757 



HUSBANDRY. 



HUSBANDRY. 



758 



under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge. The English Agricultural Society, and the other national 

 agricultural associations, have also been influential in giving a new 

 stimulus to the improvement of British husbandry. 



To complete this short sketch of British husbandry, it only remains 

 briefly to mention the different systems which have been most prevalent 

 at different times. 



The first and most inartificial ia that which consists iu breaking up 

 portions of pasture-laud and sowing corn on a slight ploughing, which 

 cannot fail to be productive for some time. Several crops may thus be 

 taken, until the land is so exhausted, that the crop no longer repays 

 the seed and labour. To defer this time, experience soon pointed out 

 the crops which succeeded beat after each other. Wheat or barley 

 were probably the first crops ; afterwards peas, beans, or oats, until 

 the ground, being overrun with weeds, would be left to the renovating 

 effect of tune, and a fresh spot would be broken up. 



The first improvement on this system is that of infield and outfield. 

 The infield is cultivated more carefully, somewhat like a garden, and 

 all the dung of the cattle is exclusively put upon this part. The out- 

 field is a continuation of the first-mentioned system. The infield 

 consisted of inclosures or open fields near the dwelling, which it v.-as 

 most convenient to cultivate as arable land. Thus two distinct 

 systems of husbandry were carried on at the same time ; and whatever 

 improvements were introduced in the management of the infield, the 

 outfield continued to be managed as it was before. 



The mode of recruiting by means of a fallow lands which had been 

 exhausted by crops, or were overrun with weeds, seems to have been 

 introduced into England by the Romans ; but appears not to have 

 been practised in Scotland till the 1 Sth century. The differences in 

 Scotland of the mode of tenure from that of England, and the little 

 peaceful intercourse of the two countries, may perhaps in some degree 

 account for the non-adoption of the Bummer-fallow. The alternate 

 crop and fallow seem to have been later introduced than a fallow 

 after several crops. The triennial system, which consists of a summer 

 fallow, a winter crop, and a spring crop, was probably longer established 

 than any other, and is still the practice in many parts of England. 

 The deteriorating effect of the outfield system would lead to its aban- 

 donment as soon as population increased, and with it the want of land 

 for infield. The common-field lands, which were so extensive till 

 within the last fifty years, many of which have since been inclosed 

 by special acts of parliament, were probably at first only portions of 

 commons, which were broken up by common consent, and formed into 

 outfields. The right of pasture over them, after the crops are removed, 

 strengthens this supposition. 



When common-fields are divided and inclosed, a better system of 

 husbandry generally follows. Clover and turnips are more regularly 

 sown, and, on light lands, take the place of summer fallow. Clover 

 generally comes after a crop of corn, in which it was sown the pre- 

 ceding year in spring ; and as most crops succeed well after clover, 

 wheat was usually chosen for the next crop as the most profitable. 

 Thus arose the Norfolk system, without any very sudden departure 

 from the old rotations. Two crops raised for the food of animals in 

 four years require more cattle on the farm to expend them profitably : 

 and thus more manure is made. In the light soils the sheep when 

 folded on the turnips not only enrich the land by their dung and urine, 

 but likewise render it more compact by treading it, which is advan- 

 tageous to the clover and wheat which come after. If the land is a 

 good loam, beans are sometimes sown after wheat, the land having 

 been recruited with manure ; and if the beans are kept clean by hoeing 

 another good crop of wheat may be obtained after them. Thus arises 

 the improved rotation of turnips, barley, clover, wheat, beans, wheat ; 

 after which the land is again cleaned and prepared for turnips with all 

 the manure that can be spared. As in this system there is always a 

 crop with succulent leaves intervening between two which have a 

 white straw, it has been called the alternate system of husbandry. 

 These are the most common systems in England. The removal of the 

 fallow year, provided the land be kept clean, is a decided step towards 

 improvement. The best farmers effect this by the introduction of 

 artificial grasses and tires fed off by sheep, and especially by sowing 

 every crop in rows and keeping the interval* stirred, which is a partial 

 fallow without losing a crop. Here Tull's system is introduced, 

 which in its complete state, as the author recommended it, was soon 

 abandoned. 



As the English systems have taken their origin chiefly from the 

 infield cultivation, so the Scotch appear to have arisen from that of the 

 outfield. Fallows were unknown ; but the invigorating effect of grass 

 fed nff by cattle must soon have been perceived ; and instead of leaving 

 the land to recover slowly by the spontaneous growth of natural herb- 

 age, which on poor land takes a long time, it was obvious that this 

 might be accelerated by sowing grass-seeds. Hence the origin of the 

 Scotch convertible system of husbandry, which is gaining ground daily, 

 and bids fair, in remote situations where no manure can be purchased, 

 to be firmly established. The order of the conversion has been some- 

 what altered from what it was originally. Instead of sowing grass- 

 seed* after the land is exhausted, it has been found advantageous to 

 accelerate the growth of grass by manuring the crop in which it is 

 sown ; and experience has proved, that the richer the gram is, the more 

 productive are the crops which come after. The grass, instead of 



being a mere substitute for fallowing and manuring, is made highly 

 profitable by feeding cattle and sheep; and the profit of the years 

 when the land rests, as it were, by being depastured, is often as great 

 as that of the years when it is cropped ; and the risk and expenses are 

 much less. The convertible system is not very generally known or 

 adopted in England, and is often confounded with the alternate system. 

 The alternate system interposes a green crop between two white-straw 

 crops. On good land the convertible husbandry may consist of three 

 or four years' tillage and three years' grass. If the land is not quite 

 clean, a summer fallow on heavy soils, or a turnip fallow on light soils, 

 should begin the course ; and only one crop should be taken after the 

 fallow in which the grasses are sown, whether it be wheat, rye, barley, 

 or oats. It should be fed off the first year, mown the second, and fed 

 off again in the third ; when it is broken up, oats are usually sown as 

 the first crop in Scotland, then beans, if the land admits of them, and 

 then wheat. If a fallow is intended, a crop of peas may be sown after 

 the wheat, and then the course begins again, as before, with a clean 

 fallow or with turnips. In this manner the land may be kept clean, 

 and continually improve ill fertility by means of the cattle which are 

 kept upon it, without the aid of any purchased manure, except lime, 

 the expense of which is in most cases well repaid by the crop. These 

 j are the only regular systems in Britain ; and every mode of cultivation 

 and cropping may be reduced to one of them, unless it be capriciously 

 anomalous. Of late years Tull's husbandry, applied to the perpetual 

 succession of wheat crops on the same laud, has been developed and 

 somewhat modified ; and, now known as the Lois Weedon system, has 

 been pretty extensively tried. The Rev. S. Smith, of Lois Weedon, 

 has the merit of having thus recalled the maxims and experiments of 

 Jetliro Tull to the favourable notice of English agriculturists. 



What renders the improved systems of British husbandry so superior 

 to that of all other nations ia the attention paid to the perfection of 

 the different breeds of domestic animals, especially the horse, the ox, 

 and the sheep. In this respect British husbandry surpasses every 

 other. No expense or trouble is spared to improve the qualities of 

 cattle and sheep. It has been objected, that the rewards given by 

 different societies for excesssively fat cattle are not judicious, as these 

 animals are never profitable to the feeder. The same might be said of 

 very high-bred racehorses ; they are not so useful as a good hackney or 

 hunter : but unless some individual animals possess the power, courage, 

 and speed which is the mark of the best blood, it would soon degene- 

 rate ; so likewise if some oxen were not occasionally fatted to an extra- 

 ordinary degree, the fatting qualities of the breed could not be proved. 

 A badly bred ox will never become so fat, whatever food may be given 

 him, as one of a choice breed. This the breeders are well aware of, 

 and never hesitate to pay a good price for a young bull of any prize 

 breed. 



The great variety of new instruments which are daily invented, and 

 some of which gradually come into xise, however expensive they may 

 appear, is another featuie in British husbandry ; and the letting out of 

 drills and ste\m threshing machines, which are kept for profit by men 

 who have little or no land to cultivate, is a step to that division of 

 labour which has done such wonders in manufacturing industry, and 

 which will no doubt in time do the same in the operations of husbandry. 

 There is a fresh spirit of improvement arising among practical agri- 

 culturists, and not the least favourable symptom is, that it begins to 

 be acknowledged that " much may yet be learned," and that " husbandry 

 is still comparatively in its infancy." The success at length of the 

 reaping machine and of the steam plough is the crowning point of its 

 progress hitherto; and this, conjoined with the extraordinarily de- 

 veloped trade in artificial and manufactured manures, is what indicates 

 most perfectly the energy and enterprise of English agriculturists. 



Husbandry in Italy. It might be expected that Italy would present 

 some remains of the Roman husbandry, but such has been the per- 

 nicious effect of wars and intestine commotions, that this fine country, 

 with all the advantages of soil and climate, is far behind less favoured 

 regions in the cultivation of the soil and the rearing of cattle. The 

 plains of Lombardy alone are an exception ; but the cultivation of 

 maize, the principal produce there, partakes more of the garden 

 husbandry than that of any other grain. The abundance of water 

 which descends from the Alpine regions fertilises a great extent of soil 

 by artificial channels, in which it is made to disperse itself, and produces 

 a vegetation which requires little assistance, except that of weeding. 

 Italy was however the country where, on the revival of letters, the. 

 first books were published on the practice of husbandry. Pietro di 

 Crescenti, a citizen of Bologna, born in 1230, after thirty years' 

 experience in all parts of Italy, wrote a treatise entitled ' Opus Kuraliuni 

 Commodorum,' printed in 1474. There is a doubt whether it was first 

 written in Latin or Italian, but it was soon translated into French and 

 German. The author quotes Cato, Varro, and Palladius, but not 

 Columella, who probably was not then generally known, or perhaps his 

 works had not yet been rescued from the libraries in which ancient 

 works were long buried. In the succeeding century many of the 

 Greek and Latin authors on husbandry were translated and published. 

 Tavello, in his ' Recordo d'Agricoltura,' 1661, ascribes the deterioration 

 of agriculture to the practice of letting land for three years only, which 

 had been introduced very generally, and perpetuated the triennial 

 system in its worst form. Johannes Baptista Porta.in 1692, published 

 nil ' Villffl,' in 12 books, a work which has had a considerable repu- 



