1S36.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



179 



other landlords drain for their tennnts on their pay- 

 intz; an extra rent of 4s. and Ss. an acre; and this is 

 said to bo decidedly under the additional value 

 given by the drainage to tiie land. The practice is 

 rapidly extending iu Lanarkshire, Dumtiiessliirc, 

 and other Scotch counties, and has already had, 

 and, no doulif, wiil coiitinue to liave, an astonish- 

 ing influence ov-er their productive capacities. 



A better rotation of crops is also every where 

 in the course of being adopted. 'J'he Jiigh prices 

 of the war tempted the (arniers to sow wheat too 

 fi-equendy, and wiiiiout proper preparation; the 

 fertility ot" the soil being, in consequence, mate- 

 rially impaired in manj^ districts. Tliis was par- 

 ticularly the case in the Lothians. Bat this de- 

 fect in tlie management is now nearly obviaicd. 

 Clover and artificial grasses are kept longer dovvn; 

 barley is sometimes sui)slitute(i lor wheat. T lie 

 fertility of ihe soil is preserved; and taking even 

 the best of the old improved land, it now produces, 

 at an average, a larger amount of tbod. 



But of all the recent improvements in agricul- 

 ture, the introduction and genera! use of bone ma- 

 nure is perhaps the most important^ It first be- 

 gan to be employed on a large scale in Yorkshire 

 and Lincolnshire; and, in the latter particularly, 

 its influence has been all hut miraculous. Most 

 part of the Wolds of Lincolnshire, an extensive 

 tract of C9nntry, stretching li-om Spilsbury north 

 lo Barton on the Hund^er, consisted, when Arthur 

 Young wrote his survey of the county, of mere 

 wastes, occupied I)y rabbit warrens. Could he 

 row revisit the Wolds, he w^ould hardly recognize 

 a single ffeature of their former state. The wai*- 

 rens have disappeared, and in their stead we find 

 some of the finest farms and best managed land 

 in England. This signal improvement, though 

 it did not begin, hns been carried to its present 

 pilch of perle-ciion by the use of bone manure. 

 We are inlbrmed, iu the late elaborate report oC 

 the Doncaster Agricultural Association on this 

 manure, that before bones were generally ussed 

 with turnip-seed, many thousand acres ("in the 

 Wolds of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire) were an- 

 nually sown for that crop without any manure 

 whatever, from the impossibility of getting fold 

 manure for more than a third or a fourth part of 

 their fallows. The turnips upon such unmanured 

 land were consequently very indifferent; and the 

 benefit of such feeding upon their tops, for bot- 

 toms they seldom had any, was very trifling. 

 Since the use of bones has, however, become ge- 

 neral, the turnip crop, has been in many instances 

 tiii-fold, and in i'ew, less than jf(iur or five-fold its 

 former bulk. All the succeeding crops of grain 

 and seeds have been amazingly increased; and, 

 upon the four or five-shift system, there is no doubt, 

 the land will go on progressively improvintr, re- ! 

 quiring a less quantity of bones annually, from its j 

 increased fertility and power. { 



This, be it observed, is the testimony of prac- 

 tical men, well acquainted with all the circum- j 

 stances; and it is decisive as to the extraordinary | 

 value and importance of bone manure nn light ] 

 chalky soils. A single firmer in the VVolds of, 

 Lincolnshire (Mr. Dawson of Withcall, near j 

 Louth,) has generally about 600 acres of turnip, ] 

 dressed almost entirely with bone manure They i 

 arc excellent, and furnish a vast supply of food 

 for cattle, and of manure for other land, be- I 

 side? preparing and fitting the ground for bear- ' 



ing the most luxuriant crops of wheat and bar- 

 Icy.* 



In Scotland, the introduction of bone manure is 

 more recent; but here, too. it has alreudy had a 

 suprising infiuenco. It is every where in fact — in 

 the Lothians and Berwickshire, as well as in the 

 most backward districts — working wondors. From 

 the comparative liicility with which it is convey- 

 ed to ruirgi'd hilly tracts, it enables estules to be 

 improved and fi^rtilized that must otlierwi.«e have 

 remained in a state of nature. Besides large 

 (]uantiiies of bone dust imported, bone mills are 

 now constructed in the vicinity of every conside- 

 rable town in Scotland, lor the preparation of this 

 most valuable manure. 



We have previously noticed the influence of 

 new roads, and other improved means of commu- 

 nication, on the progress of improvement, during 

 die first thirty-five years of the reign of George 

 HF. But during the last few years, there has 

 been, in this respect, a still more astonishing 

 change. The application of steam to navigation, 

 has giv^en to a voyage by eea the expedition, and 

 almost the cert.iinty, of mail-coach travelling, at 

 coniparatily little cost; and steam-packets far the 

 conveyance of bulky and heavy articles, as well 

 as passenn-ers, are now established all along the 

 coast. The markets of LondoJi and Liverpool 

 are thus brought, as it were, almost to the door ot 

 the occupier in the remotest districts. Formerl}', 

 it was the practice for farmers in Scotland to send 

 up cattle and sheep half fed to the Norlblk fiiirs, 

 where they were bought by graziers to fiitten for 

 the metropolis. But this practice is already much 

 fiillen off, and will, at no distant period, be known 

 only by report. Cattle and sheep are now fatten- 

 ed at home: and are sent up from the eastern 

 ports, either alive or slaughtered, to Loniion by 

 steam. The advantages of this are great. The 

 crops of turnips acquire a new and greati}- in- 

 creased value, and their culture is, in consequence, 

 much extended. Nor does the cost of convey- 

 ing the full-fed animal to its destination amount to 

 a fourth part of what it formerly took to convey 

 the half-fed animal to Norfolk. All the ports of 

 any consequence on the western coast of Scotland 

 are now almost v/eekly visited by steamers from 

 Liverpool; and such has been the influence of this 

 newly opened intercourse, that we are well as- 

 sured that, in the extensive tract of country, 

 stretching from Greenock round by the Mull of 

 Galloway to the Cumberland border, lo the dis- 

 tance of ten or fifteen miles inland, the turnip cul- 

 ture has been increased in a ten-fold proportion 

 since 1S20. This siimulus will, it is probable, 

 be still fiariher augmented by the formation of 

 rail-roads. It is clear indeed, that contiguity to 

 market has already become of comparatively little 

 importance. Atjio distant period, means will be 

 afforded for bringing the most remote and secluded 

 districts faidy into competition with those that are 

 most favorably situated. The productive energiea 

 of both v.'ill, in consequence, be more fully devel- 

 oped; nor is it easy to conjecture what the result 

 may be. 



it is notwithstanding, supposed by several, that 

 if prices should decline still further, or even if 

 they continue at their present level, production 



* Kpnnerly and Grainger on the Tr-nnncy of Land, 

 vol. i. p. 2G9. 



