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any time, but this is far from being the cafe with ftron* 

 clay foils; the feafon for hoeing fuch is frequently fhort 

 and precarious J every opportunity therefore fhould be 

 carefully watched, and eagerly embraced. The two ex- 

 tremes of wet and dry are great enemies of vegetation in 

 flrong clay foils ; the bad efFefts of the former, though 

 difficult to guard againfl, are neverthelefs to be remedied 

 in fome meafure by ploughs of a better conftruftion, and 

 more properly conduced, than fuch as are commonly met 

 with in ftrong clay foils. For if the wing or feather of 

 the plough-fhare were made nearly as wide as the in- 

 tended furrow, and fixed fo as to move parallel to the fur- 

 face of the land, the under fide of every furrow would be 

 cut parallel to the furface, and a fmooth floor or furface 

 polifhed by the bottom of the plough would be found under 

 every furrow, forming a regular plane with an uniform 

 defcent from the top of a ridge into the water-furrow; 

 upon which polifned floor or furface, all fuperfluous water, 

 after filtrating through the loofe foil, or furrows turned 

 over by the plough, would find its way readily and preci- 

 pitately into the water furrow, at leaft fo as to prevent its 

 ftagnating in the foil, fo as to fl:arve rt)e plants. But fo 

 far from guarding as much as poflible againft the bad efFefls 

 of fuperfluous v/ater ftagnating in clay foils, by the above 

 palpable procefs in ploughing, the conflrudtion of the 

 ploughs commonly made ufe of, and the method of con- 

 ducing them in ftrong clays in feveral parts of this king- 

 dom, have a direct tendency to the contrary; this is done 

 by working their ploughs in fuch a pofition, that the wing 

 or feather of the fhare, being neither fo wide as the in- 

 tended furrow, nor parallel to the furface when at work, 

 but forming an angle of forty or fifty degrees with the 



fame 



