Book I. AGRICULTURE IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 131 



mucking that is." Among the advantages of enclosures, he observes, " you will gain much more labour 

 from your servants, a great part of whose time was taken up in gathering thistles, and other garbage, for 

 their horses to feed upon in their stables ; and thereby the great trampling and pulling up, and other 

 destruction of the corns, while they are yet tender, will be prevented." Potatoes and turnips are recom- 

 menced to be sown in the yard (kitchen-garden). Clover does not seem to have been known. Rents 

 were paid in corn ; and, for the largest farm, which he thinks should employ no more than two ploughs, 

 the rent was " about six chalders of victual, when the ground is very good, and four in that which is 

 not so good. But I am most fully convinced they should take long leases or tacks, that they may not be 

 straitened with time in the improvement of their rooms (farms) ; and this is profitable both for master 

 and tenant." 



804. Maxwell's Select Transactions of the Society of Itnprovers of the Knowledge of Agriculture in 

 Scotland was published in 1743 (see 793.), and his Practical Husbandtnan, in 1757, including an Essay on 

 the Husbandry of Scotland. In the latter he lays it down as a rule, that it is bad husbandry to take two 

 crops of grain successively, which marks a considerable progress in the knowledge of modern culture ; 

 though he adds that, in Scotland, the best husbandmen after a fallow take a crop of wheat ; after the 

 wheat, peas, then barley, and then oats ; and after that they fallow again. The want of enclosures was 

 still a matter of complaint. The ground continued to be cropped so long as it produced two seeds for 

 one ; the best farmers were contented with four seeds for one, which was more than the general produce. 

 In 1765, A Treatise on Agriculture was published by the Rev. Adam Dickson, minister of Dunse, in Ber- 

 wickshire, which was decidedly the best work on tillage which had then appeared in the Enghsh language, 

 and is stiU held in esteem among the practical farmers of Scotland. In 1777, Lord Kaimes published The 

 Gentleman Farmer, being an attempt to improve agriculture by subjecting it to the test of rational prin- 

 ciples. His Lordship was a native of Berwickshire ; and had been accustomed to farm in that country 

 for several years, and afterwards at Blair Drummond, near Stirling. This work was in part a compilation, 

 and in part the result of his observation ; and was of essential service to the cause of agriculture in Scot- 

 land. In 1778, appeared Wight's Present State of Husbandry in Scotland. This is a valuable work ; but 

 the volumes not appearing but at intervals of some years, it was of less benefit than might have been 

 expected. In 1783, Dr. Anderson published his Essays relating to Agriculture and rural Affairs ; a work 

 of science and ingenuity, which did much good both in Scotland and England. In 1810, appeared The 

 Husbandry of Scotland, and, in 1815, The General Report of the Agricultural State and Political Circum. 

 stances of Scotland, both by Sir John Sinclair, and excellent works. The Code of Agriculture, by the 

 same patriotic and indefatigable character, has been noticed as belonging to English publications on 

 agriculture. (801.) 



805. Agricultural Periodicals. The Farmer s Magazine ; a quarterly work, exclu- 

 sively devoted to agriculture and rural affairs, was commenced in 1800, and has done 

 more to enlighten both the proprietors and tenantry of Scotland than any other book 

 which has appeared. It was at first conducted jointly by Robert Brown, farmer of 

 Markle ; and Robert Somerville, M. D. of Haddington. Afterwards, on Dr. Somer- 

 ville's death, by Brown alone ; and subsequently, on the latter gentleman's declining it, 

 by James Cleghorn, one of the most scientific agriculturists of Scotland. The frequent 

 recurrence that will be made to The Farmer s Magazine in the course of this work, will 

 show the high value which we set on it. In November 1825, this work terminated with 

 the 26th volume, and has since been succeeded by The Farmer s Register and Monthly 

 Magazine, and The Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, in Scotland ; and by The British 

 Farmer's Magamie in England. The Farmer s Journal is the first agricultural news- 

 paper which appeared in Britain; it was commenced in 1808, and is still continued. 

 The Irish Farmer s Journal was commenced in 1812, but discontinued for want of 

 patronage in 1 827. The names and writings of all the British agricultural authors, 

 with abridged biographies of all such as could be procured, will be found in chro- 

 nological order in Chap. IV. of Book I. of Part IV. of this work. (See Contents or 

 Index. ) 



806. A professorship of agriculture was established in the university of Edinburgh, in 

 1790, and the professor, Dr. Andrew Coventry, is well known as a man of superior 

 qualifications for fulfilling its duties. Professorships of agriculture, and even of hor- 

 ticulture, or rather of culture in general, are said to be partly provided for, and partly in 

 contemplation, both in Oxford and Cambridge. The professor of botany in the London 

 University, John Lindley, in the Prospectus of his Lectures, announces " the application 

 of the laws of Vegetable Physiology to the arts of Agriculture and Horticulture." 



Sect. IV. Of the Rise, Progress, and present State of Agnculture in Ireland. 



807. Of the agnculture of Ireland very little is known up to a recent period. With a 

 soil singularly prolific in pasture, and rather humid for the easy management of grain, 

 it is probable that sheep and cattle would be the chief rural products for many cen- 

 turies. In the twelfth century and earlier, various religious establishments were 

 founded, and then it is most probable tillage on something like the Roman mode of 

 culture would be introduced. The monks, says O'Connor, fixed their habitations in 

 deserts, which they cultivated with their own hands, and rendered them the most delight- 

 ful spots in the kingdom. 



808. During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, the English were obliged 

 to suppress the numerous rebellions of their Irish subjects by war, and the forfeited 

 estates of the rebels would in part be divided among the troops. This might end in 

 introducing some agricultural improvements ; but there is no evidence that such was 

 effected before the time of Elizabeth, when the enormous demesnes of the Earl of 

 Desmond were forfeited, and divided amongst a number of English undertakers, as they 

 were called, who entered into a stipulation to plant a certain number of English families 



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