ENCYCLOPÆDIA

OF

AGRICULTURE.

THE

HE first want of man is food, and his first resource for it the ground. Whether herbs or fruits were resorted to, must have depended on their relative abundance in the country where man found himself; but the latter would probably be preferred, till the use of fire was discovered in the preparation of the former. The first care and labor of man would thus be bestowed on fruit-trees, and hence gardening may be said to be the art of earliest invention. But man is also a carnivorous animal, and this propensity of his nature would soon induce him to attempt domesticating such beasts of the earth as he found most useful in affording milk, clothing, or food; or in performing labor. Hence the origin of pasturage, and the management of live stock. The invention of tillage would be coeval with the discovery of the use of the cereal grasses, and may be considered as the last grand step in the invention of husbandry, and the most important, as leading to the establishment of property in territorial surface.

In the earlier stages of civilisation, these branches of economy, in common with all the arts of life, would be practised by every family for itself; but the advantages of separating occupations would soon present themselves, and the result of this principle in regard to rural culture and management, the res rustica of the Romans and husbandry of old English authors, -is, that all their operations are now classed under the two designations of agriculture and gardening.

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Agriculture, the art to which we here confine ourselves, as compared to gardening, is the culture and management of certain plants and animals for the food and service of man; but relative to the present improved state of the art, it may be defined, the cultivation and management of territorial surface on an extended scale, by manual and animal labor, for the production of objects and materials used for the food and service of man, and for various important purposes, in arts, manufactures, and civilised life.

The importance of agriculture is obvious, not only by its affording the direct supply of our greatest wants, but as the parent of manufactures and commerce. Without agriculture there can be neither civilisation nor population. Hence it is not only the most universal of arts, but that which requires the greatest number of operators: the main body of the population in every country is employed in the pursuit of agriculture; and the most powerful individuals in almost all nations, derive their wealth and consequence from their property in land.

In the earliest ages of mankind, before tillage was invented, the surface of the earth would be common to all the inhabitants, and every family would pasture their flock, and pitch their tent, or erect their hut, where they thought fit. But when tillage came in use, it became necessary to assign to each family a portion of territory, and of this portion that family became the proprietor, cultivator, and the consumer of the products. Hence the invention of property in land, and progressively of purchased cultivators,

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or slaves; of hired cultivators, or laborers; of commercial agriculturists, or farmers; and of the various laws and customs in regard to the proprietorship and occupation of landed property.

The practice of agriculture, however rude in early times, or in countries still comparatively uncivilised, assumes a very different character among the most advanced nations. Not to mention the peculiarities of implements, machines, and domestic animals, and the different kinds of culture and management requisite for the different countries and climates of the world, the local variations requisite even in Britain, are so considerable that an agriculturist whose experience and observation had been confined to one district, may be comparatively unfit to exercise his profession in another. The sheep farming of the North Highlands, the dairy farming of Gloucestershire, the hop culture of Kent, the woodlands of Buckinghamshire, and the hay management of Middlesex, have given rise to commercial agriculturists of very distinct varieties from the common corn farmer. The previous preparation of land for culture, by enclosure, drainage, embanking, road-making, &c. demands considerable science; and has given rise to artist agriculturists, known as land-surveyors, and land-engineers. The relative changes as to rent and occupancy which take place between land-owners and farmers, and the valuation and transfer of landed property among monied men, have produced land-valuators and landagents; from the direction of extensive estates, and the management of small concerns and farms, have originated the serving agriculturists, known as land-stewards and bailiffs; and the operators are shepherds, herdsmen, ploughmen, carters, spadesmen, and hands of all work.

The practice of agriculture, from having been chiefly confined to men of humble station, who pursued it as a matter of business or profit, has of late years been engaged in by men of rank, and other opulent or amateur practitioners, as matter of taste and recreation. The contrast between the simple and healthy pursuits of the country, and such as require intense application, and confine men chiefly to towns and cities, gives them a peculiar charm to the industrious and active citizen, while the idle and the opulent find relief in it from the ennui of inaction or a frivolous waste of time. Some magnificent displays of the art have thus been made by great landed proprietors on their demesne or home farms; and very neat and tasteful specimens of culture, by retired citizens and other possessors of villas, farms, and fermes ornées. These circumstances may be said to have raised the pursuit of agriculture to a comparatively dignified state to that in which it was formerly held; while the political advantages which are enjoyed by all classes in a free and commercial country, have improved the circumstances of agriculturists of every grade, and tended to raise them in the scale of society.

The recent discoveries in chemistry and physiology have led to the most important improvements in the culture of plants, and the breeding and rearing of animals; agriculture is in consequence no longer an art of labor, but of science; hence the advantage of scientific knowledge to agriculturists, and the susceptibility of the art of progressive advancement. "Agriculture," Marshal observes, "is a subject which, viewed in all its branches and to their fullest extent, is not only the most important and the most difficult in rural economies, but in the circle of human arts and sciences."

For the purpose of agricultural improvement, societies have been established in every country of Europe, and in almost every county of Britain. Most of these, as well as several eminent individuals, have stimulated cultivators and breeders to exertion, by the offer of premiums, and other honorary rewards. Professorships of rural economy have also been instituted in some colleges; and other independent georgical institutions have been established for public instruction, especially on the continent: to which we may add, the publication of numerous books on the subject of agriculture and territorial improvement.

Such is the origin, the extent, the importance, and the interest of the subject of agriculture; from which it cannot be surprising that a varied and voluminous mass of knowledge has been accumulated on the subject, and is consequently more or less necessary for every one who would practise the art with success himself, or understand when it is well practised for him by others. To combine as far as practicable the whole of this knowledge, and arrange it in a systematic form, adapted both for study and reference, is the object of the present work. The sources from which we have selected, are the modern British authors of decided reputation and merit; sometimes we have recurred to ancient and to Continental authors, and occasionally, though rarely, to our own observation and experience: observation chiefly in Britain, but partly also on the Continent; and experience in Scotland, under the paternal roof, during our early years, during some years' occupancy of two extensive farms in England, and in the engineering and surveying departments during our practice for twenty years as a landscape-gardener.

With this purpose in view, agriculture is here considered, in

1. As to its origin, progress, and $1. Among ancient and modern nations. present state,

1.

12. Under different geographical, physical, and political circumstances. The study of the vegetable kingdom.

2.

The study of the animal kingdom.

II. As a science founded on

3.

The study of the mineral kingdom and the atmosphere.

The study of the mechanical agents employed in agriculture.

III. As an art comprehending

IV. Statistically in Britain,

5. The study of the operations of agriculture.

1. The valuation, purchase, and transfer of landed property.

2. The laying out, or general arrangement, of landed property.

3. The improvement of culturable lands.

4. The management of landed estates.

5. The selection, hiring, and stocking of farms.

6. The culture of farm lands.

7. The economy of live stock, and the dairy.

51. As to its present state.

2. As to its future progress.

A Kalendarial Index to those parts of the work which treat of culture and management, points out the operations as they are to be performed in the order of time and of the season: and

A General Index explains the technical terms of agriculture, the abbreviations here made use of, and presents an analysis of the whole work in alphabetical, as the Table of Contents does in systematic, order.

PART I.

AGRICULTURE CONSIDERED AS TO ITS ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT STATE, AMONG DIFFERENT NATIONS, GOVERNMENTS, AND CLIMATES.

1. The history of Agriculture may be considered chronologically, or in connection with that of the different nations who have successively flourished in the different parts of the world; politically, as influenced by the different forms of government which have prevailed; geographically, as affected by different climates; and physically, as influenced by the characters of the earth's surface. The first kind of history is useful, by displaying the relative situation of different countries as to agriculture; instructive, as enabling us to contrast our present situation with that of other nations and former times; and curious, as discovering the route by which agriculture has passed from primitive ages and countries to our own. The political and geographical history of the art derives its value from pointing out causes, favorable and unfavorable to improvement; and countries and climates favorable or unfavorable to particular kinds of cultivation and management.

BOOK I.

HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE AMONG ANCIENT AND MODERN NATIONS.

2. Traditional history traces man back to the time of the deluge. After that catastrophe, of which the greater part of the earth's surface bears evidence, man seems to have recovered himself (in our hemisphere at least) in the central parts of Asia, and to have first attained to eminence in arts and government, on the alluvial plains of the Nile. Egypt colonised Greece, Carthage, and some other places on the Mediterranean sea ; and thus the Greeks received their arts from the Egyptians, afterwards the Romans from the Greeks, and finally the rest of Europe from the Romans. Such is the route by which agriculture is traced to our part of the world; how it may have reached the eastern countries of India and China, is less certain; though from the great antiquity of their inhabitants and governments, it appears highly probable that arts and civilisation were either coeval there, or, if not, that they travelled to the east fully more rapidly than they did to the west.

3. The early history of man in America rests on very indistinct traditions: there arts and civilisation do not seem of equal antiquity as in Asia; in North America they are

of very recent introduction; but of the agriculture of either division of that continent, and of India and China, we shall attempt little more than some sketches of the modern history, and its present state.

4. The history of agriculture among the nations of what may be called classic antiquity is involved in impenetrable obscurity. Very few facts are recorded on the subject previously to the time of the Romans. That enterprising people considerably improved the art, and extended its practice with their conquests. After the fall of their empire, it declined throughout Europe; and during the dark ages was chiefly preserved on the estates of the church. With the general revival of arts and letters, which took place during the sixteenth century, agriculture also revived; first in Italy, and then in France and Germany; but it flourished most in Switzerland and Holland; and finally, in recent times, has attained its highest degree of perfection in Britain. The modern agriculture of America is copied from that of Europe; and the same may be said of the agriculture of European colonies established in different parts of the world. The agriculture of China, and the native agriculture of India, seem to have undergone no change for many ages. Such is the outline which we now proceed to fill up by details, and we shall adopt the usual division of time, into the ages of antiquity, the middle ages, and the modern times.

CHAP. I.

Of the History of Agriculture in the Ages of Antiquity; or from the Deluge to the Establishment of the Roman Empire in the century preceding the vulgar æra.

5. The world as known to the ancients consisted of not more than half of Asia, and of a small part of Africa and Europe. During the inundation of the deluge, a remnant of man, and of other animals, is related to have been saved on the top of the high mountain of Ararat, near the Caspian sea, (fig. 1.) and when the waters sub

sided, to have descended and multiplied in the plains of Assyria. As they increased in numbers they are related to have separated; and after an unknown length of time to have formed several different nations and governments. Of these the principal are those of the Assyrian empire, known as Babylonians, Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, in Asia; the Jews and the Egyptians, chiefly in Africa; and the Grecians, chiefly in Europe. Least is known of the nations which composed the Assyrian empire; of the Jews more is known of their gardening and domestic economy, than of their field culture: the Egyptians may be considered the parent nation of arts and civilisation, and are supposed to have excelled in agriculture; and something is known of that art among the Greeks. 6. The authors whose writings relate to the period under consideration are few, and the relations of some of them very contradictory. The earliest is Moses, who flourished B. C. 1600; Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, who wrote more particularly on the history and geography of Egypt, lived, the former in the fifth, and the latter in the sixth century, B. C.; and Hesiod, the ancient Greek writer on husbandry, in the tenth century preceding our æra.

7. Estimating the value of the writers of antiquity on these principles, they may be considered as reaching back to a period 1600 years before our æra, or nearly 3500 years from the present time; and it is truly remarkable, that in the Eastern countries, at that period, the state of agriculture and other arts, and even of machinery, does not appear to have been materially different to what they are in the same countries at the present day.