ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING. 



13 



eradicated. It was then sown with oats, without 

 receiving either lime, dung, or manvu*e of any other 

 description, yet the crop was so luxuriant that a 

 great part of it lodged. The following spring the 

 ground w^as again sown with the same species of 

 grain, without receiving any enrichment, and, when 

 harvest arrived, the crop was unequalled by that of 

 the richest fields, in a neighbourhood which is gene- 

 rally considered as fertile. The experiment was 

 tried a third time, still without manure, and the 

 return was again considerably above an average. 

 The soil, as has already been remarked, was dry and 

 gravelly, and far from possessing any natural quali- 

 ties that could have been the cause of such extraor- 

 dinary productiveness. When planted, it had been 

 covered with heath, and, in that state, had not been 

 superior to those waste lands which we occasionally 

 see improved at a vast expence, and which will pro- 

 duce no kind of crop till they receive a great quan- 

 tity of manure. 



Those who have never had an opportunity of see- 

 ing old woodlands brought into cultivation, will 

 scarce credit what has now been advanced. That the 

 soil should be enriched by the production of wood, 

 when the experience of ages has proved that it is 

 always exhausted by other crops, will seem to them 



