128 EXPERIMENTS ON WHEAT, Part If. 



plowed for the laft time, in order to be fowed according to the ufual 

 pradlice of the country. Thefe were chofen for the farther trial of 

 the new hufbandry, and were accordingly fown with the drill-plough, 

 between the ninth and twenty-fifth of October, with 571 pounds of 

 wheat, including 10 pounds and an half, which were ufed to fill up 

 fome fpaces where the feed had miffed. This is after the rate of 

 24 pounds to an acre. 



At the fame time, an adjacent piece of ground which had been 

 folded like the former, and of which the foil was equal to the bell 

 part of the field fowed in rows, was fown in the common way. 

 This laft contained four acres and a half, and took up 486 pounds of 

 feed, which is 108 pounds to an acre. 



The corn came up finely in both fields : but that which was 

 fowed in rows happened to be near a wood, from which numbers 

 of rabbits came and entirely deflroyed the plants of near five acres : 

 the roots which they left, were eaten by worms ; and the dung of the 

 flieep-folds produced a great quantity of weeds. This was not all : 

 as the furrows did not run in the diredtion of the declivity of the 

 ground, the water lodged in them, fo that the firft plowing, which 

 ought to have been given in March, could not be performed till 

 April, when it left a great many clods. 



Thefe clods were grown hard by the time of the fecond plowing, 

 which was performed with a plough with two mould-boards, which 

 inftead of breaking and loofening the ground, and laying frelh earth 

 to the roots, only turned thofe hard clods over upon the rows. 



The third plowing, which v/as given w^ith a plough with two 

 fliares, and in more i'avouruble weather, had a better eli'edl. 



Notwithftanding the accidents which had reduced this piece 

 of wheat to fo wretched a condition, that the hufbandmen faid 

 they were fure it never would produce a crop worth reaping, 

 and that all the labour ^vas thrown away : yet, reckoning upon the 

 footing of 24 acres, though it would be but jufl to dedud: the 

 five which were abfolutely deftroyed by the rabbits ; and fuppofing 

 too, the crops of 1756 and 1757 to be no greater than that of 1755 ; 

 M. Rouffel's calculation proves, that even then thefe three crops will 

 llill be better than what the fame field would produce in the com- 

 mon way. 



But, fays M. Rouffel, if we do the new hufbandry part of the 

 juflice it deferves ; and, inftead of including the five acres which 

 the rabbits deflroyed, we reckon only the produce of 19 acres, 



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