380 On Spade Husbandry. 
pared with those of Scotland, I have to observe, that the Win- 
chester bushel contains thirty-two quarts, and the quarter eight 
bushels, also that a boll Linlithgow, or Edinburgh measure, con~ 
tains, within quite a small fraction, four bushels Winchester. 
I have already stated the expense of cultivating by spade work, 
and transplanting from a seed-bed, in lines nine inches asunder, 
one acre of wheat; I will now state the expense of one acre in 
drill, and also broadcast : 
Digging om Ae og 40 ee 
Seed wheat, two bushels per acre ., ve. ae “Q 
£211 0 
If sown broadcast, and the seed is harrowed in 
by a horse, say 2s. per acre; if raked in with 
a garden rake, it will cost .. is 0 4 0 
£2 15 0 
If sown in drills, and the drills made with a garden hoe, it will 
cost 4s. per acre more, but a larger saving than that expense 
will be made iu the quantity of seed, compared with the broad- 
cast method, . 
I now take the liberty to state, what I conceive is the com- 
parative expense of cultivating an acre of land by the plough, 
and in the first place I have no difficulty in asserting, that one 
digging, as [ have it done (leaving the extra depth out of the 
question at present) is equal to three ploughings and harrowings; 
1 believe I may also state, that the ploughing each time of an 
acre is calculated to cost 8s. and the harrowing 2s.—Jf this is 
allowed, an acre in this way costs 
Three ploughings and harrowings, at 10s, £1 10 O° 
Seed wheat, two bushels per acre ¥— OTe 
Harrowing the seed in .. une a O-2Fa0 
£210 0 
Thus it appears that the cultivation of an acre of wheat by 
the spade, costs only 5s. more than by the plough. In respect 
to the comparison of expense between wheat transplanted and 
sown on land worked by the spade; from the two last years’ ex- 
periments (the expense of transplanting being of course taken 
into the question) there can be no doubt that sowing is the 
better system, and that the advantage over the plough, is from 
the deep and otherwise superior working of the land by the 
spade. 
The comparative advantage of produce is now to be stated ; 
the average produce of wheat of the whole island, taking an 
average of seyen years, is said to be twenty bushels per oe 
ie 
