THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



199 



" Burn your Clay into Brichlust," will be a motto with 

 every heavy land farmer. I know one who for years has 

 continued burning a clay hill. It provides him with healthy 

 bedding for his stock, and witli alkalies for his root crops. It 

 permits him to consume his straw in food, instead of 

 wasting it under foot. It renders his land friable and more 

 economical to work ; and it has thus largely increased his 

 green crops and profits. This is also my experience in the 

 matter. 



inth regard to our Homesteads or Farmeries. — The time 

 will come when we shall see them like factories or railway 

 stations, warmed in cold weather, lighted with gas ; the 

 manure well cared for, unwashed, and with its full powers 

 preserved. These things are all necessai-y to the cheap and 

 abundant production of meat and bread for the British 

 people. It is of no use to cry out, Where is the capital to 

 come from? It will be found, as it lias been found, when the 

 requirements of the times and the increasing intelligence of 

 landlords and farmers shall have given the subject due con- 

 sideration. Let the system be introduced by those who are 

 able and willing, and let it be found to be profitable, and 

 then the rising generation will grow up with its acceptance, 

 free from the doubts and disbeliefs of their forefathers, who 

 had not had practical evidence of its advantages. 



In Conclusion, it is a great mistake to suppose that farm- 

 ers are naturally more prejudiced than other men. It.must 

 be remembered that it has been their misfortune, and not 

 their fault, that the difficulty of intercourse prevented those 

 examinations and comparisons wliich the railroads and 

 literature of recent times have permitted them to malte. 

 That there exists a most creditable desire to avail of such 

 opportunities has been abundantly proved by their over- 

 whelming attendance at the great annual and other exhibi- 

 tions of stock and machinery. My object in reading this 

 paper has been, not to find fault, but to stimulate. I know 

 the difficulties of agriculture : I know that we cannot con- 

 trol the seasons ; but we may, by improvements, so mode- 

 rate their ill effects as to avoid those famines and sufferings 

 which, in less favoured times, afflicted this happy country. 

 For the future let agricultural assume more of the manu- 

 facturing character; and let the question be, not what it 

 costs, but what it will pay, to effect agricultural improve- 

 ment, 



E\'ENT3 HAVING A PEOOnESSIVE INFLUENCE ON BRITISH 

 AGRICULTUEE. 



Societies for the Promotion of Agriculture. — The High- 

 land Society, and the Smithfield Club (178-i) ; the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England (1838); the Eoyal 

 Agricultural Society of Ireland (1841) ; the London Central 

 •Farmers' Club, the first farmers' club, the gradual estab- 

 lishment of local farmers' clubs and county agricultural 

 societies (1843); the Board of Agriculture (incorporated) 

 ■was established by Sir John Sinclair, and had Arthur 

 Young for its secretary ( 1793) ; Annals of Agriculture com- 

 menced (1784) by Arthur Young, and continued until 1808; 

 the two great agricultural fetes of this period (1784) — the 

 sheep shearings at Holkham and Woburn, at whicli hun- 

 dreds of the most eminent of the kingdom were annually 

 assembled — were also serviceable in stimulating the national 

 taste in favour of agriculture. 



New Plants previously Unlcnoivn in Britain. — Hops from 

 the Netherlands (1524J; potatoes introduced into Eng- 

 land by Sir Walter Raleigh (4700), a government pre- 

 mium given as an encouragement to their cultivation — 

 first in Scotland in 1739, and became general there in 

 1760 to 1780 ; white turnips (Norfolk whites) used by Lord 

 Townshend ( 1730) ; swedes gro^vn in East J,othian (1781); 

 garden turnips were known tin the reign of Henry VIIL; 

 broad clover known in Scotland (1740) ; Italian rye-grass 

 in Scotland (1700 to 1732); clover hybridum, W.Stephens 

 (1834); clover incarnatum, EUman (1821); clover pra- 

 tense(1645); clover perennium (1707); clover repeus : 

 in Scotland, where heath is removed and lime is appUed, 

 it springs up spontaneously (1707) ; mangel wurzel(1810), 

 introduction due to Dr. Lettsom, most important as a 

 root for hea-vy clays. Sainfoia aad lucern followed the in- 

 troductioa of clover, 



Artificial Manures. — Bones used by Mr. Watson of Keillor 

 (1821): Mr. Stevenson, of the North British Ai/riculturist, 

 says that they were known to be agriculturally useful at 

 the end of the last century ; superphosphate of lime (1841); 

 rape dust, known in Scotland as a valuable manure (1820 

 to 1828); guano: half cwt. brought from Liverpool to 

 Scotland, and sold at Od. per lb. (1829) ; three cwt. 

 brought (1831); guano first used in quantity (1841-42): 

 some idea may be formed of the quantity now used, 

 when it is stated in the Times of this day (2nd Feb. 1801), 

 that Messrs. Gibbs and Co. paid last year at Liverpool 

 i'7,000, being at the rate of only 3d. per ton, with the 

 addition of dock dues. ^larl, used before the Eoman in- 

 vasion ; woollen rags ; blood and oft'al ; ground coprolites ; 

 fish manure, starfish, sprats and mussels. 



Artificial Foods. — Linseed, linseedcakes,rape cakes, nut- 

 cakes, cottonseed-cakes — I first used some about 18.06-7 — 

 locust beans, Indian corn, rice, Dara lentils, Egyptian beans, 

 dates, and a variety of otlier foreign productions. 



Legislative Acts. — Free importation of foreign corn 

 (1847); free importation of foreign animals (1841); the 

 New Poor-Law (1834); the Genei-al Board of Health 

 (1848); Enclosure Commission (1840); The Emigration 

 Commission (1825); the Tithe Commutation Act (1836) ; 

 the Copyhold Enfranchisement Act (1841) ; the Benny 

 Post — Sir Rowland Hill (1840) ; the Land Drainage Com- 

 pany ; the Lands Improvement Company ; Government 

 Drainage Loans : the first act was passed in August, 1846, 

 and a grant for England and Scotland for a period of 22 

 years, at 6^ per cent., was for i'2, 000,000, and for Ireland 

 ^1,000,000. The demand for Scotland was very great, as 

 much as i'40,000 by a single proprietor ; but early in the 

 session of 1847 an act was passed limiting the amount to 

 any one proprietor to ^10,000. In 1849 the whole money 

 was applied for and granted, and an act passed for enabling 

 companies or private parties to advance money. In 1850 

 another act was passed, making an additional grant for 

 England and Scotland of £2,000,000, and for Ireland of 

 £200,000, but limiting the one to any one applicant to 

 £5,000, including previous grants — a pretty clear proof of 

 the anxiety for improvement by drainage. An act passed 

 for obtaining outfalls iu 1847. 



Tmplemcnial Inventions. — The driU — Jethro TuU, the 

 horse-hoe, ditto (1740) ; the thrashing machine and fixed 

 beaters (1793), by Meikle (Scotland), in use sixty years at 

 Clackmannan ; the reaping machine (1827), by the Rev-. 

 Patrick Bell (Scotland), who is still living ; the dibbling 

 machine, by the Rev. J. Cooke (1788) ; the Americanized 

 Bell's reapers, made by M'Cormick and Hussey (1856) ; 

 the first agricultural portable steam-engine invented and 

 made by Davies of Birmingham, the grass-mowing ma- 

 chine introduced from America, pipe-making machines 

 (Clayton and others), first draining tilery established (1841); 

 Fowler's steam draining plough, Fowler's steam cultivating 

 plough. Smith's (of Woolston) system of steam cultiva- 

 tion ; winnowing machine introduced from Holland into 

 Scotland, and publicly denounced from the pulpit (1710). 



Literary Events. — The art of printing; Caslon's tyed 

 manufacture ; the printing and circulation of agricultural 

 newspapers and magazines — Roftee's Farmers' Journal 

 (about 1790) ; the first EngUsh work on agriculture (1534) 

 entitled "The Boke of Husbandrie," 100 pages, by Sir 

 Anthony Fitzherbert, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 

 in the time of Henry VIII. ; the second was by Thomas 

 Tusser, an Essex man, born 1527, who farmed at Eivcn- 

 hall, about six miles from Tiptree ; Jethro TuU— Arthur 

 Young, also an Essex man (1740) ; the " Annals of Agricul- 

 ture," commenced by Arthur Young (1784), and continued 

 until 1808; the Journals of the Highland Society and of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England; the works of 

 Morton, Stephens, Low, Loudon, Huxtable, Smith, Hewitt 

 Davis, C;aird, Rham, and Pusey. 



General Events. — Turnpike roads, canals ; railroads 

 Manchester and Liverpool (1830) ; the spinning jenny, the 

 mule, the power loom ; the steam-engine as applied to 

 manufactures, mining, and river and ocean navigation ; 

 the electric telegraph (1837) ; steam jiavigalioa fii'st boat 

 bviilt oa the Clyde (1801). 



