YOUNG, ARTHUR. 



his general and profound knowledge in agri- 

 culture was the only circumstance that marked 

 him as the most proper person to fill a situa- 

 tion in every respect so important and honour- 

 able. "The gratification," says he, "of being 

 elected into so respectable a situation, in which 

 opportunities of still giving an humble aid to 

 the good cause of the plough could scarcely 

 fai'. of offering, would not permit me to decline 

 the appointment; although, to a person esta- 

 blished in the country, the salary, with the resi- 

 dence annexed, was not that pecuniary object 

 which has been represented; and I must have 

 improved on bad principles indeed, if it would 

 not, in a few years, have turned out a more 

 profitable speculation. (The salary was 400/. 

 per annum, with a house free from all charge.) 

 a change in the destination of a man's 



life! Instead of entering, as I proposed, the 

 solitary lord of 4,000 acres, in the keen atmo- 

 sphere of lofty rocks and mountain torrents, 

 with a little creation rising gradually around 

 me, making the desert smile with cultivation, 

 and grouse give way to industrious population, 

 active and energetic, though remote and tran- 

 quil; and every instant of my existence mak- 

 ing two blades of grass to grotc where, not one was 

 found before behold me at a desk, in the 

 smoke, the fog, the din of Whitehall. 'Society 

 has charms;' true, and so has solitude to a 

 mind employed. The die, however, is cast, 

 and my steps may still be, metaphorically, said 

 to be in the furrow." 



At the Board Arthur Young continued, to his 

 death, zealously employed on all occasions as 

 its secretary, in the service of agriculture; 

 old age at last crept on ; he became blind, and 

 afflicted with the complaint which caused his 

 death. He was attended (concludes Dr. Paris) 

 by Mr. Wilson, Mr. Chilver, and myself; and 

 although the incurable nature of his disease 

 defied every hope of permanent relief, yet his 

 sufferings were greatly palliated by the re- 

 sources of art, and he died without entertain- 

 ing the least suspicion of the malady under 

 which he suffered. Pious resignation cheered 

 him in his illness, and not a murmur of com- 

 plaint was heard to escape his lips. On the 12th 

 of April, in the year 1820, at his house in Sack- 

 ville street, after takinga glass of lemonade, and 

 expressing himself calm and easy, he expired. 

 His remains were conveyed to Bradfield, and 

 deposited in a vault in the church-yard. 



I have thus offered a brief sketch of the 

 principal labours of Arthur Young, a man who 

 filled a large space in the public eye for a long 

 series of years, but whose name and talents 

 appear to have commanded still greater notice 

 and respect in foreign countries than in his 

 own. That he reflected lustre on the age and 

 the country in which he lived can be hardly 

 denied. Of what other philosopher can it be 

 oaid that at one time he entertained, under his 

 humble roof, pupils of seven different nations, 



ZAPZIEGER. 



each of whom had been sent to him, for in- 

 structions in agriculture, by his respective 

 government? I was lately informed by his 

 daughter, that the late Duke of Bedford break- 

 fasted at Bradfield on one of the mornings of a 

 Newmarket race-meeting, and was met by pu- 

 pils from Russia, France, America, Naples 

 Poland, Sicily, and Portugal. His numerous 

 works are distinguished by vivacity of thought, 

 quickness of imagination, bias to calculation, 

 and fondness for political speculation; and had 

 they been less successful, posterity might per- 

 haps have regarded these traits of genius as 

 fatal defects, and as pregnant sources of fallacy 

 and disappointment. 



YUCCA (commonly called Adam's needle). 

 An American genus of plants found on the 

 sandy sea-coasts of the Southern States and 

 tropical regions, several of which are made to 

 subserve valuable purposes. Nuttall gives the 

 following description of the characters of the 

 genus and individual species: 



Proper stem none; caudex inconspicuous 

 or assurgent and shrubby; leaves comose (or 

 crowded and terminal), ensiibrm, spiny at the 

 point, sometimes with a sphacelate filamenti- 

 ferous margin; flowers in a terminal, irregular 

 panicle, each protected by two spathes; corolla 

 white, roundish campanulate. 



Species. 1. Y. filament osa. 2. Jlngustifolia, 

 Sternless; leaves glaucous, long, linear, and 

 mucronate, margin filamentose; capsules large 

 and dry, oblong-obovate. Habitat on the banks 

 of the Missouri, from the confluence of the river 

 Platte to the mountains. Flowers large and 

 white ; leaves scarcely half an inch wide. 



3. Recurvifolia. In sandy fields, North Caro- 

 lina. 4. Gloriosa. Capsule internally filled 

 with a sweetish pulp of a purple colour. This 

 plant is called petre by the Mexican Spaniards, 

 and used for cordage, ropes, &c., as well as 

 for packing-cloth, and is extremely durable. 

 5. Moi folia. There is also a 6th species of this 

 genus, discovered by the late Mr. John Lyons, 

 improperly called Y. angustifolia by the garden- 

 ers around London ; it is nearly allied to Y. 

 filamenlosa,but has much narrower leaves; with 

 its specific characters I am unacquainted. 



The soil and climate of East Florida are be- 

 lieved to be well adapted to the culture of these 

 and many other plants, the fibres of which are 

 converted into fabrics and cordage of great 

 value. The general government, a few years 

 since, granted a large tract of land in that terri- 

 tory to the late Dr. Perrine for the purpose of 

 encouraging the introduction of the Sisal hemp, 

 and other filamentous plants and tropical pro- 

 ductions. The recent melancholy massacre of 

 this gentleman and his family by the Indians 

 have frustrated these attempts, for a time at 

 least. See HEMP. 



ZAPZIEGER, or SAP- SAGO, a kind of 

 cheese made in Switzerland. See CHEESE and 

 SAP-SAGO. 



THE END. 



1179 



