Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

G. I won't let you talk like that, Skyblue. | ticket porters, railway guards, and so on. It does Look at the vices of ancient times-the orgies of the festivals, and all that.

[ocr errors]

S.: Bad enough, bad enough; and let us sing our Magnificat heartily, for the pure standard of womanhood recognised in Christian ethics. But let us not attempt to serve God with a lie, or slander any section of the grand procession of humanity. Did the worst vices of ancient times make up so appalling a picture as that of our world's capital, here, with its eighty thousand mercenary women who only smile beneath the gas," as Mrs. Browning says? Let us be just. In Rome, an outrage to one maiden was enough to overthrow a dynasty; and people go by thousands, to this day, to see enacted over again the story of Virginius. I confess I cannot look without a degree of awe upon the finest classic embodiments of female beauty. I say, as I gaze"I could not conceive that human form divine' insulted; I could not conceive lover sending that woman a message by a waggoner; I could not conceive her allowing her father to bring an action per quod servitium amisit, or for breach of promise." But when I pass, in the Crystal Palace, to which we are going, from Diana with the Fawn and the Milo Venus to Bell's Dorothea and Houdon's Bather, I find I have lost the subtle charm of dignity and poetry which before held me in awe. These women have more intellect, more self-consciousness, but they have less native vigour of soul; and, upon the arrival of self-consciousness, their noble courage of innocence seems to have taken flight. Not only the free mountain footstep, and the forehead lifted ad astra, but the wholeness of the feminine nature is gone. They might be ballet-girls, might be nuns, might be drawing-room toys, might be domestic drudges -but they are, to my eyes, hardly women. could conceive women, such as the classic ideal presents to my mind, unhappy; but not meanly, timidly, trucklingly miserable.

I

G. Do not be absurd. Our domestic institutions are our just pride, and the envy of the world. We have, of course, some poisonings and stabbings.

S.: Who speaks of poisonings and stabbings? Or who denies or decries the happiness of a happy British home? It is, at all events, the paragon of the world, whether its envy or not. But what I inquire for is not the list of stabbed and poisoned-but the far drearier statistics of the smothered lives; the lives of women who are domestically stifled, or snuffed out. The RegistrarGeneral takes no count of them, Granite. We cannot reckon them up, like our poor branded unfortunates. It is in thinking of them that I sometimes invoke for modern womanhood the spirit of a healthier, freer, more vigorous life.

G.: I see what you want. You can't deceive an old stager like me. I'm a practical man, Sir. You want women to be blue stockings, lecturers, parsons, doctors, barristers-and, of course, soldiers,

you credit, Skyblue, as a man of taste, and women of taste and-modesty-will thank you for your aspirations in their behalf.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

G. You want women to be tall in mind as well as body.

:

S. Certainly. Hear what a woman says about that :

Suppose some small philosopher declared
"Man is a creature framed to such an end,
And this is his ideal, which attain'd

He will not top; this is the possible
Of his capacity, perhaps a fact

At which ambitious strugglers will rebel,
But none less true for that, let him sit down
And swallow it in silence."-Witness all,
That this is said of women every day.
Diverse in nature, with unsparing creed
They limit hers, unseeing where it tends.-
Girdle with iron bands the sapling tree,
It shoots into deformity, but He
Who first its feeble breath of life inspired,
Ordain'd its growth by an interior law

To full development of loveliness,

Whereof the planter wots not till he leaves
It to the kindly care of elements

And the free seasons' change of storm and shine.

Not for a moment would I underrate

That sweet ideal which has charm'd the world
For ages, and will never cease to charm.
Fair as the creatures of an apper sphere,
Women among the charities of home
Walk noiseless, undefiled; ah! who would wish
To turn from this green fertilising course
Such rills of promise ? let each amplify
In its own proper measure far and wide,

According to its bounty; sacred be

BEEF AND BUCOLICS.

The radiant tresses of such ministers,
And beautitul their feet; but with my voice,
And with my pen, and with mine uttermost,
I say this is not all, and even this,
This loveliest life to hidden music set,
Must be a blossom of spontaneous growth,
Must spring from aptitude and natural use
Of gracious deeds, not hardly forced on all,
As the sole good and fit, lest it decay
Under the pressure to a loathsome thing,
A thing of idleness and sensuous mind,
At which the angels weep.*

G.: Rant, rant, Sir; rant and fustian! Let

girls keep to their place.

S.: With all my heart.

But let them have full leave to find it, just as you and I have. G.: Women ought to be women.

S. They ought; no more-but, also, no less. Why should we dictate? They can no more overpass the boundaries set by the Divine hand than you and I. Let be! Hands off! A clear stage and no favour! That is all I say, and what all noble-minded men will say sooner or later. Edwin Landseer is not jealous of Rosa Bonheur; nor Mr. Thackeray of Mrs. Gaskell; nor Mr. M'Culloch of Harriet Martineau.

31

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

animals! I wonder whether Lord Derby's among
G. I thank heaven-here are the extinct
'em yet.

S. He's extinguished, Sir, not extinct.
G.: What's the difference?

S.: What's the difference between distinguished and distinct ?—Ah, here we are!

[Exeunt ambo. Mr. S. resolves to revenge himself for the loss of his meditative half hour in behalf of T. T. by printing the discussion verbatim.]

BEEF AND BUCOLICS.

GENTLE READER, have you seen the Smithfield Cattle Show? If not, you must either be a very busy man, or you have not the true English taste for Christmas fare. You have missed a great opportunity; for a right royal exhibition it was this year, and must have gladdened the hearts of the city gourmands with the prospect of rich sirloins and rounds of beef, and delicious legs and shoulders of mutton, to say nothing of the "swinish multitude," some of which had fed themselves blind, at fourteen months old. We saw two grave old Mussalmen looking with horror and astonishment as these aristocrats of the porcine race, apparently more than ever determined to act up to Shylock's principle in dealing with Christian dogs-" Signor Antonio, I will buy with you, sell with you, walk with you, and talk with you; but I will neither eat

with

you, drink with you, nor pray with you." Truly, the English take immense pains in the matter of eating-if not of drinking; but, although this is made a subject of reproach against us by our neighbours, the Irish in particular, we cannot gluttony in eating half a pound of beef for dinner than in swallowing seven pounds of potatoes, the regular allowance labourer-when he can get them. for an Irish But there is a deeper meaning, a more valuable principle, than that of satisfying the gastronomic

see more

*Summer Sketches, and other Poems." By BESSIE RAYNER PARKES. John Chapman.

propensities of the worthy citizens of London involved in the question of fat bullocks, sheep, and swine. institution-a part, as it were, of the constitution The exhibition itself has become an of science to the practice of agriculture. Husbandry -for testing the progress made in the application is a first necessity with nations when they emerge from barbarism, the first step in their approach to civilisation. And as its first rude efforts indicate the incipient stage of the social compact, the appropriation of the soil, so its progressive advancement marks the subsequent stages of a people in the march of enlightenment. Let us explain our meaning more expressly.

operations, all of which depend for success upon Agriculture consists in a series of scientific chemical agency. Of this, however, the husband. ignorance. man, as a mere "tiller of the ground," is in He looks upon the earth as the producer of plants, the manure as an essential auxiliary, and the seed as the chief agent. For mankind knew of the production of all cereals and almost six thousand years this was nearly all that plants. The geological structure of the earth, the nature and properties of soils, and the chemical incognita as was the continent of America before composition of plants, were as much a terra the time of Columbus. Consequently, the practice hazard, in which the odds were more frequently of husbandry was, in many respects, a game of against than in favour of success. Ignorant of

[blocks in formation]

the component parts of the various substances with which he had to deal, the whole practice of the agriculturist was based upon tradition and experience, and he could be no more certain of the result of his operations than the mariner who should set sail for a far distant port, without helm or compass, would be certain of arriving safely at his destination.

This was the condition of agriculturists all over the world previous to the commencement of the eighteenth century, or until chemistry became a regular science. It is to this that we must ascribe the entire progress it has since made, and the large increase in the produce of the soil thereby effected; which, if we take the animal as well as the vegetable productions into the account for all are the produce of the soil-may be set down as fourfold what it was previous to the year 1700. | We propose, in this paper, to trace the progress of agriculture from that period, and to point out the benefits that have resulted to society from the union of science with agriculture.

Formerly the only persons who knew anything about the physiology of plants were the professed herbalists or botanists, and their knowledge was confined to their classification and medicinal properties. The knowledge of this latter was based upon experience and analogy, beyond which their researches did not extend. It is evident that such knowledge, if possessed, could be of no use to the husbandman in his business, whose practice had reference to the raising of food, not of medicines; to sustaining the strength and vigour, not to the restoration of the health, of mankind. The adaptation of certain substances to the sustenation of certain plants; the uselessness of applying other matters whose constituents bear no analogy to those of the plants they were intended to fructify; the chemical composition of the soil, and its condition to receive the seed destined for it-all these questions and a variety of others it was impossible for the farmer to know anything of, because the method of analysing these substances had not been discovered. In these respects, therefore, the husbandman was working as much in the dark as the blind man, experience being his only guide, and tradition his only principle of action.

Suppose, for instance, the crop intended for a particular field was wheat; we find that this grain consists of four substances in the adjoined proportions, namely-carbon, 46.1., oxygen, 43.4., hydrogen, 5.8., and nitrogen 2.3., the remainder being ashes, 2.4. And the substances elaborated from these chemical constituents are starch, gluten, saccharine, gum, bran, and water.

Now, the excellence of wheaten flour consists in the quantity of gluten it contains; and the proportion of this substance in the wheat is determined by that of nitrogen (which is the base of gluten) in the soil. Whatever manure, therefore, is applied for wheat, should contain as large a proportion of nitrogen as possible. In proof of this, we have an experiment by M. Boussuegault,

the celebrated French chemist, of eight different manures applied to wheat in the same field; in which the highest proportion of gluten in the produce was 35.1., per cent., and the lowest 12 per cent.; the results corresponding with the proportions of nitrogenous matters in the several manures. To shew the value of gluten in wheat, we may state that the lowest or weakest quality of flour brought to the London market produces, on an average, 92 loaves of bread of four pounds each from 200 lbs. of flour; whilst some Russian flour recently imported has produced 108 loaves, or 16 more, from the same quantity.

We have adduced this statement in order to show the importance of chemical knowledge to a farmer. Formerly, the only manure applied to all kinds of crops was that which was raised upon the farm; and this is found by analysis to be generally deficient in nitrogen. Lime, however, was extensively applied, in one form or other, previous to a diffusion of a knowledge of chemistry, being found efficacious in wheat culture. Here again, experience was the only guide, for no one knew why it was beneficial. We have heard its benefits ascribed by farmers solely to the warmth it imparted to the soil; whereas it is found to act both mechanically and chemically upon it-mechanically, by assisting in the comminution of the soil; and chemically, by promoting the decomposition of roots and other debris of dead plants; by attracting from the atmosphere the constituent elements of plants contained in it; and above all, by furnishing the phosphates and carbonates requisite for the due elaboration of the grain. Common farm yard manure will promote the vigorous vegetation of the inferior parts of the wheat plant, but it supplies little towards the excellence of the quality of the grain, unless there is a due proportion of its constituents, as well as those of straw or herbage contained in it. Lime, therefore, by supplying what is required, but which without it, would have been deficient, produced the desired result.

The first person who ventured out of the beaten track in husbandry, was Jethro Tull. By a series of experiments he was led to suspect, for he had no means beyond experience of arriving at certainty, that plants derived a part of their nutriment from the atmosphere, and that this was assisted by a perfect comminution of the soil. Tull was an industrious philosopher, and without chemistry arrived at a result which he believed was-and which was-correct; but he knew not how to prove it. Consequently, he was ridiculed and persecuted by his cotemporaries, and only believed when the mysterious question was brought to the light of real science, by which all was explained clear as the sun at noonday. It was then found that of one hundred parts of plants, fully ninetyfive are derived from the atmosphere in a gaseous or aqueous form; and that the perfect comminution of the soil, so strongly insisted on by Tull, promotes their attraction and assimilation by the roots

PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE.

of the plants. Such is the simple explanation of Tull's theory of husbandry.

Little was done to render agriculture an enlightened profession, before the accession of George III., or, as a facetious writer of the day styled him, "Farmer George." The attachment of that monarch to rural pursuits made large amends for the injury his insatiate fondness for war inflicted on his kingdom; for, certainly, both by precept and example, he stimulated the dormant energy and talent of the agricultural body, both in the breeding of cattle and sheep, and in the cultivation of the ground.

333

By a similar course of inductive reasoning with Tull, but with the light of science to aid him, Young began to work upon the light lands of Norfolk and Suffolk. The latter was his native county, or, at least, the one in which he resided; and before his time the lands just referred to were considered incapable of producing a crop of wheat. Millions of acres throughout the kingdom of similar quality of soil were alike condemned to partial sterility. But "Coke, of Holkham," and even George III., were his pupils, whilst Earl Spencer, Sir John Sinclair, and a host of other eminent and spirited men were his cotemporaries and coadjutors. With these at his back, he persevered until he saw flourishing crops of wheat on those light lands; and lived to see the rents advance from 5s. to 25s. per acre. Whole districts which previously grew only inferior crops of rye, barley, and oats, now waved with as fine crops of wheat as any in the United Kingdom.

About the year 1770, the celebrated Bakewell, of Dishley, began his experiments on the improvement of the breed of sheep; and selecting the Leicester race for his groundwork, established a principle which has completely revolutionised the system of cattle and sheep breeding. A few years after, following in Bakewell's track, the Collinses selected the Durham, or short horned breed of These men, however, were at that period exoxen, for a similar experiment, and with equal ceptions to the general rule. The time was not success. Both these eminent men gained rapid arrived for agriculture to assume the position it and well-merited fortunes, and have left imperishable now occupies. It was by slow degrees that the records of their useful exertions in the beautiful prejudiced mind of the farmer was brought to specimens we see at the various Cattle Shows-appreciate the importance of "book farming," as which are the admiration of Englishmen, and the wonder and astonishment of foreigners.

One important advantage derived by the grazier from the experiments of Bakewell and Collins, is the remarkable precocity attained by attention to the crossing of the various breeds. Formerly, neither sheep nor oxen were considered to be mutton or beef under five or six years old. But, by adopting the new system, sheep are now fit for the butcher at from twelve to eighteen months old, and at two years have arrived at maturity. The southdown and other sheep exhibited at the Smithfield Cattle Show were, many of them, wonderful instances of this precocity. We saw one of two years old, the weight of which was estimated at 48 pounds per quarter. Equally extraordinary instances were to be seen amongst the cattle and swine.

The ages put upon some of the latter were almost apocryphal. One fellow of fourteen months old, belonging to Prince Albert, was estimated to weigh 60 stone (8 lbs. to the stone). They surely must have begun to fatten him before he was born. By this means the farmer is now enabled to return his capital in grazing twice or thrice for once formerly, and an immense increase of produce of meat is prepared for the consumer.

Nearly at the same period that these successful experiments in breeding cattle and sheep were instituted, Arthur Young, the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, began his series of experiments in husbandry, the results of which he published in his "Annals of Agriculture," the fore runner of those numerous periodical publications which have since disseminated a flood of light and knowledge upon agriculture, as well as upon every other branch of industry.

[ocr errors]

he called it, in the practice of husbandry. The 'sheep shearing" of the Duke of Bedford and Thomas Wm. Coke, Esq., threw great light on the subject; but the body of farmers were not yet alive to its importance. In the meanwhile, men of science found that agriculture presented a fine field for their operations, and threw themselves into it with all the fervour and heartiness of enthusiasm. Sir Humphrey Davy led the van, and has been fol. lowed by a succession of other equally enlightened and practical men, by whom, step by step, the mysteries of vegetation have, so far as is possible, been unravelled, its theory investigated and explained; agriculture has been elevated to a science, and the farmer to the rank of a practical chemist-so far, at least, as preparing and applying the inorganic materials by which Nature herself elaborates in the soil those forms of beauty and utility which we see around us.

But the period from 1840 to the present time is that in which agriculture has progressed with the greatest rapidity. About the former year the introduction of Peruvian guano into this country entirely altered the principle on which the fertilisation of the soil was effected. The extraordinary effects produced by this substance led to an investigation of its components. By analysation it was found to consist of a condensation of the most valuable elements of fertility, and required to be used sparingly. A knowledge of its constituents led to the manufacture of an endless variety of compounds for manuring, some of which are highly useful, whilst others possess no value whatever but all pointing to the same principle-that is, the application of the right manure to the right plant, whether of grain, green crop, or roots.

The effect of this interposition of science in the

34

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AS IT IS,

application of these condensed manures, and the extensive publicity thereby given to the principles upon which their beneficial effects are founded, have been most marked and advantageous to agriculture. Many of the first chemists of the age have employed themselves in explaining the action of manures in promoting vegetation, the connexion between the soil and the plant growing upon it, the influence of the atmosphere upon the latter, the causes of success and failure, &c., &c. All these, and a multitude of other subjects, have been demonstrated in a popular way, by which the farmer has become enlightened, and an entirely new class of ideas have arisen in his mind. Few, indeed, and those only of the old school, are to be found to condemn "book farming;" fewer still to reject as unpractical the instruction and the advice of the man of science. The public gatherings of the farmers of any given district, are no longer distinguished by the delivery of absurd and prejudiced sentiments, or by drunken revelry, as was too often the case in by-gone days. Such meetings are now held for the despatch of business," for the discussion of important questions connected with agriculture, and talent and knowledge are frequently brought out from practical farmers that, forty or fifty years ago, would have done honour to men professedly scientific.

We have, hitherto, said not a word respecting the application of steam, and the improvement of machinery in the processes of agriculture; nor have we much space left to give the subject that consideration it deserves. We cannot, however, close our remarks without briefly adverting to the change produced in the economy of the labour on the farm. If the efforts of Bakewell and Collins have revolutionised the business of the breeder and grazier, and the intelligent and persevering experiments of Young have made wheat flourish abundantly where none ever grew before; if the chemist and the naturalist have united their forces with those of the husbandman, to elevate the profession of the latter in the estimation of mankind, to what it really is and ever has been-a science; we cannot refuse or withold our meed of praise to those ingenious men who have divested it of its most onerous features, and rendered the labours

of the operative husbandman more an effort of the intellect than a physical, and frequently exhausting, exertion. Thus, the flail has given place to the thrashing machine; the horse to the steam engine; the scythe and sickle to the American reaper. Every implement of husbandry has been simplified, and rendered less trying to the physical powers of the workman; while, on the other hand, an immense amount of labour has been liberated from the more tedious employment of the farm, to be devoted to works of improvement, whereby to increase the productiveness of the soil.

The exhibition of machinery at the Smithfield Cattle Show more than justifies all we have said respecting it, and exemplifies in a striking manner the glorious effects of a free competition in matters of commerce. Many of the machines display in their complicated construction the wonderfully inventive powers of the human mind; whilst others, by their perfect simplicity, excite surprise at the efficiency with which they effect the required operation. The thrashing machine and steam engine of Tuxford and Co., of Boston, may be considered a type of the former, and the improved reaper of Dray and Co., of the latter. We are not going into detail on this subject, but must now bring our remarks to a hasty close.

We have said that the Smithfield Cattle Show has become a national institution; and such it undoubtedly is,—and ought to be. However low the farmer once stood in the estimation of his more intellectual neighbour, be it remembered that he has risen by his own efforts; and viewing, as we do, the cultivation of the soil as the most primitive, the most simple, the most useful, and—we are justified in adding the most ennobling occupation of man, where it is conducted with that deference to the first great cause, the God of nature, which his entire dependence upon Him for success ought to inspire-it is becoming in a people to regard such displays of science, skill, and industry as were witnessed at the Exhibition of the past week in a national point of view, and to consider its various details as so many isolated efforts concentred in one grand whole, to promote the temporal prosperity and the physical enjoyment of the nation at large.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AS IT IS, AND AS IT MIGHT BE.

[We insert the following contribution by a working clergyman of the English Established Church; and we observe that his scheme of Church Reform does not differ materially from the views promulgated by the late Mr. Hume; but they were scouted as the heresies of a Radical. We have no doubt that much absolute poverty exists within the wealthiest church of the world-a great scandal to Christianity, and a stumbling block to those who are out of the pale of any church.]

This

"THE rich parson and his fat living." expression was formerly in everybody's mouth. It was taken for granted that, because Bishops had almost fabulous incomes, and gouty pluralists rolled in their carriages from one living to another, therefore every parson must be rich. Oh, most inconsequent sequence! Did it never suggest itself to any of these illogical reasoners, that, of course, to put things on even balance, as large

« PreviousContinue »