TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 11 



inspection, I can vouch for their accuracy. I feel a confidence, 

 therefore, that wlioever may hereafter make similar trials will 

 not be disappointed. But I must here apprise experimenters, 

 that a first crop, from land newly brought into cultivation, is 

 generally much inferior to the succeeding ones. — I found an acre 

 of land, which, upon breaking up, produced only 324 bushels of 

 potatoes, yielded a succeeding crop, planted immediately after, of 

 522. I ascribe this improvement to the repeated stirring of the 

 soil, by which the fertilizing influence of the rains and atmos- 

 phere were admitted. Upon these two crops no manure was 

 used ; and as potatoes are known to exhaust fertility, it might 

 have been expected the second crop might have been less instead 

 of greater. Hence, it seems- probable, the deterioration of the 

 soil does not take place until some time after the land is brought 

 into cultivation. 



Mr. TuU, an Oxfordshire gentleman, who published a Trea- 

 tise on Husbandry, about forty years ago, speaking of the great 

 advantages of frequently stirring and pulverising the soil, relates 

 that a little farmer, having prepared his field for sowing, could 

 not raise money to purchase the seed vintil he had lost the season ; 

 he therefore kept on ploughing, at proper intervals, until the next 

 season arrived, when he compassed to plant his field. At harvest, 

 his crop was so abundant, that its value was more than sufticient 

 to pay the fee simple cost of his field. The effects, from frequent 

 stirring of the soil might readily be determined, by comparing 

 the produce of a square rod of ground, planted with potatoes after 

 being stirred four or five times in as many months, with that of 

 an adjoining space, of the same extent, planted at the time of 

 breaking up. 



On my arrival, in 1808, I was desirous of obtaining infor- 

 mation upon the modes used here in the culture of potatoes : 



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