elsewhere; and explaining to them the principles and practice which give wealth to one set of farmers, and mediocrity of fortune to others. This idea urged me to undertake the tours I made through a part of the kingdom, the registers of which are before. the public. "The improvements which are much wanting in so many parts of England, are, particularly, the spreading the knowledge of good courses of crops, so as utterly to banish fallows, a practice pursued very generally in the counties i have named above; and which is effected by the introduction of turnips, beans, peas, tares, clover, &c. as preparations for white corn; covered drains; manuring with marle, chalk, and clay; watering meadows; the culture of carrots, cabbages, potatoes, saintfoin, and lucern; performing works of tillage with no more cattle than necessary; the use of oxen in harness; an almost general reform in imple ments; the introduction of the drill husbandry for beans; the culture of madder, woad, liquorice, hemp, and flax, on such lands as are suitable; with several other points too tedious to mention. "But above these and all other circumstances is to be named, the bringing into culture our waste lands, which form so large a proportion of the territory, that I much question if we have not eight or ten millions of acres waste in England, and great deal more in Scotland. The want of public spirit in the generality of their proprietors is truly amazing; and no less is it surprising,. that they should be equally inattentive to the advantages of themselves and families. Where would be the mighty exertion in one of our great owners of moors, to say to a spirited practical man, "You have the knowledge necessary for making a trial of my moors, but not the money: I have the money, but not the "knowledge: fix upon what spot you please in my estate, and I "will supply you with a thousand pounds a year, for ten years "to come, at common interest, and all the security I ask is be"ing convinced that the money is spent upon the land." Where would be the hazard in such a case? for such a person would have the best security for his money of all others, his own estate; and he would certainly have double interest, the common, and the advantage of all the improvements at the end of the term of years agreed for. "That there are many active practical persons, not visionary theorists, who would settle the moors upon such conditions, I have no doubt; and that the great moor-possessors in general, proceeding on such principles, would in no long term cover them with cultivation, I have as little doubt. How much this would add to a nation's wealth I need not say. crease the classes of the people that form real POPULATION." Polit. Arith. Nicoll, 1774. Such undertakings in During the years 1776, 1777, 1778, and 1779, he performed his celebrated tours in Ireland, since published. The fame of this great apostle of husbandry having been so widely diffused, no wonder that he attracted the notice of the whole body of landed proprietors, and that Lord Kingsborough should avail himself of the abilities of Mr. Young, who remained upwards of a twelvemonth in the county of Cork, arranging and leasing out a considerable part of his lordship's estate. In the year 1784 commenced the well-known "Annals of Agriculture," published in monthly numbers, which have been uninterruptedly continued to the present time. time. In this voluminous work the author has given, according to his original proposal, his own opinions and practice, joined with those of many of the ablest cultivators in the country, upon almost every possible agricultural topic, with an occasional introduction of the subjects of political economy, commerce, finance, and their various corelatives. It is very probable, that the idea of making an actual survey of the territory of France had been long brooding brooding in the mind of Mr. Young, and that it was first called forth into action by the presence of some French gentlemen, who had visited England with the view of inspecting our rural economy. In effect, he accepted the invitation of M. Lazowski and the Duke de la Rochefoucault to accompany them in a journey to the Pyrenees. This first excursion to France took place in the year 1787, and Mr. Young returned to London in the winter, in order to be present at the discussion on the subject of the Woolbill then before Parliament, a national object, in which he zealously interested himself. His last tour was made in 1789, which completed his travels in France, and the account he has since published of that country stands unrivalled in respect to important and useful information. The intermediate space between this period and the date of his appointment as Secretary to the Board of Agriculture was filled up, as has been the whole life of Mr. Young, in pursuits of the most useful nature to his country and to mankind. He was engaged either upon his own farm, or in making practical observations in various parts of Great Britain: we indeed possess the best proof in his publications how completely his time must have been occupied ; and if we have to regret that, about this period, he became for some time the victim of a very serious indisposition, superinduced by fatigue and exertion, and in some measure also perhaps by chagrin, we may console ourselves with the satisfaction of reflecting, how small a portion of so valuable a life has been withdrawn from the public service. Nothing could be more contrary to fact, or more truly calumnious, than the corrupt motives assigned to Arthur Young's acceptance of the Secretaryship of the Board of Agriculture. The propagators of that calumny neither knew the man, nor the history of the transaction. Sir John Sinclair, in one of the volumes of Communications to the Board, has said enough to impress every candid mind with the conviction, that the post of Secretary, with its salary of six hundred pounds per ann. was not the gift of ministers, but the boon of private friendship. The country is indebted to the patriotic exertions of Sir John for the establishment of this excellent institution; but so convinced was Mr. Young of the fruitlessness of the efforts in his favour, that while the affair remained in suspense he offered to stake a set of the Annals of Agriculture against a set of the Statistical Account of Scotland (a fair and appropriate wager between two literary men) on the event. In his answer to a letter from Sir John Sinclair, assuring him, that in consequence of an appointment with Mr. Pitt he might expect to lose his bet, of a set of the "Annals" against a set of the " Statistical Account of Scotland," and that he had better send them to the binder's, Mr. A. Young wrote as follows" You are going to Mr. Pitt, and I am to lose the wager; when you come from Mr. Pitt, I shall have won it. Pray don't give ministers more credit than they deserve. In manufactures and com merce merce you may bet securely, but they never did and never will do any thing for the plough. Your Board of Agriculture will be in the moon. If on earth, remember I am to be Secretary." The whole of this transaction is extremely honourable to both parties, and the relation of it affords a feast to liberal and sensible minds. We now find Mr. Young truly in his element, conducting the business of a board instituted expressly for the purpose of extending and improving his constant and favourite object, the national agriculture. The office of President to this board has been in the hands of two men of distinguished eminence as agriculturists, to wit, Sir John Sinclair and Lord Somerville; the latter, particularly, a great amateur, and thoroughly practical: it is nevertheless natural to suppose, that the advice and the plans of the Secretary have been generally adopted, and that upon his long experience and sedulous exertions the chief dependence has been placed. The illiberal and abrupt dismissal of the first President, merely on account of his political moderation, and the independence of his mind, remains on record, as an addition to the innumerable instances of vindictive, paltry, and contemptible meannesses, and as an eternal stigma, as well as a prominent feature, in the character of those who commanded it. The patriotic author of the Statistical Account of Scotland, the man who, throwing the interests of his private fortune into the second place, bent the whole of his endeavours to the advancement of the general agriculture |