•Oration delivered before the Agricultural Society. I'j 



•afcribed to the hyperboHcdl praifes tifailly beftowed' upon new 

 difcoveries and projefts. From my own experiments, I have 

 little to fay in its favor. Once, indeed, it did feem to make 

 the clover of my meadow a little more thrifty ; but the next 

 year, the very fpot fo manured with the plafter, yielded no 

 better Indian corn than any thereabouts, tho' naturally not 

 •more barren. 



AloxNG the fea fhores on the banks of rivers, where JiJ/i are 

 plentiful, they afford a valuable manure. Some forts of thefe, 

 which are but indifferent food, may be advantageoufly ufed to 

 increafe the fertility of land. They aid vegetation by ftimula- 

 ting the roots of plants. It is not eafy to fay how extenfively 

 farms conveniently fituated may be improved, by a proper ufe 

 of the innumerable flioals of thefe creatures which in great 

 variety vifit our coailis. 



Wheat, which is one of our ftaple articles, ougo^^^^^f ^'t^p; 

 a primary degree of attention. Great complaints are made 

 in foreign places of the foul condition of the grain, and 

 the bad quality of the flour which we export. In as much as 

 we value the goodnefs of our commodities and our credit as a 

 commercial people, we ought immediately to flop the growth, 

 yea, hinder the continuance of this evil. The Chamber of 

 Commerce of New- York, fome time ago publilhed fome fea- 

 fonable and judicious remarks on the purification of wheat of- 

 fered for fale. Cockle, drips and forrcl often mingle their 

 feeds with the crop, and by the careleflhefs of the farmer, the 



