I5S 



is a plantation, aboufc twenty-five years old, wherein 

 none of the oaks are under seventy, and some a 

 hundred feet high. They are set so close, that they 

 almost seem to touch one another, and are no more 

 than four or five inches in diameter. Tuis timber is 

 of great use. both for making charcoal, and many 

 other purposes. And the owners may reap four 

 crops of them in a hundred years. 



This forest belongs to the King of France, who 

 ordered the plantation to be made by way of trial. 

 And his ministers have caused several of the trees, a 

 hundred feet high to be transplanted, to leave stand- 

 ing proofs of the wonderful effects of the experiment. 



As to sowing, the perfection of agriculture consists, 

 in setting plants at due distances, ana giving a suffi- 

 cient depth to the roots, that they may spread and 

 receive due nourishment. Yet this is little regarded, 

 but all sorts of grain are sown by handfuls cast at 

 random. By this means four parts in five of the 

 seed is utterly lost. To remedy this, a Spanish gen- 

 tleman contrived an engine (described in the Pailoso- 

 pineal Transactions, under ihe name of the Spanish 

 sembrador) which being fastened to the plow, the 

 whole business of plowing; sowing, and harrowing, 

 is performed at once, and the grain is spread at 

 equal distances, and equally deep in the furrow. An 

 experiment being made, land which usually produced 

 five fold, by this means produced sixty fold. One 

 stalk is all that springs immediately from one grain > 

 but on the sides of this, near, if not within the 

 ground, issue several lateral stalks. And some of 

 these send forth roots, whence one or several other 

 stalks spring, if they are early formed, the soil &ood 5 

 and the weather favourable. By this means one g.ttiu 

 of wheat planted in a garden has produced ninety, 

 yea, a hundred ears. If then, each ear taking one 

 with another, contains fifty grains, a single grain may 

 produce five thousand. Nay, a gentleman in York. 

 shire, who made the experiment in his garden some 



