animal does. Lofs of the oil in the plant paffing through the animal, is proportioned to the nourishment given. -This is certainly a very ingenious defence of vegetable manures as fuperior to dungs. In fect. 2, Mr. Peters ftates the arguments of the oppofite partizans on the queftion, Is the food of plants one or various? and declares for the former; as we do. Manuring and fallowing replenifh the land with neutral falts, and nitrous particles from the air, which, joining the acids of the earth, caufe new fermentation, and thus produce new food. The 3d fection is destined to a comparison of the vegetable fyftem with drill husbandry. The Writer had before obferved, that the latter fyftem breaks the harmony of giving to and receiving from the earth, as it reftores. nothing but stub le. Seed in vegetable fyftem broadcast of wheat 62 lb. 3267 ie. upwards of 40 bushels per year, equal to 3500l. at 101. per load on 100 acres, for 10 years. Such is the refult of Mr. Peters' comparifon. He allows only 62 lb. of feed in the drill hufbandry, product 22 bushels, although Mr. Young makes it 80 lb. feed, and product only 16 bafhels, in Yorkshire. Mr. Peters obferves, that the adoriferous dil is the prefiding spirit of plants, and therefore only the aqueous part fhould be exuded from plants, and hay lightly dried, and ftacked while the oil continues, and cut while in bloom. Hence buck-wheat fhould be cut while in bloffom, and herbs decocted should not be boiled too long. In fect. 1, chap. VI. Mr. Peters enumerates empty ears, parched or forivelled corn, abortive or rickety, fmutted ones, and afcribes all these belly to bad foil and bad tillage. In this indifcriminate account we we cannot acquiefce; but our neceffary brevity allows us not to be particular. He recounts, from ancients as well as moderns, many steeps, efpecially brines and lixiviums, and thinks their chief virtue to be that of forwarding vegetation; in which we agree with him. He would, however, have thefe fteeps applied to barley and oats as well as wheat. In fect. 2, Mr. Peters recommends four ploughs; viz. firft, the Norfolk wheel-plough, for its fhortnefs and ftrength, with which a man and two horfes do from one to two acres per day; fecondly, the lomax, rotheram, or patent plough, which does well with a man and two horses, and is called alfo the Surry plough, introduced by Mr. C. Baldwin, and made at Clapham for 21. 16 s. but may be made for 1 1. 10s.*; thirdly, the two rung Kentifb plough, without mould-board, to pulverife couchy fallow; and, fourthly, the broadcaft fowing plough for one horse, which does one acre and a half in common hours. Mr. Peters is fo fanguine an advocate for thefe ploughs, that he thinks half the rent of the farm may be faved by them. Indeed, when a farmer comes to reduce half his draught horfes, his savings must be great. He clofes this fection by expreffing his furprize that oxen, two of which do an acre per day in fome parts of Effex, are not more uíed. We join with him. He well explains, from various authors, how lime and marle promote tillage, viz. not only as ftimuli, but as fertilizers, by bringing falts, which, joining with acids in the earth, become the food of plants; and justly explodes the farmers who indifcriminately decry lime as a manure. He obferves, from Dr. Home, that shell marle is most powerful, as it contains oil. Mr. Peters execrates the farmer who feeds down his wheat by sheep in fpring, on the principle that perfpiration is neceffary to plants, and that leaves are the organs of it. But we may obferve, that the leaves eat down by sheep early in fpring, are what would certainly decay, that a fucceffion comes quickly, that it is not certain that the perfpiration by the old leaves is always necessary, that thefe give good food, and that the dung and treading certainly improve the crop. Hence it is not with us a clear cafe that feeding down wheat is always a pernicious cuftom. Experiments must determine this important point. In fect. 1, chap. VII. Mr. Peters collects feveral methods of relieving cattle boven by eating of clover (efpecially when wet) both from the Mufæum Rufticum and the Memoirs of the Royal Society of Agriculture at Tours, which fhew that this distemper may be cured by the well known incifion in the fide, and that a clyfter is useful; alfo that a quart of new warm milk often proves a cure; and that a quill inferted in the incifion, renders the repetition of it unneceffary. • What a difference! In fect. 2, Mr. Peters describes three kinds of worms pernicious to corn, viz. first, the red or chefnut worm, about three-fourths of an inch long; fecondly, the large, white, foft rook-worm, which becomes the black or dung beetle; and, thirdly, the Small white maggot, fmaller than the firft. He relates an Irish farmer's deftroying all these forts in furze lands, by four bushels of falt to an acre, and improving the fertility of his grounds; alfo Mr. Wynne Baker's experiments of destroying the red worms by lime, falt, and foot, efpecially the two last. He clofes this fection by an account of a rich manure prescribed by the justly famous Glauber, viz. compofed of 4 cwt. of lime and I cwt. of common falt, mixed and calcined, which will only cot 12 s. 6 d. and fuffice for one acre. In fect. 3, he falls upon Mr. Young, in a violent manner, for afferting that " without much cattle cannot be much corn.' We acknowledge great merit in the vegetable fyftem, and believe that there are hot foils for which dung, not well putrified, may be improper; but, on the contrary, we are convinced that the dunghill may generally be well employed in tillage, and we wish to fee Mr. Peters and his friends unite with Mr. Young and his friends, the collectors of dung from cattle, without purfuing exclufive interests. Mr. Peters, in this fection, exprefsly entitled, "On Mr. Young's Husbandry," avers that his farmer need not be at half the expence which Mr. Young's pupil is generally at. If Mr. Peters can always effect Mr. Young's crops with half the expence, the world is indeed much obliged to him. However, he fhould not fuppofe Mr. Young's ideas fo narrow, that he knows no ufe for dung except in tillage. He has fhewn, in various works, that he knows well its ufe on paftures +. Mr. Young, we dare fay, will agree with Mr. Peters that the true principles of farming are, first, to fow corn judiciously in due feafon; fecondly, to manure land with vegetables; thirdly, to keep land clean and rich; and, fourthly, to reduce expenfive horses and idle fervants. Mr. Young has aimed at the execution of all these principles in feveral works, especially his Tours; but he adds others. Mr. Peters lays down the quantities of various crops which Mr. Young deems fufficient, and only fufficient, for the maintenance of certain numbers of various cattle, and calls them vague affertions,' (p. 168) and particularly afferts, that 40 acres of turnips fhould maintain nearly 500 sheep through winter, without 20 acres of burnet, which Mr. Young adds. We must leave that gentleman to fettle thofe quantities with Mr. Peters, and can only add, that we did not expect from Mr. Peters fo ungentlemanlike an expreffion as this, viz. he [Mr. Young] feems quite ignorant of the foundation and principles of that fcience' [Agriculture.] We only with Mr. Young to learn, from hence, how very easy it is to make quite an ignorant of the man who does not think entirely as we do, and how little honour fuch indifcriminate cenfure does to its Authors., + Mr. Young has done as much or more than any modern writer to explode wasteful fallows, Mr. Peters's great object. Our Our Author controverts another declaration of Mr. Young's, viz. that two mowings of clover do more good to the ground than feeding it off with cattle and think he fhould have explained fo fingular an opinion. Whether this opinion be right or not, mult, we apprehend, be determined by experiments; but Mr. Young has certainly explained his opinion, viz. that "the fermentation created in the earth, by two thick crops, contributes more to prepare the foil for wheat, than the dung of cattle, which must be thinly spread, and therefore cannot raifc much fermentation." Mr. Peters declares that Mr. Baldwin of Clapham is a convert to the broadcafting of lucerne, and makes above 6 tons (value 181.) of an acre: and, in feet. 5, affirms, that flinty unprofitable ground, by fainfoin, yields from 51. to 61. per acre: and, in fect. 6, he obferves, that fuch lands. about Dunitable in Bedfordfhire, would anfwer nobly under fainfoin, which now produce little, although dearly manured with woollen rags: and, in fect. 7, he notes the Spaniards giving falt to fheep, and its ufe in hay for oxen or horfes. In fect. 1, of chap. VIII. Mr. Peters laughs at Mr. Young for recommending burnet as a late fpring food for fheep, and refers to his own provifions in the beginning of this work. He also ridicules Mr. Rigal of Heidelberg, for giving burnet to his goat; and affirms fhe would have thanked him for a bellyful of good grafs. He recommends the method of dipping a turkey chick as foon as hatched in cold water, and forcing it to fwallow a pepper-corn. Thefe prefcriptions our English housewives have long known: nor are they ignorant of the method of relieving them in mature age, by drawing three or four bloody feathers at their rumps: nor are they ftrangers to the feeding young chicks with eggs hard boiled. We know not, indeed, that they are acquainted with feeding them with oatmeal and treacle. In fect. 4, Mr. Peters fhews, from the premiums of the Dublin Society, that 16 lb. of wheat, fown on a plantation acre, has produced 124, 137, nay, 195 fold. On mention of the Dublin Society he obferves, that France has 13 principal Societies for Agriculture, and co-operating ones; that in Sweden and the German Univerfities, the art of agriculture is taught as a fcience, and an academy for it is eftablished in Tufcany. In fect. 5, Mr. Peters confiders an acre of land as Debtor and Cre ditor, and produces a profit of 41. 12s, d. &c. for one year, or profit on 100 acres for one year 4611. 9 s. 9 d. or for ten years 46141. 17 s. 1c d. a very refpectable fum,' as he calls it; but then he adds, It is not what land does, but what land may be brought to to do.' But how fhall we know what it may do, if it does it not? The laft fection displays the inconvenience of thick fowing of wheat, from its lodging in A. D. 1770. In his Addenda, Mr. Peters has many useful hints on fea-water, as yielding different quantities of falt in different places; on change of feed, from foils oppofite to that on which it is to be fown; on choofing feed full, thin-coated, uninfected with fmut, weeds, &c.; on the usefulness of farm books, viz. a diary, a field polt-book, a flockbook, a book of debtor and creditor for each field, and a ledger; en the neceflity of fewing aabeat early, both in wet and dry ground (and here here he advifes a penal law againft fowing after November 30); on tables of the number of grains of different kinds in an ounce, and plants on an acre, at various diftances, in order to calculate the quantity of feed; on wild oats, which he rightly fuppofes to be feeds originally created and mixed with the earth, and brought to vegetate after long ploughing t; on the expences and lofs of land in finall inclofures; on an improvement of a circular coulter to prevent the wheat ftubble from gathering; on a fwelling near the adder of newly lamb'd ewes; on pelt (a kind of corn betwixt wheat and barley;) on the value of a rye crop on many lands nearly that of wheat per bufhel; and on corretting the lomax plough. He concludes thefe Addenda by a declaration that he propofes to lay before the public the caufe of the high price of provifions; and, in a Poltfcript, he defcribes a fillet and cannula, which he recommends to be ufed in the relief of hoven cattle: but we regard the Complete Farmer's remedy for this distemper, viz. raking, as fuperior to all others, With refpect to our Author's language, it is too fanciful, and favours too much of the bombaft, especially for works of this kind; which require a plain, manly ftyle, fuitable to the gravity and importance of narrative fubjects. There is, indeed, an appearance of conceitedness in Mr. P.'s manner, which many Readers may conader as indicating a want of judgment. We do not, however, abfolutely, pronounce to fevere a fentence on our Author, who has judiciously collected a variety of useful obfervations from other Writers, and added fome good ones of his own., ART. VIII. Difcourfes on the Parables of our bifid Saviour and the Mi racles of his holy Gospel. With occafional Illustrations. By Charles Bulkley. Vols. Ill. IV. 8vo. 10 5. Horsfield, &c. 1771. N these two volumes this Author's prefent defign is com IN riage in Cana; the Buyers and Sellers in the Temple; the good Centurion; the miraculous Cure of a Leper; the miraculous Draught of Fishes; the Storm rebuked; the Demoniacs; the Cure of the Paralytic; the miraculous Increafe of the Loaves and Fishes; the Pool of Bethesda; our Lord's Transfiguration; the Cure of the Man born blind; Christ the Light of the World; together with an Introductory Difcourfe, containing general Obfervations on our Saviour's Miracles. The fubjects of the fourth volume are, The Refurrection of Lazarus; the curfing the barren Fig-tree; Peter's cutting off the Right Ear of Malchus; the Refurrection of Christ, the Pf + Mr. Peters feems to afcribe the vegetation to the poverty of the foil; but we think that, by being long expofed to the air, they become capable of vegetation, although the foil be not exhaufted, as is the cafe in regard to ketlocks in old ground, however tilled.. Viz. 3 s. 6d. when wheat was 49 3 d. in February laft in Northumberland. * See Reviews for June 1771, and for January 1772. cenfion |