386 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



Of the system of culture in use, it is difficult to form a true conception. 

 Farm-yard dung was the main manure used, although marl seemed to 

 have been in repute. Summer fallowing for wheat was also practised ; 

 and the operations of harrowing, reaping, and threshing, closely resembled 

 our own. 



From the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century, 

 peace fortunately prevailed in England ; and although much progress was 

 not made in agriculture, still it displayed, in common with other arts, the 

 advantage of the peace. The art of printing gave to agriculture, as it also 

 gave to the other arts and sciences, a wonderful impetus. Works began 

 to be published containing records of farm practice, and rules for its guid- 

 ance, as well as epitomes of the methods pursued by the ancient nations. 

 During the reign of Elizabeth, agriculture greatly flourished; large tracts 

 of forest and common land were taken under the plough, and those which 

 had been under cultivation were improved. 



It was towards the middle, or perhaps more correctly towards the end, 

 of the eighteenth century, that the value of the alternate mode of hus- 

 bandry began to be appreciated, in which alternate crops of cereals and 

 grain crops were taken from the land, the latter enabling larger supplies 

 of cattle to be maintained, and, by consequence, larger supplies of manure 

 to make up for the exhaustion of the land by the cereal or grain crops. 

 Drainage also began to be practised on a larger scale, and on more scientific 

 principles. Several new crops were added to the list of those formerly at 

 the service of the farmer, as, for instance, the potato (about 1750) pre- 

 viously cultivated in gardens the Swede turnip (about 1790), the man- 

 gold-wurzel, and the spring variety of wheat (about 1795). In 1760 

 Bakewell began his celebrated experiments on the improvement of stock, 

 which resulted in completely changing their character more especially 

 that of sheep and rendering them of far greater value for breeding and 

 feeding purposes. In 1777 the " Bath and West of England Society " was 

 instituted, having for its special purpose the improvement of agriculture. 

 In 1784 the institution of the Highland Society followed ; and in 1793 the 

 Board of Agriculture was formed by the legislature, and placed under the 

 control of the celebrated Sir John Sinclair. 



Of the condition of Scottish agriculture in very early times, history has 

 left little or no record. But as in England, so in Scotland, agriculture and 

 horticulture owed much to the exertions of the monks and the religious 

 communities. Of the progress agriculture, in Scotland, made during the 

 seventeenth century, we have no correct means of knowing. Ray, who 

 visited its east3rn coast in 1660, mentions that he saw little or no fallow 



