SCIENCE WITH PKACTICE, 1812 TO 1845 lOl 



in holes into which she ought to have dibbled carrots aiid 

 radishes. Tull suggested a machine for the purpose ; but 

 even in 1788 drills were only 'getting into use' in the 

 first agricultural counties, like Norfolk and Suffolk. ' Mine,' 

 says Mr. Samuel Taylor in that year,' * was one of the first 

 invented.' The inventor was the Rev. Mr. Cooke, and it 

 made its first appearance at Aspul, in Suffolk. But, adds 

 Mr. Taylor, ' it was at this time rare to see a piece of 

 drilled corn.' In 1839 the use of an improved implement 

 was explained to the Royal Agricultural Society as ' a 

 machine to lay the seeds in regular rows ; ' but it made its 

 way slowly into general use. New attention was paid to 

 plants and grasses. It was now ^ that swedes, cabbages, 

 and Kohl rabi were cultivated, and that the mangel-wurzel 

 was introduced. Dr. Chevallier cultivated selected and 

 assorted qualities of barley seed ; Colonel Le Couteur, in 

 Jersey, did the same for wheat, and the Lawsons in Edin- 

 burgh for grasses. During the same period veterinary 

 science made gigantic strides, and valuable stock was no 

 longer sacrificed to ignorant quacks. County societies 

 were formed for the extension of agricultural knowledge, 

 and the encouragement of stock-breeders by cattle shows. 

 In 1819 the Board of Agriculture had expired: the for- 

 mation of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1838 marks 

 the revival of better times. The first meeting of this so- 

 ciety, which was designed to act as the heart of agriculture, 

 was held at Oxford in 1839. Meanwhile the schoolmaster 

 was abroad, and in 1842 the Royal Agricultural College at 

 Cirencester and the Agricultural Chemistry Association 

 were founded. 



' Memoir of yamuel Taylor of New Buckenham, Norfolk, reprinted 

 from the Farmer's Magazine, April 1841. 



- Both swedes and Kohl rabi are mentioned by Young at the end of 

 the previous century. 



