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done with a view of loosening the soil, and giving a littlewarmth to a piece of ground which was naturally cold andclayey ; nor was any other manure used. The drillswere afterwards once watered, to take off the drynessand heat of the ashes. The roots were placed firmly in theground, and two inches of the stalks covered with mould.

Yet here it must be freely acknowledged, that the hopesof possessing a large crop occasioned one mistake, whichwe chose rather to mention than suppress, as many peoplemay happen to entertain the fame false expectances. Themistake was that we made our rows two feet a sunder,which was over narrow; and placed the plants, in thelines, only six inches apart, which brought them nearertogether than they ought to have stood, even though theground was very poor: nor did we foresee, that hotse-hoeploughing is five times more efficacious, as well as cheaper,than hand-hoeings.

Therefore, after frequent experiments, since made, itappears best to make the lines three feet four inches distantfrom each other: and if the foil be good, it may not beamiss to allow each plant a foot distance one from anotherin the lines, for thus the hand-hoers will work morecommodiously, and a little hough-plough may be guidedsafely up and down the intervals, which will save a greatdeal of trouble ; nor will the future crops be lessened, bysuch thin transplanting, half so much as may be imagined ;but, on the eon tray, the plants will be larger, morejuicy and better tasted ; which circumstance may be ex-tended in favour of the New Husbandry in general. Spaceand culture improve the herbage and seeds of plants; inproof whereof I have been assured, from good authority,that all the corn, raised by M. de Chateauvieux, sells atan advanced price; being larger, brighter, and healthierthan common corn, and, consequently, more fit for sow-ing, or making bread.

But, by way of confirming the necessity of allowinglucern roots a good share of space, a friend of the author’ssilled an acre with plants, according to the first directions;but, the foil proving extremely good, and free from weeds,it soon appeared that the roots stood too close : in conse-quence whereof, every other plant was taken up the nextautumn, and, a fresh acre of land being properly preparedto receive them, he thus gained a new plantation of lu-cern, at a small expence, with little trouble : and, whatis more remarkable, it is thought the second acre bore alarger quantity of herbage than the first would have done,if the plants had continued as they were, without beingthinned, to the amount of one half. Of course, there isreason to conclude, that this flight hint, which took its rifefrom mere accident, ought not to be looked upon as quiteunufeful, since two acres may be raised with almost thesame expence as a single acre.

In ten days, though a drought succeeded, some trans-planted plants made shoots of three inches height; whichvigorous growth gave better hopes than had been con-ceived at first.

It was also some encouragement to the undertaker, thathe found wild lucern within two musket shots of theplace where the nursery was formed. These plants werecertainly aborigines ; for they grew in a part of the king-dom where the name of lucern had rarely been heard of,except by gentlemen. Besides, no person curious in huf-LanAy Would have ventured sowing the feeds in such anu.’i Htv.siog piece of ground; for the field, where theVs’iio so-:crn grew, was a fort of coarse uncultivated mo-

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rass, and valued only at about two shillings and six-pence an acre.

\et still the approach of winter made many personsdoubtful concerning the success of this new plantation ;nevertheless, it was some satisfaction to recollect, thatthere is less harsh, severe cold in England (and that almostby one third) than in the territory of Geneva, where theoriginal experiment was made, and where the plant we arespeaking of has been known to thrive so extremely well.

At length the winter passed over, and, out of fourthousand roots, only thirty or forty perished, whether byfrosts, immoderate rains, or any other accident, is hardto fay : but the labourer filled up all the vacant spacesfrom the nursery in about an hour, and in April, 1758most of the plants were nearly equal in size and strength ;of a deep juicy verdure, with few or no discoloured sicklyleaves: but, May the eighth, people counted sixty stemsfrom one particular root, and the stalks and leaves ofsome chosen plants weighed near half a pound at onecutting. Yet we learn, by experience, that lucern mustonly be considered as in a progressive state, till the thirdsummer after transplanting; and then M. du Hamel assuresus, that one flourishing plant will produce- a pound ofwell-dried hay; which is saying a great deal, and muchmore than I could ever verify; for if a single plant pro-duces one pound of hay, it must have weighed fourpounds when it was green. Yet I have received an ac-count from an eminent physician in our own country,(who planted two acres of lucern by my directions) thatmany of his plants, in the second year, yielded near halfa pound of hay each plant.

As an acre of lucern, thus managed, will contain moreroots than one is apt to imagine at first guess, how greatmust the produce be of four or five cuttings every year,and those confessedly the most nourishing and palatablefood that cattle can eat! For thus much is certain,amongst other advantages, that, if a field be industriouslyhoed, ploughed in the intervals and spaces, and hand-weeded in the rows, for the first two or three years, it isalmost sure, that horses, cows, or sheep, will hardly finda single weed in a large quantity of green food.

We will now mention the state of our transplanted lu-cern in its second year, namely, 1758.

And here let it be remembred, that what cultivatorscall a proper time for cutting is, when the plants are aboutfifteen or sixteen inches high, at an average, throughoutthe field : but this must be understood in a relative fense,for some plants will be two or three feet high, and othersmay not be above ten inches, or one foot, in height, ac-cording to the circumstances of heal th, space, situation,&c.of the several rcots.

The cuttings of the year 1758 were as follows : May8th, June 7th, July 12th, August 20th, and October ist-

In the year 1759, it was cut five times, and six timesin 1760 ; which made sixteen cuttings in three years.Nay by the ninth of April, in 1760, some of the lucernplants,were near seventeen inches high, at a time whenno field in the neighbourhood had grafs of four inchesheight, though you took five or six acres together. Thefame lucern was cut twice, before any hay-making be-gan in the country round it, if we except some feWmeadows lying near market-towns.

Having carried on my first experiment thus far, uponalmost as unpromising a piece of land as could be found,and being sensible I had made some mistakes from want of

experience,