CHAPTER I. 



General Introductory Observations, 



1. The motive for writing and publishing a 

 work like this, if it had wanted suggestion from 

 any mind but my own, would have been found in 

 the motto, which I have chosen upon this occa- 

 sion ; and which is taken from him, whose work 

 has done more to promote good agriculture, than 

 all the other works, of all countries, put together. 

 Certainly it is worthy of observation, and, indeed,- 

 of censure, that so very few men of learning (I 

 mean of that sort of learning which is exhibited 

 in, or to be acquired from, books) have employed 

 any portion of their time and talent in treating 

 of the means of making an addition to the quantity 

 of human food. Nay, some of them have actually 

 prided themselves upon their ignorance of every- 

 thing relating to agriculture, that first and greatest 

 employment of man. The late Lord Erskine 

 annually attended the sheep-shearing festivals of 

 Mr. Coke, as long as that gentleman thought 

 proper to treat the nobility and gentry to such 

 festivals, and the " learned Lord,'^ annually, 

 upon those occasions, made it his boast, that he 



B 



