It has been more than once noticed, that our agricul ture has improved more with respect to farming stock, than with respect to the principles or practices pursued on arable land Perhaps the truth of this observation cannot be placed in a stronger point of view, than by the following comparison between the weight of btil Horticulture.
THE horticulture of England is so justly celebrated, and is so closely connected with its agriculture, that we may be permitted to say a few words on the subject. When we consider the general coldness and moisture, as well as the extreme uncertainty and variableness of our climate, it must be regarded as no unequivocal proof of our skill and success in horticulture, that by any means we are enabled to supply ourselves with as many kinds as we do possess, of the fruits of more favoured and warmer countries. Nor ate our kitchen gardens less distinguished for the variety and excellence of the ve getables which they produce. From the very great and constant demand for fruit and vegetables which the me tropolis creates, the gardens in its vicinity are superior to any others, in the attention and skill with which they are cultivated, and in the returns that they make for the money and labour expended on them. The fruit gardeners near London not only stock their ground with apples, pears, cherries, plums. &c. which they call the upper crop; but they have also an under crop; consist ing of raspberries, strawberries, &c. On these gar den grounds it is supposed that a population is support ed at the rate of ten persons per acre. We have parti cularly specified the gardens in the neighbourhood of London, as exhibiting proofs of English skill, enter prize, and success in horticulture, beyond what the gar dens in the country exhibit. But in the vicinity of most of the large towns in England, and even at the distance of 15 or 20 miles from some of them, the excellence of our horticulture is apparent.
In ornamental gardening, and the laying out of grounds, England is also celebrated, being deserved ly regarded as the parent country of real taste in this re spect. Nowhere is so much attention, and, if the ex pression may be allowed, deference paid to nature, in the laying out of grounds, as in England.
Such is the picture of this country, with respect to the result of the application of the capital, industry, and skill of its inhabitants, to the cultivation of the soil.
Of the Produce of Mines and Quarries.
THE next branch of industry which we are to consider and investigate, is that which is employed in the mines and quarries of the kingdom. In the remarks which we offered on the mineral geography and geology of England, the produce of the mines was noticed, in so far as it was connected with that branch of our subject : but it is now to he considered in another point of view. In what we are about to offer, we shall, as far as our materials enable us to do it, in the first place, enume rate the principal Mineral productions of this country, on which the industry and capital of its inhabitants arc employed, (so far as regards their unmanufactured state); in the second place, we shall point out the parts of the kingdom in which they are found ; and, lastly, we shall endeavour to form an estimate of the quantity pro duced, the value of the produce, and the number of people employed, as well as particularize the uses to which the various substances are respectively applied.
We must premise, however, that on the last head, our information must necessarily be either very loose and conjectural, or limited and partial, since there are not data on which to ground results, not only accurate but complete. In this alternative, we shall prefer giving what we know to be correct, though thus we must unavoidably pass over some part of our subject, to offering vague and unfounded conjectures and specu lations.
I. It has been truly and justly observed, that "it seldom or never happens that countries abundant in the productions of agriculture should, at the same time., present an opulent mineralogy: yet England is far from being deficient in this respect." The author of this re mark might have been justified in going farther, and in asserting, that England, with respect to those trea sures which she draws from the bowels of the earth, holds a distinguished place among European nations, not so much perhaps on account of their very great abundance and natural richness, as on account of the industry, skill, and enterprize, with which she has availed herself of these treasures, and of the capital at first produced by these qualities, and afterwards brought to bear in conjunction with them, so as to raise her, in point of national prosperity, power, and wealth, to the exalted situation in which she now stands. In another point of view, also, may her mineral productions be, honourably for herself, distinguished from those of most other nations : with them, industry, or capital, or both, are in general merely sufficient to procure the minerals in their natural state, or at most, to change them into their rudest and least valuable form; but in England, the various minerals which are found in the bowels of the earth are, for the most part, by the skill and industry of her inhabitants, either converted into the most precious and exquisite, or the most useful and important articles, that the taste, the luxury, the com forts, or the wants of man demand ; or they are made the instruments and means of producing those articles in the greatest abundance, and with the smallest appli cation of capital and labour. The truth of these ob servations will be abundantly apparent, when we enu merate the principal mineral productions of this coun try, scarcely one of which will not call up to the mind of the most ignorant and careless observer, the rude material of what lie daily uses, or the means of produ cing that rude material.