1810.]: 
ing, of surveying the whole kingdom, 
too highly, will appear from the eager- 
ness with which it was imitated jn other 
countries. In France it was begun by 
the Directory, and finished under the 
immediate orders of Buonaparté: in 
Russia a beginning has been made, by a 
report for the province of Moscow, 
executed by one of the reporters origin- 
‘ally emploved by this board, and.in the 
cariyving on of which no expense has 
been spared. General Washington, in a 
letter to the president, thus states his 
opinion of the county reports: ‘¢ [ have 
read with pleasure and approbation the 
work you patronize, so much to your 
own honour, and the utility of the public. 
Such a general view of the agriculture in 
the several counties of Great Britain, is 
extremely interesting, and cannot fail 
of being very beneficial to the agricul- 
tural concerns of your country, and to 
those of every other wherein thev are 
read, and must entitle you to their 
warmest thanks for having set such a 
plan on foot, and for prosecuting it with 
the zeal and intelligence yondo. I am. 
so much pleased with the plan and exe- 
cution inyself, as to pray you to have the 
goodness to direct your bookseller to 
continue to forward them to me. When 
the whole are received, I will promote, 
as far asin me lies, the reprinting of them 
here. The accounts given to the British 
board of agriculture, appear in general 
to be drawn up in a masterly manner, so 
as fully to answer the expectations 
formed in the excellent plan which pro- 
duced them; affording at the same time 
a fund of information, useful in political 
economy, aud serviceable in all coun- 
tries,” 
Mr. Young then specifies some of the 
beneficial practices in husbandry, which, 
from being confined to particular dis- 
tricts, or even to the operations of indi- 
viduals, have been brought into general 
knowledge and adoption, by means of 
the printed agricultural reports. As 
instances of these he mentions warping ; 
fogging certain descriptions of grass- 
lands; sowing winter-tares on bad grass- 
Jands, as a sure means of improving 
them; putting in all-sorts of spring corn 
without any spring-ploughing, upon. 
strong or wet soils; and the use of long 
fresh dung, in preference to that which 
is rotten. He adds also the clear illus- 
tration which they have given to the 
advantayes of drill husbandry; and 
points out instances in which even the 
agriculture of both the East aud the 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
267 
West Indies has received vast benefits 
from the exertions of the board at home. 
He refutes some ridiculous prejudices 
conceived against the board on the sub- 
jects of tithes, and of its surveys being sup-~ 
posed to be intended for furnishing new 
sources of taxation; and in the following 
paragraph, notices particularly one, which 
might perhaps have been thought to rest 
ona betrer foundation: — 
Another source of oblogquy, which has 
pressed heavier perhaps than all the rest, 
and especially inthe minds of the inha- 
bitants of this city, was the notion, that 
the board was the origin of all the en- 
deavours to bring cattle to market in an 
uncommon degree of fatness. — ** 1 know 
nothing you have done, but to bring 
meat to market so fat that nobody 
can eat it,’ was an observation tof a 
member of the house of commons. 
Many pamphlets, and at least forty 
newspapers, have shewn the same 
lamentable ignorance. You, gentle- 
men, well know, that from the first in- 
stitution to the present moment, the 
beard has never offered a single premium 
for, nor given its sanction to, any. one 
measure that had the most distant ten- 
dency to such an effect. This pursuit 
flowed iato other channels, absolutely 
unconnected with the board; and there 
you left it, in my humble opinion, with 
great prudence, In the premiums you 
have offered, in the practices you have 
sanctioned (they have extended no 
further than the two objects of soiling 
cattle and working oxen), you_ bad no 
other view than that of increasing the 
live-stock of the kingdom, and conse. 
quently the quantity of meat in the 
market, without the smallest attention to 
the degree of its fatness. There isnot a 
single measure that was ever adopted b 
this board, from the original establish- 
ment to the present moment, that had 
not a direct tendency to increase the 
common and wholesome food of the 
lower classes of the people, and to 
ameliorate their condition by every 
ieans that human foresight could devise, 
Mr. Youre concludes with observing : 
Upon the whole, there is no person who 
will give a serious consideration to the 
conduct of the board, but must be dis- 
posed to adinit, that it is an institution 
which has deserved well of the public, 
To the farmers of the kingdom, you have 
made no other return for their unfounded 
suspicions than that which flows in a 
constant stream of benefits. You have 
made known, for the interest of all, the 
