Chap. VIII. O F M A N U R E S. 25 



Mr. Miller obfervcs, that grounds which are fandy and gravelly, 

 eafily admit both of heat and moifture ; but then they are liable to 

 thefe inconveniencies, that they let them pafs too foon, and lb con- 

 trad: no ligature, or elfe retain them too long, elf/ecially where there 

 is a clay bottom ; and by that means they are either parched or 

 chilled too much, and produce nothing but moft and cankerous in- 

 firmities ; but if the fand happens to have a furface of good mould, 

 and a bottom of gravel or loofe ftone, though it do not hold the 

 water, it may produce a forward fweet grafs ; and though it may 

 be fubjedt to burn, yet it quickly recovers with the leaft rain. 



Sand indeed is apt to pulh the plants that grow upon it, early in 

 the fpring, fo as to make them germinate near a month fooner than 

 thofe that grow upon clay; becaufe the falts in the land are at full 

 liberty to be raifed and put into motion, upon the leaft approach of 

 the warmth of the fun : but then, as they are hafty, they are foon 

 exhaled and loft. 



Clay is an excellent manure, fays the author of the New Syftem 

 of Hu/handry, p. 1 24. and eafy enough to be found in all places : 

 but you muft obferve, 'tis only ufeful u.pony?/Wy grounds, or any 

 lands of a nature entirely different from its own ; among which you 

 may reckon gravelly or pebbly foils. To thefe it brings the only 

 part of excellence they naturally want, and confequentlv changes 

 them, from what they were originally, to an equal fertility with 

 the beft and richeft. 



This will, perhaps, be ftrange news to many countrymen, wiio 

 have bought dung, all their life-time, to deftroy their land with. 

 'Tis as great a folly, adds our author, to dung gYO\xnds which require 

 cooling, as 'twould be thought to adminifter poifoji, to cure a man 

 of a fever. Our farmers are not fenfible, that the temper of the 

 land muft, as neceflarily, be confulted, as the pulfe of the patient. 

 The dunghii only is their univerfal refuge ; they fly to that upon 

 fJl occafions. They mifs a crop, by dunging an improper foil ; 

 and lay on more dung, to remedy the misfortune. 



Some few years ago, continues he, a friend of mine remarkably 

 experienced the fufficiency of this obfervation. lie had a couple of 

 fields, divided by a hedge only ; neither of which was fit ior corn, 

 or feeding. He refolved to improve them both : and when thef 

 were plowed up to that intent, he found, that one was a hard brown 

 clay, and the other a very burning gravel. He was furprifed to find 

 thefe diametrical oppofites fuch neighbours, and fuppofed that, for 



E * that 



