Chap. II. BY M. DE CHATEAU-VIEUX. 14J 



could have but one crop in two years : and it appears that I have 

 not exaggerated the produce of the new hufbandry, in making it 

 420 pounds in the lame fpace of time, which is a clear gain of 

 315 pounds. 



" I have fince tried fome other experiments; one of which, made 

 in the year 1746, I rnuft now mention. I tried two things at 

 the fame time: firlf, whether wheat would grow after it had been 

 kept feveral years; and fecondly, whether fowing each grain at lix 

 inches diftance would turn to account. As I did not intend to make 

 the experiment on a large field, I chofe for it a fpot of llrong earth, 

 in bad condition, fit for making bricks. I fowed in it three quar- 

 ters of an ounce of wheat, which I had preferved carefully for eight 

 years. It rofe pretty well * ; but about one fourth of the grains did 

 not fprout at all. After the winter, thefe plants grew very firong. 

 I delayed feeing them too long, for I found them quite choaked with 

 weeds. I fent a woman to weed them, who unluckily at the fame 

 time pulled up almoft all the plants of wheat : the finefl fuft^ered 

 mofi:, ihe not imagining that they could be wheat. There were but 

 about forty plants left, and thofe at very great and unequal diftances. 

 Thefe produced tufts of upwards of fifty ftalks, with ears five or 

 fix inches long, containing a great deal of grain, which became the 

 prey of birds. This experiment, if it anfwered no other end, is at 

 leaft a proof of the goodnefs of the new hufbandry. 



" The good fuccefs of thefe little experiments, was a ftrong in- 

 ducement to me to make more confiderable ones ; but in order to 

 this, it is necefTary to be provided with a proper hoe and drill- 

 plough : for I mufl confefs that Mr. Tull's did not appear to me to 

 be fuch. It's great fault is, that it is too complex. 



** Being provided with a proper hoe-plough, I foon became fenfible 

 of the advantages of it. Numbers of fuch plows are already ufed 

 in this country; and, which is faying a great deal, even our farmers 

 make ufe of them. 



" This is the plough I ufed all this fummer in preparing my 

 grounds. It did admirably well in the alleys of my experiment, 

 after the corn was above four feet high. No plant was hurt by it, 

 and I could bring the plough as near them as I pleafed. Thus it 

 fully and conveniently performs this hoeing, in which I have feldom 



ufed 



* M. Du Hamel obferves, that it is very fiiigular that wheat, eight years old, 

 fiiould fprout fo well ; for that Ue fowed fotne of feven years old, which did not rife 

 at all, I 



