When land is poor and full of root-weeds, it ought to be plowed in the winter, or as foon in the fpring as it is in a proper condition, that fo it may have the benefit of the drought and of the North and Eaft winds, which are common at that feafon. It ought to be plowed in fuch a manner, as to expofe the largest and the most uneven furface; because thereby the drought has the eafier accefs to destroy the roots, and the winds have the easier accefs to impregnate the foil. The kind of plowing most proper is, in very narrow ridges, and very broad and deep furrows: because the narrower that the ridges are, and the broader and deeper the furrows, the larger and more uneven is the surface made.

It fhould be plowed a fecond time early in the fummer, in the fame kind of ridges and furrows; but acrofs, if the fituation of the land allows. This renders the furface ftill more extenfive and uneven; and if in any places, by the former plowing, the earth of the furrows have been turned over whole, they are broken by the crofs plowing, roots are better expofed, and the air has cafier accefs.

It feems to have been the common practice among the Romans, to plow across at the second plowing of the fallow. Some, fays Columella, piant their vines in the form of a Quincunx, that the field, like fallow, may be plowed both along and acrofs.

He too, fays Vírgil, greatly improves his lands, who, having firft plowed along, plows the fecond time acrofs.

The third plowing fhould reverfe the firft, turn the crowns into the furrows, and the furrows into the crowns. This is better than plowing at random, without any regard to the first made ridges; for thereby the foil buried in the first-made crowns, is more fully expofed by turning them into fur

IOWS.

Sometimes this kind of land rifes in large clods, and continues in that fituation, though expofed for a confiderable time to the influence of the air. This makes an after-plowing very difficult and indeed, when a plowing is given to land in this fituation, it ferves little other purpose than to turn over the clods. In this cafe, the heavy roller must be used immediately before plowing; which in fome measure reduces the foil, and renders the plowing more beneficial.

If the fallow is to be dunged and fown with wheat, and if the furface is very rough, it will not be amifs to harrow, and even to roll it, before the dung is laid on, and the land gets the last plowing or feed-furrow. The rolling breaks the clods, and the harrowing takes out the roots that remain; and as the land is to be plowed immediately, the harrowing is no

difadvantage, even though all the roots fhould not have been deftroyed. I need fcarcely obferve, that this operation of harrowing or rolling, fhould be performed immediately after a fhower, as thereby it becomes more effectual for the purposes for which it is defigned. Clods upon the furface, after wheat is fown, do no harm; they rather do good, they afford a fhelter to the young plants during the winter, and their mouldering down in the fpring, as they always do after froft, affords a fresh fupply of nourishment: but clods upon the furface, before the feed-furrow is given, prevent the dung from being equally and regularly fpread, and render it dif ficult to plow with fuch exactnefs as the feed Furrow requires.'

If thefe obfervations are familiar, and convey no information to the intelligent farmer, it is perhaps as ufeful to acquaint the lefs informed hufbandman with the reafons upon which the best eftablished methods are founded, that he may understand what he practises, as to allure him to depart from old ufages by flattering eftimates.

We fhall next give his general remarks on fowing.

There are two different ways of fowing. In the ordinary way of fowing, the feed is fcattered by the hand; and men, by practice, become tolerably exact in doing it. The other way is by a machine called a Drill, made on purpofe. This machine is more troublesome in fowing, and lefs expeditious than the common way of fowing by the hand; and, like all complex machines, is apt to go out of order, and put a flop to the work: but then the fowing by it is attended with advantages that do far more than overbalance thefe. This machine is conftructed in fuch a manner, as to diftribute the feed with the greatest exactness, fo that the precife quantity propofed may be fown upon any field, and, at the fame time, the feed equally diftributed over all. But there is fill a greater advantage that attends fowing by the drill; the regularity with which the feed is fown, allows the corn to be cleared of weeds, with little trouble, and at no great expence. The drill fows the feed in rows; this allows the hoe to be used for the deftruction of the weeds, which cannot be done when the feed is fcattered in the ordinary way.

The quantity of feed proper to be fown depends upon a variety of circumstances; the kind of feed, the feafon of fowing and the fituation of the land. These things fall naturally under our confideration, when the culture of particular plants is treated of. However, it will not be improper in this place to confider, in the general, whether the fowing thin or fowing thick is moft advantageous. It is not neceffary to be very particular in explaining what is meant by thin or thick fowing. The fow

ing

ing less than what is commonly done in any part of the coun try, is thin fowing; the fowing more than this, is thick fowing. The generality of the writers upon this fubject recommend thin fowing, and they complain much of the obftinacy of the farmers, for not following their directions. The farmers are not fo obftinate as not to try the different ways of lowing, nor fo ignorant as not to know when to fow the one way, and when the other. They often fow thinner than they ought to do, as appears from the fituation of the crop; and perhaps as many farmers may be found that leffen their crops by fowing too thin, as there are that hurt them by fowing too thick. I am perfuaded that the quantity of feed commonly used is the most proper. The farmers in general, whatever they may be in other refpects, are certainly attentive enough in their management, to every thing that faves expence. Their greatest fault, generally speaking, is the one oppofite to this. They fcruple to lay out money, though the advantage is obvious; but they are apt enough to enter into the faving plan, whenever there is a probability that it will fucceed. Had the trials of sowing thin, which have been made, proved very fuccefsful, we may be certain that the practice, before this time, would have become general.

Previous to the infifting with the farmers to use a smaller quantity of feed than they commonly do, they fhould be directed to clear their land of weeds: for, without this, the ufing lefs feed, inftead of being beneficial, muft certainly prove a real difadvantage. Some of our richeft lands in Scotland are very much infefted with weeds, and the preparation made for fowing gives fuch encouragement to the vegetating of their feeds, that the land produces for certain a plentiful crop of fome one thing or other. If a fmall quantity of feed is fown, a great many weeds fpring up along with it; thefe weeds prevent all the advantages of thin fowing: they prevent the corn from tillering, or fooling, as we call it in Scotland; they keep the air from the roots of the corn, and thereby expofe it to be lodged; and befides, they come to perfection themselves, and fow their feeds: whereas, when the feed is thick fown, the corn foon covers the surface, and prevents many of the weeds from getting up. It must be acknowledged indeed, that, when corn is fown thick upon rich land, it is in very great danger of being lodged and it is to prevent this that thin fowing is fo much recommended: but then but then thin fowing does not prevent this upon land much infefted with weeds; for the weeds fhut out the air as effectually as the corn itself when thick fown, and it is the want of free air that makes the corn lodge. When the air has free accefs, it hardens the furface, and, while the furface is hard, the corn is in no great danger of being lodged:

but,

but, when the air is fout out, the furface becomes foft and loofe, fo that the roots of the plants are not able to fupport the weight of the top. When corn is thin fown upon land where there are no weeds, the air at firft has free accefs, and, though the plants fhould tiller in fuch a manner, as to form as many ftalks on the field as when the corn is thicker fown, yet the stalks, ftanding nearer to each other at the root, the air has eafier access round the plants. Hence corn fown thin upon clean land, is not fo apt to be lodged, as corn that is thick fown, though there fhould be an equal crop on the field. But it must be obferved, that, if feed is too thin fown, the corn is as apt to lodge as when it is too thick fown. When feed is fown very thin, and the land in very good order, the plants have fo much room to tiller, that the top becomes too heavy for the root, and falls over almoft of itself. Inftead therefore of infifting with the farmers to fow lefs feed than they commonly do, which in 'fome cafes may be dangerous, they fhould rather be directed to make their land as clear of weeds as poffible, and then thin fowing, fo far as is proper, will follow in courfe.'

In this manner the Author explains the reafons of every operation in a plain familiar manner, adapted to the apprehenfions of the clafs of men for whom he writes: for which the more remote Scottish farmers, who are ftrangers to the different methods of tillage, are under obligations to him.

In the course of his ftrictures on the horse-hoeing husbandry, Mr. Dickson furnishes a curious hiftorical anecdote of this method of culture being known to the ancients, to whom it was taught in a manner very foreign to the intention of the teach

ers.

• Having mentioned the Roman husbandry, upon this occafion, it will not be amifs to obferve further, that a practice refembling horse-hoeing, prevailed in fome parts of Italy that lie under the Alps. For this we have the authority of Pliny, who informs us likewife upon what occafion it was introduced. The Salaffi, fays he, when ravaging the lands that lie under the Alps, attempting to deftroy the panic and millet, that at that time had fprung up, and were above the ground. When they found that the ordinary ways of deftroying the fruits of the earth were infufficient, they plowed in the corn that was come up: but the very remarkable crop produced by thefe fields, taught the inhabitants the practice of plowing while the crop was growing. They gave this plowing when the ftalk was beginning to appear, or when the plant had fent forth two or three leaves. It is natural to fuppofe, that perfons plowing in corn, on purpofe to deftroy it, would not be very careful in this operation, but would run the furrows at fuch a distance from each other, as to leave rows of plants betwixt them untouched.

3

touched. These plants, from the culture given by this plowing, would foon make their appearance; and upon this, as is probable, being carefully hoed, they would branch out and produce a confiderable crop. The greatness of the crop naturally led the farmers to plow fome of their corn-fields in the fame manner next year; and this, it would feem, they continued to do every year with fuccefs.

Although this fhews that horfe-hoeing was practifed by the ancients, yet it does not derogate from the merit and genius of Mr. Tull, who was certainly the perfon that introduced this method amongst the moderns, and who has brought it to fuch perfection, that it may be justly estimated a different kind of culture.'

We fhall now difmifs a work, which, if it contains little that may be new to the fouthern parts of Britain, will af ford many good practical leffons to the northern hufbandman.

N. Phyfiological Effays and Obfervations. By John Stedman, M. D. Fellow of the Royal College of Phyficians in Edinburgh. 8vo. 2s. 6d. Edinburgh printed, for Kincaid and Bell, and fold by T. Cadell, in London. 1769.

N the first of thefe effays, which treats of the divifions of pulfes, Dr. Stedman gives nearly the fame account of the pulfe, which is delivered by the celebrated Dr. Haller *.

His fecond effay treats of menftruation. This fingular appearance in the female oeconomy, has been accounted for by fome from a general, by others from a partial, plethora. Our Author does not clearly adopt either of thefe fyftems, neither does he shew the fame precision, as in difcuffing the fubject of the preceding effay.

Á method of measuring proportional quantities of heat, is pointed out in the third effay; and the defign of the fourth and last effay is to afcertain the infalutary conflitutions of the air, from a defect of winds of the higher degrees.

In the regifters of the weather, fays Dr. Stedman, which have been kept with a view to afcertain the remote caufes of of epidemical difeafes, the gravity, heat, and humidity of the air, have been regularly attended to; the quantities of rain, and the direction of winds, have likewife fometimes been noted; but the degrees of winds have frequently been † neglected. It is intended, in this fhort eflay, to fhew the impropriety of this omiffion, in thefe regifters.

*Element. Phyfiolog. Tom. ii. p. 247, &c.

Dr. Huxham, in his Obfervationes de Aere, &c. generally points out not only the leffer degrees, but likewife the ftorms or higher degrees of the winds.

As