[- 299. ] 
fome drains and opening the other, the liquor might 
be directed one year to this, and another to that 
fide of the hill, as it was moft wanted. 
Mr. Powell alfo defired me to notice his home 
garden, where every thing was in ftrong vegetation, 
and no trace was to be feen of the effects of the 
flug, and another at fome diftance where every thing 
was disfigured, and many almoft eaten up by that 
infe&t. This he afcribes, and feemingly with rea- 
fon, to a compoft (with which the home garden is 
manured) formed by all the refufe of his premifes, 
viz. all the _/oo/, hen-dung, chamber-lye, {weepings of 
the home-yard, hackney-ftable, &c. promifcuoufly 
thrown together. Hence is it not probable that 
many kinds of manure operate by de/froying impedi- 
ments to vegetation, rather than by furnifhing the 
means by which it is promoted—the food of plants? 
It is remarkable that there are two fcrubbed ap- 
ple-trees in this garden, which never fail to bear; 
I have known them thefe eight years, and do not 
recollect their failing to blow once; this alfo Mr. 
Powell afcribes to the plenty of manure, which they 
receive in common with the reft of the garden, 
One other remarkable circumftance occurred in 
my converfation with Mr. Powell: he fays, that 
when he was a fchool-boy, (in the year 1764) he 
remembers that his father had a field of beans, 
which appeared fo bad from the bite of fome infect, 
that he was on the point of ploughing it up: he 
~ thought ~ 
