NOVEMBER. 5/7 



klea,. being far spread, is therefore just ; for the 

 same notion prevails every where with relation to 

 dung and the sheep-fold ; in which case there is 

 great reason to believe it erroneous. Manures that 

 putrefy, and consequently become volatile, cannot 

 be buried, to use the farming term : plough as 

 deep as you please, they will rise sooner or later 

 into the atmosphere ; but with fossil bodies, and, 

 probably, with the ashes of paring and burning, 

 the case may, in a good measure, be different : and 

 the great success of the common management gives 

 reason to justify the principles on which it pro- 

 ceeds. It may, therefore, be deemed a safe maxim 

 not to plough after this operation, for the first time, 

 more than three, or at most not more than four 

 inches. 



With relation to breaking up grass lands by 

 ploughing for various crops, where it is not intend- 

 ed to burn, I have seen it performed many times on 

 various sorts of land, and I have done it largely my- 

 self on gravelly loams, and on clayey and sandy 

 loams, and I never remarked any striking difference 

 either in the practice or the effect. But in coun- 

 tries \\here they usually plough deep, that is, six, 

 seven, or eight indies, I have observed (and it 

 has been my own practice), that they plough up old 

 grass shallower, that is, not above four inches 

 deep, or at most five. A crop is every where put 

 in on this first ploughing, except only in the case 

 of summer-fallowing, peat, and other moors. By 

 not ploughing deep, the atmosphere has a more 



r p direct 



