I30 EXPERIMENTS ON WHEAT, Partll. 



fame foil, and quite contiguous, to be fowed broad-caft in the old 

 way. 



** This lafl ground was extremely well dunged by folding of 

 fheep upon it. "With regard to the other, which was to be 

 cultivated in the new w;iy, and which compofed 93 beds five feet 

 wide, including the alleys -, only eight of thefe beds were dunged 

 by fheep, and that at the fame time, and to the fame degree as the 

 ground by which the comparifon was intended to be made : of 

 the other beds, 76 had no fort of dung or amendment whatever; 

 and nine were dunged more or lefs, in the manner and proportion 

 hereafter mentioned. 



" Moft of thofe who pradlife the new hufbandry, ufe no dung at 

 all. I fuppofed that their reafon for rejecting this manure was, the 

 difficulty of finding a proper time to apply it ; for whilft the alleys- 

 receive their feveral ftirrings, no wheel carriage can be admitted with 

 dung without hurting the beds which are fown, and hardening the 

 loofe mould of the alleys : to carry it on the backs of cattle, would 

 be at beft a very difficult, tedious, and expenfive way, where an3r 

 confiderable ipace is to be tilled : to fpread it upon the earth only 

 the moment the feed is going to be fowed, is a fure way to clog up 

 the drill-plough, and hinder its operation, if the dung be not tho- 

 roughly rotten ; and to breed weeds, which by no means fuit this 

 culture. To remedy thefe inconveniences, I contrived the following 

 method. I opened in each of the alleys one of thofe large furrows, 

 which mufl always be every year at the end of the fummer hoeings, 

 in the place where the three rows of feed are afterwards to be 

 fowed ; and by drawing the plough with two mould-boards once 

 through it, I made it 1 4 or 15 inches wide ; which is the breadth 

 that the three rows of feed require. The bed between two of thefe 

 deep furrows is exadlly the breadth of a cart, the wheels of which 

 going in them, hurt no part that has been plowed, and do not prefs 

 down or harden the loofe mould ; nor do the horfes do any damage, 

 becaufe they neceflarily tread upon the ftubble of the late reaped 

 beds, in the middle between thefe two furrows. This was the me- 

 thod I ufed to dung the 9 beds in queftion. * The dung was well 

 rotted : it was fpread at the bottom of the furrows, and immediately 

 covered over by the fame plowing that made the beds which were 

 fowed fome days after. Perhaps this manure may be of more fer- 



vice; 



'* This, fays M. Du Hamel, is a contrivance of great importance ; and I confefs>, 

 adds he, that I h.ive always been puzzled how to fpread dung in the new hufbandry,. 



