Scientific InteUigeme. — Statistics. 409 



it has made its way into every other district of England. The 

 reputation of the county as an agricultural district, dates from 

 the vast improvements of heaths, wastes, sheep-walks and war- 

 rens, by enclosing and manuring — the fruit of the zealous exer- 

 tions of Lord Townshend, and a few neighbouring land-owners 

 — which were ere long happily imitated by others. Since these 

 improvements were effected, rents have risen in that county from 

 one or two shillings to fiiteen or twenty shillings per acre ; a coun- 

 try of sTieep- walks and rabbit-warrens has been rendered highly 

 productive ; and, by dint of management, what was thus gained 

 has been preserved and improved even to the present moment. 

 Some of the finest corn crops in the world are now growing up- 

 on lands which, before the introduction of the turnip husban- 

 dry, produced a very scanty supply of grass for a few lean and 

 half-starved rabbits. Mr Colquhoun, in his " Statistical Re- 

 searches,'" estimated the value of the turnip crop annually 

 growing in this country at fourteen millions ; but, when we fur- 

 ther recollect that it enables the agriculturist to reclaim and cul- 

 tivate land which, without its aid, would remain in a hopeless 

 state of natural barrenness ; that it leaves the land so clean and 

 in such fine condition, as almost to insure a good crop of bar- 

 ley and a kind plant of clover, and that this clover is found a 

 most excellent preparative for wheat, it will appear that the sub- 

 sequent advantages derived from a crop of turnips must in- 

 finitely exceed its estimated value as fodder for cattle. If we 

 were, therefore, asked to point out the individual who, in mo- 

 dern times, has proved the greatest benefactor to the communi- 

 ty, we should not hesitate to fix upon the ingenious nobleman, 

 whom the wits and courtiers of his own day were pleased to 

 laugh at as " Turnip Townshend.'' In something less than one 

 hundred years, the agricultural practice which he introduced 

 from Hanover has spread itself throughout this country, and 

 now yields an annual return which probably exceeds the inte- 

 rest of our national debt. — Sir Walter Scott, in the Quarterly 

 Review, 



