Chap. IT. BY M. DE ClIATEAU-VIEUX. 195 



" The plants I have been fpeaking of, grew amazingly in thick- 

 nefs, height and largenefs of ears. They were reaped the twenty- 

 lixth of July, and yielded five hundred and forty ounces ; which is 

 forty-nine times the feed, and an ounce over. The birds did no 

 damage at all. This is after the rate of 2041 pounds, or about 

 93 bnflieL to an acre, which is aveiy great crop. 



" This experiment aniounts to a complete demonftration of the fu- 

 periority of the new hulbandry. It ihews, beyond all doubt, how 

 much the earth is more perfeiftly tilled by it, and that this tilth s 

 lafting, if care be taken to prefcrve it by good culture, performed 

 at proper times and with judgment. 



♦' Can it be thought that a field cultivated in the old way, will, 

 with only pulling up the ftubble, and without plowing it feveral 

 times, even tho' it be harrowed, ever produce a crop of any corn 

 whatever ? Part of the feed might indeed flioot, and the plants 

 might grow fome inches high : but they would certainly perifh for 

 want of nourifhment, which they would not be able to draw from 

 fuch a foil, by reafon of its extreme hardnefs ; and confequently 

 they never would be able to produce any grain, which is the great 

 objedl of agriculture. 



•' It was of great importance to fliew, by an unexceptionable ex- 

 periment, that lands are brought to much better tilth by the new 

 huftandry than by the old. This is now completely proved ; and 

 no doubt can any longer be made, that the confequence we drew 

 from it is equally certain ; viz. that hifids fo prepared, will produce 

 more than lafjds which are cultivated in the common way. This facfl, 

 which is founded on the principles of found philofophy, is likewife 

 confirmed by repeated experience. 



"The partifans of both kinds of hufbandry will do well to con- 

 fider, that the great principle which we are endeavouring to incul- 

 cate, and on which almofl the whole fuccefs of the new hufbandry 

 depends, is admitted in the old hufbandry : viz. thoroughly to divide 

 and loojcn the earth. This principle is fo generally received, that 

 there is not a hulbandman who does not know that one plowing 

 more than ordinary does his land as much good as dunging it would 

 do. His experience has certainly taught him, that this extraordinary 

 plowing produces him better crops : but he is not fufficiently fenfible, 

 that of all the ways of improving his land, no one is more effedlual, 

 or lefs expsnfive than this. Were the full value of it known, it 



C c would 



