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diff --git a/40670-0.txt b/40670-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffe6a0b --- /dev/null +++ b/40670-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1439 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40670 *** + +Transcriber's Note + + Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal + signs=. + + + + +MAKERS OF + +MODERN AGRICULTURE + + + + +[Illustration] + +MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited + +LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MELBOURNE + + +THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + +NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO + + +THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. + +TORONTO + +[Illustration: Jethro Tull + +Founder of the Principles of Dry-Farming. 1674-1740.] + + + + +MAKERS OF MODERN AGRICULTURE + + +BY + + +WILLIAM MACDONALD, D.Sc. + +_Editor, "Agricultural Journal," Union Department of Agriculture, +South Africa; and Corresponding Secretary for the International +Dry-Farming Congress_ + + + + + +MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED + +ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON + +1913 + + +_COPYRIGHT_ + + +Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, + +BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E., AND + +BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. + + + + +PREFACE + + +When it is remembered what a prominent part Agriculture plays in the +history of all Nations, it does seem strange that so little is known +of the lives of those pioneers who have been foremost in the discovery +of fundamental principles, improved methods, and labour-saving +machines. Perhaps it is that farmers as a whole are not specially fond +of reading. This, however, is not to be wondered at, because after a +long day's work in the open air it is hard to rivet one's mind on +anything more serious than the headlines of a daily newspaper, or the +rose-tinted pictures of a rural magazine. Still, it is safe to +prophesy that the successful farmer of the future will not only be a +hard worker, but also a hard reader. And biography brings before us, +in a vivid manner, the onward march of modern Agriculture. + +It is also of interest to note how much Agriculture owes to men who +could scarcely be called practical farmers. Indeed, the author has +been impressed, contrary to common opinion, with the success of the +Townsman who takes to farming. But this is really no more surprising +than that the simple-hearted farm lad should forsake the Old Homestead +for the fascinations of the City, and by reason of his character, +courage, and industry, become in a few years the Captain of some great +commercial enterprise. There will always be the ceaseless ebb and +flow of the human tide between country lane and crowded street. But it +is surely our plain duty to do something to make the life of the +worker in the field less dull and lonely, and more attractive by the +erection of pleasant cottages and the establishment of rural +industries: while, at the same time, we try to brighten the life of +the toiler in the town by freehold garden lots and sunlit, open +spaces. + +I desire to thank the Editors of the several papers in which these +Sketches have appeared for kind permission to republish them in book +form: The _Graphic_ (Chapter I), The _Star_, Johannesburg (Chapter +II), the _Rand Daily Mail_ (Chapters III and IV), and the _Sunday +Post_ (Chapter V). To the _Journal_ of the Royal Agricultural Society +of England, I am indebted for the frontispiece (Jethro Tull), as well +as for much valuable information. + + Royal Agricultural Society of England, + 16, Bedford Square, London, + _September 1st, 1913._ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + Portrait of Jethro Tull _Frontispiece_ + + I. Jethro Tull 1 + + II. Coke of Norfolk 16 + + III. Arthur Young 39 + + IV. John Sinclair 54 + + V. Cyrus H. McCormick 68 + + + "One comfort is, that Great Men, taken up in any way, are + profitable company."--Carlyle. + + + + +MAKERS OF MODERN AGRICULTURE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +JETHRO TULL : FOUNDER OF THE PRINCIPLES OF DRY-FARMING + + + _"For the finer land is made by tillage the richer will it become + and the more plants will it maintain."_--Jethro Tull. + +Eight miles to the north-west of Reading, on a lovely reach of the +River Thames, lies the parish town of Basildon, in the County of +Berkshire. Here, in the year 1674, was born the man who revolutionized +British agriculture and laid the foundations for the "Conquest of the +Desert." Yet, strange as it may seem, until the other day Tull's +grave was unknown, and even now no monument marks the resting-place of +this illustrious husbandman. His family was of ancient and honourable +lineage, and he was heir to a competent estate. At seventeen he +entered his name on the register of St. John's College, Oxford; but he +did not proceed to a degree. Two years later he was admitted as a +student of Gray's Inn, and was, in due course, called to the Bar. It +is probable that Tull studied law not so much with the thought of +taking it up seriously as a profession, but simply in order to better +fit himself for a political career. Ill-health, however, made him turn +his attention to farming. At the age of twenty-five he married a lady +of good family, Miss Susanna Smith, of the County of Warwick, and then +settled down to farm in Oxfordshire. + +His first farm was Howberry, in the parish of Crowmarsh. The land of +this farm was fertile and renowned for heavy crops of both wheat and +barley. Here Tull lived and toiled for nine years, till at last his +health broke down and he was ordered south to the milder climate of +France and Italy. So he decided to sell a portion of his Oxfordshire +estate and send his family to another farm in Berkshire named +"Prosperous," situated in the parish of Shalbourne. After an absence +of three years Tull returned to "Prosperous Farm"--a place for ever +famous in the annals of agriculture. Here he lived for twenty-six +years to the close of his strenuous, chequered career. Of this farm, +Tull writes: "Situated on a little chalk on one side and heath on the +other, the soil is poor and shallow--generally too light and too +shallow to produce a tolerable crop of beans. This farm was made out +of the skirts of others; a great part was a sheep down with a full +reputation of poverty." + +While in Europe Tull took special note of the deep and careful +cultivation of the vineyards, where the tillage of the soil between +the rows of the grape vines was made to take the place of manuring the +land. On his return to England he tried this method at "Prosperous +Farm," first with turnips and potatoes, and then with wheat. And by +adopting this simple system with some few modifications of his own, he +was enabled to grow wheat on the same fields for thirteen years +continuously without the use of manure. + + * * * * * + +It was on his farm of Howberry that Tull invented and perfected his +drill in the year 1701. He has told the story of this invention in the +pages of his great work. Finding his plans for growing sainfoin[1] +hindered by the distaste of his labourers for his new methods, he +resolved to try to "contrive an engine to plant St. Foin more +faithfully than such hands would do. For that purpose I examined and +compared all the mechanical ideas that ever had entered my +imagination, and at last pitched upon a groove, tongue, and spring in +the sound-board of the organ. With these, a little altered, and some +parts of two other instruments, as foreign to the field as the organ +is, added to them, I composed my machine. It was named a drill, +because, when farmers used to sow their beans and peas in channels or +furrows by hand, they called that action drilling." And thus Tull's +drill, taken from the rotary mechanism of his favourite organ, is the +pioneer of all modern planters. His first invention was what he termed +a _drill-plough_ to sow wheat and turnip seed three rows at a time. + +[1] A leguminous plant cultivated for fodder. + +It was this invention that led Tull to enunciate his first principle +of tillage, namely, _drilling_. And it is the more amazing to reflect +that even after this long lapse of time many farmers still persist in +broadcasting their seed; for, as a recent authority working on the +semi-arid lands of Montana writes: "Sowing broadcast is bad at any +time, but in dry-farming it is suicidal." That the use of the drill +has everywhere effected an enormous saving of seed is common +knowledge; but let us hear what Tull has to say under this head: "Seed +(sainfoin) was scarce, dear, and bad, and enough could scarce be got +to sow, as was usual, seven bushels[2] to an acre. I examined and +thought the matter out, and found the greater part of the seed +miscarried, being bad, or too much covered. I observed, and counted, +and found when much seed had miscarried the crop was best." Here was +his second principle, _reduction of seed_, or, as we now say, +"thin-seeding," a practice which has been adopted by the dry-farmers +of Utah with remarkable success. + +[2] At the present time it is customary to sow from 80-100 lb. of +sainfoin seed per acre. + +Moreover, Tull was an ardent advocate of the weedless field, and he +saw, clearly enough, that dung was a serious menace to clean tillage, +as the seeds of troublesome weeds were apt to be scattered far and +wide over the farm. This led him to lay down as his third +principle--the _absence of weed_. But he certainly never, as is +sometimes said, condemned the use of manure. His experiments, however, +proved beyond the shadow of doubt that good crops might be grown +simply and solely by means of deep and constant tillage. So he says, +angrily: "The vulgar in general believe that I carried my farmyard +dung and threw it in a river. I have no river near; besides, my +neighbours buy dung at a good price; but it is known I neither sell +nor waste any dung. Against such lying tongues there is no defence." + +Nevertheless, many years after his part was taken by none other than +the great scientist of Rothamsted, the late Sir John Lawes, who wrote +as follows:-- + +"Tull was quite an original genius and a century in advance of his +time. I consider he has been most unjustly accused of not placing +sufficient value upon farmyard manure; he advocated cleanliness, and +saw that dung was a great carrier of weeds. To give some clear idea of +the value of Tull's advocacy of drill-husbandry and the freedom from +weed which can alone be obtained by the use of the drill, I may +mention that so far as statistics will allow, I have ascertained the +average yield of the wheat crop of the world, and I am able to say +that the average yield is less than it is at the present time upon my +permanent wheat land, after more than sixty years absolutely without +manure. Here we have the result of Tull's three great +principles--_drilling, reduction of seed, and absence of weed_. If he +were alive now and were writing for the agriculture of the world, he +would, I think, be quite justified in saying everything he said in +regard to cleanliness and manure." + +As a result of his studies, travels, and experiments, Tull published +"The New Horse-Hoeing Husbandry: or an Essay on the Principles of +Tillage and Vegetation" in the year 1731. The great value of this work +is that it is founded not upon mere theory, but upon actual +experiments in the field. The fourth edition, which I have beside me, +consists of 426 pages, with several plates, and 23 chapters which +treat of the following subjects: Of Roots and Leaves; Of Food of +Plants; Of Pastures of Plants; Of Dung; Of Tillage; Of Weeds; Of +Turnips; Of Wheat; Of Smuttiness; Of Lucerne; Of Change of Species; Of +Change of Individuals; Of Ridges; Old and New Husbandry; Of Ploughs; +The Four-Coulter'd Plough; Of the Drill-Boxes; Of the Wheat-Drill: Of +the Turnip-Drill; Of the Hoe-Plough; with an appendix concerning the +making of the drill and the hoe-plough. + +Tull's idea--which was that by tillage soils might be constantly and +for ever reinvigorated or renewed--is summed up in his famous epigram, +"tillage is manure." He believed that the earth was the true and the +sole food of the plant, and, further, that the plant feeds and grows +by taking in minute particles of soil. And since these particles are +thrown off from the surface of the soil grains, it followed, +therefore, that the more finely the soil was divided the more numerous +the particles and the more readily the plant would grow. Although +Tull's theories were wrong, his practice has been followed by all +progressive farmers down to the present time. We now know that plants +do not absorb particles of earth, but take in food in solution. +Consequently, the more the particles of soil are broken up and +refined, the more plant food the roots can absorb. In this volume, +which must be counted an agricultural classic, Tull at once takes rank +as the foremost preacher of his time of the gospel of deep and perfect +tillage. And it is a work which, in the words of his great compeer, +Arthur Young, will "unquestionably carry his name to the latest +posterity." + +The botanical world has recently been illumined by the splendid +discovery of the principles of heredity set forth by Gregor Mendel, +and the foremost exponent of the new science, Professor Bateson, +writes as follows: "We have at last a brilliant method and a solid +basis from which to attack these problems, offering an opportunity to +the pioneer such as occurs but seldom even in the history of modern +science." Cannot we, as agriculturists, say the same with equal truth? +For, to our thinking, Jethro Tull bears the same relation to +dry-farming that Mendel does to plant-breeding. For if, on the one +hand, his drill-ploughs are the models from which have been derived +the marvellous agricultural machines of modern times, then, on the +other, his clean husbandry, his seed selection, his deep and constant +tillage are the fundamental principles in the great new science of +dry-farming. Nor should we forget that both Mendel and Tull +enunciated their principles only after long and patient experiment. + +The principles which we have adopted in our experiments on the +Government Dry-Land Station at Lichtenburg, in the Transvaal and which +we propose to follow on all stations hereafter to be established in +the Union of South Africa, are seven in number, namely: (1) Deep +ploughing; (2) drilling; (3) thin seeding; (4) frequent harrowing; (5) +weedless lands; (6) few varieties; and (7) moisture-saving fallows. +And we know full well that the more faithfully we adhere to this +scheme the richer shall be our harvests. But, after all, these +principles are merely the amplification, nothing more, of those +fundamental methods of tillage so plainly set forth, one hundred and +eighty-two years ago, by the genius of Jethro Tull. + +Tull died in the month of March, in the year 1740, at the age of +sixty-six. In speaking of agricultural education we have frequently +urged the benefits to be derived from a liberal education, and we like +to recall Tull's own words: "I owe my principles and practice +originally to my travels, as I owe my drill to my organ." Here indeed, +was a man of many parts--a famous agriculturist, an able mechanic, a +good musician, and a keen classical scholar. His life, strange to say, +was one dauntless struggle with disease. For six years he scarce ever +left his room, and seldom in that period was he gladdened by so much +as a glimpse of his "hundred acres of drilled wheat." So they laid the +tired body of the simple-minded English squire under the yew-trees of +Basildon in the mellow soil he loved so well. But the bells of the old +church of Saint Bartholomew now ring out with a new, glad message, +for they tell the toiling husbandmen of all lands to be of good cheer, +for the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose; while the winds +and the waters carry the echo of Tull's name down through the +corridors of time. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +COKE OF NORFOLK: FATTIER OF EXPERIMENTAL FARMS + + + _"Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand + before Kings; he shall not stand before mean men."_ + +At the beginning of this article we have quoted a text taken from the +Proverbs of Solomon, which we believe can be applied more truthfully +to the subject of our paper than to any other name conspicuous in the +annuals of agriculture. For he was a man diligent in his business and +he stood before Kings. + +Thomas William Coke, of Holkham (Holy Home), Earl of Leicester, was +the eldest son of Robert Wenman. He was born in the year 1752, and +educated at Eton, after which he travelled abroad. On the death of his +father, Coke was elected in his place as member of Parliament for the +County of Norfolk. He was then in his twenty-second year. He entered +the youngest member; his political career extended over a period of +fifty-seven years, and he finished up as "Father of the House of +Commons." His domestic life was singularly happy--very different from +the sad state of his great contemporary Arthur Young. In 1775 he +married his cousin, Jane Dutton, by whom he had three daughters. After +her death in 1800 he remained a widower for twenty-one years and then +at the age of sixty-eight wedded a girl of eighteen, Lady Anne Keppel, +by whom he had five sons and one daughter. Coke had the unique +experience of being offered a Peerage seven times under six different +Prime Ministers, and he was the first commoner raised to the Peerage +by Queen Victoria on her accession to the Throne. In this connection +an amusing story is told. In the year 1817 Coke was called on to +present, at a Levee, a very forcible address to the Prince of Wales, +who was then acting as Regent, praying him "to dismiss from his +presence and Council those advisers, who, by their conduct, had proved +themselves alike enemies to the Throne and the people." The Regent was +warned of the proposal. Knowing that Coke valued his position as a +Commoner above everything else, he declared with an oath that: "If +Coke of Norfolk enters my presence, by God, I'll knight him." This +speech was repeated to Coke. "If he dares," was the rejoinder, "by God +I'll break his sword." + +Part of the estate or Holkham was formerly a series of salt marshes +on the coast of the North Sea. And when Coke came into his property in +1776--a fateful year in the history of the British Empire the +surrounding district was little better than a rabbit-warren, with long +stretches of shingle and sand. Soon after Coke's marriage, when his +wife remarked that she was going down to Norfolk, the witty old Lady +Townshend said, "Then, my dear, all you will see will be one blade of +grass and two rabbits fighting for that." The story of how Coke came +to be a practical farmer is told in the third volume of the Journal of +the Royal Agricultural Society of England, published in the year 1842. +The article containing it was written by Earl Spencer, and is of +special interest as he had it direct from the lips of Mr. Coke (then +Lord Leicester) a short time before his death. When Coke entered into +his heritage, he found that five leases were about to expire. These +farms were held at a rental of 3s. 6d. an acre; and in the previous +leases they had been valued at 1s. 6d. an acre. At that time the +agriculture of Norfolk was of the poorest character; and we may judge +of the quality of the Holkham land by comparing it with the average +rent of 10s. an acre which Arthur Young says prevailed at this time. +Coke sent for the two tenants, Mr. Brett and Mr. Tann, and offered to +renew their leases at a slightly higher figure, namely 5s. an acre. +Both refused; and Mr. Brett jeered at the suggestion, saying that the +land was not worth even the 1s. 6d. an acre which had originally been +paid for it. This curt refusal was enough for a man of Coke's +temperament. He forthwith decided to farm the land himself. It was +thus that a young man of twenty-two, possessor of a princely fortune, +fresh from the salons of Europe, suddenly turned his back on a gay +and fashionable world; and stung into action by the laughter of a lazy +tenant, took up the management of a sterile farm, raised a parish from +poverty to affluence, transformed a desolate county into a cornfield, +and left a name renowned in the annals of English agriculture. + + * * * * * + +In the history of agriculture, the name of Coke is chiefly remembered +by those famous gatherings locally known as "Coke's Clippings." These +wonderful meetings began in a simple way with the clipping or shearing +of sheep, but soon came to embrace the whole realm of the rural +industry. As might be imagined, when Coke took over the management of +his farms, he had not the slightest knowledge of the science and +practice of agriculture. So he called together his neighbours and +frankly asked their advice. + +They in turn were doubtless glad to meet a young man so keen and so +eager to learn. Soon they brought their friends and their relatives, +and two years later these little country gatherings had assumed a more +definite character, and were thereupon called "Coke's Clippings." Soon +agriculturists from all parts of Great Britain wrote to ask if they +might attend. Swiftly and steadily the fame of the "clippings" grew, +till presently scientific and other celebrated men from the United +States and the Continent travelled to England to take part in these +meetings. Year by year they increased in numbers till at last they +embraced every nationality, every profession, and every rank in life, +from Royalty to the poorest peasant. Holkham had, in fact, become a +great experimental farm--a private estate turned by the enterprise of +its owner into a public institution. Nowadays, we are familiar with +State experimental farms, which are visited by thousands of farmers +once or twice a year. But a century ago such a thing was unheard of, +and Coke may justly be termed the "Father of the Experimental Farm." +At these shearings Coke presented many cups and prizes for the +invention of any new agricultural implement, for suggestions with +regard to improved systems of cropping, of irrigation, of enriching +the soil, and for articles on agricultural subjects--in a word, to +every one who contributed to advance any branch whatsoever of the +agricultural industry. Moreover, we are told that at a meeting of 1803 +sweepstakes were offered for guessing the correct weight of a wether. +The winner was a certain Mr. Money Hill, who guessed the exact +weight--130 lbs.; while a butcher named Rett was a good second, and he +guessed the weights of four other sheep within one pound. It is said +that, one year, there died on the Holkham estate a tenant who had won +no less than £800 in prizes at the "clippings." Party politics were +carefully excluded from these meetings, and any attempt to introduce a +party spirit into the speeches at the annual dinners was at once +silenced by Coke. As a politician he was a prominent Whig, but as an +agriculturist he sank his politics and opened his doors to men of +merit irrespective of their views. Thus he gave Sir John Sinclair a +magnificent goblet as a token of his appreciation of Sinclair's "Code +of Agriculture," in spite of the fact that Sir John was a strong +supporter of the "vile Tories and their viler head, Mr. Pitt." Sir +John was pleased beyond measure and remarked, with a true Highland +courtesy, that hitherto the most priceless heirloom in his castle had +been the drinking cup of Mary Queen of Scots, but henceforth he would +look on the goblet of his Whig friend as his greatest treasure. + +The last of "Coke's Clippings" took place in the year 1821. It was +attended by seven thousand people, and lasted three whole days. There +is something very pleasing in the account of this pastoral scene. A +stately mansion in a splendid park, with a group of village maidens +spinning flax, on a velvet lawn, in the midst of a vast concourse of +people drawn from all parts of the earth. Punctually at ten o'clock in +the morning, so we read, Miss Coke came on to the lawn, accompanied by +her father, and the Duke of Sussex. Then after greetings taken and +greetings given, the vast crowd proceeded, some riding, some driving, +some walking, to inspect the different farms on the estate. The first +day was given up to the study of the inoculated pasture, prize +cattle, new implements, sheep-shearing amid farm crops. The second day +was devoted to fresh fields, farm schools and cottage gardens. The +third day was absorbed in the inspection of the carcases of animals +that had been slaughtered, speech-making, and the distribution of +prizes. On that day at 3 p.m., seven hundred guests sat down to +dinner, a mid-day meal, which, with the speeches and prizes lasted for +seven hours! The historian of this period has left us an account of +the most popular toasts at these annual banquets, such as "A Fine +Fleece and a Fat Carcase," "The Plough and a Good Use of It," while +the tribute to Coke's efforts to enclose all waste lands always +brought down the house, for it wittily ran: "The Enclosing of all +Waists," and Coke's own toast "Live and Let Live," was invariably +greeted with tumultuous applause. The two annalists who have left us +unimpeachable accounts of those memorable meetings are both agreed +that Coke himself was the central figure. Dr. Rigby, in "Holkham and +its Agriculture" (1818) writes: "He is everywhere and with everyone. +He solicits enquiry from everyone." At each halt in the ride little +knots of people collected round him and listened with absorbed +interest to all he said, while for hours he thus sustained the +character of leader, lecturer, and host. And the American Ambassador +of that day, His Excellency Mr. Richard Rush, writes in "A Residence +at the Court of London," "No matter what the subsequent advance of +English agriculture or its results, Mr. Coke will ever take honourable +rank among the pioneers of the great work. Come what will in the +future, the Holkham sheep-shearings' will live in English rural +annals. Long will tradition speak of them as uniting improvements in +agriculture to an abundant, cordial, and joyous hospitality." + +When Coke started to farm in Norfolk the value of rotation was +unknown. Then, it was customary to grow three white straw crops in +succession followed by broadcast turnips. It was not to be wondered at +that soil which consisted mainly of drifting sand and sharp, flinty +gravel should soon become worn out. Coke changed this practice and +grew only two white crops in succession and then let the land lie in +pasture for the next two years. He began to manure heavily; and used +rape-cake as a top dressing with marked success. Moreover, he found +that the soil of almost the whole district was composed of very light +sand and underlaid with a stratum of rich marl. Pits were opened, the +marl dug out, and scattered over the surface of the land. This not +only promoted fertility, but gave to the soil that solidity which is +so essential to the growth of wheat, It was Coke's proud boast that he +turned West Norfolk from a rye-growing into a wheat-growing district. +But it took him eleven years before he could get wheat to grow on the +poor, sandy soil of his own estate. Nevertheless, before he died, +these so-called "rabbit and rye" lands were yielding as much as +thirty-two bushels to the acre. His main idea was to stock heavily; +more for the sake of manure than for the sake of meat. He pinned his +faith on the motto: "Muck is the mother of money." And we are told +that he was accustomed to say to his tenants, "If you will keep an +extra yard of bullocks, I will build you a yard and sheds free of +expense." He was a patient man but he was once heard to remark: "It is +difficult to teach anything to adult ignorance. I had to contend with +prejudice, an ignorant impatience of change, and a rooted attachment +to old methods." He referred to the fact that the farmers still +persisted in the old system of sowing cereals broadcast, or else +laboriously made holes with a dibbing-iron into which the grain was +dropped, while another man followed with a rake and covered up the +holes. Thus he used the drill for sixteen years before any of his +neighbours could be induced to adopt it; and even when the farmers +began at last to see the benefit of this rapid manner of sowing, he +estimated that its spread was only a mile each year. By-and-by, +however, he noticed that a quaint term for a good crop of barley had +come into use at Holkham. His farmers spoke of "hat-barley" for the +reason that if a man throws his hat into a crop of barley, the hat +rests on the surface if the crop is good, but falls to the ground if +the crop is bad. "All sir," said his tenants at length, "is +'hat-barley' since the drill came." + + * * * * * + +Coke was never tired of experimenting with every kind of crop. +Cocksfoot (orchard grass) was cultivated with great success and +numbers of sheep were fattened on it. On land, once considered +worthless, he cut four hundred tons of sainfoin from one hundred and +four acres. He early recognised the merits of swedes, and was the +first to grow them on a large scale. He made a special study of birds +in relation to the eradication of grubs. Finding a field of turnips +infested with a larva which caused black canker he turned four hundred +ducks into the field which they cleared of this pest in five days. +Early in his career Coke discarded the native sheep of Norfolk, with +backs as narrow as rabbits, in favour of the Southdowns, and gradually +became one of the largest sheep-breeders in England. Encouraged by +the Duke of Bedford, another eminent agriculturist, he started a herd +of North Devons, and thereafter bred them with much success. He also +improved the Suffolk breed of pigs by crossing them with the +Neapolitan, thereby obtaining a superior quality of pork. +Afforestation was one of his special hobbies. He fully realised the +truth of the old saying that a tree is growing while its planter is +sleeping. Every year he planted fifty acres of timber, mostly oak, +Spanish chestnut, and beech, till he had three thousand acres of +bleak, wind-swept country well covered. He permitted the poor of the +neighbourhood to plant potatoes among his young trees for two or three +years; a practice which kept his land clean and saved the expense of +hoeing. And in the year 1832 he embarked in a ship built of oak from +the acorns which he himself had planted. + +He always maintained that the interests of landlord and tenant were +identical. In order, therefore, to encourage his tenants to exert +themselves to the utmost, he let out his farms on long leases of +twenty-one years at a moderate rental and burdened with but few +restrictions. He soon saw, however, that in the case of an indolent +tenant a long lease would mean the rapid deterioration of the +property. It happened at this time that a certain farmer named Mr. +Overman, who had been foremost in furthering the new agricultural +schemes, applied for a farm on the Holkham estate. Coke allowed him, +as an experiment, to draw up the covenants of his own lease. Overman +straightway inserted a clause making the improved course of cropping +compulsory. Coke was so pleased that he at once made this lease the +model for all his other tenants with a few slight modifications. And +so the land was fully protected from any possible injury through a +long period of bad farming. By such improved methods Coke is said to +have raised the annual rental of his estate from £2,200 to £20,000; +while the yearly fall of timber and underwood averaged £2,700--a sum +which exceeded the whole of his old rent roll. During his sixty-six +years at Holkham he spent over half a million pounds sterling on +improvements alone, without taking into account the large sums spent +on his house, domain, and home-farm buildings. Yet it is averred that +this vast outlay was all regained in due course. At that period the +Holkham estate consisted of 4,300 acres in a ring fence, with a park +of 3,500 acres surrounded by a ten-mile wall close to the sea. In a +volume entitled "Agricultural Writers" (1200-1800) by Donald +McDonald, the name of Coke does not appear. And it would seem that all +he ever wrote were some papers for the "Annals of Agriculture" (Arthur +Young), and a pamphlet on "An Address to the Freeholders of Norfolk." + +The biography of this remarkable man has recently been written in two +brightly bound and lavishly illustrated volumes by Mrs. A. M. W. +Stirling, under the title of "Coke and his Friends."[3] His memory +well deserved the laborious and loving tribute of his enthusiastic +great grand-child. But to be of any practical value to the +agriculturist, the book must be greatly condensed. Out of thirty-five +chapters we can find only five which tell of his services to the +agricultural industry. Out of a thousand odd pages we can find only +one hundred and sixteen which bear on the science and practice of +farming. Out of sixty-four carefully executed illustrations we can +only find four which have anything whatsoever to do with rural +affairs. It may be affirmed that Coke was much more than a mere +agriculturist. That is very true; but surely his fame rests far more +on his services to rural progress than on his reputation as a +politician, a society leader, or a landlord. We therefore hope that at +no distant date the same flowing pen which has produced the bulkier +volumes will compile a handier life dealing altogether with Coke's +agricultural doings. Coke died in 1842 at the age of eighty-eight, and +was buried in the family mausoleum attached to the Tittleshall Church, +Norfolk. + +[3] Published by Mr. John Lane, London. + +In a life drama so vivid and forceful there are yet two vivid scenes +we cannot fail to recall. It was Coke who brought forward the motion +in the House of Commons to recognise the independence of the American +Colonies. All night long the House sat. At 8.30 a.m., the end came. +Amid breathless silence the result was announced 177 Noes, 178 Ayes. +It was Coke who announced to the obstinate, discomfited King the +result of that great debate, whereby the disastrous fratricidal war +was forever ended and the independence of the United States +acknowledged by the Parliament of the Mother Country, after nine +bitter years, by a majority of one vote. The Parish of Burnham lies +next to the Parish of Holkham. And the son of the rector of the former +village, a fragile, delicate lad, used sometimes to join Mr. Coke's +hounds when they were out coursing. But he was never asked to shoot, +as only once had he been known to hit a partridge. One day this poor +young man, returning from a two years' cruise paid a visit to his +wealthy neighbour and stayed overnight. The great-uncle of his host +built the mansion house of Holkham, and Thomas William Coke spent all +his life and a large fortune in developing the family estate. But the +British people placed Nelson, the frail and nervous guest, who slept +that night in the humble turret-room, on the top of the Column in the +centre of Trafalgar Square. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +ARTHUR YOUNG: AUTHOR OF THE AGRICULTURAL TOUR + + + _"The magic of property turns sands into gold. Give a man the + secure possession of a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a + garden; give him a nine years' lease of a garden, and he will + convert it into a desert."_--Arthur Young. + +Arthur Young, the greatest of English agriculturists and the poorest +of practical farmers, was born at Whitehall, London, in the year 1741. +He was the youngest son of the Reverend Dr. Arthur Young, Prebendary +of Canterbury Cathedral, Rector of Bradfield, and of Anne Lucretia, +daughter of John de Cousmaker, a Dutchman who accompanied William of +Orange to England. From his father Arthur inherited good looks and +literary talent; and from his mother the love of learning and +brilliant and pleasing speech. + +Mrs. Young brought her clerical husband a large dowry, much of which +was swallowed up in the vortex of his debts, and later, on his death, +in promoting the agricultural schemes of her gifted but unbusinesslike +son. His home from the first, and for the most part of his life, was +Bradfield Hall in the County of Suffolk--a property which had been in +the hands of the Young family since the year 1672. After a visit to +Bradfield, reached from Marks Tey on the Great Eastern Railway, you do +not wonder at Young's early love of rural life. A broad, winding, +elm-bordered road, meadows knee-deep in wild flowers and waving +grasses, tangled hedges of eglantine and honeysuckle, rustling +cornfields and silent woods--these, all these, were the sweet pathways +to his home. + +At the age of seven the lad was sent to the Grammar School at Lavenham +in order to learn the Greek and Latin languages, together with writing +and arithmetic. Owing to the indulgence of a fond mother, his +attendance at his classes was irregular, and neither the centurions of +Cæsar nor the wooers of Penelope were able to beguile him from his +pony, his pointer and his gun. But the cheapness of his board and +schooling would delight the hearts of many parents in the Transvaal +and elsewhere in the year of grace 1912. Here is the bill:-- + + "The Rev. Dr. Young to John Coulter (Master of Lavenham School), + Xmas, 1750 to Xmas, 1751. A year's board, etc., £15. Sundries, £2 + 4_s._ 4_d._ Total, £17 4_s._ 4_d._" + +On leaving Lavenham, he was apprenticed, at the wish of his mother, +to a wine-merchant at Lynn. He deserted his new work. He was fond of +music and the drama. He excelled in dancing, but was always a diligent +scholar. + +His income, in those days, was not excessive, being thirty pounds per +annum: but his foppery in dress deprived him of the means wherewith to +purchase his beloved books. Accordingly, he wrote a pamphlet entitled +"The Theatre of the Present War in North America," for which he +received ten pounds' worth of books from the publisher. More balls +compelled him to compile more political pamphlets in order to procure +more books. In the year 1759, at the age of eighteen, he left the +counting house at Lynn, as he tells us in his own words, "without +education, pursuits, profession or employment." That same year his +father died much in debt. + +He next went to London and started at his own expense a monthly +magazine called "The Universal Museum." It failed, and he returned +home. All his wealth was now summed up in a freehold farm of twenty +acres. His mother owned eighty acres at Bradfield. She persuaded him +to reside with her and to manage the farm. He had no knowledge of +agriculture, but he accepted, and tells the story in his own words: +"Young, eager, and totally ignorant of every necessary detail, it is +not surprising that I squandered large sums under golden dreams of +improvement." At the age of twenty-four he married Miss Martha Allen +of Lynn. One of his biographers says: "The marriage brought him an +enviable connection--troops of friends, a passport into brilliant +circles, but no fireside happiness. The lady was evidently of a +captious disposition, shrewish temper and narrow sympathies." Another +biographer writes: "A loving son, a devoted father, Young was an +indifferent husband." + +Having failed to make a success of his first farm, Young, nothing +daunted, undertook the cultivation of Sampford Hall in Essex. This +farm consisted of 300 acres of good arable land. But want of practical +knowledge, and want of capital, drove him from it, and after a five +years' tenancy he paid a farmer £100 to take it off his hands. His +successor made a fortune on it. But during these five years Young had +made a large number of experiments, the results of which he afterwards +published in two large volumes under the title of "A Course of +Experimental Agriculture." Still unshaken in his love of the soil, he +sought another farm, and the quest furnished materials for his "Six +Weeks' Tour through the Southern Counties," a very popular work which +ran through several editions. It was at this time that on the advice +of his Suffolk bailiff he took a farm of one hundred acres at North +Mimms in Hertfordshire. This property had a good house, but that seems +to have been all. He was deceived by seeing it in a specially good +season. This speculation proved worse than the last; but his +picturesque pen never failed: "I know what epithet to give this soil. +Sterility falls short of the idea--a hungry, vitriolic gravel. I +occupied for nine years the jaws of a wolf." The simple fact was that +whenever he put pen to paper he was successful; whenever he turned to +practical farming he was a ruined man. + +He continued to write. His publisher called for more tours. His +receipts were considerable, yet we find him recording: "No carthorse +ever laboured as I did at this period, spending like an idiot, always +in debt, in spite of what I earned with the sweat of my brow, and +almost my heart's blood--the year's receipts £1,167." About this time +he wrote "Observations on the Present State of the Waste Lands of +Great Britain," and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Finding +that he could not make enough to live on at farming, he accepted an +appointment as Parliamentary Reporter for the "Morning Post" at five +guineas a week--a most incongruous job for a farmer since it compelled +him to be absent from his home during six days of the week. Yet he +retained it for several years--walking seventeen miles down to his +farm every Saturday evening and returning to London every Monday +morning. + +In the year 1784 Young began the publication of the "Annals of +Agriculture"--a monthly publication which ran through forty-five +volumes. These annals covered the whole field of Agriculture in the +form of letters and essays from the most eminent ruralists of the age. +But more than a fourth part of the whole series came from the editor's +ceaseless pen. Even the King was persuaded to contribute two letters +under the _nom de plume_ of "Ralph Robinson," his Windsor shepherd. +Young related with much pride that His Majesty said to him one day on +the terrace of Windsor: "Mr. Young, I consider myself as more obliged +to you than to any other man in my Dominions"; while the Queen +observed that they never travelled without a copy of the "Annals" in +the Royal carriage. These volumes created quite a stir in European +circles, and from all parts of the Continent there flocked scholars to +study at the feet of the Abelard of English Agriculture. A year later +Young's mother died and Bradfield Hall and farm became his property. + +If Tull was the founder of dry-farming, and Coke the father of the +experimental farm, Young was unquestionably the author of the +agricultural tour. From his fertile pen flowed "The Southern," "The +Northern," and "The Eastern Tours," together with "The Tour in +Ireland." The first three tours were translated into Russian by the +express command of the Empress Catherine, who at the same time sent +several young Russians to reside at Bradfield for instruction in +British agriculture. It was his own opinion that the most useful +feature of the tours was the practical information which they gave on +the important subject of the correct courses of crops, on which all +preceding writers had been silent. His most famous and most popular +work was his "Travels in France during the years 1787, 1788 and +1789." + +Yet these remarkable journeys were fore-shadowed twenty years before +in a little book he wrote entitled "The Farmer's Letters to the People +of England," in which he says: "The nobility and men of large fortune +travel, but no farmers; unfortunately, those who have this peculiar +and distinguishing advantage, the noble opportunity of benefiting +themselves and their country, seldom enquire or even think about +agriculture." + +Then comes a sketch of a farmer's tour with the routes laid down for +the imaginary traveller, being precisely those roads he himself was to +follow two decades later. + +In the year 1787 he received a pressing invitation from a Polish +friend in Paris to join the Count de la Rochefoucauld in a tour of the +Pyrenees. "This was touching a string tremulous to vibrate," he +writes: "I had long wished for an opportunity to examine France." His +travels in France were the sensation of the hour. No one had done +quite the same thing before. He was an eye-witness of the moving +scenes which ushered in the French Revolution. His name was in +everybody's mouth. He received invitations to Courts and salons. +All the learned societies enrolled him as a member. His work was +translated into a score of languages. Princes, statesmen, scientists, +men of letters, simple farmers and plain peasants paid a visit to +Bradfield. Among his correspondents we note the names of Washington, +Pitt. Burke, Wilberforce, Lafayette, Priestly and Jeremy Bentham. So +it happened that when the affluent Coke of Norfolk was holding a +Continental sheep-shearing salon at Holkham, his indigent neighbour, +fifty miles to the south, was holding a European levee to discuss the +fundamental principles of rural economy. + +Four years later Young's heart was broken by the death of his +favourite daughter, "Bobbin" at the early age of fourteen. He +developed religious melancholia, shunned society, left his Journal +blank and brooded over sermons. His sight began to fail. He was +operated on for cataract. Wilberforce, warned to be careful, went, a +week later, to see him in the darkened room. In his sweet and elegant +voice the Great Emancipator spoke feelingly of the death of a mutual +friend. Young burst into tears and became for ever blind. The +remainder of his life was spent in preaching the Gospel to the +peasantry and in works of charity. He died in the eightieth year of +his age in Sackville Street, London, and was buried at Bradfield, +April, 1820. + +It is impossible in this brief article to do more than mention the +writings of Young. These we must reserve for a subsequent paper. Our +library is far from complete, yet we possess sixty-six volumes of his +sparkling prose, which, placed one upon another, attain to a height of +nine feet--a monument of amazing industry. True, he was not exempt +from those petty jealousies which so often mar the character of +eminent men. He tried to snatch some credit for the Board of +Agriculture from Sir John Sinclair, and he scoffed at the idea that +Jethro Tull had invented the corn-drill. He met and conversed with the +greatest savants of the age, yet his mind never burst the old wine +bottles which he served out in the Suffolk store. And so he arrogantly +says that Canada and Nova Scotia are not worth colonising. "If they +continue poor, they will be no markets. If rich they will revolt; and +that perhaps is the best thing they can do for our interest." ... +"The loss of India must come. It ought to come." Yet with all his +foolish fancies what a splendid life! For he was the Prophet of the +New Agriculture in the Valley of Dry Bones. And England may well write +the epitaph of her illustrious son in the words of Ezekiel: "This land +that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +JOHN SINCLAIR: FOUNDER OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE + + +One of the earliest recollections of the writer's childhood as he +fished for trout in the Swiney Burn in the far North of Scotland, was +the tale of a certain wonderful man that was wont to tie little shoes +on the feet of his sheep in order to keep them warm while walking +through the snow. But many a trout had to be caught, and many a ripple +of the shining river had to pass beneath the Thurso Bridge ere he +learned the name of the strange person who struck his childish fancy +as he looked up from his quivering line into the wistful eyes of a +Cheviot ewe on the lonely, wine-red, moor. + +Sir John Sinclair, the founder of the British Board of Agriculture, +was born in Thurso Castle in the county of Caithness, on May 10th, +1754. His father, George Sinclair, the Laird of Ulbster, was a +descendant of the Earls of Caithness and Orkney; while his mother, +Lady Janet Sutherland of Dunrobin, was the sister of the sixteenth +Earl of that name. As a child he was carefully and wisely trained by +his parents. From his father, a man of literary tastes and deeply +religious character, he inherited a love of books; and from his gentle +mother, he learned the lesson that life is not an empty dream; and her +lad was soon to be known as "the most indefatigable man in Europe." + +John was educated at the Royal School of Edinburgh, and at the +University of the same city which he entered at the early age of +thirteen. He also studied at Glasgow, and at Trinity College, Oxford. +He was called to the Bar in 1782. His father died suddenly when John +was sixteen, and he found himself heir to Estates comprising some +100,000 acres, mainly bleak and barren moor. He at once began to +improve his property. + +Scottish agriculture was then in a most backward state. The fields +were unenclosed, the lands were undrained. The small farmers of +Caithness were so poor that they could hardly afford to keep a horse, +or even a Shetland pony. The burdens were chiefly borne by women. +Indeed, according to Smiles, if a cottar lost a horse, it was not +unusual for him to marry a wife as the cheapest substitute. + +The country was without roads or bridges. Drovers taking their cattle +to the South had to swim rivers alongside their beasts. The chief +track leading into the country lay along the high shelf of a mountain +called Ben Cheilt; the path being several hundred feet above the +storm-tossed sea, which thundered on the rocks below. + +Imagine the loud laughter of the elders of this community when they +heard a rumour that young Sinclair proposed to build in a single day a +road over this hitherto impassable hill. But John surveyed the road +himself, and ordered up the Statute labour. At that time the law +decreed that all capable inhabitants of the agricultural class should +work on the roads for six days in every year. And so, early one summer +morning, he assembled the neighbouring farmers and their servants--a +total of 1,260. Each party, on arrival, was assigned a certain piece +of the path where they found tools and provisions awaiting them. At +sunset of the same evening the youth drove his carriage and pair over +six miles of mountain road which the night before had been a dangerous +sheep-track. Tidings of this exploit by a stripling of eighteen spread +far and wide, and spurred the sleeping spirit of the North. + +At the age of twenty-six, John Sinclair was elected member of +Parliament for the county of Caithness, and remained in the House of +Commons for upwards of thirty years. + + * * * * * + +The great monument to Sinclair's indefatigable industry is his +"Statistical Account of Scotland" in twenty-one volumes, one of the +most valuable works on agriculture ever published in any country. It +took seven years and seven months of incessant labour to complete. It +was then that the word "statistics" and "statistical" were first +introduced into the English language by Sinclair. He made use of the +clergy to obtain the information he desired. He sent a circular letter +to each parish minister in Scotland with 160 questions under four +heads: (1) Geography and Natural History. (2) Population. (3) +Production. (4) Miscellaneous subjects. + +In the collection of data many difficulties occurred. Some of the +clergy scorned the idea that one man could collect and collate all +this information: others were lazy both in mind and body: and some +were old and infirm. Several parishes were vacant, some too huge to +fully cover, many were without roads, and not a few separated by +tempestuous arms of the sea. To overcome these obstacles he enlisted +the aid of the leaders of the Church of Scotland, of which he was a +member, and the great landowners, and as a last resort he employed +statistical missionaries to supply the missing information. He +generously assigned all the profits of this publication to the +Scottish Fund for the benefit of the sons of the clergy, and obtained +for that Society a Royal grant of £2,000. Among the direct results of +this work was the raising of the stipends of ministers and +schoolmasters--surely a convincing reply to his critics in the +manses--the abolition of what was then called thirlage or the +compulsory grinding of corn at a particular mill. Charles Abbot, +afterwards Lord Colchester, the originator of the census of England, +wrote to Sinclair: "Your success suggested to me the idea," and the +various bureaux of statistics in the United States and other countries +can be directly traced to the influence of his treatise. + +In the year 1788 Sinclair founded the Wool Society. For some time he +had been wondering why Shetland wool was so extremely fine. Meeting at +the General Assembly in Edinburgh a Shetland minister, he put the +question to him and obtained much valuable information which he at +once laid before the Highland Society. This led him to form the +British Wool Society. It was inaugurated by a grand sheep-shearing +festival at Newhall's Inn, Queensferry, near Edinburgh, in the year +1791. To Sinclair, therefore, belongs the credit of initiating the +sheep-shearing contests which a few years later developed into Coke's +famous "clippings," and which were the precursors of our present +agricultural shows. The first agricultural show was held by the +Highland and Agricultural Society at Edinburgh in 1822. It was the +Long Hill sheep of the East Border that Sinclair re-christened by the +now famous name of Cheviot. These sheep soon became naturalised all +over the north of Scotland, and in a short time the rent of sheep +firms rose to fabulous prices. Pastures of little value under +coarse-woolled sheep yielded large returns. As an illustration of +the practical value of his improvements it may be mentioned that +Sinclair's estate of Langwell, which he had bought for £8,000, +he afterwards sold for £40,000: while the estate of Reay in +Sutherlandshire was purchased at £300,000. The name Cheviot comes +from the range of rounded or cone-shaped hills growing a superior +pasture on the Scottish and English border. + +In the opening lines of this article I spoke of a childish tale about +sheep-shearing. That this legend is not mere fiction may be seen in +the following letter of Arthur Young (see Autobiography of Arthur +Young, page 159): "From Sir J. Sinclair on clothing for sheep which +he sent and desired me to buy. I did so, and the rest of the flock +took them, I suppose, for beasts of prey, and fled in all directions, +till the clothed sheep, jumping hedges and ditches, soon derobed +themselves." + + * * * * * + +In his third lecture in the "Crown of Wild Olives," Ruskin points out +that all the pure and noble arts of peace are founded on war. It is +worth while, therefore, to note that the British Board of Agriculture +was established when Britain was engaged in the supreme struggle with +France, which terminated on the field of Waterloo, that the National +Department of Agriculture in the United States was inaugurated in +the midst of the Civil War, and that the Transvaal Department of +Agriculture was commenced ere peace was signed at Vereeniging. In +the year 1793 Sinclair's services in restoring commercial confidence +during the crisis which occurred at the outbreak of the French War +were recognised by Pitt, who sent for him to come to Downing Street, +thanked him on behalf of the Government, and asked him if there was +anything that he desired. Sinclair replied that he sought no favours +for himself, but the most gratifying of all would be the establishment +by Parliament of a great National Corporation to be called "The Board +of Agriculture." In due course the Board was successfully established +with the King as Patron, Sinclair as President, and Arthur Young as +Secretary. The annual Parliamentary grant was £3,000. + +In this brief review we have no space to follow the fortune of the +Board to the date of the retirement of its inspiring founder, down to +the time when it returned £42,000 to the Treasury--not knowing how to +spend it--till it finally faded away in the year 1822. Yet the Board +accomplished much imperishable work. It carried out agricultural +surveys, published several volumes of "communications," promoted prize +essays on rural topics, encouraged Elkington, the father of drainage, +Macadam the road-maker, and Meikle, the inventor of the threshing +machine, and arranged lectures by Sir Humphry Davy on agricultural +chemistry, and by Young on tillage. + +The north of Scotland at that period owed much to Sinclair. In 1782 +he saved the inhabitants from a serious famine by obtaining a +Parliamentary grant of £15,000. In the same year, along with some +other patriots, he secured the repeal of the law which for +thirty-seven years--since the Rebellion of 1745--had forbidden the +use of the kilt. + +Sinclair was an enthusiastic tree-planter in a country which was once +wittily described by an American visitor as a "Great Clearing." He +rebuilt Thurso, and founded the herring fisheries at Wick. To ensure +the success of this industry he imported Dutch fishermen to teach the +Caithnessmen the art of catching and curing herrings. He introduced +improved methods of tillage, a regular rotation of crops, and the +cultivation of turnips, clover, and rye-grass. One of his many schemes +was a General Enclosure Bill, his toast at agricultural gatherings +being: "May a Common become an Uncommon Spectacle in Caithness." + +In 1786 his attachment to William Pitt was rewarded with a baronetcy. +Sir John's domestic life was singularly happy. On referring to the old +book already mentioned, we read: "He has been twice married to two of +the most beautiful women in the island. His first lady, a Miss +Maitland, died prematurely in the bloom of youth. His present lady is +the daughter of the late Lord Macdonald, and by her he has a son, +George, and other children." + +It cannot be doubted that Sir John loved the limelight, possessed an +unbounded self-conceit, lacked the saving sense of humour, and +over-estimated his own achievements. But these vanities were but the +fitful smoke in the blue flame of a burning energy. What a lesson in +industry for the youth of South Africa. Fifty years of ceaseless toil, +author of thirty-nine volumes and 367 pamphlets. This Scottish +agriculturist died in 1835 at the ripe age of eighty-one, and is +buried according to an ancient family rite, in Holyrood Chapel at +Edinburgh--the friend and confidant of three English kings. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +CYRUS H. McCORMICK: INVENTOR OF THE REAPER + + + _"I expect to die in harness, because this is not the world for + rest. This is the world for work. In the next world we will have + the rest."_--Cyrus H. McCormick. + +It is hardly to be expected that those people who devoutly chant in a +million churches the fourth sentence of the Lord's Prayer should think +with gratitude of any other person than the Divine Giver of all Good. +Yet it is strange to reflect that although every schoolboy knows +something of the life of our least Poet Laureate, not one in ten +thousand could tell you the career of the man who responded in a +truly miraculous manner to the heartfelt, world-voiced matin of both +rich and poor, "Give us this day our daily bread." + +Cyrus H. McCormick, the inventor of the reaping machine, was born in +the eventful year 1809. It was the birth year of Darwin and Tennyson, +of Mendelssohn, Gladstone, and Lincoln. He was born on Walnut Grove +Farm, amidst the mountains of Virginia, one hundred miles from the +sea. He came of that virile stock that has proved to be the main +strength of the Republic, that gave Washington thirty-nine of his +generals, three out of four members of his Cabinet, and three out +of the five judges of the Supreme Court--the Scots who migrated to +Ulster, and thence to the United States. Robert McCormick, the father +of Cyrus, was a fairly large farmer, and an inventor of no mean +ability. The little log workshop is still shown to the enquiring +tourist where father and son moulded and mended machinery on many a +rainy day. Indeed, we are told that the McCormick homestead was more +like a small factory than a farmer's home, so full was it of rural +industries--spinning and weaving, soap and shoes, butter-making and +bacon-curing. And it is more than likely that the ceaseless activity +of his wise and Celtic mother taught Cyrus the value of each moment +of time. + +Ever since he was a child of seven it was his father's ambition to +invent a reaper. He made one, and tried it in the harvest of 1816, but +it proved a failure. It was a fantastic machine, pushed from behind +by two horses. It was highly ingenious, but it would not cut the corn, +and was hauled off the field to become one of the jokes of the +countryside. Hurt by the jests of his neighbours, he locked the door +of his workshop and toiled away at night. Early in the summer of 1831 +he had so improved his reaper that he gave it another trial. Again it +failed. True, the machine cut the corn fairly well, but it flung it +on the ground in a tangled heap. Satisfied that there was something +radically wrong, Robert McCormick gave up the reaper after having +worked at it for over fifteen years. + +At this point Cyrus took up the task which his father had reluctantly +abandoned. He showed his genius from the very start by adopting a new +principle of operation. First of all, he invented the divider to +separate the corn to be cut from the corn left standing. Next came the +reciprocating blade, and the fingers, the revolving reel, platform, +and side draught, and, lastly, the big driving wheel. One day late in +the month of July, in the summer of 1831, Cyrus put a horse between +the shafts of his reaper. With no spectators save his father and +mother, his brothers and sisters, he drove down to a patch of yellow +grain. To that little family circle it must have been a moment of +intense excitement. Click, click, click--the white blade shot to and +fro. What a shout of joy! The wheat is cut and falls upon the platform +in a golden, shimmering swathe! + +Thus at the early age of twenty-two Cyrus had invented the first +practical reaper that the world had seen. And now began his nine +years' struggle with adversity, from which he emerged in triumph to +become the greatest manufacturer of harvesting machines that America +has produced. In order to obtain funds with which to manufacture +reapers he started to farm. But he soon found that it was impossible +to raise sufficient capital by this means. Near by was a large +deposit of iron ore, and he forthwith resolved to build a furnace and +make iron. He persuaded his father and the school teacher to become +his partners. For several years the furnace did fairly well, when, +suddenly, the price of iron fell. The McCormicks were bankrupt. Cyrus +gave up the farm, and stuck grimly to his reaper. One day the village +constable rode up to the farm door with a summons for a debt of +nine-teen dollars, but he was so impressed with the industry of the +McCormicks that he had not the heart to serve the notice. It was the +darkest hour before the dawn. + + * * * * * + +The same year (1840) a stranger rode in from the north and drew rein +in front of the little log workshop. He was a rough looking man with +the homely name of Abraham Smith, but to Cyrus he came as an angel +of light. He had come with fifty dollars in his pocket to buy a +reaper--the first that was ever sold. A short time later two other +farmers came on the same errand, and that summer three reaping +machines were working in the wheat-fields of America. In 1842 +McCormick sold seven machines, and in 1844 fifty. The home farm had +now become a busy factory. + +Three years later a friend said to him "Cyrus, why don't you go West +with your reaper, where the land is level and labour cheap?" + +It was the call of the West. + +He travelled over the boundless prairies, and was quick to see that +this great land-ocean was the natural home of the reaper. Straightway +he transferred his factory to Chicago--then, in 1847, a forlorn little +town of less than 10,000 souls. His business flourished. In the +great fire of 1871 his factory, which was then turning out 10,000 +harvesters a year, was totally destroyed. At the word of his wife he +rebuilt it anew with amazing rapidity. And so we find that the tiny +workshop in the backwoods of Virginia has become the McCormick City +in the heart of Chicago. In the sixty-five years of its life this +manufactory has produced over 6,000,000 harvesting machines, and is +now pouring them out at the rate of over 7,000 per week. The McCormick +Company is now known as the International Harvester Company, and his +eldest son, Cyrus H. McCormick, is the President. The annual output is +75,000,000 dollars. It was the reaper that enabled the United States, +during the four years of the civil war, not only to feed the armies +in the field, but at the same time to export to foreign countries +200,000,000 bushels of wheat. And well might the savants of the French +Academy of Science say, when electing Cyrus McCormick a member, that +"he had done more for the cause of agriculture than any other living +man." + +And now we must trace the evolution of the reaper from its origin on +the Walnut Grove Farm to the marvellous machine of to-day. For about +thirty years it remained practically unaltered in design, save that +seats had been added for the raker and the driver. It did no more than +cut the grain and leave it in loose bundles on the ground. It had +abolished the sickler and cradler, but there still remained the raker +and binder. Might it not be possible to do away with them also, and +leave only the driver? Such was the fascinating problem which now +confronted the inventor. + +In the year 1852 a bedridden cripple called Jearum Atkins bought a +McCormick reaper, and had it placed outside his window. To while away +the weary hours he actually devised an attachment with two revolving +iron arms, which automatically raked off the cut grain from the +platform to the ground. It was a grotesque contrivance, and was +nicknamed by the farmers the "iron man." Nevertheless, this invention +stimulated the manufacture of self-rake reapers, and soon the American +farmer would buy no other kind. Thus part of the problem had been +solved. The raker was abolished. But there still remained the harder +task of supplanting the binder--the man or the woman who gathered up +the bundles of cut corn and bound them tightly together with a wisp +of straw into the sheaf. + +And now another figure appears upon this ever-moving stage, a young +man by the name of Charles B. Withington. Born at Akron, Ohio, a year +before McCormick invented his reaper, this delicate youth was trained +by his father to be a watchmaker. At the age of fifteen, in order to +earn pocket-money, he went into the harvest field to bind corn. He +was not robust, and the hard, stooping labour under a hot sun would +sometimes bring the blood to his head in a hemorrhage. There were +times after the day's work was done when he was too weary to walk +home, and he would throw himself on the stubble to rest. At eighteen +he journeyed to the goldfields of California, drifted to Australia, +and in the year 1855 arrived back in Wisconsin with 3,000 dollars in +his belt. All this money he began to fritter away in trying to invent +a self-rake reaper. Suddenly, inspired by the articles of a rural +editor, who maintained that the binding of corn should be done by a +machine, Withington dropped his self-rake and went straight to work to +make a self-binder. He completed his first machine in 1872, but met +with much discouragement until, two years later, he came across +McCormick. + +Their dramatic meeting is best told by Mr. Herbert M. Casson in his +interesting volume, entitled "Cyrus Hall McCormick: His Life and +Work." + + "One evening in 1874 a tall man; with a box under his arm, walked + diffidently up the steps of the McCormick home in Chicago, and rang + the bell. He asked to see Mr. McCormick, and was shown into the + parlour, where he found Mr. McCormick, sitting, as usual, in a + large and comfortable chair. + + "'My name is Withington,' said the stranger; I live in Janesville, + Wisconsin. I have here a model of a machine that will automatically + bind grain.' + + "Now, it so happened that McCormick had been kept awake nearly the + whole of the previous night by a stubborn business problem. He + could scarcely hold his eyelids apart. And when Withington was in + the midst of his explanation, with the intentness of a born + inventor, Mr. McCormick fell fast asleep. At such a reception to + his cherished machine Withington lost heart. He was a gentle, + sensitive man easily rebuffed, and so, when McCormick aroused from + his nap, Withington had departed, and was on his way back to + Wisconsin. For a few seconds McCormick was uncertain as to whether + his visitor had been a reality or a dream. Then he awoke with a + start into instant action. A great opportunity had come to him, and + he had let it slip. He was at this time making self-rake reapers + and Marsh harvesters; but what he wanted--what every reaper + manufacturer wanted in 1871--was a self-binder. He at once called + one of his trusted workmen. + + "'I want you to go to Janesville,' he said. Find a man named + Withington and bring him to me by the first train that comes back + to Chicago.' + + "The next day Withington was brought back, and treated with the + utmost courtesy. McCormick studied his invention, and found it to + be a most remarkable mechanism. Two steel arms caught each bundle + of grain, whirled a wire tightly around it, fastened the two ends + together with a twist, cut it loose, and tossed it to the ground. + This self-binder was perfect in all its details--as neat and + effective a machine as could be imagined. McCormick was delighted. + At last, here was a machine that would abolish the binding of grain + by hand." + +For six years all went well with the McCormick and Withington +self-binder. This wonderful wire-twisting machine was working +everywhere with clockwork precision, and was believed to be the best +that human ingenuity could devise. All at once the manufacturing world +was startled with the news that William Deering had made and sold +three thousand twine self-binders. Deering, by this dramatic move +became in a flash McCormick's most powerful competitor. He was not a +farmer's son, like the latter, being bred in the city and trained in a +factory. He had been a successful merchant at Maine, then left it to +enter the harvester trade. He staked his whole fortune on making twine +binders. He won, and McCormick was forced to follow in his wake. The +evolution of the reaper into the twine self-binder was an epoch-making +event in the agricultural world. It enormously increased the sales. In +1880, 60,000 reapers were sold; five years later the figures had risen +to 250,000. Since then, with the exception of the new knot-tying +device, there has been no real change in the reaper. It remains the +grandest of all agricultural machines, and one of the most astonishing +mechanisms ever devised by the brain of man. + +McCormick died in 1884. In the span of his own life the reaper was +born and brought to perfection. He created it in a remote Virginian +village, and he lived to see his catalogue printed in twenty +languages, and to know that so long as the human race continues to eat +bread the sun will never set on the Empire of his reaper, for +somewhere, in every month in all the year, you will find the corn +white unto the harvest. + + + * * * * * + + +R. CLAY AND SONS, LTD., BRUNSWICK ST., S.E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. + + + * * * * * + + +=THE RURAL SCIENCE SERIES= + +Edited by Professor L. H. BAILEY + + + =THE SOIL.= By F. H. King. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE FERTILITY OF THE LAND.= By I. P. Roberts. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE SPRAYING OF PLANTS.= By E. G. Lodeman. 5_s._ 6_d._ net, + + =MILK AND ITS PRODUCTS.= By H. H. Wing. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =PRINCIPLES OF FRUIT GROWING.= By L. H. Bailey. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =FERTILIZERS.= By E. B. Voorhees. 5_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE.= By F. H. King. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =RURAL WEALTH AND WELFARE.= By G. T. Fairchild. 5_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE FARMSTEAD.= By I. P. Roberts. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE.= Edited by L. H. Bailey. + 5_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE PRINCIPLES OF VEGETABLE GARDENING.= By L. H. Bailey. + 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =GARDEN-MAKING.= By L. H. Bailey. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE NURSERY BOOK.= By L. H. Bailey. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE PRUNING-BOOK.= By L. H. Bailey. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE FORCING-BOOK.= By L. H. Bailey. 5_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =PLANT BREEDING.= By L. H. Bailey. 5_s._ 6_d._ net. + + +LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. + + + * * * * * + + +=THE RURAL SCIENCE SERIES= + +Edited by Professor L. H. BAILEY + + + =FARM POULTRY.= By G. C. Watson. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS.= By W. H. Jordan. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE FARMER'S BUSINESS HANDBOOK.= By I. P. Roberts. 3_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =THE DISEASES OF ANIMALS.= By Nelson S. Mayo. 8_s._ 6_d._ net. + + =HOW TO CHOOSE A FARM.= By Prof. T. F. 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Harold Powell. 6_s._ 6_d._ net. + + +LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes + +All small caps formatted text has not been converted to ALL CAPS to +distinguish them from titles which were printed as all caps. The +birth year for Thomas William Coke is reported on Page 17 as 1752; +page 36 states "Coke died in 1842 at the age of eighty-eight"; and +Wikipedia reports Coke was born on 6 May 1754 and died 30 June 1842 +(aged 88). So, the year of Coke's birth on page 17 should probably be +1754. Wikipedia shows that a gravestone has been placed on Mr. Tull's +resting place. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Makers of Modern Agriculture, by William Macdonald + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40670 *** |