any, as it then produces only a few leaves. But, when the < winter rains, and the firft drying heat of the spring, have rendered the earth almost as hard as if it had never been plowed, the wheat is abandoned to itself, at a time when it might, and ought to be, affifted by proper culture. Our farmers, in this, act as prepofterously, as it would be to give a child a great deal of food, and diminish it gradually as he grows bigger.-The great advantage of hav ing land in fine tilth before it is fowed, is univerfally allow ed: but we muft not ftop at thefe first preparations. Plants require a due culture whilft they grow, and muft not be abandoned till they come to their full maturity.-Some ⚫ garden plants acquire great ftrength by being transplanted ; because, after having been confined in the nurfery, they are put into large beds, where they find a new and loofe mould. The plants of corn may be equally benefited by plowing, or ftirring the earth near them. If any of their roots are difplaced or broke, the plant does not fuffer by it, because it shoots out several instead of one; and most of the roots not having been difplaced or hurt, they continue to supply the plant with nourishment, till the difplaced or broken roots have taken fresh hold of the earth; and then the • plant becomes more vigorous than before: for when a root is cut, it fhoots out feveral new ones, proper to draw nourishment from the earth. The breaking of a root is therefore a means of multiplying the mouths, or rather fuckers which collect the nourishment of plants.-Thofe who are against these frequent plowings, are afraid of dry. ing the earth too much for they fay that the moisture efcapes with greater difficulty from a hard earth, than from that which has been well ftirred by plowing. It may be granted, that the moisture which is in the earth, does not evaporate fo eafily whilft the earth is hard, as when it is in a loofe ftate: but in the first place, it is certain, that that moifture will be rather hurtful than ufeful to plants.Secondly, our adverfaries must allow, that well plowed land will more readily admit the moisture of rain and dews, than land which is not fo. The following experiment proves the truth of this affertion.

If feveral rows of wheat are fown in a poor, but well plowed land, the blades of the corn will turn yellow in fpring, especially in dry weather. If the ground border

This ipfe dixit may, very poffibly, be true: but the reafon why Might as well have been added, for the reader's greater fatisfaction.

ing upon these rows be plowed deep, in fome places near, * and in others at a confiderable diftance from the rows, the ⚫.corn will recover its verdure first in the places that are near

eft to the new plowed ground, and afterwards gradually in *the others, according to their diftance; which proves that the wheat recovers its verdurè, in proportion as its roots reach the loose earth. In fhort, ftirring the earth about plants while they are growing, is fo ufeful, that in some * parts of Berkshire, and in fome diftricts of the Gatinois, they hand-hoe their wheat; and though this operation is expenfive, it is affirmed that the crops amply repay all the charge and trouble. How much more profitable [then] * would it be if this labour could be done at a lefs expence The methods propofed in the following chapter, will fhew that it may

Chap, 11 General defcription of the drill and horfe-boing Huf bandry, for the culture of annual Plants.'

Our author refers, for the defcription of the instruments ufed in the new husbandry, to a fubfequent chapter, where they are illuftrated by ingravings upon copper; and here he only obferves that the drill (a principal machine in conducting this new method of husbandry), is drawn by one, or two horfes, forms furrows of what depth, and at what distance is defired, drops into the furrow the exact quantity of feed thought proper, and immediately covers it. As to the horseboe, it is only a light kind of plough, to clear off the weeds and loofen the ground, betwixt the rows of corn, as it grows. He then examines the following questions, viz. 1. At what depth the feed ought to be fown: 2. The quantity of feed proper to be fown: and 3. The diftance at which the rows fhould be fown-for the fowing in rows, is an effential point to be regarded in the new husbandry: and though the width of the alleys, or fpaces between the beds, on which the rows are fown, (three, or four, upon each bed) feems at firft fight a confiderable objection against the new method; yet, we are told, that a proper trial will foon remove this prejudice. For, it is alleged, in favour of the method here recommended, that

• At harvest, it will be found, that most of the grains of * wheat have produced twenty or thirty ftalks a-piece; whereas, in the common hufbandry, they feldom exceed two or three. [So that] if it were poffible to distribute those twenty, or thirty ftalks, in the alleys, the earth would appear as well covered as when the whole is fown in the ufual

broad

broad-caft way. But as the ears are likewife larger, and filled with better grain, it follows, that, the crop is, in fact, more plentiful.In the common way of fowing, the earth appears at firft fight well covered with plants. But as all thefe plants cannot find fufficient nourishment, and it is impoffible to affift them by culture, many of them perifh' before they ripen, the greatest part of them remain poor and ftinted, and the feed is almoft entirely loft: whereas, by the new method, all the plants find fufficient nourishment, and being affifted from time to time, by proper culture, become ftrong and vigorous; infomuch, that I have feen land cultivated in the common way, not yield the fifth part of the produce of lands fown and cultivated according to the new method.

Befides, when land is fowed according to our method, it is lefs exhausted than in the common way; or rather, it will be in a condition to fupply feveral crops of wheat, which will become better every year, because the corn is fown in beds made in the middle of the former alleys,, where the earth has been thoroughly and deeply plowed.'

Chap. 12. is upon the fubject of Change of Species, in Plants.

Chap. 13. treats of the common Culture of Wheat, according to the old method.- Chap. 14. gives us rules for the Culture of Wheat according to the new Hufbandry: but as they are too fong to be inferted entire, and might fuffer by an abridgment; we fhall refer the reader to the book itself, for fatisfaction in this particular. a

Chap. 15. treats of the Advantages of the new Husbandry : which are fummed up thus, at p. 76. Little, or no

dung is employed: the earth is not refted: it is not taken 6 up with grain of lefs value, nor is the expence increased; for the culture which is bestowed upon the corn whilft < growing, prepares the ground for the enfuing crop, and only two thirds of the ground is plowed. The horse-hoings anfwer the end of the four plowings, given [in the common way] during the year of fallow they are even more beneficial: for it has been obferved, that the third crop of a field fown with wheat five years running, was a twentieth part greater than either of the preceding crops, and that the fifth was the best of all. The farmer must not there'fore repine at the feeming lofs of the alleys, feeing that his lands are conftantly employed, and that the wheat branches out into fo many ftalks, that, if fpread equally over the whole field, as in the common husbandry, they would nearly cover all the alleys.'

Chap

Ghap. 16. Of the Distempers of Corn. Mr. Duhamel is much more diftinct in his account of the distempers of corn, than any English writer has hitherto been: and, though they may all, in general, be reduced to mildew, blight, and fmut, yet he has diftinguished them by feveral other names, and given us many curious remarks upon each of them.

Chap. 17. Of Steeps. Various methods of steeping grain, intended to be fown, in different kinds of preparations, as prefervatives againft diftempers, as well as to render the feed more fruitful; were brought very early into ufe. But as to the efficacy of many pretended fecrets for the above purposes, our author greatly doubts it: and judicioufly concludes with obferving that the fureft means of obtaining good crops, is, to have the ground in good condition.'

Chap. 18. Of Weeds. To prevent the increase of weeds, we are here advised to destroy them before their feed is ripe. But to do this (it is alleged) is not poffible in lands plowed the common way; because they grow with the corn, and most of them ripening fooner than the wheat, their feeds fow themfelves, and the weeds confequently multiply. But, the fureft way to destroy them, is, to continue plowing whilst the corn grows, which can be done, only in the new husbandry.

Weeds may be distinguished into four kinds:

1. Such as have creeping perennial roots.

2. Such as grow in cold wet foils.

3. Such as are of a large fucculent body.

4. Such as having fmall feeds, or that ripening before the corn, fow themselves. Each of thefe require different methods, to deftroy them.

The first kind can only be destroyed by repeated fummer fallows, by which their roots are cut, and turned up to be withered by the fun and wind; after which they are dragged out by harrows, and should be burnt. This repeated as often as conveniently may be, can fcarcely fail to complete the cure. Colts-foot (a moft pernicious weed), which is propagated by the root, may likewife be deftroyed by fowing the ground with rye-grafs, or any plant which, coming up early in the fpring, fhadows and fmothers it, whereby it dies in a few years.

The fecond are deftroyed by draining the earth of its fuperfluous moisture, and by warming it with lime, afhes, gravel, fhelly fea-fand, &c.

The

The third are deftroyed by cutting them down when in full fap and vigour: for the fudden interruption which this gives to the motion of the fap, caufes it to stagnate in the roots, and putrify there.

The fourth can be deftroyed only by frequent fallows, and conftantly cutting, or rather plowing them down before they

run to feed.

[To be concluded in our next.]

The Life of EDWARD Earl of CLARENDON concluded.

N our last month's Review, we attended Mr. Hyde to the time of his being elected member for Wotton Baffet, on which occafion he quitted his practice in the law, and folely confined his attention to the bufinefs of the house. When we confider his intimate connection, and clofe corref pondence with archbishop Laud at this time, and that he refigned a very extenfive and beneficial practife in his profeffion, to attend on parliament, we cannot hefitate to conclude, that from this moment he formed the ambitious/design of raifing himself at court, of which his hopes were neither diftant or precarious.

Conformably to this plan of extending his influence, and aggrandizing his fortune, he invariably regulated his future conduct. Upon all occafions, he teftified an attachment to the pleasure of his patron, and the will of his prince*. These confider

Bishop Burnet, indeed, tells us, that Mr. Hyde's ambition, at his first fetting out, difpofed him to favour the measures of the court, but that he was induced to alter his conduct, by the following incident. "When he first began," fays the reverend Hiftorian, to grow eminent in the law, he visited his father in Wiltshire, who one day, "as they were walking in the fields together, obferved to him, that men of his profeffion were apt to ftretch the prerogative too far, and injure liberty; but charged him, if ever he came to any emi"nence in his profeffion, never to facrifice the laws and liberty of his country to his own intereft, or the will of his Prince." He repeated this twice, the Hiftorian adds, and immediately fell into a fit of apoplexy, of which he died in a few hours; and this advice had fo lafting an influence on the fon, that he ever after obferved and purJued it.

We should have been glad if this learned bishop, and grave hifto. rian, had been pleased to specify fome inftances in which the fon obferved and purfued this advice of his father. For our own parts, from the most impartial review of the hiftory of those times, even as recorded by himself, we find his conduct to have been diametrically op