But being fortunately released from my connexion in Surrey, and having prepared for publication my EXPERIMENTS and OBSERVATIONS concerning AGRICULTURE and the WEATHER, I found leisure to reflect more maturely on the means of perfecting the system, which I had, with much deliberation, sketched out, and which I had in part filled up, from my own practice.

'In February 1780, I submitted to the Society of Arts in London, as the first Society, professedly Agricultural, in the kingdom, the following Plan.

PLAN FOR PROMOTING AGRICULTURE.

THE knowledge of Agriculture either results from ex-' perience, simply; or is acquired through the united efforts of experience and theory.

Theory may facilitate, by analyzing the subject, and giving a comprehensive view of the science in general;-elucidate, by commenting on the experience already acquired;accelerate, by proposing fit subjects for future investigations ;but cannot convey any certain information without the aid and concurrence of experience.

The experience of Agriculture is acquired through adequate observation, either on self-practice, or on the practice of others.

The practice of an individual, however, is generally limited to some particular branch of management, on some certain soil and situation; and a general knowledge of Agriculture must not be expected from the practice of any one man.

A man, nevertheless, who has spent a long life in the practice of some certain department, must necessarily have acquired a considerable share of knowledge of that particular department: and it is probable, that were the knowledge of the individuals who excel in the several departments of husbandry, were the knowledge of the ablest farmers in the bestcultivated parts of the island collected-English Agriculture would

would be found, at this day, to be far advanced towards perfection.

But the individuals who excel in agriculture are unknown to each other; and, if associated, could not probably communicate their knowledge, with any degree of precision: for their art, being the result of habit, is too familar to be minutely described. Their farms are the only records in which it is registered, and even there it is as fleeting as the hour in which it is performed. Nothing but actual observation, and immediately registering, in writing, the several operations, as they pass throughout the year, can render the practice of individuals of extensive service to the Public.

In short, the art of agriculture must ever remain imperfect while it is suffered to languish in the memory, and die with the practitioner: RECORD, only can perpetuate the art; and SYSTEM, alone, render the science comprehenfive*.

Mr. Marshall has already submitted to the Public a register of his own practice during five years; comprehending a plan for acquiring agricultural knowledge, systematically, from selfpractice t; which plan is equally applicable to the practice of others; provided the observations be performed without remission, and by one who is accustomed to agricultural observation. He has also endeavoured to trace out the foundation of a system, so far as his own practice has extended.

'HIS PRESENT PLAN is, to extend his observations to the practice of others; more especially as it appertains to the breeding, rearing, and fatting of cattle-to the dairy management to the management of sheep,-to the draining and watering of meadows,-and to the grass land, or ley-management in general. After he is become proficient in these departments,

* What Dr. Johnson says of Language is applicable to Agriculture"Diction merely vocal is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn."-Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.'

+ See Experiments and Observations, as above.'

partments, his intentions are to extend his SURVEY OF PROVINCIAL AGRICULTURE to the arable or plow-management.

'His intended mode of observation is this: Having pitched upon the branch of management to be studied and the district. which excels in the practice of that particular branch, he proposes to fix his place of residence, during TWELVE MONTHS, in a farm-house ;-if possible, in the house of the best-informed farmer in the district pitched upon; and there, with daily attention, minutely observe and register the living practice which surrounds him: not the practice of theoretical, but of professional farmers; or rather the provincial practice of the district, county, or country observed; nevertheless attending to improvements and excellencies, by whomsoever practised.

'Nor is his plan confined merely to observation: he means to acquire by self-practice a competent knowledge of the MANUAL OPERATIONS incident to the department of husbandry which is the immediate object of his study; as also to collect such IMPLEMENTS and UTENSILS as may appear peculiarly adapted to the purposes for which they are severally intended; not sketches nor models, but the instruments themselves which he has seen in common use; and of whose uses he has acquired, by manual practice, an adequate knowledge.

In order to furnish himself with every advantage which may forward his general design, his further intentions are to employ his leisure in taking a complete REVIEW OF WRITTEN AGRICULTURE, from Fitz-Herbert, in 1534, to the present time (excepting the works of such authors as may be living at the time of closing the review); and, after his judgment has been matured by a survey of provincial practice, to compress into as narrow a compass as may be, the useful information relative to British Agriculture, which has been already recorded; whether it appears in incidents and experiments sufficiently authenticated, or in hints which may furnish subjects for future experiment.

Briefly, his plan is, reciprocally to receive and to offer information;-to communicate provincial practice to the Public

at

at large; to collect and compress the useful information which is at present widely scattered in almost numberless volumes;and to reduce these joint accumulations of agricultural knowledge to systematic science: consequently, to offer to the present and succeeding generations a comprehensive SYSTEM OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE, as it now stands and to raise it on a basis so ample and scientific, as that future acquisitions may be added to it from time to time.'

In the RURAL ECONOMY of the MIDLAND COUNTIES,-the first edition of which was published in 1790,-in speaking of Societies of Agriculture, and the inefficiency of those which had then been established, I made a further statement of facts, and ventured to bring forward a proposal which naturally resulted from them; and which, also, I think it right to insert

here.

In the Digest of the Minutes of Agriculture, on the subject Public Agriculture, I proposed an establishment of Agricultural colleges, to be distributed in different districts as seminaries of rural knowledge.

'It is now more than twelve years since that proposal was written; during which time my attention has been bent, unremittingly, on rural subjects; and the result is that I now see, still more evidently, the want of rural seminaries.

"The seminaries there proposed, are, however, on too large a scale for any thing less than national establishment, and commerce, rather than agriculture, appears to engage, at present, the more immediate attention of Government; and this, notwithstanding the present scarcity of corn is such, that we are asking even the Americans for a supply; and notwithstanding a very considerable part of the cattle, which now come to market, are the produce of Ireland.

I have already said, in the course of this work, that it is not my intention to obtrude my sentiments unseemingly, on uational concerns. But possessed of the mass of information, which, in the nature of my pursuit, I must necessarily have accumulated, no man, perhaps, having had a similar oppor

tunity, I think it a duty I owe to society, and an inseparable part of my present undertaking, to register such ideas, whether national or professional, as result aptly and fairly out of the subject before me; and, in this place, I think it right to intimate the probable advantages which might arise from a BOARD of AGRICULTURE,—or, more generally, of RURAL AFFAIRS:to take cognizance, not of the state and promotion of agriculture, merely; but also of the cultivation of wastes and the propagation of timber;-bases on which, not commerce only, but the political existence of the nation is founded. And when may this country expect a more favorable opportunity, than the present, of laying a broad and firm basis of its future prosperity ?' *

In December 1790 (a few months after the publication of that Proposal) the first President of the Board of Agriculture did me the honor of making himself known to me. He was then eagerly employed in collecting materials for a statistical account of Scotland, and in endeavoring to establish a society, there, for the improvement of British wool. He was of course too much engaged, at that time, in Scotland, to make any attempt at the Presidency of a Board of Agriculture, in England; anxiously as he might then eye it, as an honor in reserve.

It was not until the spring of 1793, that the (afterward) first President apprized me of his intention to bring the proposed Board before Parliament. He showed me his plan, and, during my short stay in London, repeatedly consulted me on the subject.

At the time of my leaving town, there did not appear the smallest probability of the measure being adopted: even its promoter assured me that he had no hope of its being, then, carried into effect. Nevertheless; I had barely reached my temporary residence in the central Highlands, before the public prints announced the appointment of a Board of Agriculture; together with the names of the President and Secretary!

How was this mystery to be explained? To me, at five hundred miles distance from the scene of the mysterious transaction,

*Edition 1790, page 121. Ed. 1796, p. 87.

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