CROPS. 453 



thoroughly manured, in the crop of the preceding year; and 

 that it cannot be too thoroughly cleaned. Mr. Coke, of England, 

 afterwards Lord Leicester, offered a large reward to any person 

 who would discover a single weed among his crops, after their 

 usual cleaning. The wheat plant sends out descending, as well 

 as lateral roots. After land has been thus well prepared, it is 

 not deemed best to plough more than two or three inches for the 

 sowing of wheat. By many persons, in climates where the frost 

 heaves the land deeply, it is deemed best to cover the seed of 

 autumn-sown wheat by the plough. Where the land has been 

 ploughed in the autumn, it is advised only to harrow the land in 

 the spring, and harrow in the seed upon land thus prepared, and 

 press it closely with a roller. Land is frequently, after being 

 sown, trodden by men. but better by sheep a practice to which 

 I have referred in my remarks upon English husbandry. 



In England, certainly by all the best farmers, wheat is sown in 

 drills with a machine. These machines arc in general, like 

 many of the agricultural implements of England, where they 

 admit of being so, heavy, complicated, and expensive ; but they 

 do their work in an admirable manner ; and many of them are 

 contrived so as to sow the manure, when in a state of powder, at 

 the same time as the seed. Many of the French farmers sow 

 their wheat in drills, and by a machine, but not of a very im 

 proved character. In Switzerland I found drill machines, invent 

 ed and made in the country, not expensive, which certainly 

 performed their work well. Experiments have been made in 

 France of planting wheat in hills, six inches or more apart, by a 

 hoe ; making the hole, and dropping several seeds in the hill, as 

 Indian corn is often planted in the United States. There must 

 be obviously a great saving of seed by this mode : and the re 

 sult has been pronounced successful ; but I have not been able 

 to get full information. It was said to be by this mode that a 

 crop of seventy-two bushels to the acre was produced. The 

 crop, while growing, was manured with liquid manure, and was 

 kept thoroughly clean. This resembles somewhat the mode of 

 planting by a dibble in England. Such a mode would, at first 

 sight, be strongly objected to in the United States, because of 

 the labor which it would require. There is often a difficulty in 

 the United States of procuring labor for any consideration ; but, 

 other things being equal, a wise farmer would not ask simply 



