62 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
wheaten bread is said to be generally eaten. In 1763, tlie slaughter of 
bullocks, and the supply of the public markets, was a thing wholly un¬ 
known even in Glasgow, which had then a population of nearly 30,000. 
All now consume buthers’ meat. “Hence,” says the reviewer, “it ap¬ 
pears, that the extension and improvement of agriculture in Great 
Britain, since the middle of the last century, has been so very great, that 
besides enabling the country to appropriate an additional five but more 
probably seven millions of quarters of grain (the quarter is eight 
bushels) to the feeding of horses, it supplies food for very considerably 
more than double its former population, and those too living in compa¬ 
rative ease and affluence. The history of the world may be ransack¬ 
ed in vain for a parallel instance of improvement in any old settled 
country.” 
2d. This improvement is manifested by the increased number and 
weight of her farm stock. In the middle of the last century, the annual 
sales at Smithfield amounted to about 74,000 head of cattle, and about 
570,000 sheep. In 1831 these sales amounted to 156,000 head of cattle, 
and 1,280,000 sheep. The average weight at the former period was, 
neat cattle 370 lbs. and sheep about 28 lbs. Now the average weight 
of the first is 800 lbs. and of the latter 80 lbs. “Hence,” contiues the 
reviev. er, “ on the most moderate computation, it may be affirmed, that 
the consumption of butcher’s meat in the metropolis, as compared with 
the population, is twice as great at this moment as it was in 1750, and 
in most parts of the country the increase in the consumption has been 
still greater.” 
3d. This improvement is shown by the increased products of the soil, 
which it is alledged have been quadrupled. 
Wheat was reckoned a curiosity in Scotland a century ago, and a 
field of eight acres, near Edinburgh, excited the attention of the whole 
neighborhood, and numbers came from a great distance to see it. “We 
affirm,” says the Review, “ that the wheat culture has increased in 
Stotland, generally, in a tenfold proportion, since 1780.” At the period 
referred to, the whole north-western part of England, which is now one 
of the best cultivated districts of the empire, consisted of mere sandy 
wastes, sheep walks and warrens, worth little or nothing, like millions 
of acres in our own country, which are deemed barren and waste, but 
which, under proper management, might be made to yield very profita¬ 
ble returns. 
“ Previously to the peace of 1763, agriculuture almost everywhere 
in Scotlannd was in the most barbarous and depressed state imaginable. 
There was no rotation of crops; fallows were unknown except to one 
or two counties; the process and implements were alike wretched: 
great numbers of cattle perished every spring; the occupiers were in 
extreme poverty; and famines were every now and then occurring, 
that sometimes laid waste extensive districts. At the beginning of the 
last century, and for long after, lands, even in the Lothians, were uni¬ 
formly divided into infield and outfield, (that is, to adopt our phraseolo¬ 
gy, “ suitably divided into meadow, pasture and plough land”) The 
whole manure made on the farm was laid on the former, which was 
ploughed and cropped without intermission, so long, at least, as it would 
bear any thing. Neither turnips, nor clover, or potatoes had been so 
much as heard of; but corn followed corn in unbroken series. The in¬ 
field was divided into four divisions or breaks, and were cropped suc¬ 
cessively with peas, wheat, barley and oats; and the returns were 
about three times the seed.” 
What a just picture do we here find of the present condition of many 
districts in our own country. 
The writer then goes into a comparison of the product of 100 acres, 
as cultivated under the old system, of permanent meadow, pasture and 
plough land, and as now cultivated, under the system of alternating 
husbandry, with turnips, clover, &c. Upon his data, the weight of the 
materials produced annually, as food for cattle and manure, was as fol¬ 
lows :— 
Under the old system,. ... 42 tons. 
Under the new system,. 577 tons. 
showing a balance in favor of the new system of husbandry, of 533 
tons per annum, being more than twelve times the quantity produced 
under the old. “ As to the question of comparative profit, it would be 
easy to show, from unquestionable data, that the new system is as supe¬ 
rior to the old, in this respect, as it is in the supply of manure.” The 
sandy wastes, sheep walks and warrens of Norfolk, &c. have been con¬ 
verted into highly productive arable land, by enclosing, marling, and the 
aid of turnip husbandry, which is, as it were, the corner stone of the 
Norfolk or improved system of husbandry. 
The same practice that had made sandy wastes yield the most luxu¬ 
riant crops of wheat and barley, in Norfolk, has been gradually extend¬ 
ed, with similar effects, to many other parts of the kingdom. The pro- 
duce in corn of the light soils, in all the moderately well cultivated dis¬ 
tricts of the empire, has, in consequence, been more than trebled; at 
the same time that a vast supply of green food has been obtained for 
the feeding of cattle and sheep, and the production of the most valuable 
manure. 
“ With the exception of some counties in the south and west of Eng¬ 
land, which continue in a comparitive stationary state, improvements 
have been every where carried on with extraordinary spirit. Among 
the principal of these may be specified improved drainage, a better ro¬ 
tation of crops, the general use of bone manure, and the opening of 
new channels of cummunication. Drainage lies at the bottom of al¬ 
most every amelioration ; and it is prosecuted to an extraordinary ex¬ 
tent. The practice of furrow draining (that is, by covered drains be¬ 
tween the ridges) is now widely diffused over the north and east of 
England, and is carried on, on retentive or clay soils, upon a scale that 
will hardly be believed by those not acquainted with the facts. Land¬ 
lords and tenants are every where availing themselves of this new dis¬ 
covery. Many millions of tile are now manufactured in the neighborhood 
of Kilmarnock and other parts of the country, though the supply be still 
unequal to the demand. A better rotation of crops is now every where 
being adopted. The high prices of the war tempted the farmers to sow 
wheat too frequently, and without proper preparation; the fertility of 
the soil being in consequence, materially impaired in many districts. 
[A salutary admonition to our wheat farmers of the west.] But this 
defect in the management is now nearly obviated. Clover and artifi¬ 
cial grasses are kept longer down; barley is sometimes substituted for 
j wheat, and the fertility of the soil is preserved.” “But of all the re¬ 
cent improvements in agriculture, the introduction and general use of 
bone manure is perhaps the most important.” By it the turnip crop 
has in some cases been increased tenfold, and in few less than four or 
five fold its former bulk. A single farmer in Lincolnshire, raises 600 
| acres of turnips, dressed almost wholly with bone manure. And, to 
quote again our author, “ it is the opinion of practical men of the high¬ 
est respectability, and intimately acquainted with the state of agricul¬ 
ture, that the raw produce of the island might be well nigh doubled, 
without any greater proportional expense being incurred in its produc¬ 
tions ,” owing to the backwardness in improvement of many of the coun¬ 
ties. 
In reference to the improvement in stock husbandry, by Bakewell, 
Culley and others, the writer makes the following pertinent and just 
j remarks. 
“ It may be worth while to remark, that much injury has arisen from 
the injudicious attempts to improve native breeds of cattle. This has 
been generally occasioned by prematurely endeavoring to increase 
their size, which is always determined by external causes, such as the 
climate, the quantity and species of food the animal can readily obtain, 
&c. It is to the immensely increased supply, and better quality of food, 
that the increased weight of our cattle is to be principally ascribed. 
An improved system of breeding would have improved the symmetry 
of the cattle, and increased their aptitude to fatten; but, without an in¬ 
crease of food, it would not have materially added to their size. In point 
of fact, too, the latter is an inferior consideration. The grand object 
that the prudent agriculturist should keep steadily in view, is the ob¬ 
taining the greatest possible return for his outlay; and he will prefer 
that kind of stock, and that breed, of any kind, that will pay him best 
for the food consumed. The value to which an animal may ultimately 
be brought, is a subordinate consideration; the profits of breeding, as 
of every thing else, being determined, not by the absolute price of the 
produce, but by its price as compared with the expenses incurred in 
bringing it to market. Mr. Cully’s opinion is “ that of all animals, of 
whatever kind, those which have the smallest, cleanest, and finest bones, 
are in general the best proportioned, and covered with the best and 
finest grained meat; I believe they are, also, the hardiest and healthi¬ 
est, and most inclinable to feed ; able to bear the most fatigue while liv¬ 
ing, and worth the most per pound dead. It is certain that animals, 
whether too large or too small, will gradually accommodate themselves 
to the size best adapted to their pastures; but while the larger animal 
becomes unhealthy, and degenerates in its form and valuable proper¬ 
ties, the smaller animal increases in size, and improves in every re¬ 
spect.” 
The impression that we would hope to make upon the minds of the 
readers of the Cultivator, is that our husbandry is as susceptible of im¬ 
provement as that of Great Britain was fifty or sixty years ago; and 
that, the same means that have quadrupled her products may be suc¬ 
cessfully employed to augment ours; that drainage, alternation of crops, 
the general introduction of green crops, as turnips and the cultivated 
grasses, and the husbanding our manures—the use of lime, marl and 
: gypsum,—are the true basis of improvement; and that if we would 
compete with England in fine cattle, we must imitate her example in 
• providing for them more abundant and nutritious food. 
It should be borne in mind, that half a century ago many of the lands 
• in Great Britain were in the condition of millions of acres in our own 
■ country—either left in their wild state, as unfit for culture, or exhaust- 
; ed of fertility by constant cropping, and thrown into commons and 
■ wastes, like much in Maryland, Virginia, and elsewhere; that it is this 
: description of lands which have been enclosed, reclaimed, and brought 
into a highly productive state, by the new system of husbandry— the al- 
