The Eletnents and Practice of Agriculture. 43 



sent to Scotland, believing that Edinburgh publishers 

 would perhaps undertake what their London brethren 

 had declined ; but no success attended this attempt, and 

 the M8S. were returned to Bradfield, then occupied by- 

 Arthur Young's daughter. 



Miss Young died in 1851, having appointed as her 

 executor a Mr. de St. Croix, who then placed the MSS. 

 in the hands of his brother Walpole to copy and con- 

 dense, so that they might be bound and preserved ; 

 hence the ten large volumes to which I have alluded, 

 the full title of which is "The Elements and Practice, 

 of Agriculture, by Arthur Young, F.R.S., and secretary 

 to the Board of Agriculture, edited from the original 

 MSS. by Walpole de St. Croix, from 1852 to '55." It 

 may be well to mention that the MSS. have been copied 

 in a clear handwriting, and that to each volume there is 

 a table of contents, so that the work may be easily 

 consulted. The original MSS. are also in the British 

 Museum, and one of the officials called my attention to 

 the fact that certain passages had been deleted ; but I 

 find, on enquiry, that it is impossible to ascertain 

 whether the deletions were niade by the editor or by 

 Arthur Young. They do not seem to be very numerous, 

 if I may judge from a slight inspection I made of one of 

 the bundles of the original MSS. In the Editor's 

 preface it is stated that "the present work, as its 

 title would imply, is not designed to be the practice 

 of Agriculture alone of Arthur Young, but rather a 

 compendiiim of husbandry from its first dawn to the 

 period of his death in 1819 (which date, I may remark 

 in passing, is a year earlier than that elsewhere given) ; 

 and in it there are many quotations from, and references 

 to, continental writers on agriculture. As my object 

 was to take notes of points relating to grasses and other 

 forage plants, I confined my close attention to them 

 exclusively, and now propose to give some account of 

 my gleanings from the volumes left by Arthur Young, 

 and shall begin by going at some length into his 



