CROPS. 215 



denotes. It has been aptly said to be a roll and a harrow 

 combined. Its use has been found to prevent the ravages of the 

 wire-worm no small recommendation to it.&quot; 



&quot;Further improvements have been made in its construction, 

 the principal features of which consist in an improved form of 

 tooth, for breaking, rather than grinding, the clods ; and in ar 

 ranging for each cylinder independently to revolve upon its own 

 axis an advantage which not only increases its efficiency, but 

 materially lessens the power required for its draught.&quot; 



&quot; The roller is an implement which requires more than usual 

 judgment as to the time of its use ; and this remark applies with 

 increased force to the one under consideration.&quot; 



Perhaps there is no agricultural implement in use in England, 

 at the present time, save only a plough, that is so much ap 

 proved of by practical farmers as this clod-crusher. It is used 

 sometimes before sowing, to get the land into condition and pro 

 duce a fine tilth. It is used, likewise, after the plant has come 

 up, to consolidate the land and fix the roots of the plant j and 

 it is used also with much advantage on the wheat, in the spring. 

 It has proved of very great efficacy in the destruction of the 

 wire-worm, frequently at once arresting its ravages in a wheat 

 field. It is used likewise with great advantage upon light soils, 

 in consolidating them, and as a substitute for the treading of the 

 wheat-ground by sheep : for which purpose, when they are 

 used, it is considered, in most cases, very much to their injury. 

 The implement is heavy, and is generally drawn by three 

 horses. 



The quantity of seed to be sown has been matter of much j / 

 discussion and experiment. The amount, with different farmers, 

 varies from three pecks to three bushels per acre ; and some 

 persons contend for four and even five bushels. The saving 

 of two, or even of one, bushel of seed per acre, upon the whole 

 extent of land cultivated throughout the kingdom, would be 

 indeed an immense saving. The saving in seed of two bushels, 

 to a farmer who cultivates his fifty or his hundred acres of wheat, 

 would certainly deserve much consideration ; but if this saving 

 is to be made at the loss or diminished product of three or five 

 bushels in the crop, it would prove a kind of economy not 

 much to be commended. Among the various conflicting state- 

 merits which have been made to me on this subject, and which. 



