Kalendar," of which
the 215th edition was published in 1862. There had been a second edition
of the "Six Weeks' Tour in the South of England," with enlargements, in
1769, and Arthur Young was encouraged to go on with increasing vigour to
the publication of "The Farmer's Tour through the East of England: being
a Register of a Journey through various Counties, to inquire into the
State of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Population." This extended to
four volumes, and appeared in the years 1770 and 1771. In 1771 also
appeared, in four volumes, with plates, "A Six Months' Tour through the
North of England, containing an Account of the Present State of
Agriculture, Manufactures, and Population in several Counties of this
Kingdom."

Thus Arthur Young took all his countrymen into counsel while he was
learning his art, as a farmer who brought to his calling a vigorous
spirit of inquiry with an activity in the diffusion of his thoughts that
is a part of God's gift to the men who have thoughts to diffuse; the
instinct for utterance being almost invariably joined to the power of
suggesting what may help the world.

Whether he was essentially author turned farmer, or farmer turned author,
Arthur Young has the first place in English literature as a
farmer-author. Other practical men have written practical books of
permanent value, which have places of honour in the literature of the
farm; but Arthur Young's writings have won friends for themselves among
readers of every class, and belong more broadly to the literature of the
country.

Between 1766 and 1775 he says that he made 3,000 pounds by his
agricultural writings. The pen brought him more profit than the plough.
He took a hundred acres in Hertfordshire, and said of them, "I know not
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. A
nabob's fortune would sink in the attempt to raise good arable crops in
such a country. My experience and knowledge had increased from
travelling and practice, but all was lost when exerted on such a spot."
He tried at one time to balance his farm losses by reporting for the
_Morning Post_, taking a seventeen-mile walk home to his farm every
Saturday night.

In 1780 Arthur Young published this "Tour in Ireland, with General
Observations on the Present State of that Kingdom in 1776-78." The
general observations, which give to all his books a wide ge