1182 STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. Part IV. 



classes, the propriety of being contented with the simplest and cheapest fere, rs extremely 

 pernicious to the best interests of mankind. Enconiums ought not to be bestowed on 

 those who are contented with mere necessaries : on the contrary, such indifference ought 

 to be held disgraceful. A taste for the comforts, the enjoyments, and even the luxuries 

 of life, should be as widely diffiised as possible, and if possible, interwoven with the 

 national character and prejudices. This, as it appears to us, is the best mode of attempt- 

 ing the amelioration of the condition of the lower classes. Luxuries, and if you will 

 have it so, even wasteful habits, are incomparably better than that cold, sluggish apathy, 

 which would content itself with what can barely continue mere animal existence." '< In 

 those countries," Ricardo judiciously observes, " where the laboring classes have the 

 fewest wants, and are contented with the cheapest food, the people are exposed to the 

 greatest vicissitudes and miseries : they have no place of refuge from calamity ; they 

 cannot seek safety in a lower station ; they are already so low that they can fall no 

 lower. On any deficiency of the chief article of their subsistence, there are few sub- 

 stitutes of which they can avail themselves, and dearth to them is attended with 

 almost all the evils of famine." (Sup. Encyc. Brit. art. Com Laws.) Such is the case 

 in Ireland, where amidst the germs of the greatest riches and luxury, the inliabitants 

 are contented to live on less than any other people in the world. 



7140. The taste of the superior patrons of agriculture is to be improved by visiting the 

 best cultivated districts, reading agricultural works, attending agricultural societies, and, 

 above all, by cultivating a farm, and establishing on it a systematic order and regularity 

 in every detail. Let such observe the hedges, gates, verges of fields, and the beautiful 

 rows of turnips, of Berwickshire or Northumberland ; the correctly drilled beans of 

 East Lothian, and the live stock of Leicestershire. But few are the proprietors of lands 

 who either employ a proper bailiff' or demesne steward ; and of those who do, how few 

 who do not limit and fetter them in their operations, or else neglect them and leave them 

 to sink into that supine state in which the uppermost wish is to enjoy the comforts of 

 the situation with the least possible degree of exertion ! Some proprietors desire to have 

 their home farm managed with a view to profit, as the cheapest way of getting hay, 

 straw, mutton, &c. ; these are sordid patrons : a home farm ought to combine an elegant 

 orderly style of management, high kept horses, harness, implements, &c., well clothed 

 servants, and every thing in a superior style to what is seen on common farms. Par- 

 ticular attention ought to be paid to the buildings, which ought to combine archi- 

 tectural design, fitness, strength, and elegance ; the roads ought to be like approaches 

 to a mansion ; the hedges like those of gardens, and the green verges round the fields 

 kept mown like lawns or grass walks, and the ditches, bridges, and gates in correspond- 

 ing neatness ; the finest trees ought to be encouraged in proper situations, and correctly 

 pruned, and substantial watering places formed and kept supplied. Every operation on 

 plants, or the ground, performed in a garden-like manner, and no individual of any 

 species of stock kept, of which a drawing might not be taken and preserved as a beauf y. 

 Even the dress and deportment of the servants on such a farm ought to harmonize with 

 the rich culture, orderly display, and high keeping of the whole. 



Chap. IL 



On the Imi)rovement of Agriculture by the better Education of those who are engaged in it 



as a Profession. 



7141. By education is generally understood that portion of knowledge which is 

 ct'otained at schools ; but in a more extended sense (as Mills observes) it may be de- 

 fined the means which may be employed to render man competent for performing 

 the part which he undertakes to perform in life with increased satisfaction to himself 

 and others. Education may thus be considered as extending to every thing which 

 operates on the body or mind, from the earliest periods of our existence to the final 

 extinction of life. It is unnecessary here to embrace the subject in its full extent, 

 but we shall offer some remarks on the education of practical men in general, 

 on the professional education of an agriculturist, and the general conduct and economy 

 of his life. 



Sect. I. On the Degree of Knowledge which may be attained by Practical Men, and on 

 the general Powers of the human Mind as to Attainments. 



7142. Thel-noivledgeof languages, history, geography, arts, sciences, and literature, 

 which an agriculturist, whether a ploughman, shepherd, bailiff", steward, or rent-paying 



