of the surface has undergone. Where swamps and quagmires once existed, bearing bulrushes and reeds, haunted by the bittern, the wild duck, and the snipe, drainage has produced a solid soil, waving with vegetation, pleasant to the eye and good for food.

up,

There are striking analogies between natural and spiritual culture; and in condescension to our humble faculties, the familiar operations of husbandry are commonly selected in the Scriptures to illustrate those exercises of practical virtue, in which it is the highest duty, privilege, and interest of man to engage. The ploughshare is driven through the soil, to break it up and prepare it for the reception of seed, which will not otherwise germinate and grow; and so must the "fallow ground" of the human heart be broken the evil inclinations and habits which harden it be abandoned, or the means of grace and ordinances of the gospel are without effect. Weeds come up in the fields of nature, along with the young blades of corn, which the husbandman has to root out, in order to preserve the useful vegetation from fatal injury; and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the pomps and vanities of life, unless guarded against, will infallibly efface impressions in favour of serious religion from the mind and heart, and render the hearer of the word unfruitful. But whatever pains the agriculturist may take in cultivating the ground, it is to the providence of God, who causes the sun to shine, the clouds to gather, the rain to fall, and the dew to appear, that he is indebted for any fruit of his labour; for without these genial influences no field would ever be verdant, and no grain ripen for the harvest. In a similar manner, if the moral nature of man is transformed, and the sinful heart changed, so

as to bring forth the fruits of righteousness in the life, instead of the works of the flesh, it is by the agency of the Holy Spirit sanctifying and rendering effectual the means of grace to the conversion of the soul that the work is wrought. Hence Christians are appropriately called "God's husbandry;" for though the plan of the gospel dispensation involves the employment of human agency in carrying out its design, yet "neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” The seed decays in the soil into which it is cast; it then vivifies; and is returned from the surface with a large multiplication of grain; and after all our study of the chemistry of nature, we cannot explain the familiar process: "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how." But as the fact is patent in the process of vegetation, that the beautifully organized plant rising from the soil is the offspring of the embedded grain, which has been resigned to death and decay, justly might the challenge be addressed by the apostle to the infidels of his day, with reference to the future resuscitation of man:-"Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead ?"

CHAPTER II.

TILLAGE HUSBANDRY.

Relation of the Climate to Agriculture-Cultivated and Waste LandsNumber of Farms-Great Tillage Districts-CORN CROPS-Wheat-Its Varieties-Power of Reproduction-Increased Consumption-Barley, Oats, and Rye-Sowing-Drills -Casualties of Crops-Reaping-Gleaning-Harvest-Home-Grinding at the Mill-Spiritual Applications— GREEN, LEGUMINOUS, AND FORAGE CROPS-The Turnip and PotatoeIrish Famine-MISCELLANEOUS LOCAL CROPS-Flax-Hops-Cider Orchards-Saffron-Teazles-TIMBER-Crusade against Weeds.

WHILE our climate, from its coldness in the upland districts, with its general variableness and moisture, cannot be commended as adapted to produce the finer kinds of grain, at least in the same perfection as those countries where the skies are brighter and the weather warmer, it has many compensating advantages in relation to agricultural operations. The winters are seldom so severe, binding up the ground with frost, and clothing it with snow, as to prohibit field labour for any long interval; but generally, with little intermission, those affairs of husbandry may be conducted, as draining, fencing, and embanking, the performance of which belongs to no particular season. On the other hand, the summer heats are not so excessive as to be incompatible with physical exertion; nor is exposure to the "sun's directer ray" accompanied by the danger attending it in more southerly lands. In tropical regions, while the heat of the day is at its highest, or through the greater part of

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the afternoon, the streets of towns, with the fields and highways in their neighbourhood, have a deserted appearance. Locomotion and all kinds of business are avoided as much as possible, while shade and repose are sought by the people. This is not indolent indulgence, but a physical necessity imposed by the climate. Fatal effects have often resulted from exposure of the person to the noontide glare and heat; and scarcely a year passes in the United States, in a latitude as high as that of New York, without reapers in the harvest-field suffering from sun-stroke. But less vertical beams with us, and the frequently passing shadows of the clouds, enable the husbandman to go forth" unto his work and to his labour until the evening," without feeling the heat of the day to be intolerable. It may also be remarked, that if the climate of a considerable part of the kingdom, as Ireland in general, is not favourable to wheat and leguminous crops, owing to the cool, moist summers, compensation is afforded for this, by its extraordinary adaptation to the production of verdant and luxurious pastures, the culture of green crops, and even of flax and oats.

Statistical returns respecting the agriculture of Scotland and Ireland are furnished by the Highland Society and the Irish Constabulary; but it is to be regretted that no similar data have been obtained in relation to England and Wales, though this information will probably soon be ordered by authority of parliament, through the medium of the Poor Law Board. Respecting the quantity of land in cultivation, the land uncultivated but improvable, and the unprofitable wastes, the calculation in use at present is upwards of a quarter of a century old. It was laid before

parliament in 1827, by Mr. Couling, a civil engineer and surveyor, who carefully examined the greater part of 106 counties, and partially travelled over the remaining 11, the aggregate length of his journeys for this purpose having exceeded 50,000 miles. The return is in statute acres,

The 46,522,970 statute acres under cultivation, Mr. Couling divided as follows :—

It is probable, from the number of Inclosure Bills passed since this estimate was made, that about 1,000,000 statute acres have been taken from the wastes capable of improvement, as heaths, commons, and road-side strips, and added to the cultivated land, reducing the extent of the former to 14,000,000 statute acres, and increasing the amount of the latter to 47,522,970. Adding the two quantities together, we have 61,522,970 statute acres for the total complement of land in the United Kingdom under cultivation or susceptible of it.