598 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SOWING SEEDS. 
the surface as to weaken the vegetation which 
follows. Attention ought, therefore, to be paid 
to the ploughing of the ground for this purpose. 
Not only is deep ploughing indispensable for 
bringing up a sufficiency of soil to be pulverized ; 
but as compact close laid furrows as can be 
accomplished, to prevent portions of the seed 
from falling down between the furrows, and 
heing buried too deep for active germination, 
and vigorous vegetation afterwards. Excellence 
in ploughing should everywhere be patronised 
and encouraged. It is not to please the eye 
only, that the ploughmen of Westmorland, Cum- 
berland, &c. and other well cultivated counties, 
take so much pains in drawing their deep furrows 
as strait as a line can make them, and laying 
them so compact, that not a crevice between 
them can be found in fields of many acres; but 
it is to favour this grand and fundamental prin- 
ciple of growth, though, perhaps, in few instances 
this service may neither be known, nor appre- 
ciated by them. To encourage, and spread 
wide as possible such masterly performances as 
are there being year after year exhibited, is not 
only a bonus to skill, such as skill ever deserves, 
but the establishment of a philosophical element 
in agriculture, without which it can never prosper 
as fully as it ought to do. 
