AGRICULTURE WITH CHEMISTRY. 



105 



be expcclcd, as their growth and decay are limited to one 

 season. Were manures cxckisivcly applied, under a sys 

 tem of convertible husbandry, to grass grounds, the lands 

 would regularly be broken up, in due rotation of crop- 

 ping ; and there can be no doubt, but that a greater quan- 

 tity of corn and herbage would annually be produced: 

 and it is very probable that wheat and other grain would 

 be less liable than at present to diseases, many of which, 

 there is reason to believe, are occasioned by the immediate 

 application of dung i-)revious to sowing. 



Top dressing, especially to meadow and pasture ground, 

 iG undoubtedly the best mode of applying manure. This 

 pra;flice is better inider-stood in England than in any 

 other country, though it cannot be generally adopted on 

 all the lands of a farm, unless the whole is kept under a 

 regular course of tillage and pasture. The apprehen- 

 sion, in England, of tenants over-cropping, has necessarily 

 occasioned their being prohibited from breaking up mea- 

 dows and pastiu'e lands, whence, at this time, and at all 

 trmes, a very considcr^ible addition to the present su])i)ly 

 of food might be obtained. The convertible husbandry, 

 or the management of farms in an alternate course of 



o tillage 



