yn the preduce of the fields in which 
ad been cultivated; but, notwith- 
ftanding’their reports, and the refpeétable 
teftimony of fuch a manas Cretté, there 
are fome farmers who have either denied 
or contefted the benefits to be derived from 
wild fuccory. On this occafion, it will 
be, however, only neceffary to quote the 
words of the celebrated Arthur Young: 
~ € Tnever behold this excelleat plant, 
without felicitating myfelf on having trat 
velled to fome better purpofe than I fhould 
have written in my clofet ; its introduction 
into England, had a man done nothing 
elfe during the whole courfe of his life, 
would be fufficient to prove that he had 
not lived in vain.” . 
Cretté, who had exhibited {> much 
zeal on purpofe to encourage the culture 
of all kinds of artificial graflts, enjoyed 
the pleafure of a -corre!pondent fuccefs in 
rearing and feeding his cattle; and this 
circumftance gave him more {atisfaction, 
than all his other labours. Several 
members of the Society, who had been 
deputed on purpole to inquire into the 
effects of the experiments made at Dueny, 
were frequently furprifed at the number 
‘and beauty of his cattle; and it was not 
from Cretté, but his wife, that they re- 
ceived all the details relative to their 
feeding and rearing: they accordingly de- 
livered in a report on this fubje&t, and the 
Society decreed an honorary medal to her, 
at a public fitting. 
He and C. Parmentier have the merit 
of rendering the cultivation of potatoes far 
more common than before. In order to 
‘attain this, he contrived a plough for fow- 
ing them in drilis; and, in the courfe of 
lait year, he took great pride in fhewing 
his potatoe-ridges, all of which were 
formed in ftraight lines, and laid out at 
egual diftances. 
It ought to be remarked, however, that 
the buildings belonging to his farm, being 
conftructed at fucceilive and different pe- 
riods, did not exhibit thofe happy combi- 
nations which could have been wifhed for ; 
they partook, however, fo much of his 
genius, that they were praifeworthy in 
the important articles of folidity and fa- 
lubrity. 
_ There is a barn, built more than 
twenty years ago, and which may be fairly 
termed an experimental one, that deferves 
attention, for the carpenter’s work, the 
jaints only excepted, are of poplars of his 
own planting ; and he built it lefs from an 
impuilfe of neceflity, than a defire to make 
known the advantages to be derived from 
this tree, which has been decried on too 
Biographical Notice refpeéting Palluel. 
QA) 
flight grounds. His fheep-fold is really a 
model, in refpeét to falubrity, pofition, and 
diftribution ; and he readily tran{mitted a 
defcription of it to all the farmers who 
were defirous of imitating him. 
Cretté de Palluel being poft-mafter both 
at St. Denis and’ Sannois, and having, 
coniequently, a great number of horfes to 
feed, was not the laft to adopt the prattice 
of cutting ftraw into chaff, by means of 
an-engine; on the contrary, he conftruci- 
ed one of large dimenfions, and was lucky 
enough to render it more perfe& in feve- 
ral efiential particulars. 
Innovations in agriculture, like every 
thing elfe, have their periods of favour. 
At firft, all the proprietors of horfes in 
Paris and its neighbourhood were defiious 
to obtain cuttinz-engines ; in a fhort time 
they procured poitable ones fufhicient for 
feeding from two to four horfes a-day 5 
but foon after fome people began to buzz 
about the bad effects refulting from chop- 
ped ftraw, while others exaggerated the 
advantages refulting from it. ‘Cretté, 
who was not inattentive to this fubjeét, 
foon difcovered the juftice of the obfer- 
vation that had been made at the veteri- 
nary fchool of Alfort; he accordingly 
mingled hay along with the truffles of 
ftraw, caufed them to be both cut toge- 
ther, and added a portion of bran to each 
ratio of forage: it was thus that he de- 
rived advantage fram a procefs which fe- 
veral farmers have condemned. 
Of all the branches of agriculture,’ 
Cretté preferred the planting of trees; and 
he did not poflefs a fingle corner of land 
that was not adorned with them. His 
fields, meadows, banks, marfhy fpots, &c. 
ail received plants analagous to their na-: 
ture ; but he was adeclared enemy to-the 
conimon method of clipping them into form. 
On purpofe to demonftrate the folly of 
this, he preferved two elms, both of which 
had been planted while of an equal thick- 
nefS, on the fame day, the fame {pot of 
ground, and expofed to the fame afpec: 
one of thefe was cut yearly, while the 
other was lett to nature, and the trunk 
of the one meafured twenty-two centime- 
tres, while that of the other was 130. 
His manulcripts abound with a variety 
of important faéts relative to the fatten- 
ing of cattle, the forming of nurferies, and 
the jaying out of plantations. 
He who had fo often practifed the pita- 
ciples of morality and ‘confraternicy, he 
who had fo long bemoaned the reign of 
fifcal vexations, was likely to embrace 
the caufe of liberty ; accordingly, at the 
epoch of the Revolution, Cretré de Pal- 
Hh 2 lue] 
