DISCOURSE. 



GENTLEMBN, 



The Secretary has put into my hands a vote of the Society, 

 requesting me " to make to it such communications as may in 

 my opinion most conduce to the interest of Agriculture." 



This was an unlooked-for request. I have myself much to 

 learn from observing farmers, of longer experience, and whose 

 attentions have been exclusively devoted to husbandry. Mine, 

 since I became a farmer, have been diverted by other pursuits; 

 SQ that at intervals only my thoughts have been turned to this 

 subject. 



No one doubts the importance of our profession : and the ac- 

 tual formation of our society is a declaration that improvements 

 in it are necessary. But the Field of Agriculture is of boundless 

 extent ; and though traversed for some thousands of years by 

 the greater portion of the human race, yet by no one, nor by all 

 combined, has a complete survey been accomplished. Every 

 year, and every day, presents something new : and even of old 

 things, the practices of ages, there still exist diversities of opin- 

 ions. For instance, which is preferable, deep or shallow plough- 

 ing? — Should manures be spread on the surface, or be buried by 

 the plough? If the latter, at what depth, to produce the great- 

 est effect, with the most lasting fertility ? — Should manure be 

 applied in its rough, coarse and unfermented state, or, by keep- 

 ing and repeated turnings, be more or less rotted? — These are 

 points which appear to me deeply to affect the interests of 

 agriculture. On these therefore I will give you my opinion, en» 

 lightened by the observations of intelligent husbandmen. I will 

 then advert to a few other topics which demand your attention ; 

 dxoellmg on one of them — Root-Crops for the Food of Live 

 Stock — as lying at the foundation of an Improved Agriculture. 



