By Experiment, No. 16;-THIN SOWING of Wheat on a GRAVEL is fortunate, when the Summer proves wet.

The 1 Bushel (fee the Experiment) was quite a rank Crop; the 2 Buthels, a middling Crop; but the four Bushels, not more than eighteen inches high; many of the ears not an inch long, and the ftraws not thicker than the stems of Rye grafs! But, perhaps, had the Spring and Summer proved dry, the first would have been burnt up; while the laft, by fhading the Surface, and thereby keeping the Soil cool, might have been a good Crop. It must also be obferved, that this Experiment was made over Flutes, and probably almost every Grain vegetated.

From this year's experience, and from repeated observations in dry Years, I am convinced that the Quantity of Seed for a burning Gravel, cannot be nearly ascertained without a fore-knowledge of the Weather of the enfuing Summer.

Therefore;-Burning Gravels are hazardous Soils.

Because the Crop depends effentially on the Quantity of Seed; and the proper quantity of Seed depends wholly on that Weather which cannot be foreseen therefore,

Perhaps ;-Sow on a Gravel from 2 to three Bushels of Wheat an Acre; and, if the Winter prove dry, thin the plants with a Hoe in the Spring; but, if the Winter prove wet, let the whole fland in expectation of a dry Summer *.

Covering.

The whole, whether Fallow or Ley, (except a part fown underplit) was harrowed as fine as a Garden. No labour was fspared until the beds were rendered (by the concave Hinge Harrows) perfectly convex, their Surfaces fine, and the Seed covered.

Adjusting.

Part of the Inter-furrows were opened with the double Plow; part left cloddy; and a comparative Experiment was registered; but the whole was fo rank and fo lodged, no accurate inference could be drawn. The wet Soils were carefully crofs-furrowed, fufficiently deep to drain effectually the Inter-furrows, and fufficiently wide to walk in.'

The Reader will, we doubt not, be well pleafed to fee fo much made out of the few Experiments that occur on this head, and will, probably, be impreffed with a very favourable idea of the industry and abilities of our Author. He will do well, however, to remark, that the obfervations are here produced merely as a fpecimen of the manner in which a farmer fhould arrange his Experiments, and make his remarks upon them, to ferve as a balis for future obfervations. The Author is too judicious not to perceive that no pofitive conclufions can be drawn from fo few experiments, and we wish our Readers never

* This, however, must not be taken as an infallible guide; for although the winter of 76-77 was dry, and the enfuing fummer proved wet; yet the winter of 77-78 was equally dry, and the drought continued through the fummer.'

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to lofe fight of this. The following general obfervations, upon the wheat crop, like every other remark of our Author, when viewed in a proper light, deferve well to be attended to:

'What was the management of the fixteen Acres which this year produced at the rate of 3 Field-Jags an Acre? The Soil, a clayey Loam, was part of it a Summer-fallow;-part a Bean Quondal, Dog-days fallowed: the whole dunged with about ten fifty-foot loads (about 5co cubical feet) of prime horfe dung an Acre, fpread over the rough Plit of one deep plowing; harrowed ;-rolled; gathered into half-rod ridges very fhallow;-harrowed ;-rolled ;the ridges reverfed moderately deep ;-fown over the fresh Plit, in very high Tilth in September-October;-harrowed extremely fine;-the Inter-furrows opened, and the Crofs-furrows made wide and deep.Although it is very flat, wet land, not a fpoonful of water flood on it during the Winter.

The avocation of Agriculture would indeed be disheartening, if a good crop of Wheat could not be obtained from fuch management, and fuch weather as attended these fixteen Acres. And, were Autumns in general as favourable as the laft was, I fhould almost give up the thought of Wheat on a Clover-Ley: but fuch another Wheat Seed-time may never happen.

Had the divifion L. been caught in a wet Autumn, one-half of it at least could not have been cropt with Wheat, and the Seed of the other half must have been put in very badly. Fine as the weather happened, the labour, attendance, and attention beftowed on it was without end; and the anxiety for the weather equal to the disagreeable watchfulness of hay-time and harvest,

• What would have been the cafe this year, had I had nothing but Fallows-even Summer-Fallows-to depend on for Wheat? The weather, from the middle of May to the middle of July, was inceffantly rainy; and the ample crops of this harveft have fully employed the teams ever fince. Part of K 4, a Summer-fallow, is now (10 September) as green as a Ley! I have not an Acre of Fallow fowable with Wheat without two or three more plowings. Had I nothing but Fallows, I could not, be the weather ever fo fine, put in fifty Acres of Wheat, tolerably, before Christmas. Very fortunately, however, I have Clover-Leys, most of them dunged, ready to be landed up for Wheat, as foon as rain comes to moiften the furface: And my Fallows being for Spring corn, they will receive the Winter and Spring ftirrings. I have no hope of getting fuch noble Crops and beautiful Quondals from Clover-Leys as from dunged Summer-Fallows; but I hope that my Spring Crops and Autumnal Comfort will over-balance even the valuable advantages of a good Crop of Wheat and a clean Quondal.

• The Crop next in goodness was from a clayey Loam, part of it a Bean, part a Tare-barley Quondal, each of which received a very good Dog-days Fallow, and were managed almoft exactly by the procefs above mentioned; excepting that this part of the division L, was fown in O&tober-November-That in September-October.

The next which followed in point of goodness, was raised from a Clover Ley on a gravelly Loam, dunged for Clover; landed-up by two Oxen and a whip-rein Plow, foon after the fecond Crop of Clover was off;-lay three weeks in rough Plit ;-it was then harrowed; -fluted,-(fown,-) and harrowed, with one horse only: the whole expence of labour not five fhillings an Acre.

Laft Autumn this ftruck me as a moft eligible procefs: this Harveft has convinced me that Theory was once right. During Winter and Spring, the Crop was beautiful; and, had it not been lodged by the heavy rains of laft Summer, it would have been a very good Crop at Harvest; and, notwithstanding the wetness of the Summer, and the proneness of the foil to Seed-weeds, this Crop was almoft wholly free from them; for they had vegetated abundantly while the Soil lay in rough plit, and the harrows and the flute totally eradicated them.

The Quondal, it is true, is foul with Root-weeds; but this muft not be charged to the difadvantage of the fucceffion of Clover. Wheat, nor to the process of fluting the ftale plit of a Clover- Ley, but to the flovenly fucceffion of Wheat, Barley, Clover. A clean Clover-Ley, properly plowed, cannot poffibly afford a foul Quondal.'

IN FUTURE,

I will never depend wholly on Fallows for Wheat.

• A SUFFICIENCY OF clean CLOVER-LEYS FOR WHEAT SHALL BE THE PRINCIPAL OBJECT OF MY FUTURE MANAGEMENT*.

If the Soil be much out of heart, I will dung one deep plowing for Spring-Corn and Clover.

If the Soil be in tolerable heart, I will top-dress for the Spring Corn and Clover, and dung for the IVheat.

If Auguft be moift, I will endeavour to flute the ftale Plit. If the Surface remain droughty until September-October, I will fow on the fresh Plit.

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If the Soil be poor, and Manure fcarce, I will endeavour to bury the second Crop of Clover.

"I will endeavour to BEGIN fowing on the pooreft, and FINISH with the richest, Soil.

I will not brine the feed of Wheat; except by way of Exper

riment t.

If the Crop be inclinable to rankness, I will hoe the INTER VALS, and pafture, or top, or verdage the BEDS.

I will begin to cut while the knots are green; and endeavour to let the Sheaves have a fhower in the Field.'

*It must be observed, that thefe Refolutions are formed in the neighbourhood of London, where Clover-hay generally bears a price equal to that of the beft Meadow-hay.'

+ If Seed Wheat be foul with light Weed-feeds, it may be convenient to immerge it in Water, in order to gain an opportunity of kimming off the Lights?

In the obfervations on the Weather, we meet with many ingenious remarks, and useful hints; but here, as ufual, he mounts his hobby, and gives us a fet of meteorological inftruments, of his own invention, which we are forry to pronounce extremely imperfect, as no one of them admits of being compared with any other inftrument of the fame kind that has ever yet been used, nor can any other inftruments be fo conftructed as to correfpond with them. As all barometers have the inches of height marked upon them, it was natural, and would have been eafy, for him to have mentioned the exact height that correfponded with the bottom and top of his fcale; but this he has omitted. Of the thermometer he has only told us, that the medial point correfponds with the 54th degree of Fahrenheit's fcale-but what are the higheft or the lowest points, every one is left to guess, at random. The hygrometer is indeed a moft ufeful inftrument for the farmer, but, unfortunately, no device has yet been fallen upon to conftruct an inftrument of that kind with any tolerable degree of accuracy, nor is that of our Author calculated to remedy this defect. The aneometer, raingage, and exhalation-gage, are lefs fimple than others that have been used before. On the whole, this fet of implements is, in a great measure, incomplete; and we confider it as a very faulty degree of indolence in an author to publifh his inventions, on any fubject, without either reflecting deeply upon it himself, or examining what has been accomplished by others, -neither of which, it is very evident, has been done by our Author, in the prefent case.

Notwithstanding thefe ftrictures, we confider this work as capable of producing great utility, if it falls into proper hands. The ardour and unremitting attention of the Author will, ftimulate fome to attempt what they would not otherwise have thought of. We are far, however, from thinking the plan of obferva tion here pointed out, will prove fo extenfively useful as the Author seems to apprehend, Perfons of mean talents will never be able to comprehend the fpirit or meaning of these arrange ments, and such men always form the majority of every clafs. Others, who are capable of following the Author in his chain of reafoning, will want that fpirit of exertion which is neceffary to put it in practice: for indolence is fo natural to man, that if not impelled by neceffity, or ftimulated by fome powerful natural propenfity, he is extremely apt to defift from all enterprize and action, although reafon points out, in the clearest manner, the benefits that would accrue from the vigorous employment of his faculties. Indeed the attention neceflary to go through with a work of this nature is fo great, that we much doubt if any man of talents could be found who would perfevere in it with proper fpirit, unless he were urged on by that natural parREV. Oct. 1779. S

tiality

tiality which every one feels for the child of his own fancy. Our Author himself acknowledges the difficulty of attending properly to this object, even when he had the afiftance of that powerful ftimulus; for he obferves, that had the experiments been continued with the fame affiduity with which they were begun, they would have been far more numerous than they now are; but the autumn of 1777 was engroffed by the publication of the Minutes of igriculture; and the fpring of 1778 perplexed by a lefs agreeable circumftance: and a man who attends to the procefs of experimenting fhould have his head at leifure, and his heart at eafe.' If thefe requifites are neceffary for carrying into practice the plan here chalked out, we are afraid it will be long before the world can reap much benefit from it; and as we are fatisfied of the juftnefs of the remark, we view it as one of thofe Utopian fchemes which, although it may in a few cafes be put in practice by one or two individuals, can never become univerfally prevalent or extenfively ufeful. It must be by lefs gigantic ftrides that the weak, fuctuating, indolent creature, man, must advance in knowledge.

Much praife is due to our Author for fo ftrenuously exerting himfelf. for the good of others. If they cannot be fo highly benefited by thefe exertions as he may have wifhed, the blame is theirs: he will at least have the confcious fatisfaction of having endeavoured to ferve them. We return him thanks for the entertainment he has afforded us, and we recommend his performance to the attention of all judicious cultivators,-to all who have the profperity of agriculture at heart,-as a work that will afford them much pleafure, and fome inftruction, by teaching them how to make the most advantage of the occurrences that daily happen within the sphere of their own observations.

ART. I. An Harmony of the Gospels: In which the original Text is difpofed after Le Clerc's General Manner; with fuch various Readings at the Foot of the Page as have received Wetstein's Sanction in his Folio Edition of the Greek Teftament. Obfervations are fubjoined, tending to fettle the Time and Place of every Tranfaction, to establifh the Series of Facts, and to reconcile feeming Inconiiftencies. By William Newcome, D. D. Bishop of Offory. Folio. . 7 s. Boards. Dublin printed, and fold by Cadell in London. 1778.

TH

HE numerous attempts that have been made to harmonize the Gospels, are a proof of the fenfe that Chriftians in general have entertained of the ufefulness and importance of reconciling the feveral accounts which the Evangelifts have given of the life and actions of Jefus. They are, likewise, a proof of the difficulty that attends the execution of fuch a defign. This difficulty arifes chiefly from the neglect of chronological

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order