SPADE HUSBANDRY. 127 



powers of an a.-re. As yet, 1 believe, they are very far from 

 being ascertained: but, in the course of my agricultural obser 

 vations, many cases have come under my notice, in which the 

 products from a very few acres, cultivated with all the care and 

 liberality which such cases admit of, have far surpassed those of 

 farms many times as large. 



In one instance, which happens to be before me, the following 

 was the result : 



Three men were employed one week in digging an acre 



with a spade, at 9 s. per week, 27 s. 



The same amount of land, in ploughing three times, cost 



7 s. per acre each ploughing, 21 



Against the spade, ... 6s. 



At harvest, however, the spaded land produced fifteen bushels \ 

 of wheat more than that under the plough. Here, then, was a \ 

 clear profit, at the current price of wheat at the time, of 4 19 s. / 

 per acre. 



Another example is given of a farmer in Essex, on a farm of 

 one hundred and twenty acres. 



&quot; I have annually dug,&quot; he says, &quot;from three to five acres, for 

 the last five years. The soil I have operated upon is light, with 

 a substratum of gravel, sand, and tender loam. The expense 

 of the forking is 2Jd. per rod = 33s. 4d. per acre; but I 

 always dig under the furrow left by the plough, which adds one 

 ploughing to the expense, viz., 8s. By adopting this course, I 

 do not bring up the inert subsoil until the second time of dig 

 ging. The influence of forking on the crops seems to be, that 

 all root crops arc much increased in quantity the cereal crops, 

 which follow, are less injured by drought ; and the land becomes 

 much more free from annual weeds, as well as from those which 

 are of a more permanent nature. I had recently a person with 

 me who has made a series of very carefully-conducted experi 

 ments, in which digging has been contrasted with ploughing. 

 He thinks the produce of the forked land was nearly doutle 

 that of the ploughed.&quot; 



This farmer adds, &quot; First, a man can dig a greater quantity 

 of land, in a given time, with a fork than he can with a spade. 

 My experience shows one sixth ; and it strikes me it must be so, 

 because the pointed ends of a three-pronged fork can be more 



