HUSBANDRY

H U S B A N D R Y,

THE business of a farmer, or of one who lives by cultivating the ground. In this view it includes not only agriculture, but several other branches connected with it, such as the rearing of cattle, the management of the dairy, making butter and cheese, raising flax, timber, &c. the management of bees, and a num-

ber of other articles which it is difficult to enumerate particularly.

Agriculture, properly so called, treats only of the Difference between agriculture and husbandry. It yields the largest crop of any kind of vegetable; but it belongs to husbandry to make choice of the soil most proper.

proper for each different vegetable, and to manage matters so that each soil may carry what it is best adapted for, so that on the whole the produce of the farm may be as advantageous as possible. In like manner, the husbandman must know what crops are most proper to be raised in the country where he lives, either with a view to sale or to provender for cattle. The rearing of these, indeed, constitutes one of the most essential articles of husbandry; it being requisite that the husbandman should know not only how to feed them properly, but how to keep them free from diseases, and to distinguish the best breeds, so that such as are designed for work may be capable of doing the most at least expence, and those designed for sale may with the least trouble be brought in good condition to market, and afford the greatest profit to himself as well as the best bargain to the purchaser.

It is by means of the husbandman only that all the inhabitants of a country are enabled to live; whence it ought to be a consideration with him to cultivate the ground in such a manner, as may enable him to afford the produce at the lowest price. Thus he will also consult his own interest: for cheapness of provisions is the only true means by which the population of any country can be advanced; and the greater the number of inhabitants, the greater market will the husbandman have for his goods. Indeed, by a certain mode of arguing, it may be imagined, that it would be more advantageous to keep up provisions at as high a price as possible, rather than to lower them: but however this may apply to manufactures of various kinds, it never can apply to husbandry; for by raising the price of provisions, the price of every other thing also is raised, and it becomes more difficult for the husbandman himself to live, as well as others.

Thus the business of an husbandman is not only extremely complicated and difficult, but important also; inasmuch, that societies have been lately instituted in many different parts of the kingdom for its advancement, and premiums offered to those who excelled in any particular branch. Some of these premiums are held out for raising the greatest quantity of particular kinds of vegetables; others for gaining the greatest extent of ground from the sea: some for improving waste ground; others for the invention of the most useful machines for harrowing, sowing, and various operations in agriculture. But though the intention of these societies is undoubtedly laudable and patriotic, and though the invention of man has in a manner been exhausted to accomplish the purposes for which they were instituted; it remains yet a matter of great doubt and uncertainty whether they have really been productive of any public good or not. It does not clearly appear, that the means of subsistence are rendered more generally easy, or that the lives of mankind are more happy and comfortable, than before any societies were instituted, or before any considerable improvements in husbandry were made. On the contrary, provisions of all kinds, instead of becoming cheaper, have gradually become dearer, and their price on the whole is sensibly augmented every four or five years. Hence it is impossible to avoid concluding, that, notwithstanding the apparent improvements which have been made in such numbers, there is not yet any real one in the whole art.—Something of this kind has been taken notice of even by the

members of these societies themselves; and on this subject Mr Wimpey expresses himself as follows: Both Pages, vol. iii. P. 174.

“It is certainly clear from the average prices of corn and provisions of all kinds for 20 years past, that there is not too much land in cultivation. Prices have advanced considerably above what has been deemed, and that justly too, the medium standard. As a manufacturing and commercial country, it is properly the duty of legislature to provide, as far as may be consistently with the liberty of the subject, that the price of provisions may be kept as near as possible to their medium value. This is conceived to be very practicable, even so as to be a convenience to the grower as well as the consumer. Some writers (Locke, Montesquieu, &c.) have supposed, that the advance of commodities in price is rather apparent and nominal than real. Things are not so much, if at all (say they), advanced in price, as it is imagined. The precious metals are exceedingly increased in quantity, and proportionably fallen in value. Possibly there may be some truth in this observation, if we go back some hundreds of years; and if taken upon a scale that comprehends all Europe: but from the term of 40 or 50 years, or even from the time that Mr Locke wrote to the present hour, there is little difference in the value of gold and silver; an ounce of either being of much the same value now as then. The frequent and sudden changes that take place in the price of corn and other commodities, which are sometimes at double the price one year they were the foregoing, must be owing to some other cause than that above-mentioned, which operates slowly, if at all, and is not perceptible in less than a century.

“If the quantity of corn and provisions at market always has borne the same proportion to the demand there is for them, the price would be always invariably and unchangeably the same. The variation of the prices, therefore, is governed by the variation of the said proportion. If the demand be greater and the quantity the same, or the demand the same and the quantity less, the price must necessarily advance; and versa, if the quantity should increase, and the demand remain the same, the price must as necessarily fall; and it is not in the power of man to make it otherwise. But though this immutable relation is beyond our power to alter, we can by art and industry augment the quantity, and thereby lower the price; cheapness being an infallible consequence of plenty, which is the direct object of an improving cultivation. This is a matter of great consequence to the poor labourer, the manufacturer, and the merchant; and no disadvantage to the grower; because, what he would lose by the fall of price, he would gain by the increased consumpt.

“It is not easy to conceive how many and how great the improvements are which have been made in this most important of all arts in the course of the present century. A patriotic spirit of uncommon ardour hath gone forth; and the nobility and gentry, like the senators of Rome, have set, as it were, their hands to the plough, and excited their tenants and neighbours to practices of which they had no idea before. Yea, they have done more; they have instituted societies, and made them receptacles and distributors of useful knowledge; they have raised subscriptions, and added marks of honour and pecuniary advantages to the rewards which naturally result from the attention and industry of

of the ingenious artist. But it must be allowed, that though much has been done, there still remains much more to be done. Experimenters have not always (perhaps but seldom) entered into the views, and ably seconded the intentions, of those valuable institutions. Animated with the hope of obtaining the premiums held out by dint of extraordinary exertions, expensive manures, and a concurrence of fortunate circumstances, more the effect of chance than of design, they often have been the successful adventurers, though at the same time entirely ignorant to what causes they owed their success. We too often indeed ascribe effects to causes which are no way connected with them. The practice of such men is more like the nostrums of quacks, than the recipes of a regular physician. The medicine may be good; but, being ignorant of principles, they know not how to accommodate it as circumstances may require."

Considerations of this kind must certainly lead us to suppose, that most, if not all, the improvements made in husbandry for a long time past, are too expensive; and that, though by their means larger crops are now obtained than formerly, the profits are more than swallowed up by the enormous sums required to produce them. Hence we have as yet obtained only larger or more elegantly formed boas of different kinds; and whether this acquisition is ultimately to be considered as profitable, remains yet to be determined. Unfortunately this sentiment seems to be confirmed by taking a review of the agricultural improvements made during the last half-century. These are:

1. Improvements in the Art of Tillage. Improvements of this kind consist in more perfectly breaking and pulverising the soil, and keeping it more free from weeds than formerly. Mr Jethro Tull was the author of these, and showed the advantages thence arising. By frequent turning over and pulverising the soil, we not only destroy the weeds very effectually, but likewise grubs, beetles, worms, and maggots of many different kinds. "Nothing (says Mr Wimpey) so effectually prevents the ravages of the several tribes of subterraneous insects as the frequent stirring and crumbling the ground: I have had large patches of several poles square in a field of beans destroyed by the grub of the cock-chaffer; and many hundreds of cabbage-plants by a grey grub of smaller size. Both these execute their mischief underground. The former eat the roots of the beans even when in kid; and then they wither, fall, and die: the latter bites off the stem of the plant just under the surface, and does infinite mischief: but I have always found tillage, duly performed, capable of destroying the whole race."

2. Invention of new Implements of Husbandry, or improvements of the old. This class includes all the new invented ploughs, harrows, horse and hand-hoes, &c. by means of which it is generally supposed that the work of tillage can be performed at much less expense, as well as more effectually, than formerly.

3. Saving a great quantity of Seed in sowing, and the production of better Crops, by the more regular distribution of what is sown. This improvement chiefly consists in drilling, instead of sowing in the broad-cast way as formerly. The gain is here evident; and Mr Wimpey calculates it at a tenth or twelfth part of the whole produce: and if the community are not yet sensible of

any advantage from such a considerable saving, it must be because the drilling husbandry has not yet become very general.

4. Suiting the Crop to the Nature and Condition of the Soil. The farmer is now enabled to this better than formerly, by the introduction of a number of new vegetables formerly unknown. Thus, as there are many grounds very unfit for the production of wheat, there is now no occasion for reaping scanty crops of it from such as are little adapted to the raising of that grain; because another article, for which perhaps there was formerly no demand, may now be raised with considerable profit on a soil where wheat will not grow to any advantage.

5. The Rotation of Crops. Thus a very considerable addition is made to the produce of the ground by keeping it perpetually fertile; whereas formerly it was often worn out and rendered barren by too frequent cropping, when a proper rotation was not known.

6. The Introduction of new Manures. These are principally lime and marle; of the action of which an account is given under the article AGRICULTURE, no 20.

7. The Introduction of many new Articles into Field-Culture. These, whatever profit they may yield to the farmer, consist principally of provender for cattle. They ought, however, to have a considerable effect in producing plentiful harvests, as here by the cattle may be supposed to do their work more perfectly, and to be maintained at less expense than before.

8. The Application of these to the rearing and fattening of Cattle. The good effects of this ought to be felt partly in the manner mentioned in the former article, and partly in lowering the price of flesh-meat, and consequently of all other kinds of provisions.

Thus we see, that in the course of half a century, Little advantages have been found of eradicating weeds, destroying insects, saving vast quantities of seed-corn, of suit-
ing the crops to the soil, of using new manures, raising new plants; and all this, together with multitudes of new machines for performing in a better manner the operations of agriculture, has apparently amounted to mere nothing. The price of provisions seems to have begun to rise with the improvements, and to be continually advancing. It is by no means in our power to point out particularly the causes of so disagreeable an event. It must, however, undoubtedly depend on some miscalculation, or over-rating the profits which have arisen from those improvements: whence the landholders have uniformly been induced to raise their rents, while the farmers, finding their expenses greatly augmented, not only on account of the advance of rent, but likewise from the more costly modes of tillage, have been obliged to augment the prices of their grain beyond what the increased influx of money into the kingdom would bear.—Such miscalculations are not uncommon in every business. A manufacturer is apt to be enticed by a certainty of having an increase of his goods in a given time: but frequently, when improvements are tried, it is found that the absolute expense, or the quantity of labour requisite to produce the increase, is greater than the augmentation of profit can bear; and he is afterwards, with regret and loss, obliged to lay aside the improvements from which he had once such hopes. In like manner, we fear, it has fared with the husbandman. The improvements

in husbandry originated principally among the landholders; whose principal view, we may suppose, was an augmentation of rent. The tenants were obliged to attempt improvements in order to pay the advance, as well as by the express order of their landlords. Hence they were induced to keep a great number of horses, that their lands might be tilled with sufficient expedition, and in a more perfect manner than before. The oxen, formerly made use of, and which answered the purposes both of provision and labour, were discarded, and a set of most expensive animals, useless except for the purposes of labour or pleasure, introduced in their stead. A vast quantity of grain, which ought to have sustained the human species, was thus bestowed on the brute creation: and though this might in some measure be supposed to be counteracted by the increase of crop in consequence of employing horses, it is evident that it has not answered the general expectation; since we may say, that the farmers have not been able to pay one penny of advanced rent without advancing also the price of their grain.

With regard to the rearing of cattle, the case is equally doubtful. The most extravagant prices have been given for the best breeds as they are called; but it remains yet to be proved, that these breeds are really more useful to the country than the smaller ones. The expense of keeping them is undoubtedly greater, and this expense is enhanced by the large cattle being generally less hardy than the smaller. It seems, besides, impossible that one large horse, for instance, can be equally useful with two small ones, even though he should be as strong as both; for this plain reason, that two horses, though ever so small, can be put to two different kinds of work at once, which cannot be done with the largest single horse imaginable. The like is applicable to black cattle: We cannot suppose the largest single ox to be equal to two ordinary oxen, though he may perhaps require more to fatten him than would bring to market three or four of an ordinary quality; and so of other animals.

It is much to be feared that the same reasoning extends to most of the improvements hitherto made in husbandry. The vegetative powers of the earth cannot be made always to exert themselves to the utmost, without an expense which the increase of produce can by no means balance. By a total neglect of culture, indeed, the soil will produce little or nothing; by a moderate degree of culture the product will be greatly augmented, the farmer will be enabled to pay his rent, and at the same time to afford his grain at such a price as can allow the labourers to live comfortably: but if we go on with extraordinary methods of culture, expecting to increase the produce of the soil, and to be able to exact an augmentation of rent ad infinitum, we will certainly be deceived; for thus the price of provisions must be infinitely increased also. Thus, indeed, the produce of the ground will be somewhat increased, but the farmer will ultimately be a loser; so that, to save himself from ruin, he must at last burthen the public both with his advanced rent and the expense of most of his improvements, by advancing the price of grain and of all kinds of provisions.

Such seem in general to be the reasons why the country has reaped so little advantage by the improvements

made of late in the affairs of agriculture and husbandry. If experiments are now to be made, it is plain that they ought to be with a view to determine that medium of culture which the ground can bear with the greatest profit, comparing the expence and produce of the two different modes together; and that mode which is the least expensive ought undoubtedly to be chosen, even though attended with no more profit than that which is executed at a greater expence. Thus, if a farmer, by laying out 5l. can produce a crop equivalent to 7l. he ought undoubtedly to prefer that to a mode of cultivation by which he lays out seven to procure nine. Nay, though by his new method he should procure 9l. 10s. by laying out 7l. it would still be evidently for the good of the community that the former method were followed. The reason of this is, that every expence of the husbandman, as well as of every other, must ultimately be defrayed by the community at large. Thus if the husbandman employs a greater number of hands than would otherwise be necessary, it is plain that the expence of these must be defrayed by the community, not only because of the provisions they must necessarily consume, but because each of these, were he not employed in that particular way, might contribute in some other towards his own support and that of others: and the very same may be said of the farmer who employs a greater number of horses than would otherwise be necessary. Now, in the example just given, the farmer, or the community at large, by laying out 5l. gain 40s. which is 40 per cent.; but in the other case, viz. that of expending 7l. for a return of 9l. 10s. the farmer indeed gets 50s. instead of 40s. but the community do not gain equally, having now not quite 36 per cent. instead of 40 which they had before.

Hence it becomes evident, that by encouraging individuals to expend large sums on agriculture, and thus diminish the proportion of their own profits, the community must always suffer, and a rise of provisions will infallibly take place, whether the individuals enrich themselves or not. Evils of this nature can be remedied only by the legislature: but it is to be feared that the time is yet very distant when any certain mode of culture will be established by law; and until this happen, it is vain to think that either the speculations or experiments of individuals or of societies will be attended with much benefit to the community, whatever advantage particular persons may sometimes derive from them.—Leaving this subject, therefore, we shall now proceed to those which more immediately relate to the business of husbandry in its present state.

In considering this subject in its full extent, it evidently divides itself into three parts: the first, Relating to the cultivation of such vegetables as are proper for the subsistence of mankind or the rearing of cattle; as grain, grass, cabbage, turnips, and other vegetables of that kind: the second, Such as belong more particularly to trade and commerce; as flax, hemp, hops, bees, timber, &c. Under both these are included the knowledge of various manures, of the nature of different soils, &c. The third part includes, the raising and management of cattle, poultry, of the dairy, with other adventitious articles, less connected with agriculture; of all which we shall now treat in order.

AMONG those raised for the use of mankind, wheat has universally been supposed to hold the first place, and other kinds of grain to be the next to it; but in modern times, an author of no mean reputation has arisen, who endeavours to prove that wheat ought not to be cultivated, nor bread to be eaten. This is M. Linguet, who has written a treatise expressly upon the subject; and, ridiculous as the assertion may seem, has been thought worthy of a formal refutation by Dr Tissot.—One of M. Linguet's arguments is, that wheat impoverishes the ground on which it grows: but in opposition to this, Dr Tissot urges, that corn is more easily cultivated than grass; and that consequently, in the country he speaks of (Switzerland), the best fields are appropriated to hay, and the worst to corn. "If there are some districts of very poor land (says he) almost entirely sown with corn, they are not poor because they produce only corn, but because they are not fit to produce any thing else. Their soil is so bad, that they can grow but very little fodder: consequently they maintain only such cattle as are absolutely necessary for labour; and those are ill fed, and frequently perish. They have but little manure, and their crops are small; for large crops of all sorts can only be expected from lands naturally rich or strongly manured. Thus the poverty of the inhabitants is only owing to their possessing an ungrateful soil.—What proves evidently that it is the natural soil which is in the fault, and not the corn which impoverishes, is, that where there is meadow and arable land, the price of the meadow-land is much more considerable than that of the arable. In most parts of this country the proportion is nearly ten to one; and there are even some meadows, for one part of which they would give 30 of field-lands; and some of vines, for which 100 of arable would be given. Those districts where the soil will produce nothing but corn, are poor; but in those which furnish fodder, and also fine crops of grain, the inhabitants are wealthy and happy, unless they are oppressed by taxes."

M. Linguet draws another objection from the length of time required to cultivate wheat; but Tissot, by another calculation, shows, that 48 days work throughout the year would cultivate more wheat than is sufficient for a family of six persons. The time necessary for cultivation of arable land also does not increase in proportion to its extent; but in case more is cultivated than is requisite for the subsistence of the family, a trade is formed, which might be increased to an unlimited extent. He then compares the time requisite for the cultivation of vines which are recommended by M. Linguet, and finds it to be much longer than that required for wheat. "I know very well (says he) that the one requires cattle, and the other does not: but these cattle, far from being expensive, will, if properly managed, increase the gain of the farmer; therefore they must not be looked upon as any expense. Corn is subject to many accidents, but vines are subject to many more: those which the vines suffer, sometimes

spoil the vintage for several years; whereas those which happen to arable land, only spoil the crop for the season: and as the expence of cultivating vines, for which only manual labour can be employed, is much more considerable; therefore the vigneron (or person who cultivates vines), who engages more largely than the farmer, will consequently be a much greater loser if unsuccessful.—Hay is also subject to frequent and very disagreeable accidents; the securing it is sometimes very difficult; and, when it is badly made, it is very hurtful to cattle.—A single fact will be sufficient to prove the casualties to which hay is subject; viz. that it varies in price as much as grain. Accidents of hay-mows taking fire are but too frequent; and this is not to be feared in corn-mows."

The other objections of M. Linguet to wheat appear to be quite frivolous; so that concerning the cultivation of this grain, Dr Tissot draws the following conclusions: "It appears then, from what has been said, that wheat is not a commodity that is impoverishing in itself; and that this grain will grow indifferently at least in lands and situations which are unfavourable to other plants. This grain is likewise adapted to most climates; and if there are districts almost entirely sown with wheat, and yet poor, it is the fault of the soil, and not of this useful grain."

But the most extraordinary argument perhaps ever thought of on this subject is M. Linguet's assertion, that the use of wheat, or bread made from it, is detrimental to population; and that the countries where this grain is cultivated are poor and thinly inhabited, whereas those which abound with vineyards and pasture-lands are rich and populous. But this, in Dr Tissot's opinion, shows only that one soil is more rich than another, and that a fertile soil will maintain more inhabitants. "No person (says he) is more capable of assigning the cause of the subjection of the Roman empire to the northern powers, than M. Linguet; but he cannot surely be serious when he says, that they were enabled to conquer them because those northern countries produced no corn, and that population decreased since the introduction of grain. I shall make three observations on this passage: First, the armies of Gustavus Adolphus, Charles XII. and the king of Prussia, whose food was bread, would be as formidable against the Italians of those times, who eat less than was eaten in the days of Scipio, as their ancestors were 400 years ago against the Romans: and M. Linguet must certainly know, that those Greeks who subsisted on bread, those Romans who eat nothing but bread and vegetables in pottage, subdued all the known world, among whom were many nations who ate less bread than themselves. A Roman soldier's allowance of bread was much greater than what soldiers have at present; and by the use of this food they had much more strength than our modern soldiers can boast of. The allowance to a Roman soldier was 64 pounds of wheat per month; and this he was strictly forbidden either

either to sell or exchange. Their soldiers had very seldom any cheefe, bacon, or pulse; so that wheat was almost their only food, and the proportion was double what is allowed soldiers in our days. They ate it in bread, in flour-milk, and in thin cakes; and they were not subject to epidemic or putrid disorders, which is too much the case with our modern armies. We may easily judge from the weight of their accoutrements, that the Roman soldiers were not possessed of less personal strength than those which compose the armies at this day; they were not less brave, nor did their food render them in any way unhealthy: on the contrary, where there is such difficulty in procuring a supply of good animal food to an army, as is often the case in modern times, it is probable that reducing them to the simple diet of a Roman soldier would be the most proper method of preventing epidemic diseases among them. Secondly, it is very doubtful whether those countries were more populous formerly than they are at this time; it is even probable that they were less so. Lastly, the people of these northern countries were not without wheat; it was the basis of their food and drink: without quoting other authors who attest it, suffice it to say, that Tacitus affirms it," &c.

In this last particular, however, our author appears to be mistaken; but whatever may be in this, we apprehend that few of our readers will entertain any doubt concerning the wholesomeness of wheat, or the propriety of making it into bread after once it is cultivated. The truly important matter is to determine, whether it be a profitable crop or not for the person who cultivates it? In this respect indeed it has been condemned by the generality of farmers, and dairy-farms are universally supposed to be more profitable than such as produce corn. The vast superiority of the former is set forth by Thomas Davis, Esq; of Longleat, in the following words. "Experience sufficiently evinces the extreme difficulty of persuading tenants that they get more (generally speaking) by feeding their lands, than by ploughing them; yet it requires very few arguments to convince a landlord, that in cold wet lands especially, the less ploughed land you have, the less you put it in a tenant's power to ruin your estate. That a tenant of 60 l. per annum on a dairy-farm will get money, while a corn farm of the same size will starve its occupier (though perhaps the former gives 15 s. per acre for his land, and the latter only 10 s.), is self-evident. The plough is a friend of every body's, though its advantages are very far from being particularly and locally felt; corn being an article that will bear keeping till the whim or caprice, or supposed advantage of its possessor, call it forth. But the produce of the cow is far otherwise. Cheefe must necessarily be sold at a certain period: it is a ponderous article; and one-twelfth, or at least one-fifteenth, of its value, is often paid for carrying it to a fair 50 miles off; and the butter and skimmed milk find their way no great distance from home, as is evident by the price of butter varying frequently one-third in 20 or 30 miles. Every inhabitant of Bath must be sensible, that butter and cheefe have risen one-third or more in price within 20 years. Is not this owing to the great encouragement given to the plough and to grazing, at a time when,

on account of the increased demand for milk, cream, butter, and cheefe, every exertion on behalf of the dairy should have been encouraged?" &c.

In some remarks on this letter by Mr Billingsley, the same superiority of dairy-farms to the arable kind is asserted in the most positive terms. "Perhaps (says he) there cannot be a stronger proof of the inferiority of the plough with respect to profit, than the superior punctuality of the dairy-farmer in the payment of his rent. This observation, I believe, most stewards who superintend manors devoted partly to corn and partly to dairy-farms, will verify; at least I have never met with one who controverts it. But perhaps the advocate for the plough will desire me not to confound the abuse of a thing with its intrinsic excellence; and say, that the generality of corn farmers are most egregious slovens; that lands devoted to the plough are not confined to such a mediocrity of profit as 20s. per acre; that the produce of artificial grasses (without which a well managed arable farm cannot exist), far exceeds that of natural grass both in respect of quantity and nutrition; that the straw-yard is a most convenient receptacle for the cow when freed from the pail. These, and many other reasons, may be adduced to show the propriety of walking in the middle-path, and of judiciously blending arable with pasture, in the proportion perhaps of three of the latter to one of the former."

On these letters we shall only remark, that for the good of mankind we hope the opinions they contain will never come into general practice; as thus the price of bread must be raised so high, that the lower classes of people would be entirely deprived of it. In the Bath Papers, vol. v. p. 43. we have a method proposed by Mr Wimpey of improving small arable farms in such a manner as to make them yield as much milk, butter, and cheefe, as those which are kept continually in pasture. He agrees with the maxim already mentioned, that small arable farms do not afford the occupier so good a maintenance as dairy farms of the same value; and that the possessor of a dairy farm will do well and save money, while the former, with much toil and trouble, is starving himself and family. Notwithstanding this, he maintains, that there is an essential difference between ground that is naturally arable, and such as is by nature adapted for pasture. Land which is naturally arable, according to him, can by no means be converted into pasture of any duration. "Such as, from a wild state of nature, over-run with furze, fern, bushes and brambles, has been rendered fertile by means of the plough, must be kept in that improved state by its frequent use; otherwise it would soon revert to that wild barren state which was its original condition. A farm, therefore, which consists wholly, or almost so, of land that is properly arable, must ever continue arable; for it is not practicable to render it in any degree fertile but by means of the plough, or to keep it long in that state even when it is made so." He is of opinion, however, that by raising crops proper for feeding cattle, the possessor of an arable farm may raise as great a number of horned cattle as one who has a pasture farm; the only question is, Whether he can be reimbursed of his expenses by the produce? "To ascertain this fact (says

(says he); we must inquire what may be the average expences of keeping a milch-cow on a dairy-farm for any given time. It is said, upon very good authority, that the expence is generally from 3 l. to 3 l. 10 s. per annum. Two acres and an half of pasture fit for this use is sufficient to keep a cow the whole year through, and such land is valued at from 25 s. to 30 s. per acre. At 25 s. the keeping of each cow would amount to 3 l. 2 s. 6 d. per annum. A dairy-farm, therefore, consisting of 48 acres, at 25 s. per annum, would amount to 60 l. rent; and the number of cows that might be kept on such a farm would be about 20. In the next place, with regard to the expence of keeping a cow upon food raised in arable land as a succedaneum for grass, we are assured by unquestionable authority, that a bushel of potatoes given half at night and half in the morning, with a small allowance of hay, is sufficient to keep three cows a-day; by which allowance their milk will be as rich and as good as in the summer months when the cows are in pasture. An acre of land, properly cultivated with potatoes, will yield 337 bushels; and the total expence of cultivation, rent and tithe included, will not exceed 6 l. 13 s. If three cows eat seven bushels per week, then they would eat 364 bushels in a year; and 20 cows would consume 2433 bushels." So that, according to this calculation, seven acres and a quarter would nearly maintain as many cows as on the arable farm could be maintained by 48 acres. If then the cultivation of one acre of ground costs 6 l. 13 s. the cultivation of seven acres and a quarter will cost about 48 l. We have seen, however, that the rent of a dairy-farm capable of maintaining 20 milch-cows, is not less than 60 l. so that the calculation is thus entirely in favour of the arable farm; seven or eight acres of the arable farm being superior by 12 l. in value, when cultivated with potatoes, to 48 acres of meadow or pasture-ground."

"It must indeed be observed (adds our author), that in this statement no allowance is made for the small quantity of hay given to the cows with the potatoes. It must be noted also, that the account of cultivation is charged with 40 s. an acre for manure, and some expence for ploughing, which of right is chargeable to the crop of wheat that is to follow. Now, if we deduct 40 s. an acre from the expence of cultivating the potatoes, it reduces the sum to 4 l. 13 s. and the whole expence upon seven acres and a quarter is thus less than 34 l. and consequently the keep of 20 cows is little more than half to the occupier of the arable farm what it is to the occupier of the grazing farm. If this conclusion be fairly drawn, and the calculation free from errors, it is matter of the greatest importance, especially to the little arable farmer. It plainly raises him from a state of acknowledged inferiority to one greatly superior."

Our author next proceeds to obviate an objection, "that the whole of his reasoning must be indecisive, as relating only to potatoes." In opposition to this, he adduces an experiment made on a pretty large scale by Mr Vagg; from which it appears, that cabbages, when raised upon arable ground, are nearly as much superior to a natural crop as potatoes are. Twelve acres were employed in this experiment, and those of an indifferent quality. The rent was 30 s. per acre, and the

whole expence of culture and carting off the crop amounted only to 1 l. 14 s. so that all the cost of the twelve acres was 38 l. 9 s. From the produce were fed 45 oxen and upwards of 60 sheep; and he was assured that they improved as fast upon it as they do cabbages in the best pasture months, May, June, and July.

"Now (says Mr Wimpey), if instead of 60 sheep we reckon 15 oxen, or that four sheep are equal to about one ox, in which we cannot err much; then 60 oxen were kept well for three months, or, which is the same thing, 15 for a whole year, for 38 l. 9 s.; and consequently 20 oxen would cost 5 l. 5 s. 4 d. which is not quite 3 l. more than the keeping of 20 cows would cost in potatoes. Turnips, turnip-rooted cabbage, carrots, parsnips, and some other articles, by many experiments often repeated, have been found quite adequate to the same valuable purposes; at least so far as to be more lucrative than meadow or pasture. Clover and rye-grass are omitted, as having been long in general practice; but are in common very short of the advantages which may be derived from the cultivation of the other articles recommended." Sainfoin is greatly recommended: but our author acknowledges that it makes but a miserable appearance the first year, though afterwards he is of opinion that one acre of sainfoin is equal to two of middling pasture-ground; for which reason he accuses the farmer of intolerable indolence who does not cultivate so useful a plant. On this subject, however, we must remember, that the culture of sainfoin is clogged with the loss of one if not two crops; which may sometimes be inconvenient, though afterwards it remains in perfection for no less than 20 years. The most advantageous method of raising it he supposes to be after potatoes. Thus it will thrive even upon very poor ground; as the culture and manure necessary for the potatoes both pulverise the soil and enrich it to a sufficient degree.

From these experiments and observations, therefore, it appears very probable at least, that it is by no means against the interest of a farmer to cultivate large quantities of grain; and that he may even do this in a consistency with raising as many cattle as he can have occasion for. Some grounds, no doubt, are naturally so fitted for pasture, that it would be too expensive to force them into arable ground; but wherever this can be done, it seems proper always to have as much arable as possible, instead of as little, which Messrs Davis and Billingsley advise. Grain of different kinds, therefore, and particularly wheat, ought to be cultivated by a farmer to as great an extent as possible; though these different kinds can be determined only from the nature of the soil, and certain circumstances arising from the situation of the place, for which no particular rules can be given. A view of the general practice of some of the principal counties in England, however, may perhaps be of some use to furnish general directions for the farmer.

SECT. I. Of the Cultivation of Wheat.

There is perhaps no part of Great Britain where this species of grain is cultivated to more perfection than in Norfolk. Mr Marshal informs us, that the species raised in that county is called the Norfolk red, and weighs

weighs heavier than any other which has yet been introduced, though he owns that its appearance is much against the assertion, it being a long thin grain, resembling rye more than well-bodied wheat. About 15 or 20 years ago a new species was introduced, named the Kentish eel; against which the millers were at first very much prejudiced, though this prejudice is now got over. A remarkable circumstance respecting this grain is, that though upon its introduction into the county the eel or husk be perfectly white, yet such is the power either of the soil or of the mode of cultivation to produce what the botanists call varieties, that the grain in question is said to lose every year somewhat of the whiteness of its husks, until they become at last equally red with those of the former kind. The southern and southeastern parts of the county generally enjoy a stronger and richer soil than the more northerly, and therefore are more proper for the cultivation of that species of grain. In the northern parts are some farms of very light soil, where the farmers sow only a small quantity of wheat; and these light lands are called barley farms.

The greatest part of the wheat in Norfolk is sown upon a second year's lay; sometimes it is sown upon a first year's lay; sometimes on a summer-fallow; after peas, turnips, or buck harvested or plowed under. The practice adopted by those who are looked upon as superior husbandmen in the county of Norfolk is as follows. The second year's lays having finished the bullocks, and brought the stock-cattle and horses thro' the fore-part of summer, and the first year's lays having been made ready to receive his stock, the farmer begins to break up his old land or lay-ground by a peculiar mode of cultivation named rice-balking, in which the furrow is always turned toward the unplowed ground, the edge of the coulter passing always close by the edge of the flag last turned. This is done at first with an even regular furrow; opportunity being taken for performing the operation after the surface has been moistened by a summer-shower. In this state his summer-lays remain until towards the end of harvest, when he harrows and afterwards plows them across the balks of the former plowing, bringing them now up to the full depth of the soil. On this plowing he immediately harrows the manure, and plows it in with a shallow furrow. The effects of this third plowing are to mix and effectually pulverise the soil and manure; to cut off and pulverise the upper surfaces of the furrows of the second plowing; and thus, in the most effectual manner, to eradicate or smother the weeds which had escaped the two former ones. Thus it lies until the feed-time, when it is harrowed, rolled, sown, and gathered up into ridges of such width as the farmer thinks most proper. Those of six furrows are most common, though some very good farmers lay their wheat-land into four-furrow, and others into ten-furrow ridges; "which last (says our author) they execute in a style much superior to what might be expected from wheel-plows." They excel, however, in the six-furrow plowing; of which Mr Marshal gives a particular account. When plowing in this manner, they carry very narrow furrows; so that a six-furrow ridge, set out by letting the off-horse return in the first-made furrow, does not measure more than three feet eight or nine inches.

When wheat is cultivated after the first year's lay, the feed is generally sown upon the flag or furrow turned over. After peas, one or two plowings are given; the other parts of the management being the same with that after the second year's lay already mentioned. After buck harvested he seldom gives more than two, and sometimes but one, plowing. In the former case he spreads his manure on the stubble, and plows it in with a shallow furrow; harrows, rolls, sows, and gathers up the soil into narrow work. The manure is in like manner spread on the stubble after once plowing, and the feed is then sown among the manure; the whole plowed in together, and the soil gathered up into narrow ridges, as if it had undergone the operations of a fallow. An inconvenience attending this practice is, that the buck which is necessarily shed in harvesting springs up among the wheat, and becomes a weed to it, at the same time that the rooks, if numerous, pull up both buck and wheat, leaving several patches quite bare. This is obviated in a great measure by first plowing in the manure and self-sown buck with a shallow furrow; in consequence of which the buck vegetates before the wheat.

It is likewise a favourite practice with the Norfolk farmers to raise wheat after buck plowed under. They plow under the buck by means of a broom made of rough bushes fixed to the fore tackle of the plow between the wheels, which bears down the plant without lifting the wheels from the ground. Sometimes, when the buck is strong, they first break it down with a roller going the same way that the plow is intended to go; afterwards a good plowman will cover it so effectually that scarce a stalk can be seen. Sometimes the surface of the ground is left rough, but it is more eligible to harrow and roll it. The practice of summer-fallowing seldom occurs in Norfolk; though sometimes, when the soil has been much worn down by cropping, and over-run by weeds, it is esteemed a judicious practice by many excellent husbandmen, and the practice seems to be daily gaining ground. After turnips the soil is plowed to a moderate depth, and the feed sown over the first plowing; but if the turnips be got in early, the weeds are sometimes first plowed in with a shallow furrow, and the feed plowed under with a second plowing, gathering the soil into narrow ridges.

With regard to the manuring of the ground for wheat in Norfolk, that which has been recently clayed or marled is supposed to need no other preparation any more than that which has received 15 or 20 loads of dung and mould for turnips; the first year's lay having been teathed in autumn, and the second fed off. Where the soil is good, and the wheat apt to run too much to straw, it is the practice of some judicious farmers to set their manure upon the young clover, thereby depriving the wheat in some degree of its rankness; but it is most common to spread it upon the broken ground; or if the feed be sown upon the turned furrow, to spread it on the turf and plow it under; or to spread it on the plowed surface, and harrow it in with the feed as a top-dressing. A smaller quantity of manure is generally made use of for wheat than for turnips. From eight to ten cartloads (as much as three horses can conveniently draw) are reckoned sufficient for an acre; three or four

Wheat four chaldrons of lime to one acre, or 40 bushels of foot to the same quantity of ground; or about a ton of rape-cake to three acres.

23 Time of sowing. In this county they never begin to sow wheat till after the 17th of October, and continue till the beginning of December, sometimes even till Christmas. They give as a reason for this late sowing, that the wheat treated in this manner is less apt to run to straw than when sown earlier. The seed is generally prepared with brine, and candied in the usual manner with lime. The following method of preparing it is said to be effectual in preventing the smut. "The salt is dissolved in a very small quantity of water, barely sufficient for the purpose. The lime is flaked with this solution, and the wheat candied with it in its hottest state, having been previously moistened with pure water." According to our author's observation, the crops of those farmers who use this preparation are in general more free from smut than those who make use of any other.

24 Of preparing the seed. The practice of dibbling or setting of wheat has not as yet become general throughout Norfolk, the common broad-cast method being usually followed, except on the Suffolk side of the county. Some few make use of dibbling and fluting rollers; but drilling is almost entirely unknown, notwithstanding the great aptitude of soil for the practice. Plowing in the seed under furrow is the favourite mode of the Norfolk farmers, and is performed in the following manner:

25 Method of sowing. "The land having been harrowed down level, and the surface rendered smooth by the roller, the head-plowman (if at leisure) marks out the whole piece in narrow slips of about a statute rod in width. This he does by hanging up the plough in such a manner, that no part of it except the heel touches the ground; and this makes a sure mark for the feedman, which he cannot by any means mistake. In case the ploughs are all employed, the feedman himself marks the ground, by drawing a piece of wood or other heavy body behind him." Mr Marshall prefers this to the Kentish method of setting up sticks in the form of a lane, as being less liable to produce mistakes.

26 Plowing the seed under furrow described. In those places where wheat is dibbled, they make use of iron instruments for the purpose. The acting part is an egg-shaped knob, somewhat larger than a pigeon's egg; the smaller end is the point of the dibble, the larger having a rod of iron rising from it about half an inch square, and two feet and an half long; the head being received into a cross piece of wood resembling the crutch of a spade or shovel, which forms the handle. The dibbler uses two of these instruments, one in each hand; and, bending over them, walks backward upon the turned furrows, making two rows of holes in each of them. These rows are usually made at the distance of four inches from each other; the holes being two and an half or three inches distant, viz. four in each length of the foot of the dibbler. The great art in making these lies in leaving them firm and smooth in the sides, so that the loose mould may not run in to fill them up before the seeds are deposited. This is done by a circular motion of the hand and wrist; making a semi-revolution every stroke; the circular motion beginning as the bit enters, and continuing until it is entirely disengaged from the mould. The operation is not

perfect unless the dibbles come out clean and wear bright. It is somewhat difficult to make the holes at equal distances; but more especially to keep the two straight and parallel to each other, some practice being required to guide the instruments in such a manner as to correspond exactly with each other; but though couples have been invented to remedy this inconvenience to keep them at a proper distance, the other method is still found to be preferable. A middling workman will make four holes in a second. One dibbler is sufficient for three droppers; whence one man and three children are called a set. The dibbler carries on three flags or turned furrows; going on some yards upon one of the outside furrows, and returning upon the other, after which he takes the middle one; and thus keeps his three dibblers constantly employed, and at the same time is in no danger of filling up the holes with his feet. The droppers put in two or three grains of wheat into each hole; but much time and patience is necessary to teach them to perform the business properly and quickly. An expert dibbler will hole half an acre in a day; though one third of an acre is usually reckoned a good day's work. The feed is covered by means of a bulh-harrow; and from one bushel to six pecks is the usual quantity for an acre. Notwithstanding the advantages of saving feed, as well as some others which are generally reckoned undeniable, it is asserted by some very judicious farmers, that dibbling of wheat on the whole is not really a profitable practice. It is particularly said to be productive of weeds unless dibbled very thick; which indeed may probably be the case, as the weeds are thus allowed a greater space to vegetate in. Mr Marshall himself is of opinion, that "the dibbling of wheat appears to be peculiarly adapted to rich, deep soils, on which three or four pecks dibbled early may spread sufficiently for a full crop; whereas light, weak, shallow soils, which have lain two or three years, and have become grassy, require an additional quantity of feed, and consequently an addition of labour, otherwise the plants are not able to reach each other, and the grasses of course find their way up between them, by which means the crop is injured and the soil rendered foul."

The same author has likewise given an account of the method of cultivating wheat practised in other English counties. In the Midland district, including part of Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Warwick, and Leicester-shire, we are informed that the species usually sown is that called Red lammas, the ordinary red wheat of the kingdom; but of late a species named the Effendun, similar to the Kentish white of Norfolk, and the Hertfordshire broten of Yorkshire, have been coming into vogue. Cone-wheat, formerly in use in this district, is now out of fashion. Spring wheat is cultivated with remarkable success, owing principally to the time of sowing; viz. the close of April. Our author was informed by an excellent farmer in these parts, that by sowing early, as in the beginning of March, the grain was liable to be shrivelled, and the straw to be blighted; while that which was sown towards the end of April, or even in the beginning of May, produced clean plump corn. At the time he visited this country, however, it seemed to be falling into disrepute;

pute; though he looks upon it, in some situations, especially in a turnip-country, to be eligible. In the ordinary succession in this part of the kingdom, wheat comes after oats; and there is perhaps nine-tenths of the wheat in this district sown upon oat-stubble. Our author has also seen a few examples of wheat being sown upon turf of six or seven year's laying; and several others on clover ley once plowed, as well as some after turnips. The best crops, however, produced in this, or perhaps in any other district, are after summer fallow. The time of sowing is the month of October, little being sown before Michaelmas; and in a favourable season, little after the close of the month. Much feed is sown here without preparation. When any is made use of, it is the common one of brine candied with lime. The produce is very great; the medium being full three quarters per acre, sometimes four or five; and one farmer, in the year 1784, had, on 50 acres of land together, no less than 45 bushels per acre.

In the Vale of Gloucester, the cone wheat, a variety of the triticum turgidum, is cultivated, as well as the lammas and spring wheats. It is not, however, the true cone wheat which is cultivated here, the ears being nearly cylindrical; but our author met with the true species in North-Wiltshire. Beans in this country are the common predecessors of wheat, and sometimes pease; but here the farmers cultivate wheat upon every species of soil. The time of sowing is in November and December, and the seed is thought to be sown in sufficient time if it is done before Christmas. In this country it is thought that late sown crops always produce better than those which are sown early; but Mr Marshall accounts for this by the vast quantity of weeds the latter have to encounter, and which the late sown crops escape by reason of the weakness of vegetation at that time of the year. The produce, however, throughout the Vale of Gloucester, is but very indifferent.—Setting of wheat is not practised, but hoeing universally.—In harvesting, Mr Marshall observes, that the grain is allowed to stand until it be unreasonably ripe, and that it is bound up into very small sheaves. The practice of making double bands is unknown in this district; so that the sheaves are no bigger than can be contained in the length of single straw. The inconveniences of this method are, that the crop requires more time to stook, load and unload, and stak; the advantages are, that the trouble of making bands is avoided; and that if rainy weather happens to intervene, the small sheaves dry much sooner than the large ones. Here the crop is cut very high, the stubble and weeds being mown off in swaths for litter soon after the crop is cut; and sometimes fold as high as 5s. per acre.—Mr Marshall is at a loss to account for the little quantity produced in this country; it being hardly possible to derive it from the nature of the soil, almost all of it being proper for the cultivation of the grain.

Among the Cotswold hills of Gloucester the lammas and cone wheats are sown; and a new variety of the latter was raised not long ago by picking out a single grain of seed from among a parcel. The body is very long and large, but not slightly.—The Cotswold hills are almost proverbial for early sowing of wheat. The general rule is to begin plowing in July, and sowing the first wet weather in August; so that here
N^o 159.

the feed-time and harvest of wheat coincide. If in consequence of this early sowing the blade becomes rank in autumn, it is supposed to be proper to eat it down by putting a large flock of sheep upon it at once. Eating it in spring is considered as pernicious. It is usually weeded with spud-hooks; not hood, as in the instance of Vale. One instance, however, is mentioned by our author, in which a very thin crop full of feed-weeds was hoed in autumn with uncommon success, occurred in the practice of a superior manager in this district; as well as others in which wheat has been weeded in autumn with great advantage. He also met with another well authenticated instance of the good effect of cutting mildewed wheat while very green. "A fine piece of wheat being lodged by heavy rains, and being soon after perceived to be infected with the mildew, was cut, though still in a perfectly green state; namely, about three weeks before the usual time of cutting. It lay spread abroad upon the stubble until it became dry enough to prevent its caking in the sheaf; when it was bound and set up in shocks. The result of this treatment was, that the grain, though small, was of a fine colour, and the heaviest wheat which grew upon the same farm that season; owing, no doubt, to the thinness of its skin. What appears much more remarkable, the straw was perfectly bright, not a speck upon it.—In this part of the country, the produce of wheat is superior to that in the Vale; but Mr Marshall is of opinion, that the soil is much more fit for barley than wheat.

In Yorkshire, though generally a grass-land country, and where of consequence corn is only a secondary concern, yet several kinds of wheat are cultivated, particularly Zealand, Dorset Kent, Common White, Herfordshire Brown, Yellow Kent, Common Red. All these are varieties of winter wheat; besides which they cultivate also the spring or summer wheat. Here our author makes several curious observations concerning the raising of varieties of plants. "It is probable (says he), that time has the same effect upon the varieties of wheat and other grains as it has on those of cultivated fruits, potatoes, and other vegetable productions. Thus, to produce an early pea, the gardener marks the plants which open first into blossom among the most early kind he has in cultivation. Next year he sows the produce of those plants, and goes over the coming crop in the manner he had done the preceding year, marking the earlier of this early kind. In a similar manner new varieties of apples are raised, by choosing the broadest leaved plants among a bed of feedlings rising promiscuously from pippins. Husbandmen, it is probable, have heretofore been equally industrious in producing fresh varieties of corn; or whence the endless variety of winter wheats? If they be naturally of one species, as Linnæus has deemed them, they must have been produced by climate, soil, or industry; for although nature sports with individuals, the industry of man is requisite to raise, establish, and continue a permanent variety. The only instance in which I have had an opportunity of tracing the variety down to the parent individual, has occurred to me in this district.—A man of acute observation, having, in a piece of wheat, perceived a plant of uncommon strength and luxuriance, diffusing its branches on every side, and setting its closely-surrounding neigh-
bours

Wheat. hours at defiance; marked it, and at harvest removed it separately. The produce was 15 ears, yielding 604 grains of a strong-bodied liver-coloured wheat, different, in general appearance, from every other variety he had seen. The chaff was smooth, without awns, and of the colour of the grain; the straw stout and reedy. These 604 grains were planted singly, nine inches asunder, filling about 40 square yards of ground, on a clover stubble, the remainder of the ground being sown with wheat in the ordinary way; by which means extraordinary trouble and destruction by birds were avoided. The produce was two gallons and an half, weighing 20½ lb. of prime grain for feed, besides some pounds of seconds. One grain produced 35 ears, yielding 1235 grains; so that the second years produce was sufficient to plant an acre of ground.—What deters farmers from improvements of this nature is probably the mischievousness of birds; from which at harvest it is scarcely possible to preserve a small patch of corn, especially in a garden or other ground situated near an habitation; but by carrying on the improvement in a field of corn of the same nature, that inconvenience is got rid of. In this situation, however, the botanist will be apprehensive of danger from the floral farina of the surrounding crop. But from what observations I have made, I am of opinion his fears will be groundless. No evil of this kind occurred, though the cultivation of the above variety was carried on among white wheat. But this need not be brought as an evidence: it is not uncommon here to sow a mixture of red and white wheats together; and this, it is confidently asserted, without impairing even the colour of either of them. The same mode of culture is applicable to the improvement of varieties; which perhaps would be more profitable to the husbandman than raising new ones, and more expeditious.”

32 Preparation of wheat with arsenic. In Yorkshire a very singular preparation of feed-wheat prevails, viz. the sleeping it in a solution of arsenic, as a preventative of smut. Marshall was informed by one farmer, that he had made use of this preparation for 20 years with success, having never during that long space of time suffered any sensible injury from smut. Our author seems inclined to believe the efficacy of this preparation; but thinks there may be some reason to apprehend danger in the use of such a pernicious mineral, either through the carelessness of servants, or handling of the feed by the person who sows it. The farmer above mentioned, however, during all the time he used it, never experienced any inconvenience either to himself, the feedman, or even to the poultry; though these last, we should have thought, would have been peculiarly liable to accidents from arsenicated feed.—The preparation is made by pounding the arsenic extremely fine, boiling it in water, and drenching the feed with the decoction. “In strictness (says Mr Marshall), the arsenic should be levigated sufficiently fine, to be taken up and washed over with water, reducing the sediment until it be fine enough to be carried over in the same manner.—The usual method of preparing the liquor is to boil one ounce of white arsenic, finely powdered, in a gallon of water, from one to two hours; and to add to the decoction as much water or stale urine as will increase the liquor to two gallons.—In this liquor the feed is, or ought to be, immersed, stirring it about in such a

manner as to saturate effectually the doway end of each grain.—This done, and the liquor drawn off, the feed is considered as fit for the feed-basket, without being candied with lime, or any other preparation.—A bushel of wheat has been observed to take up about a gallon of liquor. The price of arsenic is about 6d. per pound; which on this calculation will cure four quarters of feed. If no more than three quarters be prepared with it, the cost will be only a farthing per bushel; but to this must be added the labour of pounding and boiling. Nevertheless, it is by much the cheapest, and perhaps, upon the whole (adds Mr Marshall), the best preparation we are at present acquainted with.—In this county it is believed that a mixture of wheat and rye, formerly a very common crop in these parts, is never affected with mildew; but our author does not vouch for the truth of this assertion.

33 Cultivation of barley in Norfolk. THE county of Norfolk, according to Mr Marshall, is peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of this grain, of barley in the strongest soil not being too heavy, and the lightest Norfolk being able to bear it; and so well versed are the Norfolk farmers in the cultivation of it, that the barley of this county is desired for feed throughout the whole kingdom.—It is here sown after wheat or turnips; and in some very light lands it is sown after the second year's lay.—After wheat, the feed-time of the latter being finished, and the stubble trampled down with bullocks, the land is ploughed with a shallow furrow for a winter-fallow for barley. In the beginning of March the land is harrowed and cross-ploughed; or if it be wet, the ridges are reversed. In April it receives another ploughing lengthways; and at feed-time it is harrowed, rolled, sowed, and the surface rendered as smooth and level as possible.—After turnips the soil is broken up as fast as the turnips are taken off; if early in winter by rice-baking, a practice already explained*; but if late, by a plain plowing. It is common, if time will permit, to plough three times; the first shallow, the second full, and the third a mean depth; with which last the feed is plowed in. Sometimes, however, the ground is ploughed only once, and the feed sown above; but more frequently by three ploughings, though perhaps the farmer has not above a week to perform them in.—After lay, the turf is generally broken by a winter fallow, and the soil treated as after wheat.

This grain is seldom manured for, except when sown after lay, when it is treated as wheat. No manure is requisite after turnips or wheat, if the latter has been manured for. If not, the turnip-crop following immediately, the barley is left to take its chance, unless the opportunity be embraced for winter-marling.

Little barley is sown by the Norfolk farmers before the middle of April, and the feed-time generally continues till the middle of May; though this must in some measure depend on the season; “which (says Mr Marshall) is more attended to in Norfolk than perhaps in all the world beside.” In the very backward spring of 1782, barley was sown in June with success. No preparation is used. It is all sown broad-cast, and almost all under furrow; that is, the surface having been smoothed by the harrow and roller, the feed is

sown and plowed under with a shallow furrow; but if the season be wet, and the soil cold and heavy, it is sometimes sown above; but if the spring be forward, and the last piece of turnips eaten off late, the ground is sometimes obliged to be plowed only once, and to be sown above; though in this case Mr Marshall thinks it the most eligible management, instead of turning over the whole thickness of the soil, to two-furrow it, and sow between. This is done by only skimming the surface with the first plough, sowing the seed upon this, and then covering it with the bottom-furrow brought up by the second plough. Three bushels are usually sufficient for an acre.

The barley, as well as the wheat, in Norfolk, is allowed to stand till very ripe. It is universally mown into swath, with a small bow fixed at the heel of the scythe. If it receive wet in the swath in this country, it is not turned, but lifted; that is, the heads or ears are raised from the ground, either with a fork or the teeth of a rake, thereby admitting the air underneath the swaths; which will not fall down again to the ground so close as before, so that the air has free access to the under side: and this method of lifting is supposed not to be inferior to that of turning, which requires more labour, besides breaking and ruffling the swaths.

In the Vale of Gloucester the quantity of barley cultivated is very inconsiderable; the only species is the common long-eared barley, hordeum seceriton. In this county the grain we speak of is used, on the every year's lands, as a cleansing crop. It is sown very late, viz. in the middle or end of May; sometimes the beginning or even the middle of June. The reason of this is, that the people of the Vale think, that if a week or ten days of fine weather can be had for the operation of harrowing out couch; and if after this a full crop of barley succeed, especially if it should fortunately take a reclining posture, the business of fallowing is effectually done, inasmuch that the soil is cleaned to a sufficient degree to last for a number of years. A great quantity of seed is made use of, viz. from three to four bushels to an acre; under the idea, that a full crop of barley, especially if it lodge, smother all kinds of weeds, couch-grass itself not excepted. Our author acknowledges this effect in some degree, but does not recommend the practice. "If the land (says he) be tolerably clean, and the season favourable, a barley fallow may no doubt be of essential service. But there is not one year in five in which even land which is tolerably clean can be sown in season, and at the same time be much benefited by it for future crops." The barley in this county is all hand-weeded. It is harvested loose, mown with the naked scythe, lies in swath till the day of carrying, and is cocked with common hay forks. The medium produce is three quarters per acre. Its quality is preferable to that of the hill-barley.

The common long-eared species is sown among the Cotswold hills. It is sown in the latter end of March and beginning of April, in the quantity of three bushels to an acre, producing from 20 bushels to four quarters to an acre; "which (says our author) is a low produce. It must be observed, however, that this produce is from land deficient in tillage; and that barley delights in a fine pulverous tilth."

In the Midland district they cultivate two species of barley, viz. the seceriton or common long-eared, and the distichon or sprat barley; the latter not being of more than 50 years standing, but the former of much older date. The sprat is the more hardy, and requires to be more early sown; but the long-eared yields the better produce. It succeeds wheat and turnips; but on the strong lands of this district, the crop after wheat is much less productive, as well as less certain, than after turnips; which circumstance is likewise observed in Norfolk. It is sometimes also sown with success upon turf. When sown after wheat, the soil is winter-fallowed by three ploughings; the first lengthways in November; the second across in March; the last, which is the feed-plowing, lengthways. Between the two last ploughings the soil is harrowed, and the twitch shaken out with forks; after which it is left loose and light to die upon the surface, without being either burnt or carried off. After turnips the soil has commonly three ploughings; the reason of which is, that the turnips being commonly folded off with sheep, the soil, naturally of a close texture, receives a still greater degree of compactness, which it is proper to break down, and render it porous. The feed-time is the two last weeks of April and the first of May; from two bushels and a half to three bushels an acre, sometimes even as much as four bushels; the produce very great, sometimes as high as seven or even eight quarters an acre; but the medium may be reckoned from four to four and an half quarters. Mr Marshall remarks, that the culture of barley is extremely difficult. "Something (says he) depends on the nature of the soil, much on the preparation, much on the season of sowing, and much on harvesting. Upon the whole, it may be deemed, of corn-crops, the most difficult to be cultivated with certainty."

In Yorkshire there are four kinds of barley cultivated, viz. the seceriton or long-eared; the distichon or sprat; the vulgare, big, four-rowed or spring-barley; and the hexastichon, six-rowed or spring-barley. The first and third sorts are principally cultivated; the winter-barley is as yet new to the district. Battledoor-barley was formerly very common, but is now almost entirely disused. Mr Marshall observes, that less than a century ago, barley was not saleable until it was malted; there were neither maltsters nor public houses, but every farmer malted his own grain, or sold it to a neighbour who had a malt-kiln. Brakes cut from the neighbouring commons were the fuel commonly used upon this occasion, and a certain day for cutting them was fixed, in order to prevent any one from taking more than his share. The case is now totally reversed; even public malt-houses being unknown, and the business of malting entirely performed by maltsters, who buy the barley from the farmer, and sell him what malt he may want for his family.

SECT. III. Oats.

In Norfolk this kind of grain is much less cultivated than barley; and the only species observed by Mr Marshall is a kind of white oat, which grows quickly, and seems to be of Dutch extraction. They are cultivated occasionally on all kinds of soils; but more especially on cold heavy land, or on very light, unproductive.

⁴⁴ Oats. ductive, healthy, soils. They most frequently succeed wheat or lay-ground barley: "but (says our author) there are no established rules respecting any part of the culture of this time-serving crop." The culture of the ground is usually the same with that of barley; the ground generally undergoing a winter fallow of three or four ploughings, though sometimes they are sown after one ploughing. They are more commonly sown above furrow than barley. The feed-time is made subservient to that of barley, being sometimes sooner and sometimes later than barley feed-time: and Mr Marshall observes, that he has sometimes seen them sown in June; it being observable, that oats sown late ripen earlier than barley sown at the same time. The quantity of seed in Norfolk is from four to five bushels per acre; but he does not acquaint us with the produce. He mentions a very singular method of culture sometimes practised in this county, viz. ploughing down the oats after they begin to vegetate, but before they have got above ground; which is attended with great success, even though the ground is turned over with a full furrow. By this method weeds of every kind are destroyed, or at least checked in such a manner as to give the crop an opportunity of getting above them; and the porosity communicated to the soil is excellently well adapted to the infant-plants of barley; which probably might frequently receive benefit from this operation.

⁴⁵ Method of ploughing down oats. In the Vale of Gloucester, Mr Marshall observes, that the wild oat is a very troublesome weed, as well as in Yorkshire; and he is of opinion, that it is as truly a native of Great Britain as any other arable weed, and is perhaps the most difficult to be extirpated. It will lie a century in the soil without losing its vegetative quality. Ground which has lain in a state of grass-time immemorial, both in Gloucester and Yorkshire, has produced it in abundance on being broken up. It is also endowed with the same seemingly instinctive choice of seasons and state of the soil as other seeds of weeds appear to have. Hence it is excessively difficult to be overcome; for as it ripens before any crop of grain, it sheds its seed on the soil, where the roughness of its coat probably secures it from birds. The only methods of extirpating this plant are fallowing, hoeing, and handweeding, where the last is practicable, after it has shot its panicle.

⁴⁶ Wild oats a weed in the Vale of Gloucester. Oats are cultivated in the Vale of Gloucester; though the wild oat grows every where as already said. Mr Marshall is of opinion that it is better adapted to oats than to barley. The reason he assigns for the preference given to the latter is, that in this part of the country the monks were formerly very numerous, who probably preferred ale to oaten cake.—He now, however, recommends a trial of the grain on the stronger cold lands in the area of the Vale, as they seldom can be got sufficiently fine for barley. The fodder from oats he accounts much more valuable than that from barley to a dairy country; and the grain would more than balance in quantity the comparative difference in price.

⁴⁷ Oats not cultivated in the Vale of Gloucester. In the midland district the Poland oat, which was formerly in vogue, has now given place to the Dutch or Friesland kind. It is constantly sown after turf; one ploughing being given in February, March, or April. The feed-time is the latter end of March and begin-

ning of April, from four to seven bushels an acre; the produce is in proportion to the feed, the medium being about six quarters.

In Yorkshire the Friesland oats are likewise preferred to the Poland, as affording more straw, and being thinner skinned than the latter. The Siberian, or Tartarian oat, a species unnoticed by Linnaeus, is likewise cultivated in this country: the reed oat is known, but has not yet come into any great estimation. The grain is light, and the straw too ready to be affected by cattle.

Oats are particularly cultivated in the western division of the Vale of Yorkshire; where the soil is chiefly a rich sandy loam, unproductive of wheat. Five or six bushels, or even a quarter of oats, are sometimes sown upon an acre; the produce from seven to ten quarters.—In this country they are threshed in the open air, and frequently even upon the bare ground, without even the ceremony of interposing a cloth. The reasons assigned for this seemingly strange practice are, that if pigs and poultry be employed to eat up the grain which escapes the broom, there will be little or no waste. Here the market is always very great for new oats, the manufacturing parts of West Yorkshire using principally oat-bread. The only objection to this practice is the chance of bad weather; but there is always plenty of straw to cover up the threshed corn, and it is found that a little rain upon the straw does not make it less agreeable to cattle.

In an experiment made by Mr Bartley near Brilltol, ⁴⁸ Butt Papers, upon black oats, we are informed that he had the prodigious increase of 98½ Winchester bushels from four P. 281. on the acre: the land was a deep, mellow, sandy Experiment loam. It had carried potatoes the former year, and on black ploughing was given it in February, and the feed was sown on the 27th and 28th of the month. The success of the experiment was supposed to be owing partly to the early sowing and partly to a good deep tillage.

In the Bath Papers, vol. i. p. 148. we have an account of the success of an experiment by Mr Pavier near Taunton, on sowing pease in drills, a method mentioned under the article AGRICULTURE, p. 150. The scale on which this experiment was made, however, ⁴⁹ On setting pease in drills, being so small, it would perhaps be rash to infer from it what might be the event of planting a large piece of ground in the same manner. The space was only 16 square yards, but the produce so great, that by calculating from it, a statute acre would yield 600, or at the least 500 pecks of green pease at the first gathering; which, at the high price they bore at that time in the county about Taunton, viz. 16d. per peck, would have amounted to 33l. 6s. 8d. On this the Society observe, that though they doubt not the truth of the calculation, they are of opinion, that such a quantity as 500 or 600 pecks of green pease would immediately reduce the price in any country market. "If the above-mentioned crop (say they) were sold only at nine pence per peck, the farmer would be well paid for his trouble." In a letter on the drill husbandry by Mr Whitmore, for which the thanks of the society were returned, he informs us, that drilled pease must

not be sown too thin, or they will always be foul; and in an experiment of this kind, notwithstanding careful hoeing, they turned out so foul, that the produce was only eight bushels to the acre.—From an experiment related in the 5th volume of the same work, it appears that pease, however meliorating they may be to the ground at first, will at the last totally exhaust it, at least with regard to themselves. In this experiment they were sown on the same spot for ten years running. After the first two years the crop became gradually less and less, until at last the seed would not vegetate, but became putrid. Strawberries were then planted without any manure, and yielded an excellent crop.

On the Norfolk culture of pease, Mr Marshall makes two observations. "Lays are seldom ploughed more than once for pease; and the seed is in general dibbled in upon the flag of this one ploughing. But stubbles are in general broken by a winter fallow of three or four ploughings; the seed being sown broadcast, and ploughed in about three inches deep with the last ploughing."—In the Vale of Gloucester they are planted by women, and hoed by women and children, once, twice, and sometimes thrice; which gives the crop, when the soil is sufficiently free from root-weeds, the appearance of a garden in the summer time, and produces a plentiful crop in harvest. The distance between the rows varies from 10 to 14 inches, but 12 may be considered as the medium; the distance in the rows two inches. In the Cheltenham quarter of the district, they set the peas not in continued lines, but in clumps; making the holes eight or ten inches distant from one another, putting a number of pease into each hole. Thus the hoe has undoubtedly greater freedom; all the disadvantage is, that in this case the soil is not so evenly and fully occupied by the roots as when they are disposed in continued lines.—In Yorkshire it is common to sow beans and grey pease together, under the name of blendings; and sometimes fitches (probably, says Mr Marshall, a gigantic variety of the erum lens) are sown among beans. Such mixtures are found to augment the crop, and the different species are easily separated by the sieve.

These are the most remarkable particulars concerning the culture of corn not taken notice of under AGRICULTURE: but besides that kind of vegetables called GRAIN, there is a number of others very important both for the use of men and cattle, of which we must now treat particularly.

THESE, next to the different kinds of grain, may be looked upon as the crop most generally useful for the husbandman; affording not only a most excellent food for cattle, but for the human species also; and are perhaps the only substitute that could be used for bread with any probability of success. In the answer by Dr Tissot to M. Linguet already mentioned, the former objects to the constant use of them as food; not because they are pernicious to the body, but because they hurt the faculties of the mind. He owns, that those who eat maize, potatoes, or even millet, may grow tall and acquire a large size; but doubts if any such ever produced a literary work of merit. It does not, however, by any means appear, that the very ge-

neral use of potatoes in our own country has at all impaired either the health of body or vigour of mind of its inhabitants. The question then, as they have already been shown to be an excellent food for cattle, comes to be merely with regard to the profit of cultivating them; and this seems already to be so well determined by innumerable experiments, as well as by the general practice of the country, that no room appears left for doubt. In the Transactions of the Society for the encouragement of Arts, a number of experiments are related by Mr Young on that kind called the clustered or bog potato, which he strongly recommends as food for the poor, in preference to the kidney or other more expensive kinds. The following is the result of the most remarkable of his experiments.

In the first week of March 1780, two acres and a quarter of barley stubble were sown with the cluster potatoe, which appeared on the 23d of May. A sharp frost on the 7th of June turned them as black as they usually are by the frosts of November and December. In time, however, they recovered; and by the end of October produced 876 bushels from the 2½ acres; which, when cleaned, were reduced to 780, or 350 bushels per acre; thus affording, when valued only at 6d. per bushel, a clear profit of 7 l. 14s. 4d. per acre. The experiment, however, in his opinion, would have been still more profitable, had it not been for the following circumstances. 1. The soil was not altogether proper. 2. The crop was grievously injured by the frost already mentioned, which, in our author's opinion, retarded the growth for about six weeks. 3. The dung was not of his own raising, but purchased; which cannot but be supposed to make a great difference, not only on account of the price, but likewise of the quality, as happened to be the case at present. He is of opinion, however, that potatoes, at least this kind of them, are an exhausting crop. Having sown the field after this large crop of potatoes with wheat, his neighbours were of opinion that it would be too rank; but so far was this from being the case, that the wheat showed not the least sign of luxuriance, nor the least superiority over the parts adjacent which were sown without dung. He was willing to account for this by the poverty of the dung, and the severe cropping which the ground had undergone while in the possession of the former tenant. In another experiment, however, in which the ground had been likewise exhausted by severe cropping, the succeeding crop of wheat showed no luxuriance; so that the former suspicion of the exhausting quality of the cluster-potato was rather confirmed. The ground was a fine turnip loam; but though the produce was even greater than in the former case, viz. 356 bushels from an acre, the profit was much less, viz. only 4 l. 15s. 6d. An acre of ley-ground was sown at the same time with the turnip-loam, but the produce from it was only 200 bushels. Mr Young supposes that the produce would have been greater if the potatoes had been planted with an iron dibble, as the turf, in ploughing, lay too heavy upon the feed. A few rows of other potatoes, planted along with the cluster kind, did not vegetate at all; which shows that the latter have a more powerful vegetative faculty.

Having succeeded so well with his experiments on this kind of potato hitherto, Mr Young determined to

Potatoes. try the culture of them upon a larger scale; and therefore, in the year 1782, sowed 11 acres: but being obliged to commit the care of sowing them to an ignorant labourer, his unskilfulness, together with the excessive cold and moisture of that season, so diminished the produce, that he had only a single acre out of the whole. This produced 180 bushels, which yielded of clear profit 4 l. 2s. 6d. From this experiment he draws the following conclusions: 1. "That the poor loam, on which these potatoes were sown, will yield a crop of cluster-potatoes, though not of any other kind. 2. That the manure for potatoes ought to be carted and spread upon all soils inclining to wet before the planting season, either in autumn preceding, or else during a hard frost." In 1783 he succeeded still worse; for having that year sown three acres and a half, the profit did not exceed 11s. 4d. per acre. The produce was about 224 bushels per acre. He gives two reasons for the failure of this crop: 1. The clustered-potato thrives best in wet years; but the summer of 1783 was dry and hot. 2. The spring frost, by interrupting the hoeing, not only greatly raised the expences, but very much injured the crop by encouraging the growth of weeds. Barley was sown after the last crop, and produced well: so that our author thinks the potatoes seem to be a better preparation for spring corn than wheat. His experiment in 1784 produced a clear profit of 2 l. 8s. 4d.; the produce being 250 bushels per acre. Still, however, an error was committed, by employing an old man and woman to cut the sets; by whose unskilfulness there were many great gaps among the potatoes as they came up; so that, on the whole, he reckons that he thus lost from 500 to 800 bushels. On the whole, however, his opinion is favourable to the cluster-potato. "With small crops (says he), and at the low rate of value which is produced by consuming them at home, they are clearly proved to be a crop which will pay the expence of manuring, and very ample tillage and hoeing. This is, after all, the chief object of modern husbandry; for if a man can rely upon this potato for the winter consumption of his yard in fattening or keeping hogs, in feeding his horses, and fattening his bullocks, he has made one of the greatest acquisitions that can be desired; since he can do all this upon land much too stiff and wet for turnips; houses his crops before the winter rains come on; and consequently without doing any of that injury to his land which the turnip culture is known to entail, and from which even cabbages are not free. Those who know the importance of winter-food on a turnip farm, cannot but admit the magnitude of this object on wet soils."

Mr Marshall, in his Rural Economy of Yorkshire, has several very interesting remarks on the potato. Its varieties, he says, are endless and transitory. The rough-skinned Russia potato, which was long a favourite of the Yorkshire farmers, he is of opinion, has now no longer an existence more than many others which flourished for a time. "There is some reason to believe (says he) that the disease which has of late years been fatal to the potato crop in this and in other districts, under the name of CURCUTORS, has arisen from too long a continuance of declining varieties. Be this as it may, it appears to be an established opinion here, that fresh varieties, raised from seed, are not liable

to that disease." Our author, however, does not look upon this to be a fact absolutely established; though one instance fell under his observation, in which its removal was in all probability owing to the introduction of new varieties. It made its appearance between 40 and 50 years ago, and spread in some degree over the whole kingdom. In some places it continued but a short time, so that its effects are almost forgotten. It is seldom obvious at the first coming up of the plant, but attacks them as they increase in size; the entire top becoming dwarfish and shrivelled as if affected by drought or loaded with insects: they nevertheless live and increase, though slowly, in size; but the roots are unproductive. Some crops have been almost wholly destroyed by this disease. In Yorkshire the Morelands are in a manner free from it, but the Vale is in some measure infected. Plants procured from the Morelands remain free from it in the Vale the first year; but, being continued, become liable to the disease. Where the attack has been partial, weeding out the diseased plants as they failed, is said to have had a good effect; and it is said the Morelanders got rid of the disease by this means.

In Yorkshire, some intelligent husbandmen are acquainted with the method of raising potatoes from seed; which is as follows. "In autumn, when the apples are beginning to fall spontaneously, they are gathered by hand, and preferred among sand until the spring, when they are matted among the sand or among fresh mould; separating the seeds and mixing them evenly with the mould. As soon as the spring frosts are judged to be over, they are sown in fine garden mould; and as fast as the plants get into rough leaf, and are strong enough to be handled without injury, they are transplanted into another bed of rich mould in rows, which are kept clean during summer. In autumn, bunches of small potatoes are found at the roots of these plants; varying in size, the first year from an hazel-nut to that of a crab. These being planted next spring, produce potatoes of the middle size; but they do not arrive at their fullest bulk until the third or fourth year. Where the use of the stove or the garden frame can be had, this process may be shortened. The seeds being sown within either of these early in the spring, the plants will be fit to be planted out as soon as the frosts are gone; by which means the size of the roots will be much increased the first year, and will in the second rise early to perfection."

In the 4th volume of the Bath Papers, Dr Anderson relates some experiments made on potatoes raised from a pigeon's egg to that of a small pea. On planting these next year, it was invariably found, that the largest potatoes yielded the largest crop; and the same happened the third, when a few showed blossom; but not even these had bulbs equal to what would have been produced by very large potatoes. Whence he concludes, that it is impossible to assign any time in which these feeding potatoes will arrive at what is called perfection; but that it must depend very much on the nature of the soil and the culture bestowed upon them. From the practice of the Yorkshire farmers, however, and even from the experiments of the Doctor himself, it is evident, that potatoes raised in

this.

⁶³ Potatoes. this way will at last grow to the usual size, as during the three years in which his experiments were continued they constantly increased in bulk. Dr Anderson likewise contends, that there is no reason for supposing that potatoes raised from bulbs in the ordinary way degenerate, or require to be renewed by seminal varieties; and he instances the universal practice of Britain and Ireland for a great number of years past. But this may be accounted for from an observation of Mr Marshall's, that varieties of potatoes, like those of corn, are partial to particular soils and situations. Hence, by transplanting all the different varieties of potatoes into all possible soils and situations, as has been done within this last century in the islands of Britain and Ireland, these varieties have continued for a much longer time than they would otherwise have done. In Yorkshire, Mr Marshall tells us, that "the old favourite sorts were driven until some of the individual plants barely produced their seed again." It is evident, therefore, that there is a necessity from time to time of renewing them from seed; though it deserves well to be considered whether it would not be more eligible to choose the seed from a plant in full vigour than from that which is so far degenerated that it can scarce produce its seed. "Potatoes raised from seed (says Mr Marshall) are a miscellany of endless varieties. Sometimes these varieties are planted miscellaneous; sometimes particular varieties are selected. In selecting varieties from seedling potatoes, two things are to be attended to; the intrinsic quality of the potato, and its productiveness. If these two desirable properties can be found in one plant, the choice is determined. To this species of attention and industry we are indebted for the many valuable kinds which have been and now are distributed throughout the island. It is observable, however, that varieties of potatoes, like those of corn, are partial to particular soils and situations. Hence the propriety of husbandmen raising potatoes from seed; as by this means they obtain, with a degree of moral certainty, a sort adapted to their own particular soils and situations. Whoever has attended closely to the work of taking up potatoes, must have observed the great inequality in the productiveness of individual plants. The difference in the produce of adjoining roots, where no disparity of soil can influence, will sometimes be three or four fold. Hence it is evident, that each variety has its sub-varieties; through whose means it can hardly be doubted the parent variety may be improved, and its continuance be prolonged. Thus the farmer has another mean in his power of improving the quality and productiveness of his potatoe crop, by improving varieties; or, in other words, selecting sub-varieties, superiorly adapted to his soil and situation."

With regard to the proper mode of cultivating this valuable root, it is so fully explained under the article AGRICULTURE, no 158 et seq. that nothing farther seems requisite to be said upon it in this place. We shall therefore proceed to

THESE have been greatly recommended as food for cattle, and in this respect bid fair to rival the potato; though, with regard to the human species, they are far

inferior. The profit attending the cultivation of them, however, appears to be much more doubtful than that of potatoes. Mr Arthur Young informs us, that from Norden's Surveyor's Dialogue, published in 1600, it appears, that carrots were commonly cultivated at that time about Oxford in Suffolk, and Norwich in Norfolk; and he remarks, that the tract of land between Oxford, Woodbridge, and Saxmundham, has probably more carrots in it than all the rest of the kingdom put together." In 1779, few farmers in these parts had less than five or six acres; many from 10 to 20; and one had 36 acres: the straight, handsome, and clean roots were sent at 6d. per bushel to London; the rest being used at home, principally as food for horses. In other counties, he observes, the culture of carrots has not extended itself; that some have begun to cultivate them in place of turnips, but have soon desisted; so that the culture seems in a manner still confined to the angle of Suffolk, where it first began. In attempting to investigate the cause of this general neglect, he observes, that "the charge of cultivation is not so great as is commonly imagined, when managed with an eye to an extensive culture, and not a confined one for one or two particular objects." Two acres which our author had in carrots cost L. 3: 17: 6 per acre, including every expence; but had not the summer been dry, he observes, that his expences might have been much higher; and when he tried the experiment 15 years before, his expences, through inadvertence, ran much higher. His difficulty this year arose chiefly from the polygonum aviculare, the predominant weed, which is so tough that scarcely any hoe can cut it. Some acres of turnips which he cultivated along with the carrots were all eaten by the fly; but had they succeeded, the expence of the crop would have been 18s. 5d. less per acre than the carrots. "But (adds our author) if we call the superiority of expence 20s. an acre, I believe we shall be very near the truth; and it must at once be apparent that the expence of 20s. per acre cannot be the cause of the culture spreading so little; for, to answer this expence, there are favourable circumstances, which must not be forgotten. 1. They (the carrots) are much more impenetrable to frost, which frequently destroys turnips. 2. They are not subject to the distempers and to turnips accidents which frequently affect turnips; and they are sown at a season when they cannot be affected by drought, which frequently also destroys turnips. 3. They last to April, when stock, and especially sheep-farmers are so distressed, that they know not what resource to provide. 4. The culture requisite for turnips on a sandy soil, in order to destroy the weeds, destroys also its tenacity, so that the crop cannot thrive; but with carrots the case is otherwise.—Hence it appears, that the reason why the cultivation of carrots is still so limited, does not arise from the expence, but because the value is not ascertained. In places where these roots can be sent to London, or sold at a good price, the tops being used as food for cattle, there is not the least doubt that they are profitable; and therefore in such places they are generally cultivated: but from the experiments as yet laid before the public, a satisfactory decisive knowledge of the value is not to be gained. The most considerable practice, and the only one of common farmers upon a large scale, is that of the lands of Woodbridge: but here they have the benefit of a London market, as already

Carrots. already mentioned. Amongst those whose experiments are published, Mr Billingfley ranks foremost. Here again the value of carrots is rather depreciated than advanced; for he raised great crops, had repeated experience upon a large scale of their excellence in fattening oxen and sheep; feeding cows, horses, and hogs; and keeping ewes and lambs in a very superior manner, late in the spring, after turnips were gone: but notwithstanding these great advantages, he gave the culture up; from which we may conclude a deficiency in value. "In several experiments (though not altogether determinate), I found the value, upon an average of all applications, to be 13d a bushel, heaped measure; estimating which at 70 lb. weight, the ton is L. 1, 14s." The following are the valuations of several gentlemen of the value of carrots in the way of fattening cattle:

Some other gentlemen whom our author consulted, could not make their carrots worth any thing: so that, on the whole, it appears a matter of the utmost doubt, so contradictory are the accounts, whether the culture of carrots be really attended with any profit or not. Thus Sir John Mill, by fattening hogs, makes L. 1, 6s. and Mr Stovin L. 4s; but others could not fatten hogs upon them at all: and some of Mr Young's neighbours told him, that carrots were good for nothing except to scour hogs to death. The experiment of Mr Le Grand upon wethers appeared to be made with the greatest accuracy; yet two circumstances seem to militate against it. 1. The sheep were put lean to them; whereas it is a fact well known, that if they are not half fat when put to turnips, no profit will result; and it is possible that the case may be the same with carrots. 2. He gave them also as much fine hay as they would eat.

In this uncertain state of the matter, the only thing that can be done is to make a number of experiments with as much accuracy as possible, in order to ascertain the real value per ton: and our author endeavours to show, that there is no danger of losing much by experiments of this kind. "I have shown (says he), that they are to be cultivated for L. 4 per acre, left on the ground for sheep. Suppose the crop only two bushels at 70 lb. each, per rod, 320 per acre, or ten tons; it will readily be agreed, that such a produce is very low to calculate upon, since 20 tons are common among carrot-cultivators. It appears from Mr Le Grand's experiments, that a wether worth L. 2, 5s. eats 16 lb. of carrots, and four pounds of hay per day: dropping the hay, and calculating for sheep of less than half that size (which are much more common), it will be perhaps an ample allowance to assign them 12 lb. of carrots a day. If they are, as they ought to be, half fat when

put up, they will be completely fattened in 100 days. At this rate, 20 wethers will, in 100 days, eat 11 tons, or very little more than one moderate acre. Now, let it be remembered, that it is a good acre of turnips which will fatten eight such wethers, the common Norfolk calculation: from which it appears, that one acre of carrots are, for this purpose, of more value than two of turnips.—Further, let us suppose horses fed with them instead of oats: to top, cart, and pack up, 10 tons of carrots, I know may be done for 20s.—an acre, therefore (other expences included) costs L. 5. Fifty pounds weight of carrots are an ample allowance for a horse a day: ten tons, at that rate, last three horses for five months. But this L. 5 laid out in oats at 16s. per quarter, will purchase little more than six quarters; which will last three horses, at two bushels each per week, no more than two months; a most enormous inferiority to the carrots."

In the same volume, p. 187. Mr Young gives an account of another experiment made by himself on the feeding of lambs with carrots. The quantities they eat varied excessively at different times; thirty-six of them consumed from five to ten bushels per day; but on an average, he rates them at four bushels of 56 pounds per day. In all they consumed 407 bushels from November to April, when they were sold and killed fat. At putting upon the carrots, the lambs were valued only at L. 18, but were sold in April at L. 25, 4s.; so that the value of the carrots was exactly L. 7, 4s. or about 4d. per bushel. This price he supposes to be sufficient to induce any one to attempt the culture of carrots, as thus he would have a clear profit of 40s. per acre; "which (says he) is greater than can attend the best wheat crops in this kingdom." The land on which the carrots grew was sown next year with barley, and produced the cleanest in the parish; which contradicts an assertion our author had heard, that carrots make land foul. The grass upon which the sheep were fed with the carrots, and which amounted to about an acre, was very little improved for the crop of hay in 1781, owing to the dryness of the season; but in 1782 was greatly superior to the rest of the field, and more improved in quantity: "for, instead of an indifferent vegetation, scattered thick with the centaurea scabiosa, filago, rhinanthus, crispa galli, and linum catharticum, with other plants of little value, it encouraged a very beautiful sheet of the best plants that can appear in a meadow, viz. the lathyrus pratensis, achillea millefolium, trifolium repens, trifolium ochroleucum, trifolium alpestre, and the plantago lanceolata.

In the same volume of the Bath Papers, p. 227, Mr Billingfley gives an account of the comparative profit of carrots and cabbages. Of the former, however, he obtained only seven tons 15 cwt. per acre; the cabbages produced 36 tons: nevertheless, according to him, the profit of the former was L. 5, 8s.; of the latter, only L. 3, 11s. In a paper on the culture of carrots by Mr Kirby of Ipswich, vol. 3. p. 84. he informs us, that he never determined the weight of an acre, but reckons the produce from 200 to 500 bushels; which, at 56 lb. to the bushel, is from five to ten tons and an half. In the same volume, p. 320. the Rev. Mr. Onley seems to prefer the culture of carrots to potatoes. "However valuable (says he), from ease of culture, and greatness of produce to the poor, especially in all small spots, potatoes,

spots, I doubt, unless near great towns, whether, on a farming plan, potatoes be so eligible as other herbage or roots; especially as carrots, which I cannot but surmise (for my trials are too trivial to venture bolder language), deserve every encouragement, even on soils hitherto thought too heavy for them.—I am from experience convinced, that an acre of carrots will double in the quantum, of equally hearty provender, the product of an acre of oats; and from the nature of their vegetation, the nice mode of cultivation, and even of taking them up (all of which, expensive as they are, bear a very inferior proportion to the value of a medium crop), must leave the land, especially if taken off it in an early period, so mellow for the plough, as to form a feed-bed for barley equal to any fallow-tillth.”

Mr Onley's desideratum was a substitute for oats to feed horses; of which great numbers are kept in his county (Essex). Potatoes, he observes, are excellent for small pork, when baked or boiled, mixed with a little barley-meal; but for large hogs, they are most profitably given raw, if these have at the same time the shack of the barn door in threatening season, &c. In the 5th volume he resumes the subject, and acquaints us, that he applied a single acre in his bean-field to the culture of carrots, which generally produced 400 bushels; and this he considers as a small produce. “I am, however, sensible (says he) that they will amply repay every expense of the finest culture; and should, from their extensive utility on sound, deep, and friable land, be every where attempted. Some of my neighbours, who have been induced to try them on rather a larger scale, with finer culture, and fresher soil, have raised from 600 to 900 bushels per acre, and applied them more profitably, as well as more generally, than any other winter-herbage, to deer, sheep, bullocks, cows, and horses. At the lowest calculation, from our little trials, they are computed to exceed turnips in value one-third, as to quantity of food; but are far superior in what arises from convenience for the stable; where to us they seem to be a substitute for corn to all horses, at least such as are not used in any quick work; and partially so with corn for those that are.”

In making a comparison betwixt the profit on oats and carrots, Mr Onley finds the latter exceed by no less than L. 2 : 15 : 8 per acre. His method of cultivation is to sow them in March or April; to hoe them three times, harrowing after each hoeing. Sometimes he leaves them in the ground till after Christmas, taking them up as wanted; but of late he takes them up in October, in dry days, putting them directly into small upright cocks of 10 bushels each, covered entirely with the tops cut off.—Thus they appear to dry better than in any other way, and bear the weather with very little loss. If, after being thus dried, they are carried into any barn or shed, it will be better, if they are in large quantities, not to pack them close, on account of the danger of heating, but rather to throw them promiscuously into heaps, with a little straw over them. When perfectly dry, they do not in general require any washing, except for horses regularly kept in the stable.

SECT. VII. Turnips.

TURNIPS have long been in such general use as food for cattle, that the profit on raising them might be re-
N^o 159.

sonably thought to be altogether certain; nevertheless, Mr Young, in the paper already quoted, informs us, that “turnips dunged for are universally a losing crop; their value does not amount to the dung alone which rally attends is spread for potatoes; yet the latter pays that dung, all with other expences, and leaves a profit sometimes considerable. I admit that turnips fed upon the land will prepare better for corn; but that is by no means the question. Would not the dung raised in the farm-yard by the consumption of the potatoes, supposing it spread on the potato-acre, make that produce more than the turnip one? I have no doubt but it would give a superiority. But turnips are liable to great failures, and cannot be relied on late in the spring; potatoes may; and are applicable to uses to which the other root cannot be applied.”—In the second volume of the Bath Papers, Compared p. 101. we have a comparative account of the value of turnips, turnip-rooted cabbage, and lucerne, as food for cattle. The result of this writer's observations is, that

“when sheep are allowed as many turnips as they can eat (which should always be the case when they are fattening), they will, on an average, eat near 20 pounds each in 24 hours.—An acre of turnips twice hoed, will, if the land be good, produce about 50 tons; which will, on the above calculation, maintain 100 sheep 52 days. The sheep mentioned weigh 20 pounds per quarter.—An acre of turnip-rooted cabbage will maintain 100 sheep for a month, and sometimes five weeks; but an acre of Scots cabbages will maintain 200 sheep a full month.” The number fed by lucerne is not determined.

The greatest disadvantage which attends a crop of The fly occ. turnips, is their being so ready to be damaged by the fly, which sometimes destroys them so completely, that they must be sown over again two or three times the same season, and even this without any certainty of suc- The great in-1 cession. Innumerable methods of avoiding this evil have been projected, which may all be reduced to the following classes: 1. Steeping the feed in certain liquids. 2. Fumigation of the fields with the smoke of certain herbs. 3. Rolling. 4. Strewing foot, lime, ashes, &c. on the surface of the ground. It is very difficult, however, to determine, with any degree of certainty, whether remedies of this kind are effectual or not; because sometimes the turnips are not injured though no precaution has been made use of: and when this happens to be the case, after the use of any supposed preventative, the preservation of the crop is ascribed to the use of that preventative, whether it be really efficacious or not.—The virtues of steeps seem to have been fully ascertained by Mr Winter Charlton near Bristol, of whose experiments an account is given in the Transactions of the Society for Encouraging Arts, vol. 5. The feeds were of the Dutch kind, sowed on beds in the kitchen-garden in drills about 12 inches distant, an inch and a half deep, on the 11th of May 1786. The beds had been prepared with rotten dung in May 1785, and afterwards sown with cabbages. The quality of the turnips is exhibited in the following table; the best being marked 1; and those of inferior quality, 2, 3, &c. The observations were taken on the 26th of June.

Turnips. Seed mixed with foot and water, - - - - -
with drainings of a dunghill, - - - - -
with elder and barton draining, - - - - -
with foot, - - - - -
with elder leaf juice, - - - - -
with elder and barton draining, foot
being fowed over the covered drills,
with ditto, and lime fowed over the
drills, - - - - -
fowed with foot scattered over, and then
covered, - - - - -
with barton-draining, - - - - -
an elder-bush drawn over when the
plants appeared, - - - - -
with stale human urine, very few
plants appeared,
with slacked lime scattered over, and then
covered, very few plants appeared,
with elder, barton-draining, and
slacked lime, very few plants ap-
peared,
with lime and barton-draining did
not vegetate.

2 ture; and without an excessive degree of labour, as well
2 as a vast quantity of burning materials, there cannot be
2 the least hope of success. Mr Gullet's directions are as
3 follow: "If the turnip-ground be spaded and burnt, or
3 the weeds, &c. burnt without spading, the fumigation
3 thereby may suffice to chase such of the winged tribe
3 from thence as are then there; but in all cases, when the
3 field is ploughed and ready for sowing, let heaps be
3 made at different places and intervals round by the
3 hedges and boundaries of the turnip-ground, and some
3 few scattered through the field; then, as soon as the
4 feed is sown, let the heaps on the windward side and
4 the scattered ones be lighted and kept smothering dur-
4 ing the continuance of the wind in that quarter; the
4 less the fire, and the more the smoke, the better. Should
the wind happen to shift, those heaps on the quarter it
shifts to must then be lighted and kept smothering in
like manner; so that, during the growth of the tender
turnip leaf, and until it becomes rough and out of all
danger, this fumigation and smoke, over and across the
field, must be continued from one quarter to the other;
which, I venture to assert, will effectually deter and pre-
vent any winged insect-tribe from approaching the turnip-
ground; nay more, if there already, it would most com-
pletely drive them from thence, as such delicately formed
insects (which can only feed on the most tender leaf)
would be ill able to continue long in such a smother of
fire and smoke. The consequence is obvious and cer-
tain, that if the fly be kept from approaching the field,
the turnip-crop is safe; and few, I believe, will disagree
with me, that prevention is better than remedy."

Another set of experiments was made with the green Norfolk turnip, drilled an inch and an half deep, the rows one foot distant, on beds eight feet three inches long, and two feet wide; half a drachm of feed allowed for each bed, steeped and mixed with various substances like the former. The feeds were drilled upon unmanured ground on the 20th of June 1786, and the observation made on the 17th of July. None of the beds were found free from the ravages of the fly; but the feeds which had been steeped in train-oil and linseed-oil were much more free from this injury than the others. The linseed-oil, as in the former experiment, was found inferior to the train-oil, which was supposed to have been owing to its being kept in a bottle that had formerly held oil of turpentine. The leaves of the steeped feeds were of a much darker green than the others, appeared twice as thick in bulk and luxuriance, and the plants were considerably larger than those of the other kinds. The substances mixed with the rest were soaper's ashes, wood-ashes, pounded gun-powder, brimstone, slacked lime, foot, barton-draining; sometimes mixed together in various proportions, and sometimes with the addition of a portion of sifted mould.

Our author does not say that he has ever tried this method with turnips; but lays great stress upon his success in a similar experiment with cabbages, in order to preserve them from the caterpillar. To make the matter more sure, however, he recommends the trailing of a bush of elder over the turnip field at the time of harrowing or brushing in the feed: but this remedy has by numberless experiments been found insignificant, and by those above related seems even to be pernicious: so that whatever good effects we can expect from this method, must depend on the fumigation alone; and even this is attended with very great uncertainties, as has already been observed.

These experiments show, that no dependence can be had on steeps or mixtures of any kind with the turnip-feed; though the train-oil and linseed-oil seem greatly to have forwarded the vegetation of the plant. It does not appear that fumigation † has ever been tried; nor indeed does it seem easy to be tried in such a manner as might ensure success.—In the fourth volume of the Bath Papers, Mr Gullet of Devonshire gives such directions for performing the operation as he thinks would be productive of success.—In a preceding paper he had explained the good effects of fumigating orchards; but the case with these must be very considerably different from a field of turnips. The trees in an orchard are elevated above the ground, and the smoke naturally ascends, and is blown along their tops: but in fumigating a large field of turnips, it must creep along the ground in such a manner as is by no means agreeable to its na-

Rolling promises to be of service when the young turnips are attacked by snails, who frequently destroy them; but it cannot be supposed to have much effect in destroying flies, these being too numerous and too minute to be effectually crushed by the roller; and indeed, though this has been frequently recommended, we have no decisive proofs of its having ever been attended with any good effect.

The strewing of foot, lime, ashes, &c. upon the ground, have been determined ineffectual by the experiments already related, at least when applied before the turnips come up; and there seems to be little hope of their proving more effectual even when applied after the crop has appeared above-ground. We may argue indeed a priori about the taste or smell of foot, lime, &c. being disagreeable to insects; but of this we have no proof: and even though this were the case, the leaf soon emerges from under this covering, or the insects will feed on the under part of the leaves, where these substances cannot lie. It is evident, therefore, that very little

† See Agri-
culture,
vol. 78.
77
Mr Gul-
let's direc-
tions for
fumigation.

little can be expected from any of the methods hitherto proposed either by way of cure or prevention. The more probable methods are,

1. To sow the turnips at such a season of the year that they may be well grown before the fly makes its appearance. In the Bath Papers, vol. iv. p. 132. Mr Wimpey observes, that, in order to procure food for their cattle in the spring before the grass is grown, farmers are obliged to postpone the sowing of turnips beyond the natural time of vegetation; but were turnips to be sown in April, as soon as the season would permit, it is very probable that there would be as great a crop of them as of other vegetables usually sown in these months. On account of the delay in sowing, however, for the reason already mentioned, the success of the farmer becomes exceedingly precarious, unless he is so fortunate as to have a few rainy days, or cloudy weather and frequent showers, soon after the seed is sown: and this our author supposes to be the true reason why the turnip is a more uncertain article than any other. But though speculations of this kind have a great show of probability, there is not any experiment hitherto published, even by our author himself, by which the truth of them can be absolutely ascertained. Our author, however, is of opinion, that none of the common methods proposed can answer any good purpose, farther than as by means of them the vegetation of the plant may be invigorated. Mr Wimpey recommends ashes, foot, or a rich compost of lime and dung, used in sufficient quantities: but the method of using them is, either to sow them with the seed, or rather by themselves immediately before, and to harrow them well in, that they may be completely incorporated with the soil. This for the most part would so invigorate and encourage the growth of the plants, as to be an overmatch for the most vigorous attacks of the fly.

2. Another method proposed for securing turnips from the fly, is by sowing such a quantity of feed as will be more than sufficient for the consumption of the insects. This we find recommended in a letter to the Bath society by a gentleman-farmer in Essex, vol. ii. p. 238. His method is to make the land clean and fine as soon as the season will permit, and to sow four pints per acre. It may be objected, that if the fly does not take them, the plants will stand so thick, that they cannot easily be hoed; but this may be obviated by harrowing them first, which will make them fit for the hoe. There can be no expectation of a crop if the fly takes them when only a pint of feed is sown per acre; but this gentleman remarks, that he has not in any one instance missed of a crop when he sowed four pints; because, though the fly has sometimes destroyed more than one half, and much damaged the other, still there was a sufficient number left behind. He also agrees with other of the Society's correspondents, that the ground should be well dunged and manured previous to the sowing of turnips, as this makes them grow vigorously, so that they quickly get into the rough leaf, in which state the fly will not touch them.

In the same volume, a gentleman of Norfolk remarks, that manuring the ground in autumn for turnips is preferable to the doing so in spring. This discovery he made in consequence of the following accident.—"A neighbouring farmer, not having a sufficient quantity of manure for all his turnip land, was under the necessity

of sowing four acres unmanured. The effect was, that the turnips on the manured part of the land were mostly eaten off by the fly, while four acres unmanured escaped without injury." In consequence of having observed this, the gentleman made a similar experiment, by manuring five acres well for turnips, and tilling three acres and an half in the usual way without any manure. The manured crops were almost all destroyed by the fly, so that he was obliged to sow most of the land over again. The three acres and an half which had no manure were entirely free from injury, though the plants were much smaller than those of the manured ground which came up. Not content with this trial, however, he repeated the experiment, by manuring six acres of wheat stubble in autumn, ploughing it in immediately, and leaving it to incorporate with the earth during the winter: the turnips which grew upon this were as large as if the ground had been manured in the spring. This experiment was repeated with surprising success in two succeeding years; whence he infers, that the fly is either engendered in the new dung or enticed by it. But when the manure is laid on in autumn it loses its noxious qualities, though it still retains its nutritive ones.—This conclusion, however, does not appear to be well founded; for it is certain from undoubted experience, that turnips which have been well manured in the common way, have sometimes escaped any injury; while others, which have got no manure at all, have been almost totally destroyed. Another material advantage, however, which this correspondent observes is to be derived from manuring in autumn is, that all the seeds contained in the manure, and which are of course carried on the land with it, vegetate almost immediately, and are mostly killed by the cold of the succeeding winter, while the few that remain can scarce escape destruction from the ploughshare.

Mr Wimpey is also of opinion, that it is proper to sow a large quantity of feed; but thinks two pounds will be sufficient for an acre. A few ounces indeed would be sufficient to stock the land; but as the article is so precarious, he thinks it by far the safest way to allow feed in plenty, and reduce the plants afterwards by harrowing. He observes also, that it is of great consequence to have feed both good in quality and of the best species. He prefers the large and green topped, as being the most sweet and juicy; others give the preference to the red or purple-topped, as being harder: but at any rate, the feed from the largest and finest transplanted turnips, of whatever sort, is greatly of the to be preferred, even though it should cost double or treble the price. Such as is sold by the feedsmen in London he found generally of a mixed kind, and often in great part not worth cultivating. "Whether plants from new or old feed are most secure from the depredations of the fly (says he), is perhaps a question which cannot be easily determined even by experiments; for concomitant circumstances are frequently so much more operative and powerful, as to render the difference between them, if there be any, imperceptible. It is, however, known to every practical man, that new feed sprouts or vegetates several days before old; and I think more vigorously; and it is equally well known, that the healthy and vigorous plants escape the fly, when the stunted and sickly seldom or never escape them.

Turnips. It should seem then, that new feed, ceteris paribus, is more secure from the fly than old; and for my own use I would always prefer it."

84. 3. The sowing of turnips along with other grain. — This, of all others, seems to be the most eligible and efficacious. In the second volume of Bath Papers, p. 210. an Hertfordshire correspondent gives an account of the success of an experiment of drilling turnips with wheat. A small field of spring-wheat was drilled in rows two feet apart; and in the month of May turnips were sown by hand in the intervals. They came up very well, and were thinned once by the hoe. The crop of wheat turned out better than another field of the same soil sown broadcast in autumn, though it ripened somewhat later. The turnips were no other way injured by cutting it, than having some of the large leaves trodden down by the reapers. After harvest the weeds were cut up round the turnips with a hand-hoe, and they grew very large and vigorous. They were of the purple and white long kind, and the crop proved nearly as good as the same land produced in common. An excellent crop of barley and clover was got from the same field afterwards.

85. 4. The ground is kept clean from weeds. 5. It is in order for a Lent crop the succeeding year with one earth. 6. The ground is kept in heart, if not improved, by fallowing your alleys. 7. It brings the plant to perfection in poor ground, where it would not become so otherwise. 8. It doubles the crop in any ground which Mr Anderdon has had experience of. 9. You have the crops more within your own power in this than in any other method, let the seasons turn out as they will. 10. You may have on the same ground a bean and turnip crop annually, if the land be suitable, and you think proper. 11. The clay farmer, by this mode, renders land which is naturally unfit for turnips, so free and open by seasonable horse-hoeings, that it will bring this useful plant to great perfection."

86. 1. You may have a crop of beans and turnips on the same field the same year. 2. The bean-crop being well horse-hoed, no ploughing is wanted for turnips, for which the best Norfolk farmers give five ploughings. 3. It is hoed cheaper, more effectually, and consequently more profitably, than in any other way. 4. The ground is kept clean from weeds. 5. It is in order for a Lent crop the succeeding year with one earth. 6. The ground is kept in heart, if not improved, by fallowing your alleys. 7. It brings the plant to perfection in poor ground, where it would not become so otherwise. 8. It doubles the crop in any ground which Mr Anderdon has had experience of. 9. You have the crops more within your own power in this than in any other method, let the seasons turn out as they will. 10. You may have on the same ground a bean and turnip crop annually, if the land be suitable, and you think proper. 11. The clay farmer, by this mode, renders land which is naturally unfit for turnips, so free and open by seasonable horse-hoeings, that it will bring this useful plant to great perfection."

87. Objections by the Bath Society. On this paper the society made some remarks, and stated the following objections: 1. The same soil cannot be proper for both crops. Scotch cabbages are more adapted for a bean soil; and they wished him to repeat the experiment with cabbages instead of turnips betwixt his beans. 2. The Norfolk farmers rarely use more than three ploughings for turnips, instead of five, as Mr Anderdon represents, unless the ground be full of couch-grass. 3. They think him too sanguine in his expectations of having double crops on the same field. 4. Nothing renders a clay soil so free and open

as to have it exposed to frosts and snow by being laid up in high ridges in January and February; but, on Mr Anderdon's plan, this cannot be done, unless the turnips are lessened in value by being fed off in autumn.

These strictures were sent to Mr Anderdon before the papers were printed, but did not make any alteration in his opinion; and he replied to the following purpose:

1. The same soil cannot be proper for beans and turnips, &c. — Granted. — But had Mr Anderdon adhered rigorously to this rule, he would have sowed no turnips at all, not having on his farm any soil altogether proper for that crop; "but (says he) while I can get in single rows, four feet asunder or more, from half a dozen to half a score tons of turnips per acre, after, or rather between, a crop of beans in my heavy lands, I shall feel that product here more beneficial than to drop the mode. I believe the medium of the two, so far as I can judge by the eye or get information, to be superior to the average produce of prepared fallow turnip crops in 10 miles round me." — On this the Society make the following remark: "The question here is, Whether, if instead of turnips, Mr Anderdon had planted his beans two feet distant only, the extra produce of his crop would not have exceeded in value that of his turnips? We think they would, as these intervals would freely admit his horse-hoe between the beans."

Mr Anderdon then proceeds to acquaint the committee, that he had tried the experiment as they wished with Scotch cabbages instead of turnips betwixt the rows of beans; but the crop of the turnips was so much preferable, that he found himself inclined to suppose the cabbage would not get to so great perfection there as to be profitably introduced on a large scale, for want of the great quantity of dung necessary for that crop, and which could not be procured in that part of the country. He further remarks in favour of turnips, that they have an abundance of very small lateral fibrous roots, which run so far in search of food, and feed as ravenously where they can penetrate, as those of almost any other vegetable; and the plant certainly derives more nourishment from those than from its tap-root (A). Those fine fibrous roots, almost imperceptible to the eye, issue chiefly from the apple or body of the turnip, and get into the richest part of the soil near the surface, and will bring the plants to a considerable magnitude in heavy lands adapted to beans, when mellowed by the horse-hoe. Some of his turnips weighed ten pounds each: and if he could have only two such turnips on every square yard, it would be at the rate of 43 tons per acre.

2. The Committee doubt of the possibility of doubling the crop. Mr Anderdon gives the following explanation. "I have made many comparative trials on turnips between this mode and broad cast sowing, and always found on my ground the horse-hoed crops the best. But here, in denoting the benefits of the horse-hoe by its doubling a crop, I wish to be understood, that if, in soils like mine, a crop be drilled, leaving proper intervals

5 B 2

(A) Here the Society remark, that this is not the case with those kinds of turnips which grow chiefly above ground, and which are generally the best crops, and most capable of resisting the frosts.

ervals for horse-hoeing, and one part be horse-hoed the other not, the horse-hoed part will double the other in product."

Mr Anderdon, in the course of his reply to the committee, gives an account of another experiment he made in consequence of being deficient in winter fodder for his cattle. By this necessity he was induced to sow turnips wherever he could; and on the 18th of July drilled a single row between his drilled wheat. On the 20th and 22d of August he drilled four rows of winter vetches in each interval between the turnips, at the rate of less than one peck and three quarters of feed to an acre. "The turnip crop (says he) is very acceptable, and my vetches succeed beyond my warmest expectation; are thick enough, and give me the pleasing prospect and hope, that I shall not, when my dry meat is gone, want a seasonable supply of early green fodder that will last me till my lucerne comes on."

This subject is further considered in the same volume by Mr Pavier, who viewed Mr Anderdon's turnips, and gave in a report of them to the committee. He supposes a crop of beans drilled in single rows at four feet distance, and the turnips drilled in the intervals, according to Mr Anderdon's method, there will then be four rows of 17 feet in length to make a square perch; whereas Mr Anderdon's rows were only 15 feet 8 inches in length; and this disparity in length will make a difference of weight on a perch from 230 to 249 pounds, and on an acre from 16 tons 8 cwt. 2 qrs. 8 lb. Mr Anderdon's produce, to 17 tons 15 cwt. 2 qrs. 24 lb.—Each turnip at this distance (viz. four feet from row to row, and nine inches in the rows) must occupy a space of three square feet; consequently the greatest number produced on an acre must be 14,520; but if sown in broadcast, twice hoed, and the distance on an average 15 inches, each turnip will then occupy little more than one foot and an half, and the number produced on an acre may be about 27,920; an excess which may reasonably be supposed to overbalance the value of the beans, let us suppose the crop as great as we can reasonably do. Thus far the argument seems to lie against this method of cultivating beans and turnips together: but on the other hand, Mr Pavier considers it probable that the expence of drilling and horse-hoeing the beans, together with drilling the turnips in the manner Mr Anderdon did, must be considerably less than that of fallowing and preparing the ground, and sowing the turnips in broadcast; to which we must likewise add the facility of hoeing the drills in comparison of the broad cast. But besides these, the great advantage arising from this method, and which, if certain, gives it a decided superiority, is, "the great chance, if not an almost certainty, of preserving the turnips from the depredations of the fly." Mr Pavier was inclined to think that this must be the case, as Mr Anderdon had such crops repeatedly without any damage of that kind: but the committee differ from him, and think that this must have proceeded from some other cause; though they do not assign any reason for this opinion. "The principal point (says Mr Pavier), in determining this question, seems to me to be this: if the crop of beans drilled as above, after deducting the feed, and some additional expence in taking the crop off the ground without injuring the turnips, can be, one year

with another, supposed to be as valuable as the quantity of turnips that might be reasonably expected in the broad-cast method more than in the other, I should not hesitate to declare in favour of drilling between the beans."

Thus far the argument seems to be carried on a priori. Mr Wimpsey, in the letter already quoted, inclines to the practice of sowing turnips between beans planted in rows. "It exactly corresponds (says he) with all my observations on the successful vegetation of that root. A considerable degree of moisture is necessary to the rapid vegetation of that very juicy root, and nothing retains moisture equal to shade; and shade can be obtained and secured by no means so effectually on a large scale as in the intervals of tall growing plants, as beans or wheat planted in drills." The success of Mr Bult of Kingston near Taunton, leaves little room to doubt of the propriety of the method, and its success in preventing the fly. The beans were planted in drills not quite two feet asunder, on two plowings, horse-hoed three times, and the turnips sown in the intervals at the last hoeing. The field measured six acres and a quarter, and was a very good clayey soil, but had not been manured, nor had any dressing laid upon it for six years before. It produced this year three quarters of beans per acre, and 37 tons 5 cwt. of turnips. This field was also viewed by Mr Pavier, who makes the following observations upon it. 1. The turnips were sown promiscuously among the beans at the last hoeing, which was given about midsummer; from which time nothing was done but drawing off the beans and carrying them off the land. 2. The crop of beans was believed to be considerably above 20 bushels per acre, which is much more than were produced by any other method that season in the neighbouring part of the country; and as Mr Pavier had this account before he saw the turnip crop, he did not expect any thing considerable from the latter; but as it turned out, the produce must be accounted highly profitable, when we consider that there was no crop lost, no preparation, dressing, nor any expence whatever, excepting the price of the feed and sowing it. 4. This he considers as one of the strongest recommendations of the drill husbandry he ever knew or heard of; but he is of opinion that it never can answer except where the ground is perfectly clean and free from weeds, by the crops having been horse-hoed for a few years before. 5. He thinks the beans ought to have been planted at wider intervals, by which the sun and air would be freely admitted, and the plants would also be less damaged by the operation of the hoe.

Mr Pavier likewise informs the Society of two other experiments on a similar plan; but with this difference, that the turnips were sown among the beans at the second horse-hoeing. The turnip crops were very good, and the beans more than double the value of those raised in the usual mode of husbandry. "I think it is very evident (says he), that the beans preserve the turnips from the fly; and as no expence or trouble attends the practice, I apprehend it will soon become more general." The Society own, that the uncommon success of Mr Bult's experiment seems to militate at least against what they said on Mr Anderdon's letter; but they insist that the cases are by no means similar. "Though the land (say they), in both instances, is called a heavy clay,

Turnips. clay, they are very different. Mr Anderdon's is poor, wet, and cold; the other a good rich clay; and we apprehend naturally mixed with a kind of marle, which is called clay by persons not thoroughly acquainted with the nice distinction of soils apparently alike, but very different in their nature. Our principle therefore, that cold wet clay lands are unsuitable for turnips, remains unaffected by this experiment; and general practice confirms the truth of the theory."

In another letter, Mr Pavier gives a more particular account of the two other crops of beans and turnips raised upon Mr Bult's plan. The beans were drilled in rows about 22 inches distance, twice horse-hoed, and the produce from about 25 to 30 bushels the computed acre, or from 30 to 36 bushels the statute acre. The preceding summer had been very unfavourable to beans, and the produce per acre in the common husbandry did not, on an average, equal a third part of this quantity. One of these crops was superior to that of Mr Bult: they were sown upon a field of nine computed acres on the 10th of June, after the second horse-hoeing; but whether the second hoeing was performed too soon, the ground not clean, or whatever might be the cause, the beans were weeded twice by hand afterwards; and he is of opinion, that the turnips were somewhat benefited by it. Mr Pavier was assured by a very intelligent farmer, that this was the best crop of turnips he had ever seen. The turnip-feed in the other crop was put in between the rows of beans by a hand-drill; but the work was badly performed, the plants coming up in some places vastly too thick, and in others as much too thin; but wherever they happened to be of a proper thickness, the farmer told him it was one of the most profitable crops he ever had. The soil was wet, heavy, and not very favourable for turnips. Hence Mr Pavier deduces the following conclusions. 1. That with respect to beans in particular, the drilling and horse-hoeing is vastly superior to the common mode of husbandry. 2. That the beans are undoubtedly a good preferative of the turnips from the depredations of the fly. 3. That as by this method no crop is lost, and consequently no rent, but a mere trifle of expence (if any) chargeable to the turnip crop, it must be one of the most profitable as well as the most certain method of propagating that useful root ever yet practised.—He still insists, however, that if he had an opportunity of trying this method, he would drill the beans in rows at a greater distance, that the turnips might be hand-hoed easily; and that he should prefer the London tick-bean to any other, by reason of their shortness and being such bearers; that he should also take off their tops as soon as the under blossoms began to decay; which, he supposes, would be of great service.

We shall close this dissertation on the uses and culture of turnips with an account of an instrument used in Norfolk for transplanting them, and thus filling up the gaps which frequently happen in fields from the failure of the plants in particular spots. It is represented on the margin; and the construction and mode of using is obvious from the figure.—When the turnips are to be transplanted, the workman holds the long handle with the left hand, and the short one with the right hand drawn up. Put the instrument then

over the plant that is to be taken up, and with your foot force it into the ground; then give it a twist round, and by drawing it gently up, the earth will adhere to the roots of the plant in a solid body; then with another instrument of the same size take the earth out where the plant is to be put, and bringing the instrument with the plant in it, put it into the hole which has been made by the other; then keep your right hand steady, and draw up your left, and the earth and plant will be left in the hole with the roots undisturbed. In this operation two men must be employed, each of them having an instrument of the form represented on the margin. One man takes up a plant while the other fills his instrument with earth only, thereby making room for the deposition of the plant; so that the hole which is made by taking up the plant is filled with the earth taken out where the plant is to be put; which being deposited, he takes up a plant, and returns to the place he first set out from, the former man at the same time returning with the earth only; so that each man is alternately the planter, and each being employed both ways, the work goes on briskly.—This instrument was the invention of Mr Cubitt Gray of Southrepps, Norfolk.

Turnips being the grand basis of the Norfolk husbandry, Mr Marshall gives a very particular account of their culture in that county.—The species cultivated are, 1. The common white stock, called in many places the Norfolk turnip. 2. The purple stock is similar to the former, but its rind is of a dark red or purple colour; its size in general smaller, and its texture closer and firmer than that of the common white-stock; it also stands the winter better, and is more succulent in the spring, but it is not so well relished by cattle as the former; whence it is less generally cultivated. 3. The padding stock, the tankard-turnip of the Midland counties, is in shape so perfectly different from the common sort, that it might be ranked as a distinct species. It rises in a cylindrical form, eight, ten, or twelve inches high, standing in a manner wholly above ground; generally taking a rough irregular outline, and a somewhat reclining posture. It very much resembles the common turnip, and is by much its most formidable rival. In many respects it seems to be superior, particularly in being readily drawn, and eaten off by sheep with much less waste than the common turnip.—The disadvantage is, that they are liable to the attacks of frost, by reason of their standing so high above the surface of the ground; so that on the whole, Mr Marshall concludes, that the common white turnip is to be preferred to every other.

In Norfolk, turnips are sown upon every species of arable land. Marl is found to be highly beneficial; and by means of this manure, a soil naturally unfit for turnips may be rendered proper for it. They succeed barley rather than any other crop; some few are sown on wheat or pea stubble after harvest; but this is not a general practice. The manures in greatest reputation for turnips are dung, with a greater or smaller admixture of mould; malt-couche are also in good repute, and oil-cake is used by a few individuals; "but it may be said, that nine acres of ten of the turnips grown in east Norfolk are manured with muck."—The quantity of dung set on for a crop of turnips generally depends on the quantity on hand,

92
Norfolk
cultivation
of turnips.

93
Advantage
of using
marl.

94
Manures
of different
kinds.

Turnips. and the quantity of turnip-ground to be manured. From 10 to 15 cart-loads of muck are considered as a good dressing; and about a ton of oil-cake to three acres; 50 or 60 bushels of malt-coombs, and 40 or 50 bushels of foot, to an acre.

[94] Cultivation of turnips for early consumption. When the turnips are intended for early consumption, the sooner they can be got into the ground the better; but when they are intended to stand the winter, the beginning of July is thought soon enough. The most general rule is to begin sowing about a week before mid-summer, and continue till about a fortnight after, viz. from the 17th or 18th of June to the 7th or 8th of July.—Broad-cast sowing is universal, in the quantity of two pints to an acre. The seed is covered by two lines of a pair of light harrows drawn backward, in order to prevent the lines, which usually point something forward, from tearing up the clods, and burying the seed too deep. The horses are universally walked one way, and trotted back again in the same place. This is an excellent custom: the quick zig-zag motion of the harrows at once assisting to level the surface, and to distribute the seeds more evenly.—They are universally hoed; and unless they be sown very late, are generally hoed twice. The distance of time between the sowing and the first hoeing depends upon the soil and season; and the size of the plants being the only guide. When turnips are suffered to grow too large before they are hoed, the plants are difficult to be set out singly, and are liable to be drawn up by weeds, thereby acquiring a slender upright tendency; whereas their natural growth, in their infant state, is procumbent, spreading their first leaves on the ground, and taking the form of a rose.—If the hoe be put in too soon, the plants which are set out are liable to be buried, and their tender roots disturbed in the act of setting out the neighbouring plants. The time for hoeing, as directed by the most judicious husbandmen, is when the plants, as they lie spread upon the ground, are about the size of the palm of the hand: if, however, feed-weeds be numerous and luxuriant, they ought to be checked before the turnips arrive at that size, lest by being drawn up tall and slender they should acquire a weak and sickly habit. The proper distance depends upon the nature of the soil and the time of sowing; such as are sown early, in a rich productive soil, require to be set out wider than those sown late on a soil of a contrary nature. If the soil be at par, the distance ought to be regulated by the time of sowing: if this be at par, the nature or state of the soil should be the regulator.—Mr Marshall complains of the conduct of the Norfolk farmers in general in this respect, who "hack out their turnips 14, 15, or perhaps 18 inches afunder, without any regard to the state of the soil, or time of sowing. This practice was established while the Norfolk soil was full of marl, and new to turnips; and when, it is probable, 11 or 12 inches in diameter was no uncommon size, with tops proportionally large and spreading; and 14 or 15 inches might then be a proper distance. But now, when the efficacy of marl is lessened, and the soil no longer the favourite of turnips, which seldom reach more than seven or eight inches in diameter, it is ruinous and absurd to continue the practice."

[95] Method of sowing, and culture. Turnips are cultivated either for seed, for sale, or for consumption. When cultivated for seed, it is sup-

posed in most parts of the kingdom that it ought always to be taken from transplanted roots; but in Norfolk they are frequently raised from such as are untransplanted. "It is a fact (says Mr Marshall) well understood by every husbandman here, that if the seed be of turnips gathered repeatedly from untransplanted roots, the plants from this seed will become coarse-necked and foul-rooted; and the flesh of the root itself will become rigid and impalatable. On the contrary, if it be gathered year after year from transplanted roots, the necks will become too fine, and the fibres too few; the entire plant acquiring a weak delicate habit, and the produce, though sweet, will be small. For the neck, or onset of the leaves, being reduced to the size of the finger (for instance), the number and size of the leaves will be reduced in proportion; and in a similar proportion will the number and size of the fibrils be reduced. From a parity of reasoning, it may perhaps be inferred, that when the neck acquires a thickness equal to that of the wrist, the size of the root will be in proportion.

"With respect to the fibres or rootlings, this is a just inference; but with respect to the bulb, it is in a great measure erroneous. For a few generations the size of the bulb will keep pace with the increase of leaves and fibres; but after having once reached the limits which nature has set to its magnitude, it begins to revert to its original state of wildness, from which to its present state it has undoubtedly been raised by transplantation. The farmer has therefore two extremes to avoid. The one is discoverable by the thickness and coarseness of the neck, the scaly roughness of the bulb, the thickness of the rind in general, the foulness of its bottom, and the forkedness of its main or tap-root: the other, by the slenderness of the neck, the fineness of the leaf, and the delicacy of the root. The former are unpalatable to cattle, and are therefore creative of waste: the latter are unproductive, are difficult to be drawn, and do not throw out such ample tops in the spring, as do those which are, by constitution or habit, in a middle state between these two extremes. There is not, however, any general rule respecting how many years turnips ought to be transplanted successively, and how often they ought to be suffered to run up from the feed-bed: the soil and situation have, and other circumstances may have, influence on the habit and constitution of vegetables as of animals; and the farmer must attend alone to the state of the turnips themselves. Whenever he judges, that, by repeated transplantation, they have passed the acme of perfection, then it is his duty and interest to let them run up to feed without transplantation. In Norfolk it has been found, by long experience, that transplanting two, three, or four years, and letting the plants run up the third, fourth, or fifth, will keep the stock in the desired state. The time of transplanting is from Old Christmas to Old Candlemas. In the choice of plants, the farmer is not guided by size, but picks the cleanest plants without regard to size; or, more accurately speaking, he makes choice of such as are near, but not at or above, the state of perfection. In almost every turnip-field there are plants in various states: much judgment, therefore, is requisite in the choice of plants. A piece of good Method of ground near a habitation is generally chosen for this planting. purpose; but the method of planting is various: the plants

Turnips. plants are generally set in rows, at uncertain distances from one another." These distances our author has observed to be 16 or 18 inches, and the distance of the plants in them nine or ten inches; but the practice of a man who, he tells us, is indisputably near the head of his profession, is to plant them in rows two feet asunder, the plants in the rows being contiguous. The only culture acquired, is to keep the intervals clean-hood; but when the seed begins to ripen, much care is requisite to keep it from birds. If the plot be large, it is necessary to employ a boy to scare them; but if it be small, and near the house, Mr Marshall has known the following expedient used with success. "On a slender post, rising in the midst of the patch of seed, was fixed a bell; from which a line passed into the kitchen; in the most frequented part of this hung the pull. Whoever passed the pull, rung the bell; so that, in a farm-house-kitchen, where a mistress and two or three maids were some of them almost always on the foot, an incessant peal was kept up; and the birds, having no respite from alarms, forsook their prey."

99 Of drawing the turnips. The time of drawing commences about Michaelmas, and continues until the plants be in blow. The process of drawing, he says, "in severe weather, is an employment which nothing but custom could reconcile to those whose lot it is to go through it, namely, stout lads and youths; whose hands are frequently swelled until the joints are discernible only by the dimples they form;" nevertheless he never heard of any instance of bad effects from this circumstance. When the tops will bear it, their method of pulling is very expeditious: they pull with both hands at once; and having filled each hand, they bring the two together with a smart blow to disengage the soil from the roots, and with the same motion throw them into the cart. If the tops be cut off by the frost, or if this be in the ground, the turnips are raised with two tined forks named creoms. If the roots are buried under deep snow, it is removed by means of an implement called the snow-sledge. This consists of three deal-boards from one to two inches thick, 10 or 12 inches deep, and from seven to nine feet long, set upon their edges in the form of an equilateral triangle, and strongly united with nails or straps of iron at the angles; at one of which is fastened, by means of a double strap, a hook or an eye, to fasten the horses to. This being drawn over a piece of turnips covered with snow, forces up the latter into a ridge on each side, while between the ridges a stripe of turnips is left bare, without having received any material injury from the operation. Though it is customary, in drawing, to clear the ground entirely, our author met with one instance in which the small ones were left by a very good husbandman on the ground, both to increase in size, and to throw out tops in the spring; it being observable, that a small turnip sends up a top nearly equal to one whole bulb is larger. There is one inconvenience, however, arising from this practice, the plough is prevented from entering upon the soil until late in the spring; which, upon some soils, is an unfurmountable objection; tho' it may be very proper upon land which will bring good barley with one ploughing after turnips.

100 Snow sledge described. Mr Marshall relates the following simple method, by which a Norfolk farmer preserved turnips through a considerable part of the winter season. Having cut

off their tops with a spade, he gave them to his cows, and carried the bulbs to a new-made ditch, into which he threw them, and then covered them up with straw, laying over it a quantity of bramble kids. Here they lay until wanted in a frost. They were then again carted by means of a fork, and given to the cattle, who eat them as well, or rather better than fresh drawn turnips; and in general they came out as fresh as they went in. Our author is of opinion, that this method might be extended to the preservation of turnips till the spring.

SECT. VIII. Turnip-rooted Cabbage.

This plant may deservedly be reckoned next in value to the turnip itself. Its advantages, according to Sir Thomas Beevor, are, that it affords food for cattle the cultivate in the spring, and resists mildew and frost, which sometimes destroy the common turnip; whence he is of opinion that every farmer who cultivates the common turnip should always have part of his farm laid out in the cultivation of this root. For his mode of culture, &c. See AGRICULTURE, n^o 170; and under n^o 173 of the same article is given an account of Mr Robins's method of raising them. In another letter from Sir Thomas Beevor, Bath Papers, vol. iii. p. 489, he expresses his hope that the turnip-rooted cabbages he had would last until he should have plenty of grass for all his flock. To make a comparative estimation of the quantity of food yielded by the turnip-rooted cabbage and the common turnip, he selected some of each kind, and having girt them with as much accuracy as possible, he found, that a turnip-rooted cabbage of 18 inches circumference weighed 5$\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ lb. and a common turnip of the same size only 3$\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ lb; on trying others, the general result was found to be in that proportion. Had they been weighed with the tops, the superiority of the turnip-rooted cabbage would have been greater, the tops of them being remarkably bushy. They were weighed in the month of March; but had this been done at Christmas, our author is of opinion that the difference would not have been so great; tho' he reckons this very circumstance of their continuing so long to afford a nourishing food, an instance of their excellency above almost every other vegetable whatever.

In the fourth volume of the same work, Sir Thomas gives an account of another experiment on five perimeters. acres of turnip-rooted cabbage, four of which were eaten upon the field, the other was pulled up and carried to the stables and ox-houses. They were sown and cultivated as other turnips; the beasts were put to them on the 12th of April, and continued feeding upon them till the 11th of May. The cattle fed for this space of time were, 12 Scotch bullocks weighing 40 stone each; eight homebreds, two years old; fifteen cows full-sized; 40 sheep; 18 horses; besides 40 store hogs and pigs, which lived upon the broken pieces and offal without any other allowance for the whole four weeks. The whole value of the plant; exclusive of the feeding of the pigs, amounted, according to our author's calculation, to L. 18; and he says that the farmers would willingly give this sum in the spring for feeding as many cattle; "because it enables them to save the young shooting grass (which is so frequently injured)

101 Method of preserving turnips.

injured by the tread of the cattle in the frosty nights) until it gets to such a length and thickness as to be afterwards but little affected by the summer's drought. Besides this, the tops or leaves are in the spring much more abundant, and much better food than those of the common turnip, as already observed; and they continue in full perfection after all the common turnips are rotten or worthless.

The disadvantages attending the cultivation of turnip-rooted cabbages are, that they require a great deal of time and pains to take them up out of the ground, if they are to be carried off the field; and if fed where they grow, it requires almost an equal labour to take up the pieces left by the cattle. A great deal of earth is also taken up along with the root; and the substance of the latter is so firm and solid, that they must be cut in two in order to enable the cattle to eat them. To obviate some of these objections, it will be proper to sow the plants on rich and very light land; and as they are longer in coming to the hoe than the common turnip, it will be proper to sow them about the beginning of June.

In another experiment upon this plant by the same gentleman, the cabbages held out during the long and severe frost of 1788 without the least injury, though it destroyed three-fourths of all the common turnips in the neighbourhood. On the 21st of April 1789, the average produce of an acre was found to be somewhat more than 24½ tons, though the tops had not sprouted above three inches. Considering the precariousness of turnips and other crops, Sir Thomas is decisively of opinion, that all farmers ought to have as many turnip-rooted cabbages as would afford and ensure them a full provision for their cattle for about three or four weeks during the latter part of the spring. This quantity he reckons sufficient, as the consumption, particularly when drawn and carried off the land, is attended with more trouble and expence than that of common turnips, especially if the soil be wet and heavy. In another letter, dated May 3. 1790, Sir Thomas Beevor once more sets forth the advantages of having a crop of these vegetables during the spring-season. "In consequence (says he) of the very cold weather we have had here, the grass is but just springing: as the turnips are wholly eaten up, it occasions much distress among the farmers for want of some green vegetable food for their sheep and cattle; whereas, by the assistance of my turnip-rooted cabbages, I have abundance of the best and most nutritive food that can be found them." He then proceeds to recommend their culture "for the support of almost all live stock for the three last weeks of April, or first week of May, when the grass shoots late."

In the 4th volume of the Transactions of the Society for encouraging Arts, Mr Robins, who received a premium for raising the greatest quantity of this plant, informs us, that the soil on which it grew was a stone brais, inclining to sand, not worth more than 10s. per acre; the preparation the same as for turnips. The manure was a compost of earth and dung, which he finds to answer better than dung. The feed was sown about the beginning of April on a clean spot of ground; and he commonly uses an old pasture where the sheep-fold has been in the winter, after taking away the dung, and digging it very shallow; "as the roots

of the young plants (says he) might soon reach the dung or salts, which must consequently be left, in order to force them out of the fly's way." These insects, our author observes, are extremely fond of the turnip-rooted cabbage; much more so, he believes, than of common turnips. About the middle of June they should be planted out upon one-bout ridges raised by a double plough made for the purpose. Seven thousand plants are sufficient for one acre; but if only six are used, the roots will be the larger.

To determine how many sheep might be kept upon an acre of turnip-rooted cabbage, our author shut up 200 ewes with their lambs upon a piece of poor pasture-land of no great extent; the whole not exceeding ten acres. One ton was found sufficient for keeping them in sufficient health for a day. On giving them a larger piece of ground to run over, though it had been eat all winter and late in the spring; yet with this trifling assistance 13 tons of turnip-cabbage were made to serve 18 days; at the end of which the ewes and lambs were found very much improved, which could not have been expected from four acres of turnips in the month of April, the time that these were fed.

The seeds were sown about the middle of March in garden-ground properly prepared. The cabbages were transplanted about the middle of March that year into a dry light soil, well cleaned and dunged with rotten cow-dung, in rows three feet distant from each other, and at the distance of 20 inches in the rows. They were kept very clean, and the earth was hoed up to the roots of the plants; by which means they were probably prevented from attaining the hardness they would have otherwise arrived at; though, after all, it was necessary to cut the roots in two before the sheep could eat them. When thus cut, the animals eat them greedily, and even preferred them to every other food. The roots continued good for at least a month after the common turnips were unfit for use: some of them weighed from eight to ten pounds, and a few of them more. Other trials have since been made; and it now appears that the plant will thrive very well with the ordinary culture of turnips in the open fields, and in the usual manner of sowing broad-cast. From a comparative trial made by the earl of Fife upon this root with some others, the quantities produced upon 100 square yards of ground were as follows:

The turnip-rooted cabbage was planted in lines 20 inches asunder; the common turnips sown broad-cast, and hand-weeded, so that they came up very thick, being not more than three or four inches asunder when full grown. Two cows were fed for six weeks with the turnips, two with the turnip-rooted cabbage, and two with the root of scarcity for an equal time: the two fed with turnips gave most milk, and those with the root of scarcity the least. His lordship observes,

Swedish Turnip. serves, however, that carrots thrive better on his farm than any other crop: that his horses had been fed on them at the rate of two pecks a day, with no corn, and little more than half the usual quantity of hay. "They were kept at work every day from seven to eight hours, and were never in better order."

108
Of the Ru-
ta Baga.

This ruta baga, or Swedish turnip, is a plant from which great expectations have been formed. It is said to be harder than the common turnip, and of greater sweetness and solidity. It also preserves its freshness and succulence till a very late period of its growth, even after it has produced seed; on account of which property it has been recommended to the notice of farmers as an excellent kind of succulent food for domestic animals in the spring of the year, when common turnips and most other winter crops have failed, and before grass got up to furnish an abundant bite for feeding beasts. This peculiarity, so valuable, yet so singular as to have led many at first to doubt the fact, seems to be sufficiently ascertained by experiment. Dr J. Anderson† in particular informs us, that it "begins to send out its flower-stems in the spring, nearly about the same time with the common turnip; but that the root, in consequence of that change of state, suffers very little alteration. I continued to use these turnips at my table every day till towards the middle of May; and had I never gone into the garden myself, I should not even then have suspected, from the taste or appearance of the bulb itself, that it had been sown at all. The stems, however, at the season I gave over using them, were from four to five feet high, and in full flower. I should have continued the experiment longer, had not the quantity I had left for that purpose been exhausted, and a few only left for seed.

† The Bot., vol. iii. p. 291.

"This experiment, however, fully proves, that this kind of turnip may be employed as a succulent food for cattle till the middle of May at least, in an ordinary year; and I have not the smallest doubt but it will continue perfectly good for that purpose till the end of May in any season; at which time grass and other spring-crops can easily be had for bringing beasts forward in flesh. I can therefore, without hesitation, recommend this plant to the farmer as a most valuable spring-feeding for cattle and sheep; and for this purpose, I think no wife farmer should be without a proportion of this kind of turnip to succeed the other sorts after they fail. The profitable method of consuming it, where it is to be kept very late, is, I am convinced, to cut off the tops with a scythe or sickle when from one foot to eighteen inches high, to induce it to send out fresh stems, that will continue soft and succulent to the end; whereas, without this process, the stems would become sticky and useless.

"I cannot, however, recommend this kind of turnip, from what I have yet seen, as a general crop; because I think it probable, that unless in particular circumstances, the common field-turnips grow to a much larger size, and afford upon the whole a more weighty crop. These, therefore, should still continue to be cultivated for winter use, the other being reserved only for spring consumption.

"Experiments are still wanting to ascertain with certainty the peculiar soil and culture that best agree with
VOL. VIII. Part II.

this plant; but from the few observations I have hitherto had an opportunity of making upon it, it seems to me probable, that it thrives better, and grows to a larger size on damp clayey soil, than on light sandy land. But I would not wish to be understood as here speaking positively; I merely throw it out as a hint for future observation: on spungy soil it prospers.

"Though the uses of this as a garden plant are of much smaller consequence than those above-specified, it may not be improper to remark, that its leaves form a very sweet kind of greens at any time; and merely for the sake of the experiment, I caused some of these to be picked off the stems of the plants coming to seed, on the 4th of June, the king's birth-day, which, on being readied, were found perfectly sweet, without the smallest tendency to bitterness, which most, if not all other kinds of greens that have been hitherto cultivated are known to acquire after their stems are considerably advanced; no family, therefore, can ever be at a loss for greens when they have any of this plant in seed.

"A root of this kind of turnip was taken up this day (June 15th); the feed stalks were firm and woody, the pods full formed, and in some of them the seeds were nearly ripe. The root, however, was as soft and succulent as at any former period of its growth; nor was the skin, as I expected, hard or woody. It was made ready and brought to the table: some persons there thought the taste as good, if not better, than at any former period of its growth; but I myself, perhaps through prejudice, thought it had not quite so high a relish as in winter: At any rate, however, there can be no doubt, that if ever it could be necessary, it might, even now, be employed very properly as a feeding for cattle."

109
Method of
cultivation.

This plant is as yet but little known. The seed is said to have been brought from the Cape of Good Hope by Mr Hastings, where it is very common as well as in Holland. It has also had an existence in Britain for many years, though not generally known. It has a much greater affinity to the cabbage than to the turnip; and is very hardy, bearing the winter as well, if not better, than common broccoli, and may therefore be considered as a valuable acquisition to the kitchen-garden as well as for cattle. The best time for sowing it for the garden is the end of May or beginning of June, though none of the plants have ever been observed to run to seed though sown ever so early. Even though sown in August at the cauliflower season, the greater part stood throughout the following summer, and did not feed till the second spring. The plants require nearly the same management with broccoli as to distance, transplanting, &c. and are usually most esteemed when young, and about the size of a moderate garden turnip; those sown in June will continue all winter. The bulb must be stripped clean of its thick fibrous rind; after which it may be used as a common turnip. The crown or sprout is very good, but especially in the spring, when they begin to run to seed. Mr Broughton, from whose account in the Bath Papers, vol. v. this article is taken, thinks that the turnip-cabbage is more nutritious than the common turnip. The largest bulb he measured was 23 inches

circumference; but the thickness of the rind is so great, that some farmers imagined that the bulb would be too hard for sheep. The objection, however, was obviated by Mr Broughton, who gave some of the oldest and toughest bulbs to his sheep, and found that they not only penetrated through the rind, but even devoured the greatest part of it.

CABBAGE has been recommended by long experience as an excellent food for cattle; it uses as part of human food are also well known. In a paper already quoted from those of the Bath Society, Scotch cabbages are compared, as to their utility in feeding cattle, with turnips, turnip-rooted cabbage, and carrots. In this trial the cabbages stand next in value to the carrots; and they are recommended as not liable to be affected by frost, if they be of the true flat-topped firm kind. Fifty-four tons have been raised upon an acre of ground not worth more than 12 shillings. There is likewise an advantage attending the feeding of cattle with cabbages, viz. that their dung is more in proportion than when fed with turnips or with hay; the former going off more by urine, and the latter having too little moisture. They also impoverish the ground much less than grain. Mr Billingfley accounts 46 tons per acre a greater crop than he ever read of; but Mr Vagg, in the 4th volume of Bath Papers, gives an account of a crop for which he received a premium from the Society, which was much superior to that of Mr Billingfley. Its extent was 12 acres; the produce of the worst was 42, and of the best 68 tons. They were manured with a compost of lime, weeds, and earth, that lay under the hedges round the field, and a layer of dung, all mixed and turned together. About 25 cart-loads of this were spread upon an acre with the usual ploughing given to a common summer-fallow; but this, he says, "admitting such crop to exhaust the manure in some degree by its growth, an ample restoration will be made by its refuse ploughed in, and by the stirring and cleaning of the ground. The whole expense of an acre, exclusive of the rent, according to Mr Vagg's calculation, amounts to L. 1 : 14 : 1, only four ounces of feed being requisite for an acre. The 12 acres, producing as above mentioned, would feed 45 oxen, and upwards of 60 sheep, for three months; improving them as much as the grass in the best months of the year, May, June, and July. He recommends sowing the seed about the middle of August, and transplanting the young cabbages where they may be sheltered from the frost; and to the neglect of this he ascribes the partial failure, or at least inferiority of one part of his ground in the crop just mentioned, the young plants not being removed till near midsummer, and then in so dry a time, that they were almost scorched up.

In the Farmer's Magazine, vol. ii. p. 217. we have several pertinent remarks upon the culture of this useful plant, particularly with regard to watering. "It is a rule (says this correspondent) never to water the plants, let the season be as dry as it may; insisting that it is entirely useless. If the land is in fine tilth and well dunged, this may be right, as the expence must be considerable; but it is probable, in very dry seasons, when the new set plants have nothing but a

burning sun on them, that watering would save vast numbers, and might very well answer the expence, if a pond is near, and the work done with a water-cart." He takes notice also of another use of cabbages, which has not met with the attention it merits, viz. the planting of lands where turnips have failed. A late sown crop of these seldom turns to any account; but cabbages planted on the ground without any ploughing would prove very beneficial for sheep late in the spring; in all probability (unless on light, sandy, or limestone soils) of greater value than the turnips, had they succeeded.

Mr Marshall observes, that in the Midland district, a valuable sort of large green cabbage "is propagated, if not raised, by Mr Bakewell, who is not more celebrated for his breed of rams than for his breed of cabbages. Great care is observed here in raising the feed, being careful to suffer no other variety of the brassica tribe to blow near feed-cabbages; by which means they are kept true to their kind. To this end, it is said, that some plant them in a piece of wheat; a good method, provided the feed in that situation can be preserved from birds."

The advantage of having large cabbages is that of being able to plant them wide enough from each other, to admit of their being cleaned with the plough, and yet to afford a full crop. The proper distance depends in some measure on the natural size of the species and the strength of the soil; the thinner they stand, the larger they will grow; but our author is of opinion, that cabbages, as well as turnips, are frequently set out too thin. Four feet by two and an half, according to Mr Marshall, are a full distance for large cabbages on a rich soil.

THESE, though little used in Britain, are highly esteemed in France and some of our neighbouring islands as food for cattle. In Brittany particularly, they are thought to be little inferior in this respect to wheat; and cows fed with them are said to give as much milk, and of as good quality, as in the summer months. It is also very much commended for swine which rear young pigs, and for fattening the swine themselves. The author of this paper also recommends a method of determining the nutritive qualities of plants by the quantity of mucilage they contain; which may be known by boiling them in water, and then evaporating the decoction: the parsnip, he supposes, would yield a greater quantity of mucilage than either carrots or potatoes.

"To cultivate this root (says Mr Hazard) so as to make it advantageous to the farmer, it will be right to sow the seed in the autumn immediately after it is ripe; by which means the plants will appear early the following spring, and get strong before the weeds can rise to injure them. Neither the seeds nor young plants are ever materially injured by frosts; on which account, as well as many others, the autumn is preferable to the spring sowing. The best soil for them is a rich deep loam, and next to this sand. They will thrive well in a black gritty soil, but not in stone-braish, gravel, or clay; and they are always largest in the deepest earth. If the soil be proper, they do not require much manure. Mr Hazard obtained a very good

^Parisips. good crop for three years upon the same piece of ground without using any; but when he laid on about 40 cart loads of sand per acre upon a stiff loam, and ploughed it in, he found it answer very well; whence he concludes, that a mixture of soils may be proper for this root. The feed may be sown in drills at about 18 inches distance from one another, that the plants may be the more conveniently hand or horse hoeed; and they will be more luxuriant if they undergo a second hoeing, and are carefully earthed, so as not to cover the leaves. Such as have not ground to spare, or cannot get it in proper condition in autumn, may at that time sow a plot in their garden, and transplant from thence in the latter end of April, or early in the month of May following. The plants must be carefully drawn, and the ground well pulverised by harrowing and rolling; after which a furrow should be opened with the plough about six or eight inches deep, in which the plants should be regularly laid at the distance of about ten inches from each other, taking care not to let the root be bent, but for the plant to stand perpendicular after the earth is closed about it, which ought to be done immediately by means of persons who should for this purpose follow the planter with a hoe. Another furrow must be opened about 18 inches from the former, in the same direction, and planted as before; and so on in like manner until all the plants are deposited, or the field be completely cropped; and when the weeds appear, hoeing will be necessary, and it will afterwards be proper to earth them; but if the leaves of the plants be covered with earth, the roots will be injured. Parisips ought not to be planted by dibbling, as the ground thus becomes so bound, as seldom to admit the small lateral fibres with which these roots abound to fix in the earth, by which they are prevented from expanding themselves, and never attain a proper size. When circumstances are properly attended to, there is little doubt that a crop of parisips would answer much better than a crop of carrots.

They are equal, if not superior, in fattening pigs, as they make their flesh whiter, and the animals themselves are more fond of these roots than of carrots. Horses eat them greedily when clean washed and sliced among bran, and thrive very well upon them; and black cattle are said likewise to approve of them.

The foregoing are the principal vegetables which have as yet been recommended, or which experience has determined to be proper, to be raised as food for men or for cattle.

One or two other plants may be just noticed, which have lately fallen under the observation of those who apply themselves to the study of husbandry, viz. the ¹¹⁶ root of scarcity, and what are called mowing cabbages. Concerning the latter, no experiments have yet been made to determine sufficiently their properties and value. They are mentioned in the Bath Papers by Sir John Bevor, who had a small parcel of seed sent him; which he sowed in spring, and several plants were produced. Some of these were cut down three times, and grew into heads again so speedily, "that (says he) had I had leisure to have attended to them, I doubt not but that the cuttings might have been repeated; but as there is never on my farm any want of fresh vegetable food for cattle in the summer, unless I can find them continue to vegetate in like manner during the winter (which mine have not done) or very early in the spring, I think they will not prove to me, or any one under the like circumstances, an object of much value.—As to the root of scarcity, we have nothing to add to what has been said on it under ¹¹⁷ Root of scarcity. AGRICULTURE, n^o 52. Notwithstanding a great number of experiments, it still appears uncertain whether it be really useful or not.

With regard to ¹¹⁸ Grasses, the most useful species have been described under the article Grass, and the cultivation of them so fully explained under AGRICULTURE, as to require no further enlargement here.

PART II. CULTIVATION OF VEGETABLES more properly ARTICLES OF COMMERCE.

THESE in general are such as cannot be used for food; and are principally flax, hemp, rape, hops, and timber of various kinds; and of each of these we shall treat particularly in the following sections.

SECT. I. Of Flax and Hemp.

THIS plant is cultivated not only with a view to the common purposes of making linen, but for the sake of its feed also; and thus forms a most extensive article of commerce, all the oil used by painters, at least for common purposes, being extracted from this feed. The cake which remains after the extraction of the oil is in some places used as a manure, and in others sold for fattening of cattle. In the Vale of Gloucester, Mr Marshall informs us that it is, next to hay, the main article of stall-fattening; though the price is now become so great, that it probably now leaves little or no profit to the consumer, having within a few years risen from three guineas to six and six and a half, and the lowest price being five guineas per ton; and even this is lower than it was lately. Hence some individuals have been induced to try the effect of linseed itself boiled to a jelly, and mixed with flour, bran, or

chaff, with good success, as Mr Marshall has been informed; and even the oil itself has been tried for the same purpose in Herefordshire. Though this plant is in universal culture over the whole kingdom, yet it appears by the vast quantity imported, that by far too little ground is employed in that way. As Mr Marshall takes notice of its culture only in the county of Yorkshire, it probably does not make any great part of the husbandry of the other countries of which he treats; and even in Yorkshire he tells us, that its cultivation is confined to a few districts. The kind cultivated there is that called "blea line," or the blue or lead coloured flax, and this requires a rich dry soil for its cultivation. A deep, fat, sandy loam is perhaps the only soil on which it can be cultivated with advantage. It sown upon old corn land, it ought to be well cleaned from weeds, and rendered perfectly friable by a summer-fallow. Manure is seldom or ever set on for a line crop; and the soil process consists generally of a single plowing. The feed-time is the month of May, but much depends on the state of the soil at the time of sowing. "It should neither be wet nor dry; and the surface ought to be made as fine as that of a garden bed. Not a clod of the size of an egg should remain

main unbroken." Two bushels of feed are usually sown upon an acre: the surface, after being harrowed, is sometimes raked with garden or hay-rakes; and the operation would be still more complete if the clods and other obstructions, which cannot be easily removed, were drawn into the interfurrows. A light hand-roller used between the final raking and harrowing would much assist this operation. The chief requisite during the time of vegetation is weeding, which ought to be performed with the utmost care; and for this reason it is particularly requisite that the ground should be previously cleansed as well as possible, otherwise the expense of weeding becomes too great to be borne, or the crop must be considerably injured. It is an irreparable injury, if, through a dry season, the plants come up in two crops; or if by accident or mismanagement they be too thin. The goodness of the crop depends on its running up with a single stalk without branches: for wherever it ramifies, there the length of the line terminates; and this ramification is the consequence of its having too much room at the root, or getting above the plants which surround it. The branches are never of any use, being unavoidably worked off in dressing; and the stem itself, unless it bear a due proportion to the length of the crop, is likewise worked off among the refuse. This ramification of the flax will readily be occasioned by clods on the ground when sown. A second crop is very seldom attended with any profit; for being overgrown with the spreading plants of the first crop, it remains weak and short, and at pulling time is left to rot upon the land.

Flax is injured not only by drought but by frost, and is sometimes attacked, even when got five or six inches high, by a small white slug, which strips off the leaves to the top, and the stalks bending with their weight are thus sometimes drawn into the ground. Hence, if the crop does not promise fair at weeding time, our author advises not to bestow further labour and expense upon it. A crop of turnips or rape will generally pay much better than such a crop of flax. The time of flax-harvest in Yorkshire is generally in the latter end of July or beginning of August.

On the whole, our author remarks, that "the goodness of the crop depends in some measure upon its length; and this upon its evenness and closeness upon the ground. Three feet high is a good length, and the thickness of a crow's quill a good thickness. A fine stalk affords more line and fewer shivers than a thick one. A tall thick set crop is therefore desirable. But unless the land be good, a thick crop cannot attain a sufficient length of stem. Hence the folly of sowing flax on land which is unfit for it. Nevertheless, with a suitable soil, a sufficiency of feed evenly distributed, and a favourable season, flax may turn out a very profitable crop. The flax-crop, however, has its disadvantages: it interferes with harvest, and is generally believed to be a great exhauster of the soil, especially when its seed is suffered to ripen. Its cultivation ought therefore to be confined to rich grass-land districts, where harvest is a secondary object, and where its exhaustion may be rather favourable than hurtful to succeeding arable crops, by checking the too great rankness of rich fresh broken ground.

In the 5th volume of Bath-Papers, Mr Bartley, near Bristol, gives an account of the expenses and produce

of five acres of flax cultivated on a rich loamy sand. The total expense was 42 l. 13 s. 4 d. the produce was ten packs of flax at 5 l. 5 s. value 52 l. 10 s. 35 bushels of linseed at 5 s. value 81 l. 15 s. the net profit therefore was 18 l. 11 s. 8 d. or 4 l. 13 s. 4 d. per acre. This gentleman is of opinion that flax-growers ought to make it their staple article, and consider the other parts of their farm as in subservience to it.

In the 2d volume of Bath-Papers, a Dorsetshire gentleman, who writes on the culture of hemp and flax, gives an account somewhat different from that of Mr Marshall. Instead of exhausting crops, he maintains that they are both ameliorating crops, if cut without feeding; and as the best crops of both are raised from foreign feed, he is of opinion that there is little occasion for raising it in this country. A crop of hemp, he informs us, prepares the land for flax, and is therefore clear gain to the farmer. "That these plants impoverish the soil," he repeats, "is a mere vulgar notion, devoid of all truth.—The best historical relations, and the verbal accounts of honest ingenious planters, concur in declaring it to be a vain prejudice, unsupported by any authority; and that these crops really meliorate and improve the soil." He is likewise of opinion, that the growth of hemp and flax is not necessarily confined to rich soils, but that they may be cultivated with profit also upon poor sandy ground, if a little expense be laid out in manuring it. "Spalding-moor in Lincolnshire is a barren sand; and yet with proper care and culture it produces the best hemp in England, and in large quantities. In the Isle of Asholme, in the same county, equal quantities are produced; for the culture and management of it is the principal employ of the inhabitants; and, according to Leland, it was so in the reign of Henry VIII. In Marshland the soil is a clay or strong warp, thrown up by the river Ouze, and of such a quality, that it cracks with the heat of the sun, till a hand may be put into the chinks; yet if it be once covered with the hemp or flax before the heats come on, the ground will not crack that summer. When the land is sandy, they first sow it with barley, and the following spring they manure the stubble with horse or cow dung, and plough it under. Then they sow their hemp or flax, and harrow it in with a light harrow, having short teeth. A good crop destroys all the weeds, and makes it a fine fallow for flax in the spring. As soon as the flax is pulled, they prepare the ground for wheat. Lime, marl, and the mud of ponds, is an excellent compost for hemp-lands."

Our author takes notice of the vast quantity of flax and hemp, not less than 11,000 tons imported in the year 1763 into Britain; and complains that it is not raised in the island, which he thinks might be done, though it would require 60,000 acres for the purpose. He observes, that the greater part of those rich marshy lands lying to the west of Mendip hills are very proper for the cultivation of hemp and flax; and if laid out in this manner could not fail of turning out highly advantageous both to the landholders and the public at large. "The vast quantities of hemp and flax (says he) which have been raised on lands of the same kind in Lincolnshire marshes, and the fens of the Isle of Ely and Huntingdon-shire, are a full proof of the truth of my assertion. Many hundreds of acres in the above mentioned places, which, for pasture or grazing, were

^{Cole Seed.} not worth more than 20 or 25 shillings per acre, have been readily let at 4l. the first year, 3l. the second, and 2l. the third. The reason of this supposed declining value of land, in proportion to the number of years sown with flax, is, that it is usual with them to feed it for the purpose of making oil, that being the principal cause of the land being thereby impoverished.

^{Bath Papers, vol. iv.} THIS, as well as linseed, is cultivated for the purpose of making oil, and will grow almost any where. Mr Hazard informs us, that in the north of England the farmers pare and burn their pasture lands, and then sow them with rape after one ploughing; the crop commonly standing for feed, which will bring from 25l. to 30l. per last (80 bushels.) Poor clay, or stone-brash land, will frequently produce from 12 to 16 or 18 bushels per acre, and almost any fresh or virgin earth will yield one plentiful crop; so that many in the northern counties have been raised, by cultivating this feed, from poverty to the greatest affluence. The feed is ripe in July or the beginning of August; and the threshing of it out is conducted with the greatest mirth and jollity.

^{126 Advantage of cultivating rape-feed.} The rape being fully ripe, is first cut with sickles, and then laid thin upon the ground to dry; and when in proper condition for threshing, the neighbours are invited, who readily contribute their assistance. The threshing is performed on a large cloth in the middle of the field, and the feed put into sacks and carried home. It does not admit of being carried from the field in the pod in order to be threshed at home, and therefore the operation is always performed in the field; and by the number of assistants procured on this occasion, a field of 20 acres is frequently threshed out in one day. The straw is burnt for the sake of its alkali, the ashes being said to equal the best kind of those imported from abroad.

^{127 Of cutting and threshing the rape-feed.} The proper time for sowing rape is the month of June; and the land should, previous to the sowing, be twice well ploughed. About two pounds of feed are sufficient for an acre; and, according to our author, it should be cast upon the ground with only the thumb and two fore fingers; for if it be cast with all the fingers, it will come up in patches. If the plants come up too thick, a pair of light harrows should be drawn along the field length-ways and cross-ways; by which means the plants will be equally thinned; and when the plants which the harrows have pulled up are withered, the ground should be rolled. A few days after the plants may be set out with a hoe, allowing 16 or 18 inches distance betwixt every two plants.

^{128 Of sowing it.} Mr Hazard strongly recommends the transplanting of rape, having experienced the good effects of it himself. A rood of ground, sown in June, will produce as many plants as are sufficient for 10 acres; which may be planted out upon ground that has previously borne a crop of wheat, provided the wheat be harvested by the middle of August. One ploughing will be sufficient for these plants; the best of which should be selected from the feed-plot, and planted in rows two feet asunder and 16 inches apart in the rows. As rape is an excellent food for sheep, they may be allowed to feed upon it in the spring; or the leaves might be gathered, and given to oxen or young cattle: fresh

leaves would sprout again from the same stalks, which in like manner might be fed off by ewes and lambs in time enough to plough the land for a crop of barley and oats. Planting rape in the beginning of July, however, would be most advantageous for the crop itself, as the leaves might then be fed off in the autumn, and new ones would appear in the spring. Our author discommends the practice of sowing rape with turnips, as the crops injure one another. "Those who look for an immediate profit (says he), will undoubtedly cultivate rape for feed; but perhaps it may answer better in the end to feed it with sheep: the fat ones might cull it over first, and afterwards the lean or store-sheep might follow them, and be folded thereon: if this is done in autumn season, the land will be in good heart to carry a crop of wheat; or where the rape is fed off in the spring, a crop of barley might follow. In either case rape is profitable to the cultivator; and when it is planted, and well earthed round the stems, it will endure the severest winter; but the same cannot be advanced in favour of that which is sown broadcast."

THIS is used in large quantities by distillers, drug-gists, and confectioners, and might be a considerable object to such farmers as live in the neighbourhood of great towns; but the price is very variable, viz. from 16s. to 42s. per cwt. In the 4th volume of Bath Papers, Mr Bartley gives an account of an experiment made on this feed, which proved very successful. Ten peaches of good sandy loam were sown with coriander on the 23d of March 1783. Three pounds of feed were sufficient for this spot; and the whole expence amounted only to 5s. 10d. The produce was 87 pounds of seed, which, valued at 3d. yielded a profit of 15s. 11d. or 15l. 18s. 4d. per acre. He afterwards made several other experiments on a larger scale; but none of the crops turned out so well though all of them afforded a good profit.

THIS is cultivated in large quantity in the Isle of Thanet, where it is said they have frequently 20 bushels to an acre. Mr Bartley, in the month of March 1783, sowed half an acre of ground, the soil a mixture of loam and clay, but had only eight bushels and an half, or 17 bushels per acre. With this produce, however, he had a profit of 4l. 2s. 3d. per acre.

THE use of this in dyeing is well known, and the consumption is so great, that the raising of the plant might undoubtedly be an object to an husbandman, provided he could get it properly manufactured for the dyers, and could overcome their prejudices. At present, the growing of this plant is in a manner monopolized by some people in particular places, particularly at Keynham near Bristol in England. Mr Bartley informs us, that in a conversation he had with these growers, the latter asserted, that the growth of wood was peculiar to their soil and situation. The soil about this place is a blackish heavy mould, with a considerable

able proportion of clay; but works freely: that of Brillington, where Mr Bartley resides, an hazel, sandy loam: nevertheless, having sowed half an acre of this soil with woad-feed, it throve so well, that he never saw a better crop at Keynsham. Having no apparatus, however, or knowledge of the manufacture, he suffered it to run to seed, learning only from the experiment, that woad is very easily cultivated, and that the only difficulty is the preparing it for the market.

THE uses of these, as an ingredient in malt-liquors, are well known. Formerly, however, they were supposed to possess such deleterious qualities, that the use of them was forbid by act of parliament in the reign of James VI. But though this act was never repealed, it does not appear that much regard was ever paid to it, as the use of hops has still continued, and is found not to be attended with any bad effects on the human constitution. The only question, therefore, is, How far the raising a crop of them may be profitable to an husbandman? and indeed this seems to be very doubtful.

Mr Arthur Young, in a fortnight's tour through Kent and Essex, informs us^† that at Castle Hedingham he was told by a Mr Rogers, who had a considerable hop plantation, that four acres of hop-ground cost him upwards of 120l. and that the usual expences of laying out an acre of ground in this way amounted to 34l. 6s. By a calculation of the expences of an acre in Kent, it appeared that the money sunk to plant an acre there amounted to 32l. 8s. 6d.; that the annual expence was 23l. and the profit no more than 1l. 8s. 1d. In another place, he was informed by a Mr Potter, who cultivated great quantities of hops, that if it were not for some extraordinary crops which occurred now and then, nobody would plant them. In Essex, the expences of an hop-plantation are still greater than those we have yet mentioned; an acre many years ago requiring 75l. to lay it out on hops, and now not less than 100l. the annual expence being estimated at 32l. 1s. while the produce commonly does not exceed 32l.

In the neighbourhood of Stow-market in this county, Mr Young informs us, there are about 200 acres planted with hops, but "18 or 20 are grubbed up within two years, owing to the badness of the times." Here they are planted on a black loose moor, very wet and boggy; and the more wet the better for the crop, especially if the gravel, which constitutes the bottom, be not more than three feet from the surface. In preparing the ground for hops, it is formed into beds 16 feet wide, separated from each other by trenches. In these beds they make holes six feet asunder, and about 12 inches diameter, three rows upon a bed. Into each hole they put about half a peck of very rotten dung or rich compost; scatter earth upon it, and plant seven sets in each; drawing earth enough to them afterwards to form something of an hillock. A hop garden, Mr Young informs us, "will last almost for ever, by renewing the hills that fail, to the amount of about a score annually; but it is reckoned better to grub up and new-plant it every 20 or 25 years."

In this volume of the Annals, Mr Young informs

us, that "one profit of hop-land is that of breaking it up. Mr Potter grubbed up one garden, which failing, he ploughed and sowed barley, the crop great; then mazagan beans, two acres of which produced 16 quarters and five bushels. He then sowed it with breaking wheat, which produced 13 quarters and four bushels and an half; but since that time the crops have not been greater than common. The same gentleman has had 10 quarters of oats after wheat." In the ninth volume of the same work, however, we have an account of an experiment by Mr Le Bland of Sittingbourn in Kent, of grubbing up 12 acres of hop-ground, which was not attended with any remarkable success. Part of the hops were grubbed up in the year 1781, and mazagan beans sown in their stead; but by reason of the seed being bad, and the dry summer, the crop turned out very indifferent. Next year the remainder of the hops were grubbed up, and the whole 12 acres sown with wheat; but still the crop turned out very bad, owing to the wet summer of that year. It was next planted with potatoes, which turned out well; and ever since that time the crops have been good. This gentleman informs us, that the person who had the hop-ground above mentioned did not lose less by it than 1500l.

The culture of hops seems to be confined in a great measure to the southern counties of England; for Mr Marshall mentions it as a matter of surprise, that in Norfolk he saw a "tolerably large hop garden." The proprietor informed him, that three or four years before there had been 10 acres of hops in the parish (Blowfield) where he resided; which was more than could be collected in all the rest of the county; but at that time there were not above five; and the culture was daily declining, as the crops, owing to the low price of the commodity, did not defray the expence.

From all this it appears, that hops are perhaps the most uncertain and precarious crop on which the husbandman can bestow his labour. Mr Young is of opinion, that some improvement in the culture is necessary; but he does not mention any, excepting that of planting them in espaliers. This method was recommended both by Mr Rogers and Mr Potter above-mentioned. The former took the hint from observing, that a plant which had been blown down, and afterwards shot out horizontally, always produced a greater quantity than those which grew upright. He also remarks, that hops which are late picked carry more next year than such as are picked early; for which reason he recommends the late picking. The only reason for picking early is, that the hops appear much more beautiful than the others.

In Herefordshire and Gloucestershire the cultivation of fruit for the purpose of making a liquor from the juice, forms a principal part of their husbandry. In Devonshire also considerable quantities of this kind of liquor are made, though much less than in the two counties above-mentioned.

The fruits cultivated in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire are, the apple, the pear, and the cherry. From the two first are made the liquors named cider and per-ry; but though it is probable that a liquor of some value might be made from cherries also, it does not appear.

pear

pear to have ever been attempted. Mr Marshall remarks, that nature has furnished only one species of pears and apples, viz. the common crab of the woods and hedges, and the wild pear, which is likewise pretty common. The varieties of these fruits are entirely artificial, being produced not by seed, but by a certain mode of culture; whence it is the business of those who wish to improve fruit therefore, to catch at superior accidental varieties; and having raised them by cultivation to the highest perfection of which they are capable, to keep them in that state by artificial propagation. Mr Marshall, however, observes, that it is impossible to make varieties of fruit altogether permanent, though their duration depends much upon management. "A time arrives (says he) when they can no longer be propagated with success. All the old fruits which raised the fame of the liquors of this country are now lost, or so far on the decline as to be deemed irrecoverable. The redstreak is given up; the celebrated flir-apple is going off; and the squash-pear, which has probably furnished this country with more champagne than was ever imported into it, can no longer be got to flourish: the stocks canker, and are unproductive. In Yorkshire similar circumstances have taken place: several old fruits which were productive within my own recollection are lost; the stocks cankered, and the trees would no longer come to bear."

Our author controverts the common notion among orchard-men, that the decline of the old fruits is owing to a want of fresh grafts from abroad, particularly from Normandy, from whence it is supposed that apples were originally imported into this country. Mr Marshall, however, thinks, that these original kinds have been long since lost, and that the numerous varieties of which we are now possessed were raised from seed in this country. He also informs us, that at Ledbury he was shown a Normandy apple-tree, which, with many others of the same kind, had been imported immediately from France. He found it, however, to be no other than the bitter-sweet, which he had seen growing as a neglected wildling in an English hedge.

The process of raising new varieties of apples, according to Mr Marshall, is simple and easy. "Elect (says he) among the native species individuals of the highest flavour; sow the seeds in a highly enriched feed-bed. When new varieties, or the improvement of old ones, are the objects, it may perhaps be eligible to use a frame or stove; but where the preservation of the ordinary varieties only is wanted, an ordinary loamy soil will be sufficient. At any rate, it ought to be perfectly clean at least from root weeds, and should be double dug from a foot to 18 inches deep.—The surface being levelled and raked fine, the seeds ought to be scattered on about an inch asunder, and covered about half an inch deep with some of the finest mould previously raked off the bed for that purpose. During summer the young plants should be kept perfectly free from weeds, and may be taken up for transplantation the ensuing winter; or if not very thick in the feed-bed, they may remain in it till the second winter.

The nursery ground ought also to be enriched, and double dug to the depth of 14 inches at least; though 18 or 20 are preferable. The feeding plants ought to be sorted agreeably to the strength of their roots, that they may rise evenly together. The top or downward

roots should be taken off, and the longer side rootlets shortened. The young trees should then be planted in rows three feet asunder, and from 15 to 18 inches distant in the rows; taking care not to cramp the roots, but to lead them evenly and horizontally among the mould. If they be intended merely for stocks to be grafted, they may remain in this situation until they be large enough to be planted out; though, in strict management, they ought to be re-transplanted two years before their being transferred into the orchard, "in fresh but unmanured double-dug ground, a quincunx four feet apart every way." In this second transplantation, as well as in the first, the branches of the root ought not to be left too long, but to be shortened in such a manner as to induce them to form a globular root, sufficiently small to be removed with the plant; yet sufficiently large to give it firmness and vigour in the plantation.

Having proceeded in this manner with the feed-bed, our author gives the following directions. "Select from among the seedlings the plants whose wood and leaves wear the most apple-like appearance. Transplant these into a rich deep soil in a genial situation, letting them remain in this nursery until they begin to bear. With the feeds of the fairest, richest, and best flavoured fruit repeat this process; and at the same time, or in due season, engraft the wood which produced this fruit on that of the richest, sweetest, best-flavoured apple: repeating this operation, and transferring the subject under improvement from one tree and sort to another, as richness, flavour, or firmness may require; continuing this double mode of improvement until the desired fruit be obtained. There has, no doubt, been a period when the improvement of the apple and pear was attended to in this country; and should not the same spirit of improvement revive, it is probable that the country will, in a course of years, be left destitute of valuable kinds of these two species of fruit; which, though they may in some degree be deemed objects of luxury, long custom seems to have ranked among the necessaries of life."

In the fourth volume of Bath Papers, Mr Grimwood supposes the degeneracy of apples to be rather imaginary than real. He says, that the evil complained of "is not a real decline in the quality of the fruit, but in the tree; owing either to want of health, the season, soil, mode of planting, or the stock they are grafted on, being too often raised from the feed of apples in the same place or county.—I have not a doubt in my own mind, but that the trees which are grafted on the stocks raised from the apple-pips are more tender than those grafted on the real crab-stock; and the seasons in this country have, for many years past, been unfavourable for fruits, which add much to the supposed degeneracy of the apple. It is my opinion, that if planters of orchards would procure the trees grafted on real crab-stocks from a distant country, they would find their account in so doing much overbalance the extra expense of charge and carriage."

In the same volume, Mr Edmund Gillingwater assigns as a reason for the degeneracy of apples the mixture of various farina, from the orchards being too near each other. In consequence of this notion, he also thinks that the old and best kinds of apple-trees are not lost, but only corrupted from being planted.

planted too near bad neighbours: "Remove them (says he) to a situation where they are not exposed to this inconvenience, and they will immediately recover their former excellency." This theory, however, is not supported by a single experiment.

In this volume also Mr Richard Samuel expresses his concern at the "present neglect of orchards, where the old trees are decaying, without proper provision being made for the succeeding age: for if a farmer plants fresh trees (which does not frequently happen), there is seldom any care taken to propagate the better sorts, as his grafts are usually taken promiscuously from any ordinary kind most easily procured in the neighbourhood." His remedy is to collect grafts from the best trees; by which means he supposes that the superior kinds of fruit would soon be recovered. To a care of this kind he attributes the superiority of the fruit in the neighbourhood of great towns to that in other places.

With regard to the method of cultivating fruit-trees, it is only necessary to add, that while they remain in the nursery, the intervals betwixt them may be occupied by such kitchen-stuff as will not crowd or overshadow the plants; keeping the rows in the mean time perfectly free from weeds. In pruning them, the leader should be particularly attended to. If it shoot double, the weaker of the contending branches should be taken off; but if the leader be lost, and not easily recoverable, the plant should be cut down to within a hand's breadth of the soil, and a fresh stem trained. The undermost boughs should be taken off by degrees, going over the plants every winter; but taking care to preserve heads of sufficient magnitude not to draw the stems up too tall, which would make them feeble in the lower part. The stems in Herefordshire are trained to six feet high; but our author prefers seven, or even half a rod in height. A tall stemmed tree is much less injurious to what grows below it than a low-headed one, which is itself in danger of being hurt, at the same time that it hurts the crop under it. The thickness of the stem ought to be in proportion to its height; for which reason a tall stock ought to remain longer in the nursery than a low one. The usual size at which they are planted out in Herefordshire is from four to six inches girt at three feet high; which size, with proper management, they will reach in seven or eight years. The price of these stocks in Herefordshire is 18d. each. Our author met with one instance of crabstocks being gathered in the woods with a good prospect of success.

In Herefordshire it is common to have the ground of the orchards in tillage, and in Gloucester in grass; which Mr Marshall supposes to be owing to the difference betwixt the soil of the two counties; that of Herefordshire being generally arable, and Gloucester grass land. Trees, however, are very destructive, not only to a crop of corn, but to clover and turnips; though tillage is favourable to fruit-trees in general, especially when young. In grass grounds their progress is comparatively slow, for want of the earth being stirred about them, and by being injured by the cattle, especially when low-headed and drooping. After they begin to bear, cattle ought by all means to be kept away from them, as they not only destroy all the fruit within their reach, but the fruit itself is dangerous to the cattle, being apt to stick in their throats and choke

them. These inconveniences may be avoided, by eating the fruit grounds bare before the gathering season, and keeping the boughs out of the way of the cattle: but Mr Marshall is of opinion, that it is wrong to plant orchards in grass land. "Let them (says he) lay their old orchards to grass: and if they plant, break up their young orchards to arable. This will be changing the course of husbandry, and be at once beneficial to the land and the trees."

Our author complains very much of the indolent and careless method in which the Herefordshire and Gloucester farmers manage their orchards. The natural enemies of fruit-trees (he says) are, 1. A redundancy of wood. 2. The mistletoe. 3. Moths. 4. Spring frosts. 5. Blights. 6. Insects. 7. An excess of fruit. 8. Old age.

1. A redundancy of wood is prejudicial, by reason of the barren branches depriving those which bear fruit of the nourishment which ought to belong to them. A multitude of branches also give the winds such an additional power over the tree, that it is in perpetual danger of being overthrown by them: trees are likewise thus injured by the damps and want of circulation of air, so that only the outer branches are capable of bringing fruit to maturity. "It is no uncommon sight (says he) to see trees in this district, with two or three tiers of boughs pressing down hard upon one another, with their twigs so intimately interwoven, that even when the leaves are off, a small bird can scarcely creep in among them."

2. The mistletoe in this country is a great enemy to the apple-tree. It is easily pulled out with hooks in how de-frosty weather, when, being brittle, it readily breaks off from the branches. It likewise may be applied to a profitable purpose, sheep being as fond of it as of ivy.

3. Moths can only be got the better of by industry in clearing the trees of it; and in Kent there are people who make it their profession to do so.

4. Spring-frosts, especially when they suddenly succeed rain, are great enemies to fruit-trees; dry frosts only keep back the blossoms for some time. Art can give no farther assistance in this case than to keep the trees in a healthy and vigorous state, so as to enable them to throw out a strength of bud and blossom; and by keeping them thin of wood, to give them an opportunity of drying quickly before the frost set in.

5. Blight is a term, as applied to fruit-trees, which Mr Marshall thinks is not understood. Two bearing years, he remarks, seldom come together; and he is of opinion, that it is the mere exhausting of the trees by the quantity of fruit which they have carried one year, that prevents them from bearing any the next. The only thing therefore that can be done in this case is, to keep the trees in as healthy and vigorous a state as possible.

6. Insects destroy not only the blossoms and leaves, but some of them also the fruit, especially pears. In the year 1783 much fruit was destroyed by wasps. Mr Marshall advises to set a price upon the female wasps in the spring; by which these mischievous insects would perhaps be exterminated, or at least greatly lessened.

7. An excess of fruit stints the growth of young trees, and renders all in general barren for two or three years; while in many cases the branches are broken

Timber-trees. off by the weight of the fruit; and in one case Mr Marshall mentions, that an entire tree had sunk under its burthen. To prevent as much as possible the bad effects of an excess of fruit, Mr Marshall recommends "to graft in the boughs," and when fully grown, to thin the bearing branches; thus endeavouring, like the gardener, to grow fruit every year."

157 Duration of fruit-trees may be lengthened. 8. Though it is impossible to prevent the effects of old age, yet by proper management the natural life of fruit-trees may be considerably protracted. The most eligible method is to graft stocks of the native crab in the boughs. The decline of the tree is preceded by a gradual decline of fruitfulness, which long takes place before the tree manifests any sign of decay. During this decline of fruitfulness, there is a certain period when the produce of a tree will no longer pay for the ground it occupies, and beyond this period it ought by no means to be allowed to stand. In the Vale of Gloucester, however, our author saw an instance of some healthy bearing apple-trees, which then had the second tops to the same stems. The former tops having been worn out, were cut off, and the stumps faw-grafted. Our author observes, that the pear-tree is much longer lived than the apple, and ought never to be planted in the same ground. He concludes with the following general observation: "Thus considering fruit-trees as a crop in husbandry, the general management appears to be this: Plant upon a recently broken-up worn-out sward. Keep the soil under a state of arable management, until the trees be well grown: then lay it down to graft, and let it remain in sward until the trees be removed, and their roots be decayed; when it will again require a course of arable management."

158 Mr Marshall's observation on the culture of timber-trees.

159 Different kinds of woodlands.

160 What plantations will soonest bring in a return of profit.

remembered, however, that though the trees themselves do not come to perfection in a shorter time, the value of the ground will always increase in proportion to their age. Thus, says one author upon this subject, "we have some knowledge of a gentleman now living, who during his lifetime has made plantations, which in all probability will be worth to his son as much as his whole estate, handsome as it is. Supposing that those plantations have been made 50 or 60 years, and that in the course of 20 or 30 more they will be worth L. 50,000; may we not say, that at present they are worth some 20,000 l. or 30,000 l.?" Mr Pavier, in the 4th volume of Bath Papers, computes the value of 50 acres of oak timber in 100 years to be L. 12,100, which is nearly 50s. annually per acre; and if we consider that this is continually accumulating without any of that expense or risk to which annual crops are subject, it is probable that timber-planting may be accounted one of the most profitable articles in husbandry. Evelyn calculates the profit of 1000 acres of oak-land in 150 years, at no less than L. 670,000; but this is most probably an exaggeration. At any rate, however, it would be improper to occupy, especially with timber of such slow growth, the grounds which either in grass or corn can repay the trouble of cultivation with a good annual crop.

161 Advantages of planting. In the fourth volume of the Bath Papers, Mr Wagstaffe recommends planting as an auxiliary to cultivation. He brings an instance of the success of Sir William Jerringham, who made trial of "the most unproductive ground perhaps that any successful planter has hitherto attempted." His method was to plant beech trees at proper distances among Scotch firs, upon otherwise barren heaths. "These trees (says Mr Wagstaffe), in a soil perhaps without clay or loam, with the healthy sod trenched into its broken strata of sand or gravel, under the protection of the firs, have laid hold, though slowly, of the soil; and accelerated by the superior growth of the firs, have proportionally risen, until they wanted an enlargement of space for growth when the firs were cut down." He next proceeds to observe, that when the firs are felled, their roots decay in the ground; and thus furnish by that decay a new support to the soil on which the beeches grow: by which means the latter receive an additional vigour, as well as an enlargement of space and freer air; the firs themselves, though cut down before they arrived at their full growth, being also applicable to many valuable purposes.

162 Planting meliorates the soil. In the 6th volume of Annals of Agriculture, we find the culture of trees recommended by Mr Harries; and he informs us, that the larch is the quickest grower and the most valuable of all the resinous timber-trees; but unless there be pretty good room allowed Harries for the branches to stretch out on the lower part of the trunk, it will not arrive at any considerable size; and this observation, he says, holds good of all pyramidal trees. Scotch firs may be planted between them, and pulled out after they begin to obstruct the growth of the larch. Some of these larches he had been planted about 30 years before, which at five feet distance from the ground measured from four feet to five feet six inches in circumference. The most barren grounds, he says, would answer or these trees, but better soil is required for the oaks. In this paper he takes notice

tice of the leaves of one of his plantations of oaks having been almost entirely destroyed by insects; in consequence of which they did not increase in bulk as usual: but another which had nearly escaped these ravages, increased at an average one inch in circumference. "A tree four feet round (says he), that has timber 20 feet in length, gains by this growth a solid foot of timber annually, worth one shilling at least, and pays 5 per cent. for standing. It increases more as the tree gets from five to six feet round. I have a reasonable hope to infer from my inquiry, that I have in my groves 3000 oaks that pay me one shilling each per annum, or L. 150 a year. My poplars have gained in circumference near two inches, and a Worcester and witch elm as much. I have lately been informed, that the smooth cut of a holly-tree, that measures 20 inches and upwards round, is worth to the cabinet-makers 2s. and 6d. per foot.

The following table shows the increase of trees in 21 years from their first planting. It was taken from the marquis of Lansdowne's plantation, begun in the year 1765, and the calculation made on the 15th of July 1786. It is about six acres in extent, the soil partly a swampy meadow upon a gravelly bottom. The measures were taken at five feet above the surface of the ground; the small firs having been occasionally drawn for posts and rails, as well as rafters for cottages; and when peeled of the bark, will stand well for seven years.

From this table it appears, that planting of timber-trees, where the return can be waited for during the space of 20 years, will undoubtedly repay the original profits of planting, as well as the interest of the money laid out; which is the better worth the attention of a proprietor of land, that the ground on which they grow may be supposed good for very little else. From a comparative table of the growth of oak, ash, and elm timber, given in the 18th volume of the Annals of Agriculture, it appears that the oak is by much the slowest grower of the three.

With respect to the growth of under-wood, which in some cases is very valuable, it is to be remarked, that in order to have an annual fall of it, the whole quantity of ground, whatever its extent may be, ought to be divided into annual sowings. The exact number of sowings must be regulated by the uses to which it is intended to be put. Thus if, as in Surrey, flakes, edders, and hoops are saleable, there ought to be eight or ten annual sowings; or if, as in Kent, hop-poles are demanded, 14 or 15 will be required; and if, as in Yorkshire, rails be wanted, or, as in Gloucestershire, cordwood be most marketable, 18 or 20

sowings will be necessary to produce a succession of annual falls. Thus the business, by being divided, will be rendered less burthensome: a certain proportion being every year to be done, a regular set of hands will, in proper season, be employed; and by beginning upon a small scale, the errors of the first year will be corrected in the practice of the second, and those of the second in that of the third. The produce of the intervals will fall into regular course; and when the whole is completed, the falls will follow each other in regular succession. The greatest objection to this method of sowing woodlands is the extraordinary trouble in fencing: but this objection does not hold if the sowings lies at a distance from one another; on the contrary, if they lie together, or in plots, the entire plot may be inclosed at once; and if it contain a number of sowings, some subdivisions will be necessary, and the annual sowings of these subdivisions may be fenced off with hurdles, or some other temporary contrivance; but if the adjoining land be kept under the plough, little temporary fencing will be necessary. It must be observed, however, that in raising a woodland from seeds, it is not only necessary to defend the young plants against cattle and sheep, but against hares and rabbits also: so that a close fence of some kind is absolutely necessary. See the articles FENCE and HEDGE.

With regard to the preparation of the ground for raising timber, it may be observed, that if the soil be of a stiff clayey nature, it should receive a whole year's fallow as for wheat; if light, a crop of turnips may be taken; but at all events it must be made perfectly clean before the tree seeds be sown, particularly from perennial root weeds; as, after the seeds are sown, the opportunity of performing this necessary business is in a great measure lost. If the situation be moist, the soil should be gathered into wide lands, sufficiently round to let the water run off from the surface, but not high. The time of sowing is either the month of October or March; and the method as follows: "The land being in fine order, and the season favourable, the whole should be sown with corn or pulse adapted to the season of sowing: if in autumn, wheat or rye may be the crop; but if in spring, beans or oats. Whichever of these three species be adopted, the quantity of seed ought to be less than usual, in order to give a free admission of air, and prevent the crop from lodging. The sowing of the grain being completed, that of the tree-seeds must be immediately set about. These are to be put in drills across the land: acorns and nuts should be dibbled in, but keys and berries scattered in trenches or drills drawn with the corner of a hoe, in the manner that gardeners sow their peas. The distance might be a quarter of a statute rod, or four feet and one inch and an half. A land chain should be used in setting out the drills, as not being liable to be lengthened or shortened by the weather. It is readily divided into rods; and the quarters may be easily marked.

The species of under-wood to be sown must be determined by the consumpt of it in the neighbourhood of the plantation. Thus, if flakes, hoops, &c. be in request, the oak, hazel, and ash, are esteemed as under-wood. Where charcoal is wanted for iron forges, beech is the prevailing underwood. The oak, box,

Timber-trees. box, birch, &c. are all in request in different countries, and the choice must be determined by the prevailing demand. As the keys of the ash sometimes lie two or even three years in the ground, it will be proper to have the places where they are sown distinguished by some particular marks, to prevent them from being disturbed by the plough after harvest; as a few beans scattered along with them, if the crop be oats; or oats, if the crop be beans. The crop should be reaped, not mown, at harvest time, and be carried off as fast as possible. Between harvest and winter, a pair of furrows should be laid back to back in the middle of each interval, for meliorating the next year's crop, and laying the seedling plants dry; while the stubble of the unploughed ground on each side of the drills will keep them warm during the winter. The next year's crop may be potatoes, cabbages, turnips, or if the first was corn, this may be beans; if the first was beans, this may be wheat drilled. In the spring of the third year the drills which rose the first year must be looked over, and the vacancies filled up from those parts which are thickest; but the drills of the ash should be let alone till the fourth year. The whole should afterwards be looked over from time to time; and this, with cultivating the intervals, and keeping the drills free from weeds, will be all that is necessary until the tops of the plants begin to interfere.

The crops may be continued for several years; and if they only pay for the expences, they will still be of considerable advantage by keeping the ground stirred, and preserving the plants from hares and rabbits. Even after the crops are discontinued, the ground ought still to be stirred, alternately throwing the

mould to the roots of the plants, and gathering it into a ridge in the middle of the interval. The best method of doing this is to split the ground at the approach of winter in order to throw it up to the trees on both sides; this will preserve the roots from frost; gather it again in the spring, which will check the weeds, and give a fresh supply of air: split again at mid-summer, to preserve the plants from drought; gather, if necessary, in autumn, and split as before at the approach of winter. The spring and mid-summer ploughings should be continued as long as a plough can pass between the plants.

Timber-trees. Whenever the oaks intended for timber are in danger of being drawn up too slender for their height, it will be necessary to cut off all the rest at the height of about an handbreadth above the ground; and those designed to stand must now be planted at about two rods distant from each other, and as nearly a quincunx as possible. The second cutting must be determined by the demand there is for the under-wood; with only this proviso, that the timber stands be not too much crowded by it; for rather than this should be the case, the coppice should be cut, though the wood may not have reached its most profitable state. What is here said of the method of rearing oak-trees in woods, is in a great measure applicable to that of raising other trees in timber-groves. The species most usually raised in these are the ash, elm, beech, larch, spruce fir, Weymouth pine, poplar, willow, alder, chestnut, walnut, and cherry. The three last are used as substitutes for the oak and beech, and these two for the mahogany.

PART III. Of the CATTLE proper to be employed in FARM-WORK; REARING and MANAGEMENT of them. Of HOGS, POULTRY, &c. MANAGEMENT of BEES. Of the DAIRY. Making of FRUIT-LIQUORS. Of MANURES.

SECT. I. Of the Cattle proper to be employed.

As great part of the stock of an husbandman must always consist of cattle, and one of his principal expences in the maintenance of them, this part of his business is certainly to be looked upon as one of the most important of the whole. The cattle belonging to a farm may be divided into two classes, viz. such as are intended for work, and such as are designed for sale. The former are now principally horses, the oxen formerly employed being fallen into disuse, though it does not yet certainly appear that the reasons for the exchange are satisfactory. In the second volume of Bath Papers, we have account of a comparative experiment of the utility of horses and oxen in husbandry by Mr Kedington near Bury in Suffolk, in which the preference is decisively given to oxen. He informs us, that at the time he began the experiment (in 1779), he was almost certain that there was not an ox worked in the whole county; finding, however, the expence of horses very great, he purchased a single pair of oxen, but found much difficulty in breaking them, as the workmen were so much prejudiced against them, that they would not take the proper pains. At last he met with a labourer who undertook the task; and the

oxen "soon became as tractable and as handy, both at ploughing and carting, as any horses." On this he determined to part with all his cart-horses; and by the time he wrote his letter, which was in 1781, he had not a single horse, nor any more than six oxen; which inconsiderable number performed with ease all the work of his farm (consisting of upwards of 100 acres of arable land and 60 of pasture and wood), besides the statute duty on the highways, timber and corn, carting, harrowing, rolling, and every part of rural business. They are constantly shod; their harness is the same as that of horses (excepting the necessary alterations for difference of size and shape); they are driven with bridles and bits in their mouths, answering to the same words of the ploughman and carter as horses will do. A single man holds the plough, and drives a pair of oxen with reins: and our author informs us, that they will plough an acre of ground in less than eight hours time; he is of opinion that they would do it in seven. The intervals of a small plantation, in which the trees are set in rows ten feet asunder, are ploughed by a single ox with a light plough, and he is driven by the man who holds it. The oxen go in a cart either single, or one, two, or three, according to the load. Four oxen will draw 80 bushels of barley or oats in a waggon with ease; and if good

168
Mr Kedington's experiment on the comparative utility of horses and oxen.

Cattle to be of their kind, will travel as fast as horses with the same load. One ox will draw 40 bushels in a light cart, which our author thinks is the best carriage of any. ¹⁶⁹ On the whole, he prefers oxen to horses for the following reasons.

1. They are kept at much less expence, never eating meal or corn of any kind. In winter they are fed with straw, turnips, carrots, or cabbages; or instead of the three last, they have each a peck of bran per day while kept constantly at work. In the spring they eat hay; and if working harder than usual in feed-time, they have bran besides. When the vetches are fit for mowing, they get them only in the stable. After the day's work in summer they have a small bundle of hay, and stand in the stable till they cool; after which they are turned into the pasture. Our author is of opinion, that an ox may be maintained in condition, for the same constant work as an horse, for at least 41. less annually.

2. After a horse is seven years old, his value declines every year; and when lame, blind, or very old, he is scarce worth any thing; but an ox, in any of these situations, may be fattened, and sold for even more than the first purchase; and will always be fat sooner after work than before.

3. Oxen are less liable to diseases than horses.

4. Horses are frequently liable to be spoiled by servants riding them without their master's knowledge, which is not the case with oxen.

5. A general use of oxen would make beef plentiful, and consequently all other meat; which would be a national benefit.

Mr Kedington concludes his paper with acknowledging, that there is one inconvenience attending the use of oxen, viz. that it is difficult to shoe them; tho' even this, he thinks, is owing rather to the unskillfulness of the smiths who have not been accustomed to shoe these animals, than to any real difficulty. He confines them in a pound while the operation is performing.

Mr Marshall, in his Rural Economy of the Midland counties, shows the advantage of employing oxen in preference to horses from the mere article of expence, which, according to his calculation, is enormous on the part of the horses. He begins with estimating the number of square miles contained in the kingdom of England; and this he supposes to be 30,000 of cultivated ground. Supposing the work of husbandry to be done by horses only, and each square mile to employ 20 horses, which is about 3 to 100 acres, the whole number used throughout Britain would be 600,000; from which deducting one sixth for the number of oxen employed at present, the number of horses just now employed will be 500,000. Admitting that each horse works ten years, the number of farm-horses which die annually are no fewer than 50,000; each of which requires full four years keep before he is fit for work. Horses indeed are broke in at three, some at two, years old, but they are, or ought to be, indulged in keep and work till they are six; so that the cost of rearing and keeping may be laid at full four ordinary years. For all this consumption of vegetable produce he returns not the community a single article of food, clothing, or commerce; even his skin for economical purposes being barely worth the taking off. By working horses in the affairs of husbandry, therefore, "the community is losing annually the amount

of 200,000 years keep of a growing horse;" which at the low estimate of five pounds a-year, amounts to a million annually. On the contrary, supposing the business of husbandry to be done solely by cattle, and admitting that oxen may be fattened with the same expenditure of vegetable produce as that which old horses require to fit them for full work, and that instead of 50,000 horses dying, 50,000 oxen, of no more than 52 stone each, are annually slaughtered; it is evident, that a quantity of beef nearly equal to what the city of London consumes would be annually brought into the market; or, in other words, 100,000 additional inhabitants might be supplied with one pound of animal food a-day each; and this without consuming one additional blade of grass. "I am far from expecting (says Mr Marshall), that cattle will, in a short space of time, become the universal beasts of draft in husbandry; nor will I contend, that under the present circumstances of the island they ought in strict propriety to be used. But I know that cattle, under proper management, and kept to a proper age, are equal to every work of husbandry, in most if not all situations: And I am certain, that a much greater proportion than there is at present might be worked with considerable advantage, not to the community only, but to the owners and occupiers of lands. If only one of the 50,000 carcasses now lost annually to the community could be reclaimed, the saving would be an object."

In Norfolk, our author informs us that horses are the only beasts of labour; and that there is not perhaps one ox worked throughout the whole county. It is the same in the Vale of Gloucester, though oxen are used in the adjoining counties. Formerly some oxen were worked in it double; but they were found to poach the land too much, and were therefore given up. Even when worked single, the same objection is made; but, says Mr Marshall, "in this I suspect there is a spice of obituary in the old way; a want of a due portion of the spirit of improvement; a kind of indolence. It might not perhaps be too severe to say of the Vale farmers, that they would rather be eaten up by their horses than step out of the beaten track to avoid them." Shoeing oxen with whole shoes, in our author's opinion, might remedy the evil complained of; but "if not, let those (says he) who are advocates for oxen calculate the comparative difference in wear and keep, and those who are their enemies estimate the comparative mischiefs of trading; and thus decide upon their value as beasts of labour in the Vale." In the Cotswold oxen are worked as well as horses; but the latter, our author fears, are still in the proportion of two to one: he has the satisfaction to find, however, that the former are coming into more general use. They are worked in harness; the collar and harness being used as for horses, not reversed, as in most cases they are for oxen. "They appear (says our author) to be perfectly handy, and work, either at plough or cart, in a manner which shows, that although horses may be in some cases convenient, and in most cases pleasurable to the driver, they are by no means necessary to husbandry. A convenience used in this country is a moveable harness-house, with a sledge bottom, which is drawn from place to place as occasion may require. Thus no labour is lost either by the oxen or their drivers.

¹⁷⁷ Cattle to be employed. In Yorkshire oxen are still used, though in much fewer numbers than formerly; but our author does not imagine this to be any decisive argument against their utility. The Yorkshire plough was formerly of such an unwieldy construction, that four or six oxen, in is declining in York-shire.

¹⁷⁸ Why the use of oxen is declining in York-shire. The improvements in the construction of the plough have of late been so great, that two horses are found to be sufficient for the purpose; so that as Yorkshire has all along been famous for its breed of horses, we are not to wonder at the present disuse of oxen. Even in carriages they are now much disused; but Mr Marshall assigns as a reason for this, that the roads were formerly deep in winter, and soft to the hoof in summer; but now they are universally a cause-way of hard lime-stones, which hurt the feet of oxen even when shod. Thus it even appears matter of surprise to our author that so many oxen are employed in this county; and the employment of them at all is to him a convincing argument of their utility as beasts of draught. The timber carriers still continue to use them, even though their employment be solely upon the road. They find them not only able to stand working every day provided their feet do not fail them, but to bear long hours better than horses going in the same pasture. An ox in a good pasture soon fills his belly, and lies down to rest; but an horse can scarce satisfy his hunger in a short summer's night. Oxen are also considered as much superior at a difficult pull to horses; but this he is willing to suppose arises from their using half-bred hunters in Yorkshire, and not the true breed of cart-horses. "But what (says he) are thorough-bred cart-horses? Why, a species of strong, heavy, sluggish animals, adapted solely to the purpose of draught; and according to the present law of the country, cannot, without an annual expence, which nobody bestows upon them, be used for any other purpose. This species of beasts of draught cost at four years old from 20l. to 30l.; they will, with extravagant keep, extraordinary care and attendance, and much good luck, continue to labour eight or ten years; and may then generally be sold for five shillings a-head. If we had no other species of animals adapted to the purposes of draught in the island, cart-horses would be very valuable, they being much superior to the breed of saddle-horses for the purpose of draught. But it appears evident, that were only a small share of the attention paid to the breeding of draught oxen which is now bestowed on the breeding of cart-horses, animals equally powerful, more active, less colicky, equally adapted to the purposes of husbandry if harnessed with equal judgment, less expensive in keep and attendance, much more durable, and infinitely more valuable after they have finished their labours, might be produced. A steer, like a colt, ought to be familiarized to harness at two or three years old, but should never be subjected to hard labour until he be five years old; from which age, until he be 15 or perhaps 20, he may be considered as in his prime as a beast of draught. An ox which I worked several years in Surrey, might at 17 or 18 years of age have challenged for strength, agility, and sagacity, the best bred cart-horse in the kingdom."

SECT. II. Of different Kinds of Horses, and the Methods of Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding them.

¹⁷⁹ The midland counties of England have for some time been celebrated on account of their breed of the black cart-horse; though Mr Marshall is of opinion that the black cart-horse this kind are unprofitable as beasts of draught in husbandry. The present improvement in the breed took its rise from six Zealand mares sent over by the late Lord Chesterfield during his embassy at the Hague. These mares being lodged at his lordship's seat at Bretby in Derbyshire, the breed of horses thus became improved in that county, and for some time it took the lead for the species of these animals. As the improved breed passed into Leicestershire, however, through some unknown circumstances, it became still more improved, and Leicester has for some time taken the lead. It is now found, however, that the very large horses formerly bred in this district are much less useful than such as are of a smaller size. Mr Marshall describes in magnificent terms one of these large horses, a stallion belonging to Mr Bakewell named K (A), well bred, which, he says, was the handsomest horse he ever saw, &c.

"He was (says he) the fancied war-horse of the German painters; who, in the luxuriance of imagination, never perhaps excelled the natural grandeur of this horse. A man of moderate size seemed to shrink behind his fore end, which rose so perfectly upright, his ears stood (as Mr Bakewell says every horse's ears ought to stand) perpendicularly over his fore feet. It may be said, with little latitude, that in grandeur and symmetry of form, viewed as a picturable object, he exceeded as far the horse which this superior breeder had the honour of showing to his Majesty, and which was afterwards shown publicly at London, as that horse does the meanest of the breed." A more useful horse, bred also by Mr Bakewell, however, is described as having "a thick carcass, his back short and straight, and his legs short and clean: as strong as an ox, yet active as a poney; equally suitable for a cart or a lighter carriage."

The stallions in this county are bred either by farmers or by persons whose business it is to breed them, and who therefore have the name of breeders. These last either cover with them themselves, or let them out to others for the season, or sell them altogether to stallion-men who travel about with them to different places.—The prices given for them are from 50 to 200 guineas by purchase; from 40 to 80 or a hun. guineas by the season; or from half a guinea to two guineas by the mare. The mares are mostly kept by the farmers, and are worked until near the times of foaling, and moderately afterwards while they suckle: the best time for foaling is supposed to be the month of March or April; and the time of weaning that of November.—"The price of foals (says Mr Marshall), for the last ten years, has been from five to ten pounds or guineas; for yearlings, 10 to 15 or 20; for two-year-olds, 15 to 25 or 30; for six-year-olds, from 25 to 40 guineas."—Our author acknowledges that this breed of horses, considered abstractedly in the light in which they appear here, are evidently a profitable species of live stock, and as far as there is a market for six-year-old horses of this breed, it is profitable to a-
griculture.

(A) Mr Bakewell distinguishes all his horses, bulls, and rams, by the letters of the alphabet.

agriculture. "But (says he) viewing the business of agriculture in general, not one occupier in ten can partake of the profit; and being kept in agriculture after they have reached that profitable age, they become indispensably one of its heaviest burdens. For besides a cessation of improvement of four or five guineas a year, a decline in value of as much yearly takes place. Even the brood-mares, after they have passed that age, may, unless they be of a very superior quality, be deemed unprofitable to the farmer."

Our author complains that the ancient breed of Norfolk horses is almost entirely worn out. They were small, brown-muzzled, and light-boned; but they could endure very heavy work with little food: two of them were found quite equal to the plough in the soil of that county, which is not deep. The present breed is produced by a cross with the large one of Lincolnshire and Leicestershire already mentioned. He approves of the Suffolk breed, which (he says) are a "half-horse half-hog race of animals, but better adapted to the Norfolk husbandry than the Leicestershire breed; their principal fault, in his opinion, is a flatness of the rib.—In the Vale of Gloucester most farmers rear their own plough-horses, breeding of horses not being practised. They are of a very useful kind, the colour mostly black, inclining to tan-colour, short and thick in the barrel, and low on their legs. The price of a six-year-old horse from 25l. to 35l. Some cart-horses are bred in Cotswold hills; the mares are worked till the time of foaling, but not while they suckle; and the foals are weaned early, while there is plenty of grain upon the ground.

Yorkshire, which has been long celebrated for its breed of horses, still stands foremost in that respect among the English counties. It is principally remarkable for the breed of saddle-horses, which cannot be reared in Norfolk, though many attempts have been made for that purpose. Yorkshire stallions are frequently sent into Norfolk; but though the foals may be handsome when young, they lose their beauty when old. In Yorkshire, on the other hand, though the foal be ever so unpromising, it acquires beauty, strength, and activity as it grows up. Mr Marshall supposes that from five to ten thousand horses are annually bred up between the eastern Morelands and the Humber.

"Thirty years ago (says Mr Marshall), strong saddle-horses, fit for the road only, were bred in the Vale; but now the prevailing breed is the fashionable coach-horse, or a tall, strong, and over-sized hunter; and the shows of stallions in 1787 were flat and spiritless in comparison with those of 1783." The black cart-horse, an object of Mr Marshall's peculiar aversion, is also coming into the Vale.

In the breeding of horses he complains greatly of the negligence of the Yorkshire people, the mares being almost totally neglected; though in the brute creation almost every thing depends upon the female.

With regard to the general maintenance of horses, we have already mentioned in this article, and that of AGRICULTURE, several kinds of food upon which experiments have been made with a view to determine the most profitable mode of keeping them. Perhaps, however, the most certain method of ascertaining this matter is by observing the practice of those counties where horses are most in use. Mr Marshall recommends

the Norfolk management of horses as the cheapest method of feeding them practised any where; which, however, he seems willing to ascribe in a great measure to the excellency of their breed. In the winter months, when little work is to be done, their only rack-meat is barley-straw; a reserve of clover-hay being usually made against the hurry of feed-time. A bushel of corn in the most busy season is computed to be an ample allowance for each horse, and in more leisure times a much less quantity suffices. Oats and sometimes barley, when the latter is cheap and unsalable, are given; but in this case the barley is generally malted, i. e. steeped and afterwards spread abroad for a few days, until it begin to vegetate, at which time it is given to the horses, when it is supposed to be less heating than in its natural state. Chaff is universally mixed with horse-corn: the great quantities of corn grown in this country afford in general a sufficiency of natural chaff; so that cut chaff is not much in use: the chaff, or rather the awns of barley, which in some places are thrown as useless to the dunghill, are here in good esteem as provender. Oat-chaff is deservedly considered as being of much inferior quality.—It may here be remarked, that this method of keeping horses, which Mr Marshall approves of in the Norfolk far-mers, is practised, and probably has been so from time immemorial, in many places of the north of Scotland; and is found abundantly sufficient to enable them to go through the labour required. In summer they are in Norfolk kept out all night, generally in clover-leys, and in summer their keep is generally clover only, a few tares excepted.

In the fourth volume of the Annals of Agriculture, Mr Young gives an account of the expense of keeping horses; which, notwithstanding the vast numbers kept in the island, seems still to be very indeterminate, as the informations he received varied no less than from l. 8 to l. 25 a-year. From accounts kept on his own farm of the expense of horses kept for no other purpose than that of agriculture, he stated them as follows:

Average on the whole l. 11 : 12 : 3.

By accounts received from Northmims in Herefordshire, the expenses stood as follows:

Average l. 16 : 13 : 1.

On these discordant accounts Mr Young observes, undoubtedly with justice, that many of the extra expenses depend on the extravagance of the servants; while some of the apparent savings depend either on their carelessness, or stealing provender to their beasts privately,

Rearing black cattle. privately, which will frequently be done. He concludes, however, as follows: "The more exactly the expence of horses is examined into, the more advantageous will the use of oxen be found. Every day's experience convinces me more and more of this. If horses kept for use alone, and not for show, have proved thus expensive to me, what must be the expence to those farmers who make their fat sleek teams an object of vanity? It is easier conceived than calculated.

189 A hornless breed desirable for work.

190 Properties requisite in black cattle.

SECT. III. Of the Breeding and Rearing of Black Cattle.

These are reared for the two different purposes, viz. work, and fattening for slaughter. For the former purpose, Mr Marshall remarks, that it is obviously necessary to procure a breed without horns. This he thinks would be no disadvantage, as horn, though formerly an article of some request, is now of very little value. The horns are quite useless to cattle in their domestic state, though nature has bestowed them upon them as weapons of defence in their wild state; and our author is of opinion that it would be quite practicable to produce a hornless breed of black cattle as well as of sheep, which last has been done by attention and perseverance; and there are now many hornless breeds of these creatures in Britain. Nay, he insists, that there are already three or four breeds of hornless cattle in the island; or that there are many kinds of which numbers of individuals are hornless, and from these by proper care and attention a breed might be formed. The first step is to select females; and having observed their imperfections, to endeavour to correct them by a well chosen male.

The other properties of a perfect breed of black cattle for the purposes of the dairy as well as others, ought, according to Mr Marshall, to be as follows.

1. 1. The head small and clean, to lessen the quantity of ossal.
2. 2. The neck thin and clean, to lighten the fore-end, as well as to lessen the collar, and make it fit close and easy to the animal in work.
3. 3. The carcase large, the chest deep, and the bosom broad, with the ribs standing out full from the spine; to give strength of frame and constitution, and to admit of the intestines being lodged within the ribs.
4. 4. The shoulders should be light of bone, and rounded off at the lower point, that the collar may be easy, but broad to give strength; and well covered with flesh for the greater ease of draught, as well as to furnish a desired point in fattening cattle.
5. 5. The back ought to be wide and level throughout; the quarters long; the thighs thin, and standing narrow at the round bone; the udder large when full, but thin and loose when empty, to hold the greater quantity of milk; with large dug-veins to fill it, and long elastic teats for drawing it off with greater ease.
6. 6. The legs (below the knee and hock) straight, and of a middle length; their bone, in general, light and clean from fleshiness, but with the joints and sinews of a moderate size, for the purposes of strength and activity.
7. 7. The flesh ought to be mellow in the state of fleshiness, and firm in the state of fatness.
8. 8. The hide mellow, and of a middle thickness, though in our author's opinion this is a point not yet well determined.

As the milk of cows is always an article of great importance, it becomes an object to the husbandman, if possible, to prevent the waste of that useful fluid, which in the common way of rearing calves is unavoidable.

A method of bringing up these young animals at less expense is proposed by the Duke of Northumberland. His plan is to make skimmed milk answer the purpose of that which is newly drawn from the teat; and which, he supposes, might answer the purpose at one third of the expence of new milk. The articles to be

added to the skimmed milk are treacle and the common linseed oil cake ground very fine, and almost to an impalpable powder, the quantities of each being so small, that to make 32 gallons would cost only 6 d. besides the skimmed milk. It mixes very readily and almost intimately with the milk, making it more rich and mucilaginous, without giving it any disagreeable taste. The receipt for making it is as follows. Take one gallon of skimmed milk, and to about a pint of it add half an ounce of treacle, stirring it until it is well mixed; then take one ounce of linseed oil cake finely pulverised, and with the hand let it fall gradually in very small quantities into the milk, stirring it in the mean time with a spoon or ladle until it be thoroughly incorporated; then let the mixture be put into the other part of the milk, and the whole be made nearly as warm as new milk when it is first taken from the cow, and in that state it is fit for use. The quantity of the oil cake powder may be increased from time to time as occasion requires, and as the calf becomes inured to its flavour. On this subject Mr Young remarks, that in rearing calves, there are two objects of great importance. 1. To bring them up without any milk at all; and, 2. To make skimmed milk answer the purpose of such as is newly milked or sucked from the cow. In consequence of premiums offered by the London Society, many attempts have been made to accomplish these desirable purposes; and Mr Budel of Wanborough in Surrey was rewarded for an account of his method. This was no other than to give the creatures a gruel made of ground barley and oats. Mr Young, however, who tried this method with two calves, assures us that both of them died, though he afterwards put them upon milk when they were found not to thrive. When in Ireland he had an opportunity of purchasing calves at three days old from 20d. to 3s. each; by which he was induced to repeat the experiment many times over. This he did in different ways, having collected various receipts. In consequence of these he tried hay tea, bean-meal mixed with wheat-flour, barley and oats ground nearly, but not exactly, in Mr Budd's method; but the principal one was flax-feed boiled into a jelly, and mixed with warm water; this being recommended more than all the rest. The result of all these trials was, that out of 30 calves only three or four were reared; these few were brought up with barley and oatmeal, and a very small quantity of flax-feed jelly; one only excepted, which at the desire of his coachman was brought up on a mixture of two-thirds of skimmed milk and one third of water, with a small addition of flax jelly well dissolved.

The second object, viz. that of improving skimmed milk, according to the plan of the Duke of Northumberland, seems to be the more practicable of the two.

Mr Young informs us, that it has answered well with him for two seasons; and two farmers to whom he communicated it gave likewise a favourable report.

In the third volume of the same work, we are informed that the Cornwall farmers use the following method in rearing their calves. "They are taken from the cow from the fourth to the sixth day; after which they have raw milk from six to ten or 14 days. After this they feed them with scalded skimmed milk and gruel made of shelled oats, from three quarts to four being given in the morning, and the same in the evening. The common family broth is thought to be as good or better than the gruel, the favour of the salt being supposed to strengthen their bowels. The proportion of gruel or broth is about one third of the milk given them. A little fine hay is set before them, which they soon begin to eat.

In the fifth volume of Bath Papers, we have an account by Mr Crook of a remarkably successful experiment on rearing calves without any milk at all. This gentleman, in 1787, weaned 17 calves; in 1788, 23; and in 1789, 15. In 1787, he bought three sacks of linseed, value L. 2, 5s. which lasted the whole three years. One quart of it was put to six quarts of water; which, by boiling 10 minutes, was reduced to a jelly: the calves were fed with this mixed with a small quantity of tea, made by steeping the best hay in boiling water. By the use of this food three times a day, he says that his calves throve better than those of his neighbours which were reared with milk.—These unnatural kinds of food, however, are in many cases apt to produce a looseness, which in the end proves fatal to the calves. In Cornwall they remedy this sometimes by giving acorns as an altringent; sometimes by a cordial used for the human species, of which opium is the basis.

In Norfolk, the calves are reared with milk and turnips; sometimes with oats and bran mixed among the latter. Winter calves are allowed more milk than summer ones; but they are universally allowed new milk, or even to suck.—In the midland counties bull-calves are allowed to remain at the teat until they be six, nine, or twelve months old, letting them run either with their dams or with cows of less value bought on purpose. Each cow is generally allowed one male or two female calves. Thus they grow very fast, and become surprisingly vigorous. The method of the dairy-men is to let the calves suck for a week or a fortnight according to their strength; next they have new milk in pails for a few meals; after that new and skimmed milk mixed; then skimmed milk alone, or porridge made with milk, water, ground oats, &c. sometimes with oil-cake, &c. until cheese-making commences; after which they have whey-porridge, or sweet whey in the field, being carefully housed in the night until the warm weather come in.

With regard to the method of fattening cattle, turnips are coming into general use throughout Britain. In Norfolk no other method is thought of. The general rule is, to allow them to eat their turnips in the field while the weather remains moderately warm, but to give them under cover when it becomes wet or very cold. In this respect, however, there is a considerable difference with regard to the manner in which the cattle have been brought up; for such as have been accus-

tomed to a severe climate will stand the winter in the field much better than those which have been brought up under shelter. It is likewise asserted by some, with a great deal of probability, that the flesh of cattle fattened under cover is less agreeable than that of such as are allowed to remain in the open air.

The practice of keeping these animals is so general, especially in England, that one should think the profit attending it would be absolutely indisputable; and this the more especially when it is considered how little nicety they have in their choice of food. From such experiments, however, as have been made, the matter appears to be at least very doubtful, unless in particular circumstances. In the first volume of Annals of Agriculture, we have an experiment by Mr Mure of feeding hogs with the cluster-potato and carrots; by which it appeared, that the profit on large hogs was much greater than on small ones; the latter eating almost as much as the former, without yielding a proportionable increase of flesh. The gain was counted by weighing the large and small ones alive; and it was found, that from November 10th to January 5th, they had gained in the following proportion:

On being finished with pease, however, it appeared, that there was not any real profit at last; for the accounts stood ultimately as follow:

In some experiments by Mr Young, related in the same volume, he succeeded still worse, not being able to clear his expenses. His first experiment was attended with a loss of one guinea per hog; the second, with a loss of 11s. 8d.; the third, of only 3s. In these three the hogs were fed with pease; given whole in the two first, but ground into meal in the last. The fourth experiment, in which the hog was fed with Jerusalem artichokes, was attended with no loss; but another, in which pease were again tried, was attended with a loss of 4s. Other experiments were tried with pease, which turning out likewise unfavourable, barley was tried ground along with pease and beans. This was attended with a small profit, counting nothing for the trouble of feeding the animals. The expenses on two hogs were L. 14 : 13 : 10$\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$; the value L. 15,

^{118. 3½d.} so that there was a balance in his favour of 17s. 4½d. In another experiment, in which the hogs were fed with pease and barley ground, the beans being omitted as useless, there was a profit of 12s. 3d. upon an expense of L. 20 : 15 : 9; which our author supposes would pay the attendance. In this experiment the pease and barley meal were mixed into a liquid like cream, and allowed to remain in that state for three weeks, till it became four. This was attended in two other instances with profit, and in a third with loss: however, Mr Young is of opinion, that the practice will still be found advantageous on account of the quantity of dung raised; and that the farmer can thus use his pease and barley at home without carrying them to market.

^198. Mr Marshall remarks, that in the Midland district, cats are preferred to barley as a food both for young pigs and breeding sows. It is also supposed that young pigs require warm meat to make them grow quickly. Barley-meal and potatoes are used in fattening them; beans and pease being generally disused.—In this district it is common to keep two or three pigs in the fly along with the old hogs to be fattened. This is done that there may be no waste; as the young pigs lick out the trough clean when the old ones are served. Mr Marshall observes, that in a confined place the old ones are apt to “lord it too much over the little ones,” for which reason he would have a separate apartment assigned to them, with a door so small that the large swine should not be able to get into it.

In particular situations these animals may be kept to advantage, as they multiply exceedingly, and require no trouble in bringing up. A considerable number of them are kept in Norfolk, where many parts, consisting of barren hills or heaths, are proper for their reception. They delight in the sides of sandy hills, which are generally unproductive when tilled; but level ground is improper for them. Mr Marshall is of opinion, that there are few sandy or other loose-soiled hills which would not pay better in rabbit warrens than any thing else. “The hide of a bullock (says he) is not worth more than $\backslash frac\{1\}\{4\}$th of his carcass; the skin of a sheep may, in full wool, be worth from a sixth to a tenth of its carcass; but the fur of a rabbit is worth twice the whole value of the carcass; therefore supposing a rabbit to consume a quantity of food in proportion to its carcass, it is, on the principle offered, a species of stock nearly three times as valuable as either cattle or sheep. Rabbit warrens ought to be enclosed with a stone or sod wall; and at their first stocking, it will be necessary to form burrows to them until they have time to make them to themselves. Boring the ground horizontally with a large augre is perhaps the best method that can be practised. Eagles, kites, and other birds of prey, as well as cats, weasels, and pole-cats, are great enemies of rabbits. The Norfolk warreners catch the birds by traps placed on the tops of stumps of trees or artificial hillocks of a con-

ical form, on which they naturally alight.—Traps also seem to be the only method of getting rid of the other enemies; though thus the rabbits themselves are in danger of being caught.

THOUGH these make a part of every husbandman's stock, the keeping of great numbers of them will never be found attended with any advantage; as it is certain they never will pay for the grain necessary to sustain them, if that grain must be bought. On a farm, therefore, they are only useful to pick up what would otherwise be wasted; and even thus we can only count them profitable at certain times of the year; and their number must always be regulated by the size of the farm.—In Norfolk a great number of turkeys are bred, of a size and quality superior to those in other parts. Mr Marshall accounts for their number in the following manner: “It is understood in general, that to rear turkeys with success, it is necessary that a male bird should be kept upon the spot to impregnate the eggs singly; but the good housewives of this country know, that a daily intercourse is unnecessary; and that if the hen be sent to a neighbouring cock previous to the season of exclusion, one act of impregnation is sufficient for one brood. Thus relieved from the expense and disagreeableness of keeping a male bird, most little farmers, and many cottagers, rear turkeys. This accounts for their number; and the species and the food they are fattened with (which, I believe, is wholly buck) account for their superior size and quality.”

In some situations, particularly in the neighbourhood of great towns, it might perhaps be an object to rear will not considerable numbers of poultry, even though some part of the farm should be cultivated merely for their subsistence. It must, however, be remembered, that poultry cannot bear confinement. They are spoiled, not only by being kept in a house, but even in a yard and its environs; for which reason Mr Young informs us, that Lord Clarendon constantly shifts his poultry through different parts of the park in which they are kept. In Norfolk it is customary to put young goslings upon green wheat.

THESE may be considered as of considerable importance in husbandry, on account of the unlimited demand there is for honey and wax, and the little expense at which it is obtained. It is not, however, to be expected, that in all situations the honey produced will either be in equal quantity or of equal quality. This depends on the quantity and quality of the flowers in the neighbourhood to which the bees have access. Thus the honey of Norfolk is of inferior quality to that produced in other parts; owing, as some have supposed, to the bees feeding upon the flowers of buck-wheat, which grows in great quantity throughout the county. Mr Marshall, however, ascribes its peculiar taste to the heaths and moorish places in Norfolk, to which the bees resort, and which seems to be a natural product of the Norfolk soil. He does not however assert, that the buck can have no effect upon it: he owns that the buck-flowers are luscious and disagreeable to many people;

people, though those of beans are equally so to others; but wishes that their imparting any bad quality to honey may be doubted, until positive proof be brought to the contrary.

The Morelands and Vale of Yorkshire are remarkable for the quantities of honey they produce; but it is of an inferior quality, owing, as Mr Marshall supposes, to the heath. He observes, that in the hives situated between the heaths and cultivated country, there is a remarkable difference between the vernal and autumnal combs. The former, gathered entirely from the meadows, pasture-lands, trees, and cultivated crops, are in a manner as white as snow; the latter brown, and the honey rather like melted rosin than the pure limpid consistence of the former.—In the winter of 1782, a remarkable mortality took place among the bees of this district; vast numbers of hives perishing gradually, tho' plenty of honey remained. The phenomenon appeared unaccountable; but Mr Marshall explains it with some probability, from a want of what is called bee-bread, and which the bees collect from the farina of the flowers, as they do the honey and wax from the nectarium and pistillum. The farina cannot be obtained until the anthers are burst by the sun, which, in the very cold rainy season of 1782, could not be expected, as the influence of the sun was not only very small, but the farina, when once collected, was liable to be washed away by the rains. Hence, while the bread which the bees had collected in small quantity lasted, they continued to live; but when this was exhausted, they gradually perished one after another; for it is now universally allowed, that without bee-bread the life of these insects cannot be sustained, even though they have plenty of honey.

In a paper on the subject of bees by Mr John Keys, the farina is supposed to be useful for nourishing the young brood, and the honey for the support of the old ones: hence, according to the quantity of farina to be procured the stock of bees is limited. In the place where he resided at the time his letter was wrote (near Pembroke), no more than eight hives could be kept by a single person with propriety; but at Cheshunt in Herefordshire, where he resided before, he could keep 12 or 14. In his opinion, none but the good first swarms ought to be preserved; the after-swarms should be returned to the stock, by which means the increase of honey would be much greater. "An incorporated stock (he says) will gather more honey than three or four single ones." Hives of half a bushel measure ought to weigh 20 pounds at least, and larger hives in proportion; and they ought not to be above two years of age. He laments it as a national loss, that great part of the prime swarms are suffered to escape, from an erroneous opinion about signs and hours of swarming; "whereas nothing less than a constant watching, from seven to four, can prevent this loss, but which the peasantry will not comply with." Mr Keys has in vain attempted to find an easy method of swarming them artificially.—For the general method of managing bees, see the articles Apis and Bee.

SECT. IX. Of the Management of the Dairy.

As this includes not only the proper method of preserving milk in a wholesome and uncorrupted state, but

the making of butter and cheese from it, it may deservedly be accounted as important a part of husbandry as any; and accordingly several treatises have been written expressly upon the subject.

In the fifth volume of Bath Papers, the subject seems to be considered in as accurate and scientific a manner as by Dr Anderson as by any person who has treated this matter; at least as far as regards the making of butter. The requisites for manufacturing this valuable commodity, according to him, are the following:

1. To have cows of a good quality. In this we are to attend more to the quantity of cream which the milk of a cow yields, than to the absolute quantity of milk; and this may commonly be judged of from the thickness of it. The small Alderney cows (he says) afford the richest milk hitherto known; though there are many individuals of different kinds which afford much richer milk than others; and these ought carefully to be fought after, that a good breed may be established.

2. To make the cows yield a large quantity of milk. For this purpose they must have plenty of food; and of all other kinds the Doctor determines grass to be the best; and that grass which springs up spontaneously on rich dry soils to be the best of all. He is of opinion, however, that there is no virtue in old pastures, as many suppose, more than in new ones; and he assures us, that he has seen much richer butter made from the milk of cows fed upon hay from clover and rye-grass in the house, than such as had liberty to range in old pastures. He thinks, however, that the cows should be permitted to pasture at pleasure during the mornings and evenings, but at noon should be taken into a house, and supplied with fresh food. If abundantly fed, they should be milked three times a day; and as great care should be taken that this operation be properly performed, only confidential persons should be employed. He supposes that a cow well fed, will give as much milk each time when milked thrice, as when milked only twice.

3. The qualities of the milk itself. These are reduced by our author to the following aphorisms. 1. Of the milk drawn from a cow at any time, that which comes first is always thinnest, and continues to increase in thickness to the very last drop. This, as well as all the succeeding ones, are proved by experiment; and so great is the importance of attending to it, that "the person who, by bad milking of his cows, loses but half a pint of his milk, loses, in fact, as much cream as would be afforded by six or eight pints at the beginning, and loses besides that part of the cream which alone can give richness and high flavour to his butter."

2. When milk throws up cream to the surface, that portion which rises first will be thicker, and of better quality, as well as in greater quantity, than that which rises in a second equal portion of time. 3. Thick milk throws up a smaller quantity of cream to the surface than such as is thinner; but that cream is of a richer quality. If water be added to that thick milk, it will afford a considerably greater quantity of cream than before, but its quality is at the same time greatly debased. 4. Milk when carried in vessels to any distance, so as to suffer considerable agitation, never throws up cream so rich, nor in such quantity, as if the same had been put into the milk-pans without any agitation. From these aphorisms, the following corollaries are deducible. 1. The cows ought always

Management of the Dairy. to be milked as near the dairy as possible. 2. The milk of different cows should be kept by themselves, that the good cows may be distinguished from the bad. 3. For butter of a very fine quality, the first drawn milk ought always to be kept separate from the last.

207 Method followed in the Highlands of Scotland. Our author now commends the method used by the Highlanders of Scotland, where every cow is allowed to suck her own calf. The calves are kept in an inclosure till the time of milking, when they are allowed to come to the door. Each calf there is allowed to suck its dam as long as the milk-maid pleases; when it is driven away, and the woman milks the remainder. Thus they obtain only a small quantity of milk, but of exceeding good quality; and to this practice Dr Anderson ascribes the richness of the Highland butter, which is usually attributed to the old grass in the remote glens of the Highlands. In places where this practice cannot be economically followed, the Doctor recommends to keep the milk which comes first, and that which comes last, separate from each other. The former might be sold sweet, or made into cheese. Another use our author mentions, viz.

208 Useful preparation of sweet milk. "Take common skimmed milk when it begins to turn sour; put it into an upright churn or barrel with one of its ends out, or any other convenient vessel; heat some water, and pour it into a tub that is large enough to contain with ease the vessel in which the milk was put. Set the vessel containing the milk into the hot water, and let it remain there for the space of one night. In the morning it will be found that the milk hath separated into two parts; a thick cream-like substance which occupies the upper part of the vessel, and a thin, serous, watery part that remains in the bottom: draw off the thin part (called here ewig), by opening a stop-cock placed for that purpose close above the bottom, and reserve the cream for use. Not much less than the half of the milk is thus converted into a sort of cream, which when well made seems to be as rich and fat as real cream itself, and is only distinguishable from that by its sourness. It is eaten with sugar, and esteemed a great delicacy; and usually sells at double the price of unskimmed milk."

4. Besides separating the first from the last drawn milk, it will be necessary also to take nothing but the cream first separated from the best milk. The remainder of the milk may be employed either in making cheeses, or allowed to throw up cream for butter of an inferior quality. 5. Hence it is plain, that butter of the very best quality, could be made only in a dairy of considerable extent, as only a small portion of the milk of each cow could be set apart for it. 6. Hence it appears that butter and cheese can be made in a consistency with one another; the best of the milk being set apart for the former, and the worst for the latter. But as perhaps no person would choose to give such a price for the very best butter as would indemnify the farmer for his trouble and expense, it may be sufficient to take only the first drawn half of the milk for cheese, and use the remainder for butter; and the cream of this, even though allowed to stand till it begins to turn sour, will always yield butter of a much superior quality to that produced in the ordinary manner.

209 Dairy described. Our author now proceeds to enumerate the properties of a dairy. The milk-house ought to be cool in

summer and warm in winter; so that an equal temperature may be preserved throughout the year. It ought also to be dry, so as to admit of being kept sweet and clean at all times. A separate building should be erected for the purpose, near a cool spring or running water, where the cows may have easy access to it, and where it is not liable to be incommoded by stagnant water. The apartment where the milk stands should be well thatched, have thick walls, and a ventilator in the top for admitting a free circulation of air. There should also be an apartment with a fire-place and cauldron, for the purpose of scalding and cleaning the vessels. The Doctor is of opinion, that the temperature of from 50 to 55 degrees is the most proper for separating the cream from the milk, and by proper means this might easily be kept up, or nearly so, both summer and winter.

210 Wooden utensils preferable to every other kind. The utensils of the dairy should be all made of wood, in preference either to lead, copper, or even cast iron. These metals are all very easily soluble in acids; the solutions of the two first highly poisonous; and though the latter is innocent, the taste of it might render the products highly disagreeable. The creaming dishes, when properly cleaned, sweet, and cool, ought to be filled with the milk as soon as it is drawn from the cow, having been first carefully strained through a cloth, or close strainer made of hair or wire: the Doctor prefers silver wire to every other. The creaming dishes ought never to exceed three inches in depth; but they may be so broad as to contain a gallon or a gallon and an half; when filled they ought to be put on the shelves of the milk-house, and remain there until the cream be fully separated. If the finest butter be intended, the milk ought not to stand above six or eight hours, but for ordinary butter it may stand twelve hours or more; yet if the dairy be very large, a sufficient quantity of cream will be separated in two, three, or four hours, for making the best butter. It is then to be taken off as nicely as possible by a skimming-dish, without lifting any of the milk; and immediately after put into a vessel by itself, until a proper quantity for churning be collected. A firm, neat, wooden barrel seems well adapted for this purpose, open at one end, and having a lid fitted to close it. A cock or spigot ought to be fixed near the bottom, to draw off any thin or serous part which may drain from the cream; the inside of the opening should be covered with a bit of fine silver wire gauze, in order to keep back the cream while the serum is allowed to pass; and the barrel should be inclined a little on its stand, to allow the whole to run off.

211 Cream cannot be obtained, except from cream that is ought to not above a day old. On the contrary, he insists that it is only in very few cases that even tolerably good butter can be obtained from cream that is not above one day old. The separation of butter from cream butter, only takes place after the cream has attained a certain degree of acidity. If it be agitated before that acidity has begun to take place, no butter can be obtained, and the agitation must be continued till the time that the sourness is produced; after which the butter begins to form. "In summer, while the climate is warm, the heating may be, without very much difficulty, continued until the acidity be produced,

duced, so that butter may be got: but in this case the process is long and tedious; and the butter is for the most part of a soft consistency, and tough and gluey to the touch. If this process be attempted during the cold weather in winter, butter can scarcely be in any way obtained, unless by the application of some great degree of heat, which sometimes assists in producing a very inferior kind of butter, white, hard, and brittle, and almost unfit for any culinary purpose whatever. The judicious farmer, therefore, will not attempt to imitate this practice, but will allow his cream to remain in the vessel appropriated for keeping it, until it has acquired the proper degree of acidity. There is no rule for determining how long it is to be kept; but our author is of opinion that a very great latitude is allowable in this case; and that if no ferous matter be allowed to lodge among the cream, it may be kept good for making butter a great many weeks.

The churn in which butter is made likewise admits of considerable diversity; but our author prefers the old-fashioned upright churn to all others, on account of its being more easily cleaned. The labour, when the cream is properly prepared, he thinks, very trifling. Much greater nicety, he says, is required in the process of churning than most people are aware of; as a few hasty and irregular strokes will render butter bad, which otherwise would have been of the finest quality. After the process is over, the whole ought to be separated from the milk, and put into a clean dish; the inside of which, if made of wood, ought to be well rubbed with common salt, to prevent the butter from adhering to it. The butter should be pressed and worked with a flat wooden ladle or skimming dish, having a short handle, so as to force out all the milk that was lodged in the cavities of the mass. This operation requires a considerable degree of strength as well as dexterity; but our author condemns the beating up of the butter with the hand as "an indelicate and barbarous practice." In like manner he condemns the employing of cold water in this operation, to wash the butter as it is called. Thus, he says, the quality of it is debased in an astonishing degree. If it is too soft, it may be put into small vessels, and these allowed to swim in a tub of cold water; but the water ought never to touch the butter. The beating should be continued till the milk be thoroughly separated, but not till the butter become tough and gluey; and after this is completely done, it is next to be salted.

The vessel into which it is to be put must be well seasoned with boiling water several times poured into it; the inside is to be rubbed over with common salt, and a little melted butter poured into the cavity between the bottom and sides, so as to make it even with the bottom; and it is then fit for receiving the butter. Instead of common salt alone, the Doctor recommends the following composition. "Take of sugar one part, of nitre one part, and of the best Spanish great salt two parts. Beat the whole into a fine powder, mix them well together, and put them by for use. One ounce of this is to be thoroughly mixed with a pound of butter as soon as it is freed from the milk, and then immediately put into the vessel designed to hold it; after which 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, and over that a piece of wet parchment; or in defect of this last, fine 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 (says the Doctor) be carefully done, the butter may be kept perfectly sound in this climate for many years. How many years I cannot tell; but I have seen it two years old, and in every respect as sweet and sound as when only a month old. It deserves to be remarked, that butter cured in this manner does not take well till it has stood at least a fortnight after being salted; but after that period is elapsed, it eats with a rich marrowy taste that no other butter ever acquires; and it takes so little salt, that a person who had 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." Our author is of opinion, that strong brine may be useful to pour upon the surface during the time it is using, in order the more effectually to preserve it from the air, and to avoid rancidity.

As butter contains a quantity of mucilaginous matter much more putrescible than the pure oily part, our author recommends the purifying it from this mucilage, by melting in a conical vessel, in which the mucilage will fall to the bottom; the pure oily part swimming at top. This will be useful when butter is to be sent a long voyage to warm climates, as the pure part will keep much better than when mixed with the other. He proposes another method of preserving butter, viz. by mixing it with honey, which is very antiseptic, and mixes intimately with the butter. Thus mixed, it eats very pleasantly, and may perhaps be successfully used with a medicinal intention.

The other grand object of the dairy is cheese-making, which in some counties of England becomes a very considerable article. In this the same precaution is to be observed as with regard to butter; viz. the milk ought not to be agitated by carrying to any distance; nor ought the cows to be violently driven before they are milked, which reduces the milk almost to the same state as if agitated in a barrel or churn. To this cause Mr Twamley, who has written a treatise upon dairy management, attributes the great difficulty sometimes met with in making the milk coagulate; four or five hours being sometimes necessary instead of one (the usual time employed); and even after all, the curd will be of such a soft nature, that the cheese will swell, puff up, and rent in innumerable places without ever coming to that solid consistency which it ought to have. As this frequently happens in consequence of heat, Mr Twamley advises to mix a little cold spring-water with the milk. It is a bad practice to put in more rennet when the curd appears difficult to be formed; for this, after having once formed the curd by the use of a certain quantity, will dissolve it again by the addition of more.

The most common defects of cheese are its appearing when cut full of small holes called eyes; its puffing up, cracking, and pouring out quantities of thin ferous liquor;

Manage-
ment of the
Dairy.

liquor; becoming afterwards rotten and full of mag-
gots in those places from which the liquor issued. All
this, according to our author, proceeds from the for-
mation of a substance called by him flip-curd, a kind of
half coagulum, incapable of a thorough union with the
true curd, and which when broken into very small bits
produces ryer; but if in larger pieces, occasions those
rents and cracks in the cheese already mentioned; for
though this kind of curd retains its coagulated nature
for some time, it always sooner or later dissolves into
a ferous liquid. This kind of curd may be produced,
1. By using the milk too hot. 2. By bad runnet.
3. By not allowing the curd a proper time to form.
The first of these is remedied by the use of cold water,
which our author says is so far from being detrimental
to the quality of the cheese, that it really promotes
the action of the runnet upon the milk. The second,
viz. a knowledge of good from bad runnet, can only
be acquired by long practice, and no particular direc-
tions can be given, farther than that the utmost care
must be taken that it have no putrid tendency, nor
any rancidity from too great heat in drying. The
only rule that can be given for its preparation is to
take out the maw of a calf which has fed entirely upon
milk; after it is cold, swell it a little in water; rub it
well with salt; then fill it with the same, and after-
wards cover it. Some cut them open and spread them
in salt, putting them in layers above one another, let-
ting them continue in the brine they produce, some-
times stirring or turning them for four, six, or nine
months; after which they are opened to dry, stretch-
ed out upon sticks or splints. They may be used im-
mediately after being dried, though it is reckoned best
to keep them till they be a year old before they are
used. The best method of making the runnet from
the skins, according to our author, is the following:
"Take pure spring-water, in quantity proportioned
to the runnet you intend to make; it is thought best
by some two skins to a gallon of water; boil the wa-
ter, which makes it softer or more pure; make it
with salt into brine that will swim an egg; then let it
stand till the heat is gone off to about the heat of
blood-warm; then put your maw-skin in, either cut
in pieces or whole; the former I should imagine best
or most convenient; letting it steep 24 hours, after
which it will be fit for use. Such quantity as is
judged necessary must then be put into the milk; about
a tea-cupful being necessary for ten cows milk; though
in this respect very particular directions cannot be
given."

when it may remain a day or two; after which it
should be strained again and put into a bottle, where if
well corked it will keep good for twelve months or
more; it will smell like a perfume, and a small quan-
tity of it will turn the milk and give the cheese a
pleasing flavour." He adds, that if the vesp or maw
will do for the purpose again almost as well as before.

221
Particulars
to be ob-
served in
making of
cheese.

In the making of cheese, supposing the runnet to
be of a good quality, the following particulars must
be observed: 1. The proper degree of heat. This
ought to be what is called milk-warm, or "a few
degrees removed from coolness," according to Mr
Twamley; considerably below the heat of milk taken
from the cow. If too hot, it may be reduced to
a proper temperature by cold water, as already
mentioned. 2. The time allowed for the runnet
to take effect. This, our author observes, ought
never to be less than an hour and a half. The process
may be accelerated, particularly by putting salt to the
milk before the runnet is added. Mr Twamley ad-
vises two handfuls to ten or twelve cows milk; but he
assures us, that no bad consequence can follow from
the curd being formed ever so soon; as it then only
becomes more solid and fit for making cheese of a pro-
per quality. 3. To prevent any difficulty in separa-
ting the curd from the whey, prepare a long cheese
knife from lath; one edge being sharpened to cut the
curd across from top to bottom in the tub, crossing it
with lines checkerwise; by which means the whey
rises through the vacancies made by the knife, and the
curd sinks with much more ease. A sieve has also
been used with success, in order to separate the whey
perfectly from the curd. 4. Having got the curd all
firm at the bottom of the tub, take the whey from it;
let it stand a quarter of an hour to drain before you
put it into the vat to break it. If any bits of flip-curd
swim among the whey, pour it all off together rather
than put it among the cheese, for the reasons already
given. Some dairy-women allow the curd to stand
for two hours; by which time it is become of so firm
a nature, that no breaking is necessary: they have only
to cut it in slices, put it into the vat, and work it well
by squeezing thoroughly to make it fit close; then
put it into the press. One author, however, approves
more of the method of breaking the curd, as less apt
to make the cheese hard and horny. 5. When the
whey is of a white colour, it is a certain sign that the
curd has not subsided; but if the method just now laid
down be followed, the whey will always be of a green
colour; indeed this colour of the whey is always a cer-
tain criterion of the curd having been properly managed.
6. The best method of preventing cheese from heaving,
is to avoid making the runnet too strong, to take care
that it be clean, and not tainted; to be certain that the
curd is fully come, and not to stir it before the air has
had time to escape; a quantity of air being always dis-
charged in this as in many other chemical processes.
7. Cheese is very apt to split in consequence of being
"salted within," especially when the vat is about half
filled. In this case the curd, though separated only in
a small degree by the salt, never closes or joins as it
ought to do. Mr Twamley prefers salting in the milk
greatly to this method. 8. Dry cracks in cheese are
before

generally produced by keeping curd from one meal to another, and letting the first become too stiff and hard before it is mixed with the other. 9. Curdly or wrinkle-coated cheese is caused by four milk. Cheese made of cold milk is apt to be hard, or to break and fly before the knife. 10. Such coated cheese is caused by being made too cold, as cheese that is made in winter or late in autumn is apt to be, unless laid in a warm room after it is made.

Cheese is of very different quality, according to the milk from which it is made: Thus, in Gloucestershire, what is called the second or two-meal cheese, is made from one meal of new milk and one of skimmed or old milk, having the cream taken away. Skimmed cheese, or stet-milk cheese, is made entirely from skimmed milk, the cream having been taken off to make butter. It goes by the name of Suffolk-cheese, and is much used at sea; being less liable to be affected by the heat of warm climates than the other kinds. A great deal of difference, however, is to be observed in the quality of it, which our author supposes to arise chiefly from greater care being taken in some places than in others.

Slip coat or soft cheese is made entirely of slip-curd, and dissolves into a kind of creamy liquor; which is a demonstration of the nature of this curd as already mentioned. It is commonly computed, that as much milk is required to make one pound of butter as two of cheese; and even more where the land is poor, and the pastures afford but little cream.—For further particulars with regard to these two commodities, see the articles BUTTER and CHEESE.

SECT. X. Making of Fruit-Liquors.

THESE, as objects of British husbandry, are principally two, Cyder and Perry; the manufacturing of which forms a capital branch in our fruit-counties, and of which the improvement must be considered as of great importance to the public, but particularly so to the inhabitants of those districts where these liquors constitute their common beverage.

Cyder and perry, when genuine and in high perfection, are excellent vinous liquors, and are certainly far more wholesome than many others which at present are in much higher estimation. When the must is prepared from the choicest fruit, and undergoes the exact degree of vinous fermentation requisite to its perfection, the acid and the sweet are so admirably blended with the aqueous, oily, and spiritous principles, and the whole so imbued with the grateful flavour of the rinds, and the agreeable aromatic bitter of the kernels, that it assumes a new character; grows lively, sparkling, and exhilarating; and when completely mellowed by time, the liquor becomes at once highly delicious to the palate, and congenial to the constitution; superior in every respect to most other English wines, and perhaps not inferior to many of the best foreign wines. Such (says Dr Fothergill†) would it be pronounced by all competent judges, were it not for the popular prejudice annexed to it as a cheap home-brewed liquor, and consequently within the reach of the vulgar. To compare such a liquor with the foreign fiery sophisticated mixtures often imported under the name of wines, would be to degrade it; for

it certainly surpasses them in flavour and pleasantness, as much as it exceeds them in wholesomeness and cheapness. But rarely do we meet with perry or cyder of this superior quality. For what is generally sold by dealers and inn-keepers is a poor, meagre, vapid liquor, prone to the acetic fermentation, and of course very injurious to the constitution. Is it not very mortifying, after the experience of so many centuries, that the art of preparing those ancient British liquors should still be so imperfectly understood as yet to seem to be in its very infancy?—That throughout the principal cyder districts, the practice should still rest on the most vague indeterminate principles, and that the excellence of the liquor should depend rather on a lucky random hit, than on good management! Yet such appears to be really the case even among the most experienced cyder-makers of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.

Mr Marshall, that nice observer of rural affairs, in his late tour* through those counties (expressly undertaken for the purpose of inquiry on this subject), informs us, that scarcely two of these professional artists are agreed as to the management of some of the most essential parts of the process. That palpable errors are committed as to the time and manner of gathering the fruit—in laying it up—in neglecting to separate the unfound—and to grind properly the rinds and kernels, &c. That the method of conducting the vinous fermentation, the most critical part of the operation, and which stamps the future value of the liquor, is by no means ascertained: While some promote the fermentation in a spacious open vat, others repress it by inclosing the liquor in a hog'shead, or strive to prevent it altogether. That no determinate point of temperature is regarded, and that the use of the thermometer is unknown or neglected. That they are as little consistent as to the time of racking off; and whether this ought to be done only once, or five or six times repeated. That for fining down the liquor, many have recourse to that odious article, bullock's blood, when the intention might be much better answered by whites of eggs or isinglass. And, finally, that the capricious taste of particular customers is generally consulted, rather than the real excellence of the liquor; and consequently that a very imperfect liquor is often vended, which tends to reduce the price, to disgrace the vender, and to bring the use of cyder and perry into disrepute.

The art of making vinous liquors is a curious chemical process; and its success chiefly depends on a dexterous management of the vinous fermentation, besides a close attention to sundry minute circumstances, the theory of which is perhaps not yet fully understood by the ablest chemists. Can we longer wonder then that so many errors should be committed by illiterate cyder-makers, totally unversed in the first principles of the chemical art? Some few, indeed, more enlightened than their brethren, and less bigotted to their own opinions, by dint of observation strike out improvements, and produce every now and then a liquor of superior quality, though perhaps far short of excellence, yet still sufficient to show what might possibly be accomplished by a series of new experiments conducted on philosophical principles. This might lead

† Both Pa-
pers, vol. v.
p. 343.

to successive improvements, till at length our English fruit-liquors might be carried to a pitch of perfection hitherto unknown, by which the demand, both at home and abroad, would soon be enlarged, the prices augmented according to the quality, the value of estates increased, and the health and superiority of these counties proportionably advanced. This might also help to point out a method of correcting the imperfections of these liquors; and of meliorating those of a weak meagre quality, by safer and more effectual means than are now practised: and though nothing can fully compensate the defect of sunshine in maturing the saccharine juices in unfavourable seasons, yet probably such liquor might, without the dangerous and expensive method of boiling in a copper vessel, admit of considerable improvement by the addition of barm or other suitable ferment, as yet unknown in the practice of the cyder districts; or perhaps rather by a portion of rich must, or some wholesome sweet, as honey, sugar-candy, or even mellasses, added in due proportion, previous to the fermentation. In fact, it appears from a late publication†, that the Germans are known to meliorate their thin harsh wines by an addition of concentrated must, not by evaporation, but by freezing. By this simple process they are made to emulate good French wines; a practice worthy of imitation, especially in the northern climates.

Cyder, as is well known, is made from apples, and Perry from pears only. The general method of preparing both these liquors is very much the same; and under the article CYDER a description is given of the way in which those fruits are gathered, ground, and pressed. The mill is not essentially different from that of a common tanner's mill for grinding bark. It consists of a mill-stone from two and an half to four feet and an half in diameter, running on its edge in a circular stone trough, from nine to twelve inches in thickness, and from one to two tons in weight. The bottom of the trough in which this stone runs is somewhat wider than the thickness of the stone itself; the inner side of the groove rises perpendicularly, but the outer spreads in such a manner as to make the top of the trough six or eight inches wider than the bottom; by which means there is room for the stone to run freely, and likewise for putting in the fruit, and stirring it up while grinding. The bed of a middle-sized mill is about 9 feet, some 10, and some 12; the whole being composed of two, three, or four stones cramped together, and finished after being cramped in this manner. The best stones are found in the forest of Dean; generally a dark, reddish gritstone, not calcareous; for if it were of a calcareous quality, the acid juice of the fruits would act upon it and spoil the liquor: a clean-grained grindstone grit is the fittest for the purpose. The runner is moved by means of an axle passing through the centre, with a long arm reaching without the bed of the mill, for a horse to draw by; on the other side is a shorter arm passing through the centre of the stone, as represented in the figure. An iron bolt, with a large head, passes through an eye, in the lower part of the swivel on which the stone turns, into the end of the inner arm of the axis; and thus the double motion of it is ob-

tained, and the stone kept perfectly upright. There ought also to be fixed on the inner arm of the axis, about a foot from the runner, a cogged wheel working in a circle of cogs, fixed upon the bed of the mill. The use of these is to prevent the runner from sliding, which it is apt to do when the mill is full; it likewise makes the work more easy for the horse. These wheels ought to be made with great exactness. Mr Marshall observes, that it is an error to make the horse draw by traces: "The acting point of draught (says he), the horse's shoulder, ought, for various reasons, to be applied immediately at the end of the arm of the axis; not two or three yards before it; perhaps of a small mill, near one fourth of its circumference." The building in which the mill is inclosed ought to be of such a size, that the horse may have a path of three feet wide betwixt the mill and the walls; so that a middling-sized mill, with its horse-path, takes up a space of 14 or 15 feet every way. The whole dimensions of the mill-house, according to our author, to render it any way convenient, are 24 feet by 20: it ought to have a floor thrown over it at the height of seven feet; with a door in the middle of the front, and a window opposite, with the mill on one side and the press on the other side of the window. The latter must be as near the mill as convenience will allow, for the more easy conveying the ground fruit from the one to the other. The press, of which the principle will be understood from the figure, has its bed or bottom about five feet square. This ought to be made entirely either of wood or stone; the practice of covering it with lead being now universally known to be pernicious. It has a channel cut a few inches within its outer edges, to catch the liquor as it is expressed, and convey it to a lip formed by a projection on that side of the bed opposite to the mill; having under it a stone trough or wooden vessel, sunk within the ground, when the bed is fixed low, to receive it. The press is worked with levers of different lengths; first a short, and then a moderately long one, both worked by hand; and lastly, a bar eight or nine feet long worked by a capstan or windlass. The expense of fitting up a mill-house is not very great. Mr Marshall computes it from 20l. to 25l. and, on a small scale, from 10l. to 15l. though much depends on the distance and carriage of the stone: when once fitted up, it will last many years.

The making of the fruit-liquors under consideration requires an attention to the following particulars. I. The fruit. II. The grinding. III. Pressing. IV. Fermenting. V. Correcting. VI. Laying up. VII. Bottling; each of which heads is subdivided into several others.

I. In the management of the fruit, the following particulars are to be considered.

1. The time of gathering; which varies according to the nature of the fruit. The early pears are fit for the mill in September; but few apples are ready for gathering before Michaelmas; though, by reason of accidental circumstances, they are frequently manufactured before that time. For sale cyder, and keeping drink, they are suffered to hang upon the trees till fully ripe; and the middle of October

her is generally looked upon to be a proper time for gathering the fire-apple. The criterion of a due degree of ripeness is the fruit falling from the tree; and to force it away before that time, in Mr Marshall's opinion, is robbing it of some of its most valuable particles. "The harvesting of fruit (says he) is widely different in this respect from the harvesting of grain; which has the entire plant to feed it after its separation from the soil; while fruit, after it is severed from the tree, is cut off from all possibility of a further supply of nourishment; and although it may have reached its wonted size, some of its more essential particles are undoubtedly left behind in the tree." Sometimes, however, the fruits which are late in ripening are apt to hang on the tree until spoiled by frosts; though weak watery fruits seem to be most injured in this manner; and Mr Marshall relates an instance of very fine liquor being made from golden pippins, after the fruit had been frozen as hard as ice.

2. The method of gathering. This, as generally practised, is directly contrary to the principle laid down by Mr Marshall, viz. beating them down with long slender poles. An evident disadvantage of this method is, that the fruit is of unequal ripeness; for the apples on the same trees will differ many days, perhaps even weeks, in their time of coming to perfection; whence some part of the richness and flavour of the fruit will be effectually and irremediably cut off. Nor is this the only evil to be dreaded; for as every thing depends on the fermentation it has to undergo, if this be interrupted, or rendered complex by a mixture of ripe and unripe fruits, and the liquor be not in the first instance sufficiently purged from its feculencies, it is difficult to clear the liquor afterwards. The former defect the cyder makers attempt to remedy by a mixture of brown sugar and brandy, and the latter by bullock's blood and brimstone; but neither of these can be expected to answer the purpose very effectually. The best method of avoiding the inconveniences arising from an unequal ripening of the fruit is to go over the trees twice, once with a hook, when the fruit begins to fall spontaneously; the second time, when the latter are sufficiently ripened, or when the winter is likely to set in, when the trees are to be cleared with the poles above-mentioned.

3. Maturing the gathered fruit. This is usually done by making it into heaps, as is mentioned under the article CYDER: but Mr Marshall entirely disapproves of the practice; because, when the whole are laid in a heap together, the ripest fruit will begin to rot before the other has arrived at that degree of artificial ripeness which it is capable of acquiring. "The due degree of maturation of fruit for liquor (he observes) is a subject about which men, even in this district, differ much in their ideas. The prevailing practice of gathering into heaps until the ripest begin to rot, is wasting the best of the fruit, and is by no means an accurate criterion. Some shake the fruit, and judge by the rattling of the kernels; others cut through the middle, and judge by their blackness; but none of these appear to be a proper test. It is not the state of the kernels but of the flesh; not of a few individuals, but of the greater part of the prime-fruit, which renders the collective body fit or unfit to be sent to the mill. The most rational test of the ripeness of the fruit, is that of the flesh

having acquired such a degree of mellowness, and its texture such a degree of tenderness, as to yield to moderate pressure. Thus, when the knuckle or the end of the thumb can with moderate exertion be forced into the pulp of the fruit, it is deemed in a fit state for grinding."

4. Preparation for the mill. The proper management of the fruit is to keep the ripe and unripe fruit separate from each other: but this cannot be done without a considerable degree of labour; for as by numberless accidents the ripe and unripe fruits are frequently confounded together, there cannot be any effectual method of separating them except by hand; and Mr Marshall is of opinion, that this is one of the grand secrets of cyder-making, peculiar to those who excel in the business; and he is surprised that it should not before this time have come into common practice.

5. Mixing fruits for liquor. Our author seems to doubt the propriety of this practice; and informs us, that the finer liquors are made from select fruits; and he hints that it might be more proper to mix liquors after they are made, than to put together the crude fruits.

11. Grinding, and management of the fruit when Grinding.
ground.

1. For the greater convenience of putting the fruit into the mill, every mill-house should have a fruit-chamber over it, with a trap-door to lower the fruit down into the mill. The best manner in which this can be accomplished, is to have the valve over the bed of the mill, and furnished with a cloth spout or tunnel reaching down to the trough in which the stone moves. No straw is used in the lofts, but sometimes the fruit is turned. In Herefordshire, it is generally believed, that grinding the rind and seeds of the fruit as well as the fleshy part to a pulp, is necessary towards the perfection of the cyder; whence it is necessary, that every kind of pains should be taken to perform the grinding in the most perfect manner. Mr Marshall complains, that the cyder-mills are so imperfectly finished by the workmen, that for the first fifty years they cannot perform their work in a proper manner. Instead of being nicely fitted to one another with the square and chisel, they are hewn over with a rough tool in such a careless manner, that horse-beans might lie in safety in their cavities. Some even imagine this to be an advantage, as if the fruit was more effectually and completely broken by rough than smooth stones. Some use fluted rollers of iron; but these will be corroded by the juice, and thus the liquor might be tinged. Smooth rollers will not lay hold of the fruit sufficiently to force it through.

Another improvement requisite in the cyder-mills is to prevent the matter in the trough from rising before the stone in the last stage of grinding, and a method of stirring it up in the trough more effectually than can be done at present. To remedy the former of these defects, it might perhaps be proper to grind the fruit first in the mill to a certain degree, and then put it between two smooth rollers to finish the operation in the most perfect manner. It is an error to grind too much at once; as this clogs up the mill, and prevents it from going easily. The usual quantity for a middle-sized mill is a bag containing four corn bushels; but our author had once an opportunity of seeing a mill

Fruit-Li- quors. in which only half a bag was put; and thus the work seemed to go on more easily as well as more quickly than when more was put in at once. The quantity put in at one time is to be taken out when ground. The usual quantity of fruit ground in a day is as much as will make three hogsheds of perry or two of cyder.

2. Management of the ground-fruit. Here Mr Marshall condemns in very strong terms the practice of pressing the pulp of the fruit as soon as the grinding is finished; because thus neither the rind nor seeds have time to communicate their virtues to the liquor. In order to extract these virtues in the most proper manner, some allow the ground-fruit to lie 24 hours or more after grinding, and even re-grind it, in order to have in the most perfect manner the flavour and virtues of the seeds and rind.

232 Pressing, &c. III. Pressing the fruit, and management of the residuum. This is done by folding up the ground-fruit in pieces of hair-cloth, and piling them up above one another in a square frame or mould, and then pulling down the press upon them, which squeezes out the juice, and forms the matter into thin and almost dry cakes. The first runnings come off foul and muddy; but the last, especially in perry, will be as clear and fine as if filtered thro' paper. It is common to throw away the residuum as useless; sometimes it is made use of when dry as fuel; sometimes the pigs will eat it, especially when not thoroughly squeezed; and sometimes it is ground a second time with water, and squeezed for an inferior kind of liquor used for the family. Mr Marshall advises to continue the pressure as long as a drop can be drawn. "It is found (says he), that even by breaking the cakes of refuse with the hands only gives the press fresh power over it; for though it has been pressed to the last drop, a gallon or more of additional liquor may be got by this means. Re-grinding them has a still greater effect: In this state of the materials the mill gains a degree of power over the more rigid parts of the fruit, which in the first grinding it could not reach. If the face of the runner and the bottom of the trough were dressed with a broad chisel, and made true to each other, and a moderate quantity of residuum ground at once, scarcely a kernel could escape unbroken, or a drop of liquor remain undrawn."

But though the whole virtue of the fruit cannot be extracted without grinding it very fine, some inconvenience attends this practice, as part of the pulp thus gets through the hair cloth, and may perhaps be injurious to the subsequent fermentation. This, however, may be in a great measure remedied by straining the first runnings through a sieve. The whole should also be allowed to settle in a cask, and drawn off into a fresh vessel previous to the commencement of the fermentation. The reduced fruit ought to remain some time between the grinding and pressing, that the liquor may have an opportunity of forming an extract with the rind and kernels: but this must not be pushed too far, as in that case the colour of the cyder would be hurt; and the most judicious managers object to the pulp remaining longer than 12 hours without pressure. "Hence (says our author), upon the whole, the most eligible management in this stage of the art appears to be this: Grind one prefal a-day; press

and re-grind the residuum in the evening; infuse the reduced matter all night among part of the first runnings; and in the morning re-press while the next prefal is grinding.

IV. Fermentation. The common practice is to have the liquor turned; that is, put into casks or hogsheds immediately from the press, and to fill them quite full; but it is undoubtedly more proper to leave some space empty to be filled up afterwards. No accurate experiment has been made with regard to the temperature of the air proper to be kept up in the place where the fermentation goes on. Frost is prejudicial: but when the process usually commences, that is about the middle of October, the liquor is put into airy shades, where the warmth is scarce greater than in the open atmosphere; nay, they are frequently exposed to the open air without any covering farther than a piece of tile or flat stone over the bung-hole, propped up by a wooden pin on one side to cause the rain water run off. In a complete manufactory of fruit-liquor, the fermenting room should be under the same roof with the mill-house; a continuation of the press-room, or at least opening into it, with windows or doors on every side, to give a free admission of air into it; sufficient defences against frost; fruit-lofts over it, and vaults underneath for laying up the liquors after fermentation; with small holes in the crown of the arch to admit a leathern pipe, for the purpose of conveying the liquors occasionally from the one to the other.

In making of fruit-liquors, no ferment is used as in making of beer; though, from Mr Marshall's account of the matter, it seems far from being unnecessary. Owing to this omission, the time of the commencement of the fermentation is entirely uncertain. It takes place sometimes in one, two, or three days; sometimes not till a week or month after turning; but it has been observed, that liquor which has been agitated in a carriage, though taken immediately from the press, will sometimes pass almost immediately into a state of fermentation. The continuance of the fermentation is no less uncertain than the commencement of it. Liquors, when much agitated, will go through it perhaps in one day; but when allowed to remain at rest, the fermentation commonly goes on two or three days, and sometimes five or six. The fermenting liquor, however, puts on a different appearance according to circumstances. When produced from fruits properly matured, it generally throws up a thick scum resembling that of malt liquor, and of a thickness proportioned to the species and ripeness of the fruit; the riper the fruit, the more scum being thrown up. Perry gives but little scum, and cyder will sometimes also do the same; sometimes it is intentionally prevented from doing it.

After having remained some time in the fermenting vessel, the liquor is racked or drawn off from the lees and put into fresh casks. In this part of the operation also Mr Marshall complains greatly of the little attention that is paid to the liquor. The ordinary time for racking perry is before it has done hissing, or sometimes when it begins to emit fixed air in plenty. The only intention of the operation is to free the liquor from its faces by a cock placed at a little distance from the bottom; after which the remainder is to be filtered

filtered through a canvas or flannel bag. This filtered liquor differs from the rest in having an higher colour; having no longer any tendency to ferment, but on the contrary checking the fermentation of that which is racked off; and if it loses its brightness, it is no longer easily recovered.—A fresh fermentation usually commences after racking; and if it become violent, a fresh racking is necessary in order to check it; in consequence of which the same liquor will perhaps be racked five or six times: but if only a small degree of fermentation takes place, which is called stetting, it is allowed to remain in the same cask; though even here the degree of fermentation which requires racking is by no means determined. Mr Marshall informs us that the best manufacturers, however, repeat the rackings until the liquor will lie quiet, or nearly so; and if it be found impracticable to accomplish this by the ordinary method of fermentation, recourse must be had to fumigation with sulphur, which is called skimming the casks. For this fumigation, it is necessary to have matches made of thick linen-cloth about ten inches long, and an inch broad, thickly coated with brimstone for about eight inches of their length. The cask is then properly seasoned, and every vent except the bung-hole tightly stopped; a match kindled; lowered down into the cask, and held by the end undipped until it be well lighted and the bung be driven in; thus suspending the lighted match within the cask. Having burnt as long as the contained air will supply the fire, the match dies, the bung is raised, the remnant of the match drawn out, and the cask suffered to remain before the liquor be put into it for two or three hours, more or less according to the degree of power the sulphur ought to have. The liquor retains a smell of the sulphureous acid; but this goes off in a short time, and no bad effect is ever observed to follow.

In some places the liquor is left to ferment in open casks, where it stands till the first fermentation be pretty well over; after which the frost or yeast collected upon the surface is taken off, it being supposed that it is this yeast mixing with the clear liquor which causes it to fret after racking. The fermentation being totally ceased, and the lees subsided, the liquor is racked off into a fresh cask, and the lees filtered as above directed. Our author mentions a way of fermenting fruit-liquors in broad shallow vats, not less than five feet in diameter, and little more than two feet deep; each vat containing about two hogsheds. In these the liquor remains until it has done rising, or till the fermentation has nearly ceased, when it is racked off without skimming, the critical juncture being caught before the yeast fall; the whole sinking gradually together as the liquor is drawn off. In this practice also the liquor is seldom drawn off a second time.

Cyder is made of three different kinds, viz. rough, sweet, and of a middle richness. The first kind being usually destined for servants, is made with very little ceremony. "If it is but zeyder (says Mr Marshall), and has body enough to keep, no matter for the richness and flavour. The rougher it is, the further it will go, and the more acceptable custom has rendered it not only to the workmen but to their masters. A palate accustomed to sweet cyder would judge the rough cyder of the farm-house to be a mixture of vinegar and water, with a little dissolved alum to give it rough-

ness." The method of producing this austere liquor is to grind them in a crude under-ripe state, and subject the liquor to a full fermentation.—For the sweet liquor, make choice of the sweeter fruits: mature them fully; and check the fermentation of the liquor.—To produce liquors of a middle richness, the nature of the fruit, as well as the season in which it is matured, must be considered. The fruits to be made choice of are such as yield juices capable of affording a sufficiency both of richness and strength; though much depends upon proper management. Open vats, in our author's opinion, are preferable to close vessels: but if casks be used at all, they ought to be very large, and not filled; nor ought they to lie upon their sides, but to be set on their ends with their heads out, and to be filled only to such an height as will produce the requisite degree of fermentation: but in whatever way the liquor be put to ferment, Mr Marshall is of opinion that the operation ought to be allowed to go on freely for the first time; though after being racked off, any second fermentation ought to be prevented as much as possible.

V. Correcting, provincially called dolloring. The Of correcting imperfections which art attempts to supply in these liquors are, 1. Want of strength; 2. Want of richness. 3. Want of flavour. 4. Want of colour and brightness. ²³⁵ ing or dolloring the liquors.

The want of strength is supplied by brandy or any other spirit in sufficient quantity to prevent the acrimonious fermentation. The want of richness is supplied by what are generally termed sweets, but prepared in a manner which our author says has never fallen under his notice. To supply the want of flavour, an infusion of hops is sometimes added, which is said to communicate an agreeable bitter, and at the same time a fragrance; whence it becomes a substitute for the juices of the rind and kernels thrown away to the pigs and poultry, or other otherwise wasted. The want of colour is sometimes supplied by elder berries, but more generally by burnt sugar, which gives the desired colour, and a degree of bitter which is very much liked. The sugar is prepared either by burning it on a salamander, and suffering it to drop, as it melts, into water; or by boiling it over the fire (in which case brown sugar is to be used), until it acquire an agreeable bitter; then pouring in boiling water in the proportion of a gallon to two lbs. of sugar, and stir until the liquor become uniform. A pint of this preparation will colour a hogshed of cyder. Brightness is obtained by a mixture of the blood of bullocks or sheep; that of swine being rejected, though it does not appear to be more unfit for the purpose than either of the other two. The only thing necessary to be done here is to stir the blood well as it is drawn from the animal, to prevent the parts from separating; and it ought to be stirred "both ways, for a quarter of an hour." The liquor, however, is not always in a proper condition for being refined with this ingredient; on which account a little of it ought frequently to be tried in a vial. A quart or less will be sufficient for a hogshed. After the blood is poured in, the liquor should be violently agitated, to mix the whole intimately together. This is done by a stick slit into four, and inserted into the bung-hole; working it briskly about in the liquor until the whole be thoroughly mixed. In about 24 hours the

²³⁶ Fruit-Liquors. the blood will be subsided, and the liquor ought instantly to be racked off; as by remaining upon the blood even for two or three days, it will receive a taint not easily to be got rid of. It is remarkable that this refinement with the blood carries down not only the faces, but the colour also; rendering the liquor, though ever so highly coloured before, almost as limpid as water. Ifinglafs and eggs are sometimes made use of in fining cyder as well as wine.

²³⁶ Of laying up, or cask-ing. VI. Laying up or shutting up the cyder in close casks, according to Mr Marshall, is as little understood as any of the rest of the parts; the bungs being commonly put in at some certain time, or in some particular month, without any regard to the state the liquor itself is in. "The only criterion (says he) I have met with for judging the critical time of laying up, is when a fine white cream like matter first begins to form upon the surface. But this may be too late; it is probably a symptom at least of the acetous fermentation, which if it take place in any degree must be injurious. Yet if the casks be bunged tight, some criterion is necessary; otherwise, if the vinous fermentation have not yet finally ceased, or should recommence, the casks will be endangered, and the liquor injured. Hence, in the practice of the most cautious manager whose practice I have had an opportunity of observing, the bungs are first driven in lightly, when the liquor is fine, and the vinous fermentation is judged to be over; and some time afterward, when all danger is past, to fill up the casks, and drive the bungs securely with a rag, and rosin them over at top. Most farmers are of opinion, that after the liquor is done fermenting, it ought to have something to feed upon; that is, to prevent it from running into the acetous fermentation. For this purpose some put in parched beans, others egg-shells, some mutton-suet, &c. Mr Marshall does not doubt that something may be useful; and thinks that ifinglafs may be as proper as any thing that can be got.

²³⁷ Bottling. VII. Bottling. This depends greatly on the quality of the liquors themselves. Good cyder can seldom be bottled with propriety under a year old; sometimes not till two. The proper time is when it has acquired the utmost degree of richness and flavour in the casks; and this it will preserve for many years in bottles. It ought to be quite fine at the time of bottling; or if not so naturally, ought to be fined artificially with ifinglafs and eggs.

²³⁸ Of cyder-kins. THE liquor, called cyderkin, purse, or perkin, is made of the murk or gross matter remaining after the cyder is pressed out. To make this liquor, the murk is put into a large vat, with a proper quantity of boiled water, which has stood till it be cold again: if half the quantity of water be used that there was of cyder, it will be good; if the quantities be equal, the cyderkin will be small. The whole is left to infuse 48 hours, and then well pressed: what is squeezed out by the press is immediately tunned up and stopped; it is fit to drink in a few days. It clarifies of itself, and serves in families instead of small beer. It will keep, if boiled, after pressure, with a convenient quantity of hops.

We must not conclude this section without particular notice of the liquor called cyder wine, which is

made from the juice of apples taken from the press and boiled, and which being kept three or four years is said to resemble Rhenish. The method of preparing this wine, as communicated by Dr Rush of America, where it is much practiced, consists in wine, according to Dr Rush's recipe. ²³⁹ evaporating in a brewing copper the fresh apple-juice till half of it be consumed. The remainder is then immediately conveyed into a wooden cooler, and afterwards is put into a proper cask, with an addition of yeast, and fermented in the ordinary way. The process is evidently borrowed from what has long been practiced on the recent juice of the grape, under the term of vin euis, or boiled wine, not only in Italy, but also in the islands of the Archipelago, from time immemorial.

This process has lately become an object of imitation in the cyder counties, and particularly in the west of England, where it is reported that many hundred hogs-heads of this wine have already been made; and as it is said to betray no sign of an impregnation of copper by the usual chemical tests, it is considered as perfectly wholesome, and is accordingly drunk without apprehension by the common people. Others, however, suspect its innocence; whence it appeared an object of no small moment to determine in so doubtful a matter, whether or not the liquor acquires any noxious quality from the copper in which it is boiled.—With this view Dr Fothergill† made a variety of experiments; and the result seemed to afford a strong presumption that the cyder wine does contain a minute impregnation of copper; not very considerable indeed, but yet sufficient, in the Doctor's opinion, to put the public on their guard concerning a liquor that comes in so very "questionable a shape."

It is a curious chemical fact, he observes, if it be really true, that acid liquors, while kept boiling in copper vessels, acquire little or no impregnation from the metal, but presently begin to act upon it when left to stand in the cold. Can this be owing to the agitation occasioned by boiling, or the expulsion of the aerial acid? Atmospheric air powerfully corrodes copper, probably through the intervention of the aerial or rather nitrous acid, for both are now acknowledged to be present in the atmosphere. But the latter is doubtless a much stronger menstruum of copper than the former.

In the present process the liquor is properly directed to be passed into a wooden cooler as soon as the boiling is completed. But as all acids, and even common water, acquire an impregnation and unpleasant taste, from standing in copper vessels in the cold, why may not the acid juice of apples act in some degree on the copper before the boiling commences? Add to this, that brewing coppers, without far more care and attention than is generally bestowed on them in keeping them clean, are extremely apt to contract verdigris, (a rank poison), as appears from the blue or green streaks very visible when these vessels are minutely examined. Should the unfermented juice be thought incapable of acting on the copper either in a cold or boiling state, yet no one will venture to deny its power of washing off or dissolving verdigris already formed on the internal surface of the vessel. Suppose only one-eighth part of a grain of verdigris to be contained in a bottle of this wine, a quantity that may elude the ordinary tests, and that a bottle

should be drunk daily by a person without producing any violent symptom or internal uneasiness; yet what person in his senses would knowingly chuse to hazard the experiment of determining how long he could continue even this quantity of a slow poison in his daily beverage with impunity? And yet it is to be feared the experiment is but too often unthinkingly made, not only with cyder-wine, but also with many of the foreign wines prepared by a similar process. For the grape juice, when evaporated in a copper vessel, under the denomination of vino cotto or boiled wine, cannot but acquire an equal if not yet stronger impregnation of the metal, than the juice of apples, seeing that verdegis itself is manufactured merely by the application of the acid husks of grapes to plates of copper.

Independent of the danger of any metallic impregnation, the Doctor thinks it may be justly questioned how far the process of preparing boiled wines is necessary or reconcilable to reason or economy. The evaporation of the must by long boiling not only occasions an unnecessary waste of both liquor and fuel, but also dissipates certain essential principles, without which the liquor can never undergo a complete fermentation, and without a complete fermentation there can be no perfect wine. Hence the boiled wines are generally crude, heavy, and flat, liable to produce indigestion, flatulency, and diarrhoea. If the evaporation be performed hastily, the liquor contracts a burnt empyreumatic taste, as in the present instance; if slowly, the greater is the danger of a metallic impregnation. For the process may be presumed to be generally performed in a vessel of brass or copper, as few families possess any other that is sufficiently capacious. Nor can a vessel of cast-iron, though perfectly safe, be properly recommended for this purpose, as it would probably communicate a chalybeate taste and dark colour to the liquor. At all events, brass and copper vessels ought to be entirely banished from this and every other culinary process.

SECT. XI. On Manures, and the best Methods of collecting them.

We have deferred treating on these to the last part, as they are in fact derived in more or less quantity from every operation in husbandry, though they are undoubtedly the foundation of the whole; for no method yet proposed for making a soil fertile without manure has ever been properly ascertained to be successful. The mode in which they operate has been so fully explained under the article AGRICULTURE, that nothing farther seems necessary to be added in this place. Of late, however, a new manure has been introduced into some countries, the operation of which cannot so well be explained upon the principles there laid down. This is Gypsum. In the eighth volume of the Annals of Agriculture we are informed, that it is commonly used as a manure in Switzerland. In the 10th volume of the same work, Sir Richard Sutton gives some account of an experiment made with it on his estate; but in such an inaccurate manner, that nothing could be determined. "The appearance in general (says he), I think, was rather against the benefit of the plaster, though not decidedly so." He tells us, that its virtues were a sub-

ject of debate in Germany. In America this substance seems to have met with more success than in any other country. In the fifth volume of Bath Papers, Mr Kirkpatrick of the Isle of Wight, who had himself visited North America, informs us, that it is much used in the United States, on account of its cheapness and efficacy; though, from what is told in the same place, we must undoubtedly be led to suppose, that its efficacy must be very great before it can be intitled to cheapness. In the first place, it is brought from the hills in the neighbourhood of Paris to Havre de Grace, and from thence exported to America; which of itself must occasion a considerable expense, though the plaster were originally given gratis. In the next place, it must be powdered in a stamping mill, and the finer it is powdered so much the better. In the third place, it must be sown over the ground to be manured with it. The quantity for grass is six bushels to an acre. It ought to be sown on dry ground in a wet day; and its efficacy is said to last from seven to twelve years. It operates entirely as a top dressing.

In the 10th volume of Annals of Agriculture, we have some extracts from a treatise by Mr Powel, president of the Philadelphia Society for encouraging Agriculture, upon the subject of gypsum as a manure; of the efficacy of which he gives the following instances. 1. In October 1786, plaster of Paris was sown in a rainy day upon wheat-stubble without any previous culture. The crop of wheat had scarce been worth reaping, and no kind of grass seed had been sown upon the ground; nevertheless, in the month of June it was covered with a thick mat of white clover, clean and even, from six to eight inches in height. A piece of ground adjoining to this white clover was also sown with gypsum, and exhibited a fine appearance of white and red clover mixed with spear-grass. Some wet ground sown at the same time was not in the least improved.—This anecdote rests entirely on the veracity of an anonymous farmer. 2. Eight bushels of plaster of Paris spread upon two acres and an half of wheat-stubble ground, which the spring before had been sowed with about two pounds of red clover-seed to the acre for pasture, yielded five tons of hay by the middle of June. A small piece of ground of similar quality, but without any plaster, produced only one ton and an half in the same proportion.—Mr Powel concludes in favour of the effects of the plaster upon arable as well as grass land.—Other accounts to the same purpose have been published; but it does not appear to have been tried in this country.

With regard to the other kinds of manure commonly in use in this country, their efficacy is well known; the only difficulty is to procure them in sufficient quantity. In such lands as lie near the sea, sea-weeds offer an unlimited quantity of excellent manure. In the neighbourhood of rivers, the weeds with which they abound offer likewise an excellent manure in plenty. Oil-cake, malt-coombs, the refuse of slaughter-houses, &c. all are excellent where they can be got: but the situations which afford these are comparatively few; so that in most cases the farmer must depend much on his own ingenuity and industry for raising a sufficient quantity of dung to answer his purposes; and the methods taken for this purpose vary according to the situation of different places, or according to the fancy of the husbandman.

Manure. In all countries where chalk, marle, or lime are to be had, they are certainly to be employed in their proper departments; but besides these, dung, properly so called, mixed with earth or putrid animal and vegetable substances, constitutes a principal part of the manure. In Norfolk, Mr Marshall tells us, that the quality of dung is attended to with greater precision than in most other districts. Town-muck, as it is called, is held in most estimation; and the large towns Norwich and Yarmouth supply the neighbouring country. As Yarmouth, however, is a maritime place, and otherwise in a manner surrounded by marshes, straw is of course a scarce and dear article; whence, instead of littering their horses with it, they use sand. As the bed becomes soiled or wet, fresh sand is put on, until the whole is in a manner saturated with urine and dung, when it is cleared away, and reckoned muck of such excellent quality, that it is sent for from a very great distance. With regard to other kinds of dung, that from horses fed upon hay and corn is looked upon to be the best; that of fatting cattle the next; while the dung of lean cattle, particularly of cows, is supposed to be greatly inferior, even though turnips make part of their food. The dung of cattle kept on straw alone is looked upon to be of little or no value; while the muck from trodden straw is by some thought to be better than that from the straw which is eaten by the lean-stock.—Composts of dung with earth or marle are very generally used.

242 Manures used in Norfolk.
243 In the Midland districts.
In the midland counties of England, Mr Marshall informs, the cores of horns crushed in a mill have been used as manure; though he knows not with what success. His only objection is the difficulty of reducing them to powder. Dung is extremely dear in Norfolk; half a guinea being commonly given for a wagon-load driven by five horses. Great quantities of lime and marle are found in this district.—With regard to the method of raising dung in general, perhaps the observations of Mr Marshall upon the management of the Yorkshire farmers may be equally satisfactory with any thing that has yet been published on the subject.

244 Mr Marshall's directions for raising dung.
"The general practice (says he) is to pile the dung on the highest part of the yard; or, which is still less judicious, to let it lie scattered about on the side of a slope, as it were for the purpose of dissipating its virtues. The urine which does not mix with the dung is almost invariably led off the nearest way to the common sewer, as if it were thought a nuisance to the premises. That which mixes with the dung is of course carried to the midden, and assists in the general dissipation. A yard of dung, nine-tenths of which are straw, will discharge, even in dry weather, some of its more

fluid particles; and in rainy weather, is, notwithstanding the straw, liable to be washed away if exposed on a rising ground. But how much more liable to waste is a mixture of dung and urine, with barely a sufficiency of straw to keep them together? In dry weather the natural oozing is considerable; and in a wet season every shower of rain washes it away in quantities.—The Norfolk method of bottoming the dung-yard with mould is here indispensably necessary to common good management. There is no better manure for grass-lands than mould saturated with the oozings of a dunghill: it gets down quicker among the grass, and has generally a more visible effect than the dung itself. Under this management the arable land would have the self-same dung it now has; while the grass-land would have an annual supply of riches, which now run waste in the sewers and rivulets.—But before a dung-yard can with propriety be bottomed with mould, the bottom of the yard itself ought to be properly formed. A part of it situated conveniently for carriages to come at, and low enough to receive the entire drainings of the stable, cattle stalls, and hog sties, should be hollowed out in the manner of an artificial drinking-pool, with a rim somewhat rising, and with covered drains laid into it from the various sources of liquid manure. During the summer months, at leisure times, and embracing opportunities of back-carriage, fill the hollow nearly full with mould; such as the scowerings of ditches, the shovelings of roads, the maiden earth of lanes and waste corners, the coping of stone-quarries, &c. &c. leaving the surface somewhat dished; and within this dish set the dung-pile, carefully keeping up a rim of mould round the base of the pile higher than the adjoining surface of the yard; equally to prevent extraneous matter from finding its way into the reservoirs, and to prevent the escape of that which falls within its circuit."

245 Mr Young's experiments on charcoal.
In the first volume of the Annals of Agriculture, Mr Young, from a theory that phlogiston is the food of plants, made several experiments upon charcoal as a manure; but the results were not sufficiently favourable to induce a trial of it in the large way. It must be remembered, that though phlogiston is very probably the true vegetable food, yet it is phlogiston volatilized, as in putrid animal and vegetable substances, not in its fixed state as in charcoal, which can have any effect. See AGRICULTURE, Part I. Sect. i. et seq.

A very advantageous method of manuring grass-lands, when there is an opportunity, is that of overflowing them with water, which is mostly practised with low flat grounds. For an account of the best methods in use for this purpose, see the article MEADOW.

H U S

Virgilian Husbandry, a term used by authors to express that sort of husbandry, the precepts of which are so beautifully delivered in Virgil's Georgics. The husbandry in England is Virgilian in general, as is seen by the method of paring and burning the surface, of raftering or cross-ploughing, and of the care in destroying weeds, upon the same principle, and by much the same means. In those parts of England along the

H U S

southern coast, where the Romans principally inhabited, not only the practice, but the expressions, are in many respects the same with those of the ancient Romans, many of the terms used by the ploughmen being of Latin origin, and the same with those used by those people on the like occasions. And on a strict observation, more of Virgil's husbandry is at this time practised in England than in Italy itself. This change in the Italian.