his own urine (for he was a fufferer himfelf) from being turpid, and difpofed to precipitation, became clear and of a natural colour. But the alkaline falts proving difagree Counties of Somerset, Wilts, Glou. cefter, and Dorset, and the City and County of Bristol. able and naufeating, he conceived [By an experienced Correfpondent.] that fome more agreeable mode might be contrived to answer the fame good purpofes. Fixed air feemed to Mr. Colburne the best means of fuccefs, and experience foon confirmed his hopes. The alkaline folution is thus prepared : Put two ounces, troy weight, of dry falt of tartar into an open earthen veffel, and pour upon it two quarts of the fofteft water to be had, and stir them well together. Let the folution ftand for 24 hours, when the clear part must be poured off, with care to avoid any of the refiduum, and put into the middle part of one of the glass machines for impregnating water with fixible air, and expofed to a ftream of that fluid: after the water has been 24 hours in this fituation, it will be fit for ufe, and should be bottled off. Well cork the bottles, and fet them upon their corks, bottom upwards; and with fuch care it will keep feveral weeks. Eight ounces may be taken three times in 24 hours, without any inconvenience; but it may be best to begin with a finaller quantity. On the Nature of different kinds of Soil, and the Grain, Pulfe, or Graffes proper to each. From Vol. 11. of Letters and Papers on Agriculture, Planting, Sc. felected from the Correfpondence-Book of the Society inftituted at Bath, for the Encourage ment of Agriculture, Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce within the GENTLEMEN, S the publication of your firft volume of felect papers did you honour as a Society, and furnished the public with a variety of useful information, it gave me pleafure to fee, in the advertisement of your annual meeting, that a fecond volume was nearly ready for the prefs. And as you feem defirous to obtain the correfpondence of thofe who have had fome expérience, and poffefs fome knowledge, in the arts of cultivation, I am willing to contribute my mite in this way. Agriculture, Planting, &c. have been my employment, ftudy, and amufement, near forty years; and, as I have kept regular minutes of the experiments I made, they have fupplied me with confiderable inftruction. I therefore beg leave to trouble you with a few brief remarks on the nature of different foils, and the crops most likely to fucceed on each respectively. Firf, Clay, which is in general the stiffest of all foils, and contains an unctuous quality. But under the term clays, earths of different forts and colours are included. One kind is fo obftinate, that fcarcely any thing will fubdue it; another fo hungry and poor, that it abforbs whatever is applied, and turns it into its own quality. Some clays are fatter than others, and the fatteft are the best; fome are more foft and flippery. But all of them re tain tain water poured on their furfaces, where it ftagnates, and chills the plants, without finking into the foil. The clofenefs of clay prevents the roots and fibres of plants from fpreading in fearch of nourishment. The blue, the red, and the white clay, if ftrong, are unfavourable to vegetation. The story and loofer fort are lefs fo; but none of them are worth any thing till their texture is fo loosened by a mixture of other fubftances, and opened, as to admit the influence of the fun, the air, and frofts. Among the manures recommended for clay, fand is of all others to be preferred; and fea-fand the heft of all where it can be obtained: this moft effectually breaks the cohefion. The reafon for preferring fea-fand is, that it is not formed wholly (as moft other fands are) of small stones; but contains a great deal of calcarious matter in it, fuch as fhells grated and broken to pieces by the tide; and also of falts. The fmaller the fand is, the more easily it penetrates the clay; but it abides lefs time in it than the larger. The next beft fand is that washed down by rains on gravelly foils. Those which are dry and light are the worst. Small gritty gravel has alfo been recommended by the best writers on Agriculture for thefe foils; and in many inftances I have found them to answer the purpose. Shell marle, afhes, and all animal and vegetable fubftances, are very good manures for clay; but they have been found moft beneficial when fand is mixed with them. Lime has been often used, but I would not recommend it, for I never found any advantage from it fingly, when applied to clays. The crops moft fuitable for fuch lands are, wheat, beans, cabbages, and rye-grafs. Clover feldom fucceeds, nor indeed any plants whose roots require depth, and a wide fpread in the earth. zdly, Chalk.-Chalky foils are generally dry and warm, and, if there be a tolerable depth of mouid, fruitful; producing great crops of barley, rye, peafe, vetches, clover, trefoil, burnet, and particularly faintfoin. The latter plant flourishes in a chalky foil better than any other. But if the furface of mould be very thin, this foil requires good mánuring with clay, marle, loam, or dung. As thefe lands are dry, they may be fown earlier than others. When your barley is three inches high, throw in rolb. of clover, or 15lb. of trefoil, and roll it well. The next fummer mow the crop for hay; feed off the aftermath with fheep; and in winter give it a topdreffing of dung. This will produce a crop the fecond fpring, which fhould be cut for hay. As foon as this crop is carried off, plough up the land, and in the beginning of September fow three bushels of rye per acre, either to feed off with theep in the fpring, or to ftand for harvest. If you feed it off, fow winter vetches in Auguft or September, and make them into hay the following fummer. Then get the land into as fine tilth as poffible, and fow it with faintfoin, which, with a little manure once in two or three years, will remain and produce good crops for twenty years together. 3dly, Light poor land, which feldom produces good crops of any thing till well manured. After it is well ploughed, fow three bufhels of buck-wheat per acre, in April or May. May. When in bloom, let your cattle in, a few days, to eat off the heft, and tread the other down; this done, plough in what remains immediately. This will foon ferment and rot in the ground; then lay it fine, and fow three bushels of rye per acre. If this can be got off early enough, fow turnips; if not, winter veches to cut for hay. Then get it in good tilth and fow turniprooted cabbages, in rows three feet apart. This plant feldom fails, if it has fufficient room, and the intervals be well horse-hoed; and you will find it the beft fpring-feed for fheep when turnips are over. The horse-hoeing will clean and prepare the land for faintfoin, for the fowing of which I reckon April the best feafon. The ufual way is to fow it broad-caft, four bushels to an acre but I prefer fowing it in drills two feet afunder; for then it may be horfe hoed, and half the feed will be fufficient. The horse-hoeing will not only clean the crop, but earth up the plants, and render them more luxu riant and lafting. If you fow it broad. caft, give it a top-dreffing in December or January, of rotten dung, or afhes; or, which I think ftill better, of both, mixed up in compost. From various trials, I find that taking only one crop in a year, and feeding the after growth, is better than to mow it twice. Cut it as foon as it is in full bloom, if the weather will permit. The hay will be the fweeter, and the ftrength of the plants lefs impaired, than if it ftands till the feed is formed. 4thly, Light rich land, being the mott easy to cultivate to advantage, and capable of bearing moft kinds of grain, pulfe, and herbage-I fhall fay little upon it. One thing however is very proper to be ob ferved, that fuch lands are the best adapted to the drill-husbandry, ef pecially where machines are used, which require fhallow furrows to be made for the reception of the feed. This, if not prone to couch-grafs, is the best of all foils for lucerne; which, if fown in two feet drills, and kept clean, will yield an aftonifhing quantity of the moft excellent herbage. But I am convinced lucerne will never be cultivated to advantage, where couch-grafs and weeds are very plentiful; nor in the broad-caft method, even where they are not fo; because horse-hoeing is effential to the vigorous growth of this plant. 5thly, Coarfe rough land. Plough deep in autumn; when it has lain two weeks, cross plough it, and let it lie rough through the winter. In March give it another good ploughing; drag, rake, and harrow it well, to get out the rubbish, and fow four bushels of black oats per acre if the foil be wet, and white oats if dry. When about four inches high, roll them well after a shower: this will break the clods; and the fine mould falling among the roots of the plants will promote their growth greatly. Some fow clover and ray grafs among the oats, but I think it is bad hufbandry. If you defign it for clover, fow it fingle, and let a coat of dung be laid on in December. The fnow and rain will then dilute its falts and oil, and carry them down among the roots of the plants. This is far better than mixing the crops on fuch land; for the oats will exhauft the foil fo much, that the clover will be impoverished. The following fummer you will have a good good crop of clover, which cut once, and feed the after-growth. In the winter pleugh it in, and let it fie till February; then plough and har row it well; and in March, if the foil be moift, plant beans in drills of three feet, to admit the horse. hoe freely. When you horfe-hoe them a fecond time, fow a row of turnips in each interval, and they will fucceed very well. But if the land be ftrong enough for fowing wheat as `foon as the beans are off, the turnips may be omitted. I am yours, &c. This was the cafe many years in this country, with refpect to hoeing of turnips: but thofe prejudices are now generally overcome; and we have very few, if any, farmers ftupid or obftinate enough to fow turnips without having them twice well hoed. Some reasons indeed may be urged in favour of a few perfons not adopting the Drill Hufbandry; be. caufe the warmest advocates for it muft allow, that there are foils and fituations wherein the broad.caft method is preferable, at least in maBut thefe inftances are B. K. ny cafes. but few, and ought not by any means to check it in the general. Some of the fuperior Advantages of the Drill to the Broadcaft Husbandry pointed out. From the fame. Drill-Hufbandry is, as a good writer has juftly defined it, the "practice of a garden brought into leaft reflection must be fenfible, that "the field." Every man of the the practice of the garden is much better than that of the field, only a little more expensive; but if (as is [By a Gentleman Farmer in Kent.] the cafe) this extra expence be ge GENTLEMEN, SEE EEING by your advertisements in the St. James's Chronicle that the publishing a fecond volume of felect papers was one of your refolutions, I am induced to offer a few remarks on the Drill-Husban dry; the substance at least of which 1 fhould be happy to fee inferted therein, if you think them worthy your attention. Notwithstanding the decided fuperiority of the Drill. Hufbandry in many kinds of grain, pulfe, and graffes, many farmers are ftill enemies to it; and a ftill greater number are too indolent to go one step out of the old beaten path, though the advantages they might reap are obvious. 2 nerally much more than repaid by the fuperior goodnefs and value of drilled crops, it ought to have no weight in comparing the two modes of hufbandry. In In the broadcast method the land is often fown in bad tilth, and always fcattered at random, fome. times by very unfkilful hands. drilling, the land must be in fine order; the feed is fet in trenches drawn regularly, all of nearly an equal depth, and that depth fuited to the nature of each kind of feed. Thefe feeds are alfo diftributed at proper distances, and, by being equally and speedily covered, are protected from vermin and other injuries; fo that the practice of the garden is here exactly introduced into the field. 1 In the broadcast method, the feed falls in fome places too thick, in others too thin; and being imperfectly covered, a part of it is devoured by vermin which follow the fower; another part is left expofed to rain or froft, or to heats, which greatly injure it. When harrowed in, a great part of it (mall feeds especially) is buried fo deep, that, it the foil be wet, it perishes before it can vegetate. Again: When thus fown, there is no meddling with the crop afterwards, becaufe its growth is irre. gular. The foil cannot be broken to give it more nourishment, nor can even the weeds be deftroyed without much inconvenience and injury. But in the Drill Husbandry the intervals between the rows, whether double or fingle, may be horle. hoed; and thereby nourishment may repeatedly be given to the plants, and the weeds almoft totally defroyed. And what adds to the farmer's misfortune is, that the most pernicious weeds have feeds winged with down, which are carried by the wind to great diftances; fuch are thiftles, fowthistles, coltsfoot, and fome others. If the expence of horse-hoeing he objected, there are two answers which may very properly be made: The first is, that this expence is much less than that of hand-hoeing, were it practicable, or of hand. weeding. The fecond is, that it is more than repaid by the quantity of feed faved by drilling; to fay no. thing of the extra quantity and good. nefs of the crops, which are gene. rally felf-evident. From thefe confiderations, found. ed on, and justly drawn from, eftablished facts, the comparative ad. vantage is fo great in favour of the drill-hufbandry, that it must be ftrikingly vifible to every unpreju. diced perfon. The very fame effects which dig. The plough prepares the land for I am, Gentlemen, yours, &c. Obfervations on the beft Method of re nure. [From a Gentleman Farmer in Dorfethire.] GENTLEMEN, HE firt thing neceffary on No care in tilling the land previous T fuch lands is, mediately to fowing can prevent weeds rifing after harveft, to turn them up with the |