and expenses. The carelessness of profusion, and the sordidness of penury, must both be avoided with equal caution. A fixed sum, formed upon calculations, resulting from actual experiment, should be allotted for the expenses of the house, for personal expenses, for family dress, and other necessary demands, to be by no means exceeded, and as casual demands will always occur, a reserve should always be provided for contingencies. This methodical arrangement cannot be too strongly enforced on the young, practitioner, who, without it, is in danger of inextricable confusion and ruin. If the investment on a farm be eight thousand pounds, after clearing all expenses arising from regular or contingent demands, and maintaining the establishment in liberal but accurate economy, af a hundred a year be not annually added to the occupier's capital, the concern must decidedly be a bad one. The addition of one hundred and fifty is very far from unreasonable. Whatever it be, in general it cannot be better employed than in prosecuting ascertained modes of improvement upon the farm, if it be the property of the occupier, or if he is in possession of a long lease.

Attendance at markets and fairs is an indispensable part of the farmer's occupation, but in a young man is attended with various temptations, such as sanguine and social temperaments find it difficult to resist. Caution, therefore, to such is perpetually requisite. Moreover, the society of persons in a superior style or rank in life, which, in consequence of establishments for agricultural improvement is easily accessible to the young man of vivacity and spirit, cannot be cherished without danger. His mind is thus alienated from his regular, and comparatively very laborious, and, as it may weakly be deemed, humble occupation, and fastidiousness, discontent, and neglect will usurp the place of tranquil and active industry. Such intercourses are completely beset with temptation, and have often induced imitation and profusion, neglected business, and eventual, and indeed speedy, destruction.

IMPEDIMENTS TO AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS.

The want of wise laws on this subject has ever been a serious obstacle. The produce of land, and the various manures which are necessary for fertilizing it, can be easily and cheaply conveyed only along good roads

and navigable canals, and in proportion as a country is destitute of these, it is deficient in a grand source of national and agricultural prosperity. Arrangements on these topics cannot easily occupy too much of the attention, or at least meet with too much of the encouragement of the wise statesman. And as indefinite advantages might be derived from positive regulation on these and other details, in behalf of husbandry, much might also be done in many countries by the removal as well as by the enaction of laws. Where the husbandman is precluded from the best markets, the art of cultivation cannot possibly be pushed up to that point of maturity which it would otherwise acquire the attainable perfection of this, as well as every other art, depending on the encouragement it finds, or in no less accurate, though perhaps more harsh and grating language, on the profit it produces. The most effectual mode of procuring the growth of any article in abundance is to insure it a reasonable price, and a rapid sale. Freedom of exportation from one country to another affords considerable facility for these, and promotes, therefore, the object which the blindness of former times supposed to be counteracted by it. Abundance is ascertained to be secured by the very means which the contracted policy of departed legislators imagined necessarily to defeat it. Such narrow views are, however, in general exploded. And though in countries where, as in Great Britain, the subsistence of the population is inadequately provided for by the natural produce, even in the best of seasons, there is less reason on this subject for complaint, than would operate in other circumstances, it is still an invariable and invaluable maxim, that no lands can be cultivated to their highest point of perfectibility, where restraints are permitted to operate on the disposal of their produce.

The operation of the tithe system must be considered as one of the most serious impediments on the subject under consideration. This odious and oppressive mode of providing for a class of persons, whose peculiar duty it is to polish the uncouthness of savage man, to inculcate on the world the principles of conciliation and kindness, furnishes a most singular dissonancy between the means and the end of those who instituted it; and its numitigated continuance to the present day is a reflection on the sagacity, the energy, or the patriotism of the British legislature.

Regulations, by which those who have no share whatever in the expense of improvement should participate in its advantages, are not mere topics of theoretical absurdity, but attended with serious detriment in their operation throughout this country, in a moral, a religious, and, what is most of all to the present purpose, an agricultural point of view. With all the respect due to the representatives of a mighty empire, and with the most decided detachment from all points of vague and general innovation, this important subject cannot be too frequently presented to parliamentary attention. Human wisdom and human virtue will, it is hoped, be at length found equal to the correction of an absurdity at once so glaring and so prejudicial.

The want of due estimation of the occupation of husbandry, is in many countries a grand impediment to its progress. Where the cultivation of the soil is regarded with contempt, or as beneath the attention of men of rank and education, it will be entrusted to the management of persons of narrow capital and still narrower minds. Such prejudices operate in various places. They till lately existed to a great extent in France, and are yet deplorably prevalent in Spain. In England, fortunately, they are every day rapidly dissipating. Agriculture is ascertained to be the road to wealth and respectability; and men of high connections and distinguished fortunes, think themselves honoured instead of being degraded, by a regular and assiduous application to it, and by establishing their sons in situations, in which they may look to it as the means of maintaining families, accumulating property, and doing service and honour to their country.

Agriculture is very injuriously checked by the occupier of land not possessing in it a requisite interest. Even in this country, large portions of land are held by communities of persons, the individuals of which, have no right to any particular spot of it, and are not only thus precluded from personal and active cultivation, but by the scanty right and profit which they possess in the general property, possess no sufficient motive to enforce correct management and improving cultivation on those persons by whom it is actually occupied. Family entails and short leases are likewise eminently hostile to full cultivation, upon the obvious principle, that men will ever apply their capital and exertions only în proportion to their expectation of advantage. Even when leases are granted of a reasonable number of

years, restrictive clauses are too frequently introduced, by which the progress of inprovement is arrested, and a mode of culti vation insisted upon contrary to the views and the interest of the occupier, and not by any means more beneficial to the owner, than what was designed to be adopted, often inexpressibly less so. Prejudice and caprice in the proprietor are often substituted for the judgment of experience; and a routine of practice compelled upon the cultivator, in consequence of which, curious research and attentive experiment are rendered nearly superfluous. Superior knowledge, which would in these circumstances be almost useless, ceases to be sought for, and stupid acquiescence is substituted for lively observation. It is however of importance, that towards the close of a term, the series of cropping should be regulated by covenant, as the inducement to exhaust land, to the extreme injury of the owner and the public would otherwise be seldom resisted. Beyond this object it is unwise to enforce restriction or to yield to it, and whatever discoveries are made by the personal experience of the farmer himself, or are derived from the experience and practice of others, it is desirable that he should ever be free to avail himself of them. The liberal ideas on this subject, which have been suggested by the best writers, and adopted by enlightened landlords, will unquestionably in time, and it is hoped rapidly, prevail to the almost total exclusion of those narrow and pernicious notions which have hitherto existed.

It is desirable that the farmer should occupy a sufficient tract of land to engage his time, not irregularly and occasionally, but fully and completely, by which means his attention is not distracted from this important employment to others which would interfere with it, and necessarily prevent its correct and profitable management; and those idle habits, connected with public injury and individual ruin are effectually precluded. A large farm therefore, generally speaking, is far preferable to a small one, in this as in every other point of view. Some persons not having employment for themselves in the superintendance of the different departments of husbandry on their land, have recourse to personal exertion, and substitute themselves for labourers, a plan which is extremely unwise. The true art of farming consists, not in driving the plough or engag ing in other menial offices, but in allotting and superintending labour, in recording its results, and contriving how and where to dis

of large tracts occupied only by men of embarrassed means. The supply of present exigencies preclude those comprehensive and remote views on which the success of the art most materially depends, and unthrifty savings and corroding cares are substituted for the liberal expenses and delighted hopes, which must attend the skilful application of comparative opulence.

Finally, as the art of husbandry is particularly intricate and comprehensive, and those engaged in it are generally persons of slight education, secluded in a great degree from mutual intercourse and comparative observation; ignorance may very justly be considered as an obstacle to its improvement, perhaps the most operative of all. Instead of being collected like artists in cities, and possessing opportunities for animating curiosity, and benefiting by communication, they are scattered over the surface of the country, and have cultivated generally the same lands, and the same prejudices as their ancestors, for a series of generations. Unless there be among the number of those engaged in this art, a certain proportion of persons of intelligent and educated minds, capable of turning the experience of themselves and others to advantage, and deriving assistance to agriculture, from the discoveries of other sciences or arts, it would be vain in any country to expect its rapid approach towards that perfect standard to which every human effort should be referred. That the proportion of such characters has considerably increased of late years in this country, is an observation no less true than pleasing; and in the class of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits, it may be safely affirmed there exists much less tenacity of prejudice, a far greater disposition to research, and openness to conviction, than were to be found in any former age. Even though, in some instances, old and absurd routines of practice may have been maintained with more constancy through the hasty projects and absurd expenses of some innovators, whose failure has checked the spirit of improvement, and unjustly involved in one common ridicule all deviations from ancient custom; these effects, however much to be regretted, are only partial, and information is still making its way into the most remote recesses, and the most stubborn minds. With a view to lessen the darkness and intricacy yet connected with the subject, to prevent random speculations and ruinous projects, with their ill consequences of every kind, it may be observed that it is VOL. I.

of the very first importance that persons engaged, particularly on a large scale, in the profession of agriculture, should keep correct accounts of all their transactions, and of all their profits and losses. The advantages of clear accounts are obvious in every other occupation of life. Persons who are engag ed in speculations of merchandise, to any extent, and who are known not to attend to this department, are always supposed to be in dangerous circumstances. Agriculture seems by many to be considered an exception to all other species of business; that it may be engaged in without preliminary study, and is capable of being properly conducted, even to a large extent, without any regular accounts, necessary as these are admitted to be in other situations. With respect to experimental agriculture no correct conclusions are to be drawn, but from correct and minute details. Suppositions drawn from general observation are of no utility, or deceive rather than inform. The difficulty of keeping accounts, which, however, commonly neglected, it is allowed never ought to be so, is certainly not inconsiderable. The mode must often be regulated by the nature of the farm. The possessor of open fields, where scraps of land belonging to others are intermingled with his own, can, with extreme difficulty only, keep an account of every part, which, however, it is justly thought of the first importance to do in general, as the knowledge of what every field has paid in certain circumstances is the only basis for correct decision on its application. Small fields are from this, as well as from other causes, extremely inconvenient. They are not only inconvenient in preparation, and attended with much loss in borders and ditches, but they derange the accuracy of accounts if they are not fully noticed, and occupy a great portion of the time of the farmer if they are. When all the produce of several fields is thrown together, which is far from an uncommon case, some objects very interesting to be ascertained must be left entirely to conjecture; and when a comparison is made by guesses, the conclusion formed must be totally invalidated as authority. The separation of crops is therefore an important object with a view to accounts, and is essential, indeed, to their being kept with accuracy. For the rent, tithes, and parochial rates, three separate accounts should be kept, but the amount of all should be divided on every field, for which an account should be kept according to the real contents of it. A distineG

tion must be drawn between the gross and net contents of the field; as, otherwise, in the comparison of husbandry, that field might be concluded the most advantageous which had the least border, and merely for that reason, the cultivation practised in the other being, in fact, more profitable. But, detail on this subject is here impracticable, and we must be satisfied with observing that without correctness of data for a comparison, the conclusions formed will constitute only a catalogue of errors. The article of sundry expenses must universally have place in a well regulated account, and should include what ever payments concern the farm in general, (and are not included in any distinct article) and not any object or field in particular. With respect to the article of wear and tear, the arable lands will swallow up by far the greater proportion of these expenses. As they principally attach to the team, the proper mode of setting them down is, after ascertaining them at so much per pound on the team account, to charge thus proportion ally per acre. The land appropriated for feeding grass will have very little concern in them, and that for mowing by no means much. To settle the expense of the team work, the green food for the teams in summer, the hay and oats consumed, the shoeing and farriering, their real decline in value, the pay for attendance, are each to be itemed down separately; and to apportion the whole expense to the work executed by them, a day-book must contain an account of this work every day in the year, with a specification of the field or business they were engaged in. At the end of the year a clear result may be obtained, by proportionally dividing the amount of the expense among the work. The article manure should be arranged under the head farm-yard, and is one of the most complex and difficult. This account should be charged with the price of the straw used in the yard, at what it could be sold for, deducting the carriage, and it should be credited with the price per week of keeping the cattle. All the labour employed in turning over the dung and cleaning the yard, is charged to this account. The total expense of the dung when carted to the land, is divided by the number of loads, giving so much per load: it should be charged the following year on the lands on which it is spread, although the benefit of it is not confined to that single year: but keeping open the account for a longer time would expose to great and inextricable confusion. One of the most complex of all accounts is that of grass lands fed. To re

duce the difficulty, one account should be 'opened for mowing ground, to which all expenses of rent, tithe, taxes, &c. should be carried for every field mown; while its credit consists of the value, at the market price, of all the mown produce, as delivered to the cattle of any description. The after grass on these fields must be estimated at a certain sum per acre, and charged to the account of feeding ground. To this account must be carried all the debits of the fields fed, while the credit should consist of all the food of the team at a certain weekly esti mate; and of any cattle taken to joist. The account for sheep, dairy, and fatting beasts, is each to be charged its peculiar expenses; wages, hurdles, shepherd, &c. for the first; fuel and straw, &c. for the second; and the purchase money of lean stock for fatting beasts. Amidst all this minuteness and complexity of account, order must be produced. The cattle, cows, and sheep, have turnips, with respect to which the estimate of them must be made, not at what they cost, but at what they would sell for eaten off the field, as they cost more than the latter price, and were intended to repay in the crops for which they prepare. The books should be every year balanced, about the season at which the farm was entered upon; and to avoid arbitrary valuation, the old year's accounts must be continued open considerably after the new ones have commenced, till the fatting beasts and the corn are sold, and those points decided on which the profit or loss of the former year depended. By these means conjectures may be, in a great degree, precluded, but not altogether, as these must extend to the estimate of the live stock bought and sold within the year, and to the implements of husbandry. The stock must be estimated every year; and in settling this estimate, their worth at the very time of its being made, that is, the price they would then sell for, must be set down. With respect to fatting beasts, cows, and sheep, this proceeding must equally take place. Every year, also, implements should be valued, and the balance must be carried, where alone it is applicable, to the general head of wear and tear.

The minuteness and accuracy necessary for this or any other efficient mode of account, may deter many from its adoption, and undoubtedly has this effect on thousands. The want of attention, however, to this subject has, unquestionably, been the cause to which many individuals may justly ascribe their failure in this art, and has operated extremely to check the progress of it in gene