of old Grafs Lands on a direB Clay. 273 



I let the whole at ten {hillings per acre ; the tenant paid me 

 for the ftock and crops two tliouAind and eighty pounds; and 

 I afterwards fold the eftate to him at nearly double the price 

 I gave for it, having previoufly paid myfeif the greater part 

 of the expenfes for the improvements I had made. Fifty 

 acres of the land will more particularly elucidate this fubje6l. 

 Part of it was broken lip from old fourgrafs, not worth ^\\q 

 (hillings per acre, and part of it was old tillage land, which 

 had been limed and cropped until it literally would produce 

 no weeds except the fow-thiftle. After treating theie lands, 

 as nearly as I can recolle6l, according to the fyftem I have 

 recommended, I fallowed and drefl'ed them with a compoft 

 of lime and earth, and fowed the quantity of feeds I have 

 mentioned, at or near the feafon recommended, and the 

 produce was eftimaled at two tons and a half of hay per 

 acre; and the fifty acres of land which were valued at five 

 fhillings per acre when 1 purchafed them, were ellimated at 

 fifteen lliillings per acre when I fold the eftate. I did not 

 furface-drain the land, as I was not then acquainted with 

 the fyftem, neither did I pare and burn, but drefled with a 

 compoft of lime and mould. The fyftem I have recom- 

 mended differs from mv aftual experiment in thefe two cir- 

 cumftances. But the furface-draining has proved effeftual 

 in the parifli of Hitchani, and feems to carry convi6lion with 

 it; and by paring and burning, as good a dreffing as the 

 lime may be procured, al a much lefs expenfe. Many may 

 objedt to paring and burning and ploughing thefe lands into 

 what is termed, by the farmers, the dead earth. I am of 

 opinion thefe operations arc pernicious, on really thin-fkinned 

 foils, when the immediate fubftratum is much inferior to 

 the furface. But in the foil J have been treating of, the 

 only difference between the furface and the fubftratum con- 

 fifts in the former having been expofed and pulverized, and 

 the latter having remained impregnated with ftagnant water, 

 and never turned up fo as to derive any benefit from the vi- 

 ciflitudes of the atmofphere. By paring and burning you de- 

 flroythefurface-weeds, audobtainacheapdreirmg; by plough- 

 ing the land deeper than ever it was ploughed before, ex- 

 pofing it to a winter's froft and lummer's hui, and drelTing 

 It with afhes or lime, vnu obtain a depth of fweet nicliow 

 foil, not eafilv injured by wet or drought, and adapted to all 

 the purpofes of vet!;elation. To prove the utility of moving 

 thefe clay foils fourteen or fifteen inches deep, let any one 

 cover a pewter difti, or any fubftance like the fubftratum of 

 thefe lands, impervious to water, with earth one inch deep, 

 and cxpofe it to a trilling ftiower, and the whole mals will 

 Vol. XV. No. 59. T become 



