1792* influence of taste on rural life. 31 1 



method you fhall think most persuasive^ and effec- 

 tual. ' 



. I have now the heartfelt satisfaction of seeing mj 

 wife aad children going regularly and profitably by 

 fire, and not by water ; and though the original disco- 

 verer of this astonifhing re/sort interieur, for moving 

 the human mind, I am so far from thinking of ap- 

 plying for a patent to secure the profit of the inven- 

 rion to myself and family, that I fhall put this letter 

 into the post office, without a pang of regret at ha- 

 ving let the secret out of my pofsefsion. I cannot 

 4i€lp however expecting that the parliament of Eng- 

 land, who have given my old acquaintance and eleve, 

 William Forsythe, three thousand pounds, for a mix- 

 ture of cow dung and old rubbifh, to restore fruit 

 trees to their bearing, may be induced, on a proper 

 application, to give me a reward for a mipcture of 

 cocamon sense and dear bought experience, to restore 

 country places, and country gentlemen, to their pro- 

 per bearing, without any ablagneation, incision, or 

 disturbance whatsoever. 



I hope to get down to the country next week, t« 

 see my wheat put into the ground, and to attend our 

 approaching meeting for our new inland navigation, 

 when I fhall send you a more particular account than I . 

 have done hitherto, of my experiments relating to the 

 fertilization of land by leguminous crops, and the e- 

 eonomy of manure by the drill : in the mean time I 

 must tell you an ingenious plan my wife has fallen 

 upon, to promote the happinefs of the lower sort of 

 people in this neighbourhood. 



