Chap. II. BY M. DE CHATEAU-VIEUX. 179 



" The field we are going to fpeak of. Is generally, and juftly, 

 reckoned the befl in the country. Its foil is excellent, very deep, and 

 extremely fertile. This field is dunged very often. Its nearnefs to 

 the farm-yards renders the carriage of manure extremely eafy, and 

 is the caufe of its getting perhaps more of it than may be neceflary. 

 Its fituation too is excellent, rifing on all fides above the neighbour- 

 ing grounds, and the high ways which furround it; by which means 

 it is lefs expofed to be hurt by wet, the water finding an eafy drain 

 from off it. 



" The extent of this field is 6087 tolfes. It was fowed in 1752, 

 for the harvell of 1753, and the greateft part of it was well dunged. 



" It is not the cuflom of the country I am fpeaking of, to defcribc 

 the extent of a field by the number of arpents it contains, but by the 

 number of meafures of wheat with which it is fowed. Eight mea- 

 fures ufed generally to be employed to fow this : but the quantity 

 of feed was leffened this laft time, and only feven meafures were 

 fown. We have hitherto fuppofed the furface of this field to be 

 equal to that of the other fields of the fame country, in which eight 

 meafures of feed are fowed. 



" But as I was defirous to be more precifely exadt, in order to form 

 the comparifon I purpofed making, I had recourfe to the geometri- 

 cal plans of the lands, and found the contents of this field to be, as 

 I faid before, 6087 toifes : now, the cuflom of this village is always 

 to fow at leafi: eleven meafures in a fpace like this. One field, a- 

 mong others, very near to this, and which is but 24 toifes and 32 

 feet larger, has always been fown with i 2 meafures. 



" A new caufe of the fruitfulnefs of this field, unknown before my 

 obfervations, is, that the farmer wifely took care to fow it with a 

 lefs quantity of feed. The plants throve better, when the land was 

 not over-ftocked with them. This field will therefore help to prove 

 the truth of one of the firft principles of the new hulbandry, -viz. 

 That the quantity of feed generally ufed, ought to be diminijhed : a pro- 

 pofition which deferves our entire confidence, becaufe the feed here 

 has, time out of mind, been reduced to eight meafures, and they 

 have been fufficient to produce very plentiful crops. The farther re- 

 duftion made in 1752, to feven meafures, mull alfo be approved of, 

 fifice the crop it yielded was very fine. 



" Thefe preliminary obfervations feemed necefi^aiy, before we pro- 

 ceeded in our detail. This field was fowed with about 150 pounds 

 pf wheat. It was finer during the whole fummer, than any wheat 



A a 2 ' in 



