DECEMBER. 5 S3 



MANURE HOPS. 



Hops are by many planters manured in this 

 month, if the season be favourable. 



PLOUGH FOR SPRING CROPS. 

 Should this business, by great hazard, not have 

 been executed in October or November, it must Iv 

 done the first week in this month. To avoid spring 

 tillage on wet land is essential. The Flemings 

 know this fact well. " Passing Armenticrs, met 

 with an exertion of industry that deserve- attention. 

 Many stubbles were ploughed into beds eight or 

 ten feet wide, and tin? furrows digging out, and the 

 earth spreading on the beds. These fields were in- 

 tended for beairs. They leave the land thus pre- 

 pared till March (this was seen in autumn), raid 

 then plant without further tillage. As spring til- 

 lage is thus avoided on v/ct land, the system must 

 be admitted to be excellent." Travels, 1789. 



THE LABORATORY. 



To have permitted, fifty years ago, such an ar- 

 ticle as this to form a part of a Farmer's Calendar, 

 would have been thought an absurdity; but such an 

 opinion will not, I trust, prevail at present. The 

 intimate connexion between agriculture and che- 

 mistry is unquestioned. Let it not, however, be 

 imagined, that I propose a farmer should addict him- 

 self to a pursuit which is not only very captivating, 

 but also very expensive; I would merely have him 

 able to analyze, in a rough way, his soils, and the 



fossil 



