106 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



July, 1842 



ton, (vide '• CoiiipeiKliiiiii of Evidence helore 

 Ci>imiiitiee of House of Commons, 1837,") tliut 

 on the whole of the lands /rom Lowlh to Barton, 

 \vhere thirty or forty years !ij;o wheai was scarcely 

 known, and the IhiuI was, generally speaking, im- 

 cultivatcd, much i.nprovenient li"s been rr.ade 

 even within tea years; that 28 to 30 bushels ol 

 wheat is an average crop ; that it is of a tine 

 qnality.and can compete in the niarkeis with that 

 srrowii on strong lands ; also, that when clay iand 

 has been drained, in some districts, it will bear 

 green nops. 



And the general results of the same agency 

 tinonghont England are, that wheat, instead ol 

 heing^a luxury confined to the rich, is now the 

 staff of the poor man's strength. The quaking 

 morass and the arid moor wave with the golden 

 grain, and the acre which formerly gave back 

 four times the seed, now returns it from mght to 

 ten fold. Instead, too, of winter being a season 

 of starvation to the cattle, when existence was all 

 that could be hoped for, it is now essentially the 

 season for fat and plenty; for if the turnip culti- 

 vation has given the grazier the power ot in- 

 creasing the quantily, the skill of the breeder has 

 equally increased the quality of his stock. This 

 will be seen from the estimated weight of cattle 

 and sheep at Smithfield market, at three ditTei- 

 ent periods, by Daveuant, McCulloch, and Youatt. 

 1810, Daveiiaiit estimates cattle at 20 stone t5 lbs. 



Sheep and lauihs, 2 stone each. 

 J830, McCulloch estimates cattle atSO stone 4 lbs. 



Sheep and lambs, 3 st. 8 Ihs. 

 1840, Youatt estimates cattle at 46 st. 12 lbs. 

 Sheep and laml)s, (i st. G lbs. 

 But all these may be summed up in one grand 

 national result, that while we have waxed in name 

 and in numbers, we have increased still faster in 

 wealth and in the means of life* 



Such, then, is a brief glance at the progress of 

 English agriculture. Trivial as has been the 

 record which we have been able to give of it, 

 sufficient of both cause and eftoct has been de- 

 veloped, in the history of the past, to make our 

 prophecy for the future a golden one. Such 

 prospects, we are inclined to believe, are not de- 

 lusive, not merely because it is natural to look 

 through the past to the prospective, and it is 

 natural also for the object to assume a tinge from 

 the medium through which it is viewed, but be- 

 cause it is an axiom that like causes proiluce like 

 effects; so the means which have done so much 

 for agriculture, being continued in operation, it 

 is fair to presume will yet do more. And that 

 the same agency will continue to operate, we 

 may the more safely judge, because nearer we 

 look to the present, and more we see its effects. 

 Thus we know that since the commencement of 

 the present century, our produce has increased 

 faster than our population. Between 1800 and 

 1820, this is evident, hut it is more so from 1820 

 to the present time. Thus even Mr. McCulloch 

 says, "The price of wheat in England, at an 

 average of the ten years eixliug with 1820, was 

 no less than 8^s. 6rf. per quarter; its average 

 |)rice has since, as we have just seen, been re- 

 duced to 56s. l\id. per (juarter; and yet, not- 

 withstanding this trf'inendous fall, a most extra- 

 ordinary improvement has taken place in agri- 

 culture since 1820, so much so, that tve now 

 provide for an additional population, not only tvilh- 

 out any increase, but with a very considerable dimi- 

 nution of importation" 



If we look, however, from 1830 to 1840, we see 

 slill more clearly the operation of the spirit of 

 progression; and in the individual and united 

 eflbrts of the agriculturists, in fostering every 

 germ of improvement, at this present moment, 

 we have a still surer evidence that it is not yet 

 inoperative. If we know, then, that tlie wheel 

 of iin|iroveuient has had an impetus, and that that 

 impetus has kept increasing up to the present 

 lime, may we not conclude that it will not yet 

 Slop? 



But there is another consideration which indu- 

 ces us to picture bright pros|)ecls for agriculture. 

 The progress which has been lately made has 

 not been a progress or extension of the practice 

 merely, but nn extension of the knowledge of the 



duced tin 66 nc 

 8^ bushels per 

 bushels per aci 

 lum's Hiwste 

 busl-.els ; (12 ac 



■fnrmat HiwstoaH. (Su!T..lk,) pro- 

 i .'j.')2 bushels of wlieat. or not quite 

 The average of Knijland is now 24 



•science of agriculture ; for if we look to the 20 

 years preceding 1820, we shall find ihat 1677 en- 

 closure bills were passed, and that 3,068,910 

 acres of laud were brought into cultivation, while 

 in the ten vears after 1820 only 186 enclosure 

 bills were passed, and 340,380 acres reclaimed ; 

 and yet it is a remarkable fact that the necessa- 

 ries of life were more plentiful in the latter pe- 

 riod than in the tbrmer. 



The advance, therefore, that has been made is 

 an advance that cannot be forgotten. It is an 

 achievement of mind over the mysteries of matter ; 

 and now, that the fruit of the conquest is tasted, 

 it will incite to other and more extensive ex- 

 ploits. 



But while the past performances and present 

 principles of agriculture entitle us to hold out 

 such prospects, and to anticipate, with a hope 

 amounting to conviction, that they will be glori- 

 ously realized, we must not forget that the hiiglit- 

 est object has a shadow. So, it is our duty to 

 notice that even now a cloud hangs about the 

 horizon, which, by threatening the glory of the 

 day, throws a partial gloom over the brightness 

 of the morning of these prospects. Thus, with 

 a full knowledge of what has been done, and 

 what may yet be done, if he be permitted to use 

 the same "means, the English farmer is, at the 

 present time repressed in his e.xertions by a fear 

 wliich is not without some foundation. The im- 

 mense eftbrts made by a certain class to deprive 

 him of the protection, on the faith of which he 

 has buried his capital in the improvement of the 

 soil, is this foundation. It is not our object to 

 discuss the merits, or the demerits of the free 

 trade theory; so tar, however, as it interleres with 

 the pros|)ects of agriculture, as faithful chroni- 

 clers, we must allude to it. And that it should 

 in some degree mar these prospects is not strange, 

 when it is considered that the declared object of 

 the theory is to reduce the price of the English 

 farmer's products to a level with those of the 

 continent, and tlie declared effect (vide Lord W. 

 Russell's speech) that 3 or 3 millions of acres of 

 land must go out of cultivation ; and according 

 to Lord Spencer, that even the good land would go 

 out of corn cultivation, and be converted into 

 pasturage. 



Knowing, then, these designs, knowing too 

 that in his present situation in society, with hea- 

 vily taxed soils, and with dear labor, he cannol 

 compete with the produce of the untaxed soil 

 and cheap labor of the continent; and that thf 

 laud upon which he has invested the most capi- 

 tal in improvements or in tillage, must suffer first, 

 because the interest of this capital has to be re- 

 paid by the increased crop, and becausn the man- 

 agement of such soils is the most expensive (as 

 natural deficiencies cannot be supplied artificially 

 without expense,) — knowing, we say, this, is it 

 possible for him, at the present time not to feel 

 misgivings, to hesitate, and often to finally relin- 

 quish those improvements which, were he sure 

 of reaping a fair return for his capital, he would 

 undertake ? 



Whether or not it be proper national policy to 

 experiment witlrsuch a great and important 

 terest, and to produce so much certain evil for 

 unc-ertain good; whether or not it be justice to 

 unroof one house to repair another ; and whether, 

 or not, Mr. Van Buien's opinion, that "nothing 

 Clin compensate a nation for a dependence upon 

 others for the bread they eat," be a fiillacious one, 1 

 leave. Thus iiiiich, however, we are compelled 

 to say, that the very agitation of the question, and 

 iliepo*»f6i7i7^ of a measure being passed by the 

 Legislature which would reduce the farmer's pro- 

 duce to a rate lower than ho can afford, has a 

 tendency to mar, in some degree, the present 

 prospects of English agriculture, and to check 

 that spirit of improvement that has already se- 

 rnred to England, along with its fast increasing 

 population, a still faster increasing production of 

 ihe necessaries of life; and //lis aWnmerf, it is said, 

 that population is th^ measure of a nation's pros- 

 perity ; without it, the index of its ruin. 



This, then, is the cloud which, by threatening 

 the future condition of agriculture, throws a par- 

 tial gloom over its present prospects. We say a 

 partial gloom, because we have every assurance 

 Ifiat it will sonu pass away. The reasons adduc- 

 crl at the comrrenceinent of this portion of our 

 subject, incline us to believe that bright prospect.^! 

 have yet to be realized; and a knowledge of the 

 position which the friends of jigricultui'e hold in 



the country, the exertions which they have mad® 

 )roaiote its improvement, and their knowl' 

 eilge of its importance as a national interest, con' 

 es us that this cloud will not be permitted to 

 destroy them. Had this " heavy blow and great 

 discouragement" been contemplated betbre Eug- 

 ish agriculture had assumed its present standing, 

 IS a science, it might, perhaps, have been carried 

 into eflect. It never can now. Ignorance anil 

 apathy are no longer the characteristics of the 

 guardians of the soil. The lamps of science 

 shed their light over the once dreary waste, and 

 n it the statesman sows the seeds of national 

 independence and prosperity, and the philoso- 



er finds food for the mind; and it will not be 

 made the subject of an experiment. Never will 

 such a great interest be risked for the sake of try- 

 g a novel theory. 



This then assumed, what a field opens to our 

 view. By developing the same spirit of progress 

 which actuates modern science, agriculture has 

 become identified in principle, and consequently 

 equally identified in progress with it. Moved, 

 then, by the spirit, and directed by the pioneers 

 of science, who can point out an end to its pro- 

 gress, or say, '• thus fiir" to its prospects. Before 

 the philosophic mind, whatever may be its favor- 

 ite sphere of action, there is ample food. In ani- 

 mal and vegetable physiology, in the formation, 

 classification, constitution, and fertilization of^ 

 soils, and in the elucidation of, and the supply- 

 ing the wants of vegetation, much has already 

 been accomplished ; but our best guarantee that 

 much wilt yet be done is the fact that much loants 

 doing. 



For instance, we know the structure and pe- 

 culiarities of vegetables, the chemical constitu- 

 tion and mechanical process of vegetation ; but 

 we are ignorant of the elements of vitality. We 

 know that certain soils are more fertile than oth- 

 ers; we can trace the constituent elements of 

 each, and discover i;xternal or mechanical causes 

 influencing the fertility, but of the essential prin- 

 ciples of nutrition — the elixir vita — or of the com- 

 bination best adapted to the wants of the vegeta- 

 ble life, we can scarcely he said to know the 

 least. We may apply this ignorance to a single 

 vegetable, to a single soil, how much, then, has 

 to be accomplished before it he removed in toto. 



We know something of the uses of animal 

 and vegetable manures; but how can we know 

 their proper economy till the mystery of vegeta- 

 tion'is more clearly developed, and the constitu- 

 ents and conditions best adapted to special cases 

 ascertained. Much, in fact, has yet to be devel- 

 oped before the essential elements of the soil, the 

 operation of each constituent, the operation of 

 various manures, and the eflfects, mechanical and 

 chemical produced by certain crops, are clear to 

 us; yet these must lie known before agriculture 

 reaches its fair and legitimate standing as a sci- 

 ence, and before we can produce the conditions 

 most essential to fertility. 



To the practicalist are duties no less urgent. 

 It is for him to banish from his vocabulary the 

 word best; to think nothing good because it is 

 old, and nothing worthless because it is new, but 

 to lend an observing eye to its proof, and to en- 

 deavor to promulgate the truths that practical 

 observation or scientific knowledge may have 

 taught him. For much that is known has yet to 

 be applied to practice. Thus geology has given 

 us a key to the formation, nature and properties 

 of soils, and their bases ; and affords us, as is 

 evidenced by Sir J. V. Johnson, (Jour, of R. Agr. 

 Soc. of Dngland, vol. 1, p. 273,) such practical 

 results, as, "1. The knowledge of applying lime ; 

 2. Laying down fields to advantage to grass, and 

 svheii anil how to plant wheat ; 3. What trees to 

 plant in each stratum." 



Chemical analysis, too, supplies us with the 

 relative proportions of the constituents of the 

 soil, and shows us what element or earth it is de- 

 ficient in. Geology again teaches us where that 

 element is found ; yet how seldom do we find 

 tliis method of improving the soil resorted to, 

 although Davy long since made known that "the 

 be.st natural soils are those of which the materi- 

 als have been derived from difti^rent strata, which 

 have been minutely divided by air and water, and 

 are intimately blended together; and in improv- 

 ing soils artificially, the farmer cannot do better 

 than imitate the process of nature. The mate- 

 rials necessary for the purpose are seldom far 

 distant ; coarse sand is often found immediately 



