iooj, STATISTICS OF AGRICULTUHF:. Tart IV. 



The miners at Leadhllls have a regular library mod reading society; and the works they make choice of 



are nol onlj hisl . voya • j, travel., ,\c. but even works ol taate, such as the British classics, and best 



.1 romances The degree towhich knowledge will prevail among any class ol labouring men 

 will depend jointly on their own ambition, on the demand for knowledge, or the reputation in wnusn it is 

 held, and on the opportunities of acquiring it n rtull.stupid person, with little native activitv, will never 

 desire to know more than whal enables him to mpply the ordinary wants ol life ; but where the workmen 

 of anv art ..re required to h ive te» hnical knowledge of any particular kind, they will be found invariably 

 to possess it Tims carpenten and mas equire some knowledge of the mechanical principles ol archi- 

 tecture and working engineers of the strength of materials j and these kinds o knowledge are acquired 

 bv thciii without an hour's interruption of their daily labour : on the contrary, the habit ol evening study 

 renders them more steady, sober, and industrious than other workmen : than bricklayers and paper. 

 hangers, for example, whose employments r. quire much less intellectual skill. It every cook-maul, 

 before rtiecould obtain a first-rate place, were required to be able to read Aptcnu in the original 

 tongue there would be no want of learned cooks ; and if no baililt could obtain a first-rate situation who 

 had not written a thesis in Greek, or who had not made the tour of Europe, there would soon be found 

 abundance of bailiffs SO qualified. A Caledonian, when he comes to the low country, soon acquires the 

 English tongue, and, if be has been taught Latin, thus knows three languages. The servants at the inns 

 on Some part, of the Continent, frequented by different nations, often acquire a moderate knowledge of 

 three or lour 1 inguages : a late custom-house officer on the island of Cronstadt spoke and wrote ten lan- 

 guages • and the bar-maid at the hotel de Londres, at which we lodged in Moscow, in 1814, could make 

 herself intelligible in Swedish, Russian, Polish, German, French, Italian, and English. 



-,<H\ The certain way of obtaining am/ thing is to be impressed with the necessity of possessing it, 

 either to avoid the evil of being without it ; or to satisfv the desires of others as to ourselves; or our own 

 desires There is scarcely any thing a rational man can desire that he may not obtain, by maintaining on 

 nind a powerful impression of the necessity of obtaining it ; pursuing the means of attainment with 

 unceasing perseverance, and keeping alive that enthusiasm and ardour which always accompany powerful 

 desires VII may not acquire, by the same degree of labour, the same degree of eminence; but any man, 

 bj labour, may attain a knowledge of all that is already known on any subject, and that degree of know- 

 ledge is respectable ; what many never attain to, and what few go beyond. 



791 The grand drawback to every hind of improvement is, the vulgar and degrading idea that certain 

 things are beyond our reach; whereas the truth is, every thing isattainable by the employment of means; 

 and nothing, not even the knowledge of a common labourer, without it : there are many things, which it 

 is not desirable to wish for, and which are only desired by men of extraordinary minds ; but let no man 

 fancy any thing is impossible to him, for this is the bane of all improvement Let no young plough- 

 man' therefore, who reads this, even if he can but barely read, imagine that he may not become eminent 

 in any of the pursuits of life or departments of knowledge, much )e*s in those of his profession : let him 

 nei er lose sight of this principle — that to desire and apply is to attain, and that the attainment will be in 

 proportion to the application. 



Sect. 1 1. Professional Education of Jgricutturists. 

 •7943. In order that a professional man should excel as such, every other acquirement must be kept sub- 

 servient to that of his profession. No branch of knowledge should be pursued to any extent that, either 

 of itself, or by the habits of thinking to which it gives rise, tends todivert the mind from the main object 

 of pursuit; something.it is true, is due to relaxation in every species of acquirement ; but judicious 

 relaxation onlv serves to whet the appetite for the vigorous pursuit of the main object. By the pro 

 'essional education of agriculturists, we mean that direction of their faculties by which they wil 

 best acquire the science and manual operations of agriculture, and we shall suppose agricultural 

 pupils generally to have no other scholastic education than some knowledge of reading, writing, and 

 arithmetic. . , . .,._. 



7914 All young men who intend embracing agriculture as a profession, whether as ploughmen, bailitls, 

 stewards, land-valuers, or rent-paving farmers, ought to undergo a course of manual labour for one year 

 or more, in order to acquire the mechanism of all agricultural operations. When the pupil is not 

 destined for anv particular county, then he should be sent to a farmer in a district of mixed agriculture ; 

 as, for example; East Lothian, where he would, if placed in a wheat and bean culture farm, see at no great 

 distance the turnip system and feeding, and a few miles off, the mountain sheep-farming or breeding: 

 when the pupil is intended to be settled in any particular county, he ought to be sent to a county as near 

 as po unlar soil and climate, where the best practices are in use; as from all the turnip counties, 



pupils should go to Northumberland or Berwickshire; from the clay counties to East Lothian, or the 

 Carse of Gowrie : from a mountainous district to the Cheviot hills, and Tweeddale, Sc, 



7945 The term of apprenticeship completed, the future time of the pupil ought to be regulated accord, 

 lug to the ultimate object in view : if he is intended for a ploughman, shepherd, or hedger, perhaps to 

 introduce new practices in other counties, he may remain for a year or two longer with other masters in 

 the same district, in order not 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 on one character of farm, 

 let him engage himself for a second two years in a district of an opposite or at least ol a different cha- 

 racter ; and for a third two years, on a third character. There are, as already shown, only three descrip- 

 tions of farming in Britain : the bean and clover, or clay-land farming, which includes feeding by soiling; 

 the turnip farming, which includes feeding both bv soiling and pasturage ; and the hill, or mountain, or 

 pasture farming, which includes all the varieties of breeding. A young man therelore of ordinary intel- 

 lect, who has worked two years in East Lothian on a clav farm, two years in the lower Berwickshire, or 

 in the low part of Northumberland, and two years on the Northumbrian hills, must have a very competent 

 knowledge of that part of agriculture known" as farming or husbandry. 



7946. The higher branches of agriculture, or what may be called the engineering, valuing, and estate. 

 agencv departments, can onlv be completely acquired by first going through the course above described, 

 as suitable lor bailiffs and common stewards, and next placing themselves under an eminent steward, 

 land valuator, drainer, road engineer, irrigator, &C. as the case may be ; making choice of a steward who 

 hi- extensive 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 maybe 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 office, to a land 

 -toward 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 subjected to them. 

 The condition of many estates and tenants, managed by attorneys, may be referred to in proof of our 

 assertion. 



7"47. Young men intended as rent-paying farmers, after two years' labour 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. , ■_•_,„•. u- a . 



7918 In all cases when young men are destined for particular purposes, 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, embankers to Lincolnshire, warpers to the H umber, irrigators 

 to South Cerney, (ledgers to Berwickshire, woodmen and foresters to Dunkeld, or Blair in Athol, &c. It 



