Book II. EDUCATION OF AGRICULTURISTS. 1185 



merely to acquire but to habituate himself to all the improved operations and practices. 

 If he is intended for a bailiff, then, after having been two years in one character of 

 farm, let him engage himself for a second two years in a district of an opposite or at 

 least of a different character ; and for a third two years, on a tliird character. There 

 ai-e, as already shewn, only three different descriptions of farming in Britain ; the bean 

 and clover, or clay land farming, which includes feeding, by soiling ; the turnip farming, 

 which includes feeding both by soiling and pasturage; and the hill, or mountain, or pas- 

 ture farming, which includes all the varieties of breeding. A young man therefore of 

 ordinary intellect, who has worked two years in East Lothian on a clay farm, two years 

 in the lower Berwickshire, or in the low part of Northumberland, and two years on 

 the Northumbrian liills, must have a very competent knowledge of that part of agricul- 

 ture, known as farming or husbandry. 



7152. The higher branches of agriculture, or what may be called the engineering, 

 valuing, and estate agency departments, can only be completely acquired by first going 

 through the course above described, as suitable for bailifls and common stewards, and 

 next, placing themselves under an eminent steward, land valuator, drainer, road en- 

 gineer, iiTigator, &c. as the case may be : making choice of a steward who has exten- 

 sive woods and plantations, and also, if possible, some quarries, fisheries, or even mines 

 under his care, and of a land valuer or drainer in full employment When a solid 

 foundation is laid, by a thorough practical knowledge, of all the operations of common 

 agriculture, the higher part is attained with ease, and may be practised with confidence ; 

 but, on the contrary, when young men who know nothing of common country work are 

 sent direct from school, or from an attorney's oflRce, to a land steward or agent, in 

 order to acquire the art of managing landed estates, the worst consequences may be 

 dreaded, both to the proprietors and the occupiers of the territory which may be sub- 

 jected to them. The condition of many estates and tenants, managed by attornies, may 

 be referred to in proof of our assertion. 



7153. Young men intended as rent-paying fanners, after two years' labor as common 

 servants, should be kept as assistant bailiffs on other farms, till they are at least 25 years 

 of age : no young man, in our opinion, ought to be put in a farm on his own account, 

 or employed as a master bailiff, at an earlier period. 



7154. In all cases ivhen young men are destined for particular picrposes, they should 

 be sent chiefly to particular districts ; as for example, young men intended for road- 

 surveyors, to where roads are best managed drainers to a draining country em- 

 bankers to Lincolnshire warpers to the Humber irrigators to South Cerney hedgers 

 to Berwickshire woodmen and foresters to Dunkeld, or Blair, Athol, &c. It would 

 contribute much to the improvement of agriculture in the backward counties, if landed 

 gentlemen would prevail on their tenants to send their sons as apprentices, or even as 

 ploughmen, or farm laborers, to the improved counties ; or where there are lads brought 

 up by the parish, to send them there with a view to their acquiring tlie use of the im- 

 proved implements. 



7155. Whatever be the kind of professional knowledge to be acquired, tlie means of at- 

 tainment is the pupil's paying such attention to what he sees and hears as to fix it in his 

 memory. One of the first tilings, therefore, that a young man should do, is to cultivate 

 the faculty of attention, which he may do every hour of the day, by first looking at an 

 object and then shutting his eyes, and trying whether he recollects its magnitude, form, 

 color, &c. ; whether he would know it when he saw it again, and by what special mark 

 or marks he would know it or describe it. When he goes from one part of the farm to 

 another, or is on a walk or journey, let him pay that degree of attention to every thing 

 he see/S and hears, which will enable him to give some account of them when returned 

 from his walk or journey ; and let him try next day, or some days afterwards, if he can 

 recollect what he had seen then, or at any particular time and place. 



7156. The attention to be exercised in such a way as to impress the memory, and 

 enable the observer or hearer, not only to recollect objects, but to describe them, must 

 be exercised systematically. A thing or a discourse must be attended to, not only as a 

 whole, but as a composition of parts, and these parts must be considered not only as to 

 their qualities of dimension, color, consistency, &c. but as to their relative situation and 

 position. To be able to give an account of a town or village, for example, the first thing 

 is to get a general idea of the outline of its ground-plan, which may be done by looking 

 from a church tower, or adjoining hill ; next, its relative situation to surrounding 

 objects, as what hills, or woods, or waters join it, and in what quarters ; next, the di- 

 rection of the leading street or streets must be noticed ; then the intersecting or secon- 

 dary streets, the principal public buildings, the principal private ones, where the lowest 

 houses and narrowest streets are situated, and what is the character of the greater num- 

 ber of houses composing the whole assemblage. 



7157. To treasure up in the mind die characteristic marks of particular varieties and 

 subvarieties of stock is a most important part of an agriculturist's professional education. 



4 G 



