PART IV. 



AGRICULTURE. 



235 



vantages to be obtained by employing oxen. The Wynne har- 

 row * seems the best in almost every case. There are two distinct 

 kinds of spades ; one proper for sandy soils, and garden work ; 

 the other for stiff, cohesive soils, and for farm operations in 

 general. It is difficult to describe these two spades without a 

 drawing : practical men will understand the difference when it 

 is observed, that the mouth-plate of the one is solid through- 

 out, while that of the other has a considerable open space 

 under each tred. The former is used in the nurseries about 

 London and Edinburgh, and in most gardens ; the latter is 

 pretty extensively used in Renfrewshire, and in several parts of 

 Gloucestershire. Very great advantages result from employing 

 this last kind. Pulverization is jointly accomplished by the 

 weather, by the alternate operations of frost and mildness in 

 winter, and drought and rain in summer ; by the shade from 

 vegetables, as the pea and bean tribe ; and in some degrees by 

 the roots of others, as the carrot and the clover. The advan- 

 tages of pulverization are, that it renders the earth more sus- 

 ceptible of the fertilizing influence of the external elements, as 

 heat, air, rain, &c. enlarges its capacity and facility of yielding 

 nutriment to the roots of vegetables, and facilitates the destruc- 

 tion of extraneous seeds^ which preoccupy the nutritive prin- - 

 ciples of the soil, instead of leaving them to support the cut 

 tivated plant. 



* See the Bath Society's Papers- 

 H tt 



