I ^7^ 1 



feeing, that the noble, the wife, and the learned, do 

 not think it beneath thenn to refcue it from that 

 obfcurity in which it had long been involved, and 

 to bring it forward to public view, under the fanc- 

 ^ion of their own practice. 



But it is not the purpofe of this EflTay to write 

 ^n eulogium on the dignity and utility of Hufban- 

 dry^ cither by adverting to the difpenfations of 

 God Hinnfelf towards the Jews,* or by extradting 

 from the writings of the mod eminent men, an- 

 cient and modern. This is needlefs. Rather let 

 us colk6l fome of their bed ideas concerning the 

 means of advancing Agriculture to the higheft 

 perfection, and thereby fulfil, if pofTible, the pur- 

 pofe of this eflay, which, it is hoped, will recom^ 

 mend itfelf to the attention and regard of the public^, 

 merely from the importance of the fubjed. 



* Vide S. S. pafTim, particularly Lev. 25. The command in thia 

 chapter, that every feventh year fhould be a year of reft, or fallow* to, 

 the land; and that the produce of the fixth year fhould fupplythe na- 

 tion for three years, had a peculiar tendency to make the ^tv^sjkilful^ 

 as well as induftrious, in works of hufbandry ; and, I believe, it is 

 pretty well known to every fkilful cultivator, that land well tilled, 

 ^rcffed with proper manures, and fown or planted with a judicious 

 rotation of crops, will fcarcely ever ftand in need of ajallow, till the 

 feventh year at leaft ; and that the labour of the fixth year will be 

 pecniiarly blefled to fuch an hulbandman. This much, however, is 

 Certain, that ground, cultivated as abov^-, will frequently refift the ill 

 effeas of intemperate feafons, by which neighbouring fields' greatly 

 iuffer when under uhCdlful and indoleqt management, 



