of improving the land, either of which a man may equally adopt in
any soil and under all circumstances. But they, in reality, agree
universally only in this one thing--_that neither process will
produce a permanently good effect unless the land be previously
thorough-drained_. But being drained, the farmer must then exercise
a sound discretion, and Mr. Stephens's book will aid his judgment
much in determining which of the two subsequent methods he ought to
adopt. The safer plan for the young farmer would be to try one or
two acres in each way, and in his after procedure upon the same kind
of land to be regulated by the result of this trial. Mr. Stephens
expresses a decided opinion in favour of trench-ploughing in the
following passages:--

"I have no hesitation in expressing my preference of trench to
subsoil ploughing: and I cannot see a single instance, with the sole
exception of turning up a very bad subsoil in large quantity, in
which there is any advantage attending subsoil, that cannot be
enjoyed by trench ploughing: and for this single drawback of a very
bad subsoil, trenching has the advantage of being performed in
perfect safety, where subsoil ploughing could not be, without
previous drainage.

"But whilst giving a preference to trench ploughing over subsoil, I
am of opinion that it should not be generally attempted under any
circumstances, however favourable, without previous thorough-draining,
any more than subsoil ploughing; but when so drained, there is no
mode of management, in my opinion, that will render land so soon
amenable to the means of putting it in a high degree of fertility as
trench ploughing."--Vol. i. p. 664.