J'_'90 ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF AGRICULTURE. supplemiht 



In two yi'.ir- after the publication of tin- report, the Royal Agricultural Society of England was formed; 

 partly from the Increasing interest taken in agriculture by the landed proprietors, but principally from 



their having observed and remarked on the great g 1 effected by the Highland and Agricultural Society 



of Scot! ind The Idea of the Agricultural Society of England was Brat suggested by Lord Spencer at the 

 dinner after the show of the SmithBeld Club In the beginning of 1838, and a meeting was held for that 



(impose on the 9th of May following, when the foundation of the Society was laid. It- progress since 

 las been to extraordinary, thai it now reckons upward- of 7,000 members, Including all the great landed 

 proprietor! of England. 'The society holds annual meetings in different parts of England, as the High- 

 land Society does In Scotland; and Its journnl, which i- published quarterly, contains g great number of 

 valuable communications fro n scii ntific men and eminent landed proprietors. The desire for scientific 

 know ledge, mainly brought about by the liriti-h Association for the advancement of Scie ice, has called 

 (.nth several eminent chemists who have d reeled their attention to agriculture j and in this the British 

 Association have taken a prominent part. It is to this Association that we owe the volumes of I.iebig 

 on Vegetable and Animal Chemistry, which have thrown so much new light on the subjects of which 

 they treat. The establishment of a Prol >r-hi]> of Agriculture in Oxford, and one also in the Univer- 

 sity of Durham, have seconded the efforts of the Agricultural Society ; and much good continues to be 



effected by the model farms on the estate of Lord Ducie, in Gloucestershire, and by the lectures of Pro- 

 fossor Henslow, and his exertions in various ways among the farmers of Suffolk. In a direct and 

 practical view, perhaps the greatest service to agriculture, next to the frequent drain system, has been 

 the introduction of new substances as manures, or the more frequent use of such as were previously 

 little known. Among these maybe mentioned bones, guano, gas liquor, and a variety of saline sub- 

 stances, ail of which, under particular circumstances, have been found to add materially to the produce 

 of the soil. The Agricultural Society of England, like the sister society in Scotland, have wisely 

 abstained from experimenting themselves, but have offered ample prizes for experiments made by others, 

 and Professor Henslow has drawn up a scheme (detailed in his Letters to the Farmers of Suffolk, lx-13, 

 s\o.) by which the same experiment may be repeated in any number of places all over the country. 

 1 xcellent works on the Chemistry of Agriculture have been published by Professor Johnston, of 

 Durham, Mr. Solly, the Professor of Chemistry to the Horticultural Society; and important essays or 

 treatises on some departments of tin 1 subject with reference to Agriculture, by Professor Daubeny. Dr. 

 Madden, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Mr. Trimmer, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Lymburn, and others ; and the stimulus 

 given by these works and the societies mentioned, has given such an impetus to improvement, that there 

 can be no doubt of its rapid progress for a long period to come. 



8032. In Sc 'tln/iit, though the agriculture is far in advance of that of F.ngland, yet advantage has been 

 taken of the new manures ; and the point in which the country was most deficient, the breeding ot 

 domestic animals, has received general attention, and the consequence has been great improvement in 

 this department. 



8033. Ireland has established its Royal Agricultural Society, which continues the exertions begun in 

 1831. No one has contributed more to the improvement of the agriculture of small Tarms in Ireland 

 than Mr. Blacker, of Armagh, whose essays on the subject ought to be in the hands of every proprietor 

 in Ireland. (See Catalogue, and also Q. J. A., vol v. p. 386.) 



8034. — sill. In the literature of Agriculture, as it may be supposed, considerable progress has been 

 made since 1831. The Mark Lane Express is the most popular farmer's newspaper in England ; but 

 we have also the New Farmer's Journal. There is no paper of the kind in Scotland ; but in Ireland 

 there is the Fiirmer's Gazelle, and Journal of Practical Horticulture, a very excellent weekly paper. 

 In Kngland we have the Farmer's Magazine, the papers in which generally appear first in the Mark 

 I. one Express ; the British Farmer's Magazine, and the Journal of the Agricultural Society of England. 

 The only agricultural periodical in Scotland is the Quarterly Journal oj Agriculture, which continues 

 to maintain its high reputation. For the other works published since 1831, we must refer to the 

 Catalogue in continuation of that given in the Bibliography of British Agriculture, p. 120G. As this 

 Catalogue is arranged in the order in which the works were published, a glance over it will form a very 

 good chronological history of agriculture from 1S31 to the present time. 



Asiatic Turkey. 



sri5") SGI On the agriculture of Asia Minor some interesting notices will be found in the Journal of 



the Geographical Society, vol. x. It appears that on the banks of the Lake Van, the drill husbandry has 

 been practised from time immemorial, with rude, but yet ingenious implements. 



Persia. 



-864. The general appearance of the country in Persia is characterised by its chains of rocky 

 mountains, its long arid riveriess valleys, and its still more extensive salt or sandy deserts. The northern 

 provinces form an extensive table land, which rises from a lower plain, and is interspersed with nume- 

 rmi, clusters of hill, chains of rocky mountains, and barren deserts. The lower ground, under the name 

 of 1) ishtistan. or the level country exhibits a succession of sandy wastes, where the eye is occasionally 

 relieved by a dark plantation of date trees, and a dw patches of corn, in such places as are blessed with a 

 freshwater rivulet or a copious well. On the banks of the Tigris this tract becomes more fertile. VVhere- 

 ever water abounds, vegetation is most luxuriant; but the country generally suffers from excessive 

 drought. The mountains present masses of grey rock, and the only trees that are found in abundance 

 are the tall poplar and stately chimar (Platanns orientalis), and the fruit trees which surround every 

 hovel. These hovels are clean and comfortable; and wages are high, while food is cheap. {Eraser* 

 Persia, Eilin. Cab. Lib., vol. XV.) 



India. 



8037.— 893. To give some idea of the present stale of agriculture in India, Mr. W. Carey, one of the 

 iii!--i inaries, states, in the Transactions of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, vol. ii. 

 part I., lNt'2, that, in many parts of the country, the same crop is invariably raised on the same ground 

 year after year : hay is n-'ver cut till the grass has died or withered on the ground ; scientific rotation 

 of crops is a subject to which Indian cultivators are strangers; and the manure produced by animals 

 is generally consumed for fuel. No attempt to improve stock appears ever to have been made in India ; 

 though there is every reason to believe that all the animals used in the husbandry of Europe are capable 

 of as high a degree of improvement in India as they are in more temperate regions. The quantity of 

 waste lands in India is said to be so large as almost to exceed belief. Extensive tracts on the banks 

 oi numerous livers are annually overflowed, so that they produce little except long and coarse grass, 

 seldom turned to any useful account. During the rainy season, these tracts are the haunts of wild buffaloes, 

 which in the night" come up from them and devour the crops of rice on the high lands. In the cold 

 season, wild hogs, tigers, and other noxious animal-, unite with the buffaloes in occupying these exten- 

 sive tracts of alluvial soil ; which, though now so pernicious, might, by embanking and draining, be- 

 come the richest lands in the country, and contribute greatly to the improvement of the climate. Similar 

 observations might be made respecting immense tracts now wholly covered with wood, and producing 

 nothing whatever to civilise man, but. on the contrary, proving a nuisance to the surrounding districts 

 by affording a shelter to noxious animals. The oppression of landowners, anil petty officers, on the 

 cultivator is so great that iu some parts of the country no farmer can reasonably promise himself sccu- 



