6 
Arthur Young. 
ing. “ I worked, - ’ he says, “ more like a coal-heaver, though 
without his reward, than a man acting on a predominant 
impulse.” 
He has, however, left a memorandum which states that 
between 1766 and 1775 he received for his works 3,000£. In 
this nine years’ interval, moreover, some of his most famous works 
were published, such as The Farmers Letters ; The Southern, the 
Northern, and the Eastern Tours ; Political Arithmetic ; and Pro- 
posals for Numbering the People, as well as Political Essays con- 
cerning the Present State of the British Empire. He told Dr. 
Paris that by far the most useful feature of his Tours was the 
practical information they gave on the important subject of 
correct courses of crops, on which all preceding writers had been 
silent. 
In his Political Arithmetic, 1774, which was soon translated 
into several foreign languages, Arthur Young remarks on the 
general advantages enjoyed by the nation, and still the existence 
of large tracts under culture inferior to that of other parts ; he 
thinks this must convince every spectator of the importance of 
spreading the knowledge of what is good. It was this idea 
which urged him to undertake the Tours. He says the improve- 
ments wanting are “ the spreading of knowledge of good courses 
of crops so as utterly to banish fallows, which is effected by 
the introduction of turnips, beans, peas, tares, clover, &c., as 
preparations for white corn ; covered drains ; manuring with 
marl, chalk, and clay; watering meadows ; the culture of carrots, 
cabbages, potatoes, saintfoin, and lucerne ; performing works 
of tillage with no more cattle than necessary ; the use of oxen 
in harness ; an almost general reform in implements ; the intro- 
duction of the drill husbandly for beans ; and the culture of 
madder-wood, liquorice, hemp, and flax on suitable lands.” But 
above these and all other circumstances he names the bringing 
into culture of the waste lands. 
In 1776 and 1777, assisted by letters of introduction from 
Lord Shelburne and Mr. Burke, he made his tour of Ireland. 
Landing at Dublin, he was received by Col. Burke (afterwards 
Lord Conyngham), aide-de-camp to Lord Harcourt, then Lord- 
Lieutenant, who carried him to his Excellency’s villa at St. 
Woolstan and made arrangements for his tour. 
From 1777 to 1779 he remained in Ireland, acting as agent 
to Lord Kingsbury. In this way, and with these advantages, he 
collected the material for his work produced under the title of 
The Tour in Ireland, with the general observations on the 
present state of that kingdom made in the years 1776, 1777, 
1778, and brought down to the end of 1779. 
