120 TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 



15 years of our Homespun management, we find, although the 

 crops seem to grow well, they do not come to perfection ; they 

 get what we call the rot. No doubt manure would act like a 

 medicine, and might soon restore the lands to health and vigour. 



The diseased farm I allude to, is that near the High Peak, 

 and as I have long had an eye to that farm, but that its case 

 seemed to me a desperate one, I thought it advisable to consult 

 Mr. Fish ; who, no doubt, we may reckon our best land doctor 

 here ; for as to Stream and Spring, they are as yet only young 

 beginners, and cannot be expected to know much of these things. 



When I asked Fish, " what he would do with that land ?" he 

 replied," Do with it ! why, I would make a mine ofit." I did not 

 immediately comprehend him, and he explained, he would make 

 his fortune by it — " How so?" said I — " Easy enough," said 

 he, " for the land is good, and a great part ofit, tit for the plough. 

 In front of the new house, both in the vale or ravine, as well as 

 on the west side, there are many fine acres, at present covered 

 with coarse and useless grass. 



" There is also a good large space inclosed around the premises, 

 which I see it is needless to plant, unless it goes through a proper 

 course. Land, you must know, is in a manner like your stomach, 

 which I fancy you would not like to have constantly crammed 

 with the same food ; and witiiout any sort of seasoning : in time, 

 you would not relish it; and disorders might follow. Now I 

 understand this land, or stomach, has tasted nothing for the last 

 fifteen years but potatoes; consequently, it loaths that food, or, 

 as we English farmers say, " it is tired of' the crop." This ex- 

 pression is very common with us, for we say such a field is 

 " tired of clover," and the like ; although this is a mode of expres- 

 sion, on which some of our best agriculturists have differed. One 

 thing, however, is certain, that if land, in its nature tolerably 



