TAKING REINS IN HAND 



— only across the highway, and within gun- 

 shot, produce a wine for which the proprietor 

 would be glad to receive a fourth only of the 

 Lafitte price. 



Lands have their likings then, though Mr. 

 Tull be of the contrary opinion. Any crop 

 may indeed be grown wherever we supply the 

 requisite conditions of warmth, moisture, 

 depth of soil, and appropriate dressings; but 

 just in the proportion that we find these con- 

 ditions absent in any given soil, and are com- 

 pelled to supply them artificially, we diminish 

 the chances of profit. 



My own soil was of a light loamy character, 

 and the farm lay within two miles of a town 

 of forty thousand inhabitants. 



Such being the facts, what should be the 

 general manner of treatment? 



Grazing, which is in many respects the most 

 inviting of all modes of farming, was out of 

 the question, for the reason that the soil did 

 not incline to that firm, close turf-surface, 

 which invites grazing, and renders it profit- 

 able. Nor do I mean to admit, what many 

 old-fashioned gentlemen are disposed to af- 

 firm, that all land which does not so incline, is 

 necessarily inferior to that which does. If 

 grazing were the chiefest of agricultural in- 



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