5't4 Review of Hints to Agriculturifls, May 



bour and celebrity, on the fubjed of agriculture : fo numerous indeed 

 are they, that it might be fuppofed there could be no room left for new 

 information, and f^ill lefs nect-ffity for again infiliing on the old. But 

 the objections which have been made to them, are almoft commenfurate 

 with their quantity. Where they promife to teach agricuhure as a 

 fcience, they arc ItAures on chemiftry, on mechanics,' or on mineralogy. 

 Under the title of manure?, they are, in faA, treatifes on carbon, 

 oxygen, and azote : profcffing to cjnfider implements in hufbandry, 

 they turn out to be eiTays on levers, a^.c?, and rotatory motion : and 

 where we expeft to find a plain and fimplc examination into the proper- 

 ties of foils, we are furprifed with an elaborate inveftigation of phof- 

 phoric acids, metallic o:iydcs, msngane-fe and zinc. 



' Where, according to the modern pradlice, their only obje^l is to 

 report experiment?, it is to be lamented that they too frequently preftnt 

 ii monotonous detail of fa£ls without obfervaiion, or of obfetvations 

 without rcafoning ; of advice without argAiment, or of argument with- 

 out conclufion. 



< Treatifes, fucb as thefe, may eafually and individually amufe, but 

 cannot generally inftrud^ or diffufe benefit. The former are only calcu- 

 lated to excite agricultural empiricifm ; the latter offer no encourage- 

 ment to rational experiments founded on analogical deduftion. ' 



Having thus, like Dvav/canfir in the Rehearfal, clenred the 

 ilage entirely of the rubbilli of all other books of agriculture, 

 both ancient and modern, he brings forward his own propofal 

 after the manner of Mat, in Prior's Alma : 



« Now, to bring things to fair conclufion, 

 And fave much Chriftiau ink's effufion, 

 Let me propofe an healing fcheme, 

 And fail in middle of the llream. ' 



< It fhall be the purpofc of the few -following pages to fteer a middle 

 courfe, borrowing only from philcvfophical refcarch certain acknowledg- 

 ed (latiL, and, without cmbarrafiing the mind with fubtle difquifitions, 

 merely apply the conclufion^ obtained, in fuch a manner as may lead the 

 agricukurill to a xtguX^r fyjlem of experiment j not .to detached and in- 

 fulated deviations, or capricious vagaries, ' 



Our autiior, like a flvilful General who leaves Mothirig unfub- 

 dueil beliind hini, commences his fyilemy>r;/; the very egg, 



* It will be readily conceded, that, to produce the fruits of the eartH 

 in the greattti exc'.-llence, and the moft uniform abundance, is the grand 

 .aim and objeft in agriculture ; the means of accompli fhing this event 

 tlic moft interefling fubjecTt of fpcculation to the agriculturill. 



* Earthp the immediate and oftenfioJe parent of vegetation, merely 

 as earth, has hecn defignatcd hy the name of 2l pcijji've prlncipi^iy a caput 

 pi^tuum^ and by various other fimilar appellations ; all, however, lig- 

 .ui.fy.ing nearly t!>e fame thing, ^rvd 9II tctjding to nearly the fame con- 

 clufion ; 



