C 286 3 



riments and new difcoverics* have been made, all 

 concurring to prove that very little of the true 

 principles of vegetation was underftood by thofe 



• Here let me congratulate the public, particularly, on the invention 

 of the Oil Compq^ jhy the ingenious Dr. Hunter, of York, which, hav- 

 ing tried niyfelf both on wheat and turnips, growing on very poor 

 ground, I found it anfwer even to admiration, particularly with regard 

 to the latter. I think it one of the bell prefervatives from the Fly ; 

 and can, therefore, recommend it as a valuable acquitition, being like- 

 wife a good manure, where dung is fcarce, or the carriage of it ex- 

 penfive. It might be of fignal fervice in the improvement of wafte 

 ground till dung can be raifed: for were luch ground to be pared, 

 the turf dried and thrown into heaps for burning, and, in the mean 

 time, the earth between the heaps ploughed carefully and to a proper 

 depth; and, after this, the afhes fpread, ploughed in, and well har- 

 rowed, the turnip-feed fown, and the oil compoft fpread by hand at the 

 fame time, or jult on the appearance of the turnips, I think there would 

 be but little danger of a good crop, if well hoed ; as afhes are pecu- 

 liarly favourable to the growth of turnips ; and if they were to be 

 eaten off with flieep, and the next courfe barley or oats, with grafs- 

 fceds fuitable to the foil, I am perfuaded this would prove one of the 

 mofl; fpeedy, effectual, and cheap methods of improving fuch wafte 

 lands ; el^ecially, if in a dry fpring the aihes were to be fpread the 

 latter end of April, and the land fown with buck-wheat, to be 

 ploughed in as a manure when in bloflbm, and then the turnips to be 

 fown, the oil compoft fpread, and both to be harrowed in as above. I 

 have raifed pretty good turnips after buck-wheat ploughed in, without 

 the oil compoft; but as the expence is not great, the ufmg of both 

 would perhaps be the ne pliu ultra of improvement in the circum- 

 ftances above-mentioned. The grand fault committed after paring 

 and burning is, taking too many exhauftJng crops, 



A coarfer' kind of oil, I am informed, is made in Cornwall, from 

 pllc}iard3, which would, ui all probability, make the compoft come 

 Confiderably cheaper. 



For the method pf making the compoft, feeDr, Hunter's Gebrgical 

 Effays, vol. I, 



who 



