228 EXPERIMENTS ON WHEAT, Part IL 



all, had loft the faculty of growing, by their being parched up by 

 the heat and drynefs of the earth. To be ftill more certain of this, 

 three weeks after I had fowed thefe grains, I watered half of them, 

 feveral times ; but to no purpofe : not one of them rofe, and I found 

 feveral of them quite whole in the earth where I had fowed them. 



" After this experiment, on the i ith of Auguft, I fufpended the 

 fowings I had begun the 8 th, and did not refume them till the 26th, 

 after fome rain which fell on the 22d and 23d. Thefe laft fowings 

 rofe much better than the firft. 



" Thus it is that experience and obfervation teach us to leave ofF 

 bad cuftoms, or fuch as are not founded on principles with which a. 

 man of fenfe can reft fatisfied. 



" Whenever the produce of the fields on which my experiments 

 were tried, is confidered ; it ought always to be remembered, that I 

 ufed no dung on any of thofe lands, and that they received no other 

 improvement than what was owing to a better preparation of the 

 earth, only by ftirring it. Thofe who chufe to have recourfe to 

 dung, will probably reap, greater crops : with an hundred loads, they 

 may dung three times more land than is done in the common way ; 

 for the dung fhould be fpread very thin, if one would have it be of 

 any fervice. By fpreading it too thick, I believe the plants would 

 grow too rank, and be apt to be lodged. 



" The newhufbandry fupplies the want of dung, not only by ftir- 

 ring the earth, and not over-burdening it with too many plants, iut 

 like^viji by the ftrong thick Jlubble it produces^ lohich affords a moji 

 excellent manure, attended -u-ith no expence. It lies ready upon the fpot; 

 the plowing of the earth buries it; and as it is a long time in rotting, it 

 helps to keep the foil loofe and light, and is repeated every year. I 

 have foup-d ftubble almoft whole at a year's end; and fome.I have 

 feen not quite confumed at the end of two years. 



" But can wc be fure that this manure is of any confequenee, or 

 real advantage ? After v/hat X have already feen of its effedls, I will 

 venture to fay, that it contributes greatly to increafe the produdtions 

 of the earth. I have very often plucked up plants remarkable for 

 their beauty, and have frequently found their roots interwoven with 

 tufts of ftubble, which ihewed me the caufe of their extraordinary 

 growth. I ftiall loon have more pofitive proofs of this, by the ex- 

 periments I am now making to clear up this point.." 



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