The subject of this article has been so largely treated in the body of the work, that it would be equally improper and unnecessary to attempt anything like a complete or formal treatise in this place. But as the view of agriculture there given, belongs to a time when the change from what is called the old to the new husbandry, had not yet been completed in any part of Britain; and as the progress of improvement has, of late years, been rapid and extensive beyond all former experience; it hence becomes necessary that we should here exhibit a more particular account of that important change, and of the present state of knowledge in general, in regard to the principles and practice of this, the most important of the economical arts. In doing so, it shall be our endeavour to avoid repetition; and when we touch upon any ground already examined by our predecessors, it shall only be for the purpose of adding more correct, or more useful information.

Such being the objects of this supplementary article, we hope to be able to accomplish them, by the details and observations which we shall offer under the four following chapters. In the first, we shall treat of what regards the cultivation and products of ARABLE LAND; in the second, of the management of GRASS LANDS, and the improvement of WASTES; in the third, of agricultural LIVE STOCK; and in the fourth, which will be of a more general kind, we shall endeavour to point out those circumstances which have more particularly contributed to the improvement of agriculture in this country, and those also which seem still to obstruct its further advancement.

There are, besides the subjects which fall to be treated under these divisions, some others, which certainly reform component parts of agricultural science, and to refer to which it will be necessary to advert in this work; but as these subjects are not of equal interest to husbandmen generally, and as they are capable of being treated with advantage in a separate form, we shall reserve them for distinct articles, to be afterwards introduced under their respective heads. Such are the subjects of the Dairy, of Drainage, of Embankment, of Irrigation, and of Woods or Plantations.

CHAP. I.

ARABLE LAND.

We shall endeavour to arrange all the most important details connected with this first division of our subject under the eight following sections: 1. Of implements and machinery: 2. Of farm-buildings: 3. Of fences: 4. Of tillage: 5. Of following: 6. Of the cultivation of the different crops: 7. Of the order, of their succession: 8. Of the various substances used as manure, and the modes of applying them.*

* We have not thought it necessary to make Soils the subject of a separate section under this chapter, because the article in the body of the work contains nearly all that can be said in regard to them, in a popular way. Those who wish to go further may consult the Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, by Sir Humphry Davy, whose observations we could not have abridged with any advantage in this place. Sect. I. Implements and Machinery.

The numerous implements of tillage husbandry may be arranged under these six heads—such as are employed, 1. In preparing land for semination; 2. In depositing the seed; 3. During the growth of the plants; 4. In reaping and securing the crop; 5. In preparing it for market; and, 6. In the general purposes of a farm. But as the same implement is sometimes used for more than one purpose, it would be of little consequence to adhere strictly to this or any other arrangement. The implements required for rendering land fit for tillage do not belong to this part of the article, and several others that have not yet been brought into general use, or are employed only for particular purposes, shall be noticed under the sections to which they respectively belong.

1. Ploughs.

Of ploughs there are a great many different sorts; and, besides the variety of construction occasioned by the difference of soils, and the different purposes for which they are employed even on the same soil, there is a considerable diversity in the form, in districts where both the soil and the mode of culture are nearly alike. The most obvious general distinction among ploughs is, their being constructed with or without wheels; and each of these kinds may be again distinguished by other circumstances—such as the form of the mould-board and share; their operation in making one or more furrows at a time; their size; and the depth at which they are calculated to work, as in trench-ploughing. It would neither be of much utility, nor at all consistent with our limits, to describe all the numerous varieties of form. The nature of the operation to be performed, and the rules for constructing ploughs that shall be adapted to the different purposes of the cultivator, have been already pointed out in the body of the work; and, therefore, all that is necessary here is to mention those ploughs that are in most general use, in the best cultivated districts.

The Swing-Plough, with a feathered sock or share, and a curved mould-board, is almost the only one used in Scotland, and throughout a considerable part of England. The old Scotch plough mentioned in our former article has been laid aside, except in a few of the least improved counties, where it is still found useful, when the soil is encumbered by roots or stones. The swing-plough is drawn with less power than wheel ploughs, the friction not being so great; and it probably admits of greater variations in regard to the breadth and depth of the furrow slice. It is usually drawn by two horses abreast in common tillage; but for ploughing between the rows of the drill culture, a smaller one, drawn by one horse, is commonly employed. A plough of this kind, having a mould-board on each side, is also used both in forming narrow ridges for turnips and potatoes, and in laying up the earth to the roots of the plants, after the intervals have been cleaned and pulverized by the horse and hand hoe. This plough is sometimes made in such a manner, that the mould-board may be shifted from one side to the other when working on hilly grounds; by which means the furrows are all laid in the same direction—a mode of construction as old as the days of Fitzherbert, who wrote before the middle of the sixteenth century. This is called a turn-west plough.

Swing-ploughs, similar to the present, have been long known in England. In Blythe's Improver Improved, (Edit. 1652,) we have engravings of several ploughs; and what he calls the "plain plough" does not seem to differ much in its principal parts from the one now in use. Amos, in an Essay on Agricultural Machines, says that a person named Lunnus (whom he is mistaken in calling a Scotchman, see Maxwell's Practical Husbandman, p. 191.) first attempted its construction upon mathematical principles which he learned in Holland; but having obtained a patent for the making and vending of this plough, he withheld the knowledge of these principles from the public. However, one Pashley, plough-wright to Sir Charles Turner of Kirkleatham, having a knowledge of those principles, constructed upon them a vast number of ploughs. Afterwards his son established a manufactory for the making of them at Rotherham. Hence they obtained the name of the Rotherham plough; but in Scotland they were called the Dutch or patent plough."—"At length the Americans, having obtained a knowledge of those principles, either from Britain or Holland, claimed the priority of the invention; in consequence of which, Mr Jefferson, President of the United States, presented the principles for the construction of a mould-board, first to the Institute of France, and next to the Board of Agriculture in England, as a wonderful discovery in mathematics." (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. VI. p. 487.)

According to another writer, the Rotherham plough was first constructed in Yorkshire in 1720, about ten years before Lunnus's improvements. (Survey of the West Riding of Yorkshire.)

But the present improved swing-plough was little known in Scotland till about the year 1764, when Small's method of constructing it began to excite attention.* This ingenious mechanic formed the mould-board upon distinct and intelligible principles, and afterwards made it of cast-iron. His appendage of a chain has been since laid aside. It has been disputed, whether he took the Rotherham or the old Scotch plough for the basis of his improvements. The swing plough has been since varied a little, in some parts of Scotland, from Small's form, for the purpose of adapting it more completely to particular situations and circumstances. Of late this plough has been made entirely of iron. See Plate I.

Wheel-Ploughs, used in many parts of England, Wheel-are also constructed in a great variety of forms. Their chief recommendation is, that they require less skill in the ploughman; but it is admitted, that the friction caused by the wheels adds to the resistance, and that they are more expensive, and more liable to

* Small's Treatise on Ploughs and Wheel Carriages, 1784; and Lord Kames's Gentleman Farmer.

Implement be put out of order, as well as to be disturbed in their progress by clods, stones, and other inequalities, than those of the swing kind. Wheel-ploughs, says Dr Dickson (Practical Agriculture, Vol. I, p. 7.), should be seldom had recourse to by the experienced ploughman; though they may be more convenient and more manageable for those who are not perfectly informed in that important and useful art.

The Hertfordshire and Kentish turn-west wheel-plough, as well as the swing-plough, are described by Blythe; and they do not seem to have received much improvement since his time. The former is thought most suitable for general purposes on stiff tenacious soils; and the latter where very deep ploughing is required.

On light loamy and friable soils, where deep ploughing is not necessary, the Norfolk wheel-plough will be found convenient and useful; it is compact and light in its form, doing its work with neatness, and requiring only a small power of draught.

To the improved common wheel-plough an iron earth-board, firmly screwed to the coulter, has been lately added. It is made use of when ploughing turf, which it takes off by itself, and turns into the furrow, immediately covering it with earth. It is observed, that, by this management, turf at one ploughing has the appearance of a fallow, and harrows nearly as well; but more strength is required in the team. A similar sort of skim coulter may be added to any other plough, and may be useful in turning down green crops and long dung, as well as in trench ploughing. But in most instances it is thought a preferable plan, where the soil is to be stirred to an unusual depth, to make two common swing-ploughs follow each other in the same track; the one before taking a shallow furrow, and the other going deeper, and throwing up a new furrow upon the former.

Two furrow ploughs are used in a few places; but are not likely ever to become general. They are constructed either with or without wheels. A plough of this kind was strongly recommended by Lord Somerville, and is used by His Lordship and others, apparently with some advantages. In Blythe's Improver Improved, there is an engraving of this plough also. But, with all the improvements made by Lord Somerville, it can never come into competition for general purposes with the present single furrow ploughs; and he admits, that it would be no object to invade the system already established in well cultivated counties; though, where large teams are employed, with a driver besides the ploughman, it would certainly be a matter of importance to use this plough, at least on light friable soils. "Their horses," he says, "will not feel the difference between their own single furrow working one acre, or the well constructed two furrow plough with two acres per day; there is no system deranged, and double work done." (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 418.)

Amos, already mentioned, has gone much beyond this. In his Essay in the Board's Communications formerly referred to, he gives a description with an engraving of a machine, which combines, "two, three, or four ploughs together, for ploughing furrows nine by five inches square." On soils of a tenacity next to clay, "six horses will draw four ploughs; four horses three ploughs, and three horses two ploughs, and every plough to plough an acre a day." It is scarcely necessary to add, that such machines are altogether unfit for agricultural operations; the nature and condition of the soil and surface, varied in ways innumerable, will never permit the general use of them; and even in the few situations where they may be employed, there is reason to believe that ploughing cannot be done cheaper, and certainly not so well as by the two horse single furrow plough.

Various other implements under the name of Miner, &c., ploughs have been constructed for stirring the soil—such as the Miner for following in the furrow of a common plough, and loosening the ground to a greater depth, without bringing up the subsoil—the Paring Plough, and the Mole and other sorts of ploughs for draining; some of which shall be afterwards noticed under their proper heads. See Plate II.

2. Cultivator and Grubber.

A great variety of implements have been contrived for stirring and pulverizing the soil, without turning up a new surface as the plough does. Some of them are used in preparing it for the seed, and others, as horse-hoes, between drilled crops. It were to no purpose to enumerate and describe all these implements; we shall here notice only one machine of very recent introduction which promises to be of much utility. It is said to be an improvement on the Cultivator, and has been called a grubber, from its efficiency in bringing weed roots to the surface. It consists of two strong rectangular frames, the one including the other, and nine bars mortised into the inner one, with eleven coulters or tines with triangular sharp-edged dipping feet, four cast-iron wheels, two handles, &c. (See Plate I.) All the coulters are fixed in these bars, except two which are placed in the side beams of the outer frame, and may be set to go more or less deep by means of pins and wedges. It is useful in stirring land on which potatoes or turnips have grown, or that has been ploughed in autumn, or during winter; so that a crop may be sown in spring without further use of the plough. It works as deep as the plough has gone, and, by the reclined position of the coulters, brings to the surface all the weed roots that lurk in the soil. Beans and peas have been sown in spring on the winter furrow, after being stirred by the grubber; and barley also, after turnip, without any ploughing at all. In working fallow it is used with good effect in saving one, two, or more ploughings. This implement is made of different sizes, and may be worked either by four or by two horses.

3. Harrows.

The harrows most generally used are of an oblong shape, each containing twenty tines, five or six inches long beneath the bulls or bars in which they are inserted. It is still common for every harrow to work separately; and though always two, and sometimes three harrows are placed together, each of them is drawn by its own horse. The great objection to this method is, that it is scarcely possible, especially upon rough ground, to prevent the harrows from starting out of their place, and riding on one another. To ob-

Implement viate this inconvenience, the exterior bulls of each are usually surmounted by a frame of wood, raised so high as to protect it from the irregular motions of its neighbour; but in many instances they are connected by chains or hinges or cross bars, which is a preferable plan. Another objection which has been made to the common harrows is, that the ruts made by the tines are sometimes too near and sometimes too distant from one another; but this is probably not a great fault when the soil requires to be pulverized as well as the seed covered, especially when they are permitted to move irregularly in a lateral direction. Where the soil is already fine, as it ought always to be before grass seeds are sown, lighter harrows are used, which are so constructed, that all the ruts are equidistant. See Plate I.

The brake, as commonly constructed, is nothing more than a heavier harrow, sometimes in one, and sometimes in two pieces joined together; the tines being in number and length, and in the distance from one another at which they are placed, suited to the nature of the soil on which it is employed.

4. Drill-Machines.

The purpose of these ingenious, but often too complicated machines is, to deposit the seed in equidistant rows on a flat surface; on the top of a narrow ridge; in the interval between two ridges; or in the bottom of a common furrow. Corn when drilled is usually sown in the first of these ways; turnips in the second; and peas and beans in the third or fourth. As there is a description and engraving of a patent universal sowing machine, in the body of the work, (Agriculture, No. 165,) it is unnecessary to say anything of later inventions, none of which are in general use. One of the best, for sowing all kinds of corn, was invented by Mr Bailey of Chillingham, who has paid great attention to the construction of agricultural implements, and applied to their improvement his knowledge, both as a mathematician and agriculturist. The practice of drilling corn does not however seem to be gaining ground, and even where it is found of advantage to have the plants rise in parallel rows, this is sometimes done by means of what is called ribbing, a process which will be afterwards described, as more convenient in many cases than sowing with a drilling machine.

In Scotland, turnips are universally sown with a drill machine, on ridges twenty-seven or thirty inches broad, usually formed by one bout of a common plough. When turnips are extensively grown, the machine is made to sow two of these ridges at once, and two rollers are attached to it, one for smoothing the tops of the ridges before the seed is deposited, and the other for compressing the soil and covering the seed. It is drawn by one horse walking between the ridges, and requiring no other driver than the person who guides the machine, which is simple in its construction, and most expeditious in its operation. See Plate III.

Beans and peas, when sown in rows, are either deposited in the space between two ridgelets, which implements are afterwards reversed to cover them, or in the bottom of a furrow made by a common plough—in Scotland, usually in that of every third furrow. This implement in most common use for this purpose is extremely simple, and is either wheeled forward by a man, or attached to the common plough itself.

5. Horse-Hoes.

The interval between the rows of drilled turnips, Horse-hoes, potatoes, and beans and peas, being commonly from 2 to 2½ feet, admits the employment of a horse-hoe, or hoeing-plough. Of this kind of machine there are a great many varieties. A very good one is described in the Northumberland Report, (p. 43;) the body is of a triangular form, and contains three coulters and three hoes, or six hoes, according to the state of the soil. A hoe of the same kind is sometimes attached to a small roller, and employed between rows of wheat and barley, from nine to twelve inches distant; it is also used in place of a cultivator, in preparing bean stubbles for wheat in autumn, and in pulverizing lands for barley in spring.

Another implement which answers both as a double mould-board plough, and a horse-hoe, is much approved in the culture of drilled crops; and with some slight alterations it may be also employed as a small plough for taking the earth from the sides of the ridgelets. When it is used as a horse-hoe, the mould-boards are taken off, and two curved cutters or coulters expand from the beam on each side, to a less or greater distance according to the width of the interval between the plants, and approach each other in the bottom of the furrow where the share supplies their place. This machine is well adapted for light soils, and can be set to work very near the rows of plants; it is particularly useful in cutting up annual weeds preparatory to hand-hoeing, which it greatly facilitates. When it is to be employed as a single or double mould-board plough, the cutters are withdrawn. See Plate III.

6. Rollers.

These are constructed of wood, stone, or cast-iron, and of different dimensions, according to the purposes for which they are used. The spike-roller is employed in some places when the soil rises in large masses, difficult to be reduced. The Norfolk drill-roller, on which rings of iron are fixed at small distances, is considered an useful implement, as, by forming parallel ruts into which the seed falls, with small ridges between, the seed is better covered than by harrowing alone. For a further account of the roller, and other useful implements, see the article in the body of the work.

7. Horse-Rakes.

In those districts where corn is cut with the scythe, the horse-rake is found to be an useful implement for saving manual labour; it is also used for hay. The teeth are of iron, fourteen or fifteen inches in length,

* See Essay on the Construction of a Plough deduced from Mathematical Principles; and Northumberland Report, p. 48. Edit. 1800. 8. Thrashing-Machine.

Thrashing-machines (already described in the Encyclopaedia under the word Thrashing), are now common in every part of Scotland, on farms where the extent of tillage land requires two or more ploughs; and they are every year spreading more and more in England and Ireland. They are worked by horses, water, wind, and, of late, by steam; and their powers and dimensions are adapted to the various sizes of farms. Water is by far the best power, but, as a supply cannot be obtained in many situations, and as wind and steam require too much expense for most farms, horses are employed more generally than any other power. Where windmills are erected, it is found necessary to add such machinery as may allow them to be worked by horses occasionally, in very calm weather; and the use of steam must be confined for the most part to the coal districts.

All the essential parts of this machine have been distinctly pointed out in the article referred to, and in the engraving which accompanies it; though several additions and slight alterations have been since introduced. One of the most useful of these, perhaps, is the method of delivering the straw, after it has been separated from the corn by the circular rake, to what is called a travelling-shaker, which carries it to the straw-barn. This shaker, which revolves like the endless web said to have been formerly used for conveying the corn to the beaters, is composed of small rods, placed so near as to prevent the straw from falling through, while any thrashed corn that may not have been formerly separated, drops from it in its progress, instead of falling along with it, where it would be trodden down and lost.

It is well known that the work of horses in thrashing-mills is unusually severe, if continued for any length of time; that they sometimes draw unequally; that they, as well as the machine itself, are much injured by sudden jerks and strains, which are almost unavoidable; and that, from this irregularity in the impelling power, it requires much care in the man who presents the corn to the rollers, to prevent bad thrashing. It is therefore highly desirable that the labour should be equalized among the horses, and the movements of the machine rendered as steady as possible. A method of yoking the horses in such a manner as compels each of them to take his proper share of the labour, has accordingly been lately introduced, and the necessary apparatus, which is neither complicated nor expensive, can be added to any machine worked by animal power. (Farmer's Magazine, Vol. XIII. p. 279). See Plate IV.

All well-constructed thrashing-mills have one winnowing-machine, which separates the chaff from the corn before it reaches the ground; and a second sometimes receives it from the first, and gives it out ready for market, or nearly so. If the height of the building does not admit of this last addition, a separate winnowing-machine, when the mill is of great power, is driven by a belt from it. In either of these ways there is a considerable saving of manual labour. And with a powerful water-mill, it cannot be doubted, that corn is thrashed and dressed at no more expense than must be incurred for dressing alone, when thrashed with the flail. Besides, the corn is more completely detached from the straw; and, by being thrashed expeditiously, a good deal of it may be preserved in a bad season which would have spoiled in a stack. The great advantage of transferring forty or fifty quarters of grain in a few hours, and under the eye of the owner, from the yard to the granary or market, is of itself sufficient to recommend this invaluable machine, even though there were no saving of expense.

A machine of this kind, to be worked by one or two men, has been lately brought forward, and may probably be found very useful on small farms. It is made for L. 8 or L. 10, and is said to thrash ten or twelve bushels in an hour. (Id. p. 409.) See Plate IV.

9. Winnowing-Machine.

This is said to be of Chinese invention, and to have been brought to Europe by the Dutch, from whom it reached Scotland in the early part of the last century. They were first made by a person of the name of Rodgers, near Hawick, in Roxburghshire, who happened to see one in a granary at Leith, in the year 1733, though it would appear that one had been brought from Holland to East Lothian, along with a barley-mill, twenty-two years before. Yet it does not seem to have been then known to farmers, nor did it come into general use till long after 1783; and, in some parts of England and of the north of Scotland, it is not employed even at this day. Two men and three women will dress and measure up into sacks, in about ten hours, from twenty to twenty-five quarters of corn, by means of this machine.

10. Chaff-Cutter, and similar Implements.

Chaff-cutters may be either wrought separately by manual labour, or by being attached to some other machine. This implement, like the operation it performs, is sufficiently simple, though its construction is various. Macdougal's patent chaff-cutter is understood to be one of the most useful of the kind, and may be easily repaired, when necessary, by any common mechanic. Another tool of a similar description, is partially used for cutting turnips, which is often an advantageous practice, especially in feeding sheep of a year old in spring, after they have cast their first teeth. Various contrivances are also adopted by some farmers for cutting or bruising corn for horses, which ought to become a more general practice, particularly for old horses, and such as swallow their corn without mastication. Akin to these inventions is the steaming apparatus, which should be considered a necessary appendage to every arable and dairy farm of a moderate size. The advantages of preparing food for live-stock by means of steam, begin now to be generally and justly appreciated. 11. Wheel-Carriages.

Waggons, though they may possess some advantages over carts, in long journeys, and when fully loaded, are now admitted to be much less convenient for the general purposes of a farm, and particularly on occasions which require great dispatch, as in harvesting the crop. According to Marshall, the waggons used in Gloucestershire are the best in England. (Rural Economy of Gloucestershire). In some places, the improved Irish car is employed for light loads, while the waggon continues to be used for other purposes.

Carts, drawn by one or two horses, are, however, the only farm carriages of some of the best cultivated counties, and no other are ever used in Scotland. Their load depends upon the strength of the horses, and nature of the roads; but in every case, it is asserted that a given number of horses will draw a great deal more, according to some one-third more, in single-horse carts than in waggons. Two-horse carts are still the most common among farmers in Scotland; but those drawn by one horse, two of which are always driven by one man, are unquestionably preferable for most purposes. The carriers of the west of Scotland usually load from a ton to a ton and a half on a single-horse cart, and nowhere does it carry less than 12 cwt. if the roads are tolerable.

For corn in the straw, and hay, the farmers of the south of Scotland and north of England, use a sparred frame, which is made to fit the same wheels from which the close body of the cart is removed. In other places the close body is retained, and moveable rails attached to it for these loads. See Plate IV.

Carts are varied in their construction to suit different purposes. A very convenient carriage for homework, called a coup-cart, discharges its load with great ease and expedition; the fore part of the close body being made to rise up from the shafts on drawing out an iron pin, while the other end sinks, and allows the load to fall to the ground.

Brood wheels, with conical, or convex rims, are common in England; in Scotland the wheels are generally narrow, though broader ones are beginning to be introduced. Those used for the common, or two-horse carts, are usually about 4½ feet high, and mounted on iron axles. The advantages of broad cylindrical wheels have been illustrated with much force and ingenuity in several late publications. (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. II. and Vol. VII. Part i.)

12. Reaping-Machines.

An implement capable of performing the process of reaping corn, is yet a desideratum in agricultural machinery, but which will probably be supplied, at least for favourable situations, at no distant period. In all field operations, dispatch, in such a climate as this, is a matter of great importance; but in reaping corn at the precise period of its maturity, the advantages of dispatch are incalculable, especially in those districts where the difficulty of procuring hands, even at enormous wages, aggravates the danger from the instability of the season. It cannot, therefore, fail to be interesting, and we hope it may be also useful, to record some of the more remarkable attempts that have been made towards an invention so eminently calculated to forward this most important operation.

The first attempt of this kind, so far as we have learned, was made by Mr Boyce, who obtained a patent for a reaping-machine fifteen or twenty years ago. This machine was placed in a two-wheeled carriage, somewhat resembling a common cart, but the wheels were fixed upon the axle, so that it revolved along with them. A cog-wheel, within the carriage, turned a smaller one at the upper end of an inclined axis, and at the lower end of this was a larger wheel, which gave a rapid motion to a pinion fixed upon a vertical axis, in the fore part of the carriage, and rather on one side, so that it went before one of the wheels of the carriage. The vertical spindle descended to within a few inches of the surface of the ground, and had there a number of scythes fixed upon it horizontally.

This machine, when wheeled along, would, by the rapid revolution of its scythes, cut down a portion of the corn growing upon the ground over which it passed, but having no provision for gathering up the corn in parcels and laying it in proper heaps, it was wholly unsuited to the purpose.

An agricultural implement maker of London, Mr Plucknet, attempted some years afterwards to improve this machine. The principal alteration he made, was in substituting for the scythes a circular steel plate, made very sharp at the edge, and notched on the upper side like a sickle. This plate acted in the same manner as a very fine toothed saw, and was found to cut the corn much better than the scythes of the original machine. See Plate V.

A description and drawing of a machine, invented Mr Gladstone of Castle Douglas, in the Stewart's Magazine, Vol. VII. p. 273. It operated upon nearly the same principles with Mr Plucknet's; but Mr Gladstones made it work much better by introducing a circular table, with strong wooden teeth notched below all around, which was fixed immediately over the cutter, and parallel to it. The use of these teeth was to collect the corn and retain it till it was operated on by the circular cutter. The corn when cut was received upon this table, and, when a sufficient quantity was collected, taken away by a rake or sweeper, and laid upon the ground beneath the machine, in separate parcels. To this machine was added a small circular wheel of wood covered with emery, which, being always in contact with the great cutter at the back part, or opposite side to that where the cutting was performed, kept it constantly ground to a sharp edge.

The next attempt was made by Mr Robert Salmon of Woburn, Bedfordshire, whose invention, it is said, promised better than those we have mentioned. It was constructed upon a totally different principle, as it cut the corn by means of shears; and it was provided with a very complete apparatus for laying it down in parcels as it was cut. See Plate V.

The latest, and by much the most ingenious, as well as promising machine of this kind, of which we have received any account, is that constructed by Mr Smith, of the Deanston Cotton Works, Perthshire. Mr Smith's perseverance, his successive im-

The form most generally approved for a set of offices, is that of a square, or rather a rectangular parallelogram, the houses being arranged on the north, east, and west sides, and the south side fenced by a stone wall, to which low buildings for calves, pigs, &c., are sometimes attached. The space thus inclosed is usually allotted to young cattle; these have access to the sheds on one or two sides, and are kept separate according to their size or age, by one or more partition-walls. The farmer's dwelling house stands at a short distance from the offices, and frequently commands a view of the inside of the square; and cottages for servants and labourers are placed on some convenient spot, not far from the other buildings.

The number and arrangement, as well as the size of the different houses, must depend, in some degree, on the extent of the farm, and the general management. It is, therefore, only necessary to notice particularly those which are indispensable in every case on an arable farm, and the degree of accommodation they should afford.

The Barn is always set down so as to be as convenient as possible for the stack-yard, wherever corn is put up in stacks instead of being immediately carried from the field to the barn itself. Relatively to the other buildings, its situation may be varied according to circumstances; but two things should be attended to; first, its contiguity to the granary; and second, its facility of access for furnishing straw to the cattle-houses. In the plan delineated in Plate VII., it is placed in the middle of the north range, with one end projecting into the stack-yard, and the other, where the straw is lodged, on a line with stables on one side, and cattle-houses on the other, and having a door opening towards the straw-yards. As it is to be understood throughout this description, that a thrashing-mill is employed, from 20 to 30 feet within walls, on the length of this side of the square, will generally be sufficient for the straw-house. The height of the barn must be such as to allow at least one winnowing machine to be attached to the mill, and its length is determined by the size of the farm.

A Granary is an indispensable accommodation on all tolerably large farms, and is commonly, though in many cases improperly, placed above the cart-sheds, to be afterwards noticed. From experience and observation we would recommend that the granary should be under the roof of the barn, immediately above the floor on which the machine works; and that the corn should be raised to it from the ground-floor, either by the thrashing-mill itself, or a common windlass, easily worked by one man. When it is to be taken out and carried to market, it may be lowered down upon carts, with the utmost facility and dispatch. There is evidently no greater expense incurred by this arrangement; for the same floor and height of side-walls that must be added to the barn, are required in whatever situation the granary may be; and it possesses several advantages. Owing to its being higher than the adjacent buildings, there is a freer circulation of air, and less danger of pilfering, or of destruction by vermin; the corn can be deposited in it as it is dressed, without being exposed to the weather, while the saving of la-

Sect. II. Farm-Houses.

Suitable farm buildings are scarcely less necessary to the husbandman than implements and machinery, and might, without much impropriety, be classed along with them, and considered as one great stationary machine, operating more or less on every branch of labour and produce. There is nothing which marks more decidedly the state of agriculture in any district than the plan and execution of these buildings.

In erecting farm-houses, the first thing that deserves notice is their situation, both in regard to the other parts of the farm, and the convenience which they ought themselves to possess. In general, it must be of importance on arable farms, that the buildings should be set down at nearly an equal distance from the extremities; or so situate that the access from all the different fields should be easy, and the distance from those most remote no greater than the size of the farm renders unavoidable. The advantages of such a position in saving labour, are too obvious to require illustration; and yet this matter is not nearly so much attended to as its importance deserves. In some cases, however, it is advisable to depart from this general rule, of which one of the most obvious is, when a command of water for a thrashing-mill, and other purposes, can be better secured in another quarter of the farm. Stables are now constructed in such a manner that all the horses stand in a line with their heads towards the same side-wall, instead of standing in two lines, fronting opposite walls, as formerly. Those lately erected are at least sixteen feet wide within walls, and sometimes eighteen, and the width of each stall upon the length of the stable is commonly five feet. To save a little room stalls of nine feet are sometimes made to hold two horses, and, in that case, the manger and the width of the stall are divided into equal parts by what is called a half trevice, or a partition about half the depth of that which separates one stall from another. By this contrivance, each horse indeed eats his food by himself; but the expense of single stalls, is more than compensated by the greater ease, security, and comfort of the horses. The trevices or partitions which divide the stalls, are of deals two inches thick, and about five feet high; but, at the heads of the horses, the partition rises to the height of seven feet, and the length of the stall is usually from seven to eight feet.

The manger is generally continued the whole length of the stable. It is about nine inches deep, twelve inches wide at the top, and nine at the bottom, all inside measure, and is placed about two feet four inches from the ground. Staples or rings are fixed the breast of the manger, to which the horses are tied.

The rack for holding their hay or straw is also commonly continued the whole length of the stable. It is formed of upright spars, connected by cross rails at each end, and from two, to two and a half feet in height. The rack is placed on the wall, about one foot and a half above the manger, the bottom almost close to the wall, and the top projecting outwards so as to form an angle with it of twenty or twenty-five degrees. The spars are sometimes made round, and sunk into the cross rails, and sometimes square. In a few stables lately built, the round spars turn on a pivot, which facilitates the horse's access to the hay, without requiring the interstices to be so wide as to permit him to draw it out in too large quantities.

Immediately above the racks is an opening in the hay-loft, through which the racks are filled. When it is thought necessary, this may be closed by boards moving on hinges.

Behind the horses, and about nine feet from the front wall, is a gutter, having a gentle declivity to the straw-yard or urine-pit. Allowing about a foot for this, there will remain a width of eight feet to the back wall, if the stable be eighteen feet wide; a part of which, close to the wall, is occupied with corn-chests and places for harness.

In some of the best stables, the racks occupy one of the angles between the wall and trevices, and form the quadrant of a circle. The spars are perpendicular, and wider placed than in the hanging racks. The hay-seed falls into a box below, instead of being dropped on the ground, or incommoding the eyes and ears of the horses.

With a view to save both the hay and the seed, it is an advantage to have the hay-stack so near the stable as to admit of the hay being thrown at once upon the loft. In some stables there is no loft, and the hay is stored in a separate apartment. The floor is, for the most part, paved with undressed stones; but, in some instances, the space from the gutter to the back wall is laid with flags of freestone.

According to the plan we are describing, Cattle-houses are placed on the other side of the straw-house, and, with a root-house, complete the north side of the square. The extent of these, it is evident, depends not only on the size of the farm, but on the general management, and must vary according as rearing, fattening, or dairy cattle, form the principal object. To avoid prolixity, let it be understood that this part of the range is allotted to fattening cattle. There are three ways in which the cattle are placed; first, in a row towards one of the side walls; second, in two rows, either fronting each other, with a passage between, or with their heads towards both side walls; and, third, across, or upon the width of the house, in successive rows, with intervening passages for feeding and removing the dung. In the first plan, it is usual to have openings in the walls, through which they are supplied with turnips, otherwise they must necessarily be served from behind, with much inconvenience, both to the cattle-feeder and the cattle themselves. The plan that is most approved, and now becoming general when new buildings are erected, is to fix the stakes to which the cattle are tied about two and a half or three feet from the wall, which allows the cattle-man, without going among them, to fill their troughs successively from his wheelbarrow or basket, with much ease and expedition. It is also a considerable improvement to keep the cattle separate, by partitions between every two. This will in a great measure prevent accidents, and secure the quiet animals from being injured by the vicious; for, in these double stalls, each may be tied up to a stake placed near the partition, so as to be at some distance from his neighbour; and it is easy to lodge together such as are alike in size and in temper. The width of such stalls should not be less than 7½ feet, and the depth must be regulated by the size of the cattle.

Wherever a number of cattle are fed, an apartment is required for containing turnips, potatoes, &c., when brought from the field, until they are dealt out into the troughs. This apartment is placed either on the line of the cattle-houses, or begins another side of the square, at the angle of the junction of the two sides. The outer-door ought to be so large as to admit a loaded cart; and there is an inner-door that opens into the feeder's walk along the heads of the cattle. At the other end of this, a door opens into the straw-house; so that their food and litter are not exposed to the weather, and the labour of the feeder is greatly diminished.

The east and west sides of the square consist chiefly of sheds for the straw-yard cattle, and cart-sheds. But stables for young horses, riding-horses, and for separating the sick from the others, may be placed upon that side which connects with the common stable already described; and, in like manner, a part of the opposite side, connecting with the cattle-houses, may be allotted to cows; or, if necessary, the feeding-houses may be continued. The cattle-sheds are open towards the straw-yards, and the cart-sheds outwards to the road. On one of these sides there should be a close apartment for small tools, and another for preparing corn and roots by steam, which may also serve for other purposes. In some convenient place near the stables and cattle-houses, or immediately over them, there should be sleeping-rooms for the servants who have the charge of them, that they may be at hand in case of accidents during the night.

Along the wall which completes the inclosure, such low buildings may be set down, particularly hog-styes and poultry-houses, as may be thought desirable. These styes should open behind into the straw-yards, to which the hogs should have access for picking up corn left on the straw, and what turnips, clover, &c. are refused by the cattle. When they are kept in great numbers, it may be necessary to allot them a range of styes, with yards in front, in another place, as is commonly done by gentlemen farmers; but it is absurd fastidiousness, in a rent-paying farmer, to exclude these profitable animals from a place where a few of them will make themselves fat without a shilling of expense, and without any real injury to the cattle among which they feed.

It will be seen from the engraving, (Plate VII.) that a road, which should always be kept in good order, goes along three sides of this square, from which there is access to the houses, instead of entering through the straw-yards from the inclosed area. All the houses in which live stock are kept have an opening behind towards the straw-yards, for carrying out their dung.

This plan, which, with slight variations, required by circumstances, is common in the north of England and south of Scotland; is meant to combine convenience with economy, and is well adapted to most arable farms in the occupancy of tenants. Proprietors who farm, sometimes choose to add several other buildings, and, at the same time, to vary a little their distribution. Thus, it is common to separate the straw-yards from the sides of the square, by a cart-way, towards which all the doors open, and the hog-styes with yards are usually placed behind one of the sides where they are least exposed to observation.

In every case, it is absolutely necessary that there should be water in or near the area. In the plan delineated in Plate VII., a pump is placed at the end of the wall which divides the area, and along this wall are fixed troughs, to which the cattle on each side have access at all times.

When a great number of cattle are fed at the stake, it is necessary to have a reservoir near the square to receive their urine. The urine is either applied to the land in its liquid state, or earth, peat-moss, &c. are thrown into the pit in such quantities as may be necessary to absorb it. Sometimes the reservoir is sunk below the area, and the urine raised by a pump, and spread over the straw-yard. But, on those arable farms where no more cattle are reared or fattened, and no more turnips consumed at the homestead, than what are needed for converting the straw into manure, a reservoir for urine is not required; the whole of it being absorbed by the straw as it is dropped.

The practice of feeding cattle in small sheds and straw-yards, or what are called hammels in Berwickshire, deserves to be noticed with approbation, when saving of expense is not a paramount object. Two cattle are usually kept together, and go loose, in which way they are thought by some to thrive better than when tied to a stake, and, at the same time, feed more at their ease than when a number are kept together, as in the common straw-yards. All that is necessary is, to run partition-walls across the sheds and yards already described, or, if these are allotted to rearing stock, one side of the square, separated by a cart-way from the straw-yards, is appropriated to these hammels.

On large farms, a smith's and a wright's shop are found exceedingly convenient, even though used only one or two days a-week. Much time is lost in going to a distance to the residence of these necessary mechanics; and it is now not uncommon to have houses furnished with the necessary accommodations on farms of this description, where the smith attends at stated intervals, and the wright when wanted. It is better to set down these houses at a little distance, than to place them on the square, whence, among other inconveniences, the danger from fire is a sufficient reason for excluding them.

The cottages for farm-servants, which are usually set down in a line, at not an inconvenient distance from the offices, ought to contain each of them at least two apartments with fire-places, though, in some of the best cultivated counties, there is only one chimney, and no other division than what is made by the furniture. But better accommodation for this useful and meritorious class is now generally allowed in erecting new buildings. Every cottage has a small kitchen-garden adjoining; and as farm-servants in the southern counties of Scotland have each of them a cow, kept all the year on the farm as part of their wages, it is common to attach a byre for them to the range of cottages, and sometimes also hog-styes, and apartments for fuel.

It is unnecessary to say anything of a farmer's dwelling-house, as the size and accommodations are very little different from those of other dwelling-houses possessed by people of the same property or income. It is only on dairy farms that particular apartments are necessarily appropriated to the business of a farm; and these shall be described under a separate article. See Dairy.

Most of the farm-buildings recently erected in the best cultivated counties are covered with slate. A thatched roof is still common for cottages, though for these also slate is beginning to be preferred. One cause of the comparative sterility of land in former times, was the great quantity of straw that was withdrawn from the food or litter of cattle, and used as thatch, instead of being converted into manure.

Tenants holding on leases for a term of years are Repairs. usually taken bound to keep all the houses on a farm in sufficient repair during their occupancy, and to leave them so at their removal, having received them in such a state at their entry. It is common to have them inspected by tradesmen, both at the beginning and expiration of a lease, for the purpose of determining their condition, and awarding such repairs as may be necessary. In some districts, it is the practice to ascertain their value at the commencement of a lease, the tenant being bound at his removal, when a second valuation takes place, to pay or to accept the difference. But the objections to this method are obvious. If no change has taken place, during the currency of the lease, in the price of materials and wages of labour, the tenant suffers by being called upon to make good the decay occasioned by the lapse of time, which ought to be considered as covered by his rent. If, on the other hand, both materials and labour have advanced in price, as has been the case of late years, the proprietor may be obliged to make a large payment to the removing tenant, even though the houses are rendered of less real value, not only by time, but by carelessness or dilapidations.

Sect. III. Fences.

Next to implements and machinery, and suitable buildings, fences are in most situations indispensable to the profitable management of arable land. They are not only necessary to protect the crops from the live stock of the farm, but often contribute, in no small degree, by the shelter they afford, to augment and improve the produce itself. On all arable farms, on which cattle and sheep are pastured, the ease, security, and comfort, which good fences give, both to the owner and the animals themselves, are too evident to require particular notice. And as there are few tracts so rich as to admit of crops being carried off the land for a succession of years, without the intervention of green crops consumed where they grow, fences, of some description or other, can very rarely be dispensed with, even in the most fertile and highly improved districts.

There is no branch of husbandry so generally mismanaged as this. No district, of any considerable extent, perhaps, can be named, in which one does not see the greater part of what are called fences, not only comparatively useless, but wasteful to the possessor of the lands which they occupy, and injurious both to himself and his neighbours, by the weeds which they shelter. This is particularly the case with thorn hedges, which are too often planted in soils where they can never, by any management, be expected to become a sufficient fence; and which, even when planted on suitable soils, are in many cases so much neglected when young, as ever afterwards to be a nuisance, instead of an ornamental, permanent, and impenetrable barrier, as, with proper training, they might have formed in a few years.

Until of late inclosures have too often been made without much regard to the size of the farm, the exposure, the form of the fields, and the equability of the soil. This is the more to be regretted in the case of live fences, which ought to endure for a long course of years, and which cannot be eradicated without considerable expense. It is impossible, indeed, to lay down any rules on this subject that would be generally applicable; but upon a little reflection it must be evident, that the size of the field should be suited not only to the extent of the farm, but also to the nature of the soil, which ought to prescribe the course of management, whether in alternate white or green crops, or with the intervention of several years pasturage—that the exposure of the land should be considered, in order that the fences may give the shelter that is most required—that the form of the field should be such, as to render it most accessible from the farm buildings, and that it may be cultivated at the least expense, the lands or ridges not being too short, nor running out into angles at the points where the fence takes a different direction—and that the soil of the inclosure should be as nearly alike throughout as possible, that the whole field may be always under the same kind of crop. It must, in general, be a matter of consequence to have water in every inclosure; but this is too obvious to escape attention.

Notwithstanding the garden-like appearance which hedge-row trees growing in hedges give to the landscape, it seems to be agreed by the most intelligent agriculturists, that they are extremely hurtful to the fence, and for some distance to the crops on each side; and it is evident, that, in many instances, the highways, on the sides of which they often stand, suffer greatly from their shade. It has therefore been doubted, whether such trees be profitable to the proprietor, or beneficial to the public—to the farmer they are almost in every case injurious, to a degree beyond what is commonly imagined.

In the subdivisions of an arable farm, whatever number may be the kind of fence which it is thought advisable to adopt, we would recommend that particular attention be paid to the course of crops which the quality of the soil points out as the most advantageous; and that upon all farms, not below a medium size, there should be twice the number of inclosures that there are divisions or breaks in the course. Thus, if a six year's rotation be thought the most profitable, there should be twelve inclosures, two of which are always under the same crop. One very obvious advantage in this arrangement is, that it tends greatly to equalize labour, and, with a little attention, may contribute much to equalize the produce also. On large farms, where all the land under turnips and clover, for instance, is near the extremity of the grounds, or at a considerable distance from the buildings, supposed to be set down near the centre, it is clear, that the labour of supplying the house and straw-yard stock with these crops, as well as the carriage of the manure to the field, is much greater than if the fields were so arranged, as that the half of each of these crops had been near the offices. But by means of two fields for each crop in the rotation, it is quite easy to connect together one field near the houses with another at a distance, and thus to have a supply at hand for the home stock, while the distant crops may be consumed on the ground. The same equalization of labour must be perceived in the cultivation of the corn fields, and in harvesting the crops. The time lost in travelling to some of the fields, when working by the plough, is of itself a matter of some consequence on large farms. But the advantages of this arrangement are not confined to the equalization and economy of labour; it may also, in a great measure, render the annual produce uniform and equable, notwithstanding a considerable diversity in the quality of the soil. A field of an inferior soil may be connected with one that is naturally rich, and in the consumption of the green crops, as well as in the allowance of manure, the poor land may be gradually brought nearer, in the quantity and quality of its produce, to the rich, without any injury to the latter. Thus a field under turnips may be so fertile, that it would be destructive to the succeeding corn crop to consume the whole or the greater part on the ground; while another may be naturally so poor, or so deficient in tenacity, as to make it inexpedient to spare any part for consumption elsewhere. By connecting these two under the same crop,—by carrying from the one what turnips are wanted for the feeding-houses and straw-yards, and eating the whole crop of the other on the ground with sheep, the ensuing crop of corn will not be so luxuriant on the former as to be unproductive, while the latter will seldom fail to yield abundantly. The same plan will also be advantageous in the case of other crops. Hay or green clover may be taken from the richer field, and the poorer one depastured; and on the one wheat may succeed both turnips and clover, while the more gentle crops of barley and oats are appropriated to the less fertile field.

These observations are particularly applicable to turnip soils, of such a quality as not to require more than one year's pasturage, and which are therefore cultivated with corn and green crops alternately; but the same principle may be extended to clay lands, and such as require to be depastured two or more years in succession.

It is scarcely necessary to add, that upon wet soils, where hedges are employed as fences, it is of importance that the ditches be drawn in such a direction as to serve the purposes of drains, and also that they may receive the water from the covered drains that may be required in the fields contiguous. According as the line of the fence is more or less convenient in this respect, the expence of draining may be considerably diminished or increased.

The most common fences, of a permanent character, are stone walls and white thorn hedges. Stone walls have the recommendation of being an immediate fence; but the disadvantage of going gradually to decay, and of requiring to be entirely rebuilt, in some cases every twenty years, unless they are constructed with lime mortar, which is in many districts much too expensive to be employed in erecting common fences. White thorn hedges, on the contrary, though they require several years to become a fence of themselves, may be preserved at very little expense afterwards in full vigour for several generations.

Having thus thrown out a few hints of a general nature, we beg to refer the reader, for an account of the different sorts of fences commonly employed, to the body of the work (AGRICULTURE, P. III. § 10), and shall only observe here, that, in many instances, there seems to be a radical error in the first construction and subsequent management of hedge-fences in particular, which might be easily removed under appropriate covenants of lease. The expence of inclosing, and, of course, the direction and construction of the fences, ought to be undertaken in almost every case by the proprietor, not merely for the sake of relieving the tenant from a burden which may be incompatible with his circumstances and professional duties, but also from a principle of economy on the part of the landlord. Whatever may be the tenant's knowledge and capital, it is not to be expected that his views should extend much beyond his own accommodation during his temporary occupation; whereas the permanent interest of the landlord requires, not so much a minute attention to economy in the first instance, as that the amelioration shall be as complete and as durable as possible. The tenant's outlay on fences must inevitably be returned by a diminution of the yearly rent, and probably with a large profit for the first advance of the money; while, at the same time, that money may be expended in an improvement which is neither so complete nor so lasting as it might have been rendered, had it been done at the expence, and under the direction of the proprietor.

But another error of the same kind is probably kept in still more common, and by far more pernicious to landholders. The fences are to be kept in repair by the tenant; which, in so far as regards stone walls, is a stipulation no way objectionable. But it often happens that a landlord, even though he runs a hedge-fence at his own expence, leaves it to be trained up by the tenant without his interference; and the consequence is, that, in perhaps nine cases out of ten, it never becomes a sufficient fence at all;—that the original cost is lost for ever; and that the land which it occupies is not only unproductive, but actually a nuisance. Besides, it is evidently improper to require of a tenant to rear up a good fence, commonly by a greater outlay than was required for forming it, when the half of his lease perhaps must elapse before he can derive much benefit from it. This mistake on the part of proprietors is probably the principal cause of the badness of hedge-fences; for if they are neglected when the plants are young,—if cattle are allowed to make gaps,—water permitted to stagnate in the ditch,—or weeds to grow unmolested on the face of the bank, no labour or attention afterwards will ever make an equal and strong fence. As it is well known how difficult, or rather impossible, it is to enforce this care by any compulsory covenants, the best plan for both parties is that which is adopted in some districts, where hedges are reared at the mutual expence of landlord and tenant,—the thorns, while they require it, being protected by rails, or otherwise, so as to give the tenant all the advantages of a complete fence in the mean time. In this case he cannot justly complain that he pays a share of the expence, and this payment furnishes the strongest motive for preserving the young thorns from damage, and for training them with such care, as to become a complete fence in the shortest possible period. The provisions of the law of Scotland, in regard to inclosing, have promoted this invaluable improvement in that country. It holds out the greatest facilities, both for straightening the boundaries of conterminous properties, and for erecting march-fences, by obliging every proprietor, upon due notice from his neighbour, to defray half the charges of such a fence as the nature of the soil and surface may render most eligible. By an act in 1686, cattle must be constantly herded during the day, if the pastures be not inclosed, and are ordered to be kept during the night in houses, folds, or inclosures; a fine is exigible from the owner, if his cattle trespass on his neighbour's lands,—so much for every animal,—over and above the damage done, even where there are no fences; and, by the statute 1695, heavy penalties are denounced against such as destroy fences.

**Sect. IV. Tillage.**

As the operations connected with tillage must necessarily be regulated by the condition of the soil and surface, and the crops to be cultivated, as to which we shall have occasion to treat in a subsequent section, all that is at present necessary is, to offer a few general observations, premising, that we here take it for granted, that all those obstructions which fall to be considered under the chapter on Natural Pastures and Wastes, have either never existed, or been already removed.

It is well known to every husbandman, that clayey or tenacious soils should never be ploughed when wet; and that it is almost equally improper to allow them to become too dry; especially if a crop is to be sown without a second ploughing. The state in which such lands should be ploughed is that which is commonly indicated by the phrase, "between the wet and the dry,"—while the ground is slightly moist, mellow, and the least cohesive.

In ploughing the first time for fallow or green crops, all good farmers begin immediately after harvest, or after wheat sowing is finished; and when this land has been gone over, the old tough swards, if there be any, are next turned up. The reasons for ploughing so early are sufficiently obvious; as the frosts of winter render the soil more friable for the spring operations, and assist in destroying the weed roots. In some places, however, the first ploughing for fallow is still delayed till after the spring seed-time.

In the following remarks, the swing-plough, drawn by two horses, is to be understood as the one employed, if no other be mentioned; and the practices of some of the English counties having been described in the body of the work, we shall here confine ourselves, for the most part, to those of the north of England and the south-east of Scotland.

Three different points require particular attention in ploughing; 1. the breadth of the slice to be cut; 2. its depth; and 3. the degree in which it is to be turned over—which last circumstance depends both upon the construction of the plough, particularly the mould-board, and the care of the ploughman.

The breadth and depth of the furrow-slice are regulated by judiciously placing the draught on the nozzle or bridle of the plough; setting it so as to go more or less deep, and to take more or less land or breadth of slice, according as may be desired. In general, the plough is so regulated that, if left to itself, and merely kept from falling over, it would cut a little broader and a little deeper than is required. The coulter is also placed with some inclination towards the left or land side, and the point of the sock or share has a slight tendency downwards.

The degree to which the furrow-slice turns over, is different in a great measure determined by the proportion between its breadth and depth, which for general purposes is usually as three is to two; or when the furrow is nine inches broad it ought to be six inches in depth. When the slice is cut in this proportion, it will be nearly half turned over, or recline at an angle of 40 or 45 degrees; and a field so ploughed will have its ridges longitudinally ribbed into angular drills or ridges. But if the slice is much broader in proportion to its depth, it will be almost completely overturned, or left nearly flat with its original surface downwards; and each successive slice will be somewhat overlapped by that which was turned over immediately before it. And finally, when the depth materially exceeds the width, each furrow-slice will fall over on its side, leaving all the original surface bare, and only laid somewhat obliquely to the horizon.

The first of these modes of ploughing, where the breadth and depth are nearly in the proportion already mentioned, is the best adapted for laying up stubble land after harvest, when it is to remain during winter exposed to the mellowing influence of frost, preparatory to fallow or turnips. The second or shallow furrow, of considerable width, as five inches in depth by eight or nine wide, is understood to answer best for breaking up old leys; because it covers up the grass turf and does not bury the manured soil. The third is a most unprofitable and useless slow operation, which ought seldom or never to be adopted. The most generally useful breadth of a furrow-slice is from eight to ten inches, and the depth, which ought to be seldom less than four inches, cannot often exceed six or eight inches, except in soils uncommonly thick and fertile. When it is necessary to go deeper, as for carrots and some other deep rooted plants, a trench ploughing may be given by means of second plough following in the same furrow. Shallow ploughing ought always to be adopted after turnips are eaten on the ground, that the manure may not be buried too deep; and also in covering lime,—especially if the ground has been pulverized by fallowing, because it naturally tends to sink in the soil. In ploughing down farm yard dung, it is commonly necessary to go rather deep, that no part of the manure may be left exposed to the atmosphere. In the first ploughing for fallow or green crops, it is advisable to work as deep as possible, and no great danger is to be apprehended, though a small portion of the subsoil be at that time brought to the surface.

The furrow-slices are generally distributed into beds, varying in breadth according to circumstances; these are called ridges or lands, and are divided from one another by gutters or open furrows. These last serve as guides to the hand and eye of the sower, to the reapers, and also for the application of manures. in a regular manner. In soils of a strong or retentive nature, or which have wet close subsoils, these furrows serve likewise as drains for carrying off the surface water, and being cleared out, after the land is sown and harrowed, have the name of water-furrows.

Ridges are not only different in breadth, but are raised more or less in the middle on different soils. On clayey retentive soils, the great point to be attended to is the discharge of superfluous water. But narrow stitches of from three to five feet, are not approved of in some of the best cultivated counties. In these a breadth of fifteen or eighteen feet, the land raised by two gatherings of the plough, is most commonly adopted for such soils; such ridges being thought more convenient for manuring, sowing, harrowing, and reaping, than a narrower one; and the water is drained off quite as effectually.

On dry porous turnip soils, ridges may be formed much broader; and were it not for their use in directing the labourers, may be, and sometimes are, dispensed with altogether. They are often thirty or thirty-six feet broad, which in Scotland are called band-swirridges, because reaped by a band of shearers, commonly six, served by one binder. If it be wished to obliterate the intermediate furrows, this may be done by casting up a narrow ridgelet or single bout drill between the broad ridges, which is afterwards levelled by the harrows.

With regard to the mode of forming these ridges, straight and of uniform breadth,—let us suppose a field perfectly level that is intended to be laid off into ridges of any determinate breadth. The best ploughman belonging to the farm conducts the operation, with the aid of three or more poles shod with iron, in the following manner: The first thing is to mark off the head ridges, on which the horses turn in ploughing, which should in general be of an equal breadth from the bounding lines of the field, if these lines are not very crooked or irregular. The next operation, assuming one straight side of the field, or a line that has been made straight, as the proper direction of the ridges, is to measure off from it with one of the poles (all of them of a certain length or expressing specific measures), half the intended breadth of the ridge, if it is to be gathered, or one breadth and a half if to be ploughed flat; and there the ploughman sets up a pole as a direction for the plough to enter. On a line with this, and at some distance, he plants a second pole, and then in the same manner a third, fourth, &c. as the irregularity of the surface may render necessary, though three must always be employed,—the last of them at the end of the intended ridge, and the whole in one straight line. He then enters the plough at the first pole, keeping the line of poles exactly between his horses, and ploughs down all the poles successively; halting his horses at each, and replacing it at so many feet distant as the ridges are to be broad; so that when he reaches the end of the ridge, all his poles are again set up in a new line parallel to the first. He returns however along his former track, correcting any deviations, and throwing a shallow furrow on the side opposite to his former one. These furrows, when reversed, form the crown of the ridge, and direct the ploughmen who are to follow. The same operations are carried on until the whole field is marked out. This is called feiring in Scotland, and striking the furrows in England. It is surprising with what accuracy these lines are drawn by skilful ploughmen.

Another method has been adopted for the same purpose, which promises to be useful with less experienced workmen. A stout lath or pole, exactly equal in length to the breadth of the intended ridge, is fixed to the plough, at right angles to the line of the draught, one end of which is placed across the handles exactly opposite the coulter, while the other end projects towards the left hand of the ploughman, and is preserved in its place by a rope passing from it to the collar of the near side horse. At the outer end of the lath, a coulter or harrow tine is fixed perpendicularly, which makes a trace or mark on the ground as the plough moves onwards, exactly parallel to the line of draught. By this device, when the plough is feiring the crown of one ridge, the marker traces the line on which the next ridge is to be feired. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. I p. 954.)

With regard to the direction and the length of ridges, these points must evidently be regulated by the nature of the surface, and the size of the field. Short angular ridges, called butts, which are often necessary in a field with irregular boundaries, are always attended with a considerable loss of time, and ought to be avoided as much as possible.

In ploughing steep land it is advisable to give the ridges an inclination towards the right hand at the top, by which, in going up the acclivity, the furrow falls more readily from the plough, and with less fatigue to the horses. Another advantage of forming ridges in a slanting direction on such land is, that the soil is not so apt to be washed down from the higher ground, as if the ridges were laid at right angles. Wherever circumstances will permit, the best direction however is due north and south, by which the grain on both sides of the ridge enjoys nearly equal advantages from the influence of the sun.

The land being thus formed into ridges, is afterwards cultivated without marking out the ridges anew, until the inter-furrows have been obliterated by a fallow or fallow crop. This is done by one or other of the following modes of ploughing: 1. If the soil is dry and the land has been ploughed flat, the ridges are split out in such a way, that the space ploughing, which the crown of the old ridge occupied is now allotted to the open furrow between the new ones. This is technically called crown-and-furrow ploughing. 2. When the soil is naturally rather wet, or, if Casting, the ridges have been raised a little by former ploughings, the form of the old ridges, and the situation of the inter-furrows, are preserved by what is called casting, that is, the furrows of each ridge are all laid in one direction, while those of the next adjoining ridge are turned the contrary way; two ridges being always ploughed together. 3. It is commonly necessary to raise the ridges on soils very tenacious of moisture, by what is called gathering, which is done by the plough going round the ridge, beginning at the crown and raising all the furrow slices inwards. 4. This last operation, when it is wished to give the land a level surface, as in fallowing, is reversed by... Tillage turning all the furrow-slices outwards; beginning at the inter-furrows, and leaving an open furrow on the crown of each ridge. In order to bring the land into as level a state as possible, the same mode of ploughing or cleaving as it is called, may be repeated as often as necessary.

High crooked ridges, which are described at some length in the body of the work, are universally disapproved of, and now very rare in the best cultivated districts. A machine employed in levelling such land is exhibited on Plate VIII. and a reward was given by the Society of Arts in London, for the improvements made on it by Mr David Charles in 1809.

In the strongest lands, a pair of good horses ought to plough three quarters of an acre in nine hours, but upon the same land, after the first ploughing, or on friable soils, one acre, or an acre and a quarter is a common day's work. Throughout the year, an acre a day may be considered as a full average, on soils of a medium consistency. The whole series of furrows on an English statute acre, supposing each to be nine inches broad, would extend to 19,360 yards; and adding twelve yards to every 220 for the ground travelled over in turning, the whole work of one acre may be estimated as extending to 20,416 yards, or eleven miles and nearly five furlongs.

A kind of ploughing known by the name of ribbing, was formerly common on land intended for barley, and was executed soon after harvest, as a preparation for the spring ploughings. A similar operation is still in use in some places, after land has been pulverized by clean ploughings, and is ready for receiving the seed. By this method only half the land is stirred, the furrow being laid over quite flat, and covering an equal space of the level surface. But, except in the latter instance, where corn is meant to grow in parallel lines, and where it is used as a substitute for a drill-machine, ribbing is highly objectionable, and has become almost obsolete.

Various inventions, under the names of Cultivator, Scarificator, Scuffler, &c. have been employed in England to supply the place of the plough, or rather to diminish the number of ploughings. Their use is to loosen the soil without bringing up a new surface. One of them under the name of a Grabber, has been already described in the section on Implements, and an engraving of it is annexed. (See Plate I.) An implement of this kind, worked by two horses, may cover a space of three feet, and the breadth of its work is consequently equal to that of four ordinary furrows, or to four acres a day; and upon lands that are considerably pulverized, it may go over six acres. If three operations of such a machine be equal in point of efficacy to two ploughings, the saving of expense must in all cases be considerable; particularly in those districts where the plough is still worked by a team of four or six horses. But one, and, on strong land, two ploughings must be given, before it can be employed with much advantage.

Sect. V. Fallowing.

There is no branch of agricultural practice that has engaged more attention of late than this; and after many years controversy, in which some of the ablest cultivators of the present day have entered the lists, and exhausted perhaps all the legitimate arguments on both sides, the practice does not appear to give way, but rather to extend, on wet tenacious clays; and it is only on such that any one contends for the advantages of fallowing. The expediency or inexpediency of pulverizing and cleaning the soil by a bare fallow, is a question that can be determined only by experience, and not by argument. No reasons, however ingenious, for the omission of this practice, can bring conviction to the mind of a farmer, who, in spite of all his exertions, finds, at the end of six or eight years, that his land is full of weeds, sour and comparatively unproductive. Drilled and horse-hoed green crops, though cultivated with advantage on almost every soil, are probably in general unprofitable as a substitute for fallow, and after a time altogether inefficient. It is not because turnips, cabbages, &c. will not grow in such soils, that a fallow is resorted to, but because, taking a course of years, the value of the successive crops is found to be so much greater, even though an unproductive year is interposed, as to induce a preference to fallowing. Horse-hoed crops, of beans in particular, postpone the recurrence of fallow, but in few situations can ever exclude it altogether.

On the other hand, the instances that have been adduced, of a profitable succession of crops on soils of this description, without the intervention of a fallow, are so well authenticated, that it would be extremely rash to assert that it can in no case be dispensed with on clay soils. Instances of this kind are to be found in different parts of Mr Young's Annals of Agriculture; and a very notable one, on Mr Greg's farm of Coles, in Hertfordshire, is accurately detailed in the sixth volume of the Communications to the Board of Agriculture.

The principal causes of this extraordinary difference among men of great experience, may probably be found in the quality of the soil, or in the nature of the climate, or in both. Nothing is more vague than the names by which soils are known in different districts. Mr Greg's farm in particular, though the soil is denominated "heavy arable land," and "very heavy land," is found so suitable to turnips, that a sixth part of it is always under that crop, and these are consumed on the ground by sheep—a system of management which every farmer must know to be altogether impracticable on the wet tenacious clays of other districts. It may indeed be laid down as a criterion for determining the question, that wherever this management can be profitably adopted, fallow, as a regular branch of the course, must be not less absurd than it is injurious, both to the cultivator and to the public. It is probable, therefore, that, in debating this point, the opposite parties are not agreed about the quality of the soil; and in particular, about its property of absorbing and retaining moisture, so different in soils that in common language have the same denomination.

Another cause of difference must be found in the climate. It is well known, that a great deal more rain falls on the west than on the east coast of Britain; and that between the southern and northern counties there is at least a month or six weeks' difference, in the maturation of the crops. Though the soil therefore be as nearly as possible similar in quality and surface, the period in which it is accessible to agricultural operations, must vary accordingly. Thus, in the south-eastern counties of the island, where the crops may be all cut down, and almost all carried home by the end of August, much may be done in cleansing and pulverizing the soil, during the months of September and October, while the farmers of the north are exclusively employed in harvest work, which is frequently not finished by the beginning of November. In some districts in the south of England, wheat is rarely sown before December; whereas in the north, and still more in Scotland, if it cannot be got completed by the end of October, it must commonly be delayed till spring, or oats or barley be taken in place of wheat.

It does not then seem of any utility to enter farther into this controversy, which every skilful cultivator must determine for himself. All the crops, and all the modes of management which have been proposed as a substitute for fallow, are well known to such men, and would unquestionably have been generally adopted long ago, if, upon a careful consideration of the advantages and disadvantages on both sides, a bare fallow was found to be unprofitable in a course of years. The reader who wishes to examine the question fully, may consult, among many others, the works noted below.*

However necessary the periodical recurrence of fallow may be on retentive clays, its warmest advocates do not recommend it on turnip soils, or on any friable loams incumbent on a porous subsoil; nor is it in any case necessary every third year, according to the practice of some districts. On the best cultivated lands it seldom returns oftener than once in six or eight years, and in favourable situations for obtaining an extra supply of manure, it may be advantageously dispensed with for a still longer period.

Fallows are in many instances so grossly mismanaged, particularly where they recur so often as to make it an object to derive some profit from them by means of sheep, that it may be of use to describe the several operations, according to the justly esteemed practice of East Lothian and Berwickshire.

"Invariably after harvest, the land intended for being summer fallowed in the ensuing year, gets an end-long ploughing, which ought to be as deep as the soil will admit, even though a little of the till or subsoil is brought up. This both tends to deepen the cultivated or manured soil, as the fresh accession of hitherto uncultivated earth becomes afterward incorporated with the former manured soil, and greatly facilitates the separation of the roots of weeds during the ensuing fallow process, by detaching them completely from any connection with the fast subsoil. This autumnal ploughing, usually called the winter furrow, promotes the rotting of stubble and weeds; and if not accomplished towards the end of harvest, must be given in the winter months, or as early in the spring as possible. In giving this first ploughing, the old ridges should be gathered up, if practicable, as in that state they are kept dry during the winter months; but it is not uncommon to split them out or divide them, especially if the land had been previously highly gathered, so that each original ridge of land is divided into two half ridges. Sometimes, when the land is easily laid dry, the furrows of the old ridges are made the crowns of the new ones, or the land is ploughed in the way technically called crown-and-fur. In other instances, two ridges are ploughed together, by what is called casting, which has been already described. After the field is ploughed, all the inter-furrows, and those of the headlands, are carefully opened up by the plough, and are afterwards gone over effectually by a labourer with a spade, to remove all obstructions, and to open up the water furrows into the fence ditches, wherever that seems necessary, that all moisture may have a ready exit. In every place where water is expected to lodge, such as dishes or hollow places in the field, cross or oblique furrows are drawn by the plough, and their intersections carefully opened into each other by the spade. Wherever it appears necessary, cross cuts are also made through the head ridges into the ditches with a spade, and every possible attention is exerted, that no water may stagnate in any part of the field.

"As soon as the spring seed-time is over, the fallow land is again ploughed end-long. If formerly split, it is now ridged up; if formerly laid up in gathered ridges, it is split or cloven down. It is then cross-ploughed; and after lying till sufficiently dry to admit the harrows, it is harrowed and rolled repeatedly, and every particle of the vivacious roots of weeds brought up to view, carefully gathered by hand into heaps, and either burnt on the field or carted off to the compost midden. The fallow is then ridged up, which places it in a safe condition in the event of bad weather, and exposes a new surface to the harrows and roller; after which the weeds are again gathered by hand, but a previous harrowing is necessary. It is afterwards ploughed, harrowed, rolled, and gathered as often as may be necessary to reduce it into fine tilth, and completely to eradicate all root weeds. Between these successive operations, repeated crops of seedling weeds are brought into vegetation and destroyed. The larvae likewise of various insects, together with an infinite variety of the seeds of weeds, are exposed to be devoured by birds, which are then the farmer's best friends, though often proscribed as his bitterest enemies.

"Some writers on husbandry have condemned the use of the harrow and roller in the fallow process, alleging, that frequent ploughing is all that is necessary to destroy root-weeds, by the baking or drying of the clods in the sun and wind; but experience has ascertained, that frequently turning over the ground,

* Young's Annals of Agriculture, and his writings generally; Hunter's Geographical Essays; Dickson's Practical Agriculture; Sir H. Davy's Agricultural Chemistry; Brown's Treatise on Rural Affairs; The County Reports; And The General Report of Scotland. Following though absolutely necessary while the fallow process is going on, can never eradicate couch-grass or other root-weeds. In all clay soils, the ground turns up in lumps or clods, which the severest drought will not penetrate so sufficiently as to kill the included roots. When the land is again ploughed, these lumps are simply turned over and no more, and the action of the plough serves in no degree to reduce them, or at least very imperceptibly. It may be added, that these lumps likewise inclose innumerable seeds of weeds, which cannot vegetate unless brought under the influence of the sun and air near the surface. The diligent use, therefore, of the harrow and roller, followed by careful hand-picking, is indispensably necessary to the perfection of the fallow process.

(General Report of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 419.)

When effectually reduced to fine tilth, and thoroughly cleansed from roots and weeds, the fallow is ploughed end-long into gathered ridges or lands, usually fifteen or eighteen feet broad; which are set out in the manner already described, in treating of the striking of furrows or searing. If the seed is to be drilled, the lands or ridges are made of such widths as may suit the construction of the particular drill-machine that is to be employed. After the land has been once gathered by a deep furrow, proportioned to the depth of the cultivated soil, the manure is laid on, and evenly spread over the surface, whether muck, lime, marl, or compost. A second gathering is now given by the plough; and this being generally the furrow upon which the seed is sown, great care is used to plough as equal as possible. After the seed is sown and the land thoroughly harrowed, all the inter-furrows, furrows of the headlands, and oblique or gaw furrows are carefully opened up by the plough, and cleared out by the spade, as already mentioned, respecting the first or winter ploughing.

The expense of fallowing must appear, from what has been said, to be very considerable, when land has been allowed to become stocked with weeds; but if it be kept under regular management, corn alternating with drilled pulse or green crops, the subsequent returns of fallow will not require nearly so much labour. In common cases, from four to six ploughings are generally given, with harrowing and rolling between, as may be found necessary; and, as we have already noticed, the cultivator may be employed to diminish this heavy expense. But it must be considered, that upon the manner in which the fallow operations are conducted, depend not only the ensuing wheat crop, but in a great measure all the crops of the rotation.

Sect. VI. Of the different kinds of Crops.

As this most important branch of agriculture, has been very fully treated in the body of the work, (Agriculture, Part I. Section III.) we shall here confine ourselves to a few leading observations; noticing, as we proceed, any changes that may have been recently introduced, either in the species of crops, or in the culture and general management. And for the convenience of referring to the former article, we shall adopt nearly the same arrangement.

1. Wheat.

Clays and strong loams, though certainly best adapted for wheat, are not by any means the only description of soils on which it is cultivated. Before the introduction of turnips and clover, all soils but little cohesive were thought quite unfit for wheat; but, even on sandy soils, it is now grown extensively, and with much advantage after either of these crops. The greater part of the wheat crop throughout Britain, however, is probably still sown upon fallowed land. When it succeeds turnips consumed on the ground, or clover cut for hay or siloing, it is commonly sown after one ploughing; but, upon heavier soils, or after grass of two or more years, the land is ploughed twice or three times, or receives what is called a rag-fallow.

In general, the fine white wheats are considered more delicate than the brown and red, and the latter sort in particular, though seldom sown on rich warm soils, is found most profitable, from its hardness and early ripening, on inferior soils, in an unfavourable climate. A great many different sorts of summer wheat, transmitted a few years ago to the president of the Board of Agriculture from the Agricultural Society of Paris, were divided for the purpose of experiment, among several distinguished agriculturists; but there has not yet been time for establishing their comparative merits, or their adaptation to the climate of Britain. Summer, or, as it is often called, spring wheat, has however been long and extensively cultivated in some parts of England, particularly in Lincolnshire; and, it is probable, may be found a valuable crop in the southern counties; but the trials that have been made in the north, do not seem to entitle it to a preference over winter wheat sown in spring, or even oats or barley, in that climate.

Winter wheat is sown on early turnip soils, after Time of clover or turnips, at almost every period from the sowing beginning of September till the middle of March; but the far greater part is sown in September and October. For summer wheat, in the southern districts, May is sufficiently early, but in the north, the last fortnight of April is thought a more eligible seed-time. In the cultivation of spring sown winter wheat, it is of importance to use the produce of spring sown grain as seed, as the crop of such grain ripens about a fortnight earlier than when the produce of the same wheat winter sown is employed as spring seed.

Wheat before being sown is usually prepared with Preparis pickles or steeps and quicklime, as a preventative of seed against sour. (See Agriculture, Theory, Section VII.) This important subject having been treated in the place referred to at some length, we shall only add a short account of a method of preparation, which has been followed with success in the south of Scotland,—and of the efficacy of which we can speak from our own experience. Take four vessels, two of them smaller than the other two, the former with wire bottoms, and of a size to contain about a bushel of wheat,

* Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. VII. p. 11. the latter large enough to hold the smaller within them. Fill one of the large tubs with water, and, putting the wheat in a small one, immerse it in the water, and stir and skim off the grains that float above; and renew the water as often as is necessary, till it comes off almost quite clean. Then raise the small vessel in which the wheat is contained, and repeat the process with it in the other large tub, which is to be filled with stale urine; and in the mean time wash more wheat in the water tub. When abundance of water is at hand, this operation is by no means tedious; and the wheat is much more effectually cleansed from all impurities, and freed more completely from weak and unhealthy grains and the seeds of weeds, than can be done by the winnowing-machine. When thoroughly washed and skimmed, let it drain a little, then empty it on a clean floor, or in the cart that is to take it to the field, and riddle quickly upon it, turning it over, and mixing it with a shovel, till it be sufficiently dry for sowing.

Wheat is most commonly sown broad-cast, in a manner too well known to need any description. Drilling is however extensively practised in some districts, and is becoming more general on lands infested with the seeds of annual weeds, especially when sown in spring. A machine which sows at three different intervals, according to the judgment of the farmer, of 12, 10½ or 9 inches, is much approved of in Scotland. It deposits six, seven, or eight rows at once, according as it is adjusted to one or other of these intervals, and the work is done with ease and accuracy when the ridges are previously laid out of such a breadth, 12½ feet, as to be sown by one bout; the machine going along one side of such a ridge, and returning on the other, and its direction being guided by one of its wheels, which thus always runs in the open furrow between the ridges. If the 10½ inch interval be adopted, and it is the most common one in that country, the machine sows seven rows at once, or fourteen rows on a ridge of twelve feet and a half. But the space between the rows varies in some parts still more than this machine admits of; it ought not, however, to be so narrow as to prevent hand-hoeing, even after the crop has made considerable progress in growth; and it cannot advantageously be so wide as to admit the use of any effective horse-hoe. For a fuller discussion of this subject, see the principal article, Part I. section viii.

A third mode of sowing is common in some places, by which a drill machine is dispensed with, though the same purpose is nearly answered. This is by what is called ribbing, which we have already adverted to in the section on tillage. The seed is scattered with the hand in the usual broad-cast manner, but as it necessarily falls for the most part in the furrows between the ribs, the crop rises in straight parallel rows, as if it had been sown by a drill-machine; and the ribs are afterwards levelled by harrowing across them. This plan has nearly all the advantages of drilling, in so far as regards exposure to the rays of the sun, and the circulation of air among the plants; but, as some plants must always rise between the rows, it is not quite so proper when hand-hoeing is required.

The quantity of seed necessary, depends both on the time of sowing and the state of the land; land seed sown early, requiring less than the same land when sown in winter or spring, and poor land being at all times allowed more seed than the rich. The quantity accordingly varies from two bushels per English statute acre. Winter wheat, when sown in spring, ought always to have a liberal allowance, as the plants have not time to tiller much without unduly retarding their maturation.

When wheat is sown broad-cast, the subsequent After Culture must generally be confined to harrowing, ture, rolling, and hand-hoeing. As grass-seeds are frequently sown in spring on winter-sown wheat, the harrows and roller are employed to loosen the soil, and cover the seeds. But these operations, to a certain extent, and at the proper season, are found beneficial to the wheat crop itself, and are sometimes performed even when grass-seeds are not to be sown. One or two courses of harrowing penetrate the crust which is formed on tenacious soils, and operate like hand-hoeing in raising a fresh mould to the stems of the young plants. Rolling in spring ought never to be omitted on dry porous soils, which are frequently left in so loose a state by the winter frosts, that the roots quit the soil and perish; and if the land be rough and cloddy, the roller has a still more beneficial effect than the harrows in pulverizing the inert masses, and extending the pasture of the plants. Hand-weeding, so far as to cut down thistles and other long weeds, is never neglected by careful farmers; but the previous culture ought to leave as little as possible of this work to be done when the crop is growing. Annual weeds, which are the most troublesome, can only be effectually destroyed by hand-hoeing; and to admit of this, the crop should be made to rise in rows, by being sown either by a drill-machine, or on ribs. Where grass-seeds are to be sown on drilled wheat, the hand-hoeing assists in covering them.

Wheat, which is almost universally reaped with the Reaping sickle,* ought not to stand till it be what is called dead ripe, when the loss is considerable, both upon the field and in the stack-yard. When cut, it is usually tied up in sheaves, which it is better to make so small as to be done by bands the length of the straw, than so thick as to require two lengths to be joined for bands. The sheaves are set up in shocks or stocks, each containing in all twelve, or, if the straw be long, fourteen sheaves. In the latter case, two rows of six sheaves are made to stand in such a manner as to be in contact at the top, though, in order to admit the circulation of air, at some distance below, and along this line, two sheaves more are placed as a covering, the corn end of both being towards the extremities of the line. In a few days of good weather the crop

* In Hainault, in Flanders, a short scythe is commonly employed instead of a sickle; and this implement has been successfully tried in some places in England. See Plate IV. fig. 6, 7, 8., and the Description of that Plate.

Kinds of Crops.

is ready for the barn or stack-yard. In the stack-yard, which is commonly contiguous to the farm-offices, having the barn on one of its sides, it is built either in oblong or circular stacks, sometimes on frames supported with pillars, to prevent the access of vermin, and to secure the bottom from dampness; and as soon afterwards as possible the stacks are neatly thatched. When the harvest weather is so wet as to render it difficult to prevent the stacks from heating, it has been the practice to make funnels through them, a large one in a central and perpendicular direction, and small lateral ones to communicate with it. A particular method of constructing pillars, frames, and bosses, as the funnels are called, is described in a recent publication. (Husbandry of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 373.) In the best cultivated counties, the use of large barns for holding the crop is disapproved of, not only on account of the expense, but because corn keeps better, or is less exposed to damage of any kind, in a well-built stack.

Thrashing.

By means of the thrashing-mill, all sorts of corn are expeditiously separated from the straw, and dressed for market. One man feeds the grain in the straw into the machine, and is assisted by two half-grown lads, or young women, one of whom pitches or carries the sheaves from the hay close to the thrashing-stage, while the other opens the bands of every sheaf, and lays the sheaves successively on a small table close by the feeder, who spreads them evenly on the feeding-stage, that they may be drawn in successively by the fluted rollers, to undergo the operation of thrashing. In the opposite end of the barn, or straw-house, into which the rakes or shakers deliver the clean thrashed straw, one man forks up the straw from the floor to the straw-mow, and two lads, or young women, build it and tread it down. In a thrashing-machine, worked by water or wind, this is the whole expense of hand labour in the thrashing part of the operation; and, as a powerful machine can easily thrash from two to three hundred bushels of grain in a working day of nine hours, the expense is exceedingly small indeed. Assuming two hundred and fifty bushels as an average for the work of these people for one day, and their wages to be nine shillings, the expense does not amount to one halfpenny for each bushel of grain. Even reducing the quantity of grain thrashed to one hundred and fifty bushels, the easy work of a good machine of inferior size and power, the expense does not exceed three farthings the bushel. But the whole of this must not be charged against the thrashing only, the grain being half dressed at the same time, by passing through one winnowing-machine, which is always attached to a complete thrashing-mill; and where a second can be conveniently connected with it, as is commonly the case if the mill be of considerable power, the corn comes down nearly ready for market. So that the thrashing, dressing, and building of the straw, with the use of a powerful water-mill, will scarcely cost more than dressing alone when the flail is employed; after every reasonable allowance for the interest of money, and the tear and wear of the machine.

When grain is thrashed with a machine worked by horses, the expense is necessarily and considerably enhanced. One capable of effecting the larger quantity of work already calculated on, will require eight good horses, and a man to drive them, who may perhaps require the aid of a boy. The value of the work of eight horses for a day cannot be less than forty shillings, and the wages of the driver may be called two shillings and sixpence. Hence the total expense of thrashing two hundred and fifty bushels will amount to L. 2, 2s. 6d.; or about twopence per bushel, when the wages of the attendants are added; still leaving a considerable difference in favour of thrashing by the machine in preference to the flail. Were it even ascertained, that the expense of thrashing by horses and by the flail is nearly the same, horse-mills are to be recommended on other accounts—such as better thrashing, expedition, little risk of pilfering, &c.

The diseases of plants being treated in the principal article (Theory, Sect. vii.), we shall do little more here than notice smut and mildew, the principal diseases of wheat. Respecting the cause of smut, different theories have been offered, which, however ingenious and plausible, do not seem sufficiently precise to lead to any practical result. In whatever manner this disease may be transmitted from the seed pickle in the ground to the ear, it seems certain that, in general, the proximate cause of smut is the infection of the seed by the dust of the smut-ball, (Lycoperdon globosum;) and that, though the most careful washing, even with the application of caustics, may not in every case insure against smut, yet, if the seed be prepared in the way already mentioned, the disease will never prevail to such a degree as to affect materially the value of the crop. This is all that cultivators need to know, and all, perhaps, in the present state of science, that can be known, of the cause and prevention of smut.

Mildew is a much more destructive distemper than mildew, smut, and, as it is probably occasioned by a peculiar state of the atmosphere between the periods of flowering and ripening, it is likely to baffle all attempts at prevention. The prevalence of heavy fogs or mist, drizzling rains, and sudden changes in the temperature, have been assigned as the causes of mildew; and as it has been found, that open airy exposures are much less affected than low sheltered lands, in years when mildew prevails most generally, the disorder may perhaps be somewhat diminished by drilling, which admits a freer circulation of air. Spring or summer wheat is less liable to mildew than the winter species, though it does not always escape. Minute parasitical fungi are commonly detected on the straw of mildewed wheat; and there cannot be the least doubt that the barberry bush, and probably several other shrubs, on which these fungi abound, have a powerful influence in communicating the disease to a certain distance. (Sir Joseph Banks on Mildew, and Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. VII.)

2. Rye.

The cultivation of this species of grain is more limited than it was in former times, when rye, either by itself or mixed with wheat, furnished the bread of the labouring classes; and in most parts of Britain, there is no steady demand for it. It is, nevertheless, a profitable crop in particular districts, and especially on sandy soils, that will scarcely carry any other kind of grain. There are two general varieties—the one sown before winter, and the other in spring; and it is further distinguished by its black or white colour. The winter sort, which is the most plump and hardy grain, is sometimes cultivated as a green crop, to be eaten in spring, where turnips are not raised, or after they are consumed. There is nothing in its habits or mode of culture that requires particular notice. It is sometimes sown on the margins of fields, near farm-houses, as a protection to other crops against the depredations of poultry, which do not feed on it, and seldom penetrate through it; and its straw is more valuable for thatch, though useless as fodder, than that of any other species of corn.

3. Barley.

This is a much less hardy grain than either of the former, and succeeds best on a finely pulverized soil, not so little cohesive as that which will carry rye, but much farther removed, on the other hand, from the clays best adapted to the growth of wheat. It is cultivated largely as a rotation crop in several counties of England; but of late rather sparingly in Scotland, owing, it is alleged, to the present duties on malt. It is most generally sown after turnips, though sometimes after beans or peas; and even after a bare fallow, if the land be not thought fit for wheat, or if the weather has prevented it from being sown at the proper season. Spring-sown wheat, either of the winter or summer species, and early oats, particularly the potatoe variety, now occupy a large portion of the land that was formerly allotted to barley.

The most intelligible distinction among the different kinds of barley is founded on the number of the rows on the ear. Thus, we have Hordeum distichon, two-rowed barley, which is the kind most extensively cultivated, and comprises several varieties; Hordeum tetrasitchon, four-rowed barley, often called bear or bigg, the culture of which is, for the most part, confined to inferior soils, or to situations where the climate is unfavourable to the former species; and Hordeum hexastichon, or six-rowed barley, which is but little known in Britain, though it is the prevailing kind in the north of Europe, and said to be the hardest of all. (See principal article, No. 261.)

To whatever crop barley succeeds, the harrow and roller, when the plough alone is insufficient, should be employed in reducing the soil to a considerable degree of fineness. In most cases more than one earth is given; though, after a winter furrow, the cultivator may be used in spring instead of the plough. After turnips, eaten on the ground by sheep, the land, being consolidated by their treading, sometimes receives two ploughings; but if only one, it should be well harrowed and rolled; and it is often finished by harrowing after the roller, especially if grass-seeds be sown, which are covered by this last harrowing. Barley is sometimes sown on the first ploughing, and covered by a second shallow ploughing. (See principal article.) As it is found of great importance, with a view to speedy and equal vegetation, that the ground should be fresh and moist, barley is generally sown upon what is termed hot-fur, that is, as soon as possible after it is turned up by the plough.

From the beginning of April to the middle of May is considered the best season for sowing barley; though in early situations it may be sown a fortnight later. Bear, or bigg, is an earlier, as well as a harder kind, than the two-rowed barley, and may be sown later. Winter sown barley, which may be eaten in spring and afterwards stand for a crop, is found to answer well in particular districts. On land infested with annual weeds, the drilling of this grain is an advantageous practice; but throughout the country at large, this, and all other culmiferous crops, are more generally sown broadcast. If the land be rich, a small quantity of seed is sufficient; often so little as two bushels per acre, and seldom more than three, or three and a half.

Barley is cut down in some places with the sickle, reaping, and in others with the scythe; in England, very commonly with the latter, and in Scotland almost always with the former. It is the most difficult of all the species of corn to save in a precarious harvest, and usually requires more labour in thrashing and dressing, particularly in separating the awns from the grain, for which an apparatus, called a hummelling-machine, is frequently added to the thrashing-mill.

4. Oats.

This hardy grain is sown, with little preparation, oats, on almost every kind of soil, and too often follows culmiferous crops, as well as pulse, herbage, and bulbous-rooted plants. Where a correct course of alternate white and green crops prevails, oats usually succeed clover; and it is almost always the first crop on land that has been several years in grass. As it prospers best on a soil not too finely pulverized, it is commonly sown on one earth.

There are numerous varieties of this species, which are distinguished by colour, form, and the period of ripening; and by the names of the countries, such as the Poland and the Dutch, from whence they are understood to have been brought, or of the places where they were originally cultivated. The chief of these are the common white variety, so well known as to need no description; the red; and what is called the potatoe-oat. For land in good cultivation, the two latter are probably the best,—the red for uplands exposed to high winds,—and the potatoe variety in lower situations. Both of these are early, and yield more abundantly, in grain as well as meal, than most others. The potatoe-oat has been but recently introduced into cultivation, having been discovered by accident in Cumberland in 1788. (Farmer's Magazine, Vol. XIV. p. 167.) But it is now almost the only kind raised, on suitable soils, in the north of England, and throughout the lowlands of Scotland. It usually brings a higher price at Marklane than any other variety. The red oat is so called from the colour of its husk; it has a thinner and more flexible stem, and the grain is more firmly attached to it, than in any of the early varieties; so that upon good soils, in high situations, as it is in less danger of suffering from wind, and is, at the same time, so much earlier than the common kinds, it is entitled to a decided preference, particularly in a Kinds of late climate. It is understood to have originated in the county of Peebles, and is sometimes called the Magbiehill-oat, from the name of the estate where it was first cultivated.

Oats are sown, usually broad-cast, in the months of March and April; seldom earlier or later, and from four to six bushels are allowed for an acre. They are often carried to the barn like hay, without being tied up in sheaves; but in the North, they are either managed in the way already described for wheat, or set up in single sheaves, or goits, as they are cut, and tied more tightly when ready to be carried; and then built in the stack-yard. Wherever a thrashing-mill is employed, as it is necessary, in order to have the work done well, that corn should be presented to the rollers in a regular, uniform manner, the practice of mowing, and carrying it in a loose state, is highly improper; and, independent of this objection, the season often occasions much damage to corn managed in this slovenly manner, which it would have escaped in sheaves and covered shocks.

The straw of oats is of more value as fodder than that of any other corn crop, and it is advantageously used as a substitute for hay during the winter months in some of the best cultivated districts, both for farm-horses and cattle.

5. Peas and Beans.

Respecting the first of these crops, little needs be added to what has been stated in the body of the work. Since the introduction of clover and turnips, the culture of peas, which are almost everywhere a most precarious crop, has been greatly diminished. Their straw, or haulm, is sometimes more valuable than the grain produce, which, in a wet or late season, is frequently little more than the seed; and when the straw is not luxuriant, so much of the land is left to the growth of weeds, that it is rendered unfit for carrying corn crops till cleansed by a fallow or fallow crop. Drilling is but an ineffectual remedy for these inconveniences, the stems falling over and covering the ground in so irregular a manner, as, in a great measure, to prevent either horse or hand hoeing, at the time when it would be most beneficial. Yet a luxuriant crop of peas, by completely covering the surface, keeping the soil in a moist and mellow state, and preventing the growth of weeds, is a good preparation for both wheat and barley.

The cultivation of beans is almost confined to clays and strong loams, in the best managed districts; turnip soils being by no means suited to this crop. Beans usually succeed wheat or oats, but sometimes also clover or pasture grass. The common horse-bean is the kind most generally cultivated; but large and small ticks are preferred in some of the English counties.

Beans, though still sown broad-cast in several places, and sometimes dibbled, are, for the most part, drilled by judicious cultivators, or deposited after the plough in every furrow, or only in every second or third furrow. In the latter method, the crop rises in rows, at regular intervals of 9, 18, or 27 inches, and the hand-hoe ought invariably to be employed; but it is only where the widest interval is adopted, that the horse-hoe can be used with much effect in their subsequent culture.

In the preparation of the land, much depends on the nature of the soil and the state of the weather; for as beans must be sown early in the spring, it is sometimes impossible to give it all the labour which a careful farmer would wish to bestow. It must also be regulated, in some measure, by the manner of sowing. But as we are decidedly of opinion, that beans ought, in general, to be planted with such a distance between the rows, as to admit of horsehoeing, we shall confine ourselves to this mode of culture, which we think should be generally known; making use of the latest publication on the subject, which contains an accurate account of the different operations. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 515.)

In preparing ground for beans, it ought to be ploughed with a deep furrow after harvest, or early in winter; and as two ploughings in spring are highly advantageous, the winter-furrow may be given in the direction of the former ridges, in which way the land is sooner dry in spring than if it had been ploughed across. The second ploughing is to be given across the ridges, as early in spring as the ground is sufficiently dry; and the third furrow either forms the drills, or receives the seed, as shall be mentioned immediately.

Dung is often applied to the bean crop, especially if it succeeds wheat. By some, dung is spread on the stubble previous to the winter ploughing; but this cannot always be done in a satisfactory manner, at least in the northern parts of the island, unless during frost, when it may lie long exposed to the weather before it can be turned down by the plough. The most desirable mode therefore is, to lay the manure into drills immediately before the beans are sown.

There are, as already hinted, two several modes of sowing in drilling beans. In one of these, the lands, or ridges, Rows, are divided by the plough into ridgelets, or one bout stitches, at intervals of about 27 inches. If dung is to be applied, the seed ought to be first deposited, as it is found inconvenient to run the drill-machine afterwards. The dung may then be drawn out from the carts in small heaps, one row of heaps serving for three or five ridgelets; and it is evenly spread, and equally divided among them, in a way that will be more minutely described when treating of the culture of turnips. The ridgelets are next split out or reversed, either by means of the common plough, or one with two mould-boards, which covers both the seed and the manure in the most perfect manner.

When beans are sown by the other method, in the bottom of a common furrow, the dung must be previously spread over the surface of the winter or spring ploughing. Three ploughs then start in succession one immediately behind another, and a drill barrow either follows the third plough, or is attached to it, by which the beans are sown in every third furrow, or at from 24 to 27 inches asunder, according to the breadth of the furrow-slice.

Another approved way of sowing beans, when dung is applied at seed-time, is to spread the dung, and to plough it down with a strong furrow; after which shallow furrows are drawn, into which the seed is deposited by the drill-machine. Whichever of these modes of sowing is followed, the whole field must be carefully laid dry by means of channels formed by the plough, and when necessary by the shovel; for neither then nor at any former period should water be allowed to stagnate on the land.

The time of sowing beans is as early as possible after the severity of winter is over; in the south sometimes in January, but never later than the end of March; as the ripening of the crop and its safe harvesting would otherwise be very precarious in this climate.

The quantity of seed allowed is very different in the southern and northern parts of Britain; in the former, even when the rows are narrow, only two bushels or two bushels and a half; but in Scotland seldom less than four bushels to the English statute acre; even when sown in ridges 27 inches distant, and a bushel more when sown broad-cast.

Both in the broad-cast and drill husbandry, it is common to mix a small quantity of peas along with beans. This mixture improves both the quantity and quality of the straw for fodder, and the pea-straw is useful for binding up the sheaves in harvest.

The bean crop is generally harrowed to destroy annual weeds, sometimes just before the plants make their appearance, and sometimes after the beans have got their first green leaves, and are fairly above ground. When sown in rows, in either of the modes already mentioned, the harrows are employed about ten or twelve days after; and, being driven across the ridgelets, the land is laid completely level for the subsequent operations.

After the beans have made some growth, sooner or later according as the soil may happen to be encumbered with or free from weeds, the horse-hoe is employed in the interval between the rows; and followed by the hand-hoe for the purpose of cutting down such weeds as the horse-hoe cannot reach; all the weeds, that grow among the beans beyond the reach of either hoe, should be pulled up with the hand. The same operations are repeated as often as the condition of the land in regard to cleanness may require.

Before the introduction of the horse-hoe, which merely stirs the soil, and cuts up the weeds, a common small plough, drawn by one horse, was used in working between the rows, and is still necessary where root weeds abound. This plough goes one bout, or up and down in each interval, turning the earth from the beans, and forming a ridgelet in the middle; then hand-hoes are immediately employed; and after some time, a second hand-hoeing succeeds to destroy any fresh growth of weeds. The same plough, with an additional mould-board, finally splits open the intermediate ridgelet, and lays up the earth to the roots of the beans on each side. The benefit of laying up the earth in this manner, however, is alleged to be counter-balanced by the trouble which it occasions in harvest, when it is difficult to get the reapers to cut low enough, and may be properly dispensed with, unless the soil be very wet and level.

In an early harvest, and when the straw is not moderately rank, the bean crop becomes ripe in good time, and is easily prepared for the stack-yard. But in moist warm seasons, the grain hardly ever ripens effectually; and it is exceeding difficult to get the straw into a proper condition for the stack. In such cases, it has been found of advantage to switch off the succulent tops with an old scythe blade set in a wooden handle, with which one man can easily top-dress two acres a-day. This operation, it is said, will occasion the crop to be ready for reaping a fortnight earlier, and also perhaps a week sooner ready for the stack-yard after being reaped. In order to have the land prepared for a wheat crop, beans are sometimes removed from the ground, and set up to dry in another field.

The most approved mode of reaping beans is with the sickle, but they are sometimes mown, and in a few instances even pulled up by the roots. They should be cut as near the ground as possible, for the sake of the straw, which is of considerable value as fodder, and because the best pods are often placed on the stems near the roots. They are then left for a few days to wither, and afterwards bound and set up in shocks to dry, but without any head-sheaves.

Beans are built in circular or oblong stacks, often in the latter form; and it is always proper, if the stack be large, to construct one or more funnels to allow a free circulation of air. They may be thrashed by the mill, and dressed by the winnowing machine like any other grain.

6. Tares.

The tare, though cultivated for its stems and leaves, Tares, Va-rather than for its fruit or seeds, is so similar to the rietes, pea in its habits and mode of culture, that it seems proper to mention it in this place.

The common tare is distinguished into two sorts, the winter and spring tare. It is the opinion of an eminent botanist, that they are the same plant; (Walker's Hebrides, Vol. I. p. 228.) but though this may have been true of the tare in its natural state, there is reason to believe that a material difference now exists, superinduced perhaps by cultivation. (Annals of Agriculture, Vol. II.) The winter tare, by the experiments detailed in the work just referred to, escaped injury from frosts which destroyed the spring variety. The difference in the colour and size of the seeds is, however, so inconsiderable, as to be scarcely distinguished; but "the winter tare vegetates with a seed leaf of a fresh green colour, whereas the spring tare comes up with a grassy spear of a brown dusky hue." (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 889.)

The winter variety is sown in September and October, and the first sowing in spring ought to be as early as the season will permit. If they are to be cut green for salling throughout the summer and autumn, which is the most advantageous method of consuming them, successive sowings should follow till the end of May. The quantity of seed to an acre is from 2½ to 3½ bushels, according to the time of sowing, and as they are to be consumed green or left to stand for a crop.

Tares are in some places eaten on the ground by cattle. different kinds of live stock, particularly by sheep; and as the winter sown variety comes very early in spring, the value of this rich food is then very considerable. The waste, however, in this way, even though the sheep be confined in hutches, must be great; and still greater when consumed by horses or cattle. But if the plants be cut green, and given to live stock either on the field, or in the fold-yards, there is, perhaps, no green crop of greater value, nor any better calculated to give a succession of herbage from May to November. The winter sown tares, in a favourable climate, is ready for cutting before clover; the first spring crop comes in after the clover must be all consumed or made into hay; and the successive spring sowings give a produce more nourishing for the larger animals than the aftermath of clover, and may afford green food at least a month longer.

A little rye sown with winter tares, and a few oats with the spring sort, not only serve to support the weak creeping stems of the tares, but add to the bulk of the crop by growing up through the interstices.

There is little difference in the culture of tares and of peas; they are often sown broad-cast, but sometimes in rows, with intervals to admit of hand-hoeing. The land ought to be rolled as a preparation for mowing; and they should always be cut with the scythe, rather than with a sickle, which, by tearing up a number of the plants by the roots, renders the second growth of little or no value. When cut with the scythe, even an early spring sown crop sometimes yields a weighty after-crop.

In those districts where winter sown tares are found to succeed, which is not the case in the north, the ground may be cleared in time for being sown with turnips, or dressed like a fallow for wheat to be sown in autumn.

7. Potatoes.

To the observations that have been submitted on the varieties and different modes of cultivating this invaluable root, in the principal article, (No. 284), we shall only add a short account of the present most approved method.

In preparing land for potatoes, it is of much importance to free it as completely as possible from weed roots, which cannot be so well extirpated afterwards, as in the culture of turnips, and some other drilled crops, both because the horse hoe must be excluded altogether at a time when vegetation is still vigorous, and because at no period of their growth is it safe to work so near the plants, especially after they have made some progress in growth. It is the earlier time of planting, and of finishing the after culture, that renders potatoes a very indifferent substitute for fallow, and in this respect, in no degree comparable to turnips. For this reason, as well as on account of the great quantity of manure required, their small value at a distance from large towns, and the great expense of transporting so bulky a commodity, the culture of potatoes is by no means extensive in the best managed districts. Unless in the immediate vicinity of such towns, or in very populous manufacturing counties, potatoes do not constitute a regular rotation crop, though they are raised almost everywhere to the extent required for the consumption of the farmer and his servants, and, in some cases, for occasionally feeding horses and cattle, particularly late in spring.

The first ploughing is given soon after harvest, and a second, and commonly a third, early in spring; the land is then laid up into ridgelets, from 27 to 30 inches broad, as for turnips, and manured in the same manner; and the sets are planted at from four to eight inches distant, in April, or till the middle of May, planting and the ridgelets reversed to cover them. In this state the land remains till the plants begin to rise above the surface, when it is harrowed across; and afterwards the horse-hoe, or small hoeing-plough, and the hand-hoe, are repeatedly employed in the intervals, and between the plants, as long as the progress of the crop will permit, or the state of the soil may require. The earth is then gathered once, or oftener, from the middle of the intervals towards the roots of the plants, after which any weeds that may be left must be drawn out by hand; for when the radicles have extended far in search of food, and the young roots begin to form, neither the horse nor hand hoe can be admitted without injury.

Potatoes are usually taken up by the common gathering plough, but sometimes with three pronged forks; the plough goes twice along each ridgelet, in such a manner as not materially to injure any of the roots with its share or coulter, and the potatoes are gathered by women and children placed along the line, at proper distances. When the land is somewhat moist, or of a tenacious quality, the furrow-slice does not give out the roots freely, and a harrow which follows the plough is commonly employed to break it and separate them from the mould. Various contrivances have been resorted to for this purpose; a circular harrow or brake to be attached to the plough, of very recent invention, (See Plate III. Fig. 6.) has been found to answer the purpose well, and to effect a considerable saving of labour.

Various suggestions have been offered for the purpose of improving the cultivation of this root. Instead of cutting the roots to be planted into sets, some have recommended the planting of them whole, and others have thought that a great saving of the root might be made by scooping out the sets. (See Plate VIII.) Several experiments have been made to augment the produce and accelerate the ripening of potatoes, by plucking off the blossoms from the shoots or haulm. But none of these innovations have yet entered into general practice, and the trials have not been so numerous nor so satisfactory as to warrant any conclusions of real utility.

The potatoe crop is preserved through winter, sometimes in houses, but more generally perhaps in some convenient place near the farm buildings, in winter, camps, pies, or pits, covered first with straw, and then with earth dug up around the heaps, in the form of a trench, which discharges any water that might otherwise lodge about the bottoms.

Curled tops are the most destructive disease to which this crop is liable; for a particular account of which, and the various modes of prevention that have been tried, see the principal Article, No. 113. 8 Turnips.

Turnips and clover are the two main pillars of the best courses of British husbandry; they have contributed more to preserve and augment the fertility of the soil for producing grain—to enlarge and improve our breeds of cattle and sheep—and to afford a regular supply of butcher's meat all the year, than any other crops; and they will probably be long found vastly superior, for extensive cultivation, to any of the rivals which have often been opposed to them in particular situations.

Turnips cannot be advantageously cultivated on wet tenacious clays, but are grown on all comparatively dry soils, under all the variations of our climate. On dry loams, and all soils of a looser texture, managed according to the best courses of cropping, they enter into the rotation to the extent of a fourth, a sixth, or an eighth part of the land in tillage; and even on clayey soils, they are frequently cultivated, though on a smaller scale, to be eaten by cattle, for the purpose of augmenting and enriching the manure, into which the straw of corn is converted.

After what has been said in the principal Article, it will be sufficient in this place to describe the practices of the best managed counties of Scotland, in regard to the culture of turnips. In this country broad-cast sowing is almost unknown, turnips being universally raised in rows at such a distance as to admit of horse-hoeing, and every step of the process is conducted with much accuracy and success.

The varieties commonly cultivated by the best farmers are the white globe, which comes early and gives a very weighty crop, but often suffers much from the frosts of winter; the yellow, which is more hardy and answers well for succeeding the globe in spring; and the ruta baga or Swedish, which may be preserved for consumption till the end of May.

The drill culture of turnips was first firmly established in Scotland, by the practice of Mr William Dawson, a farmer at Frogden, in the county of Roxburgh, soon after his entry to that farm in 1759. Turnips had been sown indeed on narrow ridges, according to the practice of Tull, many years before that period; but chiefly by proprietors, upon a very small scale; and the several operations were neither so correct, so uniform, nor so much simplified as to induce general imitation. The first person who ever formed turnip ridges in Scotland with a two-horse plough without a driver, was instructed by Mr Dawson, and is yet alive.

In the drill culture of turnips, the land is ploughed with a deep furrow soon after harvest, usually in the direction of the former ridges, though, if the soil be dry, it is of little consequence in what direction. As soon as the spring seed-time is over, a second ploughing is given across the former, and the harrows and, if necessary, the rollers, are then set to work to clean and pulverize the soil. All the weed-roots that are brought to the surface are carefully gathered into heaps, and either burnt on the ground, or carried off to form a compost, usually with lime. The land is then generally ploughed a third time, again harrowed well, sometimes also rolled, and the weed-roots picked out as before. Unless land is in a much worse state, in regard to cleanness and pulverization, than it usually is after turnips have been sometime a rotation crop, no more ploughings are necessary. It is next laid up in ridgelets from 27 to 30 inches wide, either with the common swing-plough, or one with two mould-boards, which forms two sides of a ridgelet at once. Well rotted dung, at the rate of Manuring, 12 or 15 tons per acre, is then carried to the field, and dropt from the cart in the middle one of three intervals, in such a quantity as may serve for that and the interval on each side of it. The dung is then divided equally among the three, by a person who goes before the spreaders, one of whom for each interval spreads it with a small three-pronged fork along the bottom. The plough immediately follows, and reversing the ridgelets, forms new ones over the dung; and the drill-barrow, commonly one that sows two drills at once, drawn by one horse, deposits the Sowing seed as fast as the new drills are formed. This drill machine is usually furnished with two small rollers; one that goes before the sowing apparatus, and levels the pointed tops of the ridgelets, and another that follows for the purpose of compressing the soil and covering the seed. From the time the dung is carted to the ground, until the seed is deposited, the several operations should go on simultaneously; the dung is never allowed to lie uncovered to be dried by the sun and the wind; and the new ridgelets are sown as soon as formed, that the seed may find moisture to accelerate its vegetation.

The time of sowing the several varieties is somewhat different; the Swedish should be put in the Sowing earliest, and then the yellow,—both of them in the month of May. But as these kinds are much less extensively cultivated than the globe, the month of June is the principal seed-time; and after the first week of July a full crop is not to be expected in the northern parts of the island. The quantity of seed most commonly allowed is two pounds to the acre, which though much more than sufficient to stock the ground with plants, is thought to be necessary for ensuring a regular crop on most soils. The supernumerary plants are easily taken out by the hoe, but if any parts are missed, they can be filled up only by inserting a few Swedish plants; the other varieties seldom succeed after transplantation.

As soon as the plants have put forth the rough Culture leaf, or sooner if annual weeds have got the start of while grow, them, a horse-hoe is run between the ridgelets and ing cuts up the weeds on each side, almost close to the rows of the turnip plants, clearing out the bottom of the interval at the same time. The hand-hoers are always set to work as soon as possible after, and the plants are left about nine inches distant—the Swedish kind somewhat closer. If the ground has been well prepared, and the plants not allowed to get too large, three experienced hoers go over an acre a day. A few days after this, a small swing-plough, drawn by one horse, enters the interval between the rows, and, taking a furrowslice off each side, forms a smaller ridgelet in the middle. If the annuals still rise in great abundance, the horse-hoe may be employed again; otherwise the next operation is to go over them a second time with the hand-hoe, when the intermediate ridgelet is levelled. Sometimes a third hoeing must be given, but that is done very expeditiously. When no more manual labour is required, a small plough with two mould-boards is employed to lay up the earth to the sides of the plants, leaving the ridgelets of the same form as when sown, which finishes the process. Large fields throughout their whole extent, dressed in this manner, are left as clean and as pleasant to the eye as the best cultivated garden. The horse and hand-hoeing in ordinary cases may cost about fifteen shillings per acre.

Where the soil is perfectly dry, and has been well prepared, the small plough has of late been laid aside by many farmers, and the space between the rows is kept clean by the horse and hand-hoe alone; but if the soil be either wet from springs, or so flat as not easily to part with surface water, it is still considered proper to earth up the roots as the concluding part of the process; and it is always useful to plough between the ridges when couch-grass and other weeds have not been completely picked out before the land was sown.

The gathering of the weeds, the spreading of the dung, and the hand-hoeing, are almost always performed by women and boys and girls.

A good crop of white globe turnips usually weighs from 25 to 30 tons per acre, the yellow and Swedish commonly a few tons less. Of late there have been instances of much heavier crops, and in Ayrshire, it would appear, that above sixty tons have been raised on an English acre, the leaves not included. (Former's Magazine, Vol. XV. and XVI.) But such an extraordinary produce must have been obtained by the application of more manure than can be provided, without injustice to other crops, from the home resources of a farm; and where turnips form a regular crop in the rotation, no such produce is to be expected under any mode of culture.

Turnips are consumed either on the spot where they grow, on grass fields, in fold-yards, or in feeding-houses; the far greater part, wherever they are extensively cultivated, by sheep. The price per acre when sold depends not only upon the weight of the crop, but also on the mode of its consumption.

When eaten by sheep in the place of their growth, turnips are lotted off, by means of hurdles or nets, that they may be regularly consumed. When the first allowance is nearly eaten up, the bottoms or shells are picked out of the ground, by means of a two-pronged blunt hook adapted to the purpose; and then another portion of the field is taken in, by shifting the hurdles or nets, and so on regularly until the whole are finished; the cleared part of the field being usually left accessible as a drier bed for the sheep, and that they may pick up what shells remained when a new portion of the field was taken in.

The turnips required for other modes of consumption are usually drawn out, at regular intervals, before the sheep are put upon the field; unless the soil be so poor as to need all the benefit of their dung and treading, in which case, the whole are consumed where they grow; or so rich as to endanger the succeeding crops, by eating any part of the turnips on the ground. In the latter very rare instance, the whole crop is carried to be consumed elsewhere, as must always be done, if the soil be naturally too wet for sheep feeding.

In wet weather, when sheep ought not to be allowed to lie on the turnip field, it becomes necessary to carry the turnips to a grass field; and store sheep, not requiring to be so highly fed, frequently eat their turnips on such fields, as well as rearing cattle, and sometimes milk cows. A grass field contiguous to the turnip one is always very desirable, that the sheep, confined on other sides by hurdles or nets, may always find a dry place to lie on.

In the expenditure of turnips to young cattle, and to sheep in their first year towards spring, when the loosening and shedding of their teeth render them unable to break the hard roots, it is usual to cut or slice the turnip, either by means of a spade or chopping-knife, or by an implement constructed for the purpose, called a turnip-slicer, formerly mentioned; or they are crushed by means of a heavy wooden mallet.

During severe frosts, turnips become so hard that no animal is able to bite them. The best remedy in this case is, to lay them for some time in running water, which effectually thaws them; or, in close feeding-houses, the turnips intended for next day's use may be stored up overnight, in one end of the building, and the warmth of the animals will thaw them sufficiently before morning. But in those months when frosts are usually most severe, it is advisable to have always a few days' consumption in the turnip-barn formerly mentioned. When a severe frost continues long, or if the ground be covered deep with snow, potatoes ought to be employed as a substitute.

The advantages of eating turnips on the place of their growth by sheep, both in manuring and consolidating the ground, are sufficiently well known to every farmer. One great defect of the inferior sort of turnip soils is the want of tenacity; and it is found, that valuable crops of wheat may be obtained upon very light porous soils, after turnips so consumed.

The value or price by the acre is so various, from differences in soil and seasons, and fluctuates so much according to the degree of abundance and demand, that nothing can be decisively stated on this subject. It likewise varies according to the modes of application, as above noticed. A farmer who has turnips to sell will demand more money per acre, if they are to be drawn and consumed by the purchaser in the fold-yard, or on the pastures of the farm, than if eaten by sheep where they grow; and will require a much higher price if they are to be led away from the farm. Indeed, hardly any price will compensate for such abstraction of manure, and consequent loss of future fertility, unless where manure can be readily purchased to supply the defalcation; and that can only be done by those who are situated near towns and large villages, where a few turnips may be sold in that way for the cows of the inhabitants. Eight guineas an acre is considered a good price, in seasons of uncommon demand, for a full crop; five guineas in ordinary years; and down to thirty and forty shil- lings for inferior crops. Upon an average of years, five guineas may be reckoned a fair price for a good crop, eaten by sheep where they grow. Near large towns, where turnips are in demand by cowfeeders, they will sell in ordinary years for double, and when in extraordinary demand, for three, or even four times these prices; but in these cases they are always removed from the farm, and consequently, the manure which they produce is lost to the soil.

It is not uncommon to let turnips at an agreed price, or board, for each sheep or beast weekly. This varies according to age and size, and the state of the demand, from fourpence or less to eightpence or more for each sheep weekly, and from two shillings to five for each beast. An acre of good turnips, say thirty tons, with straw, will fatten an ox of sixty stone, or ten Leicester sheep. Supposing the turnips worth six guineas, this may bring the weekly keep of the ox to six shillings and threepence halfpenny, and of the sheep to about sevenpence halfpenny, a-week. In this way of letting, however, disputes may arise, as the taker may not be careful to have them eaten up clean.

The person who lets the turnips has to maintain a herd for the taker; and when let for cattle, and consequently to be carried off, the taker finds a man and horse, and the latter maintains both. The taker has to provide hurdles or nets for fencing the allotments to sheep; but the letter must fence his own hedges if necessary. The period at which the taker is to consume the whole is usually fixed in the agreement, that the letter may be enabled to plough and sow his land in proper season.

Common turnips are seldom stored in any great quantity, though sometimes a portion is drawn and formed into heaps, like potatoe camps, and lightly covered with straw, or preserved for some time under a shed. On these occasions, the shaws or leaves, and the tap-roots, must be cut off and removed before storing up, to prevent heating and rotting. The heaps must not be covered with earth like potatoes, for, in this case, their complete destruction is inevitable. This root contains too much water to be preserved for any length of time in a fresh and palatable state, after being removed from the ground; and though the loss in seasons unusually severe, particularly in the white globe variety, is commonly very great, it is probable that a regular system of storing the whole, or the greater part of the crop every season, would, upon an average of years, be attended with still greater loss; besides, the labour and expense, where turnips are cultivated extensively, would be intolerable.

Besides the damage sustained by a turnip crop from beetles and other insects, (see principal article), a very destructive disease, formerly confined to particular districts, has lately begun to extend itself in an alarming manner; and there is reason to fear, if some means of prevention be not soon discovered, that it may almost put an end to the cultivation of this root, in some situations where it is of essential importance, both with a view to the produce of grain, and to the rearing and fattening of live stock. In Holderness it is known by the quaint name of fingers and toes, from the shapes into which the disease distorts either the bulb or tap-root, or frequently both. An ingenious paper on this subject was read to the Holderness Agricultural Society, in 1811, by Mr William Spence, their present President, from which we shall abstract some account of this hitherto local disease.

In some plants, the bulb itself is split into several finger-diverging lobes. More frequently the bulb is externally tolerably perfect, and the tap-root is the part principally diseased; being either wholly metamorphosed into a sort of misshapen secondary bulb, often larger than the real bulb, and closely attached to it, or having excrescences of various shapes, frequently not unlike human toes, (whence the name of the disease,) either springing immediately from its sides, or from the fibrous roots that issue from it. In this last case, each fibre often swells into several knobs, so as distantly to resemble the wire and accompanying tubers of a potatoe; and not seldom one turnip will exhibit a combination of all these different forms of the disease. These distortions manifest themselves at a very early stage of the turnip's growth; and plants, scarcely in the rough leaf, will exhibit excrescences, which differ in nothing else than size from those of the full-grown root.

The leaves discover no unusual appearance, except that, in hot weather, they become flaccid and droop; from which symptom, the presence of the disease may be surmised without examining the roots. These continue to grow for some months, but without attaining any considerable size, the excrescences enlarging at the same time. If divided at this period with a knife, both the bulb and the excrescences are found to be perfectly solid, and internally to differ little in appearance from a healthy root, except that they are of a more mealy and less compact consistence, and are interspersed with more numerous and larger sap-vessels. The taste, too, is more acid; and, on this account, sheep neglect the diseased plants. Towards the approach of autumn, the roots, in proportion as they are more or less diseased, become gangrenous and rot, and are either broken (as frequently happens) by high winds, or gradually dissolved by the rain. Some, which have been partially diseased, survive the winter; but of the rest, at this period, no other vestige remains than the vacant patches which they occupied at their first appearance.

This disease, according to Mr Spence, is not owing to the seed, nor to the time of sowing, nor to any quality of the soil, either original, or induced by any particular mode of cropping or of tillage; and he adds, "That the most attentive and unbiased consideration of the facts has led him to infer that the disease, though not produced by any insect that has yet been discovered, is yet caused by some unobserved species, which, either biting the turnip in the earliest stage of its growth, or insinuating its egg into it, infuses, at the same time, into the wound a liquid, which communicates to the sap-vessels a morbid action, causing them to form the excrescences in question."

With regard to the prevention of this disease, marl has been recommended by Sir Joseph Banks and others; and where marl cannot be procured, it has been thought that an addition of mould of any kind,

Kinds of Crops.

that has not borne turnips, will be advantageous; such as a dressing taken from banks, headlands, ditches, &c. and mixed up with a good dose of lime. But lime alone has been tried in vain; and no great dependence can be placed upon fresh mould, as this disease has been known to prevail upon lands that had scarcely ever before borne a crop of turnips.

(Farmer's Magazine, Vol. XIII.)

9. Carrots.

This crop, it is well known, requires a deep soil, inclining to sand; and cannot, therefore, be so generally cultivated as turnips. But it has been too much neglected on lands where it would have yielded a more valuable product, perhaps, than any bulbous or tap-rooted plant whatever. Several contradictory experiments in its culture have been detailed in a number of publications, from which the practical husbandman will be at a loss to draw any definite conclusion. But, in a recent communication to the Board of Agriculture, from Mr Robert Burrows, an intelligent Norfolk farmer, who has cultivated carrots on a large scale, and with great success, for several years, so accurate an account is presented of the culture, application, and extraordinary value of this root, that carrots will probably soon enter more largely into the rotation of crops on suitable soils. We shall give the substance of this communication in his own words.

"As I think it the duty of every individual to give publicity to any invention, discovery, or practice, that carries with it the appearance of being useful to society, I shall, before I proceed to a statement of each year's culture and consumption of my carrot crops, submit to the Board, for their information, a few observations upon the general method I pursue in the cultivation of them, together with such other matter as will necessarily mingle therewith; beginning first with the quantity sown per acre, and the method of preparing the same.

"I usually sow seed of my own growth, from eight to ten pounds per acre; if purchased, the price is in general from one shilling to one shilling and sixpence per pound. By sowing seed of my own growing, I am enabled to speak both to the nature of its stock, and likewise its quality in regard to newness. The latter circumstance is of particular consequence in obtaining a full and healthy plant, and not always to be guarded against, if the seed is purchased of the seedsman. Having weighed the quantity of seed to be sown, and collected sand or fine mould, in the proportion of about two bushels to an acre, I mix the mixed with seed with the sand or mould, eight or ten pounds to Sand before every two bushels, and this is done about a fortnight or three weeks before the time I intend sowing; taking care to have the heaps turned over every day, sprinkling the outside of them with water each time of turning over, that every part of the sand heaps may be equally moist, and that vegetation may take place alike throughout. During this time, the land is preparing with a good dressing of manure, of about sixteen cart-loads per acre of rotten farm-yard manure, or cottagers' ashes; the load about as much as three able horses can draw, and, if bought, costs about four shillings and sixpence per load, besides the carting on the land. I usually sow my wheat stubbles after clover; plough the first time in autumn, and once more in the early part of the month of February, if the weather permits; setting on the manure at the time of sowing, which is about the last week in March, or sometimes as late as the second week in April; but have generally found early-sown Sowing crops the most productive. I have great advantage in preparing the seed so long before-hand; it is by this means in a state of forward vegetation, therefore lies but a short time in the ground, and, by quickly appearing above ground, is more able to contend with those numerous tribes of weeds in the soil, whose seeds are of quicker vegetation.

"Within about five or six weeks, the carrots are Hoeing ready to hoe; and, upon an average of six years, on a light sandy loam, they have cost me L1, 10s. 8d. per acre hoeing; usually performed three, and sometimes four times, or until the crop is perfectly clean; the first hoeing is with hoes four inches long, and two and a quarter inches wide. The second hoeing invariably takes place as soon as the first is completed, and is performed with six-inch hoes, by two and a quarter inches wide. By this time the plants are set; the first time of hoeing nothing was cut but the weeds. I endeavour to leave the carrots nine inches apart from each other; sometimes they will be a foot, or even farther asunder.

"No other expense now attends the crop until the time of taking them up, which is usually about the last week in October, as at that time I generally finish soil ing my horses with lucern, and now solely depend upon my carrots, with a proper allowance of hay, as winter food for my horses, until about the first week of June following, when the lucern is again ready for soil ing. By reducing this practice to a system, I have been enabled to feed ten cart horses throughout the winter months, for these last six years, without giving them any corn whatever, and have at the same time effected a considerable saving of hay, from what I found necessary to give to the same number of horses, when, according to the usual custom of the country, I fed my horses with corn and hay. I give them to my cart-horses, in the proportion of 70lb. weight of carrots a horse per day, eaten by upon an average, not allowing them quite so many Horses in the very short days; and something more than that quantity in the spring months, or to the amount of what I withheld in the short winter days. The men who tend the horses, slice some of the carrots in the cut chaff or hay, and barn door refuse; the rest of the carrots they give whole to the horses at night, with a small quantity of hay in their racks; and with this food my horses generally enjoy uninterrupted health. I mention this, as I believe some persons think that carrots only, given as food to horses, are injurious to their constitutions; but most of the prejudices of mankind have no better foundation, and are taken up at random, or inherited from their grandfathers.

"So successful have I been with carrots as a winter food for horses, that, with the assistance of lucern for soil ing in summer, I have been enabled to prove, by experiments conducted under my own personal inspection, that an able Norfolk team-horse, fully worked two journeys a day, winter and summer, may be kept, the entire year round; upon the produce of only one statute acre of land. I have likewise applied carrots with great profit to the feeding of hogs in winter, and by that means have made my straw into a most excellent manure, without the aid of neat cattle; the hogs so fed are sold on Norwich hill to the London dealers, as porkers. The profit of carrots so applied, I shall likewise shew in my subsequent statement; together with an experiment of feeding four Galloway bullocks with carrots, against four others fed in the common way with turnips and hay.

"The taking up of the crop is put out to a man who engages women and children to assist him; the work is performed with three-pronged forks; the children cut off the tops, laying them and the roots in separate heaps, ready for the teams to take away. The expence altogether, L. 1, 1s. per acre, of not less than seven or eight hundred Winchester bushels. The carting away depends upon the distance of the place where carried to; if not far, the expence will be 15s. to 18s. per acre. The value of carrot tops, given to bullocks and sheep in the first winter quarter, more than repays the two last mentioned expences. I take up in autumn a sufficient quantity to have a store to last me out any considerable frost or snow that may happen in the winter months; the rest of the crop I leave in the ground, preferring them fresh out of the earth for both horses and bullocks; for the former, perhaps it would be as well to wash the roots when they are very wet and dirty, though I by no means think washing generally necessary. The carrots keep best in the ground, nor can the severest frosts do them any material injury; the first week in March, it is necessary to have the remaining part of the crop taken up, and the land cleared for barley: the carrots can either be laid in an heap with a small quantity of straw covered over them, or they may be laid into some empty outhouse or barn, in heaps of many hundred bushels, provided they are put together dry. This latter circumstance, it is indispensably necessary to attend to, for, if laid together in large heaps when wet, they will certainly sustain much injury. Such as I want to keep for the use of my horses until the Months of May and June, in drawing over the heaps, (which is necessary to be done the latter end of April, when the carrots begin to sprout at the crown very fast,) I throw aside the healthy and most perfect roots, and have their crowns cut completely off and laid by themselves; by this means, carrots may be kept the month of June out in an high state of perfection." (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. VII. p. 72.)

Mr Burrows next proceeds to state the expence of his crops for four years successively, in which he cultivated forty-nine acres in all; the average of the first three years being L. 10, 13s. 2½d. and the expence of the last year, when he had twenty-five acres, L. 8, 8s. 4d. per acre. In these sums, rent, interest of capital, and all other charges are included. He then details at some length the application of the crops, averaging upwards of 800 bushels per acre, to the feeding of cart horses, hogs, and cattle—both milk cows and fattening bullocks,—from which there appears to result a clear profit on the first three crops, of no less than L. 27, 18s. 3½d. per acre. The fourth crop of twenty-five acres was sold to the tenant who succeeded him in his farm, at twenty guineas per acre, the price fixed by neutral men, leaving him a profit of L. 12, 11s. 8d. per acre. Mr Burrows was so well convinced of the great advantages of this management, that he began with sixteen acres of carrots on his new farm; and we are told, that the cultivation of this root is becoming more extensive, in consequence of his successful practice.

Carrots, in many instances, are sown by hand, in Cultivated rows, at narrow intervals for hand-hoeing, the seeds not in rows, being easily deposited in a regular manner by the use of the drill-machine. The hand-hoeing is certainly performed more correctly, and with much less labour, when the plants are cultivated in rows.

10. Rape.

Rape is now cultivated to a considerable extent in Rape-some districts, not only for the sake of the oil expressed from its seeds, but also for feeding sheep, on land not well adapted to turnips. To the account already given of the culture and uses of this plant in the body of the work, we shall add some remarks by the late Mr Culley of Northumberland, founded on his own excellent practice, in which rape was substituted for fallow on a poor clayey soil.

"Rape may be sown from the 24th of May to the Time of 8th of June; but comes to the greatest growth if sowing, &c., sown in May. If sown earlier, it is apt to run to seed. From two to three pounds of seed is required per acre, sown by a common turnip-seed drill. But as rape-seed is so much larger than turnip-seed, the drill should be wider. When hoed, the rape should be set out at the same distance as turnip plants. The drills should be from 26 to 28 or 30 inches, according to the quantity of dung given. As many ploughings, harrowings, and rollings, &c. should be given, as may be necessary to make that kind of poor soil as fine as possible, and cleared of twitch, &c.: the produce will be from twenty-five to even fifty ton per acre, or upwards. But it is not so much the value of the green crop, (although the better the green crop, the better will the wheat be,) as the great certainty of a valuable crop of wheat, that merits attention. The sheep are put on from the beginning to the middle of August; they must have the rape consumed by the middle, or at latest by the end of September, so that the wheat may be got sown, on such poor damp soils, before the autumnal rains take place. The number of sheep must depend upon the goodness or badness of the crop. But as many sheep must be employed as to eat the rape by the middle of September, or end of that month at the latest, for the reasons formerly given. The Burwell red wheat, (so called, from a village in Cambridgeshire,) is always preferred. Poor clays will not allow deep ploughing, consequently, that operation must be governed by the depth of the soil. The land must be made as clean as any naked fallow. There is scarcely an instance known of a crop of wheat sown after rape, and cut off with sheep, being mildewed, and the grain is generally well perfected. Mr Culley has known a crop of wheat after rape, upon a poor moorish thin clay soil, worth much more than the fee simple of the land..." Clovers enter largely into the succession of crops, on all soils, and in every productive course of management. Before they were introduced into cultivation, when land was exhausted by grain crops, it was necessary to leave it in a state of comparative sterility for several years, before it was either valuable as pasture, or again fit for carrying corn. But at present, clovers are not only indispensable in the cultivation of white and green crops alternately, upon very rich soils, but are the foundation of convertible husbandry on land that is not so rich as to permit of constant aration, and which therefore requires two or more years pasturage at certain intervals. As the succession of crops forms the subject of the following section, in which we shall have occasion to notice the great value of clover, as a crop in the alternate and convertible systems of husbandry, we shall here consider it without any particular reference to its general utility in that view.

Red clover. Red clover, or, as it is sometimes called, broad clover, is the kind most generally cultivated on land that carries white and green crops alternately, as it yields the largest produce for one crop of all the other sorts. White and yellow clover are seldom sown with it, unless when several years pasturage is intended. As rye-grass is almost invariably sown with clover, it will be necessary to notice it also in this place.

Clover and rye-grass are sown broadcast, along with, or upon growing culmiferous corn crops of every kind, and are found to prosper almost equally well with spring sown wheat, barley, and the early varieties of oats. As these seeds are most generally sown in spring, they are usually put in immediately after the land has been pulverized by harrowing in the corn seed, and are themselves covered by one course more of the harrows; or, if the corn is drilled, grass seeds are sown immediately before or after hand hoeing; and the land is then finished by a course of the harrows. A lighter harrow is generally employed in covering grass seeds, than that used for corn. When the land is under an autumn sown crop of wheat or other grain, though the clovers and rye-grass are still sown in spring, the proper period must depend both upon the state of the land, and the progress of the crops; and it may be often advisable to break the crust formed on the surface of tenacious soils, by using the harrow before the clovers are sown, as well as afterwards to cover them. Sometimes the roller only is employed at this time, and there are instances of clover and rye-grass succeeding when sown, without either harrowing or rolling. But it is commonly of advantage to the wheat crop itself, to use the harrows in spring; and the roller alone cannot be depended on, unless the season be very favourable. In some cases grass-seeds are sown by themselves, either in autumn or spring, but rarely on tillage land, the subject of the present chapter.

The quantity of red clover and rye-grass sown on an acre is exceedingly various; not only according as more or less white or yellow clover is sown along with them, as when pasturage is intended, but, even when they are the only kinds sown, the quantity is varied by the quality of the soils, and the different purposes of hay, soilings, or one year's pasture, to which the crop is to be applied. When pasture is the object, more seed ought to be allowed, than is necessary when the crop is to be cut green for soilings; and for hay, less may suffice than for either of the former. Finely pulverized soils do not require so much seed as clays, on which clover and rye-grass are very frequently sown among autumn or winter sown wheat, when there is more danger of a part of it perishing from being imperfectly covered. In general, eight or ten pounds may be taken as the minimum quantity, though there have been instances of good crops from less; and from that to 14 lbs or more per English statute acre. Rye-grass, commonly at the rate of a bushel per acre, but in many cases only half or two thirds of a bushel, is mixed with this weight of clover, and both are sown at the same time. The rye-grass, may be either of the perennial or annual variety, as it is understood that the herbage is to be continued for only one year; and the annual is sometimes sown in preference, as producing a bulkier crop than the perennial.

In the selection of clover and rye-grass seeds, particular attention should be paid to their quality and cleanness; the purple colour of the clover seed denotes that it has been ripe and well saved; and the seeds of weeds may be detected in it by narrow inspection, if there be any; but various noxious weeds are frequently mixed up with the seeds of the rye-grass, which it is difficult either to discover or to separate from them. Between the seeds of the annual and perennial rye-grass, the difference is hardly discernible; and therefore, unless it is of his own growth, the cultivator must depend in a great measure on the character of the person from whom he purchases it. Red clover from Holland or France, has been found to die out in the season immediately after it has been cut or pastured; while the English seed produces plants, which stand over the second, many of them the third year (General Report of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 537); thus remaining in the latter case four summers in the ground from the time of sowing.

Clover and rye-grass, as has been already hinted, are made into hay, cut green for being used in soilings, or depastured. As we shall have occasion to speak again of hay-making, we shall here only notice the principal operations.

This sort of herbage ought always to be cut as Hay close to the ground as possible; and the soil, having been previously cleared of any stones that might impede the scythe, and also levelled with a heavy roller, admits of mowing being performed in a very uniform and perfect manner, unless the crop be lodged or broken down by wind. What part of the stems is left by the scythe, is not only lost, but the after growth is neither so vigorous nor so weighty, as when the first cutting is taken as low as possible.

Clover and rye-grass are commonly all mown in Time of June; though in the North, sometimes not till near Cutting.

Kinds of Crops.

The end of July. The time of mowing must, indeed, be determined by the growth of the plants; but it is a common error to allow them to stand too long. They should in every case be cut down before the seeds are formed, that their juices may be as much as possible retained in the hay. When the stems become hard and sapless, by being allowed to bring their seeds towards maturity, they are of little more value, as provender, than an equal quantity of the finer sort of straw of corn.

One of the best among the various modes of hay-making, at least for clover and rye-grass, may be described in a few words. As soon as the swath is thoroughly dry above, it is gently turned over (not tedded or scattered), without breaking it. Sometimes this is done by the hand, or by a small fork; and some farmers are so anxious to prevent the swath from being broken, that they will not permit the use of the rake-shaft. The grass, when turned over in the morning of a dry day, is put into cocks in the afternoon. The mode of performing this is very simple and expeditious; and none but women, boys, and girls, under the eye of a confidential servant, are usually employed. If the crop is heavy, a row of cocks is placed in the middle ridge of three, and if light, of five ridges. A distinct company of carriers and rakers is allotted to every such number of ridges; and the separate companies proceed each on its own ground, in the same manner as in reaping grain, which occasions a degree of competition among them for dispatch, clean raking, and neat well-built cocks. The carriers gather the hay, and carry it to the ridge where the cock is to be built, by one of the most experienced hands. A raker follows the carrier, taking up and bringing to the cocks the remains of the swath. There may be in general about five people employed about each row of cocks; a carrier and raker on each side of the ridge on which the cocks are placed, and a person on the ridge, who builds them. But when the crop is not weighty, more rakers are required, as a greater space must be gone over.

As the cocks are thus placed in a line, it is easy to put two or more into one afterwards; and the larger cocks may be speedily drawn together, to be put into tramp-ricks, by means of ropes thrown round their bottoms, and dragged along by a horse. It is impossible to lay down any rules for the management of hay after it is put into cocks; one thing is, however, always attended to, not to shake out, scatter, or expose the hay oftener than is really necessary for its preservation. Sometimes the cocks have been put up so large, that they never required to go to a tramp-rick, but were carted to the stack-yard, without ever being broken, and put up in alternate layers with old hay. But where this is attempted, there must not be much clover. The practice of mixing the new with the old hay, is, however, a good one, and saves a great deal of time and labour, at the same time that the old hay is much improved by the mixture.

The best managers disapprove of spreading out the swaths of clover and rye-grass, though this is often necessary with natural grasses, which are cut and harvested later in the season. The more the swath is kept unbroken, the hay is the greener, and the more fragrant.

Another mode of hay-making, said to have been originally practised in Lancashire, has been found to answer well in the moist atmosphere of the west of Scotland. This is called tipping or rippling; and if the grass be dry, the operation begins as soon as it is mown. "In making a tipple, a person, with his right hand, rolls the swath inwards, until he has a little bundle; then the same is done by the left, until both meet, and form eight to twelve pounds, or nearly so. This bundle is then set up against the legs, or between the feet; a rope is twisted off the grass, while the bundle is supported in this manner, and tied round it, near its top; and from the top are drawn up a few straggling stems which are twisted, to make the tipple taper to a point, and give it as much a conical shape as possible. If the crop is strong, there is a row of tipples placed on each swath; if light, two of these are put into one row. After standing a few hours, they become so smooth on the outside, that the heaviest rains seldom wet them through; and when wet, they are soon dried again in good weather. As soon as ready, they are put into the summer-rick, or, if very dry, even the winter-stack, but are never opened out, or tedded, to make them dry, as they never require it. By this method not a blade is lost, and the hay is nearly as green as a leaf dried in a book. In a moderate crop, one woman will tipple to one mower, and a woman will rake to two tipplers, or two swathers. But where the crop is strong, it may require three women to keep pace with two mowers. After the hay is put up in this manner, the crop may be considered as secure, though it may continue wet weather for a considerable length of time." (General Report of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 11.)

Hay is commonly carried to the stack-yard, and built either in circular or oblong stacks, the latter form being most generally approved of, and carefully thatched, as has been already observed in regard to corn. It is never advisable to allow this kind of hay to become heated, in any considerable degree, in the stack, though a slight exudation, with a very gentle warmth, is usually perceptible, both in the field ricks and in the stacks, for a few days after they are built, but this is a quite different thing from that intentional heating, carried so far, in many instances, as to terminate in conflagration.

The weight of hay from clover and rye-grass varies, according to the soil and the season, from one per acre to three tons per English acre, as it is taken from the tramp-ricks; but after being stacked, and kept till spring, the weight is found to be diminished 25 or 30 per cent. Its price per ton depends entirely on situation; at a distance from towns or large villages, in ordinary seasons, the price is usually very low, and the whole of it is generally consumed on the farm that produced it. Its intrinsic value as fodder, in comparison with the straw of beans or peas, may be in the proportion of three to two; and with the finest straw of corn crops, in the proportion of two to one.

Many intelligent cultivators consider rye-grass as to Kye grass. Kinds of Crops.

A very severe crop for the soil; and it is alleged, that wheat does not succeed well after the herbage with which it is intermixed in any considerable quantity. Other plants have accordingly been recommended as a substitute for rye-grass, and cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), has been tried, apparently with great success, by Mr Coke, of Holkham in Norfolk, and others. But this is a very coarse grass when allowed to rise to any height, and the use of it for hay has not yet been ascertained.

When the hay crop is cut and removed, there is commonly a vigorous aftergrowth, which may be either cut or pastured. As this consists almost exclusively of red clover, and is extremely succulent, it is seldom made into hay, owing to the difficulty of getting it thoroughly dried at a late period of summer, when other more urgent operations usually employ all the labourers of a farm. If it be cut for this purpose, the best method of saving it is, to mix it up with straw, which will absorb a part of its juices. It is often cut green, as a part of the soiling system; or, where a sheep stock is kept, pastured by the old ewes, or other sorts, that are to be fattened the ensuing winter on turnips.

On all farms, under correct management, a part of this crop is cut green, for the working horses, often for milk cows, and, in some instances, both for growing and fattening cattle. This mode of consuming it is known by the name of soiling. There can be no doubt of the advantages of this practice, in regard to horses and cows; but for young, and for fattening beasts, a sufficient number of experiments are not known to have been yet made with any great degree of accuracy. Young animals require exercise in the open air, and, probably, will not be found to thrive so well in houses or fold-yards, during summer, as on pastures; and though in every case there is a great saving of food, the long, woody, and comparatively naked stems of the plants, with leaves always more or less withered, are perhaps not so valuable in the production of beef on fattening stock, as a much smaller weight of herbage taken in by pasturage. Milk-cows, however, are so impatient of heat and insects, that this way of feeding them, at least for a part of the day, in warm weather, ought to be more generally adopted; and the convenience of having working horses always at hand, besides that they fill their stomachs speedily, is of not less importance than economy.*

In feeding cattle with green clover, attention must be paid to prevent swelling, or haying, which is very apt to take place when they are first put on this food, especially if it be wet with rain or dew; and cattle are exposed to this danger, whether they are sent to depasture the clover, or have it cut and brought home to them; though, if the plants be somewhat luxuriant, the danger is greater in the former case. After being accustomed to this rich food for a few days, during which it should be given rather sparingly, the danger is much diminished; but it is never safe to allow milk-cows, in particular, to eat large quantities of wet clover.

We have hitherto spoken of red clover and rye-grass, as cultivated for the sake of the stems and leaves, and shall now add a few words about the management required when the object is to save their seeds. Rye-grass seed is gathered in almost every part of Britain, but clover seed can seldom be saved in any profitable quantity in the northern parts. In Scotland, red clover is never cultivated for seed.

The common practice in regard to rye-grass is, to let the mixed crop of that and clover stand till the seeds of the former have attained a considerable degree of ripeness, when it is cut down and made into hay in the usual manner; and the seeds of the rye-grass are separated by the use of the flail, commonly before the hay is put into the field-ricks. Sometimes, when but a small quantity is wanted, the hay is merely shaken well upon a cloth, when it is building in the stack-yard; or afterwards, in the stable-loft, before it is put into the horses' racks. But in all of these methods, in order to obtain good seed, the clover must remain uncut beyond the proper season; and it is thus materially injured in quality, while the value of the rye-grass seed, in such a crop, is merely a secondary consideration.

When seed is the principal object of the culture of rye-grass, it ought not to be mixed with clover at all, though it may be sown along with any of the kinds of corn already mentioned, and it is treated the year after in every respect as a crop of corn; bound up in sheaves, built in stacks, thrashed with the flail, and dressed by the winnowing machine, in the same manner.

The difficulty of distinguishing between the annual and perennial varieties of rye-grass has led to the practice, in some places, of cutting or pasturing the first year's crop, and taking a crop for seed in the second year. If the growth of the rye-grass plants be close and vigorous the second year, there is reason to be satisfied that the seed is of the perennial variety; and though red clover has been sown with the rye-grass, a great part of it disappears by that time, and forms but a small portion of the second year's cutting.

The seed of red clover is saved with more labour and difficulty. As the plant does not perfect its seed early in summer, it is necessary to take off the first growth, either by feeding or cutting. In the first case, it is eaten till about the end of May, frequently by ewes and lambs; and this is understood to be an advantageous practice, because the land is less exhausted, and the green food is of great value for stock in the spring months. It is not uncommon, however, to cut the first growth for a hay crop, and this should be done earlier than usual.

The growth thus reserved for seed must be suffered to remain till the husks become perfectly brown, when it is cut and harvested in the usual manner, leaving it on the field till it is very dry and crisp,

* See Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. VII. Brown's Treatise on Rural Affairs, Vol. II. General Report of Scotland, Vol. II. and III. Kinds of crops may become more fully hardened; it may then be laid up dry, to be thrashed out at the farmer's convenience.

Much labour and expense are necessary in separating the seed from the capsule, or seed-coat, especially when it is effected by thrashing, which seldom costs less than from five to six or seven shillings per bushel. By the use of mills the work may be done much cheaper.

The produce in seed may generally be from three to four or five bushels per acre, when perfectly clean, weighing from two to three hundred weight. But there is great uncertainty in the produce of clover seed, from the lateness of the season at which it becomes ripe; and the fertility of the soil is considerably impaired by such a crop. Yet the high value of the seed is a great inducement to the saving of it, in favourable situations. (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 863.)

When it is intended to retain the land in pasture for several years, the quantity of red clover is diminished, and several kinds of more permanent herbage are added, the most common of which are, white and yellow clover, and ribwort. No general rule can be laid down as to the proper quantity of each of these kinds; in some cases red and white clover are sown in equal proportions, and in others the latter is made greatly to predominate. The yellow clover and ribwort are not often sown at the rate of more than two or three pounds per acre. It is scarcely necessary to add, that, in this case, the rye-grass should always be of the perennial sort.

When permanent pasture is the object, a still greater variety of seeds has been recommended. But as cultivators are by no means agreed on this point, and as the different kinds and proportions, which are thought best adapted to different soils, have none of them the sanction of extensive experience, we shall refer the reader to the third volume of Communications to the Board of Agriculture, which is wholly occupied with essays on the best means of breaking up old grass-lands, and restoring them after a few years to permanent pasture.

Sect. VII. Succession of Crops.

There is no branch of husbandry that requires more judgment, nor any on which the profits of the farmer more depend, than the order in which the several crops cultivated are made to succeed one another. This is a point which has been discussed at some length in the principal article (See Index, Rotation); and the most material change that has taken place since is, a more general observance of the rule, that culmiferous crops, ripening their seeds, should not be repeated, without the intervention of pulse, roots, herbage, or fallow. This rule is recognized in the practice and writings of all judicious cultivators, more generally, perhaps, than any other in the whole compass of the art of agriculture.

With regard to the particular plants that enter into the course of cropping, these, it is evident, must be such as are suited to the soil and climate, though they will be somewhat varied by local circumstances; such as the proximity of towns and villages, where there is a greater demand for turnips, potatoes, hay, &c., than in thinly peopled districts. In general, beans, and clover with rye-grass, are interposed between corn crops on clayey soils, and turnips, potatoes, and clover and rye-grass, on dry loams and sands, or what are technically known by the name of turnip soils. A variety of other plants, such as peas, tares, cabbages, and carrots, occupy a part, though commonly but a small part, of that division of a farm which is allotted to green crops. This order of succession is called the system of alternate husbandry; and on rich soils, or such as have access to System abundance of putrescent manure, it is certainly the most productive of all others, both in food for man and for the inferior animals. One half of a farm is, in this course, always under some of the different species of Cereal graminea, and the other half under pulse, roots, cultivated herbage, or plain fallow.

But the greater part of the arable land of Britain cannot be maintained in a fertile state under this management; and sandy soils, even though highly manured, soon become too incohesive under a course of constant tillage. It therefore becomes necessary to leave that division, or break, that carries cultivated herbage, to be pastured for two years or more, according to the degree of its consistency and fertility; and all the fields of a farm are treated thus in their turn, if they require it. This is called the system of convertible husbandry; a regular change being constantly going on from aration to pasturage, and vice versa.

Another rule with regard to the succession of crops, is not to repeat the same kind of crop at too short intervals. Whatever may be the cause—whether it is to be sought for in the nature of the soil, or of the plants themselves, experience clearly proves the advantages of introducing a diversity of species into every course of cropping. When land is pastured several years before it is brought again under the plough, there may be less need for adhering steadily to this rule; but the degeneracy of wheat and other corn crops, recurring upon the same land every second year for a long period, has been very generally acknowledged. It is the same with what are called green crops; beans and peas, potatoes, turnips, and in an especial manner, red clover, become all of them much less productive, and much more liable to disease, when they come into the course, upon the same land, every second, third, or fourth year. But what the interval ought to be has not yet been determined, and probably cannot (from the great number of years that experiments must be continued to give any certain result) be determined, until the component parts of soils, and particularly the sort of vegetable nourishment which each species of plants extracts from the soil, have been more fully investigated.

A change of the variety, as well as of the species, and even of the plants of the same variety, is found to be attended with advantage; and in the latter case, or a change of seed, the species and variety being the same, the practice is almost universal. It is well known, that, of two parcels of wheat, for instance, as much alike in quality as possible, the one, which had grown on a soil differing much from that on which it is to be sown, will yield a better produce than the other that grew in the same, or a similar Sect. VIII. Manures.

Manures having been treated of under two different divisions of the principal article, we shall now very briefly notice the several substances most extensively employed; pointing out any change that may have occurred in their management and application; and conclude with merely mentioning the various articles of this kind that are to be procured only in small quantities, or in particular situations, and which are therefore used on a very limited scale.

1. Farm-yard Dung.

This manure, composed chiefly of the straw of grain, and the excrementitious substances of live stock, is the principal, and, in most instances, the only fertilizer of the soil to which farmers have access. Its use is so universal and so well known, that a very few observations will suffice.

As straw is the basis of this compost, every judicious farmer takes care to have his crops cut as low as possible, as it is evident to every one that a few inches of straw towards the root-end adds much to the weight of the crop. From every ton of dry straw, about three tons of farm yard dung may be obtained, if the after-management be properly conducted; and, as the weight of straw per acre runs from 1 ton to 1½, about 4 tons of dung, on an average of the different crops, may be produced from the straw of every acre under corn. (Husbandry of Scotland, Vol. II.)

The straw is served out to cattle and horses in the houses and fold-yards, either as provender or litter, commonly for both purposes; and turnips in winter, and green clover in summer, on which food the animals pass a great deal of urine, afford the means of converting the straw into a richer manure than if it were eaten alone.

All the dung from the houses, as they are cleaned out, ought to be regularly spread over the yards, in which young cattle are left loose, where litter is usually allowed in great abundance; or over the dunghill itself, if there be one at hand. This renders the quality of the whole mass more uniform; and the horse-dung, which is of a hot nature, promotes the decomposition of the woody fibres of the straw.

At a convenient season, usually during the frosts of winter, this mass of materials is carted out to the field in which it is to be employed, and neatly built in dunghills of a square form, three or four feet high, and of such a length and breadth as circumstances may require. What is laid up in this manner early in winter, is commonly sufficiently prepared for turnips in June; but if it be not carried from the straw-yards till spring, it is necessary to turn it once or oftener, for the purpose of accelerating the decomposition of the strawy part of the mass. When dung is applied to fallows in July or August, preparatory to autumn sown wheat, a much less degree of putrefaction will suffice than for turnips—a clay soil, on which alone fallows should ever be resorted to, not requiring dung so much rotted as a finely pulverized turnip soil; and besides, as the wheat does not need all the benefit of the dung for some time, the woody fibre is gradually broken down in the course of the winter, and the nourishment of the plants continued till spring, or later, when its effects are most beneficial.

In the application of dung to land under tillage, particular attention should be paid to the cleanliness of the soil; and to use it at the time when, from the pulverization of the ground, it may be most intimately mixed with it. The most common time of manuring with farm-yard dung is, therefore, either towards the conclusion of the following operations, or immediately before the sowing of fallow crops. If no dung can be procured but what is made from the produce of the farm, it will seldom be possible to allow more than ten or twelve tons to every acre, when the land is managed under a regular course of white and green crops; and it is thought more advantageous to repeat this dose at short intervals, than to give a larger quantity at once, and at a more distant period in proportion. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 517.)

Farm-yard dung, it is well known, is greatly reduced in value by being exposed to the atmosphere in small heaps, previous to being spread, and still more after being spread. Its rich juices are exhaled by the sun, or washed away by the rains, and the residuum is comparatively worthless. This is in an especial manner the case with long fresh dung, the far greater part of which consists of wet straw in an entire state. All careful farmers, accordingly, spread, and cover in their dung with the plough, as soon as possible after it is brought on the land.

It has been urged by a celebrated chemist, that farm-yard dung ought not to be allowed to ferment in any considerable degree, as during a violent fermentation, a large quantity not only of fluid, but likewise of gaseous matter is lost, which, if retained by the moisture in the soil, would be capable of becoming an useful nourishment to plants. He therefore recommends that it should be applied after a slight incipient fermentation, which he admits to be useful in bringing on a disposition in the woody fibre to decay and dissolve; and this is always, he adds, in great excess in the refuse of a farm. (Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, p. 302. 8vo.)

From a recent publication (Husbandry of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 174.), the practice of the best farmers to its users of turnip soils in Scotland appears to be decidedly adverse to the use of fresh dung; and its utility, or rather injurious effects, from its opening the soil too much, is a matter of experience with every one who cultivates drilled turnips on a large scale. As the whole farm-yard dung, on such land, is applied to the turnip crop, it must necessarily happen that it should be laid on in different stages of putrefaction; and what is made very late in spring, often after a very slight fermentation, or none at all.

The experience of the effects of recent dung is accordingly very general, and the result, in almost every case is, that the growth of the young plants is slow,—that they remain long in a feeble and doubtful state,—and that they seldom, in ordinary seasons, become a full crop, even though twice the quantity that is given of short muck has been allowed.

On the other hand, when the manure is considerably decomposed, the effects are immediate, the plants rise vigorously, and soon put forth their rough leaf; after which, the beetle or fly does not seize on them; and, in a few weeks, the leaves become so large, that the plants probably draw the greatest part of their nourishment from the atmosphere.

Though it were true, therefore, that more nutritive matter were given out by a certain quantity of dung, applied in a recent state, and allowed to decompose gradually in the soil, than if applied after undergoing fermentation and putrefaction, the objection, arising from the slowness of its operation, would, in many instances, be an insuperable one with farmers.

But there seems reason to doubt whether fresh strawy manure would ferment much in the soil, after being spread out in so small a quantity as has been already mentioned; and also, whether, in the warm dry weather of summer, the shallow covering of earth given by the plough, would not permit the gaseous matters to escape, to a much greater amount than if fermentation had been completed in a well built covered dunghill.

Another great objection to the use of fresh farm yard dung is, that the seeds and roots of those plants with which it commonly abounds, spring up luxuriantly on the land; and this evil, nothing but a considerable degree of fermentation can obviate. The mass of materials consists of the straw of various crops, some of the grains of which, after all the care that can be taken, will adhere to the straw,—of the dung of different animals voided, as is often the case with horses fed on oats, with the grain in an entire state,—and of the roots, stems and seeds of the weeds that had grown among the straw, clover and hay, and such as had been brought to the houses and fold-yards with the turnips and other roots given to live stock.

No rule of universal application can be laid down on this subject; the degree of decomposition to which farm-yard dung should arrive, before it can be deemed a profitable manure, must depend on the texture of the soil, the nature of the plants, and the time of its application. In general, clayey soils, more tenacious of moisture, and more benefited by being rendered incohesive and porous, may receive manure less decomposed than well pulverized turnip soils require. Some plants, too, seem to thrive better with fresh dung than others,—potatoes in particular; but all the small-seeded plants, such as turnips, clover, carrots, &c. which are extremely tender in the early stage of their growth, require to be pushed forward into luxuriant vegetation with the least possible delay, by means of short dung. The season when manure is applied, is also a material circumstance. In spring and summer, whether it be used for corn or green corps, the object is to produce an immediate effect, and it should therefore be more completely decomposed than may be necessary, when it is laid on in autumn for a crop whose condition will be almost stationary for several months.

2. Lime.

Next to farm-yard dung, lime is in most general use as a manure, though it is one of a quite different character; and when judiciously applied, and the land laid to pasture, or cultivated for white and green crops alternately, with an adequate allowance of putrescent manure, its effects are much more lasting, and, in many instances, still more beneficial than those of farm-yard dung. Fossil manures "must produce their effect, either by becoming a constituent part of the plant, or by acting upon its more essential food, so as to render it more fitted for the purposes of vegetable life." (Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, p. 314.) It is, perhaps, in the former of these ways, that wheat and some other plants are brought to perfection after lime has been applied, upon land that would not bring them to maturity by the most liberal use of dung alone.

"The most common form in which lime is found on the surface of the earth, is in a state of combination with carbonic acid or fixed air. If a piece of limestone or chalk be thrown into a fluid acid, there will be an effervescence. This is owing to the escape of the carbonic acid gas. The lime becomes dissolved in the liquor. When limestone is strongly heated, the carbonic acid gas is expelled, and then nothing remains but the pure alkaline earth; in this case, there is a loss of weight; and if the fire has been very high, it approaches to one-half the weight of the stone, but, in common cases, limestones, if well dried before burning, do not lose much more Loss of than from 35 to 40 per cent., or from seven to eight weight by parts out of twenty. When burned lime becomes burning mild, it regains its power of effervescing, and is the same chemical substance as chalk or limestone.

"When newly burnt lime is exposed to air, it soon falls into powder; in this case it is called slackened lime, and the same effect is immediately produced by throwing water upon it, when it heats Lime violently, and the water disappears. Slackened lime is merely a combination of lime with about one-third of its weight of water, that is, 55 parts of lime absorb 17 parts of water.

"When lime, whether freshly burned or slackened, is mixed with any moist fibrous vegetable matter, there is a strong action between the lime and the Operation vegetable matter, and they form a kind of compost of Lime. together, of which a part is usually soluble in water. By this kind of operation, lime renders matter which was before comparatively inert nutritive; and as charcoal and oxygen abound in all vegetable matters, it becomes at the same time converted into carbonate of lime.

"Mild lime, powdered limestone, marls, or chalks, have no action of this kind upon vegetable matter; by their action they prevent the too rapid decomposition of substances already dissolved, but they have no tendency to form soluble matters.

"It is obvious, from these circumstances, that the operation of quicklime; and marl or chalk, depends upon principles altogether different. Quicklime, in being applied to land, tends to bring any hard vegetable matter that it contains, into a state of more rapid decomposition and solution, so as to render it a proper food for plants. Chalk and marl, or carbonate of lime, will only improve the texture of the soil, or its relation to absorption; it acts merely as one of its earthy ingredients. Quicklime, when it becomes mild, operates in the same manner as chalk; but, in the act of becoming mild, it prepares soluble out of insoluble matter.

"The solution of the question, whether quicklime ought to be applied to a soil, depends upon the quantity of inert vegetable matters that it contains. The solution of the question, whether marl, mild lime, or powdered limestone, ought to be applied, depends upon the quantity of calcareous matter already in the soil. All soils are improved by mild lime, and ultimately by quicklime, which do not effervesce with acids, and sands more than clays." (Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, p. 315, et seq.)

From the mode in which lime operates, it necessarily follows that quicklime should not be applied to lands that contain much soluble matter, nor be mixed up in composts with animal manures.

"It had been long known to farmers in the neighbourhood of Doncaster, that lime made from a certain limestone, applied to the land, often injured the crops considerably. Mr Tennant, in making a series of experiments upon this peculiar calcareous substance, found that it contained magnesia; and on mixing some calcined magnesia with soil, in which he sowed different seeds, he found that they either died or vegetated in a very imperfect manner, and the plants were never healthy. And with great justice and ingenuity, he referred the bad effects of the peculiar limestone to the magnesian earth it contains." (Id. p. 322.) Yet it is advantageously employed in small quantities, seldom more than 25 or 30 bushels to the acre. A simple test of magnesia in the limestone, is the circumstance of its effervescing little when plunged into an acid, and its rendering diluted nitric acid or aquafortis milky. Stones of this kind are usually coloured brown or pale yellow, and are found in several counties of England, and in many parts of Ireland, particularly near Belfast.

With regard to the quantity of lime that ought to be applied to different soils, it is much to be regretted that Sir Humphry Davy has not thought proper to enter fully into the subject. Clays, it is well known, require a larger quantity than sands or dry loams. It has been applied, accordingly, in almost every quantity from 100 to 500 bushels or upwards, per acre. About 160 bushels are generally considered a full dressing for lighter soils, and 80 or 100 bushels more for heavy cohesive soils.

In the application of lime to arable land, there are some general rules commonly attended to by diligent farmers, which we shall give nearly in the words of a recent publication.

1. As the effects of lime greatly depend on its intimate admixture with the surface soil, it is essential to have it in a powdery state at the time it is applied.

2. Lime having a tendency to sink in the soil, it should be ploughed in with a shallow furrow.

3. Lime may either be applied to grass land, or to land in preparation for green crops or summer fallow, with almost equal advantage; but, in general, the latter mode of application is to be preferred.

4. Lime ought not to be applied a second time to moorish soils, unless mixed up as a compost, after which the land should be immediately laid down to grass.

5. Upon fresh land, the effect of lime is much superior to that of dung. The ground, likewise, more especially where it is of a strong nature, is more easily wrought; in some instances, it is said, "the saving of labour would be sufficient to induce a farmer to lime his land, were no greater benefit derived from the application than the opportunity thereby gained of working it in a more perfect manner." (General Report of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 596.)

In improving hilly land, with a view to pasture, a much smaller quantity of lime has been found to produce permanent and highly beneficial effects, proving when kept as much as possible near the surface, by being merely harrowed in with the seeds, after a fallow or green crop, instead of being buried by the plough. As this is a matter of much importance to farmers of such land, especially when lime must be brought from a great distance, as was the case in the instance to which we are about to allude, the successful practice of one of the most eminent farmers in Britain cannot be too generally known.

"A few years after 1754," says Mr Dawson, "having a considerable extent of outfield land in fallow, which I wished to lime previous to its being laid down to pasture, and finding that I could not obtain a sufficient quantity of lime for the whole in proper time, I was induced, from observing the effects of fine loam upon the surface of similar soil, even when covered with bent, to try a small quantity of lime on the surface of this fallow, instead of a larger quantity ploughed down in the usual manner. Accordingly, in the autumn, about twenty acres of it were well harrowed, and then about fifty-six Winchester bushels only, of unsacked lime, were, after being slacked, carefully spread upon each English acre, and immediately well harrowed in. As many pieces of the lime, which had not been fully slacked at first, were gradually reduced to powder by the dews and moisture of the earth,—to mix these with the soil, the land was again well harrowed in three or four day thereafter. This land was sown in the spring with oats, with white and red clover and ryegrass seeds, and well harrowed, without being ploughed again. The crop of oats was good; the plants of grass sufficiently numerous and healthy; and they formed a very fine pasture, which continued good until ploughed some years after, for corn.

"About twelve years afterwards, I took a lease of the hilly farm of Grubbet; many parts of which, though of an earthy mould tolerably deep, were too steep and elevated to be kept in tillage. As these lands had been much exhausted by cropping, and were full of couch-grass, to destroy that, and procure a cover of fine grass; I followed them, and laid on the same quantity of lime per acre,—then harrowed, and sowed oats and grass-seeds in the spring; exactly as in the last mentioned experiment. The oats were a full crop, and the plants of grass abundant. Several of these fields have been now above thirty years in pasture, and are still producing white-clover and other fine grasses; no bent or fog has yet appeared upon them. It deserves particular notice, that more than treble the quantity of lime was laid upon fields adjoining, of a similar soil, but which being fitter for occasional tillage, upon them the lime was ploughed in. These fields were also sown with oats and grass-seeds. The latter threw well, and gave a fine pasture the first year; but afterwards the bent spread so fast, that, in three years, there was more of it than of the finer grasses."

The conclusions which Mr Dawson draws from his extensive practice in the use of lime and dung, deserve the attention of all cultivators of similar land.

1. That animal dung dropt upon coarse, benty pastures, produces little or no improvement upon them; and that, even when sheep or cattle are confined to a small space, as in the case of folding, their dung ceases to produce any beneficial effect, after a few years, whether the land is continued in pasture, or brought under the plough.

2. That even when land of this description is well fallowed and dunged, but not limed, though the dung augments the produce of the subsequent crop of grain, and of grass also for two or three years, that thereafter its effects are no longer discernible either upon the one or the other.

3. That when this land is limed, if the lime is kept upon the surface of the soil, or well mixed with it, and then laid down to pasture, the finer grasses continue in possession of the soil, even in elevated and exposed situations, for a great many years, to the exclusion of bent and fog. In the case of Grub-bet-hills, it was observed, that more than thirty years have now elapsed. Besides this, the dung of the animals pastured upon such land adds every year to the luxuriance, and improves the quality of the pasture; and augments the productive powers of the soil when afterwards ploughed for grain; thus producing, upon a benty outfield soil, effects similar to what are experienced when rich infield lands have been long in pasture, and which are thereby more and more enriched.

4. That when a large quantity of lime is laid on such land, and ploughed down deep, the same effects will not be produced, whether in respect to the permanent fineness of the pasture, its gradual amelioration by the dung of the animals depastured on it, or its fertility when afterwards in tillage. On the contrary, unless the surface is fully mixed with lime, the coarse grasses will in a few years regain possession of the soil, and the dung thereafter deposited by cattle will not enrich the land for subsequent tillage.

Lastly, It also appears from what has been stated, that the four-shift husbandry is only proper for very rich land, or in situations where there is a full command of dung: That by far the greatest part of the land of this country, requires to be continued in grass two, three, four, or more years, according to its natural poverty: That the objection made to this, viz., that the coarse grasses in a few years usurp possession of the soil, must be owing to the surface soil not being sufficiently mixed with lime, the lime having been covered too deep by the plough." (Farmer's Magazine, Vol. XIII. p. 69.)

Limestones differ much in purity, or in the quantity of calcareous matter which they contain. According to Mr Headrick (Farmer's Magazine, Vol. V. matter in p. 451.), it is usually from 60 to 85 per cent.; but he afterwards analyzed some limestones from the county of Fife, which contained 99½ per cent. of carbonate of lime, the residuum being fine clay. Farmers generally estimate the purity of limestones, by the quantity of slackened lime produced from a given quantity of burnt limestone, or shells as it is usually called, the pulverized lime of the best shells being three times the measure of the shells. But it is easy to ascertain the quantity of calcareous matter in the stone itself, by the use of muriatic acid; that stone being the best which leaves the least sediment, the lime itself dissolving in the acid.

3. Marls.

Marl, which was more extensively employed as a manure in former times than it has been of late, since the properties of lime have been better understood, is usually divided into stone, clay, and shell marl, of which the last is the most valuable. All marls contain a portion of calcareous matter, and their operation is not materially different from that of mild lime, as has been formerly noticed; but the greater quantity required, owing to the smaller proportion of calcareous matter which they contain, confines the use of them to a few miles around the places where they are found. The effects of marl are slower than those of quicklime, but, from the earthy substances combined with the calcareous matter, and the larger quantity usually applied, the staple of the soil is deepened, and the benefit is considered more durable.

4. Sea-Weed.

This is an excellent manure though not lasting in its effects, suited to all soils and crops, with the exception perhaps of clovers of the first year's growth. It should be applied fresh as it is gathered, if the land be ready to receive it, otherwise it may be mixed up with fresh dung, or used as a top-dressing to grass lands.

5. Bones and Horns.

Bones are a source of manure too little attended to in most places, though their value is well ascertained by a pretty extensive experience of their effects in several districts. The following particulars were transmitted from Yorkshire, in answer to some queries proposed by the writer of this article.

1. It is thought that all the bones of every animal are not equally valuable; but all the bones of an animal suitable for manure are equally good; and are much better when fresh.

2. The bones which are best filled with oil and marrow are certainly the best manure; and the parts generally used for buttons and knife-hafts are the thigh and shank-bones.

3. The powdered bones are dearer, and generally used for hot-beds in gardens, being too expensive for the field, and not so durable a manure as bruised bones, though for a short time more productive.

4. A dry, light or gentle soil, is best adapted for the use of bone manure, as it is supposed that, in land which retains wet, the nutritive part of the bone washes to the surface of it, and does not incorporate sufficiently with the soil.

5. The autumn is the most proper time for the use of this manure, which should then be laid on fallows for a turnip crop. The powder only should be used on a green crop, as the bruised bones would interrupt the progress of the scythe.

6. The effects produced on different crops are generally good on such soil as named in No. 4.

7. Bruised bones are better when mixed with ashes or any other manure, as the juice of the bones is then more equally spread over the field.

8. Bone manure ought to be ploughed into the land in tillage. On grass, the powder should be sown in by the hand.

9. This manure is used on land before described, to the extent of several thousand acres, in the higher parts of Nottinghamshire, and the wolds (or high land) in Lincolnshire, and the East and West Riding of Yorkshire.

10. The primary object of keeping a bone-mill is the bruising of bones, which pays better than selecting and selling such as are suitable for buttons, &c.

11. In an agricultural district, where the generality of the land is of the nature before mentioned as best suited for bone manure, a mill for the purpose of bruising bones would certainly indemnify the proprietors. The cost of a mill is from L.100 to L.200.

As to the number of miles the manure may be carried, the proprietors of the mill will be best able to judge of that." See Plate VIII.

Horn, says Sir H. Davy, is a still more powerful manure than bone, as it contains a larger quantity of decomposable animal matter. The shavings or turnings of bone, though they cannot be procured in great abundance, are much esteemed as a manure, and have been long known to the farmers in the west of Scotland, who sometimes bring them from Ireland. They are sown by the hand as a top-dressing for wheat and other crops.

6. Burnt Clay.

This is a mode of preparation which has been recently introduced into the west of Scotland from Ireland, by Mr Craig at Cally, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. It has been tried with great success; and if it should succeed generally, it will form a new era in the practice of agriculture, and contribute essentially, to the general improvement of the country. The want of manure has been always felt as a great obstruction to the cultivation of waste lands, and it has been thought that the limited quantity to be had is more profitably applied to the land at present under or tilly sub-tillage than to new land. But if burnt clay, or tilly subsoil, have the effect of producing full crops of turnips, from the consumption of which enriching manures may be always procured, there are few situations in which an almost unlimited supply of it may not be got, at a very small expense. We cannot do better than give the substance of Mr Craig's letter to Mr Boyd of Merton-Hall, in the contiguous county of Wigton, on this highly interesting subject. It is dated 23rd January 1815.

Being perfectly convinced, both from ocular demonstration, and personal experience, of the infinite utility of clay ashes, as a manure for every kind of crop, as well as a top-dressing for grass lands, I am extremely anxious that the use of them should become universal. I shall, therefore, have much pleasure in communicating to you every information on the subject, and I have now sat down to accomplish that object, as far as lies in my power.

Having had occasion, for some years past, to go repeatedly to Ireland, on the business of Mr Murray's estate there, I was struck with the mode adopted, in some parts of that country, of burning clay, and making use of the ashes, in preference to lime, of which there is such abundance. The method also adopted of causing the clay, just as it is dug out of the ground, without the assistance of any combustible, except merely to set it on fire, and without preparation of any sort, to burn of itself, arrested my attention; and having witnessed the crops of wheat and corn of every description, as well as flax and potatoes, luxuriant almost beyond credibility, produced from stiff clay soils, without the aid of any other manure than ashes so obtained, I determined to make the experiment at home. On my return, I accordingly commenced operations, and have practised the burning of subsoil for three years with the greatest success. I felt considerable difficulty at first for want of clay; but I hit upon a vein or bed of tenacious subsoil, partly tily, and partly clay, which answers the purpose quite well, though I do not apprehend it is so good as clay. The ashes I have hitherto used to applied solely to the production of turnips; but within the last ten days, I have laid nearly five hundred cart-loads on grass lands as a top-dressing. My turnip crops from ashes have exceeded anything of the kind in this neighbourhood. I was twice in London in the course of last summer and harvest, and in my way to and from town, I saw no turnips equal to my crop, though I passed through Berwickshire and Northumberland.

Last season, by way of experiment, I manured part of my turnip field with the best stable dung, which was ploughed in the same day it was led out of the yard; the remainder with ashes. The seed, which was of the yellow field sort, was sown on the same day. That sown on the ashes sprung much earlier than that on the dung, continued more vigorous during the season; and when I pulled them lately, the turnips produced from the ashes were more than double the size of those from the dung. I regret that I did not weigh the produce of each; but I have marked off a square chain of Swedish, which I mean to weigh, to ascertain the produce per acre. Excepting myself, no person has hitherto practised the burning of subsoil in this country, till last season, when I prevailed on Mr John Wallace, tenant of Mr Murray's farm of Clauchan, in Tongland parish, to try the experiment. In consequence of some misunderstanding that had arisen between Mr Wallace and the former tenant, the latter, contrary to the usual practice, declined to sell to Mr Wallace the outgoing crop, and carried the whole off to the immediate adjoining farm, which he rented. Mr Wallace was thereby put to considerable inconvenience, having scarcely any fodder for his stock, and being thus deprived of the means of raising dung for his green crop. In his distress he applied to me, and I engaged for him a person to burn clay. Though it was the beginning of May before the burning commenced, yet Mr Wallace obtained as many ashes as manured twenty acres. Notwithstanding the turnips were later of being sown than usual, and were too long in being hoed, Mr Wallace obtained for them the second premium for green crop from the Agricultural Society in the stewartry; and since that time the Highland Society have awarded to him their first premium. He laid on, at first, about forty-five single cart-loads to the acre; and diminished the quantity to thirty. I laid on, however, a much larger quantity; but I should imagine, that from forty to fifty cart-loads per acre would be a fair dose for our light soils. You, who have experienced the beneficial effects of ashes obtained by paring and burning the surface, can easily appreciate the value of ashes obtained from burning subsoil, and conceive the facility which they afford to the extension of the green crop system, to a breadth not hitherto contemplated. I may, however, mention, that this year, by means of ashes, I was enabled to raise three times the quantity of green crop that I had of white crop, and shall thus have it in my power to feed my cattle on turnip for more than six months, affording them, night and morning, as much as they are able to eat. Though my farm is, no doubt, of small extent, still this shows what may be done on a larger scale, where greater facilities can be obtained.

Though I do not apprehend that any written account I can give you will afford half so satisfactory an idea of the method of burning clay, as ocular inspection of the work, yet I shall give you the best description I can.

The general method of proceeding to work, is to make an oblong inclosure, of the dimensions of a small house, (say 15 feet by 10,) of green turf sods, raised to the height of 3½ or 4 feet. In the inside of this inclosure, air-pipes are drawn diagonally, which communicate with holes left at each corner of the exterior wall. These pipes are formed of sods put on edge, and are so wide only as another sod can easily cover. In each of the four spaces left between the air-pipes and the outer wall, a fire is kindled with wood and dry turf, and then the whole of the inside of the inclosure, or kiln, is filled with dry turf, which is very soon on fire; and on the top of that, when well kindled, is thrown the clay, in small quantities at a time, and repeated as often as necessary, which must be regulated by the intensity of the burning. The air-pipes are of use only at first, because, if the fire burns with tolerable keenness, the sods forming the pipes will soon be reduced to ashes. The pipe on the weather-side of the kiln only is left open, the mouths of the other three being stopped up, and not opened unless the wind should veer about. As the inside of the inclosure, or kiln, begins to be filled up with clay, the outer wall must be raised in height, always taking care to have it at least eighteen inches higher than the top of the clay, for the purpose of keeping the wind from acting on the fire. When the fire burns through the outer wall, which it often does, particularly when the top is overloaded with clay, the breach must be stopped up immediately, which can only be effectually done by building another sod-wall from the foundation, opposite to it, the sods that formed that part of the wall being soon reduced to ashes. The wall may be raised as high as is convenient for throwing on the clay, and the kiln may be increased to any size, by forming a new wall when the previous one is burnt through. I have had kilns so wide, that a horse and cart might have turned in them; but, when they are so broad, it requires the workmen to walk on the top of them while laying on the clay, which I would not recommend, because, the more loosely the clay can be laid on, the more rapidly will it burn. I did not take all the trouble above stated with my kilns; having the advantage of a quantity of old moss-sticks, and tree-roots, which I split, I kindled a large parcel of them, and surrounded the fire with a quantity of dry turf, and, as soon as it was well kindled, I built round it a strong wall of sods, and went on adding to the fire, and sods to the outer walls, when necessary, till the kilns were so large as to contain upwards of one hundred loads of ashes.

The principal secret in burning consists in having the outer walls made quite close and impervious to the external air, and taking care to have the top always lightly, but completely, covered with clay; because, if the external air should come in contact with the fire, either on the top of the kiln or through its sides, the fire will be very soon extinguished, or at least much weakened. In short, the kilns require to be attended nearly as closely as charcoal pits. Clay is much easier burnt than either moss or loam, as the latter, by crumbling down, are very apt to smother the fire, unless carefully attended to. No rule can well be laid down for regulating the size of the lumps thrown on the kiln, as that must depend on the state of the fire; but, on opening the heaps, I have always found all the lumps completely reduced to ashes, and some of them were thrown on larger than my head. Clay, no doubt, burns more readily if it be dug up and dried for a day or two before it be thrown on the kiln; but this operation is not necessary, as it will burn though thrown on quite wet. When put on too wet, however, the fire, if burning very intensely, is apt to reduce it to a cake-like substance, and thus to render it unfit for manure. After a kiln is fairly set a-going, no coal or wood, or any sort of combustible, is necessary, the wet clay burning of itself; and it can only be extinguished by intention, or the carelessness of the operator; the vicissitudes of the weather having hardly any effect on the fire, if properly attended to. It may, perhaps, be necessary to mention, that, when the kiln is burning with great keenness, a stranger to the operation may be apt to think that the fire is extinguished; if, however, any person, either through impatience, or

Manures too great a curiosity, should insist on examining the interior of the kiln, he will certainly retard, and may possibly extinguish, the fire; for, as I mentioned before, the chief secret consists in keeping out the external air from acting immediately on the fire. (Farmer's Magazine, Vol. XVI.)

7. Miscellaneous Articles.

Moss and dung.

In the article Agriculture, in the body of the work, there is an account of the compost of moss and farm-yard dung, introduced into notice by Lord Meadowbank; and we have only farther to add in regard to it, that we have found it, in the course of our own experience, to be a most valuable manure. We shall now mention some of those numerous vegetable, animal and other substances, which, though not in general use as manures, are sometimes employed for that purpose, in particular situations.

Of the substances of vegetable or animal origin occasionally or locally applied in this way, the number is very great. All green succulent plants add to the fertility of soils, when ploughed in; and it is by no means uncommon to cultivate buck-wheat and other plants expressly for this purpose. Thistles, docks, and other noxious weeds, which at any rate should be always cut down before forming their seeds, may be advantageously used as manure, and are sometimes mixed with farm-yard dung when laid out to ferment, in the manner already described. Rape cake is an excellent dressing for turnips, and is most economically applied when thrown into the soil at the same time with the seed. By covering dead animals with five or six times their bulk of soil, mixed with one part of lime, and suffering them to remain for a few months, their decomposition impregnates the soil with soluble matters, so as to render the mass an excellent manure; and by mixing a little fresh quicklime with it, at the time of its removal, the disagreeable effluvia may be in a great measure destroyed. Fish are well known to be a powerful manure, though the quantity should be limited. A full crop of turnips has been got from spoilt herrings, laid on before the winter ploughing, at the rate of twenty-five barrels to an acre. Blubber has been used with great success by Lord Somerville, mixed with clay, sand, or any common soil, so as to expose a large surface to the air, but it has been found injurious in some instances, probably owing to its being applied too largely, as has happened in the case of fish, or from not having been combined with a sufficient quantity of soil. The refuse of the different manufactures of skin and leather affords very useful manures,—such as the shavings of the currier, furriers' clippings, and the offals of the tan-yard and of the glue maker. The value of urine is well known. According to Sir H. Davy, it should be used as fresh as possible, but not without being diluted with water.

Night soil is a most powerful manure. The disagreeable smell may be destroyed by mixing it with quicklime. The Chinese mix it with one third of its weight of fat marl, make it into cakes, which are said to be a common article of commerce, and dry it by exposure to the sun. Next to this, in its fertilizing powers, is pigeons' dung, commonly used in a dry Pigee's state as a top-dressing, at the rate of about twenty bushels to an acre.

Manures of a mineral or fossil origin are also numerous. Limestone gravel, which abounds in Ireland, gravel, &c., chalk, pounded limestone, sea-shells, and shelly sand, are all employed, some of them to a considerable extent, in much the same manner as lime; but their effect, though durable, is not so immediate. Gypsum, Gypsum or sulphate of lime, is found in several parts of England, but its value as a manure does not appear to be yet clearly determined. It does not seem to operate by accelerating putrefaction; but it is supposed that lands which have ceased to bear good crops of clover or cultivated grasses, may be restored by being manured with gypsum, as it is found in considerable quantities in their ashes. Soot is known to be an useful top-dressing, either by itself, or when mixed with earth and lime, in the proportion of one part soot, five parts earth, and one part lime, but its effects are not lasting. Common salt is sometimes an useful manure. Sleech or sea ooze, containing animal and vegetable substances, with a large proportion of calcareous matter, affords a valuable dressing, increasing the staple of the soil to which it is applied, as well as its fertility. Pond and river mud, mixed with lime, has been often applied with good effect. Even coal-sill or schistus, has been used with much advantage by Mr Curwen and others, after being decomposed with lime, in the proportion of one part of the latter to six of the former.

The great quantity of valuable manure obtained from large towns, is a mixture of almost all these ingredients; and what was formerly a nuisance is now a source of revenue to the inhabitants, and of fertility to the country around them.

In several districts, land is manured on the surface, by cattle and sheep confined in temporary folds. See the Chapter on Live Stock, where the benefits of this practice will be inquired into. Its expediency is a question that cannot be determined without a reference to its effects on the animals themselves, as well as to the value of the manure.

CHAP. II.

OF LAND UNDER PERENNIAL HERBAGE, AND IN A STATE OF NATURE.

There are few tracts of any extent throughout Great Britain, if we except the shifting sands on some Herbage,

---

* Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, p. 281. + Id. p. 288. † Ibid. and Gen. Rep. of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 527. § Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, p. 289. || Farmer's Magazine, Vol. XVI. ¶ Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, p. 298. ** Id. p. 299, and Gen. Rep. of Scot. Vol. II. p. 545. †† Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, p. 331. ††† Id. p. 332, 333. §§§ Id. p. 341, and General Report of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 543. ||| Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. IV. ¶¶¶ Farmer's Magazine, Vol. XIV. p. 286. parts of the coast, that do not bear plants of one kind or other; and, having treated in the preceding chapter of crops raised by the labours of agriculture, it remains to consider those parts of our territory, which nature has clothed with plants, the spontaneous products of soil and climate, and to mention the purposes to which these tracts are applied, and the improvements of which they are susceptible.

In the earlier stages of society, the cerealia, used for the food of man, necessarily obtain the principal attention of the cultivator. Little or no labour is required to provide food for the few animals whose assistance he needs in his rude operations; and herds and flocks, which propagate around him without his care, find the means of subsistence, in those extensive wilds on which his feeble exertions have not yet materially encroached. Though he is chiefly indebted to these animals, at this period, both for his food and clothing, agriculture must have made considerable progress, before he attempts to supply their occasional wants, by improving their pastures, or cultivating plants expressly for their maintenance. Until the middle of the seventeenth century, neither roots nor herbage were cultivated for live stock in England, nor in Scotland till about a hundred years after.

The only provision for their subsistence, during the long winters of our latitude, was natural herbage in the state of hay, commonly the produce of some marshy or humid soils, along with the straw of corn; and during summer, the natural pastures, too generally occupied in common, were thought to require and to admit of little or no improvement.

It is not till the increase of population, and the extension of tillage to supply its wants, that, in consequence of successive encroachments on the range of the inferior animals, it becomes necessary at last, to allot a part of the cultivated land itself for raising their food. In most countries of Europe, it is not found profitable, even at this day, to cultivate herbage and roots to any extent for feeding cattle; and the same course of successive crops of corn, with which the earliest agriculturists everywhere began their labours, still prevails almost universally in the north of Europe; not because all the land is required for producing grain, but, on the contrary, because the demand of the population for grain is so limited, compared to the extent of the country, as to leave the far greater part in the possession of the inferior animals; which, in this case, can be brought to market, at a much lower price than would replace the charges of feeding them, on crops raised by means of aration.

Other causes than the scantiness of population have produced a similar effect, though in a much smaller degree, in Great Britain; and by far the larger part of our territory also, is still appropriated to the maintenance of live stock. A great portion of it, indeed, is incapable of being cultivated with any advantage; but meadows, pastures, and wastes, are spread over extensive tracts, that would yield cultivated crops in abundance, both for man and the inferior animals. Before concluding this article, we shall have occasion to notice what seem to be the causes of this state of things; but it is unquestionable, that, in the present circumstances of the country, a great deal of the most fertile land is employed more profitably for its owners and occupiers, under perennial herbage, than it could be under our most approved courses of tillage. In what respect the interest of the nation is concerned in this arrangement, this is not the place to inquire.

To give a concise view of the agricultural state of the land in Britain, not subjected to aration, we shall offer some observations on Meadows, on Natural Pastures, and on Waste, in separate sections.

**Sect. I. Meadows.**

By meadows, we understand all such land as is kept under grass chiefly for the sake of a hay crop, though occasionally, and at particular seasons of the year, it may be depastured by the domestic animals; and we usually include under this term the notion of a greater degree of moisture in the soil, than would be thought desirable, either for permanent pasture or lands in tillage. Where hay is in great demand, as near large towns, and especially if a good system of cropping be but little understood, a great deal of arable land, indeed, may be seen appropriated to hay crops; but the most valuable meadows are such as are either naturally rather moist, or that are rendered so by means of irrigation.

As the alternate and convertible systems of husbandry, before explained, prevail throughout all the lowlands of Scotland, there is little land in that country that deserves the name of meadow; though it is sometimes applied to marshy spots, not worth improving for tillage, which yield a quantity of coarse herbage to be made into hay, and are called bog meadows. The only natural hay grounds of much value in Scotland are to be found in the sheep-walks of the southern counties, where one or two small inclosures, near the farmer's or shepherd's dwelling-house, are commonly reserved for producing hay to feed the flocks during a deep snow; and as there is seldom much land in tillage in such places, the manure, made from a few horses and cows, is sometimes spread on the surface of these fields, though by no means according to any regular plan. To a very small extent, watered meadows have been tried in Scotland, but, from a general conviction of the superior advantages of cultivating herbage and roots, on all soils that can be made to produce them, and probably also owing to the less fertilizing qualities of the waters, even meadows of this kind are not likely ever to become of general importance there. The remarks which we mean to offer on this subject, must therefore be understood as applicable to the practice of England only.

The indigenous plants of which meadow-grass consists, necessarily vary with the qualities of the soil. The most valuable are, the sweet-smelling vernal-grass, (*Anthoxanthum odoratum*); perennial rye-grass, (*Lolium perenne*); foxtail, (*Alopecurus pratensis*); common meadow grass, (*Poa trivialis* and *Poa pratensis*); and soft meadow grass (*Holcus lanatus*). The poas compose the greater part of the celebrated Orcheston meadows near Salisbury, and of the no less productive meadows near Edinburgh. Of the *Agrostis stolonifera*, or Irish fiorin, lately brought from Fieria into notice by Dr Richardson, we shall give some account in a separate article. The period at which stock is excluded from meadows, in order that the grasses may rise for a hay crop, is different, according to the nature of the soil in regard to humidity, and the kind of stock with which the land is depastured. In some instances, the cattle are removed in November, while the sheep are continued on the ground till February. (Middlesex Report, p. 224.) In other places, the meadows are open to all kinds of stock from August to April (Id. p. 219.); and to sheep, even till May. (Lincolnshire Report, p. 196.)

In the judicious management of meadow lands, attention must be paid to prevent the stagnation of water and the growth of aquatic plants, and to extirpate fern, docks, thistles, and other weeds. Moss, in particular, often establishes itself on such lands, to the great injury of the valuable grasses, and can with difficulty be removed, even by the application of calcareous manures. Ant and mole hills also abound in meadows, and are too often so much neglected, as to render a large portion of the surface nearly unproductive. And in these, as in all other hay grounds, the preparatory operations for the scythe should always conclude with the use of a heavy roller.

The most important particulars in the management of meadow lands are, their improvement by irrigation, and by the application of manure. Of Irrigation we shall treat in a separate article.

With regard to the time at which manure should be applied, a great difference of opinion prevails among the farmers of England. In the county of Middlesex, where almost all the grass lands are preserved for hay, the manure is invariably laid on in October (Middlesex Report, p. 224), while the land is sufficiently dry to bear the driving of loaded carts without injury, and when the heat of the day is so moderated as not to exhale the volatile parts of the dung. Others prefer applying it immediately after the hay-time, from about the middle of July to the end of August, which is said to be the "good old time;" * and if that season be inconvenient, any time from the beginning of February to the beginning of April. † It is, however, too common a practice, to carry out the manure during frosty weather, when, though the ground is not cut up by the carts, the fertilizing parts of the dung are dissipated, and washed away by the snow and rains before they can penetrate the soil.

"There is scarcely any sort of manure that will not be useful when laid on the surface of grass grounds; but, in general, those of the more rich dung kinds are the most suitable for the older sort of sward lands; and dung in composition with fresh vegetable earthy substances, the more useful in the new lays or grass lands." — "In this district, it is the practice of the best farmers to prefer the richest dung they can procure, and seldom to mix it with any sort of earthy material, as they find it to answer the best in regard to the quantity of produce, which is the principal object in view; the cultivators depending chiefly for the sale of their hay in the London mar-

* Com. to Board of Agriculture, Vol. IV. p. 138. † Marshall's Review of Reports to the Board of Agriculture, p. 183, Western Department.

kets." — "It is the practice to turn over the dung Meadow that is brought from London in a tolerable state of rottenness, once chopping it well down in the operation, so as to be in a middling state of fineness when put upon the land. It is necessary, however, that it should be in a more rotten and reduced state when applied in the spring, than when the autumn is chosen for that purpose." (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 915.)

Some very interesting experiments have been made with different kinds of manure, for the purpose of ascertaining their effects, both in regard to the quantity and quality of the produce, on different kinds of land. Fourteen lots, of half an acre of eight yards to the rod each, were thus manured, and the grass was made into hay, all as nearly alike as possible. The greatest weight of hay was taken from the lot manured with horse, cow, and butchers' dung, all mixed together, of each about an equal quantity. It lay in that state about two months; and was then turned over, and allowed to lie eight or ten days more, after which it was put on the land before it had done fermenting, and spread immediately. And to ascertain the quality of the produce of the different lots, a small handful from each was laid down on a dry, clean place, where there was little or no grass, and six horses were turned out to them, one after another. In selecting the lots, there seems to have been little difference of taste among the horses; and all of them agreed in rejecting two lots, one of which had been manured with blubber mixed with soil, and the other with soot,—in both instances laid on in the month of April preceding. (Lancashire Report, p. 130, et seq.)

"The proportion of manure that is necessary must, Quantity of Manure, in a great measure, depend upon the circumstances of the land, and the facility of procuring it. In this district (near London) where the manure is of a very good and enriching quality, from its being produced in stables and other places where animals are highly fed; the quantity is usually from four or five to six or seven loads on the acre, such as are drawn by three or four horses, in their return from town on taking up the hay." (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 916.)

Manure is laid on at intervals of time, more or less distant, according to the same circumstances that determine the quantity of it. Though there are some implied instances of hay grounds bearing fair crops every year during a length of years, without any manure, or any advantage from pasturage, except what the after grass has afforded; yet, in general, manure must either be allowed every third or fourth year, or the land depastured one year, and mown the other; "or what is better, depastured two years and mown the third." (Northumberland Report, p. 111.) A succession of hay crops, without manure or pasturage, on meadows not irrigated, is justly condemned by all judicious farmers, as a sure means of impoverishing the soil.

The mode of converting this herbage into hay, Hay-mak- Meadows being somewhat different from that which has been described in regard to clovers and rye grass, requires to be mentioned here. The farmers of Middlesex, who supply the metropolis with hay, are understood to manage this department of rural economy in a very perfect manner; and as a full account of their practice is given in the Report of that county, we shall present the substance of it in the writer's own words.

"First day. All the grass mown before nine o'clock in the morning, is tedded, (or spread), and great care taken to shake it out of every lump, and to strew it evenly over all the ground. Soon afterwards it is turned, with the same degree of care and attention; and if, from the number of hands, they are able to turn the whole again, they do so, or at least as much of it as they can, till twelve or one o'clock, at which time they dine. The first thing to be done after dinner, is to rake it into what are called single windrows, and the last operation of this day is to put it into grass-cocks.

"Second day. The business of this day commences with tedding all the grass that was mown the first day after nine o'clock, and all that was mown this day before nine o'clock. Next, the grass-cocks are to be well shaken out into saddles (or separate plats) of five or six yards diameter. If the crop should be so thin and light as to leave the spaces between these saddles rather large, such spaces must be immediately raked clean, and the rakings mixed with the other hay, in order to its all drying of a uniform colour. The next business is to turn the saddles, and after that to turn the grass that was tedded in the first part of the morning, once or twice, in the manner described for the first day. This should all be done before twelve or one o'clock, so that the whole may lie to dry, while the work-people are at dinner. After dinner, the first thing to be done is, to rake the saddles into double windrows; next, to rake the grass into single windrows; then the double windrows are put into bastard-cocks; and lastly, the single windrows are put into grass-cocks. This completes the work of the second day.

"Third day. The grass mown and not spread on the second day, and also that mown on the early part of this day, is first to be tedded in the morning; and then the grass-cocks are to be spread into saddles, as before; and the bastard-cocks into saddles of less extent. These lesser saddles, though last spread, are first turned, then those which were in grass-cocks; and next the grass is turned once or twice before twelve or one o'clock, when the people go to dinner as usual. If the weather has proved sunny and fine, the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks, will this afternoon be in a proper state to be carried; but if the weather should, on the contrary, have been cool and cloudy, no part of it probably will be fit to carry. In that case, the first thing set about after dinner, is to rake that which was in grass-cocks last night into double windrows, then the grass which was this morning spread from the waths, into single windrows. After this the hay which was last night in bastard-cocks, is made up into full sized cocks, and care taken to rake the hay up clean, and also to put the rakings upon the top of each cock. Next, the double windrows are put into bastard-cocks, and the single windrows into grass-cocks, as on the preceding days.

"Fourth day. On this day the great cocks just mentioned, are usually carried before dinner. The other operations of the day are such, and in the same order, as before described, and are continued daily until the hay-harvest is completed.

"In the course of hay-making, the grass should, as much as possible, be protected both day and night against rain and dew, by cocking. Care should also be taken to proportion the number of hay-makers to that of the mowers, so that there may not be more grass in hand, at any time, than can be managed according to the foregoing process. This proportion is about twenty hay-makers (of which number twelve may be women) to four mowers: the latter are sometimes taken half a day to assist the former. But in hot, windy, or very drying weather, a greater proportion of hay makers will be required, than when the weather is cloudy and cool.

"It is particularly necessary to guard against spreading more hay than the number of hands can get into cock, the same day, or before rain. In showery and uncertain weather, the grass may sometimes be suffered to lie three, four, or even five days in swath. But before it has lain long enough for the underside of the swath to become yellow (which if suffered to lie long would be the case), particular care should be taken to turn the swaths with the heads of the rakes. In this state, it will cure so much in about two days, as only to require being tedded a few hours, when the weather is fine, previous to its being put together, and carried. In this manner, hay may be made and stacked at a small expense, and of a good colour; but the tops and bottoms of the grass are insufficiently separated by it.

"There are no hay-stacks more neatly formed, nor better secured, than those of Middlesex. At every vacant time, while the stack is carrying up, the men are employed in pulling it with their hands into a proper shape, and about a week after it is finished, the whole of it is properly thatched, and then secured from receiving any damage from the wind, by means of a straw-rope, extended along the eaves, up the ends and near the ridge. The ends of the thatch are afterwards cut evenly below the eaves of the stack, just of sufficient length for the rain-water to drip quite clear of the hay. When the stack happens to be placed in a situation which may be suspected of being too damp in the winter, a trench of about six or eight inches deep is dug round, and nearly close to it, which serves to convey all the water from the spot, and renders it perfectly dry and secure." (Middlesex Report, p. 238-241.)

When the grass has risen again, after the hay crop, it is usually depastured, as has been already mentioned when treating of clovers: to mow a second time is considered a bad practice among the best hay farmers. (Middlesex Report, p. 249.) But it is the usage of some to leave the after-grass on the ground without being eaten till spring, when it is said to be preferable, for ewes and lambs, to turnips, cabbages, or any other species whatever of what is Meadows termed spring-feed. This mode of management, which is strongly recommended by Mr Young, and in some cases by Mr Marshall also, is unknown in the north, where, though it is in many cases found beneficial, with a view to an early spring growth, not to eat the pastures too close before winter, it would be attended with a much greater loss of herbage, than any advantage in spring could compensate, to leave the after-growth of mown grounds untouched till that season. There has never been found any deficiency of milk, with ewes that are tolerably well supplied with turnips, a little before and after they drop their lambs.

The weight of the hay, produced on meadows well managed, being on an average about one ton and a half per acre, holds out little encouragement to retain good arable land in this condition; and, unless near London, and a few other large towns, pasturage would probably give a much more valuable return. In Lincolnshire, where there are some of the richest grazing lands in England, it is observed, that all lands that will feed cattle should be mown as little as possible; and nothing pays worse there than the scythe; "it costs as much labour as a crop of corn, and more than in many counties, and is not of half the value." (Lincolnshire Report, p. 195.)

Sect. II. Pastures.

We have already mentioned, in the preceding chapter, that pasturage for one, two, or more years, is frequently interposed in the course of cropping arable land, to prevent that exhaustion of the soil which is commonly the consequence of incessant tillage.

Permanent crops. The pasture lands to be treated of here, are, therefore, such as are retained permanently, or at least for an indefinite period in this state, merely for the sake of the herbage they yield, and without any particular view to the amelioration of the lands, for bearing crops of grain. In this general application of the word, permanent pastures include not only such land as might be cultivated by the plough; but also all those uplands to which tillage operations could not be extended with any prospect of remuneration; such as the far greater part of the hilly and mountainous sheep grounds throughout this kingdom. The nature of these pastures is, however, so different, and the expediency of retaining arable land in permanent pasture has been so keenly discussed, that it will be proper to notice the two descriptions separately, under the general, though not quite accurate appellations, of feeding and hilly pastures. Under the former, we may comprehend all old rich pastures that are capable of fattening cattle; and under the second, such as are adapted to rearing them only, or are more advantageously depastured with sheep.

1. Feeding-Pastures.

Of these there is a great extent in most counties of England, but very few in Scotland, except near the houses of great proprietors; and much useless controversy has been carried on, between the farmers of the two countries, about the comparative advantages of preserving such pastures, or of bringing them under a regular system of alternate or convertible husbandry. That much of this land in the south would be more productive, both to the proprietor and occupier, under a good course of cropping than under pasture, it is impossible to deny; but it is no less certain, that there are large tracts of rich grazing land, which, in the present state of the demand for the produce of grass lands, and of the law of England with regard to tithes, cannot be employed more profitably for the parties concerned, than in pasture. The interest which the Board of Agriculture has taken in this question, with a view to an abundant supply of corn, for the wants of a rapidly increasing population, seems, therefore, not to have been well directed. Instead of devoting a large portion of their volumes to the instruction of farmers, regarding the best method of bringing grass lands into tillage, and restoring them again to meadow or pasture, without deterioration; the first thing required was, to attempt removing the almost insuperable obstruction of tithes, by proposing to the legislature an equitable plan of commutation. If some beneficial arrangement were adopted on this head, there is no reason to doubt, that individual interest would soon operate the wished for change; and that all grass lands capable of yielding more rent and profit under tillage than under pasture, would be subjected to the plough, as fast as the demands of the population might require.

Except in regard to those necessary operations that have been already noticed, under the former opinions section,—such as the extirpation of weeds and noxious shrubs, clearing away ant and mole-hills, &c. there are few points respecting the management of this kind of land, on which some difference of opinion does not prevail. The time of stocking,—the number of the animals, and whether all should be of one or of different species,—the extent of the inclosures,—and the propriety of eating the herbage close, or leaving it always in a rather abundant state, are all of them questions which it is scarcely possible to decide in a satisfactory manner, by the application of general rules. They can only be resolved, with any pretensions to utility, by a reference to the particular circumstances of each case; for the practice of one district, in regard to these and other points, will be found quite inapplicable to others, where the soil and climate, and the purposes to which the pastures are applied, are materially different.

It has been recommended to apply manure to grass lands, even where, not being used as hay grounds, they afford no means of supply. (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 953.) But, excepting the dung dropped by the pasturing animals, which should always be regularly spread from time to time; it may be laid down as a rule of pretty extensive application, that if grass lands do not preserve their fertility under pasturage, it would be much better to bring them under tillage for a time, than to enrich them at the expense of land carrying crops of corn.

Another practice, which is scarcely less objectionable, is that of stacking on the field, or carrying to be consumed there during winter, the provender that ought to have furnished disposable manure for the use of the farm at large. It is to no purpose that such a wasteful practice is defended, on dry light soils, which are alleged to be thus benefited by the treading of the cattle. (Marshall's Rural Economy of Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 131.) During the frequent and heavy falls of rain and snow in winter, there is scarcely any land so dry as not to be injured by the treading of heavy cattle; and were there anything gained in this respect by this management, it would be much more than counterbalanced by the loss of a great part of the manure, from the same cause. The able writer to whom we have just now referred, very properly disapproves of carting on manure in winter; and for the same reason,—namely, the loss of it which must necessarily be the consequence,—he ought to have objected to foddering on the land, or teathing, at that season. The practice, however, is but too common in those districts, both in South and North Britain, where the knowledge of correct husbandry has made but little progress. It is equally objectionable, whether the fodder be consumed on meadows where it grew, or on other grass lands. The fodder should, in almost every instance, be eaten in houses or fold-yards, instead of the dung being dropped irregularly over the surface; or, as must be almost always the case, accumulated in some spots sheltered by trees and hedges, to which the animals necessarily resort during the storms of winter.

The time of opening pastures in spring, must evidently be earlier or later, according to the climate, and in the same climate according to the season; and the state of growth, which it is desirable that the grass should attain, before being stocked, must in some degree be determined by the condition and description of the animals to be employed in consuming it,—whether they are only in a growing state, or approaching to fatness,—whether milk cows or sheep, or a mixture of animals of different species. It conveys no very precise idea respecting these points, though the remark itself is just, to say, that the herbage should not be allowed to rise so high as to permit the coarser plants to run to seed; and that it is bad management to suffer store stock to be turned upon a full bite. (Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 129.) The great objects to be aimed at are, that the stock, of whatever animals it may consist, should be carried forward, faster or slower, according to the purposes of their owner; and that no part of the herbage should be allowed to run to waste, or be unprofitably consumed. But nothing but careful inspection of the land and of the stock, from time to time, can enable any grazier to judge with certainty what are the best measures for attaining these objects.

"Fatting cattle," says Mr Marshall, "which are forward in flesh, and are intended to be finished with grass, may require a full bite at first turning out. But for cows, working oxen, and rearing cattle, and lean cattle intended to be fattened on grass, a full bite at the first turning out is not requisite." "Old lady-day to the middle of April, according to the progress of spring, appears to me, at present, as the best time for shutting up mowing grounds and opening pastures." (Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 152-3.)

In regard to the state of the growth of pastures when first stocked, some distinction should be made between new leys and old close swards. To prevent the destruction of the young plants, whether of clovers or other herbage, on the former description of pasture, which would be the consequence of stocking them too early, especially with sheep, they should be allowed to rise higher than would be necessary in the case of old turf; and to secure their roots from the further injury of a hot summer, it is advisable not to feed them close in the early part of the season, and probably not at any time throughout the whole of the first or second season, if the land is to be continued in pasture. The roots of old and firm sward, on the other hand, are not in so much danger, either from close feeding, or from the heats of summer; and they are in much less danger from the frosts and thaws of winter.

Another circumstance almost equally indeterminate with the time of opening pastures, is the stock which should be employed; and whether they should be all of one or of different kinds.

With regard to the former, all soils rather moist, and of such a quality, as is the case with rich clays, as to produce herbage suited to the fattening of cattle, will, in general, be more advantageously stocked with them than with sheep; but there can be no other rule for the total exclusion of sheep, than the danger of the rot; nor any other general rule for preferring one kind of stock to another, than their comparative profits.

With regard to a mixed stock, the sentiments and practice of the best graziers seem to be in its favour, one preferring:

"It is generally understood that horses and cattle intermixed, will eat grass cleaner than either species will alone, not so much from their separately affecting different grasses, as from the circumstance of both species disliking to feed near their own dung." (Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 154.) "Some few graziers follow the old custom of keeping only one kind of stock upon the same ground, whilst others, we think, with more propriety, intermix, with oxen and cows, a few sheep, and two or three colts in each pasture, which both turn to good account, and do little injury to the grazing cattle. In some cases, sheep are a real benefit, by eating down and destroying the ragwort (Senecio jacobaea), which disgraces some of the best pastures of the county, where oxen only are grazed." (Northumberland Report, p. 126.)

And in Lincolnshire, where grazing is followed to a great extent, and with uncommon success, as well as in most other districts, the practice seems to be almost invariably, to keep a mixed stock of sheep and cattle on the same pasture, (Lincolnshire Report, p. 174), in proportions varying with the nature of the soil and the quality of the herbage.

It is obviously impossible to estimate the number of animals, that may be depastured on any given extent of ground, without reference to the particular spot in question; and the same difference exists, with regard to the propriety of feeding close, or leaving the pastures rough, that prevails in most other parts of this subject. Though there be loss in stocking too close and sparingly, the more common and dangerous error, is rough feeding in overstocking, by which the summer's grass is not ing. unfrequently entirely lost. There seems to us, however, to be a season, some time during the year, when grass lands, particularly old turf, should be eaten very close, not merely for the sake of preventing waste, but also for the purpose of keeping down the coarser kinds of plants, and giving to the pastures as equal and fine a sward as possible. The most proper period must partly depend upon the convenience of the grazier; but it can hardly be either immediately before the drought of summer, or the frost of winter. Some time in autumn, when the ardent heat of the season is over, and when there is still time for a new growth before winter, may be most suitable for the land itself, and generally also for the grazier, his fat stock being then mostly disposed of, or carried to the aftergrass of mown grounds. The sweeping of pastures, with the scythe, may be employed as a substitute for this close feeding; the waste and labour of which, however, though they be but trifling, it does not seem necessary to incur on rich grazing lands, under correct management.

The size of inclosures is a matter of considerable importance on grass-lands, both for the stock itself, and the mode of consuming the produce. In general, pastures best adapted to sheep should be in large fields. The animals are not only impatient of heat, and liable to be much injured by flies, in small pastures often surrounded by trees and high hedges, but they are naturally, with the exception perhaps of the Leicester variety, much more restless and easily disturbed than the other species of live stock. "Sheep," says a well known writer, "love a wider range, and ought to have it, because they delight in short grass: give them eighty or ninety acres, and any fence will keep them in; confine them to a field of seven or eight acres, and it must be a very strong fence that keeps them in." (Kames's Gentleman Farmer, p. 203.) Though fields so large as 80 or 90 acres, can be advisable only in hilly districts, yet the general rule is nevertheless consistent with experience, in regard to all our least domesticated varieties.

The size of fields deserves attention on another account; for there are strong reasons for preferring pasture land, in two or more inclosures, over the same extent in one large field. Besides the advantages of shelter, both to the animals and the herbage, such subdivisions enable the grazier, either to separate his stock into small parcels, by which means they feed more at their ease, or to give the best pastures to that portion of them which he wishes to come earliest to market. The advantages of moderate-sized inclosures are well known in the best grazing counties; but the subdivisions are in some instances, much more minute than is consistent with the value of the ground occupied with fences, or necessary to the improvement of the stock.

"In all cases," says Marshall "where fatting cattle or dairy cows make a part of the stock, and where situation, soil, and water will permit, every suit of grazing grounds ought, in my idea, to consist of three compartments. One for head stock (as cows or fatting cattle); one for followers (as rearing and other lean stock); and the third to be shut up to freshen, for the leading stock." (Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 158.)

It is sufficiently obvious, that every inclosure of pasture land should be provided with abundance of water at all times; though this is, in some districts, a matter of considerable difficulty. Mr Marshall has given a full account of the method of forming drinking pools, in Yorkshire; but our limits oblige us to refer the reader to his work. (Id. Vol. I. p. 146.)

2. Hilly Pastures.

These include such low hills as produce fine short Hill-herbage, and are with much advantage kept constantly in pasture, though they are not altogether inaccessible to the plough; as well as such tracts as, from their acclivity and elevation, must necessarily be exclusively appropriated to live stock. The former description of grass lands, though different from the feeding pastures, of which we have just treated, in respect of their being less convenient for tillage management, are nevertheless in other circumstances so nearly similar, as not to require any separate discussion. These low hills are for the most part occupied with sheep, a very few cattle being sometimes depastured towards their bases; and they frequently comprise herbage sufficiently rich for fattening sheep, together with coarser pastures for breeding and rearing them. In many instances, a small part of such tracts is cultivated, chiefly for providing green crops for the sheep in winter; but corn is quite a subordinate object, and extensive aration is seldom attempted, except for the purpose of laying down the land to grass in an improved condition.

The more elevated pastures, from which the plough is altogether excluded, have been commonly classed among waste lands; even such of them as bear herbage by no means of inconsiderable value; as well as heaths and moors, with patches of which the green pastures are often chequered. The general term wastes is therefore a very indefinite expression; and, indeed, is not unfrequently made to comprehend all that extensive division of our territory that neither produces corn nor rich herbage. Yet it is on such improperly tracts that by far the greater part of our butcher's meat and wool is grown, and not a little of the former fully prepared for the market. Foreigners and superficial readers at home, must accordingly be greatly mistaken, if they imagine that what are called wastes, by the Board of Agriculture, and other writers on Rural Economy, are really altogether unproductive; and it would be a still grosser error to believe, that all these wastes owe their continuance to neglect or mismanagement; and that any exertions of human industry can ever render the greater part of them, including all the mountainous tract of Great Britain, more valuable than they are at present, without a much greater expenditure of capital, than, under almost any circumstances, they could possibly return. Yet as this vague general term has been established by use, we shall bring together, in the following section, a few observations on the present condition of that part of our territory, which is still almost in a state of nature, and the improvements of which it is susceptible; referring to the body of the work for farther details. (Agriculture, Part I. Sect. 2.) Sect. III. Wastes.

That part of Britain, which is still in a state of waste, might be treated of under a number of heads, corresponding to the various causes of its infertility. Land is comparatively unproductive, owing, 1st, To the surface being covered with stones, or occupied with worthless shrubs and other plants; 2d, To the superabundance of water, as in the case of mosses and marshes; 3d, To an original defect in the soil, as in loose sands, moors, and compact sterile clays, sometimes called till; 4th, To the elevation and ruggedness of the surface, and the ungenial character of the climate, as in our mountainous districts; 5th, To the previous exhaustion of the vegetable matter of the soil by injudicious cropping; and, 6th, To the mode of tenure and occupancy, as in commons.

It is matter of regret, that the subject of wastes has not yet been treated in that distinct and scientific manner, which its importance deserves. It would be advisable to have it ascertained, what portion of these divisions, or of others under which our wastes may be arranged, is capable of improvement, and how far such improvement is eligible, on a fair estimate of the cost, and the probable increase of produce. It should also be considered, as far as precision is attainable on such points, how much farther a proprietor might advantageously proceed in the expenditure of capital, than one who is merely a temporary occupier. For it is evident, that an improvement will be sufficiently profitable to the former, if he draws for his outlay four or five per cent yearly, whereas a tenant, holding on a lease of twenty years, must have an annuity for that period, of at least three times the amount, in order that his capital may be returned, with the ordinary profits of trade, before its expiration.

The delusive prospects of profit, from the improvement of wastes, held out by speculative men, have an unhappy tendency to produce disappointment in rash and sanguine adventurers, and ultimately to discourage such attempts as, with judicious attention to economy, would in all probability be attended with great success. Those who are conversant with the publications that have lately appeared on this subject, must be aware with what caution the alleged results of most of these writers ought to be examined; and how different has been the experience of those, who have ventured to put their schemes in practice, from what they had been led to anticipate.

There are few soils, however, so unfertile, and few tracts of any extent so destitute of soil, as not to be susceptible of profitable improvement, if the climate be not altogether hostile to vegetation, or the surface so steep or so rugged, as not to admit of any other operations than such as must be executed by manual labour. With this exception, and the exception probably of what is called flow moss—that innabilis unda, on which there is reason to fear much capital has been employed to little purpose,—wastes are certainly capable of considerable improvement, by surface or underdraining; by top-dressing with calcareous manures; by paring and burning as a preparation for tillage; by trenching, irrigation, and embankment.

The practice of paring and burning the surface of old swards, matted with the roots of coarse herbage and heath, is now generally acknowledged, both by scientific and practical writers, to be highly advantageous, as the next step in their cultivation after drainage. "The process of burning," says Sir Humphry Davy, "renders the soil less compact, less tenacious and retentive of moisture; and, properly applied, may convert a matter that was stiff, damp, and in consequence cold, into one powdery, dry, and warm; and much more proper as a bed for vegetable life."

"The great objection made by speculative chemists to paring and burning, is, that it destroys vegetable and animal matter, or the manure in the soil; but in cases in which the texture of its earthy ingredients is permanently improved, there is more than a compensation for this temporary disadvantage. And in some soils, where there is an excess of inert vegetable matter, the destruction of it must be beneficial; and the carbonaceous matter remaining in the ashes may be more useful to the crop than the vegetable fibre from which it was produced.

"Many obscure causes have been referred to for the purpose of explaining the effects of paring and burning; but I believe they may be referred entirely to the diminution of the coherence and tenacity of clays, and to the destruction of inert and useless vegetable matter, and its conversion into a manure.

"All soils that contain too much dead vegetable fibre, and which consequently lose from one-third to one-half of their weight by incineration, and all such as contain their earthy constituents in an impalpable state of division, i.e. the stiff clays and marls, are improved by burning; but in coarse sands, or rich soils containing a just mixture of the earths; and in all cases in which the texture is already sufficiently loose, or the organizible matter sufficiently soluble, the process of torrefaction cannot be useful.

"All poor siliceous sands must be injured by it; and practice is found to accord with theory. Mr Young, in his Essay on manures, states, 'that he found burning injure sand,' and the operation is never performed by good agriculturists upon siliceous sandy soils, after they have once been brought into cultivation." (Agricultural Chemistry, p. 346.)

Another mode of preparing waste land for tillage, though not calculated for being extensively employed during the present rate of wages, has been carried so far in Aberdeenshire, and apparently with so much success, as to deserve being noticed.

"The greater part of the land in the vicinity of Trenching-Aberdeen has, from the most barren and unproductive state, been thoroughly improved by trenching. Not less than three thousand acres have been trenched within three miles of Aberdeen; and in all places of the county, considerable additions have been made to the arable, by trenching the barren lands."

"It is practised in barren land, which abounds in stones of different dimensions, sometimes, where the soil is dry, and in other cases, where it is wet, united with draining; it is practised when the object is to deepen the soil, or to mix a portion of the subsoil along with it; it is practised when the subsoil is tilly or very tenacious, as well as when that next the surface is unproductive, moory, or exhausted by overcropping. And, lastly, it is practised, when the land..." Wastes, is foul, and when stronger or cleaner soil can be brought up to the surface.

"The expense indeed could not have been borne in many cases, if the first crop, (for so it may be called, as it covered the whole soil,) that was raised by the spade and mattock, had not produced from L.30 to L.50 per acre. This was a crop of granite stones, which was sold for paving the streets of London. But, after all, the ground that was thus gained to the community, would not have been able to recompense the cultivator, if a mixture of the spade and plough husbandry had not been introduced. The rent of the land in the immediate vicinity of Aberdeen, is extremely high; being now on a lease for years, from L.5, to L.10 per acre; and in a few cases, not less than L.18; nay, when let for a single crop, sometimes as high as L.20. Yet all this is necessary to remunerate the improver, who trenched, dugged, limed, and cultivated this thin soil, which must be frequently manured. It would have yielded too little produce, if tilled only by the plough; and would have been cultivated at too great an expense, if the soil had been constantly digged by the spade. A medium between these two, viz. either the alternate use of the plough and spade, or at least a mixture of plough and spade husbandry, was thus introduced by necessity, and has been attended with the happiest effects." (Aberdeenshire Reports.)

We shall conclude these rather desultory observations, with some account of Mr Roscoe's very spirited and skilful operations in the reclaiming and improving of an extensive tract of moss, called Chat moss, in the county of Lancaster. The length of this moss is about six miles, its greatest breadth about three miles, and its depth may be estimated from ten to upwards of thirty feet. It is entirely composed of the substance well known by the name of peat, being an aggregate of vegetable matter, disorganized and inert, but preserved by certain causes from putrefaction. On the surface it is light and fibrous, but becomes more dense below. On cutting to a considerable depth, it is found to be black, compact, and heavy, and in many respects resembling coal. There is not throughout the whole moss the least intermixture of sand, gravel, or other material, the entire substance being a pure vegetable.

It is now upwards of twenty years since Mr Roscoe, in company with Mr Wakefield, began to improve Trafford moss, a tract of three hundred acres, lying two miles east of Chat moss; and his operations on it seem to have been so successful as to encourage him to proceed with Chat moss. But in the improvement of the latter, he found it unnecessary to incur so heavy an expense for drainage. From observing that where the moss had been dug for peat, the water had drawn towards it from a distance of fifty to a hundred yards, he conceived that if each drain had to draw the water only twenty-five yards, they would, within a reasonable time, undoubtedly answer the purpose. The whole of the moss was therefore laid out on the following plan.

"I first carried a main road," (says Mr Roscoe, in a recent communication to the Board of Agriculture), "nearly from east to west, through the whole extent of my portion of the moss. This road is about three miles long and thirty-six feet wide. It is bounded on each side by a main drain, seven feet wide and six feet deep, from which the water is conveyed, by a considerable fall, to the river. From these two main drains, other drains diverge, at fifty yards distance from each other, and extend from each side of the road to the utmost limits of the moss. Thus, each field contains fifty yards in front to the road, and is of an indefinite length, according as the boundary of the moss varies. These field-drains are four feet wide at the top, one foot at the bottom, and four feet and a half deep. They are kept carefully open, and, as far as my experience hitherto goes, I believe they will sufficiently drain the moss, without having recourse to underdraining, which I have never made use of at Chat moss, except in a very few instances, where, from the lowness of the surface, the water could not readily be gotten off without open channels which might obstruct the plough."

The cultivation of the moss then proceeds in the following manner. "After setting fire to the heath and herbage on the moss, and burning it down as far as practicable, I plough a thin sod or furrow, with a very sharp horse-plough, which I burn in small heaps and dissipate: considering it of little use but to destroy the tough sods of the Eriophora, Nardus stricta, and other plants, whose matted roots are almost imperishable. The moss being thus brought to a tolerably dry and level surface, I then plough it in a regular furrow six inches deep; and as soon as possible after it is thus turned up, I set upon it the necessary quantity of marl, not less than two hundred cubic yards to the acre. As the marl begins to crumble and fall with the sun or frost, it is spread over the land with considerable exactness, after which I put in a crop as early as possible, sometimes by the plough, and at others with the horse-scuffle or scariifier, according to the nature of the crop, adding, for the first crop, a quantity of manure, which I bring down the navigable river Irwell to the borders of the moss, setting on about twenty tons to the acre. Moss land thus treated, may not only be advantageously cropped the first year with green crops, as potatoes, turnips, &c., but with any kind of grain; and as wheat has, of late, paid better to the farmer than any other, I have hitherto chiefly relied upon it, as my first crop, for reimbursing the expense."

The expense of the several ploughings, with the burning, sowing, and harrowing, and of the marl and lime manure, but exclusive of the seed, and also of the previous drainage and general charges, amounts to L.18, 5s. per acre; and in 1812, on one piece of land thus improved, Mr Roscoe had twenty bushels of wheat, then worth a guinea per bushel, and on another piece eighteen bushels; but these were the best crops upon the moss.

"Both lime and marl are generally to be found within a reasonable distance; and the preference given to either of them will much depend upon the facility of obtaining it. The quantity of lime necessary for the purpose is so small in proportion to that of marl, that, where the distance is great, and the carriage high, it is more advisable to make use of it;" but where marl is upon the spot, or can be obtained in sufficient quantity at a reasonable expense, it appears to be preferable." Mr Roscoe is thoroughly convinced, after a great many different trials, that all temporizing expedients are fallacious; and "that the best method of improving moss-land is by the application of a calcareous substance, in a sufficient quantity to convert the moss into a soil, and by the occasional use of animal or other extraneous manures, such as the course of cultivation, and the nature of the crops, may be found to require."

There seems to be little more that is peculiar to himself in Mr Roscoe's operations, and course of cropping, except his contrivance for setting on the marl. It would not be practicable, he observes, to effect the marling at so cheap a rate, (£10 per acre), were it not for the assistance of an iron road or railway, laid upon boards or sleepers, and moveable at pleasure. Along this road the marl is conveyed in waggons with small iron wheels, each drawn by one man. These waggons, by taking out a pin, turn their loading out on either side; they carry about 15 cwt. each, being as much as could heretofore be conveyed over the moss by a cart with a driver and two horses.

In the month of November 1805, Mr Roscoe began the drainage, by cutting out the main drains on each side of the road; throwing out the moss from the drains into the middle of the road. In 1807, the smaller drains, at fifty yards distance from each other, were begun, and about one thousand acres laid out in the manner already mentioned. In 1808, part of the moss was sufficiently consolidated to be worked with horses in pattens; this year, a farm-house, with out-buildings, cottages, &c. were erected; and marl was set upon the land prepared for that purpose. About twenty acres were cropped, with turnips and potatoes, in 1809; and in the year following, upwards of eighty acres, of which twenty were wheat. In 1811, Mr Roscoe had one hundred acres in crop, chiefly in wheat; and in 1812, marl and street manure were applied in the quantities specified above. The crops were wheat and beans, which much surpassed those of any preceding year. "In the course of the present year, (1813,) I shall have brought into cultivation about one hundred and sixty acres, which will be cropped with wheat, oats, potatoes, and beans. A tract of thirty acres of clover appears to be very promising."

From a further communication, in May 1815, we learn that the depreciation of agricultural produce, and the difficulty of combining a regular course of cropping, with the bringing in of additional waste land, have induced Mr Roscoe to lay down the whole of the improved part of Chat moss into meadow land, which he had then nearly effected, and expected to accomplish in the course of the ensuing year. So long as land of this description continues productive in the state of meadow or pasture, it does not appear advisable to attempt any course of cropping whatever; and to lay it down for either of these purposes, ought perhaps to form the chief inducement to its improvement.

---

**CHAP. III.**

**LIVE STOCK.**

In the observations which we have to offer on this grand department of husbandry, which, in some quarters of the island, enjoys a decided preference over tillage, we shall treat, 1. Of Horses; 2. Of Cattle; 3. Of Sheep; 4. Of Swine; and, 5. Of Miscellaneous Stock.

**SECT. I. HORSES.**

The form of a horse, peculiarly adapted to the labours of agriculture, has been well described by a writer of great experience and acute observation, in the following words:

"His head should be as small as the proportion of the animal will admit; his nostrils expanded, and muzzle fine; his eyes cheerful, and prominent; his ears small, upright, and placed near together; his neck, rising out from between his shoulders with an easy tapering curve, must join gracefully to the head; his shoulders, being well thrown back, must also go into his neck (at what is called the points) unperceived, which, perhaps, facilitates the going much more than the narrow shoulder; the arm, or fore-thigh, should be muscular, and, tapering from the shoulder, meet with a fine, straight, sinewy, bony leg; the hoof circular, and wide at the heel; his chest deep, and full at the girth; his loin or fillets broad and straight, and body round; his hips or hooks by no means wide, but quarters long, and tail set on, so as to be nearly in the same right line as his back; his thighs strong and muscular; his legs clean, and fine-boned; his leg-bones not round, but what is called lathy or flat." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 21.)

1. Breeds.

1. The black cart-horse, bred in the midland counties of England (see Plate IX.), is better suited for drays and waggons than the common operations of a farm. The present system of farming requires horses of more mettle and activity, better adapted for travelling, and more capable of enduring fatigue, than those heavy sluggish animals. This variety is understood to have been formed, or at least brought to its present state, by means of stallions and mares imported from the Low Countries; though there appears to be some difference in the accounts that have been preserved, in regard to the places whence they were brought, and the persons who introduced them.*

"The breed of grey rats," says Mr Marshall, "with which this island has of late years been overrun, are not a greater pest in it than the breed of black fen horses; at least while cattle remain scarce as they are at present, and while the flesh of horses remains to be rejected as an article of human food." (Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 164.) The present improved sub-variety of this breed is said to have taken its rise in six Zealand mares, sent over from the Hague by

---

* See Culley on Live Stock, p. 32, and Marshall's Economy of the Midland Counties, Vol. I. p. 306 the late Lord Chesterfield, during his embassy at that Court.

2. The Cleveland bays, which owe some of their most valuable properties to crosses with the race-horse, have been long celebrated as one of the best breeds in the island; but they are said to have degenerated of late. They are reared to a great extent in Yorkshire, the farmers of which county are remarkable for their knowledge in everything that relates to this species of live stock. In activity and hardiness, these horses have perhaps no superior. Some capital hunters have been produced by putting full-bred stallions to mares of this sort; but the chief object latterly has been to breed coach-horses, and such as have sufficient strength for a two-horse plough. Three of these horses carry a ton and a half of coals, travelling sixty miles in twenty-four hours, without any other rest but two or three baits upon the road; and frequently perform this labour four times a-week.

3. A third variety is the Suffolk Punch, a very useful animal for rural labour. Their merit seems to consist more in constitutional hardiness than true shape. (See Plate IX.) "Their colour is mostly yellowish or sorrel, with a white ratch or blaze on their faces; the head large, ears wide, muzzle coarse, fore-end low, back long, but very straight, sides flat, shoulders too far forward, hind-quarters middling, but rather high about the hips, legs round and short in the pasterns, deep-bellied and full in the flank. Here, perhaps, lies much of the merit of these horses; for we know, from observation and experience, that all deep-bellied horses carry their food long, and, consequently, are enabled to stand longer and harder days' works. However, certain it is, that these horses do perform surprising days' works. It is well known, that the Suffolk and Norfolk farmers plough more land in a day than any other people in the island; and these are the kind of horses everywhere used in those districts." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 27.)

4. The Clydesdale horse has been long in high repute in Scotland and the north of England; and, for the purposes of the farmer, is probably equal to any other breed in Britain. Of the origin of this race, various accounts have been given, but none of them so clear or so well authenticated as to merit any notice. They have got this name, not because they are bred only in Clydesdale or Lanarkshire,—for the same description of horses are reared in the other western counties of Scotland, and over all that tract which lies between the Clyde and the Forth,—but because the principal markets at which they are sold, Lanark, Carnwath, Rutherglen, and Glasgow, are situated in that district, where they are also preserved in a state of greater purity than in most other parts. They are rather larger than the Suffolk Punches, and the neck is somewhat longer; their colour is black, brown, or grey, and a white spot on the face is esteemed a mark of beauty. The breast is broad; shoulder thick, the blades nearly as high as the chine, and not so much thrown backwards as in road-horses; the hoof round, usually of a black colour, and the heels wide; the back straight and broad, but not too long; the hucks visible, but not prominent, and the space between them and the ribs short; the tail heavy, and well haired, the thighs meeting each other so near as to leave only a small groove for the tail to rest on. One most valuable property of this breed is, that they are remarkably true pullers, a restive horse being rarely found among them. See Plate X.

5. The Welsh horse bears a near resemblance, in point of size and hardiness, to the best of the native breed of the Highlands of Scotland, and other hilly Welsh countries in the north of Europe. It is too small for the present two-horse ploughs; but few horses are equal to them for enduring fatigue on the road. "I well remember one," says Mr Culley, "that I rode for many years, which, to the last, would have gone upon a pavement by choice, in preference to a softer road." (Observations on Live Stock, p. 35.)

6. A little horse, of much the same size with the former, or rather larger, called a Galloway, from its being found chiefly in that province of Scotland, has Galloways now become very rare; the breed having been neglected from its unfitness for the present labours of agriculture. The true Galloways are said to resemble the Spanish horses; and there is a tradition, that some of the latter, that had escaped from one of the vessels of the Armada, wrecked on the coast of Galloway, were allowed to intermix with the native race. Such of this breed as have been preserved in any degree of purity are of a light bay or brown colour, with black legs, and are easily distinguished by the smallness of their head and neck, and the cleanness of their bone.

7. The still smaller horses of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland are distinguished from larger breeds by the several appellations of Ponies, Skelties, and in Highland Gaelic of Garrons, or Gearrons. They are reared Ponies in great numbers in the Hebrides, or Western Isles, where they are found in the greatest purity. Different varieties of the same race are spread over all the Highland district, and the Northern Isles. This ancient breed is supposed to have been introduced into Scotland from Scandinavia, when the Norwegians and Danes first obtained a footing in these parts. "It is precisely the same breed that subsists at present in Norway, the Feroe Isles, and Iceland, and is totally distinct from every thing of horse kind on the continent of Europe, south of the Baltic. In confirmation of this, there is one peculiar variety of the horse in the Highlands that deserves to be noticed. It is there called the eel-backed horse. (See Plate X.) He is of different colours, light bay, dun, and sometimes cream-coloured; but has always a blackish list that runs along the ridge of the back, from the shoulder to the rump, which has a resemblance to an eel stretched out. This very singular character subsists also in many of the horses of Norway, and is nowhere else known." (Walker's Hebrides, Vol. II, p. 158.)

"The Highland horse is sometimes only nine, and seldom twelve hands high, excepting in some of the southern of the Hebrides, where the size has been raised to thirteen or fourteen hands by selection and better feeding. The best of this breed are handsomely shaped, have small legs, large manes, little neat heads, and are extremely active and hardy. The common colours are grey, bay, and black; the last is the favourite one." (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 176.)

2. Breeding and Rearing.

The same attention to select the best males and females for breeding, which has been productive of the most advantageous results in the case of cattle and sheep, does not prevail very generally in the breeding of farm-horses; on the contrary, though every one exercises some degree of judgment in regard to the stallion, there are few breeders, comparatively, who hesitate to employ very ill-formed and worthless mares,—and often solely because they are unfit for anything else than bringing a foal. All the best writers on Agriculture reprobate this absurd and unprofitable practice. "In the midland counties of England, the breeding of cart-horses is attended to with the same assiduity as that which has of late years been bestowed on cattle and sheep; while the breeding of saddle-horses, hunters, and coach-horses is almost entirely neglected; is left almost wholly to chance, even in Yorkshire,—I mean as to females. A breeder here would not give five guineas for the best brood mare in the kingdom, unless she could draw or carry him occasionally to market; nor a guinea extraordinary for one which could do both. He would sooner breed from a rup, which he happens to have upon his premises, though not worth a month's keep. But how absurd! The price of the leap, the keep of the mare, and the care and keep of her progeny, from the time they drop to the time of sale, are the same, whether they be sold from ten to fifteen, or from forty to fifty pounds each." (Marshall's Economy of Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 166.)

In those districts where the breeding of horses is carried on upon a large scale, and upon a regular plan, the rearing of stallions forms in some degree a separate branch; and is confined, as in the case of bulls and rams, to a few eminent breeders. These stallions, which are shewn at the different towns in the vicinity,—sometimes sent to be exhibited at a considerable distance,—are let out for the whole season, or sold to stallion-men, or kept by the breeder himself; for covering such mares as may be offered, at a certain price per head; and this varies according to the estimation in which the horse is held, and sometimes according as the mare has more or less of what is called blood. For farm-mares, the charge for covering by a stallion of the same kind is commonly about a guinea, with half-a-crown to the groom; and it is a common practice in the North, to agree for a lower rate if the mare does not prove with foal; sometimes nothing more is paid in that case than the allowance to the groom.

The age at which the animals should be allowed to copulate is not determined by uniform practice; and is made to depend, in some measure, on the degree of maturity, which, in animals of the same species, is more or less early, according to breed and feeding. Yet it would seem, in general, to be an improper practice, to allow animals to propagate, while they are themselves in a raw unformed state, and require all the nutriment which their food affords, for raising them to the ordinary size of the variety to which they belong. It may, therefore, be seldom advisable to employ the stallion till he is about three years old, or the mare till she is a year older. But the greater number of mares kept for breeding are much older than this; and are, in many cases, not allowed to bring foals till they are in the decline of life, or otherwise unable to bear their full share in rural labour.

In the breeding of horses, as in all other kinds of live stock, it is of importance that, at the season of parturition, there should be a suitable supply of food for the young. The time of covering mares ought, therefore, to be partly regulated by a due regard to this circumstance, and may be earlier in the South than in the North, where grass, the most desirable food both for the dam and foal, does not come so early by a month or six weeks. In Scotland, it is not advantageous to have mares to drop their foals sooner than the middle of April; and as the period of gestation is about eleven months, they are usually covered in May, or early in June. But if mares are intended to bring a foal every year, they should be covered from the ninth to the eleventh day after foaling, whatever may be the time; and the horse should be brought to them again nine or eighteen days afterwards.

The mares are worked in summer as usual, and more moderately in the ensuing winter, till near the time of foaling; when, if the season be somewhat advanced, even though the pasture be not fully sufficient for their maintenance, they should be turned out to some grass field near the homestead, and receive what additional supply of food may be necessary under sheds adjoining. It is both inconvenient and dangerous to confine a mare about to foal in a common stable, and still more so, to leave her loose in a close stable among other horses; and confinement is not much less objectionable after dropping her foal. Such sheds are also exceedingly convenient, even after grass has become abundant, as the weather is often cold and rigorous during the month of May. When the foal is a few weeks old, the mare is again put to light work; and it is separated from the foal altogether, after having nursed it for about six months.

Breeding mares are evidently unable to endure the fatigue of constant labour, for some months before and after parturition. This has led a few farmers to rear foals upon cow milk; but the practice is neither common, nor likely ever to become so. The greater number of horses, therefore, are bred in situations where a small portion of arable land is attached to farms chiefly occupied with cattle or sheep; or where the farms are so small, as not to afford full and constant employment to the number of horses that must nevertheless be kept for the labour of particular seasons.

"During the first winter, foals are fed on hay, with a little corn, but should not be constantly confined to the stable; for even when there is nothing to be got on the fields, it is much in their favour to be allowed exercise out of doors. A considerable proportion of succulent food, such as potatoes, carrots, and Swedish turnips (oil-cake has been recommended), should be given them through the first..." Horses; winter; and bean and peas meal has been advantageously substituted for oats, which, if allowed in a considerable quantity, are injurious to the thriving of the young animal, from their heating and astrigent nature. Their pasture, during the following summer, depends upon the circumstances of the farms on which they are reared. In the second winter they are fed in much the same manner as in the first, except that straw may be given for some months instead of hay; and in the third winter, they have a greater allowance of corn, as they are frequently worked at the harrows in the ensuing spring, when about three years old." (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 183.)

The rearing of horses is carried on in some places in so systematical a manner, as to combine the profit arising from the advance in the age of the animals, with that of a moderate degree of labour, before they are fit for the purposes to which they are ultimately destined. In the ordinary practice of the midland counties, the breeders sell them while yearlings, or, perhaps, when foals, namely, at six or eighteen months old, but most generally the latter. They are mostly bought up by the graziers of Leicestershire, and the other grazing parts of that district, where they are grown among the grazing stock until the autumn following. At two years and a half old, they are bought up by the arable farmers or dealers of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltsire, and other western counties, where they are broken into harness, and worked till they are five, or more generally six years old. At this age, the dealers buy them up again to be sent to London, where they are finally purchased for drays, carts, waggons, coaches, the army, or any other purpose for which they are found fit. (Marshall's Economy of the Midland Counties, Vol. I. p. 311.)

A similar mode of transferring young horses from hand to hand is common in the west of Scotland. The farmers of Ayrshire and the counties adjacent, who generally crop not more than one fourth, or, at most, one third, of their arable land, and occupy the remainder with a dairy stock, purchase young horses at the fairs of Lanark and Carnwath before mentioned,—work them at the harrows in the following spring when below two years old,—put them to the plough next winter at the age of two years and a half, and continue to work them gently till they are five years old, when they are sold again at the Rutherglen and Glasgow markets, at a great advance of price, to dealers and farmers from the south-eastern counties. A considerable number of horses, however, are now bred in the Lothians, Berwickshire, and Roxburghshire, the very high prices of late having rendered it profitable to breed them, even upon good arable land. But many farmers of these counties, instead of breeding, still prefer purchasing two and a half or three and a half year old colts, at the markets in the West Country, or at Newcastle fair in the month of October. They buy in a certain number yearly, and sell an equal number of their work-horses, before they are so old as to lose much of their value, so that their stock is kept up without any other loss than such as arises from accidents; and the greater price received for the horses they sell, is often sufficient to cover any such loss. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 182.)

Castration is performed on the males, commonly, when they are about a year old; but a late writer strongly disapproves of delaying this operation so long; and recommends flushing the colts, a practice well known to ram breeders, any time after they are a week old, or as soon after as the testicles are come down; and this method, he says, he has followed himself with great success. (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. II. p. 74.) Another writer suggests, for experiment, the spaying of mares, thinking they would work better and have more wind than geldings. (Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 169.) But he does not appear to have been aware, that this is by no means a new experiment; for Tusser, who wrote in 1562, speaks of gelding fillies as a common practice at that period. The main objection to this operation is not that brood-mares would become scarce, as he supposes, but that, by incapacitating them from breeding, in case of accidents and in old age, the loss on this expensive species of live stock would be greatly enhanced. An old or lame mare would then be as worthless as an old or lame gelding is at present.

3. Feeding and Working.

The age at which horses are put to full work, in Age of the labours of a farm, is usually when four or five working years old, according to the nature of the soil, and the numbers of the team; but they are always understood to be able to pay for their maintenance after they are three years old, by occasional work in ploughing and harrowing.

It is not so common a practice as it should be, to subject young horses of this kind, to any regular course of training. But they are made familiar with their keeper as soon as they are weaned, led about in a halter, rubbed down in the stable, and treated with gentleness; and before being put to work, it is usual to place them under the charge of a steady, careful servant, who very soon learns them to drag a harrow alongside of an older horse, and afterwards to take their share of the labour at the plough; and, by degrees, in all the other work of the farm.

With regard to the mode of feeding and working them, and their treatment in general, the practice is so various, according to the state of agriculture in different districts, and the circumstances of their owners, that all that can be done here is, to mention some leading points of management, in which all good farmers are agreed.

The selection of horses adapted to particular situations is evidently a matter of primary consideration. Work-horses, so much valued in London and a few other great towns, are but ill adapted to the operations of modern husbandry; and the nature of the soil and surface, and the situation of a farm in regard to markets, manure, and fuel, require some difference in the strength, activity, and hardiness of this instrument of labour. Accordingly, in the northern counties of Britain, where economy in this department is more attended to than in the south, we find horses of considerable strength, and a mode- rate share of activity, employed on firm, cohesive soils; and on light, friable soils, such as are possessed of more activity, not apt from their weight to be soon fatigued by working on an unequal surface, and able to endure travelling, with a moderate load, for a considerable distance, without injury.

Whatever may be the description of horses employed, it is always a rule with good managers, never to allow them to fall off in condition so much as to be incapable of going through their work, without frequent applications of the lash. There is nothing which more clearly marks the unprosperous condition of a tenant, than the leanness of his working cattle, and their reluctant movements under this severe stimulus. There are particular operations, indeed, such as turnip-sowing, seeding fallows, harvest work, &c., which require to be executed with so great dispatch, in our variable climate, that unusual exertions are often indispensable. At these times, it is hardly possible, by the richest food and the most careful treatment, to prevent the animals from losing flesh, sometimes even when their spirit and vigour are not perceptibly impaired. Such labours, however, do not continue long, and should always be followed by a corresponding period of indulgence. It is particularly dangerous and unprofitable, to begin the spring labour with horses worn down by bad treatment during winter.

Much has been said about the great expense of feeding horses on corn and hay, and various roots have been recommended as advantageous substitutes. That these animals can ever be made to perform their labour, according to the present courses of husbandry, on carrots, turnips, potatoes, or other roots alone, or as their chief food, our own experience and observation lead us to consider as very improbable. They will work and thrive on such food, but they will work as much more, and thrive as much better with oats or beans in addition, as fully to repay the difference in expense. One of the three meals a day, which farm-horses usually receive, may consist of roots; and a few of them, every twenty-four hours, are highly conducive to the health of the animals; but we have never had occasion to see any horse work regularly throughout the year, in the way they are usually worked in the best cultivated districts, without an allowance of at least an English peck of oats, or mixed oats and beans, daily, less or more at particular periods, but rather more than this quantity for at least nine months in the year.

It has been already observed, that machines are in some places used for cutting hay and straw into chaff, for bruising or breaking down corn, and for preparing roots and other articles by means of steam. The advantages of these practices, both in regard to the economy of food, and the health of the animals, are too evident to require illustration. But the custom, which has been adopted by a few individuals, and injudiciously recommended by others, of cutting down oats with their straw into the state of chaff, without being previously thrashed, is wasteful and slovenly in the extreme. The proportion, as to quantity or quality, which the oats bear to the bulk of the straw, being various in every season, and almost in every field, the proper allowance of oats can be served out only by first separating them from the straw, and then mixing them with the cut straw or chaff, in suitable proportions, before being laid into the manger.

The work performed is evidently a question of Work per-circumstances, which does not admit of any precise formed solution. It has been observed in the section on tillage, that a two-horse plough may, on an average, work about an English acre a-day throughout the year; and, in general, according to the nature of the soil, and the labour that has been previously bestowed on it, a pair of horses, in ploughing, may travel daily from ten to fifteen miles, overcoming a degree of resistance equal to from four to ten hundred weight. On a well made road, the same horses will draw about a ton in a two-wheeled cart for twenty or twenty-five miles every day; and one of the better sort, in the slow movement of the carrier or waggoner, commonly draws this weight by himself on the best turnpike-roads. In some places horses are in the yoke, when the length of the day permits, nine hours, and in others ten hours a day, but for three or four months in winter, only from five to eight hours. In the former season they are allowed to feed and rest two hours from mid-day, and in the latter they have a little corn on the field, when working as long as there is day-light, but none if they work only five or six hours.

In the section on farm-buildings, we have described with some minuteness the construction and interior arrangement of modern stables; and it is only necessary to add here, that the stable management of horses has been greatly improved of late years. It is not long since there were instances, even in the Border counties, of horses being turned loose into a stable, without racks or mangers, and without any other litter than the straw intended for their food, which they tossed about in all directions. Even those farmers who found it necessary to confine them to separate stances, did not see the advantage of separating them by partitions, but left them standing, as is too generally the case at present with cattle, at liberty to inflict, and exposed to endure serious injuries and privations. When at last they were confined in stalls, it was common to place two in each by way of saving room and the expense of partitions; and with the same view they were made to stand in double rows, one row on each gable or side-wall, the hind-legs of each row so near those of the opposite one as to leave little room for carrying away their dung without danger, and to afford little security against the attacks from behind of vicious horses, placed on the opposite sides of the stable. That all these inconveniences are avoided in the present stables, must be evident from the description already given, and the engraving there referred to.

It is now well understood that the liberal use of Stable ma the brush and currycomb twice a-day,—frequent ragement, but moderate meals, consisting of a due proportion of succulent joined to more solid food,—abundance of fresh litter, and great attention to method and cleanliness, are as indispensable in the stable of a farmer (as far as is consistent with a just regard to economy); Horses have always been held to be in the treatment of horses kept for pleasure. Good dressing, with all well-informed and attentive men, is considered to be no less necessary to the thriving of the horses than good feeding; according to a common expression, it is equal to half their food. We shall conclude this section with an extract from a very recent publication, for the purpose of explaining the minutiae of management adopted in the most improved counties of Scotland.

"For about four months in summer, horses are fed on pastures; or on clover and rye-grass, and tares, cut green, and brought home to the stable or fold-yard; the latter method being by far the most economical and advantageous. For other eight months, they are kept on the straw of oats, beans and peas, and on clover and rye-grass hay. As soon as the grass fails towards the end of autumn, they have hay for a few weeks, and when the days become so short as to allow of no more than from six to eight hours work, they are very generally fed with different kinds of straw, according to the circumstances of the farm; in the month of March, they are again put to hay till the grass is ready for being cut. Throughout all the year they are allowed more or less corn, when constantly worked; and during the time they are on dry fodder, particularly when on straw, they have potatoes, yams, or Swedish turnips, once a day, sometimes boiled barley, and, in a few instances, carrots. A portion of some of these roots is of great importance to the health of horses, when succulent herbage is first exchanged for hay at the end of autumn; and it is no less so towards the latter end of spring, when hay has become sapless, and the labour is usually severe. At these two periods, therefore, it is the practice of all careful managers, to give an ample allowance of some of these roots, even though they should be withheld for a few weeks during the intermediate period.

"The quantity of these different articles of food must depend on the size of the horses, and the labour they perform; and the value upon the prices of different seasons, and in every season, on the situation of the farm with respect to markets, particularly for hay and roots, which bring a very different price near large towns, and at a few miles distant. It is for these reasons, that the yearly expense of a horse's maintenance has been estimated at almost every sum, from L15 to L40. But it is only necessary to attend to the expense of feeding horses that are capable of performing the labour required of them, under the most correct and spirited management. Such horses are fed with oats, sometimes with beans, three times a-day, for about eight months; and twice a-day for the other four, when at grass; and, at the rate of eight feeds per bushel, each horse will eat fifteen quarters of oats, or twenty bolls Linlithgow measure in the year. When on hay, he will require about one stone of twenty-two pounds avoirdupois daily, and five pounds more if he does not get roots. One English acre of clover and rye-grass, and tares, may be necessary for four months soiling; and a quarter of an acre of potatoes, yams, or Swedish turnips, during the eight months he is fed with hay or straw. The use of these roots may admit of a small diminution of the quantity of corn in the winter months, or a part of it may be, as it almost always is, of an inferior quality: but in many cases no such deduction is made, and the latter circumstance has been attended to in stating the price of the oats. The expense of feeding a horse throughout the year may therefore be estimated as follows:

| Item | Cost | |-------------------------------------------|------| | Oats, 15 quarters at 25s. | L18 15 0 | | Soiling, one acre of clover and rye-grass, and tares | 7 10 0 | | Hay part of October and November, March, April, and May, 125 stones (1½ ton) at 10d. | 5 4 2 | | Straw for other four months, half the price of hay | 2 12 1 | | Potatoes, yams, or Swedish turnips, ¼ acre | 2 10 0 |

L36 11 3

"Supposing the land of a medium quality, the extent required for a horse's maintenance may be about five acres; that is, for oats three acres, soiling one, and one more for hay and roots. On rich soils four acres will be sufficient, but on poor soils, and wherever horses are kept at pasture, the produce of six acres and a half, or seven acres, will be consumed by one of them, when worked in the manner already mentioned. The straw of about two acres must be allowed for fodder and litter, the last of which has not been charged, because, at a distance from towns, what is allowed for litter must at any rate be converted into dung. If sixty acres, therefore, should be assumed, as the average extent of land that may be kept in cultivation by two horses, according to the best courses of modern husbandry, the produce of ten acres of this will be required for their maintenance; or, a horse consumes the produce of one acre out of every six which he cultivates, according to a four or six years course, and something more than one acre out of every five which he ploughs annually." (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 192.)

According to the same writer, the annual expense of a pair of horses consists of the following sums:

1. Interest of purchase-money, decline in value, and Total insurance | L15 12 0 | 2. Value of food | 73 2 6 | 3. Harness, shoeing, and farriery | 6 0 0 |

L94 14 6 besides the wages of the man who works them. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 195.)

Sect. II. Cattle.

The purposes for which cattle are kept being more Variety of various, and cattle being also for the most part not so breeds of completely domesticated as horses, this species includes a much greater number of breeds and varieties. The different races have been distinguished generally by the length of their horns, or by their having no horns at all; and again subdivided, and more particularly described, under the names of the counties or districts where they are supposed to have originated, where they most abound, or where they exist in the greatest purity.

In Britain, as in most other countries, horses are useful only for the labour they perform, though it is probable that nothing but prejudice prevents them from enlarging, at least occasionally, the supply of human food; and to render them fit for labour, they must sooner or later in their lives be entirely subjected to the care and control of man. Cattle, on the other hand, except the few kept for labour and for their milk, have not, till of late, (and even now only in particular countries), been the objects of that discipline and those experiments which seek to restrain habits acquired in a state of nature—to improve forms and proportions, perpetuated and somewhat varied by climate, surface, and herbage—and to cultivate and bring to perfection, with the greatest possible economy, all those valuable properties with which nature has endowed the inferior animals for the subsistence and the comfort of man. In most parts of the world cattle are still merely the creatures of soil and climate; and it is a striking evidence of the greater progress of social improvement in Britain, that we possess races of cattle and sheep, formed in a great measure by skill and industry, which excel beyond all comparison those of every other country.

The three great products of cattle,—meat, milk, and labour, have each of them engaged the attention of British Agriculturists; but experience has not hitherto justified the expectation that has been entertained of combining all these desirable properties, in an eminent degree, in the same race. That form which indicates the property of yielding the most milk, differs materially from that which we know from experience to be combined with early maturity and the most valuable carcase; and the breeds which are understood to give the greatest weight of meat for the food they consume, and to contain the least proportion of offal, are not those which possess, in the highest degree, the strength and activity required in beasts of labour.

As we propose to treat of the produce and manufacture of milk in a separate article (See DAIRY), we shall there have occasion to notice those breeds of which the females are the most valuable for the dairy; only referring at present to Plate X. for an engraving of the Ayrshire cow, an excellent race, spread over that and the counties adjacent. And as cattle are seldom or never reared exclusively, or even chiefly, for the purpose of labour, which is now in most parts of Britain performed entirely by horses, it will be sufficient, and as much as our limits will permit, just to touch on this point; and to apply our remarks, in an especial manner, to the races themselves, and the modes of treatment, which are best adapted to the production of beef.

"Whatever be the breed," says Mr Culley, "I presume that, to arrive at excellence, there is one form or shape essential to all, which form I shall attempt to give in the following description of a bull.

"The head of the bull should be rather long, and muzzle fine; his eyes lively and prominent; his ears long and thin; his horns white; his neck rising with a gentle curve from the shoulders, and small and fine where it joins the head; his shoulders moderately broad at the top, joining full to his chine and chest backwards, and to the neck-vane forwards; his bosom open; breast broad, and projecting well before his legs; his arms or fore thighs muscular, and tapering to his knee; his legs straight, clean, and very fine boned; his chine and chest so full as to leave no hollow behind the shoulders; the plates strong to keep his belly from sinking below the level of his breast; his back or loin broad, straight, and flat; his ribs rising one above another, in such a manner that the last rib shall be rather the highest, leaving only a small space to the hips or hooks, the whole forming a round or barrel-like carcase; his hips should be wide placed, round or globular, and a little higher than the back; the quarters (from the hip to the rump) long, and, instead of being square, as recommended by some, they should taper gradually from the hips backward, and the turls or pottibones not in the least protuberant; rumps close to the tail; the tail broad, well haired, and set on so high as to be in the same horizontal line with his back." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 38.)

1. Breeds.

1. The Long-horned or Lancashire breed of cattle is distinguished from others by the length of their horns, the thickness and firm texture of their hides, the length and closeness of their hair, the large size of their hoofs, and coarse, leathery, thick necks; they are likewise deeper in their fore-quarters and lighter in their hind-quarters than most other breeds,—narrower in their shape, less in point of weight than the short horns, though better weighers in proportion to their size; and though they give considerably less milk, it is said to afford more cream in proportion to its quantity.

They are more varied in their colour than any of the other breeds; but, whatever the colour be, they have in general a white streak along their back, which the breeders term finched, and mostly a white spot on the inside of the hough. (Id. p. 58.)

In a general view, this race, notwithstanding the singular efforts that have been made towards its improvement, remains with little alteration; for, excepting in Leicestershire, none of the subvarieties (which differ a little in almost every one of those counties where the long horns prevail) have undergone any radical change, nor any obvious improvement. The improved breed of Leicestershire is said to have been formed by Mr Webster, of Canley near Coventry, in Warwickshire, by means of six cows brought from the banks of the Trent about 90 years ago, which were crossed with bulls from Westmoreland and Lancashire. Mr Bakewell, of Dishley, in Leicestershire, afterwards got the lead as a breeder, by selecting from the Canley stock; and the stocks of several other eminent breeders have been traced to the same source. (Marshall's Midland Counties, Vol. I. p. 318.) See Plate XI.

2. The Short-horned, sometimes called the Dutch Short-Horned. breed, is known by a variety of names taken from the districts where they form the principal cattle-stock, or where most attention has been paid to their improvement. Thus, different families of this race are distinguished by the names of the Holderness, the Teeswater, the Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, and other breeds. The Teeswater breed, a variety of short-horns, established on the banks of the Tees at the head of the vale of York, is at present in the highest estimation, and is alleged to be the true Yorkshire short-horned breed. Bulls and cows from this stock, purchased at most extraordinary prices, are spread over all the North of England and the border counties of Scotland. The bone, head, and neck of these cattle are fine; the hide is very thin; the chine full; the loin broad; and the carcase throughout large and well fashioned; and the flesh and fatting quality equal, or perhaps superior, to those of any other large breed. The short-horns give a greater quantity of milk than any other cattle; a cow usually yielding 24 quarts of milk per day, making 3 firkins of butter during the grass season. Their colours are much varied; but they are generally red and white mixed, or what the breeders call flecked. See Plate XI.

"The heaviest and largest oxen of the short-horned breed, when properly fed, victual the East India ships, as they produce the thickest beef, which, by retaining its juices, is the best adapted for such long voyages. Our royal navy should also be victualled from these; but, by the jobs made by contractors, and other abuses, I am afraid our honest tars are often fed with beef of an inferior quality; however, the coal ships from Newcastle, Shields, Sunderland, &c., are wholly supplied with the beef of these valuable animals.

"These oxen commonly weigh from 60 to 100 stone (14lb. to the stone), and they have several times been fed to 120, 130, and some particular ones to upwards of 150 stone, the four quarters only." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 48.)

The Middle-horned breeds comprehend in like manner several local varieties, of which the most noted are the Devons, the Sussexes, and the Herefords; the two last, according to Mr Culley, being varieties of the first, though of a greater size, the Herefords being the largest. These cattle are the most esteemed of all our breeds for the draught, on account of their activity and hardiness; they do not milk so well as the short-horns, but are not deficient in the valuable property of feeding at an early age, when not employed in labour.

The Devonshire cattle are "of a high red colour (if any white spots, they reckon the breed impure, particularly if those spots run into one another), with a light-dun ring round the eye, and the muzzle of the same colour; fine in the bone, clean in the neck, horns of a medium length bent upwards, thin faced and fine in the chops, wide in the hips, a tolerable barrel, but rather flat on the sides, tail small and set on very high; they are thin skinned, and silky in handling, feed at an early age, or arrive at maturity sooner than most other breeds." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 51.) Another writer observes, that they are a model for all persons who breed oxen for the yoke. (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. I. p. 112.)

The weight of the cows is usually from 30 to 40 stone, and of the oxen from 40 to 60. The north Devon variety, in particular, from the fineness in the grain of the meat, is held in high estimation in Smithfield. (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 120.)

The Sussex and Herefordshire cattle are of a Sussex and deep red colour, with fine hair and very thin hides; Hereford neck and head clean; horns neither long nor short, rather turning up at the points; in general they are well made in the hind quarters, wide across the hips, rump and sirloin, but narrow in the chine; tolerably straight along the back; ribs too flat; thin in the thigh; and bone not large. An ox, six years old, when fat, will weigh from 60 to 100 stone, the fore-quarters generally the heaviest. The oxen are mostly worked from three to six years old, sometimes till seven, when they are turned off for feeding. The Hereford cattle are next in size to the Yorkshire short-horns. Both this and the Gloucester variety are highly eligible as dairy stock, and the females of the Herefords have been found to fatten better at three years old than any other kind of cattle except the spayed heifers of Norfolk. (Marshall's Economy of Gloucestershire.)

4. The Polled or hornless breeds. The most numerous and esteemed variety is the Galloway breed, Galloways, so called from the province of that name, in the south-west of Scotland, where they most abound. The true Galloway bullock "is straight and broad on the back, and nearly level from the head to the rump; broad at the loins, not, however, with hooked-bones, or projecting knobs, so that when viewed from above, the whole body appears beautifully rounded, like the longitudinal section of a roller. He is long in the quarters, but not broad in the twist. He is deep in the chest, short in the leg, and moderately fine in the bone, clean in the chop and in the neck. His head is of a moderate size, with large rough ears, and full, but not prominent eyes, or heavy eye-brows, so that he has a calm, though determined look. His well-proportioned form is clothed with a loose and mellow skin adorned with long soft glossy hair." (Galloway Report, p. 236.) The prevailing colour is black or dark-brindled, and, though they are occasionally found of every colour, the dark colours are uniformly preferred, from a belief that they are connected with superior hardness of constitution. The Galloways are rather under-sized, not very different from the size of the Devons, but as much less than the long horns as the long horns are less than the short horns. On the best farms, the average weight of bullocks three years and a half old, when the greater part of them are driven to the south, has been stated at about forty stones avoirdupois. Some of them, fattened in England, have been brought to nearly one hundred stones. See Plate XII.

The general properties of this breed are well known in almost every part of England, as well as in Scotland. They are sometimes sent from their native pastures directly to Smithfield, a distance of 400 miles, and sold at once to the butcher; and in spring they are often shown in Norfolk, immediately after their arrival, in as good condition, or even better, than when they began their journey. With full feeding, there is perhaps no breed that sooner attains maturity, and their flesh is of the finest quality. Mr Culley was misinformed about the quantity of milk they yield, which, though rich, is by no means abundant.

"It is alleged not to be more than seventy or eighty years since the Galloways were all horned, and very much the same, in external appearance and character, with the breed of black-cattle which prevailed over the west of Scotland at that period, and which still abound in perfection, the largest sized ones in Argyllshire, and the smaller in the Isle of Skye. The Galloway cattle, at the time alluded to, were coupled with some hornless bulls, of a sort which do not seem now to be accurately known, but which were then brought from Cumberland; the effects of which crossing were thought to be the general loss of horns in the former, and the enlargement of their size: the continuance of a hornless sort being kept up by selecting only such for breeding, or perhaps by other means, as by the practice of eradicating with the knife the horns in their very young state." (Coventry on Live Stock, p. 28.)

The Galloway cattle, besides occupying almost exclusively the stewartry of Kirkcudbright and the shire of Wigton, the two divisions of Galloway, are now spread over the adjoining county of Dumfries; and are to be found, in smaller numbers, in most of the other districts of Scotland. The cattle of Angus or Forfarshire, on the east coast, many of which are also without horns, resemble the Galloways in their colour, size, and general properties.

The Suffolk Duns, according to Mr Culley, are nothing more than a variety of the Galloway breed. He supposes them to have originated in the intercourse that has long subsisted between the Scotch drovers of Galloway cattle, and the Suffolk and Norfolk graziers who feed them. The Suffolks are almost all light duns, thus differing from the Galloways, and are considered a very useful kind of little cattle, particularly for the dairy.*

5. The cattle of the Highlands of Scotland are divided into a number of local varieties, some of which differ materially from others, probably owing to a difference in the climate and the quality of the herbage, rather than to their being sprung from races originally distinct, or to any great change effected either by selection or by crossing with other breeds. It is only of late that much attention has been paid to their improvement, in any part of this extensive country; and in the northern and central Highlands the cattle are yet, for the most part, in as rude a state, and under management as defective, as they were some centuries ago.

These cattle have almost exclusive possession of all that division of Scotland, including the Hebrides, marked off by a line from the Frith of Clyde on the west to the Murray Frith on the north, and bending towards the east till it approaches in some places very near to the German ocean. Along the eastern coast, north of the Frith of Forth, the Highland cattle are intermixed with various local breeds, of which they have probably been the basis. There are more or less marked distinctions among the cattle of the different Highland counties; and, in common language, we speak of the Inverness-shire, the Banffshire, &c., cattle as if they were so many separate breeds; but it is only necessary in this place to notice the two more general varieties, now clearly distinguishable by their form, size, and general properties.

The most valuable of these are the cattle of the Western Highlands and Isles, commonly called the West Highland-Argyllshire breed, or the breed of the Isle of Skye, lands, Argyllshire or one of the islands attached to the county of Inverness, Skye. The cattle of the Hebrides are called Kyloes, a name which is often applied in the south to all the varieties of the Highland cattle, not as a late writer (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, Vol. II, p. 1124) has imagined, from the district in Ayrshire called Kyle, where very few of them are kept, but from their crossing, in their progress to the south, the kyloes or ferries in the mainland and Western Islands, where these cattle are found in the greatest perfection. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III, p. 26.)

A bull of the Kyloe breed should be of a middle size, capable of being fattened to fifty stone avoirdupois. His colour should be black, or dark brown, or reddish brown, without any white or yellow spots. His head should be rather small, his muzzle fine, his horns equable, not very thick, of a clear green and waxy tinge; his general appearance should combine agility, vivacity, and strength; and his hair should be glossy, thick, and vigorous, indicating a sound constitution and perfect health. See Plate XII.

For a bull of this description, Mr Macneil of Colonsay lately refused 200 guineas; and for one of an inferior sort he actually received L170 Sterling. Mr Macdonald of Staffa bought one, nine years old, at 100 guineas. (Report of the Hebrides, p. 425.)

The lean weight of the best stock, from three to four years old, when they are commonly sold to the south, is from twenty-six to thirty stones the four quarters; but when brought to good pastures, they can be easily raised to fifty stones and upwards. There is perhaps no other breed whose weight depends so much on feeding; nor any that fattens and grows so much at the same time. They are exceedingly hardy, easily maintained, speedily fattened on pastures where large animals could scarcely subsist; the beef is fine in the grain, and well marbled or intermixed with fat; and their milk is rich, but small in quantity.

The other variety of Highland cattle is the Nor-Norlands, lands, or North Highlanders, including the stocks of the counties of Ross, Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, and parts adjacent. Their hides are generally coarse; backs high and narrow; ribs flat; bones large; and legs long and feeble for the weight of the chest; and they are considered very slow feeders. But though this description be but too applicable to the cattle of the greater part of that remote district, considerable improvement has been effected in many parts of it, by crossing with the Skye or Argyll breeds, within the last twenty years.

The cattle of the northern isles of Orkney and Zetland, are of a most diminutive size; an ox weighs Zetland.

* Culley on Live Stock, p. 66, and Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. I, p. 118. ing about sixty pounds a quarter and a cow forty-five pounds. They are of all colours, and their shapes are generally bad; yet they give a quantity of excellent milk; fatten rapidly when put on good pastures; and, in their own district, are considered strong, hardy, and excellent workers, when well trained to the yoke, and so plentifully fed as to enable them to support labour.

6. It has been already observed, that all along the lowlands of the eastern coast of Scotland, to the north of the Firth of Forth, there are varieties of cattle which, whatever may have been their origin, differ as much from the cattle of the western and northern Highlands, as most of those that have been described as separate breeds. Of the Fifeshire cattle, Mr Culley observes, "You would at first imagine them a distinct breed, from their upright white horns, being exceedingly light layered and thin thighted, but I am pretty clear it is only from their being more nearly allied to the kyloes, and consequently less of the coarse kind of short horns in them." (Culley On Live Stock, p. 69.) Notwithstanding this opinion, the cattle of the north-eastern counties of Scotland require, for every useful purpose, to be mentioned separately from the Highland breeds; and as all of them have a general resemblance, it will only be necessary, in this place, to notice the Fife cattle in particular.

There are various traditions about the origin of this variety. It is said to have been much improved by English cows sent by Henry VII. to his daughter, the consort of James IV. who usually resided at the palace of Falkland in that county; and as there is some resemblance between the cattle of Fife and Cambridgeshire, they are supposed to have been brought originally from the latter county. Others ascribe the origin of the present breed to bulls and cows sent by James VI. (James I. of England), in payment of the money which his obliging neighbours in Fife are said to have advanced for his equipment, when he went to take possession of the English throne. (Report of Nairn and Moray, p. 305.)

The prevailing colour of the Fife cattle is black, though sometimes spotted or streaked with white, and some of them are altogether grey. The horns are small, white, generally pretty erect, or at least turned up at the points, bending rather forward, and not widespreading like the Lancashire long-horned breed. The bone is small in proportion to the carcase, the limbs clean but short, and the skin soft. They are wide between the hook-bones; the ribs narrow, wide set, and having a great curvature. They fatten quickly, and fill up well at all the choice points; are hardy, fleet, and travel well, and are excellent for labour, both at plough and cart. A good cow of this breed gives from eighteen to twenty-four quarts of milk per day, yielding from seven to nine pounds of butter, and from ten to twelve pounds of cheese per week, (twenty-four ounces to the pound), for some months after calving. (Fife Report, p. 251 and 253.)

The cattle of Aberdeenshire, the largest of which are said to have been produced by crossing with Fife bulls, have been long highly esteemed in the southern markets. It is observed, that every succeeding generation of them has increased in size, for the last thirty years; and that the native breed has doubled its former weight since the introduction of turnips. (Aberdeenshire Report, p. 468.) The colour is commonly black, but there are many of a red and brindled colour. They are thinner in the buttock, in proportion to their weight; and deeper in the belly, in proportion to their circumference, than the west Highlanders, and they yield a much larger quantity of milk. Many of them are brought to the south of Scotland, and kept during winter in the straw yards, for which they suit better than smaller cattle, as they are not so impatient of confinement. The ordinary weight of middle-sized oxen, at from three to five years old, is from forty to fifty stones; but after being worked for some time, and thoroughly fattened, they have been known to reach double this weight.

7. Of the Welsh cattle "there seem to be two distinct kinds. The large sort are of a brown colour, with some white on the rump and shoulders, denoting a cross from the long horns, though in shape not the least resembling them. They are long in the legs, stand high according to their weight, are thin in the thigh, and rather narrow in the chine; their horns are white and turned upwards; they are light in flesh, and next to the Devons, well formed for the yoke; have very good hoofs, and walk light and nimble. The other sort are much more valuable; colour black, with very little white; of a good useful form, short in the leg, with round deep bodies; the hide is rather thin, with short hair; they have a likely look and a good eye; and the bones, though not very small, are neither large nor clumsy; and the cows are considered good milkers." (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. I. p. 135.)

8. The Alderney cattle are to be met with only about the seats of a few great landholders, where they are kept chiefly for the sake of their milk, which is very rich, though small in quantity. This race is considered by very competent judges as too delicate and tender, to be propagated to any extent in Britain, at least in its northern parts. Their colour is mostly yellow or light red, with white or mottled faces; they have short crumpled horns, are small in size, and very ill shaped; yet they are fine boned in general; and their beef, though high coloured, is very well flavoured. I have seen, says Mr Culley, some very useful cattle bred from a cross between an Alderney cow and a short horned bull.

9. The last variety of cattle we shall mention is Wild breed, which is found only in the parks of a few great proprietors, who preserve the animals as a curiosity. Those kept at Chillingham Castle in Northumberland, a seat belonging to the Earl of Tankerville, have been very accurately described in the Northumberland Report, and in Mr Culley's book on Live Stock, so often quoted in this article.

"Their colour is invariably of a creamy white; Colour muzzle black; the whole of the inside of the ear, and about one-third of the outside, from the tips downward, red; horns white, with black tips, very fine, and bent upwards; some of the bulls have a thin upright mane, about an inch and a half, or two inches long. The weight of the oxen is from thirty-five to Weight..." forty-five stone, and the cows from twenty-five to thirty-five stone the four quarters (fourteen pound to the stone). The beef is finely marbled, and of excellent flavour.

"From the nature of their pasture, and the frequent agitation they are put into by the curiosity of strangers, it is scarce to be expected they should get very fat; yet the six-years-old oxen are generally very good beef, from whence it may be fairly supposed that, in proper situations, they would feed well.

"At the first appearance of any person they set off in full gallop, and, at the distance of about two hundred yards, make a wheel round and come boldly up again, tossing their heads in a menacing manner; on a sudden they make a full stop, at the distance of forty or fifty yards, looking wildly at the object of their surprise, but, upon the least motion being made, they all again turn round, and fly off with equal speed, but not to the same distance, forming a shorter circle, and again returning with a bolder and more threatening aspect than before; they approach much nearer, probably within thirty yards, when they again make another stand, and again fly off: this they do several times, shortening their distance, and advancing nearer and nearer, till they come within such a short distance, that most people think it prudent to leave them, not choosing to provoke them farther.

"The mode of killing them was perhaps the only modern remains of the grandeur of ancient hunting. On notice being given that a wild bull would be killed on a certain day, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood came mounted and armed with guns, &c. sometimes to the amount of an hundred horse, and four or five hundred foot, who stood upon walls or got into trees, while the horsemen rode off the bull from the rest of the herd, until he stood at bay, when a marksman dismounted and shot. At some of these huntings, twenty or thirty shots have been fired before he was subdued. On such occasions, the bleeding victim grew desperately furious, from the smarting of his wounds, and the shouts of savage joy that were echoing from every side. But, from the number of accidents that happened, this dangerous mode has been little practised of late years, the park-keeper alone generally shooting them with a rifled gun at one shot.

"When the cows calve, they hide their calves for a week or ten days in some sequestered situation, and go and suckle them two or three times a day. If any person come near the calves, they clap their heads close to the ground, and lie like an hare in form, to hide themselves. This is a proof of their native wildness, and is corroborated by the following circumstance that happened to the writer of this narrative (Mr Bailey of Chillingham), who found a hidden calf, two days old, very lean and very weak. On stroking its head it got up, pawed two or three times like an old bull, bellowed very loud, stepped back a few steps, and bolted at his legs with all its force; it then began to paw again, bellowed, stepped back, and bolted as before; but knowing its intention, and stepping aside, it missed him, fell, and was so very weak, that it could not rise, though it made several efforts—but it had done enough:—the whole herd were alarmed, and, coming to its rescue, obliged him to retire; for the dams will allow no person to touch their calves, without attacking them with impetuous ferocity.

"When a calf is intended to be castrated, the park-keeper marks the place where it is hid, and when the herd are at a distance, takes an assistant with him on horseback; they tie a handkerchief round the calf's mouth to prevent its bellowing; and then perform the operation in the usual way, with as much expedition as possible. When any one happens to be wounded, or is grown weak and feeble through age or sickness, the rest of the herd set upon it and gore it to death." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 73.)

2. Breeding and Rearing.

The pedigrees of the best cattle have been preserved with no less care, in several parts of England, than those of race-horses; and in the selection of breeders, the properties of the family from which they have descended, are matters of scarcely less importance than the form of the young animals themselves. In rearing calves, the blood and the colour seem to be more attended to by breeders in general, than the form. (Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 203.) The extraordinary prices paid for the best bred bulls and cows, show that this attention has not been without its reward.

The best bulls are either let out for the season, or Balls cows are brought to them at a certain rate per head. The practice of letting bulls is said to have originated with Mr Bakewell (Marshall's Midland Counties, Vol. I. p. 334), who, so far back as 1792, let a bull for one hundred and fifty-two guineas, to be used only four months (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. II. p. 469); and five guineas per cow were about that time commonly paid to him and other eminent breeders.

The age at which bulls should begin to be employed, and the number of seasons they should be allowed breeding, to serve, as well as the age at which the females should begin to breed, are points regarding which practice is by no means uniform. In the Midland counties, the bulls are pretty commonly allowed to leap while yearlings, and if good stock-getters are kept on as long as they will do business, perhaps till they are ten or twelve years old. In other places they are employed only three seasons, for the first time at two years old. The females in many instances bring their first calf at the age of two years, but more commonly, perhaps, not till they are a year older; and in some of the Highland districts, where, owing to a want of proper nourishment in their infancy, they are later in reaching their full growth, the females do not often become mothers till they are about four years old.

The period of gestation with cows has been found, upon an average of a great number of experiments, to be about forty weeks; and they seldom bring more than one calf at a birth. When they produce twins, one of them a male and the other a female, the latter, which is called a free martin, is commonly considered to be incapable of procreation. Yet there seem to have been well authenticated instances to the contrary. (Farmer's Magazine, Vol. VII. p. 462, and Vol. VIII. p. 466.)

Though calves are dropped at all seasons of the Calves. year, the spring is the most common period; and except in those districts where the fattening of calves is an object of importance, it is probably the most advantageous time; as the calves, having all the grass season before them, become sufficiently strong for enduring the change to a less agreeable food in the ensuing winter. A calf newly weaned seldom thrives well during that period, unless it is pampered with better food than usually falls to the share of young animals.

In Galloway, and the Highlands of Scotland, the almost invariable practice is to allow the calves to suck the cows, and this commonly as long as the cows give any milk; most of them, indeed, will not give down their milk unless the calf is put to one side of the udder, while the milk-maid draws the teats on the other side; and if the maid gives the least interruption to her rival, the cow punishes the fraud by a blow with her leg, often overturning both the offender and the milking-pail. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 47.) Where there is not an inclosure for confining the calves, when they are put to grass, a muzzle is made for the nose, with iron pikes fastened on it, which prick the cow when the calf attempts to suck at forbidden times, and obliges her to keep it off, till the muzzle be removed at the stated periods of milking. But this is too troublesome where many of them are reared, which are therefore kept apart from the cows till the hours of milking.

This natural method of rearing calves is common, at least for a short time, in other parts of Britain. Bull calves, and sometimes high bred heifers, are suffered to remain at the teat, until they be six, nine, or perhaps twelve months old; letting them run either with their dams, or more frequently, especially when the dairy is an object, with less valuable cows or heifers, bought in for the purpose; and when the intention is fulfilled, sold or fattened; each cow being generally allowed one male calf or two females.

"The best method of the dairymen is this.—The calves suck a week or a fortnight, according to their strength (a good rule); new milk in the pail, a few meals—next, new milk and skim milk mixed, a few meals more; then, skim milk alone; or porridge, made with milk, water, ground oats, &c. and sometimes oil-cake,—until cheese-making commence; after which, whey porridge, or sweet whey, in the field; being careful to house them in the night, until warm weather be confirmed." (Marshall's Midland Counties, Vol. I. p. 338.)

This method of suckling is not however free from objection, and, in the ordinary practice of rearing calves, it is held to be a preferable plan to begin at once to learn them to drink from a pail. The calf that is fed from the teat must depend upon the milk of its dam, however scanty or irregular it may be; whereas, when fed from a dish, the quantity can be regulated according to its age; and various substitutes may be resorted to, by which a part of the milk is saved for other purposes, or a greater number of calves reared upon the same quantity. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 51.) Yet it would seem to be a good practice to allow calves to suck for a few days at first, if there was no inconvenience to be apprehended both to themselves and their dams, from the separation afterwards.

When fed from the pail, the average allowance to Quantity of a calf is about two English wine gallons of milk daily, Milk allow for twelve or thirteen weeks; at first fresh milk as it ed. is drawn from the cow, and afterwards skim-milk. But after it is three or four weeks old, a great variety of substitutes for milk are used in different places, of which lintseed, oil-cake, meal, and turnips, are the most common. The practice, however, varies so much, no particular substitute being in general use, nor the quantity, nor the time of giving it, accurately determined, that there is no need to add anything to what has been already stated on this head in the principal article. (Part III. Sect. 3.) For the feeding and treatment of fattening calves, see Dairy, in this Supplement.

It is a rule, applicable to all kinds of live stock, to Castration perform castration, where that is to be done, while the animals are yet very young, and just so strong as to endure this severe operation without any great danger of its proving fatal. The males, accordingly, are cut commonly when about a month old, and the females at the age of from one to three months; but in Galloway, where more heifers are spayed than perhaps in all the island besides, this is seldom done till they are about a year old.

The treatment of young cattle, from the time they Young are separated from their dams, or able to subsist on Cattle. the common food of the other stock, must entirely depend upon the circumstances of the farm on which they are reared. In summer, their pasture is often coarse, but abundant; and in winter, all good breeders give them an allowance of succulent food along with their dry fodder. The following description is not less applicable to the best practice in the rearing of all cattle bred on arable land, than to the short horns:

"The first winter they have hay and turnips; the following summer coarse pasture; the second winter straw in the fold-yard, and a few turnips once a day, in an adjoining field, just sufficient to prevent the straw from binding them too much; the next summer tolerable good pasture; and the third winter as many turnips as they can eat, and in every respect treated as fatting cattle." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 47.) The only difference is, that, where straw is in great abundance, the cattle sometimes do not eat their turnips on the fields, but in the fold-yard. In those situations where turnips cannot be extensively cultivated, or where cattle are sold for grazing, instead of being fattened, a smaller allowance of turnips the third winter is made to suffice.

3. Working.

As the arguments for and against the use of cattle Working in farm-labour have been already detailed in the principal article, (Part III. Sect. 1.), we shall not now attempt any minute calculations, on a question of too general a nature to be decided by any number of references which our limits could allow. Almost the only change since that article was written, in the state of the argument, is, that four, or even three oxen, are now alleged to be capable of performing the work of two horses, instead of six or eight, the number formerly thought necessary. But it is a material circumstance in favour of those who contend for the superior advantages of horses, that notwithstanding this more powerful reason for the use of oxen, horses have prevailed more and more—that teams of the former are now rare with rent-paying farmers, wherever the most approved courses of husbandry prevail—and that, in some of our best cultivated counties, not a single ox-team is to be found.

It may well be presumed from these simple facts, which cannot be disputed by the warmest advocates for oxen, that their general employment, recommended, indeed, chiefly by men of little or no experience, must be inconsistent with the present state of agriculture in Britain. The arguments drawn from the husbandry of the Greeks and Romans, and the modern practice of different parts of the world, will have very little more weight with the enlightened farmers of Britain, in regard to the working of oxen, than they would have, if brought forward to prove the superiority of manual and animal labour, in thrashing and other operations, over the employment of machinery. In addition to the arguments detailed in the article referred to, the reader may consult, upon this much-agitated question, some observations annexed to the last edition of Kames's Gentleman Farmer.

*Fatting.*

Cattle are fattened on grass in summer, commonly on pastures, but in a few instances on herbage cut and consumed in feeding-houses or fold-yards; and in winter, by far the greater number are fattened on turnips, along with hay or straw. Oil-cake, carrots, potatoes, and other articles of food, are used occasionally, and in particular districts; oil-cake chiefly for feeding the larger animals; but few comparatively are fattened on any of these without the addition of turnips, of one or other of the varieties formerly mentioned. (See Sect. VI.) A considerable number of cattle are also fattened on the offals of distilleries, when working from corn—a source of supply, the frequent interruption of which, of late years, has been much felt in those situations where the soil does not permit the extensive cultivation of turnips.

It is seldom or never the practice of the best managers to fatten cattle with roots or other winter food on the field, during that season; but to confine them to houses or fold-yards, where they are well littered, regularly fed, not liable to be disturbed, and sheltered from the inclemency of the weather, and where the manure they make is an object of very considerable importance, and of much greater value than if it were dropped at random over a whole field.

The age at which cattle are fattened depends upon the manner in which they have been reared; upon the properties of the breed in regard to a propensity to fatten earlier or later in life; and on the circumstances of their being employed in breeding, in labour, for the dairy, or reared solely for the butcher. In the latter case, the most improved breeds are fit for the shambles when about three years old, and very few of any large breed are kept more than a year longer. As to cows and working oxen, the age of fattening must necessarily be more indefinite; in most instances the latter are put up to feed after working three years, or in the seventh or eighth year of their age.

In general, it may be said, that the small breeds of cattle are fattened on pastures, though sometimes finished off on a few weeks' turnips; and that large cattle, at least in the north, are chiefly fattened in stalls or fold-yards, by means of turnips, and the other articles before mentioned.

Stall-feeding is the most common, and, when judiciously conducted, probably the most eligible method, in regard to the cattle themselves, the economy of food, and the expense of farm-buildings. The small shed and fold-yard, called a hammel, are used only for the larger breeds; but they do not seem well calculated for an extensive system of fattening by those who do not breed, but purchase stock every year from different parts. (See Chap. I. Sect. II.)

Cattle, it is well known, have long been the staple produce of Scotland, and since the union of South Trade and North Britain, immense numbers have been carried every year to the feeding pastures and markets of England. But besides this transportation, so beneficial to both parts of the island, cattle often change their pastures and their owners before leaving Scotland, according to arrangements which, though not conducted with all the uniformity of system, are found to be very advantageous to the individuals concerned, and ultimately to the public at large.

"The Highland cattle often pass through three different hands, or more, before they come to the butcher. They are improved at every stage, by a greater quantity and better quality of food, instead of being suddenly transported from poor to rich feeding; and, while each successive owner applies his produce to the best advantage, and receives a suitable return according to its value, from the advance of price, the consumer at last purchases his beef cheaper, and of a better quality, than if the cattle had been sent to the shambles from any of the intermediate stages.

"The West Highland cattle make this progress oftener than the larger cattle of the north-eastern counties. Many of them are brought to Dumbartonshire and other places, at the age of two years and two years and a half, wintered on coarse pastures, with a small allowance of bog hay or straw, and moved to lower grounds next summer. They are then driven farther south, where they get turnips in straw-yards through the following winter, and in April are in high condition for early grass, upon which they make themselves fat in the month of June.

"The larger varieties of the north-eastern counties do not leave the breeder at so early an age. They are seldom brought to market till they are three, or three years and a half old, and then frequently in good condition for being fattened, either on grass or turnips. A great many of the Aberdeenshire cattle are bought for the straw-yards of the southern counties, get a few turnips through winter and spring, and are either driven to England in April, or fattened at home in the course of the en..." Cattle suing summer. The Fife cattle, like the other breeds of the Lowlands, are generally sold to the graziers at three years old, having got a liberal allowance of turnips during the preceding winter. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 84.)

Desiderata. Notwithstanding the high degree of perfection to which some breeds of cattle have been brought in England, and the great attention that is paid by the most eminent breeders to every part of their management, several interesting points are not by any means clearly ascertained. Much certainly remains to be known regarding the nutriment afforded by different kinds of herbage and roots,—the quantity of food consumed by different breeds, in proportion as well to their weight at the time, as to the ratio of their increase,—and the propriety of employing large or small animals in any given circumstances. Even with regard to the degree of improvement made by fatting cattle generally, from the consumption of a given weight of roots or herbage, no great accuracy is commonly attempted; machines for weighing the cattle themselves and their food, from time to time, not being yet in general use in any part of Britain.

Sect. III. Sheep.

This species, being still more than cattle exposed to all the influences of soil and climate, displays a much greater variety in form, size, and general properties. In different counties, though the breed be originally the same, a very perceptible difference is found in all these respects; and there are not unfrequently considerable variations among the flocks of the same district, even those of contiguous farms. Yet in other situations, where rich food is abundantly supplied at all times of the year, sheep have been more highly improved than any other animals; and the breeds most esteemed for the arable land of Britain are in a great measure the creatures of the industry and sagacity of man. Hardly any two animals are more unlike than the small dun-faced sheep, supposed to be the most ancient of the kind in Britain, and the Leicester or Dishley male, whose every point must be exactly formed, according to an established model of symmetry and usefulness.

The various breeds of sheep, and the modes of management, almost as numerous as these varieties, would require a much larger space for their description, than it is possible to allot to it in a section of this article. But this branch has been already treated at some length in the body of the work (See Agriculture Index, and the Article Sheep, Vol. XIX.), and we shall therefore confine ourselves at present to the more prominent and interesting parts of the subject.

According to one writer (Culley on Live Stock, p. 102), there are fourteen different breeds of sheep in Great Britain, all of them sufficiently distinguished by their horns, or by being hornless, by the colour of their faces and legs, and by the length and quality of their wool. To these a later writer adds two varieties more (Dickson's Practical Agriculture, Vol. II. p. 1135); but a third work, still more recent (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. I. p. 249), enumerates no fewer than thirty-seven breeds, to each of which are assigned one or more characteristic peculiarities. This great diversity renders it necessary to decline a particular description of each; perhaps the most eligible mode of classification would be, to consider separately those races which are best adapted to inclosed arable land; those which occupy green hills, downs, and other tracts of moderate elevation; and, finally, such as inhabit the higher hills, and mountains. On the first description of land, every sort of practicable improvement may be effected, though there the carcass has hitherto been the chief object; on the second, the carcass is smaller but the wool generally finer,—and it is probably with such sheep that the greatest improvements ought to be attempted on the fleece; and, on the last division, the breeds are necessarily small and hardy, and, in regard to form and general properties, still almost in a state of nature. The improvement of sheep must mainly depend on the circumstances of every district, in regard to the food and shelter it affords them; and it is only where these indispensable requisites are abundantly provided by nature, or by human industry, that the most skilful management can be successful. The sheep of the rugged, healthy mountains of the Highlands of Scotland, must ever retain the form, the size, and the habits which the uncontrollable influence of their situation has impressed on them.

But this mode of classification is more applicable to the general management adopted on the several sorts of land, than to the present breeds themselves, which are found intermixed in every district, and often even on the same field. We shall therefore in this, as in the two former sections, describe the distinguishing characteristics of the principal breeds as concisely as possible.

There is, however, in the case of sheep, as of all the other kinds of live stock, a certain form,—a sort of standard established by experience and observation of the best individuals,—to which it is wished that all the breeds of this species should approach. Mr Culley, to whom we have so often referred, as being by far the most skilful of our writers on live stock, thus describes the best form of a ram:

"His head should be fine and small; his nostrils wide and expanded, his eyes prominent, and rather bold or daring; ears thin, his collar full from his breast and shoulders, but tapering gradually all the way to where the neck and head join, which should be very fine and graceful, being perfectly free from any coarse leather hanging down; the shoulders broad and full, which must at the same time join so easy to the collar forward, and chine backward, as to leave not the least hollow in either place; the mutton upon his arm, or fore-thigh, must come quite to the knee; his legs upright, with a clean fine bone, being equally clear from superfluous skin and coarse hairy wool from the knee and hough downwards; the breast broad and well forward, which will keep his fore-legs at a proper wideness; his girth or chest full and deep, and, instead of a hollow behind the shoulders, that part by some called the fore-flank should be quite full; the back and loins broad, flat, and straight, from which the ribs must rise with a fine circular arch; his belly straight, the..." The sheep suited to arable land, in addition to such properties as are common in some degree to all the different breeds, must evidently be distinguished for their quietness and docility—habits which, though gradually acquired and established by means of careful treatment, are more obvious, and may be more certainly depended on, in some breeds than in others. These properties are not only valuable for the sake of the fences by which the sheep are confined, but as a proof of the aptitude of the animals to acquire flesh in proportion to the food they consume.

The long-woolled large breeds (the varieties usually preferred on good grass lands), differ much in form and size, and in their fatting quality, as well as in the weight of their fleeces. The principal are, the Lincoln, the Tees-water, and the Dishley, or New Leicester.

In some instances, with the Lincolns in particular, wool seems to be an object paramount even to the carcase; with the breeders of the Leicesters, on the other hand, the carcase has always engaged the greatest attention: but neither form nor fleece separately is a legitimate ground of preference; the most valuable sheep being that which returns, for the food it consumes, the greatest marketable value of produce.

The Lincolnshire breed have no horns, the face is white, and the carcase long and thin; the ewes weighing from 14 to 20lb., and the three-year-old wethers, from 20 to 30lb. per quarter. They have thick, rough, white legs, bones large, pelts thick, and wool long—from ten to eighteen inches—weighing from 8 to 14lb. per fleece, and covering a slow-feeding, coarse-grained carcase of mutton.

This kind of sheep cannot be made fat at an early age except upon the richest land, such as Romneymarsh, and the rich marshes of Lincolnshire; yet the prodigious weight of wool which is shorn from them every year, is an inducement to the occupiers of the marsh lands to give great prices to the breeders for their hogs or yearlings; and though the buyers must keep them two years more, before they get them fit for market, they have three clips of wool in the meantime, which of itself pays them well in those rich marshes. Not only the midland counties, but also Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland, can send their long-woolled sheep to market at two years old, fatter in general than Lincolnshire can at three. Yet this breed, and its subvarieties, are spread through many of the English counties.

The Tees-water breed differ from the Lincolnshire in their wool not being so long and heavy; in standing upon higher, though finer boned legs, supporting a thicker, firmer, heavier carcase, much wider upon their backs and sides; and in affording a fatter and finer-grained carcase of mutton: the two-year-old wethers weighing from 25 to 35lb. per quarter. Some particular ones, at four years old, have been fed to 55lb. and upwards.

There is little doubt that the Tees-water sheep were originally bred from the same stock as the Lincolnshire, but, by attending to size rather than to wool, and constantly pursuing that object, they have become a different variety of the same original breed. (Culley on Live Stock, p. 122.)

"The present fashionable breed is considerably smaller than the original species; but they are still considerably larger and fuller of bone than the Midland breed. They bear an analogy to the short-horned breed of cattle, as those of the Midland counties do to the long-horned. They are not so compact, nor so complete in their form, as the Leicestershire sheep; nevertheless, the excellency of their flesh and fatting quality is not doubted, and their wool still remains of a superior staple. For the banks of the Tees, or any other rich fat-land country, they may be singularly excellent." Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II. p. 221.) Rams of this kind have been employed of late, in Northumberland and Berwickshire, in crossing ewes of the Leicester breed; but with what success there has not yet been time to determine.

The Dishley, or New Leicester breed is distinguished from other long-woolled breeds by their clean chests, heads, straight, broad, flat backs, round barrel-like bodies, very fine small bones, thin pelts, and inclination to make fat at an early age. This last property is most probably owing to the before-specified qualities, and which, from long experience and observation, there is reason to believe, extends through every species of domestic animals. The Dishley breed is not only peculiar for its mutton being fat, but also for the fineness of the grain, and superior flavour, above all other large long-woolled sheep, so as to fetch nearly as good a price, in many markets, as the mutton of the small Highland and short-woolled breeds. The weight of ewes, three or four years old, is from 18 to 26lb. a quarter, and of wethers, two years old, from 20 to 30lb. The wool, on an average, is from 6 to 8lb. a fleece. (Culley on Live Stock, p. 106.) See Plate XIII.

A fourth hornless variety of long-woolled sheep is Devonshire the Devonshire Nots, having white faces and legs, thick necks, narrow backs, and back-bone high; the sides good, legs short, and the bones large; weight much the same as the Leicesters, wool heavier, but coarser. In the same county, there is a small breed of long-woolled sheep, known by the name of the Exmoor sheep, from the place where they are chiefly Exmoor bred. They are horned, with white faces and legs, and peculiarly delicate in bone, neck, and head; but the form of the carcase is not good, being narrow and flat sided. The weight of the quarters and of the fleece about two-thirds that of the former variety.

The shorter woollen varieties, and such as, from their size and form, seem well suited to hilly and inferior pastures, are also numerous. Generally speak- Sheep.

The Dorsetshire sheep are mostly horned, white-faced, stand upon high small white legs, and are long and thin in the carcase. The wethers, three years and a half old, weigh from 16 to 20 lb. a quarter. The wool is fine and short, from 3 to 4 lb. a fleece. The mutton is fine grained and well flavoured.

This breed has the peculiar property of producing lambs at almost any period of the year, even so early as September and October. They are particularly valued for supplying London and other markets with house-lamb, which is brought to market by Christmas, or sooner if wanted, and, after that, a constant and regular supply is kept up all the winter.

According to Mr Culley, the Wiltshire sheep are a variety of this breed, which, by attention to size, have got considerably more weight, viz. from 20 to 28 lb. a quarter. These, in general, have no wool upon their bellies, which gives them a very uncouth appearance.

"The variations of this breed are spread through many of the southern counties, as well as many in the west, viz. Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, &c.; though some of them are very different from the Dorsetshire, yet they are, I apprehend, only variations of this breed, by crossing with different tups; and which variations continue northward until they are lost amongst those of the Lincolnshire breed."

(Culley on Live Stock, p. 191.)

Herefords.

The Herefordshire breed is known by the want of horns, and their having white legs and faces, the wool growing close to their eyes. The carcase is tolerably well formed, weighing from 10 to 18 lb. a quarter, and bearing very fine short wool, from 1½ to 2½ lb. a fleece: the mutton is excellent.

The store or keeping sheep are put into cots at night, winter and summer, and in winter foddered in racks with peas-straw, barley-straw, &c. and in very bad weather with hay. These cots are low buildings, quite covered over, and made to contain from one to five hundred sheep, according to the size of the farm or flock kept. The true Herefordshire breed are frequently called Ryeland sheep, from the land formerly being thought capable of producing no better grain than rye, but which now yields every kind of grain. See Plate XIII.

South Downs.

The South Down sheep are without horns; they have grey faces and legs, fine bones, long small necks; are low before, high on the shoulder, and light in the fore-quarter; the sides are good, and the loin tolerably broad, back-bone too high, the thigh full, and twist good. The fleece is very short and fine, weighing from 2½ to 3 lb. The average weight of two-year old wethers is about 18 lb. per quarter, the mutton fine in the grain, and of an excellent flavour. These sheep have been brought to a high state of improvement by Mr Elman of Glynd, and other intelligent breeders. They prevail in Sussex, on very dry chalky downs, producing short fine herbage. See Plate XIII.

In the Norfolk sheep the face is black, horns large and spiral; the carcase is very small, long, thin, and weak, with narrow chimes, weighing from 16 to 20 Norfolks. lb. per quarter; and they have very long dark or grey legs, and large bones. The wool is short and fine, from 1½ to 2 lb. per fleece.

This race have a voracious appetite, and a restless and unquiet disposition, which makes it difficult to keep them in any other than the largest sheep-walks or commons. They prevail most in Norfolk and Suffolk, and seem to have been retained solely for the purpose of folding; as it does not appear they have any other good property to recommend them, besides being good travellers, for which they seem well adapted, from their very long legs and light lean carcases.

The Cheviot breed are without horns, the head Cheviot bare and clean, with jaws of a good length, faces and legs white. (See Plate X.) The body is long, but the fore-quarters generally want depth in the breast, and breadth both there and on the chine; though, in these respects, great improvement has been made of late. They have fine, clean, small-boned legs, well covered with wool to the hough. The weight of their carcase, when fat, is from 12 to 18 lb. per quarter; their fleece, which is of a medium length and fineness, weighs about 3 lb. on an average.

Though these are the general characters of the pure Cheviot breed, many have grey or dun spots on their faces and legs, especially on the borders of their native district, where they have intermixed with their black-faced neighbours. On the lower hills, at the extremity of the Cheviot range, they have been frequently crossed with the Leicesters, of which several flocks, originally Cheviot, have now a good deal both of the form and fleece.

The best kind of these sheep are certainly a very good mountain stock, where the pasture is mostly green sward, or contains a large portion of that kind of herbage, which is the case of all the hills around Cheviot, where those sheep are bred. Large flocks of them have been sent to the Highlands of Scotland, where they have succeeded so well as to encourage the establishment of new colonies; yet they are by no means so hardy as the heath or black-faced kind, which they have in many instances sup-planted.

Of those races of sheep that range over the mountainous districts of Britain, the most numerous, and the one probably best adapted to such situations, is the heath breed, distinguished by its large spiral heath horns, black faces and legs, fierce wild-looking eyes, Breed and short firm carcases covered with long open coarse shagged wool. Their weight is from 10 to 16 lb. a quarter, and they carry from 3 to 4 lb. of wool each. They are seldom fed until they are three, four, or five years old, when they fatten well, and give excellent mutton, and highly-flavoured gravy. Different varieties of these sheep are to be found in all the western counties of England and Scotland, from Yorkshire northwards, and they want nothing but a finer fleece to render them the most valuable upland sheep in Britain. See Plate XII. The Herdwick sheep are peculiar to that rocky mountainous district, at the head of the Duddon and Esk rivers, in the county of Cumberland. They are without horns, have speckled faces and legs, wool short, weighing from 2 to 2½ lb. per sheep, which, though coarser than that of any of the other short woolled breeds, is yet much finer than the wool of the heath sheep. The mountains upon which the Herdwicks are bred, and also the stock itself, have, time immemorial, been farmed out to herds, and from this circumstance their name is derived.

The Dun-faced breed, said to have been imported into Scotland from Denmark or Norway at a very early period, still exists in most of the counties to the north of the Firth of Forth, though only in very small flocks. Of this ancient race there are now several varieties, produced by peculiarities of situation, and different modes of management, and by occasional intermixture with other breeds. We may, therefore, distinguish the sheep of the mainland of Scotland from those of the Hebrides, and of the northern islands of Orkney and Zetland.

"The Hebridean sheep is the smallest animal of its kind. It is of a thin lank shape, and has usually straight short horns. The face and legs are white, the tail very short, and the wool of various colours, sometimes of a bluish grey, brown or deep russet, and sometimes all these colours meet in the fleece of one animal. Where the pasture and management are favourable, the wool is very fine, resembling in softness that of Shetland; but, in other parts of the same islands, the wool is stunted and coarse, the animal sickly and puny, and frequently carries four, or even six horns."

"The average weight of this poor breed, even when fat, is only 5 or 5½ lb. per quarter, or nearly about 20 lb. per sheep. It is often much less, only amounting to 15 or 16 lb.; and the price of the animal's carcase, skin and all, is from 10s. to 14s. We have seen fat wedders sold in the Long Island at 7s. a-head, and ewes at 5s. or 6s. The quantity of wool which the fleece yields is equally contemptible with the weight of the carcase. It rarely exceeds one pound weight, and is often short of even half that quantity. The quality of the wool is different on different parts of the body; and inattention to separating the fine from the coarse, renders the cloth made in the Hebrides very unequal and precarious in its texture. The average value of a fleece of this aboriginal Hebridean breed is from 8d. to 1s. Sterling. From this account, it is plain that the breed in question has every chance of being speedily extinguished." (Macdonald's Report of the Hebrides, p. 447.)

In the Zetland Isles, it would appear that there are two varieties; one of which is considered to be the native race, and carries very fine wool; but the number of these is much diminished, and in some places they have been entirely supplanted by foreign breeds. The other variety carries coarse wool above, and soft fine wool below. "They have three different successions of wool yearly, two of which resemble long hair more than wool, and are termed by the common people fors and scudda. When the wool begins to loosen in the roots, which generally happens about the month of February, the hairs or scudda spring up; and when the wool is carefully plucked off, the tough hairs continue fast, until the new wool grows up about a quarter of an inch in length, then they gradually wear off; and when the new fleece has acquired about two months' growth, the rough hairs, termed fors, spring up, and keep root, until the proper season for pulling it arrives, when it is plucked off along with the wool, and separated from it, at dressing the fleece, by an operation called forsing. The scudda remains upon the skin of the animal, as if it were a thick coat, a fence against the inclemency of the seasons, which provident nature has furnished for supplying the want of the fleece.

"The wool is of various colours. The silver grey is thought to be the finest; but the black, the white, the moulart or brown, is very little inferior; though the pure white is certainly the most valuable for all the finer purposes in which combing wool can be used."

In the northern part of Kincardineshire, as well as Mainland, in most other of the northern counties, there is still a remnant of this ancient race, distinguished by the yellow colour of the face and legs, and by the dishevelled texture of the fleece, which consists in part of coarse, and in part of remarkably fine wool. Their average weight in that county is from 7 to 9 lb. a quarter, and the mutton is remarkably delicate and highly flavoured. (Kincardineshire Report, p. 385.)

The last variety we shall mention is the Spanish or Merinos. Merino breed, bearing the finest wool of the sheep species. The males usually have horns of a middle size, but the females are frequently without horns; the faces and legs are white, the legs rather long, but the bones fine. The average weight per quarter of a tolerably fat ram is about 17 lb., and that of ewes about 11 lb. The shape of this race is far from being perfect, according to the ideas of English breeders, with whom symmetry of proportion constitutes a principal criterion of excellence. The throatiness, or pendulous skin beneath the throat, which is usually accompanied with a sinking or hollow in the neck, presents a most offensive appearance, though it is much esteemed in Spain, as denoting both a tendency to fine wool and a heavy fleece. Yet the Spanish sheep are level on the back and behind the shoulders; and Lord Somerville has proved, that there is no reason to conclude, that deformity in shape is in any degree necessary to the production of fine wool.

The fleece of the Merino sheep weighs upon an Fleece average, from 3 to 5 lb. In colour it is unlike that of any English breed. There is on the surface of

---

* Sir John Sinclair on the Different Breeds of Sheep, &c.—Appendix, No. 4. (Account of the Shetland Sheep by Thomas Johnston, p. 79.) the best Spanish fleeces, a dark brown tinge, approaching almost to a black, which is formed by dust adhering to the greasy properties of its pile; and the contrast between this tinge and the rich white colour below, as well as that rosy hue of the skin which denotes high proof, at first sight excites much surprise. The harder the fleece is, the more it resists any external pressure of the hand, the more close and fine will be the wool. Here and there indeed a fine pile may be found in an open fleece, though this occurs but rarely. Nothing however has tended to render the Merino sheep more unsightly to the English eye, than the large tuft of wool which covers the head; it is of a very inferior quality, and classes with what is produced on the hind legs; on which account, it does not sort with any of the three qualities, viz. Refinos or prime, Finos or second best, and Terceños, the inferior sort, and consequently is never exported from Spain.

The Spanish flocks which yield fine wool, are sometimes distinguished by the appellation of Trabumantes, on account of their travelling from one end of the kingdom to the other, though there are flocks that never travel, with wool equally fine. They are wintered in Estremadura, and other warm provinces in the south; and during the summer months, they graze on the northern mountains of Castile, Leon and Asturias; but we shall have occasion to see, before concluding this section, that this change of place is by no means necessary to the fineness of their wool: in Britain, at least, the quality of the wool has been preserved, and even improved, without any such peculiarity of management.

Merinos were first brought into England in 1788, but did not excite much interest before His Majesty's sales, which began in 1804. The desirable object of spreading them widely over the country, and subjecting them to the experiments of the most eminent professional breeders, has been greatly promoted by the institution of the Merino Society, in 1811, which now comprehends some of the greatest landholders, and the most eminent breeders in the kingdom. See Plate XIV.

2. Breeding and Rearing.

A greater degree of perfection has been attained in the breeding of sheep, than in any other species of live stock; and in this branch, in particular, the breeders of England stand higher than those of any other country. In the body of the work, under the Article Sheep, some account has been given of the means by which Mr Bakewell raised his stock, to a state of excellence in regard to fattening at an early age, with a moderate consumption of food, and with the smallest proportion of offal, which has been with difficulty equalled, certainly has not been exceeded by the most skilful of his successors.

We have therefore purposely deferred the observations, which it seems necessary to offer on the different systems of breeding, to this part of our article; though they may apply generally to other species of animals as well as to sheep.

The males and females possessed of the properties the breeder wishes to acquire, may be, 1. of the same family; 2. of the same race, but of different families; or, 3. of different races.

The first method is called breeding in-and-in. This requires that animals of the nearest relationship should be put together, and was long supposed to produce a tender diminutive and unhealthy progeny. It is probable, that many objected to it from its appearing unnatural and incestuous. This prejudice opposed a very great obstruction to improvement; for if a male and female, out of the same dam, or got by the same sire, were never to be put together however excellent they might be, a stock that should by any means have become better than others, could not be long preserved from deterioration by strangers, nor could it be still farther improved by selection.

Mr Bakewell had the merit of removing this prejudice in some degree; and by breeding in the same family for a great many years, succeeded in raising his sheep to a degree of perfection, which no other fattening animal ever attained in any age or country.

"It is certainly," says Mr Culley, one of the most eminent of his disciples, "from the best males and females, that the best breeds can be obtained or preserved."—"When you can no longer find better males than your own, then by all means breed from them, whether horses, neat cattle, sheep, &c. for the same rule holds good through every species of domestic animals; but upon no account attempt to breed or cross from worse than your own; for that would be acting in contradiction to common sense, experience, and that well established rule, "That best only can beget best," or, which is a particular case of a more general rule, viz. "That like begets like." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 11.)

This reasoning is opposed by others, who however rather deny the premises, than dispute the conclusion. It has been contended, that there never did exist an animal without some defect in constitution, form, or in some other essential quality;" that "this defect, however small it may be at first, will increase in every succeeding generation, and at last predominate to such a degree, as to render the breed of little value."—"Mr Bakewell very properly considered a propensity to get fat as the first quality in an animal, destined to be the food of man. His successors have carried his principle too far; their stock are become small in size, and tender, produce little wool, and are bad breeders. (Sebright on improving the Breeds of Domestic Animals, p. 11, 14.)

It is admitted, however, that breeding in-and-in will have the same effect in strengthening the good as the bad properties, and may be beneficial if not carried too far, particularly in fixing any variety that may be thought valuable. And, again, the same writer observes, "There may be families so nearly perfect, as to go through several generations without sustaining much injury from having been bred in-and-in; but a good judge would, upon examination, point out by what they must ultimately fail, as a mechanic could discover the weakest part of a machine before it gave way. (Sebright on improving the Breeds of Domestic Animals, p. 12.)

In reply to this, it may be said, that as excellencies as well as defects must be communicated, both of them, without any particular selection, would be found in the same degree, and bearing the same proportion to each other, in the descendants, as in the ancestors. If any one principle of selection be invariably adopted, it is no doubt true, that size might at last be sacrificed to a propensity to fatten, but then, a remedy might easily be applied, before any serious injury had been sustained, by merely reversing the principle of selection. So that this objection rather applies to the skill of the breeder, than to the measure itself.

"But one of the most conclusive arguments, that crossing with a different stock is not necessary to secure size, hardiness, &c. is the breed of wild cattle in Chillingham park, in the county of Northumberland. It is well known these cattle have been confined in this park for several hundred years, without any intermixture, and are perhaps the purest breed of cattle of any in the kingdom. From their situation and uncontrolled state, they must indisputably have bred from the nearest affinities in every possible degree; yet we find these cattle exceedingly hardy, healthy, and well formed, and their size, as well as colour, and many other particulars and peculiarities, the same as they were five hundred years since."

(Culley on Live-Stock, p. 10.)

Notwithstanding all this, it must be admitted, that there is a great diversity of opinion among intelligent men respecting the expediency of this mode of breeding, and in most instances, perhaps, a pretty strong prejudice against it. The most common practice therefore is, to breed from different families of the same race. When these have been for sometime established in a variety of situations, and have had some slight shades of difference impressed upon them, by the influence of different soils and treatment, it is found advantageous to interchange the males, for the purpose of strengthening the excellencies, or remedying the defects of each family. Of this advantage, Mr Bakewell could not avail himself; but it has been very generally attended to by his successors. Mr Culley, for many years, continued to hire his rams from Mr Bakewell, at the very time that other breeders were paying a liberal price for the use of his own; and the very same practice is followed by the most skilful breeders at present. In large concerns, two or more streams of blood may be kept distinct for several generations, and occasionally intermixed with the happiest effects by a judicious breeder, without having recourse to other flocks.

The only other method is, by crossing two distinct breeds or races, one of which possesses the properties which it is wished to acquire, or is free from the defects which it is desirable to remove. This measure can only be recommended, when neither of the former methods will answer the purpose. The very distinction of breeds implies a considerable difference among animals in several respects; and although the desirable property be obtained, it may be accompanied by such others as are by no means advantageous to a race, destined to occupy a situation which had excluded that property from one of its parents. To cross any mountain breed with Leicester rams, for example, with a view to obtain a propensity to fatten at an early age, would be attended with an enlargement of size, which the mountain pasture could not support; and the progeny would be a mongrel race, not suited to the pastures of either of the parent breeds. If the object be to obtain an enlargement of size, as well as a propensity to fatten, as is the case when Cheviot ewes are crossed with Leicester rams, the progeny will not prosper on the hilly pastures of their dams, and will be equally unprofitable on the better pastures of their sires. But the offspring of this cross succeeds well on those intermediate situations on the skirts of the Cheviot hills, where though the summer pasture is not rich, there is a portion of low land for producing clover and turnips.

In every case where the enlargement of the carcase is the object, the cross breed must be better fed than its smaller parent. The size of the parents should also be but little disproportioned at first; and when some increase has been produced, one or more crosses afterwards may raise the breed to the required size. With these precautions, there is little reason to fear disappointment, provided both parents are well formed. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III, p. 14—18).

The breeding of males, still more in this species than in cattle, has long been a separate pursuit; and there are few flocks skilfully managed, in which it is not still the practice to have recourse occasionally to rams, hired at a high price from those men whose chief attention is devoted to this branch of business. These rams are shown for hire, at certain times and places during the summer, where every one may select such as promise to maintain or improve the particular state of his flock, and at such prices as his means and experience may justify. Two or more individuals frequently join together in the hire of one ram, to which they put the best of their ewes, for the purpose of obtaining superior males for the future service of the rest of their flocks; and in particular cases, when the owner of the ram does not choose to part with him, even for a season, ewes are sent to him to be covered at a certain price per head; superior animals of this class being very seldom sold altogether. Much as this mode of doing business has been reprobed as a monopoly, and much as there may sometimes be of deception in making up rams for these shows, all intelligent practical men must agree, that there can be no better method of remunerating eminent breeders, and of spreading their improvements most widely, in the shortest period, and at the least possible expense. A single ram thus communicates its valuable properties to a number of flocks, often in distant parts of the country, without distracting the attention of ordinary breeders from their other pursuits. It is a striking instance of the division of labour, which in this, as in other branches, has been productive of the most beneficial results to all concerned, and to the community at large.

Rams and ewes are allowed to copulate earlier or later, according to the prospect of food for their breedings, young at the period of parturition,—usually in October and the early part of November; and as the time of gestation with sheep is twenty-one weeks, the lambs are accordingly dropped in March or April. The management of the Leicester breed, equally applicable to all the varieties kept on low arable land, having been detailed at some length in the articles already referred to, (see Sheep in particular); we shall here give a condensed view of the best practices in regard to the stocks of hilly or mountainous districts; chiefly collected from the skilful management of the breeders of the Cheviot sheep on the borders of South and North Britain.

Copulation. 1. In November the rams are put to the ewes, a little earlier or later, according to the prospect of spring food, but seldom before the 8th or 10th of that month. The number of rams required is more or less, according to the extent of the pasture, and their own age and condition. If the ewes are not spread over an extensive tract, one ram to sixty ewes is generally sufficient. It is usually thought advisable to separate the gimmers (sheep once shorn) from the older ewes, and to send the rams to the latter eight or ten days before they are admitted to the former. Notwithstanding this precaution, which retards their lambing season till the spring is farther advanced, ewes which bring their first lamb when two years old, the common period on the best hill farms, are often very bad nurses, and in a late spring lose a great many of their lambs, unless they are put into good condition with turnip before lambing, and get early grass afterwards. This separation, and difference in the time of admitting the rams to the ewes and gimmers, should therefore be always attended to.

2. When a farm under this description of stock, has the convenience of a few good inclosures, still more minute attention is paid by skilful managers. It is not sufficient that the rams are carefully selected from perhaps double the number, the ewes also are drawn out and assorted, and such a ram appropriated to each lot, as possesses the properties in form or fleece in which the ewes are deficient. In other cases, the best ram and the best lot of ewes are put together. When neither of these arrangements can be adopted, owing to the want of inclosures, it is the practice to send the best rams to the ewes for a few days at first, and those of an inferior description afterwards. In every case, when the farmer employs rams of his own flock, he is careful to have a few of his best ewes covered by a well-formed and fine-woollen ram, for the purpose of obtaining a number of good ram-lambs, for preserving or improving the character of his stock.

3. The stock through winter, in a mere breeding farm, consists of ewes and gimmers which should have lambs in spring; ewe-lambs or hogs; and a few young and old rams. All these are sometimes allowed to pasture promiscuously, but on the farms around Cheviot, the ewes and ewe-hogs are kept separate, and the ewe-hogs are either put on rough pastures, which have been lightly stocked in the latter end of summer, or get a few turnips once a-day, in addition to the remains of their summer pasture. The most effectual preventive of the desolating distempers to which sheep of this age are liable, is turnips; and though they should never taste them afterwards, a small quantity is frequently given them during their first winter. After the rams have been separated from the ewes, they are usually indulged with the same feeding as the hogs.

4. The ewes, during winter, are seldom allowed any other food than what their summer pasture affords, except that a small part of it may sometimes be but lightly eaten, and reserved as a resource against severe storms. When these occur, however, as they often do in the Cheviot district, there is little dependence on any other food than hay. When the snow hay is so deep as completely to cover the herbage, about two stones avoirdupois of hay are allowed to a score of sheep daily, and it is laid down morning and evening in small parcels on any sheltered spot near the houses, or under the shelter of stells or clumps of trees, on different parts of the farm.

5. In March, the ewes, at least the gimmers or young ewes, are commonly allowed a few turnips once a-day, on farms on which there is any extent of arable land; which are either carted to their pastures, or eaten on the ground, by bringing the sheep to the turnip field through the night. A part of the field, in the latter case, is cut off by nets or by hurdles, which inclose the sheep, in the same way as if they were intended for fattening. When they are ready to drop their lambs, they are no longer kept on the turnip field, and get what turnips may be left, on their pastures. But it is seldom that the turnips last so long, though it is desirable to have a few remaining to be given to the weakest ewes, or to such as have twins, in a separate inclosure.

6. A few days before the time of lambing, the ewes Udder-locking. are collected for the purpose of being udder-locked. The sheep are raised upon their buttocks, their backs next to the operator, who then bends forward and plucks off the locks of wool growing on or near the udders, for the purpose of giving free access to the expected lambs. At the same time he ascertains the condition of the ewes, and marks such as do not appear to be in lamb, which may then be separated from the others. This operation is not without danger, and several premature births are usually the consequence. It is therefore not so general a practice as it was formerly, though still a common one on many, if not on most farms.

7. On those farms, where the hogs have been allowed to pasture promiscuously with the ewes, which is seldom permitted on the Cheviot-hills, a separation should always take place at the commencement of the lambing season, and the lowest and finest part of the pasture ought to be exclusively appropriated to the nursing ewes.

8. The ewes begin to drop their lambs in the first Lambing or second week of April, according to the time at which the rams were admitted; and such as have twins generally lamb among the first of the flock. At this season, the most constant attention is indispensable on the part of the shepherds, both to the ewes in labour and to the newly dropped lambs. Though the Cheviot ewes are not so liable to losses in parturition, as some larger breeds which are in higher condition, and though they make good nurses, unless they are very lean and their food scanty, yet, among a large flock, there are always a number that need assistance in lambing, and in a late spring not a few who have not milk sufficient for their lambs, particularly among the gimmers or young ewes. A careful shepherd at this time always carries a bottle of milk along with him, which he drops from his own mouth into that of the lamb that may need it,—brings the ewes that have little milk to a better pasture, or to turnips,—and confines such as have forsaken their lambs in a small pen, or barrack as it is called, temporarily erected in some part of the farm-steading. The same confinement is necessary when it is wished to make a ewe that has lost her own lamb, nurse that of another ewe that has had twins, or that has perished in lambing, or is from any other cause incapable of rearing her lamb. The ewe, after being shut up for a few hours with the stranger lamb, usually admits it to the teat, and ever after treats it as her own; though sometimes a little deception is necessary, such as covering the stranger with the skin of her own lamb. At this important season, an inclosure of rich early grass, near the shepherd's cottage, is of vast advantage. Thither he carries the ewes and twins,—such as have little milk,—those that have been induced to adopt another's offspring,—and generally, all that need to be frequently inspected, and are in want of better treatment than the rest of the flock.

9. As soon as the weather is favourable, after a considerable number of the ewes have lambed, they are collected into a fold, and all the male lambs are castrated, except a few of the best, reserved for rams. The ewe lambs are never spayed. It is advisable to perform this severe but necessary operation, when the lambs are but a few days old, if the weather will permit, instead of delaying till the end of the lambing season, as is still the case in some instances.

10. Towards the end of the lambing season, the ewes that have not yet dropped lambs, are separated from the flock, and kept by themselves, that they may be more under the eye of the shepherd, than if scattered over all the pasture. It is desirable to allow them finer grass for a few weeks after lambing, that their lambs may come to be nearly equal to the rest of the flock when weaned; or, if they are too late for this, that they may get ready for the butcher by the month of August, beyond which period the ewes must be much injured by suckling them.

11. When the wool has risen sufficiently (and the proper time is easily known by the appearance of a new growth), the barren sheep are brought to the washing-pool. Sometimes they are hand-washed by men who stand in the pool, and have the sheep forced towards them singly; but more commonly, the Cheviot sheep, especially if the flock be numerous, are compelled to leap into the pool in a body for three or four times successively; and it is desirable that they should have room to swim a little, and come out on a green low bank on the opposite side. After being washed, the sheep are preserved as far as possible from rubbing against earthen dikes or banks, and from lying down on any dirty spot which might soil their wool. There are two methods of shearing; in the one the operator sits on the floor or on the ground, lays the sheep on its back between his knees, begins with the belly, and afterwards, having tied the animal's legs, proceeds very expeditiously, at the rate of four or five sheep in the hour, or from forty to fifty a-day. This is the common method of shearing Cheviot-sheep. In the other, which is a much more perfect method, the shearer raises the animal on its buttocks, and, beginning at the neck, clips in a circular direction from the belly to the back-bone, for sometime with one hand and then on the opposite side with the other. The fleeces are neatly lapped up, after any filthy spots have been cut off, the shorn side outwards, beginning at the breech-wool and using that of the neck and shoulders as a bandage. Before the shorn sheep are turned out to pasture, they are marked, commonly with the owner's initials, by a stamp, or boast in provincial language, dipped in tar heated to a thin fluid state, and it is not unusual to place this mark on different parts of the body, according to the sheep's age.

12. The principal markets for Cheviot lambs in the south of Scotland, are held in the month of July, the first on the fifth of July; so that the lambs may commonly be weaned when about three months old, and sometimes sooner. When the ewes are gathered to be washed or shorn, the ewe lambs to be kept for supplying the place of the old ewes annually sold, are stamped in the same way as the ewes. The store-lambs are sent to some clean grassy pasture for a few weeks; and where the farm does not afford this accommodation, they must be summered, as it is called, at a distance. Several farms near Cheviot, and on the Lammermuir hills in Berwickshire, are appropriated to this purpose, the owner of the lambs paying so much a-head for six or eight weeks. In the mean time, the ewe hogs, or gimmers, as they are denominated after shearing, have joined the ewe stock, and the lambs, when brought home, go to the pasture which they had occupied. Wherever they may be kept in winter, it is always desirable to allow them a few turnips, along with a full bite of coarse herbage.

13. When the lambs had been separated from the milking ewes, it was formerly the practice to milk the ewes for six or eight weeks or more, and this most objectionable management is still continued by several farmers. The most skilful store-masters, however, have either laid aside milking, unless for a few days, or have shortened the period to two or three weeks. The value of the milk for eight weeks, will not exceed from one shilling to one shilling and sixpence a-head, and the sheep are injured to at least three times that amount, independent of accidents at the milking fold. The cream is separated from the ewe milk, and made into butter for smearing, and the milk itself mixed with cow milk, and converted into cheese.

14. The next object of attention, is the drafting of the old ewes, to be sold in September or October, out old Their age, on the lower hills, is usually four years Ewes and a half; or they are disposed of after having reared three years lambs. In some situations they are kept on till a year older; but when they are purchased, as they usually are, to be kept another year on lower grounds, it is commonly for the interest of the store farmer, to sell them when still in their full vigour. Skilful managers do not content themselves with drafting them merely according to age; and as there is no disadvantage in keeping a few of the best another year, they take this opportunity of getting rid of such of the flock of other ages as are not of good shapes, or are otherwise ob- jectionable. As soon as the ewes to be disposed of are drawn from the flock, they are kept by themselves on better pasture, if the circumstances of the farm will admit of it. Sometimes they are carried on till they are fattened, and turnips are often purchased for them at a distance. When this is the case, it is not thought advisable to keep them longer, than till between Christmas and Candlemas, as an old ewe does not improve like a wether in the spring months.

15. The last operation of the season is salving or smearing, which is usually performed towards the end of October or beginning of November, before the rams are sent to the ewes. The most common materials are butter and tar, mixed in different proportions; a greater proportion of tar being employed for the hogs or young sheep than for the older ones. The proportions are also different on almost every farm, and more tar is thought to be necessary, according to their greater elevation and exposure. In Roxburghshire, some mix two gallons of tar with thirty-six pounds of butter, as a sufficient allowance for threescore of sheep; but for the same number it is more common to allot only one stone (twenty-four pounds) of butter, to two gallons of tar. (Roxburghshire Report, p. 155.) A common proportion of late has been about fourteen pounds of butter, to two Scotch pints of tar (nearly 3½ quarts English wine measure) for ewes, and eleven pounds to the same quantity of tar for hogs. This mixture should smear from twenty to twenty-five of each, which is the number one man can do in a day. The expense, according to present prices, will be about nine pence for each sheep. Other articles, such as oil, palm-grease, tallow, &c. have been recommended in place of butter; but none of them are in general use, and the only addition that is approved of is a little butter milk. The butter is slowly melted and poured upon the tar, and the mixture is constantly stirred till it becomes cool enough for use. The wool is accurately parted into rows from the head to the tail of the animal, and the salve is carefully spread upon the skin with the point of the finger at the bottom of each row. The object of this operation is to destroy vermin, to prevent cutaneous diseases, and to promote the warmth and comfort of the animal during the storms of the ensuing winter. It is not necessary with sheep kept on low grounds, and well fed during winter, and it may be occasionally omitted for one season, particularly with old sheep, without material injury; but notwithstanding the ridicule that speculative writers have attempted to throw upon the practice, it is almost universally considered necessary and beneficial on high exposed situations, by the store farmers of the border hills. Smear'd wool does not sell so high as white wool, but the greater weight of the former more than compensates for the difference in price. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III.)

Besides those general rules of management which are applicable, with slight modifications, to all the numerous breeds of sheep, there are practices more or less extensively followed in particular districts, or with particular breeds; the most important of which are cotting and folding. In describing the Herefordshire sheep, the practice of keeping them in cots through the night has been already noticed, and a similar one is followed in some parts of the Highlands of Scotland, with the small dun faced flocks of that district.

Folding is adopted, as a regular part of the system of management, in several counties of England, for the purpose of turning the dung of the animals to the best account for promoting the fertility of their arable land. The same thing has been done to a small extent in Scotland, but it forms no part of general management there; and is confined to those situations where, from the want of inclosures, it is necessary to the protection of the crops; and to small patches of what is still in the ancient state of outfield, as a preparation for corn.

The sheep best adapted to the fold, are those of the more active, short-wooled varieties, such as the Norfolk, Wiltshire, and South Down breeds; the heavy long-wooled kinds being less hardy, and some of them, as the Leicesters, much too valuable for a mode of treatment that converts them into dung carriers. The following calculation will show, that though, in open lands, the practice may be in some cases tolerated on the ground of convenience or expediency, it can possess no recommendation as a profitable mode of management in other circumstances. And the best farmers, indeed, from Bakewell, who used to say that it was robbing Peter to pay Paul, down to the present time, agree in reprobating sheep-folding as a branch of general management.

"August 29, 1781. Last autumn made an accurate experiment, on a large scale, with different manures for wheat, on a sandy loam, summer-fallowed.

"Part of an eighteen acre piece was manured with fifteen or sixteen loads of tolerably good farmyard dung an acre; part with three chaldrons of lime an acre; the rest folded upon with sheep twice; the first time at the rate of six hundred sheep to a quarter of an acre, (as in first Minute), the second time thinner.

"In winter and spring, the dung kept the lead; and now, at harvest, it has produced the greatest burden of straw.

"The sheep-fold kept a steady pace from seed-time to harvest, and is now evidently the best corned, and the cleanest crop.

"The lime, in winter and spring, made a poor appearance; but after some showers in summer, it flourished much, and is now a tolerable crop, not less, I apprehend, than three quarters an acre.

"From these data, the value of a sheep-fold, in this case, may be calculated.

"It appears from the first Minute, that one hundred sheep manured seven square rods daily. But the second folding was thinner; suppose nine rods, this is, on a par of the two foldings, eight rods a-day each folding.

"The dung could not be worth less than half a crown a load; and the carriage and spreading ten shillings an acre; together, fifty shillings an acre; which quantity of land the hundred sheep teathed twice over in forty days.

"Supposing them to be folded the year round, they would, at this rate, fold nine acres annually; which, at fifty shillings an acre, is twenty-two pounds ten shillings a hundred, or four shillings and sixpence a-head.

"In some parts of the island, the same quantity of dung would be worth five pounds an acre, which would raise the value of the teathe to nine shillings a-head; which, at two pence a-head a-week, is more than the whole year's keep of the sheep.

"It does not follow, however, that all lands would have received equal benefit with the piece in consideration; which, perhaps, had not been folded upon for many years, perhaps never before; and sheep-fold, like other manures, may become less efficacious the longer it is used on a given piece of land." (Marshall's Rural Economy of Norfolk, Vol. II. p. 29.)

It must readily occur, that to fold on land in tillage all the year is nearly impracticable; and that where it could be done, the manure would be greatly diminished in value from rain and snow, to say nothing of the injury to the sheep themselves. So that the estimate of four shillings and sixpence, or nine shillings a-head, is evidently in the extreme

According to the experience of Mr Arthur Young (Farmer's Kalendar), the same land will maintain one fourth more stock when the animals are allowed to departure at liberty, than when confined during the night in folds. The injury to the stock themselves, though it is not easy to mention its precise amount with any degree of accuracy, cannot well be doubted, at least in the case of the larger and less active breeds, when it is considered that they are driven twice a-day sometimes for a distance of two, or even three miles, and that their hours of feeding and rest are in a great measure controlled by the shepherd and his boy. "When they are kept in numerous parcels, it is not only driving to and from the fold that affects them, but they are in fact driving about in a sort of march all day long, when the strongest have too great an advantage, and the flock divides into the head and tail of it; by which means one part of them must trample the food to be eaten by another. All this points the very reverse of their remaining perfectly quiet in small parcels." Another writer observes, "that were the pasture sheep of Lincolnshire to be got into a fold once a-week, and only caught one by one, and put out again immediately, it would prevent their becoming fat." (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. I. p. 367.) The only sort of folding ever adopted to any extent by the best breeders is on turnips, clovers, tares, and other rich food, where the sheep feed at their ease, and manure the land at the same time.

Another mode of management somewhat akin to this practice, and which is similar to one that has been warmly recommended in a recent publication (Sir J. Sinclair's Husbandry of Scotland), as if it had been formerly unknown, is described and commented on by Mr Young as follows: "This practice is, to confine them at night in a sheep-yard, well and regularly littered with straw, stubble, and fern; by which means you keep your flock warm and healthy in bad seasons, and at the same time raise a surprising quantity of dung,—so great a quantity, if you have plenty of litter, that the profit will be better than folding on the land. A great improvement in this method would be, giving the sheep all their food (except their pasture,) in such yard; viz. hay and turnips, for which purpose they may be brought up not only at night, but also at noon, to be baited; but if their pasture be at a distance, they should then, instead of baiting at noon, come to the yard earlier in the evening, and go out later in the morning. This is a practice that cannot be too much recommended; for so warm a lodging is a great matter to young lambs, and will tend much to forward their growth; the sheep will also be kept in good health; and, what is a point of consequence to all farms, the quantity of dung raised will be very great. If this method is pursued through the months of December, January, February, March, and April, with plenty of litter, one hundred sheep will make a dunghill of at least sixty loads of excellent stuff, which will amply manure two acres of land; whereas one hundred sheep folded (supposing the grass dry enough) will not in that time equally manure an acre."

That such a method may be advantageous in particular cases, it would be rash to deny; but, generally, it is not advisable, either on account of the sheep, or any alleged advantage from the manure they make. As to the sheep, this driving and confinement, especially in summer, would be just as hurtful as folding them in the common way; and it has been found, that their wool was much injured by the broken litter mixing with the fleece, in a manner not to be easily separated: besides, now that it is the great object of every skilful breeder to accelerate the maturity of his sheep, as well as other live stock,—among other means, by leaving them to feed at their ease, and, if circumstances permit, in small parcels,—such a practice as this can never be admissible in their management. And with regard to manure, there can be no difficulty in converting into it any quantity of straw, stubble, and fern, by cattle fed in fold-yards, on green herbage in summer, and turnips, or other succulent food, in winter; while the soil, especially if it be of a light porous quality, is greatly benefited, both by the dung and treading of sheep allowed to consume the remainder of both sorts of food on the ground. It is true, that the dung of sheep has been generally supposed to be more valuable than that of cattle; but accurate experiments have not been made to determine the difference in this respect among these and other polygastric animals. The greater improvement of pastures by sheep is probably owing as much to their mode of feeding, as to the richer quality of their dung.

On the subject of breeding and rearing sheep, it would be inexplicable to omit noticing the great advantages likely to result to the nation from the judicious and successful experiments of Lord Somerville, Dr Parry, and others, in crossing our native Merino breeds with the Merino race; and should the same... sagacity and perseverance, that have been hitherto almost exclusively employed on the form of the animal, be hereafter directed to the improvement of the fleece of our short-wooled sheep, there is reason to hope that we shall soon become altogether independent of foreign supplies for this material of the staple manufacture of England.

The land on which Dr Parry began his experiments was high, of a thin staple; dry, unsheltered, and, consequently, unproductive; and, as his other avocations did not permit him constantly to superintend its management, he became impressed with the belief, that its most profitable application would be to a breed of sheep, the return of which should chiefly depend on the fleece; and such a breed he proposed to obtain by means of crossing with the Merinos, some of which had then (1792,) been recently imported by the King. Accordingly he fixed, as the basis of his experiments, on the Ryeland breed, which has long been reputed as affording some of the finest wool in the island.

Dr Parry's lambs have been weaned at different periods, though he seems to prefer the latter end of December, and throughout the whole of January, as the most desirable season in his situation; but as the Merino and Merino-Ryeland breeds come into the world extremely bare of wool, it is indispensably requisite that every night the flock should be well sheltered; the ewes sometime before and during lambing, and both ewes and lambs afterwards, as long as the severe weather continues. In April 1806, not one of his ewes had died in lambing; and out of two hundred lambs he had then lost only five, of which two were from two-toothed ewes, and one was produced dead. The ewes and lambs are fed in winter with lintseed made into a thick jelly, ground oil-cake, sometimes grains, cabbages, rape, roten or after-grass saved through winter, winter and spring vetches, and hay. They have never got peas, corn, or bran; and the Doctor has had little experience of turnips, which, on his farm, he finds much inferior to cabbages—his chief dependence during that season.

"My manner," says he, "of feeding and treating my ewes and lambs, during the winter and spring, will best appear from that which I now practise with regard to seventy-four ewes, and as many lambs. Early in the morning they have 56 lb. of hay in cribs, in a grass field adjoining to the farm-yard. At half-past four in the afternoon, 3½ cwt. of cabbages, cut in pieces, are given them, strewed on the grass in the same field. As soon as it grows dark, they are driven under the sheds, where 28 lb. of hay is allotted to them in cribs; and five nights in the week they have in the house 10½ quarts of lintseed made into jelly, with seven times as much water; sometimes alone, at other times mixed with a little chaff of hay in troughs. The two other nights they have, instead of the jelly, six gallons of ground oil-cake, mixed with chaff in the same manner. What remains of the cabbages at night is eaten up clean in the course of the following morning.

"Salt I never gave to my flock but once, and that in the following way: A small field of latttermath, cut in September, had been so often wetted, that I despaired of its ever being eaten. While it was putting into the rick, I strewed some salt between the layers; the consequence was, that cows and sheep greedily devoured it, scarcely leaving a single blade."

(Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. V. p. 505.)

Dr Parry objects to washing the wool on the sheep's back before shearing. The fleece is so thick, that when thoroughly soaked with water, it is very long in drying; and if the weather prove wet and cold, the sheep are evidently much incommodeed. He therefore recommends public lavatories, as in Spain, for cleansing the wool after being shorn. His sheep are shorn about the second week of June; and if the weather be then unfavourable, he thinks it would be fit to house them for two or three nights or days after the Housing operation. The lambs have been always shorn unwashed at the end of July, or beginning of August, without appearing to have suffered any injury. The fleece Shearing of such lambs as are rather coarse, he thinks, should Lambs be always shorn, as he has shown that the wool of many of this race is comparatively coarse, even in those individuals in which the fleeces afterwards acquire the finest quality. The finer fleeced lambs may be left unshorn, as it has been proved, that no loss is sustained by delaying shearing them till the usual period.

The effects of successive crosses, both on the form Effects of and the fleece of the progeny, are ably illustrated by Crossing, this accurate experimentalist. With regard to the former, Dr Parry candidly declares, that his only object, the improvement of the fleece, did not allow him to give attention to the best forms in selecting his breeders; but, notwithstanding this, "my sheep, he observes, "are in general shorter in the legs and necks, have smaller bones, a rounder barrel, a wider On the Cal- loin, and consequently a better hind-quarter than any case, pure Merinos I have happened to see, except one particular ram belonging to Lord Somerville." This change he attributes to the female or Ryeland blood, which, in forming the progeny, acts most on the carcase, while that of the male or Merino chiefly affects the skin and fleece.

The statements of Dr Parry as to the improvement and on the of the fleece, apparently just in theory, have been confirmed by the trials made with his wool by respectable manufacturers, and the opinions of competent judges regarding the fineness of the fabrics which have been made from it. As it was his great object to cover the Merino-Ryelands with as fine a fleece as the Spanish wool of commerce, he did not accurately register the observations he had made on the quality of the early crosses; but he found that "the first mixture of the Merino with the Ryeland adds about one-third, or somewhat less, to the fleece of the latter breed, without appearing to have much influenced the fineness of the filament. In after-crosses, some curious circumstances occur. It is well known that the wool of the Merino and the Ryeland are both short, and the latter the shortest; neither of them usually exceeding, in the ewes, 2½ inches in length. But the second or third mixture of these breeds carries the wool of the ewe to the length of four, and sometimes six inches, with great increase of weight, but still considerable coarseness in the filament. The fourth cross brings the wool to the Spanish standard, in point of fineness, and greatly reduces the length, leaving it still somewhat greater than that of the pure Merino. In every stage of the experiment, the wool is profitable, either in quality or weight."

According to the general opinion of cultivators on the Continent, any breed of ewes, however coarse and long in the fleece, will, on the fourth cross of the Merino ram, give progeny with short wool equal to the Spanish. Of the truth of this proposition, however, Dr Parry justly expresses some doubts, derived from his own experience and that of others. But it is certain, he adds, that one cross more will, in most cases, effect the desired purpose.

"If we suppose the result of the admixture of the blood of the Merino ram to be always in an exact arithmetical proportion, and state the native blood in the ewe as 64; then the first cross would give $\frac{3}{8}$ of the Merino; the second $\frac{1}{2}$; the third $\frac{3}{4}$; the fourth $\frac{7}{8}$; the fifth $\frac{15}{16}$; the sixth $\frac{31}{32}$; and so on. In other words, the first cross would leave 32 parts in 64; or half of the English quality; the second 16 parts, or one-fourth; the third 8 parts, or one-eighth; the fourth 4 parts, or one-sixteenth; the fifth 2 parts, or one-thirty-second; the sixth 1 part, or one-sixty-fourth; and so on.

"Now, if the filament of the Wiltshire, or any other coarse wool, be in diameter double that of the Ryeland, it is obvious, that, according to the above statement, it would require exactly one cross more to bring the hybrid wool of the former to the same fineness as that of the latter. This, I believe, very exactly corresponds with the fact. The difference between one-eighth and one-sixteenth is very considerable, and must certainly be easily perceived, both by a good microscope, and in the cloth which is manufactured from such wool. In the latter method, it certainly has been perceived; but I have hitherto had no opportunity of trying the difference by the former. The fifth cross, as I have before observed, brings the Merino-Wiltz wool to the same standard as the fourth of the Merino-Ryeland." (Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. V. p. 438.)

The success which has attended this gentleman's well conducted experiments, will best appear from the following statement of the wool produce of his farm; at the shearing at midsummer 1806, furnished by him to the Board of Agriculture, and published in the fifth volume of their Communications; in the Supplement to the Essay, from which we have chiefly collected the foregoing particulars:

"The whole land in my occupation during the preceding year, was one hundred and sixty-five acres, of which twenty were under the plough; and I bought for my sheep a ton and a half of oil-cake, twelve bushels of linseed, and a few bushels of grains. On the other hand, with the addition of two quarters of oats, and half as many beans, I entirely supported on the same ground three farm-horses for one year, and a fourth for half a year. I also furnished the entire hay for four coach-horses, besides the food of a useful jack-ass, and the summer-keep for two cows. Under these circumstances, the produce of the wool was as follows:

| Wool Produce | |-------------| | Unwashed wool from my improved breed | 1596 lb. | | Washed wool from 7 half-Dorsets, 27 lb. 8 oz., which, if of my breed, would have been unwashed | 31 lb. | | Washed wool from 20 Leicester South Downs, 77 lb. which, from my breed, unwashed, would have made | 90 lb. | | Washed wool from 60 Leicester Ryelands, 200 lb. 8 oz., which from my breed, unwashed, would have been | 270 lb. | | Unwashed wool from 195 lambs, yielding, if shorn, more than 1½ lb. each | 243 lb. |

Total 2231 lb.

Now, if we suppose the consumption by the other animals which I have specified, taken in connection with the extraneous food of the sheep, to equal the produce of fifteen acres, the sheep land will be reduced to one hundred and fifty, and the return of the wool per acre, will be 14 lb. 14 oz., which at only 3s. per lb. in the yolk throughout the fleece, will give L 2, 4s. 7½d. per acre, on land certainly not worth, on an average, twenty-six shillings.

"I am myself fully persuaded that, in the former part of this Essay, I have greatly under-rated the average weight of the fleeces of my flock, if they had been, as they are now likely to be, for a sufficient number of generations well fed. Ten rams of different ages from four teeth upwards, purchased of me by Mr Birkbeck, yielded last year 97 lb. or nearly 9¾ lb. each, of wool in the yolk; and, of these, two gave 11 lb. 15 oz. each; and one, which had the finest fleece, 12 lb. This weight, which I believe considerably exceeds that of any pure Merino fleece ever produced in England, and which fully equals in clean wool that of the boasted fleeces of France, was, doubtless, owing to due care and good keep. My own crops last year failed, and the arable land which I hold, is not, in my estimation, half enough to afford proper winter sustenance for my sheep. This year, however, my flock promises to yield a larger clip of wool than last season."

Several other distinguished individuals, have taken a lead in improving the fleeces of our native short-woollen breeds, by crossing them with the Merinos, and, while their patriotic exertions deserve well of their country, have considerably increased their own profits. At the head of these perhaps, we ought to place Lord Somerville, who undertook a voyage to Lord Portugal for the sole purpose of selecting from the merino's best Spanish flocks, such sheep as united in the greatest degree the merit of a good carcase to a superior fleece. Notwithstanding the difficulties he had to encounter, augmented by the war between Great Britain and Spain, he brought home, in 1801, a flock of the first quality, selected from the Trasumané or travelling breeds of Merinos, which was the admiration of the Spanish shepherds, through whose flocks they passed in their journey to England. Small flocks of Merinos are now established in Ireland and Scotland; and Mr Malcolm Laing has been very We shall conclude our account of this valuable race and its cross breeds, with an extract from a letter, sent by Mr Birkbeck, a professional farmer of the highest class, to Dr Parry, and quoted by the Doctor in the essay above referred to. "The fleeces of the first cross, (between Merinos and South Downs), washed, are to the parent South Downs as six to five in weight; and as three to two in value per pound. Thus,

100 South Down fleeces, 2½ lb. each at 2s. L.25. 100 First cross ———— 3 lb. ———— 3s. L.45.

"So much for wool; and were it not for the air of extravagance it might give my statement, I should add, that there is an evident improvement, as to usefulness of form and disposition to fatten, in a large proportion of individuals. I had the courage to exhibit at Lord Somerville's shew, in March last, four ewe-hogs from your rams, and the honour to bear away the prize from all competitors, by the merit of carcase and fleece jointly. On the whole, I believe that the improvement of the wool may go on, without detriment to the carcase, until we shall attain a breed of sheep with Spanish fleeces, and English constitutions; but I am also convinced, that this must be the result of careful and judicious selection."

3. Fatting:

After what has been said in the chapter on arable land, (See Turnips, page 135), and in the second chapter, (See Pastures, page 154), little remains to be added on this point. The age at which sheep are fattened depends upon the breed, some breeds, such as the Leicester, maturing at an earlier age than others, under the same circumstances; and also on the abundance and quality of the food on which they are reared, a disposition to early obesity, as well as a gradual tendency towards that form which indicates a propensity to fatten, being materially promoted by rich food, while the young animals are yet in a growing state. On good land, the Leicester wethers are very generally brought to a profitable state of fitness, before they are eighteen months old, and are seldom kept on for fattening beyond the age of two years. The Highland breeds, on the other hand, though prepared by means of turnips, a year at least sooner than they could be in former times, usually go to the shambles when from three to four years old. The ewes of the first description are commonly fattened after having brought lambs for three seasons; that is, after they have completed their fourth year; and those of the small breeds, at from five to seven years of age, according to circumstances.

Besides the numerous flocks fattened on pastures for the supply of the market during summer, a very large proportion, especially of the sheep kept on arable land, is fattened chiefly on turnips, the winter and spring consumption of butcher-meat being now abundantly provided for by means of this root, in all those districts where the best courses of husbandry prevail. We have already mentioned the weight of the different breeds in the description of them—the mode of feeding, under the heads of Pastures and Turnips—and shall now only add, that it is an invariable rule with all good managers never to allow this, or any other animal reared solely for the shambles, ever to lose flesh, from its earliest age till it is sent to the butcher—that it is found of much advantage, with a view to speedy fattening, as well as to the economy of food, to separate a flock into divisions corresponding with its different ages, and the purpose of the owner as to the time of carrying them to market;—and that the change from the food of store to fattening stock—from that which is barely capable of supporting the condition which they have already attained, to that which is adapted to their speedy improvement in fattening, ought to be gradual and progressive. Thus, very lean sheep are never, in good management, put to full turnips in winter, nor to rich pastures in summer; they are prepared for turnips on good grassland—often on the after-grass of mown grounds; and kept on second year's leys, and afterwards a moderate allowance of turnips, if they are to be fattened on pastures. It is a common practice, in the instance of the Leicesters, to keep all that are not meant for breeding always in a state of fatness, and, after full feeding on turnips through winter and spring, to finish them on the first year's clovers early in summer, when the prices of meat are usually the highest.

The luxury of the age has called forth the ingenuity of man to accelerate the course of nature, at an expense which, in this species in particular, is in no degree compensated by the intrinsic value of the young animal as human food. House-lambs are fed in such numbers as the demand may require, in the vicinity of London and other large towns, where they are sold in the early part of the season, commonly at much higher prices than fat sheep of full growth. The Dorsetshire breed, as we formerly observed, can be made to yean at almost any season of the year, and they are therefore the only kind kept near London. But in the neighbourhood of those towns where the rich are willing to dispense with lamb during the early part of winter, other breeds are made to furnish the supply at a more advanced period of the season.

The following account of the London practice may be useful to those farmers who find it their interest to give their attention to this branch of management:

"The sucklers, salesmen, and butchers of London, are aware that such lambs as have sharp barbs on the inside of their lips, are certainly of a deep colour after being butchered; and all those whose barbs are naturally blunt, do as certainly produce fair meat.

"This knowledge has been the occasion of many lambs of the latter kind being kept for rams, and sent into Dorsetshire, expressly for the purpose of improving the colour of the flesh of house-lambs.

"The issue of such rams can generally be warranted fair, and such meat always sells at a higher price; hence arose the mistaken notion, that Middlesex rams were necessary to procure house-lambs.

"The sheep which begin to lamb about Michaelmas are kept in the close during the day, and in the house during the night, until they have produced twenty or thirty lambs. These lambs are then put..." into a lamb-house, which is kept constantly well littered with clean wheat-straw; and chalk, both in lump and in powder, is provided for them to lick, in order to prevent looseness, and thereby preserve the lambs in health. As a prevention against gnawing the boards, or eating each other's wool, a little wheat-straw is placed, with the ears downwards, in a rack within their reach, with which they amuse themselves, and of which they eat a small quantity. In this house they are kept, with great care and attention, until fit for the butcher.

"The mothers of the lambs are turned, every night at eight o'clock, into the lamb-house to their offspring. At six o'clock in the morning, these mothers are separated from their lambs, and turned into the pastures; and at eight o'clock, such ewes as have lost their own lambs, and those ewes whose lambs are sold, are brought in and held by the head till the lambs by turns suck them clean: they are then turned into the pasture; and at twelve o'clock, the mothers of the lambs are driven from the pasture into the lamb-house for an hour, in the course of which time each lamb is suckled by its mother. At four o'clock, all the ewes that have not lambs of their own are again brought to the lamb-house, and held for the lambs to suck; and at eight, the mothers of the lambs are brought to them for the night.

"This method of suckling is continued all the year. The breeders select such of the lambs as become fat enough, and of proper age, (about eight weeks old,) for slaughter, and send them to market during December, and three or four succeeding months, at prices which vary from one guinea to four, and the rest of the year at about two guineas each. This is severe work for the ewes, and some of them die under excess of exhaustion. However, care is taken that they have plenty of food; for when green food (viz. turnips, cole, rye, tares, clover, &c.) begins to fail, brewers' grains are given them in troughs, and second-crop hay in racks, as well to support the ewes, as to supply the lambs with plenty of milk; for, if that should not be abundant, the lambs would become stunted, in which case, no food could fatten them.

"A lamb-house, to suckle from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty lambs at a time, should be seventy feet long, and eighteen feet broad, with three coops of different sizes at each end, so constructed as to divide the lambs according to their ages." (Middlesex Report, p. 355.)

Sect. IV. Swine.

Though there are many instances of this species of live stock being kept in such numbers as to be a source of very considerable emolument to their owners, yet, generally speaking, swine are viewed by farmers merely as a subordinate concern, and, perhaps, in most cases, their chief value is held to consist in their being maintained on what would otherwise be entirely lost. With millers, brewers, distillers, and dairymen, they are an object of more importance, and return, for the offals they consume, a greater weight of meat (according to some double the weight) than could be obtained from cattle. In those parts where potatoes are raised as a fallow crop, much beyond the demand for them as human food, as is the case in particular in Ireland and the west of Scotland, the rearing and feeding of swine, the most of them sent to a distance in the state of bacon and pickled pork, is a branch of management on which great dependence is placed for the payment of their rents and other charges.

It has been made a question, whether swine will pay for being wholly fed on crops raised for this purpose; and various calculations have been offered, to show how much they will return for a given quantity of corn and roots (see principal article, Index); but the results are so discordant, that much more accurate experiments must be made before any thing certain can be stated on this point. Perhaps the principal consideration which affects the question is, the extremely prolific nature of the animal, which renders it easy, in a very short time, to supply them in too great numbers for the demand. It is this circumstance, probably, that has, more than any other, prevented the farmers of arable land from employing any large portion of their crops in feeding swine, the flesh of which varies in price more than that of other butcher meat, and often at very short intervals. Yet, if their food be herbage and roots, with a small allowance of corn or pulse in the last stage of fatting, and if the breeds are judiciously chosen, and well managed, there seems no reason to doubt that, in many situations, swine will yield as much, perhaps, on an average of years, a greater profit, for the food they consume, than any other species of live stock.

It is only in particular districts that so much attention has been paid to this animal, as to give rise to any accurate distinction of breeds; and nowhere has it received any considerable portion of that care in breeding, which has been so advantageously employed on the other animals of which we have treated. Yet among none of the varieties of those is there so great a difference as among the breeds of this species, in regard to the meat they return for the consumption of a given quantity of food. Some races Species can with difficulty be made fat, even at an advanced age, though fed from the trough with abundance of such food as would fatten any other animal; while others contrive to raise a valuable carcass out of materials on which no other creature could subsist.

Mr Culley mentions only three breeds, viz. the Breeds Berkshire, the Chinese, and the Highland or Irish; but other writers have found a distinct breed in most of the counties of England, which they have thought proper to describe separately. The Chinese race has been subdivided into seven varieties or more; and it would be easy to point out twice the number of as prominent distinctions among the sorts in the third class. But such an affectation of accuracy is as useless as it would be tedious. One general form, approaching to that of other animals kept for their carcass, ought certainly to be preferred; and the size, which is the other distinguishing characteristic, must be chosen with a view to the food provided for their maintenance, and not because it is possible to raise the individuals to a great, and probably unprofitable weight. The fineness of bone, and the broad, though also deep, form of the chest, denote in this, as in the Swine. other species, a disposition to make fat with a moderate consumption of food; and, while it may be advisable to prefer the larger breeds in those places where bacon and flitches are in most demand, the smaller breeds are most esteemed for pickling, and are, beyond all doubt, most profitable to those farmers, who allow them little else than the range of the farm-yard, and the offals of the kitchen.

Berkshire. The Berkshire pigs, now spread through almost every part of England, and several places of Scotland, are in general of a reddish colour, with black spots, large ears hanging over their eyes, short legged, small boned, and inclined to make fat. The surprising weight that some of these hogs have been fed to, would be altogether incredible, were not the facts well attested. "On Monday the 24th of January 1774, a pig (fed by Mr Joseph Lawton of Cheshire) was killed, which measured, from the nose to the end of the tail, three yards eight inches, and in height four feet five inches and a half. When alive, it weighed 12 cwt. 2 qrs. 10 lb.; when killed and dressed, it weighed 10 cwt. 3 qrs. 11 lb. or 86 stones 11 lb. avoirdupois." (Culley on Live Stock, p. 173.)

Hampshire. The Hampshire breed of hogs is also very large, being longer in the body and neck, but not of so compact a form as the Berkshire: they are mostly white, and well disposed to fatten.

Sussex. The Sussex pig is distinguished by being black and white, but not spotted, frequently black at both ends, and white in the middle. Their general size, when full grown, is about 18 or 20 stone.

Suffolk. The Suffolk white pig stands high, is narrow on the back, with a broad forehead; the hair is short, with many bristles; weight 16 to 19 stone.

Cheshire. The Cheshire breed is distinguished by their gigantic size; in colour they are black and white, blue and white, (not spotted, but in large patches of black or blue), and some all white. Their heads are large, with very long ears, remarkably long in the body, very narrow in proportion to their size, with large bones, long legs, and much loose skin.

Shropshire. The Shropshire pig is also a large coarse animal, with much bone and hair, and many bristles; their colour mostly white, with black patches, some rather sandy. They are said to be much liked by the distillers.

Rudgewick. The largest breed of the island is supposed to be kept about Rudgewick, on the borders of Sussex and Surrey. They feed to an extraordinary size, and weigh, at two years old, nearly double or triple the weight of most other sorts at that age. (Middlesex Report.)

Chinese. The Chinese breed is of different colours, white, black, black and white in irregular patches, and of a sandy hue; and their size is no less varied, though all of them smaller than the breeds already mentioned. The larger sort, such as weigh 10 or 12 stones when about a year old, or rather perhaps a cross with some native breed, may be recommended as the most suitable kind for arable farms, when their maintenance is to be got chiefly in the fold-yards. The form of the Chinese pig is generally good, and their flesh excellent, but it is easily made too fat for delicate stomachs.

The most numerous in the lowland counties of General Scotland were, and in many places still are, very unprofitable animals. They are of a white colour; have light, narrow carcases, with bristles standing up from nose to tail; long legs; and are very slow feeders, even at an advanced age. In the Highlands and Hebrides, the breed, supposed by Dr Walker to be the aboriginal, is of "the smallest size, neither white nor yellow, but of a uniform grey colour, and shaggy, with long hair and bristles; they graze on the hills like sheep; their sole food is herbage and roots, and on these they live the whole year round, without shelter, and without receiving any other sustenance. In autumn, when they are in the best order, their meat is excellent, and without any artificial feeding; but when driven to the low country, they fatten readily, and rise to a considerable bulk." (Walker's Hebrides, Vol. II. p. 17.) In the Orkney Orkney Islands they are commonly of a dark red, or nearly black colour, and have long bristles, with a sort of coarse wool beneath them.

The mode of breeding, the food, and the general Management of swine, are all of them so much dependent on local circumstances, and are so much varied in consequence, that it is neither possible, nor would it be of any utility, to describe the practice of different counties, or rather of almost every different individual.

The period of gestation with swine is sixteen weeks. The pigs are commonly weaned when six weeks old; soon after which the sow is again in season, so that two litters are usually farrowed within the year; sometimes, though very rarely, five litters in two years. There are two things of particular importance to be attended to in the breeding of swine: They should not be allowed to farrow in winter, as young pigs are exceedingly tender, and can with difficulty be preserved in very cold weather; nor at a time when food is scarce, as is generally the case upon corn-farms in summer, if the stock of them is large. The months of February and August have been recommended as the best periods for parturition. (Henderson on Swine, p. 27.) Twenty swine are estimated to bring at an average seven pigs and a half each for their first litter (Ibid. p. 17); but the number varies much, and many young pigs are lost soon after their birth by the unkindness of their dam, and by casualties, to which they are more exposed than most other young animals.

A sow in pigs should be separated from the herd some time before she is expected to farrow, carefully watched, and littered with a small quantity of dry short straw. Too much straw is improper, both at the time of farrowing, and for a week or two afterwards, as the pigs are apt to nestle beneath it unperceived by the sow, and are thus in danger of being smothered when she lies down. A breeding sow should be well fed, particularly when nursing; and it is advantageous early to accustom the pigs to feed from a low trough, on milk, or other liquid food, mixed with meal or bran. Such of the pigs of both sexes, as are not to be kept for breeding, are usually castrated or spayed when about a month old, and the whole may be weaned at the end of six or seven weeks. They should then be fed regularly, three times a-day, with meal and water a little warmed, until they are able to shift for themselves among the rest of the stock.

The food allowed, whether to growing or fattening swine, depends on the circumstances of their owners. The cottager's pig must be contented with the scanty offals of his kitchen, and of his dairy, the produce generally of a single cow; towards the end of autumn, a few potatoes are added, for the purpose of preparing it for slaughter, and perhaps a little meal is mixed with boiled potatoes for a week or two before. Such pigs, however, often thrive amazingly, make themselves moderately fat, and form a most valuable addition to the winter stores of their owners. In the south-eastern counties of Scotland, the hinds or married ploughmen are commonly allowed to keep a pig each, which they feed in this manner, and from which their families derive much benefit at very little expense. On many corn-farms, the chief, and not unfrequently, the only dependence of swine is on the straw-yards. The sweepings of the barn-floor, corn left upon the straw, and oats found among the dung of horses, with a share of the turnips given to the cattle in winter, and of the clover in summer, afford ample subsistence to swine, in the proportion, perhaps, of one to every five or six acres under corn, clover, and turnips. The kitchen and dairy give some assistance to pigs newly weaned, and also to such as are soon to be slaughtered. A great many are killed when about a year old, that have never been fed at any expense that can be estimated. A few pigs, if of a good breed, will always be moderately fat at that age with the run of the straw-yards, and their flesh is of an excellent quality.

When farmers find it profitable to keep large swine that cannot be fattened for bacon, as is the practice in some of the western counties, without a regular supply of food being served up to them, the method is, to rear swine chiefly on raw potatoes and Swedish turnips, and to fatten them on these roots, boiled or prepared by steam, with a mixture of oat, barley, or bean and peas meal. Their troughs should be often replenished with a small quantity of food at a time, and kept always clean; and their food changed occasionally, and seasoned with salt. "If proper care be taken," says a late writer, "a feeding pig should not consume more than six Winchester bushels of oats made into meal. It ought to be sheltered before it is ground, the same as for family use, but need not be sifted." (Henderson's Treatise on Swine, p. 26.)

Swine, it is well known, are very apt to get into forbidden ground; upon tillage-farms they are seldom, for this reason, permitted to go at large, unless sometimes for a few weeks on the stubbles, or where the number is so large as to afford the expense of constant herding. In many cases they are almost always confined to the cattle-yard, or a fold-yard beside their styes. Another bad property in this animal is, the habit of digging into the soil; for which the most effectual preventive is, to cut the two strong tendons of their snout, by a slight incision with a sharp knife, about an inch and a half from the nose. This may be done with little pain, and no prejudice to the animal, when about two or three months old. The common practice of restraining them by rings fixed in the snout, is painful and troublesome; they must be replaced as often as they give way, and that happens so frequently, that rings afford but little security against this nuisance.

Styes, or swine-houses, are set down in different situations, according to the numbers kept, and the manner of feeding them. The cottager erects a little hut contiguous to his dwelling, and many small farmers also choose to lodge them near the kitchen. If swine are kept chiefly in the straw-yard, their houses are so situated as to give ready access by a door which opens into it. (See Plate VIII.) The gentleman-farmer erects a range of low buildings on that side of his farm-offices which is least exposed to view, and incloses and subdivides a small yard for their use. Where this branch of husbandry is carried on in all its parts, there must be separate houses for sows heavy with young, and such as are nursing, for pigs newly weaned, for rearing and for fattening stock. (General Report of Scotland, Vol. III. p. 217.)

In the pickling and salting of pork, a branch of Pickled business which is carried on to a considerable extent at many of our seaports, the carcase is cut in pieces, and packed in kits made for the purpose, containing from one to two cwt. Salt is dissolved in water till the mixture be strong enough to swim an egg; it is then boiled, and, when cold, poured upon the pork. When the end of the kit is fixed in, the article is ready for being sent to market.

A late writer has given particular directions for the curing of bacon, founded upon a long course of experience, which therefore deserve to be more generally known. We shall give them in his own words.

"After the carcase has hung all night, lay it upon a strong table, or bench, upon its back, cut off the head, close by the ears, and cut the hinder feet so far below the hough as will not disfigure the hams, and have plenty of room to hang them by. Then take a cleaving knife, and, if necessary, a hand-mallet, and divide the carcase up the middle of the back-bone, laying it in two equal halves. Then cut the ham from the side by the second joint of the back-bone, which will appear on dividing the carcase; then dress the ham, by paring a little off the flank or skinny part, so as to shape it with a half-round point, clearing off any top-fat that may appear. The curer will next take off the sharp edge along the back-bone with his knife and mallet, and slice off the first rib next the shoulder, where he will perceive a bloody vein, which he must take out, for if it is left in, that part is apt to spoil. The corners must be squared off where the ham was cut out.

"In killing a number of swine, what sides you may have dressed the first day lay upon some flags or boards, piling them up across each other, and giving each flitch a powdering of saltpetre, and then covering it with salt. Proceed in the same manner with the hams, by themselves, and do not omit giving them a little saltpetre, as it opens the pores of the flesh to receive the salt, and, besides, gives the ham a pleasant flavour, and makes it more juicy.

"Let them lie in this state about a week, then..." turn those on the top undermost, giving them a fresh salting. After lying two or three weeks longer, they may be hung up to dry in some chimney, or smoke-house. Or, if the curer chooses, he may turn them over again, without giving them any more salt; in which state they may lie for a month or two without catching any harm, until he has convenience for drying them. I practised for many years the custom of carting my flitches and hams through the country to farm-houses, and used to hang them in their chimneys and other parts of the house to dry, some seasons to the amount of five hundred carcasses. This plan I soon found was attended with a number of inconveniences, yet it is still common in Dumfriesshire.

"About twenty years ago, I contrived a small smoke-house, of a very simple construction. It is about twelve feet square, and the walls about seven feet high. One of these huts requires six joists across, one close to each wall, the other four laid asunder at proper distances. To receive five rows of flitches, they must be laid on the top of the wall. A piece of wood strong enough to bear the weight of one flitch of bacon, must be fixed across the belly end of the flitch by two strings, as the neck end must hang downwards. The piece of wood must be longer than the flitch is wide, so that each end may rest upon a beam. They may be put so near to each other, as not to touch. The width of it will hold 24 flitches in a row, and there will be five rows, which will contain 120 flitches. As many hams may be hung at the same time above the flitches, contrived in the best manner one can. The lower end of the flitches will be within 2½ or 3 feet of the floor, which must be covered five or six inches thick with saw dust, which must be kindled at two different sides. It will burn, but not cause any flame to injure the bacon. The door must be kept close, and the hut must have a small hole in the roof; so that part of the smoke may ascend. That lot of bacon and hams will be ready to pack up in a hogshead, to send off in eight or ten days, or a little longer, if required, with very little loss of weight. After the bacon is salted, it may lie in the salt-house as described, until an order is received; then immediately hang it up to dry.

"I found the smoke-house to be a great saving, not only in the expense and trouble of employing men to cart and hang it through the country, but it did not lose nearly so much weight by this process.

"It may be remarked, that whatever is shipped for the London market, or any other, both bacon and hams, must be knocked hard, and packed into a sugar hogshead, or something similar, to hold about ten hundred weight. Bacon can only be cured from the middle of September, until the middle of April."

(Henderson's Treatise on Swine, p. 39.)

Sect. V. Miscellaneous Live Stock.

Under this title we would comprise Asses, Mules, Goats, Rabbits, Pigeons, Poultry, and Bees; all of which have been treated of in the body of the work. See the indexes to Mammalia and Ornithology, and Poultry, Pigeons, and Bees, under separate Miscellaneous articles. See also Bee in this Supplement.

The value of these species, as agricultural Livestock, is comparatively inconsiderable in Britain, notwithstanding their importance in some other countries; and, in an economical view, some of them are undoubtedly wasteful and pernicious. Asses and mules are seldom or never employed in field labour, though it was the opinion of Mr Bakewell, and a few other eminent agriculturists, that there would be some advantage in propagating the ass on account of its hardiness, and the coarse food on which it may be maintained. Trials have been made to improve our present breeds, by crosses with males introduced from foreign parts, without having had the effect however of bringing them into use, either for the plough or the cart; and wherever the services of a small animal are required, we have horses of all sizes, from nine to eighteen hands high, which seem better adapted to every purpose than asses or mules.

Goats are to be found only in small numbers, except in some parts of the Highlands, and are kept chiefly for the medicinal quality of their milk. Pigeons are justly considered as a nuisance, by every respectable writer on rural economy, and certainly by every farmer who is within the reach of their depredations.

Rabbits are a kind of stock, about which some difference of opinion still exists among intelligent men, though there are perhaps very few situations, in which they can be considered as more profitable than any other mode of occupancy. It is not merely that they in general return less for their food than other stock, but that they are also very difficult to confine, and most destructive to the crops and fences in their vicinity. Their number, though still considerable, has accordingly decreased, and continues to decrease, with the progress of improvement; and unless their skins shall become of much greater value than at present, they can be an object of consideration, only on such tracts as must otherwise be left to the animals that are still in a state of nature. In the present state of our agriculture, however, if it be found advantageous to retain this species, it is proper that the best breeds and the best mode of management, as well as their value, should be known.

A deep, sandy, poor soil is the most suitable for rabbits, though, under good management, as turnips must be provided for winter, there should be parts of it capable of bearing that and other crops; and the situation may be either on the sides of hills, or on a flat surface. Artificial burrows are made with an artificial auger, to reconcile them to the ground, and to preserve them from vermin, until they have time to make their own burrows; and on level warrens, this implement may be usefully employed from time to time afterwards. Warrens are commonly fenced with a sod wall, capped with furze or black thorn, in all about six feet high, and should always be kept in complete repair. Besides the rabbits, a number of sheep are usually kept in these grounds during the summer.

The silver haired rabbit is now more esteemed than the grey, though the latter is so much hardier, that if a warren be stocked with both, there will in a few years be nothing but greys. (Lincolnshire Report, p. 382.) The skin of the grey rabbit is cut, that is, the "wool" is pared off the pelt, as a material of hats, whereas that of the silver haired, which sells much higher, is dressed as fur, and goes, it is said, principally to the East Indies." (Marshall's Yorkshire, Vol. II, p. 965.)

One buck will serve one hundred does; the doe takes the buck the day she brings forth, and goes thirty one days with young, which she suckles for about twenty two days, for the first half of which they are blind. But when confined in warrens, rabbits seldom breed more than twice a year, and some of them only once; in particularly wet, cold seasons, few or none bring more than one litter. (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. II. p. 299.) The skins are in their best state, from the middle of November till Christmas, during which period, all that are not to be kept for breeding are slaughtered. Silver skins have been sold of late, at from 15s. to 21s. a dozen.

"The best manner of taking rabbits is, by folds, by means of nets and cords. The day before the rabbits are intended to be taken, the warrener, with his assistants, incloses many acres of ground, the bank generally making one end, and sometimes part of a side: the forepart of the fold is left entirely open. Rabbits form their colonies in some part all together, at a distance from their feeding ground, and nearly all leave their home or burrows at the time of feeding; when the warrener fixes his nets, by two men beginning at each end, who meet in the middle: thus, in fine dry weather, they can nearly take all that is wanted at once; but it is a general practice to fold at two separate times, from each colony. Within the fold are formed what are termed angles, in that part nearest to the burrows; as the rabbits, when they return, and find themselves checked in getting home, will beat about by the nets: these angles are, therefore, so contrived, as to afford them an opportunity of secreting themselves, and are made thus—an irregular groove or channel is cut, about twelve or fourteen inches deep, and about twelve inches wide; the sods being set up one against another, over the groove, so as to form a ridge, like the roof of a house; these channels are made of equal lengths, both ends being left open, so that when the rabbits meet they are head to head. When the rabbits find themselves prevented from returning to their former homes, and the day-light appears, hearing the warrener and his dogs enter the fold, they quickly run into the angles, when the warrener puts a sod against the open ends, to prevent their return; the few straggling rabbits remaining in the fold are hunted by boys with dogs; but the warreners have recourse to that method as little as possible, the dogs being apt to tear the skin, and injure the carcase." (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. II. p. 299.)

Turnips, clover, and sainfoin are the most proper kinds of winter food for rabbits, as also thrashed oats or barley, when corn is tolerably cheap, may be given them with great propriety; the two latter need only be allowed when the ground is covered with snow, and when it does not blow about so as to cover the corn when laid down; but in severe storms, turnips are the most proper food, as they can find them by their scent, and will scratch the snow off when covered. Three large cart loads of turnips a-day, will our Live Stock.

fodder one thousand or one thousand one hundred couples of rabbits, which are about a proper quantity to be left as breeding stock, on 500 acres of inclosed warren land. In heavy snows, a great deal of money must be expended in clearing the snow from the warren walls, in order to keep as much as possible the rabbits within their bounds." (Lincolnshire Report, p. 389.)

Among several calculations to show the expense and produce, Mr Arthur Young seems to consider the following as the most accurate; and as he is a decided enemy to this stock, there is no reason to suspect exaggeration.

"Mr Holdgate states the expense of 1700 acres under rabbits, the silver sort, thus:

Labour, three regular warreners, with extra assistance at killing, L. 85 0 0 Fences 42 10 0 Winter Food 42 10 0 Nets, traps, &c. &c. 14 8 4 Delivery 21 5 0 Rent is said to be 7s. an acre 595 0 0

L. 800 8 4

The capital employed is that sum, with the addition of stock paid for; suppose this 3 couples an acre, at 2s. 4d. 595 0 0

L. 1395 8 4

Interest of that sum one year, 5 per cent 69 5 0

L. 1464 13 4

Annual Account.

Expences as above L. 800 8 4 Interest 69 5 0

L. 869 13 4

Produce.

10,000 couples at 2s. 4d. L. 1166 13 4 Expences 869 13 4

Profit L. 297 0 0

or L. 24 per cent. (the five per cent. included) on capital employed. This is very great, reckoned on the capital, but small reckoned by rent, as it amounts to only half a rent. But suppose the gross produce L. 1500, which I take to be nearer the fact, then the account would stand thus:

Produce L. 1500 0 0 Expences 869 0 0

Profit L. 631 0 0

or L. 47 per cent. on the capital.

"Take it how you will, it explains the reason for so many of these nuisances remaining. The investment of a small capital yields an interest that nothing else will; and thus the occupier will be sure never to convert them to better uses." (Id. p. 591.) Of Poultry the most difficult to rear, and the most voracious and unprofitable, is the Turkey. Geese, which live and even fatten on grass, are considered by some persons as the most valuable, and in many parts of England the number is considerable. Ducks are not only comparatively harmless, but, from their feeding chiefly on pernicious insects, are probably deserving of more attention than has hitherto been paid to them. But common fowls are by far the most numerous, and everywhere add something not inconsiderable to the income of the inhabitants of the country, and to the stock of food for the consumption of the people at large. The trade in eggs alone, between the country and the towns, is a matter of some importance, as affording profitable employment to those who collect them, and to others who afterwards send them in large quantities to the principal towns.

According to the Statistical Account of Scotland, the people of Hawick, a small town in the county of Roxburgh, more than twenty years ago received L. 50 weekly through the year, for eggs collected in the neighbourhood, and sent to Berwick for the London market; and in 1796, it was calculated that the peasantry of Mid-Lothian drew L. 8000 a-year for poultry and eggs. But in the way these fowls are commonly managed by farmers, there is reason to doubt whether they pay for the food they consume, and the waste they are too often allowed to commit. The number kept by any individual is commonly so small, as to obtain little of that attention that is given to other domesticated animals, and their ravages are accordingly greater, and their returns smaller, than they would otherwise be. Yet in the warm cottages of country labourers, the common farm-yard hen makes a valuable return for the food she requires, which is frequently potatoes, boiled and mashed, with a little oat-meal porridge, a portion of the daily meal of its owner. A comfortable degree of warmth is so essential, that some gentlemen have had stoves placed under their roosts.

The results of an experiment made with 6 hens and a cock, in 1807 and 1808, were, that they ate half a peck of barley weekly with very little other food, and laid 764 eggs in 52 weeks, the greatest number in the months of May and August, and the smallest in November and December. The eggs were sold in the London market at 1½d. each, and the nett profit, besides eleven chickens, was L. 2, 12s. 2d. They were confined in a small yard, well sheltered and heated by the fires of the houses with which it was surrounded; and prevented from sitting by means of a feather, thrust through the nostrils for a few days, the pain of which is supposed to have induced the hen to move about till the inclination to sit had passed away. (Parkinson on Live Stock, Vol. II)

CHAP. IV.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE AGRICULTURE OF BRITAIN.

The Husbandry of a great part of Britain, both in respect to the cultivation of the soil and the breeding and management of live stock, is confessedly superior to that of any other country in Europe; and General the quantity and value of its products, considering the Observa- character of the climate, as well as the industry, wealth, and respectability of its husbandmen, are without any parallel, either in ancient or modern times. We find from Columella, that, under the Romans, the produce of the greater part of Italy was less than four times the seed (lib. iii. cap. 3); and this notwithstanding an unproductive fallow every second year, and apparently a much greater attention to minutiae, than would be compatible with the more extensive concerns of the British Farmer. The average crops of Britain have been stated so high as nine times the seed; and certainly, wherever the management is tolerably correct, cannot be less than double the proportion assigned by Columella to the richer soil and more genial climate of Italy. Of the agriculture of France before the Revolution, a very full and accurate account has been furnished by Mr Arthur Young, from which it is sufficiently evident how much the general produce of that country, the best cultivated perhaps next to Britain, was inferior to that of even our middling lands; and the progress it has made since, has not, according to the latest and apparently exaggerated accounts, been marked by any very great improvement either in live stock or machinery, the two most distinguishing parts of British husbandry.

It is natural to ask—to what causes this superiority is owing?—And why it is confined to a part of our territory, instead of being extended, as our great demand of late for foreign corn would have led us to expect, to all soils that are capable of profitable improvement? On these two points we now propose to offer a few very general remarks; and we shall submit them to the reader without affecting that precision of arrangement which more ample details would have required.

1. The territory of Britain is not engrossed by a Division few individuals, as that of the northern countries of Europe, nor divided into such minute portions as that of some of the small states of the Continent. The vast tracts of country held by a Russian or Polish nobleman, and the diminutive possessions of the Swiss, Large and more lately of the French peasantry, are almost Estates; equally inconsistent with the more productive systems of rural economy. The former are too large for the superintendence of one individual, with a view to profitable cultivation; and the existence of such extensive properties implies the degradation and poverty of the great body of the people, and the absence of a middle class, possessed of disposable capital, or at least of opportunities for its investment in the soil. Minute The latter, on the other hand, afford no room for the employment of capital, nor of those inventions by which the charges of cultivation are diminished, and its products augmented. Such small landed properties return little more than the wages of the manual labour by which they must necessarily be cultivated. Their small surplus produce, which every bad season annihilates, cannot afford subsistence to those other classes, whose labours are necessary to national prosperity and individual comfort; and a part of the families of the cultivators themselves, having neither food nor employment at home, must either emigrate or perish. To a certain extent these consequences have been already experienced, both in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland; for it would be idle to maintain, that a minute division of land in tenancy, does not produce all the unhappy effects which must result from the minute division of land in absolute property.

Of two countries, in one of which estates are in general too large for the personal superintendence of the proprietors, and, in the other, the land is parcelled out into shires, little more than sufficient for the subsistence of their owners, the condition of the great body of the people must be very much alike. In neither can there exist that middle class, from which all valuable improvements proceed, nor any of those inventions which multiply and augment the productive powers of human industry. Both of these states of property must appear decidedly hostile to national prosperity, when measured by this unerring test—the quantity of the products of the soil which remains after defraying the charges of obtaining them; for upon this net surplus depend all the enjoyments of mankind beyond the mere necessaries of life, as well as the means of repelling foreign aggression, and preserving internal tranquillity.

The distribution of the landed property of Britain is equally distant from both these extremes. Though it is necessary, perhaps, to the political constitution of the country, that there should be a number of large estates, yet their extent is seldom so great as to produce any of the bad effects just mentioned, even within the bounds of a single county. Over the rural economy of the nation these large properties exert scarcely any influence at all, excepting such of them as are held by entail, which is certainly a mode of tenure greatly at variance with the full improvement of the soil. Many instances might be pointed out, of very extensive estates, fully as well cultivated, and yielding as large a surplus for the general consumption, as our agriculture, in its present state, obtains from any equal extent of similar land. It is true, that to increase the political influence of great proprietors, too many of these estates are possessed by tenants at will; but this grievance is not peculiar to estates of this class; the largest estates of Scotland being occupied on leases. This most serious obstacle to spirited cultivation, must therefore be ascribed to political causes, and not to the engrossing of landed property.

2. Another arrangement, which may serve to account for the superiority of British agriculture, is somewhat akin to that division of labour, by which all the arts have been carried to so great a degree of perfection in this country. Few great proprietors, comparatively, cultivate their own lands beyond the demands of pleasure and convenience. The far greater part of Britain is cultivated by professional men, with their own capital, and for their own profit. The price which they must pay for their temporary rights in the soil, in the shape of rent, instead of checking their exertions, has a powerful tendency to promote every profitable improvement, to discourage dangerous speculation, and to restrain wasteful expenditure. And as it is clearly the interest of such General men, still more than of proprietors themselves, to obtain the largest produce at the least possible expense, the intermediate portion of the produce—that which is disposable for the general consumption—is consequently as large as industry and economy, in the present state of our agriculture, can make it. It is true, almost to a proverb, that farming, upon an extensive scale, is never profitable to a great landholder; and, with a view to the interest of the nation, it ought to be discouraged, as both wasteful and unproductive. In some countries this mode of farming is a matter of necessity,—as in the north of Europe, where a class of free tenants does not exist;—in others, the business of cultivation must be carried on as a sort of partnership, or joint concern between the proprietor and tenant, as on the metairies of France. Fortunately, the general distribution of wealth has long since removed the necessity for either of these methods in Britain.

To give full effect to the professional system, it is necessary that the rights of the landlord and tenant, respectively, should be clearly defined, and well secured by law and the private contract of the parties. The principle general principle which should regulate the terms of this connection seems to be, that, while the farm ought to be restored to the owner at the expiration of the tenant's interest, at least without deterioration, the tenant should be encouraged to render it as productive as possible during his possession. In both of these views, a lease for a term of years is scarcely less necessary for the interest of the landlord than of the tenant; and so much is the public interested in this measure, that it has been proposed by intelligent men, to impose a penal tax on the rent of lands held by tenants at will.

That the value of the property is enhanced by the security which such a lease confers on the tenant, will be put beyond all doubt, if the rents of two estates for half a century back are compared; the one occupied by tenants at will, and the other by tenants on leases for a moderate term, and where the soil and situation are nearly alike in every respect. If the comparison be made between two tracts, originally very different in point of value, the advantages of leases will be still more striking. While that which is held by tenants at will remains nearly stationary, the other is gradually, yet effectually, improved, under the security of leases, by the tenant's capital; and, in no long period, the latter takes the lead of the former, both in the amount of the revenue which it yields to the proprietor, and in the quantity of produce which it furnishes for the general consumption. The higher rents and greater produce of some parts of Scotland, than of many of the English counties, where the soil, climate, and markets are much more favourable, must be ascribed to the almost universal practice of holding on leases in the former country, in a much greater degree than to any of the causes which have been frequently assigned. Less than a century ago, what are now the best cultivated districts of Scotland were very far behind the greater part of England; and, indeed, had made very little progress from the time of the feudal system. It is not fifty years since the farmers of Scotland were in the practice of going to learn from their southern neighbours an art, which was then very imperfectly known in their own country. But in several parts of England there has been little or no improvement since, while the southern counties of Scotland have uniformly advanced; and at present exhibit, very generally, a happy contrast to their condition at the middle of last century.

In respect to farmers themselves, it cannot be necessary to point out the advantages of leases. It may be true, that, under the security of the honour of an English landlord, tenants at will have been continued in possession from generation to generation, and acquired wealth which he has never, like the landholders of some other countries, attempted to wrest from them. But there are few individuals in any rank of life, who continue for a length of time to sacrifice their just claims on the altar of pure generosity. Something is almost always expected in return. A portion of revenue in this case is exchanged for power, and that power is displayed not only in the habitual degradation of the tenantry, but in the control over them, which the landlord never fails to exert at the election of members of Parliament, and on all other political emergencies. No prudent man will ever invest his fortune in the improvement of another person's property, unless, from the length of his lease, he has a reasonable prospect of being reimbursed with profit; and the servility which holding at will necessarily exacts, is altogether incompatible with that spirit of enterprise which belongs to an enlightened and independent mind.

The people at large are evidently most deeply affected by every measure which has a tendency to fetter the productive powers of the soil, and, at the same time, to depress one of their largest and most valuable classes. It is clearly their interest, that corn and other provisions should be supplied in abundance; and the people of England may justly complain of the want of leases, as one of the principal causes which checks the improvement of their own territory.

What ought to be the term of a lease, can only be determined by a reference to the circumstances of each particular case. Lands naturally rich, or such as have already been brought to a high degree of fertility, requiring no great investment of capital, and returning all or nearly all the necessary outlay within the year, may be advantageously held upon short leases—such perhaps as give time for two, or at most three, of the rotations or courses of crops to which the quality of the soil is best adapted. The practice of England in this respect is extremely various,—almost every term, from twenty years downwards, being found in different parts of it. In Scotland, by far the most common period is nineteen years, to which it was formerly the practice, in some places, to add the life of the tenant. In that country, even when it is thought expedient to agree for a much longer term, this is still expressed in periods of nineteen years,—a sort of mysterious cycle, which seems to be no less a favourite with the courts of law, than with landholders and farmers. Yet this term is somewhat inconvenient, as it can never correspond with any number of the recognized rotations of arable General Observations.

It has been maintained by several writers, that a lease for twenty years is not sufficient to reimburse a Long tenant for any considerable improvements, and landholders have often been urged to agree to a much of longer term, which, it is alleged, would be not less for their own interest than for that of the tenant. This is a question which our limits do not permit us to discuss, but, after viewing it in different lights, assisted by the experience of long leases in different parts of Scotland, we cannot help expressing some doubts of their utility, even in so far only as regards the parties themselves; and we are decidedly of opinion, that a greater produce will be brought to market, from any given extent of land held on successive leases of twenty years, for half a century, than if held on one lease of that duration, whether the term be specified, or indefinite, as in the case of a lease for life. As a general mode of tenure, leases for lives seem to us particularly objectionable.

The great advantages of a lease are so well known Lord in Scotland, that one of her best agricultural writers, Kames himself a landed proprietor, has suggested a method of conferring on it the character of perpetuity, to period, such an extent as, he thinks, would give ample security to the tenant for every profitable improvement, without preventing the landlord from resuming possession upon equitable terms, at the expiration of every specified period. But the author of this plan (Lord Kames), in his ardent wishes for the advancement of agriculture, at that time in a very backward state in his native country, seems to have overlooked the difficulties that stood in the way of its adoption; and the great advance in the price of produce, and consequently in the rate of rents, since his Lordship wrote, have long since put an end to the discussion which his proposal excited. For a form of a lease on his plan, the reader may consult Bell's Treatise on Leases; and the objections to the plan itself are shortly stated in the supplement to the sixth edition of the Gentleman Farmer, recently published.

There have been instances of long leases granted, Long upon condition of receiving an advance of rent at the Leases, end of a certain number of years; but covenants of this kind, meant to apply to the circumstances of a distant period, cannot possibly be framed in such a manner as to do equal justice to both parties; and it ought not to be concealed, that, in every case of a very long lease, the chances are rather more unfavourable to the landholder than to the farmer. If the price of produce shall continue to rise as it has done, till very lately, for the last forty years, no improvements which a tenant can be expected to execute will compensate the landlord's loss; and if, on the other hand, prices shall decline, the capital of most tenants must be exhausted in a few years, and the lands will necessarily revert to the proprietor, as has been the case late in many instances. Hence a landholder, in agreeing to a long lease, can hardly assure himself that the obligations on the part of the tenant will be fully discharged throughout its whole term, while the obligations he incurs himself may always be easily enforced. He runs the risk of great loss from a depreciation of money, but can look forward to very little benefit from a depreciation of produce, except for a few years at most. Of this advantage a generous man would seldom avail himself; and, indeed, in most instances, the advantage must be only imaginary, for it would be overbalanced by the deterioration of his property.

Where the circumstances of a landholder, the state of his property, and the wealth and enterprising character of the tenantry, are such as to render long leases, or leases for an indefinite period, expedient, the most equitable mode, in regard to rent, would be to make it rise and fall with the price of corn or other produce. A rent paid in corn is, indeed, liable to serious objections, and can seldom be advisable in a commercial country. It necessarily bears hardest on a tenant when he is least able to discharge it. In very bad seasons, his crop may be so scanty as scarcely to return seed and the expenses of cultivation, and the share which he ought to receive himself, as the profits of his capital, as well as the quantity allotted to the landlord, may not exist at all. Though, in this case, if he pays a money-rent, his loss may be considerable, it may be twice or three times greater if the rent is to be paid in corn, or according to the high price of such seasons. In less favourable years, which often occur in the variable climate of Britain, a corn-rent would, in numerous instances, absorb nearly the whole free or disposable produce, as it is by no means uncommon to find the gross produce of even good land reduced from twenty to fifty per cent. below an average, in particular seasons. And it ought to be considered, in regard to the landlord himself, that his income would thus be doubled or trebled, at a time when all other classes were suffering from scarcity and consequent dearth; while, in times of plenty and cheapness, he might find it difficult to make his expenses correspond with the great diminution of his receipts. It is of much importance to both parties, that the amount of the rent should vary as little as possible from any unforeseen causes, though tenants in general would be perhaps the most injured by such fluctuations.

To obviate these and other objections to a corn-rent, and to do equal justice at all times to both landlord and tenant, a plan has been lately suggested for converting the corn into money, adopting for its price, not the price of the year for which the rent is payable, but the average price of a certain number of years. The rent, according to this plan, may be calculated every year, by omitting the first year of the series, and adding a new one; or, it may continue the same for a certain number of years, and then be fixed according to a new average. Let us suppose the lease to be for twenty-one years, the average agreed on being seven years, and the first year's rent, that is, the price of so many quarters of corn, will be calculated from the average price of the crop of that year, and of the six years preceding. If it be meant to take a new average for the second and every succeeding year's rent, all that is necessary is, to strike off the first of these seven years, adding the year for which the rent is payable, and so on during all the years of the lease. But this labour, slight as it is, may be dispensed with, by continuing the rent without variation for the first seven years of the lease, according to the average price of the seven years immediately preceding its commencement, and, at the end of this period, fixing a new rent, according to the average price of the seven years just expired, to continue for the next seven years. Thus, in the course of twenty-one years, the rent would be calculated only three times; and for whatever quantity of corn the parties had agreed, the money payments would be equal to the average price of fourteen years of the lease itself, and of the seven years preceding it; and the price of the last seven years of the old lease, would determine the rent during the first seven years of the new one.

The landlord and tenant, it has been thought, could not suffer either from bad seasons or any change in the value of the currency, should such a lease as this be extended to several periods of twenty-one years. The quantity of corn, to be taken as rent, is the only point that would require to be settled at the commencement of each of these periods; and though this would no doubt be greater or less, according to the state of the lands at the time, yet it may be expected, that, in the twenty-one years preceding, all the tenant's judicious expenditure had been fully replaced. Instead of the twofold difficulty in fixing a rent for a long lease, arising from uncertainty as to the quantity of produce, which must depend on the state of improvement, and still more perhaps from the variations in the price of that produce, the latter objection is entirely removed by this plan; and in all cases where land is already brought to a high degree of fertility, the question about the quantity of produce may likewise be dispensed with.

Upon this plan we shall take leave to observe, that, if it be applied to leases of nineteen or twenty-one years, the inconvenience resulting from uncertainty as to the amount of rent, as well as other difficulties which must necessarily attend it, would be as great as one year, perhaps as any advantages which it holds out to either of the parties. If it be said that a rent, determined by a seven years average, could not suddenly nor materially alter, this is at once to admit the inutility of the contrivance. The first thing which must strike every practical man is, that corn is not the only produce of a farm, and in most parts of Britain, perhaps not the principal source from which rent is paid; and there is no authentic record of the prices of butcher meat, wool, cheese, butter, and other articles in every county to refer to, as there is of corn. This is not the place to inquire whether the price of corn regulates the price of all the other products of land, in a country whose statute books are full of duties, bounties, drawbacks, &c., to say nothing of its internal regulations; but it is sufficiently evident, that, if corn does possess this power, its price operates too slowly on that of other products, to serve as a just criterion for determining rent on a lease of this duration. Besides, in the progress of agriculture, new species or varieties of the cerealia themselves are established even in so short a period as twenty-one years, the price of which may be very different from that of the corn specified in the lease. What security for a full rent, for instance, would it give to a landlord, to make the rent payable according to the price of barley, when the tenant might find it more for his interest to cultivate some of the varieties of summer wheat lately brought from the Continent? Or, according to the price of a particular variety of oats, when, within a few years, we have seen all the old varieties superseded, throughout extensive districts, by the introduction of a new one, the potatoe-oat, which may not be more permanent than those that preceded it? There can be no impropriety, indeed, in adopting this plan, for ascertaining the rent of land kept always in tillage, but it would be idle to expect any important benefits from it, during such a lease as we have mentioned.

With regard to much longer leases, this plan will no doubt diminish the evils which we think are inseparable from them, but it cannot possibly reach some of the most considerable. Its utmost effect is to secure to the landholder a rent, which shall in all time to come be an adequate rent, according to the state of the lands and the mode of cultivation known at the date of the lease. But it can make no provision that will apply to the enlargement of the gross produce from the future improvement of the lands themselves, or of the disposable produce from the invention of machinery and other plans for economizing labour. And the objections just stated, in reference to a lease of twenty-one years, evidently apply much more forcibly to one of two or three times that length. Old corn-rents therefore, though much higher at present than old money rents, are seldom or never so high as the rents that could now be paid on a lease of twenty-one years. But, independent of these considerations, which more immediately bear upon the interests of the parties themselves, one insuperable objection to all such leases is, that they partake too much of the nature of entails, and depart too far from that commercial character which is most favourable to the investment of capital, and consequently to the greatest increase of land produce.

A lease for a term of years is not, however, in all cases, a sufficient encouragement to spirited cultivation; its covenants in respect to the management of the lands may be injudicious; the tenant may be so strictly confined to a particular mode of culture, or a particular course of crops, as not to be able to avail himself of the beneficial discoveries which a progressive state of agriculture never fails to introduce. Or, on the other hand, though this is much more rare, the tenant may be left so entirely at liberty, that either the necessity of his circumstances during the currency of the lease, or his interest towards its expiration, may lead him to exhaust the soil, instead of rendering it more productive. When a lease therefore is either redundant or deficient in this respect—where it either permits the lands to be deteriorated or prevents their improvement,—the connection between landlord and tenant is formed upon other views, and regulated by some other principle, than the general one on which we think it should be founded.

Notwithstanding the high authority of Dr Smith, restrictive covenants are always necessary to the security of the landlord, and in some cases beneficial also to the tenant. Their expediency cannot well be questioned, in those parts of the country where an improved system of agriculture has made little progress. A landholder, assisted by the advice of experienced men in framing these covenants, cannot adopt any easier or less offensive plan for the improvement of his property, and the ultimate advantages of his tenantry. Even in the best cultivated districts, while farms continue to be let to the highest responsible offerers, a few restrictive covenants cannot be dispensed with. The supposed interest of the tenant is too feeble a security for correct management, even during the earlier part of a lease, and in the latter part of it, it is thought to be his interest, in most cases, to exhaust the soil as much as possible, not only for the sake of immediate profit, but frequently in order to deter competitors, and thus to obtain a renewal of his lease at a rent somewhat less than the lands would otherwise bring.

With tenants at will, and such as hold on short leases, restrictive covenants are more necessary than with tenants on leases of nineteen or twenty years; but, in many instances, they are too numerous and complicated, and sometimes even inconsistent with the best courses of modern husbandry. The great error lies, in prescribing rules by which a tenant is positively required to act—not in prohibiting such practices, and such crops, as experience has not sanctioned. The improved knowledge, and the liberality of the age, have now expurgated the most objectionable of these covenants; and throughout whole counties, almost the only restriction in reference to the course of crops is, that the tenant shall not take two culmiferous crops, ripening their seeds, in close succession. This single stipulation, combined with the obligation to consume the straw upon the farm, and to apply to it all the manure made from its produce, is sufficient not only to protect the land from exhaustion, but to ensure, in a great measure, its regular cultivation; for half the farm at least must, in this case, be always under either fallow or green crops. The only other necessary covenant, when the soil is naturally too weak for carrying annual crops without intermission, is, that a certain portion of the land shall be always in grass, not to be cut for hay, but depastured. According to the extent of this will be the interval between the succession of corn crops on the same fields: if it is agreed that half the farm, for instance, shall always be under grass, there can be only two crops of corn from the same field in six years. In this case not more than two-sixths being in corn, one-sixth in green crops or fallow, and three-sixths in clovers or grasses, it becomes almost impossible to exhaust any soil at all fitted for tillage. There are few indeed that do not gradually become more fertile under this course of cropping. It is sufficiently evident, that other covenants are necessary in particular circumstances, such as permission to dispose of straw, hay, and other crops from which manure is made, when a quantity of manure equal to what they would have furnished, is got from other places; and a prohibition against converting rich old grazing lands or meadows into corn lands. In this place we speak only of general rules, such as are applicable to perhaps nine-tenths of all the arable land of Britain, and such as are actually observed in our best cultivated counties.

For the last four years of a lease, the same cove- nants are generally sufficient, only they require to be applied with more precision. Instead of taking for granted, that the proportion of the farm that cannot be under corn will be properly cultivated, from the tenant's regard to his own interest, it becomes necessary to take him bound to this effect in express terms; the object generally being to enable the tenant, upon a new lease, to carry on the cultivation of the lands, as if the former lease had not terminated. What these additional stipulations should be, must depend in part on the season of the year at which the new lease commences, and in part on the course of crops best adapted to the soil, and the particular circumstances of every farm.

3. The enlargement of farms to such a size as admits of arrangements and machinery for saving labour is the natural consequence of the progress of agriculture, and the acquisition of capital by cultivators, and becomes, in its turn, the cause of further improvements. We have not room to examine here the various objections to large farms which were urged by Dr Price, Lord Kames, and most of the economical writers of the last century. Much stronger reasons, certainly, than any that have been hitherto advanced, must be required to justify the interference of the Legislature with the rights of the agricultural classes—with that of a landholder to draw the greatest revenue from his property, and with that of a farmer to extend his concerns as far as his capital and abilities will permit. Even though it should be conceded to Dr Price, that a given extent of land yields a greater produce in the hands of several small farmers than of one great farmer, it still remains to inquire, what part of that produce can be spared for the general consumption?—and whether the labour of these people might not be employed with more advantage than on such minute portions of land as yield, even in the best seasons, little more than food for their own subsistence? In Britain, of which the families employed in agriculture are to those of the whole population only as 1 to 2.84, and in which the proportion of lands cultivated, or that may be cultivated, is not four acres to every individual, the great object ought certainly to be, to increase the disposable produce of the country for the supply of the general population.

The grand objection to large farms, that they depopulate the country, is not supported by facts. The population of the country has not only greatly increased since the enlargement of farms, but, in the ten years from 1801 to 1811, this increase appears to have been only two per cent. less than that of the town population. The fact is, that the increase of the rural population has been in a greater ratio than that of the town population, in those counties, such as Northumberland, where very large farms abound; and where, indeed, as is usually the case, this state of things is combined with a spirited and productive system of agriculture. Even in Lancashire, the ratio of increase is only two per cent. in favour of the towns; but no one will ascribe this to the enlargement of farms. The truth seems to be, that, wherever agriculture has made the greatest progress, whatever may be the size of farms, the increase of employment has been attended with a corresponding increase of population; and that the ratio of increase General has been kept down below that of towns, by no other causes than the stationary condition or slow progress of agriculture in some parts, and the superior allurements of manufactures and commerce in others.

It is farther to be remarked, that, throughout the whole of the arable districts of Scotland, the number of people is proportionally greater on large than on small farms. The number of hands required on the former is too great to be lodged in the farmer's own Married house; and, therefore, on all such farms cottages are Farm-Servants built for their residence. These cottages are generally inhabited by married men, whose families find employment in hoeing green crops, and other easy work, from a very early age. In the less improved counties, on the other hand, where small farms still prevail, unmarried servants are preferred, as, on such farms, there is little or no employment for the families of married servants. Our limits do not permit us to inquire how far the poor laws of England operate against the employment of married servants, living in cottages on every farm; but the happy effects of this arrangement are manifest in the southeastern counties of Scotland, as we shall notice immediately.

The possession of land is held by some writers to Cottage-be so important, with a view to the comforts of the Farms, labouring classes, as well as to the increase of the rural population, that they have not been contented with objecting to large farms, but have proceeded to recommend what are called cottage-farms, for country labourers generally. Of this plan we might say at once, that it must be limited everywhere by the demand for labour; and that, wherever such small allotments are required by the state of agriculture, they will gradually be formed from motives of interest, without the necessity of any higher control. They are at this time common in many parts of Britain; and a different system has been established in other parts, for no other reason than because of its superior advantages to all concerned. Yet, as cottage-farms bear a very plausible appearance in the eye of speculative men, it seems necessary to offer some farther remarks on a question which has been so often agitated.

If every labourer had a comfortable cottage, and four acres of land at a moderate rent, as recommended by some of the correspondents of the Board of Agriculture, there is reason to believe that his condition might be much improved for a few years, supposing the demand for labour to continue the same as at present. Even the colonies which this class would every year send forth in quest of new cottages might be supplied for a time; and though the wages of labour must sink very fast, still this premium might enable the labourers to multiply with little interruption for several generations. At last, however, the multiplication of cottage-farms must necessarily stop, and a great proportion of the people, without land and without the means of employment, would either sink into helpless misery, or be driven by despair to the commission of every species of enormity. Such was the state of England at the breaking up of the feudal system, the policy of which also was to increase the number of the people, without regard to the means of their employment; and such, though in a much less degree, is the present state of those parts of the united kingdom in which cottage-farms are the most prevalent.

The whole question, we think, is capable of being most satisfactorily decided, by an appeal to the plain mercantile criterion of rent. If a hundred labourers, each of them possessing four acres, can pay a higher rent than one farmer can pay for the whole four hundred, buildings, fences, and repairs, being estimated, we can see no reason why they should not be preferred; but if this be not the case, we are greatly at a loss to conceive with what justice landholders can be called upon to submit to sacrifices which no other class of the community is ever expected to make. We might, with just as much reason and justice, require a manufacturer to employ a certain number of hands in proportion to the amount of his capital, however unprofitable to him might be their labour.

But, farther, in all our best agricultural counties, there are two sorts of cottages occupied by two distinct classes of labourers. Of the first sort are the small agricultural villages, where those mechanics and other labourers reside, who could not find full employment on any one farm. To such men small farms are advantageous, or otherwise, according to the nature and the constancy of their employment.

The other class of cottagers, to which we have already alluded, are ploughmen and other servants employed throughout the year on a particular farm. To these men small possessions of land are almost as unsuitable as they would be to a country gentleman's domestics. But a small garden is usually attached to each cottage; and they are also allowed to keep a cow, as part of their wages,—not upon any particular spot of their own, but along with their master's cows. Their fuel is carried home by their master's teams, and a part of his own field, ready dressed, is assigned them for raising potatoes, flax, or other crops for their families. Thus, with little risk from the seasons or markets, and without any other demand on their time than a few leisure hours will satisfy, these people enjoy all the advantages which the occupancy of land can confer on a labourer. And there is not a more useful, we may also add, a more comfortable, body of men among the industrious classes of society.

To give this class of labourers four acres of land, along with every cottage, would be to render them bad servants, and worse farmers; and either a nuisance to the person on whose farm they reside, or his abject dependents for employment. The only proper residence for men who do not choose to engage, or are not wanted, as constant labourers, is in such central agricultural villages as we have just mentioned, and not on separate farms, where they are excluded from the general market for labour.

But it is needless to proceed further with this discussion. Of all the witnesses examined before the late Committees of Parliament on the corn laws, there is only one whose sentiments are opposed to the general feeling of all well-informed men, regarding the advantages that have resulted from the enlargement of farms. We shall, therefore, content ourselves with noticing what appears to be the natural progress in the size of farms,—the circumstances which prevent any possible enlargement of them from ever becoming injurious to the public,—and the influence which perfect liberty in this respect has exerted in the improvement of our agriculture.

During the feudal system, that part of an estate which was not cultivated under the direction of the proprietor himself, was let out in small allotments to his vassals, from whom he received military or other services, or a portion of the produce, in return. In these times of turbulence and ferocity, the power of the chief mainly depended on the number of his tenants; and it was therefore his policy to increase them as much as possible, by dividing his land into very small possessions. That they might assist one another in their rural labours, and in repelling the incursions to which they were incessantly exposed, these tenants were collected in a village near the castle of their lord. A certain extent of arable land was appropriated to it, on which they raised corn, and a much larger tract of waste or wood land, where their live stock pastured in common. Spirited cultivation could never be introduced into this system of occupancy; nothing more than the means of subsistence was sought by the tenantry, and power, not revenue, was the great object of the landholder.

For a long time after the fall of the feudal system, this arrangement continued to prevail with little alteration; its vestiges are still to be traced in every part of Britain; and it exists in several counties, though in a modified form, even at the present time. The common fields and commons of England, and the infield and outfield divisions of Scotland, did not originate in any regard for the welfare of the lower classes, to whom the tenancy of land is now thought to be so necessary, but in the anarchy and oppression of those dark ages in which all the landed property of the island was engrossed by a few great barons.

When these petty sovereigns were at last overthrown, and when commerce and the arts held up to them new objects of desire, and to their depressed tenantry new modes of employment and subsistence, the bond which had hitherto connected the landholder and cultivator became more and more feeble, and it was soon found necessary to establish it upon other foundations than those of feudal protection and dependence. The connection between landlord and tenant came gradually and generally to assume that commercial form, which is at once most conducive to their own interest, and to the general welfare.

One great obstacle to this change was the want of capital ready to be embarked in agricultural pursuits. Under the feudal system there could be little or no accumulation. Property in land was the only means of obtaining the command of labour, and a share of the produce its only recompense. Accordingly, upon the breaking up of the feudal system, large tracts were taken into the immediate possession of landholders themselves, because no suitable tenants could be found. The constant superintendence required in cultivating corn-lands, as well as the absurd restrictions of those times upon the corn-trade, and the constant demand for British wool on the Conti-

General Observations.

But this resource of land proprietors was effectual only on soils of an inferior description; on good arable land, the only method by which a part of the produce could reach them in the shape of rent was, to enlarge their farms. The old occupiers were too numerous to spare any considerable part of the produce, and generally too indolent and unskilful to make any great exertions to augment it. In these circumstances, the landholder must either have virtually abandoned his property, or reduced the number of its inhabitants, who were no longer permitted by law to make him that return which had been the original condition of their tenures. But the population of the towns was now gradually increasing, and it was necessary, for the supply of their wants, as much as for the benefit of the landholders, that a large disposable produce should be obtained from the soil. The measure of enlarging farms was, therefore, in every view, indispensable. Even such of the tenants themselves, as it was necessary to displace, might have felt but a slight and temporary inconvenience, had the change been gradual. Some of them would have found employment in towns, and others as hired labourers and artisans in the country. The dismission of the small tenants seems, however, to have been the occasion of much misery; for, in the sixteenth century, manufactures and commerce had made comparatively little progress in Britain. In the present times, any length to which the private interest of landholders could operate in this manner, would, in a national point of view, be too inconsiderable to deserve notice.

It is in this way that farms have been enlarged. The most skilful and industrious of these small tenants were naturally preferred, and their possessions afterwards enlarged as their capital increased. The consequence everywhere has been, a better system of cultivation, affording a higher rent to the land proprietor, and a greater supply of land produce for the general consumption.

But it is only for a time, and to a very limited extent, that the enlargement of farms can proceed. The interest of the landlord, which gave the first impulse, is ever vigilant to check its progress, when it is attempted to carry the measure beyond due bounds. It is in this that the security of the public consists, if it were ever possible that the public interest should be endangered by the enlargement of farms. Accordingly, in most of our counties, a few tenants, of superior knowledge and capital, have been seen to hold considerable tracts of land, which, after a few years, were divided into a number of separate farms. The practice of these men is a lesson to their neighbours; and their success never fails to bring forward, at the expiration of their leases, a number of competitors. Whenever skill and capital come to be generally diffused, there can be few instances of very large farms, if a fair competition be permitted. No individual, whatever may be his fortune and abilities, can then pay so high a rent for several farms, each of them of such a size as to give full room for the use of machinery, and other economical arrangements, as can be got from separate tenants. The impossibility of exercising that vigilant superintendence, which is so indispensable in agricultural concerns, cannot long be compensated by any advantages which a great farmer may possess. His operations cannot be brought together to one spot, like those of the manufacturer; the materials on which he works are seldom in the same state for a few days,—and his instruments, animated and mechanical, are exposed to a great many accidents, which his judgment and experience must be called forth instantly to repair.

It has been said, indeed, that a great farmer may pay a higher rent, because he saves the family expenses of a number of small tenants. But from what fund do these tenants maintain their families? It ought to be either from the profits of their capital, or the wages of their labour, or from both combined, and certainly not from the landlord's just share, in the shape of an abatement of rent. If they cannot pay so high a rent, it must be because their capital and labour are less productive to the public than those of the large farmer. Such men might, in most cases, be employed with more advantage, even to themselves, in some other profession.

The various other reasons assigned for the great enlargement of farms, are equally nugatory. There is generally no saving to the landlord in buildings and fences; and a very small difference of rent will pay for the trouble of keeping accounts, and settling with twenty tenants instead of one. The fact certainly is, that the principal, if not the only reason, why farms have been enlarged, is, the higher rent paid by their occupiers. To pay this rent, they must bring to market more produce; and this they are enabled to do, by the distribution of their crops and tied live stock to suitable soils and pastures; by an economical arrangement and regular succession of labour throughout the year; by the use of machinery; and, still more than all, perhaps, by the investment of capital in those permanent improvements, which augment both the quantity and value of their products. Rent, in fact, is an almost unerring measure of the amount of the free produce; and there is no better criterion for determining whether a tract of country be laid out in farms of a proper size, than the amount of the rent paid to its proprietors. Their interest is, in this instance, completely identified with that of the great body of the people.

If we examine the various sizes of farms, in those districts where the most perfect freedom exists, and the best management prevails, we shall find them determined, with few exceptions, by the degree of the Nature superintendence which they require. Hence pastoral farms are the largest; next, such as are composed both of grazing and tillage lands; then, such rich soils as carry cultivated crops every year; and, finally, the farms near large towns, where the grower of corn gradually gives way to the market-gardener, cultivating his little spot by manual labour. The hills of the south of Scotland are distributed into farms of the first class; the counties of Berwick and Roxburgh into those of the second; and the smaller farms of the Lothians and of the Carse of Gowrie, where there seems to be no want of capital for the management of large farms, are a sufficient proof of the general principle which determines the size of farms.

It must readily appear from these remarks, in what manner the enlargement of farms, or rather the absence of all restraint upon the transactions of the landholder and farmer, has promoted the improvement of our agriculture. To confine the practice of this important art to the manual labour of men in a state of poverty and dependence, would be no less injudicious, and much more ruinous in a national point of view, than to destroy all the extraordinary inventions for saving labour in our manufactures. The effects of capital and machinery are the same in both departments. But no man of education, and in circumstances much above the condition of a common labourer, would ever engage in farming, if his concerns could be no farther extended than to fifty or one hundred acres held at rack-rent; and on such farms, there is no room for the most economical machinery,—for convertible husbandry, by which land is preserved in its highest fertility,—or, indeed, for any of those arrangements, which approach in their effects to the division of labour in other arts.

Besides those general causes of the improvement of the agriculture of Britain, arising from the division of landed property—the existence of a distinct class of professional farmers, whose rights are secured by leases, and whose exertions are stimulated by a rent settled by competition—and the opportunities held out for the investment of capital as far as it promises to be profitable,—there are several others of a more limited or temporary nature, but which it is only necessarily barely to mention. The most important of these is the extent of the British market, which, for many years, has required more corn than was grown in the country. The gradual rise of price, which was the necessary consequence of this, and still more the enormous prices of several late years, in which foreign supplies were obtained with difficulty or altogether withheld, have contributed in no small degree to the improvement of our own ample resources. This has been further promoted by the facility and expedition with which commodities of every kind are transported by means of canals, roads, and railways. And the liberal accommodations afforded by the banking establishments, have enabled British farmers to operate upon extensive wastes, of which the improvement must be advantageous to the public, even though, should these temporary aids be withdrawn, it may not be profitable to themselves.

The progress of a correct system of agriculture, has been far more rapid in Scotland than in England; the effects, at least, have been more conspicuous. Not only the rents paid in Scotland, but the actual produce per acre, and still more the disposable produce, seem to be greater than in England, wherever the comparison is made with land of a similar quality, and with an allowance for the difference in climate and markets. This remark naturally leads us to advert to some circumstances, which seem materially to impede the agricultural improvement of the country, particularly the southern half of it; and with one or two observations on this head we shall conclude this article.

The low state of agriculture in many parts of Britain, with the great advance in the price of corn within the last twenty years, on the one hand, and the abundance of capital, displayed in the manufactures and commerce of the country, as well as in the immense sums lent to government, on the other, are circumstances sufficient to convince every reflecting mind, that there is no want either of means or of inducements to the improvement of our territory. It is impossible, indeed, to travel through the country in any direction, without feeling a strong conviction that there must be some serious obstacles to the investment of capital in agriculture. The circumstances which seem to have the most weight in determining men of capital to engage in any particular profession, are the security and productiveness of that capital, the power of transferring it, and the degree of estimation in which the profession is held by the public. To the absence of these essential requisites we must ascribe the backward state of this art, notwithstanding all the other motives, both of a public and private nature, which have long existed for its advancement.

To the class of drawbacks upon agriculture, and impediments to its improvement, belong tithes,—poor-rates,—payments in the shape of fines, and services exacted by the lords of manors,—enfeoffments,—tenancy at will, or on very short leases,—unfair restrictions on the tenant as to the disposal of his lease, and as to the management of the lands during its currency,—the game laws,—and the complicated regulations under which commons and common fields are cultivated, and the great expense required to place them in a state of severity.

It appears, that nearly three fourths of the lands of Tithes, England and Wales, are exposed to claims which wrest from the husbandman one-tenth of the gross produce of his labour and capital, and this, whether the remainder of the produce be or be not sufficient for his remuneration. Though no rent were paid for poor soils, this burden alone would effectually prohibit their correct cultivation; and even in the case of rich soils, tithes diminish the rent so considerably, as to make it the interest of landlords, in many parts of England, to restrain their tenants from converting grass lands into tillage; that is, from placing them under the most productive management for the community, both in regard to the supply of food and of employment.

To the enlightened inquirer it must appear abundantly clear, that all plans for the extension and improvement of British agriculture must prove ineffectual, so long as these capital obstacles are left untouched; and that their removal is all that need be done, and all that ought to be done by a wise government, for securing an abundant supply of the first necessaries of life. Let all land be held and occupied in sevendly,—let it be exempted from all indefinite exactions, particularly such as diminish, or altogether absorb the just returns of capital and industry,—let the connection between the land proprietor and the farmer be everywhere formed upon equitable principles, to the exclusion of all remnants. EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.

Plate I. Figures 1 and 2 are different views of the Swing-plough, made wholly of iron; fig. 3, the body in one entire piece of cast-iron, which is attached to a wooden beam with screw-bolts. Fig. 4, a plan of the Grabber, the inner frame made to rise upon hinges, so as to keep the tines or coulters from the ground, when it is removed from one field to another, and supported by iron stays. Fig. 5, section of the same, the forewheel dragged in going down hill. Fig. 6, three different views of the coulters. Fig. 7 and 8, a Drill-harrow, to work between the rows of plants, and made to contract or expand according to the width of the interval. Fig. 9, 10, Common harrows, each drawn by its own horse, though two and often three work together. Fig. 11, and 12, Improved harrows, in general use for covering grass seeds, by which all the ruts or tracks are made equidistant. See p. 114.

Plate II. Fig. 1. Elevation of a Draining plough drawn with a horse windlass, in which AB is the beam, C the coulter, and D the stem of the mole a : b is a small roller placed at the end of the beam, to keep the mole always at a regular depth beneath the surface. E, the handles, attached to the end of the beam by a bolt, on which they move so as that they may be set at any required elevation, having an iron sector c to confine them, by a pin which fastens it to the end of the beam; and there are several different holes in the sector. F is a wheel or roller, to support the end A of the beam; it is fitted in iron pieces, descending from the frame G, which, at one end, is fastened to the beam AB, by a bolt passing through all the three pieces. The frame G has an arch d, fixed to it, which passes through the beam, and is pierced with holes to fix the beam at any required elevation. The two pieces G are so inclined, that they will be sufficiently distant from each other at the front end, to form the sides of the frame which admits the windlass or roller K to work between them. Upon this windlass, the chain L is wound, when the windlass is turned round by the wheel and pinion Z, with two handles X, as shewn in the figure. A cross piece is framed between the two pieces G, and into this the iron arch d, and the wheel irons F, are fixed in the front. There is also an iron bolt extended from one piece G to the other, so that a frame is formed for the roller. The great chain L is passed through a block or pulley M, which is hooked into the eye, at the end of the shank of the anchor N, and the other end of the chain being conducted back to the plough, is hooked to a piece of notched iron fixed in the beam, behind the stem D of the share; by this means this windlass has a double purchase to draw the plough forwards with the greater power.

In the use of this plough, the anchor is carried forwards, to the extent of the chain L, and being held by one man, with its point on the ground, whilst another man turns the windlass, it draws itself into the ground, which the other aids by striking it with a beetle or large mallet.—Fig. 2 shows the form of the drain made by the pressure of the iron cone or mole, without throwing out any earth, no other mark being left on the surface, than the small opening through which the coulter passed, which closes in a few days.

Fig. 3. Another plough of the same description. A, a wheel coulter turning in a long mortise made through the beam B, just before the stem a of the mole b. This wheel being made sharp upon its circumference, cuts the same opening as a coulter would, but with less friction. D, a roller at the end of the beam.

Fig. 4 is a similar machine with an improved capstan; EE, the wheels to keep the drain always at the same depth; F, the coulter; G, the stem or share, adjustable by wedges or pins in the beam K; H is the mole fixed at its lower end; L, a roller to regulate the depth of the drain; M, the handles which are moveable by means of the pin g; a, a hook with notches, by which the point of the draught is altered in height, and it is carried to the right or left by the notches in the frame b (see fig. 5.), into which the chain of traction is hooked; c is a piece of iron attached to the beam between the wheels EE, to keep the chain in its place; d (fig. 5.) is an iron spindle for the wheels to turn upon; f an eye to prevent the chain from falling down, and e is a pin to keep the spindle d from turning. The horse is harnessed to the lever X, and, as he walks round, turns the axis Y, which communicates motion to the capstan A by the cog-wheels R W. NN are two wheels for the support of the frame of the capstan, and a third wheel, P, is situated at the end of the pole O, being fixed in a piece of iron r, which can be raised or lowered through the pole to incline the axis of the capstan from the perpendicular, that the chain of traction B may wind upon the capstan regularly from one end to the other. By these three wheels, the capstan is also adapted to uneven ground, raising or lowering the roller P, through the end of Explanation of the pole O. Z is an anchor connected with the pole O by a chain n, or by two chains, if the strain renders them necessary, by which the capstan is prevented from being moved by the force of the draught.

The manner of removing the capstan and frame is this: Suppose the chain wound up upon the capstan, and the plough, as shown in the figure, drawn up as near the capstan as it can move, without interfering with the horse path,—the horse is unhooked from the end of the lever X, and put to a ring in the shank of the anchor at m, by which he raises the anchor, and draws along the capstan upon its wheels NN, the chain or rope B unwinding from the capstan as it recedes from the plough. When all the chain is unwound in this manner, the horse is taken back to the lever X, which he begins to turn round, and thus winds up the draught chain B, during which the anchor and the stays ll are again fixed in the ground.

Figs. 8, 9, are segments or cases of wood, which are employed to increase the diameter of the capstan; the chief advantage of this machine over others of the same kind, being the variety of powers which it possesses.

Fig. 6 is a Plough for making open drains. The share A has a coulter B fixed to it, projecting upwards, to cut one side of the drain; which, when finished, will be as represented in fig. 7; D is another coulter fixed to the beam, and also to the share at the lowest end. The sod which is thus cut out, passes between the coulter D, and the mould-board E, which lifts it clearly out of the trench; E and F are wheels, which, being fixed to irons e, regulate the depth to which the drains shall be cut. The beam, handles, and other parts, are evident from the figure. This plough is drawn sometimes by four, and sometimes by six horses, and may form a drain from five to nine inches deep.

Plate III.

Fig. 1. A machine for sowing turnips. A, cover of seed canister, held up to show it. B, seed canister, with holes on the circumference at the middle part a. These holes can be enlarged or diminished by means of a broad tin ring, which can be moved round the canister, (see Z on the figures apart). C, second seed canister with cover; DD, tin funnels, through which the seed falls to the coulters EE; FF, a piece of iron fixed to the handles HH, and to the coulters to regulate their force; II, wheels at both ends of roller L, by which it is supported; KKK, communicating wheels from the axis of roller L, to the axis of the seed-canisters BC; L, roller for flattening the top of the ridge before the seed is deposited; G, another roller which assists in covering it by compressing the earth opened up by the coulters. See page 116.

Fig. 2. ABC, a Double mould-board plough, with its mould-boards taken off, and expanding wings applied with circular coulters, for paring the edges of the drills; DD, the expanding arms, which are removed when the mould-boards are put on; EE, the circular coulters; P, a back view of a coulter; F, a scuffle, two of which are applied at pleasure, in place of EE, the circular coulters. Fig. 3, GG, the mould-boards taken off. Fig. 4, a One horse paring-plough, to which the beam and handles AC (fig. 2,) are applied when taken from the body B, and secured by three screwed bolts, at 1, 2, 3; I, the coulter for the paring plough. Fig. 5, A Drill harrow, to which also the beam and handles AC (fig. 2,) are applied in the same manner; KKK, scuffles or hoes, which row may be applied to the harrow in place of tines. Fig. 6, part of a common plough, with a wheel brake attached; A, the axle screwed to the plough; BB, the screws; C, the wheel, (See page 134). Fig 7, a Roller to be worked by two horses abreast, made of cast-iron.

Plate IV.

Fig. 1, a close bodied Two-horse cart with frames Cart for carrying hay and corn in the straw. The frames at other times are withdrawn.

Fig. 2. Apparatus for yoking horses in thrashing machines. AA, the perpendicular axle, in which are fastened the arms BB that carry the great wheel. Thrashing CDM and EF, the limbers at which the horses draw. Into each of these are placed two running sleeves, as 1, 2, in the limber C; 3, 4, in the limber D, &c. GH, a frame fixed on the axle A and arms B; PI, shifting blocks upon this frame. In each of these blocks are placed two sleeves, over which pass the endless rope or chain P, 5, R, which connect the shifting blocks (see DD and 13 fig. 3); KLMNO, the hooks to which the horses are yoked, these hooks being fastened on the ropes 1, 3, G, and H, 7, 9. In this manner all the ropes are connected, and of course the power of all the horses united. Fig. 3, A A, the axle in which are fixed the arms BBBBB; C C, frames in the axle; 11 and 14, shifting blocks, movable either inward to the axle or outward from it; D D, an endless rope or chain which passes over the blocks at 12 and 13; EE, two sleeves by which this rope is kept clear of the axle; FF and FP ropes, which pass over the blocks at 11 and 14; GGGG, running sleeves over which pass the double ropes by which the horses draw; HILMN and OP, the limbers (see CD and EF, fig. 2). Each horse is yoked to two hooks as 1, 2—3, 4, &c. By this means the draught will always press the collars upon the horses' shoulders, whether they incline to pull outward or inward, so that if one of the horses relax, he is thus excited to exertion. The figures represent the machine as worked by four horses, but the same apparatus may be applied to one worked by two or by six horses.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a small Thrashing Small mill worked by one or two men. Fig. 5, A, the feeding Thrashing board; B, the rollers; and C, the drum to which the beaters are attached. (See the figures of a thrashing-mill annexed to the Article Thrashing in the body of this work.)

Fig. 6, a kind of short Scythe employed in Hainault in Flanders for cutting the crops; it is used with Scythe success for every kind of crop except grass; and has been lately introduced into England by G. H. Rose, Esq. of Muddeford, in Hampshire. ABE, the wooden handle, an inch and a quarter diameter, held in the mower's right hand by the part AB, which is about five inches long. The part BE is 16 to 22 inches long, according to the height of the mowers. At \( \alpha \) is a leathern loop, through which the fore finger is passed, and there is a knob at the extremity which would prevent the hand slipping off, if the loop should break or the finger slip out of it. The blade \( EF \) is about two feet long and \( 2\frac{1}{2} \) inches broad at the middle. The handle is attached to the blade at \( E \) in such a manner as that its plane makes an angle with the handle \( BE \), by which the mower is able to cut a little upwards, but almost close to the ground, without stooping, while the handle \( EB \), inclines to the horizon about 60 or 70 degrees. The line of the handle \( AB \), if produced, will nearly pass through the point of the blade \( F \), and this gives the means of controlling the point, whilst the forefinger in the loop commands the heel \( E \).—Fig. 7, GH, a light staff terminating in an iron hook \( I \), is used at the same time with the scythe. The mower holds it in his left hand by the middle, the curved part of the hook over the scythe in a similar position to its blade \( E F \), and above it, their points being exactly above each other. In working, the mower moves both together, making the hook to pass behind the straw at about the middle of its height, to separate and bear it slightly down towards the left hand, while the blade follows with a motion from right to left to cut off the straw at two to four inches above the ground.

In order further to explain the process of Hainault mowing, fig. 8 represents the corner of a field of corn, in the process of mowing by three mowers at \( D E F \), who are following each other with their respective swathes. The breadths of corn cut at every stroke, are carried forward by the joint operation of the blade and the hook, and collected at the left hand of the mower, where he leaves them standing almost erect, but leaning to the left against the standing corn as at \( n \). When as much is cut as will make a sheaf, the mower turns to the left so as to face the standing corn at \( n \), introduces his hook behind the middle of the leaning parcels, and at the same time the scythe point near the bottom, then moving sideways to the left, returning over the ground he has mown, he draws and collects the cut corn, still, by means of the hook and scythe, preserving the erect position of the straw, to the place where the last collecting operation ended; then wheeling round to the left with the hook still embracing the middle of the whole cut corn, he stops the motion of the scythe, whilst the hook still moves forward to the left, so as to overset the corn and lay it evenly along on the stubble, as shown at \( r r r \), with the ears towards the right, ready for the binder. In oversetting the collected corn he uses his left foot if necessary. The mower now advances to the front and commences the cuts for a new sheaf as before, always working towards the standing corn and not from it. With the Hainault scythe, about twice as much corn, it is said, may be cut in the same time, as with the common reaping-hook, and a great deal more of the straw is saved.

**Plate V.**

Fig. 1. A perspective view of Mr Plucknet's Reaping-machine. \( AB \), the great wheels, having the wheel \( C \) upon their axis, to turn a pinion, on the lower end of a verticle spindle, which carries a wheel \( D \); \( c \) a small pulley fixed at the upper end of the axis \( E \), of the circular cutter \( G \); \( F \) the iron plate for supporting the axis beneath which the cutter is situated; and it is turned over the edge of the wheel \( A \), to guard the standing corn from it; \( H \) the handles, \( K \) the horse shafts, placed on the left side of the cutter, and fixed to the frame of the machine by hinges, and having irons \( b \), with various pin-holes.

Fig. 2. is an elevation, and fig. 3. a plan of Sal-Salmon's mon's Reaping-machine. \( AA \), two large wheels, not fixed fast upon their axle, but having clicks fitted upon the naves, which act in the teeth of wheels, \( a \), (fig. 3,) fixed fast to the axis; \( b \) is a contrate wheel, which turns a pinion, \( c \), (fig. 2,) fixed on the lower end of the perpendicular axle, which, at the upper end, has the cog-wheel \( D \), for the purpose of turning another vertical axis, \( d \), by means of a pinion, \( E \). The latter axis has a fly-wheel, \( F \), fixed on the upper end, to regulate the motion, and at the lower end a crank, which, by means of the rod \( f \), gives motion to the shears by which the corn is cut. These are marked \( G \), being four in number. The fixed blades are firmly attached to an iron bar, \( e \), which is fixed across the frame of the machine, and the moving blades have their centre-pins fixed in the same bar, but the levers or tails are jointed to one iron rod, \( g \), which is at one end connected with the rod, \( f \), of the crank; therefore, by its revolution, it moves the rod backwards and forwards, and causes all the shears to open and shut together. In order to make the shears cut perfectly, the rod \( g \) is suspended by a small iron rod at each end, one of which is seen at \( h \) in the elevation, fig. 2; these pass through mortises in the upper cross-rail of the frame, and have nuts upon them, by which they can be made to draw up the rod \( g \), and thus press the cutting parts of the blades together, to make them cut properly, although the rods \( h \) are at liberty to vibrate sufficiently for the motion of the rod \( g \).

The tails of the shears are covered with a sort of table, or platform, of iron plate, omitted in the plan, but shewn edgways by the dark line \( H \), in the elevation. This plate comes as far as the centre-pins, and turns up against the front of the frame, so as to prevent the corn which the shears cut from falling down into the shears, but the butts, or cut ends of the corn rest upon this plate until a sufficient parcel is collected, and it is then removed sidewise by the rake \( K \). This consists of a light frame of wood, composed of three upright bars and cross braces; it is guided by passing through between two rails, \( k \), supported by uprights, \( r \), fixed to the frame of the machine, but has liberty to rise and fall, and also to move out of the perpendicular, by means of a light crank, \( m \), of considerable radius, which is fixed upon the extremity of a spindle, \( L \), which receives motion by a small bevelled wheel, \( l \), upon the end of it, from another bevelled wheel, fixed upon the vertical axis. The consequence of this motion is, that the points of the rake will, as in the figure, rest upon the iron plate \( H \), which covers the shears, and the motion of the crank advancing them across it, they remove the corn sidewise, laying it on the ground. The forward part of the machine is supported by the wheel \( M \), which is fitted in a fork at the lower end of an iron rod \( N \), and this passing through a mortise in the frame, has pin- holes to fix it at any required height. This regulates the height at which the shears cut. The wheel M is, in part, sunk into the thickness of the board O, and a piece of iron plate is fixed on the outside of it, to guard the corn from entanglement. The pointed edge of the board O, is made sharp, for the purpose of separating the corn which is intended to be cut, from that which is to be left standing. From this a curved rail, P, is extended, and also made sharp. From the extreme end of the frame a light iron rod, Q, is extended, with a gradual curve, as the figures shew, and it is fixed at the opposite end to the other part of the frame. This rod acts as a stay, and also to gently bend down the heads of the corn, so that the straw may come to the shears in an inclined position, to be removed by the rake.

The machine is guided by a man, who holds the two handles S in the manner of a wheelbarrow, and he has, just before him, a wedge, R, which, being thrust inwards by his knee, will lift up the pinion e, (fig. 2,) upon its axle, and thus disengage it from the teeth of the great wheel b. In this state the machine can be wheeled without turning the machinery; but, on withdrawing the wedge, as in the figure, the pinion descends to its proper place, and the motion is communicated to the whole machine when it is wheeled along. As the drawing was made from an experimental machine, to which the horse shafts were never applied, they are omitted in the figure, but their application may be easily conceived.

The manner in which the machine operates is evident from the description. The stems of the corn are received in the open shears, being gathered in by pieces of iron plate, s, (fig. 3,) which are fixed upon the bar e, carrying the fixed blades, and, as these are pointed, they separate the corn, and conduct the whole into one or other of the shears; and it is cut when they close up. The fixed blades of the shears are made double, as shewn in the separate view, fig. 4; and the moving blades, having edges on both sides, cut either in opening or shutting; for, as the machine is constantly advancing, a space must always be left open for the reception of the corn, whilst the parcel already included within the shears is cutting off.

On trial of this machine, it was found that it did not effect a separation when the ears of the corn were entangled by wind, so that the cut corn frequently had an ear or two attached to that which remained standing, by which it was thrown into confusion. But this defect, it is hoped, may be obviated.

Plate VI.

Fig. 1 represents a profile of Mr Smith's Reaping-machine, complete, and in operation, the near horse and carriage-wheel being however removed, that the view of the framing and gearing may not be obstructed. It will be seen by this figure and fig. 2 (which is a bird-eye view of the machine), that the horses are yoked one on each side of a pole, which runs back from the frame of the carriage. The person who drives the horses and directs the machine walks behind, having command of the horses by a set of common plough reins, and directing the machine by a hold of the end of the pole. The horses draw from a cross bar at the end of the pole by common plough chains, the back-weight of the carriage resting on their common cart-saddles, by means of an apparatus such as is used in curricles. On the fore part of the carriage is hung a horizontal circular cutter, surmounted by a drum, the blade of the cutter projecting 5½ inches beyond the periphery of the lower end of the drum. When the carriage is moving forward, a rapid rotatory motion is communicated to the cutter and drum, from the motion of the carriage wheels, by means of a series of wheels, pinions, and shafts. The diameter of the cutter projects beyond the carriage-wheels on each side, so as to cut a breadth sufficient to allow the carriage and horses to pass along without risk of treading down the uncut corn. The corn being cut by the rapid motion of the cutter, the lower ends rest upon the blade of the cutter, and the upper parts coming in contact with the drum, the whole is carried round, and thrown off in a regular row at the side of the machine. The lower ends taking the ground first, the heads fall outwards, the stalks lying parallel to each other, and at nearly a right angle to the line of motion of the machine. The corn lying thus in regular rows, is easily gathered into sheaves by the hand, or by a rake, fork, or other convenient instrument, and is bound in the usual way.

Minute Description of the Plate.

Figs. 1 and 2. A, the frame of the carriage, made of oak, or other strong wood, and put firmly together, by bed-bolts screwed into the cross bars B, C, the pole, made fast to the cross bars. D, a cross bar, at the extremity of the pole, from which the horses pull; this bar is of iron, in order to give sufficient weight on the horses' backs. E, the carriage-wheels, 5 feet diameter, and 6 inches broad in the tread. F, the cutter, 5 feet 4 inches in diameter, composed of six segments bolted to an iron ring, 1½ inch broad and ½ inch thick, which ring is connected to the foot of the upright spindle, Z, by the cross arms, G.—Fig. 6 shews one of these segments on a larger scale; a is of hard wood, 3½ inches broad and 1 inch thick; b &c are of German steel, and of a scythe temper, 3½ inches broad, and ½ inch thick at the back; they overlap the wood, to which they are rivetted, 1½ inch, their upper side being flush with the wood; c, a small iron stop, to keep the segments from shifting at the joints; d, holes through which the ring-bolts pass. Fig. 5 is a transverse section of fig. 6.—H, figs. 1 and 2, a conical drum of slight tin-plate or basket-work, whose lower periphery is 5 inches within the edge of the cutter, but whose upper periphery extends as far as that of the cutter. This drum is two feet deep, connected to the same ring with the cutter below, and to the spindle above, by another ring, with four arms. The drum is covered on the outside with canvas, on which perpendicular strips of soft rope are sewed, being one inch thick, and three or four inches apart, as shewn at I; these give sufficient friction to carry round the cut corn, whilst, from their softness, they have no tendency to shake or thrash it. The horses are yoked to the cross bar D by common plough Explanation chains; an upright rod J, and cross rod K, serve the purpose both of belly-band and back-band, the ends of the cross rod passing through iron eyes, screwed temporarily to the wooden ridge of common cart saddles, which are kept firm on the horse's back by a strong extra girth, L. The breeching-chains are linked to the draught chains. M, a breast chain passing through a ring made fast to the hames, and drawn up to an eye N, on the side of the pole. Fig. 4, is an inside view of the naves of the carriage wheels; a, a transverse section of the axle; b, a ratch wheel made fast on the square of the axle; c, catches, moveable on pivots made fast to the nave; d, slight springs to keep the catches in gear. By this means the wheels carry the axle in revolution with them when the carriage is moved forward, but move round upon it when the carriage is drawn in a contrary direction. This construction is necessary, to facilitate the turning of the machine. The axle moves in two cast iron seats with caps, on which the frame of the carriage rests. A wheel O, (figs. 1 and 2,) of 24 teeth of 1\(\frac{1}{2}\) inch pitch, works into an intermediate wheel of the same dimensions. This wheel is in gear of a pinion P of 12 teeth, fast on the end of the cross shaft, Q. At the centre of this shaft, two bevelled wheels, R, with long sockets, are fitted loose. These wheels have each 28 teeth of 1\(\frac{1}{2}\) inch pitch; in the bosom of these is a double reversing catch, which will be best explained by reference to fig. 3, which is a longitudinal section of the cross shaft with the wheels and catch; a, the shaft; b, the pinion, P, of fig. 2.; c, the bevelled wheels, R, of fig. 2, having long sockets fitted loose on the shaft; d, a double catch, which is moveable longitudinally on the shaft, but is carried in revolution with it, by means of the feather e upon the shaft, fitted into a corresponding groove in the catch. This catch can be put into gear of either of the wheels at pleasure, by means of the lever, f, (figs. 1 and 2,) moveable on a stool at T, and kept to its place when set, by notches in an iron stand at U. Both of the wheels are constantly in gear of a pinion of 14 teeth, V, (figs. 1 and 2,) and f, (fig. 3.)—By thus reversing the gearing, the cutter and drum can be made to revolve to the right or left, and consequently, will throw the cut corn to either side of the machine at pleasure. On the opposite end of the shaft, W, (figs. 1 and 2,), on which the pinion V is fixed, is a bevelled wheel X of 28 teeth, in gear of a pinion Y of 14 teeth on the upright spindle, Z. The velocity is so raised by these wheels and pinions, that the cutter makes 128 revolutions per minute, when the machine moves at the rate of 2\(\frac{3}{4}\) miles per hour, the edge of the cutter passing through 92 feet per second. The pinion Y has a long socket with a groove, to which is fitted a feather, one inch long, on the upright spindle Z, by which the spindle is moveable up and down in the socket, whilst it is carried in revolution with it. The spindle Z has three bearings, one in a brass bush, a, fixed in an iron stay-frame, b; a second bearing in a wooden bush with a cap on the front of the cross bar at c; and a third in a socket resting on the small wheels, d. These wheels serve to keep the cutter always at an equal height from the ground. The particular construction of these wheels, with that of the frame and socket, will be better understood by reference to figs. 7 and 8. Fig. 8. a perpendicular section of the foot of the upright spindle and socket; a, the spindle, b, the socket; c, a groove in the spindle, into which the points of two screw pins, d, passing through the sides of the socket, are fitted. These are necessary to keep the spindle in its place, and to bear up the wheels when the spindle is raised. Fig. 7, is a bird-eye view of the wheels and carriage, with a transverse section of the socket and spindle; a, the wheels, 1\(\frac{1}{2}\) inches in diameter and 3 inches broad; b, the axle, to which is fastened an iron frame, c, moveable on a pivot at d, on the point of the iron bar, f, and in a socket at e: the bar f is one inch square, having a long ruff at g, which is turned and fitted to the eye e of the socket, fig. 8. The bar is bent so as to pass close under the cutter at e, (fig. 1,) and runs up to the pole, having a joint at f. This bar is necessary to relieve the point of the upright spindle of the resistance opposed to the wheels in moving along. The cutter can be placed higher or lower on the spindle, so as to cut the straw to any height, by means of a series of holes through the spindle; pins passing through holes in the sockets of the arms, and the most suitable of the series. The cutter can also be screwed to any height from the ground, from two to eighteen inches, by means of an iron lever, g, on the point of which is a brass socket, in which the upright spindle runs, and on which it rests by means of a ruff at h. The lever is hung by an iron chain, i, passing over a pulley at j, and joining two iron rods at k, which connect it with a screw box, l, which is moved backwards and forwards, by turning round the screw, m. To the end of this screw is connected an iron rod, which runs along the upper side of the pole to a bearing at n. At the end of this rod is a winch, o, of 9 inches radius, by which the person who guides the machine can turn round the screw, and so raise or lower the cutter at pleasure. This is principally of use to raise the cutter when passing over a deep furrow, or in going from one field to another: p, is a hollow piece of wood put upon the end of the rod, by which the man holds with one hand when guiding the machine. In most cases, the cutters will cut \(\frac{1}{4}\) of an acre without requiring to be sharpened, which can be done in two minutes by a common scythe stone, two of which are conveniently carried in two leather pockets, q, fig. 2. When it is necessary to go with the machine to a distance, the upright spindle, with the drum and cutter, are taken from their place, and placed on the top of the carriage; and the small wheels are drawn close up to the cross bar. The draught bar, D, is taken from the end of the pole, and placed near the frame of the carriage in the mortice, r, fig. 1. The horses are turned to draw from it, and can in this way travel any distance, and over any roads.

We are happy to learn that this ingenious machine has been again tried (in September 1815), and with much success. A Scotch acre (\(\frac{1}{4}\) acre English) of beans was cut down with ease in an hour and a quarter. The trials made with it on wheat, though not extensive, were satisfactory; and in reaping oats, the corn was laid down in the most regular manner, at a right angle to the path of the machine. PLATE VII.

The names of the different figures, and of the divisions of fig. 5, being marked on the engraving itself; no further explanation can be necessary. (See page 119.)

PLATE VIII.

Figs. 1 and 2, are two elevations of a Bone-mill, the first being taken in front, to show the water wheel and the length of the rollers, and fig. 2, at the end, to show the bones passing through the rollers.—The water wheel, AA, is represented as being of the overshot kind; it is included between the two walls, BB, upon the top of which, the pivots or gudgeons of its axis are supported in brass bearings. A square formed on the end of one of the gudgeons, is received into a square socket, at the end of the connecting axis, D, which communicates the motion to the lowest, F, of the two rollers, the latter having a similar square on the end of its axis, to be received into the socket at the end of the connecting axis, D. The rollers are supported by a wooden frame, GG. Two iron frames, HH, are bolted down upon it, having grooves, or openings in them, of nearly the whole length, to receive the brasses for the pivots of the rollers, as shown in fig. 2. At the upper ends of these grooves, are screws, h h, by which the rollers can be made to act at a greater or less distance from each other, as the size of the bones which are to pass through them require. Two pinions, k l, are placed upon the ends of the axles of the two rollers, and by their teeth acting together, they compel the two rollers to accompany each other. The surfaces of the rollers are filled with indentations and strong teeth, which penetrate and break the bones to pieces. This is accomplished, by employing separate cast iron wheels placed side by side upon an axis, to compose the rollers; the wheels have coarse teeth similar to those of a saw, or ratchet wheel; each wheel of the lower roller, F, is an inch thick; and they are placed at distances of an inch and a half asunder, having circles of hard wood or iron, placed between them, which are two inches less in diameter. Thus they leave grooves, between the toothed wheels, which have the effect of rendering the teeth upon the surface of the roller insulated. The wheels of the opposite roller, E, are 1½ inch wide, and the spaces between them only 1 inch; and the two are so situated, with respect to each other, that the teeth upon one, are opposite to the spaces between the teeth of the other, as is clearly explained by the figure. A hopper, II, is fixed above the machine, over the rollers, and into this the bones are filled, so that they rest upon the two rollers, and are drawn in by their motion, the teeth penetrating and breaking every piece however large or solid it may be. The bones should be supplied rather gradually to the machine at first, to avoid choking it, and the rollers should then be adjusted to a considerable distance asunder; but when the bones have once passed through in this way, the rollers are screwed closer by the screws, h h, and the fragments ground a second time. This will generally be found sufficient, as it is not advisable to reduce the bones to a state of extreme division. The pinions must have deep cogs, to enable them to take deep hold of each other, when the rollers are set at only half an inch distance to grind fine, and without the cogs being liable to slip when the centres are separated, so far as to leave a space of 1 inch, or 1½ inches, between the rollers, for the passage of the large bones the first time. The rollers will act most effectually, if the different wheels are fixed upon their axles in such a position, that the teeth will not correspond, or form lines parallel to the axes, and then no piece of bone can escape without being broken by some of the teeth. The bones which have passed through the rollers, slide down the inclined board, R, and collect at the bottom in a large heap. When all the stock of bones are thus coarsely broken, a labourer takes them up in a shovel and throws them again to the hopper, to be ground a second time.

Fig. 3. A machine for grinding Potatoe Flour. Machine for A, a cylinder covered with tin-plates, pierced with holes, so as to leave a rough surface, in the same manner as the graters used for nutmegs, &c., but the holes in this are larger. This cylinder is situate beneath a hopper B, into which the potatoes are thrown, and thence admitted into a kind of trough C, where they are forced against the cylinder, which, as it revolves, grinds the potatoes to a pulp. Motion is given to the machine by a handle fixed upon the end of the axis of the grating cylinder A, and on the opposite extremity of this axis is a fly-wheel D, to regulate and equalize the movement. The potatoes, when put into the hopper, press by their weight upon the top of the cylinder, and, as it revolves, they are in part grated away. On one side of the lower part of the hopper is an opening, closed or opened, more or less, at pleasure, by a slider d, and the degree of opening which this has regulates the passage of the potatoes from the hopper into the trough C. This is as wide as the length of the cylinder, and has a concave board R fitted into it, which slides backwards and forwards by the action of levers a, fixed to an axis extended across the frame of the machine, and a lever N is fixed upon this axis, and carries a weight which acts upon the board R, by means of the levers, to force or press forwards the potatoes contained in the trough C against the cylinder, and complete the grating of them into a pulp. The tin-plate covering the cylinder is of course pierced from the inside outwards, and the bur or rough edge, left round each hole, forms an excellent rasping surface.

Fig. 4. A Potatoe-scop. A, The end of the handle, having a round stem, which passes through a piece scop. of metal D, and has then a semicircular knife or cutter E fixed to it. This is sharp on both edges, and turns upon a pivot, shewn by the dotted lines, fitted in a similar piece of brass to D, which, as well as the latter, is formed out of a piece of plate BC. This forms a shield to hold the instrument firm upon the potatoe, by placing the thumb of the left hand upon the shield BC, and pressing the points of D into the root, which is grasped in the hand; then, by turning the handle half round with the right hand, the semicircular knife makes a sweep, and cuts out a piece or set, which is a segment of a small sphere. Fig. 5. is an end view of the shield BC, and the knife E, also the piece of brass D, placed upon the surface of a potatoe F, in which the dotted line FG shews the piece the knife will cut out by its motion. The

Explanation only attention necessary in the use of this tool is, that it is placed upon the potatoe, with the eye or part from whence the shoot springs in the centre of the semicircle of the knife, when it is laid flat upon the root. The advantage of this scoop, besides that it is very quick in its operation, is, that the pieces, being all of one exact size, which is about one inch diameter, they can be planted, by a bean-barrow or drill-machine, with much less labour, and more accuracy, than by the hand.

Fig. 6. A machine for levelling land. D, a pole to which the horses or oxen are harnessed, jointed to the axle-tree E, of a pair of low wheels A.A. Into this axle-tree are mortised two long side-pieces GG, terminating in handles BB. Somewhat inclined to these long or upper side-pieces, shorter lower ones, HH, are jointed by cross pieces, and connected by strong side-boards. The machine has no bottom; its back part F is strongly attached to an axle C; to the bottom of this back-board, the Explanation of the Plates back or scraper part d of a strong iron frame a a is firmly screwed, as shewn in fig. 7, and the front ends of the slide-iron b b turning up, pass easily through mortises in the upper side-pieces G, where, by means of pins, the inclination of the slide-irons, and of the back-board, can be adjusted within narrow limits, according to the nature of the soil to be levelled, and the mass of earth previously loosened by ploughing, which the back-board is intended to collect and force before it, until the machine arrives at the place where it is intended to be deposited. Here, by lifting up the hinder part of the machine, by means of its handles, the contents are left on the ground, and the machine proceeds to a fresh hillock.

Plates IX. X. XI. XII. XIII. XIV. are sufficiently explained in the Chapter on Live Stock, from which the necessary references are made to these plates.

INDEX.

| Agriculture of Britain, causes of the superiority of | Page 190 | | Alternate Husbandry, | 143 | | Animals, carcasses of, used as manure, | 150 | | Arable Land, | 113 | | Ashes (clay), see Clay | | | Assets, | 188 | | Bacon, method of curing, | 187 | | Barley, | 131 | | Barns, | 119 | | Beans, | 132 | | Blubber, used as manure, | 130 | | Bones, | 147 | | Bone-mill, | 203 | | Brake, circular | 134, 200 | | Carrots, | 138 | | Carts, | 118, 200 | | Cattle, trade in, | 164 | | Cattle-houses, | 120 | | Chaff-cutter, | 117 | | Chalk, | 150 | | Clay, burnt, | 148 | | Clovers, saving the seeds of, | 140 | | Cockfoot, ib. | 142 | | Convertible Husbandry, | 143 | | Corn, machines for cutting and bruising, | 117 | | Cottages, | 121, 195 | | Crops, cultivated, kinds of, succession of, | 128 | | Cultivator, | 115 | | Curriers' Shavings, | 150 | | Draining-Ploughs, | Page 199 | | Drill-Machines, | 116, 200 | | Ducks, | 190 | | Eggs, | 190 | | Fallowing, | 126 | | Farmers, | 191 | | Farm-houses, | 119 | | Farm-yard Dung, | 144 | | Fingers and Toes, a disease of turnips, so called, | 137 | | Fish, used as manure, | 150 | | Folding, | 180 | | Free Martins, | 169 | | Geese, | 190 | | Goats, | 188 | | Granary, | 119 | | Grass Lands, | 150 | | Grabber, | 115, 199 | | Gypsum, | 150 | | Hainault Scythe, | 200 | | Hammels, | 121 | | Harrows, | 115, 199, 200 | | Haymaking, | 141, 152 | | Hog-sides, | 121 | | Horns, | 147 | | Horses, | 159 | | new mode of yoking, to thrashing machines, | 117, 200 | | Horse-Hoes, | 116, 200 | | Rakes, | 116 | | Implements of Tillage, | 114 | | Inclosures, | Page 122, 156 | | Irish Car, | 118 | | Iron Ploughs, | 114, 199 | | Lambs, (House,) mode of fattening near London, | 184 | | Landed Property, distribution of, in Britain, | 190 | | Leases, | 191 | | Levelling, | 126 | | Machine for, | 204 | | Lime, effects of, on hilly pastures, | 145 | | Limestone Gravel, | 150 | | Live Stock, leading and following stocks, | 159 | | Machinery, | 114 | | Manures, | 144 | | Marls, | 147 | | Meadows, | 151 | | Merinos, | 175, 181 | | Mildew, | 130 | | Miner, | 115 | | Mole Plough, | 115, 199 | | Moss, Mr Roscoe's improvements on, | 158 | | Moss and Dung Compost, | 150 | | Mud, | ib. | | Mules, | 188 | | Night-soil, | 150 | | Oats, | 131 | | Oxen, working, | 170 | | Paring Plough, and Burning, | 115, 200 |