^g^ PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



the higher classes ; while the minds of the lower order of tenants, and of the whole, 

 would be stimulated and improved by the conversation. 



4250. Bt/ encouraging leading mtm, in different parts of a large estate, men who 

 are looked up to, by ordinary tenants ; by holding out these as patterns to the rest ; 

 by furnishing them with the means of improving their breeds of stock ; by supplying them 

 with superior varieties of crops, and with implements of improved constructions: and, 

 in recluse and backward districts, much may be done by tempting good husbandmen, and 

 expert workmen, from districts of a kindred nature, but under a better system of culti- 

 vation, to settle upon an estate. 



4251. J5y an experimental farm, to try new breeds of stock, new crops, new imple- 

 ments, new operations, and new plans of management ; such as ordinary tenants ought 

 not to attempt, before they have seen them tried. To this important end, let the 

 demense lands of a large estate, or a sufficient portion of them, be appropriated to a nursery 

 of improvements, for the use of the estate ; to be professedly held out as such, and be 

 constantly open to the tenants ; more particularly to the exemplary practitioners, the lead- 

 ing men of the estate, just mentioned ; who, alone, can introduce improvements among 

 the lower classes of an ignorant and prejudiced tenantry: it is in vain for a proprietor 

 to attempt it. On the contrary, the attempt seldom fails to alarm, disgust, and prevent 

 the growth of spontaneous improvements. 



4252. Under the present plan of demesne farming, the tenants see expensive worjcs going forward, which 

 they Ijnow they cannot copy, and hear of extraordinary profits, by particular articles, which they are cer^ 

 tain cannot be obtained by any regular course of business. They therefore conclude that the whole is 

 mere deception, to gain a pretext for raising the rents of their farms above their value. Whereas, if the 

 demesne lands where held out, as trial grounds, for their immediate benefit, and conducted, as such, in 

 a manner intelligible to them, they would not fail to visit them. Instead of large proprietors attempting 

 to rival the meanest of their tenants, in farming for pecuniary profit, which, on a fair calculation, they 

 rarely, if ever, obtain ; let their views in agriculture be professedly and effectually directed toward the 

 pecuniary advantages of their tenants : for from these, only, their own can arise, in any degree that is 

 entitled to the attentions of men of fortune. Instead of boasting of the price of a bullock, or the produce 

 of a field, let it be the pride of him who possesses an extent of landed property, to speak of the florish- 

 ing condition of his estates at large, the number of superior managers that he can count upon them, and 

 the value of the improvements which he has been the happy means of diffusing among thepi. Leave it to 

 professional men, to yeomanry and the higher class of tenants, to carry on the improvements, and incor- 

 porate them with established practices ; to prosecute pecuniary agriculture in a superior manner, and set 

 examples to inferior tenantry. This is strictly their province ; and their highest and best view in life. It 

 has been through this order of men, chiefly or wholly, that valuable improvements in agriculture have 

 been brought into practice, and rendered of general use. 



4253. The possessor of an extent of territory/ has higher objects in view, and a more elevated station to fill. 

 As a superior member of society, it may be said, he has still higher views than those of aggrandizing his 

 own income. But how can a man of fortune fill what may well be termed his legitimate station in life, 

 with higher advantage to his country, than by promoting the prosperity of his share of its territory ; by 

 rendering not one field, or one farm, but every farm upon it productive ? This is, indeed, being faithfully 

 at his post. And it is a good office in society which is the more incumbent upon him, as no other man pn 

 earth can of right perform it ; valuable as it is to the public. 



Sect, II. General Cautions on the Subject of executing Improvements. 



4254. No work can be ^^rudently commenced until the 2}lan be fully matured, not ii> 

 idea only, but in diagrams, and in models, if the subject require them ; in order that 

 every bearing, and every hinge, may be sufficiently foreknown : the site of improvement 

 being reverted to, again and again, with the draught or the model in hand ; until the judg- 

 ment be satisfied, and the mind be inspired with confidence. If a proprietor has not 

 yet acquired sufficient judgment, within himself, let him consult some one man, or one 

 council of men, in whose knowledge and judgment he can confide ; and thus fix a rally- 

 ing point. Having brought his plan to a degree of maturity, in this private manner, he 

 may then venture to publish it ; and endeavor to improve it, by the advice of its friends, 

 and the animadversions of its enemies. 



4255. If a proprietor wants judgment himself, and a friend to supply it, let him not at- 

 tempt the more difficult works of improvement. Yet how often we see, both in public 

 and private life, men engaged in arduous undertakings, embarked on the wide ocean of 

 business, without rudder or compass to guide them : depending on casual information, 

 to help them on their way : sponging, with porous brain, the minds that are bedewed 

 with the knowledge they require. But having no store of their own to assimilate it with, it 

 presently evaporates. They are consequently ever of opinion with the last persons they 

 converse with. Such men's decisions and operations are always wrong : and for an 

 obvious reason. They consult those who are best able to inform them, first : and receive 

 their last impressions from those who are least capable to give them. Men who have 

 neither judgment in themselves nor any standard of practice to rally at, are liable to be 

 led astray by the plausible schemes of theorists, the greater part of whom know nothing 

 of the practical part of business ; and by their calculations both of expense in the outlay, 

 and of profit in the return, deceive both themselves and their friends or employers; some 

 also may have sinister designs in view j though we believe the errors of speculative men 

 are in most cases owing to their being endowed with more of the imaginative than of 

 the judging faculty. 



