or la blanche cle 
 Silesie (the white Silesian). A sandy loam is the most favourable for growing it, 
 although it is said that on a clay soil deeply tilled the per eentage of saccharine is 
 greater. Great improvements ha\e been made in it in this respect, so that the proportion 
 of saccharine matter has been largely increased. The cultivation of this plant is similar 
 to that of the mangold- wurzel in England, which is so well known and understood that 
 it is imneeessary to enter upon it here. They differ, however, from us in sowing the seed 
 sometimes on a seed-bed and afterwards planting them out. In all cases the land is deeply 
 tilled and heavily manured. The expense of cultivating a hectare of beetroot, according 
 to M. Dombasle, including rent, is 324 fr. 25 c. (£13 10*.) or abovit £5 10s. per acre. 
 The produce in 1859 averaged fifty tons per hectare, or about twenty tons per acre. 
 But by the Koechlin method of cultivation, as much as 300,000 kilogrammes (or 295 
 tons) are said to be raised upon the hectare, or about 120 tons per acre. This is pro- 
 duced by raising the plants in a seed-bed manured heavily, and planting them out at 
 the end of March or beginning of April, by which means they will have the full benefit 
 of the spring and early summer's growth in advance. This Koechlin plan will be 
 described more at length when we are treating of the cultivation of this tribe of plants 
 in a futiu'c part of the work. 
 
 There is j'et another tract of land in Belgium which possesses peculiarities that 
 demand a passing notice. This is the Pays Boise, or wooded country extending along- 
 side of the Polder from Moerbeke to Ecluse. The subsoil of this district is composed of 
 sand and decayed vegetable matter ; the upper entirely of sand. It is liable to over- 
 flowing by the waters descending from the high grounds, and, like the Polder, has been 
 brought into a state of fertility by the same energy and persevering industry of the 
 inhabitants. Canals and ditches have been opened in all dii'ections, dividing the land 
 into narrow slips, and draining ofi^ the waters ; these are partly cultivated, and partly 
 left in wood. The course of crops occupies nine years, five of which the fields are under 
 cereals, and the remaining four in green or root crops. Sometimes the land remains in 
 pastm'c for three years at the end of the course, which, in any case, does not allow of 
 much cattle being kept during winter. 
 
 The account here given of Belgian farming, as Mr. Burn remarks, shows that the 
 
181. AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 principle on wliicli it is conducted is ivliat would be termed gardening in England ; and 
 it appears to be incompatible ■with tbe lai'ge farming of tbis countrVj on account of tbe 
 great amount of band-labour^ as well as tbe large outlay of capital, it requires. Sucb 
 bowever is not absolutely tbe case, for it is quite as possible to cultivate a farm of 100 
 or 1,000 acres as one of ten, vipon tbe Flemisb principles, especially witb tbe aid of 
 macbinery possessed by tbe Englisb farmer. And tliis facility will be largely augmented 
 wben tbe mission of steam power sball bave been more and better understood in its 
 application to tbe processes of tbe farm, wbicb will tben extend to tbe entire banisbment 
 of animal power from tbe practice of busbandry in its more severe labour. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 THE AGRICULTURE OF RUSSIA. 
 
 •If we were to judge of tbe resources of tbe Russian empire by tbe extent of its terri- 
 torial acquisitions, we sbould consider tbem almost illimitable and exbaustless, requiring 
 only tbe stimulus of markets and tbe plastic band of industry for tbeir development. 
 Defective as is tbe metbod of cultivation, and tedious as are tbe means for tbe transit of 
 produce to tbe seaboard, yet so great is tbe extent of arable land on wbicb to operate, 
 tbat tbe proprietors can at any time extend tbeir cultivation to meet tbe full measure of 
 tbe demand. "We bave seen illustrations of tbe trutb of tbis observation wbeii tbe 
 necessities of Western Europe bave required a larger foreign supply tban usual. On 
 sucb occasions tbe grain, wbetber wbeat or oats, is pom'ed in a continuous stream into 
 our ports from tbose of Nortbern and Soutberu Russia, tbe quantity only limited by 
 tbe climatic and otber natural obstacles tbat oppose tbemselves to tbe transport of tbe 
 produce during tbe sbort summer. In fact, tbe grain is stored on tbe banks of tbe 
 rivers in tbe interior, or in tbe granaries of tbe proprietors, until tbe favourable oppor- 
 tunity for tbe sale arrives ; wben, witb all possible speed, it is sent forward for disposal. 
 
 Russia is naturally divided into tliree climatic regions — tbe cold, tbe temperate, and 
 tbe bot. The cold region extends fi-om 55° to 60°, nortb latitude, including Kasan, 
 Moscow, Petersburg, and Riga; tbe temperate region lies between 50° and 55°, and 
 includes a portion of Kiev, Saratov, Wilna, and Smolcnsko ; tbe bot region readies from 
 43° to 50', and comprises Taurida, Odessa, Astracan, and part of tbe Caucasus, and of 
 tbe district of Kiev. 
 
 According to Scbubert, tbe Russian territory embraces an extent of 1,742,435,725 
 Pmssian acres, distributed as follows : — 
 
 Porest and scrub 676,000,000 acres. 
 
 Unproductive 771,000,000 
 
 Arable 240,500,000 
 
 Sleadow 21,500,000 
 
 Not accounted for Sii,435,725 
 
 1,742,435,723 
 Almost tbe wbolc of tbis immense couutry is a dead flat, tbe only bigb ground being 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF RUSSIA. 185 
 
 the Oural range of mountains^ wliicli separate European Russia from Noithern Asia; 
 and tliat portion of the Carpathian range situated between Moldavia .and Wallachia. 
 The most valuable portion of the eouutry in an agricultural point of view is a tract 
 65,000 geographical miles in extent, stretching in a broad belt from Volhjmia, in a 
 north-easterly direction to the foot of the Oural chain near Perm, and to the shores of 
 the Black and Caspian Seas. The soil of this extensive tract is a rich black vegetable 
 mould, varying in depth from three to five feet, and so productive as to need no manure 
 and very little tillage. Its fertility is shown by the large returns it yields of grain, 
 especially rye, and in the excellent breed of cattle reared upon it. So thinly is this fine 
 country populated that a large portion of it is iineultivated. The farmers help them- 
 selves to portions of it, which they cultivate for cereals until the produce begins to fall 
 off, when they abandon it and take a fresh portion. 
 
 The best cultivated parts are in Southern Russia; and the principal corn-growing 
 districts are Podolia, Kiev, and Volhynia, and on the banks of the Don and the 
 Wolga, the cereal land extending about 100 miles inland from the Black Sea and the 
 Sea of Azov. The first three of these provinces contain together 70,750 square miles 
 ajiportioned as follows : — 
 
 Podolia 20,450 
 
 Kiev 21,000 
 
 Volhynia 29,300 
 
 70,750 
 
 These provinces partake of the same rich soil as part of the great belt mentioned above, 
 and having an argillaceous and calcareous subsoil, are well adapted to every kind of 
 agricultm'al produce. The land is divided into large estates held by boyars, or lords of 
 high birth. Many foreigners, chiefly Germans, have had large grants of land at a small 
 nominal rent, and on leases of 100 years and upwards, on condition that they and their 
 descendants would reside upon and cultivate them. The German settlers or colonists are 
 the most industrious farmers in Russia. They settle in communities, of which there 
 are 118, called "crown colonies," the Czar having granted them tracts of land, and 
 advanced them money to cultivate it. On the other hand they are not allowed to leave 
 the country, but may dispose of their produce as they please. Most of them are 
 become wealthy boyars, and are well satisfied with their position. They pay no rent 
 the first year or two, after which they are charged three rubles (9s.) the dessetina of 5,600 
 square yards. The average produce of wheat in 1857 was 6^ quarters per dessetina, or 
 forty-five bushels per acre. These colonies are mostly in the southern and south-eastern 
 governments of Russia, lying within a circuit of 100 miles diameter. The farms arc 
 distinguished by their superior cultivation. 
 
 There are no fences or walls to indicate the boundaries of the estates as in England 
 or Ireland, but artificial mormds of earth are raised at certain distances; and the 
 memory of these simple demarcations is preserved amongst the peasantry much in the 
 same way as is practised in England in respect to parishes, by " going the bounds" of 
 the estate with all the young people residing upon it. To impress the rceollectiou 
 of certain salient points of the boimdaries, a stout, healthy lad is selected, thrown down 
 upon the spot, and soundly flogged, amidst the laughter and jests of the assembled 
 company. By this means the memory of the locality is retained for life, not only by 
 the person thus roughly handled, but by all the young persons present. ISIany of the 
 
186 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 estates of tlie boyars are almost equal iu extent to some of the German principalities. 
 If you ask a proprietor what is the extent of his territory^ he will measure it by the 
 number of serfs he possessedj for these constituted its value in his estimation. 
 
 A large proportion of the land belongs to the crown, ha^ang been forfeited by the 
 rebellion of the old proprietors during the Polish insurrections. Not more than one- 
 fifteenth part of these provinces is cultivated. That which is under tillage, is let to 
 farmers on leases of three, six, or nine years, which accords with the course of cropping 
 practised, namely, 1st year, wheat; 2nd year, oats or barley ; 3rd year, fallow. This is 
 the general course of husbandry pursued, but sometimes where the land is farmed by 
 the proprietor, it is cropped as long as it will bear a corn crop ; and so rich are some 
 parts that they have been sown with wheat upwards of twenty years consecutively. Iu 
 these cases the land is seeded by the grain shelled in the previous harvest, and simply 
 ploughed in two or three inches without any other preparation. It is said that better 
 crops are obtained by this method than by a more elaborate tillage of the soil. The 
 leases granted to the farmers are renewable at the expiration of the nominal term. After 
 being regularly signed by both the contracting parties, and didy witnessed, they are 
 registered in the local courts of the districts. It is the same in all contracts for, and 
 mortgages and sales of, laud, so that a title to property may at any time be satisfactorily 
 proved by a reference to the register. The crown lands were formerly let thus on leases 
 to farmers, but are now, to a large extent, converted into military colonies, and are 
 cultivated not for immediate profit, but for the ostensible maintenaucc of that portion of 
 the army stationed upon them. 
 
 Besides the boyar and the occupier or farmer of the land, the serf is an equally 
 important, though more humble, member of the community, for so thin is the population 
 of the rm-al districts, that the serfs constitute the most valuable property of the lord, or, 
 at least, have done so hitherto, the measures of the present Czar for their emancipation 
 having effected a great change in the relative position of both parties. The serf occupied 
 a very difierent status from that of the English labourer. So far as his own will was 
 concerned, he was irremovably attached to the soil or estate on which he was born, and 
 could not leave it for an hour without the consent of his owner, or the demand of the 
 government of his services for the army. A large portion of his time and labour must 
 be given gratis for the cultivation of the estate, and he was liable to corporeal punishment 
 at the caprice of his master only to the extent of five lashes at a time ; but as an interval 
 of half an horn* was sufficient to render him liable to a repetition, the restriction was of 
 little avail for the security of the serf. For military service he was always at the call 
 of the emperor, but the selection of the levy demanded, rested with the owuer, who did 
 not always send away the best men for the purpose. 
 
 The serf was entitled by law and custom to a portion of land to the extent of three 
 acres, which he cultivated for the support of himself and his family on those days when 
 his labour was not required by his master. If drafted into the army, his little farm was 
 eidtivated by the females and younger sons of the family, as in Prussia. There were 
 42,000,000 serfs in the Russian empire, of whom 25,000,000 belonged to the emperor, 
 so that, after all, his was the largest sacrifice by their emancipation. It is said that tlie 
 crown serfs were more oppressed than those of the boyars, not that the sovereign 
 himself was privy to their ill-treatment and oppression, but that, as a Russian expresses 
 it, " God and the Czar arc a long way off," in other words, the Czar, being compelled to 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF RUSSIA. 187 
 
 delegate liis authority over his serfs to otherSj knew nothing of the treatraentj good or 
 Iiad, that they were subjected to, according to the dispositions of the masters who were 
 entrusted with the power over them. This in Russia was far more likely to be against 
 than in favour of the serf. And this deduction is confirmed by the last census, which 
 shows that on the crown lands the number of serfs was decreasing, whilst on those of 
 the boyars it was increasing. By an ukase promulgated some years since, and called an 
 " inventory,'^ a considerable improvement was made in the laws relative to the serf. 
 His allotment of land, which previously he was liable to have wrested from him when 
 he had improved and cultivated it, he could afterwards hold by a kind of tenant-right, 
 and the time when the lord could command his labour was more strictly defined, instead 
 of being left to the caprice of his master. 
 
 The serf was subject to a capitation tax, which was levied upon every male in his 
 family ; if unable to pay it the lord was responsible for it ; but before he paid it every 
 means was resorted to to compel the serf to pay it. The last resource was to extinguish 
 the cabin fire by bricking up the chimney, so that a fire could not be lighted without 
 subjecting the family to the danger of suffocation from the smoke. This infliction in so 
 severe a climate as that of Russia was attended with an amount of suffering we can form 
 but an imperfect idea of. If it failed to extort the required sum the case was considered 
 hopeless, and no fm-ther attempt was made. The system of serfage has been abolished 
 by the present Czar, in spite of the most strenuous opposition of the boyars, which is 
 not a matter of surprise. It natiu'ally led to a great deal of injustice and cruelty, and 
 afforded the owner or his representative, the steward or the farmer, the means of getting 
 rid of an obnoxious or offending serf by sending him to the army. In such cases he was 
 dragged from his home and family, his head was shaved on one side from front to back, 
 heavy chains were riveted upon his limbs, and he was marched away with comrades in 
 a similar condition, to the military depot. 
 
 The serf had a claim on his lord in case of old age, illness, or accident that disabled 
 him from supporting himself and family, or if the head was drafted into the army. In 
 all such cases they were generally so far provided for as to prevent absolute want ; and 
 these were frequently better off than those who depended on their own efforts, and who 
 had sometimes to struggle against poverty and want in its most revolting form, when 
 provisions were scarce and dear, or other circumstances lessened their ability to make 
 the necessary provision for their support. J\lany of the boyars too were mild and 
 humane in their treatment of the serfs, and in such cases there was no sacrifice the 
 latter would not submit to for their benefit. The afl'ection of the domestic serf to the 
 children of the family was in some instances romantic, and in most a pleasing trait in 
 their character. A remarkable instance of it is related in a small work from which we 
 have derived a considerable part of our information.* 
 
 " I noticed," the wi-iter says, " in one family that I visited, one of the nursemaids 
 who attended on a child of the house, almost hideous. ' I am afraid that Mr. B. is not 
 admu-ing our poor Teckla,' said the mistress of the house, laughing. — ' Speaking frankly,' 
 I replied, ' one's admiration is probably due to your attendant's intrinsic merit ? ' — ' It 
 is, indeed,' said the lady earnestly ; ' and I am glad to have an opportunity of telling you 
 so. Four years ago she was as pretty a girl as you are likely to see amongst our 
 peasantry. Our house in the country took fire one night, and a considerable portion 
 
 * "Kussiaus of the South," by Skirky Brouks, Esq., Times commissioner. 
 
188 AGRICULTURE. ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 was destroyed^ but everybody was saved^ and, indeed^ the person who had most to 
 regret the accident was Teckla there. We were all standing looking at the fire, when 
 it rushed into Teckla's brain that this child here, then a baby, was left behind in the 
 burning house. She set up a wild shriek, which frightened us more tlian the confla- 
 gration had done, and sprang into the building through a window, the woodwork of 
 which was in flames. Forcing her way through the smoke, she penetrated into one of 
 the bedrooms, and there she must have fallen down overpowered. She was got out 
 witli great difiiculty, and not until another side of the room, to which she had pushed, 
 had given way; and she was discovered lying near a bed with the child's bed-cover 
 in her hand : she must have madly snatched at that, and then dropped. She was 
 cb'eadfully bm-ned, aud her life was despaired of, but she ultimately recovered, though 
 disfigured as you see. Her own accoimt is that she looked round for us all, missed the 
 baby (who had been carried into a neighbouring cottage), and remembers nothing else.'"* 
 
 By an ukase of the present emperor the owners of the serfs were bound to grant 
 them -four dessiaterns (eleven Prussian acres) of land and a cottage in freehold, allowing 
 them twelve years to pay for it, the value being fixed at £\Q sterling. This was readily 
 acceded to by the large landowners, who had far more land than serfs to cultivate it. 
 But the case was difi^reut with the small proprietors, many of whom had not enough 
 land to allow that quantity to each of the serfs- upon their estates, and they were 
 consequently compelled to purchase land for that purpose at a much higher price than 
 that fixed by the ukase to be paid by the serf. It is impossible, indeed, in so large and 
 sweeping a measure to avoid inflicting injury upon some persons; but of the general 
 justice and humanity of the measure, and of the benevolence and rectitude of the 
 emperor's intentions, there cannot exist a doubt, or that his object is to extend the 
 benefits of civilization tlu-oughout his immense empire. In Siberia there were but few 
 serfs, who belonged to the cro^vn foundries, and these were amongst the first emancipated. 
 
 The cabins of the small occupiers of land are the counterpart of those of the Irish 
 cottier farmers, except that the former are kept in better repair. Theu* mode of living 
 is of the lowest description, rye or buckwheat bread, and sometimes bread made of the 
 bark of a tree, supplying them with the chief portion of their subsistence. Wheaten 
 bread is never eaten by them, and very little, if any, meat. " Pot-au-feu is found in every 
 cabin, replete with the fumes of garlic, onions, and other savoury vegetables. Gruel 
 made of buckwheat meal, ' thick aud slab,' and flavom'cd with similar herbs, is a favourite 
 dish with them. Water is the common beverage, but when they can procure the means, 
 they are greatly addicted to intoxication." f 
 
 The three-shift course of cropping, which is so much practised, can only be tolerated 
 in a country where both land and labour are cheap, and the former has a good staple. 
 Even in Southern and Western Russia it is beginning to tell upon the productive power 
 of the soil, which, like that of the United States of America, is found not to be 
 absolutely inexhaustible. But the prej udiccs of the Russian farmers in favour of ancieut 
 customs, and their horror of the idea of spending money upon improvements, arc 
 
 * Although the rule was for the lord to look upon the serf merely in the light of a valuable property or iavestmcnt, 
 many of the proprietors were kind and generous to them, espeeially on partieular occasions. Harrison mentions an 
 instance of this. " On one festive occasion," he says, " commemorating the saint's day of the young lady of the house, 
 sixteen peasant couples were married, and received from their barhin (master) a horse, cart, and plough each." — " Notes ol 
 A Nine Years' Residence in Russia, from 1844 to 1853," by 11. Harrison. 
 
 t Brooks. 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF RUSSIA. 180 
 
 unconquerable. The reply of a proprietor whose ineome was £16,000 a year, when 
 advised to introduce a new machine upon his farm, was quite characteristic. " Mon 
 Dieu ! look at the expense ! Why, you ai'c asking me to lay out nearly sixty pounds ! 
 No, no; we will keep to the old plan."* 
 
 No manure is applied to the land, and to get rid of it, it is thrown upon the drift-ways. 
 " Roads ?" said a resident geutleman to Mr. Brooks — "No, we have no roads, not as the 
 word is understood amongst yourselves, you English ; or as in France, or anywhere but 
 amongst ourselves. It would not answer. We have a more simple plan than to gather 
 together materials and build a pathway, for it is really building to make these ways as 
 they are generally made. Observe ; we do not need them. Not, of course, that it is 
 not necessary that our waggons, and carts, and carriages should have a path, but we can 
 supply them without much trouble. Land is not so valuable with us but that we can 
 afford more for our transit than those strips of ribands which you call roads in England, 
 and which I have seen. The course is wide and open; if the waggons and carts tear it 
 up, or the rains make it impassable in one place, it is easy to deflect a little to the 
 right or left, and make out a fresh track. That costs nothing, so that we have very 
 good paths after all." 
 
 " If ignorance be bliss," says the philosophic poet, " ■'tis folly to be wise." Certainly 
 the logic of this resident gentleman is the philosophy of ignorance, for it is by such paths 
 as these that the finest cereal produce of Europe, perhaps of the whole world, is conveyed 
 to the shipping ports of the Black Sea, and on wJiich the " carriages" of the Russian 
 gentry perform their journeys. The same gentleman stated that it once i-equired 
 twelve bullocks to draw him and his family in their carriage out of a slough in the road. 
 The passage of the coi'u-ladcn carts is at best very slow. With five sacks of corn on 
 each cart, it takes them weeks to reach the depot ; and as the bullocks have to subsist 
 on the grass they find by the roadside, and what hay they can take with them, they are 
 frequently distressed for want of fodder. 
 
 The land is cultivated, not in small enclosures, as in England, or in still smaller 
 strips, as in France and Germany, but in extensive plains, stretching out as far as the 
 eye can reach, a sea of undulating and wa-idng corn of the richest verdure, whether of 
 wheat, barley, rye, or oats. The labouring classes reside in villages, their condition 
 being greatly ameliorated by the ukase of the present emperor for their emancipation. 
 
 The natiu'e of the country, which is similar to that of the " rolling prairie " land of 
 the United States of America, renders draining almost unnecessary. It is furnished, in 
 most parts, with natural channels for carrying off" the surface water into the brooks and 
 streams. As to thorough drainage to relieve the subsoil from the springs, the Russian 
 farmers are generally far from being sufficiently advanced to undertake it. Nor can we 
 be surprised at this, when we reflect that in enlightened England there are many land- 
 owners who hesitate to incur the expense, although they have the evidence of its utility 
 and profitableness daily before their eyes. 
 
 The finest wheat is produced in these three provinces, and is either brought down the 
 Vistula and other rivers to Dantzic, Konigsburg, and other ports on the Baltic, or down 
 tlie Dniester to Odessa, or by land carriage to the same port. The wheat called 
 Dantzic wheat is none of it grown in Prussia, but is the produce of the Polish provinces 
 of Russia, conveyed to Dantzic during the short summer, and there laid in granary till 
 
 * Broo!:3. 
 
190 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 a favom-able opportunity occui's for its disposal. The species sown is chiefly spring 
 wheat, because the mild, wet winters of the south-west are apt to cause the autumnal 
 wheat to rot. " The general principle on which the husbandmen proceed is that much 
 must be left to nature, and that her operations are neither seconded by great laboiu" 
 nor by refined industry." In fact, such is the raging fertility of the soil that the wheat 
 straw is as tall and as stout as reeds, and the blades like those of Indian corn. The 
 following is the state of progress in production in Russian Poland since 1822 : — 
 
 1 of wheat yielded 
 
 1822. 
 ... 4 
 
 
 1857. 
 5 of the seed sown. 
 
 .. rye 
 
 „ barley „ 
 ,. oats 
 
 ... 3 
 ... 3 
 ... 3 
 
 
 5 
 5 
 4 
 
 
 « peas 
 
 „ buckwheat 
 
 ... 2 
 . . . 2i 
 
 
 G 
 3 
 
 " 
 
 „ rape seed 
 „ millet „ 
 
 ... 5 
 ... 4 
 
 
 5 
 6 
 
 t> 
 
 „ potatoes „ 
 
 ... 4 
 
 
 7i 
 
 " 
 
 Average 
 
 
 SI? 
 
 
 
 The beet sugar manufacture was introduced into Russia some years since, and being 
 encouraged by the government upon the ruling principle of selling much and buying 
 little, has made great progress. Refined sugar chiefly is made, and such is the j^rotection 
 it is considered " necessary to award it, that the price is raised to lOd. per pound, and 
 is therefore much above the means of the lower classes 
 rate at which this manufactm-e has increased 
 
 The following will show the 
 
 Qoantity made in 1849-50 
 
 1851-52 
 
 „ ,, 1854-55 
 
 „ „ 1855-56 
 
 1856-57 
 
 Coarse sugar 
 
 3,628,170 lbs. EngUsh. 
 
 8,585,587 „ 
 12,150,000 „ „ 
 11,031,000 „ „ 
 15,377,000 „ „ 
 13,636.000 „ „ 
 
 The quantity of beetroot grown in 1858 was 350,000 tons, the average price of which 
 was 24s. per ton, and the quantity of sugar produce in 1858-9; 33,600,000 lbs., which 
 gives an average yield of not more than 43 per cent. This is very low, considering that 
 in Northern Russia the beet contains as much as 13 or 14 per cent, of saccharine matter. 
 Not more than 9,500,000 lbs. of the produce is consumed in the coimtry, the rest being 
 exported. It may be readily supposed that very little sugar is consumed by the 
 laboiuing classes ; and, on the other hand, that they are heavily taxed to support the 
 manufacture. If we estimate the natural price of the sugar at 6d. per pound, the differ- 
 ence of 4d. per pound upon the quantity made amounts to j6560,000, and as there are 
 only fifty-two factories in Russian Poland, the public pay £10,770 each annually for their 
 support. The following is the consumption of sugar in dififerent countries of Europe : — 
 
 England* . . 
 
 26 lbs. per he 
 
 ad per ann. 
 
 Belgium . .* 
 
 17 
 
 
 HoUand . . 
 
 7i „ 
 
 
 France . . . 
 
 6^ „ 
 
 
 Switzerland . 
 
 6J „ 
 
 
 Poland . . . 
 
 2 
 
 
 • The average quantity imported in the seven years, from 1S50 to 1856, inclusive, was 7,866,563 cwt., which 
 allows 29 lbs. per bead, reckoning the population at 30,000,000. From this must be deducted 3 lbs. per head for exported 
 augar. This calculation is exclusive of molasses, which is about 3 lbs. per head more 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF RUSSIA. 191 
 
 The quantity manutacturecl in other parts of Russia is about tlie same as in Russian 
 Poland. 
 
 The Merino breed of sheep is diffused througliout the provinces of the Ukraine, aud 
 large quantities of fine wool are brought for sale to the fairs of Kharkoff and Poltava. 
 In 1857 it amounted to 40,000,000, and in 1858 to nearly 22,000,000 lbs. wliich sold 
 at about 1*. per pound. The breeding of sheep is much attended to in the Ukraine, 
 where rich pasturage abounds. The steppes, which are the most remarkable feature in 
 the geography of Russia, commence about 100 miles in the interior, from the shores of 
 the Euxine, and cover a vast extent of country. They are for the most part unfertile, 
 being chiefly sand, in some parts mixed with salt, and in others wholly destitute of 
 water, whilst others are covered with swampy marsh aud stuuted birches. The most 
 notable exception to this description is the Baraba Steppe, in the government of Tomsk, 
 in Siberia, where a large quantity of corn is raised on the banks of the Obi and tlie 
 Kama, near Baruoul. The land is sometimes cropped with cereals for many years 
 in succession without tlie application of any manui-e. The produce is taken down the 
 Obi for shipment at the port of Sobski or Borozof, aud thence, by the Gulf of Obi, to 
 the European markets when it is required. 
 
 The Russo-Danubian provinces of JNIoldavia and Bessarabia were wrested fi'om 
 Turkey by the treaty of Bucharest, at the close of the war in 1812. By this treaty it 
 was stipulated that Russia should retain that part of Moldavia situated to the north of 
 the river Pruth, which takes its rise in the Palatinate of Marinarosch in Hungary, and 
 flows through the Bukovine, falling into the Danube a little below Galatz. This 
 arrangement gave to Russia the north bank of that river from the junction of the Pruth, 
 aud the command of the Sulina entrance from the Black Sea. According to the terms 
 of the treaty, Russia is bound to keep this passage of the Danube free from mud aud 
 other obstacles that naturally accumulate at the junction of its waters witli those of the 
 Euxine ; but, with the design of favouring the trade of Odessa, she has greatly neglected 
 that duty, which constituted a just gi-oiind of complaint against her pre^'ious to the 
 Crimean war. 
 
 The eastern part of Moldavia and Bessarabia is of a similar character with that of 
 Ukraint", consisting of extensive undulating alluvial plains clothed for the most part with 
 luxiu'iai.t verdure. Formerly not more than a fortieth part of the land proper for 
 cereal crops was under cultivation ; but of late years a large extent has been brought 
 under the plough for corn growing, leaving stiU, however, abundant pastiu'age for great 
 numbers of cattle, sheep, and horses, which thrive well upon the rich grass. The 
 horses have the Arabian blood in their veins, and excel both in strength and speed. 
 The sheep are mostly a cross breed between the native sheep and the Merino, and 
 produce wool of a goo.d staple. The cattle have had no attention paid to them, being of 
 the native unmixed breed, preferred more on account of their size than their symmetry 
 of form, smalluess of bone, or quality of meat. The cereal products are wheat, barley, 
 maize, millet, tobacco, wine, &c. These, or rather the surplus, are taken by way of the 
 Black Sea to the islands of the Mediterranean, or the ports of Western Europe, when 
 the markets are open, and the price is remunerative. 
 
 The western confines of Moldavia consist of a succession of hills and valleys of 
 great beauty, branching from the Carpathian range of mountains, which separate the 
 province from that of Transylvania. The whole of this tract is rich and fertile, but the 
 
193 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 oppression of tlie Turks and Russians, who possess the two sections of the country, is an 
 effectual bar to industry and progress. The cultivation is of the most rude and slovenly 
 description, but so great is the fertility of the soil, that very little culture is required to 
 produce an al)undant crop. 
 
 Bessarabia lies eastward between Moldavia and the Black Sea. It resembles Mol- 
 davia in all its natui'al features, and in its productions. The town of Ismail is situated in 
 this province, on the north bank of the Danube about thirty-three miles from its mouth. 
 This town is memorable in history for its siege by the Russians in 1790. The human 
 butcher Suwarow commanded the besiegers, and having taken it by assault, after 
 a brave and determined defence, put twenty thousand of the inhabitants to the sword, 
 and sent the rest, ten thousand, into slavery. He then coolly wrote his celebrated 
 laconic despatch to the empress : " Madam, the proud Ismail is no more !" Bessarabia 
 is joined to the small province of Budziac Tartary, which was colonised in 1569 by 
 Tartars from the banks of the Wolga. Both these provinces formed part of the Turkish 
 empire until the year 1812, when, with part of Moldavia, they were finally ceded to 
 Russia. They contain about 8,800 square miles (5,632,000 acres), and their agricultural 
 produce is in all respects siinilar to that of iloldavia. 
 
 Lying at the farthest southern extremity of the empire, these three provinces share 
 but little in even that scanty degree of civilization which the government of the czars 
 has hitherto permitted in its other provinces. Education is at a very low ebb, and the 
 population being a mistm'e of Turks, Poles, Jews, Tartars, Greeks, &e., each tribe 
 follows its own form of religion, although the Greek faith is encouraged by the authorities. 
 Situated at the outskirts of the Russian power, they are sure to be the theatre of war in 
 a contest with either Tui'key or Austria. It matters little to the oppressed inhabitants 
 whether in such cases the country is occupied by friend or foe, for the fatal effect is 
 the same; and they have not yet recovered from the devastations committed by the 
 Russian troops dmiug the progress of the late war. 
 
 Being comparatively recent acquisitions of Russia, the people can scarcely be con- 
 sidered strictly as belonging to the Sclavonic race, although subject to all the political 
 influences, for good or for evil, of the imperial sway. Borne down by oppression in the 
 past, and hopeless of any change for the better in the future ; without moral instruction 
 to elevate their character, and degraded by a superstitious form of religion, which never 
 reaches the heart or rectifies the conduct, the people are immoral, ignorant, and brutal, 
 and in intellectual attainment but little elevated above the cattle they tend. The 
 Mahometans are probably the most enlightened, which is saying little in their favour. 
 What superiority they possess is owing to their commercial relations with Turkey ; in 
 other respects there is but little difference. Ground down, as they all are, by the 
 extortion and tyranny of the government officials, they have no stimulus to, or even 
 ideas of, improvement in any of the occupations or affairs of life. 
 
 The most enlightened and best cultivated districts of Russia are the provinces of 
 Courland, Esthonia, and Livonia, where the cultivation of the soil is conducted on 
 somewhat better principles, and the results arc seen in the better arrangement of the 
 agricultural operations, and the greater regularity of the crops. Agricidtural societies 
 have been established, but they are under the strict sui-vcillance of the authorities ; and 
 so jealous is the government of any political bias which these institutions arc supposed to 
 involve, that they are subjected to restrictions which to a large extent frustrate their 
 
THE AGRICULTURE OF RUSSIA. 193 
 
 object. We have very recently seen the agricultural society of "Warsaw broken up, 
 because it was believed by the government to foster the principles of Polish indepen- 
 dence and nationality. 
 
 The chief natural difficulties under which Russian agriculture labours is, the scarcity 
 of population, the want of roads, and the short time that the rivers remain open and 
 free from ice in the northern and eastern provinces, where it frequently requires two 
 summers to convey the produce to the ports of the Black Sea, or to Archangel in the 
 White Sea. The Obi and the Don are connected by a canal, which greatly facilitates 
 the transit either north or south so far as the climate will admit ; but the flatness of the 
 coimtries through which these rivers flow, and the existence of shifting sandbanks by 
 which the navigation is obstructed, and whose ever-changing position renders the corn- 
 laden boats continually liable to get aground, occasions their progress to be very 
 slow and interrupted. The Russian sovereigns are quite aware of these disadvantages, 
 and are endeavouring to remedy them by the construction of railroads through the 
 heart of the country. It will require many years to carry out this project, so far as to 
 facilitate the intercourse between the interior and the coasts, either north or south,* and 
 the thinness of the population will still remain an obstacle to extended cultivation 
 and good husbandry. 
 
 It has been the policy of the Russian government to induce foreign agi-iculturists, 
 and especially from Euglaud or Scotland, to settle in Russia, in order to introduce the 
 system of husbandry practised in their own countries. We believe, however, that most 
 of those who have been tempted to accept the invitations have been glad to get back 
 again. And as it is the established policy of the Russian authorities not to let any 
 money leave the country if they can possibly prevent it, these foreigners have found 
 themselves little the better for their speculation. A good many Germans, as we have 
 stated before, have settled in Russia and are thriving, being much less addicted to 
 liberal ideas than the subjects of the British crown, and consequently more easy under 
 the absence of freedom. These men have introduced many of the modern improved 
 machines of Western Eui-ope ; but at present their adoption has not made much progi'ess 
 amongst the native farmers. In a large portion of the arable land, from Archangel to 
 Odessa, the light fork one-horse plough, a wooden-toothed harrow, and the reaping-hook, 
 are the ouly implements used in tillage. The soil is stirred to the depth of two inches 
 and sown, and the seed then harrowed in ; after which it is left to the goodness of 
 Providence, the soil, and the weather. 
 
 With such treatment the produce in some parts is perfectly astonishing. In Livonia 
 and Esthonia the yield of wheat is from ten to sixteen fold ; on the Don, ten to fourteen ; 
 on the Obi and Tom, twenty-five to thirty. At Krasnayarsk the failure of a crop was 
 never known, although they sow the land with the same grain fifteen consecutive 
 seasons. It is remarkaljle that, in the eastern provinces, no seeds of weeds are ever 
 found in the wheat that is exported ; and it is said that no weeds ever grow among the 
 corn. The grain is generally threshed out in the field or barn-yard with the flail ; but 
 in some of the northern Baltic provinces the threshing-machine has been introduced 
 
 * lu a recent debate on the corn laws of France, a member of the French legislatui'e declared that Russia could 
 grow enough wheat to export 60,000,000 quarters annually, and thus swamp the agriculture of western Europe. But 
 it was shown, on the other hand, that it is physically impossible, with the present population, in so extensive a country 
 to increase the cultivation much beyond the wants of the people, and that it can only increase in proportion with the \ocal 
 demand and consumption. 
 
 O 
 
194 AGRICULTLT.E, AXCIEXT AXI) MODERN. 
 
 with great effect. Harrison mentions an instance in Trliich 28,000 sheaves of wheat 
 were threshed, winnowed, and stored in granary, in one day, on an estate numbering 
 eight villages. When thus prepared, it is laid up in wooden warehouses, on the bank 
 of a river, ready for exportation, which is effected in heavy barges to the shij)ping 
 ports of the Baltic, the White, or the Black Sea, according to the facilities aflbrded 
 by the rivers or canals. 
 
 A school of agriculture has been instituted at Gorygoretzk (a domain of the crown), 
 near ]Mohilow, at which 120 young men are constantly under a course of instruction to 
 qualify them for assuming the management of large estates. This will, in time, have 
 an important effect upon the agriculture of the country, and, coupled with the eman- 
 cipation of the serfs, and the spread of education, which the present Czar is desirous 
 of promoting, will tend to raise the rural classes from their present state of degra- 
 dation. The task, however, that the Czar has undertaken is a herculean one ; and 
 it will require all the energy and decision the human mind is capable of to carry it 
 out to a conclusion against the powerful opposition of the Russian landed aristocracy, 
 whose property, as well as prejudices, are invaded by it, and whose antecedents would 
 lead to the supposition that they will not quietly surrendei' their privileges. 
 
 It is evident, upon a review and examination of the agricultural resoarees of Russia, 
 that the southern provinces of that empire are the grand resources from whence tlie 
 markets of Western Europe must look for a supply of cereal produce ; but it is a 
 question whether the production of wheat can do more than keep pace with the increasing 
 demand abroad, and the requirements of the increasing population at home. By way 
 of the Vistula, it does not appear there has been any great increase, although the 
 quantity fluctuates from year to year. Thus, for the three years 1855 to 1857 the 
 following was the entire export of the grain from Russian Poland by way of the 
 Vistfala : — 
 
 ' 1855 . . . 79,577 qrs. • 
 
 1856 . . . 104,705 „ [ average 118,443 <ir3. 
 
 1857 . . . 171,047 „ ' 
 
 The entire quantity harvested in that country in the latter year was only 1,582,464 qrs. 
 From Riga, brought down by way of the Dwina, the average export of wheat in eight 
 years, from 1846 to 1853 inclusive, was 10,290 qrs., whilst that of the years 1854 and 
 1857 was only 4,639 qrs. Prom Archangel, the average of five years was 15,164 qrs., 
 and of oats for the same period 204,012 qrs. From the ports of the Black Sea and the 
 Sea of Azov a greater quantity is exported. At Odessa, in 1853, there happened to be 
 a large accumulation of wbeat, which enabled her to export 2,160,000 qrs., but this was 
 an exceptional year ; and in 1857 the exports were only about 800,000 qrs. From the 
 Azov ports, and Taganrog, the quantity exported in 1857 was 994,511 qrs., of which the 
 port named, which lies at the mouth of the Don and receives the produce sent down 
 that river, exported 760,000 qrs. 
 
 A large quantity of grain is annually destroyed by the slovenly manner in which it 
 is kept. Generally it is not housed, but temporarily stacked, and, after harvest, trodden 
 out by horses and bullocks as speedily as possible, and conveyed to the port to be 
 shipped. What remains after the cud of October is buried underground, and left there 
 till March, to make up the spring cargoes.* The great want in Russia is roads, those 
 
 * Blue Books for 1S59. Statistics of foreign couutries. 
 
AGEICULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 195 
 
 wliicli exist being impassable after twelve hours' rain. They are generally from 100 
 to 120 yards in widths but are just in the state in which nature left them. A line of 
 railway is in progress fi-om ]\Ioscow to Taganrog^ ]\Iarianople, &c., which will facilitate 
 the conveyance of produce and increase the value of land. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 AGKICULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 In some respects the characteristics of the land of the United States are similar to those 
 of Russia. In both these countries there are still immense tracts of level virgin soil of 
 the richest description unoccupied ; and in both the population is so thin, as to render it 
 impossible generally to cultivate, in a proper manner, that which is under tillage. In 
 America, as in Russia, the cultivator has "the world all before him where to choose;" 
 and in the new western states, so fertile is the soil, that he can hardly choose amiss. 
 Nor do the young eastern farmers hesitate to avail themselves of this facility for 
 acquiring fresh land, when by a scourging system their old farms are exhausted. The 
 system, however, thoiigh individually profitable, is ruinous to the country at large. All 
 the old eastern states, conveniently situated for easy access to the seaboard and the 
 European market, are fast becoming exhausted, worn out, and going out of culti- 
 vation. In some of the New England states cereal produce, except Indian corn, 
 has almost ceased to be cultivated, although, from being the principal seat of t&xtile 
 manufacture, a profitable market exists for all kinds of agricultural produce. The 
 "Year-Book of American Agriculture," for 1856, has the following passages on this 
 subject : — 
 
 " The constant deterioration of the soils of New England, and throughout most of 
 the agricultural districts of the United States, is a fact of portentous and alarming 
 significance, though it has not yet arrested very extensively the public notice. Probably 
 there is no one fact in our agricultural economy of more pregnant interest than this, in 
 its bearings upon our future prosperity. . . . Between 1840 and 1850, 300,000 acres of 
 land were added to those previously under improvement in Massachusetts : 90,000 acres 
 were added to our mowing lands, and yet there was a relative depreciation of the hay 
 crop, during that decade of years, of 12 per cent. Our tillage lands, diu'ing the same 
 term, ' were increased 40,000 acres, and yet there was an absolute depreciation in 
 our grain crop of 6,000 bushels. The pasturage lands were increased more than 
 100,000 acres, with scarcely any increase of neat-cattle, and a reduction of 160,000 
 sheep, and 17,000 swine. 
 
 " The same law of deterioration is observable in the richer regions of the south and 
 west, showing that, with our present unskilful modes of farming, we are taking much 
 more from the productive ability of our soils than we are returning to them, and that 
 our agricultural prosperity is really and constantly on the wane. This downward 
 tendency is partially hidden fi-om public observation by the vast products that are 
 
 o2 
 
196 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANOIEXT AND MODERN". 
 
 raised upon tlie new and almost limitless regions wliicli are every year put under culti- 
 vation in the west ; but tlie fact itself is undeniable. 
 
 " In the state of New York, between the years 1845 and 1850j 671^692 acres were 
 added to those previously under improvement^ and of course there ought to have been 
 at least a corresponding increase in the agricultural products of the state ; but what was 
 the fact ? 
 
 The number of horses decreased is 58,111. 
 
 Milch cows decreased 63,066. 
 
 Of other cattle, the decrease was 137,523. 
 
 Of sheep, the decrease was 2,990,623. 
 
 Of swine, the decrease was 556,002. 
 
 Of potatoes, the decrease was 7,255,066 bushels. 
 
 Of peas and beans the decrease was 1,132,034 bushels. 
 
 Of fiai, the decrease was 1,936,483 pounds. 
 
 Of wool, the decrease was 3,793,327 pounds. 
 
 Of wheat, the decrease was 270,724 bushels. 
 
 Of buckwheat, the" decrease was 450,724 bushels. 
 
 There was an increase in the amount of corn (maize), lye, oats, barley, hay, butter, and 
 cheese raised in that state, but no greater than would have been expected from the 
 increase of the population, which was 494,3.23 during those five years."* 
 
 The same deterioration is stated to have taken place in Tennessee, Kentucky, 
 Virginia, and even in the comparatively new states of Wisconsin, Illinois, &c. In New 
 York State, the decrease in the wheat crop alone is 25 per cent. ; but, on the other 
 hand, that of Indian corn has increased nearly 100 per cent. All the above figures are 
 taken from the accounts of the Patent office, and are as con-ect as any American 
 statistics that are published. The following is the account of the actual acreage 
 produce of different states, quoted from the census of 1850 by Mr. Jay, in an address 
 before the American Geographical and Statistical Society : — 
 
 1. WUEAT PEE ACKE. 
 
 Bushels 
 
 Alabama and Georgia 5 
 
 North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee ... 7 
 
 New York, Indiana, and Ohio 12 
 
 Maryland and Vermont 13 
 
 Iowa and Wisconsiu 14 
 
 Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas 15 
 
 Massachusetts 16 
 
 2. RYE. 
 
 Virginia B 
 
 Georgia and Tennessee 7 
 
 New Jersey 8 
 
 New York 17 
 
 Ohio 25 
 
 3. OATS. 
 
 North Carolina 10 
 
 Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama . . . 12 
 
 Virginia 13 
 
 Arkansas, Georgia, aud Kentucky 18 
 
 Delaware, Indiana, and Maine 20 
 
 Connecticut, Maryland, and Ohio 21 
 
 Pennsylvania 22 
 
 New York 23 
 
 Vermont, New Jersey, &c 26 
 
 Illinois 29 
 
 Wisconsin 35 
 
 Iowa 36 
 
 4. INDIAN COEJI PEK ACRE. 
 
 Bushels. 
 
 South Carolina 11 
 
 Alabama 15 
 
 Georgia and Lonisiana IG 
 
 North Carolina 17 
 
 Mississippi and Virginia 18 
 
 New York and Maine 27 
 
 Vermont and Iowa 32 
 
 Indiana, Illinois, and New Jersey 33 
 
 Missouri 34 
 
 Ohio 36 
 
 Connecticut 40 
 
 5. IRISH POTATOES. 
 
 North Carolina 65 
 
 Maryland, Ohio, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania . 75 
 Indiana, Iowa, New York, and Rhode Island . . 100 
 
 Maine and Tennessee 120 
 
 Kentucky -.130 
 
 Michigan 140 
 
 Massachusetts 170 
 
 Florida 175 
 
 Vermont 178 
 
 New Hampshire 230 
 
 Texas 250 
 
 It is a common saying, that an English practical farmer, on going to America to 
 ♦ " Year-Book of American Agriculture," 1855-0, p. 214. 
 
AGEICULTUKE OF THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 197 
 
 farm, must leave behind him his preconceived ideas of good husbandry, and just conform 
 liis practice to the conditions of the country to which he has emigrated. This is correct 
 enough, so far as the occupation and breaking up new land is concerned. In clearing a 
 portion of the forest, and bringing it into cultivation, it would not simply be absurd, it 
 would be impossible, to adhere to a systematic c6\irse of treatment of the soil, analogous 
 to that which is necessaiy at home. Even after the timbers are felled and burned, the 
 stumps remain for years before they are sufficiently decayed to be easily removed ; and 
 then the rich vegetable mould has to be broken up and consolidated before it can become 
 the fit seed-bed for wheat, or manure be employed without rendering the soil too rich. 
 Nothing can exceed the cheerless, isolated, and unpromising appearance of a settler's 
 clearing in the midst of the primeval forest. The " owner " looks not unlike a person 
 struggling for existence on a single plank in the middle of the ocean. For weeks, often 
 for months, he sees not the face of the stranger. The same still, and wild, and bound- 
 less forest every morning rises up to his view ; and his only hope against its shutting 
 him in for life rests in the axe upon his shoulder. A few blades of corn peeping out 
 between stumps whose very roots interlace, they are so close together, are his sole 
 safeguards against want, whilst the few potato plants, in little far-between " hills," and 
 which struggle for existence against the briar-bush and luxuriant underwood, are to 
 form the seeds of his future plenty. Tall pine-trees, girdled and blackened by fire, 
 stand out as grim monuments of the prevailing loneliness, whilst the forest itself, like 
 an immense wall round a fortress, seems to say to the settler, " How can poverty ever 
 expect to escape from such a prison-house ?"* 
 
 Such is the first life of a settler in America, and so rough and unpromising were the 
 materials out of which have sprung those prosperous communities that now cover the 
 surface and cultivate the boundless resources of the Western AVorld. It is evident that 
 there is no room or need for the disjjlay of agricultural skill or knowledge in this 
 contest for existence with the dense and frowning forest. The " settler " cannot 
 become a "farmer" for years after his first entrance upon his laborious life. The 
 misfortune is, that in the United States, so many who have attained the character of 
 the " farmer," still retain the ideas and practices of the " settler." The land which, 
 from the generous nature of the soil, yielded crop after crop without manure, and with 
 but little tillage, is expected to retain its productive power, or at least, is subjected still 
 to the same exhausting system, the result of which is to be found in the quotation with 
 which we have commenced this section. " That is a fine field of wheat," said a friend 
 of the writer's, in passing down the Ohio in a steamboat, to a gentleman who had just 
 before got on board. " Yes," he replied ; " that field is mine, and it has been cropped 
 with wheat without manure for twenty-five consecutive years, and has never once failed." 
 Such is the practice with the generality of the farmers in both the old and new states. 
 "We heard of a substantial emigrant who recently purchased a farm that had long been 
 under cultivation ; and one motive for selecting it was, that there was an accumulation 
 of fifteen years' manm'c of the farm upon it, none having been applied in all that time 
 by his predecessor. 
 
 The great obstacle to good farming in America is the scarcity of hands, and the 
 consequent dearness of labour. This was the case from the first settlement of the 
 country, and must necessarily be so, whilst there is so much good land easily attainable. 
 
 * " Canada," an Essay, by J. S. Hogan. 
 
198 
 
 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Sir John Sinclair, the President of the Board of Agriculture, wi-ote to President Waah- 
 icgton, asking how it was that the rich lands of America did not yield more than eight 
 bushels of wheat per acre ? The reply of the latter was, that " land was so cheap, and 
 labour so dear, that it was more profitable to cidtivate a large quantity of land badly, 
 than a small quantity well." The same principle is acted upon to the present time. 
 Owing to the large quantity of fresh land continually brought under cidtivation, and the 
 number of hands absorbed by commerce, navigation, railways, manufacture, migration to 
 California, &c., the proportion employed in agriculture does not exceed one man and two- 
 thirds to every two hundred acres of arable land under cultivation ; and it would appear 
 that this proportion is continually decreasing, for Mr. Jay, in the paper already quoted, 
 states that by the census of 1840, the portion of the adult male population employed in 
 agriculture amounted to 77'4 per cent., whilst in the census of 1850 it was only 44'69 per 
 cent. Other writers corroborate this statement. Russell, in the account of the farms 
 he visited, speaks of a farmer in Illinois who possessed 1,200 acres, which he divided 
 amongst his children, giving 140 acres to each, on which they kept one man and two 
 horses, who, with the master, performed all the labour of the farm. He also mentions 
 the president's farm in Michigan, of 160 acres, on which two young men cultivate 
 and harvest sixty acres of wheat, sixty of Indian corn, and do all the other work of the 
 farm. 
 
 The total amount of "improved" or cultivated laud in 1850, according to the 
 census, was 113,032,614 acres, divided into 1,449,075 farms and plantations. The 
 unimproved lands comprise 180,528,000 acres. Taken together, they allow 202 acres 
 to each farm on the average, valued at 2,250 dollars each. The following is the average 
 size of the farms in the different states, according to the same authority : — 
 
 
 Acres 
 
 Maine . . . 
 
 . . 97 
 
 New York . . 
 
 . . 120 
 
 New Jersey . . . 
 
 . . 113 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 . . 115 
 
 PenEsylyania . . 
 
 . . 116 
 
 Ohio 
 
 . . 125 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Maryland 202 
 
 Kentucky 221 
 
 Tennessee 267 
 
 Virginia 340 
 
 North Carolina .... 369 
 
 Jlississippi 309 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Louisiana 372 
 
 Georgia 441 
 
 South Carolina .... 541 
 
 Texas 942 
 
 California 4466 
 
 The value of the occupied land ranges from 1^ dollar per acre in Texas to 
 28 dollars in the middle states. The southern states do not average more than 
 11 1 dollars per acre; the north-western, 20 j dollars; so that in the middle states land 
 is the most valuable. All these are proximate estimates, and must be taken as such ; 
 they, however, afford an insight into the construction of the land system in America, 
 and wiU assist the reader in forming a tolerably clear notion of the distribution of the 
 soil. 
 
 It appears to us, that the great defects in the character of American agricultm-e 
 arise from a want of that attachment to the soil on the part of the occupiers or owners 
 which in older countries renders the permanent possession of a property an object of 
 anxious desire and effort. For instance, a youth of seventeen or eighteen years of age 
 leaves the paternal roof, and with a few dollars takes or pui'chases a tract of land in a 
 vild state. This he brings under partial cultivation, and then seizes the first favourable 
 opportimity to dispose of it, and goes further back westward to repeat the operation. 
 Many occupy farms and work them as long as the cultivation ^vill produce a profit; 
 and then cither abandon them altogether, or, if fortunate enough to find purchasers. 
 
AGRICULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 199 
 
 dispose of them ou the best terms they can obtain, and go westward. Large traets 
 of land in Virginia and other of the eastern states have been thus reduced to sterility, and 
 abandoned, to retui-n to the' state of nature they exhibited when the country was first 
 discovered. A period will probably arrive when they will again become an object of 
 speculation to settlers. It has been predicted by intelligent men in the states, that 
 unless a change is made in the management of the laud, America will, in fifty years, 
 require importations of bread-stufis instead of being an exporting country. This is 
 probably too gloomy a view to take of the question, because it is scarcely probable that 
 in that period the immense tracts of virgin land will have been taken, let the increase 
 of the population be what it may.* It is calculated that the valley of the Mississippi 
 alone, if all brought under tillage, would support more than 50,000,000 inhabitants. 
 This enormous tract contains 1,317,562 square miles, or 354,074,480 acres, a large 
 proportion of which is a deep alluvium of almost inexhaustible fertility, and having 
 the Mississippi and its numerous tributaries for outlets for its products, as weU as for 
 its di'ainage. A rich narrow belt, on both the east and west side of the river, reaches 
 from its source to its junction with the Mexican Gulf. Beyond the ninety-eighth 
 meridian of longitude, westward to the Rocky Mountains, and from thence to the 
 Pacific, with the exception of a narrow strip next the coast, the land is for the most 
 part barren and unfit for the support of a civilized community. f 
 
 It is calculated by the most competent authorities that not more than one-thirteenth 
 part of the United States' territory is "improved" or cultivated, about one-eighth 
 more being occupied but not cultivated ; and the entire number of acres occupied is, in 
 round numbers, 300,000,000, or one-sixth part of the national domain. { The writer 
 from whom we have quoted, combats the theory of Ricardo and Malthus, that the first 
 settlers selected the best land, and asserts, on the authority of Carey, that millions of 
 acres of the richest portions even of North Carolina still remain uncleared, whilst labour 
 and capital are both expended upon soils that do not yield more than three, fom", and 
 five bushels of wheat to the acre ; and that the same is true of South Carolina, Georgia, 
 Florida, and Alabama. The fact probably is, that the first settlers selected their land 
 on account of some supposed local advantages, — ^as the vicinity to the sea-coast or a river, 
 or exemption from the attacks of the Indians. But why the richest lands should still 
 remain unoccupied in the older states is difficult to say. So entirely valueless are the 
 richest lands of the west, south, and south-west, that Congress has recently granted 
 them, to the extent of nearly 40,000,000 acres, to the states in which they lie, and 
 the latter have accepted them.§ 
 
 * Taking the difference between the census of 1840 and that of 1850, the increase of the population is about 
 35 per cent. As this increase proceeds in a compound ratio, if we take the round number in 1850 to be 23,000,000, the 
 decennary numbers at the same rate will be as follows : — 
 
 1860 31,050,000 
 
 1870 41,917,500 
 
 1880 56,588,025 
 
 1800 76,394,035 
 
 1900 103,132,745 
 
 A large proportion of this increase is caused by emigration, and it is a question whether the natural increase of ths 
 population in America is equal to that of England. It is also probable that the state of affairs in the United States will 
 put a stop to emigration for some time, as well as to the natui-al increase. A large number of emigrants are already 
 retoruing to Europe, but we beliefe these are chiefly unsettled persons, having acquired no land in the states, 
 t Jay's "Address," p. 30. + Ibid., p. 31. § Ibid. 
 
200 
 
 AGIUCULTURB, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The four great staple articles of agricultural produce are Indian corn, wheat, cotton, 
 and hay ; and the statistics of these, in 1850, were as follows : — 
 
 
 Numter of acres. 
 
 Produce in bushels. 
 
 Value of crop. 
 
 Produce per acre. 
 
 Value 
 per acre. 
 
 Indian corn . . 
 Wheat .... 
 Cotton .... 
 Hay 
 
 31,000,000 
 
 11,000,000 
 
 5,000,000 
 
 13,000,000 
 
 592,071,104 
 100,485,844 
 978,317,200 lbs. 
 13,838,242 tons. 
 
 $296,035,552 
 
 90,437,260 
 
 78,265,376 
 
 138,382,420 
 
 19yV bushels. 
 
 n „ 
 
 195i lbs. 
 l-jlg^ tons. 
 
 $9-55 
 
 8-21 
 
 15-64 
 
 10-62i 
 
 The Indian corn is stated by ]\Ir. Jay to be the only species of produce that has not 
 retrograded, it having increased from 1840 to 1850 nearly 56 per cent., whilst wheat, 
 according to the census, had increased only 15 per cent., although the population had 
 increased 35 per cent., and notwithstanding the large extent of new land brought 
 under cultivation. So far as the supplying of the population with food, the latter result 
 is of far less consequence in America than it would be with us, because national habit 
 and taste would lead them to fall back upon Indian corn, if the wheat crop should fail. 
 At the same time, it proves the deterioration of the soil in the older states, where the 
 production of the most valuable article of culture does not near keep pace with the 
 increased breadth of land brought under tillage. In New York state alone, the wheat 
 crop, which in 1840 was 12,286,418 bushels, was in 1855 only 9,092,402 bushels, being 
 a falling off of more than 25 per cent. Tobacco also has fallen off in the same period 
 from 219,163,319 lbs. to 199,752,655 lbs., being a reduction of nearly 9 per cent. 
 
 Mr. Morrell, member of congress for Vermont, affirms that agriculture is declining 
 rapidly in every state of the Union ; that the quantity of food produced bears, each 
 year, a smaller proportion to the number of acres under cultivation ; and that over a 
 very wide area some of the most useful crops bid fail* to become extinct. This opinion 
 jMr. Jay thinks is erroneous, because the total amount of produce, including Indian 
 corn, does not bear out the fact. He admits, however, that " as productiveness of crop 
 and destructiveness of soil are said to be the two prominent features of American 
 agriculture, the large harvests in our young states ought not to blind us to the fact, 
 that the fertility of those parts of the older states, which once yielded as abundantly, seems 
 to have been steadily diminishing for a long course of years." This admission justifies 
 rather than confutes ]\Ir. IMorrell ; and the fact that, in the comparatively young states 
 of Indiana and Wisconsin, Indian corn has fallen off in produce from sixty to forty 
 bushels per acre in the former, and wheat full 50 per cent, in the latter, in twelve years, 
 stdl further strengthens it. 
 
 The following figures show the increase of animal products in the ^pu years fron:. 
 1840 to 1850 :— 
 
 
 1S40. 
 
 1850. 
 
 Increase. 
 
 Horses . . 
 
 
 4,336,209 
 
 4,890,650 
 
 500,381 
 
 Neat cattle . 
 
 . . 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 18,378,907 
 
 3.378,907 
 
 Sheep . . . 
 
 
 19,500,000 
 
 22,000,000 
 
 2,500,000 
 
 Swine . . . 
 
 
 26,300,000 
 
 30,300,000 
 
 4,000,000 
 
 Wool . . . 
 
 . lbs. 
 
 3.5,802,114 
 
 52,510,959 
 
 16,714,845 
 
 „ average weight of 
 
 
 
 
 fleece 
 
 • • • 
 
 1-84, 
 
 2-43 
 
 •59 
 
 Butter produced in 1850 
 Cheese 
 
 313,266,962 lbs 
 105,535,219 „ 
 
AGEICULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 201 
 
 The total value of the live stock in 1855 was about 550,000,000 dollars j and of the 
 animals slaughtered, 11,750,000 dollai's.* 
 
 Great attention has been paid of late years to the improvement of the various breeds 
 of cattle and other animals in the United States. No expense has been spared to 
 purchase the best types of the various species in England, and these, on being imported, 
 have generally succeeded remarkably well, so far as the horses, cattle, and sTpine are 
 concerned ; but less so in the case of the sheep, which appear not to maintain the 
 superiority they possess on importation. There is, in fact, no good mutton to be had 
 in the states, which is probably owing to the quality of the food. The short-horn breed 
 of cattle are quite equal to those of the best herds in England, from which they are 
 descended. 
 
 The great mart for the rearing, fattening, and curing of swine is Cincinnati, in 
 Ohio, where the slaughtering of them is reduced to system by a singular division of 
 labour. The following account, taken from the " Year-Book of American Agriculture" 
 for 1855-6, will be found amusing and instructive : — 
 
 " The building and appurtenances are calculated for despatching two thousand hogs 
 per day. The process is as follows : — The hogs being confined in pens adjacent, are 
 driven, about twenty at a time, up an inclined bridge or passage, opening by a doorway 
 at top into a square room, just large enough to hold them; and as soon as the outside 
 door is closed, a man enters from an inside door, and with a hammer of about two 
 pounds' weight and three feet length of handle, by a single blow, aimed between the 
 eyes, knocks each hog down, so that scarce a squeal or grunt is uttered. In the mean- 
 time a second apartment, adjoining this, is being filled ; so the process continues. Next, 
 a couple of men seize the stunned ones by the legs, and drag them through the inside 
 doorway on to the bleeding platform, where each receives a thrust of a keen blade in 
 the throat, and a torrent of blood runs through the latticed floor. After bleeding for a 
 minute or two, they are slid off this platform du'ectly into the scalding vat, which is 
 about twenty feet long, six wide, and three deep, kept fuU of water heated by steam, 
 and so arranged that the temperature is easily regulated. The hogs being slid into one 
 end of this vat, are pushed slowly along by men standing on each side with short poles, 
 turning them over, so as to secure uniform scalding, and moving them onward, so that 
 each one will reach the opposite end of the vat in about two minutes from the time it 
 entered. About ten hogs are usually passing through the scalding process at a time. 
 At the exit end of the vat is a contrivance for lifting them out of the scalding water, two 
 or three at a time, unless quite large, by the power of one man operating a lever, which 
 elevates them to the scraping table. This table is about five feet wide, and twenty-five 
 feet long, and has eight or nine men arranged on each side, and usually has as many hogs 
 on it at a time, each pair of men performing a separate part of the work of removing the 
 bristles and hair. Thus, the first pair of men remove the bristles — only such as are worth 
 saving for brushmakers, taking ouly a, double handful from the back of each hog — which 
 are deposited in a barrel or box. The hog is then given a single turn onward to the 
 next pair, who, with scrapers, remove the hair from one side, then turn it over to the 
 next pair, who scrape the other side. The next scrape the head and legs ; the next 
 shave one side with sharp knives ; the next do the same to the other side ; and the 
 next, the head and legs ; and each pau- of men have to perform their part of the work in 
 
 * Jay's "Address," p. 4 1. 
 
202 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 ouly twelve seconds of time, or at the rate oijive hogs in a minute, for three or four hours 
 at a time ! Ai-rived at the eud of this table, with the hair all removed, a pair of men 
 put in the gambril-stick and smug the carcase off on the wheel. This wheel is about 
 ten feet in diameter, and revolves on a perpendicular shaft, reaching from the floor 
 to the ceiling, the height of the wheel being about six feet from the floor. Around its 
 periphery are placed eight large hooks, about four feet apart, on which the hogs are 
 hung to be dressed ; and here again we find remarkable despatch secured by the division 
 of labour. As soon as the hog is swung from the table on to one of those hooks, the wheel 
 is given a turn of one-eighth of its circuit, which brings the next hook to the table, and 
 carries the hog a distance of four feet, where a couple of men stand ready to dash on it 
 a bucket of clean water, and scrape it down with knives, to remove the loose hair and 
 dirt that may have come from the table. The next move of the wheel carries it four 
 feet farther, where another man cuts open the hog almost in a single second of time, and 
 removes the large intestines, or such as have no fat on them worth saving, and throws 
 them out at an open doorway by his side ; another move of four feet carries it to the 
 next man, who lifts out the remainder of the intestines, the heart, liver, &c., and throws 
 them on to a large table behind him, where four or five men are engaged in separating 
 the fat and other parts of value ; another move, and a man dashes a bucket of clean 
 water inside, and washes off any filth or blood that may be seen. This completes the 
 cleaning or dressing process, and each man at the wheel has to perform his part of the 
 work in twelve seconds of time, as there are only five hogs at once on the wheel, and 
 this number are removed, and as many added, every minute. The number of men 
 employed, besides drivers, outside, is fifty ; so that each man may be said to kill and 
 dress a hog every ten minutes of working time, or forty in a day. This presents a 
 striking contrast with the manner that farmers generally do their hog-killing. At the 
 last move of the wheel, a stout fellow shoulders the carcase, whilst another removes the 
 gambril-stick, and backs it off to the other part of the house, where it is hung up for 
 twenty-four hours to cool, on liooks, placed in rows on each side of the beams, just over 
 a man's head. Here are space and hooks enough for two thousand hogs, or a full day's 
 work of killing. The next day, or when cool, they, are taken by teams to the packing- 
 house, when the weighing, cutting, sorting, and packing, are all accomplished in the 
 same rapid and systematic manner."* 
 
 The above will afford a good idea of the scale on which business is transacted in the 
 United States. f The numbers packed in the two seasons 1854-5 and 1855-6 were 
 respectively 2,473,807 and 2,124,404, the average weights being 208 and 192^ lbs. 
 Reducing the number to pounds' weight, the following is the result : — 
 
 1854-55. 1855-56. 
 
 Ill Ohio, Kentucky, Indiaua, aud Tennessee . . 391,926,200 . . 273,502,845 
 Other states 122,625,656 . . 135,444,925 
 
 514,551,856 . . 408,947,770 
 These hogs arc turned into the woods in large droves, in the summer season, where they 
 live chiefly on young pigeons, which fall from the nests. Millions of these birds build 
 their nests in the pine and beech forests of the above states, and the high winds shake 
 
 * " Year-liook," p. 43. 
 
 t A Cincinnati mercliant called ou a friend of the writer's in London to offer him some pork. " I have just imporlid 
 a samji/f lot of fifteen hundred barrels," he said, " which eau be delivered at once, and if approved, we can ship you any 
 quautUy." 
 
AGRICULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 203 
 
 out the young bii-ds, wliicli are devoured by the swine. Towards winter they are driven 
 home, and their fattening is completed -with Indian corn, on which they thrive very 
 fast ; but the meat is not solid, like that which has been fattened on barley or peas, being 
 liable to waste away when boiled. The average production of lard in the United States 
 is estimated at 96,000,000 lbs., of which 20,000,000 lbs. are shipped from Cincinnati. 
 Upwards of 8,000,000 lbs. are exported to England, and the same quantity to Cuba. 
 
 The deterioration of the soil in the eastern states has given a bias to both migration 
 and emigration towards the western, which are fast becoming occupied and cultivated. 
 The prairies of these states consist of undulating or "rolling" plains, possessing a 
 deep rich vegetable soil over an argillaceous subsoil. In its virgin state it requires little 
 tillage, and must be planted with potatoes or Indian corn for two or three seasons 
 before wheat can be grown to advantage, on account of the loose texture of the soil. 
 The great mart for the produce of these states is Chicago, situated at the head of Lake 
 Michigan, and in the state of that name. This remarkable city, which in ] 825 was a 
 mere village, not worthy of a place in a map or a directory, had, in 1850, a population 
 of 29,000, which, in five years, had increased to 104!,000, and has probably now reached 
 130,000. The shipments of grain from this port in 1857 amounted to 2,200,000 qrs., 
 of which 1,340,000 qrs. were wheat ; and it will probably be double that quantity the 
 present year (1861), so wonderfully has the production increased in the western states. 
 Besides the na\'igation of the lakes, and Erie Canal, this city is the starting-point of 
 nine grand trunk railroads, with iipwards of twenty branch roads, running in different 
 directions, and connecting the trunk roads with every part of the country. Another of 
 these rapidly rising cities, starting up as if by magic in the west, is Milwaukee, in 
 Wisconsin. Situated on the Upper Mississippi, it will command the grain trade of its 
 parent state, and probably of those adjoining, for transit by way of that river. In 
 1840 the population of Milwaukee was 1,750; in 1850 it amounted to 20,000; and 
 by the census table of 1860 it had reached 46,000, and is stated to have increased 
 greatly during the past year. The receipts of wheat in 1860 amounted, in all, to 
 9,108,458 bushels, of which 8,582,658 bushels were shiiDped or sent by railway. The 
 number of acres sown with wheat in Wisconsin in 1860 was 1,062,097, and the average 
 yield was estimated, upon good authority, at twenty-eight bushels per acre. This will 
 give an aggregate produce of 29,738,716 bushels of wheat. Of this it was estimated 
 that at least 23,000,000 bushels would be exported. The lands of Missouri, Mississippi, 
 Indiana, Illinois, &c., were equally productive of wheat in J 860 ; and so heavy was the 
 crop, that bands could not be procured to harvest it, and some hundreds of acres 
 remained uncut through the winter, and were of course destroyed. 
 
 The scarcity of hands throughout the agricultural districts of the United States has 
 led to the employment of machinery in every operation in which it could be used to 
 advantage. "Necessity is the mother of invention;" and a certain demand is sure 
 to be met by an adequate supply. The whole number of patents for agricultural 
 machines and implements, up to the commencement of 1855, was as follows : — 
 
 Grain and grass harTcsters Ill 
 
 Ploughs 372 
 
 Straw cntters 153 
 
 Smut machines 140 
 
 Winnowing machiues 163 
 
 Threshing machines 378 
 
 1.317 
 
20i ' AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 We are indebted to Americans for some of our best agricultiu'al machines, especially 
 mowers and reapers, altliougli tliey have undergone modifications and improvements 
 under the practical hands of British machinists. The best machines, however, require 
 hands to work them, and these are not always to be obtained in the more thinly 
 populated states, where they are most required, and where the use of a machine would 
 be of the greatest importance. In the year 1855 upwards of 15,000 reaping and mowing 
 machines were sold in the United States; and in 1860 one machinist (McCormick) 
 sold upwards of 7,000. The introduction of machinery in every department of hus- 
 bandry where it can be used to advantage is strongly insisted on by the different 
 agricultural societies. " Substitute it," says a report of one of the county societies 
 of Massachusetts, " for human muscles as far as possible. Save the expenditiu-e of 
 exhausting labour and hot sweat whei'ever you can. In the doctrine of eternal hard 
 work yoiu' committee do not believe. It has come almost to this ; we must cultivate 
 our fields by machinery, or not at all. Help is scarce and high, and, what is worse, is 
 good for little or nothing when we get it. Irish help is next door to no help at all. 
 The chief problem is, not how much they cost, but how much they waste! Hence, if 
 we must have them (and who has any other ?), let us have as little as we can. As fast 
 as may be, let us introduce horse-rakes, and corn planters, and movring machines to our 
 farms, and hold them as neighbourhood property. Let us domesticate among our 
 farming tools a horse-power, a circular saw, a threshing machine, and so on, and thus 
 diminish the necessity for hand-help, instead of importing muscle from Ireland by the 
 ship-load. If Irishmen will come and demand their dollar a-day and board, and cod-fish 
 on Fridays, let them pass along to those who can afford to pay them and put up with 
 their heedless waste; .... let us avail ourselves of all the helps which science and 
 modern improvements suggest for om* aid."* 
 
 Most of the states can boast of agricultural societies, and some of them are very 
 efficient. Massachusetts, however, takes the lead in these institutions, having twenty 
 county associations, besides the " State Board of Agriculture," which superintends the 
 whole. It has a State Farm as a model, and for the purpose both of education and 
 experiments in husbandry. The latter object, however, is subordinate to that of 
 instructing the youths of the State Reform School, of whom there are about 600, 
 sent there by the courts for various offences. The number employed at a time varies, 
 but it seldom exceeds 150, and is sometimes as low as eight or ten. A small remune- 
 ration is paid them, rather as an encouragement of good conduct than as wages. 
 Most of the local associations have a town, or model farm, under the management 
 of committees : these belong to the parishes, and the Board of Agriculture recommends 
 the authorities to devote them to experiments in husbandry for the benefit of the 
 community. The influence of these associations is beginning to be felt much more 
 extensively than formerly, and the exhibitions are well attended. The competition 
 for the cattle prizes is daily increasing, and the improvement in the breeds of all kinds 
 of animals is a proof both of the interest taken in the subject and of its general 
 utility. While, however, the virgin land in the west is so abundant, and so easy of 
 acquisition, the migratory spirit will still continue to rule; and the case with which 
 good crops are raised with little trouble or expense, is a powerful motive for the 
 
 * '■ Ycar-Book," &c., p. 11 
 
AGEICULTURE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 205 
 
 farmers to abandon tlie old cultivated lauds, wlucli will require so mucli labour and 
 expense to keep them in a profitable state. 
 
 Nor will tlie exhausting system cease whilst laboiu- is so difficult to be obtained, 
 and so dearly paid for. The desire of immediate profit, regardless of the conse- 
 quences, will always predominate over more economic motives, and private advantage 
 over the public good; and thus, whilst the enlightened few adopt a more generous 
 system of husbandry, and are satisfied to wait for the advantages that will inevitably 
 accrue to them, as well as to posterity, by sustainmg the fertility of the soil, the 
 majority will continue to scoui'ge the land by incessant cropping with cereals without 
 maniu'e, and with as little labour and outlay of money as is consistent with the most 
 moderate return that can be expected from such a course of treatment. 
 
 It would be a great omission, in treating on the agriculture of the American States, 
 if we were to neglect referring to the condition of California and its agricultural capa- 
 bilities. This fine country, which now ranks amongst the States of the Union, was 
 scarcely ever heard spoken of previous to the year 1848. The Spaniards had held it for 
 three hundred years without attempting to develop its resources, or even to ascertain 
 them ; and, so far as the rest of the world was concerned, and even Spain itself, 
 California was worthless in all national and cosmopolitan respects. In that year, the 
 country was transferred by purchase and sale to the United States' government, and 
 from that hour it has not ceased to progress in a career of prosperity with all the 
 energy that a free people could command. The discovery of the gold-fields is a fact 
 too well known to require any account here, if indeed it was not irrelevant to our 
 purpose. But that a state not more than thirteen years old, and whose labour has been 
 absorbed in an enterprise which might have been considered hostile to the more sober 
 pursuits of business, should be able, not only to supply its own population with the 
 necessaries of life (a large proportion of whom are constantly engaged in an unproduc- 
 tive employment, so far as providing themselves with food), but to export largely of 
 wheat and other grain, is one of the greatest marvels of modern colonisation. Cargo after 
 cargo of wheat from California has been received in the United Kingdom, the weight and 
 quality of which is far superior to any grown with us ; and such is the fertility of the 
 soil, that it is very probable the quantity brought from thence will increase annually. 
 
 Nothing is known of the character of the husbandry practised, but the probability 
 is, that it is of a kind similar to that of the older states ; and that a present profit will 
 lead the Californian farmers to pursue the scourging or exhausting system whilst the 
 fertility of the soil continues to yield a profit. Other grain, as well as wheat, is also 
 cultivated with similar success ; but it is said that the most profitable kind of husbandry 
 is the breeding and rearing of sheep. The climate of California appears to be peculiarly 
 adapted to these animals, which breed there twice a-year, having always two, and 
 sometimes three, lambs at a time. It is perfectly marvellous to hear of the rapidity 
 with which a flock of sheep is raised there. The fleece is of good quality, and possesses 
 a long staple, and if improved by crossing with the Merino, will vie with the Australian 
 wool in the European markets. 
 
PART III.— AGRICULTURE IN CONNECTION WITH PHYSICAL 
 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE SUBJECT CONSIDERED. 
 
 Science may be divided into two parts, namely, theory and practice. Theoretic science 
 is a knowledge of the principles of nature. Practical science is the application of those 
 principles iu developing the resources of nature. 
 
 It is true no man can fully understand agriculture by theory alone, any more than 
 he can any other art, because it requires a different kind of knowledge derived from 
 experience. A man, for example, may learn the theory of weaving by studying a treatise 
 on it ; but he would soon find upon trial that the art of weaving required an apprentice- 
 ship in order to produce a material of cloth fit for use. But, on the other hand, the 
 man who has studied his art, and thereby united theory with practice, is better prepared 
 to execute it than another who has only followed the routine of practice, and knows 
 nothing of the principles on which the art is founded. 
 
 The simple definition of science given above holds good in the prosecution of eveiy 
 department of business and all the affairs of social life ; for, whether we understand it or 
 not, science enters into, and constitutes the basis of them all, suggesting the adaptation 
 of the best means for the attainment of the proposed end. Nor is there any employment 
 so exalted as to be above, or so humble as to be below, the application of science in its 
 prosecution. Take, for example, the business of a shoemaker ; which man would a person 
 prefer to employ, the one who has studied the construction of the foot— the undulating 
 curve of the sole, the play of the joints and muscles, the slope of the instep, &c., so as 
 to adapt the shoe to every inflection of the sinews, and movement of the numerous bones 
 of which the foot is composed ; or the man who knows nothing of all this, and forms the 
 shoe on the old principle, with reference only to the length, breadth, and circumference 
 of the foot ? Now, the first is science united to practice ; the second practice only, or 
 with the lowest and most ignorant application of science. Ten to one the result will 
 be, that whilst the first will produce a shoe that adapts itself to every part and every 
 movement of the foot, the second will probably cripple you with corns, or ci-amp you to 
 lameness ; rendering every movement painful, and walking a penance.* 
 
 If we apply this reasoning to agriculture, we shall find that the knowledge and appli- 
 cation of science lies at the foundation of perfect success in all its operations, from the 
 
 * We see the illustration of this fact daily in the number of persons wlio go limping through life with corns occasioned 
 by wearing shoes not adapted to the foot. A slight deviation from the form of the foot in certain parts is quite sufticient 
 to produce lameness from corns. 
 
THE SUBJECT CONSIDERED. 207 
 
 commencemeut to,tlie end of the season. Tlie man of science, for example, ploughs np 
 his stuhbles immediately aftei- harvest, because he knows that the action of the frost and 
 snow iipon the soil ameliorates and disintegrates its components, renders them more 
 immediately assimilable by the plants intended for it, and increases its fertility by 
 attracting to it a larger portion of the atmospheric elements that promote it. The 
 merely practical man too frequently neglects this operation, or if he performs it, it is 
 because experience has taught him that a better seed-bed can be obtained by it than if 
 he delayed it till the spring. Of the chemical and mechanical effect of the frost and 
 snow upon the loosened soil, he knows nothing, and therefore cannot appreciate it. 
 
 And thus it is with all other operations of rural economy, as well as of other arts. 
 " Every department of agriculture, and of manufacture," says Sir R. Kane, " has its 
 origin in scientific principles. The weaving of a woollen cloth, the rolling of an iron 
 rail, or of a bi-ass ornament, the construction of a clock, the preparation of soap, or of 
 oil of vitriol, all require the discovery of a certain principle, which, worked by a certain 
 process, or certain materials, elaborates the product. Sometimes a process with particular 
 materials is hit upon long before the principle of its action becomes known, and the art 
 exists, but cannot extend itself, for with any other materials the process cannot answer, 
 whilst with any other process the materials are not suited ; and, hence, although the 
 art may arrive in that limited form to great perfection, it is impossible to transplant it 
 to other places, or in other hands. On the other side, a scientific principle may be 
 discovered and yet remain long barren of practical results. Science and art, which 
 should distribute, by progressing hand in hand, the highest blessings of industry and 
 civilization, are hence often separated, and the more so that the persons by whom each 
 is cultivated, are kept asunder by the false ideas as to what really constitutes education. 
 The man of science, occupying himself with the interesting paths of abstract discovery, 
 thinks not of community of objects, or of feeling, with the dark, coarse-handed 
 operatives, who in the furnace or the forge work out the really practicable solution of 
 his problems ; whilst the worker, equally ignorant of the importance of bringing together 
 their respective modes of experiment and inquiry, considers science, like the dead 
 languages, as characterising the position of the upper classes, from whom, intellectually 
 as well as socially, he keeps apart." * 
 
 Numerous examples in proof of the truth of the above remarks could be adduced ; 
 we shall give only two or three well-known ones by way of illustration. The principle 
 of the corn-drill was discovered about the year 1670, but it was not until a century 
 afterwards that it began to be generally used by the farmers of England. Again, the 
 existence of sugar in all the European plants was discovered by Margraaf in 1747, and 
 lay dormant for fifty years before a practical application of it was made in the manu- 
 facture of that condiment. Lastly, the possibility of conveying messages from place to 
 ^jplace by electricity was discovered by a Frenchman about the year 1789,t but fifty years 
 passed before it was deemed practicable to apply it to that purpose upon an extended 
 scale. In all these, and many other cases, the distance between the man of science and the 
 man of practice was too great to admit of immediate co-operation ; and it required a com- 
 bination of events, or an accidental concurrence of circumstances, to bring the two parties 
 into such juxtaposition as to facilitate the practical application of the principles involved 
 to the purpose for which they were adapted. When Paxton got into the railway carriage 
 
 * " Industrial Resources of Ireland," p. 397. t See " i\rthur Young's Journey in France." 
 
208 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND IMODERN. 
 
 with the plan of the Crystal Palace in his hand^ it was the circumstauce of his meeting 
 with Stephenson at that moment that facilitated the adoption of it ; and it is probable 
 that had not the latter gentleman been at the meeting of the committee to recommend 
 it, the plan would have been thought too wild and extravagant to be sanctioned by them, 
 and the one concocted by the council would have superseded it. 
 
 The employment of machinery in agriculture is effecting that which has hitherto been 
 considered almost an impossibility— the union of theoretic with practical science in the 
 operations of husbandry. Necessity is compelling the farmer to direct his attention to 
 the study of science, in order not only to keep pace with the progress of the age, but 
 absolutely to enable him to make head against the competition to which the legislation 
 of the times has subjected him. That competition, however, far from injuring, has 
 positively, as well as indirectly, benefited him, by rousing him to energetic action, and 
 by extending the markets for his produce. Throwing off the stolid ignorance which led 
 him — using his own phrase — to ''let well alone," and adhere to the routine of his 
 forefathers, he has made himself acquainted with the principles on which his business 
 should be conducted, and which involve a knowledge of the laws of animal and vegetable 
 life. On the other hand, the cheapening of the necessaries of life, and the throwing 
 open of the ports of the United Kingdom to all comers, have by extending the markets 
 for our manufactures, greatly increased the home consumption of agricultural produce 
 amongst the mass of operatives who are engaged in their production. 
 
 But it is not the master alone that is benefited by the union of theoretic with practical 
 science in agricidture ; the labouring class, in their proportion, partake equally of the 
 advantages arising from it both physically and morally. " The constant aim and effect 
 of scientific improvements in manufactures," says Dr. Ure, " are philanthropic, as they 
 tend to relieve the workman either from the niceties of adjustment, which exhaust his 
 mind and fatigue his eyes, or from painful repetition of efforts which distort or wear 
 out his fi'ame."* If this is true, as applied to manufactm'es, how much more so is it 
 the case in regard to agriculture ? Take, for instance, the employment of the tasker ; 
 what possible work can be more exhausting to the frame than that of threshing corn 
 with the flail, by the constant strain upon every muscle and sinew of the body, every 
 joint or hinge of his limbs ? A man who has from his youth been a tasker, is old at fifty, 
 and decrepid at sixty ; and if after that age he pursues the same calling, every stroke of 
 the flail is effected with pain and diflSculty, and his life is one continued penance. 
 Equally injurious is the operation of mowing and reaping, although not so continuous 
 as that of threshing ; but, for the time, the stress upon the physical powers is enormous, 
 and frequently produces illness with the harvest men. Many other of the operations of 
 husbandry are more or less injurious to the labourer's health, and he is the last person 
 who ought to complain of the employment of the machinery which tends to render his 
 life more easy and prolonged, by divesting it of its most onerous and exhausting labour.|^ 
 
 But the introduction of science in husbandry is equally beneficial in a moral point of 
 view to the labouring class by creating the necessity for his being better educated. The use 
 of machinery requires the aid of intelligent workmen, who have had a superior training 
 to that of the peasantry in general. The farmer who employs any of these complicated 
 inventions has found it necessary to add to his staff of men a machinist who understands 
 their construction and use. By and by, he reflects that he has men on the farm of equal 
 
 * Ure's " Philosophy of Manufactures," p. 8. 
 
AGEICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY. 2C9 
 
 capacity -witli his engineer, and for whom he must find employment. He therefore will 
 see the policy of fitting the men already under his hands for the task, instead of 
 employing a stranger at high wages for working his machinery. 
 
 It is well known that the class of artisans and manufacturing operatives, especially 
 those employed in the construction of machinery, are as far superior to those of the 
 last century as are the agriculturists. This is the effect of science applied to the arts, 
 and the use of machinery in substitution of hand-labour. Amongst these operatives 
 you will frequently meet with men of first-rate, though unassuming, intelligence, who 
 would put to shame many so-called educated men, who despise them as low and vulgar. 
 Why the rural peasantry should be the only class that contimies below par in point of 
 educational advantages, it is not easy to perceive. At any rate the period has arrived 
 when a moral and intellectual training for them has become a matter of prudence, if not 
 of necessity; and the sooner the landed interest sets about the task, the better it will 
 be for them.* 
 
 SECTION II. 
 AGRICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 The term physiology is derived from two Greek words signifying respectively nature and 
 discourse, or argument. It therefore implies the science or study of nature, or natural 
 physiology. It takes cognisance of all the phenomena of the three great kingdoms into 
 which everything in nature is divided, namely, the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral ; 
 explaining their various and separate properties, powers, and functions, their analogies 
 and affinities, their mutual dependence on each other, their distinguishing charac- 
 teristics, &c. 
 
 It has been observed that " the vegetable kingdom is placed by nature intermediate 
 between the mineral kingdom, — which is submitted solely to the operation of physical 
 laws, and actuated only by means of mechanical force, — and the animal kingdom, in 
 which lital organization is most complex and most perfect, and where physical and 
 chemical affinities are subordinate in energy to the refined influence of nervous power. 
 Everything in nature is referable to one or other of these three kingdoms or divisions, 
 of which the first, the mineral, is distinguished by an absolute fixity of constitution, 
 whilst the materials of which the animal is composed are in a constant state of change. 
 If we consider a piece of marble, it contains carbon, oxj^gen, and calcium ; and as long 
 as it has been a piece of marble the same portion of these elements have formed it. 
 ft|t if we consider an animal, it is composed of numerous elements which have little 
 permanence of arrangement. By the very act of its living force the materials of which 
 it consists die and are thrown oS" from the remainder, and other new elements of the 
 
 * It is proper here to observe that it is not the design of this work to go deeply into the scientific questions on which 
 it may be considered necessary to touch, and which would each require a volume. The object, therefore, the writer has 
 in view, while pointing out the advantages to the agriculturists of a course of study embracing theoretic science, is to 
 confine his remarks to such a statement of the leading principles, as may stimidate his readers to further research. 
 Such a course, while it would be certain to open to them fresh sources of success in their business, would at the same tiuie 
 if steadily followed up, furnish them with a never-failing fund of the highest intellectual enjoymcut. 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 same kind must be taken in their place, or else the wliole animal dies. The living being 
 therefore requires food to supply this want of new materials ; for this food it must look 
 abroad in nature, ii must prey. The more highly organized animals (carnivorous) prey 
 on those of an inferior vital power (herbivorous) ; these again on the vegetable kingdom. 
 Thus, ultimately, the different kinds of plants must supply the means of sustenance to 
 all animals' bodies ; for in no case is an animal able to assimilate to its organism or use, 
 as nutritious food, a mineral material."* 
 
 The aflBnity or agreement existing between the animal and the vegetable kingdoms 
 was observed by the ancients centuries before the Christian era, and they justly considered 
 them, to a certain extent, to possess a common nature ; but chemistry had not then, 
 nor until recent times, enabled the naturalist to discover by analysis, that the materials 
 or elements of which they are composed are identically the same, and that both are 
 analogous to what are found in the mineral kingdom. The latter, however, contains 
 between sixty and seventy, whilst the two former have only eighteen, which are as 
 follows : — 
 
 1st. Organic. — Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. 
 
 2nd. Pseudo-organic. — Sulphur and phosphorus. 
 
 3rd. Inorganic : non-metallic group.- — Chlorine, iodine, bromine, silicon. 
 
 J, metallic group. — Potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, 
 
 aluminium, manganese, and copper. 
 Although all these are found in plants and animals, and are considered essential to their 
 healthy existence, they are distributed in very unequal proportions, the first four, or 
 organic, constituting by far the largest portion of both. They are deposited in the 
 eeUular fabric of plants which occupy their substance. Of the four, carbon and oxygen 
 contribute the greatest amount, as the following table will show : — 
 
 100 PARTS OF THE lOLLOWINO 
 
 SUBSTANCES CONSIST 01:- 
 
 - 
 
 Wheat . . . 
 
 Carbun. 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 Ashes. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 46 1 
 
 5-8 
 
 43-4 
 
 23 
 
 2-4 
 
 100 
 
 Wheat straw 
 
 48-4 
 
 5-3 
 
 38-9 
 
 0-4 
 
 7-0 
 
 100 
 
 Oats .... 
 
 50-7 
 
 6-4 
 
 36'7 
 
 22 
 
 40 
 
 100 
 
 Oat straw . . 
 
 50-1 
 
 5-4 
 
 390 
 
 0-4 
 
 51 
 
 100 
 
 Potatoes . . . 
 
 440 
 
 5-8 
 
 44-7 
 
 1-5 
 
 40 
 
 100 
 
 Turnips . . . 
 
 42-9 
 
 5-5 
 
 42-3 
 
 1-7 
 
 7-6 
 
 100 
 
 Clover hay . . 
 
 47-4 
 
 5-0 
 
 37-8 
 
 21 
 
 7-7 
 
 100 
 
 Sibson also gives the following as the composition of the several kinds of produce 
 named : — 
 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Turnips. 
 
 Cabbage. 
 
 Grain. 
 
 Straw. 
 
 Wliite. 
 
 Swede. 
 
 Water 
 
 Organic combustible matter — carbon, "( 
 
 oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen . . ) 
 
 Ash or mineral matter 
 
 12-26 
 
 85-99 
 
 1-75 
 
 14-23 
 
 7830 
 
 7-47 
 
 90-43 
 
 8-95 
 
 •62 
 
 89-46 
 9-52 
 102 
 
 86-28 
 
 11-85 
 
 1-87 
 
 10000 
 
 100-00 
 
 10000 
 
 10000 
 
 10000 
 
 % 
 
 The organic elements are called " combustible" because they are dissipated by fire ; 
 the inorganic are termed " incombustilile" because they remain in the form of an ash 
 after being subjected to the flames, and thereby separated from the organic constituents. 
 
 * " Industrial Kesources of Ireland," by R, Kane, p. 246. 
 
AGRICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 211 
 
 ELEMENTS CONTAINED IN 100 PARTS OF THE ASHES OF THE ABOVE SUBSTANCES. 
 
 
 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Wheat straw. 
 
 Oats. 
 
 Oat straw. 
 
 Potatoes. 
 
 Turnips. 
 
 Clover hay. 
 
 Phosphoric acid . 
 
 470 
 
 31 
 
 ]4'9 
 
 80 
 
 11-3 
 
 61 
 
 6-3 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 4-1 
 
 71 
 
 10-9 
 
 2-5 
 
 Carbonic acid . 
 
 
 00 
 
 0-0 
 
 1-7 
 
 3-2 
 
 134 
 
 140 
 
 25 
 
 Chlorine . 
 
 
 
 tr.nces 
 
 0-6 
 
 0-5 
 
 4-7 
 
 2-7 
 
 29 
 
 2-6 
 
 Lime . . 
 
 
 
 2-9 
 
 8-5 
 
 3-7 
 
 83 
 
 1-8 
 
 109 
 
 24-6 
 
 Matinesia . 
 
 
 
 15-9 
 
 50 
 
 7-7 
 
 28 
 
 5-4 
 
 4-3 
 
 6-3 
 
 Potash . . 
 
 
 
 29-5 
 
 92 
 
 129 
 
 24-5 
 
 51-5 
 
 337 
 
 26 6 
 
 Soda 
 
 
 
 traces 
 
 0-3 
 
 00 
 
 4-4 
 
 traces 
 
 41 
 
 05 
 
 Silica . . 
 
 
 
 1-3 
 
 67-6 
 
 53-3 
 
 40 
 
 56 
 
 6-4 
 
 5-3 
 
 Alumina, &c. 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 10 
 
 13 
 
 21 
 
 0-5 
 
 12 
 
 0-3 
 
 Moisture & loss 
 
 
 2-4 
 
 3-7 
 
 30 
 
 2-9 
 
 0-7 
 
 55 
 
 00 
 
 
 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 100 
 
 100-0 
 
 1000 
 
 100-0 
 
 1000* 
 
 The foregoing elements are all derived from the earth or the atmosphere, and are 
 common to the whole vegetable kingdom in a greater or less proportion, and through that 
 to the animal kingdom. Thus the highest order of organic beings, as well as the lowest, 
 derive their origin and support their existence from the earth, to which they have an 
 affinity by the similarity of their composition. The elements in both obey the same 
 laws, whether in the condition of organized bodies or that of inert matter. The complex 
 nature of these substances renders it necessary that the soil should possess a correspond- 
 ing complexity of composition in order to supply those elements essential to the healthy 
 growth of the plants. All soils do not possess them, and those which contain the largest 
 proportion will become exhausted of them by repeated cropping, because every crop 
 removes a certain quantity and lessens the productive power. A knowledge of this lies 
 at the foundation of good husbandry, and it is therefore desii-able that the agriculturist 
 should well understand the composition of the soil he has to cidtivate, as well as of the 
 plants he proposes to grow upon it, that he may be able the more intelligently to adapt 
 the thi-ee elements of production — "soil, seed, and manure" — to each other in the 
 manner and proportions most conducive to a successful result. 
 
 Soil, in the common acceptation of the term, is the surface coating of the land, and 
 is considered to consist of any combination of earthy particles that are capable of culti- 
 vation, being termed good or bad in proportion to its fertility. But this definition is 
 inconclusive and erroneous, because it mixes up the means of fertility with the medium, 
 ranking them under one categoiy. Soil in itself, abstractedly considered, is in all cases 
 barren, and only becomes fertile by the addition of certain elements which do not belong 
 to it. It is the basis of cidtivation, the medium for the reception of the elements of 
 fertility to convey them to the plant, but it does not naturally contain them. They are 
 purely accidental additions, and not inherent or integral parts, of the soil, because they 
 can either be imparted to, or withdi-awn from, it without divesting it of its character. 
 
 «L the one case it may be enriched, and in the other impoverished ; but in either it 
 mains a soil, and is the basis, but not the soui-ce, of fertility. A pure sand, for 
 instance, is infertile in itself, and incapable of sustaining vegetable life, but by a mixture 
 
 * Boussingault. These substances are not all found in every plant, except the carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and 
 nitrogen, which are always present in the tissues both of plants and animals, the former deriving them exclusively from 
 the latter, there being no evidence to prove that those elemeuts are obtained from any other source. Before, however, the 
 animal can receive these elements from the plant, they change their simple form into various secretions of the vegetable 
 tissue, to which are given the names of gluten, fibrine, albumen, casein, &-c. These serve to sustain the fabric of the 
 body of the animal, otherwise exhausted by the waste produced by exertion, perspiration, &c. 
 
 p2 
 
212 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 of clay and of the elements of fertility it may be made the basis of a florid and healthy 
 vegetation ; and so of other descriptions of earthj which in themselves are barren, or 
 have been rendered so by bad husbandry. They are still soils, although divested of 
 everything that is essential to vegetable life. 
 
 Soils are formed of the detritus of i-ocks, on the constitution of which depends their 
 character. If the rock from which a soil is derived is of simple structure, without any 
 adventitious mixture of other elements than its own base, it is not fitted alone to sustain 
 vegetable life; but there are few rocks of this simple character, and most of them 
 contain the remains of organic substances, which constitute the elements of fertility. 
 The more complex and varied the composition of the rock is from which a soil is derived, 
 the better is the latter adapted to the purposes of cultivation. Tracts of land bordering 
 on large rivers, whose course extends through countries containing rocks of dift'erent 
 structure, and which occasionally overflow their banks, usually possess soils rich in the 
 elements of fertility and highly favomable to a luxmious vegetation. The debris 
 brought down by the stream after the winter's frost and snow, and deposited upon the lands 
 on either side, forms a rich basis for cultivation. The Nile, the Mississippi, the Plata, 
 the Amazon, and other great rivers, have, by the deposits of centuries, formed extensive 
 deltas at theii- embouchures, which, being annually replenished with fresh fertilizing 
 elements by overflows, never lose their productiveness. It is said that the delta of the 
 Nile has been known to yield more than one himdredfold of the seed sown. 
 
 Linnseus has described the gradations of the functions of existence in the three 
 kingdoms of nature, in the following ^n'opositions. "Minerals grow; plants //?-02«; and 
 live ; animals grow, live, and feel." These distinctive definitions are not absolutely borne 
 out by facts, for it is well known that certain plants of the sensitive species shrink from 
 the touch, and that others display a sort of instinctive vital consciousness of enjoyment 
 incompatible with the absolute want of feeling. The sunflower is careful to keep its 
 disk towards the sun, and many other flowers exercise the same precaution. Almost 
 any plant will direct its roots towards a spot where an extraordinary supply of proper 
 food, or of moisture, is deposited. The great Hambro-grape vine at Hampton Coiu't, 
 found means to insinuate its roots into the sewer of the palace, which in process of time 
 was stopped up by them. Le Couteur mentions a remarkable instance of repugnance 
 evidently displayed by a particular kind of spring-wheat to a neighbour of the winter 
 species. At blooming time, so far from showing a disposition to cohabitation, it actually 
 turned its head against the wind, in the opposite direction, in e\ident disgust. ]Many such 
 instances are recorded by naturalists, and they go far to prove that the vitality of plants 
 is not a principle wholly destitute of tlie attribute of sensation. Further, when we con- 
 sider the very small, yet certain, degree of feeling displayed by the lowest order of 
 animals, and that the link which unites the two kingdoms of organic life is so equivocal 
 in character as to render it difiicult for the most acute naturalist to determine to wh^^ 
 it belongs, may we not by induction infer that a graduated scale of sensiljility accom- 
 panies the transition from the animal to the vegetable, and vice versd, and that the 
 benevolent Creator has imparted to plants, as well as to animals, a capacity of enjoyment 
 " after their kind," and suited to their nature ? 
 
 Such instances, however, as those we have referred to, while they, in a measure 
 neutralise the aphorism of the learned botanist, by no means estabbsli an identity or 
 equality of existence between plants and animals. " When we regard the functions," 
 
AGEICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY. 213 
 
 says a modern writer, " performed by these two great kingdoms of natiu'e, there is 
 manifestly an antagonism between them, which is probably maintained throughout the 
 whole series of beings of which they are composed. It is obviously a common property 
 of the tissues of all plants to absorb carbonic acid gas from the air and water in which 
 they live. This gas is composed of carbon and oxygen, and one of the processes of the 
 life of plants is to appropriate the carbon and give out the oxygen. On the other hand, 
 all animals imbibe oxygen gas, which, penetrating their tissues, combines with the 
 carbon of their food, and forms carbonic acid gas, which they give off from their bodies. 
 It would be difficult perhaps to apply such a test on a small scale ; but there can be no 
 doubt that these are the distinguishing features of the vegetable and animal kingdoms ; 
 and that where we find oxygen absorbed and carbonic acid given off, we have an animal, 
 and that when carbonic acid is absorbed, and oxygen given off, we have a plant."* 
 
 In animals, the function of the eye is sight ; of the ear, hearing ; of the lungs, the 
 purification of the blood by ventilation ; of the stomach digestion ; of the liver, to 
 secrete bile, &c. In plants, the function of the spongioles of the radicles is to absorb 
 from the soil the elements of nutrition j of the leaves, to decompose carbonic acid of 
 the atmosphere, so as to appropriate the carbon for the use of the plant ; of the anther, 
 to impregnate the o^alle by means of its secretion, the pollen ; of the ovary, to mature 
 the ovule into a seed, &e. The vegetative functions are called the functions of main- 
 tenance; the animal functions, relative functions, or functions of relation. The action 
 of these functions of both plants and animals, constituting the phenomena of life, 
 are described under the head of mechanical, chemical, electrical, &c. A great many 
 of the most important actions of the perfect animal body are purely mechanical, or 
 purely chemical, or partly chemical and partly mechanical. In the circulation of the 
 blood, for instance, in man, and in animals resembling man, the blood is propelled 
 onwards by mechanical force, while those mechanical forces are called into activity in 
 obedience to the laws of excitability. In the functions of respiration, the air enters the 
 lungs in conformity with the laws of that part of mechanical science called pneumatics. 
 The change which the blood undergoes by the contact with this air, is a chemical 
 change, or a change closely analogous to it, while these laws of pneumatics, and the 
 chemical laws, are brought into operation by the agency of an organic excitability. 
 The fluids contained in the leaves of plants in contact with atmospheric air, by the 
 influence of light, also undergo a chemical change, or a change exactly analogous to 
 a chemical change, while the leaf presents its upper surface to the light under the 
 direction of a peculiar excitability. f 
 
 Physiologists at present define excitability rather as a negative than as a positive 
 term, embracing all the properties of an organic tissue, whether belonging to the animal 
 or the vegetable kingdom, that are neither mechanical nor chemical. It renders those 
 
 * Carpenter, "Oa Vegetable Physiology," A test has of late years been adopted for deterraiuing whether a doubtful 
 specimen of organic life belongs to the animal or vegetable kingdom, by means of iodine. It has been generally assumed 
 that starch is a constituent of vegetable tissues, whilst those of animals are destitute of it. If, therefore, the blue colour 
 imparted to starch by iodine is found in the specimen, in whatever proportion, it is deemed at once a vegetable. 
 Unfortunately for the correctness of this theory, some German physiologists have lately detected and demonstrated the 
 existence of starch, or a substance of amylaceous character, in some of the lower, but undoubted, animals ; and in the 
 brain and spinal cord of man, a subitance termed cellulose, hitherto considered peculiar to plants, has been found ; so 
 that the test fails, and the learned are at sea again. 
 
 t Orr's " Circle of the Sciences," article. Physiology. 
 
21i AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 tissues susceptible of certain phenomena, different from tliose produced by the same 
 cause on inert matter. Thus, with inert matter, the form and texture of a leaf may be 
 exactly imitated ; but such an artificial leaf will have no power to tm-n to the light iu 
 the sunshine, or to exercise any other vital function. 
 
 It is the property of organic, or living, matter alone to reproduce its like, for no 
 modification of any part of the mineral kingdom possesses such a faculty ; — it possesses, 
 however, that of a divisibility, which some philosophers have considered infiuite, and which, 
 if not so, has at least no known limits. Even the minutest portion also retains all the 
 properties of the mass from which it was taken. In this respect it differs entirely from 
 organic bodies, which are destroyed by subdivision. These latter too, whether belonging 
 to the animal or the vegetable kingdom, pass through the periods of infancy, youth, 
 maturity, old age, and death ; after which their elements separate, in the absence of the 
 vital energy that kept them together, and become again united with the inoi'ganic masses 
 from which they were derived, retaining not the smallest similarity to the organism 
 they have separated from. The mineral, on the contrary, retains the same properties 
 and character unchanged for ever. A lump of clay, or a grain of sand, or piece of 
 granite, would remain the same as long as the world stands, unless mechanically acted 
 upon by the elements of the atmosphere or by the hand of man. 
 
 The circulation of the sap in plants differs materially from that of the blood in 
 animals. The fluids are taken up by the roots, but are not, as in animals, conveyed to a 
 central medium for circulation throughout the system, as by the heart of an animal ; but 
 are conveyed from one cell to another by a peculiar process upon the theory of endosmose 
 and exosmose.* Solutions of chemical substauces are taken up by the roots ; they inter- 
 change with the cells above them, which coutain a denser fluid in what is termed sap. 
 To this force Henfrey adds the influence of capillarity, the combined action of which 
 with endosmose and exosmose is thus described : " The cells of the pith in the neigh- 
 bourhood of the buds and other situations are filled with watery juices contaiuiug 
 insoluble secretions, such as starch, fixed oils, &c., which are stored-up nutriment. The 
 heat and moistiu-e of spring produce the decomposition of these secretions, and the 
 starch, oil, or other substances becoming converted into dextrine and sugar, the cells are 
 filled with dense mucilage and syrup. Here there is a sufficient cause for a strong 
 eudosmotic action to be set up, since this is not subject to the same statical laws as 
 capillarity. Development is almost simultaneous, and evaporation quickly follows : the 
 capillary is then free to act, and the two forces are kept in vigorous action by a rapid 
 development of structm-es, and, consequently, evaporation of water and liberation of 
 oxygen, which take place." f 
 
 The fluids thus absorbed by the roots and conveyed to the cells, are transferred to the 
 leaves through the alburnum, or layer of newly-formed wood, the cells of which are not 
 yet filled with ligneous matter. By this it is conveyed to the leaves, and is subject to 
 the action of exhalation and respiration, the former implying the evaporation of water 
 containing gaseous matter, and sometimes organic compounds. ' Light and heat arc 
 required to facilitate its action, which ceases at night. It is much more abimdant in 
 
 These names are given to the operation of mixture through a membrane accompanied with change of volume — the 
 
 former impljing an increase by a strong in-going current; the latter, a decrease or diminution by a weak out-goiug 
 current. 
 
 t Hcnfrey's " Structur.il Pliysiological Botany." 
 
A.aEICULTURAL PHYSIOLOGY 215 
 
 some plants than in others, because their action is slower. This is the case with fleshy- 
 leafed plants, which endure drought better than thin-leafed ones. Whilst a constant 
 current is sustained by exhalation through the permeable tissues of plants, it disposes 
 of the excess of water required for the solution of the chemical matters constituting the 
 food of plants, and which can only be assimilated by them in a soluble state. 
 
 By respiration, oxygen is inhaled by animals, and after being divested of its carbon, 
 is absorbed. The carbon being exhaled in the form of carbonic acid, is taken up and 
 fixed by the plant, forming part of its structure. Respiration in plants is considered 
 by some equivalent to digestion in animals, consisting in the decomposition of some 
 substances, and the fixation of others, by assimilation. But it is rather analogous 
 to the corresponding operation in the animal respiration and exhalation, which are 
 entirely distinct fi-om the process of digestion. Neither have plants the digestive 
 organism at all analogous to those of animals, such as the stomach, of capacity to 
 receive food, the gastric juice to dissolve it, &c. Plants receive their food both by their 
 roots and leaves, — not in the crude state in which animals take sustenance, but prepared 
 ready for assimilation by the atmosphere ; and the liberation of the oxygen, and absorp- 
 tion of the carbon is rather analogous to the contrary result in the respiration and 
 exhalation of animals than digestion.* 
 
 The liquefied and gaseous form in which plants receive their food requires a totally 
 different set of organs from those of animals, which receive their sustenance in a gross 
 and crude state. Both, it is true, are submitted to the action of chemical agencies to fit 
 their food for assimilation to promote the full development of their parts, and for the 
 sustainment of their existence. But in the case of plants, the food is of necessity 
 chemically prepared before it is absorbed, and the changes it subsequently imdergoes, in 
 order to a more perfect assimilation, have no analogy whatever to the digestive action 
 of the animal, which, operating upon crude and solid materials, requires the addition of 
 liquids in the stomach in order to reduce the whole mass to a semi-liquefied state. The 
 chemical change, analogous to that which then takes place in the stomach of the animal, 
 is effected, in the case of the plant, in the soil, where it is necessary that the earthy 
 matters constituting their food should be dissolved, in order to fit them for assimilation. 
 In the stomach of the animal, the nutritive portion is taken up by the absorbent vessels, 
 whilst the unappropriated portion is ejected in a solid foecal form. 
 
 The life and proper growth of the animal depend upon the continuance of the 
 mechanical and chemical changes we refer to. The stomach is the animal laboratory, 
 and receives the gross aliment, which in the process of mastication becomes mixed with 
 the salival juices ; these are an essential ingredient in producing the changes that are 
 about to take place. The stomach secretes a liquid, called the gastric (or stomachic) 
 juice, the function of which is to dissolve by chemical action, whatever elements of 
 nutrition are submitted to its influence. A mechanical action of the stomach is at the 
 same time produced by that of the lungs in breathing; this action has nothing 
 chemical in its nature, nor has it anything whatever to do with digestion,t fm-ther than 
 
 * One class of animals only is at present known that deviates from the ordinary conformation, in having no stomach 
 or digestive organs. The Entozoa, which live in the intestinal canal or in the substance of the tissues of other animals, 
 are supported on the nutrient juices of their bodies; and these being already prepared for their use, are immediately 
 assimilated without the necessity of further digestion. 
 
 t This has perfectly been demonstrated by the experiments of Spallanzani upon animals and upon himself. He 
 enclosed aliments of chickens' flesh and veal in small hollow balls of perforated tin, about the size of a hazel-nut. Tbese 
 
216 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 more intimately mixing the various matters contained in the stomach after they have 
 been acted upon and dissolved by the gastric juice, and thus preparing the nutritive 
 portions for assimilation by the tissues of the stomach. This, however, is a most 
 important function of that organ, and its obstruction to any extent is injurious to the 
 absorptive powers, which are materially assisted by the alternate expansion and con- 
 traction of the stomach, occasioned by that of the lungs in respiration. 
 
 It was once generally supposed that plants possessed an organism corresponding in 
 every particidar with that of the animal kingdom, and that digestion, respiration, 
 excretion, perspiration, &c., were common to both. But, independently of the plant 
 having no stomach of capacity to receive a mass of crude sustenance, they have no 
 tissues to enable them to absorb nutrition, or to distribute the juices, or to perform the 
 functions of secretion, which are all found in the animal kingdom ; nor have they any 
 fluid analogous to the gastric juice to act as a solvent, such a fluid being rendered 
 unnecessary by the chemical change having been efiected in the sustenance of the plant 
 in the earth or air. " In one word, the general organic functions are introduced into 
 the two living kingdoms of nature, and probably into their subordinate divisions, by 
 two different ways. This difference leads at once to the conclusion that the structure 
 of the animal is not a simple repetition of that of the plant, with the addition of a series 
 of new apparatus. The nature of the tissues, the mode of their action and change, the 
 form, division, and destinies of the organs, — all these rather teach us that animals of 
 any development are constructed upon an altogether different plan." * 
 
 The investigatious of physiology into the structure of plants and animals have 
 proved to a demonstration that organic beings, from the most exalted of the human 
 race, to the humblest plant that claims the attribute of life, derive their elementary 
 composition from the earth. We have seen that these elements of organic life have 
 been separated, defined, compai'ed, and identified with their inorganic congeners, by 
 which the perfect connection between the three kingdoms of natm'e is as satisfactorily 
 proved as any sum in arithmetic or problem in Euclid. But it is equally clear, that 
 although by certain chemical combinations of inorganic elements, the chemist can change 
 their form, and produce substances unknown to nature, and exhibiting a character totally 
 unlike any separate element, no effort of science or art can endue such combinations 
 with life in any form whatever. " When then, in connection with this undeniable truth, 
 it is considered that for long periods of time om' planet, the earth, must have been, from 
 physical circumstances, totally incapable of supporting any form of organic existence,t 
 the conclusion follows, that the appearance of organic existences on the earth implies 
 an exercise of infinite power, by which mineral matter was endowed with the new 
 property of passing into the first species of animal and vegetable life. It is vain to say 
 that such statements lie without the pale of inductive science. Man's natural curiosity 
 
 he swallowed, aud ia twelve hours, when they were voided, he found them empty, the flesh having been digested and 
 extruded from the balls through the perforations. The action of the stomach could therefore have had no part in the digestion 
 of the meat, which was entirely effected by the gastric juice. But the experiments of Ue'aumur were still more decisive. 
 lie fastened small pieces of sponge to a thread, and gave them to swallow to birds of prey; at the end of five minutes he 
 withdrew tlicin from the stomach, saturated with gastric juice. He then enclosed them in that state in a glass tube, slightly 
 warmed, and in two hours found the sponges dissolved, precisely as they would have been ia the stomach of the birds. 
 
 • " ValLjiliue's Physiology," by Brinton. 
 
 t This geological fact is proved by the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis : "And the earth was without form, 
 and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." This was a condition of things totally incompatible with organic 
 life iu any form whatever that we are acquainted with. 
 
 i 
 
THE GERMINATION AND CONSTITUTION OP PLANTS. 217 
 
 loudly aslcSj whence came organic species ? whenever he considers the undeniable truth, 
 that the sm-face of the earth must have lain for ages destitute of such existences; 
 and the answer, which by the original constitution of his mind he is compelled to 
 give, is, that such a change on the mere matter of the crust of the earth as its 
 transition into living forms, could not have occurred without the interposition of 
 Omnipotent power."* 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE GERMINATION AND CONSTITaXION OF PLANTS. 
 
 Germination is the development of the germ or embryo seed-bud into a perfect plant. 
 This process is promoted by, and requires, heat and moistm'e acting chemically and 
 mechanically upon the seed by causing it to swell, and stimulating the vital principles. 
 There is reason also to believe that electricity has a large share in this operation, and 
 that without it germination could not take place. In the first instance, the cotyledons 
 or lobes of the seed fm-uish the young plant with nourishment until it has struck out 
 its radicles or roots from the lower end of the germ. This operation is effected simul- 
 taneousj,}' with the shooting up of the plumule or stem. As soon as the roots are formed 
 and have taken hold of the earth, the plant thenceforth depends on them alone for its 
 future growth and nourishment. 
 
 The dependence of germination on heat and moisture to stimulate the vital principle 
 is common to aU plants, but they differ in the degree each requires of these elements. 
 Some plants will only vegetate in water, whilst others love a dry soil. Tropical plants, 
 such as the Victoria Regia, generally require a temperature of 70°, whilst the common 
 English water-lily germinates at 55°. The natural heat of the earth, even in winter, is 
 sufficient to keep the vital principle in action in some plants — wheat, for instance — whilst 
 in the generality of plants it is perfectly inactive and dormant diuiug that season. 
 
 It is impossible to say what is life, what is its seat, or its principle, in plants or 
 animals ; whether it is absent in the embryo until acted upon by secondary chemical 
 forces, or whether it is inherent in the seed independent of an auxiliary power. If we 
 take a grain of wheat, and with a sharp knife divide the germ, and examine the parts 
 with a powerful microscope, we find it contains all the essential parts of a plant in 
 miniature — the root, the stem, the blade, the ear ; but it possesses no vital force to 
 stimulate their growth until it is submitted to the action of air, heat, and moisture ; and 
 yet is not its vitality proved by the fact that immediately it comes into contact with 
 those elements it begins to exercise its functions ? Another proof is, that if exposed to 
 the elements of air and heat alone, without moisture, after a time it dies or loses its 
 vitality, and no future combination of these elements can restore it so as to cause the 
 seed to germinate. f 
 
 * Carpenter. 
 
 t No moJificatiou of light, air, and moisture can produce vegetation without a due proportion of heat, according to 
 the nature of the plant or seed; but there is reason to htlieve that simple heat is not sulTicieiit to stimulate vitality, and 
 that the peculiar modification of it called electricity is essentially necessary for that purpose. At the same time, electricity 
 
218 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 In germination the cotyledons, in some cases, appear above ground, forming leaves, 
 and supplying the germ with its first nourishment ; in other cases they remain in the 
 ground, but in these they equally support the young plants with their substance until 
 the roots have acquired sufficient maturity to perform the office of feeders. When a 
 bean, for instance, is committed to the earth, it the necessary conditions of heat and 
 moisture exist, germination immediately commences ; that is to say, the seed swells and 
 bursts its outward coating, and the cotyledons separate, and are brought by the upward 
 movement of the plumule above the ground, where they turn green and form the first 
 leaves of the plant. In the case of wheat, on the contrary, the cotyledons remain 
 attached to the radicle end of the seed below the ground. In both cases it is the starch 
 in the cotyledons that constitutes the food of the young plant until it can receive it 
 through the medium of the roots. 
 
 There is a great difference in the period for which the vitality of seeds can be 
 preserved. Some lose it, or feebly retain it^ after the first or second year, whilst others 
 are found to vegetate that have been preserved for centuries. Tobacco has been foimd 
 to preserve its vitality ten years, stramonium twenty-five, and so on. But the most 
 remarkable case was that of some raspberry seeds found near Maiden Castle, Dorsetshire, 
 in an ancient coffin, with some coins of the Emperor Hadrian, and which had therefore 
 been buried 1400 or 1500 years. These seeds vegetated when planted, and produced 
 good plants. "I have now before me," says Dr. Lindley, ''three plants of raspberries, 
 which have been raised in the gardens of the Horticultural Society from seeds taken 
 from the stomach of a man, whose skeleton was found thirty feet below the surface of 
 the earth at the bottom of a barrow which was opened near Dorchester. He had been 
 buried with some coins of the Emperor Hadrian." Most of the seeds of the brassica 
 tribe of plants possess this enduring faculty when preserved dry, and excluded from the 
 external air. We have known an instance in which, when a house has been taken down 
 that had been built at least 200 years, and the ground which it covered broken up, it 
 immediately became a mass of charlock plants (wild rape). The history of the wheat 
 called "mummy wheat" is too well known, and too much disputed, to be quoted as an 
 example; but we may observe that it is quite within the bounds of possibility that wheat or 
 any other seed would retain its ^■itality if enveloped in cerecloths and bandages, which 
 protected it from the external air, and in so dry a climate as that of Esjypt. Seeds found 
 hundreds of feet below the surface have been known to vegetate as soon as they were 
 exposed to tlie heat and moisture of the atmosphere. It is a singular fact hitherto 
 unaccounted for, that seeds brought from India by long sea-route will seldom germinate, 
 but those brought by the overland passage grow freely. 
 
 Embryos are divided into aperispermic and perlspermic* The first contains within 
 itself, especially in the cotyledons, all the nourishment it requires to assist in germi- 
 
 caiinot act upon a boJy to restore vitality in the absence of heat, or when the llniJs become coagulated anj the body rigid. 
 Thus, whilst the natural warmth is retained in a dead animal, it is quite possible by applying the galvanic current to its 
 limbs to produce a temporary restoration of the vital functions, although no consciousness attends such restoration. A 
 physician in the United States applied galvanism to the body of a man recently deceased, but still warm : under the 
 operation the corpse gradually became animated, and at length rose to its feet, strode over the electrician or galvanizcr, 
 ran against the opposite wall, and again fell down a ghastly, inanimate corpse as before. It may be assumed that every 
 living organic body is a galvanic battery, possessing an apparatus for the electric current to circulate, by which aloue the 
 vital principle is kept in csistcnce. The interruption of this current is the cause of disease ; its absence, that of death. 
 * " Perispcrm — the testce or albumen of a seed." — Wfbsler ex Brandt. 
 
THE GEEMINATION AND CONSTITUTION OF PLANTS. 219 
 
 nation, and notlimg but the embryo is found when the skin (or coats) of the seed is 
 removed. A jjerispermic embryo, on the contrary, has a separate supply of nutriment, 
 which, under the skin, is found to surround it more or less. This nutritive matter, or 
 perisperm, consists of amylaceous, gummy, and saccharine substances, mixed with oils, 
 resins, nitrogenous matters, and certain salts, as phosphates, sulphates, and chlorides. 
 The quantity of these elements of nutrition is always in excess of the actual requirements 
 of the embryo if in a healthy state, and under ordinary circumstances. In the cereal 
 grains the pericarpial covering and the integuments of the seeds are incorporated with 
 each other, and they are completely emptied of the starch and other matters by 
 absorption during the germination of the embryo, the pericarp (or bran) not being itself 
 dissoluble. 
 
 Air is found to be as essential as heat and moisture in the process of germination. 
 This was demonstrated by Ray, Boyle, and others, previous to the discovery, by chemical 
 analysis, of the composition of the atmosphere by Priestley. Seeds will not vegetate 
 at all when buried deep in the ground, and thus excluded from the atmospheric air. 
 They also germinate quicker in the shade, or in diffuse daylight, than under the direct 
 action of the sun's rays. Experiments have proved that seeds buried iit a depth just 
 sufficient to exclude them from the light, but not from the air, germinate better than if 
 sown deep in the soil. The depth of an inch and a half for a clay, and three inches in 
 a sandy or gravelly soil, are the proper depths for cereal grain. The drill for this 
 piirpose is better than broadcast sowing, because the seed being all put in at one uniform 
 depth, not only comes up more regularly, but also ripens altogether, which is not the 
 case with broadcast sowing. The more lightly the seed is covered, the more readily it 
 vegetates, and the stronger it afterwards throws up its stem. 
 
 Drainage is an important artificial means of promoting germination. Under ordinary 
 circximstances the natural heat of the earth is sufficient to effect it, but the temperature 
 is greatly increased by drawing off from the soil the stagnant or superabundant moisture, 
 which absorbs the sun's rays without any advantage to vegetation. This is the cause 
 that on drained soils the corn, &c., is always forwarder and better than on undrained, 
 the temperatm-e of the former being from 10° to 20° higher than that of the latter. 
 This will also account for the great amelioration of the climate of England and Scotland, 
 especially the latter country, where, during the last twenty years, so large a portion of 
 the land has been drained. Formerly the snow usually fell in November in Scotland, 
 and lay until April, but now it seldom appears before Christmas, and is gone in 
 February or the beginning of March, the quantity being much less also. The temperature 
 is neither so low in winter, nor so high in summer, nor are the storms so violent or 
 frequent. The consequence is that agriculture in Scotland is no longer a precarious 
 employment, more than in England ; and the finest cereals and other crops are now 
 raised in situations where formerly it would have been considered folly to attempt it. 
 
 It is not the great quantity of water that falls upon the land that produces the 
 mischief, but its having no channel for escaping. Rainwater contains ammonia and 
 other fertilising substances, which in passing through the soil are fixed by the salts 
 contained in it, but if the water is allowed to remain and become stagnant, it neutralises 
 the benefit, and by lowering or keeping low the temperature of the earth, chills the plants 
 and checks their growth. In a wet time like that of 1860 the seed upon undrained 
 land rots before it can germinate, the superabundant moistui'e having no way of escape. 
 
220 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Plants are composed of three parts, the roots, the stem, and the branches. The first 
 throw out their fibres and more solid ramifications in every direction in the soil ; the last 
 two do the same in the air. The stem contains in its column all the tubes which supply 
 the branches with nutriment, closely packed within the rind or bark like a bundle 
 of sticks tied together. The ends of the roots are furnished with spotiffiolcs, or a sub- 
 stance similar to sponge, which absorb through their minute pores the nutriment of the 
 plant, presented to them in a liquefied form in the soil.* The pores of the spongioles are 
 too small to admit any solid matter however comminuted it may be. All minerals, there- 
 fore^ before they can be absorbed are subjected to the chemical action of other elements, 
 which dissolve them^ adding their substance in the shape of acids and alkalies. These 
 are equally necessary to the health of the plant, however small may be their proportion 
 compared with that of the organic elements. Phosphoric acid, for instance^ enters largely 
 into the composition of seeds, being a necessary constituent of the bran or skin of 
 all plantSj which could not be formed without it. In animals it constitutes, combined 
 with lime, a large proportion of the bones. The other inorganic elements found in plants, 
 as salt, lime, potash, sand (silica), &c., are equally necessary to the perfect structure and 
 health of the plant, and to the production of seeds possessing the germinating faculty. 
 Many soils are destitute of one or other of these constituents, and they must be supplied 
 to them in order to promote their fertility. 
 
 We have already stated that seeds germinate quicker in the shade than when exposed 
 to the sun's rays ; for the same reason the nurserymen and florists place cuttings, when 
 planted, in a shady situation until the rootlets are formed, darkness having been found 
 to promote their growth ; but as soon as the seed has germinated, or the cutting has 
 formed its roots, it must be exposed to the light and air to perfect its vegetation. 
 Dr. Gladstone instituted a series of experiments on both, with veiy decided results. He 
 found that tlie development of roots requires the absence of the chemical ray, but was 
 favoured rather than otherwise by heat and luminosity. The plumule also was 
 developed quicker under similar circumstances ; but it was found that those conditions 
 did not produce a healthy plant, the growth being too rapid and succideut ; and that, 
 although cutting off the chemical ray facilitated the process of germination in the 
 protrusion of tlie radicles and the evolution of the plumule, obscurity caused an 
 unnaturally tall growth and poor development of the leaves, whilst it prevented the 
 formation of chlorophyl, or the colouring matter of the leaves. 
 
 " During the germination of seeds alterations take place in the nature of their 
 contents. When the embryo occupies the entire seed, changes occur in the cotyledons, 
 by means of which nutritive matter is prepared. When there is a separate store of 
 perisperm, its constituents are acted upon by moisture, heat, and air, so as to undergo 
 chemical changes. Alterations take place in the azotized matters, and part of the 
 fibrine gives origin to diatose, which acts as a ferment. Acetic acid is formed, which 
 converts the starchy matter into gi'ape sugar and dextrine. These insoluble matters are 
 
 * An opinion now prevails amongst some naturalists that the spongioles are capable of taking up and assimilating 
 solids as well as liquids, and that the mineral matters found in plants did not require, nor pass through, the liquescent 
 process, generally considered indispensable before it could be absorbed by the roots, or assimilated by the cells and vessels. 
 If this, however, is a correct theory, plants must necessarily have digestive organs, but we are not aware that these have 
 been discovered. The exceeding minuteness of the mouths or orifices of the roots is against the opinion, and it is more 
 reasonable to conclude that the spongioles have a liquescent power, by chemical means, to reduce the solids before they 
 are absorbed. 
 
THE GERMINATION AND CONSTITUTION OF PLANTS. 221 
 
 rendered soluble^ and a large amount of saccliarine matter is produced. At the same 
 time there is an evolution of carbonic acid, in consequence of a combination between the 
 oxygen of the air and the carbon of the seed ; and, as the result of this chemical action, 
 a certain amount of heat is evolved. This heat is carried off rapidly by the soil in 
 ordinary cases, so that it is difficult to ascertain its amount ; but when seeds are laid 
 in moist heaps (as in malting barley) the increase of temperature becomes aj)parent."* 
 
 Starch is a constituent of all plants, being found in a greater or lesser proportion in 
 the cells. It is detected by its turning blue with iodine. Its composition is, carbon, 12 ; 
 hydi'Ogen, 10 ; and oxygen, 10. It supplies nutriment to the plant in the form of sugar, 
 into which it is converted by the acetic acid formed as stated above, with the addition of a 
 due proportion of heat. Starch contains no nitrogen, and is therefore destitute of flesh- 
 forming properties. Plants have, in fact, no power to assimilate nitrogen in its simple 
 form, but only in that of ammonia. It is this latter substance, therefore, that is essential 
 to the growth and health of plants ; and as it enters largely into the composition of 
 gluten, which is a flesh-forming substance, so it adds to the value of plants in proportion 
 to its volume. Starch alone jjossesses no nutritive projjerty, and animal life could not 
 long be sustained upon it. A child or a dog fed upon it would soon die of inanition. 
 
 Albumen is found in the white of eggs, in the blood and flesh of animals, and in oily 
 seeds. When mixed with an acid it coagulates, and metallic salts have the same effect 
 upon it. White of egg is therefore given in cases of poisoning with copperas or arsenic. 
 Fibrine is soluble in the blood during life, but after death, or separation from the vessels, 
 it spontaneously separates, and coagulates into a fibrous substance insoluble in water. 
 It is found also in the muscular fibre, from which it derives its name. Caseine is the 
 curd of milk ; it takes its name from the Latin word caseus, cheese, of which it forms 
 the chief material. Legumine is a constituent of most plants, but is found in greatest 
 quantity in peas and beans in their several varieties. All these are flesh-forming sub- 
 stances, and stamp a proportionate value upon those plants which possess the largest 
 quantity of them. 
 
 Gluten, or vegetable fibrine, is formed largely in wheat, from which it is easily separated. 
 Professor Playfaii', in one of his lectm-es, observes, " If water is poured on fine flour in 
 a sieve and stirred about, a milky fluid wiU percolate into the basin below ; on adding 
 more water, the liquid will after a time pass through quite clear. On the sieve will be 
 seen a glue-like substance called gluten, while at the bottom of the basin will be found 
 
 white granulated particles called starch This gluten we have on the sieve is one 
 
 and the same thing as the muscle of my arm, as dried blood, or the flesh of the ox ; so 
 we eat the flesh ready formed in our food. This is a very wise arrangement of natm-e. 
 The vitality of plants is not requii-ed to execute the commands of the will, and therefore 
 its whole powers are employed in creating new compoimds ; but in animals the vital 
 principle has many duties to perform assigned to it by the wiU ; the powers are therefore 
 husbanded to this end. All that the vitality in the animal economy has to perform 
 connected with nutrition is to assign a place and form to the food, which is already of 
 the proper composition." Starch and gluten constitute the greater part of wheat, but 
 it is the latter that gives strength to the flour made from it, and imparts to it its 
 nutritive power. On the proportion of it that is contained in flour, depends the quantity 
 of bread that a given quantity of flour will produce. The proportion of gluten varies 
 
 * Carpenter. 
 
AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 materially iu wheat. Boussingault instituted a series of expeiiments witli different 
 kinds of manure, iu the cultivation of wheat, iu order to ascertain their comparative 
 value iu the production of gluten. The following table shows the results : — 
 
 1. Human urine . 
 
 2. Bullock's blood 
 
 3. Nightsoil . . 
 
 4. Sheep's duug . 
 
 5. Goat's do. . 
 
 6. Horse do. . 
 
 7. Pigeon's do. . 
 
 8. Cow's do. . 
 
 9. No manure 
 
 Gluten. 
 
 Starch. 
 
 Bran and 
 soluble matters. 
 
 
 .35-] 
 
 39-3 
 
 25-6 
 
 100 
 
 34-3 
 
 41-3 
 
 25-5 
 
 100 
 
 331 
 
 41-4 
 
 25-5 
 
 100 
 
 329 
 
 42-8 
 
 24-3 
 
 100 
 
 329 
 
 42-4 
 
 24-7 
 
 100 
 
 13-7 
 
 61-6 
 
 247 
 
 100 
 
 12-3 
 
 63-2 
 
 24-6 
 
 100 
 
 120 
 
 62-3 
 
 25-7 
 
 100 
 
 9-2 
 
 66-7 
 
 241 
 
 100 
 
 These experiments, executed by one of the first chemists of the age, have a remark- 
 able significance and value, as throwing light upon the properties of different manures 
 in the production of the most valuable quality of wheat ; and also as illustrating the 
 characteristic of wheat in varying its composition according to the manure applied to it 
 in cultivation, the seed and the soil being in every respect the same. Number 1 with its 
 35" 1 per cent, of gluten would produce flour worth many shillings per sack more than 
 number 9 with its 9'2 only of gluten. To illustrate this we may state that a few years 
 ago some flour was impoi-ted fi'om St. Petei'sburg, which, to the astonishment of the 
 bakers who used it, produced 108 four-pound loaves, or 432 lbs. of bread from the sack 
 of flour of 280 lbs. ! * Nothing like this had ever been seen before, or since, in the 
 London flour trade ; and it is to this day a mystery to the London millers how such 
 flour could be produced from Russian wheat, which can only be sparingly used by them 
 on account of its hardness and dark colom". This flom-, sold at 5*. per sack above the 
 highest price of town-made flour, upon analysation was found to contain about 32 per 
 cent, of gluten and 68 per cent, of starch and other matters. 
 
 It will be seen on looking over the above table that the proportion of starch increases 
 as that of gluten diminishes, and vice versd, whilst the variation in the amount of other 
 materials is very trifling in all of them, not being more than 1'6 between the highest 
 and the lowest in the scale. Wheat, therefore, which is the least valuable to the miller 
 or the baker is the most so to the starch-maker. Thus taking weight for weight 
 number 9 will produce for the latter 27"6 per cent, more starch than number 1 ; while, 
 on the contrary, the baker would probably obtain six or eight more four-pound loaves 
 from number I than from number 9, if the flom- were properly manufactured. Talavera 
 wheat contains more gluten than any other species grown in England, and is therefoi'e 
 much sought after by the millers. The writer had once a parcel of Talavera flour 
 consigned to him by a miller in Norfolk. The wheat had somewhat sprouted when on 
 the shock in the field, but was carefully manufactured, and when worked up by the 
 bakers was found invariably to produce 102 loaves of four pounds each to the sack. 
 The Talavera wheat was introduced into England during the Peninsular war. Being 
 liable to sprout at harvest from a slight rain, it is not a favoiu'ite with farmers. 
 
 Whilst the constituents which enter into the composition of plants are the same in 
 character in all vegetable substances, we find that their proportions vary materially, 
 even in those of the same species, so as to alter their relative value as articles of food. 
 
 * The numbir of loaves produced from a sack of London household flour is about ninety-foiLr. 
 
THE GERMINATION AND CONSTITUTION OF PLANTS. 223 
 
 These variations must be ascribed to local causes iu the soil^ or to accidental ones in tlie 
 manure employed in their production. The subject, however, is involved in some 
 degree of obscui-ity even amongst scientific men. " We have known," says Gay Lussac, 
 " for a long time that vegetable substances are formed of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, 
 and that animal substances contain, besides, azote ; but vre do not yet know what is the 
 quantity which each contains. It is to this cause that we must attribute in great part 
 the little progress that animal and vegetable chemistry has at present made. In fact, 
 it does not suffice to know the principles which constitute a body in order to understand 
 all the phenomena that may result from itscont act with others. For that purpose we 
 must still know the relation in which they stand with each other. This truth was too 
 striking not to have been perceived. Besides, we see that the chemists have treated 
 animal and vegetable substances sometimes by nitric acid, and sometimes by fire, in the 
 hope of being able to arrive at the knowledge of the proportions of their principles. 
 Unfortunately, these two methods of analysis can only conduct to very inexact results. 
 When we employ nitric acid we partly convert these substances into prussic, maUc, 
 oxalic, and acetic acids, and we transform the nitric acid into very variable gases, 
 which it is necessary to collect and separate, in order to calculate the results of the 
 operation, which it is still impossible to do with precision." 
 
 Agricultural chemistry has made great advances since the above was written, but 
 there are still mysteries connected with animal and vegetable life which the most acute 
 physiologists have not had, and probably never will have, it in their power to unravel. 
 We know now, for instance, that the blood of an animal and the sap of a plant circulate 
 throughout their several systems (although in a different manner), but we are ignorant 
 of the nature of the power by which the former is kept, dm'ing the life of the animal, 
 in perpetual motion; or the latter is made to rise in the vessels and tissues of the plant 
 as by the action of a forcing pump or a hydraulic machine. Life itself, as we have 
 already observed, is the greatest mystery of all, and baffles the mental powers of man to 
 discover in what it essentially consists. The seat of the soul in man, and the connection 
 between it and the body, and many other of the phenomena of life have occupied vainly, 
 so far at least as the immediate object of research is concerned, the attention of philo- 
 sophers iu all ages of the world, from that of Pythagoras to the present day, and new 
 systems have continually been started to the exclusion of the old, to be themselves 
 exploded by still more novel hypotheses. One benefit mankind has derived from these 
 researches — the discovery of collateral truths of more practical value than the real 
 object of investigation ; so that we find ourselves drawing nearer and nearer to the 
 arcanum of nature, although the hope of arriving at its innermost sanctuary may never 
 be fully realized. 
 
fAKNHAM HOP GiUCKN. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 THE FOOD, DISEASES, AND REMEDIES OF PLANTS. 
 
 Plants derive tlieir nutriment from two sources and through two mediums — from 
 the earth, through their roots ; and from tlie air, through their leaves. The air fur- 
 nishes, directly or indirectly, by far the largest portion of food to plants ; for even part 
 of that which the earth supplies is attracted from the atmosphere. We have seen that 
 the organism of plants is formed for imbibing and assimilating the materials presented 
 to them; and although the precise natm-e of the faculty by which they exercise the 
 power to appropriate their food is a mystery, no one doubts the fact; and a farmer 
 is as well aware of the necessity of supplying it to them as to his cattle. 
 
 The nutriment of plants consists of mineral, or inorganic, and atmospheric, or 
 organic substances. Decomposed animal and vegetable matters supply large quan- 
 tities of both, in the form of gases and more solid materials. The earth, from 
 its own constituents, furnishes but a very small proportion of the food of plants. The 
 experiment of Van Helmont appears conclusive on that point. He dried and weighed 
 off 200 lbs. of mould, which being placed in a box, he planted therein a willow 
 sapling, weighing five pounds, which he watered with distilled water, covering it with 
 
THE FOOD, DISEASES, AND REMEDIES OF DLANTS. 225 
 
 a perforated tin cover, to prevent any other earth from getting into the box. At the 
 end of five years (the leaves being every year taken account of) he weighed the tree, 
 and, adding to it the weight of tlie leaves, it amounted to 169 lbs. 3 oz.; hut on drying 
 and weighing the earth, it was found to have lost only two ounces of its original weight. 
 
 It has been already shown that carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen constitute 
 the largest portion of both plants and animals. Plants receive carbon and nitrogen 
 chiefly from the air — the first, in the form of carbonic acid; the second, in that of 
 ammonia. Hydrogen is derived from water. The inorganic or mineral constituents 
 of plants are all obtained from the soil, in which, being chemically dissolved, they are 
 received by the roots and converted into sap, which performs an office in the plant 
 analogous to that of the blood in animals. During summer, and especially the early 
 part of that season, the action of the sap is vigorous, and sustains the growth of the 
 plant, and the development of its branches and foliage. But as the year advances, and 
 the sun declines, and the temperature lowers, the sap gradually loses its vital force. 
 The leaves then, being deprived of their usual supply of nutriment, first turn brown or 
 red, then yellow, and finally fall from the trees as winter approaches. 
 
 Wien a fall of rain takes place, it is absorbed by the leaves, and a descent of sap 
 succeeds through the vessels prepared for the purpose. The transpiration of plants is 
 the exuding of a watery fluid, exhaled through the leaves. The sap ascends during 
 the day, while the sim exerts its influence, and descends during the nighty when the 
 temperature is materially lowered. Whatever soil a plant may be placed in, the sap 
 has been found by experiment to be the same, proving that a plant will only absorb 
 and assimilate those matters that are congenial to its nature and tastes. There 
 is but little difference in the nature and constituents of the sap in different plants, 
 although they differ ^Tidely in the proportions of the substances it contains. Thiis, the 
 sap of the sugar-cane, the maple, the beetroot, and the sorgho contain larger proportions 
 of the saccharine principles than any other known plants. Homberg cultivated cresses 
 in pots, some of which contained earth mixed with saltpetre, and others with washed 
 earth, and he found that, in both, the cresses throve alike, and exhibited no signs in their 
 flavoiu' of the difference in the soil. 
 
 When plants are exposed to the action of fire, the organic constituents — carbon, 
 hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen — are disengaged and fly off, and are thence termed the 
 combustible constituents. The ashes which remain consist, as we have seen, of phos- 
 phoric acid, potash, silica, sulphuric acid, lime, magnesia, iron, and chloride of sodium, 
 or common salt. These are termed incombustible, for a similar reason, that they do not 
 yield to the action of fire. Small as are the ashes of the most solid substances, they are 
 equally essential to the liealtli and life of the organisms in which they are found. Iii 
 cereal crops the proportions of the inorganic constituents are appropriated in much the 
 largest proportion in the straw. Tlius, iu wheat the proportion of ashes in a crop 
 (according to Boussingault's experiments) was 68"1 in the grain, to 388'5 in the 
 straw, the entire weight of the grain being 6'312 pounds, and that of the straw 
 12"432 pounds. The proportions of the organic materials were nearly alike, according 
 to the weight of the two products, with the exception of the nitrogen, which was nearly 
 six times greater in the grain than in the straw. 
 
 Phosphoric acid enters largely into the composition of grain and seeds. In a soil, 
 therefore, which contains no phosjihates, there can be no grain. On the other hand^ 
 
 Q 
 
226 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 plants that are not alloTvcd to form tLeir seeas contain but little pliosplionc acid. Such 
 is the case with turnips, heetroots, cabbages, &c., consumed in -winter, and this is the 
 reason why such crops are justly considered a good preparation for one of cereals. 
 They are in general heavily manured Trith matters containing a large portion of phos- 
 phoric acid, which, as they do not appropriate it, is left in the soil. On the other hand, 
 they do absorb a large jn'oportion of other matters in the manure, and leave less for the 
 ensuing crop. But as the object of the farmer is to produce grain, and not straw, 
 and the soil still retains enough of the constituents necessary to produce a sufBcient 
 quantity of straw, it is not advisable to add more manure in such cases, as it woidd 
 cause the straw to preponderate, to the injury of the grain. 
 
 Alkaline salts, and those of lime and magnesia (according to Liebig), are equally 
 essential to the growth of peas, beans, beetroot, &c. By experiment, he found that the 
 following were the proportions of those substances taken up by different plants : — 
 
 Alkaliae salts. Salts of lime, &c. Silica, 
 
 A crop of wheat 120i lbs. 78Ubs. 260 
 
 A. crop of peas 198^ „ 37U „ 46 
 
 A crop of beetroot without the leaves . . 3C1 „ 371 ,, 
 
 The leaves of plants perform functions something similar to the luugs of animals. 
 They inhale carbonic acid from the aii", retaining the carbon and giving back the oxygen 
 irith which it was combined. They divest water of its oxygen in the same manner, 
 retaining onlj' the hydrogen. The atmosphere consists of 9 of oxygen to 1 of hydrogen, 
 with a small pi-oportion of carbonic acid (2 parts to 10,000 parts of air) . The atmo- 
 sphere being 40 miles high, and giving 15 lbs. to every square inch of sm-face, or 
 94,089,600 lbs. to the acre,— which, reckoning 2 lbs. to every 10,000, gives 18,817 lbs. of 
 carbonic acid per acre, — would supply twenty times the vegetation groMTi upon that quan- 
 tity of land, as it is continually being renewed by the decay and decomposition of animal 
 and vegetable substances. J'arm-yard manure consists of these substances, which also 
 contain a proportion of the constituents of the soil. " The excrements of men and animals 
 represent the ashes of the food consumed by them, and which arc oxydized or burned in 
 their bodies. The urine contains the soluble, the solid cxcretiB the insoluble consti- 
 tuents of the soil derived from the crops used as food, and reaped from the soil. It is 
 plain that by adding manure, or liquid and solid excretse, to the soil, that soil recovers 
 those constituents Avhich have been removed from it by the crops. Thus the restoration 
 of its original composition is accomplished by restoring its fertility. It is therefore 
 certain that one of the conditions of fertility in a soil, is the presence in it of certain 
 mineral constituents. A rich and fertile soil contains more of them than does a poor 
 and barren one."* 
 
 The absorption of carbonic acid and ammonia is not confined, according to the same 
 authority, to the leaves of plants. The roots also possess the faculty of absorbing and 
 assimilating them in their organism in the same way as when absorbed by the leaves. 
 The ammonia which is contained in, or brought by means of rain, &e., into, the soil, 
 plays the part of a constituent of it. This is also true of the carbonic acid in the soil. 
 All plants, without exception, require for their nutrition phosphoric acid, sulphm-ic acid, 
 the alkalies, lime, magnesia, and iron. Some important genera require silica. Those 
 which grow on the sea-shore, and in the sea, require common salt, soda, and iodides of 
 
 * Liebi". 
 
THE FOOD, DISEASES AND REMEDIES OF PLANTS 227 
 
 metals. In some genera the alkalies may be in part rejilaced by lime and magnesia, or 
 these latter by alkalies. All these substances are included in the terra mineral food 
 of plants. Carbonic acid and ammonia are the atmospheric food of vegetables. Water 
 serves both as a nutritive substance and as a solvent, and, in the latter capacity, is 
 indispensable to the whole process of nutrition. 
 
 Carbonic acid and ammonia are supplied to the soil in abundance in the decompo- 
 sition of the animal and vegetable substances of manure ; and their presence is 
 considered indispensable in the preparation of the mineral constituents for entering into 
 the organism of the plant, these latter being insoluble of themselves in water. It is, 
 however, by no means decided by scientific men whether manures act in the soil as 
 stimulants or as constituents in the nutrition of plants. The probability is that they 
 serve both purposes. In assisting, as has just been stated, in dissolving the mineral 
 constituents, they act as stimulants ; at the same time, by the evolvement of carbonic 
 acid and ammoniacal salts, and other nutritive substances, they act as constituents in 
 nutrition. The pi'operties of a fertile soil are di\dded by chemists into physical and 
 chemical. The physical properties are colour, density, porosity, stiffness, or lightness. 
 The chemical are those by virtue of which the constituents are enabled to enter into 
 chemical combinations or effect the decomposition of mineral matters. That these different 
 properties harmonise and assist each other in the process of the nutrition of plants is 
 evident from the fact that if any of them are absent the plant cannot sustain its vigour. 
 At the same time, the physical powers by themselves can produce no effect in the 
 process of nutrition. " A soil may possess the best physical qualities and yet be barren. 
 In order to be fertile, it must contain substances of certain chemical properties, and its 
 physical character must be such as to allow these chemical properties to be manifested. 
 If a soil, from being very stiff, does not allow the roots to spread, the roots cannot reach 
 the substances they require as food. If it do not permit water to percolate fi'eely through 
 it, the nutritious substances cannot reach the roots."* 
 
 Cultivation, therefore, is necessary to enable plants to avail themselves of both the 
 mineral and the chemical constituents of the soil. A clay soil is perhaps the best that 
 can be for the production of cereals, when properly tilled ; and yet, if such tillage is not 
 rendered, or is imperfectly or insufficiently rendered, plants cannot avail themselves of 
 the nutrition it contains. Such soils, — and to a greater or less extent, all soils, — 
 without jn-oper tillage, present both a chemical and a mechanical resistance, because 
 their particles not being properly separated, the chemical solvents cannot act, so as to 
 render the mineral substances available as niitrition. The soil must be rendered 
 permeable, so as to admit the air to penetrate and the water to filtrate through it. By 
 this means the solvents are introduced into, and act upon, every part ; and a soil which 
 before was absolutely unfit for vegetation, becomes rich and productive. A close, 
 impermeable soil is the most unprofitable to farm if the cultivation of it extends only to 
 a superficial tillage. The water is retained in a stagnant state, repelling the sun's rays, 
 keeping down the temperature of the earth, poisoning the plants, and neutralising the 
 action or excluding the presence of the solvents, which cannot operate upon the adhesive 
 and unbroken clods of which such a soil is composed. 
 
 Manures are beneficial to a soil in proportion to tne amount of tillage bestowed 
 upon it. Whether thej^ act as nuti'iment direct and ^^e?' se, or indirectly as stimulants 
 
 * Licbig. 
 Q 2 
 
228 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 to the atmosplieric aud mineral constituents of plants, or in both capacities, theii' good 
 effects are but half developed if the land is imperfectly cultivated. On the other hand, 
 a soil rich in the mineral constituents will produce excellent crops with the help of good 
 tillage without manure. Jethro TuU was the first to prove this by growing crops of 
 wheat for at least fourteen consecutive years without manixre, but with constant 
 stu-ring of the ground, so as to admit the light and air. Chemistry had not then shed 
 its luminous rays upon the human mind, but the chemistry of nature came in aid of 
 the precocious discernment of Tull (for he was a century in advance of his age), and 
 seconded his efforts. Those who have now adopted this theory in the present day, have 
 improved upon Tull's plan by adding deeper tillage, bringing yearly a portion of the 
 subsoil to the surface, by which means not only are the pores of the soil opened to admit 
 the air and dismiss the watei", but the roots of plants are enabled to penetrate deeper and 
 obtain a stronger hold on the soil, whilst fresh supplies of the mineral elements are 
 constantly brought to the surface to nourish the plants M'ith their proper food. It would 
 appear that cultivation is alone sufficient to attract the organic or atmospheric constituents 
 in qiiautities large enough to keep up the fertility of the soil and produce a good crop. 
 Mr. Smith, of Lois-weedon, has for fourteen years grown wheat on the same land 
 nominally without manure, and has found that the soil has not in any respect been 
 deteriorated by it, the deep and continuous tillage and alternate fallowing of half the 
 land being quite sufficient to sustain its fertility. 
 
 That fertility, however, has certainly not been sustained without manure, because the 
 constant agitation of the soil by the fork or the spade has rendered it doubly absorbent 
 of the elements of fertility contained in the atmosphere, as nitric acid, carbonic acid, 
 phosphoric acid, ammonia, &c. The soil has therefore been maniired to the extent of 
 nature's efforts, assisted by constant tillage, as effectually as if an actual supply of 
 manure had been laid upon it. The error of the advocates of the system lies in the 
 inference they draw from it — that manure is an unnecessary expense in farming. It is true 
 that remunerating crops of wheat, &c., can be produced by this system j and, besides, a 
 principle is thereby established, that the atmosphere supplies the organic constituents of 
 plants in sufficient amount to sustain the natural fertility of the soil ; and also that a 
 rotation of crops is not a necessary condition for that purpose. Experience shows, how- 
 ever, that with the addition of a suitable supply of manure applied at a proper time, the 
 fertility would be largely increased, and much heavier crops produced. A thousand 
 instances can be adduced in which poor soils have by this means been made to produce 
 much larger crops of wheat than the average of the Lois-weedon land. 
 
 Purely vegetable manures are found to be highly promotive of fertility, and the 
 system of growing green crops for the purpose of ploughing them in as manure is now 
 commonly practised. It has been proved that the cutting of a second crop of clover is 
 more beneficial to the after-crop of wheat than if it was fed off with sheep. Mr. Ncsbit, 
 in his excellent lecture on the nature and application of manures, mentions a remarkable 
 instance in proof of this, and explains also the cause. Speaking on the subject, he says, 
 " A friend of mine tried this in Northamptonshire. He had a field of clover which he 
 divided into two parts. The whole was cut at midsummer, half was left to grow again, 
 and the other fed off. In October he staked out two pieces as regularly as possible, 
 and had all the roots dug up, and carefully cleaned, and weighed. The result was, that 
 where the clover had been cut once and eaten once, there were twenty-five hundred- 
 
THE FOOD, DISEASES, AND EEMEDIES OP PLANTS. 229 
 
 weight of roots per acre ; aud wliere it had been cut twice there were seventy-five 
 hundredweight per acre^ being a difference of two tons (and a half) of roots. Who will 
 say, then, that two (and a half ) tons of vegetable matter, containing so much nitrogen 
 as these roots do, were not an exceeding good dressing ? Of course the result in the 
 wheat-crops was perceptible at ouce, and you may depend upon it that, with one 
 exception — namely, where soils are so light that the mechanical treading of the feet of 
 sheep is a matter of prime necessity — you will always get a better crop of wheat after 
 two cuts of clover than by feeding off."* 
 
 Farm-yard manure, strictly speaking, of whatever kind, consists wholly of materials 
 derived from the soil, and is therefore proper to form the constituents of plants. As 
 this is generally managed, a large proportion of the most valuable elements of which it is 
 composed, being volatile in their nature, are suffered to be dissipated before the manure 
 is applied to the land. If fermentation is allowed to proceed freely, without any 
 precautions for fixing the ammonia, its most important constituent, the mass is rendered 
 less effective in exact proportion to the loss of that material. To prevent the dispersion 
 of these more valuable parts of the dunghill it should be placed under cover, and when 
 fermentation commences, a coating of common salt, or one of sulphate of iron (com- 
 monly called green copperas), should be laid over it.f Either of these will alssorb and 
 fix the ammonia, and convert the absorbents into ammoniacal salts. An absurd idea is 
 cherished by many farmers ignorant of the nature and properties of the chemical con- 
 stituents of manures, that the more powerful the effluvia arising from a dunghill the 
 better will be the manure. The real fact is, that the smell arises from the evaporation 
 of the most valuable materials driven off by the decomposition which has commenced. 
 Lime also is useful in absorbing and fixing the nitric acid or ammonia in dunghills, or 
 in the soil. Calcareous matter is an essential ingredient in every soil, and it is an 
 excellent plan to apply it constantly by covering the dunghill with a thick coating of it, 
 which will both assist in the preservation of the ammonia, and impart per se a valuable 
 material to the mass. 
 
 Fermentation is the agent employed by nature, not only to rid itself of dead 
 organisms which in their collective capacity can no longer be of any use, but also to 
 pm-ify and prepare their constituent parts by separation for future service. For what- 
 ever the degree of separation and dissipation to which dead animal and vegetable 
 substances may be subjected, not the smallest portion of them is annihilated or lost to 
 nature. However minutely they may be divided, however volatile the particles into 
 which they are separated, and however widely they may be dispersed, not one of those 
 particles but is fitted and prepared by that very decomposition which ajjpears to have 
 destroyed them, to enter into new organisms, and again to reappear in all the reno- 
 vated beauty of youth, and all the fulness of the vital forces, — active in the animal, 
 passive in the vegetable. 
 
 This extreme divisibility and indestructibility of matter coustitiites one of the first 
 principles of the universe, one of the fu'st laws of nature, for by it the unbroken 
 succession of organic life is provided for and ensured. It is of these particles or 
 
 * "Nesbit's Lectures," p. 18. 
 
 t Baron Peers, a Belgian nobleman, wLomwe have already spoken of, lies found tliat the manure treated with sulphate 
 of iron was much more powerful than that without it. He tried an eiperiuient upon a crop of rula baga, part of which 
 he planted with a dressing of common duug, and an equal part with duug treated with sulphate of iron. The difference 
 ill the crop was equal to 3,000 kilogrammes per hectare, or more than twenty-fi/ur hundredweight per acre. 
 
230 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 molecules that the food of plants consists in the various forms in which we have repre- 
 sented it. Every one of them has its location and its function in the vegetable economy, 
 every one is necessary to the health and well-being of the plant, and to fit it for the use 
 of man, either direct or through the agency of the inferior animals. It is the business 
 of the agriculturist to husband these molecules, and to prevent as far as possible their 
 dispersion by the application of those means that have been found effectual in fixing the 
 volatile, and thereby rendering more valuable the solid, portions of maniu-e. 
 
 We have next to speak of the diseases of plants, which in a state of high cultivation 
 display a greater or less predisposition to be affected by them, on the same principle that 
 high living in animals produces a similar tendency. Extremes, in fact, whether in 
 excess or in abstinence, are alike prejudicial to the healthy development of the structure 
 of both plants and animals j but of the two excess is ultimately the most so, and the 
 least capable of being counteracted or '•emedied, because the system is forced beyond its 
 natural limits, superinducing a morbid condition of the vessels, and destroying the 
 balance of the constitution. These effects have been proved by the microscope, which 
 detects in the vessels and cells of plants the seat, the causes, and the progress of disease. 
 From such investigations it has been found that diseases arise — " 1st, from an excess or a 
 deficiency of the agents necessary to the vigorous growth of plants, as soil, light, heat, 
 air, moisture, &c. ; 2ud, from the attacks of parasites, especially the fungi class of 
 plants ; 3rd, from the action of poisons taken up from the soil or inhaled from the 
 atmosphere ; 4th, from the mechanical injuries caused by the attacks of insects." 
 
 The first is called by naturalists epidemic disease. Defective or insufficient nourish- 
 ment renders plants liable to the attacks of parasitic plants, which prey upon the juices, 
 and deprive them still fm-ther of nutritive support. Stagnant water in the soil for want 
 of drainage chills the plants and prevents a healtliy development of their parts. 
 Excessive cold, as well as heat, especially at the time of blooming, destroys the fructi- 
 fying principle, and renders the stamens and pistils abortive ; and too much moisture 
 produces a kind of dropsy, and causes the foliage to fall off. 
 
 The mildew, which is the effect of fungi, is brought on either in the spring of the 
 year by the cold east winds after a hot day, or more frequently by cold wet weather in 
 the summer after the grain has formed in the ear. An excess of moisture causes an 
 abundant rush of sap dm'ing the day, which is checked by the cold ; and the spores of 
 the fungi, wafted by the wind, making a lodgment on the outward bark or epidermis, 
 enter the cells and vessels, where, finding abundant nourishment, they spread rapidly, 
 to the destruction of the grain. It is not the cereal plants alone that are affected by the 
 mildew, almost every hedgerow plant is more or less liable to the disease, and the spores 
 from these are constantly flying about in all directions, by which the cultivated crops are 
 continually liable to be inoculated. Fastening themselves upon the rind, they insinuate 
 into the tissues the ramifications of their radicles, and extract from them the nourishment 
 reqiiired to fill the grain. If they attack the plant at an early period of its growth, the 
 crop is entirely destroyed ; if at a late period of its growth, the grain is shrivelled and 
 light in weight. 
 
 The pepper brand (bunt, or smut ball) is produced by a plant named by De Candolle 
 vredo caries, and by Bauer uredo fmtlda. It attacks the grain of the wheat in the form 
 of mmutc dark-coloured globules, attached to each other by a threadlike matter. The 
 spores, which are in the form of powder, have a nauseous smell. The disease is said to 
 
THE FOOD, DISEASES, AND REMEDIES OF PLANTS. 231 
 
 be propagated by contact. This species of smut is not the worst the farmer has to 
 contend with, because it generally remains whole after the grain is threshed, and may 
 be easily separated by a careful di'essing. The liardness of the skin prevents its being 
 always broken by the flail, and being much lighter than the perfect grain, it will fly ofl' 
 with the chaff, or the thin kernels of wheat. If allowed to continiie in the bulk it spoils 
 the sample of grain, and the colour and quality of the flour. 
 
 The dust brand or smut is also caused by a fungus called uredo segetum. The spores 
 of this plant are of the same dark colour, but have no fetid smell. Tlie flowers of 
 wheat and barley are rendered abortive by it, and the pedicles become fleshy, aflbrding 
 novu'ishment to the spores, which finally appear between the chaff scales in the form of 
 a black dust. This species of smut is much more injurious than the pepper or bladder 
 brand, because, being ripened before the grain, the dust is dispersed by the wind, and 
 attaching itself to the sound ears taints the whole crop. In this case the grain becomes 
 ''nibbed," that is, the spores attach themselves to the upper end of the kernel, which 
 being hairy aSbrds a lodgment for it, from whence it is very difiicult to separate it in 
 dressing, and the flour is consequently injiu'ed by it. 
 
 The rust (red robin, red gum, &c.) is caused by a fungus called ttredo rubigo. It 
 appears in the form of red, yellow, or brown spots, of an oval shape, on the stem, leaves, 
 and chaff of wheat, grass, &c. It acts the same as all this class of plants, by intercepting 
 the sap between the roots and the ear, and thus depriving the latter of the noui-ishment 
 necessary to its full formation. 
 
 ilildew is caused by a fungus called ^Mccm?a graminis. The spores of this plant are 
 contained in a club-shaped vesicle, the thick end of which is divided into two chambers 
 or cells, the smaller end being attached to the epidermis of the wheat by its roots. All 
 this class of plants afl'ect the grain, &c., in the same way, by first destroying the 
 epidermis, and drawing off the weakened supply of sap from the ear, by which the grain 
 becomes shrivelled and only half filled with starch, or else wholly destroyed as by the 
 smut. Pi-ofessor Henslow recommends for this disease (mildew) that the seed wheat 
 should be steeped in a solution of sulphate of copper, in the proportion of an ounce to a 
 gallon of water for every bushel of wheat. This wiU destroy the seeds of the fungi 
 without injuring the grain. But while so many of the wild plants with which the hedge- 
 rows abound, are liable to the same disease (even to the bramble and the wild rose) the 
 corn will still be liable, when the season serves, to its attacks. The wild plants must 
 therefore also be destroyed in order to eradicate the disease. 
 
 Ergot (the French word for a cock's spur) is also considered to be the effect of a 
 fungus, inducing a diseased state of the ovaries. It is most common in rye, but some- 
 times attacks wheat and barley in a curved form of the ovary, resembling a cock's spur, 
 of a black colour, spongy, and containing an oily matter. This disease is not very 
 common in this country, but we believe it is frequently prevalent on the Continent, where 
 rye is more generally cultivated. 
 
 Although the foregoing class of diseases are to a great extent dependent for their 
 existence upon atmospheric phenomena, and are in force to a greater or less extent, or 
 altogether absent, according to the temperature of the air at certain critical seasons of 
 the growth of the plants affected by them, it is certain that they, as well as the 
 epidemics in man or the inferior animals, are greatly aggravated, if not absolutely 
 originated, by a tardy, slovenly, and imperfect cultivation, and especially where di'aiaage 
 
232 AGKIODLTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 has been neglected. This last work is as necessary for the healtn of the fields as it is 
 for that of our cities and towns ; and there is not a doubt that if the land were generally 
 drained^ many of the diseases of plants would disappear altogether, or become so 
 modified in their character as to inflict infinitely less mischief upon the cereal crops. 
 At the same time, to mitigate still fui'ther the evil, and prevent contagion, the hedges 
 and highways must be cleared of those plants that are similarly afi'ected by them. Late 
 sown winter wheat, on luidrained land, is that which suffers most from these blights. 
 The land, soaked with stagnant water, has not genial warmth enough in it to produce a 
 rapid or healthy vegetation, and the roots get chilled, which throws back the progress of 
 the plants, and renders them doubly liable to the attacks of their enemies. 
 
 The root-fall is a disease that attacks the wheat in the spring of the year after a 
 severe frost. This is entirely a mechanical disease (if such it can be called) arising 
 from the neglect of the farmer. The rationale of the afi'ection is as follows : — Dui-ing the 
 autumn, the rain, which usually falls, swells the soil and raises the roots of the wheat 
 with it. If the wheat has been sown late, the tap-root has not had time to strike down, 
 and the whole plant is raised towards the surface. If a protracted frost succeeds, the 
 soil is frozen in the position in which it stands. The fi'ost evaporates the moisture, so 
 that when a thaw comes, the particles of soU fall (not being sustained by the moisture), 
 and thus leave the roots bare and exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather, and unless 
 the earth is closed round the plants by rolling or the treading of sheep, the probability 
 is that a large proportion of the plants will be destroyed. The poor lands are particu- 
 larly liable to this disease, on account of the lightness of the soil. 
 
 The potatoe disease has hitherto bafiled the efforts of both scientific and practical 
 men to discover and define its real natm-e and origin. Berkely ascribes it to the 
 fungus Botrytis infecfans* the spores of which, entering the stomata of the plant, 
 cause first disease in the leaves, which afterwards extends to the tubers. Crum attri- 
 butes the disease of the tubers to the rupture of the starch-cells, and the consequent 
 mixtm-e of their contents with nitrogenous matters, causing fermentation; but he 
 does not tell us how the cells became ruptured, which is the most important point. 
 Solly ascribes the disease to the presence of putrifying azotised matters in the stem 
 just below the surface of the ground, which being carried to all parts of the plant, 
 cause a struggle between vital and chemical forces, inducing decomposition by fer- 
 mentation. Liebig considers that it arises from interrupted transpiration depending 
 on the hygrometrical (or damp) state of the atmosphere, producing a want of corre- 
 spondence between absorption and transpiration, and a consequent stagnation and 
 decomposition of the juices. These differences of opinion go far to prove that nothing 
 certain is known about it, and that the really exciting original cause is as much an 
 enigma as ever. 
 
 * 'With regard to the Bolri/lis infedans, that it is found on the stalks of the diseased potatoes is clear ; but that it is 
 the cause of the disease has heea by no means demonstrated, it being very possible that it is the effect instead of the cause. 
 It is well known by naturalists, that thtfiiiiffi tribe of plants always insinuate themselves wherever disease has attacked 
 either a plaut or an animal ; and the leaves and stalks of the potato having received injury from atmospheric phenomena, 
 would be likely to form a jiidus for the spores of the Botrylis. The writer in Morton's "Cyclopfedia of Agriculture" 
 thinks that the Botn/tis is first propagated loHhin the plant ; but if so, how did the spores insinuate themselves unless the 
 bark had beeu injured and broken? He admits that the experiments he had instituted had not been attended with 
 success ; and it will probably require an incessant observation of the progress of the plant from day to day to obtain an 
 insight into the real state of the question, and even this may fail. It is remarkable that the Bolnjtis is peculiar to the 
 tribe of plants ouly of wliinh the potido is a member, and that it has never been found on any other family of plants. 
 
THE FOOD, DISEASES AND REMEDIES OF PLANTS. 233 
 
 In the year 1848 a commissiou was appointed by government in Ireland to investi- 
 gate tlie disease, and, if possible, discover its true cause, so as to be able to suggest a 
 remedy. Sir Robert Kane was the leading member of tlie commission ; and if science 
 and discernment in natural history could have effected the object, we should have been 
 at that time put in possession of what was required. After spending many weeksj and 
 much money, in the investigation, the commissioners left the question very nearly as 
 they found it, and were compelled to state that the disease was an unfathomable mystery 
 from beginning to end ; and thus it has continued to the present time. 
 
 There is reason, however, to think that electricity has a considerable share in 
 producing the disease ; and this opinion, founded wholly on observation, is gaining 
 ground amongst practical men. In the year 1848, dm'ing his residence in Ireland, 
 the writer of this work occupied some land in Dublin, adjoining to which was a field 
 bearing a remarkably fine and sound crop of potatoes. They were of the early kind, 
 and the o^vner of the field had begun to raise them. On the 15th or 17th of July, at 
 night, there occurred a heavy storm of thunder and lightning, and the next morning the 
 potatoes, the tops of which previously had been a bright green, had tui-ned black 
 throughout the field ; and in a very few days there was hardly a sound tuber in the 
 whole crop. It is very possible that, In other cases, other causes may contribute to 
 the origin of the disease ; but in this instance, the writer has no hesitation in ascribiug 
 it to the electric fluid ; at the same time he does not pretend to account for its effect 
 upon scientific principles. 
 
 Many plans have been suggested for preventing or arresting the disease, and isolated 
 eases have occurred in which most of them have succeeded; but there are more, we 
 believe, in which they have all failed to produce any beneficial effect. Klotzscli 
 recommends pinching off the tops of the branches, which checks them, increases the 
 development of the tubers, and strengthens the leaves and stalks. Tombelli Lomba, 
 of Namur, states that he saved his crop by cutting off aU the haulm, after flowering, 
 with a sharp sickle, and covering the ground mth a layer of fresh mould an inch and a 
 half deep, after removing the haulm. The potatoes were of good size and quality. 
 This plan of cutting off the stalks is still recommended, but has in many instances failed 
 of producing any benefit. It has been thought that an entire change of seed would be 
 beneficial, and one person procured tubers from the district of Quito, in South America, 
 which is the native country of the potato. These grew very freely, but were found to 
 be affected with the disease quite as much as the old stock. 
 
 Whatever may be the original cause of this strange and fatal disease, one thing is 
 certain — that after fifteen years of its visitation, it is this season (1861) as rife and 
 prevalent as it was in 1846-7, and appears as likely to continue in every country of Eiirope 
 as any other epidemic. Diseases of various kinds have at different times attacked the 
 potato — as the rust, the curl, the scab, the dry rot, &c. ; but aU these sink into 
 insignificance in extent and duration compared with the potato murrain of which we 
 have been writing, and which was unknown in the United Kingdom before the year 
 1845, but whose presence then and subsequently in Ireland proved an important episode 
 in the sad history of that country. 
 
 Dodder {Cuscata) is a parasitic plant, which attaches itself to flax, clover, trefoil, &c. 
 The seed, which is exceedingly minute, is sown with those of the above plants, and where 
 it vegetates it strikes its roots into the stalks of those plants, and draws from them the sap. 
 
234 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 This diseasej if such it can be called, has greatly prevailed of late years, and appears 
 to be overspreading both England and France, for the French farmers complain much of 
 its ravages on the clover. In some cases, so completely has it destroyed the crops, that it 
 has been deemed expedient to set it on fire as it stood, as less loss and evil than allowing 
 it to seed the ground, the clover itself being of little value with the dodder upon it. 
 
 We shall next advert to another class of diseases affecting the cereal crops, and 
 frequently proving very destructive. They are the eflfect of insects, namely, the Tipula 
 maculosa, the Linuix, the Chiorops, the Oscinis, the Scapula fnmientatis, the Bembidium. 
 
 The Tipula maculosa, or spotted crane-fly, is common on all arable lands, particu- 
 larly on light gravelly or sandy soils, and on the sea-coasts. It freqvients meadows, 
 gardens, hedgerows, &c., and, in short, is almost an universal nuisance. In May, June, 
 and July, the larvis are very destructive to wheat, potatoes, &c. The fly, or gnat, is 
 about an inch long in the body, which is a bright yellow, spotted with black in the head 
 and trunk, with eight black spots down the back of the male, and six in the female. 
 
 There are several species of Limax, as the Limax agrestis (or milky slug) ; this is 
 whitish, or ash-coloured, -with black tentaeula, either immaculate or with scattered 
 black spots and a yellovrish shield. 
 
 The Limax ater (or black slug) is furrowed with deep wrinkles, and has a rough 
 shield. It is sometimes a deep black on the back, pale or white beneath, with a 
 yellowish mouth, and a pale greenish ridge down the back ; or of a dusty or chestnut- 
 brown, with a yellow streak on each side. 
 
 The Limax maximus (or black striped slug) is five inches in length, cinereous, some- 
 times spotted, or with a black shield; the body striped black, or with five whitish 
 streaks, the lower one interrupted, or with the body edged with white. 
 
 The Chiorops lineata (or striped wheat-fly) lays its eggs in June, at the lower part of 
 the ear. These are hatched in fifteen days, when the maggots pierce the straw and 
 work upwards to the grain, which they devour. The pupa is brown, and the fly is 
 produced in September. It lays its eggs on the young plants of wheat and rye in the 
 autumn. It has yellow horns and a triangle on the crown ; the thorax is black, with 
 five black stripes on the abdomen, with dusky bands, and a dot on each side at the 
 base ; apex and legs yellow, &c. 
 
 The Chiorops herpinii only attacks the -barley. . It diflPers in other respects little from 
 the foregoing. 
 
 The Chiorops teneopns (riband-footed corn-fly) is the most mischievous of all the 
 enemies of the cereals. It attacks the joints of the straw, which then swell and become 
 what is termed " gouty." The fly is of a pale yellow, horns black, and a black triangle 
 on the crown ; on the thorax are three broad black stripes, with a slender black stripe 
 on each side, and a black dot on the side of the breast ; abdomen a pale greenish black, 
 forming four blackish bands, and two dots at the base ; wings transparent ; poisers 
 white ; legs ochreous ; basal, and two terminal joints of fore feet, black ; length 
 1^ line.* They deposit their eggs in the leaves in autumn; and in spring, when the 
 maggots live in the base of the stem, they destroy the shoot^ and thus render the ear 
 improductive. 
 
 There are three species of Oscinis. The Oscinis granarius, in its larva state, lives in 
 the ear of wheat, the grain of which it devours. The fly is very diminutive, expanding 
 
 * k line is the teulh of an inch. 
 
THE FOOD, DISEASES, AND REMEDIES OF PLANTS. 235 
 
 only two lines. It is of a blackisli green colour, with small horns, and a large head ; 
 the thorax is a globose quadrate ; the body conical ; wings transparent and ample, similar 
 to those of the Chlorops, but the dark costal nervure extends to the second apial one ; 
 club balancers ochreous ; fore posterior legs black, &c. 
 
 Oscinis pumelionls (or rye worm-fly) has been very destructive to the rye-crop in 
 Sweden. The larva inhabits the base of the stem, into the substance of which it eats, 
 and kills the plant. The larva changes into a yellow pupa about the end of May, and 
 the flies are hatched in June. Tliey are one line in length, with yellow eyes and horns, 
 and a triangle on the nape ; thorax and body black above, tlie former with two yellow 
 stripes down the back, &c. 
 
 Oscinis vastator is the most destructive to the wheat- crop of any of this tribe. The 
 larvse are found in the spring at the base of the stem of the plant, where they eat 
 through the stem of the plumule, so that it can be drawn out without breaking it, and 
 the embryo ear is destroyed; the plant, turning yellow, dies. The larva is yellow, 
 tapering to the head, and blunt at the tail. The mouth is furnished with two black 
 horny points. About midsummer they change to elliptical rusty pupEe within the folds 
 of the leaves. The flies are hatched early in July, and are very similar to the Oscinis 
 granarius in size and colour, being shining green-black. The wings lie flat on the back 
 in repose, and extend considerably beyond the body. All the nervures are pitchy ; the 
 club of poisers ochreous ; the base and tips of the four anterior shanks rusty, as well as 
 the base of all the feet. 
 
 Although eaten down, the plants will sometimes tiller. The alternation of green crops 
 and efi'ectual tillage, are the best remedies for getting rid of these and all other insects. 
 Successive crops of cereals encourage their increase ; but they have an enemy in a small 
 black parasitic fly, which deposits its eggs in the body of the Oscinis, where it lives and 
 feeds upon its entrails, both increasing together ; but the enemy comes forth a full-grown 
 pupa, whilst the Oscinis is destroyed. The name of the fly is Sigulphus caiidatus. Its 
 colour is black, with the exception of the wings, which are transparent. The stigma 
 and uervui'es are pitchy. 
 
 The Aphis (or plant louse) is one of the most troublesome of all insects, on account 
 of its rapidity of increase, its universal prevalence, and its attacking almost every 
 description of plants. There are several species of this insect, named according to the 
 plant to which they attach themselves or show a preference. There is a good deal of 
 mystery as to the source from which, in the spring or summer, the parent aphides are 
 bred, or how the larvae or eggs of so delicate a creature can bear and survive the severity 
 of the winter. Showing themselves singly, in the first instance, upon the plants they 
 prefer, they may be viewed as a sure indication of an approaching army, whose name is 
 legion, and whose ravages are irresistible. As an illustration of their numbers, we may 
 mention that, many years ago, a friend of the writer's invented a machine* for taking 
 the aphides off the beans, a field of which, belonging to him, was almost covered with 
 them. In the com-se of a day's work, two men, with this machine, took off twelve 
 bushels of aphides, which were given to the pigs, who devoured them with great relish. 
 
 * This machine was nothing more than a canvas bag, fixed to a light square wootleu frame, the length sufficient to 
 reach across the stetches from furrow to furrow. A man at each end, walking in the furrow, draws the bag by the 
 frame over the beans, from which the aphides fall into it ; and as it becomes filled with them, they are swept through a 
 sort of purse at one end, into a tub, to be disposed of as the farmer thinks fit. 
 
236 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 All the aphides wliicli appear iu tlie spring are females, and deposit tlieii- young (for at 
 that season only they are viviparous) on the backs of the leaves. In the autumn they 
 become oviparous, and lay their eggs also on the leaves and buds ; but how they are 
 preserved through the winter is a mystery. 
 
 Another peculiarity belonging to them is, that the females do not require to be 
 impregnated by a male to become prolific, being already pregnant at their birth. If a 
 nit is taken as soon as it is brought forth in spring, and kept entirely apart from all 
 others, it will still produce young ; and if the process is repeated with one of these, it 
 will also be found reproductive, and so on. It may therefore be easily conceived (what 
 every farmer and gardener knows to his cost) that their multiplication is beyond the 
 power of numbers to represent. It is calculated by naturalists that one plant-louse 
 might, in seven generations, produce 729,000,000 ; and Reaumur asserts that, of one 
 species, a female would, in five generations, produce 6,000,000,000 1 No wonder then 
 that a field is soon covered with them. 
 
 These insects are fm-nished with a beak, as the conductor of three bristles, the centre 
 one being tubular, with which they pierce the tissues of the plant and draw ofl" the sap, 
 as with a syphon. This causes the leaves to curl up, Trhich forms a sort of bower for 
 the residence of the ajjliis. It is fortunate that the small birds, •which some farmers 
 view as theii" greatest pests, are at the same time the most determined enemies to these, 
 as well as other insects. There are also many amongst the larger insects that live 
 upon the aphis and devour gTeat numbers — such as the ladybirds and their larvae, the 
 aphis-lion, the syrphus, &c. "We shaU now describe some of the principal species of 
 these insects. 
 
 The Aphis granaria (or wheat plant-louse) feeds on all the cereal j^lants. It attacks 
 the wheat after it is in ear, but while still green, and sucking away the sap impoverishes 
 the grain, leaving little to ripen besides the bran. The male is green, the female a 
 dull orange. The male has wings, the female is wingless {apterous). These latter are 
 frequently found dead on the wheat ear, being killed by the Aphid'ms avena, a j)arasitic 
 fly, which pierces and deposits its eggs in the body of the aphis, which then tm-ns 
 black and dies. 
 
 The Aphis rapa (or turnip-leaf plant-louse) lives on the turnip iu summer, and in 
 July is found in abundance under the leaves. The winged or male insect has a greenish 
 body, blackish head, transparent wings, &c. The apterous females are a bright gi'een 
 in the body, with black extremities of horns and legs. 
 
 The Aphis floris rapes (turnip-flower plant-louse) is found on the flower-stalks of the 
 white-loaf turnip iu great numbers in July and August, and do great injury to the crop 
 of seed. The male is green and black, the female a dull pea-green powdered with white. 
 
 The Aphis dubia (black-spotted turnip-leaf plant-louse) is found under the turnip- 
 leaf with A. rapm, and difiers from it only iu having black bands and spots about the 
 body and some minor particulars. 
 
 The Aphis brassica (cabbage-leaf plant-louse) are found in swarms under the leaves of 
 various crops of cabbages, but have a particular attachment to broccoli and savoys, 
 generally appearing in July, and continuing till the end of November if a severe frost 
 does not occur before to kill them. They sometimes attack the Swedish turnips, which 
 are then destroyed by them. The male is pea-green in the body, with black horns, head, 
 thorax, and legs. The female is of a yellowish green and white, spotted with black. 
 
THE FOOD, DISEASES, AND EEMEDIE3 OF PLANTS. 237 
 
 The Aphis fabx (bean plant-louse, or black dolpliin) seize upon the beans soon after 
 they come into flower. In the first instance they secrete themselves in the buds, and 
 not being then numerous their presence is not noticeable. Soon, however, with the 
 prolific powers of the genus, they multiply to that extent as to render the wliole crop 
 black, and in multitudes of which we have already given an illustration. In the first 
 instance they are all apterous (wingless), and soon spread over the stalks of the plants. 
 The males then become winged, and convey themselves to other fields to commit fresh 
 ravages. Tlie colour of the male is a dull black; that of the females a bottle-green and 
 black ; the pupa; are black, spotted with white. 
 
 The Aphis humily (hop-fly), like the rest of the genus, appears at the end of May 
 in single specimens upon the hop-plant, where it deposits its eggs or nits. Their 
 numbers then increase with a rapidity measured by the season. If the weather favours 
 them, they soon destroy the hopes of the planters, for by the middle or latter end of 
 June the bines and leaves are swarming with them, and all hope of a successful year is 
 abandoned. As if the calamity thereby occasioned was not enough, their progress is 
 made tlie constant subject of gambling speculation, and thousands are annually lost and 
 won by bets upon the amount of the duty likely to be collected upon the crops. This 
 aphis diS'ers from several of the former ones, in the females sometimes having wings. 
 Their colour is chiefly green, spotted with black ; the nits are a yellowish white, but 
 become a deep green as they arrive at maturity. 
 
 The Aphis zea (Indian-corn plant-louse) appear in August, when they are foimd in 
 clusters under the leaves of the maize ; but as soon as the nights begin to be cold in 
 September they disappear. They are of an ochreous colour on the head and trunk, with 
 dark green back marbled with paler tint ; the extremity of the body rose-coloured. 
 
 Vibrio tritici is an infusoriam, and is the cause of the disease in wheat called the ear 
 cockles or purples. The eggs, which are very minute, are mixed with sap from the 
 grain, and are hatched in the gerraen. The worms are first transparent, then become a 
 yellowish white with several rings, and are one-fourth of an inch in length. In the cavities 
 of the Avheat the eggs are deposited, contained in filmy silky webs, which dissolve in 
 water and liberate hundreds of the worms, which soon display their vitality. Such 
 indeed is this vital power of the vibrio, that after being kept in a dried state for six 
 years, upon being put into water they have become reanimated, and lived three months. 
 Their ravages on the grain, when in numbers, are very great. 
 
 The Altica nemonim (the turnip beetle or fly) attacks the tui'nip plant when in the 
 first leaf, and frequently destroys the crop. This insect is of a shining black, and the 
 hinder legs are formed for skipping, which it uses on the approach of an enemy with 
 as much actinty as a flea, for which, upon a cursory ^iew, it might be taken. It 
 deposits its eggs on the rough leaves of the tiumips which have had the good fortune 
 of escaping its attacks in the first stage of their existence. It continues laying till the 
 end of September, but can do no harm to the tm-nip, except in the earlier stage of its 
 growth. The eggs are hatched in about ten days, the maggots living upon the sap of the 
 leaves, the cuticle of which is pierced by them. The pupa buries itself in the ground, 
 where it remains during the winter, unless tvimed up by the plough, and seized by the 
 birds of prey. They always migrate against the wind in search of food ; and as they 
 are found in gi-eat numbers in the meadows and hedges from March to October, the 
 farmer — especially a slovenly one — can never be safe from its visitations. 
 
238 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Some years ago a fly-trap was invented by the same person who invented the bag 
 for taking the aphides off the beans. This trap was exhibited at the annual sheep- 
 shearing at Holkham Hall, and was approved by eveiy one who saw it at work, but we 
 believe no one adopted it. It consisted, like the other, of a canvas bag, fixed to a frame 
 running on wheels. The lip of the frame ran close to the ground, and it being pushed 
 along by a man or boy, the beetle, upon its near approach, skipped according to its habit, 
 and in descending was received into the bag.* Various other methods have been tried 
 to destroy these insects by steeping the seed in liquids supposed to be obnoxious 
 to them, or by sowing sulphur with the seed. We believe, however, that the banish- 
 ment or destruction of such wild plants as harbour them in borders and hedgerows, and 
 also using means to promote the rapid growth of the young turnip plant from the first 
 seed to the rough leaf, will prove more eflectual than any of the expedients commonly 
 resorted to for the purpose. 
 
 The Altica obscurella is another species of the same beetle, and is found most 
 numerous in gardens where it commits its ravages on the seedling cabbages, cauli- 
 flowers, &c. It sometimes also is found on the turnip in the field. 
 
 Altica consobrina (blue cabbage flea or beetle). This insect attacks also the seedling 
 cabbages as well as the turnips, eating off the first leaves, and so destroying the plants. 
 Horseradish and radishes are equally the subjects of its ravages. It is of a dark blue, 
 and its body elliptical in form. Like all this tribe, it is formed for skipping, the hinder 
 thighs having a strong elastic power which enables it to leap fifty times its own height. 
 It is also furnished with ample wings for flight, when it has occasion to migrate from 
 field to field. 
 
 The Bemhidium is a small beetle, the larvae of which do great damage to the wheat 
 crops. It has strong jaws, small horns and eyes, sis hairy legs, tubular tail, and four 
 series of spines down the back and sides. In October the larvae do great injury to the 
 young wheat plants, which being cut round the sheath of the stem below the ground 
 die. One-fifth of a crop in Sufi"olk has been destroyed by these insects. 
 
 Tenthredo (or the turnip caterpillar). This insect is the most destructive and the 
 most rapid in its depredations upon the tm-nip crop of any of the various pests with 
 which that plant is a9"ected. It is believed to be a foreign insect, from the circumstance 
 that whenever they have appeared in force in the United Kingdom, the flies from which 
 the caterjjillars proceed have been seen near the sea shore in such multitudes, that they 
 darkened the air in their flight ; and after alighting lay so thick on the ground in a 
 quiescent stale that they might have been shovelled up. Marshall, from whom we quote, 
 states that they lay two inches thick, and might be raked up into heaps of any sizc.f 
 The following is his description of this insect : — 
 
 Female fly. — Antennte, or horu-like feelers, consist of nine joints, the third from 
 the head, longer than the rest, measures one-eighth of an inch long, clubbed and black. 
 
 Head, with the eyes and two ear-like appendages, black. 
 
 Tentacuhi, or mouth feelers, four ; amber-coloured, mouth whitish. 
 
 IVings — four ; dcflex ; one-third of an inch long ; light-coloured membrane M'ith 
 
 * It has often beea a subject of surprise and regret to the writer, th.it this plan never got into general use. Its 
 elBciency he has himself been witness to, the inveutor (who was his relative) having iifi'er lost a crop of (itrnljis 
 after he hegaa to m? H. A prize was awarded to him lor the invention, and there the affair ended. 
 "Rural Economy of Norfolk." 
 
THE FOOD, DISEASES, AND EEMEDIES OF PLANTS. 239 
 
 black nerves ; upper wings with strong, black, clubbed nerves along the outer edges ; 
 under -wings less nervous, projecting one-twentieth of an inch behind the apex. 
 
 Legs — six; amber; black feat, and five black articulations; hind legs three-tenths 
 of an inch long. 
 
 Body (from the neck to the apex) — thirty-five-hundredths of an inch long ; bright 
 orangCj except two diamond-shaped scutuli (scutcheoc s) or patches on the shoulders, 
 black. 
 
 Thorax — less than one-third of the length of the whole body. 
 
 Abdomen — more than two-thirds of the body^ and fixed to the thorax without any 
 insection ; its form is between the cone and the cylinder (the greatest diameter about 
 half its length), composed of eight segments on the upper side, and six on the under 
 side. Under the two imperfect segments lies the — 
 
 " Pubes, which opens under the last segment of the abdomen ; also the sting, com- 
 posed of three hanger-like instruments, with a spiral wrinkle winding from the point to 
 the base, making ten or twelve revolutions ; length about one-twentieth of an inch. 
 Enclosed in a sheath, opening longitudinally^ and reaching from the pubes to near the 
 point of the tail, where it ends in a black speck. This sheath stands edgeway to, and 
 firojects somewhat below, the body, but is situated principally in a recess in the 
 abdomen. 
 
 " The male fly. — The same as the female, except that its antennse measure only 
 one-tenth of an inch in length, its legs one-fourth^ its body nearly three-tenths ; and 
 except that beneath the two imperfect segments lies a plain scale, covering the male 
 organ of generation, which is enclosed in a cloven hoof-like capsule, which forms the 
 point of the tad. In the act of copulation the two claws of the hoof expand, and in 
 some measm'e embrace the female. The penis is cylindrical^ shorty and of a trans- 
 parent cartilaginous substance."* 
 
 That these flies come from some foreign country there is every reason to believe ; 
 not only have they been seen on land as we have described, but fishermen assured 
 ]\IarshaU that they had seen them at sea in perfect clouds, whilst great numbers had 
 been washed ashore, apparently having been dashed into the sea by the wiud, or dropped 
 in from fatigue before they could make land. After resting awhile on shore they 
 disperse themselves over the neighbom'ing turnip-fields, where they deposit their eggs 
 on the under-side of the leaves in such numbers, and so regularly over a field, that 
 ■\\ hen the caterpillars are hatched, the whole is attacked simidtaneously, and in a few 
 days is completely denuded of every portion of leaf except the bare ribs. It is 
 generally the latter end of July or the beginning of August that they make their 
 appearance, and as it frequently happens that by that time the turnips have been hoed 
 once, and sometimes twice, the loss falls very heavily upon the farmer. The writer had 
 once a field of ten acres^ that had been twice hoed, entirely destroyed in three or four 
 days, for they never recover from the effects. Fortunately, the visits of these destructive 
 insects are like those of angels, "few and far between," which is another reason to 
 believe them, exotics. Various means have been used to destroy them. Some have 
 strewn lime over the leaves at night while the plants were moist with dew ; others 
 use soot in the same mode of application. Rolling has been tried, and hand-picking; 
 and in some cases a trench has been dug to prevent them from migrating. All these 
 
 * "Kural Economy of Norfolk," vol. ii. p. 303. 
 
240 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 meaus have failed of producing the desired efifect. The only plan which appears to have 
 been snccessful is that of tiivniug a drove of ducks into the field affected. These birds 
 ■will gorge themselves with the caterpillars to that degree as to make themselves sick, by 
 wliich having cleared their stomachs tlicy commence filling them again, with a similar 
 result. Several farmers have saved theii* tui'uips by this method, when attacked by the 
 caterpillar. 
 
 INIarshall made a curioiis experiment to test the tenacity of life of tliis fly. He cut 
 ofl" the head of a female on a Saturday morning and kept it alive until the following 
 Tuesday evening, ha\ang then lived three days and a half without a head, and performed 
 the function of dressing its wings with its legs to the last, with the same briskness as 
 before. Wliat is still more remarkable is that several of its companions which were not 
 headless liad died in the interim, and the whole of those he had kept in a box died 
 within thirty-six hours after the headless one, " so that it may be a moot point," he 
 observes, " whether cutting off its head shortened or lengthened its days ! Its life must 
 have been merely vegetative, and tlie care of its wings pure instinct." 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL CliEMISTRV. 
 
 The history of chemistry as a true science is not of ancient date. The knowledge of 
 its correct principles cannot be traced further back than the latter half of the seventeenth 
 century, when Bucher first arranged and placed them on the sound and natural basis 
 they now occupy. Bucher was succeeded by Stahl (his pupil), Boerhaave, Jlargraaf, 
 Magner(w]io published the first chemical dictionary in 17G0, and thus gave the science 
 a classical nomenchitnre), and Bergman. This latter possessed a higldy philosophic 
 mind, well versed in mathematical knowledge, which enabled him to test the accuracy 
 of the results of his experiments. Assisted by Scheele, his pupil — the one distinguished 
 by the extent of his views, and the breadth of his plans for the advancement of science, 
 the otlicr by the skill and aeem-aey with w hich he conducted the analyses, and the 
 acuteness and precision he displayed in detecting substances by theii- properties — they 
 may be said to have raised the walls of that building, of which Bucher and Stahl laid 
 the foundation ; and the finisliiug and utilisation of which has called forth the talents 
 of a host of men of mark, who have finally united chemistry with the civil arts, and 
 thereby brought the science home to the every-day business of life. 
 
 Its progress the last hundred years has been rapid. Black first discovered the laws 
 of pneumatics ; Cavendish, the composition of water ; and he was the first to apply 
 electricity in chemistry. Priestley discovered oxygen in 1771; Brandt, phosphorus; 
 Dr. Hook, combustion; Franklin, the identity of lightning with electricity, and its 
 control and direction by the iise of conductors ; "Watson, the sinndtancous operation of 
 the electric shock ; Ilenschcnbrock, the Leyden phial ; Privati and ^Vinkelmaun, the 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 241 
 
 application of electricity in the cure of chronic disease ; Voltaj with La Place, the 
 voltaic battery, of which the galvanic battery of Galvaui is the completion. 
 
 It has so happened that agriculture was the last of the arts to which the science of 
 chemistry was professionally applied ; and, what is more remarkable, its application was, 
 up to a late period, opposed to the opinions of some of the most eminent agriculturists. 
 While so far back as the seventeenth century we meet in history with isolated individuals 
 endeavouring to accommodate the crude and erroneous notions they entertained on the 
 subject with the laws of vegetable life and production, we hear the secretary of the Board 
 of Agriculture, at the close of the eighteenth, questioning the utility of applying 
 chemistry to agriculture. But at the opening of the present century, Sir Humphrey 
 Davy commenced that useful career, which, while it has immortalised his name as the 
 " father of agricultural chemistry," has raised the cultivation of the earth to a science, 
 and completely changed the character of the men who practise it. 
 
 The grand object of agricultural chemistry is to ascertain the existence or non- 
 existence of the relative conditions requisite in the three great elements of production 
 — soil, seed, and manure; soil as the medium, seed as the subject, manirre as the 
 stimulant, or promoter, of production. A soil, for instance, may be very proper for the 
 cultivation of a certain plant in many respects, and yet be deficient in its most essential 
 constituent. The farmer knows nothing of this precise defect, and having, according to 
 his views, fulfilled his part, wonders at his want of success. Chemistry here steps in, 
 and by an analysis of the soil points out what is wanting and how to supply it. Again, 
 certain plants require the presence of certain materials (lime, for instance), which must 
 be supplied by proper manure containing them. But the farmer is neither acquainted 
 with the exact want, nor with the means of supplying it, and he applies such manure 
 as lies ready to his hand ; and, like the former, he has a deficient crop where he expected 
 a full one. Every farmer, it is true, cannot be a practical chemist, but every one now 
 has it in his power, at a trifling expense, to obtain the requisite information from a 
 practical chemist, so as to be able to conduct his business on scientific principles ; and 
 thus ensiu'c, so far as human efforts can go, the success of his operations. 
 
 The analysis of soils is a necessary process, if it is desirable to ascertain their con- 
 stitutional deficiencies or excellencies. A soil may be sterile on account of an excess 
 of siliceous, or calcareous, or ferruginous, or argillaceous substances, or the deficiency of 
 one or other of these ; and the efforts of the husbandman are continually thwarted by 
 the reduction of his produce to the minimum. Such defects in a soil can be at once, 
 and correctly, ascertained by a chemical analysis, by which the cultivator is enabled to 
 apply the proper remedy to counteract the evil. The objects of agriculture are the 
 improvement and multiplication of the productions of the earth to the highest point of 
 which their natures are capable ; to attempt to attain these objects without possessing a 
 knowledge of the materials with which we have to eflect them, is contrary to all the 
 acknowledged principles on which affairs in every other department of the arts are 
 conducted. Yet up to a very recent period, such was the rule in the cultivation of 
 the soil. 
 
 It is to chemical science that we owe all the improvements in agriculture and the 
 increase of production of the last half century. Combining theory with practice, the 
 chemists of the present day have united themselves with the practical husbandmen, going 
 hand in hand with them iu the progress of experiment, and the application of the 
 
242 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN, 
 
 principles established by theii- researclies. By their exertions the domain of nature has 
 been invaded and explored, her laws examined, her secret operations laid open and 
 familiarised j and the knowledge thus acquired, carried out in practice, has effected 
 greater and more important changes than the world ever before saw in the cultivation 
 of the soil. 
 
 These changes are still in progress, for it is admitted on all hands that the acme of 
 improvement and production are far from having been reached. We see the market- 
 gardener, on a large scale, doubling and trebling the produce of the last century, at an 
 enormous outlay, and acquiring riches by it. We see, too, that the most successful 
 agriculturists are those who are the most lavish of their funds in the proper cultivation 
 of the laud. There is no reason, therefore, why fai'ming should not be conducted pro- 
 fitably on the same principle as market-gardening, and the land made to produce double 
 the crops they now do without being impoverished. If, as Professor Playfair assiu'es us 
 (and we may speak with confidence after such a man), a market-gardener can produce 
 to the value of .€250 from a siugle acre of land in one year, there can be no reason why 
 a farmer cannot raise something more equivalent to it, than a produce of four or five 
 quarters of wheat or barley on the same quantity of land. 
 
 We must still look to chemical science for the attainment of this object, for nothing 
 can be effected without it. "Whoever," says Sir H. Davy, "reasons upon agriculture 
 is obliged to recur to this science. He feels that it is scarcely possible to advance a step 
 without it ; and if he is satisfied with iusufiicient views, it is not because he prefers them 
 to accurate knowledge, but generally because they are most current. If a person 
 journeying in the night wishes to avoid being led astray by an iynis-fatuus , the most 
 secure method is to carry a lamp in his own hand." . ..." In proportion as science 
 advances, all the principles become less complicated, and consequently more useful ; and 
 it is then that their application to the arts is most advantageously made. The common 
 labourer can never be enlightened by the general doctrines of philosophy, but he will 
 not refuse to adopt any practice, of the utility of which he is fully convinced, merely 
 
 because it has been founded on these principles The great pm-pose of chemical 
 
 investigation in agriculture ought undoubtedly to be the discovery of improved methods 
 of cultivation. But to this end general scientific principles and practical knowledge 
 are alike necessary. The germs of discovery are often found in rational speculations, 
 aiul industry is never so efficacious as when assisted by science."* 
 
 The slowness with which these great truths made progress amongst agriculturists is 
 easier to account for than to justify or defend. Sir Humphrey Davy's researches met 
 with little or no response from the " practical men," as they called themselves, of his 
 day, and thirty years more were required to indoctrinate the farmers with the idea that 
 chemistry and agriculture were inseparable. But in 1840 a scientific bomb was thrown 
 amongst them, in the shape of a treatise on the subject by Baron Liebig, which excited 
 as great a sensation as a real missile of that name would in the camp of an enemy. 
 The public attention was intensely drawn to this theoretic work, which possessed the 
 highest merit, but at the same time was calculated to raise too much the expectations 
 of a class not yet emerged from an entire ignorance on the subject. The extravagant 
 ideas formed by the "practical men" met with disappointment — not because Liebig's 
 theory was erroneous, but because, iii practice, it required to be modified to the existing 
 
 * " Agricultural Chemistry." 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 243 
 
 cii'cumstauces of the soil, &c., ou which it was proposed to apply it. The immediate 
 result was, that the bias iu favour of agricultui-al chemistry, which had all at once 
 spruug up, was exchauged into an absurd conviction that chemistry could not advan- 
 tageously be applied to agricultiu'e, and that the theories of the great chemist were not 
 capable of being reduced to practice. Liebig's error (if it was one) lay in addressing 
 the farmer as a man instructed in the science, and to whom his theory was as clearly 
 demonstrable as it was to himself, or any other chemist j whilst, in fact, it required a 
 far more advanced state of knowledge than the generality even of the most intelligent 
 of the practical farmers possessed, to carry out his views to a successful issue. 
 
 About the same time, Boussingault published his celebrated work on rural economy, 
 which, as soon as the disappointment arising from the failure in Liebig's case had 
 subsided, drew the attention of the public once more to the subject. In this case, 
 Boussingault had the advantage of being himself a practical, as well as theoretic, 
 agriculturist, and tested the principles he advocated upon the largest scale, the experi- 
 ments and results being given in detail in the work ; and thus, theory and practice 
 standing side by side, there could be no longer cavilling about it. Nobody now doubts 
 the applicability of chemical knowledge to agricultui'e, or the benefits to be derived 
 from it in the management of the farm. This result has been largely promoted by the 
 institution of the " Agricultural Chemistry Association of Scotland," to which we have 
 already referred when treating of Scottish agriculture. The warm reception which 
 that measure met with from the Scottish farmers, speaks strongly in favour of their 
 superior knowledge and intelligence. Similar associations were soon after formed in 
 London, Dublin, Belfast, and on the Continent, by which a knowledge of the principles 
 of chemistry was disseminated and extended far and wide. Since that period, the facts 
 illustrative of the utility of conducting the processes of agriculture on chemical prin- 
 ciples have accumulated daily ; and the ice being broken, in which the practical men were 
 bound up, many chemical professors find it to their interest to devote their time, talents, 
 and industry in applying the principles of the science to the cultivation of the land. 
 
 The value of chemical knowledge meets the farmer at his very first entrance into 
 business. In taking a farm, it is of the first consequence to him to make himself 
 acquainted with the character of the soil, and its adaptation to the purposes of lius- 
 bandi-y, which can only be ascertained by analysis. Soils are so diversified in their 
 appearance and qualities, their combinations and their constituents are so varied in their 
 proportions, that a farmer, going blindfold into a tract of land, is liable to be deceived 
 and ruined before he discovers his error. We will illustrate this by two genuine 
 instances of contrary practice. Very recently, a friend of the writer's was about to 
 treat for a farm in South Wales, the land of which was represented by the agent as 
 being well adapted to grow good crops of cereal produce. Before finally closing with 
 the agent, he sent portions of the soil to an agricultural chemist, who soon informed 
 him that there was so large a preponderance of oxide of iron, and so small a proportion 
 of other essential constituents in it, that it was not at all adapted to cereal crops, and 
 our friend at once broke off treating for it. In the other instance, three neighbouring 
 farmers from Suflblk hii'ed a tract' of land of 600 acres in Ireland, the soil of which had 
 the appearance of a deep black alluvial, capable of bearing any kind of crop. But upon 
 entering on the land, they soon found that it had been so completely run out by the 
 former tenant, and at the same time was so entirely destitute of calcareous matter of 
 
 R 2 
 
244 AGKIOULTURB ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 any kind, that for some years it gave a retui-n of little more than the seed. Eventually, 
 there being no lime to be procured in the neighbourhood, they were compelled to 
 abandon the occupation altogether. Had they taken the precaution to obtain an 
 analysis of the soil from an agricultural chemist of established reputation, they would 
 have learned from him that the soil was totally unfit for the cultivation of cereal crops, 
 although perhaps well adapted for growing roots. 
 
 One of the most remarkable effects or consequences of the publication of Liebig's 
 work was the sudden extension of the use of artificial and mineral manures. It was 
 well imderstood, by persons who had made the subject of consumption and production 
 their study, that the ordinary resources of the farm in the promotion of the latter — at 
 least so far as the common practice of husbandry was concerned — had reached their 
 maximum, and that it had become necessary, if it was desirable and intended to extend 
 production so as meet the requirements of an increasing population, to have recourse to 
 science in aid of art. Not that the natural capabilities of the soil of England had been 
 universally tested, for thorough draining and, as a preliminary step, arterial draining, 
 were far from having been universally carried out, although it was well known that it 
 was calculated to increase production indefinitely. In fact, arterial drainage, which, in 
 Ireland, has been the means of dodbling and trebling the value of hundreds of thousands 
 of acres of land, is but now beginning to attract the attention of the English agriculturists. 
 So far, therefore, the natm'al resources of the country had not been tested. 
 
 The use of condensed manures was previously limited to bone-dust, rape cake, 
 wooUen rags, and a few other substances in lesser quantities. But the astounding 
 revelations of Baron Liebig led to the instant establishment of a vast number of 
 concerns for the manufacture of special or chemical manures ; and as the introduction 
 of Peruvian guano took place about that time, and an analysis of it had disclosed its 
 constituent parts, and chemistry had accounted for its prodigious fertility, many of the 
 manufacturers professed to produce an artificial composition, similar, and equal in value, 
 to guano. The estimation, too, in which that celebrated manure was held, led to the 
 most villanous deceptions and adulterations, by which the unsuspecting farmers were 
 robbed to an enormous extent. Not content mth palming off their own worthless 
 compositions at extravagant prices, the manufacturers adulterated the real guano with 
 common red earth and other such cheap materials, in some instances, to the amount of 
 40 or 50 per cent. We shall have occasion to refer to this subject again when speaking 
 of manures, and shall therefore only now state that these deceptions have been amply 
 exposed by Mr. Nesbit, in a course of lectures delivered before different agricultural 
 associations, by which the public have been put upon their guard against such robbei-ies 
 in future. 
 
 The reader will see, from what we have said, how important it is, not only to know 
 the constituents of the soil by an analysis, but also those of the mauui-e to be applied 
 to it; and especially if that manure is to be purchased at a high price. The value of 
 farm-yard manure is practically known l)y all farmers ; but there are few who are 
 acquainted with its constituents, or with their variations from accidental circumstances. 
 Yet this is a most desu'able thing to know, in order to be able to improve it, so as to 
 adapt it to the crop for which it is intended. Lime, for instance, is useful in most 
 cases; but in others it will have no effect whatever, or may be positively injurious, 
 from being of a quality unadapted to the purpose. 
 
AGRICULTUEAL CHEMISTRY. 345 
 
 The following directions are given by Boussingaiilt for conducting the analysis 
 of soils : — 
 
 "The attention must be directed — 1st, to sand; 3nd, to clay; 3rd, to humus. 
 
 "The soil must be reduced to perfect dryness in an oil-l)ath in a copper vessel. 
 The heat must be raised to 334° or 352° Fahr., which may be ascertained by a thermo- 
 meter. Put the soil iuto a glass tube or a porcelain capsule ; place the tube or capsule 
 in the oil, having first taken the weight of the vessel and soil. Continue the drying for 
 two or three hovirs, at the end of which weigh the capsule with its contents, taking care 
 to wipe oft' the oil perfectly. Put it again in the bath for fifteen or twenty minutes, 
 and weigh it a second time. If tlie weight has not diminished, it is a proof that it is 
 perfectly dry. If otherwise, the drying must be contimied, and the weighing be 
 repeated twice, as before. 
 
 "Davy recommends putting the soil into a porcelain capsule, heated by a lamp, 
 with a thermometer placed in the middle, to stir it with, and at the same time to 
 indicate the degree of heat. Tlie absolute desiccation could not take place at less than 
 a red heat, or near it, which would destroy all the oi'ganic matter it contains. The 
 earth must next be sifted, to remove the pieces of straw and roots, with the gravel and 
 stones. Next, wash the earth in three or four times its bulk of hot distilled water; 
 shake it well, and let it stand a moment ; then pour oft' the liquid into a wide porcelain 
 capsule. Continue adding fresh water until the whole of the clay is removed, which 
 is known by the clearness of the water. Wliat remains is sand, and must be washed 
 out into another capsule. The water which contains the particles of clay and all other 
 matters in suspension must then be filtered, and the residue dried in the same way as 
 before. The sand also must be dried, and then both must be weighed. 
 
 " To ascertain the nature and quantity of soluble salts, the whole of the water used 
 in washing must be put together and evaporated in a sand-bath. This must be con- 
 tinued to dryness, and the salts that remain, weighed, and thrown into a small platinum 
 capsule, and heated to a dull red heat by means of a spirit-lamp, in order to burn out 
 the organic or combustible salts, and thus be able to distinguish between them and the 
 inorganic salts. 
 
 " The sand may be siliceous or calcareous. To ascertain the latter, use hydrochloric, 
 nitric, or acetic acid. If it eff'ervesces, it proves the presence of a carbonate, the 
 quantity of which is ascertained by weighing the dry sand before and after its treatment 
 with the acid, taking care to wash the remaining sand well before weighing it. 
 
 " To determine the quantity of humus, have recourse to heat. A known weight of 
 di'ied earth is heated to redness in a capsule, and stirred for a time ; and when no more 
 brilliant sparks, which are the indications of the combustion of carbon, are observed, 
 set it to cool, and then weigh it. This, however, is not absolutely accurate, because 
 the dried soil still retains a portion of water in union with the clay, and is disengaged 
 in a red heat, which the combustion of the organic matters requires. 
 
 " In order to ascertain the presence of carbonate of lime in a soil, counterpoise upon 
 the scale of a balance, a phial containing some diluted nitric acid. Weigh a quantity of 
 earth to be analysed, and add it to the acid by degrees. If it efi'ervesccs, it contains 
 carbonates. Shake it carefully ; and having waited a few minutes to let the carbonic 
 acid which is mixed with the air of the phial escape ; the phial, with its contents, must 
 be again weighed. If there has been no disengagement of cai'bonic acid, it is clear that. 
 
246 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 to restore the equilibrivun, it will be sufficient to add to the opposite scale the weight of 
 the earth put into the phial. Whatever is wanting of this weighty represents the precise 
 weight of the carbonic acid disengaged. 
 
 " To determine the existence of phosphates and their quantity contained in a soil, 
 first, by calcination, deprive it of all organic matters. Reduce it to a veiy fine powder ; 
 then boil for an hour in three or four times its weight of nitric or hydrochloric acid. 
 Dilute the solution with distilled water, and filter it. The matter remaining on the 
 filter is silica, or alumina, which has escaped the action of the acid. After having 
 reduced the washings by evaporation, and added them to the acid liquor, ammonia in 
 solution is poured in. Taking the simplest instance, the precipitate which falls, upon 
 the addition of this alkali, may contain : — 1st, phosphoric acid in union with the 
 peroxide of iron and lime ; 2nd, oxide of iron and of manganese ; 3rd, silica. This 
 precipitate, which is usually of a gelatinous appearance, is received upon a filter, and 
 well washed and dried, when the precipitate is readily detached from the filter. It is 
 thrown into a platinum capsule, which is raised to a white heat ; after which, the weight 
 of the residue is taken. The precipitate, after calcination, is thrown into a small glass 
 mattrass, and dissolved by hot hydrochloric acid. If there is any silica undissolved, its 
 quantity is merely estimated if it is very small ; if it be a large quantity, it is to be 
 collected upon a filter, and weighed. To the new acid solution, about three times its 
 weight of alcohol is added. The mixture is shaken, and pm-e sulphuric acid is then 
 distilled di'op by drop, until there is no longer any precipitate. The precipitate is 
 sulphate of lime, which is thrown upon a filter, where it is washed with diluted alcohol. 
 It is then dried, calcined, and the weight of the sulphate of lime obtained permits us to 
 calculate that of the lime, which formed part of the precipitate thrown do^vn by the 
 ammonia in the first instance. 100 of sulphate of lime are equal to 41'5 of pure lime. 
 
 " The alcoholic liquor is cencentrated in order to expel the spirit. As it is acid, it 
 is saturated with ammonia until a slight precipitate begins to be formed, which is not 
 re-dissolved upon shaking the mixture. A few drops of hydrosulphate of ammonia are 
 then added, upon which the iron and manganese fall in the state of sulphiirets. As 
 a part of the metals has been separated, in the shape of oxides, by the ammonia added 
 in the hydi'osulphate, it is well to digest for eight or ten hoiu's ; because the hydro- 
 sulphate of ammonia always ends by changing the metals present into sidphurets, which 
 being washed, di'ied, and reduced to the state of oxides by calcination, in a platinum 
 capsule, are weighed. '^ 
 
 The foregoing directions, if well studied, will enable any person, after a few trials, 
 to conduct an analysis of a soil. With respect to the apparatus required, they are few 
 and inexpensive, and consist of "a pair of scales capable of weighing a quarter of a 
 pound, and that will turn with a grain ; a set of weights, from a quarter of a pound 
 troy to a half grain ; a wire sieve, coarse enough to admit a mustard-seed through its 
 squares ; an Argand lamp, and stand ; a few glass bottles and crucibles ; porcelain or 
 queen^s ware evaporating-basins ; a Wedgwood mortar and pestle ; filters of blotting- 
 paper, folded so as to contain a pint of liquid, and greased at the edges ; a bone knife, 
 and an apparatus for collecting and measuring aeriform fluids." 
 
 " The chemical substances or reagents required for separating the constituent parts 
 of a soil are : — mmiatic acid {spirit of salt) ; sulphuric acid ; pure volatile alkali dissolved 
 in -water; solution of prussiate of potash and iron; succinate of ammonia ; soap-lye, or 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 
 
 247 
 
 solution of potash; solutions of carbonate of ammonia, of muriate of ammonia, of neutral 
 carbonate of potash, and nitrate of ammonia. The soil should be collected in dry 
 weather, and exposed to the atmosphere till it becomes dry to the touch." 
 
 ■■' The specific gravity of a soil, or the relation of its weight to that of water, may be 
 ascertained by introducing into a phial, which will contain a known quantity of water, 
 equal volumes of water and soil ; and this may easily be done by filling the phial half 
 full of water, and then adding the soil, till the fluid rises to the mouth ; the difi'erence 
 between the weight of the soil and that of the water will give the result. Thus, if the 
 bottle contains 400 grains of water, and gains 200 grains when half filled with water 
 and half with soil, the specific gravity of the soil will be 2 — that is, it will be twice as 
 heavy as water; and if it gains 165 grains, its specific gravity would be 1'825, water 
 being 1,000. It is of importance that the specific gravity of a soil should be known, as 
 it affords an indication of the quantity of animal and vegetable matter it contains, 
 these substances being alv/ays the most abundant in the lighter soils."* 
 
 The following is a list of the elementary constituents of the earth generally con- 
 sidered by chemists as simple substances, until by a closer analysis they are proved to 
 the contrary : — 
 
 Cai^i 
 
 (Jry^Vk 
 
 Substances. 
 Aluminium . 
 Ammonia . . 
 
 Symbols. 
 . . Al. . 
 . . Am. . 
 
 Equivalents. 
 
 137 
 
 Substances. 
 Molybdenum . . 
 Nickel .... 
 
 Symbcls. 
 . Mo. . 
 Ni. . 
 
 Equivalent 
 46- 
 29-6 
 
 Antimony . . 
 Arsenic . . 
 
 . . Sb. . 
 . . As. . 
 
 129- 
 75 ■ 
 
 IviwfuQn 
 
 Nitrogen . . . 
 
 . Nb. . 
 
 N. . 
 
 14- 
 
 Barium . . 
 
 . . Ba, . 
 
 68-3 
 
 Norium . . . 
 
 . No. . 
 
 — 
 
 Berylium . . 
 Bismuth . . 
 Boron . . . 
 
 . . Be. . 
 . . Bi. . 
 . . B. . 
 
 47 
 213- 
 10-9 
 
 Osmium . . . 
 Oxygen . . . 
 Palladium . . 
 
 . Os. . 
 
 . 0. . 
 
 Pd. . 
 
 99-6 
 
 8- 
 53-3 
 
 Bromine . . 
 
 . . Br. . 
 
 SO- 
 
 Pelopium . . . 
 
 . Pe. . 
 
 — 
 
 Cadmium . . 
 Calcium . . 
 
 . . Cd. . 
 . . Ca. . 
 
 56' 
 20- 
 
 Phosphon:5 . . 
 Platinum . 
 
 . Pi. . 
 . Pt. . 
 
 33- 
 98-7 
 
 Carbon . . 
 
 . . C. 
 
 6' 
 
 Potassium . . 
 
 I!. . 
 
 39-3 
 
 Cerium . . 
 
 . . Ce. . 
 
 47- 
 
 Rhodium, j / ' J> 
 Euthinium^ . . 
 
 . R. 
 
 52-3 
 
 Chlorine . , 
 
 . . CI. . 
 
 355 
 
 ;ru. . 
 
 53-2 
 
 Chromium 
 
 . . Cr. . 
 
 267 
 
 Silenium- . . . 
 
 . Sc. . 
 
 39-5 
 
 Cobalt . . . 
 
 . . Co. . 
 
 29-5 
 
 Silicon .... 
 
 . Si. . 
 
 21-3 
 
 Copper . . 
 Didymium 
 
 . . Cu. . 
 . . D. . 
 
 317 
 
 Silver .... 
 Sodium . . . 
 
 . Ag. . 
 . Na. . 
 
 108- 
 23- 
 
 Erbium . . 
 
 . . E. 
 
 — 
 
 Strontium . . 
 
 Sr. . 
 
 43-8 
 
 Fluorine . . 
 
 . . Fl. . 
 
 18-9 
 
 Sulphur . . . 
 
 S. 
 
 16- 
 
 Glucinum . . 
 
 . . Gl. . 
 
 — 
 
 Tantalum . . . 
 
 Ta. . 
 
 184- 
 
 Gold . . . 
 
 . . Au. . 
 
 197' 
 
 Tellurium . . . 
 
 . Te. . 
 
 64-2 
 
 Hydrogen . . 
 
 ilUllIUIUUl . 
 
 . . H. . 
 
 1- 
 
 Terbium . ,.• , / 
 Thorium .^^'T^'" 
 
 Tb. . 
 :'^Th. . 
 
 59 6 
 
 Iodine . 
 
 . . I. 
 
 127-1 
 
 Tin .... 
 
 . Sh. . 
 
 59- 
 
 Iridium . . 
 
 . . Ir. . 
 
 99- 
 
 Titanium . . . 
 
 Ti. . 
 
 35- 
 
 Iron . . . 
 Lanthanium . 
 
 . . Fe. . 
 . . La. . 
 
 23- 
 
 Tungster^ . . . 
 Uranium . 
 
 We. . 
 
 . 11. . 
 
 95- 
 60- 
 
 Lead . . . 
 
 . . Pb. . 
 
 103-7 
 
 Vanudium . 
 
 . V. 
 
 68-6 
 
 Lithium . . 
 
 . . Li. . 
 
 6-5 
 
 Yttrium . . . 
 
 . Y. . 
 
 — 
 
 Magnesium . 
 Manganese 
 
 . . Mg. . 
 . . Mn. . 
 
 12-2 
 27-6 
 
 Zinc .... 
 Zerconium . . 
 
 . Zn. . 
 . Zr. . 
 
 32-6 
 23 4-1- 
 
 Mercury . . 
 
 . . Hg. . 
 
 100- 
 
 
 
 
 Only eighteen or nineteen of the above are found in plants, and those in verv 
 
 * Davy's " Elements of Agricultural Chemistry," pp.158 — 160. 
 t Morton's " Cyclopsedia of Agriculture." 
 
248 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 minute quantities, witli the exception of the organic or combustible — carbon, hydrogen, 
 nitrogen and oxygen ; tliey are grouped in the following manner : — 
 
 1. 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 4. 
 
 5. 
 
 6. 
 
 7. 
 
 Maguesium. 
 
 Sodium. 
 
 Carbon. 
 
 Phosphorus. 
 
 Suljihur. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Chlorine. 
 
 Calcium. 
 
 Potassium. 
 
 Silicon. 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 
 
 Iodine. 
 
 Mangauese. 
 
 Ammonium. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Bromine. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fluorine. 
 
 Aluminium. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The others are found in the ashes or incombustible part of the plant. The combina- 
 tions formed by these constituent elements are of two kinds, mechanical and chemical, 
 the difference between which has been described by Sibson, in his work on agricultural 
 chemistry in the following clear words : — " In a mechanical mixture, each constituent 
 remains rmaltercd in its essential character, and may generally be recognised in the 
 mixture by the naked eye, or by a microscope, and, in most cases, may be removed 
 from the mixture by mechanical means ; and, further, when separated, will be found 
 in the same condition as it was before being added. The appearance and external 
 properties of a mixture are regulated by those of its constituents. On the contrary, 
 in chemical combination, or, as it is called, a compound, one substance at least is 
 essentially altered, and by no atnount of examination by the naked eye, or by the 
 microscope, can the constituent particles be detected. Hence the smallest particle is 
 of the same quality as the bulk of the substance, the whole being perfectly uniform 
 and homogeneous. Moreover, the qualities of compounds are not regulated by those of 
 their constituents. Liquids may produce solids ; gases may produce liquids ; poisons 
 may be formed from innoxious substances ; so that no opinion can be formed of the 
 character of a compound by judging of the qualities of its constituents. A few examples 
 will render this more intelligible. When chalk is powdered and mixed with water, a 
 creamy liquid results, possessing qualities intermediate between those of chalk and 
 water. On standing, the chalk settles to the bottom, and the clear water is the same as 
 before the experiment. If instead of chalk we use plaster of Paris, the creamy liquid 
 in this case will quickly harden, and finally become a solid mass; the wafer -ndll disappear, 
 and no longer be perceptible by the properties it exhibits in a liquid form. In this 
 latter case the materials einploj^ed have combined together chemically. Again, gun- 
 powder is a mechanical mixture, although a most intimate one. It consists of charcoal, 
 sulphur, and saltpetre. By washing iu water the nitre is dissolved, and now can be 
 easily removed and separated from the otlier two ingredients by filtering and straining. 
 The nitre may be obtained in a solid form by evaporating, or boiling away the clear 
 liquid over a lamp or fire until it dries up. The two other constituents may also be 
 separated by suitable means not necessary to describe here. Each constituent thus 
 separated from gunpowder will be found in precisely the same condition as regards its 
 chemical character as before being manufactured. But aU know that if fire be applied 
 to gunpowder, it is instantly consumed, leaving nothing but a small residue ; in other 
 words, its constituents have combined chemically, aiul how different are the resulting 
 compounds ! Except a trace of solid matter, nothing but smoke is seen ; yet these 
 compounds, with some invisible gases, contain all the sulphur', charcoal, and nitre that 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY, 249 
 
 existed in the gunpowder. These materials have assumed new forms in which none of 
 their original properties can he recognised. 
 
 " It has been wisely ordered that oxygen and nitrogen in the air shall only be 
 mechanically mixed, not chemically combined. Had it been otherwise, or were they 
 suddenly to combine, the whole face of nature would be altered. The bland health- 
 giving air would be changed into nitric acid, or aqua-fortis. The only essential 
 difference between the air we breathe and aqua-fortis is, that in the air the above gases 
 are simply mixed, in the latter case chemically combined."* 
 
 The union of various chemical bodies is not accidental, but is regulated by fixed la^s 
 which it is impossible for art to supersede ; and it is remarkable that substances of the 
 same family exhibit no disposition to unite chemically, whilst they readily do so with 
 members of an opposite group. Thus, water and oil will not unite ; and if by agitation 
 they are mechanically forced into union they separate again as soon as they are left at 
 rest. But water and oil of vitriol unite readily in all proportions ; and so strong is this 
 tendency, that if oil of vitriol is exposed to the atmosphere it will increase in weight 
 and volume by the water which it attracts from the atmosphere and combines with. 
 Any oleaginous matter will combine with an alkali, and form soap ; but the addition 
 of sulphuric acid to a solution of soap will divest it of the alkali, and leave the oil or 
 fat liberated as before the combination. Ammonia freely combines with sulphuric acid, 
 the produce being sulphate of ammonia. If lime be added, the acid separates from the 
 ammonia and combines with the lime. Such combinations as these are termed single 
 elective affinities. In other cases a double election takes place, in which the acids and 
 bases change positions by natural consent. lu the decay of farm-yard manure carbonate 
 of ammonia is formed, and being volatile wovdd escape but for the application of a 
 double affinity in the form of gypsum. This substance is composed of sulphuric acid 
 and lime, whilst carbonate of ammonia is formed of carbonic acid and ammonia. The 
 carbonic acid elects to join the lime, whilst the sulphm'ic acid prefers the ammonia; 
 and thus the acids and bases Ijoth change places, and the sulphate of ammonia, not 
 being volatile, is retained. Such cases of single and double elective affinity are 
 constantly in action in the organism of plants and animals, and meet the farmer in 
 the most ordinary operations of cultivation; but they are not always the conse- 
 quence of chemical attraction alone, but depend also on accidental circumstances, 
 such as insolubility, volatility, cohesion, and elasticity. The quantity of matter or 
 preponderance of a particular ingredient also exercises an influence beyond that due to 
 simple chemical attraction. f 
 
 Generally speaking, the union of substances takes place in definite proportions, 
 causing a fixed and invariable composition for every body. Water, for instance, is 
 composed of eight parts oxygen and one part of hydrogen, and never, under any circum- 
 stances, varies therefrom, and so on of other formations ; and it is this fixed property of 
 the composition of bodies that give accuracy and certainty to chemical analysis. But 
 the most important law of combination is, that the relative quantities in which bodies 
 unite may be expressed by proportional numbers. These numbers are the equivalents 
 given in the preceding tables of elementary bodies. Their great vise will be understood 
 
 * Sibson's " Agricultural Chemistry," p, 18. 
 + Morton's " CyclopEedia of Agriculture," p. 4i3. 
 
250 AGEIOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 if Tve state the proportional numbers belonging to all the mineral acids and bases found 
 in the organic kingdoms : — 
 
 Bases. 
 
 Potash 47'20 
 
 Soda 3100 
 
 Ammonia 17'00 
 
 Lime 28-00 
 
 Manganese 35'60 
 
 Magnesia 20-20 
 
 Oxide of iron 3600 
 
 Acids. 
 
 Carbonic acid 22-00 
 
 SUicic acid 45-30 
 
 Pliosphoric acid .... 7200 
 
 Nitric acid 54-00 
 
 Sulphuric acid 4000 
 
 Hydrochloric acid .... 36 50 
 
 Hydriodic acid 128-10 
 
 In marine plants | Hydrofluoric acid .... 19-90 
 
 Hydrobromic acid . . . Sl'OO* 
 
 " The above are the only proportions in -which those bodies will unite. For instance, 
 if a farmer -\Tishes to make gypsum^ he must take twenty-eight parts of lime and forty 
 parts of sulphuric acid. If limestone^, twenty-eight parts of lime and twenty- two parts 
 of carbonic acid. These substances will unite in uo other proportions^ and would there- 
 fore be thrown away in any other relations. Tlie laws of combination may therefore 
 be shortly expressed as follows : — 
 
 " 1st. The composition of all bodies is fixed and invariable. 
 
 " 2nd. The relative quantities in which bodies unite may be expressed by proportional 
 numbers. 
 
 " 3rd. When one body, A, unites with another body, B, in two or more proportions, 
 the quantities of the latter united with the same quantity of the former stand in a very 
 simple ratio. 
 
 " Tlie term equivalents has been given to the lowest proportional numbers in which 
 bodies imite, because these respective numbers are equal or equivalent to each other in 
 combination. Thus, if a farmer wishes to convert limestone first into gypsum, he 
 knows from its composition (twenty-eight parts of lime and twenty-two parts of carbonic 
 acid) that to displace the carbonic acid he must add forty parts of sulphuric acid. If he 
 desire the limestone to be made into uitrate of lime, he must add to the same quantity 
 fifty-four parts of nitric acid. If he use less than these quantities, part of the limestone 
 will remain undecomposed ; if he employ more the excess will be wholly useless, and 
 therefore wasted. Hence the knowledge of equivalent numbers becomes important in 
 an economical point of view. A very simple relation is found to hold in gaseous bodies. 
 Gases are found to unite in either equal bulks or volumes, or in multiple volumes. 
 Hence, in combining gases, volumes represent equivalents. ■[" 
 
 We shall revert again to Baron Liebig's theory, which excited as much interest and 
 surprise amongst scientific men as amongst farmers, although for another reason. As 
 read by the former it ran thus : that in order to produce a crop of wheat nothing more 
 was necessary than to supply the soil with a manure containing, or composed of, the 
 inorganic or mineral constituents of plants. One of the most notable of the opponents 
 of his doctrine was INIr. Lawes, of Rothampsted, | who, assisted by Mr. Gilbert, at once 
 
 * Morton's " Cyclopsedia of Agriculture," p. 442. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 X Licbig asserts that Mr. Lawes has entirely mis-stated his views, in proof of which he gives the following quotation from 
 the fourth edition of his work (p. 210): — "Thence it is quite certain that in our fields the amount of nitrogen in the 
 crops is not at all in proportion to the quantity supplied in the manure, that we cannot augment the fertility of our fields 
 by supplyiug them with manures rich in nitrogen, or with ammoniacal salts alone. The crops on a field diminish or 
 
AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY. 251 
 
 instituted a series of experiments on an extended and continuous scale. The plan tliey 
 adopted was to divide a field of seventeen acres into a certain number of portions, each 
 being treated in a different manner, and one being cultivated vritliout any manure, in 
 order to exhibit the greater contrast. One portion was manured with the mineral 
 composition recommended by the Baron Liebig, another with that and a portion of 
 ammoniacal salts in addition, and so on. After carrying on their experiments for 
 several years, they deduced the following principles as the result : — 
 
 1st. That in order to increase your crops of wheat you must give your plants au 
 artificial supply of ammonia. 
 
 2nd. That in order to grow turnips at all you must add a supply of phosphate of lime.* 
 
 These propositions were subscribed to by all the most eminent chemists, and they 
 were fully proved to be true by the Rothampsted experiments. The land that was 
 unmanured produced about sixteen bushels of wheat per acre. That manured with 
 only the mineral substances found in plants did uot increase the yield beyond the former. 
 But with the addition of ammonia to some of the mineral manure, the produce increased 
 to the extent of from 4^ to 9 bushels of wheat, and from 2 to 5 cwt. of straw per acre, 
 and the effect was still more striking when the ammonia was added in the second year 
 on those parts of the land on which the minerals had been applied the first year without 
 any good result. The large increase proved that the mineral manures never acted at all 
 the first year, nor imtil brought into action by the ammonia. In order that no evasion 
 should be alleged, Liebig's own patent manure was treated in the same manner, and 
 when applied alone the produce was very insignificant, but when salts of ammonia were 
 added an increase of 14 bushels of wheat and 10 cwt. of straw was the result. These 
 experiments were extended over fifty parcels of land for several years in succession, 
 every crop being tested by weighing the produce. From the result of these experiments 
 Mr. Lawes deduced the collateral principle, that every bushel of wheat, containing in 
 itself one pound of nitrogen, requires five pounds of ammonia for its production, instead 
 of one pound and a quarter, which is its equivalent. Tmmips, Mr. Lawes found, want 
 no ammonia for the production of the bixlb, but it will largely increase the weight of 
 leaves. The principal mineral required for a turnip crop is phosphate of lime, M'hich 
 he recommends to be applied in a finely divided state, in addition to straw-yard manure 
 or rape cake. 
 
 According to J\lr. Acland, the weight of produce of one acre on a four-course culture, 
 for the whole course, is, in round numbers, about forty tons, of which about four-fifths 
 is water, leaving 17,000 lbs., or about eight tons, of organic matter, and about 1,300 lbs. 
 of inorganic matter, or ashes, which would be left if all the crops were burnt. The 
 organic or combustible parts are carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and hydi'ogen. Of these 
 the most important — carbon and nitrogen — are contained in the proportions of 9,000 lbs. 
 of carbon, and about 336 lbs. of nitrogen. The carbon is about equally divided amongst 
 the four crops; the nitrogen in the proportion of 112 lbs. to the cereal, and 224 lbs. to 
 
 increase in exact proportion to the diminution or increase of the mineral substances conveyed to it in the manured* The 
 learned baron justly complains that Mr. Lawes has, in his work, detached the last sentence of this paragraph, and thus 
 made it appear that Liebig ignores ammonia as au essential ingredient in promoting the growth of wheat. The meaning 
 of the whole paragraph is, " that ammoniacal salts alone have no effect ; that in order to be efflcaeiotts they must be 
 accompanied with the mineral constituents ; and that the ejfect is then proportional to the sufypli/ — not of ammonia, but 
 of the mineral substances." — (See " Principles of Agricultural Chemistry," pp. 54, 55.) 
 * " Acland's Lectures." 
 
252 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the root and grass crops. In the four years the crops also consumed 100 lbs. of 
 phosphoric acid, or 2 cwt. of phosphate of lime, 3 cwt. of potash, 2 cwt. of lime, and 
 between 2 and 3 cwt. of silica. 
 
 The foregoing brief sketch, which is as much as the scope of this work will allow on 
 the subject, does not profess to give a system of agricultural chemistry, but rather by 
 adverting to some of the leading principles of the science, to dii'ect the attention of the 
 reader to its importance, and induce him to make himself acquainted with it more fully 
 by an individual application, and thus to qualify himself to reap advantages from it. It 
 is true not every farmer can, or will, become a chemist ; but it is no mean step to be 
 made fully aware, and to be convinced of, the connection between agriculture and 
 chemical science, and of the large benefit it has conferred, and is destined still more to 
 confer, upon those who adopt the principle. The main object of science is, by artificial 
 means, to restore, assist, and increase to the maximum, tlie productive powers of the 
 soil ; for which pui'pose a knowledge of the principles of animal and vegetable life, so 
 far as they are discoverable, is a necessary preliminary ; and this can only be attained 
 by chemical analysis. While this science was unknown, and the history of vegetation 
 was limited to the outward or botanical characteristics of plants, the materials for the 
 pursuit of these objects were exceedingly few. An unreasoning routine in the cultivation 
 of the soil, based upon tradition and experience, without any knowledge of its physio- 
 logical character, or that of the crop intended to be raised upon it, rendered the 
 practice of husbandry a game of chance rather than of intelligent sequence ; and when 
 by the discoveries and experiments of chemical professors new sources of production and 
 compensation to the soil were laid open, it was difficult for the agricultural mind, 
 uninstructed as it was, to grasp the novel theories, or to comprehend the possibility of 
 assisting nature by the application of scientific principles in the economy of the farm. 
 
 Nor is this j)i"ejudicc yet removed or its eft'ccts neutralised to the extent we might 
 expect to find them in this country, where the sources of correct information are so free, 
 and so ample. " Agriculture," says Liebig, " is still oppressed by an influence which, 
 without attracting notice, closes the door against all that science teaches. This Inu'tful 
 influence is displayed by the prescribed rotation of crops. The farmer cannot always 
 cultivate what he ought to cultivate, but is often compelled to occupy a great part of 
 his land with crops the object of which is, by enabling him to keep a number of cattle, 
 frequently both unprofitable and troublesome to him, to produce maiiure for his corn 
 crops ; that is, for the growth of his saleable produce. A large amount of capital in 
 the forms of soil, labour, and money is wasted by these living manufacturers of manure. 
 In our time, one problem worthy the attention of the scientific agricnltm-ist is this, 
 to substitute for the rotation of crops a rotation of proper manures by which he shall 
 be enabled to grow on each of his fields those crops the sale of which, according to his 
 locality and his special object, is the most profitable to him." 
 
 At the same time, it must not be forgotten that science itself is yet in its infancy ; 
 that there arc numerous secrets which nature still refuses to give up, and which, with 
 all the chemical and mechanical aids available, the most indefatigable application has not 
 been able to wrest from her. The deeper the student of nature dives into these 
 mysteries the more clear does it become that there are depths yet more profound to 
 be fathomed, wonders of creation more astounding to be brought to light, and principles 
 more occult to be developed. It is the man of most exalted talent, of most extensive 
 
AGEICULTURAL MECHANICS. 353 
 
 knowledge, of deepest research, who feels the most humbled at the thought that the 
 human mind cannot grasp all the truths, all the principles, on which the great Creator 
 of natuj-e conducts his operations. In science it may truly be said — 
 
 " A little learning is a daugcrijus thing ; 
 Driuk deep, or taste not the Pieriaa spring. 
 Here little draughts intoxicate the brain, 
 But driuking largely sobers us again." * 
 
 Yes, the man who knows most is the readiest to confess that he knows little. Sir 
 Isaac Newton, with all his great mind and extensive research, could find no apter simi- 
 litude with which to compare liimself, than that of a child gathering pebbles by the 
 sea-shore. Such, therefore, may well be the conviction of men of humbler talents and 
 less ample means of knowledge ; and yet such thoughts, far from discouraging, ought 
 rather to stimulate inquiry. The developments of science are inductive as well as direct ; 
 and he who masters one fact or principle, gains thereby a fulcrum on which to plant his 
 lever of research for obtaining further victories. So connected too are the physical 
 sciences, so dovetailed are they one with another (if we may so express it), that the 
 study of one leads almost of necessity to, at least, a general acquaintance with others, 
 by the collateral truths which present themselves. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS. 
 
 The principles of mechanics are few in number and simple in character. They comprise 
 the lever, the ivheel and axle, the pulley, the inclined plane, the wedye, and the screw. 
 On one, or on combinations, of these principles are constructed the most complicated as 
 well as the most simple machines and implements that ever have been, or ever will be, 
 invented. They are called " the mechanical powers," because they increase and multiply 
 the momenta of the motive power by which they are acted upon, whether it be animal, 
 water, wind or air, or steam, which are the only powei's at present employed in 
 machinery. In the present day, when the use of machinery is increasing in every 
 department of the arts, and machines and implements are midtiplying and becoming 
 more complicated in their construction, a knowledge of the principles of mechanics is 
 more than ever a necessity with a farmer, especially if he desires to conduct his 
 business in the most economic, as well as the most efficient manner. 
 
 It is a common observation that the practice of science is always in advance of its 
 theoiy or a knowledge of its principles. This arises from the necessity in which man 
 is placed to procure for himself the means of living ; and this he endeavours to do at 
 the smallest possible expense of time and labour. The first wants of man are connected 
 with the fruits of the earth, and the first rudimentary step in the transition from the 
 
 * Pope. 
 
254 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 savage to the civilized state is the deposit of a seed in the ground for the purpose of 
 providing against a future want. For this purpose the soil must be prepared ; to do 
 which an instrument of some kind is necessary. Nature suggests, in the first instance, 
 a pointed stick hardened in the fire, with which to loosen the sod. To this succeeded 
 the spade J and both these simple and primitive implements represent & mechanical power 
 — the lever — having the sm'face of the ground for the fulcrum. It was the same with 
 all the most primitive tools employed in cultivation ; and yet the husbandman worked 
 on for ages, without ever suspecting that his laborious employment was conducted on 
 strictly scientific principles. In Ireland and Belgium, where the spade husbandry is 
 still practised to a much greater extent than in England, the implement is made with a 
 mvich longer and narrower graft, and a handle of the length of five feet and upwards. 
 By this means, having a greater purchase or leverage, they can till the soil to the depth 
 of fourteen inches with as much ease as it can be tilled with a common English spade to 
 that of eight or ten inches.* 
 
 The first definition, or scientific explanation, of the principle of the lever is ascribed 
 to Archimedes. It is " an inflexible straight bar," whether of wood or metal, supported 
 at a single point on a fulcrum or prop, and used for raising weights. There are three 
 kinds of levers, having each different forms of service. In one the fulcrum, or centre of 
 motion, is placed between the weight and the power ; this is called " the lever of the 
 first kind," and is used to raise stone or other heavy bodies by pressing down one end 
 of the bar with the hand, so as to raise the stone with the other end. 1\\e power is the 
 force of the hand ; the fulcrum is the obstacle on which the power rests ; and the iveight 
 is the weight of the stone, &c. A double lever of this kind is represented by scissors, 
 shears, &c., in which the rivet is the fulcrum, the hand the power, and the cloth, &c., 
 the tveight. Another is called " the lever of the second kind," in which the weight 
 is placed between the fulcrum and the power. In this case a heavy stone, &c., is 
 raised by lifting one end of the bar with the hand, while the other end rests on the 
 ground under the stone which is raised by the intermediate part of the bar. Here 
 the fulcrum is the ground, the poiuer is the force exerted by the hand, and the weight 
 is the weight of the stone, &c. A double lever of this kind is represented by a pair 
 of uut-crackcrs, in Avhich the poiver is the force of the hand applied to the handles, 
 the tveight is the force with which the nut resists crushing, the fulcrum is the pin 
 or pivot which connects the two arms or pieces. The " lever of the third kind " is 
 that in which the power acts between the weight and the fiUcrum. This is repre- 
 sented by the anatomy of the forearm of a man, when he raises a load with it, turning 
 at the elbow. In this case the elbow is the fulcrum; the poiver is the force of the 
 muscles, which, coming fi'om the upper arm, is inserted into the forearm near the 
 elbow ; the tveight is the load raised. The double lever of this kiud is the tongs used 
 for holding coals. The fulcrum is the piir on which the two parts of the instrument 
 turn ; the power is the force of the fingers ; the weight is the pressure exerted by the 
 coal upon tlie ends of the tongs. 
 
 The wheel and axle consist mostly of a cylinder, to which a wheel is firmly united, 
 
 ' Awkward as this long tool appears, the writer has noticed with admiration the ease with which llie Irisli ]ieasaut 
 handles it, and with what speed he will turn over a large breadth of gronud to the above depth in a short space of time, 
 levelling the soil m he proceeds with the back of the spade, and leaving it a deep aud liiicly comminuted seed-bed, fur 
 which the extraordinary length and weight of the tool is well adapted. 
 
AGRICULTURAL MEOUANICS, 255 
 
 so that the mathematical axis of both are coincident. The wheel and cylinder are of 
 wood or metal, and the diameter of the former is greater than that of the latter. A 
 cylinder on the circumference, exteriorly, of which are placed boards whose planes, if 
 completed, would pass through the axis, and which (being turned by the force of running- 
 water, or by the weight of a man in the act of stepping from one board to another above 
 it) is employed to raise a heavy body by means of a rope passing over a small cylinder 
 on the same axis, is a simple machine of this kind. The same may be said of a hollow 
 cylinder which, with its axle, is made to revolve by men or animals walking in the track 
 of its circumference ou its interior sui'face. The capstan, the windlass, the helm, &c., 
 of a ship, are only so mauy different forms of the same class of machines. Frequently 
 also the axle is made to carry a wheel with teeth in its circumference,* in order that by 
 its revolving, motion may he communicated to machinery. Such are the wind and 
 water mills employed to grind corn. The mechanical power of the wheel and axle is 
 considered the same as that of the lever of the first kind ; for the thickness of the ropes 
 and the inertia of the materials being disregarded, the forces acting perpendicularly to the 
 arm, the effort is the same as if these forces were applied immediately to the extremities 
 of the straight line. Tlie wheel and axle has manifestly, however, a great advantage 
 over the simple lever, since the weight may be raised to any height that is consistent 
 with the length of the ropes. 
 
 In toothed wheels the edges of the teeth which act upon one another require to be 
 perfectly smooth, in order to prevent friction. Any defect in this respect causes a 
 resistance to motion, and consequently reduces the force. The intervals of the teeth of 
 the two wheels must be perfectly equal, in order to work into each other ; and if one 
 wheel is smaller than the other, the distance must be regulated by the circumference of 
 the wheel, so as exactly to correspond and fit into each other, without a hitch or friction. 
 Wheels are turned either by contact with each other, or by cords, straps, or chains 
 passing over them. In these cases, the unevenness of surface interferes with theii- 
 perfect action. 
 
 "■ One of the most beautiful illustrations of the action of the wheel and axle is to be 
 found in the main-spring box of the fusee of a watch, round which the chain is coiled. 
 Here the spring-box is the wheel, and the fusee, the axle or pinion to which the chain 
 communicates the motion of the box. The power resides in the spring wound round an 
 axis in the centre of the box, and the weight is applied to the lower circumference of the 
 fasee. As the force of the spring is greatest when it is newly wound up, and gradually 
 decreases as it unwinds itself, it is necessary that the fusee should have different radii, so 
 that the chain may act upon the narrowest part of the fusee, where its force is greatest, 
 and upon the widest part of the fiisee, where its force is least, by which arrangement an 
 uniform effect is produced." 
 
 The pulley is composed of a wheel with a groove in its circumference to receive a rope, 
 by which it is acted upon. It moves an axis whose extremities rest upon a frame called 
 a block. If the pulley is a single one it is hung by a hook to some fixed body ; aud the 
 rope being passed through, or over the groove, one end is attached to the weight to be 
 raised, whilst to the olher end the power is applied for that pui'pose. A single pulley 
 adds nothing to the power by which it is acted upon, and only changes its direction. 
 
 A system of pulleys is called a muffle, and it is either fixed or movable, according to 
 * Whewtll makes this a seventh ^ower, in his " Elements of MechaEics." (See p. 97.) 
 
256 AGEIOULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the nature of the block which contains the pulleys. The " first system of pulleys " is a 
 repetition of the single movable pulley^ each one hanging by a separate string. T'- 
 weight is attached to the last^ or lower, pulley of the series, and the power is applied to 
 the end of the rope that passes over the first or upper pulley. There may be two or 
 more pulleys, but each, from the lowest, is supported by the one next in succession. 
 
 The "second system of pulleys" is that in which the same string passes round all 
 the pulleys. It consists of two blocks, or sheaves, an upper and a lower, in each of which 
 are several pulleys, the string or rope passing over the upper and under the lower 
 ones alternately, the weight being attached to the lower block, and the power applied to 
 the rope passing over the last upper pulley. 
 
 The "third system of pidleys" is that in which the strings or ropes are all attached 
 to the weight. In this case all the strings or ropes must be parallel, in order to pro- 
 duce regularity and eflSciency in the working. 
 
 The inclined plane is used in engineering, in which case it is sometimes a strong 
 framework of wood, and at others, masses of earth and masonry. In all cases it is a 
 plane surface supported at any angle with the horizon. It has usually a single or double 
 set of rails or slides, and is, or was formerly, much used for removing boats on canals or 
 rivers, from a high to a lower level, where the scanty flow of water would not admit of 
 the waste of the element incident to a lock. It is still in use in many parts of the 
 United States, in order to get boats over the rapids. In other places it has been foimd 
 more convenient to cut canals with locks, parallel with the river, and thus avoid the 
 rapids altogether, as on the St. Lawrence, in Canada. The inclined plane, however, is 
 still in use in this country on the Duke of Bridgcwater's canal. One of them is 453 feet 
 long, and has a decline of one foot in four, the entire height the boats have to be raised 
 being 106 feet. The boats are conveyed from one portion of the canal to another 
 by means of a mndlass. The loaded boat, in descending the plane, tiirns the axis of the 
 windlass and raises an empty boat. The inclines on railways are on the same principle, 
 but they require the descent to be very gradual ; and even where this is attended to, 
 considerable danger exists, if the engineer is not careful to slacken speed in approaching 
 the incline. It is generally supposed that the ancient Egyptians and other Eastern 
 nations raised those enormous masses of stone to the tops of their lofty temples and other 
 strnctm'es by means of inclined planes. No other combination of the mechanical 
 powers that the moderns are acquainted with could possibly have effected it. 
 
 The wedge is a prism of wood or metal, the base of which is a triangle. It is formed 
 of two inclined planes fastened together at their bases, and is employed to cleave wood 
 or to quarry stone. It is frequently used in machinery, in cases where a great force is 
 to be exerted through a short space. Buildings that have lost their perpendicular posi- 
 tion, have had it restored by the wedge ; ships are raised by it in dock ; and in America 
 houses are raised by it, and a new story built below. In Holland and Belgium it is used 
 in the colza windmills for pressing the rape seed after it has been crushed. The seed 
 is placed in bags of hair, between two flat pieces of hard wood. Between each two 
 pieces of wood a wedge is introduced, and is driven home by a stamper, lifted by 
 the wind-shaft in its revolutions. The planes arc thus compressed^ and the bags squeezed 
 so hard that the seeds are turned out a hard and solid mass, almost wholly divested of 
 oil. The late ^Iv. Brunei employed the wedge in cutting veneers, and the plan was an 
 excellent one ; but the cabinet-makers foolishly objected to it, because the grahi in some 
 
AGEICULTURAL MECHANICS. 257 
 
 instances was separated, and Mr. Brunei was obliged to abandon the plan. All edge 
 tools, as hatchets, adzes, chisels, knives, awls, &c., are different forms of the wedge. The 
 angle for cutting wood should be 30° ; iron, from 50° to 60° ; and brass, 80° to 90°. The 
 bases, therefore, resolve themselves into either an isosceles, an acute angle, or a triangle. 
 If the power directly applied to the head of the wedge be to the resistance to be over- 
 come by the wedge, as the thickness of the wedge is to its head, then the power will be 
 equivalent to its resistance, and if increased, will overcome it. The wedge is a great 
 mechanical power, and is employed to split rocks, which it effects much easier than any 
 other of the mechanical powers. The force exerted to drive it home, shakes the 
 cohering parts so that they easily split. 
 
 The screw is an inclined plane wrapped round a cylinder, or the cylinder itself 
 is furrowed or grooved in a spiral form, and its action, therefore, is that of an inclined 
 plane. The force employed to tui-n the screw round its axis is considered to be applied 
 horizontally to the base. If the screw and the weight which is to be raised is acting 
 vertically on its inclined surface, the circumference of the cylinder will represent 
 the horizontal length of the screw. But the distance between the threads measured in 
 the direction of the axis, will be its height, provided that the threads be single ; conse- 
 quently the forces required for the equilibrium are to each other as the height of one to 
 the circumference of the screw. But besides these forces, it is necessary that some 
 obstacle should be present which may prevent the body on which the screw acts from 
 following it in its motion round its axis, otherwise there can be no equilibrium. If the 
 furrowed surface be convex, the screw is called a male ; if concave, it is female.* The 
 screw is a complex' machine, because it cannot be employed without a lever or winch to 
 turn it. 
 
 Such are the mechanical powers, an acquaintance with which, and with the general 
 priaciples of mechanics, is now almost a necessity to the agriculturist. The employment 
 of machinery in husbandry has changed its character, and brought it within the range 
 of skilled art, which it seems destined eventually to become, and to be practised upon 
 purely scientific principles. 
 
 A knowledge of the use and application of machinery is by no means difficult to 
 acquire. A machine is but a tool, complicated it may be in its construction, but requii-ing 
 much less practical skill than many of the ancient implements. The plough itself, 
 which is next to the spade in antiquity and simplicity, is exceedingly diflicult to manage 
 by the uninitiated. The accuracy with which a good ploughman will draw a furrow 
 straight to a point, indicated by a piece of stick at a distance possibly of two or three 
 hundred yards, requires much more practical skill and tact than the steam plough, which, 
 when once fixed, works with mathematical exactness without much taxing the ingenuity 
 of the operator, and with less than half the personal labour. The scythe, again, requu-es 
 a long apprenticeship to handle it with skill and effect; and we have known men 
 advanced in years who never could master its use, so far as to leave a clean level swath. 
 But a mowing machine only requires to be set in motion and kept in a certain dii-ectiou, 
 to perform its work with the greatest precision and perfectnessj and so on of other 
 machines, which, while they relieve the husbandman from the more onerous operations 
 of labour, substitute a more refined and more certain principle of action than that of 
 mere hand labour. The man who can di-aw a good and straight furrow, or cut a clean 
 
 * Whewell. 
 
258 AGKICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 swath^ is a man of one idea ouly ; but he who learns the use of a steam engine, or of a 
 complicated machine, gains a series of ideas which mil prepare his mind for the acquisi- 
 tion of other knowledge. 
 
 Apart, however, from an acquaintance with the mere working of a machine, which 
 belongs, in a great measure, to the labour-department of the farm, it is necessary for the 
 farmer himself to be acquainted with the principles of mechanics, in order to derive the 
 full benefit from their use. He must know something of the doctrine of forces, or the 
 influence which one body exercises over another, to produce or prevent motion. Thus, 
 a man who tm-ns a grindstone by means of a winch or a treadle, is said to exercise force 
 on the winch, &c., by which the stone is turaed. The force exerted to set powerful 
 machines in motion is of various kinds, so far as the agents employed to produce it, such 
 as an animal, water, wind, steam, au", &c., which are the only powers at present used in 
 mechanics. Again ; body or matter is the substance that presents resistance to force, 
 excluding other bodies from the space it occupies. The force employed to move a body 
 must be greater than the power of resistance. " Thus, the lever, the wheel and axle, 
 and the pulley, whose properties depend on the theory of parallel forces ; when, conse- 
 quently, of the resistance, the moving power, and the reaction of the machine, some one 
 is equal to the sum of the two others, any convenient portion of the resistance may be 
 made to rest on the point of support or the point of suspension. And in the inclined 
 plane, the wedge, and the screw, the properties depend on the theory of forces concurring 
 in a point ; the motive power, the resistance, and the reaction of the maclune, are repre- 
 sented by the three sides of a triangle ; and the ratio of the first to either of the other 
 two, may be varied at pleasiire in the construction of a machine." * 
 
 Force implies matter, both in what acts and in what is acted upon ; yet force does 
 not necessarily reside in matter, although exercised du'ectly on matter, and through the 
 agency of matter. A heavy body falls to the ground, or exercises pressure by the force 
 of gravitation ; " but the force is not inherent, and is a mere attraction, similar in 
 principle of action to that of the magnet on ii-on." f This is termed an immaterial 
 influence, producing pressm-e or motion as effectual as by material pressure. 
 
 All bodies are capable of motion : a stone falls to the ground, a boat slides down 
 an inclined plane, a bullet is propelled from a rifle, &c. The point in any body to 
 which the moving power is applied, is called the impelled ; and that against which the 
 resistance acts, is called the working point. Force may produce either rest or motion 
 in bodies. A single force acting upon a body necessarily produces motion ; but two or 
 more forces may be so combined as to counteract each other, and produce rest. Thus, 
 one person pulling at a rope which is fi'ee, moves it ; but two persons pulling with equal 
 strength at the two ends of the rope, will not produce motion ; they will exactly balance 
 each other's effort, and produce rest. In all such cases, forces are said to balance each 
 other, or to be in equilibrium ; they counteract or destroy each other. 
 
 A machine has a certain amount of its force expended on friction, and the inertia of 
 the materials on Avhich it acts ; the remainder of the force is the only efficient portion 
 producing useful results. In drawing a body up an inclined plane, the force necessarily 
 
 * Whewell. 
 
 t IbiJ. The Professor has uot explained, that while the falling of a body to IJie earth is the attraction of a small 
 body by a larger one, on the principle oi r/raviiation, the attraction of iron to the loadstone is exercised in anij dhectioti, 
 upwards, or downwards, or horizontally, and by a small body ou a larger one ; and the force w inherent in the magnet, 
 but the urincijile on which it acts we are totally ignorant of. 
 
HYDRODYNAMICS. 259 
 
 expended in overcoming the resistance of the inertia and the friction is so much deducted 
 from the efficient force of the machine. If a reciprocating motion exists in the same 
 machine, the loss of power by inertia is doubled, because a momentary rest takes place 
 between every two contrary directions of the movement, and immediately after a new 
 inertia is to be overcome. The more complicated it is in its construction, the more are 
 its forces retarded in their action. The more simple, therefore, a machine is in its con- 
 struction, consistent with the relation between the moving power and the opposing 
 resistance, the better. 
 
 These principles of motion and rest have led to the division of mechanics into statics 
 and dynamics. When two forces exactly counterbalance each other, they produce an 
 equilibrium. These are forces " in equilibrium," or statics. Dynamics relate to forces in 
 motion. 
 
 Applied Cinematics treat of the theory of machines simply as modifying motion. 
 For the information of the reader who is desirous of making himself acquainted with the 
 subject of applied mechanics, we refer him to Whewell's "Elements of Mechanics;" 
 "Rankine's Mechanics ;" and to an elaborate paper on mechanics in the last edition 
 (1857) of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 HYDRODYNAMICS. 
 
 The derivation of this word, which is from two Greek words signifying " water " and 
 " power," explains its meaning ; it is the doctrine or science of water-power, whether it 
 acts by pressm-e, by weight, or by impulse. It is divided into two parts. Hydrostatics 
 and Hydraulics. The first comprehends the pressui'e, equilibrium, and cohesion of 
 fluids ; the second, their motion, together with the machines in which they are chiefly 
 concerned. In other words, hydrostatics explain the equilibrium of fluids, or the gravita- 
 tion of fluids at rest ; upon removing that equilibrium, motion ensues, and here hydraulics 
 commence. We may illustrate these by the following cases. 
 
 Suppose a lake having no outlet, the water is stagnant or at rest, and is consequently 
 in a state of equilibrium, because the resistance to its exit, namely the toliJ earth by 
 which it is surrounded, is greater than the pressure of the water, and of the atmosphere 
 upon it, which would otherwise cause it to break its bounds and escape. The case of 
 this lake comes under the class of hydrostatics. On the other hand, suppose a drain or 
 canal to be cut in the bank of the lake, so as to admit the water to a lower level ; motion 
 then ensues, and with it water-power to a greater or lesser extent, according to the 
 quantity of fluid, and the height and abruptness of its fall. This represents hydraulics, 
 and the machines employed in the application of this power, are called hydraulic 
 machines. 
 
 The use-and application of this science in agriculture are indisputably requisite, 
 when we come to reflect that an overwhelming portion of the land of England is still 
 
260 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 undrained, and that the rivers are for tlie most part in a worse state than that in which 
 nature left them, the water being dammed up by mills, locks, sluices, and other obstmc- 
 tions, by which hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable land are water-logged, and 
 rendered only half-productive of an inferior description of produce. The ignorance of 
 the farmers on the subject of drainage is well described by Talpa,* in the " Chronicles 
 of a Clay Farm ; " and although the last twenty or thirty years have thi'own great light 
 on the subject, and proved the benefits to be derived from thorough draining, many, of 
 Ijoth landlords and tenant farmers, hesitate to incur the expense. 
 
 The principle on which hydi-odynamics is based, is the tendency of water and other 
 fluids to find theii' own level ; and tliis is effected by the joint action of the weight of the 
 water itself and that of the atmosphere. We have an illustration of this in the syphon, 
 which is a tube of glass, metal, gutta percha, &c., so bent that one arm shall be longer 
 than the other. The short arm must be inserted into a vessel filled with any liquid, 
 whilst the long arm, resting on the edge, reaches to another empty vessel below it. The 
 syphon being previously filled with the liquid, upon the tap being turned, a continuous 
 stream flows from it, mitil the upper cask or vessel is exhausted of its contents, or the 
 tap is again tui-ned to prevent the flow. In this case the column of water in the longest 
 arm of the syphon being greater than in the shortest (whether more or less so, is no 
 matter), the additional weight draws, on the one hand, and the weight of air in the 
 upper vessel presses on the sui'face of the water, on the other, and thus cause the motion. 
 
 We have another illustration of the effect of aii- on fluids, in promoting the flow, in 
 the tapping of a cask of beer or wine. If the cask is quite full, the liquid will not flow 
 tkrough the tap until the air is admitted at the top through a wind-peg hole, after which 
 it flows freely. Take a bottle, again, and fill it with water ; place your hand over the 
 mouth and reverse it ; then take your hand away, and a struggle instantly commences 
 between the suri'ounding column of air to take, and the liquid to retain, possession of 
 the bottle. The bubbling that results is the consequence of the mastery of the air over 
 its opponent, which is soon ejected. If a small hole were broken in the bottom of 
 the bottle, no contest would take place, because the air, forcing itself in upon the 
 surface, woxdd add its weight to that of the water to force it out. 
 
 There are many farms on which a knowledge of the science of hydraulics might be 
 turned to good account by the occupier. Small streams of water rushing from a high to 
 a low level, are common in most parts of the country, and might be applied to the 
 modern machinery of the farm with excellent efl^ect, and at a comparatively small 
 expense. The most important questions for consideration would be, how to obtain 
 a sufiicient fall, and on what principle to apply the power when you have got it. With 
 regard to the last. Sir Robert Kane reduces the water engines to four classes. First, the 
 overshot water-wheel on which the water acts by weight. Secondly, the undershot M'heel 
 on which it acts by impulse. Thirdly, the water-pressure machine, the action of which 
 is indicated by its name ; and fourthly, the turbine and " Barker's Mill," which act, 
 the first by a reaction impulse, and the second by reactive pressure. f 
 
 It would appear that when the stream of water is small, and a sufficient fall can be 
 obtained, either the overshot wheel or the tvu-bine would be the best modes of applying 
 it. In the construction of the overshot wheel, it requires a thorough knowledge of 
 mechanics to determine the form of the buckets, the quantity of water to let into each, 
 
 * Wren Hoskins, Esq. t " Iiiduitrial Resources of Ireland." 
 
HYDEODYNAMICS. 261 
 
 the point of the circumference at which the water is to be let on, and the exact centring 
 of it, so that its motion may be absolutely uniform. Any fault in tliese points may be 
 the cause of a partial or entire failure. The fall required is estimated by Sir Robert 
 Kane at from fifteen to fifty feet. In conducting the water to the wheel, it must be so 
 regulated as to act by its weight alone, as impulse would destroy a portion of its power. 
 It should also leave the wheel without velocity, dropping from it at the point where it 
 approaches the race. 
 
 Where the fall of water is only a few feet, the undershot wheel is sometimes used ; 
 but there is a great loss of power in its application, not more than one-third of its 
 theoretic power being available. The breast-wheel is far superior to it, and is estimated 
 to have 83 per cent, of the theoretic, or 55 per cent, of the calculated, force of the water 
 available. The effect is greatly increased by giving the float-boards a curved form, by 
 which they act more as buckets. Many large breast-wheels have been erected on this 
 principle in France, the power obtained being from 60 to 70 per cent., or an average of 
 two-thirds of the total power of the water. The following summary of the power of the 
 foregoing machines is given by Sir R. Kane, with the height of fall required : — 
 
 Wheels. Economy of Power. Limits of Head. 
 
 Overshot 75 per cent. . . . 15 to 50 feet. 
 
 Breast 55 „ ... 6 to 15 „ 
 
 Do., curved boards . . 33 „ ... 2 to 6 „ 
 
 Undershot 66 „ ... G to 15 „ 
 
 The water-pressure engine is made nearly on the same principle as a steam-engine, 
 only the valves and passages are larger. Some of these are double-acting engines, and 
 are then similar in construction to the high-pressure steam-engine, only using cold 
 water instead of steam. The fall for this engine, which acts by pressure only, must 
 be great, but a small quantity of water is sufiicient to work it. The effective perform- 
 ance is from 60 to 72 per cent, of the theoretic force. At the salt-mines at Salzburg, 
 in Bavaria, the brine is conveyed by a series of these engines for a distance of seven 
 miles over mountains 1,200 feet high, in order to carry on the evaporation in a district 
 where fuel for the purpose is cheap. These machines or engines have been in iise in 
 England for some years. Sir R. Kane mentions one erected in Cornwall by Mr. Darl- 
 ington, which has two cylinders of 50 inches diameter and 10 feet stroke, and is worked 
 by a column of water 30 inches diameter and 44 yards high. Its power is estimated to 
 be equal to 166 horse-power, of which it gives 70 per cent., or 116 horse-power, of 
 practical efiiciency. It is seldom, however, that this engine can be applied, except in 
 mountainous districts, where a great fall of a small stream can be obtained. 
 
 The turbine is an engine of modern invention, originated by a Frenchman of the 
 name of Fourneyron. " It is a horizontal wheel furnished with curved float-boards, on 
 which the water presses from a cylinder suspended over the wheel, and the base of which 
 is divided by curved partitions, that the water may be directed in issuing, so as to 
 produce upon the curved float-boards of the wheel its greatest effect. The construction 
 of the machine is simple, its parts are not liable to get out of order ; and as the action 
 of the water is by pressure, the force is under the most favourable circumstances for 
 being utilised."* 
 
 The principal advantages of the turbine are, first, its simplicity of construction just 
 
 * Kane's "Industrial Resources of Ireland." 
 
262 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 referred to ; secondly, a ^eat economy of power united witt rapidity of motion ; thirdly, 
 whetlier the flow of water is equal to five or to twenty horse-power, in changing from 
 one to the other by a sudden transition, no disarrangement of the machinery takes 
 place, but the whole of the water is economised, and the working of the machinery 
 adapts itself to the increase or the diminution of the weight or volume of water. 
 Fourthly, the operation of the wheel is not affected by back-water. 
 
 Sir R. Kane mentions a turbine erected at Saint Blasieu, in France, for driving the 
 machinery of a cotton mill containing 8,000 spindles, with all necessary apparatus. 
 The water is brought two miles by a metal pipe only eighteen inches in diameter ; but the 
 height of the fall is 333 feet, and the flow of water one cubic foot per second. The 
 wheel of the turbine is only one foot in diameter, and it makes 2,250 revolutions per 
 miaute. Its theoretical force is 38 horse-power, of which nearly three-fourths, or 
 28 horse-power, is available in practice. The turbines at St. Maui", near Paris, employed 
 in grinding corn, have each a wheel 6 feet in diameter, and paddles 10 inches high ; the 
 head of water averages 11 feet 9 inches, and the discharge is 34 cubic feet per second. 
 Each turbine drives ten pairs of mill-stoues, with all other requisite machinery, and 
 grinds fifteen tons of corn per day (70qrs.). The theoretical power of each turbine is 
 equal to 45 1 horse-power, and the practical efficiency 33. 
 
 It is now, however, admitted that although water-power, where it can be obtained, is 
 the cheapest that can be applied, yet it has the great disadvantage of being subject to 
 such fluctuations in the flow of water, that whilst at one time there is such a redundance 
 as causes half its volume to run by in waste, at another the works are liable to be stopped 
 for want of a supply. Sir R. Kane recommends the construction of reservoirs, of a 
 capacity to hold the winter floods, similar to what have been formed at Greenock ; 
 where, fi-om being destitute of water at times for domestic purposes, they have now, in 
 consequence of the engineering skill of Mr. Thom, water enough to supply the town 
 with all that is necessary for the use of the population, and also for working machinery 
 attached to 30 steam engines of 50 horse-power each. The water is brought from a 
 reservoir containing 284,678,550 cubic feet of water, the embankment being 60 feet 
 high fi'om the bottom of the rivulet. Six auxiliary reservoirs are also constructed, 
 which raise the quantity of water to 310,000,000 cubic feet. Thus, through the 
 scientific skill of one man, a whole town has been rendered cleanly, and, consequently, 
 healthy, and employment provided for 7,000 people, earning wages to the amount of 
 £300,000 per annum.* 
 
 Although it might not answer for a farmer to go to the expense of forming a 
 reservoir for the catchment of the water in waste, wherever a steam-engine is employed 
 on a farm, if a stream of water can be made available also, the two powers might be 
 made auxiliary to each other without much outlay, whilst water is proved to be by far 
 the cheapest. It is stated that whilst steam at Greenock cost the manufacturers j636 
 per horse-power, per annum, the water costs only £5 6s. 5d. per horse-power ; where, 
 therefore, a supply of water can be obtained, sufficient to work a mill for grinding cattle- 
 food, or a threshing machine, or any other of the modern fixed machinery of the farm, 
 it could be applied with beneficial eflect at a comparatively small expense. 
 
 The union of steam with water, in working flour mills, has become very general of 
 late years, in consequence of the decrease of the waters of many of om- rivers, occasioned 
 
 * Kaae'a "Industrial Resources of Ireland." 
 
AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS. 263 
 
 by drainage of land^ and a more perfect system of cultivation, by which quicker evapora- 
 tion is promoted. In these cases the steam is the auxiliary ; but in that of the working 
 of agricultural machinery, the employment of water woiild chiefly be confined to the 
 winter months, which is the period when the machinery is most in requisition. It is 
 probable that mills for grinding beans, oats, and other grain for cattle, will soon be 
 attached to most of the farms of any extent, in the kingdom. Steam will, undoubtedly, 
 be the principal power applied ; but wherever a stream of water can be obtained, it 
 would be found, as an auxiliary power, to be both economical in point of expense, and 
 efficient in execution. 
 
 But it is in the irrigation and drainage of the land, that the knowledge of hydraulics 
 will prove most generally useful to the farmer ; for without it, a regular and efficient 
 system in either operation is scarcely possible. It is remarkable, and not much to the 
 credit of the agricultural interest of England, that whilst the advantages of thorough 
 draining and irrigation were fully understood so early as the sixteenth centvuy, and 
 recommended by several of the old writers of that period, so much land shoidd still 
 remain undrained. Walter Blyth, in his admirable work, after speaking of the injury 
 done to the land by many water mills, which prevent the drainage of the fields on the 
 one hand, by the proprietors claiming a title to all the water, and flood the meadows, on 
 the other, at improper times, and keep them in a boggy state, recommends the destruc- 
 tion of the worst of the mills, and the compelling of the others to lower the gauge of 
 water, in order to facilitate, " first, the flooding or watering all sorts of lands which lie 
 imder that capacity ; and, second, by draining or reducing of boggy, fenny, sea, or 
 drowned lands to firmness and fruitfulness." Worledge, too, in a poetical explanation 
 of the fi'ontispiece to his work on agricultm-e, refers to irrigation in the following quaint 
 lines : — 
 
 " In yonder vale. Lard by the river stands 
 A water-engine, which the wind commands, 
 To fertilize the meads ; on th' other side 
 A Persian wheel is placed, both large and wide. 
 To th' same intent ; there do the fields appear 
 Cloatbed with corn and grain for th' ensoing year ; 
 The pastures stockt with beasts, the downs with sheep," &c. &c. 
 
 He describes the Persian, which is an undershot wheel, much employed at that period 
 in Persia, Spain, Italy, and France, in pumping up water for irrigating purposes. In 
 Persia, he says, they had two or three hundred of these wheels on a single stream. He 
 also describes a very simple kind of windmill, consisting of " an axis with vanes like the 
 common windmill. One end of the axis rests on an iron fork on the top of a single post, 
 the other end, movable to several points, on a ridge or ledge in form of a quadrant of 
 a circle, that, be the wind which way it will, by only moving the one end of the axis on 
 the quadrant, it will be direct to the one or the other side of the vanes or sails. Under 
 the end of the axis that rests on the post, let there be a pump placed in the water you 
 intend to raise, the head of the pump not rising much above the passage to convey it 
 away ; which pump may be made of what diameter you please, according to the strength 
 of your windmill, and height you raise the water. You may make the trunk of the pump 
 round ; or if you would have it large, then square may serve as well as round. Let the 
 bucket always dip iato the level of the water ; let the handle of the pump (the piston) 
 
264 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND JMODERN. 
 
 extend in length to tlie axis of the wheels which miist be made crooked at the end to 
 receive tlie same/'* &c. The cost of this machine woukl be veiy trifling; and where 
 cheapness is required for want of funds, it might still be employed both in irrigating 
 and in draining a low piece of land, where it is difficult to get oflp the water. 
 
 Tlie necessity for draining wet land was equally understood by this old writer, as well 
 as by Blyth, Hartlib, Gabriel Plattes, and others of the same century. Amongst the 
 " Enemies to Husbandry," Worledge reckons " standing water the greatest inland 
 annoyance, whether occasioned by rains, springs, or otherwise. There are few levels," he 
 says, " but there are places or currents for the water to pass out of them, which you 
 must sink deep and wide enough to drain the whole ; and then make several drains from 
 each part of the marsh or level, beginning large and wide at the mouth of the drain, and 
 lessening hy degrees as it extends to the extremes of the land you drain. Be sure to 
 make the drains deep enough to draw the water from under the marsh or bog, and make 
 enough of them, that may lay it thoroughly dry. . . . Take this as a general observation 
 in agriculture, that most of the barren and unimproved lands in England are so, either 
 because of drought, or want of water or moisture, or that they are poisoned or glutted 
 with too much. Therefore let every husbandman make the best use of that water that 
 runs through his lands, and by preserving what falls upon his lands, as we have, at large^ 
 before directed in this treatise and drain or convey away that which superabounds and 
 offends," &c. 
 
 It is a humiliating reflection, that in the present day, when science and experiment 
 have thrown so much light on all subjects connected with the cultivation of the land, 
 there should still be so much difference of opinion on the subject of drainage, the 
 advantages of which are so palpable wherever it has been effected. As to the disputes 
 respecting " deep or shallow draining," old Worledge disposes of the question in a ie\f 
 words, " Be sure to make your drains deep enough," &c. &c. To those who neglect 
 draining at all, the next period may perhaps impart some useful hints, if they are not 
 too much wedded to the maxim, " let well alone," to act upon the advice. 
 
 In carrying into effect a system of drainage, the first thing to be attended to is 
 to ascertain the lowest point of the field, which must be found by the theodolite ; and 
 then to draw the drains with a bearing to that point, regulating them according to the 
 fall of the laud. Every step in the operations that follow, involves a knowledge of the 
 principles of hydraulics, and requires a strict attention to the rules of that science. We 
 shall have occasion to go more at large into this practical part of the subject, when that 
 of drainage comes under our notice ; but we would earnestly impress upon the agricul- 
 tural reader the desirableness of acquiring the knowledge necessary to enable him 
 to carry out an intelligent and useful system, without which (as has been found in many 
 cases) the attempt, after much outlay, has proved a failure. 
 
 * " Systema Agricultnr«e, the Mystery of Agriculture," &c., by J. W., Gentleman, 1C75. 
 
AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 205 
 
 SECTION VIII 
 
 AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 
 
 Geology is one of those modern sciences which in its varioiis bearings and analogies is 
 intimately connected with others of the physical sciences. It may be supposed by some 
 that the subject, which embraces that of mineralogy, is too large and too abstruse to be 
 of practical utility in agriculture, which has more to do with preparing the surface of 
 the earth for the production of food, than with studying its internal structure and 
 composition. This, however, is an erroneous assumption, and it will not be difficult to 
 prove that such a knowledge of tlie composition of a soil, and of the subsoil on which it 
 is based, lies at the foundation of good husbandry, and tliat tlie agriculturist who has 
 taken the pains to acquire it, is the most likely to conduct his business to a successful 
 issue. • ■ 
 
 "We have already shown that soils are composed of the disintegrated materials of 
 rocks, whether in the immediate neighbourhood, or, as in some cases, that lie at a distance, 
 and are brought to their present position by floods. They are divided by geologists into 
 alluvial and diluvial. An alluvial soil is formed by the deposits of rivers at their mouths, 
 or on other low grounds on their courses ; and it consists of the various materials 
 washed from the sides of the stream, or from the lands on either side over which the 
 floods of winter and spring have passed. The very varied character of these deposits 
 causes them to possess great fertility. Mineral, vegetable, and animal substances are 
 all intermingled, the mineral being composed of the debris of rocks of every variety 
 of structure, broken up by the action of frost, and other atmospheric phenomena, 
 carried down by the stream, and deposited in a semi-liquid state, forming in time deep 
 beds of alluvium of interminable fertility. The diluvial soil is of a different character, 
 consisting of the ancient deposition of various mineral substances, which are spread 
 over a great portion of the earth, and supposed by some to be the vestiges of the 
 Noachian deluge, by which they were brought to their present position, and whence the 
 name. There is, however, sufficient geological evidence of the presence of the ocean 
 over the whole surface of the earth at periods far more remote than the Noachian epoch, 
 and which dates antecedently, and was preparatory to, the creation of man. The deposits 
 referred to are considered to belong to the tertiary series, and are termed by a writer in 
 Morton's " Cyclopaedia of Agriculture," " erratic tertiaries, indicating both the nature of 
 the deposit and the period of their formation, namely, that immediately preceding the 
 creation of man." The same writer ascribes them to the gradual subsidence of the land, 
 and a contemporaneous lowering of the temperature towards the close of the tertiary 
 period, by which glaciers and icebergs were formed on the sides of mountains and rocks ; 
 and these, assisted by the sea, transported the boulders and other wreck, mixed with 
 finer materials, to the localities where they are now found. 
 
 These erratic tertiaries are distributed over a great part of the British Isles in tlie 
 form of boulders of rock, flint, clay, gravel, sand, &c., varying in thickness from 3 to 
 300 feet. The lower portion consists of boulder-clay of various sizes, and exhi- 
 biting in a scratched surface evidences of their transport by water. In other places, at 
 heights of 600 feet, their deposits are found on summit levels of 6 inches, deepening on 
 
266 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the slopes of the valleys, and reaching a thickness of 5 or 6 feet in the plain, merging 
 thus into the alluvium, which it there meets, or nearly so. This is termed "erratic 
 warp," and some of it contains land and fresh-water shells, which plainly indicate its 
 aqueous origin. In the paper on the Geology of Norfolk, published in the " Journal of 
 the Royal Agricultural Society of England," in 1849, the following laws on the 
 distribution of soils are laid down : — 
 
 " 1st. The deposits of the erratic block group indicate in England a long period 
 occupied in their formation upon the terrestrial surface, gradually submerged, and in 
 their denudation during gradual re-elevation, the whole period being characterised by 
 peculiar agencies, which distinguish that of the long series of the secondary and tertiary 
 groups which preceded, and of the modern or alluvial deposits which succeeded and are 
 styi in progress. 
 
 " 2nd. The variations of soils in districts overspread with drift deposits depend upon 
 the amount of their denudation, which has in some instances caused the lower beds of 
 the erratic block group, of different composition from the upper beds, to be the strata 
 nearest the surface. 
 
 " 3rd. The effects resulting from this cause, have been modified by a deposit hitherto 
 little noticed, which closed the erratic block group, and which has been spread uncon- 
 formably over the denuded surface of the earlier members of the group. 
 
 " 4th. This latest deposit, which shades off into the alluvial deposits, varies in depth 
 from less than 6 inches to more than 5 feet, and its depth is dependent on the colour of 
 the surface, which is itself the residt of denudation. 
 
 " 5th. It is frequently found resting on rocks of all ages, without the intervention of 
 any other member of the drift erratic tertiaries. 
 
 " 6th. Its depth in such cases is equally dependent on contours, which are the result 
 of denudation of those older rocks, effected, in part, during the submergence of the 
 erratic block period, and, in part, during antecedent geological periods. 
 
 " These results were obtained by laying down the surface variations of a great part 
 of Norfolk on the Ordnance Map, by means of colours representing the following 
 gradations of soil, according to the presumed proportions of clay which they contained 
 separately by washing : — 1st. Blowing sand ; 2nd. Good agricultural sand ; 3rd. Fine 
 sandy loam ; 4th. Coarse sandy loam ; 5th. Loam ; 6th. Clay loam ; 7th. Clay." 
 
 The different influence of the older rocks and the erratic tertiary, in producing 
 a soil, is not at present clearly ascertained, but it is probable that both have their 
 influence, and except that the latter lie generally near the surface, and have, therefore, 
 a more direct effect in the formation of a soil, we may conclude that the more mixed a 
 soil is with the debris of both formations the more its fertility is secured. In 
 Morton's " Cyclopedia of Agriculture " it is recommended that owners of large estates 
 should employ competent persons to make a geological survey of the property, and have 
 a map constructed of the results, the different soils and subsoils being thereon dis- 
 tinguished by different colours. This would lay the foimdation for improvements, by 
 enabling the tenants to apply and mix their materials in the way most adapted to 
 increase or restore the productive powers of the soil. This plan of mapping out the 
 geological characteristics of the country hj the government, taking each county 
 separate, with the elevations and sub-strata, in their relation to agriculture, was recom- 
 mended by Marshall; and Professor Johnstone has followed in the track. The 
 
AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 267 
 
 government Has adopted the plan, as it respects the general Ordnance Survey, on geolo- 
 gical principles, and it only remains for the landed proprietors to follow it up by the 
 survey of their estates. 
 
 As the soils are derived from these deposits, so they afford the means of both 
 improving a bad soil and renewing the fertility of an exhausted soil. The light lands 
 of Norfolk were thus rendered fertile by taking the subsoil clay, or marl, and spreading 
 it thickly over the surface. Mr. Cambridge, whose farm, — once a blowing sand, — lies 
 between Downham and Lynn, consisting of 286^ acres, has laid upon it 54,055 loads of 
 clay, or an average of 188 loads per acre ; on some of the fields he has laid at the rate 
 of nearly 260 loads of clay per acre. The clay lies immediately under the sand, and 
 pits have been sunk in every field. By such means lands in that county, which formerly 
 would scarcely keep a sheep on an acre, and which produced nothing better than a scanty 
 crop of lye once in three years, now yield the finest wheat in the kingdom, and fatten 
 the largest cattle, and their yearly rent is increased five or six fold, and in some cases 
 more. The clay employed for the purpose is chiefly the till of the lower erratics, a 
 mixture of clay and chalk. Marl also is universally used with the best eff'ect, and is 
 sometimes derived from the undisturbed strata of chalk, but more frequently from beds 
 of transported and fragmentary chalk enveloped in the iipper erratics ; in some cases it 
 is bm-ned for lime, but for the most part it is obtained mixed with a portion of clay 
 or sand, or both, the calcareous matter predominating. 
 
 The geological process by which a soil is formed is thus graphically described by 
 Sir R. Kane : — 
 
 " The soil is formed by the decomposition of the minerals, of which the crust of the 
 globe consists. The water which flows over the surface is absorbed into the pores and 
 fissures of the rocks ; and in winter, on freezing, it expands with such irresistible force 
 as to crumble down even the materials of the hardest and densest stone. The pulveru- 
 lent or gravelly material so afibrded, is carried down by rains or floods to the lower 
 grounds, and, spreading over the more level country, forms the cultivable soil. 
 Independent of the mechanical action of water, the constitution of numerous rocks is 
 such as to cause their gradual decomposition by its chemical action, as in the case of 
 felspar and other minerals ; and by the direct action of the atmosphere all rocks which 
 contain protoxide of iron very rapidly decompose and crumble down. Such being the 
 origin of the soil, its constitution will be easily understood to depend on that of the rock 
 from which it has been formed ; and as on this constitution its fertility, or its power of 
 supplying plants with the materials they require for their growth, mainly depends, it 
 wiU be seen that the agricultural capabilities of a country are immediately connected 
 with, and dependent on, its geological character. A district of which the rock is simple 
 in constitution cannot furnish a fertile soU. A pure quartz rock, or a pure limestoue, 
 could only furnish from its soil to plants, lime or silica, and they should hence languish 
 for want of other equally important elements. The edges of a geological district, where 
 various rocks are in contact, will therefore always be more fertile than its interior ; 
 and the more numerous are the rocks in the neighbourhood, and the greater the diversity 
 in their mineral character, the more complex will be the soil furnished by their decom- 
 position ; and by its power of furnishing the elements of growth to different kinds of 
 plants, the greater will be its energy and range of fertility." * 
 
 ♦ " Industrial Resources of Ireland," p. 248. 
 
268 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 When, therefore, it is considered that all soils are composed of the detritus of rocks, 
 and that these rocks represent different epochs of the natural history of the ancient ■world, 
 and that many of them contain the organic remains of extinct, as well as of living species 
 of plants and animals, which peculiarly fit them for the formation of soils, it will at once 
 be admitted that geology — which treats of the nature of rocks, and which separates and 
 classifies them according to the periods in which, it is assumed, they were thrown by 
 the convulsions of the earth into their present forms — has a direct bearing upon agri- 
 cultm-e, in connection with the formation and constitution of soils. I 
 
 Geology is defined by Professor Phillips as " that science to which is allotted to 
 investigate the ancient natural history of the earth ; to determine by observation what 
 phenomena of living beings, or inorganic matter, were formerly occasioned on or -n-ithin 
 the globe, in what order and under what conditions ; and, from comparative data, 
 furnished by investigation of the present operations of nature, to infer the general 
 system of successive revolutions which the earth has undergone, before arriving at its 
 present state ; and thus, finally, to furnish a complete view of the conditions which have 
 regulated, and of those which do regulate, its svstem of mechanical, chemical, and vital 
 phenomena." 
 
 We give the above definition of the learned Professor in order to show the reader 
 the wideness of the subject, rather than with the design of following -it in all its bearings. 
 Our business is to explain its connection with the cultivation of the soil, and the benefits 
 that the agriculturist may derive from it, by applying the knowledge he may acquire in 
 the management of his land. We therefore propose to give a statement of the general 
 outlines of the science, according to the system drawn up by the most eminent geologists 
 of the present day. 
 
 In the working of mines and other subterranean employments it has for many ages 
 been observed by those engaged in them, that the crust of the globe is composed of 
 various layers, or strata, of different kinds of earthy or rocky substances, some of great 
 and others of less thickness ; and that wherever these have been penetrated to their 
 greatest depth, they have in every instance, and in every part of the world, been found 
 resting on the same granitic basis, which in no case, we believe, has Ijcen penetrated to 
 its whole extent downward. From thence geologists have almost universally considered 
 granite as the primitive rock, resting upon its original bed, and undisturbed except by 
 those internal convidsions which have upheaved the sm-face. The origin of granite is 
 ascribed to fire in the centre of the globe, to which opinion its crystallised form has 
 
 given rise. 
 
 The materials of Avhich the earth's crust is composed have been reduced by geologists \ 
 into three classes, distinguished by the names of Primanj, Secondary, and Tertiary 
 formations. Each of these are considered to represent a distinct and separate period, of 
 tmknown duration, but marking by no unequivocal signs the several stages or grada- 
 tions by which the globe has emerged from the chaos of primeval nature to that state in 
 which it has become fitted for the abode of man. These periods are distinguished by 
 the vestiges of a graduated scale of organisms, commencing in the primary formations 
 with tlie lowest forms, and few in number, of animal Ufe, and gradually ascending, until, 
 in the surface or diluvial covering, the remains of animals and plants analogous to those 
 now existing are discovered in a greater or less degree of fossilisation, according to the 
 time that has elapsed since their depositio -. ^ 
 
AGRICULTUUAL GEOLOGY. 
 
 269 
 
 Attempts have beeu made by foreign savam to calculate the uumber of years that 
 must have passed to effect each of-the changes indicated by the several formations^ and 
 the phenomena attending them. But it is evident that such calculations must be not 
 only hypothetical in the extreme, but approaching to absui'dity ; for so ignorant are we 
 of the rapidity or slowness of the processes by wliich certain of nature's effects are 
 produced, that any figures we give to represent them must be offered at random ; and in 
 allowing 30,000 years for the formation of certain deposits, we may with as much 
 propriety extend it to ten times that period, or reduce it to one-tenth. AVe believe the 
 English geologists have all abandoned the idea, considering it one of those inscrutable 
 subjects known, and only possible to be known, by the Great Creator, at whose com- 
 mand the globe itself started into existence. 
 
 The following are the principal substances contained in the crust of the globe : — 
 
 Primary fonnatious 
 
 Secondary formations 
 
 Tertiary formalious 
 
 Recent formations 
 
 Granite as the base, with its associated 
 
 Stratified Roclis. 
 
 Basalt and Volcanic Rocks. 
 
 Clay Slate. 
 Graywacke. 
 Silurian formation. 
 Old Red Sandstone. 
 
 Mountain Limestone 
 
 Millstone Grit 
 
 Coal Measures 
 
 Sandstone and Clay 
 
 Magnesian Limestone 
 
 Variegated Sandstone 
 
 Blue Lias 
 
 Lower Oolite and Oolitic Sand . . . 
 Great Oolite and Fuller's Earth . . . 
 Cornbrash and Forest Marble . . . . 
 Coral Rag, Calcareous Grit, and Oxford 
 
 Clay 
 
 Portland Lime and 
 
 Kimmeridge Clay 
 
 Wealdon Group 
 
 Green Sand and Gault 
 
 (.Chalk 
 
 r Plastic Clay. 
 1 Loudon Clay. 
 ' Crag and Bagshot Sand. 
 
 Diluvium or Drift. 
 Peat. 
 . Alluvium. 
 
 Carboniferous or Coal formations. 
 
 [ New 
 
 Bed Sandstone formations. 
 
 ■ Oolitic formations. 
 
 ^ Cretaceous formations. 
 
 The distui-bed shell, or crust, of the earth has been penetrated to the depth of about 
 nine and a half miles ; below that are the granitic bed and layers of lava and slate, on 
 which the Primary strata rest, and in which no organic remains of any description 
 whatever have been discovered. The Primary formation resting on the granite occupies 
 about 33,000 feet in depth, and contains the remains, in a fossilised state, of animals of 
 the lowest forms of life, such as molluscs (soft), crustaceans, zoophytes, corals, &c. The 
 series of rocks enclosing these fossils is termed the Palaozoic (containing the animals 
 of the olden times), and geologists have separated it into five groups, nair.cly, the 
 
270 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Cambrian (which is the lowest), the Silurian, the Devonian, the Carboniferous, and the 
 Permian. Although these are considered to rest upon the granite, and mostly to have 
 been derived from it, the granite in many places rises above all the formations in rocks 
 of considerable elevation, as in Ireland, for instance, where such rocks form one of the 
 most distinguishing featui'cs of the country. Thus, one granitic district reaches from 
 near Dublin to New Ross in Wexford, a distance of nearly seventy miles ; and the 
 entire northern coast of the Bay of Galway is composed of granite rock. The Cambrian 
 forms the lowest group of fossiliferous rocks, and contains no other vestiges of animal 
 organization than one or two species of zoophytes, and a few sea worms. 
 
 The Silurian period, which is the next in order to the Cambrian, is divided into upper 
 and lower, consisting of sandstone, limestone, and shale. It contains a considerable 
 number of marine animals, as those of the crab family, star-fish, sea-urchins, and 
 molluscs of every sort, but no terrestrial animals or plants have as yet been discovered, 
 nor even marine animals of the higher forms. On the other hand, between 700 and 800 
 species of molluscs have been identified in the Silurian rocks, 200 species of crustaceae, 
 varying from the size of a fly to twenty inches in length, and 110 species of zoophytes. 
 All these fossils are common to the whole series of the Silm-ian rocks, but both the upper 
 and lower are distinguished by characteristic fossils, the lower containing Trilobites, 
 Graptolites, and Stonelilies ; the upper group, Terebratula, Pterygotus, and five specimens 
 of corals. The first of these is a species of mollusc ; the second is a crustacean of the 
 lobster kind, some of which have been found eight feet in length. The coral insect and 
 its production are well known. The corallines of the Silurian group are numerous, and 
 some of these have beautiful forms, but the greater number are of the commonest 
 description. 
 
 The Devonian period is termed the "age of fishes," because that higher form of 
 animal life first made its appearance in it. It is composed chiefly of red sandstone, and 
 takes its name from the prevalence of that substance in Devonshire. Its average thick- 
 ness of strata is estimated at about 9,000 feet. About 800 species of the fossils 
 belonging to the Silurian groups have merged into the Devonian of a much larger size, 
 and some of them of a higher conformation ; but they give place, both in numbers and 
 in class of organism, to the fossil fish, with which the whole of the Devonian strata 
 swarm. None of the species, however, or even the genera, are similar to those now 
 existing, with two or tln-ee exceptions. There are two important respects in which they 
 dift'er : first, fishes of the present period have skeletons of bone, whilst those of the 
 Devonian period have a cartilaginous skeleton. Again, the present fishes have tails with 
 equal lobes in form of a U, but those of the Devonian strata have the tail either 
 pointed or conical, aud shaped like a V. 
 
 Besides the fish, this group contains a few reptiles of the newt aud lizard species, 
 and marine plants, mosses, ferns, and trees of the conifera tribe. Of these the sea- 
 weeds are by far the most numerous. The rocks in which these latter forms of organic 
 life are found are called " transition rocks." 
 
 The Carboniferous period is so called because it contains the beds of coal from which 
 the fuel now universally used is taken. Alternating with this substance are found 
 limestone, shale, ironstone, clays, &c; The appearance of this mineral (coal) indicates a 
 further advance in the creation of organic life, it being in its own substance the pro- 
 duction of masses of vegetables — ferns, mosses, seaweed, and larger plants, swept 
 
AGRICULTUARL GEOLOGY. 271 
 
 together by the force of floods into hollow cavities of the globe, covered over with earth, 
 and petrified or fossilised by being pressed down and excluded from the air. 850 
 species of plants have been discovered in coal, of which 250 species are those of 
 gigantic ferns, some of them of the most beautiful forms. Most of the plants discovered 
 are supposed to have been flowerless and fruitless ; at least neither flowers nor fruits 
 have been discovered upon or with them, and not more than twenty single and 100 
 double seed-leaf plants have been found. " The finest example I have ever witnessed," 
 says Buckland, " is that of the coal mines of Bohemia. The most elaborate imitation 
 of living foliage upon the painted ceilings of Italian palaces bears no comparison witli 
 the beauteovis profusion of extinct vegetable forms with which the galleries of these 
 instructive coal-mines are overhung. The roof is covered as with a canopy of gorgeous 
 tapestry, enriched with festoons of most graceful foliage, flung in wild irregular pro- 
 fusion over every portion of its surface. The efffect is heightened by the contrast of the 
 coal-black colour of these vegetables, with the light groundwork of the rock to which 
 they are attached. The spectator feels himself transported as if by enchantment into 
 the forests of another world. He beholds ti'ees of forms and characters now unknown 
 upon the surface of the earth, preserved to his senses, almost in the vigour' and beauty of 
 their primeval life ; their scaly stems and bending branches, with their delicate 
 apparatus of foliage on all, spread forth before him little impared by the lapse of count- 
 less ages, and bearing faithful records of extinct systems of vegetation, which begun 
 and terminated in times of which these relics are the infallible historians." The 
 Sigellaria, or seal-trees, found in these, and also in the Newcastle mines, are a beautiful 
 tribe of plants, having singular impressions like seals, in regular order, upon their trunks. 
 The number of animals found in the coal formation is very small, and those are chiefly 
 aquatic or amphibious, and of the crocodile species. Zoophytes and molluscs are found 
 in the lower strata, but do not exist in the coal itself. 
 
 The Permian strata consist of magnesian limestone, and terminate the Palceozoic 
 system, forming the base of the Secondary. The fossUs of this period do not differ 
 much from that of the carboniferous, and the coal, in fact, frequently crops out through 
 it, owing probably to volcanic distui'bance. The first specimens of fish luith fins and gills, 
 and the Protosaurs, or first types, of small size, of the Satuian family are discovered in this 
 formation. The limestone is used in building, and was employed in the construction of 
 the new Houses of Parliament — to the disgrace of the builder, as it is ah'eady in a state 
 of decay, and wUl have to be replaced at enormous expense. 
 
 The Secondary period is the " age of reptiles," and is divided into four groups, 
 namely, the Triassic, the Oolitic, the Wealdon, and the Cretaceous. 
 
 The Triassic (triple or threefold) or Saliferous group consists of marl, limestone, 
 and sandstone formations. It also contains rock-salt. The fossils are those of a higher 
 order of animals, and the footprints of animals resembling those of a man^s hand are 
 found in the sandstone of this gi'oup, indicating the existence of a monster, whose 
 fossil skeleton has been discovered. It is called a frog-lizard, or labyrinthodon, and is 
 of the salamander tribe. The various saurians are also numerous here, but no land animals 
 of any kind have yet been discovered in this group, although the footprints of birds 
 have been found on sandstone and shale, not webbed, but apparently of the gallinaceous 
 species. Of the Ichthyosaur family twelve species have been found varying in size from 
 30 to 50 feet, with a mouth 7 feet wide, and teeth like the crocodile ; the sockets of its 
 
y 
 
 272 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 eyes were 18 inches in diameter ; it had four paddles or fins, the fore ones being long 
 and containing 100 bones ; the hinder much shorter. It must have possessed immense 
 strength, preying upon fish, molluscs, and reptiles, as indicated by its teeth. 
 
 The Plesiosaurus (akin to a lizard) was also a carnivorous reptile, of which twenty 
 species have been discovered. The long-headed species was 18 feet in length, of which 
 8 were comprised in its neck ; the girth of its body was 7 feet, and it resembled that of 
 a fish, whilst its back and tail were those of a quadruped. It frequented the estuaries 
 and shallow parts of the sea, where it preyed on fish. Like the turtle and crocodile, it 
 moved slowly on land. 
 
 Beds of rock salt occur under the new red sandstone, from which brine-spn^gs 
 issue in great numbers. Rock salt is found in all marine deposits, and is supposed to 
 be of volcanic origin, chloride of sodium being one of the substances thi'own up by 
 volcanoes ; but it is a question whether this may not have arisen from a bed of that 
 mineral having lain over the source of the eruption, or within its range. Nothing 
 decisive, however, can be alleged upon the subject, either one way or the other. 
 
 The Oolitic and Lias formations conduct us another step in advance of organic life, 
 in which the reptile tribes, and the molluscs increase in numbers and in species, the 
 ammonites and belemnites first making their appearance in it. The fishes also alter in their 
 structure. The crustaceans become larger, and the first indications of mammalia are seen. 
 The most extraordinary fossil of this formation is the Pterodactyl, or flying dragon, which 
 is a compound of bird, bat, and crocodile. A great many varieties of this reptile have 
 been found, the wings of which measure from 5 to 25 feet. These are attached to the 
 arms like those of a bat. Its neck and chest were those of a bird, its body and tail 
 resembled those of a quadi-uped, whilst its head was sometimes a mixture of the bird and 
 the reptile, in some species the jaws being armed with long pointed teeth, in others the 
 mouth had no teeth, and resembled the beak of a bird. Its eyes were enormously large 
 to enable it to see in the dark ; the claws had five toes, and the outer one of the fore- 
 arm was long, and strong enough to support the wing in its flight ; from the last faculty 
 it takes its name, which signifies "wing-finger." 
 
 The mammalia of the Oolite consists of an extinct species of kangaroo, which are 
 considered in respect to their conformation the most inferior of the family, and but little 
 in advance of birds in organization. An opossum also has been found ; but both of these 
 were very defective in their make compared with even the race of those animals now in 
 existence. The most remarkable plants of the Oolite were the Cycadea — an order 
 between the fir and the palm — and tree-ferns. The first were a beautiful class with tall, 
 straight stems, bearing at the top an umbrageous head of splendid foliage. A few sea- 
 weeds complete the list of the vegetable fossils. 
 
 The Oolite is succeeded by the Weald,* which consists of a thin stratum, the only 
 deposit from fresh water in the secondary rocks, consequently its organic remains are 
 chiefly those of fresh-water plants, shells, fishes, and reptiles. The vegetables are mostly 
 of a tropical character ; the animal fossils are those of the bones of crocodiles, turtles, 
 reptiles, birds, and fresh-water fishes. Megalosaurs, pterodactyls, and other Oolitic animal'-, 
 with some new species, as the iguanodons and hylaeosaurs, are also found in the "Weald. 
 The latter were land crocodiles, living in the forests ; they were about 25 feet in length, 
 with limbs much longer than those of the crocodile, fitted to walk with ease on dry land. 
 
 * It takes its naiue from the wealds or wolds of Kent, where it was first noticed. 
 
AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 273 
 
 The iguauodon was of a genus of Saurians or crocodiles ; its appearance must have been 
 formidable^ its length being from 40 to 80 feet, its girth from 20 to 40 feet, and. its body 
 covered with thick scales ; its legs were longer in proportion than those of the crocodile, 
 and the thigh bone was larger than that of the elephant. It resided near rivers, and 
 lived upon vegetables and insects. 
 
 The chalk formation succeeds the Weald, and is in all cases a deposit from the ocean. 
 It crowns the Secondary series, and is the base on which rests the Tertiary. It is 
 divided into three sections, the lowest being a mixture of chalk and sand, the middle 
 one of chalk and clay, and the upper pure chalk ; chalk, in fact, is a conglomerate of 
 corals, shells, and sea plants granulated, decomposed, and condensed into its present 
 form by the pressure of the super-incumbent strata. It contains considerable quantities 
 of flints, which are formed by a chemical combination of particles of the shells of 
 microscopic animals, which, with a good microscope, may sometimes be discerned in the 
 flint, and even the skeletons of animalculse. 
 
 The fossils of the chalk formation are very numerous, more especially those of 
 molluscs, zoophytes, crustacese, infusoria, &c. The Saurian family arc represented by 
 only one species, the mosa-sam-, and both fishes and reptiles are rarely met with. In 
 the chalk formation of America there are found two gigantic sword-fish — one having the 
 teeth of a crocodile, called the saurodon, or lizard-toothed ; the other the head of a 
 crocodile called the saurocephalus, or lizard-headed. 
 
 The Tertiary formation lies between the upper crust of the globe and the chalk. Sii' 
 Charles Lyell has divided the whole into four series or groups, the lowest of which he calls 
 the Eocene, the next the Miocene, the tliird the Pliocene, and the upper the Pleistocene 
 periods. These names were given by him according to the proportion of existing species 
 of shells found in them. Thus, out of 1,238 shells found in the lowest group only forty- 
 two belong to those now existing, being only 3i per cent. The next cont-ains 18 per 
 cent. ; the thii-d between 40 and 50 per cent. ; and the upper 90 per cent., with the 
 addition of the fossd remains of bears, badgers, hyenas, wolves, dogs, foxes, cats, moles, 
 oxen, deer, camels, horses, in fact, every genus of existing animals, except those of the 
 human species, not one specimen of which, or even a small portion, has been yet found 
 in any of the series below the upper sm'face crust, of which we shall presently speak. 
 The fossils of the Tertiary period are indicative of an entire change in the natural 
 productions of the earth, by the destruction of the former and the creation of a new 
 and higher grade of animals, and a greater number of species. 
 
 The Eocene group contains, besides the forty-two shells belonging to the present 
 period, fifty species of mammalia according to Cuvier, four-fifths of which were thick 
 skinned. The most remarkable of these are the tapirs {pulaother) , the armadilloes [glypt- 
 odon), the deer [anoplother) , hippopotami, or choeropotami, and herbaceous whales. Of 
 the tapirs there were twelve species, varying in size from that of a hare to an elephant. 
 Like the present tapir, they lived in the woods and fed on herbage. The fossil arma- 
 dillo was as large as an ox, and was invested with a solid coat of mail, in which it could 
 roU itself up into a ball, presenting an impenetrable surface to the enemy. The 
 anoplother was a mixture of the rhinoceros, hippopotamus, camel, and horse ; like man 
 and the monkey tribe, it had forty-four teeth. It is the first animal we meet with that 
 had a parted hoof. It fed on shore, but was amphibious. The chcei-opotamus, or river- 
 hog, was about the size of an ass, was thick skinned, fed on herbage, and amphibious. 
 
 T 
 
 .» 
 
274. AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The zeuylodon (or yoke tooth) is uow considered to be a whale. Its tail was 100 feet 
 in length, and it lived entirely on herbs, having only molar teeth. 
 
 The Miocene period presents but few phenomena different from the preceding, except 
 in the greater number of existing plants and animals, and in the appearance of such land 
 animals as bears, hogs, dogs, horses, and cats, and such marine animals as seals, dolphins, 
 walruses, and whales. The dinother, however, was an amphibious beast, between the 
 elephant and the hippopotamus, having the proboscis of the former and the tusks, curving 
 downward from the lower jaw, of the hippopotamus. It lived on vegetable food, which 
 it is supposed to have dug up from the bottom of the sea. It was 20 feet in length. 
 
 The Pliocene period, with a still larger assortment of existing species of shells, 
 exhibits also many new land animals of extraordinary size and form, as the mastodon, 
 the mammoth, the megatherium, the mylodou, the megalonyx, the taxodon, and 
 the giant tortoise 18 feet in length. The mastodon was somewhat like the elephant, 
 but larger and heavier. In its early stage of existence it had tusks in the lower 
 jaw, but the female shed them both, and the male, one, as they grew up. It 
 fed wholly on vegetables. The mammoth is an extinct species of elephant, 9 feet 
 high, and from 16 to 18 feet in length. The tusks were 9 feet long, and curved 
 almost bo as to form a circle, from the upper jaw. It had three kinds of hair, one lying 
 close to the skin like wool, another soft and flexible but longer, a third sort about a foot 
 long and as stiff as bristles. One of these extinct animals was discovered by a Tungusian 
 fisherman in a mass of ice. After remaining there probably thousands of years, when 
 freed from its prison, in which doubtless it was immured alive, it was found in as perfect 
 a state as when living, even to the eye-baUs, which were as glassy as if just slain. The 
 wild dogs and wolves devoured the flesh, but the skin and such of the hair and skeleton 
 as could be collected were taken to St. Petersburg, where they are placed in the museum 
 of natural history. The mammoth had the feet, trunk, and general form of the 
 elephant, but its teeth were different. 
 
 The meyatherium has a body 14 feet in length, l)ut is chiefly remarkable for the 
 enormous size of its limbs, its thigh bones being thrice as large as those of the elephant, 
 its haunch bone twice the breadth, and its feet a yard long. Its head was small, and 
 like that of the sloth, but it had enormous strength in its jaws, which were adapted for 
 crushing and masticating the roots and branches of trees. It had only molar teeth, a 
 short neck, feet furnished with gigantic claws, a long tail, and a hide covered with 
 a horny coat of mail of great thickness. Grubbing away the earth from the roots of 
 trees, and then raising itself on its haunches and tail, with its fore paws it wi'enched the 
 tree from the earth, and made its meal on the roots and branches. The mylodon 
 (having teeth like millstones) and the megalonyx (or great-clawed) are both of the 
 same genus as the megatherium, the first being as noted for largeness of structure, 
 strength of jaw, and absence of canine teeth ; the second was one-third smaller, had 
 no front teeth, and the bones of the claws were enormously large and of great strength. 
 The taxodon (or bow-toothed) had a thick skin, and its teeth were cui'ved. It was 
 a mixture of the squirrel, deer, and whale, having a skull 38 inches in length, and 
 16 in breadth. 
 
 The Pleistocene (or most recent) group is the highest of the Tertiary formation, in 
 which arc found the remains of the greatest number of specimens of birds, beasts, fishes, 
 and reptiles, in a fossil state, analogous to most of the existing species, such as r/lyptodons 
 
AGRICULTUEAL GEOLOGY. 275 
 
 (gigantic armadilloes), stags with horns three yards asunder from tip to tip, bisons as 
 large as elephants, rhinoceroses, whales, wah'uses,* &c., &c. 
 
 Immediately above these formations there is a deposit termed by geologists the 
 Drift, which consists of the fragmentary parts of rocks separated from the main portion 
 by violence, and driven by the force of water over the dry land. Upheaved by internal 
 fire, the strata of the different formations have been forced out of their horizontal position 
 into others, forming various angles (called dips) with the horizon. The consequence is, 
 that the strata of the different periods have become intermingled and broken, lying in 
 every possible dii'ection, and presenting, when examined downwards, a mixture of all the 
 formations commingled. Fragmentary portions of greater or less magnitude broken off 
 from these rocks have been scattered about, and by the force of inundations driven 
 forward, leaving in their coui'se evident tokens of their presence and passage over the 
 surface. The detritus chafed from them and left in their com-se is called the drift, and 
 the larger portions remaining after the inundation had subsided are termed boulders. 
 They consist chiefly of granite, as the least destructible, the softer portions of rocks^ 
 having become decomposed, and mingled in the drift. No vestiges of human bones have 
 yet been discovered in the drift, but spear and arrow-heads of stone are occasionally 
 found. But unaccompanied as these are with any other human remains, it is still 
 uncertain whether they can be taken as proofs of the contemporaneous existence of man 
 with the other species of fossil animals found in the drift, or whether their presence was 
 accidental, the effect of a convulsion, or, finally, whether they are, as some believe, 
 natural productions of stone, taking this particular form. 
 
 Another deposit, partially overlying the previous formations, is produced by the 
 constant action of rivers, in bringing down the sedimentary materials washed from their 
 sides, and deposited by overflows either on the lands adjacent to the banks, or carried 
 down to their embouchures, where they extend the land and form deltas. t These deposits 
 are called alluvial or diluvial, and they frequently cover extensive tracts of country. The 
 delta of the Nile is formed entirely of such deposits, and is 150 miles in extent. That 
 of the Mississippi is equal in extent ; and this is common to all the great rivers, both of 
 the old and new world. The Mississippi is said to carry down a cubic mile of sediment 
 every five years ; and the Ganges to bring down earthy matter enough annually to form 
 a building equal to the largest pyramid, without sensibly diminishing the depth of the 
 Bay of Bengal, into which it is thrown. 
 
 Lastly, above all the foregoing deposits, is the upper soil of the crust, occupying 
 about 200 feet in depth, and containing the relics of the last creation, including those of 
 the human species. The soil of this deposit is mingled with the organic remains of 
 plants and animals, the elements of which constitute its fertility, according to the 
 greater or less extent of theii- presence. The importance of these to agriculture will be 
 felt when the process of their decomposition and its effects are considered. " After the 
 death of a plant," says Kane, " its elements, yielding to the force of their chemical 
 afiinities, enter into new arrangements ; and by a series of progressive alterations are 
 finally converted into a dark browu material, properly termed vegetable mould, and by 
 
 * The foregoing account of the fossil Iciiigilom is chiefly talien from Brewer's " Theology in Science," a valuable 
 elementary worls on the subject. 
 
 t Delta, the Greek letter A, a term applied to an alluvial tract of country between the diverging mouths o!' a river, 
 often subject to inundation. See "Webster's Dictionary." 
 
276 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 chemists ' humus ' or ' ulmine.' This substance^ however^ of itself is destitute of power 
 on vegetation ; but when vegetable matter commences to decompose, it evolves 
 carbonic acid, and absorbs oxygen from the air ; but not only does it unite with that 
 element, but also the nitrogen of the air is absorbed in considerable quantities, and 
 enters into the composition of the new product, which actually acquires thus almost the 
 composition of an animal substance, and is called by Hermann nitrolin. The compo- 
 sition of this body, as compared with animal flesh, is as follows :— 
 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 FLesh. 
 
 Carbou . , 
 
 . . 57-20 . 
 
 . 55-20 
 
 Hydrogen . 
 
 . . 6-32 . 
 
 . 700 
 
 Nitrogen . . 
 
 . . 12-20 . 
 
 . 16-00 
 
 Oxygen . . 
 
 . . 24-28 . 
 
 . 21-80 
 
 100-00 10000 
 
 If the nitrolin remain in contact with air and moisture, it falls into decomposition 
 
 precisely as animal bodies do It is by the gradual formation and decomposition 
 
 of this substance that the organic matter of the soil becomes so powerful an agent in its 
 fertilisation. The roots and fibres of a crop left in the soil gradually rot, and become 
 thereby the means of absorbing from the atmosphere a quantity of nitrogen, which is 
 rendered available for the sustenance of the next generation of plants." * 
 
 The number of liquid, aerial, and solid compounds at present recognised belonging 
 to this globe is fifty-fom-, termed simple or primitive, because in the present state of 
 geological science they appear incapable of further decomposition. Forty-three are 
 metallic bodies, brilliant, electro-positive, and, with the exception of sodium and potas- 
 sium, heavier than water. Of these thirteen produce by union with oxygen the earths 
 and alkalies : — 
 
 Aluminium. 
 
 Tlioriura. 
 
 Lithium. 
 
 Glucinium. 
 
 Zerconium. 
 
 Sodium. 
 
 Magnesium. 
 
 Yttrium. 
 
 Potassium. 
 
 Barium. 
 
 Calcium. 
 
 
 Silicium. 
 
 Strontium. 
 
 
 Five decompose water at a red heat : — 
 
 Manganese. Zinc. Iron. Tin. Cadmium. 
 
 Twenty-four do not decompose water at any heat, the more oxidable of which are :- 
 
 The less oxidable are : — 
 
 Arsenic. 
 
 
 Antimony. 
 
 Copper. 
 
 Molybdena. 
 
 
 Uranium. 
 
 Tellurium 
 
 Chronic. 
 
 
 Cerium. 
 
 Nickel. 
 
 Vanadium. 
 
 
 Cobalt. 
 
 Lead. 
 
 Tungstar. 
 
 
 Telanium. 
 
 Osmium. 
 
 Columbium. 
 
 
 Bismuth. 
 
 Mercury. 
 
 are \ — 
 Silver. 
 
 
 Rhodium. 
 
 Gold. 
 
 Palladium, 
 
 
 Platinum. 
 
 Iridium. 
 
 tallic combi 
 
 iistibles ; 
 
 : — 
 
 
 Sulphur. 
 
 
 Iodine. 
 
 Carbou. 
 
 Phosphorus. 
 
 
 Bromine. 
 
 Fluorine, 
 
 Silenium. 
 
 
 Boron, 
 
 
 * Kane's "InJustriiil Resjurces of Ireland, " p. "55, 
 
AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 377 
 
 Many of these are exceedingly i-are, and the number of useful combinations into which 
 they enter is reducible to ten^ according to Phillips. The researches^ therefore, of the 
 agricultural geologist should be specially directed to the study of the limestone, sand- 
 stone, and clay deposits, as more intimately connected with the composition of soils, and 
 consequently the most interesting objects of geology to the agricultural student of that 
 science. 
 
 The stratification of the materials of the earth's crust is clearly defined, and without 
 confusion of substances. In one range of country, for instance, a chalk formation 
 prevails, as that of the Yorkshire wolds, which extends through part of Lincolnshire, 
 Norfolk, Sufiblk, Bedfordshire, Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, &c. The oolitic limestone, 
 commencing in Lincolnshire, passes through Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire, Somer- 
 setshire, &c. The coal formations occupy the northern and western coimties ; whilst the 
 granite is confined chiefly to the mountainous districts of tlie kingdom, as in Wales, 
 Scotland, and Ireland (above refei-red to). The same principle of stratification also 
 prevails universally, and in every country various rocks are found overlying one another 
 in a certain settled order of succession. Thus the strata of North America, New 
 Holland, and Europe are found in many important particulars to be analogous. 
 
 Rocks are either stratified or unstratified. The former are mostly termed meta- 
 morphic, and are aggregates of different earths, as sandstones, clays, and limestones. 
 These rocks, by their disintegration, are the best fitted to form soils ; and, accordingly, 
 where they abound, we find the country fertile. Such is the case with many of the 
 best lands of Ireland, the soils of which are formed of the detritus of highly stratified 
 rocks. The unstratified rocks consist generally of crystallised masses, mostly of volcanic 
 origin. While the stratified rocks have undergone the action of water, and contain the 
 remains of plants and animals which perished by the same aqueous convulsion or 
 inundation by which the deposit of the strata was formed, the imstratified appear to 
 have been thrown up in a state of fusion by a more violent internal convulsion, as by 
 volcano, which opinion is further confirmed by their enclosing no organic remains what- 
 ever to prove them of an aqueous origin. " These two divisions of the substance of the 
 crust of the globe, deriving their origin from distinct causes, — fire and water, the one is 
 termed by geologists Plutonic or volcanic, the other Neptunian or aqueous. The study of 
 the former belongs to mineralogj'', that of the latter requires the aid of botany and 
 zoology." * 
 
 Strata are divided into chemical and mechanical. The chemical deposits are lime- 
 stone, composed of carbonate of lime and magnesia; and salt rocks, characterised by 
 muriate of soda. The mechanical strata are composed of earthy substances, and are 
 distinguished by the coarseness or fineness of the materials, and their natural qualities. 
 When mixed, fine and coarse in one mass, they are termed " conglomerate." Smaller 
 pieces constitute sandstone, and any fine particles clay. Gneiss, granite, quartz, felspar, 
 and mica have a common origin, and are considered the oldest strata. Sandstone is an 
 aggregate of small fragments of quartz, with or without a mixture of argillaceous, 
 calcareous, or ferruginous cement in the interstices, and with or without mica in the 
 partings. It is supposed that sandstone, like gneiss, derives its origin from granite. 
 (Phillips.) Their dispersion with that of clay was effected rapidly by the agency of 
 inundations. Limestone is considered to be the result of a continuous and almost 
 
 * Phillip?. 
 
278 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 uninterrupted series of chemical changes. The proportions of mechanical to chemical 
 deposits of water are estimated as follows : — 
 
 In the Primary series they are as 500 to 1 
 
 Carboniferous 
 
 system . 
 
 . 10 
 
 
 Oolitic 
 
 » 
 
 . 4 
 
 
 Cretaceous 
 
 »» 
 
 . 2 
 
 
 Saliferous 
 
 ») 
 
 . 5 
 
 
 Tertiary 
 
 !J 
 
 . 10 
 
 
 " The fossil remains found in strata consist of an almost endless variety of terrestrial 
 plants, and of both laud and water animals. The coal districts are the great depositories 
 of the former, coal being itself considered a vegetable production, and the beds of that 
 mineral, vast masses of plants swept down by inundations into estuaries and lakes, there 
 covered with sand and clay, and converted by chemical depositions into their present 
 substance. By this agency they were in part deprived of their oxygen and hydrogen, 
 the carbon chiefly remaining pure, or mixed with bitumen, carbonate of Ume, or with 
 flint or pyrites. Thus the anthracite coal of Kilkenny contains only 4 per cent, of 
 volatile matter, and 92 per cent, of carbon ; cannel coal 50 per cent, of volatile matter, 
 and 50 per cent, carbon ; common coal 70 per cent, carbon, and 30 per cent, oxygen and 
 hydrogen. 
 
 " The animal remains consist of zoophytes, both stony and flexible, with their 
 delicate and beautiful organization ; molluscous animals, which are the most numerous 
 of all tribes of marine animals, and the most abundant of organic fossils j articulated 
 animals, or such as have movable joints, as lobsters, crabs, and other Crustacese similar 
 to the living species, and others which have nothing analogous in them to the present 
 races. Fossil insects are rare, and only the harder parts of those are found remaining. 
 The distribution of organic remains is very unequal ; some rocks are filled with shells, 
 while others contain none. The forest marbles and coarse upper beds of Bath oolite are 
 composed of little else than shells, while the sandstone of a whole coal district may 
 contain not one." (Phillips.) 
 
 Soils formed of the disintegrated materials of granite, although they contain but few 
 organic remains, are well adapted to agricultural purposes, depending, however, in a 
 great measure on the character of the felspar and hornblende in the rock from which 
 they are derived. The following are the elements contained in the several productions 
 of granite, and their proportions : — 
 
 Quartz is almost pure silex, containing 99 per cent, of that substance. 
 
 Felspar contains 60 per cent, of silex, 22 alumina or clay, 14 potash, 1 iron, and 
 1 lime. 
 
 Mica contains 46 per cent, silex, 30 alumina, 8 potash, 8 oxide of iron. 
 
 Hornblende 42 silex, 13 alumina, 13 magnesia, 11 lime, 15 oxide of iron. 
 
 The iron and potash perform a principal part in the disintegration of the granite ; 
 wherever it comes within the influence of the atmosphere the oxidisation of the iron 
 and the dissolving of the potash cause it to decay. The soil formed with the above 
 proportions only needs the aid of manure to produce any kind of crop. If, however, it 
 rests immediately upon the granite rock, the impermeable nature of that base prevents 
 the water from the higher grounds from filtrating tlirough it, and the soil is conse- 
 quently wet and cold. If, too, it is much elevated above the level of the sea, wliere the 
 
AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 279 
 
 atmosphere acts upon the oxide of iron, the land is not very valuable. The principal 
 granite districts of England are Cornwall, Devonshire, and ^^ estmoreland. Some con- 
 siderable tracts of land on the granite formation on Dartmoor, have recently been 
 reclaimed by Mr. Fowler at great expense in drainage, blasting the boulders of granite, 
 and manui'e. Under this treatment they have been rendered highly productive of roots 
 and cereal produce. ^ 
 
 The trap rock, or basalt, contains much the same elements as the gneiss, namely, 
 felspar, hornblende, oxide of ii-on, potash, lime, &c. ; and, as in the case of granite, the 
 iron and potash assist in the decay of the rock. The soil formed of this rock is exceed- 
 ingly productive. It is said that in Cornwall, near Penzance, the proprietor of 1,000 
 acres realises a rental of £10,000 a year by it. Two crops of potatoes are produced in 
 the season, which, however, is partly owing to the mildness of the climate, tempered as it 
 is by the western breezes and the influence of the " Gulf Stream," which loses itself on 
 the western coast of England. 
 
 In ascending from the upper beds of the Silurian, we come to the tile-stone, so called 
 from the thinness of its beds, which fits it for roofing purposes. This stone is the lower 
 series of the Old Red sandstone formation. The central member of this is composed of 
 alternate beds of reddish grey, and greenish red, argillaceous marl. More frequently, 
 however, this latter alternates with argillaceous beds of eoncretionaiy lime, often in 
 large nodules, holding a considerable portion of iron and clay in their composition. It 
 is called dunstone, and when exposed to the atmosphere rapidly decomposes into a 
 reddish earthy marl. This marl is of great breadth in Herefordshire. Next to this 
 comes the conglomerate or pudding stone, a compact, coarse-grained sandstone from 
 1 foot to 5 or G feet thick. It is used in building, and is frequently raised in blocks of 
 20 feet long and 6 inches in thickness. The beds are divided by layers of pure sand, 
 or by dry fissures, and above them are thin beds of piu'e sandstone with a considerable 
 portion of mica in its composition. 
 
 The upper beds of the Old Red are a conglomerate of whitish quartz pebbles in a 
 reddish matrix of iron sandy clay. This is succeeded by a coarse-grained sandstone 
 in thin beds, and both are used in building. The soil on the hills formed of the tile- 
 stone strata is thin, cold, and hungry, producing naturally a poor, wiry kind of grass ; 
 but the surface of the middle part of the hills is a mixtui-e of argillaceous marl and 
 siliceous sand, forming a rich, strong soil, producing an abundance of wheat and barley, 
 and excellent pastures. It extends over parts of the counties of Hereford, Monmouth, 
 and Brecon. The cornstone, or corubrash, soil is a reddish, greasy marl, which retains 
 the manure long, and produces every kind of crop. It is, however, compelled to receive 
 the rain which falls on the tile-stone above it, the pervious nature of which prevents it 
 from retaining, and it issues in springs and overflows the land below. 
 
 The mountain limestone prevails in Wales, and in the counties of Derby, Somerset, 
 York, Cumberland, Westmoreland, &c. It is the base of the coal formation, and some- 
 times is composed wholly of shells, others are pui-e carbonate of lime, whilst others 
 contain silex and clay. The soil above the carbonaceous lime is thin and formed chiefly 
 of vegetable mould mixed with fragments of limestone. It bears, howevei-, an excellent 
 herbage for sheep. It is therefore chiefly kept in pasture, but when cultivated produces 
 good crops of corn and roots, &c. 
 
 The soil above the coal formation is a wet, poor, yellow clay, producing naturally a 
 
280 AGRICULTURE/ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 sedgy herbage and Leather. The exception to this is where the soil contains a large 
 portion of sandj which renders it productive with good cultivation. Lime is applied to 
 it with great effect after it has been drained. The magnesian limestone is the base of 
 the Saliferous formation ; it traverses a level country, inclining to the south-east ; its 
 composition is varied, being in some places formed of angular fragments of mountain 
 limestone, in others of round pebbles of limestone and other older rocks cemented into 
 a conglomerate by a yellowish magnesian earth. The upper soil is formed of fragments 
 of rocks, and is thin, light, friable, and easily cultivated, producing every kind of crops, 
 both cereal and green. 
 
 The New Red sandstone is chiefly composed of reddish or variegated coloured marl, 
 under which lies the salt rock. In some places it easily decomposes, and forms a deep, 
 dry, sandy soil ; where it lies over a porous subsoil it is rich and productive, but where 
 over an impervious clay it retains the rain and becomes wet and cold, unless well 
 drained, which is indispensable to its fertility. In other places where the red marl and 
 friable marly sandstone occur, a deep red friable loam is produced, fertile in its nature, 
 and yielding produce of every kind in abundance. It is the most general formation in 
 England, extending from Torbay, in Devon, through the counties of Gloucester, 
 Worcester, Warwick, Nottingham, and York, to the mouth of the Tees; and from 
 Birmingham through the counties of Stafford, Cheshire, and Lancashire, its breadth 
 being from 30 to 80 miles in the midland counties. In Devon and Somerset it forms 
 an unctuous and friable red marly soil, rich and most productive. Where sand prevails 
 it is a porous light-red sand, or loose sandy gravel, or a good loam suitable for wheat 
 and t)ther cereals. The marl is found to be a good dressing for the lighter soils. The 
 district over the New Red sandstone is level generally, but it also contains a few elevations 
 formed of drift and diluvium, chiefly gravel and sand, as is found in Staffordshire. 
 
 The lias is above the red marl of the New Red sandstone, and below the lower oolite. 
 Under a yellowish black clay, and beds of indurated clay slightly calcareous, is a deposit 
 of lias limestone in beds from two to ten inches in thickness, and containing from eighty 
 to ninety per cent, of carbonate of lime, with alumina and iron. When burned, it forms 
 an excellent cement for water-masonry. These thin beds of lime alternate with others 
 of blue or yellow clay, and by shales of considerable thickness, impervious to the water, 
 which has filtrated througli the oolitic rock above it, and which is therefore thrown upon 
 the lias. This keeps the surface wet, but if the land is drained, it forms excellent 
 pasture for cows, and produces the richest cheeses, and more in quantity than on the 
 New Red sandstone or the oolitic soils. 
 
 The Oolitic formation is divided into three principal divisions, each of which has 
 several subdivisions. The lower oolite is sandstone and unctuous marl, then shaly 
 calcareous limestone, next the slate used for roofing, then the great oolite, then the rag- 
 stone, composed of comminuted shells. The middle oolite is, first, Oxford clay, dark 
 blue and tenacious, and containing beds of bituminous shale, and nodules of septaria (or 
 calcareous marl) and sandstone. Above this is the coral rag, with beds of siliceous 
 matter, with grains of oolite as large as peas, termed mineral pisolite. The upper oolite 
 begins with Kimmeridgc clay, a bluish yellow clay, or shale, tlien the Portland oolite, 
 and the sand of the Portland stone. The clay is impervious, and throws up the water of 
 the porous oolite, which keeps the soil wet. The soil of tlie oolitic rock, like the subsoil, 
 is composed of minute particles and angular fragments of the rock, with little decayed 
 
AGRICULTURAL GEOLOGY. 281 
 
 matter in it. It varies considerably, but the agricultural characteristics of the varieties 
 are much alike. The whole of the oolite clays are close, adhesive, and calcareous; 
 and the soil from them is difficult to cultivate as arable land, except when well drained ; 
 it then forms excellent pastm'es, and in some places, as in Wiltshire, is well known as 
 dauy land of the first quality. In other parts the Kimmeridge clay prevails — an im- 
 pervious clunch of great thickness. Northamptonshire and the borders of Huntingdon- 
 shire are placed over this clay, and the soil naturally produces poor grass until it is 
 drained, and well cultivated, when it produces wheat in abundance. 
 
 It remains but to refer to some of the more peculiar strata which prevail in some 
 districts, and which have an influence beneficial or otherwise on agriculture in the 
 districts in which they prevail. 
 
 Gault is a blue, or dark grey, strongly adhesive clay. It effervesces with an acid. 
 It is a close, solid, compact mass of impervious substance,* lying under the edge of the 
 chalk hills. It prevails in Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, and Berkshire — in the ^'ale 
 of the White Horse. The calcareous nature of this clay renders it very susceptible to the 
 influence of the weather. After a dry season, when rain falls, it slakes like quicklime 
 into a fine powder ; it also is equally aff'ected by frost, and produces the root-fall when a 
 thaw occurs. 
 
 The green sand, of which the gault is a sub-member, is divided by it into the upper 
 and the lower. It is found under the whole range of chalk hills ; and the soil into 
 which it decomposes is rich and easily cultivated. In some parts it is a deep friable 
 loam, bearing wheat and beans, and excellent barley, &c. It is found in Bedfordshire, 
 Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Warwickshire, Devonshire, and Somersetshire ; but its 
 breadth is nowhere very great. In some parts it is too loose in quality^ and improves if 
 mixed with the gault. It is rich in phosphoric acid. 
 
 The Chalk formation is divided into three sections, the lowest of which is the chalk 
 marl, the surface soil of which abounds in tlie mineral elements of fertility. With the 
 green sand, it is the most productive soil in the kingdom for every kind of crop, and of 
 the finest quality. The lower chalk proper is found in beds of various thicknesses, from 
 one to two feet, on the chalk marl, from which it differs in being more pure and more 
 compact. It is used as building stone. IMasses of sulphate of iron are found in the 
 middle section of the chalk. The upper chalk is carbonate of lime, with nodules of black 
 flint between the layers of rock. The natural produce of the chalks is a short, close 
 sheep pasture ; and, as arable land, when well cultivated, it produces good crops of wheat, 
 bai'ley, &c. It prevails in the counties of Wilts, Hants, Buckingham, Oxford, Hertford, 
 Cambridge, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincoln, York, &c. 
 
 The plastic clay rests on the upper chalk, and is a series of beds of sandy clay of 
 various thicknesses. The soil above is generally a light sand, rendered wet by the beds 
 of clay which alternate with the sand, and thus forms bogs and mosses. If drained and 
 
 * The writer recollects a singular circumstance illustrative of the depth and the properties of this clay. Sixty years 
 ago, at a farm near Abingdon, in Cambridgeshire, some men were employed in sinkiug a well. They had dug 200 feet 
 through the gault without meeting with water enongh to wet their spades. At length, they begau to perceive symptoms 
 of water in a dampness of the clay : as it was twelve o'clocjj, they would not then proceed with the work, but left their 
 tools, and ascended to get their dinners. Upon their return to resume their work, to their astonishment, they found the 
 well brim full of water. They had reached, probably, within a foot or two of the great subterranean reservoir of water, 
 which, thus forcing its way, had gushed up till it reached the sm-face of the earth. The men lost their tools, but saved 
 their lives. 
 
282 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 well cultivated, it yields fair crops of roots and grass, the quality of wliich is good, if the 
 quantity were sufficient. The natural pasture on this soil is a poor, benty, worthless grass, 
 with heather, broom, and furze. 
 
 The London clay rests on the plastic clay, and is an argillaceous deposit of a bluish- 
 black colour, and contains calcareous matter, with micaceous and siliceous sand and iron, 
 nodides of septaria, or cement-stone. It extends round London, on both sides of the 
 Thames to Windsor, and to Harwich, in Essex, and Reculver, in Kent, being about 
 twenty miles in breadth, from Barnet to Croydon. The soil above is a brownish clay. 
 In dry weather it contracts, and forms fissures through which the rain, when it falls, 
 finds a passage to the drains. When well cultivated and thoroughly drained, it produces 
 wheat and beans in abundance, but is too strong and tenacious of itself for roots. The 
 grass on this soil is rich and luxuriant, being generally highly manured. 
 
 The crag rock prevails along the north side of the Isle of Wight from Alum Bay 
 through Cowes, Ryde, and Nettlestone, to Bembridge. The stone is solid, and is used 
 in large quantities for building purposes. It is a calcareous shaly mass, containing a 
 considerable portion of siliceous matter. Beds of argillaceous marl occur in the Crag, 
 which gives the whole district a clayey character. The soil above the Crag, along the 
 north side of the Isle of Wight, is consequently a calcareous clay, having in some places 
 a more sandy mixture than in others. When drained and well cultivated, it is tolerably 
 productive of grain and roots. A second narrow strip of crag is found on the eastern 
 coast, from Harwich to Yarmouth. It is of a loose shaly character, mixed with siliceous 
 sand. In some places it is more solid, and is used for biiilding. The looser portion is 
 used for top-dressing on a clay soil. The land is light, formed of finely comminuted 
 shale and siliceous sand, which blows into drifts in very stormy weather. Rainy seasons 
 are favourable to it, and it then bears heavy crops of barley and roots ; but in a dry, 
 hot season the crops are burnt up. It is in the crag formation that the coprolites are 
 found, and are used in the manufacture of artificial manure, on account of the large 
 proportion they contain of phosphate of lime. A third district in which the crag prevails 
 is that of Bagshot Heath and Beaulieu Forest, in Hampshire, and it is found in beds of 
 loose siliceous sand of various colours, light and porous. The natural produce is heather, 
 but the sub-soil is clay, which, if mixed with the upper soil, renders it pi'oductive. In 
 this way a portion of Bagshot Heath has been brought under cultivation, and is found 
 to be much more profitable iu the growth of roots than the general character of the 
 districts was considered capable of. 
 
 A large portion of the land of England rests upon the New Red sandstone, the soil of 
 which is exceedingly fertile. The lias requires to be mixed with marl to render it friable : 
 when thus treated and manured it becomes productive. Limestone, when pure, possesses 
 no fertility, and requires to be mixed with clay. Magnesia is an essential constituent 
 of soils, and with lime, potash, and soda, are of great importance in forming bases, 
 which, when mixed with oxygen, are in a condition to be absorbed by plants. None of 
 these alone possess any fertility. Tlie cretaceous (or chalky) group-soils vary. Those of 
 the lower green sand are exceedingly rich, and the upper chalk forms extensive downs, 
 producing a short sweet herbage for sheep pasturage. Those of Sussex, Hampshire, &c., 
 are exceedingly valuable for that purpose. It is evident that the erratic tertiaries are of 
 the first importance to agi'iculture, as forming the soil on the sui-face, and aflbrding the 
 materials for its renovation and improvement. 
 
AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 283 
 
 To tlie drift deposit^ therefore, the upper surface or soil is to be mainly ascribed, and 
 its fertility or otherwise depends on the composition of the rock or rocks from which it 
 has been detached. The sub-soil likewise is possessed of similar properties, and is 
 valuable for the improvement or renovation of the surface, according to the constituents 
 of which it is composed. It is remarkable that in none of the strata of the Tertiary 
 formation have the remains of any human beings or their works been discovered. Whilst 
 the bones of the ox, the horse, the elephant, and many other of the now domesticated 
 animals, with those of various beasts of prey, have been found in abimdance, those of 
 man are wholly absent ; or, if present, can be accounted for from accidental or other 
 appreciable causes, totally apart from the co-existence of the subject of them with the 
 inferior animals of the period. The inference to be drawn from this fact is, that the 
 earth was created for man, and that it was not vmtil everything thereon was prepared for 
 his existence that he was himself created ; and when he appeared, the inferior animals 
 flocked around him, as is graphically recorded in the Scriptures, totally unconscious of 
 danger, to receive their names : and thus tlie work of creation, as well as the geological 
 structure of the earth, received its final accomplishment. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 
 
 Botany implies a knowledge of the nature and affinities of plants, ascertained by exami- 
 nation of their constituent parts, so as to be able to classify and arrange them into distinct 
 tribes. It is only Avithin a comparatively short period that botany has been divided into 
 two branches, namely, systematic and physiological botany. The former alone was 
 known to the ancients, and their acquaintance with it was very imperfect ; the latter has 
 arisen out of the discoveries of chemistry and the microscope. By the first of these the 
 elementary constitution of plants was laid open ; whilst by the second their material and 
 mechanical framework was brought palpably before the eye. We shall in the first 
 instance give a general idea of the systematic arrangement adopted by botanists for 
 separating the vegetable world into divisions and subdivisions, inchuling genus, species, 
 orders, families, tribes, &c. &c. 
 
 The use of systematic botany to a farmer is to make him acquainted with the 
 characteristics of the plants that come under his immediate notice, whether as of a kmd 
 to be the subject of cultivation, or as weeds to be destroyed and eradicated. And here 
 it may be proper to observe that the business of the modern botanist is not generally or 
 necessarily directed to a discovery of the utility or otherwise of plants, which was the 
 main object of the older botanists, or herbalists. The latter always accompanied their 
 descriptions of plants with an account of their medicinal, nutritive, or poisonous qualities ; 
 and if these are in some cases referred to by the moderns it is incidentally, and not of 
 necessity ; for a man may be a good systematic botanist withoiit knowing the medicinal 
 
284 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 properties of a single plant. These belong strictly to the herbalist, who studies the 
 subject with the sole view of making them available in the cure of disease. 
 
 Systematic botany embraces the classificatiou of plants into species, families, genera, 
 or orders, classes, and sub-classes. Without such an arrangement the utmost confusiou 
 would arise in studying the characters of plants, the number of which at present known, 
 is said to be 120,000. Linnaeus, the author of the present system, founded his theory on 
 the simple principle and arrangement of the stamens and pistils ; the former being the 
 threadlike substances found in the corolla, or outward leaves of the flower ; and the 
 latter the column standing in the centre of the stamens. By a reference to the stamens, 
 the degree of relationship between plants is ascertained, with their names, struetm-e, 
 aiBnities, and properties. This is styled the artificial system of botany ; the natural 
 system having reference to the entire structure of the plant. Under the more refined, 
 or artificial, arrangement, we arrive at a more precise acquaintance with the structure 
 and characteristics of a plant, so as to be able to determine at ouce its affinities, a 
 knowledge of which assists us to judge of its properties. An artificial system, therefore, is 
 simply a guide to the names of plants, and furnishes no other information respecting them. 
 
 The term species has been defined as implying a collection of individuals (whether 
 plants or animals), possessing certain characteristics in common, and having been derived 
 from one common stock. They may present dift'erences in size, colour, and other pecu- 
 liarities ; but the general resemblance to each other is more close than to any other 
 plants, and their seeds jiroduce similar individuals. The varieties we see in plants of 
 the same species arise from their tendency to sport, as it is termed by gardeners ; and 
 these changes are afterwards perpetuated, under culture, by their seeds. All the 
 varieties of the cabbage, cauliflower, savoy, rape, &c. &c., for instance, owe their 
 origin to one common stock, the Brassica oleraccea, which grows wild on the sea-shore, 
 and undergoes all these transformations by cultivation. 
 
 The word genera is used to repi'esent an assemblage of species, not having a common 
 origin, but possessing certain features of resemblance in common, which prove their 
 affinity. They agree with each other in general structure and appearance more closely 
 than they do with any other species. Thus the Scotch rose, the dog rose, the China 
 rose, and the sweetbriar, are all different species comprised in one genus, " Rosa." 
 Certain genera may be grouped into families or orders. Thus genera are allied species, 
 and orders or families are groups of allied genera, or more comprehensive genera. Thus 
 also various piiies and larches belong to different genera, but all agree in bearing cones, 
 and are consequently placed in the order Conifera. Again, the rose, the raspbeny, 
 the strawberry, the cinquefoil, the plum, &c., all agree in the general organization, and 
 are united imder the order Rosacece. 
 
 Every flower consists of six principal parts, namely, the calyx, the corolla, the 
 stamen, the pistil, the pericarp, or seed vessel, and the receptacle. 
 
 If you take a flower, — a convolvulus, for instance, — and examine it, you will find that 
 it terminates at tlie lower end in a green cup, which encloses it quite round. This is the 
 calyx. There are six kinds of calyxes: — 1st, the perianth, as that of the rose; 2nd, 
 the involucre, that of the hemlock, carrot, &c. ; 3rd, the sheath, which encloses the 
 flower, as in the daffodil, &c. ; 4th, the glume, a chatty substance by which the seeds of 
 grasses are protected ; 5th, the cahjptra, the calyx of mosses, &c., which is placed on 
 the top of the flower ; 6th the volva, which distinguishes the mushroom tribe of plants. 
 
AGEICULTUUAL BOTANY. 285 
 
 The corolla is the outer part of the flower, and is formed of one or more leaves, 
 termed petals, which are generally coloured difierent from the common leaves, and 
 constitute the principal heauty of the flower. The convolvulus has only one petal, from 
 whence it is called a nioiwpetalous plant. The corolla springs from the calyx, and the 
 upper part of a monopetalous flower is called the limb ; and the lower end, which springs 
 from the calyx, the tube. Where the leaves of the corolla are numerous, the flower is 
 called polypetalous. The base of the petals of the corolla in these, is a claiu, the 
 expanded part, the border. Corollas are of various kinds, according to their shape, as 
 the campanulata, or bell-shape; the infimdibuUformis, or funnel-shaped ; the rotata, or 
 wheel-shaped, &c., in the monopetalous ; and the cruciform, or cross-like ; the rosacea, 
 spreading like a rose ; the papillionaceous, irregular, and somewhat like a butterfly, 
 whence its name, &c. &c. The tise of the corolla is to protect the inner and more 
 tender parts of the flower, and especially the embryo seed vessel, from the cold air, the 
 rain, and other causes of injm-y. Darwin supposed that the corolla acts as the lungs of 
 the stamens and pistils which are enclosed within it. It generally fades and falls ofi" as 
 the seed ripens. In double flowers it lives longer than in single, the plant not being 
 exhausted by the formation of seed. Some flowers have only one covering, in which 
 case, if green, it is called a calyx ; but if it is delicate in form, and coloured otherwise 
 than green, it is a corolla. 
 
 The stamen is placed within the corolla or calyx, and is formed of two parts ; a 
 number of thread-like filaments, supporting on the top the anthers, whicli when ripe 
 burst and disperse the pollen they contain in the form of fine dust, which is the fructi- 
 fying principle, and without which there would be no fruit or seed. The pistil is placed 
 in the centre of the flower, surrounded by the stamen. It consists of three parts — the 
 germen, the style, and the stigma. The germen is the globular seed-vessel placed at the 
 bottom of the corolla, and contains the seeds. The style is the pillar springing from, 
 or a continuation of, the germen ; it supports the stigma : the office of this latter is 
 to receive the pollen which impregnates the flower, and renders it fruitful. A nectary is 
 sometimes attached to the pistil, which elaborates, or secretes, the honey whicli is 
 contained in greater or less quantity in the flower. The nectary is differently formed in 
 diflferent plants. In monopetalous plants the honey is secreted in the corolla : in 
 others the corolla is elongated for the purpose ; whilst in others the honey distils in the 
 calyx. 
 
 The pericarp is the external part of the germen, and contains the seed when mattued. 
 It is of different forms and substance. The pericarp of the poppy is globvdar and hard, 
 that of the pea is long and soft. The plum has a pulpy pericarp, covered with a thin 
 skin, and containing a stony seed. In the pear and apple the seeds are enclosed in a thin 
 case. The pericarp of the nut is a hard shell containing a kernel, which is the proper 
 seed. The pericarp of the fir-tree is a hard scaly cone containing many seeds protected 
 by the scales. 
 
 The receptacle is the base of the whole flower, supporting it till the fruit or seed is 
 fully formed. It then falls off" and leaves the fruit suspended on the base to ripen. 
 
 The root of a plant consists of tlic caudex,* or principal part; and the fibres or 
 radicula, which supply the plant with nourishment from the earth. The root both 
 supports the plant in the soil, and sustains it with food. For this purpose the fibres are 
 * Caudei is applied to the stem. In this case it represents the body of the root. 
 
286 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 furnished with spongioles at their extremities, which absorb the elements of food 
 reduced to a liquid or impalpable form by the chemical agents provided by nature in the 
 soil; this has already been fully explained in treating of physiology. Many plants 
 exist without being rooted in the ground, and are thence called " air plants." Some 
 or most of these attach themselves to the ba:rk of trees and plants, into which they 
 sti-ike their rootlets, and derive their nom-ishment therefrom, as the misletoe, the doddei", 
 and the tribe of Orchids. These are termed parasitical plants on that account. Some 
 roots are annual, others biennial, and others perennial. They are also of various forms, 
 as — 1st. Radix fibrosa, or fibrous root, which branches out into the soil and collects the 
 nourishment, which it conveys directly to the plant. It is the most simple kind of 
 root, and many of the grasses and annual herbs have this kind. 2nd. Radix repens, or 
 creeping root. This kind generally throws out long branches horizontally, which form 
 fibrous roots at short intervals, every knot being reproductive, and prepared to form a 
 new plant of equally prolific powers. The farmer, to his sorrow, is too well acquainted 
 with this kind of roots, as represented by the TViticum repens (creeping wheat), or couch- 
 grass or twitch ; the Holcus mollis, another of these vegetable pests, &c. &c. 3rd. Radix 
 fusiformis, that of the carrot, parsnip, &c. The tapering form of this root enables it to 
 penetrate the soil perpendicularly. 4th. Radix prxmorsu, a root similar to the carrot, 
 but cut ofip, as it were, a little below the ground. The Scabiosa succisa, and some of the 
 hawkweed species of plants, have this root. 5th. Radix ttiberosa, a knobbed or tuberous 
 root, as the Solarium tuber osa (the potato), the Helianthus tuberosa (Jerusalem arti- 
 choke), &c. It consists of fleshy knobs of various forms connected together by fibres, 
 and forming reservoirs of moistui-e, nourishment, and vital energy to the plant. 
 6th. Radix bulbosa, a bulbous root, whether solid as the crocus ; or composed of con- 
 centric layers, as the onion tribe ; or ponsisting of fleshy scales, as the lily [lilium) . 
 These latter are analogous to leaf buds, and supply the plant with the means of sustain- 
 ing its vital energy during the season when they are torpid and inactive. 7th. Radix 
 articulata or granulata, a jointed or granulated root, the first being analogous to the 
 scaly, the second to the solid bulbs. 
 
 The leaves are the most fragile parts of the structure of a plant, and present a 
 broader surface to the atmosphere than all the rest of it put together. When in health 
 the colour is generally green, and its internal substance vascular, and more or less 
 succulent. The leaves contribute largely to the support of the plant, and are furnished 
 with organs for receiving nourishment from the atmosphere. They are of various kinds, 
 as — 1st. Folia radicula, radical leaves, which spring from the root, as the cowslip, 
 primrose, &c. 2nd. Folia alterna, alternate leaves ; these are placed apart fi-om each 
 other on the stem or branch in different directions, as in the borage, &c. 3rd. Folia 
 ternate, as those of the verbena, &c. 4th. Folia verticillata, whirled leaves ; these grow 
 in a circular form round the stem, as in the mare's tail, &c. 5th. Folia lanceolata ; these 
 are in form of a lance-head, as those of the willow and many others. 6th. Folia lineare, 
 linear narrow leaves, as those of the grasses, &c. 7th. Folia triangulare, triangular, as in 
 the ivy, &c. 8th. Folia deltoides, trowel-shaped, having three angles, as in the Danish 
 scurvy-grass, &c. 9th. Folia petiolata,lea,ves on {oot-staYks. lOth. Folia sessilia, sessile, 
 springing immediately from the stem, branches, or roots, without footstalk, as the 
 alkanct, buttcrwort, &c. 11th. Folia subrotimdum, a roundish leaf as that of the pyrola, 
 winter green, &c. 12th. Folia ovalum, ovate, the shape of an egg cut lengthwise, as the 
 
AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 287 
 
 nettle, periwinkle, &c. 13tli. Folia obovatum, obovate ; the same in figure with the 
 foregoing, but the broad end is uppermost in this, whilst in the former it was reversed. 
 14th. Folia reniform, kidney-shaped, a short, broad, roundish leaf, hollowed out at the 
 base, as in the oxyria, or mountain sorrel, &c. 15th. Folia cordatum, heart-shaped, 
 as in the black bryony, Viola odorata (sweet violet), &c. 16th. Folia runcinatum, runci- 
 nateor lion-toothed, as the dandelion (a corruption of the French dent-de-lion). 17th. 
 Folia laciniatum, laciniated, or cut into irregular portions, as in the crane's bill, &c. 
 
 We now proceed to explain the Linnsean system of the artificial division of plants, 
 as it has been modified by subsequent botanists, but without departing from the principle 
 laid down by its founder, so that it is still, with the greatest propriety, named after him. 
 The following are the divisions : — 
 
 ]. Plants with Stamens definite and equal. 
 Class 1. Mouandria, or with 1 stameu. 
 
 2. 
 
 Diaudria 
 
 „ 2 
 
 3. 
 
 Triandria 
 
 ,. 3 
 
 4. 
 
 Tetaudria 
 
 „ 4 
 
 5. 
 
 Fentaiidria 
 
 „ 5 
 
 6. 
 
 Hesaudiia 
 
 „ 6 
 
 7. 
 
 Heiitandria 
 
 „ 7 
 
 8. 
 
 Octandria 
 
 „ 8 
 
 9. 
 
 Enneandria 
 
 „ 9 
 
 10. 
 
 DccanJria 
 
 „ 10 
 
 2. Plants with Stamens indefinite. 
 
 Class 11. DodecaQdria, from 11 to 19 stamens. 
 „ 12. Icosaudria, stamens 20 and upwards, hypogenous, or inserted iu the calvj. 
 „ 13. Polyandria, stamens 20 and upwards, hypogenous, or inserted in the receptacle. 
 
 3. Plants with Stamens unequal. 
 
 Class \i. Didyuamia, stamens 4, two longer than the others. 
 ,, 15.. Tetradynamia, stamens 6, four longer than the others. 
 
 4. Plants with Filaments united 
 
 Class 1 6. Monadelphia, one bundle of stamens, or aiulrophere. 
 „ 17- Diadelphia, two bundles of stamens. 
 „ 18. Polyadelphia, several bundles of stamens, 
 
 5. Plants with Anthers united. 
 Class 19. Syngenesis, stamens 5, united by their anthers — flowers collected into a common involucre, 
 
 6. Plants with Stamens united to a Pistil. 
 Class 20. Gyuandria. 
 
 7. Plants with Flowehs unisexual. 
 
 Class 21. Monoccia, stamens and pistils in the same individuals. 
 „ 22. Dioecia, stamens and pistils in different individuals. 
 „ 23. Polygamia, hermaphrodite and unisexual (lowers, either in the same or different individuals. 
 
 8. Plants with Floweks invisible. 
 
 Class 24. Cryptogamia, having neither stamens nor pistils. 
 
 Tlie first twenty-three classes are phanerogamous vegetables (having the reproductive 
 organs visible), some of which have flowers hermaphrodite or double sexed ; others are 
 diclinous, or have them in separate flowers. Of the former there are twenty, and of 
 
288 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the latter three classes. The hermaphrodite or bisexual flowers may have the stamens 
 free from the pistil, or united to it. Only one class belongs to the latter, and nineteen 
 to the former. 
 
 In the first thirteen classes the characters of the orders, 'or subdivisions of the 
 classes, are taken from the number of styles or family organs, the names indicating 
 respectively one, two, three, or more styles or stamens. The 14th class was named 
 from the structure of the fruit. When this is formed of four akenia (or seed vessels) 
 lying at the bottom of the calyx, so as to resemble naked seeds, the order is called 
 Gymnospermia. When the fniit is a capsule containing several seeds it is named 
 Angiospermia. The 15th class, Tetradynamia, includes two orders; one with a silicula 
 (or pod as broad as it is long), the other with a siligna (or long narrow pod) . 
 
 Classes 16, 17, and 18 are named according to the union of the filaments, the 
 number of stamens being employed as a character for the orders. Class 19, Syiigenesia, 
 in which the anthers are united, and there are usually five stamens, is named accord- 
 ingly, from the cylindrical form in which the anthers are placed. Some flowerets were 
 found to be bisexual, others with stamens or pistils only. The 23rd class therefore is, 
 in its three orders, named Pobjgamia, with another epithet to mark their respective 
 peculiarities. The first is termed Polygamia equalis, all the flowers being equally 
 productive and bisexual. The second, Polygamia superflua ; the flowerets of the centre 
 are bisexual, but those of the circumference are real females, producing perfect fruit. 
 
 Class 24, Cryptogamia, consists of flowerless plants in which the organs of fructification 
 are entirely, or very nearly, concealed by their diminutive size, or their position in the 
 plant. In the Liunsean system of arrangement this class is perfectly in accordance with 
 nature, and it has not been materially altered in the natural system of modern botanists. 
 The principal alteration is that of having subdivided his four orders, Filices, Musci, Alga, 
 and Fungi, and added the genus Chura, which had been placed by the great botanist in 
 the class Monandria. These are represented by ferns, mosses, liverworts, flag.?, and 
 mushrooms. 
 
 In the ferns the fructification takes place mostly on the back of the leaves, which is 
 proved by the production of seeds, but in some they are found at the summit or near 
 the base of the frond. The ferns are a very numerous and beautiful tribe of plants, and 
 in tropical climates some of them attain a considerable height. 
 
 The Musci, or mosses, are also very numerous and beautiful, found in all climates, 
 and very tenacious of life, being restored to vitality by moisture after having been long 
 dried. The Hepatiae, or liverworts, are herbaceous plants, the fructification originating 
 from the leaf and stem. Some of them (as the Marchantia) are a very prolific order of 
 plants, and occasion great trouble to the gardener and florist, overrunning beds and 
 pots of flowers that requu'e constant moisture, as well as beds of Alpine or American 
 plants. 
 
 The Algce, or flags, are the fourth order, and are very numerous, and include sea- 
 weeds and lichens. Linnaeus divided the latter into nine sections, each of which was 
 subdivided into several species. The Fungi or mushroom tribe of plants comprehends 
 all those plants which bear a resemblance to the mushroom. Some of these, as is well 
 known, are highly poisonous, whilst others, such as the proper mushroom and trufiles, 
 are very much esteemed at table. 
 
 Having thus briefly described the artificial system of Linnreus, we shall next speak 
 
AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. 289 
 
 of the natural system of Jussieu, as adopted or modified by subsequent botanists. The 
 following is his arrangement : — 
 
 Class. 
 Acotyledones 1 
 
 i Stamina hypogj-na 2 
 „ perigyna 3 
 V „ _ epigyna 4 
 
 f Stamina epigyna 5 
 
 'ApetalsE < „ perigyna 6 
 
 ( „ hypogyna 7 
 
 f Corolla hypogyna 8 
 
 MonopetalJ » ^^ -^^^ ^^^^. _• ^9 
 
 Dicotyledones I \ >• I ^l (^anther free . .11 
 
 ( Stamina epigyna 12 
 
 Polypetalffi < „ hypogyna 13 
 
 ( „ perigyna 14 
 
 VDiclines irregulares . . .15 
 
 These classes have been subdivided into a hundred orders^ beginning with the Fungi, 
 and ending with the Conifera. 
 
 Such are the elements or first principles of the system of botany, natural and 
 artificial, adopted by modern botanists, and we have given them a place in our work 
 rather with the view of stimulating the study of the science, than that of conveying any 
 adequate idea of its length and breadth. So far as an artificial system is concerned, it 
 is in itself of little use to an agriculturist, whose acquaintance with the science may be 
 supposed to be advantageous only as it relates to the plants which are the immediate 
 object of his attention, ijut it would be an error to suppose that even such a view of 
 its value would confine the study of the farmer to a few plants, in their characters, habits, 
 and properties. There are a multitude of species both useful and noxious, and especially 
 the latter, with which he has to do, and the study of which will materially assist him in 
 either the proper cultivation of the one, or the extermination of the other. The germi- 
 nation of seeds, for instance, is one of the subjects first in importance to him; and 
 although practice alone may impart a certain extent of knowledge, it is science alone 
 that can enable him to obtain an accurate and intelligent acquaintance with the causes 
 of certain vegetable phenomena, either of a beneficial or an injurious tendency, so as to 
 be able to apply in his practice a stimulant to the one, or a corrective to the other. 
 
 We have already spoken of physiology, a knowledge of which is essential to a proper 
 acquaintance with botany. At the same time it must be obvious that as physiology is 
 applicable to the animal kingdom as well as the vegetable, it was necessary for us to 
 treat it as a separate science, and, after chemistry, to give it a priority as we have done. 
 Still vegetable physiology stands foremost in importance with the farmer, the success of 
 whose operations are all in a great measure dependent upon a knowledge of the prin- 
 ciples of nature, and of the causes of the phenomena she presents to him in the growth 
 of plants ; and these are so intimately connected with the other branches of science, 
 that he cannot study the one without seeing the value and importance of the other. 
 The analogy between plants and animals, and their mutual dependence, mediately or 
 immediately, upon the earth for existence, the similarity of the mode of their repro- 
 duction, and the graduated scale of vitality by which the one merges, and is lost, in the 
 other, are amongst the most interesting and important facts in natm'al history. The 
 more, too, these are studied, and the more closely the interior structure of plants is 
 examined, the greater proofs shall we obtain of design and fitness in the works of nature, 
 
 V 
 
290 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and of the imijossibility that inert matter should ever have been able to mould itself into 
 those beautiful forms and minute contrivances for the support of life, which the 
 microscope has revealed in the construction of plants. Every step in the study of 
 physiology gives evidence of au omnipotent creative power and a superintending Provi- 
 dence ; and the meanest plant that grows^ as well as the most towering monarch of the 
 forest, proclaims alike " that the hand that made it is Divine." 
 
 SECTION XL 
 
 METEOROLOGY. 
 
 There is perhaps no class of men whose success in business is so dependent on atmo- 
 spheric phenomena as the farmer's, or whose talent of observation on the various indica- 
 tions of changes of the weather is so much and so fi'equently called in requisition. Every 
 step he takes in the prosecution of his calling, every moment of the season, from the 
 time of the preparation of the land for putting in the seed to that of the harvesting of 
 the produce, is accompanied with more or less of auxiety and calculation of the state of 
 the weather, as affecting the ultimate success of his operations. Too much or too little 
 heat or moisture, too long a continuance of any of the conditions of seasonal temperature, 
 excite alternately his hopes and fears, and tax his patience ; nor can he ever consider 
 himself safe until the fruits of the season are well and safely housed. Helpless as an 
 infant in the midst of the vicissitudes of the weather, the husbandman, above aU others, 
 must feel that his dependence is on a higher power, and that, after all he can do by the 
 exercise of the most energetic efforts, and the most enlightened policy, a single night of 
 undue severity of temperature, a breath of poisonous miasmata, a blast of the hurricane, 
 may neutralise his plans, blight his prospects, and dash his hopes, for the season, to the 
 ground. 
 
 The science, therefore, of meteorology is of tenfold importance to the farmer, whose 
 success is thus liable to be affected by changes over which he has no control, and he has 
 consequently, from age to age, sought the means of collecting and registering those 
 prognostics of the weather which observation has enabled him to discern. These have 
 been made without reference to scientific arrangement or deduction, and are the result 
 of experience and observation alone, independent of a consideration of remote causes, 
 and we therefore find many of them fanciful, and others superstitious, whilst but few 
 are accounted for upon rational or logical principles. As in other departments of 
 natural philosophy, so in meteorology, empiricism has taken the place of scientific 
 investigation, and a series of maxims more or less, and only by chance, correct, instead 
 of a code of natural laws, has ruled the ideas and actions of the cultivators of the soil. 
 
 A great deal of attention has of late years been bestowed upon this science, and some 
 progress made in reducing the phenomena of the atmosphere to a system. Meteorology, 
 however, is still in its infancy, and the process and means of observation involve so long 
 a period to determine the truth and correctness of the data upon which deductions are 
 
METEOROLOGY. 291 
 
 to he based, that the longest life of man is scarcely sufficient to enable him to master all 
 the details, and even to cross the threshold of the subject. Nor is this to be won- 
 dered at, when it is considered that the data themselves are many of them so remote and 
 occiilt as to be beyond the grasp of ordinary minds to perceive, or to calculate their 
 bearings. The chemist has sure bases to work upon in the analysis, and the microscope 
 is a safe and unerring guide to the physiologist ; the sm'geon is guided in his operations 
 by the light of comparative anatomy, and the mechanician works upon laws as fixed and 
 precise as those of the earth itself. But the meteorologist, whilst observing the imme- 
 diate influence of the phenomena around him, Knows that the lesser cy-cle, on which he 
 forms his theory, is itself influenced by others more extended and remote, and those by 
 others still further removed from human observation, and so on, until they reach to 
 thousands of years, leaving all calculation of their influence upon oui" planet at an 
 immeasurable distance.* 
 
 " When we consider," says a modern writer, " the peculiar conditions connected with 
 every atmospherical problem, the large advances that must be made in every capital 
 portion of knowledge, before one successful step can be made in this, the subtle nature 
 of the medium which is the subject of investigation, its singular relations to moisture, 
 the changes it undergoes -with every alteration of temperature, in one region influenced 
 by the full power of a vertical sun, and in another chilled by the frozen masses of the 
 
 polar zones, &c., all these, and a thousand more complicated inquiries beset the 
 
 investigator at the very threshold of meteorology, stimulating him to ardent investiga- 
 tion, and inspiring him with wholesome caution." f 
 
 There was a time when the earth was considered to be the centre of the universe, 
 around which the sun and the stars were supposed to revolve. Astronomy has taught 
 us that not only the earth, but that the solar system itself is but an infinitesimal part of 
 the universe, and that there are thousands of systems as large, or possibly larger, than 
 that with which this earth is connected. It is now believed by astronomers that the sun 
 and its planets, as a system, have also an orbit round a gi'and central focus, J at present 
 undiscovered, but of which some facts have been determined. Dr. Brewster, in reference 
 to this immense subject, remarks, " If the biu'ied relics of primeval life have taught us 
 how brief has been our tenure of this terrestrial paradise, compared with its occupancy 
 by the brutes that perish, the sidereal truths which we have been expounding impress 
 upon us the no less humbling lesson that from the birth of man to the extinction of his 
 race, the system to which he belongs will have described but an infinitesimal arc of that 
 immeasui-able cycle in which it is destined to revolve." § 
 
 Whilst, however, there is good reason to beheve that the earth is certainly under the 
 influence of these wider and more remote cycles, and that they produce some of those 
 sudden changes in the atmosphere which baifle and confound the calculations of the 
 meteorologist, they are too far removed from observation and too occult to be considered 
 or taken into account here ; and if we have referred to them, it is to show the difficulties 
 which lie in the way of the student of this science, and of the professed adept, in 
 
 * The annus magnus of Plato is a period of 25,868 years, during wliich the equinoxes complete the series of retro- 
 gressions. 
 
 t G. Harvey, Esq., F.R.S.L., "Encyc. Metropolitana." 
 
 X Thomson's " Meteorology," Introd., p. 21 . ■ _ 
 
 § Ibid. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 AGRICULTURE, ANOIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 reducing it to those fixed laws aud rules which in other branches of physical science lead 
 to certain results. 
 
 Meteorology Avas formerly made to include all the astronomical and atmospheric 
 appearances of the heavens, but by a later and more logical arrangement, its meaning is 
 restricted to the consideration of the phenomena of the weather, the seasons, and the 
 climate ; and these are viewed as referable to the investigation of those laws which 
 " govern the ever-changing affections of the atmosphere of oiu' globe in its relations tc 
 heat, moisture, and electricity, and the movements which the changes of those relations, 
 brought about by astronomical or other causes, impress upon its parts. 
 
 The atmosphere, then, is both the medium aud the cause of meteorological pheno- 
 mena : the medium, because it is acted upon by the sidereal bodies with which the earth 
 is surrounded ; and the cause, in that it is of itself the origin of many of those pheno- 
 mena affecting the state of the earth's surface. What, then, is the nature of that aerial 
 fluid, which, whilst we canjiot see it, is the element in and on which we live and breathe, 
 whose influence we momentarily are sensible of, and whose modifications are the cause 
 of the accesses of disease or the restoration of health on the one hand, and the sources 
 of prosperity or of calamity to the cultivator of the earth on the other ? 
 
 The atmosphere is composed of two aerial substances, or gases, namely, oxygen and 
 nitrogen, in the proportions in volume of 20"8 of oxygen, to 79'2 of nitrogen. In addition 
 to these there is a small portion (say 1 volume to 10,000 of air) of carbonic acid. 
 These gases are only mechanically mixed, but they never vary in these proportions, and 
 may be easily separated by analysis. Together, they form a ponderable body, capable 
 of condensation, expansion, and mensuration. In addition to these natural components 
 of the air, there are others of an adventitious character, which combine chemically with 
 oxygen, and float about in variable quantities. Oxygen and hydrogen are thus found in 
 combination, arising from manufactories, or from decayed vegetable substances. All 
 these gaseous matters are elastic, clear, colourless, and devoid of taste or smell ; biit, in 
 other respects, differ widely from each other in theii* nature and properties. 
 
 Oxygen is heavier than the air, its specific gravity being as 1-111 to I'OOO. It is a 
 supporter of combustion, and is essential to both animal and vegetable life. It is highly 
 impressible, but the heaviest pressure will not liquefy it. It is an essential element of 
 all organic substances, and constitutes 89 per cent, of water. 
 
 Nitrogen, or azote, is lighter than the atmosphere, being in specific gravity as '9727 
 to 1"0. It neither supports combustion, nor will it sustain life of itself, but, with 
 oxygen, enters into all the arrangements by which life is supported. 
 
 Carbonic acid gas is a colourless and inodorous fluid, and easily unites with water, 
 to which it imparts a peculiar taste. To wine it adds a sparkling property, peculiarly 
 observable in champagne. It is heavier than air, having a specific gravity of 1'52 to I'O, 
 and it can be poured from one vessel to another. Under a pressure of 36 atmospheres 
 it liquefies at 32° Fahr., and when liberated in that state, so rapid is the evaporation, 
 and intense the cold, that it assumes the solid form of snow, and remains congealed 
 under the simple pressure of the atmosphere. 
 
 These, then, are the elements which form the atmosphere by which we are sur- 
 rounded, and which is the basis of meteorological inquii-y and investigation. It is upon 
 it tliat the absence or presence of heat acts to produce those changes in the temperature 
 observable from time to time, aud it is the magazine, or storehouse, of those mists and 
 
METEOROLOGY. 293 
 
 vapours which^ vrith the help of electric agency, form clouds and produce storms. The 
 sun, as the centre of the system, is the primary agent in those changes which alternate 
 with its relative position with the earth. Many of these are fixed and immutable, 
 depending upon laws the operations of which are uniform and certain. Thus, " day and 
 night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest," succeed each other with imerring 
 cei'tainty. Others also, there is every reason to believe, depend upon fixed laws, but are 
 at the same time subject to occult influences, which change their time and mode of 
 operation, and occasion that perplexity and disappointment to which the cultivator of the 
 ground is in an especial manner liable, and which so frequently bafile his most skilfully- 
 arranged plans. It is to these latter that the science of agricultm-al meteorological 
 investigation is directed, and although it were vain to expect to fathom all the depths of 
 that system of nature by which the phenomena of the atmosphere are produced, we may, 
 notwithstanding, by a careful observation of the changes that occur at certain seasons, 
 and by a register of those changes for a series of years, be able to form a judgment, 
 with some degree of certainty, of what will be the result of analogous states of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 The sun, as the centre of the planetary system, and the source of light and heat, is 
 the most important agent in meteorology. Its action on water is diS"erent from that on 
 land. It penetrates the former to a considerable depth, and is absorbed internally; but 
 the rays that strike the land are absorbed superficially, or to a very minute depth from 
 the surface. Water is a non-conductor of heat, and where it is received into its 
 substance, it is only diffusible by agitation : and since this, however violent at the 
 surface of the ocean, diminishes rapidly with the increase of depth, the progress of heat 
 downward is a very slow process. Water gives out day and night radiant caloric, which 
 is absorbed by the air, and raises its temperature. Much of the caloric so thrown off is 
 balanced in the lower strata of the atmosphere ; and, in the meanwhile, a balance is 
 struck in the water itself of the quantities of heat received and parted with, by the pre- 
 ponderance of one or the other of what it gains or loses in average temperature in the 
 twenty-four hours. Thus, in the warm season, when the days are long and the nights 
 short, the general temperature of the sea slowly rises above its usual average, and vice 
 veisd in the opposite season. Below a certain depth, however, the temperature of the 
 sea would appear to be determined by other causes, and to be very little dependent on 
 its superficial amount, or fluctuations. It has been found that the deep sea-water below 
 a certain level, determined by the latitude, is of invariable temperature throughout the 
 globe, and that a very low one — Kotzebue stating it at 36°, and Ross at 39° 5', Fahr. 
 The depth at which this fixed temperature is attained is about 7,200 feet at the equator, 
 diminishing up to latitude 56° on either side that line, where it attains the surface, and 
 the sea is of equal temperature at all seasons, and at all depths. Thence, again, the 
 upper surface of this uniform substratum descends, and at 70° of latitude attains a depth 
 of 4,500 feet. Thus the ocean is divided into three great regions — two polar basins, in 
 which the surface of temperature is below 39°, and one medial zone above it, attaining 
 82° at the equator, and at the poles, of course, the freezing-point of sea-water. It is 
 within these respective regions only that superficial currents can act as transporters of 
 meteorological temperatures." * 
 
 In land there is neither agitation nor transparency, the communication of heat 
 
 • Herschel, "Encyc. Brit.," Art. Metf.obology. 
 
294 AGRIOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 flownwavds being entirely by conduction. It is absorbed by the surface, which receives 
 and appropriates to a slight depth all the heat that in water would instantly be diffused 
 thi-ou"^!! many yai'ds of its substance. The superficial film then becomes heated, and, as 
 it is a law of radiation that its intensity increases rapicUy with the temperature of the 
 radiant surface, it throws out on the instant a much larger portion of the solar heat than 
 in the case of water, besides imparting to the air by contact, or communication, a pro- 
 portionally greater amount. That portion of heat in the soil is conducted downwards ; 
 and so long as the surface is gaining in temperatiu'e, a wave of heat is continuously 
 propagated downwards into the earth. When the siu'face, by the decline of the sun, 
 begins to lose heat, this ceases, and (the radiation still continuing) a wave of cold (or 
 less comparative heat) begins to be propagated, and so on alternately diu-ing the day 
 and night. These waves, as they run on, spread forwards and backwards, and thus, by 
 degrees, neutralise each other. Thus, the diurnal fluctuations of temperatm-e beneath 
 the surface grow continually less as the depth increases, the rate of the diminution 
 depending upon the conductive capacity of the soil. In ordinary soils, the difiFerence 
 between the diurnal and nocturnal extremes becomes imperceptible at four feet below 
 the surface. In like manner, the general increase of heat due to the summer season, and 
 of cold during the winter, are propagated in similar but larger and feebler annual waves, 
 which in their turn neutralise each other at more considerable depths, and become 
 imperceptible at forty or fifty feet. 
 
 " It has been proved by the experiments of several meteorologists that there is a 
 mutual interchange of heat taking place between bodies placed near each other, the 
 hotter radiating more than the colder, in a ratio increasing with the increase of the 
 temperatiu-e. Thus, when a hot body is placed in presence of other bodies, some colder 
 and others hotter than itself, an equilibrium will rapidly take place, in which its 
 momentary gains and losses of heat, to and fro amongst them all, Avill balance each 
 other, and its temperatui'e thenceforward will be unchanged." * 
 
 As the earth receives more slowly the heat of the sun than the atmosphere, so it 
 retains it longer. In summer, the sui'face is hotter than the interior, but in winter the 
 proportions are altered. Dr. Hale's experiments were very conclusive on this point. 
 In August, 1724-, when the thermometer in the air stood at 88°, and the siu-face was the 
 same temperature, at only 2 inches below, the mercvuy fell to ^o°, at 16 inches to 
 70°, and at 2-1! inches to 68°. The two last preserved the same temperature day and 
 night, and fell to 63° at the end of the month. On the 26th October, when the thermo- 
 meter fell to 35° 5' in the air, at 2 inches below the sm-face it rose to 43° 85', at 16 inches 
 to 48° 8', and at 24 inches to 50°. On the 1st November, when the air was at 27°, at 
 25 inches it stood at 43° 8'. 
 
 The process of evaporation of water takes place as well under one temperature as 
 another, when exposed to the air. The miller well knows that in a long-continued frost 
 his business is as much impeded by the decrease of the water as by the accumulation of 
 ice ; and the more severe the temperature, the greater the evaporation. In Tartary, the 
 inhabitants avail themselves of this circumstance to reduce milk to a dry powder. They 
 place the milk in the air in shallow pans, exposed to the east wind. After a little time, 
 the frozen mass exhibits on the surface a dry white crust, which is the milk deprived by 
 evaporation of the aqueous parts. This is scraped oiF carefully and put into bottles. 
 
 * Ilerschel, " Encyc. Brit.," Art. Meteoroi.ogv 
 
METEOROLOGy. 295 
 
 Another crust tlaeh forms, whicli is scraped off in like manner ; and so on, until the 
 whole of the milk is reduced to a dry white powder, which, if preserved from the air, 
 will keep for any length of time. A spoonful of this powder put into a dish of tea 
 answers every purpose of milk or cream. Evaporation, however, is more palpable under 
 heat than under cold ; and also in windy than in calm weather, the generated vapour 
 being removed as fast as it is produced, instead of its being submitted to the slower 
 process of diffusion upwards ; the amount of water evaporated being in proportion to the 
 extent of the surface exposed to the air. It is therefore greater from a rough moist soU, 
 or from plants wetted by rain, than from the surface of water, and from the latter when 
 agitated by the wind, than when at rest. 
 
 Winds are therefore amongst the most immediate agents in meteorology, and 
 exercise a powerful influence over the phenomena of heat and moisture, tempering and 
 modifying the former, and exhausting the latter. The salutary influence of the " March 
 winds " in drying up the moisture of the soil left by the rains and snows of the preceding 
 months is well known to every farmer. Nor are they less conducive to the health of 
 both man and beast (the rheumatics notwithstanding) in dispersing pestilential vapours, 
 and other sources of epidemic disease, and preventing the accumulation of heat under 
 the influence of the sun's rays. The winds also cause currents in the ocean, by which 
 the heated waters under a tropical sun are conveyed northward to temper the cold of 
 that region. Thus, the " gulf stream," which proceeds from the Gulf of Mexico, takes 
 its course along the coast of North America towards the polar regions, and describing a 
 crescent, comes round in an exhausted, but still, to a perceptible extent, thermal state 
 to the coast of Ireland, and is lost on the soixth-west coast of England. 
 
 Although the winds are proverbially the most uncertain and erratic of the ordinary 
 meteorological phenomena, and our knowledge of the precise laws by which they are 
 governed very imperfect, yet, by tracing the connection of this subject with other 
 branches of physics, science has thrown much light upon it, and natui'alists have been 
 enabled successfully to arrange and classify the various forms in which these meteors 
 present themselves, so as to give each a definite character and status in meteorological 
 nomenclatiore. 
 
 The cause of wind is the pressure or expansion of the air by heat, the variable distri- 
 bution of which in the atmosphere incessantly afl'ects its local density, and disturbs the 
 balance of forces. Upon an accession of heat, an immediate ascentional movement takes 
 place in the air, causing an overflow of its material above, and a relief of pressure below. 
 This distension of the air is irregular in its operation, as local circumstances cause the 
 heat to be greater in one place than in another. Whenever this takes place, a pressure 
 and disturbance in the surrounding neighbourhood succeeds. Such is the explanation 
 of the phenomenon of wind. If there was or could be an equality of heat over the face 
 of the globe, or in certain zones of it, there could be no wind, becaiise there would be 
 no expansion of the air to disturb the equilibrium. The watery vapours arising from the 
 surface of bodies of water are a secondary cause of winds. Being lighter than atmo- 
 spheric air, they ascend, bearing with them a portion of caloric. This, on reaching a 
 colder region of the air, is liberated, and the vapour becoming thereby condensed into 
 water, a vacuum is created, into which the surrounding atmosphere rushes, and produces 
 an agitation, or wind. 
 
 Mountainous countries are more liable to sudden storms or gusts of wind than level 
 
296 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 ones. Their elevated ridges cause an interruption to the general currents of the air. 
 In some cases they give a permanent direction to the wind in ordinary seasons. Thus, 
 in Ireland, where a mountain chain runs through the country from north to south, west 
 and westerly winds prevail nine months of the year. The plains to the east of the 
 mountain range possessing a warmer temperature than the mountains, it causes a rush 
 of air from the colder region of the high ground, which produces the efiPect. 
 
 Local causes sometimes produce atmospheric disturbances in mountainous districts, 
 " which," says Dr. Thomson, " it is difficult to account for satisfactorily." Such is the 
 " Helm wind," at Cross Fell, in Cumberland — a meteorological phenomenon which occurs 
 at uncertain times, between October and May, and which is thus described in a recent pub- 
 lication : — " When the atmosphere is perfectly calm, and scarcely a cloud is to be seen in 
 the heavens, suddenly a range of clouds is formed, called ' the Helm,' extending along the 
 top ridge of the mountain. Almost parallel with this another range of clouds is formed, 
 called ' the Bar.' The first of these clouds is well defined on its western, and the other 
 on its eastern, edge, and they unite together at their northern and southern extremities, 
 enclosing between them an ellipsis, whose length varies from eight to thirty miles, and 
 its breadth from half a mile to four or five miles, enclosing within its area the highest 
 ridge of the mountain. Soon after the appearance of ' the Helm,' a storm of Avind 
 commences within the area between the two ranges of clouds, blowing generally due 
 east and west, and with such force as to break and uproot trees, scatter the stacks of 
 corn and hay, upset horses and carts, &c. This sometimes continues for nine conse- 
 cutive days, and is accompanied with a noise resembling the sea in a violent storm, but 
 is seldom attended with rain. No hypothesis has yet been offered that satisfactorily 
 accounts for this phenomenon ; but the most probable solution is, that the air from the 
 Northumberland coast being cooled as it rises to the summit of the mountains, becomes 
 condensed, and descends again by its own gravity with great force into the district at 
 the western foot of the mountain." 
 
 Meteorologists have divided winds into three classes — namely, general, periodical, 
 and variable winds. General or permanent winds blow nearly always in the same 
 direction. Thus, in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, under the equator, the wind is 
 almost constantly easterly as far as 28° on both sides of that line. More to the north- 
 ward it blows generally between the north and east ; and the further north we proceed, 
 the more the north wind prevails. Beyond 28° south, the south and east winds predo- 
 minate, and the farther to the southward we go, the more the wind comes in that 
 direction. Between 28° and 40° south latitude, and between 30° west and 100° east 
 longitude of London, the wind most frequently blows from north-west to south-west; 
 and the outward-bound East India ships run down their eastings on the parallel of 
 36° south. These are well known as the trade winds. The monsoons are those winds 
 which for six months, from April to September, blow from the southward over the 
 Indian Ocean, between the parallels of 28° north and 28° south latitude, and between 
 the eastern coast of Africa and the meridian that passes through the western part of 
 Japan. The other six months, from October to March, inclusive, the winds in the 
 northern parts of the Indian Ocean shift round and blow in the contrary direction from 
 that they held in the former period. The change is preceded by calms, variable winds, 
 and storms of thunder and rain.* 
 
 * Gregory, 
 
]\[ETEOROLOGY. 297 
 
 In tropical countries^ they have land and sea breezes alternately in the twenty-four 
 hours. The cause of this is, that water being a better conductor of heat than landj is 
 less variable in its temperature. In the day, the land becomes heated, which rarefies 
 the air, and causes in the afternoon a rush of cool air to set in from the sea, in which 
 the heat from the sun's rays is more dispersed than in the land, which retains a great 
 portion of it on the surface. At night the land loses its surplus heat, while the sea 
 retains its portion ; the conditions, therefore, being reversed, towards morning a breeze 
 springs up from the land towards the sea, which, retaining its heat, warms and rarefies 
 the air, whilst that on the land is cooled and condensed. 
 
 We frequently see clouds moving contrary ways, which is generally a prelude to a' 
 thunder-storm. This is caused by the temporary disturbance or rarefaction of the upper 
 current of air in a contrary direction from that of tlie lower. The higher we ascend, the 
 greater is the force of the ■wind, until we get above the clouds, when we find it calm and 
 serene. Below this, towards the surface, the currents are interrupted by rising grounds, 
 causing eddies and rebounds. At times, however, the storms sweep down the slopes of 
 the mountains and hills, carrying everything before them, and scattering devastation on 
 the plains below. Narrow passages between hills are subject to strong winds, because 
 both the density and swiftness of the currents of air are increased by its contraction. 
 Large lofty buildings in a city, such as cathedrals and churches, which have open spaces 
 around them, and are surrounded by houses, have the same effect. Thus, in St. Paul's 
 Churchyard, in London, in whatever direction the wind blows, there is a strong current of 
 air all round it, proceeding from the streets opening into it in the direction of the wind. 
 
 The hurricane is fortunately but little known in the British Isles ; but yet instances 
 of its appearance have occasionally occuiTcd. On the 3rd September, 1658, there was 
 one which was said by the faculty to have occasioned the death of Oliver Cromwell by 
 the sudden change in the density of the atmosphere ; and in 1756, a hurricane took 
 place in Scotland which uprooted and destroyed the wood of Drumlanrig, in Dumfries- 
 shire. In 1703 a hurricane, which was supposed to have originated in the forests of 
 North America, crossed the Atlantic, and with increasing violence swept over Britain, 
 France, Holland, Germany, Sweden, the Baltic, great part of Russia, and Tartary, losing 
 itself in the North Sea. The destruction of property was beyond calculation, but in 
 Britain alone it was estimated at four millions sterling. Twelve ships of the royal navy, 
 with 1,600 men, and mounting upwards of 500 guns, were destroyed. A vast number 
 of houses were blown down, and of lives lost. Amongst the latter was the Bishop of 
 Bath and Wells, and his lady, and the sister of the Bishop of London, by the falling of 
 chimneys. It was in this storm that the Eddystone Lighthouse was washed away, with 
 the architect, Winstanley, who had been so confident of its power of resistance that he 
 expressed a wish to be in it during the most violent storm that could possibly blow. 
 A hurricane swept over Dublin in 1850, attended with a storm of thunder, lightning, 
 and hail, such as was never before witnessed in that city. Tlie lightning was one 
 continued blaze of fire, and the hail, or rather pieces of ice, were as large as pigeons' 
 eggs. In its course, it smashed the windows and conservatories as effectually as if they 
 had been exposed to the discharge of a regiment of musketeers. An assessment of the 
 damages was made by the police, ordered by the Lord Lieutenant, and was found to 
 amount to ^627,000. What was very remarkable is, that the north and the south 
 portions of the city wholly escaped. In the house occupied by the writer, within two 
 
298 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 hundred yards of tlie coui'se of the stormy two small panes of glass were broken^ and a 
 greenhouse entirely escaped. So strong was the wind^ that a horse and cart, with a man 
 in the latter, standing at a mill door, were lifted clear ofip the ground and blown over. 
 The centre of the city, which was the course of the storm, from west to east, had the 
 appearance of having been the scene of a street battle. 
 
 Hurricanes are ascribed to electric action, causing a refraction of the atmosphere, 
 and thereby occasioning a vacuum, into which the air rushes from every side to restore 
 the equilibrium, the intensity of the action being proportioned to the amount of the 
 disturbance, and the rapidity with which the rarefaction of the atmosphere has been 
 effected; but surely such an one as that of 1703, recorded as above, was of too vast a 
 character to be the result of a local expansion of the air, however great it may have 
 been. In the West Indies they occur more fi'cquently than anywhere else, and are 
 most destructive of both life and property 
 
 The phenomena of rain are well known by naturalists. Its components are oxygen 
 and hydrogen, in the proportions of one of hydrogen to eight of oxygen in weight, or two 
 of liydi'ogen and one of oxygen in volume, or measure. The quantity of rain-fall dimi- 
 nishes as we recede from the equator, and is therefore different in different countries. 
 Within the tropics there is a dry and a rainy season, which succeed each other with 
 great regularity, depending upon the sun's position and the course of the wind. The 
 quantity of rain during the wet season is enormous. In Burmah, in India (latitude 
 26^ 30') 60 inches fell in July, 1825, and 43 inches the following month. At Bombaj^ 
 32 inches have fallen during the first twelve days of the rainy season. This is equal to 
 the annual rain-fall in England. The heat of the climate in tropical countries renders 
 these heavy falls necessary to vegetation, and at the same time, by the rapid evaporation 
 of the excess of moisture, prevents the injurious effects it would otherwise produce. The 
 cultivation of rice, the staff of life in India, depends upon the quantity of rain, and a 
 failure of that crop is equal to a sentence of death to unnumbered multitudes. 
 
 In many parts of the globe, rain falls only at long intervals, sometimes of years. 
 This is the case in Egypt and other parts of Africa, in Asia, and in South America. 
 On the coast of Peru, in the latitude of the Chincha Isles, from whence the best Peruvian 
 guano is procured, it is known not to have rained for seventeen years, and a shower of 
 rain is quite an historical event with the natives. It is this absence of rain that preserves 
 the best properties of the guano — the soluble salts, that would otherwise be washed 
 away. In these rainless countries the sandy arid plains absorb the moisture of the 
 atmosphere in passing over them, so that there is seldom or never an accumulation of 
 clouds sufficient to produce rain. 
 
 There is a great difference of opinion amongst scientific men respecting the nature of 
 the clouds, or rather their formation. Professor Johnstone acknowledges that whilst they 
 are universally considered modified vapour in substance, the precise state in which they 
 exist is the subject of discussion still. Some suppose that they consist of inconceivably 
 minute particles, or globules, of water filled with air ; others that they are composed of 
 crystalline, snowy, or icy particles, loosely aggregated, and floating upon the denser air 
 of the lower atmosphere. Dr. Thomson thinks both theories may be correct under the 
 varied aspects the clouds assume under difl'erent conditions. " In summer," he says, 
 " we walk through the mist of the valley, and its moisture feels cold and penetrating. 
 After an ascent of an hour, we pass into the cloud that we have, perhaps, seen afar off, 
 
METEOROLOGY. 399 
 
 high above the mist^ haiigmg on the moiiutain's sidCj and the sensation is the same. 
 The mist seems a fallen cloud, the cloud an elevated mist." 
 
 Di'. Hutton's theory of rain is founded on the supposition that it results from the 
 mingling together of great beds of air of unequal temperature, differently stored with 
 moisture. To this it is objected, that " the quantity of moisture that can at any time 
 be discharged by such an union of masses of aii', is by far too small to account for the 
 actual precipitations of humidity ■which talce place ; and the example of the mean 
 temperature of the lowest atmospheric stratum may be referred to as a proof, that were 
 it to discharge, as Leslie expresses it, by some internal change of its constitution, its 
 whole store of moisture, not more than five inches of water would be deposited; and 
 that the atmosphere must therefore deposit five or ten times as much humidity in the 
 course of a year as it can at any one time hold in solution. But it should not be 
 forgotten that since only a very minute portion of the vapovir contained in any of the 
 atmospheric columns is at any time separated from the air, precipitation and evaporation 
 must rapidly succeed each other, and that hence moistiu-e is in some degree restored as 
 soon as it is discharged. In addition to this, it should be borne in mind that in the 
 currents that exist at all times in the air, and that bring into union volumes of very dif- 
 ferent temperatm-es, we are by no means to calculate on the discharge of one atmospheric 
 column alone. The atoms of air that have discharged their watery stores over a given 
 spot pass on, and are succeeded by others resulting from another imion, thus adding the 
 humidity which they are capable of discharging to the rain which has before descended." * 
 
 As we have said before, no theories should be formed without due observation, and 
 this must embrace not one country, or one season only, but countries under different 
 latitudes, and observations taken for a series of years, in which the effect of temperature 
 and geographical position, with all the natural atmospheric phenomena existing, are taken 
 into account and registered. The amount, too, of evaporation, which differs so materially 
 in different latitudes, and local circumstances of soil and climate, all have their influence 
 on the formation of rain. This task is considered much more easy in the temperate 
 regions than in the tropics. Thus, whilst on the Malabar coast the annual amount of 
 rain in thirteen years varied from 93-85 inches in 1813, to 169-19 inches in 1819, whilst 
 the range of temperature was only between 78° 56' and 82° 25', the amount of rain at 
 Manchester in seventeen years varied only from 27-472 inches in 1803 to 40-285 inches 
 in 1816, the temperatm-e ranging from 45° 4' to 49° 7'. 
 
 Local position and other circumstances concur to render a place or district subject 
 to a greater rain-fall. Thus in Devon and Cornwall, where the north-east and north- 
 west winds prevail, owing probably to the influence of the Atlantic Ocean, but which 
 nevertheless possess a variable climate, rain is very frequent, according to the iollowing 
 rhymes in every one's mouth at Plymouth and Penzance — 
 
 "The south wind always brings wet weather ; 
 The north wind, wet and cold together. 
 The west wind always brings us rain ; 
 The east wind blows it back again. 
 
 If the sun in red should set. 
 The next day surely will be wet. 
 If the sun should set in gray, 
 The next will be a rainy day." t 
 
 " Encyc. Metropolitaua." t Tbid. 
 
300 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The iuflueuce of the ocean, iu fact, iqjon the quantitj^ of rain that falls in a country- 
 is admitted by all meteorologists, being proved by the observations of travellers. This, 
 however, does not extend to mountainous countries, which are always more subject to 
 humidity than plains. " Thus, at Kendal and Keswick the amounts of rain-fall are 
 respectively 54 and 67'5 inches annually ; whilst in many parts of the interior of England 
 not much raised above the level of the sea, it does not exceed 25 inches. At Paris it is 
 only 20 inches; at Geneva, 42-6 inches, and on the Great St. Bernard, 63-13 inches. 
 The moon, also, is considered by meteorologists to exercise an influence over the 
 atmosphere ; and that changes from wet to dry weather occur at the changes of that 
 luminary. Mr. Howard remarks, that when the moon has great south declination the 
 rain with us is moderate in quantity ; on the contrary, while she is crossing the equator 
 towards these latitudes our rain increases. The greatest amount of rain falls with us 
 in the week in which she has the greatest north declination ; and during her return 
 south the rain again becomes diminished to the minimum, and this holds good in very 
 nearly the same proportions, both in extremely wet and dry seasons. The diminution 
 of the pressure of the atmosphere caused by the attraction of the moon must be regarded 
 as amongst the causes that determine the fall of rain."* 
 
 Snow is caused by the congelation of the vapour with which the atmosphere is 
 charged, when the temperature sinks below the freezing point of 32°. The light 
 particles of moisture are attracted around minute centres, and, the attraction being 
 uniform on all sides, the most beautiful figures are thus formed, mathematically exact 
 in their stellaric, rhomboidal, hexagonal, and other elegant patterns. After the snow 
 has lain on the ground for a short time, it condenses, and assumes a more solid form 
 of crystallisation. Its adhesive qualities are occasioned by its needley, crystalline 
 texture, assisted by a portion of moisture which freezes and imites the flakes together. 
 
 The amount of snow-fall in England and Scotland is much less than formerly, owing 
 to the extensive and more perfect cultivation of the soil, and especially drainage, which 
 has raised the average temperature of the soil and climate. The beneficial influence of 
 snow on the young wheat, and other autumnal sown plants, is well known, and arises 
 both from the electricity with which it is charged, and from the effectual covering it 
 affords to shield them from the severity of the frost. In Siberia the difference of 
 temperature between the atmosphere and the ground under the snow is as much as 
 38° Fahr. In England it is in proportion to the intensity of the frost. The whiteness 
 of snow is occasioned by the minuteness of the particles of which it is composed, and 
 the reflection of its crystals that form the flakes. The production of snow, says 
 Dr. Thomson, depends on the temperature of the atmosphere ; its quantity, on the 
 amount of evaporation ; its beneficial influence on vegetation is in proportion to the 
 regularity of its deposit and its depth. 
 
 In alpine countries there are large accumulations of snow, which at times overhang 
 the slopes, and sometimes, becoming detached in heavy masses, roll down the mountain 
 sides in avalanches, and overwhelm the villages below. Loosened by the concussion of 
 a thunder-storm, or a change in the temperature, or by its own weight overbalancing 
 itself, the mass rushes with irresistible impetus to the valleys, and bearing everything 
 before it, involves in one common destruction houses, trees, corn, and haystacks, and 
 frequently the inhabitants themselves, who are unable to make good their retreat from 
 
 * " Encyc. Metropolitana." 
 
METEOROLOGY. 301 
 
 it in time. Instances have occurred in which travellers have lost their lives by an 
 avalanche. This was the case with Dr. Hamel, a Russian traveller, who, with A. 
 Henderson, of Liverpool, and J. Durnford, attempted the ascent of Mont Blanc, with 
 eight guides. A thunder-storm came on as they were about to retire for the night at the 
 Grand Mulcts. They remained there two nights, and then attempted to proceed on 
 their ascent ; but, in climbing up the mountain side, an avalanche swept away the whole 
 party, with three of the guides. 
 
 Hail is another form of congelation, produced by sudden and intense cold m a moist 
 atmosphere. Hail-storms are more frequent in the day than in the night, and they 
 seldom extend far. They generally accompany storms of thunder and lightning, and 
 are, on that account, ascribed by Count Volta to an electric origin. Such storms in 
 summer are frequently very destructive to the standing crops of corn, and Ave have 
 known many farmers who have been entirely ruined by them. As there is now an 
 insurance company which, at a small premium, iusiu-es the farmer against such calamities, 
 it is their own fault if they suffer from them. 
 
 Professor Matteucci considers that hail is formed instantaneously in the atmosphere, 
 a nucleus being first produced, and then, through a discharge of electricitj'^, a further 
 instantaneous condensation of the vaprous cloud ensues, by which an icy crust gathers 
 around the frozen pellet. The size of the hailstones varies from that of duck-shot to a 
 pigeon's, and even a hen's egg ; and sometimes large masses of ice have fallen, of the 
 same nature ; but they can hardly be called hailstones, although consisting of concentric 
 laminations of beautiful formation. The theory of Professor Matteucci is illustrated by 
 Professor Stevelley by a reference to a mine at Chemnitz, in Hanover, where the 
 drainage of water is effected by an engine, in which the air is heavily compressed. 
 When this air is liberated, such is the intensity of the cold produced by its immediate 
 expansion, that the water carried out with it falls from the machine in a shower of ice.* 
 
 Electricity is considered a modification of the same principle as light and heat, the 
 two last being what may be termed its passive, the first its active and erratic, form. 
 The subject of electricity is more than ever one of deep interest to the human race, 
 whether it is considered in respect to its moral, social, physical, or political influence 
 upon society. Of all the discoveries which science has made in philosophy, none have 
 equalled, in the magnitude of its ultimate power over the destinies of empires, that of 
 the application of the electric fluid — if fluid it be — to the purposes of telegraphic com- 
 munications between one place or country and another. By it, a power the most 
 mysterious — for we are absolutely ignorant of its nature — erratic, impalpable, and 
 dangerous, has, by the aid of mechanical genius, been subdued and rendered, not merely 
 harmless, but serviceable upon the grandest scale, to mankind. 
 
 The terrors with which the ancients invested the lightning's flash and the thunder's 
 roll, were not alone the unfounded results of prejudice. Ignorant of the laws by which 
 they were governed, and of the properties of the unseen but all-powerful agent, they saw 
 its eS'ects in the blasted oak, the shattered tower, the riven rock, and still worse, the 
 instantaneous destruction of human life ; and these eflfects they ascribed to the anger of 
 the offended gods ! To those who fell victims to that anger, were not accorded the 
 rights of sepulture ; and the places where they fell were fenced round, to prevent the 
 unwary from approaching them. The eagle, the sea-calf, the laurel, and the white vine 
 
 * ThomBon's " Introduction to Meteorulogy." 
 
302 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 were considered certain protectors from its awful effects. Such was the theory of the 
 ancients of ligfhtning; but the thunder by which it was accompanied, was considered 
 to be an entirely distinct, and a terrestrial emanation. 
 
 The mystery, in fact, ia which, anciently, the electric fluid was involved, has never 
 been, and probably never will be, solved. "We know not whether it is a material 
 though subtile agent of independent existence, or a new arrangement of molecules ; 
 whether it is a fluid, or a simple principle in nature, which avails itself of the aid of both 
 solids and fluids to eft'ect its pm-poses." We speak of it as material, for want of a precise 
 knowledge, and call it " the electric fluid, or electricity." It was first reduced to a 
 system by Benjamin Franklin, who discovered the difference between positive and 
 negative electricity j the former being its normal state, the latter its condition after 
 undergoing friction. That it pervades the whole creation, as his hypothesis alleges, 
 there is now no doubt ; and that it enters into the very essence of vitality, both in the 
 animal and vegetable creation — if it does not actually, of itself, constitute the element of 
 vitality — there is also abundant proof. That lightning is the effect of electric action, 
 is also universally known. This was first suggested by Gray, a Charterhouse pensioner, 
 and a F.R.S., who, speaking of the imperfect electrical machine then in use, expressed a 
 hope that a way might be found for collecting a larger quantity " of electric fire to 
 increase the force of that power which, by several experiments, seems to be of the same 
 nature with thunder and lightning."* The discovery of the Leyden jar soon after fulfilled 
 this prophetic wish. 
 
 The subsequent experiments and discoveries of Franklin (1752) are well known. 
 He sent an account of them to the Royal Society of London, and that of Paris, and 
 both those learned bodies rejected the theory, and refused to receive the letters. But 
 Priestley, in England, and Beccaria, in Italy, defended him ; and, soon after, the Royal 
 Society discovered its error, elected him a fellow, and awarded him a medal. " The 
 fellowship," says Dr. Thomson, " conferred less honour upon him, than he did upon it. 
 It may be forgotten, and the medal may moulder in darkness ; but the name of Franklin 
 ■n-ill endure and beam with greater radiance in ages yet unborn, in proportion as this 
 subject is studied, and new truths are unveiled. The time is on the wing when, not only 
 in India, but in Polynesia and Central Africa, the experiment of the electric kite will be 
 famiUarly known to every schoolboy, and the fame of Franklin be as ivide as the world." 
 
 The effects of electricity on the human body, especially under the intense cold of 
 northern or Alpine regions, are very curious. Thus, sparks are elicited, by friction, from 
 the clothes ; the hair stands upright ; a buzzing noise proceeds from the fingers' ends, 
 and a similar sound around the head ; even flashes dart from the body, attended with a 
 crackling sound. Hair appears to be a powerful generator of electricity. The spai-ks 
 produced from a black cat's back, by stroking it in the dark, have amused most yoimg 
 persons. If, during a severe frost, you beat a person on the back with a lady's fur boa, and 
 then apply your finger to the tip of his nose, a visible spark will be elicited. However 
 futile and inconsequential such experiments may be thought, like Franklin's kite, they 
 go far to establish a principle now beginning to assume, more than ever, a practical 
 form— namely, that the animal frame is, in itself, a galvanic battery, through which, 
 during life, a current of electricity is continually in motion ; that upon the due proportion 
 of this current depends the preservation of health; that its derangement, excess, or 
 
 * Tliomson. 
 
METEOKOLOGY. 303 
 
 deficiency, produces disease in various shapes, according to the condition of the body in 
 other respects ; and that its stoppage is attended with instant death. 
 
 The velocity of lightning, like that of the electric telegraph, defies all calculation. 
 The effect in either is instantaneous, the difference being that the latter is under the 
 control of human science, whilst the former, though undoubtedly subject to fixed but 
 unknown laws, acts apparently at random. The instantaneousness of action in the 
 electric telegraph is one of the greatest mysteries in the combination of art with nature, 
 and is wholly incapable of being explained. We know that if we lay a rope or wire of 
 any length on the ground, and pull it at one end, we produce motion at the other end. 
 This is perhaps the best illustration of the electric telegraph that can be adduced ; but 
 this is merely a mechanical action, and wholly different in principle from that of electri- 
 city, which produces the effect without any mechanical effort or agency beyond a 
 manipulation to form the galvanic communication, totally inadequate of itself to the 
 effect. Elccti'icity is, of all the natm-al forces, the most prompt and powerful. Sound 
 is a slow traveller ; light, with its mild and beneficent influence, darts its rays with great 
 velocity, but admits of calculation ; caloric is local, and requires a combination witli 
 other matters to extend its influence : but electricity is sui generis in its mode of 
 operation, and while it fills all space, and is closely allied to other natural forces, acts 
 apparently independent of them all ; and, with a presence as nearly approaching to 
 ubiquity as anything in natui'e can exhibit, darts its influence thoiisands of miles in a 
 point of time too small to be capable of notation. 
 
 Light, heat, and moisture, with electricity as a modified form of heat, are the 
 elements of meteorological science, on which its data are founded, whilst the atmosphere 
 is the medium or theatre in which its phenomena are stored and exhibited. It was 
 impossible that these shoidd escape the observation of thinking men in all ages of the 
 world, and more especially those whose avocations led them to be much abroad, and 
 whose operations were more immediately affected by the changes that are continually 
 occurring in the weather. They have, therefore, by a careful observation of the various 
 phases of the elements around them, and the influences of certain of the atmospheric 
 phenomena — observed and carefully noted for a series of years — deduced certain rules by 
 which they have regulated their proceedings, whether in the cultivation of the soil or 
 other open-air employment. Before that science had discovered the composition of the 
 atmosphere, and accounted for many of the phenomena connected with it, much of 
 ignorance, superstition, and fancy was mixed up with these deductions, and many of the 
 operations of nature, founded upon fixed laws, were viewed with fear and apprehension as 
 indications of the wrath of heaven against mankind. But whatever may have been the 
 views entertained in ancient times of the ever-changing aspects of the heavens, and the 
 phenomena connected with them, in the present day the man of science, and especially 
 the Christian philosopher, views their occurrence with very different feelings. "Whilst he 
 can sympathise with those who are suffering from the violent efiects of storms and winds, 
 in their local ravages upon property or life, he knows that they are beneficial to society 
 at large ; and that the same lightning which blasts the oak, devastates the dwelling, and 
 strikes the passer-by with instant death, and the hurricane which overturns everything 
 in its progTess, burying the inhabitants in the ruins of their dwellings — that these awful 
 visitations are the cause of saving Imndrcds of lives, by the dispersion of those deleterious 
 gases which would otherwise accumulate and engender endemic and epidemic disease. 
 
304 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 With the same philosophic eye lie is led to view the more exteuded and occult pheno- 
 mena^ general iu their operation, but less palpable iu their beneficial inliuence. And 
 thus, by induction, he is assured that the Great Creator has made nothing in vain — that 
 all his works are perfect, and that Avhat appears to our finite minds discrepant and 
 injurious iu the arrangements of his providence, are but parts of a system calculated at 
 once to promote his own glory and the welfare of the beings He has created. 
 
 It now only remains for us to enumerate some of those signs in nature and art which 
 indicate changes in the weather. For although we believe it to be impossible absolutely 
 to foretell what is to be the state of the weather for a season or at a distant period, yet 
 those who have directed their attention to the subject have been enabled to note certain 
 circumstances in nature around them, which, without the aid of empiricism, are believed 
 constantly to precede an alteration in the phenomena of the atmosphere. 
 
 We begin with the barometer, the use of which every farmer is, or ought to be, 
 acquainted with. The height of the mercury in the tube measures the weight of the atmo- 
 sphere, and in proportion to its rise or fall is the density of the air under which altera- 
 tions of the weather are produced. These alterations are sometimes very frequent, 
 referring ratlier to the present than to distant periods and changes. Very sudden 
 alterations in the mercury indicate immediate, and frequently violent, changes in the 
 weather ; and if the fall is great, a storm is at hand. Dr. Arnott, in his " Elements of 
 Physics," gives the following account of a storm : — " In a southern latitude the sun had 
 just set, with a placid appearance closing a beautiful afternoon, and the usual mirth of 
 the eveuing watch was proceeding, when the captain ordered to prepare with all haste 
 for a storm. The barometer had begun to fall with fearful rapidity. As yet the oldest 
 sailors had not perceived even a threatening in the sky, and were surprised at the extent 
 and hurry of the preparations. But the required measures were not completed when a 
 more awful hurricane broke upon them than the most experienced had ever braved. In 
 that awful night, but for the little tube of mercury which had given the warning, neither 
 the strength of the noble ship, nor the skill and energy of the commander, could have 
 saved oue man alive to tell the tale." 
 
 A high range of the mercury in winter indicates frost ; if it continues to rise, we look 
 for snow. If it falls, a thaw is at hand. An east wind causes a rise, and a west a fall, 
 of the mercury. The higher this is, the higher also is the temperatui'C, it being the 
 density of the air by which the rise is eflected, and the latent heat increased. With a 
 low barometer and a cloudy sky, showers may be expected. 
 
 The Sun. — Before rain the sun appears dim, faint, and watery. If at rising it 
 appears red or pale, and afterwai'ds dark, or hid in a black cloud, rain follows. If the 
 sunbeams appear before its rising, or a halo surrounds it in the morning, or it appears 
 hollow, or is surrounded with red or black clouds at rising, or if its beams be faint or 
 short or watery, rain usually follows. A clear and red setting, and a grey rising, ai'e 
 indications of fair weather. 
 
 The Moon. — If a circle appears about the moon, or the horns or cusps are short and 
 blunt, it portends rain. If more circles appear, winds and tempest will follow. If the 
 horns arc blunt for two or three days after the change, rain may be expected for that 
 quarter. If the moon is not visible for two or three days after a change, and the wind 
 is blowing south, a rainy time succeeds. If the wind is south, and a halo sm'rounds the 
 moon's disc, the next day will probably be wet. If distorted, broken, or mock moons 
 
METEOROLOGY. 305 
 
 appear, a tempest is ueav. A lunar halo indicates unsettled weather. If the disc is 
 much enlarged, or is of an unusually red colour, or the cusps are sharp and blackish, 
 wind will ensue. If clear and bright, and the spots are seen distinctly, fair weather is 
 indicated. 
 
 The Stars. — If the stars are clear and numerous, twinkling brightly, it indicates 
 fair weather in summer, and frost in winter. If any of the larger stars appear to have 
 a halo round them, or are larger to the eye than usual, or are dim, or tlieir rays blunt, 
 or if they are more numerous than is usual, rain will probably follow. If seen in 
 apparent motion, it foretells wind. 
 
 Twilight. — If the sun, at setting, assumes a purple hue, with a haziness in the 
 horizon, the next day will be fine. If a pale yellow hue prevails towards the zenith, a 
 change of weather will ensue. 
 
 Clouds. — Cutnulus* clouds indicate great saturation in the atmosphere ; and when 
 they form freely on the horizon after the sun begins to heat the air, rain may be expected 
 at, or soon after, noon. 
 
 When cirro-cumulus f clouds are in the upper strata of the atmosphere, and become 
 dappled, but not dense enough to exclude a view of the sun or moon, they indicate rain. 
 
 Cirro-stratus % clouds in the west foretell that a south wind is about to blow with 
 violence. 
 
 Cirrus § clouds form at an immense height, and indicate fine weather. 
 
 If clouds fly here and there in the early part of the day, with a red colour, or of a 
 leaden hue in the north-west, it portends wind. If at sunset they begin to disappear, 
 and have their edges tinged with yellow, the weather will be fair and settled. In a clear 
 evening, if small black clouds appear, or if black, blue, or greenish clouds appear near 
 the sun at any time of the day, or the moon, at night, rain usually follows. If large 
 black clouds come from the north, and appear whitish when nearer, and the weather is 
 cold and dry, snow or hail will follow. If watery clouds appear on the tops of hills, it 
 also indicates rain, as appears by the Cornish proverb, " When Hengsten is wrapped 
 with a cloud, a shower follows soon after." If clouds appear to move towards the sun, 
 it denotes wind and tempests. Also, if they appear suddenly towards the south or west, 
 the air being otherwise free from clouds, a tempest is at hand. 
 
 Winds. — If the wind whistles, or howls, or veers much about, rain follows. A heavy 
 shower after a high wind has begun to blow indicates an approaching calm. If, in great 
 rain, the wind rises or falls, it signifies that the rain is about to cease. 
 
 All winds blowing have a beneficial tendency in clearing the air of pestilential 
 vapours, which, in a still, warm season, engender endemic and epidemic diseases. For 
 this reason the south wind, which is usually warm and calm, is more unhealthy than any 
 other, if it continues long. On the other hand, the north wind is injurious to persons 
 subject to chronic disease, as cough, rheumatism, &c. As to the east wind, the proverb says — 
 
 " When (he wind is in tlie east, 
 'Tis guoa lor neither man nor beast." 
 
 The west winds are usually moist, mild, and healthy ; but they are frequently very tem- 
 pestuous. Most of the hurricanes on record in this country proceed from that quarter. 
 
 ' Clouds having a flattened base, and a cumulated hemispherical structure. 
 
 t A flat cloud of great horizontal extension. It is called " the grej mare's tail." 
 
 i An orbicular mass of clouds arranged in extensive beds. 
 
 § A curl cloud, resembling a distended lock of hair. 
 
 X 
 
306 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The ~\"i5getable Kingdom.- — The following plants shut tae corolla on the approacii 
 of rain — scarlet pimpernel, common bindweed, red sandwort, speedwell, stitchwort, 
 goats' -beard, gentiauella, trefoil (the leaves), &c. &c. 
 
 Animais.- — -When sea-fowls make for the land, it portends a storm. If land-birds 
 become noisy and restless, rain follows. Flocks of rooks suddenly disappearing, single 
 magpies seeking food, swallows flying low, a cock crowing and clapping his wings, the 
 early note of several birds, moles throwing up the mould, cats washing their faces, dogs 
 scraping the earth, or their hair having a strong scent, asses braying more than usual, 
 cattle running about with their tails erect, kicking and flinging — all these are signs of 
 rain. If swine run about squeaking, it portends windy weather; if they shake the straw 
 in their mouths, rain follows. If ducks and geese pick their ■\vings, wash themselves, or 
 cackle more than usual, it signifies rain. Also earthworms coming to the surface, rats 
 and mice ruimiug aljout in all directions, spiders disappearing, or dropping from their 
 webs, bees hastening home, ants keeping within their hillocks, frogs and toads croak- 
 ing, the leech ascending to the top of the water-bottle, gnats and flies biting sharper 
 than usual — all these portend rain. 
 
 Fair weather is indicated by sea-birds leaving land, kites and swallows flying high, 
 the songa of birds being loud, clear, and joyful, bats appearing early in the evening, 
 gnats playiug in the sunbeams, spiders active, glow-worms shining in the hedge-rows, 
 the leech lying motionless at the bottom of the bottle, owls whooping at night, the raven 
 or carrion-crow croaking clear, &c. &c. 
 
 The above indications refer to immediate changes of the weather, for hitherto all 
 attempts to foretell more distant atmospheric phenomena have failed to a greater or less 
 extent — certainly so as to neutralise whatever beneficial eflect they might othenvise 
 have. " Never," says Arago, " whatever may be the progress of science, will the savan 
 who is conscientious and careful of his reputation speculate on a prediction of the 
 weather." Sir D. Brewster also says, "In the very atmosphere in which he lives and 
 breathes, and the phenomena of which he daily sees and feels, and describes and measures, 
 the philosopher stands in acknowledged ignorance of the laws which govern it. He has 
 ascertained, indeed, its extent, weight, and composition ; but, though he has mastered 
 the laM's of heat and moisture, and studied the electric agencies which influence its 
 condition, he cannot predict, or even approximate to a predictiou, whether on the morrow 
 the sun shall shine, or the rain fall, or the wind blow, or the lightning descend . ' The 
 wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh or whither it goeth.' "' 
 
••*v ,/ 
 
 PART IV.— THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 The system commeuced by Bakewell for the improveuieut of cattle and sheep has been 
 followed up ever siace with the most entire success^ by its application to every descrip- 
 tion of domestic animals. Previous to his time it was an established maxim that to 
 breed " in-and-in," that is, from animals near of kin to each other, was destructive of the 
 more valuable qualities of a race, producing a general deterioration. This vulgar prejudice 
 has been completely exploded by the admirable results of the opposite practice; aiitl 
 nearly a century's experience has established the law of nature, that to preserve the 
 excellencies of a breed, it is only necessary to select the best types, and to adhere to 
 them, whatever may be the relationship between the male and the female, and never to 
 reject a good animal on that account. A change of stock by crossing can only be 
 necessary when the one possessed exhibits defects that require to be removed ; and then 
 care should be taken to select an animal for the purpose with the requisite qualities to 
 effect the object. This rule should be observed with every kind of domestic animal, 
 on the principle that only like can produce like. There cannot be a stronger proof of the 
 correctness of this rule than that of Bakewell himself, who for twenty years had not a 
 cross in his flock from any other breed than his own ; and that his best stock was bred 
 from the neai'est affinities, without any diminution of size or other deterioration, but, on 
 the contrary, with a progressive state of improvement to the last. 
 
 It requires, however, a considerable amount of practical knowledge to be able to judge 
 of the comparative qualities of different animals of the san^.e kind; and this knowlerlgo 
 can only be acquired by the most sedulous and unremitting attention. To know, for 
 instance, the best outward marks of a horse by which to judge of his suitability for 
 the work for which he is designed, and the indications of disposition, temper, consti- 
 tution, efficiency, and other qualifications, requires an acquaintance, we are tempt'?d to 
 
308 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 say, with phrenology , as well as comparative anatomy ; for assuredly there are features 
 in a horse, as every one knows who is familiar with that animal, by which an adept can 
 tell whether he is likely to prove a good-tempered, tractable, useful, and enduring 
 animal, or the contrary. And in regard to neat cattle it is no small matter, in pur- 
 chasing, either for breeding or fattening, to be able, by a few slight touches, to 
 determine whether he will readily lay on fat aud flesh on the best parts, and in the 
 shortest space of time. Yet these arts, as they may be called, are essential parts of the 
 business of breeders aud graziers, as well as of butchers ; and no stock-master ought to 
 be ignorant of them. Many graziers possess the most perfect skill in thus judging and 
 selecting the animals they are about to purchase, and decide with a promptness that 
 appears indifference to the uninitiated bystander. 
 
 The rule adopted by Bakewell applies as well to the smaller aud feathered denizens 
 of the farm-yard as to the sheep and oxen. A spasmodic deviation from it was attempted, 
 a few seasons back, by the introduction of those huge monstrosities the Cochin-China 
 fowls, whose gaunt, clumsy, gigantic forms, and hideous attempts at crowing, were enough 
 to frighten the modest occupants of an English basse-cow out of their propriety. The 
 rage for these ugly foreigners has, we believe, nearly subsided, and people are at leisure 
 to marvel at the infatuation which, a few years since, raised their price to that of a prize 
 ox at the Sniithfield Show. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 THE HOKSE. 
 
 This animal holds the most distinguished place amongst the domestic tribes, and with 
 good reason; for whether we consider him as administering to the business or the 
 pleasures of life, we find him alternately the cheerful companion, the ever-ready servant, 
 aud the too-frequently unrequited slave, of man. Pity it is that so noble and generous 
 a creature, whose services are so useful and pleasurable,, whose aft'ections are so easily 
 gained, and whose evil habits are so promptly subdued by good treatment, should ever 
 be subjected to the brutality of owners who, while they boast their humanity, sink 
 themselves by their cruelty below the dumb animals they misuse and torture. 
 
 The only domestic animals which exceed the horse in swiftness are the greyhound 
 aud the fox-hound ; whilst he excels every other in grandeiu' and elegance of form, and in 
 proportion of parts. Wc must look for the native country of the horse in the plains 
 that surround Mount Ararat, where the ark of Noah rested ; but of the period when it 
 was first appropriated to the use of man as a beast of burden, there is no record. We 
 know that tlic patriarchs rode on asses, and that no mention of the horse is made in 
 Scripture until iipon the death of Jacob, when Joseph conveyed his remains to the Cave of 
 Machpelali, in Canaan, and " there went up with him both chariots and horsemen." * This 
 was about GGO years after the Flood, and 1690 years before the birth of Christ. Whether 
 
 • Genesis 1. 9. 
 
THE HORSE.- 309 
 
 the waggous sent to fetch the patriarch and his family to Egypt were drawn Ijy horses or 
 assess is uncertain, hut the time intervening hetween the two events was so short that 
 we may reasonably suppose horses were used on that occasion also. La all previo\is 
 mention of domestic animals, while the ox, the sheep, the ass, and the camel are 
 repeatedly named, the horse is never referred to ; and it is therefore probable that none 
 of the patriarchs posseted that animal. A modern writer makes the following observa- 
 tions on this subject : — 
 
 " The sacred volume, therefore, clears up a point on which no other record throws 
 any light, namely, the period when the horse first became the servant of man, at least 
 in one part of the world, and that the most advanced in civilisation, and before Greece 
 was peopled. A long time must have elapsed before man was able to ascertain the 
 value and peculiar use of the animals that suiTOunded him. He would begin with the 
 more subordinate — those which were most easily caught, and most readily subdued ; and 
 the benefits which he derived from their labours would induce him to attempt the 
 conquest of superior quadrupeds. In accordance with this, the writings of Moses show 
 us that after the ox, the sheep, and the goat, man subdued the ass, and then the camel ; 
 and, last of all, the horse became his servant ; and no sooner was he subdued, and his 
 strength, docility, and sagacity appreciated, than the others were comparatively disre- 
 garded, except in Palestine, where the use of the horse was forbidden by divine authority, 
 and on extensive and barren deserts, where he could not live.^'* 
 
 It would, therefore, appear from the above and subsequent passages of Scripture that 
 Egypt took the lead in subduing the horse to the use of man. Six hundred years after 
 Joseph's time, Solomon imported from Arabia spices, gold, and silver.t but horses for 
 his. chariots and cavalry were procured from Egypt, f It is, therefore, inferred that at 
 this period, and long after, there were no horses in Arabia. In the second century of the 
 Christian era the Egyptians sent presents of horses to nionarchs of Arabia ; and in the 
 fourth century the Roman emperor sent 200 Cappadocian horses to a powerful Arab 
 chief, as the most acceptable present he could offer. Three centuries after this the 
 Arabs had very few horses, and those of an inferior description. They were obtained 
 from Egypt, where they had probably been brought from the south-western parts of 
 Asia, or from the interior, or northern, coasts of Africa. This, however, is mere 
 conjecture. Certain it is that the Arabian horse of the present day is, with regard to 
 his excellence, the creation of the wild Ishmaelite of the Desert, who, treating his horse 
 as a part of his family, with a generous tenderness and considei-ation, has succeeded in 
 preserving the fleetest and best types of that animal that are to be found in any part of 
 the world. 
 
 * The Horse, " Lib. Useful Knowledge," p. 3. 
 
 t 2 Chronicles ix. 14. 
 
 i These horses cost Solomon 1.50 shekels of silver, or about .-617 2.^; of onr money. 
 

 SECTION III. 
 
 THE ENGLISH HORSE. 
 
 The history of tlie Britisli horse does not extend backward beyond the Roman conquest, 
 but it is certain that at that period there was a powerful breed in use, as is proved by 
 the desperate onslaiight of the chariots of the Britons, armed with scythes fastened to 
 the axle-trees. When the rough and heavy constniction of the carriages and the badness 
 of the roads — which were in the state in which nature left them — are taken into account, 
 it is evident that the horses employed must have possessed considerable power, to 
 produce so great terror in the Roman legions. Csesar showed his appreciation of them 
 by taking many of theui to Rome as valuable acquisitions. It is added that British 
 horses, like British slaves, were in great request in the Roman empire. When Cassi- 
 velaunus dismissed the main body of his army in Britain, he retained 4,000 war-chariots 
 for the purpose of harassing the Roman foraging parties. It may be assumed from 
 this circumstance that horses were very numerous in Britain at this period. 
 
 It was probably on this occasion that the British native horse was first crossed with 
 a foreign one. After the establishment of the Romans in the island, they found it 
 necessary to bring over a large body of cavalry, to establish a chain of posts, and to check 
 the outl)reaks of the natives. The horses thus introduced bred with the indigenous 
 race, and beyond a doubt produced those varieties which were afterwards established 
 in different districts, according as tlie nature of the country suited them. Nothing, 
 however, appears in history respecting them for many centuries after the departure 
 of the Romans from Britain ; nor was it until the reign of Athelstane (924) that they 
 are mentioned ; when, aftor having reduced the Heptarchy to subjection, he was 
 congratulated by some of the continental princes, and Hugh Capet of France solicited 
 his sister in marriage, on which occasion he sent him, amongst other valuable presents, 
 
THE ENGLISH HORSE. - 311 
 
 several German rurming horses. The character in other respects of these animals is no 
 farther recorded ; but it is probable that they produced another improvement on the 
 lieavy breed of native horses. Athelstane soon after made a decree that no horses 
 should be exported for sale, but only as presents from the sovereign. In the year 1000 
 it was ordained tliat if a horse was lost or destroyed, the compensation awarded was 
 £\ 10s. ; if a mare or colt, £\ ; a mule or yoimg ass, 12*. ; an ox, 2s. Gd. ; a cow, 2s. ; 
 a pig, 8d. ; and a man, £1. The buyer of a horse was allowed the following periods to 
 ascertain whether he was free from certain diseases, namely, three nights to pro\e him 
 for the staggers, three months to ascertain the soundness of his lungs, and a whole year 
 to show him clear from glanders. For every blemish displayed within the allotted time 
 after purchasing, one-third of the money was to be returned, except it should be a 
 blemish of the ears or tail. 
 
 The use of horses in the plough is not mentioned until the tenth century, either 
 amongst the Welsh or the Anglo-Saxons. But at the latter end of that century a law 
 was passed in Wales forbidding the farmers to plough with horses, mares, or cows, but 
 with oxen only. But in the time of William the Conqueror a piece of tapestry was 
 woven at Bayonne, on which is the figure of a man driving a horse attached to a harrow. 
 William's followers introduced both Spanish and Norman horses, and thus a new 
 infusion of blood was thrown into the native breed. 
 
 The first Arabian horse on record was imported in the reign of Henry I. (a.d. 1121), 
 by Alexander I. of Scotland, who presented it to the chm-ch of St. Andrew's, -with 
 costly trappings, Turkish armour, a valuable estate, and other property. In the reign 
 of his son, Henry II., Smithfield had become a noted market for horses; and the 
 manner in which the horses were tried by the purchasers is curiously recorded by Fitz- 
 Stephen as follows : — " When a race is to be run by these sort of horses {hackneys and 
 charging steeds), and perhaps by others, which also, in their kind, are strong and fleet, 
 a shout is immediately raised, and the common horses are ordered to withdraw out of 
 the way. Three jockeys, or sometimes only two, as the match is made, prepare them- 
 selves for thd contest. The horses for their part are not without emulation ; they 
 tremble and are impatient, and are continually in motion. At last, the signal once 
 given, they start, devour the course, and hui-ry along with unremitting swiftness. The 
 jockeys, inspired with the thought of applause, and the hope of victory, clap spurs to 
 their willing horses, brandish their whips, and cheer them with their cries." This 
 description, says the writer already referred to, reminds vis of the more lengthened races 
 of the present day, and proves the blood of the English horse even before the I'lastern 
 breed was tried.* 
 
 The Crusades did much to improve the breed of English horses. The days of 
 chivalry were the days of excellence in liorsemanship, as well as of feats of arms, and a 
 Knight of the Cross would have been ashamed to appear before his mistress on an 
 ignoble steed. Strong and powerful the horse must be to carry a tall man clad in 
 complete armour of steel, besides the weight of his own mail, sometimes covering his 
 whole body, and corresponding with that of his rider. Those who joined the Crusades, 
 most of whom were wealthy persons, would avail themselves of the opportunity to 
 obtain barbs or Arabian horses in the East. Richard Cceur-de-Lion purchased two at 
 Cvprus, neither of which, as an old metrical romance states, would he have sold for 
 
 * " Youatt oa the Horse," p. 24. 
 
312 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 jgljOOO in gold, for neither dromedary^ war-horse; steed^ Arabian, or camel could compete 
 with them in swiftness. 
 
 King John imported 100 selected stallions from Flanders, for the improvement 
 of agricultm'al or draught-horses. He also kept up a numerous and valuable stud, 
 and received from the crown tenants horses of superior qualifications instead of money, 
 for the renewal of grants, or in payment of forfeitures due to the crown. Edward II., 
 in the beginning of the fourteenth century, imported thirty Lombard war-horses, and 
 twelve heavy draught-horses. Edward III. paid 1,000 marks for fifty Spanish horses, 
 which upon arrival cost that monarch £13 Gs. 8d. each, or at least £160 of present 
 money. At this time, so jealous was the king of his neighbour's participation in the 
 benefit of this importation, that it was made felony to export horses from England to 
 Scotland. The tyrannical prohibitions of this and the succeeding reigns failed to produce 
 improvement in the breed, or to increase the number of good horses. When Queen 
 Elizabeth raised an army to repel the invasion of Philip's invincible armada, she could 
 find horses enough for only 3,000 cavalry in the whole kingdom, and those were not 
 very superior, according to Blundeville, who speaks contemptuously of them. They 
 were strong and sturdy enough, but more fit for the plough than the saddle. A few of 
 a lighter kind showed blood, and were ridden eighty miles in a day. 
 
 In Elizabeth's reign regular races were established, first at Chester and Stamford, as 
 well as in Smithfield Market ; but the horses running were of no particular breed, and 
 jio regular course was marked out. The contest was more akin to the j)resent steeple- 
 chase, and was often, by appointment, pursued across the most difiicult and dangerous 
 parts of the country. Gambling had not then been introduced, but the jirize at first 
 was a wooden bell adorned with flowers ; afterwards a silver one was given to " him 
 who should run the best and farthest on Shrove Tuesday." From hence comes the 
 phrase of " bearing away the bell." In James I.'s reign, horse-racing was more attended 
 to, and brought under certain regulations. James himself was fond of the sport, but 
 his matches were against time, and were rather a trial of the bottom and speed of the 
 horse than a competitive run. He purchased an Arabian horse of a merchant named 
 Markham, for which he paid 500 guineas — an enormous sum in those days. 
 
 Soon after this another Arabian or Turkish horse was imported, which the king also 
 purchased of Mr. Place. It was a splendid animal, and was called " the White 
 Turk." Soon after, A'^illiers, Duke of Buckingham, introduced the " Helmsley Turk," 
 which was followed by the " Morocco Barb " of Fairfax ; and from this period the 
 commencement of the breed of real racers may be dated. Charles I. established 
 periodical races in Hyde Park and at Newmarket, which were suspended for a time 
 by the civil war and the monarch's downfall. Cromwell cultivated the breed of Ijlood 
 horses, of Avhich he had a stud, but he did not patronise or renew the races. But at the 
 Restoration, those at Newmarket were restored, and royal plates were given at the 
 principal courses. Charles II. also deputed his Master of the Horse to go to the Levant 
 to purchase Barbary and Turkish brood mares and stallions. 
 
 The reader will now be able to trace the present excellent breeds of horses of the 
 United Kingdom to their origin. The infusion of Arabian and Barbary blood into the 
 heavier horses of this country has produced a race which for speed and endurance are 
 not equalled in the whole world. We speak this advisedly, for in Egypt, in a recent 
 trial between English racers and some of the best Arabians that could be found to run 
 
THE RAOE-HOKSE. 313 
 
 against them, the latter were beaten hollow.* Crosses of the full-blood-horse with the 
 heavier breed, in various degrees, have equally improved the hunter, the coach-horse, 
 the hackney, and even the cart or draught-horse, rendering them more active, enduring, 
 and, consequently, more useful. We shall now proceed to describe the different distinct 
 breeds of horses of the United Kingdom. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 THE RACE-HORSE. 
 
 In his treatise on cattle, CuUey remarks that he declines saying anything about the 
 breed of race-horses, first because he knew very little about them, and, secondly, because 
 he thought farmers ought to have little more to do with them than occasionally 
 improving the breed of their riding-horses by the admixture of a little lilood. We fully 
 agree with him in the second reason, being no advocates of the " turf," which in 
 the present day (whatever it may have been in former times) has degenerated down to 
 a gambling, swindling, fraudulent institution, with which few men of character or 
 integrity care to have anything to do, in consequence of the villanous practices resorted 
 to by persons of high, as well as of low, rank and station in life. Notwithstanding this, 
 it would be a matter of regret if the breed of blood-horses were to suffer deterioratiou, 
 were it only for their utility in the improvement of other breeds. 
 
 No certain data, we believe, exist pointing out the origin of the racer, it being lost, 
 like others of our domestic questions, in the obscurity of those ages when literature was 
 confined to the cloister, and the few historians who arose were occupied rather with 
 political than social affairs. Amidst the confusion, too, attending the repeated invasions 
 and civil wars which devastated the country at short intervals, and especially the 
 suppression of the monasteries by the eighth Henry, a vast amount of both political and 
 social records, bearing upon the domestic institutions and affairs of the country, must 
 have been destroyed. It is believed that, after allowing for the numerous crosses with 
 Arabian and Barbary horses that have been introduced, the basis of the breed of both 
 race-horses and hunters is to be looked for in that powerful indigenous animal which so 
 much excited both terror and admiration in tlie Roman legions, and which, as the trial 
 in Egypt just referred to proves, has given the English fuU-blood-horse a preponderance 
 of speed and " bottom " over every other in the known world. The " stud-book," which 
 is a register of authority so far as it goes, traces back the pedigree of every racer of 
 distinction, through sire and dam, to some Eastern origin, or until it is lost in the 
 imcertainty of an early period of breeding. The pedigi-ees of all the present racers of 
 note are referred ultimately to some well-known " turf-horse," and if an earlier deriva- 
 
 * It is very probable that this superiority of the English blood-horse over the Arabian, as shown in those trials, arises 
 from climatic influences upon the constitution ; and that the warm climate of E»ypt is less favourable to the maintenance 
 of strength and endurance than the comparatively colder one of the United Kingdom. 
 
B14 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 tion is required, it is contimied through either the aucestral lineage of an Eastern horse, 
 or is lost in obscurity. 
 
 Youatt remarks that " whatever may be the truth respecting the origin of the race- 
 horse, the strictest attention has for the last fifty years been paid to pedigree. In the 
 descent of almost every modern racer not tlie slightest flaw can be discovered ; or when, 
 with tlic splendid exception of Sampson and Bay-Malton, one drop of common blood 
 has mixed with the pure stream, it has been immediately detected in the inferiority of 
 form and deficiency of bottom ; and it has required two or three generations to wipe 
 away the stain and get rid of its consequences."* The same author says, "the racer is 
 generally distinguished by his beautiful Arabian head ; his fine, and finely-set-on neck ; 
 his oblique, lengthened shoulders j weU-bent hind legs; his ample, muscular quarters; 
 his flat forelegs, rather short from the knee downwards, although uot so deep as they 
 should be ; aiid his long and elastic pastern. "f 
 
 The best of the present racing stock trace back their pedigree to the Darley 
 Arabian. This celebrated horse was bred in the Desert in the neighbourhood of 
 Palmyra, and was purchased at Aleppo by a brother of Mr. Darley. His immediate 
 descendants were the Devonshire or Flying Childers ; the Bleeding or Bartlett's Childers ; 
 Almanzor, &c. The Flying Childers was so called from the name of his breeder, 
 Mr. Childers, and his extraordinary swiftness, in which he excelled every other horse of 
 liis day. It is said that he had run nearly a mile in a minixte, but he was known to 
 have run over the round course at Newmarket, a distance of three miles, six furlongs, 
 and ninety-three yards, in six minutes and forty seconds; and the Beacon coui'se — 
 four miles, one furlong, and one hundred and thirty-eight yards — in seven minutes and 
 thirty seconds. Childers was first trained as a hunter, but the extraordinary speed and 
 courage he displayed led to his introduction to the turf. J He was uever exceeded in 
 fleetness, unless it was by Fii-etail, who in 1772 ran a mile in one minute and four 
 seconds, which is the greatest authenticated display of speed on record. 
 
 The celebrated horse Eclipse, so called from his being dropped during a total 
 eclipse of the sun, which Lawrence says was so effective that the cocks and hens went 
 to roost, was got by Marsk on Spiletta. The former traced his pedigi-ee up to the 
 White Turk, and other celebrated Arabians or Barbs. He is said to have covered eighty- 
 three and a half feet every second of time when at the top of his speed ; this was 
 calculated to be about twenty-five feet at every stroke, and amounts to above fifty-seven 
 miles per hour ; but, of course, it was impossible for him to have sustained that rate of 
 speed for an hour. Eclipse was bred by the Duke of Cumberland, and was purchased 
 by Mr. Wildman after the duke's death for 75 guineas. Colonel O'Kelly purchased a 
 share of him of Wildman, and afterwards, wishing to be his sole proprietor, gave 
 Wildman £1,000 for his share in him. He was not allowed to run until he was five years 
 old (May, 1769), when O'Kelly backed him freely on his first race. Some persons took 
 upon them to watch some of his trials, and old Lawrence gives a curious account of his 
 speed. " They were a little too late," he says, " but they found an old woman who 
 gave them all the information they wanted. On inquiring whether she had seen a race, 
 she replied she could not tell whetlur it was a race or not, but she had seen a horse 
 
 * YouatI, p. a. t Ibid. 
 
 i The Flying Childers was the sire of King Herod, who was the sire of 497 ninniug horses, who won for their 
 owners upwards of £200,000. Herod was the sire of High-flj'cr. 
 
THE RACE-HORSE. 315 
 
 with white legs running away at a monstrous rate, and another horse a great way 
 behind trying to run after liim ; but she was sure he never would catch the wliite-legged 
 horse if lie ran to tlie world's end." 
 
 Eclipse ran only seventeen montlis, for so superior was he to every liorse brought 
 against him, that iu the end no horse daied to enter the course or compete with him. 
 In October 1770 he finished his career by wallcing over the course at Newmarket for 
 the King's Plate, after having won for O'Kelly £25,000.* After this he was employed as 
 a stallion, and was the sire of 334 winning horses, who netted for their owners more 
 than ,€160,000 exclusive of cups and plates. He died in 1789 at the age of twenty- five 
 years. 
 
 The Godolphiu Arabian was a remarkable instance of the vicissitudes attending 
 the lives of other animals as well as man. He was found in the streets of Paris drawing 
 a cart, and purchased by an Englishman who was no bad judge of horse-flesh. He 
 presented him to Earl Godolphiu, under whose fostering care he proved to be a beautiful 
 and singularly-shaped Barb instead of Arabian, with a lofty and arched neck, a little 
 sinking behind the shoulders, and a corresponding elevation of the spine towards the 
 loins. He became the founder of the modern thorough-bred horses, and died in 1753 
 at the age of twenty-nine. A regular succession of celebrated racers have appeared, from 
 the period to which the above named refers, but we believe that very few foreign blood- 
 horses have of late years been imported, the English breeders considering that no 
 further mixture of blood is required, and that no foi'cign horses can compete with their 
 present race. The line of succession, or pedigree, is now so strictly kept up, that the 
 origin of every race-horse is as well known as that of the families of our nobility. 
 
 Youatt complains that the horses arc put to work before their physical powers are 
 matured, and that consequently many valuable animals are broken down by the time 
 when they ought alone to be entered. He mentions the Flying Childers and Eclipse as 
 examples of the contrary practice, neither of them being allowed to run before they 
 were five years old. jNIany of the best horses, he says, are foundered and destroyed 
 before they arrive at that age. This may be affirmed of other horses as well as race- 
 horses. The hunter is frequently put to hard work at three years old, which is much 
 before his bones and sinews can have attained that strength and solidity required in 
 horses used in the chase. 
 
 It is generally allowed that the racer of the present day is very superior both in size 
 and shape to that of a century ago. Out of 130 winners at that period only eighteen were 
 15 hands and upwards; but at present a winner below that height is rare. This 
 increase in height is ascribed to the influence of the Godolphiu Barb, whose stock was 
 even higher than himself. The average at present is stated to be 15 hands 3 inches. 
 The improvement in shape is chiefly in the length and slope of the shoulders, and of the 
 arms and thighs, with an improvement in the shape of the head. Nor is the increase 
 in strength and swiftness less remarkable. Several of our best stallions, however, have 
 been exported to America, Australia, and other parts. 
 
 The eagerness displayed in some, probably most, full-blood horses iu the race is 
 extraordinary, and shows that they enter into the spirit of the game as heartily as the 
 rider. The racer requires little or no stimulus to do his utmost, and is often too 
 
 * Kelly was once asked by a relation of the Duke of Bedford what price he would take for Eclipse ; he replied, 
 "All Bedford Level would not purchase him" of another person he asked £25,000 down, and an annuity of £500ayear. 
 
816 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 cruelly urged by whip and spur, when it is impossible for him to make greater efforts. 
 This is well commented on by Youatt. " Forester," says he, " will afford sufficient 
 illustration of the natural emulation of the coui'ser. He had won many a liardly- 
 contested race. At length, overweighted and overmatched, the rally had commenced. 
 His opponent, who had been waiting behind, was gaining upon him ; he overtook him, 
 and they continued quite close to within the distance. It was a point that could 
 scarcely be decided ; but Forester's strength was failing ; he made one desperate plunge, 
 seized his antagonist by the jaw to hold him back, and could scarce be forced to quit his 
 hold. In like manner, a horse belonging to Mr. Quin in 1753, finding his adversary 
 gradually passing him, seized him by the leg, and both riders were obliged to dismount 
 in order to separate the animals. Let us here pause and ask, would the butcherly 
 whipping and cutting which seem so often to form the necessary and expected conclusion 
 of a race — the supposed display of skill of the rider — the exultation of the thoughtless 
 or unfeeling spectator — would these have carried such horses over one additional inch of 
 ground ? . . . . The horse is as susceptible of pleasui'e and pain as ourselves ; he was 
 committed to us for our protection, and our use ; he is a willing and devoted servant. 
 Whence did we derive the right to abuse him ? Many a race has been lost by the 
 infliction of wanton cruelty."* 
 
 We recollect reading many years ago of a horse which had gained a race again.st 
 another celebrated racer. His brute of an owner immediately offered a large bet that, 
 within a short time, he vioidd produce a gelding that would beat the same horse. The 
 wager was accepted, and he instantly ordered the winning horse to be castrated. 
 Before he had recovered the operation the time had expired and he ran, and won the 
 bet, but he died before they could get him into the stable. No punishment could liave 
 been too severe for the scoundi'el who perpetrated this mercenary piece of cruelty ; but, 
 of course, he was applauded on the turf as a clever fellow. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 THE HUNTER. 
 
 Most farmers are fond of field-sports, and many of them perhaps devote too much time 
 and money in the pursuit of the fox or the hare. A hunter certainly ought not to be a 
 part of the establishment of a mere tenant farmer, whatever may lie said of him who 
 farms his own property. Landlords have ej'cs and ears, and it is not e\cry one such, 
 however fond he may be of the sport, who likes to see his tenant " in at the death " 
 before hira.f But independent of tliis, is the expense involved in maintaining, not the 
 
 * Youatt, p. 49. 
 
 + A tenant of the late Duke of G. usually hunted with his Grace's hounds. He rode a splendid hunter, which his 
 landlord so much admired that he deputed the huntsmau to inquire his price. "Tell his Grace," said the young Nimrod, 
 "that I like to ride a good horse as well as himself does." This imprudent speech was reported veriulim et literatim ; 
 and in t«o years after the young man was turued out of his farm. 
 
THE HUNTER. 
 
 317 
 
 liuuter alouCj but that of a round of cou\dvial after-meetings, wliich it is almost impos- 
 sible for a frequenter of the hunt to evade, if he wishes not to be thought mean and 
 stingy. We have seen enough of the evil of a fondness for the sport to justify us in 
 warning the youug farmer against giving way to the passion, for such it is ; and the 
 most effectual way to avoid it is by not keeping a hunter. We have not referred to the 
 loss of time and the neglect of business attending it, though these are no small evils ; 
 and when added to the more prominent ones should weigh greatly against yielding to 
 the temptation beyond an occasional run with the hounds, which will involve neither 
 disgrace, expense, nor much loss of time. 
 
 The work of an English hunter, and especially one possessed by the farmer, is not 
 confined to the field ; by his mixed origin he is equally at home in the carriage, on the 
 road with the saddle, at the plough, or any other farm work, and no horse excels him ; 
 most of them are bred by the farmers themselves, or, at least, those who reside in a 
 hunting country and occasionally follow the hounds. If they prove superior animals 
 
 TIIK HUN'IKI! 
 
 they are sold to the neighbouring gentry, or to dealers, who take them to the metropolis, 
 where they fetch very high prices. The studs of the nobility are furnished from the 
 same source. Most farmers ride well, and are thus qualified to train their young steeds 
 to the chase. Many gentlemen ride thorough-bred horses in hunting ; but, generally 
 speaking, they do not possess bone and sinew enough to carry the weight— not regulated 
 as in the race— or to stand the continuance of a protracted burst over a rough and stony 
 country unscathed ; although they may have spirit or bottom enough for any work. For 
 this reason a half or three-quarter bred horse is mostly preferred. The hunter should not 
 exceed sixteen, or be below fifteen hands high. Youatt thinks that as the cultivation 
 of the land improves the speed of the chase increases, and therefore that a lighter kind 
 of horse is requii-ed, because both the fox and deer, and consequently the hounds, 
 increase their speed. In strong, thickly-enclosed countries the half-bred horse is most 
 
318 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 useful ; but it is frequently difficult to lift such over a high fence, whether of stone or 
 wood, whilst a three-quarter bred will take it at a flying leap if his rider has as much 
 pluck as his horse. A thorough bred hunter who can carry twelve stone across country 
 is worth at the present time from £250 to 400. The following are the characteristics of 
 a good hunter as laid down by Youatt : — 
 
 ' The first property of a good hunter is that he should be light in hand. For this 
 purpose his head must be small, and his neck thin, and especially thin beneath j his 
 crest firm and arched, and his jaws wide. The head will then be well set on; it will 
 form that angle with the neck which gives a light and pleasant mouth. 
 
 " Somewhat of a ewe-neck, however it may lessen the beauty of a hunter, does 
 not interfere with his speed, because, as is shown when the structure of the horse is 
 considei'cd, more weight may be thrown forward, and consequently the whole bulk of 
 the animal more readily impelled ; at the same time the head is more readily and 
 perfectly extended, the wind-pipe is brought almost to a straight line from the lungs to 
 the muzzle, and the breathing is freer. Should the courser, in consequence of this forui 
 of the neck, liear more heavily on the hand, the race is soon over ; but the hunter may 
 be oui' companion and our servant through a long day ; and it is of essential conse- 
 quence that he shall not too much annoy aud tire us by the Aveight of his head and neck. 
 
 " The forehand shall be loftier than that of the racer. A turf horse may be forgiven 
 if his hiud quarters rise an inch or two above his fore ones. His principal power is 
 wanted from behind, and the very lowness of the forehand may throw more weight in 
 front, and cause the whole machine to be more easily moved. A lofty forehand, how- 
 ever, is indispensable in the hunter ; the shoulder as extensive as in the racer, as oblique 
 aud somewhat thicker ; the saddle will then be in its proper place, and will continue so 
 however long may be the run. 
 
 " The barrel should be rounder to give greater room for the heart and lungs to play, 
 and send more and purer blood to the larger frame of this horse ; and especially more 
 room to play when the run may continue unchecked for a time that begins to be 
 distressing. A broad chest is an excellence in a hunter. In the violent and loug- 
 continued chase the respiration is exceedingly quickened, aud abundantly more blood 
 is hurried through the lungs in a given time than wlien the animal is at rest. There 
 must be sufficient room for this or the horse will be blown, and possibly destroyed. The 
 majority of the horses that perish in the field are narrow-chested. 
 
 " The arm should be as muscular as that of the courser, or even more so, for both 
 strength aud endurance are wanted. The leg should be deeper than that of the race- 
 horse (broader, as you stand at the side of the horse), and especially beneath the knee. 
 In proportion to the distance of the tendon from the cannon, or shank-bone, and more 
 particularly just below the knee, is the mechanical advantage with which it acts. A 
 racer may be tied beneath the knee without perfectly destroying his power, but a hunter 
 with this defect will rarely have stoutness. 
 
 " The leg should be shorter. Higher action is required than in the racer, that the 
 legs may be clearly and safely lifted over many an obstacle, aud particidarly that they 
 may be well doubled up in the leap. The pasterns should be shorter, and less slanting, 
 yet retaining considerable obliquity. The long pastern is useful by tlie yielding 
 resistance which its elasticity affords, to break the concussion with which the race- 
 horse, from his immense stride aud speed, must come upon the ground ; and the oblique 
 
THE HUNTER. 319 
 
 direction of the different bones beautifully contributes to effect the same purpose. 
 Witli this elasticity, however, a considerable degree of weakness is necessarily combined, 
 and the race-horse frequently breaks down in the middle of his course. The hunter, 
 from his different action, takes not this length of stride, and therefore wants not all this 
 elastic mechanism ; he more needs strength to support his own heavy carcase and the 
 greater weight of his rider, and to undergo the fatigue of a long day. Some obliquity, 
 however, he requires, otherwise the concussion even of his shorter gallop, and more 
 particularly of his frequently tremendous leaps would inevitably lame him. 
 
 " The foot of the hunter is a most material point. It is of consequence in the racer, 
 yet it is a notorious fact that many of our best thorough-bred horses have had very 
 indifferent feet. The narrow contracted foot is the curse of much of the racing blood. 
 The work of the racer, however, is all performed on the turf, and his bad feet may 
 scarcely incommode him ; but the foot of the hunter is battered over many a flinty road 
 and stony field, and if not particularly good will soon be disabled and ruined. 
 
 " The position of the feet requires some attention in the hunter. They should, if 
 possible, stand straight. If they turn a little outward there is no serious objection ; 
 but if they turn inward his action cannot be safe, particularly when he is fatigued or 
 over-weighted. 
 
 " The body should be short and compact compared with that of the race-horse, that 
 he may not in his gallop take too extended a stride. This would be a serious disad- 
 vantage in a long day and with a heavy rider, from the stress on the pasterns ; and more 
 serious when going over clayey poached ground during the winter months. The com- 
 pact, short-strided horse will almost skim over the surface while the feet of the longer- 
 reached animal will sink deep, and he will wear himself out by efforts to disengage 
 himself. The loins should be broad, the quarters long, the thighs muscular, the hocks 
 well bent, and well under the horse. The reader need not be told how essential temper 
 and courage are. A hot irritable brute is a perfect nuisance, and the coward that will 
 scarcely face the slightest fence exposes his owner to ridicule." 
 
 It is interesting to witness the enthusiasm with which the hunter engages in the 
 burst with his rider. It is thus too with the race-horse, and with the charger accus- 
 tomed to the evolutions of a field day at the sound of the trumpet.* Nor is this merely 
 habit, but a real participation in the pleasure of the exercise. " It is beautiful to watch 
 an old hunter," says Youatt, " who, after many a winter's hard work, is turned into the 
 park to enjoy himself for life. His attitude and countenance when perchance he hears 
 the distant cry of the dogs are a study. If he can, he will Ijreak his fence, and over 
 hedge, and lane, and brook, follow the chase, and come in first at the death." 
 
 It is cruel in the extreme to urge so generous and willing a servant beyond his 
 natural powers ; and yet nothing is more common after a hard day's work in the field 
 than to hear of horses that have died either in the field or soon after reaching the stable. 
 
 '' About seventy yeavs ago it was the custom in Norfolk for the farmers' wives to attend Norwich Fed-markei 
 themselves, with butter, eggs, fowls, and other provisions. One of these, the wife of a large occupier, who lived about 
 three miles from the city, was jogging along, between a pair of panniers, on an old cavalry horse, who had never evinced 
 any kind of vice to make him dangerous. But, lo ! on this occasion, a corps of Yeomanry Cavalry were exercising in a 
 field, near to which the lady had to pass. A charge was sounded ; the old horse pricked up his ears, neighed vociferously, 
 and, in spite of the lady's remonstrances, dashed into the field, and took his station iu the ranks to the infinite amusement 
 of the gentlemen soldiers, but the great annoyance of the fair equestrian, whose " smashed eggs bestrewed the wny " by 
 which her mad-brained steed had taken her. The writer knew the party well, and has frequently heard her son (one of the 
 most respectable and successful of Norfolk farmers) relate the story. 
 
3-20 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 In the case of a " hard run " with the kiug's stag-houuds, iu which there was an 
 uninterrupted burst of four hoiu's and twenty minutes, one horse dropped dead in 
 the field, another died before he could reach the stable, and seven more within a week 
 afterwards."* 
 
 It is easy to perceive when a horse is distressed by over-work. He droops and 
 staggers, his flanks heave, and he bears heavy on the hand, while a convulsive twitching 
 of the muscles of the belly produces a peculiar noise, which might be mistaken for the 
 beating of the heart ; but this has almost ceased its action, and the lungs are gorged 
 with blood, and the action of the belly is an effort of natm-e to supply the want tif the 
 proper circulation, but is too frequently in vain. In such a case the rider should 
 instantly dismount, and, if he has a lancet or a pen-knife, take five or six quarts of blood 
 to relieve the lungs. Then, if the horse is able to reach home, administer a powerful 
 cordial, which, however objectionable in any ordinary cases, may be of essential service 
 in one of exhaustion. Youatt mentions an instance of a favourite hunter, who after a 
 " hard day" lay in the field stretched out and apparently dying. His owner procured a 
 bottle of sherry, and poured the contents down the animal's throat. He immediately 
 began to revive, and soon after got up, walked home and gradually recovered. A 
 similar case of exhaustion, though not from the same cause, occiu'red with the writer. 
 A fine young colt had been castrated, and the farrier in his haste had neglected to 
 secure the ligaments on the vessels. The consequence was the bleeding commenced 
 again, and on the writer entering the stable a short time after, he found the colt 
 stretched at full length, unable to rise or notice him, and to all appearance at his last 
 gasp. He instantly called in a veterinary surgeon, who administered half a pint of 
 brandy after having secured the bleeding vessels. In less than a quarter of an iiour the 
 horse revived, and got on his legs ; and although for a long time excessively weak, he 
 perfectly recovered. 
 
 It is only in extreme cases like these that stimulants can be administered to horses 
 >vith propriety, or even safety. Unaccustomed as these animals are to anything but the 
 most inartificial food, any stimulant that increases the action of the heart and lungs is 
 dangerous, and sometimes fatal. It is, therefore, at all times best, if practicable, to 
 refer at once to a veterinary practitioner, who will judge without hesitation what is 
 proper to be administered. 
 
 The hunting season over, the hunter that is not employed in other work may be 
 turned into the pasture as soon as the weather is sufficiently warm to prevent all danger 
 of taking cold. A shed should in such cases be provided for him to take shelter in 
 bad weather, or in cold nights, if he is not near enough to the stable to have recourse 
 to it, which would be the most eligible plan. Very frequently in ]\Iay, and the begin- 
 ning of June, the nights are as cold as in February ; and to a horse that has stood in a 
 warm or comfortable stable all the winter, it is dangerous to expose him altogether to 
 the variable temperature of the open air daj' and night. 
 
 It is a question, however, whether under any circumstances a riding or carriage 
 horse in constant use derives any benefit from being turned out of the stable for a " run at 
 grass ;" whether, on the contrary, he does not suffer in his efficiency, for the rest of the 
 year by the injury he is likely, or liable, to sustain in his general health. If tlie season 
 be moist the constant softness of the pasture is apt to produce thrushes. In very diy 
 
 ♦ youatt, p. B5. 
 
THE HUNTEE. 321 
 
 weather the hoofs become brittle and rough, and it is diificult to keep them in an efficient 
 working condition. On the other hand, for a horse accustomed to a dry and airy stable^ 
 where a moderate temperature is maintained day and night, and the food is adapted to 
 the constitution and condition of the animal, to be turned into a pasture where he is 
 exposed to excessive heat during the day, probably followed by a cold, chilling, and 
 perhaps wet night, will have the same injurious effect upon his constitution as it would 
 on that of a man. Both, in a physical point of view, are the creatures of circumstances ; 
 and such changes in the mode of living must necessarily be dangerous to either. It is 
 the opinion of the most eminent veterinary surgeons that more horses have become 
 roarers, broken-winded, and blind from being thus turned out of the stable than from 
 any other cause. Inflammations are superinduced by the sudden changes of temperature, 
 and from a dry to a moist state of the atmosphere. Mr. Percival, veterinary sui'geon to 
 the 1st Life Guards, in a work ou the horse, has the following observations : — 
 
 " Take a horse fat and sleek in condition out of a warm stable where he has been 
 well clothed and fed, turn him during the cold and wet of winter into a straw -yard, and go 
 and look at him three months afterwards, and you will hardly recognise him. You will 
 find him with a long, shaggy, staring coat, a belly double the size it was when in 
 condition, and a skin sticking close and fast to his ribs, which may be readily counted 
 with the hand, if not with the eye." He then compares this with the horse turned 
 out to grass in the summer, and shows that the evils of the latter system are less 
 remediable than those of the former. " The hide-bound horse may soon be restored by 
 medicine and proper food ; but the horse filled with green food has acquired a portion of 
 loose fat, which must be reduced before he can be fit for work — it must be exchanged 
 for better flesh, the produce of hay and corn ; but the change is so great that it requires 
 much care, and a long time, to bring him into an eSicient state without injuring his 
 constitution in other respects. The mode of life of riding and carriage horses is as 
 artificial as that of a man, and, like his, has been so long practised, that it has become 
 natural. As well might a man leave his comfortable house, and go to reside in a wood 
 without shelter, as turn a horse out of a warm stable into a cold pasture with impunity 
 to his constitution." 
 
 The training and preparation of a hunter for field work is, in some respects, similar 
 to that employed in the case of the racer. All superfluous fat and flesh is got rid of by 
 medicine and exercise ; the latter also brings him into wind, gradually developing his 
 power, without exhausting or overstraining him. A gallop of two or three miles is 
 sufficient, with practice at the leaping-bar, gradually increased in height as the readiness 
 and courage of the horse increases.* As the season approaches, Youatt advises that he 
 
 * It is wonderful what a space of ground some horses will cover at a bound when upon their full mettle. The late 
 Earl of Leicester, when a young man, was hunting a stag that had been turned out of Melton Park, the seat of Sir Jacob 
 Astley, in Norfolk. The stag, instead of taking to the fields, returned to the park followed by the hounds and horsemeo. 
 Mr. Coke was foremost on a splendid hunter. The stag dashed into the lake, and swam to an island at a distance of 
 about thirty-six feet from the shore of the lake. The hounds followed, and Mr. Coke, without hesitating, clapped his spurs 
 to his horse, and rode at the channel, which he cleared at a bound I Another instance is recorded that occurred near 
 Bungay, in Suffolk. The road leading from that town to Mettingham Castle passes through a deep guUey, the sides of 
 which were nearly perpendicular. On the occasion in question, the hounds were pursuing the fox, which, disappearing at 
 the gnlley, was soon seen on the other side. The dogs of course followed in full cry ; but the horsemen ! Only one of 
 them attempted the dangerous leap ; but this one, trusting to the courage and spirit of his hunter, rode at it at full speed, 
 and cleared it— the most marvellous leap that was ever heard of, at least in that part of the country. The celebrated 
 hunter Chandler and Proceed cltared respectively thirty-seven and thirty-nine feet, and they were thorough-bred horses. 
 
322 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 should have two or three doses of physic administered and plenty of good hard food^ with 
 a daily gallop of a couple of miles at a moderate pace to bring him into wind. Air^ 
 exercise^ and food are the grand agents in preparing the hunter for his work. 
 
 Generally speaking, those farmers who occasionally join the hunt, although they do 
 not keep a regular hunter, manage to have a strong useful hack, or " servant-of- all- work," 
 which will take a hedge or a gate, and keep up with the field with perhaps less appearance 
 of distress than many of the professed hunters. It is possibly the same horse that he rides 
 to market and about the farm, and is more exposed to the changes of the weather than 
 the trained animal, and therefore takes less harm from the severity of a long run. Such 
 horses, in fact, if well fed, will hold their wind quite as well as the best menaged horse 
 in the meet. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 THE HACKNEY, OR FARMER'S SADDLE-HORSE. 
 
 Although we have already, at the close of the last section, referred to this description 
 of animal in connection with hunting, it is necessary to give further details respecting it. 
 The hackney is of no particular breed, but is generally reared by the farmers themselves, 
 or purchased by them of Yorkshire dealers. Vast numbers are bred in that county, and 
 in Durham, Northumberland, and Lincolnshire by the farmers, who are all excellent 
 judges of " horse-flesh." To be a Yorkshireman is, in fact, almost synonymous with 
 being a proficient in equine aS'airs. 
 
 The hackney comprehends all horses fit for the saddle, between the hunter and the 
 cart-horse. They are also employed in drawing light vehicles, and do not even disdain 
 taking their turn in the plough when the weather of spring is fine, and business pressing; 
 in fact, they are found to be better at this work than the heavier cart-horse, if the soil 
 is not too strong, on account of their superior activity and spirit. A pair of them wiU 
 with ease turn over an acre of mixed soil laud in the day, and the writer has frequently 
 had two acres of barley ploughed in on such a soil in the same time by a single light 
 horse in a Norfolk wheel-plough. The road or the saddle is the sphere, however, for 
 the hackney. 
 
 The best animals for the purposes of the farmer are those bred from a symmetrical 
 and active cart mare and a well-knit half-bred horse, or even a three-quarter blood, 
 if he possesses bone enough. With such a sire and dam he stands a good chance of 
 producing a foal that, if carefully reared, will amply repay him for his trouble. It is 
 considered good policy for a farmer to work mares rather than geldings, for not only can 
 he breed from them, but they will do more work, taking bulk for bulk, being stronger 
 and more enduring. A mare may also be worked gently almost up to the time of 
 dropping her foal, nor need her holiday be a protracted one after that interesting event. 
 She should be put to the horse early in the season, in order that she may foal at the 
 
THE HACKNEY, OR FARMER'S SADDLE-HORSE. 323 
 
 least busy time of the year. No farmer ought to breed from an inferior mare, however 
 good the horse may be he intends to give her. In fact, in nine cases out of ten, he 
 cannot tell the quality, or the proportions and symmetry of a horse, because they are 
 generally high-fed, and fattened up more like prize cattle than breeding ones. Much 
 • more depends on the character and qualifications of the mare than on those of the horse, 
 for any chronic disease she may be the subject of, is very likely, if not certain, to be 
 transmitted to her descendants. 
 
 Horses bred in the foregoing manner by the farmers, when well used, and not over, 
 or too soon, worked, retain their full efficiency for many years, and in some cases, when 
 they are old and seasoned, will perform prodigies of work. The late Mr. Loudon, 
 butcher of Norwich, related to the writer the following circumstance. During the long 
 war with France a contract for the supply of beef for the navy was issued, and many of 
 the Norwich butchers sent in their proposals by the mail of the evening previous to the 
 day appointed for receiving them in London. After the departure of the mail the 
 competitors met, and, thinking themselves quite safe, began to talk freely of the terms 
 they had sent up. Mr. Loudon found that he was a trifle above the lowest of the rest. 
 He went home and inquired whether "the old mare" was in the stable? No; she 
 was out at grass. He ordered her to be fetched home instantly, and to give her a feed 
 of corn and a drink of Avater. He then sent for a lad who had been accustomed to ride 
 the mare, and told him to dress himself in his best suit, to get some refreshment, and 
 prepare himself for a joui'ney, but to say nothing about it to any one. When the lad 
 and the mare were ready, he astonished the former by telling him that he must ride to 
 London that night, and arrive there early enough to deliver a packet which he gave 
 him, at the address on it, before twelve o'clock the next day ; that he was to keep a regular 
 pace of eight miles an hovu', and stop only long and often enough to avoid distressing 
 the mare. The lad followed the instructions given him, arrived in London in ample 
 time to execute the commission, which secured the contract for Mr. Loudon, and then 
 leisurely returned to Norwich. The distance was 112 miles by the old road; and we 
 feel pleasure in adding that the mare, who was fifteen years old, was never after put to 
 any hard work, nor did she suSer at all from the exertion. 
 
 Many young horses are ruined by being ridden too fast at the beginning of a journey, 
 and by injudicious riding on a journey. The pace should be regulated by the nature of 
 the road over which he travels, according to the old adage ; — 
 
 " Up the liill gallop me not ; 
 Down the hill trot me not; 
 On the plain spare me not ; 
 In the stable whip me not," 
 
 If the rules in the first three lines were strictly and generally attended to, horses would 
 last many years, retaining their efficiency longer than they do. Exception must of 
 course be made for post-horses, because travellers by post can seldom afford to spare the 
 time a journey would take if the health of the horses was to be consulted. We believe 
 that post and job masters generally calculate when purchasing a horse iipon his lasting 
 a certain number of years, according to his price, age, and constitution, they having no 
 direct control over the post-boys they employ. These will at any time put their horses 
 on full speed, if stimulated by the offer of a pint of beer and a half-crown from the 
 
 y2 
 
324 AGEICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODEEN. 
 
 traveller. Stage-coaches, too, formed another exception, but their days are over. Their 
 last days, however, were tlieir best, both for the horses and the travellers, for although 
 they were di-iven sharp, the stages on most roads were not more than eight or ten miles, 
 and the regukr speed was ten miles an hour ; but if a competition existed the rate was 
 increased almost indefinitely. We recollect such a competition on the Loudon and 
 Colchester road, during which the distance — fifty-two miles — was accomplished in three 
 hours and twenty minutes. On the Brighton and the Bath and Bristol roads, too, there 
 was for a long time a desperate opposition, in which almost raili-oad speed was kept up, and 
 passengers were sometimes taken for nothing, and given a dinner and a bottle of wine 
 into the bargain ! The horses worked in those days were frequently three-quarter blood, 
 and stood the strain admirably, keeping at a canter the whole stage.* 
 
 The amount of work that a horse can perform for a continuance depends upou his 
 constitution and what he has been accustomed to. His size, however, has something to 
 do with it, for although many a fast trotting cob or hackney would beat a horse several 
 hands higher in a short run, the latter covers so much more ground that if he has 
 " bottom " he will be able to stand to his work longer than the other without injury. 
 The writer once rode a blind mare twelve years old seventy miles in a day, out and 
 home. He had never crossed her before, but had nothing to do but to giude her over 
 the rough road, as she did not require either whip or spur, but went eight miles an hour, 
 aud never made a serious trip the whole journey. No young horse should be put to 
 this utmost speed, or kept at work too long, even on particular occasions. We have 
 known a three-year old horse injured for life, not by riding him too fast, but by con- 
 tinuiug him ou the road too long without rest. It went bliud very soon after. 
 
 All saddle-horses should be exercised every day, for standing idle in the stable only for 
 a few days is certain to injure his working condition. One week's superfluous rest will do 
 mischief by shortening his wind, and so unfitting him for the road. It is the same with 
 the horse as with the human species — regular, and not too violent, labour, or exercise, is 
 the most conducive to the maintenance of health, efficiency, and the animal spirits. 
 
 In the stable the horse should have as much liberty as is consistent with his 
 safety, and for this purpose a loose box or stall is the best, because his natural intelli- 
 gence keeps him constantly on the qui vive as to what is taking place around him. 
 Every noise, every movement of the groom, or other persons, attracts his attention, and 
 he is kept in almost perpetual motion by his curiosity (if we may impute such a faculty 
 
 * There is no mode of travelling so exhilirating aud dclightfal as that of sitting on the box with a coachman, behind 
 four high-bred horses " in full feather," all in bright harness, the ribands held by an intelligent and educated driver 
 (which was frequently the case), whose word of encouragement and a shake of the reins superseded the use of the whip, 
 being all that was needed to put his cattle upon their mettle. Many noblemen and gentlemen did not disdain to take the 
 ribands and drive a stage ; we'have sat behind Lord Charles Townshend, for instance, on a coach of which he was part 
 proprietor. Eailroads have now superseded all this ; and it is quite true that the conditions of society are so changed the 
 last thirty years, as to require thrice the speed, and a hundred times the accommodation for travelling that would be 
 possible by the stage-coach system. Those, however, who remember this latter mode cannot but regret that the picturesqae 
 and the poetry of travelling should be thus wholly annihilated ; but, as Bloomfield says, ou another subject — 
 
 "The men of ihis fast-going ages 
 Do not wish these slow coaches to see: 
 To the bird that's inured to the cage. 
 It would not be bliss to be free." 
 
 Of course we do not now refer to tli jse lumbering stages denominated " the slow and dirty" such as the " Old Yarmouth," 
 driven by Lambert, who made a point of stopping at every public-house to " moisten his clay." The writer was once 
 eighteen hours travelling eighly miles on that coach, there being no extraordinsiy A»^<vi on the road. 
 
THE HACKNEY, OR FARMER'S SADDLE-HORSE. 325 
 
 to him) to know what is going on. This activity of mind and body is also highly con- 
 ducive to the preservation of his health and working conditions, and it is promoted by 
 giving him a loose stall, in which he can move freely and exercise his inquisitive dispo- 
 sition at leisure. When fastened by a halter to his crib or manger his head is necessarily 
 kept in a constrained postm-e, by which the sinews of the neck are prevented from 
 having their full natural play. The circumstances occurring around him excite his 
 attention, but he cannot move his head round beyond the length of his halter ; and the 
 only way in which he can express his fear or pleasure is by elevating his ears and pawing 
 with his fore feet, and jostling about as fa)- as the stall and the halter will admit. The 
 extra room and expense of a loose box is not worth a thought in a farmer's establishment 
 compared with the advantage and benefit accruing from it to the animal. 
 
 When coming off a journey it is a common practice for the groom (and we have 
 known the master do it, too) to take a horse to the pond to -wash the mud and dirt off his 
 legs and belly. This cannot but be injurious to the animal's health when heated and in 
 a state of perspiration, which renders him peculiarly susceptible of taking cold. If taken 
 into the water at all, it certainly ought not to reach the knees, and the other parts must 
 be cleaned from the mud by other means. That of washing it off is avowedly used to 
 save the groom the trouble and labour of getting it off with a wisp of straw and a curry- 
 comb. This latter operation is quite as efficient, and is, moreover, conducive to the 
 health and comfort of the horse. 
 
 The custom of clipping the coats of saddle-horses was introduced about fifty years 
 since ; but Lawrence so strongly and successfully condemned it that most gentlemen 
 abandoned it. Of late years, however, it has been resumed ; but on Avhat sound principle 
 this unnatural custom can be justified, consistently with a regard to the health and 
 comfort of the horses, we are at a loss to conceive.* The hair of an animal is given him 
 not merely to act as a mechanical covering to protect him from the weather, but it is 
 endowed with highly electrical properties, the action of which is essential to the well-being 
 of the animal, and of itself assists in protecting it from the effects of weather. In proof 
 of this fact, we find that in proportion as we recede from the tropical towards the polar 
 regions every description of animal is clothed with a longer and thicker hair or fur. In 
 the case of the polar elephant, now extinct, but of which some specimens have a few 
 years since been discovered in a perfect state bound up in ice for ages, they were found 
 to have three distinct coats of hair, the outer of which was a foot in length, the next a 
 few inches, and the third a close, short, downy hair, well calculated to protect the body 
 from the cold. The electric properties of hair and fur increase as we approach the polar 
 regions, and are retained even after the skin is taken from the animal, as is proved by 
 the experiment referred to in page 302. In our comparatively cold climate, therefore, 
 if the hair of a horse is longer in winter than in summer it is because nature requires it 
 to be so, to afford it protection from the increasing severity of the season, for which it is 
 both chemically and mechanically so well ad ifed. It is thus an unnatural and 
 dangerous practice to deprive the horse of his cout, and thereby expose him to every 
 
 * We are aware that Welsh and Lupton, in their treatise on "The Horse iu the Stable," defend this practice, on the 
 ground that it is conducive to the health of the animal, by preventing him from sweating when on the road, and 
 contributing to his comfort in the stable. If a horse is properly groomed when he arrives off a journey his coat will soon 
 dry without his being clipped or singed. We look upon clipping, therefore, as a substitute for grooming, or, in other 
 words, to save a lazy groom some trouble. 
 
326 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 injury tliat can arise from changes of temperature. From these the hair is designed to 
 defend him, on tlic one hand by affording a mechanical protection against cold, and on 
 the other, counteracting by the electric action the effects of moisture. If a liorse is 
 properly groomed in the stable his coat will never grow so long as to be unsightly ; 
 whilst to clip the hair from a horse that runs in a pasture, or is just taken into the 
 stables, is in many cases equal to passing on him a sentence of death. We take care to 
 put on additional clothing oiirselves as the winter approaches, and we never shear our 
 sheep until all danger from cold weather is over ; and if nature increases the covering of 
 the horse as the weather gets colder, we may rest assm-ed it is not without sufficient 
 reason. 
 
 It is a very common practice to stint a horse of water, but this is an error. If a 
 horse has access to water at all times he will never drink more than will do him good. 
 On this subject Lawrence, who knew practically more about horse-keeping than most 
 men who keep them, makes the following sensible observations : — " I am not now so 
 much among horses and grooms as formerly, but I remember that the old grooms, 
 thougli so fond of huh themselves, were dreadfully alarmed lest their horses should Ije 
 given to drinking, looking upon them as full brothers in blood to sheep and rabbits, and 
 that water was, at best, but a necessary evil. Now, though I have had all sorts and 
 descriptions of horses — lame, blind, broken-winded, glandered, &c. — I never stinted a 
 horse of his water in my life, yet never experienced any ill consequences from such 
 licence. The geueral notion that broken or thick-winded horses should be kept from 
 drink, is to be attributed to their well-known greediness of it ; and, after all, perhaps 
 no horses have greater need of it. Excess in the case is clearly another thing ; every 
 one knows that a horse in a state of heat and perspiration must not be indulged with 
 quantities of cold, or of any water ; and the same rule holds previously to any great 
 exertion ; and should the animal be habitually too greedy of drink he should be restricted 
 in quantity, and indulged more often." * 
 
 If allowed to help themselves to water, horses will never drink more than will do them 
 good in the stable. "We have known gentlemen who always allowed their horses to 
 have a pail of water placed near the manger, that they might help themselves ; and it 
 was curious to see them, while eating, wash down their food with a sup of water, just as 
 a man might do, without taking a long draught. A horse kept at dry food in a stable, 
 is in the same condition as a man who lives on rich or high-seasoned dishes, and requires 
 drink more frequently than when at grass, or when fed with green food in the stable ; 
 and the idea of rendering him more efficient for his work by stinting him of his water 
 is contrary to nature. The exceptions stated by Lawrence are the only ones admissible 
 in horse-keeping. 
 
 " The points of shape," says Youatt, "most essential to be attended to in the choice 
 of a hackney or road-horse are, the shoulders and the fore legs and feet, because a horse 
 whose shoulders are properly formed and placed is not liable to fall down, and because 
 his soundness depends chiefly upon his legs and feet. The shoulders should not be too 
 upright, but should slope backwards from the shoulder-point to the withers. It is 
 desirable, if the horse is intended to carry a man of much weight, that the shoulders 
 should be rather thick than thin j but it is essential that they should not be too large at 
 the points. A horse whose shoulders are good, stands, when in a natural position, with 
 
 * " Lawrence on the Horse,'* p. 110. 
 
THE HACKNEY, OR FARMER'S SADDLE-HORSE. 327 
 
 his fore legs in a line perpendicular to the ground ; it is, therefore, very desirable that the 
 purchaser should see him in the stable, and before he has been moved, for he will then 
 find him in his natural position, in which it may be difficult to place him after he has 
 once been disturbed. Another mode of ascertaining whether the shoulders are properly 
 placed, is by allowing the horse to walk past you, and to observe whether he places his 
 fore foot more forward than the shoulder point when he puts it on the ground. A horse 
 whose shoulder is properly formed will always do so ; one whose shoulders are upright 
 cannot. The fore quarters of a horse intended to be used as a hackney constitute an 
 essential point ; his carcase should be round and his ribs deep. A horse's fore leg of 
 the proper form should be flat, and as large under the knee as it is just above the fetlock. 
 The pastern should be so joined to the leg at the fetlock that the horse should neither 
 turn his feet out or in ; but it is less objectionable that a horse should turn his feet a 
 little outward, provided it is not so much so as to hit his fetlocks, than that he should 
 turn them inwards." * 
 
 In other respects the hackney should be a miniature of the hunter, except that his 
 pasterns should not be so long or so oblique, and his form more compact, his height not 
 exceeding fifteen hands and an inch. The foot is of great importance. If the shoe is 
 worn at the toe, depend upon it he is a stumbler, but if he sets his foot flat on the 
 ground he may be fully depended on for safety. If his knees are bent he will come down 
 sooner or later, but most probably the former. The foot should be free from corns and 
 thrushes, and this must be ascertained by testing it with the pincers ; it should be open 
 at the heel, and not too hollow or too flat. We close the account of the hackney with 
 the following case by way of caution to purchasers. 
 
 The writer once purchased a fine five-year old Irish mare, about fifteen hands high, 
 for a clerical friend. A trial in harness was given (the owner of the mare driving) which 
 proved satisfactory, for her action was splendid, and she trotted twelve miles an hour. 
 An examination by a surgeon was demanded, and the auctioneer, who was also of that 
 profession, volunteered his services. The shoes were removed and hoofs examined, but 
 in using the pincers it was noticed that the man omitted to press the side of one of the 
 feet. The writer pointed this out to his friend, but he thought the character of the 
 surgeon stood too high to allow him to practise an imposition. The mare was pro- 
 nounced perfectly sound, and taken home. But on driving her out the next day she 
 dropped on her knees, and became dead lame. It was then discovered that she had 
 been at grass all the summer with thrushes of long standing, over which the hoofs had 
 grown without their being healed, and that both the owner and the auctioneer were 
 aware of it. Our friend threatened an action, but reflecting that probably the remedy 
 would be worse than the disease, he pocketed the injury, and instead, bred from her a 
 splendid foal by a pure Arabian horse, which made ample amends for the defects of 
 the dam. 
 
 * Youatt, p. 32. 
 
328 AGKICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 THE AGRICULTURAL OR CART-HORSE. 
 
 There are several breeds of heavy horses adapted to the faring as the Cleveland, the 
 Clydesdale, the old Suffolk Punch, and the heavy black breed. These we shall describe 
 separately. 
 
 The " Cleveland bays" are chiefly bred in the counties of Durham, Northumberland, 
 and York. They are remarkable for their strength, agility, and endurance, which 
 render them very valuable in the collieries, where they are much employed. CuUey 
 affirms that three of them will carry a ton and a half of coals, travel sixty miles in 
 twenty-four hours, without any other rest than two or three baits on the road, and fre- 
 quently perform this task four times a week. Their symmetry is generally perfect ; and 
 it is very common to put the mares to a full-blood horse, the produce making first-rate 
 hunters and saddle-horses. With a half-blood stallion they obtain capital carriage- 
 horses or coachers. Large numbers of the Cleveland horses are brought to the fairs of 
 Northallerton, Howden, and York ; their colour, as the name indicates, is generally bay. 
 
 The Clydesdale horses are found pure in the district of Scotland bordering on the 
 river Clyde, whence the name. This breed owes its origin to a cross of the Scotch mare 
 and a Flanders stallion, of which six were brought over by the Duke of Hamilton about 
 the beginning of the last century. The sires were all coach-horses, and the produce 
 proved as good and useful for agricultural purposes as any British breed of horses. 
 Their height is from fifteen to sixteen and a half hands, and they are generally 
 strong, hardy, active, good-tempered, and remarkably steady in draught, and free from 
 all vice. In coloiir they are black, grey, or brown. They are long in the body and legs, 
 and are not remarkably handsome in shape. In John Lawrence's time the Clydesdale 
 farmers used to dock them close, although that absurd and cruel practice was abandoned 
 in every other part of the kingdom. The Clydesdale horses are larger than the Suffolk 
 Punches, having a better head, a longer neck, a lighter carcase, and deeper legs, and are 
 remarkably good plough-horses. Many of them are bred by a Clydesdale mare put to 
 a half-blood horse. These are sold for coach or carriage-horses in the southern, as well 
 as the central, counties of England. Put to a full-blood stallion the mares breed 
 excellent hunters and saddle-horses. 
 
 The Suffolk Punch is at the present time more generally in favour than at any former 
 period, and some valuable types of the breed have of late years been exhibited at the 
 Royal Agricultural and other cattle shows throughout the kingdom. The old breed, 
 which is not quite extinct, was remarkable for activity and determined perseverance at a 
 dead pull ; and it is said that a Suffolk Punch would strain at it till he dropped ratlier 
 than give in. The present breed is the produce of a Norman stallion by the old Suffolk 
 mare. Their colour is generally sorrel, but sometimes bay or chestnut. Some of them 
 are a cross of a Yorkshire half-bred horse. More attention has been paid of late years in 
 Suffolk to the selection of brood mares of the native stock, and the result is that the 
 symmetry of the present horses is much finer than formerly, and as draught animals 
 they are perhaps as handsome as any breed extant. It is well known that iu Suffolk and 
 Norfolk, wliere the Suffolk liorses are reared and employed, the farmers plough more 
 
THE AGRICULTURAL, OR CART-HORSE. 
 
 329 
 
 land in a day than any other county. They were introduced into Scotland by the 
 Earl of Hopetoun about seventy years since, and were much approved then. 
 
 " It was beautiful," says Youatt, " to see a team of true SufFolks, at a signal from the 
 driver, and without the whip, down on their knees in a moment, and drag everything 
 before them. Brutal wagers were frequently laid as to their powers in this respect, and 
 many a good team was injm'ed and ruined." The immense power of the Suffolk Punch 
 is accounted for by the low position of the shoulder which enables him to throw so much 
 of his weight into the collar. The old Suffolk Punch stood fifteen or sixteen hands high, 
 had a large head, low shoulders, wide ears, coarse muzzle, a long and straight back, flat 
 sides, hind quarters rather high at the hips, legs round, pasterns short, a deep carcase, 
 and a full flank. The present breed is much handsomer, and at the same time possesses 
 the same qualities of activity, endurance, and power to stand a long and severe day's 
 work without being distressed. Some of the Suffolk entire horses have sold at very 
 high prices of late years, the native breeders having devoted much time, attention, and 
 money to their improvement. At many of the cattle shows these horses have carried 
 off the prizes. 
 
 The heavy black horses are principally bred in the midland counties, and are purchased 
 at two years old by the dealers from Surrey, Sussex, and Berkshire, who re-sell them 
 to the farmers, by whom they are worked moderately until four years, so as to pay for 
 their keeping. They are then sent to the London market, and sold at a large profit. 
 
 THE CAKT-HOUSE. 
 
 Leicester, Warwick, Stafford, and Derby are the principal counties in which they are 
 bred ; and in these parts the farmers all use mares in husbandry. They are put to the 
 horse in the spring, and the males are all reared to be disposed of as aforesaid, and supply 
 the army and the London carmen ; the largest and heaviest being selected for the 
 brewers' drays, for which, by their weight, they are admirably adapted. A great 
 number are bought by the farmers of the southern counties for plough and waggon- 
 horses, only a few being reserved (with all the mare foals) as stallions. 
 
330 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 " The vanity of many of the farmers in the south," says Culley, " in regard to their 
 teams is most extraordinary. I have in Berkshire, and that neighbourliood, several 
 times met a narrow-wheeled waggon with six stallions, one before another, the first 
 horse, besides having on a huge bridle, covered with fringe and tassels enough to half-load 
 a common Yorkshire cart-horse, has six bells hung to it, the next five, and so on to the 
 last, which has only one ; and it is really diverting to see with what a conceited air the 
 driver struts and brandishes his long wliip ; a strange contrast this with the poor High- 
 lander carting home his peat for winter fuel, when frequently both horse and cart are 
 not of the same value as the harness iised to a Berkshire waggon-horse. The reader 
 ■will not be surprised when I tell him that I liave many times seen in Scotland a horse 
 and cart conveying peats, or turves, when the whole apparatus contained neither iron, 
 leather, nor hemp. The collar or braham was made of straw, the back-band of plaited 
 rushes, and the wheels of wood only, without bush of metal or binding of iron." 
 
 The black cart-horse was derived from a Flemish cross, the originals being introduced 
 by one of the Earls of Huntingdon, who was ambassador to the States- General, and 
 brought over a set of coach-horses of the black breed. These being mostly stallions, the 
 farmers were induced to put their mares to them, and the cross succeeded and was per- 
 petuated. Bakewell imported half-a-dozen Flanders mares, which were found useful in 
 improving the Leicester black breed, but they were considered too heavy for carriage- 
 horses, for whicli a lighter bay began to be substituted ; and in the present day, with 
 the improved roads which have been made throughout the country, a heavy horse is not 
 required in harness. We question whether Culley, if he were living, would now be 
 able to find in Berkshire a team of six entire horses as described by him. At the same 
 time we should greatly regret that the pride which the waggoner of that county displayed 
 in his team, and which is common to all teamsters who are worth their salt, should be 
 lost. Woe to the farmer whose waggoner takes no interest in the condition and health 
 of his horses ! 
 
 The weight that the dray-horses of the London brewers will draw is enormous. The 
 largest of them are bred in Lincolnshire, the fens of which appear to be adapted to their 
 constitutions. Some of them stand seventeen hands high at two and a half years old. 
 They have a broad chest, a thick upright shoulder (the more upright the collar stands 
 the better), a low forehead, a deep round barrel, broad and high loins, ample quarters, 
 thick fore-arms and thighs, short hairy legs, round hoofs, broad at the heels, and soles 
 not too flat. The head of the dray-horse is fiddle-shaped, and indicative of anything 
 rather tlian of superior intclligrnee or playfulness,* yet instances occur in which their 
 equality to other breeds in this respect is evinced. We are often surprised at the 
 exactness with which these huge animals, with a ponderous load behind them, will draw 
 it within an inch of other and lighter vehicles, which are never touched; and this with- 
 out the smallest intervention of the driver. These horses are purchased by the farmers 
 
 * An amusing instance of practical joking in a dray-horse occurred some years since in the yard of Messrs. Meux 
 and Co., brewers, of London. There was in the brewhouse-yard a particular breed of pigs, to which one of the dray- 
 horses took a great dislike, which he displayed in a ludicrous way. lie would drop some oats out of his mouth, aud when 
 one of these pigs approached him to pick them up, lie would seize it by the neck with his teeth, and souse it into the large 
 water-trough set there for the use of the horses. lie would then with the greatest glee caper about, shaking his clumsy 
 bead, and exhibiting all the signs of exultation at the feat. This was so often repeated, that when a pig was heard 
 
 squalling, the men would exclaim "There's Ibat horse at it again I" aud would run to e.iitricate poor piggy from his 
 
 otiierwise watery grave. 
 
THE IEI8H HORSE. 331 
 
 round London from the Lincolnshire breeders at about .€40 each ; and after working them 
 gently, and feeding them highly, for two years, they obtain in London from £70 to ,€130 
 for them, according to their size and condition. Many of the lighter of the black breed 
 are purchased for the cavalry, but as the government price is limited from £24 to £35 
 it certainly is not the l)est types of the race that are disposed of in this way. 
 
 As farm horses the black horse is not considered equal to the Clydesdale, the Cleve- 
 land, or the Suffolk, either in agility or endurance. Culley says that when put past 
 their own pace they grease, and frequently go blind. They are, therefore, better adapted 
 to the slow dray and heavy waggon work than to the light operations of the farm, which 
 are performed admirably by the other breeds and their crosses. A good many black horses 
 are still imported from Flanders for the Tise of undertakers. These are remarkable for 
 the sleekness of their jet-black coats, their flowing manes and tails, and for their 
 symmetrically-proportioned shape. Her Majesty the Queen has a stud of them which 
 are driven in the royal carriage when her Majesty goes to open Parliament. The black 
 horses are mucli less used by the London carmen now than they formerly were, for how- 
 ever powerful they may be where weight must be opposed to weight, their slow rate of 
 two or two and a half miles per hour is inconsistent with the despatch which is now 
 required in the streets of London and its suburbs, where so many obstructions interfere 
 with progress. Many of the carmen, who are now accommodated with an elevated seat, 
 and drive with reins, go at the rate of five or six miles an hour in a clear road, the 
 frequent delays rendering it necessary. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 THE IRISH HORSE. 
 
 The Irish hunter is remarkably fine about the head, but is rather too narrow across the 
 forehead. His muzzle is small, but his nostrils are wide, his jaws open, and head well 
 set on ; his shoulders are particularly sloping and powerful ; his body is well ribbed up, 
 but slightly flat ; hips wide and powerful, the loins also being muscular and well imited 
 to the back ; the croup is almost always sloping, and the tail set on low ; legs and feet 
 clean and sound. The great fault of the Irish horse is his temper, which is frequently 
 obstinate and fractious, but his constitution is good, and he can endure hard work 
 without flinching far better than a larger animal, for he is generally smaller than the 
 English horse. 
 
 A great deal of pains have been taken of late years to improve the breed of Irish 
 hunters by crossing the Irish mare with a full-blood English stallion. By this means 
 they obtain a much better type that can stand more cross country work, while it retains 
 its admirable native tact in leaping the stone walls and the many rivulets with which 
 the country abounds. The manner in which an Irish horse takes a wall or a hedge is 
 
332 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 peculiar ; he does not cover either at a bound like the English horse, but touches the 
 top with his hind feet like a greyhound, and takes a second spring. Many of the Irish 
 nobility and gentry have excellent studs, both of racers and hunters. The work of the 
 latter is far more severe in Ireland than it is in England, on account of the stone 
 walls, some of them six feet high, which few English horses would attempt, but which 
 the Irish horse will go at without flinching. Frequently, too, there is a wide ditch on 
 the other side, which can only be covered by the method referred to, of the horse taking 
 afresh purchase from the top of the wall. The country also is much more irregular, and 
 roughly intersected with wide ditches and rivulets, which keep the hunters in constant 
 practice, so that they become exceedingly expert. Their leaping is rather the jump of 
 the deer than the strain of the English hunter 
 
 The Irish car-horse is a small, active, and enduring animal, and will travel ten or 
 twelve miles an hour with an " outside car " without being distressed. They are seldom 
 more than fourteen hands in height, and are mostly cross made, but this does not appear 
 to lessen their utility ; they are much used in agriculture, and will bring twelve or 
 fifteen hundredweight of hay many miles in the one-horse cars of the coimtry. It is a 
 curious sight to see a dozen of these cars, all loaded with loose hay (they never ti-uss it 
 in Ireland), coming along the road in a close line, like an elongated haystack, the 
 horses being quite hidden with the sprawling loads they are drawing. Their greatest 
 fault is a hot, skittish temper, of which the writer has had some experience in Ireland, 
 having purchased several there for his own use ; but he never had one that could not be 
 overcome by gentle usage. 
 
 Most of tlic horses used in agriculture by the peasantry of Ireland are, like the 
 owners, very poor and half-starved, but in other respects they are well treated by them, 
 and, as is the case with all animals, they are considered as part and parcel of the family. 
 It is very seldom you see an Irish carman or farmer use a horse in the brutal manner 
 that is so common among the lower class of horse-keepers in England. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 GALLOWAY, COB, AND PONY. 
 
 The first of these, the Galloway, was once the common horse of all work in the south 
 of Scotland, but he is now extinct, being probably merged, in the improvement of 
 agriculture, into the large breed obtained by crossing with the Clydesdale and other 
 horses. It is generally thought in Scotland that the Galloway breed owed its origin to 
 a cross with the Spanish horses brought over to that country by the Invincible Armada, 
 part of which was wrecked on the rocky coast. They were a hardy, active, and docile 
 race, and it is to be regretted that they have been lost. 
 
 The Galloway stood about fourteen hands high, and his powers of endurance, as 
 
GALLOWAY, COB, AND PONY. 333 
 
 recorded in particular instances, are wonderful. In the year 1814 one of these little 
 animals started from London the same time as the Exeter mail, and keeping ahead of 
 it throughout the whole journey of 172 miles, arrived at Exeter a quarter of an hour 
 before it. Youatt, from whom we quote, adds, " We saw him about a twelvemonth 
 afterwards, wind-galled, spavined, ring-bound, and a lamentable picture of the ingrati- 
 tude of some human brutes towards a willing and faithful servant." * 
 
 The cob may be said to have taken the place of the Galloway, although it is of no 
 particular breed, but rather the diminutive of other breeds. He is in general thick and 
 strongly built, about fourteen hands high, and able to carry from fifteen to twenty stone. 
 His make is that of a small cart-horse, compact, and active, with bones as large as in 
 that breed. Their existence is accidental, and they are neither more nor less than 
 dwarfs of the breeds from which they spring. Those which descend from the hunter are 
 preferable to those of a less noble parentage, having a cleaner and lighter action ; they 
 will stand fast work better, and their wind is more lasting. 
 
 The Welsh pony is a beautiful little animal, standing about thirteen hands high. 
 He has a neat, clean head, good shoulders, a capital back, aud strong sinewy legs ; his 
 feet are remarkably sound and good, and stand the hard turnpike roads much better 
 than most larger and heavier horses • he is hardy, will subsist almost on any fare, and 
 is not easily tired out. 
 
 The Exmoor pony is ugly and diminutive in size, but he is hardy, active, and 
 will stand a great amount of rough work. Youatt speaks of one ridden by a sports- 
 man, who rode him at a gate eight inches higher than his back, which he cleared, the 
 owner riding fourteen stone. He travelled on him from Bristol to South Molton, a 
 distance of eighty-six miles, " beating the coach which runs the same road." 
 
 In the hilly parts of Devonshire wheeled carriages are less in use than in the southern 
 counties of England, and the Exmoor ponies are much used by the small farmers for 
 carrying all kinds of produce and manure. The former are carried in crooks formed of 
 willow poles bent as ox-bows, and with one end much longer than the other. These are 
 joined in pairs by cross-bars 18 inches or 2 feet long, and each horse has two pairs of 
 them slung together, so that the shorter ends lie against the pack-saddle, and the longer 
 stand 4 or 5 feet from each other, and rise 15 or 18 inches above the horse's back; 
 within and between these crooks the load of corn, hay, straw, &c., is placed. " Manure 
 is carried in pots, or strong coarse panniers, sliuig together in the same way, and the dung 
 ridged up over the saddle. At the bottom of the pot is a falling door ; aud at the end 
 of the journey the trap is unlatched, and the load falls out." 
 
 The Dartmoor pony is larger and plainer even than the Exmoor, but he is quite as 
 hardy, sure-footed, and useful, and will manage to scramble over the rough roads and 
 mountainous wilds of the country, where a larger horse would break down. They run 
 in droves almost in a state of nature, and it is very difficvdt to catch them when wanted. 
 The late Captain Colgrave, the governor of the Dartmoor prison, wishing to purchase 
 one that from its superior figure took his fancy employed several persons to assist in 
 separating it from the drove. They managed to stow it up into a corner against an 
 abrupt rock, and a man on horseback rode forward, certain of having secured him ; but, 
 lo ! upon his riding up to hira the animal, rendered desperate, gave a sudden spring, 
 bounded over man and horse, and joined his companions of the herd. 
 
 * Youatt, p. 59. 
 
334 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The Highland pony is smaller and worse made than the Galloway. He has a large 
 headj a long back, is low in the forehead, short in the legs, with upright pasterns. His 
 pace is slow, and not very agreeable to those accustomed to ride a better formed animal, his 
 best pace being a canter. These animals are hardy from running out summer and winter, 
 and they will scrape the snow from the heather with their feet to supply themselves with 
 food. Accustomed to the bogs of the country, they will never trust one until they have first 
 tried it with their noses, and then by patting it with their fore feet to ascertain whether 
 it is sound enough to bear them. They are said to do the same before crossing a piece 
 of ice ; and in either case determine very promptly whether it is safe to proceed. 
 
 The Shetland pony, or sheltie, as he is called in Scotland, is, as his name denotes, a 
 native of the most northern of the Scottish isles. This accounts for his diminutive size, 
 which ranges from seven and a half to nine and a half hands in height. The shelties are, 
 however, remarkable for the perfect symmetry of their form, and their gentle disposition, 
 although not at all deficient in strength or spirit. They have a small head, a short neck, 
 but fine tovvards the throttle, low and thick shoulders, short back, expanded and 
 powerful quarters, flat and fine legs, and handsome well-formed feet. Their most 
 distinguishing features are their flowing and bushy manes and tails, diflfering in these 
 from any other breed. They are amazingly strong for their size; and one of them only 
 nine hands, or three feet high, has been known to carry a man of twelve stone forty 
 miles in a day. 
 
 Youatt relates a story of a friend of his, who being presented ^vith one of these little 
 creatures, seven hands, or twenty-eight inches high, was at a loss how to convey him 
 home, which was several miles distant. " ' Can we not carry him in our chaise ?' said our 
 friend. The strange experiment was tried. The sheltie was placed in the bottom of 
 the gig, and covered up as well as could be managed with the apron ; a few bits of 
 bread kept him quiet, and thus he was safely conveyed away, and exhibited the curious 
 spectacle of a horse riding in a gig." * 
 
 The same writer remarks that it is difiicult to imagine that the sheltie and the 
 ponderous dray-horse could possibly have the same origin ; aud the same doubt will 
 apply to all other breeds of ponies. We may, however, account for the diflerence as 
 arising from accidental circumstances, such as hard fare, severity of climate, neglect in 
 the early stages of life, &c. These causes operating in a series of years, and a succession 
 of many generations, would naturally produce a deterioration in qualities, or diminution 
 in size, as the case might be. And, besides, after the wonderful transformations we have 
 witnessed in the breeds of all cattle, by a little extra care and attention, we may reason- 
 ably argue that a contrary course would, in process of time, have the opposite efiect. 
 
 Parkinson relates that his father had a mare that had fourteen foals all by the same 
 horse, not one of which, at three years old, was under seventeen hands. When in the 
 fifteenth foal he sold her to a neighbouring farmer, reserving the foal, which was to be 
 delivered to him in twelve months. Her new master half-starved her ; and at the end 
 of the time she was so altered as scarcely to be known for the same. The foal too was 
 very small, and although put to the most luxurious keeping was not more than fifteen 
 hands at three years old. This is a case directly in point. Supposing that the foal 
 had remained with the new master of the dam, it is probable that he would not have 
 reached more than thirteen, or at most fourteen, hands ; and a continuance of the same 
 
 ♦ ifouatt, p. 60. 
 
GALLOWAY, COB, AND PONY. 335 
 
 privation of food and neglect, would in all probability have caused the breed to 
 dwindle down to that of a pony, especiallv if a severe climate were suueradded to hard 
 fare and hard work. 
 
 A considerable number of horses, both for the use of cavalry and for agricultural 
 purposes, are annually purchased in England, and exported to France. The Emperor 
 Napoleon has paid great attention to the breeding of horses of late years, and a stud has 
 been established, with depots in different parts of the country, where a selection 
 of the best stallions and mares is kept for the purpose. The institution, however, has 
 not been attended with success equal either to the expectations of the Emperor, or tlie 
 expense attending it, and attempts have recently been made to remodel its arrangements, 
 but as the greater part of its former organisation is still retained, there is not much hope 
 of its prosperity in future. The expense of maintaining 1,320 stallions and 87 mares 
 and fillies in 1860 amoimted to £150,000; and in 1861, with only 983 stallions and 
 no mares, the sum was increased to nearly £167,000 sterling, or nearly £170 each. 
 
 A considerable number of the best English thorough-bred horses have been pur- 
 chased at very high prices for the United States, Canada, Australia, and other British 
 colonies; and apprehensions are entertained that it will materially interfere with the 
 production of good racers and hunters in England. There is, however, still a large 
 sprinkling of first-rate horses, of both full and half-blood, in the country, to keep up the 
 stock, and the stud-book may still be referred to in confirmation. On the other hand, 
 it is becoming a universal conviction, that farm work under the improved system of 
 cultivation can be better performed by horses with a portion of blood in their veins than 
 by the heavy cart-horses formerly in fashion, when weight of carcase was the ne plus 
 ultra of power and efficiency. Where heavy weights ai-e to be moved, such as the old 
 stage waggons and the brewers' drays in London, it is granted that equal weight and 
 power, found in the height and bulk of the animal frame, are required ; the work 
 being slow, and the draught over the stones or roads exacting a steady, heavy 
 bearing upon the collar rather than superior agility and activity of movement. But 
 these latter are essentially the qualities that agricultui-al horses are now required to 
 possess; and we believe that most farmers of the new school, whatever may be the 
 nature of the soil they cultivate, have adopted the plan of employing a ligliter kind of 
 horse than formerly, both in the plough and the waggon. The load of the latter is seldom 
 heavier than ten quarters of wheat, which does not much exceed two tons, to convey which 
 to millj or otherwise, say ten miles, is light work for fom' well-fed horses. At harvest work 
 especially, when despatch is the order of the day, the lighter horses have the decided 
 advantage. What these want in weight of carcase is made up in muscle and spirit, 
 which enable them to perform the severest work with less fatigue than those would sustain 
 that have nothing but their bulky weight to get them through it.* 
 
 Whatever differences there may be in the characters and qualifications of horses, there 
 are general rules to be observed in purchasing them, which apply to all breeds. The 
 
 * " Bred horses," says Lawrence, " are applicable to a greater variety of useful purposes than any other, excelling iu 
 nearly all. They have greater atreugth in proportion, from the superior toughness of substance in their tendons, muscles, 
 and ligaments, and the solidity of their bones. They are able to carry greater weight, and with superior speed ; proof of 
 the first instance was apparent iu that not very mercifol experimental match, in which Mr. Vernon's Amelia beat the 
 miller's horse at his own play, loading his back with sacks of flour. I remember to have seen Bullock, the brewer, riding 
 twenty stone, cantering over the London pavement upon a little bred horse not above fourteen hands high." — The 
 Hone, p. 209. 
 
336 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 following directions are laid down by Culley, which, if attended to, will be found strictly 
 correct. In regard to form, the head should be small and in proportion to the size of 
 the animal ; the nostrils expanded, the muzzle clean and fine, the eyes prominent and 
 cheerful, the ears small, rather inclining forward than otherwise, and placed at a small 
 distance from each other ; the neck rising with an easy curve from the shoulders, and 
 joining the head gracefully ; the shoulders thrown back, and losing themselves insensibly 
 upwards in the neck ; the arm muscular, flat, and tapering from the shoulder ; the knee 
 full and sinewy, the leg or cannon rather solid than large, and flat or lathy rather than 
 round ; the pasterns long, and rather turning outwards ; the hoof circular, and wide at 
 the heel; the chest deep and full, the body round, the back deviating slightly from 
 the straight line from the setting of the neck to the rump ; the fillets broad and straight, 
 the hips moderately wide apart, tiie quarters long, the tail set on in a straight line with 
 the rump, the thighs strong. and muscular, the legs clean, and the bones fine, flat, and 
 lathy. When at rest he should stand in an easy, graceful, unconstrained posture, and 
 perfectly upright on his legs. 
 
 As to the soundness, " wind and limb," as it is termed, of a horse, or freedom from 
 the various ills that horse-flesh is heir to, although many of them, such as spavins, 
 splints, thorough-pins, windgalls, blindness, lameness, broken-wind, glanders, &c. &e., 
 may be easily detected by even a moderate judge, yet we would advise every one before 
 concluding a purchase both to demand a written warranty and an examination by a 
 vetei'inary surgeon of reputation, and who would reject a bribe.* The expense is usually 
 half a guinea divided between the parties, or as may be agreed on. 
 
 With respect to the disposition of a horse, the following indications may generally 
 be relied on : — A broad forehead and wide-set ears denote a sluggish, stubborn, and 
 obstinate temper ; a narrow forehead and wide-set ears are decided signs of viciousness. 
 Close- set ears, rather inclining backward, indicate a timid and fearful, rather than a 
 vicious, disposition, but are equally dangerous, as betraying a liability to take fright 
 and bolt. Such horses generally look behind them, and are ready to start on the least 
 appearance of danger. The revei-se of these characteristics are a well-proportioned fore- 
 head, well-planted and rather forward-pointing ears ; a bold but pleasant eye and 
 countenance generally. Such a horse must be badly used indeed to prove vicious. 
 
 * A nobleman (by courtesy) once called on a celebrated veterinary surgeon in Dublin, and stated that be had sold a 
 horse for 120 guineas, and that the purchaser claimed an examination by him. " Now," added the party, " I think I 
 can trust you " (laying a £10 note careltssly on the desk) " to give a fair and satisfactory report of the horse. He ia a 
 
 fine creature, and I have no duubt you will liud him worth the money." — " Very well, my Lord," replied Mr. W , "you 
 
 may rely on if, I will do you justice in the affair." The horse and the purchaser soon entered the yard, and the surgeon 
 first tried his paces, and then examined his feet and legs. Having finished his inspection, " Well, my Lord," he said, " I 
 find this horse incarabli/ lame all round, and if you v^ant to know his value I should say £5 would be the outside. 
 With respect, however, to the £10 you were so liberal as to give me, as I have never yet taken a bribe in such cases, you 
 shall have the satisfaction of knowing that it is handed over to a benevolent institution." 
 
THE OX. 337 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 THE OX. 
 
 Ox is a generic term for all animals of the Bovine species. It belongs to the class 
 mammalia, or animals having mammsje or teats ; the order ruminatia, or chewing their 
 food a secoud time ; the tribe Bovidm, the ox kind ; the genus Bos, the ox, the horns 
 occupying the crest, projecting at first sideways, and being porous or cellular within j 
 and the sub-genus Bos taurus, or the domestic ox. 
 
 The ox derives its importance amongst the domestic animals of the United Kingdom 
 from its services as a beast of draught, and as supplying a large portion of food to the 
 inhabitants. In the former capacity its use is now confined to a comparatively very 
 small section of the country, the horse being now ail but exclusively used in agricultural 
 labour ; but for food upwards of 2,000,000 oxen are slaughtered annually in the 
 kingdom, averaging about sixty imperial stones each, of which 277,000 are appropriated 
 to the metropolis alone. Besides these, there are kept 3,000,000 cows, producing nearly 
 700,000,000 gallons of milk, and a proportional quantity of butter and cheese, while 
 the refuse produce of the dairy forms the partial food of a large number of pigs. To these 
 important services must be added the value of the skin, in supplying us with leather and 
 hair for various pui'poses ; the tallow, for affording us light ; and the bones, horns, and 
 hoofs, partly for manufacturing innumerable articles for ornament or use, and partly for 
 application as a most valuable manure. When, therefore, we combine all these services 
 rendered in the life and death of the ox, we shall have no hesitation in forming a just 
 estimation of him in the domestic economy of the country. 
 
 The ox is distinguished from animals of the horse kind by the absence of cutting 
 teeth in the upper jaw j in the lower jaw they have eight incisors, or cutting teeth, and 
 six molars, or grinding-teeth, in both lower and upper jaws on each side. In all, there- 
 fore, they have twenty in the lower, and twelve in the upper jaw, or thirty-two in both. 
 
 The period of gestation of the cow differs slightly with the sex of the calf. In ease 
 of a bull calf, Lawrence found it to be 287 days, or forty-one weeks, with a variation of a 
 few days either way. With a cow calf her time is a week less, with a similar variation. 
 The term of life of a bull or cow he reckons to be about twenty years. The cow breeds, 
 and yields milk, almost to the end of life, but the bull loses his vigour and usefulness 
 much sooner. The age of the ox may be ascertained by the teeth up to a certain period. 
 Thus, the first front teeth in the lower jaw at two years old are replaced by others less 
 white ; each of the three succeeding years two other calves' teeth are also replaced, and 
 at five years old the incisory or cutting teeth are all replaced with others of greater 
 length and substance, and the animal is full-mouthed. At six, the mark on the teeth is 
 completed, after which the age, like that of a horse after seven, must be guessed at, so 
 far as the teeth are a guide. The horns, howevei', supply their place. At three years 
 old they shoot their first horns ; at four a button, or bud, rises in place of the horn ; at 
 five this is pushed forward l)y another, which is separated from it by a ring, aud each 
 succeeding year of the animal's life a fresh ring is formed; and thus, allowing three 
 years for the first ring, the age of an ox may thenceforth be ascertained by the number 
 of these rings to the end of the life of the animal. 
 
338 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The history of the ox, like that of all other domestic animals, must be referred back to 
 the Flood, and its native country, to the plains of Ararat, where the ark of Noah rested. 
 Cattle are mentioned as being a possession of man* before that catastrophe -which reduced 
 the number of living animals to the few that vessel would contain. Afterwards, animal 
 food, by express Divine permission, became a regular part of human sustenance, and ever 
 since, in the old continents at least, the ox has been found either in the wild or the 
 domesticated state, or in both conditions. Both sheep and oxen are mentioned con- 
 tinually, from the earliest periods of sacred as well as of profane history, and the latter 
 establishes the fact of not only the domestication, but of the veneration as an object of 
 idolatrous worship, of the ox amongst the inhabitants both of Egypt and India. The 
 legends of the latter state that it was the first animal created by the three gods who 
 were commissioned by the supreme Lord to furnish the earth with animated beings. 
 The cow is represented in the traditions of the Celtic nations as a species of divinity. f 
 
 From the traditions of both England and every part of the continent of Europe, there 
 is reason to think that formerly the ox was much larger than those of the present day ; 
 and this is confirmed by the skulls of these animals which have been dug up and 
 preserved. The skull of the dun cow, encountered by Guy, Earl of Warwick, and which 
 is preserved in Warwick Castle, is a proof that, at least, a wild breed of oxen of a large 
 size existed in England at that period. That England was noted for the great numbers 
 of its cattle at the time of the Roman invasion is confirmed by the Commentaries of 
 Caesar ; and that the inhabitants lived chiefly on meat and milk. There were also wild 
 as well as domesticated oxen, and the woods with which this country then abounded served 
 as retreats for the former. During the frequent wars that raged, the cattle were turned 
 or broke loose, and betook themselves to these forests, where they became wild and 
 ferocious. Even in the neighbourhood of London herds of wild cattle existed, and were 
 dangerous to the inhabitants. With the forests, these have long since passed away, and 
 the only types of them now existing in Britain are to be seen in the park of the Earl of 
 Tankerville's estate of Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland, and in Chatelherault 
 Park, the seat of the Duke of Hamilton, in Lanarkshire. The following is the descrip- 
 tion given of these cattle by Culley : — ■ 
 
 '•' The wild breed, from being untameable, can only be kept within walls or good 
 fences, consequently few of them are now to be met with, except in the parks of some 
 gentlemen, who keep them for ornament, and as a curiosity. Those I have seen are at 
 Chillingham Castle, in Northumberland, the seat of the Earl of Tankerville. 
 
 "Their colour is invariably of a creamy white, with black muzzle; the whole of the 
 inside of the ear, and about one-third of the outside, from the tips downward, red ; horns 
 white, with black tips, very fine, and bent upwards ; some of the bulls have a thin upright 
 mane, about an inch and a half, or two inches long. The weight of the oxen is from 
 35 to 45 stones, and of the cows from 25 to 35 stones, the four quarters (14 lbs. to the 
 stone). The beef is finely marbled, and of excellent flavour. 
 
 " From the nature of their pasture, and the fi-equent agitation they are put into by 
 the cm-iosity of strangers, it is not to be expected that they should get very fat ; yet the 
 six-years-old oxen are generally very good beef, from whence it may fairly be supposed 
 that in proper situations they would feed well. 
 
 " At the first appearance of any person they set off in full gallop ; and at the distance 
 * Gen. iv. 20. + Youatt. 
 
THE OX. 339 
 
 of about 200 yards make a wheel round and come boldly up again, tossing their heads 
 in a menacing manner j on a sudden they make a full stop at the distance of forty or 
 fifty yards, looking wild at the object of their surprise ; but upon the least motion being 
 made, they all turn round again, and fly off with equal speed, but not to the same 
 distance : forming a shorter circle, and again returning with a bolder and more threaten- 
 ing aspect than before, they approach much nearer, probably within thirty yards, when 
 they again make another stand, and again fly ofl'. This they do several times, shortening 
 their distance and advancing nearer and nearer, till they come within such a short 
 distance that most people think it prudent to leave them, not choosing to provoke them 
 further. 
 
 " The mode of killing them was perhaps the only modern remains of the grandeur 
 of ancient hunting. On notice being given that a wild bull would be killed on a certain 
 day, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood came mounted, and al-med with guns, &c., 
 sometimes to the number of 100 horse, and 400 or 500 foot, who stood upon walls or 
 got into trees, while the horsemen rode off the bull from the rest of the herd, until he stood 
 at bay, when a marksman dismounted and shot. At some of these huntings twenty or 
 thirty shots have been fired before he was subdued. On such occasions the bleeding- 
 victim grew desperately fm-ious from the smarting of his woimds, and the shouts of 
 savage joy that were echoing from every side j but from the number of accidents that 
 happened, this dangerous mode has been but little practised of late years, the park-keeper 
 alone killing them with a rifle gun at one shot. 
 
 "When the cows calve they hide their calves for a week or ten days in some 
 sequestered situation, and go and suckle them two or three times a day. If any person 
 come near the calves, they clap their heads close to the ground, and lie like a hare in 
 form, to hide themselves ; this is a proof of their native wildness, and is corroborated by 
 the following circumstance that happened to the writer of this narrative, who found a 
 hidden calf, two days old, very lean and very weak ; on stroking its head it got up, 
 pawed two or three times like an old biill, bellowed very loud, stepped back a few steps, 
 and bolted at his legs with all its force. It then began to paw again, bellowed, stepped 
 back, and bolted as before ; but knowing its intention, and stepping aside, it missed him, 
 fell, and was so weak that it could not rise, though it made several efibrts ; but it had 
 done enough ; the whole herd were alarmed, and coming to its rescue, obliged him to 
 retire, for the dams will allow no person to touch their calves without attacking them 
 with impetuous fury." 
 
 Such are the animals fi-om which it is assumed the breeds of cattle of the United 
 Kingdom, or at least of England, were originally derived. It would be difiicult to 
 trace them back through all the vicissitudes to which the lauded property, and 
 consequently its produce, have passed since the time of the Roman conquest. The 
 assumption, therefore, must be taken for granted ; and, at any rate, these Avild cattle 
 form a curious contrast with the difi'erent races which now compose the herds of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 The various breeds of cattle, which in fact are almost as numerous, nominally, as the 
 counties, are reduced by modern winters into three generic classes, namely, the Long 
 Horns, originally from Lancashire ; the Short Earns, which are claimed by the East 
 Riding of Yorkshii-e, and Durham ; and the Middle Horns, a distinct race, valuable and 
 handsome, which are spread over the counties of Devon, Hereford, Gloucester, Sussex, 
 
 z 2 
 
340 ■ AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and in Wales and Scotland. In these two latter countries the types differ from the 
 rest chiefly in size, which is probably owing to the scanty pasture and more severe climate 
 to which they are compelled to submit. Besides these three breeds^ there is a race of 
 hornless cattle found in Galloway, in Scotland, and in Norfolk and Suffolk, besides a 
 polled variety of the Devons, called A^ats, which will be noticed in their place. 
 
 The question which of the above is the original breed of British cattle is narrowed 
 to the claims of the Long and the Middle Horns, the Short Horns being now universally 
 admitted to have been imported at no veiy distant period from the Continent. Youatt 
 inclines to yielding the palm to the Middle Horns, from the belief that the Long Horns 
 were of Irish extraction. There is no doubt that in the midst of the distractions, caused 
 by invasion on the one hand, and civil war on the other, the most secure places to which 
 the landed proprietors could drive their cattle, which formed their most valuable move- 
 able property, would be the strongholds of North Devon, East Sussex, and Cornwall, 
 the Welsh mountains, and the Highlands of Scotland ; and it is in these secluded 
 districts that we find the Middle Horned race of cattle in the greatest purity and 
 perfection. It is worthy, too, of remark, that the cattle of these different parts of the 
 kingdom, whatever varieties may appear among them, agree in all essential charac- 
 teristics, such as in yielding a small quantity only of milk, but of the richest qviality ; 
 in being well fitted for agricultural labour ; and in their uniform aptness to fatten ; and 
 whatever differences may exist amongst them are to be ascribed to the character of the 
 soil, climate, and other accidental circumstance to which they have been subjected. It 
 is said that, setting aside the difference of colour, which of itself may have been acci- 
 dental, a comparison of the Devon cattle with the wild breed of Chatelherault Park and 
 Chillingham Castle, will show the extreme probability that they descend from the 
 original stock, differing as they do, in all respects, from the cattle of the neighbouring 
 counties. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 THE MIDDLE HORNS.— 1. THE DEVONS. 
 
 These are reckoned a mountain breed, and are certainly the aristocracy of the Bovine 
 species. They are still found in their native purity on the banks of the Taw, westward, 
 skirting along the Bristol Channel, extending inland by Barnstaple, South Molton, and 
 Chumleigh, as far as Tiverton, and thence to Wellington. Beyond these places, the 
 breed becomes mixed with local varieties, as eastward with the Somersets and Welsh ; 
 south with Somersets ; and Welsh with the Cornish. The Devonshire farmers are of 
 opinion that the only district in which the pure Devons are to be found is that lying 
 between Portlock and Bideford, and a little north and south of that line. Here the 
 breed has certainly remained the same from time immemorial, only improved as tne 
 native breeders began to discover their value, which does not appear to have been the 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 341 
 
 case till the Board of Agriculture pointed it out to ttem. Youatt considers that Devon- 
 shire is more indebted to the nature of its soil and climate for its fine race of cattle than 
 to any efforts of the farmers to improve it. "What change has taken place in this respect 
 has been owing to the enterprise and enei'gy of persons unconnected with the county, 
 who, by both precept and example, have stimulated the native breeders to the task. 
 The result has been that the Devon cattle have arrived at such a pitch of perfection that 
 no crosses with any other breed could be attempted without deterioration. The following 
 description of them was written by Youatt, and is as perfectly applicable to them now as 
 when it was penned : — 
 
 " The more perfect specimens of the North Devon breed are thus distinguished. The 
 horns of the bull ought to be neither too low nor too high, tapering at the points, not too 
 thick at the root, and of a yellow or waxy colour. The eye should be clear, bright, and 
 prominent, showing much of the white ; and it ought to have around it a circle of 
 variable coloui-, but iisually a dark orange. The forehead should be flat, indented, and 
 small ; for by the smallness of the forehead the purity of the breed is very much esti- 
 mated. The cheek should be small, and the muzzle fine; the nose should be of a clear 
 yellow. A black muzzle is disliked, and even a mottled one is objected to by some who 
 pretend to be judges of the true Devon. The nostril should be high and open; the 
 hair curled about the head, and giving at first appearance an idea of coarseness, which 
 soon wears off. The neck shoidd be thick, and that sometimes almost to a fault. 
 
 " Excepting in the head and neck, the form of the bull does not materially differ 
 from that of the ox, but he is considerably smaller. There are some exceptions, how- 
 ever, to this rule. The head of the ox is small, very singularly so, relatively to the 
 bulk of the animal, yet it has a striking breadth of forehead. It is clean, and free from 
 flesh about the jaws. The eye is very prominent, and the animal has a pleasing vivacity 
 of countenance plainly distinguishing it from the heavy aspect of many other breeds. 
 Its neck is long and thin, admirably adapting it for the collar, and even for the more 
 common and ruder yoke. The want of the beautifully arched form of the neck, which 
 is seen in the horse, has been considered as a defect in most breeds of cattle. It is 
 accounted one of the characters of good cattle that the line of the neck, from the horn 
 to the withers, should scarcely deviate from that of the back. In the Devonshire ox, 
 however, there is a peculiar rising of the forehand, reminding us not a little of the blood- 
 horse, and essentially connected with the free and quick action by which this breed has 
 ever been distinguished. It has little or no dewlap depending from its throat. The 
 horns are longer than those of the bull, smaller, and fine even to the base, and of a 
 lighter colour, and sometimes tipped with yellow. The animal is light in the withers ; 
 the shoulders a little oblique ; the breast deep, and the bosom open and wide, particularly 
 as contrasted with the fineness of the withers. The fore legs are wide apart, looking 
 like pillars that have to support a great weight. The point of the shoulder is rarely, 
 or never seen. There is no projection of bone, as in the horse, but there is a kind of 
 level line running on to the neck. These are characteristic aud important points. 
 Angular, bony projections are never seen in a beast that carries much flesh and fat ; the 
 fineness of the withers, the slanting direction of the shoulders, and the broad and open 
 breast imply both strength and speed, and aptitude to fatten. A narrow-chested animal 
 can never be useful either for working or grazing. 
 
 " With all the lightness of the Devonshire ox, there is a point about him disliked in 
 
342 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 the blood or riding-liorse, and not always approved in tlie horse of light draught,— the 
 legs are far under the chest, or rather the chest projects far and vnde before the legs. 
 We see the advantage of this iu the beast of slow draught, who rarely breaks into a trot, 
 except when he is goaded on in catching times, and the division of whose foot secures 
 Mm from stumbling. The lightness of the other parts of his form, however, counter- 
 balances the appearance of heaviness here. 
 
 "The legs are straight, at least in the best breeds. If they are in-kneed, or crooked 
 in the fore legs, it argues a deficiency in blood, and comparative incapacity for work, 
 and not only for work, but for grazing too, for they will be hollow behind the withers — 
 a point for which nothing can compensate, because it takes away so much from the place 
 where good flesh and fat should be thickly laid on, and diminishes the capacity of the 
 chest, and the power of creating arterial and nutritious blood. 
 
 " The fore arm is particularly large and powerful. It swells out suddenly above the 
 knee, but is soon lost in the substance of the shoulder. Below the knee the bone is 
 small to a very extraordinary degree, indicating a seeming want of strength ; but this 
 impression immediately ceases, for the smallness is only in front — it is only in the bone 
 — the leg is deep, and the sinews are far removed from the bone. It is the leg of the 
 blood-horse, promising both strength and speed. It may, perhaps, be objected that the 
 leg is a little too long. It would be so in an animal that is destined only to graze ; but 
 this is a working animal, and some length of leg is necessary to get him pleasantly and 
 actively over the ground. 
 
 " There is a very trifling fall behind the withers, but no hollowness ; and the line of 
 the back is straight from them to the sitting on of the tail. If there is any seeming 
 fault in the beast, it is that the sides are a little too flat. It will appear, however, 
 that this does not interfere with his feeding, while a deep, although somewhat flat, 
 chest, is adapted for speed. 
 
 " Not only is the breast broad and the chest deep, but the two last ribs are 
 particularly bold and prominent, leaving room for the stomachs and other parts 
 concerned in digestion to be fuUy developed. The hips, or buckles, are high, and on a 
 level with the back, whether the beast is fat or lean. The hind quarters, or the space 
 from the huckle to the point of the rump, are particularly long and well filled up, — 
 a point likewise of very considerable importance both for grazing and working. It leaves 
 room for flesh in the most valuable part ; and, like the extensive and swelling quarters 
 of the blood-horse, indicate much power behind, equally connected with strength and 
 speed. This is an improvement quite of modern date. The fulness here, and the 
 swelling out of the thigh below, arc of much more consequence than the prominence of 
 fat, which is so much admired on the rump of many prize cattle. 
 
 " The sitting on of the tail is high ; it is on a level with the back, rarely much 
 elevated, and never depressed. This is another great point in the blood-horse, as 
 connected with the perfection of the hmd quarters. The tail itself is long, small, and 
 taper, with a round bunch of hair at the bottom. 
 
 " The skin of the Devon, notwithstanding his curly hair, is exceedingly mellow and 
 elastic. Graziers know that there is not a more important point than this. Where the 
 skin can be easily raised from the hips, it shows that there is room to set on fat below. 
 The skiu is rather thin than thick. Its appearance of thickness arises from the curly 
 hair with which it is covered, and curly in proportion to the health and condition of the 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 343 
 
 animal. Good judges of these cattle speak of these cui'ls as running like ripples of 
 wind on a pond of water. Some of these cattle have the hair smooth; but then it 
 should be fine and glossy. Those with curled hair ai'e somewhat more hardy^ and fatten 
 more kindly. The favourite colour is a blood red : this is supposed to indicate piu-ity of 
 breed ; Ijut there are many good cattle approaching almost to a chestnut hue, or even a 
 bay-brown. If the eye is clear and good, and the skin mellow, the paler colours will 
 bear hard work, and fatten as well as the others. But a beast with a pale skin, and 
 hard under the hand, and the eye dark and dead, will be a sluggish worker and an 
 unprofitable feeder. Those, however, that are of a yellow colour, are said to be subject 
 to steat or diarrhoea. Some breeders object to the slightest intermixtm'c of white, — not 
 even a star upon the forehead is allowed ; yet a few good oxen have large distant patches 
 of white; but if the colours run into each other the beasts are condemned, as of a 
 mongrel and valueless breed." 
 
 The above description was drawn out nearly thirty years ago, and is a perfect rule 
 to judge of these cattle, although by the skilful attention paid by more modern breeders 
 to pedigree and selection, in order to remedy those defects which, now that grazing is 
 the principal object to which the Devon cattle are appropriated, required removal, their 
 symmetry is more in accordance with present ideas or taste. The Devons were 
 introduced into Norfolk by the late Earl of Leicester (then T. W. Coke, Esq.) about the 
 beginning of the present century ; and it is no small testimony to the excellence and 
 value of the breed, that it has been retained at Holkham ever since in all its purity, 
 and is also a general favourite with most of the wealthy farmers on that estate, as the 
 appearance of so many of them at the Smithfield and other cattle shows evinces. The 
 improvements effected consist in the reduced size of the bones, greater squareness of the 
 form, and roundness of the ribs, and the extraordinary precociousness, by virtue of 
 which they now attain as great a ripeness at two or two and a half, as they formerly did 
 at four or five, years of age, and nearly as great a weight also. The flesh has a 
 remarkably delicate flavour ; and they are much esteemed by the Loudon as well as 
 country butchers, and will always command the highest price in the market of the 
 metropolis. 
 
 The Devonshire cow is small in proportion to the bull or the ox. She is 
 distinguished by a clear, full eye, with a gold coloured ring round it ; the inside of the 
 ear being the same colour. She has a cheerfvd countenance, an orange or yellow 
 muzzle, the rest of the face being red : the jaws are fine, and the throat has no dewlap. 
 The points of the back and hind quarters are round and handsome, in which respect they 
 diff'er from the angular appearance of those of cattle that are noted for their good milkiug 
 qualities. In fact, the Devon cows are not good milkers in respect to quantity ; but 
 what they do yield is very rich, and produces the first-rate cream and butter, the latter 
 always commanding the highest price in the Loudon market. Lawrence questions this, 
 and says : — " As milkers they are so far inferior to both the Long and Short Horns, 
 namely, both in quantity and quality of milk, that they are certainly no object for the 
 regular dairy, however pleasing and convenient they may be in the private family way.'' 
 This is true only so far as the quantity of milk yielded by them is concerned;* that 
 
 * Many years since, a tenant of Mi-. Coke (the late Mr. Purday, thea of Egmere) was persuaded by his landlord to set 
 a dairy of Devon cows. He was a first-rate farmer and grazier, and the writer recollects his selling a two year old Devon 
 bull for 500 guineas, which of itself proves the excellence and purity of the stock. It was Mr, Coke's practice when he 
 
344 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the quality is inferior to tliat of other cattle is disproved by the rich cream and butter 
 for which the county of Devon has always been celebrated, and which is doubtless the 
 produce of the native breed of cattle. 
 
 It is, however, as working and grazing cattle that the Devons are most distinguished. 
 In regard to the first qualification, they stand without rivals in the plough where the 
 land is not too strong and heavy. Their quickness of action, docility, good temper, and 
 perseverance, are nearly equal to those of the horse. Youatt says that four of them in 
 a two-furrow plough will turn over two acres in a day ; and that four of them in a 
 waggon will do as much work either in the field or on the road as three horses. It is 
 true that on a very stiff clay they fail ; but it is rather in strength than in " bottom," 
 
 riiK DEVON cow. 
 
 for they will attempt to accomplish it to the last. Lawrence goes so far as to assert that 
 by a little attention to the breed they might be adapted to the saddle f as well as the 
 yoke ; and he quotes an instance of one, which, for a wager, was ridden thirty miles in 
 two hours. 
 
 Four oxen, or six growing steers, constitute the team for a plough, and they are 
 attended by a man and a boy, the former to hold the plough, the latter to drive. Youatt 
 gives a pleasing description of the rural habits of these husbandmen. " The boy chants 
 that which can scarcely be regarded as any distinct tune, but which is a very pleasing 
 succession of sounds resembling the counter-tenor in the service of the cathedral. He 
 
 had friends at the Hall, to take them to see the farms of his tenauts ; and, amongst others, Mr. Purday's Devon Dairy was 
 a favourite hobliy for liim. Ou oue occasion he brought a noble lord to see these Devon cattle ; and his lordship, after 
 admiring them very much, asked the farmer how it was that he spoiled his dairy by keeping amongst the others three ugly 
 Suffolk polled cows, " which were quite a disgrace to the rest." " Well, my lord," replied the honest farmer, " I'm proud 
 of my Devons, to be sure, and Mr. Coke is as proud of them as I am ; but, after all, my lord, you know, me must have a 
 little milk and hiilter for tliefumili/." 
 
 \ About the close ot the last century, when taxes were high and horse keep dear, an eccentric gentleman in the west, 
 a " radical reformer," in order to avoid the horse tax, had a Dcvonsliire ox trained to the saddle, and rode on him about the 
 country in the neighbourhood of Bath aud Bristol, to the no small amusement of the natives. But he had it all to himself, 
 as no one followed his patriotic example. 
 
THE MIDDLE H0KN8. 345 
 
 sings away with unwearied lungs as he trudges along, almost from morning till night, 
 while every now and then the ploughman, as he directs the movement of the team, puts 
 in his lower notes, but ia perfect concord. When the traveller stops in one of the 
 Devonshire valleys, and listens to this simple music from the drivers of the ploughs on 
 the slopes of the hill on either side, he experiences a pleasure which this operation of 
 husbandry could scarcely be supposed capable of affording. This chanting is said to 
 animate the oxen somewhat in the same way as the musical bells that are prevalent in 
 the same county. Certainly the oxen move along with an agility that would scarcely be 
 expected from cattle ; and the team may be watched a long while without one harsh 
 word being heard, or the goad or whip applied. The opponents of ox husbandry should 
 visit the valleys of North or South Devon to see what the animal is capable of per- 
 forming, and how he performs it."* 
 
 If any breed of cattle can be profitably employed in husbandry it is certainly the 
 Devons ; but the question is commercially settled against the practice by the new or 
 modern system of grazing, by which the ox can be got ready for the butcher, and 
 turned to profit by the time he arrives at the age when it is requisite to break him in to 
 the yoke, and before he has attained his full efficiency of power or skill. Even when 
 broke he must be worked lightly on the hills for two years, until he is four years old, 
 and then he may be put to hard work until six. At that age, if it is intended to make 
 the best beef of him, he should cease working and be put to high feed, in order to fit him 
 for the butcher, which takes another six or twelve months, according to his previoiis 
 condition. The graziers, however, prefer having him at five years old, and will give 
 nearly, or quite as much money for him then as at six ; so that the modern breeder 
 has turned his cattle into cash tivice over in the time, during which he who works his, has 
 only obtained one or two years' full labour from them. As to the extra capital required 
 for horses, that is compensated for by the quicker return and the profit on the fattened 
 cattle ; and the greater number of them employed than are necessary of horses, may 
 fairly be set against the more expensive keeping of the latter. 
 
 The Devons are good feeders, and display great aptitude to fatten. Probably they 
 lay on more flesh and fat on the best parts with a given quantity of food than any other 
 breed ; and although they do not attain the size or weight of the Long or Short Horns, 
 the quality of the meat makes amends for the deficiency in quantity or weight. The 
 butchers will at any time give a much higher price for a Devon ox or steer than for 
 either of the two just named. The improved Devons, however, attain a much greater 
 weight than those of a former period. 
 
 In North Devon the calves are dropped at and soon after Michaelmas, which time is 
 preferred to the spring, on account of their having thus the advantage of half a year's 
 age when first put to spring work. The calf is allowed to suck three times a day for a 
 week, and is then accustomed to the finger, warm new milk being given to it for three 
 weeks longer. For two months afterwards warm scalded milk is given liberally, mixed 
 with a little finely-powdered linseed-cake. Its morning and evening meals are then 
 lessened, and at four months it is wholly weaned. 
 
 In South Devon, on the borders of Cornwall, a larger breed is reared to supply the 
 navy with beef. It is found in perfection in the tract of country from Tavistock to 
 Newton Abbott, where the oxen frequently reach a weight of more than 100 stone the 
 
 ♦ Youatt on Cattle, p. 18. 
 
346 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 four quarters (14lbs. to the stone). They resemble the Herefords so nearly as scarcely 
 to be disthiguislied from them in some cases. In East Devon but little attention is paid 
 to the piu-ity of the breed. The calves are reared for supplying other districts vnth young 
 stock. The calf is allowed to run with the cow ten or twelve months, and if it has 
 fattened it is then slaughtered. If it has held itself rather in a growing than a fattening 
 condition, it is kept longer on the rough pastures, and afterwards sold at the fairs^ or to 
 jobbers. The best types are, therefore, killed at an early age, only the inferior being 
 retained for stock. It is at the fairs and markets of North and South Devon that the 
 superior specimens of this excellent breed of cattle are to be obtained. 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 THE MIDDLE HOENS.— 2. THE CORNWALL BKEED. 
 
 Theke is a native breed of cattle in Cornwall, found on the moors in the western 
 parts. They are described by Youatt as a small, black, coarse-boned race, with rather 
 short horns, large offals, and rarely •weighing more than three or four hundredweight. 
 (24 to 32 stone of 14 lbs.). They resemble the native breeds of Wales and Scotland, are 
 very hardy^ and suit the changeable climate of Cornwall. They are good milkers, and 
 keep themselves on the moors at small expense, requiring in winter only the native 
 heather, fui-ze, and straw to sustain them ; but they fatten quickly when put into good 
 pasture. This breed is sometimes crossed with the North Devon, which certainly 
 improves it in size ; but the produce does not come up to the Devon iu excellence in 
 any respect, so that it is difficult to discover the advantage of the cross, while the native 
 breed is so well adapted to the country. In most parts of Cornwall, except the western, 
 the North Devon cattle prevail, and are quite equal to any their native county produces. 
 They are, in fact, purchased of the best Devonshire breeders, the finest types, both 
 male and female, being selected. Numbers of one or two year old steers are also 
 purchased ; and these are worked till they are eight or ten years old, when they are 
 either sold to the grazier or fattened at home. Both the Alderney and the Short Horn 
 (Durham) have been introduced and crossed with the native cattle, to raise a stock for 
 the dairy as well as the butcher. The North Devons, however, are the favom-ites with 
 the Cornish farmers, who cannot do better, we think, than to adhere to them. It is proper 
 to state that the use of oxen in husbandry has long been declining in Cornwall : and the 
 horse is, iu almost all cases, the only animal employed at the plough. 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS, 317 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 THE MIDDLE HORNS— 3. THE SOMERSETSHIRE BREED. 
 
 The indigenous treed of cattle of this district is described as having a crescent-formed, 
 turned-up hornj between that of the Sussex and the oi-igiual Short Horn ; useful and 
 heavy, high on its legs, particularly behind. It was used for the supply of the shipping, 
 and sent to Salisbmy market, and thence forwarded to Portsmouth. The cows were 
 good milkers, and fattened kindly. 
 
 In that part of the county bordering on Devonshire the Devon cattle prevail as far as 
 Wincanton, and from thence to Bristol and Bath. They are of a larger size than in their 
 native county on account of the richer pasturage and soil. They are better grazers than 
 milkers, and are rather preferred on the score of their ready fattening, than then- 
 adaptation to the dairy. In North Somerset we lose the Devons, and the Short Horns 
 have been adopted, with some Long Horns from North Wilts. These two breeds are 
 preferred on account of their milking qualities. If a heifer at three years old displays a 
 disposition to fatten, she is at once turned out of the daiiy, it being considered incompatible 
 with the power of yielding a full pail of milk. Middle Somerset is a grazing district 
 from the Mendip Hills on the north to Bridgewater on the west, and Chard on the south. 
 The Devons, for summer fattening, are bought in February, either in North Devon or 
 the lower part of Somerset. They are fed on inferior hay until the grass is ready, when 
 they are turned out, being allowed from an acre to an acre and half to an ox, 
 accompanied with one sheep. Tliey are fat by Michaelmas, and pay the grazier from 
 3s. 6d. to 45. per week for their keep. They are sold for the Salisbury or Loudon 
 markets. Some are kept over, and given another summer's grass. 
 
 The number of calves reared in the district is very great. They are dropped from 
 February to Lady-day; and four hundred have been sold in Shepton Mallet market in 
 one day. Since railways have offered such facilities for the transit of both live and dead 
 meat, a large proportion of the calves are slaughtered by the butchers or farmers at 
 home, and taken to the Bristol and Bath markets, and even to Loudon, where they bring 
 a better return. Those calves that are reared are fed chiefly on cheese- whey until jMay, 
 when they are turned out to grass. In some parts they are taken from the cows at 
 three days old, and suckled by hand. It requires three cows to fatten two calves up to 
 from thu-ty-five to fifty pounds per quarter. Soon after Lady-day, when cheese-making 
 begins, the milk is wanted for the cheese vat. Instead, then, of the milk, the dairy-maid 
 warms the whey in a large copper, which forces a further portion of curd ; and this, 
 with a small quantity of milk and a little linseed-meal, completes the fattening of the 
 calf. The reared calves are fed with the whey alone. 
 
 Large quantities of cheese are made in the parishes of Huntshill, South Brent, and 
 East Brent. The land is rich, cool, and fi-ee from those odoriferous herbs which injure the 
 flavour of cheese. The dairies consist chiefly of cows of a cross with the Durham Short 
 Horn ; and one of forty usually contains twenty-five red, ten spotted, and five with a white 
 face. The Cheddar cheese is made in the above-named parishes and round Glastonbmy. 
 The dairymen keep their cows till they are ten or twelve years old, and then turn 
 
348 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 them off only because the quality, and not the quantity of milk is deteriorated. At 
 this age they are only half the value of a Long Horned cow ; but they have made 
 more cheese, and taken less to keep them, than the Long Horns, which decides the 
 question of profit in favour of the Somerset cow. 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 THE MIDDLE HORNS.— 4. THE HEREFORDSHIRE BREED. 
 
 Having described the Devon cattle in its various localities and types, we now come to 
 another distinct type of the Middle Horned race. These are larger than the Devons ; 
 and some are of a darker red, while others are brown, yellow, or brindled. The 
 distinguishing marks are their white faces, throats, and bellies. The old Herefords 
 were brown or reddlsh-brovra, without a spot of white about them ; but the change 
 in the colour has been attended with a decided improvement in the animal. The skin is 
 much thicker than that of the Devon, and the beasts are more hardy. They are shorter 
 in the leg as well as in the carcase ; higher, broader, and heavier in the chine, rounder 
 and wider across the hips, and better covered with fat ; the thigh fuller and more 
 muscular, and the shoulders larger and coarser. The following is Mr. Marshall's 
 description of them : — " The countenance pleasant, cheerful, and open ; the forehead 
 broad ; the eye full and lively ; horns bright, taper, and spreading ; chest deep ; bosom 
 broad and projecting forward ; shoulder-bone thin, flat, no ways protuberant, but full and 
 mellow in flesh ; head small, chap lean ; neck long and tapering ; loin broad ; hips 
 standing wide, and level with the chin ; quarters long and wide at the neck ; rump even 
 with the level of the back, and not drooping or standing high and sharp above the 
 quarters ; tail slender and neatly haired ; barrel round and roomy ; the carcase deep 
 throughout and well spread ; ribs bi-oad, standing flat and close on the outer surface, 
 forming a smooth even barrel, the hindmost large and full of length ; round bone, small, 
 snug, and not prominent ; thigh clean, and regularly tapering ; legs upright and short ; 
 bone below the knee and hock small ; feet of middle size ; flank large ; flesh everywhere 
 mellow, soft, and yielding pleasantly to the touch, especially on the chine, the shoulder, 
 and the ribs ; hide mellow, supple, of a middle thickness, and loose on the neck and 
 huckle ; coat neatly haired, bright, and silky ; colour a middle red -with a bold face 
 characteristic of the true Herefordshire breed." 
 
 It is the universal opinion amongst the learned in cattle, that in the middle of the last 
 century the Herefordshire graziers had large herds of the old Herefords as described above, 
 as pure red as the Devons themselves. The present stock, therefore, as exhibited at the 
 various cattle shows, and which are of various colours, must be the produce of crosses 
 with Short Horns or other breeds, there being neither oneness nor uniformity of colour 
 omong them. 
 
THE MIDDLE HOENS. 
 
 849 
 
 The Herefords fatten to a larger size tlian tlie Devons. The weight of the oxen 
 sometimes reaches from 70 to 100 stoue ; and they gain this weight at a much earlier 
 period of life than formerly. Their flesh is well marbled, and is little inferior to the Devon 
 beef. They are not much used in husbandry work in their native county, the graziers 
 preferring to have them ready for the butcher at three years old, to working them after 
 that age. As milkers they are even behind the Devons, and a dairy of them is rarely 
 seen. But they excel the Devons in fattening qualities ; and will accumulate flesh 
 where the latter would scarcely keep up their condition. Although they are rather 
 coarse in the fore-quarter, aud large in the bone, their best parts are finely grained, and 
 they open so well, that the butchers readily pm'chase them in preference to other 
 breeds. 
 
 TUB UEREFOBD COW 
 
 The Hereford cow is, in appearance, a very inferior animal to the Devon. She is a 
 worse milker, and is smaller and cross-made, according to our notions of symmetiy. 
 But the Herefordshire breeders select their cows on account of that general form 
 which experience teaches will render them likely to produce a good ox. They are 
 light-fleshed when in common condition ; and beyond that, while breeding, they are 
 not suflcred to proceed. But, when actually put up for fattening, they spread out 
 and accumulate fat at a most extraordinary rate.* Very few oxen are fattened in their 
 native county ; those consumed there are chiefly heifers and old cows. The oxen are 
 sold at five and six years old to the graziers of Buckinghamshire and other counties, from 
 whence, when fat, they find their way to the London market. 
 
 The improved Herefords, of which the best types are to be seen at the Smithfield 
 Club Cattle Show, are of various colours, although red is the prevailing hue. By dint 
 of attending to the Bakewellian system, breeding from the best cattle, and adhering 
 to pedigree, the same precocity observed in the Devons has been attained in the 
 Herefords ; and they are now got ready for the butcher at two and a half or three years 
 old instead of five or six. Some beautiful specimens were exhibited at the show in 
 
 * ifonatt, p. 33. 
 
850 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Baker Street last Christmas (1861) ; and a cow of tliis breed. Lady Ash, the property of 
 Mr. R. Hillj of Golding Hill, Shrewsbury, won the gold medal and the prize of £25. 
 This cow was five years and two months old, and had had two calves. 
 
 The Herefordshire breeders do not often cross their cattle with other breeds. 
 Lawrence recommends them to avoid this, which, iu his time, some were disposed 
 to do, on account of a coarseness of bone generally displayed by the breed at that time. 
 He reminds them of Marshall's description ; and tells them, that possessing the finest and 
 most valuable breed of cattle in the world, by judicious selection they would do well not 
 to proceed any further, lest by crossing with inferior stock, of which they could find no 
 other, they should recede from the high eminence they had attained. Should, however, 
 a cross become necessary, he recommends a Norman or a Devon bull for that 
 purpose. 
 
 The Herefords, like the Devons, are good feeders, fatten quickly, and attain a 
 great weight. Lawrence mentions one which took the prize at the Smithfield Cattle 
 Show in December, 1802, the carcase of which weighed 274 st. 6 lbs. and the oflfal 
 92 St. 5 lbs. (8 lbs. to the stone), in all 367 st. 3 lbs. This must, however, have been an 
 exceptional specimen. The earliest breeders who attended to the improvement of this 
 race were Skyrvine, Tully, and Yeomans. The stock of the first of these exhibited more 
 white than those of any other breeder. They were generally large and heavy when 
 fattened, and fetched great prices at Smithfield. The breed of the second were of a 
 lighter red, and had speckled faces. A grey or roan variety is supposed to have 
 originated in an intermixture of the red with those showing more white. Mr. Yeoman's 
 stock did not diff"er materially from that of Tully. It is said that the late Mr. Westcar 
 sold at Hereford fair at one time six oxen for 600 guineas ; and that an old print of a 
 Hereford ox has an account which states that it was sold for 160 guineas. We conclude 
 that these were working cattle. Youatt relates an experiment made of three Short Horns 
 and three Herefords, which in May, 1828, were weighed and sent to grass. They were 
 taken in on the 2nd November, and put upon Swedish tui-nips and hay. They were all 
 sold at Smithfield on the 30th of ]\Iarch following, when it was found that the Short 
 Horns had increased 17cwt. 2qrs., and the Herefords 13cwt. 2qrs. 14 lbs. ; but the 
 former had consumed 12,775 lbs. of turnips, and 1,714 lbs. of hay more than the latter. 
 The weight of the three Short Horns was 43 cwt. 2 qrs., and they sold for £97, or rather 
 under 5*. 7d. the imperial stone. The Herefords weighed 37 cwt. 14 lbs., and sold for 
 £96, or Qs. 5d. per stone ; the Short Horns only paying £1 for the large extra quantity 
 of food they had consumed. 
 
 In Gloucestershire the Hereford cattle prevail to a great extent for working and 
 grazing. It had formerly a breed peculiar to itself, which ajjpears to have been a cross 
 between the Hereford and Welsh. Their colour was red or brown, horns middle length, 
 white tipped with black, bone small, and carcase light. The cows had a large bag, and 
 were excellent milkers. These were long ago crossed with Long Horns, which produced 
 a larger breed, that fatted readily, and were not much inferior in milking qualities to 
 the native race. These are found chiefly in the Cotswold HiEs. Other breeds have 
 been introduced of late years, as the Suffolk Duns, Devons, Durhams, North Wilts, &c. 
 The soil in this hilly country is poor, and is chiefly fed with sheep, except in the unsound 
 pastures, which can only be profitably occupied with lean stock ; these are sold at the 
 close of summer to graziers from more fertile districts. Some that arc wintered are 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 351 
 
 kept iu the fields being fed with straw ; and eveu the milch cows have nothing but 
 straw allowed them in the early part of winter. The lieifers calve in April or May, 
 and are then added to the dairy. The steers are put to work at two years old. 
 
 In the Vale of Gloucester or Berkeley, which reaches from the Cotswolds to the 
 Severn, the soil is excessively rich, and large dairies are kept. Most of the cows have 
 traces of the old Gloucester breeds, but crossed with other breeds according to the fancy 
 of the dairyman. The Alderney also has been introduced and crossed with the native. 
 The produce has both increased the quantity and improved the quality of the milk. 
 A cross of the Gloucester and Hereford also has proved successful, the cows yielding 
 from four to six gallons of milk per day. It is in the Vale of Berkeley that the famous 
 Gloucester cheese is made. The land is rich, and produces abundance of grass. The 
 richest of the pastures are devoted to the milch cows, and they are frequently moved 
 from pastm'e to pasture to stimulate their appetites. " It has been found by experience, 
 that manuring the grass lands, while it increases the quantity of milk, deteriorates 
 matcriall}^ the quality of the cheese. A dairywoman remarked to Dr. Rudge that if her 
 master continued to enrich his land with dung, she would give up making cheese." * 
 This is the chief product of the vale, and its excellence is well known and appreciated. 
 We shall have occasion to refer to this again when treating of dairy management. Very 
 few cattle are fattened in this district ; but in the neighbourhood of Gloucester a 
 considerable number of Hereford oxen are grazed. They are purchased in the spring, 
 pastiu-ed till winter, and then stall-fed. When fat they are sent by rail to the London 
 market. 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 THE MIDDLE HORNS.— 5. THE SUSSEX BREED. 
 
 This is so much like the Devon that it is considered to have had tlie same origin. 
 It is supposed that a colony of the ancient Britons took refuge from the attacks 
 of their invaders in the Weald of East Sussex, which at that early period was probably 
 covered with forests. " There they found or took some of their native cattle, and, as in 
 the north of Devon, the mountains of Wales, and the Highlands of Scotland, they have 
 preserved them pure from all mixture as relics of happier times, and records of what 
 Britons once possessed." The following is Mr. Ellman's (of Glynde) description of the 
 Sussex ox : — " A small well-formed head; horns pushing forward a little, and then tm-ning 
 upwards, thin, tapering, and long; not so as to confound this breed with the Long 
 Horns, and yet in some cases a little approaching to them. The eye is fuU, large, and 
 wild in the ox, but with some degree of quietness in the cow ; the throat clear, and the 
 neck, compared- with either' the Long Horns or the Short Horns, long and thin, yet 
 evidently coarser than that of the Devon. At the shoulder is the main point of difference, 
 
 * Youatt, p. 40. 
 
352 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and the principal defect in the Sussex cattle. There is more wideuess and roundness 
 on the withers; it is a straighter line from the summit of the withers towards the back; 
 there is no projecting point of the shoulder when the animal is looked at from behind; 
 but the whole of the fore quarter is thickly covered with flesh, giving too much weight 
 to the coarser and less profitable parts. This is certainly a defect, but it is counter- 
 balanced by many admirable points. If there is more weight in front, the fore legs are 
 necessarily wider apart, straighter, and more perpendicular than in the Devon ; they are 
 placed more under the body rather than seeming to be attached to the sides. The fore 
 arm is large and muscular ; but the legs, although coarser than those of the Devon, are 
 small and fine downwards, and particularly below the fetlock. The barrel is round and 
 deep, the back straight, no rising spinal processes are to be seen, but rather a central 
 depression ; and the line of the back, if broken, is only done so by a lump of fat rising 
 between the hips. The belly and flauk are capacious ; there is room before for the heart 
 and lungs to prepare and circulate the blood, and there is room behind in the capacious 
 belly for the full development of all the organs of digestion : yet the beast is well ribbed 
 home ; the space between the last rib and the hip-bone is often very small, and there is 
 no hanging heaviness of the belly or flauk. The loins of the Sussex ox are wide ; the 
 hip-bone does not rise high, nor is it rugged externally ; but it is large and spread out, 
 and the space between the hips is well filled up. The tail, which is fine and thin, is set 
 on lower than in the Devon ; yet the rump is nearly as straight, for tlie deficiency is 
 supplied by a mass of flesh and fat swelling above. The hind quarters are cleanly made, 
 and if the thighs appear to be straight without, there is plenty of fulness within. The 
 colour is a deep chestnut red ; some, however, prefer a blood bay : much deviation from 
 these colours generally indicates some stain in the breed. The black, or black and white, 
 which is sometimes met with, indicates a cross with the Welsh. The hide of the true 
 Sussex is soft and mellow ; a coarse, hard, thick hide is supposed to denote here, as in 
 every other district, an ill-bred, or an unthrifty beast. The coat is short and sleek."* 
 
 Oxen are much emjjloyed in some parts of Sussex in agricultural labour, whilst in 
 others horses are preferred. The former practice, however, is, we believe, less prevalent 
 than it once was. It is in the Weald of Sussex that the use of oxen is most general, while 
 in the South Downs horses are more prevalent. The true Sussex is a light breed, and is 
 as active as the Devon in the plough. Some teams have travelled fifteen miles a day 
 with a heavy load for many weeks together, without the slightest distress. A Sussex ox 
 ran four miles against time over the Lewes race-course, and accomplished the distance 
 in sixteen minutes. They are usually taken from work at six, and slaughtered at seven. 
 Youatt questions the propriety of this plan of recruiting the team so frequently. Some 
 of the farmers work them till twelve years old; and Lord Egremont had a pair of 
 Sussex oxen in the eleventh year of their age, which for seven years had done as much 
 ploughing and carting as any two horses in the county ; and then, with half a summer's 
 grass after having been taken from the collar, and having an autumn's rouen, they were, 
 without other food, sent to Smithfield, and sold for 80 guineas.f The average weight 
 of the Sussex oxen is 120 st., but they sometimes attain nearly double that weight. 
 
 The Sussex cow is very inferior in symmetry to the ox. Her milk, although rich, is 
 small in quantity ; and the dairies of the county are made up of all other breeds, and 
 " no one in particular." A cross has been tried between the native cow and the Suflblk 
 
 * Youatl, pp. 4042. t IbiJ., P- 43. 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 353 
 
 bullj and the product retained the good qualities of both parents — the fattening tendency 
 of one, with the milking quality of the other. The Sussex cow is of a restless and 
 dissatisfied temper, and ever attempting to break pasture. She is chiefly kept for 
 breeding, the daily purpose being a secondary object. When dried she will fatten very 
 quickly. Nearly all the calves are reared, the males for working or grazing, the females 
 for breeding or fattening. In the latter case they are spayed. Thus " on a farm on 
 which eight cows are kept, there will commonly be six calves, six yearlings, six two-year- 
 olds, four three-year-olds beginning to work, four four-year-olds, four five-year-olds, and 
 four six-year-olds."* 
 
 The calves are permitted to suck for ten or thirteen weeks, and are weaned by being 
 shut up and having grass given them until they have forgotten the dam, when they are 
 turned out. They are fed with good hay the first winter, have the run of the pasture 
 the next summer, and after the second Christmas are broken into the yoke. The 
 custom of breeding in and in is not generally practised in Sussex, under the impression 
 that the stock degenerates. They therefore change the bull every two years, and thus 
 avoid affinity. This is in direct opposition to the practice of Bakewell and the modern 
 school after him ; and possibly the Sussex breeders may, since Youatt's time (from whom 
 we quote), have changed their system. 
 
 The Sussex breed of oxen is spread over the adjoining county of Kent, but not more 
 as dairy stock than iu their own county. In the Weald of Kent they are kept for 
 breeding ; grazing cattle only, and the young stock, are turned into the Romney 
 Marshes in the summer, where they remain from the middle of May to the end of 
 September. They are then put into the pasture to eat up the remainder of the summer's 
 grass, and in winter are kept in the straw-yard, or receive hay in the field. Iu exchange, 
 the Romney Marsh farmers send their sheep to be wintered in the Weald, from September 
 to April. Kent, however, is neither a breeding nor a dairy county. Polled Scots 
 (Galloway) and Welsh are purchased for grazing, and the best of the heifers are selected 
 for the dairy. But the farmers seldom keep more cows than are sufficient to supply 
 their families with milk and butter. 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 
 THE MrODLE HORNS.— 0. THE WELSH C.iTTI.E. 
 
 It is, as Youatt states, owing to the fact that the Welsh were never subdued by the 
 early invaders of Britain, that they retained for so long a period their native breed of 
 cattle. Shut in as they were by their barren mountains from intcicourse with England, 
 speaking a different language, and being exceb!<ively jealous of their liberty and 
 nationality — which latter is as strong in them to this day as ever — they had no desire, if 
 they had the opportunity, of introducing any other domestic animals than they possessed ; 
 
 ♦ Yonatt, f. 42 
 A A 
 
354. AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 noi" were any others fitted to the country or climate, except the Scotch cattle, which, in 
 fact, were very similar in their form. It appears from history^ that the principal coloui of 
 the Welsh cattle was " white, with red ears/' which corresponds with the description of the 
 wild cattle of Chillinghara Park. It is recorded, at an early period, that " a hundred white 
 cows with red ears, or a hundred and fifty black ones," were demanded as a fine for certain 
 offences against the princes both of North and South Wales ; and the same number and 
 description of cattle were rendered in homage by the Cambrian princes to the King of 
 England, in acknowledgment of his sovereignty ; and in Speed's history it is stated that 
 Maud de Breos, whose husband had offended King John, sent him, in order to appease 
 him, " four hundred cows and a bull, all Avhite with red ears.''' It is clear from these 
 accounts that there M'cre two breeds or varieties of cattle indigenous in Wales ; one of 
 which, the white, is now extinct there, and is only to be found in a few of the parks of the 
 nobility, where they are preserved as curiosities. The other, the black breed, still remains 
 in all its pristine purity, only varying in its physical characteristics, with the nature of 
 the district in which it is reared. A few of them are Long Horned ; but the Middle 
 Horned mostly prevail, and although smaller, are the most valuable for the country. 
 
 The Pembroke breed of oxen is black ; but some of them have white faces or tails, 
 and white horns, which form a graceful cui've diflerent from any other breed. They 
 differ also from the Welsh cattle in other parts of the principality in the shortness of 
 their legs, and in their round deep carcases. Their coats are short and cui'ly, their eye 
 lively and good-natured, their hide thin, their bones moderately small, and they fatten 
 quickly. The cows are good milkers, and are reckoned the best of any breed for the 
 cottager. It is, indeed, called " the poor man's cow ;" but is equally profitable for the 
 larger farmer's dairy. The same variety is spread over the counties Cai-marthen, Cardigan, 
 Brecon, and other adjoining ones, where they are crossed with, and improve, the varieties 
 peculiar to each. They are reckoned to bear a strong resemblance to the Kyloes of 
 Scotland. The meat of the Pembroke cattle is finely marbled, and equal to that of either 
 the Galloway, Scot, or the Devon. They are hardy, and will pick up a living where a 
 Long or Short Horn would pine away ; but they pay well and speedily for good feeding. 
 
 The oxen are equal to the Devon at agricultural work, whether at plough or on the 
 road with a load ; and when turned out of the team fatten very fast. They arc naturally 
 more precocious than most other breeds, assume the character of the ox at three years 
 old, and are ready for the butcher at four, without any extraordinary high feeding. 
 Great numbers of them are brought to the Loudon market, where they are readily 
 bought by the butchers, on account of their generally opening well, and showing a large 
 amount of tallow. 
 
 The Glamorgan cattle were originally of a reddish hue, indicating an affinity to the 
 Devon and Norman breeds — the latter introduced there by Robert Fitzliamon, a Norman 
 knight in the twelfth century ; at least, so say the old historians. At the beginning of the 
 eighteenth century they were described by a Welsh topographer as being of a large size ; 
 some red, some pied, and having a sleek coat and a fine head. The Devons were 
 introduced into Glamorganshire by Sir Richard Grenaville of Bidut'oi d Castle, according 
 to the same authority ; and this is substantiated by the perfect similarity of the present 
 race to the Devon in the horns, the countenance, and the form of the head and neck. 
 In the neighbourhood of Aberdare they have retained their colour, but in other parts, 
 by crossings, they have merged into a brown, which continues deepening by repeated 
 
THE MIDDLE HOENS. 355 
 
 mixtures with the native black cattle of Pembroke. In the Vale of Glamorgan is a 
 distinct breed of light red cattle with white faces, which are said to be an indigenous 
 breed of the district. They are smaller than the brown cattle, but are good milkers and 
 quick feeders. 
 
 The Glamorgan cattle were great favourites with George III., who was no mean judge 
 of such matters. One of his agents annually visited the principality to select the best 
 cattle he could find, in order to replenish the royal herd. At that period, stimulated by 
 such high approbation, the Glamorgan farmers prided themselves in keeping their breed 
 of cattle pure, admitting no admixture of foreign blood. They were of a dark brown colour, 
 with a streak of white along the back from the shoulder to the tail, and white bellies. 
 They had clean heads tapering from the neck and shoulders, long white horns turning 
 upwards, and a lively countenance. Their dewlaps were small, their hair short and 
 silky. The tail was set on too high above the level of the back to square with the 
 present ideas of perfection of form. They usually ceased working at six or seven years 
 old, and were sent to fatten, which they soon accomplished, on the English pastures. Like 
 the Pembroke cattle, the meat was of the first quality, and the Glamorgans found ready 
 purchasers amongst the butchers, whether in London or the country, on account of the 
 large amount of tallow they produced. The weight of the cows when fattened ranged 
 from eight to twelve score (11^ to 18 stone of 14 lbs.) per quarter, and the oxen from 
 twelve to eighteen score (18 to 24 stone) per quarter. 
 
 The breed of Glamorgan cattle was much neglected during the war at the beginning 
 of the present century, owing to the high price of grain. The farmers found it more 
 profitable to break up their pastm'e-land and grow corn, than to breed and rear cattle. 
 Sheep were then considered more adapted to the new system than oxen ; the pi-oduce of 
 the dairy was converted into butter and cheese instead of rearing calves, which were 
 taken from the cow at two or three weeks old, and reared on milk and water, hay tea, 
 and boiled linseed. The steers were put to work at two, instead of three years old, 
 and at four were taken ofl" to be fattened. No pains were taken in the selection of 
 breeding cattle ; and the consequence was a great deterioration in their character. 
 They became flat-sided, sharp in the hip joiuts and shoulders, high in the rump (which 
 latter was an indigenous fault), long in the legs, with thick skins, and a weak constitu- 
 tion. Instead of being in request at high rates, as formerly, the breeders could scarcely 
 find customers for them at much reduced prices, and it began to be a losing, instead 
 of a profitable busiuess to rear them. 
 
 The farmers now took an alarm, and a few spirited men set about restoring their 
 cattle to their original purity and excellence. This, however, was a work of time and 
 much attention ; and, after all, the change in the system of farming left them only the 
 roughest of the pastures, on which to graze their young cattle, the best land having been 
 brought under the plough. The improvement, therefore, was in most cases confined to 
 the adaptation of the stock to the coarser fare to which they were now obliged to submit. 
 A few of the breeders, notwithstanding, persevered in endeavouring to raise their cattle 
 to the original standard of excellence, and have been so far rewarded as to see the 
 improved, or revived pm-e Glamorgans compete successfidly at various local exhibitions 
 of live stock with Short Horns and Herefords. One of the most successful of the 
 farmers in this work of restoration was Mr. David, of Radyr, who received at Sir Charles 
 Morgan's cattle show twelve silver cups for his Glamorgans — which, however, does not 
 
 A a2 
 
356 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 speak much in favoiu- of the spirit of improvement in the farmers of the county. We 
 do not find that any of the Glamorgan breed are exhibited at present at either the exhi- 
 bitions of the Royal Agricultural Society, or at those of the Smithfield farmers' club ; 
 nor are there many Welsh cattle of any breeds brought thither. 
 
 The fact is, that the most successful of the restorers found it more difficult than they 
 expected to bring back the stock to its original excellence ; and every attempt to improve 
 the breed by crossing, first with the Hereford, and then with the Leicester, failed in 
 producing an ox fitted for husbandry so well as the old race, or that would thrive on 
 the rough and scanty pasture on which the native breed had lived. The cause was, both 
 the Herefords and the Leicesters had been accustomed to the richer grazing grounds of 
 their native counties, and their progeny by the Glamorgan cows were of a larger breed 
 than the dams, and required superior feed to what they were brought to. The conse- 
 quence was, they were found to be sluggish at labour, slow feeders, and coarse in quality 
 of meat. Finding themselves thus foiled in their purpose of breeding for the grazier, 
 and of restoring the old race to its original purity, the farmers determined to establish 
 dairies ; and the opening of mines and factories of dift'erent kinds afforded a favourable 
 opportunity of disposing of the produce. They, therefore, turned their attention to the 
 Short Horns, but here again they were foiled. The Glamorgan pastiu'cs were not rich 
 enough for these cattle, and their milk proved very thin, whilst they were totally unfit 
 for husbandry work, and the oxen would not thrive on the scanty fare the hills afforded. 
 The introduction of the Ayrshire cows was more successful. Breeding from a pure 
 native cow with a cross by an Ayrshire Ijull, they obtained an animal well adaj)ted to 
 their purpose, being very similar to the Hereford — good milkers, kind feeders, and, though 
 rather smaller than the Herefords, their beef is excellent, the flesh and fat being well 
 laid on upon the best points. We believe that this breed has been kept up for forty or 
 fifty years ; and the ready mai'ket the dairy farmers find for their produce, both at 
 home and at Bath and Bristol, makes it a profitable business. 
 
 The calves are taken from the cow at a week old, and fed with skim milk. If one 
 appears to fatten kindly, he is prepared for the butcher instead of rearing it for the 
 grazier. Youatt I'cmarks upon the economy of this system as follows : — "Although the 
 calf of the Hereford, or even of the Short Horn, is a very superior animal at a year old, 
 it should not be forgotten that he has probably consumed the whole year's produce of 
 the cow, and that at weaning time he must be supported by the most nourishing food, 
 so that when the balance is struck, the profits of the respective breeders may not be 
 veiy different, especially if 2 or 3 cwt. of cheese and butter ai'e added to the value of the 
 Glamorgan yearling." 
 
 The Glamorgan cattle prevail in the counties of Monmouth and Carmarthen, at 
 least, to a certain extent ; but in the Vale district the Herefords were introduced and 
 crossed with them. The Durhams also were brought thither by Sir Charles Morgan, 
 and have effected an improvement in the dairy stock. Most of the cows, however, in the 
 Vale are the Glamorgans, with a few of the Gloucester breed. The husbandry labour 
 of the Vale is chiefly performed by oxen, for which the Glamorgan or the Hereford, or 
 a cross between them, are chiefly employed. 
 
 In Carmarthenshire the country is divided into the hill and vale districts. On the 
 hills the cattle are chiefly of Irish extraction ; small, coarse, and black, with horns so 
 long and thick as to be scarcely entitled to rank with the Middle Horns. They are 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 357 
 
 hardy enough, and lean, and produce but little milk. The vale cattle are larger, being 
 chiefly Glamorgaus crossed with the natives. The Herefords, too, have improved the 
 fattening qualities of the latter, but not for the dairy. They suit the farmer, too, for the 
 yoke or the collar ; and, with poor fare, manage to keep up their plight, and do a great 
 deal of work. They begin labour at three years old, but are much less used than 
 formerly. The average produce of a Carmarthen cow is about 1 cwt. of butter in the 
 season, and about double that quantity of cheese. In the richer vale lands on the banks 
 of the streams, a larger quantity of each is made, especially when the meadows have 
 been inundated during the winter. 
 
 In North Wales the cattle, though generally small in size, are nearly approaching to 
 the Long Horns ; l^ut the hock is the only part about them that gives them any affinity 
 to that race. In Anglesea, Carmarthen, and Merioneth, the rearing of cattle is chiefly 
 attended to ; whilst in the counties of Denbigh, Flint, and Montgomery, dairy farms 
 prevail. Formerly it was the practice of the Anglesea breeders, in getting their cattle 
 to market, to drive them across the Menai Strait by swimming, and thousands were 
 annually thus exported, if so we may call it. Of course, many were lost in the 
 dangerous passage, but not so many as the rapidity of the current would lead any one to 
 suppose. The Anglesea cattle are small and black, small boned, deep chested, with 
 heavy shoulders, large dewlap, round carcase, high and spreading haunches, flat face, 
 long horns turning upwards, coarse hair, mellow hide, and, to crown all, a great tendency 
 to fatten. They are chiefly bred for grazing in the midland counties, for the London 
 markets. Their meat is excellent, like all mountain fed meat. Their weight ranges 
 from 60 to 100 st. when fat. 
 
 In Montgomery the Devons and Herefords prevail, while in Denbigh and Flint a 
 cross between the old Welsh and the Short Horn has been adopted. The Flintshire 
 cattle are both good milkers and good feeders. Youatt mentions a cow belonging to a 
 farmer at Merthyr, which yielded between the 1st INIay and the 30th October 4,026 qts. 
 of milk, which produced 358 lbs., avoirdupois, of butter, being nearly 2 lbs. of butter 
 and 23 qts. of milk per day for 183 days successively. Cheese, however, is more the 
 object of the dairy farmers than butter, and as much as 3 cwt. is produced by each cow, 
 the quality being not inferior to that of Cheshire. 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 THE MIDDLE HORNS.— 7. THE SCOTCH CATTLE. 
 
 There are several breeds of cattle reared in Scotland, all of which, with the exception 
 of the Galloways, belong to the Middle Horns ; and even the exceptional ones were of 
 that class at the beginning of the last centmy. We shall commence our description 
 with the West Highlanders, which are found on the islands of the west coast. They 
 are considered to retain the characteristics of the original or primitive race. 
 
 The Hebrides, or Western Isles of Scotland, are nearly 200 in number, but only 
 
358 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 half of them arc iuliabited. They reach from the Head of Cantyre to the northern 
 extremity of Scotland, and are separated into two groups, the inner and the outer. 
 The inner group are the largest islands, and are mostly separated from the main land 
 hy narrow channels. The outer group lies at the distance of thirty or forty miles from 
 the shore. The inhabitants of the Hebrides were originally of the same Celtic race 
 with the Irish and the Scottish Highlanders, mixed with the roving tribes which made 
 incursions upon them. The old legends affirm that the ancient race was never 
 exterminated or lost its identity ; and the numerous monuments of their existence prove 
 that at one period the Hebrides were civilised and powerful. " The kingdom of the 
 Innsegallians was the pride of its allies, and the terror of its foes." But the predatory 
 life they were compelled to live, and the continual wars that prevailed, reduced them to 
 barbarism, and for many centuries, and up to a comparatively recent periodj " the 
 inhabitants were singularly uncultivated, ignorant, idle, and miserable." 
 
 It was after the union with England that the Hebrides liegan to live anew. 
 Agriculture, which had been neglected, engaged attention ; and the cattle, which still 
 retained its characteristics, but had greatly degenerated in size, were now attended to 
 with the view of restoring them to their original excellence, and great numbers were 
 bred. The Island of Islay is particularly noted for the superiority of its race of cattle. 
 
 THE HIOHl.ANU OX. 
 
 It is sheltered by its southern position from the storms to which the others are exposed ; 
 and its pasturage is better, to which may be ascribed the greater size of its cattle. The 
 Isle of Skye Scots are much smaller, but they are sought for by the Scottish breeders 
 on account of their superior hardiness, which, while it enables them to subsist on scanty 
 fare when young, renders them more susceptible of improvement when brought 
 southward to a richer mode of living. 
 
 The term Kyloe, which is given to the breeds of cattle in the west of Scotland, is 
 supposed by Sir John Sinclair, and other writers, to be derived from the Kyloes or 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 359 
 
 ferries, which the cattle had to cross in that country when taken to market. But 
 others, as Mr. Macdonald, state it to be a corruption of the Gaelic word signifying 
 " Highland/' which is pronounced as if spelt Kael. The following is the description of 
 the true Kyloe, or West Highland bull of the Island of Islay : — 
 
 " The Highland ])ull shoidd Ijc black, the head not large, the ears thin, the muzzle 
 fine, and rather turned up. He should be broad in the face, the eyes prominent, and 
 the coimtenance calm and placid ; the horns should taper finely to a point, and, neither 
 drooping too much nor rising too high, should be of a waxy colour, and widely set on 
 at the root. The neck sliould be fine, particularly where it joins the head, and rising 
 with a gentle curve from the shoulder. The breast wide and projecting well before the 
 legs. The shoulders broad at the top, and the chine so full as to leave but little hollow 
 behind them. The girth behind the shoulder deep ; the liack straight, wide, and flat, 
 the ribs broad ; the space between them and the hips small ; the belly not sinking low 
 in the middle, yet, in the whole, not forming the round and jjarrel-like carcase that 
 some have described. The thigh tapering to the hock joint ; the bones larger in 
 proportion to the size than in the breeds of the southern districts. The tail set on a 
 level with the back ; the legs short and straight ; the whole carcase covered with a 
 thick, long coat of hau", and plenty of hair also about the face and horns, and that hair 
 not curly."* 
 
 ' The value," says Youatt, " of the West Highland cattle consists in their being 
 hardy and easily fed ; in that they will live, and sometimes thrive, on the coarsest 
 pastures ; that they will frequently gain from a fourth to a third of their original weight 
 in six months' good feeding ; that the proportion of ofifal is not greater than in the most 
 improved larger breeds ; that they will lay on flesh and fat equally on all the best parts ; 
 and that, when fat, the beef is closed firm in the grain, highly flavoured, and so well 
 mixed, or marbled, that it commands a superior price in every market." t 
 
 The number of these cattle is estimated at 150,000 in all the islands. They are 
 kept until five years old, so that one-fifth of them are sent yearly to the main land, 
 either through Jura or by the ferry at the Isle of Skye. They constitute the staple 
 commodity, and the principal agricultural wealth of the Hebridean farmers or graziers. 
 The first English importer of the Western Highland cattle was a Mr. Moorhouse, of 
 Craven, in Yorkshire. This was a century ago ; and in the absence of Mr. Macdonald, 
 of Kingsburgh, to whose house he went, he was received by his wife the celebrated 
 Flora Macdonald, who made up for him the same bed in which Prince Charles had slept 
 seventeen years before. 
 
 At that period so little attention was paid to the rearing of cattle, that, with the 
 exception of the milch cows, all, even to the calves, were wintered in the fields, and fed 
 with bad hay and what grass the rough pastures and heaths afforded. Of their value on 
 the spot we may judge by the fact, that, on the occasion we have referred to, Mr. Moor- 
 house purchased 1,600 head at from 2 guineas to £2 5s. Qd. each. It was said that on 
 an average, one-fifth of them perished eveiy winter of starvation. In some seasons, when 
 the snow lay long on the ground, one half of the stock was lost. Those which survived 
 till the spring soon recovered, and got into a saleable condition. 
 
 Great improvements have been eff'ected in the management of cattle in the Hebrides 
 as well as elsewhere of late years. As much as possible the calves are made to come in 
 
 * Yonatt on Cattle, p. 07. t H'iil 
 
360 AGKICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 from February to April. They are all reared, and the first three or four mouths are 
 allowed to suck three times a day, but a small quantity at a time. In summer the 
 cattle are all in the pastures, and the calves are sent to the cows twice a day. They are 
 only weaned finally at the beginning of October, when those cows intended to be sold, 
 are sent to the Lowland cattle-trysts, from whence the dealers who purchase them take 
 them to the central and southern counties of England. The calves are housed in the 
 beginning of November, and fed on hay and roots until May, at which time all the 
 cattle are turned into the pastures, keeping the diflerent ages separate. The oxen are 
 now sent to market at two, three, or four years old. The heifers are all retained for 
 breeding. Large droves of these cattle are annually sent to the eastern counties ot 
 England, occupying weeks, and even months, on the journey. Many are sold before 
 they reach their ultimate destination; but thousands of them are to be seen at the 
 autumnal fairs of Hempton Green and Saint Faith's, in Norfolk, and at the weekly 
 cattle market on Norwich Castle-ditches. They are attended by a native cattle factor 
 with a few herdsmen under him, whose native costume, and Gaelic language and 
 manners, make them objects of curiosity to the Southerners. The cattle are purchased 
 by the Norfolk and Suffolk farmers, matui-ed on turnips and artificial food, and 
 are fit for the butcher earlj' in the spring. Some, however, are kept and given a 
 month's grass to finish them. Formerly they did not exceed 35 st., or at most 40 st. 
 (14 lbs. to the stone) in weight ; but the improved breed of Kyloes will now, at five or 
 six years old reach from 60 st. to 70 st. Their very sharp horns and pugnacious 
 temperament render them dangerous associates in the yard with Lowland cattle, and 
 good policy will give them a separate establishment, and so prevent them from keeping 
 their more quiet companions too much on the alert to fatten readily. The Kyloes 
 themselves, on the contrary, coming from a poor to a rich country, show a tendency 
 to improve theii- opportunities by fattening very fast. 
 
 The cows are not reckoned good milkers, and the native farmers only keep enough 
 on hand to supply themselves with the produce. They make from about 20 lbs. to 24 lbs. 
 of butter, and from 80 lbs. to 90 lbs. of cheese per cow in the season. Their dairy 
 management is simple. The cows are driven slowly and quietly to the fold ; the wild 
 character of the animals as well as a regard to the quality of the milk show the pro- 
 priety of this. They are carefully drained to the last drop, not only on account of 
 the superior richness of the latter portion of the milk, but to prevent the speedy drying 
 \ip of the source. It is conveyed to the house with as little disturbance as possible, and 
 put into vessels of not more than two or three inches in depth. The cream is supposed 
 to rise more rapidly in shallow vessels, and it is removed in the course of eighteen hours. 
 In Arran and Bute, in the Frith of Clyde, the Ayrshire cow was introduced from the 
 neighbouring coast, but in the other Hebridean Islands the Highland cow is still 
 retained. In North Uist and Tyrie the dairy is more sueeessfully followed than in the 
 other islands, on account of the goodness of the grass. 
 
 The range of country on the main land over which the Kyloe or West Highland 
 breed prevails, extends from the north bank of the Frith of Clyde, along the whole 
 western coast and across the country to Aberdeenshire. They have, however, been 
 crossed by various other breeds in many parts ; and in Ayrshire there is a mixed breed 
 kept for the dairy, besides the native cattle. A good cow of this crossed breed is said 
 to yield five gallons of milk per day for three months after calving, and three gallons 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 361 
 
 for the three succeeding months ; and then, for three months more, one and a half 
 gallon per day. The annual return in butter of these quantities of milk is about 250 lbs., 
 or of cheese 500 lbs. This, however, is produced on the most advanced farms, and by 
 the most judicious stock-keepers, and indicates a thorough knowledge of, and attention 
 to, every department of the breeding and feeding of cattle for the dairy, including 
 stabulation or stall-feeding during the winter, and also in summer, if the natural grasses 
 fail from drought. Clover and other artificial grasses, or fodder, are employed in such 
 cases, and every means used to keep up the yield of milk. 
 
 It is estimated that not less than 30,000 cows are kept for the dairy in Ayrshire, 
 and as many more for grazing purposes. Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other large cities 
 and towns in Scotland, are supplied with butter and cheese from Ayrshire ; and from 
 the rich lands on the banks of the Clyde where the same breed of cows are kept, being 
 preferred to all others for the daily. A large number of calves are also purchased and 
 fattened for the same markets. These are fed with milk alone ; and in eight or nine 
 weeks they reach the weight of from 18 to 26 st. exclusive of the oifal. The flesh of the 
 calves thus fattened is rich and delicate, and one that may originally be purchased for 
 8*. or 10s., will, in the time stated, realise £7 or £8. Most commonly they are sold at 
 six weeks, and then fetch from £5 to £Q. 
 
 Aberdeenshire breeds and grazes more cattle than any other district in Scotland, 
 the country being peculiarly adapted to it. The soil and climate varies between the 
 high and the low parts ; and the character of the cattle varies with that of the country. 
 On the hills in the interior the pure Highland or Kyloe prevails, unmixed with any other 
 breed, small and not reaching more than 28 st. or 30 st. when fat, in their native pastures, 
 but reaching 40 st. when sent to the south. In the valleys is a distinct breed, the origin of 
 which is not known. Of late years this breed has been most successfully crossed with 
 the improved Durham or Short Horn ; and some splendid specimens o*f this cross have 
 been exhibited at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show of late years. There is an account 
 also of one bred by Lord Kintore, from an Aberdeenshire cow and a Teeswater bull. 
 This noble beast, which was kept until he was rising six, was estimated to weigh more 
 than 180 st. (14 lbs. to the stone) and in every respect preserved his admirable symmetry 
 when fattened up to that weight. His age excluded him from competing for a prize at 
 the Smithfield Club Cattle Show in 1832, but he was afterwards exhibited at that of the 
 Highland Society at Aberdeen. It is a curious fact that if the cross with the Aberdeen and 
 the Short Horn is persisted in, the progeny rapidly degenerates. The breeders of that 
 county, therefore, turned their attention to other crosses, and found that the Fife or 
 Falkland breed possessed the requisite qualifications, being also near in character to 
 the old race, but having smaller bones, cleaner limbs, rounder carcase, wider hips, 
 and being superior in size to the Aberdeen ; in addition to which, they were quite 
 as hardy, were docile workers, and excellent milkers. They were, therefore, adopted 
 by the breeders, and became the foundation of what is now considered the Aberdeen 
 native breed. 
 
 Of late years, however, this cross breed has again been crossed with the improved 
 Short Horns ; and at several of the recent Smithfield Cattle Shows, specimens of the 
 cross have been exhibited that have carried off the first prizes for cross bred cattle. At 
 the show at Baker Street in 1861, Mr. J. Stewart, of Aberdeen, obtained three first 
 prizes for animals of this cross, in three separate classes. All these were favourable 
 
362 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 specimens of tlie crossj aud excited the admiration of every one who was capable of 
 appreciating- their excellencies. Whether the same degeneracy will take place from 
 continuing the cross remains to be proved ; but, if this is the case, it may be avoided by 
 only crossing with fresh native cows, and never with the produce. It is remarked that 
 the progeny of the Fife and the Aberdeen cross are less precocious than the pure 
 Kyloe, nor is their flesh so well marbled ; but at the proper age they are qiiite as apt 
 to fatten as others, even on inferior pasture. It is very probable that the cross of this 
 breed with the Short Horn will cause them to mature at an earlier age, as well as attain 
 a larger size. Mr. Stewart's prize cattle were respectively two years and ten months, 
 three years aud nine mouths, and three years and four months old ; and the first, a 
 steei', was quite ready for the butcher. 
 
 There is a breed of polled cattle in Aberdeenshire which Youatt considers was 
 introduced from Galloway about the beginning of the present century. These cattle are 
 larger than the horned Aberdeens, but not so handsome, and the quality of the meat is 
 not quite so good. The Buchau cattle are another variety of the Aberdeenshire breeds. 
 They are smaller, shorter in the leg, and of a brown colour, some of them being polled. 
 The cows are good milkers, and the oxen fatten up to 50 st. or 60 st. at four years old. 
 Buchan abounds in grass lands, and great numbers of cattle are consequently bred there, 
 which are mostly bought by dealers and taken to the south. Other breeds have been 
 introduced at difi'erent times, but it is the opinion of many of the farmers that none 
 succeed better for the dairy than that which they have had the last sixty years, and 
 which originated in the cross between the Fife and the Aberdeen, as stated above. The 
 number of dairy stock (or cows) kept in Aberdeenshire forty years ago was 28,000, and 
 they have probably inci'cased greatly since then to meet the increasing populations of 
 the large cities and towns. 
 
 A remarkable instance of the fecundity and early maturity of the Aberdeen cattle 
 was related by j\Ir. Gordon, in reply to queries circulated by the Board of Agriculture. 
 On the 25th of September, 1805, a calf of five months old, of the small Aberdeenshire 
 breed, happening to be put into an enclosure with other cattle, admitted a male that was 
 only one year old. In the month of June following, at the age of fourteen months, she 
 brought forth a very fine calf; and in the summer of 1807, another equally good. The 
 first calf, after working in the winter, spring, and summer of 1809, was killed in 
 January, 1810, and weighed 55 st. 2 lbs. (14 lbs. each). The second was killed 
 December 10, 1810, aged thi-ee years six months, and weighed 56 st. ; and on December 30, 
 1807, the dam, after ha-\ang brought up these calves, was killed at the age of two years 
 and eight months, and weighed 34 st. the four quarters, sinking the ofi'al."* 
 
 Fifeshire has a breed of cattle peculiar to itself, to which the graziers wisely 
 adhere, without seeking by any mixture to eftcct improvement. They have small horns, 
 pointing upwards, but bending forward from the root. Bones small ; limbs short and 
 clean ; skin soft ; wide between the hocks ; ribs narrow, but wide set, and more curved 
 than other cattle. They fatten quickly, and fill up well at all the choice points. They 
 are hardy, fleet, and travel well. When fed for the butcher, they weigh from 35 st. to 
 65 St. ; but some reach 100 st. The cattle are, beyond a doubt, of Highland origin, but 
 they have received a cross from English cattle at some remote period, although, as it is 
 with all local subjects of this kind, difi'erent theories are maintained. That they are 
 
 ' YouRtt, p. 109. 
 
THE MIDDLE HORNS. 363 
 
 essentially different from tlie cattle of the surrounding districts, is admitted by all wlio 
 understand their peculiarities, and every attempt to imnrove them by admixtures has 
 pi'oved unsuccessful, 
 
 Ayrshire also has its own breed of cattle, of which it may be proud. The climate is 
 mild and moist, and a considerable portion of the country is in permanent pasture, but 
 the chief part of the lowlands arc pasture and crop alternately. Most of the pasture- 
 ground is occupied with dairy stock, the grazing being confined almost exclusively to the 
 fattening of the cows that are past milking. The following is the description of the 
 Ayrshire cow : — " Head small, but rather long, and narrow at the muzzle ; the eye 
 small, but smart and lively. The horns small, clean, crooked, and their roots wide 
 apart. Neck long and slender, tapering towards the head, with no loose skin below; 
 shoulders thin ; fore quarters light ; hind quarters large ; back straight, broad behind, 
 the joints ratiier loose and open; carcase deep, and pelvis capacious, and wide over the 
 hips, with round fleshy buttocks. Tail long and small ; legs small and short, with firm 
 joints. Udder capacious, broad and square, stretching forward, and neither fleshy, low 
 hung, nor loose ; the milk-veins large and prominent ; teats short, all pointing out- 
 wards, and at considerable distance from each other. Skin thin and loose ; hair soft 
 and woolly. The head, bones, horns, and all parts of least value, small ; and the general 
 figure compact and well-proportioned."* 
 
 The qualities of the Ayrshire cow, as described by Mr. Alton, in his " Treatise on 
 Dairies," are as follows : — " Tameness and docility of temper greatly enhance the value 
 of a milch cow. Some degree of hardiness, a sound constitution, and a moderate degree 
 of life and spirits are qualities to be wished for in a dairy cow, and what those of 
 Ayrshire generally possess. The most valuable quality which a dairy cow can possess is 
 that she yields much milk, and that of an oily, or butyraceous, or caseous nature, and 
 that after she has yielded very large quantities of milk for several years, she shall be as 
 valuable for beef as any other breed of cows known, her fat shall be more mixed through 
 the whole flesh, and she shall fatten faster than any other." f 
 
 We believe the Ayrshire cow maintains and deserves the above character, but she 
 did not always do so. Until towards the close of the last century, the cattle of that 
 district were diminutive in size, ill-fed, ill-shaped, and bad milkers ; their colour was 
 mostly black, with large white stripes along the back, and on their flanks and faces. 
 Altogether, they were as opposite in qualities to the present breed as possible. This 
 is probably the reason why Culley does not notice them in speaking of the Scotch 
 cattle. It is still uncertain how or when the improvement took place, and Youatt says 
 that if it arose from a careful selection of the best of the native cattle for breeding, it is 
 a circumstance unparalleled in the history of agriculture. But he must have overlooked 
 the fact that Bakewell and the Collingses had set the example, and moreover, that the 
 Scottish farmers have shown that they are not behind the Southerners in enterprise or 
 in availing themselves of such notable examples. If, therefore, it was by the means he 
 has suggested that the improvement was eff'ected, it was not altogether a spontaneous or 
 an original idea ; at the same time it reflects great credit on the Ayrshire farmers that at 
 so early a period they adopted a system which originated in what the Scotch then called 
 " a foreign country." 
 
 Mr. Robertson, however, who wrote " Rural Recollections," states that Colonel 
 
 • Yonatt, p. 127. t Ibid., p. 128. 
 
364 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 FuUartoiij on the authority of Mr. Bruce Campbell, ascribes their origin to the efforts of 
 an Earl of Marchmont, who, as Alexander Hume Campbell, married Margaret Campbell, 
 heiress of Assnoch, in Ayrshire, and was made Earl of Marchmont in 1724, and died in 
 1740, between which dates the improvement took place. Youatt considers it probable 
 that it was effected by a cross of the native cow with a Holderness bull, judging from 
 the varied colour, and, above all, the small head and slender neck. 
 
 Be this, however, as it may, the Ayrshire cow is an invaluable animal for the dairy. 
 Four gallons of milk per day is the average for the first three months after calving ; 
 three gallons the next three months ; and one and a half gallon for four months longer. 
 This is over 850 gallons in the season. The quantity of butter this will yield at the rate 
 of one pound and a half to three gallons and a half of milk is 364 lbs. ; or, if we reckon 
 the quantity of milk as averaging 600 gallons (allowing for unproductive cows), 257 lbs. 
 of butter per annum, or 5 lbs. per week the year round, besides the value of the butter- 
 milk and the calf In converting the milk into cheese, it is estimated that 28 gallons 
 of milk with the cream will make 24 lbs. of cheese, which gives an average of 516 lbs. 
 per annum, besides the wliey and the calf. 
 
 The Ayrshire cows have been introduced to the London dairies ; but they were 
 found not to equal the Short Horns in quantity of milk, although the qiiality was much 
 I'icher. But quantity is precisely what the London dairymen require fi'om their cows, 
 and therefore the Ayrshire cow is better adapted to the farm dairy, where the object is 
 to obtain as much butter and cheese as possible. The produce of the Ayrshire dairies 
 supplies Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other large cities and towns in Scotland with their 
 produce. 
 
 The peculiar adaptation of the Kyloe breed of cattle to the wild and mountainous 
 character of the greater part of Scotland, has doubtless led to its adoption, subject to 
 local modification, throughout the Highlands ; whilst its . aptitude to fatten has given it 
 an introduction to the graziers of the southern and richer districts, both of Scotland and 
 England. It would be tedious to go through the whole of the counties of the former 
 to point out the minute differences which a variety of soil, climate, treatment, or fancy 
 may have created in the stock. It is agreed by all persons conversant with the subject, 
 that there is what may be termed a family likeness in aU the Highland cattle which 
 points to one common origin, which is to be found in that pure breed, the Kyloes of 
 the Hebrides. In speaking, therefore, in the foregoing account of the Middle Horns 
 of Scotland, we have selected only those which, by their peculiar or superior charac- 
 teristics, are distinguished from their congeners, and render them special objects of 
 attraction to the grazier or the dairy farmer. 
 
THE POLLED CATTLE, 365 
 
 SECTION XVIII. 
 
 THE POLLED CATTLE.— 1. THE GALLOWAY. 
 
 The ancient province or kiugdom of Galloway occupies the south-westeru poi'tiou of 
 Scotland, and comprises the shire of AVigton, part of Ayrshire and Dumfries, and the 
 stewartry of Kirkcudbright. The climate of Galloway is mild and moist, and there are 
 many fertile valleys interspersed among the hills, which are not so high or so steep as 
 those iu the more northern parts of the country. Wigton and Kirkcudbright are the 
 native district of the polled, dodded, or humble cattle, called after the name of the province 
 Galloways. It is asserted, and on as good authority as can be obtained, that up to the 
 middle of the last century the Galloway cattle were Middle Horned, with a few polled 
 ones amongst them. Youatt considered that these latter were the mere remnants of a 
 native breed, otherwise the characteristics of the aboriginal breed would be occasionally 
 displayed, although many a generation had passed. 
 
 Dr. Coventry asserts that the Horned Galloways of the last century in no respect 
 difl'ered from the Kyloe, and that about the year 1770, some hornless or polled bulls 
 were introduced from Cumberland, with which the native breed was crossed, and the 
 consequence was the loss of the horns by the latter, and at the same time an increase 
 of their size. The improvement thus effected was too great not to be kept ujd, by 
 selecting the hornless of the progeny for breeding ; and it is even alleged that if the 
 incipient horn made its appearance it was cut out witli a sharp knife. We would hope, 
 for the sake of humanity, that this latter operation is a flight of fancy. 
 
 The Galloway cattle have been favourites with the English farmers, especially those 
 of the eastern counties for nearly 200 years. In an old manuscript accidentally found 
 in the library of the faculty of advocates in Edinburgh written in 1682, is the following 
 account of the Galloway cattle : — " In the parish of Kirkiuner (of which the writer, 
 Andrew Symson, was minister) Sir David Dunbar of Baldone hath a park about two 
 miles and a lialfe in length, and a mile and a halfe in breadth, the greatest part whereof 
 is rich and deep valley ground, and yields excellent grass. This park can keep in 
 winter and iu summer about 1,000 bestiail, part whereof he buys from the country, and 
 grazeth there all winter, other part thereof is of his own breed; for he hath neere 
 200 milch kine, which for the most part have calves yearly. He buys, also in the 
 summer-time from the country many bestiail, oxen for the most part, which he keeps 
 till August or September ; so that yearly he either sells at home to drovers, or sends 
 to Saint Faith's (Norfolk), Satch (or Setch, also in Norfolk), and other fairs in England, 
 about eighteen or twenty scores of the four-year-olds. These of his own breed are very 
 large, and may bring five or six pound's sterling a-piece. Those of his own breed are 
 very large, yea, so large that in August, 1682, niue and fifty of that sort were seized 
 upon in England for Irish cattle (the importation of which was then prohibited) ; and 
 because the person to whom they were intrusted had not witnesses there ready at the 
 time to swear that they were seen calved iu Scotland (although he ofiered to depone 
 that he lived within a mile of the park where they were calved and reared), they were, 
 
 by the sentence of Sir J. L and some others, knocked on the head and killed ; a 
 
 very hard measure, and an act unworthy persons of that qualitv and station." 
 
AGltlOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The Galloway cattle are described as straight and broad in the Ijack, and nearly level 
 from the head to the rump. They are round in the ribs, and also between the shoulders 
 and the ribs, and the ribs and the loins. They are broad in the loins without any 
 large projecting hook-bones. In roundness of barrel and fulness of I'ibs they will 
 compete with any breed, and also in the proportion which the loins bear to the hook- 
 bones or protuberances of the ribs ; short in the leg, and moderately fine in the shank 
 bones ; the happy medium, says Youatt, seems to be preserved in the leg, which secures 
 hardihood and a disposition to fatten. With the same cleanness and shortness of shank, 
 there is no breed so large and muscular above the knee ; while there is more room foi' 
 the deejj, broad, and capacious chest. He is clean, not hue ayd slender, but well 
 proportioned in the neck and chaps ; a thin and delicate neck would not correspond with 
 the broad shoulders, deep chest, and close compact form of the breed. The neck of the 
 Galloway bull is thick almost to a fault. The head is rather heavy ; the eyes are not 
 prominent, and the ears are long, rough, and full of long haii-s on the inside ; the skin 
 is soft and of medium thickness, and covered with long, soft, silky hair. The prevailing 
 colour is black ; but some of them are of a dark brindled brown, or with white specks. 
 CuUey remarks, in page 60 of his work : — " In most other respects, except wanting 
 horns, the cattle resemble the Long Horns both in colour and shape, only they arc 
 shorter in their form, which probably makes them weigh less. Their hides seem to be 
 a medium between the Long and the Short Horns, not so thick as the Long Horns, 
 nor so thin as the Short Horns ; but like the best feeding kind of the Long Horns, 
 they lay their fat upon the most valuable parts, and their beef is well marbled, or mixed 
 with fat." 
 
 Norfolk and Suffolk are the great marts for the Galloway cattle. Thither thousands 
 of them are driven, to the autumnal fail's, and are purchased by the farmers to be 
 finished off on turnips, hay, and linseed cake. Some, however, are kept over until the 
 summer, when the fattening is completed with two or three months' grass. As they 
 become ready for the butcher they are sent to the metropolis, where they always find 
 ready purchasers on account of the excellence of the meat, and fetch the highest price 
 the market wUl afford. 
 
 The Galloway cows are small, but they give a fair quantity of milk of a very rich 
 quality. The writer once piu'chased a three year old Galloway cow, with a calf by her 
 side, that had been taken from a drove. She was small, but very gentle, and yielded a fair 
 meal of milk for several months after the calf was taken from her. Most of the heifers, 
 however, are spayed at a yeai' old, and sent with the droves at three years, to be sold 
 for grazing. They fatten faster than the oxen, but do not arrive at so great a weight; 
 yet their meat is considered more delicate, and will fetch a better price. 
 
 It is so arranged that the calvps should be dropped late in the winter, or, at least, 
 early in the spring ; and they are allowed to suck the dam as long as she gives milk. 
 The first four or five mouths they have a liberal allowance, to the extent of half the 
 milk of the cow, moi'ning and evening. The dairymaid takes the milk from two of the 
 teats, and tlic calf in the meantime takes care to drain the other two, after which a 
 muzzle, consisting of a ring of leather with some iron spikes in it pointing outwards, is 
 fastened over the nose loose enough to allow the animal to feed on grass. If it attempts 
 to suck, the spikes prick the cow, and she, of com-se, gives it a kick and sends it oS. 
 
 The Gallpway cuttle are not restricted to that ancient province. Great numbers 
 
THE POLLED UATTLE. 367 
 
 of them are now reared iu Dumfries^ Renfrew^ aucl other parts. The cows are favourites 
 with tlie dairy farmers of Renfrew and Ayrshire ; but, generally speaking, they arc 
 more kept on the muirs and hill sides for rearing stock for the graziers. 'I'he valu.- 
 of these cattle on the spot in summer, when they are generally sold, is from j£3 to £L 
 iu the second year, from £6 to £7 in the third, and from £10 toiil2 in the fourth 
 year, if a lot is taken. They are about three weeks or a mouth on their passage south, 
 and the expenses of the journey are about £1 4s. per head iu summer, or £1 15*. in 
 winter. If the drover who purchases a large number clears 5s. per head home, he 
 considers himself remunerated for his trouble. But if farming goes bad, or the turnip 
 crop fails, and the farmers run short of either money or winter food, the drovers 
 frequently sell at a loss proportioned to the extent of their dealings. In some cases 
 they hire rough pasture or heaths, and hold their stock over till the spring, or until they 
 can realise their price. So much, however, is artificial food employed in fatteniug, and 
 so important is it now considered to raise large quantities of manure, that even a deficient 
 turnip crop does not stop the purchase of the requisite number of cattle to the extent 
 that one would suppose. 
 
 A great improvement has of late years been made in the rearing of cattle iu 
 Galloway. In winter they are kept in a straw-yard and fed with turuips and dry 
 fodder, whether hay or straw, as the abundance of the one or the other prevails. By 
 this means they attain a larger size, and arrive at market iu better condition. They ai'e 
 remarkably quiet and gentle in a yard or pasture with other cattle, and are no match 
 for the Kyloes. In fact, the two ought never to be kept iu the same place. The 
 Galloways will fatten up to 50 st. or 60 st. on an average at three or three and a half 
 years old ; but some are now fattened up to 100 st. imperial weight, at four or five year.'j 
 old. They are, perhaps, the most uniform in their excellence of any breed of cattle ; 
 and, on this account, as well as their other characteristics, they are special favourites 
 with the graziers. A great number are sold at the weekly market on Norwich Castle 
 Hill, which has long been an established mart for all kinds of domestic animals. The 
 great fairs of Hempton Green, near Fakeuham, Saint Faith's, near Norwich, and Seteh, 
 near Lynn, are noted resorts of the dro\'crs ; and thither the farmers go to make their 
 purchases of stock for Avinter feediug. 
 
 SECTION XIX. 
 
 THE POLLED CATTLE.— 3. THE NORFOLK. 
 
 These are considered to be naturalised Galloways, brought thither as cows m the 
 droves, and crossed with a Suffolk, or some other polled bull. In general they are by 
 no means well shaped, but they are larger, and the cows are excellent milkers. But except 
 in the neighbourhood of Norwich the farmers do not keep many more cows than are 
 
368 AGEIOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 sufficient, first to supply the family with milk, cream, and butter, and secondly to 
 enable their wives and daughters to pay the grocer's and linendraper's bills, by the sale 
 of the surplus produce. Some farmci-s have made attempts to improve the native breed, 
 as it may now be called, and have so far succeeded as to get them much larsrer ; but 
 the specimens exhibited at the Smithtield Club Cattle Show make no figure either as 
 cows or oxen amongst their competitors. 
 
 SECTION XX. 
 THE POLLED C.iTTLE— 3. THE SUFFOLK DUN. 
 
 Many an ancient road-side inn in Suffolk and Norfolk has the dun cow for its sign, 
 proving the antiquity of the breed as well as its celebrity, which once extended over a 
 great part of the kingdom, on account of its extraordinary milking powei"s. The 
 original dun colour is now seldom met with, which indicates that the breed has been 
 ci-ossed with others. They still, however, maintain their celebrity for the quantity of 
 milk they yield, as well as for the richness of its quality. 
 
 The Suftblk, like the Norfolk cattle, are considered to have sprung from the 
 Galloway. They have retained the short legs and the round form more perfectly than 
 the Norfolks, fatten more readily, and attain a greater weight. Tlic following is the 
 description of these cattle a century ago by Kirby, the author of the " Suflblk 
 Traveller:" — " The Suflblk cow has a clean throat, with little dewlap, a snake head, is 
 thin and short in the legs, the ribs springing well from the centre of the back, the 
 carcase large, the belly heavy, the back-bone ridged, the chine thin and hollow, the loin 
 narrow, the ndder square, large, loose, and ci'eased when empty, the milk veins 
 remarkably largo, and rising in knotted pufl's — and this so general, that I scarcely 
 ever saw a famous milker that did not possess this point ; a general habit of leanness, 
 hip bones high and ill-covered, and scai'cely any part of the carcase so formed and 
 covered as to please the eye that is accustomed to fat beasts of the finer breeds ; the 
 general coloui-s are red, red and white, briuillcd, and a yellowish cream colour. The 
 bull is valued if he is of a pure and \iumingled red colour. In no part of the kingdom 
 were the farmers more careless as to the breed, providing only that the cows were true 
 Suflblks. They inerely inquired whether the bull came from a dairy of good milkers ; 
 and even the cows, which they rarely kept in milk for more than two or three years, 
 they bought at the neighbouring markets and faii-s, much oftener than they bred 
 them." 
 
 Suftblk is essentially a dairy county, and the produce is converted into butter rather 
 than into cheese, of which we shall have occasion to speak presently. The rich pastures 
 on the banks of the Orwell, the Ouse, the Deben, and other streams, afibrd ample food 
 for a large immber of cows. The milk is di\ ested of all its cream by repeated skimmings, 
 which gave rise to the satirical reference to it of Bloomtield, the Sullblk poet, in his 
 
THE POLLED CATTLE. 369 
 
 pleasing poem of " The Farmer's Boy." Speaking of the eagerness to obtain as much 
 butter as possible, he says, — 
 
 " Hence Saffolk dairymaids ran mad for cream. 
 And leave thin millc, vith nothing bat its name; 
 Its name, derision and reproach parsue, 
 And strangers tell of three-timesikimmed tky-llue." 
 
 As to the Suffolk cheese, when we say that it is the produce of the milk thus " thrice 
 skimmed," it wiU readily be conceived that there cannot be much of the oleaginous 
 principle in it. The same poet has sung its dispraise in the following lines in the same 
 poem : — 
 
 " UnriTall'd stands thy coantTy*s cheese, Giles I 
 
 Whose very name alone engenders smiles ; 
 
 Whose fame abroad by every tongae is spoke. 
 
 The well-known bntt of many a flinty joke. 
 
 What can be its boast ? 
 
 Noaght bat the common virtaes of a post. 
 
 If drought o'ertakes it faster than the knife. 
 
 Most [air it bids for stnbbom length of life. 
 
 And, like the oaken shelf whereon 'tis laid. 
 
 Mocks the weak efforts of the bending blade ; 
 
 Or in the hog's-trough rests in perfect spite. 
 
 Too big to tKolloto, and too hard to iite." * 
 
 " Suffolk thump," in fact, has, if not a world-wide reputation, at least one co-extensive 
 with the range of its sale ; and it is a common saying that it requires " buttering on both 
 sides to make it eatable." The butter, however, in general, is excellent, and from the 
 richness of the pastures and the goodness of the cows, a large quantity is produced. 
 From 50,000 to 00,000 firkins are sent to London yearly, each cow furnishing on an 
 average 3 firkins, or 168 lbs., and J of a wey of cheese, or 260 lbs. The following was 
 Arthur Yoimg^s estimate of the produce of a Suffolk cow seventy years ago : — 
 
 £ t. d. 
 Three firkins of batter, i cwt. each, at 32«. . . 4 16 
 
 f of a wey of cheese 140 
 
 A hog 10 
 
 A calf 10 
 
 £7 10 
 
 At the present time this produce is of at least double the value. Even in Young's 
 day, he found reason to alter that of the butter and cheese to ^8 12«. Gd., instead of 
 £Q, as above. Many of the cows yield a larger quantity of butter than is stated by 
 Young. It is no uncommon thing for a Suffolk cow to yield for many weeks after 
 calving as much as eight gallons of milk per day, and six gallons is a common average. 
 
 * A fanner in Cambridgeshire happening to be at Bory fair, purchased a quantity of Suffolk cheeses at the current 
 price (about 2d. or 2\d. per lb.), thinking they would give a cheap reOsh for his house lads, of whom he kept several. He 
 inquired of his wife from time to time how the lads liked the cheese, and got the reply that they muit like it, for it went 
 away very fast. Satisfied with the experiment, he contemplated making a larger purchase the next season ; until one day, 
 on coming to a gate which was fastened with a pin through the hoie of a staple, that passed through the clariiiing post, he 
 thon'M there was something very imlike wood about the pin. Upon examining it, he found it was cut out of one of his 
 cheeses ; and foUoBTug up the discovery, he was not a little mortified to find that, not only all the gates with similar 
 fastenings were pinned with the same material, but that the cheese had all been disposed of in any way rather than that 
 for which he had designed if. 
 
 B B 
 
370 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 If the cows are kept well, tliey will also give a mucli greater amoimt of butter. Youatt 
 mentions three cows belonging to tlie Rev. Mr. Aspin, of Cockfielcl, that produced 
 683 lbs. of butter, from June to December, which was upwards of four firkins each. 
 What is remarkable is, that, iu general, the most ordinary looking and cross-made 
 cows arc the best milkers. The cows are much better tended than they were sixty 
 years since, and more regard is paid to breeding from the best selections, both of cows 
 and bulls. 
 
 The cattle grazed in Suffolk are mostly exotic; generally either Short Horns or 
 Scots, whether Highlanders or Galloways. To these we may add both the young cows 
 that display inferior milking qualities, and the old ones that have passed their prime. 
 However lean and ugly these may be, they fatten very quickly when their milk is dried 
 up. They usually reach 40 st. or 45 st. of 14 lbs. when ready for the butcher. It would 
 appear that their valuable qualities are injured by crossing with any breed whatever. 
 This is certainly the case with a cross of the Short Horn and Suffolk ; for although both 
 are good milkers, the produce of the cross was inferior to either breed iu that quality. 
 Very few of the calves are reared in Suffolk for grazing. 
 
 SECTION XXI. 
 
 THE POLLED CATTLE— 4. THE DEVONSHIRE NATS. 
 
 Theke is a breed of Polled Cattle which possess the same characteristics and qualities 
 as the Devon Middle Horns. They have, however, nearly disappeared, and scarcely 
 require any special notice ; and the same may be said of the Yorkshire polled cattle, 
 which were (if we are to judge from their size and qualities) a sport of the Short Horns 
 of that county and Durham, to which they bear a strong affinity. They both graze 
 well, and are excellent dairy cattle. 
 
 SECTION XXII. 
 
 THE LONG HORNED CATTLE. 
 
 This breed specially belongs to the district of Craven, in that part of the West Hiding 
 of Yorkshire bordering upon Lancashire and Westmoreland, and its appearance there 
 goes furtlier back than the authentic or written history of agriculture. There has been 
 a good deal of controversy respecting the origin of these cattle, a similar breed bemg 
 found in Ireland; and the question is, whether Ireland or England is their native 
 country. It is now utterly impossible to determine this point satisfactorily, nor is it of 
 the slightest consequence; but Youatt inclines to the opinion that at a very remote 
 
THE LONG HORNED CATTLE. 371 
 
 period they were introduced into Ireland from Lancashire ; and he gives as a reason, that 
 whilst the INIiddle Horns are found chiefly on the mountainous parts of the country, 
 the low grounds are occupied by the Long Horns. We shall have to refer to the Irish 
 cattle again, at the close of this sketch. 
 
 It is a singular feature of this breed, that originally the horns projected horizontally 
 from either side of the head, but that as they were improved the horn assumed other 
 directions — sometimes hanging down so low as to prevent their grazing with ease ; at 
 others, pointing forward, or curving outwards, and then turning and growing into the 
 check, rendering it necessary to cut off the points. These cattle are now extended over 
 several counties, but all persons conversant with them agree in considering the district 
 of Craven to be their original locality ; and that, from whatever cause, it is there the 
 best and purest types of the breed are still to be met with, being broader in the chest, 
 better feeders, and more symmetrical in their shape. Those of Lancashire arc larger*, 
 and more lengthy in the quarters, but have a fall behind the shoulders, and are less level 
 in the chine. 
 
 The Long Horns which have been first traced to Craven, have spread themselves 
 gradually along the western coast, and over the midland counties. In Ireland there are 
 at present two distinct varieties, probably arising from the different features of the 
 districts in which they are found. Those on the mountains and moorlands are small, 
 hardy, and useful animals, the cows being much esteemed by the peasant farmers, on 
 account of the cheapness of keeping them, and the quantity and goodness of the milk 
 yielded by them. These cattle fatten fast when put on good pasture, and make excellent 
 beef. Those bred on the low and rich grazing grounds are much larger animals, not 
 equal in milking qualities to the mountaineers, but fatting up to a large size. Both 
 these are considered to be the Craven stock, and have, in many districts of Ireland, 
 been crossed with the old native INIiddle Horns, and have thus lost their identity. 
 
 In England, the Craven breed is found in the counties of Chester, Derby, Notting- 
 ham, Stafford, Oxford, and Wilts ; but in each of these parts, whether by crossing with 
 the native breeds, or in consequence of the variety of soil, climate, or situation, they 
 have received peculiar modifications ; and although in all cases decidedly Long Horns 
 of the original Craven stock, the cattle of each district have their distinguishing features, 
 arising imdoubtedly from local circiunstances which it woidd be difficult, if not impos- 
 sible, and certainly useless, to endeavour to trace. 
 
 We can scarcely form an idea of what these cattle were before Bakeweli undertook 
 to improve them, on the same principles adopted by him with the Leicestershire sheep. 
 Some hints, however, we may take from Culley's account of what was fashionable with 
 the graziers and breeders previous to that era of cattle rearing. He says (p. 57), " The 
 kind of cattle most esteemed before Mr. Bakewell's day were the large, long-bodied, 
 big-boned, coarse, flat-sided kind, and often lyery, or black-fleshed." In a previous 
 page he describes them as " distinguished from others by the length of their horns, the 
 thickness and firm texture of their hides, the length and closeness of* their hair, the large 
 size of their hoofs, and coarse, leathery, thick necks. They likewise are deeper made in 
 the fore quarters, and lighter in their hind quarters, than the other breeds in general ; 
 they are narrower in shape, less in point of weight than the Short Horns, though better 
 weighers in proportion to their size ; and give considerably less milk, though it is said 
 to afford more cream in proportion than that of other cows. They are more varied 
 
 B B 3 
 
372 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 in colour than any other breeds; but ■whatever the colour may be, they have (in general) 
 a white streak along the back, which the breeders term finched, and mostly a white spot 
 on the inside of the hough."* 
 
 Such was the breed upon which Mr. Bakewell undertook to practise the same system 
 he had so successfully adopted with the Leicester sheep. He was followed by Mr. Fowler, 
 of Rollwright, in Oxfordshire ; Mr. Princep, of Croxall, Derbyshire ; Mr. Paget, of 
 Ibstock, Leicestershire ; and ]\Ir. Munday, of Derby ; and an important improvement of 
 the breed thi'oughout the country was the consequence ; but as soon as the CoUingses 
 began their experiments on the Teeswater Short Horns, it became evident that they 
 were far more capable of improvement, and would pay for it sooner and better than the 
 Long Horns. " What/' says Youatt, " is now become of this improved breed of Long 
 Horns ? Where is it to be found ? It was a bold and successful experiment. It 
 seemed for a whUe to answer the most sanguine expectations of these scientific and 
 spirited breeders. In the districts in which the experiments were carried on, it estab- 
 lislied a breed of cattle equalled by few and excelled by none, except the Herefords. 
 It enabled the Long Horns to contend, and often successfully, with the heaviest and 
 best of the Middle Horns. It did more ; it improved, and that to a material degree, 
 the whole breed of Long Horns. The Lancashire, the Derbyshire, the Staffordshire 
 cattle became, and still are, an improved race — they got rid of a portion of theu' coarse 
 bone ; they began to gain their flesh and fat on the more profitable points ; they 
 acquired a somewhat earlier maturity, and, the process of improvement not being carried 
 too far, the very dairy cattle obtained a disposition to convert their aliment into milk 
 while milk was wanted, and after that, to use the same aliment for the accumulation of 
 flesh and fat. The midland counties \vill always have occasion to associate a feeling 
 of respect and gratitude with the name of Bakewell. The Irish breeders owe everything 
 to the new Leicester cattle. A new stock, in fact, has arisen since the improved Long 
 Horns were grafted on the native Irish stock." f 
 
 In seeking the improvement, whether of cattle or sheep, the leading principle that 
 Bakewell kept constantly in the foreground was, beauty of form, or symmetry. With a 
 clear and just idea of the "line of beauty," he connected utility as an inseparable 
 accompaniment. In this, as a general principle, he was proved to be in the wrong, 
 especially if applied to breeding and dairy cattle. With respect to the first, it was found 
 that by persevering in the refinement of the symmetry, reduction of the bone, and the 
 increased tendency to fatten, the constitution was deteriorated, and the power of propa- 
 gating their species became uncertain, or wholly ceased. Mr. Marshall accounts for 
 this in a very satisfactory way. " The breeder's object," he says, " is to render his 
 bull, to the eye at least, as near perfection as may be ; he is therefore made up for 
 the show by high keep, as well to evince his propensity to fatten, as to hide his defects, 
 thereby showing him off to the best advantage; the consequence of which is, that being 
 
 * The preference given to size in cattle, rather than to quality, and the total disregard to symmetry, and, consequently, 
 to excellence, is common to all countries where agricultural improvements have not been introduced. Thus, in Austria 
 and the Danubian Principalities, the cattle mostly preferred, are the huge, large-boned, thick-skinned breeds, without any 
 " form or comeliness," only fatteiilng up to a great weight of coarse ordinary beef on the rich pastures watered by the 
 Danube. In some of the remote jiarts of France, too, the same preference to large breeds of cattle is eshibitcd; but the 
 exertions of the French government for the improvement of agriculture are gradually extending new ideas on this, as well 
 as on other, subjects of rural economy. 
 
 t Youatt, p. 19G. 
 
THE LONG HORNED CATTLE. 373 
 
 takeu from this high keep, and lowered at once to a common cow pasture, he flags. 
 Hence it is become a practice with judicious breeders, when their bulls are let early 
 enough, to lower them by degrees to ordinary keep previous to the season." 
 
 The same eminent writer describes the new Leicester cattle, as they were in his 
 time, in the following terms : — 
 
 " The fore end long, but light to a degree of elegance ; the neck thin ; the cliap clean ; 
 the head fine, but long and tapering. 
 
 " The eye large, bright, and prominent. 
 
 " The horns vary with the sex, &c. Those of bulls are comparatively short, from 
 fifteen inches to two feet ; those of the few oxen that have been reared of this breed, are 
 extremely large, being from two and a half to three and a half feet long ; those of the 
 cows nearly as long, but much finer, tapering to delicately fine points. jNIost of them 
 hang downwards by the side of the cheeks, and then, if well turned, as many of the cows 
 are, shoot forward at the points. 
 
 " The shoulders remarkably fine and thin, as to bone ; but thickly covered with flesh. 
 Not the smallest protuberance of bone is discernible. 
 
 " The girth small compared with tlic Middle Horn and Short Horn breeds. 
 
 " The chine remarkably full when fat ; but hollow when low in condition. 
 
 " The loin broad, the hip remarkably wide and protuberant. 
 
 " The quarters long and level ; the nache of a middle widtli, and the tail set on 
 variously, even in individuals of the highest repute. 
 
 " The round bones small, but the thighs in general fleshy ; tapering, however, when 
 in the best form towards the gambrels. 
 
 " The legs small and clean, but comparatively long. The feet in general neat, and 
 of the middle size. 
 
 " The carcase as near a cylinder as the natural form of the animal will allow. The 
 ribs standing out full from the spine. The belly small. 
 
 " The flesh seldom fails of being of the first quality. 
 
 " The hide of a middle thickness. 
 
 " The colour various ; the brindle, the finch-back, and the pied are common. The 
 lighter they are the better they seem to be in esteem. 
 
 " The fattening quality of this improved breed, in a state of maturity, is indisputably 
 good. 
 
 " As graziei's' stock they undoubtedly rank high. The principle of utility of form has 
 been strictly attended to. The bone and ofl'al are small and the fore end liglit ; while the 
 chine, the loin, the rump, and the ribs are heavily loaded, and with flesh of the first 
 quality. In point of early maturity they have also materially gained. In general they 
 have gained a year in preparation for the butcher; and though perhaps, not weighing so 
 heavy as before, the little diminution of weight is abundantly compensated by the superior 
 excellence of the meat, its earlier readiness, and the smaller quantity of food consumed. 
 
 " As dairy stock their merits are less evident ; or rather, it does not admit of doubt 
 that their milking qualities have been very much impaired. 
 
 " As beasts of draught, their general form renders them unfit ; yet many of them 
 are sufficiently powerfvd j and they are more active than some other breeds that are used 
 for the plough, or on the road ; but the horns generally form an insuperable objection 
 to this use of them." 
 
374 AGEICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODEEN. 
 
 Besides beauty or symmetry, Bakewell aimed at utility of form, excellence of flesh, 
 
 and a propensity to accumulate fat ; and he selected for breeding cattle -nhicli exhibited 
 
 such qualities, on the principle that only " like begets like," and that generally speaking 
 
 the children will possess the peculiarities of the parents. Bakewell was, of course, 
 
 compelled in the first instance to breed " in and in," without regard to near affinity. 
 
 But there is reason to believe that, after he had raised his stock, he deviated from this 
 
 as far as possible, or as the principles he had adopted would admit. There is, however, 
 
 a good deal of mystery about his system, which lie does not appear to have fully 
 
 divulged to his most intimate friends ; nor has he left any written memorials behind him 
 
 to guide those who should follow him in the course of improvement. Marshall appears 
 
 to have seen and learned more of his system than any other of his contemporaries, being 
 
 for some years on the most intimate terms with him ; but in his own account of him, he 
 
 states that "it is not his intention to deal out Mr. Bakewell's private opinions, or even 
 
 to attempt a recital of his particular practice ;" and thus, between the modest reserve of 
 
 the great improver, and the honourable delicacy of his most intimate agricultural friend, 
 
 the opportunities the latter enjoyed " of making ample observations on Mr. Bakewell's 
 
 system and practice, and his liberal communications from him on all rural subjects," are 
 
 lost to the agricultural public. 
 
 It appears, however, that Bakewell was not the first man who had instituted an 
 improvement of the Long Horns. So early as the year 1720, a blacksmith and farrier 
 of the name of Welbj^, residing at Linton in Derbyshire, on the borders of Leicestershire, 
 had a valuable breed of cows, which he had procured from Drakelow House, the seat of 
 Sir Thomas Gresley, on the banks of the Trent, about a mile from Burton. Welby 
 prided himself on keeping his stock pure, and was only foiled in his design by a disease 
 that broke out amongst his cattle ; which, by destroying most of them, nearly ruined 
 the owuei", and stopped his speculations in improvement. 
 
 Welby was soon afterwards followed by Webster of Canley near Coventry, ivho, 
 procuring some of the Drakelow stock from Sir Thomas Gresley, crossed the cows with 
 Lancashire and Westmoreland bulls, selected by himself. By this means he soon reared 
 the best stock of Long Horns in the country. His bull Bloxcdge, " the Hubback of the 
 Long Horns," as Youatt calls him, was the offspring of a three year old heifer by a 
 Lancashire l)ull ; and when a yearling, was so unpromising that Webster sold him to a 
 j\Ir. Bloxcdge ; but he afterwards acquitted himself so well as a stock-getter, that 
 Webster repurchased him and used him for several years. The animal finally came into 
 the possession of a Mr. Flavel of Hogshill, where he died. Very little beyond the above 
 is known of either of these pioneers of improvement; but it is not improbable that 
 Bakewell took the hint from them, and leasing his own system on theirs, excelled them 
 in the judgment he exercised, as much as in the extent of his operations. 
 
 Bakewell's system has been the subject of very severe criticism ; and, perhaps, by 
 none more so than by the author of " Illustrations of Natural History." " It was," 
 says this writer, "his grand maxim, that the bones of an animal intended for food could 
 not be too small ; and that the fat being the most valuable part of the carcase, it could 
 consequently not be too abundant. In pursuance of this leading theory, by inducing 
 a preternatural smalluess of bone, and rotundity of carcase, he sought to cover the bones 
 of all his animals externally with masses of fat. Thus, the entire new Leicester breed, 
 from their excessive tendency to fatten, produce too small a quantity of eatable meat; 
 
THE LONG HORNED CATTLE. 375 
 
 and tliat, too, necessarily of inferior flavour and quality. They are, in general, found 
 defective in weight jjroportionably to their hulk ; and, if not thoroughly fattened, their 
 flesh is crude and without flavour ; while, if they he so, their carcases produce little else 
 hut fat, a very considerable part of which must be sold at an inferior price, to make 
 candles instead of food, not to forget the very great waste that must ever attend the 
 consumption of over-fattened meat. 
 
 " This great and sagacious improver, very justly disgusted at the sight of those huge, 
 gaunt, leggy, and misshapen animals with which his vicinity abounded, and which 
 scarcely any length of time or quantity of food would thoroughly fatten, patriotically 
 determined upon raising a more sightly and a more profitable breed; yet, rather 
 unfortunately, his zeal impelled him to the opposite extreme. Having painfully, and 
 at much cost, raised a variety of cattle, the chief merit of which is to make fat, he has 
 apparently laid his disciples and successors under the necessity of substituting another 
 that will make lean." 
 
 There is certainly severity, but there is at the same time much truth, in the above 
 remarks. It has long been the subject of regret, that at our agricidtural shows, the 
 cattle exhibited Ijave generally been over fed j and that the loads of fat heajDcd upon 
 them have set all judgment at defiance as to the shape, make, and symmetry of the 
 monsters of obesity contending for the prize ; and this is more reprehensible and 
 injurious when applied, as it too frequently is, to breeding cattle, which is proved by the 
 number of prize cows and others that have slipped their calves, whilst many of the 
 most valuable have died in calving or otherwise. We believe that the exposure of this 
 system, in its consequences, has at length opened the eyes, both of the graziers and of 
 the jvidges appointed at the cattle shows, to its folly and impolicy ; and that, in future, 
 more attention will be paid to form and symmetrical proportion in moderately fed 
 cattle, than to loads of fat, that only serve to hide defects. 
 
 It is right, however, to state that Bakewell himself is not answerable for the excesses 
 into which fashion, prevailing since his days, has led his successors. We speak from 
 personal knowledge in stating that at the agricultiu'al shows at the beginning of the 
 present century, the sheep and cattle were not fattened to that hideous extent that has 
 prevailed at a later period ; and although one of the first principles of Bakewell's system 
 was to secure a tendency to fatten early, and with the least expenditure of food, we are 
 convinced that had he lived to the present day, he would have deprecated the prevailing 
 exaggeration of his system as strongly as any man. The late Earl of Leicester was an 
 ardent admirer and imitator of Bakewell ; and at the Holkham sheep-shearings one of 
 the standing after-dinner toasts was the memory of Bakewell, coupled with the sentiment 
 or axiom of " small in size and great in value," which had reference to the prominence of 
 the best parts of an animal, and the smallness of bone, rather than to the excess of fat. 
 
 There was one peculiarity in Bakewell's character which all graziers, as well as other 
 persons having to do with cattle, would do well to imitate, namely, his humanity and 
 gentleness to the animals of every description under his care, which was amply repaid 
 by the evident attachment they showed to their kind master. " The gentleness," says 
 a wi'iter in the Gentleman's Magazine, " of the difterent breeds of cattle (belonging 
 to Bakewell), coidd not escape the attention of any observer. It seemed to run through 
 them all. At an age when most of his brethren are either foaming or bellowing with 
 rage and madness, old C, a bull, a son of the old parent Comely, had all the gentleness 
 
376 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 of a lambj both in his look and action. He wonld lick the hand of his feeder, and if 
 any one patted or scratched him, he would bow himself down almost on his knees." 
 Arthur Young also testifies to the same trait in Bakewell's character: — "Another 
 peculiarity is the amazing gentleness in which he brings up these animals. All his 
 bulls stand in the field to be examined. The way of driving them from one field to 
 another, or home, is by a little switch ; he or his men walk by their side, and guide 
 them with the stick wherever they please; and they are accustomed to this method 
 from being calves. A lad with a stick three feet long, and as thick as his finger, will 
 conduct a bull away from other bulls, and his cows, from one end of the farm to the 
 other. All this gentleness is merely the effect of management ; and the mischief often 
 done by buUs is undoulitedly owing to practices very contrary, or else to a total 
 neglect." 
 
 About the same time that Bakewell commenced his experiments upon the Long 
 Horns, the CoUingses adopted the Teeswater Short Horns for a similar purpose ; with 
 what success, the present state of the herds of Great Britain testifies. In every county 
 in which the Long Horn previously claimed a priority of standing, that race has given 
 way before the evident superiority of its rival ; and Youatt affirms that in 1833 there 
 was not one of Bakewell's celebrated improved cattle on the farm at Dishley, occupied 
 formerly by him. That he himself and two or three of his competitors were successful 
 in their system there is no question. At a sale, for instance, of Mr. Fowler's cattle in 
 1791, six Long Horn bidls sold at fi'om £152 to £250, and six cows from £120 to 
 £273 ; and the fifty head fetched £4,289 4s. 6rf., or an average of £85 15s. 8d. each. 
 Bakewell himself let his bulls at 80 guineas the season ; and it was by hiring from him, 
 that Fowler and Princep got into stock.* But as soon as these men passed away, the 
 character which the breed had acquired declined ; and the superiority of the Short 
 Horns for the dairy, and their earlier maturity, ha\e given them the preponderance in 
 every county Avhere formei'ly the Long Horns were universally bred. Not only this, 
 but the improvement effected by Bakewell has to a great extent been lost, and the breed 
 has retrograded towards its original condition, where it is still adhered to. A few 
 breeders do so, and the breed is recognised at the shows of the Smithficld Farmers' Club ; 
 but the small number exhibited,t although fine specimens, proves the little esteem in 
 which they are held ; and at the meetings of the Royal Agricvdtural Society, they are 
 not admitted at all as an acknowledged breed. 
 
 To give, therefore, a detailed account of each county in which the Long Horns 
 formerly prevailed, woidd be useless. Wherever they still linger the improved type is 
 nearly lost, and even in Leicestershire it has degenerated (according to Youatt) into the 
 old breed ; and it is only in certain localities, to which its peculiarities are best adapted, 
 that it is still retained, and that to a very limited extent. The rich qiiality of their 
 milk, although it is small in quantity, induces the Cheshire dairy farmers to keep a few 
 of them amongst their cattle; but the Short Horns have in most cases entirely driven 
 them out, and in some of the counties iu which tliey formerly predominated, not one is 
 now seen. 
 
 * Some of their stock fattened up to a large size. Lawrence mentions an oi belonging to -Mr. Princep, four years old, 
 the wtight of which, when killed, was 248 st. the four quarters, besides 25 st. of tallow, oil U lbs. to the stone ; and the 
 hide weighed 177 lbs. 
 
 t At the show in December, 18G0, there were only three ; and in 18C1 four exhibited. Of the seven, four were from 
 Warwick, two from Derby, and one from Dorsetshire ; five of the seven were heifers, the other two, steers. 
 

THE SHORT HORNS. 377 
 
 SECTION XXIII. 
 
 THE SHORT HORNS. 
 
 Perhaps there has never been a more decided expression of public opinion in rural 
 affairs, than in the approbation which this universally celebrated breed of cattle has 
 obtained in every part of the civilised world. This cannot be ascribed to any other 
 cause than to the combination of useful and profitable qualities it is found to possess. 
 Nearly a century has now passed since the improvers of the breed — the Messrs. Collings 
 — adopting the principle laid down by Bakewell, fixed upon the Short Horn cattle, 
 whose locality was then on the banks of the Tees (from which they derived the name 
 of "the Teeswater breed"), for experimenting upon in a similar manner to that which 
 Bakewell had adopted with the Long Horns. Not only were they eminently successful, 
 like him, in making a fortune themselves, but a long succession of Short Horn breeders 
 has sustained the reputation these cattle had acquired to the present day ; and such is the 
 estimation in which they are held, that they bid fair to supersede every other breed of 
 cattle in those countries adapted to their constitution and other peculiarities. Large 
 fortvmes have been, and still continue to be, made by the most eminent breeders ; and at 
 the various cattle shows the great preponderance of the Short Horns proves the extent 
 to which the breed now prevails. 
 
 The existence of this breed in the counties of York and Durham, carries us back to 
 the earliest period in which we have any account of the cattle of the country. It is 
 supposed that they were originally imported from the western or north countries of the 
 European continent ; but this is merely conjecture, founded on the fact that a race 
 similar to it has existed in Holland and Denmark from the earliest period. But at 
 what time they were brought hither, or whether they were imported at all, or were 
 indigenous in the coimties in which they prevailed, is totally uncertain. All that is 
 known of them is, that they were valuable on account of their prodigious milking 
 qualities, in which, in their original state, they excelled every other breed ; and it is 
 probable that this was the trait in their character that induced the Collingses to adopt 
 them for their experiments in improvement. 
 
 The original Short Horn is represented by Youatt as having little besides its milking 
 powers to recommend it. It had large shoulders, a coarse neck, flat sides, and a thick 
 head ; all the coarse parts were bulky, and the prime ones reduced in size ; " and they 
 were almost the reverse of what the agriculturist would select. They were, however, 
 bulkier than the other native breeds, and better milkers than the generality of the 
 cattle of that day. They would, by dint of feeding, grow to an enormous size; but 
 they had not the aptitude to fatten, nor the early maturity to which they have since 
 been indebted for their triumph over every other breed." 
 
 The first person recorded as having attempted an improvement of the Short Horn 
 (according to Culley) was a Mr. Dobinson, who had a farm in the vicinity of the Tees. 
 This person imported some Dutch bulls, with which he crossed his own stock. Culley 
 states that from his own knowledge, Dobinson and his neighbours were noted for having 
 the best bred Short Horns, and that they sold their bulls and heifers at very high prices. 
 " This," he says, " induced some others of less judgment to go over and purchase some 
 
378 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 bulls, wliicli introduced along that coast tlie disagreeable kind of cattle, Tvell known to the 
 breeders adjoining the river Tees by the appellation of lyery or double-lyered ; that is, black 
 fleshed, for, notwithstanding one of these creatures will feed to a vast weight, and though 
 fed ever so long, yet it ivill not have 1 lb. of fat about it, neither ivithin nor tvithout : and 
 the flesh (for it does not deserve to be called beef) is as black and coarse-grained as 
 horse-flesh."* 
 
 Several other enterprising breeders followed the example of Dobinson, amongst 
 whom the most eminent were Sir W. St. Quintin, of Scampstou, and Mr. Milbank, of 
 Birmingham, who, by similar selections and importations of bulls and cows from 
 Holland, produced crosses, which greatly abated the ill qualities of the Shoi't Horns. 
 It is probably upon this partially improved stock that the Collingses based their own 
 experiments, which have eventually produced a complete revolution in the business of 
 breeding and grazing. 
 
 It was in the year 1775 that the brothers Charles and Robert Colling, who occupied 
 farms at Darlington, in the rich valley of the Tees, crossed over to Holland, where they 
 purchased some bulls that appeared likely to suit their purpose. These they put to 
 some cows of the best types they could procure of the native Durham or Teeswater 
 Short Horns. Selecting still from the produce, those possessing the most perfect 
 symmetry, and rejecting the inferior, or unsightly, they commenced, after Bake well's 
 example, to breed in and in. The objects they aimed at and accomplished, were, 
 reduction of bone, quickness of growth, perfection of symmetry, aptness to fatten, and 
 a I'eduction of size. Youatt suggests, rather than asserts, the last particular as forming 
 a part of Collings' plan ; and that they eflPected it at the outset by means of the bull 
 Hubback, which, as the founder of the improved " Short Horn family," has obtained a 
 world-wide notoriety, and whose history is as follows : — 
 
 It is uncertain whether Hubback was of full blood; and it is probable that, on one 
 side at least, he belonged to the foreign breed. His dam was the property of a poor 
 farmer who grazed her in the highway. When purchased by Air. Colling, and put 
 into good pasture, she became so fat that she never after bred. Hubback took 
 after his dam, and displayed such a tendency to fatten, that his value as a bull was of 
 very short duration. Enough, however, of his jirogcny was procured to establish the 
 fame, and make the fortune of his owner. In size he was below the Teeswater cattle ; 
 and the quality of his flesh, hide, and hair, was superior to anything previously 
 produced ; and to this day, the most eminent Short Horn breeders are proud to trace 
 back the pedigree of their best cattle to this celebrated animal. 
 
 The history of Hubback, as given by Youatt, is worth recording here. 
 Mr. Waistell, of Alihill, used to admire it as he rode past the meadow where it 
 grazed. The owner asked £8 for it, which seemed a high price for a calf. Happening 
 to meet Mr. Robert Colling, he asked his opinion of it, and he acknowledged there were 
 some good points about it. Suspecting from the reserve with which this opinion was 
 expressed that Colling had a mind to the calf himself, Waistell went the next morning, 
 and concluded the purchase of the animal, which was no sooner efiTected, than Colling 
 arrived for the same purpose. Riding home together they agreed to make it a joint 
 speculation; but a few months after, both owners becoming less sanguine about its 
 merits, they resold it to Mr. C. Colling, who had discernment enough to see its value; 
 
 * CuUey, pp. 42, 43. 
 
THE SHORT HORNS. 379 
 
 and from that time kept it for liis own purposeSj not allowing it to cover even the 
 cows of its former owners. 
 
 Following strictly the practice of his prototype, Bakewell, Colling persevered in 
 adhering to the stock of his own raising, always selecting from the prodnce those only that 
 fully met his views. His success soon enabled him to let out his bulls to the neighbouring- 
 farmers at high prices. By degrees his fame spread ; and about the beginning of the 
 present century, the production of the " Durham ox " brought the " Short Horn " breed 
 into general notice. This famous animal was the produce of a common cow of that breed 
 by Favoui-ite, one of Ceiling's best bulls. It was sold at five years old to Mr. Bulmer, 
 of Harmby, near Redale, at the price of j£140. This was in February, 1801, at which 
 time its live weight was 216 st., the computed weight of its carcase being 168 st. of 
 14 lbs. Bulmer had a carriage made for it, and exhibited it about the country for 
 five weeks, and then sold it, together with the carriage, to Mr. John Day, of Rotherham, 
 for £250. Day was offered on the same day (14th May) 500 guineas for it; a month 
 after, 1,000 ; and on the 8th of July £2,000. He travelled with it for six years 
 throughout England and Scotland, till, on the 19th February, 1807, at Oxford, the animal's 
 hip-bone was dislocated, and the impossibility of reducing it, compelled his owner to 
 consent to its being slaughtered ; and although it must have lost considerably in weight 
 in the eight weeks from its accident, the following was its dead weight : — 
 
 stones, lbs. 
 
 Four quarters 163 12 
 
 Tallow 1] 2 
 
 Hide 10 2 
 
 Total 187 2 
 
 Although Mr. Charles Colling adhered to the breed he had adopted on one side, 
 he ti'ied many experiments in crossing, always choosing those which were smaller than 
 the Short Horns. The most successful of these attempts was a cross with the polled 
 Galloway. A beautiful red cow of this valuable breed was covered by Mr. CoUing's Short 
 Horn bull Bolingbroke, and the produce being a bull-calf, it was, in due time, put to 
 Johanna, a pure Short Horn cow, who also produced a bull-calf, who was afterwards 
 the sire of the cow Lady, by a pure Short Horn dam. From Lady has sprung the 
 highly valuable family of improved Short Horns, termed, in reproach, the Allot/. How 
 far the Alloy was derogatory, let facts testify.* 
 
 After a successful career of thirty-five years, the herd of Mr. Charles Colling was sold 
 l)y auction, and, not withstanding the prejudice excited against the Alloy, the forty-eight 
 lots brought the fortunate owner the large sum of £7,115 17s. distributed as follows ; — 
 
 £ s. ,1. £ s. d. 
 
 17 Cows sold for .... 2,802 9 average 164 17 
 
 11 Bulls 2,361 9 „ 214 13 6 
 
 7 Bull-calves 687 13 „ 98 5 
 
 7 Heifers 942 18 „ 134 14 
 
 5 Heifer-calves .... 321 60 „ 64 52 
 
 £7,115 17 „ 113 8 
 
 It is further worthy of remark that Lady, at fourteen years old, sold for 206 guineas; 
 Countess, her daughter, ten years old, for 400 guineas ; Laura, another daughter, four 
 
 * Yonalt, p. 230. 
 
s. 
 IG 
 14 
 
 d. 
 
 each, 
 
 ,. 
 
 16 
 
 „ 
 
 5 
 
 „ 
 
 380 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 years old, for 310 guineas ; Major and George, two of her sons, the former three years 
 old, the latter a calf, for 200 guineas, and 130 guineas respectively. His bull Comet 
 sold for 1,000 guineas. 
 
 The herd of Mr. Eobert Colling was disposed of in the same manner in 1817, when 
 sixty-one head of cattle brought the following sum : — 
 
 Guineas. £. 
 
 34 Cows 4,141 average 121 
 
 17 Heifers 1.287 „ 75 
 
 6 Bulls 1,843 „ 223 
 
 4 Bull-calves . . . , 713 „ 17S 
 
 7,484 „ £121 13 9 „ 
 
 The extension of this celebrated breed of cattle may be dated from these remarkable 
 sales. Other breeders of celebrity, only second to the CoUings, had begun to adopt the same 
 system with the Short Horns. Among these were Mr. Charge, of Newton, Mr. Mason, 
 of Chilton, and j\Ir. Coates, the latter of whom was the founder of the Short Horn herd- 
 book, by which the pedigree of the breed has been preserved. He had a very superior 
 stock, and sold a bull, Patriot, for 500 guineas. But, fancying his own cattle superior 
 to every other, he would not cross them with any of Mr. Colling's ; and the sale of 
 the herd of the latter having established its pre-eminent value, Mr. Coates found his 
 stock fall into disfavour. It would be tedious and useless to follow the history of the 
 Short Horns further. It is sufficient to state that a few years since, it was estimated 
 that there were at least 500 registered herds of them in Great Britain ; and, in proof of 
 the firmness with which they have, for a century, maintained their ascendancy over 
 other breeds, at the sale of Short Horns belonging to the late Earl of Ducie at 
 Tortworth, sixty-two animals sold for the enormous sum of £9,361 16s. an average of 
 about £151 per head. At this sale several of the descendants of Young Duchess, which 
 was sold at that of Charles Colling's herd for 183 guineas (being -only two years old), 
 brought very high prices. Niue animals of the same name, and descended from the 
 same ancestral dam, fetched at Lord Ducie's sale, 4,160 guineas, being an average of 
 over 462 guineas each. One cow, with a bull-calf only six weeks old by her side, were 
 sold for 700 and 310 guineas respectively. This sale is "unparalleled in the past" (as 
 the auctioneer, Mr. Stafford observed), " and probably wiU never be equalled in the 
 future." The dispersion of such herds, will, of itself, tend to lower the price of the 
 breed, although it will, at the same time, serve to extend its ameliorating influence far 
 and wide. The sale of Master Butterfly (a descendant of Young Duchess) in 1858 for 
 1,200 guineas to an Australian agent, may be considered the maximum ; and although 
 particular animals of high pedigree will still command good prices, it is not likely that 
 such extravagant rates will be submitted to in future, even for the most perfect types, or 
 the most celebrated ancestral descent. 
 
 There is, however, not the smallest possibility that the breed will ever go out of favour 
 with the piiblic, or that it can be superseded by one of a superior kind. On the 
 contrary, it is insinuating itself into every country in which domestic animals are kept ; 
 and numbers of them are continually being exported to the continent of Europe, the 
 United States, and all the British colonies ; and they appear to adapt themselves to 
 every soil and climate, as well as to their native county. In the United States the 
 
THE SHOET HORNS. 
 
 381 
 
 breed is now found in its greatest pvirity, the breeders being able to trace the descent 
 of their stock with as much facility as those of England. 
 
 The Short Horn cows are known to be the best milkers of any breed whatevei', and 
 the London dairymen have now all adopted them to the exclusion of others. It is no 
 uncommon thing for them to yield 30 to 36 qts. of milk per day at the beginning of 
 summer, and the first tkree months after calving, but the average run is about 22 to 24 qts. 
 The milk is considered to be inferior in richness to that of the Middle Horned cows,* 
 and is therefore better adapted to the London trade than to the dairies where butter is 
 the principal object of production. Yet the Short Horn is gradually superseding other 
 breeds in the cheese districts of Cheshire aud other counties. The following description 
 of a Short Horn cow is given by Youatt : — " A milch cow, good for the pail as long as 
 
 A SHORT IIOBNED HLlfEK. 
 
 she is wanted, and then quickly got into marketable condition, should have a long, and 
 rather smaU head ; a large-headed cow will seldom fatten, or yield much milk. The 
 eye should be bright, yet with a peciiliar placidness and quietness of expression, 
 the chaps thin, ai.il the horns small. The neck shoidd not be so thin as that which 
 common opinion has given to the milch cow. It maj^ be thin towards the head ; but it 
 must soon begin to thicken, and especially when it approaches the shoulder ; the dewlap 
 should be small, the breast, if not so wide as in some that have an unusual disposition 
 to fatten, yet very far from being narrow, and it should project before the legs ; the 
 chine, to a certain degi'ee fleshy, and even inclining to fulness ; the gii-th behind the 
 shoulder should be deeper than it is usually found in the Short Horn ; the ribs should 
 spread out wide, so as to give as globular a form as possible to the carcase, and each 
 should project farther than the preceding one to the very loins, giving, if, after all, the 
 milch cow must be a little wider below than above, yet, as much breadth as can possibly 
 be afforded to the more valuable parts. She should be well-formed across the hips, and 
 
 * Ifouatt questions tliis, or, at least, think? the difference much exaggerated, and that it is more than compensated 
 by the additional quantity, so that more butter will be obtained from a Short Horn Cow, out of a given quantity of food. 
 Experiments have proved, too, that the milk improves in richness as the cow gets older. 
 
383 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 ou the riimpj and with greater length there than the milker generally possesses ; or, 
 
 if a little too short, not heavy. If she stands a little long on the legs, it must not 
 
 be too long ; the thighs somewhat thin, with a slight tendency to crookedness, or being 
 
 sickle-hammed behind ; the tail thick at the upper part, but tapering below ; and she 
 
 should have a mellow hide, and little coarse hair. Common consent has given to her 
 
 large milk veins ; and although the subcutaneous or milk vein has nothing to do with 
 
 the udder, but conveys the blood from the fore part of the chest and sides to the 
 
 inguinal vein, yet a large milk vein certainly indicates a strongly developed vascular 
 
 system, one favourable to secretion generally, and to that of milk among the rest. The 
 
 udder should incline rather to be large, but not too large in proportion to the size of the 
 
 animal. It must be sufficiently capacious to contain the proper quantity of milk, but 
 
 not too bulky, lest it should thicken and become loaded with fat. The skin of the udder 
 
 should be thin, and free from lumps in every part of it ; the teats should be of moderate 
 
 size, at equal distances from each other every way, and of equal size from the udder to 
 
 nearly the end, where they should run to nearly a point. "Wlien they are too large near 
 
 the udder, they permit the milk to flow down too freely from the bag, and lodge in 
 
 them ; and when they ai'e too broad at the extremity the orifice is often so large, that 
 
 the cow cannot retain her milk after the bag begins to be full and heavy. The udder 
 
 should be nearly equal in size before and behind ; or, if there is any difference, it should 
 
 be broader and fuller before than behind." 
 
 Of the superiority of the Short Horns as grazing cattle there is, we believe, no 
 dispute ; but it is equally true that they are lai'ge consumers of food. The imjn-oved Short 
 Horns are precocious ; and are ready for the butcher at two and a half or three years 
 old, instead of at five or six, as was the case sixty or seventy years since. The breed is 
 smaller than the old one, and consequently the cattle do not reach the weight. CuUey 
 gives the particulars of the weight of two oxen bred and feci by Sir H. Grey, of Howick, 
 Northumberland. They were killed at seven years old, and their four quarters weighed 
 respectively 152 st. 9 lbs. and 152 st. 8 lbs. ,• the ofi'al weighing 25 st. 9 lbs. and 25 st. 1 1 lbs. 
 He also mentions another ox killed at Barnstaple at five years old, the four quarters of 
 which weighed 150 st. 4| lbs., and the oflal 26 st. II lbs., which brought the entire weight 
 within a little more than one stone of the seven year old. He states, however, that 
 the ordinary weight of the improved Short Horn oxen ranged from 60 to 100 st. (of 
 1-ilbs.) at from five to seven years old. They are now usually brought to that weight at 
 three and four years, and the meat is more tender, if it is not so high flavoiu'ed. In 
 Stephen's " Book of the Farm," is the portrait of a Short Horn ox, bred and fed by 
 Mr. Wilson, of Cumleigh, in Berwickshii-e, which, at the age of one year and eleven 
 mouths, had attained the weight of 56 st. (of 14 lbs.) according to measuremeut. 
 
 This disposition in the breed to early maturity is indicated by many distinct 
 features in the physical conformation, the following of which are laid down in the work 
 from which we have just quoted : — " The most prominent indication of this disposition 
 is a loose, thick, and mellow skin, as if floating upon a stratum of fat below ; and such 
 a skin is invariably covered with long, soft, mossy-feeling hair, bearing a decided colour. 
 A flrmuess of texture over the whole body is essential to a disposition to fatten. No 
 fat encumbers the bones of the legs or head. All the extremities — the Hmbs, head, and 
 tail — are small, flue, and tapering from the body. The eye is prominently set in the 
 head, and wears a placid expression ; the forehead is broad, the ears are sensible to every 
 
THE SHORT HORNS. 
 
 383 
 
 near sound; the muzzle is sharp, the nostrils distended, the jaws distinct and clean; 
 the muscles are broad and flat, the blood vessels large and full; the chest is broad, and 
 the tail flat at the top, and broad and tapering to the tuft of hair. The line of the back 
 is straight and level, and the ribs round. A back high above the level is narrow, and is 
 accompanied with flat ribs and a long narrow face, which are both indications of a want 
 of disposition to fatten. When the back is below the level, the fat and flesh are mostly 
 put upon the under part of the carcase, and the tallow increases in the interior. The 
 flanks and cod are then thick and fat. In such a configuration the fore quarters are 
 larger than the hind. Such an animal evinces a disposition to fatten, but lays on coarse 
 pieces. When the curved lines abound over the body and play into one another, giving 
 a brilliancy to the surface, while the sweeping lines of the contour, with the tapering 
 fineness of the extremities, the pleasing countenance and the joyous spirit, a symmetry, 
 state of health, and disposition to improve are conjoined, they afibrd the highest 
 satisfaction and profit to the breeder."* 
 
 THE SHOKT HOHNBD GLOUCESTEK. 
 
 The Short Horns are varied in their colour, but the roan or brindled is, at the 
 present time, the favoiu'ite colour, probably, because several of the finest specimens of 
 the race have lately been of that hue. Dark red is said to indicate a hardy constitution, 
 richness of milk, and disposition to fatten. A light red betokens a good milker as to 
 quantity, but of a thin quality, and little tendency to fatten. White is a sure indication of 
 tenderness of constitution ; and although once the favoui-ite or fashionable colour, it has 
 yielded to the roan. The most brilliant of this colour has been the produce of a pure 
 white cow, and a deep red bull ; and those who are ambitious of having it in perfection 
 breed from those colours. 
 
 Nothing can evince the deep interest felt by the aristocracy of England in the 
 improvement of agriculture so powerfully as the number of noblemen and other persons 
 
 * Stephen's "Book ot the Farm," vol. ii. p. 708. 
 
384 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 of fortune successively engaged in the breeding and fattening of cattle and sheep. 
 Probably this first took its rise towards the latter end of the last centuiy, when 
 George III. set the example by cultivating his farms at Windsor. But the greatest 
 share of the merit is due to the memory of T. W. Coke, the Duke of Bedford, the Earl 
 of Yarborough, and others of their contemporaries, who entered with all the spiiit of 
 enthusiastic amateurs into the arena ; and ever since their time a succession of men in high 
 life have continued to come forward, sparing neither money nor personal exertion in the 
 promotion of the interests of agriculture. At the head of those of the present day was 
 the late lamented Prince Consort, whose "early, not untimely death," has been the greatest 
 blow that science, art, and industry in every department, have ever received. Strongly 
 attached to the pursuits of rui'al life, he set a splendid example to those in high rank, and 
 gathered around him a constellation of like minded men, whose efforts in connection with 
 the agricultural institutions of the country, have raised the pui'suit to the dignity of a 
 science. We may mention amongst these the late Earls Ducie, Yarborough, and Berners, 
 the late Duke of Richmond, the Duke of Buccleugh, Lords Hill, Burlington, Feversham, 
 Zetland, Sir Charles Knightly, Sir C. Temple, with a long list of wealthy commoners, 
 whose success in the improvement of the various breeds of domestic animals, from the 
 horse to the barn-door fowl, is constantly acting as a stimulus, as well upon their 
 equals in position as on those personally engaged in the pursuits of husbandry. May 
 the time never arrive when the British nobleman and commoner will think it derogatory 
 to their dignity to unite with the enterprising cultivator of the soil in the improvement 
 of the various branches of field enterprise. 
 
 SECTION XXIV. 
 
 FOREIGN CATTLE. THE ALDERNEY BREED. 
 
 This was originally a French breed of cattle, and has hardly been sufiicieutly 
 domesticated amongst English herds to give it the title of British produce. Never- 
 theless it has obtained so strong a hold in the Channel Islands and the neighbouring 
 English coast, and those islands are now so closely identified as a part of the United 
 Kingdom, that we are quite justified in giving it a distinct notice. The Alderney cattle 
 rank in affinity with the Short Horns, but are different in their physical conformation, 
 being angular shaped, small in size, thin necked, small boned, high-shouldered, with a 
 hollow behind them, short in the rump, deep in the belly, and "huge feeders." Their 
 milk is not very abundant, but is excessively rich, which renders them favourites in 
 private families, whilst their gentleness of disposition and small size peculiarly adapt 
 them to the same purpose. 
 
 Youatt says that the Alderney cow eats so much, and gives so little milk, that the 
 richness of the quality does not make amends for its cost. On the other hand, old 
 
FOREIGN CATTLE. 
 
 385 
 
 Lawrence mentions a case of an Alderney cow that strayed into the premises of a 
 farmer, where it remained three weeks before its owner could be discovered ; and that 
 during that time it yielded 19 lbs. of butter per week ; and that the fact was considered 
 so extraordinary, that a memorandum of it was made in the parish book. They are 
 great favourites with the small dairy farmers of Hampshire, who have facilities for 
 procuring them as well from the coast of Normandy as from the Channel Islands. When 
 dried they readily fatten, being very fine boned ; but they only attain a small weight, 
 
 THE ALDEHNEV COW. 
 
 although Martin mentions an ox of this breed, exhibited by the Duke of Bedford at the 
 Smithfield Club Cattle Show, in 1803, the four quarters of which weighed, when killed, 
 95 stone 3 lbs. (8 lbs. to the stone), and the inside fat, 17 stone 3 lbs. ; in all 64 stone 
 6 lbs. imperial weight. The beef of the Alderney ox is of the first quality, being very 
 fine grained, high colom-ed, and rich flavoured. Cidley says that he had seen some very 
 useful cattle bred from a cross between an Alderney cow and a Short Horn bull. 
 
 THE BRETONNE CATTLE. 
 
 These gentle little animals, which are scarcely so large as a good sized donkey, have 
 recently been imported in considerable numbers, and have found a ready sale for the 
 use of small private families, for which purpose they are admirably adapted. They 
 are, as their name indicates, natives of Brittany (or Bretagne), a province of old France, 
 lying south-west of Normandy. The cattle are bred on extensive heaths and forests, 
 with which a large portion of the province is covered. They have no distinguishing 
 symmetry or outward marks of superiority to recommend them ; but, for their size, 
 they are excellent milkers, yielding from five to six quarts of milk of very rich quality 
 per day for some months after calving, whilst their remarkable docility and gentleness, 
 the very small cost of their keep, and the little trouble they involve, render them a 
 desirable appendage to a private family, especially where they have a paddock or orchard 
 for them to run in. This latter, however, is not necessary, although desirable ; for they 
 
 c c 
 
386 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN, 
 
 can be kept in any outhouse, and fed with liay or green food, or roots, whicli can 
 always be purchased, and will not cost more than 6d. or 8d. per day. The writer 
 purchased one of these little animals for a gentleman in Ireland a short time since. 
 It is a special favourite with all the family, and will follow them about like a dog, to be 
 fed by hand with a whisp of hay, or a piece of bread, or turnip. For some weeks 
 after calving it yielded seven quarts of excellent milk per day, whilst its keep did not 
 cost more than (jd. or 8d. per day. The Brctonne cow can scarcely become an object of 
 any value or importance to the English grazier or dairyman, on account of its 
 diminutive size, whilst that feature is the strongest recommendation it possesses for the 
 private family. 
 
 SECTION XXV. 
 
 ON THE SELECTION OF CATTLE. 
 
 The purchase and selection of cattle, of whatever breed, and for whatever purpose 
 has been reduced of late years to what may be called a science. We have already observed 
 that in tlie early and rude state of agriculture, the eye alone in the purchaser, and size 
 chiefly in the animal, were the means of determining the merits of the subject under 
 consideration ; and such is still the case in those countries where agricultural improve- 
 ment has made little or no progress. A large ox is preferred, however unpromising in 
 other respects, to a small one whose symmetry and well defined excellencies of form 
 indicate a better, quicker, and more profitable result. There is no doubt but that 
 practice, and a keen faculty of discrimination, will enable a purchaser to make a good 
 selection on a prima facie view ; but no practical man of the modern school will trust to 
 sight alone in the choice of cattle or sheep ; he will exercise the sense of feeling as well, 
 and this is a far more demonstrative, but at the same time difficult, acquirement than 
 choosing at sight. Most men possess some idea of the " Hue of beauty," whether in their 
 own species, or in the inferior animals ; but the art of ascertaining by a few sliglit 
 touches upon certain parts of a bullock or sheep, whether it will lay on fat on the most 
 valuable points, and in the most expeditious manner, can only be acquired by long 
 practice and observation, and cannot be explained or communicated by words from one 
 person to another. " I have often," says Culley, " wished to convey in language that 
 idea or sensation we acquire by touch or feeling of our fingers, which enables us to form 
 a judgment, when we arc handling an animal intended to be fattened; but I have as 
 often found myself unequal to fulfil tliat wish. It is very easy to know where an animal 
 is fattest that is already made fat, because we can evidently feel a substance or quantity 
 of fat iqjon all those parts that are denominated ' the fattening points ; ' but the 
 difficulty is to explain how we know or distinguish animals in a lean state, which will make 
 fat, and which will not ; or rather which will make fat on such and such jjarts or points, 
 and not on others; which a person of judgment {in practice) can tell as it were instau- 
 
THE SELECTION OP CATTLE. 387 
 
 taueously. I say in practice because I believe that the best judges oiit of 2)racf,ice arc 
 not able to judge with precision ; at leasts I am not. We say ' this beast touches nicely 
 upon its hips, ribs/ &c., &c., because we find a mellow pleasant feeling upon those 
 parts j but we do not say soft, because there are some of this same sort of animals 
 which have a soft, loose handle, of which we do not approve, because, though soft and 
 loose, they have not that mellow feel above mentioned. The one will make fat, the 
 other will not."* 
 
 It was observed by the same writer that the breeders of his day made a great 
 mistake iu breeding neat cattle, by endeavouring to unite great milkers with quick 
 feeders (or fatteuers). "I am inclined to think," he says, "that this cannot be done; 
 for wherever we attempt both we are sure to get neither to perfection. In proportion 
 as we gain one, in the same proportion we lose the other. The more milk the less beef, 
 and the more we pursue beef the less milk we get." This is perfectly consistent with 
 reason and analogy, and should never be lost sight of by the breeder or grazier. 
 The Short Horned breed may be thought to disprove this, as they are said to excel 
 any other breed in producing a greater quantity of beef, tallow, and milk from a 
 given quantity of food. This, however, may be an error; for it is well known that 
 the Short Horns ai-e large feeders, and that their milk, though much in quantity is poor 
 in quality. Where they improve in this latter respect they lose their fattening pro- 
 pensity ; and if they attain a large size and fatten readily, it is by consuming large 
 quantities of food. In either case, however, they answer respectively the purposes of 
 both the grazier and the dairyman, the object of the first being a quick return for his 
 outlay, and of the second a large meal of milk irrespective of its quality. We close our 
 account of neat cattle with a principle laid down by Culley, with which he also concludes 
 his book : — 
 
 " It would seem as though the same principle which we have all along endeavoured 
 to establish held good through all the different classes of domestic animals which supply 
 us with food, viz., that of all animals, of whatever kiud, those which have the smallest, 
 cleanest, finest bones, are in general the best proportioned, and covered with the best 
 and finest grained meat. I believe they are also the hardiest, healthiest, and most 
 inclined to feed, able to bear the most fatigue while living, and worth more per pound 
 when dead."t 
 
 • Culley on "Live Stock," Introd., p. 14. t Ibid., p. 322. 
 
 CC 2 
 
388 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN, 
 
 SECTION XXVI. 
 
 THE SHEEP. 
 
 The shce^i is placed by Linnaeus in tlic genus Oris aries, and in the natural order 
 liuminaiitia in zoology. They are separated into two general distinctive races — the 
 horned and the hornless. Like the ox the sheep has eight incisors or cutting teeth in 
 tlic lower^ and none in the upper jaw ; but they are formed differently from those of the 
 ox, having a stronger enamel on the edge, and being grooved in the inside to enable 
 them to crop the herbage close instead of merely tearing it off. Thus the grazing of 
 sheep rather improves than injures a permanent pasture, as by nibbling it close to the 
 root the plant spreads laterally, and becomes a thick and fine herbage of an even and 
 velvety texture. 
 
 The lamb when first dropped scarcely shows its incisors, but after a month the whole 
 eight have made their appearance, and they continue to grow till the lamb is termed a 
 hogget, which is at the end of about fifteen months. At this stage, two of the central teeth 
 are shed, and are succeeded by two others, which are fully developed by the time it is 
 two years old from the birth. At three years old two more are set and completed, and 
 so on, until at five yeai-s old the animal is what is called "full-mouthed." Circum- 
 stances of an accidental kind may hasten or retard this operation, but such cases are 
 exceptional ; and, as a rule, the sheep's age may be decided up to five years by the 
 teeth. After that it must be guessed at by other signs. 
 
 Culley in his work on " Live Stock," in speaking on the subject of the age of sheep, 
 says, " Respecting the judging of the age of the above animals (viz. the horse and the 
 ox) by the renewing of their teeth, though the best rule perhaps we know of, yet I 
 cannot think it always to be depended on. However, in sheep I am very certain we are 
 very liable to be misled by it, and I apprehend much depends upon being early or laie 
 lambed, well or ill-fed, and so on. Particularly I have frequently known tups to have 
 what we call four broad or renewed teeth, when by the above rule they ought to have 
 only two. A friend of mine, and an eminent breeder, Mr. Charge, of Cleasby, a few 
 years ago, showed a shearling tup at Richmond, in Yorkshire, for the premium given by 
 the Agricultural Society there, which had six broad teeth, in consequence of which the 
 judges rejected ]Mr. Charge's tup (though confessedly the best sheep), because they 
 believed him to be more than a shearling. However, ^Ir. Charge afterwards proved to 
 the satisfaction of the gentlemen that his tup was no more than a shearling." * 
 
 The age that a sheep will attain is less than that of the horse or the bullock, yet 
 some have been known to reach twenty years ; and the mountain shepherds who require 
 guide-sheep , or bell-wethers, to lead the flocks amidst the wilds, sometimes keep them to 
 that age ; but they begin to crone, or to lose their cutting teeth, at a much earlier age, 
 especially the ewes. Yet they will bear lambs until fourteen or fifteen years old, but 
 are seldom kept so long, being in general fattened before losing their teeth, -which 
 they do at seven or eight years old. 
 
 Whether we consider the sheep in a domestic or a national point of view it is not 
 second in importance to any of those animals that absorb the attention and solicitude of 
 
 * Culley on " Live Stock," p. 213. 
 
THE SHEEP. 389 
 
 the farmer. In size it is inferior to the horse or the ox, hut its aggregate numhers and 
 the valuable purposes to which the several portions of its frame may be applied, give it 
 a pre-eminence in utility over every other domestic animal. The flesh is the most 
 savoury and digestible of all animal food ; its wool clothes every class of society, from 
 the sovereign to the lowest peasant ; its skin forms the permanent material on which 
 are inscribed the title-deeds of landed estates ; its bones and blood are convertible into 
 valuable manure, &c., and thus every part of the animal finds its use, and contributes in 
 its application to the well-being and the happiness of society. 
 
 It woidd be fruitless to inquire whether the endless vai'ieties of this animal were, 
 as some suppose, derived from one common stock. We know that under one form or 
 other it is found, in all countries and climates, the same useful and docile animal as we 
 see it here. It cannot be doubted that climate and other circumstances of a local and 
 accidental nature, have much influence in modifying the peculiar characteristics of a 
 breed. Thus, for instance, if our finest-woolled sheep are transported to the West Indies, 
 their fleeces will, in a season or two, assume the appearance of hair, losing entirely the 
 more valuable quality of wool. In colder climates than our own, on the other hand, 
 the sheep has an outside coating of hair, and under it another of fine wool, which 
 lengthens and thickens in winter. Difference of pasture also produces similar modifica- 
 tions. It is found that the Merino sheep if put upon rich keeping deteriorates in the 
 character of its wool, while the carcase improves. The extensive and arid plains, therefore, 
 of Australia and the Cape, like those of its native country, Spain, are well suited to 
 sustain the valuable properties of its wool, although in well-cultivated England it 
 gradually becomes coarser. 
 
 The terms by which the sheep is distinguished at difTerent periods of its life vary in 
 different parts of the country. Thus the male is iisually called a ram, or a tup. Before 
 being weaned it is a ram or tup-lamb, a pur-lamb, a heeder. After weaning, and until it 
 is shorn, it is a hog, a hogget, a haggerel, a teg, a ram-hog, or a tup-hog. If castrated it 
 is a wether-hog or hogget. After its first shearing it is called a sheading or shearling, a 
 shear-hog, a diamond or dinmont, ram or tup ; if castrated a shearling wether. The 
 wool of the first shearing is called hogget wool. After the second shearing it is called a 
 two-shear ram, or tup, or ivether ; next a three-shear ram, &c., and so on as often as it 
 is sheared. In Norfolk and the north of England and Scotland a ram before shearing 
 ■ is a tup-lamb, then a tup-hog or hogget, and after it a tup. If castrated it is a dinmont, 
 a wedder, or ivether. 
 
 The female while sucking is a ewe-lamb or a gimmer-lamb. When weaned a gimmer- 
 hog, a ewe-hog or hogget, a teg, a sheeder-ewe. After the first shearing she is a shearling- 
 ewe or gimmer, and in some places a theave, or a double-toothed ewe, or a teg. After- 
 wards she is a two-shear or three-shear, or a four-toothed, or a six-toothed ewe or theave. 
 In some of the northern districts, ewes not in lamb, or that have weaned their lambs, are 
 called eild, or yeld ewes. The age of sheep is not calculated from their bii-th, but from 
 their shearing. This custom probably arose from the different periods of spring at 
 which Iambs are dropped, and from the impossibility, as well as inutility, of classifying 
 them according to the exact period of birth. A lamb or a hogget will always sell at a 
 price varying according to its size, irrespective of its precise age ; and the term shearling 
 levels all distinctions of that nature, and leaves the value to be determined by size, 
 condition, &c., &c. A ewe that has what is called a broken mouth, that is, one whose 
 
390 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 teeth are decayed, or loose, or fallen out, is called a crone. In that stage of existence 
 it can no lonj^er scoop out a turnip, and requires to have it sliced, or to have other food. 
 
 The care of sheep is by no means a difficult task if the shepherd understands his 
 business and can command his temper. Lawrence quaintly observes, with much signi- 
 ficance, that the safest guards for sheep are " a lame shejjJierd and a lazy dog." In fact 
 a good shepherd will make himself acquainted with the character of every one of his 
 flock ; and when this is accomplished he will have little trouble in managing them. We 
 once saw a whole staff of farm labourers endeavouring most ineffectually to dritJe a flock 
 of sheep into a barn in order to mark or dress them. For upwards of half an hour 
 had the men and boys been shouting and jumping here and there, the dogs barking 
 vehemently all the time, and all to no purpose ; when at length the shepherd entered the 
 yard. " What are you all after, yer fules ? " said he, at the same time driving the dogs 
 away, and directing the men to be quiet. Then placing himself at the barn door, he 
 uttered that peculiar sound which the sheep so well understand, and immediately, 
 without the least distrust or fear, the whole flock followed him bleating into the 
 building.* 
 
 The following is CuUey's description of a ram, which, he properly says, will apply to 
 all breeds and sizes : — " His head should be fine and small, his nostrils wide and 
 expanded ; his eyes prominent, and rather bold or daring ; his ears thin ; his collar full 
 from his breast or shoulders, but tapering gradually all the way to where the neck and 
 head joins, which should be very fine and graceful, being perfectly free from any coarse 
 leather hanging down; the shoulders broad and full, which must at the same time join 
 so easy to the collar forward, and chine backwai-d, as to leave not the least hollow in 
 either place. The mutton upon his ai'm, or fore thigh, must come quite to the knee ; 
 his legs upright, with a clean fine bone, being equally clear from superfluous skin and 
 coarse hairy wool from the knee and hough downwards ; the breast broad and well 
 forward, which will keep his fore legs at a proper wideness ; his girth, or chest, full and 
 deep, and instead of a hollow behind the shoulders, that part by some called the fore 
 flank should be quite full ; the back and loins broad, flat, and straight, from which the 
 ribs must rise with a fine circular arch ; his Ijelly sti'aight ; the quarters long and full, 
 with the mutton quite down to the hough, which should neither stand in nor out; his 
 twist (or the junction of the inside of the thighs) deep, wide, and full, which, with the 
 broad breast, will keep his fore legs open and upright ; the whole body covered with a 
 thin pelt, and that with fine, bright, soft wool. The nearer any breed of sheep comes up to 
 the above description the nearer they approach towards excellence of form ; and there is 
 little doubt but if the same attention and pains were taken to improve any particular 
 breed that has been taken with a certain variety of the Lincolnshire, the same conse- 
 quences would be obtained." t 
 
 The list of " original " breeds of sheep is almost as numerous as that of counties. 
 The old writers aflford very little information on the subject, and we must, therefore, 
 accept the statements of comparatively recent ones for the names of those which have 
 been most prominent amongst graziers and breeders. The following is a list of those 
 
 * This fact, which la strictly correct, is a striking ilUistratioa of the words of our Saviour, " And when he pnttc(h 
 forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him ; for they know his voice. And a stranger will they 
 not follow, bat will ilee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers. *'^JoHN x. 4, 5, 
 
 + CuUey on " Live Stock," pp. 103-4. 
 
THE SHEEP. 
 
 391 
 
 which were recognised at the commencement of the present century, and most of which 
 ii.re still admitted at the cattle shows : — 
 
 Name of Breed. 
 
 Kind of Wool. 
 
 1. Teeswater 
 
 2. Lincoln 
 
 3. New Leicester .... 
 
 4. Cotswold 
 
 5. Roniney Marsh . . . 
 
 6. Dartmoor 
 
 7. Esmoor 
 
 8. Heath 
 
 9. Hereford, Ryeland . . 
 
 10. Dorset 
 
 11. WUts 
 
 12. Southdown 
 
 13. Norfolk 
 
 14. Herdwick 
 
 15. Cheviot 
 
 16. Dun faced 
 
 17. Shetland 
 
 18. Spanish 
 
 19. Merino Cross .... 
 
 Long wool 
 fine 
 
 Short wool 
 
 cottony 
 super. 
 
 White face 
 
 Black face and legs 
 "White face and legs 
 White and speckled 
 
 Black and white 
 
 White and speckled 
 
 White face and legs 
 
 Dun face and legs 
 
 Various 
 
 White 
 
 
 Weight of 
 
 Weight of 
 
 Killed at 
 
 
 rteece. 
 
 quarter. 
 
 age. 
 
 Horned 
 
 9 lbs. 
 
 30 lbs. 
 
 2 years. 
 
 
 11 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 _^ 
 
 8 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 
 9 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 
 8 
 
 22 
 
 2 
 
 jj 
 
 9 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 „ 
 
 6 
 
 16 
 
 2.i 
 
 „ 
 
 3 
 
 15 
 
 3i 
 
 Not horned 
 
 2J 
 
 14 
 
 3i 
 
 Horned 
 
 Si 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 ,, 
 
 3 
 
 20 
 
 3 
 
 Not horned 
 
 2i 
 
 18 
 
 2 
 
 Horned 
 
 2 
 
 18 
 
 h 
 
 ,_ 
 
 2 
 
 10 
 
 a 
 
 Not horned 
 
 3 
 
 16 
 
 a 
 
 „ 
 
 n 
 
 7 
 
 a 
 
 ,j 
 
 ri 
 
 8 
 
 4i 
 
 Horned 
 
 3k 
 
 14 
 
 2i 
 
 " 
 
 2» 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 1, THE TEESWATER BREED. 
 
 Mr. Culley was of opinion that this breed was originally raised from the same stock 
 as the Lincolnshire sheep, hut from attending to size of carcase rather than quality or 
 quantity of wool, they have become a different variety of the same original stock. 
 Nothing is said by ancient historians of the first introduction of this breed ; but from 
 a hint dropped in a work by Worledge (written in 1675) about the lai-ge size of the 
 Dutch sheep, and the desirableness of obtaining some of the stock, it is not improbable 
 that an importation from that country into the northern counties did take place, by 
 which size and weight were secured. Culley states that Mr. Hutchinson, of Stock- 
 ton, had a wether killed at Darlington, the four quarters of which weighed 17 stone 
 lllbs. (14 lbs. to the stone), or 62 lbs. 4oz. per quarter, besides 17 lbs. of tallow, which 
 he remarks is the greatest weight, by several pounds per quarter, he ever heard of a 
 sheep weighing. It was of the true old Teeswater breed. A lamb five months old 
 belonging to the same Mr. Hutchinson weighed 22 lbs. per quarter; and four Tees- 
 water sheep gained in fourteen months 458 lbs., or an average of 114^ lbs. each. 
 
 Not only were sheep of this breed remarkable for the great weight to which they 
 attained, but they were equally noted for their prolificness. Culley mentions an instance 
 of a ewe of the old Teeswater stock, that in six years brought forth twenty lambs, 
 namely — 
 
 In 1772 she dropped 4 lambs. 
 
 1773 „ „ 5 „ 
 
 1774 „ „ 2 „ 
 
 1775 „ „ 5 „ 
 
 1776 „ „ 2 „ 
 
 1777 „ „ 3 „ 
 
 20 
 
 The first nine lambs were dropped in eleven months : the general run of the ewes 
 average two lambs each. 
 
393 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND BIODERN 
 
 The Teeswater sheep diflfer from the Lincolnshire in having shorter wool, and a 
 lighter fleece ; in standing higher, hut on finer-boned legs, in having a thicker, firmer, 
 heavier carcase, much wider upon the back and sides, and affording a fatter and finer- 
 grained quality of mutton. The weight of the two year old wethers ranges from 25 lbs. to 
 35 lbs. per quarter ; and at four years old some have been fattened up to 55 lbs. or more. 
 They require, however, rich pasture, and not to be crowded too many together. In the 
 Tees valley the land is divided into small enclosures, well sheltered, and of a rich soil. 
 In winter the sheep are allowed access to a haystack, or have hay racks in the field 
 where they are confined, and before and after lambing the ewes have corn given to them. 
 Very few of this race are now to be met with ; indeed, it was nearly extinct in Culley's 
 time, the Dishley or New Leicester having supplanted it in almost every district ; and it 
 was only retained by a few of the old breeders, who still looked upon size and weight of 
 carcase as the criterion of profitable breeding. 
 
 2. THE LINCOLNSHIRE BREED. 
 
 This is a very ancient race in that county, and is considered very similar to the Old 
 Leicester sheep, before Bakewell undertook his experiments upon it. The Lincolns are 
 much smaller than the foregoing, the three year okl wether weighing only from 20 lbs. 
 to 30 lbs. per quarter. They are distinguished by their thick, rough, white legs, large 
 bones, thick pelts, and, above all, by a fleece of long wool, averaging from 10 to 18 
 
 THE LTXCOLNSHIEE SUEEP. 
 
 inches, and weighing from 8 lbs. to 14 lbs. per fleece. The wool was formerly all sold to 
 the Norwich manufacturers for vrea.ving those coarse fabrics for which that city and the 
 villages in the vicinity were noted, when hand-spinning and hand-loom weaving were 
 prevalent. The present high price of long wool, which is neariy equal to that of the 
 short and finer sort, is beginning to tempt the Lincolnshire farmers to encom-age the 
 restoration of their ancient breed of sheep, which is so much better adapted to the soil 
 and cUmate than any other. They are considered slow feeders, and their mutton is 
 coarse-grained, and their bones large ; consequently they fetch less in proportion to 
 their weight than any other breed, yet the weight and value of the fleece is a strong 
 
THE SHEEP. 393 
 
 temptation to resume it. In Culley's time the price of the long wool was lOd. per lb. 
 whilst, at present, so great is the demand for it on the continent as well as in England, 
 that it has risen to 1*. 7d. 
 
 The defects of this hreed of sheep, have, in a great measure, been ameliorated by 
 crossing with the New Leicester or Dishley, by which a finer qviality of wool (though a 
 rather lighter fleece), and much better quality of mutton, with a greater disposition to 
 fatten, have been gained. Without sacrificing the peculiarities which render them so 
 valuable in that rich and low-lying district, the cross is distinguished by a cleaner head, 
 a straighter back, and a general improvement in symmetry. There is reason to think 
 that the original breed might be improved in the form of the carcase, and in the quality 
 of the meat, without reducing the weight of the fleece, by paying the same attention to 
 the selection of the ram, and breeding only from the best types ; in short, by pursuing 
 with them the same course of improvement that Bakewell adopted with the Leicesters 
 without ignoring, as he did, the value of the fleece. 
 
 Culley, on the authority of a friend who was a large dealer in Marsh Sheep, gives a 
 comparative statement of the product of a full bred Lincoln and one crossed with the 
 Dishley breed, the results of which were as follows : — 
 
 Pure Lincoln Beeed, sold at Three Sheah. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Threetleecesof wool, 331bs. sold atTOa?. perlb 1 7 6 
 
 Sold at Micliaelmas three shear, for 115 6 
 
 Divide by 3 ) 3 3 
 Yearly profit ... £1 10 
 
 Ceossed TmH THE Dishley Breed, And sold at Two Shear. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Two fleeces of wool, 18 lbs. at 10</ 15 
 
 Sold at Michaelmas two shear, for 2 3 
 
 Divide by 2)2 18 
 
 Yearly pro6t ... £1 90 
 
 Thus the advantage was 8s. in favour of the cross-bred sheep ; and this will 
 sufficiently account for the almost total disappearance of the Old Lincolnshire sheep, 
 none of them being ever exhibited at any of the annual shows, either of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society, or of tlie Smithfield Farmers' Club. The precocity and superior 
 value of the cross breed, and the small diflerence in the weight of the fleece, are 
 overwhelming reasons for abandoning the old stock, and adopting the half-bred, which 
 is equally suited to the rich marsh lands of Lincolnshire and Kent. Culley considers 
 the piu'e Lincolnshire sheep to be only a variation of the same race that prevailed in the 
 midland counties, in Marshland (in Norfolk), the Isle of Ely, and the counties of 
 Northampton, Rutland, Leicester, Warwick, Oxford, Gloucester, Stafibrd, Derby, 
 Nottingham, and the Wolds of Yorkshire. In all these counties the original breeds 
 have disappeared, and the cross-bred sheep are now universally prevalent. 
 
394 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 3. THE NEW LEICESTER, OR DISHLEY BREED. 
 
 We have already, by anticipation, given an account of Mr. Bake well's system, so far 
 as it is known, in the improvement of the breeds of cattle and sheep. It is, therefore, 
 unnecessary to go over the ground again, further than to explain the materials on which 
 he instituted his experiments, and the excellencies and defects of the new stock that he 
 raised. 
 
 The breed of Old Leicester sheep was by no means despicable, having many good 
 points about it ; but, on the other hand, its defects preponderated, and will be duly 
 appreciated when the following description of it is compared with that of the New 
 Leicester, by which it is succeeded. The old breed had a large, heavy, coarse-grained 
 carcase, the mutton ill-flavoured ; in form it was long and flat sided, large boned, and 
 clumsy. The weight of tJie ewes was from 18 lbs. to 20 lbs. per quarter, and of the wethers, 
 from 20 lbs. to 30 lbs. The wool measured from ten to fifteen inches in length of staple, 
 and in quality was generally coarse. Tliey were slow feeders, and made but small 
 returns.* We see here an almost perfect counterpart of the Lincolnshire sheep, being 
 only in a slight degree modified by the effects of local circumstances. On this 
 unpromising animal Mr. Bakewell founded his system of improvement, and the following 
 i-esult showed the excellence of his judgment, and the success of his efforts. 
 
 " The Dishley breed," says Culley, " are distinguished from the long-woolled breeds 
 by their fine, lively eyes, clean heads, straight, broad, flat backs, round barrel-like bodies, 
 very fine small bones, thin pelts, and an inclination to make fat at an early age. This 
 
 THE NEW LEICESTER SHEE1>. 
 
 last property is most probably owing to the before specified qualities The 
 
 Dishley breed is not only peculiar for its mutton being fat, but also for the fineness of 
 the grain and superior flavour, above all other large, long-woolled sheep, so as to fetch 
 nearly as much price, in many markets, as the mutton of the small Highland, and 
 short-wooUed breeds. The weight of the carcase in general is, of ewes three or four 
 years old, from 1811)s. to 26 lbs. per quarter; and wethers two years old, from 20 lbs. to 
 30 lbs. per quarter. The wool upon an average weighs 8 lbs. a fleece, the length from 
 six to fourteen inches, and it sold in 1792 at lOd. per lb." f 
 
 * Martin on " Sheep," p. 44. + Galley oa " Live Stock," p. 105. 
 
THE SHEEP. 395 
 
 Another writer, Youatt, gives tlie following account of these sheep forty years after- 
 wards : — " The form is handsome, colour white, their heads are clean and small, their 
 neck short, and their breasts full ; their bodies round, with broad, straight backs, but their 
 bellies rather light, or tucked up ; their legs and whole bones are fine, and particularly 
 small in proportion .to their size; their pelts thin, and the wool long and fine of its 
 kind, generally averaging 7 lbs. to the fleece. They are of a quiet disposition, fatten 
 early and kindly, and are capable of being brought to a great weight on a smaller 
 proportion of food than any other breed of sheep of the same size, the fat wethers 
 weighing generally, when shear-hogs, 25 lbs. per quarter, and the ewes 22 lbs. The 
 flesh is fine-grained and well-flavoured, but too fat to please most palates." 
 
 The slaughtering of the New Leicester, wethers at two years old, is now, we believe, 
 the universal practice. With the old breed it was impossible, and even at three years 
 they scarcely made good mutton. But such is the tendency of the Dishley breed to 
 fatten, that at two years they are quite fat enough ; and if kept till three years old 
 would Ije scarcely eatable for fat. Culley mentions a three shear sheep of this breed 
 that when killed at Alnwick, " measured seven inches and one-eighth of solid fat on the 
 ribs cut straight through, without any slope, and his back from head to tail was like 
 the fattest bacon." And he states that even ewes of this breed that have suckled lambs 
 till July, when killed at Christmas frequently measure four or five inches of fat on the 
 sides, and two or three inches down the back, all the way from head to tail, and produce, 
 moreover, from 18 lbs. to 24 lbs. of tallow. A man needs a strong stomach and ajjpetite 
 to dine with complacency on a saddle of mutton from a thi-ee shear New Leicester. 
 
 It is remarkable that the New Leicesters arrived at a perfection during Bakewell's 
 career that has never been excelled. The writer recollects seeing them at Holkham 
 sheep-shearings nearly sixty years since, and they were the exact counterpart of those 
 exhibited in the present day, nor have the latter degenerated from Bakewell's original 
 stock. Crosses with other breeds, as the Southdown and Leicester, the Cotswold and 
 Leicester, &c., have been made and succeeded well, especially the first, by which a finer 
 quality of wool, as well as of flesh is obtained, while nothing is lost of precocity or general 
 symmetry of form. 
 
 Bakewell enjoyed the credit of having instituted the improvement of the Leicester 
 sheep ; but he certainly was not the first who made the attempt. A Mr. Allom, who 
 from a ploughboy raised himself by his industry and talent to the position of an 
 eminent farmer and grazier, had distinguished himself by producing a superior breed of 
 sheep. He purchased his ewes in the Melton quarter of his native county, Leicester, 
 and his flock was in high estimation before Bakewell's time, and the most careful 
 breeders resorted to his farm to purchase ram lambs, which he sold at the then 
 extravagant price of 2 guineas and 3 guineas each. Marshall therefore, thinks it 
 probable that by means of Allom's experiments the breed had passed through the first 
 stage of improvement before Bakewell's time. 
 
 Another account is given by Pitt, of Wolverhampton, in the agricultural survey of 
 Leicestershire. He states that in 1747 a great rot among the sheep took place, which 
 ruined the small farmers; that the more wealthy ones sent to the high grounds in 
 Yorkshire to purchase a small neat sheep, with which they crossed the few of their own 
 sheep that were left, and produced a useful kind of animal. This they repeated from 
 time to time, the numbers in the first instance being quite inadequate to the demand. 
 
396 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 At length a set of jobbers established themselves, foi- the purpose of supplying the 
 farmers, without the necessity of their going themselves, and thus leaving their business. 
 It is said that Bakewell prevailed on these jobbers to allow him to have the first selection 
 of the sheep they brought, before they were offered to public sale ; and it was from these 
 droves, or from the flocks bred in his own neighbourhood, and probably from a cross 
 with the Lancashire, he bred his first short- legged, square-formed sheep, which were so 
 well received, that he went on breeding from his own stock, or crossing with any other 
 that he judged most likely to attain that perfection at which he aimed. Such is Pitt's 
 account of Bakewell's process, and it detracts nothing from the merit he possessed of 
 being the greatest, if not the first, improver of the breed of sheep in his native county. 
 
 Hitherto, or before Bakewell's time, the wool was the principal object with the 
 flock-master, and the fattening an ultimatum, after four or five years probation in slow 
 feeding ; and provided a heavy fleece could be obtained, the defects in symmetry, size 
 of bone, &c., were disregai'ded. This practice he reversed, and paying no attention to, 
 or at least making a secondary object of the wool, he strove to increase the quantity of 
 mutton and promote early maturity ; and for these purposes his discrimination enabled 
 him to see that symmetry, smallness of bone, and aptitude to fatten, were indispensable 
 qualities. Adopting this rule, he soon found it to his advantage ; for not only could he 
 keep a much larger number of the improved breed upon a given quantity of land, but he 
 found that the amount of meat produced was much greater in proportion to the food 
 consumed, whilst at least eighteen months or two years were gained in preparing the 
 sheep for the butcher ; against which advantages the loss of a few pounds of wool was 
 inconsiderable, and was more than compensated for in the greater number of sheep he 
 was enabled to maintain on a given quantity of land. 
 
 While the Dishley breed of sheep are remarkable for laying fat on the outside of the 
 carcase, they do not often pi'ove well — that is, accumulate tallow in the inside, which is 
 a loss to the butcher. But, on the other hand, the lightness of some parts of the 
 " offal," the head, the skin, fee, and the greater weight of the carcase than the general 
 appearance of the sheep indicates, compensates for this defect. Perhaps the very early 
 maturity, and fattening propensities of these sheep, may, in some respects, deteriorate 
 the quality and flavour of the mutton, which certainly is inferior in these respects to the 
 Southdown and others of the short-woolled breeds. This disadvantage, however, it has 
 in common with most of the long-wooUed sheep,* and its mutton is certainly the best 
 of that race in fineness of grain and flavoiu-. 
 
 But the most serious objections to the New Leicester is the defect in prolificness, the 
 consequence of their extraordinary tendency to fatten, which detracts from the strength 
 of their constitution. They seldom produce twins, although Culley, who was contem- 
 porary with Bakewell, and adopted his plans on the farm at Fenton, near Wooler, states 
 that in crossing them with the Teeswater breed one-third of the ewes produce twins. 
 Where, however, the Dishley sheep were kept high they were very uncertain breeders. 
 
 * " On askiDg a butcher's wife at Berry, in Suffolk," sajs Culley, " how she sold mutton ? ' /we pence a pound, 
 sir! ' answered she, smartly. ' And pray,' 1 replied, rather surprised at the high price, ' have you no mutton below five 
 pence ? ' 'Oh yes, sir ! ' rejoins the honest woman, ' plenty of Lincolnshire at four pence ; but we do not account it 
 mutton wheu compared with our Norfolk and Suffolk mutton.' And if I may be allowed to give my opinion, they 
 would neither of them be accouuted mutton in many markets, even further north in this island ; the Lincolnshire on 
 account of its coarseness, the other on account of the thiuness." Culley w;is in error as regards the Norfolk sheep, which 
 certainly, however unprofitable, were excellent mutton. 
 
THE SHEEP. 397 
 
 The writer had an instance of this on the farm occupied by his father. He had pur- 
 chased a pure New Leicester ram at a high price, and it certainly was as beautiful an 
 animal as was ever produced ; but being put to fifty selected Southdown ewes, the pro- 
 duce was one weak Iamb ! Consequently " Mr. Leicester/' as the shepherd styled him, 
 was consigned to the butcher, and the fifty selected ewes, less one, were also fattened for 
 the same destination. This tendency, however, did not prevent Bakewell from letting 
 his rams at high prices. Four hundred guineas for the season was no uncommon price ; 
 and on one occasion he took in eighty ewes, at 10 guineas each, to be put to one ram, 
 besides forty of his own ewes, so that, reckoning the latter at the same price, he received 
 1,200 guineas for this one ram for that season. His common price was from 200 to 
 ■100 guineas. 
 
 The New Leicesters are a tender bi'eed, and will not thrive on a coarse or scanty 
 pasture, nor would the lambs endure the hardship that a cold, mountainous country 
 would subject them to ; they, however, are well calculated to improve the mountain 
 breeds by crossing. Thus the Cheviot cross has been very successful, and the South- 
 down and Leicester, or Leicester and Southdown, are now established breeds, by means 
 of which a new description of wool, of middle length and great fineness of staple, is pro- 
 cui'ed, which is constantly in demand as a combing wool. 
 
 The advantages of the Dishley sheep, then, are — that they produce a greater amount 
 of meat in a given time in proportion to the quantity of food they consume ; in their 
 precocity arising from tlieir more perfect form ; iu the smallness of their bone in pro- 
 portion to their size of carcase ; in being ready for the butcher early in the spring 
 instead of the autumn, by which the summer's grass for them is saved ; in the wool 
 being more valuable than that of the Old Leicester breed, although less in quantity ; and 
 in the mutton keeping longer, on account of the closeness of the grain, tlian that of any 
 other sheep of equal size. Their defects are an over-propensity to fatten outside, a 
 deficiency of inside fat or tallow, a tendency to premature decay, and the ewes becoming 
 crones at an earlier age than those of any other breed. 
 
 4. THE COTSWOLD BREED. 
 
 The Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire, from which this breed of sheep takes its 
 name, extend thii'ty miles in length by about twenty in breadth in some parts, 
 including an area of about 200,000 acres, one-tenth only of -which is sheep-walk, the 
 remainder being under cultivation. There are some fertile meadows in the valleys 
 watered by the streams flowing from the high grounds. The Cotswold Hills are a con- 
 tinuation of those of Derbyshire, the great central chain, which, passing through Glouces- 
 tershire, loses itself in Wiltshire. The term Cotswold, according to Camden, is derived 
 from the cotes or pens, which from time immemorial have been provided there for the 
 sheep. They consisted of long ranges of buildings of three or four low stories, com- 
 municating with each other by means of gradually sloping ascents, so that the sheep 
 easily passed up from the lower to the upper story. The importance and value of such 
 buildings in a mountainous district, especially in the spring and lambing time, when the 
 temperature so frequently changes, cannot be over estimated. 
 
 This hardy race of sheep has of late years been brought more prominently into notice 
 by the excellent specimens of the breed that have appeared at the Smithfield Club shows, 
 
398 
 
 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and those of the Royal Agricultural Society. It is remarkable that CuUey does uot meutioii 
 the Cotswolds, from which it would seem that they were not much thouglit of in his day. 
 Yet the breed is of very ancient standing, and was highly valued on account of the lengtli 
 and fineness of its wool. A flock of Cotswolds were carried into Spain in 1467 by licence 
 of Edward IV.; and an old writer of Queen Elizabeth's time, Gervase Markhara, 
 describes them as " a long-woolled, big-boned race." They were flat sided, light in the 
 fore, and heavy in the hind quarters, slow feeders, and covered with a long and valuable 
 fleece of combing wool. The breed has of late years been greatly improved, especially 
 by crossing with the New Leicester, which cross breed is especially esteemed by the 
 Gloucester and Worcester farmers. They are not so tall on their legs, nor so long in their 
 carcase as the old breed, but some of them fatten up to a large size. Some have reached 
 as much as from 40 lbs. to 50 lbs. per quarter at two and a half years old ; and their wool, 
 which is finer than any other of the long-woolled breeds, will weigh ] 1 lbs. to 12 lbs. per 
 
 THE COTSWOLD SHEEP. 
 
 fleece. The ewes are put to tlie tup at two years old, and generally produce two lambs 
 in the proportion of one-third of the whole ; but they require good keeping. Like the 
 New Leicester, they pay best to fatten at two years old, being apt to get too fat if 
 kept longer. 
 
 Tlie Cotswold, either pure or crossed with the New Leicester, has Ijceu extended to 
 many other counties tlian Gloucester of late years, and crossed with various breeds. 
 The Cotswold and Southdown cross is an excellent one. In the valleys of Wales they 
 have been adopted to the exclusion of the native breed, and are found to answer the 
 purpose much better. The Cotswold makes a prominent figure in the shows of the 
 Royal Agricultural Society. At Canterbury there were fifty-seven rams and thirty-five 
 ewes of the breed exhibited ; and at Warwick, the year before, a still greater number. 
 Most of the exhibitors were of course Gloucestershire men, but some lew of them were 
 from other counties. It is uot improbable that the long-woolled breed of sheep on the 
 banks of the Charwell, in Oxfordshire, were a branch of the Cotswold ; but these have 
 been superseded by the Leicester and a 1)rced called tlic New Oxfords, which latter were 
 also probably derived originally from the Cotswold. They have very large frames, wliitli 
 develop themselves rapidly, with a great tendency to fatten. Their symmetry is not 
 
THE SHEEP. 
 
 399 
 
 equal either to the Cotswold or the Leicester, but on account of their large size the 
 rams are much in request to increase the size of other long-wooUed breeds. 
 
 5. THE ROMNEY MARSH, OR KENTISH BREED. 
 
 This is another branch of the long-wooUed race, which has existed in the district from 
 before the time when there were any records of agriculture of a kind to throw light upon 
 its history. We may refer its origin to the same source as the Lincolnshire, namely, the 
 Dutch breed of sheep mentioned by old Worledge, and referred to in our account of the 
 Teeswater sheep. The rich tracts of land in the southern counties of Kent and Sussex 
 are, like the Lincolnshii-e marshes, well calculated to sustain the breed in all its charac- 
 teristic size and other qualities, which may be summed up as follows : — A wide loin, a 
 sharp chine, a narrow and rather shallow breast. The belly large ; a good cleft ; the 
 thigh full and broad, carrying the chief weight in the hind quarters ; the tail thick, long, 
 and coarse ; the legs thick, with large feet ; the muzzle coarse, and the bones large ; 
 the wool is of a good combing quality ; the fleece of fine wethers from 8 lbs. to 9 lbs. ; the 
 mutton is equal to that of any of the large built breeds, and their proof being good, they 
 are favourites with the butchers. When fat, the wethers usually weigh from 35 lbs. to 
 
 THE BOMNET MARSH SH££P. 
 
 40 lbs. the quarter ; the ewes from 30 lbs. to 38 lbs. They are hardy animals, bred without 
 much care or expense on wet and exposed land, requiring after the first year (when 
 they are wintered in the uplands) no other food in the severest seasons than occasionally 
 a little hay in addition to their pasture, being fattened entirely on grass. 
 
 Tliis breed has of late years been crossed with the New Leicester, by which the 
 sheep have been much improved, though reduced in size, and rendered less hardy, 
 so that heavy losses have been sustained amongst the lambs. As, however, the cross 
 becomes acclimated, the breed recovers its powers of endurance. The original IMarsh 
 sheep were never killed until three years old, but the improved breed are fit for the 
 butcher at two years. The cross, however, must be confined to a simple strain ; for if 
 repeated upon the progeny, that is if a half-bred ewe be put to a Leicester ram, it 
 would deteriorate the stock, and destroy its hardiness, and increase the tendency 
 to excessive fattening, which should always be guarded against. 
 
400 AGRIOULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Romney Marsh is perhaps one of the richest tracts of pasture land in England. It 
 was reclaimed from the sea, from the encroachments of which it is protected by embank- 
 ments. It consists of 50,000 acres, and feeds an enormous number of sheep and neat 
 cattle in proportion to its extent. In the winter the upland farmers of Kent and Sussex 
 make an exchange with those of the ^Marsh, l)y taking in their sheep on the high- 
 lauds, and sending them young, lean cattle to feed on the old fog of the Marsh, of which 
 a large quantity is always left after the summer's grazing. By this means the Marsh 
 farmers are freed from the danger of their sheep contracting the rot and the foot-rot, to 
 l)oth of which those of the cross breed were peculiarly liable on the Marsh after heavy rain, 
 although for a time they fatten faster. It is said that Bakewell was so well acquainted 
 with this fact, that he was in the habit of flooding his pastures, and immediately after 
 drawing off the water, putting on his sheep, which then contracted the rot, at the same 
 time acquiring fat very fast, so that he had them ready five weeks before his neighbours. 
 This tendency, however, to accumulate fat tlu'ough disease does not continue, for as the 
 disease progresses the animals become lean again, and waste away rapidly, so that they 
 must be killed in time, or they will be worthless. 
 
 6. THE DART.MOOR BREED WITH THE DEVOXSHIRE NAT VARIETY. 
 
 Tlie Dartmoor sheep are of the hornless race, and have white legs and faces, thick 
 necks, narrow backs, and high back bones ; good sides, short legs, and large bones. 
 CuUey states that the ewes when fat weigh on an average 26 lbs. per quarter, and the 
 wethers at three and a half years old 20 lbs. per quarter. The wool is of the same 
 combing length as that of the Eomncy ^Marsh sheep, and averages in weight 8 lbs. or 9 lbs. 
 per fleece. Formerly the old native race jiroduced neither so much mutton nor so 
 heavy a fleece ; but crosses with the New Leicester, and other strains, have much 
 changed the character of the breed. With an improvement in these qualities, however, 
 it has beeu found that the cross breed is much more liable to disease, such as the rot, 
 the foot-rot, the scour, &c., incident to tender constitutioned animals in cold, wet, and 
 exposed situations, but from Vihich the hardy constitutions of the native sheep 
 exempted them, even when lambs. The mutton of tlie Dartmoor sheep is much esteemed 
 for its fine gamey flavour, and the richness of its gravy. Since the establishment of 
 railways a considerable quantity of dead meat is sent to the London market, where it 
 finds a ready sale amongst the city gourmands. The country in which they are bred is 
 liable to heavy rains, and the lauds become saturated with moisture, very little of it 
 being drained or iinder culture ; yet the native sheep appear not to suffer from it, and 
 are exposed winter and summer to all the inclemency and inconveniences of the seasons 
 without contracting any of those diseases to which the more delicate breeds are so 
 subject under similar circumstances. The summer pasture is scanty, and that of 
 winter necessarily more so ; yet these little animals find ways of picking up a living 
 amongst the heather, and are only fed -with a little coarse hay in the severest of the 
 weather, or when the snow covers the moors. A tract of this district has recently 
 been enclosed, drained, and brought under cultivation ; and having been found amply 
 to repay the outlay, it is probable that in time not far distant, the whole of this dreary 
 and desolate tract will be subjected to the plough. 
 
 The Dim-faced Nats are a native Devonshire breed of sheep, having brown faces and 
 
THE SHEEP. 401 
 
 legs, crooked backs, flat sides, coarse bones and wool, with a long fleece weighing about 
 10 lbs. At thirty months the wethers, if fat, average about 22 lbs. per quarter. These 
 sheep have long been crossed with the New Leicester, which has rectified their defects, 
 given them an earlier maturity, and a less weight of carcase and wool. The lambs of the 
 cross breed are more tender than those of the genuine Nats, and require much care and 
 good nursing for some days. Tlie Bampton Nats differ but little from the Dim-faced, 
 except in weighing as much at twenty mouths as the latter do at thirty, and if kept 
 another year, will reach 28 lbs. per quarter. The crosses of these with the New 
 Leiecsters possess the same advantages and disadvantages as those of the Dartmoor ; 
 and there appears to be a compensating process in nature by which, either through 
 acclimatisation or other adaptation, a breed of animals suited to soil, climate, or other 
 natural phenomena is fo'iind in every part of the world. 
 
 7. THE EXMOOR BREED OR VARIETY. 
 
 These little animals have curled horns, white faces and legs, fine delicate bones, neat 
 head, and a deer's neck, with a narrow, flat-sided carcase. The weight of the fat wethers 
 at two and a half years is from 15 lbs. to 18 lbs. per quarter. The wool is of combing 
 length, and yields about 4^ lbs. to 5 lbs. per fleece washed. They are a hardy race, being 
 much exposed, like the Dartmoor sheep, to the inclemencies of an elevated and moist 
 situation, where there is little or no shelter except the heather with which the moors are 
 covered. The Exmoor sheep have been crossed some years since, Avith both the Merino 
 and the New Leicester strains. The former cross improved both the quality and tlie 
 weight of the fleece, so that from an average value of 4s. I0\d., the third cross with tlie 
 ^Icrino produced 17*. Id. ; and it is said that the carcase improved in an equal ratio. 
 The Leicester strain was less successful in the first instance, a considerable number of 
 both lambs and ewes being lost in lambing ; but subsequent attempts, notwithstanding 
 tlie heavy drawbacks in the first instance, have been sufiiciently successful to warrant a 
 continuance of the cross. 
 
 Some of both the pure Dartmoor and the Exmoor sheep were exhibited at the 
 Christmas show of the Smithfield Farmers' Club in 1861, and excited a good deal of 
 attention by their quaint and primitive manners, if we may be allowed so to express 
 ourselves. Sitting on their haunches like pvippy dogs, they eyed the throngs of company 
 witli bold and fearless, though wild and apparently amazed countenances, being 
 evidently quite out of their element at Baker Street, but determined to make the best 
 of it under the circumstances. It is probable that when these dreary tracts of moorland 
 are enclosed, drained, and cultivated, the native breeds of sheep wiU undergo a natural 
 improvement, in accordance with the more abundant and richer supply of food incident 
 to artificial production. 
 
 8. THE HEATH OR BLACK-FACED BREED. 
 
 The characteristics of this breed are large spiral horns, black faces and legs, a fierce^ 
 wild eye ; a short, firm carcase, weighing, when as fat as they can ordinarily be 
 made, from 12 lbs. to 16 lbs. per quarter ; long, coarse, shaggy fleeces of 3 lbs. or 4 lbs. ; 
 hardy constitution, and in every respect well suited to the bleak and wild country in 
 
402 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 ■which they are iudigenous. These sheep, on their extensive mountainous pastures, are 
 as wild, and almost as fleet, as deer, running with great swiftness at the sight of 
 strangers ; and, having no shepherds to control their movements, they range over a large 
 extent of country to pick up the scanty living their barren heaths supply. The true 
 black-faced sheep are said to have a lock of white wool on their foreheads, termed " the 
 snow-lock." 
 
 These sheep are found in the north-west of Yorkshire, and on the mountainous 
 district from Lancashire to Port William, bordering the Irish Sea, and from thence to 
 the western Highlands of Scotland, where they were introduced about the latter end of 
 the last century. CuUey, however, considers that the black-faced Linton, or " short 
 sheep " of Scotland, are a variety of the heath sheep crossed with the Cheviot. In fact, 
 there are several varieties of these heath sheep, all of which are well adapted to the 
 countries in which they are found. The greatest defect they possess is the coarse, 
 rugged character of the fleece, and Culley recommended a cross with the Dishley or New 
 Leicester to improve it. " It is disgraceful," he says, " to the rural economy of England, 
 that so excellent a breed of sheep should be needlessly compelled to brave the rigoiu' of 
 the season, in such loose, ragged, beggarly clothing, when they might, with a few years' 
 pains, and without any deterioration of carcase, produce fleeces of high value and 
 consequence to the manufactures of the country." These crosses have been attempted, 
 and have, in most cases, succeeded to a certain extent ; but generally speaking the 
 country in which they are found is too barren for the Dishley or any other breed of 
 improved sheep ; and the crosses, partaking naturally of the tenderness of constitution 
 of the male parent, are ill-fitted to endure the hardships of a mountain life. The true 
 heath sheep therefore maintains its ground in most of the highland districts, whether 
 of England or Scotland, which will carry no other stock with profit to the O'ivners. Over 
 these they range during the summer months without any shepherd ; but, on the approacli 
 of winter, are brought down to the enclosed grounds in the valleys, where hay is given 
 to them during the prevalence of the snow, and thcv are fortified by salving* against 
 the severity of the winter. 
 
 It is said that what are termed black-faced or short sheep, were originally short- 
 wooUed, its present length having been produced by crossing. Nor is it properly 
 determined whether Yorkshire or the Scottish Highlands is the original country of the 
 breed. According to the account in the agricultural survey of East Lothian, the 
 common breed of sheep kept in Lammermuir was the black-faced, or Avhat is termed the 
 " brocken " (broken) faced, a sort of dirty-looking mixture of black and white. These 
 sheep were for the most part horned, and when fat, the wethers weighed from 10 lbs. to 
 12 lbs., and the ewes 8 lbs. to 10 lbs., per quarter on the average. The fleeces were not 
 more than 2| lbs. in weight of wool, and the quality not very superior, nor was it 
 improved by the salving. The present black-faced breed has been improved by a cross 
 with both the Cheviot and the New Leicester, but the former is the best adapted to the 
 climate and country of the heath sheep. 
 
 * Sulviug is a dressing of tar and butler, or some other uuctuous matter which repels the wtt aud cold. 
 
THE SHEEP. 403 
 
 9. THE KYELAND, OR HEREFORD, AND ITS VARIETIES. 
 
 The district from which this breed takes its name, is in the neighbourhood of Ross, 
 in Herefordshire. It belongs to the hornless race, is small in size, with white face and 
 legs, wool growing close to its eyes, small bones, small and clean legs, and general fine 
 symmetry of carcase, the mutton of which is excellent. When fat, the ewes weigh from 
 9 lbs. to 14 lbs., and the wethers from 12 lbs. to 16 lbs. per quarter. They are generally 
 fit for the butcher at three or four years old. The fleece averages 2 lbs., being sliort, 
 and finer than any other of our native wools. In the agricultural survey of the district, 
 it is stated that in symmetry of shape, and in flavour and quality of mutton, the 
 Ryeland sheep are superior to any in tlie kingdom. They are adapted to a down, open 
 country, being patient of hunger, and subsisting on scanty pasture. They require 
 " cotting " in the winter season, and some of the flock-masters cot them at night all the 
 year round, especially in lambing time. They are indifferently a mountain or a vale 
 sheep, and are sometimes fed with the Herefordshire oxen, one sheep being allowed to 
 an ox. 
 
 The Ryeland sheep have been crossed with both the Merino and the New Leicester ; 
 the former, while it improved the weight and quality of the fleece, very much deteriorated 
 the symmetry and excellence of the carcase. The continuance of the cross has been 
 abandoned since the enormous increase of Australian wool, the quality of which is 
 superior to any of that of the native or crossed breeds of Britain ; whilst the increasing 
 demand for long wool, which is not grown to any extent, either in the British colonies 
 or on the continent, has led to the adoption more extensively of the long-woolled breeds 
 of sheep, or of crosses with them, there being now but little difl'erence in the value per 
 pound between the price of the long and the short wool. It is also said that the quality 
 of the wool of the Merino (Ryeland sheep) deteriorated after a few years ; but this 
 probably arose from neglect in the breeders, or some other cause, local or accidental, 
 which cannot be accounted for. The cross with the New Leicester has been equally 
 unsuccessful, the product not being so well adapted to the open country as the native 
 breed, which would thrive where a Leicester or a half-bred would starve ; and, although 
 the weight of the carcase and of the wool were increased, the quality of the mutton was 
 decidedly deteriorated as well as that of the wool, while the breed itself was less hardy. 
 
 The Shropshire Mo7-fe is considered a variety of the Ryeland, having fine, short wool, 
 freckled or black face and legs, small bones, and small and clean legs. The Morfe 
 Common contains 3,600 acres, and supports in summer 15,800 sheep, which produce a 
 profit of 15s. per acre in wool alone. It appears there are two breeds of sheep on the 
 Morfe, one horned, the other polled, and these have been allowed to blend and produce a 
 cross breed. The horned sheep are very small, and being fed on the mountains, their 
 mutton is exceedingly fine flavoured, and highly esteemed. It comes to London and the 
 nearer large towns of Bath, Bristol, &c., as Welsh mutton, and fetches a high price. 
 
 10. THE DORSET BREED. 
 
 This is a valuable breed of sheep on account of its producing an early lamb for the 
 London market. They are distinguished by short horns, white faces and legs, long and 
 broad heads with woolly foreheads, shoulders broad at the top, but lower than the hind 
 
 D n 2 
 
404 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 quarters ; backs tolerably straight, deep carcases and broad loins ; legs moderately longj 
 but ratlier coarse iu the bone. At three and a half years old the wethers weigh from 
 16 lbs. to 20 lbs. per quarter ; the -wool is fine and short. But what distinguishes this from 
 all other breeds, is the peculiar property of producing lambs at any given season, even 
 in September and October, according to the requirements of the flock-master. The 
 fleece weighs from 31 lbs. to 5 lbs. ; the mutton is excellent, and the Iamb, from the 
 general habit of rearing it with care for the tables of the wealthy, is first-rate in 
 quality and commands high prices. We have heard of a guinea a quarter being given 
 for house lamb in the early winter. Tlie Dorset breeders take great pains to keep their 
 ewes from any intermixture with the Ijlack or brown-faced breed, the ivhite lamb being 
 most esteemed by the London butchers on account of its superior delicacy of meat. 
 The ewes mostly bring two lambs at a birth ; they suit either the hill or the valley, and 
 their flesh is esteemed as a medium between the highly flavoured and delicate, but dry 
 mutton of the hills, and the juicy and rich lowland mutton. 
 
 THE DORSET RAM. 
 
 These valuable sheep are to be found in the counties adjoining that of Dorset, 
 especially in the Forest of Dean, and on theMendip Hills; at least, a valuable variety of 
 tlie breed — " a small, compact animal, that will thrive on the poorest soil, and fatten on 
 pasture where almost any other breed would starve. Pasture ever so dry and exposed 
 will feed this kind ; they are very hardy, tlieir wool fine, and the mutton also is excellent 
 for the taljle, being full of gravy and of a rich flavour." The Mendip breed resembles 
 in many points the Merinos ; and there is a tradition that tlie original stock of the 
 Spanish fiue-woolled sheep was obtained either from those hills, or from the Cotswold 
 Hills in Gloucestershire, but the present breed of sheep in this latter district bears little 
 analogy to the Merino, either in form, size, or quality of wool. The Mendip variety is, 
 perhaps, better suited in these respects to sustain the tradition, but it appears a very 
 unlikely and far-fotched tale. 
 
THE SHEEP. 405 
 
 11. THE WILTSHIKE BREED. 
 
 The Wiltsliire slieep^ although considered separately from the Dorset^ are a variety of 
 the same race ; but by more attention to the breeding attain a greater size, weighing 
 from 20 lbs. to 28 lbs. per quarter. Thin, large, spiral horns cm-1 close to their heads ; 
 their faces and legs are white ; they have long Roman noses with large open nostrils ; 
 they are heavy in the hind, and light in the fore, quarters, and have little wool on their 
 bellies. The wool is of the clothing quality, and the weight of the fleece is about 3 lbs. 
 on an average. The country consists chiefly of extensive downs covered with short, 
 sweet grass ; the flocks kept upon them are very large, and folding on the arable land 
 is extensively practised, for which these hardy sheep are well calculated. They have 
 been crossed of late years with other breeds, particularly the New Leicester, by which a 
 heavier fleece has beeu obtained ; but, on the other hand, the cross is more delicate, and 
 does not thrive on the short down feed to which the old breed was so much attached, 
 and on which it throve so well. The turnij) husbandrj', and the cultivation of artificial 
 grasses, have, by introducing a more luscious kind of food, changed the character and 
 constitution of the sheep, making them more dainty, so that they do not care to feed on 
 the downs, — fewer sheep, in fact, are kept upon them, which renders the grass coarser 
 and less palatable. Much of the downs, too, were broken up during the high price of 
 corn, and after being exhausted, were again laid down with natural grass, which is 
 necessarily of a very difl'erent quality from the old pasture. The ancient breed has, to 
 a great extent, given way to the Southdown, which is found to thrive better, and yield 
 more profit. 
 
 12. THE SOUTHDOWN BREED. 
 
 The native county of this breed is Sussex, and the district which gives it the name 
 consists of extensive downs similar to those in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire. These tracts 
 of sheep-grazing are covered with a short, sweet kind of grass, the soil being very thin 
 .-iud overlying the chalk, which is within a few inches of the surface. The character of 
 the Southdown sheep is as follows : — Head small and clean ; face and legs grey, the latter 
 short and fine in the bone ; neck long and fine, rather low before, with a wide shoulder ; 
 a light fore quarter ; sides and chest deep ; a broad loin ; back bone rather high ; full 
 thigh, and good twist ; wool fine, short, and close, the fleece averaging about 3i lbs. at 
 two years old. Tiie flesh is particularly fine grained, and of an excellent flavour. They 
 fatten readily, and are of hardy constitutions. Fat wethers at two or two and a half 
 years old average about 18 lbs. to 20 lbs. per quarter ; and the handsome form of the leg 
 at table enables the butcher to obtain a higher price for it by Id. per pound than for 
 that of any other breed. 
 
 About the beginning of the present century, Mr. EUmSn, of Glynd, in Sussex, 
 undertook to improve the native Southdown upon the principles laid down, or rather 
 practised, by Bakewell on the Leicesters, and with equal success ; his fame introduced 
 him to the late Earl of Leicester, the " Holkham chieftain," at whose annual sheep- 
 shearings Mr. Ellman was almost a constant, and always a welcome, guest. It was 
 found that the improved Southdown sheep were well adapted to the light lands of Norfolk 
 
406 
 
 AGrJCULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 and Suffolk, and they have gradually spread themselves over those counties, and 
 maintained hoth their charaeter and their standing to the present time. The most 
 successful, as well as early, breeders of the Southdowns in Norfolk were the family of the 
 Overmans, who for sixty years have maintained the purity of the blood, and by careful 
 selection attained the highest pitch of perfection in shape, symmetry, and other excel- 
 lencies peculiar to the breed. At one of the shows of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
 Mr. Henry Overman, of Weasenham, iu Norfolk, sold a pure Southdown ram for 
 160 guineas. It was purchased, we believe, by a Frenchman. 
 
 The tract of land in which this breed of sheep was first located reaches from Beachj' 
 Head to Pevensey Marsh, trending westward to Shoreham ; its length may be computed 
 at about thirty, and its breadth seven or eight, miles, and containing in its area about 
 100,000 acres. This is properly the Southdown ; but a much greater extent is covered 
 with similar sheep-walk, the downs leaving the coast at Shoreham, and crossing the 
 western part of Sussex and the border, enter Hampshire near Petersfield, between 
 West Harting and Stanstead, having an extreme length of fifty, and a mean breadth of 
 about four and a half or five, miles. These downs rise from 5C0 to 850 feet above the 
 
 TUB SOUTHDOWN KAM. 
 
 level of the sea, and thus impart to the tract enough of the character of the Highlands, 
 to render the stock fed upon it hardy in constitution. They are everywhere covered 
 with a shdrt, delicate turf, well stored with wild thyme and patches of furze. There 
 are no trees except a few old white-thorns, but young plantations have recently been 
 formed that will, in a few years, afford good shelter to the flocks. 
 
 We believe the breed is still kept pure in Sussex, the attempt to cross it with the 
 Leicester not proving successful, the short bite on the downs being not rich enough. 
 The Merino cross was not much more so ; nor does it appear that the improved South- 
 down is capable of, or requires, any amendment by the admixture of any other blood. 
 We confine this observation strictly to the Sussex downs ; because in counties where 
 the pasture is richer, or the sheep are grazed on artificial grasses and roots, the South- 
 down and Leicester, and Leicester and Southdown cross liave been entirely successful. 
 In Sussex, Mr. EUman and his sons have shown what may be done by strict attention 
 to the types of the animnls from which tlicy breed. 
 
THE SHEEP. 407 
 
 "We have given these gentlemen the first place in the annals of Southdown improve- 
 ment ; but we have perhaps in the present day as remarkable a list of improvers engaged 
 in amicable competition for the prizes at the cattle shows of the country as any nation 
 can produce. Our readers who are conversant with these meetings will anticipate us in 
 mentioning the names of the late and present Dukes of Richmond, Lord Walsingham, 
 and Earl Radnor, the late Sir R. G. Throgmorton, Sir Willoughby Jones, Bart., William 
 Rigden, the Overman family, G. S. Foljambc, Esq., with many other eminent men, who 
 by the most sedulous attention have brought the breed to a pitch of perfection that can 
 only be exceeded by the most fortuitous accident. We can no longer name Jonas Webb in 
 the list, that gentleman having disposed of his splendid flock of Southdowns, and retired, 
 satisfied with the honours and emoluments his efforts had procured. The surpassing 
 beauty of the sheep exhibited belonging to the distinguished persons we have named 
 excites the wonder and admiration of those who see them at the shows. 
 
 In Hampshire the Southdown has been crossed with the black-faced race and pro- 
 duced a new type called the Hampshire Downs. They are larger than the Southdown, 
 and are distinguished by a Roman nose, by being longer on the leg, and altogether a 
 stouter and bolder looking animal. Some beautiful sheep of this breed are usually 
 exhibited at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show ; but in symmetry and delicacy of form 
 they do not approach the pure Southdowns at their side. 
 
 The Oxford and the West Country Downs are also varieties of the Southdown crossed 
 with the native breeds of those districts. The most eminent exhibitors of these cross- 
 bred sheep are the King family in Berkshire; Mr. Walter, M.P., of Wokingham; 
 Mr. W. B. Canning, of Swindon, Wilts, &c. 
 
 13. THE OLD NORFOLK BKEED. 
 
 This is considered an indigenous breed in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. They 
 are distinguished by the rams having large spiral horns curling from the head ; their legs 
 are long and thin, their loins nan-ow, neck long, with a high back and thin chine ; then- 
 bodies are long and thin ; their colour varies from black to speckled and white ; the legs 
 and face being either black or grey, but mostly black. The wool is fine and short, the 
 fleece of the original breed not averaging more than 2^ lbs., but later improvements have 
 increased it to 3h lbs., since the beginning of the present century. They are in their 
 roving disposition quite equal to the heath sheep, and being longer in the legs and 
 lighter in the carcase no common fence will stop them, and they have consequently 
 given way to other breeds, as their native commons and heaths have been brought under 
 cultivation. The writer has seen a flock of these sheep clear a fence with as much ease 
 as a greyhound. The rams are sometimes very large and fierce, and are a match for 
 any dog. At seven or eight years old they are nearly as tall as a good sized donkey, 
 and their tremendous horns render them formidable antagonists. The stronghold of 
 this breed is the sandy and open tract of land lying round Newmarket, and from thence 
 to Brandon, Thetford, and Swaff'ham. Here they had an abundant range of country to 
 traverse, and they throve upon these barren heaths where no other breed could live_ 
 The mutton, notwithstanding it was cried down by Culley, was very superior to any 
 other, having the venison flavour, which, although it is nearly half a century since we 
 tasted it, is still fresh in our memory, having never since eaten any mutton equal to it. 
 
408 
 
 AGKICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN, 
 
 The gravy was particularly rich.* Both ]\Iarshall and Kent have characterised this 
 breed as the best adapted of any to the soil and system of farming of the older Norfolk 
 farmers, who to a comparatively small extent of arable laud added large tracts of heath, 
 over which they ran their sheep during the day, and folded them on the fallows at niglit. 
 The ease with which they travelled was a great advantage, having sometimcs'miles to 
 traverse in getting to the fold. The wethers fattened easily at two years old, but never 
 laid on much fat, increasing rather in flesh instead. Loudon considers a haunch of 
 Norfolk mutton after hanging three weeks equal to auy meat excepting a haunch of 
 venison. 
 
 The Norfolk sheep have frequently been crossed with both the Leicester and the 
 Southdown. The produce of these crosses were polled breeds, and tlie former were to a 
 certain extent successful, the weight of both the carcase and the fleece being increased ; 
 but it was found that while those improvements were secured the cross retained the 
 long legs and the roving disposition of the indigenous parent, and the superiority of the 
 Southdown in every respect, coupled with its quiet and gentle disposition, enabled it to 
 triumph over all its competitors, and the Norfolk sheep is almost, if not quite, extinct. 
 
 14. THE HERUWICK BREED. 
 
 These are found only in one small district, namely, tlie mountains standing at the 
 head of the Duddon and Esk rivers in Cumberland. Tliey belong to the hornless race, 
 have speckled faces and legs, short wool weighing from .2 lbs. to 2^ lbs. per fleece, of i-athcr 
 coarse staple for a short-woolled sheep. They are supposed to have their origin in the 
 mountain or black-faced breed, but they have beeu known by their present name from 
 time immemorial. These hills, as well as the stock, have always been let out to herds, 
 and it is from this that they derive their name. The sheep support themselves during the 
 winter by scratching with their feet through the snow down to wliatever herbage may be 
 beneath it, and they are sustained without hay or artificial food of any kind. In storms, 
 says Youatt, they gather together and keep moving about to tread down tlie snow and 
 prevent it from overblowing them. The lambs are well covered with wool when they 
 are dropped, and seldom take harm from the weather. The ewes breed till fourteen or 
 fifteen years old. The wethers are killed at four or four and a half, when they weigh from 
 10 lbs. to 12 lbs. a quarter ; the ewes from 6 lbs. to 8 lbs. The flesh acquires from the feed 
 a particularly fine flavour, especially when the heather and other mountain plants are in 
 blossom from July to September. These Highlands, which belong to Lord Muneaster, 
 have been chiefly in tlie hands, as tenants, of ouc family, the Tysons, 400 years and 
 upwards. 
 
 * The writer always fauciea that the person who penned the following lines must have had a hi/ of NorfoU; miillun 
 i,i view at the time: — 
 
 " Gently stir and blow the fire ; 
 
 Lay the mutton down to roast; 
 Dress it quickly, I desire ; 
 
 In the dripping put a toast, 
 That I hunger may remove. 
 Mutton is the meat I love. 
 
 " On the dresser see it lie. 
 
 Oh the charming while and red! 
 Finer meat ne'er met mv eve; 
 
 On the sweetest grass it fed. 
 Let the jack go swiftly round ; 
 Let me have it nice and browned. 
 
 ' On the table lay a cloth ; 
 
 Let the knives he sharp and clean ; 
 Pickles get, and salads both ; 
 
 Let them both be fresh and green. 
 ^Vith small-beer, good ale, ai.d wine— 
 Oh, ye gods, how I shall diuc 1 " 
 
THE SHEEP. 
 
 409 
 
 15. THE CHEVIOT BREED. 
 
 This breed belongs to tlie hornless race, and was found originally on the north-west 
 hills of Northumberland, but its adaptation to the Highlands, and its superiority, in many 
 respects, to the black-faced breed, have led to its being extended over the mountainous 
 tracts in the neighbouring counties. It has also to a great extent supplanted the black- 
 faced sheep in the Highlands of Scotland, with the exception of the sliires of Perth and 
 Fife. 
 
 The Cheviots have generally white faces and legs, but some have black about the nose. 
 They have an open countenance, prominent eyes, are rather long in the body, and have 
 tine small-boned limbs. They have no great depth on the breast or chine. They are 
 generally slaughtered at from three to four and a half years, and their average weight is 
 from IG lbs. to 22 lbs per quarter. This is the improved breed, the old stock not 
 exceeding from 12 lbs. to 18 lbs. The fleecCj too, has increased from 2| lbs. or 3^ lbs. to 
 
 
 THE CHEVIOT SHEEP. 
 
 4 lbs. and 4^ lbs. The wool is inferior to most of the other short-wooUed breeds, and is 
 rendered still less saleable by the practice of smearing, or salving, them with a mixture of 
 tar, turpentine, and oil, or buttci-, to fortify them against the rigours of winter. This 
 practice is, however, falling into desuetude. The cross of the Cheviot with the New 
 Leicester has produced a larger sheep at three years old, but they are less hardy, and 
 require better keep. Nevertheless the cross has established itself, and is gaining ground. 
 They have a bare and clean head, rather long ears and jaws, white face and feet ; neck 
 full and round, chest open, and a barrel-like form of body. The legs are clothed witli 
 Avool to the knees and hocks. The wool is of medium length, close, and fine, apt to be 
 curled about the shoulders, and coarse on the hips, tail, and belly. jMuch improvement 
 upon these points has been made of late years, and the New Cheviot is fast superseding 
 the black-faced race, both in the northern counties of England and in Scotland. 
 
 16. THE DUN-FACED BREED. 
 
 This is also a mountain breed, having a dun or tawny face, and the wool is streaked 
 variously with black, red, brown, or dun. The texture is fine, and the fleece does not 
 
410 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 exceed lilbs. at four and a half years old. They are very small in size^ and their 
 mutton is finely grained, and of excellent flavour. They are said to have been imported 
 into Scotland from Denmark or Norway at an early period of our history, but it is 
 probable that they have at different times been crossed with other mountain breeds 
 in the north, as there are several varieties, not all imputable to the difference of 
 situation. Culley supposed that this breed originated in a cross of the native sheep 
 with others introduced by the Spanish Armada, part of which was wrecked on the coast 
 of Scotland ; and he states a conversation or correspondence he had on the subject with 
 a Mr. Stejohenson, of Breakshall, Westmoreland, who said : — " When in Spain, I saw in 
 Andalusia exactly the same kind of sheep you describe under the title of Dun-faced 
 Sheep, and which the Spaniards call Ovejas Marinas, of whose wool, I was told, the fine 
 Segoviau cloths are made. This wool is reckoned the finest in the world, excepting, 
 perhaps, the Vigonian wool of Peru, and the Cashmerian wools, of which the finest 
 turbans are made." Culley considered the Dun-faced sheep too tender and delicate a 
 breed for the mountains of Scotland, and foretold their being driven out by the black- 
 faced, or, more probably the Cheviot, in consequence of the efforts of the British Wool 
 Society. This, in point of fact, has taken place, and the Dun-faced sheep have nearly 
 disappeared before the latter. 
 
 17. THE SHETLAND BREED. 
 
 These are a very diminutive animal of the hornless species, distinguished by the 
 shortness and smallness of their tails. They weigh from 7 lbs. to 10 lbs. per quarter, 
 and their fleeces from 1 lb. to 3 lbs. The wool is very fine and varied in colour, but what 
 is remarkable is, that " one of the varieties has coarse wool above, and soft, fine wool 
 below, and has three different successions of wool yearly, two of which resemble long 
 hairs more than wool, and are termed by the common people fors and scuclda. When 
 the wool begins to loosen at the roots, which generally occurs about the month of 
 February, the haii>s, or scudda, spring up ; and when the wool is carefully pulled oft', the 
 tough hairs continue fast, until the new wool grows up about a quarter of an inch long, 
 when they gradually wear off} and when the new. fleece has acquired about two months' 
 growth, the rough hairs, termed fors, spring up, and keep root initil the proper season 
 arrives for pulling it, when it is plucked ofl' along with the wool, and is separated from 
 it in dressing the fleece by an operation called forftng. The scudda remains upon the 
 skin of the animal as if it were a thick coat, a fence against the inclemency of the 
 season which provident nature has furnished for supplying the wants of the fleece."* 
 
 Another native breed has what is termed soft cottony fleeces, the wool of which is 
 short, and open, and has no long hairs. These sheep frequently have their fleeces rubbed off 
 during the spring; and they are never shorn, the wool being pulled up by the roots, 
 whether ripe or not, " a barbarous practice," says Culley, " tending to weaken the sheep, 
 and hurt the length of the staple. The colour of the wool varies from white to black, 
 and includes silver-grey (the finest and softest) and mourat, or brown. The white is 
 considered the most valuable for all the finer purposes in whicli combing wool can be 
 used. For softness and lustre no wool equals it, and the skin with the fleece on can be 
 converted into a fur of very great value." t 
 
 * Culley on " Live Stock," p. 1G3. t II)"'- P- ICl'. 
 
THE SHEEP. 411 
 
 The Shetland sheep are very hardy and ^viklj and very little care is taken of, or 
 attention paid to, them. The Shetland Islands contain in all about 80,000 of them ; 
 and in winter they have no other subsistence, when a deep snow covers the ground, than 
 the sea-weed thrown upon the shores. The wool of these animals is as shaggy as the 
 coat of a Welsh goat. Mainland, which is the largest of the Shetland Isles, contains a 
 great number of them, and their wool is chiefly made into very fine stockings, at knitting 
 of which the female inhabitants are very expert. The sheep feed in the interior of the 
 island, but instinctively run down to the coast, although several miles from it, as soon 
 as the tide begins to fall, to feed on the fresh sea-weed. 
 
 18. THE SPANISH OR MERINO BREED. 
 
 The Spanish terra Mes^a signifies a mixture of two or more kinds of grain, but is 
 applied in a more restricted sense to the union of the flocks of sheep belonging to several 
 diSierent proprietors into one collected body, which travel backwards and forwards twice 
 in the year, passing part of it at one place and part at another. This collection is formed 
 ])y an association of proprietors consisting of nobles, persons in power, members of rich 
 monasteries, and ecclesiastical chapters, who feed their flocks on the waste lands of Spain. 
 The possession of these lands by the present claimants dates back to the time of the 
 great plague, which swept ofi" the major part of the landowners. The soil was then 
 taken possession of by the remaining families and others, by whom, although they hold 
 no legal title, they are still retained. The extent of these lands being too great to be 
 cultivated by the limited resources of the scattered population, the only way of appro- 
 priating them profitably was by keeping flocks. These are called Merinos or Trans- 
 humantes. 
 
 The extensive feeding grounds on which the flocks are pastured duriug the winter 
 lie in Estramadui'a, the kingdom of Leon, and other provinces. The Mesta generally 
 consists of 10,000 sheep each. They are under the care of an officer cdiR&A.& may oral, who 
 superintends the shepherds, and directs their routes. Of these he has fifty under him, 
 divided into fom- classes. They commence their journey in April or May, and return in 
 October. The principal districts occupied by these flocks are Cuenza in New Castile, 
 and Segovia, Soria, and Buytrago in Old Castile. In September they commence their 
 journey back, and in winter occupy the same pastures in Estramadura and Leon on 
 which they were fed the previous winter. The term Merino is strictly a Spanish adjec- 
 tive, derived from the Latin word merinus or majorinus. When united to ovejas it 
 signifies the royal judge or superintendent of the sheep-walks. The number of sheep 
 formerly kept in Spain was estimated at 8,000,000, employing 40,000 shepherds. We 
 have no means of ascertaining correctly the number in the present day, but probably 
 they have not increased since the revolution in that country changed the proprietorship 
 of much of the land. 
 
 The establishment of the fine-wooUcd breed of sheep of Spain is distinctly traced 
 back to the time of Columella, the Roman agriculturist, who lived in the reign of Claudius. 
 His uncle lived in Spain, and introduced a cross of the coarse-woolled African sheep 
 with the Tarentine breed, and by judicious management brought the mixed breed to a 
 high state of perfection. They kept their sheep covered to improve the quality of the 
 wool, but paid little regard to that of the mutton, 
 
413 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The jealousy of the Spanish government jDreventecl for many centuries the exporta- 
 tion of the Merino sheep, but in the year 1723 some of thera were obtained by a 
 M. Alstroemer, and taken to Sweden, where they were soon aeclimated aud throve 
 greatly, so that in 1764 they had increased to 65,369 pure Merinos, and 23,384 of a 
 mixed breed, but producing fine wool. The Swedinh ISIerino preserved the quality of 
 the wool, at the same time that the carcase was larger, and the constitution of the 
 animal much stronger than that of the native Spanish. 
 
 The success of the Swedish experiment induced the Saxony government to obtain 
 some of the Merinos; and iu 1765, 100 rams and 200 ewes were purchased out of the 
 best flocks in Spain; and in 1778 a further importation was made into Saxony, the 
 success of which is well known from the large quantity of fine wool that was for many 
 years imported from thence into Great Britain. Afterwards Denmark, Prussia, Austria, 
 France, Holland, Italy, and the Cape of Good Hope successively obtained the Spanish 
 sheep, and in every instance in which proper attention was paid to them they have 
 prospered. 
 
 In 1787 George III. obtained a few Merinos, the jealousy of the Spanish govern- 
 ment being at that time awakened ; but six years after Lord Auckland, then our ambas- 
 sador at Madrid, obtained five rams and thirty-five ewes of the very best breed (the 
 Negrette) in exchange for a stud of eight fine English coach-horses. These were added 
 to his Majesty's previous flock, and, amounting to sixty, were placed under the charge of 
 Sir Joseph Banks, Avho had for many years paid great attention to sheep-breeding and 
 the improvement of the quality of wool. In 1804 his Majesty consented to part with a 
 portion of the flock by public auction, aud forty-five rams aud ewes were oft'ered, the 
 competition for which was very great, so that they fetched prices ranging from £6 7s. 
 to .€44 25. each, being distributed among eighteen purchasers.* But the most important 
 feature in this sale was the purchase by Captain jMcArthur of eight of the sheep for the 
 purpose of transporting them to the penal settlement of New Soutli Wales, or Botany 
 Bay, as it vcas then called, to whicb we shall have occasion again to refer presently. 
 
 With respect to the Merinos purchased by English breeders, the experiment did not 
 succeed. Notwithstanding the disinterested eflbrts of the king, and the strenuous 
 co-operation of Lord Somerville, the President of the Board of AgricuUure, the 
 competition between the Merino breed and those of the New X/eicester and improved 
 Southdown, ended in favour of the two latter, both on account of the weight of the 
 fleece, and that of the carcase. This sealed the fate of the experiment in Great Britain, 
 so far as the agricultural body were concerned, although individual amateurs continued, 
 and do still continue, we believe, to encourage the breed. The only person, however, 
 who exhibits at the show of the Royal Agricultural Society is Charles Sturgeon, Esq., 
 Ockendon Hall, Essex, who, we understand, has a flock of Merinos, and has for some 
 years been an exhibitor at those shows. 
 
 It is not, however, at all likely that the Merinos will ever be established in England 
 
 * An amusing circumslauce occurred just about this time in reference to these sheep. The king invited -Mr. Coke 
 to go to Windsor and see them ; and when examining them he exclaimed, in his usual impetuous way, "Coke, Coke, you 
 must have some of these sheep, I'll look out a ram and some ewes, and send them to you." Of course Mr. Coke, 
 supposing that they were intended as a present, was profuse in his thanks to Iris Majesty for his kindness. The sheep 
 wi-re accordingly sent, and with them an account in which they were charged at a price that aslonislied even the purchaser, 
 accustomed as he was to high-priced cattle. These sheep were exhibited at llolkham when the writer was present, and 
 be was not surprised to see the farmers turn from them with di.-gust, declaring Ihcy were " nothing better than carrion !" 
 
 V 
 » 
 
THE S^EEr. 413 
 
 on commercial grounds, more especially now that we can obtain an ample supply of the 
 very best wool from our Australian colonies. The large consumption of meat, and the 
 consequent high price, form tlie main features in the question, it being impossible to 
 raise the value of the carcase of the Merino to anything like that of the New Leicester 
 or Southdown ; and, on the other hand, tlie prices of the short and long wools so nearly 
 approximate to each other, owing to the great demand for, and limited supply of, the 
 latter on the continent, that the lueight, and not the qualify of the wool, now determines 
 the value of the fleece. 
 
 The history of the rise and progress of sheep-breeding in Australia forms one of the 
 most remarkable episodes in the annals of that colony ; and as it has a material influence 
 on the agriculture of the mother country, it demands a special notice. In 1788 some 
 coarse- woolled sheep were jjurchased in the East Indies (Bengal) for Captain McArtliur, 
 who was at that time settled in New South AVales. Nine years afterwards (1797), 
 Captain Kent, R.N., was requested by the Dutch government to convey three rams 
 and five ewes of the pure Merino breed to the Cape of Good Hope, then a Dutch colony. 
 On arrival, the settlei's would have nothing to do with them, and Kent was obliged to 
 take them on to New South Wales, which was his ultimate destination. On their 
 arrival Captain McArthur gladly purchased them to cross with his coarse-woolled 
 Bengal sheep ; and in ten years his flock of seventy of the latter had been replaced by 
 •l-,000 half-bred breediug ewes and a proportionate number of rams, the wethers being 
 slaughtered. 
 
 In 1803 Captain McArthur revisited England, and, as we have stated, purchased 
 some of his Majesty's flock of Merinos. But some demur took place with the Customs, 
 owing to an ancient statute making it felony to export live sheep from Gi'eat Britain. 
 In this case, however, common sense prevailed over red tape and fiscal absurdity, and 
 (he sheep were, with assumed conniv.auce, put on board the Argus, and became the 
 founders of one of the mo&t important branches of commerce between the colonies and 
 the mother country. To show the extraordinary progress of sheep-breeding in those 
 colonies, we give the amounts of the wool exports at intervals of ten years. The first 
 importation from New South Wales was made in the year 1808. 
 
 1808 562 lbs, 
 
 1818 86,525 „ 
 
 1828 %Ufii-i „ 
 
 1838 5,749,376 
 
 1848 , 23,991,481 „ 
 
 1858 51,104,560 „ 
 
 The Australian supply of wool has now superseded, to a very great extent, that which we 
 once obtained from Spain and Germany ; and a considerable quantity is also purchased at 
 the periodical sales, for exportation to France and other continental countries. It is 
 found to be superior, both in the length of the staple, and in fineness of the fibre, which 
 possesses a peculiar softness not found in the same degree in tlie wools of any European 
 country. 
 
 Such is the history of the Merino sheep in connection with the United Kingdom ; 
 and the agriculturists have no reason either to regret their rejection of it, or to attempt 
 ever to bring it again into competition with those excellent indigenous breeds which they 
 have, at so much cost of labour and money, raised to the highest pitch of perfection. 
 
414 AGKICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 19. THE MERINO CROSS-BREED. 
 
 The experiments that have heen made in crossing the Merino sheep with the South- 
 down and the improved Leicester, wliile they produced a finer fleece in regard to the 
 staplCj detracted too much from the weight to make the improvement profitable. On the 
 other hand, the deteriorated carcase of the product was, in a country where the value 
 of mutton is the most important consideration in choosing a breed, quite sufficient to 
 condemn it. "We are not aware that any considerable flock-master has adopted 
 the Merino Cross on commercial grounds, although some of the more enterprising 
 amateur breeders may have experimented upon it ; but this cannot be considered as 
 constituting a distinct or permanent variety. 
 
 SECTION XXVII. 
 
 THE PIG. 
 
 The pig, or hog, is the Suida, or Bus, of the ancients, and the same terms are adopted by 
 Liunseus. Cuvier classes it with the mammalia, and places it in the order Pachydermata, 
 and genus Suidee, or Sus. " It has on each foot two large toes shod with stout hoofs, 
 and two lateral toes much shorter, and scarcely touching the earth. The incisors, or 
 cutting teeth, are variable in number, the lower ones being all pointing forwards ; the 
 canine teeth project from the mouth, and are curved upwards. The snout, which 
 terminates the muzzle, is fitted for rooting and grubbing in the earth, being invested 
 ■with a strongly callous and flexible muscle, with which it can turn up earth and stones, 
 as well as the roots of plants, and even trees. There is but little division in the stomach, 
 and the body is square and deep, covered with hair and bristle, more or less, according 
 to the breed. The neck is .strong and muscular, the legs (of the improved breeds) short 
 and stout." Such is Cuvier's description of the animal, which feeds chiefly on vegetable 
 food, especially roots, which it raises from the earth vrith its snout ; but it will devour 
 animal food of any kind, although it will not hunt for living prey for that purpose. The 
 skin of the hog is very thick, being useful for making saddles. Its most active faculties 
 are those of seeiug, hearing, and smelling. Throw, for instance, a quantity of peas 
 amongst the straw in the barn-yard, and it must be a chance indeed if one escapes the 
 search of a pig. 
 
 Naturalists place in the same order with the pig, the elephant, the rhinoceros, the 
 hippopotamus, the peccara, the babyroussa, the phaco-choare, the capibara, &c. ; but 
 the genus Suidce, or Sus, is now very generally applied to the swine alone, properly so 
 called, whether in a domesticated or a wild state. 
 
 Although no mention is made of the hog, or swine, in the sacred writings previous 
 to the time of Moses, when its use as an article of food was strictly prohibited by the 
 Divine command, yet the very prohibition itself was a proof that previously it had 
 
THE PIG. 415 
 
 constituted a considerable portion of the food of the people ; and the records of profane 
 history serve to confirm this fact, for the writings of the most ancient of the Greek 
 authors refer to it as a species of food in much esteem. Amongst the Romans the 
 breeding, rearing, fattening, and cooking of the pig constituted a study, or studies, and 
 every art was used to improve the flavour of the flesh. It was sometimes fed on 
 dried figs and sweet wine. The Porcus Trojanus is an example of the extravagant 
 manner in which the gourmands of that period pampered their appetites. It consisted 
 of a whole hog, divested of its natural inside, and then stuflied with thrushes, larks, 
 beccaficoes, oysters, nightingales, and other kinds of delicacies, and basted, while roasting, 
 with wine and rich gravies. A sumptuary law was passed to check such extravagance 
 in eating, but it had little efiect. The most barbarous means were invented to produce 
 a supposititious improvement in the flavour. Thus the barbecued hog was first whipped 
 to death, in order to save the finer portions of the natural juices which were wasted by 
 cutting its throat. 
 
 The Jews were not the only nation which abstained from eating swine's flesh. The 
 Egyptians and the Mohammedans did so, the latter probably founding their practice on 
 that of the Israelites. The Egyptians were only allowed to eat pork once a year, when 
 a feast of the moon was held, and a large number of hogs were sacrificed to that divinity. 
 If at any other time an Egyptian touched a pig, he was obliged to purify himself by 
 plunging, with his. clothes on, in the Nile. The swineherds were considered outcasts of 
 society, and were not allowed to enter a temple, or even to marry into other families. 
 Tliis, also, appears to have been the case with the Jews, as is exemplified in the parable 
 of the prodigal son, who, being reduced to the necessity of feeding swine, was considered 
 to have sunk to the lowest state of degradation in society. No really satisfactory 
 solution of a moral kind has been yet given for the prohibition in the Mosaic law ; and 
 it is probable that the reasons were chiefly of a sanitary nature, the food being particularly 
 luscious and unwholesome in a warm climate. But whatever they may have been, it is 
 certain that under the Christian dispensation we are not enjoined to call any kind of food 
 " common or unclean,"* but to receive with thankfidness those things which nature 
 supplies, and which are adapted to the sustentation of life and health. 
 
 The Egyptians rear no pigs, and in Lower Egypt that animal is scarcely known. 
 The Mohammedans are enjoined not to eat a certain part of the pig ; but the part not 
 being named in the prohibitory law, the more strict followers of the prophet abjure the 
 whole ; whilst the less scrupulous abstain from whatever part they consider the least to 
 their taste, and 
 
 "Thus, conscience freed from every clog, 
 Mohammedans eat up the hog." 
 
 Notwithstanding the Divine command, it is well known that the Jews reared great 
 numbers of swine in their country of Judea, it is supposed for the purpose of supplying 
 the Gentiles of the neighbouring districts, and other strangers. The remarkable 
 narrative respecting the herd of swine which by the command of the Saviour were 
 possessed with demons, and under their influence ran down a steep place and perished in 
 the seajt is considered to have been done in order to punish the Jewish owners of the 
 herd for their disregard of the Divine prohibition. 
 
 * -^ti's x\. 9. .|. St. Matthew viii. 32. 
 
41G AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 In the present day, the pig, although in some respects a disagreeable and disgusting 
 creature, holds no contemptible place amongst our domestic animals. On the contrary 
 the breeding, rearing, and fattening of swine are as sedulously attended to as in the case 
 of any other animal ; and they are probably the most profitable of any, on account of 
 their fecundity, and the little cost attending them in the earlier stages of their existence. 
 The pig will eat any garbage, and will subsist and thrive where a sheep would absolutely 
 starve. " The refuse of the fields, the gardens, the barns, and the scullery is to him a 
 feast."* He adapts himself to all countries and climates, has apparently but little choice 
 of food, provided he has enough, and is clamorous about it only under " short-commons." 
 
 SECTION XXVIII. 
 
 THE BRITISH HOG. 
 
 If there is any faith to be placed on the legendary history of the city of Bath, the 
 hog has been a domesticated animal in Britain upwards of 2,700 years ; and it was to 
 a herd of them kept by a British prince that we owe the discovery of the medicinal 
 properties of the hot springs of Bath. It appears that Bladud, or Baldred, the eldest 
 son of Hudibras, King of Britain, had contracted the leprosy at Athens, whither he had 
 been sent to study for eleven years ; consequently, when he returned home he was 
 confined apart from his family to prevent the spreading of the disorder. Escaping from 
 his confinement, he wandered to Learwick, a small village about three miles from Bath, 
 where he became a swineherd, driving his charge from place to place, that they might 
 feed on the acorns, beech-mast, &c., of the woods. One morning the herd scampered 
 down the side of the hill till they reached a place where the hot springs of Bath are 
 now situated, and after wallowing in the moory bed, returned covered with black mud. 
 Bladud, who had acquired habits of reflection among the savans of Athens, was surprised 
 that the pigs should seek a bath in winter time, as well as in summer, and set about 
 studying the facts of the case. On examining the spot he found that a steam arose, 
 and further investigation showed him that the mud was warm. INIoreover the pigs by 
 repeated ablutions in these mud baths, became quite free from the cutaneous disorders 
 with which they were previously afflicted ; and the prince, j udging by analogy, tried 
 the effect upon himself, and to his great joy was completely cleansed from his leprosy, 
 lie then told his employer who he was, and the latter being satisfied of the truth of his 
 story, took him to the court, where he was gladly received. Upon his father's death he 
 erected the first baths. In one of those subsequently built on the spot is a statue of 
 King Bladud or J5aldred, placed there in 1699 with the following inscription : — " Baldred, 
 son of Lord Hudibras, eighth king of the Britons from Brute, a great philosopher and 
 mathematician, bred at Athens, and recorded the first discoverer and founder of these 
 
 * Ciilley, p. 172. 
 
THE BKITISH HOG. 417 
 
 baths, 863 years before Christ." Let no man go to Bath and question the truth of this 
 legend in presence of a native, if he values a whole skin or a sound cranium 
 
 Be this, however, as it may, we have sufficient evidence, independent of this legend, 
 of the pig forming a conspicuous part of the live stock of our Saxon as well as British 
 ancestors. Caesar mentions that the flesh of this animal furnished the natives of Britain 
 with a variety of dishes ; and swine are continually referred to in ancient records, 
 grants, wills, and exchanges of property. The forests then covered a large portion of 
 the country, and in these the swine foimd abundance of food. They constituted a 
 considerable portion of the agricultural wealth of the landed proprietors, and were made 
 the subject of legacies. Thus Alfred, a nobleman, left a relative a hide of land and 
 100 swine ; another 100 for masses for the good of his soul, and 3,000 to his daughters. 
 In the original of Doomsday Book for Hampshire, in which an estimate is given of 
 the value of the king's land and forests, the number of hogs that can be fed on each 
 separate part is invariably specified. 
 
 In Wales the laws of Howel treat of the value of swine. " The price of a pig from 
 the time it is boru until it grows to burrow is one penny ; when it ceases suckliug at the 
 end of three months, it is worth two pence. From that time it goes to the wood, and is 
 considered a swine, and its value is worth four pence. From the Feast of St. John unto the 
 1st January, its value is fifteen pence; fi'om the 1st January unto the Feast of St. John, 
 its value is twenty-four pence ; aud from that time forward its value shall be thirty 
 pence, the same as its mother. The qualities of a sow are, that she breeds pigs, and do 
 not devour them. The seller must also warrant her sound against the quinsy for three 
 days and nights after she is sold. If she should not possess these qualities one-third 
 of her price must be returned. The value of the boar is equal to the value of three 
 sows."* 
 
 Nor were swine of less account, or less under the control of the legislature in 
 England in the early periods of history. The midland counties were then nearly covered 
 with forests of beech and oak, which, in the autumn and early winter, supplied abundance 
 of food for these animals ; and sometimes they were allowed the run of the woods the , 
 whole year. Gilpin, in his " Forest Scenery," describes the method employed to reduce 
 a herd of swine to order when taken to the woods, in the foUowiug terms : — " The first 
 step the swineherd takes is to seek out some close, sheltered part of the forest, where 
 there is a conveniency of water, and plenty of oak or beech-mast, the former of which 
 he prefers, when he can have it in abundance. He next fixes on some spreading 
 tree, round the bole of which he wattles a slight circular fence of the dimensions 
 he wants ; and covering it roughly with boughs and sods, he fills it plentifully with straw 
 or fern. 
 
 " Having made this preparation, he collects his colony among the farmers, and will 
 get together perhaps a herd of 500 or 600 hogs. Having driven them to their destined 
 habitation, he gives them a plentiful supper of acorns or beech-mast, which he had 
 already provided, sounding his horn during the repast. He then turns them into the 
 litter, where, after a long journey and a hearty meal, they sleep soundly. 
 
 " On the next morning he sufifers them to look around, shows them the pool or 
 stream where they may occasionally drink, leaves them to gather the ofial of the last 
 night's meal, gives them another plentiful repast under the neighbouring trees, that 
 
 * " History of the Anglo-Saxons," by Sharoa Turner. Vol. iv. 
 
418 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 almost raiu acorus upon them, for a considerable time to the sound of the horn, and then 
 sends them ouce move to sleep. 
 
 " On the following day he is perhaps at the paius of procuring them another meal, 
 with music playing as before. He then leaves them a little more to themselves, keeping 
 his eye, however, upon them about evening. When their bellies are full they seldom 
 wander far from home, but commonly retire orderly and early to bed. After this he 
 throws the stye open, and leaves them to cater for themselves ; and henceforward has 
 little more trouble with them during the whole time of their migration, but returns 
 home regularly every evening, though they sometimes stray two or three miles from 
 
 their stye By this management the herd is carried home to its owners in such a 
 
 condition, that a little dry meat will soon fatten them. 
 
 " Besides the hogs thus led out in the mast season to fatten, there are others the 
 property of forest keepers, who spend the whole year in similar societies. After the 
 mast season is over, the indigenous forest hog depends chiefly for his livelihood on the 
 roots of fern, and he would find this food very nourishing if he could have it in 
 abundance. But he is obliged to procure it by so laborious an operation, that his 
 meals are rarely accompanied by satiety. He continues, however, by great industry, to 
 obtain a tolerable subsistence through the winter, except in frosty weather, and he must 
 then perish, if he does not in some degree experience his master's care." * 
 
 It may be supposed that this system would sometimes lead to the loss of hogs in the 
 ■woods ; and these would become wild, and be taken by hunting them with hounds, as 
 is practised on the Continent to this day. In the fastnesses of these forests the wild hog 
 was secure from intrusion, except at intervals ; and it was no child's play to encounter 
 a boar of this wild breed. Hertfordshu-e, Buckinghamshire, and Hampshire were almost 
 all forest ; and so lately as 1G4G, the forest of Norwood in Surrey, only four or five 
 miles from London, contained 830 acres, on which the inhabitants of Croydon had 
 liberty of grazing their cattle of all kinds, and as many swine as they could muster. 
 All the forests were crown property, but the borderers had an inalienable right to fatten 
 swine in them upon paying a small tax or fine. The practice is still in full force in 
 Germany, where most of the villages have their swineherd, who, at break of day, goes 
 from house to house collecting his noisy troop, blowing his still more noisy cow-horn, 
 and cracking his clumsy whip, until the place echoes with the din. 
 
 It is generally supposed that the domesticated hog derived his oi'igin from the wild 
 boar, with which the forests of Britain abounded previous to, and for some centuries 
 after, the Conquest. The woodlands north of London contained wild boars, stags, fallow 
 deer, and bulls in the time of Henry II. ; and Whittaker states that the wild boar roved 
 at liberty over the woods of the parish of Manchester for many centuries after the 
 Romans had left that station, and that hence the name of Barlow {boar ground) came to 
 be assigned to a district in the south-western portion. Many other places in the kingdom 
 bear names from their being formerly the haunts of these beasts. No record remains 
 to indicate the period when they became extinct, but in the fourteenth centm-y laws 
 were enacted for the preservation of beasts of venery, amongst which both the wild boar 
 and the wolf were named. Charles I. attempted to reintroduce them by procuring 
 males and females of the breed from Germany, which were turned adrift in the New 
 Forest, in Hampshire ; and there is still, or at least was, a few years since, a breed of 
 "forest pigs," essentially difterent from the true Ilampshu-c, and with more of the 
 
TIIK BRITISH HOG. 419 
 
 characteristics of the Tvild boar. Certain it is that all the ferocious auimals hare given 
 way before the advance of civilisation, and the extension of agriculture, which are 
 totally incompatible with their existence. 
 
 There are many reasons leading to the opinion that the English breed of hogs is derived 
 from the wild breed. Not only did they exhibit a great similarity in then- form and habits, 
 but where the -vvild boar has been tamed, he was found to copulate with the domesticated 
 animal of all breeds, and the period of gestation is the same in both the wild and the 
 tame sow. There is still a breed of pigs in Ireland (although now nearly extinct) 
 possessing many of the traits of the wild breed. The writer purchased one of these in a 
 lot of others. It was long and bony in the legs, light as a greyhound in the carcase, 
 had a long head, aud large flapping ears. After keeping it for six months on abundance 
 of nourishing food, it had scarcely made 1 lb. of fat, and he sold it, in utter despaii- of 
 ever making it fit for the knife. This was formerly the principal breed of England, 
 but is now very seldom to be met with. The chief recommendation it possessed was 
 its prolificness, and the care it took of its offspring. In other respects it was not 
 profitable, being, like our Irish friend, a heavy feeder, without a corresponding increase 
 iu size, or accumulation of fat. Youatt seems to think that it would have been well to 
 have retained the breed with improvement, rather than to discard it altogether for the 
 smaller breeds. Be this as it may, the latter have now obtained the ascendancy, and 
 they certainly yield more profit to the farmer than the old breed. We strongly suspect 
 that Youatt never saw, or, at any rate, never possessed, any of these " light cavalry " of the 
 sty, or he would have been slow to give them credit for any excellence to counterbalance 
 their glaring imperfections and shortcomings. As to the supply of pork, which he 
 thought was in danger of falling short in consequence of the prevalence of the smaller 
 breeds, there is no fear of such a result. The farmers are too much alive to the 
 question of demand and supply not to be aware by the price of pork, when the first is 
 greater than the last, and that it is to their interest to increase the supply, and thus 
 restore the balance. 
 
 The large breed of pigs prevailed in most of the English counties, exhibiting various 
 diff'erences, like other live stock, according to the local cu'cumstances to which they were 
 subjected. The Old Yorkshire, for instance, was one of the largest varieties, having long 
 legs, flat sides, narrow backs, weak loins, and large bones. Their colour was a dirty 
 white, spotted with black ; hair short and wiry, mixed with bristles about the head and 
 neck, and long ears. "With all their advantages of size they seldom exceeded 30 st. in 
 weight, and required an undue proportion of food to reach that. In Leicestershire, 
 Shropshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, &c., difi'erent types of the same breed formerly 
 prevailed ; and that in Cheshire was the largest of all English hogs. They stood from 
 three and a half to four and a half feet high, were long bodied, narrow backed, slab sided, 
 large boned, and long limbed. Their heads were large, and their broad, pendant ears 
 hung over their eyes, and theii- skins were loose and coarse. They fattened up to an 
 enormous weight, without requiring a greater proportion of food than a smaller breed. 
 This pig has produced an excellent cross with the Berkshire boar, which, with other 
 crosses, has almost exterminated the old breed. The Chinese cross has greatly improved 
 the fattening qualities; and while it has reduced the size, has, at the same time, 
 produced a more early matuiity. 
 
 The present breeds or varieties of pigs are as numerous almost as the fancy breeders^ 
 
 E E 3 
 
420 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and inauy of them take the names of the particular parishes, or even the farms on which 
 they were first reared. The most generally acknowledged at the various cattle shows 
 may be reduced to the following list : — 
 
 1. The Berksliire. 
 
 2. The Hampshire. 
 
 3. The Sussex and Kent. 
 
 4. The Windsor. 
 
 5. The White Suffolk. 
 
 6. The Black Suffolk. 
 
 7. The Essex. 
 
 8. The Lincolnshire. 
 
 9. The Chinese. 
 10. The Irish. 
 
 1. THE BERKSHIRE BREED. 
 
 This is a large and very profitable breed of pigs, and is in general estimation on 
 that account. Their colour is a reddish brown, spotted with black, or very dark brown, 
 and they are destitute of bristles. The hair of their bodies is rough, and a fringe of 
 long hairs borders their ears. Their bodies are stout and compactly formed, their legs 
 short, sides deep, heads firmly set on, snouts short, cheeks full, ears erect, flesh firm and 
 finely flavoured, and skin thin. The bacon of the Berkshii-e hog is greatly esteemed. 
 The smallness of the bone of this breed is a powerful recommendation of it ; and it is 
 considered one of the best in England, being also an early and apt fattener on a small 
 proportion of food, and a prolific breeder. It has now a very extensive range throughout 
 almost the whole kingdom, and some excellent crosses have been tried with other breeds ; 
 but none are superior to the original, some of which have been known to fatten up to 
 120 St., of 8 lbs to the stone. Culley mentions one that was fed by Mr. Lawton, of 
 Cheshire, which measured from the snout to the end of the tail three yards eight inches 
 in length, was four feet five and a half inches in height, and when killed and dressed 
 weighed 151 st. 7 lbs. (8 lbs. to the stone), or 86 st. lllbs. avou-dupois. The ordinaiy 
 weight, however, is from twelve to fifteen score, and, at two years old, they sometimes 
 reach twenty score. The most approved cross of the Berkshire pig is that ■nith the 
 Suffolk and Norfolk boar, the produce of which is a smaller, but very hardy, kind of 
 animal that fattens readily ; but in general the pure Berkshire is the most approved. 
 
 A particularly fine breed of Berkshire pigs has been reared at Coleshill, in that county, 
 by Lord Radnor. They are white, with strong hair, very small bone in proportion to 
 their size, small head, square and compact form, large frame. They have successfully 
 competed at the cattle shows, and are much esteemed by the breeders. The improved 
 Berkshire are mostly either wholly white or black, and fatten with much greater facility 
 than the original breed, and at a much earlier stage of life. ]Mr. Druce, of Enshara, 
 has a black breed, which derives its origin from a cross of the Berkshire with the 
 Neapolitan pig, whilst the Coleshill breed is the produce of a Berkshire sow with a 
 Chinese boar. Both breeds are excellent in their kind. 
 
 2. THE HAiAIPSHIRE BREED. 
 
 There are two varieties of pigs in Hampshu-e, a large and a small, and both have of 
 late been subjected to crossings with the Berkshire, the improved Suflblk, and the 
 Essex. The original large breed was white, or black and white, and had a long neck, 
 flat sides, and lai-ge bones, all indicative of its affinity to the old English breed we 
 have described. They requii-ed a great quantity of food to fatten them, but when well 
 
THE BRITISH HOG. 
 
 421 
 
 fed, frequently reached from 40 to 60 imperial stones. The small variety was obtained by 
 crossing, and is more readily and earlier fattened. They frequently attain a considerable 
 weight, and their bacon is much esteemed for its excellent flavour. 
 
 In the New Forest is a wild breed called the " forest pig," to which we have already 
 referred, as having been imported from Germany by the command of Charles I., and 
 turned adrift with the view of re-establishing the breed of wild boars in England — a 
 retrogression in the march of civilisation quite characteristic of the Stuart family. 
 The idea of restoring the practice of boar hunting was more regarded than the safety 
 and well-being of the people, who, in the neighbourhood of the Forest, have been subject 
 both in persons and property to the attacks and depredations of those ferocious and 
 destructive brutes. The " forest pig " is described by Youatt as broad shouldered and 
 high crested, light and lean in the hind quarters, with a bristly mane, and erect ears. 
 
 THE IMPROVED UAMPSHIKE HOG. 
 
 His colour was dark or blackish, and he lived chiefly on beech-mast and acorns. In their 
 semi-wild state they are fierce and savage, do not readily fatten, nor are they at all 
 profitable to the butcher, or those who kill them. Gilpin, in his " Forest Scenery," 
 gives the following graphic account of his encounter vnilx a herd of these forest swine. 
 He had thrown himself on the greensward to rest and shelter under the dense foliage 
 of a large beech tree, when, " suddenly a sound like that of warlike music, mellowed by 
 distance, came upon our ears. We started so far up from our recumbent position, as to 
 lean upon one arm and listen intently, and not without some degree of awe, being 
 almost persuaded that some wondrous fairy pageant was about to gratify our sight. 
 
 " The sound increased and grew harsher as it advanced, and as it drew yet nearer, 
 the tramp of what might easily have been imagined to be elfin chivalry accompanied it. 
 At length, while we yet listened in mute expectation, the leading boar of a large herd 
 of forest pigs came grunting into view, followed by all the musical members of his 
 harmonious detachment. 
 
 " Whether it was the cheering, invigorating effects of the sunshine, or whether there 
 was something particularly savoury in the herbage of that spot we know not ; but the 
 grunting swelled into a loud chorus, their snouts became more and more busy, their 
 ears and tails kept up one continuous and joyous motion, and their small eyes seemed to 
 flash back the sun's rays with unwonted eagerness of expression. It was really an 
 
422 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 interesting sight ; and -were it not that swine were the subject of it, wc should, and truly, 
 say it was as beautiful as interesting. The ereatures were in fine condition j their 
 bristles glittered like silver ; their bodies were as clean as if they were as regularly 
 washed and combed as a lady's lap-dog; and they seemed so full of freedom and 
 happiness, that while looking on them we felt all the romance of forest life, and recol- 
 lections of the ' merrie green wood.' 
 
 " Wishing to observe and admire them more closely, we sprang up, but in so doing 
 alarmed them, and off they galloped helter-skelter, ' sauve qui pent,' with a speed that 
 none of the porcine race not ' forest-born ' and bred could equal ; and long after every 
 one was out of sight — vanished in the mazes of the woodland — wc still heard their 
 retreating trumpets gradually dying away until lost in the distance." 
 
 3. THE SUSSEX AND KENTISH BREEDS. 
 
 There is but little difference between the native breeds of these two counties, which 
 in some respects arc similar to the large Old Berkshire, and in others to the black and 
 white Essex pig. The Old Kentish pigs are long in the legs, and narrow backed, ears 
 moderately long, hair white and thickly set. They are moderately sized, and when full 
 grown and fat will weigh from 18 st. to 25 st. of 14 lbs. The Rudgwick breed, however, 
 which takes its name from the village of that name in Sussex, is considered the largest 
 breed of swine in England, fattening at two years old to GO or 70 imperial stones. 
 They are valuable as bacon, hogs, but as they are comparatively large consumers they 
 are not much in favour, and are now seldom met with. 
 
 The Old Sussex is a rather small black and white breed, handsomely formed, hair 
 thinly set, fine, and long ; ears pointed forward, long thin face, witli a small mouth, &c. 
 These pigs mature early and fatten freely. Their flesh is of excellent quality when they 
 are well fed and full grown. Their average weight is 18 or 20 imperial stones. A cross 
 with tlic Lincolnshire pig has increased their size, but not improved tliem in other respects. 
 
 4. THE WINDSOR BREED. 
 
 We are indebted for this breed to the late Prince Consort, who paid great attention 
 to this class of animals, as well as to cattle. The Windsor pigs are of a small size, but 
 remarkable for their tendency to accumulate fat at a very early stage of their growth. 
 They are white, and are noted for the smallness of their bone, and the delicate shape of 
 their heads and pointed ears. Ilis Royal Highness received several prizes and medals 
 for these pigs, but we have no means of knowing what particular breed they originated 
 from, except their shape, make, &e., by which wc should judge they are a cross of the 
 native Berkshire with the improved Sufiblk and Cliinese. 
 
 6. THE WHITE SUFFOLK BREED. 
 
 The present breed of White Suffolk pigs is a cross with the old race and the 
 improved Berksliirc. The old native pig was white, with long legs and body, and 
 narrow back, a broad forehead, close short hair, very bristly. This animal was firsjt 
 improved by a cross with the Lincoln, which produced a more hardy animal, that 
 fattened more kindly up to from 30 st. to 10 st. imperial weight. One breeder. 
 
THE BRITISH HOG. 
 
 423 
 
 Mr. Thomas Crisp, of Butley Abbey, near Woodbridge, has been remarkably successful 
 in his efforts to improve the Suffolk breed ; and his stock is in so much request that the 
 produce of one sow has paid him not less than £1,000. These pigs are short legged, 
 
 THE IMPIiOTED SUFFOLK HOG. 
 
 small boned, compact, well formed, and hardy, and will fatten at twelve or fifteen months 
 old up to 15 or IT) score if well fed. Tlie Norfolk pigs arc much the same as the general 
 run of Suffolk ; the Chinese strain is perceptible in most of them, that animal having 
 been introduced into Norfolk about seventy years ago by the late John Culley, Esq., 
 then of Ringland, near Norwich, who had a large stock of them, which were thence 
 disseminated over the coxmties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and have greatly promoted the 
 improvement of the various breeds that previously existed. 
 
 6. THE BLACK SUFFOLK BREED. 
 
 This breed is, we believe, the produce of a cross of the Black Bei'ksliire with the 
 improved Suffolk. In other respects they are similar to the white — for instance, in their 
 disposition to* accumulate fat. The Neapolitan breed has also been introduced by some 
 of the breeders, and has greatly improved the shape and symmetry of the native 
 stock. Mr. Crisp's improved Black Suffolks are a remarkably fine breed, and have 
 gained him many prizes at the shows of the Smithfield Club. 
 
 7. THE ESSEX BKEED. 
 
 These are derived from a cross between the Berkshire pig and the Neapolitan. Tliey 
 are mostly black and white, but sometimes wholly black. Some have the head and hind 
 part black, and the back and belly white. Tlieir heads are smaller than those of the 
 Berkshire swine, with long, thin, upright ears, short hair, a thin skin, full hind quarters, 
 and a deep barrel-shaped carcase, small bone, and delicate well-flavoured flesh. Lord 
 Western took great pains to improve the Essex breed, and his stock is now disseminated 
 throughout that county; but it is a little remarkable that not one professedly Essex 
 pig was exhibited at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show in December, 1861. 
 
 j\Ir. Clare, of Ilindlcy House, near Liverpool, has raised a valuable breed gf Essex 
 
434 
 
 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 pigs, one of which has won him eight first prizes, two second, and one third, at various 
 shows. Several litters of this sow have brought her owner £120. 
 
 The black breed is the most esteemed, and is distinguished by small excrescences 
 lianging from the throat termed " wattles." They are not quick fatteners, but will 
 
 THE EJSEX riG. 
 
 reach 35 imperial stones when well fed. They grow rapidly, laying on flesh rather than 
 fat ; and their pork, Avhether eaten fresh or as bacon, is fine flavoured and not too much 
 loaded with fat. Tlie breeding sows are not reckoned good nurses, but they have large 
 litters. 
 
 8. THE LINCOLNSHIRE BREED. 
 
 The original breed of Lincoln pigs is white, having a long body, round carcase, 
 fine skin, almost destitute of bristles, a well formed and moderately sized bead, erect 
 ears, pointing forward and curled at the tips, hair long, fine, and scanty. In fattening 
 properties they were once considered superior to every other breed except the 
 Berkshire ; they frequently attain to 25 st. or 30 st. imperial wfeight at a year and a 
 half old, and at two years and a half will reach 45 st. to 50 st., although they do not 
 arrive at maturity so early as those of some other breeds. They have sometimes been 
 crossed with the Chinese, which, although reducing them in size, increased their 
 fattening qualities at a less expense of food, the Chinese pigs being very small eatei'S. 
 
 The Old Lincolnshire pigs were far from being profitable to the farmer. They 
 were of a light colour, and had a curly coat of hair, of a medium size, but were long 
 legged, narrow backed, and thick skinned, eating largely, and fattening slowly, seldom 
 reaching above 20 st. 
 
 9. THE CHINESE PIG. 
 
 The pig is a special object of the Chinaman's attention and solicitude, forming the 
 chief source of his animal food. Vast numbers of them are reared throughout that 
 country and Japan, and much skill and judgment is displayed in crossing the different 
 breeds — with what success we may gather from the excellent types that are brought to 
 Europe from thence. The two species that are chiefly introduced to us are the Siamese, 
 which is black, and the Chinese Proper, which is white. The colour constitutes almost 
 
THE BRITISH HOG. 
 
 435 
 
 llie only difiFerence between them. Crosses of these sometimes produce a piebald 
 species ; but in other respects they exhibit no changes of characteristics. Both breeds 
 are small in size, with a neat head, ears small, short, and inclining backwards ; bones 
 fine, legs short and small; the back slopes from the head and sinks in the middle, 
 causing the belly almost to trail on the ground. The body is cylindrical in form, the 
 hair short and soft, and nearly destitute of bristles. 
 
 Lay, the natLiralist, who went out to China with Captain Bcechy's expedition, in the 
 work he published after his return, draws a ludicrous comparison between the pig and 
 the Chinese people. " There is," he says, " a striking analogy between these two. A 
 Chinese admires a round face and the smooth curvatures of a tun belly, and, where 
 opportunity serves, cultivates these additions to personal beauty in himself. The 
 Chinese pig is fashioned on the same model. At an early period the back becomes 
 concave, the belly protuberant, and the visage shows a remarkable disposition to 
 rotundity. Nor is the resemblance merely personal ; in the moral character there is an 
 amusing similitude, contrariety and obstinacy being the prevailing characteristics of 
 both men and brutes."* 
 
 THE CHINESE I'lG 
 
 So careful are the Chinese of not hindering the progress of their pigs in fattening, 
 that when they want to remove them from place to place, they seldom allow them to 
 ■walk, but convey them in a kind of cradle suspended upon a pole, and carried by two 
 men. " The difficulty," says the author referred to above, " is to get the animal into 
 his carriage, and this is accomplished by the cradle being placed in front of the pig, 
 and the owner then pulling vigorously at ' porkey's ' tail, in the spirit of opposition 
 the animal darts into the place they have prepared for him. At the journey's end 
 the bearers dislodge him by spitting in his face."t 
 
 The Chinese are remarkable for keeping their pigsties and the beds of the hogs 
 scrupulously clean. Pork is plentiful enough, but it is too loose and flabby to suit the 
 palate of an Englishman. The natives cut it into thin slices, and fry it in soy, to correct 
 the lusciousness of the fat. They also cut it into long rashers and dry them in the 
 sun, which, however it may improve its flavour, imparts to the diner-out an ugly 
 reminiscence of dog's flesh, which is similarly treated and served up to table. 
 * "The ChiDese as they are," by Tradescant Lay. + IbiJ. 
 
426 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The Chinese pigs brought to this country corae direct from Canton as sea-stocky and 
 what are left over are sold. It would not pay to bring them over as cargo^ unless they 
 could be sold at a very higb price. By the former means, however, they have been 
 introduced, and have proved a valuable addition to our domestic animals, most of the 
 present breeds of English pigs having now evident marks of owing their best charac- 
 teristics to a cross with the Chinese, amongst which we may instance the small head, short 
 and thin snout and jaw, thick chaps, and, above all, that remarkable tendency to 
 accumulate fat at an early age, which is the distinguishing feature of this description of 
 stock at our agricultural shows. The Neapolitan pig resembles the Chinese in most of 
 its peculiarities, and was most probably brought originally from that country. It 
 has been extensively imported into England, and the crosses with the native breeds 
 have been very successful. Some of the Italian farmers, especially in the mountainous 
 parts, keep large herds of swine. Count Chateauvieux, a Swiss nobleman, states that 
 he has seen a herd of 2,000 pigs of tlie domestic black breed at the farm of Campo 
 Marto. These run all the year round on the open wastes, and are fed with the chestnuts 
 and acorns which the mountain forests supply, and the meat produced is excellent. 
 
 The Chinese pig in his " store " state is wild and rather savage. The writer bought 
 some of them when in Ireland, of the pure black breed, which were so ferocious that they 
 would attack any one who offered to get into their sty ; and they were so nimble, that 
 when they broke loose it was with no small difficulty they could be caught, and again 
 shut up. They were lean when purchased, but fattened so fast that they were ready 
 for the butcher in a month, although not weighing more than 7 imperial stones. 
 
 10. THE IRISH PIG. 
 
 " Why, Pat ! you give your pig the best corner of the cabin ; how is this ?" " Faix, 
 yer honner, and doesn't he pay the rint ? " Such is the argument said to be urged by 
 an Irish peasant for allowing piggy to occupy the warmest nook of his miserable cabin. 
 The writer has seen in the one apartment, an old grandmother bedridden at one corner, 
 a sow and her family in another, and a donkey in a third, the rest of the household 
 living anywhere or anyhow. The pig, in fact, as Sambo said, is the only gentleman in 
 the family.* Let who will suffer from cold, hunger, or fatigue, the Irish pig is sure to 
 have the warmest nook of the ingle, the fullest meal of the scanty pot of potatoes, and 
 he enjoys the most luxurious ease. The playfellow of the children, and the hope of the 
 pareut, his title to the supremacy of comfort and enjoyment is imdisputed, and he 
 asserts it to the end of the chapter, which only closes at " rint day." 
 
 In travelling in Ireland towards a town at which a fair is about to be held, it is 
 amusing to see for the last eight or ten miles a continuous line of peasants, each gently 
 and tenderly driving a fat pig before him, held by a piece of rope or a straw band, 
 generally accompanied by a neighbour or two, to assist him in making a bargain with 
 the chapman he expects to meet at the fair, it being too important a matter to be 
 settled by the judgment of the owner only. Quite as amusing is it to witness the 
 serious consultations of the friends upon the eligibility of the offer made, and — oh ! tlie 
 hardening influence of commerce! — the indifference with which Pat consigns his old 
 
 * "De pig is de ony gentleman : massy work, missy work, oberseer work, horse work, nigger work — all work but 
 dc pig ; derefore de pig is de ony gentleman," 
 
THE BRITISH HOG. 427 
 
 friend to tlie tender mercies of the butclier or army contractor, upon receiving the quid 
 pro quo in hard cash or notes. 
 
 The old Irish pig was a detestable brute, without a single quality to recommend him. 
 He was rightly called " the greyhound pig," though certainly possessing none of the 
 grace of the greyhound. Tall, long-legged, bony, lop-eared, coarse coated, with large 
 wattles, termed in Irish sluiddeen, hanging from the throat ; a long snout ornamented 
 with very suspicious tusks, a high-arched back, and a bristly mane, he seemed to be the 
 very converse of everything that modern ideas of swinish beauty and goodness would 
 suggest of perfection. There was much of the wild boar in the character of this animal, 
 and no common fence would confine him, for he would take a hedge or a five-barred 
 gate at a leap with as much ease as his prototype the greyhound. 
 
 Amongst other alleviating circumstances, the famine of 1847 swept away this unprofit- 
 able breed ; and so when the reaction and recovery took place it was necessary to have 
 recoiu-se to a new stock, the old one ha^dug disappeared. The introduction of the 
 improved Berkshire, and other of the best English pigs, has placed the porcine stock of 
 Ireland upon a par with our own. This change, amongst many others, has been 
 accelerated by the large infusion of Scotch and English farmers into the agriculture of 
 Ireland, and by the aggregation of the land into large and moderate sized farms. By 
 the operation of this change, capital, as well as skill ^d knowledge, is diffused and 
 employed throughout the country, and more discrimination is exercised in the choice of 
 the various kinds of domestic animals. The cattle shows of the Royal Dublin Society, 
 share also largely in the merit of the improvement of the breeds of animals of all kinds 
 of the farm. 
 
 Richardson, in his work on the pig, states that one, the produce of a cross of a 
 sow of the old breed with a Hampshire boar, was exhibited at the show of the Royal 
 Dublin Society, and gained the first prize. " It weighed over 41 st., was the property of 
 a humble cottager, by name Peter Flood, who expatiated to us with no small pride and 
 apparent pleasure, upon the facility with which the animal had put on flesh, and the 
 very small proportion of feeding that had sufficed to render him the truly respectable 
 looking fellow he was."* Large numbers of Irish pigs are annually sent to England, 
 chiefly in the " store," or lean state. The same author just qiioted relates from 
 Moubray, that in the spring of 1830, a drove of Irish pigs, amounting to 14,000, passed 
 through a turnpike in the west of England ; and Youatt says that in 1837 no less than 
 595,422 pigs were imported into England from thence, the number in 1821 being only 
 105,501, so much had steam navigation increased the trade between the two countries. 
 
 * Richai-ason on " The Pig," p. 50. 
 
428 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION XXIX. 
 
 THE KABBIT. 
 
 The less the farmer has to do with these destructive animals out of doors the better. In 
 no instance cau they be encouraged witliout inflicting serious injury upon both the 
 fences and the crops. We have already expressed ovir opinion of the practice of some 
 landowners, who make provision for the multiplication of these vermin, by in part 
 paying their gamekeepers with them. To show the extent to which these men, thus 
 encouraged to keep up a large head of them, will quickly effect their purpose, take the 
 following calculation : — Suppose a pair of rabbits turned into a plantation. These 
 animals in a state of natui'C are said to breed eleven times in the year, bringing forth, 
 on an average, eight at a birth. Let us, however, say that on an average they breed 
 eight times only, and further suppose that half the progeny are males, and consequently 
 only the females are capable of increasing the number. Again, supposing that none are 
 killed the first four years, the resvdt will be as follows : — 
 
 First year — One pair breediug S times aid '^ iy8x8= 64 
 bringing forth 8 eacli time . . . • 3 
 
 Second year-3a females .'52x8x8= 2,048 
 
 Thirdjear— 1,021. females 1,024X8X8= 65,536 
 
 Fourth year-32,768 females 32,768x8x8= 3,097,152 
 
 Total increase in four years . . 2,164,800 
 
 That this calculation is not far from the truth is proved by the experience of those farmers 
 who are cursed with landlords that practise the disgraceful fraud we have denounced, 
 and which is neither more nor less than making the tenant pay the keepers double and 
 treble the amount of their actual ill-gotten wages, by the destruction of their crops.* 
 
 The only description of country in which rabbits can be profitably kept in warrens, 
 is where the soil consists of sandy hills, incapable of profitable cultivation, and even 
 these must be enclosed by stone or turf walls, or fences four feet high, to prevent the 
 rabbits from ranging over the cultivated districts adjacent, which they will otherwise 
 do for miles. In Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, &c., there are extensive tracts of this 
 description of land, that are fit for nothing else than rabbit warrens, to which purpose 
 they are accordingly devoted. Those in the neighbourhood of Brandon, in Suffolk, and 
 Thetford, in Norfolk, supply the London market with immense numbers of these animals. 
 
 In the domesticated state, rabbits, if properly and judiciously attended to, may be 
 made to yield a considerable profit. In Holland, Belgium, and France they form an 
 important item in the economic management of the small occupations, and large 
 
 * A case was recently brought into the Assize Court for the county of Hertford, in which it appeared that a land- 
 owner had sold the right of shooting and sporting over his property, which was let to respectable tenants. The feUows 
 to whom the manor was let, not contented with the natural increase of the game on the property, employed a gamekeeper 
 to purchase hundreds of live nMils, which were turned loose, and, as may be supposed, soon overran the estate in 
 thousands. The tenants were compelled to abandon their farms, and one of them brought an action against the parties for 
 the destruction of his crops. But such was the intimidation or the innuence brought to bear upon the jury, that although 
 the cause was twice tried, a verdict could not be obtained, to the disgrace of the county. The plaintiff has, therefore, 
 moved for a writ to remove the cause into the Court of Queen's Bench, ia London, which has been granted, and we now 
 trust that ample justice will be done to the principal actors in this infamous affair, altlnush ^^^ landlord is equally 
 culpable with them. 
 
THE RABBIT. 429 
 
 numbers are weekly exported from Ostend and other ports to England during the proper 
 season. These are generally of the large white breed, which are preferred by the breeders 
 ou account of their fur, whicli is long and thick, and sells readily to the furriers, and 
 tlie hat-makers, the latter of whom substitute it for beaver fur in their manufactures. 
 At the time of year when the fur is loose the breeders pull it off, and they affirm that so 
 far from suffering pain from the operation, it appears rather to give the animals pleasure. 
 
 Rabbits are capable of reproduction at six months old, but the breeders do not 
 allow the does to be put to the bucks before nine months, and they leave them together 
 only about ten minutes. The period of gestation is thirty days, and the buck is admitted 
 again immediately after parturition, so that the doe is capable of producing every month. 
 The fanciers, however, generally take two litters every three months, when in confinement. 
 The number of young produced is from four to twelve, but with tame rabbits it is usual 
 to destroy all over six, which, it is considered, are quite enough to be brought up 
 profitably. No control can, of course, be exercised over the wild rabbits; but their 
 numbers are greatly reduced by the numerous enemies which always frequent a warren — 
 such as hawks, kites, polecats, weazels, &c. &c. In addition to these, the bucks 
 themselves destroy great numbers of the young when they can get to tliem. In the 
 domestic state the bucks should be kept separate after six months, and never allowed 
 to associate with the does during the period of gestation, or the two sexes will quarrel 
 and tear one another to pieces. They will continue to breed for five years if properly 
 managed, but the bucks will not continue efficient more than two or three years. 
 
 On a farm the rabbits generally have their burrows in the hedges, on which they 
 make great havoc. Their nests, however, are made in the open field amongst the corn, 
 lu this case they make a burrow, and then form the nest in it, with the fur from their 
 own breast. They suckle their young twice a day, carefully covering the mouth of the 
 burrow with mould every time they leave. 
 
 Tame rabbits should be fed regidarly three times a day, i.e., at eight in the morning, 
 two, and six o'clock in the afternoon. Only sufficient food for the meal should be given 
 them, as they will not eat what remains unless compelled by hunger, which should never 
 be allowed. Never give them vegetables in a wet state. Bread, oats, or dry roots, 
 such as potatoes, carrots, and parsnips, are good at one of the meals. Avoid giving 
 them weeds or vegetables in a bad state, as they will cause them to scour. 
 
 Hutches are generally used for keeping rabbits. If they are in tiers, the upper ones 
 should be so arranged that the droppings should not fall into the lower. The does' 
 hutches should have two compartments, but the bucks need only one. The droppings 
 should be carefully preserved, as they are equally valuable as guano for manure, and two 
 loads are quite sufficient for an acre of land. The hutches should be kept dry and 
 scrupulously clean. The duug is considered almost valuable enough to pay for the 
 keeping of the animals. The Angora and the Lop-eared are the best to keep in hutches ; 
 both have long fur, but they are of delicate constitutions, and require to be kept warm. 
 
 The food of rabbits shoidd be solid and nutritious to render them profitable. Corn, 
 and that of the best quality, and as much as they will eat, with a fair supply of good 
 vegetables, will keep them in health, whilst inferior food, and the refuse of vegetables, 
 ^viU engender disease ; the former will yield a profit, but the latter is sm"e to incur a 
 loss. Oats, barley, peas, and wheat, are equally acceptable to them. Pollard and buck- 
 wheat are also good. Parsnips, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes, baked or steamed potatoes j 
 
430 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and for gi'een food lucern^ cabbages^ clover, tares, and furze. Meadow and clover hay 
 are both good for them. In short, to vary the food, and always to let it be of the best 
 quality, is the only plan to make the keeping of rabbits profitable. Some of the larger 
 breeds have been fattened in a few weeks to from 15 lbs. to 20 lbs. weight. Many of these 
 kinds have been sold as high as 5 guineas each. 
 
 Again, in conclusion, we would say to the farmer, never take a farm the landlord of 
 which preserves the rabbits, or allows the keepers the privilege of keeping up a head as a 
 portion of his wages or perquisites. Such farms are not worth 5s. an acre, whatever may 
 be the quality of the land, independent of the constant state of warfare between those 
 privileged spies and the occupier, which is sure, sooner or later, to involve him with his 
 landlord. Moubray mentions a farm, the produce of which was wholly destroyed by 
 rabbits. It was situated near some preserves ; " but," he goes on to say, " it is equally 
 unfortunate for a farmer to be fixed near to, or within some miles of a warren, since 
 they will travel a great distance to feed, either upon corn or vegetables ; and, if the soil 
 and corn be to their liking, will always remain in sufficient numbers to stock a new 
 district. At the same time they are good and profitable stock in a domestic state — 
 infinitely more so under good management than in their wild and exposed state; and 
 their dung is extremely valuable on a farm." 
 
 A river may be considered as an efl'ectual barrier against the inroads of a colony of 
 these vermin, but there are circumstances under which it forms no protection. In the 
 year 1796, or 1797, the writer was residing with his father, who had an estate situated 
 on the banks of the Yare, in Norfolk. On the opposite bank was an extensive rabbit 
 warren, well stocked at all times. The winter of one of the years referred to was a 
 very severe and protracted one, and the Yare for many weeks was wholly frozen over. 
 The consequence was, that the entire colony of rabbits migrated across the ice to the 
 opposite bank, and the estate in question thenceforth swarmed with them for many years. 
 In proof of the severity of the winter that year, two gentlemen, one of whom was the 
 Rev. Mr. Munniugs, of Gressenhall, skated from Gressenhall to Norwich along the 
 Yare (the distance being at least twenty miles), only landing at the mills on the passage. 
 
 SECTION XXX. 
 THE POULTRY YARD. 
 
 However insignificant the smaller denizens of the farm may appear in the eyes of an 
 English farmer, who numbers his oxen by the hundred, and his sheep by the thousand, 
 they are far from being contemptible as an object of profitable cultivation if properly 
 managed, and on a scale commensm-ate with the size of the farm. At present the pro- 
 duce of the poultry yard is considered the perquisite of the farmer's wife or daughters, 
 who thereby supply themselves with clothing ; or even, in some cases we have known, 
 the produce goes towards paying the grocery, as well as the liucn-drapery, bill. By 
 this method of disposing of the produce, the farmer himself is relieved from paying 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 
 
 431 
 
 attentioa to a kind of stock wliiclij as a matter of fact^ he considers much below his 
 notice (except when they make their appearance at the dinner-table), and only fit to be 
 superintended by the females of the family. 
 
 Such is not the case with the French and Belgian farmers. It is true that gene- 
 rally speaking the farms are smaller in those countries than in England; but the 
 keeping of an extensive basse-cour, or poultry yard, is not confined to the small occu- 
 piers, the larger ones making it an equally important object of rural economy, by which 
 the inferior grain is disposed of at a fair profit without being subject to much, or any, 
 fluctuation of prices. To show the justness of the importance attached to this branch of 
 rural economy on the Continent, we adduce the following account of the number of eggs 
 imported into the United Kingdom in ten years : — 
 
 
 
 Broaght forward 
 
 . 564,628,098 
 
 1852 . . 
 
 . . 115,526,245 
 
 1857 . . . . 
 
 . 126,818,600 
 
 1853 . . 
 
 . . 108,281,233 
 
 1858 . . . . 
 
 . 134,684,800 
 
 1854 . . 
 
 . . ] 23,618,020 
 
 1859 .... 
 
 . 148,631,000 
 
 1855 . . 
 
 . . 90,782,800 
 
 1860 . . . . 
 
 . 167,695,400 
 
 1856 . . 
 
 . . 117,419,809 
 
 1861 .... 
 Total . . . 
 
 . 203,313,360 
 
 
 564,628,098 
 
 1,345,772,258 
 
 Of the importations of poultry we have no regular account since 1856, but the following 
 is given in the publications of the Board of Trade as the annual imports up to that date : — 
 
 PouLTKY Imported in the Years 1854, '55, and '5G. 
 
 1854 valnc £38,876 
 
 1855 „ 42,075 
 
 1856 „ 48,230 
 
 £129,181 
 
 If we reckon the cost of the eggs at only 4</. per dozen, the value of the eggs averages 
 in the ten years £186,912 yearly, or an aggregate of £1,869,126 sterling; and if the 
 poultry are added, the value would probably reach £2,500,000 in the ten years. If the 
 same number were raised in this country, the value would be still greater, it being well 
 known that English eggs and poultry are much superior to those imported from the 
 Continent. 
 
 Surely, then, this statement is sufficient to show that the breeding and rearing of 
 poultry might be carried on with advantage in England to a much larger extent than it 
 is at present, and that it is far from being beneath the notice of the large farmer. The 
 quantity of poultry consumed in London alone is enormous, as the following statement 
 shows : — 
 
 Poultry sold annually at Newgate and Leadenhall Markets. 
 
 Alive. 
 Game, &c 
 
 Domestic fowls . 60,000 
 
 Geese 
 
 Backs 40,000 
 
 Turkeys 
 
 Pigeons 
 
 Dead. 
 910,000 
 1,756.000 
 1,002,000 
 383,000 
 124,000 
 383,000 
 
 100,000 4,558,000 
 
 Sold by I'uultci'ers aud Slioijkcepers ..... 
 
 Total 
 
 Total. 
 910,000 
 1,816,000 
 1,002,000 
 423,000 
 124,000 
 383,000 
 
 4,658,000 
 350,000 
 
 5,003.000 
 
432 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 If any further stimulus were wanting to cause a more extended attention to this 
 objectj ire have the praiseworthy example of our beloved sovereign, Queen Victoria, who 
 has formed an extensive poultry yard, the management of which she personally super- 
 intends, and is never more pleased or happy than when surrounded with these pets of the 
 basse-cour ; nor has this example been without its influence ah-eady, as may be seen in 
 the extraordinary display of the feathered tribes at the Agricultural Shows at Birming- 
 ham, and at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, at both which the exhibition of fowls and 
 poultry of every description proves what miglit be done, if proper attention was more 
 generally paid to them. At the Birmingham Cattle Show, in 1852, there were 1,200 
 pens of poultry ; and one pen, consisting of a Spanish cock and four hens, sold for fifty 
 guineas, and a Cochin Chinese Cock brought the owner £2o. A pair of Poland fowls 
 also, cock and hen, sold for eighteen guineas. 
 
 The London market is chiefly supplied with poultry of English breeding from the 
 counties of Essex, Surrey, Hampshire, Berkshire, and Buckingham. At Wokingham, 
 in Berkshire, the rearing and fattening of fowls for the London market is the chief 
 business of the place, and many families are almost entirely supported by it. The 
 Dorking fowls, too, are mucli esteemed in the meti-opolis, and large numbers of them are 
 fattened there for that market. ]\Iost of the capons sent to London are reared and fed 
 there and at Wokingham. Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk chiefly supply the 
 English geese and turkeys consumed in Loudon ; and the former constitute a very 
 important part of the rural economy of the fens and marshes of those counties. But 
 the railroad system of the kingdom, being ramified into the remotest districts, facilitates 
 the conveyance of all kinds of provisions, whether alive or dead ; and the wonder is, 
 that this does not induce the farmers to pay more attention to this source of profit, and 
 endeavour to keep at least a part of that supply in their own hands, of which the 
 foreigner now enjoys so large a monopoly. 
 
 We are not alone in our estimation of the importance attached to this subject. 
 Since the stimulus given to the rearing of poultry by the introduction of the Cochin 
 Chinese fowls, many writers have come forward to urge the desirableness of extending 
 the rearing and fattening of fowls, and making it a regular part of the business of the 
 farm. One of these, writing in the Times newspaper (and quoted in the " Poultry 
 Book"), says : — " We speak with the more earnestness on account of the very considerable 
 margin for improvement actually existing in the present state of our poultry markets. 
 The price paid for fowls in London is preposterously high, even according to their present 
 rate of multiplication and increase ; and if by crossing the breed with these interesting 
 importations (the Cochin Chinese), the productiveness of the general stock should be 
 augmented, it wiU be out of all question that such prices should continue. If the poultry 
 fanciers of the present season are really discharging any public duty, they must needs 
 anticipate greater cheapness and greater abundance in the breed of oui- domestic fowls. We 
 really feel compelled to assume that the Cochin Chinese variety cannot, even in the eyes 
 of fasliion, be considered simply ornamental, and that its merits must needs reside mainly 
 in its uses. More eggs, therefore, and more fowls of a better description, ought to be 
 ultimately producible, and this improvement ought to act on the markets of the country. 
 There is no reason why poultry should not be considered as a species of agricultural stock, 
 and be turned to as good account both for producers and consumers. The consumption 
 of fowls, in fact, is exceedingly large ; and, but for their unnecessary costliness, would be 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 433 
 
 still larger. For this unnatural price there is no kind of excuse. The means of 
 transport provided by railways so completely answers all purposes, that every county in 
 England may either transmit its produce to London, or select its own market elsewhere, 
 at a very small cost of time or money. Fowls, too, travel more easily tlian any other 
 animals. They can be despatched alive or dead with equal facility, and there are no 
 gate dues or taxes to heighten their price on a metropolitan market or stall. Yet, 
 although 2*. 6d. a couple would, according to all calculable expenses, be a remunerative 
 charge, we are compelled to pay at least double." 
 
 Another ■writer, in the Agricultural Gazette, says : — " For good poultry there is 
 always a sale in London, and where there has not hitherto been, they will supply (or 
 create) one ; for the fact that they are to be had of good quality, will cause application 
 to be made for them; but in London there is always a demand. Like all other 
 pi'ovisions, there are different periods for different prices, and here it is that poultry- 
 shows do much good in offering premiums for early maturity. If those who have 
 facilities for rearing chickens will do so in January, or even in December, and bring 
 them to market in a fat state in April, May, and June, they cannot fail to receive a 
 remunerating price. Thi'ce pounds per dozen is a common value for fowls four months 
 old. At this season (January), less than 2 guineas Avould be ridiculously low." 
 
 A collateral advantage to the farmer would arise from the consumption of tlie 
 inferior sorts of grain. "We do not mean inferior in quality, but of kind ; for it will not 
 answer to give fattening fowls anything but the very best barley, peas, &c., whatever 
 may be given to the growing ones. Some of the Lincolnshire farmers, who keep geese 
 in great numbers, consume by them a hundred quarters of corn in the season at a good 
 profit, charging it to the fowl account at the fidl market price. 
 
 Looking, therefore, at the constant, large, and increasing demand for poultry in 
 London, and the possibility of increasing indefinitely the consumption in the country 
 also, there is every inducement for the British farmer to direct his attention to this 
 branch of rural economy, and to give to the business of rearing and fattening fowls that 
 place in the ordinary management of the farm, to which its importance entitles it. 
 
 SECTION XXXI. 
 
 THE DIFFERENT BREEDS OF POULTRY. 
 
 The common English fowls, Phasianus Galliis, are said to have their origin from the 
 jungle fowl of India, or from Persia, from whence they have been disseminated over 
 every country of the known world. The numerous varieties, arising in the first instance 
 from the influence of climate, situation, food, or accident, have been further multiplied, 
 like those of all other domestic animals, by innumerable crossings of the different 
 breeds ; whilst the size of many of them has been increased by greater attention to the 
 breeding and rearing, and the selection of the best types for that purpose. Besides, 
 therefore, the strictly native fowl of Britain that peculiarly belongs to it, there are other 
 
 r r 
 
434 AGEICULTDRE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 denizens of the poultry yard wliieh Lave been imported from time to time^ and have 
 become naturalised amongst us, a short aecount of -nhich may prove both interesting 
 and useful to the reader, especially as most works on agriculture have omitted the subject 
 altogether,, or given the most meagre aecount of it, as if it was not worthy the attention 
 of the farmer. The following list comprehends the principal breeds of poultry at present 
 acknowledged in the United Kingdom : — 
 
 1. The Dorking. 
 
 1 7. The Bantam. 
 
 13. 
 
 The Turkey. 
 
 2. The Game. 
 
 8. The Frizzled. 
 
 14. 
 
 The Pea Fowl. 
 
 3. The PoUih. 
 
 9. The SOk. 
 
 15. 
 
 The Guinea i'uwl 
 
 4. The Hamburgh. 
 
 i 10. TheShanghae. 
 
 16. 
 
 The Swan. 
 
 5. The Malay. 
 
 j 11. The Rampless. 
 
 17. 
 
 The Goose. 
 
 G. The Sjianish. 
 
 1 ] 2. The Barii-duor. 
 
 18. 
 
 The Duck. 
 
 1. THE DORKING FOWL. 
 
 The Dorking fowl is considered to be the descendant of the ancient race of Engbsh 
 fowls, having existed in the country " time out of miud " beyond the Roman conquest, 
 and probably crossed with others brought over by the conquerors. Certain it is, that 
 the description of the Roman fowls given by Columella corresponds singularly ^rith that of 
 the Dorking breed, as the following quotation shows : — " It is not advisable to buy any but 
 such as are prolific. They should be of a plumage very red, or tawny with black wings. 
 Let the whole be of the same colour, or of a near approach to it ; but if of any other 
 colour, let white fowls be avoided, for they are tender and less robust ; neither is it easy 
 to find specimens of them that are prolific. Let the breeding hens be of a choice colour', 
 of robust body, square-framed, large and broad breasted, large headed, with small, erect, 
 bright red comb, white ears ; and of those thus characterised let the largest be procured, 
 and not with an even number of claws. Those hens are reckoned of the piu'cst breed 
 which zxe five-clawed, but so placed that no cross spurs arise from the legs; for she that 
 has this male-like appendage is rarely fruitful, and when she does sit she breaks the 
 eggs -nith her sharp claws. 
 
 "The cocks should be lustful, coloui'cd like the hens, Avith the same number of 
 claws, but taller, proud of carriage, combs erect and blood red, eyes brown or black, 
 beak short and hooked, ears very large, and very white ; wattles looking whiter from 
 their shining, and hanging down like a hoary beard ; the feathers of the neck or mane 
 varying, but preferably from yellow to golden, and spreading down over the shoulders ; 
 the breast broad and muscular ; the wings brawny, like arms ; the tail lofty, and 
 composed of a double row of arching feathers, alike on each side ; the thighs ample and 
 usually thick-clothed with coarse feathers ; legs sturdy, not long, but armed, as it were, 
 with dangerous spears. Even when prepared neither for fighting, nor for the triumph 
 of victory, their temper should be shown to be highly generous, haughty, active, 
 watchful, and given to crow often ; also not easily alarmed, for sometimes it will be 
 needful for them to repel attacks, and to protect their conjugal flocks." 
 
 One would almost suspect, when reading the above minute description, that it was 
 the composition of a regular Bakewellian improver writing upon the Dorking breed, so 
 just is it in its principles, and minute in its details, which evidently prove that both the 
 white and the red or gi-cy Dorkings were familiarly known by the author. How long the 
 town from which it receives its name has been noted for the breed no one seems to know ; 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 435 
 
 but writers on agriculture more tliau a century ago, speak of it as rearing an incredible 
 number of fowls, remarkable for tlieir size and fine fla\'oiu', and of capons weigbing at 
 Christmas 7 lbs. or 8 lbs. each, ■which then sold at 5s. apiece. 
 
 There appears, however, to be a doubt whether the present improved breed is the 
 original fowl of the Dorking district ; aud those who have been long acquainted with the 
 subject, are of opinion that the old five-clawed type has been crossed with a larger bird 
 common in Sussex, whilst others, equally well informed, declare that no one who possessed 
 the Sussex breed would on any account cross it with an old Dorking. At the same time, 
 the distinguishing mark of the latter being the possession of the fifth claw, it has been 
 the object of the breeders to select their stock fowls with reference to the retention of 
 the additional member, and to throw aside all those in whom it was wanting. From 
 this fact, however, we may draw the inference that the double hind claw is not a certain 
 distinguishing mark of the present Dorking fowl, and that good poultry arc reared in 
 that town destitute of it. 
 
 There are several varieties of the Dorking fowl, the principal of which are the Grey 
 Speckled, which include the sub-varieties of the Spangled, the Japan, the Silver, the 
 Pencilled, the Golden, aud the Red Speckled ; and the White, which is smaller and 
 lighter by 1 lb. or 2 lbs. than the Grey. They are also, like Columella's white fowl, of 
 more tender constitution than the Grey, and are less suited to a northern climate. 
 They are, however, very beautifully formed birds, and on this account are great 
 favourites with amateur fowl fanciers, and will doubtless always continue to hold a 
 distinguished place in the basse-cour. The Grey Dorking when in full plumage is a 
 magnificent bird. The cock displays a rich and rare combination of colours ; and his 
 long hackles gracefully thrown over each shoulder, of light yellow, tipped with dark 
 brown or black, with saddle feathers similarly coloured, contrast beautifully with the 
 greeu sickle-formed tail feathers, aud the still darker ones of the wiugs and body. 
 
 2. THE GAME FOWL. 
 
 Thanks to the advance of civilisation, and the numanising spirit of the present age, 
 the cock-pit, in which this beautiful and courageous species of the feathered tribes was 
 made to contribute to the brutal amusement of a set of barbarians, has been abolished, 
 aud a penalty is attached to those who shall have the temerity to revive it. Notwith- 
 standing this, the breed is so valuable, as well as ornamental, affording both profit and 
 pleasure to those who possess it, that great numbers are still reared throughout the 
 country; and, although the Game-cock claims, and will maintain the pre-eminence in 
 the poultry yard, when this is conceded to him (which, after a trial or two of prowess, is 
 generally the case), he does not object to associate with other fowls ; and far from 
 helping to maintain strife amongst his companions, he frequently exercises his influence 
 in compelling other combatants to keep the peace. 
 
 Game fowls are the most slender and delicately formed in body, neck, legs, and beak, 
 of any breed. Their colours are bright and beautifully variegated, and their flesh is 
 ■nhite, and particularly well flavoured and tender. In size they are rather below that of 
 the common fowl, but for symmetry and delicacy of limb, they may be compared, amongst 
 their compeers, to the race-horse amongst other breeds of that animal. The greatest 
 objection to the Game fo\vl is the difficulty of rearing them ; for such is their extreme 
 
 V V '> 
 
436 AGEICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 pugnacity of disposition, that they are scarcely out of the shell before they begin to 
 quarrel and fightj so that whole broods, it is said, scarcely feathered, are sometimes 
 stone blind from fighting, to the very smallest chicken. They then mope in corners, 
 but upon regaining the first ray of light, they will renew the battle. 
 
 At five months old the game chickens, if well tended and fed, will weigh 2| lbs. to 
 3 lbs. each ; and such is the estimation in wliich they are held, that they will sell 
 readily at 5s. Qd. or Qs. the couple. They require considerable attention the first few 
 weeks ; but as soon as they are able to run in a grass field, can pick up tlie greatest 
 part of their subsistence till put up for fattening. A celebrated physician at Liverpool, 
 says the author of the " Poultry Yard," " once declared his conviction that there was 
 more nutriment in one of the Knowsley Game fowls, than in the largest capon that the 
 London market could possibly produce." 
 
 Game/owls arc so largely distributed throughoiit the world that it is difficult to trace 
 their origin. We have reason, however, to believe that many of our own Game fowls are a 
 cross between the common Barn-door hen and the cock pheasant. It is well known that 
 the latter birds are remarkable for their pugnacity of temper amongst themselves ; and 
 their contests have been known to be so determined, that both combatants have allowed 
 themselves to be taken rather than give up the fight. M. de la Gironiere relates in his 
 " Twenty Years in the Philippine Islands," that, " on one occasion he heard 40,000 francs 
 betted upon a cock that had cost 4,000 francs (£166), and in a few minutes this costly 
 champion fell, struck dead by his antagonist." 
 
 3. THE POLISH FOWL. 
 
 This breed is distinguished by the large tuft of feathers on its head, which is common 
 to all the varieties of it. There is, however, a difference of opinion respecting other 
 peculiarities which some of them possess, amongst which is a small spiked comb 
 resembling the horns of a crescent, which has usually been looked upon as a distinguishing 
 mark of the purity of breed ; but others consider it an innovation, the possessor of 
 it being rather the " Tufted Hamburgh," than the Polish race. 
 
 The Polish fowls in all their varieties are remarkably beautiful, and will always be 
 favourites on account of their ornamental forms. But in addition to this, they are 
 equally useful on account of the number of eggs they lay, and their disinclination to 
 sitting, in which they difl'cr fi-om most other breeds. On this account they are called 
 " everlasting layers," and their eggs are usually put under hens of the common breed 
 to be hatched. They fatten quickly, and their flesh in some respects resembles that of 
 the Turkey, but is more juicy, and the flavour' is richer. The imported fowls have 
 uniformly been black, so that the varieties of colour amongst them must have proceeded 
 from crossings.* The most esteemed of these varieties are the White Crested Black, 
 the Golden, bearded and unbearded ; the Silver, bearded and unbearded ; the Cuckoo, 
 bearded ; tlie Grey, or Grizzled, bearded ; the Black and White Speckled, unbearded ; 
 the Blue and White Top Knots, unbearded; the Yellow Spangled, bearded; the Black 
 Crested, bearded ; the White, bearded. 
 
 The most remarkable feature in some of these varieties is the beard, which is thus 
 described in the "Poultry Book : " — "Immediately below the clicek, and covering tlie 
 
 * Uoawell's "' Poultry Yurd." 
 
' ;iBir:iiT|fiilS' 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 437 
 
 front of the throatj there is a collection of elongated feathers, regularly imbricated and of 
 triangular form ; the broadest part, or base, is uppermost, extending in a line as whiskers 
 below the eyes. These feathers, from the base to the point below, should occupy a space 
 of about two inches." The Black White-Crested have no beard, but in lieu of it the cock 
 has formidable red wattles, hanging from the level of the eye on each side of the beak. 
 The colours of the Golden Spangled are extremely varied and splendid, whilst the form 
 of all the varieties, independent of the peculiarities of the crest and the beard, is all 
 that can be desired in a fowl, whether in relation to ornament or use. " His carriage," 
 says the same author, " is remarkably good, the arched neck nearly meeting the tail, 
 which is very full and erect, especially when the bird becomes excited. The breast is 
 wide and prominent, while the short legs and generally compact form are no less pleasing 
 to the eye than valuable in an economical sense, as indicative, technically speaking, of 
 the comparative absence of offal. A full sized Black Polander cock should weigh from 
 5 lbs. to 5 J lbs. When we turn to the hen we require the same colour throughout; 
 but the crest must be globular and white, the wattles rounded and well developed, the 
 car-lobe white. In form she is of still closer build than her husband, and at maturity, 
 should weigh about 4 lbs."* 
 
 The Polands require a warm sheltered situation on a sandy soil. They begin laying 
 early in the spring, and continue until they moult, sometimes with very brief 
 intermission in the winter. On a moderate average, the number of eggs yearly would 
 be 150, but some have been known to lay 280 in one season. The White-Crested 
 Black are considered the best layers, and their eggs, which are pure white, average 
 2 ounces in weight each. The number and value of the eggs must be set against the 
 difficulty of getting them to hatch eggs, which is a prevailing defect, especially with the 
 bearded varieties. When to this is added their excellence as table fowls, it is not 
 surprising that many farmers who look to the profit on their stock, should prefer and 
 patronise them. They are, howevei', scarcely hardy enough to stand the roughing of a 
 farm-yard. 
 
 4. THE HAMBURGH FOWL. 
 
 This bird is called by Aldrovandus Gallina Turcica, or Turkish fowl^ being, lil^e all 
 the European fowls, referred to Eastern countries as their original home. By what 
 title it claims the name of Hamburgh appeal's to be questionable, unless it was first 
 carried thither from Turkey by the Levant merchants, and thus found its way to Britain. 
 They have been known here as Hamburgh fowls since the beginning of the fourteenth 
 century, if Chaucer's exact description of a cock in his possession is any rule, answering 
 as it does to that of the present Golden Hamburgh. 
 
 There are several varieties of this breed, as the Silver Pencilled, the Golden Pencilled, 
 the Silver Spangled, the Golden Spangled, and the Black Hamburgh. 
 
 The Silver Pencilled Hambui-gh has many designations in different parts of England, 
 as the Bolton Grey, because it is extensively cultivated at Bolton in Lancashire ; the 
 Creole, from the intermixture of black and white (a misnomer, as the term does not 
 refer in the West Indies to the ofifspring of a black man and white woman, or vice versa, 
 but to those born of European parents in the islands); Pencilled Dutch, because 
 
 * The "Poiilto- Bouk," p. 158. 
 
438 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 imported from Holland ; Dutch Every-day-layerSj on account of their productiveness as 
 layers, &e. &c. 
 
 The Silver Pencilled Hamburghs ai'e characterised iu both sexes by their peculiar 
 compact and neat forms. " The cock has a full, bright-red rose comb, ear-lobes white 
 and large ; wattles large, round, and red ; head small and fine ; beak short and white ; 
 plumage entirely white, with the exception of the wings and tail ; the wings barred very 
 regularly with black ; the tail ample, very erect, measuring nine inches to the top of 
 the highest curve of the sickle feathers, which are of uuusual length, and with the rest 
 of the tail feathers of a highly iridescent black, their edges only being very slightly 
 margined with white, silvering as it were the whole plume. Mottled feathering is 
 objectionable in the tail ; but comparatively few birds attain the more perfect form 
 described above. Height may be placed at sixteen inches, while an average weight 
 would reach to 4i lbs."* 
 
 The Golden Pencilled bird differs from the above in having a yellowish buff, or bay, 
 ground-colour in its plumage instead of white, and it is rather larger. Both are 
 extensively bred in Lancashire, and are equally good layers. 
 
 The Silver Spangled Hamburghs are larger and more stoutly framed than the Siher 
 Pencilled; the spangle is of course at the point of the feathers, and appears on the 
 hackle, breast, back, and wing-coverts. The tail is white with black tips. 
 
 The Golden Spangled Hambvirgh is known in England as the Golden Pheasant, 
 from the resemblance of its spangled feathers to those of the cock pheasant. The tail, 
 however, is different, as Avell as the comb, Avhich is very long, nor does its form altogether 
 resemble the pheasant. The plumage is exceedingly brilliant, compact, and close. 
 They are extensively reared in Yorkshire, Lancashire, and the neighbouring districts, 
 where there are poultry clubs, which publish tables of the points of excellence required 
 in these birds, as a guide in rearing them for competition. 
 
 The Black Hamburgh has a plumage of glossy, rich, green-black, and in other 
 respects resembles the other Hamburghs iu form, being doubtless only a variety of the 
 same family. The}' do not do ^vell iu coufineraent, requiring the run of a clear dry 
 pasture or common. They are strong on the wing, and it is necessary to have at least 
 six-feet fences to confine them within their limits. This holds with the Hamburgh 
 fowls generally. The black are abundant laj'ers, but uncertain sitters, and their eggs 
 are usually hatched under hens of other breeds. Perfect cleanliness in the fowl-house 
 is as necessary to the health of the birds, as it is to the perfection of their beautiful and 
 variegated plumage. 
 
 5. THE MALAY FOWL. 
 
 There is no error regarding the native country of these singular birds, which although 
 accustomed to a tropical climate, are found to acclimatise themselves in our compara- 
 tively high latitude without suffering much by the change. Brought over in our East 
 Indiamen as ship-stores their remarkable stature attracted the attention of amateurs, 
 and they were purchased eagerly by them. Colonel Sykcs, however, appears to have 
 been the first person who imported any of the breed directly for the purpose of propa- 
 gating the species. In 1831 he imported two cocks and a hen, which appear to have 
 
 * "Tlic Poiilliy Kuok," p. 180. 
 
THE POULTEY YARD. 439 
 
 been a variety of the same breed. One of tlie cocks stood twenty-six inches to the 
 crown of his head, and measured twenty-three inches from the tip of the beak to the 
 root of the tail. These birds were called Knlm fowls, but in every respect they resemble 
 the Malay. They suffered nothing from the change of climate, and in 1833 the hen 
 reared two broods. 
 
 Previous to the introduction of the Shanghae fowl the Malays were always resorted 
 to when it was desired to increase the size of any other breed, and they then constituted 
 the most striking feature at the exhibitions of fowls, especially in Ireland, where they 
 had been introduced by Mv. Nolan, of Dublin, who purchased some of them at the 
 London Docks. These were brought direct from the Peninsula, and were the means of 
 propagating the pure breed in every part of the United Kingdom. Tall as these birds 
 arc, such is their graceful carriage that they are far from having an awkwai'd appearance. 
 Bold and fearless in their gait, their commanding stature gives them a superiority over 
 every other fowl in combat, whilst their great strength of limb and beak makes them 
 formidable antagonists. 
 
 In point of fact their pugnacious disposition, both in the male and female, is such that 
 it is dangerous to the other inmates of the fowl house. The cock especially is both 
 quarrelsome with his neighbours and cruel towards his own offspring. But the hen is 
 not behindhand in a vixenish temperament, and amongst her compeers displays all the 
 pride and hauteur of a court beauty. Tlieir colour varies as much as in any other breed, 
 exhibiting all shades from white to jet-black ; but the beak and legs are uniformly 
 yellow in the pure breed. The head of the cock is small and finely-shaped, with a low 
 comb and small wattles. The beak is strong and hooked, the eye deep sunk and 
 j)iercing ; the plumage close and smooth, and the most approved colour is a dark 
 chestnut, approaching to black on the breast, back, and thighs j the neck, hackles, and 
 saddle feathers are a brilliant maroon, particularly glossy on the upper surface, and 
 inclining to yellow underneath ; the wing-coverts metallic green ; the back slopes 
 rapidly from the long neck to the tail, which is long and flowing, but rather scant of 
 feathers ; the sickle feathers very long and tapering, and black with a purple or green 
 metallic lustre, varying with the angle of light falling on it. Unlike those of other 
 breeds, the iieck feathers of the Malay are the same length from the head to the 
 shoulders, which takes off much of that graceful slope which is seen in the Hamburghs 
 and other breeds. 
 
 The ]\Ialays will fatten up to 10 lbs., and the usual height of the cock is twenty- 
 eight inches. The fowl that won the large silver medal at Birmingham in 1852 weighed 
 llflbs., and Mr. Rutherford had one that weighed 13 lbs. without being fattened. The 
 hen is about one foiu'th smaller than the cock. She has a small head, a short yellow 
 beak, pale crimson face, reddish-brown neck hackles, back and wings a dark brown; 
 the neck feathers, like those of the cock, imiform in length ; and fine tail feathers on 
 each side. Her usual weight is about 8i lbs. 
 
 Besides this, there are other varieties, some the produce of .crossings with other birds. 
 Of these the White Malay, both cock and hen, are pure white in their plumage, except 
 that the neck hackle and saddle feathers are slightly tinged with yellow. They are 
 smaller than the brown variety. The Pheasanted Malay is considered to be a cross 
 between the ]Malay cock and the Golden Hambiirgh hen. The head of the cock 
 resembles that of the INIalay, but the plumage is quite different, the neck hackle being 
 
440 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 black -witli a green lustre^ the back and rump black, tail less strongly cui'ved, and legs 
 white. The hen has black neck hackles like the cock, partridge-coloured rump feathers 
 spangled with dark-brown, white legs, dark brown and very upright tail, breast light 
 brown spangled with black, or very dark brown. 
 
 The Malay fowls are not considered good layers, but few of their eggs prove 
 abortive. The hen usually begins laying in March, and lays twenty-four eggs before 
 she shows a desire to sit. She sits closely and well, consequently, unless she is dis- 
 turbed, her eggs seldom fail of producing a chick. Her long legs, strong claws, and 
 heavy tread render it necessary to watch her some days after hatching, to prevent her 
 crushing her young ones in her anxiety to provide food for them. The chickens feather 
 slowly, which renders it the more necessary to hatch them early — not after June — that 
 they may be provided against the vicissitudes of the autumn aud winter of our 
 northern climate. They are awkward looking creatures, long-legged and gawky, until 
 they are full grown. 
 
 6. THE SPANISH FOWL. 
 
 This breed of poultry, more or less diverging from the original type, is found in 
 abundance in all the countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. No attention is 
 paid to the breeding of these fowls in those countries, consequently the pure breed can 
 hardly be obtained, or even looked for. The great object is to rear immense quantities 
 of them, in which the natives of those parts far exceed the English fowl-bi'eeders ; but 
 it is impossible to obtain specimens worthy of the attention of the English fanciers 
 who look for something beyond prolificness. They have, therefore, searched in other 
 countries for the true type of the Spanish fowl, aud have found the best in Holland, 
 where it is supposed it was introduced so far back as when that country was under the 
 Spanish yoke. Latterly, however, some fine specimens of this breed have been obtained 
 from Spain by Captain Hornby and others, but none excel those from Holland for purity 
 of blood. 
 
 In England they have long been favourites, being probably brought over early from 
 Holland. They are capital layers, and are said to continue laying ten months of the 
 year if well fed and housed, laying six eggs per week, from February to August. The 
 average weight of the eggs is 2 J ounces, but some have been taken that weighed 
 4^ ounces, the colour being a clear white. They are bad sitters and cannot be trusted, 
 therefore the eggs are usually hatched under hens of other breeds. They should not be 
 put under the hen earlier in the year than April, aud they require great care the first 
 fortnight after hatching ; after which they become as hardy as other breeds, but are 
 at least ten weeks before they are full fledged. The following is a description of a good 
 Spanish fowl of the Andalusian variety : — " The cock should have a large, erect comb, 
 evenly serrated ; white cheek, blueish legs, blueish grey or dove-coloured plumage, each 
 feather being lightly margined with a darker tint; glossy hackles of velvety black, 
 falling evenly on each side of tlic breast, in strong contrast to the colour of the 
 latter ; tail full, cai-ried very upright, with the sickle feathers well arched. The hens 
 have the same colour, but pendant combs."* The cock birds weigh on an average about 
 7 lbs., and the pullets about 5^ lbs. each. 
 
 * "roultry Book," p. 111. 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 441 
 
 The Black Spanish is thus described : — " The male — head large^ beak of moderate 
 size, eyes very bright, comb single, upright, very large, red as coral, and slightly serrated ; 
 face and cheeks perfectly white, the white extending round the eye ; wattles long and 
 pendulous ; neck or moderate length, but strong ; body broad and close-feathered ; wings 
 of medium size ; rather long in the leg, which is of a blueish white coloiu- ; tail a good 
 plume ; plumage a glossy black, having a greenish shade in the sun. The female — 
 head and beak neat and of moderate size; eyes bright, comb single, very large and 
 pendulous ; face entirely white, which extends round the eye ; neck of moderate length, 
 neatly set on ; body broad, wings of middle size, legs almost white, tail long and well 
 squared ; plumage as in the male, but less brilliant."* 
 
 7. THE BANTAM FOWL. 
 
 These little, consequential fowls are considered to belong originally to the Eastern 
 Archipelago, and to have sprung from the wild Bankiva fowl of Java. These latter are 
 thus described by ^Ir. E. Hewett, residing near Birmingham : — " The opportunity was 
 once afforded me of narrowly watching the habits of a pair of Bankiva fowls, originally 
 from Java, but which their owner had obtained from a dealer in Portugal. The male in 
 appearance was closely assimilated to the black-breasted red Bantam, though in one 
 peculiarity differing greatly from that bird, his tail being always, whether quiescent or 
 otherwise, carried almost in a straight line with the back. The same was the case with 
 the female ; and, beyond their somewhat slighter form, this appeared to be the only 
 distinguishable difference between her and the hen of the domestic variety. These 
 birds were, unfortunately, extremely wild, and confinement seemed to effect no change 
 whatever on their natural habits. The hen, indeed, laid a few eggs, which were at once 
 devoured by the parents. In fact, so unsociable and pugnacious were they, that, 
 although attempts were made again and again to cross them with the black-breasted 
 red Bantam, death to the new comers invariably ensued. Even the hen killed a very 
 resolute little fellow of that variety, when placed, after nightfall, side by side on the 
 roost with her alone. They would not fight during the presence of any one, but the 
 instant they saw the coast clear, they set to most determinedly ; and, if not over-matched 
 in size, with invariable success. Their end, however, was a melancholy one, for a game 
 hen placed with them, employed her greater strength for the destruction of both."j- 
 
 The writers of the " Poultry Book," appear to consider the restless disposition of the 
 Bankiva wild bird as decisive against the supposition that the Bantam derived its 
 descent from it. This, however, is inconsistent with the history of the origin of 
 domestic animals in general, and with that of the Bantam in particular. That bird is 
 still notorious for its pugnacious disposition, and we know what the influence of 
 domestication has on all animals. If the Bankiva fowls mentioned above were taken 
 when full grown, which is probable, it will at once account for the impossibility of taming 
 them, or of inducing them to associate with the domestic fowls. We have found this to 
 be invariably the case when old birds from the wild, have been put with others of the tame 
 breed — that the former always beat the latter. Whatever other variations may exist 
 between them, may be accounted for by domestic treatment, crossing, and the influence 
 of climate. The idea of others that the Bantam is the diminutive of the larger breeds is 
 » "Poultry Book," p. 107. t Ibid., p. 101. 
 
443 AGEIOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 quite as opposed to the history of birds. As well might the partridge be considered a 
 degenerated pheasant, or the quail the diminutive of the partridge. Degeneracy in 
 size implies the loss of the finer qualities, such as courage, &c. ; but there is not a more 
 courageous bird in existence than the male Bantam ; and we have known one of the 
 breed to beat a dunghill cock of twice his bulk and strength. 
 
 But whatever may have been the origin of the Bantam fowls, there is no dispute as 
 to the perfection and beauty of theii' form and plumage, and in these respects they are 
 certainly miniatures of the most beautiful of the larger breeds — as the liamburghs, the 
 Polanders, the Game fowl, &c. The varieties are comprehended under the following 
 list :— 
 
 The Nanliin Bantam. 
 The Game „ 
 
 The Spangled „ 
 The Seabright „ 
 
 The Partridge Bantam. 
 The Black 
 The "White 
 
 All these varieties are reputed to be excellent layers, sitters, and mothers. The eggs, 
 of course, are small, weighing about 1 ounce, or 1^ ounce. Four or five eggs a week, of 
 a white or pale bufl' colour, during the season of eight months is not an uncommon produce. 
 The chickens at first are very small, and require to be kept perfectly dry and under 
 shelter for some days after being hatched, and to be fed with chopped egg, meat, hemp- 
 seed, and bread soaked in beer. The hen is indefatigable in attention to her ofl"spring, 
 and will resolutely defend them from all enemies. In other respects the Bantam is 
 rather a fancy bird than a iiseful one; yet when dressed as game its flesh is highly 
 and finely flavoured, and the numerous broods a Bantam will rear without difficulty is 
 no mean recommendation to keep it, as an interesting variety, in the poultry yard. 
 
 8. THE FRIZZLED FOWL. 
 
 It is hardly possible to believe that this bird is a really distinct breed, with its 
 disorderly plumage, giving the idea of its having been repeatedly drawn by its legs 
 backwards through a thorn hedge. Yet there appears no reason to doubt that it is 
 found in a wild state in Ceylon, being called by the native Cingalese, CapriltakuUo. It 
 is, however, rare, and is said to have been brought thither from Batavia. It is now 
 found in Java, Sumatra, and all the Philippine Islands. 
 
 They are generally white when in the wild state, but some are variegated with black 
 and brown. Some of them have smooth, and others feathered legs. The beak of the 
 cock is hooked; the hackle is tinged yellow; the comb is cupped and serrated; the 
 ear-lobe white, the entire body feathers white in the wild breed and curved backward ; 
 the tail is full and well sickled ; legs blueish, height eighteen inches, weight 5| lbs. The 
 hen is entirely white, and the feathers are curled back like those of the cock. The 
 head is small and sharp, height twelve inches, weight 4^ lbs. They are bad layers, but 
 capital sitters and mothers, and are recommended for hatching the eggs of pheasants and 
 other game birds. They are excellent, though small, for the table. 
 
 9. THE SILK FOWL. 
 " Ilcns that instead of feathers have hair like eats," is the quaint description given by 
 old travellers and writers of this singular bird, albeit, it is somewhat of an exaggeration. 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 413 
 
 The web of the feathers is long and fine, and heing each distinct, they have the appear- 
 ance of hair rather than of common feathers. They were once considered to be natives 
 of ^India, but are now found to belong to China, Malacca, and Singapore, from which 
 places they have been exported to India, and from thence to Eiu'ope. 
 
 These birds are generally white with a black skin. The surface of the bones, also, is 
 covered with a black pigment. The tail feathers should resemble fine gauze. In form 
 they are round, compact, and long on the legs. There are, however, some varieties 
 differing in many particulars from this description, one of which has a white instead of a 
 black skin, while the plumage is the same. 
 
 10. THE SHANGHAE, OR COCHIN CHINESE FOWLS. j 
 
 •The introduction of this singular breed of fowls into the United Kingdom, and the 
 long time that the " mania " (as it is called) to be possessed of them has lasted, is one 
 of the most singular instances of popular fancy on record, and is not to be accounted foi- 
 on any of those grounds on which such manifestations of public favour are iisually based. 
 Possessing, as we do, numerous breeds of poultry of the most beautiful form and plumage, 
 and, in addition, all the qualities to render them useful and desirable as well as 
 ornamental, the only sound and sensible motive for adopting a new one, we might 
 suppose, would be superiority in beauty or excellence of qualities. With regard to tiie 
 Cochin Chinas, none but the most enthusiastic amateurs, or the fortunate dealers who 
 reap so large a profit from them, will claim for them the palm of beauty, or pretend to 
 set them in competition, on that score, with any one of the other breeds of British 
 poultry. Let us say once for all, on this head, and without any prejudice, that in regard 
 to personal appearance, we have from the first considered this breed below mediocrity ; 
 in fact, frightfully iigly.* And this impression was much strengthened when its 
 alarming "crow" burst upon our ears, so utterly unlike the short, sprightly, and 
 cheerful note of oiu- own chanticleer. The only ground, therefore, on which the popularity 
 of the Cochin Chinas can be permanently justified or sustained, is, the possession 
 of those qualities which render them more useful than other breeds. As our object is 
 to make the reader acquainted with the real merits or demerits of the domestic animals 
 of which we write, we shall examine the grounds on which the Cochin China or Shanghae 
 breed of fowls has been forced into notice, and what reason there is to suppose it 
 will permanently enjoy the favour of the public. 
 
 Not satisfied with passing an opinion resting solely upon our own judgment, we have 
 taken considerable pains to inquire into the subject from those who are more practically 
 acquainted with this breed of fowls than ourselves ; and the result has convinced us that, 
 although ill some respects the Cochin Chinas may be considered an acquisition, there 
 are defects in them, which, coupled with the absence of that beauty of form and plumage, 
 by which the other breeds of British poultry are so pre-eminently distinguished, lead us 
 to believe that when the " mania " has subsided, and the breed is more generally 
 disseminated and tested, it will hold only a secondary position amongst its compeers. 
 That they are the " giants of the poultry yard," no one wiU dispute. But size, as a test of 
 
 * Upon a first view of the-e strange creatures, wc coulJ tliink of nothing to compare them with more appropriate than 
 the Hottentot Venus of other days in huge knickerbockers, or a modern French dandy in his pinched up hat and crinolined 
 trousers. 
 
444 AGKICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 merit in any of the domestic animals, has long been discarded from the creed of the 
 British farmer,* it being generally counterbalanced by peculiarities fatal to the claim. 
 
 Taking the good qualities of the Cochin Chinas first, we may mention that they are 
 good layers, close and careful sitters, excellent parents, of quiet and sociable dispositions, 
 and they bear confinement better than any other breed. These particulars we shall 
 examine as we have stated them. 
 
 The Cochin China fowls begin to lay at five months, and are frequently known to lay 
 two eggs a day; but in that case there is generally an intermediate day without an egg. 
 Some instances have occurred in which three eggs a day have been dropped ; but as in 
 these cases one of them has invariably been a lush-egg (that, is, destitute of a shell), the 
 circumstance may be attributed to disease or accident. However this may be, it is 
 certain that the pullets, beginning to lay at five months, will continue to lay nearly all 
 through the winter. INIr. Punchard sold a six months' pullet, which laid a buff e^^ the next 
 day, and in the following 116 days laid 105 more eggs, the first ninety-five being laid 
 in ninety-six days.f Generally, they continue until they have deposited from thirty 
 to forty, when they show a disposition to sit. But some have laid as many as seventy 
 or more before they became " broody," as in the case mentioned above. As many as 
 240 eggs have been taken from one fowl in the year; but it is remarkable that the eggs 
 are much smaller than those of any of the other breeds, except the Bantams ; so that 
 taking weight for weight, it is probable that the Dorking, Spanish, or Polish breeds, or 
 even the common Barn-door fowl will produce as much in weight as the Cochin Chinas. 
 The great advantage, therefore, that these latter hold out is, their laying throughout 
 those months of the year when eggs (fresh laid), are scarce and dear. "Whether they are 
 really richer in quality than other eggs, to make up for the deficiency in size and weight, 
 does not appear to have been clearly ascertained. The weight is generally from 2 to 
 2^ ounces, very few indeed ever exceeding the latter. 
 
 They begin to sit early, and continue very close. There were some exhibited at 
 Birmingham in December, 1853, whose grandmothers were hatched earhj in the same 
 year. The desire of incubation appears to be remarkably strong in them ; so much so, 
 indeed, as to cause great annoyance to their owners, who sometimes resort to the most 
 barbarous practices in order to break them of it, but to no other purpose than to shorten 
 their lives. When once they have determined to have a brood they will continue to sit 
 even when the eggs are taken from them and the nest destroyed. The " Poultry Book " 
 has some very sensible remarks on this subject : — " "We do not believe that this provision 
 of nature can be frequently set aside without injury to the bird. Her due batch of eggs 
 having been completed, a period of rest to the whole system, and its productive powers 
 in particular, is now designed. This we disregard when wc refuse to allow the hen to sit ; 
 and as she will again commence laying long before the period she would have done had 
 she been allowed to hatch and rear her chickens, she is unduly stimulated, and a drain 
 is caused on her constitution, which evidently aftects her at last. Occasionally, when 
 we want eggs, or it happens at an improper time of the year, such as the end of autumn 
 or winter, we should not, of course, allow her to gratify her inclination. But with such 
 
 * The late Earl of Leiccsler took great pains to inculcate this truth. We have before observed that one of the 
 Btanding toasts at the Holkham sheep-sheariug diuuers was " small in size aud great iu value," which was always given by 
 the Holkham chieftain himself, 
 
 + The " Poultry Book." 
 
THE POULTRY YARD 445 
 
 fowls as manifest this desire, we should consider that one brood of chickens at least, in 
 each year, is necessary to keep them in health and vigour."* 
 
 When the Cochin China hen has commenced sitting she seldom leaves the nest more 
 than once a day, and her food should be ready for her at a certain hour, as she seldom 
 deviates from her usual time. She seldom remains off more than half an hour, aud 
 frequently not so long, unless she has to seek her food because none is provided for her. 
 Some hens will never willingly leave the nest, and are obliged to be lifted off, it being 
 sujjposed necessary for the welfare of the expected bi'ood, that fresh air should be 
 admitted to the eggs once a day. The shell of the egg is porous, and allows the air to 
 pass through it. When an egg is heated, owing to the expansion of the interior, a 
 portion of the air is driven oflF. When the egg cools down, as is the case when the hen 
 leaves the hatching nest, a corresponding contraction takes place, and fresh air must 
 enter the egg to supply the place of that which was expelled. f 
 
 As parents the Cochin Chinas are exemplary, and no family of young children can 
 be better attended while they behave themselves properly, but if, while under a coop 
 herself, she sees them run into all manner of dangers, her agitation is extreme ; and 
 when by her recall she has gathered them again round her, she is apt to chastise them 
 too severely for their erratic disposition, no doubt forgetting for the time her own 
 peccadilloes in the same way. Many breeders, if a hen hatches only five or six chickens, 
 pu^t them to another with a small brood, and if this is done judiciously the step-mother 
 will adopt them without any objection. The night after hatching is the best period to 
 take this step, for if done after the hen has left the nest, it is doubtful whether she 
 will put up with the fraud (for such it certainly is) which she may resent by breaking 
 the skulls of the intruders. The young mother is apt to be too fussy, and to trample 
 on her chicks while hatching, and must therefore be watched, and the chicks taken 
 from her, as they are emancipated from their confinement. 
 
 The quiet and sociable disposition of the Cochin Chinas is beyond dispute. They 
 will allow themselves to be handled without signs of fear, and wander but little from 
 their accustomed haunts ; nor do they suffer from close confinement, some of the best 
 fowls ever exhibited having been i-eared in garrets and cottages, where they could have 
 little exercise for their limbs. We do not put this forward as an example to be 
 followed, because all domestic animals are better for, and require, exercise to keep them 
 in continued health. We may add to the foregoing recommendations that they are a 
 hardy breed, and can bear the vicissitudes of heat and cold, at least, as well as any other 
 of our English fowls. " They bear," says the Cottage Gardener, " a Canadian winter 
 even better than our common fowls." This is a strong point in their favour in a 
 northern climate, although in our comparatively temperate one it is of less importance. 
 
 * The " Poultry Book," p. 1i. 
 
 t The necessity, however, for this accession of fresh air to the egg is hy no means a settled question ; and, from experiments 
 recently made, it would appear to be quite the contrary. "An egg," says Mr. Conch, of Penzance, "just laid, was 
 covered over with albumen and allowed to dry. Then slips of parchment soaked in albumen were laid over the egg, aud 
 allowed to dry. This was done four times, taking care never to suffer the edges of two layers to come together, and all 
 allowed to dry. On the fourth day after it was laid, it was put, thus covered, under a hen. Several were thus served. 
 
 Result ; — Embryo developed as on ordinary occasions, to the fourteenth day In subsequent experiments, with the 
 
 same precautions, the chick arrived at perfection, but could not escape." — (The "Poultry Book," p. 81.) In Rees' 
 EncyclopEcdia, also, the question is treated as more than doubtful. Haller states that " the air does not pass into the egg 
 for the purpose of effecting any change in the blood of the foetal chick similar to the process of respiration, as has been 
 supposed." There is no process analagous to respiration in the foetus.— Reea' Encyc, Article, Incubation. 
 
446 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 We must uow inquire what drawbacks exist in these fowls to neutralise or detract 
 from the merit of their good qualities ; and it is necessary to bear in mind that it is not 
 the production of eggs and chickens alone in extra profusion, that will render them valuable 
 as a permanent addition to our list of domestic animals. What then is the quality of the 
 flesh of the Cochin Chinas as compared with that of other breeds, and at what cost are 
 they reared ? 
 
 With respect to the first there is a difference of opinion existing which, without 
 taking into consideration the position of those who have publicly expressed themselves 
 upon it, can scarcely be appreciated. We shall again quote from the " Poultry Book " 
 (p. 26). "The profits hitherto made by a few successful breeders have been enormous, 
 because they have been fortunate enough to possess excellent specimens of a breed now 
 iu great request, but this cannot be depended upon ; their real utility is still matter of 
 argument, or rather, I should say, their superiority over other breeds. As they become 
 spread over the length and breadth of the land their value must decrease ; or if very large 
 prices are still made, they will belong only to those choice specimens which are always 
 exceptional. What is to become of tlie mass of birds which while they are useful are 
 not the elite of their class ? They must contribute food either by furnishing the table 
 ■with poultry or eggs. In those parts so distant from the metropolitan market that the 
 cost of carriage, and in very hot weather the time employed in the journey, renders it 
 doubtful whether a certain profit may be depended upon from poultry killed and sent 
 up, the supply of eggs will be thought preferable. The question then naturally arises 
 which is the most profitable breed to keep ? The answer must be that which produces 
 the greatest number of eggs at the smallest cost. The Pencilled Hamburgh," the writer 
 adds, "would be his choice for this purpose." The Editor quotes the above from a 
 letter of a large breeder ; he adds, " Our own opinion would be different ; but when he 
 asks for a definition of the best fowl for the table, our hearty assent is at once given 
 to that which fats best at an early age, at the least expense, and which possesses those 
 properties most valued for food." 
 
 A writer in the Cottage Gardener, on the same subject, says, " They have short 
 legs well feathered, small bone, beautiful white flesh, quite equal in that respect to the 
 Dorking ; they fatten fast — in short, I think they possess all the good qualities of the 
 Dorking as well as the Cochin China." 
 
 Again, Anster Bonn, a fancier, says, "We have eaten a great number of Cochin 
 China fowls, and find them, without exception, by far the finest flavoured, best birds for 
 the table which we have ever bought, bred, or eaten. A consideration most valuable 
 to the poor man, and to those who have his interest at heart, is the indifference of 
 Cochin Chinas to first-rate accommodation. They are very robust and healthy, seldom 
 ill, and less easily hurt from the egg-shell upwards than most kinds." Another writer 
 in the Cottaye Gardener says, " The Cochin Chinas do not eat more in proportion to 
 size than the Spanish or Dorkings ; they fatten rapidly, and the short-legged variety lay 
 on much flesh on the breast and wings." 
 
 Having thus given the evidence in theii' favour we must turn to the otlier side of the 
 question ; and when we state the following opinion as that of ^Mr. Bailey, a considerable 
 breeder, and one of the most respectable poulterers in the metropolis, its weight in the 
 scale will be duly appreciated. " In spite of all that may be said, the Cochin China 
 fowl, however desirable as a layer, on table produces much offal meat, My experience 
 
THE rOULTRY YARD, 447 
 
 leads me to think that the Cochin Chinas are very profitable so long as there is a 
 demand for them at large prices for stock ; but when that ceases, and they have to 
 compete with other breeds as purveyors for the table, they will sink below the Dorkings, 
 and rank with the many other second-class breeds. Remarks have been made in praise 
 of their giblets, but these, properly speaking, belong to a goose. They comprise head, 
 neck, pinions, feet, gizzard, heart, and liver (a fowl has none in this country) . In Paris 
 the abatis comprises the same parts of a turkey or fowl. Now the most recherche part 
 of a fowl is the breast, and that is the point on which the Cochin China is deficient, and 
 what she lacks -there she makes up in giblets."* 
 
 In the new edition of " Moubray " by Messrs. Meal and Horner, we find the 
 following remarks : — "At table the Shanghaes are ungainly, and the quantity of oflal on 
 the neck, legs, &c., the comparative leanness of the breast, and rather pheasant-like or 
 gamcy flavour of the flesh (sometimes loose, dark, coarse, and stringy), render them 
 undesirable for that purpose, while the uninviting colour of the skin precludes their 
 appearance as a boiled dish. On this point much diversity of opinion exists, as some 
 high authorities assure us that a roasted Shanghae is most juicy, short, and delicious 
 eating. Individual high feeding and sui^erior breeding does produce fowls with flesh 
 both white, and tender, and delicate ; and it is, therefore, difficidt to say what cai'c and 
 attention in these respects may be able to accomplish." 
 
 On the above opinions we shall only remark that those in favour of the Cochin 
 Chinas were given at the time when the " mania" was at its higlie&t, and prejudice ran 
 almost exclusively on that side of the question ; while the last two opinions were given 
 after twelve or fourteen years' experience, and by men the best qualified to judge both 
 correctly and impartially. By this time, however, the public at large Avill be able to 
 form their own judgment upon it, as the wide dispersion of the breed throughout the 
 country will now take them oat of the category of a speculative, and place them in that 
 of a purely commercial breed, where they will soon find their level. 
 
 With regard to the expense of keeping and fattening the Shanghaes there is a wide 
 difl'ereuce in the calculations of difierent breeders, even to 50 per cent, or more. Thus, 
 while some have pretended to fatten them at the rate of three halfpence per week, 
 others, charging the same price for the food, have not been able to keep them on less 
 than from threepence halfpenny to fourpeuce halfpenny. On the other hand, the 
 author of the " Poultry Book," who kept a large quantity of various ages, found that 
 the average expense was twopence per week the year round ; but this did not include 
 the time when they were fattening ; and this opinion is confirmed by Mr. Bowman, who 
 was also a considerable breeder. It certainly is a very low average for so large a fowl, 
 but it must be recollected that those at liberty were able to supply themselves with a 
 great part of their food. 
 
 The following is the description given by Bailey of the Shanghae, or Cochin China, 
 fowls : — " The cock should have an upright comb, with correct and numerous serrations j 
 ample hackles and saddle ; gradual slant from the head to the centre of the back, and 
 rising thence to the tail ; very flufly thighs and hinder parts ; bright eyes, and long ear 
 and wattles j very level tail, and made up of numerous small cm-ly feathers that seem 
 to roll over the back, rather than to stand up as in other birds ; legs feathered to the 
 toes; wings tightly clapped up; upright carriage. The heu should have a sharpj 
 * Bailey, " Fowls, a Plain and Familiar Treatise," &c. 
 
448 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 intelligent headj comb small, scrupulously straight, and full of ivell-defined serrations. 
 Thighs and hinder parts entirely hidden in soft silky fluff; short legs feathered to the 
 toes; short, thick-looking necks; head carried rather forward than upright; there 
 should be a gradual rising of feathers from the middle of the back to the top of the 
 tail, which should end in a black, round point." 
 
 The colours vary considerably, and are buff, lemon, cinnamon^ grouse, partridge, 
 white, and black. The greatest defect iu their personal appearance is the deficiency of 
 sickle feathers in the tail, and the clumsy fluffiness in the thighs and hinder parts. 
 Their wings, also, are very small in proportion to the size of the bird, and are not 
 calculated either for the shortest flight, or even for sustaining the weight of the body ; 
 consequently, if placed upon a high perch, their descent from it is rather a tumble than 
 a jump assisted by the wings, as with other fowls. ; Consequently, they ai'e frequently 
 injured if placed in such positions, and require a very low perch for safety. The roosting- 
 poles should, therefore, be not more than two feet from tlie ground. If you want to 
 possess a pure type of the breed, you must avoid buying long tails, clean legs, fifth toes, 
 and double combs. Sickle feathers in the tail the true Cochin Chinas never have. 
 
 There is no question that the Shaughaes are the best adapted of any breed to a confined 
 situation, and that they suffer less from a want of fresh air than any others. Where they 
 have been judiciously and systematically attended to, some of tlic finest and healthiest 
 birds have been reared where it is impossible for them to obtain any range beyond a 
 small court, or even a small room in a cottage. This, to a poor man, is an inestimable 
 advantage, many of that class, however desirous of keeping fowls, finding it impossible to 
 preserve them iu tolerable health for want of room. In this respect, therefore, the 
 Shanghae is essentially a poor man's fowl, and many of the prize birds have been reared 
 in cottages. But whether even these could be made to pay a profit when the " mania " 
 has subsided, and prices have settled down to their legitimate level, is a question yet to 
 be decided. Under such circumstances they must be kept whoUy upon artificial or 
 purchased food ; and if it cost the owner of the fowl 4f/. per week, as in the case of 
 " Gallus," and only the maximum of 240 eggs per season obtained, if these are reckoned 
 at 9d. per dozen, which is as much as could be reckoned upon, there would be a loss of 
 2s. M. each fowl, besides the keep of the cock, which would be a non-producer ; and as 
 to keeping them as breeding fowls, it would be still more unprofitable, as the progress 
 they make in fattening, according to " GaUus," is too small to cover the expense. 
 
 It is quite another thing where persons who keep fowls have a good piece of pasture 
 or a barn-yard for them to run in. In the former case they will more than half keep 
 themselves on worms, slugs, grass, &c., and in the latter there is always plenty of 
 "shack" for fowls left in the straw, to support them until they are cooped for fattening. 
 But a Polish or Hamburgh fowl will do quite as well, and require less keep, because they 
 are not so large as the Shanghae ; and it is idle to say that a large fowl can be kept on 
 as little, or less, as some persons would make us believe, than a small one. We do not 
 think that the experiments of amateurs, or professed breeders for sale, ought to be a 
 rule for the farmer who intends making a commercial affair of poultry. Hitherto the 
 Shanghaes have been chiefly iu the hands of the first of these ; and with the certain 
 stimulus of enormous prices, no expense or efforts have been spared to produce fowls of 
 the first quality, and to increase the production of eggs. Under such a system 
 wonderful results have certainly been obtained ; but when the same fowls arc 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 4,J9 
 
 subjected to the ordinary mode of living in the farm-yard, we mueh question whether 
 tliey will maintain that position amongst other breeds, which the fanciers have hitherto 
 assigned to them. 
 
 With respect to the fact of the Shanghae fowls laying twice, and even three times in 
 the same day, the author of the " Poultry Book," while admitting the truth of it, 
 appears to consider it exceptional ; and the instances he adduces are followed by 
 intervening days in which none were deposited, at least, this was generally the case. In 
 one instance there was a remarkable deviation from this rule. " At the close of last 
 autumn," says the relator, " one of my children was presented with a pair of Cochin 
 Chinas, male and female, bred by a clergyman in Kent. They were hatched late in 
 spring, and, in November, two eggs were found one morning in the nest, supposed at the 
 time to be the produce of two days. However, upon the next day there was one, and 
 the day after two. One day then elapsed and two eggs were again laid, and so on to 
 the present time, when she continues to present her young mistress with five eggs every 
 four days, which, for so long a period, is very unusual. It is a remarkable fact, that 
 upon the days the hen lays two eggs, unless closely watched, the cock and she lay 
 claim to one of them, which they invariably consume, leaving the other untouched 
 which is the case when a single egg is laid." The editor adds : — " Such instances an 
 extremely rare ; and under no circumstances can it be considered as the habit o 
 property of those, or, indeed, of any other race of fowls."* 
 
 The Shanghae chickens are longer in becoming fledged than other fowls. When 
 first hatched they are covered with a thick coating of down, which gives them the 
 appearance of being much larger than they really are, or than the size of the egg 
 would warrant. Notwithstanding this they grow rapidly, and arrive at maturity earlier 
 than other fowls. If they are well fed and taken care of, they are hardy, and will 
 stand the wet and cold better than most breeds. 
 
 11. THE RUMPLESS FOWL. 
 
 This very singular breed appears to be a variety of the Cochin China fowl, from 
 whence, according to Mr. Layard, it has been introduced to Ceylon, where it is called 
 Choci-Kukullo, which literally means Cochin fowls. Certainly, in other respects than 
 their destitution of the posterior ornamentation, they very much resemble the Cochins 
 in their fluffy appearance, and small wings and head, but not in their size, as they 
 seldom exceed sixteen inches in stature, and 5Ubs. in weight. There are no peculiarly 
 valuable qualities about them to induce a farmer to keep them except as curiosities, 
 being neither ornamental nor useful. 
 
 12. THE BARN-DOOR FOWL. 
 
 ' This designation includes all fowls of no particular breed, being the offspring of 
 crossings with all other breeds. They are of all colours, and may be said to represent in 
 one or other of their peculiarities all other breeds, without having a claim to identification 
 with any. Some of them are exceedingly beautiful, and if properly cultivated and attended 
 to, might certainly originate new and valuable varieties. They are very hardy, require 
 
 * "Poultry Book," p. 63. 
 G G 
 
450 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 no particular care, and they yield their quota of eggs and chickens, and support 
 themselves at far less expense of time, labour, and money, than the more fashionable 
 poultry. They are, however, considered but as a plebeian race, and the ignominious 
 epithet of " Dunghill fowl " is ^the general title by which they are vulgarly known. 
 Yet many of the cocks betray affinity to the Game, Polish, and other fowls, by 
 the splendour of their plumage ; and the hens are sometimes equally distinguished by 
 the intermixture of rich colours. We much question, also, whether the more approved 
 breeds, if left to themselves like the Barn-door fowl, would either cut a more respectable 
 figure, or yield so good a profit to their owner ; whilst their cheapness brings them 
 within the reach of the cottager, by whom they are generally kept in considerable 
 numbers, and to whose families they afford a seasonable relief. 
 
 13. THE TURKEY. 
 
 All writers on poultry agree in assigning to the forests and prairies of the New 
 World the honour of furnishing the Old with this most useful bird. It still exists in a 
 wild state in the woods of Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana, and others 
 of the central and western states of the American Union. It was the first discoverers 
 of that continent by whom the Turkey was first imported into this country about the 
 year 1540 or 1550 : for Sir Anthony Fitzherbert does not name it amongst his list of 
 domestic poultry in his " Book of Husbandrie," which was published in 1533 ; whilst 
 Tusser, in his "Five Hundred Points of (rood Husbandry," which was published in 
 1573, mentions it as a standard part of the Christmas bill of fare, which it has maintained 
 ever since : — 
 
 " Good bread and good drink, a good fire in the hall, 
 Brown pudding and souse, and good mustard withall ; 
 Beef, mutton, and pork, shred pies of the best. 
 Pig, veal, goose, and capon, and Tiirhey well drest. 
 Cheese, apples, and nuts, jolly carols to hear, 
 As then in the country is conntcd good cheer." 
 
 There is also a tradition in the family of Sir George Strickland, Bart,, of Baynton, 
 Yorkshire, tliat one of their ancestors brought the first Turkey to England. William 
 Strickland went out with Sebastian Cabot on his voyage of discovery to the New World, 
 in consequence of which Edward VI. granted him " a coat of arms with the crest of a 
 Turkey cock in his pride, proper." Barnaby Goodge also, in his " Four Books on 
 Husljandry," writing on the breeding of fowls in 1578, says, " Turkey cocks we have not 
 had long among us, for before the year of our Lord, 1530, they were not seen with us, 
 nor, I believe, known to the old writers." He then goes on to describe them just as we 
 see them at the present day, in their appearance and habits, and speaks of the number 
 kept at the residence of " that godly and virtuous Sempronia, that Lady Hales, of Keat, 
 who was first the wife of Sir Walter Mauntill, of Northamptonshire." 
 
 From what cause it was called a Turkeij Cock no allusion to it by the ancient 
 writers gives any explanation. The only probable conjecture is, that the red comb and 
 long wattles of the bird, and its dark plumage, resembled in some degree the fez cap and 
 flowing robe of the JMussulman. The wild Turkey, as the progenitor of Our present 
 fowl, is thus described in the " Poultry Book : " — 
 
THE rOULTRY YARD. 451 
 
 " The wild cock Turkey has its head covered with a blueish skin, which extends 
 over the upper part of the neck. This skin is wrinkled and drawn into wart-like 
 elevatiousj which change colour to red on their upper portions^ and to white below. A 
 few black bristly h?irs are scattered over this skin, which extends in front of the neck 
 into large pendulous, almost pouch-like wattles, a wrinkled, conical, fleshy protuberance, 
 capable of elongation, and with a pencil of hairs at the tip, takes its rise from the upper 
 mandible of the beak. When this excrescence is elongated under excitement, it covers 
 the beak, and depends several inches below it. Beak reddish, but brownish and horn- 
 like at the tip; iris of the eye dark brown; a tuft of long, bristly hair grows from the 
 lower part of the neck at its junction with the breast, attaining a length in full-grown 
 specimens of nine inches. The base of the feathers of the bodj', which are long and 
 square tipped, is covered with a light greyish down ; this down is succeeded by a dusky 
 portion, which is followed by a broad shining metallic band, varying in colour from 
 copper or bronze to violet or purple ; and the tip of the feathers is a broad, dark, , 
 velvety band, but this band is absent from the feathers of the neck and breast. The 
 general plumage presents a glancing metallic lustre, which, however, is least glossy on 
 the lower part of the back and tail coverts. The wings are concave and rounded, not 
 extending much, if at all, beyond the base of the tail ; quills, in number twenty-eight, 
 the primaries being blackish, banded with white, and the secondaries whitish, banded 
 with very dark grey, and tinged, towards the back particularly, with brownish yellow. 
 Tail fifteen inches in length at the least, roimded at the end. Its feathers, eighteen in 
 number, broad, and capable of expansion and elevation into the form of a fan. These 
 tail feathers are of a brown ground colour, mottled with black, and crossed with 
 numerous narrow, wavy, black lines. There is a broad black band near the tip, then a 
 short mottled portion, and lastly a broad, dingy, yellowish band. Legs robust and red, 
 their scales having blackish margins ; spurs about an inch long and blunt ; claws dusky ; 
 length nearly four feet ; expanse across expanded wings more than five feet. The 
 average weight is from 15 lbs. to 18 lbs., but instances have occurred of their weighing 
 36 lbs. The Prince of Musignano (Charles Buonaparte) places the weights higher, 
 stating 20 lbs. as the minimum, and 40 lbs. as the maximum." * 
 
 The wild Turkey hen differs from the cock in having more slender beak and legs, 
 tne latter destitute of spurs ; less naked skin about the head and neck, smaller wattles 
 at the base of the beak, and a less brilliant plumage ; and the length not more than 
 three feet and a quarter, and the weight from 14 lbs. to 20 lbs. 
 
 How the county of Norfolk came to be the " land of Turkeys," par excellence, 
 it is impossible to say ; but certainly more are bred in that county than in any other, 
 and it supplies London with a large proportion of those consumed at Christmas. In 
 this respect, however, Cambridgeshire contributes a large quota of very fine birds. The 
 " Poultry Book" states that one London dealer goes down to a certain district in this 
 county, and sees to the slaughtering and packing of 1,800 Turkeys the week before 
 Christmas. There are several varieties of the Tui'key, as the Black, or Norfolk, the 
 Cambridge, or Bustard breed, the White, the Tufted White, the American. The chief 
 difference is in the White and the American. The White is considered an accidental 
 variety, as the young ones of a white mother are frequently dark birds. The Americans 
 have a more brilliant plumage than either of the English breeds, and will probably be 
 
 * "Ponltry Book," p. C3. 
 G G 3 
 
452 AGEICDLTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 employed to infuse fresh bloocl into tliem. The weight of the tame or domestic Turkey 
 when fat varies from 18 lbs. to 30 lbs. in the cocks, and from 14 lbs. to 20 lbs. the hens. 
 They seldom exceed the maximum of 30 lbs., excepting the Stag Turkey, or over-year 
 birds, which are sometimes fattened rip to an enormous weight for particular purposes. 
 
 The Turkey chick is a very tender animal, and for the first few weeks requires great 
 care and attention. The hens will nurture two broods in the season, and may be kept 
 for that purpose four years ; but it is recommended by some of the largest breeders to 
 change the cocks every year, and never to employ one more than one year old. The 
 hen, if brought up near the house, is a very domestic fowl, and will seldom roam farther 
 than the first pasture or orchard if she is accustomed to be fed at home. After harvest, 
 liowever, it is the custom in Norfolk to let them have the run of the cleared barley 
 fields, to " shack in," as it is termed, preparatory to being put up to fatten for 
 Christmas. They lay only every second or third day, and do not produce more than from 
 thirteen to twenty eggs before they show a disposition to sit. The first seven or eight 
 eggs are sometimes put at once under a common hen, in order to have them hatched as 
 early as possible. The Turkey may be left to nndertake the charge of the rest, as she 
 can cover thirteen eggs very well. The best time for hatching is from the last week 
 in March to the last week in April. Tlie second brood is of little value, and very 
 difficult to rear, as, indeed, are the early ones. If exposed to cold or damp at night the 
 first few weeks after hatching, they contract the cramp, which soon kills them. A 
 covered place for the coop is therefore absolutely necessary at night, and also in the 
 daytime when the weather is wet or cold. 
 
 After two months, with proper care, they will be able, in a great measure, to shift for 
 themselves, being tolerably fledged. AVhen many are kept, they are usually turned out 
 to forage in a clover stubble or pasture, under the care of a lad or a girl, who prevents them 
 from straying too far from home. They do not acquire their full plumage until three 
 months old, at which period they require almost as much care to keep them from damp 
 as in the first month. It is necessary at all stages to feed them well twice or three 
 times a day, according to the quantity of food they can obtain for themselves. This 
 should be contiimed till they are fat, which will be about Christmas time. They are 
 then cither consumed in the family, sent as presents to friends, or sold to the poulterers. 
 A large number of them, however, are sent in droves, after shacking the barley and 
 oat stul)blcs, to Loudon and other lai-ge towns, where, in their half fat state, they are 
 sold to persons who have the convenience for finishing them off for the market. These 
 generally consist of the later hatched birds, and they usually sell at from 3*. 6d.Ho 5s. 
 each, according to size, but they do not fatten up to any great weight — say from 7 lbs. 
 to 10 lbs. or 12 lbs. 
 
 The breeders of Turkeys never keep a cock bird for breeding longer than its second 
 season, and six hens are considered a proper number for each male. The cottagers in 
 Cambridgeshire and Norfolk who keep Turkeys for breeding, send their hens to a 
 neighbouring farm where a cock bird is kept, and thus save themselves the expense of 
 keeping one, which would materially lessen their profits. 
 
 The cramp is a disease that young Turkeys are exceedingly liable to, but it may be 
 avoided by keeping them dry and warm, and giving them proper food. Although now 
 acclimatised with us, it is still an exotic bird, the native of a less variable climate, where 
 the breeding season is more equally warm than with us. Tiie young birds, therefore. 
 
THE POUL'i'RY YARD, 453 
 
 being too tender to witlistand the vicissitudes of our summer^ must be carefully protected 
 against cold and wet; whilst their food for the first month should be of the most 
 nourishing and generous kind^ sucli as hard boiled egg chopped finCj bread crumbs, 
 hemp-seed bruised, oatmeal or barley-meal, all mixed together, adding mustard and 
 cress or some other warming vegetable, and the whole softened with milk or water. 
 The coop should be placed in a sheltered situation with a southern aspect, but shaded 
 from the perpendicular rays of the sun at noon, while fully exposed to it the rest of the 
 day. Damp and cold, however, are tlie greatest enemies of the Turkey chick, and 
 cannot be too sedulously guarded against, until they are three or four months old, 
 when, having become fully fledged, they are better able to withstand the changes of 
 temperature. 
 
 Food should be given to Turkeys in troughs with a railing before them, sufficiently 
 open to admit the head and neck, but nothing more. This will, prevent them from 
 trampling ou and otherwise destroying their food, which they would otherwise certainly 
 do. Many of the birds get fat in the barley stubbles, especially when the weather has 
 caused the grain to be shed more than usual ; but evcu in this case it is better to give 
 them a month's fattening at home, after they iiave cleared the field of loose grain, as 
 their continued growing will more than repay the expense, besides having them in 
 higher condition for the market. For the farmer's own table, a fowl killed off the 
 " shack " is fat enough, and has a higher flavoiu' than one that has been regularly 
 fattened in the coop. In all eases, plenty of clear spring water is an essential ingredient 
 in their diet ; and in a dry time when at " shack " water troughs should be set in the 
 field for them, or they should be driven to a pond, if there is one at hand, several times 
 a day, to quench their thirst. 
 
 14. THE PE.\ FOWli. 
 
 " Gold and silver, apes and peacocks," were parts of the treasures brought to King 
 Solomon by the ships from " Tarshish," or " from beyond seas." The Pea fowl is a 
 native of India beyond any controversy, for the ancient authors of Greece and Rome 
 speak frequently of it as brought from thence and from Persia. By the Romans 
 they were classed with the common domestic fowls, and Columella gives ample 
 instructions for their management. It was by the Romans that this splendid bird 
 became diffused over every country in Europe where their conquests were carried ; and 
 in Britain it has been known fi-om the earliest period of history. At present, however, 
 it is a rare bird with us, being chiefly kept in the parks of the nobility and gentry, or at 
 the old granges and manor houses distributed throughout the country. The farmers, 
 in fact, are no friends to them, on account of their destructive propensities in the 
 corn-fields; but especially in the gardens, where, in a few minutes, as we have 
 experienced, their depredations aud mischievous scratchings on the seed-beds render the 
 prospects of a crop more than doubtful. The Italians say " the peacock has the 
 plumage of an angel, the voice of a devil, and the peculativeness of a thief." 
 
 " Fine feathers, however, make fine birds ; " and certainly nothing adds more to the 
 interest and aristocratic beariug of an old rural mansion, than tlie sight of two or three of 
 these magnificent birds strutting about in all the pride of their gorgeous plumage, their 
 fan-like trains shining like burnished gold in the sun's rays, with all the colom's of the 
 
454 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 rainbow beautifully aud systematically blended together ; whilst the fine symmetry of the 
 rest of the form, and the upright and majestic tread of the creatures, show their conscious- 
 ness of superiority of personal appearance over every other denizen of the basse-cour. 
 
 Like the Turkey, the Pea fowl is an exotic, and has never so far been acclimatised 
 ■with us, as to overcome that delicacy of constitution, which, in' the earlier stages of 
 its existence, makes it so susceptible of the sudden alternations of heat and cold, wet and 
 dry weather. Unless protected for many weeks after hatching, they can scarcely be 
 reared. The Pea hen lays usually not more than from four to seven eggs of a yellowish 
 white. They sit from twenty-eight to thirty days, and when hatched the hen should at 
 once be cooped in a safe place away from the cock bird, who will sometimes destroy the 
 young chicks if he cau get near them. They require the same treatment as the Turkey 
 chicks, and must not be let run at large until they are at least six weeks or two months 
 old. They generally do not lay until two years old, unless they are themselves very 
 early birds. Their nests are formed ^vith little regard to warmth or security ; a few 
 ■weeds and dry leaves collected under the low spreading branch of an evergreen, 
 constitutes all the preparation they make for the important business of incubation, 
 dui'ing which, however, they arc very jealous of being disturbed. They are for this 
 reason frequently hatched under a Turkey hen, which makes an excellent step-mother, 
 and can be better managed than the Pea hen. 
 
 The Pea fowls are very good eating, and formerly were generally kept for the table. In 
 the middle ages a feast or entertainment was not considered complete without the presence 
 of a Pea fowl roasted and afterwards sewed up in the skin, with the feathers rearranged as 
 ■when alive, and the comb gilded, the whole served up as the last course. It is generally 
 supposed that the disuse of the Pea fowl as a favom-ite dish, is to be ascribed to its 
 being superseded by the Turkey as having a superior flavour ; but the writers of the 
 "Poultry Book-"^ correct this error, and assert that the Pea fowl is not at all inferior in 
 flavour, and that the neglect into which it has fallen arises rather from its destructive 
 propensities in the field and the garden, and the diflJculty with which the few chicks it 
 produces are reared : these are the real causes that so few Pea fowls are now kept by 
 the farmers, who find the balance of profit or loss always on the wrong side, taking all 
 things into account. 
 
 15. THE GUINEA FOWL. 
 
 The classical name of this bird is Nwnidia meleagris, but it is also called the Pearl 
 Hen, on account of the white spots in its plumage, the Pintado, by the Spaniards, and 
 the Gallina by the Italians. The name by which it is commonly designated here 
 indicates that it was introduced from the west coast of Africa or the Guinea coast. 
 It was known, howevei', by the ancient Romans, and is described by both Columella and 
 Varro as being reared by the Roman farmers at the beginning of the Clu'istian era, having 
 been brought from Africa during the wars of the Romans with that country j and it is 
 supposed that it was brought to Britain by Cfesar's legions at the time, or after the 
 conquest. However this may be, it appears from ancient records that the monks kept 
 them in the thii-teenth century, calling them Avcs Afrkame, or African birds.* 
 
 * Amongst our peasantry tbey arc called "come 1.10149," from tlie call of the hen much resembliDg those words. This, 
 in fact, is the principal mark by which to know the female from the male, so much is the plumage alike. 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 455 
 
 The Guinea lieu is a prolific layer, but being fond of roving away and concealing her 
 nest in grass or corn-fieldsj it is difficult to discover it. The eggs are very rich 
 flavoured, but as the birds pair like tame pigeons, unless there is a male to each female, 
 the eggs of the single hen will prove abortive. The flesh is excellent, and fiu-nishes an 
 important substitute for game, after the season for the latter is over. The cock bu-ds 
 are quite as good the second year as the flrst ; and it is usual to fatten them for the 
 table, and fill up their place with young birds. They generally sell at a good price when 
 killed, but the keepers of poultry seldom make them an object of speculation, probably 
 on account of their roAdng and destructive habits in corn-fields and gardens. If not 
 pinioned they fly over the highest fences as well as a pheasant. Attempts have been 
 made to keep them wild in the plantations, but in the northern and eastern districts of 
 England they have invariably died in the winter ; and in the south they drove away 
 every other description of game, and the owners were obliged to destroy them in order 
 to preserve the rest. The following is the description of this fowl in the " Poultry 
 Book":— 
 
 " The beak is short, stout, slightly curved, and whitish, having a warted blueish red 
 membrane at its base; wattles fleshy and scarlet; eye black, prominent, and bright; 
 eyebrow very distinctly marked and arched; head and neck covered with downy 
 feathers like those of the Silk fowl ; forehead surmounted by a long Casque ; tail short 
 and bending inwards as in the quail and partridge ; legs blue, with a tinge in places 
 of a flesh colour ; plumage grey or leaden, spangled with white spots, varying in size 
 from that of a pea to infinite minuteness. The weight of the male very slightly exceeds 
 that of the female ; and, indeed, we have known hens outweigh the cocks of the same 
 brood. The weight varies fi'om 3 lbs. to 4^ lbs." * 
 
 The varieties of this fowl extend no farther than the colour' of the plumage. The 
 Netted Guinea fowl has the marks of the feathers so curiously arranged as to give the 
 bird the appearance of being covered with network. The Self-coloui-ed Guinea fowl 
 has the hackle and back a leaden grey, without any spots on those parts. The White 
 Guinea fowl is white all over, except the legs, which are yellow. The Pied Guinea 
 fowl has usually the neck, breast, and belly white, and the rest of the usual colour. 
 Hybrids have been produced between the Guinea hen and the common Barn-door cock, 
 but they are monstrosities, and in every instance barren and of doubtful sex.f 
 
 The Guinea fowl is strongly attached to the place of its birth, and if sold away from 
 it when grown up, will assuredly find its way back to it. The only way, therefore, of 
 setting a stock of them, is either to purchase eggs, and put them to be hatched 
 under a common hen, or young chicks to be brought up by hand. No treatment, 
 however gentle or liberal as to food, will tame the full grown birds. But those reared 
 on the premises will, of coui-se, become attached to it, and when full grown will couple 
 of themselves, if there is an equal number of each sex. They should be fed regularly at 
 evening, in which case, wherever they may have roamed during the day, they will 
 return home as night approaches, and roost in an outhouse in winter or on a tree in 
 summer. They are not adapted to bear the severity of the former season. 
 
 The favourite food of the Guinea fowl is buck-wheat ; but it is as well to give them 
 a good proportion of animal food in the winter. "When well kept and allowed their 
 liberty, they lay from fifteen to thirty eggs before they show a disposition to sit. They 
 * " Poultry Book," p. 252. f Ibid. 
 
456 AGEICULTQEE; ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 are very close sitters, aucl will sometimes bring off as many chicks as they have eggs, to 
 the sm'prise of the owner, who has probably been unable to discover their nest, so secret 
 are they in this important affair of incubation. When hatched, the young chicks should 
 be placed under a coop, in a warm, dry situation, where the sun's rays are freely 
 admitted. They should be fed and treated much the same as the young Pea fowls ; but 
 their food should be given them in small quantities at a time, and very frequently. 
 They require to have access to places where they can procure plenty of insect food, of 
 which they, in common with other fowls, are very fond. It is asserted by poultry 
 keepers, that if the young Pintado is kept without food three hours, it will inevitably 
 die. It is therefore necessary to keep them constantly supplied with fresh food of a 
 nourishing kind until they are able to forage for themselves, when they may take their 
 chance with the other fowls, being fed only morning and evening. This will be at the 
 end of six weeks or two months, provided the weather is fine and warm ; otherwise they 
 must still be kept under shelter. The chicks are beautiful little creatures when first 
 hatched, with their red beaks and legs, and brown striped silky down backs. They are 
 as lively as crickets, which adds much to their interest ; but they very soon assume a 
 shyness which is the characteristic disposition of the breed. If allowed full liberty they 
 will soon stray away. They never associate with other fowls, but keep themselves quite 
 distinct, and form what is called " a pack of Guinea fowls." The latest time for hatching 
 them is from the end of April to the beginning of June. 
 
 Guinea fowl are in season from February to the end of May. They are con- 
 sidered as game, and as such, require to be hung up some days before cooking ; when 
 dressed as the pheasant they are quite equal to that bird in flavour. They are, however, 
 considered by the gourmands at their best for the table before Christmas ; but as game 
 at that period is plentiful, the Pintado is not much in request until the season for the 
 former is over. 
 
 16. THE SWAN. 
 
 Although this can scarcely be called a farm -yard fowl, it is frequently kept by gentle- 
 men having a small park with a lake, or a stream of water running through it. The 
 time has been when no one was allowed to keep swans without a royal licence, and this 
 was only granted to the possessor of laud. Thus, in the reign of Edward IV. the 
 privilege was limited to freeholders of land to the clear value of 5 marks (£3 6«. Bid.), 
 the only persons exempt from this law being the king's sons. In Elizabeth's time there 
 were 900 individuals and companies, or corporate bodies, who held " swan marks," some 
 of which were very curious. Thus the Vintners' Company marked their swans with a 
 notch, or nick, on each side the beak, from which circumstance was derived the sign of 
 the " Swan with Two Nicks," since altered to " tico necks," a gross blunder, which a 
 slight reference to the records of the company might have rectified. The Lord Mayor 
 and corporation of London still keep up the annual custom of " Sivan-hopping " on the 
 Thames, where a great number of swans are constantly to be seen in going up and 
 down the stream. The institution is for the purpose of marking the young swans that 
 have been hatched in the season. 
 
 The Mayor aud corporation of Norwich also still retain the privilege of keeping 
 swans on the Yare and Wentsunlj and a swan-herd is amongst the functionaries iu 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 457 
 
 their employ, whose duty is to attend to aud i^rotect the swans on the city streams. 
 jMr. Yarrell, on the authority of Dr. Stanley, tlie late Bishop of Norwich, relates the 
 following custom as still observed in that city by the corporation. On the second 
 !Monday in August the cygnets of that year, whether in charge of the city herdsman, 
 or belonging to members of the corporation aud private persons, are collected together 
 to the number of fifty or sixty on one stream, where they are supplied with all the 
 barley their rather voracious appetites can possibly dispose of; and iu about three 
 months they are considered sufficiently fattened for the table, when they are returned 
 to their respective owners, accompanied by a copy of the following poetical directions 
 for their treatment in the kitchen — directions, by the way, so business-like as to merit 
 a place iu the next edition of Soyer's cookery book : — ■ 
 
 " TO EOAST A SWAN. 
 
 " Take three pounds of beef, beat fine in a mortar. 
 Put it into a swan^that is, when jon have caught her; 
 Some pepper, salt, mace, some nutmeg, an oniou. 
 Will heighten the flavour in gourmands' opinion. 
 Then tie it up tight with a small piece of tape, 
 That the gravy and other things may not escape. 
 A meal paste, rather stiff, should be laid on the breast. 
 And some whited brown paper should cover the rest. 
 Fifteen minutes at least ere the swan you take down, 
 • Pull the paste off the bird, that the breast may get brown. 
 
 " THE GEAVy. 
 
 " To a gravy of beef, good and strong, I opine. 
 You'll be right if you add half a pint of port wine. 
 Pour this through the svv au — yes, quite through the belly, 
 Then serve the whole up with some hot currant jelly. 
 
 " N.B. — The sicaii must nut be skinned." 
 
 The Hooper or Wild swan is a native of the northern climes, and visits the United 
 Kingdom only when the winter is very severe ; they then come over in considerable 
 numbers, and are found in the estuaries and unfrozen parts of rivers. They are very 
 shy birds, and must be approached with great caution. In flight they generally go in 
 pairs, and present a beautifid object as they sail at a great height, their snow-white 
 plumage glittering in the sun like silver. They are not easily killed, and will carry away 
 a good deal of shot, unless struck in a vital part.* Their skins are very valuable on 
 account of the down which covers them under the plumage, but the flesh is rancid and 
 fishy, which, in fact, is the case with the tame swan when not put up for fattening. The 
 writer once shot a cygnet iu the winter of the previous spring-hatching, and when it was 
 cooked the odour from it, much more the flavour, was too strong to bear it iu the room. 
 
 The Black swan, the vara avis of Pliny and other aucient naturalists, was for a long 
 time considered an imaginary bird, until the discovery of the Australian continent, 
 where it was found to be a native. How the Romans became acquainted with it is 
 quite a mystery, but as these large and strong winged birds take long flights, it is very 
 
 • A friend of the writer's was once shooting sparrows aud other small birds, when a Hooper appeared in sight, 
 about thirty or forty yards high above the earth. Without any anticipation of even wounding it, he fired his charge 
 of sparrow shot at it, and, to his amazement, the bird's head dropped, and it fell almost at his feet, dead. On 
 ciamiuation, he found that a single shot had pierced the lower maudible, and passed through the roof of the mouth 
 into the brain, causing instant doalh. 
 
458 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 possible that iudividual birds may have been blown over from Australia in a storm from 
 the southward, and, by way of the African continent, found then- way to the south of 
 Europe. They are a much slenderer bird than the European swan. 
 
 The domestic swans lay from five to eight eggs, and sit thirty-two days. Their nests 
 are veiy large, and are generally built in a shallow, rushy part of a stream, or on an 
 island in a lake. Both the male and female birds are very sedulous and fierce dm-ing 
 the incubation in guarding the nest from intruders, and will master and drown any dog 
 that dares to attack them, by holding him under water with their powerful pinions and 
 bill. The swans always go in pairs, a male and female. They live to a great age, and 
 it is a vulgai' notion that they always sing melodiously when they are about to die. 
 This is a very ancient superstition. 
 
 17. THE GOOSE. 
 
 There are thiee wild varieties that claim to be the parent of the domestic goose — the 
 Anser ferus, or Grey-legged; Anser albifrons, or White-fronted; and the Anser segetum, 
 or Bean goose. In order, however, to satisfy all parties, it has been suggested that 
 probably all three had a share in the paternity ; and a fourth auxiliary has been added 
 of late years in the Anser phcenicopus, or Pink-legged goose. The dispute, however, is 
 not so easily settled ; and as the controversy would lead us astray from our design, 
 having stated the case, we shall leave the reader to follow it up, and proceed to describe 
 the peculiarities of the domestic fowl as bearing upon the profits of the farm-yard. 
 
 The " Poultry Book" enumerates three sub-varieties of the English goose, namely, 
 the Grey or White goose, with both colours blended in different proportions ; the large 
 White Embden goose, sometimes called " the Irish goose ; " and the Toulouse Goose. 
 Of these the first has constituted the general stock of the country, and but little 
 attention has been paid to its improvement by the infusion of fresh blood, although 
 both the Embden and the Toulouse birds have been long imported, and are of a much 
 larger size. The colour of the Embden is perfectly white, which renders its feathers of 
 more value than those of the common kind. The Toulouse goose is noted for the 
 retention of certain fixed colours in its plumage, with which no cross has hitherto 
 interfered; and for the large size to which it will fatten. The colours are darker 
 and more intense than those of the common Grey goose, and the bill, legs, and the 
 circle round the eye are of a bright orange hue. One merit attached to these birds is, 
 that although fatting up to a greater weight than any other breed of European geese, 
 they do not become so gross as to be uneatable, as some others are, when brought to 
 table. 
 
 Three varieties of the goose have been introduced into this country from China of 
 late years, namely, the Red-legged, the Black-legged, and the White Chinese goose. 
 Of these the last is the most valuable and attractive, both on account of its large size 
 and its swan-like appearance. The bill and feet are bright yellow, and the wings are 
 too weak for flight. They are prolific layers, and their period for incubation extends 
 to five weeks. The goslings are easily reared in the spring, but the autumnal hatching 
 is seldom successful, though the hen bird continues to deposit a batch of eggs for that 
 pui'pose. The breed, however, has not made any way amongst those who make the 
 rearing of geese for market a business, the old native bird being still the universal 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. . 459 
 
 dependence of the breeders^ occasionally crossed with the Toulouse variety; -when a 
 gander of that breed can be obtained. 
 
 The county of Lincoln is the most noted for rearing geese, and the metropolis is 
 chiefly supplied from thence with those birds. Large establishments are kept up for 
 that purpose, at some of which many quarters of corn are daily consumed by them whilst 
 brooding. At the farmstead of Monk's Dyke, in 1850, there were consumed weekly 
 during the season one hundred quarters of barley or oats, 3,210 geese being the number 
 fed daily. In Norfolk, also, where there are still extensive commons and marshes, a 
 great number of geese are reared by the cottagers, and sold to the neighbouring farmers 
 at harvest time to take the " shack" of the barley stubbles, being afterwards disposed of 
 to the dealers. One of these, jMr. Bradshaw, of Norwich, has extensive grounds for 
 feeding and preparing foAvls of all kinds for market, where he has generally 2,000 geese 
 besides other birds. Many of them are imported from Holland and Belgium. 
 
 The goose is a bird easily reared, and is but little trouble. Three or four geese to 
 one gander is considered the utmost number. The older the breeding geese are the 
 more chance there is of success, the eggs of the yearling being seldom certain of 
 production. Some breeders go so far as to limit the number of geese to each gander to 
 two. The goose is a long-lived bird, and she continues to breed to the last. We have 
 heard of geese seventy years old, but from twenty-five to thirty years is by no 
 means an vnicommon age at which to see them leading about a numerous brood at the 
 door of a cottage bordering on a common or a marsh in Norfolk. The " Poultry 
 Book" mentions an instance of a goose kept by a farmer near Andover, twenty-three 
 years old, which had never failed to rear two broods every year, her second hatch iu 
 1853 being ten healthy goslings. 
 
 Plenty of water and grass are the essential requisites for rearing geese. They are, 
 however, a decided nuisance in a pasture with horses and other animals ; but when 
 a pasture has been eaten down by these, the geese will then devour the tufts of coarse 
 grass that the horse or sheep have rejected. But the best feeding ground for the 
 broods of geese is an extensive common, with a pond of water accessible, to which they 
 can constantly resort unmolested. With a boy or girl to overlook and take care of 
 them, they have no rural enemies to fear, nor will they roam far from home, to which 
 they return as the day declines. The cottage goose breeder puts up with such 
 accommodation for the bird, during incubation, as his scanty premises will allow. But 
 with the farmer, who makes the rearing of geese an object of farming profit, it is 
 necessary that an adequate provision of accommodation should be made, where they will 
 be protected from the intrusion of destructive animals, such as weasels, polecats, rats, 
 foxes, &c. While the broods are young, they shoidd be watched continually during 
 the day, to prevent these vermin from destroying them ; and every crevice in the 
 walls of their sleeping place must be stopped to prevent the enemy from entering. A 
 few handfuls of oats, morning and evening, are sufficient for the young birds, when 
 they have plenty of grass and water. 
 
 The goose usually lays from twelve to fifteen eggs before she shows a disposition to 
 sit; but it sometimes exceeds that number, especially the Toulouse variety, some of 
 which have been known to lay as many as from forty to fifty eggs before attempting to 
 sit. The end of March and the beginning of April are considered the best months for 
 the commencement of incubation in the north of England, but in the southern and 
 
460 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 milder counties they should be hatched iu April, if not in March. The later hatched 
 goslings are difficult to re^-, and seldom reach the size of the early ones. When the 
 brood goose lays more eggs than she can fairly sit on, which is the case with the 
 Toulouse variety, as they are too valuable to be consumed as eggs, they should be put 
 under a duck of one of the large breeds, or to a Shanghae hen, who makes an 
 excellent stepmother. The duck, however, is preferable for the office, on account of 
 her aquatic habits being more in accordance with those of the expected progeny. 
 
 The custom of plucking live geese twice a year is still practised in Ireland and in 
 some parts of Lincolnshire ; but it has been found that this barbarous pi-actice is no 
 gaiu to the owners of tlie birds, as it prevents them from fattening and attaining the 
 weight they would otherwise reach, nor do they appear so well at table as those who 
 have escaped the barbarity. The author of the " Poultry Book " suggests that now 
 tliat all other animals are protected from cruelty by act of parliament, " plucking geese 
 alive " ought surely to be a misdemeanour, punishable by fine or imprisonment. 
 
 The wild goose is a " bird of passage," and formerly, when extensive marshes covered 
 a large part of England, vast numbers of these birds annually arrived, especially on the 
 occurrence of a severe winter, when the estuaries and inland lakes were almost covered 
 with them and other wild fowl. At present their visits are few and far between, and they 
 limit their presence generally to the estuaries, where great numbers of them are annually 
 shot. They frequently are in the habit of assembling at nightfall on the extensive fields 
 of the large farms in AVest Norfolk and Lincolnshire, where they nibble down the green 
 blade of the wheat, till they leave the field as bare as a fallow. It has, however, been 
 found that so far from injuring the plant, it rather benefits it, so that in the spring 
 it shoots forth with greater vigour, and more numerous tillers. Like other wild fowl 
 in flight, they always form a mathematical figure, which they maintain with great 
 exactness, and generally very high iu the air, except at night, when theii- flight is not 
 more than, fifty or sixty feet fi'om the earth, and sometimes much less. They never 
 associate with the tame birds on any occasion. Their residence during summer is 
 considered to be within the arctic circle, where they can rear their young, unmolested by 
 the pi'esence of man. 
 
 18. THE DOMESTIC DUCK. 
 
 It is the general opinion that this bird derives its origin from the wild duck and 
 mallard ; and this is confirmed by the experiments that have been made to cross them 
 with the wild breeds, which has generally succeeded. Whatever difference may appear 
 in the colour of their plumage or their feet, those of the wild duck being black, may 
 be accounted for without destroying the identity in other respects. In fact, there is as 
 great a difference amongst the wild, in these respects, as there is with the tame breeds. 
 The teal, the sheil fowl, and the mallard, are quite as dissimilar as the White Aylesbury 
 and the Buenos duck ; and it is not improbable that crosses between such of the wild 
 breeds as may have been caught and domesticated, have originated those varieties which 
 we now see amongst the tame breeds. 
 
 It is alleged against this theory, that where the eggs of the wild duck have been 
 hatched by a tame or domestic bird, whether duck or hen, as soon as they become full 
 'fledged, they take wing and fly away. There is no doubt that the constant flight of the 
 
THE POULTEY YARD. 461 
 
 wild duck gives it a power on the wing far beyond that of the domestie bird ; and that 
 this power becomes hereditary in the egg, whether hatched by the parent^ or under a 
 tame bird, is also clear. The fact, therefore, of the young birds availing themselves of 
 their strength of wing is no argument in favour of their being a distinct species. It 
 will require many generations of tame breeding to reduce this power of flight ; and the 
 inclination to exercise it is common to both the wild and the domestie bird, only that 
 the latter is enfeebled by higher living, and consequently a greater weight of body, as 
 well as by the want of exercise for the wings. 
 
 The question, however, is of little importance in any other point of view than as a 
 fact of natural history ; and we shall, therefore, leave the naturalists to settle it, if it is 
 capable of being settled, in the best way they can. It is the opinion of many amateur 
 poultry breeders, that our present domestic duck was imported from India and China 
 about the period of the discovery of the passage to the East by the Cape of Good Hope 
 (1493). Tame ducks, however, are mentioned in history two centuries liefore that 
 period as kept in England. Dugdale, in a list of prices of provisions in 1290, gives the 
 value of a duck at Id. ; and in an act of the common council of London for regulating 
 the value of poultry, about the same period, the price of a mallard was fixed at l^d. 
 Chaucer also speaks of both ducks and drakes in a manner denoting that he was well 
 acquainted with their habits. However this may be, the most approved varieties now 
 in the United Kingdom are as follows :— 
 
 1. The Rouen Duck. 
 
 2. The Ayleshury Duck. 
 
 8. The Buenos Ayrean Duck. 
 
 4. The Common Farm-yard Duck. 
 
 5. The Musk, or Brazilian Duck. 
 
 1. The Rouen, or Rhone Duck. — This, as the name indicates, is a bird of 
 French origin, and is considered by some persons as the most profitable variety. The 
 plumage is rich, especially of the drake ; it lays a great number of large eggs, and the flesh 
 is considered finely flavoured. It is a remarkable feature of this bird's character, that it 
 shows no desire of incubation luitil it has done laying for the season. An instance is 
 mentioned in the " Poultry Book," of three of these birds having, from February to 
 July, laid 334 eggs, five double eggs, and several " lush," or soft ones ; and one of them 
 laid ninety-two consecutive days, without evincing a desire to sit. They attain a great 
 weight when fattened, and have been fed up to from 6 lbs. to 8 lbs. weight each. They 
 are dull, lethargic birds, and seldom stray far from home. The following is a description 
 of them given in the " Poultry Book," p. 289 : — ■ 
 
 " Drake. — Bill inclined to green ; the nail and around the nostril black ; head and 
 neck, as far as the white collar, which should be very distinct, brilliant iridescent green ; 
 throat and breast claret brown; back, scapulas, and thigh, grey, with minute wavy 
 dark lines at right angles to the shaft of the feather ; tail brown, with the outer edge of 
 the feathers white, forming a broad margin of that colour, the three centre feathers 
 being curled ; primaries brown ; secondaries with a bar of bright steel blue forming the 
 speculum, theu a band of black, the extremities being tipped with white ; lesser wing- 
 coverts rich brown ; greater wing-coverts the same, with a narrow white margin ; under 
 part of the body grey, with the same wavy dotted lines as on the back ; legs and feet 
 orange." 
 
463 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 " The duck has a uniform plumage of rich browiij every feather being more or 
 less marked with black. Bill, legs, and feet dusky. Irides light brown in both sexes." 
 
 2. The Aylesbury Duck. — This bird is distinguished by an unspotted white 
 plumage, a pale flesh-coloured bill, a dark, prominent eye, and orange legs. It derives 
 its name from the town of Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, on account of the great 
 numbers reared and fattened there and in tlie neighbourhood for the supply of the 
 metropolis. The Aylesbury ducks fatten up to 10 lbs. to 12 lbs. the pair, but some of 
 them will reach 8 lbs. or 9 lbs. each, if well fed. They are great layers, and have been 
 known to deposit as manj^ as 150 eggs in one year. They consume less in fattening than 
 any other breed, and are remarkably quiet and silent. They are close sitters, and 
 generally bring off two broods in the season, if the first is hatched early. Thirteen or 
 fourteen eggs is quite a safficient number for this bird to cover properly, and the fresher 
 these are the better. The time of incubation is from twenty-six to thirty days. 
 
 The Aylesbury ducks, when fattening, are not allowed to be at liberty, and are 
 forbidden to have access to water fof the purpose of swimming, although for drinking 
 a full allowance is necessary. 
 
 3. The Buenos Ayrean, or Black East Indian Duck. — This is a smaller breed 
 than either of the two former, not fattening to a greater weight than 4 lbs. to 5 lbs. live 
 weight. It is, therefore, rather a fancy bu-d than an object of profit, and the exceeding 
 splendom' of its plumage renders it an ornament to the poultry yard ; and this beauty 
 of plumage is shared by the duck as well as the drake. The groundwork is an uniform 
 velvet black, with iridescent metallic tints, varying with the light from green to a 
 gilded purple, the whole exhibiting a singularly close, neat, compact arrangement of the 
 feathers, of the most brilliant combination of colour. Although these birds are not 
 profitable, they possess the quality of a fine flavoui', and are much esteemed for the 
 table. For an ornamental water on a lawn or in a park, they are particularly sxiitable, 
 and will always be favourites on accoiint of the beauty of their appearance. 
 
 4. The Common Farm-y'Ard Duck. — Tliis, like tlie Barn-door fowl, is of no particular 
 breed, but exhibits in the variety of its plumage, the crossings, undefined, to which it 
 has, in the course of years, been subjected. They are of all colours and all sizes ; 
 while some will not weigh more than 4 lbs. or 5 lbs. when fat, others will reach 8 lbs. at 
 eight months old when well fed. They do not generally stray far from home, unless it 
 is in the vicinity of a river, when the freedom of that favourite element sometimes 
 tempts them to wander further. They are not so good layers, generally, as the Rouen 
 or Aylesbury ducks, but they are excellent sitters, and sometimes lay and sit in the 
 winter. The writer, when a boy, once found a nest of fourteen eggs with the duck sitting 
 closely on them, which were hatched on Christmas Day. He took charge of them 
 himself; and although it proved a severe winter, they were all saved under a common 
 coop, covered over at night, and protected from the cold wind by day. 
 
 Where ducks have free access to a common with a pond of water, or a marsh, it 
 costs but little to rear them, for they are quite able to forage for themselves. If a corn- 
 field is near the homestead, they are by no means scrupulous about the doctrine of 
 mcmn and tnitm, but will make their way into it under a gate or through a bcd_i;o. They 
 
THE POULTRY YARD. 463 
 
 arc voracious feeders ; and in all cases, if dependeut upon artificial means for a liveliliood, 
 they will soon wear out the patience of their owners by " eating their heads off," as it 
 is termed. 
 
 5. The Brazilian, or Musk Duck. — This bird is considered to belong to 
 a distinct species, having several peculiar characteristics differing from those of any 
 other breed. One of these is the disproportion in size between the male and the female, 
 for while the latter seldom exceeds 5 lbs. or 6 lbs., the former frequently attains to 
 9 lbs. or 10 lbs. in weight. The colour varies from black to white, with a mixture of 
 brown or drab. When domesticated, the plumage assumes brighter and more varied 
 colours, and the legs and feet are mottled flesh-colour and black. At the base of the 
 bill is an excrescence of red flesh, which gives it an ugly appeai'ance ; and the skin 
 round the eyes is of the same colour. They differ from all other ducks in roosting on 
 the branch of a tree, or on a stone wall. The term Musk duck is given to it from the 
 idea that the plumage emits the odour of musk j and from this circumstance it has 
 been called the " Muscovy duck," although it has never been seen in European 
 Russia. 
 
 They are very inferior, as layers, to either the Aylesbury or the Rouen, and are not 
 at all before the Farm-yard duck. The eggs are of a dusky white, weighing about three 
 ounces, and the period of incubation is five weeks. They afe great tyrants in the 
 poultry yard, and will bully their weaker neighbours : and as the flavour of the flesh is 
 questionable at least, although extolled by some amateurs, their ugly and ungainly 
 appearance leaves little to recommend them to the favour of the farmer. 
 
/ - .$^ 
 
 PART v.— THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 
 
 Cultivated vegetaWes are agriculturally divided into tivo classes, viz., those directly 
 employed in the sustentation of man, and those consumed by the animals on ■which 
 he i^reys or feeds. The most important and essential of tlie plants of the first class 
 are termed Cerealia, from Ceres, the heatlien goddess of harvest, they being cultivated 
 for the sake of the seeds they produce, Tidiich constitute the harvest. The Cerealia, 
 again, are divided into corn plants, and leguminous plants. The former, capable of being 
 profitaljly cultivated in the United Kingdom, are wheat, rye, barley, oats, and possibly 
 maize ; the leguminous plants are beans, peas, kidney beans, and, rarely, lentils. 
 
 Tiie corn-plants are termed "the cereal grasses," because they all belong to the 
 gramineous tribe of plants. They are rightly considered to be annuals, for if allowed 
 to mature their seeds the first season, they invariably die ; and, although from 
 experiments, intentional or accidental, there is reason to tiiink tliat if maturity of 
 seeding is prevented by cutting down the flowering stem of the plant repeatedly, the 
 existence of any of the cereal grasses might be prolonged beyond the first, if not the 
 second, season, as no perceptible advantage would be derived from the process, we 
 may rest content to consider them as annuals, commencing and terminating their 
 existence within the agricultural season or year. Beginning, therefore, with the 
 corn plants, we shall first treat of that which, in this country at least, is constituted 
 and designated " the stafi" of life." 
 
1. Arm I, WHEAT. 
 
 ?■ IIUNTKU'S. 
 
 3. TALA^'EnA. 5. COMI■0SIT^■^f. 
 
 4. SPALDINC'S rnOLIFIC. 6. EE1>, OR LAMIUS, 
 
 7. ONE-SEEDED. 9. SI'ELT. 
 
 8. POLISH. 10. CIIIDDAM. 
 
WHEAT— ITS HISTORY. 4G5 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 WHEAT— ITS HISTORY. 
 
 b> 
 
 A GREAT deal of learned argument lias been employed, and, \vc cannot help thinkin 
 thrown away, respecting the origin of this cereal ; and that the naturalists, in 
 endeavouring to discover what is totally beyond their range of investigation, have 
 lost sight of, or ignored the fact, that the existence of wheat m its present form, can be 
 distinctly traced back for nearly four thousand years. And if we further consider that 
 at that early and remote period of the world's history, agriculture, which ^vas the first 
 occupation- of man, was probably confined to the simple cultivation of such seeds 
 and plants as presented themselves to his notice, in a form calculated to afford him 
 sustenance, we may reasonably conclude that a production so essential to the well- 
 being of the human race, was created in the form best adapted to use ; and that 
 although cultivation may have, and, as we know, has, produced modifications of the 
 plant, in different countries and climates, yet, that it has always existed as a farinaceous 
 grain, capable of being at once converted, by mechanical means and processes, into a 
 nutritious and wholesome food. 
 
 Two remai-kable experiments, made during the last seventy years, have given 
 sanction to the supposition that wheat derives its origin from a diminutive grass-seed, 
 of the species Triticoides, called jEgilops ovata, or Triaristata, which is found in great 
 abundance in Sicily and the south of France. The first of these experiments was made 
 by the late Sir Joseph Banks, who, having in the year 1805, received from a lady a 
 packet of grass-seeds labelled " Hill ivlieat " planted them in his garden. They were 
 the size of oin- wild grass-seeds ; but, on being examined with a microscope, they were 
 found to exhibit all the outward form and appearance of wheat. To the astonishment 
 of Sir Joseph, the produce of the first year was perfect luheat, resembling in size, as 
 well as in every other respect, the spring wheat commonly grown in this country. The 
 account of these seeds simply stated that they came from India ; but every inquiry of 
 Sir Joseph respecting the precise part of that extensive country they came from proved 
 fruitless. He conjectured that they were obtained from the high grounds at the back 
 of the plains of Bengal, or from some other of the mountainous regions of the Indian 
 peninsula. On the other hand. Baron Humboldt, who is no mean authority in such 
 matters, supposed that they were brought from the mountains of Boutan, an island in 
 the Indian Ocean, about twelve miles from that of Celebes ; and that it would, perhaps, 
 prove to be the primitive type of the Solanwn, or cultivated cereal. 
 
 The second experiment was made by M. Fabre, a celebrated living French naturalist. 
 On examining the seeds of the Triticoides, or yEgilops ovata, with the microscope, he 
 found that, like the " hill wheat " of Sir Joseph Banks, they had all the appearance 
 of wheat, except in their size, which is very small. He carefully cultivated them in 
 his garden, under his own inspection, for twelve consecutive years ; and, in the end^ 
 he also obtained perfect wheat, differing but little from the common spring wheat usually 
 cultivated in the south of France. 
 
 These two instances of the efl'ects of cultivation have given rise to, or confirmed, the 
 foregone conclusion, that wheat was originally nothing more than a diminutive grass- 
 
 II II 
 
466 AGRICULTURE, ANCIEXT AND MODERN. 
 
 seed improved by cultivation ; and that the Triticoides, to which both the '•' hill ■nheat/' 
 and the sjiccies emjiloyed by M. Fabre, appear to belong, is the actual parent of all 
 the varieties of the Triticum family of plants now existing. Before, however, this is 
 conceded as a probable theorem, it must be proved that the reverse is not the case, 
 and that the Triticoides is not rather a degenerated type of the true Triticum, the 
 vestige of an abandoned cultivation, reduced by neglect and deterioration of soil to its 
 present state of degradation. "We daily see the effect of imperfect cultivation on the 
 size and quality of seeds ; and there is nearly as much difference between the best 
 types of the wheat of western Europe, and the small hard wheat of the Steppes of 
 Russian Tartary, where Nature is almost left to herself, as there is between this latter 
 and the ^gilops ovata of Sicily and the south of France, or the " hill wheat " of India. 
 
 Independent of this, the historical evidence, both in the sacred and profane writings 
 is inferentially in favour of the opinion that wheat, in its most useful form, was an 
 original plant, created as such for the benefit of man, and to constitute a chief portion 
 of his food. The promise given to Noah after the Deluge, that " seed-time and harvest 
 should not cease,"* implies the ciUtivation of such plants as wheat and barley. Oue 
 hundred years after the death of Noah, Abraham directed Sarah, his wife, to prepare 
 "three measures of fine meal, to make cakes upon the hearth" for the strangers who 
 visited him.f Sixty-foui- years after the death of Abraham, mention is incidentally 
 made of "wheat-harvest," J which, whilst it establishes the fact that that grain was 
 then cultivated, renders it probable that in the two previous cases its use was implied 
 as a portion of the food of the patriarchs. As we proceed in the sacred narrative, the 
 evidence of the existence and cultivation of wheat in its present form accumidates. 
 The seven-eared corn produced in Egypt, during the seven plentiful years foretold by 
 Joseph, was tlie exact prototype of the present Egyptian wheat [Triticum compositum) 
 which still produces from three to seven, and even eleven ears on one stalk, according 
 to the season, as in tlia time of Joseph. Specimens of this wheat are found in 
 the mummy-cases, which have probably been entombed for three or four thousand 
 years. There is, we believe, no doubt of the truth of this, although it is denied by 
 some that the species termed " mummy wheat " now extensively cultivated, was actually 
 the product of that which was so discovered. There is, however, nothing inconsistent 
 with the nature of things in wheat, thus protected, preserving its vitality for any 
 number of years. The cere-cloth and preparations of the mummy would hermetically 
 seal the wheat from the atmosphere, and so preserve it in its original state ; and, 
 besides this, the air of Egypt is so free from moisture, as to possess an antiseptic property, 
 in itself favourable to the preservation of grain and seeds. 
 
 In profane history, wheat is referred to by the earliest writers extant. Ceres, the 
 goddess of harvest, was a native of Sicily, and introduced the art of agriculture at 
 Athens in the year 1409, before the Christian era, according to the Arundel marbles. § 
 
 » Genesis viii. 22. t Ibid., xviii. 6. % Ibid., xxx. 14. 
 
 5 The following is the account of Ceres in the Arundel JIarbles :— " 12. B.C. 1409.— Since that Ceres came to Athens, 
 and taught there the art of sowing seeds in the earth, and sent Triptolemns, the son of Celsus audNcaera, into other 
 countries to teach them the same art uuder Erectheus, King of Athens, there have passed 1145 years. 
 
 "140G.— Since the same Triptolemns sowed grain at Raria, since called Eleusis, under Erectheus, King of Athens, 
 there have passed 1142 years." 
 
 The Arundel Marbles were engraved 264 years befure the Christian era, in the Island of Pares, oue of the Cyclades, 
 and were found there at the commencement of the seventeenth century. They were brought to England by Thomas, Ilarl 
 of Aruudtl, soon after; and in 1028 the learned Stlden publlsbiJ r.n Englith translation of them. 
 
WHEAT— ITS IIISTOEY. 467 
 
 The Valley of Enna, and that of Triuacria, iu Sicily, where Ceres resided, are considered 
 to be the cradle of agriculture ; and it is said that the canonisation of Ceres in the 
 heathen mythology, was the reward for her having transformed the JEgilojJS ovata into 
 Avheat, by cultivation. Homer, who lived two or three centuries after Ceres, makes 
 mention of beer of a potent quality, made from wheat, which shows that its cultivation 
 was then practised. In Italy, from the earliest establishment of the Roman common- 
 wealth, agriculture was the imivcrsal occupation of the freemen. Great attention was 
 paid to the cultivation of wheat, as is shown by the wi'itings of Columella and other 
 writers of that country. " The most profitable grain for man," says that author, " are 
 common wheat, and bearded wheat. We have known several kinds of wheat, but of 
 these we may chiefly sow what is called the red wheat, because it excels iu both weight 
 and brightness. The white wheat may be placed in the second rank, of which the best 
 sort, in bread, is deficient in weight." 
 
 The Romans introduced the culture of wheat into England ; and it is probable that 
 the "^ red wheat," mentioned by Columella, was the same as the Tritiann liybermdii, 
 or Lammas wheat, still so extensively cultivated in England and northern Europe, whilst 
 the present spring wheat was represented by the Trimestrian, or three-months wheat, 
 sown by the Romans to make good the deficiency in, or the entire failure of, the winter 
 wheat. 
 
 It has been remarked that the cultivation and use of wheat follows and marks the 
 progress of civilisation. This is because it demands a higher and more thoughtful 
 process of husbandry than any other grain, and it is besides a more luxurious and 
 expensive article of diet. The inhabitants of northern Europe consume but little 
 wheaten bread, except the very highest ranks of society. Rye, barley, and oats are the 
 principal farinaceous food (with potatoes) of the great bulk of the populations, and a 
 traveller who wishes to enjoy the luxury of a wheaten loaf of bread, in Prussia or any of 
 the minor German states, must himself prepare a supply to take with him. Both Jacob 
 in 1825, and Laing in 1850, state, that in their journey from Berlin throughout 
 Germany, they saw no wheaten bread at any of the public inns or private houses until 
 they arrived in Eranee. In England, where its consumption is now ruiiversal, it is not 
 a great many years since rye and barley bread constituted the chief food of the rural 
 population. At present, such is the improved condition of the operative classes, that 
 wheaten bread is accessible to all, and, with other improvements in the mode of living, 
 adds greatly to the sanitary condition of the country. 
 
 Naturalists have assigned to wheat a zone or belt, within which it is considered to 
 be cultivated to the greatest advantage. This zone lies between the thirty-fifth and the 
 fifty-fifth degrees of latitude, whether north or south. Below this range, the grain 
 becomes large, ricey, thin skinned, hard, and dry ; whilst above it, the berry gradually 
 diminishes in size, and the bran becomes thicker, rendering it very inferior in com- 
 mercial value to that grown within the belt. Cultivation, however, or the want of it, 
 has much to do with the modifications to which this grain is subject. In the northern 
 part of Scotland, for instance, under the fifty-eighth degree of north latitude, where, a 
 few years since, the climate was so cold and damp that no grain would ripen properly, 
 and the cultivation of wheat was never attempted, that plant is now grown with the 
 greatest success. This change has been facilitated by drainage and other improvements 
 of the land, which, as we have before observed, have, at the same time, ameliorated the 
 
 II H 2 
 
4G8 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 climate; the ■winters becoming shorter and less severe^ aud the summer's heat less 
 excessive, than formerly. 
 
 But altliougli tlicre is certainly a belt of the earth's surface peculiarly favourable to 
 the wheat plant, it is equally true that it has the faculty of accommodating itself to 
 almost ajiy soil or climate, by submitting to modifications which do not destroy its 
 general utility as food, although the proportion of nutriment it yields may be determined 
 by the local influence of those elements. AVheat is cultivated with success on lands 
 within the tropics, at a certain elevation above the level of the sea ; and it is also 
 produced in the colder regions of the north, — as in Scotland at 58°, in Norway at 64;°, 
 in Sweden at 62^°, in Western Russia at 60° 15', in Central Asia at 60°, &c., &c. In 
 Eastern Russia, on the Steppes, one hundred miles inland from the borders of the 
 Crimea, wheat grows half spontaneously; that is, after the first crop, the land is seeded 
 for the next two or three years by the shelled corn of the crops. It is remarhable that 
 in no country is the grain produced so free from extraneous seeds of wild jjlants as the 
 wheat from those Steppes. In other respects the grain shows the want of proper culti- 
 vation in the smallness of the berry, compared with that of Western Europe. Yet it 
 possesses great strength, and is useful for mixing with softer corn. On the other hand, 
 on the rich and luxuriant plains of jNIexieo, around the city of Xalapa, and nearly on a 
 level with the sea, wheat grows with great rapidity, and attains an enormous height, but it 
 hears no ear, and is only cultivated as fodder for cattle, as rye and tares are grown in the 
 neighbourhood of our large cities, for the same purpose. 
 
 At the period of the discovery of America, that continent possessed no cereal plant, 
 except maize, which the Indians were found cultivating by the discoverers. Wheat and 
 other European plants were conveyed thither by them ; but there was none in South 
 America until about the year 1536, when a Spanish lady, Maria d'Escobar, the wife of 
 Don Diego de Chauves, carried a small parcel of wheat from Spain to Lima (then called 
 Rimac). This was planted by her, and she distributed the produce amongst the colonists. 
 Wheat had, a few years previously, been introduced into Mexico through a slave, who 
 found three grains of it in a parcel of rice. His master, Cortez, caused them to be 
 planted, and they were the parent stock of the present Mexican wheat. 
 
 About the same time a vase full of wheat was taken from Europe to Quito by a monk 
 of the order of St. Francis. It was planted by the fraternity of the convent, and suc- 
 ceeded perfectly. The vase is still preserved, and, with the name of the monk, — 
 Jodoso Rixi, — is held in great veneration by the fraternity. They showed the vase to 
 Baron Humboldt, when he visited Quito, and requested him to explain a motto in 
 German, which, in ignorance of that language, they thought referred to the wheat. 
 But it proved to be the pious admonition, " Let no one drink out of this vase without 
 thinking of God.'^ 
 
 Wheat is cultivated extensively in British India, and some of it has been imported 
 from thence into the United Kingdom. Previous to the conquest of the country, it was 
 unknown to the natives, which appears strange, when we consider that in Persia it 
 grows spontaneously ; that it is indigenous in the countries bordering on the Mediter- 
 ranean; and that in the works of Diodorus Sieulus aud other ancient authors, as 
 translated by Sprengel, many passages occur' to prove the probability that most of oui' 
 ]']uropcau grains grew wild in the northern parts of Persia and India. If, as Humboldt 
 suggests, these were really found in a wild statc^ being only vestiges of au abandoned 
 
■WHEAT— ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 409 
 
 cultivation^ still their existence proves that they were once the object of culture; 
 especially when it is considered that in all the cities and ports of PalestinCj wheat was 
 an important article of commerce. Solomon paid Hiram, King of Tyre, 20,000 measures 
 of wheat for his .services in the building of the Temple, and " wheat of Minneth" was 
 sent from Judah and Israel to Tyre, which city had large intercourse with Persia and 
 India. Be this, however, as it may, rice has for a long period superseded every other 
 grain in India, and now constitutes the almost exclusive food of the rural population. 
 
 In all the colonies of the United Kingdom wheat is cultivated with the greatest 
 success. In the Cape of Good Hope and Australia the quality of the grain is exceedingly 
 good, and the weight extraordinary. The gold discoveries in the latter country have, 
 however, to a great extent, checked agriculture, by diverting the attention and the 
 labour of the colonists from the farm to the "diggins." 
 
 WHEAT— ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 1st. Its Chemical Composition. — According to the analysis of M. Boussinganlt, wheat 
 and wheat-straw are composed of the following substances in the specified proportions : — 
 
 Wheit. Wlicat-straw. 
 
 Carbon 461 4«-4 
 
 Hydrogen 58 5'3 
 
 Oxygen i'ii 38-9 
 
 Nitrogen 23 0-4 
 
 Ashes 2-4 70 
 
 ino'O 100-0 
 
 The four first of these substances are furnished directly, or indirectly, by the atmos- 
 phere ; the last alone being derived from the soil. Small, however, as is the 
 proportion of ashes in vegetable substances, they are found on analysis to be possessed 
 of a variety of matters, as the following table shows : — 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 Sulphuric acid . . 
 Chlorine . . 
 Lime .... 
 
 Ash of Wheat. 
 . . 47-0 . . . . 
 . . 1-0 ... . 
 . . traces . . . . 
 . . 2-9 ... . 
 
 Wheat-sti 
 
 , . . 31 
 
 . . 1-0 
 
 . . 0-C 
 
 . . 8-5 
 
 Magnesia 
 Potash 
 
 
 . . 15-9 . . . 
 
 . . . 50 
 
 
 . . 29-5 . . . , 
 
 . . . 9-i 
 
 Soda 
 
 
 traces . . . . 
 
 , . . 0-3 
 
 Silica 
 
 
 . . 1-3 .. . 
 
 . . . 67-G 
 
 
 
 00 . . . 
 
 . . . 10 
 
 Moisture 
 
 and loss . 
 
 . . 2-4 .. . 
 
 , . . 3-7 
 
 100-0 100-0 
 
 These constituents arc elaborated ia the grain of wheat into the following gross 
 substances : — 
 
 Gluten. Saccharine. Water. 
 
 Starch. Gum. I5ran. 
 
 In order to ascertain the proportions of the constituents of wheat derived from the 
 atmosphere, M. Boussinganlt grew two successive crops of wheat on a soil destitute 
 of nitrogen, but manured with 20,000 kilogrammes (nearly 20 tons) of farm-yard 
 manure per hectai-e. The produce was 3-318 kilogrammes of wheat, and 7^500 kilo- 
 
470 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 grammes of straw^* aud the following table sho-ws the -weight when driedj and the pro- 
 portions of the component parts : — 
 
 
 Weight dry. 
 
 Caibon. 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 Oxygen. 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 Ashes. 
 
 Wheat. . . . 
 Wheat-straw 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 2-836 
 5-550 
 
 1037-4 
 268G-2 
 
 1G4-5 
 294-2 
 
 12308 
 21590 
 
 65-2 
 
 22-2 
 
 08-1 
 388-5 
 
 8 386 
 4-140 
 
 S993-6 
 14S2-1 
 
 45S-7 
 173-9 
 
 2389-8 
 1008-1 
 
 87-4 
 83-8 
 
 456 6 
 1333 1 
 
 Slauure . . . 
 Difl^rence . . 
 
 4-246 
 
 2oir5 
 
 2S4-8 
 
 2321-7 
 
 4-6 
 
 876-3 
 
 From this table it appears that the manure supplies nearly half the materials of the 
 cropsj and almost the whole of the nitrogen, whilst the ashes constitute nearly one-third 
 of the whole weight of the manure. 
 
 The value of wheat is determined by the proportions of the gross substances of which 
 it is composed. These vary according to the description of wheat, or the climate of 
 the country in which it is grown, or the nature of the soil, or the quality of the 
 manure. The quality is also greatly affected by the state of the weather before, or 
 at the time, of harvest. The two most important elements contained in it are gluten 
 and starch, the composition of which is as follows : — 
 
 Slarcli. Gluten. 
 
 Carbon 43-55 53883 
 
 •Oxygen 49-68 23-872 
 
 Hydrogen 6-77 7-540 
 
 Nitrogen 0-00 15-705 
 
 100 00 
 
 100-000 
 
 The effect of different mamu'cs in changing the proportions of these elements has 
 been singularly illustrated by ]\I. Boussingault, in an experiment recorded in liis work 
 on agricultural chemistry, of which the following are the particulars ; — 
 
 Manures. 
 
 Gluten. 
 
 starch. 
 
 Bran and 
 soluble matters. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1. Humau urine . . . 
 
 2. Bullocks' blood . . . 
 
 3. Night soil .... 
 
 4. Sheep's duug . . . 
 
 5. Goats' do 
 
 6. Horses' do 
 
 7. Pigeons' do 
 
 8. Cows' do 
 
 9. No manure .... 
 
 351 
 
 34-2 
 33-] 
 32-9 
 329 
 13-7 
 132 
 120 
 9-3 
 
 39-3 
 40-3 
 41-4 
 43-8 
 42-4 
 61-0 
 03 2 
 62-3 
 CG'7 
 
 25-0 
 25-5 
 25-5 
 24-3 
 24-7 
 24-7 
 24-6 
 25-7 
 24-1 
 
 100-0 
 100-0 
 1000 
 100-0 
 1000 
 ] 00-0 
 1000 
 100 
 1000 
 
 The results here are very remarkable, the contest being kept up between the gluten 
 and the starch, there being a very slight difference in the quantity of the other materials 
 in the third column. As the amount of gluten decreases, that of starch increases in 
 nearly an equal proiiortion, tlie maximum of the former being 35'1 and minimum 9'2 
 per cent., whilst those of the starch are 39-3 and G6-7 per cent., the difference between 
 the higlicst and the lowest of the gluten being 2o'9, and that of the starch 37'4, wliilst 
 the rest of the materials show an excess in the maximum of only 1-5. 
 
 (ilixteu 1)oing the substance that imparts strength to the flour, the wheat whicli 
 
 * This amounts to ]31- bushels of wheal, anil about 7 J tous of straw per acre 'r,i the lico civjis, 
 
WHEAT— ITS CHARACTERISTICS. 471 
 
 contains the largest proportion of it must be the most valuable to the baker and the 
 consumer. Gluten is of the nature of animal sinew or tendon, and contains 14i per 
 cent, of azote or nitrogen. The proportion of gluten iu flour, determines the quantity 
 of bread it will make from a given weight of flour, or rather the quantity of water it will 
 absorb. The millers, therefore, who desire to have the best, that is the strongest^ flour, 
 select those wheats which are known to contain the largest amount of gluten. 
 
 Starch, on the contrary, possesses of itself alone, no nutritive properties, nor could 
 it sustain life for any length of time ; but it is well calculated to modify the astringent 
 properties of gluten, with which it is so intimately blended in cereal produce. The 
 proportion also contained in wheat determines the value of the grain to the starch- 
 maker ; it is, therefore, evident that No. 9 in the last table miist be more desirable to 
 him than No. 1, containing as it does 37'4 per cent, more starch; whilst No. 1, which 
 contains nearly four times the quantity of gluten to No. 9, is worth several shillings 
 more per quarter to the miller or baker, as producing a better quality of flour and 
 a larger proportion of bread. 
 
 2nd. IVheat, its constitution. — There is not any other of the cerealia that possesses a 
 more hardy constitution than wheat, or that can more eff'ectually withstand the changes 
 of temperature in the earlier stages of its existence. It has the faculty of adapting itself 
 to almost every climate or soil in which vegetation of any kind flourishes. It has all 
 the vitality of common grass, and can bear the vicissitudes of heat and cold, drought and 
 moisture, without material injuiy. We have known excellent crops reaped after a 
 season so diy, that scarcely a shower fell between April and harvest. Instances also 
 have been known in which, during a temporary flood, wheat has remained under water 
 so long that all other vegetation has been destroyed ; yet, when the water subsided, the 
 wheat has sprung up from the root uninjured, and produced a good crop. Nor will any 
 degree of frost destroy it in the earlier stages of its growth, if the proper precautions 
 are used for its protection after the frost has gone. The only period of danger from 
 this cause is the occurrence of a frost when, or after, shooting the ear, which, in fact, is 
 the most critical period of its existence. 
 
 Frequently have we seen, in the eastern counties, fields of wheat over which, in the 
 spring, the bitter east wind, fresh from the German Ocean, has swept for weeks with a 
 severity that destroyed every vestige of vegetation ; so that a stranger, accustomed to 
 the warmer climate of the south, would be at a loss to know whether the land was sown 
 or not, this state of things sometimes continuing until May ; and every farmer of any 
 standing, can recall instances in which it was a dou.btful point whether it would be most 
 prudent to let the field remain or to plough it up, and sow it with other grain. Yet, all 
 this time, the plant which thus lies concealed, is gathering strength at the root, and 
 forming its tillers or oftsets, ready to be pushed forward as soon as the genial rays of the 
 sun are brought to bear upon it. Many such a field as we have described, has after 
 all produced an abundant crop. 
 
 From a long consideration of the subject, and a considerable amoiTut of personal 
 observation, we are inclined to believe that no plant of wheat, if sown in proper time, 
 and treated with the proper precautions, was ever destroyed by frost. The most common 
 way in which frost is supposed to injure wheat is by promoting the root-fall. This 
 disease, as it is called, usually attacks the late-sown wheats, and its rationale is as 
 follows : wheats, sown late — say in November or the beginning of December — have but 
 
& 
 
 472 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 little time to send tlieir roots downward into tlic soil, and the rains of autumn or early- 
 winter swell the ground and raise the plants to the surface. "When the fi'ost sets in, the 
 moisture is evaporated ; and as soon as the thaw succeeds the soil falls from the young 
 roots, leaving them exposed to the sun and wind without any support, and the plant 
 dies. The only remedy is passing a heavy roller over the surface, or driving a flock of 
 sheep, either of which closes the soil about the plant, and helps it to take a fresh hold 
 of the ground. 
 
 The most effectual prevention, however, of the root-fall is to plant or sow early, so 
 that the young plants may have ample time to strike their roots deep and take a firm 
 hold of the ground before winter. The tap-root of wheat penetrates as much as five or 
 six feet in some soils, and in all, when deep tillage is practised, and if sown early, soon 
 gets out of the reach of danger from root-fall. 
 
 The light peaty lands of Lincolnshire are particularly liable to this disease, and every 
 dry spring many fields of wheat are destroyed by it. A farmer who a few years since 
 took a farm in that county, having, the first year of his occupation, had several acres 
 of wheat almost wholly destroyed, took the precaution the following year, after the 
 wheat was sown, to cover the whole surface with clay to the depth of three inches. 
 His neighbours blamed him severely for this, and prophesied that the wheat would never 
 come up through the clay. So far from this being the case, it came strong and 
 vigorous, and whilst the lands of his neighbours suflPered, as usual, from the root-fall, 
 he never lost a plant ; and at harvest he reaped double tlie crop of any farmer in the 
 vicinity. 
 
 There is, however, one condition in the management of the farm necessary to the per- 
 fect success in the cultivation of wheat, as well as every other kind of vegetable produce, 
 namely, getting rid of the surface water by drainage. The continued presence of this 
 enemy, especially on strong clay soils, calls for one of the most important operations in 
 good husbandry ; and yet, strange to say, although its necessity has been pointed out by 
 every writer of eminence, from Fitzherbert to those of the present day, scarcely one- 
 third of the clay soils of England ha^•e been drained. The injurious effect of the reten- 
 tion of surface water upon the wheat plant, is annually felt by the heavy land farmers, 
 and yet they go on, year after year, without applying the remedy. The subject will 
 come more fully and immediately under consideration at a future portion of this work ; 
 but it was necessary to refer to it in speaking of the causes of the failure of the wheat 
 plant, of which it is one of the most palpable of those the remedy for which is in the 
 cultivator's own power to apply. 
 
 The destruction of the plant is not the only evil that arises from the neglect of 
 drainage. Mildew and blight are the usual diseases that attack it, and the richer the 
 land in manure, the more liable is the plant to be injured. In that case the presence of 
 water renders the straw long and lazy, and liable to be lodged by the wind and rain. 
 In such instances the grain is usually coarse and thin, and deficient both in weight and 
 in yield. 
 
 The grain of wheat loses a portion of its vitality every year after the second or third 
 season from its maturity. The usual practice is to sow the new seed just harvested ; but 
 it is a question whether it would not be advantageous to employ over-year seed, which 
 appears to be the most natural method. The proper time for sowing is the beginning of 
 Septen)bcr ; and it is seldom that the opportunity of threshing the seed from new wheat 
 
WHEAT— ITS POWER OF PRODUCTION. 473 
 
 occurs so early. But besides this, the graiu, although possessing full vitality as soon as 
 it is ripe, has uot attained its solid maturity until a year has passed over it. One proof 
 of this is the superior strength of the flour made from old wheat, to that which is 
 made from tlie new immediately after harvest. On the same principle, it is rational to 
 suppose that wheat of the second season would produce less length of straio, but a heavier 
 ear and grain. We would not recommend sowing wheat older than the second year, 
 after which its vitality begins to decline, unless kept in the straw, which will probably 
 preserve it somewhat longer. 
 
 WHEAT— ITS POWER OF PRODUCTION. 
 
 The rapid increase of the population, and, consequently, of the consumption of bread- 
 corn and other provisions in the United Kingdom has raised the question how tlie 
 wants of the people are in future to be provided for, especially in case of war with any 
 of the wheat-growing countries from whence we now obtain our supplies. At present 
 the whole world is open to our commerce so far as purchasing is concerned ; but the 
 time has been, and that within the memory of many of us, when that whole world was 
 shut against us, and we could look to no quarter for a supply. It is true the population 
 was then not more than half what it now is, and the vigorous eflbrts of the government 
 to cause the waste lands to be brought under cultivation led to the increase of 
 production, so that, except in the case of a failure of the crop on one or two occasions, 
 no absolute scarcity was felt ; and from the peace of 1815 to the present time the corn 
 tr.ade with foreign nations, under vai'ious restrictions and modifications, has been 
 sufficiently open at all times to enable us to meet the growing demands of the com- 
 munity ; whilst, under the present laws, all restrictions upon the trade are abolished, 
 and the United Kingdom has become the granary of the whole world . 
 
 But who will be able to say that the state of that world is such as to lead us to hope 
 that this freedom of commerce and abundance of supply will not be interrupted by war ? 
 Can we look either eastward or westward, — to the continent of Europe or that of 
 America, — and affirm that the supply of bread-corn is as certain for us in the future as 
 it has been in the past ? Even if no breach with the United States occurs, will they be 
 able, with such enormous draughts upon the rural population for the support of the 
 civil war as are now threatened, to cultivate the land and grow corn beyond their own 
 wants sufficient to supply us as heretofore ? 
 
 Such questions must press themselves at times upon the mind of every reflecting 
 man, and force upon him the problem of supply in case of war, now that the population 
 is 30,000,000 instead of 15,000,000, as it was at the beginning of the present century ;* 
 and this naturally leads to the inquiry whether the land imder, or capable of, cultiviition 
 in the United Kingdom might not be made so much more productive as to furnish 
 enough without having recourse to foreign aid ? This inquiry comes directly within the 
 range of our present subject — the productive powers of the wheat plant, which is the 
 most important of our agricultural productions. 
 
 If we except a comparatively few isolated instances of experiments, made on a small 
 scale by amateur farmers, the fertility of this plant has never been tested to the extent 
 its importance demands, considering the critical position of England at the beginning of 
 
 * In the year 1801 tie population of Great Britain was 10,942,016, and of Ireland 4,500,000, in all, 15,442,646. 
 
17i AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 this century, and which state of things may possibly again occur. Yet enough has been 
 clone to prove that, with a proper care and attention in the cultivation of wheat, there 
 is no assignable limits to its productiveness ; and that it is within the range of proba- 
 liility, that not only could enough wheat be grown to supply ourselves, but that 
 England might become an exporting, instead of an importing, country, were the powers 
 of her soil and her cereal plants increased to the extent of v>hich they have been 
 shown to be capable. "We shall adduce a few instances of experiments illustrative of 
 this proposition. 
 
 The first is that of Mr. Miller, who was the curator of the Botanical Garden at 
 Cambridge about a century ago ; and the facts wliich we are about to state are inserted 
 in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (vol. Iviii. p. 203), to the following 
 efiFect : — " I\Ir. C. Miller, of Cambridge, sowed some wheat on the 2nd June, 1766 ; and 
 on the 8th August one plant was taken up and separated into eighteen parts, and 
 replanted; these plants were again taken up and divided in the months of September, 
 and October, and planted separately to stand the winter, which division produced 
 sixty-seven plants. Tliey were again taken up in March and April, and produced 500 
 plants. The number of cars thus formed from one grain of wheat was 21,109, which 
 gave three pecks and three-quarters of corn that were estimated at 570,840 grains." 
 The land is stated to be of medium quality, and no manure was applied. 
 
 This remarkable experiment, the details of which there is not the smallest reason 
 to doubt the truth of, is referred to by Sir H. Davy in his work on the "Elements of 
 Chemistry," and there are several important considerations arising out of it. The early 
 period at which tlie grain of wheat was sown (2nd June) ensiu'cd for it a rapid develop- 
 ment of its tillers. The first division and replant took place on the 8tli August, nine 
 weeks after the seed was planted, and before the usual time of sowing commences ; the 
 second division was made when that operation was at its height, namely, in September 
 and October ; and we may, therefore, consider the sixty-seven plants it produced O.s 
 representing so many plants grown from early-sown seed. Tlic third and last division 
 was effected just as the spring was about to exercise its renovating influence on the face 
 of nature, and the large number of tillers thrown out during the winter months (seven 
 and eight to each plant) is very remarkable ; but this was as nothing compared witli 
 the subsequent increase, which gave an average of forty-two ears to each of the 500 
 plants, and of twenty-seven grains to each ear ! Let us nov; see what would be the 
 result if such an operation were to be carried out on a large scale. 
 
 There are 43,560 feet in an acre of land. If wc divide this by 500, on the supposi- 
 tion that each of the plants occupied a square foot of ground, wc find there are 87 such 
 spaces in the acre. The 500 plants produced 3| pecks of wheat; if, therefore, we 
 multiply this by 87, it gives 326| pecks, or 10 quarters, 1 bushel, 2^ pecks per acre. 
 
 This was no apocryphal produce, and the only question is, whether it is capable of 
 being carried out upon a large scale ? The father of ^Miller, who was the author of the 
 "Gardener's Dictionary/' states in that work that "the finest field of wheat he ever 
 saw was sown in rows, at a foot and a half distance. The allowance of seed to this field 
 was three gallons, whilst l)y the common practice of the farmers there was seldom less 
 than three bushels per acre, wIulIi is eight times as much. This wheat was hoed by 
 the hand twice in the spring, wliich cost ~)s. Gd. per acre; when the corn was in ear, it 
 was not less than six feet high ; tlicre were from twelve to twenty stalks on each root^ 
 
WHEAT—ITS POWlDR OF PRODUCTION. 475 
 
 which were so strong as to all stand upright. The ears were very long, the ground 
 perfectly free from weeds, and the produce was more than eleven quarters per acre of land. 
 These experiments, one should imagine, would excite a desire amongst the farmers to 
 adopt the practice ; but, on the contrary, not one of those in the neighbourhood ivould 
 follow it." * Miller also states that he has known eight to ten quarters reaped upon an 
 acre, over the whole field, and sometimes more ; " and," he adds, " I have been 
 informed, by persons of credit, that on good land, which was drilled, and managed with 
 the hand-hoe, they have had twelve quarters per acre." 
 
 In the same work is given an account of a loug series of experiments on tlic Tullian 
 system, by M. Lulliae de Chateauvien, on a farm near Berne, in Switzerland, and such 
 was the success, — the produce being half as much more than on the old system, — that 
 he adopted it with his whole crop of wheat of 200 acres. No manure was applied, yet 
 the land, after four years cropping with wheat, increased in productiveness, which he 
 justly ascribed to the more perfect pulverisation of the soil. 
 
 Varlo, a practical farmer, who published a work of three volumes on Agriculture, 
 which ran through three editions, the last of which had a numerous list of subscribers, 
 relates many instances in which, with single seeding at wide distances, a produce of from 
 50 to 80 bushels was obtained. 
 
 This question, however, of the prolificness of the ^^ heat plant, is in a fair way of 
 receiving its solution in the present day, having been taken up by several persons who 
 have both the means and the disposition to carry it out to the utmost on an extended scale. 
 The practice of the Tullian husbandry, with the improvements which modern science 
 has suggested, is adopted by many persons experimentally, and especially at Lois Weedon, 
 in Buckinghamshire, by the Rev. Mr. Smith, whose proceedings are well-known and 
 understood. For thirteen consecutive years he has sown wheat on half the same field 
 alternately, and produced from 35 to 40 bushels on the half acre, or from 70 to 80 
 bushels per acre, the quantity of seed planted being o\ily from one to two pecks per acre, 
 no manure being ever applied during that loug period. 
 
 But the most extraordinary and extensive experiment to test the prolific character 
 of wheat, aird, we may add, the most successful too, is that of F. F. Hallett, Esq., of the 
 ^lanor House, Brighton. This gentleman farms altogether about GOO acres, in the 
 neighbourhood of Brighton; and, possessing ample means for carrying out his plans, he 
 has established a system in the culture of wheat, which, from the wide-spread jmblicitv 
 it has attained, the large number of persons who have been induced to adopt his j)lan 
 experimentally, and the success they have also generally met with, is likely to produce a 
 complete revolution in the practice of wheat planting. "We shall now state the system 
 upon which Mr. Hallett has proceeded in raising the stock of wheat he terms " the 
 Pedigree Wheat," as described by himself, the leading principle of which is, allowing 
 each plant sufficient room to fully develop itself; or, in other words, thin seeding. 
 
 "A perfect plant of wheat," he says, " consists of three principal parts, — viz., the 
 roots, the stems, and the cars. When a grain is planted under the most favourable 
 circumstances, these are produced as follows : — Shortly after the plant appears above the 
 ground it commences to throw out new and distinct stems, upon the first appearance of 
 each of which, a correspoiiding root-bud is developed for its support, and while the new 
 stems " tiller " out flat over the surface, their respective roots assume a corresponding 
 
 * Miller's " Gardener's Dicliouary," under lie article " ulie-it," first pnllislied in 1723. 
 
476 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERIT. 
 
 development Ijencatli it. This process will continue until the season arrives for the 
 stems to assume an upright growth, when "tillering" ceases, and the whole vital power 
 of the plant is concentrated upon the production of the ears. These will be the finest it 
 is capable of producing, unless the growth of its roots have been in any way interfered 
 with, as by having been cramped or crowded by those of other plants, when the size of 
 the ears will be proportionately diminished. I wish to avoid scientific terms as much as 
 possible, but, as a convenient mode of expression, I shall henceforth speak of the 
 "tillering" process accompauicd by the corresponding growth of the roots as "the 
 horizontal," and of the comparative length and contents of the ears produced, as the 
 " vertical," development or growth of the plant. I shall also, for like reason, designate 
 as the " natural" mode of cultivating wheat, that which gives free play to its nature. 
 
 " The extent to which horizontal development may take place, is seen in the fact, that 
 the stems produced from a single grain, having perfect freedom of gi'owth, will, in the 
 spring, while lying flat upon the surface, extend over a circle three feet in diameter,* 
 producing at harvest froni fifty to sixty ears. 
 
 -" That vertical development is dependent on horizontal growth being imimpeded, has 
 been abundantly shown to me, in the observations I have made upon the growth of wheat 
 under difltrent conditions. It is generally illustrated in the experience before alluded to, . 
 that a thinned crop produces fine ears ; and a more particular illustration of this principle 
 will be presently seen in the case of the original ears, with which I commenced. These 
 liad been grown in the usual way, in a field seeded with two bushels per acre ; but by 
 simply planting their grains separately, so as to admit of the full horizontal growth of 
 tlie plants, the vertical development was, in the following harvest, nearly doubled. 
 
 " This fact is pregnant with practical inferences, bearing upon the present mode of 
 culture, which by the use of superfluous seed, crowds the plants and produces eai-s of 
 only one half the natural size. 
 
 " It has for tlie last twelve years been my conviction that a good pedigree is as 
 valuable in plants as in animals ; and that in the careful rearing of seed that has this 
 qualification, lies our only means of materially increasing the produce of the cereals. 
 Amongst animals, whether horses, cattle, sheep, or pigs, the importance of pedigree is 
 fully recognised, as also even in reference to some of our agricultural plants ; for if a farmer 
 wants a good cabbage, mangold, turnip, or carrot, he selects the seed from a good 
 parent ; but the moment he deals with the cereals, he almost ignores the great principle that 
 like produces like, which he admits in the foregoing cases, to be not only a right one, but so 
 important as to deserve much attention, and repay much outlay. Yet the minutest 
 characteristics of a plant of wheat will be I'cprodueed in its descendants ; so much so, 
 that we can not only perpetuate the advantages presented to us in an individual ear, 
 but by the accumulation of selection, make further advances in any desired direction." 
 
 In accordance witli this principle Mr. Hallett proceeded to raise a stock, by selecting 
 the best ears for seed, and in four years he succeeded in increasing the size of the ear 
 in the following ratio : — 
 
 Length, Conlaining Xumbor of cars 
 
 inches. grains. on finest stool. 
 
 1S57. Original ear 4| . . 47 ... . — 
 
 1858. Finest ear G^ . . 79 .... 10 
 
 1859. Finest ear 7f • . 91 .... 23 
 
 ISflO. Ears itnperfect,fioi!i Kel se<isoii . . — . . — .... 39 
 
 ISGl. rinustear SJ . . 1~'3 .... 52 
 
 * Tlic writer s.iw a jil.ant of wheat at Mr. Hallett's farm whieh mcavired 5 fnst 8 inclies across. 
 
WHEAT— ITS POWER OF PRODUCTION. 477 
 
 " ThuSj by means of repeated selection alone, the length of the ear has been doubled^ 
 their contents nearly trebled, and the 'tillering ' power of the seed increased five-fold." 
 
 Such is the principle on which Mr. Hallett has raised the stock of wheat he now 
 cultivates ou his faun of 600 acres, and which he has offered for sale to the public. 
 In the present year (1862) he has 90 acres, seeded with from one peck to one bushel 
 per statute acre, according to the period of sowing. The land lie occupies near 
 Brigliton is of the most ordinary kind, being a thin soil of about six inches depth, over 
 an interminable chalk. Some of this laud is naturally so infertile — one field iu 
 particular — as to have been proverbially incapable of growing wheat at all ; yet, on 
 this very field, with a seeding of one peck per acre, a crop of 48 bushels per acre was 
 raised this season.* 
 
 Mr. Hallett considers that if the wheat is planted in September, it should be 
 deposited in single grains, nine inches apart every way, which would be equal to one 
 bushel to every six acres. If planted later, the grain should still be deposited singly, 
 but at a less distance apart. "What early planting will do in ensuring success, he shows 
 by an experiment in 1860 — a year of signal failure in the wheat crop. " The Pedigree 
 Nursery wheat planted singly, September 9, 1859, in holes nine inches apart every 
 way, produced in 1860, notwithstanding the very disastrous character of the scasou, 
 IJ bushel on 698 square feet of unman ured land, or 108 bushels per acre." From 
 his own practice he recommends the following apportionment of seed to the period 
 of sowing, the grain being dibbled singly in holes not exceeding Ih iueh in depth : — 
 
 Between rows of — 
 ■ la August or early ia September ... 9 inelies . 
 
 la September 9 ,, . . 
 
 In October 6 „ . . 
 
 Towards end of Octoler 6 ,, . . 
 
 After October 6 „ . . 
 
 The advantages of early sowing are forcibly insisted upon as calculated to secure the 
 plants from many of the dangers to which they are liable when late sown, and vegetation 
 becomes less rapid and vigorous. But, besides this, the small quantity of seed required, 
 although a secondary, is no trifling object to the farmer. On 100 acres, one bushel 
 to six acres, instead of two or three bushels per acre, which Mr. Hallctt's neighbours 
 are in the habit of employing, creates a saving of from 180 to 280 bushels, which, at 
 6«. per bushel, amounts to from £54 to ^£84. But even supposing it is not possible in all 
 cases to get all the wheat sown in the month of September, by commencing in that 
 month it affords an extension of the seed-time, and gives greater opportunity for 
 selecting the proper time in regard to weather, &c. When the commencement is 
 postponed to the latest period, the chances are greatly against a favourable result. 
 Early sowiug also affords time for replanting iu case of failure, either in whole or iu 
 part. But in proof of the diminished risk in early sowing, ]\Ir. Hallett states, that of 
 500 persons who adopted his system with the Pedigree wheat in 1861, only two 
 reported to him the destruction of the crop, — one by excessive drought, the other by 
 the slug. 
 
 Such is the system pursued by Mr. Hallett, whose proceedings have attracted the 
 
 The writer saw this, with the other crops, aiid cau bear his tesliiuoD}' to the remarkable leuijtk of the ears, stoiitiitss 
 of the straw, aud flueness of the grain. 
 
 In rows of— 
 9 inches . . 
 
 Quantity of seed. 
 . 1 buslicl ou 6 acres, 
 
 6 
 
 1 „ 
 
 4 ., 
 
 6 „ . . , 
 
 1 „ 
 
 2? „ 
 
 4 „ . . , 
 
 1 ,, 
 
 2 „ 
 
 3 „ . . . 
 
 . . u „ 
 
 2 „ 
 
478 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 attention of the agricultural world, not only in England, but in Frauce, Germany, Spain, 
 and tlic British colonies. The princij^lc, in fact, on which the system is founded is so 
 important, that no apology is necessary for introducing it in detail into this work, 
 illustrating, as it does, the extraordinary productiveness of the wheat plant, and the 
 best means for its development. 
 
 DIFFERENT SPECIES OF WHEAT. 
 
 The wheat plant is placed by botanists in the genus Triticum, which comprises fortv 
 species, sixteen belonging to the continent of Europe, while five only are natives of 
 Great Britain. They are subdivided into two groups, namely, the Cerealia, or such as, 
 being convertible into human food, constitute the subjects of cultivation and harvests; 
 and the Ayrophyra, or mere grasses. It is of the first that we have now to treat. 
 
 The Cerealia are divided into Frumenta, or those plants whose seeds when ripe fall 
 from the chaff j and the Speilte, or spelts, the seeds of which remain attached to the 
 cliaff. The most important of the Frumentie are — 1st. The Triticum vidgare, comprising 
 the Triticum cestiimm, and the Triticum hybernuni, ; 2nd. The Triticum, turgitum, including 
 about ten varieties, half of which are spring, and the other half winter wheats; 
 3rd. Triticum durum, the true bearded wheat ; this is a native of Switzerland, all the 
 varieties of which are spring wheat, and are much cultivated in Spain, Italy, and Sicily ; 
 4th. Triticum comjwsitum, or the Egyptian many-spiked wheat, also termed "the corn 
 of abundance." It has been cultivated in Egypt for many ages, and answers to the 
 description given in the sacred Scriptures of the seven-eared corn of the plentiful years 
 foretold by Joseph.* It has for many years been cultivated in England, especially on 
 the strong lauds of Suffolk and Essex, where it is known by the name of " Club-wheat." 
 This species is remarkable for having a solid stem, by which it is enabled to resist the 
 violence of the winds, so that it is seldom laid, notwithstanding the heaviness of the ear. 
 The straw is very valuable for thatching, being more durable than common wheaten 
 straw. 5th. Triticum PoUnicum, or Polish wheat, commonly known as Dantzic 'wheat ; 
 this is a spring wheat, and is adapted to countries in which the summers, though short, 
 are warm and equal ; in quality it is considered superior to anj- other species, but yields 
 less flour than the more common kinds. 
 
 Triticum spelta comprises only two species, one awned or bearded, the other 
 unawned. The bearded spelt embraces two varieties, Triticum dicoccum, or two grained, 
 which is extensively cultivated in Germany ; and Triticum monoccum, or single grained, 
 chiefly found in Switzerland. The straw of this latter is particularly hard and firm, 
 
 * Herodotus gives the following account of the amazing fecundity of the Egyptian wheat in his day : — "Of all the 
 countries that have come within my observation, this is far the most fertile in corn. The soil is so particularly well adapted 
 to corn that it never produces less than two hundredfold. In seasons remarkably favourable it will sometimes rise to three 
 
 hundredfold. The ear of their wheat, as n ell as barley, is four digits (or inches) in size (or round) I am well aware 
 
 that those who have not visited this country will deem v. hatcver I may say on this subject a violation of probabiHty," &c. On 
 this passnge a modern writer (Le Couteur) remarks, " This cltgaut and authentic writer, who flourished about -loO years 
 before the Christian era, speaks of wheat producing two or three hundredfold. It is true the soil and climate of Egypt 
 are both highly favourable to the growth of wheat, but that produce is not extraordinary if compared with the produce of 
 single carp of corn ; as No. 7 " (an experiment of his own) " which produced 4 lbs. 4 oz. from fifly-six grains. 
 Keekouing 9,000 to the pound, this is a produce of six or seven hundredfold. Hence, may not British culture be 
 hereafter brought to equal Egyptian produce?" We add that this season wc have seen a field of wheat, seeded with o:,f 
 ]}eck per acre, the yield of which ia estimated by competent judges at ten quoviers per acre, or three hundred and 
 twcnly-fold. 
 
DIFFERENT SPECIES OF ^YIIEAT. 479 
 
 and is well adapted to tliatcliing, and also to tlic manufacture of plaiting for straw 
 bonnets. Neither of tlie spelt wheats are now cultivated in this country, having been 
 found unprofitable. 
 
 Besides the above generic and specific kinds of wheat, there are continually new 
 varieties produced — the effect of accident, or cidtivation, or the difference of soil, 
 climate, &c. It would be an endless, as well as profitless, task to specify the 150 or 200 
 of these varieties. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to a description of the charac- 
 teristic excellencies of the most valuable of those cultivated in the United Kingdom. 
 
 Triticum cestivum, a spring wheat, is a valuable plant on account of its being 
 available as a resource, either in the case of a total or partial failure of the winter wheat, 
 or the prevention of the sowing it at the proper season, or as a substitute for barle}', or 
 any other kind of spring corn after turnips. The produce of spring wheat is not ixsually 
 so great as that of winter wheat, nor will it fetch so high a price at the market, not 
 being so heavy. It requires also a great quantity of seed, as it does not tiller so much 
 as winter wheat. The result, however, is more certain, as the casualties of the winter 
 and early spring are avoided, and the return is more rapid, three or four months 
 sufficing to bring it to maturity, if the season is ordinarily favourable. It is considered 
 to be a native of Siberia. The ear is slender, the awns long, the produce small, the 
 stem delicate. It is frequently sown on patches where the winter wheat has failed, by 
 which a regularity of plant is obtained at the expense of a mixed produce. 
 
 Triticum hybernum is the Lammas or winter wheat, of which there is a greater 
 variety than of any other kind. They are all stronger in the straw, longer and fuller 
 in the ear, and more abundant in tillering than the spring wheats. They comprise both 
 red and white, bearded and awnless varieties, and an endlass scries of modifications of 
 these, the effect of local or accidental circumstances. The red-grained varieties are 
 considered to be more hardy than the white, but not so prolific. Tliey are, however, 
 more extensively cultivated, being less liable to be affected by the casualties of the 
 seasons than the white. The weight per bushel is generally greater,"ranging frou 03 lbs. 
 to 66 lbs., and sometimes more. Some Australian white winter wheat, however, has 
 recently been received in England weighing 70 lbs. per bushel, which is chiefly to be 
 ascribed to the excessive dryness of the atmosphere of that country. 
 
 These two species of summer and winter wheat are commonly cultivated in every 
 country of the civilised world, but exhibiting an endless series of varieties. No plant, 
 in fact, is more liable to " sport," or to be affected by local circumstances, so as to 
 cause a deviation from the original type in the produce. A remarkable instance of 
 this is shown in the Kentish white wheat, which, when transported to, and cultivated 
 on, the light gravelly soils of the eastern counties, very soon changed its character, 
 and assimilated itself to the common red wheat of those counties. No plant, either, 
 will degenerate faster, when the soil is unfavourable to its growth. A friend of the 
 writer recently procured some seed-wheat of remarkably fine quality fi'om the rich lands 
 of Gloucestershire. This was sown on a rather light mixed soil in Norfolk, but the 
 produce was very inferior to the seed. Thinking that this might be owing to the season, 
 or other accidental circumstance, he tried it a second year ; but the result was a still 
 greater deviation from the original stock, and he then gave up attempting to cultivate it. 
 Continual changes are taking place in the varieties of wheat which obtain the favour 
 of the agriculturists. Thus, the Talavcra wheat, which Avas inti'oduced into this 
 
480 AGEICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 country duriug the Peninsular Avar, was much cultivated for many years in NorfolK, 
 the soil of which tv ell suited it. But it was not found to be a good yielding stock, and 
 was moreover so liable to sprout when on the shock, that its cultivation was, in a great 
 measure, abandoned. It is still, however, a favourite species iu Suffolk, especially 
 round Bury St. Edmunds, and also iu the districts round the metropolis. The Talavera 
 wheat is a favourite grain Mith the millers, and will always command 3s. or 4s. per 
 quarter more than any other kind of wheat of native growth, on account of its supciior 
 strength.* 
 
 The Nursery wheat, so called from the original stock having been found growing iu a 
 niu'sery-ground, is a great favourite with both farmers and millers in the districts round 
 London. It is a red wheat, with a thin mellow skin, and it works kindly under the stones. 
 In its original state it is not a very prolific variety, the ear being short (about 4^ inches). 
 But it was the species selected by jMr. Hallett for his experiments in raising a new 
 stock called the "Pedigree wheat;" and by careful selection for a series of years, he 
 has succeeded iu obtaiuing ears from six to eight inches in length ; and he exhibits one 
 ear meaaffriug 8j inches, containing 123 grains, as shown in page 47C. This wheat ear 
 was exhibited at the International Show of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 
 and also at the International Exhibition of 1862, where it excited the astonishment 
 and admiration of both foreigners and natives. 
 
 The Golden Drop is another favourite variety, and is cultivated throughout the 
 country. Like the Nursery wheat it is a mellow working grain, and the flour is of a 
 fine colour, whilst the skin is of a yellowish red hue. It is particularly grown in the 
 districts round the metropolis. In the eastern counties, the Spalding and the Giant 
 varieties are extensively cultivated. The former, as its name indicates, originated at 
 Spalding, in Lincolnshire. It is a red wheat, yields well, and is of a hardy nature, 
 standing the severity of seasons in those counties without injurious effects. It is 
 reckoned by Morton to be the best of all the red wheats, yielding well, and attaining 
 great weight per bushel. The grain is yellowish, the ear long and square; but it is 
 rather tender, and requires to be mixed with other and stronger varieties in grinding. 
 
 The Giant wheat was, we believe, brought originally from the Island of St. Helena, 
 where it grows to a prodigious height in the straw, and the berry is very large. It is 
 considered a good yielding wheat, but is rather coarse, although the flour from it is 
 strong. 
 
 The Hunter wheat was formerly a favourite variety iu England, but has given way 
 to other more prolific kinds, and is now chiefly cultivated in Scotland, the soil and 
 cliuiate of which are suited to it ; and it has stood its ground there against all the new 
 varieties that have bceu introduced. It is adapted to inferior soils, in which it tillers 
 abundantly. The ear is of moderate length, semi-awned and thickest in the middle, the 
 grain is brownish, of a close texture, and weighs well in the bushel, sometimes attaining 
 66 lbs. If sown on rich land it gets too luxuriant, and is apt to go dowii. It has been 
 
 b 
 
 * The Talavera wlieat is exceedingly strong in gluten ; and consequently the flour from it produces a larger (jnantity of 
 hrcaJ than any other kind. The author once had some of it consigned to him for sale, which yielded 101 -i lb. loaves per 
 sack of 20 stone, the usual number from the best Loudon (lour being U4 loaves. Some Russian Hour, made from Kubanka 
 wheat, was imported a few years since, which produced 108 loaves i)cr sack — the greatest number ever kuown. Talavera 
 wheat is less likely to" tport," or degenerate than other kinds, because it usually blooms a fortnight before the geucralily 
 of species, and therefore runs no risk of being impregnated with the puUeu of other wheats. This, iu fact, is the cause 
 that it has nuiinlaiucd its eharacterUtic qualities. 
 
DIFFERENT SPECIES OF WHEAT. 481 
 
 mucli deteriorated in Scotland by admixture -nitli other and new varieties; nevertlieless, 
 it continues to Lold its pre-eminence^ and " will bear comparison in the sheaf, stack, 
 bushel, flour-mill, and bakers' shops," with any of the finer sorts.* 
 
 The Mummy wheat is said to have originated in wheat found in an Egyptian 
 mummy. We have already mentioned this variety, which is remarkably prolific, having, 
 in some instances, produced four thousand-fold the seed sown. The cars have from 
 three to seven, and, in some cases, eleven, offshoots, and contain 150 grains, with 
 60 ears to one plant. It is adapted to a clay soil, and to small farming; but the grain 
 is coarse, and the flour from it ricey, being used by the bakers as colnes for dusting 
 their kneading-boards ; and, if at all mixed in making bread, only in small quantities. 
 The ear is thickly bearded. 
 
 The Old Lammas, or Red English wheat, is well adapted to inferior soils, but is 
 rather of a tender constitution. It is largely cultivated in England and France, but has 
 made no progress in Scotland, where the climate is too severe for it. The old Norfolk 
 Eed wheat is a hardier variety of the Lammas, and has been cultivated in the eastern 
 counties for centuries. It produces a strong straw, and a long ear ; the grain is of a deep 
 red, and Aveighs well in the bushel, but the flour is not generally of the best quality, 
 or so strong as the Talavera and some other varieties of white wheat grown on stronger 
 soils. 
 
 The Chidhani wheat is one of the oldest and finest varieties of -white wheat in 
 England, and is much cultivated in the districts of the metropolis. The straAV is taU 
 and strong, the ear very square, and without awns ; the grain plump, and possessing 
 starch rather than gluten, which detracts from the strength of the flour. It is suited 
 to a lightish mixed soil well cultivated, in which it is early matured, and is seldom 
 mildewed or laid. It seldom weighs less than 61 lbs., and sometimes reaches 67 lbs. 
 per bushel. 
 
 The Pearl wheat, like the foregoing, contains a larger proportion of starch than 
 gluten, producing flour of a weak quality. Nevertheless, it is much esteemed, not only 
 for its whiteness, but for its mellow quality. The straw is stiflf and long, the ear 
 moderately large and square, the grain small, full, and white. It is a tender plant, but 
 ripens early, and may be sown either as a winter, or a spring wheat. 
 
 The Red Chaffed wheat loves a rich soil, and M'here it is protected from the east 
 winds. The straw is short, the ear very square, the chafl:' reddish, the grain white, 
 plump, and round, and it generally yields a large return. The flour is of a good colour, 
 and of medium strength. 
 
 The Velvet Husked wheat has a white, plump, thin-skinned grain, short straw, 
 small, but compact close ear, and white downy chaflF. When sown on light land, it 
 yields scantily ; but on rich, loamy soils, it tiUers profusely and blooms early. On such 
 lands it produces sometimes seven quarters per acre. From the woolly nature of the 
 chaff it retains moisture, and is apt to sprout in a showery harvest, at the same time 
 requiring a good weathering before it is carted. On this account its cultivation has 
 been abandoned in Scotland, where the climate is moist. 
 
 It may be remarked in conclusion, that the red wheats generally, are of a more 
 hardy nature or constitution than the white, being less liable to disease. They arc, 
 therefore, much more cultivated on the poor and medium soils of this country, than 
 
 * .Morton's " Cyclopaedia of Agiicultnre," article Wheat. 
 I i 
 
482 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the finer sorts, Avliilc the white wheats ai-e chiefly grown ou clayey or loamy lands, well 
 drained and tilled. There is, however, abundance of negligence displayed, both in 
 choosing the proper varieties, and the best types of those varieties. The late Sir Joseph 
 Banks was of opinion that a poor sample, or dross-wheat, was as proper for seed as the 
 best and healthiest grain. That any man possessing the knowledge of natural history 
 that Sir Joseph must have acquired, should broach sucli a proposition, shows the 
 danger of adopting a theory without applying to it analogical reasoning. The whole 
 system of reproduction, whether in plants or animals, falsifies this theory ; and we do 
 not believe that, in the present day, an agriculturist could be found, who, however 
 ignorant he may be in other matters, would be foolish enough to adopt it in his practice. 
 At the same time, tliere is still a want of caution in many farmers in selecting their 
 seed corn, in not ascertaining the purity of the stock and the oneness of the species ; 
 and its adaptation to the soil for which it is intended. Le Couteiu', in his excellent 
 treatise on wheat, relates, that on one occasion, he invited Professor La Gasca to 
 inspect his crops of that grain, which he himself considered to be as pure and unmixed 
 as possible. To his dismay the Professor picked out of three fields, "twenty-three 
 distinct varieties, some white Avlieat, some red, some liver-coloured, some spring wheat, 
 some dead ripe, the corn shaking out, some ripe, some half ripe^ some in a milky state, 
 and some green." 
 
 Well might Le Couteur be dismayed at the reflection of what must be the effect of 
 such a mixture, in which some of the crop would be inevitably shelled, before other 
 parts of it were ripe enough to cut. And yet, any one conversant with the species of 
 wheat, might any day go into the field of an ordinary farmer, and, without much 
 difficulty, make a similar discovery. Nor can we wonder at this, when no care is taken 
 in keeping the varieties distinct ; but, on the contrary, they are frequently and pui-posely 
 mixed — white with red — for seed, ou the pretext of improving the sample ! The produce 
 of such mixtures must necessarily be a hybrid. The necessity for selecting the best 
 grains for seed, was understood even in the time of the ancient Romans, as we learn 
 from Yirgil, with whose elegant lines we shall close this essay ou wheat : — 
 
 " I've seen llie lai'gest seeds, tliougU viewed with care, 
 Degenerate, unless the iudustrious lianj 
 Dill yearly cull the largest. Thus all things 
 
 By fatal doom grow worse, and by degrees ' 
 
 Decay, forced back into their priraevous state." 
 
 SECTION II. 
 1J.\RLEY. 
 
 The barley plant is another of the cereal grasses, and in botany is placed in 'the 3rd 
 (;]ass, Triandria, the 2nd Order, Diyijnla, and the genus Honktuii, in the Linnsean 
 system ; in the natural order Gramineie of Jussieu ; and Endogens of Lindley. It i-* 
 divided into two species, namely, the two-rowed and the six-rowed. 
 
 The history of barley, like that of wheat, has, by the mystification of the leai-aed, been 
 
BARLEY. 483 
 
 involved in obscurity, but may also be at once reteri'ed to tlie original creation of tlic 
 cerealia. It is unnecessary to refer to the Holy Scriptures lor the solution of the 
 question^ further than again to state that "barley harvest" is mentioned at an early 
 period of the sacred history, and that it was cultivated by the Egyptians, who were the 
 first, according to Herodotus, who invented brewing from barley. " The Egyptians," 
 he says, " having lost their vines, made wine from barley." This grain and oats were 
 found by Colonel Chesney on the banks of the Euphrates in a wild state, from which it 
 has been inferred that that country was the native laud of those plants ; but it is far 
 more probable that they were the vestiges of a long bygone civilisation, luider which 
 those and other cereal plants were cultivated by the inhabitants. 
 
 Barley, as a cultivated plant, has a n\uch greater range of latitude than wheat. It 
 is cultivated successfully in the Faroe Isles, under lat. 62° 15' N. ; in Western Lapland 
 under 70^ ; on tlie shores of the "White Sea under 67° and 68° ; in Siberia under 58° and 
 59°, &c. It has followed or accompanied civilisation wherever it has penetrated, 
 except in those parts Avhcrc physical obstacles have rendered it impossible. The 
 temperature required for its successful cultivation in this country is about 46° Eahr. ; 
 yet in Iceland, where the average temperature in summer is about 47°, no cereal 
 plant can be raised, on account of the continual fall of rain. In England it has been 
 cultivated from time immemorial, and Vfas formerly used extensively as bread-corn, but 
 has almost entirely given ])lace to wheaten bread, which is now consumed by every 
 class. In Scotland barley is still commonly eaten, especially in the Lowlands, where, 
 mixed with oatmeal, it is made into cakes (called bannocks of barley) and is also 
 employed in " parritch," in which form it is much esteemed by all classes. The 
 northern nations of Europe also consume large quantities of barley. 
 
 The use of barley in England is almost v.holly confined to the purposes of brewing and 
 distilling, and the quantity disposed of annually in this way is enormous. The following 
 arc the official returns of tlie quantities of malt and spirits entered and retained for 
 consuuiptiou, Lu the yerirs stated, in the United Kingdom : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Malt— bushels. 
 
 Spirit — gnllons. 
 
 1844 
 1840 
 1854 
 1858 
 
 37.187.186 
 38 935,460 
 36.812,767 
 45,105.773 
 
 20.608,523 
 22,762,012 
 25,883 584 
 23.212.612 
 
 During these fifteen years the increase of the population has not been more than 
 1,000,000, a loss of 2,000,000 having been sustained in Ireland at the census of 1851, 
 by famine, fever, and emigration, without any subsequent increase; whilst the con- 
 sumption of malt has been increased nearly 8,000,000 bushels, or 21 per cent., and that 
 of spirits 2,601,087 gallons, or about 12i per cent., but the increase of tlie population 
 does not amount to 1 per cent. This increase in the consumption of spirits is especially 
 to be deplored, it being admitted by all the authorities that niue-tenths of the crimes 
 committed in England are attributable to intoxication — the vice of drinking spirits and 
 other alcoholic liquors. While, however, the revenue from this baneful source continues 
 so large, it will be in vain to look for any legislative measures to abate the c\'il. The 
 farmers, too, generally look upon distillation from barley as beneficial to them by securing 
 to them a ready market for tliat product. It can, however, be shown that in every way 
 
 I I 2 
 
43-1. AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 they would be benefited much moi'c by consuming the barley on their farms in fattening 
 cattle. It lias been calculated that when a labouring man spends a shilling at the 
 public-house, not more than one penny of it goes to the farmer for the barley; but that 
 if lie spends the same sum with the butcher or baker, nearly the whole amount goes to 
 the farmer for the raw material, and oidy a fraction to the tradesman for profit. If we 
 take into consideration, also, the injury done to the constitution, and the consequent 
 diminution of physical strength of the habitual drinker, and the heavy expense it 
 entails upon the land in the increase of jjoor's rates, county rates, and other ways, wc 
 are justified in saying that the distillation of spirits is as great a curse to the farmer in 
 a pecuniary sense as it is to the drunkard and the community in a moral one. Upwards 
 of j660,000,000 per year is spent in strong drinks in the United Kingdom, of which 
 about £15,000,000 or one-fourth, goes to the government, which, therefore, cannot afford 
 to be moral, and a great part of the other three-fourths to the distiller and the publican. 
 
 Even apart from the moral side of the question it is a short-sighted policy, both in 
 the government and the barley grower, that continues to encourage tire manufacture, 
 and thereby the drinking, of spirituous liquors for the sake of revenue. " The labouring 
 man who spends part of his earnings at the public-liouse lessens to that extent both his 
 physical ability to labour, and his pecuniary means of purchasing wholesome food and 
 good clothing. By the first his emj^loyer suffers j by the second the man himself, his 
 family, and the tradesman of whom lie would otherwise make useful purchases ; and by 
 both the community at large is injured. A correct calculation, therefore, will show that 
 spirits and malt liquors are the very worst forms for the farmer in which his grain can 
 be consumed. "Were the j660,000,000 now annually spent upon them employed in 
 purchasing bread, meat, and other wholesome food, and woollen and linen clothing, the 
 farmers would, on the one hand, be relieved from a great part of the rates that now oppress 
 them ; and, on the other, have such an increased demand for their staple products as 
 would more than compensate for the closing of what is at present the chief outlet for 
 their barley." * 
 
 The following are the principal varieties of barley cultivated in the United 
 
 Kingdom : — ■ 
 
 ,'' 1. The Commou English barley. 
 
 I 2. The Chevalier barley. 
 
 I 3. The Annat barley. 
 
 Ilor'Jeuni J 4. The Noble barley. 
 
 dislichnin. t 5. The JlolJaviaa barley. 
 6. The Potter's barley. 
 
 I 7. The Black barley, 
 
 l^ 8. The Battledore barley. 
 
 Ilordeum \ '.*• '^'^^ Common here. 
 
 IC 
 [^11. The Siberian, or Naked here. 
 
 hexastichnm I l". The Victoria here. 
 
 Of the first eight, the Common, the Chevalier, the Moldavian, the Black, and the Potter's 
 barley are principally cultivated in England, whilst the Annat and the Noble varieties, 
 and the three species of Hordeum hexastichum, or here, are grown in Scotland and 
 Ireland. 
 
 The Common English baidey has been cultivated from time immemorial, and still 
 stands its ground against all new varieties. The finest types of this, as well as of other 
 
 * Morton, 
 
BARLEY. 4S5 
 
 kinds, are produced in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, wliicli are pa?- excellence 
 barley districts, nltliougli the Kentish barley is found to yield a rather larger proportion 
 of malt. It is probable that barley was introduced into England by the Romans, who 
 cultivated it for their horses and cattle ; but very little is known of the early history of 
 this plant. The Common barley is too tender to stand the winter in even our compa- 
 ratively mild climate, nor will a very rich soil produce a good quality, owing to the too 
 great luxuriance thereby produced. A light, warm, friable soil of moderate fertility, 
 well tilled, and early sowing, are the conditions most likely to prevent this, and to ensure 
 a good return. 
 
 2. The Chevalier barley is an accidental variety, and was raised from a single ear, 
 found by a gentleman whose name it bears, in a field of the common kind. The straw 
 is full and strong, and less liable to be lodged than any other kind. The grain is short 
 and plump, the skin thin, and it weighs from 52 lbs. to 56 lbs. per bushel. It is a good 
 yielding plant, under careful cultivation, and where the land is drained ; it also admits 
 of being sown early. It is highly esteemed by the maltsters, and is now, on that 
 account, generally cultivated throughout the kingdom. 
 
 3. The Annat barley is cultivated in Scotland, where it is found very productive, 
 and ripens earlier than other kinds. The grain is longer and less plump than the 
 Chevalier, and it is, therefore, less sought after by the maltster, and bears a lower 
 value at market. 
 
 4. The Noble barley takes its n:nne from that of the person who first established 
 the variety. It is a recent production, and is at present but little known or cultivated. 
 
 5. The Moldavian barley was introduced about seventy years since, when a small 
 quantity of it was imported into London and sold for seed at four guineas per bushel. 
 The father of the writer purchased half a peek of it, which he planted in single grains; 
 and from the produce of this, in the second year, he sowed his whole crop of al)ont 
 100 acres, and sold a considerable quantity for seed to his neighbours. It is a very 
 productive variety, is strong in the straw, the car 3i inches to 4 inches long, the 
 grain rather large and full, and possessing excellent malting qualities. This 
 variety still holds its ground in Norfolk and Sufliblk, being found profitable to the 
 maltster as well as to the farmer. 
 
 6. Potter's barley was first cultivated by Mr. Potter, of Hundon, in Suffolk, who 
 procured a wine-glass full of the seed from a vessel lying in the river at Ipswich. It 
 came from Zealand, and has proved a very useful variety, so that it is generally culti- 
 vated in the county and neighbourhood where it was first introduced. It weighs from 
 52 lbs. to 56 lbs. per bushel, malts well, and admits of early sowing. It has been tried 
 in Scotland and the north of England, and has succeeded well, producing abundant 
 crops. 
 
 7. Black barley is a variety of little value as an agricultural jjlant, either to 
 the farmer or the maltster. It has long been known in England, but a few years ago 
 there was an importation of it from Canada as seed-corn, the owner of which, in a 
 written communication, stated that " it was raised from a single seed found in the crop 
 of a wild goose that was shot on one of the lakes." This announcement, though 
 imparting no intrinsic value, appears to have excited attention from some at least of the 
 farmers, and the shipment was sold for seed. It was found, however, that in this case, 
 at least, they should have " let well alone." The variety was inferior in every respect, 
 
180 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN, 
 
 as v.ell as in colour, to the lands cultivated^ aud the Goose barley has disappeared. The 
 straw is bulky, the grain coarse and large, and it ripens late. 
 
 8. The Battledore barley has a short eai", very wide at the lower end, and tapering to 
 a point at the npper. The grain is coarse, and the straw is short. It is very little 
 cultivated. 
 
 9. The Common be7'e, or bii/, has a short, broad, thick ear, with two single aud two 
 double rows of grain round the rachis. The grains are not so large as those of barley 
 (proper), but it is much cultivated in Scotland, being hardy and productive, and it 
 ripens rapidly. The skin is thicker than that of barley, and consequently it does not 
 malt well, and is chiefly used for grinding purposes. 
 
 10. The Victoria bcre is a new variety of the Hordeum hexustichuin, aud is much 
 superior to the Common here. The straw is longer, and the grain more prolific ; the 
 ear is four inches long, aud contains from fifty to fifty-three grains of a finer quality 
 than the Common here, and weighing 56 lbs. per bushel. 
 
 11. TJie Siberian, or Naked here, is six-rowed generally, but there is a four-rowed 
 vai-iety of it, which appears to have beeua "sport" from the six-rowed. It differs from 
 the Common here in its seeds separating from the husk in threshing, which increases the 
 Aveight of the grain so that it frequently attains 66 lbs. per bushel. It is used entirely 
 for grinding into flour, aud when mxied with an equal quantity of wheaten flour makes 
 l)read said to be superior to all wheaten bread, and one-fifth more in quantity from a 
 given weight of flour. The broad also made from it retains its moisture and freshness 
 four times as long as that from all wheaten flour. It is also used in making " porritch 
 and bannocks,'' and for thickening soups, &e. 
 
 In choosing seed barley for a cold moist soil, care should be taken to select it from 
 a warm and dry one, it being found by experiment that it ripens a fortnight earlier than 
 seed grown on the same laud. This is well known to the Scottish Lowland farmers, who 
 generally purchase their seed barley fresh every year, otherwise it will degenerate again 
 in a very few seasons. The same eft'ect will take place on the light lands if the seed is 
 not changed every year, or at least very frequently. 
 
 We will here gi\c an account of a new variety of barley which has not, that vc 
 know of, yet received any name, Init which was procured under such singular circum- 
 stances as to demand a notice. The circumstances were as follows : — In the summer of 
 1856 Mr. John Ekins, of Bluntisham, in Huntingdonshire, sowed some oats in his 
 garden in the beginning of June. It .should be premised that this was done by way of 
 experiment, to test the truth of the transmutation of oats into rye, which, it is affirmed, 
 has frequently taken place under particular treatment. The plants were cut down when 
 they had attained about one foot of height, and this was repeated thrice, after which, as 
 the weather became cold, and they no longer grew rapidly, they were left to stand the 
 winter. Those which survived till the spring threw out fresh tillers, and at the proper 
 time shot forth ears, but, to the astonishment of the experimenter, neither of rye nor 
 oats, but barley. The produce was sown the next spring, and pi'odnced the same grain, 
 but of a better quality ; and since that period so superior has the variety proved, and so 
 ranch esteemed by the maltsters, that it has been adopted generally by the farmers in 
 the neighbourhood, who are satisfied both with the quality and the yield. Wc have 
 now a sample of this barley before us, which is pronounced by a corn-factor to be of 
 excellent malting quality. 
 
OATS. 487 
 
 The docti'iue of the transmutation of species in plants^ although repudiated by the 
 generality of uatui'alists as contrary to all rational science, yet has been proved true by 
 so many experiments as to set all doubts at defiance. The two instances we have 
 .'dready stated in the case of wheat are of tliis nature ; and this one of oats transformed 
 into Imrley is not more wonderful, tlie two plants iDcing of the same natural order. The 
 following remarks by Dr. Keissenborne, a German naturalist, are confirmatory of the 
 truth of the doctrine : — 
 
 " With reference to the transmutation of oats into rye, this remarkable plionomenon 
 has not only been verified by new experiments, but we have caused beds to be sown with 
 oats, in order that we may be able to silence disbelievers by producing rye stalks which 
 have sprung from the crown that still shows the withered leaves of the oat plant of the 
 previous year. I repeat that this transformation does take place (about midsummer), 
 the plants being cut twice (or thrice) as green fodder before shooting into the ear ; the 
 consequence of which is, that a considerable number of oat plants do not die in the 
 course of the winter, but are changed in the following spring into rye, fonuing stalks 
 that cannot be known from those of the finest rye. The Society (agricultural) of 
 Coburg takes credit to itself for perseverance in having struggled against the opinion of 
 the public for several years, in order to establish a fact which no physiologist would 
 believe, because people are always apt to confound the laws of nature with those of 
 their own svstem." 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 0.\TS. 
 
 Avena is the botanical name for the oat plant, which is the third of the cereal grasses 
 in point of importance to English agricidture. It is the native of a nortliern climate, 
 and does not succeed even in the lower latitudes of the temperate zone ; at the same 
 time it is strictly an annual, and cannot stand the frost of a severe winter. The best 
 qualities are produced in Scotland and Friesland, and in both these countries the oat 
 is extensively cultivated, and forms a considerable portion of the food of the inhabitants. 
 A rich loamy soil with a mixture of sand is the description of land best adapted to this 
 plant. There is no doubt that although the oat has been cultivated for many centuries 
 in England, it was originally brought thither from the Low Countries, and other parts 
 of northern Europe, and has long become indigenous with us. Whether the wild oat is 
 the parent of the cidtivated one it is impossible now to determine, but it is probable 
 that with attention it might be so improved as to form a variety equal to some at 
 present in use. This, however, is quite an unnecessary experiment, there being no 
 probability of producing any important improvement in it to render it desirable to 
 substitute it for the present varieties. 
 
 Be this, however, as it may, the wild oat is a very troublesome plant to the farmer, 
 and is certainly indigenous in England. Its vital principle is so strong that it will lie 
 
488 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 dormant for ages, retaining its power of vegetation. A friend of the writer's reeently 
 brouglit to the surface of a field that had long been cultivated, the subsoil, ivhich had 
 never before been disturbed ; the consequence was that the wild oat, -which had not before 
 appeared i:i any troublesome shape, came up in such abundance as to materially damage 
 the wheat ei-op that was sown on the field. It is a fact that seeds of the wild oats found 
 at Herculaneum, and which had been buried seventeen centuries, being brought to this 
 country, were foiuid to grow freely upon being planted. This is to be ascribed to the 
 exclusion of the air^ which, as is well known by naturalists, by preventing vegetation, at 
 the same time preserves the vitality of the seed. 
 
 Botanists have arranged the natural classification of oats by the form of the ear. 
 One kind has branches sjoreading equally all round the rachis, only growing gradually 
 shorter towards the apex, thus forming a conical figure. The Potato oat is of this kind, 
 as well as all those varieties used for making oatmeal in Scotland. The Potato oat is a 
 tender plant, and the panicle has a weak hold on the stalk, so that when ripe the seed 
 is apt to shake out of the capsule if agitated by the wind. A second kind of oat has an 
 ear with shorter panicles, nearly of equal length, and pendant all on the same side of the 
 rachis. These are called Tartarean oats, probably because they were originally brought 
 from Tartary. This is a hardy plant and thrives in almost any soil or climate where 
 no other cereal plant will exist. It is much cultivated in England for horses' food, but 
 is too coarse a grain for making oatmeal ; it is, therefore, not cultivated in Scotland, 
 where only the best types of tlie plant are preferred. 
 
 The history of the Potato oat states that it was first discovered on a dunghill amongst 
 some potatoes' that had sprung up spontaneously like itself, which gave it the name. It 
 requires good laud, on which the grain will be large, plump, and round. The weight 
 ranges from 40 lbs. to 40 lbs. per bushel, and sometimes produces 80 bushels per acre, 
 and probably averages between 50 and GO bushels. Oats are found ou analysis to 
 contain 7 per cent, of oily matter, and 17 per cent, of avenine, a protein comj)Ound 
 similar to the gluten of wheat, thus containing fully 24 per cent, of really nutritious 
 matter, capable of supporting the loss occasioned by labour from the fibrous portion of 
 the body. Oats are invariably kiln-dried before they can be ground into meal, which 
 causes the husk to separate more easily from the flour under the stones. In making 
 .ojroa'ts the stones are set wide asunder. The fine meal is made into bannocks or cakes in 
 Scotland, and the coarse is used for jjorritch. In Lancashire, oats are as much con- 
 sumed as in Scotland amongst the working population. 
 
 Tliere are about forty distinct varieties of oats, but the most commonly cultivated 
 are the black, the long-bearded, the white, the red, and the naked oat. This grain 
 contains only a very small portion of saccharine, and it is, therefore, of no use to the 
 maltster or the brewer, although it was formerly employed in making a drink called 
 7num. "We never hear of this liquor now, the superiority of beer and ale having driven 
 it out of the consumption of the country. 
 
 In choosing seed-oats it is necessary to avoid a sample in which there are many 
 double oats, or where a large and a small grain arc united. This is caused by three 
 things ; first, by being sown too frequently on the same kind of land ; secondly, by 
 being sown too thickly ; and thirdly, by the ground being too rank.* Double oats 
 are one-sixth or one-seventh lighter than single, which alone determines the quality to 
 * Varlo's " New System of Husbandry," vol. iii. p. 207. 
 
OATS. 489 
 
 be inferior. On wet, cold land the Potato oats are apt to ripen at tlie top of the ear, 
 whilst the lower part is green. It is necessary in that case to cut them as soon as the 
 first are ripe, otherwise, if they stand till the whole are ripe, half the crop will be lost 
 by shedding. It is probable that the Potato oat was an accidental vai'iety of the Poland 
 oat, Avhicli in many respects it resembles. 
 
 Oats, with rye and barley, were the common food of tlie labouring classes so lately 
 as the beginning of the eighteenth century, and in Cumberland towards the middle of 
 that age wheaten bread was only used by the rich, and by them only at Christmas.* 
 A " thick oat cake (called havcr-bannock) and butter " was the only treat jjrepared for 
 a stranger. At present, as we have already observed, it is the principal food of the 
 working class in Scotland, and the result proves it to be highly nourishing, for finer and 
 more stalwart or enduring men are not to be found in the United Kingdom than tlie 
 Scotch. Fully one-fifth of the arable land of Scotland is employed in the culture of 
 oats. Experiments were made in 1817 and 18i8 by INIr. ^Mitchell, of "Wester Alves, 
 Elgin, to ascertain the comparative productiveness of oats, and from the results he drew 
 the following conclusions : — 
 
 1st. That land pastured for two years gives a quarter of oats per acre more than 
 land that has been cut for haj^, when in first year's grass, and pastured the second. 
 
 2nd. That there is a decided loss of nearly 4 bushels per acre in taking seed oats, 
 however good the sample, from a later to an earlier soil. 
 
 3rd. That there is an advantage in taking seed oats from a more southern and well 
 cultivated district, as shown in the comparison of two samples of late Angus oats, the 
 changed seed giving | bushel more grain, and 38 stones more straw, per acre. 
 
 4th. That where a fine sample of grain, together with a large return, is desired, the 
 Potato oat should be sown. 
 
 5th. That where straw and quantity of grain, without regard to quality are desired, 
 the late Angus oat is to be preferred. 
 
 Gth. That although the Dun oat has proved the most prolific in grain, it is of a 
 coarse quality, and deficient in straw. 
 
 7th. That the Sandy, Berlie, and Early Angus, are nearly alike in their properties, 
 the two former having the greatest weight of straAV, and the last the largest quantity 
 of grain. 
 
 8th. That the Siberian oat has produced the heaviest sample of grain, but is inferior 
 in its conjoined properties to the Potato, Early Angus, Sandy, or Berlie. 
 
 9th. That the Ilopetown oat is the most unsuitable of all the varieties expeiiniented 
 upon. 
 
 The following were the experiments referred to : — 
 
 Oats grown in )S47 afpek two years' pasture. 
 
 Good grain. Light grain. Weight per bslil. Liglit gi-ain per bshl. Straw, chaff, &o. 
 BfliU. bslils. lbs. lbs. St. lbs. 
 
 Sandy oat per acre 554 ... 3^ ... 43 ... 38 ... 314. 8 
 
 Berlie „ 47^ . . . 4^ . . . 43J . . 38 ... 272 6 
 
 Late Angus „ 55^ . . . 4i . . . 43 ... 3G ... 280 1 
 
 Hopetovvii „ 57 ... 23 ... 42 . . . 3C . . 220 9 
 
 • Eden, vol. i. p. 503. 
 
490 
 
 AGRICULTUEE; ANCIENT AND .AIODERN. 
 
 Oats ghowx in 1848, afilr two years' old i-asiure.— 2J Cwt. guano I'ER ague. 
 
 Good grain. Li^ilit jn"iiin. 
 bajils. l^lih. 
 
 Sandy oat per acre 67;1 ... 3 
 
 Berlic ,, ... 
 
 ■\Vei<rht per b.slil. Li<,'lit frrain Tier ! 
 . . 43.1 . 
 
 Potato „ from 1 
 
 Jlid-Lothian J 
 Early Siberian oat per acre 
 Early Angus „ . . 
 
 Dun „ . , 
 
 Late Angus ,, . , 
 
 Do. seed grown •\ 
 
 on the farm J 
 Hopetown „ . . 
 
 66il 
 
 78] 
 
 71 
 73 
 79.? 
 75i 
 
 741 
 
 6U 
 
 2.5 
 1', 
 
 o 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 9i 
 
 43 
 
 42i 
 
 45 
 431 
 43 
 41 
 
 4U 
 
 42.'; 
 
 40 
 40 
 
 39 
 
 41 
 40 
 39 
 37 
 
 38 
 
 37 
 
 ■111. straw, cJinff, &c. 
 
 . 37f, 8 
 
 . 3fi4 8 
 
 . 3t3 
 
 . 292 C 
 
 . 315 y 
 
 . 331 8 
 
 . 410 4 
 
 . 372 8 
 
 . 328 5* 
 
 The Potato oat has been getting out of repute for some years on strong wet land, on 
 account of its tendency to become " tulip-rooted " and sedgy-leafed. But on rich, well 
 cultivated soils, it is still the favourite oat, producing the greatest quantity of best corn, 
 and the greatest weight of meal from the quarter of oats. Much, however, depends 
 upon the nature, condition, and tillage of the soil. Neither a strong clay, nor a light 
 sandy soil, is suitable for the Potato oat. Several other varieties cultivated in Scotland 
 appear to yield a greater produce ; but none are of better quality, or yield, weight for 
 weight of grain, or larger proportion of meal. The following list of the varieties 
 of oats ciiltivated is also taken from " !Morton's Cyclopedia : " — 
 
 Jreiin saiiva. — (White Speoiea.) 
 
 1. Potato. 
 
 2. Sandy. 
 
 3. Hopetown. 
 
 4. Early Anpus. 
 •T. Sherritfe. 
 
 0. English berlic. 
 
 7. Scotch do. 
 
 8. Barbachlan. 
 
 9. Cumberland early. 
 
 10. Friesland. 
 
 11. Old Poland. 
 
 12. Davison's. 
 
 13. Flemish. 
 
 14. Kildrummie. 
 
 15. Siberian. 
 Ifi. Strathallan. 
 
 17. Late Angus. 
 
 18. Grey do. 
 
 19. Drummond. 
 
 20. Cupar. 
 
 21. Blainslic. 
 
 22. 
 
 Georgian. 
 
 23. 
 
 Early Kent. 
 
 24. 
 
 New early Essex, 
 
 25. 
 
 Blue mayor. 
 
 20. 
 
 JIarble hill. 
 
 27. 
 
 London dun. 
 
 28. 
 
 Danish. 
 
 29. 
 
 Three grained. 
 
 30. 
 
 Argyleshire. 
 
 31. 
 
 Cleveland. 
 
 33. 
 
 Lancashire. 
 
 33. 
 
 Tuscany. 
 
 34. 
 
 Chandos. 
 
 35. 
 
 Hangingsidc. 
 
 Jreiia sat 
 
 'ca. — (Black Species). 
 
 30. 
 
 Old black. 
 
 37. 
 
 Common dun. 
 
 38. 
 
 Winter dun. 
 
 39. 
 
 Archangel. 
 
 -10. 
 
 Red Esses. 
 
 41. 
 
 Orleans early brown. 
 
 Aft'.iii Ofieidal'ts. 
 
 43. Common white tartar. 
 
 43. Early do. 
 
 44. Early black do. 
 
 Arena falu.a, or Wild oat. 
 
 45. Common wild. 
 4'). Market bearded. 
 
 Aoena brei'is. 
 
 47. Short oat. 
 
 Aceiia nuda, or Naked oat. 
 
 48. Common naked. 
 
 49. Small do. 
 
 Hanihoii'ia stiigosa, 
 
 50. Bristle pointed. 
 
 At'euii steri/is. 
 
 51. .\nimal or flv. 
 
 With regard to the proper time for sowing oats there is a diftereuce of opinion ; 
 l)iit from experiments that have been instituted, it would appear that early sowing, if tlic 
 winter proves not too severe, will best ensure a heavy crop. In Kent and Essex the 
 farmers usually sow as early as the Christmas week, if the land is in proper condition ; 
 and they find that they obtain a more abundant crop than if they defer it till March 
 
 The above is taken from Morton's " Cycloptedia of Agricultnre." 
 
RYE. 491 
 
 01' April. lu au e.Kperlnaeiit made some yeavs ago Ijy tlie Earl of "Wiuchilicaj in which 
 
 four acres of a field were sown tlie day after Christmas Daj', and the remaining four 
 
 acres in IMarch, the early sown were ripe a week before the others, and the produce 
 
 respectively was— 
 
 Early sowu 11 quarters per acre. 
 
 Late sown !' ,. 4 bushels per acre. 
 
 The weight per bushel (Winchester) when threshed, was — 
 
 Early sown -141 lbs. 
 
 Late sown 42J „ 
 
 The early sowu, therefore, had the advantage of the late to the extent of 12 bushels in 
 measure, and of 686 lbs. in weight. Five bushels of seed per acre were sown on both 
 portions of the field. Although an annual plant, the oat is more hardy than the 
 Common barley, and will survive a moderate degree of frost, if the land is drained, or 
 otherwise free from stagnant water in the soil. It is, therefore, desirable to get the seed 
 in as soon after Christmas as the state of the land and the weather will allow ; and 
 none ought to be sown after the middle of ]March, if it can be avoided. This applies 
 to the midland and eastern districts of the kingdom, but not to the northern, where 
 the winters are more severe. 
 
 It is usual to sow from three to five, and even six bushels of seed oats per acre, but 
 such a seeding appears to be very inconsistent with the nature of the plant. The oat will 
 tiller as well and as much as any of the cereal grasses ; and, consequently, requires 
 room to develop itself, which it will do to an enormous extent. The writer recently 
 took a plant of oats, when ripe, out of a field where it had plenty of room ; and on 
 rubbing out the grain found there were 5,000 the number of stalks being betAveen forty 
 and fiftv. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 RYE. 
 
 Secale cereale is the botanical name of this plant, of which there are four varieties 
 recognised, namely — Secale velos.tum, Secale orientate, Secnie creticum, and Secale cereale 
 proper. This last is the only one planted in the United Kingdom, and that not generally 
 for the purpose of producing human food, but to be eaten in a green state by horses and 
 cattle. It must, however, be consumed before it spindles for earing ; otherwise, it is 
 neither palateable nor beneficial to the animals, which are compelled to eat it, for they 
 will not do so unless pressed by hunger and can get no other food. Formerly, it was 
 the custom in this countrj', as it is still on the continent, to sow wheat and rye together, 
 which mixture, wlien harvested and threshed, was called Meslin, from the word 
 miscellanea. Being a good deal cultivated by the monks, it was thence called by the 
 country-people ^Mung-corn, or Monk corn ; and in the year 1800, when the high price 
 
492 AGllICULTURE, ANCIENT AND JMODEKN. 
 
 and scarcity of wlieat compelled tlie labouring class to eat liarley bread, it was called 
 by them barley-mung, a traditional relic of the " olde#times." 
 
 After wheat, rye contains the largest portion of gluten of any of the cereal plants. 
 It also contains five per cent, of saccharine matter, ready formed, and malts readily ; 
 but barley is so superior in this respect, that it has quite superseded rye-malt. It 
 has a tcndencjr in distilling, to pass rapidly from the vinous to the acetous fermentation ; 
 and when this takes place it can be neither brewed nor distilled. Rye in its normal 
 state, but ground into meal, is mixed with barley-malt in Holland, in the proportion of 
 two parts of the meal to one of malt. This mixture being fermented together, forms 
 the wash from which is distilled the Hollands Geneva for which that country is 
 celebrated. The juniper berry is added to give it the peculiar flavour for which it is 
 noted and esteemed. 
 
 Some years ago rye came into much use as a substitute for coffee, and the then 
 celebrated radical reformer, Hunt, derived a large income for a time from its manufacture, 
 which only consisted in roasting the grain in the same way as is practised with coffee. 
 At that time the duty on this latter was very heavy, and the cheapness of the substitute 
 obtained for it an enormous consumption. Even, however, before the reduction of the 
 duty, the " Hunt's coffee " went greatly out of repiTte, and after tliat reduction took 
 . place it was no more heard of. 
 
 Rye is still the common food of a large portion of the populations of northern 
 Europe. It is extensively cultivated in Prussia on tlie sandy plains bordering on the 
 Baltic and the Russian provinces on the Gulf of Finland. In Sweden and Lapland it 
 is a common custom to sow rj-e and barley together as soon as the land can be prepared 
 in the spring. The barley shoots up first, and, covering the ground, retards tlie 
 growth of the rye, until the former is ripe and reaped, when the rye takes its turn in 
 covering the ground ; and without any further care or preparation from the farmex', 
 yields an abundant crop the next summer. 
 
 Rye is subject to a disease called " the ergot," which renders it noxious and 
 unwholesome as human food. It is called horned rye in England, the grain bearing an 
 excrescence similar to a cock's spur, from which circumstance the French name of 
 ergot is derived. There are various theories to account for this singular form of 
 vegetable disease, which, from some experiments, appears to be conveyed by its sporules 
 like all other fungoid plants, to which it has an affinity. According to Dr. Latham, 
 other grasses besides rye are subject to the ergot, and when thus diseased, are 
 unwholesome for the cattle. I3read made of the diseased rye has an acrid and 
 disagreeable taste, and its use is followed by spasmodic symptoms and gangrenous 
 disorders. In 1 590 an epidemic prevailed in Hesse, which was wholly ascribed to the 
 use of horned rye. Some who had partaken of it were seized with epilepsy, which 
 usually ended fatally. Of others, who became insane, few ever wholly recovered the 
 use of their senses ; whilst those, who were apparently restoi'cd, were liable through- 
 life to periodical returns of their disorder. 
 
 These effects have, at various periods, been repeated on the continent in different 
 parts. In France, in 1709, in consequence of the diseased condition of the rye, no fewer 
 than 500 patients were, at one time, in the public hospital at Orleans. The symptoms 
 at first had the appearance of drunkenness, after which the toes became diseased, 
 mortified, and fell ofl^'. Then the leg became the scat of the disorder, and frequently 
 
MAIZE, 493 
 
 after amputatiug the limb^ tlie trunk was attacked^ whicli speedily produced death. 
 All animals, ou partaking of this pernicious substanee, experience its deleterious effects. 
 Deer, sheep, swine, poultry, ujjon eating it, have died miserable deaths. It is fortunate 
 for this country that the population are no longer subject to such a calamity. It is 
 probable that it may be superinduced by defective methods of cultivation ; but, however 
 this may be, even where rye is grown in England, the ergot is very rare. 
 
 Rye, as spring feeding, is valuable for milch cows, and especially for earl)' lambs, as 
 it makes abundance of milk in cither case ; when, therefore, these latter are reared for 
 market, it is desirable to have a piece of rj'e for the ewes ; to feed them on the land if 
 the soil is sandy and dry, or cutting it for them if otherwise. This is tlie only use to 
 which rye can be profitably put in this country. For the same purpose it is frequently 
 sown with winter tares, the growth of which is prompted by it. It is said that green 
 rye will cure sheep of the rot, if they are not too far gone in the disease. In the United 
 States it is cut when tlie ear is shooting forth, and made into hay; but this must not 
 be delayed till the ear is fully out. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 5L\1ZE. 
 
 t 
 
 This plant has never been acclimatised in this country ; but, at the beginning of the 
 present century, the celebrated William Cobbett made some attempts to introduce its 
 culture, and to induce the British farmer to adopt it. Many of his admirers, putting 
 full faith in his judgment and honesty, made the attempt, but it proved a miserable 
 failure ; probably from the variety that was used not being adapted to the climate, or 
 sufficient time not being allowed to naturalise the plant. We recollect seeing a field 
 of " Cobbett's corn " growing in Norfolk at Michaelmas, when it ought to have been 
 ripe, as the summer had been favourable. Instead of which, the ear was scarcely 
 formed ; and, if we recollect right, it never did ripen, but was thrown into the straw- 
 yard for the young cattle. The only kind that can be cultivated as a field-crop to any 
 advantage, and under any circumstances in England, is the German maize, a small 
 kind of plant which admits of early planting, and arrives at maturity in October. 
 In America there are many varieties, but the Mohawk, a short kind, is sown so late 
 as June, and ripens in October. 
 
 Nevertheless, we believe it still possible to acclimatise this valuable plant so far 
 as that, by sowing it in the first instance ou a seed-bed, protected from the late frosts, 
 and transplanted in the beginning of May, it may, in a good season, be brought to 
 maturity by the close of the regular harvest. It is a question, however, whether the 
 produce would be such as to make it an object of importance in a pecuniary point of 
 view, to raise a description of corn that can now be imported from America and some 
 parts of the European continent, at so low a price. It is only in exceptional years that 
 it can be brought to perfection with us, but it probably would be useful as fodder for 
 
494 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 cattle. The stalk coutaius as lai-ge a proportion of saccliariue matter as the sugar-cane 
 of the West IndicSj and the cattle are extremely fond of it. It yields a large quantity 
 of food, and is more palatable when approaching maturity than in the early stage of its 
 growth. 
 
 Maize is much cultivated in the south of France and in Italy. May is the usual 
 month for planting it ; but in Languedoc they cultivate the "forty days" maize, which 
 is planted after the wheat-crop is reaped and arrives at maturity the same season. It is 
 principally used in fattening fowls, of which an enormous number, turkeys, capous, &c., 
 are kept in the south of France. There are three varieties of this maize, the grain of 
 all being very small, and the yield per acre very insignificant, compared with the 
 larger grained varieties. 
 
 The use of maize was inti'oduced into Ireland in 1847, during the famine; but so 
 prejudiced were the peasantry against it, that nothing could persuade them to eat it. A 
 clergyman endeavoured to adopt it in his family instead of potatoes ; but such was the 
 dislike of the servants, that upon his endeavouring to enforce its use, they poisoned 
 the whole family. One fine young man died from the effects, but medical assistance 
 being called in, the rest were saved. The girl who Avas known to have mixed the poison 
 with the food, was put upon her trial ; but, as is frequently the case, the jury acquitted 
 her, although the proofs of her guilt were undoubted. So much, however, has the taste 
 of the Irish changed since that time, that they uoav prefer the Indian meal to oatmeal, 
 and a large quantity of it is annually consumed 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 BUCK-WHEAT, OR BRANK. 
 
 The botanical name of this plant is Volyijomim fuyopijrum (Smith), or Fuyopyruin 
 escukntuni (Moench). It is called beech-wheat by the Germans, because the seed 
 resembles the mast of the beech-tree in its shape. It flourishes on a light sandy soil, 
 and is cultivated on such land in Norfolk, but not to the same extent as formerly. It 
 is frequently grown for manure, being in that case ploughed in as soon as it comes into 
 flower. The land is then left for the buck-wheat to decay before it is again ploughed 
 up to be sown with wheat. 
 
 13uck-wlieat is also useful as fodder in the green state, all animals being fond of it. 
 It is an excellent food for milch cows, causing them to yield abundance of rich milk, 
 and good flavoured butter and cheese. It resist* tlie drought better than any fodder 
 plant, and maintains its green hue Avlien the upland pastures are scorched. The ripe 
 seed is used in fattening fowls, who cat it eagerly. It is also employed largely in 
 feeding pheasants in preserves during the winter. It is sometimes sown in fields 
 bordering on the plantations, in order that the game may help themselves, as well as to 
 afford them shelter. It is, however, more frequently preserved in the straw, and given 
 to them in that state when, the acorns and other natural food of the pheasants gets scanty. 
 
THE BEAN. -l.'jo 
 
 Most iiuiuials are loud of the seed of buck-wheat, but it ought to be cmslied before 
 it is given to them ; otherwise, being a small hard seed, it is apt to pass tluough them 
 Avhole. Pigs are excessively fond of it, but are liable to become intoxicated if too much 
 is given to them at a time. But, like tobacco with the human species, this efiect ceases 
 when they become habituated to it, and they fatten fast upon it. On the continent, 
 buck-wheat is used in distillation, and it yields a good proportion of excellent spirit. 
 At the Prussian ports on the Baltic coast, this application of it is very general ; and 
 large quantities are raised for the piupose upon the arid soils prevailing along the 
 southern shores of that sea, which are suitable to its culture. It is also eaten as bread, 
 when mixed with rye and oats, by the rural peasantry of Prussia and other northern 
 states. 
 
 Buck-wheat, like tares, peas, and Ijcans, derives the chief part of its nourisiimeut 
 from the air, and improves rather than impoverishes the soil, by aflbrding it shade 
 without exhaustion, during the heats of summer. It was first introduced iuto western 
 Europe (France) by the Saracens from Africa ; and was soon after brought to England. 
 l^he flowers supply the bees with abundance of honey, at a time ^^lieu the flowering 
 trees and shrubs, and the meadow.s, have passed the blooming. In a favourable season 
 two crops of buck-wheat have been obtained from the same laud, but the first crop was 
 sown early. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 THE BEAN. 
 
 The botanical name of the bean is Fuba vidyaris, and it is considered to be of Asiatic 
 origin, being mentioned in Scripture as having been presented to David at the time he 
 was fleeing from Absalom. The seed of the bean is dicotyledonous, and, when ripe 
 and hardened, the cotyledons are cemented together by an albuminous substance, so 
 that it is diflflcult to separate them from each other. The husk is very tough, and the 
 germ is situated under the eye of the seed, being protected securely from injury by the 
 husk, which is hardest at that point. In the process of vegetation, the cotyledons form 
 the appearance of leaves when the germ pushes upwards ; but when that becomes fully 
 developed, and shoots out other foliage, they drop oft'. 
 
 There are two distinct classes of beans, namely, the Faba vidcjaris urvensis, or Field 
 beau, and the Faba vulgaris hortetisis, or Garden bean. Of the former there are nine 
 varieties cultivated : — 
 
 1. Tlie C'uinmou lIul■^e-bealll 
 
 ■i. The Tick. 
 
 3. The Heligoland. 
 
 i. The Pigeon. 
 
 5. The Purple Field. 
 
 6. The Russian or Winter. 
 
 7. The AmQeld Field. 
 
 8. The Early Mazagau. 
 
 9. The Loiiij Pod. 
 
 The common Horse-bean is much cultivated in Scotland, l)eing a hai'dy and prolific 
 plant, yielding in a good season 30 bushels per acre, weighing from 60 lbs. to 66 lbs. 
 
496 AGUIOULTUEE, ANCIE:ST AND MODERN. 
 
 per busliel, accordiug to tke dryness of tlie grain. It thrives best on a strong soil, 
 being apt to run to straw if the soil is loose and rich ; whilst on a light sandy soil 
 the produce is poor. The proportion of nutritive matter and husk is eighty-two 
 per cent, of the former, and eighteen per cent, of the latter, and loss. The common 
 beau is frequently mi.Ked by millers, in a small proportion, with wheat in grinding, it 
 being considered to give strength to the flour, without injuring cither the colour or the 
 flavour. 
 
 The Common Tick bean is more cultivated in England, and is used as horse-feed. 
 The grain is one-third smaller than that of the Scotch or Ilorse-bcan, to which it bears, 
 in other respects, sufiicient affinity to lead to the conclusion that the one is a modification 
 of the other. The proportions of kernel and husk are much the same, but the straw 
 is shorter. It is adapted to a lighter soil, and is generally more prolific than the 
 preceding. There are several varieties of the Tick, but they present too little difference 
 to need enumeration or description. 
 
 The Heligoland bean is a hardy and an early plant, with a short straw. The seeds 
 are small, round, and of a chocolate colour, the husk thick and hard ; the kernel 
 whitish, hard, and bearing a similar proportion with the skin as the Tick. On common 
 soils the Heligoland, bean is inferior to the Horse-bean in yield, and it requires a rich 
 one to obtain from it a good return. 
 
 The Pigeon bean is the diminutive of the tribe, but it is an early and good yielding 
 variety. The grains are dark and round, and the straw short. It is of German origin, 
 and is extensively cultivated in that country. In the south of England it is sown as a 
 winter bean in the autumn, in drills at wide intervals, which, in the ensuing summer, 
 are planted with cabbages. The beans being ripe in July, the cabbages have room, 
 after their removal, to mature themselves by October, the land thus yielding two crops 
 in the year. 
 
 The Purple Field bean is much the same in character as the Heligoland, except 
 that the husk is darker. The seeds are small and round, and the cotyledons are of 
 a yellow colour. It is a late plant, and not over prolific. The straw is about four feet 
 high, and the pods have four or five seeds each. 
 
 The Russian Winter Field bean is a plant cultivated in every portion of the 
 United Kingdom, being the most hardy of all the varieties of beans. It is sown 
 generally in October ; and it is seldom that it is destroyed by a severe winter, unless 
 the land is sodden with water from being undrained ; otherwise it is the most profitable 
 bean of any. As it ripens in July or the beginning of August, it aff'ords ample time to 
 prepare the land for wheat. It is less liable to the attacks of the bean-louse or 
 apliis than any other of the bean tribe, which are frequently destroyed by it. It is well 
 adapted to Ireland, and its cultivation in that country is annually increasing. The 
 stalk of the Russian bean is about four feet high, the seeds rather smaller than those 
 of the Scotch bean, and its weight per bushel from C6 lbs. to 70 ll)s. 
 
 The Amfield bean is somewhat similar to the Early Mazagan, and is the largest 
 of the field beans. The straw is from four to five feet high, the pods about four 
 inches long, and containing three or four seeds of a flattish shape. It is suitable cither 
 for the field or the garden, ])ut is not equal in productiveness to the smaller varieties of 
 field beans. 
 
 The Early Mazagan was a native of western Africa, as its name would imply. The 
 
THE BEAN. 497 
 
 stalk is from four to five feet higli^ the pods contain four or five seedsj flat and dimpled 
 on each side. It likes good rich land, and on such is very productive. In Scotland 
 its cultivation is confined chiefly to the garden ; l3ut in England it is sown as a field 
 crop as well as in the garden. It should be either dibbled or drilled in wide rows^ and 
 will bear to be sown as a winter bean if the season should not prove very severe. 
 
 The Long Pod bean is also cultivated either for the field or garden. An early 
 variety has been recently introduced which is more prolific ; it is called " Child's New 
 Early Long Pod." It is stouter in the stalk and rather taller than the Common Long 
 Pod or the Early Mazagan, and the seeds are larger by one-third. It is said that beans 
 will vegetate as well, if not more strongly, lying on the bare ground, tlian when well 
 covered with the soil. There is no doubt but that they will grow in that situation if the 
 soil is moist ; but it is a proof to the contrary of this proposition, that drilled beans 
 produce a better crop than when they are sown broadcast.* 
 
 , The produce of beans, like that of other grain crops, varies with the nature and 
 condition of the soil in which they are grown, and the season. From 20 to 40 bushels 
 and even 50 are reaped, aud the average weight is estimated to be 66 lbs. per bushel. 
 They are given to horses in a crushed state, and sometimes boiled ; and they are not 
 only grateful food to that animal, but they sustain his vigour under severe laljour 
 without exhaustion. From 3 lbs. to 6 lbs. of beans per day is a fair allowance for a 
 horse in full work according to his size; but, being of a highly astringent nature, a 
 more laxative food, as bran, should be given with them when a horse comes off a journey. 
 The following, according to Einhofi", is the composition of the Field bean : — 
 
 Husk 10 
 
 Legumcn, Albumen, &c 11 "7 
 
 Stai-ch ... 50-1 
 
 ^'", } 8'Z 
 
 Gum, &c. J 
 
 OU and fat 
 
 Water 156 
 
 Salt and loss 44 
 
 1000 
 
 It is to the large proportion of proteine matters that beans owe their utility in 
 supplying the waste of muscle in labour. 
 
 Beans, of one kind or another, are cultivated in almost every country in the world : 
 Egypt is said to be the original one to which the world is indebted for them. Oui- first 
 knowledge of the bean is derived from Greece, which owed its knowledge of agriculture 
 to Egypt. In almost every country in the East the bean is used as an esculent, and in 
 
 * In the " Annals of Agriculture," vol. iiv., the following remarks are inserted by Mr. Vancouver :— "The land upon 
 which peas or tares may be cultivated, does not require to possess so deep a staple as that appropriated to the culture of 
 beans, the seed of which, in most soils, be their texture what it may, should never be deposited at a less depth than five 
 or six inches below the settled surface of the ground. The necessity for placing the bean thus deep will appear very obvious 
 to anyone who will take the trouble to inspect the root of the bean, when the bean has attained to its full growth, aud it-» 
 seed to its complete maturity. It will then appear evident, that from the point where the seed was deposited in the ground 
 it sends downwards a long tap-root, and upwards a thick strong one. Along this upper division of the root, lateral 
 fibres are detached from the seed to the surface of the ground, aud are evidently destined to collect and convey nourishment 
 to the plant. The long tap-root which descends perpendicularly, and to a great depth from the point where the seed was 
 placed in the ground, beinj perfectly char of laterals, will not be supposed to contribute but in a small degree, to the 
 growth and subsistence of the plant. Hence the necessity of placing the bean at a proper depth iu the ground, &c." 
 
 K K 
 
498 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 many parts of Africa it is au iudigeuous plant ; from whence, also, the jMoors conveyed 
 some of the finest varieties into Spain, when they settled in that country. During the 
 continuance of slavery in the West Indies, great quantities of horse-beans were exported 
 to those islands, where they were consumed by the negroes. It is stated by King that 
 the annual consumption of beaus in the islands was 4,000,000 bushels, and of peas 
 7,000,000 bushels. The cultivation, therefore, of these leguminous plants must have 
 been much greater than at present. 
 
 It was formerly the custom with many farmers to sow " blendings," that is, beaus 
 and peas together in the proportion of two of beans to one of peas. By this plan the 
 beans served as a support to the peas, and prevented them from rotting on the ground 
 in a wet season. On the other hand, the peas being a more covering crop thau the 
 beans, prevented the weeds from getting ahead, to the injury of the crop. This 
 practice is nov^', we believe, quite obsolete, although it was a common opinion, that if 
 you got a good crop of " blendiugs," you would be sure of a good crop of wheat after it. 
 It is an excellent practice to take off the tops of the beans as soon as the blossom is set. 
 This prevents the plant from exhausting itself by growing upwards, especially in a wet 
 season, and throws the nourishment into the seed. It also hastens the maturity of the 
 pods, and destroys the black aphis, which is so destructive. 
 
 THE GARDEN BEAN. 
 
 In the old works ou gardening, only two or three species of beans are mentioned ; 
 but by means of hybridising these with each other, or with newly imported species, 
 many varieties of this plant are now cultivated. As this work is devoted exclusively to 
 agricidture as applied to the farm, we shall merely mention the principal kinds that arc 
 cultivated by the market gardeners for the sn])ply of the metropolis, which are as 
 follows : — 
 
 The Eaily Mazagan. 
 
 The Long PoJ, with seven varieties. 
 
 The Broad Windsor. 
 
 The French, with many varieties. 
 The Scarlet Runner. 
 The Haricot. 
 
 Of these, the French bean and the Scarlet llunuer are cooked and eaten in the husk 
 whilst quite young and green ; the rest being shelled whilst in a tender state, except the 
 Haricot, which is used in the dry state after harvesting. Of the large kind of bean the 
 Broad Windsor is the most cultivated and the most profitable; and from its ripening 
 imequally, some pods being much advanced, whilst others arc scarcely off flowering, 
 they continue to yield a supply for the table for a considerable time. They will not 
 stand the winter, and are usually sown from February to June, but the produce of the 
 late sown is small. There are very few gardens in the United Kingdom in which this 
 bean is not a standing article of produce. 
 
 Next to the Windsor is the Mazagan, which, in the garden, is much larger and finer 
 than in the field. It is more hardy than the former, and is planted as a winter bean in 
 October and November, and as a spring crop, at any time during that season. It comes 
 forward earlier than the Windsor, and is very prolific. 
 
 The Long Pod bean in all its varieties is very productive, and being a late plant 
 aflbrds an agreeable ^■ariety in the autumnal list of table vegetables. 
 
 The French bean is well known from its productiveness and excellent qualities as an 
 
THE PEA. 499 
 
 esculeut. Its botanical generic name is Phuseolus vti/r/aris, and includes the Scarlet 
 Runner and the Haricot. The Scarlet Runner is essentially the poor man's plant, being- 
 very prolific^ and continuing to bear almost the whole summer. There arc few cottage 
 gardens in which it does not form a constant and principal article of produce. In 
 France it is the custom to salt the French beans and keep them in sacks, till the 
 winter, when they form an agreeable variety in the slender list of culinary vegetable 
 food. It is rather extraordinary that this plan is not adopted with us. The 
 Haricot bean is extensively cultivated iu France and Italy, and great quantities are 
 imported into the United Kingdom in the mature state. The seed is a small white bean, 
 and when boiled is a delicious esculent at that season when vegetables are scarce, and few 
 in number. 
 
 The common bean, although eaten exclusively by cattle and horses, contains 
 ten per cent, more nutritive matter than wheat, the proportions being eighty-four to 
 seventy-four per cent. This will account for its superiority as food for horses, enabling 
 them to sustain the most severe labour cither in the field or on the road. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 TliE I'EA. 
 
 Thk Pea {Pcsinii sutivtnn of Linnaius), is another leguminous plant, and, like the Bean, 
 is both a field and a garden production. Its history and native country are unknown, 
 except that it has been cidtivated in England for centuries before botany had, as a 
 regular science, been introduced. Like the bean, too, it is cultivated as an esculent 
 plant wherever civilisation has found its way. It is probable that the Common Pea, 
 which gives the generic name to the family, was brought liither from the south of 
 Em-ope. That it has long been a staple article of produce, both in England and Scotland, 
 is proved by incidental mention of it in history on various occasions. Thus, at the close 
 of the thirteenth century, the English forces were detained so long at the siege of a 
 castle in Lothian, that, having exhausted all their )n-ovisions, they continued as a 
 resource, to subsist on the peas and beans cultivated in the surrounding fields. 
 Notwithstanding this fact, the garden pea does not appear to have been grown with us, 
 for Queen Elizabeth was obliged to send over to Holland (according to Fuller), for a 
 supply for her table. " Fit dainties," says the old chronicler, " for ladies, they come 
 so far and cost so dear." And iu the " Privy Purse " accounts of Henry VIII. is 
 an entry to this effect : — " Paied to a man in rcwarde for bringing pescods to the 
 King's Grace iiijs. viiic?." (£1 lis. M.) This appears the more strange, that, according 
 to the burden of an old song made in the reign of Henry VI. ^ peascods were sold in 
 the streets of London : — 
 
 " Then uuto Loudon I dyde me Iiye, 
 Of all the land it bearyeth the pryae ; 
 * Gode pescodes/ cue began to cry." 
 K K 3 
 
500 AGRICULTUriE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 There arc several varieties of Field peas, as the INIaple Grey or Partridge pea, the 
 "White Boiling pea, the Blue pea, the Charlton or Forty Days' pea, the Winter pea, the 
 Common Grey pea. 
 
 All kinds of peas love a light loose soil, deeply tilled and moderately rich. If the 
 land is in too high a condition, the plants will run to straw too luxuriantly to produce 
 a good crop of grain. There are two varieties of Grey peas, one of which is called 
 cold seed, the other hot seed. The cold seed should be planted in February if the frost 
 is out of the ground, and the soil is dry and properly tilled. This kind ripens slowly, 
 and therefore requires more time for growing than the hot seed, which is not sown 
 before the latter end of March or April, and yet is matured sooner than the other. The 
 use of the Grey peas of both kinds is for fattening hogs, for which purpose they are 
 superior to every other kind of food, the bacon from hogs so fed being solid, well-flavoured, 
 and wasting little or none in boiling. 
 
 The "White pea is either a garden or a field plant. In the latter form a considerable 
 quantity is grown in those soils suitable to its nature. It is more tender than the Grey 
 pea, but both will bear a certain degree of cold without injury. The White pea is apt 
 to degenerate if sown on land unsuitable to it. In that case they do not " break," in 
 boiling for soup, but remain whole, and are therefore said to be " good boilers, but bad 
 breakers." A good pea for making soup dissolves when boiled in soft water, which is 
 one of the essential conditions in cooking them properly. They are, as we have alreadj' 
 stated, sometimes sown with beans, which act as sticks to support them ; and they are 
 easily separated, if required, after being threshed together, on account of the difference 
 in size. Pea straw is useful as fodder for all animals if well harvested, but is easily 
 damaged by wet weather. It yields a considerable quantity of potash when burned; 
 a waggon-load of it is said to produce upwards of 400 lbs. of that substance. Excellent 
 yeast may be made by taking a Mine-glass full of split or bruised peas, and pouring over 
 tliem a pint of boiling Avater. They must be covered over, and set on the hearth or any 
 Avarra place all night. In the moi'ning the water will have a froth on it, which is good 
 yeast. Warmth is essential to its fermentation. 
 
 Of the Blue or Purple pea there are tAvo varieties, the Australian and the American, 
 The first has a purple pod, whilst the seeds are of a dun colour. It grows to five feet in 
 length, and the pods generally grow in pairs. It is an eai-ly plant, and succeeds well 
 on light soils and late districts. The American Purple pea reaches to four or five feet 
 in length of straw, pods growing in pairs, and seeds dark purple, mottled with black 
 spots. It is an early and very prolific A'aricty. 
 
 The Charlton pea is supposed to have been the original of all the garden peas except 
 such as have been imported from abroad of late years. It difiers little from the White 
 pea mentioned above, which is probably a variety of it. 
 
 The Winter pea has the straw about fom- feet long, and tl*e seed is smaller than the 
 spring varieties, and is of a dark colom-. It is usually soavu in October, and stands 
 the severest winter without injury, ripening before any of the spring kinds. It is 
 cultivated extensively in France and other parts of the continent, both as a Avinter and a 
 spring plant. 
 
 The common Grey pea is much cultivated in Scotland, mixed with the Horse bean. 
 It furnishes abundance of straAv, and is thus serviceable at harvest in binding up the 
 beans when cut, as they both ripen about the same time. Dry weather and light soil 
 
THE PEA. 
 
 501 
 
 suit this crop, as they then do not run so much to straw. In a wet season, too, both 
 straw and pods are liable to decay as they approach maturity. The pods fill well with 
 six or eight seeds. It is a prolific plant, and when preserved by beans from the effects 
 of rain, yields a large return. The straw is good fodder for cattle and sheep. 
 
 The yield of peas varies from 21 to 63 bushels per acre, but the latter is an exceptional 
 produce. The range in Essex is from 32 to 48 bushels. ]\Iuch, however, depends upon 
 the season ; for if that is unfavourable, the yield is reduced sometimes to from 12 to 20 
 bushels. No crop takes injury so soon, or to so great an extent, from a wet harvest as 
 the pea. If ripe, the pods open with the rain, and shed their contents in a body, on the 
 ground. We have seen nearly a whole crop tiius shelled under a continued rain ; and 
 nothing can be done M'ith them but to turn in the pigs and large fowls to consume them 
 as they lie. 
 
 With regard to the comparative value of peas as an article of food, the quant' ty of 
 nutritive matter in a crop of 25 bushels per acre is as follows : — 
 
 25 bushels = 1,000 lbs. 
 
 Husk 130 
 
 Starch, Gum, &c. . . 800 
 
 Gluten 380 
 
 Oil or fat 34, 
 
 Saline matters ... 48 
 
 Other matters . . . 208 = 1,000 lbs. 
 
 The following is the comparative composition of pea and bean grain and meal : — 
 
 Grain. 
 
 Meal. 
 
 Peas .... 
 Beans . . , 
 
 Water. 
 
 Husk. 
 
 Meal. 
 
 1 Starcli. 
 
 1 05 
 1 09 
 
 Legumin. 
 
 Gum, &c. 
 
 14-0 
 15-5 
 
 10-5 
 10-2 
 
 75-5 
 , 68-3 
 
 23 
 19 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 The quantity of leguminous matter in these seeds accounts for their utility in supplying 
 the waste of muscular matter in animals.* 
 
 In Germany it is not unusual to cover the field with straw after peas are sown. 
 The peas shoot up through the straw, and between them the ground is soon so completely 
 covered as to smother the weeds effectually, and the stems of the peas arc prevented 
 from rotting by contact with wet ground. 
 
 In Flanders, different kinds of corn arc sometimes sown thickly together for a forage 
 crop, as beans, peas, tares, barley, &c. These arc cut as soon as they arc off the bloom, 
 and given to the live stock. It takes little from the soil, as no seed is formed, and tlie 
 weeds are prevented from spreading by the thickness of the crop, and the land is in a 
 good and clean state for wheat after the green crop is taken off. 
 
 Peas are much less cultivated than formerly, as well as beans. Not only has the 
 demand for both ceased in the West Indies since the abolition of slavery, but their 
 consumption in this country as food for the labouring classes has ceased. Formerly 
 peas were made into "bannocks," and they were otherwise eaten in a variety of ways. 
 As human food, their use now is confined to the making of soup and pease-pudding, both 
 which are still favourite dishes with all classes, and are considered very nourishing food. 
 
 * Stephens' "Booi of the Farm." 
 
502 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 I'pon tlic whole, peas arc a very precarious crop, and seldom remunerate tlie farmer 
 for the occupation of the laud. It is true they are reckoned a good preparatory crop 
 befoi'c wheat, because they do not exhaust the land ; but their liability to be injured, if 
 not destroyed, both before and after matui'itj'^, is a great drawback to their profitableness. 
 They arc seldom manured for, nor woiild they certainly pay for it, nnless it be a dressing 
 of gypsum, which appears to be more eft'ective than any other kind. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 VETCHES OR TARES. 
 
 Tin; botanical name for this plant is Vicia sativa; and there are many varieties, but 
 those most cultivated in the United Kingdom are distinguished by the ordinary names 
 of " Winter " and " Spring tares." The diBercuce between these, whatever it may be, 
 is probably accidental, or effected by successful attempts at acclimatisation, by sowing 
 in the autumn instead of the spring, by which a new variety has been produced. It is, 
 liowcver, a difficult matter, in purchasing seed-vetches to judge from the sample, 
 whether they are Winter or Spring tares; and the buyer must trust in a great measure 
 to the representation and honour of the seller. 
 
 Next to clover, tares are the most valuable of our green crops, all descriptions of 
 farming live stock being fond of them, and thriving well upon them. The winter tares 
 afford abundance of succulent food before the grass is ready for the cattle ; and the 
 Spring tares are equally valuable after tlie pastures have been fed dov.'n, and the 
 drought checks them from further luxuriance. The "Winter tares will spring again after 
 the first cutting if well managed, and bear a second crop if required. They draw little 
 nourishment from the soil, and, like peas and beans, are an excellent preparatory crop 
 for either turnips or wheat. If they .ire wanted in succession, they should be sown at 
 different periods, so that one poi-tion shall come in when another is finished. By sowing 
 a large quantity at once, a part will get too forward before they are finished, and the 
 cattle will reject them. 
 
 Almost any soil is suitable for tares, but the most so is a good sandy loam. They 
 are frequently sown on poor lands to be fed off by sheep as a preparation for wheat. 
 They are in general manured for with farm-yard dung, at the rate of ten or twelve cart- 
 loads per acre. The Winter tares should be sown from October to November, and the 
 Spring from !March to June, according to the time when they are required. There is 
 no green crop on which the animals of every kind, — milch cows, fatting bullocks, 
 horses, pigs, sheep, &c., — thrive faster, or are more fond of. 
 
 There are other varieties of the Vetch, as the Ratte-ripe, the Wood, ihe Tufted, the 
 Bush, and the Chinese vetch. None of these are cultivated to advantage except the 
 Bush vetch [Vicia sepium) which excels the Luccrn in productiveness. It has been 
 cut four times between the IGth of !March and the 30th of September; but it is very 
 difficult to preserve tlie seed, as the pods ripen irregularly, and, as they become mature, 
 
THE CULTIVATED FOKAGE PLANTS. 503 
 
 burst, and scatter the seeds. It is, however, a perennial plant, and might probably be 
 propagated by dividing and transplanting the root. 
 
 Oats or rye are generally sown with tares. The Winter vetch may be sown on poor 
 ground as early as the middle of August, but not later than the end of October, as it 
 would not be strong enough to bear a severe winter. It is a singular fact, that when 
 vetches were first introduced into England from Flanders, they were cultivated, not as 
 a green crop, but for the sake of tiie seeds, wliich were given to horses, 
 
 SECTION X. 
 THE CULTIVATED FORAGE PLANTS. 
 
 I.\ tlie infancy of society, when population is thin and scattered, and land is plentiful, 
 the special cultivation of gramineous and other plants for the sustentation of domestic 
 animals is unnecessary. The number of these kept is in proportion to the wants of the 
 inhabitants, and the grazing lauds of natm-al pasture are sufficient for the purpose. If 
 we look at our colonies — Australia, for instance — we find an illustration of the truth of 
 this statement. Millions of sheep and cattle are there fed upon the boundless natural 
 pastures, and there is ample room for countless millions more. It will probably be 
 centuries before the necessity arises for the special cultivation of forage plants, except 
 it be in the vicinity of large towns, for the support of animals kept for the business 
 purposes of the traders, or the luxury of the more wealthy inhabitants. 
 
 It is little more than two centuries since England itself was in a somewhat similar 
 position. At that period the entire popvdation of England and Wales did not amount 
 to five millions, and the number of domestic animals kept was in proportion to the 
 wants of the inhabitants. The laud was occupied to a great extent in permanent 
 pastures, consisting of parks, meadows, and extensive commons, the proportion of arable 
 land being by far the smallest ; and these were xininclosed, and most of them what were 
 called " Lammas lands," which, as soon as the crops of corn were cleared oflF, were 
 subject to the flocks of the farmers of the district or parish, until the time when it was 
 necessary to prepare the land for sowing again, which was considered to be the latter 
 end of March.* It is plain, that, even if necessary, no forage crops could be grown 
 upon such lands ; but, on the other hand, the commons and natural pastures and 
 meadows were amply sufficient — at least, with the exception of tlie winter months — 
 for the support of the cattle ; whilst the hay saved during the summer served for the 
 winter, the turnip not having been cultivated as a field crop. 
 
 If we consult Sir Anthony Fitzherbert and others of the early writers on husbandry, 
 we find that they mention the cultivation of red clover " as practised in the Low 
 
 * Fallows were open to flocks all the year till Michaelmas, when tliey were sown with wheat. Fields kept for spring 
 corn were thus common until the 1st of April. The consequence of such a custom was, that every farmer was ohiiged to 
 till and sow his land exactly the same as his neighbours. It was considered that the sheep, l)y devouring the scutcli grass 
 nild other weeds, kept the land clean. 
 
goi AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 Countries and Italy," but not in England; and even so late as 1645, Sir Richard 
 Weston states that, in the preceding year, he saw a crop of it cut three times in the 
 course of the summer near Antwerp. Soon after this the seeds of the " Great Clover 
 of Flanders" were advertised for sale "at the shop of James Long at the Barge on 
 Billingsgate ;" and Walter Blyth first gave directions in his excellent work on husbandry 
 how to cultivate the plant. There is very little doubt that the merit of its introduction, 
 as well as that of the turnip, into field cultivation was due to Sir Richard Weston. 
 From that period the progress of agi-iculture was rapid. The introduction of Sainfoin 
 {Onohrychis scdiva), Lucern {Medicago sativa), Non-such, or Yellow Clover {Medicago 
 Lupulina), Ray grass {LoUum perenne), followed successively, this latter about the year 
 1670, and was considered good on cold wet lauds, but was thought to exhaust the soil 
 much more than any of the clover species. 
 
 It would occupy too much of our space to follow the introduction of all the forage 
 plants, which are now so numerous. From America, as "well as from continental 
 Europe, valuable plants have been obtained, and the search after them was further 
 stimulated by the premiums awarded, in the middle of the last century, by the " London 
 Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce," for the 
 collection by hand of the seeds of the most valuable grasses, as the ^Meadow Fox-tail, the 
 Crested Dog's-tail, the Meadow Fescue, &c. It is evident that these could not be sown 
 to advantage on the ''town lauds," subject as they were to be run over by all the sheep 
 and cattle of the district. It was only in the enclosed fields that they could be cul- 
 tivated profitably; and it is probable that the beneficial results of their introduction 
 were, to a certain extent, the cause of the enclosure of the common or town lands, 
 which by the end of the eighteenth century, and during the first twenty years of the 
 nineteenth, has made such rapid progress. This, and this alone, has made the universal 
 cultivation of forage crops of every description possible, by which the amount of food, 
 both for man and beast, has been multiplied ten times, and those enormous fluctuations 
 in the price of provisions which history records, are prevented by the regularity of the 
 supply. 
 
 The cultivated forage plants arc divided into two distinct classes, the natural grasses 
 and the artificial grasses. These we shall describe separately as we find them in 
 Messrs. Lawson and Son's catalogue and summary. The following is their list of the 
 natural grasses employed in agriculture : — 
 
 1. Jgrostls alha Fioriu, or Marsh, bent grass. 
 
 2. Jgroslis vulgaris Common, or Creepiug-rooted, bent. Purple bent, 
 
 lilack Scutch, Twitch, or Quick grass. . 
 
 3. Jira cacspUosa TutteJ Hair grass. 
 
 4. Alopecurus ar/restis Slender, or Field, Fox-tail grass. 
 
 5. Afopi^cunis jiratensis Meadow Fos-tail grass. 
 
 fi. Ainmophila arundinacea Sea-reed or Mat grass. 
 
 7- Anthoxanlhum odoraiurn .... Sweet-scented vernal grass. 
 
 8. Arrhenalherum asenaceujn .... Fibrous-rooted tall Oat grass, Frencli Rye grass. 
 
 9. Brachi/podium s>/lvaiicum .... Wood-fescne, or Wood-wheat grass. 
 
 10. Cynoaurus cristatus Crested Dog's-tail, or Gold grass. 
 
 11. Dacti/lis glomeratu Common rough Cock's-foot, or Orchard grass. 
 
 12. Dac/i/lis eaespitosa Tussac grass of the Falklands. 
 
 13. Elt/mus arenarius Sand, or upright Sea-lvmc grass. 
 
 14. Elymus geniculatiis Pendulous Sea-lyme grass. 
 
 15. Fesiuca diiriiiscKfa Hard Fescue grass. 
 
CULTIVATED FORAGE PLANTS. 505 
 
 16. Festuca elatior Tall Meadow Fescue. 
 
 17. Festuca ijiganiea Giant Wood Fescue, or Brome grass. 
 
 18. Festuca heteropliylla Various leaved Hard Fescue. 
 
 19. Festuca loliacea Darnel, or spiked Rye-grass-like Fescue, sk-rder 
 
 Fescue grass. 
 
 20. Festuca ovina Slieep's Fescue. 
 
 21. Festuca pratensis Meadow Fescue grass. 
 
 2i2. Festuca rubra Red, or creeping. Fescue. 
 
 23. Holcus lanatus Woolly Soft grass, meadow Soft grass, or Yorkshire 
 
 Fog. 
 
 24. Holcus tnollls Creeping Soft grass, or bearded Soft grass. 
 
 25. Zolium Italicnm Italian Rye grass 
 
 26. Zolium perenne Common Rye grass. 
 
 27. Ulilium effusum Wood, or spreading Millet grass. . 
 
 28. Plialaris arundinacea Reed-like Canary grass. 
 
 29. Phleum pratense Timothy, or Cat's-tail i 
 
 30. Foa a/piua Alpine Jleadow grass. 
 
 31. Paa annua Annual Jleadow grass. 
 
 32. Foa ajuatica Water Sleadow grass, or reedy Water grass. 
 
 33. Poafiu'ttans Floating Sweet Meadow, or Water grass. 
 
 34. Poa nemoralis Wood Meadow grass. 
 
 35. Poa pratensis Smooth-stalked Meadow grass. 
 
 36. Poa iricialis Rough-stalked, or Stoloniferous Meadow grass. 
 
 37. Triselum flavesceiis Yellowish Oat grass. 
 
 "We shall now give a short description of the above and their uses, also abridged 
 from the same work of Messrs. Lawson and Son. 
 
 1. Agrostis alba. — Root perennial, fibrous in marshy soils, but becomes a creeping 
 plant on a light and dry soil. Height, \h foot; flowers in July. There are several 
 varieties of this grass, and the Florin of Dr. Richardson is considered to be the A. alba, 
 var. LatifoUa. It should never be sown on a damp or irrigated peaty soil. The 
 Agrostis siolonifera is a variety of the A. alba. 
 
 2. Agrostis vulgaris. — This is the common Twitch grass, better known by the farmer 
 than esteemed, and more difficult to be got rid of than to be obtained. In a light soil 
 it will run for yards in a season ; and being full of joints in the root, and every joint 
 capable of reproduction, it thrives marvellously if neglected. Slieep are tlie only 
 animals that feed upon it, and if they are turned into a ploughed field where it prevails, 
 they will pick out the roots and devour them ; otherwise nothing but fire will destroy 
 them.* No sane farmer would ever attemjit to cultivate it. 
 
 3. Aira caespitosa. — This is a perennial grass having long flat leaves, fibrous roots, 
 and is about 4 feet high in the stem. This plant delights in a damp and marshy soil, and 
 grows in tussocks. It is a coarse, wiry j^lant, and not much eaten by the cattle when 
 they can find more palatable food. It is therefore desirable to exterminate it as soon as 
 possible wherever it is foinid in a pasture or meadow, as taking the place of better 
 kinds of food. Its only use is to furuish a cover for game, by which it becomes a 
 double nuisance to the farmer. 
 
 4. Alopecurus agrostis. — This is a biennial, fibrous-rooted grass, only useful to sow 
 
 * The writer had once a field which, having been neglected by a former occupier, had become full of Twitch grass. The 
 field was intended for turnips, but, the weather proving wet, it was found impossible to gather the roots from the soil. 
 He therefore collected the Twitch in heaps with the soil adhering, and burned the whole together. The ashes, of which 
 there were forty or fifty loads, were then spread over the field, and the turnips sown, and they proved the best crop that 
 was ever grown on the farm. 
 
50G AGRICULTaRE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 aEiougst others ou liigli santly soils on the sea coast, where it is found superior to the 
 common rye-grasses. 
 
 5. Alopecurm ]}ratensis. — A perennial, fibrous-rooted plant ; it flo^^■ers in ^lay and 
 June. It is one of the earliest and best pasture grasses, and forms the greater portion 
 of many of the richest natural pastures of Britain. It yields, however, hut little hay, as 
 it produces few stalks, but the root-leaves are very broad, long, soft, and slender, 
 and it grows rapidly after being cut down, or fed off by cattle or sheep. It springs 
 naturally on tho best mixed soils, but requires two or three years to bring it to its full 
 productiveness, 
 
 G. Ammophila arimdiiiacea. — Root creeping, perennial; height from li to 2 feet, 
 and flowers in July. It is tlie celebrated Marram, which being planted on the sand- 
 banks of the coast of Noi'folk and other parts, forms in due time an effectual barrier 
 to the inroads of the waves. "When once it has taken hold of the sand, by its fibrous 
 and wiry roots, nothing can destroy it ; and the sand covering it at every fresh tide only 
 adds to its strength. It is called Mat grass, because the foliage is used in making mats, 
 for which it is peculiarly suited. It is of uo use as fodder. 
 
 7. Aiithoxantliumodoratum. — A perennial, fibrous-rooted plant, height about l^foot; 
 flowers in May. It is not a favourite grass with cattle or sheep, nor is it a good 
 yielding grass, its chief excellency being its early growth, and its continuing to throw 
 up foliage throughout the autumn and early winter. "When, therefore, mixed with 
 other grasses, it helps to prolong the grazing season. It is suited for parks and 
 pleasure-grounds, but is of too coarse a quality for the lawn or grass-plot. 
 
 8. ArrhenatJienim aveiiaceum. — Another fibrous-rooted perennial, flowering in July, 
 and yielding an abundance of herbage, the bitter taste of which is much against its 
 usefulness. It is a singularity of this grass, that on light dry soils it forms a bulbous 
 root, whilst on moist rich land the root is fibrous. Lawson, however, denies that this 
 is the case, except it may arise from a very long continued growth on their respective 
 soils ; and he seems to doubt whether even this will produce such an effect. This Oat 
 grass is cultivated in France to a greater extent than any other kind, and is called there 
 the Bay grass de France. It grows rapidly after being fed down, and is useful for 
 sowing in plantations, but is not suited to ordinary pastures, ou account of the repug- 
 nance of the horses and cattle to its bitter taste. 
 
 9. Brachypodimn sylvaticimi. — Perennial aud fibrous-rooted; stem 2 feet high; 
 flowers in July. This grass is suited to parks aud plantations only, being chiefly eaten 
 by deer, hares, and rabbits ; it should, therefore, be sown in such places plentifully, to 
 keep the vermin at home if possible. 
 
 10. Cynosurus cristalus. — Root fibrous, perennial, leaves short, rather narrow, and 
 tapering to a point ; height about 1 foot to 2 feet ; flowers in June and July. It will 
 flourish on either dry or moist soils, and its foliage is eaten with eagerness by both 
 cattle and sheep, but they leave the stalks, which stand aud ripen for seed. It is said 
 that sheep are less liable to the foot-rot, when fed on pastures where this grass prevails, 
 than on such as are made up of more tender and soft-leaved kinds. It forms a close 
 turf, aud is sometimes too predominant in pasture lauds, but is Avell adapted to lawns 
 and bowling-greens, where it is kept under with the scythe. It thrives well in water- 
 meadows. 
 
 11. Dactylis glomerata .—'Root fibrous, perennial; flowers in June and July. This 
 
CULTIVATED FORAGE PLANTS. 507 
 
 grasSj tlie rough Cock's-foot, is ^\c\l known for its abundant foliage^ the stem being 
 from 1 foot to 3 feet in licight. It grows in tussocks^ sometimes very large, and yiekls 
 an abundance of coarse but palatable heritage, of which both sheep and cattle, but 
 especially the former, are very fond. Its high tufts are very unsightly in a pasture 
 ground, and many farmers have them cut out when they appear, especially in those near 
 the house. On a light soil its roots penetrate deep, and take a firm hold of the ground; 
 but on a close clay it is very soon trodden out by horses and oxen. It is much culti- 
 vated in America, from whence it is supposed to have been brought into England. 
 Messrs. Lawson have made a series of experiments with this grass, the results of which 
 induce them to recommend its cultivation in alternate husljandry, where the land is 
 intended to be kept in grass for two or more years before being again broken up. It 
 will not last as pasture, uuder any circumstances, more than five or six years. 
 
 12. Dactylis caespitosa. — Fibrous-rooted, perennial. Stems numerous, and rising 
 3 feet or 4 feet, smooth, compressed, leafy, and pale yellow, abounding in saccharine 
 matter. Flowers in February and IMarch. The densely matted roots form isolated 
 tussocks or hillocks 3 feet to G feet in height, and 3 feet or 4 feet in diameter, from 
 which the foliage and stems spring ; these are much more succulent than those of the 
 D. glomerata. It is adapted to lands bordering on the sea coast, where other grasses 
 will not exist ; yet attempts to cultivate it on our coasts have not succeeded. Its 
 highly saccharine properties render it very acceptable to cattle, which, if they are allowed 
 to feed upon it, will eat down the crown to the very root, and soon desti'oy the plant. 
 It has been successfully cultivated in the Orkneys and Lewis, which are the only places 
 where it has hitherto been acclimated in the United Kingdom. The stems and leaves 
 are very succulent and sweet, and it is pronounced by Professor Johnston to be 
 exceedingly nutritive, 
 
 13. Elymus arenarius. — A perennial with powerfully creeping roots ; height, 2 feet 
 to 5 feet ; flowers in July. The leaves are hard and armed with spines, and scarcely 
 any animals will feed on it, either green or as hay, if they can get other food, on 
 account of its coarseness. Yet Sir Humphry Davy fovmd by analysing the soluble matter, 
 that it contained one-third of its -weight of sugar. Tliis alone would indicate highly 
 nutritive properties, and the hay from it, when cut into cliafF, mixed with other food, 
 has been recommended as affording excellent fodder. It is chiefly sown, like the 
 AmniopliUa anmdinacea, on loose sands, to repel the encroachments of the sea, for which 
 its strong, creeping, matted roots eminently fit it. It is used extensively in Holland 
 for this purpose. The usual way of cultivating it is, by planting turf at regular and 
 short intervals over the surface, and then to sow the seeds of either or both these plants 
 in the interstices by mixing them with clay attached to small pieces of straw rope, and 
 dibbling these into the sand. 
 
 14. Elymus geniculutus. — Spikes long and slender, often jointed or bent down ; 
 perennial, and, like the preceding, grows naturally on the sandy sea shore, but not 
 common in Britain. The foliage is narrower than that of the E. arenurius, and it is a 
 more open and less spreading plant. Its seeds supply food for wild fowl, and it grows in 
 tufts 4 feet or 5 feet in height on almost any soil. On warrens and sandy tracts it 
 affords good shelter for game. 
 
 15. Festuca diirluscuht. — ]{oot rather ci-eeping ; perennial; throws oft' lateral shoots ; 
 Jieigiit. 1^ to 2 feet; stem-leaves broader and more flattened than the root-leaves. It 
 
508 AGBICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 is one of the best native grasses for general purposes, and constitutes the greater part 
 of the herbage of the natural permanent pastures of this country. It is well adapted for 
 sowing in parks and pleasure-grounds on account of its verdant appearance throughout 
 the winter. It will thrive on most soils, and yields a great quantity of food, bearing alike 
 the drought of summer and the severe frosts of winter. There are two other varieties 
 of this grass, the F. purpurata and the F. serrata. To all of them sheep are found to 
 display a great partiality, both in the green state and as hay. 
 
 16. Festuca elatior. — A perennial, fibi-ous-rooted plant, creeping, and growing in 
 large tufts; stem from 3 feet to 5 feet high; flowers in July. It is nearly double, in 
 all its parts, the size of the F. pratensis, and grows naturally in good moist soils, on the 
 banks of rivers, in shady places, and on rocks near the coast. It yields an abundant 
 crop, and, although a coarse grass, is generally liked by cattle. There are many 
 varieties of it, as the F. elatior fertile, the F. elatior sterile, and the F. elatior gigant earn. 
 This latter is distinguished by its gigantic growth, reaching from 5 feet to 6 feet, and 
 by its large seeds. 
 
 17. Festuca gigantea. — Root fibrous and creeping; perennial, with long, broad, 
 ribbed, and bright green leaves ; 4 feet to 5 feet in height ; flowers in Jidy and August. 
 It yields an abundance of herbage, but is preferred by cattle as hay ratlier than in the 
 green state. It contains but little nutriment, and can only be cultivated to advantage 
 where the land is shaded by trees, and better grasses will not grow. In plantations it 
 forms a good cover for game. 
 
 18. Festuca heterophylla. — Perennial, fibrous-rooted ; culms numerous and upriglit, 
 about 4 feet or 5 feet high ; flowers in June and July. It is a native of France, and is 
 found in difl'erent parts of the Continent, especially in the Low Countries, from whence 
 the seeds are brought. It suits this climate, and produces one abundant crop of hay, 
 but yields very little after-grass. It answers to mix witli other seeds on upland 
 pastures, whether intended for hay or grazing. 
 
 19. Festuca loliacea. — Fibrous-rooted and perennial; flowers in July. It is adapted 
 for marshy situations and rich meadows, occasionally overflowed ; and it forms a con- 
 siderable portion of the herbage of the fen districts both in England and Ireland, 
 but is rarely found in Scotland. It produces little seed, and is considered, a hybrid 
 between the F. jiratensis and the Foa fluitans. 
 
 20. Festuca ovina. — Fibrous-rooted and perennial; leaves narrow and rough ; grows 
 in small tufts; stems square, and 12 inches to 18 inches in height; flowers in June and 
 July. Grows naturally on light, dry, and sandy soils, and on mountain sides. It is 
 well adapted to sheep-walks, and constitutes the greater part of the herbage of the 
 Highlands. It yields but little feed, but being so well relished by sheep it sliould 
 always form a portion of the mixed grasses in their pastures. 
 
 21. Festuca pratensis. — Root fibrous; perennial; leaves broad, and of a bright green 
 colour; height of stem from 2 feet to 3 feet; flowers in June and July. An excellent 
 grass, especially for permanent pastures, possessing the best, but not the objectionable, 
 properties of rye grass. It grows naturally on superior soils, if moist, and forms a 
 considerable portion of natural pasture. It makes excellent hay, and tlie leaves of the 
 herbage are succulent and tender, and much liked by cattle. It is not adapted to 
 alternate culture, except mixed with other grasses. 
 
 22. Festuca rubra. — This is considered a variety of F. duriusaila, but is not of equal 
 
CULTIVATED FORAGE PLANTS. 509 
 
 value, except for sowing on shifting sands, wlicic its fibrous and creeping roots assist 
 to consolidate tlie soil. It is nseful also on the slopes of railway cuttings and 
 embankments. 
 
 23. Holcus lanatns. — Leaves downy ; root fibrous ; perennial ; height, 1 foot to 
 3 feet ; flowers in June and July. It grows naturally on light, damp soils, is very 
 productive and easily cultivated, but is of little value either for hay or pasture. Its 
 nutritive matter consists of mucilage and sugar, but it contains very little sub-acid or 
 saline taste, which renders it unacceptable to cattle either green or as hay. Where this 
 grass prevails, salt should be sprinkled over the layers of hay when stacked, which will 
 render it more palatable and healthy, but it is by no means a desirable plaut where other 
 grasses can be grown. The panicles are soft and woolly in appearance, and exhibit a 
 variety of shades of colour, from a white to a beautiful red, but a whitish ground is 
 most common. 
 
 24'. Holcus mollis. — A perennial, creeping root, sometimes extending 4 or 5 feet in 
 height ; leaves pale green and rough ; flowers in July. The culms are fewer, and the 
 panicles looser iu this than in the //. lanatus ; and it has longer arms, broader leaves, 
 and powerfully creeping roots. It grows chiefly in dry woods, bushy places, and waste 
 ground, and it is only in such places that it is of any use, and it should be rooted out 
 wherever any other kind will grow. 
 
 25. Loliuin Itallcum.- — A biennial or triennial fibrous-rooted plant from the south of 
 Europe. It flowers in May and June. It has only been cultivated in England about 
 thirty years, but has now become thoroughly acclimatised, and is a generally favoiu'ite 
 grass. It is considered by botanists as a variety of the Loliimi perenne, from which it 
 scarcely diflfers in any essential particular as to its form. Various opinions prevail as 
 to the real merits of the Italian rye-grass, but its continu.ally increasing cultivation is 
 the best proof of its excellence and superiority over the common rye-grass. It has a 
 stronger braird, is much earlier in the spring, and arrives sooner at maturity. Its 
 Ibliage is broader and more abundant, and of a fresher green, but it is said to tiller less, 
 and grows taller and more upright. It produces but little seed, which, however, is of 
 no consequence, as most of the seedsmen find it better to import the seed than to grow 
 it, as it Can seldom be saved either pure or good. It is much preferred by cattle to the 
 common sort. It soon shoots again after being mown, and will bear cutting three times 
 on a favourable soil and a good season. It is valuable both for pasturage and for hay, but 
 it cannot be depended on with certainty for more than two seasons, although instances 
 have been known of its lasting five or six years, and yielding annually an average 
 of 7h tons of dry hay per acre ; but this has been ascribed rather to the ground being 
 seeded in the making of the hay, than to the preservation of the old plants. It is the 
 tendency of all the varieties of the rye-grass easily to shed their seeds in harvesting the 
 hay, if it be at all matured. There is no doubt that when fed ofl^, the plants may be 
 preserved more than two years, it being a property of all the gramineous plants to throw 
 out fresh tillers if the flowering stem is eaten or cut oflr, as they will continue their 
 endeavours to arrive at maturity. It has sometimes been sown as a substitute for tares, 
 with good effect. 
 
 26. Lolium perenne. — Fibrous-rooted, biennial, triennial, or quadrennial; flowers in 
 June and July. It grows naturally in meadows, and rich pastures. It suits a variety of 
 soils, is easily propagated, and ripens uniformly ; but there are many other grasses that 
 
510 AUUICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 yield move fodder, though none that ai'e preferred to it by the cattle and sheep. There 
 are many varieties, — as, the Evergreen or Devon Evers, tlie Fine-leaved {L. peretine 
 tenere), Mollis, Orkney or Pollexf en's, Paveifs {L.perenne ramosum), Boughead's, Russel's, 
 Spreading -stichieys, and WIdtiuorths . This last is an excellent grass, of early and late 
 growth, very tenacious of life, has remarkably fine foliage, and makes an excellent mix- 
 ture for sowing in pleasure-grounds and parks. 
 
 27. Milium ejfusum. — Fibrous-rooted and perennial; flowers in June; stem from 4 to 6 
 feet higli. It yields a large after-math when the first crop is taken off, and is relished 
 by cattle. It grows naturally in cool, shady places, and in rich vegetable soils on the 
 banks of rivers, &c. 
 
 28. Phalaris arundinacea. — A creeping perennial root; height, 4 to 6 feet; flowers 
 in July. It is a coarse grass and not liked by cattle, who will not eat it freely rraless 
 cut into chaft' and mixed with other food. It yields a large bulk of hay, and is some- 
 times used for litter. 
 
 28. Phleum pratense. — This plant comes from America, where it is extensively 
 cultivated. It has a creeping perennial root, stems li to 2 feet high, and flowers at 
 the end of June. It is a good deal cultivated now in Britain, tliriving best on moist 
 soils and newly reclaimed moor lands. It affords more nutriment when its-seeds are 
 ripe than when cut iu flower, so that its seeds may be saved without lessening its 
 value as a hay crop. It is best suited to a tenacious, strong, moist soil, and ought to 
 form a mixture with other sorts either in alternate or permanent pasture. This is not 
 an early grass, but is about equal in tliat respect to the common rye-grass. 
 
 30. Poa alpina. — Perennial ; fibrous-rooted ; grows in tufts; height from 4 to 12 
 inches ; flowers in June. It is suited to any situation, but grows naturally on moun- 
 tainous pastui'cs, where it is a valuable grass, because but few other species will succeed 
 there. It generally propagates itself by tillers, producing but little seed, so that it was 
 difficult to introduce it into remote districts ; but a new and fertile-seeded variety has 
 been discovered, which has by cultivation furnished a supply of seed for general use. 
 
 31. Poa annua. — Roots fibrous, annual, height about 9 inches ; flowers at most seasons 
 of the year ; it grows any and every where, and is troublesome in the corn-field. Sheep 
 ai'e very fond of it, and as it seeds the ground naturally, it helps to fill up a pasture. It 
 is sown on grass lands where the perennial grasses have been destroyed by frost. It 
 grows rapidly, and ripens its seeds in four or five weeks after sowing. 
 
 32. Poa aquatica. — This, although a coarse grass, is considered by Mr. Lawson the 
 most productive in lierbage of all the British grasses. It is a powerfully creeping root, 
 growing naturally by the sides of muddy ponds, fresh-water lakes, and rivers, and on 
 any rich soil subject to the action of water. It flourishes in the fens of Lincolnshire 
 and Cambridgeshire, where it forms an excellent resource for the lean stock during the 
 winter months. 
 
 33. Poa jluitans. — This grass, like the former, loves the neighbourhood of water, 
 nnd grows naturally iu moist or marshy places. It is fibrous-rooted, with stems from 
 2 to 3 feet high. It thrives in, as well as by, water, and is eaten eagerly by all kinds of 
 animals. It is well adapted to water-meadows, and yields a large produce. The seeds 
 are a luxury to wild fowl, and to trout and other fish, and they form the manna-kroop 
 or semolina of commerce, used iu soups. They are gathered, on parts of the Continent, 
 by placing a cloth under the panicles and beating them oft' with a stick, repeating the 
 
CULTIVATED FORAGE PLANTS. 511 
 
 operation every two or three days, till all the seeds are gathered. The plant will yield 
 a considerable produce even on moderately dry soils. 
 
 31. Poa nemoralis. — This grass grows naturally in shady woods, but will also thrive 
 in open places, and on poor soils. The root is fibrous, its height 1| foot to 3 feet, and it 
 flowers in June and July. It is well adapted to pleasure-grounds, forming a fine and close 
 sward under trees. It is an early grass, and throws out abundance of feed in the spring, 
 but yields little after-math. If allowed to shed its seed it will fill up the place of annual 
 and biennial grasses and weeds that die out. The Hudson's Bay Meadow grass (P. nemo- 
 ralis sempervirens) , is considered a valuable variety for parks and lawns, on account of 
 its perpetual greenness, thick growth, fine foliage, and constant reproduction. 
 
 35. Poa pratensis. — A creeping root ; smooth stem, about 3 feet high ; flowers in 
 May and June. Grows naturally in dry situations and rocky soils. It yields a large 
 amount of herbage at an early period of the season ; but it impoverishes the soil by its 
 creeping roots, and after June, produces very little food. For hay, it should be cut while 
 in flower, to prevent the seeds from ripening, which would reduce the bulk and value of 
 the produce. 
 
 36. Poa trivialis. — A perennial, fibrous-rooted plant ; flowers in June and July ; 
 height, 2 to 2i feet. It is a water-grass, and throws out shoots from the base of the 
 culm, which trail along the ground, and strike roots from every joint, by M'hich they 
 reproduce an abundance of fresh plants. In damp meadows and pasture grounds this 
 stolouiferous property makes it a valuable plant, as the shoots begin to grow early in the 
 spring, and form a close sward. In the drought of summer they diy up, but shoot 
 again towards autumn, and continue green throughout the winter, unless very severe. 
 It will not answer for la'wns or pleasure-grounds, being apt to rake or sweep up, leaving 
 the work rough and unfinished. 
 
 37. Trisetum flavescens. — Perennial, and fibrous-rooted; height, li foot to 2 feet; 
 flowers in July. Sheep are fond of this gi'ass, and it yields a great bulk of fine herbage 
 on light dry soils, when mixed with other grasses, either for hay or pasturage. It should 
 never be sown alone ; and if allowed to ripen its seeds, it will die out, although con- 
 sidered perennial. 
 
 We may remark that annual or biennial grasses may be preserved longer by cutting 
 or feeding them down, before they are matured. The original plant will then die, but the 
 roots will throw out shoots or tillers, and thus renew its existence. The cause of this is, 
 that the plants require to fulfil their mission, namely, the production of perfect seeds ; 
 and if frustrated in this, by cutting down, they immediately throw out fi'csh plant,s from 
 the old root, which then dies, with the abortive stump of the culm. This principle will 
 apply as well to the cereal as to other grasses. If the culms of any of these be cut or 
 broken off" when advancing to the earing, the root will throw out fresh tillers, and then 
 die with the first culms. 
 
513 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. ' 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 THE ARTIFICIAL GRASSES.* 
 
 TiiE following is Messrs. Lawson's list of clovers and other plants that come under 
 the above denomination : — 
 
 1. Achillea millefolium Yarrow, or Common MUfoil. 
 
 2. Cichorum intybus Wild Chicory, or Succory. 
 
 3. Cijtisus scoparius Common Broom. 
 
 4. Lotus cornictilatiis Common Bird's-foot Trefoil. 
 
 5. Lotus major Greater Bird'a-foot Trefoil. 
 
 6. Medicago lupulina Common Yellow Clover, or Trefoil, NonaucL, Black 
 
 Medick, Lupuline. 
 
 7. Medicago saliva Lucerne. 
 
 8. Onobrgchis saliva Common Sainfoin. 
 
 9. Petroselinum sativum Common Parsley. 
 
 10. Flantago lanceolata Common Plantain, or Rib-grass. 
 
 11. Foterium sanguisorba Common Burnet. 
 
 12. Primula veris Common Cowslip, or Paigle. 
 
 13. Trifolitm hybridum Hybrid, or Alsike Clover. 
 
 14. Trifolium incurnalum Scarlet, Crimson, or Italian Clover. 
 
 15. Trifolium minus v el fit for me .... Yellow Suckling, or Trefoil. 
 
 16. Trifolium jiratense Common, or Red Clover. 
 
 \1. Trifolium jiratense pereivie Cow-grass, or perennial Red Clover. 
 
 18. Trifolium repens 'White, or Dutch Clover. 
 
 19. Vlex Eurojiaus Common Whin, Furze, or Gorse. 
 
 20. Vicia saliva Common Tare, or Vetch. 
 
 1. Achillea millefolium. — A fibrous-rooted perennial; flowers in June and July, 
 tlie flower being white, pink, or even deep red. It grows naturally in dry pastures 
 on light soils. When mixed with common grasses it affords grateful feed for sheep. 
 It is highly astringent, and is useful rather as a condiment than for the amount of 
 uutritive matter it yields. It is, therefore, mixed with other seeds for sowing on sheep- 
 pasture, and may he sown on the poorest and driest soils to advantage, as it withstands 
 the severest drought. 
 
 2. Cichorum inlybus- — A deep-rooted perennial, flowers in July. Flowers blue, 
 in jiau's, with very short footstalks, but placed on long branching stems ; leaves of 
 various shapes and colours, hairy and ruucinate ; roots thick and fleshy ; height, when 
 in flower, from 4 to 8 feet or more. It grows naturally on the borders of fields, and 
 yields a great bulk of root and stem foliage, which is eagerly eaten by cattle ; but it 
 is said to give an unpleasant taste to milk. It thrives best on rich, light soils, well 
 drained ; and may be sown either in drills or broadcast, or mixed in small quantities 
 with other forage seeds. If the first cutting takes place about the time of flowering, 
 three or four crops may be obtained in a favourable season. The Chicoree a Cafe, or 
 Coffee Chicory, is a well-known variety of this plant. 
 
 * Morton, in his "Cyclopaidia of Agriculture," justly remarks that the term "grass," is misapplied to such produc- 
 tions as Clover, Sainfoin, Lucerne, and plants of that description, having none of the distinguishing characteristics of the 
 graminaceous family ; and that the only plants that can be mistaken for grass are rushes and sedges, and that these 
 possess decisive marks to distinguish them from grasses. In using the word, therefore, we only follow the common ani 
 accepted plan adopted by all seedsmen and others who have written on the subject. 
 
THE ARTIFICIAL GRASSES. 513 
 
 3. Cytisus scoparius. — This plant lias been recommended for sheep pasture to supply 
 them with green food in winter. It is^ however, highly diuretic ; and Messrs. Lawson 
 justly question whether the sheep do not take it medicinally rather than for its 
 nutritive properties, and consider it doubtful whether it can be introduced with 
 advantage or propriety as a forage plant. 
 
 4. Loius corniculatus. — A prostrate, deep-rooted perennial. Flowers about the end 
 of June, and until the end of August; flowers a bright yellow colour; stems decumbent 
 and smooth ; height from 6 inches to 1 foot. It loves light, dry, and very elevated 
 inferior soils, on which it will yield a greater bulk of herbage than any of the cultivated 
 clovers. It is equally nutritious with any of the Trefoils, and is eaten eagerly by the 
 sheep and cattle. From the depth of its rooting it withstands drought without injury, 
 and retains its verdure after other grasses are bmnt up. 
 
 5. Lotus major. — A spreading, creeping percunial; flowei-s in July and August ; grows 
 naturally in moist situations, and loves a peaty soil. It yields a much greater bulk of 
 herbage than the last named, and is also distinguished from it by the difl'ereut form of 
 the root and the size of the seeds, which are only one half those of the L. cornicuhtus, 
 and of an olive green colour, whilst the latter are of a dark brown. 
 
 G. Medicago liqmUna. — A fibrous-rooted biennial or sub-perennial ; flowers from 
 May to August : is generally sown mixed with other clover, or with rye-grass, and 
 loves dry pastures and cultivated grounds. It yields a great abuudance of seed. It is 
 not a profitable plant, nor are sheep or cattle partial to it alone, and only eat it from 
 necessity when mixed with a greater quantity of more acceptable food. It should, 
 therefore, be mixed sparingly. 
 
 7. Medicago safiva. — This is an invaluable plant, having an erect stem, branching 
 and smooth. The flowers are in clusters, of a purplish colour ; the root is perennial, 
 thick, and branching, and penetrates from 6 to 12 feet into the ground ; height of stem 
 about 3 feet. It loves a deep, loose, and even sandy soil, also a calcareous siib-soil, 
 with a medium black loam above. On such soils no drought will afleet it ; and it will 
 be ready for the scythe a fortnight or three weeks sooner than the common rye-gi'ass and 
 red clover. Although it may be cut the second year after sowing, it is only in the 
 third year that it attains its fuU perfection, after which, for eight or ten years, it will 
 continue to yield at least four good crops a year, if manure is applied to it in sufiicient 
 quantities. It requires to be kept clean from weeds. Lucerne has for many centuries 
 been cultivated in the south of Europe ; but was not introduced into Britain till about 
 the middle of the seventeenth century, nor is it at present used to the extent its 
 valuable properties entitle it to. This is probably owing to its permanent character 
 interfering with the regular course of husbandry. 
 
 8. Onobrychis sativn. — Root fusiform, woody, and penetrating deep into the ground. 
 It is a perennial, leguminous plant, bearing spikes of flowers of a beautiful pink or 
 flesh-colour on long footstalks. Stems upright and two to three feet in height ; flowers 
 from June to August. It loves a light, chalky soil, and is extensively cultivated on the 
 thin, chalky downs of the south of England. It is sometimes sown with a corn-crop 
 as other clovers and grasses, which shades and keeps it moist during the first summer. 
 In this case only half the usual quantity of corn is sown that a full crop requires. The 
 sainfoin is drilled at right angles with the corn-crop. It usually stands in full produce 
 for eight or ten years on a chalk sub-soil, and seven or eight on a sand or gravel. This 
 
 L L 
 
514 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 term may be increased by top-dressing. Like lucerue, wlien at maturity, no drought 
 will affect it. 
 
 9. retroselinum sativum. — A fusiform-rooted biennial or triennial, flowers iu July ; 
 heiglit 1 to 3 feet. It was first introduced into England from Sardinia in 1548 ; and 
 it is supposed to preserve slieep from the red water and liver rot, and is recommended 
 for sowing in pastures where they are kept. All herbivorous animals are fond of it ; 
 and it may be used in small quantities to advantage. About 1 lb. of seed to the acre 
 is enough on a light soil ; and it will provide for its own preservation by shedding its 
 seed, if the pasture is not fed too bare. 
 
 10. Plantugo lanceolata. — A fibrous-rooted perennial ; flowers in May and June. 
 Grows naturally in pastm-es and in waste places. All cattle and sheep are fond of it, 
 but it occupies too much space by its spreading leaves to be a profitable plant, and it 
 loses its quality as the season advances. 
 
 11. Poterium sanguisorba. — A fibrous-rooted sub-perennial; height 2 feet or 3 feet; 
 grows naturally on the chalky pastures, and flowers in June and July. It was exten- 
 sively cultivated formerly on such soils, but other and better plants have now superseded 
 it, though some of the old farmers on the south downs still adhere to it. 
 
 12. Primula veris. — Of no agricultural value. 
 
 13. TrifoUum hyhridum. — The Alsike clover is a Swedish plant, and is one of the 
 best perennial clovers, more cultivated in Scotland than in England. It is fibrous- 
 rooted ; flowers iu June and July; has a branching stem and globular head or flower. 
 It is found to thrive on soils termed clover-sick, which is a strong recommendation. 
 
 14. TrifoUum incarnatwn. — This is an Italian annual that flowers in June and July ; 
 the head or flower being a bright scarlet colour. The stem is upright and branched, 
 and the whole plant is hairy. It yields an abundant and excellent crop of fodder, and 
 has succeeded well iu the south of England. When sown in autumn it may be cut and 
 cleared from the ground the beginning of the following June, and the land ploughed up 
 and prepared for autumnal sowing. It yields an abundant croj) of hay, which horses 
 prefer to any other. A late variety (7". incarnatum tardif) has been introduced, which 
 flowers when the common one is over, and produces one-third more hay. 
 
 15. TrifoUum minus velfiUforme. — A fibrous-rooted perennial; flowers from May to 
 July ; head small, and colour of flower a bright yellow. It succeeds in dry gravelly, 
 or rocky places, where no other more valuable plants would live, but it is not itself valuable 
 enough to be sown alone on soils where better grasses would thrive. It aftbrds a good 
 mixture for lawns where the soil is too dry for v.hite clover. 
 
 16. TrifoUum pratense. — A fusiform-rooted sub-perennial; flowers in June and 
 July; colour a reddish purple. The English red clover has large purple seeds, and 
 grows luxuriantly on superior soils, for which it is adajited. There are many varieties 
 of this clover, as the Holstein, German, Cologne, Dutch, Flemish, French, American, 
 and Normandy Red Clover. The most valuable are the Dutch and French varieties. 
 The former succeeds on strong soils ; the latter is more suited to soils iu sheltered 
 situations. 
 
 17. TrifoUum pratense perenne.—Comj^aved with the Common Red clover, the flowers, 
 foliage, and stems are darker coloured, the leaflets narrower, and the whole plants much 
 more hairy, and the roots are more fibrous. It grows in old pastures, heathy moors, and by 
 the way-side, presenting many varieties of colour and habits of growth, but all agreeing 
 
TPIE SOEGHO, OR CHINESE SUGAR-CANE. 515 
 
 in permanenc}'^ of duration. It has been niucli sought after of late years, being found 
 useful on account of its permanent character. The varieties of this plant are numerous, 
 but the most valuable are the following : — 
 
 1st. Duke of Norfolk's Cmv Grass, the stalks, leaves, and flowers of which are darker, 
 the roots more fibrous, and the plant earlier by a week than the Common Red clover. 
 
 ^nd. Perennial Red Clover of Argovie. Originally from Switzerland, where it is much 
 cultivated. It is reckoned by the French farmers the most permanent variety they have, 
 and they cultivate it extensively. 
 
 3rd. Perennial Red Clover of Germany resembles the last, but is a few days later, and 
 grows more luxuriantly. 
 
 18. TrifoUunirejjens. — A fibrous-rooted perennial ; flowers throughout the summer 
 months and into autumn ; the flowers white ; the leaflets heart-shaped inversely, and 
 having a dark blotch near the base ; stem creeping on the ground, and rooting at the 
 knots. Grows naturally in pastures and almost everywhere else ; and in lawns is 
 sometimes too prevalent, as it eradicates the finer grasses. On pasture lands it is 
 indispensable, but is apt to scour the cattle in a wet time if too predominant • and, as on 
 lawns, it usurps the place of finer grasses. 
 
 19. Uh',r Eiiropceus. — The Whin or Furze has been in use for cattle and sheep, time 
 out of mind during the winter months. They are given in the green state, but bruised 
 either by hand or machinery, in order to divest the prickles of their sharp points. In 
 this state all herbivorous animals are fond of the whin ; and sheep do not hesitate to 
 feed on it whilst on the root, when the ground is covered with snow, but not else. 
 They, however, thrive and fatten upon it better than on grass. It is a valuable plant in 
 mountainous countries below the level of 900 feet ; but no farmer would sow it on 
 valuable land, for if it once gets hold of the soil, it is difficult to be rid of it. It is 
 also calculated for sandy soils, on which the culture of cereals and grasses is precarious. 
 From 20 lbs. to 24' lbs. per acre is the quantity of seed required, with or without a corn 
 crop. They should be mown annually and close as a winter food. 
 
 20. Vicia saliva. — ^AVe have already described this plant amongst the leguminous 
 plants at Section IX., p. 502. 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 THE SOUGHO, OR CHINESE SUG.A.R-CANE. 
 
 This plant {Holcus saccharalus), has received considerable attention in France, where it 
 is cultivated, in the southern departments, for the purpose of manufacturing sugar. In 
 the north it has also been introduced for forage ; and, as attempts have been made 
 to extend the cultivation in this country, it is desirable to put our readers on their guard 
 by stating what has been the experience of French farmers in adopting this plant in 
 their system of feeding cattle, 
 
 h L 2 
 
516 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 There is no doubt in the world that the Sorgho contains a large proportion of 
 saccharine matter ; ten per cent, being commonly extracted from its juice or sap. Nor 
 is it less certain that the pi'oducc of forage is very large, amounting to 40 tons per acre 
 in the five months of its growth. These two circumstances together, have offered a 
 strong inducement to the farmers to adopt it in their general husbandry. On the other 
 hand, charges have been laid against it on account of alleged pernicious qualities it has 
 been said to possess, amounting to a virulent poison, on which account it cannot be 
 safely given to cattle. The following extract from a letter of a Frencli noljleman, the 
 Marqiiis de Vibrane, gives a clear and intelligent statement of his own and neighbours' 
 experience in using the Sorgho as forage. It is proper to state that the jMarquis is 
 himself a member of the Imperial Zoological Society of Acclimatisation, and that in that 
 capacity he received a portion of the seeds of the Sorgho, on which to experiment, and 
 he gives in his letter the result. 
 
 " The Sorgho," he says, " is not a violent poison for cattle ; but, if the eflccts 
 observed, not only in my experiments, but also with many of my neighbours, arc 
 constantly renewed, we must necessarily attribute to this plant a deleterious influence. 
 On a farm which I occupy myself, twenty-five horned cattle liave been fed during one 
 month exclusively on Sorgho, and from the very day of the introduction of that plant in 
 feeding them, the journal of the farm shows a diminution in the produce of milk to tlie 
 extent of one half. The same average was produced during every month of the cattle 
 feeding on Sorgho. 
 
 " On the other hand, a case occurred of one cow fed on Sorgho, which was blown, 
 which caused her death. Any other forage might have caused a similar accident; but 
 what many of my neighbours have asserted is, the sterility of the cows fed on Sorgho ! 
 If these two facts — sterility on the one hand, and diminution of milk on the other to tlie 
 extent of one half — are regularly repeated in consequence of feeding on Sorgho, we must 
 conclude that this plant is pernicious, since it impedes or diminishes all kinds of 
 production, by injuring the secretions, which must necessarily provoke perturbation in 
 the animal organism ; all morbid causes having their origin in suppressions of this 
 nature. 
 
 " I know no possible amelioration of the soil without abundance of forage, and its 
 regularly successive production in the course of crops, on which account I deeply regret 
 being compelled to abandon the culture of the Sorgho. The desire of preserving for so 
 luxuriant a plant its place in the production of forage plants, and, on the other hand, 
 the fear of introducing into the bosom of our cultivation a dangerous auxiliary, ought to 
 be for us a double and powerful motive, prudently and conscientiously to renew the 
 experiments."* 
 
 Another writer in the same journal, however, gives an account of the culture of the 
 Sorgho for forage by a M. Niviere of Peyzieux, who, on a fai'm of sixteen hectares (about 
 39| acres), kept forty-five oxen or cows, two horses, and 100 sheep, after three years' 
 cultivation of land, so situated that he could purchase no manure, and in the first 
 instance had none to begin with. It had been let for twelve years to Metayers, too 
 poor and ignorant to cultivate it properly, and too far off to be overlooked by the 
 proprietor. He began by raising a crop of Jerusalem artichokes, with which he fed a few 
 bullocks. With the manure made by them, he prepared some land for Sorgho, and 
 
 * Journal d'JgnaiUnre Pratique, Jan. 5, 1859. 
 
ANALYSES OF GRASSES. 517 
 
 thus was enabled both to increase the produce of forage, and the means of further 
 increasing it, by keeping more stock. Lime and turf ashes -were the only dressing he 
 could otherwise procure ; and these, mixed with that produced by the cattle, enabled 
 him to keep the large number stated above. It was to the enormous fertility of the 
 Sorgho that he ascribes the success, the produce per hectare (2 acres, 1 rood, 35 poles), 
 being 120,000 kilometers, or 125 tons, or more than 50| tons per acre. It ought, 
 however, to be stated that only lean stock were kept, and that these were sold out at 
 the approach of summer, at which season only the working oxen were retained. The 
 proprietor always purchased the cattle in October, they being cheaper at that period 
 than at any other. For two months after the purchase they eat nothing but Sorgho, 
 which is passed through a chaff-cutter before it is given to them. 
 
 On these two statements, the writer remarks that the first says nothing about the 
 eft'ect of the Sorgho-feeding upon any other animals than milch and breeding cows ; and 
 the second confines his grazing to the preparation of stock for fattening afterwards. There 
 is, therefore, no information as to the value of the Sorgho in fattening ; and it requires a 
 series of experiments to learn the extent to which its injurious properties will afl'ect other 
 cattle than cows. We shall, therefore, now recommend the reader to go cautiously to work 
 in experimenting upon this plant, which ought not to be condemned on account of its 
 alleged injurious eff'ects. It is well-known in France that if milch cows are fed on the 
 refuse of the Siiesiau sugar-beet, ihey iviil soon go dry, and that calves suckled by eows 
 so fed will die. Yet oxen and pigs will fatten well upon it. The large proportion of 
 saccharine matter in the Sorgho ought to give it great fattening power ; and, whatever 
 may be the cause of the deleterious efiTect upon milch cattle, it is still to be proved that 
 it is equally injurious to others. "We believe there is no European forage plant equally 
 productive ; and should it, after all, prove innoxious to fattening cattle, it will be one 
 of the most valuable acquisitions to the farmer that was ever introduced into the 
 country, whether for consumption in the green state, or as hay, in both which capacities 
 all cattle appear to be foild of it. 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 ANALYSES OF GRASSES. 
 
 An inquiry was instituted by Professor Way, at the request of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society of England, to which he was chemist, to ascertain the comparative value of 
 some of the natural and artificial grasses by analyses.* In this undertaking he was 
 directed to establish — 
 
 1 . The proportion of water in each grass as taken from the field. 
 
 * It may be slated here that in the year 1824, Mr. Sinclair, the gardener to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn, was 
 directed by his Graee to institute a series of experiments in order to aseertaia by analyses the products and nutritive 
 properties of different grasses and other plants. Ninety-seven kinds of grass were thus examined, and the results were 
 published by him in the " Ilortus Graminius Wobui-nensis," and also in the appendix to Sir Humphry Davy's " Elements of 
 Agricultural Chemistry." The details of these experiments are too long for insertion here. 
 
518 
 
 AGEICULTUBE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 2. The proportion of allmniiiious or flesli-forming substances including, without 
 distinction, all nitrogenous principles. 
 
 3. The proportion of oily or fatty matters -which may be called fat-forming principles. 
 
 4. The proportion of elements of respiration or heat-producing principles, amongst 
 ■which are included starch, gum, sugar, pectic acid, &c., all the non-nitrogenous 
 substances, indeed, except fatty matters and Avoody fibre. 
 
 5. The proportion of woody fibre. 
 
 6. The amount of mineral matters, or ash. 
 
 The specimens were picked out, plant by plant, each specimen by itself, from the 
 fields in which they were growing naturally, or mixed in the ordinary mode of 
 cultivation, and were not raised expressly for analysis, The results of the investigations 
 were as follows : — 
 
 No. 1. — Anam-ses ot Natural Grasses as taken fkom the Field.* 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Sweet-scented Vci-ii;il . 
 Meadow Fox-tail . . 
 
 Tall Oat 
 
 Yellow Oat ... . 
 Downy Oat .... 
 
 Quaking 
 
 Upright Bronie . 
 
 Soft Brorae .... 
 
 Crested Dog's-tail . . 
 
 Orchiird 
 
 Hard Fescue .... 
 Meadow Soft .... 
 
 Barley 
 
 Perennial Rye . . . 
 Italian Rye .... 
 
 Timothy 
 
 Annual Sjiear . . . 
 
 June 
 
 Rough-stalked Meadow 
 Irrigated Jleadow . . 
 Do. second crop . . 
 Annual Rye .... 
 Orchard grass, seeds ripe 
 
 
 Albumi- 
 
 
 Ueat- 
 
 
 
 Water. 
 
 nous, or 
 
 tlesh- 
 
 fnrmiiig 
 
 Fatty 
 matters. 
 
 producing 
 
 principles : 
 
 Starch, 
 
 Gum, 
 
 Sugar, &c. 
 
 Woody 
 fibre. 
 
 Mineral 
 
 matters, or 
 
 Ash. 
 
 
 principles. 
 
 
 
 
 80-25 
 
 2-05 
 
 -07 
 
 8-54 
 
 7-15 
 
 1-24 
 
 80-20 
 
 2-44 
 
 -52 
 
 8-59 
 
 6-70 
 
 1-55 
 
 72-65 
 
 3-54 
 
 -87 
 
 11-21 
 
 9-51 
 
 2-80 
 
 00-44 
 
 2-90 
 
 1-04 
 
 18-60 
 
 10-21 
 
 2-72 
 
 01-54 
 
 3-07 
 
 -92 
 
 1910 
 
 13 34 
 
 2-04 
 
 51-85 
 
 2-93 
 
 1-45 
 
 27-00 
 
 1700 
 
 4-17 , 
 
 59-57 
 
 3-78 
 
 1-35 
 
 -33 
 
 19 00 
 
 2-11 
 
 7062 
 
 4-05 
 
 •47 
 
 904 
 
 8-40 
 
 1-30 
 
 02-78 
 
 4-13 
 
 1-32 
 
 19-64 
 
 9-80 
 
 2-38 
 
 70-00 
 
 4-00 
 
 •94 
 
 13-S9 
 
 10-11 
 
 1-59 
 
 69-33 
 
 3-70 
 
 102 
 
 12-40 
 
 1183 
 
 )-06 
 
 09-70 
 
 3-49 
 
 102 
 
 11-92 
 
 1 1 -94 
 
 1-98 
 
 58-85 
 
 4-59 
 
 •94 
 
 2005 
 
 1303 
 
 2-54 
 
 71-43 
 
 3-37 
 
 -91 
 
 12-08 
 
 10-00 
 
 2-15 
 
 75-01 
 
 2-45 
 
 •80 
 
 1411 
 
 4 82 
 
 2-21 
 
 57-21 
 
 4-80 
 
 1-50 
 
 22-85 
 
 11-32 
 
 2-26 
 
 79-14 
 
 2-47 
 
 •71 
 
 10-79 
 
 6-30 
 
 -59 
 
 07-14 
 
 3-41 
 
 •80 
 
 14-15 
 
 12-49 
 
 1-95 
 
 73-60 
 
 2-58 
 
 •97 
 
 10-51 
 
 10-11 
 
 2-20 
 
 87-58 
 
 3-22 
 
 •81 
 
 3-98 
 
 8-13 
 
 1-28 
 
 74-53 
 
 2-78 
 
 •52 
 
 11-17 
 
 S-76 
 
 2-24 
 
 69-00 
 
 2-90 
 
 •09 
 
 12-89 
 
 12-47 
 
 1-99 
 
 52-57 
 
 1093 
 
 •74 
 
 12-01 
 
 20-54 
 
 261 
 
 No. 2.— Analyses op Natural Grasses (100 parts or Grass dried at 312° Fahr.) 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Albumi- 
 nous, or 
 flesh- 
 forming 
 principles. 
 
 Fatty 
 matters. 
 
 Heat- 
 
 produciuL' 
 
 l>rinciples : 
 
 Starch, 
 
 Gum, 
 Sugar, &c. 
 
 Woody 
 fibre. 
 
 Mineral 
 
 matters, or 
 
 •Ash. 
 
 Sweet-scented Vernal 
 
 Meadow Fox-tail 
 
 Tall Oat 
 
 10-43 
 
 12-32 
 
 12-95 
 
 7-48 
 
 7-97 
 
 0-08 
 
 U-44 
 
 17-29 
 
 3-41 
 
 2-92 
 3-19 
 2-61 
 2-39 
 3-01 
 3-33 
 2-11 
 
 43-48 
 
 43-12 
 38-03 
 47-08 
 49-78 
 40-95 
 
 82 
 38-60 
 
 36-36 
 33-83 
 34-24 
 35-95 
 34 64 
 35-30 
 02 
 30-12 
 
 0-32 
 7-81 
 11-59 
 0-88 
 5-22 
 800 
 5-21 
 5-83 
 
 Yellow Oat 
 
 Downy Oat 
 
 OuakiuE • 
 
 Upright Bronie 
 
 
 * The four following tables w-ere taken from the annual report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board ol 
 Agriculture of the year 1854. 
 
ANALYSES OF GRASSES. 
 
 519 
 
 No. 2. — Analyskb of Natural Grasses (100 parts op Grass dried at 212° Fahe.) Continued. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Crested Dog's-tail . . . , 
 
 Orchard 
 
 Orchard grass, seeds ripe . . 
 
 Hard Fescue 
 
 Meadow Soft 
 
 Meadow Barley .... 
 Perennial Rye .... 
 
 Italian Rye 
 
 Timothy 
 
 .\nDual Spear 
 
 June 
 
 Rough-stalked Meadow . 
 Grass from irrigated meadow 
 Do., second crop ... 
 
 Albumi- 
 nous, or 
 flesh- 
 forminf^ 
 principles. 
 
 11-08 
 13-53 
 28-08 
 12-10 
 11-52 
 11-17 
 11-85 
 10-10 
 11 36 
 11-83 
 10-35 
 9-80 
 25-91 
 10-92 
 
 Fatty 
 matters. 
 
 Heat- 
 producing: 
 l^rinciples : 
 
 Starch, 
 
 Gum, 
 Sugar, &c. 
 
 3-51, 
 3-11 
 1-56 
 3-3-1 
 3-5G 
 2-30 
 317 
 3-27 
 3-55 
 3 43 
 2-63 
 3-07 
 6-53 
 2-06 
 
 32-64 
 44-32 
 26-53 
 40-43 
 39-25 
 46-68 
 42-24 
 57-82 
 53-35 
 51-70 
 4306 
 4017 
 8205 
 43-90 
 
 Wootly 
 fibre. 
 
 26-36 
 33-70 
 43-32 
 38-71 
 39-30 
 31-67 
 35-20 
 19-70 
 26-46 
 30-22 
 3802 
 88-03 
 25-14 
 34-30 
 
 Mineral 
 
 matters, or 
 
 Ash. 
 
 6-38 
 5-31 
 5-51 
 5-42 
 6-37 
 6-18 
 7-54 
 905 
 5-28 
 2-83 
 5-94 
 8-33 
 1037 
 8-62 
 
 DlFrEKENCES EXISTING IN TUE VALUABLE CONSTITUENTS OF GuASSES IN THIS TaBLE AS FOLLOWS ; — 
 
 
 Lowest. 
 
 Highest. 
 
 Average. 
 
 Flesh-forming principles 
 
 Fat-producing principles 
 
 Heat-giving p-finciples 
 
 6-08 
 .2-11 
 38-03 
 
 17-29 
 
 3-67 
 
 57-82 
 
 11-68 
 
 2-89 
 
 47-92 
 
 No. 3. — Analyses of Aktificial Grasses as taken from the Field. 
 
 Names of Plants. 
 
 Red clover 
 
 Perennial clover . . . 
 Crimson clover . . . 
 
 Cow grass 
 
 Cow grass, 2nd. speci^ien 
 
 Hop trefoil 
 
 White clover .... 
 Common vetch .... 
 
 Sainfoin 
 
 Lucerne, or Alfalfa , . 
 Black Medick, or Nonsuch 
 
 -Water. 
 
 81-01 
 8105 
 82-14 
 74-10 
 77-57 
 83-48 
 79-71 
 82-90 
 76-64 
 69-95 
 76-80 
 
 Albumi- 
 nous, or 
 flesh- 
 forming 
 principles. 
 
 4-27 
 3-64 
 2-96 
 6-30 
 4-22 
 3-39 
 3-80 
 4-04 
 4-32 
 3-83 
 5-70 
 
 Fatty 
 matters. 
 
 •69 
 ■78 
 ■67 
 -92 
 -07 
 1-77 
 -80 
 •52 
 •70 
 •82 
 •94 
 
 Heat. 
 
 producing 
 
 principles : 
 
 Starch, 
 
 Sugar, 
 
 Gum, Slc. 
 
 8-45 
 
 8-04 
 
 6 70 
 
 942 
 
 11-14 
 
 7-25 
 
 814 
 
 6-75 
 
 10-73 
 
 13-62 
 
 7-73 
 
 "Woody 
 fibre. 
 
 3-76 
 4-91 
 578 
 0-25 
 4-23 
 374 
 5-38 
 4-68 
 5-77 
 8-74 
 6-32 
 
 Jliiieral 
 
 matters, or 
 
 Ash. 
 
 1-82 
 1-58 
 1-75 
 301 
 1-77 
 1-37 
 208 
 1-11 
 1-84 
 304 
 2-51 
 
 No. 
 
 4.— Analyses of Artificial Grasses, dried at 212° Fahr. (100 Parts.) 
 
 Names of Plants. 
 
 Albumi- 
 nous, or 
 
 flesh- 
 forming 
 principles. 
 
 I-atly 
 matters. 
 
 Heat- 
 producing 
 principles : 
 Starch, 
 Sugar, 
 Gum, &c. 
 
 Wooily 
 
 filjie. 
 
 Slineral 
 
 matters, or 
 
 Ash. 
 
 Red clover 
 
 Perennial clover 
 
 Crimson clover 
 
 Cow grass 
 
 Cow grass, 2ud speciraea .... 
 
 Hop trefoil 
 
 -White clover 
 
 Common Vetch 
 
 22-55 
 19-18 
 1600 
 24-33 
 18-77 
 20-48 
 18-76 
 23-61 
 18-45 
 12-76 
 24-60 
 
 3-67 
 4-09 
 3-73 
 3-57 
 4-77 
 4-67 
 4^3S 
 306 
 3 01 
 2-76 
 4-06 
 
 44^77 
 
 43-42 
 
 37-50 
 
 36-36 
 
 49^65 
 
 43-86 
 
 4004 
 
 39-45 
 
 45-96 
 
 40-16 • 
 
 33-31 
 
 19-75 
 25-90 
 32-39 
 24-14 
 lS-84 
 22 66 
 26-53 
 27-38 
 24-71 
 34-21 
 27-19 
 
 9-56 
 8-35 
 9-78 
 
 1160 
 7-97 
 8 33 
 
 10-29 
 6-50 
 7-87 
 
 10-11 
 
 10-84 
 
 Lncerne, or Alfalfa 
 
 Black Medick, or Nonsuch . . . . 
 
520 AGRICULTURE, AXCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 DirfEEENCES EXISTING IN THE MOST VALUABLE CONSTITUENTS OF THE GllASSES IN THE PKEVIOUS TaDLE ; 
 
 
 Lowest. 
 
 Highest. 
 
 Average. 
 
 Plesh-forraing principles 
 
 Fat-fcrming principles 
 
 Heat-giving principles 
 
 12-70 
 
 2-76 
 
 33-31 
 
 24-fiO 
 
 4-77 
 
 49-65 
 
 18-68 
 
 3-76 
 
 41-48 
 
 The foregoing tables show tlie vast disparity tliat exists in the value of different 
 grasses, either in the green or the dry state. At the same time, it is a question 
 whether a mixture, even of the most inferior species, may not conduce to the health 
 and good condition of the animals which feed upon them. We know that this is the 
 cas.e with ourselves, and that with the most nourishing diet it is necessary to itse less 
 stimulating food in order to correct the humours of the system and keep it in health. 
 This, however, does not detract from the importance of the analyses or the value of 
 the tables to the agriculturist, who, in laying down either alternate or permanent 
 pasture, or in improving existing ones, may learn from them the most usci'ul species 
 to employ. They will even enable the large breeders and graziers to make a distinction 
 between pasture for store cattle and that for fattening. The former require flesb- 
 forming grasses combined with those which give heat; the latter require a larger 
 addition of the fat-forming grasses. The predominance of both these principles in 
 the artificial over the natural grasses,- is so marked, as to point them out as valuable 
 for both purposes. Take one species, cow-grass, for instance; this grass has of late 
 years been much sought after, its valuable properties having become known. The 
 large proportion of flesli-forming principles and fatty matters, combined with an equal 
 projiortion of heat-producing properties, accounts for the high price its seeds maintain 
 in the market, whilst its perennial character points it out as eminently calculated for 
 permanent pasture. 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 FORMATION OF PASTURES. 
 
 The following tables, taken from IMessrs. Lawson's " Agrostographia," show tlie 
 quantity and kinds of grass seeds required in the formation of different kinds of 
 pastm-es. 
 
 No. ].— 
 
 For Alteknate Husdandry. 
 
 
 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Liglit and medium soils. 
 
 Heavy Soils. 
 
 For 
 
 one year's 
 
 hay. 
 
 One year's 
 hay, and 
 
 one year's 
 pasture. 
 
 One year's 
 bay anil 
 
 tft-o years' 
 I'usUire. 
 
 For 
 
 one year's 
 
 hay. 
 
 One year's 
 hay, and 
 
 one years 
 picture. 
 
 One year's 
 hay, and 
 
 two yeai-a' 
 pasture. 
 
 Common Cock's-foot 
 
 Italian Rye 
 
 Comnion Rye 
 
 Trefoil, or Nonsueli 
 
 Timothy 
 
 Ibi. 
 
 9 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 S 
 2 
 
 lbs. 
 2 
 
 y 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 o 
 
 4 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 lbs. 
 2 
 
 9 
 15 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 4 
 . 4 
 4 
 
 lbs. 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 lbs. 
 
 2 
 9 
 
 15 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Ib5. 
 2 
 9 
 
 15 
 2 
 2 
 
 Alsike clover 
 
 Common red clover 
 
 Cow-grass 
 
 White, or Dutch clover .... 
 
 2 i 2 
 4 1 4 
 2 4 
 4 1 4 
 
 36 
 
 41 
 
 43 
 
 37 
 
 42 1 44 
 
FORMATION OP PASTURES. 
 
 521 
 
 lu sheep pastures it will be advisable to soav, iu addition, 1 lb. per acre of Petro- 
 seleum sativum (Common Parsley), and in upland districts from 2 lbs. to 3 lbs. per acre 
 of Plantago lanceolata (Common Plantain), and from 1 lb. to 2 lbs. of Medkago cupulina 
 (Trefoil). In proportion to the retcntivcness of the very heavy soils, as well as those 
 of a peaty nature, Phlcum pratense (Timothy) should also be increased at the rate of 
 1 lb. or Ij lb. per acre. 
 
 No. 2.— Fun, PiiRMANENT Pastuue. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Lisht Soils. 
 
 Medium Soils. 
 
 Heavy Soils. 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 Willi 
 
 Without 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Meadow Fox-lail 
 
 li 
 
 2 
 
 U 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 Cock's-foot 
 
 4 
 
 .5 
 
 5 
 
 C 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 Hard Fescue 
 
 o 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2A 
 
 3 
 
 Tall Meadow Fescue 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 3 
 
 Meadow Fescue 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2V. 
 
 31 
 
 2i 
 
 3J 
 
 Creeping Fescue 
 
 1 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 Italian Rye 
 
 n 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 7 
 
 8 
 
 Cornniou Rye 
 
 8 
 
 10 S 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 Timothy 
 
 1 
 
 u 
 
 3 
 U 
 
 1 h 
 
 2i 
 
 8 
 
 Wood Meadow 
 
 Smooth-stalked Meadow .... 
 
 I 
 
 H 
 
 1 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 Rough-stalked Meadow .... 
 
 — 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 Trefoil, or Nonsuch 
 
 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Red clover 
 
 1 
 
 1 ! 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Cow grass 
 
 n. 
 
 2i 
 
 24 
 
 2i 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 Dutch clover, or Suckling . . . 
 
 5 
 
 e 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 37i 
 
 45 
 
 41 
 
 52i 
 
 50 
 
 59 
 
 In certain cases, the following additions to the foregoing No. 2 and the succeeding 
 No. 3 tables may be made, viz., \ lb. to 1 lb. of Achillea millefoHum (Common ^lilfoil), 
 in dry sheep pastures-, 2 lbs. Cichorium intybus (Wild Chicory), in cattle pastures; 
 G lbs. to 10 lbs. Onobrychis saliva (Sainfoin), and from i lbs. to 6 ll)s. Poterium sangiii- 
 sorba (Common Burnet), on calcareous soils; 1 lb. to 2 lbs. Pclrosdinmn sativum 
 (Parsley), iu lands where sheep are subject to the rot. Where a crop of hay is taken the 
 first year, both the Rye grasses may be increased one-third, and 2 lbs. Trifolium jiratense 
 (Red Clover) added. Where occasional crops of hay are to be taken, \ lb. per acre of 
 Anthoxantimm odoratum (Sweet-scented Vcrual Grass) should be added to table No. 2. 
 
 No. 3. — For Peuma.vent Pastuue. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Light Soils. 
 
 Medium Soils. 
 
 Heavy 
 
 Soils. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Meadow Fox-tail 
 
 11 
 
 H 
 
 U 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2.1 
 
 Sweet-scented Vernal 
 
 0* 
 
 Oi 
 
 Oi 
 
 Oi 
 
 01- 
 
 Oi 
 
 Yellow Oat 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Cock's-foot 
 
 3i 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 Hard Fescue 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 n 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 Tall Meadow Fescue 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 2i 
 
 Various-leaved Fescue 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 — 
 
 Meadow Fescue 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3i 
 
 21 
 
 4 
 
 Cree|)ing Fescue 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 — 
 
 • — 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Italian Rye 
 
 G 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 Common rye 
 
 Carried forward .... 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 « 
 
 10 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 2fii 
 
 29 
 
 31 
 
 36J 
 
 33^ 
 
 36 
 
523 
 
 AGEICULTURE, AKCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 No. 3.— For Perma 
 
 NENT Pasture 
 
 (Continued.) 
 
 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Light Soils. 
 
 Medium Soils. 
 
 Heavy Soils. 
 
 Witli 
 a crop. 
 
 Witliout 
 a crop. 
 
 With 
 a crop. 
 
 Without 
 a crop. 
 
 Witli 
 a crop. 
 
 Without 
 a crop. 
 
 Brouglit forward . 
 Timothy 
 
 
 
 
 lbs. 
 26i 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 1 
 n 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 lbs. 
 
 29 
 2 
 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 Oi 
 
 1 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 25 
 
 4 
 
 lbs. 
 32 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 0^ 
 
 Oi 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 1 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 lbs. 
 36i 
 
 2i 
 
 J 
 
 Oi 
 Oi 
 1 
 2 
 
 n 
 
 5 
 
 lbs. 
 
 33i 
 2i 
 U 
 
 H 
 
 2i 
 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 3i 
 .5 
 
 lbs. 
 
 30 
 
 3 
 
 IJ 
 
 3 
 
 Oi 
 
 U 
 
 2i 
 li 
 34 
 G 
 
 Wood Meadow .... 
 
 
 
 Hudson's Bay Meadow 
 Smooth-stalked Meadow . 
 Rougli-stalked Meadow 
 Bird's-foot trefoil . . . 
 Greater Bird's-foot trefoil . 
 CommoTi trefoil . . . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cow grass 
 
 Dutch clover, or Suckling 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 41:1 
 
 45 
 
 49J 
 
 57J 
 
 554 
 
 60i 
 
 No. 4. — Foe Lands in 
 
 Preparation 
 
 TOE IeEIGATION. 
 
 
 
 Light Soils. 
 
 Medium Soils. 
 
 Heavy 
 
 Soils. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Fiorin 
 
 1| 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2A 
 
 24 
 
 23 
 
 Field Fox-tail 
 
 l| 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 2i 
 
 24 
 
 Slender Fescue 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 Meadow Fescne 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 Tall Meadow Fescue 
 
 U 
 
 li 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Italian Rye 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 7 
 
 9 
 
 Common Rye 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 
 ] 
 
 1 
 
 u 
 
 n 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Timothy, or Cat's-tail 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2' 
 
 Oi 
 
 2J 
 
 3 
 
 Floating Meadow 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 Water Meadow 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Rough-stalked Meadow .... 
 
 2 
 
 2* 
 
 2i 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3J 
 
 Greater Bird's-foot (trefoil) . . . 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 Alsike clover 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 m 
 
 39 
 
 40 
 
 41i 
 
 48 
 
 The expense of this mixture may be decreased by excluding the Fiehl Tox-tail and 
 half the Giant Eird's-foot grass ; but it is desirable to retain tlie latter, as it is the best 
 adapted of the clovers for witlistanding excess of moisture, and for attaining to full 
 maturity at a late period of the season, when general vegetation is less vigorous. 
 
 No. 5. — For Permanent Pasture and Hay, in Orchards and other Grounds much overshaded by Trees. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Sweet-scented Meadow 
 Common Cock's-foot . . 
 
 Hard Fescue 
 
 'J'all Meadow Fescue . . 
 
 Italian Rye 
 
 Common Rve .... 
 
 Wood MillJt 
 
 Timothy, or Cat's-tail . . 
 Wood Meadow .... 
 livcrgreen, or Hudson's Bay 
 Rough-stalked Meadow 
 Greater Bird's-foot trefoil , 
 
 Cow-grass 
 
 White, or Dutch clover 
 
 Light Soils. 
 
 .Medium Soils. 
 
 Heavy 
 
 Soils. 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 With 
 
 Without 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 a crop. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 lbs. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 1.', 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 H 
 
 H 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 2^ 
 
 2i 
 
 2i 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3i 
 
 31 
 
 3i 
 
 U 
 
 ^ 
 
 2 
 
 2i 
 
 2i 
 
 2.i 
 
 z 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 8 
 
 3 1 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 39 
 
 m 
 
 42.i 
 
 47i' 
 
 44f 
 
 48J 
 
FORMATION OF PASTURES. 
 
 523 
 
 Wlierc tlic appcaraufic of coarse-growing grasses is objectionable, the Common 
 Cock's-foot grass, Tall Meadow Fescue, and Timothy may either be lessened in 
 quantity or entirely excluded, and about two-thirds their weight of Hard Fescue gras^ 
 substituted for them. 
 
 No. G. — Foit Pasturage and Cover in thick shady 'Woods and Plantations. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Life'ht 
 Soils. 
 
 Medium 
 Soils. 
 
 Heavy 
 Soils. 
 
 Creeping Beat 
 
 Tufted Hair 
 
 lbs. 
 1 
 2 
 
 o 
 
 2.1 
 
 ? 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 lbs. 
 1 
 
 24 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 
 C' 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 o 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 2 
 3 
 
 lbs. 
 14 
 3" 
 5 
 
 7 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 2 
 ] 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 
 Pibi-ous-rooted Oat 
 
 Wood Fescue 
 
 Giant Brome 
 
 Common Cock's-foot 
 
 Tall Meadow Fescue 
 
 Soft Meadow 
 
 Great Bird's-foot 
 
 "Wood Millet 
 
 Timothy, oi- Colt's-foot 
 
 Wood iSIeadow 
 
 Evergreen, or Hudson's Bay Meadow . 
 Rough-stalked Meadow 
 
 304 
 
 334 
 
 37 
 
 Where covert for game is the chief object, the quantity of Tufted Hair grass, Oat 
 grass. Wood Fescue, Giant Brome, Tall Fescue, and Wood Millet should be increased 
 one-half, reducing those of the Bent, Wood Meadow, Evergreen, and Rough-stalked 
 Meadow in the same proportion. The Wood Millet grass is useful for supplying the 
 game with food with its seeds, as well as shelter. If a fine grassy verdure is wanted, 
 the six exceptional grasses should be increased instead of diminished. 
 
 No. 7.- 
 
 -For Heathy and Moory Lands which have been Improved with a View to their 
 PiiouuciNG Better Pastuhage. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Fibrous-rooted Oat .... 
 Common Cock's-foot . . . 
 
 Hard Fescue 
 
 Sheep's Fescue . . . , . 
 
 Soft Meadow 
 
 Italian Rye 
 
 Common Rye 
 
 Trefoil, or Nonsucli .... 
 Timothy, or Cat's-tail . . . 
 Dutch clover, or White sucklin; 
 ('ow grass 
 
 With a 
 crop. 
 
 lbs. 
 24 
 3 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 2 
 3 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 3fi4 
 
 VVilhout a 
 crop. 
 
 lbs. 
 3 
 4 
 
 n 
 1 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 44 
 
 Where the soil is of a moist and peaty nature the quantity of Timothy should be 
 increased, and from lib. to lilb. of Fiorin and Rough-stalked Meadow grass added_ 
 If of a dry nature and high altitude, an additional quantity of Hard Fescue and Sheep's 
 Fescue (2 lbs. each) will be found useful, especially for sheeps' pasture ; also a few 
 pounds of Common Plantain. 
 
524 
 
 AGRICLTLTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 j^o. 8. — For Marshy Grounds, and those Occasionally Overflowed dy Fresii-watee Tides. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Allus-ial 
 Soils. 
 
 Peaty 
 
 Soils. 
 
 Marsh Bent (Fiorin) 
 
 Tall Meadow Fescue 
 
 Darnel (Slender Fescue) 
 
 Greater Bird's-foot Trefoil 
 
 lbs. 
 3 
 4 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 3 
 
 9 
 
 3 
 4 
 
 lbs. 
 4 
 3 
 4 
 3 
 2 
 4 
 2 
 5 
 5 
 
 Timothy, or Cat's-tail 
 
 Floating Sw-eet Meadow 
 
 Rougli-StalkeJ Jleadow 
 
 S4 
 
 32 
 
 For banks of rivers subject to overflowings, but where the soil is of a dry, porous 
 nature, on an open gravelly subsoil, a mixture approximating to that in table No. 2 
 may be used, and the Canary grass, Water, and Floating Meadow grasses excluded. 
 These two last are useful in binding the soil on the banks. 
 
 No. 9. — Foe Wabeens, oe Light Sandy Soils. 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Yarrow, or INIilfoil . . . 
 Creeping Bent, or Twitch . 
 Fibrous-rooted Tall Oat . 
 Creeping Fescue .... 
 Creeping Soft .... 
 
 Italian Rye 
 
 Curamou Rye 
 
 Common Bird's-foot Trefoil 
 Yellow Trefoil (Nonsuch) . 
 
 Saiufoia 
 
 Smooth-stalked Meadow . 
 
 Burnet 
 
 Yellow Suckling . . . . 
 White, or Dutch clover 
 
 Weight, 
 
 lbs. 
 ] 
 2 
 4 
 4 
 2 
 
 C 
 
 s 
 1 
 
 4 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 2 
 3 
 
 47 
 
 To which may be added, in certain cases 2 lbs. of Whin and 1 lb. of Broom seed. 
 From 2 lbs. to 3 lbs. of Lucerne seed may also be used where the sand is of a cal- 
 careous nature, or mixed with fragments of sea shells. The mixture should be sown 
 with a bushel of barley or rye, for the purpose of sheltering the young plants from 
 droughts and winds, to which tliey will be exposed in such soils. 
 
SKEEP IN WI.NTEB, 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 THE TURNIP. 
 
 There is no certain record or tradition as to the time wlien tlie turnip was first 
 introduced into Britain, but it is well understood that it was long cultivated as a 
 horticultural plant before it was adopted in the field. It was known to the Romans 
 in the time of Columella, by whom it was mentioned as both a field and a garden plant ; 
 and he recommends the cultivation of it abundantly, because what was not eateu by 
 man, could be advantageously given to cattle; and both he and Pliny agree that, next to 
 corn, the turnip was the most useful and valuable product of the farm. It is, therefore, 
 probable that the Romans brought the turnip to Britain, where it could be cultivated as 
 a garden esculent. If such, however, was the case, the use of it was discontinued, as we 
 learn nothing about it in the middle ages. It again appears as a garden product about 
 the end of the sixteenth century ; but no mention of it in field culture is made before 
 the first quarter of the eighteenth century, when TuU speaks of it as cidtivated by 
 himself, and estimates that an acre " indifferently hoed," would maintain an ox for nine 
 months. He mentions a vicar's agent who told him that he made £1 an acre of the 
 tithe of a whole field of turnips taken in kind. 
 
 It cannot be ascertained in what precise year Tull's work was written j but it is 
 probable that it ivill correspond with the statement that the field culture of the turnip 
 
526 agricultuhe, ancient and modern. 
 
 was first brought over from the Low Countries by the Marquis Townshendj who, about 
 the year 1720, was British ambassador to the States-Geueral. A collateral proof of the 
 truth of this fact is, that the ]\Iarquis was a Norfolk man ; that that county has ever 
 been noted for the most successful cultivation of this plant ; and that the ISIarquis, as a 
 mark of distinction, was always called "Turnip Townshend." "We may, therefore, 
 without any serious error, fix the date of the field culture of the turnip at about the 
 period when the ilarquis returned from the Low Countries, where it had been in 
 practice for an unknown period. 
 
 There is, however, no question as to the beneficial effects of the introduction of the 
 turnip into British husbandry, and of the entire change it has effected in the 
 management of the laud. " No man," says Lord Karnes, in the " Gentleman Farmer," 
 " ever deserved better of his country, than he who first cultivated the turnip iu his 
 fields."* It is a plant that eni'iehes in every way, instead of impoverishing, the soil. It 
 derives its chief nourishment from the atmosphere and the moisture of the sub-soil, taking 
 but little from the upper soil. Analysis has proved that neither guano nor bone-manure 
 supply much of the elements of which the turnip is composed, although a very small 
 quantity of either of these manures produces a wonderful effect in stimulating its 
 groAvth. This arises from the faculty these manures possess of attracting to the soil the 
 carbon and nitrogen of the atmosphere. 
 
 On the other hand, the proper cultivation of the turnip, has, of itself, an ameliorating 
 effect upon the soil, independent of the quantity of manure raised by the consumption of 
 the crop. The fine tilth to which it is necessary to reduce the land, in the first instance, 
 in which to deposit the seed ; the frequent hoeing the plant requires to keep it clear of 
 weeds, and to open the soil to the influence of the air and light ; the depth to which the 
 roots penetrate, thereby loosening, to a certain extent, the subsoil ; — all these operations 
 form the best preparation of the land for the futm-e corn crops ; and this is so well known 
 in the turnip districts, that the loss of that crop is a serious calamity. " No turnips," they 
 say, "is equal to no barley, no clover, no wheat." In other ^vords, it causes a failure 
 of the whole course, unless extraordinary means are adopted to counteract the injurious 
 consequences. 
 
 The soil and climate of Great Britain, especially the northern parts, are both 
 admirably adapted to turnip culture. In Scotland particularly, it has from the first, 
 been an object of the farmer's most sedulous attention ; and some of the very best types 
 of the root have been raised in that part of the kingdom. The turnip husbaudry was 
 adopted by the Scottish farmers at an early period, and prosecuted even with more 
 vigour there than in England. Dr. Hunter in the " Georgical Essays," when expressing 
 his surprise that it was not more practised in England, states that he knew only one 
 farmer who had cultivated the turnip on an extended scale, and he was a Scotchman, 
 who grew 100 acres of them. It is true the land being to a great extent uninclosed and 
 consisting of " town lands," which were common after the grain crops were removed, 
 was against the cultivation of root, as well as artificial grass, crops. The Scotch farmers 
 adopted the Norfolk course of husbandry — namely, turnips, barley, clover, wheat — which 
 is still the favourite course of cropping with them. 
 
 The turnip belongs to the lirassica tribe of plants [Brassica rupu), a species of which 
 grows wild in Britain ; but all attempts to produce a bulb from it by cultivation have 
 
 * "Gentleman rarmer," p. 135. 
 
THE TURNIP. 527 
 
 hitherto failed, so that it is -norse than useless, being a troublesome weed. The 
 following is the chemical analysis of the Common White Loaf turnip, made by Professor 
 Dr. Lyon Playfair : — 
 
 Of 100 lbs. there was, water 90°, protein 1", carbonaceous matters 9°, from which 
 may be seen the small proportion of its substance derived from the earth, and how little 
 nourishment it contains. The Swedish turnip, or Rata baya, is of a more solid nature, 
 and contains a larger proportion of carbonaceous or saccharine matter than the 
 common turnip. The leaves of the Swedish turnip arc of a dark Ijluish green colour, 
 and the root, being more solid, grows more slowly, but stands the winter better than the 
 "White Loaf. The Swedes fatten animals fed upon them quicker, Ijut cows fed with them 
 give less milk. They are of a less laxative nature ; and it is considered that twenty tons 
 of Swedes are equal in nutritive power to twenty-five tons of the common turnip. It is 
 a remarkable fact, ascertained hy experiment, that land on which the common turnip 
 and the Swede have been sown in the same field and treated preciselj^ in the same 
 manner, produced a better crop of corn after the latter than after the former. The 
 Swede, however, requires better land or higher culture than the common turnip, although 
 both will pay best with the latter. The Swede was first introduced into Scotland about 
 the year 1777, from Sweden, and was first cultivated by a farmer of the name of Airth. 
 The following analysis of a crop of 20 tons or 45,000 lbs. is given by Stephens : — 
 
 lbs. 
 
 Woody fibre -900 
 
 Starch, Gum, Sugar 4'000 
 
 Gluten -670 
 
 Fat, or Oil -130 
 
 Saline matter '300 
 
 Water 39-000 
 
 45-000 
 
 The turnip requires a light friable soil and a mild humid climate ; the west of Scot- 
 laud and Ireland are therefore peculiarly suited to its cultivation. In the latter country 
 very large crops are grown, and the bulbs frequently attain a great size when they are 
 properly cultivated and hoed. Forty, fifty, and even sixty tons per acre are spoken oi- 
 by some of the best Irish farmers in the neighbourhood of Dublin, but the generality 
 hoe them in a very inefficient manner, and some we have known who never hoe them 
 or thin them at all, merely pulling out the charlock and other weeds that rise above the 
 turnips. A better system of husbandry begins to prevail in all parts of that country, 
 stimulated by the different agricultural institutions established by the government, and 
 especially by the Royal Dublin Society for the improvement of agriciilture. 
 
 The number of varieties of the turnip plant are endless, partly the rcsidt of new 
 stocks raised by individuals from single turnips of superior excellence, and partly from 
 the carelessness of seedsmen in not properly selecting the roots from v.'hich their seed 
 is raised, and also in purchasing seed from farmers who grow it from bulbs not 
 transplanted or selected. This latter is a very general practice, and caunot be too 
 severely condemned and punished, for it is a punishable offence. We have known an 
 instance in which, owing to the purchase of bad seed, the seller was glad to escape a 
 series of prosecutions by payments to the amount of more than a thousand pounds. 
 The injury, in fact, extends far beyond the mere loss of the turnip crop, and cau 
 
528 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 scarcely be estimated too high.* A large farmer will always do well to grow his own 
 seed from carefully selected bull)s, taking equal pains to prevent them from hybridizing 
 with other varieties, by keeping them distinct. 
 
 i\Iorton reckons six distinct species of the turnip, as follows : — 
 
 1. The Swedish turnip, with eleven varieties. 
 
 2. The Common Field, with ten „ 
 
 3. The Purple top Yellow, with three „ 
 
 4. The White turnip, with seven vjiluties. 
 
 5. The Green-top White, with six ,, 
 C. The Red-top White, with four „ 
 
 1st. The Common Purple-top Swede (Brassica campestris 7'uta baga) is considered to 
 be the original of nine out of the ten varieties of the Swedes, Laing's being the 
 exception. They arc as follows : — 
 
 1. The Common Purple-top. 
 
 2. The Ballantyue „ 
 
 3. The Skirving's. 
 
 4. The Improved Skirving's. 
 
 5. The Ashcrofl's. 
 
 6. The Fettercairn's. 
 
 7. The Icing's. 
 
 8. The Common Green-top. 
 y. The Cox's New Imperial. 
 
 10. The Victoria New Pink-top. 
 
 1 1 . The Green-top While. 
 
 2nd. The Common Field turnip has the following varieties : — 
 
 1. The Yellow Aberdeen Bullock. 
 
 2. The Hood's Large Green-top Yellow. 
 
 3. The Gordon's Grecntop Yellow. 
 
 4. The PoUcifen's „ 
 
 5. The Old Scotch Yellow. 
 
 G. The Gibb's Imperial Scotch Yellow. 
 
 7. The Lawrencekirk Yellow Tankard. 
 
 8. The Cambridgeshire „ 
 
 9. The Dale's Hybrid. 
 
 10. The Fosterton's Hybrid. 
 
 3rd. The varieties of the Purple-top Yellow are :- 
 
 1. The Common Purple-top Yellow. 
 
 2. The Border Imperial ,, 
 
 3. The Skirving's Imperial Purple-top. 
 
 4th. The "White Loaf turnip has the following varieties : — 
 
 1. The Common White Globe 
 
 2. The Pomeranian ,, 
 
 3. The White Stone 
 
 4. The SnowbaU 
 
 5. The Autumn, or Six Weeks. 
 
 6. The White Norfolk. 
 
 7. The White Tankard. 
 
 5th. The Green-top White turnip : — 
 
 1. The Green Globe, or Green-top White. 
 
 2. The Stent's Improved. 
 
 3. The Lewisham Green-top Ox-heart. 
 
 Gth. The Red-top White turnip varieties are :- 
 
 1. The Red Globe. 
 
 2. The Red Norfolk. 
 
 4. The Green Norfolk. 
 
 5. The Green Tankard. 
 C. The Lawton's Hybrid. 
 
 3. The Red Tankard. 
 
 4. The Wooltou's Hybrid. 
 
 The Swedish tui'uip has for many years been gaining ground over every other 
 
 * It is, however, a remarkable fact that, since the appearance of the potato diesase, the Swedish turnip has shown a 
 decided disposition to return to its original state of rape. This has been proved in numerous instances by persons who 
 have sown the purest seed in two fields; in one, nothing but rape was produced, whilst in the other the bulbs were as 
 good as those from which the seed was raised. 
 
THE TURNIP. 529 
 
 species throughout the United Kingdom, for late feeding especially. Of all the 
 varieties of the Swedish, Stephens considers the Pui'ple-top to be the best and most 
 profitable to cultivate. The upper part of the bulb is of a dull red colour ; the texture 
 is firm and solid. It stands the northern winter well, and loves a black or loamy soil, 
 on which it yields a large produce. Skirviug's Improved Purple-top has a fine root, 
 that takes but slight hold of the ground. It is of an oblong shape, has a longer neck, 
 stands more out of the ground, and does not keep so well when allo^ned to remain out 
 during the winter. It is a free-grow'cr, matures early, and keeps well in store. It 
 grows well on a shallow or hard clay soil, and it yields a better and heavier crop than 
 any other variety of the Swede. 
 
 The Yellow Aberdeen Bullock turnip is a well-known variety. It requires good 
 land, and must not be sowai too early. Laing's variety has a large leaf, like that of a 
 cabbage, and, by covering the soil, prevents the growth of weeds. It is thought to be 
 superior to all other varieties, not excepting Skirving's ; but being a late turnip, and 
 not a heavy producer, it has not gained ground in Scotland. Morton, however, 
 considers it worthy of attention, especially in the south of England, and in Ireland, 
 Avhcre the eai-ly winters are milder. It does not run to seed in the autumn, and is a 
 fortnight later in the spring before it pushes its new leaves and flowering stems. 
 
 Tlie Common Purple-top Yellow turnip has a deep yellow bulb below, and reddish 
 purple at the top, a globular shape, dark green leaves, streaked with i-ed veins. It 
 produces a bulky crop, and is adapted to an inferior soil, but is equal in quality to the 
 Green-top variety. 
 
 The Common AVhite Globe is an earlj"^ variety, well known. The colour is white, 
 skin smooth and uniform, neck and tap-root. It requires to be set out closer than 
 other kinds, because if set wide apart it grows large, and is apt to rot. It frequently 
 produces 40 tons per acre, and is at maturity in September or October, and is 
 therefore the first that is ready for feeding the cattle. Tiie White Norfolk turnip is 
 called by Morton " a large, coarse variety," producing a very heavy crop, but is apt 
 to rot, owing to the crown being hollow. The White Stone Globe is the hai-diest of 
 all the White Loaf varieties of tlie turnip. It has a small bulb, which grows deep in 
 the ground, is rounder in shape, and rougher in the skin than the Common White 
 Globe. It stands the winter better than any other of the common turnips. 
 
 The Green Globe is a large free-growing tm-nip, of a good shape and texture, a 
 small neck and tap-root. Yields a heavy crop. The Red Globe is an old variety, 
 cylindrical in shape, of a dull red colour, whitish towards the root. It is adapted to a 
 poor and peaty soil, but it grows to a large size on good land. The Red Tankard is 
 only fit for poor land, on which it produces a better crop than the other red varieties. 
 
 Stephens recommends that, in arranging for a turnip crop, so much only of the 
 White Loaf species should be sown or stored as will last the live stock till the end of 
 the year; the Yellow Globe should follow next for two months, say till the end 
 of February ; and lastly, the Swede should then finish the season, or until the grass 
 is sufficiently forward for the stock to be tm-ned into it. This is doubtless a good 
 arrangement so far as yozcng stock are concerned ; but for a flock of ewes, many of 
 which may be old and croned, the Yellow Globe and the Swede turnips would be 
 too hard for them to be able to feed upon, and the White Loaf is the only turnip 
 upon which they can possibly subsist. Even this is, in some cases, found too solid, 
 
 M M 
 
530 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 especially when iu a frozen state in the field. The White Globe is reckoned the best 
 for early maturity^ sweetness, juiciness, size of bulb, weight of crop, and fineness of 
 form. It has a thin and smooth skin, with an oily appearance, and perfectly Avhite. 
 The neck and tap-root are small. The quantity of nutritive matter in the same species 
 differs with the soil in which they are grown. Professor Johnstone found, upon analysis, 
 that in one thousand there were 42 lbs., namely, mucilage 7, sugar S^, albumen 1, or 
 rather more than four per cent. The same eminent chemist gives the following analysis 
 of turnips grown on three different soils : — 
 
 
 1-' 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 Water 
 
 Sugar 
 
 89-30 
 501 
 
 •u 
 
 •72 
 1-73 
 
 •19 
 1-63 
 
 -54 
 
 89-43 
 6-21 
 
 -10 
 
 •47 
 1-33 
 
 -22 
 1-75 
 
 -49 
 
 89-00 
 6-54 
 
 -36 
 
 •30 
 1-57 
 
 •18 
 1-39 
 
 •59 
 
 
 Pectic acid 
 
 Oil . 
 
 Cellular fibre 
 
 Saline matters 
 
 99-80 
 
 100-00 
 
 99-93 
 
 These analyses show a large proportion of saccharine matter, the kind being the 
 Purple-top Swede, which contains at least as much, if not more, of that material than 
 any other kind of turnip, or even root, except the sugar-beet. The quantity, however, 
 of saccharine varies in both turnips* and beet-root, according to the latitude iu which 
 they are grovrn, and invariably increases as they go farther north. 
 
 The following are the analyses of three kinds of turnips, by Dr. Voelcker, of the 
 College at Cirencester : — 
 
 
 White Globe. 
 
 Norfolk Bell. 
 
 Sw 
 
 ide. 
 
 Natural state. 
 
 Dry state. 
 
 Natural state. 
 
 Dry state. 
 
 Natural state. 
 
 Dry state. 
 
 Water 
 
 90-430 
 
 1143 
 
 7-799 
 
 -628 
 
 11-940 
 
 81-490 
 
 6-570 
 
 92-280 
 1-737 
 4-962 
 1-021 
 
 22-525 
 64-250 
 13-225 
 
 89-460 
 
 1-443 
 
 8-474 
 
 •623 
 
 13-662 
 
 80-248 
 5-910 
 
 Flesh-forming materials . . . 
 Fat-producing materials . 
 Inorganic substances .... 
 
 100-000 
 
 100-000 
 
 100 000 
 
 100-000 
 
 100-000 
 
 100-000 
 
 The specific materials of the same were as follows ; 
 
 
 White Globe. 
 
 Norfolk Bell. 
 
 Swede. 
 
 Natural state. 
 
 Dry state. 
 
 Natural state. 
 
 Dry state. 
 
 Natural state. 
 
 Dry state. 
 
 Water 
 
 Sugar, Gum, Pectic acid, &c. 
 Albumiuous substauces . . . 
 
 Vegetable fibre, &c 
 
 Inorganic substauces .... 
 
 90-430 
 
 4-697 
 
 1-143 
 
 3-102 
 
 -628 
 
 49-080 
 
 11-940 
 
 32-410 
 
 6-570 
 
 92-280 
 2-137 
 1-737 
 2-825 
 1-021 
 
 27-657 
 22-525 
 30-593 
 13-225 
 
 89-460 
 
 4-637 
 
 1-443 
 
 3837 
 
 •023 
 
 44-024 
 
 13-662 
 
 36-404 
 
 6-910 
 
 100-000 
 
 100-000 
 
 100-000 
 
 100-000 
 
 100^000 
 
 100-000 1 
 
 * The amount of nutritive matters vary with the soil : the White Loaf from 8 to 13 per cent., and the Ssvedes from 
 II J to 17 per cent., but the small roots almost invariably contain the largest proportion. 
 
THE TURNIP. 531 
 
 The inorganic substance^ or ash, was found to contain the following matters in one 
 hundred parts : — 
 
 Potash ' 36-78 
 
 Soda 696 
 
 Chloride of potassium . . . '59 
 
 Chloride of sodium .... 7'85 
 
 Magnesia 3'61 
 
 Lime 11-U 
 
 Phosphoric acid 9"7*t! 
 
 Sulphuric acid 1 2'43 
 
 Silica 3-43 
 
 Peroxide of iron 109 
 
 Carbonic acid 38 
 
 lOO'OO 
 The sjjecific gravity of various species is : — 
 
 The Orange Swede in December 1'005 
 
 „ ia Juue, after flowering . "940 
 
 The White Swede ]-022 
 
 The Yellow Bullock 1-940 
 
 The White Globe -840 
 
 It has been asserted of late years by agriculturists of standing and eminence, that 
 the turnip and other root crops are so far from being profitable to the farmer, that when 
 all expenses of cultivation and attendance upon the cattle are taken into the account, 
 the balance-sheet would show a heavy loss at the end of the season, witliout reckoning 
 the loss of animals by accident or disease, which is frequently also very heavy j and they 
 argue from this, that farming would be more profitable if they could dispense with root 
 crops and cattle grazing altogether, so far as the winter is concerned, the bullock shed 
 being, at best, only a manure manufactory, and the cattle the working machines in it. 
 
 This, however, is a very narrow view to take of the question ; because, if it is 
 admitted that the direct return for the expense of raising a turnip crop and consuming 
 it by bullocks is usually very small, and probably may sometimes exhibit a balance on 
 the wrong side of the page, those expenses ought in fairness to be spread over the whole 
 course of crops, which receive a double benefit, in the better condition and cleanness of 
 the land, and in the unexhausted manure in the soil after the turnips arc removed. If 
 we add to these the conversion of the straw into manure of a far superior quality to 
 what was formerly made by lean cattle, it needs no calculation whatever to pro;c that 
 the turnip husbandry is the basis of agricultural prosperity ; and we see the proofs of it 
 in the condition of the land, as well as of its cultivators, as compared with what it was 
 before the alternate culture and the turnip husbandry were introduced. 
 
 It is not always, however, that cattle winter grazing is improfitablc, or attended 
 Avith a loss ; and at the present, which seems likely to be the permanent, price of beef 
 and mutton, we miglit expect to find the reverse to be the case, and that independent of 
 the collateral advantages, there would be a direct profit upon the consumption of the 
 turnip or mangold crops. If we estimate the whole expense of raising them, in round 
 numbers, as averaging £9 per acre (which we belive to be not far from the truth), that 
 quantity of Swedes will fatten a bullock of from GO stone to 70 stone, that may be 
 purchased at any of the fairs at Michaelmas for .£11. When fat, it will fetch Ss. per 
 stone, or from ,€.2-l to £'2B, which certainly will entail no loss on grazing. We havCj 
 
 M M 3 
 
532 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 lio-\vever, given tlie extreme cost price of the lean animal, which may frequently be 
 purchased for .C12 or .€13; but the above estimate is sufficient to show that cattle 
 grazing is not necessarily or invariably a losing game. If corn or cake are employed^ 
 tlic fattening process will be hastened, with a corresponding decrease in the consumption 
 of the turnips, so that it will benefit rather than injure the account. 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 
 THE MANGOLD- W'UnZEL. 
 
 The botanical name of this plant is Bela vulgaris, and there are five varieties of it 
 cultivated in the United Kingdom, namely, the Orange Long, the Orange Globe, the 
 Long Red, tlie Globe Red, and the Silesian, or Sugar Beet. This latter is not at present 
 much grown in England, its valuable fattening properties not being so well known here 
 as they are in France. 
 
 It is the opinion of Professor Anderson that the mangold-wurzel is much more 
 nutritive than the turnip. On analysing a crop of 35 tons of this root, he found that it 
 contained at least three times the nutritive matter of an average crop of turnips. 
 Whether this refers to the common turnip or the Swede we are not able to state. 
 The superiority, however, must probably be ascribed to the greater amount of sugar 
 contained in the beet-root, there being but little difference in the proportions of water 
 and solid matters, as the following analyses by Professor Sullivan of Dublin will snow; — 
 
 Siccica 
 
 ■Water. 
 
 SoM 
 matters. 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Long Red mangold-wurzel . . . 
 
 Globe „ 
 
 Orange Globe „ 
 
 ■White Silesian beet 
 
 Swedish turnip 
 
 84-520 
 83-630 
 85-974 
 81-530 
 85060 
 
 15-480 
 16-370 
 14026 
 2S-470 
 14-940 
 
 962 
 10-70 
 
 9-00 
 12-60 
 
 753 
 
 It is proper to observe that the proportion of saccharine matter in the mangold-wui'zel 
 as well as in the Silesian beet varies very much, according to the soil, climate, and 
 cultivation. In 125 analyses of the sugar-beet made by Professor Sullivan, he found 
 it to range from 2'G99 to 14'551 jjcr cent., both crops having been highly manured for 
 with farm-yard dung. Climate has, perhaps, the most to do with the difference. It is 
 found in France that the beet-root cultivated in the south does not contain enough 
 saccharine to make it answer the purpose for manufacturing sugar ; but that the further 
 north it proceeds, the larger proportion the root contains. The specimens operated upon 
 by Professor Sullivan were grown in various parts of Ireland, the climate of which is 
 peculiarly favoui'ablc to the production of root crops of all kinds. It is difficult, 
 therefore, to account for the large difference in the amount of saccharine contained in 
 the two extreme cases referred to, except that the last was grown in the county Tyrone 
 and the other in Cavan — which lies more to the south, certainly, but not so much so aa 
 
THE MANGOLD-WURZEL. 
 
 533 
 
 to account for the great difference. The following are the analyses of different kinds of 
 beet, made by Professor Johnstone : — 
 
 
 Mangolds. 
 
 Silesian Beet. 
 
 Long 
 
 Short 
 Ked. 
 
 Orange 
 Globe. 
 
 Lone 
 Ked. 
 
 Short 
 Kcd. 
 
 Water 
 
 S5 18 
 007 
 9-79 
 039 
 009 
 308 
 
 81-68 
 0-50 
 
 11-96 
 026 
 0-18 
 S31 
 
 86-52 
 0-13 
 
 1024 
 0-33 
 003 
 2-45 
 
 85-13 
 
 0-67 
 9-79 
 0-39 
 09 
 3 08 
 
 SffiS 
 50 
 
 11-97 
 36 
 018 
 331 
 
 Susar 
 
 Casein 
 
 Albumen 
 
 Fibre, Pectin, and Pectic Acid . . 
 
 99-20 
 
 100-90 
 
 99-70 
 
 99-15 
 
 10100 
 
 
 Mnnfiolds. 
 
 Silesian Beet. 
 
 Natural 
 stale. 
 
 Di-y 
 St .ate. 
 
 Natural 
 state. 
 
 Dry 
 slate. 
 
 Klcsh-formiug principles .... 
 Heat-giving substances .... 
 
 Mineral constituents 
 
 Water 
 
 1-81 
 11-19 
 
 0-96 
 86-01 
 
 1.303 
 
 8004 
 
 6-93 
 
 2 83 
 14-38 
 
 1-18 
 81-61 
 
 15-50 
 
 78-07 
 0-43 
 
 
 10000 
 
 10000 
 
 10000 
 
 10000 
 
 The analyses of two species of mangold-wurzel, bulb and leaves, made by Professors 
 Way and Agston, are as follows : — 
 
 
 Yellow Globe. 
 
 Long 
 
 Bed. 
 
 Bulb. 
 
 ■ leaves. 
 
 Bulb. 
 
 Leaves. 
 
 Potash . 
 
 23-34 
 
 8-34 
 12-21 
 8 73 
 984 
 1-46 
 6-92 
 5-89 
 6-54 
 37-66 
 2 35 
 1-40 
 
 2903 
 
 1905 
 2 17 
 2-79 
 0-36 
 
 21-01 
 311 
 3-31 
 
 1418 
 4-11 
 100 
 
 27 53 
 383 
 906 
 910 
 0-48 
 
 c-ii 
 
 4-39 
 6-20 
 2J-S5 
 1-35 
 1-91 
 
 Soda 
 
 19-08 
 1-78 
 1-75 
 0-74 
 
 18-14 
 4-49 
 3-68 
 
 24-34 
 2-22 
 1-02 
 
 
 Magnesia 
 
 0.xide of iron 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 Chloride of sodium 
 
 Silica 
 
 Ash 
 
 99-96 
 
 99-93 
 
 99-94 
 
 99-96 
 
 It has been ascertained by analyses that small mangold-'ivurzels and beet-roots 
 contain a larger proportion of solid materials and sugar than larger ones. " The size of 
 the bulb," says Sir Robert Kane, " has a remarkable influence upon the amount of sugar 
 which the beet contains, or rather upon the relation between the solid matter left on 
 drying the root, and the water driven off. An examination of Table 1 shows in a very 
 remarkable manner, that the larger the root grown in the same field is, the smaller is 
 the quantity of solid matter which it contains. Thus No. 23 weighed 3 lbs. 9| oz., 
 and yielded 14-383 per cent, of solid matter, whilst No. 29, -which weighed but 15 oz., 
 yielded 19-337 per cent.* And as the per centage of sugar contained in the dried matter 
 
 • This refers to a table containing the 123 analyses just mentioned. See Report of Inquiry into the Composition and 
 Cultivation of the Beet-root iu Ireland, by Sir K. Kane. 
 
* 
 
 534 AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODEHN. 
 
 does not vary very mucli, being, except under very peculiar eircumstanccs^ a little nnder 
 or a little over two-tliirds of its weight, it will be found that the quantity of sflgar will 
 diraiuisli as the weight of the Indb increases ; No. 28, for instance, contains but 
 9'885 per cent, of sugar, and No. 29, 12132 per cent. Tfiisrule may be considered to 
 hold good for cdl roofs, no mailer wJiere grown ; although good cultivation, a suitable soil, 
 and proper manures, may enable one farmer to produce roots of a larger size containing 
 more solid matter, and therefore more sugar than much smaller ones grown by another 
 under less favourable circumstances. Thus all the roots which yielded a very low per 
 ccntage of sugar, weighed from five to nine or ten pounds, while those remarkable for the 
 quantity of sugar they contain, were always small roots, seldom exceeding 2 lbs. in 
 weight." The report then refers to a table containing analyses of Russian roots by 
 Hermann, two eminent chemists, the results of which were as follows : — 
 
 Weight (rf biilb. Per centfige of sugar. 
 
 Oz. 
 
 3 ]2-7 
 
 115 
 
 8 to 10 HI 
 
 9 to 13 11'9C 
 
 10 10-1 
 
 15 to i3 1213 
 
 21 1027 
 
 26 to 28 10-3 
 
 27 7-B6 
 
 33 to 50 6-7 
 
 This question of size, applied by Sir E. Kane to all roots, is a most important one to 
 the farmer. It has been the object with many persons to grow large bulbs, both of 
 turnips and mangolds, by giving them as much room as possible to develop themselves. 
 It is shown by experiment and analysis that, taking weight for weight, a crop of small 
 bulbs v{]\\ produce a much larger amount of nutritive matters than one of large bulbs, 
 which can be attained by planting the seed closer. This principle is so well understood 
 in France, where the Silesian beet-root is cultivated so largely for manufacturing sugar, 
 that the growers plant them at seven or eight inches distance from plant to plant, and 
 about fourteen inches from row to row, the bulbs seldom exceeding two and a half or 
 three pounds' weight, and many not more than one pound and a half. 
 
 The mangold-wurzel is well adapted for spring feeding, whether for sheep or cattle. 
 It has been found that the proportion of sugar goes on increasing until the flowering 
 stem begins to be formed, after which it decreases, being transferred from the bulb to 
 the seed. Early sowing is generally considered favourable to the crop ; but it is liable 
 to sufler if late frosts should take place after the plant has made its appearance above 
 the ground. For this reason it is less cultivated in Scotland than it is in England and 
 Ireland, the late spring and the early winter frosts being alike injurious to its early 
 stage of growth and when matured. The southern districts of England are well suited to 
 this plant ; and the growers are said to find it easier to raise 30 tons of mangold than 
 20 tons of turnips. The milk and butter from cows fed upon the mangold have no 
 disagreeable flavour, as from turnips. The mangold is also extensively cultivated in the 
 c-.stern counties, where, under the four-course husbandry, large crops of it are grown. 
 
 Altliough the mangold-wurzel has been known in England for a long series of years, it 
 has not been much cultivated as a field plant until within the last forty or fifty years. The 
 
THE MANGOLD-WURZEL. 535 
 
 late Dr. Lettsom knew its value, and used every effort to promote its field cultivation, but 
 did not succeed. Even so late as tlie year 1816, a writer in " Rees' Cyclopsedia," iu 
 speaking of it^ says, " This root is chiefly valued for its leaves, for wliich it is principally 
 cultivated in gardens as we cannot recommend it for its root, which, although it grows 
 large, is greatly inferior to the turnip;" and again, "The great objections to this 
 vegetable as a field plant, are the heavy expenses of its cultivation, its being liable to 
 degenerate, and the fibrous natui'e of its roots rendering their preparation as cattle-food 
 troublesome." Lord Karnes does not mention this plant in his " Gentleman Farmer," 
 nor does Darwin in " The Philosophy of Agriculture." Forsyth refers to it, but treats 
 it as a plant scarcely known as a field production in the United Kingdom, though 
 common in Germany. Marshall, in his " Rural Economy of Norfolk," says not a word 
 about it, and we conclude from this circumstance that in his time it was unknown, or 
 the Norfolk farmers would surely have cultivated it. 
 
 It is therefore only within about forty years that the mangold-wurzel has taken 
 its place iu British ngricultnre, and the progress that it has made in the estimation 
 of the farmers is tlie best evidence of its worth'. It is found to fatten cattle faster than 
 the common turnip, and even than the Swede, whilst its sweet juice renders it peculiarly 
 acceptable to milch cows, which produce abundance of milk when fed upon it. One 
 strong recommendation of its culture is its freedom from the attacks of insects, none 
 of the various tribes of which having yet been found to touch it. This is no mean 
 advantage over the turnip, when we compare the perfect immunity of the one with the 
 destructive ravages suffered by the other, and the great expense, as well as loss of crop, 
 that are so frequently occasioned by them. And as to the greater expense of its culture, 
 it does not amount to more than about 55. Qd. per acre, and consists chiefly in the extra 
 trouble of storing and preserving the roots. All descriptions of animals are fond of 
 both the bulb and the leaves, and the latter, if properly'preserved, form no inconsiderable 
 item in the value of the ci'op. 
 
 The Sugar Beet {Beta vulgaris cicla) has hitherto attracted little attention in England, 
 being considered by the farmei's as adapted rather to the manufacture of sugar than 
 to the feeding of cattle. It is evident, however, from the large proportion of saccharine 
 matter it contains, that it is equally useful in the latter application with the common 
 mangold, and that it will fatten faster than even tliat or the Swedish turnip. Some 
 specimens grown in Ireland were found, on analysis by Dr. Sullivan, to contain 19^ per 
 cent, of solid matter, and 13'240 per cent, of sugar, the Long Red mangold showing 
 only 15-480 of solid matter, and 962 of sugar. The. bulbs of the Sugar or Silesian 
 beet-root have hitherto been smaller than those of the mangold ; but being planted 
 much closer, the number grown on the acre is greater, and they possess higher 
 fattening pi-operties. It is possible, however, to raise as large a crop of the Silesian 
 beet as of the mangold by high culture. The result of inquiries by the Commissioners 
 in Ireland gave the produce at from 18 tons to 42 tons per acre; and in one case, that of 
 Lord Talbot de Malahide, it was from 48 tons to 52 tons per acre, the size of the roots 
 ranging from 3 lbs. 8j ozs. to 6 lbs. 2 ozs., the largest containing the smallest pi-oportion 
 of saccharine matter. We would strongly recommend the English farmers to try an 
 experiment how far it exceeds the common mangold in fattening properties. In 
 America it has been tested ; and Mr. Moore, the President of the State Agricultural 
 Society of Michigan, has ascertained that the Sugar Beet is by far the most profitable 
 
536 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 root for milcli cows, and another eminent farmer, who has cultivated it for many years, 
 declares it to be more nutritious than any other root except the carrot.* The seed 
 should be procured from Trance or Belgium, the growers in those countries being much 
 more particular in having the best quality of the different species, which are kept 
 perfectly distinct. Such attention has been paid to this plant on the continent for the 
 purpose of the sugar manufacturers, that one grower has succeeded in raising the 
 proportion of sugar in the bulb to 17 per cent., which is equal to that of the West 
 Indian sugar-cp.ne. 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 KOHL-R.VBI. 
 
 This remarkable plant, which is denominated by the botanists Brassica oleracea canlo- 
 rajja of Candolle, was originally brought from Lapland, but has for many years been 
 cultivated in Germany. It was not introduced into British agriculture till the year 1837, 
 but it was previously known by naturalists as a field plant ; for in a work now before 
 us (" Gleanings from Books on Agriculture and Gardening"), published in 1802, is a full 
 and accurate description of it, and the method of its culture. The writer mentions two 
 species of it, one of which he calls the Turnip cabbage ; this, he states, came from the 
 Cape of Good Hope, having " probably " been taken thither from China, where it is 
 extensively cultivated, and called by the natives Pack-so-a. The other, that which we 
 are about to describe, called the Turnip-rooted cabbage is, as we have stated, a native of 
 Lapland ; and while the first is used as an esculent for the table, both are valuable for 
 feeding cattle and other herbivorous animals. 
 
 The Kohl-Rabi, or Turnip-rooted cabbage was, as we have stated, first brought into 
 public notice as a field vegetable in 1837, when a Surrey farmer (Mr. Hewitt Davis) 
 commenced cultivating it on his farm ; and having discovei'cd its valuable qualities, has, 
 ■we believe, continued to grow it with increasing satisfaction and profit. It is considered 
 far superior to the Swedish turnip in many respects. Cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs are 
 fond of it, and the leaves are more valuable than those of the Swede. It transplants as 
 readily as any other cabbage. No insects will attack it. It stands severe drought 
 without injury or ceasing to grow; it bears stormy weather better than the Swede; it 
 stands the English winter better, and it affords feed later into the summer, even in 
 Junc.t The following analyses were taken of the Kohl-Rabi by Voelcker :-- 
 
 
 Water. 
 
 Afb. 
 
 Ash of Axy 
 Jilants. 
 
 Balljs 
 
 88-24 
 84-8'J 
 
 •93 
 2-80 
 
 809 
 lSo4 
 
 Leaves . . . . 
 
 
 " Yenr Book of American Agriculture for 1855-6," p. 336. 
 
 t Stephens' " Book of the Far.ii.' 
 
KOHL-RABI. 
 
 Tlic ashes contain the following proportions : — 
 
 537 
 
 
 Bulbs. 
 
 Leaves. 
 
 Silica 
 
 0-82 
 
 U-43 
 10-24 
 10-30 
 
 236 
 
 -38 
 
 36-27 
 
 284 
 
 11-90 
 
 9-57 
 9-43 
 
 10-63 
 8-97 
 
 30-31 
 3-62 
 5-50 
 9-32 
 
 R-99 
 6-66 
 
 Phosplioric aeij . " 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 Carbonic acid 
 
 
 Peroxide of irou 
 
 Potash 
 
 Soda 
 
 Chloride of potash 
 
 Chloride of sodium 
 
 10000 
 
 100-00 
 
 Stephens questions -n^hether it produces so large a crop of bulbs as the Swede ; but 
 the Surrey farmers appear to raise quite as large a bulk of tlienij and the size of the 
 bulb is from 8 lbs. to 10 ll)s. ; while, in Ireland, where it has been long cultivated as a 
 field crop, they obtain bulbs of from 10 lbs. to 14 lbs. weight, the soil and climate of that 
 country being peculiarly favourable to its growth. Two varieties are cultivated, the Green 
 and the Purple. The Green is considered the most productive, whilst the Purple 
 contahis more nutriment. It is considered to be a variety of the common cabbage, the 
 bulb being only an expansion of the upper part of the stem, probably accidental in the 
 first instance. The bulb itself is a pulpy substance, something like the Swedish turnip. 
 The Germans eat it in common, boiled like the cabbage or turnip ; but it is coarse and 
 harsh, and not at all to an Englishman's taste. Sheep are extravagantly fond of it, and 
 begin at the crown, eating first the inside, which they scoop out clean, and then devour 
 the rind. The bulb is of a globular form. 
 
 The soil best suited to the Kohl-Rabi is a light, sandy loam ; and it thrives well on 
 uplands and wolds. Although there is an idea that the climate of Scotland is too cold 
 for it, experiments have recently proved that it may be safely cultivated in that country. 
 Those who have grown it in England, consider it quite a hardy plant, and much more 
 readily come at in a deep snow than the turnip. The bidbs may be kept in a barn 
 or shed till the spring. If allowed to remain in the field, they will throw out abundance 
 of succulent sprouts in the spring, affording excellent food, when cut and allowed to 
 wither, for cows, sheep, and lambs. If given to them fresh, they are apt to scour them. 
 The Surrey farmers obtain three crops, namely, one planted for the fallow the beginning 
 of INIay or even the middle of April, and transplanted about the beginning of June ; 
 another, where the early potatoes are taken off, and a third on tlie wheat-stubble, after 
 harvest. By this means they obtain a regular succession of most valuable food in spring 
 and early summer. The butter from the milk of cows fed on this plant is as high- 
 coloured and free from any disagreeable flavour as grass butter. It is planted in rows 
 three feet distant, and the plants at two feet from each other in the rows. An instance 
 is recorded of 140 sheep being kept a month on one acre of the Kohl-Rabi. The weight 
 of crop is from 20 tons to 26 tons per acre, and the land should be prepared the same 
 as for turnips. The best way of cultivating them is by sowing on a seed-bed, and 
 transplanting them the same as the Drum-head and other cabbages. Half a pound of 
 seed thus sown on three square perches of ground, will raise plants enough for an acre. 
 If sown where they are to stand, they are apt to run too much to stalk. 
 
538 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION XVIII. 
 
 THE PARSNIP. 
 
 The parsnip {Pastinaca saliva) is indigenous in England, and grows wild on tlie 
 highways and hedges throughout tlic country. In its wild state its root is small, and 
 possesses a pungent disagreeal)le taste, which entirely disappears when cultivated, and 
 the whole plant undergoes a complete change. There are, in fact, three varieties, the 
 Field or Garden parsnip, the Wild parsnip, and the Cow parsnip {Heradeuni spondilitum) ; 
 but the first only is cultivated with us. Tlie last is termed Hog-weed, from pigs being 
 very fond of it, which is also the case with all other herbivorous animals. 
 
 The Field parsnip is a very valuable plant, possessing highly nutritive properties. 
 When given to cows they yield abundance of rich milk, the butter from which lias a 
 peculiarly fine colour and flavour. It is said that a lean ox will fatten in three months 
 when fed upon parsnips, with a little hay daily. The quantity a three-year-old ox will 
 eat is about 90 lbs. per day given at three meals. The following is Dr. Voelcker's 
 analysis of tlie parsnip : — 
 
 Water 
 
 Vegetable fibre 
 
 Inorganic matters attached to fibre . . 
 Insolnble albuminous niatlcrs . . . 
 
 Soluble casein 
 
 Nitrogen in the form of ammoniacal salts 
 
 Pectin and gum 
 
 Salts insoluble in alcohol 
 
 Sugar 
 
 Salts soluble in alcohol 
 
 Starch 
 
 Fattv oil 
 
 Natui'al state. 
 
 82-C50 . 
 
 8-022 . 
 
 ■203 . 
 
 ■550 . 
 
 •665 . 
 
 ■033 . 
 
 ■748 . 
 
 •455 . 
 
 2-882 . 
 
 ■339 . 
 
 3-507 . 
 
 •540 . 
 
 "Dry state 
 
 44-691 
 1^159 
 3 064 
 3-704 
 •184 
 4-166 
 2-535 
 
 16-055 
 3-888 
 
 19537 
 .S-041 
 
 100-005 100-024 
 
 The ash contains the following, as analysed by Dr. Richardson : — 
 
 Potash .... 
 
 Soda 
 
 Magnesia . . . 
 
 Lime 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 Sulphuric acid . . 
 Silicic acid . . . 
 Phosphate of iron . 
 Chloride of sodium 
 Charcoal aud loss , 
 
 3612 
 3-11 
 9-94 
 
 1143 
 
 18-CG 
 C-50 
 4-10 
 3-71 
 5-54 
 •89 
 
 100-00 
 
 The nutritive properties of the parsnip are as follows : — 
 
 Nitrogenised matters, capable of form- \ 
 
 ing flesh J 
 
 Substances not containing Nitrogen, 
 
 fitted for the support of respiration, 
 
 and the formation of flesh 
 
 Ashes 
 
 Water 8205 
 
 100-00 
 
 N-atural state. 
 
 Dry state. 
 
 7-30 . 
 
 7 25 
 
 9-65 . 
 
 87-18 
 
 1-00 . 
 
 5-57 
 
 8205 . 
 
 — 
 
 100-00 
 
THE PAKSNIP. 539 
 
 The parsnip differs from the carrot iu its composition in having more starch and less 
 sugar. The carrot also contains a larger proportion of water and less nutrition than the 
 parsnip. The yield of this root varies, according to the soil and culture, from 10 tons to 
 20 tons per acre. Le Coutcur says that in Jersey it ranges from 13 tons to 27 tons, the 
 soil being a rich sandy loam. He considers the latter quantity will support twelve 
 Jersey cows for six months, with a mixture of mangold and turnip. This allows each 
 cow about 28 lbs. of parsnips per day. The most important points iu the cultivation of 
 the parsnip are the comminution of the soil and deep tillage. These are indispensable 
 to its success. All stones must be picked off, as they materially interfere with the 
 perpendicular striking of the roots downward. Weeds, also, must be carefully removed 
 as fast as they appear. April is the proper time to sow them, which is best performed 
 by the drill, steeping the seed beforehand, in order to quicken the germination. About 
 10 lbs. of seed is sufficient for an acre. The drills should be eighteen inches asunder, 
 and the plants set out at ten inches in the rows. 
 
 The parsnip is subject to tlie attacks of several species of insects, as the Parsnip miner 
 [Tephritis onoperdonis). This tly is hatched in ]\Iay and June, and it feeds upon the 
 parenchyma (or pvdp) of the leaf, which it blisters, but does not materially injure the 
 root. The Depressaria paitinacel/a is a moth that produces a caterpillar about the time 
 the parsnip is in flower, whicli it attacks, and destroys the flowering stem cntii-ely. 
 
 It is generally supposed that the parsnip requires a strong, dry soil, but this is an error, 
 for, although it will thrive on such a soil if it be well tilled, the best land for it is a free, 
 open, loamy soil, with abundance of manure, and free from stagnant water. It will even 
 grow iu a sandy soil under certain conditions, and produce a good crop, if the land is 
 marled and well manured. It is a most valuable root, and deserves more attention from 
 the farmers than it has hitherto received, chiefly, we believe, because it involves rather 
 more trouble than the turnip or mangold. One good property it possesses is, that it 
 takes no injury if left on the ground all winter. If stored, it should be dug up when 
 the leaves begin to decay. These should be cut off three or four days before the roots 
 are laid up, which should be in sand in a dry place. 
 
 The leaves are dangerous to handle, especially in a morning when the dew is upon 
 them. They then raise blisters in the hands, full of scalding liquid, whi(?h continues 
 troublesome for many days. During the times of popery, the consumption of parsnips, 
 as an accompaniment of salt fish, on fast days, was very great ; but it was not then 
 cultivated as a field plant for feeding cattle, but only as an esculent for the table, 
 It is still used with salted pork and beef, as well as with salt fish. 
 
540 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND JMODERN. 
 
 SECTION XIX. 
 
 THE CARUOT. 
 
 Two kinds only of the carrot are cultivated in this country — the Common Orange carrot 
 (Daucus carota), and the White Belgian carrot, which is a variety of the same species. The 
 common carrot, which is also called the Altringham carrot, has been cultivated to a certain 
 extent as a field plant, in some districts of the kingdom, for many years ; but its culture 
 was not very extended in Arthur Young's time, for he speaks of it as being scarcely 
 known, except in the light sandy districts of his own county of Suffolk, where it had 
 been introduced from Holland or Belgium. It was, however, cultivated extensively in 
 Bedfordshire, in the neighbourhood of Sandy, and sold to the horse-keepers of the 
 neighbouring towns at the close of the last century. Since the crop of potatoes has been 
 rendered so precarious from the visitation and continuance of the disease, the carrot has 
 come much more into notice, and is now superseding that plant in many of the light- 
 land districts, where a good crop of turnips is not easily obtained. Arthur Young 
 strongly advises the fai-mcrs of such soils to substitute the carrot for the turnip as being 
 more valuable and useful. 
 
 All descriptions of herbivorous animals are very fond of carrots. Hoi'ses will thrive 
 npon them, and keep in health in the stable, and in working condition, with very little 
 corn. One bushel per day is the usual allowance for a working farm-horse, with oats. 
 The carrot is especially good for broken-winded horses. The tops have sometimes been 
 made into hay, by cutting them off with a scythe at the latter end of June ; and those 
 of a good crop have produced as much as four tons of hay. They should be cut above 
 the crown, and taken oflF the field to a pastui'e-gi'ound, to be made into liay. The 
 following is the analysis of carrots by Dr. AYay : — 
 
 Roots. Leaves, 
 
 Silica 119 . . . 4-oB 
 
 Phosphoric atiJ S'55 . . . 167 
 
 Salphuric acid G'55 . . . 020 
 
 Carbonic acia 17o0 . . . 17-83 
 
 Liuie 8 S3 . . . 33-C4 
 
 Magnesia 3-96 . . . 2-92 
 
 PeroxiJe of iron .... I'lO . . . 240 
 
 Polash 32-44 . . . 7-12 
 
 Soda 13-52 . . . 10-97 
 
 Chloride of Sodium . . . 6-50 . . . 13 67 
 
 99-94 99-97 
 
 Another by Ilerrastadt : — 
 
 Sugar and colouring matter 630 
 
 Manna ]-50 
 
 Gum 1-75 
 
 Oil 35 
 
 * Albumen '. . MO 
 
 Woody iibrc and starch 900 
 
 Ashes, water, and a heavy oil .... 8000 
 
 lOOOO 
 
THE CARROT. S-Ji 
 
 lu a crop of 25 tons, or 56^000 lbs., there are of — 
 
 Ha. 
 Husk and woody fibre 1'680 
 
 Starch, sagar, &c 5'600 
 
 Gluten, &c -840 
 
 Oil or fat -200 
 
 Saline matters '800 
 
 9-J20 
 
 Arthur Young sums up the e.Kcellent qualities of the carrot in the following 
 mauner : — 
 
 " 1st. A team of horses cannot, in any other way, be fed so profitably as on carrots. 
 Allowance, with chatf, 2 bushels per day per horse. If a bushel of oats per week is 
 allowed, then give only 1 bushel of carrots per day. An acre of -100 bushels lasts a horse 
 200 days, if fed on them without corn. 
 
 " 2nd. They are excellent for all kinds of stock ; pigs, swine, and weaned pigs they 
 fatten well. 
 
 " 3rd. No food is superior to them for fattening oxen. 
 
 " 4th. Nor for feeding young cattle and milch cows. 
 
 " 5th. They fatten sheep profitably." 
 
 The "White Belgian carrot has of late years been introduced into England, and is 
 found a more valuable root than the Altringham carrot. It is rather shorter, large at 
 the crown, and rapidly decreasing to a point. It is a more certain crop than the Yellow. 
 The root grows wholly underground, and so escapes the depredations of the game, which 
 are excessively fond of it, as well as of the Yellow. This latter is partly above ground, 
 and is thus easily eaten off by hares and rabbits. 
 
 In the spring of the year, when the Swedes and mangolds begin to lose their quality, 
 the carrot is particularly valuable before the grass comes in. It acts as an alterative 
 with much more and better effect than medicine, the use of which it supersedes ; and it 
 imparts that gloss to the coats of horses and other animals, which, when natural, is the 
 best outward indication of health. 
 
 The crop of carrots varies in amount, according to the condition of the land and 
 the season, from 250 to 900 bushels, of 70 lbs. each, per acre. They are best sown after 
 turnips, on account of the clearness of the land from weeds. They may be left in the 
 ground all winter without injury, but are generally taken up and stored on account of the 
 greater convenience in using them in frosty weather, when the ground is too hard to raise 
 them. The tops are cut off, and are equally as valuable for cattle and sheep, as t)ic roots. 
 They should be taken up in dry weather, and left in the field in small heaps, covered with 
 the tops, to weather before storing. Lord Karnes states, on the best authority, that at 
 Partington, in Yorkshire, twenty working horses, four bullocks, and six milch cows, were 
 supported on three acres of carrots, from the end of September to the 1st of May, tasting 
 no other food except a little hay ; and thirty hogs were fattened upon the refuse left by the 
 other animals. The same fact is mentioned in the seventh volume of " Communications 
 to the Board of Agriculture." Allowing 70 lbs. of carrots per day to the horses and 
 cattle, it would give a produce of nearly 65 tons per acre. This, however, Lord Kames 
 considers almost incredible, 20 tons being considered an excellent crop. The carrot is 
 chiefly used for feeding horses, and for this reason is most cultivated in districts from 
 which there is ready access to the metropolis and other large places, where they sell at 
 from 10^. to Is. 2d. per bushel of 70 lbs., at which price they yield a large profit. 
 
542- 
 
 AGllIOULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION XX. 
 
 THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 
 
 The botauical name of this root is Heliaiithus tuberosus, the French name being 
 Tojiinanibours . There is no soil in ^yhich this plant will not grow ; but it delights 
 most ill a loose sandy loam, where it can throw out its runners without obstruction. 
 Hitherto it has met with but little encouragement from the English farmer, although 
 in France it is much cultivated. The chief objection to it is the difficulty of extirpating 
 it after it has been once planted, the smallest piece of the tuber being sufficient for its 
 propagation. 
 
 The Jerusalem artichoke is said to be a native of South America ; but whether of 
 Chili or Peru is not known, nor has it been ascertained who first brought it to Europe, 
 although it is said to have been cultivated in Alsace about the same time that the potato 
 was introduced. Brogniart is of opinion that it came originally from the northern part 
 of Mexico. It derives its name of artichoke from the flavour of the tuber being like 
 that of the artichoke ; but why it is called the Jerusalem artichoke is entirely unknown. 
 It belongs to the same family of plants as the dahlia and the sunflower, but it seldom 
 flowers in our climate, and is always propagated bj' cuttings of the tuber. The roots 
 spread just below the surface of the soil, and the tubers are formed around the stem, of 
 very irregular shape and size, being in colour of a reddish yellow. In a diy soil its 
 rough outside protects it from frost, but if exposed on the surface of the ground it freezes. 
 It grows rapidly, which is ascribed to the robust organisation of the leaves and stalks, 
 whicli enables them to receive, retain, and quickly assimilate the humidity supplied by 
 the atmosphere. Tiie following is the chemical composition of the tubers as ascertained 
 by the analysis of M. Braconnet : — 
 
 Saccliarine matter 1480 
 
 lanline 300 
 
 Gum 1-22 
 
 Albumen 099 
 
 Fatty substances 009 
 
 Citrate of potash and lime 115 
 
 I'liosphate ot potash and lime . . . 0"20 
 
 Sulphate of potash 012 
 
 Chloride of potassium 008 
 
 Malates and tartrates of potash and lime 05 
 
 Woody fibre 1-22 
 
 Silica' 003 
 
 Water 7705 
 
 100 00 
 
 CourosiTiOK or alimentahy Vecltaule Substances 
 
 OF THE TUBEUS. 
 
 Water 7920 
 
 Phosphates and other salts . . . 1'40 
 
 AVoody fibre and cellulose .... 1'20 
 
 FaUy matters 030 
 
 Starch, sugar, or analogous matters . 1610 
 
 Albumen, legamin, casein .... 210 
 
 Azote 0"33 
 
 100'73 
 
 Its nutritive equivalent, deducted from the azote, is as 3 18 to ICO of hay. 
 
 Nutritive matters, non-azotised in excess, in the equivalent, 9. 
 
 From this statement it appears that there are 3^ times the nutriment of hay in the 
 Jerusalem artichoke. The proportion of 1 1|- per cent, of saccharine accounts for this, 
 and proves it to be superior in fattening properties to the Swedish turnip and the 
 maugold-wurzel. It contains, in fact, 79'2 per cent, water, and 208 of dry matter. 
 
THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE. 5-13 
 
 The ash, which values 6 per cent., is constituted as follows, accordiug to Boussiugault :— 
 
 Carbonic acid ll'O 
 
 Sulpliuric acid 3'2 
 
 Phosphoric acid 108 
 
 Chloride 1-6 
 
 Liiue 2-3 
 
 Magnesia 1'8 
 
 Potash 44-3 
 
 Soda, traces only — 
 
 Silica 13-0 
 
 Ojide of iron, aluminc, &c. . . 5'2 
 
 Carbou, moisture, aad loss ... 7 '6 
 
 lOOOO 
 
 The absence of salts of soda is very remarkable. lu temperate climates the Jerusalem 
 artichoke seldom produces a flower, aud never any seeds, which proves that it belou"-s 
 to the tropics, or, at least, to regions approaching thereto. Notwithstanding this, its 
 cultivation as a field product is profitable, and much more certain than that of potatoes. 
 It will grow in the lightest sand, in which the potato will scarcely succeed. It is 
 propagated by cuttings or small bulbs, each set having a bud. When well manured with 
 farm-yard manure, it will yield from 260 to 320 bushels per acre, or from 8 to 10 tons. 
 About 56 lbs. of tubers per acre are enough for planting, at the distance of twenty-seven 
 inches between the rows and uine inches from plant to plant, and about three or four 
 inches deep. The stalks are quite as acceptable to cattle as the roots ; and in France 
 they sometimes cut them twice, aud make them into hay. This, however, detracts from 
 the crop of tubers to the full value of the hay from the stalks ; and it can only be useful 
 to practise it in the oase of a failure of the regular hay crop. 
 
 The French call this root the " Pear of the Earth" [Poire-de-terre), in contradistinction 
 to the potato {Pomme-de-terre) ; and " the manna of poor soils," as it grows where no other 
 alimentary plant can be cultivated to advantage, requiring little manure. It is subject 
 to no attacks of noxious insects whilst growing, but rats and mice will devour it if they 
 are allowed to get to it when stored or left in the ground. It is chiefly \ised in feeding 
 and fattening pigs, but should be mixed with other food. Sheep, too, are fond of it, 
 and fatten fast upon it. A correspondent of the Journal d' Agricidture Pratique, 
 states that he purchased eighty sheep on the 3rd of jNIarch, put them upon half a hectare, 
 (1 acre, 37^ poles) of Jerusalem artichokes, aud sold them fat on the first of May. They 
 cost him 20 francs (16s. %d.) each, and he sold them at 28 francs each (23*. 4f/.), so 
 that they paid a gross sum of £26 13*. 4t?. for less than five roods of the tubers.* The 
 expenses amounted to £11 13*. 4rf. including tillage of every kind, attendance, 
 harvesting, &c., leaving a clear profit of £15 or £12 per acre. The same land was 
 cropped fifteen consecutive years with the same plant, and the average profit was fully 
 equal to that of the first year. No manure was put on the land ; and after the first 
 year it seeded itself with what was left in the ground. 
 
 The best and cheapest way to fatten pigs on this plant is, to turn them into the field 
 and let them raise the tubers with their snouts. This will save the expense of raising 
 and storing, and will be quite as effectual, if not more so, in clearing them out of the 
 ground, which appears to be the chief difficulty in the way of its cultivation. 
 
 * Journal d'' Agriculture Pratiiiue, April 5, lS58. 
 
544 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION XXI. 
 
 THE CABBAGE. 
 
 The Drumliead, or Cow cabbage {Brassica oleracea capitata clepressa) , is the one 
 chiefly cultivated as a fiehl [jlaut, although the Savoy and other sorts are sometimes used 
 for the same purpose. There is a difference of opinion as to the comparative fattening 
 qualities of the cabbage and the Swedish and other turnips ; but there is none as to tlie 
 superioi'ity of the former for milch cows, in producing an abundance of milk. If the 
 outer leaves are left on the cabbage, they are apt to give a taste to the milk, as they are 
 frequently partially decayed. These, however, if taken off, will be eaten by the young 
 cattle ; and if the heart only is given to the cows, the milk and butter will be as free 
 from any unpleasant flavour as if they were fed on grass. The Drumheaded cabbage, if 
 plenty of room is allowed, will grow to a large size, some having reached as much as 
 90 lbs. Some plant them 18 inches every way, but it is better to give them from 3 to 
 4 feet between the rows, and from 24 to 30 inches between the plants in the rows. By 
 this means they have full room to develop themselves, and attain a much greater 
 aggregate weight than wlien planted close. 
 
 The charge against the cabbage, that it does not fatten cattle so fast as the turnip, 
 does not appear to be consistent with the properties of the two plants. The cabbage is 
 more astringent than the turnip ; and we know that as an esculent for the table, it 
 possesses great nutritive power. It is a very productive plant, and more certain than 
 the turnip, not being liable to so many enemies in its early stages .of growth. Arthur 
 Yovmg, in his tour of si.\ months, made ample inquiries into the value of the crop of 
 cabbage, and found that the general average weight of produce on all soils, of the 
 Drumheaded variety was 36 tons per acre. Forsyth states that as much as C8 tons per 
 acre was obtained by Mr. Vagg, for which he received a premium from the Bath Society. 
 In giving them to fatting cattle and cows, great care is necessary in avoiding to give 
 any that are decayed, either outwardly or at the heart, as they certainly impart a 
 disagreeable flavour to both the meat in one case, and the milk in the other. 
 Dr. Priestley states that the air of a room was rendered noxious by one cabbage leaf 
 remaining in it for one night, though the leaf did not exhibit any appearance of decay. 
 
 Cabbages sometimes require to be twice transplanted, being apt to run too much to 
 stalk, if the land is rich and the weather moist. A friend of ours once saw some fine 
 cabbage plants lying withering on a bed in a garden, and asked the gardener if they 
 were useless. " Oh, no," he replied, " they are too rankarous, and we serve them so 
 to take the consate out of them." This is a good hint as to the treatment of such 
 plants in certain seasons, perhaps in all, as the plants are very apt to " run away." 
 The cabbage delights in a strong, free soil, well manured. With such conditions, the 
 crop will generally be very heavy and full-hearted. It stands the winter better than 
 the turnip, and comes in well for spring-feeding. The cabbage, however, will 
 accommodate itself to almost any soil, and even on a sandy gravel ; but on this the crop 
 will be proportionably lighter. The following are the analyses of the cabbage, taken by 
 Professor Johnstone ; from 80 to 92 per cent, of water, and from 7 to 20 per cent, of 
 
THE CABBAGE. 545 
 inorganic or mineral matter. The ash, according to Fromberg's analysis, consists of — 
 
 Potash 11-70 
 
 Soda 20-42 
 
 Lime 20-97 
 
 JIagnesia 5-94 . 
 
 Oiide of iron 0-60 
 
 Phosphoric acid .... 1 2-37 
 
 Sulphuric acid 21-48 
 
 Chloriae 5-77 
 
 Silica 0-75 
 
 100-00 
 
 Its nutritive composition is as follows : — 
 
 Nitrogenous or flesh-forming ingredients . 175 
 
 Non-nitrogenous, or heat-giving matters . 4-05 
 
 Mineral matters O'SO 
 
 Water 9340 
 
 100-00 
 
 A crop of 20 tons of cabbages takes from the soil the follo-\ving amount of mineral 
 matters : — 
 
 lbs. 
 Potash 105 
 
 Soda 184 
 
 Lime 189 
 
 Magnesia .... 54 
 
 Oxide of iron ... 5 
 
 Phosjihoric acid . . 112 
 
 Sulphuric acid . . . 192 
 
 Chlorine 52 
 
 Silica 7 
 
 900 
 
 Coleworts or Rapes {Brassica rapus) are cultivated extensively in fenny countries, 
 partly for the support of sheep in spring, and partly for the value of the seeds in tlie 
 manufacture of oil and cake, the latter for manure. As food for sheep, they are chiefly 
 of use for the ewes after lambing, producing an abundance of milk; but if the season is wet, 
 thejr are apt to scour the ewes, unless dry food is given with. them. Coles will grow on 
 almost any land ; and very poor soils have produced from 12 to 18 bushels of seed per 
 acre, whilst good laud will yield double that quantity in a favourable season. They 
 do not injure, but rather improve the land. The necessary hoeing cleans it in the first 
 instance, and being a " smothering crop," it eflectually prevents the weeds from growing 
 afterwards. 
 
 The cultivation of rape is very extensively carried on in the Netherlands, the soil 
 of which is peculiai'ly suited to it. It is used both for feeding cows, and for raising 
 the seed, of wliich they obtain large crops. It is generally first grown on a seed-plot 
 in April, and transplanted in Juue or July, allowing a square foot to each plant. It is 
 very liardj', and no frost will injure it. 
 
 N X 
 
546 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION XXII. 
 
 THE POTATO. 
 
 There is no material difference of opinion respecting either the country from whence the 
 potato was first brought into Europe, or the person who introduced it. It is a native 
 of South America, and was brought into the United Kingdom by Sir Walter Raleigh, 
 Avho cultivated it in his own garden in Ireland, or by some of the persons who 
 accompanied him in his expedition thither. Gerard has fallen into an error in stating that 
 it was a Virginian plant, and that he received it direct from that part of North America. 
 There is, however, some confusion in his account, as he describes two varieties, — the 
 Sesarum Pcruvianum, or the " Skirrets of Peru," and the Battata Viryiniana, or 
 Virginianorum Pappas (Virginian potato). Peter Cicca, on tlie other hand, in his 
 chronicle, printed in 1553, states that the inhabitants of Quito and its vicinity 
 cultivated a tuberous plant, which they called " Papas ; " and Clusius of Vienna 
 considered it to be the same plant of which he received a specimen from ilons in 
 Ilainault in 1593, aud which was cultivated and eatcu in Italy under tlie name of 
 Taratoufli; but it was not known there whether it came from Spain or America. Sir 
 Ilobert Southwell, in 1G93, declared, before tlie Royal Society, that his grandfather 
 brought it first into Ireland, having procured it from Sir AV alter Raleigh. Sir Joseph 
 Banks supposed that it was taken into Ireland so early as loSi by the colonists direct, 
 because licrriot, the chief of the expedition, sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, wrote an 
 account of it, under the name of Openawk. " These roots," he says, " are round, some as 
 large as a walnut, others much larger. Tliey grow in damp soils, many hanging together, 
 as if fixed on ropes. They are good for food, either boiled or roasted." Humboldt is of 
 opinion that in no part of North America, or in the AVest India Islands, is the potato 
 indigenous. 
 
 In the " Journal of the Society of Arts," vol. x. p. 25, it is stated by Lambert, on 
 the authority of Don Jose Pavon and Don Francesco Zea, that the potato (Solanum 
 tuberosum) grows wild in Chili, Peru, and the environs of Lima ; also in the forests of 
 Santa-fe-de-Bogota ; and a sjiecimen was sent to Lambert l)y Pavon, procured by him 
 in Peru. Huniljoldt confirms these accounts by stating tliat it grows wild in abundance, 
 in the fields of Chili, and is called by the natives Maglia. lie adds, " they do not 
 cultivate it, the tubers being small and bitter." Commerson also states that he gathered 
 the Solanum near Monte Video ; but his description of it does not correspond with that of 
 the S. tuberosum. He brought it to France, where it was called tlie S. Commersonia ; 
 but it is very little known, except to botanists. 
 
 The most conclusive authority on the subject is Alexander Colcleugh, Esq., who 
 resided for a long time at Rio Janeiro, as Secretary to the British Embassy. lie found 
 the wild Solanum tuberosum, growing in profusion in the ravines of the immediate 
 neighbourliood of Valparaiso, on the western side of South America, in lat. 34^° south. 
 Its tubers are small, and have a bitter taste, as described by Humboldt. Some of them 
 are red, and some white ; and Mr. Colcleugh was of opinion, that "it grows over a large 
 extent of the country ; for in the south of Chili it is fouud, and called by the natives 
 Macjliu, but it is not used by them for food." Two tubers of this plant were preseuted 
 
THE POTATO. 547 
 
 to the Royal Society, and being planted on a border they grew luxnriantly. Not 
 having thrown out tubers in August, they were then earthed up ; after which they 
 fornaed abundance of shoots. The stalks were seven feet long, and they produced 
 600 tubers of various sizes, from that of a pigeon's egg downwards, resembling in flavour 
 a new potato.* 
 
 We have gone thus far in the ancient history of this important plant, whose advent and 
 adoption has had so powerful an influence on society, especially in Ireland, where, what 
 would have been a most useful auxUiarn article of diet, has proved the cause of a large 
 portion of the numerous physical evils which afilict that country, through making it almost 
 the exclusive food of the peasantry. The consequence has been, that whenever a failure of 
 the crop of potatoes occurred, the rural districts were involved more or less in famine and 
 distress. The years 18 16, '47, and '48 brought a climax of miserj^, by the repeated failure, 
 during those years, of the potato crop ; and by famine, fevei', cholera, and emigration, 
 the population was in three years reduced to the extent of two millions. Notwithstanding 
 this, the class of cottier farmers still cling to its cultivation ; and the warnings they have 
 had (in the recurrence, almost annually, to a greater or lesser extent, of the disease) of 
 the danger they incur by continuing to make it the main source of tlicir support, have 
 no effect whatever. They cherish its history, and show with pride and triumph, the 
 garden in which it is said Sir AValter Raleigh first cultivated it ; and they cling to its 
 use as to the " staff' of life," which, in fact, it is constituted by them. 
 
 Indepciulcnt of the impolicy of trusting for support to one article of food, at once 
 of tlie lowest and most precarious kind, the moral consequences of such a course are 
 bad. In Ireland, the effect lias been to retard industry and civilisation, and to reduce 
 the peasantry to the lowest condition of human existence. Even Swift, with all his 
 predilections in favour of Ireland, was constrained to acknowledge the degraded state 
 iu which the rural population lived. " The families of the farmers," said he, " live in 
 filth and nastiness, upon buttermilk and potatoes." This was a hundred and fifty 
 years ago, and every writer on that country, from then up to the present time, confirms, 
 to a certain extent, the description; although in some districts, and in Ireland generally, 
 a great improvement has been going on the last ten or twelve years. But the frequent 
 recurrence of scarcity arising from the failure of tlic potato, reduces the peasantry to a 
 normal condition of poverty and beggary, utterly subversive of that independence of 
 character, which is the foundation of moral improvement. 
 
 Next to Ireland, Lancashire is, perhaps, the greatest stronghold of tlic potato 
 cultivation in the United Kingdom. It is remarkable that its introduction into that 
 country was accidental, a vessel containing a cargo of potatoes being cast away on its 
 coast ; it has ever since been noted for the abimdance and good quality of those grown 
 there. In other parts of England its progress was slow until tlie beginning of the 
 eighteenth century ; nor has it ever become a principal article of food in this country, 
 with any considerable portion of the people. Iu Scotland, prejudice was strong against 
 it until about the year 1728, although attempts had been made forty years previously 
 to bring it into favour. That it was at length adopted was owing to the persevering 
 efforts of a day-labourer, Thomas Prentice, who was the first person that planted it in 
 
 * A writer in Ihe "Le Nouvean Dictionnairc Classique d'llisloire Natural," states that the Solaiium liihrrosiim was 
 brought from Pern to the Province of Betangas, in Galicia, abont tlie year 15130, where it became acclimated, and was 
 called il Castana Mariiiit, or the Marine Chestnut. 
 
 N N 2 
 
548 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the oioen field at Kilsyth, in Stirlingshire. The success attending his attempts led the 
 farmers and cottiers to follow his example. They purchased their seed from him, by 
 which he was enabled to accumulate £200 ; with this sum he secured au annuity, and 
 lived in comparative comfort the remainder of his life. In both England and Scotland 
 the potato is eaten as a vegetable auxiliary to animal food, very few of .the peasantry 
 being compelled by poverty to live upon it, as is the case in Ireland. In this way it 
 forms a valuable addition to the daily meal, and an excellent succedaneum when the 
 high price and scarcity of wheaten bread pi'esses heavily upon the labouring classes.* 
 
 In France it was at a much later period that the potato obtained a national footing. 
 So early as 1588 L'Eclure, of Arras, published a description of it, and called the attention 
 of the French cultivators to it, as likely, at some future period, to prove " a great resource 
 to humanity." Gaspard Bauliin mentioned it in 1592, and was then the cause of its 
 introduction into Switzerland, Suabia, the environs of Lyons, the Vosgiau Moimtains, 
 and other parts ; but a violent clamoui' was raised against it from an absurd I'eport that 
 it caused the leprosy. In consequence of this charge it made no progi-ess in France for 
 upwards of a century. "It was disdained and repulsed by all imaginable means; and 
 after having been pursued with the cruelly powerful arm of ridicule, they finished by 
 accusing it of containing the most active of all the poisons furnished by the Solanmn 
 family. In the meanwhile, some rural proprietors attempted, in the year 1713, to 
 cultivate it on a large scale, but the eflbrt failed from some cause now unknown. Fifty 
 years after, it appeared in certain tabular accounts, in which it was confounded with the 
 Batata, of the Antilles, and the Tojnnambour, or Jerusalem Artichoke, of Brazil. The 
 peasants of the Apennines had long before this used it at table instead of bread, whilst 
 on the rest of the continent of Europe, it was still employed solely in fattening cattle. f 
 It was \iot till the year 1780, according to the same authority, that the cultivation of 
 the potato began to be extended in France. About that period an enterprising and 
 ■intelligent man of the name of Parmentier, being convinced that the prejudice existing 
 against that plant Avas wlioUj^ unfounded, determined to make an effort to bring it into 
 general cultivation. He had already, in 1773, began the attempt; and braving the 
 senseless opposition he met with, exploded the sophisms of his opponents, disregarding 
 the clamour raised by folly, calumny, and insolence, from all quarters. He made 
 plantations on an extended scale on the Plains of the Sablon and Grenoble, and obtained 
 a guard of soldiers to protect liim by day, whilst at night, the protection being 
 withdrawn, the tubers were stolen by the peasantry, who having learned to appreciate 
 their value, were desirous of cultivating them secretly. Notwithstanding this drawback, 
 the 28 hectares (abovit G9 acres), taken promiscuously on those vast sandy plains, then 
 uncultivated, and stimulated by no manure, " yielded, in the following autumn, thousarids 
 of sacks of valuable tubers, almost as substantial food as the purest wheaten bread. '^ 
 
 From this period the prejudices of the people began to subside ; and in the disastrous 
 season of 1785-6, when the wheat crop in France fell sliort by one-third of an average, 
 and forage was so scarce that thousands of cattle died of starvation and disease, the 
 
 • Tie fii-st lime Ihe putato was brought promiueutly before the British public as a national product was in the year 
 lfi62, when a letter from a Mr. liuckland was read before the lloyal Society, in which he recommended its general 
 cultivation thronghoul the United Kingdom, " to preveut famine." It was more than twenty years after this that it came 
 into use 08 a substitute for bread, when, a scarcity being apprehended, people began to eat it at their dinner-tables 
 instead of bread. 
 
 t " Nouveau Dictionnaire Classiqne d'Histoirc Natural." % Idem. 
 
THE POTATO. 
 
 549 
 
 potato, so far as it had been cultivated, was found a seasonable relief, and from that time 
 its cultivation spread rapidly tlirougliout France, tlie tuber bearing the name of its 
 promoter " Parmentier." " In the years 1795, 1806, and 1817," says the writer in the 
 " Dictionnaire," " it saved France from the horrors of famine, and now takes the position 
 it will for ever maintain, amongst the most healthful, palatable, and certain aliments 
 for both rich and poor. In the first of these periods scarcely 86,000 acres were appro- 
 priated to the cultivation of the potato in the whole kingdom of France. In 1815 it 
 occupied 863,825 acres ; and twenty years later the breadth of land rose to about 2,400,000 
 acres. It has the inappreciable advantage of producing, upon a given extent of land, 
 more nutritive matter than any other alimentary plant. On a half hectare, manured 
 with dry leaves, and planted with potatoes, we nourish twice the number of men as on 
 five hectares of wheat. The stalks reduced to ashes furnish abundance of potash, the 
 flowers yield a fine yellow dye, the starch taken from it is nourishing, and may be made 
 to enter into every confection for rich and poor. Mixed with wheat, we obtain from it 
 excellent bread ; and by fermentation and distillation it yields superior brandy." 
 
 In Austria, between 300,000 and 330,000 acres of land are appropriated to the 
 culture of potatoes for the express purpose of supplying the agricultural distilleries, of 
 which there are 16,000 in that country. These are worked to the utter demoralisation 
 of the rural population, who are tempted, by the offer of credit, to purchase the brandy, 
 by the landowners, who are also the proprietors of the distilleries. A more innocent and 
 useful application of the potato prevails also in Austria, in the manufacture of starch, 
 sugar, and vinegar. The sugar is made from the starch, and the process will be described 
 when we come to treat of agricultural manufactures at a future portion of the work. The 
 following is the composition of the potato, according to the analyses of Professor 
 Johnstone : — 
 
 
 'Itir \^'y^^^- 
 
 Water 
 
 75-52 
 15-72 
 0-55 
 3-30 
 1-41 
 024 
 3-26 
 
 64- 
 
 15- 
 9- 
 1- 
 
 11- 
 
 Dextrine 
 
 Albumen, Casein, Gluteu .... 
 Fat, or Oil 
 
 Fibre 
 
 10000 
 
 100- 
 
 The following are the analyses of the ashes of difi'ereut kinds of potatoes made by 
 Boussingault and Fromberg : — 
 
 
 Boussin- 
 gault. 
 
 From 
 
 berg. 
 
 Average. 
 
 Lanarkshire. 
 
 Drummore. 
 
 Potash 
 
 59-95 
 traces 
 2-09 
 6-28 
 0-59 
 1316 
 8-27 
 3-14 
 6-52 
 
 57-58 
 3-66 
 0-81 
 4-53 
 0-42 
 9-98 
 
 14-63 
 5-lR 
 3-68 
 
 4973 
 1-93 
 3-31 
 
 5-03 
 056 
 14-58 
 1804 
 4-51 
 2-49 
 
 55-75 
 1-8G 
 207 
 5-28 
 0-59 
 1257 
 13-65 
 4-27 
 423 
 
 Soda 
 
 Lime 
 
 Oxide of iron and alumina .... 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 Chlorine 
 
 Silica 
 
 1 
 
 100-00 
 
 100-45 
 
 100-18 
 
 100-27 
 
550 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Tlic potato is not only now cultivated in every counti-y of Europe and Asia, but to a 
 certain extent in America, and in all our colonies. The soil, however, of the United 
 States does not appear to suit it, nor will it produce a good quality of the tubers. The 
 experimeuts ou the State Farm of Massachusetts, in 1855, resulted as follows : — 
 
 Putaloes manured with bara-yard manure . . . SC.^ bushels per acre. 
 
 .. I, ,, superphosphate .... 84J „ „ 
 
 •1 1. ,, „ (another kind) 77i ,, „ 
 
 „ goaao 92i „ 
 
 The value of the manure in each case was twelve dollars {£2 10s.), the average produce 
 85 J bushels, which, reckoniug 70 lbs. to the bushel, gives 2 tons 13 cwt. 24 lbs. The 
 authority from which we quote says, " As to quality, some will be tough aud watery, 
 some dry and mealy ; some very pleasing to the taste, while others will not be palatable." 
 These are all raised from the same seed, aud show plainly enough that the plant cannot 
 have been a native of the northern continent of America. If the expenses of seed and 
 tillage are added to the value of the manure, the crop must sell high to realise a profit. 
 In fact, Russell states that potatoes, in some parts, are dearer by the bushel tlian wheat, 
 the ordinary price being one dollar (49. 2d.) per bushel of 70 lbs., or at the rate of 
 £6 13s. per ton. "When they are manured for very highly, the crop is much larger, 
 especially if guano is used at the rate of 400 lbs. or 500 lbs. per acre ; but the qiiality is 
 inferior in all cases to that of the European tubers. 
 
 In India, the potato was unk;iown until the British obtained a footing in the 
 country. It met the most violent opposition from the Brahmins as an innovation not 
 sanctioned by their creed. It is now considered one of the greatest boons conferred 
 upon the natives by their new rulers, and it is fast superseding rice in their estimation. 
 In the periods of famine, which so frequently occur in the history of that country caused 
 by the failure of the rice, from the want of rains, the potato has proved of great service 
 to the starving populations, who find it contains more solid nourishment than rice. 
 Bishop Heber was of opinion that one-fourth part of the bulk of rice eaten by the 
 natives, in potatoes, will satisfy hunger better, and be more nourishing. When we 
 consider that the relative proportions of starch in the two species of food is 70 per cent, 
 in rice, and about IG per cent, in potatoes, aud that starch, in itself, affords no nourish- 
 ment to support life, the bishop's opinion appears correct. The potato is now naturalised 
 in every part of British India, where the soil is favourable to it. The neighbourhood 
 of Patna, in which it was introduced in 1790, is particularly suited to its culture, and 
 that of all other European vegetables. The tubers are smaller than with us, but in 
 flavour and quality they are quite equal to ours. 
 
 In Ceylon, there is only one district at present known to be favourable to the 
 cultivation of the potato or any other European vegetable. This is the part round 
 the city of Candy, seventy miles from Columbo, the European capital and seat of 
 government. A basket of potatoes used to be sent over every morning expressly for the 
 governor's table.* Tlie luxuriance of tlie soil, and the tropical climate, are unfavourable 
 for the proper development of the tubers. Samuel Bate, Esq., one of the first 
 emigrants who settled in Van Diemen's Land, took out with him half a bushel of 
 potatoes, all of one kind. These he planted, and on taking up the crop, was surprised 
 
 * Ilebcr's "Journal." 
 
THE POTATO. 
 
 551 
 
 to find five distinct varieties, namely, the White Champiouj the E-ed Lancashire, the 
 Kidney, a small round new kind, and a variety called at home the " jMiller's Thumb.'' 
 They were all of excellent quality ; Init, a sample of each being sent into a tropical 
 climate by way of experiment, they were planted, and the product of all proved a 
 degenerate type of the original variety. 
 
 This tendency to sport, or change its quality and species, is one of the most 
 remarkable characteristics of the potato. Without any perceptible cause, such as 
 hybridising or otherwise, it is impossible for any cultivator of this plant, in raising it 
 from seed, to calculate, with any certainty, upon what kinds he may find amongst produce 
 from the same apple. M. Sargeret, a French growei", produced from the seed of the same 
 plant three hundred varieties, not one of which was similar to the parent plant, and 
 only three of the uumljcr were found to be worth preserving as stock. This inveterate 
 tendency to depart from the parent plant when raised from seed, is a conclusive 
 argument against that mode of procedure, except for the express piupose of procuring 
 fresh varieties. That it is no protection against the disease, was proved in 1850, when 
 some seed was procured from South America, the produce, of which was found to be 
 equally liable to that fatal blight as that raised from the old stocks of Em'ope. 
 
 There is nothing more perplexing to the naturalist than that the slight difference 
 existing in the composition of different plants should produce so wide a disparity in 
 their characteristics and usefulness to mankind. Take, for instance, tlio produce of the 
 wheat and potato plants, and we find iir them the following primary elements :* — 
 
 
 Carbon. 
 
 Hydrogen. 
 
 0:sj-gen. 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 Ashes. 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 461 
 44-0 
 
 5-S 
 5-8 
 
 43-4 
 44-7 
 
 2-3 
 1-5 
 
 2-4 
 4-0 
 
 With such apparently trifling differences in their component elements, we might 
 expect to find some analogy in the characters of the two plants, and yet nothing can be 
 more dissimilar. In the wheat the farina is found in the seed, whilst in the potato 
 it is lodged in the tubers proceeding from the root. Wheat, again, is a dry jilant, 
 containing a very small proportion of water. On the contrary, although tlie components 
 of water in the two are within 1'3 per cent, of each other, the dry material in the 
 potato is by far the smallest part, as the following table shows. 
 
 In one hundred parts of these substances, in their ordinary state of moisture, are 
 fiund : — 
 
 
 Wheat. Potatoes. 
 
 Dry material 
 
 Water 
 
 85-5 
 14-5 
 
 24-1 
 75-9 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 With regard to the actual amount of nourishment contained in a crop of potatoes, 
 however inferior it may be in point of quality to that of wheat, there is not a question 
 that it yields more than any other plant whatever ; and were it a more durable and less 
 
 * K.ine's " lailastrial Resources of Ireland." 
 
552 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 perishable procluction, it would stand very tigli amongst, if not at the head of, those 
 vegetables which constitute the basis of human sustenance. The experience of the last 
 fourteen years has taught us that no dependence can be placed upon the potato as a 
 crop, the repeated return of the disease, with more or less virulence, every year, 
 having dissipated all hope of any means being discovered of eftectually guarding 
 against it. 
 
 Independent of this, however abundant a crop of potatoes may be, they cainiot be 
 stored in their natural state so as to be preserved, like grain, beyond the season in 
 which they are harvested. Like the manna of the Israelites, whatever are kept over 
 the season of their growth, will decay; and they must therefore either be eaten by 
 man or the inferior animals, or converted into starch before, or soon after, the period of 
 reproduction comes round. This constitutes one of the most serious objections to 
 the substitution of the potato in lieu of cereal plants. The following tables will show 
 the compai'ativc quantity of human food yielded per acre by wheat and potatoes : — 
 
 
 As stored. 
 
 Dried. 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 11).!. 
 
 1,500 
 14,300 
 
 l.,s. 
 1,285 
 3,500 
 
 And these contain the following proportions of the most nutritive substances :- 
 
 
 Starch and 
 Sugar. 
 
 Glutsii. 
 
 Oil. 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 lbs. 
 
 825 
 2,01.3 
 
 lbs. 
 185 
 43-t 
 
 45 
 45 
 
 Thus, while the proportion of starch in wheat is 55 per cent., and of gluten 12 percent., 
 the potato contains of starch about 18 per cent., and of gluten not quite 3 per cent., 
 taking both productions as stored.* Notwithstanding this, such is the fecundity of the 
 potato, that the crop contains per acre three and a half times as much starch and sugar, 
 and two and one-third times as much gluten, as a crop of wheat — the quantity of oil 
 in each being equal per acre. 
 
 With respect to the nutritive power of the potato, as compared with other vegetable 
 food, and especially wheat, there is a considerable difference of opinion existing. Taking 
 weight for weight, the latter is unquestionably of the most intrinsic value, as is proved 
 by the large proportion of water in the potato, and also the enormous quantity an adult 
 individual labourer will consume at a mcal.t That the potato will, alone, sustain life in 
 full vigour, is proved by the Irish peasantry. The rural constabulary of that country 
 are all taken from amongst the cottier farmers, who subsist chiefly on potatoes and 
 
 * " The substance of the potato consists of a compact mass of cells or small bladders, held together by the fibrous 
 parts. These cells coutaiii the starch in its perfect state ; and in order to detach it from them, each of them must be 
 broken. Their very minute size (from 1 50 to 200 to the ioch) renders this a matter of difficulty to effect, so as to extract 
 all the starch. In fact, a portion of it always is left in the pulp, no process haviug yet beeu discovered that was 
 BulUciently delicate to touch all the cells. This is of the less consequence where the pulp is economised, as it is so much 
 the more valuable for feediug cattle iu proportion to the (juantity of starch it contains." — See Griffith and Heufrey'a 
 " Microscopical Dictionary," article Stakch. 
 
 t Seven pounds of potatoes is no uncommon allowance for a dinner, 
 
THE POTATO. 553 
 
 buttermilk; and many of tlicm^ whilst young at liome, do not taste animal food or 
 wheaten bread half a dozen times in the year ; yet a finer body of men are not to be 
 found in any country in I]urope. A corpulent man is seldom seen in Ireland ; but tall, 
 atlilctic, and well-formed men are far more common there than in England. We 
 question whether the average height of the Irish peasantry is not from one to two 
 inches more than that of the English. 
 
 The evilj then, accompanying the excessive, cultivation of the potato in Ireland, 
 arises from their making a precarious production the sole dependence for supporting 
 life. And when its perishable nature, which peremptorily forbids the forinaiion of a 
 reserve (however abundant the crop may be) against a future sc^'city, is added to the 
 danger of a failure, it will at once be seen that the potato was never intended to constitute 
 " the staff of life," as it has been in Ireland. " Its vast productiveness," says a French 
 writer and traveller, " has multiplied potatoes in Ireland so as to form the basis of the 
 subsistence of the entire country. Tliat is an evil ; for a social condition, where each 
 family, or nearly each individual, has his field, which furnishes his immediate nutriment, 
 without any necessity for marketing, without the assistance of the miller or the baker, 
 without occasion to demand assistance from his neighbours, that society is deficient in 
 the elements most necessary to the progress of civilisation."* 
 
 We have no statistics of the breadth of land employed in the growth of the potato in 
 England or Scotland ; but those of Ireland prove that, as soon as the alarm created bj' 
 the famine of 18 IG, '-iT, and '48 had subsided, the people returned to its cultivation with 
 as much eagerness as ever. The following are the particulars extracted from the annual 
 returns of agricultural produce for that country : — 
 
 NuMBEii OF AcKiiS Employed i.\ the Cultivation of Totatoes in Iueland fkoii the Year 185:5 to 1863 
 
 INCLUSIVE : — 
 
 Years. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 IncreasL'. 
 
 Decrease 
 
 1853 . , 
 
 , . 808,733 . , 
 
 — 
 
 , . — 
 
 1854 . . 
 
 . 989,660 . . 
 
 . 180,927 . . 
 
 — 
 
 1855 . 
 
 . . 982.301 . , 
 
 — 
 
 7,350 
 
 185G . , 
 
 , . 1,104,704 . . 
 
 . 122,404 . . 
 
 . . — 
 
 1857 . . 
 
 . 1,146,920 . . 
 
 . 42,210 . . 
 
 , . — 
 
 1858 . , 
 
 , . 1,159,706 . . 
 
 . 12,786 . . 
 
 — 
 
 1859 . . 
 
 , . 1,200,144 . . 
 
 . 41,438 . . 
 
 — 
 
 ISCO . . 
 
 . 1,171,837 . . 
 
 — . . 
 
 . 28,307 
 
 18G1 . . 
 
 . . 1,123,201 . . 
 
 — 
 
 . 48,630 
 
 18C2 . 
 
 . . 1,017,317 . . 
 
 — ' . . 
 
 . 105,881 
 
 The increase, therefore, in 1862 over 1853, is 208,584 acres; but it ought to be 
 stated that there is a corresponding increase in the cultivation of wheat, to the extent of 
 30,920 acres, as the following will show ; the decrease in both kinds of produce in the 
 last five years of the term is owing to the increase in the cultivation of green and root 
 crops by the large farmers, and their abandonment, and not that of the cottier farmers, 
 of the potato culture. The same cause has also added largely to the extent of cultivated 
 ground, coupled, as it has been, with the operations of the Board of Works, under the 
 Arterial Drainage Act, by which several hundred thousand acres have been reclaimed 
 from swamp and bog, or laid dry and rescued from periodical floods. The extent of these 
 latter in the Valley of the Shannon alone amounts to more than 30,000 acres, of which 
 
 * De Jonnes. 
 
554 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 a considerable portion is now under tlie plough^ ■whilst the rest is sound pasture. The 
 statistics of wheat culture are as follows : — - 
 
 Number of Acres employed in the Cultivation of Wheat in Ieeland ruoji the Yeah 1853 to 1803 
 
 
 
 INCLUSIVE. 
 
 
 years. 
 
 Acres. 
 
 Increase. 
 
 Decrease 
 
 1833 . 
 
 . 326,890 
 
 ... — . 
 
 . . — 
 
 1864 . 
 
 . 411,284 
 
 . . . 84,388 . 
 
 — 
 
 1855 . 
 
 . 445,775 
 
 . . . 34,491 . 
 
 . . — 
 
 185G . 
 
 . 529,030 
 
 . . . 83,255 . 
 
 . . — 
 
 1857 . 
 
 . 562,581 
 
 . . . 33,551 . 
 
 . . — 
 
 185S . 
 
 . 551,380 
 
 ... — . 
 
 . . 11,195 
 
 ISS'J . 
 
 . 465,497 
 
 ... — . 
 
 . 85,839 
 
 1860 . 
 
 . 409,042 
 
 . . . 4,145 . 
 
 . . — 
 
 1861 . 
 
 . 406,201 
 
 ... — . 
 
 . . 63.381 
 
 1802 . 
 
 . . 357,810 
 
 ... — . 
 
 . . 48,445 
 
 While the increase of the growth of potatoes indicates the uueonquerahle attachment 
 of the cottier farmers to the potato as a principal article of diet^ which no calamity, 
 however severe, is sufficient to shake, the advance in the culture of wheat is the result 
 of the decrease of small holdings, and the introduction of capitalists as the occupiers of 
 the land, who farm on a regular system of the rotation of crops. And besides this, 
 since the famine, the surplus of labour has disappeared, and the price of it has advanced 
 from 200 to 300 per cent., which has enabled the peasantry to consume more wheaten 
 bread, and less of the potato, this latter having in general become comparatively dearer 
 than cereal food, taking into account the greater nutritive power of the latter. The 
 price of labour is regulated by that of the most essential articles of subsistence; and 
 whatever may be the cost of other things, whether of luxury, convenience, or even the 
 necessity of the well-to-do classes, a low price of bi'cad, where that constitutes the chief 
 food of the masses, or of potatoes, rice, &c., in the countries where they respectively 
 form the staple articles of diet, is sure to be accompanied by cheapness of labour. In 
 India, where the labouring classes live wholly on rice, a sufficient quantity of which for 
 the daily support of a man can be purchased for a halfpenny, labour can be procured to 
 any extent for l^d. or 2d. per day per man; and in Ireland, in the year 1844, previous 
 to the appearance of the disease in the potato, that root might be purchased in the rural 
 districts at 2d. per stone of 16 lbs., and the price of labour there was 4d. per day.* 
 
 There is a considerable difference in the quantity of nutritive matter, and, conse- 
 quently, in the value of the various kinds of potatoes ; and those persons who either 
 cultivate or purchase them, without regard to quality in this respect, commit an error. 
 The following table shows the analyses of different varieties, taken l^y the celebrated 
 chemist, Payen : — 
 
 Variety. 
 
 Water. 
 
 starch. 
 
 FibriDcand 
 (jrluten. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 Large Yellow potato . . . 
 
 68-7 
 
 23-3 
 
 80 
 
 100 
 
 Scotch 
 
 69-8 
 
 220 
 
 82 
 
 100 
 
 Legouzac 
 
 71-2 
 
 20-5 
 
 8-3 
 
 100 
 
 Rohan 
 
 75-2 
 
 16 
 
 8-2 
 
 100 
 
 Siberian 
 
 77-8 
 
 140 
 
 8-2 
 
 100 
 
 Buvillars 
 
 783 
 
 130 
 
 81 
 
 100 
 
 Slow Island 
 
 79 4 
 
 12'3 
 
 83 
 
 100 
 
 * The writer knew one instance in which a himdred labonrers were hired to perform some work on a gentleman's 
 cslrite at 3Jrf. per day per man. 
 
THE POTATO. 555 
 
 In the abovCj it will be seen tliat there is a dift'erence of neai-ly eleven per cent, in 
 the proportion of water between the first and the last; and fully eleven per cent, in that 
 of starch ; whilst the gluten varied only three per cent. If, therefore^ the large yellow 
 potato is worth £4: per ton, the Slow Island is not worth more than £2 12s. 7d., the 
 eleven per cent, of starch in excess in the former, and the eleven per cent, of water in 
 excess in the latter, constituting the essential differences, the three per cent, of gluten 
 in the Slow Island variety above the yellow being accounted for in the calculation. 
 In the present day, when agricultural chemistry enables every farmer to ascertain these 
 difierences, it is of great importance for them to avail themselves of the means of 
 choosing the best kind for cultivation, the difference being well understood practically, 
 though probably not scientifically, by the dealers of Spitalfields and Covent Garden. 
 The varieties given are chiefly French productions, but the difference in those of England 
 are quite as great. The mode, in fact, of testing the quality, is in every one's power, 
 being a merely mechanical process. Let a given weight of potatoes be reduced to a pulp 
 by rasping very fine, macerate it further in water, afterwards allowing it to settle; 
 then pour off the water when clear, and, adding fresh, repeat the process of stirring it, 
 and so on several times ; then let the residue settle, and when the water is quite clear, 
 pour it off, and dry the matter at the bottom (which is starch), before the fire. The 
 weight must be accurately ascertained to a grain, and it will then be easy to calculate 
 the proportion in a larger quantity. 
 
 The above is no mere fanciful or theoretic speculation, but a really practical statement 
 of the difference in value of different varieties of the root. It is well understood that 
 whilst the gluten in farinaceous vegetables contributes to the support of muscle in the 
 animal ecouony, starch increases the quantity of fat and flesh.* The large quantity of 
 both these substances in wheaten flour and bread, is what makes it so valuable for food ; 
 but the predominance of gluten renders it too astringent to be eaten constantly without 
 other food. The potato, on the contrary, from the quantity of water contained in it, 
 is a light food, easy of digestiou, and may be eaten in any quantity consistent with 
 satiety, without any ill efteets. 
 
 The spirit obtained from potatoes is equal to that of grain, if not superior. The root 
 is used extensively on the Continent for that purpose ; and in France large quantities are 
 manufactured from it and sold for cognac brandy, at an enormous profit. Phillips, in his 
 history of cultivated vegetables, states that Dr. Anderson obtained b}' distillation from 
 one bushel (72 lbs.) of potatoes, properly fermented with yeast, an imperial English 
 gallon of pure spirit, considerably above proof, and a quart more below proof. It was the 
 finest and most agreeable vinous spirit the doctor ever tasted. The bushel of potatoes 
 at that time was worth Is. Qd., so that, reckoning five quarts of spirit, the cost of the 
 raw material was about ?)\d. per quart, which corresponds with the cost of the same 
 production in the Austrian distilleries. 
 
 When potatoes are at the price at which they could be purchased in Ii-eland before 
 the famine {£1 3s. 4c?. per ton), they may be profitably used in the manufacture of starch 
 and sugar. If we estimate the starch in the tubers at the mean of eighteen per cent., one ton 
 of them will contain rather more than 3i cwt. of starch, which commonly sells at from 
 
 * This, however, is only the case when starch is used ifl combination with other substances ; for starch alone is 
 incapable even of sustaining animal life ; and a man or any other animal fed upon it only, would die as quickly as of 
 inanition or a total want of food. 
 
556 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 £15 to jK20 per ton. At the mean price of £17 10s., it -will bring £S Os. 9d., being an 
 increase on the price of the raw material of £1 17s. 5d. The starch can then be 
 converted into sugar by the addition of a weals dilution of sulphuric acid, which, instead 
 of diminishing, adds to the weight, so that 1 cwt. of starch will produce an excess of 
 28 lbs. of sugar. The quality of this sugar is inferior to that from the cane or the 
 beet-root, being what is termed a factitious or chemical sugar. Its saccharine power, 
 compared with that of cane sugar, is oidy as 60 to 100. Of late years the potato has 
 been much too dear to be converted into either sugar or starch in the United Kingdom, 
 except when the disease is prevalent, and a large quantity is brought to market under 
 the apprehension that the tubers will not keep in store. During the famine in Ireland 
 a starch manufacturer in Dublin realised a fortune by purchasing the diseased potatoes 
 at very reduced prices (from 10*. to 15s. per ton), and manufacturing starch from them, 
 that of sugar being prohibited by the excise. 
 
 In Switzerland and other parts of the Continent, the potato, in its natural state, 
 was formerly converted into bread. For that purpose the tubers were carefully dried 
 and then ground in a corn-mill, and dressed in the same way as wheat meal, the flour 
 being made into bread in the common method. Potatoes are used extensively by the 
 London bakers, although the law prohibits it. On one occasion a west-end baker was 
 summoned before the magistrate for tliis practice, when he truly declared that he was 
 obliged to provide the best bread for the nobility, and he could not make it without 
 using potatoes with wheaten flour. There is not a doubt that a proper proportion of 
 potatoes will improve the quality of the bread, and impart a lightness and agreeable 
 flavour that wheaten flour alone does not give to it. 
 
 The potato has been subject to several epidemic diseases, which, from time to time 
 have attacked it with great violence. One of these, the curl, first appeared about a 
 hundred years ago, and created great alarm for some years by the ravages it committed. 
 It first appeared in Lancashire, but eventually spread over the whole kingdom, wherever 
 the plant was cultivated. The disease showed itself in a shrinking or curling of the top 
 leaves, just at the time when the tubers began to form, which operation was instantly 
 arrested, and the whole plant ceased to make any progress, and frequently died. Various 
 causes were assigned for its attacks. One, Haley, wrote a treatise on the potato, in 
 which he says : — " Some are of opinion that the disorder, the curl, arises from the potato 
 being cultivated too long from the tubers, without renewing them from the seed ; others, 
 that it arises from a worm or insect which impairs the root, or the top, or both ; others, 
 from their being planted too early or too late in the spring, or their being taken up too 
 soon or too late in the autumn, their being manured with improper manure," &e., &c. 
 
 Raley himself adhered to the first reason, and that the potato loses its vigour after 
 being planted from the same stock for ten years. Even Dr. Hunter, in the " Georgical 
 Essays," states his opinion that it will not retain its fruit in perfection more than fourteen 
 years. There may be truth in this supposition ; but it is not the whole truth, because 
 seed-potatoes have since proved as accessible to disease as those raised from cuttings. 
 The curl has lost its interest now, having died out, and given place to another called 
 " the dry rot," which attacked the sets as soon as they were planted, so that they never 
 germinated, but rotted in the ground. This disease also committed great ravages for 
 several seasons, no satisfactory reason being assigned for its appearance ; but, like the 
 curl, after a time, it appears to have spent itself, and left the potato free from further 
 
THE POTATO. 557 
 
 attacks, until in 1815 that fatal epidemic called by some the murrain, made its 
 appearance, and has continued with more or less virulence every year since, involving in 
 its effects the loss of millions in money, and an enormous sacrifice of human life. 
 
 The first appeararce of this epidemic was at Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, from whence 
 a paper drawn up by Dr. Salter was sent to, and inserted in the Gardener's Chronicle 
 of the IGth of August, 1815. In it he describes the disease, as it has since so frequently 
 appeared in every part of the country, and is therefore too well known to need a 
 description. The curl and the dry rot sink into insignificance in their consequences 
 compared with the murrain. The cause of its visitation has been the suljjeet of much 
 controversy amongst scientific men ; and its importance was considered by government 
 so great, that a commission was appointed to investigate its origin. At tlie head of this 
 committee was Mr. 11. (now Sir Robert) Kane, of Dublin, than whom no man was 
 better qualified for the task. He was assisted in the investigation by Professors Lindley 
 and Playfair, men equally eminent in the field of natural science with himself. But 
 after a most laborious research it became evident that the disease was as mj'sterious as the 
 two diseases that preceded it ; and, in fact, the Commissioners declined giving any 
 opinion as to its cause, except that it seemed to be connected with the cold, cloudy, 
 ungenial weather of the season which prevailed over the north of Europe. AVith this 
 idea, they hoped that a more genial season would prevent the disease in future, a hope 
 which has not in any measure been realised, for it has appeared, with more or less 
 virulence, every succeeding year. 
 
 Many scientific men, in their private capacity, attempted to discover the immediate 
 cause of the disease ; and the various opinions they have broached is a plain proof of its 
 inscrutable character. Some asserted that it was a fungus, others an insect, others that 
 it was wholly atmospheric, a fourth that electricity was the cause, &c. The Rev. Mr. 
 Berkeley was of opinion that it was a fungus, and describes one which he detected with 
 a microscope on the plant. But it is a question yet whether the fungus is the cause 
 or effect of the disease ; and the same may be said of the insects said to be found upon 
 the plants. It is well known that disease, either in plants or animals, will attract both 
 fungi and insects ; but Mr. Berkeley asserts that the particular species (the Botrytis, 
 we believe) that he found on the plants, do not fix themselves on decayed, but on healthy 
 plants, and cause the disease with which they appear to be connected. 
 
 The electric theory has received many confirmations from facts that have annually 
 occurred. With one of these the writer is acquainted from personal observation. 
 Adjoining some land which he occupied in Ireland in 181;7, was a field of early potatoes 
 which the owner was beginning to raise about the middle of July. The tops were 
 perfectly green and fresh, and the tubers sound; but on the 17th of July, a 
 violent thunder-storm took place, with much vivid lightning. The very next morning 
 the whole of the stalks of the potatoes were turned black, and the tubers began from 
 that time to decay, until there was scarcely a sound one in the field. Another instance 
 occurred in 1857, when a relative of the writer occupied the same land. He wrote as 
 follows : — " I have observed for the last six years, that the appearance of the disease has 
 been invariably preceded by a dense fog and a thunder-storm. In the present year, 
 such a fog, followed by a tempest, occurred on the 16th of July ; and I remarked to 
 N. that it would bring the potato disease. Accordingly, the next day, on examining the 
 potatoes, I found the tops of the stems turned black ; and a hot sunny day succeeding, 
 
558 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 at night they were become quite crisp, as if they had been burned From that time the 
 ■whole field rapidly declined, and in a few days the tubers exhibited all the usual symptoms 
 of the disease. On examining them, I found them (the tubers) covered ivlth cm aphis ; 
 but whether these had been one cause of the disease, or they had attacked the tubers 
 because they were so diseased, it is impossible to say, but I Ijelieve the latter to he the 
 true solution of their appearance." 
 
 Whilst, then, the disease may rationally be ascribed to electric action in some cases, 
 its epidemic character indicates some more general cause, predisposing the plant to 
 receive it by weakening the functions of vegetable life. This cause is, in all probabilit}', 
 atmospheric ; but, like that which Ijrought the cholera by a well-defined route from the 
 East, its nature and mode of operation have hitherto been, and will probably continue to 
 be, shrouded in mystery beyond the power of science or observation to unravel. The cause 
 evidently lies below or above the mere surface of ordinary atmospheric phenomena ; for 
 the season of 184G, and several since, in which the disease has prevailed, were the very 
 reverse of that of 1845 in respect to the weather. In proof of this, the season of 1857 
 was the warmest and most brilliant that had occurred for some years ; and the almost 
 total absence of the disease the three previous years, had given hopes that it had spent 
 itself, and was wholly disappearing ; yet, that very season, it broke out with almost as 
 much violence as ever. It is clear, therefore, that there must be some more occult cause 
 • to produce it, than any that has yet been assigned, but which iir all probability will 
 never be discovered. 
 
 The varieties of the potato are almost endless, depending, like many other of the 
 vegetable tribes, on soil, situation, climate, and other local circumstances. Those most 
 cultivated in the present day are — the York Regents, a white, small, round tuber of fine 
 quality ; the Ash-leaved Kidneys, straw coloured under the skin, and kidney-shaped ; the 
 Ash-leaved Round, white and round. These are all of the early species, to which may be 
 added the Common First Earlies, white and round, with small haulm. The late varieties 
 are — the Orkney Long Reds, a bright, red skin, large oblong tubers, deep set eyes, inferior 
 quality, but very prolific, fit for cattle feeding ; the Orkney Round Reds, buff-colour 
 tinged with red, tubers small, round shaped, smooth skinned, fine quality, but produce 
 pmall ; Cups, colour a dull pink tinged red, large size, oblong irregular shape, rough 
 skin of medium quality, yields well, haulm a deep green, which it retains late into the 
 autumn ; the Connaiight Cups, a didl pink colour tinged with red, large size, smooth 
 skin, oblong shape, haulm tall, upright, strong, dark green, till destroyed by frost, 
 superior to the Common Cups, a prolific bearer ; the Jersey or Wellington Blue, large 
 liver-coloured tuber, oblong flattened, with moderately deep eyes, good quality, very 
 white and mealy, haulm very tall, branching and wide stemmed, a deep green colour 
 lono- retained ; the Hen's Nest, a white, oblong tuber, with a deep depression at the 
 root end, medium quality, large tubers. 
 
 The varieties most commonly cultivated in the field are the York Regents, the 
 American Earlies, the Hen's Nest (so called from the tubers growing in a circle close 
 to the stem), the Orkney Reds, and the Cups. London is chiefly supplied with three 
 sorts of Regents, namely, the Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Scotch. TJie last turn black 
 after boiling, Avhich reduces their Value to the extent of .€1 per ton. TJiis is caused by 
 the soil in which they grow, which is of a dark, friable quality. When raised on the sound 
 lands of the Lotliians, the tubers arc equal to those of Yorkshire, and fetch as good a 
 
THE POTATO. 559 
 
 price wten sent to London in sacks, which prevents them from being mixed ^vith 
 others. 
 
 An inquiry was instituted by the Board of Agriculture in the year 1795, into the 
 cultivation and consumption of potatoes in Ireland. In the report given in by the 
 committee, it is stated that a man and his wife and four children consumed 336 lbs. of 
 potatoes weekly, or 8 lbs. each per day ; another family of the same number consumed 
 252 lbs. or G lbs. each daily; a third, 266 lbs. weekly, or 6^ lbs. daily each person; and 
 that four grown persons consumed 48 lbs. daily, or 12 lbs. each. The allowance in the 
 workhouses of Ireland was 16 lbs. per man daily. The present price of potatoes will not 
 admit of so liberal a scale of dietary, and better food is now provided at a cheaper rate. 
 
 With regard to the produce of a crop of potatoes. Sir Robert Kane, in his work on 
 the " Industrial Resources of Ireland," estimates it to average nine tons per acre ; and 
 De Jonnes states it to be from 43,000 lbs. to 52,000 lbs. per hectare, which, if we take 
 the mean of 47,000, gives about 8h tons. It is easy, therefore, to conceive the distress 
 that must ensue from the absolute destruction of the produce of at least 1,500,000 acres 
 of this root, amounting to an aggregate of 13,000,000 tons, the value of which, at only 
 £2 per ton, would be j£26,000,000 sterling, and that amongst the poorest peasantry in 
 Europe. The alimentary matter of nine tons Sir Robert Kane estimates at 4'076 lbs. 
 If, therefore, the crop of Ireland in 1816 occupied 1,500,000 acres, the loss in real 
 aliment amounted to 2,729,465 tons ; and those enormous losses were repeated for three 
 years. No wonder, therefore, at the loss of human life that resulted from that di'eadful 
 visitation of Providence. 
 
 The potato is preyed upon by a great number of enemies amongst the insect tribes. 
 The Aphis ra]](e, the Thrips miniitisshua, the Smynthurus solani, or plant-bugs, the 
 Lxjgers solani contaminatus bi-punctaiiis and Umbellatarum, pierce the leaves and imbibe 
 the sap. The frog-fly Ei/plerix solani and Picta, Altica exalcta, caterpillars of the 
 Sphinx atropos, Agrostis sigetum, and Exclamationis, or surface grubs. The crane-fly 
 larvae, Tipula oleracem, Paludosa and Macedosa, infest the roots. The wire-worms of 
 Agrostis lineaius, Obscurus and Spectator. Julus Londinensis terrestris j^alcherris, and 
 Polydismus comphmatus, Centipedes scolopendra, named Lithobiusfercipaius, and Grophilus 
 longicormis, &e. &c. 
 
PART VI.—BRITISH HUSBANDRY. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 BRITISH HUSBANDRY— ITS DEFINITION AND PROGRESS. 
 
 "Whilst agi-iciiltiire embraces the whole tlieoiy of cultivation, luisbandry implies the 
 practical application of the principles of that theory, or the employment of art, in order 
 to assist nature in the production of the fruits of the earth, whether they are intended 
 for the support of animal life generally, or for assisting in the reproduction, multiplication, 
 and improvement of the domestic animals required for the support of man. It is the 
 practice of husbandry that distinguishes the civilised from the savage state ; for by it 
 man is enabled leisurely, and with forecast, to provide for his future as well as his 
 present wants, instead of being dependent, like the beast of prey, upon the precarious 
 produce of the chase. Even iu the infancy of society, when comnnmities of men arc 
 few and separated widely from each other, and their Avants are limited to the absolute 
 necessaries of life, husbandry is still required to raise those necessaries. The first step, 
 thei'eforc, in civilisation, is the cultivation of the groimd ; and the first real business 
 in which man engages, ne.Kt to that of a wild hunter, is that of a husbandman. 
 
 The husbandman is essentially a manufacturer. The land is his workshop or factory, 
 the implements of husbandry his machinery, the seed and manure his raw material, 
 aud the crops he raises, or the animals he breeds and fattens, his finished goods. Of 
 late years, the term husbandman has been merged into that of a farmer or an agriculturist 
 so far as the occupier of the land is concerned ; and is now only applied to the mau 
 who labours iu the field. The term, however, implies much more than the mere 
 drudgery of cultivation, and, in our estimation, is one of the most honourable, as it is 
 certainly the most ancient, of titles, of which no one need be ashamed. Our great 
 progenitor, the patriarch Noah, did not disdain to assume it, almost from the moment 
 he emerged from the ark. Since that period the profession has always been accounted 
 honourable, and its practice worthy of the first consideration of great and learned men 
 in all ages of the world. If at any period or iu any country it has been deemed 
 otherwise, it is because the war principle has gained the ascendancy, and what is falsely 
 termed national glory (which is often but another term for national madness), has been 
 preferred to real greatness and prosperity. The present restricted application of the 
 term is also au error, as it embraces the practice of every department of rural economy, 
 and every individual employed iu them, whatever his particular work may be, the 
 employer himself being the chief husbandman. 
 
 It is only of late years that husbandry has attracted the attention of the educated 
 portion of the community, or, more properly speaking, of the aristocracy of England. 
 
BRITISH HUSBANDRY— ITS DEFINITION AND PROGRESS. 561 
 
 The ancient landowner was satisfied with being the master of his tenantry ; and, 
 generally, would have considered it derogatory to his dignity to know anything about 
 the cultivation of the land, or the breeding of cattle or sheep. His steward dictated the 
 terms of the lease or yearly occupation, as the case might be ; and having instructed 
 him to enforce them with rigour, the lord pursued his pleasures, and left the tenants to 
 prosecute their business, without further interference on his part. " Formerly," says 
 Lord Kames, " hunting was the only business of a country geutleman. The practice of 
 shedding blood made him rough and hard-hearted : he led the life of a dog or a savage, 
 violently active in the field, supinely indolent at home. His train of ideas was confined 
 to dogs, horses, hares, and foxes ; not a rational idea entered the train, not a spark of 
 patriotism, nothing done for the public, his dependants enslaved and not fed, no husbandry, 
 no embellishment ; loathsome weeds around his dwelling, disorder and dirt within ! 
 Consider the present mode of living. How delightful the change from the hunter to 
 the farmer, from the destroyer of animals to the feeder of men ! Our gentlemen who 
 live in the country have become active and industrious. They embellish their fields, 
 improve their lands, and give bread to thousands. Every new day promotes health and 
 spirits, and every new day brings variety of enjoyment. They are happy at home, and 
 they wish happiness to all."* 
 
 Such was the change that had taken place in the habits of the landed gentry towards 
 the close of the last century, since which they have acquired a still deeper interest in 
 rural afi:'airs, and everything relating to the cultivation of their estates, and the 
 advancement of husbandry. Could Lord Kames rise from the tomb and attend the 
 meetings of our agricultural societies, he would rejoice with astonishment at the 
 wonderful improvement since his time ; by which, not only has the country been 
 " embellished and beautified," but the produce of the soil has been doubled, and the land 
 brought into the highest state of cultivation. 
 
 In the practice of husbandry, we are compelled, by our limited knowledge of natural 
 philosophy, to be conteut with watching the effects of our operations, having but little 
 opportunity of learning the secrets of nature as to the precise mode in which those 
 effects are produced. Thus, we till the soil as a necessary preliminary to depositing the 
 seed ; but we cannot explain the connection between that operation and the growth of 
 the plant, although observation and experience prove that the connection does exist. 
 Again, we apply manure to the land because experience shows that it encourages still 
 more the growth of plants, and increases the produce. But we are quite in the dark as 
 to whether it acts simply as a stimulant, an attrahent, or a pabulum, or in all three 
 capacities, which is the most probable thing ; and we are equally ignorant as to the 
 precise mode in which the plant itself receives and assimilates nourishment, whether in a 
 dilute liquid, an aerated, or a highly pulverulent form, or in all three modes, which 
 again, is very possible. However desirable it would be to attain to such knowledge, it 
 is not absolutely necessary; for if by observation and experiment we ascertain that 
 certain causes produce certain eff"ects, we may rest satisfied with the attainments which 
 the light of science has bestowed upon us, leaving the more occult and hidden secrets 
 and agencies, which are probably beyond the reach of our philosophy, to be speculated 
 upon by theorists. 
 
 The union of science with agriculture has raised the character of the latter, without 
 
 * " The Gealleinaii Farmer," p. 20, preface. 
 O O 
 
5G2 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 derogating from the dignity of the former. It has transformed husbandry from a merely 
 imitative art, in \yhich little or no improvement had ever been tolerated or even possible, 
 to an intellectual and progressive one, in which the spirit of inquiry and of experimental 
 and practical investigation has succeeded to blind and unreasoning routine. Still the 
 nature of husbandry is not changed, however it may be improved and modified ; and the 
 transformation it has undergone is in the man, not in the thing, the changes that have 
 taken place being merely the development of the eternal principles on which nature acts 
 in the j)roduction of the fruits of the earth. 
 
 The increased attention paid to British husbandry of late years has arisen from 
 several causes. First, our insular situation, ■which would otherwise render us dependent 
 at certain seasons on other countries for food; secondly, the limited extent of land with 
 a numerous population, which imparts to the land a greater value ; thirdly, the inferior 
 quality of the soil which renders necessary greater efforts to make it productive. We 
 have seen that it was not until the end of the last century that these causes began to 
 operate, because the previous extent of the population and its stationary character 
 did not require it. But its rapid increase which accompanied the growth of our 
 manufactures, and especially the consequences of the protracted war, iu which the 
 country was involved, which raised the price of every kind of provisions, while it 
 prevented us from obtaining supplies from abroad, directed the public attention to the 
 state of the land, and the means of rendering it more productive. Many obstacles still 
 present themselves to prevent the improvement being carried still further, such as absurd 
 and injurious covenants, yearly tenancies, the game laws, the want of a tenant right, and 
 above all, the law of entail. While these evils e.xist, it is plain that the state of the land 
 of England, as between the owner and the occupier, is far from what it ought to be to 
 enable the latter with safety to improve it to the extent he would otherwise do. 
 
 Notwithstanding these drawbacks, an immense increase of capital has been invested 
 in the cultivation of the land, and men of intelligence and science have embarked in it. 
 Some of these have expended large sums in experimental husbandry ; and, although many 
 of these speculations have been unsuccessful, and their failure has for a time cheeked 
 the spirit of enterprise, they are far from having been lost. If an agricultural speculator 
 introduces, at a great expense, an innovation in husbandry, it is the business of his 
 contemporaries, not to condemn his proceedings, but to watch their cftect. If success 
 attends it they will adopt it, if it fails they will avoid it. In either case the man is a 
 benefactor to society, and deserves i-espect and esteem, instead of censure and ridicule. 
 In this respect, Alderman ]\Iechi, whose name we scruple not to mention, because he 
 has made himself public property, is one of the greatest benefactors the farmers ever had 
 among themselves, because he freely communicates his proceedings and their results 
 amongst his brother farmers, and because he has not hesitated to expend large sums 
 in experiments, the advantage of which to practical men is incalculable, if they think 
 proper to avail themselves of it. Little, indeed, does he deserve the determined 
 hostility and opprobrium which has so unscrupulously and unjustly been heaped upon 
 him, and is only equalled by the equanimity and good-humoiu: with which he parries the 
 blows aimed at his reputation. 
 
 The business of the husbandman is of a very mixed character, requiring a more 
 vai'ied knowledge, and practical observation, than perhaps any other industrial pursuit. 
 The cultivation of vegetables is the easiest and most commonplace portion of his 
 
BKITISII HUSBANDEY— ITS DEFINITION AND PROGEESS. 563 
 
 engagements, cei-tainly that wliicli requires the smallest degree of attention and 
 solieitude. The preparation of the land, the depositing of the seed, and the succeeding 
 operations, follow each other with as much regularity as the months in the year. It is 
 the breeding, rearing, and management of the domestic animals of the farm, that demand 
 his most constant and unwearied attention, whether they are those required for human food, 
 or those which contribute to the labour of the farm or the luxury and convenience of the 
 husbandman. For the support of these, and for the promotion of their comfort and 
 well-doing, large provision must be made, and a regular establishment kept up, distinct 
 from that required for the production of grain. The foresight, vigilance, and judgment 
 necessary to be exercised in the maintenance of animals, is the consequence of their 
 utter helplessness in the domesticated state to provide for their own wants, or to save 
 themselves from, or to cure, accidents and diseases. With a material organisation similar 
 to that of man, but without his intelligence, they are wholly dependent upon the exercise 
 of his mind and his constant care for their preservation. Day and night, from the 
 beginning to the end of the year, must this care and vigilance be exercised ; and the 
 more tenderness and consideration this is accompanied with, the greater will be the 
 advantage to the owner. 
 
 Still the business of the husbandman in raising vegetable produce requires a vast 
 amount of practical knowledge, foresight, and activity. Every man who assumes the 
 profession ought to make himself acquainted with the nature and properties of the 
 plants he cultivates, and to be able to select those best adapted to the soil for which they 
 are intended. Half the failures may be ascribed to ignorance of, or inattention to, these 
 and similar matters, or of the best method of cultivating the plants. We could not 
 adduce a stronger case than that of Mr. Hallett, of Brighton, and his neighbours. Tke one 
 consults the nature of the wheat plant, and sows 1 peck per acre, and reaps at least 
 from 5 to 6 quarters. His neighboiirs sow from 3 to 5 bushels per acre, and reap at 
 most 4 quarters. They follow the traditionary practice of their forefathers, he avails 
 himself of the light of science ; and by experiment discovers the capabilities and 
 requirements of the plants he cultivates, and acts accordingly. His success is the best 
 practical commentaiy upon his system ; they plead the " wisdom of their ancestors," and 
 throw away from 11 to 19 pecks of seed per acre, and one-third of the produce. 
 
 Until within a comparatively recent period of our history, the land of England was 
 cultivated on the triennial system — viz., two grain crops and a bare fallow. Even after 
 the introduction of green and root crops, clover, turnips, &c., that system was adhered 
 to by the husbandman over a great part of the kingdom, as it is in France to the present 
 time, and for the same reason, because a large proportion of the land being open common 
 fields, it was not possible to farm on any other principle. The uses ascribed to the bare 
 fallow, were the perfect pulverisation of the soil, the destruction of weeds, and the 
 general amelioration of the land. Before the introduction of root and green crops and 
 the system of rotation, this mode of husbandry was the only possible way of restoring 
 fertility to the soil, or of preparing it for the production of corn crops. And it is 
 obvious that it had this efiFect, because the land had for ages been under cultivation, and 
 crops of grain taken from it, whilst very little was otherwise done to make amends for 
 the exhaustion the soil had suffered. Yet the land exhibited no symptoms of declining 
 fertility, thereby proving that the bare fallow, with what little manure was produced 
 from the hay and straw, were sufficient to prevent it from deterioration. TuU, and 
 
 o o 2 
 
564 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 many imitators of his system, have demonstrated the truth of this theory, that by 
 Oldening the soil to tlic action and influence of the atmosphere, alone, its fertility may be 
 sustained. 
 
 Wliat, however, the bare triennial fallow effected, is much more beneficially and 
 profitably done by the cidtivation of root and green crops. The former, especially, opens 
 and pulverises the soil, the hoe extirpates the weeds, and the increased quantity of 
 manure ameliorates and enriches the land in a much greater degree than the bare fallow ; 
 whilst instead of two small grain crops in three years, and at the full expense of three 
 crops, except the seed, the husbandman has now a profitable crop every year, by which 
 the production of food has been doubled, and the land, where properly managed, always 
 maintained in the best state of cultivation, which term itself has now a greatly extended 
 signification. The plough, or spade, and the harrow, are not the beginning and the end 
 of cultivation ; a variety of subsequent and intermediate operations upon the surface or 
 the subsoil are performed, employing other implements than the primitive ones, and 
 undreamt of in former days; and these have been mulrtplied and improved, to the 
 increase of the range, and at the same time lightening of the labour, of husbandry. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF FARMS. 
 
 The man who proposes to adopt the profession of a husbandman, or farmer, is not 
 confined iu his choice to one department of the business, there being several different 
 kinds of farms, varying in the nature of the occupation and in the knowledge they 
 require. Farms are divided into two kinds — Pastoral and Arable, or Cultivable. 
 The pastoral farms again consist — First, of extensive tracts of mountain or down land, 
 on which large herds of cattle or lai'ge flocks of sheep are bred and pastured, chiefly 
 for supplying the occupiers of arable farms with animals for fattening. The quantity of 
 land cultivated on these pastoral farms is generally limited to what is required to supply 
 the labourers of the establishment with food, and for raising green or root crops for the 
 animals during winter. Secondly, dairy farms, comprising rich meadows and upland 
 pastures for the maintenance of milch cows, for the purpose of manufacturing butter 
 and cheese, the arable portion of such farms being cultivated chiefly for supplying the 
 cattle with winter food ; and iu some cases even this is purchased of neighbouring 
 farmers. In the vicinity of large cities or towns, extensive dairies are kept, to supply 
 the inhabitants with milk ; and the owners of these ixsually occupy grass farms, for the 
 cows in summer, and for hay, and purchase roots in winter. 
 
 Arable farms are also of two kinds; those that are devoted to the cultivation of 
 cereal produce, alternating with green and root crops — these latter, for the purpose of 
 supporting the domestic animals kept on the farm, whether for labour or for raising 
 manure, in connection with fattening for the butcher. Formerly, the arable land, as 
 we have stated, was chiefly farmed on a triennial course, every third year the land 
 
THE PASTORAL FARMS. 565 
 
 lying fallow; but the bare fallow has now given way to a more profitable course of 
 husbandry, by which the land is continually under crop of some kind, and thrice the 
 number of animals can be kept. By this means a large quantity of manure is raised. 
 The stock on the arable farms are, for the most part, purchased at the various fairs 
 and markets, generally after harvest, and, being fattened during the winter,, are sold as 
 the summer approaches. Very few breeding cattle or ewes are kept on such farms. 
 
 Another kind of arable farm are those the occupiers of which are called "market 
 gardeners." These farms are chiefly, and in some cases wholly, employed in raising 
 fruits and vegetables, for the supplying of large cities and towns with all kinds of table 
 and culinary produce. On these farms, which seldom exceed three hundred acres in 
 extent, no stock, generally speaking, is kept except those required for labouring the 
 land, and a number of pigs, to consume the refuse produce of the fields. These market 
 gardens are kept in a high state of cultivation, and the produce is enormous. In some 
 cases the spade only is used, and the soil stirred to a great depth. We shall treat of 
 these different kinds of farms separately, in the order in which we have placed them. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE PASTOKAL I'ARMS. 
 
 FiKST, the Mountain or Down Farms are the most simple in their management, and 
 inexpensive in the outlay required for labour, of any description of land. It requires, 
 it is true, a considerable capital to stock them in the first instance ; but the staff to 
 work it is small cpmpared with tliat of the arable farms. It consists of a shepherd or 
 cattle herd to a certain number of sheep or cattle, a steward or bailiff' to overlook them, 
 and a sufficient number of men and horses to cultivate the small proportion of arable 
 land requisite for the support of the establishment, and to raise roots and hay for the 
 cattle during the winter. As few or no animals are usxially fattened on the mountain 
 farms, they are annually sold to southern dealers on arriving at a certain age, and thus 
 replace a portion of the capital expended in the first instance- in stocking the farm. 
 
 Perhaps we could not give a more clear idea of a farm of this description than 
 by relating the manner in which the Sutherland estate, in the North Highlands of 
 Scotland was converted into stock farms at the beginning of the present century. The 
 Sutherland estate consisted of 800,000 acres, and was held by tacksmen, or leaseholders, 
 in large districts, and sub-let by them to cottier tenants, at comparatively high rents. 
 The state of permanent misery and poverty in which these latter existed, and the 
 unprofitableness of the country, either in the support of the inhabitants or remuneration 
 to the proprietor, led the Countess of Sutherland, upon her marriage with the Marquis 
 of Stafford, to propose to her husband the removal of the people to the more fertile 
 lands on the coast, and the conversion of the mountain districts into sheep-walks. 
 
 This measure was commenced about the year 1811 ; and the laud being cleared of 
 
566 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 its former occupants, the swamps and togs which existed on the sides of tlie mountains 
 were drained, and every' necessary operation performed to free tlie surface from the 
 stagnant water with which, previously, it was constantly saturated. This being efi'ected, 
 those spots which would not bear a dog in their original state, were soon covered with 
 a close herbage, firm enough for sheep to feed with safety. In addition to this, the 
 heather, which formerly clothed the drier part of the mountains, was bnrned, and made 
 room for the natural grasses to spring up ; thousands of acres of this natural pasturage 
 have thus been created, and have increased the productive powers of the soil to the 
 extent of one-third, 
 
 The stock of sheep now kept on these mountain pastoral farms is very large, but 
 we have no means of stating the number. Some years back, they amounted to upwards 
 of 130,000, and the export of wool was about 430,000 lbs. The sheep were mostly of 
 the Cheviot breed, which were found to be the best adapted to the soil and climate. 
 They are sold at two and three years old, in flocks of from 300 to 500 sheep each, 
 to southern dealers, who drive them to^tlie Yorkshire or Northumberland fairs, where 
 they are sold to the farmers and graziers for fattening. The extent of some these 
 sheep farms is very great. Two were let in 1819 to two Nortlnmiberland gentlemen, 
 which comprised together near 100,000 acres, more than one-third of which they 
 converted into good pasturage. Other sheep farms on the estate contain from 10,000 
 to 20,000 acres, and are rendered equally profitable to the occupiers, who in the first 
 instance paid a rent of one shilling per acre. 
 
 The Cheviot Hills, in Northumberland, formerly known as Chevy Chace, and as 
 such celebrated for the battle l^etween the carls Percy and Douglas (the foundation 
 of the old ballad of " the Hunting in Chevy Chace"), are also famous for their breed of 
 sheep, so admirably adapted to hilly countries. The hills of Cumberland, and most of 
 the Welsh districts, ai'c divided into pastoral farms, the latter being chiefly appropriated, 
 like the North Highlands and the Western Isles of Scotland, to the breeding and 
 rearing of cattle. The North Highlanders are small, black, and horned ; those of the 
 Western Islands, called Kyloes, are larger, and possess finer symmetry. The higher 
 parts of these coimtries are, like Sutherland, sheep farms. The stock chiefly kept on 
 them are the black-faced mountain breed. The hills more south are stocked ^vith the 
 Cheviots, which arc hornless and white-faced. 
 
 In winter the sheep receive very little aid for their support. A little hay, saved on 
 the slopes of tlie mountain foot, is given to them, but they live chiefly on the heather 
 and what grass they can pick up. A few turnips are cultivated, but they are very sparingly 
 given to them. The losses the farmers sustain sometimes, when the winter is severe, are 
 very great, both in cattle and sheep, especially if the lambing time is imfavonrable. 
 The stock farms in the Highlands range from 1,500 to 3,000 acres, the proportion of 
 arable laud being very small, and lying chiefly on the banks of streams at the bases 
 of the mountains, where they are enclosed. The rent is regulated according to the 
 number of cattle or sheep the land will carry. Formerly, all the sheep and cattle on 
 the Scottish stock farms were sold to southern graziers ; but since the establishment of 
 railways between the two countries, many of the stock farmers fatten a portion of them, 
 and send them to the large Scottish or English cities and towns ; sometimes even so far 
 as London, when the price of meat is remunerative. 
 
 The knowledge required by the pastoral farmer is chiefly limited to a thorough 
 
THE PASTORAL FARMS. 567 
 
 acquaintance with everything relating to stock, -whether cattle or sheep ; and, even 
 ■with the best of servants, the master's eye must be constantly on the watch over them 
 to see that nothing is neglected, and to detect the first symptoms of disease, if they 
 occur. They say that " it is the eye of the master that fattens the beast." We once knew 
 an old traveller who always made a point of combing his horse's tail all the time he was 
 eating his feed of oats, in the stables of the inns he stopped at, and when asked the 
 reason, he said he " found the oats did the animal so much more good ;" and no doubt 
 they did so, when the ostler had no opportunity of cheating him of half his ration. 
 
 Secondly, the Dairy Farm. This description of pastoral farm consists of extensive 
 meadows and upland pastures of natural grass, kept in a high state of fertility, and 
 devoted to the feeding of milch cows for the pvirpose of manufacturing butter and 
 cheese. Sometimes sufficient arable land is kept under the plough, to supply the cattle 
 in winter with green or root food ; and a large portion of the pasture land is also saved 
 for hay, for the same purpose of winter feeding. In Cheshire, the usual proportion of 
 arable land in the pastoral farms is about one-fourth. The stocking of a dairy farm is 
 expensive if the best cows are purchased. We have known a dairy farmer who gave 
 as high as from £50 to £100 for some of his cows, which were of the Short-horned 
 breed. Unfortunately, the pleuro-pneumonia broke out amongst them, and every one 
 of the most valuable cattle died. 
 
 It is a common practice now to keep the cows in stables or " byres," as they are 
 termed in Scotland, in summer as well as in winter. In the former season, they are 
 fed with cut grass, tares, lucerne, &c., and in winter with the usual roots, and plants, 
 and hay. The rearing of stock is no part of the business of a dairy farmer, except 
 the cow-calves necessary to supply the places of such of the stock as are thrown out 
 on account of age, or unprofitableness, or other causes. The bull-calves are invariably 
 fattened for the butcher. 
 
 The dairy farms seldom exceed 300 or 400 acres of pasture land. In England, 
 Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Gloucestershire are the principal districts ; but a great number 
 of milch cattle is kept in Suffolk ; and throughout the kingdom, in the neighbourhood 
 of large streams, where the meadows are luxuriant, large dairies are kept, especiallj' in 
 the vicinity of cities and towns, where there is a constant demand for dairy produce. 
 In and round London vast dairies are kept ; that of Mr. Rhodes, at Islington, is said to 
 contain 1,000 cows. These are all kept under cover, except it be for a few weeks during 
 the summer months, or to restore to health those which are attacked with disease. 
 
 In Norfolk, and other counties, there are extensive tracts of grazing land, consisting 
 of old pasture, which are let out in summer to farmers who have not enough of grass- 
 land on their farms to support the cattle at that season. These lands are of two 
 descriptions ; those which consist of rich meadows on the borders of rivers, by which 
 they are occasionally overflowed, and thence require no dressing with manure. Such 
 lands wiU sustain a large number of cattle throughout the summer. Tlie otlier kind 
 are upland old pastures, generally studded with old oak trees, reserved for shade and 
 shelter to the cattle. A herdsman living on the spot is deputed and paid by the owner 
 of the land to overlook the " gist" cattle belonging to the distant farmers. These lands, 
 of course, are stocked only with store cattle, intended for fattening the ensuing winter ; 
 but in some cases, if the grounds are not over-stocked, they get very forward, so as to 
 be ready for the butcher at an early period, if they are not kept too late in the pasture. 
 
568 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 But besides these, there are what are called " salt-marshes/' -which consist of extensive 
 tracts on the banks of rivers iip which the tidal waters flow, and occasionally overflow 
 their banks ; or of lauds from which the sea has receded. Many of these tracts possess 
 n-reat fertility, and large numbers of cattle and horses are kept on them during the 
 summer. 
 
 In pastoral farms the best of the feed should be appropriated to the largest of the 
 fatting cattle. These should in all cases be allowed to take the first run of all the 
 feeding-grounds, if it can conveniently be spared for them, but certainly that of the 
 richest ; and the inferior pastures to the smaller breeds, such as the Devons, the "Welsh, 
 and the Scotch Highlanders. These two latter, accustomed to hard fare on their own 
 bleak mountains, will thrive well upon the second or third rate pastures of England, 
 and will clear everything off by the end of Jidy, when the fields may be shut up, and left 
 to produce a second growth for autumnal feeding for another lot of fattening cattle. 
 
 Sheep-grazing is a different branch of the subject ; and in England, extensive tracts 
 of country, considered too poor for cultivation, are appropriated to this species of stock. 
 The South Downs, in Sussex, and those of the adjoining counties of Hampshire and 
 Oxfordshire, and the Cotswold Hills of Gloucestershire, to which we may add the sandy 
 tracts from Newmarket to Thetford and Brandon, in Norfolk, are all covered with large 
 flocks of sheep, and form the breeding-gromids, from whence immense numbers of 
 Iambs are sent to the different autumnal fairs, to supply the sheep-graziers with winter 
 stock to consume their root crops. 
 
 AU grazing lands should be fed down close before winter, otherwise the tufts of 
 coarse herbage left will materially injure the quality and the growth of the grass the 
 ensuing summer. If the stock will not eat it down, it should be cut close with the 
 scythe ; after which, when it becomes withered, they will eat it readily. Weeds should 
 be carefully extirpated, either by frequent cutting down or by digging them up, the 
 latter l)eing the best plan. Fences should be kept in constant repair, nothing being 
 more troublesome to the farmer than breaches in the hedges, or more injurious to 
 fattening or growing cattle than the power of straying through gaps in a fence from 
 their own pasture. If they are once able to break bounds, it unsettles them for weeks, 
 and they will almost constantly be found hankering near tlie gap, especially if a corn or 
 clover field is beyond it. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 ARABLE FARMS. 
 
 First, the term embraces all those farms, the principal object of which is to raise cereal 
 produce, by practising a regular course of husbandry. The quantity of pasture land 
 on these farms is generally very small, and only sufficient for the support of the working 
 animals necessary to cultivate the ground, and a few cows to supply the family of tlie 
 farmer with dairy produce. ]\Iany such farms in Norfolk Lincolnshire, Yorkfh re, &c., 
 
ARABLE FARMS. 5G9 
 
 consisting of from 500 to 2,000 acres of land, do not contain 100 acres of old pasture-land, 
 the whole being laid out in large fields, conveniently arranged for growing the succession 
 of crops, according to the course determined on by the occupier. In some cases, 
 however, a mixed husbandry is practised where the farms lie on the banks of a river, in 
 wliich case the lands immediately adjoining the stream are meadows, while those in the 
 uplands are under tillage. 
 
 This mixed husbandry is, on the whole, the most profitable, as it offers a greater 
 variety of produce, some of which will succeed when the other fails. Thus, a wet 
 season, that will be injurious to corn, will suit the grass, whether for feeding or for hay, 
 provided the latter can be saved in good or fair condition. It also enables the farmer to 
 maintain more stock, and thus to raise a larger quantity of manure for his arable land ; 
 although the pasture land itself will require to be dressed with manure of some kind. 
 The facility, however, of obtaining condensed artificial manure is now so great that 
 whatever deficiency may be felt, can be supplied at a moderate cost, without adding 
 materially to the labour of the farm. 
 
 The division of arable farms into heavy and light soils renders necessary a very 
 different system of husbandry, which will be treated of in the proper place. A good 
 mixed soil, where it can be obtained, is the best to cultivate ; whilst a light one oflers the 
 greatest opportunity for improvement, at the same time that it usually bears a lower rent 
 than any other description of land. A large proportion of the arable land of England is 
 of this kind of soil, and it is wonderful how productive some light-land farms have been 
 rendered by judicious management and deep tillage. They are more liable to weeds 
 than heavy soils, but these do not always indicate poverty of staple. It is related of a 
 blind farmer that he went over a farm for the purpose of purchasing it, and requested to 
 be taken first to the fallows. Having reached a field under fallow, he dismounted, and 
 said to a farm labourer who accompanied him, " Just tie my horse to a stout thistle." 
 " Sir," replied the man, " there is not a thistle in the field, but there are some strong- 
 docks." "Very well," rejoined the blind man, "then I decline the purchase, and 
 wish you all a good day." The fact is, thistles, though difficult to eradicate, generally 
 speak a good soil, whilst docks are still more stubborn tenants, and are as indicative of 
 the poverty of the soil. 
 
 Secondly. The Market-Garden Farms are purely arable, and are wholly devoted to 
 raising roots, vegetables, and fruits for the table. These seldom exceed 300 acres 
 in extent, but they are highly cultivated, and require a large outlay of capital to stock 
 and carry them through the season. They generally employ a great number of hands, 
 use enormous quantities of manure, and spare no pains in rendering the land productive 
 by watering in dry weather, and keeping the spade and hoe constantly at work, pro- 
 ducing sometimes three crops on the same land in the year, at an outlay of .£30 or jfilO 
 per acre per annum. A good market-garden, in the neighbourhood of London, M'ill sell 
 for £200 per acre. 
 
 Occasionally, a crop of grain is taken on the garden land, by way of change ; but, 
 generally, the soil is too rich to grow wheat to advantage. The straw, however, is 
 required, and when not grown on the land, must be jjurchased. Working horses also 
 require hay, straw, and corn, and these it answers the purpose of the gardener to 
 purchase rather than to cultivate. He must, however, keep cattle or pigs to consume 
 the offal and what other produce cannot be sold. The knowledge of general husbandry 
 
570 AGKIOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 is requisite for this kind of farming, and in addition, of the rearing and treatment of all 
 kinds of garden produce, and an acquaintance with the markets, and the seasons when 
 certain fruits and vegetables are most in request, it being in a great measure dependent 
 upon a strict attention to times and seasons in this respect that the profits of a market- 
 garden depend. These, however, upon a. well-cultivated soil are generally very large, 
 although occasional failures of crops take place, especially in that principal one, the 
 potato, which, since the year 1846, has been a very precarious dependence. 
 
 ]Market-gardeners purchase their manure in the towns at which they dispose of their 
 produce. The quantity they apply to the land is very great, sometimes as much as 
 40 tons per acre. The spade is most commonly the implement used in tillage, although 
 some gardeners use the plough. They say that " one acre cultivated by the spade, is 
 more profitable than five acres with the plough." The produce of the latter is always 
 inferior, and is usually sold to the hucksters at a very low price. In many of the 
 gardens around London the land is kept in beautiful order. Not a weed is to be seen ; 
 the surface is as level as a bowling-green ; the whole, with the exception of the paths, is 
 always under crop. Most of the large ones have extensive orchards of apple, pear, plum, 
 and cherry trees, which are kept regularly pruned. Between the trees, which are all in 
 rows, are plantations of currant, gooseberry, and raspberry bushes, and rhubarb amongst 
 these. When the rhubarb is off, cabbages are planted; and thus, throughout the whole 
 garden, no sooner is one crop taken off" than the ground is dug or forked over, and 
 replanted with cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli, &c., as the season requires. Large 
 numbers of bell glasses are employed for raising early vegetables, such as cauliflower.s, 
 rhubarb, &c. In one garden of 150 acres, at Fulliam, there are 4,000 hand-glasses and 
 1,000 frame-lights, the latter for raising cucumbers, melons, and other delicate fruits or 
 plants. The number of persons employed is one hundred and fifty in summer, and 
 seventy in winter, the men being paid 2s., and the women from Is. to Is. Gd. per day. 
 On such a gai'den, twelve horses are kept, for the purpose of taking the produce to 
 market and fetching home manure. The capital employed in such gardens must 
 necessarily be very large, but the returns arc fully as great, and we have heard of a 
 produce of £250 per acre in the j^car being realised in some instances. These 
 establishments can only answer in the vicinity of large cities and towns ; but since the 
 extension of the railway system, many farmers in Lincolnshire, and other distant parts 
 of the country, cultivate both fruit and vegetables for the London market. These are 
 sent up by the luggage trains at a small expense, and the prices generally secured fully 
 remunerate the growers. 
 
 The moi'c extensive of the market-gardeners devote a large portion of their land to 
 the cultivation of potatoes, and many thousands of acres of this root are grown near 
 London. The early potatoes arc raised with artificial heat, under temporary coverings, 
 which we shall describe when treating of the general process of growing them. It has 
 Leen a precarious crop since the disease appeared in 1846, but the growers are not at all 
 dismayed at a slight visitation of the epidemic, since it enables them to obtain a high 
 price for the sound roots. Potatoes and cabbages form the staple articles of produce of 
 some of the market-gardeners' farms, which are comparatively of modern growth, especially 
 in the present extent and mode of conducting them. The regularity with which the three 
 millions of the population of the metropolis are supplied with vegetables and fruit, the 
 constant abundance and cheapness of these necessaries of life, and the absence of waste 
 
THE PLOUGH. 571 
 
 iu the disposal of it, is one of the marvels of Londou, when it is considered that tlie 
 ■whole depends upon the spontaneous efforts of the producers, who are entirely free from 
 all official pressure or interference. Nothing contributes more to the healthfulness of 
 the people, shut up, as many thousands of them are, in close rooms and warehouses, 
 than this regular and abundant supply of vegetable food, so necessary to preserve the 
 blood in a pure state, and prevent the access of disease. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY.— THE PLOUGH. 
 
 Next to the spade, which is not used in this country on the common arable farm, the 
 plough is the most ancient implement of tillage, and its invention is lost in the lapse 
 and darkness of past ages. It is probable that the employment of oxen as beasts of 
 draught, and the invention of tlic plough, were simultaneous — the latter rendering 
 the use of the former necessary. All other operations in husbandry could be performed 
 independent of animal power, while the spade was the only instrument used for turning 
 over the soil.* But whatever people were the inventors of the plough, and its necessary 
 accompaniment, the employment of animal power, it has descended in its use through- 
 out all subsequent ages, and in all civilised countries — once rude, it is true, in its 
 construction, but efficient in its primary object — the relief of man from the laborious 
 work of tilling the soil by hand. 
 
 The plough is frequently mentioned in Scripture, and can also be traced back to a 
 very distant period in the Greek and Roman writers. There are many engravings on 
 seals, medallions, and other ancient works of art, of the ploughs used in both Egypt, 
 Rome, and Greece, all of which are of the simplest and rudest description. An angular 
 share, of hard wood, probably tipped with iron, and fixed into a bar of wood, two 
 upright handles, morticed to the same, to which also the ropes or traces were fastened, 
 the whole drawn by two oxen — the ploughman holding by the handles, and directing 
 the animals with a staff or pole. Whether the Romans first introduced the plough into 
 Britain is not certain ; but there is no doubt that they brought their own model of the 
 implement with them, and that it continued iu use here for many centuries. A still 
 more simple form of the plough was used by the Saxons, being shaped exactly like an 
 anchor, one of the flukes of which stirred the soil, while the other was held by tlie 
 ploughman. This also was drawn by a pair of oxen, but could only stir, without 
 turning over, the soil. 
 
 * When the Island of Madagascar was first discoTered by Europeans, the land was regularly cultivated and cropped 
 with rice, barley, and other produce. But although there were abundance of oxen, both wild and domesticated, the 
 natives neither appropriated them as beasts of burthen or of draught, nor had they even a spade, the soil being stirred with 
 a stick hardened in the fire, the seed put in by hand, and the produce carried home on the heads of women. A horse had 
 never been seen on the island ; and when the French olficers first appeared on horseback, the natives believed that the man 
 and horse were one animal, and fled from them in terror. 
 
572 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 AVe know but little of the modes of Imsbaiidiy of the early and middle ages of 
 British history. The ehief records that have come down to us relate more to the 
 destruction of human life by war than to its preservation by the culture of the arts of 
 peace. In the absence of books, and with very restricted social intercourse between 
 different parts of the country, it is no cause for surprise or blame that progress and 
 improvement in husbandry was slow, and that the implements employed in it were I'udc 
 in construction. The plough, from its make, was probably laborious to the cattle that 
 drew it, especially when it was fastened to the animals' tails, as was formerly the case in 
 England ; and, certainly, in Ireland so lately as the seventeenth century, when an act 
 of parliament was passed to prohibit the practice in future. ' 
 
 It was, therefore, only at a comparatively recent jDcriod that attention has been paid 
 to the construction of the plough by the application of mechanical principles, thereby 
 to increase its efficiency and reduce the labour of the cattle employed in drawing it. 
 The heavy, cumbrous implement, tg draw which alone Avas hard work for two horses, 
 ■was in universal use. In Scotland, where oxen were chiefly employed, as many as ten 
 were sometimes attached to one plough, and never less than six or eight. This 
 continued up to the time of the American war, when Lord Kames wrote his celebrated 
 work, exposing the defects of Scottish husbandry, and recommending tlie English 
 practice. It is remarkable, as is stated by Sir John Sinclair, that within forty years, 
 the Scottish farmers had not only adopted the practice of England, but had improved 
 upon it, the results of which are seen in the high state of cultivation to which the land 
 has been brought, and the lai'ge rents that are sustained for it. 
 
 It is evident that, in the construction of a plough, regard must be had to the nature 
 of the soil for which it is intended. Local habits also have considerable influence in 
 the matter, and must of necessity be, in some measure, yielded to. For instance, it 
 would be difficult to persuade a Norfolk ploughman, accustomed as he is to the wheel- 
 plough of his native county, to relinquish it for a foot-plough. Nor would the Kentish 
 ploughman exchange his turn-wrest plough for the best Howard's or Eansome's that 
 ever were constructed. There is, however, in all the varieties of the plough, a necessity 
 for the maintenance of the same mechanical principles in their construction. And if 
 any of those of local make have not yielded to improvement, it is probably not because 
 they are so contrary to all acknowledged merit as to be incapable of it. 
 
 In Scotland, where the land in many parts is a good deal sprinkled with boulder 
 stones, the plough employed is necessarily heavier and stronger than is required on the 
 light or mixed-soil lands of England. The clays, too, of Essex and Kent would 
 greatly try the strength of the ploughs used upon the light sands and gravels of Norfolk. 
 Yet, in all, the operation to be performed is the same in principle, and requires that the 
 same regard should be paid to the construction of its parts, so that it may perform 
 the greatest amount of work, in a given time, at the least expenditure of animal 
 power. 
 
 In forming an opinion of the perfect efficiency of a plough as a cultivating 
 implement, it is necessary to consider what is the object of tillage; and this may be 
 defined to be the best and speediest pulverisation of the soil, in order to convert it into 
 a seed-bed. Is then the common plough, even of the most modern and improved 
 construction and form, the best calculated for that purpose ? Tiiis is a question we have 
 not yet seen put in a tangible and practical form, but which appears to us to be the 
 
THE PLOUGH. 573 
 
 most important relating to tillage. Let us therefore examine the operation of a plough 
 of the most recently improved construction, and such as has obtained the sanction and 
 approbation of the judges at our agricultural shows. 
 
 The object the manufacturers of these ploughs (of whom there are many) have had 
 in. view, is to produce an implement that will turn the cleanest furrow at the least 
 expense of animal power. For this end their ingenuity has been exercised to find out 
 the proper angle at which the share and the mould-board should be fixed — the one to 
 cleave the soil, the other to turn it over in the most perfect and unbroken manner, so 
 as to exhibit a smooth and mathematically exact furrow-slice. To ascertain the amount 
 of resistance the various ploughs had to overcome in performing this work, the 
 dynamometer has been employed, and the judges have awarded the prizes at the com- 
 petitive trials according to the results given by that instrument. The late Mr. Pusey 
 stated the objects to be attained by these experiments as follows : — 1st. To find the 
 absolute resistance to the motion of any particular implement when at work in different 
 soils. 2nd. The relative draught of the various forms of the iinplement in the per- 
 formance of the same work. 3rd. The relative resistance to the motion of the plough, 
 made by the different sources of its draught, viz., its weight, the action of the share 
 and coulter in cutting the sod, and that of the mould-board in turning it. 4th. The 
 absolute influence of the weight of the plough upon its draught. 5th. The influence 
 of velocity on draught in ploughing. 6th. That of inclination on the surface of the 
 ground. 7th. The influence of the depth of ploughing on the force required. 8th. The 
 influence on the draught of a plough, of one or more wheels, as sujjports for its beam." 
 
 Tliere is not a doubt but that all these questions have been satisfactorily solved, and 
 that the construction of the most modern ploughs has been carried out on strictly 
 scientific principles, so as to reduce the requirement of power to the minimum, whilst 
 the work of tillage is executed in the neatest manner. But another question arises, 
 whether, in effecting these objects, the machinists, as well as the judges, have not wholly 
 lost sight of another and more important one, namely, the most expeditious and effectual 
 comminution of the soil, and its conversion into a seed-bed. We can best explain our 
 meaning by a practical illustration. 
 
 At the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Warwick, the competitive trial 
 of the ploughs was made in a field, the soil of which was a stiff clay, baked hard by the 
 summer sun. Each of the ploughs was drawn by a pair of horses, and it was with 
 difEculty that any of them could draw the implement through the stubborn clay, which 
 was lifted up in huge lumps, instead of a continuous furrow-slice ; and a farmer 
 remarked to the writer that " it would take a long time to reduce it into a seed-bed." 
 And so it would, for even the best clod-crusher produced little or no effect upon it. 
 
 On the other side of the hedge of this field was another plough at work on an 
 equally stubborn piece of clover lea. This implement had been ignored by the judges, 
 who, for some unexplained cause, had ordered it out of the trial field. Its construction 
 was altogether different from any of the others, having three shares ; the first of which took 
 off two inches of the upper soil, which it turned over to the bottom of the preceding 
 furrow. The second share took three inches more, turning it over the first ; and the third 
 share also took three or four inches, which completed the furrow. What was the result 
 of this division of the furrow-slice into three parts ? That instead of the soil breaking 
 up in large lumps or in one smooth, continuous furrow-slice, the entire eight or nine inches 
 
574 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 ■was completely pulverised ; and, as the occupier of the laud remarked, " was fit for a 
 seed-bed without puttiug a harrow ou it."* Another advantage attached to this 
 plough is the perfect manner in which the surface is buried in the furrow. Being cut 
 off by the share just below the crown of the sod, it is turned over in a loose state to the 
 bottom of the preceding furrow, and from five to seven inches of the soil thrown over 
 it by the two following shares, so that not a particle of it appears above ground ; whilst 
 with the common plough a ridge of vegetation rises at the edge of each furrow-slice, very 
 troublesome to the hoers. Now, if the object of ploughing is to prepare the land in the 
 quickest and best manner for the reception of the seed, this implement must be superior 
 to anv of the others, for assuredly it executed the work in the most efficient and useful 
 manner. 
 
 What, again, is the efi'ect of turning the furrow-slice over in one smooth continuous 
 ridge ? For dibbling it may be very well, because the dibbling iron does not penetrate 
 through the sod. Nevertheless, the regularity with which the furrow-slice is laid causes 
 a triangular hollow next the subsoil that is very injurious to the young plant, as every 
 farmer knows; for when the roots penetrate through the sod, and reach the vacant 
 space, its progress is stayed for the time, and its constitution weakened. The same is 
 the case if the seed be drilled, and perhaps to a more serious extent. The hollow 
 also harbours insects, which attack the roots of the plant and frequently destroy it, 
 without the real cause being known. Thus, the very perfection of the operation of 
 turning over the furrow-slice " in the cleanest and most unbroken manner," is, in point 
 of fact, the most serious defect in the work of the modern ploughs ; because if the land 
 is intended for immediate sowing upon the turned up flag, it does not leave the soil in 
 the proper state for it ; and if for a future sowing, it protracts the process, rendering a 
 succession of other processes necessary, which might be spared if the most direct 
 method for pulverising the soil were adopted. 
 
 The object of the machinists in the construction of the modern ploughs appears to 
 be, to lay the furrow-slice over the foregoing one at an angle of forty-five degrees. " It is 
 believed," says Mr. Morton, " that the value of the operation of ploughing, lies in the 
 exposure of a fresh surface, and in raising the earth in the form of ribs, which, when 
 pulled down by the harrows, forms a seed-bed. That land is thus best ploughed which 
 has the greatest surface exposed, and which has the greatest quantity of earth raised in 
 tlic form of these ribs." This is the common idea of perfection in ploughing, and 
 while it is quite correct in theory, it is altogether wrong in the mode of eflecting the 
 design. 
 
 Mr. Smith, the inventor of the " smashing-up " style of steam cultivation, has 
 thrown much light ou this subject, by asserting the principle that the main object of 
 tillage, whether by the common plough or any other implement, is not to produce a 
 handsome surface and a smoothly turned furrow-slice, but a deeply stirred and well pul- 
 verised seed-bed as efficiently and speedily as possible. This opinion is fast gaining 
 
 * We have stated this case exactly as it occurred. The plough ia question was the invention ot Messrs. Hancock, 
 now of the Iron Works, Tipton, Staft'ordshire, who, after years of struggling against prejudice and powerful opposition, 
 have succeeded in establishing their plough in the estimation and patronage of the agriculturists. 
 
 The writer ought to state that it was from witueasing the ell'ect of Hancock's plough on this occasion that his eyes 
 were opened to tlie true nature of the operation ; and so convinced was he of the injustice of the judges in ignoring that 
 implement, that he wrote a strong recommendation of it on the spot, which was inserted in the irarwUk Advertiser the 
 same day, being the first notice the plough had received in any public journal. 
 
THE PLOUGH. 575 
 
 ground amongst the farmers, and must very soon be the principal aim of the inventors 
 of cultivating implements and machines, whether worked by animal power or by steam. 
 One of the most influential of these firms (Messrs. Howard and Co., of Bedford) has 
 alreadj', to a certain extent, adopted the principle we have laid down ; and in a paper 
 we have received from them, have expressed themselves as follows : — 
 
 " Very considerable progress has been made during the last two years, not only on 
 the mechanical appliances for steam culture, but also in the development of steam as a 
 motive power for cultivating the soil. A great revolution has also taken place, during 
 the same time, in the ideas of farmers upon the question of the relative value of 
 ploughing, or inverting the land, and the breaking iip or cultivating ; and although the 
 simple smashing or breaking up of the soil by the tines of a cultivator was but little 
 appreciated, there can be no question that the opinion of those best qualified to judge, 
 viz., those who have adopted steam power for cultivating, is now decidedly in favour of 
 the steam cultivator over the plough." 
 
 This opinion, it will be seen, refers exclusively to steam tillage, Messrs. Howard 
 being the inventors and patentees of a great number of ploughs, designed for difierent 
 purposes, but all of them on the same principle, adapted for turning over the sod in the 
 same neat, unbroken, and handsome, but, according to their own expressed opinion, 
 erroneous manner. What the tines of the steam cultivator eflfect upon the large scale, 
 the Hancock plough does upon the ordinary scale of tillage, by animal power; and nov/ 
 that the farmers have waked up to the true nature of the operation, the machinists must 
 reform the structure of their ploughs accordingly. We shall here give one more 
 quotation from a work we have already referred to on the subject (Morton's "Cyclo- 
 ptedia of Agriculture "), it is to the following eflect : — 
 
 "We need not state here the condition in which land ought to be left by the plough, 
 either when it is intended for a seed-bed, or that it may be more speedily prepared for 
 one. Both the farmer and the philosopher agree on this point. Whether the question 
 be looked at by the eye of the practical, or of the scientific man, the answer given by 
 each is the same in fact, however different the verbiage may be in which it is expressed. 
 The one says the land should be in sound heart and healthy condition, and the other 
 means the very same thing when he says that it should be in such a state that 
 free access should be given to air and moisture, by which the manure and the soil may 
 be rapidly decomposed, or the germination of the seed rapidly effected. 
 
 " Now, in considering what mode of ploughing will most rapidly and effectually 
 bring land into this condition, it is evident we cannot reason from the operation as 
 performed on land already in a loose state ; there, indeed, no difference will be 
 perceptible between the work of two very different implements. If we are to compare 
 the work of two ploughs, it must be done on such land that the form and position of 
 the sods, as each is cut and turned over, will be preserved." 
 
 The latter part of this passage refers, we presume, to a clover-ley of one or two years' 
 standing, ploughed up at Michaelmas, for dibbling or drilling with wheat. It is evident, 
 however, that the wi-iter completely loses sight of the object which, in the fprmer part, 
 he states to be the aim both of the farmer and the philosopher ; namely, speedily to 
 prepare the best seed-bed. For, if the " form of the sod " is to be preserved in turning 
 it over, — which, indeed, appears to be the chief object, both with the constructors of 
 ploughs, and the judges by whom the prizes are awarded at the agricultural shows, — 
 
576 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 then the speedy preparation of a seed-bed is saerificed to the mere appearance of the 
 surface ; and whilst a well-pulverised soil is an essential condition of a proper seed-bed, 
 the preservation of the form of the sod, which presents it in one hard, smooth, unbroken 
 furrow-slice, leaves it in a very unfit state for the reception of the seed. It is no subject 
 of wonder, while this system is persevered in, that the wheat crop should so frequently 
 prove a partial failure. 
 
 We are led to conclude, from the general practice, that hitherto it has not been 
 thought possible to procure a seed-bed with the plough alone, and at one operation. On 
 no other principle can we account for the uuiversal endeavours of the machinists to form 
 an implement so ill adapted to that purpose. So loug ago as the beginning of the 
 present century, this subject was pointed out to them by Forsyth, in his work ou 
 Agriculture, with the view of stimulating their efforts to improve the plough. " It re- 
 quires," he says, "the serious consideration of the most accomplished mechanician; but 
 from him we may expect improvement. We have many data; we know pretty distinctly 
 what preparation will fit the ground for being the proper receptacle of the seed, and for 
 supporting and nourishing the plants ; and though it is perhaps impossible to bring it 
 into this state by the operation' of any instrument of the plough kind, we know that 
 some ploughs prodigiously excel others in reducing the stiff ground to that uniform 
 crumbling state, in Avhich it can be left by the spade. The imperfections of their 
 performance, or what yet remains to be done to bring the ground to this state, is 
 distinctly understood. It seems, then, a determinate problem (to use the language of 
 mathematicians), because the operation depends iipon the laws of mechanical nature."* 
 
 The above was written sixty years ago ; and so far from " the most accomplished 
 mechanicians" having employed their time and talents in discovering the mode of 
 effecting the grand object of preparing the seed-bed by the plough alone and at one 
 operation, not one of them has constructed one of those implements on a principle 
 calculated to produce such a result, except in the instance we have named, the inventor 
 of which was previously unknown as a machinist. Nor is it probable that at present 
 the principal implement makers will alter their mode of construction. So much capital 
 has been invested in the manufacture of modern ploughs, that they will scarcely make 
 the desired alteration in its form, until compelled by the universal voice and requirement 
 of the farmers themselves. It is probable the extension of steam cultivation will tend to 
 hasten the change ; the principal steam-plough manufacturers being now convinced of 
 the superiority of Smith's " smashing-up system," as it is called, to common ploughing. 
 We shall have occasiou to refer again to this subject when treating on steam culture. 
 
 Having thus given our opinion on the subject of the nature and requirements of 
 tillage, we shall describe next the characteristics of the different kinds of ploughs now in 
 use. It would be impossible to notice even a moderate selection of the best that have 
 been invented, which of itself would fill a folio volume. The reader will believe this 
 when we state that at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at 
 Cambridge, in 1840, one manufacturing firm (Ilansome and Co.) exhibited eighty-two 
 different models of ploughs of their own construction, for the farmers to choose from — 
 rather a difficult task we presume ; we can therefore merely describe the leading features 
 of those ploughs most approved in different parts of the country. 
 
 Ploughs may be generally divided into iv/iccl-jj/oHt/Jis, and foot or swiu(/-plouffhs, 
 * i'orsjtli'a "Priuci^ilca aud I'racticii of Agritnluia-," 1801. Vol. i. p. 223. 
 
THE PLOUGH. 577 
 
 The former require judgment in the ploughman rather than skill ; the latter^ skill rather 
 than judgment. 
 
 Tliere are two kinds of wheel-ploughs— the common one with high gallowses, chiefly 
 in use in the coimties of Norfolk and Suffolk ; and the Turn-wrest plough^ still the 
 favourite in Kent, and some few other counties. 
 
 The old Norfolk Wheel-plough is of a very complicated structure, and requires much 
 practice to use it with good effect. But this very circumstance, hy calling into exercise 
 the judgment rather than the skill of the operator, has imparted an intelligence and 
 thoughtfulness to the ploughmen c/f those counties, which distinguish them from most 
 others ; and the work of a good Norfolk ploughman is equal to that of the most skilled 
 of those who use the swing-plough. The correctness of the working consists in the 
 proper adjustment of its several parts, which require to be regulated, as the work 
 proceeds, with the irregularities of the surface of the soil. The gallowses consist of a 
 frame of wood, of a square form, and running on wheels. Between the two upright 
 parts, which are mortised into a strong square piece of wood, is a movable bar, sliding 
 up and down the frame in a groove, being fastened with pins through the upright. On 
 this sliding bar, the beam of the plough rests, and by raising or lowering it, the depth of 
 the furrow is determined. A pin is also used on the upper part of the bar, which has 
 difierent holes, by which the position of the beam may be altered, in order to regulate 
 the width of the furrow. The stilt or handle of the plough— for a good Norfolk 
 ploughman would disdain to have more than one — is firmly mortised to the head or 
 base, from which also rises the beam. The share is fixed to the sock in the usual 
 manner. The draught-chain is fixed to the lower part of the gallowses ; and to the beam 
 by a strong movable iron ring, which also assists in regulating the depth of the work ; 
 holes are pierced in the beam, in which is an iron pin, by moving which from one hole 
 to another, the beam can be raised higher or let down lower, relatively with the height 
 of the gallowses. The whipple-trees, or traces of the plough, are fastened in front of the 
 gallowses. The ploughman uses reins, which are secured to the top of the stilt by a 
 staple ; and he guides the plough with one hand, carrying his whip in the other. One 
 pair of horses only is used ; and in the spring a one-horse plough is employed, with 
 which a Norfolk man will, with ease, plough in two acres of barley in the day. 
 
 The objection to the wheel-plough is that much time is taken up in altering and 
 adjusting the several parts, to meet the irregularities of the ground, and other incidental 
 circumstances ; also the weight of the whole machinery is urged against it. It is evident, 
 however, by the amount of work that is performed with it, and the ease with which a 
 pair of light horses will turn over an acre, and sometimes more, of land in the day, that 
 neither of these objections save much weight practically, in increasing the demand of 
 power ; whilst the accuracy with which the operation is directed by the hand of a skilful 
 practitioner is remarkable. We have frequently marvelled to see a Norfolk ploughman 
 turn into one of the large breaks* of that coimty, some of which are a quarter of a mile 
 across ; and, setting up a stick at one end, draw a furrow from the other end, straight 
 as a line to it, guiding the plough with one hand, and the horses by the reins with the 
 other, the docility and intelligence of the horses being, in their measure equally 
 surprising; for horses accustomed to the work will seldom deviate much from the 
 straight line. 
 
 * A ireci is a local term for a fitld of any extent above forty or fifty acres, 
 
 P P 
 
578 AGEICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MOUEllN. 
 
 The old Norfolk wheel-plougli was formerly made almost exclusively of wood, Lut of 
 late years iron has been used in most parts of it. The two wheels also were originally 
 of the same diameter, which caused the gallowses to move constantly out of the 
 perpendicular. The reduction of the si^e, therefore, of the land-wheel is a great 
 improvement ; while the use of iron has enaljicd the manufacturer to lighten every part 
 of the implement, and to reduce the draught very considerably. 
 
 The turn-wrest plough is differently constructed from the Norfolk wheel-plough, 
 having two mould-boards, so that it can be worked continuously on the same tilth, by 
 which means the land lies all the same way, and there are no furrows except the 
 concluding one. There are several kinds of turn-wrest ploughs; and, latterly, the 
 question has arisen whether, where the land is thoroughly drained, and not very retentive, 
 there is any necessity for furrows ? In the exceptional case, there may be some 
 advantage in having deep fuiTOws, to get rid of the surface water more speedily, after 
 heavy and long-continued rain-fall. Deep culture, however, coupled with drainage, 
 will, even in the worst or most retentive soils, modify the evil. The high ridges into 
 which the land was thrown in some parts of the country, forming furrows so low that 
 two lads standing on the opposite sides of the ridge could only just sec the crown of 
 each other's hats, indicated a style of farming " more honoured in the breach than in 
 the observance." The steam plough will eventually work an important revolution in 
 the cultivation of heavy land, whatever it may eflfect on the lighter soils, on which, at 
 present, its use has not been much applied. 
 
 The old Kentish turn-wrest plough is a heavy cumbersome implement, having the 
 high gallowses of the Norfolk plough. The difierence between them consists in the 
 construction and use of the mould-boards, or turn-furrows, and the " nose-piece " or 
 "buck" and the share. This latter varies in width according to the work to be 
 performed, and ranges from two to twenty-four inches ; the latter being only iised for 
 cleaning the land. Notwithstanding the clumsy appearance of the Kentish plough, in 
 the hands of a skilful ploughman it will make excellent work to the depth of eight 
 inches, and a furrow of eleven inches in width. Four horses are almost invariably used 
 in the plough in Kent. 
 
 A very efficient turn-wrest plough has been invented by Lowcock, and is being 
 manufactured by Ransome and Co., of Ipswich. It has two mould-boards, placed end for 
 end, by which arrangement there is no turning the implement at the end of the furrow. 
 The draught-chain slides on an iron rod, bo that when the plough arrives at the end of 
 the field, the driver unfixes the handles or stilts (which are fastened to a hinge on the 
 centre of the body of the plough), and turns them over to the other end of the imple- 
 ment. The horses also, at the same time, turn to the left or right (according to the 
 direction of the land), and take their places at the other end of the plough, without 
 unfastening them from the draught-chain, which slides along the ii'on rod, to its fresh 
 place. 
 
 Smith, of Deanstone, also invented a turn-wrest plough in which the mould-boards 
 are fastened together by a cross-bar, acting on a swivel at the top of the plough, and 
 lifts either of the mould-boards out of the work, leaving the other in. Each mould- 
 board carries its own share, so that each side is a complete plough. This implement 
 has been a good deal used in Scotland, where the land is ploughed deeper in general 
 than in England. 
 
UACliUEATil SL'liSOIL, rLOUCU. 
 
 KENTISH TLIiN-Wlt£ST PLOUGH. 
 
 liUW.VltUd I'll.ZS rLOUOII. 
 
 THE DEANSTON SUBSOIL PLOUGH. 
 
 reed's subsoil plough. 
 
THE PLOUGH. 579 
 
 The ploughshare was forraerljr made of wrought iron, but in 1785 ]\Ir. llobert 
 llansome, the founder of the firm of Ransome and Co.^ of Ipswich, obtained a patent for 
 manufacturing cast-iron shares, which were very soon in universal use in tlie neighbour- 
 ing counties. Continuing to make improvements in both the form and composition, he 
 obtained another patent in 1803 for making case-bardened shares, by adding a plate 
 of steel, one-sixteenth of an inch in tliickuess, to the bottom of the share, and on the 
 land-side point. The advantages of cast-iron ploughshares — consisting in cheapness, 
 uniformity of make, facility of fixing, &c., — gave them a decided advantage over wrought, 
 or hammered iron, and Ransome's shares soon gained them a notoriety throughout the 
 kingdom, which they have ever since maintained. It was previously seldom that a 
 farmer could obtain two wrought shares alike, even when made by the same smith ; 
 and on the other hand, there were few country blacksmiths who understood the nature 
 and requirements of the ploughshare in regard to form, which oiight to vary with the 
 character of the soil ; a stony soil requiring a pointed share, and a free soil a more 
 angular one, &c. But since cast-iron was introduced, when a farmer has once dis- 
 covered the exact form of share that suits his land, he can obtain the same at all times, 
 in any number, and without the least variation in form or manufacture. 
 
 The modern wheel-ploughs, invented by Ransome and Co., of Ipswich, and Howard 
 and Co., of Bedford, are entirely made of iron, and formed on scientific principles, so as to 
 reduce both the -sveight and the draught. There are many other eminent makers, as 
 Barrett and Exall, of Reading, Hornsby and Co., Grantham, &c. The latter have 
 introduced a plough which obtained the first prize at Leeds, and which we shall describe 
 presently. It may be said that the great majority of prizes for ploughs at our public 
 shows, have been gained by Howard and Ransome; and those two firms appear to obtain 
 the largest amount of the public patronage for their ploughs. As, however, the number 
 of ploughs of different construction, made by either of these firms, is very large, we 
 shall describe only those of most general utility. 
 
 In their address to the public, calling attention to their " Champion Ploughs," 
 Messrs. Howard state that in instituting improvements in that implement, they have 
 invariably kept in view the following objects : — 
 
 " 1st. To make a plough that will cut and turn the work in the best manner, and 
 suitable to the greatest variety of "soil. 
 
 " 2nd. To obtain a form, the lightest in draught, and that will work the cleanest on 
 sticky soils. 
 
 " 3rd. To substitute wrought iron for cast, where practicable, so as to render every 
 part strong and durable, without unnecessary weight. 
 
 " 4th. To make every part free from complication, and to fit those parts subject to 
 wear or breakage, in the most simple manner, so that an ordinary ploughman shall have 
 no difficulty in replacing them when in the field. 
 
 " 5th. To make the plough that can be kept in order at the least expense, to which 
 end J. and F. Howard have paid great attention to the quality of their shares, and other 
 wearing parts." 
 
 In conformity with these conditions, the following description of the construction of 
 the several parts of their ploughs will explain to the reader how they arc fulfilled : — 
 
 " The ploughs are made principally of wrought iron, and are as light as they can be 
 made consistently with durability. The beams are ribbed or flanged at the hinder part, 
 
 p p 3 
 
580 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 which gives great strength where most liable to strain. The handles and beams are 
 made througliout in a piece, which prevents their shaking loose, and also the soil from 
 accumulating in the hinder part of the plough. 
 
 The frame, or body, into which the lever-neck is fitted, is formed so as to stand the 
 roughest usage ; and the lever-neck is so boxed in, as not to be liable to wear or breakage. 
 The socket of the share is made plain on the under side, which not only eiTectually 
 prevents its bursting, but causes the plough to run smoothly on its sole. 
 
 The shares are fixed to hair-necks of wrought iron, made upon an improved principle, 
 the raising or lowering of which gives the point greater or less pitch or inclination, as 
 the share wears, or as the state of the land requires. The superiority of this lever-neck 
 consists in its being tightened at the end instead of being fastened by a bolt through 
 the side ; and when raised or lowered, which can be done instantly, it is firmly secured 
 in a series of grooves. The accumulation of earth inside the plough, in most instances, 
 renders a lever useless, as it cannot be removed without a great deal of trouble. But in 
 this arrangement, by simply taking ofl' the end nut, it may be at once disconnected from 
 the plough, and anything preventing its free action removed. 
 
 • " The wheels, which are imequal in diameter, are fixed to the beam by strong bars, 
 attached to the uprights of the frame by sockets and screws ; and, passing through the 
 beam, are also fastened to it by strong screws. Some of the ploughs have both wheels 
 made to expand, Avhilst in others only the furrow wheel expands, the object being to 
 arrange the width between them according to the width of the furrow. The wheels are 
 capped both behind and in front, which prevents soil from getting to the axles, and also 
 the grease from escaping. This is a very important improvement, and both reduces the 
 friction and causes the wheels and axles to last much longer. 
 
 " The breasts or mould-boards are made on exact geometrical principles, so as to 
 work clean on adhesive soil, and to reduce the draught. The coulter is fastened by a 
 malleable iron clip ; it is strong and sim^jle, can be adjusted instantly, and being made 
 to slide on the beam, the angle of the coulter can be altered as required. A skim 
 coulter is attached by a wrought iron clip, and is useful in ploughing clover-leys and 
 stubbles. The draught-chain is attached to a wrought iron rod, which being fixed 
 strongly to the frame of the plough, passes through a ring at the head. The rod is 
 jointed at three parts to give more freedom to the action of the plough." 
 
 Such is the construction of the Howard Champion Plough, and the best com- 
 mentary upon the correctness of the principles on which it is founded, is the fact, that 
 in ten years Messrs. Howard have manufactured fifty thousand, and have received from 
 the Royal Agricultural Society of England fourteen first prizes for the three classes of 
 ploughs. 
 
 The ploughs manvifactured by Ransome and Co., which is, we believe, the oldest 
 firm in the trade, are the result of many years' study and reflection; and the high 
 position they have attained as machinists and implement makers in every part of the 
 world, is tiie best proof of the excellence of their work, and the efiiciency of their 
 machines and implements. Their ploughs, the variety of which we have referred to 
 above, are fitted to all kinds of work, from tm-ning a furrow five inches deep and eight 
 inches wide, to one of twelve inches deep and eighteen inches wide. Most of them have 
 trussed beams, that is, composed of two bars, strongly clamped together with bolts and 
 screws. The draught-chain is mostly h.-ced to a hake at the end of the beam, and 
 
THE PLOUGH. 581 
 
 scrapers are attacLed to the iiprights or wheel- shanks, to clear the wlieels from soil as 
 the work proceeds. There is, in most respects, a strong similarity between Howard's and 
 Ransome's ploughs, and the latter firm has been awarded as many first prizes, within one, 
 by the Royal Agricultural Society, as the former. The Lowcock iron turn-wrest plough, 
 made by Ransome and Co., is a very efficient implement for hill-side ploughing. It is a 
 great improvement upon the old Kentish plough, obviating all the objections to tliat 
 cumbrous machine ; and though strong enough for four horses, may be worked on 
 moderately strong land with two, the weight being only 3f cwts. 
 
 The plough invented by Messrs. Hornsby and Sons, Grantham, demands a special 
 notice, from the success which attended their first attempt to compete with the great 
 implement makers who have been for so long a period in the field before them. The 
 principal feature in the construction of this plough is the attachment of the share and 
 the mould-board to the sole or slade, instead of to the frame, as is common in other 
 plouglis. The advantage of this is, the facility it gives of making the beam, the handles, 
 and the frame all of solid pieces of wrought iron. The fore part of the sole is made 
 hollow, and provided with a spherical bearing. Into this the end of the lever-neck is 
 inserted; and, as it also is made spherical, it fits closely into the bearing, preventing the 
 entry of dirt or soil, which would interfere with its free action. The part of the lever 
 beyond the spherical bearing, passes through a conical opening, admitting a free move- 
 ment of the lever in all directions. The back end of the lever is attached to an adjusting 
 snug, this snug being itself adjusted to any desired height, by a bolt which passes 
 through a curved slot, and is secured to the back of the framing. The snug is provided 
 with a horizontal slot, in which a bolt is attached to the end of the lever- works ; by 
 moving this, the lever-neck is impelled in a horizontal plane, the movement in a vertical 
 plane being obtained by moving the snug in the slot of the framing. Thus, any required 
 degree of adjustment of the lever-neck is easily obtained; and with it an adjustment of 
 the share, which is attached to the lever-neck so as to give it more or less inclination to 
 the soil, or a side movement pointing it more or less to the land. The land side of the 
 plough is of greater length than the sole or slade, which secures an ease of draught, or 
 luiiformity of depth, and a facility for keeping the plough in a straight line when at 
 work.* This plough, to the surprise of all the competitors, especially the great 
 manufacturers of ploughs, gained the first prize at the Warwick meeting of the Royal 
 Agricultural Society in 1859, for both light and heavy land ploughing, and a second 
 prize for general purpose ploughing. 
 
 The foot, or swing plough, is less used in England than it once was; but in Scotland, 
 where stronger made implements are necessary, there are several kinds in use, as 
 Smallest in East Lothian, Barrowman's in Fifeshire, Clarke's in Stirlingshire, Wilks' 
 in Lanarkshire, &c. All of these have their advocates, and probably each is best suited 
 to the nature of the soil on which it is used. Those made by the English machinists 
 are generally similar to the wheel-ploiighs, less the wheels. But so little are they in 
 demand, compared with the wheel-ploughs, that the catalogues of the two large makers 
 to which we have already referred, contain only two specimens each ; and the proportions 
 in numbers maniifactured by them, compared with the wheel-ploughs, are respectively, 
 Howard and Co., 1 per cent., and Ransome and Co., from 8 to 10 per cent.* On the strong 
 
 ♦ R. S. Burn, in the Journal of Jt/riciiHiire, October, 1S59. 
 
 t Small's plongh has been in use in Scotland above eighty years, and is still the faTOurite in theLothians. 
 
583 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 lands of Essex and Suffolk, the swing-plough is still used for throwing the land into 
 small high ridges — a necessary process in the absence of thorough draining, in order to 
 get rid of the surface water. 
 
 Jtlorton states the following as the advantages of the swing-plough : — " 1. It admits 
 of being set into its work at a given depth, either shallower or deeper, by the alteration of 
 the draught-iron at the point of draught, or by increasing or decreasing the distance at 
 which the power of the horses is applied. .2. The ploughman has also the power of 
 regulating, in some degree, the depth of the furrow, by either lifting or bearing upon 
 the handles. 3. It is a plough of more simple construction than any other, and less 
 expensive in its first cost. 4. A skilful workman can plough across the ridge and furrow 
 at very nearly an uniform depth. He can work with it almost all lands, and in all 
 weathers when ploiTghing can be done at all." 
 
 The perfection of form, and efficiency of working (according to the present ideas of 
 the requirements of a plough), to which all the machinists have arrived in the construc- 
 tion of their ploughs, is such, that the superiority of one over another appears to be 
 purely accidental, depending upon, possibly, a slight difference in the structure of some 
 apparently unimportant part, or on the peculiar adaptation of an implement to the soil, 
 or to the skill of the ploughman, &c., &c. All profess to make them on purely scientific 
 principles, and with due regard to the laws of mechanics and gravitation. The truth of 
 our remark is shown by the list of prizes for ploughs at Warwick, which runs a.s 
 follows : — 
 
 liioHT Land Ploughs. 
 
 Prize. 
 Hornsby and Sons . . . 1st. 
 Ransome and Sons . . . 2nd. 
 Howard and Co. . . . 3rd. 
 Hensman and Sou . . . 4th. 
 
 Geneeal Purpose Ploughs. 
 
 Heavy Land Ploughs. 
 
 Trize. 
 
 Prize. 
 
 Howard and Co. . . . Ist. 
 
 Hornsby and Sons . . . 1st. 
 
 Horusby and Sons . . . 2nd. 
 
 Howard and Co. . . . 2nd 
 
 Ransome and Sons . . . 3rd. 
 
 Ransome and Sons . . . 3rd. 
 
 Bushy Agricidtural Society 4lh. 
 
 Ball 4th. 
 
 Hensnian and Son . . . 5th. 
 
 Bushy Agricultm'al Society 5th. 
 
 The plough of Messrs. Hornsby and Sons appears to have deviated more than any 
 other from the general construction of the implement of the most celebrated makers, by 
 which it has gained greater sharpness, whilst a sharper curve of the mould-board 
 disposes of the furrow-slice in the most expeditious manner. 
 
 It is now, we believe, generally admitted that nothing is gained by increased length 
 of the xilough. Upon a first reflection it might be supposed that by extending the 
 mould-board without increasing the breadth at the hinder part, the sharpness of the 
 angle from the point of the share would add to the facility of turning the sod, and 
 requli-e less force to draw the plough through the ground. But besides the process of 
 cutting and lifting, the plough must also shove the earth on one side, and by increasing 
 the length of the mould-board we increase in proportion the quantity of earth to be thus 
 acted upon. It is found that the power necessary for thus forcing a body of earth 
 horizontally along the ground is nearly equal to its weight, while it remains upon the 
 
 * Messrs. Ransome state that swing-plonghs preponderate in Essex, a few are used in Suffolk; they are common in 
 Lincolnshire, and gencrall) arc used on strong lauds, where wheels would clog; on stony rocky lands, wl.ere ploughs are 
 often thrown out of work ; and on new or uncultivated grounds, where the ronghuess of the surface precludes the use of 
 wheels. Messrs. Howard state that swing-ploughs prevail partially in Essex, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Liucolnshu-e ; and 
 •till more in Yorkshire, Cumberlaud, Durham, aud Northumberland. 
 
THE PLOUGH. 583 
 
 mould-board j nothing therefore is gained by the elongation of the plough, but a greater 
 facility in first penetrating the earth, which is the work of the share and coulter; 
 while the implement itself is rendered heavier, requiring more power to draw it, and the 
 soil is turned over, especially if an adhesive one, in a condition unfavourable to its after 
 comminution. On the other hand, it has been found that increased steadiness is gained 
 by increasing the length of the sole, and the action of the plough is less affected by the 
 inequalities of the ground, and the occurrence of stones and other obstacles. The main 
 objects, therefore, in the construction of the plough should be facility of cutting and 
 penetrating the sod ; sufficient weight and length of frame to secure steadiness of 
 motion ; and a quick riddance of the furrow-slice in such a state as to facilitate the 
 subsequent operations in forming a seed-bed. 
 
 The coulter should, in all cases, be made of wrought iron, with a steel edge ; about 
 2| inches wide, 3 feet 10 inches long, and thick enough to resist the concussion of a 
 stone or other obstruction. The lower end should be curved on both front and back, 
 forming a point in the centre, although some are made curving only to the front. The 
 land side should be straight or flat, but the furrow side tapering from the back to the 
 edge. The angle at which it should be set should vary according to the work to be 
 performed. It may be set at forty-five degrees for unploughed laud, as clover stubbles, 
 old pastures, &c., but in ploughing fallows and loose ground, it may be upright, or even 
 still more backward. Skim coulters are frequently used in ploughing stubbles ; and on 
 breaking up old pastures, a wheel coulter is also employed, having a steel cutting-edge. 
 The point of the common coulter should be exactly on a line with the point of the share, 
 and, when ploughing laiid free from stones, an inch or two in advance of the share ; but 
 if the land is stony, the point ought to be almost in contact with it, otherwise a stone 
 may fix itself between them, and throw the plough out of work, or, at least, interfere 
 with its free action. 
 
 A friction- wheel has been introduced of late years into the body of the plough, the 
 object of which is to lessen the friction of the sole, and to regulate the depth of the 
 farrow by fixing more precisely the pitch of the plough. "Whether the first object is 
 not obtained (if so at all) at an expense of greater friction, and encumbrance to the 
 implement, by the additional weight of the wheel, and the accumulation of soil it 
 necessarily gathers when the land is wet and sticky, is a serious question. If tlie plough 
 actually bears upon the wheel sufficiently hard to relieve the sole, the friction must be 
 great upon its axle, and will very soon wear it loose enough to give it an irregular and 
 oscillating motion, very injurious to the steady action of the implement. Even, there, 
 fore, if the friction on the sole does exist to the extent supposed — which is doubtful, in 
 the case of a well-constructed plough — applying the wheel appears to be a remedy as 
 injurious as the disease. 
 
 The double-breasted plough was, we believe, first used in Northumberland, for 
 throwing the land into single-bout ridges, on which to drill turnips, mangold-wnrzel, &c. 
 The usual plau is, to form the land into s\ich ridges, and then deposit tlie manure in the 
 furrows ; after which, the ridges are split by the plough, which turns the soil over the 
 manure. The seed is deposited on the top of the ridge, a light roller being attached to 
 the drill in front, to level the soil before it. Since the introduction of condensed 
 mairures, this mode of sowing is less practised ; but the double-breasted plough is useful 
 for throwing the stubbles into ridges after harvest, that the soil may receive as much 
 
584 AGRIGULTUEE, ANCIKNT AND JIODEHN. 
 
 benefit as possible from the frosts of winter. It is also used for moulding up root crops, 
 beans, peas, &c., and for setting out water furrows. The breasts or mould-boards are 
 usually made to expand or contract, so as to regulate the width of the trench, according 
 to the purpose for which it is intended. 
 
 Subsoil-ploughs are coming more and more into use every year. They are generally 
 made for stirring, not bringing up, the subsoil, and usually follow in the furrow made 
 by the common plough, going to the depth of from six to eight inches, or more, below 
 it. The benefit of thus opening to the air the hitherto impervious pan formed by the 
 action of the plough for centuries, and affording facility to the roots of plants to 
 penetrate freely into new ground, is now almost universally admitted ; and that the more 
 the air is allowed to permeate the soil, the more vigorous will vegetation proceed. The 
 old notion that to break through the pan would destroy the ground, is become obsolete, 
 and deep tillage and subsoiling, coupled with thorough drainage, are the acknowledged 
 tests of high farming and good husbandry. Besides these beneficial advantages, sub- 
 soiling, by opening and loosening the earth, allows the escape of the surface water with 
 greater speed, and thus prevents it from chilling the soil and retarding the growth of the 
 plants : and when performed on land well drained, tends to advance vegetation more 
 than manure. The temperature of land thus treated will always be some degrees higher 
 than that of laud uudrained, and with the subsoil undisturbed. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 THE CULTIVATOK. 
 
 This implement is also called a Grubber and a Scarifier, in which latter capacity it is 
 equally useful. It was first invented by a Mr. William Lester, of Northampton, to 
 whom was awarded for it a silver medal from the Society for the Encouragement of 
 Arts. It is exceedingly probable that the inventor took the hint from the harrow, 
 of which it was a modification ; the frame being raised on wheels, to regulate the depth 
 of its working, and the tines elongated and rendered more oblique or curved forward 
 towards the points. The frame was, in the first instance, made in an exact triangular 
 form, and the teeth or shares so placed on it as to cut or disturb all the ground to the 
 required depth. Great improvements have of late been made in it, both in the form of 
 the frame and the tyies. In number these range from five to eleven, and they are 
 either sharp-pointed or have a broad spatula instead. The pointed tine is perhaps most 
 adapted to pierce the subsoil, into which it enters ; but it is a question whether the 
 broad tines do not more effectually disturb the whole of the ground through which tlicy 
 pass. The form, too, of the frame is now either triangular, semi-square, or of auy form, 
 according to the taste of the maker. Cross-bars are also introduced, to which the tiues 
 
THE CULTIVATOR. 585 
 
 are fixed, instead of to the outside frame only ; and they usually have two or more sets 
 of tines, from pointed to broad, to suit the work they have to perform. 
 
 The broad-edged tines are used in paring the stubbles, in the first instance, for the 
 purpose of cutting up the weeds and twitch grass ; and when these are got rid of, the 
 narrow or pointed tines are put on, to open and stir the land. In the spring it is again 
 brought into requisition, to cultivate the land to the depth of the furrow of the 
 previous ploughing. In this operation the pointed teeth are also used, by which the 
 twitch grass and other weeds are brought to the surface, to be collected by tlie harrows 
 afterwards, these being also used previously, to level the ground in order that the 
 cultivator may act uniformly upon the whole of the soil. The small five-tined imple- 
 ment requires only two strong horses ; but those with seven tines, or upwards, cannot 
 be worked with less than four horses, or more, according to the number of tines and 
 the condition of the land. They are now made wholly of iron, sometimes cast, and at 
 others wrought or hammered. The latter are the lightest ; but it is a question whether 
 the weight of the cast-iron implement is not an advantage, enabling it to take a more 
 firm hold of the soil, and to work with more steadiness. It requires, however, more 
 power to work it, but it costs considerably less. 
 
 There are several different modifications of this implement, all of which have at 
 different times received testimonials to the excellence of their working. The followin 
 may be considered the most approved by the public : — 
 
 e> 
 
 Barrett and Exall's Cat's-claw-drag. 
 
 Kirkwood's Grubber. 
 
 Ransome's Indian Cultivator. 
 
 XJley's Cultivator. 
 
 Eiddell's Scarifier. 
 
 Finlayson's Harrow. 
 
 Coleman's Cultivator. 
 
 Smith's Grubber. 
 Cottam and Ilallen's Scarifier. 
 Earl Ducie'a Cultivator. 
 Teuuaut's Grubber. 
 Burtall's Broad-share Plough. 
 Howard's Scarifier. 
 
 The form of the teeth has much to do with the efficiency of the cultivator, and this 
 varies with the kind of work to be performed, being either pointed or more or less 
 broad, whether in the arrow-head form or fiat and square. Kirkwood's Grubber was, 
 we believe, the first invented with an apparatus for lifting the tines out of the work, by 
 elevating the frame to which they are attached. It was in 1830 that this implement 
 was brought out in its improved efficient form, and it has been subject to few alterations 
 since that period to change its character. The principal new feature is the extension 
 of the axle of the hind wheels, which, in the original machine, was so short as to place 
 the wheels close to the lever. By lengthening the axle, they are now on the outside of 
 the extreme tines, and besides this advantage, by giving the machine a wider basis, 
 it is rendered far more steady in working. 
 
 The frame and the carriage constitute two distinct parts, connected together by 
 means of the apparatus for raising the tine-frame, and a joint rod, which is common to 
 both. The whole, except the wheels, are made of wrought irpn. The tine-frame is, in 
 form, an irregular triangle, one of the sides being extended beyond the apex, in order to 
 receive the fore wheel attached to the lifting apparatus, which is placed between the 
 clamps of the tine-frame, and secured by a bolt, which acts as an axle. A rod is 
 fastened to the upper end of the bar of the fore wheel, and reaches to the other end of 
 the frame, where it is connected with the handles of the machine by tiU) strong bars. 
 
586 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Tlie lever is attached to the lifting apparatus, ■which, when the machine is at work, 
 remains in a slanting position. By pulling the lever, the tines are lifted out of the 
 work, heing elevated hy the fore wheel and the straightening of the apparatus at the 
 hinder part of the frame. The extreme length of the tine-frame is 6 feet 6 inches, and 
 the extreme breadth, at tlie wide end, 4 feet 2 inches. The tines, of which there are 
 seven, are IJ inch by J inch in thickness, curved towards the point, which is flattened 
 out to Ij or 1| inch in breadth. In length they are 20 inches, and can be set to any 
 depth their length admits of, by an iron wedge. 
 
 The carriage consists of the axle, which bears the two hind wheels and the two 
 handles or levers, through which it passes, and is fixed by cotterels on each side. To 
 the level's are attached the joint rods, at the distance of 13i inches from the centre of 
 the axle. Two upright bars, termed the " bridle," are also bolted to the levers to act 
 as a fulcrum to the joint-rod, to which they are attached, when it is necessary to lift the 
 tine-frame out of the work. The levers are -1| feet in length from the axle, and are 
 terminated by wooden handles, being united to, and supported near, the ends by a 
 stay and a curved bar. The hind wheels, which support the carriage, are 22 inches in 
 diameter; and that supporting the fore part is 13 inches in diameter, and works upon 
 a crank lever. It is the curved form of this lever, which is attached to the front of the 
 tine-frame by a pin which assists to raise the frame out of the work, the upper end of 
 the lever being joined to the connecting bar, with which it acts. 
 
 All those cultivators or grubbers comprising an apparatus for lifting the tines out 
 of the ground, have taken Kirkwood's invention for the model, altering or improving 
 upon it according to their own ideas of its requirements. There are, however, considerable 
 differences in the form of the tines, some being more curved than others, and some 
 having a broad share, with two wings or flanges. Tennant's Grubber has a swan-necked 
 tine, curving upwards from the frame about 3^ inches before bending downwards, by 
 which arrangement the weeds, instead of accumulating at the top of the tine, are 
 carried over the top of the supporting bar, when forced iipwards by the action of the 
 tine upon them. It has an angular end, and is 2 inches broad at the widest part of 
 the end or spatula, 1\ inch thick at the back, and |ths of an inch at the front, which 
 is rounded. 
 
 Coleman's Cultivator is rather a favourite with the farmers. The fr^me of this imple- 
 ment is of wrought iron, and is G feet in length by 2 feet 10 inches in width at the 
 hinder part. It has five tines swung on bolts J inch in diameter. The front wheel is 
 16 inches diameter, and the two hind wheels 2 feet 4 inches. The barrel-spindle is 
 hollow, and 2 feet 10 inches long. It works in sockets at its ends, and has snugs pro- 
 jecting from its njiper side. These are connected with the tines by the upper ends of the 
 connecting rods which are inserted in the mortise-holes in the snugs and fastened by pins 
 through corresponding holes. The other ends of the connecting rods are inserted in the 
 mortise in the upper part of the tines, and also secured by pins. The tines are attached 
 to the frame by bolts or pins, passing through a hole, of which there are several to regu- 
 late the depth of the working. The tines are 2 feet 10 inches in length, are made of 
 Avrought iron 2^ inches broad by 1 inch thick, and are considerably curved. They are 
 supported by the central bar, which is acted upon on its centres by a handle, which moves 
 in a slot of the semicircular guard, and is retained in it in any required position hy 
 passing a pin through corresponding holes in the guard and handle. It is worked with 
 
THE CULTIVATOR 587 
 
 shares, spuds, or points, according to the work required to be done, and ranging from 
 I5 to 12 inches in width. 
 
 Beutall's Broad-share Cultivator, was invented by Mr. E. R. Beutall, of Heybridge, 
 Essex, and is extensively used for eradicating weeds, and opening the soil of the stubble 
 lands. The beam is of wrought iron, with a cross-bar bolted to it, on which move the 
 hind wheels, whilst the fore wheel is fastened to the beam. There are three tines, the 
 centre one being fixed to the beam, and the other two to the cross-bar at equal dis- 
 tances from the beam end. The stilts, or handles, are secured by a bolt to an iron stay 
 attached to the cross-bar. Scrapers are provided for the purpose of keeping the wheels 
 clear of soil. This implement is made very strong, aud is exceedingly useful in clearing 
 the stubbles of all kinds of weeds, and preparing the land for the spring ploughing. 
 
 Finlayson's Grubber has a lever connected with the fore wiieel at one end and 
 reaching to the hind part of the implement, where it is supported by an upright curved 
 bar. When it is required to lift the tines out of work, the conductor bears upon the 
 lever, which brings the bar of the fore wheel up, and lifts the tines out of the ground. 
 "When this implement was invented it was much employed, others of more simple aud 
 less cumbrous construction having almost driven it out of use in its original form, 
 but an improvement of it by Scoular is much in use in Scotland. 
 
 The Uley Cultivator is a very efficient implement. The tines in this invention are 
 lifted out of the ground by a worm turned with a handle and acting upon a wheel. 
 The handle being turned round, moves the cog-wheel which is fixed to the axle of the 
 hind wheels. To the axlc-Avheel is also fixed, by a pinion, the uprights of the frame 
 which bears the tines, so that by turning the wheel, the frame is acted upon ; and for 
 every inch the axle-wheel is thus turned the framework is lifted half an inch ; and the 
 next upright, half way between the ends of the frames, being also lifted an inch, the fore 
 part of the frame is also lifted half an inch. The time occupied in working the axle- 
 wheel, which must take several turns of the worm to produce the effect, is the only 
 objection to this plan, which, in other respects, is very efficient. 
 
 The Uley Cultivator is made wholly of cast-iron, and is consequently much heavier 
 than if wrought iron was used. It is, therefore, much cheaper ; but at the same time 
 requires more power to work it, especially when the land is moist, and the narrow wheels 
 sink into the ground. It is said that the additional weight gives steadiness to the 
 implement, and a more firm hold on the ground. But it is estimated that of two 
 machines of five tines each, the Uley Cultivator requires three horses to perform the 
 work that another of wrought iron would do with two. Notwithstanding this drawback, 
 the Uley Cultivator, improved by Earl Ducie, has received several first prizes — a proof 
 that the excellence of the work compensated for any defects the implement might 
 in other respects possess. Morton is of opinion that if the light form and simple 
 leverage of Scoular's Finlayson-Harrow could be combined with the higher framework 
 and better arrangement of tines of the Uley Cultivator, it would be superior to any 
 other implement of its class now in use. And as the value of this description of 
 machine is much higher appreciated than formerly, he reconmiends that attention 
 should be paid to the improvement of this form of it, in order to remedy its known 
 defects. 
 
 Messrs. Howard, of Bedford, have invented a wrought iron Zigzag Lever Scarifier, the 
 frame of which is made of ribbed iron, strong and light. The tiues are arranged in a zigzag 
 
588 AOEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 position, which diminishes their liability to choke where the land is foulj while their form 
 prevents them from cutting or breaking the couch-grass roots into short lengths, rather 
 drawing them out from the loosened soil and leaving them on the surface. The imple- 
 ment is raised out of the work by merely releasing the lever, when the advance of the 
 horses instantly lifts the tines out of the ground. The number of tines is from seven 
 to eleven, and the weight of the whole from 4| to 6| cwt. 
 
 The original Cultivator, invented by Lester, had points about its construction which, 
 perhaps, it would have been well not to have lost sight of. Its purpose was the pul- 
 verisation of tenacious soils that have been once ploughed, and was a very simple 
 implement. It consisted of a straight beam, at the hinder part of which were two 
 handles. A semicircular cross-bar was fixed to the beam near the lower end of the 
 handles, and at each end were a number of holes. Two strong bars, movable at the 
 fore part upon a pivot, which united them to the beam, expanded themselves to form an 
 angle, the hinder parts being rested upon the cross-bar, to which they were secured by 
 pins in the holes of the bar, and corresponding ones in the side bars. These were made 
 to expand or contract by moving them nearer together or further off, on the cross-bar. 
 Three wheels, one in front and two behind, all of iron, bore the implement, and seven 
 shares or tines were fixed to the side-bars at regular distances. The depth to which the 
 machine worked, was regulated by raising or lowering the iron bars of the wheels iu 
 their sockets in the cross-bar. 
 
 When the machine was employed on fresh land, the side-bars were expanded as widely 
 as the length of the cross-bar would admit. As the soil became looser they were brought 
 nearer, so that the shares were placed closer, and pulverised the soil more effectually. 
 " In working a rough fallow, therefore, the Cultivator should be set for its greatest 
 expansion, and contracted in proportion as the clods are reduced.'^ It was asserted 
 by Lester that one man and a boy with six horses, would do the work as eflectually as 
 six ploughs; and a Mr. Shaw, of Cotton-End, iu Bedfordshire, who, in 1800, used it on 
 a turnip fallow, was able to scuffle off seven acres per day with six horses. 
 
 It appears to us that this faculty of expansion and contraction is a principle whicli 
 ought not to have been abandoned in the improvements that have been made in the 
 construction of the Cultivator — especially where only one is kept, as it would do away 
 with the necessity of a second, which to a small farmer is an object. There would be 
 no difficulty, we presume, in combining this principle with the present improvements 
 of the machines. The only objection to it was, that by the contraction and expan- 
 sion, the points of the shares were in a slight degree moved out of the direct line ; but 
 this does not appear to have been any impediment to its working. 
 
 After the first invention of the Scarifier by Lester, it appears to have lain in a 
 manner dormant for many years, few having been found to avail themselves of it ; until 
 !Mr. Pusey, who saw at once its value as a cultivating machine, gave his opinion of it to 
 the public. This brought it into general notice, and since that time it has become an object 
 of attention, both with the farmer and the machinists ; and these latter have modified 
 it to suit every possible method of stirring and cleaning the soil. There are now few 
 large farms without the Cultivator or the Grubber; and the successful efforts of Mr. 
 Smith to apply it in connection witli steam-power, has given it a still wider sphere 
 of operation. It is worthy of observation that Mr. Pusey foresaw this application of 
 it, as he showed by the following passage : " I will venture to say, what may appear 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION. 589 
 
 tlieoreticalj that if ever steam be successfully employed in ciiltivation, it will probably 
 be less by ploughing or digging, than with an implement like one of these cultivators." 
 Whether Smith took the hint from this remark^ and constructed his Steam Culti- 
 vator according to it, we know not ; but, certainly, as we shall be able to show when we 
 come to treat of steam culture, his " smashing-up " system is a practical illustration 
 both of the penetration of Mr. Pusey and of the value of the Grubber as a cultivating 
 implement. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 STEAM CUITIVATION. 
 
 The application of steam-power to the purposes of husbandry, and especially to that of 
 the cultivation of the soil, is now an accomplished fact, patent to every one. Its 
 introduction into the manufacturing industries of the country, and as a propelling power 
 for the conveyance of travellers and merchandise, made it only a question of time when 
 it should be applied also in agriculture, so as wholly or partially to supersede animal 
 power. The advantages, inherent, direct, and collateral, residting from its use are so 
 great that wherever it has once established itself there is no receding. More than that, 
 having been applied in what may be called an experimental trial to husbandry, it 
 cannot stop at that point. It was a favourite saying of the inventor of railways, that 
 " Steam and the rail were man and wife, and that no power on earth ought to separate 
 them." 
 
 It will be said that Stephenson was a railway man, and that the rail was his hobby ; 
 that he saw the application of steam only through a railway medium. This may be 
 true, but the remark was not the less just. And in regard to husbandry, no one wiU 
 venture to affirm that the present modes of applying steam to the cultivation of the soil 
 nre fulfilling its ultimate mission ; and that nothing remains to be done but to improve 
 the present methods of application. The inventors have not hitherto got beyond 
 adapting the power to the condition of the land, and are therefore compelled to resort to a 
 clumsy and roundabout way of accomplishing the object, very little less expensive than 
 the plough, and requiring a combination of horse-power, man-power, and steam-power. 
 It is a question indeed, whether the small saving of expense by the present use of steam- 
 power is not more than absorbed by the excess in the general expenses of the farm. 
 
 We are aware that the benefits arising from even these applications of a new power, in 
 the more effectual, more expeditious, and more timely preparation of the land, are 
 productive of larger crops, and therefore make ample amends for the expense of steam- 
 power, even if it be greater in the aggregate than that of the plough. The same might have 
 been urged by the railway companies for charging the passengers as high or higher 
 fares than those under the stage-coach system. They might say, " You travel quicker, 
 by which you save time, and are enabled to transact more business, and your merchandise 
 is received in one-fom-th of the time it formerly required in transit ; and are not these 
 suf&cieut advantages without any reduction of expense ? " But whilst it is clear that 
 
590 AGRICULTUHE, ANCIENT AND MODERN 
 
 railways cau convey passengers and goods at less tlxan half the expense of the ancient 
 systemSj the public -would scarcely tolerate a scale of charges equal, or approaching, to 
 those under the reigu of the old stage-coach and waggon. 
 
 We may apply this reasoning to the use of steam in husbandry, and affirm that it wdll 
 not have fulfilled its mission until it reigns alone on the farms, and has cheapened the 
 processes of husbandry to a scale commensurate with those of the common railways, 
 which now intersect England with a network of iron, affording facilities of locomotion 
 undreamt of by our forefathers, and banishing almost every other mode of travelling 
 out of the country. In like manner, steam-power in husbandry must eventually 
 supersede all other power, except that of mind ; and to this consummation must both 
 the machinist and the agriculturist steadily direct their attention and their efforts. We 
 look upon the present state of the question as a transition one, and the attempt to adapt 
 steam-power to the existing conditions of the land, as a struggle to bend an unyielding 
 agent to incongruous circumstances. The immense lengths of ropes, the drums, the 
 anchors, and the whole paraphernalia of the present cultivating apparatus, have nothing 
 essentially to do with steam-power, which is of too simple a nature to require, or put 
 np long with, such clumsy, and, at the same time, complex arrangements. This struggle 
 however, irrational and imphilosophical as it is, will still continue untU the true mission 
 of steam is comprehended by the agriculturist, and the conviction dawns upon his mind — 
 that instead of adapting steam-potver to the condition of the land, this latter must submit 
 to such modifications as shall prepare it for the impoi'tant change which the supremacy of 
 steam-power involves. The land in fact must yield to steam as its master, and look 
 forward to the uniou of the " man and his wife " on its surface as the " ultima tkvle " of 
 steam culture. "When that event is consummated — and that it will be so, sooner or later, 
 we feel assured — the land will be cultivated infinitely better than by, and at one-third 
 of the cost of, the present system ; whilst the produce will be enormously increased. Tlic 
 labour of the farm, though not less in aggregate amount, will then be intellectual rather 
 than onerously manual — calculated to raise both the moral and physical character and 
 condition of the peasant, and tending to husband his powers, increase his usefulness, and 
 lengthen his existence. 
 
 One of the most important results of the application of steam-power in* husbandry, is 
 the facility it affords for deep culture and subsoiling. This may be 'considered a modern 
 invention, for the time is not long past when it was looked upon as almost sacrilegious to 
 break through the pan and intrude upon the sanctity of the subsoil. There are some 
 farmers still who do not believe even in thorough draining, and who look upon the 
 subsoil as holy ground, not to be touched by the profane hand of the ploughman ; yet 
 this is one of the most important improvements of the present day, and is conducing 
 more than anything else to the amelioration of the soil, and the increase of production. 
 The following remarks on this subject are taken from Stephens' treatise " On Deep Land 
 Cultui-e," and are much to the purpose : — 
 
 " In common practice the surface soil devoted to the use of plants seldom exceeds 
 seven or eight inches in depth, and of that space a good mauiu'ing of farm-yard dung 
 occupies a considerable portion. This, assisted by a special mamu-e, stimulates the 
 growth of the roots of the cereal plants tq. an expansion beyond what the soil allotted to 
 their growth affords room for. Roots in a confined space, supplied with manure, become 
 crowded together, decline in health, and their growth is checked. The plants may still 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION. 581 
 
 briug forward their produce to a fine degree of quality, but it will neither be so large nor 
 so valuable as the manure bestowed, and the labour spent on the soil, would ivarrant the 
 expectation of. "Whence, then, does such an unexpected disappointment arise ? From 
 the subsoil, though thoroughly dried, being left in a hard state. Were it in a state of 
 pulverisation, like the surface soil, the roots, whenever stimulated by the manures, 
 would strike down into the subsoil ; and the more they were encouraged in growth, the 
 larger they would become, their fibres would increase in numbers, and they would 
 stretch out and reach the bottom of the pulverised soil. The crowding of the roots in 
 the surface of the soil would be entirely avoided, and the baneful consequences of loss 
 of health and stunteduess of growth in the plant, would be replaced by vigour of stem 
 and leaves, strength of constitution, and capability to yield the largest quantity of 
 produce. Were farm-yard dung bm'ied deep in the pulverised subsoil, and the embryo 
 plant encouraged in the pulverised soil by means of a special manure, the limits of the 
 growth of the entire system of the plant — stem, leaves, and roots — would then only be 
 restrained by the power of the local climate, or the geuei'al character of the season." 
 
 Scott Burn, also, writing on the same subject, says : — "As to the value of a thorough 
 pulverisation of the soil, agriculturists long divided, are fast approximating in opinion. 
 Few, indeed, are ignorant of the immense advantages resulting from allowing the 
 atmospheric influences to act upon the soil ; but some still incline to the opinion that it 
 may be carried too far, more especially when in combination with thorough drainage ; 
 this opinion being held in consequence of supposing that, in the case of heavy rains, the 
 soluble matters will be washed out and conveyed to the drains, which then, in point 
 of fact, will act as sewers, to carry off the fertilising matter from the land in the same 
 way as street sewers carry off the exuvise of towns. 
 
 " Those who urge this objection are not aware of, or do not consider, the absorptive 
 power of sods, by which they divest the rain-water, not only of the fertilising matters 
 taken up from the manures, but also those which the rain-water itself brings, from the 
 atmosphere. Eeeeut experiments, by the most eminent chemists, have demonstrated 
 this absorptive property of soils, which also is increased by the action of the atmos- 
 phere. iSTow, it is only by deep culture and opening up the subsoil, that its aeration 
 can be effected. Undisturbed, it must, if at all adhesive, remain impervious to the 
 roots of plants, and unameliorated either by the action of the air, the manure, or the 
 rain." 
 
 That plants require a depth of loose mould to root in, beyond the six or eight inches 
 usually allowed them, is manifest wherever they have the opportunity of pushing down- 
 wards. We have seen the roots of wheat taken from the side of a gravel-pit six feet in 
 length. Lucerne will strike down twelve feet in such a soil, but will not thrive at all in 
 a clay soil, where the subsoil has not been disturbed. The turnip and maugold-wurzel 
 are equally anxious to seek their nutriment from the subsoil, as well as from the upper ; 
 and, in point of fact, all our cultivated vegetables exhibit the same tendency, and by an 
 increase of vigour prove the benefit they derive from deep tillage.* 
 
 Another advantage derivable from deep culture and perfect pulverisation of the soil, 
 is the more uniform moisture of the land whether by attracting the dew from above or 
 
 * The writer once occupied a field, part of which had been trenched with the spade ; the rest ploughed in the usual 
 manner, six or seven inches deep. The difference in the crops was perceptible for at least twelve years, which was the 
 time he held the land after operation. The subsoil was a gravel. 
 
592 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the evaporation from beneatli. It is well known that a TveU-comminuted and drained 
 soil is some degrees warmer on the average than an undrained and imperfectly tilled 
 one. This phenomenon is easily accounted for. Whilst heavy rains pass through the 
 one, leaving only the fertilising effects behind, the dews are attracted from above, and 
 the vapours from beneath, and both are retained, so that in drought the well-cultivated 
 soil suffers notliing in comparison with that, under which the subsoil is impervious, 
 leaving the six or seven inches above it to all the inconveniences of a burning sun and 
 the absence of moisture. 
 
 It is gratifying to see that these opinions begin to prevail amongst the farmers, who 
 were formerly opposed to such innovations. So recently as ten years since, one of the most 
 eminent of these gave it as his opinion, that " the test of perfection in the work of a 
 plough is, that the furrow-slice shall lie, after being turned over, in a perfectly straight 
 line, not only unbroken but even uncracked.'^ If appearance was everything that is 
 required this agricultural magnate was right. But the question is, how long would a 
 stiff clay, thus laid in brick-fashion, have to continue exposed to the atmosphere — 
 especially in a wet time — before a harrow would have any effect upon it ? and how many 
 subsequent operations would be required to bring it into a proper state for a seed-bed ? 
 These are questions which do not appear even to have entered the mind of the person 
 referred to; yet they are vital ones, which have since received such a solution as has 
 exposed the absurdity of the opinion, and the little acquaintance of him who asserted it 
 with the nature and Requirements of plants, or of the soil on which they are grown. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY 
 
 We can go no fm-ther back than to the beginning of tlie seventeenth century to fiud the 
 first problem put forth of the application of steam as a motive power. In the year 1618 
 David Ramsay and Thomas Wildgosse patented an invention comprehending " Newc, 
 apte, or compendious formes or kindes of engines or iustrumentes, and other profitable 
 invencons, wayes, and meanes, for the good of our commonwealth, as well as to ploughe 
 grounde without horses or oxen, and to enrich and make better and more fertill, as well 
 barren peate, salte, and sea-sand, as inland and upland grounde, within our Kingdomes 
 of England and Ireland, and our Domynyon of Wales ; as also to make boates for the 
 carryage of burthens and passengers runn upon the water as swifte in calmes, and more 
 saff in stormes, than boates full-sayled in great wyndes." This patent was renewed, or 
 others taken out, in 1630 and 1634 ; but it does not appear that Ramsay was able to 
 persuade his countrymen of the feasibility of his plans. In fact, the little knowledge 
 possessed at that time of the physical sciences, renders it more than doubtful whether it 
 was possible to carry out the plan with efficiency and safety. At any rate, Ramsay was 
 born two hundred years before his time, and his invention died with him. 
 
 Ramsay appears to have had a contemporary, if not a competitor, in William Parhamj 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. 593 
 
 who, in conuection with other persons, patented a similar invention, extending also to 
 ploughing without horses or oxen ; and forty years after, Francis Moore took out several 
 patents for machines dispensing with animal power in culture and navigation. He 
 professed to draw coaches and waggons with it, to do ploughing, harrowing, and every 
 other hranch of husbandry, and to use it in manufactures where horse-power was 
 employed. These inventions also appear to have attracted little attention, or, at least, 
 little support, and to have died a natural death, without leaving behind them any records 
 of the modes of working them. 
 
 About one hundred years later, Richard L. Edgeworth, an Irish gentleman, the 
 father of the celebrated Maria Edgeworth, produced an engine, carrying an " endless 
 road " with it, the plan and construction of which were very similar to those of the 
 engine patented by the late Mr. 'Boy dell. Many other schemes of a similar character 
 were started towards the close of the last and beginning of the present century, when 
 Watts' genius had given to the steam-engine an endui'able standing in the country. 
 But although manufacture had answered the call to prepare for those wondrous changes 
 which have since taken place in its industrial arrangements, the time was scarcely arrived 
 for agriculture — always the last to submit to innovation — to adopt a system which would 
 upset all its preconceived ideas andopinions, and hand it over to aposver, then itself in 
 its infancy, of which it knew nothing, except that it was really dangerous in the hands of 
 unskilful persons. All the systems up to 1832, of which there were many, proved 
 abortions, although some of them, in the hands of a Fowler or a Howard, might have 
 been rendered available. In that year Mr. John Heathcote, a lace manufacturer in 
 Devonshire, and a member of Parliament, brought out and patented his celebrated plan 
 for draining and cultivating land by an entire new set of machines and apparatus. 
 
 Assisted in his undertaking by Josiah Parkes, afterwards consulting engineer to the 
 Royal Agricultural Society of England, Mr. Heathcote brought out his engine on the 
 1st of April, 1834. It appears that he intended it specially to cultivate and reclaim bog- 
 land, for on this occasion he drove it over a mile and a half of undrained bog. A plough 
 was constructed by Parkes and applied to it in 1836, which, on being tried, performed 
 admirably, laying the furrow-slice as straight as an arrow, being the first time known at 
 present of land having been ploughed by steam. Mr. Howard, from whose paper on 
 the history of the steam-plough we have taken these particulars, is of opinion that had 
 Mr. Heathfote and Mr. Parkes adapted their invention to ploughing on ordinary land 
 instead of to the reclamation and cultivation of bog-land, they would have succeeded. 
 As it was, after expending £12,000, it was given up. Yet the plan was very similar to 
 those which now engage the attention and meet the approbation of the public. It 
 consisted of an engine travelling along the headland on one side of a field, and an 
 anchor on the other side. When working on bog-land an " endless web " for forming 
 a road was used. The cultivating implements -were drawn backwards and forwards ou 
 the same plan as in Fowler's system ; and it is probable that all the more modern systems 
 now in use are modifications of Heathcote's. The Highland and Agricultural Society of 
 Scotland awarded to Mr. Heathcote £100 towards defraying the expenses incurred in 
 exhibiting his machinery at Dumfries in 1837. The Society had offered a premium of 
 £500 for the first successful application of steam-power to the cultivation of the soil. 
 They approved of Mr. Heathcote's " Plough" on trial; but it did not quite come up tc 
 their ideas of successful culture, and they did not award the prize. 
 
 Q Q 
 
594 AGEIOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 In 1819 Messrs. Barrett and Exall, of Reading, in connection with Mr. Hanuam, a 
 well-known agriculturist at BurcotCj near Abingdon, constructed what must be considered 
 the first apparatus invented for working ploughs or cultivators bj' the ordinary portable 
 engine, and the first attempt to plough the land by an engine stationed at the corner of a 
 field or outside it. This was the original " roundabout system," as it is now called, in 
 which wire ropes, 1,600 yards in length, were used, and were coiled and uncoiled by a 
 windlass with two drums, or winding barrels, as is now practised in Smith's and Fowler's 
 systems. It was set to work practically ; but after ploughing sixty acres, at the rate of 
 five acres per day, the rope broke, and other difficulties intervened, which induced 
 the projectors to abandon it altogether. In this case, Mr. Howard thinks that if steel 
 wire rope had been used, and more perseverance exercised, this machine would have 
 proved a success. 
 
 The next machinery demanding notice is that of Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, who, 
 at the Great Exhibition of 1851, presented a complete set of steam-ploughing apparatus. 
 It had an engine Mith winding barrel for each headland, which travelled, as the work 
 proceeded, on a tramway of planks. The ploughs, which were on Lowcock's tui-n-wrest 
 principle, were drawn from engine to engine with a chain, which latter arrangement 
 appears, according to Mr. Howard, who saw it at work, to have been the fatal cause of 
 a want of success. The plough frame contained two sets of ploughs, pointing in 
 opposite directions, and easily lifted out of the ground by means of racks and pinions. 
 The engines were alternately employed in drawing the plough-frame backwards and 
 forwards, -the frame itself running on wheels which regulated the depth of the furrow. 
 This plough performed four acres a day with a furrow nine inches deep. 
 
 We are now arrived at that point at which steam cultivation assumed a practical 
 form, and, with the apparatus employed, was admitted into the economy of the farm as 
 an acknowledged part of its machinery. The struggles that had been made, and the 
 immense sums expended in accomplishing this object, show the importance that was 
 attached to the principle, but at the same time display the mistaken apprehension 
 entertained by the projectors, both of the true mission of steam-power and of the 
 treatment the land ought to undergo in order to facilitate the accomplishment of that 
 mission. It is a subject of deep regret, that although some of the projectors were men 
 of fortune, and could, without inconvenience, spare a few thousand pounds in the 
 working out of an experiment, others have ventm-ed their all in the undertaking, and 
 upon a failure, have found themselves bankrupts in fortune, with all the odium attaching 
 to an unsuccessful experiment. Such, unfortunateh', is the fate of a large majority of 
 projectors of new machines, whose efforts prove abortive as far as themselves are 
 concerned ; and they are compelled to give way to others, who availing themselves both 
 of the errors and the correct ideas of their predecessors, bring out the same class of 
 machines, divested of what was worthless and with improvements of what is really 
 useful. It would be invidious to mention individual cases in which the valuable parts 
 of enterprises that had proved ruinous to the projectors have been — we will not say 
 pirated, but — adopted by succeeding machinists, who have thus built fortunes upon the 
 ruins of the unsuccessful. The failure of these projectors, however, leaves the coast 
 clear for fresh men to start in a new career ; and the public are equally obliged to 
 them for perfecting that which was inefficient, although part of the merit was due to 
 another. 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. 595 
 
 The steam-cultivators at present in use, or tLat have been projected within the last 
 ten years, are divided into the following classes : — 
 
 I. Those with engines travelling over the laud, and drawing the cultivating 
 implements after them. 
 
 II. Those with locomotive engines working on railways, and drawing the implements 
 after them. 
 
 III. Those with stationary engines whilst at work, and drawing the implements by 
 means of ware ropes. 
 
 IV. Those with engines moving along the headlands, and drawing the implements 
 by means of wire ropes. 
 
 I. At first view of the nature of cultivation, it might seem, that the engine accom- 
 panied with the implements, travelling over tlie land together, is the most natural 
 and the most direct mode of applying steam to the operation. Other considerations, 
 however, of a more powerful nature were directly opposed to the plan, and it is now, wc 
 believe, universally abandoned. The weight of the machinery is so great that a shower 
 of rain — as we have witnessed — was quite sufficient to stop the progress of the apparatus, 
 whether carrying its own endless railway, or simply bearing with its wheels on the soil. 
 The most noted of these were the machine of the late Mr. Boydell, which was a modifi- 
 cation of that of Edgeworth, and the rotatory cultivator of Mr. Romaine. The first 
 consisted of a ten or twelve horse-power engine, to which were attached four common 
 ploughs, each separate, drawn by chains of different lengths, so as to work behind each 
 otlier, and each held by a separate ploughman. To the wheels, which were ten inches 
 broad, ran upon an " endless railway," attached to them in such a manner that each 
 section fell under the wheel as the several parts approached the ground. The enormous 
 weight (ten tons) of this machine passing over the soil inflicted as much injury almost 
 as the ploughing did good. It soon became evident that the plan must be abandoned ; 
 and the "Boydell Steam-plough" is now used successfully for drawing heavy weights 
 on the common roads, for which it is well adapted. 
 
 Mr. Romaine's machine was on nearly the same principle as Boydell's, except that 
 it had no endless railway, and that it carried a " rotatory cultivator," calculated to dig 
 rather than plough the soil. The weight of the wliole apparatus (fifteen tons) was an 
 insuperable objection to its use as at first .applied. We have seen the wheels make a 
 rut in a piece of clover stubble baked for weeks by the suu. What, then, must bo 
 the efl'ect upon land that has been soddened with water, but on which a common 
 plough-wheel would make no impression. This and other objections have induced 
 Mr. Romaine to abandon the plan and adopt the rope traction, but with what success 
 we are not able to state. 
 
 II. Of those with engines working on railways, the only plans are that of Lieu- 
 tenant Halkett, R.N., and that of Mr. Grafton, which is a modification of Halkett's, with 
 whom he had formerly been connected. 
 
 Mr. Halkett's system, which he calls " the Guideway system of Cultivation," as 
 it fulfils all the conditions required for carrying out the mission of steam-power in 
 agriculture, demands a special notice. For, whatever machinists may say, or agricul- 
 turists think, of the impossibility or impracticability of the system, it is the only one 
 that is calculated to establish steam as the sole motive power on the farm, and to 
 reduce the expenses of husbandry to a par with those effected by it in manufactures 
 
 Q Q 2 
 
596 AGKICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 and on tlie public railways. That the first expense is heavy we admit ; and also that the 
 general habit and ideas of the agriculturists in that respect have not hitherto been such 
 as to prepare them for expending £15 or ii:20 upon the land in order to prepare it for :\ 
 system of cultivation, the advantages of which have never been tested except by the 
 projector on a small scale. Convinced, however, as we are, that sooner or later the 
 "guideway system of agriculture" will be taken up by the landed interest, whether 
 owners or occupiers merely, as the only one that fulfils all the requirements of steam- 
 power in its application to agriculture, we shall explain fully the nature of the system, 
 its operations, and the advantages that would accrue from its adoption. 
 
 First. Mr. Halkett proposes to lay down the land with rails upon the common prin- 
 ciple of the public railways, only at the distance of fifty or more feet from rail to rail- 
 These are laid upon a foundation of brick twenty-one inches in width and two feet in 
 depth. At each headland are rails, laid at right angles with the others, and low enough 
 to receive the working machine or platform, in order to shunt it to fresh ground when it 
 arrives at the land. These cross-rails will be the width required for the machine to rest 
 upon it, and must be continued at one headland, out of the field and to the homestead, 
 to convey the apparatus thither when the field is finished. It shoidd also be continued 
 from field to field, to facilitate the removal of the machine when it is required to work ou 
 a fresh field. The rails are, of course, permanent, being fixed to sleepers inserted in 
 the brick-work, the two upper courses of which should be set in cement. It would be 
 necessary to lay the land in square fields ; whether separated by hedges or other fences, 
 remains with the owner of the land to decide. It would be best, perhaps, to have it 
 open, as then one headland would be enough for two fields, which would save a consider- 
 able expense, and would also square with the prevailing opinion that the less fencing ou 
 a farm the better, except it be of wire or iron rods, easily removed. Such is the pre- 
 paration of the land required by the system. 
 
 Second. The working machinery consists of a platform, the length of the space 
 between the rails, on which it rests by eight wheels at each end. This platform is made 
 of strong timber to be capable of both bearing the weight put upon it, and of withstand- 
 ing the strain to which it will be subject from the action of from six to twelve or more 
 ploughs attached to its framework below. At each end of the platform is stationed a 
 steam-engine, of five or more horse-power, connected together by an iron shaft and a set 
 of gearing, so that they may work in unison with each other. The ends are connected 
 with the wheels, of which there are sixteen, in such a manner that they act simul- 
 taneously as driving, as well as running wheels, by which arrangement the machinery can 
 ascend any rising ground with a gradient less than the point at which iron slips on iron, 
 which has been ascertained to be one in five. The action of the wheels on one side is 
 allowed a certain amount of play on the axles, to allow for any little inequalities there 
 may be in the space or gauge between the rails. By the distribution of the weight of 
 the platform over so many wheels the pressure on the rails is much lessened, and it 
 requires a lighter description of iron in their construction than if the whole weight 
 rested upon two wheels on each side. The engines are such as are commonly used on 
 farms, and may be employed in any other kind of work — as threshing, root-cutting, 
 grinding corn for cattle food, &c., when not engaged in the field work. 
 
 Such is the machinery and arrangements of tlie guideway system of agricxdture ; and 
 it is cvidcr.t that when once it is fixed, any kind of cultivating or other implements may 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. 697 
 
 be attaclied to its framework below and worked with far more exactness and certainty 
 than by any other methods, wliether by hand or by machinery. Double the number of 
 ploughs are fixed to the frame than are required, the same as in Fowler's system, half of 
 them only being let down at once, which are taken up at the end of the land and the 
 other half let down to return with the platform. But the distiugnishiug feature of the 
 system is, the multitude of operations that can be performed witli it as well as ploughing. 
 Thus Mr. Halkett carried out most effectively on his land at Wandsworth, the following 
 processes, viz. : — Ploughing, s\d)soiling, harrowing, rolling, clod-crushing,_drilling seed 
 dry or with liquid manure, hoeing, scarifying, watering crops, either on or below the 
 surface, cleaning and pulvei'ising the land, carting and distributing farm-yard or artificial 
 manure, reaping, mowing, and carting of crops, both of corn and hay, and the conveyance 
 of root crops to the homestead. These operations may all be pei'formcd without the 
 intervention of a single horse iu any one instance; consequently there is no treading on 
 the land, no cutting it up with cart or waggon wheels and horses, nor treading of work- 
 men except when pulling the roots, making the hay, or tying up sheaves in harvest 
 time, after the machine. When once the land is prepared for the seed, it remains in the 
 same fine state of tilth as long as the corn continues growing, all subsequent operations, 
 as rolling, hoeing, &c., being performed by the machine, so that no condensation of the 
 soil or injury to the plants can take place. These latter may be termed the ner/ative 
 advantages of the system. We shall now describe the more positive benefits it confers 
 upon agriculture, and these are comprehended under the following heads : — Precision of 
 operation, economy of time and labour, concentration of power, perfection of work, and 
 i;niversality of application. 
 
 1. Precision of Operatio7i.— This advantage is secured to it by the rails, which 
 prevent the possibility of the implement of whatever kind, when once fixed in its place 
 to the platform, making any deviation from its proper course. The machine travels as 
 direct as a train of carriages on the common railway, and with far less danger of 
 accidents by reason of the slowness of its movement, and the weight of the whole 
 machinery. A plough or other implement, it is true, may break under too great a 
 strain, otherwise it must necessarily move on the precise line parallel with the rails. In 
 hoeing, for instance, the hoes have been fixed within half an inch of a row of plants, the 
 entire of which it passed without touching one of them. This is a most important point, 
 as every farmer knows who uses the horse-hoe, the correctness of working which depends 
 on the constant vigilance of the driver and steadiness of the horse. How often is a part 
 of a row of plants cut up through the momentary carelessness of the lad, or from the horse 
 taking fright, or even from the implement being thrown out by a large stone or other 
 obstruction — accidents, which can never happen to the implement fixed to the guideway 
 platform. 
 
 2. Economy of Time and Labour. — The saving of time is efiected, not only in the 
 large amount of work performed in a given time, but iu the system being almost 
 independent of atmospheric influences, no state of weather, except that of a severe frost, 
 being an obstacle to its working. There being no necessity for the pressvire of the foot 
 of man or beast, or of any wheel carriage, on the land daring its operation, it can be 
 performed in any state of the land, whether wet or dry. This is a point of great 
 importance, at certain seasons of the year, when it is absohitely necessary to the success 
 and productiveness of the future crop that the land should be ploughed and the seed 
 
598 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 deposited by a certain time. In breaking up stubbles, too, in the autumn, the timely 
 performance of which is of far more importance than the state of the soil, the farmer is 
 frequently compelled by the weather to delay the operation vmtil the spring, by which 
 the unstirred and unopened soil loses the ameliorating influence of the winter's frost and 
 snow. The saving of labour will be appreciated when we state that the Guideway 
 Cultivator requires only two men and a boy to conduct and manage it. With this small 
 staff, the whole of the operations enumerated above, may be performed with the most 
 perfect ease to the workmen, whose only business will be to attend to the engine, supply it 
 with water, regulate the speed, and shunt it when it arrives at the end of the land. Tlius 
 the remainder of the staff of men on the farm will be liberated to attend to other opera- 
 tions and improvements, as draining, levelling, &c., &c. 
 
 3. Concentration of Labour. — The undeviating precision secured by the rails, renders 
 it as easy and safe to work by night as by day. In this respect it stands upon the same 
 footing as the common railway on which carriages run night and day. With relays of 
 men, which, as so few are required, is easily arranged, the work of ploughing or any 
 other may be carried on throughout the twenty-four consecutive hours* and thus double 
 the amount may be performed. On a farm of a thousand acres, the patentee calculates 
 that twenty-five acres per day of twelve hours can be ploughed, and, of course, double 
 that quantity if worked the twenty-four hours. This is a consideration that any farmer 
 well knows how to appreciate, as one that will enable him to get in his seed whilst the 
 weather is favourable. It may be safely asserted that, with the Guideway Cultivator, a 
 farmer would never need to be behindhand, under any circumstances, with his work, 
 because it could be carried on continuously without regard to weather. 
 
 4. Perfection of Work. — This quality is also secured by the fixity of the rails, and 
 the uniform movement of the platform and the implements attached upon it. When 
 once these latter are fixed in their places, nothing except breakage, which all implements 
 and machines are liable to, can prevent the work being performed in the most exact and 
 perfect manner. Whatever operation may be in hand, the same undeviating regularity 
 is provided for ; and, moreover, the work of ploughing or other tillage operations is left 
 in the same condition of fine deep tilth to which it has been reduced by the implements 
 of husbandry, there being no after treading or poaching of the grotmd to luido what the 
 plough has performed. The effect of obtaining, and still more of retaining, this high 
 degree of tillage, upon the future crops must necessarily be most beneficial. It is well 
 understood that a perfect comminution of the soil increases its power of absorption from 
 the atmosphere of the elements of fertility, the principle of which was first started by 
 Tull, before chemistry had enabled men to demonstrate its truth otherwise than by its 
 general effects, but which has of late years been scientifically proved, and it is now 
 considered the basis of good husbandry. Hitherto, however, physical obstacles have 
 existed to render it impossible to carry out the principle to perfection. The treading of 
 men and horses, and the wheels of heavy vehicles cutting up the soil, and above all the 
 action of the plough-sole upon the subsoil, creating a hard pan at the bottom of the 
 furrow, are drawbacks upon the best performances of the plough, and injurious to vegeta- 
 tion. These are all got rid of by the use of the Guideway Cultivator. Some of our best 
 farmers have lamented that our knowledge of the principles of vegetation has shot 
 ahead of our ability to carry them out, and that the means of a proper mechanical 
 division of the soil are lamentably deficient. ]Mr. Halkett has solved this problem to a 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. 699 
 
 greater extent than any other person, and his system woiihl bring the cultivation of the 
 soil as near to perfection as we can hope to attain. At any rate he has adopted the only 
 principle at present known that is capable of effecting the object desired; and with 
 regard to the future, we may use the words of Mr. Wren Hoskins, " Given, the 
 accomplishment of the act, the rate of intrinsic improvement in the art is almost fore- 
 determined."* 
 
 5. Universality of Application. — We have already in some measure anticipated this 
 property of the Guideway Cultivator, and it requires little more to be added. Besides 
 the various operations we have enumerated above, there are several more which must 
 necessarily be performed by hand, such as dibbling, transplanting, thinning, hand-weeding, 
 cross-hoeing, &c. In order to perform these a board is fastened at the back of the 
 lilatforra low enough for a man, lying or sitting, to reach the ground ; so that, without 
 treading on the'prepared soil, he can complete these and other operations in husbandry 
 that require manipulation. The Guideway system of cultivation, therefore, is capable of 
 performing or facilitating every operation of husbandry, without the intervention of 
 horse-power, and with such a reduction in the employment of manual labour, as to 
 divest the business of the husbandman of its most onerous duties; requiring the exercise 
 of his intellectual, rather than his physical, powers ; and at the same time reducing the 
 current expenses of the farm to a scale on a par with those in all other departments of 
 industry in which steam has supei'seded animal power. We therefore assert, without 
 fear of contradiction, that the Halkett system is the one, and the only one, tliat fulfils 
 the mission of steam in agriculture. 
 
 Mr. Halkett had proposed three different modes of laying down the rails, namely, 
 with iron, wood, and brick. Upon more mature reflection, he gave up tlie two last 
 materials as not adapted to the principle of his system, and the iron rail is the only 
 material which he now advocates. The following is his calculation of the comparative 
 expense of worling a farm of 1,000 acres on the Guideway principle and the present 
 one : — 
 
 GUIDEWAY SYSTEM. 
 
 First — Iron rails at £20 per acre capital. 
 
 1,000 acres at £20 per acre £20,000 
 
 & & s. rf. 
 
 Interest on capital at 4 per cent SOD 
 
 Repairs and renewals at 2 per cent 400 1,200 
 
 Farming capital for stock, consisting of locomotive 
 cultivator, with 25.horse power engines, and 
 shunting apparatus complete, £1,900 ; imple- 
 ments, £300. 
 
 Interest, therefore, on £2,200 at 15 per cent 330 
 
 Ten trucks, £300 ; interest at 8 per cent 24 
 
 Coals, 20«. per day for 250 days 250 (I 
 
 Oil 10 
 
 Engine-driver, is. ; man, 2s. ; boy, \s. per day 11700 
 
 Five constant labourers .... 155 
 
 Labourers for hand operations 50 
 
 Total annual expenses .... £2,136 
 
 * In less scientific language, " when the right principle is discovered, no difficulty will prevent its being carried to 
 perfection in practice." 
 
600 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 PRESENT SYSTEM. 
 
 Statement given to Lieutenant Halkett, by a practical farmer and valuator, of the 
 expenses of a farm of 200 acres of well-tilled land : — 
 
 & *. 
 
 Capital — S horses, 4 ploughs, harrows, horse-hoes, scarifiers, 2 waggons, 
 rollers, 4 carts, &c., £500. 
 
 Interest and depreciation of stock at 13 per ceat 73 
 
 Horse keep — corn, 100 qrs. ; hay, 30 tons 245 
 
 Labour — 4 carters, at 12s. per week, £124 IGs. 
 1 horsekeeper, extra, £31 4s.: 3 labourers, £1 
 
 100 acres of corn -hoeing, at 4s. per acre 20 
 
 Reaping 50 acres of corn, at 8s 20 
 
 ICs. 1 
 
 E105 6s. ] • • • . 261 
 
 C21 6 
 Multiply by 5, for 1,000 acres .... 5 
 
 £3,106 10 
 Deduct for saving ia machinery on a large farm over a small one . . SO 
 
 Total annual expenses £3,070 10 
 
 This latter estimate represents the farmer's present expenses for ordinary cultivation 
 on the four and five shift system, exclusive of all extra labour for harvest, &c., not 
 including all that could be done by machinery in the field. The comparative results, 
 
 tliei'cfore, are as follo^vs : — 
 
 £ s. 
 
 Present expenses of a farm of 1,000 acres 3,076 10 
 
 Expenses of such farm laid down with iron rails on Guideway system 2,136 
 
 Pifference in favour of steam iiUO ]0 
 
 The following scale of prices at which some of the operations of husbandry may be 
 performed by the Guideway Cultivator, shows in what way so large a saving of expense 
 in the management of a farm may be eCFected : — 
 
 Cost of the Operations of IIuslundry on a Fakm op fuom 600 to 1,000 Acrrs. 
 
 s. d. 
 Ploughing with 13 ploughs simultaneously, taking furrows 
 
 5 inches deep and 10 inches wide 17 per acre. 
 
 lioeing 150 acres per day 3 
 
 Scarifying, grubbing, &c 8 
 
 Harrowing, clod-crushiug, rolling, &c 5 
 
 Drilling or dibbling seed 5 
 
 Reaping and delivering corn at the rate of 60 acres per day . 8 
 Underground watering of crops at the rate of 3,000 gallons 
 
 per acre, and GO acres per day or night, or double (hat 
 
 quantity in 24 hours 8 ,, 
 
 . Surface watering with hoes following 12 ,, 
 
 Carriage of manure on to and distributing over the land; and 
 
 of crops taken off; also of marl, clay, sand, &c., al ])cr ton OJ per mile. 
 Deep culture to the depth of 25 inches, impossible by animal 
 
 power 120 per acre. 
 
 Seventy tons of manure, or compost, may be carried at once by the machine. 
 
 As it is probable that some persons will question the possibility of reducing the 
 expenses of a farm to the above scale, and the correctness of the estimates, whicli are 
 those of the patentee, we will now examine the grounds on which the calculations are 
 justified, and the certainty that they will be realised in carrying out the system. 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. , 601 
 
 Keferring again to the infancy of steam-power in its locomotive capacity, it will bo 
 recollected that attempts were made in the first instance to propel carriages by it on 
 the common highways; the idea of a permanent railway being then ridiculed, even in 
 Parliament. When Stephenson suggested that it was quite possible to propel carriages 
 ■with passengers at the rate o^ fifteen miles an hour, the proposition was met by the House 
 ■with shouts of laughter. The first experimenters fell into the very natural error of 
 endeavouring to adapt the new power to the existing medium of transit, instead of 
 altering the latter to the requirements of the new power. The comprehensive mind of 
 the late Mr. Huskisson led him at once to perceive the- truth of the principle laid down 
 by Stephenson ; and the completion of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway proved 
 that if steam-power was to be used for the transit of goods and passengers, it would 
 necessitate an entire change in the medium on which it was to act. The experiment 
 succeeded ; for, notwithstanding the largeness of the outlay, ■ndiich had so alarmed 
 the House of Commons, the economic results proved that a saving of at least two- 
 thirds was effected in both time and expense of travelling, as well as in the transit of 
 merchandise. And what was the consequence ? Why, that an entire revolution has 
 been effected, in which the old tumbling apparatus of stage-coaches and stage--waggons 
 were swept away; and instead of tlie turnpike roads the whole country, from the 
 " Land's End to John o' Groat's," is threaded in every direction with railroads, at an 
 outlay of capital amounting to fully half the national debt ! 
 
 It is perfectly clear to us that the agriculturists, the machinists, and the Royal 
 Agricultural Society, have, in the affair of the steam-plough, fallen into the same error 
 as the inventors of the steam-carriage for the common highways. They have adapted 
 the operation of the power to the existing system of the land, instead of reducing the 
 latter to a form to meet the requirements of the power. By this error they confine the 
 exercise of the power to one or two operations, when it is capable of performing all that 
 a farm requires. And those which are effected by it, are conducted in so clumsy and 
 irrational a manner, and with so small a reduction of expense in the long run, that nearly 
 all the advantages of steam-power are still to come. That the result, so far as 
 economy of expense, ■will ultimately disappoint those who adopt it, ■we firmly believe; 
 and when, as in the case of the railways, the agricultural mind becomes enlightened as 
 to the true character and mission of steam-power, it will look out for a more general and 
 efficient system than the present ones of steam-ploughing represent. 
 
 Of the increase of produce that will result from the superior state of tillage assured 
 by the Halkett system, -ne have said but little hitherto. But wdien all the advantages 
 of it are taken into the account, this must be the most certain and the largest source 
 of profit. Mr. Halkett, in a paper read before the Society of Arts in December, 1858, 
 estimates the average increased value at .€2 per acre, -whieh is probably much below 
 the mark. In his own field, which was laid down, as a practical model, ■with rails on a 
 thirty feet gauge, the soil was comminuted, subsoiled, manured with a small dressing of 
 guano, and planted with potatoes. The land on each side the rails was tilled in the 
 usual manner, manured with an equal quantity of guano, and also planted with potatoes. 
 Now, mark the result, both these plots produced one bushel per rod, or IGO bushels per 
 acre ; whilst that tilled and comminuted by the Guideway Cultivator produced two and 
 a half bushels per rod, or 400 bushels per acre, giving an excess of 240 bushels, which 
 at 70 lbs. per bushel, is nearly 7J tons per acre. This, at £o per ton, is about =€38 ; 
 
603 , AGRICULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 enough to pay tlie expense of laying clown the rails nearly twice over in a single 
 season. 
 
 The facility of watering and of stirring the soil hetween the rows of plants without 
 disturbing thenij will add greatly to the increase of root crops particularly, they being 
 frequently destroyed or seriously injured for want of moisture in the early stages of 
 their growth. To market-gardeners such a facility of watering without treading on 
 the land, and upon so large a scale, would be invaluable. Watering is one of the most 
 expensive of their operations ; but in a dry season is an indispensable one, and, as at 
 present conducted, is frequently attended wjth much injury to the growing plants, in the 
 passing to and fro of the persons watering, which is wholly avoided with the Guideway 
 machine. Still more injurious to the gardeners, — and to farmers, too,- — is the carting 
 of crops in wet weather, which must be done when they are required, either for the 
 market or for the use of the farm. Instances have been adduced in which the carting 
 off of a heavy crop of maugold-wurzel in wet weather has so much cut up the ground 
 as to render it impossible to get it ready afterwards for the reception of the plants for a 
 crop of early cabbages, for which it was intended ; and thus half a season was lost. 
 
 The great objection to this plan is the expense of laying down the rails and preparing 
 the land. This is a bugbear that sooner or later will vanish, when the landed interest 
 becomes more enlightened on the subject. Is it considered a hazardous speculation ? 
 It is no speculation at all now we know, not only what steam can effect in manufactures, 
 railways, and navigation, but on the Irnd as well. Even with the incongruous and 
 roundabout systems now employed steam is working a revolution in husbandry. What, 
 then, will it not do when " the man and wife " are brought together iipon the land, which 
 must eventually be the case ? It is not in a couutry where four hundred millions 
 sterling have been expended in thirty years upon one branch only of national industry, 
 without any permanent or serious financial embarrassment, and where as much as fifty 
 thousand pounds per mile have been invested in some lines of railway, that a system 
 professing to embrace a certain economy of expense to the extent of from one-half to 
 two-thirds of the present outlay of a farm will be idtimately rejected because it requires 
 an outlay of .€.20 per acre. Besides, are farmers and landowners so unaccustomed to 
 large outlays of money as to take fright at the Ilalkett system on that account? 
 What is the expense of draining and subsoiling ? What do water meadows and liquid 
 manure distributors cost per acre ? What amount of labour does a market-gardener 
 expend upon his land ? All these outlays are incurred, we presume, because they are 
 well-known to be reproductive. Again, a farmer or a landowner will sometimes give 
 .£500 or £1,000 for a l)ull, if he has a good pedigree, because he knows that the cross 
 will improve his own stock, and juobably his neighbours', to the value of the purchase. 
 Well, we can trace the pedigree of Ilalkctt's Guideway Cultivator through thousands of 
 miles of railway to the "Liverpool and JNIanchcster " to establish its character— for its 
 operation will be identical in principle ; and as to the expense, the j6500 or £1,000 
 given for the bull would at once lay down frouj 25 to 50 acres of land with rails, pro- 
 ducing a fur larger and more permanent source of profit. We feel assured that this 
 "twenty pounds per acre" will eventually be considered no serious obstacle to the 
 adoption of the system, which is l)ut the extension of the same economic power to 
 agriculture which has reduced, by more than one-half, the expense of every operation 
 to which it has hitherto been efficiently applied. 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. C03 
 
 The adoption, therefore, of this system by the landed interest we consider to be onl}^ 
 a question of time, and that it wants but to be set going — whether upon a large or a 
 small scale, is no matter — to come into general use. Eventually, we say, this must be the 
 case ; for as sure as the establishment of the very first railway demonstrated the advan- 
 tages of that system and led to its universal adoption, so will the laying down of one 
 farm on the Halkett Guideway system prove its economic superiority over every other 
 mode of steam culture, and be followed rapidly on other farms or estates, until it has 
 become the general system of cultivation in England.* 
 
 Grafton's system of steam culture is a modification of Halkett's, less the permanent 
 rails. He adopts the platform of fifty feet reach, with an engine at each end ; fixes tlie 
 implements of husbandry in the same way, has a permanent rail on the headland to 
 convey the machine home, or to shunt it from one part of a field to another. But 
 instead of permanent rails across the fields, as in Halkett's system, he proposes to have 
 an endless railway of vulcanised india-rubber, on which the propelling wheels, eight in 
 number on each side, will run. No further propai-ation of the ground will be necessary 
 than to take care that the line of road, on which the wheels are to travel, be kept perfectly 
 smooth and free from obstructions, and also perfectly straight. The endless railway is 
 a continuous belt of vulcanised india-rubber combined with flax threads, having Avooden 
 shoes about 12 inches by 18, shod with iron, fastened to it by a staple across the centre 
 of each shoe, at right angles to the belt, which permits it to pass round the drums placed 
 before and behind each series of wheels, and through the side girders under the 
 engines. The rail is cjuite noiseless, and has no mechanical or metal joints (a defect to 
 which nearly all machines of self-laying rails owe their failure) ; the strength and 
 durability of vulcanised india-rubber fabric "is too well-known to need comment.'' 
 The machine can be slightly but sufficiently guided when required, by the drums laying 
 the rails being removed to the right or left by means of a circular lever, which also 
 guides the leading wheels. In front of the drums and driving wheels is a spade plough, 
 similar to a scraper before a common locomotive, but of a different shape, for the purpose 
 of clearing a regular path and removing all obstructions, to permit of the rails passing 
 evenly over it. 
 
 The headland rails are similar to those employed in Halkett's system, being of 
 sufficient gauge to receive the working machine on two trucks, one for each end of the 
 machine. On these it can be removed from one field to another, or to the homestead, or 
 from one bout to another in the same field. To secure regularity in this respect the head- 
 land rails have distinct marks at every fifty feet, to serve as points from which the culti- 
 vator will start when one gauge of the land is finished. It is presumed by the projector 
 that the wheels with the endless railway, passing constantly over the same ground, 
 will, in course of time, form hard and permanent roadways across the field, about a foot 
 and half or two feet wide, at intervals of fifty feet, taking uo more land from actual 
 tillage than the present furrows. Thus, the land will be cultivated in strips of fifty feet, 
 upon which no pressure either of the cultivator or implements will take place. The 
 
 * The above 13 the larger portion of a paper written by the author for the Edinhimjli Joianal of Jc/rlcuUiire for 
 1859, and he has considered the subject of so much importance as to feel no scruple in giving it insertion in his work. 
 Far from csperiencint; any alteration in his opinion on the subject, he daily becomes more confirmed in the conviction 
 that no other system of steam culture can be permanent, and that the state of the landed interest is such that they v/ill 
 soon be compelled to adopt it. 
 
GOi AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 space occupied by tlie headland, which the patentee states to be twenty-five feet, may 
 be cultivated as grass land, fenced in with wire fencing to separate it from the arable 
 land — the grass to be fed off by cattle or mown, as the farmer determines. 
 
 Having given the estimate of Lieutenant Halkett's expenses on a farm of 1,000 acres, 
 it will be only fair to give those also of Mr. Grafton's. They are as follows : — 
 
 Annual Expenses of a Fadm of 1,000 Acres cultivated by Steam-power under Grafton's System. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 Expense of interest and depreciatioa of endless railway, locomo- -j 
 live, and implements, costing £1,500, at 15 percent, per annual > 
 
 Coals at 20s. per day, 250 days 250 
 
 Oil, &c 10 
 
 Engine-driver at 4s., and 2 attendants at 2s. per day 12i 16 
 
 I'ive constant labourers 155 
 
 Labourers for band operations 50 
 
 Total annual eipenses £814 16 
 
 Annual Expenses of a Farm of 1,000 Acres cultivated by Hokse-powxr under the present System. 
 
 [See IIalkf-tt's Estimate.) 
 
 £ s. rf. 
 
 Total amount as stated pp. 599, 600 3,076 10 
 
 Ditto cultivated by steam 814 16 
 
 Difference in favour of Grafton's system . . £2,261 14 
 
 Such is the Grafton system of cultivation, which, however, has not, that we are aware 
 of, been practically tested on a small scale like the Halkett System, and the siiccess must, 
 therefore, be considered wholly hypothetical at present. We must, however, express a 
 doubt, whether it can be successfully brought to bear in practice, for the following 
 reason. One of the main points of perfection in Halkett's system, is the precision 
 with which it operates, so that in hoeing, or any other operation, the implement may be 
 set to within half an inch of a row of plants of any length, and will efl'ectually hoe them 
 without touching one of them. This precision is secured by the rails in all the operations. 
 ]Mr. Grafton proposes to secure the same object by a set of wheels propelled iu the same 
 manner, without rails, but on a pathway supposed to be beaten hard by going over it 
 ten or a dozen times in the course of the year. On this road, the wheels which have no 
 certain guidance except their own exact movement and the direction of the engineer, must 
 invariably keep the same line of route without deviating a fraction of an inch ; because, 
 if it do so to a lesser, it is liable to do so to a greater extent, and no dependence 
 whatever could be placed npou it. Another objection may be urged against the 
 roadways for the cultivator; for unless these arc made firm and hard by artificial 
 means, the few times that the machine will pass over them would scarcely be sufficient 
 to produce that effect. In dry weather they would of course be firm enough ; but 
 j)luughing and other operations must at times be performed in wet as well as dry 
 Avcather, and we much question whether the weight of the machine would not sink it 
 into the earth to an extent sufficient to embarrass its action. Or, if the soil be a hard 
 clay, it is questionable whether the india-rubber rail would not slip aside when the 
 pathway was wet, and thus throw the machine out of its course. 
 
 These objection.s, we admit, are, like the assumed perfectability of the- system, 
 supiiositious. Of the durability of the india-rubber, we have no sufficient acquaintance 
 with its action under such circumstances to judge. Mr. Graltou speaks of a brougham 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. 505 
 
 ■with air-wheels of that material, running upwards of 2,000 miles at the rate of eight 
 miles an hour, whilst his machine will only make twenty revolutions per minute, and 
 are so numerous (eight on each side) that the pressure, being equally distributed, will 
 not produce the effect upon the material it would have if only one or two pairs of 
 wheels were employed. 
 
 Notwithstanding the objections we have raised, it would be desirable that the system 
 should be tested; for, if successful, the principal obstacle in the way of Halkett's 
 system — the heavy expense —would be removed, and all the benefits it would confer 
 secured by a moderate outlay. We cannot, however, so easily give up the judgment of 
 the Prince of Steam-power, Stephenson, that " the rail and the steam-engine are man 
 and wife;" nor can we conceive of the possibility of securing the benefits of the 
 'Guideway system ivithout the guideicay . 
 
 Thirdly. The class with engines, stationary whilst at work, and drawing the imple- 
 ments by means of a wire rope. This is called " The Traction System." 
 
 Of this class there are sevei'al ; but by describing Smith's as the original one, and 
 Howard's improvement of Smith's, the principle will at once be understood by the 
 reader. 
 
 Smiths system is as follows : — The engine is placed on the headland of the field, 
 with its windlass in front, the two being connected by a set of machinery to give action 
 to the drums of the windlass for coiling and uncoiling the wire rope. A square of the 
 field is marked out, at each corner of which is placed an anchor with a pulley to receive 
 the rope. At intervals round the enclosure are placed rope porters with pulleys, to 
 carry the rope, and prevent it from trailing on the ground. The rope is passed over 
 these to the anchors at the three corners, the pulleys of which are sufiiciently strong to 
 bear the strain upon them from working. The dead of the rope, after passing the three 
 corners, comes back to the windlass, and is received upon one of the drums. These 
 alternately give out and receive the rope as the working machine passes backward and 
 forward with the cultivating implement. This consists of a strong cultivator or 
 grubber, of either three or five tines or shares, and it is attached to the wire rope at 
 the farthest part of the square from the engine. Being set to work by the rope, it 
 cultivates the soil from the first to the second anchor, at which latter it turns round, 
 and the machinery being reversed, it travels back again on fresh ground to the opposite 
 side. At every fresh bout of the cultivator the two anchors must be removed, to enable 
 it to take new ground. The three-tiued cultivator takes three feet of ground, and 
 the five-tined about a foot more — the latter being calculated for light, and the former 
 for heavy laud. Both will cultivate or "smash-up'^ the soil to the depth of from 
 6 to 14 inches, leaving it in a highly pulverised state. When the whole square has 
 been gone over with the cultivator, another is marked out in the same manner, and 
 so on till the whole of the field is finished. A common plough, or a subsoil plough, 
 can be attached to the machinery, if required. The latter will penetrate the subsoil to 
 the depth of 22 inches. It may be worked by three horses, to the depth of from 
 10 to 14 inches. Mr. Smith has received numerous testimonials to the successful 
 working of his steam cultivator ; and to him, as we have already observed, is due the 
 credit of bringing the value of the cultivator and its " smashing-up " operation, over 
 the common or the steam plough, into public notice, and the testimonials he has also 
 received, to the efficient working of his " tackle," are proofs of its utility. The engine 
 
60§ AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 used is oue of eight or tea lioi'ic-power. If of greater power, the wire rope woiihl not 
 hear the strain. On light hmd eight acres per day may he cultivated, and five of 
 heavy laud. 
 
 ilr. Smith estimates that to till 225 acres of heavy clay land would require the 
 work of an eight-horse engine forty-five days, and it would take thirty-five horses to 
 perform the work in the same time, the expense averaging from 7s. to 10s. per acre, 
 according to the nature of the soil. The number of horses that a stud may he reduced 
 to is about two-thirds of the usual force ; and the machine requires six men to manage 
 it, namely, two to the engine and drums, two to the snatch-blocks or rope porters, one 
 to the cultivator, and oue to the anchors. 
 
 Howards' new patent steam ploughing apparatus is a modification of Smith's, of 
 which they were formerly the manufacturers and agents, and is thus described by them : — m 
 An ordinary portable engine is used for working this apparatus. It is placed at one 
 corner of a field, or on an adjoining field, and is connected by a flexible imiversal joint, 
 or the common leather driving-band, to the windlass which actuates the plough or other 
 implement, through the agency of steel-wii'e ropes, which last are led oft' from the 
 windlass in any required direction ; and thirty or forty, or even fifty acres are operated 
 upon without any removal of the engine or windlass. The several parts of the apparatus 
 are very strong and simple, and well adapted to hard work and the intelligence of the 
 farm labourer. The windlass is compact and portable. A pair of strong wood travelling- 
 wheels carry the winding barrels, which revolve on a central axle, and are geared alter- 
 }iately with three driving pinions, by an eccentric movement of the axis, which at the 
 same time brings the slack or paying-out barrel into contact with a friction-roller, instead 
 of the fixed brake-block hitherto used. This operation of paying out the rope is 
 regulated by the double snatch-block fixed before the windlass. ■ A central guide-wheel 
 is mounted on a lever, revolving the two pulleys of the double snatch-block. The slack 
 ropes pass on either side the central guide-wheel, and partly round the two pulleys — 
 motion being given by the taut rope to the guide-wheel on one side, the slack rope is 
 taken off at precisely the same speed on the other side. The operation is thus rendered 
 very similar to that of an endless rope round a single pulley. It is obvious, that as the 
 slack rope is kept in a partial state of tension, there is no difficulty by this arrangement, 
 with the use of the porters, hereafter described, in keeping the rope clear of the gi'ound. 
 
 Two kinds of anchorage are used. One is a framework fitted with blades and 
 anchor-pulley, with an automatic movement for advancing on the headlands as the 
 work proceeds, and requires but little attention. The other is a modification of the 
 ship's anchor, with a pulley attached. It is more expensive in labour than the self- 
 propelling anchor, but it has the advantage of being cheaper and portable, and may be 
 worked in almost any position. By its use, the whole of a field, however irregularly 
 shaped, may be ploughed or cidtivated without leaving headlands. 
 
 The 1-ope porters, which are used at intervals along the whole line of the rope, to 
 keep it off' the ground, are of a novel description, the pulley which sustains the rope 
 being mounted on a lever, by simply releasing which, the rope clears itself— an 
 operation which was often very difficult to perform with the porters formerly used. 
 The implement used for cultivating or smashing, is a framework of Hanged wrought 
 iron, with a pair of travelling wheels, and a seat at either end. It may be woi-ked with 
 three or more tines or shares, according to the nature of the ground and depth of the 
 
rOWLEK'S STEAM rLOUGIIING Al'PARATrS AS AT WORK. 
 
 hi working, the Engine and Anchor move at each lout Kith the Plough throughout the field,— See p. 608. 
 
 II0WAKD'.S steam rLOUGIlINO jUTAKATI'S AS AT WORK. 
 
 Jn working, the Engine and Windlass are stationary, and the Anchors are moved forward. — See p. 
 
BTEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. 
 
 607 
 
 work. The tiuci work on a centre, and have eacli two shares, pointmg in opposite 
 directions ; consequently, the implement does not require to be turned round at tlic 
 land's end : the ploughman simply changes his seat, and steers in the opposite direction. 
 
 The plough, which is made for three or four furrows, ma}' also be used as a culti- 
 vator, subsoiler, or ridging plough. It is supported by a framework resting on three 
 wheels, two of which, on one side, are vised for steering. When the leading wheel is 
 turned outward, the hinder wheel is turned inward ; the third wheel acts as a centre. 
 By this novel arrangement the operation of guiding the plough is rendered very easy. 
 The beam to which the right and left-hand sets of plough bodies are attached are of 
 flanged wrought' iron, and intersect each other at their inner ends, thereby reducing 
 the length of the plough. The two sets of beams work on distinct fidcrums, and are 
 suspended by chains from eccentrics, in such a manner that the set of ploughs out of 
 work have little or no tendency to raise the set in work. 
 
 The following instructions for using both Smith's and Howard's steam cultivators 
 are usually given to the purchasers of either : — 
 
 To THE Engine Duiver. 
 
 1. Do not talk to auy one whilst driving. 
 
 2. Look very often at the plougUinan and anchor 
 
 3. Slacken speed before the implement geta to the end 
 of the land. 
 
 4. In wiudy and wet weather, when working with a 
 strap, put up one or two poles on each side of it, which 
 
 will prevent its coming oiF. Apply Stockholm tar or 
 treacle to the strap in wet weather. 
 
 5. In very hard work, when you have an engine with 
 two pulleys on, put the strap on the smaller one. 
 
 G. Whenever you can, set down the engine on the 
 highest part of the field. 
 
 7. If your engine is a single cylinder, a br.ike should 
 be used to the fly-wheel. 
 
 To THE WlXULAsS JIan. 
 
 1. Put down the permanent anchors about twelve 
 yards before the windlass. 
 
 2. Place them at such a distance apart that the rope, 
 when straight, will be exactly in the centre of each drum. 
 If put too near together, or too far from each other, the 
 ropos will not coil properly. Shift the snatch-blocks 
 until the ropes do coil easily, and use the guide roller for 
 coiling the ropes. 
 
 3. Do not put the drums into and out of gear while the 
 windlass is iu motion, 
 
 i. Before the engine starts, pull the rope light cu 
 the drums, and hold it so until the slack is all wound 
 up. 
 
 5. Look as often as you can to the ploughman, to see 
 that all is right. 
 
 6. Be careful to adjust the pressure on the brakes so as 
 to allow the ropes to run off easily, but without slack, and 
 keep them well oiled. As the brake-block wears, raise it 
 
 up, by putting a piece of thiu leather or wood iu the box 
 under it. 
 
 7. If an anchor pull up, let out a little slack rope at 
 once. 
 
 8. Screw up the bearings occasionally, and keep all well 
 oiled with the best sperm oil. 
 
 9. In setting down to large pieces, run your rope steiv 
 across the field, in the form of a triangle. 
 
 10. Take care that the supports on the windlass shafts 
 take a bearing on the ground. 
 
 11. The ropes, at the end of each season, and occasionally 
 at other times, should be dressed over with a mixture of 
 tallow and the best Stockholm (not gas) tar. 
 
 12. Take the ropes off and turn them occasionally, <md 
 see that they do not get twisted. Care should be used to 
 put them on again lir//tl and true. To this end, when 
 putting on the ropes, let the implemeut into the ground 
 enough to stretch the rope tight. 
 
 To THE Anxuor Man. 
 
 1. Lay your anchor at right angles with the rope, or in 
 such position that the strain is equal on both legs. 
 
 2. Place your line under the front, and over the back 
 bar of the anchor, and weigh upon it before the plough 
 starts. 
 
 3. When the plough is working away from you, drive 
 your anchor well into the ground, so as to let it get well 
 hold before the strain of the engine comes on it. 
 
 4. When you find the engine driver is not stopping the 
 
 plough in time, knock off the snatch-block ring directly, 
 so as to prevent the plough running into the anchor. 
 
 5. Always keep an extra anchor ready, iu case of 
 accident. 
 
 6. In very loose or wet land, it is sometimes necessaiy 
 to put a piece of board or wood in front of the anchor, 
 so as to take both tines, or to use two anchors, placing 
 one before the other, and connecting them with an 
 S hook, 
 
608 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. . 
 
 To THE PL0UG1I5UN. 
 
 1. .See that your attendants keep the rope well off the ! 3. Get off the plough when you come to very hard places, 
 ground with the rollers. I 4. See that all the shares work the same depth. This 
 
 2. Look round the plough at dinner-time and each : ran be ascertained by measuring from the under side of 
 night, to see that all is tight and in working order. the frame to the point of the share. 
 
 Keep by you some extra washers, liuchpius, wheels, 5. See that the wheels are well oiled daily. Also take 
 
 and shares. I them off occasioually, and well clean them. 
 
 The Howard Steam Cultivator requires si.K men and two boys to work it; namely, 
 one engine driver, one man at the windlass, one ditto to guide the cultivator, two ditto 
 at the anchors, one ditto at tlie water-cart, and two boys for miscellaneous work. It is 
 difficult to assess the actual expenses of any of the machines, as some of the reports 
 omit some sources of charge, and some others ; but from a general estimate of those 
 who have reported at all on tlie expense with Howard's machine, the cost per acre may 
 be stated at from 6*. Gd. to 8.t. or 9s., according to the state of the land and the nature 
 of the soil. 
 
 Fourthly. The class with engines moving along the headlands as the work proceeds, 
 and drawing the implements by means of wire ropes. This is the direct traction systvin. 
 
 ]\Ir. John Fowler's apparatus may be considered as the most efficient of this class, and 
 we shall therefore describe it. The machinery consists of a steam-engine bearing its own 
 windlass for giving ouband receiving the steel-wire rope. These are placed on the head- 
 land at the commencement of a field, of whatever dimensions ; and on the opposite head- 
 land is stationed another piece of machinery, called an anchor. This is placed on four 
 cutting wheels, for taking hold enough of the soil to withstand the strain of the rope in 
 working. Attached to the anchor is another sheave or windlass, which also receives the 
 rope from that on the other side. The cultivating apparatus, consisting either of four 
 ploughs or a cultivator, as the work to be done requires, is fixed to the rope in the same 
 manner as in Smith's and Howard's systems. The ploughs are placed on a balance machine, 
 and are eight in number, four of them pointing one way, and four the opposite ; so that, 
 whilst one set is at work, the other is raised out of the ground, the machine moving on 
 a centre forming an obtuse angle, and running on two wheels. By altering the position 
 of the ploughs on the bevil beam, in either direction, the widtli of the furrow may be 
 regulated. The anchor and the engine move -simultaneously along the headland, as 
 fresh ground is required, and the cultivators are drawn backwards and forwards by the 
 traction rope to and from the engine. The anchor is kept to its work both by its 
 cutting wliecls and by a rope running from it and fixed on the headland. Patent slack 
 gear attached to the plougli, enables the workman to lengthen or shorten the rope as 
 the irregularity of the field requires. In working, both the tight and the slack rope are 
 kept sufficiently taut to prevent their trailing on the ground. But if the extent of the 
 field requires it, rope porters also are placed at intervals of 40 yards. The windlass 
 on the engine consists of a single sheave, 5 feet in diameter, round which the rope 
 takes half a turn. The groove into which the rope passes is formed of a double scries 
 of small leaves, whicli on the least pressure clasp and hold the rope until it takes the 
 straight line on the other side, when tlic clips open and liberate it. By this simple 
 contrivance all crusliing and sliort bends, whicli are so detrimental to the profitable use 
 of wire rope, are avoided. Tliis, coupled witli the fact that on each passage of the 
 implement the rope is only bent twice, and then only round large diameters, will at 
 
STEAM CULTIVATION— ITS HISTORY. 609 
 
 once show. this system of using wire rope to be most advantageous. The power is 
 conveyed to the windlass by an upright shaft from the crank shaft. 
 
 If ordinary steam-engines are used/ a patent windlass is provided by Mr. Fowler, 
 consisting of two drums, mounted on a strong horizontal shaft driven by the engine. 
 The rope by which the ploughs are drawn is coiled up on one of these drums alternately, 
 as the implement approaches to or recedes from the windlass, and when drawing is, as a 
 matter of course, always tight and carried off the ground. This windlass is fitted with a 
 self-acting compensating brake, by which the slack rope is kept at a uniform and sufficient 
 tightness, to prevent it dragging on the ground between the rope-porters, and thus 
 absorbing a great deal of power, besides wearing the rope much more than any other 
 cause. The importance of this is shown by the expei'iments at the Leeds meeting of the 
 Royal Agricultural Society of England, from which it appeared that nearly ten times the 
 power is required to draw the rope when trailing on the ground than is necessary when 
 it is carried off the ground by rope-porters. 
 
 The hands required to work this system are three men and three boys, including the 
 water fetching and removal of rope-porters. 
 
 Messrs. Coleman, of Chelmsford, have adopted the plan of having two steam-engines 
 and two sets of ploughs at the opposite sides of a field. The ploughs meet in the centre 
 of the field, and then return to their respective engines. By this arrangement the 
 necessity of the large anchor opposite the engine is done away with, the two engines 
 acting in that capacity for each other. Either ploughs, cultivators, grubbers, or subsoil 
 ploughs can be worked by Fowler's apparatus, which requires no more rope than is suf- 
 ficient to take the implement backward and forward ; and it also employs fewer hands. 
 The reduction of animal power, where steam culture is employed, maybe estimated at 
 about one-third or two-fifths. Thus, on an arable farm requiring ten horses, three or 
 four may be dispensed with, and the keeping of as many head of cattle substituted. 
 
 Thus far, then, the introduction of steam-power in the cultivation of the soil has 
 proved successful, and whichever of the leading systems now at work are considered, we 
 may congratulate the farmer on the importance of the change. We have already expressed 
 our opinion regarding the object at which the machinist should aim in the ultimate 
 application of the new power, and shall not therefore anew enter into the subject and 
 repeat what has been written, but shall rather speak of the advantages accruing from its 
 agency under the present systems, which, however imperfect, afford no doubtful indica- 
 tions of what steam will do for the farmer, when carried out in all its efficiency. 
 
 We look upon the saving in money at present, by the adoption of steam as a substitute 
 for horse power, as the smallest advantage that accrues from the change. Two or three 
 shillings per acre on the land annually tilled upon a farm, say of a thousand acres (even 
 if it be eventually saved, which we think doubtful), is not so important an object as alone 
 to induce the farmer to make so great a change in his establishment. It is in the economy 
 of time and the efficiency of the work performed that he looks for the benefits of the 
 present application of steam cultivation. 
 
 With respect to the first, the testimonial reports, given by those who have hitherto 
 used the steam-plough in cultivation, are very decided on this point. By its means the 
 clove stubbles can receive a bastard fallow before harvest, which would, in most cases, 
 be impossible under the old system. Yet this i- i most important preparation for wheat, 
 the seed of which requires a well-pulverised soil in which to strike its first rootlets. 
 
 R R 
 
niO AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 After harvest^ tlic stubbles may be " smashed " up to receive the winter's frost and snow, 
 so necessary to prepare them for the crops that fallow ; whilst the spring tillage may be 
 got forward even when the ground is wet and poachy, without being trodden upon by 
 horses or men, which sometimes does almost as much harm as the plough will do good. 
 Nearly all the testimonials to different machinists that we have seen and heard, represent 
 this facility of doing the work at the proper time as a distinguishing feature in steam 
 culture ; and many of them declare that by its employment they never have any need to 
 be backward in their tillage operations, which previously was the case in most seasons. 
 
 Quite as decidedly do they speak of the superiority of the work of the steam-plough 
 or cultivator over that performed by horses. An eight-horse engine will, with ease, do 
 from five to eight acres a day, either with the plough or the cultivator, to the depth of 
 from five to ten inches ; and if it is necessary to subsoil, it may be done to the depth of 
 two feet, which never could have been performed by animal power, or by any other 
 previously, except by the spade, which is the most expensive of all modes of tillage. 
 One effect of thus loosening the subsoil with the grubber, is the ease it gives to future 
 cultivation, so that after a few years the steam-plough will be able to do a much greater 
 amount of work, as well as doing it better than at present. One farmer, who has been 
 employing a steam-plough for four years, states, that " the land moves easier every year, 
 and consequently costs less to cultivate." It also enables him, by getting rid of the 
 surface-water speedily, to lay all " the land upon the flat," and to do away with water- 
 farrows, which were formerly necessary to carry off the water after heavy rains or snow. 
 
 The benefit this improved cultivation imparts to crops of all descriptions is 
 incalculable. We feel convinced that with it an addition of 8 bushels of cereals, 
 and 10 tons of turnips and mangolds per acre, is a moderate estimate of the increase. 
 One writer states that in 18G1, with the view of ascertaining the effect of the steam- 
 plough he watched its application on a large farm on which it had been in practical 
 operation for four years. In May he found a vast reserve of mangold, the residue of 
 the winter's consumption of an unusually heavy crop where all the neighbouring farmers 
 had nearly lost theirs. On the same farm he found 240 acres of wheat with not a thin 
 or faulty patch to be seen, and estimated at from five to six quarters per acre, foi'ming a 
 perfect contrast with other crops in the district. And this superiority was ascribable to 
 the " smashing-up system " which had been adopted on the farm. After witnessing 
 these results, the writer, who is himself a considerable farmer, purchased a steam 
 apparatus in June, 1861, and concludes his letter thus in November — "The work of the 
 farm was never so forward as this season, with every prospect of getting my spring corn 
 and roots planted at the earliest desirable period. I therefore feel much confidence in 
 asserting that the cultivator is a most valuable adjunct on any farm of moderate size, 
 whether the soil be light (as some of mine is) or heavy ; nor can it be doubted that 
 steam cultivation is the most important discovery of our day, and that it Avill do more 
 to increase the productiveness of our soils than any of the many improvements which 
 have taken place in agricultural mechanics during the present century." 
 
THE HAEROW. Gil 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 THE HARROW. 
 
 In the present state of cultivation, the harrow is an essential implement in the 
 performance of many operations besides that of covering in the seed. On the principle 
 adopted in the construction of ploughs by the manufacturers, and patronised by the 
 generality of farmers, different kinds of harrows are necessary adjuncts to the plough in 
 the comminution of the soil, which is, by the latter implement, broken up and tamed 
 over in a condition most unfavourable to that operation. If tlie soil is of a tenacious 
 character it requires, after such ploughing, to be first thorouglily dried, and then well 
 moistened by rain, before it can be touched to any good purpose by the Drag or 
 Brake. Bloomfield, in his " Farmer's Boy," has graphically described the perplexity of 
 t]ie farmer in such case : — 
 
 " Boy, bring the harrows, Iry how far the rain 
 Has soaked the clods !" He comes, but comes iu vai.i: 
 Dry dust beneath the bubbling surface lurks. 
 And mocks his pains the more, the more he works. 
 Still, midst huG;e clods he plunges on forlorn. 
 That laugh his harrows and the shower to scorn." 
 
 The liarrows employed, therefore, in the various operations of the field may be divided 
 into tliree classes — the Drag or Brake Harrow, the Common Harrow, and the Light 
 Harrow. 
 
 The Brake or Drag Harrow has long been used both in England and Scotland ; and, 
 previous to the introduction of the cultivator, or grubber, was essentially necessary for 
 the pulverisation of the soil, especially on rough strong land. It was in fact well suited 
 to the infancy of cultivation ; but its use iuvoh ed a great waste of power, the tines 
 having no, or but little, cutting action, Ijy reason of the slowness of the motion of 
 the horses in working it. Consequently, unless under the most favourable states of 
 the weather — first, to dry, and then to moisten and slake the clods — the operation of 
 breaking them, if they could be broken at all, was effected by the sheer force of the 
 cattle. Four, and sometimes six horses, or from six to ten oxen, were employed in 
 working this implement, and preparing the land for the common harrow. It is 
 estimated that a cultivator or grubber will produce a far better effect with two horses 
 than the drag will with four or more. The description given by Forsyth of the brake 
 is nearly identical with its present form, except that iron is substituted for wood in the 
 frame. It is as follows : — 
 
 "The brake is a large and weighty harrow, the purpose of which is to reduce a 
 stubborn soil, where an ordinary harrow makes no impression. It consists of four 
 square bulls (or bars) each side 5 inches, and G^ feet in length. The teeth are 17 
 inches long, bending forwards like a coulter. Four (five) of them are inserted 
 in each bull, fixed above Avitli a screw-nut, having 12 inches free below, with a heel 
 close to the under part of the bull, to prevent it from being pitshed back by stones. 
 (He has omitted to mention the five cross bars.) The nut above makes it easy to be 
 
 taken out for sharpening. This brake requires four horses or four oxen It 
 
 may bo applied to great advantage in the following circumstances. In the fallowing 
 
 H R 2 
 
612 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODEKN. 
 
 strong clay, that requires frequent ploughings, a braking between every ploughing will 
 pulverise the soil, and render the subsequent ploughing more easy. In the month of 
 March or April, when strong ground is ploughed for barley, especially if bound with 
 couch-grass, a cross braking is preferable to a cross ploughing, and is done at half the 
 expense. When the ground is ploughed from a state of nature, and after a competent 
 time is cross ploughed, the brake is applied with great success, immediately after the 
 cross ploughing, to reduce the whole to proper tilth." It will at once be seen that the 
 cultivator is immeasurably superior in all respects to the brake, being adapted to all 
 soils and all states of the land, except in frost, if worked by steam-power, and even with 
 horse-power, if the land can be worked at all. 
 
 The Common Harrow has undergone great improvements of late years ; but there is 
 a considerable difference of opinion amongst the machinists respecting its action, and it 
 is still undetermined which is the most eligible mode of placing the teeth so as to produce 
 the greatest effect upon the soil. The harrow may be considered an enlargement and 
 extension of the garden rake, this latter having only one row of teeth, set wider or closer 
 according to the state of the mould it is worked upon ; and the hand and skill of the 
 gardener are both employed in levelling and pulverising the soil. But tlie roughness of 
 the surface of the field, aud its extent, render it impossible to go over it with such an 
 implement as a rake, or that the hand-skill of the workman can be directly employed in 
 the operation. The harrow, therefore, must be constructed so as to pass most efficiently 
 over every part of the field ; aud it is still a debateable question how the teeth should be 
 distributed over the surface of tlie harrow, so as to produce the greatest and best effect. 
 
 There are many types of the Common or intermediate harrow between the Brake 
 and the Seed Harrow. The most usual form of the implement consists of a pair 
 of harrows of about 24 square feet in dimensions, which with one man and a pair of 
 horses will go once over 10 acres per day. The form of these harrows is rhomboidal, 
 the draught-chains being fastened to them at the left-hand corner from the driver. 
 Each hai-row weighs about 1 cwt., aud contains twenty teeth or tines, each of which 
 sustains a weight of about 6 lbs., which is only sufficient to enable it to travel over the 
 surface, and breaks the clods that the plougli and the atmospheric influences have left 
 upon it. In addition to this operation, it assists in levelling the field, and removing 
 those inequalities which would otherwise be embarrassing to the subsequent operations 
 of hoeing and mowing. The drauglit-bar of the common harrow has several holes in 
 it, and by changing the position of the chain on it, the frame will swing to the right 
 or left, altering the line of operation of the tines. 
 
 A modification of the rhomboidal harrow has been made by Saunders and Williams, 
 of Bedford. In this, the several parts are arranged in a zigzag form, which enables the 
 frame to act equally on every part of its course across the field. The teeth are passed 
 through a mortise at the point of union of the longitudinal and cross-bars, and are licld 
 fast by a screw and nut, which thus serves to hold the whole framework of the harrows 
 together. 
 
 Coleman's Harrow deviates widely from the Common Harrow, although designed for 
 the same purpose. It consists of four frames, linked together in such a form that they 
 can be folded up like parallel rulers, each cross-bar being jointed or hinged, so that it 
 can be contracted so as to bring the teeth close together, or expand them to take in a 
 large surface. It is furnished with eighty tcetli, which act either as pulverisers or as 
 
THE HARROW. 613 
 
 clod breakers, according as the frame is contracted or extended. The frame is supported 
 by five discs or wheels, which act by a lever and a semicircular bar, pierced with holes. 
 By pressure of the lever down, and fastening it with a pin to the bars, the wheel is 
 pressed down, and secured so far below the frame as to raise the teeth of the harrow 
 quite above the siu'face, or its action may be modified so as to take greater or less hold 
 of the ground, according to the work required. 
 
 The Light Harrow, for levelling the surface, pulverising still further the soil, and 
 covering the seeds, is made in the same form as the common harrow, and diflers from it 
 only in dimensions and weight, having generally the same number of bulls or bars, tines, 
 and slots. It is from 33 to 36 inches in breadth, and 3^ feet in length, allowing about 
 7 inches between the tines, which are from 5 to 6 inches in length. Like the Common 
 Harrow, it may be made either of wood or iron. It is frequently used for collecting the 
 twitch grass on light soils, in which case the horses are generally trotted over the surface, 
 giving a zigzag motion to tlic implement, and shaking more effectually the roots of 
 weeds from the soil. The Light Harrow should always be used iu covering seeds, 
 the Common Harrow burying them too deep. 
 
 Mr. Smith, of Deanston, invented an Iron Web Harrow for this purpose. It 
 consists of a network of iron wire, \ inch thick, formed into curves. At every curve the 
 wire passes through the centre of a serrated disc, of the shape and size of a common 
 quoit. The centi'e of the disc is open enough to give it full play upon the wire when 
 working. The curves or connecting links are 3 inches in length, and 1| in breadth, 
 and the whole extent of the web is 6 feet by 3. The side and end bars are of 1-inch 
 iron rod, and are screwed together. The discs having full play upon the connecting 
 links, are very effective in tearing and pulverising the surface of the soil, so as to cover 
 the seed, Avithout burying it deeply, with a fine mould, most proper to promote its 
 vegetation. The bush harrow is frequently used on light lands for the same purpose, 
 and has always been found to perform the work effectually. It is also used for 
 spreading and scratching in the manure deposited on pasture land, whether by cattle or 
 for a dressing. It consists of a frame of wood with two strong bars at the ends, and two 
 others in front and rear, making it 7 feet by 3 in dimensions, with a middle bar as 
 strong as the end ones. Bushes are interwoven between the three bars, having their 
 thick ends in front, so that the twig ends pass over the surface and abrade it, so as to 
 cover the seeds, or break in pieces and disperse the manure on the pasture land. It is 
 generally used after dibbing, to fill up the holes. 
 
 Messrs. Howard, of Bedford, have constructed several harrows for different kinds of 
 work, and of various dimensions, but all in the zigzag form. For their Iron Drag 
 Harrow they received the first prize at Warwick and Chelmsford. The teeth or tines of 
 tliis liarrow are a clear 12 inches long, and curved towards the point ; the frames cover a 
 space of 7 feet in width, and arc a good substitute for the old wooden drag harrow. 
 It requires three or four horses to draw it when the ground is rough, which, in fact, 
 is the only condition in whicli it can be used to advantage. It is, however', made to 
 serve the purpose of a scarifier. The same firm have constructed a set of harrows to be 
 attached to their steam-ploughing apparatus. They are made on the same principle as 
 the horse harrows, and can with ease be worked over from fifteen to twenty acres per 
 day in a superior manner. 
 
 The Drill Harrow was first used in the cultivation of potatoes. Its usual form is 
 
61i AGllICULTURE, ANCIENT ANjU MuDEliN. 
 
 rectaugular, but the cross-bars are semicirciilar, or arched, iu order to adapt them to the 
 form of the ridge or stetch, and the two furrows are connected by coupling-rods at each 
 end, made to contract or expand at pleasure. The draught-chain is fixed to the centre 
 of the front bar, and is united to the swingle-trcc to which the horse is yoked. 
 The use of this implement is to level the soil after the plants appear, or at least after the 
 seed has sprouted ; and in bean and potato culture it is very useful for that purpose, as 
 well as for loosening the soil. The dimensions of each leaf is 27 inches, and it contains 
 fifteen tines, which allows 1| inch between the drills. The tines are secured to the 
 cross bars by a screw aud nut, their length below being 4 inches, and thickness {'ths of 
 an inch at the top, tapering to a blunt point. The rise of the curvature of the harrow is 
 from 3 to 5 inches. The coupling-rods are flattened for some inches at each end; 
 they are pierced with three holes, which enables the workman to expand or contract 
 them according to the width of the ridge. The Drill Harrow is drawn by one horse, 
 which walks in the furrow between the ridges. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 THE ROLLER. 
 
 Forsyth, who wrote in ISO-f, says, " The Roller is an instrument of capital use in 
 husbandry, though, till of late years, scarcely known in ordinary practice ; and where 
 introduced, it is commonly so slight as to have very little effect."* It is remarkable 
 that such an assertion should be published in a work like the " Encyclopfedia Britanuica," 
 and republished in a separate work by the same author, when the roller is distinctly 
 referred to by Tull as a common implement for pulverising the soil "by contusion," ■\ 
 and that this was the only legitimate use to which it ought to be put. If used for 
 levelling the ground after the barley or other grain or seed is sown, it ought to be done 
 with a very light roller, and decidedly iu dry weather, for if the soil is moist, it binds it 
 too closely, and injures the crop. It is now well understood that, in keeping the soil 
 in a loose state, you are so far from letting in the drowjht, as was formerly supposed, 
 that the land is rendered moister, by the more copious imbibing of the dews from 
 the atmosphere, and drawing the vapours from the subsoil, besides the advantage of 
 encouraging the growth of the plants by enabling their roots to extend themselves. 
 
 There are, however, other uses for the roller, which require different kinds of 
 ■implements; and of late years a great improvement has been made by the substitution 
 
 * Forsyth's " Agriculture," vol. i. p. 278. Tliis passage is also found verbatim iu Lord Karnes' " Gentleman 
 Farmer," p. 53 ; but whether the latter borrowed it from the " Encyelopa.'dia," or Forsyth from him, it is difficult 
 to say. 
 
 t See TuU's work, p. 77, eh. vi., " On Tillage," Cobbett's edition. lie also, iu p. 87, has the following passage :— 
 "Farmers, just when they have brought the land iuto a condition fit to be further tilled to much greater advantage, leave 
 off, supposing the soil to be fine enough when with the help ofjhe harrows they can cover the seed ; aud afterwards, with 
 n roUi'r, they break tlie clods, to the end that, if a crop succeeds, they may be able to mow it without being hindered by 
 thoje clods:" and in a note, he adds, "The injury the roller does is only when it is used to press down the earth after 
 the seed is so.vn, aud is the greater if the land is moist, &c." 
 
THE llOLLEU. 615 
 
 of cast-irou iustead of wood or stoue iu tlieir construction. Ou strong clay soils tlie 
 roller cannot bo used with advantage after ploughing until the furrow-slice lias been 
 completely dried, and afterwards moistened by a shower of rain ; under the efl'ect of 
 which it slakes like lime, and breaks into powder under the roller. This implement 
 should never, on any soil, be used Avheu the land is wet enough for the earth to stick 
 to it. 
 
 The roller is required iu the spring of the j'ear, after the frost is gone, to press down 
 the soil to the roofs of the wheat plant. We have before explained the nature of the 
 root-fall, which attacks that plant at this season, and the importance of attending to it 
 in time to prevent the destruction or injiu'ing of the crop. It should be well rolled 
 some time before the horse or hand hoe is applied, to give time for the plants to strike 
 out fresh roots into the soil, which they will do if the earth is closed around them 
 by the roller. 
 
 Both barley and oats, if the soil is dry, should be rolled immediately- after the seed 
 is sown, especially if the grass-seeds are sown at the same time. If the soil is moist 
 and tenacious, the operation must be delayed untd the condition of the land is such 
 that the clods will break without becoming caked or clung. Grass-seeds are usually 
 sown after the barley or oats are some inches out of the ground, in which case the 
 land should immediately be rolled with a light roller, to pulverise the soil and cover 
 the seeds. 
 
 Rollers are of use in reducing fallows to a fine state of pulverisation, and, when the 
 land is foul, to disintegrate it and let loose the roots of twitch grass and other weeds, to 
 be more effectually acted upon by the harrows. With the common roller, 6 feet in 
 length, and drawn by two horses, from fourteen to eighteen acres per day of ten hours 
 may be accomplished. Again, dry weather is necessary for the operation. It is also 
 employed on grass and clover lands in the spring, to level the ground and prepare it for 
 the scythe. 
 
 There are various kinds of rollers now in \ise for performing different operations. 
 The Common Roller is usually a cylinder of wood, and the principal elements to be 
 observed in its construction are weight and diameter, and these must be proportioned to 
 the nature of the work and the character of the soil. Wood, however, is the least 
 effective material for making rollers generally, on account of its lightness, and the 
 necessity of having it all in one piece, which renders its action in turning at a headland 
 injurious to the young plants in rolling barley or oats. The diameter, too, must be 
 regulated by the size of the timber that can be procured. Oak is the usual timber of 
 which it is composed, and it is not always that it can be procured of the desired 
 diameter, which is from 2 feet to 3 feet 6 inches. This difficulty, with other imper- 
 fections, has rendered cast-iron the most eligible material, and we now find that all the 
 manufacturers of agricultui-al machinery have du-ected their attention to the construction 
 of the roller on scientific principles, and adapted to every kind of operation. These we 
 shall now describe. 
 
 The Common Cast-iron Roller is composed of two cylinders of the equal length of 3 
 feet, and a diameter of 2 feet, the weight being from h a ton to 15 cwt., according to the 
 stoutness of the iron. Many are made of the lighter weight, and are furnished with a 
 box, fitted to the frame of the implement, into which stones may be loaded, to add to 
 the weight according to the reouirements of the work. The cylinders are hung on an 
 
G16 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 axle of malleable iron, 2^ inclies in diameter, and have at each end of both, an iron 
 cross, fitted with holes in the centre for the shaft to pass. Upon this shaft or axle the 
 two sections of the roller work freely. The frame consists of two semicircular cast-iron 
 ends, with bushes in the under part for receiving the ends of the axle. These ends are 
 strongly clasped to two bars of oak or other hard wood, which are mortised to the shafts 
 to which the horses are attached. The shafts are supported by two iron stay-rods fixed 
 to the ends of the frame. 
 
 Some farmers use what is called a Kit-cat Roller for rolling land thrown into 
 narrow stetches. This implement is of wood, the centre being of much greater diameter 
 than the ends ; so that, by walking the liorse in the furrow, the two ends bear equally 
 upon the half stetches on either side. 
 
 The Clod-crusher invented by Crosskill, of Beverley, is a very powerful implement, 
 and well adapted to strong clay soils. It consists of a certain number of cast-iron 
 wheels, according to its length, each of which is supported by a cross, in the centre 
 of which is an eye for the axle to pass. The wheels are all deeply serrated in their 
 circumference, and when fixed on the axle present a very rugged surface. The length 
 is from 5 feet to 6 feet 6 inches, and the diameter 30 inches. The frame is of strong 
 
 V^\- 
 
 CROSSKILL S CLOD-CEUSHEK. 
 
 pieces of timber, with cast-iron ends, to receive the extremities of the axle, which 
 project beyond the ends of the roller, forming arms, on which wheels are placed to 
 remove the implement from field to field, or to the homestead when the work is done. 
 Each of the wheels of the roller acts separately, and with its angular points splits the 
 clods, reducing them to powder at once. It is also used on light land after it has been 
 sown with barley, in order to consolidate the surface. 
 
 A Light Barley Roller has been invented by Messrs. Ransome and Sons, of Ipswich. 
 This is composed of two cylinders of cast-iron, 10 inches in diameter, and 5 feet in 
 length. The frame is of wood, and the cylinders are fixed to it in the same manner as 
 in the foregoing. Wiicu this implement is in operation, one cylinder is in advance of 
 the other, the two inner ends crossing an inch or two, so as to go over every part of the 
 land. The two sections are loosely united by a hook and eye, so as to adapt themselves 
 to an uneven surface. 
 
 The Presser Roller is used exclusively on light, loose, friable soils, and maybe a good 
 bubstitute for clay, where that material cannot be obtained, to mix with the soil. Varlo 
 
THE HOE. 617 
 
 says, " the first principle in agriculture is to make a light soil heavier, and a heavy soil 
 lighter." This is best effected by mixing clay or marl with sand or gravel, and vice 
 versa. If this is done effectually with a light soil, the Presser Roller is unnecessary. 
 As, however, it comes in our way, we feel bound to describe it. 
 
 The Presser Holler, then, consists of two wheels, 34. inches in diameter and 
 o| inches in width, the outside edge or rim being sloped off at an angle of about 
 70 degrees. They work upon an axle, and are kept separated to the proper distance by 
 iron collars between them. The axle is considerably longer than the space occupied by 
 the working wheels, and at its extremity a common wheel is placed, to maintain the 
 equilibrium. The intention of this implement is to press the furrow-slice of loose sods 
 after the plough, for which purpose they are set at exactly the width to take two furrows, 
 which they press down effectually. 
 
 A Press-wheel^Roller has been invented by Messrs. Howard, of Bedford, of a different 
 form, consisting of a series of cylindrical wheels, like Crosskill's Clod-crusher, but each 
 of them having a cutting, instead of a serrated edge on the circumference. The roller 
 is made from 6 to 8 feet in length, and from 15 to 26 inches in diameter, and along the 
 whole length an iron bar or rod is fixed, containing scrapers for each separate wheel, to 
 clear it from the adhesion of the soil. This roller is employed for the same purposes as 
 the clod-crusher, aud is similar to the one invented by Cambridge, and manufactured by 
 Ball, of Rothwell, Northamptonshire. It is said to be very useful iu stopping the ravages 
 of the wireworm and grub on corn lauds in the spring. 
 
 SECTION XL 
 
 THE HOE. 
 
 The operation of hoeing is now almost universally performed by the Horse-hoe, which was 
 first invented by Tull, then almost laid aside for many years ; and then, wheu the drill 
 husbandry came into fashion, was resumed wherever the latter machine was employed in 
 depositing the seed. The Common hand-hoe is an implement too simple aud well 
 known to need any description ; yet its employment requires no little skill and attention, 
 to avoid doing more harm than good, by cutting up the com or root-plants witli the 
 weeds and supernumeraries that require removing. The Turnip-hoe should not be more 
 than from 8 to 10 inches long in the blade, and it ought to be made of the very best 
 steel, otherwise a good cutting edge cannot be maintained, and the work is difficult to 
 do, without dragging out plants that ought to stand, with those that reqiiire to be 
 removed. No one but a practitioner would believe the difference in working between 
 a hoe of good steel and one of iron or bad steel; some workmen will purchase the 
 latter because it is a few pence cheaper, which is very poor economy to the man liim- 
 self, and still more so to his employer, as he finds to his cost. The Corn Hand-hoc 
 is a much shorter bladed implement, being not more than from 4 to 6 inches, according 
 
CIS AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 to the width of the rows of corn. For broadcast corn, a spud is used instead of a hoe^ 
 the irregularity of the position of the plants only admitting of the weeds being cut up, 
 without otherwise opening the soil, which is one of the most important operations of 
 the hoe. 
 
 The Horse-hoe is usually made to work with one horse, and is entirely of iron, 
 except the shares, which are of cast-steel. They are capable of variation in the setting in 
 the frame, according to the width of the drills, whether of corn or roots. A very efficient 
 implement of this kind is manufactured by William Smith, of Kettering, Northampton- 
 shire. This implement is from 4 feet G inches to G feet 6 inches long, and will hoe six 
 rows of wheat from 7 to 9 inches apart; three rows of beans, peas, or roots, from 10 
 to 18 inches apart; or two rows of turnips or raangold-wurzel, from 18 to 27 inches 
 apart, either on the ridge or the flat. It is completely under the guidance of the 
 steerer, independent of the horse ; so that it can be worked to the greatest exactness 
 without touching the plants. It is drawu by one horse with ease, having a driver and 
 a boy to lead. The frame of this implement is made of wood, and is as light as is 
 consistent with strength. The hoes are placed on two wrought iron bars, fastened with 
 clips and screws. These are movable, to admit of their being altered to any required 
 width. The axle-trees are movable at both ends, so that either wheel may be expanded 
 or contracted, so as to be always kept between the rows of plants. The bars to which 
 the hoes are attached are fastened to the frame by iron rods fixed to the bars, l)ut 
 movable on the frame, to allow of their being lifted out of the work. The depth of 
 hoeing is regulated by a chain, which can be hooked higher or lower as may be 
 required. 
 
 Garrett's Horse-hoe is a more complicated machine, as well as a more heavy oue ; 
 the following is a description of it : — The main beam or sill which supports the working 
 part of the machine is of wood, and is 7 feet 2 inches in length, and 4 inches in depth. 
 At each end are brackets of cast-iron, which support the axles of the travelling wheels, 
 4 feet in diameter. A horizontal shaft rises above, and is attached to the sill by 
 brackets, at the ends of which are bearings for the shaft to work. An eccentric wheel 
 is fixed at each end of the sliaft with grooved peripheries, in which are chains, fastened 
 at the lower end to the parts of the machine that support the hoes. A lever 2 feet 
 4 inches long is attached to the shaft, by wdiich the eccentric wheels can be tui-ned to 
 any required extent of their revolutions, and can be kept in any position by means of a 
 ratchet wheel at the left end of the shaft, and attached to the bracket that supports it. 
 At each end of the main sill, and below it, are brackets, at the lower ends of which are 
 jointed swing levers, and these are fixed at the lower ends to a horizontal bar. The 
 levers are employed in carrying the wrought iron coulter-bars, to which the blades or 
 hoes are attached. A spindle is fixed to the centre of the main sill, extending backward, 
 and having at its extremities a suspending lever, with another lever or handle jointed to 
 it, and connected at the other extremity with the left-hand swing lever. A mortise- 
 bar carries the coulter-stalks, which are kept in position by four sirring guards, two at 
 each end of the mortise-bar. In heavy clay soils weights are attached to the hoe- 
 guards when the ground is dry and hard. 
 
 When at work the hoes must be adjusted to the breadth of the rows, avoiding 
 touching the plants. The hoes are let into their work by releasing the pawl of the 
 ratchet wheel on the horizontal bar, and then allowing tlic shaft to revolve the 
 
SOWING MACHINES. Gl'J 
 
 required space by the chaius iu the eccentric wheels, ycliicli allows the coulters to fall. 
 The horse should be kept while working as near as possible iu a straight line parallel 
 with the rows of plants, but any little deviation may be rectilled by the conductor, by 
 using the cross-handles, which give a lateral movement to the bar, the coulter-stalks, 
 and the blades. 
 
 This machine, for it is such rather than an implement, covers a large extent of 
 ground, and is so far very efficient ; but its weight appears to be too great, and the 
 wheels on a damp soil must sink in and do harm. Our idea is that the horse-hoe 
 cannot be made too light, consistent with strength and power to perform the operation. 
 Whatever weight is added, either by the complication of the machine or its size, must 
 l)c injurious. The operation of hoeing is so simple iu itself, and so easily provided for, 
 that it requires no complicatious, which only enhance the price without adding to its 
 utility. 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 SOWING MACHINES. 
 
 The Broadcast Machine is an invention of the present century, and is ascribed to 
 Mr. Short of Chiverton. In England it is chiefly used iu sowing small seeds, the 
 drill husbandry being almost universally practised there. In Scotland it was 
 first introduced by Robert Lowrie, of Edingtou (Berkshire), who procured oue from 
 Mr. Short. This was 8 feet long, and drawn by one man. Lowrie immediately 
 constructed one 15 feet in length, to be drawn by one horse ; for which he obtained 
 prizes at the Agricultural Shows of Coldstream and Kelso. The machine soon made its 
 way into East Lothian, and the firm of Scouler and Co., of Heddington, took up the 
 manufacture of it with the greatest success. Various improvements have been effected 
 iu the construction, amongst which the addition of a third wheel moving in front as a 
 fore-carriage has added greatly to the steadiness of the machine. The seed-box has 
 also been lengthened to 18 feet, and this is cut iuto three parts, the middle being 9 feet 
 in length, and the two ends 4^ feet each. These can be folded up so as to admit 
 of the machine passing through the field gates, to do which before it was necessary to 
 turn the seed-box parallel with the shafts. The carriage is made of square beams of 
 hard wood from 4 to 5 inches deep, and 2^ inches thick ; the frame is 7 feet wide over 
 the axle, and 4 feet in length over the rails, of which there are three. The main 
 wheels are 2 feet 10 inches in diameter, having wrought iron naves and wooden spokes 
 and fellies, or a hoop of wrought iron 2| inches wide, by | inch thick, the oxle being 
 1^ inch diameter. The left-hand wheel is fixed upon the axle, which revolves round 
 with it, giving motien to the pitch-chain, which regulates the delivery of the seed. The 
 right-hand wheel may either be thus fixed, or run loose on the axle, which consists of 
 two separate pieces. The front wheel is 24 inches iu diameter, and is of cast-iron, being 
 
620 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 supported by cast-iron shares 4 inches wide between the arms ; these form an angle 
 with the front beam. The apparatus for delivering the seed from the seed-box consists 
 of a series of wheels connected with one in the seed-box; and different cups are used 
 according to the kind of seed or grain to be sown. 
 
 In some parts of England a hand machine is used for sowing grass seed, the only 
 kind which is commonly sown broadcast. It consists of a light square seed-box with 
 compartments in it. The bottom is perforated with holes, over which are pieces of tin, 
 with holes just large enough for a clover or turnip seed to pass through. The box is 
 12 feet in length, and is hung upon the sower's shoulders by a strap, and every step he 
 takes he gives the box a jerk sideways, which brings the seed over the perforated tin, 
 tlirough which one is delivered with every jerk. By lengthening or shortening his steps 
 the sower can diminish or increase the quantity of seed delivered. 
 
 The Corn Drill. The invention of this most useful machine must be ascribed to 
 Jethro TuU, for although Worlidge, who wrote about thirty years before Tull's time, 
 gives both a description and an engraving of such a machine, it does not appear that 
 it was ever practically brought into use; and it is certain that TuU never saw it, 
 although he mentions having heard of it. Whether he took the hint from the 
 engraving or description is a matter that cannot be decided ; but we may safely award to 
 him the merit of having first brought into practical husbandry one of the most useful, 
 as it is now the most common, implement, on almost every English farm. 
 
 Tull's own account of the invention is very characteristic of the classical turn of his 
 mind. He had, in the first instance, with a view to economise seed, employed persons 
 to form drills in the soil, distributing the seed in them in very small quantities. Ten 
 acres were at first sown in this way at one-fourth part of the expense in labour and seed 
 uf the common way ; and he was sanguine enough to believe that if ten could be so 
 done, a thousand might also be done as well ; but the next year there was a conspiracy 
 amongst his labourers to disappoint him, and never to plant a row tolerably well again. 
 He therefore dismissed his men and gave up the scheme, unless he could contrive an 
 engine to plant more faithfully than such hands would do. 
 
 " To that purpose," he says, " I examined and compared all the mechanical ideas 
 that had ever entered my imagination, and at last pitched upon the tongue, groove, and 
 spring in the sound-board of an organ. With these a little altered, and some parts of 
 two other instruments, as foreign to the field as the organ is, added to them, I composed 
 my machine. It was named a drill, because when farmers iised to sow their beans and 
 peas into channels or furrows by hand, they called that action ' drilling.' It planted 
 that farm much better than hands could have done, and many hundred acres besides ; 
 and thirty years' experience shows that sainfoin thus planted brings better crops, and 
 lasteth longer than sown sainfoin. This drill hath also been used almost as long in 
 })lAnting most sorts of corn for hand-hoeing, and these last nine years for horse- 
 lioeing."* 
 
 Tins passage gives the merit of the invention to Tull, for Worlidge makes no .mention 
 of the way in which he caught the idea ; and his machine was very simple, and drilled 
 onlj' one or two rows of corn at a time, and we cannot learn from his Ijook that it had 
 ever been used for the purpose ; whereas Tull drilled all his crops with his for upwards 
 of thirty years, and always with great success, having commenced using it in 1701 ; but 
 
 • Tull's " Iliibbanary," Cobbett's edition, p. 452. 
 
SOWING MACHINES. 621 
 
 although Tull proved the advantages of the drill Imsljandry in his own practice, he failed 
 in removing the prejudices of his neighbours against what they considered speculative 
 innovations, and very few had the temerity — for in the then state of agriculture such 
 an experiment might be called rash — to adopt the drill. Even so late as the last 
 quarter of the last century the enlightened Dr. Hunter, in the " Georgical Essays," 
 expresses an opinion against the general use of the drill ; not because it was not an 
 efiBcient and useful machine, but because it was so very costly that few farmers would 
 lay out so much money on one implement ! What would the learned doctor say now, 
 if he could be set down at any one of our agricultural gatherings, to the vast accumu- 
 lation and costliness of the machinery that is now becoming as common as " household 
 words" on every farm of moderate extent, and with every farmer of common intelli- 
 gence ? Sir John Sinclair also, at a still later period, strenuously opposed it, and was 
 backed in his prejudices by the Farmers' Magazine, a Scotch publication. It would 
 seem that the Scottish farmers have not, even to the present day, overcome their 
 reluctance to abandon the broadcast husbandry,* as is proved by the acceptance the 
 broadcast machine finds amongst them, while in England it is scarcely used at all. There 
 is probably a reason in the condition of the land in Scotland that renders the use of the 
 drill less beneficial than it is in England ; but if this is the case, we are not aware of 
 the nature of it. We have met with instances in England of farmers who still adhere 
 to the broadcast husbandry. No longer ago than the present year we went over a 
 farm, and in passing through a field in which the mowing machine was in use, wc 
 remarked the extraordinary fine plant of clover over the whole field. " Yes," said the 
 farmer, " I never had anything like it before. The fact is, I never before tised the drill, 
 but in future I will never sow in any other way." 
 
 Perhaps the spread of the drill husbandry was promoted more by the Holkham and 
 Woburn sheepshearings, than by any other circumstance. Both Mr. Coke and the 
 Duke of Bedford were its strenuous and practical advocates; and the evidence of its 
 utility on their farms, witnessed annually by hundreds of the most eminent practical 
 farmers in England and from abroad, could not fail to recommend the system. In 
 Mr. Coke's own county, — Norfolk, — the drill was fully established during the first 
 decade of the present century ; and Mr. Coke himself declared his opinion, after many 
 years' practice, that the drill husbandry was undoubtedly the most beneficial for all 
 kinds of crops, and in all seasons and countries. 
 
 But although the corn drill is a modern invention in Europe, it has, like many 
 other of our modern machines, been known amongst the Hindoos for many ages ; for 
 in a series of models of agricultural implements brought from India, and now deposited 
 in the Technological Museum in Edinburgh, is a model of a rudely-constructed drill 
 machine, having all the essential points of our more perfect implements. No date can 
 be assigned to the invention of this model, which no doubt represented a practical 
 instrument, probably in use in India at a period antecedent to British civilisation. The 
 principle of this model is the same as that of our best constructed drills, and it is only 
 in the more complicated and elaborate details of construction that the modern machines 
 excel them. 
 
 The invention of the lever corn drill is due, we believe, to a Suftblk machinist, 
 
 • This, however, applies only to the corn drill, that for roots and leguminous plants having heen in use in Scotland 
 for many years. 
 
G32 AGRICULTUllE, AXCII5XT AND MOBERlSr. 
 
 the Rev. Mr. Cooke, of that county; and whatevei* improvements ni.iy have been made 
 in it, no alteration has been effected in its most essential principle. It was used by 
 T. W. Cooke, Esq., of Holkhara, for many years upon his own farm at the dose of the 
 last century, and was highly approved of by him. Perhaps one of the most perfect of 
 the present lever-drills is that constructed by Messrs. Garrett and Son, of Saxmund- 
 ham, and styled the " Suffolk Lever Corn Drill." This machine is calculated to 
 drill fourteen rows of grain at once, and may be thus described. The seed is deposited 
 in a box, through the length of which a shaft or barrel revolves. On this shaft arc 
 fi.xed a number of wheels or discs, furnished witli arms carrying cups at their 
 extremities. As the shaft revolves, these cups take up the seed and drop it into tin 
 tubes, which are connected with the coidtcr, which is hollow at the back, and as it 
 penetrates the soil the seed is deposited at the same instant. The depth at which the 
 coulter penetrates the soil is regulated by weights hung to the ends of the eoulter-levers, 
 and these are jointed at their extremities to a mortise-bar attached to the frame of the 
 machine. By this arrangement the coulters attached to the separate levers adapt 
 themselves to the inequalities of the ground. The distance between the rows is 
 regulated by shifting the levers on the mortise-bar attached to the frame ; and to assist 
 the delivery of grain when damp, or rendered adhesive by a lime or other dressing, 
 small hammers are hung loosely over the delivery-cups, which, striking against each cup 
 as it comes over the delivery-spout, the seed is shaken out at once. The coultei's can 
 he lifted out of work by tuniing the baricl round which the chains attached to the 
 coulter-levels are wound. The driving-wheels, which support the machine, have also 
 spur-wheels attached to the naves, and are connected with the pinions keyed on the 
 shaft of the cup-barrel. Wheels of different diameters are provided for the purpose of 
 varying and regulating the quantity of seed as occasion may demand. Two horses are 
 required to work this machine on moderately light land, but on a stiff clay soil more are 
 necessary. 
 
 There are now many manufacturers of corn-drills, but all of them are different 
 modifications of the same princii^le, and are- adapted, some for large, and others for 
 small occupations. Some have also been brought out adapted both for sowing grain and 
 root seeds, such as turnips, mangold-wurzel, &c.; but in general the turnip-drill is made 
 specially for depositing root crops, and, in some cases, the manure with the seed. We 
 shall describe one of each of these kinds of drill. 
 
 The Turnip Drill used in Scotland is a very simple implement, and is adapted to the 
 Northumberland system of sowing on two-furrow ridges, the manure being previously 
 deposited in the trench, and the earth turned over it by a double-breasted plough. It is 
 called the " East Lothian Drill ; " the frame is 4 feet 6 inches in length, and 3 feet 
 across; having two transverse and three longitudinal bars, each 2 J inches square; with 
 three upright bars of the same dimensions mortised into the longitudinal bars of the 
 bed-frame. The latter are further supported with stay-braces attached to them and to 
 the lower part of the upright bars, which add greatly to its strength and steadiness. The 
 shafts for the horse are l)olted upon the two transverse bars, and are 3 inches by 
 2^- inches square; these are also supported by stay-braces, and furnished with the usual 
 horse mountings. Attached to the upright bars below by a shaft or axle, are two 
 rollers of thin east-iron, IG inches in length, and It inches in diameter at the ends, and 
 from G to 8 inclies in the middle. Tlic axle, which rests on tlie two upright bars. 
 
SOWING MACHINES. 023 
 
 ];assc3 tlirougli the centre of these rollersj which revolve upon it. Two seed-boxes are 
 attached to au iron frame or bow ; thi-ough the ends of these the axle j^asses, vi'hereby 
 the whole becomes movable upon the axle. The seed-boxes are 12 inches long, 9 inches 
 wide, and 8 inches high at the apex. The bottom is of tin, funnel-shaped, the end of 
 which hangs withi'i the sheath of the coulter. The depth to Avhich the coulter pene- 
 trates is regulated by iron connecting-rods attached to the seed-bos frame and to the 
 top of the levers ; these latter serve as handles to the machine, and are jointed ; when 
 lifted up by the sower, and rested on the iron brackets by which each lever is embraced, 
 the coulter is raised out of the ground by the ascent of the seed-boxes. In working, 
 the rollers form the soil into a smooth semicircle, in the centre of which the seed is 
 deposited directly over the manure. 
 
 Messrs. Hornsby and Sons, of Grantham, have constructed a drill on the same 
 principle as regards the rollers, but of a far more complicated make. It will deposit 
 seed either -with or without manure, the coulters for the latter being placed before the 
 concave rollers, so that the soil, after they have passed, is brought again into the proper 
 form, and the seed deposited over the manure. A light roller follows at the tail of the 
 machine, to smooth the ridges after the coulters. The -axles, to which are attached 
 both the seed and the manure-boxes, with the seed-cups and manure-distributors, are 
 worked by series of wheels attached to, and revolving with, the driving-wheels. 
 
 The great advantages of the drill-sowing over the broadcast consist not onlj' in 
 the saving of seed, by the regularity of its distribution, but also in the uniformity of 
 depth at which the seed is deposited, and the opportunity it affords for opening the soil 
 to the action of the sun and air, with the horse or hand-hoe. In broadcast sowing, 
 whether the seed is ploughed or harrowed in, a considerable quantity necessarily lies on 
 or near the surface, which may be considered as lostj whilst other portions of it are 
 buried so deep as to be beyond the influence of the promoters of vegetation, and thus 
 lie dormant or perish. Nor can the hoe be effectually applied to corn sown broadcast, 
 the spud, a tool about 2 inches wide, fastened to a long handle, with which the weeds 
 arc grubbed up, and the weeding-hook, au arrow-headed tool with one flange, and 
 ))ointed, being the only implements possible. In this husbandry, however, the farmer 
 trusts more to " a smothering crop " of corn to stifle the weeds than to cutting them 
 up with the spud or hoe. 
 
 On the other hand, the spaces left between the rows by the drill, are urged against it, 
 on account of the encouragement they give to the weeds to spring, rendering necessary 
 the hoe to destroy them ; and, besides, as the wheat plant thi'ows out its roots 
 horizontally, to the full extent of the space allowed by the drill, the hoers cannot avoid 
 disturbing and cutting off these, whilst rooting out the weeds ; and thus the hoe, they 
 say, does as much mischief by weakening the plants, as it does good in opening the soil 
 to the influence of the atmosphere. As those who have urged these objections have 
 never given any facts to substantiate them, nor any estimate of the actual loss of crop 
 sustained by them, and, moreover, not being able ourselves to prove a negative in the 
 case, we leave the objection to the reader, to estimate it at what it is worth, which, in 
 the face of so many years' experience, and a widely-extending use of the drill, may be 
 considered to be very little. 
 
 ]\Iany useful experiments have been instituted to test the comparative advantages of 
 the drill and broadcast husbandry, which have almost universally been decided in favour 
 
634 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 of the drill. In Scotlandj the corn-drill has never been so much used as in England, 
 for which IMorton gives two reasons ; first, that the scarcity of hand-labour has prevented 
 tliat systematic cultivation of corn crops in rows, which, in England, owing to a super- 
 abundance of labourers, is so efficiently carried out ; the hand-labour of the farm in 
 Scotland, which is chiefly performed by women, being in a great measure expended 
 upon the fields intended for potatoes and turnips, and in keeprng those crops clean 
 wliile growing. And, secondly, that the advantages of the drill husbandry are less 
 certain in a moist than in a dry country, and that the climate of Scotland greatly 
 abridges the seed time both iu spring and autumn, which renders the more expeditious 
 mode of sowing broadcast necessary, in order to accomplish the work in time. " The 
 long winters and spring frosts contract the spring sowing of oats and barley to six or 
 seven weeks, from the middle of March to the end of April; whilst the raising of the 
 potato crop and turnips, both of which are stored in Scotland, interferes with the wheat 
 sowing in autumn, and allows only a similar period, from the middle of October to the 
 end of November, for its commencement and conclusion." * 
 
 Is it, however, correct to say, with the same writer, that the English and Scotch 
 farmer have been striving to reach the same object by different routes — the former by 
 drilling and hoeing his corn crops, and the latter by a system of green-crop husbaudi-y 
 that has made his country an object of admiration to all who have visited it ? This 
 implies that the English farmer, whilst using the corn-drill, has neglected his root crops, 
 and that these have not constituted an integral and most essential part of his system of 
 husbandry. Such is the construction that any one ignorant of English farming would 
 put upon this passage in one of the best and most popular modern works on agriculture. 
 The real cause of the superiority of the root crops of Scotland is found in the moisture 
 of the climate, which is favourable to their growth, and not in the more careful 
 cultivation. There are few English farmers who go over the turnip crops with the hoe 
 less than three times ; and we could take the reader to farms in which are fields of that 
 root, equal, notwithstanding the difference of soil and climate, to any that Scotland can 
 produce, whether in size, quality, or weight. We have seen, on a shear gravel soil, 
 where size of root cannot be obtained, the bulbs touching each other in the rows, these 
 hitter being 18 inches, and the plants 9 inches, apart; whilst scarcely a weed survives 
 the last hoeing. The enormous amount of artificial manure of all kinds bestowed upon 
 the root crops in England, proves the importance attached to them by the farmers ; and 
 the care bestowed in keeping them clean from weeds is quite as great as in Scotland. 
 If, therefore, any approximation is to be made in assimilating the practice of the two 
 countries, it must be by the adoption iu Scotland of the corn-drill husbandry, which, in 
 fact, is the only material change necessary to that result. But whether that is as well 
 adapted to the Scotch as to the English farm, all things considered, is a point on which 
 tlie Scotch farmer is well able to decide. 
 
 Drills are used for planting beans in the furrow after the plough. These are, of 
 course, worked by hand, and consist of a frame on which is a seed-box containing a 
 small barrel, and cups for the delivery of the seed. The barrel is turned by means of 
 an endless chain, which is passed over a wheel attached to the axle of the seed-barrel, 
 and another at the end of the axle of the driving-wheel, works the machine. It is driven 
 before the man like a common wheelbarrow, depositing the seed, at regular intervals, 
 
 * Jlortoa's " Cycluijffiilia of Agriculture," vol. i. p. 730. 
 
DIBBLING IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINES. 625 
 
 in the furrow, to be covered over by the next turn of the plough. The whole of this 
 apparatus is exceedingly simplcj but other machines have been constructed to sow three 
 rows of beans at once. These, of course, are more complicated and expensive, but still, 
 much less so than the corn-drill. They are worked by one horse, and deposit the seed 
 in the hollows left in laying the land into two-furrow ridges, which are afterwards split 
 by a double-breasted plough, and tlie seed thereby covered over. 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 DIBBLING IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINES. 
 
 The practice of dibbling wheat was introduced first into Norfolk about the year 1775, 
 although the dibbling of peas was practised long before. Marshall gives the following 
 accoimt of it in his " Rural Economy of Norfolk," published in 1795 : — 
 
 " The practice of dibbling wheat probably arose in this manner. At Deepham, aji 
 adjoining parish to (Great) Ellingham, lived one James Stone, a labouring man, who was 
 in that neighbourhood a noted dibbler of peas, and who cultivated for himself a few acres, 
 which he rented with his cottage. He had three children Avho were as expert at 
 " dropping " as the father was at " dabbling ;" and having some acre or two of clover-ley 
 wlych came in course for wheat, he conceived the idea of dibbling in the seed, probably 
 tliinking that he should thereby keep his children from idleness, and save them at the 
 same time an unexpected supply of bread. 
 
 " He accordingly set about putting his scheme in execution, and presently brought 
 his neighbours about him. Some of them smiled and others laughed at his experiment; 
 he nevertheless proceeded with his little crops, and finished his patch. The land being 
 in good condition, and the work being done in a masterly manner, the plants came up 
 so strong and beautiful as to draw the eyes, not only of his fellow-parishioners, but of 
 the whole neighbourhood. Mr. Barnard (who resided at Great Ellingham) well 
 recollects the circumstance, for he passed the close (which lay by the side of a public 
 road) every day in his way to and from school ; and says that he has frequently seen 
 the neighbouring farmers in their way to market alight at the gate, and go into the piece 
 to view the crop, which was now become popular. 
 
 " At harvest the crop proved extraordinarily good ; and the dibbling of wheat has, 
 from that time, been more or less practised in this circle of the county ; the only one 
 in which the practice is, even yet, become general among farmers."* 
 
 Such was the origin of wheat-dibbling, which is still extensively practised in Norfolk 
 and the adjoining counties, although not so much so as formerly, before the drill- 
 husbandry became popular with the farmers. The following is a description of the 
 tool employed, and of the method of preparing the land and putting in the seed : — 
 
 The Dibbling Irons consist of a pair of handles, similar to those of a spade, with a 
 shaft of iron rod ^ an inch in diameter and 2^ feet in length. The lower end of this 
 • Marshall's " Kural Economy of Norfolk," vol. ii. p. 36, Minute 83. 
 S S 
 
626 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 rod expands out to a conical bulb, rather larger than a pigeon's egg, but pointed at tlie 
 end and polished quite smooth. 
 
 Holding one of these in each hand, the workman walks backward, and bending over 
 the land, strikes them into the flag, making two rows of holes. In withdrawing 
 the dibbles, he gives each of them a twist half round, in order to clear them of any 
 soil that may adhere to them, a\id also to leave the holes perfectly smooth for the 
 reception of the seed. The rows are usually 4 inches apart, and the distance between 
 the plants in the rows from 2^ to 3 inches, giving from four to five plants in the 
 running foot. The principal tact is in keeping the holes at a regular distance, and in 
 managing the twist or half-circular motion given to the tool, which requires much 
 dexterity and practice. It is also necessary to keep upon the same furrow-slice on 
 which he begins, and upon the centre of it, so as to have the seed placed in the thickest 
 part, where there is the most soil. It is usual to roll the land before the dibble, which, 
 added to the treading of his feet in the slow backward movement the dibbler takes, 
 helps to consolidate the soil and facilitate the process. 
 
 Every dibbler has three children in attendance upon him to drop the seed into the 
 holes, so that one man and three " droppers " form a set. The dibbler takes three flags 
 or furrow-slices, and he takes first an outside one, and having gone some yards iipon it, he 
 returns on the other outside flag of the three, and then finishes his stage by taking the 
 middle one. By this means he keeps his three droppers constantly employed, and, at 
 the same time, is prevented from filling up the holes with his feet before the seed is 
 deposited. If he were to go through one flag in a large field, the droppers would have 
 to pass each other many times to get at the work ; but by this arrangement each 
 dropper finishes his or her own flag. Two or three seeds are enough to put into each 
 hole ; but the carelessness of children is difficult to guard against, and the best dibblers 
 usually carry a small whip, or a willow wand in their belts, which they make no scruple of 
 using liberally when they detect the children in putting more seeds into the holes than 
 the prescribed quantity. It is wonderful how expert some of the little creatures of five or 
 six years old become under the tuition of a strict dibbler. The danger arises from the 
 child's taking too much into the hand at once. The seed is di'opped from between the 
 fore and middle finger, and it requires much practice to perform it properly. 
 
 The filling up of the holes after the seed is deposited is done with a bush-harrow, for 
 making which a waggon ladder is sufiiciently wide and strong. Between the bars 
 bushes are drawn, with the twig ends all one way, as is described in the section on the 
 harrow. This is drawn twice over the ground, forward and backward, and fills up 
 the holes with the mould it loosens in the operation. A field gate, or a large hurdle, is 
 sometimes used instead of a waggon ladder ; but these are too long and heavy, and are 
 apt to tear up the flag where the plough has left it at all rough. 
 
 Dibbling is almost always practised, at least in Norfolk, upon the first year's 
 turned up clover-ley, the furrow-slice taken being 10 inches wide. It should be laid 
 as flat and even as possible, and then, being rolled smooth, the dibblers should follow as 
 quickly as possible, to give the seed the benefit of the fresh earth. The manure, whether 
 farm-yard or artificial, is usually laid on and spread before the ploughing; but if the 
 land is already enriched, many farmers consider it unwise to manure at all, except to 
 give the crop a slight top-dressing of condensed manure in the spring. 
 
 The saving of seed, if the work is properly performed, amounts to fully one-half, 
 
DIBBLING IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINES. 637 
 
 whilst the regularity of the depth observed gives every seed the advantage of a full 
 development of its productive power. The vigorous vegetation which results from the 
 practice prevents the growth of weeds ; or, if any should appear, the regularity of width 
 between the rows admits of the free use of the hoe to extirpate them. The consequence 
 of the equal depth at which the seed is deposited is, that the grain ripens all at the same 
 time, and there is little or no under-corn, which is not the case in broadcast sowing. 
 In this respect dibbling and drilling are upon a par, the difference being that the drill 
 deposits a continuous stream of seed, whilst in dibbling the seeds are separated by a 
 space of from 2^ to 3 inches. The greatest difficulty in dibbling is to get the droppers 
 to put only the requisite number of seeds into the holes. We have seen fi'om three to 
 twenty grains deposited ; and unless a degree of severity, amounting almost to cruelty, 
 is exercised by the dibbler, and a strict surveillance constantly kept up, the natural 
 heedlessness of children will occasion great injury in this respect. 
 
 Several attempts have been made to construct machines for performing the operation 
 of wheat-planting on the principle of the Dibbling Iron, the most successful of which 
 are those of Mr. Newberry, of Banbury, and Mr. Newington, of Tunbridge Wells. 
 Newberry's machine is a complicated and expensive one, and the inventor unfortunately 
 expended all his property in bringing it out and rendering it perfect ; and although several 
 of his machines were purchased by farmers in Oxfordshire and the adjoining counties, 
 and are still used and approved of, they failed of obtaining that extensive circulation 
 necessary to remunerate the patentee, and have now ceased to be manufactured. It is 
 probable that the price (from J13 for a one-rowed, to £60 for a seven-rowed machine) 
 was the chief obstacle to its obtaining the patronage of the public. The following is 
 a description of this machine : — It consists of one or more hoUow flat discs or wheels 
 revolving on an axle or shaft, which rests upon the framework. The disc contains the 
 machinery by which the operations are performed. Eighteen hollow tubes or dibbles 
 project from the periphery of the disc, with which is connected the seed-box above by a 
 pinion on whose axis is the seed-cylinder at the bottom of the seed-box. The pinion is 
 worked by a toothed wheel, and by its action a continuous stream of seed is delivered 
 into an open circular space, along which the hollow dibbling tubes pass, receiving each 
 its share of seed. In the revolutions of the disc, each dibble enters the earth to the 
 depth allowed by its projecting distance from the disc ; and in leaving it, a slide is made 
 to open the tube, and the seed drops at once into the hole made by the dibbler. This 
 machine is considered by those who have used it as a very efficient one, the only 
 objection to it being its great weight, which renders from one to three horses necessary 
 for working it, according to the number of discs it contains. 
 
 Dr. Newington's is a hand-dibbling machine, and is considered one of the most 
 efficient of the kind yet produced, although very simple in its construction. It consists 
 of from six to nine depositors, connected with a box in front, which contains the seed. 
 The depositors, or dibbles, being forced into the ground by the man who holds the 
 handle, deposit the seed at the depth required, which is regulated by pinching-screws, 
 that keep them in their relative positions. The machine is worked by taking hold of 
 the rail or handle at the top with both hands ; and the dibblers, or depositors, being 
 placed on the soil, it is pressed down by setting the foot on a step at the back. The upper 
 handle, which with the depositor form one piece, is then pulled upwards, and as the 
 depositors are withdrawn by the action, the seed is let into the holes by the machinery 
 
 s s 2 
 
628 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 in the interior of the grain-box. This has a double back, and between the two is a space 
 in which the depositors move up or down, as acted upon by the handle. The seed is 
 delivered to the space between the two backs through holes at the top of the division- 
 platCj two or three at a time, and are thence conveyed by tubes into the holes in the 
 soil. This is effected by short rods with cups attached, which are made to dip into the 
 seed-box and raise the required number of seeds, which^ by a reverse action, they bring 
 directly over the holes in the division-plate that are over the holes in the soil. The 
 price of this machine, with six dibbles, is only £'2 \0s. ; and as a man can complete an 
 acre in ten hours, and it requires no skilled labour or droppers, like the common hand- 
 dibblers, the expense is not more than one-fourth. 
 
 The attempt, however, to imitate the practice of the dibbler with machinery is not 
 absolutely new ; for in 1760, Varlo, to whose work on husbandry we have already reverted, 
 invented a machine which, however imperfect, was the forerunner, if not the model, of 
 the recent machines. It consisted of a cylindrical shaft resting on an axis supported by 
 a strong frame. Round this shaft were sixteen flat sides, in each of which were fixed 
 six pins, or dibbles, at 1 foot distance from each other, being ninety-six in all, which, as 
 the shaft revolved, pierced the ground. A seed-box, with suitable apparatus, was sus- 
 pended over each row of spikes, and the seed was dropped into tubes and conveyed by them 
 into the holes made by the spikes. An engraving of this machine is given in the work, 
 and Varlo states that he himself iised it for many years with great success. It does not 
 appear to have been adopted by the public ; and, in fact, Varlo gained but little credit 
 for the efforts he made to diffuse the knowledge which he certainly possessed on agricul- 
 tui'al subjects. Like most men that are in advance of the age in which they live, he 
 exposed himself to the ridicule of his neighbours by deviating from the beaten track ; 
 but, like Tull, he succeeded, and possessed sufficient strength of mind to laugh in return 
 whilst relating the progress and results of his intelligent experiments. 
 
 Besides those modern dibbling machines that we have described, there are others 
 possessing considerable merit, and as such have been adopted to a certain extent. Of 
 these the Grain Planter, known as " Sigma's Machine," manufactured by Charles Powell, 
 of Treehurst, in Sussex, is the most simple and ingenious. It is exceedingly similar in 
 its outward form to Dr. Newington's Hand-dibbling Machine, and the mode in which 
 the seed is delivered is also similar ; but instead of from six to nine dibblers, Sigma's 
 machine has only five, which deposit five grains into each hole. 
 
 Bentall's Seed-dropper is of still more simple form and make. It is intended to 
 rectify the evils of over-seeding by the carelessness or incompetence of children. It 
 consists of a wooden cylinder, in which is an iron rod, vrith a handle like that of the 
 Common Dibbler. The lower part of this outer cylinder contains the contrivance for 
 delivering the seed, which is contained in a bag outside, tied round the neck of a child. 
 The lower end of this bag is connected with a spout at the lower part of the dibbler. A 
 horizontal circular flange is placed in the inside of the machine, and covers the exit- 
 hole, having itself ten holes drilled in it, each of which, as the flange revolves, comes in 
 succession over the delivery or exit-hole. This hole is covered with a brush, which, 
 as the flange-holes come round full of seed, sweeps oft' just the requisite quantity, and no 
 more, into the exit-holes, from which it falls into the hole in the ground. The cost of 
 this implement is not more than 7s. or 8*., and it has been found well adapted to the 
 use for which it is intended. 
 
PATENT LTQVID DISTRIBUTOR. 
 
 CHANDLER S MANURE DISTRIBUTOR. 
 
LIQUID AND SOLID MANURE DISTRIBUTORS, 629 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 LIQUID AND SOLID MANURE DISTRIBUTORS. 
 
 The distribution of manure by machinery is a purely modern invention, and has 
 ariseu out of the use of condensed artificial manures, whose name is " Legion," and 
 whose application is one of the great agricultural facts of the present day. I'his 
 subject will be treated on in a separate section ; and we shall in this confine ourselves 
 to a description of those machines of most general use for the purpose of distributing 
 the manure evenly upon the ground. 
 
 Chandler's Liquid Mamire Drill. — Although there are still many farmers who have 
 no faith in liquid manures, because in some instances, and for some undiscovered reason, 
 they have not found them produce the benefit expected from them, yet others, who have 
 applied them to the land for many years, have derived so much benefit from their 
 application, that we cannot doubt that when used in a proper manner and in sulBcient 
 quantities, they must be of use to the crops, whether of grass or corn. It is asserted 
 by some persons that water alone will do more good on pasture land, than if manure 
 of any kind is steeped in it. This, however, is so contrary to all reason and experience, 
 that it is difficult to imagine how any sensible man can believe it. We can easily 
 conceive that the application of too much water to a dunghill will weaken its fertilising 
 properties ; but we cannot be convinced that to add a portion of manm-e to water will 
 have the same effect upon the latter. It is therefore that we feel justified in describing 
 the Liquid Manure Drill of Mr. Chandler. 
 
 This machine consists of a framework of wood 3 inches deep and 2\ inches thick ; 
 the driving-wheels are attached to the frame, and are 4 feet in diameter. The manure- 
 box resting on the frame is 3 feet 7 inches in depth, 2 feet 5 inches in length, and 
 2 feet 8 inches in width. A spur-wheel is attached to the axle of the driving-wheels 
 12^ inches in diameter, which is joined to another spur-wheel 18 inches diameter, and 
 by a third 10 inches diameter. The first wheel is keyed to the bucket barrel, and the 
 third to the seed-cup barrel, for the machine deposits the seed at the same time with 
 the liquid manure, through the delivery-tubes ; and thus united, they drop into the 
 hollow of the coulters, and are deposited in the soil. The coulter-levers are acted upon 
 by a chain passing over the chain-barrel 4 inches diameter, and 3 feet G inches long, 
 and it is worked by a cross which is fixed to the shaft. The manure and seed boxes are 
 adjusted on going up or down hill by a lever keyed on the shaft or spindle, at the 
 extremity of which a worm-screw is attached, thus engaging with the worm-wheel, the 
 teeth of which key into the rack of the lever. The bucket barrel is 22 inches in 
 diameter, the shaft of which revolves on the bearings. Buckets 3^ inches long, and 
 2f inches deep, are attached by bolts and screws to the barrel or cylinder ; the spur- 
 wheel is keyed into the shaft of the barrel, and, as it revolves amidst the liquid manure 
 which fills the manure boxes, the buckets deliver it to the spout, from which it passes 
 off to the delivery-piping, and finally to the delivery-tins. When the liquid manure 
 is not required to be delivered, the spout is lifted up by a link, the upper end of which 
 is a rack, and is worked by a wheel keyed on to the shaft and worked by a hand lever. 
 It has five distributors. 
 
630 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODEKN. 
 
 Another liquid manure cart has been invented by Mr. James^ of the Cheltenham Iron 
 Works^ which is highly spoken of. It is on the principle of the tank or cistern, but 
 the chief peculiarity of it consists in its containing iu the upper part of the tank a 
 strainer, through which the liquid manure flows before it is conveyed to the body of the 
 tank. This divests it of sticks, straws, and other solid matters that would otherwise 
 impede the discharge of manure into the tubes. 
 
 Several modifications of the common water-carts used in watering streets and roads 
 have been invented ; the principal diflference in which is that some adopt the barrel and 
 others the tank for the reservoir. The former is the cheapest and the easiest managed. 
 Either of them, after being set aside for some weeks, as they are at those seasons 
 when not wanted, are sure to get leaky. In such cases, the barrel can be readily 
 staunched by driving the hoops higher up on the outside ; but the tank, on the contrary, 
 requires to be taken to pieces, either wholly or partially, in order to close the opened 
 joints. A cask of 120 or 140 gallons is suflBcient for the pui'pose. The distributor is a 
 copper or cast-iron tube made in a curved form, and perforated in its whole length with 
 holes I of an inch diameter, and 1 inch asunder. The tube is united to the cask by a hollow 
 arm soldered to it at one end, and firmly fixed to the inside of the cask at the other. 
 A flat weight is fastened by a hinge or strap of leather above the opening of the cask, 
 which, when let domi, closes it and stops the discharge of the manure. A chain 
 working on a pulley above, and reaching from thence to the driver of the cart, enables 
 him to let go or to stop the delivery of the manure or the water, as the case may be, 
 for it can be used for either purpose. 
 
 A soot-distributor, of an ingenious construction, has been invented by Mr. Main, 
 farming steward to the Marquis of Dalhousie. It consists of a frame mounted 
 on wheels 22 inches diameter, a box 6 feet long and 6 inches diameter, fluted 
 longitudinally and working on the axle of the machine. A chest 6 feet long is appended 
 to the frame, and embraces half the cylinder, and is sm-mounted with a cylindi-ical cover. 
 In ^the interior of the chest is a cylinder of sheet-iron, 32 inches diameter, perforated 
 with holes all over of | inch diameter, and the same apart, gi^^ug to it the character of 
 a riddle. The cylinder is closed at both sides, and has a trap-door on one side secured 
 at each end with a hook and eye. The machine is put in motion by a wheel fixed to the 
 axle of the bearing-wheels which communicates motion to the wheel on the shaft 
 (18 inches in diameter) of the soot-distributor, by an intermediate wheel. The perforated 
 cylinder, into which the soot is first delivered, screens it from the stones and other 
 substances mixed with it, and delivers it from the fluted cylinder, which is the 
 distributing agent. 
 
THE THRESHING MACHINE. 631 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 THE THRESHING MACHINE. 
 
 " Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the com." This injunc- 
 tion of the inspired Jewish lawgiver is indicative of the mode of separating the grain 
 from the straw in the earliest ages of the world, and which continues to be the practice 
 iu Eastern countries to the present day. Nor is it confined to those semi-civilised 
 peoples, for we find, by the writings of Lavergne, that it is still practised in some of the 
 more secluded districts of France : Arthur Young also stated that it was geueral in 
 Languedoc, Provence, and other parts of that country, when he visited it in 1789. The 
 method pursued was to form a hard floor of strong clay in the open air ; this was inclosed 
 with a ring-fence, and, the corn being laid on it, a number of mules or horses were 
 turned into it. A man was placed in the centre to keep the animals constantly going 
 round the circle. The French farmers, or metayers, preferred this mode of threshing to 
 that by the flaU, because it was more expeditious. They are obliged, however, in some 
 cases, when the wheat is wanted for the best bread, to wash it and dry it in the 3un 
 before it can be used. Mr. Young says he examined the wheat, and did not find more 
 broken grains in it than in what was threshed with the flail. 
 
 It is probable that the moisture of the climate of England caused the flail to be 
 introduced there at a period of history which is too remote to be traced back. This 
 implement, simple as it is, requires to be constructed on mechanical principles, if it is 
 desired to have it most efficient. It consists, first, of an ashen handle 5 feet in length, 
 the end which is held being the largest. At the lesser end is a swivel, generally of bent 
 ash, forming a bow. This is fastened to the helve with leather thongs, the end of the 
 helve being shaved to within an inch and half of the endj so as to leave a projection of 
 half an inch, round which the swivel may play. On one end of the swingel, or beater, 
 another bow of ash is fixed, and this and the swivel are loosely fastened together with a 
 leather thong. The beater should be of equal size throughout, and about 3 feet in 
 length, being shaved perfectly smooth and brought to an obtuse point at the further end. 
 The work of the tasker, or thresher, is exceedingly laborious and tedious, and is also the 
 most expensive of the operations of husbandry. If performed by an unprincipled man, 
 tlie farmer's loss is frequently very great, by having the corn left in the straw. It has 
 been calculated that in many cases as much as ten per cent, is thrown out in this way. 
 It is, therefore, no wonder that attempts should be made to remedy these evils by the 
 invention of machines to supersede the flail. 
 
 About the middle of the last century, a Mr. Menzies, of Culterallers, in the upper 
 part of Clydesdale, constructed a machine, to be worked by a water-wheel. The only 
 description we have seen of it states that it consisted of a number of flails ; but how they 
 were applied the account does not say. The nest attempt was that of Mr. Stirling, of 
 Perthshire, whose machine worked on the principle of the flax-mill. A third attempt 
 was made by one Ilderton, of Alnwick, in Northumberland. This machine acted on 
 the principle of rubbing or pressing out the grain : and a Mr. Oxley, of Flodden, framed 
 one with scutchers. Ilderton's machine, however defective, succeeded thus far, that 
 having been taken to Scotland by Sir Francis Kinloch, of Gilmerton, iu 1798, he sent 
 
632 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 it to Hunston Mill, near Haddington^ belonging to Mr. Andrew Meikle, civil engineer, 
 to be tried by the water-wheel of a barley-mill. It was torn in pieces in the first trial, 
 and a larger one met with the same fate. Meikle, however, was an ingenious man, and 
 taking the hint from the unfortunate experiments, he constructed a machine upon an 
 entirely novel principle, and which has ever since constituted the basis of all the 
 machines subsequently invented throughout Europe and America. Thus much is in 
 justice due to the memory of this ingenious man ; for whatever improvements have since 
 been made, he was the first who established the principle of threshing by machinery 
 successfully and economically. It is to be regretted that, like too many benefactors to 
 mankind, Meikle derived no advantage from his useful invention, and died, we believe, 
 in very different circumstances from what his ingenuity entitled him to. As a proof of 
 the estimation in which his machine was held in Scotland, Sir John Sinclair states that 
 in 1813, in the Carse of Gowrie alone, a district about fourteen miles long and four 
 miles wide, there were no less than 120 threshing-mills driven by horses, and ten others 
 by water ; and that in other parts of Scotland, threshing-mills were so general that it 
 was difficult to find a man to thresh with the flail.* 
 
 Meilde's machine consisted " of a revolving cylinder with raised edges, or beaters, 
 placed parallel to its axis, and standing out from its surface. The cylinder was covered 
 with a concave case, or shell, at some two or three inches distance from the surface 
 described by the edges of the revolving beaters. The feeding-board extended radialh 
 and horizontally outwards from the cylinder, and, where near it, terminated in two 
 feeding-rollers, which, revolving in and towards each other, not only rapidly drew the straw 
 forward, but held it from going too fast, which, under the action of the beaters, it would 
 have been liable to do. The beaten straw, with the chaff' and grain lying loose amongst 
 it, was delivered on the floor behind the cylinder, and the operation of separation by 
 fork, riddle, and fanner were accomplished afterwards by hand. This, with such addi- 
 tions as effect the delivery of the grain, chaff, and straw in separate places, will stand 
 very accurately for a description of the Scotch threshing-machine to this day." t Such 
 was the first successful attempt to perform the operation of threshing by machinery, 
 which has done more towards lightening the most onerous labour of the farm than any 
 other modern innovation. 
 
 Meikle's machine was, therefore, simply a threshing-machine, the subsequent opera- 
 tions of separating the grain from the straw and chaff', and otherwise cleaning it, being 
 still performed by hand and the corn screen, as before. But the possibility of threshing 
 by machinery having been demonstrated, there was no question of the plan being 
 improved upon by the great machinists ; and they have now arrived at such perfection 
 in the construction of some of the machines, that the corn is not only threshed and 
 separated, but is dressed, put into the sacks, and weighed, ready to be taken to the 
 granary or the mill, according to circumstances. 
 
 In Scotland they still adhere to the drum, as invented by Meikle, but in England, it 
 has by some of the makers been dispensed with, and open beaters substituted with 
 equally good effect. Others, however, adhere to the drum, but have improved upon 
 the mode of delivering the sheaf; instead of presenting it radially and horizontally to 
 the beating cylinder, it is inserted in a tangential direction, by which the use of tlie 
 
 * Sinclair's " Systems of Husbandry of Scotland, &c.," vol. i. p. 79, note. 
 t Morton's " Cyclopredia of Agriculture." 
 
THE THEESHING MACHINE. 633 
 
 feeding-rollers is dispensed with, and the grain is scutched from the ear rather than 
 beaten. A slight touch of the beaters is sufficient to produce the effect, and they there- 
 fore do not require to project more than half an inch from the cylinder. The velocity 
 with which the cylinder is driven keeps the straw close up to the concave, between 
 wliich and the beating cylinder, or drum, it passes, and at the same time drives the 
 grain through it. 
 
 The following is a description of a portable threshing-machine by Messrs. Garrett 
 and Son, of Saxmundham, Suffolk, who have obtained prizes both for their two-horse 
 and six-horse power machines, at the Lewes meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society. 
 The separated sheaf being passed by the feeder through the opening between the beating 
 and the concave cylinders, is speedily divested of the grain, which falls on to a conducting 
 board from the exit of the concaves, while the threshed straw is thrown into the straiu- 
 box, on a level with the cylinders ; from whence it falls upon the shaker, Ijy which any 
 loose grain is shaken out of it, and the straw is delivered over tlie end of the machine. 
 From the conducting-board the threshed corn falls on a vibrating table, on which also 
 that from the shakers is deposited. The whole is passed over a sieve, which separates 
 the bits of straw or ears that are mixed with the grain, and delivers them over tlie end 
 of the machine. The corn and chaff pass through the sieve into a riddle-box, and finally 
 into a sieve, in which it is winnowed from tlie chaff and dust. Thus cleansed, it falls 
 into a conducting spout, from whence it is transferred to a box, and is there raised by 
 elevators to a hopper, which, by means of a spout, finally deposits it in the sack. The 
 whole of these operations are performed withoiit the intervention of the hand of man, 
 except in delivering the unthreshed corn to the beaters ; and thus, a six-horse power 
 machine will with ease thresh 400 bushels of wheat in the day of ten or twelve hours, at 
 the same time delivering it clean into the sacks. 
 
 Messrs. Hornsby and Son have added to their machine an Archimedean screw-tube 
 to receive the grain from the beaters, which regulates the quantity delivered to the 
 sieves, the want of which frequently occasions a great waste by the sieves being over- 
 charged at times, owing to the occasional and unavoidable irregularity with which the 
 machine is supplied with the unthreshed straw. This causes an accumidation of stuff on 
 the riddles, and, at times, a considerable quantity of grain is passed over with the chaff. 
 With the screw, this is impossible, as the divisions of it ensure the delivery to the sieve 
 of a certain quantity, and no more, at every turn. After passing through the screw, it 
 is exposed on the riddle to a strong blast of the winnower, and falls through, divested of 
 the larger chaff, upon a finer sieve, where it is still subject to the blast, botli above and 
 below. From thence it passes down into a trough, where the elevators take it up 
 to a spout, which delivers it, in a perfectly clean state, into sacks. If, however, it is 
 barley that is under the process, it will require to pass through the hummeller or aveller, 
 as it is severally called, by which the grain is divested of the awns ; and this operation 
 being completed, the grain is delivered into sacks. 
 
 The Fixed Threshing Machine is made similar to the Portable, except that it is 
 erected in the barn or some other building of the homestead. In this case the 
 steam-engine is stationed outside, in another building, and a communication with the 
 machine is made through the wall, which also forms a bearing for the fly-wheel and 
 other parts of the machine. The steam-engine of a fixed machine, by being placed 
 centrally in respect to the buildings of the homestead, may be made to perform all the 
 
G34 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 operations of the liomestead requiring otherwise hand labour, such as chaff cutting, root 
 cutting, sawing, &c. &c. But as a portable engine is equally applicable to these 
 purposes, and as the convenience of threshing the grain in the field in fine weather 
 causes a great saving of labour in removing the stacks, the Portable Engines and 
 Threshing Machines are almost universally adopted in England. The principal difference 
 now in the various machines of different makers is rather in the care bestowed in the 
 finishing, and the precision with which they perform their work, than in the principle of 
 construction. Minor differences they do exhibit, which give some a preponderance 
 of estimation over others ; but all the English makers have now, so far as the law of 
 patents will allow, adopted the improvements and additions that have been made. 
 Almost all are now Combined Machines ; that is, they perform the various operations of 
 threshing, shaking, riddling, winnowing, screening, dressing, sacking, and even weighing 
 the grain. It may therefore be said that nothing is now required but to economise fuel, 
 which is already reduced, in the quantity consumed, to a low minimum. 
 
 In addition to the operations enumerated above, Messrs. Ransome and Sons, of 
 Ipswich, have patented an apparatus for conveying the straw from the threshing machine 
 on to a stack without hand or horse labour. It is attached to the machine at the end 
 of and under the shaker. It consists of an endless net, revolving at each end upon 
 rollers turned by the steam-engine, and it will deliver the straw to the distance of 
 GO feet from the shaker, and to the height of 27 feet. The stack may stand at any 
 point within an angle of 45 degrees right or left of the machine. 
 
 SECTION XYI. 
 
 HARVESTING IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY. 
 
 This section includes the Scythe, the Sickle, the Reaping Hook, the Reaping Machine, 
 and the Mowing Machine. 
 
 1. The Scythe. — This is perhaps one of the oldest implements of husbandry in 
 Britain, and it is impossible to discover the etymology of the word. Its orthographical 
 affinity to the Scythians might lead to the supposition that we had learned its use from 
 tliat nation;* but the fact that the Scythians did not practise husbandry, but lived 
 a nomad and pastoral life, existing almost entirely on animal food, is against that 
 supposition. Be this as it may, at the period of the Roman conquest the scythe was 
 not only employed in agriculture by the Britons, but also as a weapon of warfare, being 
 attached to the axles of their war chariots, with which they drove furiously in amongst 
 the hosts of their enemies, committing terrible havoc. The scythe, however, as an 
 implement of husbandry, has had its day, and, with the flail and many other ancient 
 tools, is being superseded by more economical and expeditious aids to the labour of the 
 farm. Its construction varies considerably in different countries, and even in different 
 
 * The first race of Scythian kings, or chiefs, were called Sci/tlies. 
 
Garrett's threshing machine and horse gear. 
 
 CARRETTS KEAPING MACHINE. 
 
 HORSE IIOE. 
 
HARVESTING IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY. 635 
 
 parts of the same countiy. Wliilst in the eastern and northern counties of England 
 scythes with a long hlade are in use, cutting a swath of from 4 to 5 feet in breadth, in 
 the south of England a shorter and less cm-ved blade is preferred. In Cheshire the 
 Hodding Scythe is in use, having a blade of 20 inches length, and bent so as to form a 
 bow. It is employed in cutting out the roots of rushes and other coarse plants in 
 meadows and pastures. 
 
 The edge of the scythe should be raised relatively a little above the back, to prevent 
 its acting too close to the ground. The point must be curved from the back to the 
 edge. The art of using the implement correctly, so as to avoid either striking the point 
 into the ground, or leaving at the heel and toe of the swath a high stubble, consists in 
 keeping the heel of the scythe down, and driving the whole blade through the corn or 
 grass with a level curved sweep from its entrance to its exit. From want of attention 
 to this rule, or with a desire to get through as much work as possible, we have 
 frequently seen from 5 to 10 per cent, of the grass or straw left in stubble on each side 
 of the swath after the hay or corn has been removed. The mowing machine, however, 
 is affording a remedy for this evil. 
 
 3. The Sickle and Reaping Hook. — We place these together, because they are the 
 same in form and use, and only differ in the sickle having a serrated edge and a narrower 
 blade than the hook. The latter is also usually rather longer than the sickle. Both 
 are made with a sharp curvature of the blade near the hanile, whilst the rest of it foi'ms 
 an expanding arch to the point, which is rounded off from the back. In using either 
 the sickle or the reaping-hook, the tool being held firmly in the right hand, is thrust 
 in back foremost, and turned level, so as to cover a sufficient quantity of the straw. 
 By a sleight of the right hand, assisted by the left, the straw is collected in the sharp 
 curvature of the heel of the implement, when, being grasped in the left hand just above 
 the edge, the sickle is drawn from heel to point, and the whole of the handful is cut. 
 Beginners in this operation are very apt to inflict severe gashes on their hands or fingers, 
 for want of tact in drawing the implement through the straw. The chief art lies in 
 collecting the straw in the curve, and in holding the implement at the right angle with 
 the hand, so as to cut the portion of the straw in the most expeditious manner. Both 
 mowing and reaping are the most onerous parts of husbandry work, and the farm 
 labourer has no reason whatever to complain of the introduction of machinery into this 
 department of rural economy. 
 
 3. The Reaping Machine. — This is decidedly a modern invention, dating no further 
 back than the close of the last or the beginning of the present century. It is unnecessary 
 to describe the different modes of application adopted, and which successively failed, 
 previously to the year 1826, when Bell brought out the first machine that proved effective. 
 At the same time, it would be unfair to omit mention of those who were the pioneers in 
 the work of invention, and who risked their property and their reputation as mechanics 
 in the cause. 
 
 The first of these was Boyce, who at an early period of the present century patented 
 a reaping machine, which had a revohdng apparatus, furnished with short scythes, 
 which mowed the corn as the machine proceeded. But not being provided with the 
 means of collecting it when cut, it did not succeed. Tliis was followed by Plunket's 
 Reaper, in which a circular serrated cutter was substituted for the short scythes. Like 
 the former, it failed in not having a gathering apparatus. Gladstone's Reaping 
 
636 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Machine came next. This had a circular revolving cutter, with a smooth edge, fixed to 
 a carriage frame with two wheels. The shafts for the horses were on one side, so that 
 the animals walked by the side of the standing corn, as is the case with most of the 
 machines now in use. An apparatus was provided for gathering and holding the corn 
 until cut, when, by another contrivance, it was delivered in handfuls. The machine was 
 furnished with the means of sharpening the cutting-edge without stopping the work. 
 But the imperfect working of the collecting-apparatus occasioned so much after-work, 
 that the machine failed of meeting the approbation of the public, and it was laid aside. 
 
 Salmon's, Scott's, Ogle and Brown's, and Kerr's machines followed in quick 
 succession ; and although some, or perhaps all, of these approached nearer and nearer 
 to general utility in their mode of working, they each exhibited some defect that 
 prevented them from obtaining the patronage of the agriculturists. In 1812, ISIr. Smith, 
 of Deanston, brought out his reaping machine, which for a time bade fair to obtain the 
 public favour, to which the well-known character of the inventor as a mechanic, as well 
 as an agriculturist, was calculated to contribute. The cutter was on the circular 
 principle, and was 5^ feet in diameter, and it consisted of thin steel knives bolted to an 
 iron ring. The gearing for moving this apparatus was regulated so as to cause the edge 
 of the cutter to advance nine inches to evei'y inch of the progress of the machine. The 
 horses were yoked to a pole behind the machine, so that they pushed it before instead 
 of drawing it after them. A drum surmounting the cutter, and revolving with it, 
 carried the cut corn round until it fell off on one side in a regular swath. The 
 machine was 7\ feet in length and 3 feet in width, and its weight was so great as to 
 render it unmanageable. This, and a defect in the placing of the bearing-wheel under 
 the centre of the cutter, so that when the wheel came into a furrow it drove the cutter 
 into the ground at the side of the ridge, proved fatal to its success, although, so far as 
 cutting the corn, nothing could be more perfect. 
 
 The next in point of improvement was Mann's Reaping Machine, still on the 
 revolving principle, but adopting the polygonal form for the cutter instead of the circular, 
 and having twelve equal sides. By this means, instead of a continuous cutting, as was 
 the case with Smith's machine, the cutter acted by a succession of strokes upon the corn 
 at the angles of the polygon. The cutter was 4^ feet in diameter, and made 175 
 revolutions per minute. It is unnecessary to give a detailed description of this machine, 
 which, like all the others we have enumerated, was never employed throughout a single 
 harvest, although it had trials on various occasions. This was the case even with 
 Smith's machine, which, from the year 1812 to 1835, was brought forward, with various 
 improvements, from time to time at great trouble and expense ; so true is it that one 
 single defect in the principle of a machine is sufficient to condemn it in the estimation 
 of the public. 
 
 The next in order of invention, and the first in point of general utility and correctness 
 of principle, is Bell's Reaping Machine. The inventor, who we believe is still living, is 
 a clergyman of the Scottish Church, and minister of the parish of Carmylie, in Forfarshire. 
 This machine was first brought out in 1826, and when completed, was introduced to the 
 notice of the Highland and Agricultural Society, which appointed a committee to inspect 
 and report upon its operations in the field. Their account was so favourable, that the 
 Society awarded the inventor the sum of j650, and had a working model of it placed in 
 their museum. The principle on which the cutting apparatus was based, was that of 
 
HARVESTING IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY. 637 
 
 clipping by a series of shears, which alternately cut with either edge, so that their points 
 were always open to receive the standing corn between the blades, cutting it right and 
 left by the see-saw movement of the bar to which the shears were fixed. There were 
 thirteen of these fixed, and twelve moveable ones, the bar to which these latter were 
 attached being shifted alternately to the right and left, far enough to bring the blades 
 in contact with the edges of the fixed ones, and thus cutting everything that came in 
 their way. The cutting-bar was moved by a lever turning on a fulcrum in its centre to 
 the right or left, by means of a roller with an eccentric fin at the other end. The reaping 
 or cutting apparatus rests upon three small wheels or rollers to keep it at the proper 
 distance from the ground. The eccentric fin moves between two small rollers at the end 
 of the lever ; and by its eccentric action gives rapid right and left motion to the lever. 
 
 "Wlien cut, the corn is placed by the reel which gathers it to the shears upon an 
 endless web, which throws it oft" on the side from the standing corn. The apparatus is 
 supported by a rectangular frame, and the machinery receives its motion from the 
 gearing attached to the running-wheels. The horses are placed behind the machine, and 
 consequently push it forward against the standing corn, instead of drawing it on one 
 side, as is the case with many of the more recently constructed machines. The wheels 
 are put out of gear in going to, or coming from, the scene of labour. The reel which 
 gathers the corn to the reaper is acted on by a band and pulley. It has six arms the 
 length of the cutting-bar, and its motion is so regulated as to present the corn to the 
 shears with the greatest regularity, and in just suSicient quantity for them to cut it 
 with ease. The endless web, which receives the cut corn, is moved by two rollers, one 
 at each side of the machine, and connected with the gearing of the machine by bevel- 
 wheels fixed to one of them, the other being quite free. The web can be moved to 
 either side, according to the side on which the machine is to operate on the standing 
 corn. The rollers may be covered with india-rubber m order to prevent the cloth from 
 slipping, which it would be apt to do if the wood or iron of the rollers was left bare. 
 
 Four of the original machines made by Mr. Bell were taken to America, and, in all 
 probability, became the models from which the machinists of that country afterwards 
 constructed their own. In the cutting-apparatus especially, if they have improved, they 
 have not altered the principle ; yet they claim a priority of invention, and repudiate 
 the idea of having copied from any one. It is natural enough that America should take 
 the lead in machinery, the scarcity of hand-labour rendering it of the first importance 
 to find substitutes for it. But that the reaping-machine was an original invention of 
 the machinists of that country is disproved by the fact that previous to Bell's reaper 
 being brought out, nothing of the kind had appeared in America; and that soon 
 after the four of Bell's had been sent there, six reapers, constructed by as many 
 different machinists, were exJiibited at the fair at New York, each party claiming 
 a priority and originality of invention, yet all of them working on the same principle as 
 that of Bell's machine, especially in the cutting-shears. They generally differ in 
 having the cutting-bar at the side, the horses drawing instead of pushing the frame. 
 That this is an improvement may justly be doubted ; and from what we have seen of the 
 working of the two systems, we think it a question whether that of Mr. Bell will not 
 ultimately prevail over every other. 
 
 An improvement on Bell's reaper has been made by the trustees of Croskill, the 
 performance of which we had the opportunity of witnessing during the late harvest 
 
638 AGEIOULTUKE, ANCIENT AND JIODEIIN. 
 
 (of 1862). This machine has a cutting-bar 8 feet in length, and it is driven forward 
 by three horses. It delivers the corn either on the right or left hand, requires no scythe to 
 prepare a passage for it in the first instance, can work through the middle of a field of 
 standing corn, and -will finish in the first style of work from 25 to 30 acres in twelve hours.* 
 There is but little difference, except in size, between this machine and Bell's original 
 one, save that the modern cutting instruments were substituted for the shears. 
 
 Of the superiority of the right-forward instead of the side-long operation of the 
 cutting-bar, there are doubtless different opinions; yet the question may be decided 
 upon mechanical principles. It would require much greater effort to drive a barrow or 
 any other small hand-vehicle with the arm extended sideways than it does to push it 
 before you. It is true, in this case it is the machine that is extended sideways, while the 
 horses draw straight forward. Notwithstanding this, the draught must be increased in 
 proportion as the area of working beyond the centre of power is extended on one side 
 or the other. The delivery-web is considered to increase greatly the friction in Bell's 
 machine ; but this has been improved by Mr. Croskill, by the substitution of gutta- 
 percha bands, which perform the work quite as well, whilst they diminish the draught. 
 The machine which we saw at work appeared to occasion no distress to the horses, who 
 walked through a stout field of barley, in which the clover was a foot high, with the 
 greatest ease, and without sweating a hair. 
 
 Of the machines introduced by American machinists, the McCormick's and the 
 Hussey's are the most noted ; and, as these embrace all the most valuable points of the 
 rest, we shall describe them, premising that both are evidently modifications of Bell's. 
 
 McCormick's Keaper, as improved by Messrs. Burgess and Key, of Newgate Street, 
 London, differs from Bell's in having the side-long cutting-bar : it is furnished with 
 cutters having a serrated edge like that of a sickle, and the fingers or fixed points in 
 contact with which the corn is brought as the machine progresses, serve to collect the 
 corn, which is brought to them by the reel, and held by it to the cutting-blades. The 
 great improvement effected by Messrs. Burgess and Key is that for the delivery of the 
 corn to the ground after it is cut. Instead of having a man on the platform with a 
 rake, they have substituted Archimedean screws, upon which the corn falls after being 
 separated, and is delivered by them on to the ground by the side of the machine, 
 in a regular swath, without any further trouble. The height that the machine works 
 from the ground is regulated by the driver shifting his seat, which is hung upon a 
 balance connected with the cutting-bar gearing. By moving right or left, he can 
 elevate or lower the cutting-bar at pleasiire, as requii-ed. 
 
 Hussey's machine is manufactured by Messrs. Dray and Co., of Swan Lane, London 
 Bridge. Like McCormick's, it is a modification of Bell's machine, but is destitute of 
 the reel for gathering the corn to the reapei-, and therefore requires a man with a rake, 
 to collect it into form and deliver it to the ground at the side of the machine. The 
 frame for containing the gearing apparatus is supported by a travelling- wheel 2 feet 
 8 inches in diameter, and furnished with a number of ribs across its periphery half an 
 inch deep, which enables the machine to take a more firm hold of the groimd when at 
 work or on the road. A spur-wheel 18 inches in diameter is attached to one of the 
 
 * We reached the farm on which this machine was at work about twelve o'clocK, and found in the barn a waggon 
 loaded with sacks containing bailey which had been cut the previous afternoon, and was then ready to be sent to the 
 maltster, 
 
HARVESTING IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY. 639 
 
 arms of the driving-wheelj wliicli works a sliaft by the medium of a pinion. A large 
 bevel-wlieel is attached to this shaft, which engages with a pinion keyed on the end of 
 the crank-shaft, to the piu of which one end of the connecting-rod is jointed, whilst 
 at the other end is joined the bar that carries the cutting-blades. The height at which 
 the cutters work is regulated by two wheels, one of which is connected with the frame 
 on the opposite side from the driving-wheel, the other being attached to the pole in 
 front. By pressing on a handle of a curved guide connected with the first wheel at its 
 angle, and with the cutting-bar at the other end, the centre is brought nearer to the 
 ground, and the cutting-bar raised more above it. The two wheels are so adjusted as 
 to keep the bar on the same level throughout its extent, and can be raised to any height 
 within the range of 3 and 8 inches. 
 
 The cutting-bar is 7 feet in extreme length, \ inch thick, and 1 inch broad, 
 the end next the connecting-rod being strengthened by an additional plate 1^ inch 
 broad and \ inch thick, and extending along the bar 1 foot SJ inches, and within about 
 1^ inch of the first of the cutting-blades. These are of hardened steel, and are fastened 
 to tlie bar by two rivets in each. There are twenty-one blades, and a half blade at each 
 end. The length of the blades is 4^ inches, the breadth at the base when fixed to the 
 bar, 3 inches. The point is rounded oft' to |ths of an inch. A lozenge-shaped aperture, 
 2^ inches in length, is cut in the centre of each blade, which prevents it from choking, 
 when at work, in the slot of the fingers. The blades are bevel-edged on the upper side, 
 to form the cutting edges. 
 
 The finger-bar is of wrought iron, 3 inches broad and 1^ inch thick, and it is placed 
 in front of the cutting-bar. The extreme length of each finger is 9^ inches. A slot 
 \ inch in depth is cut in each finger for the blades to work in and out. The fingers 
 are of the shape of a broad-bladed knife, the edge downwards, and the slot cut so that 
 the cutting-knives can work backwards and forwards in them clear of the finger-bar. 
 
 The benefits resulting to husbandry from the invention of the reaping machine are 
 incalculable. In a pecuniary point of view, the economy is very considerable as compared 
 with the expense of reaping by hand. The following statement of the actual cost of 
 hand and machine. labour is taken from Mr. Morton's wort: — 
 
 Hand Labour. 
 
 Reaping, tying, and stooking . . from 10s. to 12s. per acre. 
 Mowing, tying, raking, and stocking „ 7s. to 9s. ditto. 
 
 Machine Woai. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Two men at 5s. each per day ... 10 
 
 Oneboy Is. 6(/. Oi\ id. .... 1 10 
 
 Food for two horses 4 
 
 Tor cutting ten acres 15 10 
 
 Or per acre cutting 17 
 
 Tying, stocking, and raking .... 3 6 
 
 Total cost per acre by maciiine 5 1 
 
 So that upon a farm where there are 100 acres of wheat, the saving in one season, in 
 labour alone, will amount to upwards of £50, even with so moderate a quantity cut iu 
 
640 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the day as ten acres, -which is the minimum. But even this saving is small compared 
 ■with that of the despatch with which the harvest may be gathered in, if advantage 
 is taken of fine weather when the corn is ripe — and the economy of time at the 
 most critical season of the year. How often has the farmer vainly sought, at great 
 additional expense, for more labourers, when a few hot days have ripened the wheat all 
 at once, and it begins to shed the grain ? The process of reaping with the sickle, or 
 reaping hook, is tedious as well as expensive ; and the farmer is well aware that he cannot 
 Iiasteu it beyond a certain point. In a fickle time, therefore, he has hitherto been 
 condemned to see his crops injured, and the period of harvest protracted indefinitely, 
 without a possibility of being able to remedy the c\'il. 
 
 So far as iiatural causes will admit, the reaping machine has, to a great extent, 
 supplied the remedy. Not only is the harvest now concluded by its help at a much 
 smaller expense, but the processes are so much hastened, that instances have occurred 
 iu which the crops of a large farm have been gathered within a fortnight, whilst the 
 neighbouring farmers, on the old system, have had it protracted to five or six weeks. 
 Nor is it less beneficial in affording the opportunity of preparing the land for wheat 
 sowing and other autumnal work at an early period of the season. Every intelligent 
 farmer understands the importance of this, and the loss sustained by having to put off 
 either the wheat-sowing or the breaking up of the stubbles till the spring. In the one 
 case, the produce is almost certain to be much less ; and in the other the land loses the 
 benefit of the winter's frost and snow, and of that ameliorating influence which the 
 admission of the air into the soil is well known to exercise. 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 THE MOWING MACHINE. 
 
 The Americans claim this machine as their own, to the exclusion of all other nations; 
 and so far as the application of the machine is concerned, they are correct. But here 
 again the principle is Bell's, being identical with that of his reaper, with such modifica- 
 tions as the different nature of the work requires. The English machinists now, indeed, 
 combine the two operations iu the same machine, only changing the cutting-bar and 
 knives, which for mowing grass require to be shorter and stronger, and the action 
 quicker, taking less at a stroke than in reaping. The mowing machine brought out by 
 ]\Iessrs. Burgess and Key is simple in its construction, and very efiBcient in operation, 
 and is, perhaps, one of the best specimens of the class amongst the numerous ones that 
 have been presented to public competition. Wood's also, brought out by Messrs. Smith 
 and Ashby, of Stamford, has been much approved, cutting from 10 to 15 acres per day. 
 Both tliese are combined machines, and have severally received prizes at different 
 agricultural meetings for both reaping and mowing. 
 
THE HAY-TEDDING MACHINE. 641 
 
 SECTION XVIII. 
 
 THE HAY-TEDDING MACHINE. 
 
 This is a newly-invented machine, and is getting into general use in England in the 
 liarvesting of the crops of meadow or upland hay, for which it is peculiarly adapted. It 
 consists of a light skeleton frame, or carriage, composed of a transverse bar in front, 
 G feet in length, into which the shafts for the horses are strongly mortised. An iron 
 stay on each side, fastened to the shafts and attached firmly to the end of the bar, 
 support the shafts, and are continued from the bar to the box which carries the axle of 
 the running, or carriage-wheel, on each side. The length of these stays is 3 feet 10 inches, 
 the breadth 2^ inches, and the thickness ^ inch. The carriage-wheels are 3 feet 10 inches 
 diameter. They revolve on axles cast on a circular box, into which the nave of the 
 wheel, bearing a ratchet, is received. This ratchet-wheel moves the spur-wheel, and 
 carries it round when the machine proceeds forward ; lout instantly gets out of gear on 
 backing or turning. The spur-wheel works into a pinion on the end of a hollow shaft, 
 which reaches from side to side of the machine. Both spur-wheel and pinion are closely 
 boxed up in a cast-iron case, to prevent any hay getting entangled in the gearing. A 
 connecting bar of 1^ inch rod-iron passes through the hollow shaft, fitted tightly at the 
 end into the outward side of the case that contains the pinion, and fixed with a screw- 
 nut on the outside of the case ; and the hollow shaft and pinions being firmly connected 
 by flanges, they revolve round the central rod, or shaft, as one body, the rod having 
 turned bearings where the pinion embraces it. Two wheels of light construction are 
 attached to the hollow shaft, armed with eight rakes fixed at equal distances on their 
 circumference. These consist of wooden bars 5 feet 6 inches long and 2^ inches square, 
 each being furnished vnth ten light iron prongs 7 inches in length. The rakes are 
 attached to the wheels by a tumbling-joint, and are held to their work by springs, which, 
 when a stone or other obstruction presents itself, give way, and the rake falls back 
 until the obstruction is passed over, when it immediately returns to its work. "When iu 
 motion, the working-apparatus turns in the contrary direction from the carriage-wheels, 
 scattering the hay behind it in every direction. They make four and a half revolutions 
 to one of the carriage-wheels, so that the hay is effectually separated and exposed to the 
 influence of the sun and air, and this at the rate of one and a half acre per hour, sup- 
 posing the horse goes at the rate of two and a half miles in that time. The machine is 
 generally worked with one horse ; aud so useful has it been found, that on a farm of 
 considerable extent it is calculated that it pays the purchase money in a single season. 
 
 There are several makers of the hay-tedding machines, but their productions are 
 constructed nearly on the same principle as the above. When first introduced, these 
 machines performed only one operation — that of scattering the hay in all directions over 
 the field ; but by another process they now slightly raise it from the ground, and scatter 
 it behind the machine. In Smith and Ashby's machines the rakes are divided into two 
 parts, so that if an obstruction presents itself, only one half of the length of the rakes is 
 aftected by it. The machine has also a backward action as well as a forward one, which 
 enables it to perform the operation just referred to. 
 
 T T 
 
642 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION XIX. 
 
 THE HOKSE-RAKE, 
 
 This implement has been in use^ in one form or other, for many years, but has under- 
 gone various modifications since the attention of the machine-makers has been directed 
 to the construction of agricultural machinery. The rake commonly in use consists of a 
 square wooden frame, about 9 feet long by 3 feet 6 or 9 inches wide, and the bars of 
 which it is composed 2^ inches square, except the front one, which is 3 inches. The 
 handles are joined to the bolts or bars, which are a continuation of the shafts, and also 
 to the lifting-bar ; so that by lifting them when at work, the tines are raised from the 
 ground, and are cleared from the hay, stubble, corn, or whatever they may be at work 
 upon, by light iron stripping-rods, with which, in lifting, the tines are brought into 
 contact. The wheels of the machine are 20 inches in diameter, and are made of light 
 cast-iron. The axles are strongly bolted to the main beam, and are kneed at 5 inches 
 below it ; so that the machine stands 15 inches from the ground. There are twenty 
 tines, or teeth, measuring 18 inches in length, from the upper edge of the bars to which 
 ' they are fixed. At the lower end these are bent forward, so as not to run into the 
 ground, but rather to slide over the surface, collecting what is loose upon it. Each tine 
 has a separate bar, to which it is fixed by a screw-nut. The lifting-bar surmounts the 
 machine, being raised above it by a block, and fastened to the frame by a bolt. Small 
 chains reach from it to the rake-heads, to which the tines are attached, and serve to lift 
 the rake out of its work. 
 
 More complicated, and consequently more expensive, horse-rakes have of late years 
 been constructed ; but we question whether, for all purposes to which the horse-rake can 
 be applied, a more efiicient implement can be or has been constructed. The great object 
 is to collect the material on which the rake is at work without the tines of the rake 
 penetrating the ground ; and this only requires that they shall be carefully constructed, 
 with a curve sufficient to collect the hay, &c., and at the same time keep the points from 
 entering the soil, or dragging it with the hay. And these objects a skilful machinist 
 may accomplish with the most simply-constructed and inexpensive implements. 
 
 SECTION XX. 
 THE CORN DRESSING MACHINES. 
 
 A OREAT number of machines of this description have been invented of late years by as 
 many different machinists, each claiming superiority over every otlier, and many of 
 them possessing considerable merit. Whether under the denomination of winnowers, 
 fanners, dressing-machines, grain-separators, or any other title, they all act upon the 
 principle of the blast and the screen, and so far perform their functions satisfactorily. 
 
THE CORN DRESSING MACHINES. 643 
 
 But the most efficient machine of the kind that we have ever seen in action is one 
 invented by an American machinist, who introduced it into this country about the year 
 1857; since which it has made its way into a great number of mills, granaries, and 
 farms, and with universal approbation. The following is a description of this machine, 
 as patented by the inventors, Messrs. Owen and Child, of New Oxford Street, London :— 
 
 The frame of the Grain Separator is, in form, similar to most of the common 
 dressing machines. Like them, it is surmounted with a hopper for receiving the corn 
 in the first instance. From thence it passes into a blast-pipe, where it is met by 
 a current of air generated by the blowers in the cylinder, which carries away over the 
 top of the pipe the dust, chafP, and other light impurities ; the imperfect corn is carried 
 by the blast behind the division-board, and is deposited by a spout into a sack or box 
 beneath. The head-grain, with the remaining impurities, falls upon a riddle in a shoe, 
 resting upon four elastic wood springs. A lateral motion is commxuaicated to this 
 I'iddle by a crank-shaft on the opposite side. 
 
 The upper riddle, being coarse, alloy's the corn and other small matters to drop 
 through to a finer sieve ; whilst bits of straw, ears, and other large substances are, by 
 the peculiar motion and surface of the riddle, delivered at a spout at the back of the 
 machine. The fine riddle below separates and deposits the small seeds, &c., into a 
 spout ; whilst the grain is delivered into the exhaust-pipe, where it encounters the current 
 of air that is supplied to the fanners. By this it is drawn upwards; and the light 
 grains, rising the highest, fall over a partition into a spout ; whilst the heavy corn, which 
 the draught of air cannot raise so high, is deposited, in a perfectly clean state, into 
 another spout, which conveys it into a sack. The grain, therefore, undergoes four 
 processes ; by the first, it is separated from the lighter impurities, such as chaff, 
 dust, &c. ; by the second, from the straw, bits of ears, &c. ; by tlie third, from the 
 small seeds, &c. ; and by the fourth, from the light grains, smut-balls, gariic, &c. 
 
 Palmer's Rotatory Corn Separator is constructed on a different principle from most 
 of the machines for dressing corn. It consists of a revolving cylinder, having longitudinal 
 partitions of iron set side by side \\\ the interior, and at such a distance from each other, 
 that, as the cylinder rotates, they carry the grain Tip the side, but not so far as to turn 
 it over or round its centre. The cylinder is fixed to the revolving- shaft by bars attached 
 to iron rings at each end, and at certain distances throughout its length. It is clothed 
 with wire-screening of different fineness, the finest being at the upper end, where 
 the corn is introdiiced. The machine is turned with a winch ; and, as it progresses, 
 the grain is delivered from one part of the partition to another, and thus is divested 
 of dust, dirt, seeds, and other extraneous substances, until it is delivered, perfectly 
 clean, from the screen to the sacks. It will be seen that this machine is made upon 
 the same principle as the flour- dressing machine; and, like it, the various matters 
 separated are received into separate hoppers below each compartment. It is employed 
 by Messrs. Clayton and Shuttleworth, attached to their threshing machine ; but it is 
 equally applicable to the hand, and has been found a very efficient corn-screen. 
 
 Until the close of the last century, all kinds of grain were dressed by casting, or 
 sifting, in the wind ; and these modes are still generally employed at the present day 
 in most parts of the Continent. In such cases, advantage must be taken of the current 
 of air, and if there is no wind, the work cannot be performed. In casting, a thorough 
 draught is required ; and, precaution being taken to prevent the grain from being cast 
 
644 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 out of tlic door to windward, by liaiigiug a sail-cloth, tlie tasker takes liis stand by the 
 heap of corn near the opposite door ; and having taken up a portion of it in his wooden 
 shovel, he throws it high up, with a considerable spread, towards the wind. By this 
 action, if dexterously performed, every separate grain is exposed to the draught of air; 
 and while the lighter substances are driven back by the wind, the heavy grain is carried 
 to the farthest extent of the cast, perfectly clean, the tail wheat falling at the leeward 
 range of the heap. This being swept from it, the head corn is ready to put into sacks. 
 
 When the sieve is used, a wooden horse is placed near the barn-door on the windward 
 side. It requires two persons to practise this operation ; one to supply the sieve with 
 corn, the other to sift it. This is done slowly ; and, as the corn falls, the draught of air 
 carries away the dust and other lijiht substances from the head grain, which, if the 
 wind blows steadily, is well cleaned ; but the fickleness of the wind renders this operation 
 a A'ery uncertain one, and, like tiie former, it cannot be executed at all on a calm day. 
 
 A third method was by the corn-screen, which consists of a screen about 5 feet 
 in lengtli, with a hopper at the top. A supporting frame is fixed by hinges below 
 the hopper the same length as the screen. Tliis being set out places tlie screen in 
 a slanting position ; and the grain being put into the hopper, runs gradually down, 
 '■■preading over the wires of the screen. By this means the dust and small seeds fall 
 tlirough, whilst the good corn is received at the bottom, and is shovelled forward as it 
 accumulates. The corn in this case is usually sifted previously, in order to remove 
 straws, bits of ears, and other large substances. 
 
 All these ancient methods of dressing corn ai'e very pi-ecarious, depending more or 
 less upon the wind ; and the two first absolutely inoperative in a calm. They are also, 
 at best, imperfect, and require constant attention to avoid mixing the dirt or other 
 extraneous substances with the head corn. It was, thei'efore, a great improvement when 
 the dressing machine was invented, being both a saving of labour, and far more eflScient 
 and expeditious, as well as certain, in its performance. 
 
 SECTION XXI. 
 
 THE CHAFF-CUTTER. 
 
 The invention of the modern Chaff-Cutter is so recent, that almost every farmer is 
 well acquainted with the old implement, which consists of a box about 3 feet long and 
 (i inches wide, for receiving the hay or straw. The top of this box, or trough, is open, 
 except at the cutting end, where a square piece of board is placed, connected by a 
 string with a treddle below. A fork is also fastened to the frame for the operator to 
 push forward the hay, which, being shoved under the loose board the required distance, 
 the man presses on the treddle with his foot, which squeezes the hay, and at same 
 moment, with the right hand, he cuts off the end of the hay close to the end of the 
 machine with the knife, which is hung loosely to the side with a lifting joint. The man 
 
THE CHAFF-CUTTER. 645 
 
 hasj therefore, three operations to perform at one and the same time ; — to push forward 
 the hay with his left hand ; to press it down with his foot on the treddle ; and to cut 
 it with his right hand. It requires considerable dexterity and practice to perform these 
 operations properly ; and they are still in use in towns^ where persons keeping horses 
 choose to have their chafl" cut on the premises, instead of buying it, ready cut, of the 
 corn-chandlers, which is now the common practice. 
 
 On all farms, however, of any considerable extent, the modern implements are now in 
 use, most of them having two knives, some of w'hich cut with a convex, aud others with 
 a concave, edge. The knives are fixed by screw and uut to the arms of the fly-wheel, 
 and present a bevel edge to the end of the machine. The frame is on four or six legs. 
 The box, or trough, iu which the hay or sti'aw is put, as well as the frame itself, is 
 generally made of cast-iron. The machinery by which the operation is effected varies 
 greatly in its arrangement, being much more simple in some than in others. Some 
 have the knives fixed to a cylinder, or to wheels in an oblique position. In all, the hay 
 or straw, being put into the trough, is caught and pressed forward by passing between 
 rollers, which are acted upon by the tiy-wheel, set iu motion by a winch. Those 
 manufactm-ed by Messrs. Richmond and Chandler have met with general approval from 
 persons who have used them. The chief difference in this form of machine is iu the 
 employment of toothed rollers for pushing forward the hay, and the non-liability to get 
 stopped up. The bed-plate of the frame is 2 feet 8 inches in height from the ground, 
 and 3 feet 4 inches in length ; 1 foot 9i inches in width iu its narrowest part, aud 
 1 foot 11 inches in that part in which the trough rests. The fly-wheel to which the 
 knives are attached is 2 feet 9 inches diameter, and it hangs on a shaft iu the centre of 
 the machine, the shaft itself being supported on steps bolted to the sides of the bed- 
 plate. A series of spur-wheels and pinions is attached to another shaft, which, at the 
 other extremity, engages with another wheel of similar size, with the pinion on the 
 shaft of the fly-wheel giving motion to the upper roller. The feeding-mouth of the 
 machine is 9 inches in width, and it rises from 1^ inch to 4 inches, regulated by a swing 
 joint. The trough is 4 feet in length. This machine, by a little alteration in the 
 gearing, may be used for cutting gorse or furze, the rollers serving, by their serrated 
 form, for crushing the gorse before the knives. 
 
 SECTION XXII. 
 
 ROOT-CUTTING MACHINES. 
 
 This is another new class of implements of husbandry, and have arisen out of the 
 improved mode of consuming the turnips aud mangold crops, by feeding the sheep in 
 troughs instead of letting them eat the roots on or in the ground. The advantage of 
 this iu the saving effected in the roots, and the superior cleanliness, is very great ; nor 
 is it less useful in feeding the crones which cannot bite the whole turnip, especially the 
 
646 AaRlCULTURB, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 swedes, beiug destitute of teeth. In tlie first instance a cliopper was used iiidiflPereutly 
 for topping and tailing the turnips, and for cutting them for the bullock-bins ; but 
 when the stubulallon of cattle was adopted, and it was found advantageous to give them 
 their food in a more systematic manner, machines Mere invented for reducing it to a 
 form iu which it could be eaten more expeditiously, and probably with better" effect. 
 
 The first form of turnip cutting implement was a " Haud-ehopper " with cross blades, 
 which divided the root into four quarters. The four blades were of steel, fixed in a 
 handle about 4 feet long, with a cot at the end to liold it by when using it. It is 
 sometimes made to cut the turnip into six, aud even eight parts, but four blades is the 
 most usual number. Another of the same class of simple implements is iu form of a 
 fork, the tines brought near together, and having at the extremity of each a steel blade 
 parallel with each other, and about 1^ inch asimder. This machine cuts the turnip into 
 three slices, the middle one being the thickness of the distance between the blades, the 
 others according to the size of the turuip. 
 
 Following the course of invention, or rather that of the simplicity of construction, 
 we come to the lever implement invented by Mr. Wallace. It consists of a naiTow 
 stool, or frame, on four legs. The slab, or top, is in two pieces, with a space between 
 them large enough to receive the largest root. The two parts are bound together at 
 the sides by iron bars ; the level', which is 4 feet long, is fastened by a hinge to one 
 end of the frame, &c. It is of the same width, except towards the handle end, which 
 is rounded off. A piece of wood, that fits into the opening iu the centre of the frame, is 
 furnished with iron studs to hold the turnip to the cutting-blades. These are fastened 
 to a frame inserted in the opening. The turnip is thro\vn upon these, and the block 
 being pressed down upon it by the lever, it is cut into slices, which fall into baskets 
 placed below. There are usually eight cutters ; and when used in cutting turnips for 
 sheep cross blades arc in.serted, which reduce the root into long, narrow pieces. 
 
 The Gridiron Turnip Shears works by a lever, which mo\cs six knives, or shears, with 
 an up-and-down action. It is worked with the right hand, whilst the turnips are placed 
 by the left to the knives. The cutting-apparatus and the trough are supported by a 
 skeleton frame running on two wheels in front, aud having two legs and handles behind, 
 so that it can be moved about to any place where it is wanted. 
 
 The Wheel Turnip Cutter, of which there are several modifications by different 
 makers, consists of a frame like a wheelbarrow, on which is moTinted a hopper on the 
 top rail, having a sliding bottom. A disc of cast-iron rests by its axle on the two upper 
 rails, and to it are attached three steel euttiug-kuives radiating at equal distances from 
 the centre to the circumference, and having their sharp edges, when in action, in close 
 proximity with the spout of the hopper. The disc is turned by a winch-handle, and the 
 oblique position of the bottom of the hopper brings the turnips in contact with the 
 knives as fast as the disc revolves. The machine is the most cflacient of any we have 
 described, and being furnished with a pair of cast-iron wheels, is very convenient to 
 move about to the required position. 
 
 A root-grater has been invented by liuslie and Barter, which acts on the principle 
 of the disc; but instead of cutting-knives has a series of eighteen rows of small 
 cutters radiating from the centre to the rim. Its action by a winch-handle is the same 
 as that of the preceding, and it cuts, or rasps, the root into very small shi-eds, suitable 
 for sheep. 
 
OIL-CAKE CRUSHERS, ETC. 647 
 
 Another root-grater has been produced by Bentall, of Maldou, Essex, which 
 performs by a barrel instead of a disc. To this barrel, or cylinder, are affixed twelve 
 rows of hooked teeth, eight in each row. An Archimedean screw is fixed imderneath 
 the barrel, but close to it, so that the teeth of the barrel may correspond with the tlireads, 
 and pass through them in revolving. By this united action of the barrel and the screw 
 the roots are completely pulped. 
 
 There are now almost as many varieties of root-cutters and pulpers as there are 
 machinists ; and the principles ou which they act are so well understood by the farmers 
 that a purchaser finds it difiicult to make a selection. The same circumstance, however, 
 prevents him from choosing amiss. Some are more complicated, and consequently 
 more expensive than others; but as these qualities do not always ensure greater 
 efficiency, we would recommend him to examine the working of any machine before 
 concUiding a purchase, and select that which combiaes economy in price with greatest 
 perfection of operation. 
 
 SECTION XXIII. 
 
 OIL-CAKE CKUSHERS, ETC. 
 
 These machines are necessary for preparing the cake, either of those kinds for feeding 
 cattle, or those for manure. Their construction is simple, consisting of a strong frame 
 of wood, on which rests a revolving axle, the middle part of which is enlarged to a 
 cylinder armed with a series of strong teeth, which revolve in" close proximity with 
 another series fixed to the frame. The cake is put between these, and is crushed to the 
 required size, which is regulated by the cylinders being placed nearer, or removed further 
 from, each other. The machine is worked by hand with a winch, and a fly-wheel is 
 attached. 
 
 There are several different modifications of this machine, more complicated, and 
 ■rendered easier to work by additional wheels and pinions ; but the principal improve- 
 ment is the introduction of two rollers, or cylinders, moved by a wheel in opposite 
 directions. The periphery of the wheel is cogged, and a pinion 3 inches diameter 
 attached to the end of the shaft that turns the fly-wheel, and close to the winch-handle. 
 The rollers are furnished with knobs, or teeth, and revolve at equal speed. The cake is 
 placed in a feeding-frame above the teeth, so as to fall just between the two rollers ; the 
 extent to which they are broken being regulated by the distance the teeth are from 
 each other, and these can be altered at pleasure by turning a screw which acts upon one 
 of the brass bushes of the rollers, the other being fixed. 
 
 Messrs. Ransome and Sons have brought out a cake-crusher of a very complete and 
 compact form. The principle is the same as that just described, but the working part 
 is enclosed in a casing, with a shoot to deliver the broken cake into a basket or other 
 receptacle. 
 
GiS AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION XXIV. 
 
 THE BONE-MILL. 
 
 At the present time, when a steam-engine is found on almost every farm of any consi- 
 derable extent, and especially when the adulteration of bone-dust with " scutch " * and 
 other almost worthless materials is constantly practised, many agriculturists have been 
 anxious to manufacture their own bone manure, so as to have it pure and free from all 
 adulteration. A small machine for the purpose has recently been invented. This machine 
 consists of a strong frame of wood, firmly fastened to the floor. An upright shaft forms 
 the axis of the machinery. A long pole, or bar, is attached to it horizontally, to be used, if 
 animal power is employed, to yoke the horses to. A bevelled horizontal wheel is attached 
 to the shaft for moving a vertical wheel. On the axle of this wheel is a cylinder, armed 
 with grooves and teeth. At the other end of the axle is a small wheel, which turns 
 another of the same size on the axle of a second cylinder, armed in a similar manner. 
 The grooves and teeth are so placed that they close into those in the opposite cylinder, 
 and thus crush the bones between them, which are supplied from a hopper above. 
 Another pair of cylinders, with smaller teeth, are situated below the first, and are turned 
 by an intermediate wheel working into that of the first pair of cylinders. A large wheel, 
 working into a pinion on a fourth shaft, turns a cylindrical sieve, or riddle. The small 
 pieces of bone fall through this sieve, whilst the large are thrown out at the end, and are 
 again put into the hopper. If the mill is to be worked by steam, water, or wind, the 
 required machinery must be attached to it for that purpose ; but the grinding apparatus 
 is the same. 
 
 SECTION XXV. 
 
 THE TILE-MACHINE. 
 
 The invention of this machine dates no further back than about the year 1835 or 1836, 
 and the first public notice of it by the Royal Agricultural Society was in its Journal for 
 1840 (vol. i. p. 350). But it would appear, from a publication by Mr. Read, that he 
 made and used pipe-tiles for land-drainage so early as 1795, forming them on a round 
 piece of wood, and having holes all along the part next the subsoil ; they were three 
 inches diameter in the clear. These, however, were too expensive to come into general 
 use ; and this was the case with all the modifications of brick and tile for draining, until 
 about the year mentioned above, when the Marquis of Tweeddale invented a machine, 
 which was soon taken up and improved by the machinists. The first of these was the 
 Tester patent, which was immediately followed Ijy others. The marquis's machine is 
 
 * Scutch is the refuse lime tlirowu aside bv the tauuers after its virtue is exhausted. 
 
THE TILE-MACHINE. 649 
 
 thus described : — " A trough is made at the head of the machinery of the exact width of 
 the intended tile. Into this trough the clay is placed by a workman, and is drawn 
 through two revolving cylinders, compressing it with great force, so as to give it a 
 consistency and firmness unattainable by hand labour. The clay thus flattened by the 
 rollers is drawn forward on the machinery by a web of canvas, and passed through 
 moulds which give it the exact shape which it may be required to bear, when it is cut 
 oft' by a very simple process at any length the maker may desire. Thus, every tile being 
 pressed in exactly the same manner, passed through the same moulds, and cut oft' at 
 exactly the same length, tliey exhibit a uniformity of size and construction which is 
 not to be obtained to a similar extent in any other manner. The tile being thus made, 
 is carried away by an endless-web passing over rollers which are turned by the same 
 machinery that makes the tile, and thus travel of their own accord, without the labour 
 of carriage, between the sheds erected for their reception, in which they are placed 
 in rows on either side by labourers stationed for the purpose. By this means, four or 
 five men can in a day make from 8,000 to 10,000 tiles with ease, each fifteen inches 
 long." 
 
 Irving's machine, exhibited by Ford at the first show of the Royal Agricultural 
 Society, was still more simple. It consisted of a box, into which the clay being put, 
 was forced out in a flat shape, like the leaves of a book standing upright. These were 
 taken off by boys and bent into the proper shape. One man and four boys could make 
 5,000 tiles a day. 
 
 The principle having once been established, the course of improvement was rapid, 
 and machines, to be worked by hand, were brought out by Exall, Ransome, Etheridge, 
 and others, in a very short time. It is unnecessary to describe these, asthe introduction 
 of further improvements for expediting the manufactui'c has revolutionised both that 
 and the price of the manufactured articles. The present modern machines no longer 
 use the potter's wheel to form the pipes after the clay has left the machine, as was the 
 case in the first instance, the pipes being perfectly formed by one operation, and at such 
 a rate that 10,000 can be turned out in one day of ten hours by a single machine — two 
 men and five boys being employed ; the two former to work the machine, and the boys 
 to cut oft' the tiles and stack them, and to supply the clay to the men. The following is 
 a description of Clayton's machine, which has gained the approbation of the public. 
 The frame is formed of strong upright timbers, or of cast-iron, and is either fixed or 
 running on wheels. On this the machinery is placed, consisting of a box containing the 
 dies for four or more tiles ; a cylinder above the box, for receiving the clay ; and a piston 
 supported by a cross-bar at the top. Two axles pass from one side of the machine to 
 the other. The upper axle passes behind the box containing the dies, and has at one 
 cud a large pinion to work into a spur-wheel on one side of the machine, and a small 
 one at the other end to work into the larger spur-wheel. To the end of the upper axle 
 the crank handle is attached, by which the machine is worked by hand. Two cylinders 
 for receiving the clay are slung on the platform, which are alternately placed under the 
 piston ; this is moved up and down by a rack, and by its action forces the clay upon the 
 dies. The piston does not reach within 3 inches of the bottom of the cylinder, in 
 order that there may be no break in the continuity of the clay in the dies by interchange 
 of the full for the empty cylinder. The box contains the dies, which may be of any 
 form or size required. Openings of the proper size are made in the front of the machine. 
 
650 AGKICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 through which the clay is forced ujjon a platform consisting of an endless web lying on 
 a series of rollers, which move the pipes forward as they are protruded from the machine. 
 The pipes are cut into lengths by wires moved by the machinery, bv means of an appa- 
 ratus for the purpose. 
 
 SECTION XXVI. 
 THE STEAM-ENGINE. 
 
 After a struggle which appears to have commenced upwards of two centuries ago, but 
 which only of late years has attracted the serious attention of the public, the Steam- 
 Engine has established itself upon the farm, and is now become one of the necessary 
 adjuncts to the catalogue of agricultural implements and machines on every farm of any 
 pretensions. We, therefore, feel it incumbent upon us to give some account of the 
 history of this application of the new power, which bids fair in time to supersede animal 
 power upon the farm, as it has done in almost every otlier branch of industry in which 
 it has been employed. 
 
 " Great events often arise from small causes." If history or tradition speaks the 
 truth, this old pi'overb is verified in the case of the steam-engine ; it being asserted that 
 the idea of the motive power of steam, and its application as such, was first suggested 
 by seeing the lid of an iron pot rise spontaneously, even when the young urchin who 
 was set to watch that it did not boil over, had placed a weight upon it to keep it down. 
 If this was really the case, it must have occurred more than 240 years since ; for, as 
 we have shown at p. 593, in 1618, Ramsay patented his invention, which could have 
 been nothing less than a steam apparatus for ploughing and other operations of 
 husbandry. In the then existing state of scientific knowledge, steam must have been 
 a formidable power in the hands even of scientific men, unacquainted as they must have 
 been with the proper regulation of it. Such was the case indeed after steam-power 
 had been applied to the arts and manufactures ; and even at the present time, with all 
 the improvements in the steam-engine, it is still a dangerous agent in the hands of 
 careless or unskilful persons. It is not improbable that this circumstance may have 
 operated to check the introduction of this power upon the farm, until such improve- 
 ments were effected in the construction of the steam-engine as would render it 
 comparatively harmless and much more manageable. We have already given a short 
 history of the various machines invented for the use of the farmer, and which all failed 
 of obtaining the public support, each of them possessing one or another imperfection 
 that operated against their adoption. 
 
 It was not, however, in ploughing or cultivating that steam was first applied on the 
 farm. The Threshing Machine, which had been introduced at the beginning of the 
 present century, worked with horse-power, was foremost in yielding to the new agent. 
 But having once obtained a firm and successful footing, it became only a question of 
 time when it should be applied to other departments of the farm. All the minor 
 operations of the homestead have been successfully performed, and at length the plough 
 
rOKFABLE STEAM-EXGINE. 
 
 STEAMING APPARATUS. 
 
 THE IIOKIZOXTAL EXGIXE. 
 
 -^sO 
 
 LIQUID MANURE PUMP. 
 
 PIEE ENGINE AND LIQUID MANURE PUMP. 
 
THE STEAM-ENGINE. 6ol 
 
 itself has yielded, aud it is now under eousideratiou whether it will not be desirable to 
 banish animal power, at least in part, from the farm, and substitute what appears 
 destined at no great distance of time to be the only motive power employed in the 
 industrial occupations of the country. Steam cultivation is now no longer a speculative 
 undertaidng, but un established fact ; aud, however capable of further improvement and 
 extension, as to its uses, the steam-engine has firmly proved itself upon the farm to be 
 the most efficient, economic, and universally applicable power in existence. 
 
 In. the construction of the steam-engine the manufacturers have effected great 
 improvements, and may almost be said to have arrived at as high a degree of perfection 
 as it is capable of. The invention of the High-pressui'c Engine, and the economising of 
 fuel, have reduced the expenses of working to the minimum ; whilst the introduction of 
 the portable engine, for which the public are indebted to Messrs. Tuxford, of Boston, has 
 rendered the application of steam-power to every operation of the farm easy and direct. 
 On the other hand, so much is the management of the engine simplified that any farm 
 labourer of common intelligence may in a few days learn its use, so as to conduct almost 
 every operation by it without danger. It is the opinion of Mr. John C. Morton, who has 
 studied the subject deeply, that steam-power is, upon the average, from 50 to 100 per cent, 
 cheaper than horse-power. We have a striking instance of this in the working of the 
 drain plough. When that machine was first used it was worked by horse-power, and 
 without the capstan it required the strength of more than thirty horses to draw it, and 
 the greatest confusion prevailed iu the effort to maintain uniformity of draught. " In 
 their struggling attempts," said Mr. Mechi, " the outsiders compressed those in the 
 centre, until a cloud of steam arose from the excited and oppressed animals. Compare 
 this with the tranquil grandeur of a twenty, fifty, or four-hundred horse-power engine. 
 In comparing horses with steam we could only allow a horse to work full-collar without 
 intermission or rest for four-and-half hours ; that would be an ample day's work, audit 
 would cost 'Zs., because a large well-fed draught-horse cannot be kept for less than MZO 
 per annum. Let us see what my own steam horse costs working toi clear hours 
 per day full-collar ; and my engine is not of the latest improvement, having been iu use 
 ten years. The exact measure of one strong horse-power in steam is the evaporation of 
 six gallons, or 60 lbs. of water, per hour. My own engine evaporates fifty-four gallons 
 per hour, and therefore gives nine horse-power, working ten hours per day, which is 
 equal to eighteen real horses working five hours per day. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 1 buru i ton of coal-dust at 9*. ... 4 6 
 Cartage 016 
 
 C £ J. (/. 
 Horse-power would cost 170 
 
 One labourer at 2s. per day manages my engine, feeds it, and cleans it. llovv much 
 more would it cost to attend on eighteen horses ?"* 
 
 There are really only two classes of steam-engine in regard to the principle on 
 which it works — the High-pressure Engine, which discharges the steam into the air from 
 the piston, aud the Low-pressure or Condensing Engine, which passes the steam into 
 another vessel, where it is condensed, and produces a vacuum. The latter, in fact, was 
 
 ♦ Paper on " Steam in Agriculture," read before the Central Farmers' Club, May, ] 859, by Mr. Alderman Mechi; 
 
652 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the original invention ; but being more comijlicatedj and therefore more difficult 
 to understand, it is consequently less employed on the farnij and is necessarily confined, 
 when used, to the fixed engine ; whilst the portable engine is as necessarily a higli- 
 pressure one. 
 
 The principle on which steam-power is based is that of expansion, which is produced 
 by the decomposition of water by heat ; but mere expansion would not in itself possess 
 power, or rather be able to exercise power, unless it is confined. The iron pot to which 
 we referred at the commencement of this section is a homely, bixt a perfectly correct 
 and conclusive illustration of this principle. The rising and falling of the lid as the 
 steam was generated, represents exactly the action of steam upon the piston in the 
 engine. If the lad who watched the pot had been able to tie or press down the lid so 
 that the steam could not raise it, the pot would have burst, as no power, or strength, or 
 weight of material, is able to resist the force of steam.* In order, therefore, to render 
 the steam generated in the boiler of the engine effective, it is necessary to subject it to 
 alternate confinement and freedom, and this is effected by the employment of the piston 
 and cylinder. This latter is a tube, usually one and a half times, or twice, the length 
 of its diameter. Its bottom is cast with it, but the top has a lid or cover fastened over 
 it with screws. It has an opening at each end; at the bottom to receive, and at the 
 top to discharge, the steam. The piston consists of an iron rod, having at the lower 
 end a metal plug exactly fitting into the cylinder, so as to prevent the steam from 
 passing at its sides. The rod of the piston is passed through a hole in the lid of the 
 cylinder, and means are employed by packing to prevent steam from escaping through 
 it. Both the apertures for the admission and discharge of the steam are provided 
 with valves. The expansion of the steam in the boiler opens the bottom valve, and 
 drives the plug of the piston upwards imtil it arrives at the upper aperture, where the 
 steam escapes, and the atmospheric air being admitted, the piston again sinks to the 
 bottom, and the action is repeated. 
 
 The piston being the intermediate agent by which the power is applied to the 
 machinery, the velocity with which it is moved determines the speed in working ; 
 and this is calculated by the number of strokes per minute, which, again, depends upon 
 the quantity of steam generated in the boiler. The engineer who works it ought to be 
 fully conversant with the scientific nature of his profession, so as to regulate the supply 
 of water by the speed at which the engine works, and not to force the machinery beyond 
 the strength of the boiler. 
 
 In order to apply the power thus produced, as the action of the piston-rod is straight 
 up and down, it is necessary to produce a rotatory motion ; for which pui'pose an 
 inflexible rod is hinged to the top of the piston-rod at one end, and to a crank at the 
 other. This is termed a connecting-rod, and by its means motion may be applied to 
 every kind of machinery and to every purpose of industry. 
 
 The elasticity of steam has enabled the engineer to economise it by a method thus 
 described by Morton : — " If the steam in the boiler is generated as rapidly as the piston 
 
 * A remarkaljlc instance of the power of steam happened ia a foualry in the north of England. The workmen were 
 tugagcd in casting an iron column of several tons weight. ThrongU the carelessness or oversight of those concerned, 
 some dam]) was left at the bottom of the mould. No sooner was the melted metal poured into it than the damp expanded, 
 and ejected the whole mass of liquid iron into the air, scattering it in every direction, and destroying the lives of the men 
 who were engaged in the casting. 
 
THE STEAM-ENGINE. 058 
 
 moveSj the motion of tlic piston will he uniform, and the steam in this case acts only 
 like any other fluid. But steam is au elastic fluid, and to reap the full benefit from 
 its application, we must take advantage of its elasticity. Suppose, when the piston 
 has been driven along half the length of the cylinder, the valve which admits the 
 steam is shut, W3 shall then have half of the cylinder filled with an elastic fluid, 
 whose expansive force will still tend to urge the piston forward, but with a con- 
 stantly decreasing power. When the piston has arrived at the end of the cylinder, 
 the quantity of steam which originally filled half the cylinder will then fill the whole 
 of it; that is, it will have expanded to twice its bulk, and the pressm-e at the end 
 of the piston's course will be only half of what it was when it was at the middle of 
 the cylinder. The result in this case would be an increase of 75 per cent, in the 
 mechanical efficiency of steam."* 
 
 When, however, steam is thus used expansively, the pressure constantly decreases on 
 the piston, decreasing also the velocity, and producing unsteadiness of action in the 
 machinery. To remedy this the fly-wheel has been invented. The principle on which 
 this acts is as follows : — " When the impulsive force exceeds the load, it imparts a 
 slightly increased motion to the wheel. When the impulsive force becomes less than 
 the load, the moving force (in excess) absorbed by the wheel is given back. Thus, 
 the fly-wheel is a reservoir of force — absorbing it when it is in excess, and g-iving 
 it back when it is deficient." t 
 
 The economic efficiency of a steam-engine consists in the quantity of fuel it will 
 consume per horse-power in a given time, and this varies materially in difiei'ent engines. 
 At the Royal Agricultural Society of England's Meeting at Chester in 1859, the trials 
 of steam-engines displayed a wonderful similarity of perfection in this respect. A 
 given weight of coal was allotted to the several competitors, and the following were 
 the results : — 
 
 Eight Horse-powee Engines. 
 lu'S. min. 
 Messrs. Tiixford and Sons ... 3 35 
 
 „ Clayton 3 2 ... 33 min. less. 
 
 „ Hornsby and Co. ... 3 40 ... 55 „ 
 
 Twelve Hokse-power Engines. 
 
 Jfessrs. Tuxford and Sons ... 2 57 
 
 „ Clayton 2 41 ... 16 min. l-'ss. 
 
 „ llansonie and Sims ... 2 2'J ... 28 „ 
 
 „ Hornsby and Co. . . . 2 ih % . . . 32 
 
 The Condensing Engine has, besides the several parts we have described in 
 the principle of the High-pressure Engine, a condenser, an air-pump, a hot well, a 
 cold-water jmm p. 
 
 The condenser is a hollow vessel, kept constantly immersed in cold water. The 
 steam flows into it, and is instantly refrigerated and reconverted into water again. This 
 creates a vacuum in the condenser, into which the steam continues to rush, the water 
 into which the steam is converted being drawn off by the air-pump. A portion of cold 
 
 * Morton's "Cjclopfedia of Agriculture," vol. ii. p. 9] 8. t Ibid., p. 919. 
 
 % It is worthy of remark that in the first instance Messrs. Tusford very properly gained the first prize; but in the 
 second it was awarded to the loweH in the scale — Hornsby and Co. 
 
654 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 water is admitted into the condenser through an injection-cock ; and this, with the air 
 that escapes with it, is pumped out by the air-pump, so as to leave a complete vacuum 
 in the condenser. The hot well is a cistern which receives the hot water drawn by the 
 air-pump from the condenser, to be again used, instead of cold water, for supplying the 
 boiler. The cold-water pump supplies the well of cold water in which the condenser is 
 placed. 
 . Tlie High-pressure Engine is worked either with a beam or a crank. Other forms 
 of action are employed, but these are the most usual ones adopted in farm work. The 
 crauk is most generally approved, as the beam could not conveniently be employed in 
 the portable engine, which is now generally in use where only one is kept. This is 
 called the " direct action," the connecting-rod uniting the cross-head of the piston-rod 
 to the crank-piece. They are made either horizontal or vertical, but in fixed engines 
 the former is the most common, as being more immediately under inspection and control. 
 Some of these have an apparatus for heating the feed-water before it is piimped into 
 the boiler. This is effected by means of a large pipe under ground, into which tlie 
 exhausted steam from the cylinder enters at one end and passes out at the other ; 
 the feed-pipe, with the cold water, passes through the large pipe, and thereby receives 
 the heat of the steam in its passage to the boiler. This plan is the invention of 
 Messrs. Clayton, Shuttleworth, and Co., of Lincoln, and effects a considerable saving 
 of fuel. 
 
 Messrs. Tuxford and Sons, of Boston, now build their portable engines with a closet 
 containing all the material parts of the working machinery. The advantage of this is 
 their preservation from dust, dirt, and accidents. It is objected to this mode, that when 
 out of repair, the machinery is not so readily accessible for the pm'pose ; but as every 
 engineer is, or certainly ought to be, acquainted with all the parts of the machinery, 
 and to know how to take it to pieces and put it together again, there can be no great 
 difficulty about it. 
 
 In principle, the various forms of the portable engines used in husbandry are so 
 much alike, and so near perfection, that they require no separate description. There is, 
 however, a vast difiPerence in the finishing of the engines ; and it is generally acknow- 
 ledged that the Boston firm above mentiouod excel in tliis respect, and tliat their 
 engines, in consequence of their highly-finished machinery, work with more ease and 
 celei'ity than any others. That fuel, and consequently power, is economised by them is 
 proved by the result of the competitive trials at Chester, as stated above. We have 
 therefore referred particularly to their portable engine as the most perfect type of that 
 machine used on the farm. It should be observed that the eight-horse engine which 
 obtained the prize was a jnultituhuUn- one, the principle of which consists of having a 
 number of tubes enclosed in a cylinder, instead of a boiler, to contain the water. This 
 plan is adopted also by Hoi'nsby and other machinists. The success of Messrs. Tuxford 
 in the manufacture of steam-engines is greatly promoted by the correctness of the 
 fittings and the remarkable adjustment of the parts to each other. Their engines, 
 in fact, are interesting as highly-finished works of art, and the extensive circulation 
 they have obtained amongst agriculturists is a sufficient proof of their utility and 
 practical excellence. 
 
PART VII.— DRAINAGE; MANURES; THE DAIRY; IRRIGA- 
 TION; SOILS; SEEDS, ETC. 
 
 SECTION r. 
 
 DRAINAGE. 
 
 It is a common saying that " fire is a good servant, but a bad master." The same may 
 be said of water, as applied to agriculture. The three grand promoters of vegetation 
 are light, heat, and moisture. The first is never in excess ; the second seldom in this 
 country ; but the third requires constant vigilance on the part of the husbandman to 
 keep it from predominating to the injury of his crops. Water should have no abidance 
 in the soil beyond keeping it in a moderate state of humidity. The rain-fall brings with 
 it the fructifying elements of vegetation from the atmosphere, and prepares them for the 
 sustentation of plants; but having performed its functions, a filtration through the 
 subsoil, either natural or artificial, must be provided, otherwise the good efiected by it 
 will be neutralised by its longer continuance in the soil. Being divested of its useful 
 elements, it becomes positively poisonous to plants, as is exemplified in the case of 
 flowers raised or kept in pots, which will not thrive unless a hole is left at the bottom 
 of the pot, to drain off' the water after it is divested of its useful properties, 
 and, if the water remains many days, it will putrefy, and the plant will die. It is 
 exactly the same with plants in the field on the large, as with flowers in a pot on the 
 small, scale. In wet, retentive, undrained soilsj nothing but the coarsest and most 
 hardy plants, such as rushes, coarse grasses, &c., will thrive. In spring and autumn, 
 when vegetation should be the most active, the retention of water in the soil prevents the 
 sun's rays from penetrating, and keeps the roots of plants constantly cold; and in 
 summer, when the more powerful influence of the sun overcomes this tendency, the 
 revulsion and fermentation occasioned by a few hot days are equally injurious. Even 
 the temporary stagnation of water during the winter and spring renders the successful 
 cultivation of crops of all kinds very precarious, destroying the weaker, and weakening 
 the stronger, plants by decomposing and decaying their roots. 
 
 Another evil arising from the neglect of drainage is the interruption it occasions 
 in the tillage of the soil, so that an undrained farm is always a late-sown one. We 
 frequently hear the occupiers of such farms saying, " Oh, it would not do for us to sow 
 early, for if we did, our land is so wet and cold that the seed would rot in the ground." 
 This is true enough ; and the remedy is to get rid of the moisture by drainage. In 
 Scotland, the seasons have been advanced in spring, by drainage, three or four weeks ; 
 and the autumn prolonged to an equal extent ; so that now there is but little diflPerence 
 
656 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 in the ripening of the crops between that country and England. Indeed, such is the 
 delay occasioned by the presence of water in the retentive and undrained soils of the 
 latter country, that the harvest is frequently thrown into a portion of the season when 
 the shortening of the days, the diminished power of the sun, and the increasing coldness 
 of the nights, cause the grain to ripen slowly, and greatly protract the time of harvest. 
 
 An undrained country is also an unhealthy one for animals as well as for vegetables. 
 In winter, the climate is colder, and subject to excessive frost ; whilst in summer the 
 profuse exhalations produce febrile . diseases of various kinds. Habit may, in time, 
 accustom the constitution to almost any climatic evil; but, as a rule, a country subject 
 to such influences as the constant presence of stagnant water exercises, must necessarily 
 be one in which the duration of life is short. We see the effects in houses that are not 
 properly drained, or which stand in the vicinity of stagnant ponds or ditches. In such 
 situations, disease of some kind or other, but chiefly in the form of fever, is almost 
 constantly present ; whilst early decrepitude and death are the rule, and extended life the 
 exception. 
 
 Notwithstanding these evils, arising from the stagnation of water in the soil, the 
 large quantity of moisture necessary for the health and progress of vegetation is shown 
 by the analytical researches of chemistry, and even by the more direct and simple act 
 of drying plants before the fire ; and although the same reduction of their weight does 
 not ordinarily take place from the common heat of the sini's rays, we see it in the plant 
 when, arriving at maturity, it dies. During its life, its exhaustion of moisture by 
 constant perspiration is replenished by fresh supplies, both from the earth and the 
 atmosphere. The pei-spiration, like that of the animal body, serves to lubricate the 
 leaves and stems, and to prevent their surfaces from becoming hard and dry. 
 
 Water is not only necessary to vegetation as an aliment in itself, but it also supplies 
 it with various simple substances by its decomposition. In passing through the plant, 
 the oxygen is separated from the hydrogen and discharged through the leaves, whilst 
 the hydrogen is retained. This is the cause of the inflammability of all plants, and by 
 it, in combination with carbon, wood is rendered fit for fuel. Water also acts as a 
 solvent upon those portions of earthy matters required for the composition of plants, 
 and which they could not absorb in a solid state. 
 
 The water with which the upper soil is saturated proceeds from two sources; it 
 descends from the atmosphere in the form of rain, mist, and snow, which latter is 
 congealed mist; or it rises from the lower strata, by springs, through the subsoil.* 
 Whilst the first is the most palpable, and the most readily got rid of, the latter, from its 
 source being hidden from view, occasions the most injury. Generally speaking, too, 
 its fructifying elements have been absorbed Ijy the earth through which it has already 
 passed, so that it Exercises less beneficial power upon vegetation than rain-water. This 
 explains the reason why spring or pump water is injurious, or at least less beneficial, 
 to plants than rain, river, or pond water, which has been long exposed to the 
 atmosphere. Gardeners are well acquainted with this fact, and generally obtain water 
 for their purposes from a pond or rivulet, but never from a well or spring, if it can be 
 procui'cd otherwise. It may easily be conceived that the constant presence of a body of 
 such water at a certain depth from the surface must be injurious to the plant, and that 
 
 * AH water ia the earth probably desccnJs from the atmosphere ; aud in the above remark we must be understood as 
 leferriog to the immediate presence of water in the soil, without reference to its remote origin. 
 
DRAINAGE. fi57 
 
 it must keep tlie soil in a state of coldness very inimical to vegetation. In factj the 
 roots which in a dry or drained soil would penetrate to a great depth, will never enter 
 that portion of the subsoil saturated with the stagnant spring water, but will die, or 
 become cm-led up to avoid it.* 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that whilst a large portion of the land of England is still 
 undrained, the importance of that operation was fully understood by the Romans, as is 
 shown in the works of Pliny, Columella, Cato, and other ancient Roman authors. They 
 recommend " hollow draining " obliquely across the slope of the field, at the depth of 
 3 or 4 feet, and explain to what kinds of soil it will prove beneficial. They used 
 stones for filling up the drains "half way;" or, if these could not be procured, willdw 
 rods, or any coarse bush-wood, twisted rope fashion, were substituted. The outlets 
 ^vere formed of brickwork, and the heads guarded with large stones. Such was the 
 practice at Rome 2,000 years ago ; whilst in England there is still an angry con- 
 troversy going ou about the comparative merits of deep and shallow drainage ; and, 
 l)etween the two, nearly two-thirds of the land is still in a state of nature in this 
 respect, the quantity still undrained, according to Bailey Denton, being 21,000,000 acres, 
 cultivated or capable of cultivation. It is true, this neglect is in a great measure 
 owing to the landowners refusing to grant leases, or agreeing to a system of tenant- 
 right which would secure to the tenant remuneration for permanent improvements in 
 ease of being obliged to give up his farm. That such landlords act contrary to their 
 own interests, is saying but little ; and if the mischief stopped there, it would be of little 
 importance. But no tenant, as a rule, can do justice to his farm or himself who has 
 no guarantee that he shall reap the benefit of permanent improvements, and, like 
 Damocles, works with the landlord's sword, in the shape of an ejectment, hanging over 
 his head. 
 
 The absoi'ption of water by the soil is either the effect of chemical attraction or 
 cohesive attraction. There are very few soils that combine chemically with water, it 
 l:)eing expelled from them by most substances that combine with them. " If a combi- 
 nation of lime and water be exposed to carbonic acid, this latter takes the place of the 
 water ; and compounds of alumina and silica, or of other earths, do not chemically unite 
 with water ; aud soils, as it has been stated, are formed either by earthy carbonates or 
 compounds of the pure earths and metallic oxides." f 
 
 The power of cohesive attraction of a soil depends in a great measure on the com- 
 minution of its parts ; the more these are separated, the greater is the absorbent power. 
 This is greater in vegetable than in animal substances ; and in these, than in compounds 
 of alumina and silica ; and these again are more absorbent than carbonates of lime and 
 magnesia. J Without going further into the chemical part of the question, we state 
 fi'om the same author, that the absorbent power of a soil, in regard to atmospheric 
 moisture, is greatest in the most fertile, and that amongst a series of six experiments, 
 1,000 parts of a rich soil from East Lothian, half of which was finely divided, and 
 contained 11 parts of carbonate of lime and 9 parts of vegetable matter when dried at 
 
 * " As all water which falls ia rain has uiiJtrgoue a natural distillation, it is much more pure when it first falls than 
 after it has passed through different strata of earth and rises iu springs. Spring-water is always found to contain some 
 foreign admixture. If this should be only an earthy salt, the water is called hard ; if it contains other substances, it theu 
 receives the denomination of mineral water." — Gregory's "Economy of Nature Explained, &c.," vol. ii. p. 552. 
 
 f Davy's " Elements of Agricultural Chemistry," p. 1 82. t Ibid. 
 
 U U 
 
658 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 212°, gaiaed in an lionr, by exposure to air saturated with moisturCj at temperature 62°, 
 18 grains; wliilst 1,000 parts of the soil of Bagshot Heath, under a similar process, 
 gained only 3 grains.* The low degree of absorptive power in this latter is probably 
 owing, in a great measure, to its want of proper cultivation, it having been found, under 
 a judicious system of culture, even Bagshot Heath has been rendered productive. The 
 experiment, however, is conclusive in regard to the question involved, and proves the truth 
 of TuU's theory, that a perfect comminution of the soil, so far from exposing it more to 
 drought, has a directly contrary effect, and assists the absorption of moisture from the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 "Whilst, therefore, it is absolutely necessai-y to get rid of the stagnant water in the 
 soil, whether by natural or artificial means, that the roots of plants may have free scope 
 to pierce the subsoil, and enjoy a healthy vegetation, this object is greatly promoted by 
 frequent, deep, and perfect tillage, which at the same time assists the absorptive powers 
 of the soil in attracting from the atmosphere the moisture essential to the objects of 
 successful cultivation. 
 
 scoop WMCEL. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 DIFFERENT MODES OF DRAINAGE. 
 
 Before going into the question of this section it may be proper to show v.hat has been 
 done the last few years towards facilitating and carrying out more extensively the 
 practice of land-drainage. In the year 1846 Sir Robert Peel introduced and carried 
 through Parliament an act entitled "The Public ]Moneys Drainage .Act," by virtue of 
 which three and a half millions of the public money were set apart to be advanced to 
 
 • Davy's " Elements of Agricultural Chemistry," p. 184. 
 
■ DIFFERENT BIODES OF DRAINAGE. 659 
 
 landowners on tlic security of tlieir estates, for the purpose of enabling tlicm to 
 tliorougli-drain their lands ; the capital to be repaid (uitli interest) by instalments in 
 twenty j'cars. If the estate is entailed, the proprietor to have the power of charging a 
 rent upon it, to be paid by the heir-at-law after his accession to the estate ; the amount 
 to be determined by the remaining value of the permanent improvement. 
 
 The readiness with which this measure was taken up by the landowners led to the 
 establishment of several " Land-drainage Companies," which, after the public grant of 
 money had been appropriated, were enabled to obtain a high rate of interest ; but the 
 government, seeing this, soon after passed a second bill through Parliament, entitled 
 " The Private Moneys Drainage Act," which enabled the landowners to borrow money 
 from anj' private person on exactlj'^ the same conditions as under the first act, and at 
 such interest as could be agreed on between the parties. The competition this raised 
 with the companies was most beneficial to the proprietors of estates, and imder the two 
 acts a considerable breadth of land has been drained ; but, besides this, many of the 
 wealthy landowners have expended their own spare capitals on drainage, the latter act 
 allowing them the same advantage of a rent charge upon the land in case of the decease 
 of the owner, for the benefit of tlic younger and the female children. The amounts of 
 borrowed capital expended up to 1861 rinder tlie two acts were as follows : — 
 
 £ 
 
 Uuder the Public Moneys Act ... 3,324,258 
 
 „ Private Moneys Act . . . 234,800 
 
 Companies' Money 1,503,496 
 
 £5,262,554 
 
 The number of acres thereby drained is estimated at 910,000, at an average expense of 
 £o 7s. per acre. The quantity drained by proprietors employing their own capital is 
 less easy to be ascertained ; but it is estimated by Mr. Bailey Denton, who is well 
 qualified to judge, at 500,000 acres; making an aggregate of 1,410,000 acres. This is 
 but a fractional proportion of tlie 21,000,000 acres yet undrained, but it is a good 
 beginning ; and when the advantages conferred by the acts are better and more 
 generally understood, those landowners who have hitherto demurred to taking the step 
 will find their interest directly promoted by availing themselves of it. Many of the 
 largest properties in the kingdom, including the crown lands and those under tlie charge 
 of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, are being drained; and the principle of employing 
 borrowed capital in effecting permanent improvements is daily extending itself. At 
 pi'esent not more than one-sixteenth of the undrained land uuder, and capable of, culti- 
 vation has been drained since these acts were passed. 
 
 Of the importance attached to drainage, especially of heavy clay soils, by the 
 tenant farmers there arc increasing evidences. Formerly it was considered impossible 
 to drain a retentive clay otherwise than by open drains, or to make the water percolate 
 through the subsoil. Forsyth, at the beginning of the present century, was of this 
 opinion, for he says in his work, " There are some soils that, being chiefly composed of 
 a stiff clay, possess so great a degree of tenacity as to retain water upon every trifling 
 depression of their surface till evaporation carries it oft". It is in vain to attempt to 
 drain such soils by hollow chiinnels below ground, as the water will never be able to 
 filtrate through the soil so as to reach the drain. In such situations, therefore, 
 
 u u 2 
 
cm AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 open draining is tlie only mode that can be adopted for clearing tlic soil of surface 
 water." * 
 
 At tlic present time tlie owner of a clay farm would find it difficult to get a 
 respectable tenant to take it, unless it was drained. Deep tillage, however, is necessary 
 in such soils, in order to open them ; and this, like " hollow draining," was considered 
 injurious to a clay soil. Even Sir Humphrey Davy appears to have been of this 
 opinion in certain cases ; for he says, " Deep ploughing may be a very profitable practice 
 on a rich thick soil; and on a fertile shallow soil, situate upon a cold clay or sandy 
 subsoil, it may be extremely prejudicial."-]- So much is the opinion of the farmer on 
 this subject changed, that the breaking up of a clay subsoil is considered the most 
 effectual method of increasing the fertility of the surface, both by bringing up to it the 
 organic matters contained in it, and bj' opening a passage for the surface water, — 
 otherwise stagnant, — -to percolate through it to the drains. Experience has proved that 
 the drained lands endure drought better, and produce better crops, than undrained ; 
 whilst in a wet season the benefits of draining become still more palpable. 
 
 The action of draining upon clay soils is easy of explanation. It is well known that 
 all soils expand or swell with much rain, and contract when dried. In loose or mixed 
 soils the effect is not seen, but in stiff clays the contraction causes a multitude of 
 fissures, which continue as long as the earth continues dry. Now, the tendency of 
 drainage is to perpetuate this dryness, and, consequently, the cracks or fissures occur, 
 which sometimes extend far into the ground. Draining both favours and perpetuates 
 this tendency, and thus provides both for the filtration, and for the discharge of the 
 surplus water in the smallest space of time. 
 
 These two operations, then, — draining and deep tillage, — should go together, 
 especially on clay soils. Of the beautiful effects of the first some remarkable instances 
 were mentioned hj Mr. Duntou in a paper on draining, read by him before the members 
 of the Central Farmers' Club. Speaking of the dry weather that set in (1861), just 
 before the wheat began to ripen, he say.s, " It was from this period that the aeration of 
 the soil began to tell. While the heat was increasing, the air, loaded with floating 
 moisture and with the ammonia derived from all kinds of exhalations, travelled through 
 tlie soil to tlic roots of the ripening corn, and maintained it in vigour to the period of 
 complete fructification. Stress is laid on the marked difference in the quality of corn from 
 land deeply drained and deejily cultivated, compared with that from undrained land (the 
 appearance of the ears of which did not indicate any such marked difterence), as it most 
 l)eantifully illustrates the views of Davy, Playfair, Madden, and others, who have 
 explained how the altered condition of the subsoil comminuted by drainage, and that of 
 the surface divided, or ' smashed,' as j\Ir. Smith calls it, by cultivation, admits the 
 air, with its aqueous and nutritious accompaniments, to the innermost recesses of the 
 ground." 
 
 The question of deep and shallow draining has, as we have already remarked, been 
 the subject of a .sharp and protracted controversy between professional men ; but it has 
 been almost set at rest and decided by the new light thrown upon agriculture, and by 
 the practice of deep tillage, especially in connection witli the employment of the steam 
 subsoil plough, with the operation of which shallow drainage is quite incompatible. In 
 drawing up the Drainage Acts the framers appear to have been fully aware of tlie 
 
 * " Piinciples nud Practice of .Agriculture," vol. i. ji. 311. f " Elements of Chemistry," p. 188. 
 
DIFFERENT MODES OF DRAINAGE. 661 
 
 importance of deep draiiiiog, for the acts specially enjoin that the drains shall not be 
 less than 4 feet in depth. This specific standard led to curions blunder.?. Some of 
 the persons entrusted -oitli the superintendence of the works appear to have been but 
 ill-qualified for the task; for, adhering literally to their instructions, they caused the 
 drains to be made exactly 4 feet deep, irrespective of the inequalities of the surface. 
 The consequence was, that the drains, instead of having a regular and gentle fall from 
 the head to the outlet, followed, in some cases, the undulations of the land, so that the 
 water settled in the low parts, and materially obstructed the proper working of the 
 drain. It is well known that a 4-feet drain will sometimes, in an undulating country, 
 lie within 3 feet of the surface in the low parts, and even less ; so that a shallower than 
 a 4-feet drain would be exposed and liable to be disturbed by subsoiliug, which will 
 soon come into general practice. On clay soils nothing less than 4-feet drains are now 
 admissible, and the next question is the width necessary to be observed between the 
 drains. 
 
 This must vary according to the nature and quality of the soil. It ranges from 1 6 
 to 60 feet, and even more in some cases. A tenacious clay soil reqiiires the drains to 
 be close, because it absorbs and retains more firmly, as well as injuriously, the water 
 from beneath. The heat from above, too, does not so readily penetrate a clay as it 
 does a gravelly or sandy soil, and it is therefore of a colder nature until divested of its 
 stagnant water. It should always be borne in mind that the object of di'aining is as 
 much to prevent the rising of water from beneath as to give an exit for that which falls 
 from the atmosphere. The former is always the most copious, continuous, and 
 injurious, because, while it imparts none of the elements of fertility possessed by rain- 
 water, it is rmiformly cold and ungeuial, communicating no warmth to vegetation, but 
 acting rather as a check upon it. The sooner, therefore, it is got rid of from a tenacious 
 soil the more favom'able will it be to the growth of plants. 
 
 Observation and experience have shown that when springs are opened, and a free 
 passage is made foi- the flow of Avater from them, they gradually become stronger. This 
 proves to be the case even with wells, from which, the more they are drawn upon for water 
 the greater the supply becomes. One cause is, that until a regular channel is formed 
 for the water the springs cannot develop themselves, and remain in a normal state of 
 stagnation, only relieved by those spontaneous outlets which nature and the inequalities 
 of the ground have provided. An example of this is found in the spring from which the 
 New Rivei', that supplies London with so large a part of the water it consumes, proceeds, 
 Avhich was certainly a strong one previously, but the flow of water has probably increased 
 fourfold, or more, since the opening up of its course. Another cause of this is, that 
 while no adequate outlet is provided for the water of springs, it becomes diff'used over 
 the surrounding lauds, which are saturated with it, and it is dispersed by evaporation 
 only. 
 
 It is also remarkable that drainage, so far from increasing evaporation, actually 
 diminishes it, and rather attracts moisture to the soil from the atmosphere than 
 imparts to it. Whilst the subsoil, for want of drainage, supplies the upper soil with 
 water from the lower water-bed, the evaporation at the surface is what may be called 
 an efibrt of nature to relieve the soil from a redundancy of that element. The pressure 
 of gravitation of the water from the higher, upon that of the lower springs overcomes 
 that of the atmosphere ; and it is only by its decomposition as it approaches the surface 
 
662 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 that it cau be dispersed. We see tliis exemplified in all uudrained lands surcharged 
 with water^ especially in strong clay soilsj which are almost constantly enveloped in a 
 mist during the winter months, when the influence 0/ the sun is feeble, and the days 
 are short.* 
 
 An erroneous notion of the effect of drainage led some persons, during the dry 
 summer of 1859, to apprehend that the system had been carried too far, and that the 
 soil had been divested of its moisture to an extent to cause the drought. This, however, 
 was disproved by the fact that the crops upon the drained lauds were, generally 
 speaking, by far the most vigorous ; and it was also ascertained that the evaporation 
 was less, whilst the aeration of the soil opened it to the moisture of the atmosphere, and 
 thus supplied the plants with nourishment. 
 
 Few persons are aware of the extent to which drained lands absorb the moisture 
 from the atmosphere, independent of the rain-full ; nor could it be correctly ascertained 
 except from its effects. When accompanied by deep and minute tillage, the soil, being 
 opened to the depth of 15 or 18 inches, drinks in the humidity constantlj' floating 
 in the air during hot weather, between sunset and sunrise. If we walk in the fields 
 early in the summer morning, we invariably (except immediately before rain) find the 
 grass or corn saturated with moisture from the night dews ; and if this could be 
 collected over a given space, it would be found to amount to a considerable quantity. 
 Yet it constitutes only a small portion of what actually falls, the greater part being 
 absorbed by the aerated soil, and appropriated Ijy the roots, as the other is by the leaves 
 of plants. Besides this, the drained soil is supplied with moisture from below by 
 capillary attraction, which is constantly going ou ; and thus the effect of the evaporation 
 of the day in summer is more than compensated by the night dews and the twenty-four 
 hours of capUlary attraction — the one from the atmosphere, the other from the subsoil. 
 These operations cannot take place in undrained and imperfectly tilled land, especially 
 clays. These, which dujiing the winter mouths are saturated to excess with moisture 
 from the rising of the water-bed to the sui-face after the autumnal rains, become, in a 
 dry summer, M'hen the springs are low, too indurated to attract the night dews ; and, 
 consequently, vegetation suffers more than on the drained free soils. 
 
 With respect to the effect of drainage on free soils, Mr. Denton has the following 
 observations : — "The effect of under-draining on this description of soil (and, in truth, 
 on most of the mixed soils) will be readily understood, when it is observed that no water 
 can run from the under-draius until the water-bed has been raised by descending rains 
 to the level of the drains ; and that as the surface-springs rose higher and higher before 
 draining, so the lowest drains Avill begin to run first, and as soon as the water-bed of the 
 whole area drained, forming an inclined plane, has risen by degrees to the height of 
 
 * The following remarks explain the theory of mist: — " The atmosphere is composed not only of fixed gases, but also 
 of aqueous vapour, and there is a much larger quantily of aqueous vapour suspended in the air during' the summer season 
 than in the winter season. That ivas one of the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton. Now, there is at all timesatemperatm-e, 
 with respect of aqueous vapour, at which water will begin to precipitate, and any body possessing that temperature, and 
 with which the vapour is in coutaet, will absorb it ; this degree of temperature is termed ' the dew-point.' The action of 
 drainage is to cause air to occupy the place previously occupied by water, aud to which air cannot obtain access ; and the 
 lower portions of the soil being considerably cooler than the air, causes a precipitation of dew or moistm'c throughout every 
 part of them when the atmosphere is highly heated. The surface of the soil only is moistened by dew during the night ; 
 but the interior p.irts of the soil are abstracting it from the atmosphere during the day. This beautiful operatiou was first 
 explained by Sir Humphrey Davy, &c. &c." — See Parkes' work " On Drainage." Tarkes stales that he has freciuently 
 taken a tea-cupful of dew early in the morning from the leaves of a single cabbage plant. 
 
DIFFERENT MODES OF DRALNAGE. 663 
 
 every draiu, the whole system will be at work, and not till then. A portion of the 
 infiltrated water — not an inconsiderable one in some cases — is claimed by the space in 
 the subsoil intermediate between the level of the di'ains and the depth to which the 
 water-bed may have sunk after the drains may have ceased to run in the spring. This 
 space will be found to be more or less, according to height and aspcctj as influencing 
 gravitation and evaporation, and the extent to which the disintegration of the subsoil by 
 drainage may promote capillary attraction. The quantity discharged by the drains, 
 therefore, does not represent the whole of the infiltrated water, which should be 
 understood to include, (1) the water discharged by the drains ; (3) the water which 
 sinks to the springs ; and (3) the moisture which rises from the subsoil beneath the 
 drains, by attraction, into the soil above them, to be dispersed by evaporation at the 
 surface. In certain cases, where the surcharged lands approach the lowest outcrop of 
 the stratum or bed, the drains partake of the nature of perennial springs, and continue 
 to discharge the overflow of the subjacent water-level. 
 
 "When free soils arc effectually drained, the water in test-holes between the under 
 drains ■will generally stand at an approximate level with the drains after that level has 
 been gained, though its height will fluctuate with the raiu-fall when any appreciable 
 quantity descends. This being the action of under-draining the surcharged free soils, 
 the results will be, (1) to render the surface more capable of absorbing the rains which 
 fall upon it ; (3) to lower the discharge of the upper surface springs in a slight degree ; 
 and (3) to mthdraw from the power of evaporation all the water which the under- 
 drains discharge."* 
 
 The history of under-draining in England is quite of modern date, although it was 
 known and practised by the ancient Romans. "Whether they introduced it into Britain 
 at the time of the Conquest is not recorded ; but certainly, if they did, it was afterwards 
 lost, for the first systematic plan of drainage we read of is in the work of Captain Walter 
 Blythe, published in 165.2, where he recommends the removal of all mills that are 
 injurious to the laud by damming up the water, and so preventing the drainage : and 
 for this latter operation he gives instructions which, if they do not come up to our 
 modern notions, aire founded on the soundest principles. t 
 
 Half a century later, Tull recommends laying the lands for wheat into high ridges, 
 with a ditch " almost a foot deep on each side," as the only way of getting rid of the 
 rain-water. He had the clearest conviction of the injury arising from stagnant water; 
 for he says, the more a soil is filled \Tith water the less heat it will have." He also 
 speaks of digging trenches across the rising ground and filling them up with stones, 
 
 * " The Effects of Under-drainage on the Arterial Channels and Outfalls of the Kingdom," read before the Central 
 Farmer's Club, November, 18G1, by J. Bailey Denton, Esq. 
 
 t The following passage is from Blythe's work, and shows the correctness of his views : — " As for the draining trench, 
 it must be made so deep that it goes to the bottom of the cold, spewy, moist water that feeds the flag and the rush. Por 
 the wideness of it, use thine own liberty; but be sure to make it so wide as thou mayest go to the bottom of it, which 
 must be as low as any moisture lyelh, which moisture usually lyeth under the upper and second swarth of the earth on some 
 gravel or sand, or else where some greater stones, or raised with clay, under which thou mayest go half one spade's graft deep 
 at least. Yea, suppose this corruption that feeds and nourishes the flag and the rush should lie a yard or four feet deep, 
 to the bottom of it thou must go if ever thou wouldst drain it to purpose or make the attempt advantageous for either 
 floating or draining, without which the water cannot have its kindly operation; for though the water fattens naturally, 
 yet still this coldness and moisture lies gnawing within, and not being taken away clean, it eateth out what the water 
 fattens, and so the goodness of the water is, as it were, riddled, screened, and strained out into the land, leaving the 
 richness and the leanness sliding away from it." 
 
664 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 through which the water, when it soaks iuto the trenches, may run oS at one or both 
 ends of them into some ditch, which is lower, and carries it away. Then they cover it 
 with mould, and plough over it as in the dry level ground." This is the nearest 
 approach to hollow-draining that had then been published ; but it was very imperfectly 
 executed, for he adds, " This method has been found effectual for a time, 'but not of 
 long continuance, for the trenches are apt to be stopped up, and then the springs break 
 out again as before ; besides, this is a very chargeable work, and' in many places the 
 expense of it may almost equal the purchase of the land." He therefore advises the 
 open drains, as before described, to be di-awn obliquely across the rising ground. 
 
 It is evident that TuU had no correct idea of a water-level beloiv the sm-face, but as 
 affecting it by its retention in the subsoil, and keeping it in a cold and uugenial state. 
 The first person, after Blythe, who discovered the true art of land-drainage, appears to 
 have been Dr. James Anderson, of Aberdeen, who published an " Essay on Agriculture 
 and Rural Affairs" in 1775; but his system was confined to tapping the springs by 
 digging through the clay, and thus making a passage for the water, conveying it 
 by open drains wherever the descent or fall will allow. About the same time one 
 Elkiugtou, a Warwickshire farmer, hit upon the same plan, and commenced business as 
 a land drainer, and by not divulging his secret respecting his knowledge of subterranean 
 water, he became famous in his profession. Whether he took the hint from Anderson's 
 work, or made the discovery simultaneously with him, it is impossible to say ; but he 
 was so far treated as the discoverer, that the Board of Agriculture, in ignorance, as it 
 is supposed, of Dr. Anderson's publication, recommended him to the notice of Parlia- 
 ment, which rewarded him with a grant of £1,000; and thus the first discoverer, who 
 liberally published his system for the benefit of the public, was overlooked, whilst 
 he who kept the secret with himself received the reward. Both appear to have dug a 
 certain depth, and then bored with an auger till they came to the body of water, on 
 the same principle as is employed in the artesian wells, and which has been practised in 
 Italy, from a very ancient date, in the case of well-sinking.* To avoid the expense of 
 digging to a great depth, they bored with an auger at the bottom till they reached the 
 stratum which contained the body of water. 
 
 It is plain, however, that the practice of both Anderson and Elkington only applied 
 to the draining of such lands as were constantly" covered or saturated with water, and 
 thus laying them dry and in a proper state for cultivation. Hollow-draining, on a 
 systematic plan, did not come into practice until the latter end of the century, and then 
 it was limited to the mixed or porous soils, it being considered useless, as we have 
 already stated, to attempt to drain the clays. Nor did drainage at all make much 
 progress until lately, and Smith, of Deanston, was the first who reduced it to a system. 
 
 * " A curious circumstauce," says Gregory, " occurs iu the making of wells at Modena and Styria, in Italy. Tbu 
 workmen begin by digging through several strata or soils till they come to a very hard kind of earth, much resembling 
 chalk ; here they begin their mason-work, and build a well, which they carry ou at their leisure till they have finished it, 
 without being interrupted with one drop of water, and without any apprehension of not finding it when they come to 
 make the experiment. The well being finished, they bore through the hard bed of chalk, upon which the well is built, 
 mth a long auger, but take care to get out of the well before they draw it out again ; which, when they have done, the 
 water springs up iuto the well, and in a little time rises to the brim, nay, sometimes overflows the neighbouring grounds. 
 Now, there can be little doubt that these waters flow from reservoirs which are collected within the Apennine Mountains, 
 not far from Modena, and taking their course through subterranean passages, endeavour to force their ascent to the same 
 height from which they descend, wherever they can find a vent." — T/ie Economy nf Nature Explained and Ilhtslrated, 
 vol. ii. p. 552. 
 
DIFFERENT MODES OP DRAINAGE. 665 
 
 His plan was to cut narrow parallel drains in the furrows between tlie ridges, from 
 24 to 30 iuches in depth, the intervals between being regulated by the character of the 
 soil and the facility of action of the drain. He first filled np his drains with stones 
 collected on the land, or of broken stone reduced to the proper size, or about 2^ inches 
 square. These were thrown promiscuously into the drain to the depth of from 
 9 to 12 inches, and there is no question that such drains were both efficient and durable, 
 but certainly not so much so as pipe drains, which aflbrd a clear passage to the water. 
 The principle on which all drains act is that of gravitation. Water being heavier than 
 air, will always find its way to places in the ground below it, where there is a vacant 
 space, or rather spaces, filled with air only. This is speedily driven out by it ; and it is 
 plain that the more continuous and uninterrupted these spaces are, the more effectual 
 Avill be their action in drawing off the water. 
 
 Smith appears to have modified his pla,n latterly, by sinking his drains to from 
 30 inches to 3 feet 6 inches ; but he made no difference in the distances between them. 
 The success of his plan caused it to be extensively adopted in Scotland, where draining is 
 much more general than in England. The reasons why the system has not more prevailed 
 in the latter country are various — chiefly the embarrassed condition of the landowners 
 and the law of entails. Both these causes, however, are removed by the late Acts of 
 Parliament, which we have already alluded to. It is a proof that these were the prin- 
 cipal obstructions, that within a few months after the passing of the Drainage Acts, the 
 applications for the money to be granted on loan far exceeded the sum allotted by 
 Parliament in the first instance. And as to the propriety and utility of the measure, 
 these are shown by the fact that alreadj^ nearly the whole of the money thus borrowed 
 has been repaid into the Exchequer, and the work of draining is rapidly progressing, as 
 indispensable to the full development of the resources of the soil. 
 
 The employment of earthen pipes in the construction of hollow drains must be 
 considered an era in the history of the art of drainage. Something of the kind was 
 attempted about the beginning of the present century, when bricks, about a foot long 
 and 4< inches wide, were used, having a semicircular open groove cut along the top, 
 about 2 inches wide. These were laid, with the grooves downward, on the hard clay, or 
 upward, with a tile over them ; but the heavy expense prevented them from being used 
 to any extent. We have already given a brief history of the Draining Tile Machine, by 
 which the pipe tile came into use in something like its present form about the year 
 1845, and has been found the most simple, cheap, and efficient medium for the purpose 
 of getting rid of the water from the soil. 
 
 Mr. Parkes, who has studied the philosophy of drainage of laud perhaps more closely 
 than any other man, is decidedly of opinion that a pipe of 1-inch bore for a certain 
 distance, and laid in not more than 4 feet deep on any soil, is the most eflectual mode of 
 draining, except in a very wet or springy soil. His experience as a professional land- 
 drainer is very extensive, and his treatises on the subject are conclusive as to the 
 correctness of his views. They are confirmed in every respect by the avowed opinions of 
 Mr. Denton, who is also extensively employed by many noblemen and other landowners 
 in draining their estates. It is found that where there is a considerable flow of water of 
 a ferruginous quality, a stone drain soon fills up with a deposit of iron oxide ; and the 
 same operation takes place with tiles, if they are so large that the flow of water is not 
 sufficient to keep them clear. Tiles, tliereforej with a small bore, which are well filled 
 
CG6 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 when the raius are heavy aud the water-bed is high, are found to keep themselves free 
 from any deposit, whether of iron or earthy particles. At the same time, they have 
 been proved efficient in the closest clay soils at the depth of 4 feet, whilst others of 3 
 or 2i feet have failed. 
 
 It is remarkable, too, that after a heavy rain a drain 4 feet deep will begin to run 
 before one of 2 feet. jMr. Parkes tried an experiment of this kind on the Duke of 
 Wellington's estate at Strathfieldsaye. On a piece of pasture that had been inefl'eetually 
 drained he directed a drain to be dug 4 feet deep, at the bottom of which he laid tiles 
 of 1-inch bore. Upon these was rammed hard 2 feet of clay, and on the clay was laid 
 another row of inch tiles, and the trench was then filled up to the surface. After a 
 heavy rain the lowfer tier of tiles not only commenced running first, but the flow of 
 water was much gi'cater than from the upper tier, and continued longer. Another drain 
 of 4 feet was opened parallel with the other, at 24 feet distance, and served in the same 
 manner. It then appeared that the first drain had drawn off the water to the extent of 
 24 feet, for the second drain had a very inferior flow from it. It is easy to account for 
 the greater flow from a 4-feet than from a 2-feet drain, from the larger body of earth 
 over which it exerts an influence ; but it is not so easy to state why the deepest drain 
 should be the first to discharge the water after a rain, and first to cease running, 
 although it ought to continue it longer. The fact, however, is confirmed both by Parkes 
 aud Denton, and has not, that we are aware of, been denied or disputed by any of the 
 opponents of deep drainage. 
 
 Another experiment is related by Mr. Parkes on a piece of hop-ground belonging to 
 Mr. Hammond, in Kent. It had been drained from 24 to 30 inches deep thirty-five 
 years before; but suspecting that the hop-plants were injured by the water in the 
 subsoil below the old drains, he again under-drained it in 1842 with inch pipes, partly at 
 3 and partly at 4 feet deep, the effect proving very beneficial. The old drains were left 
 imdisturbed, and ceased to run from that time, the whole of the water passing below 
 them to the new drains. The distance between was 26 feet, the length 150 yards, the 
 fall the same, and the flow of water was at the rate of 19i tons per acre in twenty-four 
 hours. 
 
 Another advantage accruing from deep drainage is the more effectual filtration of 
 the water after continued rain. Any one who examines the outlet of a 2-feet drain on 
 such an occasion will not fail to find the water muddy or cloudy. This arises from its 
 taking from the soil the finer, and certainly the more valuable, particles it contains, and 
 such as if left would be most readily assimilable by the plants. There can be no 
 diff'erence of opinion on this point, or difficulty in accounting for it. Over a 2-feet drain 
 there can be little more than from 12 to 16 inches of soil, which is quite insufficient 
 properly to filter the water ; and the consequence is as we have stated ; the soluble salts 
 and other most nutritious portions of the soil arc drained away with the water; but 
 with a 4-foct drain the distance the Avatcr has to descend is great enough at all times, 
 even after the heaviest and most continuous rain-fall, to filter every particle of earthy 
 matter from it, whilst the subsoil will arrest, and appropriate by its chemical attraction, 
 the soluble salts it contains, and it flows from the drains clean and pure. 
 
 Laud undrained if injured by stagnant water in the subsoil shows it most in the 
 spring, by the colour of the soil and the weakness of the vegetation, which is always 
 more backward than on a dry or drained soil. Dark spots appear where the water is 
 
DIFFERENT MODES OF DRAINAGE. 667 
 
 retained during the winter, and the roots of the jjlants arc chilled and their growth 
 arrested. These effects arc not remedied or counteracted Ijj' the subsequent drying of 
 the land in summer. The constitution of the plants is injured, and they grow up weak 
 and spindling, producing at harvest only half what the real quality of the soil is 
 calculated to yield ; for although the sui'face is dry, and the darkness of the soil has 
 disappeared, the coldness produced by it in the subsoil prevents that development of the 
 plant which takes place in a soil laid dry by drainage. In this latter the water passes 
 directly downward, admitting the air warmed by the sun to penetrate, whilst on the 
 uudrained laud it can only be dispersed by evaporation, which repels the air and 
 produces a coldness in the atmosphere inimical to the progress of vegetation. On the 
 other hand, the stagnant water in the subsoil renders the surface cold and ungenial, 
 chilling the roots and retarding the progress of the plants. Wherever such symptoms 
 appear there can be no doubt of either the cause or its cure. Draining is the only and 
 the certain remedy ; and thousands of acres of such lands which were previously, from 
 the stifFucss of the soil, considered unprofitable, have been rendered by it highly 
 productive. 
 
 The appearance and flourishiug condition of aquatic plants is a certain symptom of 
 stagnant water in the subsoil, because these will never thrive where the land is dry, any 
 more than better plants will in land sodden with water. Every practical farmer knows 
 the water plants and grasses, and the impossibility of extirpating them from a wet soil. 
 Even horse or hand-hoeing is of little use on such land, for as soon as the corn is too 
 high for the hoe these aquatic plants spring up again and choke it, or draw off the 
 nourishment from it. On such land, in fact, maum-c produces but little effect, its 
 iufluence in ameliorating the soil being counteracted by the coldness produced by the 
 water. 
 
 Pasture land uudrained displays the injury produced by stagnant water quite as 
 palpably as arable land. Here the aquatic plants have their full growth. Coarse and 
 wiry grasses take the place of the more nutritive kinds, and the cattle fed on them are 
 kept in poor condition. The coldness of the air chills them at night, whilst the 
 multitudes of gnats and other insects eng;endered by the damp, torment and terrify them 
 by day, preventing them from either feeding or resting. These evils disappear, or are 
 modified, by draining, which improves the pasturage, tempers the atmosphere, and 
 prevents the breeding of those swarms of insects which always accompany the presence 
 of stagnant water. 
 
 Sheep are more especially liable to injury on land that is undrained. The foot-rot 
 and diseased liver are the certain consequences of feeding them on such land, whether 
 in summer or winter ; and in the warm months of the later summer and autumn they 
 arc tormented with flies, which deposit their eggs in the fleece, breeding maggots in 
 abundance. These if unseen or neglected soon destroy the animal. 
 
 The evils attending uudrained lauds are thus summed xxp by Parkes : — " Experience 
 has proved that a soil surcharged with water cannot perfect crops ; that excess of water 
 is an impediment to the due mechanical division of the active soil ; that it diminishes 
 the fertilising power of every species of manure ; that it lowers the temperature of the 
 mass of the bed ; that it precludes the free entrance and change of the atmospheric air ; 
 
 that it prevents the free descent of rain through the soil and its timely evacuation 
 
 The evils referable to the excess of water in soils are rendered peculiarly apparent by 
 
668 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 comparing such water-logged laud with those free, deep, naturally dry and warm soiisj 
 as they are called, which are so coveted by farmers, of which every cue wauts a slice, 
 but which are so rarely to be met with, in comparison with the over wet or too dry 
 portions of the superficies of our island."* 
 
 The same author states that it is the " subterranean water, as it may not improperly 
 be termed, to which excessive and injurious wetness is attributable; and if such water 
 be not removed and kept down at a depth exceeding tlie power of capillary attraction to 
 elevate it too near the surface, no drainage can be eflicieut. It is chiefly through 
 capillarity that those soils are maintained in a sufficieutly moist state for vegetative 
 perfection, on digging into which we do not discover any free water within sevei-al feet 
 of the surface. The efl'ect of rain is to thoroughly moisten such soil, gravity carrying 
 down below the excess, or that portion which the soil cannot absorb or retain." 
 
 The following is the expense per acre of putting in drains of i feet depth, at diflerent 
 distances, according to Mr. Parkes ; — 
 
 Distance of 
 
 Leupith of Drains 
 
 Cutting and fell- 
 
 Pil« laying and. 
 
 U-iuchpipe at 
 
 Total cost 
 
 Drains. 
 
 iu rods of 74 yards. 
 
 ing at 8d. per rod. 
 
 superintendence. 
 
 13s. 
 
 per 1,000. 
 
 
 
 Bods. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 s. d. 
 
 £ 
 
 s. d. 
 
 £ .5. d. 
 
 At 8 yards 
 
 86i 
 
 2 17 S 
 
 14 5 
 
 1 
 
 3 7i 
 
 4 15 8i 
 
 „]0 „ 
 
 60 
 
 2 G 
 
 11 1 
 
 
 
 18 10 
 
 3 16 4 
 
 .. 11 ,. 
 
 03 
 
 2 2 
 
 10 6 
 
 
 
 17 2 
 
 ■i 9 
 
 „12 >, 
 
 574 
 
 1 IS 4 
 
 9 7 
 
 
 
 15 8^ 
 
 3 3 7 
 
 It would appear, also, according to Mr. Parkes, that a much larger extent of soil is 
 drained for the money by 4.-feet drains than by shallower ones, as the following 
 table shows : — 
 
 DepUi of Drains 
 in feet. 
 
 Distance between 
 Drains in feet. 
 
 Mass of soU 
 
 di-ained per acre in 
 
 cubic yards. 
 
 Mass of sou 
 drained for Irf. 
 in cubic yards. 
 
 Surface of soil 
 
 di-ainetl for Id. in 
 
 square yards. 
 
 2 
 3 
 4. 
 
 24 
 
 33J 
 
 50 
 
 3,226i 
 
 4,840 
 
 6,453 
 
 401 
 
 8-93 
 
 1200 
 
 627 
 8-93 
 8-96 
 
 New laud reclaimed from the waste should be drained before it is broken up; but 
 the fences should be first raised, otherwise, in digging the ditches the drains would be 
 liable to be interfered with, and the roots of the live fences, also, would probably get 
 into, and stop them up. The fields being laid out and fenced in, the first thing to be 
 attended to is to ascertain the nature of the soil and subsoil, and the depth at which 
 the water-bed lies from the surface. Tliese may be found by sinking test-holes in 
 diflerent parts of each field, taking care to dig them deep enough to reach the water-bed, 
 when the water will rise in the hole till it has found its level. The next operation is to 
 examine the elevation or descent of the land so as to find the direction and amount of 
 the fall. This cannot properly or correctly be done without citlier a theodolite or a 
 spirit-level, Avith either of which it may be easily ascertained. On most farms the fall 
 takes different directions, and it is necessary to note these variations, as the drains must 
 be formed iu accordance with them. Examine next the ditches or water-courses at the 
 outfall of the lowest part of the laud to be drained, and if they are not deep enough for 
 the purpose they must be made so before beginning to drain the land. The fall in these 
 
 * Parkes' " Essay on the Philosophy of Draining," &c., p. 54. 
 
DIFFERENT MODES OF DRAINAGE. 
 
 669 
 
 should not be less tliau 1 foot in 220 yards according- to ParkeSj unless the outfall 
 abuts upon a river^ the full of which must constitute the gauge of that of the drain. 
 
 These preliminaries having been attended to, begin digging at the loivest part of the 
 lowest field first, regulating the depth of the outfall by the laying of the land above. 
 In proceeding np the ascent, the inequalities of the ground must not occasion the same 
 in the drain, as was the case with some of the drains laid in under government 
 instruction; but the bottom of the cutting must be straight np the ascent, allowing the 
 water to take an uninterrupted course to the outfall. Tliis is essential in all drains, on 
 whatever principles in other respects it is intended to construct them ; whether for 
 filling up with broken stones or small stones gathered on the land, or box drains, or 
 pipe drains. There is, however, a considerable difference in the form, as well as in the 
 expense, of these different kinds of drains, the pipe drain being by far the cheapest, 
 most durable, and the most efficient ; the price of the pipes or tiles being now so mueli 
 reduced as to render them, all things considered, the most economical material that can 
 be used. And, on the other hand, tlie machines for manufacturing them are now made 
 upon a scale to meet the requirements of any estate ; so that where the proper clay is to 
 be procured they may be manufactured on the spot at a very cheap rate. The following 
 is INIr. Morton's estimate of the expense of making the diffei'cnt sizes of pipe tiles, 
 according to the price of coal :— 
 
 Size of boro 
 
 Price of coals 
 
 Price of pipes 
 
 in inches. 
 
 per ton. 
 
 per 1,000. 
 
 
 5. 
 
 s. rf. 
 
 ]5- 
 
 5 
 
 8 B 
 
 „ 
 
 10 
 
 9 6 
 
 ^_ 
 
 15 
 
 10 6 
 
 )) 
 
 20 
 
 11 3 
 
 2 
 
 5 
 
 10 
 
 }) 
 
 10 
 
 11 S 
 
 
 15 
 
 12 6 
 
 ^, 
 
 20 
 
 13 9 
 
 3 
 
 5 
 
 17 
 
 ,, 
 
 10 
 
 IS 8 
 
 jj 
 
 15 
 
 20 4 
 
 ■• 
 
 20 
 
 22 
 
 The inch pipe will, of course, be quite as cheap as the inch and a half,* and perhaps 
 rather cheaper; and both Parkes and Denton have found that for a distance of 150 to 
 300 yards they answer the purpose quite as well as those of larger bore. Beyond that 
 distance it is desirable to increase the size ; and in very wet or boggy land to enclose 
 tlie small tiles within larger ones, to prevent them from silting np with the ferruginous 
 water, which in some eases i§ very troublesome. 
 
 The modern tools for draining enable the workman to carry the cut a sufficient width 
 to within one foot of the bottom, when a smaller spade with the end of the graft the 
 size of the tile is used to finish it. The bottom being then cleared from the crumbs, it 
 is ready for tlie tiles. Collars are used to receive the ends of tlie pipes ; but latterly 
 the pipes have been made with an enlargement of the bore at one end to receive the 
 small end of the next ; and thus the lineal continuation of the drain is preserved regular 
 and unbroken. 
 
 The small space between the pipes would lead many persons to suppose that it is 
 impossible for the water to filter through them in sufficient quantity, or in time, to 
 
 * Parkes states that the inch pipes may be made ou the estate at is. Gc/. per 1,000, and even less. 
 
070 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 drain a wet piece of laud. ExperiencCj howevei", proves that water will find its way 
 through crevices impervious to the eye, and that it requires only a very minute hole to 
 admit three gallons of water per day, or one pint per hour. Mr. Parkes states that 
 with inch pipes in drains 4 feet deep, and 24 feet asunder, each pipe being a foot long, 
 the quantity of water drawn off in forty-eight hours was six gallons to each lineal foot 
 of drain, allowing one pint per hour for every pair of pipes. " The weight of rain per 
 acre," he says, "that fell during the twelve hours amounted to 108,900 lbs., or 
 about 48| tons, and, on the whole piece of 9 acres, is equal to 437^ tons ; and each drain 
 discharged 19 tons, equal to about four-tenths of a ton per hour, on the mean of forty- 
 eight hours ; but when the flow was at the greatest I find that each drain must have 
 discharged at the rate of five times this quantity per hour, which affords proof of the 
 faculty of the pipes to receive and carry off a fall of rain equal to 21 inches in twelve 
 hours, instead of half an inch— a fall quite imknown in this climate."* This action of 
 tile-drains is facilitated in clay soils by the fissures caused by the drying and cracking 
 of the soil when the water is filtered from it. 
 
 The size of the pipe used must, however, be regulated according to the nature of the 
 land, and the quantity of water to be drained off. The small 1 inch and Ih inch pipes 
 should be laid down with collars, which prevent that irregularity in the position of the 
 pipes at the bottom of the drain, which the clumsiness, or the carelessness, of the 
 workmen would sometimes occasion ; but where the pipes are united as we have shown 
 above, the collar is imnecessary, a substitute in that case being made within the pipe at 
 one end. On a mixed or open soil the 1-inch tile will work sometimes 300 yards if the 
 fall is good; but at that distance main drains of larger diameter should be laid down, 
 as they will have to receive the water from many of the minor drains. 2-inch pipes 
 will be amply sufficient for the purpose, and they should be laid across, either at right 
 angles or diagonally, according to the fall, with the minor drains, the water from which 
 they are to receive. If the soil is at all stiff, 200 yards is quite enough for a continuance 
 of such pipes ; and, if the fall admits of it, it may be continued 200 yards more with 1:^ 
 or If pipes; after which, if the outfall is not reached, the 2-inch pipes may be used to 
 the end. If, again, the land is infested with springs, it will reqiiire a larger than a 
 1-inch pipe to carry oft' the water. 
 
 There are some spots on the declivities of hills where there is a constant flow of 
 water in the subsoil, which renders the lands below springy and boggy. In such cases, 
 Parkes recommends laying two 2-inch pipes side by side, and a third above them. 
 When the springs are high, all the pipes will run ; whilst when they are low only the 
 two lower will work. 
 
 In mountainous countries, where the fall is great, and the descent of water in a 
 heavy rain rapid, open drains are preferable to under drains. In Scotland, these are 
 usually dug on the sheep pastures of the eastern mountains, from 12 to 16 inches deep, 
 12 inches wide at the top and 6 inches at the bottom, and with a distance of from 6 to 
 9 yards from each other. They are laid in the direction of the steepest part of the 
 mountain, and the soil taken from the drains is spread on the surface of the intervals, 
 in order not to break down the edge of the cutting, whilst on the other hand the mould 
 will be beneficial to the pastui'c. Main drains are laid across them at short distances, 
 to prevent them from washing deeper by the increasing rush of water after a heavy rain. 
 
 * Parkea' "Philosophy of Draining," p. 44. 
 
DIFFERENT MODES OF DRAINAGE, 671 
 
 These main drains are sometimes made available for irrigating the low grounds at the 
 foot of the mountain in a dry season. Reservoirs are also made to supply the sheep 
 with water, which they greatly require to keep them in health. An idea formerly 
 prevailed that it was improper for sheep to have access to water, under the supposition 
 that it produces the rot ; but this idea is now exploded, and it is well iinderstood that 
 all ruminating animals require much water. On the mountain side the main drains 
 should cross the others in an oblique direction, with a gradient of 1 in 30. 
 
 ]\Iany of the hill pastures of Argyleshire have been increased in value 500 per cent, 
 by draining, and the general health of the population, as well as of the sheep and cattle, 
 is much improved. The removal of the stagnant water has broken up the nursery of 
 myriads of ilies and other insects that annoyed and injured the sheep and cattle. 
 In a paper drawn up and presented to the Highland and Agricultural Society, by 
 Mr. Lawson, of Argyleshire, in 1860, on the drainage of hill sheep-farms, he says : — 
 " In all cases of drainage, I have found a continuous accession of drains more useful 
 than what is called a full course of drains, put in at distant intervals; and land that has 
 been once drained on a proper principle should never be allowed to retrograde, it being 
 always much easier to retain a good herbage than to renew it when injured. A 
 gradual drainage is safest, as it enables the operator to attain the proper water level, 
 and thereby avoid possible injury by over-draining. The general health of sheep is 
 much improved by keeping their pastures judiciously drained; they will be maintained 
 in a more uniform condition, their size will be increased, and their wool will be 
 improved in quality, although it may not be increased in quantity."* 
 
 In draining bog land, Mr. Parkes reconnnends ramming sods from the surface hard 
 at the bottom of the drain ; then laying the pipes upon it, and ramming more sods over 
 them. Such drains have been found to be always running. Some peat-drains — that is, 
 drains formed with peat-sods — have been discovered 100 years old, that were as good as 
 on the day they were laid in. 
 
 There are some lands so locked in l)y higher land on every side that it is impossible 
 to obtain a fall or outlet for the water, and such lauds have usually been condemned as 
 incurable. In some such cases, recourse has been had to what are termed " swallow- 
 holes;" these are holes dug deep into the ground, to reacli the water-level, or a sandy, 
 gravelly, or chalky sixbsoil. Into these holes the drains are all made to discharge their 
 water, wliich is swallowed up specdilj' by the absor2;)tiou of the subsoil. In some of 
 the counties round London, where the soil overlies the chalk, these swallow-holes have 
 been found perfectly effective to carry off all the water falling on such land-locked 
 fields. Parkes speaks of laud in Surrey that was so soddened with water that, before 
 being drained, it never produced more than 12 bushels of wheat per acre, and in one 
 case, with that quantity, there were 4 busliels of ]\Iay-weed seed. The first year after 
 being drained, the yield was i8 bushels of wheat per acre, and the jMay-weed had 
 nearly disappeared. 
 
 The fact is, many of these wet and unprofitable lauds tui'n out the best and most 
 profitable, when drained and subsoiled. Wlien once this latter operation has been 
 performed upon a clay soil the clay never closes again as before, but continues accessible 
 to the water, and thus facilitates its escape downwards to the drains. Draining acts 
 both mechanically and chemically. ]Mechanically, by removing the excess of water 
 
 * " Report on the Drainage of Hill Sheep-farms."— (Journal of Agriculture for 1860.) 
 
672 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 from the soil, and thus assisting the operations of husbandry and lessening the expense 
 of tillage ; and it is estimated that the saving of liorse-power by drainage amounts to 
 25 per cent. Tlie land also may be laid upon the flat without any furrows after 
 thorough draining, by which a considerable saving of land is effected. 
 
 The chemical effects of drainage are : — The admission of air into the soil ; the facility 
 it offers to the earth to attract and retain the elements of fertility, brought to it by the 
 rain, in a healthy state for assimilation by the plants; the absorption of the night dews 
 in summer, which impart warmth to the soil ; the more speedy decomposition of manure 
 and its assimilation by the plants ; in the prevention of the miasmata arising from the 
 stagnant water, which is productive of fever in various forms in animals, and of fungi 
 and insects destructive of vegetation. 
 
 There are few parts of the country now that arc not situated near a railway, by 
 which they can obtain draining tiles at a moderate price. Wherever this is the case, it 
 would be folly to lay in stone drains, although the stones may be had for picking up. 
 The expense of collecting, carting, digging the trenches^ and putting in the stones, is 
 far gi'eater than that of laying down pipe-tiles. The difference is estimated at 
 30 per cent., whilst the durability of the tiles is much more certain, the stone drains 
 being liable to choke up with sediment and roots of plants. If the pipe drain has a 
 fair fall, and a full flow of water after rain, it will keep itself clear from silth. This is 
 one reason for having the small pipes, that they are more likely to keep themselves 
 clear than large ones, in which the flow of water is not sufficient to fill them. It will be 
 seen that this is an important consideration when it is stated that a 2 -inch pipe 
 contains a diameter equal to four of a I-inch pipe. Thus, with a constant fall of 
 11 feet 8 inches 10 lines, the following has been found to be the graduated flow of 
 water in cubic inches per minute* : — 
 
 1st. Through a horizontal circular orifice of -i inch diameter . . . 2,31 1 cubic inches. 
 
 2n<l. Through ditto 1 inch diameter 9,281 „ 
 
 3rd. Through ditto 2 inches diameter 37,203 „ 
 
 And with a constant fall of 4 feet the flow was : — 
 
 1st. Through a lateral circular orifice of J inch diameter .... 1,353 cubic inches. 
 2[id. Through ditto of 1 inch diameter 5,436 ,, 
 
 It will be seen that in proportion to the height of the fall of the water, the flow will 
 increase or diminish, the quantities of water discharged in the same time througli the 
 same aperture under diflerent heights of the surface in the reservoirs, being to cacli 
 other nearly as the square roots of the corresponding heights of the water of the 
 reservoir above the centre of the aperture. The friction also is greater in a small 
 
 * See Gregory's " Economy of Nature," vol. ii. p. 4S7. About seventy years since, the Commissionei's of the New 
 River Company were in treaty for an increase of water from tlie I,ea River at Ware. They liaj previously had a 
 12-inch pipe to connect llie two water-courses, and it was proposed to double the quantity by having another pipe 
 of Vie same dimensions. The lawyer or engineer employed by the New River Company was a slirewd man, and he 
 soon perceived that the authorities of the lea River knew nothing of the science of hydraulics. After some fencing, he 
 rtmarlied that the treating for two pipes would occasion a great deal of additional writing and unnecessary expense. Would 
 it not be better to have one 2-feet pipe, instead of two of 12 inches each ? The Commissioners of the Lea River at once 
 agreed to this apparently very simple arrangement, nor did they discover their error until after the deed was executed. 
 The difference was i wo feet ; that is, the New River Company obtained 4 instead of 2 feet of water, the area of a circle 
 being as the square of its diameter. 
 
DIFFERENT MODES OF DRAHSTAGE. 673 
 
 than ill a large aperture; it thus admits less water iu proportiou. The resistance, 
 thei'efore, to the flow of the water is greater, and, consequently, the danger of stopping 
 up would be less in proportion to the obstructions presented to it. 
 
 Marshy and swampy waters owe their origin to springs proceeding from high 
 grounds; and as the soil of the land at the foot of such elevated tracts is generally 
 of a spongy nature, and level, the water, for want of an adequate outfall, pervades the 
 whole mass. In these cases it is necessary to find the source, and this usually lies on 
 the brow of a hill overhanging the marsh, and forms the point or apex of an angle, with 
 the mai'sh as its base. A drain cut from this point, of adequate depth, and left either 
 open or laid with pipe-tiles of a size proportioned to the flow of water, will draw it off; 
 and the supply being thus intercepted, the marsh will soon become diy and sound. 
 Open drains, in such cases, are most desirable for a time, until the quantity of water 
 diminishes, when pipes may be safely laid in, of a diameter adequate to the quantity of 
 water that is to flow thi'ough them. They must be led to the lowest outfall that can 
 be procured, and in the most direct manner. When the marsh has been laid dry, and 
 become sound, under drains may be put in, being required for carrying ofi^ the rain- 
 water in a wet season. 
 
 The benefits derived from drainage are very numerous. By it the temperature of 
 the soil is raised, as well as that of the subsoil. This is especially the case with the 
 closer clay soils, which are most impervious to the atmosphere when in a state of 
 nature. This is easily accounted for. While the water is retained in the land, the 
 atmospheric air has no power to enter it, and it remains in a cold and ungenial state. 
 But as soon as provision is made for the discharge of the stagnant water, the pores of 
 the soil being left open, the air enters there and permeates the whole mass. Cold being 
 a nonentity, and only an indication of the absence of heat, ivhich is a substance, the 
 entrance of the atmospheric air, which has been warmed by the sun's rays, fills up the 
 vacuum left by the retiring water. The Gardener's Chronicle states that a garden in 
 Hampshire having been drained 4\ feet deep, the temperature of the soil (a heavy 
 clay) was raised by it 15°, and that temperature is retained as long as the drains work. 
 The advantages arising from this to the growing crops are too obvious to need 
 enumerating. Quickness of germination and vigorous growth in all the after progress of 
 the plants are the results ; and if the harvest be not hastened by it, it is because the 
 plants exert a greater amount of vegetating powei', which prolongs their existence. The 
 same cause, however, more perfectly matures the grain and more completely fills the ear, 
 and the whole crop ripens uniformly. These advantages are increased when draining 
 is coupled with deep tillage or subsoiling. The straw of drained land is better for cattle 
 fodder; the green crops are more succulent and nutritive; the natural grasses are 
 stronger, thicker, and heavier, and, iu short, all kinds of crops exhibit the good eff'ects 
 in their healthy and vigorous appearance. 
 
 The decrease of actual exertion to both man and horses in ploughing and other 
 tillage operations, is another advantage of draining. The land, being equally dry 
 throughout, is worked with far more ease, and to a greater depth than can be effected 
 on undrained laud. Instead of the furrow-slice being turned over, in a clay soil 
 especially, in a clung unbroken mass, it crumbles under the plough; and in spring-time 
 the drained land is ready for the plough a fortnight or three weeks before that which 
 is undrained. The harrows, too, perform their office with more ease and celerity. 
 
 X X 
 
674 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 However wet, from recent rain, the soil may be, the moisture does not remain in it, and 
 it becomes ready for the harrow in much less time, because its aeration is more quickly 
 and more completely eflected, which renders it friable and easy of comminution. 
 
 The effect of drainage upou live stock is equally beneficial. The temperature of the 
 soil being warmer, they have a more comfortable resting-place to lie on by day and 
 night, drier and warmer standing for their feet, a more healthy air to breathe in, and 
 more nourishing food to eat. They fatten faster because they are more at their ease; 
 and their flesh is of a finer quality. These benefits are more palpable in sheep stock 
 than in larger cattle. Lands that, undraiued, could never be stocked with sheep, 
 because of the rot and the foot-rot, have been rendered perfectly innoxious by 
 thorough-draiuiug, so tliat slieep could be fed upon them at any time with perfect 
 impunity. 
 
 The same cause that operates to lead the water to the pipes of a 4-feet drain, 
 namely, the vacuum, or more properly speaking, the space filled with air in the pipes, 
 which gives way to the gravitation of the lieavier body, — the water,^causes also the 
 aeration of the soil, in order to fill up the spaces left by the retiring water. We have 
 said before, that "nature abhors a vacuum," and she has, therefore, provided for the 
 instant occupation of the vacant cavities by the atmospliere; and this is in turn 
 expelled by the rain-fall, which, again, descends to the drain. And thus, air and 
 moisture, both bringing warmth to the soil, alternately occupy the soil and subsoil, 
 imparting health and vigour to vegetation; and the warmth tluis admitted extends 
 to the same depth as the drain, although probably not in the same degree as 
 that near the surface, heat not being received in the earth by radiation, but by 
 contact with a heated body. And the raiu-fall and air having communicated the 
 greatest part of their heat in passing downwards, the proportion received by the 
 soil at the depth of 4 feet, must necessarily be much less than that accruing to 
 the soil near the surface. 
 
 Capillarity is a faculty in the earth by which it draws the water upwards from the 
 water-bed ; and it would appear that this faculty is increased by drainage. It is 
 supposed that this is ett'ected by evaporation, superinduced by the increased temperature 
 of the soil. But as the temperature at the depth of 4 feet does not exceed from 40° to 
 44'^ in undraiued land, it can hardly be supposed that evaporation could be promoted by 
 it to the extent to which moisture is supplied to the soil in dry weather. We have 
 already shown that the atmosphere supplies a large portion in the form of dew ; and the 
 fissures caused in the eartli by drainage increase the capillary power of the soil, over- 
 coming even that of gravitation. 
 
 The best evidence, however, of the value of drainage is to be found in the increase 
 of produce, and the increased value of the laud, both to the owner and the occupier. By 
 it, bad land lias been converted into good ; it has turned an enemy to the farmer (water) 
 into his best friend ; because whilst it relieves the land from stagnant water at all times, 
 it provides for a sufficient and regular supply when most needed ; it lightens the labour 
 while it increases the facilities of husbaudi'y, so that both man and horses are enabled 
 to work with more comfort ; and, lastly, it renders a once sickly country healthy both 
 for man and animals, and thereby promotes both the comfort and longevity of the 
 labourer, and the utility and profitableness of the cattle. Tlie profits of drainage 
 must vary with the nature of the soil ; but we do not know of any soil, capable 
 
ARTERIAL, OR MAIN DRAINAGE. 675 
 
 of cultivation at all, that will uot be benefited by it, if, at the same time, cultivated 
 with judgment. Some lands pay cent, per cent, per annum for draining, while others 
 do not give more than from 15 to 50 per cent, upon the outlay. One thing, however, 
 is certain — that we have no record of land having been injured by draiuing, if 
 properly done, or even of land that has not, to a greater or less extent, been benefited 
 l)v it. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 ARTERIAL, OR MAIN DRAINAGE. 
 
 The subject of Arterial Drainage has been a good deal discussed the last few years, 
 since the practice of under-draining has become established, it having been found that, 
 in a multitude of cases, the land cannot be effectually drained on account of the 
 obstructions existing in the rivers and streams throughout the country. These 
 obstructions are of various kinds, arising, to a considerable extent, from the beds of 
 rivers requiring to be lowered and straightened ; but cliielly from the existence of 
 water-mills, weirs, dams, and other artificial works, which, owing to the vested interests 
 claimed by the proprietors, could not hitherto be interfered with or removed, without 
 the intervention of an act of Parliament, the expense of which, heavy in all cases, might 
 be increased indefinitely by the opposition of parties concerned. It is estimated that 
 some millions of acres of the finest land in the kingdom are, by such obstruction.s, 
 kept in an unimproved state, uot producing more than half the crops of grass or corn 
 they otherwise would, and, in many instances, rendering whole districts unhealthy by 
 the constant presence of stagnant water. 
 
 In the session of Parliament of 1861, an act was passed for the express purpose of 
 enabling the owners of such lands " to remove mills, dams, weirs, and other impediments 
 ■which at present impede the upland waters in their passage to the main arteries or 
 outfalls, upon payment of due compensation." Two-thirds in extent of any injured 
 district may oblige the remaining one-third to join in the expense of getting rid of those 
 obstructions ; and where it is necessary to straighten and deepen old rivers or water- 
 courses, and to make new cuts, compulsory powers of purchasing land are given. 
 One-tenth of a district may originate the measure, and it requires more than one-tliird 
 to express dissent before the project can be rejected, if it is approved by the Enclosure 
 Commissioners. The bill consists of three parts, the two first of which embrace district 
 drainage, as stated above. The third jjart refers to outfall works, such as easements for 
 the passage of drainage-waters through the land of lower owners, and the deepening 
 and straightening of water-courses. Thus, the owner of land lying high can carry his 
 drainage-water through his neighbour's land below, and, with the consent of the 
 justices, deepen the water-courses, or even cut new ones, if necessary. This right, 
 however, is liable to an opposition which, if the opponents are litigious, may be rendered 
 very expensive; the fear alone of wliich will doubtless deter many persons from 
 
 xx2 
 
676 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 undertaking a measure of tlie kind. This is considered to have been an oversight 
 of the framers of the bill, whieh throws all the expense of the opposition upon the party 
 proposing the measure, and also where it is adopted and carried into effect, whatever it 
 may cost, although the party through whose land the water-course passes may be as 
 much, or even more, benefited than tlie original proposer. It is most probable that 
 these defects iu the bill will be remedied at an early period, so as to give it the fullest 
 scope, and enable the owners and occupiers of land to improve it by drainage, and thus 
 increase the produce. 
 
 It is impossible to estimate the quantity of land that is thus, in a manner, water- 
 logged by obstructions; but in some parts of the country, where there are a great 
 number of small streams springing from the high grounds, there are small mills almost 
 in. every mile of the water-course. It is not only the land lying immediately on the 
 banks of a river that is injured by the obstruction of a mill, the adjoining upland arable 
 fields are frequently prevented from being effectuallv drained by the same causes. 
 This is especially the case where a tract of laud belonging to a miller intervenes 
 between the property whose owner desires to under-drain and the river. In such 
 instances it was impossible for the improvement to take place; for such was the jealousy 
 of the miller with respect to his vested rights over the water-course, that lie would 
 refuse all arrangement for the conveyance of the drainage-water through his propertj', 
 because it must have its outlet below the mill^ and thus be lost to the mill-head. This, 
 indeed, is a matter of very frequent occurrence, for it is always an object of considerable 
 importance for a miller to possess land adjoining the stream, in order to secure the flow 
 of the water-courses from the adjoining land, and prevent it, as far as possible, from being 
 alienated and carried below the mill. Water millers generally consider the uplands as the 
 reservoirs of their sti'eams, and look upon every acre of land drained as so much taken 
 from their just rights ; they therefore streimously oppose any infringement upon their 
 claim to the entire water-way as an attack upon their private property. 
 
 With regard to the effect of arterial drainage, both upon the land and the mills, we 
 are not without decisive evidence that while the one is greatly increased in value, the 
 other frequently receives a collateral benefit. We shall first state the case of Ireland, for 
 the arterial drainage of which a general act of Parliament was passed a few years back, 
 and to a certain extent was carried out under the superintendence of the Commissioners 
 of Public Works. The rivers operated upon pass through the counties of Westmeath, 
 King's County, Clare, Galway, Limerick, Meath, Cavan, Longford, Leitrim, and 
 Roscommon ; and it is estimated that, with their tributaries, they extend nearly 
 400 miles, and that the outlets provided for the escape of the water, relieved the 
 catchment-basins over an area of 7,000,000 acres, a considerable portion of whieh was 
 laid dry enough for cultivation, and the under-drainage of the remainder was for the 
 first time rendered possible. Up to the year 1852 there had been effectually drained 
 332,000 acres, of which 192,000 were previously constantly liable to be flooded after 
 heavy rain, and a considerable portion was actually under water. Thus, in a very few 
 years, 11,000 square miles, or nearly one-third of the entire area of Ireland, was 
 rendered capable of improvement, and a large extent of land was actually brought under 
 immediate and highly-profitable cultivation at an expense of £1,370,760 sterling, or an 
 average of .€4 2s. Gd. per acre, including the charge of building bridges, weirs, masonry, 
 the purchase of mills for removal, and the improving the water-power of those that were 
 
ARTERIAL, OR MAIN DRAINAGE. 677 
 
 allowed to remain. Thus, in the district of Dunkellin, four mills, with their buildings and 
 machinery, were removed, and, with their sites, were paid for at a valuation, whilst 
 several others had their mill-races lowered, which required the sites and water-wheels 
 also to be lowered. In such cases, the tail-stream was deepened more than the dam, in 
 order to increase the fall, and with it, the water-power. The drainage of the Dunkellin 
 district, including the purchase, &c., of the mills, did not average more than £2 16s. Gd. 
 per acre. 
 
 But the most successful case was that of the Castlenode and Strokestown dis- 
 trict, a large portion of which was so saturated witli water and worthless, that the 
 tenants had, by tacit permission, held it for sixty years rent free, by which, in fact, they 
 had become proprieto7-s-in-fee. So completely and beneficially was the drainage of the 
 district effected, that the land has since let readily, on Con-acre, at £6 10s. per acre. 
 In the neighbourhood of Longford, also, a similar tract of water-logged country was 
 perfectly drained, so that the ina'ease of the crops, the very first year, paid the whole 
 expense. The success of the measure in Ireland may be ascribed to its being executed 
 under a general act of Parliament, the entire law-costs for 122 districts amounting 
 to little more than £1,000 ; whereas, if local acts had been obtained for each district, 
 it is probable that each would have cost nearly as much ; whilst it is a question whether 
 the work would have been executed so eflectually. 
 
 From the case of Ireland, we sliall turn to that of the "Wye and Derwent " 
 drainage in Yorkshire, for which a local act of Parliament was obtained a few years 
 since. Under this act 27,000 acres were improved at a public outlay of £30,000, two- 
 thirds of which sum, or £20,000, was paid to three millers for their water-power. The 
 Vale of Pickering was the district on which this was effected, and it covers an area of 
 160 square miles. It is traversed from its upper end by the rivers Wye and Derwent, 
 which, after a separate course of forty miles, form a junction at about the middle of the 
 valley. Each of these receives a number of tributaries, and after their junction, discharge 
 their waters into the Ouse, meeting the tidal water of the Humber about twenty-seven 
 miles below Malton, being thirty miles from their junction. Under the act, the mills 
 were removed, the shallows were lowered, the courses of the rivers were straightened, 
 and all the tributaries were opened and lowered, to give a full discharge for the water. 
 The late Mr. Pusey stated, that he has known one flood do more damage to the crops 
 and land of that valley, than the amount of whole sum expended on the works ; and that 
 when the fall of rain in 1852-3 took place, the water never rose to within five feet of 
 the former level of a high flood. 
 
 We have stated these cases for the purpose of showing that where the system of 
 artificial drainage has been carried out in a proper and economical manner, it has 
 been attended with the most beneficial results, and has given the greatest satisfaction 
 to both landowners and tenant-farmers. The latter case, although executed under a 
 local act, was not attended with an expense at all adequate to the benefit derived 
 from it. The general act of the session of 1861 will render a local act unnecessary, 
 which will materially reduce the expense of any future case of arterial drainage. 
 That such operations are needed throughout the country, is now acknowledged by 
 every person capable of understanding the subject. Nearly all the rivers of England 
 and Wales are encumbered with mills, and in some cou.nties they occur at very 
 short intervals. In the upper valley of the Nene there are thirty-three mills in a 
 
678 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 distance of sixty miles. On a small stream in Dorsetshire there are five mills in 
 a distance of four miles. On one in Norfolk there are four and a weir in three miles. 
 In Devonshire there are numerous small streams, with mills at very short distances, 
 wherever a sufficient fall can he obtained. Such, in fact, is the case with almost all 
 the rivers and streams throughout the country; and it would be an endless task to 
 enumerate the thousands of cases in which whole districts are prevented from improve- 
 ment and rendered nnhealthy by the obstructions to drainage created by mills and 
 other erections. 
 
 Although the damage by floods is less permanent, it is for the time more palpable 
 and more alarming. In the years 1847, 1818, 1852, and 1853, the damage inflicted l)y 
 land floods amounted almost, if not quite, to as much as the arterial drainage of the 
 whole kingdom would amount to, a great part of which would have been saved to the 
 country had the system Ijeen previously carried into effect. Kot only was property to 
 the value of millions sterling actually destroyed in each of those years, by the rising 
 of the water in the rivers, and the flooding of the lands on their banks, but the loss of 
 crops, both from inability to sow the land, and deficiency of crop in those which were 
 sown amounted, bj'^ estimation, to 10,000,000 quarters of wheat in 1853 alone; and it 
 was only those lands that were thoi'ough drained, and had a good outfall for the water, 
 that were successfully sown that season. Nor was the injury to public health less severe 
 and alarming. In those parts of the country where the water stagnated for want of 
 drainage, epidemic disease fearfully prevailed. That the cause we have assigned for this 
 is the true one, no medical man will deny. An instance of the effect of drainage on 
 health occurred a few years since on the Duke of Bedford's property at Cople. Owing 
 to the swampy condition of the land, typhus fever was almost constantly prevalent in 
 the village. The Duke directed a brook which ran through it to be straightened and 
 deepened, which drained the adjoining land of the stagnant water. The result was that 
 in the following eight years only one case of fi/phus occurred in the parish. 
 
 Now that an act of Parliament has passed to meet these evils we may expect that, 
 eventually, as soon as the landed interest becomes alive to the extent of the injury 
 annually sustained, the system of arterial drainage will be universally carried out, and 
 all obstructions to the free outfall of the drainage waters removed. The subject has 
 undergone so much discussion of late that it cannot but be understood. Those cases in 
 which it has been adopted, with one exception, have succeeded beyond expectation, and 
 have more than repaid the outlay. On the other hand, the losses sustained the last 
 sixteen or eighteen years by floods and excessive moisture, owing to the stoppage of the 
 course of rivers and brooks, have been fearful. Could they be accui-ately estimated, the 
 amount would be found to be sufficient to pay the expense of regulating every river in 
 the kingdom twice over. In the year 1852-3, the destruction of agricultural produce, 
 both animal and vegetable, amounted to many millions sterling, and the loss of the 
 succeeding crop of wheat, from inability to sow the land, occasioned an outlay of at least 
 £25,000,000 sterling to the country. A great proportion of the loss in either of these 
 modes would have been avoided had an arterial system of drainage been previously 
 carried out. 
 
 B-iit the injury arising from the damming up of the rivers is not confined to the 
 actual and occasional destruction of crops. The liindrancc it causes to mulcr-draining 
 extends to millions of acres, which are thereby rendered only half productive, and certainly 
 
FENCING. • 679 
 
 unhealthy, hotli to man aud beast. The injury sustained by this is beyond the reach 
 of cakulatioii ; but it is both large and permanent, and thus becomes one of the most 
 important parts of the subject. Looking, in fact, at the question in whichever way we 
 may, it appears impossible that it should remain much longer in abeyance ; for until it 
 is seriously and generally taken up by the landed interest, the lands of England will 
 never yield their maximum of produce, nor can the necessary permanent improvements 
 be effected. " The farmer," says a late writer, " may design deep draining, the sanitary 
 reformer attempt to remove miasmata, the machine may pour forth its countless pipes 
 and tiles, and the national loans may contribute to putting them into the ground ; but 
 all is of little use imless you pi-ocure previously a sufficient outfall." 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 FENCING. 
 
 This section carries ns back to the period when the land was divided into Infield and 
 Ou/field — the first being that part of an estate lying round the manor-house ; the last, 
 that which was at a distance. The infield land, which usually received all the manure 
 of the farm-yard, was fenced in, either with live hedges or stone walls, whilst the outfield 
 was without any fences. Being let to serfs, it was divided by balks of grass-land, and 
 was generally common to all the free or copyholders of the parish when the crops were 
 harvested. The live fences round the infield land were allowed to grow high and broad, 
 so as to overshadow a considerable portion of the land ; and had, besides, wide grass 
 borders on each side, the harbour of weeds and vermin of every kind. They generally 
 consisted of whitethorn, blackthorn, holly, furze, broom, beech, witch elm, and other 
 low-growing shrubs and trees, with oaks and other large trees at intervals. The fields 
 were generally small enclosures, the nearest to the house being pastures for the cows 
 kept on the farm. We may trace the origin of the Ring-fence to this period, it being 
 necessary to protect the infield land, constituting the domain, from the cattle of the 
 outfield' tenants after the crops were taken ott\ The stone, or dead, fences were 
 generally about 5 or 6 feet high, and built of round pebbles, where these could be 
 obtained, but sometimes of brick or hewn stone, if a quarry existed on the estate. In 
 Ireland, the domains of the gentry are still surrounded with stone walls 8 or 9 feet 
 high, built at a period of history when such a safeguard to the mansion was more 
 required than it now is. 
 
 The outfield lands remained secondary in point of importance to the proprietors of 
 estates until a lute period of the last century, when a desire for their inclosure began 
 to be manifested amongst the proprietors. In the acts of Parliament obtained for the 
 purpose, the common lands were included, and the whole, both of this and the Lammas, 
 or half-year land, being thrown into one mass, were divided according to the claims of 
 each individual. Fences were raised roiind them, and these generallj^ consisted, as at 
 present, of hedge and ditch, with a row of whitethorn (or hawthorn) on the breast of the 
 
680 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 bank of earth. The fault of the old fences was, that they were planted too high up the 
 bankj which, itself, was unnecessarily so. This occasioned the mould in time to fall 
 away from the roots, especially if the land was infested witli rabbits and other burrowing 
 vermin. We may still see vestiges of the ancient fences in some of the backward 
 counties of England, having borders covered with scrub, in some cases reaching 5 or 
 6 yards into the field. Such are to be found in Sussex, Devonshire, and other parts, 
 and are an indication of the need of the schoolmaster amongst either the owners or the 
 tenants of the land. 
 
 Widely different ideas now prevail on the subject. The construction of modern 
 fences is managed with the design of admitting, instead of excluding, light and air into 
 the field. With this view the bank of earth is raised with a slope from the top of not 
 more than 3 feet, surmounted with a dead hedge of bush-thorns, or of posts and rails. 
 The live fence is always kept clipped to the height of the bank, and thus offers no 
 obstruction to the current of air. We shall go more into a description of the mode of 
 raising these fences, which, however, vary in the shrubs employed in their construction. 
 
 If it is intended to raise new fences on a farm to any extent, it is the cheapest plan 
 to grow the whitethorn jilants (or whatever is used) on the spot, it being expensive to 
 purchase them. In this case, procure the seed of a respectable seedsman ; or gather 
 them on the estate, which is better. When you have got a sufficient quantity of the 
 haws, lay them on a heap 2 feet high, with some fine rich loam, and cover them over 
 with the same, in a similar manner as you would a hoard of potatoes, beating the 
 mould on the face of the heajt hard and smooth, to prevent the wet from getting in. 
 They must be left thus until the spring, that the fleshy part of the haws may decay and 
 mix with the loam. 
 
 The seeds of the whitethorn {Crataegus oxycantha) will not vegetate the first spring, 
 and must therefore be kept until the next. Some people give the haws to their pigs or 
 fowls, who digest the soft part, and void the seed whole. The excrement is then 
 carefully saved, and laid on a heap, to become thoroughly i-otten, when it is mixed with 
 fine mould, ready to be sown. 
 
 Select a rich loam, perfectly clean and well pulverised. Draw drills in it with a hoe, 
 3 or 4 inches deep and 6 inches asunder. In these put the seed at the rate of half 
 a peck of seed with the mould to every 20 yards. As soon as tlie plants are above 
 ground, hoe the ground, both to loosen it and to destroy the weeds. The next time 
 they must be hand-weeded by women and girls, and thus kept clean througliout the 
 summer. In the following spring prepare another piece of rich ground, and transplant 
 them into it before they begin to show the buds. In this case, tliey must be planted 
 from 7 to 9 inches asunder, and the same distance between the rows. Lord Kames 
 recommends not planting the quick until it is five years old, having been kept trimmed 
 yearh', to strengthen and render tlic plants bushy. But it is difficult to purchase plants 
 of that age, and superior treatment on the seed-bed will bring them forwaid in four 
 years, fit for planting. 
 
 In trimming the l)anks of old hedges, there arc frequently a great number of roots 
 of the wliitethorn cut oft' with the spade. These, if planted, will throw out shoots in 
 the spring, and produce as good fences as seedling plants. Any one, by examining the 
 back of a quickset hedge that has been cut or pared down, may see the ends of roots 
 thus sprouting in the following summer; and if permitted to remain, they will produce a 
 
FENCING. 681 
 
 second fence. If not wanted^ or not sufficiently numerouSj for a new fence, tliey will be 
 very useful in repairing the breaches in the old ones. 
 
 Having procured your whitethorn plants, the first tiling is to arrange the direction 
 of the fences, supposing the laud is to be laid out anew. It is desirable, on every 
 account, that they sliould run pai-allel east and west with the cross fences at riglit 
 angles with them ; tliat is, north and south. The ridges will of course be in line 
 with the cross fences, north and south, in order to receive the benefit of tlie sun on 
 both sides. 
 
 There are several ways of forming tlie hedges and planting the live fence. Some 
 plant them on the levelled surface of a low bank, having a shallow ditcli on each side, 
 and the quick protected by a double row of posts and rails from the cattle and sheep ; 
 others raise a bank, and plant the quick on the face, a short distance above the level 
 ground, surmounting the bank vcith a dead hedge of thorns, which are also placed on 
 the face of the bank, over the young plants, in a rough manner, to keep sheeji, &e., from 
 cropping them. These are the most common and approved methods at present 
 practised of raising live fences, although Forsyth reckons no less than forty-three kinds 
 of live and dead fences, dividing them into simple and compound fences. We shall 
 describe the above two methods as at present practised.* 
 
 1st. The direction of the new fence being determined on, the line should be staked 
 out, both in its lengtli and width. If the land is under grass, and there is time for it, 
 a previous summer fallowing should be given it, in order to have the flag well rotted 
 and the land deeply pulverised. It has been usual to lay the young plants upon 
 the upturned flag, without any previous preparation; but this plan has latterly been 
 abandoned, as tending to encourage the growth of grass and weeds amongst them, 
 which occasions both trouble and expense afterwards. Some rotten dung should be 
 trenched in along the line of the intended planting, which will greatly encourage the sets. 
 Another improvement has recently been introduced in the construction of live fences, 
 namely, laying in a drain of li-inch pipes and collars, at the depth of •!• feet, immediately 
 wider the line in which the plants are to be put in. This plan was successfully carried 
 out hy Mr. Tait, land steward to the Right Hon. Sir George Clerk, of Penicuik, Bart. 
 The field had been previously drained 4 feet deep, and 9 yards between the drains ; and 
 the hedge drain was dug half way between the field drains. To test the efficiency 
 of the plan, one lialf the line of fence was trenched 5 feet wide without a drain. A bed 
 for the plants was prepared, and they were put in on the 12th of April, 1858, and the 
 following November were cut down to the height of from 5 to 6 inches. The following 
 October, the difference between the drained and undrained portions, in length and 
 thickness of the shoots, was very considerable, tlie former being by far the strongest 
 and longest, and having sent out shoots from the bottom to the top of the stem, whilst 
 those of the latter all sprung from the top. It should be stated tliat the drained part 
 was planted on the level, or nearly so, whilst the undrained was made oir the old plan of 
 hedge and ditch ; so the expense per rod of this latter was the greatest, the drained 
 
 * Stephens stales that in Norfolk they raise a bank S feet high from the b.jttcm of the ditch, and plant the 
 whitethorn on the top/ Being an old Norfolk farmer, I can slate that this is not now the case, and Ihat I have never 
 seen a modern fence iu that county raised in that absurd manner, nor the quick planted on the top, except as I am abont 
 to describe. It was certainly the practice to make the fences high in Norfolk in Arthur Young's lime, whtn the breed of 
 sheep peculiar to that county was generally kept, as nothing but a 5-feet live fence would stop them. Since that breed 
 of sheep has disappeared the high fences have given place to low ones, as will be described. — S. C. 
 
6S-3 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 being 2*. lid-, and the undrained 2s. 5hcl. per rod. Mr. Tait remarks : " In summlug 
 up tlie advantages of this method^ it ma}- be reasonably expected that the plant will 
 have a more equal supply of moisture. Even in a dry season, the air passing up the 
 pipe, and acting with that of the atmosphere above, will cause moisture to circulate 
 through the soil by capillary attraction. The roots, by the trenching, have an increased 
 space to seek for nourishment. Moreover, a saving, as has been already stated, is 
 obtained in the drainage of the field, and less ground occupied than by the old method 
 of hedge and ditch. From the equalisation of temperature thus produced in the soil, 
 the plant will be more vigorous in the spring, and better enabled to send out strong 
 and healthy shoots." We have given the above statement as worthy of the attention of 
 the reader, being another proof of the successful applicability of draining for every kind 
 of plant, whether on the field, the fence, or the forest. 
 
 Having prepared the land by previous trenching, &e., a bed should be raised about 
 a foot high, and 2 feet wide on the top. On this plant a double row of whitethorn sets, 
 cutting them down to about 6 inches from the root with a sharp knife with a hooked 
 blade, similar to the gardener's pruning-knife. They must be protected with posts and 
 rails on each side, and kept perfectly clean and free from weeds. The soil on each side 
 may be pared down to the bank and sown with grass seeds (if the field is in grass), so 
 that no land is lost except that on whicli the whitethorn is planted. These should be 
 kept clipped and trimmed annually, which causes them to grow thick and impene- 
 trable to cattle or sheep, whilst the hedge presents little obstruction to the free 
 circulation of air. The ditch, also, is not required where the land is thorough 
 drained. 
 
 2nd. The "hedge and ditch" fence is the most common in England. The line of 
 the proposed fence should be prepared for this, as well, and in the same manner, as for 
 the former, namely, by deep trenching and manuring. The width of the ditch should 
 be set out with a line on an iron reel, and marked with the spade. One spit of earth is 
 then dug a few inches from the line, and laid on the part that is to form the bank. 
 This is to be the bed for the plants, and should be beaten smooth in front, and sloped 
 down to an angle of about 45° with the surface of the soil under the bank. The plants 
 having been cut down to about G inches, must then be laid on the moixld, with the roots 
 somewhat lower than the stems. The earth from the ditch is then thrown upon the 
 hank, the face of which is from time to time beaten smooth and luird. The same angle 
 at which the bank is raisedis preserved in sinking the ditch on eitlicr side, the bottom 
 being kept about a foot wide, and each side cut sraootli down. When the face of the 
 bank is raised the proper height, that is, from 2 feet G inches to 3 feet, it must be 
 backed up with tlie loose mould that is fallen over, and a few spadesful of earth from 
 the soil at the foot. Tiic whole is usually surmounted by a dead licdge of thorns or 
 other material, cut about 2 feet long, and banked in with the mould at the back. 
 Sometimes a double row of whitethorn is planted on these hedges as well as on the 
 former ones. In that case, the second row must be laid in about G inches above the 
 first row. It is essential to the future success of this description of fence that it should 
 be kept perfectly clear from weeds, and that both the face and the back should be 
 looked to annually, that any breaches may be repaired, where made by game or cattle, 
 or the reckless mischief of the huntsman. It is becoming more and more the practice 
 to keep hedges of all descriptions low by trimming them with tlir shrars; by which means. 
 
FENCING. 683 
 
 if they are carefully attended to the first few years, they IjCPvome pfrfectly impenetrable 
 to cattle, and almost to hares. Besides, by keeping them low, the air circulates more 
 freely, to the benefit of vegetation. 
 
 Many farmers plant the quick as close as 4 inches from plant to plant. This is 
 much too near, and 9 or 12 inches will secure a better and more durable fence. When 
 planted closer, a great nximber die out after a few years, irregularly, so that ugly 
 breaclies appear in the fence. The late ]\Ir. Bakewell gave each plant 18 inches, and 
 by carefully attending to them afterwards, never failed to obtain a good and durable 
 fence. The quick .should be cut down to about 1 foot the fourth year, which will cause 
 it to throw out abundance of lateral shoots, foi'ming a good outside surface for the 
 shears. It is the common practice to plant timber trees in the hedges, at short 
 distances ; and this is an excellent plan for the landlord, but a bad one for the tenant, at 
 whose expense (in produce) the trees are supported. Ash-trees, especially, are exceedingly 
 injurious. Their roots spread out near the surface to a great distance from the stem, 
 and may be traced in a semicircle of barrenness as far as they extend. The barberry 
 bush, too, should be sedulously excluded from fences ; for, whatever naturalists may 
 say against the theory, the fact of their deleterious influence on cereal and other 
 crops, but especially wheat, is undeniable, and speaks for itself wherever the barberry 
 makes its appearance.* Marshall, perhaps, made the closest and most conclusive 
 investigation of the subject of any writer; and although he does not profess to 
 give his own opinion of the cause, he states facts enough to deter any person from 
 knowingly planting the barberry in a hedge, although in other respects it iorms an 
 admirable fence. f 
 
 3rd. The Ha-ha is a sunken live fence, having a facing of stone or brick, perpen- 
 dicularly built, whilst the other side is in the sloping position. The quick is planted 
 in a double row at the bottom of the ditch, which is about 3 feet in depth, 5 feet wide 
 at top, and 2 feet or 2 feet 6 inches at bottom. In Scotland, these kind of fences are 
 constructed without any live fences. In England, they are chiefly used in parks and 
 lawns, or pleasure-grounds near the house, in order that the fence should form no 
 
 ' Jlarsliall makes tlie following observations on this subject : — " It has long been considered as one of the first of 
 vulgar errors among husbandmen that the barberry plant has a pernicious quality (or rather a mysterious power) 
 of blighting wheat which grows near it. This idea, whether it be erroneous or founded oa fact, is nowhere more strongly 
 rooted than among the Norfolk farmers, one of whojn mentioning, with a serious countenance, an instance of this malady, 
 I very fashionably laughed at him. He, however, stood firm, and |i(.rai--ted in his being in the right, iutimating that, so 
 far from being led from the cause to the effect, he was, in the reverse, led from the effect to the cause; for, obser\ing a 
 stripe of blasted wheat across his close, he traced it back to the hedge, thinking there to have found the enemy ; but being 
 disappointed, he crossed the lane iuto a garden on the opposite side of it, where he found a large barberry bush in the 
 direction in which he had looked for it. The mischief, according to his description, stretched away from this point across the 
 field of wheat, growing broader and fainter (like the tail of a comet) the farther it proceeded from its source. The effect was 
 carried to a greater distance than he had ever observed it before, owing, as he believed, to au opening in the orchard behind it, to 
 
 the south-west, forming a gut or channel for the wind." " Being desirous of ascertaining the fact, be it what it may, 
 
 I have inquired furiher among intelligent farmers concerning this subject. They are, to a man, decided in their opinion as 
 to the fajt, which appears to have been so long established in the miuds of principal farmers, that it is now difiicnlt to 
 ascertain it from observation, barberry plants having (of late years especially) been extirpated from hedges with the 
 utmost care and assiduity, &c." He then speaks of several cases related to him by trustworthy farmers of the blighting 
 effects of the barberry on wheat; and in a subsequent part of the minutes gives an account of an experiment he himself 
 made by planting a barberry bush in the middle of a large piece of wheat. The result was, au oval-shaped stripe of 
 blighted wheat round the bush, of a dark livid colour, obvious to persons riding along the road at a considerable distance. 
 The grain in this part was light, taking twenty-four to weigh down ten of the other grains, although the whole crop was 
 thin-bodied.— See vol. ii. of the " Rural Economy of Norfolk," min. 13 and 133. 
 
 t The writer has seen the effect equally remarkable on a farm on which he resided in Norfolk. 
 
684 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 obstruction to tlie continuity of the prospect, the quick being kept at a height below 
 tlie level for that purpose. 
 
 4tli. Ill light soils the furze, or wliin, is frequently used for a live fence, and 
 although liable to be killed by a severe frost, forms an excellent barrier against cattle, 
 as well as a shelter for sheep in winter. They grow faster than the whitethorn, but do 
 not last so long. They are either grown alone, to form a fence by themselves, or at the 
 back of a whitethorn hedge. In the first case, a bank is raised, 5 or 6 feet in breadth 
 at the top, with a ditch on each side. On the platform thus raised the whin seeds are 
 to be sown tolerably thick, and in two or three years will form a fence against any kind 
 of cattle or sheep. They require to be cut down at three years old, in which case it is 
 better to cut only one side, leaving the other standing until the first has grown again 
 sufficiently to form a fence. In light sandy or gravelly soils, exposed to the cold winds, 
 these fences form an admirable shelter for sheep, for which purpose they have long been 
 in use on the Highlands of Scotland. 
 
 5tli. Another plan practised in Scotland is to I'aise a conical mound, without any 
 ditch, and on the top to sow the whin seed. This is protected from the sheep the first 
 three or four years, after which the sheep may be allowed to crop the tips of the 
 branches ; and as they can get close to the hedge, it is an excellent shelter in cold 
 weather. The cropping of the young shoots is an advantage rather than an injury to 
 the plants, causing them to send out lateral shoots in abundance, Avliich, in their turn, 
 are cropped, so that the fence is constantly kept close and impervious. Forsyth 
 recommends French seed rather than English, and allows one pound to every forty rods 
 [oh yards each). In sowing them a drill should be opened with a spade about two-thirds 
 up the back of the bank, opening it wide with the tool. Put the seed into a quart 
 bottle, in the wooden stopper of which is a hole burnt smooth. Trickle the seed out of 
 this along the drill, covering it with a broom drawn gently along the mouth of the drill, 
 and closing it finally with the back of the spade, but not beating it hard, which would 
 retard the vegetation of the seed. 
 
 V\'e have known some cases in which English farmers, following the practice common 
 in France and other parts of the Continent, have planted apple, pear, and other fruit- 
 trees in the fences round their fields. These would certainly be more profitable than 
 timber-trees, if the practice was general. But they form, in cases so isolated, too 
 powerful a temptation to juvenile depredators to allow of much of the fruit being 
 reserved for the farmer. Nor does the injury stop there; for in stealing the fruit, — 
 which, by-the-bye, is never considered robbery, — the fences are broken down and 
 irreparably injured ; so that, unless the plan becomes as common as in France, it can 
 never be made to answer or be profitable, and we cannot, therefore, recommend it. 
 
 Gth. Stone fences are much used in mountainous and hilly countries, where it is 
 difficult to raise live fences on account of the loose crumbling nature of the soil. In 
 Scotland, where stone is abundant, there are different methods of raising them, the 
 most common of which, because the cheapest, is to put the stones together without any 
 cement, merely fitting them in with each other in the most exact manner their form 
 will allow. These should never be built of round stones,' as is sometimes practised in 
 Scotland, unless mortar is used to cement them. It is impossible, witiiout it, to form 
 a duniljle fence. But when built of irregular fiints, or stones from a quarry, and by the 
 hands of a skilful workman, they may be made to last many years. In Galloway, they 
 
FENCING. 685 
 
 cope such fences witli flat stones, laid edgeways across tlie top of the wall, and close 
 together. AVlien finished, one more stone is inserted, and beaten in with a wooden, 
 mallet, wliich keeps the whole tight together. In other parts they simply cover the top 
 with turf or mud ; but this plan is not equal to that described. All dry stone walls 
 should be broader at the base than at the top, and care shonld be taken to fit the stones 
 to each other as exactly as possible, which greatly adds to the strength of the fence. 
 
 7th. In the eastern counties, and other parts near the sea-coast, where round 
 pebbles are plentiful, these are used in building fences, as well as houses and churches ; 
 but they are always put together with mortar. They are also raised by degrees, that 
 is, a foot or so is laid the whole length of the wall, and allowed to remain until the 
 mortar is quite dry and hard, when another foot is added, and so on till the required 
 height is attained. AYere it not for this precaution, the weight of the stones would 
 bring the whole down. On the other hand, if a part only of its length should be ^'aised, 
 the probability would be that the wall would not properly join at the point of union, 
 and thus the whole would be endangered. These pebbles, if properly built up with 
 good mortar, are durable, as is evinced by the number of round Saxon towers to the 
 chm'ches of Norfolk and Suffolk, built entirely, or nearly so, of them.* Clay is 
 sometimes used instead of mortar as a cement, and if properly worked, it answers the 
 purpose, and is durable, but must be erected by degrees. "We have seen such fences 
 that have lasted upwards of half a century at least ; but good mortar is much 
 preferable. 
 
 8th. There are various methods of repairing or renewing live fences of whitethorn. 
 In Norfolk, the most common method is as follows:— The stubs of the whitethorn are 
 cut down " smack-smooth" to the bank in a slanting manner, and then all the grassj 
 weeds, and loose earth are carefully raked or scraped off the face of the bank, and 
 thrown aside on the land. The bank is then repaired from the bottom to the top with 
 fresh earth, dug from the ditch, keeping the butts of the whitethorns clear, so as not to 
 prevent or retard the young shoots in the spring. When the bank is made up the 
 proper height in front, the back must be completed, and a dead hedge set on the top, 
 the same as in forming a new hedge. The whitethorns acquire fresh vigour from the 
 fresh mould, and in two or three seasons will throw out an entirely new live fence. 
 If the stubs have died out or been destroyed by accident, young plants may be 
 substituted, but they do not always succeed, except they are laid in entirely new earth. 
 We have, however, found whitethorn stakes thrust into the bank sometimes take root 
 in a wet season, and fill up the gaps. 
 
 9th. Another method of repairing whitethorn fences is by plashing, which is 
 performed in the following manner ; — The bank is in the first instance made good 
 by fresh earth out of the ditch, the larger of the thorns having been cut out, and the 
 younger and more pliable of the branches left standing. Stakes are then driven into 
 the bank at the distance of 2 feet from each othei', and on a line with the live fence. 
 
 * A carious ^scovery was made at a parish churcli in Kent, tlie date of tlie subject of wliich is referred to the 
 Saxon Heptarchy. On the door of this church was a broad thin substauce, which had been painted over so many times 
 that it was impossible, from a cursory view, to judge what it was. An anticpiary, however, happening to go down to the 
 Tillage, noticed this patch on the door, and communicating his suspicions of its nature, obtained the rector's conseut to 
 take it off. Upon removing the paint, it was found (as he expected) to be a piece of human skin, and was, beyond a doubt, 
 that of one of the Danish invaders, nailed there according to the known practice of the Saxons, in that barbarous age, as a 
 warning to theii enemies. 
 
686 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODEEN. 
 
 The branches of whitethorn are then wattled between them, with such a proportion of 
 other brusliwood as is necessary iu order to make fhe hurdling sufficiently thick and 
 compact. It is finished off by wattling the top with hazel or other pliable and tough 
 branches, whicli, if well executed, will keep the Avhole tight and strong as long as the 
 stakes continue sound, when the live fence may be expected to be sufficiently grown to 
 protect the fields from the cattle. 
 
 10th. Very old live fences are seldom worth the repairing, and the best and 
 cheapest plan is to throw them down and raise new ones. In this case it will be 
 necessary to let the soil of the desti'oyed fence remain one season to consolidate, as no 
 young whitethorn or other plant would grow in the exhausted and impoverished earth 
 of an old bank, without its being fallowed. The old stubs, therefore, being grubbed up, 
 the bank should be thrown down and levelled with the field, which, being done in the 
 spring' must remain to the following spring, when the new hedge may be successfully 
 raised. The firewood from the old fence will generally be sufficient to pay the expense 
 of tbrowing down, whilst that of raising the new one will not so greatly exceed the cost of 
 repairing the old as to make the difference a material object in point of economy. On the 
 other hand, the satisfaction of having a good young fence instead of a broken defective 
 old one, is a material consideration with a farmer who wishes to see his farm complete. 
 In fact, the landlord himself ought, at the beginning of a lease, to bear the expense of 
 putting the fences into repair or renewing them when necessary, although, from the 
 great competition for farms, this is seldom insisted upou. 
 
 11th. In raising new fences in lieu of old ones, if the latter are crooked, it will be 
 bettev not to adhere to the same course, but to run the new one in a straight line from 
 end to end. In some cases this would cause a material deviation from the old line, 
 and probably leave many timber or other trees standing out into the field. These 
 cainiot be cut down by a tenant without the consent of the landlord ; at the same time 
 they form such an obstruction to the tillage of the field, and do so much injury to the 
 crops, that no landlord who wishes for or considts the welfare of his tenant, would object 
 to their being cut down, although he might stipulate for the planting of others on 
 the new fence. 
 
 12tli. If a young whitethorn fence grows irregularly, or gets stunted after four or 
 five years, whether from neglect or any other cause, the best plan is to cut it down 
 at once, and, if possible, to insert some rotten dung into the bank above the sets. This 
 will give them a stronger start in the spring following, and they will soon exceed the 
 height and thickness they had before cutting down. "We have seen cases in which the 
 shoots of the first year have reached 4 or 5 feet, with many lateral shoots at bottom, 
 forming a good foundation for an impenetrable fence in two or three seasons. 
 
 13th. !Mr. Morton recommends raising new fences of whitethorn in the autumn ; and 
 if we could ensure a mild winter it might be desirable to do so; but in onr variable 
 and often cold climate, the spring (say February) appears the best time to conduct the 
 operation, as the young plants will then want no protection, nor will the bank itself sufl'er 
 dilapidation from the winter's rain and frost before the young quicks have taken a good 
 hold of the soil. A heavy fall of snow, too, is apt to break down the face of a newly- 
 made fence, leaving the roots of the fresh-planted quick exposed to the changes of 
 temperature, if not made good immediately the snow has melted. Hedging in the 
 spring is seldom attended with these incouveuieuces ; and if the bank has been 
 
FENCING. 687 
 
 manured, and strong plants selected, the latter will have taken so firm a hold by the 
 next winter, and the bank itself have become so cousolidatedj that the atmospheric 
 changes will have no, or much less, influence over them. The plants themselves will 
 have lost nothing by the delay in regard to growth ; but will, on the contrary, have 
 acquired greater strsngth of root by being left four months longer in their native soil, 
 the well-known process of all kinds of vegetation during winter ; which is wholly lost 
 by planting in the autumn, as the newly-planted quick lie perfectly quiescent until the 
 spring. 
 
 14th. In Devonshire a different mode of planting live fences is pursued. Two 
 walls are built a few feet from each other, and the interval is filled up with earth, on 
 which is planted the whitethorn, or whatever other plant is used. In other cases a 
 stone wall, 2| feet high, is built on the top of the bank of earth thrown out of the ditch, 
 having the quick planted in front of it, the wall being surmounted with a turf coping. 
 In others, holes are left in a stone wall, built 3 feet high on the bare ground, the bank 
 being raised at the back. The whitethorn is planted so that the stems protrude 
 through the holes, which are about 2 feet from the ground. As the thorns grow, it is 
 supposed that they protect the wall above them from falling ; but it is more likely that, 
 before they become strong enough to aflbrd any support, the stones may have slipped 
 and borne down the plants, and thus irremediably injured the fence. Other plans, 
 equally or more fallacious, for erecting fences of part stone and part whitethorn are 
 practised where stone is cheap ; but it would seem to be an unnecessary expense to 
 unite the two, when the stone wall alone, if properly raised, is sufficient for all the 
 purposes of a fence. 
 
 15th. Other plants besides the hawthorn are used in raising fences, the best of which 
 are the holly, the blackthorn, the beech, the crab, the hornbeam, &c. The holly {Ilex 
 aquifolium) is a slow-growing shrub, but, if carefully attended to, makes in a few years 
 an impenetrable fence. They are the most expensive of any plant, requiring to be kept 
 on -the seed-bed two years ; then planted in a nursery-bed four more, and then again 
 transplanted for two years more, before they are strong enough to be planted out for a 
 fence. The ground must be trenched and manured along the line of the proposed fence, 
 and the soil rendered as fine as possible. Mark out the groimd with a garden line, 
 and with a spade open a hole large enough to receive the roots of the plant. Step 
 backwards, and open another hole at 1 foot distance from the first, using the second 
 spadeful of earth to cover the first plant. In this way, proceed backward until the 
 whole line is finished. Then tread them carefully firm and upright. The whole line 
 must be protected with a double post-and-rail fence, until it is high enough to form 
 a fence, when the dead fence may be removed. The jjlants should be kept clear from 
 weeds, and no pruning allowed the two first seasons ; after which any irregidar shoots 
 may be trimmed off, but the leading shoots must be left to reach the required height 
 before they are touched. July is the best month for trimming the holly with the 
 shears, as the after-shoots cover the blemishes the tool has made in the foliage. The 
 first trimming sho\ild be done with a gardener's pruning-kuife, as there Mill be few 
 shoots to cut off, and the knife makes no blemishes, nor takes off more than is requisite 
 to render the fence level. If the plants have been stunted by neglect or a dry season, 
 the first year of planting, it will be the best way to cut them down to the ground, as 
 they will then spriag up strong again, and make much greater progress than if they 
 
G88 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 were left to recover from their stunted condition. The holly hedge may be trimmed 
 into any desired shape ; and it was formerly the custom, near the old manor-houses, 
 to cut them into all kinds of fantastical forms, such as peacocks, men and women, 
 fountains, vases, &c. &c., some of which may still be seen in secluded situations where 
 the residents make a point of keepiug up all the old traditions and practices of the manor. 
 The holly hedge, being planted on the level ground, takes up less room than any other, if 
 kept properly trimmed, and forms the most durable and effective fence. It is, however, 
 chiefly confined, in its use, to the park, pleasure-ground, and garden, on account of the 
 slowness of its growth and the expense attending its first ten or twelve years. It is, 
 notwithstanding, frequently mixed with the hawthorn in new fences, and makes a 
 pleasing variety in their appearance. No shrub is equal to it, either in durability, 
 closeness of texture, appearance, or safety from injury. No animal will eat it, nor, 
 when well trimmed, be able to penetrate it ; while it affords them admirable shelter from 
 the storm at all seasons of the year. 
 
 16th. In raising the plants of holly from seed, the berries should be gathered ia 
 December, and laid in a heap for the fleshy part to rot, turning them often, for fifteen 
 months ; after which, iu April, they should be sown in a light soil, free from stones, and 
 well broken and manured. The drills should be 4 inches apart, and the seed being 
 dribbled in, covered with about half an inch of light earth. It should be protected from 
 the sun by some light branches of the spruce fir, and carefully cleared of Aveeds, during 
 the two years the plants remain in the seed-bed. The subsequent treatment we have 
 already described. The best months for transplanting the holly are May, August, and 
 September, and this applies as well to other evergreen shrubs as to the holly. This 
 plant loves a moist soil, but will thrive in almost any kind of earth if its early stages of 
 growth are attended to. 
 
 l~th. The blackthorn {Pruiius spinosa) is less used than formerly iu farm hedges; 
 nevertheless, it forms a close and durable fence, although less woody than the whitethorn. 
 Its roots and ofF-sets also burrow under the headlands, and cause a considerable deal of 
 trouble to eradicate and keep them under. If, however, cultivated plants are used, there 
 is less of this tendency to throw out suckers than if those taken from woods and coppices 
 are used, which are generally suckers themselves. The blackthorn is useful in filling 
 up gaps and breaches in the whitethorn fences, as it readily takes root in the old bank, 
 and will soon repair the fence. 
 
 The sloes of the blackthorn should be gathered in October, and laid in a heap till 
 the spring, when the outside will have decayed, and the stones may be sown in March 
 or April. When the young plants appear, they must be kept free from weeds, and the 
 first spring after, planted out. They will be ready for laying in the fence the second 
 vcar, as they strike a much longer root downward than the whitethorn, and woidd be 
 liable to injury if left iu the nursery longer. Wiien removed they should be drawn out 
 tenderly, in order not, in the first instance, to break the ground, or, in the second, the 
 tap root. Many of the seeds which did not vegetate with the first growth, come up after 
 it is removed, and produce a second crop. 
 
 18th. The beech [Fagus sijlvatica) forms an excellent fence, and is too little 
 thought of by the husbandman. Although not an evergreen, it retains its dry leaves 
 until late in the spring, and therefore affords excellent shelter for cattle. It may be trained 
 as high as 12 or 15 feet, and by keeping the sides clipped, can Uc kept at 3 feet of 
 
FENCING. 689 
 
 hreadtli throughout. The becch-niast should be collectetl whcu tlicy fall from the trees, 
 wliicli is a proof of their being ripe. As they will vegetate the first spriug, they should 
 be kept in a chamber until February, when, a bed having been prepared, they should be 
 sown in drills, aud covered an inch thick with mould. AVhen they appear above-ground 
 they uuist be kept free from weeds. The following November they may be transplanted 
 into the nursery bed in rows IG inches apart, and the plants 1 inches asunder in 
 the rows. The tops should be cut off, in order to make thcra throw out lateral shoots 
 at bottom. They may remain in the nursery bed two jcars, after whicli, if required, 
 they are ready for the permanent fence, being about 3 feet in height if tliey have 
 thriven as they ought. If they are not wanted, tliey will be the better for remaining a 
 year or two longer to acquire more strength. 
 
 AVhcn wanted for a fence tlie ground should be marked out, and dug 2 to 3 feet 
 in width, and if trenched the same depth, the better. The plants should be carefully 
 set in 1 foot asunder, either upright, or crossing each other at an angle of 45°, so as 
 to form squares with their stems. The upright position, however, is the most natural, 
 and will probably fill up the fence faster than on the other plan. They should be 
 trimmed the first year with the knife, as they will make but little wood. After that, the 
 shears will come into use, as it will be requisite to make them assume the proper shape. 
 If a fence of limited width is required, the branches must be cut back to 6 or 8 inches 
 of the stems in front, leaving the side branches to fill up the spaces between the stems. 
 July is tlie best mouth for this work, as they will then have time to send out shoots and 
 buds before the season is over. The beech hedge grows fast, and, if attentled to, in a 
 few years makes a thick close fence against all animals, requiring neither bank nor 
 ditch for its security. It is at present, however, confined in its use chiefly to the garden 
 and pleasure-ground J but it might safely be extended to the field, and •nmild prove 
 more useful aud economical than the hedgc-and-ditch fence, taking up less than half the 
 room, and affording better shelter to the animals of the farm. 
 
 In fact, since the practice of laud drainage lias come so much under discussion, it 
 has become a serious question whether the ditches might not, in all cases where the land 
 is drained, be wholly dispensed v>ith. It is certain that in most instances they aflbrd 
 no outlet for the water; and even when they do so, their infiuence extends but a short 
 way into the field, their depth not giving them a very great range of operation. liven 
 in land that is drained, and where the ends of the drains lead the water into the ditch at 
 the outfall, a 2-inch pipe will answer the purpose equally well, laid at the bottom, aud 
 the ditch filled up. Generally speaking, whether in drained or undrained land, the ditch 
 of a live hedge is only of use to protect the fence from the cattle ; and this may be 
 cft'ected with a post-aud-rail fence, the live hedge being planted on the flat. A great 
 deal, however, has to be done before such a change in the mode of fencing on the 
 farm can be adopted; and we can only remark, that «hcre it has been so, it has been 
 found more economical and profitable than the contrary practice. 
 
 The hornbeam {Carjiinus betulus) is a tree sometimes used for a hedge, but much 
 less so than formerly. It is a slow-growing plant, and requires a loam or clay soil to 
 make any progress at all. It is hardy, and bears pruning well, but it does not afford 
 either shelter for, or protection against, cattle, as the beech does. The hornbeam is 
 more used in Germany than in England, and wliere they are accustomed to its culture, 
 they procure excellent fences of it. The seeds, wliich ripen in October, may be sown. 
 
 Y Y 
 
690 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the same autumn ; or, if kept till the spring, it should be in sand ; after which they may 
 be treated as the beech seeds and plants. The seeds, however, do not require to be 
 covered with mould more than half an inch. ]jike the beech, it preserves its dead leaves 
 throughout the winter, not shedding them till the new foliage makes its appearance. It 
 was much in use in ancient times for espalier hedges, as it will bear to be clii^ped into 
 any form. It is easily propagated by layers, and this is the best mode when it is intended 
 for fences ; but for timber it should always be raised from seed. The wood is much 
 valued in France and Germany, being hard and tough. It is used for making wheel- 
 naves, screw-presses, heads of beetles, handles of carpenters' tools, &c. ; but is too brittle, 
 and too apt to warp, for cabinet-work. It is a native of Europe, and some species of it 
 reach 70 feet in height. As a fence it is rarely to be met with in England; nor is it 
 much planted as a timber tree. In forming fences with it on the Continent, they throv/ 
 up a parapet of earth with a ditch on each side ; the hornbeam sets are then planted in 
 the centre of the parapet, sloping in such a manner that every two sets cross each other 
 at an angle of 45^, in the form of St. Andrew's cross. They then scrape off the bark of 
 each set at the point of contact, by which means the two sets grow to each other, and 
 form a firm and impenetrable barrier. The hedge is kept pruned, and acquires a dense 
 mass of foliage. 
 
 In forming a live hedge of any kind, it is proper to plant the sets in the surface soil, 
 and not in that which is thrown out of the ditch after the surface has been taken off. 
 This is naturally the richest, having from time to time been manured and cultivated ; 
 whereas tlie subsoil is raw, and not in a fit state to receive them, unless it has 
 previously been trenched and manured, which we would recommend in all cases, as it 
 will always pay for the trouble and expense. In a poor soil, without manure, the growth 
 of a hedge will be very slow; nor will it bear to be trimmed with shears without injury. 
 It is frequently the practice to cut down a young fence after the second or third year, in 
 order to thicken it ; and if the soil is rich, the plan is a good one. But in a poor soil 
 the sets will throw out more branches than they can well support, and are weakened 
 rather than strengthened by it. 
 
 It was formerly — and we believe the practice is still continued — a common mode to 
 leave a scarsement on the face of the bank in forming the fence. This consisted in 
 setting the base of the bank 10 inches back from the edge of the ditch, and laying the 
 sod with the grassy side under to receive the young sets. We cannot conceive any 
 benefit can arise from this practice, whilst many inconveniences are caused by it. It 
 affords a good footing for sheep and hares, by which the young plants of the hedge 
 are endangered, unless dead thorns are laid along the projection to keep oti' the depre- 
 dators. There is no doubt the scarsement allows a greater body of surface earth for the 
 roots to penetrate into ; but it is at the expense of the additional laud that is thus 
 occupied. 
 
 Perhaps the best plan of forming a live hedge on a farm or an estate that has been 
 previously drained, is to plant the whitethorn upon the Hat without any ditch or bank. 
 In that case plants may be procured 4 or 5 feet high ; and the ground having been 
 trenched and manured, they may be planted in rows upright at from 8 inches to a foot 
 distance from each other. A moveable hurdle fence will be sufficient protection against 
 cattle on the farm ; and in a few years, if proper attention be paid to it, the hedge will 
 want no protection or auxiliary. The riag-fence, however, of a farm should be made 
 
MANURES. 691 
 
 with liedge and ditch on many accounts — both for the sake of greater distinction in the 
 boundaries, and for the advantage of an outlet for drainage water, which in some cases 
 will require it. It is probable that the introduction of steam culture on the farm^ when 
 carried out, as it must eventually be, on the same scale as on the road and in the 
 manufactory, to the exclusion of animal power, will render necessary an entire new 
 arrangement of the fields and of the fences required to enclose them. Large fields, and 
 fences at right angles with each other, without ditch or bank, will then be the rule. 
 The quick will be planted — as the fields will be ploughed — on the fiat, so that every inch 
 of land will be available for production ; furrows being unnecessary when the land has 
 been efficiently uuderdrained, which will become universal when the landlords have 
 learned the increased value it will put upon their estates. Where stone is plentiful, it 
 will doubtless be used instead of the live hedge, and will, perhaps, be the cheapest, 
 especially upon the poor mountainous lands of the north of England and Scotland, where 
 they already form the principal boundaries of the fields. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 M.\NURES. 
 
 Ir we were to go into the history of manures, it would carry us back to primeval times, 
 when the bare rock was first covered with lichens. These, during their life, harboured 
 various tribes of insects ; and the decay of both formed an earth, which, in time, 
 accumulating by fresh existences and decays, became a body of black or brown soil 
 capable of sustaining a higher class of vegetation. Not, however, to go further into the 
 formation of soils, which is a very wide subject, we may state, that in the earlier period 
 of the history of agricultm-e, when the land of an estate was divided into infield and 
 outfield, the former being the only enclosed part, was also the only part on which 
 cattle could be fattened ; consequently, on that account, as well as because it was nearer 
 the homestead, the chief part of the manure raised on the farm was applied to it. The 
 outfield land, which was imenclosed, and liable to the intrusion of all the cattle of the 
 parish when not under crop, was renovated by the triennial fallow, which was considered 
 sufficient to restore its fertility after taking two crops of corn. This system was pursued 
 up to a late period in the seventeenth, and even into the middle of the eighteenth 
 century, on many estates ; the covenants in the leases of which with the tenants com- 
 pelled them to give the land a fallow every third year. 
 
 Many years previous to this, however, the eyes of the more enlightened agriculturists 
 were opened to the value of other substances as manures besides farm-yard dung. 
 Fitzherbert, Blith, and others of the early writers, give lists of various matters which 
 they recommend to be used as manure in the absence of a sufficient quantity raised 
 upon tlie farm. At that period green and root crops, in lieu of fallow, had not been 
 euerally adopted. Blith, especially, gives a long list of articles, which has already been 
 referred to (sec p. 102), and proves that the right ideas of the means of fertility were 
 
 V V 2 
 
 & 
 
692 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 beginning to prevail. It required, however, nearly two more centuries to render these 
 ideas generally practical. It was about the close of the last century, when the fallow 
 had given place to the root-crop, that artificial manures began to be used in their 
 production. Bones, first broken with a hammer, woollen rags, rape-seed cake, and a 
 variety of other substances in their natural state, were applied with excellent effect ; but 
 an entire ignorance of the chemical properties of these manures, and of the plants they 
 were intended to promote the growth of, led to a great waste. Thus, bones w'crc applied 
 at the rate of a ton and a half per acre — enough, if judiciously managed, for forty-two 
 good crops of wheat.* But bones, in their crude or natural state, decay slow)}', and 
 continue to give out phosphates for years after having been applied as manure. The 
 mode, however, of reducing the bones to a state for using as manure was at that period 
 very imperfect, and not calculated to render them immediately assimilable by the plant. 
 The bone-mill has, to a certain extent, facilitated this by reducing them to dust, in 
 which state they decay much faster, and consequently a much smaller quantity is 
 required. But the most eflectual plan is a still more recent discovery, by which the 
 bones are dissolved in sulphuric acid into a semi-gelatinous substance, which, decaying 
 or fermenting as soon as it is put into the earth, becomes at once assimilable, as is 
 proved b\' the cfifect of a small quantity of superphosphate applied to any kind of 
 vegetable. 
 
 The discovei'y of the use of superphosphate as a manure is certainly due to Sir James 
 Murray, who, so long ago as 1809, and subsequently, used it on his own lands, at Point- 
 field, near Belfast. In the year 1813 he presented to the Belfast House of Industry a 
 waggon-load of " monster murphies," grown on a field which the members of a 
 Belfast Board frequently had visited " to see potatoes growing over vitriolised bones." 
 In 1832 Dr. Murray lectured on the subject at the lloyal Exchange, Dublin, and, in 
 18-1-2, again at Belfast; and a committee of noblemen and gentlemen was organised to 
 forward the invention; and the journals of that period, by giving the details of the 
 discovery, fix it clearly enough on that eminent chemist. T\'c have thought it nothing 
 more than strict justice to notice this circumstance here, several other persons having 
 arrogated to themselves all thg merit of the affair ; whilst, instead of being the original 
 discoverers, they are merely copyists, and that after the plan had been publicly pro- 
 mulgated by Sir James, both by his own practice and liis lectures. f 
 
 By using the superphosphate instead of the criule bones, even reduced to powder, 
 the quantity required for a cropof Avheat maybe limited almost to what is stated above, 
 or about three-fourths of a hundredweight; because by its reduction it becomes 
 immediately assimilable; and if mixed with earth, and sown or drilled with the wheat, 
 the whole will be taken up Ijy the crop. There is every reason to believe that the 
 sulphm'ic acid itself acts powerfully in stimulating the plants, as well per se, as by 
 presenting the bones in the form most grateful to them. It is a proof how slow, even 
 
 • One pound of bones contains phosphate euongh for 23 lbs. of wheat. A crop of wheat of 5 qrs. per acre, at 60 lbs. 
 pur bushel, weighs 2,400 lbs. Divide this by 2S, and it gives rather less than SC lbs. of bones to a crop. Consequently, 
 a ton and a half, or 3,J5GO lbs. of bones, is snflicient, if properly applied, for the above number of crops of wheat. 
 
 t See the Edinhurgh Journal of J ijri culture for 185S, p. 'I'i'i. It does not appear at all clear to us how it was that 
 tliis important discovery, rendered so practical by Sir James Murray's experiments on a large scale, and so publicly 
 acknowledged at the time, could have been so far lost sight of as to leave room for Liebig to say that "it is jiossible that 
 bones dissolved in sulphuric acid would become more readily assimilable to jilauts ;" and from thence to assume the entire 
 merit of the discovery. Yet such, we believe, is the ease. 
 
MANURES. 
 
 693 
 
 in the present enlightened age, is the progress of useful discovery — that it required 
 thirtj' years to induee the agriculturists to adopt the use of superphosphate as manure. 
 
 A question, however, arises which we have never heard solved, or even publicly 
 stated— whether, in the process of dissolving by the acid, the bones do not lose a 
 portion of their most valuable properties, or have them so neutralised as to be 
 weakened in their influence upon vegetation. It is certain tliat a material cliemical 
 change is eff'ected upon them, and that the soluble salts and volatile gases are liberated; 
 and the question is, whether it is possible to prevent these, or a considerable portion of 
 them, from escaping during the process? Wc shall have occasion to refer to tliis 
 subject again in describing the mode of producing the superphosphate. 
 
 The employment of oil-cake from rape seed as a manure came into use about the 
 same time as ground bones, and was found to be a valuable acquisition. The quantity 
 used was 1 ton to 3 acres for wheat, sowed broadcast, broken into pieces of about 
 an ounce and a half. A much smaller quantity is now used bjr reducing it to powder, 
 and drilling it with the wheat or turnips, by which means it becomes at once availal)le 
 to the plant, which receives the whole nourishment it is capable of imparting. Woollen 
 rags liad long been employed as manure in the hop grounds, for which plant thev were 
 peculiarly adapted. Various other substances also came into use — such as horn shavings 
 soap lees, the refuse of the slaughter-houses, &e., &c., it being found that any organised 
 matter in a state of decomposition was available for manure. But the crownino- 
 acquisition to agriculture, and that which gave the grand stimulus to the use of artificial 
 manures, was the arrival of the first cargo of Peruvian guano, which has effected an 
 important revolution in the ideas of the farmers on the subject of fertilisation, and has 
 been the means or the cause of the introduction of a multitude of compound manures 
 adapted to every description of crop. 
 
 The use of guano as a fertiliser has been known in Europe from the'period of the 
 discovery of Peru by the Spaniards. It is mentioned expressly by Aeosta in his 
 "Naturall and Morall Historic of the Indies;" aiid he states that the natives of Peru 
 fetched it from an island off the coast, and applied it in tlie cultivation of their fields. 
 "When the Spaniards conquered the country, they, of course, adopted its use ; and so 
 jealous were they of allowing it to be exported, that it was constituted a crime to do .so. 
 This law continued in force until about the year 1810, when, for the purpose of paying 
 off a heavy debt due to England, the Peruvian government contracted with English 
 merchants for the sale of the guano; and it has proved so abundant a source of wealth 
 to Peru, that the sale has continued to the present time ; nor is it at all likely that the 
 privilege will be withdrawn while the islands continue to afford a supply. 
 
G94 AGRICULTUIIE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION \L 
 
 .MANURES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 
 
 ^r.vxuREs arc divided by agi-iculturists into two classes^ termed Natural and Artificial. 
 Natural manures are strictly limited to those raised from the produce of the farm, as 
 from the straw used .for litter, the hay for fodder, the green and root crops, with a 
 portion of the grain for fattening cattle. It is evident, however, that these, inidcr the 
 usual system of farming, will not 1)o sufficient to sustain the fertility of the land, 
 because all the cattle fed, and most of the corn raised upon it, are sold, and with them, 
 those elements of fertility requii'ed to bring them into a proper state for sale. Con- 
 sequently, iniless some extraordinary equivalent is found, to make up the dcfieieucy, 
 the soil in time will become exhausted of its most valuable properties, and rendered 
 unproductive. Every intelligent farmer knows the effect of such a process; and, 
 therefore, before root crops were introduced, which increase the quantity of manure, 
 without materially exhausting the land, the triennial fallow was had recourse to, as the 
 chief means of renovating the soil. 
 
 Besides, however, the mere vegetal)Ie manures raised upon the farm, other fertilising 
 or ameliorating substances, the crude products of the earth, were used, which although 
 not generally called natural manures, may with propriety be included in that class. 
 These are lime, chalk, gypsum, marl, coprolites, sea-sand, sea-weed, &c., all of which, 
 with the exception of the iirst, require no artificial means to render them available 
 for the purpose. Some of these are considered to act chiefly as stimulants or 
 alteratives, possessing no actual pulntlnm or food in themselves alone, capable of 
 sustaining the plants, but increasing and exciting their power of as.similation, and 
 supplying a want in the soil that rendered it partly or wholly unproductive. Tims, 
 in the fine deep alluvial soil of the Flegg hundred in Norfolk, the surface contains no 
 calcareous matter, but the subsoil consists of a fine friable brown marl, eft'crvescing 
 powerfully with an acid, which being brought to the surface, and distributed at the rate 
 of from twenty to forty loads per acre, inci-easos the fertility to sucli an extent as to 
 carry a course of cropping consisting of wheat, barley, clover, wheat, oats, wheat, and so 
 on, without any appearance of exhaustion. Norwich marl, too, which is raised at the 
 foot of ]\Ioushold Hill, possesses such valuable qualities that it is fetched forty miles by 
 water, with a land-carriage of ten or twelve miles, for the purpose of mixing with the 
 soils of the Flegg and Blowfield hundreds, rich as they are in other fertilising 
 properties. Tlie Norwich marl contains, on analysis, 80 per cent, of carbonate of lime 
 and magnesia,* which accounts for its beneficial influence when applied on the land. 
 When it is considered that, according to Boussingault, wheat contains 70 per cent, of 
 carbonaceous secretions, Ijarley and oats GO each, and peas and beans respectively 3.2 
 and 52 per cent.,' it will be seen how important it must he to maintain the calcareous 
 clement in a soil. The large proportion, too, taken by every crop of cereal prodiicc, 
 explains the way in which exhaustion follows the repetition of a wheat crop without 
 compensating tiie soil for the loss it thereby sustains. 
 
 It is believed that a deficiency of tiie calcareous element in a soil is one cause of the 
 
 ' The sample was analysed by Professor Davy, of tlie Royal Dublin Society, in 1852, at llic request of the writer. 
 
MANURES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 695 
 
 prevalence of smut, according to an experiment made by a farmer some years ago. He had 
 sown two fields with wheat under precisely similar conditions, in regard to tillage, seed, 
 and manure. The one produced a perfectly clean sample, the other a very smutty one. 
 On procuring an analysis of the soil of each field, he found that the first contained a 
 large portion of phosphate of lime, in whicli the latter was deficient. He therefore 
 inferred that this deficiency was the sole cause of the smut. " For when the grain has 
 arrived at the stage of its growth at whicli it would require the starch and animal 
 gluten to be added, in order to perfect its formation, if it should not find the proper 
 materials in the soil for pi'oducing them, or the roots of the plants are defective in those 
 parts which would select those materials and convey them to the plant, a decline in the 
 crop will instantly ensue." 
 
 There is every reason to think that marl, lime, and other calcareous matters perform 
 various offices when applied to the soil ; th.at they act as alteratives, stimulant.i, atirahents, 
 and as nutriment ; that they correct the acidities and stimulate the energies of the soil, 
 attract powerfully the elements of fertility from the atmosphere, and prepare them for 
 assimilation by the plants, presenting them at the same time in the form most agreeable. 
 They absorb and retain moisture from the atmosphere iu the soil, thus forming a 
 reservoir for the plants in dry weather, which firevents them from suff'ering the efi"ects 
 of drought. This is the reason why quick-lime has been found so efficacious on the hot 
 burning grounds of Norfolk, and is considered a specific for the cure of "scalds."* 
 It is therefore reckoned amongst the cold manures ; at least, it is so in Norfolk, where 
 its adaptation to the dry soils of the country justifies the assumption. 
 
 Lime promotes the putrefaction or decomposition of animal and vegetable substances, 
 and renders them soluble in water by forming a hepar-carbonis, in which state it is 
 rendered capable of absorption by the lacteal vessels of plants. To prove this power in 
 lime, take a quantity of tanner's oak -bark", after its soluble parts have been extracted, 
 and mix it with lime. In two or three months it will be reduced to a fine black earth, 
 which effect, without the lime, would require as many years to be produced by its own 
 spontaneous fermentation. On wet, cold, and undrained land, lime may prove injurious, 
 by being converted into mortar and becoming hard, by which its effect will be 
 neutralised. On dry land it becomes pulverised to a fine powder, and mingles with the 
 soil, where it produces its full effect upon vegetation. 
 
 Upon drained clay land the eff'ect of lime is very beneficial in destroying the acidity 
 that may exist, and by its union converting it into gypsum. It thus renders the clay 
 less adhesive and more penetrable by the roots of vegetables. 
 
 Although lime has been apidied to the land in this country for a great number of 
 years, and its eff'ects have justified the practice, the exact Avay in which it acts upon the 
 soil and upon the plants is but imperfectly understood. Chemistry has thrown much 
 light on the subject, however, and observation on the different results of its application 
 has also done much to explain the nature of its operation as a mechanical agent, in 
 which capacity it is best understood by the practical farmers, the majority of whom are 
 not accustomed to look beyond the more palpable eff'ects. Thus, a clay soil is modified 
 and rendered friable by lime, if it has been laid dry previously by draining. On the 
 other hand, a gravel is made more firm and compact by it, and the same effect is 
 
 * Patches of land ia a field which, by reason of an open and sterile subsoil, are scorched np in dry weather, while the 
 rest of the field is not afl'ected by it. Such patches usually overlie a deep open subsoil. 
 
696 AGRICULTFRE, ANCIENT AND IMODERN. 
 
 produced upon a peaty soil ; wliilst on a free mixed soil, ■\vliicli derives tlic greatest 
 benefit from lime, the effects are produced by causes less palpable, but ^vliicli are most 
 probably referable to all those properties we have mentioned above, both chemical and 
 mechanical. The results, however, let the soil be what it may, are larger crops, whether 
 of grain, roots, or grass, and an improved quality of produce of all kinds. 
 
 Lime should be reduced to powder by slaking before it is spread. When brought 
 from the kiln it is in lumps, termed shells. These being laid in heaps on the field 
 a iew days before applying it, water must be poured over the heaps. Tliis will be 
 absorbed by the lime without causing it to exhibit moisture, being chemically united 
 with it. The heat evolved during the operation is sufficient to reduce iron to a red 
 heat, although it will not burn wood.* When the operation is complete, the heap of 
 shells will have fallen to powder, and the bulk increased to more than double. The 
 slaked lime is then in its most caustic state, and is ready to be applied to the land. 
 
 The quantity of liuie used varies according to the nature and condition of the land. 
 On the light lauds of Norfolk the usual dressing is 3 chaldrons, or about 108 bushels 
 per acre; whilst on newly broken-up land, in which tliere is much vegetable matter to 
 be decomposed, from 200 to 300 bushels is not thought too much. Without it, the 
 tussocks of turf would be long before they were reduced, and would always be a 
 liindrance to the plough whilst they continued intact. Recourse is therefore had to 
 paring and burning, as the most direct and expeditious mode of getting rid of them, 
 Avhich certainly is effectual enough; but liinc would effect the same object, and pre- 
 serve to the land all the valuable nitrogen or ammonia contained in the plants ; and 
 tiie loss of these will occur, even if the turf is carbonised by covering the licaps with a 
 coating of earth, which is certainly an improvement upon the open method of burning. 
 Stephens considers from 150 to 240 bushels to be average quantities of lime, from 
 the lightest to the heaviest soils, the latter requiring the most. 
 
 In breaking up heath or forest land, in which there is generally a large amount of 
 very rough sod mixed with the tough roots of heather, furze, and other shrubby plants, 
 there is no resource but in the first instance to pare, burn, and spread the ashes of the 
 entire surface. Afterwards, to dissolve the remaining vegetable substances, a moderate 
 dressing of lime should be applied, which will complete the reduction of the soil to a 
 state ready for the intended crop, whether of oats, wheat, or turnips. 
 
 It has been the custom to apply lime periodically to cultivated land, the propriety of 
 which depends upon the nature of the soil. If this is already of a calcareous Qorapo- 
 sition, lime is not required ; and there is no doubt that the covenants in some of the 
 old leases, which compelled the tenants to apply liuic at certain intervals to all tlieir 
 lands, were productive, if not of positive mischief, al least of so much loss to the tenant 
 as the cost of the lime involved. To apply lime to a soil already full of calcareous matters, 
 is, indeed, " carrying coals to Newcastle," and can only be excused by the ignorance 
 that prevailed respecting the composition of soils. There are, however, soils so destitute 
 of lime in any form, that, unless they periodically receive a dressing of lime or marl, they 
 will produce no crops. Wc have already referred to the case of some of the otherwise 
 richest lands in Ireland — those of Tipperary and Westmcath, which, though lying on the 
 
 * Tlic writer was once present at a fire, by wLich a wliolc farmstead was destroyeil, and wliich was occasioned by some 
 qnick-lime being placed against tlie woodwork of a barn. Rain fell, wliicli slaked the lime, heated the nails in the wood, 
 and these ignited the wood itself, and the whole premises were qnickly in a blaze. AVe refer to this as a caution. 
 
MANUEES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHAHACTERS. 697 
 
 limestone pliiin, witli an interminable subsoil of that material, have a snrfaee soil so 
 destitute of all calcai'cous matter, that, unless lime is applied in one form or other, no 
 wheat can be obtained from it. After the famine, in consequence of the diseoutinuanee 
 of its use, the laud, which had previously produced 20 barrels of 20 stone each, or 
 95 bushels, per Irish acre, did not yield more than from 5 to 8 barrels, and in some 
 cases not more than 4, per acre. The means at present of ascertaining the composition 
 of the soil are so easy of access that no one need to be at a loss respecting the propriety 
 or otherwise of applying lime to his land. 
 
 On the clay soils of Scotland it is the practice to give a strong dressing of from 
 8 to 10 tons of caustic lime per acre (taking one-sixth of the land each year) at the 
 commencement of the lease. The whole farm is thus dressed in six years, and requires 
 no moi-e during the term, but continues to increase in fertility to the end, if well 
 managed in other respects. 
 
 With regard to the time that a dressing of lime will last in a soil, there is much 
 misappi'ehension in the minds of many farmers, and no doulit it varies considerably in 
 different kinds of land. But the reason why it requires frequent dressing is because the 
 tendency of lime is to descend in the soil, especially in those of a loose, friable nature ; 
 so that unless the subsoil is brought up to the surface every now and then, the lime is 
 lost. Morton is of opinion that there is no reason why a good dose of lime should not 
 last 100 years, if it were not for its tendency to sink deeper and deeper into the soil. 
 He estimates that the crops do not remove more than 1 ewt. per acre per annum, at 
 which rate a dressing of 5 tons would last 100 years. He tlierefore leaves it a question 
 with the farmer whether it will be most economical to break up the subsoil, and thus 
 ■ render the lime that has disappeared available, or to give the land a new dressing 
 instead. If the recovery of the lime were the only benefit to be derived from subsoiliug, 
 we should say that a new application of lime would be the most economical. But there 
 are so many collateral benefits arising from trenching and subsoiling, that they outweigh 
 all considerations of extra expense. If, however, the land is foul with vegetable matter, 
 such as weeds, couch-grass, &c., a fresh dressing of lime is necessarj' to destroy them ; 
 and if it be liable to slugs, worms, and other live nuisances to the farm, fresh caustic 
 lime is the readiest means to get rid of them. 
 
 If caustic lime is applied, with farm-yard or other manure for a crop, it should l)e 
 laid on some time previously, in order that its most pungent properties may become 
 modified, and its substance well incorporated with the soil. By immediate contact, the 
 ammouiacal substances in the dung will be decomposed by the lime, and, being volatilised, 
 will escape, and be lost ; for although the soil itself possesses the power of attracting 
 and retaining ammonia in a gaseous form, to a certain extent, it is doubtful whether, in 
 tlic presence of caustic lime, this property of the soil would be sufficiently powerful to 
 counteract the effects, or to absorb all the ammonia so suddenly and so copiously 
 lil)crated from the fresh manure. There is, however, much to learn on this subject, 
 every opinion at present entertained being founded rather on conjecture and induction 
 than on experimental facts. We know that lime subjected to the action of the atmosphere 
 soon loses its more caustic properties, and is resolved into the carbonate state, in which 
 it exercises a very modified influence on the ammoniacal gases. 
 
 The effect of lime is beneficial on all crops, except that of fiotatoes ; but most so on 
 grass land and clovers. It promotes the growth of white clover, even where it has not 
 
698 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND IMOUERN. 
 
 been sown, to such an extent as to give rise to tlie idea amongst ignorant men that it 
 possesses in itself the seeds of that plant. Old mortar spread over land will cause the 
 white clover to spring up abundantly. On grass land it impi'ovcs the qualitj', by 
 destroying the sour and coarse grasses, and promoting the growth of the finer and 
 sweeter species. 
 
 The value of marl is not much, if at all, below that of lime as a restorative of the soil, 
 and it possesses also additional properties which render it still more so. By its saponaceous, 
 and, at the same time, friable nature, it alters the textui-e of every soil to which it is 
 applied, giving to light land greater solidity, and to the weak greater strength. Whilst 
 it produces these effects upon the sands and gravels, it is equally beneficial on a clay soil 
 in loosening its texture and causing it to work more freely, ilarl of good quality is 
 more durable than lime;* for, being specifically lighter, it is retained longer in the soil. 
 Lord Kames mentions an instance which came under his own knowledge, in which two 
 ridges of land in a field which had been marled 120 years before, still maintained their 
 superiority in the production of grass over the rest of the field. Anderson also speaks 
 of a field on which a thick coating of shell mai-l was laid, which bore excellent crops for 
 thirty years withovit any additional improvement. 
 
 The value of marl depends much on its composition, some kinds containing a greater 
 proportion of carbonaceous matters than others. To test its value, the following simple 
 process has been recommended : — Put a few ounces of pure spirit of nitre into a Florence 
 flask : place this in a scale, and balance it with shot or any other small substance. 
 Reduce a few ounces of dry marl into powder, and pour it carefully and gradually into 
 the flask, agitating it repeatedly till no eftcrvescence can be perceived. The remainder 
 of the marl must be then dried and weighed, and the diff'erenee in weight lietween it 
 and what was first put into the flask determines the amount of the escape of gas during 
 the operation. If the loss averages from 1.3 to 32 per cent., it proves it to be genuine 
 calcareous marl. The argillaceous marl is much less valuable, and contains from 
 G8 to 80 per cent, of clay, although it holds enough of calcareous matter to effervesce 
 with an acid; but it is more unctuous when moist, is of a brown or grey colour, 
 breaks more slowly in water, and generally in squares. AYIien tried in a flask by the 
 above process, its loss is not more than from 8 to 10 per cent. It is probable 
 that the brown marl of the Flegg hundred, in Norfolk, mentioned above, is of this 
 description. 
 
 Siliceous or sandy marl is composed of small quantities of clay and calcareous 
 matters, and from 75 to 80 per cent, of sand. Its colour is brownish or reddish 
 grey, it is friable and flakey, but sometimes is found in very hard lumps. It decom- 
 poses slowly in the air, ettbrvcsccs slightly with an acid, and the residue is not 
 adhesive. 
 
 Tiie quantity of marl to be applied varies considerably with the nature of the land, its 
 condition, and the quality of the marl. From 50 to 150 one-horse cart-loads arc laid on to 
 light lands, but from 30 to 50 arc sufficient for the clay soils. The clay-marl is of little 
 use on the latter, but both the shell and the siliceous marls will much improve them. 
 It is best to lay marl upon a clover stubble, when it should remain on the surface all 
 winter to receive the benefit of the frost, snow, and rain ; under which it will crumble to 
 
 * It is an ancient saying that " a m-in doth sand for himselfe ; h/mc fur his sonne ; and marl for liis grandsonne." 
 '" Kvery one for himself, and Iieaven for us all," is the modern maxim. 
 
BIANURES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS G99 
 
 powder when the harrows are applied. It requires two seasons to bring its beneficial 
 influence into full operation, fifter which it becomes well incorporated with the soil, 
 improving- its texture, making the light sandy or peaty earths more adhesive and 
 retentive of moisture, and correcting the acidities that aboimd in some soils, especially 
 those that are imdrained. The following analyses of two kinds of marl will show the 
 difference in their composition :— 
 
 Peat Shell Marl. 
 From the top of the hed. From the bottom of the bed. 
 
 Carbonate oflime 77-8 81'7 
 
 Oside of iron and alumina I'S 06 
 
 Organic matter ll'G l-t'6 
 
 Insoluble, chiefly siliceous GO 3'1 
 
 1000 1000 
 
 Clay JIarl. 
 
 Carbonate of lime 8'4 
 
 0.?ide of iron and alumina 2'3 
 
 Organic matter 2'8 
 
 Clay and siliceous matter S4'9 
 
 Water Vi 
 
 99-7 
 
 The above figures point out clearly enough in what way, and oil what description 
 of land, cither of these marls ought to be applied. It is i-emarkable tliat at the bottom 
 of most, if not all, the bogs of Ireland, a gravelly kind of marl is found, which is the 
 best manure that can be applied to the undrained bog. We have witnessed the. effect 
 upon such laud the first year of its being cultivated. The produce was a heavy crop of 
 potato oats of fine quality, weighing at least 43 lbs. per bushel. No other manure was 
 applied; and it is probable tliat if the marl had not been employed, there would have 
 been little or no crop of grain. The gravel in this marl is limestone, which is the 
 character of all the gravel in Ireland, there being no red siliceous gravel like that of 
 England in any part of the country, except what is imported. 
 
 The use of marl is of very ancient date in Britain. In the year 1325 (the lOth 
 Henry III.) an act was passed giving every niait leave to sink a marl pit in his own 
 ground without being fined ; and in the I2th Edward I., a.d. 1283, the sheriff and coroner 
 are instructed to inquire "lie fossatis et marleins levatis juxta itar publicum" — proving 
 tlic common use of tlie material. Old leases arc still extant of the reigns of Edward I. 
 and II., the covenants of which compelled the tenants to marl their lands. In Norfolk 
 it has long been a specific for exhausted or weak soils, as is proved by the state of old 
 marl pits, in many of which large oak trees and ancient brushwood are found ; and also 
 by the many hollows, partly filled in and levelled, in the fields, which arc no other than 
 exhausted marl pits. The material found in that county is chiefly, if not entirely, shell 
 marl ; whereas in Suffolk the clay marl prevails. In the latter county it is applied with 
 excellent eft'ect indiscriminately to all kinds of lands, but is peculiarly beneficial to the 
 light sands, which without it would produce little or no grain. 
 
 Chalk marl is the lowest stratum of tlie chalk formation, and is foiuul in many parts 
 of England, but especially under the chalk basin of the vicinity of the metropolis. It 
 has been used extensively for manure, and invariably with excellent eflect. The following 
 
700 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 is its composition, according to the analysis made by the direction of the Royal Agricul- 
 tural Society of England : — 
 
 Insoluble siliceous matter 19'64 
 
 Soluble silica C'45 
 
 Phosphoric acid (equal to 3'75 bone-earth) . . . 1'82 
 
 Carbonic arid 28-98 
 
 Lime 3771 
 
 Jlagnesia 0"fiS 
 
 Oxide of iron and alumina 3'04 
 
 98-33 
 
 Chalk marl is used in Essex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, and other counties. 
 Its effect is excellent at first, but it loses its virtue in a very few years, -n-hich its 
 composition, as given above, -ivill account for. It is used on the light soils to consoli- 
 date them, and on the heavy to render them more friable. The quantity applied varies 
 considerably; from 15 cart-loads in Essex, to 80 cubic yards in Lincolnshire, and 
 .2,000 bushels in Hampshire, to the acre. The action of this marl upon clay is in 
 assisting to liberate the -svatcr contained in it, which is otherwise locked up, as it were, 
 lierinetically. "Clay,'' says Kirwan, '-'in its usual state of dryness, can absorb two 
 and a half times its weight of water without suffering any of it to drop out, and retains 
 it in the open air more pertinaciously than any other earth ; but in freezing, cold clay 
 contracts more titan otlicr earths, squeezing out its water, and tlius parting with more 
 of it than other eartlis." A ball or lump of clay, therefore, under the influence of 
 frost, instead of being split or burst, like marl, exudes the water to its surface, where 
 tlie frost crystallises it, the clay retaining its form, but the lump diminished in size 
 and weight. 
 
 The siliceous and calcareous matters in the marl, when they become incorporated 
 with the clay, correct this property, and assist in the liberation of the Avater by tlie 
 disintegration of the clay, instead of by mere extrusion by coiulensation. The case is 
 not the same with cold wet clay when it is dried. We may therefore account for the 
 cause that a purely clay soil, undrained and nnamcliorated by a calcareous or siliceous 
 mixture, is the worst land that a farmer can have to contend with. Drowned in winter, 
 and baked in summer, the tender rootlets of plants have no power to penetrate the hard 
 lumps, and become stunted ; and yet such lauds, when well ftirnicd, prove the most 
 profitable that can be cultivated. 
 
 ]Marls, however, differ so much in their composition, that, in ajiplying them, it is 
 absolutely necessary to learn their chemical compounds in order to know how nuich to 
 apply. Thus, the range of the proportion of carbonate of lime is from 8 to 85 per cent.; 
 consequently, the quantity that would be fully eflicient of the latter would have no 
 effect if applied of the former. Clay marls, also, are richer, in soluble salts of potash 
 thiin the shell marls, and are therefore peculiarly valuable in soils deficient of that 
 element of fertility. Oti the other hand, on soils deficient in lime, the chalk or shell 
 mtirls are best adapted to supply it. All marls act more powerfully when accompanied 
 ■with farm-yard manure. 
 
 Gypsum, or hydrated sulphate of lime, is another mineral manure, of the valite of 
 ■n-hieh, in agriculture, the opinions of Ijoth scientific and practical men widely differ. 
 Sir Humphrey Davy was, we believe, the first chemist who treated on it in a practical 
 
MANURES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 701 
 
 way, and liis opinion was, that to a certain class of plants, as clover, trefoil, sainfoin, 
 white clover, and other plants, it was beneficial, which was owing to those plants 
 requiring a considerable proportion of sulphate of lime in their food; and that if it failed 
 in some instances of producing any effect, it was because the soil was previously saturated 
 sufficiently with that material. The following is the composition of gypsum : — 
 
 Lime 32'oG 
 
 Sulphiu'ic acid .... 4051 
 Water ' 20 93 
 
 10000 
 
 Scloiitc, a crystallisation, and alabaster, are modifications of gypsum. 
 
 Liebig thinks that the action of gypsum on the grasses is owing to its power of 
 converting the volatile carbonate of ammonia into the fixed sulphate of ammonia. If 
 sulphate of lime is mixed with a solution of carbonate of ammonia, the smell immediately 
 disappears. An interchange of elements takes place, by which carbonate of lime and sul- 
 phate of ammonia arc formed, and the latter salt rcmuins intact in the liquid. The learned 
 Professor therefore ascribes the beneficial action of gypsum upon plants to its power of 
 converting carbonate of ammonia, a volatile salt, into sulphate of ammonia, a fi.xed salt ; 
 and thus, the ammonia contained in rain-water, a poj-tiou of which otherwise evaporates 
 and returns to the atmosphere, is fixed by the gypsum and converted into sulphate of 
 ammonia, and becomes in that form the food of plants, in which capacity he considers 
 that gypsum acts of itself, as well as in supplying them with ammonia more abundantly. 
 
 On the other hand, ]\I. Boussingault denies that gypsum possesses the power ascribed 
 to it by Liebig, of fixing the carbonate of ammonia, on the principle laid down by 
 Berthollct, that " when solutions of two salts are mixed, containing between them the 
 elements of a third insoluble salt, mulual decomposition will take place, and that 
 insoluble salt will be produced. If, therefore, solutions of sulphate of lime and car- 
 bonate of ammonia are mixed, a precipitate of carbonate of lime, which is insoluljle, is 
 obtained, and sulphate of ammonia remains in the liquid form."* 
 
 M. Boussingault agrees with Sir Hum^jhrey Davy in assuming that it is only those 
 plants that require large supplies of sulphate of ammonia are benefited by the application 
 of gypsum. Held in a condition sufficiently soluble to be appropriated by the roots of 
 plants, the sulphate of ammonia is capable of being taken up by those plants, of which 
 it constitutes a principal element, in large quantities of constant strength, being 
 dissolved in the proportion of 1 to 500 in the water contained iu the soil, and is thus 
 qualified to furnish a sufficient supply to the plants under any conditions of the soil, 
 whether in drought or wet. 
 
 To prove the effect of gypsum upon clover, M. Boussingault analysed the ashes of 
 the roots of that plant manvu-ed with gypsum, and some others not manured with it. 
 The result was, that the quantity of lime absorbed by the first was disproportionably 
 large as compared with the sulphuric acid absorbed at the same time ; and he comes to 
 the conclusion that gypsum acts merely as the means of supplying lime to clover, 
 sainfoin, and plants of that kind. 
 
 Such are the adverse opinions of the most eminent scientific men; and it is not a 
 little remarkable that experience and common sense, applied to it, have upset all their 
 
 * "Economie Rurale" (translation, p. 429). 
 
703 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 theories. By analysis, other plants are found to contain a large proportion of lime, -which 
 receive no benefit wliatever from the application of gypsum. Thus, a ton of carrots 
 contains in its ashes 197 lbs. of lime, -whilst a ton of red and -white clover contains only 
 50 lbs. of that material ; yet the crops of the latter are doubled, -whilst those of the 
 former receive no benefit whatever from the application of gypsum. It is the same with 
 regard to sulphuric acid. The ashes of 24 tons of the bulbs and leaves of turnips 
 contain 50 lbs. of sulpliuric acid, and the same quantity of carrots, 57 lbs. The ashes 
 of a ton of white clover hay contained 6^ lbs., and of a ton of red clover 124 lbs. of 
 sulphuric acid. A fair crop of turnips, therefore, appropriates as much sulphuric acid 
 as 8 tons of white or 4 tons of red clover hay. And yet while, according to the 
 analyses of M. Boussiugault, the crop of clover is doubled by the application of 
 15 bushels of gypsum, that of turnips, as well as other plants, receives no benefit 
 whatever from it. It is, therefore, still an open question in what way gypsum is 
 beneficial to certain plants ; whilst others, which contain similar elements, arc unaffected 
 by it. The following are the results of experiments made by M. Boussiugault ; — 
 
 Growth of Sainfoin on Soils Gvpsised and Ungypsised. 
 
 
 Drj' berh 
 X)er acre. 
 
 Seed 
 per acre. 
 
 Weight of 
 total crop. 
 
 Proportion of 
 stalk to seed. 
 
 1. Crop on deep soil, ungypsised 
 
 Crop upon the contiguous breadth, which had received about ) 
 
 15 bushels of gypsum in Apiil ) 
 
 Difference in favour of gypsised breadth . . . 
 
 2. Crop upon the same soil, of less depth, and not gypsised . 
 Ci'op on contiguous soil, dressed with about 15 bushels of 1 
 
 trynsuni i 
 
 lbs. 
 3-357 
 
 4-381 
 
 lbs. 
 419 
 
 582 
 
 lbs. 
 
 3-770 
 0044 
 
 100: 12-5 
 100: 10-7 
 
 2-105 
 
 163 
 
 2-268 
 
 
 2-766 
 4381 
 
 245 
 379 
 
 3-011 
 4-760 
 
 100: 8-9 
 
 100 : 8-7 
 
 Difference iu favour of gypsum 
 
 3. Crop ou the same soil, 8 inches deep, and not gypsised . . 
 
 Crop ou contiguous soil, dressed with about 15 bushels of) 
 
 gypsum )■ 
 
 Difference in favour of gypsum 
 
 1 
 
 1-015 
 
 134 
 
 1-749 
 
 
 2-068 
 4-381 
 
 06 
 211 
 
 2-134 100 : 3-2 
 5-090 100 : 4-3 
 
 2-811 
 
 145 
 
 2-956 
 
 PuoDUCE OF Wheat with and without Dressing with Gvrsujt. 
 
 
 Gypsised. Not gypsised. 
 
 Not gypsised. 
 
 1842. 
 
 Wheat after clover 
 
 Wheat after maugold-wurzel . . . 
 Wheat after potatoes 
 
 Average of three es;periments . 
 
 lbs. lbs. 
 319 323 
 195 176 
 235 158 
 
 lbs. 
 317 
 158 
 264 
 
 250 
 
 248 
 
 250 
 
 1843. 
 
 Rye with gypsum 
 
 Rye without gypsum 
 
 Wheat with gypsum 
 
 Wheat without gypsum .... 
 Wheat without gypsum .... 
 
 Oats with gypsum 
 
 Oata without gypsum 
 
 Sheaves. 
 
 lbs. 
 516 
 472 
 
 Grain. 
 
 lbs. 
 137 
 
 127 
 
 straw, chaff, 
 and waate. 
 
 lbs. 
 279 
 345 
 
 462 
 510 
 453 
 
 147 
 15G 
 143 
 
 315 
 254 
 310 
 
 329 
 368 
 
 112 
 
 113 
 
 217 
 255 
 
MANURES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 703 
 
 & 
 
 In applying gypsimij it sliould be gronnd as fine as meal^ and used as a top-dressing 
 in April or May, in quantities of from 6 to 15 bushels per acre. After the first shower, 
 its beneficial efl'ects are seen upon the clovers, trefoils, and rye grass, in their healthy 
 and vigorous growth. It is more used on the Continent and in North America than in 
 England, and in both the former it has been in use iipwards of a century. In Germany, 
 one Schubert was knighted by Joseph I., under the title of " Schubert von Kleefcid," 
 or Schubert of the Clover-field, on account of the efforts he made to extend the use of 
 gypsum for the cultivation of clover. In the "Year-book of American Agriculture for 
 1855-6" is a clever paper on the use of gypsum, in which the writer states, that while 
 some farmers have found it beneficial in all crops, others have found it iiniversally fail. 
 This latter consequence he ascribes to ignorauce of the circumstances of the soil, 
 season, and other things ; but he admits that those cases in which it has proved useful 
 to cereal crops are exceptional, and that the clovers and leguiuinous plants receive most 
 benefit from it ; aud he sums up his arguments in the following manner : — 
 
 "Admitting that much remaius to be learned, still it is evident that, for practical 
 piu'poses, thus much may be accepted, viz. : — 
 
 " 1. Leguminous plants are especially benefited by plaster ; while 
 
 " 2. All other plants of large foliage, whose agricultural value does not consist in fhc 
 production of seeds, are usually aided by it in growth, upon 
 
 "3. Soils not already containing sulphate of lime; but 
 
 "•!•. In which all other parts of mineral plant-food are present in available form, 
 aud in sufficient quantity; which are, in practical language, ivell dunged, if not rich 
 without manure, and which, further, 
 
 "5. Present no physical obstacles to vegetable growth; which are dry, sufficiently 
 porous, and well tilled ; when 
 
 " 6. The climate and weather are favourable to vegetation, when the temperature is 
 mild, and rains are frequent, but moderate." 
 
 While, therefore, the most certain benefit derived from the application of gypsum 
 is limited to clover and other broad-leafed plants, and its use to cereals is at least 
 exceptional, if not in all cases doubtful, the contrariety of opinion on the subject 
 amongst both scientific and practical men proves that nothing definite is known of the 
 precise mode of its action iipon the soil or upon plants, or what is required to render it 
 as beneficial to cereals as to clover, when both abstract from the soil the same elements 
 contained in it which were supposed to be the cause of its value to the broad-leafed 
 plauts. Speaking on this subject, Mr. Morton says : — " Whilst, however, the current 
 theories wholly fail to satisfy us, we are unprepared to ofi'er any other in their place. In 
 seeking to apply the ordinary laws of chemical action to the phenomena of animal, and 
 still more, of vegetable life, we must expect to find ourselves sometimes entirely at 
 fault; and, indeed, leaving out of the question these more difficult problems, the 
 chemistrj' of soils has as yet scarcely lieen investigated, and we have only just now 
 learned that chemical changes, which, in their abstract form are looked upon as axioms 
 of the science, are suspended or altogether reversed when the soil is the sphere of their 
 operations. It is better to confess our ignorauce, and to wait patiently for the light of 
 truth, than to hazard conjectm-es which will not bear a close scrutiny, and serve only to 
 retard the progress of knowledge."* 
 
 * Morton's " CycloprcJia of AgriciiUare." 
 
704 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Sandj as a manure for dressing stiff clay soilsj was extensively employed towards the 
 close of the last century, and with very beneficial cifect, both as an alterative and as 
 increasing the bed of vegetable earth. In its pure state it contains none of the 
 elements of fertility, so that its action is purely mechanical. Tliere are, however, 
 different kinds of sand, some of which are very valuable as fertilisers as well as 
 alteratives. Such is the sea or shell sand found on many parts of our coasts, 
 particularly in Ireland, of which we shall presently have to speak. 
 
 The best common sand for mixing in a elay soil is that washed down by the 
 ]-ain from roads or hills, or that taken out of the beds of rivers. It should be mixed 
 with dung l)y laying it at the bottom of dung-heaps, and also covering then\ over with 
 it. If applied alone as a dressing, the quantity must be proportioned to the stifl'ness of 
 the soil. Some writers have recommended to lay on a very strong soil a coat of sand 
 equal to two of farm-yard manure, or even more. In Cheshire, where it was extensively 
 employed, as much as 300 loads per statute acre were laid upon bog land that had been 
 reclaimed, with excellent effect. With a mixture of well- rotted dung it makes an 
 excellent compost for jjastnre lands. The red sand is considered the best, on aecomit of 
 the oxide of iron it contains, Avhich gives it a more soft and mictuous feeling. Sand 
 restores strong clay lands to a friable pulverulent state, when it becomes thoroughly 
 incorporated, and thereby greatly increases its fertility. If the land is in tillage, 
 the yield of grain will be increased; and if under grass, both tlie quantity and the 
 quality will be improved, and the land will be less liable to be parched in drj' summer 
 weather. On wet, coarse, rushy lands, sand is found very beneficial in destroying the 
 coarse herbage, and brings the sward into a tine state. In such cases, a very thick coat 
 should he applied to be eftective. On strong-land farms sand should be freely used, if 
 accessiljle, for laying at the bottoms of dunghills, and also for littering the stables and 
 bullock-sheds. In these latter cases, it should be laid thick, to receive the excreta of 
 the animals, removing it frequently, with the other litter. Under the dung-heap, it 
 should be at least a foot in thickness, and as much more laid on the top when the heap 
 is made up. When the heap is turned, the sand will become incorporated with the 
 dung, and form a most valuable compost for cither grass or arable land. 
 
 Shell, or sea sand, is of a more valuable kind, in proportion to the amount of organic 
 matters it contains. It is found in deep beds, frequently on spots that arc only dry 
 enough to procure it at low water. It consists, more or less, of sand mixed with minute 
 l>ortions of sea-shells and coral, broken up by the friction of the tides, and gradually 
 deposited in these deep beds. It is found about Plymouth, and on the southern coast, 
 of a bluish-grey colour, supposed to be owing to the large proportion of mussel shells, 
 and of other dark-coloured shells, broken and mixed with the sand. Near the Laud's 
 End it is white, whilst on the north coast it is yellowish, brown, or reddish, containing a 
 very large proportion of cockle-shells. The reddish sand is considered the best. In all 
 those parts where this sand is found, it is used, generally with the best effect, both on 
 grass ;ind arable land. In Scotland, on the coast of Aberdeen, Fife, Banff', Sutherland, 
 Caithness, and Dumfries, large beds of shell-sand exist, and are much used by the 
 farmers as manure. It is still more abundant on the west coast of Scotland and 
 amongst the islands, and is applied to the land in large quantities with wonderful efl'cet, 
 especially upon the mossy soils. It is particularly beneficial on clay soils, which become 
 ameliorated and more friable by a mixture with it. 
 
MAN UKES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 705 
 
 In Ireland, it Las for many years been a favourite dressing, especially for 
 inferior land, such as cold clay and peaty soils. It is estimated by Sir R. Kane that 
 300,000 tons are taken from the harbour and strand of Youghall, and upwards of 
 1,000,000 tons from Cork, Kinsale, and Ringabella. In Oyster Haven, a small creek 
 of Cork Harbour, there are thirty-two boats, of 12 tons each, employed in dredging 
 sand, some of which make about 150 boat- loads each in the year. This sand is sold 
 on the spot, at from 65. 6d. to 7s. 6d. the boat-load. It is dredged at the depth of from 
 10 to 30 feet, and about twenty dredgings complete the boat-load. It is laid on the 
 beach, and fetched av/ay in carts and boats, and taken up the country, where it is sold 
 to the farmers. Some of this sand has been found, on analysis, to contain as much as 
 Go per cent, of carbonate of lime. At Loch Foyle, on the north coast of Ireland, when 
 the tide is out, there are extensive flats of sea-sand, which have been worked by the 
 people in the neighbourhood for upwards of a century, without auy fear of the supply 
 being exhausted. These flats consist to a much greater extent of shells than that of the 
 south coast. Two hundred and eighty-five men and fifty boys are employed six months 
 of the year in raising the shells, at a cost of 10s. and 6*. each respectively per week. 
 The total quantity raised is about G0,000 tons each summer, and it is sold on the shore 
 opposite to the bank, at Is. per ton, and at Derry and Strabane, at Is. 6d. to 2s. per ton. 
 Captain Portlock estimates the shell-banks of Loch Foyle to be worth £5,000 per annum 
 to the country, and that the material is " particularly useful for bringing bad lands into 
 cultivation, and improving stiff wet clay, deficient in calcareous matter; being applied 
 at the rate of from 30 to 40 barrels per acre. It is preferred to lime, as warming 
 and brittling the land." * 
 
 The composition of these diff"erent kinds of shell-sand are said to be as follows : — 
 Siliceous sand, from 30 to 60 per cent. ; the shells, from 20 to 50, which, besides car- 
 bonate, yield some phosphate of lime and magnesia ; from 3 to 6 per cent, of animal 
 matter, yielding nitrogen by its decomposition ; and from 5 to 10 per cent, of water, 
 liolding in solution the usual ingredients of sea-water. It, therefore, is preferable to 
 lime by furnishing so many valuable materials to the soil. Many parts of Ireland 
 are quite destitute of a mixture of calcareous matter in the soil, and to these 
 the shell-sand must be invaluable, by furnishing that material; without which the 
 laud would not bear wheat. It is also applied with great success to the potato 
 crop; but sea-weed is still more beneficial to that root, and is laid on the laud in 
 large quantities near the coast, but is too heavy for long carriage. The people on 
 the coast, however, send it a considerable distance inland, having previously dried- 
 it in the air. 
 
 There is no doubt that on many of the estuaries on our coasts, shell-sand may be 
 obtained in considerable quantities, as is the case in Cornwall and other parts we have 
 mentioned. A sample was sent to us a few months since from a northern port, of which 
 the party sending it had formed the most extravagant expectations. Without having 
 actually tried its virtue on the land, he called it guano, and expected to find it a mine of 
 wealth to the farmers in the neighbourhood. It consisted chiefly of argillaceous mud, 
 with a considerable portion of siliceous sand, with (possibly) a portion of shell, but not 
 discernible by the naked eye. The only question with us was whether it would pay for 
 raising, labour being at a higher rate in England than in Ireland, and the material less 
 
 * Portlock's " Report on the Survey of Derry and Tyrone." 
 Z Z 
 
70G AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 valuable. At the same time, as an alterative, it would probably be of vise on land long 
 accustomed only to farm-yard manure. 
 
 Coprolites are a marine fossil, and are obtained from the crag formation in great 
 abundance. The following is the composition of coprolites according to the analysis of 
 Professor Way : — 
 
 Water (of combination) and a little bituminous matter 10 
 
 Sand, clay, and oxide of iron * 21 
 
 Carbonate of lime 10 
 
 Fbospbate of lime 50 
 
 Fluoride of calcium, with a small portion of alkaline sulphates and chlorides ... 3 
 
 100 
 Coprolites are used extensively either as a simple manure, or made into super- 
 phosphate of lime. In the latter case they require to be finely pulverised, otherwise the 
 acid will not act upon them. There are various kinds of coprolites, evidently not of the 
 same origin, and they are distinguished by naturalists as coprolites and pseudo-coprolites. 
 The true coprolites contain phosphates of lime, phosphates of magnesia, carbonate of 
 lime, and other substances, and are found in rounded nodules from a few ounces to 
 several pounds in weight. They are believed to be chiefly composed of the excrements 
 of reptiles and other animals, being sometimes found in the -vicinity of the bones of 
 whales, saurians, &c., the flesh of which has also become mixed up with them, although 
 they now exhibit no indications of organic origin. Mr. Nesbit has given the following 
 table of the composition of different samples of coprolites according to the deposit in 
 which each was found : — 
 
 Pliosphoric acid per cent. 
 
 Found in the tertiary deposit-crag 19-19 to 22-17 
 
 London clay 15-96 „ 28-00 
 
 Chalk 1900 „ 26-90 
 
 Green marl 16-47 „ 26-56 
 
 Green saud 7'72 „ 13'81 
 
 At the Aust-passage clifts on the left bank of the Severn, near Bristol, there has 
 been discovered a " bone-bed consisting of two beds of lias from 1 to 2 feet thick each, 
 densely loaded with dislocated bones, and .teeth, and scales, of extinct reptiles and 
 fishes, interspersed with abundance of coprolites derived from animals of various kinds." 
 The following is the analysis of the coprolites by Professor Herepath, of Bristol : — 
 
 Water ' 3--i0O 
 
 Organic matter ■ trace 
 
 Silica 13-2-iO 
 
 Carbonate of lime 28-400 
 
 Phosphate of lime, magnesia, iron, &c. . . 53-730 — phosphoric acid, 2G-615 
 
 Sulphate of lime 0-736 
 
 loss 0-494 
 
 100000 
 
 BwrM^c/ay is essentially useful upon stift" soils when sand or marl cannot be obtained. 
 The method generally pursued to procure it is very simple. A fire is first made of wood 
 or coal, and on it are laid a few lumps of clay. These should be dry in the first instauce, 
 in order to receive the heat more readily. When they have become well ignited, add more, 
 slowly at first ; but as soon as a good body of fire is obtained, the clay may be added 
 in the state in which it is dug. By this means, having two or three heaps on fire at the 
 
MANUEES— THEIE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 707 
 
 same time, and arldino- fresh clay Avliercver tlie fire breaks tliroiigli, it may be laid on as 
 fast as a staff of four or six men can raise it, and a few Imndred tons may seen be ready 
 for distribution. Care should be taken to lirevcnt the fire from bursting out, by 
 CDveriug it whenever it appears. By this means the clay is charred, and eoutains 
 whatever valuable elements it possessed before tlic operation. Clay in this state not 
 only lightens a heavy soil, but it imparts a warmth to it, and thus acts as a stimulant to 
 vegetation, as well as an ameliorator. If small coal" is spread over the layers of clay it 
 will both facilitate the calcination, and improve, by the ashes, the quality of tlie mass. 
 It may be laid on at the rate of 50 tons per acre, being previously broken small — if to 
 powder, the better. 
 
 ■' When clay," says Dr. Darwin, " is united with so much oxygen by fire as to form 
 a soft or imperfect brick, it possesses the power of promoting the generation of the 
 nitrous aeid in certain situations, which is frequently seen like an ctilorcsccnce on 
 mouldering walls, having become, by the addition of lime, a calcareous nitre. The use 
 of these soft bricks in the production of nitre is well known in Paris, where the rubbish 
 of old houses is regularly purchased for that purpose, which before the Revolution was 
 a royal manufacture. 
 
 " As these soft efflorescent bricks from old houses are known powerfully to promote 
 vegetation when pulverised and nii.xed with the soil, at the same time that they are 
 capable of producing the nitrous aeid, I imagine that the use of paring and bm'ning the 
 turf of some newly-enclosed commons depends on this circumstance — that is, that the 
 heat emitted from the burning vegetable fibres unites oxygen with the clay, which latter 
 forms more than half of the slices of turf as they are dug from the ground. In other 
 respects the paring and burning of grass lands would certainly be a wasteful practice, 
 as much carbon is converted into carbonic acid, and dispersed along with the uninilauied 
 smoke or soot, and nothing left but the vegetable ashes. From these considerations, it 
 would probably be worthy of experiment on farms where coal and clay abound to burn 
 the latter to a certain degree, which might supply an exhaustless source of profitable 
 manure."* 
 
 The above passage contains the rationale of burning clay for manure. The process 
 has since been extensively adopted, especially in the coal districts, generally with much 
 benefit to the strong clay lands. The expense of burning 100 three-horse cart-loads is 
 estimated at £6 9s. Qd. 
 
 Salt, as a condiment or stimulant, and applied in proper quantities, is a valuable 
 ingredient as a dressing on land. It possesses no nourishment in itself, but has the 
 power of inciting the vegetable absorbents into greater action, and thereby enabling 
 them to take up more nutriment. It must, however, be used with great caution; for 
 if the dose is too large it will destroy all vegetation. Nor should it be repeated too 
 frequently, except in very small proportions, and mixed with manure, with which it will 
 become incorporated through the moisture, and will act less powerfully, and consequently 
 more beneficially. If applied alone, it should be distributed some time before sowing 
 or planting. The action of salt on vegetables is exemplified in the practice of some 
 gardeners, who, "if they require spinach or asparagus to be stimulated in their growth, 
 apply salt to them early ; or, if a flower is required, whether of the broccoli, artichoke, or 
 the tulip or hyacinth, moisten them with a slight solution of salt when the flower-bud 
 
 * Danviii's " Philosophj- of Agriculture," p. 21G. 
 
 z z 3 
 
708 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 is formed ; and wlicn fruit or seeci is wanted^ as in melons and cucumberSj or peas and 
 beans, apply tlic solution of salt still later, and at all times -with ratlier a parsimonious 
 hand."* 
 
 Common salt, vfhen quite pure, contains 39^6G of sodium, and 60^34. of cliloriue. It 
 dissolves in 2-78 times its own -weiglit of -water at any temperature from 60° to 212° 
 Fahr. The Cheshire salt mines are the most extensive in England, the deposits varying 
 in thickness from 4 feet to 130 feet, with alternate strata of limestone, clay, sandstone, 
 and gypsum. The blocks of rock salt in these mines are chiefly impregnated with a 
 portion of oxide of iron and other substances, which impart to them a flesh colour, red, 
 greyish, or yellow tint, according to the predominance of either impurity. Blocks of 
 pure salt arc sometimes found, and these are perfectly white. The following is the 
 composition of Cheshire salt of three descriptions, as found on analysis : — 
 
 Chloride of sodium . 
 Cliloridc of ealciiim . . 
 Chloride of magnesia 
 Siilpliate of lime . . . 
 Insoluble matter . 
 
 Store Eock Salt. 
 
 Fishery Rock Salt. 
 
 Coiiinion Rock Salt, i 
 
 9S-250 
 
 ■025 
 
 •075 
 
 1^570 
 
 •100 
 
 98-075 
 
 •025 
 
 •075 
 
 1-125 
 
 •100 
 
 98-350 
 
 •025 1 
 •075 ! 
 r450 
 •100 
 
 100-000 
 
 100-000 
 
 100-000 
 
 There is a great difference of opinion amongst agriculturists respecting the value or 
 utility of salt to the land ; but we apprehend that where it has failed to produce a 
 beneficial effect, it was probably owing to a want of judgment or knowledge in the party. 
 In fact, it requires a chemical knowledge of the character of the soil on which it is 
 applied, and of the quantity or proportion to be ajiplied, in order to use it with the best 
 effect. Dr. Belcker instituted a scries of experiments with the view of throwing light 
 upon the subject, and the following were the results of his inquiries: — • 
 
 1. That a solution of from 3 to 24 grains to the imperial pint produced no injurious 
 effects upon cabbages, field beans, onions, lentils, chickweed, groundsel, thistles, annual 
 meadow-grass, or radishes, which were watered with it fortwo months ; but that plants 
 of Anthox anthum odoratum, or sweet-scented vernal, were destroyed in one mouth by a 
 solution of 24 grains to the pint. 
 
 2. That these solutions benefited most plants to which they were applied, especially 
 cabbages, radishes, and lentils, all which presented a more florid and luxuriant appearance 
 than when watered with rain-water only ; and this healthy or vigorous appearance was in 
 proportion to the quantity of salt or strength of the solution applied, up to 24 grains 
 per pint. 
 
 3. That solutions of salt of the strength of 48 grains to the pint of water produced a 
 deleterious effect, in the course of a month, on chickweed, groundsel, annual meadow- 
 grass, and lentils; whilst cabbages, radishes, onions, field-beans, and thistles, were 
 uninjured by it. 
 
 4. The proportion of 'JG grains of salt to the pint of water proved injurious to 
 cabbages and field-beaus, but inflicted no injury on onions, radishes, or thistles watered 
 \^ith it for two months. 
 
 5. That cabbages will continue to grow, though sicklj^, when watered with a salt 
 
 Dar 
 
 p. oil. 
 
MANURES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 709 
 
 solution of 192 grains to the pint for a monthj and that even a solution of 384 grains 
 per jiint did not destroy them. 
 
 6. But tlie solution of 192 grains destroyed the onions watered with it for one month. 
 
 7. That a solution of 24 grains of salt per pint was beneficial to cabbages, onions, 
 radishes, and lentils. 
 
 8. That the apjilication of salt has a more immediate effect upon the grasses than on 
 any other plants. 
 
 9. That bulbous plants, and those with succulent leaves, derive especial benefit from 
 the moderate application of salt. 
 
 It has been ascertained that in most of tlic cases in which salt has failed to produce 
 a good eflect on vegetation the lands operated upon lie near the sea-coast, and are 
 consequently already saturated with salt. It is therefore more likely to be of benefit 
 in inland parts of the country, away from tlie influence of the sea air, which is always 
 impregnated with saline particles. The utility of salt, in fact, appears not to arise from 
 its possessing the elements of fertility in itself, but from its faculty both of stimulating 
 the plants to receive nourishment, and in preparing it for them.* The quantity of salt 
 applied to land is from 10 to 20 bushels per acre, and the crops found to be most 
 benefited by it are — wheat, barley, beans, peas; and of root crops — potatoes, mangolds, 
 turnips, especially the second, which contain a large proportion of salt in their com- 
 position. Professor Way estimates, from analj'sis, that while the turnip cent; ins 2 lbs. 
 per ton of salt, the mangold contains 65 ll)s. per ton of bulbs. 
 
 Salt is of essential benefit in killing weeds on tlie fallows, on which a very liberal 
 dose may be applied, as the rains will have washed it down by the time it is necessary 
 to sow the field. For this purpose it should be applied early in the morning or late at 
 night, when these pests are most active. 
 
 But besides the application of salt as a dressing for the land, it is useful in an infinite 
 variety of ways, of which comparatively few English farmers avail themselves. On the 
 Continent all kinds of vegetables, as peas, beans, cabbages, cucumbers, &e., are preserved 
 through the winter months merely by salting them, and by this means any family which 
 has a garden can enjoy those vegetables all the year round which commonly are pur- 
 chased of the market gardeners at prices that preclude the middle class from availing 
 themselves of them. In pickling French beans they should first be sliced as for cooking, 
 then to every layer of 4 inches put one of half an inch of salt, until the barrel is 
 filled. Then put on an inside cover, weighted with a stone or an iron weiglit, to com- 
 press them, and let them stand for a month. About this time fermentation will have 
 taken place, and a layer of beans partially decomposed is found at the top of the cask. 
 These should be taken off, and the cover and stone well cleansed before putting them 
 on again, a clean cloth being placed under them. Every three weeks or mouth this 
 cloth should be washed and replaced. Before using the beans the salt should be mostly 
 washed from them with cold s])ring water, and they are then fit to be cooked in the 
 usual manner. By a similar process all other vegetables may be preserved for use 
 during the season when they can only be procured at great expense. 
 
 * Thus, aocordiug to BertboUet, ia a calcareous soil salt is gradually decomposed by the carbonate of lime which the 
 soil contains. By this action, carbonate of scdium and chloride of calcium are formed — the first having the properly of 
 dissolving silica, and prepares it for the plants, of many of which it is an important constituent. Carbonate of soda is 
 also a solvent for phosphoric and other acids, and thus prepares them for assimilation by the plants. 
 
710 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND IMODERN. 
 
 As a condiment for cattle salt lias Ijecomc an indispensable article on every modern 
 farm. AIL animals are extravagantly fond of it, and will follow their tender all over the 
 vard to obtain it. Although possessing in itself no inherent fattening properties, it acts 
 beneficiallv upon the food, so as to render it more nutritive ; and it corrects the 
 impurities in the blood in animals, keeping them in liealth and giving them more appetite 
 and zest for tlieir food. By its antiseptic properties it preserves them from various 
 epidemic and endemic diseases, commonly arising from impurities and a tendency to 
 putrefaction in tlie blood of h'lc/li fed animals particularly, but all receive benefit from 
 
 its use. 
 
 Nor does the benefit of salt end here. Tliere is not a doubt that manure made from 
 the dung of animals which have had rations of salt daily, is more valuable than from 
 tliat where salt has not been used. Thus, althougli, according to Boussingault, salt 
 possesses in itself no nutritive properties, it stimulates the animal system and tends to 
 increase tlic fattening properties of other food. IMixed with farm-yard manure also, in 
 the proportion of four or five hundredweight to every tliirty loads of uKinurc, it has a 
 very beautiful effect. By itself it is found an excellent preparation for wheat and barley, 
 at the rate of from 10 to .20 Ijushels per acre. It not only gives strength to the straw, 
 but it increase^ the yield of grain considerably, by cheeking a tendency to a too florid 
 vegetation, whilst it gives greater firmness to the roots. 
 
 The application of salt to the land is less necessary near the sea- coast than inland. 
 Tlic air from the sea is always charged with this mineral, and tlic winds landward convey 
 it in abundance to the adjacent fields, especially during storms. =i= Almost all rain-fall 
 in an insular country like England contains a more or less quantity of salt. Dr. Gladden 
 lias shown bv analysis tliat in the average raiu-fall of 31 iuclies at Pennicuik, in Scot- 
 land, it In-ought down upon the land of tliat vicinity no less than nearly G cwt. (041 lbs.) 
 of salt per acre. We may, therefore, conclude that lands exposed to the sea breezes are 
 sufficiently supplied with salt without an artificial application of it. 
 
 Salt is of great use to the fanner in a damp hay harvest, to prevent the liay from 
 getting mouldy on the stack. It should be sprinkled over every layer or dace of liay in 
 the proportion of from 28 lbs. to 10 lbs. per ton, according to the condition in which it 
 is stacked. There are seasons when it is impossible to get the hay dry enough to be 
 stacked alone safely; in v,hich case the addition of salt will l)oth preserve it and render 
 it more nutritious for tlic animals. 
 
 Salt, according to Berthollet, when applied to a calcareous soil, is decomposed by the 
 carbonate of lime ; and, Iiy a double decomposition, carbonate of soda and cliloridc of 
 culrium are formed. Now, carbonate of soda dissolves silica, and tlius a larger supply 
 of tliat clement U prepared, which enters so abundantly into tlic composition of the 
 stalks or straAV of cereal plants. Tiiis accounts for the fact that wheat and barley on 
 land dressed with salt are less liable to be laid tlian on that Avherc no salt has been used. 
 Carbonate of soda is ecpially a solvent for plio^phoric acid and other acids, and cdnsc- 
 (piently, as one of the representatives of salt in the soil, sujiplies the plants with these ' 
 essential elements of nutrition in greater abundance. 
 
 * When resiJins; within not less than four or five miles of the coast, the writer has frcqiienlly ohscrvcd the glass cf 
 I'lc windows spotted with salt Jnri;iu; a storm with the wind landward. 
 
FARM-YAP.D MANURE 
 
 ']] 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 FARM-YARD MANURE. 
 
 Far:m-yard manure is formed out of the produce of the larid^ as straw, chaff, hay, grass, 
 corn roots, &c., whether used as litter or consumed as food by the animals of the farm. 
 Formerly this was almost the only kind of manure used, and little trouble was taken to 
 preserve its more valuable properties. The grand object was to promote decomposition 
 as much and as quickly as possible. No effort was made to retain the volatile and other 
 ingredieftts, the copious escape of which, indeed, was made the test of the goodness of 
 the composition. If the " muck " had but a strong smell it was considered a certain 
 proof of its goodness. And so it would be, were the causes of the smell preserved in the 
 body of the manure ; but their escape into the atmosphere involve a loss of the most 
 valuable part — the ammoniacal and phosphoric matters so essential to the healthy 
 vegetation of the plants. 
 
 Chemistry has gone far to correct the erroneous practices of agriculturists in this 
 I'espect as well as in many others ; and the box-feeding or stabulation of cattle is 
 usually accompanied with arrangements for preserving the dung as well from the effects 
 of rain as from the esc 'pc of the volatile salts, which would otherwise fly off during the 
 process of fermentation. jNIany farmers now use a chemical preparation for fixing the 
 ammoniacal substances in stables and cattle Ijyres, where the escape is so great and the 
 effluvium often so strong as to affect the eyes and the breathing of a person on entering 
 a stable that has been closed during the night,* especially if the place is not properly 
 ventilated, which is too frequently the case. 
 
 Fermentation, however, is necessary to prepare animal and vegetable substances for 
 becoming the food of plants. "Without it they would remain in a crude state, in which it 
 would be impossible for the plants to assimilate them. In the process of fermentation they 
 become decomposed and separated, and if allowed to evaporate, the greater part will fly 
 off in various gaseous forms, and unite with their -kindred substances in the atmosphere. 
 There are only two principal agents in the composition of farm-yard manure — the straw 
 or litter, and the dung produced by the animals from the consumption of food. There 
 is a considerable difference, however, in the relative value of different kinds of straw, 
 and a still greater in that of the dung, according to the nature of the food on which 
 the animals have been kept. The following is the composition of different kinds of 
 straw :- 
 
 Carbon. 
 
 Hj-drogon' Oxygen 
 
 Nitrogen. 
 
 Ashes. 1 Total. 
 
 Wheat straw . 48-4 
 Oat straw . . SO'l 
 
 53 
 5-4 
 
 38-9 
 39-0 
 
 0-4 
 0-4 
 
 7-0 
 51 
 
 100 
 100 
 
 * A very simple methoil of rendering the escape of ammonia in a stable vaUiable may be practised by any farmer. 
 Place plates with common salt about the stable during the night. These will attract and fix the ammonia, which will be 
 shown by a stroiii/ effervescence. This will continue until the salt is saturated and can absorb no more. It is then Uie 
 sal ammoniac of commerce, and if preserved in bottles, has always a market price with the chemists. 
 
712 
 
 AGRIOULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The ashes of these straws are composed as follows, according to the analysis of three 
 eminent chemists : — 
 
 
 Ashes of Wheat Straw. 
 
 Potash 
 
 Bcrtliier. 
 
 Boussingault. 
 
 Fromberg. 
 
 10-36 
 
 5-30 
 
 232 
 112 
 0-4J, 
 2-82 
 77-00 
 
 9.56 
 0-31 
 8-33 
 5-19 
 1-04 
 3 22 
 104 
 0-C2 
 70-19 
 
 15-52 
 
 4-58 
 2-45 
 1-56 
 2-93 
 
 10-59 
 156 
 
 60-5S 
 
 Soda 
 
 
 
 Oxide of irou 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 Silica 
 
 100 00 
 
 10000 
 
 99-76 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 Sulphuric acid . . 
 Carbonic acid . , 
 Chlorine . . 
 Lime ... 
 Magnesia . . 
 Potash . . . . 
 Soda . . . 
 Silica . , . 
 Alumina . . 
 Moisture and loss 
 
 Ashes of Oat 
 Straw. 
 
 Boussingault. 
 
 3-0 
 
 4-1 
 
 3-2 
 
 4-7 
 
 8-3 
 
 2-8 
 24-5 
 
 4-4 
 400 
 
 21 
 
 2-9 
 
 1000 
 
 Ashes of Bai-ley Straw. 
 
 O.xldc of iron 
 
 Fromberg. 
 3-10 
 1-00 
 1-00 
 0-60 
 8-50 
 5 00 
 9-20 
 0-30 
 67-60 
 
 3-70 
 
 10000 
 
 The second material — the dung or excreta of the animals — exhibits a much greater 
 variety and value in its composition, according^ to the description of food on which thej' 
 have been kept. Thus, the dung from green and root crops is less valuable than that 
 from hay, and this latter than that from oil-cake or corn. These latter contain a larger 
 portion of the elements of fertility, -which are thus returned to the soil instead of being 
 sold off the farm. There is also a difference in the relative value of dung from the 
 various animals. As in the composition of the dunghill all these are generally mingled 
 together, the fertilising value of the heap will be in proportion to the predominance of 
 one or the other in making it up ; and, as the accumulated manure of a homestead would 
 require more room than can be commonly given to it on the spot, it is iisual to cart it 
 out of the yard, and form a heap in the field where it is intended to applyjt. The manure 
 should be transferred from the carts to the heap as speedily as possible, to close it against 
 the air, and prevent the escape of the gases which contain the elements of fertility. 
 
 In finishing off a dunghill, it should I5C left as square and firm as possible, and 
 covered over with mould to the depth of half a foot. This covering will receive and 
 retain the steam ai'ising during the fermentation of the dung. If salt is mixed with the 
 mould, it will materially assist this operation, besides adding to the efficiency of the 
 manure when the whole heap is mixed together and laid on the land. Morton 
 recommends sprinkling the surface of the dung-heap Avitli sidphuric acid as the most 
 effectual method of arresting and retaining the volatile -alkaline gases. Every kind of 
 vegetable sub:5tance may be used in the composition of farm-yard manure — such as 
 stubble, potato-haulm, turnip, and mangold tops, &c. These are valuable auxiliaries 
 
MANURES— THEIR DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERS. 713 
 
 when thrown into the straw-yard to be trodden by the cattle. Weeds of all kinds, also^ 
 provided they have not ripened their seeds, may be profitably added, and will thus be 
 made to return to the soil what they have surreptitiously taken from it. 
 
 When manure is carted into the field early in the season — which is often the case 
 during a hard frost, for the sake of employing the men and horses, as well as for 
 executing the work while the ground is hard, and consequently less liable to injury 
 from the operation — the dung-heap will require one or more turnings over to complete 
 the decomposition. The more the difterent kinds of manure are mixed together, the 
 better will be the aggregate. There are, however, some crops which are most promoted 
 by certain manures. Thus, horse-dung is the best for potatoes, whilst cow -dung is 
 adapted to turnips, being of a cooler nature. Pig's dung is of so hot a nature that it is 
 better it should at all times be mixed largely with others in the heap, where its strength 
 will be tempered by those of a colder and less powerful kind. 
 
 The manure should be carted to the fields in the order in which they are to be sown 
 or planted. Thus, the potato will require the first carting ; then the mangolds and 
 turnips ; and lastly the autumn-sown wheats, whether upon the first year's lay or on the 
 bare fallow. This latter is now only admissible when the land is foul with weeds, 
 requiring a summer-tillage to destroy them. If the fields are large it will be better to 
 have two dunghills, in order to lessen the labour when it is of most value to the 
 farmer. If possible, the heaps should be placed on the highest part of the field, in 
 order to lighten and expedite the work of distribution when it is wanted. 
 
 Stephens, in his " Book of the Farm," has some excellent observations on the loss of 
 time frequently incurred in carting out manure from the farm-yard, in consequence of the 
 carelessness exercised in distributing the straw and dung from the stables in the straw- 
 yard. Straw ropes are thrown in whole, and probably at full length ; barrows-full of 
 horse-litter rolled up and laid in heaps ; no regularity of spreading observed, with the 
 view of lightening the labour of loading it when removed to the field. From what we 
 have experienced of this neglect, we estimate the loss of time at not less than from 5 to 7i 
 per cent, from this cause — a serious loss to the farmer, and equally to the labourer when 
 upon piece-work, and much more laborious to him to accomplish. Dry weather, if there 
 has been no frost, is indispensably necessary for carting dung into the field. 
 
 In forming the dunghill in the field, every fork-full should be hard trodden down, 
 being spread as equally and as level over the whole surface as possible. A man should 
 be employed expressly for this work, which should not be left to the carter, who is 
 always in a hurry to got back for his next load. The treading and compression of the 
 heap will retard the fermentation, which toward the spring, when the temperature rises, 
 begins to act powerfully. At 65° Fahr. the second fermentation or decomposition takes 
 place, the first having taken off only the aqueous portions of the vegetable compound 
 whilst the second destroys the fibre and liberates the gases. 
 
 Some farmers cart the manure on to the fallows at once from the yard, and plough 
 it in when the state of the laud allows it. It requires, however, to have the soil free 
 from weeds to do this ; otherwise there is, no doubt, this advantage in it, that the 
 manure becomes more intimately mixed with the soil, and is less likelj' to render the 
 wheat too florid, which is sometimes the case when the manure is put on at the time of 
 sowing. The convenience of the farmer must determine the eligibility of this plan 
 in some degree ; but it appears reasonable that when manure is laid on long previously 
 
7] 1. AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 to the time of sowing, a considerable portion of its most valuable matters will be dissipated 
 and lost. This will especiallj'^ be the case if the mauure is allowed to lie in heaps on the 
 field, waiting for dry weather, to be ploughed in, which is not unfrequently the case. By 
 this means its value becomes greatly lessened by the evaporation of the volatile salts, and the 
 action of the rain upon it, which carries off the soluble portions. This, too, is effected with- 
 out fermentation, the heaps not being sufficiently large to admit of their gathering heat. 
 
 Many farmers now have dung-pits, into which the manure from the stables, cattle- 
 byres, mid pigsties, is thrown as it is made. Stephens approves of this method of 
 making the manure, and gives an instance of it which came under his own observation. 
 The pit was formed in the yard, and was covered over with thick planks, on which earth 
 was laid, and a pavement or trap-door was left to throw in and take out the dung. The 
 litter and excreta of thirty horses were thrown into the pit. The yard itself was covered 
 in to prevent the rain from getting in; yet in summer the whole mass was fermented 
 and got into a state for use within ten days or a fortnight, and in winter in three weeks. 
 Tlie heat was not so great as on some dunghills, nor was there, on its removal, any 
 perceptible escape of ammonia, only the aqueous fermentation having taken place. On 
 the other hand, the heat generated in the fermentation was not liable to be dissipated, as 
 that of a common dunghill would be, because every part except the top was enclosed from 
 the action of the air. By this means the temperature was as well preserved in winter as 
 in summer, which is an undoubted advantage. It is to be remarked, however, that this 
 case was not connected with a farm, but with an establishment belonging to a carter, 
 who kept the number of horses above stated, and, of course, sold the manm'c when it was 
 ready. There is no reason why it should not answer tlie purpose as well upon a farm, 
 except that the farmer is more dependent upon times and seasons, and is usually driven 
 by ivcather to adopt the shortest and most direct method of accomplishing an object. 
 
 Stephens recommends, or rather suggests, the plan of having a dung-pit erected at 
 the corner of four fields, if it can be so arranged. The walls to be of stone and lime, 
 6 feet above and 3 feet below the level ground. The shed should Ije drained all round 
 to keep out the rain-watei', and the floor well puddled to retain the dung-water. A 
 slied 10 feet wide, I) feet deep, and ITjO feet long, will contain 13,500 cubic feet of dung. 
 Such a shed, placed at the angle of four fields, would serve the purpose of all of them. 
 Stephens admits that this will occasion much more trouble and labour than the common 
 dung-heap ; but that the increased value of the manure will more than compensate for it. 
 
 Dung-pits are nnich in use in Flanders and Belgium, and are usually placed by the 
 sides of the highways, for the convenience of cartage. ^Ve have already given an account 
 of these in speaking of the agriculture of Flanders ; it is therefore unnecessary to repeat 
 it.* Tliat tliey have never until lately been proposed for adoption in this country is to be 
 ascribed to the strong prejudices of the farmers formerly to innovating practices. Tliis 
 disposition is happily a thing of the past, and the modern farmer is as much alive to 
 improvement and open to conviction as any other cLass. 
 
 Ilorse-dung ferments much more readily than cow-dung, and should therefore be 
 removed from the stables daily, fermentation taking i)lace in twenty-four hours. If left 
 in a heap for two or three weeks it will have lost thrce-tentJis of its weight ; whereas 
 cow-dung, after lying forty days, loses oidy one-fifth. The latter is of a more watery 
 nature, consequently evaporation is greater than fermentation ; and it should be sheltcicd 
 
 * Sec pp. ITHo 170. 
 
FARM-YARD MANURFJ. 
 
 715 
 
 carefully from tlie rain and sun. The following is tlie analysis of cow ancT horse 
 rlunsc : — 
 
 Water . . . 
 Nitrogen . . 
 Salire matters . 
 
 Fiosh Dung:. 
 
 Cow. Horse. 
 
 90fi0 . . 73-31 
 
 23 . . 5-t 
 
 113 . . 403 
 
 Dry Dunff. 
 Cow. * Horse. 
 
 3-3 
 
 12 
 
 2'3 
 16-3 
 
 Professor Johnston considers pigs' dung to be colder and less fermentable even than 
 cow-dung; but Stephens has found it a hot and excellent manure; and this agrees with 
 tlie former experience of the writer, and with the natui'e of the food given to pigs. 
 Boussingault gives the following analysis of this manure : — 
 
 
 Fresh. 
 
 Water . . 
 
 . . 81-00 
 
 Nitrogen 
 
 . . 0-03 
 
 Dry. 
 
 3-37 
 
 Water . 
 Nitrogen 
 
 Fresh. 
 030 
 111 
 
 Pigs' dung requires to be mixed with a large proportion of other manure if used for 
 corn, it being too strong of itself. Sheep-dung is drier than any of the foregoing, and 
 is richer in nitrogen. The following is Boussinganlt's analysis of it : — 
 
 Dry. 
 '. '. '. 1-99 
 
 The dung of young animals is less valuable than that of older ones. Thus, the urine of 
 
 a calf fed on milk contained only 1 lb. of solid matter in 1,000 lbs., whilst that from a full 
 
 grown cow contained 80 lbs. of solid matter and 8 lbs. of nitrogen in the same quantity. 
 
 Tiie following analysis of 1 ton of prepared farm-yard manure is given by Professor 
 
 Tanner, in the Journal of the Bath and West of England Society: — 
 
 
 Fresh Di 
 
 "g- 
 
 WcU-rottert Pung. 
 
 
 Number of lbs. 
 per ton. 
 
 ■Value. 
 
 Xumler of lbs. 
 per ton. 
 
 Value. 
 
 Price per lb. 
 
 Water 
 
 1482i 
 55* 
 
 5i 
 
 U 
 i 
 
 ll 
 
 a 
 
 577 
 
 ~21| 
 12* 
 13* 
 25' 
 
 ^i 
 
 2i- 
 
 lOi 
 
 .S. (/. 
 
 2 
 5 
 
 3 3| 
 
 lC89i 
 83 
 
 5| 
 8* 
 2* 
 1 
 10 
 * 
 
 % 
 
 It 
 23 
 
 287i 
 
 32 
 
 ■ 22* 
 
 21i 
 
 37* 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1* 
 29" 
 
 s. d. 
 4 
 
 0* 
 
 2 9 
 
 Ammonia 
 
 erf. 
 
 3 3-10lh9. 
 
 Ammonia 
 6(/. 
 
 Bone-earth 
 
 ¥■ 
 
 3 3-lOlhs. 
 
 Soluble organic matter .... 
 
 „ inorganic m.atter .... 
 
 „ silica 
 
 Phosphate of lime 
 
 Magnesia 
 
 Suda 
 
 (vbloride of sodium 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 Oarbonic acid and loss .... 
 
 ' Value of soluble matter .... 
 
 Insoluble organic matter .... 
 „ inorganic matter . 
 
 Soluble silica 
 
 Insoluble silica 
 
 J Oxide of iron and phosphates . . 
 
 5 H 
 
 6 9 
 
 0* 
 7* 
 
 7 3* 
 
 4 3 
 
 S| 
 3J 
 
 1 Magnesia 
 
 ] I'otash 
 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 Carbonic acid and loss .... 
 
 Value of insoluble matter . . . 
 Value of soluble matter .... 
 
 Total value of a ton of manure . . 
 
 2240 
 
 7 11 
 
 2240 
 
 5 3 
 
 — 
 
 7 11 
 
 5 8J 
 
 z 
 
 5 3 
 7 3.* 
 
 13 7i 
 
 12 6i 
 
716 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 The proportions of these elements willj of course, vary according to those of the 
 sources from whence the materials are obtained, and the care exercised in their pre- 
 paration. Manure made imder cover is more valuable than that made in an open yard, 
 exposed to rain and the powerful evaporation of the sun ; altliough this latter, in the 
 first instance, only draws off the aqueous portion, the liberation of the volatile alkalies 
 by the decomposition of the manure only taking place on the second fermentation. 
 
 The introduction of box-feeding of cattle is considered not only to be a great 
 improvement as it regards the economy of food, and the quicker preparation of the 
 animals for the butcher, but also as it regards the superior quality of the manure. In 
 this system none of the dung or urine is removed, but is trodden down by the animals, 
 fresh litter being constantly supplied to them, to be consolidated into a substantial mass, 
 which retains all the urine and other liquid matters of the excreta. Much, however, 
 even in this system, depends upon the quality of the food, the age of the animals, and 
 their condition, when put up to fatten. A half-fat animal will produce much better 
 manure than a lean one. The latter extracts and assimilates more copiously the 
 nourishment of the food, leaving the excreta very inferior to that from one approaching 
 to the required degree of fatness. At present, however, this question is under discussion; 
 and many practical men doubt whether the system, all things considered, has that 
 advantage over open feeding which its advocates so loudly assert. That a bullock will 
 fatten faster thus confined than when at liberty, may be correct; but whether the meat 
 will possess equally good qualities is doubtful. A series of analyses and experiments are 
 still required to set this question at rest. The following analyses were made at the 
 laboratory of the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester : — 
 
 Dried at 73° Fahk. 
 
 Box manure, Common farm-yard nianni'e, 
 
 per cent. per CL-nt. 
 
 Nitrogen 1115 .... 14 
 
 Equal to ammonia 2'37 .... I'TO 
 
 Organic matters removable bj water . . . C'44 .... 1'82 
 
 luorgauic matters removable by water . . 4'2S .... 2'78 
 CoiisistiDg of the followiag substances: — 
 
 Phosphoric acid 030 .... 021 
 
 Potash and soda 200 .... OSO 
 
 Lime traces .... traces 
 
 Silica — quantity not determined .... — .... — 
 
 Before drying, they contained, respectively, of water, box manure 71'04, and common farm-yard manure 
 71-00 per cent. 
 
 From these results, the box manure has the advantage in the retention of the more 
 valuable elements of fertility both soluble and insoluble in water. It requires further 
 experiments fully to determine, at least, the extent of the advantage, both manures Ijcing 
 made under equally favourable circumstances, which does not appear to have been the 
 case in this instance. Certain it is, that the confined space occupied in box-feeding 
 causes the manure to become more compressed and dense, which excludes the air to 
 a great extent, and, consequently, retards the process of fermentation ; and, on the 
 other hand, the wind and rain arc also excluded, which too frequently, in an open 
 yard, alternately rapidly evaporate and supersaturate the mass of manure, especially 
 if the adjoining buildings are not furnished with troughs at the caves, to carry off 
 tlie water. 
 
 There is an opinion \ery prevalent amongst farmers, that in order to render 
 
ANIMAL MANUIIES. 717 
 
 vegetable produce valuable as manure, it is necessary that it should pass through the 
 stomach of some animalj which imparts to it certain properties it does not otherwise 
 contain. This is entirely a mistaken notion ; for whether it is consumed or returned 
 to the soil in the natural state, it is equally valuable as a manure, provided it 
 becomes decomposed. Indeed, in the latter case the benefit is greater, because when 
 used for food a considerable portion of the elements of production are carried off by the 
 animals which have eaten it ; whereas, if ploughed in, the land receives the entire benefit 
 of it. The late Mr. Nesbit, in his lectures, has given several practical instances of the 
 beneficial effects of breaking turnips in pieces in the spring, before they run to seed, and 
 ploughing them in for the barley. In one instance in which they were thus treated in 
 part of a field, whilst on another part they were drawn off the land, the produce of the 
 first was 81 bushels of oats per acre, and of the second only 41 bushels. A part of 
 the field was fed off by sheep, and on this the produce was only 70^ bushels. Other 
 farmers, in their letters, estimate the increase of barley at 3 sacks of 4 bushels each 
 per acre ; the after-crops also were better in every respect. This plan, however, is 
 only advisable in case the farmer has more turnips than his sheep and cattle can 
 consume, under which circumstance it is not luiusual to allow a neighbour to feed, or 
 even to draw them off, rather than they should be lost. We have frequently seen fine 
 turnips thrown in heaps in ditches or on waste land, in order, as the owner expressed 
 himself, " to get them out of the way of barley-sowing," when, had they been broken 
 up and ploughed in, they would probably have increased the after-crops to the extent of 
 from 25 to 15 per cent. each. If, however, the farmer has cattle enough to consume 
 them on the ground, the present price of meat will make it more economical to 
 devote them to that purpose. This is easily estimated. One ton of Swedes has been 
 found to make 14 lbs. of mutton, and 1 ton of Whiteloaf turnips 10 lbs. Reckoning 
 a crop of the Swedes at 21 tons, and the Whiteloaf at 28 tons, the account will stand 
 as follows : — 
 
 21 tons of Swedes X U lbs. = 294 lbs. 
 28 „ Whiteloaf X 10 „ =280 „ 
 
 The present price of the best mutton is 6\d. per lb., therefore, 
 
 ■Z'di lbs. X GU- = £7 19 
 2S0 „ X dfid. = £700 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 ANBEAL MANURES. 
 
 Bone-dust. — Bones were, we believe, first used in England for manure in Cheshire. 
 About the middle of the last century, the Cheshire farmers employed them upon old 
 pasture-lands at the rate of 1^ ton per acre. They were broken with a heavy hammer 
 or mallet, and of course were spread in a very rough state. In some cases, they 
 cliarrcd the bones before applying them, and found it greatly improved the pasture- 
 
718 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 lands in that state. About the beginning of the present century, tlic use of bone 
 manure began to be common in England, but its intrinsic value could not be discovered 
 until means had been found to reduce the bones to a state in Avhich decomposition, and 
 the consequent liberation of the volatile salts, could take place. The bone-mill was 
 very soon invented, by which means, instead of lA ton of imperfectly broken bones, 
 5 or G cwt. of bone-dust was found to be an ample and durable dose. Even in this 
 form, the slowness of the decomposition caused the phosphates and ammonia to be given 
 out so deliberately, that the quantity stated lasted several years, continuing to give out 
 its volatile salts to the last. We have already shown that about 85 lbs. of bones contain 
 phosphates enough for a crop of wheat of 5 quarters per acre ; consequently, if that 
 quantity can be presented to the wheat in a form in which the crop coidd reap at once 
 all the benefit of it, bones would be the cheapest manure that could be invented. It is 
 a question whether the conversion of bones into superphosphate has not solved that 
 problem; and, by causing the instantaneous decomposition of the bones, reduced them 
 to a state in which all the elements of fertility they contain are at once available and 
 assimilable to the plants. 
 
 Bones are found to contain half their weiglit (or nearly so) of phosphate of lime. 
 There is, however, a great difl'crcnce in the composition of bones, those of young 
 animals eoutaining much less phosphate than older ones. Shee^J bones, also, are less 
 valuable than cattle bones, which latter arc also considered mote so than those of 
 the horse. Fish bones are inferior to all these,* and produce a very weak efi'ect upon 
 the crops, whether of wheat or turnips. 
 
 All bones collected by the merchants are jjoilcd before they are crushed, in order to 
 obtain the fat which constitutes the chief part of the profit. Horse bones are an 
 exception, their bones being solid, eoutaining very little fat. For this reason horse 
 bones are purchased at a very inferior price by the bone merchant, and being mixed 
 with the cattle bones, pass to the consumer at their full value. It is a question, how- 
 ever, whether they are not, unboiled, as good for the purpose of manure as the boiled 
 cattle bones. We are not aware of any analysis that will throw light upon this subject ; 
 but in purchasing large quantities of bones for crushing, the writer has always objected 
 to horse bones, under the conviction that they w'ere less \iscful. It is said that the 
 process of boiling does not deteriorate the agricultural value of the bones. The 
 question is, whether the fat contains any properties proper for the nutrition of 
 vegetables. We find all plants, upon analysis, contain a small portion of fatty 
 matters ; from which we conclude that the same substance in animals is derived from 
 vegetable food, and .that, therefore, to deprive the bones of it, must do them an injury 
 as manure. But besides tiie extraction of the fat, a very considerable quantity' of the 
 animal gelatine is also extracted. This, when purified and reduced to a certain state of 
 solidity, is sold to the Manchester manufacturers, who employ it in stiffening their cotton 
 fabrics. This reduces the proportion of nitrogen in the residue of the bones, which are 
 furilier deteriorated by being laid in heaps of from 100 to 200 tons, in a wet state, 
 as they are taken from the boilers. They there ferment and throw oft' a further 
 portion of the volatile salts ; and having heated themselves dry, are then prepared for sale 
 
 * We kuow aa iustaucc ia which a boue-crusher purchased a large quantity of whales' bones of the captaia of a 
 whaler, who had brought them home oa speculation. Our frieud mixed them freely with his cattle bones; but the 
 miiliire was found to be so inferior in cfl'ect, that he lost nearly all his trade by the speculation. 
 
ANIMAL MANURES. 
 
 719 
 
 to the crushers. The following is a series of analyses made by Dr. Voelckerj of the 
 lloyal Agricultural College at Cirencester :^ 
 
 Analyses of Halp-tnch Bones. 
 
 
 1. 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 4. 
 
 5. 
 
 6. 
 
 
 13-58 
 
 33-69 
 
 43-77 
 
 7-04 
 
 2-00 
 
 92 
 
 100-00 
 
 16-42 
 23-64 
 49-78 
 
 n-51 
 
 1-17 
 0-00 
 
 13-18 
 
 27-93 
 
 48-34 
 
 9-G6 
 
 1-63 
 
 00 
 
 13-36 
 
 28-32 
 
 48-49 
 
 8-10 
 
 2-18 
 
 0-00 
 
 9-46 
 29-20 
 52-06 
 
 6-n 
 
 2-88 
 0-17 
 
 11-17 
 
 34-95 
 
 47-50 
 
 4-53 
 
 1-61 
 
 0-00 
 
 Orgauic matters, gelatine, and fat . . . 
 Piiospbate of lime aud magnesia . 
 
 Carbonate of lime 
 
 Alkaline salts (chiefly common salt) . . 
 Saud 
 
 Containing nitrogen 
 
 Equal to ammonia 
 
 97-52 
 
 100-62 
 
 100-45 
 
 99-88 
 
 99-76 
 
 4-28 
 5-23 
 
 3-43 
 4-18 
 
 3-21 
 3-89 
 
 3-45 
 4-18 
 
 3-62 
 4-39 
 
 4-18 
 1 508 
 
 Analyses of Quabter-inch Bones. 
 
 
 1. 
 
 2. 
 
 3. I 
 
 Moisture 
 
 Orgauic matters, &c 
 
 Phosphate of lime and magnesia . 
 
 Carbonate of lime * . 
 
 Alkaline salts, &c 
 
 Sand 
 
 18-12 
 
 29-29 
 
 44-22 
 
 5-49 
 
 1-49 
 
 139 
 
 17-00 
 
 30-54 
 
 34-41 
 
 8-56 
 
 2-56 
 
 6-98 
 
 9-82 
 37-50 
 45-46 
 5-23 
 196 
 0-00 
 
 Containing nitrogen 
 
 Equal to ammonia 
 
 100-00 
 
 100-05 
 
 99-97 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 4-15 
 5-03 
 
 lu estimatiug the value of improvemeuts on taking a farnij a dressing of bone-dust 
 is calculated to last over three -white crops. If, therefore, only one crop has been taken, 
 it is considered two-thirds of the value of the bones remain in the land ; if two crops, 
 then only one-third remains for the incoming tenant to pay for. This is strictly a just 
 principle to act on in such cases, because bones in a crude state, however finely 
 pulverised, decay so deliberately that it requires several years of cropping to exhaust 
 the elements of fertilitj' they contain. We have shown, in p. 692, the quantity of bones 
 required to supply a crop of wheat with phosphoric acid, supposing that it could all be 
 liberated for the use of that one crop. If, then, four or six times that quantity is used 
 in the crude state, they -n'ould continiie to give out phosphoric acid and ammonia until 
 entirely decomposed aud reduced to bone-earth, all the volatile and soluble salts being 
 by that time liberated. 
 
 Bones are commonly made use of for the turnip crop, v.hich is certainly the most 
 economic application of them. Whilst they prove a powerful stimulant to the young 
 plants, they are not exhausted by them, as root aud green crops require much less 
 phosphate than -white crops. A dressing, therefore, of bone-dust, if applied to the 
 turnip crop, will last the whole course of cropping ; and the wheat, which comes last 
 (generally speaking), finds ample nourishment left in the soil to support it to maturity. 
 The usual quantity applied for turnips is 16 bushels, of 42 lbs. each, or 6 cwt. ; and it 
 is worthy of observation that an increase of the quantity has no perceptible eifect in 
 increasiug the crop. This proves that the turnip can only take up and assimilate a 
 certain amount of those matters contained in the bone-dust. Mr. Stephens made 
 experiments Ijy using from 12 to 2 i bushels for turnips ; and he found that the crop 
 
720 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 improved up to 16 bushels^ but beyond that quantity there was no perceptible effect. 
 He mentions also a case in which 8 bushels of bone-dust^ mixed with an equal quantity 
 of sifted dry coal-ashes, produced as good a crop of turnips as 16 bushels of bone-dust 
 without any ashes. 
 
 A great improvement has been effected in the application of bone-dust, as well as 
 other manures, by the invention of the combined drilling machines, which deposit the 
 bone-dust at the same time as, and under, the turnip seed. As this manure has nothing 
 of a caustic nature in it to iujure the vitality of the seed, it is a great advantage to 
 have the latter in immediate contact with the manure. A slight fermentation of the 
 bone-dust takes place after it is exposed to the moisture of the soil, producing a degree 
 of warmth which greatly promotes the vegetation of the seed. Bones, for turnips, 
 should in all cases be reduced to as fine a powder as possible, the young plants in the 
 first stages of existence being small and tender, aud requiring the immediate aid of the 
 manure to promote their growth. Inchor i-iuch boncAvould not have this effect; aud as 
 the turnip has only a few mouths to mature itself, the first stages of its growth are of 
 the most consequence, as the sooner the rough leaves of the plants appear, the quicker 
 will it get out of the way of the fly and other enemies. 
 
 Superpliosphaie of Lime is a preparation from bones treated with sulphuric acid, and 
 has introduced a more economic use of bones. In this case the bones are decomposed 
 and reduced to a gelatinous or pulpy mass, which, being mixed with dry saw-dust, 
 or coal-ashes, or dry vegetable mould, may be drilled or sown with the seed. 
 200 lbs. weight of bones, treated with 100 lbs. of sulphuric acid, diluted with 200 lbs. 
 of water, is sufiicieut for an acre of land j and if mixed with farm-yard manure, 1 cwt. 
 of bones, 56 lbs. of oil of vitriol, to 10 or 12 tons of dung per acre will be sufficient for 
 the crop. Mr. Pusey recommended the following method of treating bones for manure: 
 ]\Iix 4 cart-loads of bones with the same quantity of sand, mould, or saw-dust, in 
 a flat-topped heap. The bones should be fully saturated, and the other material 
 moistened, with water. In a few days, such a heat will be generated as to render 
 it unbearable to the hand. Cover the heap with sand, to keep in the heat. If the heap 
 is turned over at the end of a fortnight and again watered, the largest bones will have 
 been dissolved at the end of a month ; and if broken small, they will take much less 
 time. Mr. Pusey fouud that 8| bushels of bones thus treated, produced as good a crop 
 of turnips as 17 bushels of bone-dust at double the cost; and that by increasing those 
 quantities one-half, no benefit to the crop was perceptible. The following is the 
 process recommended for manufacturing the superphosphate of lime, or as Stephens 
 calls it, " sulphated bones :" — 
 
 The bones may be dissolved either in a tank (whether of wood, zinc, or iron), or 
 on a heap of ashes in the open air. As this latter mode is the least expensive one, and 
 may be conducted on any scale without a costly apparatus, we shall describe it : — 
 
 " First lay a platform of ashes, well screened, in the field you intend to manure. 
 Calculate the quantity 2ie>' acre to be applied, aud multiply it by the number of acres. 
 The platform must be 12 feet wide, 1 foot deep, and in length according to the extent 
 the ashes will reach. The ground under the heap should be perfectly level and hard, 
 and the centre of the ashes, to the extent of 6 feet, should also be beaten or trodden 
 hard, as on that part the bones arc to be laid, aud the acid also would otherwise escape 
 tln-ougli the ashes. This is a main point in the process. 
 
ANIMAL MANURES. 721 
 
 "The bones having previously been crushed in the i-inch mill, must be drawn 
 alongside the heap iu Iwgs, and emptied on the centre of the ash-heap or platform, 
 where it has previously been trodden hard, allowing them a base of 5 feet, so that 
 G inches of the solid floor of ashes remains on each side. Lay on the bones so as to 
 bring them to an angle of 45° with the apex. When they are all laid on, bring the 
 water-eart alongside, and with a common large watering-pot saturate the heap of bones 
 all over until they have absorbed as much water as they will hold. The excess will 
 flow through them into the rim of hard ashes left at the side of the bones. This 
 watering should be repeated thrice, on separate days, taking care each time to water 
 them as evenly as possible. They will of course require less and less water each time ; and 
 always leave off as soon as the water begins to flow in the gutter. On the fourth day, 
 the bones being ready for the acid, lay about 3 inches thick of ashes at the foot of the 
 bone-heap, beating them hard, to prevent the acid from escaping. Then bring the carboys 
 to the side of the heap, and have ready a large, new, or, at any rate, perfectly sound 
 watering-pot, with a rose to it, the holes in which must be examined to see that they 
 are quite open, so that the acid may flow freely from them. Two men must then take 
 a carboy, and, removing the stopper, place it about a foot high on a heap of ashes, or 
 anything else that is handy. One man must hold tlie water-pot, while the other gently 
 pours out the acid, filling the pot three parts full. This must be poured evenly over 
 the bones, the man walking on the 3-foot border of ashes. When half the quantity 
 required is applied (that is, in the proportion of 120 lbs. of the best oil of vitriol to each 
 quarter, or 8 bushels of bones), the heap will begin to smoke, bubble, and shrink down 
 visibly. The remainder of the acid must then be applied as quickly as possible. Then 
 the men, with their spades, must begin at one end to cover the heap with the ashes on 
 the border, beating them hard, and bringing them to a ridge at the top, to prevent the 
 steam from escaping, or the wet from penetrating. As soon as the water-pots are done 
 with, wash off all the acid, both within and without, which will prevent them from 
 taking injury from it. 
 
 " The heap must stand a fortnight before it is disturbed. It must then be turned 
 carefully four or five times, thoroughly to mix the dissolved bones and the ashes, 
 breaking the lumps as you proceed. If the heap were to remain a month or two, it 
 would make the manure much better, taking care, if it be done in a rainy season, to 
 cover the heap with thatched hurdles to keep off the moisture."* 
 
 Superphosphate, made in the above manner, is being extensively and successfully 
 used in Hampshire and the adjoining counties. One bushel of superphosphate has 
 been found equal to 4 bushels of crude bones; and Nesbit states that it will produce 
 some effect on the crops of future years. 
 
 The remarkable, but well-established fact, that where bone-dust is sown upon grass- 
 land, white, or Dutch clover invariably springs up in abundance, has caused much 
 discussion and conjecture as to the cause of such a phenomenon. At first, the farmers 
 concluded that imported bones must have contained the seeds, and that they had 
 thus got disseminated through the masses of bone-dust. The fact that boiled bones 
 produced the same effect staggered those who had entertained this opinion, and scienee 
 has explained the mystery in a more reasonable and satisfactory manner. A chemical 
 
 * See a pamphlet entitled "Agriculturists their own Superphosphate Makers, &c.," hy A. G. Lock, Vitriol Works, 
 Southampton. 
 
 3 A 
 
723 
 
 AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 analysis sliows that white clover contains a large portion of phosphate of lime, and that 
 soils destitute of that material give no encouragement to its growth, and even where 
 sown, it remains in a weak state, smothered by the coarser grasses. Bones, then, 
 supply this constituent ; and therefore, wherever they are employed as manure on 
 pasture, this plant instantly avails itself of it, and acquires a vigour which enables it to 
 exterminate its former rough rivals. Almost all the soils of England contain the seeds 
 of the white clover. We see it spring up by the sides of roads, and in other positions 
 where it is impossible that it ever should have been sown otherwise than by nature. 
 It is said that after the fire of London the site of the ruins became covered with white 
 clover. This was accounted for by the dispersion of the lime from the destroyed 
 buildings, causing the seeds of the white clover to vegetate after being buried for 
 centuries. 
 
 It may be supposed that the action of superphosphate on vegetation is much more 
 rapid than that of bones simply ground. In fact, the process of decomposition, which, 
 if left to nature, would reqiiire years to complete, is by the application of the acid effected 
 in a few weeks ; and by it every alimentary portion of the bones is rendered available 
 to the plants. A small quantity, therefore, of tliis manure will produce as great an 
 effect, if directly applied to the seed, as six or eight times its weight of crude bones. 
 This is given upon the supposition that the constituent parts of the bones have 
 undergone no diminution in the process, a question which we raised in p. 693, and which 
 we now again recur to, namely, whether, in the process of dissolving bones with sulphuric 
 acid, they do not lose at least a portion of their most valuable constituents ? The 
 following analyses will perhaps throw some light on this question : — 
 
 Analyses op Superphosphates and Bones. 
 
 Water .... 
 Organic matters . 
 Phosphates . . 
 Sulphate of lime 
 Sulphuric acid 
 Alkalioe salts 
 Lime .... 
 Magnesia . . . 
 Silica .... 
 
 Ammonia . . . 
 Soluble phosphates 
 
 Superphosphates. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1. 
 
 2. 
 
 
 10-50 
 
 23-97 
 
 6-20 
 
 2G-47 
 
 1618 
 
 39-13 
 
 34-29 
 
 27-18 
 
 48-95 
 
 12-14 
 
 11-39 
 
 — 
 
 14-40 
 
 12-93 
 
 3-15 
 
 0-72 
 
 2-54 
 
 — 
 
 ■ — 
 
 — 
 
 2-57 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 0-30 
 
 1-4S 
 
 5-81 
 
 0-30 
 
 10000 
 
 100-00 
 
 — 
 
 3-17 
 
 1-32 
 
 4-48 
 
 22-97 
 
 19-58 
 
 — 
 
 It appears, by these analyses, that while the superphosphate contains an average 
 of about 17 per cent, of water, the proportion in bones is only 6'20. This is easily 
 accounted for, not only by the water with which the sulphuric acid is mixed in the 
 process, but the acid itself has so strong an affinity to water, that when left exposed to 
 the atmospheric currents it will attract the moisture, and thereby increase its bulk 
 indefinitely. On the other hand, the organic materials, which in the two analyses of 
 superphosphate average about 21 per cent., figure in bones at 3913 per cent.; and 
 while the phosphates in the first average about 30-50, those of the latter value at 
 48'95 per cent. The proportion of ammonia is equally superior in bone, valuing at 
 
ANIMAL MANURES. 
 
 723 
 
 4'48 per cent., wliile tlmt in the superphosphates averages only 2'25 per cent. The 
 great advantage, therefore, in using the dissolved instead of the crude h(mes, is their 
 being prepared for immediate assimilation by the plants, and, consequently, a smaller 
 quantity is needed. It is probable, however, that the action of the acid in its highly 
 diluted form, by which its more caustic properties are modified and reduced, exercises 
 an important influence on the plants by the increased temperature it creates in the 
 soil. One and a half cwt. of superphosphate is equal in immediate effect to four 
 times its weight of crude ground bones, but in real value is not worth more than 
 1 cwt. of bones. This shoidd be taken into account when purchasing the super- 
 phosphate, and should induce the farmer always rather to purchase the bones, and 
 manufacture the superphosphate himself, by which a considerable saving will be effected. 
 Independent of this, some of the makers put in a considerable portion of lime and 
 gypsum, which reduces its value, and is a fraud upon the purchaser. Large quantities 
 are also made from fossil bones, or coprolites, which ai-e found in various parts of the 
 country. Although the superp]io.sphato made from these is efficient, it is less so than 
 that made from fresh bones. 
 
 In manufacturing his own superphosphatCj the farmer will have the advantage also 
 of using unboiled bones, supposing he employs persons in towns to collect them for him. 
 This is no trifling consideration when we remember that all the fat, and a large portion 
 of the gelatine, is extracted in the process of boiling;* and although some of the 
 bone-boilers throw the liquor from the pans over the heap of bones, still this is not equal 
 to letting it remain in the bones and applying the acid to them, in their original state; 
 and, at any rate, all the fatty matters contained in them are lost. By an experiment 
 made by a French gentleman in 1844 of different manures on grass-land, it was found 
 that gelatine from bones was the most productive. The following is the statement 
 of the produce of one hectare of land (2 acres 1 rood 35 perches), with different 
 manures : — 
 
 Produce of One ITectake op Grass Land in Two Yeaes feom different Manvebs. 
 
 Manures. 
 
 
 l8t Year. 
 
 2nd Year. 
 
 Totals. 
 
 
 kiIogi"3. 
 
 kilogrs. 
 
 kilogrs. 
 
 kilogrs. 
 
 No raanure 
 
 — 
 
 3-820 
 
 4-486 
 
 8 300 
 
 Sulphate of ammonia 
 
 250 
 
 5-56-i 
 
 4-170 
 
 9-734 
 
 Nitrate of soda 
 
 250 
 
 5-690 
 
 4-390 
 
 10-080 
 
 Nitrate of lime 
 
 250 
 
 5-397 
 
 4-420 
 
 9-817 
 
 Muriate of lime 
 
 250 
 
 3-830 
 
 4-] 10 
 
 7-940 
 
 PhQS])hate of soda 
 
 300 
 
 4-320 
 
 4-657 
 
 8-983 
 
 Burned Ijones 
 
 800 
 
 3-658 
 
 4-677 
 
 8-336 
 
 Gelatine of bones 
 
 500 
 
 6-383 
 
 4-923 
 
 11-306 
 
 Pernvian guano 
 
 600 
 
 6-360 
 
 4-703 
 
 11-063 
 
 
 300 
 
 5-403 
 
 4-820 
 
 10-229 
 
 Linseed oil-cake 
 
 SOO 
 
 4-420 
 
 4-660 
 
 9-080 
 
 Rape-seed „ 
 
 600 
 
 3-393 
 
 4-509 
 
 7-902 
 
 
 SOO 
 
 4-043 
 
 4-810 
 
 S-S'iS 
 
 Brae 
 
 800 
 
 3-853 
 
 4-273 
 
 8-126 
 
 
 * These matters contain the nitrogen, which, according to Schlieper, constitute 18'47 of the organic portion of bones. 
 The following are the organic constituents : — 
 
 Carbon 50-50 
 
 Hydrogen 690 
 
 Nitrogen 18-47 
 
 Sulphur 0-56 
 
 Oxygen 23-57 
 
 100-00 
 
724 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 Thus, ill the two years, the gelatine exceeded the lowest produce iu the scale by 
 3 006 kilogrammes of grass, or upwards of 3 tons ; and the highest next to itself, 
 namely, the guano, by 243 kilogrammes, or 53 i lbs. ; which proves, plainly enough, the 
 importance of retaining the gelatine in the bones. 
 
 Chiano. — This now celebrated and favourite manure was, as we have stated, introduced 
 into Europe about the year 1840. It was sold, in the first instance, at .£20 per ton, 
 and was found to be so powerful as a manure, that it was said to pay even at that high 
 rate. It contains, indeed, such a condensation of the most valuable constituents, that a 
 small quantity of it, applied in a direct manner, produces an extraordinary efiect. Thus, 
 in the West Indies, the planters make a hole midway between two cane plants, into 
 which they put about half a pint of guano; and so powerfully does the ammonia extend 
 itself, that the dressing is quite sufficient for the cane crop. The late Mr. Nesbit recom- 
 mended it to be used with salt, iu the proportion o-f 2 cwt. of guano and 4 cwt. of salt, 
 to prevent the wheat frombeing lodged, which the luxuriance superinduced by the guano 
 alone would be apt to occasion. The best Peruvian guano ought, according to the same 
 valuable authority, to contain 16 or 17 per cent, of ammonia, and from 25 to 30 per 
 cent, of phosphate of lime ; but there are many other kinds of guano of a very inferior 
 composition, not worth one-fourth of the Peruvian. The extraordinary qualities of this 
 latter, undoubtedly, are owing to the circumstance, that the islands on which it is 
 deposited are never subject to rain. On the adjoining mainland rain is almost a prodigy, 
 a period of seventeen years having been known to elapse without a single shower. The 
 consequence is, that the guano, which is a deposit of the dung of myriads of sea-birds, 
 never has its soluble salts washed out ; which is not the case with that which is brought 
 from any other part. 
 
 The wonderful properties of this manure were not likely to escape the notice of the 
 fraudulent traders in artificial compound manures. Spurious articles of the most worth- 
 less and villainous description were manufactured, and palmed off as genuine guano, but 
 oflPered somewhat below the real kind. Sand, marl, clay, chalk, limestone, ground bricks, 
 tiles, gypsum, and especially a reddish yellow earth found in abundance both near London 
 and Liverpool, and approaching very near the colour of guano, were employed to a 
 greater or lesser extent in manufacturing this manure, a small portion of the genuine 
 article being added to give it the proper smell. Some of these dishonest traders having, 
 upon being prosecuted, been cast with heavy damnges, and the farmers having become 
 rather more alive to the value of cheap guano, the trade is now almost cut up ; and the 
 facility for having the samples offered to them analysed, the buyers now have the matter 
 in their own hands, and can, without much expense, ascertain the intrinsic value of a 
 sample. The following is Mr. Nesbit's analysis of an average sample of Peruvian guano ; 
 and also the average of 32 samples analysed by Wens — 
 
 I. n. 
 
 Moisture 15'10 
 
 Organic matter, &c 51 27 
 
 Silica 220 
 
 Phosphate of lime 22'13 
 
 Phosphoric acid (equal to) 3'23 
 
 Phosphate of lime — 
 
 Alkaline sails G 07 
 
 touoo 
 
 Nitrogen 13'5i 
 
 Ammonia 1642 
 
 Water 1300 
 
 Organic matter and salts of amibonia . . 52fil 
 
 Sand 5 51 
 
 Earthy phosphates 241 2 
 
 Allialine salts 8'73 
 
 Ammonia yielded by 100 parts .... 17'41 
 
ANIMAL MANURES. 
 
 725 
 
 The followiug analyses are still more minute, and were made by two eminent foreign 
 chemists^ of different kinds of guano — 
 
 
 Oellaeher. 
 
 Brownish yellow 
 Guano. 
 
 Bartels. 
 
 Bi-ownisli red 
 Guano. 
 
 Urate of ammonia 
 
 12-20 
 
 17-73 
 6-90 
 
 11-63 
 
 225 
 
 . 0-SO 
 
 1-06 
 
 130 
 
 2016 
 1-65 
 040 
 492 
 
 4 00 
 1-6S 
 
 0-75 
 12-57 
 
 10000 
 
 3-244 
 13-351 
 6-250 
 4-J90 
 6500 
 
 16 360 
 
 0-100 
 1119 
 5-291 
 4-227 
 5-800 
 0-104 
 OGOO 
 
 22-918 
 
 Oxalate of ammouia 
 
 Phos|ihate of ammonia 
 
 Ditto ditto and magnesia . . . 
 
 Muriate of ammouia 
 
 Carbonate of ammonia ........ 
 
 Ilumate of ammouia 
 
 Oxalate of lime 
 
 
 Carbonate of lime 
 
 Chloride of sodium, or common salt . . . 
 Sulphate of sodium 
 
 Phosphate of sodium 
 
 Sulphate of potash 
 
 Sand 
 
 Alumina ... 
 
 Waxy and resinous matter 
 
 "Water and volatile ammonia, undefined organic 1 
 matter and loss J 
 
 
 The success attending the introduction of the Peruvian guano led to the search for it 
 in other parts of the world, and deposits were discovered on the coast of Patagonia, at 
 Saldanha Bay, on the south-east coast of Africa, and at Ichaboe, an island on the west 
 coast of Africa. Of Peruvian guano there are two kinds, the Angumos, which is the 
 recently deposited, and that from the old deposits. The formei', which is collected by 
 hand at a much greater expense than the latter, is also more valuable, as it contains a 
 larger proportion of amnioniacal matters. It therefore fetches a higher price in the 
 market. The rainless district, in which the best guano is found, reaches from the 
 Chincha Islands, on which the largest deposits are found, to the coast" of Bolivia, and 
 comprehended between the 14th and 21st degree of south latitude. Beyond those limits 
 the quality is very inferior, as the following table will show : — 
 
 
 Average 
 
 per centage of 
 
 Ammonia. 
 
 Average 
 
 per centage of 
 
 Kailhy Phosphates. 
 
 Angamos 
 
 21-10 
 
 17-41 
 
 730 
 
 2-54 
 
 1-47 
 
 17-22 
 24-12 
 30-30 
 44 60 
 56-46 
 
 Ichaboe 
 
 Patagouiau 
 
 Saldanha Bay 
 
 Thus, while the Peruvian guano is extremely valuable on account of the large amount of 
 ammonia it contains, the Saldanha Bay guano can only be purchased for its phosphate 
 of lime, so that, while the former sells at from £9 5*. to £\0 per ton, at the ships' 
 sides, the latter averages about £o per ton. That from Ichaboe is of intermediate 
 quality, and fetches from £7 to £7 \Qs. per ton. 
 
 The increased importation of this manure is a proof of the estimation in which it 
 is held by the agriculturists. In 1850 the quantity imported was 100,000 tons; and 
 that of the two last years was respectively, in 1861, 178,423, and in 1862, 141,636 tons 
 We believe that by far the largest portion of these quantities was the Peruvian, or the 
 
726 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 highest priced article ; but if we take it at the average value between that and the 
 Saldaulia Bay guano, namely, £1 per ton, the British farmer has paid fur this new and 
 extra mauui'e the enormous sum of £2,210,413 sterling in the two years, besides 
 purchasing indefinite quantities of home-made artificial manures, bones, oil-cake of 
 various kinds, and a multitude of other substances never thought of formerly. If we 
 add to these the increased amount of farm-yard manure now made, by the increased 
 production of root crops, and of cattle to consume them, it can no longer be said that 
 the agriculturists are either penurious or sparing in their outlay for the improvement of 
 their land, or the increase of their produce. 
 
 With regard to a prospect of a continuance of tlie supply of guano, so far as the 
 Chincha Islands arc concerned, there ajipcars to be no fear of its being exhausted at 
 present. There are three islands, each of which is about six miles in circumference. 
 The deposits, in some parts, preseut a compact unbroken precipice of 200 feet in height. 
 In other parts it is not more than 50 or 60 feet high ; but in all eases, so hard has it 
 become, that the sailors who obtain it arc compelled to blast it with gunpowder in 
 order to separate the masses. So inexhaustible do these deposits appear, that the 
 abstraction of 300,000 tons produces no sensible diminution of them. It generally 
 appears in layers of from 3 to 6 inches in depth. 
 
 Many of the deposits on the main laud are covered with sands; and Humboldt 
 mentions, what is still more extraordinary, that on the ^lexican coast deposits have 
 been discovered under rocks, mixed with the bones of seals and other marine animals, 
 as well as the remains of sea-fowls. It is impossible for an European who has never 
 visited those regions to form an adequate conception of the number of the birds by 
 which these deposits are made. "When on iiight they darken the air for miles, darting 
 down in countless myriads to catch the pilchards with which those seas are filled. 
 Towards evening they make their way to the islands, or those spots of the mainland to 
 which their inclination directs them. 
 
 It is estimated that when Peruvian guano sells for £10 per ton, the ammonia it 
 contains costs the purchaser, on an average, 5t?. ])er lb., or £2 G*. 8(/. per cwt. Kcsbit 
 reckons the value of ammonia in the market at £3 per cwt. or about ij\d. per lb. ; so 
 that in purchasing the best Peruvian guano, the buyer etfecis a considerable saving in the 
 most essential constituent of manm'c, besides having it in combination with other 
 matters of almost equal value, or at least that arc indispensable to the plants, and in a 
 form the best adapted for developing its extraordinary powers. Guano should be kept 
 perfectly dry, and as little exposed to the air as possible. Lime or ashes should only be 
 mixed with it when about to be used on the land. It is either applied bi'oadcast as a 
 top dressing, or by being ploughed in ; or it can be drilled in rows under the seed, but 
 care must be taken that it does not, in its fresh state, come in contact with the seed, I'or 
 so powerful is its natui-e that it will infallibly destroy the vegetative principle. The best 
 way, therefore, is to either sow it broadcast, and plough it in some days before the seed 
 is put into the ground, by which means the ammonia will have dispersed itself througli 
 the soil ; or to apply it as a top dressing, in tlie ease of wheat, in the spring, mixed, as 
 we have stated, with s-alt, iu order to check the exuberant growth of the straw, and 
 prevent it from Ijcing lodged. For turnips it is best mixed with farm-yard manure. It 
 is frequently applied with great effect with a green crop, whether of buck-wheat, or 
 other kind, ploughed iu as manure. In tliat case, 3 cwt. of guano will supply the 
 
ANIMAL MANUKES. 72^7 
 
 more important elements of fertility, and the greeu manure furnishes that iu which the 
 guano is deficient. Morton states, that he has known 30 tons of carrots raised per 
 acre on land thus treated, the green manure being dug in. The spade, in fact, is at all 
 times the most efficient, and, in the result, the cheapest implement in the cultivation of 
 the carrot, which requires a soil deeply pulverised, and to have the manm'e, whatever it 
 may be, well mixed to the very depth of the tillage. 
 
 The number of substances that give value to Peruvian guano are very few, not more 
 indeed than three, namely, the various forms of ammonia, as shown in the minute 
 analysis ; the nitroyen, which also eveutually passes into ammonia ; and the phosphate 
 of lime and magnesia. All the other elements are of less value, and may be obtained at 
 little cost ; but it behoves the purchaser of guano, or any other special manure, to 
 ascertain, by analysis, the quantity of these three ingredients contained in them before 
 closing his bargain. The foUowiug is the scale of value of the different materials found 
 in guano, and other manures, as given by the late Mr. Nesbit : — 
 
 Multipliers of Valae. 
 
 Nitrogen X74 per ton. 
 
 Ammonia 60 
 
 Phosphate of lime 8 
 
 Phosphate of lime, made soluble . . 24 
 
 Organic matter 1 
 
 Alkaline salts 1 
 
 Sulphate of lime (gypsum) .... 1 
 
 Silica no value. 
 
 Carbonate of lime ,, 
 
 In estimating the value of different manures according to the above scale, 
 Mr. Nesbit has given the following rules. 
 
 " Consider the analysis as representing the components of 100 tons. Multiply the 
 respective amounts of each ingredient by its price per ton in the preceding table ; add 
 up the several products, and the sum will represent the value of 100 tons. Divide this 
 amount by 100, and the quotient will be the price per ton." The following examples, 
 given in the same work, illustrate the principle : — 
 
 I. Valuation op an Average Sample or Peruvlan Guano.* 
 
 Value per 
 
 ton. Total. 
 Moisture 15'10 
 
 Organic matter 51'27 X £1 = 51 
 
 Silica 2-20 
 
 Phosphate of lime 2213 X 8 = 176 
 
 Phosphoric acid 3'27 
 
 Phosphate of lime (made soluble) .... 700 X 24 = 1 68 i 
 
 Alkaline salts, &c 607 X 1 = 6 
 
 Nitrogen 13-54, equal to 10000 
 
 Ammonia 1042 X 60 = 260 
 
 100) £13/61 
 20 
 
 Value, £13 12s. per ton. ) a. lg/20 
 
 * See Nisbtt'a " Lectures on Agricultural Chemiatry," pp. 12-t — 12(3. 
 
728 AGRinULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 3. Valuation or a Good Sample or SuPiiKPUospHATr. of Lime. 
 
 Value per 
 
 ton. Total. 
 Moisture J9-82 
 
 Organic matter 20-73 X £1 = £0- 
 
 Silica 2-80 
 
 Soluble phosphate 10'25 
 
 Neutral phosphate (made soluble) .... 16-00 X 2t = 384 
 
 Insoluble phosphate 16 00 X 8 = 136 
 
 Hydrated sulphate of lime 29-81 X 1 = 30 
 
 10000 
 
 Ammonia 2-00 x 60 = 120 
 
 100 ) £6/91 
 20 
 
 Value, £C 18s. per ton. )«. 18/20 
 
 5. Valuation of a Slbsiance lately introduced into Commeece, called "Mexican Guano." 
 
 Value per 
 
 ton. Total. 
 
 Moisture 324 
 
 Organic matter 13-56 X ^1 = £ii 
 
 Silica 0-60 
 
 Phosphate of lime 25-60 X 8 = 208 
 
 Carbonate of lime 46-14 
 
 Sulphate of lime 10 86 X 1 = H 
 
 100-00 
 
 Nitrogeu 021, equal to ammonia .... 0-26 X 60 = 15 
 
 100) £2/48 
 20 
 
 Value £2 9s. per ton. ) s. 9/60 
 
 Special Manures, according to SteplieuSj are those compouud manures -which are 
 specially adapted to certain plants. He therefore^ very properly, does not include in 
 this category either farm-yard manure, bones, or guano, all of which are equally 
 applicable to every kind of crop in one form or degi'ce, or another. Kor does Mr. Stepliens 
 include those manures that are avowedly coucocted as substitutes for bone-dust and 
 guano.* The term special or specific manure is applied solely to those compounds which 
 are intended to promote the growth of certain plants for which tliey are peculiarly 
 adapted by the similarity of their constituent parts. Liebig has obtained the credit of 
 having first suggested the subject of special manures to the agricultural world. But 
 here again, as in the case of superphosphate, this certainly great chemist takes credit as 
 an inventor, when he is only a copyist. Mr. Grisenthwaitc, a young chemist whom 
 the writer had the pleasure of knowing, having met him at the annual sheep-shearings 
 of T. W. Coke, Esq., at Holkham, published a small work on the subject, which the 
 writer has now before him.t It was issued in 1818, and dedicated to Mr. Coke, under 
 
 * " Book of tlie I'arm," 4905, vol. ii. p. 414. 
 
 t As an illustration of the correctness of Mr. Grisenlhwaite's views on this subject the following simple anecdote was 
 related to the writer by Grisuiithwaiie at the time it occurred, which was tiveiili/ years before hiclig started as new 
 the theory of speciiil manures. A lady was complaining to Mr. Grisenthwaitc that slie could not keep her plants alive, 
 although she took infinite pains to do so. Jlr. Grisenthwaitc took a sample of the mould and of the plants; analysed 
 them both ; found in what the former was delicicut, and gave it to tlie lady in a clicmical form. After this she had no 
 further reason to complain of the dilliculty of keeping her plants alive. 
 
ANIMAL MANURES. 729 
 
 the title of "A New Theory of Agriculture." Mr. Grisenthwaite was then living at 
 Wells, or Lynn, in Norfolk, but afterwards removed to Loudou, aud eventually, we 
 believe, to Nottingham. "Whether he is still living the writer is not aware, but he 
 feels pleasure in bring able to hear testimony to his claim to a discovery and its 
 practical application, which, after a lapse of twenty years, is ignored, and the invention 
 claimed by one who needed not such an act of self-appropriation to increase his fame 
 as a first-rate chemist and man of science. 
 
 Grisenthwaite issued a second edition of his work in 1830, in which the following 
 passage occurs, which indelibly establishes his claim to the invention of the new system. 
 " The subject of specific manures has never been regarded by practical men, nor even 
 been considered by Avriters on the theory of agriculture, though some practices have 
 been recommended, and some opinions formed, even from the earliest ages, which are 
 only explicable upon the principles here laid down. Aud yet when viewed in its 
 relation to the whole economy of agriculture, it forms, perhaps, one of the most 
 important, as it is certainly one of the most interesting, objects connected with it. 
 Upon the clear understanding of it depends the successful business of the faiuner. It is 
 calculated to raise the operations of the agriculturist to a level with those of the 
 manufacturer ; and instead of committing the cultivation of the soil to accident, as if 
 nothing were understood resj)ecting it more than the mechanical preparations of it for 
 the seed, it will serve to explain upon what causes growth and production, and, 
 consequently, their opposites — abortion and non-production — fundamentally depend ; 
 and, of course, will enable him to provide against both. Agriculture may be considered 
 a system of operations designed to convert manxire into certain vegetable matters ; ' aud 
 the land, or soil, performs the oifice of an instrument in the process ; that all the care 
 bestowed on its preparation is only intended to render the conversion more certain and 
 complete ; that it accomplishes these desirable ends by facilitating the action of air, 
 heat, light, &c., upon the substances committed to it, and by giving to water a freedom 
 of motion through it. This view of the business of agriculture will open to us many 
 objects which have hitherto escaped observation, and which have never excited attention 
 or reflection ; perhaps because the whole operation has been thought beyond the power 
 of the human mind. "What is done spontaneously, aud without any co-operation of 
 man, is called natural ; what is done by his exertions is called artificial — as if the same 
 laws did not govern the result in both ; whereas man, under any cii'cumstances, can 
 only bring the laws of nature into action, — he cannot create new laws, nor modify those 
 which already exist. But to distinguish between those which are in action without 
 his care, and those which he calls into play by his own labour, has placed a great 
 impediment in the paths of science, and stopped for a long time the career of discovery. 
 It has repressed inquiry by pronouncing it to be vain, aud exertion, by declaring its 
 inefficiency."* 
 
 Such were the opinions and sentiments of a scientific man upwards of forty years 
 ago; and although he lived evidently too soon for the intelligence of the time, and 
 great advances in science have since been made by agriculturists, the record he has left 
 may be read with profit in this more enlightened and scientific age, when, by the recom- 
 mendation of a more fortunate, but not more skilful chemist, the principles he so 
 clearly laid down are being reduced to practice. The merit of Grisenthwaite was 
 
 * " Xtw Theory of Agficullure," p. 'JO. 
 
730 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 so mucli tlie greater that lie stood almost aloue iu his views, which nevertheless were 
 based uj)ou the most correct data, namely, a knowledge of the constituent parts of 
 vegetables, and a comparison of them with those of the manures intended to be 
 applied. 
 
 Thus, the grain of wheat is chiefly 'composed of starch and gluten. The specific 
 manure, therefore, for this cereal should be replete with phosphoric acid and nitrogen ; 
 and cattle bones contain these elementary substances in a greater abundance than any 
 other manure. Iu barley, the nitrate of soda and nitrate of potash (saltpetre) are 
 essential elements. The proper manure, therefore, for tliis grain should contain a 
 proportion of these materials if the soil is destitute of them, or holds an inadequate 
 quantity. A few pounds per acre will be sufficient. For beans, Grisenthwaite recom- 
 mends manure containing a portion of subcarbonate of potash ; and for peas, the super- 
 oxalatc of lime, that material beiug a prominent constituent in the pea. For sainfoin, 
 clover, lucerne, and other of the trifolium class of plants, sulphate of lime, or gypsum, 
 has proved the best specific manure. This substance was at one period recommended 
 to be applied to evei'y description of crop, and many farmers were led astray by it, 
 having, upou trial, found it do no good whatever to wheat or other grain. Even as a 
 mechanical dressing, intended to improve the texture of the soil, it is inferior and far 
 less durable than chalk or marl, on account of its solubility. But the trefoils require 
 gypsum for healthy vegetation, and to assist in the assimilation of other materials 
 peculiar to their own nature, or the development of their distinctive characters.* 
 
 The turnip and mangold require sulphuret of lime, which when brought into contact 
 with water evolves sulphuretted hydrogen. If gypsum is mixed with common coal, and 
 the compound be exposed to great heat, the sulphuric acid of the sulphate will be 
 decomposed, and a sulphuret formed, which being ground to powder will prove a good 
 top dressing for turnips. f 
 
 Next to the knowledge of the specific manure required for certain jjlauts, is that of the 
 quantity necessary to be applied. This is an important point, because that which may be 
 necessary for that particular plant may not suit the crop which follows, and any excess 
 therefore will, so far, be thrown away, or at least must remain in the soil dormant until 
 the same crop comes round again in the course ; the interest, therefore, at least of the 
 money, is lost, as well as the use of it. " It ill accords with my notion of what farming 
 in the present day ought to be," says Mr. Nesbit, " that a man should put a sufiicient 
 quantity of manure upon his land to last for nine or ten years, losing the interest of his 
 mouey for the whole of that time. As well might he put £10,000 into a bank, aud 
 keep it there for ten years, simply because he might want to spend a thousand a-year, 
 thereby losing some hundreds a-year of interest during the period. The introduction of 
 artificial manures has inaugurated a new era iu the art of farming. ... I would impress 
 upon you, that if you proceed on the old system, when you have the means of 
 determiuiug exactly how much manure you require, you arc only wasting yoiu- capital 
 and losing your interest. You can grow any crops you like, by attending to this 
 matter. Is it not foolish to administer at once to the soil as much as would suflice 
 for three, or four, or five crops, when the land is subject to all the vicissitudes of rainy 
 seasons, when almost everything soluble must be washed out of it ? Instead of a 
 quarter, or a quarter aud a half, of bones being necessary, as formerly, a few bushels, 
 
 " '• New Tkeory of Agricidluri.-," p. 11 G, t Va\i., p. ll'J. 
 
LIQUID MANURE. 731 
 
 acted on by a third of their weight of acid, and rendered soluble, will produce not only 
 an equal, but a better crop, and some efiect may even be seen in subsequent years."* 
 
 What is here shown in reference to bones, may be also applied with equal truth and 
 propriety to other manures. Thus, if turnips are taken off the laud instead of being /tf/ 
 off upon it, the barley will require a top dressing ; and 8-L lbs. of either guano or nitrate 
 of soda, and 4 cwt. of common salt, will be abundantly sufiicient. 
 
 There are now manufacturers of artificial manures who profess to sell specific com- 
 pounds for each description of vegetable ; and that this may be done is certain ; but, at 
 the same time, the manufacturer must either be a chemist himself, or he must employ a 
 chemist who is well acquainted with the anatomy of the plants of the farm, and the 
 nature of those chemical substances forming their constituent parts. Without such 
 knowledge, the farmer will still be working, as it were, blindfold, and must apply his 
 manure, both as to nature and quantity, quite at random. 
 
 Nor is such caution the vagary of a mere speculative man of science ; although, even 
 in that case, it would be worthy of ever}' attention. How few of the practical men are 
 acquainted with the nature of that on which they mainly depend for success — the farm- 
 yard manm-e. Still fewer are those who give themselves the trouble to preserve the 
 most essential parts of that manure, which, in fact, are the most easily lost. A practical 
 man,t writing on this subject, makes the following sensible observations : — ■" The natural 
 sense of the most uareless farmer will inform him, on putting his mixen together, and 
 for some time afterwards, that some of the result of this operation is escaping into the 
 atmosphere. If he would lend an ear to science, she would inform him that, under 
 exposure to the air, decomposition of the manure takes place ; that the consequence is, 
 the liberation of the gas which has attracted his attention ; and that this gas is the 
 essential spirit and vital agent in the production of his green and cereal crops, departing 
 from the body which he has been at the cost of collecting together and making. He 
 has probably devoted much time to unavailing lamentation over ^Jrices — the unremune- 
 ratiug price of 40s. per quarter for his wheat. If he would bestow the same attention 
 on contriving means for arresting and appropriating this volatile essence, he would 
 probably find that he might thereby obtain its equivalent in quantity. If his farm, 
 manured with the caput mortuum which he has been accustomed to use, has yielded him 
 24 bushels of wheat per acre, it is a very moderate assumption that, with skilfully -made 
 and well-preserved manure, the same land would yield him 30 bushels. A simple calcu- 
 lation will demonstrate that he has thereby placed himself in the same position as if he 
 had sold his 24 bushels at the hoped-for price of 50s. per quarter, to say nothing of the 
 relatively increased value of the succeeding crops of his rotation." 
 
 Uqidd Manure.— The question of the comparative value of liquid and solid manure, 
 and of town sewage as a modification of the first, is at present occupying the attention 
 not only of the agriculturists, but of the legislature itself; for such is the magnitude to 
 Avhich the sewage of the metropolis and other of our large cities, and the question of its 
 economic and sanitary disposal, have arisen, that it has been deemed advisable to 
 appoint a Committee of the House of Commons to inquire into the value of the sewage, 
 and the possibility of disposing of it in such a form and manner as to render it available 
 for the purposes of agriculture, at an expense that will induce the occupiers of land to 
 avail themselves of it. The report of the commissioners has been delivered in ; and we 
 
 * " Agricultural Chemistry," p. 29, f Mr. Lawrence, of Cirencester. 
 
732 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 shall have occasion to refer to it, after describing the mode of preparing and using the 
 liquid manure made on the farm. 
 
 The best known and most strenuous advocate of the use of liquid manure is Mr. 
 Aldermau Mcclii, of Tiptree Hall Farm, near Colchester, whose unsparing expenditure 
 of money in experimental farming, while it has drawn down upon him the ill-will of 
 ignorance and prejudice, has, in a few years, converted a barren and intractable heath 
 into a fertile and productive farm, producing every kind of crop in an abundance that 
 amply repays him for the outlay. Believing, as we do, in that gentleman's perfect sin- 
 cerity and veracity, as well as in the correctness of his views regarding the value both 
 of the farm liquid manure and the town sewage, we cannot do better than take the 
 description of his plan of managing the first for our model, and shall therefore, without 
 scruple, cop3' from his own account of it. 
 
 Mr. ]\Iechi feeds his cattle on the slabulation principle, and the floors of the cattle 
 sheds are so constructed that the liquid and solid droppings from the animals pass 
 through the interstices of the boards into a cellar or cave underneath. This cellar is 
 connected with a tank outside by a 2-inch pipe on one side, and with a supply of water 
 on the other, which, by a powerful jet, washes the manure from the cellar into the tank. 
 This operation is repeated twice a week, when the place is completely cleaned out. 
 
 The tank itself is 30 feet deep, and the same in diameter at its widest part, and it is 
 connected with other smaller ones which discharge their contents, collected from other 
 departments of the homestead, into it. A boy-spring capable of supplying 30,000 gallons 
 of water per day communicates with the main tank, and pours into it enough water to 
 fill it to the depth of 12 feet. Two pumps of 20-inch stroke and 5A-ineh bore, each 
 capable of raising and discharging, at ordinary speed, 80 gallons per minute, are connected 
 ■with the tank. 
 
 The liquid manure being prepared in the tank, is raised by the pumps, and poured 
 into pipes, by means of main pipes. The pipes are of 3-inch diameter, of cast-iron, and 
 are laid in at the depth of LS inches all over the farm, at a regular distance from each 
 other. A liydraut, or iron post-pipe, is placed in connection with the conveying pipes 
 to every 1 1 acres, and gutta-percha hose from these convey the liquid manure to every 
 part of the farm. These hose are 200 yards in length; and half of it is 2 inches, 
 and half 1^ inch, diameter. One man, and a boy or lad to assist him, distributes 600 
 hogsheads per day, and the pumps are so constructed as to supply either liquid manure 
 or plain water, as may be required. 
 
 The expense of thus furnishing the apparatus for 170 acres, Mr. Mechi estimates at 
 MQQQ, or about .63 10*. Id. per acre ; but we think it advisable not to take it at less 
 than £4 or £4 5*. per acre, to allow for casualties. This expense covers tanks, pumps, 
 iron pipes, gutta-percha hose, and every other expense, except the steam-engine by which 
 the whole is worked, and of which only three-horse power is required. An abundant 
 supply of water is absolutely necessary to carry this system out to perfection. The cost 
 of one day's application of the liquid manure on 10 acres Mr. Mechi gives as follows : — 
 
 s. d. 
 
 Interest on capital at 7i per ccut GO 
 
 jry engineer's pay for one day (a youth from the farm) 1 C 
 
 One man in the field, U. Crf. ; one youth do., 1j 2 6 
 
 Coals for engine (this is, in fact, \s. more thau the cost, as we use screenings at 9i. per ton) . 3 
 
 13 
 
TOWN SEWAGE. 733 
 
 "Thus, Is. 6d. per acre will more tlian cover the cost of distributing 150 tons of 
 manure or water on 10 acres of land ; and even if it costs more, under less favourable 
 circumstances than mine, the expense is ridiculously small in comparison with the 
 ordinary cost and waste."* 
 
 Liquid maniire is especially useful on light soils. In Belgium and Holland, as we 
 have seen, it has been the sole means of rendering large tracts of such land fertile. lu 
 those countries every kind of organic matter is brought into requisition, and amalga- 
 mated with farm -yard manure and night-soil to make up a compound in their tanks. 
 The cheapness of labour, and the sraallness of the farms, in the management of which 
 the women and children take a share, render this mode of manufacturing manure much 
 cheaper than it would be in England, where every species of labour has to be paid for 
 in hard cash. Notwithstanding this, there is no doul^t that the English farmer could, 
 if he were disposed, find means of preparing and applying it in an economical manner. 
 Mr. Mechi has, at a great expense, both shown the way how to do this, and illustrated 
 its advantages on a broad scale. Others may safely adopt the system at much less 
 expenditure of money. Of the utility of liquid manure as a fertiliser, no one can have 
 any doubt who knows anything of the agriculture of the Low Coimtries, where the 
 poorest sands have been made to produce the finest crops both of roots, grain, and clover. 
 
 Toion Sewage. — It has long been a subject of perplexity that so large a portion 
 of the produce of the soil raised for the subsistence of man should be consumed without 
 affording any compensation to it for its abstraction. An overwhelming portion of the 
 cereal produce, and of the animals fed on the green and root crops, are consumed without 
 any adequate return to the soil, by way of restoring the elements of fertility of which it 
 has been deprived in their production. For many years this question has occupied the 
 attention both of scientific and practical men — agriculturists, chemists, mechanicians, 
 and others ; but such is the contrariety of opinion respecting the value, and the means 
 of rendering available the sewage of our towns, that hitherto, with the exception of a 
 few instances, nothing has been done to solve the question, or to clear it of the ambi- 
 guity under which it seems to lie. In the metropolis, indeed, the subject has been 
 allowed to remain in abeyance so long that its magnitude has reached such a point as to 
 render it trulj^ formidable to grapple with ; and in pure despair of arriving at any 
 satisfactory conclusion as to the disposal of the sewage in an economic way, it is about 
 to be conveyed away to the Essex marshes, and consigned to the Thames, some ten or 
 twelve miles below the city, in the hopes that it will be thus wholly and for ever disposed 
 of as a nuisance to the inhabitants ; and thus the excreta of three millions of people, of 
 the estimated value of one pound per head per annum, is lost to the country and to 
 agriculture. 
 
 Notwithstanding the proceedings of the Metropolitan Board of Works thus sum- 
 marily to dispose of the sewage of London, many of the farmers on tlie line of tlie 
 projected canal, for the conveyance of it to the Thames, are desirous of obtaining a 
 portion of it in its transit, in order tO distribute it over their grass and other lauds ; and 
 the question now to be determined is, whether it is to be granted to them free, or 
 whether a rent is to be charged upon the land for the permission to use it. The circum- 
 stance, however, of the application on the part of the farmers proves that they have at 
 length become aware of its value, and that, provided it can be rendered available at 
 
 * " How to Farm Profitably," p. S7. 
 
734 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 a small expense^ it cannot fail of being beneficial. This is an advance in tlic I'ight 
 direction, becanse when once convinced of its valuCj there is no donbt bnt that the means 
 will be found to render it available. 
 
 As in the case of liquid manure, so on the question of the application of town sewage, 
 Alderman Mechi has been the first and the most constant advocate for its use ; and on 
 several occasions he has brought the subject before the members of the Central Farmers' 
 Club at their monthly meetings, as well as other public bodies. The last occasion of the 
 kind was on the evening of the first Monday in March, 1863, after the report of tlie 
 Sewage Commission of the House of Commons had been published. As this report goes 
 fully into the question of the value of the sewage, we shall abstract from it such portions 
 as we consider necessary to put the reader in possession of the m;iin points of the subject. 
 
 It is estimated that, taking the population of the United Kingdom in round numbers 
 at thirty millions, and the value of consumable articles of food at £9 per head per 
 annum, we obtain the amount of .€370,000,000 sterling as the consumption of the whole 
 country. The value of the excreta from it is estimated at 10 per cent., which again 
 gives a value of j627,000,000 sterling. In most country places in which the water-closet 
 has not yet been introduced, the excreta is disposed of to the neighbouring farmers, and, 
 without having any data to go upon, we may estimate that one-third is thus economised. 
 But it is in the towns that we must look for the great body of excreta, and of these not 
 more than ten or twelve, containing populations amounting probably to not more than 
 four or five hundred thousand persons, have adopted the plan. We shall now give the 
 results at the principal of these places, as stated in evidence before the Committee of 
 the House of Commons, in 1862 : — 
 
 At Croydon, in Surrey, the sewage has been used for some time, and jMr. Fenton 
 gave evidence of its utility. But the most conclusive testimony was that of JMr. Mar- 
 riage, of Chelmsford, who has recently taken the farm of 300 acres on which a part of 
 the sewage of the town of Croydon is expended. For this farm he pays .€1,500 a year 
 rent ; and as the land lies on a gentle descent from the town, no power is required to 
 distribute the sewage, of which he obtains the liquid excreta of about 18,000 persons, 
 the solid matter being arrested by filtration. The sewage, too, is mixed with a million 
 gallons of water daily, and this, it appears, is doubled by the rain-fall arid springs. Yet 
 so beneficial is it to the land, that the first summer (of 1861) lie took the farm, the 
 grass was so stout that he had to pay \Qs. per aci-e for mowing; although "in May you 
 might have seen a lark running on the ground, so bare was it." Mr. Marriage has laid 
 down the whole farm in grass, of which he intends to sell the produce to the London 
 cowkeepers. In direct contradiction to Professor Voelcker, he stated that he found his 
 cattle gained flesh as fast again on the grass at Croydon as they did at Chelmsford ; and 
 the milch cows, also, of which he stalled fifty, produced a large quantity of milk, and at 
 the same time gained flesh and kept healthy. He added that he " certainly considered 
 sewage water to be very valuable for grass lands under favourable circumstances." 
 
 The next ease we shall take is that of Edinburgh. The principal witness was 
 S. C. Miller, Esq., late M.P., the proprietor of the Craigentinny meadow.s, near Edin- 
 burgh. The quantity of land operated upon is 250 acres, 200 of which are irrigated by 
 gravitation, and the remaining 50 acres by hydraulic pressure. The sewage is conducted 
 by main carriers and open gutters, and flows constantly night and day, except in winter, 
 when, during the night, it is allowed to run into the sea. There is every variety of soil 
 
TOWN SEWAGE. 735 
 
 on the farm, from a sand (40 acres) to a sti'ong clay (also 40 acres), and some very fine 
 medium soil. The sewage, Mr. Miller states, is good for all soils, but the sand, of 
 course, filters it the most effectually, discharging the water clear into the ditches. The 
 grass is first cut between the last day of March and the 1st of May, and the crops are 
 let by auction every year from the 1st April to the lOtli of October. The sewage is 
 applied twelve times a year. Tlie average letting is £22 per imperial acre for the six 
 and a half months. The Edinburgh cowkeepers are generally the purchasers of the 
 produce, having to fetch it six miles. The greatest produce is received in hot weather. 
 " It is marvellous to see the grass in hot weather when it has been cut in the morning, 
 and the roots are quite white from a heavy crop ; they will be green iu two days." The 
 best time for applying the sewage is immediately after the grass has been cut. He says 
 again, " The sewage is a marvellous application of manure, not only in this, but in 
 various other cases, and we shall all come to it, more or less, in the course of time, and 
 when better understood, I am quite satisfied." The slope of the land is 1 in 100. The 
 crops vary with the season, independent of the sewage. Hot, dry summers are most 
 advantageous. The rent, however, is fully maintained. "The sandy land produces more 
 than the clay land, but less than the rich, friable land." In proceeding from the town, 
 the sewage becomes mixed with the water of several small brooks and streams, in the 
 same way as the sewage of the town of Mansfield is conveyed by a small stream into 
 which it was made to flow to the Clipstone Park meadows, belonging to the Duke of 
 Portland. Mr. Miller's testimony was confirmed by that of Mr. Hope, a neighbour, 
 who stated that the " sandy land next the sea is worth, in its natural state, 5s. per acre. 
 I suppose it would now let at £30 per acre to a cowkeeper. When the sewage passes 
 from the sandy land to the sea it is quite pure. You could not tell that it had been 
 dirty water at all. Cowkeepers prefer the sewage grass to the ordinary young unirri- 
 gated grass." Mr. J. C. Morton spoke of the effect of the sewage on the Lochend 
 meadows, Edinbvu'gh. They were laid down with Italian rye grass, and irrigated by 
 pumps, pipes, hose, and jets, receiving from 600 to 800 tons at each cutting. The 
 produce realised from j£21 to £27 10s. per acre, the soil being a very light one. What 
 is most remarkable in this ease is, that although Edinburgh lies 7° further north than 
 Croydon, the grass is a fortnight earlier there than at the latter place, which IMr. Morton 
 ascribes to the greater quantity of sewage applied to it. 
 
 At Birmingham the sewage amounts to about 12,000,000 gallons daily, but water- 
 closets are only very partially adopted in the town, and the greater portion of the excreta 
 is received in cesspools and ash-pits. Sixty tons per day of solid matter is also inter- 
 cepted from the sewage, and given away to the farmers after being partially dried, and it 
 is fetched eight or ten miles. The liquid sewage flows over 60 acres of land, which 
 yields enormous ci'ops of grass, and it is grazed very late, the hay being also much 
 eai'lier upon it than on the neighboui-ing lands. The sewage flows into the river Tame, 
 and some of the farmers have already conveyed it thus diluted over their meadows, at 
 an expense ranging from £9 10s. to £15 per acre ; and it was stated by Mr. Tell, the 
 borough surveyor, who gave evidence before the committee, that others in the vicinity of 
 the river were anxious to avail themselves of it. It is considered that the sewage irriga- 
 tion, withoiit other manure, was quite equal to that of water on manured meadows. It 
 was also stated that it cost the town of Birmingham £6,000 per annum to get rid of the 
 cesspool sewage, night soil, &c. 
 
& 
 
 b 
 
 736 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 From Rugby there was the e\'icleuce of Mr. J. C. Morton and Mr. Lawe.s. The first 
 spoke of a crop of Italian rye grass, which, after nearly maintaining forty-five cows for 
 four weeks, had then a crop of 9 tons per acre upon it. The sewage was pumped up 
 by an engine of sixteen horse-power, and conveyed by pipes over the surface. Mr. Lawes, 
 in contrasting the effect of dry manure with sewage, stated, that the largest produce he 
 ever obtained from an enormous quantity of dry manure was about 12 tons per acre of 
 green produce, whilst from sewage the produce was 32 tons. " Twelve pounds is a large 
 rent for a very good water- irrigated meadow; if you put on sewage, you would probably 
 get from J30 up to £40 per acre. I could get from £30 to £40 rent per acre for the 
 15 acres at llugby, if I put on sewage enough; but if water irrigated, £6 to £7 per 
 acre — that is, if the sewaged meadows had received 20,000 tons of sewage per acre. I 
 suspect that amount is put upon some of the Edinburgh land." The unsewaged land kept 
 a cow for twenty weeks ; the next acre, receiving 1,500 tons of sewage, kept a cow forty 
 weeks ; the next acre, 3,000 tons, kept a cow fifty-eight weeks ; the next acre, which 
 received 4,600 tons, kept a cow sixty-six weeks. The milk was valued at 8d. per gallon, 
 and produced — 
 
 Unsewaged acre £11 3 
 
 1,500 tons sewage do 18 14 
 
 3,000 tons sewage do 8G 18 
 
 4,600 tons sew?t2;e do 31 11 
 
 These careful experiments establish, beyond a doubt, that the quantity of grass 
 increases as the quantity of sewage is increased, and that the application of sewage 
 produces much earlier and much later feed. These experiments were made at the 
 instigation of the Sewage of Towns Government Commission of Inquiry of 18G2. The 
 Commission paid £5 per acre rent, and one penny per ton for the sewage ; but ^Mr. Lawes 
 considers that it might be conveyed to the land at about one farthing per ton. The 
 experiments were conducted for two years, and over an area of 15 acres. The sewage 
 was all measured, the grass weighed, and strict tabular accounts kept of every detail, the 
 manure analysed, &e. The five-acre field produced 33 tons of grass per acre. The ten- 
 acre field produced 27 tons. With an enormous quantity of ordinary or dry manure, 
 no more than 12 tons could be obtained. 
 
 At Watford, in Hertfordshire, the sewage of the 4,000 inhabitants is taken by the 
 Earl of Essex, who gave evidence before the Committee. He stated that he had applied it 
 with great advantage (barring engineering mistakes) to almost every kind of crop. When 
 his mangold failed, he transplanted a field of them at the middle or end of June, and 
 saturated it with fresh sewage. He had the finest crop ever seen in that neighbourhood 
 — say, 47 tons per acre ; applies 600 tons to ordinary grass, and gets enormous crops ; 
 and puts 5,000 tons per acre per annum on Italian rye-grass. It would pay well at a 
 halfpenny or three farthings per ton, and he uses 60,000 tons a year. It has a permanent 
 influence on the soil : 600 tons per acre has destroyed fern and a quantity of plantain 
 and coarse weeds of that kind, which have been replaced by valuable grasses. 
 
 Similar testimony to the value of town sewage was given by persons from Coventry, 
 Carlisle, Malvern, Chatham, and other places, proving what, in fact, common sense 
 alone, with the slightest knowledge of the nature and effect of manure, might convince, 
 that water charged with a portion of organic matter must be more beneficial to the land 
 than without it ; and that the benefit will be derived in proportion to the quantity 
 
TILLAGE A SUBSTITUTE FOR JIANURE. 737 
 
 administered. It is not wished, on the other haud^ to conceal tlic fact that there arc 
 persons of weight in tlie scientific worhl who are opposed to the use of sewage, and of 
 tliese is Professor Voeleker, who considers it too great a nuisance to be tolerated on the 
 land. At the meeting of the Farmers' Club, in the discussion which followed Alderman 
 Mechi's lecture, he spoke sti-ongly against its use, and endeavoured to show that grass 
 from sewaged land coutaiuiug more nitrogen than other grass was less nutritive, and that 
 animals fattened upon it gained flesh more slowly tliau on unmauured grass. This 
 opinion, which was entirely theoretic, and founded on analysis, was flatly contradicted 
 hy the practical remarks of Mr. iMarriage, which we have already referred to, and than 
 Avhich nothing could be more satisfactory and conclusive. 
 
 It is probable that before this work goes to press, the gigantic preparations for 
 conveying the sewage of the metropolis to the Essex marshes, and thence into the 
 Thames, will have been finished, and that hydraulic apparatus will be erected on the 
 whole line of the canal for conveying the sewage over the adjacent meadows and fields. 
 The light thrown on the subject by the evidence given before the Committee of the 
 Commons cannot fail of having its effect on the minds of those who occupy lands con- 
 veniently situated to receive it. ]\Ir. Lawes' practical experiments, and Mr. Marriage's 
 business-like narration at the meeting of the Club, are conclusive on tw'o points — that 
 sewage grass is more valuable for milch cows than other grass, and that " bullocks fed 
 upon it fattened twice as fast as on common grass." "We shall close by giving Alderman 
 ileehi's concluding speech: — He "was very glad to have had a confirmation of the 
 evidence in the remarks of ]\Ir. Marriage, who could show the largest instance of sewage 
 irrigation within about 103 miles of London. If the grass produced near Croydon were 
 of such fattening quality, it might be inferred that elsewhere the result would, under 
 similar circumstances, be equally satisfactory. He quite agreed with those who said 
 that the question turned on the cost of putting sevvage water on laud; but he could not 
 agree with Professor Voelcker or any other man who said that by mixing sewage ^itli a 
 certain quantity of rain or other water, it lost its qualities, and became useless." 
 
 Tillage a Substitute for Manure. — A rather remarkable work, written by ]Mr. 
 Alexander Burnett, land agent, was published a few years since (1859), in which the 
 subject of tillage versus manure is treated in a masterly manner ; and as it involves 
 principles of considerable importance to the husbandman, v.'C propose to ofler some 
 observations on the arguments brought forward in the work referred to. 
 
 We have already given an account of the Lois Weedon husbandry, which is a revival 
 of the system and practice of the celebrated TuU at the beginning of the la.'-t century. 
 Por many years (fifteen) Mr. Smith has grown wheat on the same land without any 
 manure whatever ; and so far from having exhausted the land by this practice, it appears 
 from his account that the produce of the average of seasons has rather increased than 
 diminished, subject only to the vicissitudes to which the wheat-plant is liable under all 
 or any circumstances. It is on the successful result of the Tullian and Lois Weedon 
 system of husbandry that IMr. Burnett chiefly bases his theoiy of tillage v. manure. 
 
 It is well known that the ancient tillage of a farm was confined to the production of 
 cereals, there being neither green nor root crops to provide for. To rectify the exhaus- 
 tion which a succession of white crops must necessarily occasion, the land was subjected 
 every third or fourth year to the bare fallow, and if very much exhausted, it was allowed 
 to lie fallow a longer period. The fallow was absolutely necessary both to allow for the 
 
 3iJ 
 
Whent. 
 Bushels. 
 
 Barley. 
 Bushels. 
 
 Oats. 
 Bushels. 
 
 13 
 
 24 
 
 24 
 
 IG to 20 
 
 30 
 
 33 to 40 
 
 23 to 2i 
 
 33 
 
 3G 
 
 2CJ 
 
 3S 
 
 4i 
 
 738 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 renovation of fertility aud for tLe destruction of weeds, wliicli, in tlie produetiou of two 
 or more successive corn crop.s, were certain to accumulate from year to year. Altliougli 
 during the cycle of three or four years each succeeding crop decreased in a compound 
 ratio, it does not appear that the system itself was of an exhaustive cliaracter; for, 
 according to tlie ratio of pi'ogrcssive production, it would appear that the acreable produce 
 of the soil increased in amount. The following table, given in Mr. Burnett's work, 
 illustrates this : — 
 
 "Estimate!! Ackeaiu.e Corn Peoduos of England at Vakious Periods. 
 
 1 la the thii'tceuth century 
 
 2. Latter iiart of the sixteenth 
 
 3. Third quarter of the eighteenth, at which pericJ | 
 
 ^he okl corn husbandry prevailed . . . } 
 
 4. MiJok of the nineteenth 
 
 Thus, under the ancient system of husbandry, with the help of such improvements as 
 it admitted of, not only was the fertility of the soil maintained, Init it was increased. 
 Yet but little manure was applied to the tillage lands, the bulk of what was made being 
 given to the pasture land to ensure a good crop of hay, Avhich, in the absence of root 
 crops, was of the tirst importance to keep alive the cattle and sheep during the winter 
 months. Tiie ploughed fields i-eeeivcd only the surplusage, with a questionable addition 
 procured by laying dry straw in the lanes, to be trodden by the horses aud other 
 animals -of the farm into manure, and thence carted to the tilled lands. It was from 
 observing the effect of this system of husbandry that TuU came to the conclusion that 
 the fallow was the real fertiliser, and his convictions were reduced to certainty when he 
 examined the process practised by the vine-dressers of France aiul Italy, who, by merely 
 comminuting the soil, and keeping it perfectly clean, secured a perpetual fertility and 
 productiveness without the help of manure, and even without a fallow, except in the 
 intervals between the rows of vines, which, being constantly kept open by the hoe, 
 supplied tlic roots of the vines with the necessary sustenance. His observation of this 
 subject led to his invention of the hor^e-hoe, as well as the consecutive production of 
 wheat on t!ie same land for any number of years, submitting the laud to an alternate 
 annual fallow by planting only the half of it witii strips, as we have elsewhere described. 
 
 Mr. Burnett considers that TuU entertained the correct idea of the twofold function 
 of stercoraceous manure, namely, its contribidive and its stimulative action ; that it 
 imparted fertilising elements ;je/' se, and that it eliminated them from the soil and the 
 atmosphere to form the pabulum of plants ; and to give fidl scope to these separate 
 functions, thorough tillage was a necessary concomitant. By degrees he came to the 
 conclusion that mucli tillage and lUtle manure was far better for the land than much 
 manure and little tillage; and ultimately he became convinced that tillage, if carried 
 out to its fullest extent, might be entirely substituted for manure. " I have made," 
 says he, " many trials of fine dung on the rows, and, notwithstanding the benefit of it, 
 I have for these several years past left it off", finding that a little more hoeing will 
 supply it at a much less expense than that of so small a quantity of manure, and the 
 hands necessary to lay it on, and of the carriage." " The almost only use of all manure 
 is the same as of tillage, viz., the pulverisation it makes by fermentation, as tillage does 
 by attrition or contusion ; and, with these differences, that dung, which is the most 
 
TILLAGE A !SUJJr5TITllTE Full MANURE. 739 
 
 common mauurej is apt to increase weeds, as (whilst) tillage (of which hoeing is tlie 
 chief) destroys them ; and manure is scanty in most places, but tillage may be had 
 cverywhei'e." 
 
 On this subject Professor Way has the following I'emarks, as quoted by Mr. Bur- 
 nett : — " Now, although it has been a constant axiom in the instructions of chemists to 
 farmers to return to the soil what the crops remove (and every candid agricultural 
 chemist will own that at the outset of his career he has somewhat overrated the 
 importance of literally fulfilling this obligation), it is certain that most soils of fair 
 quality contain an amount of the different mineral substances far greater than is neces- 
 sary for many succeeding crops of the most impoverishing character The fact is, 
 
 there is an almost unlimited supply of the mineral requisites of plants in soils, but that 
 the great agricultural problem is to get at them — to render them available ; and here, 
 again, it seems reasonable to suppose that abundant cultivation, which lets in carbonic 
 acid and am monia to the soil, may, by that very act, be providing the potash and phos- 
 phate of lime which the carbonic acid, and the silica which ammonia, are endowed with 
 the power of dissolving, and presenting to the roots of i^lants." It is not a little 
 remarkable that chemistry, which was in its infancy during TuU's time, more and more 
 confirms the great principle of which he was the discoverer, and only imparts to it the 
 scientific form and feature which the imperfection of knowledge of the period alone 
 incapacitated him from giving. 
 
 The following illustrative experiment for ascertaining the chemico-absorptive power 
 of soils was made by the discoverer of the prineijDle : — " He took some vegetable mould, 
 and placed it in a filtering apparatus : he then poured on it a quantity of water, holding 
 in solution a salt of ammonia, and when enough had passed through by percolation into 
 a receiving vessel below, the filtered liquid was next tested for ammonia; none, however, 
 was found ; and hence it became certain that, in the descent of the water, the ammo- 
 aiacal base had been abstracted from it, and appropriated by the soil." What the 
 precise substance was with which the ammonia became combined has not been 
 clearly discovered ; ' but as the atmosphere contains a small proportion of ammonia, 
 which descends to the earth in the rain, snow, and dew, this discovery of Mr. Thomas 
 points out the manner of its retention in the soil for the benefit of the plants, of the 
 food of wiiich it forms an indispensable portion and element. 
 
 Liebig also confirms the same important fact of the chemico-absorptive power of the 
 soil. "The soil," he says, "not only retains firmly all the food of plants which is 
 actually in it, but its power to preserve all that may be useful to them extends much 
 farther. If rain or other water, holding in solution ammonia, potash, phosphoric, and 
 silicic acid, be brought in contact with the soil, these substances disappear almost 
 immediately from the solution. The soil withdraws them from the water. Only such 
 substances are comjjletely withdrawn by the soU as are indispensable articles of food for 
 plants; all others remain wholly, or in part, in solution."* 
 
 An important inferential principle is drawn from these facts which has hitherto been 
 denied, namely, that plants do not receive their food from the soil in — or alone in — a 
 liquid form, because it is plain that as soon as it enters the soil in that form it is sepa- 
 rated from it, and imites chemically with the soil. It has not yet been clearly discovered 
 in what way the roots of plants receive their food, but it is supposed that they appro- 
 
 * "Modern Agricullure," p. 30. 
 
 3 B 2 
 
740 AGRICULTURE, A^'CIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 priate it by immediate coutact with portions of the soil which coutaiu it. This was also 
 Tull's idea — " The mouths or Lacteals beiug situate aud opening in the convex super- 
 ficies of roots, they take their pabulum, being fine particles of earth, from the superficies 
 of the pores, or cavities wherein the roots are included. Fibrous roots can take in no 
 nourishment from any cavity, unless they come in contact with, and press against, all 
 the superficies of that cavity which includes them ; for it dispenses the food to their 
 lacteals by sxich pressure only." 
 
 AVe have ventured to give the preceding quotations relative to the Tullian system of 
 husbandry, at the risk of being charged witli repeating what has been said in a former 
 part of this work. But the question is of so much importance that it cannot be too 
 much or too often referred to in a treatise of this kind. The deductions ilr. Burnett 
 draws from the premises are, first, that although the fertilising constituents of the 
 atmosphere may, by adequate tillage, be procured iu more or less abundance in any soil, 
 yet, it is necessary that, for that purpose, re-agents must exist in the staple with which 
 they may combine. And hence the unavoidable necessity arises, that to soils destitute 
 or deficient of these re-agents, their presence there must be acquired by the placing 
 therein, artificially, of the absent constituents, or, in other words, by the judicious 
 exercise of special manuring ; and thus again we find the axiom, " Tillage a substitute 
 for manure," must be content to suffer greater or less relaxation in practice. 
 
 " Secondly, experimental instances there certainly are where Tullian husbandry has 
 failed of success. In such eases the reasonable presumptiou is, that they were cases of 
 soils deficient in the fixing re-agents ; and if so, then, not to use adventitious substitutes 
 would be no less a violation of Tullian principles than wastefully to apply them to soils 
 whose tillage alone would more profitably be adequate. 
 
 " Thirdly, Are conclude this branch by remarking that, step by step, as we ajiproach 
 more nearly the culminating point of Tull's teaching, we shall find still increasing 
 grounds for regarding them as emanations from ' a deeply observant and philosophical 
 mind' (Way), and 'as based on the soundest principles of natural knowledge.'"* 
 
 Some further important conclusions are deduced from the success of the Tullian 
 system, of which the following is the principle, as stated by Mr. Burnett in his 
 summary. That the ancient husbandry, which proceeded on the practice of a succession 
 of corn crops, with only the intervention of a bare fallow periodically, was only vitiated 
 by the inadequacy of the implements of tillage, either to cleanse the soil, or to admit 
 the mechanical aud chemical amelioration of the soil by the admission of the atmospheric 
 phenomena. That successive corn growing, even under the imperfect system of tillage 
 which was then practised, was so far from impoverishing the soil, that it actually 
 increased in fertility and productiveness, as is proved by the table we have already 
 given, and by the statements of historians who at different periods have written on the 
 subject ; and that, notwithstanding the very small quantity of manure which was applied 
 to the arable land; — such, in fact, v,as the case with the laud occupied by TuU himself, 
 which, without ani/ manure whatever, continued, year after yeai-, to increase in the 
 abundance of its produce. Subsequent experiments, when carried out fairly aud fully 
 on the Tullian principles, have also been successful, and have proved the truth aud 
 praoticabilitj', as well as the profitableness of the system. f 
 
 Whilst, however, there has been, to a certain extent, a general approximation to tlie 
 
 "TiUasf ai'il ManuriuL'," p. 05. f HiiJ-, l'- -UT. 
 
TILLAGE A SUBSTITTTTE FOR MANURE. 741 
 
 Tullian system by the adoption of tlie corn-drill, horse-hoe, and a reduction in the 
 quantity of seed sown, none of the modern agriculturists have, on an extended scale, 
 carried out that system as Tull did himself. At the same time there appears to be a 
 growing opinion that the present forms of alternate husbandry are, as Mr. Burnett 
 expresses it, pregnant with danger, and it becomes a question whether Tull's cereal 
 system may not advantageously be grafted on modern agriculture with advantage both 
 to the landlord and tenant. The reiterated and general failure of the turnip and clover 
 crops, and, to a certain extent, tliat of the mangold -wurzcl,* have alarmed tlie farmers, 
 and led them to think seriously of instituting some important change in their system of 
 Imsbandry. "What tliat change will be is still an luisolved problem; but that it will 
 eventually approximate still nearer to the Tullian system than it ever has done at 
 present, is the opinion of both ]\Ir. Burnett and raauy others. We might instance, as 
 the nearest approximation to it, the practice of the ]\Iarquis of Tweeddale, the inventor 
 of the Scottish plough which bears his name, and who, by deep tillage and a thorough 
 comminution of the soil, has, to a great extent, dispensed with the use of manure — • 
 certainly of an artificial kind — and yet has doubled his produce. 
 
 How far a greater and more extended adoption of Tull's practice will interfere with 
 the cultivation of root crops and artificial grasses is another consideration, and one that, 
 in the present and prospective state of the meat-market, is likely to prove the greatest 
 obstacle. While the importation of cereals is safe and easy, even from the most distant 
 countries, that of cattle is attended with great danger and difficulty, and, from the 
 nature of it, is necessarily limited to the nearest continental countries, so that no 
 extension of the number of animals can ever take place sufficient to overstock the 
 market, or even reduce permanently the price of meat. Tlius, with an increasing popu- 
 lation, requiring larger accessions of food of all kinds ainiually,we shall liave no difficulty 
 in obtaining the needed supply of bread corn; but arc almost exclusively dependent 
 upon the liome production for a supply of meat. Bcfoi'e, therefore, any change takes 
 place in the economy of the farm, its bearnig upon the breeding and feeding of cattle 
 must be taken into consideration. 
 
 It is utterly impossible that wc should fi^ll back upon the ancient husbandry, which 
 simply comprised the production of cereal and natural grass crops. At the period when 
 that system prevailed, the population of tiie United Kingdom was little more than one- 
 third of its present amount; and the number of animals reared on the pastures, and 
 fattened on hay and corn, was amply sufficient for the consumption. A population of 
 thirty millions instead of ten makes a wide difference, especially when the lower classes 
 eat much more animal food than formerly, because they earn more monc}'. Even with 
 the present enormous production of fat animals, the price of meat is annually increasing; 
 and any serious interruption to, or decrease in, the supply, would raise the price to a 
 degree that would constitute a prohibition of its use to the largest present class of 
 consumers. 
 
 Without any material interference with the present system of husbandry, we may look 
 to a more elaborate system of tillage to solve this problem ; nor is tliis a difficult thing 
 to accomplish, with the enormous increase of aratory power acquired by the application 
 of steam in the cultivation of the soil. It is now an established fact that deep culture, 
 
 * In many counties of England this failure has been so general and rep?alcJ, that the farmers have decided to abandon 
 the mangold cultivation. 
 
743 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 perfect comminution, and tliorough draining, are certain means of increasing the 
 produce, and of preventing, so far as luiman means can do so, those failures to wliich 
 the root crops have latterly been subject. Let the manure of the homestead be all 
 applied to these, for which it is best adapted ; and let the wheat crop especially be left 
 to find its means of fertility — its food — from the atmosphere, poured into the pulverised 
 soil by the snow, the rain, the dew, alternating with the air itself in the possession or 
 occupation of those interstices which the improved tillage has created in the soil and 
 subsoil. Let the former be kept open by the horse-hoe, which will greatly promote the 
 vegetation. The Tullian system, too, may safely be adopted on this plan much more 
 profitably than by TuU himself, because we possess the means of stirring and opening 
 both soil and subsoil to a much greater depth than he could possibly effect with his 
 imperfect implements of husbandry. The Lois Weedon practice has demonstrated the 
 certainty that Tail's system can be carried out « I'outrance, not only without deterioration 
 to the laud, but with an increasing productiveness. 
 
 The experience of the last year (1862) may well alarm the agriculturists, and cause 
 them to seek for means of meeting the competition to which they are now exposed. 
 Eighteen and a half million quarters of imported cereals, of which eleven and a half 
 million quarters were wheat and flour, if repeated many, or even a few seasons, would 
 completely swamp the native agriculture, unless means are devised to stem the torrent, 
 by increasing the produce of the land and lessening the expenses, so as to be able to 
 undersell the foreigner. We believe that this may be done ; and that if the land was 
 cultivated to the best advantage, tlic British farmer would be in a position to export as 
 he formerly did, instead of importing to an extent that is annually reducing the price 
 below the present cost of production. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 THE DAIRY. 
 
 The high price to which every kind of animal produce has risen in the United Kingdom 
 has made it a question of interest to the farmer whether, with an equally low price of 
 cereal produce, a large portion of the land now under the plough for rai!>ing corn would 
 not be more profitably employed in grazing, either for the butcher or for the production 
 of milk, butter, and cheese. On the one hand the certain prospect of a constant supply 
 of bread corn, limited only by the price at the place of consumption, aflbrds no hope 
 that, on the occurrence of a deficient harvest, an adequate price can in future be 
 depended on; and, on the other, the importation of cattle, whether fat or lean, is 
 attended with so much danger and expense, that not only is it limited to a very few of 
 the nearest continental ports, but even at those the numbers shipped to England arc 
 comparatively very small, and cannot by any possibility be much increased. It is 
 certainly otherwise with the produce of the dairy, the importations of whicli have 
 
THE DAIRY. 743 
 
 increased greatl}' the last four years, previous to wliiel! tlicy liail ratlier fallen oft', as the 
 following returns of the Board of Trade will show : — 
 
 Importations of Cijkese and Butter feoii 1856 to 1802 inxlusive. 
 
 IMii. lSo7. 1?5-*. 1?-3;1. ISO.i. ISiil. ISM. 
 
 Cheese, cwts. . . 406,333 393,323 36i,0S7 406,517 ,')S3,283 706,31)5 703,S)09 
 Butter 513,392 441,606 387,56 J 425,663 840,112 902,772 1,037,371 
 
 Notwithstanding this large importation, which in 186.2 amounted to nearly 7| lbs. of 
 butter, and 5i lbs. of cheese, per head, of the whole population, there is no sensible dimi- 
 uutiou in the price of either, the demand keeping pace to the fullest extent with the supply. 
 It would tlierefore appear that there is ample room for the establishment of more dairy 
 farms, especially when we consider that the population continues to increase, at least in 
 England, where the consumption of animal food of all descriptions is by far the largest 
 individually. 
 
 It is true that so far as the natural capabilities of this country arc concerned, 
 the number of dairy farms is regulated by the low-lying meadows and pastures; and 
 that in those parts of it where these advantages are enjoyed the land is already so 
 occupied. Thus, in Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and Suffolk, specialli/, and the lands 
 bordering the rivers throughout the kingdom [leneralhj, large herds of milch cows are 
 kept, by which the population receive their supplies of dairy produce. But in these days 
 of high farming, artificial pastures, irrigation, and, above all, the stabulation or stall 
 feeding of cows, as well as of other cattle, the dairy farms need not be confined to the 
 natural advantages of the country. Dairies already exist in towns, the cattle of which 
 never see a green field ; and we have in view others in the countr}' in which the cows 
 are tied up all the year round, and their food brought to them ; and this is considered 
 by far the most economical method of feeding them, and is by no means injurious to the 
 licaltli of the animals or to the quality or production of milk. Nor is this system 
 entirely new, for it was practised at the beginning of the present century with great 
 success by Mr. Curwen in Cumberlaiul, by Mr. W. Harley, of Wiljowbank Dairy, near 
 Glasgow, and others. The latter gentleman, who kept on an average 260 cow.s, and 
 supplied the town of Glasgow with pure milk, published an account of his dairy system 
 in 18.39 (the title of the book being "The Harleian Dairy System"), and both he and 
 Islv. Curwen agree in bearing testimony to the utility of house-feeding, the ([uantity of 
 milk obtained being much greater than when the cattle are allowed to roam in the fields, 
 and the quality much richer. Mr. Curwen also published an account ol his system in 
 1808, the title of the tract being, " On the Means of supplying Milk to the Poor." 
 We shall refer to both these works again presentlj'. 
 
 The first thing to engage our attention relating to a dairy farm is the dairy itself, 
 and the following description of what such a building should be on a farm where utility 
 and economy are the objects of the occupier, i.^ taken from a work published a few 
 years since. 
 
 "■ On farms where only a small nundjcr of cows are kept, the dairy is generally a small 
 apartment in the farm-house ; but on large dairy farms it is a separately-constructed 
 building, and should contain three separate apartments below, witli cheese-rooms above. 
 
 " The dairy-house should be placed, if possible, on a porous soil, and sheltered from 
 north and east winds. The principal apartment is the milk-room ; the floor of this 
 should be sunk three or four feet below the surface of the ground, and be paved with 
 
741 AGEICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 niarblcj polished stone, or tiles, and slope towards a drain from "nliicli the water must 
 run freely away — stagnant water, and smells of all ];inds, being exceedingly injurious. 
 Indeed, so delicately susceptible of injury is milk, that the smell from cheese, rennet, 
 cooked or uncooked meat, will often cause considerable injury. 
 
 "'Al)out three feet from the iioor should be placed, on three sides, shelves tv,-o feet 
 broad, of polished marble or brick, on which are placed the pans to contain the milk. 
 Tlie best material for dairy shelves is Galway marble, as it is the least absorbent. If 
 tl'.e siielve? are made of wood, it should be beech or plane-tree, these woods being the 
 liardest and most stainless. The ceilings and walls should be plastered. The windows 
 should be covered with fly-gauze, and be fitted with Venetian blinds, and shutters out- 
 side. A lock-up cupboard should be conveniently placed, and tlic door covered with 
 perforated Avire -gauze. 
 
 " The Churnmg-rooin. — In this apartment is placed the machinery for converting 
 the milk into butter. This is worked in various ways ; when large, the motive power of 
 the homestead is employed in driving it, by connecting it by a lay-shaft, or by bands. 
 When the dairy-house is a detached building, a horse-wheel is often placed in a shed 
 outside the churning-house. The presses for squeezing the curd (in making cheese) 
 are placed in this room. As the temperature of the inilk in the churning-room requires 
 to be regulated, a steam pipe is introduced from tiie boiler in tlic scalding-hoaise, and 
 applied to the churn. The temperature of the milk-room may be regulated in the 
 same way. 
 
 " The Scald) ini -room should be a roomy apartment, properly fitted up with a steam- 
 boiler and copper, a rinsing tank and sink. The floor should be paved with stone or 
 brick, set in cement, and should have a good fall in every direction towards the drains. 
 An unlimited supply of water should be provided for this. Outside the building it is as 
 well to have a Icau-to shed, with benches, upon whicli are placed the milk-pans, tubs, 
 and other utensils, to dry. 
 
 " The Cheese-room is usually placed in the upper floor of the dairy-house. It must be 
 dry and airy, or the cheeses will dry unequally, and have a spotted appearance, besides 
 being apt to heave. Cheeses should not be salted in this apartment, nor should wet aiul 
 drj' cheeses be placed together, or much injury will be the result. Shelves should be 
 placed round the walls, and a strong wooden framing should be C(nistructcd in the 
 centre, fitted with shelves, upon which the cheeses are placed, and in such a manner 
 that easy access may be had for the purpose of continually turning them."* 
 
 The above is calculated for a farm of moderate pretensions, but the following, which 
 is taken from the Farmers' Mu(/a~iiie, is a description of a dairy belonging to Mr. Little- 
 dale's farm at Liscard, in Cheshire, and must be considered a first-class establishment 
 of the kind : — 
 
 " The dairy adjoining (the house) is the most perfect and l)cautiful we have ever 
 seen. It is a large oblong square room, elegantly and usefully fitted up. The floor is 
 formed of Kean's patent cement, of a chocalatc colour, and was laid in one piece; but, 
 by white lines of composition introduced, let into grooves made on the surface, it 
 resembles fine pavement in large squares. There are two tables, one on each side, made 
 of sycamore, witli turned pillar legs of the same, and the whole of almost snowy 
 whiteness from washing. There is a massive marble table at the further end. Three 
 
 * "Agricultural Eogiacering," by G. II. Andrews. 
 
THE DAIRY. 715 
 
 very large octagonal-sliaped leaden milk coolers stand in tlie centre, eacli on an orna- 
 mental pedestal. The walls above the tables, to the lieiglit of above 20 inches, are lincfl 
 with glazed Staffordshire tiles, resembling small squares of veined marble. There are 
 ten square ventilators round the sides. The roof is of the pavilion or curved form, 
 groined, with a handsome foliated centre-piece, which, being in open work, leads the air 
 to a large ventilator at the top of the building. The walls most exposed to the sun are 
 built with a hollow space of 3 inches in them, through which a current of air passes, and 
 there is a double ceiling, for the same obvious purpose of keeping an equal temperature 
 in summer and winter. The milk dishes are all of glass, of various sizes, and both 
 round and oval. These (glass being a non-conductor) are for the preservation of the 
 milk, and, for throwing up the cream, are found to be superior to vessels of the usual 
 materials. The room is, in fine, a perfect model of a dairy, in elegance, cleanliness, and 
 adaptation. The milk kits, or pails in which the milk is In'ought fi'om the shippons, 
 are all beautifully made of sycamore, and are kept so clean that the wood, like the 
 tables, is white and spotless, and the iron hoops of dazzling brightness.'-' 
 
 Since the remission of the duty on glass, that material is frequently substituted for 
 earthenware for milk-pans, both on account of its non-conducting property and its 
 superior cleanliness, in which respects it recommends itself to every dairyman Avho is 
 desirous of preserving the purity of the milk. The temperature most proper to be kept up 
 in the dairy is from 50° to 55° of Fahrenheit. This causes the creani to rise readily, and 
 means are easily provided in a properly constructed dairy for maintaining that standard. 
 
 The selection of the dairy stock is a matter of equal importance with the arrangements 
 of the buikling. Not only is the class of cattle to be considered, but the purchaser 
 should be able to judge, in some degree, by the outward appearance of individual cows, 
 whether they are likely to be good milkers. Many persons are remarkably clever in 
 this way, and can tell almost at first sight of a cow whether she is such or not. With 
 regard to the breed most adapted to dairy purposes, we have already, in the account of 
 the various breeds, pointed out their milking qualities; and it is much in favour of the 
 short-horns that they have obtained a strong footing in all the dairy counties, and in 
 London and other large towns. It is unnecessary for us to say any more on the subject 
 here, and will therefore refer the reader to that part of this work which treats of the 
 various species of cattle. And with regard to the points by which to judge whether a 
 cow is likely to prove a good milker, we refer to a quotation from Youatt, at page 381 
 of this work, which we have found by experience to be correct. But as poetry makes a 
 greater impression on most people than prose, we copy the following lines from the same 
 author, as describing the good points of a cow profitable for the daiiy : — 
 
 " She's long in licr face, slie's fine ia her horn, 
 She'll quickly get fat, without cake or corn ; 
 She's clean in her jaws, and full in her chine. 
 She's heavy in flanic, and wide in her loin ; 
 She's hroad in her ribs, and long in her rump, 
 A straight and Hat back \Yithout ever a hump ; 
 She's wide in her hips, and calm in her eyes. 
 She's fine in her shoulders, and thin in her thighs; 
 She's li£;ht in her neck, and small in her tail, 
 She's wide in her breast, and good at the pail ; 
 She's fine in her bone, and silky of skin. 
 She's a Grazier's without, and a Butcher's within." 
 
740 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND JIODERN. 
 
 Cows are known to improve as tliey get older, up to a certain age, iu respect to tlic 
 vicliness of the milk. The same author mentions an cxpcrinicnt made of six cows taken 
 promiscuously from the lierd, and a quart of milk of each being tested, produced the 
 following quantities of butter : — 
 
 No. I 3 oz. divU. 
 
 „ 2 1 „ ,, 
 
 „ 3 1 „ 12 „ 
 
 „ 4 1 „ 10 „ 
 
 „ 5 1 „ M „ 
 
 „ f. 1 „ « ,. 
 
 The cows were of the improved short .horn breed, and Xo. 1 was six years old, the 
 other five only two years old. Some persons think that a cow that fattens readily is not 
 good for the dair^^ Experience has proved the contrary of this ; and that a cow with 
 good grazing points, and that keeps herself in fair condition, is generally found equally 
 good in her milking qualities. This is an important consideration, because when her age 
 or an accident lessens her profitable retention in the dairy, she will rapidly be prepared 
 for the butcher. These remarks apply more strongly to the short-horns than to any 
 other breed, except the Alderneys, which, however, are rather noted for the richness 
 than the abundance of their milk ; and they ai-e, besides, too tender for our cold and 
 damp climate. 
 
 The food of milch cows caijnot be too succulent or too rich. It is a question, how- 
 ever, whether very rich pastures will not pay better by fattening bullocks than l)y feeding 
 cows. At any rate, there is no economy in stinting cows in their food, or in keeping a 
 larger number than the pasturage can fairly support. In Cheshire they say, as a rule, 
 that the w'orst land produces the best cheese; and that rough, damp meadows, where 
 the grass is not of a fine quality, but abundant in quantity, are better calculated for the 
 dairy cattle than the dry upland pasture. 
 
 .Ml the trifoliatcd tribe of plants arc good for cows ; but the most approved of the 
 pi'cscnt day is that called expressly Cow-grass, which we have described in the section on 
 the artificial grasses, at page 511. Stephens denounces this plant on account of its 
 propensity to throw out lateral shoots, and, ultimately, to destroy more valuable grasses. 
 Lawson, however, recommends it as a useful plant, and it is now extensively cultivated 
 not only in France and Germany, but in the United Kingdom, which seems a confuta- 
 tion of the opinion of those who object to it. Upon the principle of feeding cattle on the 
 soiling sy.stcm, the possession of luitural pastures for summer feeding is not required to 
 any large extent. A few acres near the establishment, to turn the cows into occasionally 
 for fresh air and exercise, are all that is necessary, the food being supplied to them in 
 their stalls or /jijres. We have mentioned the names of Curwen and Ilarley as the 
 founders of the soiling or stabulation system, both of whom published an account of 
 their plans. The latter conducted his dairy at "Willowbank, near Glasgow, for six years, 
 with great success and satisfaction, when the peace of 181 1— lij, by the depression which 
 resulted from it in every department of iiulustry, compelled him to give up his dairy. 
 At that period he had 300 cows, and found ample demand for all the milk they produced, 
 which he made a point of selling pure and unadulterated. With him, therefore, the 
 system was not a mere experimental one, but a genuine and prosperous business, and wc 
 are led to conclude that it was the losses and depression in his other and more extensive 
 
THE DAIUY. 747 
 
 engagements that compelled him ultimately to relinquish his dairy.* The large scale 
 on which it was conducted, and the success that attended it, might have led him to 
 claim originality; but he declares Curwcn to have been his exemplar, if not his model, 
 and ascribes to him the merit of being "the father of the soiling system." 
 
 Mr. Harley commenced forming his dairy in 1810, in order to supply the town of 
 Glasgow with pure milk. He had previously purchased some land at Willowbank, in 
 the suburbs of Glasgow, on which he erected a building to hold twenty-four cows ; but 
 tlie demand so rapidly increased for his milk, that he extended the buildings to accom- 
 modate 300 cows, and actually had, in 1815, 260. The establishment became so 
 popular, that a large number of persons constantly visited it, and the public were at 
 length admitted by ticket, for which they were charged a shilling each. ]Mr. Harley 
 states in his work that it produced .€200 per annum. A great number of the nobility, 
 both English and foreign, resorted thither, and expressed their approval of the system 
 on which it was managed. It is unnecessary to give a detail of the plan on which the 
 AVillowbank dairy was conducted, so much improvement has been made in the system of 
 soiling cattle of all kinds ; but we may justly ascribe to JNIr. Curwen in England, and 
 Mr. Harley in Scotland, the origination of the practice, and especially to the latter, as 
 having carried it out for several years on a large scale with complete success. One pecu- 
 liarity, however, of the system we may mention as worthy of imitation at all times when 
 necessary. " The usual mode of curing a surfeit in the Willowbank dairy was to take 
 the vessel (in which food was given) from any cow that appeared to have little inclination 
 for food. Her stall was then marked with chalk, to prevent mistakes ; and at next 
 feeding-time an empty dish was set before her. This practice was continued until the 
 animal showed something like keenness of appetite, when a small quantity of food was 
 given her, which was afterwards gradually increased to the extent of the customary 
 meal." 
 
 Dr. Gregory, of Edinburgh, sent a gentleman to Glasgow to learn if the cows were 
 subject to any disease under the confinement, and was informed that the ventilation v/as 
 so complete, and the rules so strict with regard to cleanliness and food, that there never 
 was any general disease. On being informed of the above practice for surfeit — "Ah," 
 said he, "that's just the doctor's grand specific for complaints of the human stomach;" 
 and he then related the following anecdote of a patient who had applied to the doctor for 
 advice in consequence of having lost his appetite. He was a rich Glasgow merchant, 
 and for a long time had been a noted punch drinker. The doctor heard all his symptoms, 
 and then prescribed as follows : — "Prescription — To get up at 6 o'clock a.m., and walk 
 round the public green, or down to Govan (a village about three miles from town), till 
 breakfast time ; then to take a crust of bread or toast, and smell if, but not to taste it ; 
 next, go to your ordinary business, taking care to walk again before dinner, as he 
 had done in the morning. At dinner-time to take another crust, or piece of toast, 
 and chew a little of it, but not to swallow even the smallest particle. To go to business 
 again in the afternoon, and, finally, to go to bed without supper. Next morning, to take 
 a similar walk round the green ; and then, if inclined to eat, to take a little, rery little 
 breakfast. By following this rule," said the doctor, " and abstaining from Glasgoiv 
 punch altogether, I will guarantee that you will very soon regain your appetite." 
 
 There is so much of both philosophy, science, and common sense in Dr. Gregory's 
 
 * At least, ws infer from the preface to the work that such was the case, although it is not distinctly so stated. 
 
718 AGRICULTURE, ANOIE^^T AND .^rODERX. 
 
 prescription, that we have been induced to give it iu full, being persuaded that in the 
 large majority of stomach complaints, whether in man or in tlie inferior animals, the 
 cause is repletion, and may certainly be neutralised by its opposite — abstinences, to which, 
 however, there are few would submit, to the extent laid down by the worthy doctor. 
 Abernethy's prescription for a London alderman, under similar circumstances, was of 
 the same character : — " Go home, sir, and live on eighteenpenee a day, and earn it." 
 
 The d;iiry farms near large towns are nearly all employed in supplying the popula- 
 tions with fresh milk, for which there is a constant demand, morning and evening, the 
 surplus only being made into butter and cheese, and as the number of cows kept is 
 usually in propoi'tion to the demand for milk, the surplus is at all times very small. On 
 the contrary, on the large dairy farms in the country, the whole produce of milk is 
 converted into butter and cheese ; and in some of those iu Cheshire, Gloucestershire, and 
 Derbyshire, nearly the whole is employed in making cheese, for which those counties are 
 famous. The richness and large extent of the natural pastures, particularly in the Vale 
 of Gloucester, which is, perhaps, one of the richest tracts of larid in the kingdom, renders 
 these districts peculiarly proper for the purpose. It is estimated that nearly nine-tenths 
 of the land of the vale is nnder grass, and the proportion of cows kept is twenty-five to 
 every 100 acres, besides the heifers and young stock reserved to fill up vacancies in the 
 dairy. The heifers usually have their first calves at three years old, and will continue 
 in their prime from four till eight or nine, when they arc usually fattened for the butcher, 
 because after that age the milk is considered to deteriorate in quality, whilst they 
 consume a greater quantity of food without increasing in the production of milk. They 
 are, however, generally sold as farrow cows instead of being fattened on the farm, it 
 being considered that the pastures pay better for milk than for meat. About onc-foartli 
 of the dairies are thus annually turned out, and as tiiey are generally in good condition, 
 they fetch from £8 to £12 each, according to their size and weight. 
 
 To fill up tlie vacancies occasioned by this annual abstraction of the dairy stock, the 
 farmers cither rear from their own stock the requisite number, or they purchase three- 
 year-old heifers in calf; but they prefer the former mode, as they can select from the 
 progeny of their best cattle, which is no small consideration. The calves are taken 
 from the cow at a week old, and for the first month receive two quarts of milk each, 
 morning and evening. After this the milk is reduced to one quart, and half a pound of 
 meal, morning and evening, which is continued for six weeks longer, when they arc 
 turned into the richest pasture to help themselves. The bull calves are either sold -when 
 weaned to the rqjland farmers, or at a few days old to the butcher, none being reared 
 on the dairy farms. The average price they fetcli is about 15^. each. 
 
 The quantity of pasture allowed to each cow is an acre and a half, from the 1st ISIaj' 
 to the r50th November ; and the hay of the same quantity of land will sujjport them the 
 other five months. When not in milk, barley straw is given them with hay. As no 
 turnips or mangold-wurzel are raised on the farm for them, they are fed entirely with 
 grass in summer, and hay or hay and straw in winter. The expense is estimated at 
 £1 for the summer, and .£5 for the winter keeping. And as no meal or oil-cake, or 
 any other artificial food is given to them, their food is wholly natural, and no means are 
 employed to increase the quantity or to improve the quality of the milk by rendering it 
 richer. Neither is any shelter provided for them or the young stock during the winter, 
 beyond that of keeping them in inclement weather in the most sheltered fields, Avheu 
 
THE DAIRY. 749 
 
 the liay is given to tlicm ou the ground or iu racks, but, in either case, at a great waste 
 of fodder. AYlieu near calving, they are taken home, and phaced in sheds or yards, and 
 supplied with the best hay. If there is not room for them in sheds, they are kept in 
 an orchard or home-paddock, convenient for milking, and more slieltered than the 
 open fields. 
 
 As soon as the grass in the pastures is high enough to afford the cattle a good bite, 
 they are turned into them. This is about the beginning of May — those fields which lie 
 nearest to the homestead being generally devoted to the milch cows, to avoid having far 
 to drive them to and from the milking, which would both lessen the quantity and injure 
 the quality of the milk, and the cheese or butter made from it. The cows are supplied 
 with fresh pasture by frequent changing of the fields, whilst one or two of these are shut 
 up to get freshened ; and thus every ten or twelve days in the summer they have fresh 
 grass to go to. In the autumn they eat down the after math of the meadows in which the 
 hay has been saved, which iisnally aflbrds an abundance of succulent food. It is a nice 
 point to calculate the number of cattle a dairy farm will support. If over-stocked, the 
 grass will be scanty and foul; if under, coarse and ill-flavoured, which will injure the 
 quality of the milk. 
 
 Gloucester cheese, which is called " single" or " double Gloucester," according to the 
 thickness, is of a mild flavour, and is consequently preferred hy young persons and 
 females to the more pungent flavoured Cheshire cheese. The following is the process of 
 making it : — • 
 
 The temperature of the milk should be 85°, and in cold weather it is necessary to 
 warm a part iu order to bring the whole up to the standai'd. The rennet being then 
 added, it is allowed to remain still for an hour, covered witli a woollen cloth to exclude the 
 air. The curd being formed, it is broken up by passing a thrce-bladed knife, or a coarse 
 AY ire-sieve, down to the bottom of the tub. When the cui'd is sufficiently comminuted, 
 the whole is allowed to remain for ten minutes, that the broken curd may sink to the 
 bottom, and the whey be poured or baled ofl'. When all the clear whey is removed, the 
 curd is broken a second time, slowly, to avoid pressing out any of the richer parts, of 
 which there woidd be some danger if the curd were roughly or rapidly broken. When 
 reduced to a regular fineness, it is left to settle for a short time, that the whey may rise 
 to the top, which is then taken off, and poured through a strainer, in order to divest it 
 of all particles of curd suspended in it. The curd is then separated into lumps, and these 
 are placed one upon another at the bottom of the tub, which is tilted to draw oft" the 
 remainder of the whey. When this is effected, the curd is rubbed and salted. A clean 
 cheese cloth is then spread over the vat, and the broken curd is packed into it by hand, 
 and heaped up in a conical form above the vat. It is then pressed equally down, and the 
 cloth is brought over it, and folded as smoothly as possible. A board the size of the 
 inside of the vat is then placed ou it, and the whole is jmt under the cheese-press, and 
 slightly pressed for about half an hour. It is then taken out, and again broken iu 
 pieces ; and this is repeated as long as a drop of whey can be extracted by the press. 
 The next time the vat remains for two hours under the press, when it is finally taken 
 out, and the cheese, having acquired the proper degree of firmness, is pared at the edges, 
 and put into the last and the most powerful press, where it remains twenty-four hours. 
 It is then taken out and salted, the salt being rubbed by hand all over the outside as 
 long as it will iuibibe it. It is then wrapped in a dry cloth, and ag:iin placed under the 
 
750 AGIlICULTUllE, ANCIENT AND IMODERN. 
 
 press. Ill twcuty-four hours more it is agaiu salted, after wliicli it is put in the press 
 witliout a cloth, and pressed, in order to give it a smooth surface. It is afterwards salted 
 a third time, and another turn of the press being given to it, it is then removed to the 
 drying -room, vrhich is properly devoted to this purpose alone. Here the cheeses are 
 placed upon racks, shelves, or the floor, as the case may be, and wiped with dry cloths, 
 and turned twice a day for about two or three days, and then for a month longer once 
 e^ ery day. At the end of that period they are scraped and painted, and are then ready 
 for the London market. 
 
 A more rational and humane system of treatment of cattle is pursued in the dairy 
 farms of Cheshire, where the cows are lodged in stalls or sliippons from 1st November to 
 the 1st May, except that they are turned out into a pasture for a few hours, if the weather 
 is fine, for air and exercise. They are also turned out to water twice a day, and this is 
 sometimes all the exercise they get. One-third or one-fourth of the land is kept under 
 the plough for growing winter food. The allowance of pasture is two acres to each 
 cov/, besides the after math of the meadows oil" which the hay has been taken. If bone 
 manure is employed, an acre and a half is found sufficient, and about the hay of half au 
 acre for the five winter mouths. Both Swede turnips and raangold-wurzels are grown 
 for the cows, but they are rarely given to them, except in small quantities a week or two 
 after calving, when about 30 lbs. arc given to them daily, and about 1 cwt. of hay 
 per week. 
 
 The expense of keeping a cow in Cheshire is much the same as in Gloucestershire, 
 that is, £9 per annum — £3 10s. for the summer, and £b 10s. for the winter months. No, 
 or very little, butter is made, the milk being nearly all converted into cheese, for which 
 this county is famous. The average quantity yielded by each cow is 3 cwts. per 
 annum, and that of the richest quality. Some dairies are said to produce as much as 
 5 cwts. per cow, but these are rare cases, being also exclusive of what is given to the 
 calves and used by the family, of which latter there is no stint. 
 
 The cows are almost universally allowed to graze in summer, and are stall-fed in 
 winter. In the latter season they are fed v,-ith cut straw and hay, mixed with linseed, 
 and boiled in fifteen times its volume of water, with the addition occasionally of bran or 
 oatmeal. ]\Iangold-wurzel is given to the cows in milk, and a larger allowance of bran 
 and meal. 18 lbs. of hay and 40 lbs. of roots daily, or 24 lbs. of hay without the roots, 
 are given to each cow. If straw only is giveu, they have 80 lbs. of roots. 
 
 Cheese-making is somewhat differently conducted in Cheshire from what it is in 
 Gloucestershire. The evening's meal of milk is kept in basins or coolers till the morning, 
 when the cream is skimmed off, and about half of it is warmed up to 100° in a shallow 
 pan. It is then with the morning's milk poured into the cheese-tub, and the part of 
 the evening's milk not warmed, and the cream taken off, arc added to it. The tempera- 
 ture is now from 80° to 85°, and the rennet and anuatto, or colouring matter, are put 
 into it, and well mixed with it. About half an ounce of annotto is sufficient for 75 lbs. 
 of cheese. When the rennet is applied, the tub is covered up for an hour and a quarter, 
 when, the coagulation being complete, the curd is broken, and allowed to rest a quarter 
 of an hour, to separate from the whey, which is taken out by pressing a flat-bottomed 
 pan upon it until it is filled. The curd is then again broken, either with the " breaker" 
 or ijy hand, and again allowed to settle, pressure being applied to it l)y placing a board 
 on it viitli weights, of from 60 to 120 lbs., to press out the whey. "Wlien it has become 
 
THE DAIRY. 751 
 
 solid, it is cut and turned over in slices several times to draw off the whey, and then 
 again weighted as before, which operations occupy about an hour and a half. It is then 
 takeu from the tub, as near the side as possible, and broken very small by hand, and 
 salted. It is next put into a clieese-vat made deeper by a tin hoop to hold the quantity, 
 it being more than the bulk when finally put into the pres.s. Then squeeze the sides well 
 by hand, so as to raise it to a conical form in the centre, on M'hich jilace a board, as in 
 the case of tlie Gloucester cheese, well weighted. Small holes are pierced in the vat, 
 into which skewers are run to the centre of the cheese in order to give vent to the whey. 
 "When this has ceased ruuniug, shift the cheese out of the vat, and, putting a clean dry cloth 
 over it, reverse it into another, or the same vat cleaned by scalding. The top part should 
 then be broken down to the centre, salt mixed with it^ pressed by hand, the board again 
 replaced and weighted, the holes pierced with the skewei-s, and thus the whey all 
 extracted. Y\'hen it has ceased dropping, it is again reversed into another vat, scalded 
 as before, and with a cloth under it. A tin hoop is inserted into the upper edge inside 
 the vat, the cheese being first enclosed in a cloth. All these operations occupy the time 
 from seven a.m. to one p.m, when the cheese is finally put into the press, and a pressure of 
 from 15 cwt. to a ton applied to it, thin wire skewers being stuck round it, and occasionally 
 shifted. In four more hours the cheese should be turned in the vat, and again the next 
 morning, and this should be repeated twice more at intervals of twelve hours. The 
 process of salting, cleaning, trimming, &c., as we have described in the case of the Glou- 
 cester cheese, is then gone over, and the cheese is finally lodged in the cheese-room on 
 straw, and turned daily until it is perfectly dry and firm. 
 
 The more varied the plants, and the richer the soil of a dairy farm pasture, the better. 
 Cows are fond of a variety in their food, and the butter is of a finer quality from such 
 pastui'cs. Clover and Italian rye-grass, especially the latter, which comes in some time 
 before any other fodder, are excellent food for the dairy cows, but not much of these are 
 grown in Cheshire or Gloucestershire. The use of bone-dust for pasture land is 
 increasing in Cheshire, it having been found that 75 acres of land dressed with it will 
 support as many cows as 100 acres not dressed with it. The more a dairy farm is 
 divided into moderately small enclosures the more cows will it support, and the better 
 will be the produce, because it enables the occupier the more frequently to change the 
 pasture for the cattle, by which the grass is always kept fresh and clean — a matter of great 
 importance to the purity and sweetness of the milk, and the butter made from it. 
 
 It is estimated that from half to one-third of the food of a dairy farm is saved by 
 soiling the cows, there being no waste if common care and attention is paid to it. One 
 cwt. of green food per day is amply sufficient in the summer for a cow, and Italian rye- 
 grass will yield, at only two cuttings, 8 tons per acre; but it is sometimes cut three, 
 and even four times, when it has been brought forward early in the spring by high 
 manuring. Then, in the winter, by cooking the roots and giving cut hay and straw, there 
 is no waste, and a smaller quantity of food is consumed. On the other hand, the dung 
 is more valuable and the milk is richer in quality, and one-fourth greater in quantity. 
 In Gloucestershire they estimate the average yield of a cow at 525 gallons per annum, 
 but under the system of stall-feeding they obtain 680 gallons. 
 
 The building in which the cows are stalled should not be less than 17 feet in width, 
 with length in proportion to the number of cows to he kept in it. The breadth is divided 
 into byres according to the following scale : — 
 
752 AGllICULTUKE. ANCIENT AND MODERN, 
 
 Passage iu front of the stalU for supplv ing fool 3i feit. 
 
 Manger 2 „ 
 
 Stalls 6 „ 
 
 Draiu li „ 
 
 Passage beliiad tlie cows J- „ 
 
 The byres should be eleau swept twice a day at the least, and all diit and litter sedu- 
 lously removed. The feeding should also take place twice a day, and not more should 
 be given to the cows than they can cat in the interval, as it must otherwise either be 
 wasted or cows will blow over it, and it will deteriorate the quality of the milk. The 
 food of cows cannot be too fresh or too sweet. For this pui'pose the cow pastures should 
 be occasionally examined, and all plants that are likely to give a disagreeable flavour to 
 the milk and butter should be carefully rooted out. One of the most common of these 
 is saxifrage, the flavour of which may frequently be detected in both butter and cheese, 
 but especially the latter. Decayed plants, also, should never be given to cows, for they 
 invariably taint the milk, more or less. This is especially the case with half-decayed 
 cabbage leaves, which impart a putrid flavour, and should never be suffered to get into 
 the food of a milch cow, either in a raw or boiled state. 
 
 The Stilton cheese, so justly famed and appreciated, is made in Leicestershire, chiefly 
 in the neighboiirliood of Melton. The dairy farms iu tiiis county arc of various sizes, 
 some being as large as 500 or 600 acres, and from that down to 20 acres, but the average 
 is about 200 acres. The quantity under tillage is greater in proportion than either in 
 Gloucestershire or Cheshire, consequently the number of cows kept is smaller. The 
 breeds of cattle kept are the long-horns and the short-horns, or a cross between them; 
 and these are preferred on accouut of their aptitude to make flesh while in milk, so that 
 when dry, if they are not first-rate milkers, they will the sooner be ready for the butcher. 
 Like the Gloucestershire dairymen, however, some of those of Leicestershire never keep 
 a cow after the third calf, iu order to preserve the produce at the highest state of 
 jjerfection; and this practice also induces them to keep the cows forward iu flesh, 
 especially towards the close of the period of their being discharged from the dairy herd. 
 
 The mode of feeding the cows is very similar to that practised in Cheshire. They 
 are allowed to graze in summer, but are stall-fed, in winter. As more land is cultivated 
 iu this county on dairy farms than in cither of the others we have spoken of, a more 
 liberal allowance of roots (mangolds) is given to them, as well as of green food, in the 
 spring. They allow each cow 3 acres of pasture from 1st May to 1st October; and 
 as their dictayy in winter is mucli more expensive, it is estimated that the whole season 
 does not cost less than £15 per head, including attendance, utensils, and interest of capital. 
 The annual yield in cheese is from 360 to 500 lbs., exclusive of the milk given to the calves 
 and used iu the family, which, it is estimated, would raise the produce of cheese to 
 500 lbs. per year, the proportion generally obtained being 1 lb. of cheese to each gallon 
 of milk. T'he following is the method of making Stilton cheese : — 
 
 The evening meal of milk is set, and put to that of the next morning, with the 
 rennet; or sometimes the cream is skimmed from the former, and alone put to the 
 latter, with the rennet, the temperature being raised, if necessary, by artificial means, 
 to about 8F. When the curd is formed, which should occupy about an hour and a half, 
 it should be taken out, unbroken, and strained in a sieve or straining cloth. This process 
 bhould be gradual, dtii'ing which a gentle pressure sliotdJ be used, till it becomes dry aiul 
 
THE DAIRY. 753 
 
 firm. It is then placed in a vat or box exactly the size of the inteuded cheese, to prevent 
 its bulging out or breaking in pieces again. Sometimes the whey is squeezed out by 
 pressing it when in the strainer by twisting it round, and, when dry enough, is cut into 
 pieces and put in the mould, a clean strainer being put next the sides of tlic mould. 
 Salt is sprinkled between every layei', and holes are made in the sides of the box to let 
 the whej' still remaining drain oiF. The next morning it is taken out, and fresh cloths 
 being put in the mould, the curd is inverted, and placed in it again ; and this is 
 repeated until, all the whey having drained out, the curd becomes firm. During this 
 draining process, the temperature ought to be kept as high as 100°, in order to extract 
 the whey and dry the curd. Perfect cleanliness is absolutely necessary to prevent the 
 curd from acquiring a rancid flavour. 
 
 When the cheese has acquired the requisite firnniess, it undergoes a trimming, by 
 paring off the inequalities, and, with the excess, filling up the interstices between the 
 slices. The top and bottom are also pared from their excrescent parts. A piece of 
 canvas is then wound twice or thrice round the cheese, aiid it is placed on a clean cloth 
 on a shelf. This cloth and canvas are changed every morning, and the cracks in the 
 sides filled up, until the outside becomes dry and wrinkled. It is then taken to the 
 drying-room, where it is daily turned and brushed to preserve it from mites and fly- 
 blows, of which, in warm weather, it is in danger. This process continues for three 
 months, after which the cheese is ready for sale. 
 
 A considerable quantity of whey-butter is made in Cheshire and other counties, 
 being churned from the whey taken from the curd. Green whey is that clear liquid 
 taken out of the chcesc-tub, whilst the white ivheij is what is expressed from the curd by 
 hand and the weighted board after the curd is put into the cheese-vat. In some cases 
 •the " thrustings," or white whey, is set in cream vessels to acidulate for churning, in a 
 room heated either by the summer's sun, or by artificial means, if the weather is cold. 
 In other instances both kinds of whey are boiled together, or rather are kept beloio 
 boiling point, but sufficiently hot to cause the oleaginous matter to separate from the 
 whey and rise to the surface. If the whey is acid, this takes place in about an hour; 
 but if sweet, it should be artificially acidulated slightly to promote the separation. In 
 other respects the process of making whey-butter does not differ from that of making 
 butter from milk or cream. 
 
 The making of butter from the milk or cream is much better understood now than 
 formerly, when a difficulty in "making it come" was ascribed to witchcraft or fairycraft, 
 of either of which the dairymaid stood in wholesome fear, without suspecting, or, at 
 least, without acknowledging, that she herself had been the cause by her negligence or 
 ignorance. At present, in all dairies belonging to persons with any pretensions to 
 modern agricultural civilisation, butter-making is reduced strictly to a science, the rules 
 of which, if properly attended to, will infallibly be the means of producing good butter 
 in the proper time, according to the season and the state or temperature of the weather. 
 These, however, are of less moment now than of yore, because means are used, by 
 artificial heat, to sustain a given temperature at all times when required. The following 
 rules may be depended on for ensuring success : — 
 
 Before preparing to churn, see that the churn itself is perfectly clean, and free from 
 all rancid or other smell, which usually arises from its not having been properly scalded 
 after the previous churning. If not perfectly sweet, rinse it with boiling water, and 
 
 3c 
 
754. AGRICULTUKE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 afterwards with cold water, if iu summer, but this should 1)e omitted when the weather 
 is cold. When this is done the churn is ready for the cream, which in winter may consist 
 of that of three meals of milk, skimmed off when it is twenty hours old, and placed in a 
 glazed earthenware or glass jar. The milk should never he allowed to turn sour before 
 the cream is taken off; but it is of no importance that the cream afterwards becomes 
 sour, as it will not at all affect the quality of the butter. When milk is placed in dishes 
 the cream must be skimmed off; but if in milk-leads — ^that is, square wooden frames 
 about 3 inches deep, lined with lead or zinc, and having a hole at one corner fitted 
 with a spigot — there is nothing to do but to place a pail imder the hole, and take out the 
 spigot. As the cream swims at the top, the milk may thus be clean drawn from it, by 
 watching that none of it escapes at the close of the process with the last of the milk. 
 
 We sec no reason why plate-glass should not he substituted for metal for lining the 
 wooden trays. It would not matter bow coarse the glass is, provided the surface is 
 polished, which can now be accomplished by machinery at a small expense. No other 
 material can equal glass in purity, cleanliness, and entire freedom from retaining any 
 smell noxious to butter. 
 
 In summer the milk should not stand more than from twelve to eighteen hours 
 before the cream is taken from it. Before pouring it into the churn, it should be 
 strained through a cheese-cloth strainer, placed over the opening of the churn, by which 
 all the impurities that may have got into it are taken from it. A thermometer is an 
 indispensable instrument in a modern dairy of any pretensions, to regulate the tem- 
 perature in the difierent operations. In cream ready for churning, the thermal degree 
 should be 55° Fahr. If it is higher, it requires great care, by a slow motion, to prevent 
 the churning from bursting, which will injure or destroy the butter. In summer the 
 process of " making the butter come" is much quicker than in winter, seldom exceeding 
 half an hour or forty minutes. A good deal, however, depends upon the tact, skill, and 
 carefulness of the dairymaid, or the man employed to work the churn. The former may, 
 by her neglect of attending to the degree of heat of the cream, or in keeping the churn 
 in order, and the latter by an irregular motion of the chum, not only protract the time, 
 but injure the quality of the butter. When a locomotive steam-engine is kept on a 
 farm, and the dairy is large enough to render it available, that power is now applied to 
 the churning of butter with the best eflect. By it a regular motion can be preserved, 
 superior to that of animal or hand power. A horse wheel is sometimes used, but this is 
 liable to even more casualty in regard to regularity of movement than haud-churning. 
 Being generally superintended by a boy, it is a rare chance indeed if he maintains a 
 regular motion with the horse. 
 
 As soon as the butter has formed in lumps, it should be taken from the churn and 
 placed iu a tub made for the purpose. Cold water is then poured over it, and it is 
 kneaded by hand in the water to extract all the butter-milk. Fresh water is applied to 
 replace that, and so on until the water remains perfectly clear from cloudiness, which is 
 a proof that none of the butter-milk remains. A machinist* has invented a machine 
 which, at one movement, instantaneously separates the butter-milk in the most perfect 
 manner, saving a great deal of time, and preserving the purity of the butter, which is 
 sometimes endangered by a hot-handed dairymaid— not to say an untidy one, which is 
 as much the fault of the mistress as of the maid. In fact, no farmer ought to establish 
 * Tbis is Ihe firm of Hancock, the invenfor of tlie pulveriser plough which we have described. 
 
THE DAIRY. 755 
 
 a dairy on his farm whose wife and daughters (if he has any) are too genteel to attend 
 to the business of the dairy ; and we would recommend such fine ladies to read atten- 
 tively a spirited little work entitled " Our Farm of Four Acres/' by which they will 
 learn that such employment is not at all incompatible with the highest degree of 
 refinement or of literary taste. That little Avork, in fact^ is a model for farmers' wives 
 of every grade, and shows the importance of a knowledge of science for the proper 
 management of the dairy. 
 
 When the butter is divested of the butter-milk, it is worked up into whatever fanciful 
 forms the custom of the country, or the ingenuity of the dairymaid, may devise. Thus, 
 in Norfolk, butter is put up into piuts and half pints ; in Cambridgeshire it is brought 
 to market and sold by the yard, half yard, and quarter yard ; but the most usual form 
 is that of the pound and half pouud, either plain or stamped with various devices of birds, 
 beasts, plants, &c., &c. Sometimes a little salt is worked into the butter, but in London 
 the people prefer it perfectly fresh, except the Irish firkin butter, which is usually salted 
 with the view of its keeping through the whole season. No other butter than the Irish 
 has been found to stand the voyage to either the East or West Indies, and even that 
 becomes rancid after its arrival, v\'hich the inhabitants soon become accustomed to.* 
 
 There are vai'ious ways in which butter may be injured in churning. If it " bursts" 
 it will be soft aud frothy ; and the same if churned too quick iu hot weather. In these 
 cases, it never becomes firm, and will not keep half the time of good butter. If it is 
 churned beyond the time that the butter is formed, it will also be soft, and will not keep 
 long. In summer the temperature of the atmosphere is generally sufficiently high to 
 keep the cream warm enough for churning without artificial heat ; but in winter it is 
 necessary to raise the temperature by boiling a portion of the cream to be put into the 
 churn with the rest. 
 
 In Ireland the dairymen churn the whole of the milk without skimming off the 
 cream ; and it is said that the quantity of butter produced by this method is greater 
 than from the cream alone. The upright churns worked by hand are chiefly used in 
 that country. The milk as it comes from the cow is put into barrels, and kept twenty- 
 four hours. It is then put into the churn, raised to a temperatiirc of 70° or 75° by the 
 application of hot water. The churning in this way is much more tedious than when 
 the cream alone is churned. 
 
 No certain method has been yet discovered of curing tainted or rancid butter. This 
 is because no chemical preparation can touch it on account of its oleaginous property, 
 except an alkali which would convert it into soap. It may, however, be improved so as 
 to be fit for making pastry, by putting it into clear, cold spring water, and setting it 
 over the fire until it boils, when it should be skimmed off and set to cool in jars, taking 
 care to draw off all the water fi-om it when it again becomes solid. It should be used 
 immediately, or it would probably again become as bad as ever. The act of boiling will 
 dissolve the unpleasant acids to some extent, and cause them to evaporate. 
 
 The proportion of butter obtained from a given quantity of milk depends upon the 
 breed of cattle aud the quality of the pastures. Lord Kames states that a good cow will 
 give on an average, during the six summer months, twelve Scotch pints of milk daily ; f 
 
 * A lelutive of tiie writer's, who had lived for mauy years in the West Indies, when she came b.icl; to reside iu 
 Norfoll:, could not eat the Norfolk butter, " ii xoas so fresh and taslchssl" 
 t The Scotch pint is equal to four English pints. 
 
 3 c 3 
 
756 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 aud that the butter from it^ with the skim-milk, may be worth eighteeupence per day. 
 This is rather an apocryphal produce, and so thought the editor of the sixth editiou, 
 who, in the Appendix, states that half tlie quantity of milk stated by his lordship 
 would be nearer the average. The following recipe for preserving butter is given by 
 Dr. Anderson : — " Take of sugar one part ; of nitre, one part ; and of the best Spanish 
 great salt two parts. Beat the whole into fine powder, mix them well together, aud put 
 them by for use. One ounce of this is to be thoroughly mixed with every pound of 
 butter as soon as it is freed from the milk, and then immediately put into the vessel 
 designed for it ; after whicli it must be pressed so close as to leave no air-holes. The 
 surface is to be smoothed and covered with a piece of linen, aud over that a piece of wet 
 parchment, or of tine linen that has been dipped in melted butter, exactly fitted to the 
 edges of the vessel all round, in order to exclude the air as much as possible. When 
 quite full, the cask is to be covered in like manner, and a little melted butter put round 
 the edges, in order to fill up effectually every cranny, and totally to exclude the air. If 
 all this be carefully done, the butter may be kept perfectly sound in this climate for 
 many years. Hoiv many years I cannot tell, but I have seen it two years old, and in 
 every respect as sweet aud sound as when only a month old. It deserves to be remarked 
 that butter cured in this manner does not taste well until it has stood at least a fort- 
 night after being salted ; but after that period has elapsed it eats with a rich marrowy 
 taste that no other butter ever acquires ; and it tastes so little of salt, that a person who 
 has been accustomed to eat butter cured with common salt only, would not imagine it 
 had got one-fourth part of the salt necessary to preserve it." 
 
 The rearing of calves, whether for the butcher or for the stock, forms an important 
 brancli of dairy economy. In feeding them for the butcher various plans are adopted, 
 lu Scotland they are kept for many weeks, the youngest having the first drawn new 
 milk, aud the older ones the last drawn, which contains a much larger proportion of 
 cream. By this means the cows are fattened up to a large size for the Edinburgh aud 
 Glasgow markets. In Ayrshire the dairy farmers pride themselves on the fatness of 
 their calves, and sometimes raise them to the value of ten pounds. In Ireland, on the 
 contrary, they invariably kill the calves intended for the butcher at a few days old, but 
 the veal is never good, being flabby and tasteless. 
 
 When a calf is first dropped, it should be fed with the beistinys, or the first milk 
 drawn from the cow. This has more consistence than the after milk, and is peculiarly 
 adapted to strengthen the young animal. As it is seldom strong enough to suck of 
 itself, it must be fed with it by hand, and as much given as it will take. In a few days 
 it will have learned to drink, and should have as much sweet milk given to it as it can 
 drink, which will be about eight quarts a day, at thi'ce meals, the first month, for which 
 purpose the cow should be milked three times a day. After the first month, the cow 
 should be milked, and the calf fed, only twice a day. This should continue till it is three 
 months old, when they should be put into a pasture to be weaned ; but if it is weak it 
 should be kept longer on milk. In order to facilitate the weaning, its appetite should 
 be stimulated with linseed jelly, clover hay, sliced turnips or carrots, or a little pounded 
 oil-cake, with as nuich water as it will drink at all times. In order to rear first-rate 
 cattle, the calves should not be either stinted in quantity of food, or cheated in the 
 quality. Some dairymaids make a point of giving them part skim and part sweet milk; 
 but it is impossible that they should thrive as well under that practice as ^ith wholly 
 
THE DATRY. 757 
 
 new milk. When weaning, they should hare a full bite of grass, as they are nnaccus- 
 tomed to shift for themselves, and must have their food ready provided, witliout the 
 trouble of seeking it. Nor should they be deprived of the milk all at once, bnt by 
 degrees, otherwise they will pine for it, and go back so much in flesh that it will be 
 difficult to fetch them up again to their former high condition. 
 
 When calves are allowed to suck the cows, one cow is generally made to suppoi-t two 
 calves. The objection to this plan is, that the cow seldom allows herself to be milked 
 b}' hand afterwards. On this account some dairy farmers keep cows on pxxrpose for 
 suckling calves ; and if the cow has had her own calf early in the season, and is good at 
 the pail, she will probably be able to rear two sets, that is, four calves, before her milk 
 fiills off too much for the purpose. Each calf should have a separate stall or crib, in 
 order to prevent them acquiring the habit of sucking each other's ears and other parts, 
 which does them both harm. 
 
 At three weeks old those bull-calves which it is not intended to rear entire should be 
 castrated, it being considered as attended with less risk, and probably with less pain, 
 than when they are older. After the operation (which should be performed by a vete- 
 rinary surgeon) the calf should be laid upon some straw, and it will be stiff" and sore for 
 some days. It should be watched to see that no inidue degree of inflammation or 
 swelling of the parts takes place. Should it do so, fomentation should be applied with 
 warm water. If the parts suppurate, which, however, is a rare occurrence, they should 
 be opened for the discharge of the matter. Heifers are never spayed now, as they 
 formerly were, under the supposition that they fattened much faster. 
 
 Some breeders begin giving their calves solid food at a much earlier age than others. 
 At three weeks old they commence by giving them cut hay, linseed cake, and sliced 
 turnips, diminishing the allowance of milk in proportion as the animals consume the other 
 food. During their first summer they are fed with vetches, Italian rye-grass, &c., and an 
 allowance of cake — from 1 to 3 lbs. daily. As soon as the turnips and Swedes are ready, 
 and the green food begins to fail, those roots should be substituted, and a full allowance 
 of oat straw, witli 2 lbs. of linseed cake, per day, as with green food. The cake should 
 never be withheld from them, as it not only nourishes them, but keeps them in good 
 liealth, and prevents the disease called the black-leg from attacking them. Young stock 
 reared in this liberal manner make great progress ; and many are exhibited at the cattle 
 shows of the Smithfield, and other agricultural clubs, of large size, and fat enough for 
 the hutch er at two years old. 
 
 There is no economy in keeping young stock on short allowance, or in a niggardly 
 way, for the sake of rearing a large number. We know of no worse system than for a 
 farmer or grazier to overstock his land ; and it will be far better for him to have a field 
 of turnips left at the end of the season, to be chopped up and ploughed in, than to have 
 a parcel of young stock on short allowance of food, pining and bellowing for hunger ; 
 or turned possibly into a piece of pasture before the grass has commenced growing freely, 
 to forestall the crop, and prevent its after luxuriance. No grazier who understands his 
 business will purchase half-starved or half-fed cattle, if others are to be procured, for it 
 will cost him as much to free them from the hidebound condition in which they neces- 
 sarily are, as it would to prepare a well-reared lot for the butcher. 
 
 Young calves should never be turned out to grass when the weather is cold ; and, 
 until they are accustomed to the fresh air, a well-sheltered paddock is the best place 
 
758 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 for them to turn into for a few hours every clay when the weather is dry, with a shed open 
 to the south, but closed to the north and east, to which they can resort after feeding, to 
 rest themselves. Some breeders prefer soiling them in a yard throughout the summer, 
 giviug them cut green food, and letting them have a run in a paddock for a short time. 
 
 Cows that, by reason of age or accident, decline in their yield of milk, or those that 
 have missed having a calf, should be fattened at once, unless, in the latter case, there 
 are special reasons to the contrary. Some cows natiirally make flesh, after a certain 
 age, too fast to allow of their continuing good milkers. Such animals should never be 
 kept in a dairy, however rich their milk may l)c, because the quantity must necessarily 
 be small, as a cow cannot gain much flesh and give an adequate produce of milk at the 
 same time. Such cattle, too, will pay for fattening, and their abstraction from the 
 dairy makes room for more profitable animals. !Many town dairymen always fatten their 
 rows when they fall ofl" in their yield of milk from natural causes, and supply their 
 places by purchasing three-year-old heifers ready to drop the calf, or that have recently 
 calved, and have had their calves taken from them. 
 
 The quantity of milk given by cows varies considerably, as well as its richness. 
 Stephens mentions instances of cows requiring to be milked five times a day, and others 
 in which the quantity ranged from 12 to 254 quarts per day, and one in which 45 quarts 
 per day were yielded. A cow that yields half a pound of butter per day throughout the 
 year, and gives 300 gallons of milk in the year, he considers a good one. 
 
 The period of gestation of the cow is generally reckoned to be nine months, but it is 
 not certain to a few days. The late Earl Spencer kept a register of 76i cows, and found 
 that the period ranged from 220 days, or seven months, three weeks, and three days, to 
 313 days, or eleven months, five days, reckoning in both cases the calendar month of 
 twenty-eight days. Mr. Morton, however, considers 220 days a premature biith (as it 
 certainly is) — dangerous to the calf, and, in fact, states he was never able to rear a calf 
 at an earlier- period than 242 days; and that any period of gestation exceeding 300 days 
 must be considci'cd irregular, though not necessarily fatal to the calf.* The time when 
 the bull is admitted to cows should be carefully registered, so that the dairyman may 
 know when to expect tlieir parturition. The symptoms, also, of the approaching event 
 should be watched, and preparation made for it. Generally the udder fills suddenly, and 
 the vagina swells and looks inflamed, and a yielding takes place of the ligaments on each 
 side tlie rump. It is usual on such symptoms appearing, to take some blood from tlic cow, 
 and administer an aperient dose of medicine, in order to prevent her dropping the calf 
 or sZm/m?//, in which case there is danger of her not getting rid of the ajfcr- birth, or 
 placenta. This, if it accidentally remains, will soon become putrid, and a veterinary 
 surgeon should be called in to assist in removing it as soon as the cow is delivered of the 
 calf We have known, in the case of ewes, when the placenta has not been removed at 
 the time of parturition, that it has come from them piecemeal, in a high state of 
 decomposition. In the case of the cow, Stephens recommends the following drink to 
 promote the cleansing: — "Juniper berries, 3 oz.; bay Ijcrries, 2 oz. ; nitre, 1 oz. ; 
 anise seed, I oz. ; gentian, ^ oz. ; gum myrrh, i oz. ; asafcetida, \ oz. — well pounded 
 together for one dose, aiul given in one quart of mild ale, made warm in one quart of 
 
 * Skellett observes that where it happens that a cow goes two or tliree weeks beyond the usual period of gestation, tlio 
 cnlf is invariably a male ojie; and that cows generally go longer witli a bull than with a cow calf. See "Practical 
 'I'realisc on the Parturition of (lie Cow," page 14. 
 
THE DAIRY. 
 
 759 
 
 pennyroyal tea." This drink sliould be given fasting, and repeated every day till the 
 cleansing be evacnatcd. The cow should have plenty of -vrann drinks, sucli as -^varni 
 ■water, gruel, and mashes of malt and bran, so as to keep the body gently open. 
 
 Cows that have once shown a tendency to this disorder are so liable to it in future 
 that it is considered useless to attempt a cure ; and the only alternative left to the owner 
 is to obtain milk from her as long as she will yield it with profit; and instead of giving 
 her the bull with the view of having another calf, to fatten her at once, unless her value 
 as a tinst-rate type of her breed renders it desirable to preserve the stock. In that case 
 Skellett recommends bleeding at an early period of gestation, keeping the body open 
 with occasional cooling medicine, having gentle and regular exercise, and seclusion from 
 other cattle towards the period of parturition. The food should be particularly attended 
 to — neither of a costive nor a too laxative tendency, the latter being likely to produce 
 the disease. She should be kept in f/ood, but not high condition — neither so low as to 
 reduce her strength, nor so high as to render parturition dangerous either to the cow or 
 her calf; and, above all, keep her from contact with nauseous smells from other cows, 
 which occur at certain seasons of the year. To prevent danger from this, Skellett recom- 
 mends the following recipe, as used with great success by his father for many years : — 
 Barbadoes tar, 3 oz. ; balsam of sulphur, 3 oz. ; rectified oil of amber, 1 oz. ; fine oil of 
 thyme, 1 oz. ; animal oil, h oz. ]\Iix them well together, and in using it a little is to 
 be rubbed upon the parts where the cows commonly smell each other — to be repeated 
 occasionally as it -wears off the parts.* 
 
 Bleeding, we believe, is less practised now than when Skellett wrote his celebrated 
 work, either in the case of human surgery or the veterinary art. Medicines have taken 
 the place of the lancet, except in extreme cases, and such may probably occur in the 
 subject under consideration; but blood-letting ought always to be under the direction 
 of a skilful practitioner, and never entrusted to the hands of an empyric. It is the 
 easiest matter imaginable to take a quantity of blood from a man or a domestic animal ; 
 but if injudiciously done, it may occasion irreparable mischief to the constitution. 
 
 Heifers should never be allowed to admit the bull at a less age than U\o years, 
 although they will show a desire for it at even one year old. A. remarkable instance of 
 such precocity is related at p. 362 of this work, but such cases are rare, and the proba- 
 bility is that where they are allowed, or take place accidentally, the heifer is injured for 
 life, and her growth stunted, whilst her progeny is -weak, and seldom pays for rearing. 
 
 " Butter," says Stephens, " gives its richness to milk, sugar its sweetness, casein its 
 thickness, water its refreshing property as a drink, and salts its pecidiar flavour." The 
 following are the proportions of these ingredients, according to the analyses of Henri 
 and Chevalier, in 1,000 parts : — 
 
 
 Cow's 
 Bcistiiigs. Milk, 
 
 Enc-s Milk. 
 
 Mare's Milk. 
 
 Caseiu 
 
 Mucus 
 
 Batter -. . 
 
 Sugar of milk 
 
 Salts 
 
 Water 
 
 150-7 
 200 
 260 
 
 traces 
 
 803-3 
 
 44-8 
 
 31-3 
 
 47-7 
 
 CO 
 
 870-2 
 
 45-0 
 
 42 
 
 500 
 
 6-8 
 
 356-2 
 
 16-2 
 
 traces 
 87-5 
 
 1 896-3 
 
 1,000-0 
 
 1,0000 
 
 1,0000 
 
 1,000-0 
 
 'A Practical Treatise on the Parturition of the Cow," by E. Skellett, p. 74. 
 
760 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 These constituents in milk arc only mechanically mixed, which accounts for the 
 rapid changes that take place in it ; and it only requires rest and time to effect their 
 separation ; ■whilst the cream, which is the oleaginous and lightest portion^ rises to the 
 surface, the casein turns sour, and, after a time, causes the milk to coagulate into a 
 mass, which again subsequently separates into two parts, the coagulation or curd 
 becoming more solid, and the aqueoiis parts more thin and fluid, the former being 
 cheese, the latter whey. " ^lilk," says Kaspail, " when viewed by the miscroscope, 
 with a power of only 100 diameters, exhibits spherical globules, the largest of which are 
 not more than •0001 of an inch in diameter, and which, from their smallness, appear of 
 a deep black at their edges. These globules disappear on the addition of an alkali — 
 such as ammonia — and the milk then becomes transparent. If the proportional quality 
 of milk be more considerable, it forms a coagulum of a beautiful white colom- on the 
 addition of concentrated sulphuric acid. This coagulum does not arise simply from 
 the adhesion of the globules to each other, but it may be plainly seen by the microscope 
 that the globules ai'e evolved in a transparent albuminous membrane, which has no 
 appearance of a granular structure. Milk, then, is a watery fluid, holding in solution 
 albumen and oil, by the agency of an alkaline salt or a pure alkali, and having suspended 
 in it an immense number of globules, which are in part albuminous and in part oili/. 
 The albuminous globules must tend to subside slowly to the bottom of the vessel by 
 their specific gravity, whilst the oily globules must have a tendency to rise to the surface. 
 But the oily globules being dispei'sed in myriads amidst equally numerous albuminous 
 globules, they cannot rise to the surface without taking with them a greater or less 
 number of the globules of albumen. Hence, at the end of twenty-four hours, we find 
 on the surface of the milk a crust composed of two layers, the upper one of which 
 contains more butter than milk, while the lower contains more milk than butter. The 
 separation will take place equally, with or without contact with the air. The liquid 
 part which lies under the crust contains the dissolved albumen and oil, with a portion of 
 the sugar, the soluble salts, and a certain quantity of the albumen and oily globules." * 
 
 In Paris, according to the same authority, the dairymen skim the cream from the 
 milk, and substitute for it raw sugar and an emulsion of either sweet almonds or hemp- 
 seed. Starch, also, is used, with the addition of carbonate of potash, to prevent coagula- 
 tion. Sometimes magnesia is put into the cream by the Dutch dairymaids to thicken 
 it. The adulteration of milk by some of the London dairymen, or their agents, the 
 distributors, is sometimes carried to an enormous extent, and their diminutive cry of 
 "Mi., O" is well defiued to be a contraction of the French words demi eau, or half water ! 
 The pump is certainly the source of the most profit to many of the London dairymen or 
 their distributors. It is also asserted that substances far more objectionable than water are 
 sometimes put into milk that has been highly watered, to restore its colour and thicken it. 
 
 Although the constituents of milk are only mechanically mixed, the changes which 
 they undergo in the processes of making butter and cheese are chemical. In churning, 
 the milk becomes sour by the conversion of the sugar into lactic acid, which is supposed 
 to dissolve the filmy coverings of the fatty globules, which then unite and form the solid 
 mass of butter. The fat of butter consists of two substances, culled tnari/ariiie and elaiii, 
 the first of which gives hardness, and the second softness, to the butter. There' is, 
 however, that analogy between these two elements that the elain is sometimes converted 
 
 * " Organic CUemibtrv," by M. Rasiiail, p. 3S0. 
 
THE DAIRY. 761 
 
 into margarine by the addition of 4 parts of oxygen absorbed from the air, or other- 
 wise by 1 part of liquid elaic acid, giving off at the same time 2 of carbonic acid, and 
 becoming transferred to margaric acid. These changes are, of course, essentially 
 chemical, and they point out the very delicate character of the manufacture of butter, 
 and the importance of possessing more than a merely practical knowledge of the ai't. It 
 is for want of au acquaintance with the rationale of the operation of butter-making 
 that we find so little of a first-rate quality ; whilst those who conduct the process upon 
 scientific principles never fail to have good butter. Our forefathers (and, we are sorry 
 to add, some even in the nineteenth century) were wont, in their ignorance, to ascribe 
 the failures in churning and cheese-making to supernatural causes, throwing all the 
 blame upon the fairies or some unfortunate female who happened to be more destitute 
 of personal charms than her neighbours, and was consequently deemed a witch. Science, 
 which is pushing its ramifications into the most secluded parts of our country, has 
 almost wholly dispelled these injurious illusions, and assigned such failures to their 
 proper source — neglect, and ignorance of the principles on which the processes should 
 be conducted. 
 
 Besides butter and cheese in their ordinary forms, there are various other prepara- 
 tions of milk and cream that furnish an agreeable variety in the dishes brought to table. 
 Thus, the clouted or clotted cream of Devonshire, which lias a wide, if not a world-wide 
 reputation, is prepared by straining new milk into a shallow dish having a little warm 
 water in it. It is then allowed to stand from six to twelve hours, after which it is care- 
 fully heated over a slow fire to almost boiling point, but not quite, as it would break the 
 skin of the cream. The dish is taken back to the dairy, and the cream cooled, when it 
 may be eaten either as butter or cream. 
 
 Cream in its ordinary form is used at table as a delicious accompaniment to fruit 
 pies and puddings, and in a great variety of ways, well known to skilful housekeepers, 
 and in none of which is it more grateful to all palates than witli preserved fruits. Iced 
 cream, flavoured with different kinds of fresh fruits— as pine-apples, raspberries, straw- 
 berries, &c. — are .well-known preparations of the confectioner, and aflbrd a cool and 
 delicious refreshment in hot weather. 
 
 Cream-cheese may be made in the following manner: — Take one pint of cream, and 
 mix it with twelve pints of noon-day milk, warm from the cow : add a little rennet, and 
 when the curd comes, pour oft' the whey gently, without breaking the curd more than 
 necessary ; put it on a sieve, with a cloth or a strainer iinder it ; change the cloth every 
 hour during the day, and in twenty-four hours it will be made. It ought, however to 
 stand some time to ripen before it is eaten, which much improves the flavour. Stephens, 
 on the other hand, says it will keep good only one day. This, however, is a matter of 
 taste, and, from experience, we should prefer it after standing two or three days. 
 
 To make hutted kit, boil two quarts of milk scalding hot, and pour it quickly upon 
 four quarts of fresh butter-milk. Let it stand till quite cold, and then take off' the hat 
 or skim, which will be quite solid : drain this in a hair-sieve, and ])ut it into a shape for 
 half an hour ; then turn it into a dish, and serve it with cream and sugar. The slightly 
 acid taste it has acquired in the process will heighten the zest in eating it. 
 
rfiS AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 IRRIGATION. 
 
 The custom of applying water issuing from liigli ground to the irrigation of those lauds 
 below it, is one of sucli obvious utility, and so easily carried into effect, tliat it is a 
 matter of astonishment it should Ijc so little practised in England, which is considered 
 to be, in other respects, the model country of good husbandry. Perhaps it may be 
 ascribed, to a great extent, to that jealousy with which those persons who possess mill- 
 races view what they consider to be encroachments upon their rights. lentil some recent 
 decisions disabused them of their pretensions, the millers generally considered all the 
 water proceeding from the high grounds abutting upon their portion of the streams on 
 which their mills were placed as their vested property, and any infringement upon it was 
 sure to be followed by an action at law. These assumptions have Ijcen exploded by those 
 decisions which have established the right of the occupiers of hi^h lands to deal with 
 the water on their own farms as they think proper ; and the late Drainage Acts have 
 further confirmed this right, and even enabled them to pass their drainage water through 
 the lands of those farms below them, or to dispose of it in any way they may think fit. 
 
 In some of the English counties, however, where abundiince of streamlets are found 
 proceeding from the hills, irrigation has been practised for a great length of time. This 
 is the case in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Devonshire, where water-meadows have 
 been formed for time out of mind. That it should not have been adopted by other parts 
 of the kingdom to a greater extent, must be ascribed in part to the cause we have stated, 
 but chiefly to a want of knowledge amongst the farmers of the principles of hydraulics 
 and the mode of taking levels. In this respect, however, a great change has taken place 
 in the last few years by the introduction of science into agricultural operations; and 
 the principles on which irrigation should l)e conducted are generally understood by all 
 farmers mnking any pretensions to intelligence or scientific knowledge. 
 
 The great use of water-meadows is the advantage of having an carl}' crop of grass 
 in the spring for the breeding ewes and their lambs, by which they are usually fed down 
 in March and April. They are then flooded, and shut up for a crop of hay in the 
 summer. .The after-math is fed oft' by cattle, or cut for feeding them in the l)yres. 
 Sheep should never be turned into them in the autumn, it being sure to give them the 
 rot. Whatever may be tiie cause of this, the fact itself is indisputable — that, whilst the 
 grass of water-meadows is so fattening and healthful in the spring to sheep of all kinds, 
 it is equally pernicious in the autumn when they are turned in to graze upon it. If it 
 is intended to pi'oduce a crop of hay, the meadow should be shut up the first week in 
 May. If this is put off later, even for a week, it is said that the quality of the hay will 
 be entirely spoiled, being rendered soft, woolly, and unsubstantial, as in the case of after- 
 math crops. Being shut up and flooded for some days, the grass afterwards will be ready 
 for the scythe in five or six weeks. This being taken off", the meadow should be again 
 flooded, when a third crop, either of hay oi' of grass for feeding oft' the ground or in 
 the stall, is produced, the latter mode lacing the best and most economical for its 
 consumption. 
 
IRRIGATION. 763 
 
 The produce of grass from water-meadows is very large. Mr. Stephens^ in liis " Book 
 of the Farm," mentions a piece of ground belonging to Mr. Simpson^ of Glenythan, in 
 AberdeenshirCj which had never produced grass for the scythe until he caused it to 
 be irrigated by a burn that ran through it; after which^ in the first year (1844') it 
 produced 119 cart-loads of grass, of G cwt. each; and in the second, 142 cart-loads, the 
 quantity of land being 4 acres, 1 rood, 38 poles. Each load yielded 2 cwt. 104 lbs. of 
 hay, so that the produce of this once barren piece of land was, in 1845, 495 stones of 
 22 lbs. to the (Scotch) stone ; the value of which, at 6d. per stone, was £12 7s. 6d. per 
 acre, or .€52 17*. 6^^. for the whole field, being .€21 9*. 3d. more than the ground cost to 
 convert it into a water-meadow.* 
 
 The Orchiston meadows in Wiltshire are well known for their extraordinary pro- 
 ductiveness, the tithe having, it is said, been sold for five guineas an acre. Besides those 
 counties we have named, Worcestershire, Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and Berkshire, have 
 their water-meadows ; and those at Lexham, in Norfolk, formed by Mr. Beck about the 
 beginning of the present century, have been noted for their productiveness. Mr. Morton 
 estimates that the entire breadth of land employed as water-meadows in England 
 does not exceed 100,000 acres. f There is no question that an apprehension of inter- 
 fering with tlie mill-races, and thus getting involved in a law-suit with the miller, deters 
 many persons from thus employing the rivulets they possess on their farms. 
 
 The quality of the water to be employed in irrigation should be strictly attended to ; 
 for if it is chalybeate it is apt to do more harm than good. A naturally soft, and 
 comparatively warm water, is the best adapted, and clear, rather than turbid or muddy. 
 Those riviilets flowing over a calcareous soil are considered the best for the purpose, 
 being generally quite clear, the calcareous matter being retained in it in a form imper- 
 ceptible to the eye. It is just the reverse with arable land, which is benefited by being 
 overflowed by turbid water, as in the case of the Nile in Egypt, and other rivers that 
 overflow their l)anks in the spring. The Humber, in Lincolnshire, is also an instance 
 in which the warp or sediment of the river has been made the means of rendering 
 thousands of acres, of peaty or sandy soils rich and productive, bringing in a rental of 
 50*. or 60*. per acre. 
 
 In forming water-meadows, the fall of the ground, and the relative position of the 
 stream or spring to be employed, must be considered, for on this depends the feasibility 
 of the work. If the subsoil is a clay or loam, it should be thorough drained, as a preli- 
 minary step, in order to prevent any portion of the irrigating water from being retained 
 in the subsoil should it penetrate thereto, and then become otherwise stagnant. This 
 would, in a great measure, neutralise the benefit of the irrigation, by the encouragement 
 of coarse grass and rushes. The drains will, of course, obviate this, and by opening 
 clianncls for the surplus water, lay the land dry, and encourage the growth of the finer 
 kinds of meadow-grass. The drains should be from 3 to 4 feet deep, according to the 
 level of the catchment or main drain. The common drain-tiles are the best and cheapest 
 materials that can be employed for the purpose, and one inch diameter is a sufficient 
 bore. 
 
 If the stream from which it is intended to draw the water has land belonging to 
 another proprietor on one side, only half the water can be claimed for the purpose ; but 
 if both sides belong to the party, there can be no dispute about its appropriation ; and 
 
 * " Book of the Farm," vol. ii. p. 679. t " Eacyclopiedia of Agriculture," art., Water-meadows. 
 
764 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the same is the case if it arises from a spring on the farm, although it may be of benefit 
 to another party after it leaves the estate on -nhich it originates. It may be desirable 
 to erect a tiara across the stream in the case of a rivulet or a river, but regard must be 
 liad to the rights of other parties -nlio may possess royalties over the waters, which vrould 
 be injured by its erection. If the right to do it is disputed, and cannot be purchased, 
 it will be better to seek a supply of water from the high lands abutting upon the 
 meadows, rather than run the risk of a suit at law, which, even to the winner, is too 
 frequently a losing game. River water, however, is best, if it can be obtained, on account 
 of the organic matters held by it in solution, especially if it runs through a calcareous 
 district. The fall need not be more than I foot in 100 yards ; but this must extend to 
 every part of the land to be irrigated, so that every drop of water may be kept in motion, 
 and none suffered to remain stagnant. A spirit-level is absolutely necessary for the 
 purpose of irrigating to the best advantage ; and, where it can be done, the inequalities 
 of the land should be adjusted in the first instance. It would, in fact, save a vast deal 
 of after trouble, and render the work more perfect, to lay the meadow in regular ridges, 
 slightly elevated in the centres, on which the water-courses should be formed, taking 
 care to have them lie in the direction of the incline of the land. AA'e have seen water- 
 meadows formed on this principle which exhibited a perfectly uniform surface of rich 
 verdure as early as February. This is termed bed-work irrigation, and it must be so 
 conducted that the main drain receives the whole of the water after it has performed its 
 work, and conveys it away, so as to prevent any stagnation. It will be readily perceived 
 that this mode of irrigation must be the most perfect, if properly executed, because it 
 makes provision for an uniform distribution of the water, and for its entire riddance 
 when it has performed its mission. The width of the ridges must be regulated by the 
 nature of the soil and the quantity of water at command. Where the soil is tenacious, 
 and the water scanty, a 30-feet ridge is sufficient ; while for a porous soil, and abundant 
 supply of water, from 40 to 45 feet will not be too much. The crowns of the ridges 
 should rise a foot above the furrows on each side. The channels or feeders on the top 
 of the ridges should taper in width to the lower end. Thus, for a bed of 200 yards in 
 length, the feeder should be 20 inches in width at its junction with the conductor, and 
 12 inches at the other extremity. As the water decreases as the overflow proceeds, the 
 decrease in the width of the feeder enables it to continue filling it to the brim. The 
 drains in the furrows, for conveying the waste water from the meadow into the main 
 drain, should taper in the contrary direction, beginning with a narrow, and ending witli 
 a wide channel, where it delivers the water into the main drain. Obstructions should 
 be placed at intervals both in the conductor and in the feeders, in order to prevent the 
 water from flowing too fast, especially if the fall is rapid. If, however, the fall is 
 moderate, and the irrigation properly conducted, these obstructions are not required to 
 any great extent. Stones or pieces of turf are generally used for the purpose. The 
 water should be let in from the river or brook by a sluice, and small sluices should also 
 be placed in other parts of the conductor, so that any part of the meadow may be 
 flooded, and alternate watering adopted when the waters are low. 
 
 In forming a bed-work water-meadow, if the land has previously been under the 
 plough, it should undergo a thorough cleaning by a summer fallow, and thus prepared 
 for the grass seeds in August, having been levelled both by tiie plough and harrow, and 
 by the spade, where necessary, the spirit-level being in constant requisition. Lawson 
 
IRRIGATION. 
 
 765 
 
 recommends the grasses meutioiied below* as tlie most proper for a water-meadow, and 
 iu the proportions named. The perennial rye-grass will yield a good crop the first 
 summer, wHilst the other grasses are gaining vigour and filling the ground. 
 
 But if the proposed irrigation is to he conducted on land previously under grass, the 
 turf should first be raised in square pieces, and laid on one side. The land should then be 
 ridged and levelled with the plough and spade as in the previous case, and the turf then 
 relaid and beaten firm, and a few of the best meadow-grass seeds sown over it, and the 
 work will be complete, the conductors, feeders, and small drains, having been made at 
 the same time with the ridging of the land. 
 
 The catch-work mode of irrigation is the invention of, or, at least, has been improved 
 by, Mr. Bickford, and is styled " the improved Devonshire system," having been practised 
 first in that county. It has the merit not only of being much cheaper than the bed- 
 work system, but of having received the approval of the late Mr. Pusey and other 
 eminent agriculturists, and it has been extended into other parts of the country by them. 
 The following is Mr. Bickford's own description of the system as drawn up at his request 
 by Mr. T. Barker :— 
 
 " The Main Carrier : — In commencing the construction of a water-meadow, a 
 carriage-gutter is cut along the line of the highest ground. This main gutter is 
 for the purpose of taking the water from the brook or other source from which it may be 
 derived, in oixler to feed the smaller or irrigating gutters — in fact, it acts the part of a 
 main artery. This main gutter need not be laid out by the level. A rapid inclination 
 should be given to it, according to the nature of the ground and the quantity of water 
 that can be made available. Where it can be had, a fall of 2 inches in a chain is 
 convenient ; but, if need be, a less rapid fall will answer the purpose. The width of the 
 main carriage-gutter should be 18 inches, and the depth from 6 inches to a foot. The 
 dimensions, however, must in some measure be regulated by the quantity of water to be 
 conveyed along it. The gutter diminishes in size as it approaches its termination, so 
 that at last it runs out to nothing. 
 
 " Immediately below the carrier should be cut a set of small tapering gutters. The 
 oflSce of these tapering gutters is very important, as they secure the even apportionment 
 
 * The following seeds are recommended by Messrs. Lawsoii for lands in preparation for irrigation: — 
 
 Names of Grasses. 
 
 Agrostis stolonifera 
 Alopicurus pratetisis 
 Fistuca loliacea 
 
 „ pratensis . 
 
 „ elatior . . 
 Lolium italicum . 
 
 „ perenue 
 PLalaris arundinacea 
 Phleuni pratense . 
 Poa fluitans . . 
 ,, aquatica . . 
 „ trivialis . . 
 Lotus major 
 Trifolium hybridum 
 
 With a 
 crop. 
 
 103, 
 
 1* 
 1 
 
 2 
 li 
 7 
 10 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 
 30 
 
 Without 
 a crop. 
 
 lbs. 
 2 
 2 
 
 li 
 
 2^ 
 
 u 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 421 
 
 Medium Soils. 
 
 With a 
 crop 
 
 lbs. 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 10 
 
 ^ 
 
 2 
 2 
 1 
 
 39 
 
 Without 
 a crop.) 
 
 lbs. 
 
 2 
 
 24 
 2 
 9 
 13 
 2 
 2j 
 
 1 
 3 
 2 
 1 
 
 4C 
 
 Heavy Soils. 
 
 W^ith a 
 crop. 
 
 lbs. 
 2* 
 
 H 
 
 2 
 2 
 2 
 7 
 10 
 2 
 2h 
 2" 
 1 
 3 
 2 
 1 
 
 Without 
 a crop. 
 
 lbs. 
 2i 
 2* 
 
 2* 
 2 
 9 
 12 
 2i 
 3 
 
 2* 
 1 
 3* 
 
 O 
 
 T j 
 
 43 
 
766 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 of the water over different sections of the field, adjusting the supply in the way of a self- 
 acting valve. Sometimes the end of a carrier itself performs this office, and is tapered 
 accordingly. 
 
 " The Small Irrigators. — A series of small gutters are cut below the main carrier (at 
 different levels) in the same general direction, in order to catch the water as it overflows 
 from the carriage-gutter through the small taper-gutters. The distance between these 
 gutters greatly depends on the shape of the ground ; where it is undulating and uneven 
 more ai'e required. These small gutters ought to be laid out quite level. I say quite 
 level, subject, however, to a qualification to be named hereafter. The water, as it flows 
 over the land, is collected in these suiall gutters, and as they ai'c practically level, they 
 again distribute the water eveuly over the surface when they become filled ; were it not 
 for these small gutters, the water would get into little streams, and flow down along the 
 hollows, instead of the ground being all equally covered, especially when the land has 
 never been ploughed or levelled. 
 
 " I mentioned that the small gutters ought to be level ; this, however, in practice, 
 must not be carried out with mathematical correctness; in crossing any hollows, the 
 gutters should be kept rather higher — say an inch in 33 feet run — or the water will 
 gather in the hollows, and overflow too fast at these points. On passing along the pro- 
 jecting ground, on the other hand, the same diflcrence should be made in the contrary 
 direction, viz., an inch lower than the strict level, in order that that portion of the ground 
 may receive its due share of the water. The exact rise or fall to be given can only be 
 arrived at by experience. Any surplus sods that are taken out of the carriers, &c., as 
 well as any turf produced by the removal of banks or lieaps, should be placed in the 
 largest holes and hollows, in order to make the surface more level : the sods should be 
 trodden in, and if the water is not turned on injudiciously, they will soon bind together 
 with the old turf. It is of great importance that the water should never be stagnant on 
 any portion of the land, otherwise rushes and coarse grasses will grow, as they would do 
 in the vicinity of springs and on wet undrained ground ; an outlet gutter should be 
 carried out of any such hollow (if filling it up would be too expensive) to the nearest 
 level gutter below it. Care should be taken never to allow the water to remain very 
 long in the same place. I have noticed that the grass is apt to turn white ; this is a 
 clear sign that something is wrong. The water should never stand still, and never be 
 so deep that the tops of the grass cannot be seen above it. In fact, it is the sign of 
 perfection of irrigation if you walk into a meadow under water, and find the fact by 
 wetting your feet before you see the water. 
 
 " It is of quite as much importance to get the water off quickly as to get it on 
 evenly. To effect this gutters are cut in the direction of the inclination of the ground, 
 i.e. exactly in the same line along which the water would flow if left to itself to run; if 
 the gutters take any other direction, swerving too much either to the right or left, they 
 will cut oflp the water from some of the land on one side or the other. . . . "When the land 
 is being irrigated, these downward gutters have stops placed in them where to cross the 
 level or watering gutters. Stops ai'e also placed along the level gutters, when required, 
 to confine the water to a particular width of land. The number of these depends on the 
 quantity of water ; when the supply of water is .■short, more arc needed ; it is easily seen, 
 when walking over the meadow when the water is on, where more are required ; nor does it 
 give any trouble to place a piece of sod across the small gutter — it is done in a moment." 
 
IRRIGATION. 767 
 
 Sucli is the " Bickford sj'stem of irrigation ;" the expense of which was estimated by 
 the late Mr. Pusey not to exceed £2 per acre, including every item; and in some cases^ 
 when the ground was particularly favourable for the operation, it did not amount to much 
 above £1 per acre. When we consider that the bed-work irrigation in Hampshire has in 
 some cases cost from jG15 to j€20 per acre, and that the Biekford system, when carried out 
 judiciously, is quite as effectual, there can be no question of the superiority of the latter, 
 especially in the case of tenant farmers with small capitals, who are totally excluded 
 from reaping the benefit of so expensive an improvement as the bed- work system. 
 
 The levels are taken by a simple instrument v.ilh two limbs 6 feet long, in the form of 
 the letter A, the feet being kept 4 feet apart by a bar, in the centre of which is a mark or 
 notch. A plumb-line is fixed at the apex, so that when the two feet stand on the same 
 level the plumb-line crosses the notch. The operator places one of the feet on the ground, 
 and turns the other about like the leg of a pair of compasses, until he sees, by the line 
 crossing the notch, that the level is found. A mark is then made by a lad who accom- 
 panies the gnttercr, by digging up a piece of the turf; and the operation is repeated ; and 
 so on, as long as a level can be found, when the operator stops, and begins another gutter- 
 It is evident that, on tliis system, the line cannot be preserved in a straight course; but 
 a skilful hand wdll be able to irrigate a whole field or meadow, however unlevel, by a 
 judicious arrangement of the water-coui'ses and the sluices ; whilst the small expense it 
 involves recommends it to the attention of the tenant farmers, as an admirable method 
 of improving coarse pasture land, where water for the pui-pose can be obtained. IMr. 
 Bickford, in his tract on the system, states, that an advanced rent of 40*. or 50s. per 
 acre has freely been given for meadows treated on the Bickford plan by the landlord, 
 and the results fully justify such an increase. It is the opinion of many persons that 
 simple irrigation w'ith the water of a river or brook is quite as efficient as sewage 
 irrigation. This, however, can only be the case where the water is strongly charged 
 with organic matters or with a solution of those mineral substances favourable to the 
 growth of grasses, such as calcareous earths of all kinds, and those essential portions of 
 animal and vegetable remains held in solution by the waters in passing over the land 
 into the streams after heavy rains. "When the district through which a river passes 
 consists of siliceous sandstone only, the effect of iri'igation by it is much less beneficial. 
 
 The practice of irrigation is of very ancient date, and originated in warm countries, 
 as China, Egypt, Persia, &c. In Italy, too, especially in Lombardy, aqueducts have 
 been constructed for the purpose of conveying water to the fields and pasture grounds, 
 and irrigation has long been practised in that country. In Milan, which formerly 
 constituted part of Lombardy, until it was erected into a duchy, all rivers and streams 
 belong of right to the sovereign, who sells the waters to speculators, for the beneficial 
 purposes of irrigation. It is sometimes measured out by the length of time a certain 
 quantity of water is allowed to run upon the lands ; and sometimes a stream of water 
 passing through a tube or hole, of a certain diameter, from a canal, is sold or let at the 
 highest price it will bring. The whole country is intersected with canals formed for the 
 purpose of conveying water to the lands, and every new spring discovered becomes the 
 origin of a new canal. Some of these works carry us back to the year 1037. There is 
 certainly less occasion for this in more northern climates, and especially so moist a one 
 as that of the British Isles ; but the great and acknowledged improvement it efitcts on 
 pasture lands of all descriptions ought to induce the enlightened English farmer to 
 
768 AGllICaLTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 practise it ; aud yet we find that to tliis day, irrigation is confined to a very limited 
 extent of country, it being estimated (as we have stated) that not more than 100,000 
 acres have been thus improved. 
 
 With regard to the proper time for commencing the operation of flooding the 
 pastures, in the months of December and January, after the grass has been eaten down 
 by cattle, aud the channels cleansed and repaired, it should come into full operation. 
 Sometimes, if the previous preparations admit of it, the water is laid on in November 
 for three weeks, taking advantage of the floods from the heavy rains of autumn, which 
 bring with them a large amount of sedimentary oi'ganic matters. After this first dose, 
 the land should be laid dry for some days, to give time for those grasses which are likely 
 to suffer fi'om a longer continuance of flooding to recover themselves. The principal 
 object in December aud January is to shelter the land from the severe frosts which may 
 be expected at that season, by covering it with water. It should, however, be laid dry 
 every ten or fourteen days ; and the flooding should always be discontinued when the 
 meadow is covei'cd with a coating of ice. 
 
 In the month of Februarj^, if the water be allowed to flow over the land many days 
 without intermission, a white scum is produced,* which injures the grass. And on the 
 other hand, if the water is wholly taken ofl', and the land exposed to the frost at night, 
 the young succulent grass will be destroyed. To obviate these effects the Gloucester- 
 shire farmers take ofl" the water b^^ day, to prevent the scum from generating ; and 
 turn it on again at night, to guard against the frost. 
 
 By March the grass is generally long enough to aflbrd ample pasturage, aud the 
 water should be withheld a week before the cattle or sheep are turned in, to give time 
 for the land to become dry and firm. At first, hay should be given with the grass, to 
 prevent scouring; but if the weather be dry, as it usually is during that month, this 
 may cease after the first week or ten days. The highly nourishing quality of the grass 
 of irrigated pastures and meadows is such that all animals fatten very fast upon it. 
 The usual method is to give a fresh portion of the meadow every day or two by hurdling 
 it off; but the system of stall-feeding is getting more and more into fashion, as being 
 far more economical as to the consumption of grass, and better for the cattle than 
 when they are at liberty to roam about and interfere with each other's feeding. 
 
 By the beginning of May the grass will usually be eaten close, when the water 
 should be turned on again for a few days, and again shut off. If the weather is very 
 dry, this may be repeated for a short time, just to moisten the roots of the grass. After 
 which, by the middle or latter end of June, a good crop of hay will be produced, which, 
 if not allowed to stand too long, will be equal to upland hay ; but if it remains long, it 
 will become coarse aud hard, and not of much more value than straw. It should, in 
 fact, be cut just before it is in full flower, when it contains in its joints all the saccharine 
 juice, which afterwards is absorbed in the formation of the seeds, of which it forms the 
 starch. This applies to all kinds of hay, and is too little attended to by agricul- 
 turists, who frequently allow their grasses to stand until the seeds are formed, and, 
 sometimes, ripened, before they cut the crop. The seeds are, in that case, generally 
 shed on the ground or in the stack, and the hay loses more than half its nutritive 
 properties. The Loudon hay-farmers are well aware of this, and generally cut their 
 
 * This while scum arises from inci|iient putrefuclioii of the roots of grass, and is a sure indicatiou lliat the couliuuance 
 of the water on the surface is destrojing the grass — iu fact, ihat it has already remained too loug. 
 
lEEIGATION. 769 
 
 grass wlieii it is in tlie most succulent state, and l)efore the flower is well formed, which 
 will account for the highly fragrant scent the haj^-fields near the metropolis always 
 give out. 
 
 In Ireland the reverse of this is practised, the farmers almost invariably allowing 
 their grass to stand until the seeds arc dead ripe ; and when cut, it usually lies until 
 every particle of sweetness is lost. The writer purchased hay for many years at the 
 Dublin hay-market, and he never met with a single load that possessed any of that 
 fragrant perfume for which English hay is noted. It is frequently also left in cocks in 
 the field for months, exposed to the rain and wind ; the reason alleged being, that the 
 dampness of the climate will not admit of its being stacked until it has been thoroughly 
 weathered. But surely there is a medium between leaving it so long exposed in the 
 field without any protection, and stacking it hastily before it is properly made. It is 
 to be hoped that the migration of Scotch and English farmers into Ireland may intro- 
 duce a better mode of both cultivating grasses and hay-making. The writer once 
 pointed out to an Irish farmer a field of grass which contained more may-weed and 
 other useless plants than grasses. The farmer coolly observed that the weeds filled up 
 the crop, " and sure it was betther than half a one." 
 
 Dr. E. Darwin, in his " Phytologia," makes the following just observations on this 
 subject: — "This will appear of more importance to any one who attends to the 
 difference of the pods or husks of peas or of kidney-beans, during the early state of the 
 enclosed seeds, and again, after the seeds have become ripe. The pod or capsule is at 
 first sweet and mucilaginous, so as to supply an agreeable aud nutritious food; the latter 
 of which, and sometimes the former, are eaten at our tables. Afterwards, as the 
 seeds which are attached alternately to each side of the capsule, drink up, by their vege- 
 table life, after impregnation, the saccharine and mucilaginous matters, there purposely 
 deposited for them, the capsule itself becomes a mere fibrous membrane, not better 
 than the straw of I'ipe grains above-mentioned."* 
 
 The advantages of forming water-meadows and irrigation are thus summed up by 
 the same intelligent writer : — " First, not only the common meadow-grounds are 
 enriched, but morassy ones are consolidated by the mud brought over them by the 
 river water, or the calcareous sediment, and azotic or nitrogen air, from most spring- 
 waters, during those seasons when grass does not naturally make much progress in its 
 growth. Secondly, they are defended from frost by the flowing water, or by the ice 
 when it is frozen ; and thus, a much forwarder crop of grass is produced, as may 
 frequently be seen over pieces of ground naturally moist ; which look green in the 
 spring some weeks before that on drier land in their vicinity. Third, the ground is 
 rendered more easily penetrable by the the roots of grass, both by its being kept softer, 
 and also from its being seldomer frozen below the surface in the vernal months. 
 Fourth, this early crop may be eaten off" by cattle or sheep ; and a new flooding for a 
 short time will forward the growth of it, so as to produce a good crop of hay. Fifth — 
 after the hay is removed, another flooding, for a short time, ensures a luxuriant growth 
 of autumnal grass, or after-math. "t 
 
 It is remarked by Parkinson, that artificial watering of meadows is a most profitable 
 improvement; it robs no dunghill, but raises one for the benefit of other lands : for if 
 a farmer can water ten acres of laud, cut the grass, and use it either in stall or fold- 
 
 * " thytoloyia I or, the Philosophy of Agriculture," p. 275. f Ibid., p. 278. 
 
 3 D 
 
770 AGRICULTURE ANCIEXT AND JIODERN. 
 
 feeding, he might keep forty beasts ; and by working the manure made by them into a 
 compost, and applying that compost to other Lands, he might either have a great deal 
 more hay for winter, or feed more cattle in summer. It has been estimated that tlierc 
 are at least 2,000 acres of meadow-land in every county in England and Wales capal)le 
 of being converted into water-meadows. Tliis appears a very small proportion of the 
 land of the country, and does not agree with the fact of 100,000 acres being already 
 under irrigation in a few counties only ; wliilst, on the other hand, there are hundreds 
 of brooks and rivers, with large tracts of meadow and pasture land lying below them, 
 capable of irrigation, but of which no use whatever is made in their improvement. 
 There is no question that there are thousands of acres, of little worth in their present state, 
 in every county in the kingdom, that would yield twenty times their present products 
 by tlie application of a comparatively trifling outlay, and be a source of wealth to tlie 
 proprietors ; and there are few such lands in this country but have a river, a rivulet, or 
 a strong spring, in their immediate vicinity, and that might be made available for 
 irrigation, upon the catch-work system. 
 
 The kinds of land most amenable to improvement by irrigation are the gravelly or 
 sandy, the boggy or peaty, and the clay soils. The gravelly soils are those which are tlie 
 least expense, and pay the best for irrigation. They do not require draining, the water, 
 filtering through tliem into the main outlet, drains them naturally, allowing of no 
 stagnation. Being, also, naturally warm, tlie vegetation receives immediate benefit 
 from the operation, and makes a rapid progress. Tlie peaty soils are generally found 
 on the Iianks of rivers, and in their natural state produce only coarse grass and rushes. 
 They require a preliminary draining, to as great a depth as the fall of the river will 
 admit, in order to lay them dry and provide an escapement for the water that soaks 
 into them in the operation. If the rushes arc mown before the water is turned on, 
 the roots will decay and disappear, as well as the coarse grasses, and an abundance of 
 useful, if not first-rate, grass or hay will then be obtained at all times, except in 
 the three winter mouths. The strong wet clay soils are the most difficult to deal with, 
 on account of their tenacity in retaining the water, and their lying generally on a dead 
 level, which prevents the water from flowing freely over them. Drainage, too, which is 
 absolutely necessary for them, is a difficult operation, and ought to be coupled with sub- 
 soiling ; and both these processes would pay well for the trouble and expense. Such soils, 
 thus treated and subjected to the irrigation of a river from which abundance of water 
 can be tlirown over them, will yield heavy crops of grass and hay of the best quality. 
 
 llivulets and springs are considered by some persons as more eligible for irrigation 
 than large rivers, on account of the greater facility they off'er for conducting the water 
 over the land. If, however, they possess any chalybeate properties, which is frequently 
 tlie case, they are unfit for the purpose. If a brook passes through a well- cultivated 
 country, and receives in its passage the drainings from the land, it will impart the rich- 
 ness it thus acquires to the meadow over which it is conducted. The organic matters 
 carried down by the lesser streams at certain periods of the year, when the land floods 
 prevail, are very considerable ; and if deposited on tlie adjacent meadows, prove highly 
 fertilising. Springs also, that rise from a calcareous soil, are so, although the water may 
 be perfectly clear. 
 
 Watcr-ineadows, if properly attended to, never decline in value, but, on the contrary, 
 improve in quality continually from year to year. Provided no water is allowed to 
 
IRRIGATION. 771 
 
 stagnate upon thera, the coarse gi'asses and nxslies disappear, and tlie finer kinds take 
 tlicir place, and cover the ground witli a rich sward of bright green verdui'e. If the soil 
 is a pcat-bog it soon assumes a sound and solid appearance and texture, so as to admit 
 of cattle being fed upon it. A rich soil forms on the surface, which increases in depth 
 every season, without anj' manure being applied. Forsyth mentions, amongst other 
 cases, that of a meadow of seven acres, tlie whole crop of grass from which was sold 
 for £2. It was converted into a water-meadow by two skilful men, and from that 
 time it was let at £3 per acre annual rent. In short, there is no soil so poor, or so 
 sterile, but it would be improved and rendered productive by a proper application 
 of irrigation. 
 
 We have stated that clear water, rather than turbid, is the most efficacious. This is 
 Morton's opinion; but the practice of the Gloucestershire farmers is against this, their 
 experience having convinced them that the more turbid, feculent, and replete with 
 putrescent matter the water is, the more rich and fertilising it proves. " Such turbid 
 water is both meat and drink to the land, and, by the imctuons sediment and mud it 
 deposits, the soil is amazingly improved and enriched." At the same time there are 
 springs proceeding from calcareous or gravelly subsoils of a warm thermal temperature, 
 which, although perfectly clear, produce surprising effects upon grass land irrigated by 
 them. The beneficial influence of springs, therefore, in a great measure depends upon 
 tlie quality of the water proceeding from them; but that of rivers and brooks, on the 
 quantity of organic matters held in solution by the water and deposited on the laud. 
 
 With regard to the land proper to be converted into water-meadows, we may state, 
 generally, that wherever a piece of land, whether pasture or arable, lies convenient for 
 irrigation, it will pay far more profit thus than in any other mode of cultivation. This 
 is capable of easy demonstration ; for if, without the application of any of the manure of 
 the farm, the quantity of feed upon a given extent of the land can be doul)lcd, which it 
 undoubtedly may be by irrigation, double the number of sheep or cattle can be kept on 
 that land, and dotible the quantity of manure raised for the rest of the farm ; and thus 
 the whole farm receives the benefit of the irrigating process just to the extent to which 
 it is carried. 
 
 We shall conclude this section by quoting the following observations of an intelligent 
 writer of the beginning of the present century : — " When we consider tlie great extent 
 to which irrigation might be carried in many parts of this country, together with the 
 fertility — that is to say, the riches — to be derived from the proper use of so cheap an 
 ingredient as cold water, which is at present allowed to run to waste in such abundance, 
 it is worthy of consideration how far the Legislature would not be justified in adopting 
 some public regulation for giving facility to undertakings of this sort." The last quoted 
 author (Arthur Young), in travelling through Lombardy, remarks, that " the power of 
 effecting the great works iu irrigation which are visible over tlie whole country depends 
 very much on the law, which supposes the right and the property of all rivers to be 
 vested in the king ; consequently all canals taken from them are bought of him ; and 
 this ensures another regulation, wliicli is the power of carrying the water, when bought, 
 at the pleasure of those who buy it, where they think fit. They cannot, however, cut 
 across any man's ground without paying him for the land and for the drainage ; but the 
 law does this by i-egulations known to every one, and no individual is allowed a negative 
 upon a measure which is for the general good. The purchasers of water from the king 
 
 3 D 3 
 
772 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 are usually considerable landowners^ or communities that have lands wanting water j 
 and it is of no consequence at what distance these lands may be from the river whence 
 the water is takeuj as they have a right to conduct it where they choose, provided they 
 
 do not cut through a garden or pleasure-ground The benefit of water is so great 
 
 and so well understood, that nobody ever thinks of making objections ; and in case their 
 lands are not already watered, it is no small advantage to have a new canal brought through 
 them, as they have the opportunity of buying water of the proprietors. It is sold per 
 hour per week, and even half an hour, and down to a quarter. The common price of an 
 hour per week, for ever, is 1,500 livres." 
 
 Could not the uew Drainage Acts, by another " amendment," be made to embrace a 
 system of irrigation on the same principle of financial arrangement as that of draining ? 
 That it would be a national as well as a private benefit, there could be no question, and 
 doubtless great numbers of proprietors would avail themselves of it, to convert their now 
 wild and barren tracts of rough meadow, yielding nothing but coarse grass and rushes, 
 into profitable pasture. The high price of all kinds of animal food, whether in the 
 shape of butchers' meat or of dairy produce, is, one Avould think, a sufficient inducement 
 to increase as much as possible the quantity of food for cattle, as the most ready means 
 of increasing our supply of the animals themselves. 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 ON SOILS. 
 
 We have already defined soil to be the medium by means of which the farmer is 
 enabled to obtain his produce.* It is, in fact, the neutral agent coming between the 
 manure and the seed, which are the materials of production ; soil being only rendered 
 fertile by the application of the first, and yielding fruit only by that of the second. 
 
 Soils are enriched by the vegetables they produce, provided no part is removed, 
 because they derive a large portion of their nourishment from the atmosphere and 
 water; consequently their increase is greater than the amount of nourishment they 
 derive from the soil would account for. When, therefore, they die, they return more 
 to the soil than they receive from it. We see this process in the case of the lichen, 
 which constitutes the first vegetable product of the granitic rock. When it dies it leaves 
 a modicum of vegetable earthy matter, which, after a series of years, accumulates by 
 the repetition of tlie process, and a soil is formed. Nor is this all. The vegetable earth 
 thus formed decomposes and eats into the rock itself, and thus adds to the earthy 
 matters ; so that in process of time, a sufficient amount is collected to afibrd support to 
 vegetables of a larger growth. 
 
 Soils are considered rich or poor in proportion to the amount of organic matter they 
 contain. Limiting the application of this assumption to individual soils, it is strictly 
 correct. Tims a clay, or a loam, or a gravel, are each enriched by the addition of 
 
 * See page 211. 
 
SOILS. 773 
 
 organic matter. But, as a general principle, that those soils which contain the greatest 
 amount of organic matter are the most productive, is not true ; because it is found that 
 some of the best wheat-bearing soils do not contain more than 3^ per cent, of organic 
 matters ; whilst otliers, containing 10 or 12 per cent., will not grow wheat at all, or, at 
 least, will yield a much inferior crop. Dr. Anderson, in a paper in the Scottish Journal 
 of Agriculture, shows, that in the best wheat-lands of Scotland the per centage of 
 organic matter ranges from 3 to 10 per cent, in the upper, and from 3 to G per cent, in 
 the subsoil. Certain it is, however, that without a proportion of such matter, the 
 produce will be very poor ; and, on the other hand, a kindly soil will always gratefully 
 repay for the manure judiciously bestowed upon it. 
 
 That soils are caused by the disintegration of rocks we have showed before, and this 
 is effected by the action of the oxygen of the atmosphere, which forms compounds 
 called oxides with mineral substances to which it has an affinity. Those rocks, for 
 instance, containing iron, are powerfully acted upon, and by the formation of oxides, 
 break up the texture of the mass, which then crumbles to pieces. Carbonic acid also, 
 descending with the rain, has an affinity for some minerals which are disintegrated by 
 it ; such as limestone, sandstone, basalt, clay, &c. On these, in different modes, the 
 carbonic acid exercises a powerful influence. Carbonate of lime it dissolves, and where 
 it has opportunity, as in caverns shut out from the atmosphere, it forms stalactites. 
 Felspar and granite are dissolved by carbonic acid, and form, with the silicates they 
 contain, carbonate of potash or soda and silicate of alumina, or clay. The roots also of 
 plants, by insinuating themselves into the small crevices of the rocks, act like wedges ; 
 and by keeping the surfaces of these crevices constantly moist, widen them by a gradual 
 decay, and thus hasten the decomposition of the mass. As to the time requu'ed to 
 complete the process of the formation of a soil under such circumstances, there is no 
 evidence to judge by ; but that this is the way in which it is effected there cannot be a 
 doubt. 
 
 But besides these chemical agencies, which are for ever at work in the demolition of 
 rocks, there are others of a mechanical nature, which assist in the work of forming soils 
 from the debris. The force of gravitation, acting upon a rock undermined by chemical 
 decay, brings down large portions into the valleys, where they crumble under atmos- 
 pheric influence, and are dispersed by the water. Water itself acts mechanically, by 
 filling up the crevices in the rocks ; and when the frost comes, it expands and bursts 
 them into fragments. Floods carry the debris into the rivers, while the attrition to 
 which they are subjected in the passage reduces them to a comminuted state, so that 
 they are deposited by the waters on the banks, and form those alluvial soils which we 
 usually find in such situations. 
 
 When to all these causes is added the accumulation of vegetable matter which has 
 been going on for ages with increasing volume, and the animal remains which, in life, 
 harbom'cd amongst the foliage, and in death left their frail but innumerable skeletons 
 to increase the quantity, we may form a correct idea of the nature of soils. In estuaries 
 and tidal rivers these latter constitute a large portion of the soil found on the shores 
 washed by the tide at high water ; the immense masses of infusoria that are thus deposited 
 with mud by tidal rivers account for the fertility of the soils thus formed. 
 
 In an agricultiu-al point of view, a soil is considered by the husbandman to be that 
 portion of earth which comes under the dominion of the plough ; what is below that is 
 
774 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 the subsoil, whichj until of late years, did not engage much attention as a source of 
 production, or tlie object of cultivation. Of soils, then, in the sense here stated, tliere 
 are three distinct classes — the heavy, the medium, and the light — and these are repre ■ 
 sented by clay, lime, and sands, in all their several varieties. Whatever comes between 
 these is composed of a union of the three in a greater or less proportion, or of the decayed 
 remains of animal and vegetable bodies. Each of these classes comprises a certain 
 number of subordinate kinds, and they meet in what is technically termed "a mixed 
 soil," in which the three elements are blended in a proportion so favourable both to 
 cultivation and to vegetation, as to render it peciJiarly desirable and valuable, and 
 requiring little or no mechanical alteration in its texture. 
 
 The Uyht soils comprise the sands and the gravels; the medium soils are the calcareous, 
 the marls, and the chalks ; the heavy soils are the stift" clays and the clay loams. 
 
 A pm-e sandy soil is not a profitable one to cultivate. Many tracts of such are to be 
 found in Norfolk, and Suffolk, and other parts of the kingdom. Incredible pains and 
 expense have been bestowed upon some of these to render them productive, and not 
 without success. As much as 150 loads of clay per acre have been laid on some farms, 
 by which means they have been rendered capable of growing any kind of crop. But 
 such is the loose texture of some of these tracts, that in a high wind in dry weather the 
 sand will drift like snow,* and both soil and sand are blown into heaps. AVheu well 
 mixed with clay or marl, sandy soils are easy to cultivate, and good crops of both cereal 
 and root produce are yielded by them. In their natural state, these soils contain fully 80 
 per cent, of pure sand. 
 
 The gravelly soils are frequently found mixed with loam, in which case good farming 
 will render them very fertile. It was such soils that occupied the attention of Arthur 
 Young, before whose time they were usually let at from .','.«. 6d. to ijs. per acre, and are 
 now worth from 25s. to 30s. They are very easy to cultivate at any time", the only 
 obstacle being the great number of stones usually found on the surface, which, the 
 farmers assert, are continually growing and increasing in n\imbers. Be this as it may, 
 there seems to be no end to them, for although they are clean picked up and carried oft' 
 to mend the roads, the next turn of the plough will bring them up apparently as 
 numerous as ever. These gravels require a mixture of marl or clay to give them con- 
 sistency. They frequently overlie a bed of marl at the depth of from 10 to 20 feet. All 
 root crops thrive on them when well cultivated. 
 
 The calcareous soils contain a large proportion of lime. Such constitute a con- 
 siderable part of the South Downs of Sussex and Hampshire, which are mostly laid out 
 in sheep-walks, for which they are peculiarly adapted, on account of their not retaining 
 the rain-water on their surface. When well cultivated, they produce heavy crops of 
 grain, without any mechanical alteration of their textui'C. 
 
 The marly soils usually contain from 5 to 20 per cent, of lime, and from 20 to 50 
 per cent, of a fine clay or brick-earth. They are good soils to cultivate. lu some 
 specimens the marl is mixed with sand instead of clay. Most of them contain large 
 proportions of carbonate of lime. 
 
 A pure clay soil is the most difficult of any to manage, and requires greater vigilance 
 in the husbandman to avail himself of a favourable time to work it. In very wet and 
 
 * The writer once saw on a farm at Riiigland, uear Norwich, the subsoil of part uf a Ctld laid bait, the uLole of the 
 soil bcinj5 drifted by the wind, like snow, into a long ridge as high as the fences. 
 
SOILS. 775 
 
 very dry weather it is uuapproacliable by the plough. It absorbs aud retains moisture 
 longer than any other, aud when not drained is cold and ungeuial. More, however, has 
 been learned of late years of the nature of clay soils than was formerly known; and it 
 has been found that, under a judicious system of management, the once unfertile 
 and stubborn clays have been rendered the most productive, especially of wheat, for 
 which, under favourable circumstances, they are peculiarly adapted. Their mechanical 
 structure requires the reverse treatment from the sands and gravels, aud is much 
 improved by an admixture of any light earth. But drainage and subsoiliug are the 
 best remedies for the evils of a clay farm. 
 
 The loamy soil is composed of one half clay and the other half of siliceous sand, 
 lime, and vegetable matter. Some loams are heavier than others, but they are all easily 
 cultivated, and very productive. Stephens defines a loam to consist of " any kind of 
 ea.xi\\ coxxtmAng a. sensible admixture of decomposed vegetable matter." ~\Ve confess we 
 cannot see the propriety of this description, or of altering in any way the ancient 
 definition. The word loam is Enylish. It was made for, and applied to, a certain 
 description of soil composed of clay and sand, or clay aud marl, and as either of these 
 preponderated, it was a sandy, or a clayey, or a marly loam, without any reference to the 
 vegetable element, on which Stephens lays so much stress, but which, in jjoint of fact, 
 has nothing whatever to do with the nature of the soil. Every farmer knows well what 
 he means when he speaks of a sandy or a clayey loam ; aud he knows also that such a 
 soil is the most profitable of any, and the most easy to cultivate. A saud with any 
 l^roportion of vegetable matter, but without the clayey element, would not constitute a 
 loam, and vice versa. 
 
 It will be seen that we confine the term " soil" strictly to mineral or unperishing 
 substances as the bases of cultivation. Those which are purely, or nearly so, the 
 product of decayed vegetable matter, are accidental accumulations of the elements of 
 production, which require the union with mineral substances, or a soil, to render them 
 available. A peaty soil is of this description, being a mass of decayed vegetable matter ; 
 but a peaty soil will not of itself be productive. Humus, also, is an earthy substance 
 arising from the decay of vegetables ; but humus is proved to be unproductive until 
 mixed with mineral matters, when its beneficial action commences. Speaking of this 
 latter substance. Sir Robert Kane makes the following remarks : — 
 
 " Before passing from the consideration of the composition of soils, it is necessary 
 to add to this account of their constituents, as derived from the rocks by which they are 
 formed, some notice of the peculiar organic matter which all fertile soils contain, aud to 
 the functions of which I shall have to recur after some time. After the death of a plaut, 
 its elements, yielding to the force of their chemical affinities, enter into new arrange- 
 ments, and by a series of progressive alterations are finally converted into a dark brown 
 material, termed popularly, vegetable mould, aud by chemists, humus, or ulmine. W hen 
 perfectly pure this substance contains no nitrogen, and consists of, as prepared : — 
 
 From Wood. From Sugar. 
 
 Carbon 72-7 6565 
 
 Hydrogen 61 4'28 
 
 Os.vgen 21-2 8007 
 
 1000 10000 
 
 Such a material is totally destitute of power on vegetation, aud the confounding of it 
 
776 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND BIODERN. 
 
 uitli substances which are produced iu the natural rotting of the remains of plants in 
 the soil has been very prejudicial to the progress of agricultural chemistry."* 
 
 Althougli a peaty earth is uupi-oduetive, or only so in proportion to the quantity of 
 mineral matters it contains, when brought into contact with soils of almost any description, 
 it is found to be eminently fertile. A good dressing of marl or clay will render it so; 
 andj on the other hand, peat applied to a sandy soil, as a top dressing, has produced a 
 permanently beneficial eftect, although it did not improve the texture of the land. Its 
 endurance, however, must depend upon the large amount of organic matter it contains 
 beyond what two or three crops could take up, there being but little besides vegetable 
 substances in peat. The following is the clcmcutary composition of different kinds of 
 peat in Ireland according to Sir R. Kane : — 
 
 Carbon . . . 
 
 Tiii-t from 
 CaplK.ge. 
 
 . . 5105 . . 
 
 Tui-f from 
 Kilbeggan. 
 
 . . 6104 . . 
 
 Tui-f from 
 Kilbaina. 
 
 . . 51-13 
 
 HyJrogea . . 
 
 . . 6-85 . . 
 
 . . 6-67 . . 
 
 . . C-33 
 
 Osygen . . . 
 
 . . 39-55 . . 
 
 . . 30-46 . , 
 
 . . 34-48 
 
 Ashes . . . 
 
 . . 255 . . 
 
 . . 1-83 . . 
 
 . . 806 
 
 100 00 100-00 100-00 
 
 According to the above analysis, peat, like humus, contains little or no nitrogen, in lieu 
 of which it yields, on distillation, a small quantity of acid from acetic acid, but not 
 enough to make it an object of manufacture. t 
 
 A remarkable case of improvement of a peat moss in Scotland is recorded in 
 Forsyth's work on agriculture, which has been the means of reclaiming large tracts of 
 that kind of land. On a part of a moss on the estate of Mr. Smith, of Swinridge 
 Muir, near Beith, a quantity of lime was accidentally thrown, in consequence of the 
 bemiring of the cart in which it was being conveyed. This was spread over the surface of 
 the surrounding moss, another portion of which had been pared and burned, whilst a 
 third had had nothijig done to it. The crops on the two first, to Jlr. Smith's surprise, 
 were equally good ; whilst that vt'hich had been neither burned nor limed produced 
 nothing; and even that whieli was pared and burned produced so much sorrel as almost 
 to choke the oats, the limed part being entirely free from that plant. Mr. Smith took 
 the hint, and by the same means, after draining oft" the water, reclaimed all the moss in 
 his own occupation ; aiffl also supplied his tenants vrith limestone gratis, and small coal 
 at i)rime cost, to enable tliem to secure the portion they held of the moss. By this 
 liberal and judicious conduct the whole of the moss on his estate was brought under 
 profitable cultivation. J The quantity of lime applied varied from 180 to 480 Winchester 
 bushels per acre, and it required to be laid on tlie previous summer or autumn, in order 
 that it might be more intimately combined and mi.ved with the peat, so as to form a 
 homogeneous mass. The lime should always be applied in its most caustic state, and 
 also while the moss is moist. 
 
 Garden-ground, from its more careful cultivation and more frequent manuring, is 
 formed of a soil distinct from any other, being chiefly a mass of black vegetable mould, 
 
 * " Iiuliistrial Kesources, &c.," p. 255. 
 
 t Il)id., p. 34 Some of the turf bogs of Ireland are 40 feet in depth. The lower i>art of the bed is much more dark 
 in colour and dense in texture than that near the surface, and is consequently more valuable for fuel. The ashes of the 
 surface peat amount to not more than Xh per cent., whilst some of the lowest contaiu li) ptr ceutr 
 
 % "Theory and Practice of Agriculture," vol. i. p. 410. 
 
SOILS. 777 
 
 capable of sustaining vegetation in its higliest state of perfection. If it were possible 
 for the farms of England to be brought to the high degree of cultivation which the 
 garden exhibits, there would be scarcely any limits to the amount of produce. Many of 
 the market-gardeners on a large scale do thus test the powers of the soil, and, by a 
 profuse and unsparing outlay, render it capable of producing two and three crops in one 
 season. It consists, in fact, of a mass of vegetable mould, with a sufficiency of the mineral 
 element for the purpose of giving it solidity. But it requires constantly renewed 
 applications of manure to sustain its fertility ; and any relaxation, either in the proper 
 cultivation or enrichment would very soon be manifest in the diminution of produce. 
 The quantity of laud of this character is so limited as scarcely to constitute a class of 
 soil, and its vegetable character allies it rather with peat and humus than with the 
 genuine mineral soils which constitute the bases of agricultural operations. 
 
 The case of these vegetable moulds shows that a very small proportion of mineral 
 matter is sufficient to impart fertility to them, but that without that proportion they are 
 improduetive. Analysis further proves that tlie mineral part of plants, although com- 
 posed of many substances, amounts to only a minimum of their bulk. Thus wheat, the 
 ashes of which constitute not more than from l'G7 to 1'73 per cent, of its weight, com- 
 prises in them nine elementary matters of a mineral character, the proportion of each of 
 which must necessarily be exceedingly small. 
 
 ]\Iorton states that any soil containing more than 6 per cent, of organic matter, what- 
 ever else its composition may be, is called a vegetable mould ; and that soils of the most 
 opposite physical characters are thus grouped together in the class of vegetable moulds. 
 This seems a very small proportion of those elements constituting the bulk of vegetation 
 to give a character to a soil. In the analysed specimens he gives, the proportions range 
 from 10'90 to 90"44 per cent. ; and what is remarkable, and accords with what has just 
 been stated, the latter was a sterile bog, whilst the first was a rich soil on the banks 
 of the M^eser in Germany, liable to be flooded by that river. . 
 
 Soils with abundance of animal and vegetable matter in them absorb heat in much 
 greater quantity than those composed wholly of minerals. Sir Humphrey Davy found 
 that a rich black mould exposed to t];e sun, increased in temperature in one hour from 
 65° to 88° J whilst a chalk soil exposed to the same heat was raised only to 69° in the 
 same time. On the other hand, when the mould was placed in the shade, with a tem- 
 perature of 62°, it lost in half an hour 15°, whilst the chalk, under the same circum- 
 stances, lost only 4°. Other experiments made by the same eminent chemist served 
 to confirm the correctness of this fact, which is probably accounted for partly by the 
 looser texture of the black mould, and partly by its colour. It is well known that 
 the earth is not heated by the sun bij radiation, but by contact with the atmospheric 
 air, which penetrates the interstices of the soil, and by receiving it also in contact with 
 the sui'face, which first acquires heat, and then communicates it by contact with the 
 soil beneath. The colour also, being dark, absorbs the heat of the atmosphere more 
 rapidly and more copiously. The same causes which raise the temperature of the 
 vegetable mould so rapidly also serve to lower it ; its loose texture admits the cold air, 
 or rather allows the escape of the warmth it had acquired. 
 
 The colour of soils has, indeed, a material influence upon vegetation, ivhich is always 
 more rapid in its growth upon a dark than upon a light soil ; this is to be ascribed 
 to its greater absorption of heat by day and of the warm dew by night. The latter, 
 
778 AGRIGULTUEE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 taking the place of tlie heated atmosphere imbibed during the day, sustains to a certain 
 extent its own warmth acquired from the heated air. An experiment of Schiibler showed 
 that a sand of the common colour, under the sun's influence, indicated a temperature of 
 112A°; a black sand, 123i°; and a wliite sand, IJO^ giving a difference of 13i" in 
 favour of the black sand. All close soils, although they absorb heat more slowlv, also 
 give it out in the same proportion. A sand cools more slowly than a clav, and this 
 latter, than vegetable earth. Stephens considers that the power of soils of retaining heat 
 depends in a great measure on their specific gravity, and gives the following comparative 
 scale : — 
 
 Specific grarity. i Specific gravity. 
 
 Siliceous sand 2'653 Pipe clay 2'440 
 
 Sandy clay 2-601 ' Arable soil 2-401 
 
 Loamy clay 2-581 i Garden mould 2-332 
 
 Brick earth 2-560 ! Humus 1-.370 
 
 Pure grey clay 2-533 
 
 On the other hand, the capacity of soils of retaining water to saturation is in the 
 adverse piroportion with their specific gravity, according to the same authority : — 
 
 Lbj. per 
 cubic foot. 
 
 Siliceous saud 27-3 
 
 Sandy clay 38-8 
 
 Loamy clay 11-4 
 
 Brick clay 45 4 
 
 Pure grey clay 48-3 
 
 Lbs. per 
 cubic foot. 
 
 Pipe clay 474 
 
 Arable soil 48 4 
 
 Garden mould 48'8 
 
 Humus 501 
 
 rrom 15 cubic inches 
 of atmospheric air, con- 
 taining 21 per cent, of 
 osygen.j 
 
 "Where -we meet wiili a great water-holding power extending 90°, we may reckon, with 
 great probability, on an abundant admixture of organic matter. "f 
 
 The absorption of oxygen by soils appears also to be in ])roportion to their specific 
 gravity. The following result of experiments by Schiibler, and given in Stephens' 
 work, is decisive on this point : — 
 
 Grains. Cubic iuclies. 
 
 1,000 Siliceous sand in a wet state absorbed .... 0-24 \ 
 
 „ Sandy clay IS!) 
 
 „ Loamy clay , lun 
 
 „ Brick clay 2 04 
 
 „ Grey pure clay ii'J 
 
 „ Garden mould ■ 2 GO 
 
 ,, Arabic soil 2-43 
 
 ,, Ilumus 3 04 
 
 Of the physical properties of soils, Schiibler thus sums up the results of hi.s 
 experiments : — " In the examination of soils, the determination of their power of 
 containing water, and of their weight, consistency, and colours, in connection 
 with their chemical analyses, will, in the majority of casc^, be sufficient to enable 
 us to conclude, w'itli great probability, as to their remaining physical properties. 
 The more an earth weighs the greater also is its power of retaining heat; the 
 darker its colovir, and the smaller its power of containing water, the more quickly 
 and strongly w ill it be heated by the sun's rays ; the greater its power of containing 
 water, the more has it, in general, the power also of absorbing moisture, when in a dry, 
 and oxygen when in a damp state, from the atmosphere; and the slower it usually is 
 to become dry, especially when endued with a high degree of consistency ; lastly, the 
 greater the power of containing water, and the greater the consistency of a soil, the 
 
 • "Book of the Farm," vol. I. p. 91. t IbiJ., p, 'J3. :{; Ibid. 
 
SEED. 779 
 
 colder aud wetter, of course, will tliat soil be, as well as tlie stift'er to work, either in 
 a wet or dry state."* 
 
 The necessity of ascertaining the composition of a soil, especially one that is 
 unproductive, or only weakly productive, is much better understood now than fifty years 
 ago. By a careful analysis, the farmer can discover the precise elements in which 
 it is deficient, and thus be enabled to apply the manure or mineral material required to 
 render it fertile. In fact, there is no soil so incorrigible as not to be capable of 
 fertilisation. Thus, a soil containing salts of iron, which render it sterile, may be 
 recovered by the application of quicklime, which converts the sulphate of iron into a 
 valuable manure. An excess of calcareous matter in a soil may be ameliorated by the 
 application of sand or clay. Light, sandy soils, are improved permanently by a dressing 
 of peat, and vice versa, after the water is drained off from the bog. Some soils are 
 deficient in vegetable matter, and require a supply in the manure. Others have an 
 excess of vegetable matter, in which case an increase of mineral manure is useful, or a 
 portion of the soil may be burned. The excess is quite as injurious to vegetation as the 
 deficiency. This is seen in the peat mosses, which will not support valuable plants 
 without a due mixture of mineral materials of one kind or other. Some peat 
 mosses are acid, and on such a dressing of calcareous matter is indispensable. If 
 tiiey are covered with coarse grass and rushes, the best plan is paring and burning, the 
 ashes being then spread over the surface. The performing of these operations must 
 always be preceded by drainage; for, mdess, tlic water is drawn oft', no manure or 
 mineral application will be fully available. 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 SEED. 
 
 It is now generally agreed amongst agriculturists, that tlie selection of seed, whether of 
 wheat or any other plant, is a matter of importance, and that it should be made with 
 reference to the fineness of the quality, its unmixed character, and its freedom from 
 the seeds of \veeds and smut. The grain should be plump, clean, and healthy, and as 
 free from a mixture of species as possible. This latter quality is of more consequence to 
 the ultimate success of the crop than most farmers are aware of. Le Conteur, whose 
 opinion and experiments we have already referred to, has shown that, in the case of 
 wheat, unless this point is attended to, the produce will ripen at different times, whilst 
 the several sorts will vary in yield several bushels per acre, lie therefore recommends 
 not only a selection of the best sample to the eye, but also that it should be picked over 
 by the hand of an experienced person, so as to ensui-e a oneness of species that cannot be 
 obtained in any other way. The experiment of a Suffolk farmer mentioned below f is a 
 
 * " Book of the Varm." p. 06. 
 
 t A farmer at Bradfield, in Suffolk, in passing through his wheat-fields, perceived a great difference in the colour of 
 the blossoms, the wheat being then in full flower. At first he thought this was ascribable to accident; hut upon further 
 consideration he came to the conclusioQ that it iudicated a dilference in the species. He therefore marked eight or ten 
 
ySO AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 case in point. If the farmers generally would pay more attention to this subject, they 
 would find not only that their crops would ripen simultaneously, but that, by selecting 
 the most productive types, their produce would be greatly increased. 
 
 The years 1795 and 1796 were signalised by an extensive failure of the wheat crop; 
 and, as we could import but little from the Continent, and none from America, a severe 
 scarcity was the result. With the view of alleviating in some measure the pressure of 
 this calamity. Sir Joseph Banks instituted a series of experiments witli the mildewed 
 wheat, which he planted in a hot-bed ; and finding that the thin seed vegetated as well 
 as the full-bodied grain, he jumped at once to the conclusion that, by sowing the thinnest 
 instead of the best wheat, a large amount of sustenance would be saved, which would in 
 some measm'e relieve the country. We have already shown the absurdity of this opinion, 
 and its opposition to all analogy in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, as well as to 
 reason and common sense. The principles on which it was founded were, 1st, That 
 one-tenth of the starch contained in a grain of wheat is sufficient to sustain the young 
 plant in life until it can shift for itself; 2ud, That one-fourth less seed-corn is necessary; 
 and, 3rd, as the most important reason, that the shrivelled corn was not fit for making 
 bread. It is to be observed that Sir Joseph's experiments were made on a hot bed, and 
 the seeds consequently having two wet nurses instead of one, the weakling embryo had 
 a double chance of life. To carry out the practice upon the farm is quite another tiling, 
 and would most probably prove a display of the equivocal economy which reverses the 
 proverb, and "gives a herring to catch a sprat."* 
 
 We have already, in treating of the difl'erent species of cerealia, anticipated to a 
 certain extent the subject of this section. We may, howevei', be allowed to recommend 
 some general rules for choosing seed-corn or grain of whatever kind. Select, then, the 
 fullest-bodied, clearest, and thinnest-skinned seed, as that which exhibits tlie best type 
 of the species. Obtain it from a place south rather than north of the farm on which it 
 is to be sown, it having been found that seed sent from north to south does not thrive 
 so well as that from south to north. All seeds vegetate better if kept in the straw until 
 wanted, especially the cereal seeds. We have referred to the question of sov.ing over- 
 year wheat instead of that of the new crop (see p. 472). Millers always prefer "old 
 wheat" instead of new, because it produces flour of greater strength. Wheat is a semi- 
 biennial plant, and it is seldom that the season is suiScicntly warm fully to mature its 
 vegetative power in time for the autumnal sowing. The proof of this is in the fact we 
 have alleged of the superiority of over-year wheat for mealing purposes. It proves that 
 a change must take place in the grain, independent of the dryness ; and the question 
 is, whether this change has not improved its character for seed-corn as well as for 
 making flour. 
 
 Tlie quantity of seed to put into the groimd is a debatable question, which we have 
 already discussed in regard to wheat, in speaking of Hallett's system (p. 473) ; and the 
 plan of raising a new stock of wheat from a single grain is also referred to. It is 
 admitted by our best agriculturists that by the common practice a great amount of seed 
 is worse than wasted ; for the crop itself is less abundant with over-seeding, nor is the 
 
 varieties of colour, from white to dark red, and at harvest carefully gathered the ears, and kept them separately labelled. 
 The produce he planted iu his garden, and found that they produced plants with precisely similar characteristics with the 
 seed sown. Three only of these were preserved as worthy of atteution, the difference in the yield being, by a correct 
 estimation, as much as eight bushels per acre. 
 * See p. 482. 
 
SEED. 781 
 
 quality so good. Mr. Stepliens has made an ingeuious calculation of the loss of grain 
 hy the practice of sowing a large quantity of seed. " Wheat," says he, " of G3 lbs. per 
 biishelj gives 87 of its seeds to the drachm, or 1,403,136 to the bushel avoirdupois 
 weight. Now, three bushels of seed are sown per acre, or 4,209,408 grains of wheat. 
 Sujjpose each grain produces a stem, and every stem an ear containing the common 
 quantity of 33 grains, we have 134,701,056 grains, or 1,548,288 drachms, which, divided 
 again by the number of drachms (256) to the pound, gives 6,048 lbs., or 96 Inishels. 
 But the heaviest crop in Scotland seldom exceeds 64 bushels the acre, so that 32 bushels 
 to the acre, or 33 per cent., of the seed is lost on the best crop, and 58 per cent, on the 
 ordinary crop of 40 bushels. 
 
 "The waste of barley may be thus estimated: — Chevalier barley, at 57 lbs. per 
 bushel, and 75 grains to the drachm, gives 1,094,400 grains to the bushel. Four bushels 
 of seed are sown to the acre, which gives 4,377,600 grains to the acre ; and taking one 
 stem to each seed, and one ear to each stem, and the number of grains in the ear at 32, 
 the produce should be 128 bushels. But the best crop in Scotland does not exceed 60 
 bushels, which gives a loss of 53 per cent, on the best, and 62^ on an ordinary crop of 
 48 bushels. 
 
 " In like manner the loss upon oats may be estimated. The potato oat of 47 lbs. 
 per bushel, and 134 grains to the drachm, gives 1,612,288 grains per bushel ; and as 
 6 bushels of oats are sown to the acre, it gives 9,673,728 grains of seed per acre ; and 
 taking one stem and one ear to each grain, and 44 grains to each ear, the produce will 
 be 264 bushels per acre. But the largest crop in Scotland I know of is 114 bushels to 
 the acre, and a poor one is 36 bushels. Thus, more than one-half on the good land, and 
 six-sevenths on the poor laud, is lost." * 
 
 Mr. Stephens takes another view of the case, as follows : — 
 
 Wheat .... 4,209,408 grains per acre gives 869 seeds per square yard. 
 Barley .... 4,377,600 „ 904 „ 
 
 Oats .... 9,673,728 „ 1998 
 
 The absurdity of crowding such numbers of seeds into so small a space must strike 
 even the most obtuse intellect ; and yet the practice is continued. Take the wheat, for 
 example : a grain of wheat, if it has room, will produce a plant that will cover a foot of 
 ground on a moderate computation, and produce from 30 to 40 ears. "What, then, 
 must be the effect of planting nearly 100 grains in the same space, with the certainty 
 that not more than one-half or two-thirds of it will vegetate, and that the crowded state 
 of those which survive renders them weak and sickly, and accessible to every disease to 
 which the plant is subject ? But the case of the oats is still more preposterous. This 
 grain will tiller and spread as much as the wheat. We have now before us the produce 
 of one plant amounting to 5,000 grains, rubbed out of between 40 and 50 ears, and 
 which occupied about 1 foot of ground. Six bushels of seed per acre allows 222 grains 
 to the foot or three to every 2 square inches ; and the consequence, according to Mr. 
 Stephens, a practical farmer, is, that six-sevenths of the seed is thrown away. 
 
 * A more expeditious way of reckouing these estimates is to multiply the uumber of grains in the ear hy the number of 
 bushels sown, and the result will give the number of bushels per acre ; thus — 
 
 Number of grains of^wheat in each ear . . . . 32 X 3 bushels = 96 bushels. 
 
 'Barley in , 32 X 4 „ =128 „ 
 
 » Oats in „ .... -44 X 6 „ =264 „ 
 
783 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 ^Ve are aware that the plea for this waste is, tliat the husbandman mnst allow for 
 the depredations of tlie rooks and other enemies, who attack the fields as soon as they 
 are sown. This would be a fair plea if he could persuade the marauders to confine 
 themselves to taking the supernumerary grains only, leaving just the number to each 
 square yard that the nature of the soil is able to bc'ar. But the rooks and other birds 
 are burglars rather than tax-gatherers, and having never studied arithmetic or the 
 doctrines of mciim and tuum, pay no regard to the welfare of their friend the farmer, 
 who thus sows a bushel or twd per acre for their express delectation; nor to his remon- 
 strances against their ingratitude, except they are in the shape of powder and shot. In 
 fact, they rather like to clear away as they go on, if not disturbed, and leave ugly blanks 
 in the field, rather than a regular plant. 
 
 It is also the practice to sow more seed on poor land than on good,- which, when we 
 consider the nature of things, appears another absurdity. Why a poor soil is supposed 
 capable of sustaining a larger number of plants than a good one it is not easy to 
 conceive. The plea for this, too, we know to be, that whereas on the good land the 
 plants will tiller more, and therefore require more room, on the poor land they come 
 lip with single stems, and consequently may stand closer. But the reason why the 
 plants on poor land shoot only single stems is, because either the soil does not contain 
 nourishment to enable them to develop themselves, or that they are too crowded to 
 be allowed to do so. !Most probably both these causes operate ; but, at any rate, the 
 result proves the absurdity of the practice as well as of the argument in favour of it. A 
 clergyman was once visiting a poor woman who had just been confined with twins, and 
 who expressed her fears that she should find it difficult to support the increase to her 
 large family. " Never fear," said his reverence ; " depend upon it, my godd woman, 
 Providence never sends mouths without sending the victuals at the same time." " That's 
 true, your reverence," replied the woman; " but,'you see, he sends the mouths to me, 
 and the victuals to ijou.'" Now this is the case with the farmer ; he sends the mouths to 
 the poor, and the food to the good soil, and the consequence we see in tiic miserable 
 return obtained. " In poor land," says a Norfolk farmer, " sow thin, or your crop will 
 be worth little. Farmers who do not reason on the matter will be of a diflerent opinion, 
 but the fact is indisputable." The Norfolk farmers are well acquainted with the nature 
 and treatment of poor land. 
 
 The preparation of seed is a subject which has occupied the attention of farmers in all 
 ages, especially seed-wheat. The liability of this grain to the disease of smut is notorious 
 and various dressings have been recommended for destroying the seeds of this fungus, 
 which may happen to be attached to the grain. A pickle of salt and water, strong enough 
 to swim an egg, is a favourite panacea with some ; afterwards liming the wheat to make it 
 fit for sowing. But where farm-yard manure has Ijccn laid on for the crop, this or any 
 other dressing is of little use, as the straw of which the dung is made contains the seeds. 
 "In the summer of last year" (1796), says Varlo, "I saw a piece of wheat belonging 
 to one Mr. Clarke, a farmer, near Bungay, in SufTnlk, which contained about seven 
 acres, four of which were the smuttiest I had ever seen. Upon an average, it was 
 computed that the third part was smutty, but the remaining three aci-es were very clear 
 of smut. This was a curiosity which brought many people to see it, and staggered many 
 who pretended to be connoisseurs on this mysterious point. 
 
 " I told Clarke that I believed J could guess the reason. ' So can I,' says a 
 
SEED. 783 
 
 by-standing farmer; ' wliicli is, lie did not pickle his seed; for I always steep mine/ says 
 he, ' in strong salt and water, and lime it ; by which means I never am troubled with 
 this malady.^ 
 
 " ' Yes/ answered Clarke, ' I pickled tlie seed all alike in salt and water, strong 
 enough to ^im an egg, and limed it till I Ijrought it to a consistence proper for sowing, 
 and sowed it all within the space of three days, which proved dry weather : the field, 
 likewise, was summer fallowed, and all got ploughing alike.' I told him that I 
 imagined he threw the disease into the ground by his manure; for that I apprehended 
 he dunged the smutty part, and cither left the other uiidunged, or manured it with some 
 sort of compost. ' Upon my word,' answered Clarke, 'that is just the case; for I 
 dunged the smutty part, but the other I manured with a black mud or sludge I raised 
 
 out of the bottom of a pond and other ditches.' The above is a convincing 
 
 proof that the disease came into the ground by the way of the dung, as in both the land, 
 seeds, and management, were in other respects alike."* 
 
 A preparation of ar.«.enic is a favourite dressing with others. An ounce of the mineral 
 to 2 gallons of w ater is a sufficient quantity. The arsenic should be pounded perfectly 
 fine, and boiled in the water before it is used. The seed should be steeped in it until 
 saturated, and then dried by sifting quicklime over it. Arsenic, however, is a dangerous 
 material to deal with, and requires more caution than farm servants, or even farmers 
 themselves, usually exercise. We knew an instance in which the arsenical liquid was 
 thrown over the grass in a pasture where several cows were feeding. Five of these, 
 feeding on the spot where it was thrown, were taken ill, and four of them died before 
 the farrier arrived. To the fifth he administered a pound of small shot, which saved its 
 life, by neutralising the effect of the arsenic. 
 
 Some years since, a chemist at Norwich advertised a remedy for the smut, which he 
 offered to communicate to the farmers when he had procured a certain number of 
 subscribers at one guinea each. The father of the writer was one who gave his name and 
 guinea. The remedy was, to wash the seed-wheat perfectly clean in a running stream, 
 and then to lime it in the usual way. 
 
 This was considered by the subscribers generally as a take-in ; but, on reflection, the 
 writer's fatlier tried it on some very smutty wheat, on a small scale, and, to his satisfaction, 
 found it perfectly successful. From that time he never used any other preparation for 
 his seed-wheat, nor was he afterwards troubled with the smut in the produce. We 
 would recommend our agricultural readers to try the same experiment also, on a small 
 scale at first, as, if successful, it may save them much trouble and some expense in 
 preparing other washes. 
 
 Stale chamber-ley is used by many persons. It should be allowed to stand in a tub 
 until fermeutation has arisen to a degree to admit of the escape of ammonia strong 
 enough to make the eyes smart. It may then bo used diluted with water thus : — 
 Remove the tub into a barn ; sweep the floor clean ; have two baskets ready, and a 
 second tub, emjjfij. Fill the basket with wheat, and dip it into the ley so low as 
 to cover the top of it : let it remain until the ley has penetrated the whole mass ; 
 lift up the basket, and let the liquid run from it ; then place tlie basket on a drainer 
 over the empty tub, where it may remain until the next basketful is ready. Empty 
 the drained wheat on the floor, and riddle over it some slaked caustic lime. When a 
 
 * Varlo'3 "New System of Husbandry," vol. ii. p. 3. 
 
rsi 
 
 AGRICULTURE, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 sufficient quantity is t]uis dressed, if should be all turned over and mixed until it presents 
 an uniform appearance. 
 
 In all these cases tlie lime is essentially useful, both to dry the wheat, and to assist 
 in cleansing it. It will also be of some use in promoting the vegetation of the seed, by 
 the warmth it imparts to the modicum of soil surrounding the seed. This latter effect 
 may be of no small benefit, especially in an unkind season, when it is desirable to have 
 the wheat appear above ground as soon as possible. When the wheat has become 
 tlioroughly mixed, it should at once be put into sacks, and taken to the field where it i.s 
 to be sown. If allowed to remain any length of time in a body, the strength of the ley 
 would destroy the vegetative faculty of the seed. 
 
 A more modern, and probably a more effectual, preparation for dressing seed-wheat, 
 is made from a solution of sulphate of copper, or blue vitriol. Dissolve l|lb. of the 
 vitriol in 2 gallons of hot water. Allow it to cool, and then mix it intimately with 
 1 quarter of wheat, for Avhich. it is a sufficient dose. The wheat should be spread upon a 
 floor, 6 inches thick, and the pickle sprinkled equally over it with a common watering- 
 pot with a rose on it ; and then shovel it up over and over, so that the wheat may 
 thoroughly absorb all the moisture. There is no danger in using this pickle, even if the 
 quantity of vitriol be doubled. In this respect, also, it is far superior to every other 
 kind of dressing, which are (some of them, at least) highly dangerous in careless or 
 rmskilful hands. Wheat dressed with vitriol does not require liming, which is another 
 advantage, the lime being injurious to the hands of the sower, although in other respects 
 it is useful to the seed. 
 
 Pill.Vl-IvD Bi" J.\MKS S. VIHTl'K, CITV HOAli, LONJioN, 
 
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