Anal ESSAYS ON AGRICULTURE, BY THE LATE THOMAS GISBORNE, ESQ., OF YOXALL LODGE, STAFFORDSHIRE. REPRINTED, BY PERMISSION, FROM THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. PREFACE. THE Author of this volume of " Essays on Agriculture," the late THOMAS GISBORNE, of Yoxall Lodge, Staffordshire, was born in 1787, and died in 1852. He was an extensive landowner in the counties of Stafford and Derby; he personally farmed a considerable acreage of arable and pasture land, and was especially conversant with the dairy and with cattle and sheep feeding. Mr. Gisborne was also well acquainted with the agriculture of Scotland, both Lowland and Highland. Few agriculturists of his day were more generally known in their class; few men, in public or private life, were more beloved. His talents, his various attainments, his warm heart and popular manners, his ardent love of field sports, made him the delight of numerous friends. A Member of the British House of Commons for a quarter of a century, he was well known as a public man," and his speeches and pamphlets on various subjects were numerous; but it is the purpose of the present volume, simply to collect, in their entirety, his valuable writings on Agriculture. 66 The first three Essays were written by Mr. GISBORNE in 1849 and 1850, and originally appeared in Nos. CLXVIII., CLXXI., and CLXXIII., of the Quarterly Review. The article on Agricultural Drainage was subsequently carefully revised by him, and separately published by Mr. MURRAY, in 1851, passing rapidly through two editions. The proofs of this first reprint were submitted by the deceased Author to the further revision of his schoolfellow |