All this our young farmer is not supposed to sit down and master before he proceeds with the proper business of his new farm; it will be a subject of study with him in many future months, and winters too.  But after a most judicious recommendation, to observe and record whatever occurs either new or interesting in his field of labour—­without which record he will not be able to contribute, as he may hereafter do, to the extension of agricultural knowledge—­he is taught next, in an able chapter “upon soils and sub-soils,” to study the nature of his farm more thoroughly; to ascertain its natural capabilities—­the improvements of which it is susceptible—­the simplest, most efficacious, and most economical means by which this improvement may be effected—­and the kind of implements which it will be most prudent in him to purchase for tilling the kind of land of which his farm consists, or for bringing it into a more fertile condition.  This chapter also draws largely, especially upon geological and chemical science, and affords another illustration of what, I trust, Mr. Stephens’s book will more and more impress upon our working farmers, that skilful practice is applied science.  We have not room for any extracts, but when we mention that in the chemical part of it the author has been assisted by Dr. Madden, readers of the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture will be able to form an estimate of the way in which this chapter has been got up.

Having now satisfied himself of the nature of his farm as to soil and capabilities, he sees that new enclosures and shelter will be necessary—­that some fields must be subdivided, others laid out anew—­that old hedge-rows must be rooted out or straightened, and new ones planted in their room.  Of what all this may be made to accomplish for his farm, and of how the work itself may be done, even to the minutest details, the chapters on “enclosures and shelter,” and on “planting of farm hedges,” will fully inform him.  The benefits of shelter on our elevated lands, are not half understood.  Thousands upon thousands of acres are lying in comparative barrenness, which, by adequate shelter, might be converted into productive fields.  The increase of mean temperature which results from skilful enclosures, is estimated at 5 deg. to 8 deg.  Fahrenheit; while in regard to the increased money value, Mr. Thomas Bishop gives the following testimony:—­

“Previous to the division of the common moor of Methven in Perthshire, in 1793, the venerable Lord Lynedoch and Lord Methven had each secured their lower slopes of land adjoining the moor with belts of plantation.  The year following I entered Lord Methven’s service, and in 1798 planted about sixty acres of the higher moor ground, valued at 2s. per acre, for shelter to eighty or ninety acres set apart for cultivation, and let in three divisions to six individuals.  The progress made in improving the land was very slow for the first fifteen years, but thereafter went on