la In treating of turnips, he fays, the season of fowing must be regulated by the time intended for feeding. When intended for feeding in November, December, January, and February, the feed ought to be fowed from the 1ft to the 20th of June. Where the feeding is intended to be carried on to March, April, or May, the feed muft not be fown till the end of July.' We can see no better reafon for this pofitive precept, than the vulgar prejudice that turnips fown early run fooner to feed in the fpring than fuch as are fown later: but if no better reason can be affigned for it, we will venture to affure the Reader that he may fow the turnips intended to be confumed in April or May equally early with thofe that he means to confume in December. For it is a fact, confirmed by experience, that if a turnip does not shoot that season in which it is fowed, it will be as late in fending out its flower ftems in the enfuing spring if fown in May as in Auguft. And as turnips attain a much larger size if fown early than late, it ought to be a general rule for every kind of feeding, to fow them, if poffible, in the month of June, if the ground can be put in order by that time. Of grafs, he fays, the feeds cannot be fown too thick.' But is not this a rafh expreffion? Twenty-four pounds of red clover feed per acre when the crop is intended for cutting green, is, he thinks, the smallest (we would fay largeft) quantity that ought to be fowed. Flax, he fays, is the beft crop to fow it with.-Lord Kaims is a powerful advocate for the flax husbandry in Scotland. The feventh chapter treats of the rotation of crops; a fubject that has only of late obtained a place in treatifes on agriculture, but which, we hope, will never for the future be omitted. He prefaces what he has to offer on this head with many general obfervations relating to the effects of different kinds of crops upon the ground. In this department, although we doubt not but the practice he recommends in general will be found agreeable to experience, yet we meet with too much hypothetical reafoning. Things doubtful are affumed as certainly known; a fault which we have remarked in other parts of his Lordship's work: but thefe are like fpecks on the fun, and we only mention them to guard others from implicitly relying on all that is here advanced in the theoretical line. He then produces fome examples of wretched rotations that are, he fays, ftill common in East Lothian; at which we were not a little furprized, as we remember to have heard the farmers in that district of Scotland much commended for their skill in agriculture. We would fain hope, for their credit, that his Lordship may have been mifinformed of fome particulars relating to them. The following are the rotations which he most approves : Rotation Rotation in a clay foil. 2. Inc.. Barley. Hay. Oats. Fallow. Wheat. 4. Barley. Hay. 5. | Hay. 6. Oats. 7. Oats. Oats. Fallow. Wheat. Pease. Fallow. Wheat. | Peafe.. Barley. Fallow. Wheat. Peafe. Barley. Hay. Pafture. Pafture. Pafture. Pafture. Pafture. Pafture. When the rotation is completed, the feventh inclosure having been fix years in pasture, is ready to be taken up for a rotation of crops, which begins with oats in the year 1781, and proceeds as in the fixth inclofure. In the fame year 1781, the fifth inclofure is made pafture; for which it is prepared, by sowing pasture grafs-feeds with the barley of the year 1780. And in this manner may the rotation be carried on without end. Here the labour is equally diftributed; and there is no hurry nor confufion. But the chief property of this rotation is, that two culmiferous or white-corn crops, are never found together: by a due mixture of crops, the foil is preferved in good heart without any adventitious manure. At the fame time, the land is always producing plentiful crops: neither hay nor pafture get time to degenerate. The whole dung is laid upon the fallow. Every farm that takes a grafs crop into the rotation must be inclofed, which is peculiarly neceffary in a clay foil, as nothing is more hurtful to clay than poaching. 6. 7. Fallow. Wheat. Turnip Fallow. Wheat. Turnip Barley. Fallow. Pafture. Pafture. Pafture. Pafture. Pafture Pafture. For the next rotation, the feventh inclofure is taken up for corn, beginning with an oat crop, and proceeding in the order of the fourth inclosure; in place of which, the third inelofure is laid down for pafture, by fowing pafture graffes with the laft crop in that inclosure, being barley. This rotation has all the advantages of the former. Here the dung is employed on the turnip crop. • We We proceed to confider what rotation is proper for carfe clay. The farm I propofe confifts of feventy-three acres. Nine are to be inclofed for a kitchen-garden, affording plenty of red clover to be cut green for the farm-cattle. The remaining fixtyfour acres are divided into four inclosures, fixteen acres each, to be cropped as in the following table: 3. | Hay. Oats. Beans. Barley. 4. Oats. Beans. Barley. Hay. • Here the dung ought to be applied to the barley.' In this chapter he maintains that it is beneficial to the farmer never to have grafs above fix, feven, or eight years old, and therefore he includes grafs crops in his rotation, as above. This will probably open a field of controverfy. We think the fubject has never been fully difcuffed, and doubt not but we fhall be induced to return to it on fome future occafion. A writer who is bold, and thinks for himself, is certainly the most useful of all authors. A mere compiler lulls the mind afleep, whereas the original genius rouzes it to action, and may, even when he errs, prove highly beneficial to the Public. Cut grafs, in fummer, is, he thinks, the most proper for feeding farm-cattle; but to fave the expence of carting it home he recommends a kind of moveable fhed, of his own invention, for feeding them on the field. A middle-fized horfe' (Quere the weight alive?) he obferves, will eat ten Dutch ftone of red clover daily; fome go the length of feventeen; an ox or a cow' (Quere again, the weight of fuch ox or cow) will eat eight ftone.' This is too indefinite, as the common fize of beafts, in one part of the country may be, at least, double the fize of those in other parts. For feeding cattle, he condemns a fhed erected upon pillars as too cold for the climate of Scotland, and advises that a feeding-house fhould have many windows, or air-holes, to be fhut or opened at pleasure, fo as to exclude cold in winter, and admit plenty of fresh air in fummer. His directions for managing ftall-fed cattle are very full, and appear to be judicious. Nothing, he obferves, is fuch an improvement of a gravelly or loamy foil as confuming turnips upon the field in winter; as the poaching a light foil, he fays, takes away the pores, and makes, the earth more compact and *retentive.' The following method of confuming turnips on the field in winter is excellent: • What kind of clay is this? • Suppofing, " Suppofing, fays he, the inclosure to be an oblong square, which is the moft convenient for flakes, begin at one of the fhort fides, and from the fence throw the turnip towards the middle of the field, clearing as much ground as can be done at one throw, which may be thirteen or fourteen feet. Separate this vacant space from the turnip by flakes. Let the flakes incline inward to the field, which will prevent the cattle from rubbing them down. Introduce the cattle into this Yoid space, and begin with throwing over to them, from time to time, the turnip that were taken up, fo fparingly that they may eat without trampling them under foot. After thefe are clean eat up, clear another ftrip of the fame breadth with the former, by throwing over to the cattle the turnip that grow there. Remove the flakes to the fide of the growing turnip, and go on till the field be eat up. In this manner the whole field will be knead and poached, fo as totally to alter the texture of the foil. But because to give the cattle no other bed, would greatly retard the progrefs of fattening; an adjacent grafs-field is neceffary, in which they fhould be put every night for a dry bed. In this grafs-field place hecks, for feeding the cattle with hay or ftraw; as nothing contributes more to expeditious fatning, than alternate green and dry food.' He much difapproves of keeping winterers in a ftraw-yard, as being too cold in winter for the cattle; it alfo waftes a great deal of ftraw, and is hurtful to the dung. They ought, fays he, to be kept in a house, where there is a free ventilation indulging them only an hour or two in the field when let out to water; more or lefs according to the weather.' ་ ་ ་ ་ In the thirteenth chapter, which treats of the proper fize of a farm, and the ufeful accommodations it ought to have, we meet with many obfervations that well deferve to be attended to by every gentleman of landed property. We think, however, he has here omitted one circumftance that ought to have been particularly regarded, viz. the proportioning the fize of the farm to the ftate of cultivation it is in at the time. In a rude unimproved farm, many operations are neceffary which cannot be carried on without a great power of men and horfes. Hence it will follow that a farm in these circumftances must be of a fufficient fize to maintain that ftrength, or its improye ment will be at a ftand. We may likewife obferve, that many of the common operations of agriculture require to be conducted upon a pretty large scale, or, if otherwife, there will be a certain lofs of labour; it is not therefore a just way of reasoning to say that if a farm of a certain extent requires fuch an expence, one of half the extent will require half the expence, but &c. as this will not hold. To give an example in a common operation, the conveyance of manures from the dung-yard to • The Author has not explained what kind of fence is here meant. the the field let us fuppofe the field at fuch a diftance from the yard as is juft fufficient to keep in conftant employment four carts, four fillers on the dunghill, and one to unload the carts. If the farm is of fuch a fize as only to keep two carts, then it is plain that in this cafe the fillers, and the person who unloads the cart, would be idle one-half of their time, fo that there is a clear lofs of half their labour. If to avoid this inconvenience, one or more of the fillers are retrenched, fo as to keep thofe that remain conftantly employed, no lofs will be sustained on their account, but in exchange for that, a much greater Jofs is fuftained by keeping the horfes fo much longer while in yoke; for in this cafe they would not draw much more than half the number of loads they would have done, had there been plenty of perfons to fill. Numberless other inftances of a fimilar nature might be given, in which a great lofs occurs to the farmer, who is not in a condition exactly to proportion, at all times, the ftrength he employs to the nature of the work he is to perform; and as this circumftance feems to have been overJooked by all the writers who have hitherto enquired into the proper fize of farms, we conclude that the fubject has not yet been properly difcuffed. In the chapter which treats of the rent that ought to be afforded from a corn farm, we meet with the following cafe: "Take a farm of fixty acres; which being partly in pafture, may be managed by a fingle plough with four horfes. I begin with computing the rent of fuch a farm, where the product in corn and grafs is at a medium equal to the value of five bolls per acre, or 50 s. amounting upon the whole farm to 1501. Add the profit of ten winterers fed with ftraw, which may be ftated at 51. The whole fum drawn out of the land is 1551.; from which is to be deducted the tenant's fhare, and every other article of expence: the balance is the landlord's rent. Let us enter into the feveral articles of deduction. First, The feed, which shall be stated at 201. only, as a part is in pasture. Second, The fifth part, or 20 per cent. of the value of the Jabouring stock, which, by computation, is 741. 10 s.*. Inde, 141. 18 s. Harrows and brake 1 Roller ..Fanner.. £.48 0 2 2 14 2 1 2 O Forks, fpades, fcythes, rakes, wheelbarrows, hooks, &c. 1 10 o 2 O о £.74_10 |