Perhaps the imperfect construction of the ploughs may be one cause why in England a greater number of horses than necessary are employed in them. If we except the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, in the south of England, and those of Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, in the north, there is perhaps no other county in which more than two horses will not be seen in a plough. In some coun ties, the practice of ploughing with two horses is never followed, even on the lightest soils ; and it may in gene ral be remarked of the south, south-eastern and south western counties, that three, four, or five horses, are almost always employed in a plough. Under some cir cumstances, and on some soils, even a still greater num ber are used. Notwithstanding this great number of horses, the furrow, even on light soils, is seldom more than or 4 inches deep ; nor, in general, is more than three-fourths of an acre ploughed in the course of a clay. Of course, where there are more than two horses, a driver, as well as a holder, is necessary. In this spect, therefore, English husbandry presents nothing praise-worthy.
Few of the other implements of argriculture used in England require particular notice ; they are very nu merous; almost constant changes are making in them ; but simplicity of principle and construction are too little attended to. With the exception of the northern coun ties, waggons are almost universally used in husbandry, as well as carts. In the northern counties, on the con tran y, waggons are seldom seen in the occupation of a farmer. The thrashing machine is now pretty common in most parts of the kingdom, but it is only within these very few years that it has been introduced into the midland and southern counties : though the minutiae of its construction vary considerably, yet in almost every case it operates by beating, not rubbing out the grain.
Before agricultural improvements began in England, there appears to have been little or no fallow land : one of the first, or at least one of the most striking and im portant improvements in its agriculture, was the intro duction of fallows ; they are very common on most of the strong and wet lands in the arable districts, though attempts have been made, especially in the southern counties, which are favoured with a long and dry sum mer, to do without them. On the light dry soils, in almost every part of the kingdom, they have been en tirely superseded by the introduction of turnips and other green crops.
The courses of crops commonly cultivated vary very much, not only according to the nature of the soil and climate, but even with the same soil and climate. In the best farmed counties, which may justly be consider ed to be Norfolk, Suffolk, Kent, and Northumberland, a general principle is laid down, not to sow two white crops in succession : this principle is gradually extend ing itself, and is acted upon by the best farmers in all parts of the kingdom. It is, however, still neglected by too many ; and oats or barley after wheat, wheat after oats, and two or three crops of oats in succession, are by no means uncommon. On light soils, the most judi cious rotation, and that which is pursued by the most i intelligent and successful agriculturists, is borrowed from the county of Norfolk, and thence called the Nor folk system : it consists of turnips, barley, clover, and wheat. On heavy soils, no one rotation is nearly so common as this is on light soils. Those most pursued are fallow, wheat, beans, oats : fallow, wheat, oats : fal low, wheat, clover, beans, oats. Barley is not often in troduced into the rotations on strong lands ; and tares or cabbages are sometimes substituted for fallow. In the Isle of Shepey, in Kent, and in a few other spots of uncommon fertility, wheat and beans are grown, with out the intervention either of a fallow or any other crop.
Besides these rotations, in the course of which the ground is constantly under the plough, there are other rotations founded on the principles of what is called the convertible husbandry. According to the principles of this husbandry, the ground, after being laid down for three, five, or more years, to grass, is broken up, and sown with different species of corn for some years, after which it is again laid down to grass. This mode of husbandry is making its way into the best farmed dis tricts of England, so that more grass-land, (not per manent, but for a few years), is seen in the districts, strictly speaking arable, than was formerly kept ; and a greater breadth of ground is under the plough, in many of those counties, which formerly were almost exclu sively under grass.
Wheat is by far the most important, and the most ex tensively cultivated crop in England : from what has been already said, it will appear that it is sown after clover, fallow, tares, and cabbages ; it is also sown after beans and potatoes, but never in the best farmed districts of England after any white crop. As it is a crop on
which the farmer mainly depends, the preparation for it, in whatever rotation it comes, is managed with great labour and attention. If it is to be sown after fallow, the land is ploughed and harrowed repeatedly, and well manu•ed : after clover, only one ploughing is given, and seldom more after beans: where tares have been pre viously sown, they are got off the land in sufficient time to plough it more than once for the succeeding crop of wheat. The drill husbandry, with respect to this crop, is by no means common in England ; and it is still less frequently put in with the dibble, by far the greatest proportion being sown broadcast. The usual quantity of seed to an acre is from 21, to 3 bushels. The kinds of wheat sown are very numerous, but they may be classed under four heads : cone or bearded wheat, which however is now little sown ; white wheat, of which the varieties arc almost. numberless ; red wheat, which is seldom sown where the climate is very good and early, and the land in high condition ; and sp •ng wheat. The last, in consequence of the high price of wheat, and the desire which this naturally produces in the fanner to sow wheat after his turnips in the spring, is becoming more common, though the real spring wheat is of com paratively late introduction. Wheat is seldom sown before the beginning or middle of September in any part of England, and seldpm so late as the end of April : the most usual period is between the middle of October and the end of the year. While growing, not much at tention or labour are bestowed upon it, unless where it is drilled, in which case it is bowed : where sown broad cast, it is sometimes rolled and harrowed in the spring. The wheat harvest commences in the south of England about the end of July, or the beginning of August : in the midland counties it is about 10 days later ; in the northern counties, nearly three weeks. There is a stri king difference in the harvest field operations with re spect to this, as well as other kinds of grain, in the north and in the south of England : in the former, du ring harvest, the corn field exhibits a large num ber of reapers, perhaps 50, 60, or even 100, all pro ceeding in their operations together, and presenting an interesting and animating picture. In the south of England, and indeed over the greater part of the mid land counties, on the contrary, wheat is cut down by two or three individuals, each of whom contracts to cut a field, or a certain number of acres. The wheat field consequently exhibits merely one or two men, per haps, with their wives, working in different parts of it. Wheat is seldom or never cut down with the scythe, but is either reaped with the common sickle, or, as is the practice in some of the counties near the me tropolis, as well as in some of the south western coun ties, it is bagged, that is, struck down near the ground with a large and heavy hook. It is universally bound in sheaves. Perhaps no circumstance marks the diffe rence of climate in the south and north of England more strongly, than the difference in point of time during which it is necessary to keep wheat and other grain in the field before it is taken home. In the southern coun ties, it is generally ready in a week or ten days; where as, in the north of England, it is necessary to let it stand out for two or three weeks. In the southern and midland counties, it is frequently put into barns: in the northern counties, it is almost universally stacked. As this grain is so very extensively cultivated, and conse quently on much inferior soil, and frequently after very imperfect preparation, the produce per acre varies very considerably in different counties : as it is also very liable in this climate to be injured by a bad seed time, a wet winter, or a blight during the period of its flower ing (which last is here the common cause of the failure or deficiency of our wheat crop) its produce varies as much in different seasons in the same part of England, and under the same management, as it does during the same season in different parts of the kingdom. The lowest quantity of produce, except where an absolute deficiency from blight occurs, may perhaps be rated at 12 bushels per acre ; the highest at six or seven quar ters. The latter have been reaped on the deep loarns near Chichester in Sussex, on the calcareous hams near Epsom, and in some of the more favoured and highly cultivated spots of Kent, Essex, Lincolnshire, and So mersetshire. A tabular view of the average produce of the different counties of England and Wales, in wheat, barley, oats, &c. will afterwards be given.