Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/228

04- AGRICULTUKE Hence we may infer the error of the ancient practice of summer fallowing, which left the ground wholly unoccupied with crops every second or third year ; a practice which contin- ued in England down to a comparatively re- cent period, and even now prevails in many parts of Europe. He found that nitrogenous manures increased the power of plants to avail themselves of mineral manures, thus showing the advantage of a proper use of both classes, a conclusion whose truth has been still more re- cently established by Lawes and others. He also tried the effect of different gases on vege- tation. In 1786 he says: "To imagine that we are ever to see agriculture rest on a scien- tific basis, regulated by just and accurately drawn principles, without the chemical quali- ties of soils and manures being well under- stood, is a childish and ignorant supposi- tion." Such were some of the efforts of Arthur Young ; they may be found embodied in the "Annals of Agriculture," and other useful treatises. But one of the first systematic works on the subject, which can be said to have really advanced the art of agriculture, was the " Practical Agriculture, or Complete Sys- tem of Modern Husbandry," by R. W. Dick- son (1805), which Thaer, who had it translated and published in Berlin in 1807, calls the first truly scientific work of the English, not even excepting Young's writings. Dickson's chief merit, however, is his excellent collection of the many valuable experiments and statements of distinguished members of the board of ag- riculture, and other farmers. In the period embracing the close of the last century and the beginning of the present, we find many important additions to the literature of agri- culture. Such are the works of Marshall ; the admirable works of Young already alluded to ; Elkington's " Mode of Draining Land," de- scribed by Johnstone ; " Davison's Phytolo- gy," " Modern Agriculture," and " Synopsis of Husbandry," by Donaldson ; the " Gentle- man Farmer," by Lord Eames ; " Anderson's Essays " ; the " Communications to the Board of Agriculture," and numerous agricultural re- ports. " The Experienced Farmer " and many others might be mentioned, all of which con- tributed more or less to awaken the spirit of inquiry and improvement which has eminently characterized English agriculture for the last 50 years, and made it a model for the rest of the world. Nor has the agriculture of Scot- land felt the influence of the spirit of progress in a less degree. In 1768 Lord Eames, in the " Gentleman Farmer," very forcibly described its imperfect condition at that time. He says : " Our draught horses are miserable creatures, without strength or mettle ; our oxen scarcely able to support their own weight, and two going in a plough, led on by two horses ; the ridges in the fields high and broad, in fact, enormous masses of accumulated earth, that could not admit of cross ploughing or culti- vation ; shallow ploughing universal ; ribbing, by which half the land was left untilled, a general practice over the greater part of Scot- land; a continual struggle between corn and weeds for superiority; the roller almost un- known ; no harrowing before sowing, and the seed sown into rough, uneven ground, where the half of it was buried ; no branch of hus- bandry less understood than manure ; potatoes generally planted in lazy beds ; swine but lit- tle attended to ; and very few farms in Scotland proportioned to the skill and ability of the tenant!" ""What a contrast," exclaims Sir John Sinclair, 40 years after, " to the present state of Scotch husbandry ; and it is singular that, with hardly an exception, these imperfec- tions have been removed. Had it not come from so high an authority, it is hardly possible to credit, that within the memory of so many persons now living our agriculture could have been so miserably deficient as it seems to have been at that time." But in the course of these 40 years the Scotch farmers had acquired a habit of reading, and agricultural books were extensively distributed among them. Besides this, many of them visited other countries for the purpose of obtaining information, and ob- served the improved practices prevailing there, to return and introduce them at home. Sir John Sinclair was born in 1754, and died at Edinburgh in 1835. His writings were numer- ous and important. Hartlib, a century and a half before, and more recently Lord Kames in the " Gentleman Fanner," had pointed out the utility of a board of agriculture, but it was left to the zeal and untiring effort of Sir John Sinclair to call into life that valuable auxiliary to agricultural progress, and the board was created in 1793. To its establishment, more than to any other movement of that day, Eng- land is indebted for the present high and pros- perous state of her agriculture. It brought men together from all parts of the kingdom, made them acquainted with each other's views, and with the modes of culture prevailing in sections of which they had previously been ig- norant. It was through the encouragement of the board of agriculture chiefly that Sir Hum- phry Davy was led to investigate the elements of the soil, and to apply the science of chemis- try to the improvement of agriculture. And here begins properly the real progress of the art ; for without a knowledge of the simple substances of nature, agriculture could not be expected to attain the rank of a science. The lectures of Davy before the board of agricul- ture from 1802 to 1812, therefore, mark an important epoch in the history of modern agriculture. The substance of these lectures was embodied in his "Elements of Agricultu- ral Chemistry," published in 1813, and trans- lated into German in 1814, and into French in 1829. This work opened to the reflecting far- mer new and interesting views of the princi- ples of fertility and vegetation. Davy showed how plants, soils, and manures could be ana- lyzed, and manures selected which would fur-