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LETTER XXXII. 



T)EFORE I take my leave of arable 

 •*-* land, and its management, you muft 

 allow me to review the principal operation 

 of tillage, viz. plowing ; that we may be 

 able to form a juft idea of the proportion, 

 if any, between the ftrength and expence, 

 and the quantity of work performed ; it 

 may be of utility to know in what degree 

 this branch of the practice of hufbandry is 

 founded on juft proportions, and how far 

 it i« liable to objections : Evils muft be 

 known before they can be cured ; and the 

 knowledge of the exiftence of good, pre- 

 vents the falfe ideas of throwing each object 

 into a worfe light than the reality : Thefe 

 fort of enquiries are not of the lefs ufe, be- 

 caufe they fometimes bring matters to light 

 that are unexpected, and contrary, perhaps, 

 to juft ideas; on whatever fide the refult 

 turns, the very knowledge of the fact muft 

 be uieful : For there is as great an impro- 

 priety in defcanting on practices apparently 

 mifchievous, but which in reality are inno- 

 cent, as in praifing every thing that is com- 

 monly done, merely becaufe it is common. 

 But to return. 



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