NEW ENOI-A]V5i FAMMER, 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



PUBLISHED BY GEORGE C. BARRETT, ^io. 52, NORTH MARKET STKEET, (Agricultural Warehouse.)— T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 8, 1836. 



NO. 48. 



BRITISH AGRICVI.TVRE, &0. 



IMPROVED qUALITT OP FOOD. 



[Concluded] 

 1. Enclosures are probably, eotitled to rank 

 among the first of these. The extent of land oc- 

 cupied by wastes, commons, and common fields, 

 about the middle of last century, was surprising- 

 ly great, and was indeed a standing reproach to 

 the country. So late as 1770, fully three-fourths 

 of the surface of Bedfordshire consisted of com- 

 mon fields, and of common or waste lands, and 

 yet it was not, in this respect, at all in a worse 

 condition than many other counties. Wastes 

 and commons are not cultivated ; fields are, it is 

 true, subjected to the plough, but properly in 

 them is so much subdivided and intermixed, that 

 it is altogether impossible to cultivate them to any 

 good purpose. But since the conclusion of the 

 treaty of Paris in 1763, a wonderful progress has 

 been made in wiping off this stain on the rmal 

 economy of the country; and in nothing, indeed, 

 has the progress of imja'ovement been more re- 

 j'.iarkable than in this particular. The first en- 

 closure act was passed in the reign of Charles II. 

 From the revolution to 1797, the progress was as 

 follows : 



Acts passed. 

 Queen Anne's reign, - '2 

 George I., - - - - 16 

 George II., - - - - 226 

 George 111. to 1797, 1,532 



Acres enclosed. 

 1 ,439 

 17,660 



318,778 

 2,804,197 



It appears from this statement, which is taken 

 from the Report of the "Commons Committee of 

 1798, on Waste Lands," that each enclosure act 

 that passed during that period of the reign of 

 George III., whicli terminated with 1797, enclos- 

 ed, at an average, 1830 acres. Now, the ofiicial 

 returns show, that from 1798 to 1832, both inclu- 

 sive, 2103 enclosure acts were ])assed ; and sup- 

 posing each to have enclosed, as before, 1830 

 acres, the total would anjount to 3,848,490 acres; 

 making, when added to the quantity enclosed pre- 

 viously to 1798, an aggregate of nt) less than 6,652,- 

 687 acres enclosed since the accession of George 

 III. in 1760. But as it seems probable that the 

 earlier acts applied to a larger extent of land than 

 the later ones, we may, i)erhaps, estimate the total 

 extent of land enclosed and subdivided by act of 

 Parliament, from 1760 to 1832, at 6,000,000 acres. 

 And it may be safely affirmed that, in consequence 

 of its enclosure, the produce of this immense ex- 

 tent of land lias been increased at least from eight 

 to tenfold ! 



2. The introduction of fallows between suc- 

 cessive corn crops, was a very great improvement 

 on the previous practice ; but the substitution of 

 green crops for fallow, on all but stiff clay lands, 

 has been the greatest of all improvements ever 

 made in agriculture; and has efl'ected as great 

 and beneficial a revolution in it as the introduc- 

 tion of the steatn-engine and of the spinning-frame 



has done in manufactures. There is abundant 

 evidence to show, that the culture of the turnip, as 

 a field crop, was carried on to some extent in 

 several English counties, in the latter part of the 

 17th century. But the practice spread only by 

 very slow degrees : and it was not till its intro- 

 duction i]ito the county of Norfolk, in the reign of 

 George I. and George II., when it was prosecuted 

 on a large scale by Lord Viscount Townshead 

 and others, that its signal importance became ob- 

 vious. At the period referred to, the whole north - 

 westei-n part of that country, which has long been 

 one of the best cultivated districts of the empire, 

 consisted of mere sandy wastes, sheep-walks, and 

 warrens, worth little or nothing. These were 

 converted into highly productive arable land, by 

 enclosing, manuring,and the aid of the turnip hus- 

 bandry, which i.s, as it were, the corner stone of 

 the Norfolk, or improved system of husbandry. 

 The same practices that had produced such splen- 

 did results in Norfolk — that had made sandy 

 wastes yield the most luxuriant crops of wheat and 

 barley — have been gradually extended, with sim- 

 ilar effects, to many other parts of the kingdom. 

 The produce in corn of the light soils, in all the 

 moderately well cultivated districts of the empire 

 has, in consequence, been more than trebled ; at 

 the same time that a vast supply of green food 

 has been obtained for the feeding of cattle and 

 sheep, and the production of the most valuable 

 manure. 



3. But, signal as has been the improvement in 

 arable husbandry since 1760, the ijiiprovements 

 made in stock-husbandry, or in the breeding and 

 fattening of cattle, have been still more consid;a-- 

 able. No eflorts for this purpose seem to have 

 been made rtilh judgment, and proper persever- 

 ance, till after 1750 when MrBakewell, of Dish- 

 ley, in Leicestershire began his career. Mr Cul- 

 Icy, of Northumberland, soon after entered on 

 the same course; and the signal success by which 

 their efforls were attended, roused a spirit of em- 

 ulation in a host of others. But the rapid increase 

 of manuiactures and commerce, and, consequent- 

 ly, of the town population, afterthe Peaceof Paris, 

 in 1763, by creating a corresponding demand for 

 butchers' meat, gave the principal stimulus to the 

 im| rovements that have since been made in the 

 stock-husbandry. It is not easy to over-rate their 

 importance. We have already seen that, at an 

 average, the weight of cattle and sheep has been 

 a good deal more than doubled since about 1750; 

 so that a stock of 5,000,000 head of cattle, at j)res- 

 ent, would be more than equal to one of 10,000,- 

 000 at that epoch. But the number, as well as 

 the weight of cattle, having been very materially 

 increased in the interval, the supply of butchers' 

 meat must have increased in a corresponding pro- 

 ])ortion, or been at least trebled. There has also, 

 owing to the same cause, been a very great in- 

 crease in the product of wool. The supply of the 

 latter article, produced in England and Wales, in 

 1800, was estimated at about 384,000 packs, of 24(' 

 lbs. each. But, owing to the increased size of 



the animal, and the greater weight of the fleece, 

 the same nundier of sheep that produced 384,000 

 packs in 18(0, were estimated by the best inform- 

 ed wool-growers and wool-staplers, to produce 

 463,001' in 1830, being an increase in the interval, 

 of jio less than 20 per cent. It is true that the 

 quality of the wool has rather deteriorated, for it 

 seems to be impossible to procure both a heavy 

 and a fine fleece. Taking, however, the inc. eas- 

 ed weight of the carcass, and the increased weight 

 of the fleece into account, sheep are believed to 

 be more profitable at present, than at any former 

 period ; and for the last three or four years, they 

 have been the most productive species of stock 

 kept iu the kingdom. 



It would be curious to trace how, in husband- 

 ry, as in other things, one improvement grows 

 out of, and is dependent on another. The grand 

 improvement in modern agriculture — that by 

 which it is mainly distinguished from the old — 

 the imiversal introduction and superior manage- 

 ment of green crops, may be in no considerable 

 degree ascribed to the anxiety of the farmers to 

 procure an abundant and suitable supply of food 

 for their slock, the increased demand for the latter 

 being as already stated, occasioned by the won- 

 derful growth of commerce and nuuuifactures. 



The superior attention paid to stock-husbandry, 

 in England, tnay, also, it is probable, be to some 

 extent ascribable to the circumstances of the! Ithe 

 pressing, with comparative lightness on ])asture 

 land ; whilst it falls with its full weight, on arable 

 land, and operates powerfully to prevent the out- 

 lay of capital upon it. But, howevei accounted 

 for, there can be no doubt, that in all that belongs 

 to the breeding and rearing of cattle, horses, sheep, 

 and pigs, the English are at present, superior to 

 the Scotch, and to every other people. 



It may be worth while to remark, that much 

 injury has arisen from injudicious attempts to im- 

 prove native breeds of cattle. This has generally 

 been occasioned by prematurely endeavoring to 

 inci ease their size, which is always determined 

 by external causes, such as the climate, the quan- 

 tity and species of food the animals can readily ob- 

 tain, &c. It is to the inmi -nsely increased sup- 

 ply and better quality of food, that the increased 

 weiiiht of our cattle is inincipally to be ascribed. 

 An improved system of breeding would have im- 

 proved the symmetry of the cattle, and increased 

 their aptitude to fatten ; but, without an increase of 

 food it would not have materially added to their 

 size. In point of fact, too, the latter is an infe- 

 rior consi<lerntion. 1 he grand object that the 

 prudent agriculturist should keep steadily in view, 

 is the obtaining of the greatest possible retinn for 

 his outlay ; and he will prefer that kind of stock, 

 and that breed, of :uiy kind, that will pay him 

 best for the food consumed. The value to which 

 an animal may ultimately be brought, is a subor- 

 dinate consideration ; the profits of breeding, as 

 of every thi ig else, being determined, not liy tho 

 absolute price of the produce, but by its price aa 

 compared with the expenses incurred in bringing 



