below the cultivated foil is, neverthelefs, found dead 

 and barren ? Is it not for this reafon, that farmers 

 in general cautioufly avoid ploughing deeper than 

 the foil, left by ftirring that dead earth, and mixing 

 it with the foil, they ihould lelFen its fertiUty ? The 

 refult of a little experiment which I had made prior 

 to our revolution then occurred to me. Its reckal 

 may in fome other refpedls be ufeful. 



Within a ftone's throw of my father's houfe, was 

 a piece of fandy loam, which from its contiguity to 

 the dwelling-place of himfelf and anceftors, for up- 

 wards of a hundred and thirty years, muft have been 

 kept, a large portion of that time, in tillage, and 

 confequently have been often manured. Yet the 

 coloured foil was no more than five or fix inches in 

 depth. This foil I removed from one fpot, with 

 three or four inches of the earth next beneath it. 

 Of the next, red earth, I then took up as much as 

 meafured a peck and a half. Dividing a long box 

 into two equal portions by a board, into one 1 put a 

 peck of the red earth ; and into the other a half peck, 

 intimately mingled and incorporated with half a 

 peck of clay — perfect clay to the touch ; but it was 

 taken from the edge of a clay-pit holding water, 

 where cattle often drank, and a flock of geefe bath- 

 ed, during the fummer. Hence the apparent clay 

 was doubtlefs impregnated, in fome degree, with 

 the droppings from thefe animals. This box I 

 placed, on the furface, in a garden. Adjacent to it, 

 I funk, to a level with the furface, a fmall earthen 

 pot filled with the fame fort of clay. In thefe three 

 places I fowed turnip feed, as late as the 20th of Au- 

 guft. In a few days I reduced the number of turnip 

 plants in each to three. 1 he pot of clay, even with 

 the furface, received fufhcient water from rains : but 

 I regularly watered the parcels of earth in the box ; 



