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the land in a fit state to receive those two 

 crops again ; as, although the land in many 

 places grows nothing but weeds, the cattle, 

 from habit, partly live upon them ; and, 

 browsing in the woods in the day-time, 

 they are folded at night on some part of 

 those lands, which used to be termed lea 

 land in the open fields in England, particu- 

 larly on clay lands, where wheat and beans 

 were the produce. Thus the reader may 

 observe the mode of cultivation or rotation 

 adopted in America was nearly similar to 

 the English method, excepting the lea 

 land of the Americans laying out two years 

 instead of one ; and, from their soil being so 

 very thin in the first stratum, or live earth, 

 and chiefly of a light sandy nature, the lay- 

 ing out the two years, with the treading of 

 the cattle, horses, and some few sheep, 

 cause it to acquire a firmness again : other- 

 wise, were great part of the land to be 

 cropped every year, it would be so light, 

 from the winter's frost and the sum- 

 mer's sun, as to bear no useful plant ; the 



