1 



Chap. II. BY M. DE CHATEAU-VIEUr. jjji 



EXPERIMENT. No. IV. 



'''"Tp HIS experiment was made at the diftance of fix miles from my 

 -'■ houfe, on a light poor foil, which induced me to dung it.* 

 The beds were about fix feet wide, and were fowed on the twenty- 

 firfl: of September with three pounds and three quarters of wheat, 

 which produced fine plants and large ears, and yielded 196 pounds. 

 Tho' the earth had not been well ftirred, nor at proper feafons ; 

 yet the corn fowed in it produced greatly. The dung undoubtedly 

 helped to make up for the want of due culture." 



EXPERIMENTS 



Made on Jields fonvn in equally difiant roias, ivith the drill plough. 



No. V. 



Have fowed fields cultivated in every refpedl in the common w^y, 

 except in the manner of diftributing the feed, which was done 

 with the drill-plough. The whole field was covered with rows of ■ 

 wheat, diftant from each other feven inches and an half. ;{: ' 



" The advantages which I propofed to myfelf by fowing in this- 

 manner, were, firft, the faving of feed and preventing the earth from 

 being over-ftocked with plants : fecondly, burying the feed at a proper 

 depth : thirdly, having the plants at equal diftances : and laftly, the 

 little ftirring of the ground and breaking of the clods, which the 

 drill-plough effedls at the fame time that it fows. Thefe things 

 feemed to me more likely to be attended with fuccefs, than the com- 

 mon way of fowing. 



" The plants of this wheat were very fine: their deep green colour 

 ihewed their ftrength : the largenefs of their blades and the number 

 of their ftalks, fliewed likewife that they found greater plenty of 

 nourifhment than wheat in the common way. The plants had, in 

 general, four, fix, eight, ten, or more ftalks ,- fo that thefe fields, 

 which, till the month of April, feemed fcarcely to have been fown, 

 changed then fo as hardly to be known again, by the number of 

 fialks which^^iho^ .forth at that time. The wheat was taller than 

 ->* ■ f • that 



* M. Du Hamel obferves, that tho' dung may generally be fpared in the new huf- 

 banldry ; yet it certainly is of confiderable ufe, cfpecially in poor lands. 



X M. de Chateau-vieux calls this method of towhig,- femer en plein, to fow in fulh 

 We fhall exprefs it by^ fowing -hi e^ual ^Jiafiiiy rotusy in' oppofition to fields laid out 

 In beds and alleys. 



