On his way he notes many things.

He sees (you'll excuse me, Farmer, but I can't help it) that you're all behind the world, and the land is yielding less than half of what it ought.

Have you ever seen a book by Lord Dundonald on the connection between Agriculture and Chemistry?
No?
I thought not.

Do you know of any manure better than the ore-weed you gather down at the Cove?
Or the plan of malting grain to feed your cattle on through the winter?
Or the respective merits of oxen and horses as beasts of draught?
But these matters, though the life and soul of modern husbandry, are as nothing to this lump in my hand.

What do you call the field we're now standing in ?" "Parc Dew." "Exactly--the 'black field,' or the 'field of black soil': the very name should have told you.