1796. ] 
radical and certain cure, rather than to 
tamper with palliative and precarious 
means: for fo far from being the caufe, 
as your corre{pondent is pleafed to affert, 
of a ‘* prodigious lefs of produce to the 
community,’ it is, on the contrary, in 
the courfe of a few years, the caufe of 
much increafe of produce: and there 
are numberlefs cafes in which any other 
courfe of treatment would be equally a 
lofs to the farmer and the community. 
Your correfpondent J. S. thouid have 
fet down more particularly the quality 
and condition of his foil, the degree of 
foulnefs ithad acquired, and the feafons 
he had to work it in. For only a {mall 
part of the lands of this kingdom will 
bear to be plowed or harrowed, and much 
lefs to be rolled in the winter months, 
eyen though the feafon were fingularly 
favourable ; or are fit for growing peas, 
ef{pecially ‘‘ the early dwarf garden pea;”’ 
or, if they were fit for that crop, not one 
hundredth part of them could find a 
market. In fhort, fir, your correfpon- 
dent’s eaperiment in gardening has no 
weight in the fcale into which, by mif- 
take, he has putit. A farmer mult have 
a plan adapted to all feafons, and when 
wepeak generally of farming, our re- 
marks fhould be fuited to all land and ail 
places : and thisit is that renders general 
and indefinite remarks on the fubjeé in- 
conclufive, and often dangerous ; even the 
propriety of fallowing, not ‘for a crop,” 
but to free the foil from its impurities, 
jor many crops, depends on a variety 
of circumftances. But I fhall incur 
little danger of doing wrong when I fay, 
that nothing but ‘ indolence’’ (to retort 
J.S.’s expreffion upon himfelf) can induce 
a farmer to crop land which is over-run 
with weeds. Befides, fir, it isnot the 
deftruétion of the weeds only that is ob- 
tained by a well tilled fallow, but the 
deftruction of grubs and animalcula, with 
which foul lands are infefted ; and what 
perhaps ftill exceeds even the cleaning 
of the land, is the improvement which 
the foil itfelf receives by the operating 
powers of the atmofphere ; and this moft 
efpecially when it is duly expofed to its 
influence, during the heat of fummer. 
This, fir, is drawn from my own long 
practice, and is corroborated by chemi- 
cal inveftigations ; for although I have 
little dependance on any thing in agri- 
culture, but repeated experience, yet 
Thave not been negligent of the helps 
which philofophy is capable_of lending 
us; and I am glad to find that the fub- 
ject of the operation of manures has been 
Montuiy Mage. No. IX, 
Board of Agriculture. 
69r 
introduced into your Mifcellany, 2s I 
think it a proper fubject to be aifcuffed 
in {uch 2 work : and I beg leave to add, 
that you will do well to invite men ot 
{cience and philofophicai acquirements to 
affift in the difcufiion. 
I am, fir, 
Your obedient fervant, 
Hereford/bire, MOoRIriMER> 
Septe.7, 1796. 
=f * PES a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
][ OBSERVE, with pleafure, you ad- 
mit into your entertaining and in- 
ftruétive Magazine, remarks upon agri- 
culture, which is the bafis both of the 
riches and population of this country. I. 
expect, therefore, you will allow me to 
make fome remarks on our new efta- 
blithed Board of Agriculture, that, I hope, 
if attended to, will contribute to public 
utility. The board of agriculture will 
be a national expence, the nation, there- 
fore, has a right to call on them to give 
an account of their operations ; to know 
what has been done worthy of fuch an 
inftitution, andthe characters of which 
it is compofed ; and likewife to know 
what has not been done. A general 
bill for the inclofure of commons has not 
been procured ; the abolition of tythes, 
the cuRSE of the country, has not been 
attempted; premiums for the beft crops 
of different kinds of corn in every parith 
have not been propofed; nor for the beft 
breed of horfes, bulls, heifers, rams, 
ewes, &c. &c.. I am afraid, and many 
fear, left this board fhould be, like many 
other boards, a name, without any con. 
fequent good—vox ef prieterea nibilm 
an eftablithment for apoftate patriots, 
and a quietus for noify opponents to un- 
popularminifters. To make anagricul- 
tural eftablifhment complete, it ought to 
be conftituted foas to receive a knowledge 
of the nature of lands, and the prefent 
mode of agriculture throughout the king - 
dom. The county reports are lecal, and 
fhamefully deficient, and, in general, un- 
worthy the board of agriculture, and the 
expence attending them. What benefit 
has refulted from them? A board of 
agriculture fhould be eftablifhed in Lon- 
don, as a centre. County meetings of 
agriculture fhould be eftablithed, under 
the general meeting ; then parifh meet- 
ings appointed, to give the ftate of huf- 
bandry, and improvements made, tothe 
county meetings ; and the county meets 
ings, by deputies, to fend their reports, 
Ne oe and, 


