90 On Barilla^ as a Manure, 



infertile clay, impregnated with oxide of iron, filled in 

 winter with pools of stagnant water, and rent in sum- 

 mer into deep fissures. He levelled the ground, and 

 deepened and widened the ditch that skirted it, through 

 which the winter stream runs : he then, late in autumn, 

 had it dug ten inches deep, with a spade, such as na- 

 vigators or canal diggers use, at an expense of two 

 guineas and a half per acre, ridging it up to abide the 

 influences of a winter sky. It was then a reddish and 

 very adhesive clay. On this unpromising soil he has 

 tried potatoes, carrots, parsnips, hemp, flax, pease, 

 beans, cabbage, wheat, and clover, trusting solely to 

 the effects of the Barilla, which he applied in different 

 proportions, at the rate of from one hundred weight to 

 live hundred weight per acre : it was beneficial in eve- 

 ry proportion, and most so where the greatest quanti- 

 ty was used. The clover w^as luxuriant, once cut for 

 soiling, the second time for hay, and a third time for 

 soiling. I have seen some of the straw of the wheat, 

 which is the strongest I ever saw ; I have seen the po- 

 tatoes, carrots, and parsnips, which, in point of size, 

 are not inferior to the best 1 have ever raised or seen, 

 — and the acreable quantity I learn was great ; but the 

 ground and produce have not been accurately ascer- 

 tained. One thing struck me forcibly ; — among other 

 sorts of potatoes, planted in this experimental ground, 

 was one cwWtd ladies^ Jitigers, which the gentleman had 

 before cultivated in his garden, where their shape and 

 size accorded nearly with their name ; but in their new 

 habitation, and with the new manure, they grew to six 

 times the size : and the esculents raised on the expe- 

 rimental ground, to be dressed for family use, far ex- 



