80 AGRICULTURE. 



acute passage on the application of chemistry to agriculture. 

 We strongly recommend the third edition of '* The English 

 Improver" to such of our readers as are not scared by a 

 discursive style and great neglect of arrangement, and are 

 willing to winnow a great deal of corn out of a very confused 

 heap of chaff. The work is embellished by a frontispiece, 

 at the top of which the royal and parliamentary forces en- 

 counter each other in hostile array. In the centre they are 

 beating their swords into ploughshares and their spears 

 into pruninghooks ; and at the bottom they are ploughing 

 with two horses abreast, and performing other agricultural 

 operations. Various plates give drawings of a wind-mill 

 fitted with a scoop or lading- wheel for draining fens, and a 

 great number of agricultural tools and implements ; among 

 others, " The Harfordshire wheeled plough," condemned 

 by Blith for its clumsiness, but still retaining its place in 

 parts of that county; and " The double Plough, ploughing 

 two furrows at one time, "which still lingers in the midland 

 counties. Nor must we forget a picture of the gallant 

 Captain, given in connection with a water-level devised by 

 himself, and which seems to be identical with one lately 

 re-introduced into this country from Italy, and patronized 

 by Prince Albert and other eminent agriculturists. The 

 Captain's figure is very imposing, but in most unagri- 

 eultural garb a wig as fine as the Speaker's ruffles, trunk- 

 hose, and spurs. He holds in his hand the levelling-staff, 

 which is fitted with a sliding bull's eye after the modern 

 fashion. We part from this sagacious veteran with much 

 affection. A fine patriotic spirit pervades all his reflections, 

 as well as a strict morality, tinged perhaps with a little 

 puritanism.* 



* Since we penned the above, we have observed that Mr. Parkes 

 introduced Captain Blith to his hearers in a lecture delivered at New- 

 castle before the Royal Agricultural Society, and published in vol. vii. 

 of their Journal. Mr. Parkes has selected for quotation from Blith 

 several of the same passages as ourselves, and he mentions one remark- 



