[ ao2 ] 



to impovcrifh fuch lands> iinlefs fomc proper me- 

 thods are made ufe of to recruit its ftrength, ^nd 

 conftantly keep it in fuch a due and regular ftate as 

 to make the meadows produce the greateft quan- 

 tity of grafs they are capable of. Having ftudied 

 this fubjedt for thefe forty years pail, I fhall con- 

 fine myfelf within my own pradice, without paying 

 attention to others ^ hut herein I find great diffi- 

 culty, being unavoidably obliged to fpeak in the 

 firft perfon, a tafk very difagreeable to farmers of a 

 contraded education. 



My grandfather died in 1748, when my father 

 entered upon a dairy farm of about 200I. per an- 

 num. Part of this farm was feven acres and a half 

 of meadow, then valued at 5I. per annum, having 

 round its borders very high banks,* which had 

 never been taken away from the time of its firft 

 being inclofed, and the middle of the field lay jqyy 

 low and wet. I advifed the banks fhould be re- 

 moved to the depth of fix inclies below the fiirface, 

 Hoping towards the ditches, and carried over the 

 land, fo as to make it entirely level, or, if any dif- 

 ference, higheft in the middle of the field, which 

 buried it in fome parts to the depth of eighteen 



• Banks here, and in all other places of this letter, mean nuifancesji 

 is being compofcd of the earth and clay thrown up out of the rhines 

 and ditches which cmbound the fields and inclofure»of this flat country. 



inches. 



