acres being fcarcely fufficient to dung one: whereas the particles of the earth may be divided and fubdivided, ad infinitum. 2. Plants reared in dung, have not the fine flavour of those that grow in a foil which has not been dunged. 3. The plough not only divides the particles, full as well as the fermentation occafioned by dung, but alfo changes their fituation, by turning the earth up-fide down, thereby expofing the whole, at different times, to the influences of the fun, air, and dews; all which greatly conduce to render it fertile. 4. Dung harbours infects, which afterwards feed upon, and fpoil the plants. To remedy this inconvenience, the following method is recommended, in a note. Let a referve of quick-lime be kept in a very dry place. When you begin to make your dunghill, fprinkle each layer of dung with quick-lime, till the whole is finished. This kills moft infects, and perhaps enriches the dung, and renders it more ferviceable. This lime will likewife deftroy the feeds of C weeds, which generally are in dung, and which hurt the wheat when they fhoot up.'

The usefulness of dung, however, is not denied, where it can be had, in fufficient quantities; but ftill the benefit arifing from frequent plowings is strongly infifted on: infomuch, that it is even afferted, that fome farmers who have doubled the number of plowings, have found their lands more fertilized thereby, than if they had been greatly dunged: and three plowings extraordinary, do not coft half fo much as one dunging.

In the 8th Chapter, which treats of Manures, we are told that dung, like other compofts, acts by fermentation; and therefore, is of moft fervice in the old husbandry, in which the earth is not so much pulverifed, by tillage, as in the new. In this chapter we meet with a great many useful obfervations, taken chiefly from Tull, from the new System of Agriculture, from Evelyn, Miller, Lifle, Borlafe's Natural History of Cornwal, the Philofophical Tranfactions, Quinteney, Home, Ellis, Worlidge, and other English writers; and at the latter end of the chapter, we have Mr. Duhamel's account of the methods of liming land, as practifed in lower Normandy; and of burn-beaking in France. But as thefe accounts are fomewhat tedious, and not very likely to be adopted here, we fhall refer the curious reader to the book itfelf for fatisfaction.-We cannot, however, omit the following defcription of marle, as it is one of the most valuable inanures, efpecially for fandy foils: though frequently neglected for want of being fufficiently known.

• The

• The colour [of marle] is, either red, brown, yellow, blue, grey, or mixed. It is to be known by its pure, and uncompounded nature. There are many marks to diftinguish it by; fuch as its breaking into little fquare bits; its falling <eafily to pieces, by the force of a blow, or upon being expofed to the fun, and the froft; its feeling fat and oily, • and shining when it is dry.-But the most unerring way to judge of marle, and know it from any other fubftance, ⚫ which may appear like it, is, to break a piece as big as a large nutmeg, and, when it is quite dry, drop it to the 'bottom of a glass of clear water, where, if it be right, it ⚫ will diffolve and crumble, as it were duft, in a very little ⚫ time, fhooting up many sparkles to the furface of the water.'

*

The 9th Chapter, upon Plowing, contains little but extracts from Mr. Tull, and the author of the new Syftem of Agriculture; for which reafon we pass it 'over.

In order to promote the use of the new husbandry, the 10th chapter, (the greatest part of which here follows) treats Of the advantage of cultivating annual Plants while they grow, as the Vine and other perennial Plants are cultivated.'

The earth is generally prepared to fit it for receiving the feeds of annual plants, and, fome few leguminous plants 'excepted, all others are left to fhift for themselves, till they ⚫ have yielded that part for which they are cultivated.-But we propofe tilling the earth during the growth of annual plants, as is done with the vine and other perennials in different feasons of the year. For as tillage is of very great fervice to plants, it is proper to make ufe of it, when they are in the greatest need of food, Though land be never so well 'tilled in autumn, it hardens, or faddens in the winter, its particles approach one another, weeds fpring up, which rob the useful plants of their nourishment, and at the end of the winter, the ground is in nearly the fame condition, as ' if it had not been plowed at all. Yet it is at this season that plants ought to fhoot with the greateft vigour. They confequently, ftand more in need of the plow, to destroy weeds, to lay fresh earth to their roots, in the room of ' that which they have exhausted, to break the particles of 'the earth anew, to enable the roots to extend themfelves, and gather that ample provifion of food, of which they at. this time ftand in the greatest need.-In the common husbandry, the whole attention is to provide a great ftore of 'nourishment for wheat, at a time when it fcarce confumes

The late celebrated Aaron Hill, Efq; For an ample examination of this work, fee Review, Vol. XII. p. 57.

L 4

any,

any, as it then produces only a few leaves. But, when the • winter rains, and the first drying heat of the spring, have • rendered the earth almoft as hard as if it had never beeri plowed, the wheat is abandoned to itself, at a time wheri it might, and ought to be, affifted by proper culture.Our farmers, in this, act as prepofterously, as it would be to give a child a great deal of food, and diminish it graέ dually as he grows bigger.The great advantage of hav ing land in fine tilth before it is fowed, is univerfally allow-" ed: but we must not ftop at these firft preparations. Plants require a due culture whilft they grow, and must not be abandoned till they come to their full maturity.-Some garden plants acquire great ftrength by being transplanted; because, after having been confined in the nursery, they are put into large beds, where they find a new and loofe mould. The plants of corn may be equally benefited by plowing, or ftirring the earth near them. If any of their roots are difplaced or broke, the plant does not fuffer by it, because it shoots out feveral inftead of one; and most of the roots not having been difplaced or hurt, they continue to supply the plant with nourishment, till the difplaced or broken roots have taken fresh hold of the earth; and then the plant becomes more vigorous than before: for when a root is cut, it fhoots out feveral new ones, proper to draw. nourishment from the earth. The breaking of a root is therefore a means of multiplying the mouths, or rather fuckers which collect the nourishment of plants.-Thofe who are against thefe frequent plowings, are afraid of drying the earth too much for they fay that the moisture efcapes with greater difficulty from a hard earth, than from that which has been well ftirred by plowing.--It may be k granted, that the moisture which is in the earth, does not evaporate fo eafily whilft the earth is hard, as when it is in a loofe ftate but in the first place, it is certain, that that moifture will be rather burtful than ufeful to plants *.-Secondly, tour adverfaries muft allow, that well plowed land will more ¿ readily admit the moisture of rain and dews, than land which is not fo. The following experiment proves the • truth of this allertion.

If feveral rows of wheat are fown in a poor, but well plowed land, the blades of the corn will turn yellow in ipring, efpecially in dry weather. If the ground border

This ipfe dixit may, very poffibly, be true: but the reafon why might as well have been added, for the reader's greater fatisfaction.

• ing

*ing upon thefe rows be plowed deep, in fome places near, and in others at a confiderable diftance from the rows, the corn will recover its verdure first in the places that are neareft to the new plowed ground, and afterwards gradually in the others, according to their diftance; which proves that * the wheat recovers its verdure, in proportion as its roots * reach the loose earth. In short, ftirring the earth about * plants while they are growing, is fo useful, that in fome parts of Berkshire, and in fome diftricts of the Gatinois, they hand-hoe their wheat; and though this operation is expensive, it is affirmed that the crops amply repay all the <charge and trouble. How much more profitable [then] < would it be if this labour could be done at a less expence? The methods propofed in the following chapter, will fhew that it may."

Chap. 11.

General defcription of the drill and horfe-hoing Huf bandry, for the culture of annual Plants.'

Our author refers, for the defcription of the inftruments ufed in the new husbandry, to a subsequent chapter, where they are illuftrated by ingravings upon copper; and here he only obferves that the drill (a principal machine in conducting this new method of husbandry), is drawn by one, or two horfes, forms furrows of what depth, and at what distance is defired, drops into the furrow the exact quantity of feed thought proper, and immediately covers it.-As to the horseboe, it is only a light kind of plough, to clear off the weeds, and loofen the ground, betwixt the rows of corn, as it grows. He then examines the following questions, viz. 1. At what depth the feed ought to be fown: 2. The quantity of feed proper to be fown: and 3. The distance at which the rows fhould be fown:-for the fowing in rows, is an effential point to be regarded in the new husbandry: and though the width of the alleys, or fpaces between the beds, on which the rows are fown, (three, or four, upon each bed) feems at first fight a confiderable objection against the new method; yet, we are told, that a proper trial will foon remove this prejudice. For, it is alleged, in favour of the method here recommended, that

• At harvest, it will be found, that most of the grains of wheat have produced twenty or thirty ftalks a-piece; where as, in the common husbandry, they feldom exceed two or three. [So that] if it were poffible to distribute those twen ty, or thirty ftalks, in the alleys, the earth would appear as well covered as when the whole is fown in the ufual

broada

broad-caft way. But as the ears are likewife larger, and filled with better grain, it follows, that, the crop is, in fact, more plentiful.In the common way of fowing, the earth appears at first fight well covered with plants. But as all thefe plants cannot find fufficient nourishment, and it is impoffible to affift them by culture, many of them perish before they ripen, the greatest part of them remain poor and ftinted, and the feed is almoft entirely loft: whereas, by the new method, all the plants find fufficient nourishment, and being affifted from time to time, by proper culture, become ftrong and vigorous; infomuch, that I have • seen land cultivated in the common way, not yield the fifth • part of the produce of lands fown and cultivated according

to the new method.

Befides, when land is fowed according to our method, it is lefs exhausted than in the common way; or rather, it will be in a condition to fupply feveral crops of wheat, which will become better every year, because the corn is fown in beds made in the middle of the former alleys, ⚫ where the earth has been thoroughly and deeply plowed.'

Chap. 12. is upon the subject of Change of Species, in Plants.

Chap. 13. treats of the common Culture of Wheat, according to the old method. Chap. 14. gives us rules for the Culture of Wheat according to the new Hufbandry: but as they are too long to be inferted entire, and might fuffer by an abridgment; we shall refer the reader to the book itself, for fatisfaction in this particular.

Chap. 15. treats of the Advantages of the new Husbandry: which are fummed up thus, at p. 76. Little, or no

dung is employed: the earth is not refted: it is not taken up with grain of lefs value, nor is the expence increased, for the culture which is bestowed upon the corn whilst growing, prepares the ground for the enfuing crop, and, only two thirds of the ground is plowed. The horfe-hoings anfwer the end of the four plowings, given [in the common way] during the year of fallow: they are even more beneficial for it has been obferved, that the third crop of a <field fown with wheat five years running, was a twentieth part greater than either of the preceding crops, and that the fifth was the beft of all. The farmer must not there'fore repine at the feeming lofs of the alleys, feeing that his lands are conftantly employed, and that the wheat branches out into fo many ftalks, that, if fpread equally over the whole field, as in the common husbandry, they would nearly • cover all the alleys.'

Chap.