t 193 ] 



ture and rural oeconomy the world has 

 been deluged with reafoning; it is high 

 time that faff and experiment mould dilii- 

 pate the contradictions and obfcurities of 

 opinion. I have not the lead: prejudice in 

 favour of, or againft, large, middling, or fmall 

 farms ; and I am now totally ignorant how 

 the event of the following calculations will 

 turn out; but on which ever fide of the 

 queftion, I fhall adhere to the relult, and 

 found my future opinion on it, till more 

 extenfive minutes prove any thing to the 

 contrary. 



In the firft place I (hall form a table of 

 all the farms of which I gained particulars, 

 with the addition of one or two circum- 

 ftances collected from the general minutes. 

 In the particulars of farms, the number of 

 acres, of each fort of grain, &c. is not 

 always fpecified; but as that is a point of 

 much confequence, I (hall calculate them 

 from the courfes of crops in the refpeclive 

 neighbourhoods, which will give the totals 

 pretty accurately, as thofe I minuted were 

 every where the moil common in ufe ; 

 and where feveral courfes are regiftered I 

 mall extract one that feems molt the ave- 

 rage of the red: ; by this means we mail 

 come very near the truth. It was common, 

 in my enquiries after farms, in afking the 

 acres of each grain, for the farmers to re- 



VOL. IV. O ply, 



