230 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



ground, and the smoke and sparks being carried off by a 

 subterranean flue to a tall chimney a hundred yards distant. 

 (I have seen a hundred steam-engines in stackyards since, 

 without this precaution, and never heard of a fire occasioned 

 by the practice.) 



The grain on the farm had all been sowed in drills. The 

 proprietor said that if he could be sure of having the seed 

 perfectly distributed, he should prefer broad-cast sowing (i. e., 

 as well as a first-rate sower could distribute it in a perfectly 

 calm day). The wheat was the strongest we have yet seen, 

 and of remarkably equal height, and uniform dark colour. The 

 ground was almost wholly free from weeds, and the wheat 

 was not expected to be hoed. 



We found fourteen men engaged in preparing a field for tur 

 nips : opening drills with plough, carting dung, which had been 

 heaped up, turned, and made fine, distributing it along the drills, 

 ploughs covering it immediately, and forming ridges 27 inches 

 apart over it ; after all, a peculiar iron-roller, formed so as to 

 fit the ridges and furrows, followed, leaving the field precisely 

 like a fluted collar. The ridges were as straight as the lines 

 of a printed page ; and any inequality, to the height of half an 

 inch, was removed by the equal pressing of the roller. A 

 more perfect piece of work could not be conceived of. Seed 

 (3 Ibs. to the acre) will be sown immediately on the ridges, 

 by a machine opening, dropping, closing, and rolling six drills 

 at once. The field is thorough-drained (as is all the farm, 

 ftree feet deep) and sub-soil ploughed. 



I saw no farming that pleased me better than this in all 

 England. It was no gentleman or school fanning, but was 

 directed by an old man, all his life a fanner, on a leased farm, 

 without the least thought of taste or fancy to be gratified, but 

 with an eye single to quick profit ; with a prejudice against 

 &quot; high farming,&quot; indeed, because it is advised by the free-tra- 



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