110 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



the strongest reason, if for nothing else, for making further and 

 more exact trials. The subject is clearly one of the first impor 

 tance. 



&quot; The practice throughout England is to sow two and a half 

 and three bushels per acre, and the yield is seldom forty bushels, 

 and more commonly only twenty bushels ; and one tenth, at least, 

 of the crop grown, is consumed in seed. These facts, and the 

 knowledge that a single grain of wheat planted where it has 

 room to tiller out, will readily produce four hundred fold, and 

 often very much more, have induced me, in the course of the last 

 eleven years, to make a variety of experiments, the results of 

 which have shown me, that, independent of the waste, a positive 

 and serious injury is done to the crop from so much seed ; and 

 the result is perfectly analogous to attempting to feed four animals 

 upon a pasture sufficient only for one ; and, in consequence, I 

 have gradually reduced my proportion of seed-wheat from three 

 bushels per acre, which was my practice, down to about three 

 pecks, which reduction I have accomplished to the evident im 

 provement of my crops. 



&quot; My practice is to drill every thing, (clover seed alone ex- 

 cepted;) to carefully horse-hoe, hand-hoe, and weed, so that 

 the land may be kept perfectly free from weeds, and the soil 

 between the rows may be stirred, and receive the benefit of fine 

 tilth and cultivation, of which gardeners are sensible j but by 

 farmers this is lost sight of, or not sufficiently attended to. My 

 rye and tares for green feeding are sown in rows at nine-inch 

 intervals ; all my white corn at twelve inches ; my pulse at 

 twenty-seven inches ; and my root crops, on the ridge, at twenty- 

 seven inches. 



&quot; My proportions of seed per acre are as follows : 



Of rye, 1 J bushel ; Of oats, 8 pecks ; 



&quot; tares, 1 do. ; &quot; barley, 7 do. ; 



&quot; mangel-wurzel, 6 Ibs. ; &quot; wheat, 3 do. ; 



&quot; swedes, 1 quart ; &quot; peas, 8 do. ; 



&quot; turnips, 1 do. ; &quot; beans, 8 do.&quot; 

 &amp;lt;; cabbages, 1 every three feet ; 



After detailing his mode of cultivation, to which I shall here 

 after refer, he goes on to say, &quot; I have frequently produced above 



