1604. On ihe Drilled Turnip Ht/Jhandry of BcrivldJJnre. 467 



4. The drilled crop is generally better than the broad-cad 

 crop, and will vveij^h more per acre, feldom lefs, except where 

 the land is very fine, in good heart, clean and dry : Such only 

 is in preparation for a broad-ca(l crop, whereas a drilled crop is 

 often raifed on land very coarfe and foul. 



5. By drillinjT wet land, the tops of the drills or fmall ridges 

 arc in fome degree laid dry, and a good crop is often raifed on 

 land fo wet, that the broad-calt crop would have no chance to 

 be worth working. 



Preparation of the Land. — The land intended for turnips, 

 which is generally fuch as has carried a crop of wheat or oats, 

 is firft ploughed after harveft : it is again crofs-ploughed in 

 iVlarch or April, if the feafon will allow : it is next broken and 

 pulverized with the break or harrows, and all the weeds and 

 Itones are carefully gathered by M'omen and children, and cart- 

 ed off into heaps on the fides of the fields. The operations of 

 ploughing, harrowing, and gathering weeds, couch grafs, &c» 

 are not given up till the land is thoroughly cleaned. If the land 

 requires liming, the lime has either been fpread on the ftubble 

 after harveft;, or it is laid up in large heaps in or near the field, 

 and covered with turf or ftraw, to keep it dry, and from cake- 

 ing, during winter: it is fpread upon the land, previoufly clean- 

 ed for it? reception, and fometimes ploughed, but oftener har- 

 rowed in ; and thereafter the land is ready for ridging or drill- 

 ing up, dunging and fowing. It forwards the work confider- 

 ably, when the dung is carried out from the dung-yards in win- 

 ter, and laid up in middens on the fields. If thefe middens arc 

 not trodden upon, the rotting of the dung is much forward- 

 ed. Sometimes, where the land is very clean, and dung to be 

 had in plenty, it is fpread on the ftubble land, and ploughed 

 down with the firft ploughing the land gets after harveft. 



Forming the Drills or Ridges. — Where the ground is not well 

 pulverized, but remains rough and cloddyy the drills are formed 

 ■with the com.mon fwing-plough drawn by two horfes, which 

 lays together three or four rinds or furrows for one drill. But 

 the moft common and expeditious method of forming thefe drills 

 is by a double mould boarded plough, which has the boards 

 hung on the ftieath with hinges, and can be fet wider and nar- 

 rower at pleafure. It is alfo drawn by two horfes yoked abreaft, 

 and forms both fides of the drill at once. The width of the 

 drills is generally from twenty-feven to thirty-fix inches. And 

 when the ridges are not much rounded, the drills are not laid in 



VOL. V. NO. %o. . H h the 



