Cultivation of Arable Land. Potatoes. Methods of planting of . 101 



each. The diftancc of the drills is fuch, that when the horfes ftand in one, each 

 wheel of the cart or tumbril may be in the middle of the next drills on each 

 fide. The next operation is to carry in the manure ; and as the horfes ftand in 

 one drill, and each wheel of the cart in a fimilar fituation, the neatnefs and or 

 der of the land is very little injured. The dung is then to be thrown out of 

 the cart in fmall heaps, fufficient to fupply the three drills which the horfes 

 and the wheels of the cart occupy a moderate fcattering of which is to be put into 

 the bottom of each. This will be completed in a very fhort time by perfons with 

 forks of two tines. 



Where long ftrawy dung, lately thrown out of the (tables or cow-houfes, or 

 collected from the farm-yard, can be procured, it is employed. When the drills 

 are thus prepared, the fets are put into them upon the dung about fix inches 

 diftant from each other. The plough is then to be run on both fides of each 

 drill, to throw the earth which was raifedout of it upon the potatoes. This ope 

 ration will elevate it in the middle, and caufe it to lie floping on each fide like 

 the roof of a houfe. The bufmefs is thus complete until the ftems of the pota 

 toes begin to make their appearance above ground. 



But in the Weft Riding of Yorkshire, where the culture of the potatoe is 

 well performed, according to the Report of that diftrict, after the land has been 

 properly prepared, the beft cultivators begin to ridge it up by ploughing a fur 

 row round it down, and then taking a fuitable diftance according to the nature 

 and qualities of the foils, as from about two feet eight inches to three feet, 

 Juch as are rich and fertile requiring more fpace of ridge than fuch as are poor 

 and exhaufted. The manure, where neceflary, is difpofed with regularity in 

 rows by means of a labourer with a fork, in the ridges, the potatoe fets being 

 then placed at fuitable distances upon it, and covered by the plough. 



The method recommended by other cultivators in the northern parts of the 

 ifland, after much experience, is, after the ground has undergone a thorough 

 preparation, and is made perfectly level by repeated ploughing and harrowing 

 in different directions, to draw ftraight parallel furrows by means of a double 

 earth boarded plough, drawn by a fingle horfe, at the diftance of two feet and 

 an half from each other. This operation is performed in the mod correct man 

 ner, by pafTmg ihe plough twice in the fame track, which, when the land lies 

 floping or uneven, {hould be down hill the firft time. The manure is then 

 brought on in carts from the upper fides of the fields where they are hilly, the 

 horfes pairing in one furrow, and each of the wheels in others on the different 

 fides; they are then emptied by the drivers, who walk behind them withcrookeil 

 three-pronged forks conftructed for the purpofe, leaving it in fmall heaps i 11 



