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a more gradual manner, the liquor will become lefs fweet, and, proportionably, more impregnated with ardent fpirit; and the fæculæ fubfiding in the form of lees, it will be now fully fermented, mellow, and pellucid,

But if the faccharine matter be too much diluted, or the veffel be placed in a warm fituation, the liquor will then pass from the vinous to the acetous fermentation.

In the formation of the faccharine acid, by means of nitrous acid, the laft is fuppofed, by carrying off the phlogiston of the fugar, to develope the faccharine acid. Or, according to Mr. Lavoifier's hypothefis, one of the conftituent parts of the nitrous acid performs this office, while the other, or pure air, uniting to the peculiar bafis, contained in the fugar, forms faccharine acid.

So in the acetous fermentation, if it happen that the phlogifton is not in fufficient quantity, or the force with which it is combined in the liquor be weakened, by a long application of heat or other caufes, it will begin to feparate from the, other conftituent parts of the liquor. The ardent spirit, thus decompofed, difappears gradually, the humor or dephlogisticated water, or, in other words, the bafis of pure air, predominates; and this, combining with the faccharine bafis, but ftill retaining fome portion of phlogiston, forms the acetous acid.

Thus the acetous fermentation acts in a manner, in fome refpects, analogous to the action of nitrous acid on fugar. In the latter case, the phlogifton is feparated more rapidly; and the acid, refulting from the process, is that called faccharine acid. In the former, the changes are more flowly produced; the phlogifton flies off more gradually; and from a different modification, in confequence of thefe varieties, the product is not faccharine acid, but vinegar. And perhaps it may ferve to give fome appearance of probability to the above theory, to recollect, that the refiduum of fermented liquors, after the feparation of the ardent fpirit, which appears to be water fuperfaturated with phlogifton, is acid.

I have avoided carrying these reflections to the phenomena which appear in the putrid fermentation, as not fo immediately connected with faccharine fubftances; and from a conviction that I have alrea dy engroffed too much of the fociety's time.If I have contributed any thing to their entertainment, or that may tend to enlarge the bounds of science, I fhall efteem myfelf happy; and, more fo, if what has been advanced may prove useful and advantageous to my fellow-creatures.---Senfible that one fuch fact is of more real worth than the most ingenious and well-wrought hypothefis.

*In the fermentation of wine, a fubftance is depofited at the fides and bottom of the cafk, called tartar; which is lately difcovered to confift of pure vegetable alkali, united to a fuperabundant quantity of a peculiar acid. But as this is not produced by malt liquors, it has not been noticed in the effay.

7

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A Syftem of Kentish Agriculture, tranfmitted by the Rev. Mr. Hill, of Eaft Malling, near Maidstone, Kent; being his answers to the queries propofed to him by the Bath Agriculture Society. Extracted from vol. iii. of their Letters and Papers.

Gentlemen,

N reply to the queries fent to me by your fecretary, I fend you the following anfwers.. Permit me to repeat my best wishes for the profperity of your fociety, and the fuccefs of their very laudable endeavours to promote the advancement of agriculture; and to affure you that I am, with great fincerity, Your most obedient fervant, DANIEL HILL.

Eaft-Malling, July 16, 1785.

Query ft. What are the kinds of foil from which you generally obtain the best crops of wheat, barley, pease, oats, beans, vetches, turnips, carrots, and cabbages; and what are the ufual quantities of feed fown, and the average produce per ftatute acre, Winchefter measure?

Anfwer. Our beft crops are generally obtained from hazel loams; and if they are fomewhat stiff and inclining to clay, the better. On fuch lands, the ufe of heavy large harrows and rollers in the fpring, to break and pulverize the foil, cannot be too much recommended.

On fuch lands fo pulverized, we frequently get of wheat from four to five quarters, beans from five to feven quarters, barley and oats fix, and often feven quarters per acre.

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After that (before Michaelmas) fow winter vetches or rye, and eat them off with fheep and bullocks in the fpring.

Then plough for turnips three or four times, each time harrowing off and burning the weeds; then lay on forty cart-loads of dung per acre. We always carefully hand-hoe the turnips, as the charge is amply repaid by the crop. Sometimes, in a kindly feafon, we get a good crop, of turnips after early peafe.

Oats and barley will produce (efpecially oats) from five to seven quarters per acre, after a good turnip feafon, and the crop well fed off with fheep, especially if good

* Is it not furprifing, that in a county where agriculture is perfection, farmers fhould fow three bushels of wheat per acre? Bufhels, even in the broad-caft way, would be fully fufficient.

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arrived to fuch Certainly two

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hay and oil-cake be given them at the fame time.

With barley and oats we fow clover; next year wheat, and laftly turnips.

23d. What manure now generally in ufe do you find moft ferviceable, on the following foils refpectively, viz. ftiff clays, light fand, gravelly, moory, cold and wet, or what is called ftone brash land? In what quantities are the feveral manures laid on per acre; at what season; and how long will each last without renewal ?

A. On ftiff clay's or fand, or gravelly cold wet land, lay marle or chalk early in the winter, at the rate of eighty cart-loads per acre, which will last twenty years; befide this, dung and lime is fometimes added.

2. 4th. Have you discovered any new manure more efficacious than those generally used, and which may cafily be obtained in large quantiries ? If so, what is it, when and how applied?

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A. Dung made by fat bullocks fed on hay and oil-cakes, and of fheep fed on the fame on turnip lands. Large oxen will eat twenty pounds of oil-cake per day, but Welch heifers will thrive well with half the quantity.

2. 5th. What is the best topdreffing for cold wet paftures which cannot easily be drained?

A. Wood-afhes, coal-afhes, with fowls or pigeons dung spread thin.

2. 6th. What materials do you find beft and moft lafting for covered drains or land ditches?

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27th. What are the kinds of wood which you have found from experience to thrive beft on bleak barren foils, cold fwampy bogs, and black moory ground?

A. Scotch firs on bleak barren foils, especially in a northern afpect. On cold fwampy bogs, the Dutch willow will do great things; but afh will fucceed better, and is far more useful and profitable.

2. 8th. What are your methods of raifing lucern, faintfoin, and burnet; on what lands do you find them to answer beft; and what the average produce?

A. Lucern fucceds beft in drills one foot afunder*, and kept clean by a fmall plough drawn by one horfe. Saintfoin flourishes most on chalky, and dry stone shattery land, on which it will produce two tons per acre on an average, for fourteen or fifteen years. grace with us, and generally laid afide as useless.

Burnet is in dif

29th. How is your turnip hufbandry conducted; and what is the best method of preventing or stopping the ravages of the fly on the young plants?

A. The first part of this query is answered in the fecond. To prevent the ravages of the fly, fome good is fometimes done by running

We apprehend a distance of at least eighteen inches would be better; and occafion lefs damage to the plants by the horse going between the rows. From various experiments made to afcertain the beft diftance between the rows of lucern, the finest and heaviest crops have been from rows two feet apart.

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a light roller over them with a bundle of black-thorn fastened behind it.

2. 10th. Do you prefer the drill to the broad-caft method of sowing grain; in what inftances, and on what foils ?

A. When lands are foul and weedy, the drill is certainly preferable to the broad-cast; as by that means, the horse-hoe may be used.

2. 11th. What is the comparative advantage of using oxen instead of horses in husbandry?

A. Where a farm confifts of arable land and good pafture, the use of oxen is deemed preferable to that of horses, where men can be procured to drive them.

2. 12th. Omitted.

2. 13th. What new improvements have you made, or adopted in implements of husbandry ?

A. Our improvements in implements of husbandry have of late years been great and various, particularly in drill ploughs, which by dropping the feed regularly, and depofiting it at a proper depth, fave a great deal of grain. Of carts we have a great variety, fome for dung made ftrong with two wheels for two horfes, and three wheels for one horse; and others of lighter kinds.

I fubmitted your queries to a very fkilful farmer, from whom I received the following anfwers for land of a middling kind:

To the firft query.We have moft wheat, beans, and vetches, if in proper tilth, from ftiff land. The

moft barley, pease, and oats, from a lighter foil. Wheat on an average twenty-eight bufhels per acre. We fow three bufhels.

One fack of barley fown per acre produces five quarters after turnips. Five bushels of pease per acre, pro◄ duce from three to four quarters.Four bushels of beans, and five bushels of oats per acre, produce from five to fix quarters.

Vetches, &c. fed off, make a good wheat season.

2d query. A clean fallow, and fowed with clover; after clover, wheat or beans the enfuing spring on one earth. Turnips on four ploughings and dunged; hand-hoeing twice. Then barley and clover; next wheat.

3d query. Our best manure is dung from beafts fatted with oilcakes, and fit for all foils. We lay on fixty cart-loads per acre, (each cart holding thirty bushels of coal) which for turnips or wheat, will last fix

years.

5th query.-Wood-afhes are the beft, and will kill rushes.

6th query.-Green alder poles, fuch as we use for hops, fixteen or eighteen feet long, two at the bottom and one at top; or green blackthorn covered with heath, or loofe ftones will do.

7th and 8th queries.-The fame anfwer as from Mr. Hill.

9th query. Four ploughings, fixty cart-loads of dung, and hoe twice.

10th query. -Same answer as from Mr. Hill.

12th query.-Kill your sheep as foon as the rot appears,

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Culture, expences, and produce of fix acres of Potatoes, being a fair part of near Seventy acres, raifed by John Billingfley, Efq; of and for which the premium was granted him by the Bath Society, in the year 1784.

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ject to the above price, as being too high; but I can affure them, that they are worth more as a food for hogs; befide, I have fold potatoes within the last two years at 12s. per fack, but I never before knew them at fo low a price as the prefent.

At 6s. per fack, the profit would be more than 241. per acre, and at 8s. per fack,

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