a*i A6RltlLT%RAL ESSAYS. 



Boil contains J5Pme principle noxious to vegetables, the asitoie 

 practice should be adopted. 



When the roots are deep they are less liable to be injured 

 by rain or drought; that as the layers shoot forth their radi- 

 eles into every part of the soil, the space from which the nour- 

 ishment is derived is more considerable than when the seed is 

 euperficiaJly inserted in the soil. But in a fertile shallow 

 «oil, situated upon cold clay or sandy sub-soil, deep ploughing 

 may be very prejudicial. 



It is of consequence to attend to the season proper for plough- 

 ing clayey soils. If it be too dry it will not crumble, as it should 

 do to prepare it for a crop ; and if too wet,the ploughing will only 

 render it more compact. The hard clods are easily mellowed 

 with a plough after they have been merely wet through with a 

 gentle rain. 



The ploughing of land in the best manner for the culture of 

 particular plants, is of great importance in the improvement of 

 Hbe soil. 



Some remarks have been made in the Essay on the culture 

 of wheat, relative to the practice of summer fallowing in pre- 

 paring the soil for that crop ; by which it appears that the fallow 

 'Ijloughing would, if performed in the month of November in 

 the preceding year, or just before the commencement of winter 

 frosts, not omy be better for crops of wheat, but better contri- 

 bute to the durable unproveraent of the soil. 



It has been found by various experimeiila that summer fal- 

 lowing at the usual season in June, is never useful, unless it is 

 repeated so often as to prevent the growth of grass and weeds, 

 and too keep up a fermentation in the soil. That although a 

 ▼ery rich soil may require ahttle more tlian to be sufficiently 

 mellowed for the reception of the seed ; but that all others 

 which are naturally more or less sterile, or have been exhaust- 

 ed by too frequent cropping, may be greatly recruited by fre- 

 quent ploughing and harrowing. 



A Mr. Quell, a practical and intelligent farmer of Great Bri- 

 tain, from a course of experiments and observations, formed an 

 opinion that laAds can be made and kept rich by the mere use 

 of the plough and the harrow. Various experiments have been 

 made to ascertain the degrees of efficacy to be derived from 

 repeated ploughing, and the result has been found, that the 

 crop has been increased, other circumstances being equal, in 

 proportion to the number of times the ploughing has been so 

 repeated. More especially is frequent ploughing necessary in 

 tiie clayey and stiff or hard soils; as it wUl not only better 



