Part IV. Book 1. 



STATISTICS OF AGRICULTURE. 



1121 



useful animal. It is readily distinguished from all other slugs in this country by having a thin oval shell 



(rf) affixed to the hinder part of its 

 '^ ~ body. Slugs in general are easily 



enticed by cabbage leaves, scattered 

 near such garden vegetables as they 

 appear to injure most 



77U7. Snails, are slugs covered by a 

 shell. The two species most preju- 

 dicial to cultivated vegetables, arc 

 the garden snail (Helix aspersa 

 Gm.), and the variegated snail 

 (Helix nemoralis, e) : both these seek 

 the same description of food, and are 

 equally injurious, as slugs; and, like 

 them, may be enticed by cabbage 

 leaves and other juicy vegetable re- 

 fuse. 



PART IV. 



STATISTICS OF BRITISH AGRICULTURE. 



7708. After having considered agriculture as to its history, as to the scientific prin- 

 ciples on which it is founded, and the application of these principles to the different 

 branches of practice ; it remains only to take a statistical survey and estimate of its present 

 state and future progress in the British isles. 



BOOK L 



OF THE PRESENT STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE BRITISH ISLES. 



7709. The present state of British Agriculture, as to knowledge and the details of prac- 

 tice, has been the subject of the former parts of this work : but its importance in the 

 general economy of society, can only be learned by a view of the manner in which 

 it is actually carried on ; the modifications to which it has given rise in the pursuits of 

 those who have embraced the art as a source of livelihood ; of the kinds of farms culti- 

 vated by different orders of agriculturists ; of the principal practices of each of the dif- 

 ferent counties of Britain and Ireland as to agriculture ; of the British authors who have 

 written on the subject ; and of the professional police and public laws relative to hus- 

 bandmen and agriculture. 



Chap. I. 

 Different Descriptions of Men engaged in the Practice or Pursuit of Agriculture. 



7710. Agriculturists may be arranged as operators, or serving agriculturists ; dealers, or 

 commercial agriculturists ; counsellors ; professors, or artists ; and patrons. 



Sect. I. Operators, or serving Agriculturists. 



7711. The lowest grade in the scale qftMs class is farm labourers, who may be either men, women, or 

 children ; and either local residents, periodical visitants for particular labours, as hay-making, reaping, &c., 

 or itinerant workmen for taking jobs, as ditching, stocking, &c. None of this class of operators are 

 supposed to have received any other professional instruction than what they have derived casually, or 

 from observing others. 



7712. Apprentices are little known in agriculture ; but they occur sometimes, either as the children of 

 other operators, whose parents bind them a certain number of years, during which they are to work for 

 their food and clothes, and 51. or 10/. to be received at the end of the term according to conduct ; or sons 

 of richer persons, who pay a premium for the instruction to be received, and for boarding with the master. 

 The former class of apprentices generally look forward to being ploughmen, shepherds, head ploughmen, 

 or inferior bailiffs ; the latter to being first bailiffs, stewards of estates, or to farming on their own account. 

 Parish boys are sometimes bound apprentices of the first class, and various noblemen's sons from almost 

 every kingdom of Europe have been included in the second. 



4 C 



