MODE OF [Chap. 



into lands of about five feet and a half wide. 

 This; besides being a guide to the driller, would 

 be an advantage, especially in shallow land, as 

 it would give the plants an additional thickness 

 of good soil to stand upon. Having this infalli- 

 ble guide, the ploughman or driller would find 

 no difficulty in going straight from one end of 

 the field to the other; and, even if the drills 

 were drawn with the corner of a hoe, the drill 

 drawer would require no other guide than the 

 meeting of the two furrows at the top of the land; 

 and as to the labour of drawing these little shal- 

 low drills, one man, with a sharp-cornered hoe, 

 would draw the drills over several acres in one 

 day. Care must be taken that the drills be not 

 too deep ; and that there be no holes in them 

 from the pulling up of clods ; and that they be 

 smooth, or nearly so, at the bottom, so that the 

 corn may be deposited at an equal depth all the 

 way along the drill. It is like the planting of 

 kidney beans, and as much care should be taken 

 about it. 



67. When the drill is made, comes the planter; 

 and here the greatest possible care must be taken 

 not to have planters who talk, or, as they say in 

 the country, whose heads are filled with procla- 

 mations. There must be the exact number of 

 plants upon the acre ; and these must be at their 

 proper distances ; for it is surprising how much 



