54 IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CULTURE OF VEGETABLES. 



the plough could penetrate, drawn by four horses, and the 

 plant set directly above it. 

 Ploughed and The plough and harrow, constructed to work betwixt the 

 har 'a W hi C ° n rows > were constantly employed during the summer, and 

 tween the the ground was as completely freed from weeds, as it could 

 rows. have been by a naked fallow. The very surprising weight 



Great produce. Q f my crop, which in October was thirty-five tons and a 

 half per acre, and many of the cabbages fifty-five pounds 

 each, were matters of surprise to all who saw them, as well 

 as to me, and I could assign no satisfactory reason for the 

 fact. The quality of the land was very indifferent, being a 

 poor cold clay, — the manure was very deficient of the usual 

 quantity, — the plants when set by no means good, — in short 

 there was nothing to justify the expectation of even a tole- 

 rable crop. I did not find any thing in the accounts from cul- 

 tivators of cabbages to afford me a solution of my difficulties, 

 or any clew to explain it. By mere accident I met with the 

 fronfth* 1 earth Bishop of Llandaff's experiment ascertaining the great eva- 

 aWsorbed by poration from the earth, as related in his admirable Trea- 

 t e p ants. tise oil Chemistry; lingular as it may appear, this very in- 

 teresting experiment had remained for thirty years without 

 any practical inferences being drawn from it applicable to 

 agriculture. It appeared to me highly probable, that the 

 rapid advance in growth made after the hoeing of drilled 

 grain was attributable to the absorption of the evaporation 

 produced from the earth, and was the cause of the growth 

 of my cabbages. With great impatience and anxiety, as I 

 had the honour to inform you last year, I looked forward 

 to the ensuing season, to afford me an opportunity of con- 

 tinuing my experiments, I had long been a strenuous ad- 

 vocate for deep burying of manure, though my sentiments 

 rested chiefly on opinion ; this appeared to open a field for 

 incontestible proofs of its advantage. My cabbages were 

 last year planted on the same plan as the former year. For- 

 Potatoes tunately I extended the same principle to my potatoes, 



*^\? -a S - which I was obliged to set on wet strong ground, from want 



■* lilt W 1G6 11% • A # 



tcvaU. of a choice of land. My annual quantity of potato ground 



is from sixty to seventy acres. They were set in beds three 

 feet long and two feet broad, leaving four feet and a half 



between 



