OF CURIOSITY. 185 



the grain, and render the fields foul, and poor. 

 It. Scand. p. 421. Books of huibandry are 

 full of inventions how to break the earth by 

 inftruments, and fit it to receive the feed ; 

 this kind of knowledge is infufficient, as long 

 as the hufbandman is unacquainted with the 

 nature of thofe various herbs, to which agri- 

 culture ought to be adapted. From hence 

 the neceflity of natural hiftory appears. 



§. 10. 



It is alfo neceflary for the hufbandman to 

 know the duration of every plant he fows 

 in his fields, and meadows, viz. whether it 

 be perennial, biennial, or annual. He who 

 wants to know the ufe of our plants in oeco* 

 nomy, and how few there are, whofe ufe is 

 hitherto difcovered, let him look over the 

 Flora cecoyiomica. Amsen. Academ. vol. i *. 



We fee how many in a time of dearth fuffer 

 for want, fall into difeafes, and even perifh, 



* TTie piece here referred to is full of new obfervations 

 on the ufes of plants hitherto not attended to. I wifii i 

 could have made fuch a Lranfln.tion of it, as could have been 

 inftruflive or entertaining to the public ; but a long liil: of the 

 names of plants, which could have conveyed no ideas to fuch 

 readers, as this work is intended for^ muH have been very- 

 tedious, and very ufciefs. 



for 



