226 PROGRESS OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 



deep drains, guano, superphosphate of lime, long straw manure, and other 

 aids to agriculture introduced within the last fitteen years, give an early re- 

 sult, liquid manure, under an English sun, has never been proved to be effect- 

 ive, except fur grass crops on a dairy farm. We have contented ourselves 

 with selecting illustrations which, though not specimens of perfection in every 

 department, for they all have defects, and in two out of three the buildings 

 and implements might easily be improved, are yet fair types of the system of 

 cultivation which is making rapid progress through every district of England. 

 These are farms which are cultivated on commercial principles, instead of being 

 mainly expensive raree-shows — farms which pay fair rents and return fair 

 profits, and yield an amount of meat and corn which is at least double that 

 raised Ijy unintelligent farmers in p]ngland, and above four-fold that obtained 

 from a more fertile soil and genial sun by the peasant proprietors of France 

 and Germany. 



In the absence of agricultural statistics, we have no exact data for compar- 

 ing the produce of England before and since the era of "high farming," but 

 the following figures will convey some idea of the fixed and floating capital in- 

 vested by landlords and tenants in modern improvements. Since 1839 at least 

 twelve hundred thousand tons of guano have been imported, for which not 

 less than t.velve millions sterling have been paid. In the year 1837 the for- 

 eign bones imported were valued by the Custom House authorities at 250,000/. 

 After that date we have no return, but since 1840 one million at least has been 

 paid annually for bones, sulphuric acid and artificial manures, independently 

 of guano. Since 184(i at least sixteen millions have been invested in deep, 

 thorougli drainage. Thus we have an expenditure of upards of thirty millions, 

 without counting the value of new implements and machines, purchased every 

 year by thousands, or the large sums laid out in adding to the productive 

 acreage of farms by throwing down useless hedgerows, or rebuilding the rude 

 homesteads that served tlie preceding agricultural generation, and in ref>lacing 

 the inferior local breeds of stock by better animals suited to the soil and 

 climate. 



There are other facts which are full as significant. In 1847 the proprietor 

 of a now prosperous school of agricultural chemistry could not, out of a large 

 number ol pupils, find one who was willing to be gratuitously instructed in 

 the science for which fiirmers willingly pay him at present a heavy fee. Even 

 Mr. Pusey, wlio devoted his life to improvements in cultivation, made the 

 mistake, in his last report, of undervaluing the services which chemistry had 

 rendered to agriculture. Such, however, is found to be its practical value, 

 that the demand of farmers have created a class of chemists who make the 

 relative value of manures, and artificial food, and the constituents of soils their 

 especial study. To such inquiries Mr. Lawes devotes the Rolhamsted experi- 

 mental farm and laboratory, an establishment over which Dr. Gilbert presides, 

 at an expense for the last filteen years of more than 1000/. a year. Professor 

 Way, who has lately been succeeded by Professor Voelcker, was bound by hie 

 appointment under the Royal Agricultural Society to sujiply analyses to the 

 subscribers at certain low fixed rates, and he was amply employed by the ten- 

 ant fanner community. In the West of England, Professor Voelcker deliv- 

 ered last year at Exeter, Barnstable, and Newton Abbott, at the request of the 

 Batli and Wtsst of England Agricultural Society, a series of most admirable 

 lectures, the results of experiments carried on at Cirencester, on such subjects 

 as " The Value of Artificial Manures," " Farm Yard Manures," " The Com- 

 position of Fertile and Barren Soils," " The Nutritive Value ot Different Oil- 

 cakes." In 1840 there was no chemist sufiBcienlly familiar with farming to 

 treat usefully on those topics ; and if he could have talked the very quintes- 

 sence of practical wisdom, there certainly was no agricultural audience pre- 

 pared to listen to him. That he spoke the language of science would of itself 

 have been sufficient to convince the tenantry throughout the country that he 

 did uot speak the language of common sense. It is true that Coke of Hoik- 



