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be feven inches afunder, and the barley four inches deep ; a little more than three inches above that, in the fame chan- nels, clover-feed ; and betwixt every two of theft rows, a row of faint foin feed covered- half an Inch deep. Mr. Tull, who tried this method, obtained the firft year a very good crop of barley, the next year two crops of broad clover, where that was fown-, and where hop-clover was /own, a mixture of that and of faint foin^ 1 arid: every year afterwards a crop of faint foin. , But the fame gentleman was afterwards fo fully convinced of the folly of thefe., or any other mixed crops, and of foiuing with' thefe narrow, fpaccs, that he never- practifed it afterwards.
Every tow of vegetables to behorfehoed, ought to. have an empty fpaee, or interval, of thirty inches, on one fide of it at leaft, and of. near five feet in all forts of ' corn : this will feem a m.onftrous allowance to thofe who have, not experi- enced the good effects of it, but all who have will readily come into the practice of it ever afterwards. The- line of corn is called one row, though it be double, triple, or qua- druple, becaufe when four of thefe rows grow up in the fpring, they unite, and feem to be all one row. Wide in- tervals are necefiary for perfect horfehoeing, and the largeft vegetables have generally the greatett benefit by them, though fmall plants may have confiderable benefit from much narrower intervals than thofe of five feet. In handhoeing there is always lefs feed, fewer plants, and a greater crop, cectcrts paribus, than in the common Jowing ; yet there the rows mutt be much nearer than in horfehoeing, becaufe as the hand moves many times lefs earth than the horfe, the roots will be fent out in a like fmaller proporti- on ; and if the fpaces, or intervals, where the broad hoe only fcratches a little of the furface, mould be wide, they would be fo hard and ttale underneath, that the roots of pe- rennial plants would be a great while in running through them, and the roots of annual plants would not be able to do it at all. The advantage of the horfehoeing is princi- pally owing to the depth to which it ftirs the ground, and familiar inftances have proved, that the ttirring it to a like depth, by whatever inftrument, is of the utniiju advantage to whatever plants are let in the place. A poor fellow in Wiltihire was obferved to have always his cabbages much larger and finer than his neighbours, though his ground was no better, and he could afford lefs dung ; but the reafon was, that inttead of clearing away the weeds between them with a handhoe, he ufed to dig between with a fpade, which goes as deep as a horfehoe, and comes the neareft anfweririg its purpofes of any inftrument whatever. Tn/l's Horfehoeing Husbandry. See the article Intervals. Man has found out many advantageous ways of propagating, whether by /owing or planting fuch trees and herbs as he b eft knows the ufes of, but nature as much excels him in this article as in all the reft, when any comparifon can be made; and it appears evident to the riaturalift, that me has taken more care to propagate andfozu ihe raoft trivial weeds, as we efteem them, than we can employ in regard to the choiceft plant. It is owing to this care, that no one fpecies of plant has ever been loft, notwithftanding all the accidents they are daily fubjectto.
There is not, perhaps, a more eminent inftance of this .care of nature, than in that plant, commonly known in America under the name of the wild pine, and called by botanifts vi- fcum caryopbyUoides. This is a large plant with leaves like the pine-apple, and it grows on the boughs of other trees, as mifletoe does with us, but that its roots do not pierce into the fubftance of the wood, as is the cafe in this plant, but only fpread themfelves upon the furface. The feeds of this plant are fmall and light, and they have a very long and fine down adhering to them, by means of which, as foon as they are dillodged from the capfules, they are taken up by the winds, and fupported in the air till they ftrike againft fome branch of a tree which is proper to give them a place of growth : here the downy fibres become of a fecond ufe, in that they hold faft the feed, and will not let it drop down, but it remains thus fupported till the time of its ftriking root, which it does from many points at once, and confequently a number of roots are immediately propagated, in different ■directions, 'Over the furface of the bark. Philof. Tranfact. N° 251. p. 116.
It is neceflary, to the fupport of this plant, that it mould always have a quantity of water within itfelf to fupply its juices* This water is retained in the center of the leaves, which are hollow within, and form a fort of bulb for this purpdfe ; but as it cannot be preferved, unlcfs the plant ftands erect, and as the feeds, in their various flight before the wind, are as often ftrucfc againft the lower, or fide parts, as againft the upper furface of a bough, fo the plant generally begins to moot in a wrong direction; but fo provident is nature, that it immediately turns itfelf up, whether from the fide, or from the very bottom of the branch. This refervatory is not only of ufe to the plant, but ferves alfo to the birds, and to feveral fmall animals, who, in times of fcarcity of water, go to it, and feldom fail of finding enough there: nay, Dampier tells us that himfelf and his Tailors, when on
fhore In fome of the American iflands, and in diftrefs for water, have been often relieved by it'; for that,- on ftriking in a knife a little above the root, the water always carfte out in large quantities, and they ufed to catch it in their h&tSj and drink as much as they had occafion-fon The fattening of the feeds of this plant to the branches of ■ trees, on which they are to grow, is not a fingle inftance ' of the providence of nature in propagating vegetables : we fee in the feafuca^s fomething of a like kind. The proper place pf growth iff thefe is on rocks and ftones, and accord- ingly, as the feeds' of the vifcum are made light, that they may fly in the air, and afcend to the places where they are to grow, fo thpfe of the fucufes are made heavy, that they may defcend even in water, and fall upon the ftones that are 'to - give them fupport. This peculiar gravity is given to the feetfe of 'the fea plants, "*by means of a- 'glutinous jelly with which, they are furrounded while in the capfule, and which falls out with them; and is not only of ufe in carrying them to the bottom, but alfb in fattening them- to the ftones on which they alight, otherwife they would eafily roll off again* and be toffed about, and loft among this immenfe bed of waters ; but by means of this jelly they are firmly kept in tfJeiPipHce, till' t,hcy have made fuch ihoots as are fufHcient to fupport them againft the warning of the waves ; then the jelly dries away, and 'leaves the water free accefs to themj to hburiih them.
The fnoffes have been bv former ages fuppofed to have no feeds at all ; but it has of late been found that they have im- menfe numbers, and thofe of. the only kind that could be of fervice to their propagation ; ' that is, fuch as are extremely fmall and light. Ic is neceflary that the feeds of thefe mi- nute plants fhou'ld often be carried upward, in order to their being placed on trees, walls, 'and other eminences : this is eafily performed by the winds, when the feeds arc fo fmall, 1 that, on being diflcdged, they look like fmoak, not like any folid mbll.ance ; but it could not have been fo well executed, had they been larger. The common cup-feeding muftiroom produces, on the contrary, large and folid feeds; thefe can- not grow in any feafon but a very moitt one, and nature providing for this,' has fo ordained it, that the cup remains clofed, and the feeds firm in its bottom, in dry weather ; but' as foon as a mower pf rain falls the cup opens, and the feeds- are walhed out and thrown upon the wet ground, where they immediately grow. Philof. Tranf. N 6 251.. p. -r'18.
'Many of thofe plants, whofe feeds ftrike well from the fur- face, and do not require to be buried as others do, are fur- nifhed with a downy fubftance to every feed, which makes the "whole fo light, that it floats in the air, and is carried to great diftances ; by this means every feed is carried a vaft diftance its, own way, and if one falls on an improper foil, another fucceeds better. We have a very remarkable late inftanee of the" fpreading of plants, from this procefs of na- ture, in the fmall Canada fleabane with toad-flax leaves. This plant was., fome years after the fettlement of the French in America, brought into Europe, and firft/jwfl in the gar- dens of France, and then in thofe of England ; out of both which its downy feeds were wafted by the winds into the fields, and there produced the plant, which thence became a wild inhabitant, both of France and England, and con- tinues fo to this day, thriving as well with us as in its native foil.
Other plants, which are deftined to grow at fome fmall dif- tances from one another, have been provided by nature with elaftic, or fpringy feed-veffels, which throw their feeds to a diftance, without the help of man. The yellow arfmart, and fome of the cardamines, called for this reafon noli me tangere, are of this kind, as alfo our wild wood-forrel, and many others. In all thefe plants, as foon as the ked is perfectly ripe, and fit for [owing, the feed-veffel burtts at the firft rude fhock of wind, and toffes out its feeds to three feet diftance in fome cafes. This diftance is alfo encreafed by the action of the wind, which burtts the capfule, and the feparated feeds are often carried thus to five, fix, or feven feet diftance from the mother plant, and fcattered different ways, fome falling by the way, and the reft fpreading abroad as they go along.
There is one remarkable inftance of the care of nature of one plant m this way, which is the fpirit weed of Jamaica. The feeds of this plant can only grow in a wet feafon ; and in cpnfequence of this it is fo provided, that the pods con- taining them can only open in wet weather ; they will re- main ever fo long whole upon the plant in a dry time, but as the firft fhower falls, the feed-veffels being wetted, burft open, and fcatter theic feeds feveral ways, and every one immediately ftrikes root and grows.
The lychnifes, poppies, and fhapdragons, all have their feed- veflels open at the top only, and in thefe the feeds lie fe- curely till a windy feafon happens, then they arc diflodged ; and do not fall all together, as they otherwife would, in one fpot, railing a clutter of young plants to ftarve and fpoil one another; but they are, according to the fame great intent of nature, fcattered to fuch diftances, that every one may produce
a plan?
