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decline, wherever this pernicious pra&ice is 

 followed. For even where the farmer has a 

 great command of dung, the foil is liable to 

 be tired or exhaufted, when not allowed to 

 reft by fallow and pafture. We fliall allow, 

 as fome pretend to fay, that there are parts of 

 the country lefs fit for pafture, or, in other 

 words, lefs profitable when applied to this 

 purpofe, (although that very foil would be the 

 better improved by pafture) ; but it is very cer- 

 tain, that nine-tenths of the foil in Britain is 

 of a different nature, and would be enriched 

 by thefe meaniS* v 



By this practice, indeed, fome individuals 

 might think themfelves injured, but private 

 intereft ought, at any rate, to give way to 

 the public good ; and it might be demon- 

 ftrated that, upon a fair trial, the fanners 

 would find themfelves, as well as the nation 

 at large, ultimately benefited by a pradrtice of 

 this kind. In fome cafes it might not bring 

 fo great immediate profits, but it would al- 

 ways certainly prevent them from ruining 

 the foil, as well as themfelves, which .they 

 often do by over-cropping. Binding down 

 the farmer, therefore, not to hurt himfelf, 

 and not to exhauft the foil, would be of very 



confiderabit 



