that of a Yorkshireman, of the name of John Featherston, by means of
steel-traps. He had twenty-one small steel-traps, which he kept clean
and bright. He soon traced the tracks of rats along the floor to a
corner, or on the tops of walls, leading commonly by the corners of
apartments to the partition wall, which they surmounted between it
and the slates; the very place which I have recommended the filling
up, to break off such communications. After he had discovered the
different runs of the animals, he made a number of small firm bundles
of straw, which he placed against the bottom of a wall where the run
was on a floor, and upon its top where the run was to the roof. He
used seven traps at one place at a time, and a sufficient number of
bundles of straw was used to conceal that number of traps at each
place, employing the entire number of traps in three places, at a
little distance from each other, and in different apartments. The
traps were set, but not allowed to spring at first, and baited with
oatmeal, scented with oil of rhodium, and placed in a row, with a
little chaff over them, in the run behind the bundles of straw. The
traps were baited for two days, the baits being replenished as soon
as it was discovered, by inspection, that a bait disappeared. On the
third day the traps were baited as before, but the restriction was
removed from the spring, and then began the capture. In all the three
days, people were prevented as much as possible from frequenting the
apartments in which the traps were placed, and dogs were entirely
excluded. Removing the check from the spring, from one set of traps
after another, armed with short stout stick, and furnished with a bag
slung from his shoulder, Featherston put himself on the alert, and
the moment he heard the click of a trap he ran to it, removed the
bundle of straw, knocked the rat on the head if alive, threw it out
of the trap, set it again, replaced the bundle again, put the rat
into the bag, and was again on the watch from one place to another.
In the course of the third day, from morning to the afternoon, he had
collected 385 rats in the bag, and allowing all the traps to have
done equal execution, each had caught more than eighteen rats in the
course of a single day. He bargained for 1d. a rat and his food, and
in three days he earned his food and L.1, 12s. 1d.--such was his
expertness. It was not supposed that all the rats were cleared off by
this capture; but they received such a thinning, as to be
comparatively harmless for years after. Featherston's first business,
on the day following the capture, was to clean each trap bright
before setting out on his journey; for he seemed to place greater
reliance on the clean state of his traps than on any other
circumstance--that the suspicion of the rats, I suppose, of the
danger of the traps might thereby be allayed. The brown rat burrows
in fields, and commits ravages on growing crops, whether of corn or
turnips. I have seen many burrows of them in Ireland, and assisted at
routing them with spade and terrier, but have never heard of their
having taken to the fields in Scotland."
_Farm book-keeping_ is a subject too little attended to by our practical
men. In our own neighbourhood we know that keeping books is the
exception--keeping none is the rule. The smaller farmers know the state of
their affairs only by the money they have in their hands at certain
seasons of the year. But, as better systems of husbandry spread, this lax
method of carrying on business must be discarded. Husbandry is becoming
more and more an experimental art. New trials must now be made, year after
year, by those who would hope to live and thrive; and it is only those who
keep regular accounts of the outlay upon each trial, and the income from
it, who can know what methods and manures they ought to adopt, and what to
reject from a system of profitable husbandry.
Upon this subject Mr Stephens is entirely of our opinion, and he gives
very copious examples of the way in which books ought to be kept.
* * * * *
Such is a hasty sketch of the contents of the book, in so far as the
farming part of it is concerned. The way in which the work is illustrated
by 608 woodcuts and 33 plates, by eminent artists, is as creditable to the
publishers as the matter of the book is to the author.
To the full and accurate descriptions of agricultural implements--to the
illustration of which many of these woodcuts and plates are devoted--we
feel ourselves wholly unable to do justice. That they are all from the pen
and pencil of Mr Slight, will, to those who know him, be a better
recommendation than any words of ours.
There is only one other test to which, in criticising the work before us,
we are entitled to put it. It contains much useful matter, but is it
likely, is it fitted, to answer the end which the author had in view? His
object, he says, was to put into the hands of young men desirous of
learning practical farming, a manual from which, _being upon a farm_, they
would be able to learn all that was necessary to fit them for the several
successive stations to which the industrious son even of a farm-labourer
may fairly hope to rise. This we think he has accomplished, and in that
graphic and living way which has all along led us into the persuasion that
Mr Stephens must himself have "played many parts," and entered into the
feeling and spirit of them all.
When he speaks of the shepherd and his dog, and of driving stock to
market, he seems to look back with much satisfaction, almost with regret,
to the time when he himself served as a drover, and took his cattle to the
South over the cold Northumbrian moors. He delights to linger by the way,
and tells you where you will still get the best _gill_ on your road, and
how it will be safest for you to make the last glass you take into toddy,
before you go to bed. We think he must often have taken up his night's
quarters at Tommy Robson's on the Reed Water, on his travels by Watling
Street to the Stagshaw Bank Fair.
Then he changes the scene for us. He is a ploughman for the time. He tells
how he managed his horses, guided his plough, turned over his furrows,
mended his harness, and how three times a-day he fed heartily and well
upon his oatmeal brose, and was healthy and strong in limb, happy in mind,
and free from care. We question if he is heartier or happier now.
Next we find him writing like one who has been promoted to the rank of
grieve or farm-steward. He has assumed the tone and look of a man who has
responsibility upon his shoulders--who has graver duties to perform, and
from whom more is expected. He tells us how he manages his men, apportions
their hours of labour, and distributes to each his appropriate quantity
and time of work. The scene shifts, and we see him in the market selling
his corn. He wants threepence a bushel more, and he will hold out till he
gets it. His sample is good, for his land has been well managed, and his
grain well cleaned; he knows what his article is worth, as things are
going in the market, and he will be an old corn-merchant who takes him in.
Or he has stock to sell, and there he goes into the whisky shop to finish
his bargain. You heard him ask ten shillings more than he meant to take?
That was because he knew the buyer was a higgler, and would have left him
at once had he refused to come down in his price. Now they are gravely
discussing the point over the gill-stoup. They are within half-a-crown
now. Another gill will close the bargain. It is finished; the buyer is
pleased; and our grieve is five shillings richer than if the bargain had
been closed briefly and in the open air.
He is not a bad writer for a practical man who enables you, in a book upon
farming, to call up successive transactions in a manner so vivid as this.
Next, he wishes to become a farmer on his own account, and he looks about
for a farm that will suit him. On this subject he has an excellent chapter
in his third volume. He has been faithful to his master, and now he acts
honourably towards his equals:--
"Here," he says, "let me mention at the outset, that it is considered
amongst farmers a dishonourable act to look at a farm, until you are,
in the first place, assured that it is in the market. To do so, until
you certainly know that the tenant in possession is to leave it, or
at any rate, until it is advertised in the public prints, or
otherwise declared to be in the market, whether the possessing tenant
wishes to take it again or not, is an unfeeling act, and regarded as
equivalent to telling him that you wish to take the farm over his
head. Such an act would be as unbecoming as to intrude yourself into
a house in town, which you think would suit you, to look at its
internal arrangement, before you are aware the possessing tenant is
leaving it, by the usual announcement of the ticket."--(Vol. iii. p.
1304).
But having obtained possession of a farm, he enquires, can I now make
money for myself--quickly but honourably--in a way that will be at once
creditable to myself, beneficial to my landlord, and of advantage to my
country?
Two points Mr Stephens insists upon as indispensable to the making of
money in this creditable way. The tenant must keep his land clean, and he
must farm it high. Those who make most money in each district--their
natural prudence being alike--are those who are kindest to the land. Use
me well, says the soil every where, and I will use you well in return.
In other parts of his work he rises to the station of a land-steward. He
discusses, in a clear and judicious manner, large agricultural
questions--he writes with the gravity and thoughtfulness of one whose
business it is to superintend and regulate extensive improvements, and to
look after the proceedings and modes of farming of a large body of
tenantry. This, indeed, we hope and trust will be the case with many of
those who carefully read, learn, and inwardly digest the lessons and
precepts of his book; for in whatever capacity it may be their lot to
minister to the welfare and progress of agriculture, they will find aid
and assistance and counsel from the _Book of the Farm_.
It is, indeed, in very many cases of much importance that a better
instructed race of men should be entrusted with the immediate management
of the larger estates of the country. We have met with many skilful and
intelligent members of this class, many able to understand, and advise,
and superintend the most enlightened improvements, and to conduct them to
a prosperous and economical issue. But the mass of these men in our island
is not up to the knowledge of the time; too many of them are almost
entirely ignorant of the most elementary principles of agriculture. How,
indeed, can it be otherwise, when a landholder is contented to place this
delicate management in the hands of his retired butler, or his failing
groom, or even of his solicitor or attorney, who has been bred up to a
totally different profession? If law and medicine require separate schools
and training, so do farming and the management of estates, if they are to
be farmed to a profit, or managed with economy and skill.
But the purpose of our _book_ does not end with the mere practical man. It
professes, and is fitted, to instruct the proprietor too. How much have
the landlords yet to learn? Which of them has ever, at school or college,
had an opportunity of obtaining any instruction in regard to what was to
be the occupation and support of his after life! Some do indeed, when they
settle on their estates, apply themselves, by reading and otherwise, to
make up their deficiencies, and to fit themselves for the new and useful
sphere in which they are called to move. But in broad England, how few are
the landlords who know the principles on which their land ought to be
cultivated--who feel an enlightened interest in the prosperity and real
advancement of agriculture--who understand how to set a useful, and
prudent, and enlightened example to their tenantry! If knowledge such as
that contained in the book before us require to be diffused among the
humble walks of agricultural life, it is no less necessary, we are
assured, among those who frequent its highest places.
But a spirit not only of improvement, but of eager searching after
knowledge, has sprung up among the entire agricultural body. From our own
experience we say this; for we have seen with delight the eager eyes of
listening audiences, for whole hours, fixed upon a single speaker, who was
attempting zealously and simply, to instruct them. And it is those of the
agricultural body who already know most, among whom this eagerness is
observed to be most intense. They have tasted of the value of the new
lights which recent science especially has thrown upon agricultural
practice, and they are eager for the acquisition of more.
We are proud to say, that the first decided proof of this desire for
higher knowledge has been manifested among the farmers and proprietors of
Scotland. The _Agricultural Chemistry Association of Scotland_ is their
work. Through this association they have professedly attached chemistry
and geology and physiology to the car of practical agriculture; and under
the guidance of these sciences, the art of culture will not long lag
behind her sister arts, for which these sciences have already done so
much. We have before us a list of the members of this patriotic
association. In this list we find the names of nearly every man in
Scotland who is at all known to agricultural fame. If there be a few whose
names we miss, the reason probably is, that they hardly yet know much of
its existence; for it has only just finished its first year of active
life. The new list of another year will contain the names of all who are
really alive to the wants and capabilities of our national agriculture.
We are sincerely desirous for the credit and advancement of Scottish
agriculture. We are, therefore, anxious that no means should be left
untried to keep up the perhaps artificially high character which the
natural intelligence and shrewdness of the Scottish nation has gained for
the practical farmers of the country. Granting, what we have ourselves
seen, that there is much good farming and well-farmed land to the north of
the Tweed, we cannot deny there is also much neglected land and much
unskilful tillage. Though much has been improved in this end of the
island, there is far more still almost in a state of nature. Hitherto the
high-roads of the country have gone through such pleasant places as lie
between the Pease bridge and Edinburgh; but the railroads now projected
will lay open the waste and neglected tracts of country to southern eyes,
and the agricultural reputation of Scotland may suffer a rude shock in
English estimation. We are not the less good patriots while we agree with
Mr Stephens, that there is a greater breadth of skilfully farmed land in
England than in Scotland, and that the germ of all, or nearly all, our
improvements, has been drawn from the South. Give England her due, and
Scotland has still much to be proud of in picking up a germ here and a
germ there, and unfolding and developing these germs under her own colder
sky, and, almost against nature, conquering for herself fruitful fields
and a high agricultural reputation.
But England and Ireland having awoke to new exertions in improving their
soil, we in the North must open our eyes too. We must, if possible, keep
the name we have acquired. If our practice is faulty, let us amend it--if
our science is defective, let us enlarge it. "Science with practice," is
the well-conceived motto of the Royal Agricultural Society of England;
such a motto, we hope, all Scottish farmers will adopt. Let them conjoin
the science of the books of Johnston with the practice of that of
Stephens, and they may still hope, as a body, to occupy the foremost rank
among the agriculturists of Europe.
STANZAS.
With every joy we haste to meet,
In hopefulness or pride,
There comes, with step as sure and fleet,
A shadow by its side;
And ever thus that spectre chill
With each fair bliss has sped,
And when the gladden'd pulse should thrill,
The stricken heart lies dead!
The poet's brow the wreath entwines--
What weight falls on the breast!
Upon the sword where glory shines,
The stains of life-blood rest.
Lo, where the rosiest sunbeam glows,
There lies eternal snow!
And Fame its brightest halo throws,
Where death lies cold below.
J. D.
LORD MALMESBURY'S DIARIES AND CORRESPONDENCE.[30]
In a late number of this Magazine we took occasion, under a different
title, to notice the two first volumes of this highly interesting work. We
have seen how Lord Malmesbury conducted himself, in his diplomatic
capacity, at the different courts of Europe under the _ancien regime_. It
is difficult for the men of this generation--whose historic era,
traditionary or remembered, commences with the outbreak of the French
Revolution--to realize in imagination the exhausted, broken, and unhealthy
state of Europe during the middle, and towards the end, of the last
century. Balance of power there was none. The leading continental states,
when not in actual arms, looked upon each other with eyes of the most
bitter jealousy. When they did combine, it was for some unholy purpose,
such as the partition of Poland; and no sooner had they brought down their
quarry, than, like the _Lanzknechts_ of old--to use no more brutal
simile--they began to bandy words and blows for their relative proportions
of the spoil. Good faith was a thing unknown either to prince or to
minister. To trick an ally was considered almost as meritorious a deed as
to undermine or defeat an enemy. In short it would be difficult, perhaps
impossible, to point out any period when public morality was at so low and
pitiable an ebb.
In some respects the older continental states--leaving France, for the
present, out of the question--were less to blame than the newer powers,
who were then struggling forward with the keenness of fresh competitors,
and claiming a recognition of importance which had never been accorded
them before. In the first class we would rank Austria, Holland, and
Sweden; in the second, Russia and Prussia. The Muscovite, unequalled in
extent of territorial possession--exhibiting much of barbaric splendour
with but little of real civilization--sought to extend his unwieldy power
still further, and to gain a position within the heart of Europe by
extending his conquests towards the west. Prussia, circumscribed in
territory, organized herself as a military state. To this one end all
other considerations were, in the first instance, sacrificed; but when it
was attained, she withdrew the mask, and exhibited herself in her real
character--the most unscrupulous of neighbours, the most fickle and
perfidious of allies. Environed with small and defenceless states, she
never lost an opportunity of aggrandizing herself at their expense, no
matter what amount of mutual treaties had intervened. Even defeat she
could turn to her account, by purchasing peace with an enemy upon such
terms as surrendered half of a neighbouring territory to the invader, and
secured the remainder to herself. Even when her interest called upon her
to unite with other European powers against a common foe, she refused to
act upon her own resources, and, unless subsidized, remained sullen and
inactive at home. In this situation was the Continent at the outbreak of
the French Revolution.
The success of the Republican arms in France during the year 1793, of
which the capture of Toulon was the crowning point, naturally created in
the minds of the British ministry the liveliest apprehension and alarm.
England alone, of all the European states, was in a sound and healthy
condition. Her finances were unimpaired, her resources large, her credit
almost unbounded. William Pitt, the greatest minister whom this country
has ever known, was then at the helm of public affairs. The nation--though
some individuals had not escaped the taint--was opposed to the principles
of the French Republic, and disgusted with its attendant atrocities. Our
insular position, and our acknowledged supremacy of the seas, were
sufficient safeguards against a direct attack; but the immediate danger
lay with the Continent. Amidst all the strife of faction and democracy,
France was progressing towards conquest. Rumour told of
armies--undisciplined, perhaps, and ill-appointed, but officered by men of
undoubted talent, and inspired by an enthusiasm which carried all before
them--crowding towards the eastern frontier of France, and hanging there
like a thundercloud, portentous of coming devastation. What was there to
meet this tide of threatened invasion? Nothing save a heptarchy of
tottering states, weak in themselves, without concert, and without
coalition--discontent amongst the lower orders, dissatisfaction with the
things that _had been_, and an evident leaning towards the things that
_might be_--the new doctrines and the new revelation. For it is well to
remark, that whatever any state might have gained by treachery or
violence, did demoralize, but certainly did not better the social
condition of the people. The wind had set in from the west, and was
carrying across Europe, even to the boundary of the Borysthenes, sparks
and flakes of fire from the great conflagration of France. There was no
lack of fuel to maintain an extended combustion, and those whose duty it
was to quench it, were unprepared or unwilling for the task.
The result of the operations of the allied forces upon and within the
frontier of France, is well known. After some success, the sole
consequence of which was to increase the jealousy which already subsisted
between the Austrian and the Prussian, the Republican army succeeded in
driving back the enemy, and establishing themselves upon the Rhine. It was
at this moment, when the danger was at its height, and all Germany,
besides Holland and the Netherlands, was exposed to the terrors of
invasion, that Frederick William of Prussia, actuated by a policy at once
base and suicidal, announced his intention of withdrawing his troops from
the ranks of the confederacy, in total violation of the defensive treaty
of 1787. It is somewhat difficult now, notwithstanding all that has been
written on the subject, to get at the real grounds of this disgraceful
proceeding. The principal alleged cause was the exhausted state of the
Prussian treasury, which, it was said, rendered it absolutely
impracticable for the king to maintain in the field, _without subsidy_,
the contingent of troops which he had solemnly bound himself to furnish
for the general defence of the Continent. It nowhere appears that any
exertion was made to recruit the Prussian finances. By the partition of
Poland, that State had acquired the accession of a large and most valuable
territory, worth something surely by way of mortgage, or if not, at least
a ready magazine of supplies. But all this availed nothing. Prussia
professed herself ready to take whatever subsidy England, or any other
power, might furnish towards the maintenance of her troops--otherwise they
were not to reckon longer upon her co-operation and support. This
proposition was made broadly, shamelessly, and without any diplomatic
circumlocution. "Jacobi, Prussian minister, (at London,) gave in a kind of
memorial, expressive of his Prussian Majesty's intention not to grant the
succours we had asked for, and declining all general interference in the
war, _without being largely paid_." So much for defensive treaties!