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the courfe of plowing ought ever to be 

 acrofs the Hope, which reduces the labour 

 nearly to that of a level. Thus the grand 

 average is near double the requifite ftrength. 

 That of clay is the fame as the general ave- 

 rage ; what, therefore, muft be the excefs 

 of fand ? 



No farmer can urge the effect of long 

 experience in anfwer to this remark; his 

 inftancing the cuftom of his neighbours, 

 and the prefcription of ages, is of no avail ; 

 fince nothing can be clearer than that cuf- 

 tom and that experience are the effect of 

 chance ; not the refult of reafon, of know- 

 ledge, or experiment. No demonftration 

 in mathematics can be clearer than the 

 plain affertion, that clay requires a greater 

 ftrength to work it than fand ; which 

 ftrength may as well lie in the quantity per- 

 formed in a day, as in the number of cattle. 

 This maxim every farmer will agree to ; 

 but they have no notion of the refult of a 

 general average. 



But in this table we find a yet greater 

 equality in the quantity plowed, than in 

 the number of cattle; nothing, therefore, 

 is more certain, than the whole ceconomy 

 of tillage being quite a matter of 'chance. 

 One cannot view a light fandy country, 

 plowing with more than as many cattle 

 as would till the ftrongeft clays, without 



their 



