bodies of people, in towns, or populous manufactories, may be confidered as one of the greatest evils any country can be afflicted with. "Many fubftantial reafons might be adduced to fhew, that Agriculture and Manufacture should go hand in hand." Vol. i, p. 50.

The fences in West Devonshire are too curious to pass unnoticed by us.

Nothing marks the rural management of this extremity of the Mand more ftrongly, than the CONSTRUCTION of its farm fences. "The bank or foundation of a Devonshire " hedge" is a mound of earth, eight, ten, or more feet wide, at the base, and sometimes nearly as much in height; narrowing to fix, feven, or more feet wide, at the top; which is covered with coppice woods, as Oak, Ash, Sallow, Birch, Hazel. These are cut, as coppice wood, at fifteen or twenty years growth, and at more, perhaps, than twenty feet high, befide the height of the mound; together forming a barrier, perhaps thirty feet in height.

"Å ftranger, unaware of this practice, confiders himself as travelling perpetually in deep hollow ways; paffing on, for miles, perhaps, without being able to fee out of them; though the most delightful scenery may have accompanied him. Vol. i, p. 65.

"The ADVANTAGES of coppice fences are thofe of being an infuperable barrier to ftock,-of affording extraordinary fhelter and fhade to pafturing animals,-of giving a neceffary fupply of fuel, in a country where no other fuel than wood can, at prefent, be compaffed by farmers, and of being, with ordinary care in repairing them, everlafting. Inftead of mouldering away, and growing lefs as they increase in age, the fwelling of the roots, the falling of leaves, and decayed boughs, and the fhovellings of their bafes thrown upon their tops with fresh fods brought from a diftance, perhaps, to make good accidental breaches, tend to increafe, rather than to diminish, the mounds; fo that the bulkiness of fome of the old hedges may be owing to time, rather than to the original formation.

"The DISADVANTAGES of the Devonshire hedges are their first coft, and the quantity of ground they occupy, and injure, by their drip and fhade, and by the foil used in their formation: Five and twenty feet is the leaft that can be reckoned, for the width of wafte. The injury they do to arable crops, in preventing a free circulation of air; and their being liable to be torn down by cattle, when the adjoining field is in a ftate of pasture, are other difadvantages." Vol. i, p. 67. To avaricious landlords, advice like the following may be very useful.

"Among candidates, at auctions, for letting farms, are generally adventurers, who want judgment, and men of defperate fortunes, who want a temporary fubfiftenoe; and these men will ever be the highest bidders; will ever outbid men of judgment and capital; fuch as will pay their rent, keep up their repairs, and improve the land; and fuch as ought ever to be, and ever are, the choice of judicious managers of eftates. There is a fair market price for farms, as for their produce;

K2

and

and no man is fit to be entrusted with the management of an eftate, who cannot afcertain the value of its lands, and who, having afeertained this, does not prefer a man of judgment and capital, to any nominal rent, which fpeculation can offer him. It may be faid, with lit tle latitude, that, in the end, it is equally detrimental to an eftate, to overrent it, as it is to let it beneath its fair rental value. This is an axiom of management which is well known to every man of landed property, who has perfevered in paying attention to his own affairs; and which has coft fome men no finall thare of property, refpectability, and peace of mind, to come at the knowledge of." Vol. I, p. 74.

The importance of the larch tree, and the advantages of planting it in thofe foils and fituations which are adapted to it, have lately been much infifted on, and are confirmed by the following fhort extract.

"Seeing with almoft moral certainty, that the Larch, in times to come, will be a principal article of Ship building, in this Island, it is highly probable that whoever now propagates it, will exceedingly enhance the value of his eftate." Vol. i, p. 87...

"The style of DRIVING an Ox team, here, is obfervable; indeed cannot pass unnoticed by a ftranger. The language though in a great degree peculiar to the country, does not arreft the attention; but the tone, or rather tune, in which it is delivered. It resembles, with great exactness, the chantings, or recitative of the Cathedral fervice. The plow boy chants the counter tenor, with unabated ardour through the day; the plowman throwing in, at intervals, his hoarfer notes. It is understood that this chanting march, which may fometimes be heard to a confiderable diftance, encourages and animates the team, as the mufic of a marching army, or the fong of the rowers. Let this be as it may, I have never feen fo much cheerfulness attending the operation of plowing, anywhere, as in Devonshire." Vol. i, p. 116.

The following fuggeftion can hardly be repeated too often, or too ftrongly infifted on.

« ACCURATE ANALYSES OF WATERS, whofe effects are known, as MANURES, are very much to be defired. That different waters are as various, in their effects on vegetation, as diftinct vegetable and animal fubftances are, must be evident to every one who has made extensive observations on thefe effects. And CHEMISTRY cannot bestow où AGRICULTURE More valuable affiftance, than in profecuting enquiries of this nature." Vol. i, p. 209.

At pp. 285-6, a good intimation is, with proper respect, offered to Magiftrates, concerning the enforcement of the law relating to roads and guide-pofts. In many districts of the kingdom with which we are acquainted, this law seems to be a dead letter. Guide-pofts in particular, that great and cheap accommodation to the public, feem to be unthought of; though the numerous inclosures which have lately taken place, render them more neceffary than ever.

I

There

There is too much juftice in a remonftrance against manufactures at p. 290.

- "An evidence of the mifchiefs which MANUFACTURES are capable of entailing on Agriculture, ftands confpicuous, at prefent, (1791) in this District.

"Some years fince, a woollen manufactory, of confiderable extent, was fet on foot, at Modbury, and carried on with fpirit, and with fuc cefs to the individuals who profecured it. But their end being anfwered, the manufacture ceafed, and all the vice and debility, which it had drawn together, were left as a load upon the parish. The confequence of which is, I am informed, the Occupiers of Lands, within the Township of Modbury, are now paying five fhillings in the pound, to the poor, while those of the surrounding parishes, do not pay two hillings."

While perfons, likely to become chargeable, were removable to their fettlements, we have known bonds of indemnity given by manufacturers to parishes, to prevent the removal of their workmen. But this liability (together with that of a compulfory examination) being taken away, by 35 Geo. iii. c. 101, poor perfons will generally die leaving their fettlements unknown; and a new manufacture, eftablished in any parish, will furely entail upon the lands within it a moft heavy burthen. Humane, and feemingly juft as this act is, the confequences of it will be very ferious, after a few years; but they might eafily be obviated by an amendment, for the purpose of afcertaining fettlements.

From p. 308 to 317, the numerous and important improvements of which South Devonshire is fufceptible, are brought together into one view.

Vol. ii, p. 15. A few plain words, from a man whofe travels in England have been fo extenfive, and his obfervations fo accurate as those of Mr. M. conftitute a high panegyric upon the profperity of our country." Temple (in Cornwall) a deferted village! the only one I have ever seen." He fub joins Goldfmith must have travelled this road!" Had Goldfmith written in profe, and maintained his veracity, it seems he muft. But a poet's imagination outftrips all travellers, and poffibility, not fact, in that with which he is concerned.

1

What most difgufts a ftranger, in travelling through Cornwall, is the inordinate number of its boroughs." This is fomewhat fanciful. We apprebend that a ftranger, travelfing through the country, efpecially in purfuit of agricultural knowledge, would not poffibly be incommoded by thefe ba roughs, except at the eve of a general: election; at which feafon, if a radical reform thould annihilate those boroughs,

R

we

we would ask in what part of the kingdom a stranger would travel, without finding equal causes of difguft?

"The mile-ftones fhamefully defaced; but how easy to remedy the defect, with paint." P. 201. It would be better to prevent this mifchief, by authorizing trustees of turnpikes to place mile-ftones within any grounds, not being garden, inftead of placing them in the highway; and to plash the fence, fo as to expofe them fufficiently to view. "The name of the village, on a board, at the entrance of Beckington :' a liberal act in thofe who placed it there." P. 210. In fome parts of the kingdom, the name of each parith is put upon every miletone; a cheap, convenient, and ufeful regulation. p. 220, we meet with a violent invective against poor horses; and with a propofal of fuch an extravagant tax upon them, as would infallibly banish them, not only from hufbandry, but from every stable and pasture in the kingdom.

At

"Of BEES I obferved but one folitary hive! In the long line of country, between Cornwall and Wiltshire, I do not recollect to have feen more than half a dozen of thofe induftrious families!-whofe labors are clear gain to a country,-who contribute to the national stock without diminishing any other article of its preduce." Vol. ii. p. 222.

The reluctance of ruftics to adopt any improvements, is fhrewdly propofed to be overcome in this way; "by adopting the general conftruction of the fashionable plow of the country, whether it be the wheel, the foot, or the fwing plow; only altering the proportions, and giving the operative parts the requifite caft." P. 255.

"The landed intereft, which has lain neglected and trampled on by commerce and manufactures, until the country is no longer able to provide fuftenance for its inhabitants." P. 306. The author feems to mifapprehend this question. The fact, as we conceive, is, that commerce and manufactures have fo greatly increased the population of the kingdom, that, on this account, the country cannot fuftain its inhabitants without a correfpondent improvement of its agriculture; but the increased demand for the produce of the land, and the concomitant increased value of it, thould preclude, in fome degree, the complaint, that it has been neglected, and trampled on, by commerce and manufactures."

"The Florifts of this diftrict have an effectual and ready way of DESTROYING EARTH WORMS, in their knots and borders; by the means of an infufion of wallnut-tree leaves. The procefs is this:fill a veffel nearly full, with leaves, gathered in the firft or fecond week of September-cover them with water, and let them ftand two or three days, until the water has acquired a blackish green color. With this

infufion,

infufion, the beds and alleys are watered, by means of the common wa tering pot. The worms presently rife to the furface, and die in apparent agony.

"It ftrikes me that this interesting fact may be turned to a profitable purpose, in the forming of DRINKING POOLS. It is probable, that leaves of the walnut, fpread under the clay, would have the fame ef fect as the lime, which is now in use.

"Reflecting on this fubject, it appears to me further probable, that the ufe of clay, in making pools, may be difpenfed with. Thus:form the bason; puddle with the best of the excavated mold; ftrew on leaves; and pave with liquid mortar; made up with their infufion; -if required.

"The bafon form of the pit is an objection to puddling; and could not, perhaps, be effected otherways, than progreffively with the pave ment; by puddling above each ring, and bedding the ftones in the medicated matter; pouring in liquid cement, where it might appear to be wanted. Or, perhaps, the medicated batter would in itself be fuffi

cient.

"This is a fubject of great importance, in upland fituations. Forming drinking pools with clay and lime (great as was the difcovery) is difficult and expenfive; and any means of fimplifying the procefs would be valuable." Vol. ii, p. 315.

We have produced an ample quantity of fpecimens, by which these volumes may be recommended to the friends of agriculture. Our notice of their faults will be brief and plain. In general, they are fo very diffufe in point of style, and fo adroitly managed by the printer, that a moderate quantity of matter is made to occupy a great number of pages. Much of the second volume is a mere recital of what was feen during fome hafty journies, without any enquiry or useful deductions whatever. In a work like this, would any man expect or defire to meet with thofe rhetorical flourishes, which are by fome perfons efteemed fine writing? Such as," the elevated fummits of the mountains, arresting the fleets of vapours, as they arrive heavy laden from the Atlantic." Vol. i, p. 11." Rural economics comprife three fubjects, diftin&t in their more effential parts, but closely connected in their ramifications; which blend in fuch a manner, as to unite the whole in one connected subject, and form the most useful branch of human knowledge." P. 53." Little more than cenfure can be fairly attached to it." P. 88.-" Some few individuals are struggling to break through the thick cruft of prepoffeffion, under which the country seems to have been long bound down." P. 106.

Is this a ludicrous allufion to the childrens' fong, of "Four and twenty black-birds all in a pye;-and when the pye was open they all began to fing?"

P. 306.