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Philadelphia, July 12th, 1810. 
Read August 14th, 1810. 
Sir, 
I conceive it a duty I owe the society, to commu- 
nicate through you, the result of some experiments 
which I had set about, for the purpose of ascertaining 
the best means of reclaiming eld worn out land. I had 
fondly listened to the method proposed by some, of im- 
proving, with clover and plaister, without the use of 
lime ; and determined to try it. The field which I 
pitched upon for my experiments contains about four- 
teen acres ; it had been cleared about fifty-three or four 
years ago, and continued in constant cultivation for 
upwards of thirty years, without manure of any kind. 
Some old people now living, say that they have seen 
as good crops of wheat cut from it, as ever they saw ; A he 
but it was kept in cultivation till the produce would no 
longer pay for the labour, and has been thrown out a 
common for more than twenty years, ’till I fenced it in. 
I had the whole of the field ploughed early in the spring 
of 1808, in the month of May one part of it was plough- 
ed again, and sown with buckwheat; this buckwheat 
was ploughed in when in blossom, and the land sown 
with buckwheat a second time, which was likewise 
ploughed in and sowed with rye. | 
The other part of the field was limed, at the rate of 
25 bushels to the acre, and planted with corn. The lime 
which I used was of the hot kind, froma quarry which 
is generally approved of for land in those parts ; makes 
