xiv GENEKAL INTKODUCTION. 



into competition with the picked agricultural and mechanical skill of continental Europe. 

 Arrived at the appointed spot, and the comparison made, it was found that they were 

 almost immeasurably in advance of their neighbours in the arts and sciences necessary to 

 the product of meat and corn in the most economical manner, although they worked 

 under a climate not remarkable for its congeniality, and on a soil which has, for ages, 

 been denuded of its virgin fertility. This must have been rather surprising, if not 

 disheartening, to continental growers, breeders, and machinists ; but the best evidence of 

 the superiority of British live-stock, and agricultural machinery, is not to be proved by 

 the medals awarded in Paris or Vienna, but in the constantly increasing exportation of 

 both to all parts of the world where scientific cultivation has superseded the ruder modes 

 of by-gone times. In regard to improvements, said the Earl of Carlisle, in addressing 

 an agricultural meeting of Yorkshiremen, " I saw, on the plains of Troy, the clod-crusher 

 of Crosskill ; the drills, the horse-shoes of G-arrett ; and the ploughs of Howard and 

 Eansome :" and, on the banks of the Danube, the Scheldt, and the Po ; of the Mississippi 

 and the Amazon ; on the shores of the Baltic and the Black Sea ; in Australia, and in 

 Flanders (the cradle of modern agriculture), to English implements is given the same 

 preference as that which is awarded them on the more classic ground of Troy. In 

 so far as our own island is concerned, it has now, for some years, been proved, that 

 the application of steam machinery to the cultivation of the soil, is, in many ways, 

 preferable to the modes usually followed ; and models of engines for the farm, which 

 formerly appeared at our cattle shows, are now replaced by the machines, these 

 represented in working order. This is the case at the Smithfield cattle shows, where 

 the machines of several inventors are exhibited, accompanied with hundreds of 

 testimonials, detailing the practical experience of those who have become purchasers, 

 and who have given them a fair trial upon their own acres. The exhibition of these, 

 united to the very extensive evidence in their favour, whether used on the churlish 

 *' clays," or the *' lighter" soils, completely establish every essential point in the question 

 of steam-power tillage. The saving of one-third of the farmer's teams, on a large 

 holding, repays, in a few years, the prime cost of a steam plough ; while two small 

 farmers can join in the purchase of an apparatus too costly for one. The employment 

 of several hundred machines in breaking up many thousands of acres in a single season, 

 has demonstrated that the work is profitable, in point of economy, over horse labour ; 

 more profitable in the points of excellence and efiiciency, and still more profitable in 

 the point of augmented produce. From these circumstances, and the importance of the 

 subject, a division has been devoted to the practice of modern Farming and Agricul- 

 tural Machinery, in order that the gentlemen who keep their own horses, farm their 

 own estate, and grow their own beef and mutton, may have at hand a means of reference, 

 in Rural Life, to suggest such improvements as may arise from the perusal of its 

 pages. 



The cultivation of a garden was the only occupation of our first parents in 

 Paradise; and from that hour to this, it has been considered, even by those whose 

 position is such as to have placed one within the reach of their power, to be 

 the purest of human enjoyments. "How did you endure your poverty?" asked 

 Alexander the Grreat of Abdalonimus, a Sidonian prince, who had been reduced from a 

 throne to earn his livelihood by cultivating a garden with his own hands. " May 

 Heaven enable me to bear my prosperity as well ! I then had no cares, and my own 

 hand supplied all I required." In this condition he was independent ; and independence 



