THE MONTHLY REVIEW, For FEBRUARY, 1770. ART. I. A Six Months Tour through the North of England: containing an Account of the prefent State of Agriculture, Manufac tures, and Population, in feveral Counties of this Kingdom, particularly, I. The Nature, Value, and Rental of the Soil. II. The Size of Farms, with Accounts of their Stock, Producis, Po pulation, and various Methods of Culture. III. The Ufe, Expence, and Profit of feveral Sorts of Manure. IV. The Breed of Cattle, and the refpective Profits attending them. V. The State of the wafte Lands, which might and ought to be cultivated. VI. The Condition and Number of the Poor, with their Rates, Earnings, &c. VII. The Prices of Labour and Provifions, and the Proportion between them. VIII. The Regifler of many curisus and useful Experiments in Agriculture, and general Practices in rural Oeconomics, communicated by feveral of the Nobility, Gentry, &c. &c. Interfperfed with Defcriptions of the Seats of the Nobility and Gentry; and other remarkable Objects: Illuftrated with Copper-plates of fuch Implements of Husbandry as deferve to be generally known; and Views of fome picturesque Scenes which occurred in the Courfe of the Journey. 8vo. 4 Vols. 11. 4 s. bound. Nicoll. 1770. ARTAXERXES, who, though an unfortunate was not a foolish prince, when he was prefented by a peafant with a pomegranate which he had brought to an uncommon size by culture, fwore, by the light of the fun, that if the man were governor of a small city, he would foon make it a great one. In moral and civil improvements, the effects of a well directed industry are undoubtedly great; but in agriculture, in improv➡ ing the capacity and productions of the earth, they are frequently aftonishing; and, without the intervention of a miracle, The fwain in barren defarts, with furprize, Sees lillies fpring, and sudden verdure rife. VOL. XLII. G To To promote this fcience of cultivation, in which fo little depends on theory and fo much on experience, no method more effectual can be taken than to collect the practices of different cultivators, on different foils and in various climates for when the nature of the foil, the mode of cultivation, and the value of the produce are given, the husbandman knows at once what to pursue and what to avoid. To do any thing of this kind effectually, great diligence and accurate attention at least are requifite; while, at the fame time, the author of fuch a work will have the mortification to find that the mechanical nature of his narrative will not allow him much room for the difplay of genius or fentiment. Yet he has fome confolation in the utility of his labours, and may juftly fay with the elder Pliny, operæ nobis major quam fama gratia expetitur. Quippe ferm circa rura eft, agreftefque ufus, fed quibus vita bonofque apud trifcos maximus fuerit. Indeed, the honours of agriculture are of the highest antiquity they were the firft object of civil policy, after mutual fecurity had taught mankind to affociate. The refult of the chace was uncertain; but THE EARTH was ftill faithful to the expectations of her children, and, of courfe, became the first object of their adoration, under the denomination of the Mother of the Gods,-was confidered as the parent of life, and of every thing effential to its fupport. Upon the fame principle we find, amongst the most ancient of the deities, the patrons of cultivation, Such princes as had distinguished themselves by agrarian improvements were configned to immortality, and called gods, or benevolent fuperintendants of the earth. The first religious order that was inftituted by Romulus was the Sacerdotes Arvorum, the Priests of Agriculture; and the first honorary garland that was worn in Rome was composed of the ears of corn, and called Spicea Corona. Aulus Gellius and Gyraldus inform us, that this garland, and the Infula Alba, the White Fillet, were the enfigns of the order of the Priests of Agriculture. It is worthy obfervation, at the fame time, that a college was inftituted, confifting of twelve of the order, under the denomination of Fratres Arvales, who, like our juries of twelve men, had the decifion of caufes relative to boundaries and landed property. Such were the honours and the attention paid to agriculture in the earliest times of ROME: nor, when the extended her empire, and had large refources in tributary labour, was this attention in the least remitted. She knew that the wealth of the earth was the great foundation of every other fpecies of wealth, and that the luxuries and ornamental diftinctions of life were mere appendages and fuperftructures raifed upon it: hence bad husbandry in the field was called Cenforium Probrum, Probrum, an inftance of difhonefty and difgrace that merited the chaftifement of the Cenfor. On the other hand, the best cultivators were treated with the greatest refpect ;-nor is the Author of the Six Months Tour either fingular or original in his fentiment, when he holds the best farmer to be the greatest man. The elder Cato had recorded the fame thing: Quem virum bonum colonum dixiffent, ampliffime laudaffe exiftimabant. In our review of the Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties of England and Wales, we expreffed a wish that the Author would make the northerly or more remote parts of the ifland the objects of a like tour. That with is now, in great measure, gratified; and we have the pleasure to affure our Readers, that we have not been disappointed in the hopes we had conceived from the execution of the fcheme. Whether the work before us is confidered as an object of political fpeculation, or of practical improvement, it will be found equally interefting. From a collective view of that great fource of wealth and population, the national agriculture, its improvements and defects, the progrefs it has made and is ftill capable of making, the legiflator may form new plans for general utility. From a comparative view of the effects of the different modes of cultivation, the common farmer will be inftructed, without the trouble of experiment or calculation, in what method to proceed upon every kind of foil: nor will the Reader who feeks only the exercise of taste or amusement, be altogether difappointed if he takes up these volumes: for the Author has not omitted to introduce a particular account of fuch works of art and elegance as adorn the several provinces through which he paffed. Of thefe we propofe to give fome extracts; but fhall begin with what is more immediately the object of this tour, the obfervations on husbandry. On a retrospect of the whole, we are of opinion that we cannot, confiftently with the plan of our work, give our Readers any extract more ufeful, or more compleat in itself, than the account of the hufbandry of Mr. Crowe, a gentleman of Kiplin in Yorkshire: viz. Mr. Crowe's improvements upon this general fyftem of common management are great and numerous; yet that this is not a mere affertion will clearly appear from the following register of his practice: First let me infert the particulars of his farm. 300 Acres in all 60 Arable 240 Grais £. 170 Rent 6 Farming horfes (and has the dung from 18 others, the total number being 24.) 7 Cows 4 Fatting beafts * See Review, vol. 38, p, 282. G 2 8 Young His farming fervants are, 1 Bailiff I Blacksmith 6 Labourers. The foil is gravel and clay, but his arable fields all clay. His courfes of crops, 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat, defigned for oats next, but if the land does not turn out very clean and in good heart, then it is fallow again. 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. Another, 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Pease or beans, A fourth, 1. Fallow. 2. Wheat. 3. Cabbages. An excellent course! His fallow is this. As foon after Michaelmas as poffible, he breaks up the fubble, and throws in a chaldron of lime per acre: it is then gripped well to lie dry during the winter, to be ready in the fpring for whatever crop is thought moft proper. If the countenance of the land is not good, either from being weedy or want of being enough reduced, it is fummer-fallowed for wheat, receiving in all fix or feven earths; but if it carries a good appearance, it is either fown with fpring-corn, or planted with cabbages, as fuppofed moft proper. Two bushels of wheat feed the quantity, and his crop four quarters upon an average. For oats he ploughs once before winter, and once more in the fpring, and if the land then is not pretty fine, he ftirs a third time, fows three bushels and an half, and gains upon an average seven quarters per acre For beans alfo, this excellent cultivator ploughs once before win ter, and once at fowing: four bushels per acre, his quantity of feed, and gains about 30 bushels in return: approves much of hoeing them; but as he generally mixes a few peafe with them, does it not, on that account. He likewife gives two earths, as before, for peafe; fows four bufhels, and reckons his average crop four quarters. • Clover he does not cultivate in common, but when he accidentally raises it, he fows it with either beans or oats, feeds it with fheep, and afterwards ploughs the land, either for wheat, or winter fallow, as moft promifing. In the management of his manure, this very spirited gentleman is likewife very attentive. The common method of ufing lime is to lay a chaldron and a half per acre on fummer fallows, either for turnips or wheat: but Mr. Crowe, inftead of this practice, has fubftituted another, which he finds greatly advantageous, and in which thought I believe he is original. It is to throw a chaldron per acre every year over all the arable land of his farm before winter, and plough it in, whether for a crop or a fallow. This he finds to be of excellent service in mellowing the land with the fpring frofts; and dries it in fuch a manner, that all his lands are by these means ready much the fooner in the fpring for ploughing; an effect which is undoubtedly of great confequence, as it accelerates an early fowing, fo important in all crops. Soap afhes he buys upon all occafions, finding them an excellent improver. Buck-wheat he has alfo tried; fowed one bufhel per acre upon two ploughings; it was mowed when in flower the beginning of Au guft, and ploughed in directly: he has both fown wheat upon it, and alfo left it for a winter fallow; the fuccefs very great. One remark this intelligent gentleman made upon the operation of manures, which is certainly of great truth: that after a farm has been long used to a fettled courfe of manuring, variety is of great confequence. Infomuch that he has found upon thofe fields where lime alone had for fome years been used, that the introduction of a new manure has operated greatly more than its proportion of the old one would have done: for which reafon it is of confequence to procure as many forts as poffible. Mr. Crowe applies his grafs, about half to dairying and half to fatting, and finds that an acre is fufficient by mixing stock to equal the fummering of a cow. In the making his hay he uses a very cheap and fimple machine, which deferves imitation, as it faves a great deal of labour *. ⚫ Nine acres of new laid ground fown with barley, after rape and turnips mixed together, with, per acre, 14 lb. of white clover. 10 Bushels of hay feeds. 7 lb. of rib-grafs, Kept the fecond year, 7 Cows, 2 Year olds, 1 Colt, from May-day to Michaelmas, and 100 lambs four weeks; which is certainly a great stock. His breed is the fhort horns, in compliance with the common cuftom of the neighbourhood. His cows, upon an average, from May to Michaelmas, give two gallons of milk a day; but for fix weeks in the height of the feafon 10 gallons a day. The winter food is generally hay, of which they eat about two ftone a week, for zo weeks. They are kept in the fields during winter. This gentleman's ftanding profit on fheep is 24 s. per head, which he calculates as follows: The Author refers to a figure of it in one of his plates. |