389 



the rnoiild was unscrupulously put down lo the hottom of the trench, and 

 eleven inches of pure sand superinduced upon it ! Nevertheless, the 

 oats sown the first year upon this soil, and manured and treated as above, 

 at once reached the mould at the bottom of the trench : and they would 

 have gone down double the depth, had tlioy had an opportunity. On 

 trying oats in the mould of a hothouse, the roots were found to descend 

 two feet nine inches ! 



I regret that there is not room, in the brief space of an ordinary note 

 (which has been now so greatly exceeded), to demonstrate the reasona- 

 bleness of the experiments made, on chemical principles, so as to satisfy 

 the man of science. The man of practice may very easily satisfy him- 

 self. He, who tries the thing, will be convinced, that, while by deep 

 trenching he will raise the value of his land (as held out in the text), by 

 the one-half in some cases, and by double in others, especially if he take 

 a green crop the first season, his entire expense, for both labour and 

 manure, will generally be repaid by that crop : so that, whether he 

 operate as a husbandman, or an arboriculturist, he will, by the second 

 season (as the saying is) be fairly " on velvet ;" or, in other words, that 

 this improvement of the subject will pay itself after a twelvemonth. 



I am aware that the trenching of land, whether in theory or practice, 

 is a subject not fully understood, not even by Mr. Withers himself, not- 

 withstanding his two pamphlets, which are drawTi up to illustrate it. 

 The extraordinary and wonderful effects, produced by deepening, and 

 the comminution of the parts (but the one is useless without the other), 

 are known comparatively to few persons, notwithstanding the success, 

 with which chemistry has already been applied to agriculture ; and none 

 but gardeners and nurserymen are as yet prepared to believe the vast 

 •power which they put into the hands of a man of science and enter- 

 prise. 



