AGRICULTURE. 
of husbandry, and stimulated to the practice 
of it a number of country gentlemen, whom 
the violence and changes of the times had 
reduced to a situation in which they found 
it requisite to avail themselves of all means 
and resources to extricate themselves from 
comparative impoverishment. Evelyn and 
Jethro Tull were, at a somewhat later 
period, of eminent service in directing the 
attention of their contemporaries from the 
grossness and pollutions of voluptuousness, 
to this most valuable department of art; 
the former by his treatise on plants, the 
latter by his recommendation of the practice 
of drill husbandry. Since their successful 
and ingenious efforts, a series of valuable 
experimentalists and writers have performed 
to their country very essential service, by 
communicating the most useful information, 
and exciting a spirit of acute research and 
unwearied exertion. 
In France the political expedience of 
guarding against that scarcity which, in time 
of war, either necessitated the yielding to 
harsh terms from the enemy, or exposed to 
the miseries and horrors of famine, by con- 
tinued hostilities, induced the government, 
in the late reigns, to bestow on the subject 
of agriculture considerable attention, and to 
hold out numerous encouragements to it. 
The court was present at various experi- 
ments in husbandry. Prize questions were 
proposed at Lyons, Bourdeaux, and Amiens, 
for its promotion, and no less than fifteen 
societies for the express purpose of advanc- 
ing agriculture were established with the 
approbation, probably at the suggestions, of 
the governing powers. But, notwithstand- 
ing all those efforts, which, however, can by 
no means be presumed to have been totally 
useless, French husbandry continued in a 
very deplorable state, ascribable in a great 
degree to that tenure of lands, by which 
through the greater part of the kingdom the 
landlord contributed the stock, and the 
occupier the labour ; dividing the profits in 
certain proportioned shares. This circum- 
stance, with several others, operated to 
keep the cultivation of this country in an 
extremely low state, and a comparative 
estimate of the produce of an English arid 
of a French estate, of precisely similar natu- 
ral advantages, at the period when this 
practice prevailed, would shew that, in con- 
sequence, principally, of so absurd and per- 
verse a regulation, the superiority of the 
former to the latter was at least in the ratio 
of 36 to 25. But the revolution of France, 
changing every thing, has swept away, with 
many excellent individuals, and some valu- 
able institutions, a practice so impolitic and 
injurious; and although our intercourse with 
that country, since this event, has scarcely 
been such as to afford accurate and detailed 
information of the present state of its hus- 
bandry, it cannot easily be doubted that the 
repeated transfers of landed property, the 
annihilation of partial burdens upon cultiva- 
tion, the researches of ingenious chemists, 
and the general view of government to the 
productiveness of its territory, and to the 
promotion of its arts and sciences, must be 
connected with considerable improvement 
in this most valuable of national concerns. 
In Gei many lectures have for many years 
been given on this subject, in various states 
of it; and several princes in the empire, 
particularly the present King of Bavaria, 
have directed to it their particular attention 
and patronage. In Russia the late Empress 
gave it every facility which could be applied 
m the semibarbarous state of her dominions, 
and sent gentlemen into this and other 
countries, with a view to acquire informa- 
tion on rural economy, for the benefit of 
their own. In the Dutchy of Tuscany the 
Archduke Leopold recently diffused the 
active spirit of improvement by which he 
was himself animated, and an academy was 
endowed for the promotion of agriculture. 
A society for the same purpose was insti- 
tuted about the year 1759 at Berne, in 
Switzerland, consisting of men of great 
political influence, and also of great per- 
sonal experience in rural economics. The 
Stockholm Memoirs sufficiently evince that 
Sweden, under the influence of the great 
Linnaeus, applied to this science with ex- 
traordinary success and advantage. Even 
the indolence and pride of Spain were 
roused to exertion on this interesting sub- 
ject, and the government of that country 
made overtures to the Swedish Philosopher 
for the superintendence of a college direct- 
ed to the advance of natural history and the 
art of husbandry. 
In our own country, however, from a 
happy combination of circumstances, the 
exertions of individuals, societies, and go- 
vernment, have been directed, within the 
last thirty years, to the subject under con- 
sideration, with more energy and effect than 
have been displayed in any other part of 
Europe. The gentry and nobility have 
liberally patronized, and many of them ju- 
diciously and successfully practised it. The 
Royal Society, the Society of Arts, and 
various others, have been of distinguished 
