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focioly for improving agriculture in Brittany; and after tlie 

 conclulion of peace, matters were carried on with greater 

 vigour. 



The univerfity of Afniens has made various propofals to 

 tlie public for tiie advancement of hufliandiy ; while the 

 Marquis de Tourbillvi a writer, proceeding chiefly on ex- 

 perience, undertook the principal direifliou oi the Georgical 

 Society, cllabhflied at Tours, and the loeiety of Iloucn was 

 alfo ufefuUy employed on the fame fubject. 



It may be added, that many focieties were afterwards 

 eflabliflicd by royal approbation, for the promoting of agri- 

 Culture, and rendering tlie knowledge of it more general, 

 and extended. 



Tlie coiivulfive (hoc'-: of the Revolution, which has over- 

 turned many ufeful eflablifliments, and retarded the advance- 

 ment of many improvements, has net by any means pre- 

 vented the progrefs of agriculture, as is evinced by the ap- 

 pearance of numerous papers on the fubjett in the tranf- 

 adions of different focicties. Indeed, it would feem pro- 

 bable, that from the crippled ftate of commerce in that 

 country, unufual atte;ition has been paid to the art of cul- 

 tivation. 



The feiencc of agriculture is publicly taught in the Swe- 

 dilh, Danidi, and German univeriities. Nor has Italy been 

 inactive. Tiie Neapolitans of the prefent age have cou- 

 defeended to return back to the lirft rudiments of revived 

 huihandrv, and begun to iludy afreih the agriculture of 

 Crefcen/io, lirll pubiillu-d in the year 1478. The people 

 of Bergamo have purfued the lame track, and given the 

 world a new edition of the Ricardo d'Agiicultura di Ta- 

 rello, which was originally publifhed at Mantua, in 1577. 



Tlie duchy of Tufeany has imbibed the fame fpirit. A 

 private gentleman left his whole fortune to endow an academy 

 of agriculture. Even Ferrara, a fmall territory in the papal 

 dominions, has contributed its jull contingent, and made 

 fome laudable attempts in this art. Animated with a defire 

 that the people under his government (Iwuld excel in huf- 

 bandry, Iiis Sardinian Majefty fent fubjefts to learn the 

 practice of foreign countries, and made feveral attempts to 

 cftablifli a better method of agriculture among his fubjefts. 

 In Poland, where a natural fertihty of foil feems in fome mea- 

 fure to dlfpenfe with the neceflity of calling in improvements, 

 M. de Bieleufki, formerly grand marllial of the crown, made 

 many fuccefsful attempts to introduce the new or drill 

 hu(bandry~among his countrymen, and procured the bell 

 inftruments from France, England, and other parts of 

 Europe. 



The Hollanders feem to have given the lead attention to 

 agriculture, if we except a few collateral inttances, fueh as 

 the draining of fens and morafTes, and the making of canals 

 and embankments ; and even thcfe have probably proceeded 

 more from the motives of felf-prefervation, than any par- 

 ticular turn towards hufbandry. 



In tlie year 1759, a fociety eftabliflied itftlf at Berne, in 

 Switzerland, for tlie advancement of agriculture and rural 

 economy. That fociety confilled of many ingenious private 

 perfons, and alio of fome of great weight and influence in the 

 republic ; moft of them men of a true call for the improve- 

 ment of hufbandry, being enabled to join the prailice with 

 the theory. They have publifhed feveral ufeful papers on 

 different matters connected with the fubjedl. We mull not 

 omit to mention here, that Linnaeus and his difciples per- 

 formed much in the north of Europe, particularly in dif- 

 covcring new, profitable, and well tailed food for cattle. At 

 the fame time Sweden has bellowed fuccefsful labours on a 

 foil, which was before looked upon as cold, barren, and in- 

 capable of mehoration ; of this the memoirs pubhihed at 



A G R 



Stockholm will be a lafting monument. Denmark, as well 

 as many courts in Germany have followed a fimilar example. 

 His Danifli Majeily encourages, in particular, the woollen 

 manufactory ; and the late king fent three perfons into Arabia 

 Felix, to make remarks, and bring over fich plants and trees 

 as might be ufeful in hufbandiy, building, &c. Nor has 

 the duchy of Wirtemberg, a country by no means particu- 

 larly favourable to corn and paflurage, failed to contribute 

 its alTillance towards the improvement of agriculture, having 

 fome time ago communicated to tiie public its eco.'oinical 

 labours from the prcfs at Stutgard. The learned of L- 'i^fic, 

 and Hanover, have not been inattentive to the art of lup- 

 porting human kind ; for amidft the rage and devafiations 

 of war, the Journal d' Agriculture, printed at Leipfic, and 

 the Recucils d'Hanovre, printed at that city, have been 

 brought out. 



Even Spain, naturally inadlive on thefe occafions, in fpite 

 of all the prejudices of a bigoted religion, invited Liiinsus, 

 with the offer of a large penfion, to iuperintend a college, 

 founded for the fake of making new inquiries into the hillury 

 of nature, and the art of agriculture. 



But it is proliably in our own eountiy that agriculture has 

 been moll attended to, and received the greatell improvement; 

 from his Majeily having long,with a patriotic zeal and perfonal 

 attention, worthy of the elevated lituation which he holds, 

 diretted his views to the introduction of new and betterinodes 

 of cultivation and rural improvement, as well as economy 

 and convenience in the management of every department of 

 agricultural bufmefs, connefted with his varied and extenfive 

 farms, an example and encouragement has not only been held 

 out, but an attention excited to the art, which could not 

 poffibly have been produced by any other lefs dillinguifhed 

 means ; fo that there is rcafon to hope, from the fpirit that 

 now animates a great number of the nobility and gentry, 

 that this ufeful art may, in a few years, be carried to a much 

 greater degree of perfetlion than it has yet reached in any 

 age or nation. In this view, the refpeftable fociety efta- 

 bhfhed at London, for the encouragement of arts, have 

 already done much, and there is reafon to hope, from their 

 increafed refources, that they may do much more. A vail 

 variety of different machines for facilitating the praftice of 

 agriculture have been invented and pivfented to the public, 

 in confequence of the large premiums and bounties which 

 have been offered. The inltitution. of focieties m many 

 different parts of the kingdom for the improvement of agri- 

 culture, and the endowment of a profefforlhip at Edinburgh 

 for the fame laudable purpofe, cannot but promote the Itudy, 

 and enlarge the boundaries of the fcience. 



About the year 1767, Mr. Young commenced his valuable 

 and well dirctled hibours, which, by attrafting the attention 

 of praftical agriculturills on thofe improved means of cul- 

 tivation that are made ufe of in parts of the country, very 

 rem<;te from each other, and ibewing the great utihty of 

 experimental inquiries on the fubjedl, and by promoting and 

 diffullng a tal'e for the fcience, from the eafy and popular 

 language of his writings, have rendered the moll effential 

 advantages to the agriculture of the nation. Doctor George 

 Fordyce has likcwife contributed in no fmall degree to the 

 advancement of the fcience, bv the publication of his Ele- 

 ments of Agriculture and Vegetation, a work in which the 

 chemical principles of the various fubilances that enter into 

 the compofition of foils and manures are well explained. 



Mr. Marfliall too, by regiflering the local culloms and 

 prailices of different dillricls, has afforded conliderable fervice 

 to the farmer, by bringing him acquainted with a variety of 

 modes of rural management, which he could not otherwife 

 have known. 



2 The 



