12 
the crop of wheat. But I think all red 
lands are the moft univerfally fuitable for 
‘clover ; and it may poffibly arife from this © 
condition of the ground, which, alihough- 
it may prove a bane to grain previoufly 
fowed, which happens to be then in the 
‘yery act of radification ; yet the difpofition 
of fuch land to embofom with the thaw 
any light feed which may become fcat- 
tered upon its furface,-may be a good 
reafon why farmers make choice of fuch 
~Jand, and feize the opportunity of a fuit- 
‘able froft cr a competent fall of fnow, for 
the purpofe of fowing it with clover. 
Tn refpect to the radical prefervation of 
trees and plants,1 recolleé to have obferved 
‘a cafual inftance during a hard winter, where 
a particular tree in a row of the fame kind, 
growth, and condition, was preferved, and 
fhot forth with very fuperior Juxuriance 
through the mere accident of its having 
been paved with oyfter fhells; probably, 
‘depofited there by the mimick indufiry of 
fmall children. 
Upon this principle the Judge of the 
High Court of Chancery in’ Virginia, 
(George Wythe, Ejg.) ‘who is remarkable 
for his fine fruits, is faid-to have fuc- 
ceeded admirably in an experiment of 
planting a young orchard in the ufval 
mode, and fecuring each tree refpectively 
by paffing it through the eye of a grind- 
ftone, and breaking the feveral ftenes by 
the ftroke of a fledge hammer, fo foon as 
the maturity of the tree required a greater 
{pace for its expanfion. 
I have frequently obferved a praétice in 
the American orchards of piling brufh- 
svocd, weeds, ftraw, or rubbifh, round 
the reots of fruit trees, and think it may 
generally be confidered an ufcful method ; 
-and I have often feen the ftumps of trees 
and other rubbifh, fet cn fire with an in- 
tent to preferve the bloom (of peaches 
more particularly) from ia frofty night. 
I cannot fay, however, that I fuppofe 
this laft method to have more than a par- 
tial capacity ; nor do I know any other 
place than America, where the expence 
would not exceed the profit. 
 Fuly 27,1799: Wm. TaTHam. 

Fer the Monthly Magazine. 
A CRITIQUE ON THE POEMS OF. 
FALCONER. BY MR. IRVING. 
VY] XHE poetry of Falconer is not to be 
regarded as the produétion of a man 
whoie fituation in life was favourable to 
ghe purf{nits of literature. Born of hum- 
tle and obf{cure parents, he enjoyed none 
gf thofe' advantages which affluence is cal- 
Critique on the Poems of Falconer by Mr, Irving. 
[Feb. y, 
culated to fecure. Tt was not his fate to 
bafk in the fun-fhine of profperity. In 
early youth he was compelled to relinquifh 
his native home, and to enter upcn a pro- 
feffion which, in too many infances,’ fuc- 
ceeds in blunting the fofter feelings. of 
humanity ; and in the purfuit of this pro- 
feffion, he was expofed to innumerable 
dangers and misfortunes. But his native 
genius rofe fupericr to the untoward cir- 
cumftances incident to his ftation. His 
leifure hours were devoted to the Mufes: 
and the hands that had been employed in 
adjufting the braces of a fhip, were not 
found unfkilful in the management of the 
golden plectrum. 
By thefe who poffefs the fmalleft relith 
for pathetic fimplicity, The Shipavreck will 
always be perufed with pleafure. Its ex- 
cellencies are not the refult of painful and 
unwearied application ; they are the happy 
effufions of a vigorous imagination, and 
a heart true to the warm impreffions of 
nature. ; 
Tn reviewing his fhorter preductions we 
fhall find little {cope for critical inveftiga- 
tion. They cannot pretend to any parti- 
cular marks of diftinétion; and, unlefs 
his fame had refted upon fome more folid 
bafis, it muft very foon-have decayed. 
In the Elegy facred to the memory of bis 
Royal Highne/s Frederick, Prince of Wales, 
whichwas the firftpoeticaleffort that he ven- 
tured to fubmit to public infpe&tion; it is 
fcarcely poffible to difcover even the faint- 
eft climmerings of that genius which he 
afterwards dilplayed. It is true we oc- 
cafionally meet with a few tolerable lines ; 
but thefe only appear like the fcattered 
flowers, that fometimes bloom amid the 
fterile plains of Arabia. Towards the 
clofe of it, there occurs the moft ludicrous 
fimile that ever difgraced the ferious page 
of an author. ‘The rifing fame of the 
young prince he compares to the curling 
volumes of fable fmoke, which mount in - 
the atmofphere and blacken all the fky !— 
This is apt to remind us of Butler’s com- 
paring the changing of the morning from 
black to red, to the circumftance which 
takes place in the boiling of a lobfter*. 
The Ode on the Duke of York's fecond 
departure from England as Rear-admiral, 
is of that fpecies of writing which fome 
have thought proper to denominate Pin- 
daric. Every author poiieffes an indif- 
putable right to impofe upon his own pro- 
duétions whatever name he chufes: but 
fuch rude mafies of verfes as generally 
compofe thefe odes, no more refemble the 
# Butler's Hudibras, part ii. canto ii, v. 29. 
pointed 
