parts in a well cultivated country fcarce a field has its exact counter-part.' All this is true; but when all necessary hands are dextrous, and a fuperintendant thinks not due attention too fatiguing, and the differences of of one large, or feveral different fields are exactly noted, large experiments are generally more fatisfactory, as the Reader is much inclined to believe that any confiderable error is not fo likely to be admitted on a large as a small plan; because if any be admitted in a small part, it is propagated to the whole, and multiplies ama zingly. We fhall enter on an account of Mr. Y.'s experiments, after having obferved on an affertion of his; viz. A difference of fix hours fowing on barley land, well prepared, will, if an heavy fhower intervene, on many foils, counterbalance every other point;' that if this be the cafe, agriculture is a moft precarious and uncomfortable employment. Exp. Produce per Profit or Lofs 1. s. d. Lofs o 1 74 Lofs 6 7 0 Pr. 5 59 4 2 Pr. 3 15 11 2 6 0 Pr, o 19 2 2 6 σ L. 10 2 10 8 Pr. 4 15 9 Remarks on these Crops of 1764, by Mr. Y. and Reviewers. 1. Wet land in this husbandry is very expenfive in water-furrowing and weeding.' Y: 2. Succefs attends giving much more feed than many writers allow.' Y. 3. The boafted faving of feed in the new husbandry feems almoft given up. R. 4. Difference betwixt 7th and 8th numbers is, in pocket, nearly 71. ros. What can be concluded to the advantage of fo precarious a culture? R. N. B. All these three equal parts are fixths of an acre, and had the fame feed and culture. Soil clayey. All as above, ex cept reverfing* the letters {:} Produced { bush. 2 pec. bush. I pec. N. B. All as above, except foil, gravelly. $35.84 d. and profit 1 s. 34 d. Is. 24 d. * So that e ftands for No. 3, in Exp. 11, and a for No. 1. { Mr. Y.'s Conclufions from thefe two laft Experiments. 1. In the clayey foil treble rows are fuperior to double ones. 2. In the gravelly fuperiority, but not fo great on the fame fide. 3. Superiority of No. 2, to No. 3, is trifling, and therefore the greater labour of No. 2, carries it for No. 3. Five Experiments on a Rood drilled in different Rows, and and at different Distances. Mr. Y.'s and Reviewers Obfervations on these five Experiments. On Exp. 13th, If 4 pecks were not too much feed, where is the faving of feed by the drill method? Or even if 3 pecks, what confiderable faving is there? Nay, what if z pečks? 1 pecks appear too little. R. 14th, Manure appears to have great effect. R. 15th, If this profit continues, the drill method will fuperfede the broad-caft. R... 16th, Mr. Y. cannot account for this wretched crop; but remarks that moft drilled crops pay for fallow. Ditto, What becomes of the other great boast of drilling; viz. avoiding of fallow? R. Mr. Y.'s Obfervations on the drilled Crops of 1765. I. Three rows at 1 foot distance feems the best method; and three rows at 8 inches diftance preferable to double rows. II. Second crops do not exhaust the foil. III. Drill crops pay for fallow. Seven Experiments in 1766, on two Roods each, except No. 24. Rows and Distances. Circumftances. Third crop, 3 pecks of feed. Ditto. Ditto. Mildew caufe Three rows 1 foot afunder. Mr. Y.'s and Reviewers Obfervations on the Crops of 1766. On Exp. 19th, He calls its culture (4 horse-hoeings, ditto handhoeings, and 2 hand-weedings) enormous. 20th, Thefe drilled crops worfe mildewed than common ones.' 22d, This crop, hand-hoed, not so much mildewed as horfe-hoed ones.' Y. Ditto, May not its following a fallow in part account for this? R. 24tb, This crop was fed down, and not more mildewed than others.' Y. Ditto, Should it not, on Mr. Y.'s principles, have been lefs ? R. Mr. Y.'s and Reviewers General Obfervations. I. Succefs of husbandry depends upon the weather.' Y. II. Should not restrictions be here used, and fome degree of efficacy be endeavoured to be fettled? Otherwife how precarious is agriculture? R. III. Three rows at 1 foot distance appear the best method. IV. If drilled crops be, as they here appear, more fubject to mildew, this is a great difadvantage.' Y. V. Mr. Y. fuppofes the liableness to mildew to arife from luxuriancy, and this from often turning the foil. Is not this an effential objection to drilling? R. Seven Experiments in 1767; the former four on two Roods each, and the three latter on one Rood each. Mr. Y. obferves on Exp. 28th, I expected that a wet season would be attended with a certain and great lofs: but my mistake shews, that one cannot be too cautious in reafoning upon one year by analogy with another.' He obferves on Exp. 29th, That many broad-caft crops proved very detrimental this year. Is it not greatly to be lamented that a bufinefs, fo neceffary to the fupport of human life as growing of wheat, is so subject to prove detrimental, that a man cannot enter upon it with any reasonable affurance of profit adequate to the hazard which he runs ? R. 1 Mr. Y.'s Conclufions from thefe drilled Crops of 1767. 1. They prove more for than against the drill husbandry. 2. Three 2. Three rows diftant 1 foot, with intervals of 4 feet, the most advantageous difpofition of drills. 3. Purchafed manure anfwers not the expence. 4. Two pecks of feed per rood, or two bushels per acre, is too little a quantity. We have been fo exact in our Review of Mr. Y.'s averages of the expences, products, and profits and loffes of his crops, in the old hufbandry, that we will infert nothing of this kind on the new hufbandry (although we have reduced the whole to writing) but only, ift, That from his premifes Mr. Y. rightly concludes (p. 116.) that • manuring of drilled crops anfwers not;' and that the average lofs by manured crops, is to that by unmanured ones, as 6 l. 10s. 11 d. to 1 l. 2 s. 10 d. or almost 6 to 1: and, zdly, Mr. Y. (in p. 119122) having gained the averages of crops after fallows and other crops, owns his furprize at the refult of this comparifon, as he expected that a drilled crop, after a fallow, would be leaft profitable; but finds that it exceeds in profit that after a crop by 11. 2 s. 3 d. per acre; and as the profit of a fucceeding crop is only 17 s. 6 d. (that of two of them only 11. 15 s.) therefore by fallowing the land every other year we gain 4 s. 9 d. by the acre, fave the trouble of attending the fecond crop, and the rifque of greater expences. He therefore concludes (as all impartial Readers will from his premises) • drilled land feems to lofe fertility.' We seriously recommend this conclufion to the confideration of the advocates for the drill husbandry, and apprehend, that it may contribute to clip the pinions of drilling ideas when too much on the wing.' Mr. Y. next fhews, that (cat. paribus) the product of æquidiftant rows exceeds that of horfe-hoed crops by 5 bushels 3 pecks to the acre; and the profit of the former that of the latter by 12 s. 6d. to the acre. How confiderable all this! Seems it not hence that good broad-caft is likelieft to bear away the prize? He notes that 3 rows at 1 foot distance, with intervals of 4 feet, are fuperior to the two other methods, by above 1 l. 13 s. per acre, and prefers the common Suffolk plough to all horfe hoes. N. B. In our Review of the above experiments we have omitted adding the fcreenings, in ftating of the product, (to avoid minuteness) but they are in the profits [To be continued.]. ART. XII. Meditations upon feveral Texts of Scripture. By the late Mrs. Jean Steuart, Widow of Alexander Trotter of Cattlefhiell, Efq; Daughter of Sir Robert Steuart of Allanbank, Bart. 8vo. 4s. 6d. Keith. 1771. Otwithstanding our diflike of religious enthufiafm, we frequently fee great reafon to refpect the characters of thofe who are infected by it; for, wild and irrational as the real enthusiast may be in the exercife of his imagination and Indeed, in this cafe, 61. 7 s. 9 d. instead of 4 1. 15 s. 3 d. must be expended; fo that fome trifle for intereft of the greater fum fhould be allowed. fancied fancied feelings, we cannot queftion his fincerity; and fincerity is always refpectable. However erroneous in principle, or mis taken in conduct, these fons and daughters of mental delufion may be, the inconvenience, if any, is to themfelves; for they are, neverthelefs, generally found to be the best members of fociety. Sober in their manners, they are peaceable neighbours, warm friends, pious toward God, and zealous in difcharging the obligations of their religious perfuafion. Such a character, it appears, was Mrs. Jean Steuart; of whom a circumftantial account is given by the Editor of her papers; from which we shall extract a few particulars to gratify the curiofity of our readers. She was married in 1708, in the 15th year of her age; was left a widow in 1728, with eight fons and three daughters then living, befide two fons which fhe had buried; and the remained a widow till her death, which happened in 1766. She feems to have had a very early turn for religious sub. jects, which was much encouraged not only by her pious parents, but by her worthy grandmother lady Gilmour. As a wife fhe was moit affectionate, and as a mother none could excell her in tendernefs; but even this is only half her praise, for fhe was at the greatest pains to inftil into the minds of her children the principles of religion, and to guard them against the extremities of enthufiafm and lukewarmnefs, which the Reader will fee from a few of her letters to her children *. As a miftrefs fhe was gentle, as a friend fteady, as a companion chearful and agreeable; and to objects of charity, her hand was always open. None will be furprized,' fays the writer of this account,. that a perfon in whom refided fo many Godlike virtues, fhould meet with trouble in life; for this is one of the evidences of our being the children of God. Her afflictions, indeed, were great, not only from her young and numerous family, but from a very tender and broken ftate of health during the whole of her widowhood. She had the trial to lofe nine of her children, and five of them in little more than one year.—But in these, and all her afflictions, fhe bore the will of God with an exemplary refignation. Her laft illness, though extremely painful, fhe bore with great patience and fortitude: never did one fret Thefe letters are particularly referred to, as inferted in this work; and we have especially attended to their contents, but have obferved nothing in them, nor in the whole volume, that in the least degree feems to guard the Reader against enthufiajm. Indeed we might as well look into Whitefield's journals for a diffuafive against fieldpreaching, or tabernacle conventicles-Of the extremities of enthufafm, therefore, we may conclude, the worthy Editor's ideas and ours are extremely diffimilar. REV. Apr. 1771. Y ful |