v.] PLANTING. 



surface and cloddy, you may readily find near 

 the spot, fine earth enough to put upon the 

 seeds ; and, if you take care to do this, the 

 general roughness of the ground is not of such 

 very great consequence, especially when you plant 

 in hills ; for, the hand hoeing which is to be 

 spoken of hereafter, and which is to take place 

 just round the plants, will, if the proper season 

 be chosen, sufficiently pulverise the earth near 

 the plants, and the ploughings will completely 

 do all the rest. In clayey ground, or very stiff 

 ground, where it may have been impossible to 

 get the surface of the field fine, I think that the 

 hill method might be the best. With hills four 

 feet apart one way, and five feet apart the othe 

 way, and with six plants in each hill, you wou^^ 

 have one third less of plants than in rows five 

 feet a part and plants at six inches in the row ; 

 but, the seed would be planted in hills, in stiff 

 and cloddy land much more easily than in rows ; 

 because, rows will require drills ', and it is more 

 difficult to get a sufficiency of fine earth to cover 

 a drill all along the field, than it is to find a 

 sufficiency of it to cover the seed in the hills. 



66. If you plant in rows, you must make a 

 drill ; which may be made by a drill plough, or 

 by almost any of those things which are now in 

 such general use in the business of drilling. The 

 ground ought to be ploughed, at its last ploughing, 



