^33^ 



obtaining such tenants as would answer my purposes, I have had it in 

 contemplation, ever since I returned home, to turn my farms to grazing 

 principally, as^,fast as I can cover the fields sufficiently with grass. 

 Labor, and cJ|>'^(?C)urse expense, will be considerably diminished by this 

 change, the'^n'et profit as great, and my attention less divided, 

 whilst the fields will be improving. 



Your strictures on the agriculture of this country are but too just. 

 It is indeed wretched; but a leading, if not the primary, cause of 

 its being so is, that, instead of improving a little ground well, we 

 attempt much and do it ill. A half, a third, or even a fourth of what 

 we mangle, well wrought and properly dressed, would produce more than 

 the whole under our system of management; yet such is the force of 

 habit, that we cannot depart from it. The consequence of which is, 

 that we ruin the lands that are already cleared, and either cut down 

 more wood, if we have it, or emigrate into the Western country. I 

 have endeavoured, both in a public and private character, to encourage 

 the establishment of boards of agriculture in this country, but hith- 

 erto in vain; and what is still more extraordinary, and scarcely to 

 be believed, I have endeavoured ineffectually to discard the pernicious 

 practice just mentioned from my own estate; but, in my absence, pre- 

 texts of one kind or another have always been paramount to orders. 

 Since the first establishment of the National Board of Agriculture in 

 Great Britain, I have considered it as one of the most valuable in- 

 stitutions of modern times; and, conducted with so much ability and 

 zeal, as it appears to be under the auspices of Sir John Sinclair, it 

 must be productive of great advantages to the nation, and to mankind 

 in general. 



My system of agriculture is what you have described, and I am 

 persuaded, were I to proceed on a large scale, would be improved by the 

 alteration you have proposed. At the same time I must observe, that I 

 have not found oats so great an exhauster, as they are represented to 

 be; ^ut in my system they follow wheat too closely to be proper, and 

 th£/ ixjtation will undergo a change in this, and perhaps in some other 

 respects. 



The vetches of Europe have not succeeded with me; our frosts in 

 winter, and droughts in summer, are too severe for them. How far the 

 mountain or wild pea would answer as a substitute, by cultivation, 

 is difficult to decide, because I believe no trial has been made of 

 it. and because its spontaneous grov/th is in rich lands only. That it 

 is nutritious in a great degree, in its wild state, admits of no doubt. 



Spring barley, such as we grow in this country, has thriven no 

 better with me than vetches. The result of an experiment, made with a 

 little of the true sort, will be interesting. The field peas of Eng- 



