tical farmer before he became a general and a sovereign-that he bestowed a pension of a hundred a-year upon Samuel Hartlib for a treatise on improved cultivation.

Since the commencement of the present century agriculture has made extensive advances, though down to a recent date the actual tillers of the soil admitted but slowly the most obvious improvements, and clung with tenacity to the ways of their forefathers as superior to the proposals of modern science. By knowledge of the conditions of growth and fertility, the chemical analysis of soils, the application of better fertilizers, the due rotation of crops, with the adequate drainage of wet lands, subsoil ploughing, and more efficient implements, all-bountiful Nature has been interrogated with wonderful success respecting the means of realizing the largest return in the shortest time and cheapest way from the surface. Mr. Porter states that, in consequence of improvements in the art of tillage, ten thousand acres of arable and pasture land now support upwards of two thousand more inhabitants than they were capable of doing at the beginning of the century.

The advantage of thoroughly draining lands, as distinct from the drainage of districts, which has been practised from remote antiquity, was first pointed out by Captain W. Bligh, in a book entitled the “English Improver Improved, or the Survey of Husbandry Surveyed," dedicated to the Lord General Cromwell. The importance of getting rid of the stagnant water lurking beneath the surface upon a retentive subsoil, as is now done by deep drainage, is thus quaintly referred to:- "Only make thy draining trenches deep enough, and I'll warrant it they drain away that

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under moisture, filth, and venom, as aforesaid, that maintains them (rushes, flags, and weeds), and then believe me, or deny Scripture, which I hope thou darest not, as Bildad said unto Job, 'Can the rush grow without mire, or the flag without water?' that interrogation plainly shows that the rush cannot grow, the water being taken from the root; for it is not the moistness upon the surface of the land, for then every shower should increase the rush, but it is that which lieth at the root, which drained away at the bottom leaves it a naked and barren relief." The writer, after giving directions respecting the execution of the work, remarks:-"Wait and expect a wonderful effect through the blessing of God." Experience has amply established the correctness of these views. Manures impart no fertility to the soil which is suffered to retain superabundant moisture. It cannot either be pulverized into fine mould by the plough, the harrow, or the roller; and thus brought into that condition best adapted to the germination of seed. Instead of being clothed with nutritious grasses, coarse sub-aquatic plants flourish, to the detriment of live-stock; and trees are apt to be stunted in their growth on wet lands, acquire a hard bark and stiffened branches, and become a prey to parasitic vegetation. In such wet districts, from early autumn to late in spring, the superincumbent air is chilly, meeting the face like a damp cloth; and while the slightest frost covers every furrow with rime, to the injury of growing crops, myriads of gnats, midges, and gad-flies in the heat of summer torment the cattle. These evils are capable of effectual cure by thorough draining, or by carrying under-drains at equal distances beneath the whole surface of the

retentive soils, thus rendering them dry and healthy. The plan, though proposed two centuries ago, and now admitted to be as positively necessary as tilling and sowing, has only been extensively carried into effect in our own age, at the instance of the late Mr. Smith, of Deanston, and chiefly since the repeal of the corn laws.

The application of proper manures to the soil, to restore its fertility when exhausted by repeated cropping, is of equally recent date. Bones, used for this purpose with excellent effect on light soils, were first introduced in the year 1800. But the practice was not adopted to any extent till a quarter of a century afterwards, though now so general that great quantities of the commodity are annually imported from foreign and distant countries to meet the demand. The vast herds of cattle that roam in a state of nature over the llanos (plains) and pampas of South America were formerly slaughtered for the sake of their skins, tallow, and horns, while the skeletons were left to bleach upon the plains. These are now carefully collected, transported to our ports, ground down in the bone-mills, and finally scattered over the fields. More recently, or since the year 1840, guano has become known as the most fertilizing of all manures; and not less than a million of tons are annually consumed. This is the deposit of sea-birds on islands and promontories of South America and Africa, accumulated to a great depth in the course of generations, and so consolidated by age as to be now excavated as in an ordinary quarrying operation. The term is a corruption of huana, the Peruvian word for dung. On the shores and islands of Peru, the largest and best-known deposits are found; and by using the

material the inhabitants have been enabled to convert dry arenaceous lands into most fertile spots. Owing to the great consumption of guano, and its comparatively slow accumulation, some substitute for it will speedily be required, from the exhaustion of the store. Its great fertilizing power appears to depend upon the due admixture of the more important substances, ammonia and the phosphates, required for the growth and development of plants. Of still greater moment than the discovery of a new fertilizer is the teaching of modern science, that useful farmyard manure, the main dependence of the farmer, is not manufactured by allowing straw to moisten and rot in the rain, but consists of the liquid as well as the solid excretions of his live-stock, with all organic refuse, mixed with the debris of their fodder.

Among other improvements, the tall hedges in which our forefathers delighted, dividing the ground into small patches, have been abandoned for low fencing and large inclosures, thereby promoting the free circulation of the air, and effecting a saving of land. Instruments of culture, the same in principle as those employed in distant ages, have received material amendment in form and effectiveness, while others have been invented to accomplish more perfectly old processes, or the new operations which skilful tillage demands. Thus the flail, always an awkward and laborious instrument, has been superseded generally by the threshing-machine, to the no small saving of grain; for it has been calculated that five per cent., or one-twentieth part more produce, is afforded by a crop threshed by machinery than by one threshed in the former method. Separating the corn from the ear was effected by the ancients by means of the feet

of cattle and horses, the movement of wheeled vehicles, and the flail. Each of these usages is referred to by the prophet Isaiah, xxviii. 27, 28:"For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen." The first successful threshing-machine was invented by Andrew Meikle, a millwright of East Lothian, in the year 1786; and upon modified plans of it all machines constructed since that time have been made. He derived no profit from the invention, for it was not then brought into use; and the inveterate antipathy of labourers to machinery long deterred farmers from adopting the improvement. Still the flail has not been altogether laid aside, even on large farms, as its services are necessary, when straw is wanted for thatching, and must be kept unbroken.

Upon no agricultural implement has so much care been recently expended as upon the plough, the most ancient and important instrument of tillage. The primitive ploughs, used in the Delta of the Nile, as shown on monuments, seem to have effected only a slight scratching of the soil. But a considerable advance towards the modern apparatus is early indicated, as both "share" and a "coulter" are mentioned in the first book of Samuel, xiii, 20. Oxen are always mentioned in the sacred writings as the only animals employed in ploughing. In our own country, the first ploughs in use were simply pointed blocks of wood; and as an old law required ploughmen to be able to make as well as handle the imple

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