5CB Fr'esent State of Agriculture in different Counties, [Jan. I, 
Vill. 
W. King’s bishop takes, the pawn and 
checks, 
B. The king takes the bishop. 
IX. 
W. King’s knight to adverse Icing’s 4thi 
square, giving and discovering check, 
B. King to his od square. 
X. 
W. Queen checks at king’s knight’s 4th, 
B. King takes the knight. 
XI. 
W. Queen checks at adverse king’s bishop’s 
4th, 
B. King to his queen’s 3d sauare. 
XU. 
^V. Queen gives check-mate at adverse 
queen’s 4th. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
AM lately returned from a tour 
through a large portion of the king¬ 
dom and, my journey having been one of 
mere health and amusement, I did not, 
like some travellers, draw up the glasses 
of my chaise and take a consoling nap, 
to prevent, or overcome, the fatigues of 
travelling. I was not a little surprised to 
observe the different degrees of excel¬ 
lence to which the science of agriculture 
had arrived in the different counties 
through which I passed ; and I propose to 
give some few hints, arising out of those 
observations, through the medium of your 
Miscellany. 
The first remark that struck me was 
the great difference in the progress of 
improvement between the graziers and 
the farmers of most of the counties 
through which I passed. I scarcely tra¬ 
velled through a .single parish in which I 
did not observe an extraordinary im¬ 
provement in every sort of slock since I 
last took the same tour, about seven 
years since. Among the sheep the pro¬ 
gress has been rapid, almost beyond cre¬ 
dibility; among the liorned cattle it has 
been considerable, though certainly in¬ 
ferior; and among the swine no unim¬ 
portant amelioration is becoming percep. 
tible; and the long-eared, flat-sided, 
heavy-boned, Lincolnsiiire breed, is be¬ 
ginning to give place to the flne-boned, 
prick-eared, barrel-bodied, Berkshire 
carcase. As well from my own observa¬ 
tion as from tlie information I collected, 
I incline to attribute these improvements 
in a very great degree to the number of 
agricultural societies that have, of late 
years, been formed in almost every part 
gf the kiiigdotn, aini to the premiums 
which have been distributed by them, 
and by certain individuals of rank and 
fortune, for approved specimens of every 
description of stock. Previous to these 
institutions, I verily believe, more than 
half the graziers, throughout the country, 
were ignorant vvliat points constituted 
beauty in the animals their farms pro¬ 
duced. There is scarcely a county now 
in the united kingdom where some stan¬ 
dard of perfection for contemplation and 
for imitation is not to be found. What¬ 
ever might be the circumstance that first 
recommended these pursuits to the no¬ 
tice of the superior orders, whether 
founded in reason or originating in ca¬ 
price, the taste for them is now become 
so general, the concomitant improve* 
ments are become so perceptible, and 
the occupation is esteemed so intrinsi¬ 
cally creditable, that we may undoubt¬ 
edly anticipate incalculable advantages 
in national ceconomy and political 
strength. 
But, however extended may be patro* 
nage, however widely the influence of' 
example may be diffused by the zeal of 
either individuals or associations, some 
stiniulas of a different kind seems still to 
be wanting, or the inferiority of progress 
in the improvement of agriculture (pro¬ 
perly so designated) to that which has 
taken place in the breeding of cattle, 
would not be so perceptible as it un¬ 
doubtedly appears. Patronage, whe¬ 
ther collective or individual, can only 
reward industry and ingenuity in parti¬ 
cular instances, can only stimulate emu¬ 
lation by a public relation of successful 
experiments and approved exhibitions; 
and these are almost exclusively applied, 
are perhaps almost exclusively applica¬ 
ble, to instances of excellence in the 
breeding and feeding of stock, and that 
for the most obvious of reasons; viz, that 
the proofs of success in an ox or a sheep 
are capable of being produced at-any 
particular places of meeting, where the 
patrons and promoters of this science 
are occasionally collected, for the pur¬ 
poses of comparison, of discussion, of 
publication, and of reward. Such can¬ 
not be, at least in any comprehensive 
manner, the case with improvements in 
the cultivation of land, inasmuch as few 
specimens of success in this way are ca¬ 
pable of exhibition at a distance from 
the particular spot where the experiment 
has been made. The progress indeed of 
any new system may be there leported, 
the effect may there be desciibed; but, 
after all; the uifurniatioa will extend but 
Vi little 
