On the proper METHOD of LEVELLING HIGH RIDGES.

The difficulty and danger attending the levelling high ridges by the plough, or other levelling machines.-A new method of levelling by the plough and Spade defcribed, as it has been, with fuccefs, practised by the author.-A calculation of the expence of levelling by this method-not one fourth of that of doing it by the plough-and, in other refpects, infinitely more advantageous.

-Another less perfect method of performing this operation defcribed.-A caution to young improvers in agriculture not to adopt too many new implements of husbandry.

T was the practice very universally, in old times, to make the ridges in all ploughed lands crooked like an inverted S, and of

very great breadth and height, which, in a great degree, prevents the farmer from reaping the full benefit of many of those improvements that have been adopted in modern times. In fome parts of England, it is fo long fince they began to make improvements in agriculture, that this obstruction to them has been intirely removed; and the very remembrance of this improper practice has been loft: But in fome places there, and through the greateft part of Scotland, it ftill continues to prevail, to the very great detriment of the induftrious improver, as it either mars his operations in a high degree, or fubjects him to a confiderable expence in reducing them to a proper level; which is greatly enhanced by the very confiderable deficiency in his crops, that he muft feel for many years, in confequence of this operation, unless it is performed with an uncommon degree of care and attention.

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The difficulty of performing this operation properly with the common implements of husbandry, and the obvious benefit that accrues to the farmer from having his fields level, have produced many new inventions of plows, harrows, drags, &c. calculated for speedily reducing the fields to that ftate; none of which have as yet been found fully to answer the purpose for which they were intended, as they all indifcriminately carry the earth that was on the high places into thofe that were lower; which, although it may, in fome cafes, render the furface of the ground tolerably smooth and level, is usually attended with inconveniencies far greater, for a confiderable length of time, than that which it was intended to remove.

For experience fufficiently fhows, that even the best vegetable mold, if buried for any length of time fo far beneath the furface, as to be deprived of the benign influences of the atmosphere, lofes its vis vite, if

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may be allowed that expreffion,-becomes an inert, lifelefs mafs, little fitted for nourishing vegetables, and conftitutes a foil very improper for the purposes of the farmer. It therefore behoves him, as much as in him lies, to preserve, on every part of his fields, an equal covering of that vegetable mold that has long been uppermoft, and rendered fertile by the meliorating influence of the atmosphere. But, if he fuddenly levels his high ridges by any of these mechanical contrivances, he of neceffity buries all the good mold that was on the top of the ridges, in the old furrows, by which he greatly inpoverishes one part of his field, while he too much inriches another; infomuch that it is a matter of great difficulty, for many years thereafter, to get the field brought to an equal degree of fertility in different places; which makes it impoffible for the farmer to get an equal crop over the whole of his field by any management what

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