INTRODUCTION. 1 i 



has been an almost total ignorance, and a rooted 

 dislike, of the operations of husbandry among 

 that order of men, who are most concerned and 

 best able to promote its improvement. Ab- 

 stracting themselves entirely from country af- 

 fairs, they engaged in other employments deem- 

 ed more honourable, or more suitable to their 

 station, or else devoted their time to the pleasures 

 and amusements of gay life, .at a distance from 

 their estates, which they seldom visited, and of 

 which they knew little, except, perhaps, the a- 

 mount of the rental. The cultivation of their 

 lands was, of course, left to the management of 

 a class of men, generally without knowledge, 

 without capital, and without enterprise, attached 

 to the customs and fashions of their fathers, and 

 as unwilling to adopt, as they were unable to 

 form, any rational plan of improvement. 



It must be admitted, however, that this charge 

 of neglect does not apply universally. Upwards 

 of forty or fifty years aO, many gentlemen both 

 in England and Scotland, began to study agri- 

 culture as a science, and to regard practical hus- 

 bandry as an honourable as well as a profitable 

 employment. By a course of experiments and 

 observations, and at no inconsiderable expence, 

 they gradually introduced an improved system 

 of husbandry into their estates ; by which means, 

 they have at last brought them to a high state 

 of cultivation. In every county or district where 

 this has taken place, the consequences are visible 

 and striking. The value of land has encreased a- 

 mazingly. The tenants are in a thriving condition, 

 and many of them rising to affluence. It must 

 be acknowledged, likewise, to the credit of the 

 B 2 



