T^E RURAL SOC!lAT£!l, 15 



bid Icifure to plough his lands according to the rnles 

 laid down by Tull and ,his imitators, after having iirft 

 well dreffcd them with proper manure,* 



W« 



*"Fredctic William, King of Pruffia, an exccJIcnt financier In manf 

 •^'refprfts, and who applied ooanj greai ideas to the defail of praf^ice, rea- 

 «< foncd very jaftly in making it an cftaijlinied principle cf his politicaf 

 «* fyftem, that agriculture is the fo •yidatiorr^ the opuUnre and ptofperity of 

 ** cfiate. He encouraged it in the ftrongeft mamc , a'.id made reguU- 

 **tion8 in its fivotw, of which the wifdom was unperctived till after mairjr 

 •• years. The conftant attention he paid to the ohfervance of thcfc regu- 

 «* iations completed their' falutary efFcOs. — This monarch had underftand- 

 •* ing to know (and all finartciers ought to be proud of receiving inftrtic 

 « tioos fror« a mafter) that the «roft ftubborn and infrnile foils are roeliJV 

 «• rated by manuring and ploughibg ; and that rich lar.ds ai« made I^HI 

 «* richer. He therefore infifted that the farm«rs of his demefnes, and th» 

 <• proprietors of eflatcs in lands, Ihould manure them fulHciently, and 

 «» plough them deeply and frequently. — When the king was expefted to 

 «* pafs thrcbgh any of the provinces,the gentlemen, the farmer?, nay evefithe 

 •* peafaots, thought they could not pay their ceuri better, than in placing 

 <• a large dunghill before ibsu doors ! A powdered courtier might freer- 

 *^* ingly deny to this economical attention a place amorgft the royal vjr- 

 <' tae* I but the fagacioas monarch was fenfible, that thefe dunghills fpread 

 <* over the fields would produce a c?op of doc^tts. — He accordirgly ha^ 

 ** the fatistat^ion t'^ fee, after reigning Tonne years^ the fands of the Mar- 

 *' che of Brandenburg, and the heattis and moralfes of Pruflla, covered 

 with a plentiful harvcft of the fineft corn in the \7^:Id.— The king, hi» 



' foB, fapplicd all that was wanting to bring this nobie plan to perfection j 

 -' and we have feen in a very (hort fpace of time, the fandy def^rr, thates- 

 ** tended to the very gates of Berlin, converted into excellent land by « 

 *• kin'! of economical enchantment," (Political Inllitutes, by Baron Bid- 

 feld. Vol. i.p. 18O. 



This monarch in the yrar 1727, founded in the nnlveffuy of Halle, tbs 

 ii\%. profefforfhip of Rural economy which bad been feea in Europe"; and 

 the example has fince been happily copied in rcany other univeifities of 

 Gerrrany, F. 



[Without entering into a wide detail of tae caufes which have farored 

 ^l?e improved ftate of ggricultore feen in fome parts of Germany, we may 

 obferve that fome cf the^i may have arifen from the fources here m^tiocj- 

 ed. Another fourc-is to be found in the impofubility of gaining money by 

 fiSTtgation in •'. prircJpal portion of Germany, Another a'ifohas proceed- 

 ed from the covneclio;^ which has fubfi'^cd betweenAufuia and Flanders j 

 jn confequence of which the latter has furnished to the Auftrian domsnlocjt 

 not only many improvements in agiiculture, but feme capital in monera 



When improvements were efiahl-fhed ia fotKC diilil^^iSj tbey gradually <si-» 

 f«flded thsoifclve* to o?bpr?, E.] 



