C 190 



can be made with the fliare of a drill; for though 

 the fliare be jet to a certain depth at the difcretion 

 of the ploughman, from which it cannot deviate, 

 'yet if the foil be well pulverized, as it ought, it 

 win run into the channels, »nd caufe the feed to 

 lie at unequal depths ; this, in the autumn indeed, 

 may be of no confequence, as at that feafon there 

 is no danger of wanting moiilure to make the feeds 

 vegetate ; but in the fpring, it is of the -utmoft 

 coiifequence to have the feed buried at an equal 

 and proper depth; to the want of which, the very 

 fhort crops of barley and oats were almoft entirely 

 owing the lalt. fummer. The feed that lay three or 

 four ijaches deep came up well, and ripened in good 

 time; but what lay ftiallow, either never canje ,up 

 at all, or, which was much worfe, fo late, as not 

 to be any thing near ripe ; it was therefore cut 

 green, and lay fo long to wither before it could be 

 fafely houfcd, that what little was ripe and would 

 have been good, was much reduced in its value by 

 iaying fo long in the field. I am very clearly of 

 opinion, that if the barley laft feafon had been 

 drilled in equally diftant furrows of four inches 

 deep, and about a foot from each other, the crop 

 in this country had been three times as great at 

 lead-, though much lefs than half the feed would 

 have been fufhcient ; this would have made a dif- 

 ference of three rents at leaft to the farmer. 



. The 



