136 EXPERIMENTS ON WHEAT, Part II. 



amounts to a confiderable fum in large farms ; and to a whole 

 country, it is an objed: worthy the attention of the public : but I 

 fear whatever maybe faid to prevent this, will have but little weight 

 with the pradlitioners of agriculture, who are fo fond of old cuftoms, 

 • as rarely to be prevailed upon to alter them, though they are ex- 

 tremely abfurd. But if thefe people could be induced to make the 

 trial with care, they muft foon be convinced of their error: for if 

 they Avill but examine a field of corn fown in the common way, thev 

 will find but few roots which have more than two or three ftalks, 

 unlefs by chance, where there may be fome few roots which have 

 room to fpread, upon which there may be fix, eight, or ten ftalks, 

 and frequently many more : but in a field of wheat which had not a 

 greater allowance than one bufliel of corn to an acre, fo that the roots 

 had room to fpread, I have obferved that the roots produced from fix 

 to twelve or fourteen {talks, which were ftrong, and had long well- 

 nourifiied ears, and the produce was much greater than in any of 

 .thofe fields in the neighbourhood, which were fown with the com- 

 mon allowance. And if the land is good, and the roots ftand at a 

 proper difi:ance from each other, there will be few plants which 

 will not produce as many flalks as I have here mentioned, and the 

 ears will be better nourilhed. 



" The horfe-hoeing hulbandry which was praftifed by Mr. Tull, 

 has been almoft univerfally rejedied by the farmers in every country; 

 it being fo oppofite to their accuflomed pradlice, that they cannot 

 be prevailed upon to make a trial of it : and indeed fome abfurdities 

 in Mr. Tull himfelf have greatly contributed to give them a difgufl 

 to it; one of which, and that perhaps not the leaft, is, his pofitively 

 afi!erting that the fame land would nourilh the fame fpecies of plants, 

 without changing the crops, for ever, and this without manure*; 

 which his own experience afterwards proved to be falfe. But not- 

 vyithftanding thefe and fome other particulars which have been ad- 

 vanced by Mr. Tull, it is much to be wiflied, continues Mr. Miller, 

 that this new hulbandry might be univerfally pradlifed ; for fome 

 few perfons who have made fufficient trial of it, have found their 

 crops anfwer much better, than in the common or old method of 

 hufbandryj and the French, who have learned it from Mr. Tull's 

 book, are engaging in the pradice of it with greater ardour than 



thofe 



* M. Duhamel, throughout his whole work, takes every opportunity to lecom- 

 mend the ufe of manures in the new hufbandry. 



