have enabled them to improve greatly on the plan first laid dows by [our own countryman] Mr. Tull. This whole volume contains only two chapters; in the first of which he treats, Of the Culture of GRAIN AND PULSE, according to the Principles of the HORSE-HOEING HUSBANDRY:' and in the fecond,OF THE DISTEMPERS OF CORN-a fubject, as he obferves, hitherto imperfectly handled by English writers; but upon which Mr. Du Hamel has been very full. Our Author has alfo availed himself of the practical directions of Count Ginanni, a patrician of Ravenna, who (he fays) has treated this important matter in the most complete manner. Mr. Mills opens his first chapter by remarking, that ENGLAND may justly boaft of having given rife to one of the greatest improvements that any age has hitherto made in agriculture.'Mr. Tull is undoubtedly entitled to the honour of having first thought of beftowing upon corn, that culture which had been found neceffary for the vine, and other perennial plants, or what is usually called the Horfe-hoeing Hufbandry; and in the profecution of this, he gave proofs of the utility of thorough plowing, much beyond what was ever thought of before." Pofterity will [therefore] be indebted to him, for having planned the truly fenfible and beneficial practice ;-the path in which foreigners, animated with a laudauble spirit of emulation, are now treading, to the great emolument of individuals, and the conspicuous advantage of their country.' He then proceeds, 1. To fhew the manner of preparing the land for the Horfe-hoeing Husbandry. 2. To deferite the Inftruments useful in, or peculiar to, this Hufbandry, with the method of using them. And 3. To relate fome of the experiments; by which we may judge of its importance. In regard to the first article, of preparing the ground, he says,Experience fhews, that land, though ever fo well tilled in autumn, when wheat is fown, faddens in the winter; its particles, beaten down by heavy rains, and funk by their own own weight, approach each other daily more and more; the roots of the plants cultivated have confequently lefs and lefs room to extend themfelves in queft of their neceflary food; and the interstices in the earth become of courfe fo few and clofe, that they are not able to pierce through them; whilft weeds fpring up, and rob them of their nourishment. By this means the earth, reduced to nearly the fame condition as if it had not been plowed at all, is unable to affift the plants fown in it in the spring, when they ought to fhoot with the greateft vigour. They confequently fequently then ftand most of all in need of the plough, to deftroy the weeds, to lay fresh earth to their roots in the room of that which they have exhaufted, to break the particles of the ground anew, fo as to enable their roots to spread, in order to their gathering an ample provifion of food, which then does them the greatest fervice.'-[All these intentions, we imagine, might be fufficiently answered by harrowing the wheat, fown in the broad-caft way, pretty brifkly in the fpring: at least, we have known farmers who have practifed this method, with very good fuccefs.] The great advantage of having land in fine tilth before it is fowed, is univerfally acknowledged: but we must not stop at those first preparations. Plants require a continuation of culture while they grow, and muft not be forfaken till they have attained their full maturity. Those who are against the frequent plowings ufed in the new Hufbandry, are afraid of drying the earth too much; because, fay they, the moisture escapes more eafily from a well loosened foil, than from a hard and close earth. In answer to this, it will appear from many experiments, that, even in the driest weather, land cultivated according to the new method, continues conftantly moister than that managed in the old way. Earth made fine to a good depth, is prepared, as the Rev. Dr. Elliot expresses it*, "with open mouth, to drink and retain the dew, which when it falls upon land that is untilled, or but poorly tilled, does not fink far, but is carried off by the next day's fun." p. 5. The stirring of the earth about plants whilft they grow, is productive of fuch excellent effects, that, in fome places, they hand-hoe their wheat, and find that the crops amply repay all the charge and trouble of this operation. Every husbandman [however] will immediately fee, how much a hoe-plough is preferable for this work, and that, to use it rightly, the corn muft neceffarily be planted in regular rows, as it is in the new Husbandry. Our reafon tells us, that the longest lived plants ftand mot in need of this culture. Perennials require it more than annuals, and wheat which is fown in autumn, and does not ripen till nine months after, wants it more than spring-corn, which occupies the ground only for a few months. But, indeed, all forts of plants are greatly invigorated by the repeated laying of fine fresh earth to their roots.' p. 8. Under this head, Mr. Mills gives us feveral extracts from M. Du Hamel's Elements of Agriculture; of which work an account may be seen in our last volume, at p. 39. Effays on Field-Husbandry, p. 108. The The fecond article treats of the inftruments useful in, or peculiar to, the Horfe-hoeing Hufbandry.-And here the Author tells us, that feveral gentlemen having defired a particular defcription of M. de Chateauvieux's drill-plough, univerfally allowed to be the most perfect yet invented; he has copied that truly patriotic hufbandman's accurate detail of this hitherto unequalled inftrument for the regular fowing of corn.-The faid description of this drill-plough, and its manner of working; together with M. de Chateauvieux's inftructions concerning the use of it; and the description of a harness, to yoke oxen one before another, take up the whole space from p. 23,-to p. 94: but as continual references are made to various plates, neceffary to ilJuftrate the description, we cannot pretend to abridge it, but muft refer the inquifitive, to the work itself, for fatisfaction, in this particular. M. Du Hamel having obferved that there is no fault in M. de Chateauvieux's drill-plough, but the price, which may render the purchase of it inconvenient to fome, gives another, conftructed upon the fame principles, but in a cheaper and more fimple way, by M. de la Levrie, one of his correfpondents. This, Mr. Mills alfo copies; for which we refer to his book, as plates are neceffary here alfo. In treating of Horfe-hoes, he gives us defcriptions of M. de Chateauvieux's fingle, and double cultivators, and of that with two mould-boards, together with particular directions for ufing the lafi-mentioned.-Next follows the defcription of a cultiva tor invented by M. de Villiers, with his obfervations on Herfe boeing. This gentleman looks upon M. de Chateauvieux's method of hoeing the alleys, between the rows, as the best of any, when properly performed, but adds, that several difficulties which he met with in the practice of it, had obliged him to give it up. p. 116.-[The fame caufe, it is to be feared, will always produce the fame effect with others, that it did with him.] The third article furnishes us with a great variety of experi ments, [chiefly extracted from Mr. Mills's own edition of Du Hamel] on the culture of grain and pulfe in the Horfe-hoeing Hufbandry; with a comparison of it and the old methods.-As M. Du Hamel's other great employments hindered him from attending perfonally to the experiments made on this subject, by his direction; and the fame happened to feveral of his corref pondents; our Author, therefore, propofes to dwell most particularly on fuch as were made under the immediate inspection of those who mention them: among which number no one has extended his views to a greater variety of objects, executed his experiments with greater accuracy, related them with more candour, or drawn from them more fenfible reflections, thanM.de Cha Chateauvieux, who, for these reasons, will here [he adds] be my chief guide.' p. 122. But, however, first of all, we are entertained with a quotation from Mr. Miller's Gardener's Dict. (Art. Triticum.) in favour of the Horfe-hoeing Husbandry, for which, he is a very warm advocate. But though we have a very great regard for Mr. Miller's judgment, yet we cannot help thinking, that he must have been imposed upon, though informed by perfons [whom he fuppofed] of credit, that on good land, which was drilled and managed with the Horfe-hoe, they had twelve quarters [of wheat] from an acre.'-This is fuch an enormous produce, as we can hardly credit: however, Mr. Miller affirms, that he has himself known eight or ten quarters reaped from an acre, and fometimes more.-[If any encouragement whatever can be thought fufficient to put people upon trying the new Husbandry, this, or nothing, furely must do it.] We have next a long series of experiments, made, in different years, by M. Lullin de Chateauvieux, firft fyndic of the city and' republic of Geneva.-After a minute detail of experiments made in the years 1751 and 1752, with obfervations thereon, we meet with a comparison of the produce of the fame field, cultivated both according to the old and the new Hufbandry. This field was of a good strong foil, and, in the common way, used to be fowed with 318 pounds of wheat; but when made into beds fix feet wide, it was fowed, in the new way, with only 10 pounds of wheat. Produce of this Field under the New Culture, in 1752. It produced, of very fine large grain'd wheat, To be deducted, 926 lb. tity of the feed, viz. Neat produce, Produce of the Old Culture. If we judge of it (he fays) by the best crops of former years, it will be three times the quan To be deducted, Lofs by fifting, for the grains were 879 lb. 954 lb. 143 lb. 7 318 lb. } 461 lb. Neat produce, Confequently the balance, in favour of the new Husbandry, is M. de Chateauvieux very juftly apprehends, that it may be thought odd, [as it certainly is] that he should limit the produce of the field fowed in the common way, to three times the feed. But he fays, that on a computation for fixteen years running, the produce of his own lands had not been greater than as above.— [If this was the cafe with him, he had, undoubtedly, very bad fuccefs though how, indeed, could he well hope for better when he owns that the particular lands in queftion, had not been dunged? as they certainly ought to have been, feveral times, when cultivated fo long together in the old way. For whatever may be the cafe in the new, it is allowed, on all hands, that dung is abfolutely neceffary in the old method of Husbandry.] We have next a comparison of the produce of [equal quantities of land in the fame field fowed part in the old way, and the other part cultivated in every refpect in the common way alfo, except in the manner of diftributing the feed, which was done with the drill-plough. • Reflections of M. de Chateauvieux, [to] prove the truth of the principles on which the New Hufbandry is founded. We fee [by the foregoing experiments] that the earth, by being in a looser or more divided ftate, is fitter to afford a greater quantity of nourishment to plants, whofe productions will always be proportioned to the ease with which they can reach that nourishment. There are but three principal means by which we can obtain the utmost production that plants are capable of affording [and] thefe means, practicable only in the new Hufbandry, are [in refpect to wheat,] 1. To make the plants produce a great number of ftalks ;-2. To make each ftalk bear a large ear;-3. To make each ear be quite full of plump grain.-Thefe effects cannot be obtained in the old Husbandry, because they can only be procured by frequently stirring the earth, in the alleys, while the plants are yet growing. All my cxperiments fhew the truth of this.' p. 148, 9. In a field laid out in beds, which had borne a second crop, we are told that from eleven pounds and four ounces of wheat fowed, a crop was produced, which yielded a thousand and forty-two pounds twelve ounces. p. 157. Obfervation:-Fields thus laid out in beds will not produce fo plentiful a crop the first year, as they will the fecond or third, When |