a difficult one, as I have never yet known a good carcase supported under 10 or 12 lbs. of such close and fine wool; and I have long been convinced that good carcases and fine fleeces together, early maturity and a quick return, which we have in the Southdowns, will always beat the Merinos. Their backs are as narrow as rabbits, and their faults appear to be incorrigible. Perhaps every one here may not think so, and I know there is a considerable party of publicspirited gentlemen who still persist in the Merino cause. I am persuaded they do it from the best motives: I heartily wish them success, but I do not envy them; I do not envy my honorable friend here, and hope he has reaped a plentiful and encouraging profit. For my part, I am governed by experience, and I always make haste to discard error when I find it out. I must beg, however, to relate an anecdote, which will show you what immense progress his lordship must have made in these studies, since the first time I had the honor of his company here, to venture upon such a subject. He was riding with me in a barouche by a field of wheat, some years ago, at a time when he certainly was not prepared to enlighten us on the difficulties of the point in question, and he suddenly clapped his hands together, and exclaimed, 'What a beautiful piece of lavender !'-but since that time, gentlemen, his lordship is, I know very well, considerably improved, and may be thoroughly prepared to defend the cause upon which I have so long been in an error, if it be one.

His lordship, in reply, commented, in a strain of pleasantry, on Mr. Coke's observations relative to his studies in agriculture. He had studied it under an able master, and, if he had made no considerable progress, it must be owing to his own want of capacity. He, however, assured the company that he did know wheat from lavender; but he certainly had made the exclamation alluded to; and was it to be wondered at? He had seen wheat many times before; but, never having seen any so admirably cultivated, was a sufficient reason for his not knowing the plant again. He had seen such facts and examples at Holkham, that he had been struck with the conviction that agriculture must be an important branch of knowledge: important not only to the good of mankind, but to mental improvement; to the understanding of a man, and to the science of a philosopher. He had indeed, his lordship observed, commenced his study of agriculture late in life, when, perhaps, the vigor of his attention was spent in other pursuits, more important to him at the time, but never more pleasing. It is this day, said his lordship, forty years since I was called to the bar;-I have studied Coke at Westminster, and I now study Coke at Holkham. But the difference between these studies is very great; they differ as the laws of man differ from the laws of nature; as a complex and opposing system of facts and precedents,-where no two cases can be perfectly parallel, where human interests and passions are perpetually excited, where human evidence is often incomplete, often doubtful,-differs from that order and regularity, where the finger of nature points to certain conclusions; where

the fruits of our skill and labor rise to give testimony; and where the very earth is eloquent, and speaks nothing but the truth. If, continued his lordship, we only consider the subject of manure, we shall perceive one of the most striking bounties and benefits of the divine ordination. and of that wisdom with which we are blessed, in a thousand ways, without our knowing it: this very substance, the refuse of every thing, had it been useless, must have accumulated in heaps, intolerably noisome, and perpetually pestilential; but, by the blessing of providence, it is every man's interest to remove these otherwise increasing mountains of filth, and by decomposition, in various ways, concealed in a great measure from us, it gives increase to our fields, and adds to the means of industry and the reward of the husbandman. In allusion to what he was expected to deliver in the Merino cause, his lordship very pleasantly waived the subject, by saying that it was a subject on which he was yet considerably deficient in knowledge and experience, and he must take a few more lessons before he could venture to sum up the evidence before such a jury.

In proposing the health of lord Lynedock, Mr. Coke took occasion to advert to the Scotch husbandry. He alluded to a report which had prevailed, which had perhaps been industriously circulated, and eagerly listened to, as all calumnies were, by many persons. It had been said that he had found fault with the agriculture of Scotland. Found fault! said Mr. Coke, to be sure I did, and I praised it likewise. But the first only is remembered by those who would malign my observations. If there be a fault, it ought to be noticed, or how should we improve? The truth is, the agriculture of Scotland deserves very great praise, and especially their turnip husbandry, which equals any thing I ever saw. If I had wavered before in opinion, I should have been at once convinced of the decided superiority of the ridge system, by what I saw in Scotland; and I now think it my duty to declare my conviction that the ridge system of cultivating this crop is not only the best for producing the largest crops, but it will obtain, what can never be insured by the other, a certain crop. By what we witness this year, notwithstanding the drought, the crops in this neighbourhood, by the ridge system, are both forward and promising; and, as this is the foundation of the success of the whole course, it must be the most important point in our favor. Mr. Coke then congratulated the neighbourhood around him, for having very generally adopted this system, for which they were much indebted to Mr. Blaikie. The fault he had found in Scotland, Mr. Coke observed, was that the land, with the crop after turnips, was not so clean as it might be, and he was induced to observe it, in order to draw the attention of the Scotch farmers to the probable defect there might be in cleaning the fallows; but he willingly allowed that they had a very troublesome weed in the north, which seemed to be peculiar to Scotland; and, as the root was a small bulb, it was difficult to be destroyed. It increased so much in the land before the field came to wheat, that the crop, if lodged, would be presently tied

down by the stems of this weed growing through it, and it could not rise to ripen the grain. He said he had visited lord Lynedock's farm, and he was beyond measure gratified at his reception. The noble lord had carried inoculation into Scotland; he thanked him for it, and it proved that this meeting did good.

In the course of this meeting, Mr. Coke stated that it had existed forty-two years. Upon no foriner occasion had it been so numerously attended: a proof that the motives for its establishment had met with the approbation of his neighbours, and that the result had been favorable to the country. He trusted that it would still increase in numbers every year, and that he should he honored with the company of all who desired to see agriculture cultivated on the liberal principle of a community of interest between landlord and tenant. When he began this institution, the land of Holkham was so poor and unproductive that much of it was not worth 5s per acre.-He began with a trial of the Leicester breed of sheep; but, by the advice of Mr. Ellman of Sussex, he was induced to adopt the Southdown breed, and to that admirable stock he much attributed the progress which Norfolk had made in cultivation. The extension of farms, where flocks were to be employed, was unavoidable. Such farms must be large; but if capital and skill were applied to them, and the flocks were made the means of increasing the corn produce, so far from its being injurious, as a question of political economy, experience had proved it to be highly advantageous, since he could state, from actual enumeration, that three times the number of inhabitants were maintained on the same space of ground as before; the population of Holkham had increased from 200 to 600, within a few years back, since cultivation, by the union of capital and skill, had advanced. In all his parish there was scarcely a single individual, of any age, that did not find full employment, and they even wanted hands. He had been applied to, some time ago, by the principal inhabitants of the three parishes of Holkham, Warham, and Wighton, to say that their poor-house was no longer wanted; that, in fact, it was a burden to keep it up; their poor were so much diminished, they had no use for it. And when he told them to consider well what they were about, and to look forward to times when the poor might increase upon them, they replied, they were convinced that, by the spirit of independence which their comfort inspired, and the certainty of labor, they had no dread of a reverse, for the whole district was industrious and moral. The workhouse was therefore pulled down, and the aged and infirm were a small burden on the three parishes. The introduction of the drill husbandry, which he could now, from the most ample experience, recommend, had justified all the hopes he had entertained of it. It was the most profitable course a farmer could pursue, and, with the turnip crops, completed the Norfolk system of husbandry. He paid merited compliments to Mr. Blakie, his steward, for superior talents, indefatigable attention, and integrity in the conduct of his affairs, as well as for the many plain, practicable, and ingenious communications he had given to the public; and he

spoke, with warm eulogy, of the ardent manner in which his efforts had been seconded, not only by his own tenants, but by many of the noblemen and gentlemen, as well as yeomen, his friends and neighbours.

PART V.

OF IMPLEMENTS OF HUSBANDRY. Upon this topic we can of course accomplish nothing more than a selection of the most approved modern instruments of agriculture. Many of the machines and implements involved meet our separate attention in their alphabetical places: others, as the peck, the mattock, the spade, fork, &c., seem too minute, and of too universal application, to be inserted in a work of this description. We begin therefore with the most important, perhaps, of agricultural implements.

1. Of ploughs.-In our plate AGRICULTURE (Plate I.) are figures of ploughs, whose names are given. The first, the Roman plough, has good authority for its iron part or share, such as it is; but we are doubtful as to the wheels and handle.

The Roman plough was according to Cato of two kinds, one for heavy and one for light soils. There is a plough still in use in Spain, which is supposed to come the nearest to the Roman im plement generally used. It is our fig. 2, plate I. RURAL ECONOMY.

Virgil describes a plough with a mould-boara used for covering seed and ridging: to supply its place a sort of diverging stick was used, it seems, in the form described: this stick appears to have been inserted in the share head, or held obliquely and sloping towards the side to which the earth was to be turned. The Romans did not plough their fields in beds, by circumvolving furrows; but the cattle returned to the same furrow. Virgil also mentions wheel ploughs, which Lasteyrie thinks were invented in or not long before the time of Pliny, who attributes the invention to the inhabitants of Cisalpine Gaul. Lasteyrie gives figures of three wheel ploughs from a Sicilian model, and from Caylus's Collection of Antiquities.

Cato says, of ploughing, What is the best culture of land? Good ploughing. What the second best? Ploughing in the common way. What the third? Laying on manure. The Roman season for ploughing was any time when land was not wet: in the performance, the furrow is directed to be kept equal in breadth throughout, one furrow equal to another; and straight furrows. The usual depth is not mentioned, but it was considerable, as Cato says cornland should be of good quality for two feet in depth. No scamni or balks (hard unmoved soil) were to be left, and, to ascertain that this was properly attended to, the farmer is directed, when inspecting the work done, to push a pole into the ploughed land in a variety of places. The plough was generally drawn by one pair of oxen, guided by the ploughman without the aid of a driver. In breaking up stiff land he was expected to plough half an acre; and in free lands an acre; and light lands one acre and a half each day. Land was ploughed in square plots of 120 feet to the side, two of which made

which in other ploughs is the weakest. In this improvement of the Rotherham plough the mould-board is so constructed at the breast as to have a slight degree of convexity, instead of being concave, as is often the case, by which the furrow-slice is supposed to be prevented from slipping down; and by the keeping the lower part from the ground, when it comes to the turn of the breast, it falls off; consequently, as the furrow-slice is rested on or by the side of the breast, when the plough has advanced twelve inches the work is finished. By this improvement it is supposed that the plough will turn a furrow of any extent, from four to eighteen inches, where requisite, and the same in depth; as the plough that will produce a wide furrow and turn it well is capable of ploughing deep: the convexity of the breast also causes it to clean itself better, which is a desirable property, as it is thereby rendered less heavy, and less resistance afforded by one portion of earth being prevented from rubbing upon another, and at the same *ime the work performed in a more perfect manner. The coulter has likewise a position so as to cut in a slanting manner, which causes any resistance to rise up more expeditiously, and the land to be opened with more facility than where it has a more perpendicular direction. Where this improved plough is employed with more than two horses abreast, the additional ones must be put before the pair, as it has not land enough to follow single horses.

Wheels have been added to these ploughs for particular purposes; and with either one or two fixed near the points of the beams, without any carriage parts, they have been found to pass through the soil in a very light, easy, and steady manner, and where there are two to require no holder in many cases, except in setting in turning out of the work at the ends of the ridges. The Northumberland or Cumberland plough is only an improved plough of this kind.

Small's chain plough is esteemed one of the best of the swing kind, and seems capable of very extensive application. It has its name from that of the inventor, who constructed it about forty years ago. It is neatly formed, and very light in its appearance, but at the same time, from the addition of the chain, possessing great strength. It is, therefore, capable of being employed in strong rough sorts of soil, where other sorts of ploughs are liable to be destroyed, as when the share, or even the coulter, in this implement, meets with any sudden impediment or obstructing cause, the stress is immediately thrown upon the chain instead of the beam. The sock is formed with a fin or feather, by which the firm earth in the bottom of the furrow is cut and moved more readily, and in a more complete manner than could be done by the sock in the common plough. In this plough the mouldboard is mostly made of cast-iron, having a gentle curve, by which the furrow-slice is thrown off with the least possible resistance. It is supposed by Mr. Donaldson to be on the whole one of the best constructed swing-ploughs for all sorts of soils. It is capable of ploughing, with one man and two horses yoked abreast without any driver, more than an acre a day with the

greatest ease. A plough of this sort is shown at fig. 1., plate II., RURAL ECONOMY.

Lord Somerville's single plough is also a plough of this sort, in which the throat is sharpened, an the mould board rendered moveable in the marner of his double furrow plough, shown in fig. 5 of plate AGRICULTURE. It is capable of being made use of with advantage in breaking up deep stiff soils, as from the moveable nature of the extreme part of the mould-board the furrow-slice can be laid more or less flat.

Ducket's skim-coulter, or trenching plough, is an implement of this sort, capable of being employed with great advantage where the surface is coarse or grassy. The principle upon which this plough operates is that of trenching ground in the practice of gardening, or depositing the surface spit of earth in the bottom of the preceding furrow, and placing the second, or that taken from below, upon it. Where the soils are sufficiently deep it is capable of performing its work to a considerable extent. It has been observed by lord Somerville, in a little tract on ploughs and oxen, that the skim requires a perpendicular direction, and that the coulter-hole should be removed farther from the throat and share, as in the common position it would choak when in work.

The use of the paring plough, the fourth figure of the plate AGRICULTURE, will be shown in that part of this article which treats of 'preparing' land on the arable system,

Plate I. RURAL ECONOMY, fig. 3, shows a plough to be made entirely of iron, to which a new kind of share is attached, the invention of Mr. Finlayson. This share, a, instead of having its cutting edge curved, or forming an obtuse angle with the land side, is made straight, and extending nearly the whole length of the mould-board, at an acute angle with the land side. At the back part of the share a triangular piece, or wing, b, is to be introduced occasional y by screwing its pin into a hole in the share, for the purpose of enabling it to turn and accommodate itself to the way of the plough. The intended purpose of this wing is to cut the clods of the earth, and break them in a perpendicular direction. In order to prevent the plough from choking at the coulter, the beam is made to curve upwards as seen at c, the coulter being introduced at the under side, and made fast by wedges. Another contrivance to effect the same object is shown at fig. 4, and consists in opening the beam by lateral curves, c, c, the coulter being attached by screw bolts, and rounded off at top. By these means, should any stubble or other vegetable matters accumulate in front, they would be enabled to rise over the top of the coulter without choking or obstructing the progress of the plough. For the purpose of regulating the depth at which the share shall cut the ground, the shackle by which the plough is drawn is to be shifted higher or lower, at the muzzle or nose of the beam. This is done by means of a screw, d, in fig. 3, which passes through the bolt of the shackle, and, by being turned, moves the shackle higher or lower, and thereby causes the share to be drawn through the ground at a less or greater depth beneath the surface, as circumstances may re