Cultivation of Arable L&nd.~~-IFo(fd, 53 



which under fuch circumftances can never be properly performed, Ik-fides, as 

 fuch crops muft prevent the hop-plants from being kept fo perfectly clean and free 

 from weeds as might otherwife be the cafe ; and cannot admit of the turnips or 

 other crops being eaten olf upon the land, or of being drawn and carted away, 

 without much injury being fuftained by poaching and the treading down of the 

 hills ; it is much the belt way to exclude every fort of feconduy crop 

 from the plantation. 



The advantages of the cultivation of hops have been differently Hated by dif 

 ferent cultivators ; fome contending that it is beneficial in a very high degree, 

 while others are equally pofuive i i affirming that it is a fort of culture that only 

 affords a very trifling profit. It is evident however that in many fituations the 

 growth of this plant muft be extremely beneficial, though,, like moft others, it 

 mult be fubject to vary, according to the circumftances of foil, culture, and climate. 

 Experiment has indeed mown, that on the deep boggy foils, after being rendered 

 fufficiently dry, the black vegetable moulds and rich loams., it is a culture that an- 

 fwers to a very high degree; and that, under other circumftances of a much lefs 

 favourable nature, it is fo profitable as to far exceed common hufbandry.* It 

 may indeed be concluded, that though on lands that are perfectly adapred to thefe 

 crops, and fo fituated as to afford poles, manure, and labourers for performing the 

 bufmefs of picking and other operations in fufficient proportion and on reafbnable 

 rates, they may be highly beneficial both in refpect to the immediate money profit 

 they afford, and the great improvement that is accompliflied in the lands from the 

 nature of their culture; yet under other circumftances, from their precarioufnefs, 

 and their being attended with much trouble, it may be better either to wholly omit 

 them, or only cultivate them on a limited fcale. And where they are cultivated 

 in connection with farms, it mould only be to fuch an extent as that no injury 

 may be fuftained by the other parts either in tillage or manure.f 



lyoad. This is a plant which has a thickifh ftrong fibrous root that penetrates to 

 a considerable depth in the foil. It is principally cultivated for the leaves, whichj 

 after being properly manufactured, are employed in the art of dyeing in order to 

 produce a blue colour, and alfoas the bafis of black and fome other colours.* 



From the nature of its root it obvioufly requires a foil which has much depthv 

 and which is rich and perfectly frefh. Thofe of the rich, mellow, loamy, and putrid 

 vegetable kinds are in general the moft adapted to it. In Lincolnfhire, where its cul 

 ture is carried to a conliderable degree of perfection by fomecultivators,| the deep,, 



* Young s Eaftern Tour. i Kent s Hints. J It is the Isatis tinctoria, or dyer s- woud,. 



J. Cartwright, efq. of Brothertoft, near Bofton. 



