GISBORNE'S ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE. * THREE out of these four essays
originally appeared in the Quar- terly Review. The article on Drainage was soon after its appear- ance published in a separate form, and quickly ran through two editions ; having besides received the approval of the late Sir Ro- bert Peel. The unpublished paper on High Farming was intend- ed for the same periodical, but was only in part revised by Mr. Gisborne when death overtook him. The whole four are now reprinted as he left them in compliance with an intention which the author was understood to entertain ; his editor adding nothing but useful analytical tables of contents, with an occasional note, and a good explanatory preface.
The essays are worth republication ; and they not only form a cre- ditable specimen of the ability and acquirements of their author, but reflect credit on a class of men whom it is the fashion of " wits " to depreciate unduly. These papers display a quiet hu- mour, though sometimes pushed a little too far : they show a competent acquaintance with classical as well as general litera- ture; the Greeks and Romans having been read, in their rustic and agricultural descriptions, with the eye of a practical agri- culturist: the style is clear, racy, and sufficiently animated. The great merit of the book arises from substantial qualities connected with the matter in hand. Mr. Gisborne brings to his work a long and thoughtful experience of the subjects on which he treats, as well as a knowledge of modern theories and experiments in optical- tare. He has qualities still more valuable—a judicious and sen- sible mind. He has no sympathy with bigoted adherence to rou- tine, or practices obviously bad, or the sloth which calls upon Ju- piter or conjures up a lion in the path. On the other hand, he is not too much swayed by temporary success; and not only ob- serves the slackening of supposed improvements when their com- bined sustaining causes have ceased, but he traces the failure to its true source. In fact, the mind of the author hits the happy me- dium between dogged inertia and that credulous enthusiasm which looks for miracles.
The paper of most proved popularity, and perhaps of the greatest importance, is the essay on Draining. It is at once a scientific and a practical treatise; clearly showing the principles on which the necessity of draininq depends, the equal necessity of deep draining—from four to live feet, and the best mode of practising the art. The paper on Ancient Agricultural Literature is a very capital review; bearing full testimony to the superiority of the ancient authors, and pointing out the essential distinc- tion between the end of ancient and modern farming. Still it is a review ; the matter derived from books, and not always at first hand, though actual knowledge is brought to illustrate these books, while original ideas are occasionally thrown out.
• Essays on Agriculture. By the late Thomas Gisborne, Esq., of Taxan Lodge, Staffordshire. Pubh,Led by Murray.
The " fragment " on High Farming, though in type, " had not been fully approved by the editor of the Review, and possibly might not have been, for (1.) its rather too jocose attacks upon some statements and opinions of two such popular agricultural authorities as Mr. Pusey and the Reverend H. Huxtable, and (2.) the substantial reason that its minuteness and its spirit are parts too controversiaL The subject, however, is one of the greatest importance. In reality, it raises the question whether the opinion of Ricardo, on which he rested his theory of rent, is true or not—. that after the spontaneous fertility of the soil is developed, suce,es. sive additional applications of capital to the soil are followed by sue. cessively diminishing returns. This theory has been dkiputed ; and unquestionably the mere-returns to an undrained retenti•ve•soil can. not be considered the development of its spontaneous fertility. There is no such allusion to Ricardo by Mr. Gisborne as even to Show that the theory was present to his mind, but he seems to reach the con- clusion. The essay is in fact a caution against high farming, et very increased outlay, without you make sure of a proper return. The writer does not deny that this return may be obtained under favourable circumstances, though he apparently has "his own opinion" even upon that. But the drift of his treatise is to warn farmers to look to all their expenses, and to ascertain that at all events they get back their outlay. He affirms, what we have long since intimated, that a revolution is going on among British farmers, and that the smaller and weaker must be replaced. lie requires no fewer than live desiderata to render arable farms likely to pay ; and intimates doubts whether Great Britain is among the "most favoured nations" for wheat.
"Fine wheat appears to us to be in Great Britain a forced produc- tion, and very ungrateful ,for the sedulous care which we bestow upon it. We select seed with the utmost attention, we create and import varieties, we invent implements expressly for the culture of wheat, we write more on the culture of wheat than on that of any uther grain; and when we have done all, the random cultivation of Poland and of many other countries leaves us far in the rear in quality. The Times, con- taining a return dated 'Corn Exchange, Monday, March 17, 1851,' is now before us, and it presents the following results—The highest price of any British wheat is 45s. per quarter. The highest price of Dantzic is 488. The highest price of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire wheat is 388.; of Rostock and Wismar, 45s.; of Pomeranian, 43s.; of Ubermark, 428.; of Silesian, 408.; o Hamburg, Bremen, Holstein, and Lower Rhine, 40s.; of Brabant and Lou- vain, 40s.; of Flemish and Zealand, 42s.; of French, red, 40s.; white, 42a.; —a sufficiently discouraging result. And be it remembered, that the highest- priced Lincolnshire and Yorkshire wheat is probably fresh threshed, whereas all these foreign wheats have probably been some time in warehouse, and have certainly been subjected to a much longer sea voyage than the English. and are necessarily more stale and in inferior condition. Flour tells the same tale. Both the French and the Americans deluge us with flour of finer qua- lity than any which can be produced by British millers from British grain. Any one who has seen the white breads of the Continent—of Paris, of Turin, and of Florence—and the macaroni of Naples, must be aware that it would be vain to expect such products from British flour ; and when he compares the cultivation of those countries with that of England, he may well be surprised at such results. The fact is, that the quality of wheat depends much more on climate than on culture. When we look to barley we find exactly oppo- site results. We quote from the same document. The finest British barley, 288. per quarter ; the finest Seal, 25s.; Danish, 218. ; Baltic, small, 188.; Baltic, large, 218.; and the only foreign barleys which are quoted as of malt- ing quality are the Seal and some Danish chevalier. The case of oats is similar to that of barley. The finest British oats, 21s. a quarter ; the finest foreign, 18s. Thus in barley and oats we distance our competitors as much as they distance us in wheat."
The essay on Sheep and Cattle will probably be the most gene- rally popular treatise of the set. It bears quite as closely upon practical farming as any of the others, but the subject itself is based upon life : the author's method furnishes appropriate occa- sions for the introduction of pictures of cattle, men, and landscape : he considers a very curious subject—native races' and artificial breeds the products of crosses. His conclusion is, that in all points of importance, save one, the artificial breed falls below the natural race : that one point, however, is the important one of cheapness. In appearance, in activity, in endurance, in quality of meat, the race has the advantage over the breed. Neither can you maintain the artificial characteristic of full flesh without continual atten- tion; even at last you may be defeated by barrenness. "Our lamented friend, Mr. Edge, of Strelly, having shaped in his imagi- nation a breed of cattle formed on his own model—great size, symmetry, and a propensity to fatten—spared no expense to realize his vision. Aided by a most correct eye, and with no prejudices, personal or local, he selected at any cost, and from any quarter in which he found them, the animals, both male and female, which he thought likely to answer his expectations. Nor was he disappointed in the qualities of their offspring. But after some years, when he seemed to have attained, or to be on the point of perfection, he came to a dead lock ; his females, though much solicited, refused to give Lim produce. On this ground, and on this only, we believe, he broke up his herd and dis- continued the pursuit. Lord Spencer, an enthusiastic advocate of short- horns, admitted in more than one public speech, that in his herd fecundity had diminished to an inconvenient degree, and was only maintained by a degree of care and attention which could hardly be extended to the general breeding-stock of a kingdom. We know the ready answer—The females are too fat. But that is not the whole question. We lately inspected a herd of Herefords, the property of a distinguished and (we speak on the authority of his farming accounts) very successful agriculturist. The breeding cows and heifers, living solely on crushed gorse, were considerably above the point of marketable beef in fatness. We have no doubt they would be very bad milkers. The bulls were loaded with fat. But there was no deficiency of calves ; the drafts on account of barrenness were very few. The expression of the owner was, 'I have no trouble on that score.' Twins were by no means unknown in the herd. Since short-horns have been very generally intro- duced into the Midland Counties, barrenness has been a great trouble' to the cheese-making farmer."
These are the tests of natural breeds and artificial races.
"Where we find much uniformity of size and shape, a self-colour, and a similarity of disposition and aspect, recurring generation after generation, and even remauung after the external circumstances of the animal have been materially changed, we have reason to conclude that these distinctive marks have been produced by natural causes; in short, that Nature without the in- terference of man has produced a race of cattle : and further, we shall be confirmed if we find that this race does not require the assistance of man to preserve it from deterioration. Should history, ancient painting or sculpture, "cr even reasonable tradition, give evidence that animals having the same distinctive marks existed at a remote period, our conclusion will have re- ceived still further confirmation. These breeds never have become, and probably never would become, rases We have abundant evidence that their distinctive qualities can only be maintained by the sedulous care of man. When Devons or Herefords are transplanted from the banks of the Exe and the Wye to those of the Hawkesbury, their offspring continue to be Devons and Herefords. But the short-horn, under similar circumstances, resolves himself into his elements ; and distinct traces of all the mongrels out of which he was concocted re- appear within a few generations. In Midland dairies short-horns have nearly supplanted all other breeds. No one can move among them without ob- serving how very inferior they now are to what they were ten years ago. When they came from the North they had all the merits which belong to the breed. Under the ordinary care of the dairy-farmer they have deteriorated rapidly. Several large farmers have appealed to the North again, and have procured bulls of undoubted blood (whose dams and sires were No. this, that, and the other, in the herd-book) without producing any very satisfactory results."
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