Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/160

 various Vegetable Bodies, in a bituminous marshy earth, near Mears-Ashby, in Northamptonshire: with some Reflections thereupon: as also an Account of the Progress he has made in the Natural History of Northamptonshire.' In this, and in his later work, Morton adopted the views of Dr. John Woodward as to the deluge and the entombment of fossils according to their gravities. In 1710 he became rector of Great Oxendon. In 1712 he published 'The Natural History of Northamptonshire, with some account of the Antiquities; to which is annexed a transcript of Domesday Book, as far as it relates to that County,' London, folio. This book deals largely with 'figured fossils,' of which it contains several plates, and Pulteney praises the botanical part; but in Whalley's 'History of Northamptonshire' the transcript of Domesday is said to be very inaccurate. Writing to Richardson in 1713, Morton says: 'I frequently drank your health with my friend Mr. Buddle, and other of the London botanists.' He died on 18 July 1726, aged 55, and was buried at Great Oxendon, where a monument, with an inscription to his memory, was erected at the expense of Sir Hans Sloane.

 MORTON, JOHN (1781–1864), agriculturist, born on 17 July 1781 at Ceres, Fifeshire, was the second son of Robert Morton, by his wife Kate Pitcairn. He was educated at the parish school till the family removed to Flisk. His first farm was 'Wester,' or 'Little Kinnear,' at Kilmany, Fifeshire. While there Morton employed his 'leisure periods' in walking repeatedly over most of the counties of England, noting their geology and farm practice. His notes were afterwards published in his book 'On Soils.' In 1810 he removed to Dulverton, Somerset, where he remained till 1818, when he was appointed agent to Lord Ducie's Gloucestershire estates. Here he projected and conducted the 'Whitfield Example Farm,' and established the 'Uley Agricultural Machine Factory.' He invented the 'Uley cultivator' and other agricultural appliances. In 1852 he resigned his charge and retired to Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, where he died on 26 July 1864. He married, on 15 Jan. 1812, Jean, sister of Dr. Thomas Chalmers [q. v.]

His work 'On the Nature and Property of Soils,' 8vo, London, 1838, 3rd edit. 1842, 4th edit. 1843, was the first attempt to connect the character of the soil with the geological formation beneath, and thus to give a scientific basis to the work of the land valuer. Shortly after its publication he was elected a fellow of the Geological Society. In conjunction with his friend J. Trimmer, the geologist [q. v.], he wrote 'An Attempt to Estimate the Effects of Protecting Duties on the Profits of Agriculture,' 8vo, London, 1845, advocating the repeal of the corn laws from the agricultural point of view. He also published A 'Report on the. . . Whitfield Farm,' 12mo, London, 1840.

His son, (1821–1888), born on 1 July 1821, was educated at the Merchistoun Castle School, Edinburgh, under his uncle, Charles Chalmers. He afterwards attended some of the university lectures, took the first prize for mathematics, and was a student in David Low's agricultural classes [see ]. In 1838 he went to assist his father on the Whitfield Example Farm, and shortly after joined the newly formed Royal Agricultural Society. He accepted the offer of the editorship of the 'Agricultural Gazette' on its foundation in 1844; this connection brought him to London, and continued till his death. When Low retired in 1854 from his chair at Edinburgh, Morton conducted the classes till the appointment of Professor Wilson. He was inspector under the land commissioners, and also served for six years (1868–74) with Dr. Frankland and Sir W. Denison on the royal commission for inquiry into the pollution of rivers. Morton died at his Harrow residence on 3 May 1888. He married in 1854 Miss Clarence Cooper Hayward of Frocester Court, Gloucestershire. A son, Mr. E. J. C. Morton, was elected M.P. for Devonport in 1892.

Morton edited and brought out: 1. 'A Cyclopædia of Agriculture' in 1855. 2. 'Morton's New Farmer's Almanac,' 12mo and 8vo, London, 1856–70. Continued as 'Morton's Almanac for Farmers and Landowners,' 1871, &c. 3. 'Handbook of Dairy Husbandry,' 8vo, London, 1860. 4. 'Handbook of Farm Labour,' 8vo, London, 1861; new edit. 1868. 5. 'The Prince Consort's Farms,' 4to, London, 1863. 6. 'An Abstract of the Agricultural Holdings. . . Act, 1875,' for Bayldon's 'Art of Valuing Rents,' &c. 9th edit. 8vo, London, 1876. He also edited 'Arthur Young's Farmer's Calendar,' 21st edit. 8vo, London, 1861-2, which he reissued as the 'Farmer's Calendar' in 1870; 6th edit. 1884; and the 'Handbooks of the Farm' Series, 7 vols. 1881-4, contributing to the series 'Diary of the Farm,' 'Equipment of the Farm,' and 'Soil of the Farm.' For a time he helped to edit the 'Journal of the