WEST DEVONSHIRE, 147 



and this Diflrid being, in all probability, 

 the fountain and fource of the practice, in 

 thefe kingdoms, it would be improper to 

 difmifs a topic, which is of confiderable 

 importance to the rural concerns of the 

 111 and, without taking a retrofpedlive view 

 of the pradice, in this quarter of it. 



There needs not a better proof, that the 

 pradice, under the guidance of difcretion, 

 is not deJiruBive to foils, nor any way 

 dangerous' to Agriculture, than the fadl, (o 

 fully afcertained here, that after a conil-ant 

 ufe of it, during, perhaps, a long fuccelliori 

 of ages, the foil ftill continues to be pro- 

 ducSlive ; and, under management in other 

 refpe<9"s much below par, continues to yield 

 a rent equivalent to that drawn from lands 

 of equal quality, in more enlightened Dif- 

 trids : and there appears to me ftrong 

 reafon to imagine, that, under the prefent 

 courfe of management, fodburning is elTen- 

 tial to fuccefs. Indeed, inftances are men- 

 tioned, and pretty well authenticated, in . 

 which men who ftood high in their pro- 

 feffion, and of fufficient capitals, having 

 been injured or brought to poverty, through 

 L 2 their 



