FARMERS' REGISTER— BREEDING CATTLE. 



^43 



learned in their youtli,and adhere, with the obsti- 

 nacy of satisfied ip;norance, to obsolete customs, as 

 detrimental to their own interest as to that of their 

 landlords and of the public ; and tlius it is, that the 

 averao;e produce of many parts of the kingdom is 

 below that of other districts of not "-reater natural 

 fertility, and that the husbandry of the south, though 

 more favored by climate, is generally inferior to 

 that of the north. 



Book Farming. 



It is too true, that this jealousy of written infor- 

 mation has been in a great measure justified by 

 man)' crude publications of inexperienced persons, 

 and that the sneers of practical men at what they 

 contemptuously call " hook-farming " are not 

 wholly groundless. Much injury has been done 

 to the cause of agriculture by sanguine specula- 

 tions, which have only led to expense and disap- 

 pointment; but all works on agriculture are not of 

 that character; nor should it be forgotten, that 

 theory is the parent of practical knowledge, and 

 that the very systems which farmers themselves 

 adopt, were originally founded upon those theories 

 which they so much affect to despise. Neither can 

 it be denied, that systems grounded upon theory 

 alone, unsupported by experiment, are properly 

 viewed with distrust; for the most plausible rea- 

 soning upon the operations of nature, without 

 accompanying proof deduced from facts, may lead 

 to a wrong conclusion, and it is often difficult to 

 separate tliat which is really useful from that which 

 is merely visionary. The art of husbandry depends 

 so much upon patient observation and the test of 

 repeated trial, and is influenced by so many casu- 

 alties beyond our control, that it would be rasli to 

 adopt any general rules as invariably applicable to 

 the endless varieties of season, soil, and incidental 

 circumstances. Prudence, therefore, dictates the 

 necessity of caution ; hut ignorance is opposed to 

 every change, from the mere want of judgment to 

 discriminate between that which is purely specu- 

 lative, and that which rests upon a more solid foun- 

 dation. 



The prejudices of farmers against all innovation 

 "upon their established habits are as old as agricul- 

 ture itself In the dark ages of superslition, a man 

 who by any improved method contrived to grow- 

 larger crops than his fellows, was supposed to use 

 supernatural means ; and if he escaped prosecution 

 as a wizard, was at least shrewdly suspected of 

 dealings with a power whom his more pious neigh- 

 bors carefully avoided. On the introduction of 

 hops into this country, the city of London petition- 

 ed against their use, lest tiiey should injure the 

 beer; and with equal wisdom the Kentish farmers, 

 whose land was overrun with coppice, and who are 

 now so largely benefitted by their cultivation, ob- 

 jected to their growth "because they occasioned a 

 spoile of wood for poles."* New implements have 

 been opposed upon much the same principle as the 

 objection made about a century ago in Scotland, 

 and so humorously as well as truly related by Sir 

 Walter Scott, to the use of the winnowing ma- 

 chine ;t and at this hour, the farmers in a large 



midland county assign as a reason for making the 

 hinder wheels of their wagons j)reposterously 

 larger than the fore, " that it places the body on a 

 level in going up-hill ;" never reflecting, that it 

 will have to come down again, or to move upon 

 even ground. 



Among numberless instances of a similar nature^ 

 it is told, that the late Duke of Bedford, — who, in 

 his well-known zeal for the promotion of every 

 agricultural improvement, took great pains to in- 

 troduce the Norfolk manner of ploughing, with 

 two horses abreast, — observing, while riding in the 

 neighborhood of Woburn, one of his tenants at 

 work, on that sandy soil, in the old-fashioned mode, 

 with four at length, his Grace dismounted, yoked 

 two of the horses together, and held the plough 

 himself, explaining at the same time the advanta- 

 ges of the new method; but his disappointment 

 may be imagined, when the man, instead of being 

 at all convinced by his reasoning, replied, " that 

 such a plan might answer with his Grace, but was 

 too expensive for him !" To which it may be ad- 

 ded, that, notv/ithstanding the obvious economy and 

 handiness of this mode of applying all light soils, 

 and that, on such land, it has been adopted on every 

 gentleman's farm throughout the kingdom, yet, 

 with this example before the farmers' eyes, it has 

 not yet entirely superseded the ancient cumber- 

 some and expensive team. 



Even in the settled and customary management 

 of a farm, unforeseen difficulties occur that baflle 

 experience; and in some cases, the merely practi- 

 cal farmer, who relies solely upon that, will be at 

 a loss for expedients which an acquaintance with 

 the practice of others might enable him to supply. 

 There is, in this respect, assuredly much to learn, 

 and no great difficulty in the task. For the rising 

 generation, a more enlarged system of education is 

 obviously the surest means ; but the farmer who 

 has not had that advantage, may easily acquire a 

 practical knowledge of the various modes of cul- 

 ture and of rearing stock pursued in other districts, 

 by occasionally visiting them after seed time, and 

 adopting Bakewell's advice — " to see lohat others 

 are doing." He will thus be enabled to compare, 

 in the most effectual manner, theirdifferent fashions 

 with his own; and it is in this manner, that the 

 intelligent farmers of the North — of Northumber- 

 land and of Norfi^lk, have surpassed their biethreri 

 in active enterprise and im))roved husi)andry. 

 There is an old and often repeated adage, that — 



"He wlio by the plough would thrive, 

 Himself must either liold, or drive; 



and this, which has become a prevalent opinion, has 

 deterred many a man who has sought relief from 

 the cares of trade in the retirement of the country 

 from availing himself of the profit, as well as the 

 amusement, which he might have derived from 

 farming. It is unquestionably true, that the man 

 who, from early habit, is capable of holding the 

 plough, must have great advantage in the practical 



+ Harrison's ' Description of Englande,' book i. chap. 



f 'Your leddysliip and tlie steward hae been pleased 

 to pi-opose, tliat my son Cuddie sold work in the barn 

 ■wi' a new-fangled machine for dighting llie corn frae nounced from the pulpit, as impious 



the ciiatT, thus jjupiously tliwarting the will of divine 

 Providence, by raising wind for your leddyship's ain 

 particular use lay human airt, instead of soliciting it by 

 prayer, or waiting patiently for wliatever dispensation 

 of wind Providence was pleased to send upon tlie 

 sheeling-hill." Tales of n-.y Landlord, Old Mortality, chap, 

 vii. It was introduced in the year 1710, from Holland, 

 by Fletcher of Saltoun, and its use was publicly de» 



