An essay on agriculture

Front matter

S B

I €l,ap. 1 i .l'ff™' STATES or AJIEIIIOA. |

AN

Introduction

Having executed the first part of my promise, and considered Agriculture in a general, and in some sort in a scientific point of view, I shall now proceed to the remaining parts of my engagement, and describe the different fields upon which, with a view to their improvement, I propose to employ the industrious and unoccupied poor, whose present situation has so properly excited the attention of the Board of Agriculture.

The theatre upon which the labour and ingenuity of man may be exerted in the agricultural line, I consider as of two descriptions : The former, that which he has already broken up, and from w^hich, by the due course of

INTRODUCTION.

tillage, he extracts food for himself and his

domestic animals.

The second description is that which still remains in its natural state, though in the possession of man, and, without any labour on his part, yields him some produce for his cattle, far short indeed in value to that which he is used to obtain, by breaking the surface, and expending his labour and seed.

This description also includes other tracts, at present, either nearly or totally unproductive.

The vegetables also by which his own wants and those of his domestic animals are supplied, are likewise of two descriptions : — the one, natives of more genial climes, which imported into our own, and long fostered w^ith unremitted care, have afforded us so superior a supply, as to remove all necessity of cultivating our indigenous vegetables, not one of which is deemed worth the notice of the agriculturist.

The second description of vegetables, in-

INTRODUCTION.

eludes those which are natives of our own country, and indigenous to our soil, being the stock with which nature originally fa^ voured us, as most suitable to our climate.

To the latter description of soil, and to the latter class of vegetables, I propose to limit myself ; — satisfied that if I find abundant employment for the industrious and imoccupied poor, THE Board of Agriculture will not be displeased to find that it is to be on hitherto untouched ground ; and that they will be gratified when they see the exertions they have taken such pains to call out, are to be expended in giving some value to grounds that never had any before, and in improving the produce of others, that had hitherto been but scanty. Nor, should these ends be answered, will the Board complain, when they find that the vegetables I mean to throw into greater luxuriance, are not descended from a foregn breed, but the indigemus, aboriginal occupants of our soil.

I do not mean, in any instance, to adopt

INTRODUCTION.

the common usage of tilling the soil, or breaking the surface, for the extermination of the plants in actual possession — nor shall I attempt to force Nature to throw up the crops I wish for, by obtruding their seed upon her, hoping to carry the same point by kindness and accommodation, by adapting the soil to the habits and likings of the vegetables I wish for, and thus tempting them to choose it, and settle on it.

The untouched domains of Nature, to which I propose to call attention, are detailed in the following eight chapters.

CUT OUT MOSS UNDER SURFACE.

This disgusting and useless description of ground, I engage in almost every instance to make produce crops more valuable than what now groics upon our best and most highly manured meadows.

Chap. I. Grassy Mountains

Hitherto, while the grand elevations by which our surface is so much diversified, formed the subject of my inquiries ; I considered mountains merely in a geological point of view, and hazarded my conjectures upon the operations of nature, by which they had acquired their present forms.

I shall now cease to look back to original formation ; but, taking a prospective view of the subject, I shall inquire — How these widely-extended tracts can be made more useful to man, and more productive to his domestic animals ; — whether the scanty food these wilds now afford to them at the best season, can be increased \ — whether these same mountains can produce, in themselves, storeable provisions to sustain their four-footed inhabitants in winter, while the powers of Nature seem torpid, and vegetation completely at a stand in these dreary regions.

It is here natural to ask — Have I discovered or imported any new vegetables, which yield greater produce in bleak elevations than their native plants are able to do? Have I discovered any new culture by which the plants we foster will be thrown into greater luxuriance, than under those we have hitherto adopted I No. — I shall avail myself of no other plants (that is, grasses) than those with which Nature has ah'eady clothed the surface of our mountains ; and instead of introducing a new mode of culture, I shall not adopt any, nor break up in any instance the grassy sole I find ready formed.

A watchful attention to Nature herself, and to the habits of the spontaneous vegetables which she is perpetually obtruding on us, will enable us to apply the measures that will call into more vigorous action those whose produce is valuable, and to repress the plants which are useless, and of course injurious, by pressing on, and crowding those (the more kindly grasses) which, if at liberty, would luxuriate into higher value.

I shall generalize no longer, but proceed to the field of action, mountain ; a description widely extended over many parts of our British islands ; so widely, that a facility of addmg in any degree to the improvement of these tracts, would add materially to the wealth and prosperity of the British empire.

I may be told, this is not a time for engaging in speculations, — that the present distress pervades all ranks of society, — that the great mountain proprietors have suffered as severely as any other class, and are at this moment little able to raise the funds necessary for carrying on extensive improvement.

I rely, that the most important of the improvements I propose to commence with, are not extensive ; for, widely spread as a mountain grazing farm may be, it is but upon a very small part of it I mean to act ; — a park or meadow, of a very few acres, will be sufficient to supply a very large mountain farm ; and the cost of effectually inclosing such small area, will amount to full two thirds of the whole expense to be incurred.

The Board of Agriculture give a full answer to this objection, and, by proposing their premiums, show it to be ikeir opinion, that this is the most favourable moment chosen, for engaging- in such improvements ; CAPITAL is not required, and whatever is to be expended will be laid out in manual labour alone ; und at this very moment we see great landed proprietors and other publicspirited gentlemen, as well as that honourable Board, exerting themselves to create employment for the industrious but distressed labourers and manufacturers, at present thrown out of work.

How then could such unfortunate and suffering people be better relieved, than by applying their labour to the permanent improvement of the country, by engaging them, by contract or daily labour, in the formation of those enclosures I shall mention, and in the execution of the other more diminutive works I shall point out.

Our Grassy Mountains , are chiefly employed as pasture, and in that view alone I shall at present consider them ;— stocked with many flocks and herds through the summer, not one of which they are able to sustain through the winter, or even should a few starvelings be left, half of them perish from cold and want of food.

Hence the winter sustenance of the mountain stock must be sought for elsewhere than at home, or they must be disposed of at low rates, to the inhabitants of milder regions, who contrive means of sustaining them. Thus it appears, the great desideratum in mountain pastures is winter food for their cattle. — Teach their occupants to raise provender within themselves, and so to maintain their stock at home, through the winter, and you increase their profits, and of course the value of mountain lands, tenfold.

This is my present object ; and I hope to show that this important point may be carried at light expense, and in a short time, that is, in the very first year in which the necessary operations are commenced early, and with spirit.

D

I had long observed, that great elevations did not

repress the luxuriance of some grasses ; and a few years ago, I persuaded my noble friend the Marquis of Hertford, to make the experiment on a scale of se\en acies, on his own mountains, at an elevation o^nine hundred feet ; and the success was complete. My worthy friend SiR Charles Ross laboured to seduce me to Rosshire, and probably would have succeeded, had not our speculations been stopped by his untimely and much-lamented death.

Further observations smoothed the difficulties in the way of mountain meadows, so as to reduce them nearly to nothing. I now discovered that our agrostis stolonifera formed a component part in all elevated green soles, and that its proportion to the other grasses with which nature mixed it, increased as the elevation became greater, and the severities they had to sustain more weighty.

I had previously discovered, that even in low ground, where circumstances were favourable, (that is, where, by the nature of the soil, some difficulties were thrown in the way of spontaneous common grasses,) that by severe weeding, draining, top-dressing, and late mowing, I could convert the natural mixed sole, without breaking the surface, into pure florin meadow, of great value and permanent continuance.

I did not venture to bring forward the hardy paradox, until my friends Sir J. Stewart of Coltness, Sir A. Mackenzie, and Colomel Lockhart, member for Selkirkshire, transmitted to me a document, well authenticated, establishing the existence of a portion of pure florin meadow of great value, though quite spontaneous, in Colonel Lockhart's plantations; small indeed, but sufficient to prove, that under circumstances, florin could of itself take possessioij of the surface ; nor was Colonel Lockhart's a solitary instance that reached me.

Determined now both to establish the truth of this position, by irresistible evidence, and also to show its easy application to use ; — in February, 1815, I requested my noble friends the Earls of Caledon and Gosford, to inspect a poor coarse piece of ground never broken up, promising their Lordships, that if they would be so good as to call again late in October, they should see the same ground, (48 English perches) covered with a crop of hay of superior quality, and double the quantity of any other crop grown in Ireland that season ; without breaking the surface, sowing or planting florin, or performing any other operation than surface draining, weeding , and top dressing.

My two noble friends, and many other persons of respectability, attended in February 1815; and, fully satisfied of the wretchedness of the 48 perches I laid off before them, were much amused at my promise of producing a double crop on that same portion within the year.

The two Earls attended again in November, each accompanied by friends ; and I observed them impressing on these strangers, the poor state in which they had viewed this ground in the preceding February, but now covered by a crop (different parts of which were mowed before them,) that their Lordships authorized me to say, seemed treble the amount of those they were used to see cut. The crop of 1816 yielded above thirty tons green sward to the English acre, and now (June 1817,) the third crop seems to promise better than either of the preceding.

Having thus established the power of changing a spontaneous grassy surface, into most luxuriant florin meadow, at little expense, first by experiment on a small scale, and afterwards with much pubhcity on a far more extended one ; and then having carried this new measure into actual practice with complete success, I shall recur again to the principles upon which it depends ; point out the grounds fittest for the purpose, and then proceed to give such instructions as I conceive will be useful.

The measure of changing a natural, mixed, grassy sole, into a pure florin sole, is founded on the assumption, that in every grassy surface, undisturbed for three or four years, there is a mixture of agrostis stolonifera ; and I have invariably found the quantity of this agrostis, proportioned to the difficulties it had to encounter. At Portadown, General Carr and I found, that after seven months submersion, the emerging verdant sole was pure florin : a hard gravelly bottom precluded the aquatics^ and other grasses would have been drowned.

I showed Earl O'Neil, that the sole of an old turnpike road (now shut up) was pure florin, and offered to throw it instantly into a rich crop.

Walking afterwards with his Lordship in a weak moory part of his estate early in August, we observed a tenant mowing a poor spritty meadow; I told his Lordship he was cutting it quite too early.

I went over the ditch, and having examined it, called his Lordship and showed him great abundance of young florin stolones running among the sprit : his Lordship persuaded his tenant to listen to my advice, and abstain from mowing for a long time.

Some weeks afterwards his Lordship informed me, that his tenant had been obliged to cut his meadow, which had improved far beyond his expectations ; and I have no doubt, had he abstained some weeks longer, his meadow would have more than double the quantity it had produced when I stopped_him.

It is in the harshest parts of low regions alone, that we can expect to succeed in converting a mixed sole into a pure florin one ; should we select a rich, or even a moderately rich surface, in a low country, however well stocked by nature with the true agrostis, the rush of intruders would be such, that no efforts in weeding would secure the exclusive possession to our favourite.

Why then do I boast of having succeeded in my own low country ? Because I used policy : I selected ungenial spots, long loaded with undischarged water, become acrid about the roots of the plants growing on it ; poor and stunted ; florin as well as the rest. I first changed the nature of the ground by severe surface drainage, and enriched it by top-dressings. The paltry aquatics in possession derived no benefit from the change ; Nature had not adapted them to such a soil; while the amphibious florin, finding itself in its own favourite soil, instantly rushed into luxuriance, smothering its rivals by the mass of its stolones; —nor this without a struggle, calling for my interference, as some of the old possessors, like florin, reconciled to the change, started up into vigour requiring occasional extirpation.

The management of spontaneous elevated soles requires no policy. Fiorin, as I have often proved by respectable testimony, conflrmed by my ovm ten years' experience, luxuriates equally at the top of the mountain and bottom of the valley. — Not so the rivals it has to contend with in lower regions. Every one of these shrinks from, or pines under the severities of an alpine climate ; and should I be called upon to except sprit and rush, — I reply that these coarse intruders soon disappear under drainage and top-dressing ; nor need the mountain-meadow maker take the trouble of inquiring which of the portions he is able to select, is best stocked with fiorin by Nature; he may rely upon it, there is not a spot in which he will not find abundance before him.

There are indeed other circumstances of importance to be attended to ; the roots of fiorin penetrate a very short way into the ground ; whence we might infer, that this grass would agree with a very shallow soil: — by no means; on the contrary, I never found it permanently luxuriant, except in very deep soil. My worthy friend the late Bishop of Llandaff, with his usual ingenuity, discovered the cause; — an important secret which agriculture, in all its branches, owes to that venerable prelate. His Lordship told me, that there was a perspiration from the earth highly favourable and encouraging to vegetation ; weak where the soil was shallow, but powerful where it was deep ; and these positions the Bishop confirmed to me by the most conclusive experiments.

Our field is ample ; mountain grazing farms are widely extended ; and as a very few acres of meadow will suffice for all the cattle in winter, that were maintained on it in summer, we have great room for selection, and in the variety of surface shall surely find a sufficient area favourable to our purpose ; nor am I hard to please. Much of the green mountains I have traversed, are of the following description — peaty soil, from nine to fifteen inches deep, fibre decomposed.

This is a very good description, especially if the substratum be clayey, so as, when reached by the drains, to afford a material that will improve the peaty compost ; should the peat be graduating into moor, and either by decay or mixture with earth be unfit for fuel, I consider this soil as still better.

Where there is not peat, alluvial clay or earth is very favourable ; and where the ground is spouty, generally sufficiently deep, a point to be carefully attended to ; and in general I would choose wet marshy ground, for the drainage is cheap, and most productive of soil for compost, when drains are frequent.

Where the peaty soil is fibrous, we generally feid it covered with heath ; but even were the surface grassy, I do not like to encounter a fibrous soil; nor have we any necessity for engaging in difficulties, for few mountain grazing farms will occur, in which suitable sites for meadows will not be found, in far greater abundance than can be required.

Many, no doubt, will start at the thought of finding luxuriant meadows at great elevations ; I have already touched on this subject, and shall add a few words for the encouragement of timid gentlemen.

In my geological pursuits, I have for many years been in the habit of ascending every mountain I came near ; and from the time I discovered florin, I have always looked for it wherever I went ; and affirm, that on every mountain I went up, I found florin more abundant the higher I ascended ; and at the summits of the two highest, Bessy Bell and Knock laid, I found no other grass.

My friend the Earl of Selkirk, on his return from a visit to me, was to pass near Knocklaid, and intended to go to its summit; I requested his Lordship when there to look for florin ; — he wrote to me, that he had found it in abundance at the very top, and carried some roots home with him.

At the request of the Irish Farmimg Society, I went to the summit of the ridge above Dublin, separating that county from Wicklow ; I was accompanied by some members of the Society: — as we ascended, we found spontaneous florin every where, but, to our surprize, more vigorous as we approached the summit. I pointed out this curious fact to the gentlemen who accompanied me, and who entirely agreed with me in my mode of accounting for it ; which was, that in the lower regions, florin had rivals to contend with; but these, unable to bear the severities of great elevation, could not exist beyond a certain altitude, above which, florin unincumbered with rivals became, when in exclusive possession, more vigorous.

What then is the object of this part of my memoir ? Is it not to induce the proprietors of mountain districts, in the most favourable parts of these regions, by dramage, manure, and protection, to encourage the growth of a vegetable, which we have demonstration will thrive and luxuriate in the bleakest parts of the same regions, without any one of these aids ?

But however well florin might sustain the harshness of the mountain tops, it can never be desirable that our meadows should approach them ; for when I talked of great elevations, Mr. Critchley, who at the request of the Farming Society attended me in the tour I made through the Wicklow Mountains by their desire, showed me, that from convenience, our meadows must always approach the inhabited country, and be near to the dwellings of the herds who were to attend to the feeding of the cattle in winter, and distributing their stored provisions with care and prudence.

The measures I recommend for raising crops of excellent hay through all mountain tracts are little expensive, as will appear by my detail of the whole of them : eff*ectual protectionis necessary, consequently strong inclosures ; and these constitute the principal part of the expense.

Nor will there be any delay in the execution, if set about with spirit ; crops will rapidly follow, and the interval between commencing the work, and mowing the produce, will not extend to one full year. The Earl of Caledon's patch, as he calls it, was begun late in February, 1815, and yielded its great crop that same season. On the 14th of May, I began to lay down an acre for my friend Mr. Baird, at Shotts, in Scotland, and that same season he mowed a better crop than had ever been cut in the countrj'.

The progress of the improvement I suggest, if extensively adopted, would not be gradual ; for should incredulity be suppressed, and a confidence in me substituted in its place, and acted upon, the change in the value of the mountains in the British islands would be instantaneous.

Bacon tells us, that man and Nature execute their operations very difterently. Man commences with parts, finishes one, and then 'proceeds to another, and so on till the whole be completed. Nature, on the contrary, commences with the whole, advances all the parts uniformly, finishing- none, until the whole be completed.

Hence, it appears, that should I be seconded as I wish, the promise I made to some of my Scotch friends would be performed ; and every mountain grazing- farm, from Caithness to Dumbarton, enabled to sustain through the winter the whole stock that had grazed upon it in summer.

Having stated the principles upon which the conversion of a green sole of grass into valuable meadow depend ; having detailed generally the measures to be adopted ; and having by various and most respectable testimonies established the success that has attended them on diff'erent occasions, I shall proceed to the immediate object of the Board of Agriculture, and show how extensively the industrious and unoccupied poor may be employed in carrying these measures into execution.

In the selection of the ground to be converted into meadow, depth of soil is an important consideration ; I wish it not to be less than twelve^ or at least ten inches deep ; to a peaty soil I have no objection, provided it be not fibrous and spongy.

The only operation we have to perform on the area chosen, is to reheve it effectually from all under water,^ and to enrich the surface by good top-dressings.

The former point we carry by frequent open drains, parallel to each otlier ; their distance governed by the nature of the ground ; if the subsoil be retentive, they should be the more frequent and deeper, not less than fifteen inches, and in the form of an equilateral^ or perhaps a right-angled triangle, that they may not be easily choaked up ; and also that they may be readily cleared when necessary i the stuff raised in the formation of these drains is to be thrown into tall heaps, their distance from each other governed by the pov/er of the labourer in pitching.

For top-dressings, our resources are most abundant ; the heaps I mention are upon the spot, and when improved, only require to be thrown by the shovel on the contiguous surface.

Our sources for this improvement are two, lime and 4ishes: — the former may be deemed expensive; but as this manure is created entirely by manual labour, whether we look to the quarrying, the burning, or to the raising of the fuel; making lime and finding uses for it may be considered in some sort as forming part of the object of the Board of Agriculture, finding employment for the industrious and unoccupied.

Should the objection be still pressed, I reply, that the very smallest quantity will be of value to me ; and should that be refused me, I can do very well without the article.

Ashes form a grand and inexhaustible source of manure, at least for my purpose ; these are also procured by manual labour, for peat and moor, or peaty earth, are most abundantly disseminated through all our mountains, and easily converted into ashes ; whose quantity may be greatly increased by adding earth or clay to the fire, or kiln, we employ.

For burning ashes, mountain is an excellent situation.

so airy that the combustion is easily excited, and the fires kept up even in wet weather ; the cheapness with which this valuable article will be furnished, is scarcely credible.

Lime and ashes both possess a quality extremely convenient in the formation of composts, great divisibility ; and by this, can also be spread pure on the surface, in whatever proportions we can afford, with corresponding advantage.

I dwell on these two descriptions of manure for several reasons : I know of no other that can be procured in quantities commensurate to the immense extent of surface I propose to embrace. Ashes are to be made every ichere; for the peat of our mountains is inexhaustible ; and Plin\' asks, " Quoto enini in loco non suum marmor invenitur I have the fullest experience of their successful application to the use for which I now recommend them ; — I have repeatedly ascertained the extreme cheapness with which they, at least ashes, are procured : and they are the principal instruments upon which I depend, for enabling me to fulfil the bold promises I have made, and both procured by manual labour alone.

Though they both can be administered pure, it is upon the composts enlivened by them I chiefly depend.

We left the bases of these composts, the prime material from which they are formed, in small heaps on the edges of the drain we had opened; our object now is to enrich and to make them friable. For the latter purpose, when they shall have stood some time to dry and mellow, we throw every two contiguous heaps into onej and as we break and mince them small, we throw in some shovelfulls of well-powdered lime, regulating the quantity by the facility with which it is to be procured.

AVhen these second and larger heaps shall have stood a reasonable time, they are again to be turned; and now during the operation, ashes in as great quantities as we can afford are to be thrown in. — Should the uiaterial raised from the drains be loose or peaty, the compost will very soon be sufficiently friable ; but should the subsoil be viscid or tough day, (materials I like) they will require a third turning ; and in this case I wish for as much lime as convenient, reluctantly dispensing with it: but in loose and more open materials, pure ashes, if profusely bestowed, will be abundantly sufficient; and with fair, good, top-dressings of this compost, so easily made, / engage to raise from Sutherland, by the skirts of Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond, Skiddau and Snowdon, and finally far up, on Dartmoor, crops of hay of superior qualitj-, and double the quantity of what is now raised on the best meadows in Midddesex, with the aid of London dung.

As our drains are the sources of our composts, so happily placed as to be spread on the surface ^i\\io\xt portage, it may be convenient to increase their size beyond what is immediately necessary for the discharge of the water; and also to make them more frequent than we should otherwise have done.

Our desire of obtaining more material for our compost will be increased, when we find it well adapted to our purpose, deep viscid loam or clay ; — in this case, I should not hesitate to make the drains two or two and half feet deep — still equilateral triangles.

I cannot generally pronounce on the distance between the parallel drains, it must depend on the depth and tenacity of the subsoil ; nor is parallelism essentially necessary ; — to discharge the water is the object, and inequahty of surface may make a deviation desirable.

The frequency of my drains has been objected to, as ijccasioning loss of surface ; important where the ground sets high. I reply, I gain surface ; for the stolones, by their propensity to run down decli^ities, soon make the sloping sides the best part of the meadow.

Our material for forming compost, may also be got on the outside of our strong inclosure ; but this depends upon local circumstances.

When we have selected our area, we should commence by lighting fires ; these will be kept up by the men employed in making the drains and fencing the meadow; and as I never break the surface myself for the purpose of cultivation, I will not allow it to be broken up hy paring for burning.