AGRICULTURE. 
Regulations, by which those who have no 
share whatever in the expense of improve- 
ment should participate in its advantages, 
are not mere topics of theoretical absurdity, 
but attended with serious detriment in their 
operation throughout this country, in a 
moral, a religious, and, what is most of all 
to the present purpose, an agricultural point 
of view. With all the respect due to the 
representatives of a mighty empire, and 
with the most decided detachment from all 
points of vague and general innovation, this 
important subject cannot be too frequently 
presented to parliamentary attention. Hu- 
man wisdom and human virtue will, it is 
hoped, be at length found equal to the cor- 
rection of an absurdity at once so glaring 
and so prejudicial. 
The want of due estimation of the oc- 
cupation of husbandry, is in many countries 
a grand impediment to its progress. Where 
the cultivation of the soil is regarded with 
contempt, or as beneath the attention of 
men of rank and education, it will be en- 
trusted to the management of persons of nar- 
row capital and still narrower minds. Such 
prejudices operate in various places. They 
till lately existed to a great extent in France, 
and are yet deplorably prevalent in Spain. 
In England, fortunately, they are every day 
rapidly dissipating. Agriculture is ascer- 
tained to be the road to wealth and respect- 
ability; and men of high connections and 
distinguished fortunes, think themselves ho- 
noured instead of being degraded, by a re- 
gular and assiduous application to it, and by 
establishing their sons in situations, in which 
they may look to it as the means of maintain- 
ing families, accumulating property, and 
doing service and honour to their country. 
Agriculture is very injuriously checked by 
the occupier of land not possessing in it a 
requisite interest. Even in this country, 
large portions of land are held by communi- 
ties of persons, the individuals of which, 
have no right to any particular spot of it, 
and are not only thus precluded from per- 
sonal and active cultivation, but by the 
scanty right and profit which they possess 
in the general property, possess no sufficient 
motive to enforce correct management and 
improving cultivation on those persons by 
whom it is actually occupied. Family en- 
tails and short leases are likewise eminently 
hostile to full cultivation, upon the obvious 
principle, that men will ever apply their ca- 
pital and exertions only in proportion to their 
expectation of advantage. Even when 
leases are granted of a reasonable number of 
years, restrictive clauses are too frequently 
introduced, by which the progress of im- 
provement is arrested, and a mode of culti- 
vation insisted upon contrary to the views and 
the interest of the occupier, and not by any 
means more beneficial to the owner, than 
what was designed to be adopted, often in- 
expressibly less so. Prejudice and caprice 
in the proprietor are often substituted for 
the judgment of experience ; and a routine of 
practice compelled upon the cultivator, in 
consequence of which, curious research and 
attentive experiment are rendered nearly 
superfluous. Superior knowledge, which 
would in these circumstances be almost use- 
less, ceases to be sought for, and stupid ac- 
quiescence is substituted for lively observa- 
tion. It is however of importance, that 
towards the close of a term, the series of 
cropping should be regulated by covenant, 
as the inducement to exhaust land, to the 
extreme injury of the owner and the public 
would otherwise be seldom resisted. Be- 
yond this object it is unwise to enforce res- 
triction or to yield to it, and whatever dis- 
coveries are made by the personal experience 
of the farmer himself, or are derived from the 
experience and praotice of others, it is desi- 
rable that he should ever be free to avail 
himself of them. The liberal ideas on this 
subject, which have been suggested by the 
best writers, and adopted by enlightened 
landlords, will unquestionably in time, and 
it is hoped rapidly, prevail to the almost 
total exclusion of those narrow and perni- 
cious notions which have hitherto existed. 
It is desirable that the farmer should oc- 
cupy a sufficient tract of land to engage his 
time, not irregularly and occasionally, but 
fully and completely, by which means his 
attention is not distracted from this impor- 
tant employment to others which would in- 
terfere with it, and necessarily prevent its cor- 
rect and profitable management; and those 
idle habits, connected with public injury and 
individual ruin are effectually precluded. 
A large farm therefore, generally speaking, 
is far preferable to a small one, in this as in 
every other point of view. Some persons 
not having employment for themselves in 
the superintendance of the different depart- 
ments of husbandry on their land, have re- 
course to personal exertion, and substitute 
themselves for labourers, a plan which is ex- 
tremely unwise. The true art of farming 
consists, not in driving the plough or engag- 
ing in other menial offices, but in allotting 
and superintending labour, in recording its 
results, and contriving how and where to dis- 
