.0 Cultivation of Arabic Land. Barley. Preparation for. 



effect the preparation ; in others two. Three operations may be wanted in others, 

 that is, two fcarifyings and one fcuffling, with broader triangular (hares. Thefc 

 variations will depend entirely on the degree in which the foil is tenacious, and to 

 afcertain which the farmer s eye and foot can alone enable him to judge. Thefe 

 operations go off very quickly, and leave the land or Hitches in excellent order for 

 the drill-machine to follow, and depofit the barley feed ; the farmer, during the 

 whole of thefe operations, being as little liable to be thrown out by unfavourable 

 weather, as it is poffible he fhould be, and much lefs fo than if he had ploughed 

 the land. Thofe, fays Mr. Young, who are ufed to attend to the effects of til 

 lage on different foils, know well that loams and clays of various degrees of tena 

 city, if they have been properly formed into lands for winter, and not poached by 

 horfes trampling, receive the frofts to advantage, and are found with a friable fur- 

 face in the fpring. If rain comes, it dries and leaves the furface (till in good order, 

 and ready for any operation; but plough fuch land, and turn up the more adhefive 

 bottom, not acted upon by froft, and let rain fall on fuch frefh turned furrows ; it 

 remains ft iff and faddened ; it does not become porous again ; the air cannot get 

 into it : and if drying marp winds at north-eafl follow, the furrows become lon 

 gitudinal flices of clod, very difficult to be acted upon by any inftrument, and the 

 farmer finds himfelf in a moft unpleafant Situation. He no more recovers a fine 

 friable furface, and it becomes twenty to one whether he has a good crop. His 

 only chance, is to have abundance of patience, to wait for favourable weather, and 

 lay his account to fow very late.&quot; The reafon for this advice of avoiding fpring- 

 ploughings is,the fame writer fays, &quot; not drawn from the practice of a few farmers, 

 but from thofe of an extenfive well cultivated diftrict.&quot; 



And &quot; thefe directions are not, he remarks, confined to the drill hufbandry, but 

 are applicable to the preparation of the land for broad-cafting;&quot; but in this laft 

 method, fimilar attention mufl be given to the breadth of the lands, as the opera 

 tions muft be effected by horfes walking only in the furrows ; and when the feed is 

 covered by harrowing, the fame regard muft be paid to that circumftance. It is 

 the common practice in fome well-cultivated heavy land diftricts, as EfTex, to Cow 

 barley on afummer fallow. Mr. Young remarks, that there the farmers plough, 

 their f illows in Auguft or September on two-bout ridges of three feet breadth : 

 if in Auguft, fome reverfe the ridges immediately after wheat fowing, others before 

 it. They water grip the field well, and in February plough and fow, ftill on the 

 fame ridge, but harrowed nearly flat, by harrows made for the purpofe. If they 

 have a dry fcafon to plough and fow, they get good crops:-much conftantly depends 



