[April These views, if well founded, may lead us to fuppofe, that the fcientific farmer will alter the account which he has 188 When lime is applied to this foil, it decompofes the aluminous mixture in the clay, as the vitriolic acid has a ftronger attraction for the calcareous earth than for the earth of alum, and thus deftroys a fedative and injurious fubftance. At the fame time, as gypfum, which is the new compound that is formed, is very infoluble in water, it tends to increase the quantity of powdery matter which is fo neceffary in this fpecies of foil.-Befides, though we do not yet poffefs any certain knowledge of the proper food of vegetables, it has long been obferved, that fixed air promotes their growth; and, therefore, it will not be thought vifionary, to fuppofe, that the liberation of this air, when the lime is uniting with the acid, will be favourable to vegetation. But whatever we may attribute to this, the falt which is formed by the lime with the vitriolic acid, is itfelf a ftimulus to vegetables, and by this property, becomes highly ufeful to this lar d We have well-attefted accounts of the advantage of gypfum upon grafs land, which we have reafon to confider as a proof of its being a ftimulus to living vegetables. In attending to the effects of lime upon ftrong clay-land, we may, therefore, prefume that it is ufeful by deftroying a fedative fubftance, by aflifting in pulverizing the foil, by forming a new falt which ftimulates the vegetable fibre, and, perhaps, by producing confiderable quanfities of fixed air, which favours vegetation. If this be the cafe, would it not be better, in this inftance, at least, to apply the calcareous earth in its crude ftate? May it not, alfo, deferve the attention of the farmers in the neighbourhood of the Tyne, to try the effect of the vaft quantities of chalky gravel, which, at prefent, lie ufelefs upon the ballaft hills, to correct the defects of the ftrong cold clays which cover fo large a proportion of the furface of the land, efpecially on the north side of that riverV. F hitherto given of the manures employed by him. He has ufually divided them into two claffes, from his idea of their operation; the first comprehending those which promote the putrefaction of the vegetable fubftances already in the foil; the other, thofe fubitances which themfelves undergo putrefaction. But if vegetables be fubject to fimilar laws of excitement as animal fibres are, a third clafs of manures may be formed, containing those which act as a stimulus to vegetation; a clafs, in all probability, of the highest importance in agriculture. Newcafile, April 2. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. IF SIR, T. you think the following obfervations relative to large farms, worthy of a place in your excellent Magazine, they are much at your fervice. Having, for many years, lived entirely in the country, during which time, I have paid no fmall attention to agriculture, I am not, perhaps, very incompetent to judge of the effects of large farms. When I fay large farms, I do not mean a fingle one or two of that defcription, but the prefent too prevalent fyftem of confolidating finall farms into each other, till, at length, fcarcely any are to be found of lefs than 200l. and great numbers of 500l. 9ool. or even 1000l. per ann. Few uninterested people, who are converfant in thefe matters, will, I think, contradict me, when I fay that 1000 acres, divided among ten farmers, produce more than if occupied by a fingle perfon. A man who rents but from 50 to 100 or 150 acres, cannot afford to lofe any crops from neglect. He must make every foot of land turn to account, and this, from the fize of his farm, he is enabled to do; but when 1000 acres compofe but one farm, the occupier is too opulent to care fo much about this, even if he was able to do it, which is almoft impoffible. To every part of his extenfive premifes, he cannot pay a proper attention. The little farmer feizes many opportunities, which he must in part lofe; and he certainly has not fo much manure, in proportion, as the former has. When I fay, that a farm of than if the fame had been divided among 1000 acres produces lefs grain by one fixth nine or ten farmers, I think, 1. rate the lofs at the loweft. Nothing 1796.] Mifchief of large Farms. Nothing, perhaps, is lefs fubject to monopoly, than corn; but that it can be monopolized and withheld from market, the preceding year has afforded too many examples. But by whom? chiefly by the rich and the overgrown farmer. The man who rents but a moderate farm, cannot do this: he fells his grain at the ufual times, to pay his landlord, and his current expences; and of this very grain the other is too often the purchafer, which, in a few months, he fells again at a very advanced price. Another great mifchief, which refults from large farms, is, that they employ fo fmall a number of labourers in proportion. The confequence is, the increafe of the poor; for the attachment which common people have, as I may call it, to the plough, is well known. That this is the cafe, is often proved by inclofures. Before this, a parifh is, generally speak ing, divided among many proprietors, and, confequently, into finall farins; but at the incloure, one proprietor buys of another, and one farm is added to another, till, at length, the whole parish is occupied by a few individuals, and the poorrates then become almost double. Formerly, an incitement was held out to induftry. A poor man, if, by any fortunate event, or by his own labur and frugality, he could fcrape together 40 or gol. hired a little farm, which comfortably maintained him in his old age. But now, this is not the cafe, for fuch a bargain, as it may be called, is fcarcely to be found in a large diftrict, and the money, which might have been faved for the purpofe of ftocking it, is too often fpent in drunkennefs and debauchery. Befides, the prefent fyftem of letting eftates, deftroys that gradation of ranks, fo juftly the boaft of our happy conftitution. There is now a much greater difference between a farmer and his labourers, than there is between him and his landlord. He now never condefcends to put his hand to the plough. No, he rides round his grounds, for they are too extenfive to be walked over; and at home, his wife and daughters ftudy fashions, and read novels! Another confequence of large farms is, that the poor are unable to procure milk, and the extravagant price of poultry is very juftly attributed to the fame caufe. I think, however, I have faid enough 189 To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, IT has been obferved by writers of no lefs celebrity than Dr. Johnion and Dr. Warton, that to conftruct a fable which thail at once furprize by novelty, and delight by probability, is the most difficult of literary labours. It must be confeffed, that the practice of authors feems to verify the remark: for it will, I believe, be found, that the plots of modern dramatifts are ufually borrowed; and that of thofe which feem to be of original invention, the greater part offend again ft probability. One writer, whofe powers are of no mean order, has borrowed, without hefiration, the fables of all his pieces. I mean the author of Incle and Yarico, the Battle of Hexham, Mountaineers, &c. Le The fource, however, of the fable of his beft production, the Surrender of Calais, is not generally known, and it therefore may not be improper to point it out. To thi I am particularly induced, as at its first repreientation, it was obferved by the public papers of the day, that although the French ftage had more than one drama founded upon the fame story, Mr. Colman was not by any means indebted to them. This remark is not juft; it is from a French novel, entitled Siège de Calais," published at the Hague, 1739, that the moft interefting incidents of Mr. C.'s play are taken. Julia and Ribeaumont are the Madame de Granfon and Compte de Canaple of the novel. The Compte de Canaple victuals the town during the fiege, and vifits Madame de Granfon; but difpleafed with his reception, upon the furrender of the place, offers himfelf as one of the fix victims demanded by Edward. Madame de Granfon, who, as in the drama, is the daughter of the governor, John de Vienne, itruck by the love and patriotism of the count, dreffes herfelf in the habit of a man, feeks the camp of Edward, and demands, as a citizen of Calais, the privilege of dying for her country. The denouement is the fame as in the play. Mr. Colman, by felecting Ribeaumont, a real hiftorical charater, for the hero, has encreafed the intereft of the tale. Gray's-Ian. W. R. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, to prove that large farms are bigbly inju-AT the beginning of the prefent cen tury, a French naturalift, diftinguished by his botanical refearches, endeavoured to explain, on the principle of organization, fome curious phenomena in 1 in the foffil creation; and, pleafed with the idea, proceeded to form a regular theory of mineral vegetation. A more extenfive acquaintance with this branch of natural history, has, however, fhown the theory, like too many others, to be unfupported by facts; and deprived it of the principal evidence in its favour, by difcovering coral to be of animal origin; and that the various bodies, formerly called figured foffils, owe their form to the remains of animals and vegetables, buried in the earth in different circunftances, or to chemical principles. But though the configuration of extraneous and cryftalized foffils may be thus accounted for, there are many others, of a different nature, which evidently bear 2 generally regular fhape; and the idea of organization and growth being given up, their prefent figure muk refult from their original formation. Common pebbles, it is well known, are ufually of a roundifh fhape, though in fome parts of the country much more fo than in others: in many places, it is difficult to find one which has not this form, and a tolerable fmooth furface; yet many, even of thofe which have the fmootheft furface, have evidently been formed from fragments of regular ftrata, and had they been of their prefent degree of hardnefs, when broken off, must have required a very long period, or a great degree of attrition, to wear away their afperities, and bring them to their prefent ftate. It is highly probable, therefore, that they were once fufficiently foft, to be cafily brought, by the motion of water, into their prefent form; an operation, which fragments of different fpecies of ftone are conftantly undergoing on all sea-coasts, and that, as the facility of removal increafed, by their original ruggednefs wearing down, they have been gradually carried away to deeper parts of the fea; till fettling in fome place, where the effect of the agitation of the furface was infufficient to carry them farther, they have accumulated, in timme, to a bed of confiderable extent. This account of the formation of pebbles, and perhaps of fome other fpecies of foffils, is confirmed by fome of them containing impreffions of fhells, and by the ftructure of others, which are compofed of concentric crufts, including a nucleus of a different colour, and frequently of much greater hardnefs, than the outer part; and by fuch as are of this ftructure being feldom found among thofe that are formed of a more homogenous fubftance. In the ifle of Sheppey, near Minster, the [April cliffs are about 100 feet in height, and are compofed of clay and blue marle, pieces of which falling frequently on the hore, are worn fmooth and rounded by the motion of the fea, and after lying there for fome time, harden, and become the pyrites or copperas ftones, which are gathered by the poor of the island, every fpring, for the vitriol works. That this is the true origin of the pyrites, cannot be doubted; as pieces of marle may be obferved on the fhore, in all the different degrees of hardnefs, fhape, &c. from the rough state in which they fall from the cliffs, till they become complete pyrites; and as there are trees and bushes grow. ing above, it is not at all furprifing that thefe fragments of marle, rolled into form on the fhore, frequently inclofe a piece of wood. I have even found fome hazel nuts fo thoroughly impregnated with vitriolic particles, that they appeared converted into perfect pyrites, but still retaining the exact form and lineaments of a nut. Thefe inftances fhow the effect of the motion of the fea, in a very fhort period, which, if long continued, is, doubtlefs, capable of producing fimilar effects on much harder fubftances; and when it is recollected, that this power. has been conftantly operating for fo many ages, on the moft extenfive fcale, it may not appear infufficient to account for the formation of the immenfe number of pebbles fcattered over the earth. April 4, 1796. I. I. G. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, AT a time of fo great fcarcity, every hint which may have a tendency to encrease the food of the labouring poor, must be acceptable; and as feveral perfons have, in the public papers, recommended the cultivation of Indian wheat, the folowing is a practical account of its cultivation in England: The land fhould be a loamy fand, very rich. In the beginning of April, the grains fhould be fet like hops, at two feet diftance, fix or eight grains in a hill, each grain about an inch deep in the ground. The feed from New England is the beft. In the beginning of May, the alleys fhould be hoed, and the hills weeded and earthed up higher. At the latter end of that month, all the fuperfluous ftalks fhould be taken away, and only three ftems of corn left in each hill. By the middle of June it will cover the alley. It grows much like bulrushes, the lower leaves being like broad flags, three or four inches wide and as 1796.] Cultivation of Indian Corn.... Population. many feet in length; the ftems shooting upwards, from feven to ten feet in height, with many joints cafting off flag leaves at every joint. Under thefe leaves, and clofe to the ftem, grows the corn, covered over by many coats of fedgy leaves, and fo clofed in by them to the ftem, that it does not fhow itfelf cafily, till there burst out at the end of the car 191 For the Monthly Magazine. POPULATION OF CORFE CASTLE. THERE has lately been printed, an extremely minute and curious account of the ftate of population, in the parish of Corfe Caftle, Dorsetshire, apparently intended as a model for fimiHaving been favoured with a copy of lar regifters, throughout the kingdom. this piece (not printed for fale) I fhall make fuch extracts, as I imagine will be acceptable to your readers. Tranfcripts from the parish register of 50 years, from 1701 to 1750, inclufive; are first given, for two periods; the first, the fecond, of 20 years, from 1776 to 1795, inclufive. The averages are as follows: First period- Births, m. 11 f. 9 tot. 201 627 50 Births, m. 16% f.152 tot. 3110 20 Burials, m. 10 f.11 tot. 2118 The increafe of inhabitants in the latter period, is chiefly attributed to the extenfion of the clay trade, this parish yielding a fine clay, much used in the Staffordshire potteries. From an actual enumeration of the inhabitants, taken in 1790, it appears, that the number of boufes in the parish, was 261; of refident inhabitants, 1239, males 613, females, 626. Proportion of inhabitants to a house, a little more than 44. The number of perfons receiving conftant parochial relief, was 72, viz. maies, 16, females, 56, being about th of the whole. Many more received occafional relief. a number of ftrings, that look like tufts of horfe-hair, at firit of a beautiful green, and afterwards red or yellow. The tem ends in a flower. The corn will ripen in September; but the fun at that feafon not having ftrength enough to dry it, it must be laid upon racks, or thin open floors, in dry rooms, and frequently turned, to avoid moulding. The grains are about as big as peas, and adhere in regular rows round a white pithy fubftance, which forms the car. An car contains from two to four hundred grains, and is from fix to ten inches in length. They are of various colours, Secondper. blue, red, white, and yellow. The manner of gathering them is by cutting down the ftems and breaking off the ears. The ftems are as big as a man's wrift, and look like Bamboo cane; and the pith is full of a juice that taftes as fweet as fugar. The joints are about a foot and a half diftance. The increafe is upwards of five hundred fold. Upon a large fcale, to fave the expence of hilling, the feed may be drilled in alleys like peas; and to fave digging, the ground may be ploughed and harrowed, which will answer very well. It will grow upon all kinds of land. The ears which grow upon dry fandy land are lefs, but harder and riper. The grain is taken from the hufk by hand, and when ground upon French ftones, makes an excellent flour, of which it yields much more, with much lefs bran, than wheat does, and exceeds it in cruft, pancakes, puddings, and all other ufes except bread; but a fweetnefs peculiar to it, which in other cafes makes it agreeable, is here naufeous. It is excellent for feeding poultry and hogs, and fattens both much better and fooner than peas or barley. The ftems make better hedges for kitchen gardens than reeds do. It clears the ground from weeds, and makes a good feafon for any other kind of corn. Pifo, and other Spanish phyficians are full of the medicinal virtues of this grain. It was the only breadcorn known in America when firft difcovered by the Spaniards, and is there called Maize. Leicestershire. J. A. The number of males, from 15 to 50 years of age, inclufive, ivas 264, more than th of the population. The parish does not feem remarkable for longevity, only 37 of both fexes being above 70 years of age. The proportion of annual births to people, is calculated at I to 394; of deaths, I to 561. PEDESTRIAN TOUR IN NORTH [Concluded from our laft.] LANBERRIS church is about a quar+ ter of a mile diftant from the first afcent of Snowdon; and the fky being perfectly clear, we refolved to fcale the fummit of the mountain. Upon enquiry, we found that the best time to make the attempt, was about four hours before dawn, fo as to reach the top in time to fee 192 Pediftrian Tour in North Wales. As we fee the fun rife. We accordingly hired a guide, and having made the other neceffary preparations, fallied forth about half an hour before inidnight. The moon was a little pait the full, and thone with unufual fplendor, filvering over the tops of the mountains, while their bafes were in deep fhadow, and the valley was occupied by the mitt from the lake. paffed through the village, and by a solitary farm houfe, we caufed a general alarm among the dogs; and their barking fet in motion the theep in the neighbouring fields; fo that, by the time we reached the foot of the mountain, every fwel of the wind was loaded with the tinkling of fheep-bells and the barking of dogs: as we continued to mount, the voices became fainter and more confufed, and when we had reached the height ef, perhaps two thousand feet, were heard no more. Here we stopped a fhort time to reft, and, fitting down on a fragment of rock, enjoyed, at leifure, the fcene before us. The tops of moft of the near mountains were diftinctly vifible; but on fome the clouds were refting, which, by the light of the moon, might eafily be mistaken for fnow. The vale of Llanberris, at our feet, was feemingly changed into a wide river, reflecting in one place the moon beams, through a break in the mountains; the fky was of a deep pure blue; and nothing disturbed the fill repofe of the fcene, except a cafual breeze, fweeping along the fide of the hill, and gradually finking into filence. We fat for fome time fpeechlefs, each one abforbed in his own contemplations, till the voice of our guide admonilhed us to proceed: we obeyed the fummons, and, after climbing three hours and a half, reached the fummit. We had now nothing to do, but to wait near one hour for the fun: the moon grew paler and paler, and the profpect lefs interefting; our fhces were wet through, and we began to fuffer much from the cold, a thermometor which we took with us being funk to 34 degrees. The eaft became very much clouded,a haze having crept over the fea: the fun rofe fhrouded in impenetrable clouds, and the only part of the diftant profpect, which was vifible, was the Ifle of Anglefea, extended beneath us like a map, and the bay of Cardigan. Hunger and cold made us rather impatient; and a few minutes after fun-rife, we began to defcend the oppofite fide of the mountain, towards Beddgelert. After a very fatiguing march, for we found it much worfe to defcend [April than to mount, we arrived, about nine in the morning, July 6, at Beddgelert, where, to our great joy, we found a very neat comfortabie little inn, by the fide of a beautiful mountain torrent, well ftored with trour. Snowden is unquestionably the most lofty mountain in Wales; its fummit is reckoned about 3000 feet above the quay at Caernarvon. The afcent on the fide of this laft mentioned place is fo gradua, that it is poffible to ride almoft to the top; but towards Llanberris it is very precipitous, fo much fo, that through the valley is fcarcely half a mile wide, yet the lake is visible from the highest point. The mountain is compofed of three stages: the firft, about 2000 feet in height, is a rocky fheep-walk; the next 1200 feet is boggy and covered with mofs: the third region is about 400 feet high, of a conical thape, compofed of loote, bare maffcs of coarse fchiftus. The area of the fummit is not above five or fix yards fquare, protected by a rude breaft-work of loofe tones, the crevices of which are adorned by the faxifraga ftellaris, which is the only vegetable that braves the ri gours of fo lofty an expofure. We were too much fatigued to botanize during our defcent, yet we could not avoid remarking and admiring the beautiful pteris crfpa, which fprings luxuriantly out of the rocks, about half way up the mountain. In the afternoon, we proceeded towards Tan-y-bwlch, in the vale of Feltiniog. The first two miles led us along the courfe of a torrent, through fome beautiful rich meadows, after which the vale fuddenly contracts to a deep glen juft wide enough to admit the ri ver and a narrow road; the rocks on each fide are perpendicular, and worn into feveral caverns, one of which is now worked as a copper mine. At the farther end of this pafs, we croffed the torrent, by a fingle arched bridge, called Pont-Aberglaflyn, beneath which is a falmon leap, but now, owing to a long fucceffion of dry weather, the fall was very trifling. From Pont-Aberglaflyn, the road lay over feveral fmall hills extending along the edge of the mountains. On our left hand, we looked down into a fucceffion of narrow uninhabited vallies, beautifully wooded, and each with its dafhing torrent. On our right, we were prefented with grand views of the fea, and the eftuaries of Treth-Mawr and Traeth-Bychan, bounding the long viftas, through the vallies. At length, we |