v.] PLANTING. 



which, indeed, will not thrive well, if the ground 

 be not deeply moved, and very near to the plants 

 too, ivhile they are growing. The reasons for 

 this are given by Mr. Tull ; but, I have seen 

 enough of the experience. You will see, in 

 America, a field of corn, late in June perhaps, 

 which has not been ploughed, looking, to-day, 

 sickly and yellow. Look at it in only four days* 

 time, if ploughed the day after you saw it, and 

 its colour is totally changed. 



58. Now, you cannot plough deep and clean, 

 and, indeed, you cannot perform any thing worthy 

 of the name oi ploughing, \\\ so narrow a space as 

 that of three feet : you require four feet at the 

 least ; and, for the reasons which I shall pre- 

 sently give, I prefer five feet, with a smaller dis- 

 tance between the plants in the row. This year I 

 was compelled to content myself with hand- work; 

 that is to say, with two miserable flat hoeings, 

 which is tillage quite insufficient for Corn 3 

 it merely keeps down the weeds, and it hardly 

 does that ; for, as to digging, the work comes at 

 a time of the year (hay-making and harvest) when 

 hands are not to be got even here; for, be it 

 known to those who did not know it before, a man 

 will never dig, if he can get one half of the vv'ages 

 for playing with a little prong or wooden rake, 

 or can partake in the divers joys or jovial society 

 of hay-carting and harvest-carting, not to say a 



