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blest of all power,-power over yourselves. By habits of thought and application, you can gain the command of your intellectual forces, and can direct them, all disciplined and ready for action, to any required point. Any may I not hope, that, by the due examination of your own hearts, and of the moral relations in which you stand, you will, with the aid of God's blessing, be animated to the pursuit of that yet higher dominion over appetite and passion, which constitutes the perfection of our being, and for which there is reserved a crown of eternal and unfading brightness,

V. PAGE 121.

PROGRESS OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN AGRICULTURE.

Improvement slow.-Considering, says Mr. McCulloch, the wonderful facilities of communication that exist in Great Britain, and the universal diffusion of information, by means of the press, the slowness with which agricultural improvements make their way is not a little surprising. Mr. Harte mentions, that, when he was a youth, he heard Jethro Tull declare, that, though he had introduced turnips into the field in King William's reign, with little trouble or expense, and great success, the practice did not travel beyond the hedges of his own estate till after the peace of Utrecht.-(Essays, ii., page 223.) It might, one should think, be reasonably enough supposed, that improved practices would now be much more rapidly diffused; but experience shows that this is not really the case. "What is well known and systematically practised, in one county, is frequently unknown, or utterly disregarded, in the adjacent districts; and what is to every unprejudiced observer evidently erroneous, and injurious to the land, is, in some quarters, persisted in, most pertinaciously, though a journey of not many miles would open to the view the beneficial

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effects of a contrary practice."* In a large portion of England there is no regular alternation of corn and green crops; and in many counties, the drill husbandry has hardly obtained any footing.

Notwithstanding, too, that the best-cultivated lands in Northumberland, Norfolk, and the Lothians, are all ploughed by two horses, nothing is more common, as already stated, than to see, in the vicinity of the metropolis, and throughout most parts of the south and west of England, three, four, and still more frequently, five, horses, yoked in line to a plough, even where the soil is light and sandy! And, as a driver is always necessary when there are more than two horses, at least double the labor is expended on ploughing, where this barbarous practice is followed, that is required where it is abandoned.

There is a much greater aversion to precipitate changes, and a more resolute adherence to whatever has been long practised, among farmers, than among any other class of persons. "Improvements, which effect material changes in established customs, have, under all circumstances and in all countries, ever been slowly and reluctantly admitted. It requires no little effort to quit the common routine of practice, and still more to relinquish long-maintained opinions.

"The general circumstances affecting agriculture are, moreover, little favorable to great, and, more especially, sudden, alterations. The farmer is not so much within reach of information, as the merchant and manufacturer; he has not, like those who reside in towns, the means of ready intercourse, and constant communication, with others engaged in the same occupation. He lives retired; his acquaintance is limited, and but little valued; and, unless in the habit of reading, he is little likely to acquire any other knowledge of his art, than what is traditionary, what is transmitted from father to son, and limited, in its application, to his own immediate neighborhood."

* Grainger and Kennedy, on Tillage.

Agriculture, and all sorts of industrious pursuits, were kept in a peculiarly backward state, in England, till after the accession of Henry the Seventh, A. D. 1485. This arose, partly from the destructive contests that grew out of the wild efforts of the Norman monarchs to conquer France, and the civil wars by which they were succeeded; and partly from the abuses produced by the feudal system, and the enslaved and depressed state of the cultivators of the soil. In Henry's reign, the foundations were laid of an order of things more favorable to the growth of opulence, and the progress of improvement. Turnips, clover, and potatoes, were all introduced into England in the seventeenth century.

Blythe's Improver Improved,' published in 1649, is the first systematic work, in which there are any traces of the alternate system of husbandry, or of the introduction of clover, turnips, &c., between culmiferous crops. The practice did not, however, make much progress during the seventeenth century; and though it forms, as it were, the very foundation of good farming, there are extensive districts in which it is still very imperfectly understood, and but little followed.

The famous Jethro Tull was the first, or among the first, who introduced the drill husbandry; and his work on horse-hoeing husbandry, published in 1731, did a vast deal to recommend the practice; though, from his undervaluing the influence of manure, it was, in other respects, prejudicial.

Stock husbandry has been more improved, since 1750, than tillage husbandry. As soon as Bakewell's system of breeding began to be known, it was taken up and followed by spirited and judicious farmers, in all parts of the country. Of these, Mr. Culley, of Northumberland, was one of the most conspicuous. He published his Observations on Live Stock' in 1786; and in it, the just principles for improving the breeds of domestic animals were, for the first time, fully elucidated. This has had a wonderful influence in increasing the supply of butchers' meat. Indeed, the principal im

provement in arable husbandry,-the general introduction and superior management of green crops,-may be, in no inconsiderable degree, ascribed to the anxiety of farmers to procure an abundant and suitable supply of food for their stock. The superior attention paid to stock farming may probably be, to some extent, at least, accounted for, from the circumstance of tithe pressing with comparative lightness on pasture land, while it falls with its full weight on arable land, and operates powerfully to prevent the outlay of capital upon it. But, however it may be accounted for, there can be no doubt of the fact, that stock husbandry is now more advanced than tillage husbandry; and that, in all that belongs to the breeding and rearing of cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs, the English are, at present, superior to the Scotch, and to every other people.

But, though surpassed by its kindred branch, the progress of arable husbandry in England, since 1760, and of the improvements connected therewith, has, notwithstanding, been great.

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Of the recent improvements, one of the most important has been the introduction of bone-dust as a manure. many places, but particularly in Lincolnshire, this has occasioned a vast increase of produce; and has enabled many extensive tracts to be brought into a high state of cultivation. There has been, in fact, almost every where, throughout the country, but especially in the northern counties, a progressive improvement in agriculture, effected, partly by the better drainage of the land, partly by the adoption of better rotations, partly by the enforcement of greater economy in the management of the details, and partly by other causes. doubt, there is still, in many counties, very great room for further improvements; but there has been, even in the most backward, considerable advances made since the peace.

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In proof of the extraordinary change that has taken place, we may mention, that, in the wolds of Lincolnshire, the crops of turnips are said to have become from

five to ten times heavier, within the last few years, from the application of bone manure to their culture; at the same time that there has been a proportional increase in the productiveness of the crops! Similar improvements, and, in some instances, quite as great, have been made in other parts of the country. It is gratifying, too, to know, that the capacities of improvement are far from being any where exhausted. But what has been effected shows what might be done, were the productive energies of the more backward districts better developed by the extension of the improved practices of Norfolk, Northumberland, Lincoln, &c., to other counties. The granting of leases of a reasonable length, and containing proper conditions as to management, and the abolition or commutation of tithes for a fixed, invariable payment, would be the most likely means to bring about so desirable a result. It is impossible, indeed, to say to what extent, under such circumstances, improvement might be carried. See McCulloch's Sta

tistics of Great Britain.

The following account of the present state of agriculture in England was recently given by the Hon. Daniel Webster, in a speech delivered at a public meeting in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mr. Webster began with stating, that he regarded agriculture as the leading interest of society; and as having, in all its relations, a direct and intimate bearing upon human comfort and the national prosperity.

The primary elements, which enter into the consideration of the agriculture of a country, are four; climate, soil, price of land, and price of labor.

The climate of England differs essentially from that of this country. England is on the western side of the eastern, and we on the eastern side of the western, continent. The climate of each country is materially affected by its respective situation in relation to the ocean. The winds which prevail most, both in this country and in England, are from the west; it is known that the wind blows, in our latitudes, from some point west to

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