34 THE RURAL SOCRATES. 



eKtremely bad, and the cattle find but little fudcnance 

 from its natural produce of rattle- grafs, inilk-thiftle, 

 ^c. — There is great probability that thefe fpots of 

 ground v/ere formerly covered with wood, which has 

 been felled ; and that according to the pernicious cu^- 

 torn, too prevalent in Switzerland, cattle were imme- 

 diately turned in to feed. Thus the tender (lioots which 

 %ould have fprouted again, and produced frefh trees, 

 have been nibbled or broken down by the beafls, till by 

 degrees the woods became totally deftroyed ; iTnd thefe 

 grounds thus dripped, have been appropriated to paf- 

 turage. — I have taken notice of the little advantage ufu- 

 ally reaped from them, when I mentioned the exertions 

 of Kliyoggin augmenting his compofl dunghill.-— He at 

 Urd treated his pailiures like other peafants ; fowing 

 them with wheat every (ixth year, and every feventh 

 with oats : at all other times the cattle grazed there. 

 But he was foon (enfible, that by perfeverance and affidu- 

 ous labor, a much more confiderable advantage might; 

 be gained by turning them into fruitful corn-fields frtr 

 grain. This was a long time obliged to be omitted for 

 ^want of laboring hands ; and the greater proximity of 

 l>is other grounds prefcnted fo many immediate objedL;^ 

 of cultivation, that he could fcarcely devote a moment 

 to his paflures. It is only fmce his children have made 

 a beginning to affifl: him, that he has applied his indus- 

 try tovvards this improvement. — The firfl: ilep is dig- 

 ging a ditch of about three or four feet broad and two 

 or three deep round each pallure ; cading the earth 

 In the form of a parapet bank, which remains two 

 years in that Hate, expoled to the weather : it is then 

 made ufe of to fpread on the moil barren fpots of the 

 pallure, and to fill up fmall inequalities of ground ; and 

 ^here there are large holes, he fills them with ftones 

 before he covers them with mould. The land is then 

 dreiTed with marley gravel and manure, according to 

 the rules obferved in his fields for grain ; and it is lo 

 -im^'iiingly improved, that^ ia general, it affords his beft 



crops, 



