Conclusion

 Means of improvement, and the measures calculated for that purpose.

The improvement of every species of livestock has already been attended to in this county, with a success which proves they have acted on true principles, and a continuance of which will extend and increase such improvement. If any thing be wanting to make it more general and extensive, it may be the assistance of the landlord or his agent in procuring improved male animals, for the use of the smaller tenantry, charging them interest for the expense of such accommodation.
The improvement and increase of the means and resources for supporting capital live stock has also, in some measure, kept pace with the improvement of such stock. Much has been done in draining and irrigation, and thus improving and increasing the produce of grass land, as well as in the cultivation of green crops, and the introduction of new species or varieties of the best kinds : it remains therefore to extend drainage and watering to all land capable of those improvements, and much remains still to be done in this way. Many pastures are also injured, and rendered unsightly by ant-hills ; these should be removed, as well as bushes, and other rubbish. The inferior pastures should be permitted to be ploughed up, in order to improve them, and lay them down better. Their improvement would be effected on strong land, thus : 1. Drain where necessary, and plough up for oats ; and, in case of tough hassocky turf, pare and burn before ploughing, so far as that extends : 2. After the oats, plough in autumn, and give a complete winter and summer fallow for wheat or barley, with from five to six tons of lime per acre, and plenty of the best seeds sown with the barley, or if wheat amongst the crop in the spring ; for lighter lands, after the oats, fallow for a green crop, and lime as before ; and, if the ground be not well cleaned and pulverised, repeat a second green crop, and lay down in spring with barley, or spring wheat, with plenty of the best and cleanest seeds. It is necessary to the complete success of the seeds, that the green crops preceding them should be eaten off in time, so as to admit of the land being well pulverised by two ploughings, for grass seeds amongst clods will not succeed so as to form the best pasture. Plenty of white clover should be sown, eight to ten pounds of the seed per acre, if permament pasture is intended, and on the proper soil a peck or more of burnet should be added. This plant is adapted only to dry calcareous soils, where it will be perennial and productive : on moist or strong loams it is improper, and the best natural grasses are to be preferred : and here I cannot but express a wish, that the respectable Agricultural Society already formed, would encourage the growth of the best native and perennial grasses, and other plants, by offering and continuing a premium for the best cultivated herbage for mowing, of the first year, sown with barley, or in some crop of grain ; and the principal staple of which shall not be red clover and ray grass, but some other perennial herbage fit for pasture, or mowing annually, and not being less than five acres, suppose ten guineas ; and for the second best, and not being less than three acres, suppose five guineas. By an encouragement of this nature, perhaps something may be brought forward to improve the grass land, even of the county of Leicester : the crops to be viewed at Midsummer by proper judges appointed by the Society.
If any fault is to be found with the general system of Leicestershire agriculture, it is with the scanty breadth of land sown with wheat ; but this cannot well be increased from the other cultivated lands, without lessening the quantity of livestock. The oats, beans, and vetches grown are all consumed by the horses, necessary to keep up a breeding stock, and do the agricultural and other business. Fallows are as nearly abolished as they can be expected to be, and the number of sheep and cattle kept cannot be lessened, without the ill effect of such measure being severely felt, in the populous neighbourhood and in the metropolis. The cultivation of Charnwood would probably for many years, add 1000 acres per annum, to the breadth of wheat grown in the county.
And here I cannot but again repeat, that the destruction of weeds with flying seeds, growing in hedges, highways, and on heaps of compost, as well as in cultivated land, would be a means of general improvement, and that the foulness of the beans and other crops, is in some measure owing to this neglect ; and that if this object be neglected by the occupier, it is worthy the interference of the landlord or his agent, if not the police, as a means to improve the country.
As an abstract of the whole, and to delineate the idea I have formed of Leicestershire agriculture, cultivation, and stock kept, I will suppose an ideal farm, containing a two-thousandth part of the extent of the county, well stocked and conducted upon the general average system of Leicestershire management, as now in practice in the county. Such a farm would contain, within fractions, nearly as follows :-

The cultivation of this farm would require 12 persons, and their families might consist 12 more, in all 24 persons, employed, or maintained, and supported by employment, on 240 acres of cultivated land, which is one person to every ten acres. This is the proportion returned from Leicestershire, under the Population Act, nearly.
These 24 persons might consist of the master, mistress, and two children, three men and 3 maid servants, four labourers, or agricultural mechanics, with their wives, and 6 children, or the number made up by different variations.
The annual marketable produce from such a farm, after the families employed upon it are provided for, may be thus estimated :

As part of the produce of hogs was reckoned in the dairy, the rest must be allowed to fill up deficiencies, and at 900l. after supplying bread and beer for those employed and their families.

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