ivith Horse {or Steam) Tillac/e. 



81 



plants, and tbp free admission of air and liglit amono^st the g^reon 

 and flag-g-y stems, do wonderfully stimulate and develope the crop, 

 at the same time strengthening the straw and saving the grain 

 from the damage inflicted by "lodging." l""or while over-heavy 

 crops sown on the ordinary plan come up a mass of flaccid stems, 

 too weak at bottom to spring up against the weight of rains and 

 violent winds, the stalks of a "strip(>"' crop are stout, green, and 

 strong, bearing aloft th(> ears to ripen and grow plump and heavy 

 in the sunlight; and 1 l)elieve it is only after late sowing that the 

 vigorous healthy straw would be specially liable to disease from 

 atmospheric changes. 



The system is just an adaptation to grain-crops of the inter- 

 cultural horse-hoeing and deep stirring which bring your 40 tons 

 of mangold per acre, your fortune-making potato-crops, and your 

 pre])osterous prize swedes and cabbages. 



The details of management are exceedingly simple : — 



1. After harvest, fork out couch from the closely-mown stubble- 

 stripes. 



2. Broadshare or scarify the fallow intervals, to keep down the 

 annual weeds. 



3. Shortly before seed-time again scarify and harrow, taking 

 care to set the harrows so as to miss the stubble-rows. 



4. Drill as follows : — Arrange the drill with four coulters, as 

 in Fig. 2 ; the outside coulters A A' 5 feet apart, and the inside 

 ones B B 40 inches apart, leaving the spaces A B and B A' each, 

 of course, 10 inches wide. Set the shafts in the middle of the 

 drill, so that the horses walk upon the old stubble-rows C. The 

 drill turns short at each end of the field, and the forward coulter 

 (that next to the unsown ground) is used as a " marker," without 

 sowing any seed. Thus the coulter A' has the seed shut off; but 

 on the return course of the drill (as shown by the dotted lines, 

 the horses walking along the stubble-roAvs D), it traverses in the 

 same track as before, l)ut with the seed running — the coulter A 

 (that was sowing last time) being now in the position E, with its 

 seed shut off. 



Fig. 2. 



'I 



■i( 



•f"-'7 





5. Sow three pecks per acre ; that Is, employ the same cogwheel 

 on the barrel that would sow six pecks per acre if the rows had 

 VOL. I. — S. S. G 



