Chap. II. BV M. DE CHATEAU-VIEUX. 167 



ARTICLE II. 



'Experiment made on lands ivhich had borne a Jirjl crop. Remarks on 



thefe experiments. 



*< TX r E did not ejfpedl that the fields we are now going to fpealc. 



VV of, would yield a crop near equal to that of the fields we 

 treated of in the foregoing article. We knew that the mould is ne- 

 ver fufiiclently broken and divided the firft year that a field is laid 

 out in beds. Befides, almoft all laft year, the earth was toomoiftto 

 be cultivated properly. The wet mould could not be divided into 

 ^mall particles, nor could it be plowed fo frequently as to admit of ; 

 fowing it fo early as it fhould have been. 



*' But every year will not be fo unfavourable to this hufbandry ; and 

 when there are alternate changes, fuch as we have had this year, of 

 wet weather and fair, which will afford time for the different plow- 

 ings, we may, with fome certainty, promife ourfelves a more abun- 

 dant crop; lince, as we have feen, it depends chiefly on the good 

 or bad flate of the earth. 



" The whole management of thefe fields having been nearly the 

 fame with that of the fecond experiment, it would be needlefs to 

 give a particukr detail of it in our account of the other experi- 

 ments." 



EXPERIMENT, No. IV. 



«< 



npHIS field is a very flrong good foil. In the old hiifbaudry, it 



-'■ required great ftrength to plow it, and ifwas neceflary to catch 



the feafons when they were neither too wet nor too dry. It contains 



16487 fquare toifes. I laid near one half of it out in beds, which, 



with the alleys,, were each about fix feet wide. Part of thefe beds 



werefowiLon the thirtieth of Augufi:. Conftiint rains preyeateJ the refl 



from being fown till the twenty-fixth of September. An hundred and . 



eighty CMie pounds of wheat were employed in fowing the whole. 



What was firfl fowed, came up well, and the plants were very 



ftrong before winter: but dn one place, almoft all of them \vere de- 



ftroyed by infedls. I fowed this fpot a fecond time. The freih 



feed was fcarce able- to rife before winter, and yielded much lefs • 



thap the beds which had not met with the like accident. The wheat 



of the beds which were fown the twenty-fixth of September, was 



a.loxjg_ time before it fprang up, owing to the drynefs of the earth, 



which" 



