THE FARMER'S MANUAL 9} 



with the plough, your furrows smoothed gently with the 

 harrow, and your seed, say from 2 to 3 bushels to the 

 acre, sown early in May, and eovered lightly with the 

 harrow. If you sow on the furrows and cover deep 

 with the harrow, or sow on a stiff soil, your hemp will 

 pull very hapd. 



Paring and Burning. 



This mode of culture in England, appears to stand 

 high in the estimation of Sir John Sinclair, and ail the 

 best English writers ; and where labour is cheap, as in 

 England, it doubtless, in many instances, will answer 

 well; but the true result of this mode of tillage ap- 

 pears to arise from the fertilizing powers of the ashes 

 derived from the sward, when pared and burnt*. So 

 far as this goes to show the value of ashes sown upon 

 land to increase the value of tillage, leads me to in- 

 quire, whether the sward, when turned in to rot, un- 

 der the furrows, together with one half of the expense 

 of paring and burning, when laid out in wood-ashes, 

 and sown upon the tops of the furrows, would not, in 

 this country, answer a much better purpose for the 

 succeeding crops, and give a more permanent and 

 lasting value to the land for an after tillage ? If any 

 one can be at a loss for an answer, let him try and 

 see. 



Summer Fallowing. 



This is one of the most important branches of good 

 farming, and upon which has arisen a great variety 

 of opinion and practice. Some farmers are of opin- 

 ion that the ploughings for a summer fallow, cannot 

 be too frequent, and that all fallow crops are injurious 

 to the land, and particularly to the succeeding crops. 



* Quere. Whether lime sowi- upon the sword before ploughing, 

 nnd the crop the*) dressed with ashes, would not be more valuable 

 than paring and burning 1 , 



