formation are pleaded in behalf of farther changes; and that the moderation of fome among us would lead them to attempt to filence clamour, by making conceffions in points of indifference. But it fhould be remembered, we are told, that points actually indifferent are never the objects of clamour; whatever its pretenfions may be, it always really means fomething more. Indeed it hath now fpoken out, the Doctor fays; and it is become evident, that the principles on which the Reformation formerly proceeded, plead now with equal force against the alterations contended for. The great truths of the gofpel were the objects then, and are fo now. Moderation, pretended with refpect to thefe, fhould be called by another name. Such is the fpirit that breathes through this performance.We have heard of clergymen who were fierce for moderation; but Dr. Bagot is fierce, very fierce, indeed, against it. It may be proper, however, to acquaint him, that fome of the brightest ornaments of the church, in the highest ftations too, for whofe learning, abilities, and virtues, our Author profeffes the greatest regard, make no fcruple of declaring that both our articles and liturgy ftand much in need of reformation. Dr. Bagot may call the moderation of fuch perfons by whatever name he pleases; in our opinion, it does them great honour. We have an extensive acquaintance among the clergy, and have the fatisfaction to know, that almoft all of them, how much foever they may differ in other matters, agree in this, that a reformation is earnestly to be wished for. There are, no doubt, feveral reasons which may be affigned for that indifference to religion, fo visible to every eye, and for the wide spread of infidelity; but he must be little acquainted with the fpirit of the prefent times, who does not fee that both the one and the other are, in fome confiderable degree, owing to the grofs abfurdity and unintelligible jargon of fome of thofe articles of our church, to which an unfeigned affent is required by all thofe who minifter in it. As men generally take their notions of Chriftianity, not from the Scriptures, but from creeds, formularies, and confeffions of faith; if the doctrines contained in our articles, taken in their plain and obvious fenfe, are the genuine doctrines of Chriftianity, is it to be wondered at that the number of unbelievers is fo great? R. ART. V. Exercifes in Elocution; felected from various Authors, and arranged under proper Heads: Intended as a Sequel to a Work entitled, The Speaker. By William Enfield, LL. D. Lecturer on the Belles Lettres in the Academy at Warrington. 8vo. Boards. 12mo. (For the Ufe of Schools.) 3 s. 6d. bound. JohnJun. 1780. THE 55. E nature and defign of this publication will best appear from Dr. Enfield's prefatory advertisement; ·瞰 The compilation prefented to the Public under the title of The Speaker having met with a favourable reception, the ditor has been induced to make a fecond collection on the fame plan, with the im mediate defign of affording further affiftance to youth in acquiring the habit of reading and fpeaking with propriety. In this view of the publication alone, he apprehends that a new Set of Exercises will no: be unacceptable either to teachers or pupils. But befides this, it has been his intention, in extending this mifcellany, to collect, and diget under diftinct heads, a large number of fuch paffages from the most approved literary productions of our own country, as might serve to lead young perfons into fome acquaintance with the most valuable writers, and affit them in forming a taste for the beauties of fine writing. He has alfo kept in view the fill more important object, of providing them with useful leffons of inftruction, and impreffing upon their minds the fentiments of honour and virtue. If thefe ends fhould, in any degree, be answered, the Editor will think his labour happily bestowed.' The acknowledged character of the ingenious Editor of this very useful and judicious compilation, renders it needlefs to fay, that the felection is made with great judgment and tafte. This volume is valuable, not only for the elegance, but for the quantity alfo of the matter which it contains, confifting of upwards of four hundred pages: a confideration as times now are, efpeeially in a work likely to be generally adopted as a school-book, by no means to be despised. c...t. ART. VI. Letters and Papers on Agriculture, Planting, &e Selected from THO HOUGH the Society at Bath (for an account of whofe Rules and Orders, see our Review for July 1780) was purposely established for the encouragement of agriculture, &c. in Somerfetfhire, and the counties adjacent, yet the kingdom at large is likely to reap confiderable advantage from its inftitution; it being their intention occafionally to lay before the Public fuch communications, of which the prefent volume is a fpecimen, as they fhall judge likely to prove of general utility. The publication before us confifts of at leaft fixty articles; not all, indeed, of equal importance, yet there are few, if any, totally barren of information. It would much exceed our limits, were we to attempt to take notice of every individual paREV. June 1781. E e per per of merit and ingenuity contained in this collection. We thall confine ourselves, therefore, to fuch matters as are either ftrikingly important, or that have come more immediately under our own observation. The first letter which offers itself to us, is on the rife, progrefs, and mode of fetting wheat in Norfolk. The fetting of wheat feems to have been first suggested by planting grains in a garden from mere curiofity, by perfons who had no thought or opportunity of extending it to a lucrative purpose; and I do not remember its being attempted on a larger fcale, till a Farmer near Norwich began it about twelve years fince, upon lefs than one acre of land. For two or three years only a few followed his example; and these were generally the butt of their neighbours' merriment for adopting fo fingular a practice. They bad, however, confiderably better and larger crops than their neighbours: this, together with the faving in feed, engaged more to follow them; while fome ingenious perfons, obferving its great advantage, recommended, and published, its utility in the Norwich papers. Thefe recommendations had their effect; the curiofity and enquiry of the Norfolk Farmers (particularly round Norwich) were excited, and they found fufficient reafon to make general experiments. Among the reft was one of the largest occupiers of land in this county, who fet fifty-seven acres in one year. His fuccefs, from the vifible fuperiority of his crop both in quantity and quality, was fo great, that the following autumn he fet three hundred acres, and has continued the practice ever fince. This noble experiment established the practice, and was the means of introducing it generally among the intelligent Farmers in a very large district of land; there being few who now fow any wheat, if they can procure hands to fet it. It has been generally observed, that although the fet crops appear very thin during the autumn and winter, the plants tiller and spread prodigiously in the fpring. The ears are indifputably larger, without any dwarfish or fmall corn; the grain is of a larger fathom, and fpecifically heavier per bufhel, than when fown. The lands on which this method is particularly profperous are, either after a clover ftubble, or on which trefoil and grafs-feed were fown the fpring before the laft, and on which cattle have from time to time paftured during the fummer. Thefe grounds, after the ufual manuring, are once turned over by the plough in an extended flag, or turf, at ten inches wide; along which a man, who is called a dibler, with two fetting irons, fomewhat bigger than ram-rods, but confiderably bigger at the lower end, and pointed at the extremity, fteps backwards along the turf, and makes the holes about four inches afunder every way, and an inch deep. Into these holes the droppers (women, boys, and girls) drop two grains, which is quite fufficient. After this, a gate, bushed with thorns, is drawn by one horfe over the land, and clofes up the holes. By this mode, three pecks of grain is fufficient for an acre; and being immediately buried, it is equally removed from vermin, or the power of frost. The regularity of its ring gives the best opportunity of keeping it clear from weeds, by weeding or hand-hoeing. 4 In a word, this practice is replete with greater utility than any that has been made in the agricultural art. In a parochial view, it merits the highest attention, as it tends greatly to leffen the rates, by employing the aged and children, at a feafon too when they have little elfe to do. It faves to the Farmer, and to the Public, fix pecks of feed wheat in every acre, which, if nationally adopted (without confidering the fuperior produce), would afford bread for more than half a million of people t. Too much cannot be faid in praise of this most valuable improvement in husbandry. One circumftance, however, fhould have been noted with respect to the method here recommended, which is not taken notice of either in this or any of the other papers on this fubject-namely, that where the foil is clay, care fhould be taken to get the bufinefs over before the land becomes too wet by the heavy rains that not unusually fall at the latter end of the year. From not being aware of this, a friend of ours, who tried this method, found himself under the neceffity of laying it afide till the following feason. At page 94 we meet with a curious account of a peculiar fpecies of grafs found at Orcheston in Wiltshire. We remember hearing this grafs fpoken of fome years ago, by a gentleman who lived in that neighbourhood; but as he did not exprefs himself as being an eye-witnefs of what he related, we took it for granted that fome country wit, fkilled in the fcience of hum-bug, had diverted himself at the expence of his credulity. Marvellous, however, as the account then appeared, corroborated by fuch a teftimony as the prefent, we can no longer difcredit it. This grafs is found at Orchefton St. Mary, about nine miles from Salisbury, in a meadow belonging to Lord Rivers, now in the occupation of Farmer Hayward. This meadow, being fituated on a small brook, is frequently overflowed, and fometimes continues fo a great part of the winter. It bears the greatest burthen in a wet feafon. When I was there, it was too early in the fpring to make any particular obfervation on the blade, but the Farmer's account is as follows, viz. that it generally grows to the height of about eighteen inches, and then falls, and runs along the ground in knots, to the length of fixteen or eighteen feet, but that he has known inftances of its running to the length of twenty-five feet. * We are farther informed that the expence of fetting by hand is now reduced to about 6 s. an acre; and that a drill plough has been invented, by which one man may fet an acre a-day: for particulars we refer to the book. +A confideration of the atmoft confequence, especially when wheat is dear. We are fully convinced of the utility of this method, and warmly recommend its being generally adopted in the western coun ties.' E e 2 • The The meadow contains about two acres and a half. It is mowed twice in a season, and the average quantity is generally about twelve loads (tons) of hay the firft mowing, and fix the fecond; though fometimes confiderably more. The tythe of the meadow has been compounded for at nine pounds a year. The grafs is of a fweet nature; all cattle, and even pigs, eat it very eagerly. When made into hay, it is excellent, and improves beafts greatly. The Farmer fays his horfes will eat it in preference to corn mixed with chaff, when both are fet before them together.' It is fingular that a grafs, both for quantity and quality of fuch importance, fhould never have been more taken notice of, or that no experiments fhould have been made to propogate it. There can be little doubt but it will thrive in fimilar foils and fituations. Quere,-Might it not be introduced with great probability of fuccefs into water-meadows? The next article we fhall take notice of, is an account of the cultivation of Siberian barley. A fmall inclofure, containing 3 acres, 1 rocd, 2 perches, which had been under turnips the two preceding years, was fown with common barley, excepting one ridge of land in the middle of it, containing 20 perches, which was fown with Siberian barley the fame day. The foil was very dry, and much inclining to a gravel. This account appeared to us fo fingular, and the crop of grass so very extraordinary, that our Secretary went to Orchefton, to examine more particularly into it. The Farmer, and divers other perfons in the village, confirmed the account contained in this letter, of its amazing produce in fummers when the meadow had been overflowed in the preceding winter and fpring; but when the winter had been dry, and the meadow not overflowed, the crop of grafs was not near fo large. There did not appear to be any thing peculiar in the foil; nor were the other plants or weeds growing on it more luxuriant than in many other fimilar fituations. Some of this grafs was fent to the Society at Norwich; fome ingenious members of which inform us, that they think it is a fpecies of the Agroftis Polymorphia, mentioned by Hudson in his Flora Anglica, of which there are feveral varieties. Camden mentions, in his Britannia, a grafs growing near the place where this is found, which he calls trailing Dog's-grass, and fays, that "hogs were fed with it." From all the enquiry made, we have not found this fpecies of grafs growing in any other part of the kingdom; hence it is poffible that there may be fomething in the foil of this meadow peculiarly favourable to its growth. We fhall not, however, determine on this point, but recommend trials to be made of propogating it, by fowing the feed in other places fubject to be overflowed in the fame manner. If it can be propagated generally, it must turn out the most profitable to the Farmer of any grafs yet difcovered, and be of great benefit to the community.' • The |