^6 Addrefs to the Society. 



to advantage on flrong loams, and even on clay. It is for 

 this reafon that barley is nearly as cheap in England as here, 

 though ev^ry other grain is 60 per cent dearer than in America 

 —The fame reafoning applies to beans which are unproductive 

 in England, unlefs fown in February and March, which is 

 hardly poffible here on ftrong clays, the foil thefe require. 

 Turnips cannot be raifed in our chmate to advantage, as a 

 food for cattle : the feafon in which they are fown being ufually 

 very dry, and the plants liable to be deftroyed by the fly. 

 Great Britain has alfo fome advantage over us in the fhortnefs 

 of the winter, but much lefs than is generally imagined. Their 

 Autumn is cold and wet, and though there is fome apparent 

 verdure, yet the vegetation is fo flow, as to render it ufual 

 for good farmers to houfe their cattle by the firfl of November, 

 rather than fuffer them to poach their fields in gleaning a fcanty 

 fubfiflance from them ; nor do they turn them to pafture till 

 late in April. 



Thefe are, I believe, all the advantages that the 

 Britifh farmers fairly claim over us. Let us now examine 

 thofe we exclufively poflefs : The nobleft of thefe is the maize 

 or Indian corn ; neither the beans or turnips of Britain can be 

 compared to this plant : Firil, it need not be planted till the 

 laft of May, fo that the farmer is never hurried by it with 

 his fpring-work : Second, it is cultivated with a plough or 

 horfe-hoe; and as the plants are large, and placed at five 

 feet diftance, there is ample room for this ; and though it 



