well deferves the attention and endeavours of skilful mechanicians

P. 97.

After enumerating several of the most usual methods of preferving corn in granaries; he gives experiments on the prefervation of it by ventilation only; by ftove-drying only; and by both thofe methods jointly; with remarks thereon. But these expeTiments and remarks, though very judicious, are rather too prolix and circumftantial for our infertion.-He then gives a defcription of what he calls the falfe moth, or corn-worm; and of the weevil; with the means of deftroying both :-this promife, however, is not abfolutely fulfilled. See p. 144.

The prefervation of corn in fhips is faid to depend greatly upon its being firft ftové-dried, and then frequently ventilated during the voyage.

PASTURES, taken in an extenfive fenfe, are the fubject of the third part of this work; the first chapter of which treats of fuch plants as are usually intermixed with crops of corn, or which may be cultivated interchangeably with corn or pulse. These are, turneps, carrots, parfneps, parsley, potatoes, cabbages, and clover.. -As parley feems to be the leaft cultivated of any of thefe, we shall give an extract of what is faid in commendation thereof, as a valuable fpecies of artificial pafture. The following are Mr. Mills's words :- Parfley is known to be fo excellent a prefervative against the rot in fheep, if they are fed with it twice a week, for two or three hours each time, that I cannot but regret the want of experiments on the culture of this useful plant, which would certainly fucceed well in rows, properly hoed, and prove a general benefit. The few fkilful perfons who have raised it in the field for the use of theep, have found it turn to great account, though fown only in the common broad caft way. How much then may be reasonably expected from its greater increase, and more perfect quality, when cultivated according to the principles of the new Hufbandry! For that plants do attain a much higher degree of perfection in this way, than in the old method, has been conftantly evinced, by frequently repeated, and always unvaried experience. I therefore strongly recommend this object to the British farmer, whofe flocks, fuperior to thofe of every other country, are a principal fource of the wealth and grandeur of this happy land, as well as a valuable treasure to the individuals who poffefs them. It is likewife poffible, or rather, perhaps, highly probable, that, befides preventing or curing the rot, the tafte of the mutton may also be

• We have been told of a mechanick who actually has contrived and compleated a machine of this kind, to be worked by horses: but how far it may answer the ends of either cheapness or expedition, we are not enabled to fay.

improved

improved by this pafture; for it is very certain that the flesh of all animals acquires a peculiar flavour from their food. This is particularly remarked in venifon and it is as invariable, that the sweetest mutton is that which has been fed on the finest and fweeteft graffes; whilft, on the contrary, the coarseft and rankeft mutton is produced from the groffeft meadows and marfhes.'

The best time for fowing parsley in the field is about the middle or latter end of February. The ground cannot poffibly be in too fine tilth. Mr. Miller [in his Dit.] mentions two bufhels of feed as a proper quantity for an acre of land fown pretty thick, in drills about a foot asunder, which will, indeed, be space enough for hand-hoeing: but I am inclined to think, that the plants will flourish beft, grow largeft, and be in all respects most perfect, if the diftance between the rows be fufficient to admit a hoe-plough. Lefs feed will then be requifite, the culture will certainly be performed cheaper this way, than by hand, and I am confident that the plants will be larger, and better for the food of cattle.'

• Hares and rabbits are fo fond of parsley, that they will come from a great diftance to feed upon it; fo that whoever chufes to have plenty of thofe animals in his fields, need only ftock them well with this plant: he will foon draw to them all the hares of the country: but, at the fame time, if his parsley is not fenced in very fecurely, they will be fure to destroy it.'

Chap. II. treats of perennial plants ufed for the food of cattle, and which require frequent help while they grow. Thefe are, fainfoin, lucerne, the cytifus, and burnet.The last of these being a plant much recommended at prefent, we fhall give an extract of what Mr. Mills fays upon it,-as follows:

The public owes the improved culture of BURNET, a native of our country, and which promifes very great advantages, to the laudable purfuits of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, in queft of a green and fucculent food for cattle during the winter months: but more immediately to the judicious obfervation of Mr. Rocque, who, remarking that burnet retains its verdure amidst all the inclemencies of the season, refolved to try the effect of giving it a good culture. He has fucceeded therein to his utmoft with:-and it bids fair to be of fingular utility where flocks of theep are kept, because, as it preserves its leaves unhurt by froft, the farmer may thereby have a conftant ftock of green food for his ewes and lambs, at a time when turneps and every other fucculent plant may fail him.'

The following are the directions, faid to be given by Mr. Rocque, for the cultivation of this useful plant.-In the meadows about Windfor, we are told, half the grafs is burnet. It will grow in the drieft land, where every thing else is burnt up

in fummer; but this never withers: one of the qualities of it being to continue in fap all the year. The land on which it is fown fhould be in fine tilth, and free from weeds, especially couch-grafs, which is the most hurtful. If the land is poor, it fhould be dunged, and laid down very fmooth. The feed may be covered with a very light harrow, for it will not bear to be buried deep, and the ground fhould then be rolled, that it may be smooth for mowing. It may be fown at any time between April and September.'

Mr. Mills obferves, that if the feeds of plants which do not arrive at their perfection in a few months, or during the firft year, fuch as lucerne, fainfoin, and burnet, are fown in the fpring, or beginning of fummer, and the weather prove dry, or cold, the young plants are often crippled or deftroyed: but if they are fown in the latter end of July, or beginning of Auguft; the rains frequent at that season, the heavy dews which fall, and the increafing coolness of the nights, often bring them as forward by the latter end of November, as thofe fown in April.'

Ten pounds of burnet-feed may do for an acre of land: but twelve, fourteen, or even fixteen, pounds will be better; becaufe, when burnet is thin, the plants grow fo large, that the hay made of them is coarse. These will rife in eight or nine days after the fowing *The plants muft, at firft, be kept very clean from weeds; but afterwards, we are told, that the quick and bushy growth of burnet, by which it foon covers all the ground, is, of itself, an almost effectual bar to weeds.'

"If the burnet does not grow equally every where, fome plants must be drawn where they are too thick, and planted where they are thinneft.' The feed fown in May may be mowed (he fays) at the latter end of July :'-but quære; and fee the note*.

The firft fpring-cutting will purge horfes; and Mr. Rocque believes it will also cure the grease: but it is only the first crop that purges. Burnet fhould be mowed but once the first year, in order to leave it rank in the winter; and in this cafe it will be ready to feed in February or March, or to mow again in April.'

• When the feeds of this plant are to be faved, it must neither be fed, nor mowed, in the fpring. The feed will be ripe about the middle of June, when it must be reaped, like wheat, and threfhed on a cloth, before it is too dry, because it is apt to shed, and it should afterwards be dried perfectly.'

Here we almost doubt the fact.A friend of ours, who fowed fome burnet laft May, did not difcover any appearance of the plants for more than twice that fpace of time. It was not cut the laft week of Auguft; but it covered the ground pretty well, at that time.

Burnet does not lofe its leaves in drying; and though the hay made of it be sticky, it will, after threshing, be very agreeable to horses, which are lo fond of it, that they never wafte any. One acre will produce upwards of three loads of hay, and above forty bushels of feed. Horfes are fonder of this feed, than of oats and it is not only good for horfes, but also for all manner of cattle; even for fwine: and Mr. Rocque has experienced another virtue in it, which is, that, being ftung by a wafp, the leaves of this plant rubbed pretty hard upon the part fo injured, immediately took off the inflammation.'

What has been faid above, may poffibly induce fome of our Readers to make a trial of this much commended plant: and whether it merits all the encomiums that have been bestowed upon it, will beft appear from their own experience. At prefent, however, it feems very deferving of that attention which every friend to Agriculture will be ready to pay to a plant, which promifes fo much in the fingle article of a green winter pasture for theep. If this circumftance fhould be happily confirmed by experience, it will indeed be a valuable acquifition; as it mutt be owned, that few perfons would chufe to eat the mutton of fheep fed upon turneps, (which always give it a rank tafte) if any other were to be had (in fufficient quantities) during the winter-feafon, and early in the fpring.

Chap. III. gives a comparison of the Old Husbandry and the New. As this is an object of the greatest importance, not only to the hufbandman, as an individual, but to the nation in general; Mr. Mills hopes to be excufed, if he recapitulates fome parts of what has been already faid. Many gentlemen, he says, in this kingdom, have raifed wheat in drills, horfe-boeing the alleys; and, where due care has been taken, generally with fuccefs the grain has, in almost all inftances, been larger and better than that in the broad-caft way, and seldom lefs in quantity: fometimes it has been much more.

Moft of the experiments related in the fecond volume of this work fhew, that, taking them only as fingle crops, they were equal to thofe fown in broad-caft, and raised at a much less expence, if we confider the faving in feed and manure: but if the produce of the fame land is taken for feveral years running, the advantage is greatly in favour of the horfe-hoeing Hufbandry, in which the land, being never refted, brings a conftant yearly return to the farmer. This difference will appear very confiderable, if we reckon, on the other hand, the lofs of a crop, and the expence of a fallow.'

What will infinitely enhance the importance of this Hufbandry, is the advantage which may arise from a judicious change of crops.This change of fpecies becomes the more advifeable, when we reflect, that a crop of fome of the before

mentioned

mentioned roots is of equal, or rather fuperior, value to a crop of wheat."

Mr. Mills, in fumming up his comparison of the old Hufbandry and the new, fays,-The importance of the new Hufbandry will appear confiderable in a national light; for if (as he goes on) we compute the land now under corn in this kingdom, we might eftimate one third to be fallow*; but I will fuppofe it to be only one fourth: and if we reckon the crops, for inftance of wheat, to be, in general, under three quarters of an acre; and that, from land kept conftantly in fo excellent order as it is in the new Hufbandry, we might expect four quarters; the difference to the nation will become very great indeed: fuch as, perhaps, no political arithmetician has yet dreamed of:-and the number of people may be proportionably increased.'

Another circumftance attending the general practice of the new Husbandry, in point of population, is, that as the land will yield a greater increase of its various productions, and that increased variety will require a greater attention than is usually bestowed on farms, thefe muft, in general, become much less extenfive than they now aret: and the certain confequence of this will be, that the number of farmers and labourers being increased, the number of people in the country, the only fource of population, will also be greatly augmented. If we look round this kingdom, and remark the numbers of acres lying wafte and uncultivated, and then add thereto the happy confequences of an improved culture of the reft; a very great, and a new, fource of population immediately prefents itself.-This (as he very juftly concludes) furely deferves the most serious at tention of the legislature, and of every individual who is poffeffed of waftes and commons.'

In Chap. IV. Mr. Mills proceeds to treat of NATURAL GRASSES: the production of which, writers on Husbandry (he fays) rightly commend as the cheapest, cafieft, least hazardous, and most profitable branch of farming. And then adds,

It is furprising to think, how long a due attention to this important object has escaped the notice of mankind, and how

This looks fomewhat like an Irishism:-for how should the land noru under corn (in the old way of Husbandry) be, any of it, at the fame time fallow? We prefume, therefore, that he only means that a third or fourth part of the whole arable land in the kingdom, is (in the old way) fallow every year.—This, perhaps, may not be much amifs: though we cannot help thinking the calculation full high enough, upon the whole.

+ This would be an excellent regulation for the public: as nothing -tends fo much to hinder population, and increase the number of ingroffers, as the turn many gentlemen have unhappily taken, of throwing their ellates into large farms.

$ 4

much