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of a fummcr fallow on light lands y I fh all think I 

 have not written in vain, nor will niy fpeculation be 

 altogether ufelefs. 



This root has not till lately been the objedb of 

 general attention; even the infiproved counties of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, a few years ago, knew nothing 

 of it, otherwife than as a garden produdlion. In 

 the county of Somerfet, I well remember the time 

 *when it was an extraordinary thing for a man to 

 have a field of potatoes ; and now, I may fafely fay, 

 there are hundreds of acres every year; and to 

 this, pofTibly, the low price of wheat may, in part, 

 be attributed. In poor families it is almoft the 

 whole fubfiflence of the children ; and a failure of 

 the potatoe is equally alarming with the failure of 

 the wheat crop. Still, there are few. counties the 

 inhabitants of which have fpiritedly entered into the 

 cultivation of this root, on a large fcale, as afcodfor 

 neat cattle^ hogs, andjheep. 



The turnip hufbandry has been confidered as the 

 ne plus ultra of good farming; and chat moft ufeful 

 animal, the (beep, is almoft folely dependant upon 

 that root for winter provender. Is it not therefore 

 worth while to take their comparative excellence 

 into confidcration ? I would wifh to engage the 



attention 



