242 On Trench Ploughing, 



Kirlc's disapprobation. There is such a general preju- 

 dice against this mode, that I have ceased to combat 

 it. Many of my fields, which had been trenched, 

 have, in the hands of my tenants (comparatively good) 

 regained their cover of weeds and nuisances, from 

 neglect, and the seeds brought from some of my owti, 

 and the fields of my neighbours. So that this, like all 

 human arts, has its limit : and weeds infest all my 

 rented fields ; owing to the culpable neglect of the te- 

 nants. 



It can easily be perceived, that Mr. Kirk's method 

 does not bury the bulbs and roots of v.eeds ; so as to 

 put them beyond the power of vegetation. Let any 

 person attend to the mode detailed in our list of pre- 

 miums. It will be perceived that the sod of the old 

 surface is entirely covered, by the accession ofthe jw6- 

 stratum thrown over it. Whereas the edges of the sods, 

 in ploughing ever so deep, are always exposed to ve- 

 getate anew. So that my preference for this practice, is 

 founded in the reason Mr. Kirk assigns for condemn- 

 ing it. And it does not appear that he has had any ex- 

 perience in it, to warrant a practical opinion, to which 

 I should certainly pay every reasonable ^degree of re- 

 spect. I have not a trenched field, which is not 

 now the better for the operation. I never kept a bur- 

 thcnsome stock of working cattle, or horses. A pair 

 of oxen, and four horses, were generally all I had, for 

 a large farm. With these I could trench "dccx^ fall plough^ 

 as much as I required.* I am positively certain that 



*A pair of horses in the paring plough, and a pair of 

 strong, active oxen, in «the trench plough, are generally suf- 



