and commenced, like Descartes, with doubting everything. He condemns the
Roman husbandry as fettered by superstitions, and gives a piquant sneer
at the absurd rhetoric and verbosity of Varro.[G] Nor is he any more
tolerant of Scotch superstitions. He declares against wasteful and
careless farming in a way that reminds us of our good friend Judge ----,
at the last county-show.

He urges good ploughing as a primal necessity, and insists upon the use
of the roller for rendering the surface of wheatlands compact, and so
retaining the moisture; nor does he attempt to reconcile this
declaration with the Tull theory of constant trituration. A great many
excellent Scotch farmers still hold to the views of his Lordship, and
believe in "keeping the sap" in fresh-tilled land by heavy rolling; and
so far as regards a wheat or rye crop upon _light_ lands, I think the
weight of opinion, as well as of the rollers, is with them.

Lord Kames, writing before the time of draining-tile, dislikes open
ditches, by reason of their interference with tillage, and does not
trust the durability of brush or stone underdrains. He relies upon
ridging, and the proper disposition of open furrows, in the old Greek
way. Turnips he commends without stint, and the Tull system of their
culture. Of clover he thinks as highly as the great English farmer, but
does not believe in his notion of economizing seed: "Idealists," he
says, "talk of four pounds to the acre; but when sown for cutting green,
I would advise twenty-four pounds." This amount will seem a little
startling, I fancy, even to farmers of our day.

He advises strongly the use of oxen in place of horses for all
farm-labor; they cost less, keep for less, and sell for more; and he
enters into arithmetical calculations to establish his propositions. He