AGRICULTURE.
implements, and several kinds of crops are raised
unknown to British A. A large part of the stock is
stabled throughout the year, the grass being cut and
carried from the fields. The rearing and the feeding
of cattle, as well as the dairy, are often combined on
the same farm. Flax is a crop which receives a
great deal of careful management. Hemp and
beet-root require liberal treatment with respect to
manure, and only enter into the rotation where
high farming is followed. The crops are so arranged
in the rotation, that two cereal crops do not succeed
each other. In no country are the fields kept so
free from weeds as they are in Flanders, and in
none do the agriculturists suffer so little from fluctu-
ations in the prices of grain, owing to the great
variety of crops that are raised.
Hngland had made considerable advances in A.
so far back as the 16th c. This fact may be gathered
from the writings of ¥itzherbert, Tusser, and others.
At an earlier period, her chief article of export had
been wool, which supplied the seats of manufacturing
industry in Holland, but now she also exports a
large quantity of wheat. The increasing prosperity
of the country caused a demand for butcher-meat,
which began to rise in price much sooner than it did
in Scotland. By the middle of the 17th c., turnips
and red clover were introduced as field-crops, and
by the end of it, the two were extensively cultivated
in many parts, in alternation with corn. In 1750,
the four-course shift was not uncommon in many
parts of Norfolk. Under this system of 1sf, wheat ;
2d, turnips; 3d, barley; 4¢h, grass, one half of the
Jand was constantly under corn-crops, and the other
under cattle-crops. Large numbers of sheep and
cattle were fattened on the turnips and clover. In
the preparation of the land for turnips, it was well
cultivated and weeded, and the consumption of the
roots on the land increased the yield of the barley.
The four-course shift has formed the basis upon
which further improvements have been made in the
southern and eastern parts of Iingland. The strong
soils of Suffolk and HEssex yield good pasture, and
about a century ago, they were mostly devoted to
dairy-farming. The high price of corn, however,
encouraged the conversion of these lands into arable-
farms. The course followed was 1sf, wheat; 2d,
fallow; 3d, barley; 4th, clover. Instead of the
fallow, mangel-wurzel is now largely substituted,
which enables the farmers to feed large numbers of
bullocks in the yards, without so large an expendi-
ture in the purchase of oil-cake as was at one time
thought necessary. In the western counties, where
the climate is more suitable for grass, and less so for
wheat, dairy and stock-rearing become greater
objects of attention. The demand for dairy produce
in the neighbourhood of the large manufacturing
towns of the west, renders the land of much greater
value under grass than under corn, more especially
where the soil is tenacious. In the more friable
soils of the north-western counties of England, the
systems of A. resemble somewhat that of Scotland.
Instead of the land lying one year under grass, it
lies two, followed by oats, then turnips or potatoes,
and the wheat-crop is taken after this green crop,
and not after the grass. This is the characteristic
which distinguishes the arable farming in the western
from that in the eastern counties of England. A
large portion of the surface of England is under
permanent pasture, and the beauty of the meadows
is unrivalled in any part of the world. The surface
of England is very unequally farmed, for while
A. has attained a great degree of perfection in
such counties as Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincoln, it
is in a comparatively primitive state in others.
The causes which have led to this state of things
are often difficult to trace. The spirit of improve-
ment now seems, however, far more generally
diffused, and spirited farmers are everywhere spring-
ing up, who, before long, will find many imitators.
In Ireland, the want of manufactures has con-
tinued to act as a great hindrance to agricultural
improvement. The competition that arose among a
generally indigent population in taking small farms,
led to extravagant rents, the payment of which
involved the starvation of the tenants. The faithful
pictures, which Arthur Young drew, towards the
close of the last century, shewed the workings of such
a system. The general introduction of the potato,
upon which the people chietly subsisted, enabled rents
to be paid by selling the scanty produce of grain,
or the pigs that were reared. . The failure of the
potato-crop in 1846 produced the most heart-rending
scenes of misery that have been witnessed in our
times. When Young made his tour, it was the com-
mon practice, among the small farmers, to take from
four to six crops of oats or barley in succession, after
which the land was allowed to renovate its powers
by the growth of the natural grasses. On the
moderate-sized farms, the cultivation was better;
but turnips had little place in a course of cropping
for nearly a century after they were largely cultivated
in Norfolk. The Protestant population in the north
of Ireland introduced, at an early period, the culture
of flax, which still forms a peculiar feature in the A.
of that part of the country. The large amount of
manual labour which it requires in its preparation
for market, has so far served to preserve the cultiva-
tors from descending so low in the scale of social
existence as those in the south. As a general rule,
it is found that the worst land is most densely
peopled; the secondary descriptions are in moderate-
sized farms; while the best land has hitherto been
devoted to pasture, for which the climate is admir-
ably suited. The winters are so mild in the south,
that cattle are often not stabled. In Young’s time,
the Irish graziers were the only class of agriculturists
that were possessed of capital. The exodus which
took place after the potato-failure, has relieved the
country of a portion of the redundant population,
but it is still too dense in many places.
Scotland made comparatively little or no advance
in A. for ages previous to the beginning of the
18th ¢. Donaldson, who published his Husbandry
Anatomised ten years before the Union, affords
a pretty accurate picture of the art as then prac-
tised. The farms were small, and divided into
outfield and infield land. On the former, which was
furthest from the homestead, the rotation consisted
of two years in grass, succeeded by two years in oats.
On the infield land, barley, oats, and pease were
sown in succession, and the whole manure was com-
monly applied to the barley-crop. The yield of corn
was from three to four times the quantity of seed.
Pastures were of the poorest description, as no artifi-
cial grasses were sown. Little encouragement was
held out to rear cattle, for a heifer did not bring
more than twenty shillings in the market—scarcely
the price of two quarters of barley at that time. At
the Union, however, Scotland gained free trade
with her wealthier rival, from which flowed the
happiest consequences. Every branch of industry
shared in the new field opened up, and none more so
than A. A large trade soon arose in sending the
lean cattle and sheep that were reared on the
mountainous wastes, as well as in the low country,
to be fattened on the pastures and green crops in the
south. A great rise in the prices of stock soon
followed, which not only encouraged improved
breeds, but enabled cultivators to devote a certain
portion of the arable-lands to the growth of artificial
grasses and turnips. Neither of these were grown pre-
vious to the Union ; but in little more than fifty years
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