TO THE 



MEMBERS 



OF THE 



nomfojlk agmcultumal society. 



I 



GENTLEMEN, 



N the situation in which I stand in your society, I have liad many letters to read to you, which I 

 have received, and many which 1 myself have written ; amongst the former, I must think I have had 

 some highly creditable to the writers,* and honourable to ourselves, but of all we have to boast, none 

 have excited my attention more than those, which I have received from a gentleman in Cumberland ; 

 a man of the first rate abilities, and what sets those abilities in the highest point of view in my mind, 

 a Commoner of the first rank, as to fortune, and yet exerting his talents in tlie advancement of the 

 Agriculture of the Country — 1 mean John Christian Curwen, Esq. one of the Members of Par- 

 liament for Carlisle. By the introduction of our most friendly and most excellent President, I be- 

 came acquainted with Mr. Curwen in the middle of this summer at Holkham, and immediately upon 

 his arrival at home, at Windermere, in Westmoreland, and at Workington in Cumberland, a corres- 

 pondence commenced between us. It would take up too much of your time for me to recapitulate all 

 which has passed in our letters, but it would be unpardonable in me were I to withhold, what appears 

 to me of so much importance to the interest of those concerned in Agriculture, those subjects^ 

 which have formed the topics of our correspondence, and, as practised by Mr. Curwen, have so 

 far excited my astonishment, as to induce me, upon the instigation of our President, to take a journey 

 from hence to Workington, in order to be an eye witness to facts, which before I had only seen on 

 paper. 



It is not, gentlemen, in what I have to relate to you, that I expect I am to improve your Norfolk 

 mode of farming; this would imply much arrogance in myself, and be by no means complimen- 

 tary to you. Norfolk farming (if I may be allowed to express my sentiments upon it) has arrived 

 at a pitch of excellence, far beyond that of any other county which I have seen ; but high as it is, 

 I presume no Norfolk fartner would take upon himself to say, it is impossible for it to advance 

 higher. There is no doubt but exalted as it is, the work is not complete ; it will require time to per- 



* Witness Mr. Repton's Letter upon preserving Turnips; Mr. Burrow's npoa Lucerne; Mr. Salter's upon dibbling 



Pulse upon Meadows; and Mr. Kent's upon Leases. 



B 



