102 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



I'utcher, macli as it is now in many foreign countriea, 

 whose agriculturists — wben they visit England — express 

 surprise that our live stock should be so large and so fat 

 at so early an age. 



Roads, Canals, and Railroads, — One hundred years ago 

 we were without either, and in winter the country was im- 

 passable. Arthur Young, in his tours, execrated the ruts 

 four feet deep on what were called roads in his time. I 

 wish time would permit me to transcribe his graphic de- 

 scription of the difficulties of locomotion and intercommu- 

 nication. After carriages were iuvented the nobUity and 

 gentry had their " footmen," who ran by the sides of the 

 carriage, and with their long sticks, which are now used 

 for ornament, propped up the carriage when in danger of 

 turning OTer. 



The Government Drainage Loans. — If evidence were 

 Wanting of the necessity for aggregating capital, in the 

 hands of great companies, for the purpose of agricultural 

 improvement, we should find it in the eagerness with 

 Which the first Government loan of two millions sterling 

 was taken iip and made use of Our keen Scotch friends 

 Were so alive to its advantages that they took the whole, 

 and our less 'cute Southerners were too late in their ap- 

 plication. So in the second loan of a million, a portion 

 was reserved for the tardy Englishmen. A noble duke, a 



Sgreat and acute improver, who had an immense estate in 

 Scotland, told me that he had a large slice of the first loan, 



-and would have taken much more had he been permitted 

 to do so. 



The Estahlishmcnt of (he General Board of Health has had 

 a most beneficial influence on the sanitary condition of the 

 nation, but, oddly and inconsistently enough, the tendency 



•of its operation is to deprive the British people of their 

 food; for the only means ^by which the national food can 

 be permanently produced is by means of those very excre- 



•ments which the Board of Health Act docs not direct to be 

 applied to the soil, but which are wasted in polluting our 

 rivers. The calamitous national effects which must ulti- 

 mately result from this suicidal system have been already 

 fully commented upon, in the paper I had the honour to 

 read before you, " On the Sewage of Towns as it afieets 

 British Agriculture "; I will, therefore, only say that, if the 

 Legislatiu'e does not interfere to compel a different appro- 

 priation of the sewage, I tnist that the landholders and 

 farmers of this kingdom wiU exert themselves to prevent 

 so fatal and so palpable a waste of their substance. 



The New Poor-Law of 1834 saved this country from de- 

 solation and agriciilture from destruction ; it taught the 

 landholder and his tenant that property had its duties as 

 well as its rights, and that agiiculture was never in greater 



• error than when it hoped to save itself by the non-employ- 

 ment of human labour. It also proved that to pauperize 

 the labourer by paying his wages as alms, was to destroy 

 Ms self-dependence and demoralize his character. 



The Tithe Commutation Act of 1836 opened the flood- 

 gates for investment and improvement, where they would 

 not otherwise have entered. It has, also, removed an ele- 

 ment of embitterment between the clergy and their flocks, 

 and has gi-eatly promoted the cause of religion and kind 

 feeling. It caused the conversion of many woods and waste 

 into food-producing soil. Tithes were first imposed upon 

 the Mercians in the latter part of the eighth century, by 

 their king .Ofi"a, and the tax was extended over all En^and 



by Iving Ethelwolf in 855. Owing to the great extent of 

 forest and waste, the total must have been small. Tithes 

 were applied to the repair of churches, the expenses of 

 worship, and the relief of the poor, as well as to the main- 

 tenance of the clergj'. Pious individuals, however, con- 

 tributed lavishly with lands, &c., and so enriched the 

 church. This is now prevented by the Law of Mort- 

 main. 



Richard Golden and Sir Rohert Peel. — I do not ventui'e to 

 give an opinion on the much-vexed poUtical questions in- 

 volved by their names, for that is veiy properly forbidden 

 by the rules of our Club; but, practically, free-trade has 

 done for British agriculture an enormous good. It has 

 awakened the slumbering and heretofore unsuspected 

 powers of the British agricultiu-al lion. We all must well 

 remember that the anticipation of a ruinous and impossible 

 competition sorrowed the minds and angered the feelings 

 of those who thought they saw in free-trade the loss of 

 their capital and ruin of their families. But fear and de- 

 spair gave way to reflection, and to the comprehension of 

 his exact comparative position. The British farmer, like 

 the British manufacturer, faced the difficulty, and has sus- 

 tained the competitive race by rapid improvement. That 

 great race, although sustained, will be more than won by 

 unheard of and fatui-e progress, and half a centui7 

 h«nce our agricultural grandchildren wiU look back upon 

 the condition of their progenitors much as we do on ours 

 of the past age. 



The Act for the Enfranchisement of Copyholds will gradu- 

 ally sweep away the old feudal responsibilities, and give 

 security to improvers. A copyhold farm of my own is 

 subject to a live heriot at my death, and no doubt when 

 that occurs, the steward to the lord of the manor wiU claim 

 my best horse or bullock, as well as 1| years' rent. 



Implcmental Improvers. — We owe to TuU the diill and 

 horse-hoe, to Bell the reaper, and to Meikle the thrashing 

 machine. The two last were Scotchmen. It is hardly 

 possible to over-rate the important benefits these imple- 

 ments will confer on British agriculture. The time and 

 money they save largely aid us in a successful competition 

 with foreigners. It is a singular but significant fact that 

 although Mr. Bell had used the reaper (invented by his 

 brother, the Eev. Patrick Bell, still living at Carmylie, 

 near Arbroath, who in 1828 received a ^£50 prize for it from 

 the Highland Agricultural Society) for thirty years, no one 

 seemed to know anything about it ; and when his machines, 

 Americanized, appeared in the Great Exhibition of 1831, 

 they were regarded as curiosities and novelties. The pub- 

 lic trial of them, on my farm, in 185G, in the presence of a 

 distinguished company, at once launched them into prac- 

 tical use. I have used one of them ever since. 



Agricultural hnplcments arid Machinery. — If I wished to 

 convince agriculturists of the importance of steam, I 

 would, in their presence, ask the implement makers how 

 much they would enhance their prices if compelled to go 

 back to manual labour or hoi-se-power as a motive force ? 

 The answer would probably be, " It is not a question of 

 price, for we could not produce enough even at an advance 

 of 50 to 100 per cent." As I wander through the imple- 

 mental labyrinth at our great shows, I ponder in my mind 

 whether farmers entertained this question, and appUed it 

 to their own case. We no longer see the farmer or his men 

 making their own wooden plough and other tools at home 



