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General view of the agriculture of the county of Somerset : with observations on the means of its improvement. Drawn up in the year 1795, for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement. By John Billingsley, Esq; ... and now re-printed with considerable additions and amendments, .. / John Billingsley
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OF SOMERSETSHIRE, 202 iure, to the ſyſtem of ſaving ſeed being carried to too great an exceſs,*

I cannot

* After giving every tribute of merit to the author. of this Survey, which Mr. ANDERPDON thinks he richly deſerves, Mr, A. feels him- ſelf, in ſome meaſure, called upon to ſay ſomething to the obje&igns itated againſt the pradice of drilling, which carry with them very great plauſibility. And, indeed, the firſt objeRion muſt be totally admitted, in all its force.

To the ſecond, he anſwers, His wheat crops, though not always iree from ſuch complaints,(when general) have been leſs ſubjed to ruít, blight, and mildew, than broadcaſt crops; and never more ſub- jed than theſe to the ill effÆds of wind. But frequently, when the wind has blown the ſtanding corn, ſo as to bend it'on one fide, and the weight of the ears has kept it in that poſition, no injury has enſued, the corn has food very well, and ſo as to be eaſily reaped.

To the third objedtion, he admits, that the ſtraw is ranker, bft ſtands ſtiff, and is not more ſubject to fall than the broadcaſt; gene- rally, not ſo ſubjet.

Theſe advantages attending his drilled and horſe-hoed crops, Mr. A. imputes to the efeâs of Ris making ftone-lime a principal ingre- dient in his compoſt-heaps.

To the fourth obje&ion. Te puts in his wheat crops in good ſez- ſon, and has never failed of reaping them by the middle of Auguîít. But, in very expoſed ſituations, he thinks this objeétion may be fatal, though he has never found it ſo in the vale of- Taunton. As a proof of his harveſting his drilled wheat in good order, as well as in good ſeaſon, his bailifff aſſures him, he has not reaped a buſhel of grown- wheat in the courfe of thirteen years paf.

As a demonftration of the fair chances of drilled crops, he has threſhed one field of drilled and horſe-hoed wheat of laſt harveſt(not the beſt) which grew on hilly ground. Itis a field of three acres, and produced fixty-three buſhels and one peck. It was reaped July the zoth,(1794) and there cannot be a finer fample of wheat for ſeed, or for the miller. This crop was ſecond wheat.

Mr. ANDERDON drilled a field of oats, without horſe‘hoeing, in equidiftant rows, except one part ſown broadcaît, by its fide, for an experimental trial. It was a light bad ſort of oat, the Tartarian, but both very good crops. No one, by the eye, could diſtinguiſh which vas beſt, On cutting and threſhing a perch of each ſort, adjoining

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