104 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



IMPROVEMENT IN AGRICULTURE. 



The great improvements made in agriculture in Britain are ol 

 ten spoken of, and it may be interesting to some to know whai 

 they a/e. We therefore propose, occasionally, to lay before on 

 readers some of the most prominent ones, and leading to the moi 

 manifest results. 



To the slow and cautious farmers of this country, many of thei 

 will appear strange — and we will not find fault with such men, 

 they pronounce them incredible. But they are nevertheless, recorr 

 ed facts. 



The first is a letter in the Farmer's Magazine, London, from 

 gentleman who had purchased a farm of 130 acres, in Essex, fi 

 ^3,250, and he states he has already expended £5,200 in permi 

 nent improvements — about |26,000. The result is not given, 

 the improvements have but just been completed, and among thei 

 between 80 and 90 miles of drains, being four yards apart and .' 

 inches deep. 



In 1799, Arthur Young said in his report on the improved staj" 

 of the farms in Lincolnshire, which had been produced by ti 

 year's labor in embanking and draining, and which occupy betw€ 

 20 and 30 square miles of country — " Its produce before 

 small — letting for not more than Is. 6d. per acre, but now fnj 

 11 to 17 shillings an acre." Another fen was made, by drainiti 

 worth £20 an acre, which had before been only worth ,£3 — aJ 

 the rent raised from 7 to 20 shillings ; and he adds, " there cam 

 have been less than 150,000 acres drained, and improved on 

 average, from 5 to 25 shillings an acre." 



We continue our quotations from the same author. In spez 

 of drainage in other parts of Lincolnshire, he says of land whA' 

 before was good for nothing, that, " though the expense had befl 

 estimated at £400,000— its value was rated at £2,000,000, h 

 ing a profit of 1,600,000 to the proprietors. 



The same writer mentions another tract of land of 17,01 

 acres, which "before draining was worth but from Is. to 3s. < 

 per acre — now it is from 10 to 30s." We might go on quotiU 

 from this writer, instances of the same nature to almost any i^ 

 tent. But these only show that the soil is improved, from 'k 

 fact that the higher rent could not be had unless the land had 



