88 NOTES. 



might have the effect, of drawing off capital and industry from rich land, which, 

 in the end, would yield the best returns, and of having it wasted, in hazardous 

 speculations, on barren soils. But on various accounts, this need not be appre- 

 hended. The lands of moderate fertility, would be laid down in grass, in which 

 state they would accumulate strength ; and the poorer soils, in the interim, 

 would, under proper treatment, be yielding crops considerable in respect of 

 produce. 



16 Dr Coventry observes, that the accumulated experience of ages is requi- 

 site, to perfect one's knowledge in several departments of husbandry. The dif- 

 ficult and extensive nature of the subject, the importance and the immense va- 

 riety of the particulars relating to it, the vague, the doubtful, and even the con- 

 tradictory details of alleged facts in almost every branch of it ; the obscurity of 

 the principles on which are grounded several operations in agriculture, and other 

 parts of rural business, and of those which influence, explain, and tend to regu- 

 late, in certain cases, the general practice of husbandry, augment the difficulties 

 attending the acquisition of agricultural knowledge. Dr Coventry's Discourses, 

 p. 9. 



17 The advantages of an improved system of husbandry, can hardly be too 

 highly estimated. Where it is established, there is ample employment for the 

 industrious labourer ; whereas, where the old system prevails, there is but little 

 demand for labour. See this exemplified in Dr Rigby's Report, p. 96. 



1 8 In the Appendix will be found an interesting account of the Bills of In- 

 closure, passed in the course of 40 years, preceding 1814, in two periods of 20 

 years each. During the space of the first 20 years, which was prior to the esta- 

 blishment of a Board of Agriculture, the number of these bills amounted only 

 to 749, or 37 on average. During the second period of 20 years, posterior to 

 the establishment of the Board, the number had increased to 1 883, and the 

 average to 94. The difference in favour of the latter period, consequently was 

 1 134, and the average increase was 57. The difficulty often experienced in the 

 importation of foreign corn, and the high price which it reached, joined to an 

 increased circulation, must have contributed to these improvements, but the ba- 

 sis was laid, by exciting a general spirit of improvement, and establishing a Pu- 

 blic Board, for the protection of Agriculture. 



1 9 In these late reports and publications, which excel very differently, there 

 is detailed, more useful and distinct information, on various branches of agri- 

 culture, and on rural concerns in general, than was in print before these were 

 drawn up. Coventry's Discourses, p. J87. 



20 There is a list of those in England and Wales, in the Derbyshire Report, 

 vol. iii. p. 651 ; and of those in North Britain, in the General Report of Scot- 

 land, vol. iii. p. 417. The meetings of such societies are of great use, by the 

 information which they are the means of circulating, and the improvement which 

 men derive from a combination of thought, and an inducement to compare and 

 to examine. 



21 On the Continent, particularly in France, correspondence respecting agri- 

 culture, literature, and other useful objects, is carried on through the medium 

 of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. 



22 The little prospect there is of having accurate experiments made, on farms 

 of that description, is very ably explained in a communication from Mr Blaikie, 

 the manager of Mr Coke's great farm at Holkham, of jvhich the following is an 

 extract : " These experiments are satisfactory, so far as they go ; but certainly 



< not conclusive, because the produce was in no one instance, either weighed or 



1 measured. This I much regret. But it appears to be almost impossible to 



conduct such experiments, with a requisite degree of accuracy, upon a farm 



' establishment of such magnitude as that of Mr Coke at this place. For dur- 



' ing the hurry and bustle incident to collecting the harvest, the farm mana- 



< ger has so many important concerns to attend to, that he cannot devote any 



' portion of his time to superintending experimental objects ; and were he to de- 



pute the management of such concerns to the labourers, it is not to be expect- 



ed that they would pay the requisite attention.*' 



