MY FARM OF EDGEWOOD 



unction what he regarded as those antiquated 

 notions of Virgil, that soils had their antipa- 

 thies and their likings, and that a farmer could 

 not profitably impress ground to carry a crop 

 against its inclination. But I strongly sus- 

 pect that Tull, like a great many earnest re- 

 formers, in his advocacy of the supreme benefit 

 of tillage, shot beyond the mark, and assumed 

 for his doctrine a universality of application 

 which practice will not warrant. My observa- 

 tion warrants me in believing that no light 

 and friable soil will carry permanent pasture 

 or meadow, with the same profit which belongs 

 to the old grass bottoms of the Hartford 

 meadows, of the blue-grass region, and of 

 Somersetshire, I am equally confident that 

 no stiff clayey soil will pay so well for the fre- 

 quent workings which vegetable culture in- 

 volves, as a light loam. 



Travellers who are trustworthy, tell us that 

 the grape from which the famous Constantia 

 wine is made, at the Cape of Good Hope, is 

 grown from the identical stock which on the 

 Rhine banks, makes an inferior and totally dif- 

 ferent wine: and my own observation has 

 shewn me that the grapes which on the Lafitte 

 estate make that ruby vintage whose aroma 

 alone is equal to a draught of ordinary Medoc 



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