The Making of the Land. 213 



lished methods of valuing the various forms of realty ; 

 scholars like Corbyn Morris, in 1759, described a system of 

 estate accounts which included both our modern cashbook and 

 ledger, and earlier still (viz., in 1727j Edward Lawrence, a 

 surveyor, brought out forms of cash and rental books which 

 afford us valuable models even at this present da3^ Michael 

 Menzies, the lawyer, invented the threshing machine ; ^ Horn, 

 the sowing machine ; Lummis, the Rotherham plough ; ^ 

 Praed, the drill plough ; Small, the swing plough ; Bryce, 

 the reaping machine ; Cooch, the winnowing machine ; and 

 Salmon, the haymaker. Swedes, the field cabbage, the man- 

 gold, the kohl rabi, timothy grass, prickly comfry, and the 

 spring variety of wheat were all crops introduced during the 

 last half of the century. Allen, of Lynghouse, resuscitated^ 

 the old system of marling earlier still.* Bone dust was first 

 tried as a manure by Col. St. Leger at Doncaster, and salt by 

 the Marquess of Rockingham, in 1765. Cattle shows, plough- 

 ing matches, farmers' clubs, then became frequent. The 

 Society for the Encouragement of Arts^ Manufactures^ and Com- 

 merce was revived, and exhibited its renewed vigour by re- 

 warding the originators of agricultural improvements with 

 medals and prizes. The Bath and West of England^ and the 

 Highland Societies^ the Smithfield Clubj and last but not least 

 the Board of Agriculture, all sprang into being at this sama 

 period. When first the institution of this Board was pro- 

 posed, Pitt was continually accused of creating a job for 

 his own private and selfish ends. But on some one in the 

 House daring to hint that this was his object, he was crushed 



' In 1735 George Thomson edited a work containing tlie description of 

 a threshing machine invented at Dalkeith, whicli in a minute gave 1320 

 strokes, and was worked by water, wind, or horse power. — Agricultural' 

 Biography, sub voc. " Thomson." J. Donaldson, 1854. 



' The Practical Husbandman. E. Maxwell, 1757. 



^ We say " resuscitated " advisedly, because there is no doubt that in 

 early Tudor times marling was practised, and Young mentions tliat 

 nearly all of the parishes around Dishlej' had a huge depression of the 

 surface which had been called time immemorial " The Mavlo Pit." — 

 Fanner^s Tour into the Eastern Countries, 1771, p. 110. 



■* Annals of Agriculture, vol. v. p. 121. 



