OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ART. THE ALL-IMPORTANT SUBJECT OF AGRICULTURE. The Ar the Meeting of the Royal English Agricultural Association, held at Liverpool in July last, public. attention was called to this subject. The feeding and breeding of stock of all kinds, now carried on to a great extent, (and will be more so as the waste lands are brought into a proper state of cultivation), and those neglected farms, that have been held on long leases, from generation to generation, were shewn to be improved on the modern principles developed through the skill of our Durham and Northumberland farmers. The theory was first brought to light by the recommendation of the men of science, educated at the colleges of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Durham, and more recently at Oxford and Cambridge, for the purpose of instructing our youth in the general knowledge of chemistry, and analitically to discriminate between the value of matter and soils. improvement is now very generally acknowledged. We are rejoiced to find that at the Liverpool meeting, above referred to, there were upwards of 10,000 farmers, landowners, and men of science and learning, from all parts of the United Kingdom. The subject of agriculture was not overlooked for the rising generation, for at the dinner given to 4000 gentlemen on this occasion, notices were most liberally issued by the Trustees of our Collegiate Institution, stating that they intended to form a class for the teaching of agricultural science. We trust this will be practically carried into effect; and no time should be lost by the Directors to give a tone and character to their plans by looking out for large tracts of land, on which they could engage the services of men thoroughly understanding cultivation. This may be done without interfering with the general education of youth; and might be made a source of profit to individuals, who have a taste for agricultural pursuits. We believe there are some hundred thousand acres now in a state of nature, between this town and Lancaster, that may be leased 99 years for from 6d. to 1s. per acre; and that some near Ormskirk is now being cultivated at that cost to the farmer. When we know that the fens of Lincolnshire, 33 miles in extent (500,000 acres), have been brought into the highest state of corn 1842. and green crops, yielding perhaps £2,000,000 annually, (which may appear incredible, but let others investigate for themselves), some idea may be formed of what is practicable with the aid of steam-engines. On these lands the steam-engines are used every ten miles to draw off the water-these used to be worked, night and day, nearly twelve months in the year— but now two or three months in the year is sufficient to keep the land dry. The Duke of Bedford has within these few years brought "The Bedford Level" into cultivation, containing about 300,000 acres, which was of no value whatever, and the land is now in full crop, and worth £400,000 annually. To his Grace, it is true, the expense was great; and only such a nobleman, or a few rich merchants, with their surplus capital, could undertake such a scheme. The result is certain, when the principle is carried out. "The land will give her increase," if cultivated. We feel pleasure in calling attention to this subject, and will do all in our power to promulgate information on the all-important subject of AGRICULTURE. The science is of the first magnitude to our country at this moment The Corn Law is now the general theme on every tongue; and men must think what is for the benefit of the human race. We fear the emigrant of capital does not consider, when he goes to America, that his time is money, and that if that time and his little capital were spent in cultivating the wastes within twenty or thirty miles from large towns, or in Ireland, his reward would be greater and more sure than in the back woods of America. We had a call from a gentleman (Mr. Houghton) a few weeks back, who managed the "Mulmussog" Estate, in the county of Donegal, which now yields £6000 per annum, who informed us the estate formerly only let for £12 a year. His efforts were equally successful at Suning Hill, in Berkshire, only thirteen miles from London. Although he commenced life a poor cottager, and drove his own horse and cart, with his little produce, to the nearest market town, yet, in less than twelve years, he is possessed of nearly 2000 acres of the finest made land of his own, not far from London. He is making similar improvements in Ireland. True, his patrons, W. H. Harcourt, Esq., Mr. Dean, and others, gave him every encouragement, and the means, under his management, to cultivate their own lands, in different parts of the country. If our LATENT VALUE OF BOG LANDS IN BY JOHN TAYLOR, Esq., SURGEON, LIVERPOOL. PART I. WHEN the Romans and the successive invaders of the British Islands had obtained secure possession, they displayed the national characteristics of civilization in those days-pre-eminence in the cultivation of the soil and in the art of war. In virtue of the latter they repelled the native inhabitants from the fruitful spots of earth to the mountains and morasses, while they themselves occupied the slopes and plains, which Nature's bounty had made by the oxydation and detachment of the constituent particles of contiguous rocks, which had glided down in succession of time, and eventually formed, by the aid of diluvial deposition and admixture, a soil rich for pasture, and capable of rendering every earthly produce. The operative husbandman of the fertile lands, during the Roman dynasty, was dignified with the appellation of Agricola, and the former occupant, who had been driven by his polite intruders to the bogs and mountains, obtained a designation corresponding to the modern term of Bogtrotter. "Qui ex rapto vivere solet," was his character, as estimated by an accurate poet. Driven to the regions of waste and barrenness ; deprived of the produce of the cultivated land; and having no opportunities of witnessing the power of civilization, except in the display of feuds and petty warfare, it is no matter of surprise that his hungry stomach should have impelled him to acts of rapine; and that having satisfied the immediate wants of rebellious hunger he should feel a prudent anxiety for future supply, and incessantly endeavour to regain possession of his lost territory. Time rolled on; the cultivated taste of civilization still giving greater demand for spears than for spades -for swords, and other implements of homicide, than for drills and ploughshares; the clouds continuing to shed rain impregned with fertilizing power, unappre ciated from the want of culture and preparation of the soil upon which it fell; the Carbonate of Ammonia within it, designed as the chief sustenance of vegetation, and amounting, according to the estimation of the renowned Liebig, to 80lbs. per acre, per annum, continually passed away by the overflow from the bogs and shallow-mountain-soils to the nearest streams and rivers, thereby to improve the food of the fishes. Thus a portion of Heaven's bounty, which might seem to have fallen unprofitably, has been beneficially appropriated; as the excellence of the salmon from the Shannon, and other rivers, whose shores are flanked by bogs and high mountains incapable of applying the Ammonia of rain-water to fertilization, abundantly testify. The same remark applies to streams and lakes in mountainous districts; and would seem to indicate that wherever the "fatness of the clouds" fails to accomplish the prime object of promoting vegetation, it is directed under the guidance of physical laws to the nourishment and growth of fishes; constituting one of the innumerable examples of the pre-destinating will of Divine providence in maintaining an ultimate regard to the welfare of man. On morasses which retain much rain-water, either from their level position, or from being contained and encircled within a rocky basin, the Ammonia permeates to the lower carbonized strata of the bog, and becomes impacted in its structure, there to be detained until centuries of time shall have converted the whole mass into coal, and some future generation shall cause its evolution by combustion. The Ammonia which lingers in contact with the imperfect vitality of vegetable matter on the surface of bogs sometimes induces associations of gases, poisonous to animal life, which exhale from their surface, and infect the air with malaria, and ever and anon spread disease and death around. This result, however, is much less frequent than formerly, owing to the reduction in the number of its sources; yet there still remains too much veneration for "the form and void of nature;" a dislike to reverse it-and to render that dry and fertile which has been so long in swamp and barrenness. Custom still draws a hedge or fence between the soft and firm-the moist and dry; and the latter alone is subjected to the dominion of the spade and the plough, while the former is respectfully consigned to the retirement of spontaneous production. It is lamentable to a scientific mind to see the very poor bog-tenant partially drain a patch on which to grow his year's consumption of oats and potatoes-to perceive that the Manure which he has diligently collected during months of patient toil is carried down to the substrata far away from the rootlets of his grain and tubers, where its influence can be of no use to him. Common benevolence prompts that science and capital should be directed to make him either a better farmer, or a happy dependent as an agricultural labourer. The further infusion of practical agriculturists into Ireland-men who do not disdain to be guided by the revelations of science in preparing the ground, in the selection of seed, and in a knowledge of the routine of crops adapted to the nature of the soil according to its elementary constitution, and the physiological structure of the plants intended to occupy it, would do incalculable good, and cement more strongly the union of national interests. Not that Ireland now fails to produce a pretty fair return for the outlay made upon well-farmed land; but there is an acknowledged waste and misapplication of the means at her disposal in the hands of her small farmers, which a better example would prevent. Before the value of land in England became enhanced to its present progressively increased rental, a comfortable people called the yeomanry, whose motto might aptly have been "Mediocritas tutissima," derived an ample subsistence from the cultivation of soil admixed, as before observed, in process of time, by the detrition of rocks and the depositions from floods and rivers, when the necessity for the artificial mixture of materials to form a soil did not exist; but as the surface became further overspread with Beings, and the produce insufficient for full supply, the immediate effect gave increased demand for the fruits of the earth, and consequent prosperity to agriculturists, while at the same time it laid the foundation for future adversity. The great extension of manufactures and commerce had given the impulse to agriculture; the wealth derived from those sources sought security in investment upon land; and competition succeeded in progressively and permanently forcing up its value, until, as a means of approximating the interest of the invested capital to that which might be obtained in trade, commerce, and manufactures, rents became oppressive, and conflicting interests arose between those depending on agriculture and the community engaged in commerce and manufacture. This state of things required increased protection against foreign competition in food, and brought large tracks of waste land into immediate cultivation, besides giving expansion to the science of Agricultural Chemistry; by which means an acquaintance with the formation of artificial soils was obtained, and the greatest portion of the corn-growing land in the Midland and South Eastern counties of England, created out of fens, or bogs, simply by perfect drain age, and the raising of a portion of the substratum, a luminous clay, to the surface of peat, over which it was duly spread, and eventually combined by the aid of the plough. The popular notion that "The value of a thing Precisely is what it will bring, does not apply to bog lands: they are regarded as almost valuelesss, and yet possess intrinsically a rich requital for skilful enterprise. The great success, reported in this and other journals, resulting from the operations at Mulmussog, confirms the general rule:-"That the proper materials for combination to produce a fertile ground are never far off." What then can have delayed the reclamation, (as it is called) of the Irish bog-lands? Can it have been some fancied insecurity for life and property there? political and religious aversion? distrust in the fidelity of her half-clad and half-fed agricultural population? These circumstances, it is true, have wrongfully occupied the reflections of wealthy men, because their extent has been designedly exaggerated, and the temptation to the employment of capital in commerce and manufactures at home has repressed the desire for impartial enquiry; aided, probably, by the circumstance that agriculture, the oldest and most universal of all the arts, has until lately been more the work of empiricism, and less of induction, than any other. But the fashionable illusion of fear towards the employment of capital in Ireland is now being fast dispelled: wise men refuse to dwell on the asperities of religious difference, or to believe that the Irish agricultural labourers are less grateful for employment and the consequent necessaries of life than others. The excellent efforts of Agricultural Societies steadily point out a sure way to riches, more stable to the possessor than those fitfully acquired and lost by commerce or speculation; and no society, perhaps, is more instrumental in effecting this than the Royal Agricultural Society of England, whose transactions are ably edited by Philip Pusey, Esq., their president; and which constitute a form of puseyism more conducive to human happiness, both here and hereafter, than the silly contention about what may happen to be the reigning orthodoxy of the day at Oxford, The expensive and unavailing efforts that have been used to reclaim the shallow soils on the ridgy hills of Lancashire and Yorkshire should not deter us from using labour, guided by skill, on the deep bogs of Ireland, particularly in the south, where many concurrent circumstances favour the operations, where the climate is more genial than this locality, and the approach good to the Shannon, the large canals, or the sea. Here there is encouragement for the skill of the agriculturist and the enterprise of the capitalist, in the application of principles already made known, to convert patches of wilderness into fertile fields; the overspread of the land's inhabitants having created the necessity to fulfil that part of the injunction "to till the ground," which involves the admixture of materials to form soil; a knowledge of which is derived from analytical examination of those naturally formed, and a practical acquaintance with the capabilities of each kind for rendering the largest amount of any particular produce. (To be Continued.) HOURS OF BUSINESS. Four lectures have been delivered upon the subject of the early closing of shops, in the Baptist Chapel, Stanhope-st. The lectures were delivered by assistants, and the subjects of their respective lectures were as follow:First, The evils of the present system. The evils inseparable from the present system were exhibited without any over-colouring, and were expressed with that honesty of purpose, and sincerity of profession, which ought to conciliate all employers to the agitation of this very important subject-a subject in which is involved the dearest and most substantial interests of employers as well as the emancipation of the employed. The evils arising from keeping shops open late in the evening were affirmed to be four-fold, independently of the evils arising as secondary effects connected with the primary causes. They were chiefly and generally, firstly, dropsical-destroying the health both of assistants and employers, but more especially assistants, inasmuch as assistants are necessarily more rigidly confined than their employers. Secondly,Intellectual. As it is impossible for any to be intelligent unless they have time to acquire information, it was proved that the shopkeepers' assistants, as a class, are deficient of knowledge. Thirdly,-Morals. The lecturer proved very satisfactorily that without a due appropriation of time to the duties of moral obligations, it is impossible to regulate the conduct according to the approved standard of morals; and having shewn that the shopkeepers' assistants are destitute of that time, it follows, as a consequence, that they are circumstantially rendered incapable of acquiring that standard, because if men be confined to a late hour in the evening, the advantages of intellectual culture are cut off, and nothing remains save the enjoyment of animal recreation. Fourthly,-Religious. As morals and religion are supposed to go hand-in-hand, the lecturer contended that the reasons adduced under the third head were equally applicable to the fourth; and in addition stated that a great majority of the assistants in Liverpool were compelled to desecrate the Sabbath, as they had to remain after the shops were closed, to arrange the establishment, until one and two o'clock on Sunday morning! LECTURE SECOND.-The advantages to he derived from an improved system. The advantages which would be enjoyed from an improved system—a system of closing the shops at an early hour-were demonstrated in such a manner as to convince every hearer of the absolute necessity of the abolition of the old, and the establishment of a new system. After having held up to the view of his hearers the evils, as exhibited in the first lecture, the lecturer went on to shew, that instead of those evils which have been generated by a bad system, we should behold a change, the advantages of which would be hailed, not only by the persons who serve customers, but also by the buyers themselves; and that the benignant influences of the proposed change-limiting the time of businers to ten hours a day-would be extended through the various branches of society. The advantages of an improved system, independently of its general features, was proved to be ripe with fruits, the deliciousness of which would be enjoyed by individuals not immediately connected with business, and its fragrance scattered amongst a diversity of classes who have no idea that late shopping, and the late keeping of shops open, affect them at all. As the light of the moon is borrowed from that of the sun, so is the glory of a woman borrowed from that of her husband. The wife, and all the offspring of a good and great man, are respected wherever they go. But the husband of a superior woman receives no honour on account of her merits-on the contrary, he is rather lessened in the eyes of the world, for society will not tolerate a man who is dependant for his position to the superior worth of one of the softer sex. LOVE. "They sin who tell us Love can die; All others are but vanity. Its holy flame for ever burneth, The day of woe, the watchful night, SOUTHEY. ADVENTURES OF HENRY GREENWOOD. CHAPTER 17 From Lancaster Henry and his friend proceeded northward, and visited those delightful and romantic scenes which are so justly celebrated as being the most lovely and the grandest to be found in England. Both Henry and Mortimer possessed, in a great degree, those faculties which enable us to feel pleasure in contemplating the beautiful and grand. Burns or Byron, either of them could feel that peculiar sensation so happily described by the latter, when he says "Are not the mountains, waves and skies a part Is not the love of these deep in my heart Like Of artful knaveries practised in the world. Their hair-breadth 'scapes when lost among the snows, Their young plantations, and destroyed their crops- At first were tried-but all were tried in vain- And not to hide her graces in a cot. He told her she surpassed the highest born In wit, in virtue, and in loveliness In all that captivated man's esteem In all that bound his heart in chains of love He told her one so fair would be adored Throughout the world-would every youth inflame, And cause each nymph e'en die through jealousy. Amazed, he saw she still remained unmoved, * Honorable Colonel Hope. |