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to the grofs and violent. For, besides that such compost (at least so pre-pared as it ought to be) is not every where, nor always to be had inquantities, to confide in dungs and ordure,' is neither so safe, nor of thatimportance to our husbandman, as some are made to believe; since if Weshall look back into the best experience of elder days, (Hesiod ) we shallfind they made very little or no use at all of stercoration °. I know somethere be who attribute this neglect to the natural fertility of the country,considering dung as the busy nurse of vermine and nauseous accidents -but waving these, (without intending to desert the aid of soil in place andtime) I proceed with what I call more natural helps; namely, opening,stirring, and ventilating the earth, and sometimes the contrary, coverture,shade, rest, and forbearance for a season, as we daily see it practised inour worn-out and exhausted lay-fields, which enjoy their sabbaths. It iscertain, that for our gardens of pleasure, the fairest beauties of the parterrerequire rather a fine, quick, friable, and well-wrought mould, than onerank or richly dunged : And even all fruit-trees affect not to stand upon
artificial and loose composts, but in naturally rich and sweet mould*within the scent and neighbourhood of well-consumed soil for the irextlayer under, and above, so as the virtue thereof may be derived to itthrough a colature of natural earth; those forcing mixtures being more
® Mr. Tull, who revived a mode of husbandry anciently practised, was a great enemyto dung, being of opinion that frequent ploughing was all "that was necefsary towards ren-dering the earth fertile: By his theory, earth, minutely pulverized, constitutes the foodof plants, and under that erroneous influence there is no wonder that he recommended theconstant working of the plough and horse-hoe. By his method, commonly called' the NewHusbandly , no change of species is required, as wheat land is continually cropped with thatgrain, and so of others. The seed is drilled in rows with an interval of four feet, whichin summer is continually worked with the horse-hoe. This interval, kept clear of weeds,constitutes a fallow for the succeeding crop; and in this manner the land annually producesthe same grain. However ingenious this method may appear in the clofet, it loses its ex-cellence, when reduced to practice in the field, as. from the experiments of Sir DigbyLegard, of Ganton, in Yorkshire , and even of Mr. Tull himself, the crop does not suffi-ciently pay the cultivator for his additional trouble and expense. And here I wish to beunderstood as speaking of the drill husbandry with wide intervals; for drilling of grain inequidistant rows constitutes quite a different system. My very, worthy and.excellent friend-the late Rev. Sir. William Anderson, has given the public a very just idea of this last me-thod, for which the reader is desired to consult the Georgical Efsays, p. 357. "p^ps
system has infinite merit, when applied to beans and turnips, which, to the shame of thiscountry, still continue to be cultivated in the old method. In Scotland the drilling offbeans and turnips is well understood..