MORTON ON THE RESOURCES OF ESTATES. * THE subject of Mr.
Morton's book considered in a large sense, is the most important division of that branch of industry- which is occupied with superintendence and management. It is not merely that the application of science to the useful arts has made such vast strides in the present century, bidding fair to revolu- tionize many branches of industry, or the absolute necessity for agricultural improvement which foreign competition occasions. The subject is more than national. According to man's mastery over the earth so will be his supplies not only of necessities, but of conveniences, comforts, and luxuries. Except in the case of fish, (and over the best fish---sea-fish—he can exercise but little control,) man may be said to draw all commodities from the earth, whether it be necessary sustenance, as corn and meat, or meal5 of indulgence, as wine, or the materials of his clothing, his habi- tation, his furniture, his vehicles, his implements, his orna- ments, his arts. It is true some operations, as mining and brick- making, do not belong to agriculture, and equally true that some cultivation, as rice, cotton, vineyards, silkworms, do not belong to our agriculture. Still all is derived fron.t the earth, the larger portion by cultivation of the earth, and it will probably be fennel on a close scrutiny that our vaunted manu- facturers are engaged on products of the earth, merely to ex- change their workmanship for other productions of the earth to consume or work-up. Ill-considered attempts to develop the .re- sources of estates may fail as a profitable pecuniary speculation, • The Resources of Estates; being a Treatise on the Agricultural Improvemcat and General Management of Landed Property, By John Lockhart Morton, Civil and Agricultural Engineer, Author of Thirteen Highland and Agricultural So- ciety Mee Essays. Published by Longmans and Co. but a portion, perhaps a considerable portion of the expenditure will remain in the form of an improvement. Whereas in manufactures failure is mostly a total loss, except so far as the lesson remains to guide the future experimenter. Notwithstand- ing the dissent of the modern school of political economists from Adam Smith's preference of agriculture to other modes of indus- try, we believe he was in the main right, and that "of all the ways in which a capital can be employed, it [agriculture] is by far the most advantageous to the society" ; although M'Culloch pronouncee the passage in which the great founder of political economy advances that opinion as "perhaps the most objection- able in the Wealth of Nations.'" This preference for agriculture has been felt by some of the greatest men of all ages, and by dispositions as opposite as those of Cato and Virgil. Yet praised as farming has often been, no comprehensive theory has been promulgated to develop the "re- sources of estates," or got much beyond practical farming. From the days of Hesiod till almost within the present generation, agricultural teaching has consisted of practical precepts drawn from a wide experience, sometimes compressed into axiomatic rules, but rarely disecting the application of scientific prin- ciples to the development of Nature's fullest powers under her ever-varying circumstances. Great works, whose effects have been highly 'beneficial to the agriculture of a province, have, in- deed, been occasionally undertaken ; but not to exhibit the prin- ciple of every man his own improver. The most numerous, per- haps the most scientific works of the kind alluded to, are scarcely European, or relating to European agriculture in the colder regions ef the North. Land has been won from the sea, and from marsh surface-water in Holland, and the fen counties ; imperial works of drainage have been executed by the Romans and since ; but they cannot in number, extent, or systematic management and care, vie with the irrigation of Egypt, Assyria, and Persia, the gigantic works of the further East, or the hydraulic science and practised dexterity of Lombardy.
Yet we know not that any treatise has been published whose object was to develop the resources of a country by irrigation, though many have treated the construction of irrigating works. Certainly it may be doubted whether any book has appeared to rival, so far as bulk goes, Mr. Lockhart Morton's treatise. Nei- ther his purpose nor his tone is of the loftiest ; for though he talks in the usual way of the public benefit, independence of foreign supply, tic., yet his real object is to impress upon landlords how they will increase rents by increasing produce. But never mind motives. The philosophical poet tells us that "self-love and social are the same." The great landowner who develops the re- sources of Ms property with no higher notions than swelling his rent-roll, becomes a patriot in his own despite; and is what Mira- bean's father only mlled himself, "the friend of the human race."
So far as variety and number of subjects are in question, Mr. Morton's work is comprehensive enough. He teaches the farmer the principles of botany and chemistry as they are necessary for the understanding of vegetable growth and the nature of soils— though that has often been done before. His directions for the laying-out and management of farms, as well as the different sys- tems of cultivation according to the nature of the land and the in- tended crops, may have novelty in the particular experience the writer brings to his topics ; but they are not generically new in subject, any more than his suggestions on farm-houses and farm- buildings with their accompanying plans and plates. Still the author's larger purpose—his endeavour to show the landowner how a large property with various natural characteristics may be best adapted for cultivation under different cercumstances—often gives a broader character than usual to these portions of his trea- tise. This is especially the case with his observations on draining and the general way of managing the two leading classes of soils— light and heavy—sand and clay. His views on hedges, woods, and plantations seem to have a greater spirit of originality, and to exhibit the results of more experience and reflection than the parts which directly relate to cultivation proper. But then it should be said that we fully agree with Mr. Morton in the import- ance he attributes to hedges and wood in general as a shelter ; whereas the last new notion is to cut down hedges altogether as sheltering vermin nourishing weeds, shutting out air' and ex- hausting the soil their vicinity. No doubt some of the old- fashioned hedges, neglected in common with everything else under the old-fashioned system of husbandry, are obnoxious to these charges ; spreading as they would sometimes do yards in width, and running loose over the adjacent ground. Still there is a medium in reforms as in other things ; and ruthlessly to cut down hedges leaving land exposed to the unchecked action of wind and weather seems as great an error as the over-exuberance of the old system. Mr. Morton's views on this subject seem to us very sound and may be quoted as a specimen of his better mode of treating practical questions. "Several very important purposes are served by good hedges. They afford shelter, and consequently increase the value of land : while at the same tune they add to its amenity. In cold exposed districts, really pro- ductive crops cannot be raised without some sort of shelter. A field of cereals exposed on the one side to an extensive unhedged moor, and sheltered on the other by good fences and strips of wood, always suffers most damage from winds and frosts on the open- side. In *and pastures many of the Species of grasses which would afford nutritious herbage in well-sheltered aduations, are stunted and almost worthless from severe exposure. If a piece of the barest pasture land is covered in spring with a little brushwood, a new growth is soon perceptible, differing apparently from all the herbage around itin freshness and vigour. The various kinds of grasses are the same under the brushwood RS round about it—the whole difference is occasioned by' a little shelter being provided. Animals reared in cold and unsheltered districts are generally of small size ; and, though symmetrical in form they want that robustness of constitution which is possessed b' those that are 'bred under more favourable circumstances. Dwarfishness, indeed, be- comes natural to many animals that ought to come to a good size, simply be- cause one generation after another they are reared in a cold late district, where no improvement in the way of providing shelter has been attempted. In unsheltered districts of the country, cattle are extremely liable to severe attacks of catarrh, congestion, and inflammation. When in the open fields, and stirring about, they can stand very severe blasts without injury ; but when cold driving rain comes on, and there are no plantations or good thick fences within reach to give shelter, they are liable to be attacked by various prostrating ailments, in consequence of being exposed to severe storms for hours together. Half-filled, half-blighted crops, and cattle with their con- stitutions weakened by occasional cheat-diseases, are all evils that must tell against the farmer's profits. And the cure of these evils is to be found to a much greater extent than is generally imagined in increased shelter. The more fertile districts of these islands are usually well-sheltered, either by ranges of hills, by plantations and fences, or by all these combined."
Modern utilitarian ideas pushed too far have become adverse to woods, perhaps from their connexion with aristocracy and game. Mr. Morton shows that properly managed—attended to as a bud- ness by competent sail and not left pretty much to nature, and bad because ignorant--wOodmen planting may be made a source of considerable profit, especially as trees rightly chosen 'will grow on land not available for arable or pasture. Woods also have the same effect as hedges, but upon a more extensive scale, to some extent modifying climate as well as affording shelter. "It cannot be doubted by any one acquainted with the losses which are frequently sustained on high-lying farms from nipping frosts and withering winds that in cold late districts shelter is of the greatest value to ths farmer. Various kinds of crops are liable at the time of flowering to be seriously injured if exposed to strong: winds. And frequently cereal crops which are just beginning to ripen suddenly assume a premature whiteness, after being loosened about the roots by severe wind-storms • the crop is im- perfectly developed, and the fanner is the loser. Shelter will to a very large extent prevent this evil. Then, at harvest, it has often been found that a line of plantation running transverse to the wind, though at the dis- tance of half a mile, has materially diminished the loss from shedding. Along the Eastern coast of Great Britain a proper increase of shelter would not fail to add several bushels of grain to the yield per acre ; and in Caith- ness and Orkney, where, simply from want of shelter at the first, ordinary timber-trees rarely ever become more than stunted bushes, the increase would be a great deal more. The only way in which either forest or hedge plants can be started into growth in these Northern counties is to afford them at once the shelter of a stone wall or earth embankment; and often, when their tops appear above the upper surface of the protecting dyke, they are cut over by the wind as with a knife. This shows, in its extreme as- pect, the importance of that shelter which in all exposed situations must in a greater or less degree promote the development of cultivated crops. "The value of shelter for pasture stock is no less deserving of careful consideration. It is well known to veterinary practitioners that cattle grazing in high and exposed situations are generally more predisposed to consumptive and cutaneous diseases than animals pastured on low-lying sheltered farms. In cold backward springs the shelter conferred even by a very small plantation is to the sheep-fanner in Highland districts of the greatest practical service. On grazings much exposed to withering winds the large number of lambs deserted by their mothers in late seasons in con- sequence of a scarcity of milk, is sometimes a severe loss to the flock-master. But it is well known that on hill farms partially sheltered by growing tim- ber the percentage of deaths from this cause is considerably reduced. The pasturage, when sheltered even in a very partial manner, is both earlier and more nutritive than if exposed to the full effects of unchecked winds."
The lover of the picturesque will of course be in favour of woods and hedges, though "handsome is that handsome does" applies to the inanimate as well as the living. Hedges, or any rural objects that have an unmistakeable appearance of neglect and sor- didness, yield in good looks to a plain or even a bare prospect where purpose stamps a character upon the scenery ; and highly- cultivated land, like an engineer's straight and level road, may pro. duce this effect. According to Mr. Morton, however, wood is pro- fitable even for its beauty. The farmer's pocket can be reached through his eye. The amount per acre that can be got out of him in this way is not much, but it is " summut." But appearances not only draw money front the rustic ; the "line of 'beauty" has in itself a use When circumstances permit of its proper application.
"If beauty of landscape, obtained without additional cost, -is regarded as an object of no value whatever, it may be well enough to have straight, crooked, or any sort of zigzag enclosures that may please the fancy of a tasteless designer; but surely it must be injudicious to take such a course in every case. There are several advantages to be derived from curved out- lines, irrespective even of general appearance. When a pasture-field is sheltered by plantations, whose enelosmg fences have been laid out on this principle, the protection against storms is generally greater than could be obtained with straight fences. The various curved recesses and convex pro- jections are like so many shelter bays protected by headlands, and, unless the wind blows at right angles to the concave outline, it will be completely checked in its course. In Highland districts, the losses arising from severe snow-storms are greatly mitigated if the flocks are within reach of shelter bays of this kind; while, on the other hand, a straight line gives them comparatively little protection, except on one side. " It has been alleged by practical farmers, that fields with curved out- lines are more difficult to plough than those having straight fences. There is much truth in this allegation, if the curved line has been used indiscri- minately; but when employed judiciously in combination with straight lines the objections do not apply. Assume, for example, that an eminence running through part of a farm is to have a strip of wood planted upon it, for the purpose of sheltering fields on both sides, a series of curves,. as re- presented in the figure on next page, would in no way interfere with the convenient working of the enclosures while they would add very materially to the amenity and utility of the plantation."
Farming arrangements and the principles of cultivation con- sidered rather in reference to the general development of the re- sources of land than with regard to particular husbandry, are not the only subjects of the volume. Mr. Morton touches upon the game-laws as affecting agriculture ; he discusses the question of small holdings and allotments, with a digression to the ill-used Highland crofters, and considers the moral bearings of the ques- tion, as well as the economical, in order to harmonize both. The necessity of leases, the law of fixtures, the mode of surveying and valuing estates, with other matters of a similar kind, are also handled. The agricultural " homo " is moreover considered in his various species, and both in the real and the ideal. What the farmer is, what the bailiff is, what the labourer is, and what they might and ought to be, are dwelt upon. The actual agent in his three capacities of practically knowing nothing, of knowing little, of not knowing enough, is closely scrutinized ; and then a picture is painted of what the "guide, philosopher, and friend," of landlord and tenant should be. Nay, the lord of the soil him- self is touched, gently as to what he is, hopefully as to what he might be under a proper education, carried on in reference to the duties he has to fulfil in reference to his estates. And this, though the style might be stronger and the manner better, is not the least important part of the writer's suggestions. Since the feudal power of the nobility was finally destroyed, their peculiar education for their peculiar duties has perhaps been less attended to by the landed gentry than at any other period. The Roman patricians were trained to jurisprudence, and war, and the arts of gaining popular favour. The commercial nobility of Venice and of other Italian cities, were systematically taught their business, and the practice of Italian policy. The knights and barons of the middle ages would have fared but badly in the tournament, the foray, or the actual battle, had they not been regularly trained to knightly exercises. As long as arms were worn, and the brawl as well as the duel was a frequent practice, a gentle- man's life might depend upon his skill with the small sword. Since those good old times have passed away, the landed proprie- tors, " fruges consumere nati," have perhaps less than any other portion of the community received that special education which fits them to do what all others are striving to do, namely, to snake the most of their position. Yet the application of chemical, geo- logical, and mechanical science to agriculture, and the tendency to develop everything to the best advantage which competition has forced upon the age, render a general knowledge of the prin- ciples of his own business as necessary to the landlord as to every one else. Amid much that is minute or questionable Mr. Mor- ton's suggestion of a chair of agricultural development at the Universities, with a model property attached, is worth considera- tion, and will probably be adopted in time. In a literary point of view the parts of the book which relate to practical agriculture are always sufficiently and, often very well clone. The larger questions connected with the estated phase of the "theory of development" are not so well presented, being, like much of the educational part, deficient in tone, and verging upon the demand for an unattainable excellence which is only permitted in sermons. The book, however, contains a vast mass of advice for the intending improver of landed property, and en- ters upon a great question which is yet only in its infancy—the thorough development of the powers of the earth under the treat- ment of man.
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