works is that they were translated into Russian, German, and French.
He tells us in the preface to _Rural Economy_ that his constant
employment for the previous seven years, 'when out of my fields, has
been registering experiments.' His pet aversions were absentee
landlords, obsolete methods of cultivation, wastes and commons, and
small holdings (though towards the end of his life he changed his
opinion as to the last); and the following, according to him, were the
especially needed improvements of the time:--

The knowledge of good rotations of crops so as to do away with
fallows, which was to be effected by the general use of turnips,
beans, peas, tares, clover, &c., as preparation for white corn;
covered drains; marling, chalking, and claying; irrigation of meadows;
cultivation of carrots, cabbages, potatoes, sainfoin, and lucerne;
ploughing, &c., with as few cattle as possible; the use of harness for
oxen; cultivation of madden liquorice, hemp, and flax where
suitable.[441] Above all, the cultivation of waste lands, which he was
to live to see so largely effected.

There was little knowledge of the various sorts of grasses at this
time, and to Young is due the credit of introducing the cocksfoot, and
crested dog's tail.

In 1790 he contemplated retiring to France or America, so heavy was
taxation in England. 'Men of large fortune and the poor', he said, in
words which many to-day will heartily endorse, 'have reason to think
the government of this country the first in the world; the middle
classes bear the brunt.' Perhaps to-day 'men of large fortune' have
altered their opinion and only 'the poor' are satisfied. However, he
only visited France, and gave us his vivid picture of that country
before the great revolution.

In 1793 the Board of Agriculture was formed, and Young was made
secretary with a salary of L400 a year.

About 1810 he wrote that the preceding half-century had been by far
the most interesting in the progress of agriculture, and ascribes the
increase of interest in it to the publication of his _Tours_. George
III told him he always took with him the _Farmer's Letters_. The
improvement, Young said, had been largely due to individual effort,
for commerce had been predominant in Parliament and agriculture had
begun to be neglected; a statement which, seeing that Parliament was
then almost entirely composed of landowners, must be accepted with
some reserve.

Young died in 1820, having been totall