PART IV. AGRICULTURE. 197 



of laying-out grounds has been productive of the worst conse- 

 quences. By attending entirely to external show, or mere 

 perspective effect, in the production of landscapes (which may 

 look well enough on paper,) kitchen gardens have been placed 

 in unsuitable soils and situations formed upon bad principles. 

 The disposition of the other parts is equally unprofitable and 

 inconvenient, and the whole residence disordered from errone- 

 ous ideas of picturesque beauty. Farms also have been sub- 

 jected to the same inconveniency ; and extensive pasture fields, 

 lawns and parks, have been rendered unprofitable, useless, or 

 expensive to the owners, from neglect of the most simple and 

 obvipus principles of agriculture, and often from neglect of the 

 common practices of farmers in improved counties. I scarcely 

 need advert to the evils which have arisen from planting on 

 the contracted principles of what is called landscape garden- 

 ing. Mr. Kent has justly remarked, that " Gentlemen are 

 apt to consider themselves as great planters, merely because 

 their habitations are surrounded with a thick margin, half the 

 trees of which will never be of any national use ; while heaths, 

 moors, hills, and other uncultivated grounds, which might 

 enrich the owner and the public, by producing timber fit for 

 the navy or other purposes, are left entirely neglected." 



I shall mention another general evil which has resulted from 

 the neglect of the study both of the theory and practice of hus- 

 bandry, and which is perhaps greater than all the others : this 



