11 



ground least ? — which are those that will consolidate, and 

 renovate it most eflfectually, and which, daring the period 

 of rest, will yield the greatest produce I 



It is in adversity, when the vegetables he is cultivating 

 are attacked by various disorders, that the agriculturist 

 will find the benefit of the arrangement I have suggested, 

 as it will enable him to meet with strength, and I may say, 

 discipline, the difficulties he will have to encounter. 



That the vegetables we cultivate should be subject to 

 disorders, is to be expected ; since it appears, that not a 

 single one of them is a native of the climate to which we 

 have introduced them, all transplanted from regions more 

 favoured by nature, habituated to a warmer, and generally 

 a drier atmosphere. 



Thus then as the strangers we have transferred to our 

 ungenial climate, have ac(iuircd disorders from which they 

 were probably exempt in their own milder regions, it be- 

 comes the duty of the naturalist, that is, according to my 

 arrangement, the theorist, to investigate the causes of 

 these disorders, and to exert his ingenuity in devising 

 remedies, to which the experimentalist is to give a fair 

 trial on a small scale. 



Many of these disorders, I apprehend, will be found to 

 arise from parasitic plants attaching themselves to the 

 one we foster, and intercepting its nourishment ; others, I 

 know, will be found to proceed from myriads of microsco- 

 pic animals invading our plant, and forming their nidus in 

 the most delicate and important parts of its structure ; 

 destroying its germ, or consuming and spoiling its farina. 



Here the theorist will advise various alterations in the 

 culture of the vegetable, and in the periods of sowing the 

 seed ; trying if he can discover what will be unfavourable 

 to the invader, without injuring his grain. 



