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Britain ; one occasion of which is, 

 the greater heat of our summers, 

 by which lands grow dry faster here 

 than there. Another cause may 

 be our having a greater quantity of 

 fair weather. And our being more 

 liable to drought, makes it neces- 

 sary that our methods of culture 

 should be different from those prac- 

 tised in that country. Heating ma- 

 nures are generally more needful 

 there than here ; and ridge plough- 

 ing is a more proper kind of til- 

 lage for the English than for us — 

 though it might be of great service 

 in many of our fields. I have found 

 considerable advantage from it in 

 land that is flat and wet. 



To plough our driest lands, in 

 ridges, would undoubtedly be lost 

 labour, unless for certain particu- 

 lar crops, as it would cause a 

 drought to be more hurtful to the 

 crops, and there is no danger of 

 too much wetness. And yet it 

 may be, that when an over dryness 

 of soil on the side of a hill, is owing 

 to the rain's running ofi" before it 

 has time to soak into the soil, 

 ploughing the land into ridges, and 

 making the gutters nearly parallel 

 with the horizon, may cause the 

 soil to retain moisture the better. 



It is in the power of the farmer 

 in good measure to guard against 

 the ill efTects of drought. It is a 

 matter that certainly ought to be 

 attended to in this countrj^, in 

 which almost half of our summers 

 are complained of by many,as being 

 very dry. The best method is, to 

 have more of our lowest lands un- 

 der the best improvement in til- 

 lage. If this were the case, we 

 should not so often hear of a scar- 



city caused by drought. If it 

 were become customary to plant 

 and sow on drained lands, and in 

 those which are so low and wet as 

 to need laying in ridges, possibly 

 our dry summers would be as fruit- 

 ful on the whole as our wet ones. 

 But, as we manage our lands at 

 present, the case is far otherwise. 

 A great number of people are al- 

 ways reduced to a distressed con- 

 dition by a dry summer. And they 

 are too ready to consider the short- 

 ness of their crops in a dry year as 

 a divine judgment, though they 

 might have prevented it by a more 

 prudent management. 



Another way to guard against 

 having our crops pinched by d rought 

 is, to have a variety of different 

 crops on a farm each year, some 

 that are least injured by a drought, 

 and some that require the most 

 rain. Thus, let a season happen 

 as it will, we may hope to gain in 

 one crop, what we lose in anoth- 

 er; or at least that some of our 

 crops will be very good, if others 

 should fail. 



Sometimes land is so shaped by 

 nature, that the water of a rivulet, 

 or of a plentiful spring, may be led 

 by gutters, or narrow channels, to 

 moisten places which would other- 

 wise suffer by drought. When it 

 can be performed without too 

 much expense, it will be found to 

 bean excellent piece of husbandry. 

 In some cases it may be a double 

 advantage, making a wet place 

 drier, by diverting the water to 

 places that need it. Deep tillage 

 is also of very great importance to 

 prevent the ill efTects of a dry sea- 

 son. For the dryness of three or 



