OF CURIOSITY- 185 
the grain, and render the fields foul, and poor. 
It. Scand. p. 421. Books of hufbandry are 
full of inventions how to break the earth by 
inftruments, and fit it to receive the feed 5 
this kind of knowledge is infufficient, as long 
as the hufbandman is unacquainted with the 
nature of thofe various herbs, to which agri- 
culture ought to be adapted. From hence 
the neceflity of natural hiftory appears. 
§. 10. 
It is alfo necefiary for the hufbandman to 
know the duration of every plant he fdws 
in his fields, and meadows, viz. whether it 
be perennial, biennial, or annual. He who 
wants to know the ufe of our plants in oeco- \ 
nomy, and how few there are, whofe ufe is 
hitherto difcovered, let him look over the 
Flora ce conomica. Amo. Academ. vol. 1 a . 
We fee how many in a time of dearth fuffer 
for want, fall into difeafes, and even perifh, 
a The piece here referred to is full of new obfervations 
on the ufes of plants hitherto not attended to. I wifh i 
could have made fuch a tranfiation of it, as could have been 
inftru&ive or entertaining to the public ; but a long lift of the 
names of plants, which could have conveyed no ideas to fuch 
readers, as this work is intended for, muft have been very 
tedious, and very ufelefs. 
for 
