28 THE PRACTICE OF THE 



3. The drilled wheat, while young, re- 

 quires only a fmall (hare of nourifhment. It 

 iubfifts then upon the vegetable food, remain- 

 ing in the foil after harveft, with what it 

 receives from the firft horfe-hoeing. This 

 opens a furrow clofe to the rows of wheat in 

 autumn, whereby they are kept dry in winter, 

 which is of confequence to wheat. Ploughing 

 the earth then from the rows, deftroys the 

 weeds in the intervals ; and by turning and 

 expofing a large new furface, to the influ- 

 ences of the atmofphere, the land receives a 

 new flock of vegetable food. This is an im- 

 portant circumftance, and peculiar to the New 

 Hufbandry. The furface of the land at reft, 

 as before obferved, is made fertile, by ex- 

 pofure to the atmofphere ; but land that is 

 turned up by the plough, being open and in 

 tilth, is much more eafily penetrated by the 

 atmofphere than hard, flale, land at reft ; 

 and is quickly impregnated with the vege- 

 table aliment, in the winter, by rain and froft, 

 and in fpring and fummer by the fun and 

 dews (for well hoed- land is as fine as garden 

 mould), which in the hot weather fall plen- 

 tifully in the night, and are imbibed by the 

 fine ipongv foil, as deep as the plough goes, 

 which is deeper than the fun exhales them in 

 the day. Whether the dews are attracled to 

 the finer parts of the foil, and communicate.d 

 from thence to the roots, or whether the 

 nutritious matter enters the earth, made 



porous 



