feet It. Every one knows, that it is more difficult to complete the end of every work, than either to lay 

 the foundation, or to raise the superstructure : let the Norfolk farmer himself be asked, what part of his 

 enormous barley-stack requires most time in its construction, and the nicest art in the completion, 

 and he will answer you, the summit : So it is in Norfolk farming ; there is so much system exercised, so 

 much art employed, and such a superstructure already raised upon the best of foundations, that to com- 

 plete the work, much time, much of nice discrimination, is necessary, and no rude hand can execute 

 the task. What then I have to advance, I hope will be taken as it is intended; viz. to lay before you 

 what I have seen so uncommon in farming, but yet, in my estimation, of so much importance at the 

 present extraordinary period of time — a period when we know our population is encreasing, and, as 

 some think, faster* than the means of subsistence — when we are threatened with exclusion from foreign 

 ports to provide sustenance for that increase, and when, of course, imperious necessity will oblige us to 

 find (what many persons well versed in rural economy think may be found) within ourselves, the re- 

 sources sufficient to maintain any degree of population, to which we may arrive. 



Premising thus much, I am now to inform you, that in Mr. Curwen's statement to me, I was beyond 

 measure astonished at the enormous crops of clover, which seemed to be produced upon his farm at 

 Workington, crops to the amount of 35 and 36 tons weight, and much delighted with the artificial re- 

 sources, by which he maintains the great number of horses, which he is obliged to keep upon only 500 

 acres of land. For surely, gentlemen, 140 horses must, with the utmost economy, require a large 

 tract of land to supply them with food ; and such is the number Mr. C. must keep in order to work his 

 collieries, which are larger than any individual in this united empire can boast he possesses. I think I 

 may state fairly, that the whole farm would but be barely sufficient to maintain his horses, were it not for 

 the artificial method of feeding, which he has adopted. For he has found that 40 acres will supply food 

 by his method of feeding, when, by the general method, 280 acres would be required ; add to this, 

 that besides the horses already mentioned, Mr, Curwen maintains, constantly, between 20 and 30 

 cows, in order to supply the town of Workington with milk, and (I will also hope to hear; after what 

 he has seen at Holkhamf) he keeps, at least, 100 breeding ewes. You will not then be surprised, 

 that I should readily accept a pressing invitation from Mr. Curwen, backed by a most powerful en- 

 couragement from our President to go and see, what I could not but esteem, " wonders tn agriculture,''^ 

 \ left home Sunday, the 27th of September, arrived at Workington, in Cumberland, on Thursday, 

 the 1st of October, and reached home again on Friday, the 9th, having been absent 12 days, travelled 



800 miles, and remained at Workington four days. Cumberland, gentlemen, is a country by no 



means propitious to farming, and undoubtedly, a man with only half an agricultural eye, though he 

 may be lost in astonishment at the wonders of nature, which he there sees, for it is the most moun- 

 tainous country, and Skiddaw and Saddleback, the highest mountains in England, he cannot, I say, be 

 so far lost in rapture with romantic scenery, as to forget, that unless there be some utility, something 

 really serviceable to man, all scenery, all the pleasures of the eye and imagination must be vain ; and 

 under such contemplation, who that knows the value of land, and how much may be done even in the 

 highly cultivated field, how much not only the farmer, but the proprietor and the public may be bene- 

 fitted, who, I say, with sentiments such as these, can view the enormous, the immense tracts of land, 

 which form the mountains under contemplation without seeing and feeling, that agriculture here lies 



* See Malthus on Population. 



t Mr. Curwen allows Mr. Coke and the farmers of Norfolk to be unrivalled in the nianagement of sheep. 



