Cultivation ofArab leLand.Turuij)&.~Mthod# of fowing.- - Broad-caking. \ 37 



In cafes where the broadcaft method of fowing turnip feed is practifcd, it is of 

 confiderable importance that the furface of the land be rendered as fine and even 

 as poilible before the fowing is performed, and that the feed be delivered or 

 difperfed over it in a perfectly equal manner, and as foon as poflible after it has 

 been ploughed up; as upon thefc operations and circumftances being properly 

 conducted and attended to, the fuccefs of the crop in a great mcafure depends. 

 The latter can feldom be executed by the hand in a proper manner by perfons 

 who have not been in the habit of fowing the fmaller kinds of feeds : but a fort 

 of box, or a machine conftructed for the purpofe, is often made ufe of by thofe who 

 have not been much accuftomed to the bufinefs ; and, when proper care is taken to 

 fee that the perforations do not become obftructed by two or more feeds being faf- 

 tened in them, maybe extremely advantageous in delivering the feed in an uniform 

 and regular manner. 



The feed, after it has been distributed over the furface in fome of thefe methods, 

 is moftly covered by means of harrowing ; a light {hort-tined harrow being the 

 mod adapted to the purpofe, as, from the turnip plant forming its bulb in a great 

 meafure above the ground, it fhould probably not be put in to too great a depth. 

 It has been advifed in performing this operation topafs the harrows over the land 

 only twice in the fame direction, walking the horfes in the firft, and trotting them 

 gently in the laft, in order to give a neater finifh ; the ridges having been laid out 

 to the breadths of from four to ten yards, according as the foil may incline to moif- 

 tureor drynefs*. 



In the drill method of putting in the crop, the land, after being prepared in the 

 manner that has been directed above, is cither formed into ridges by the plough,, 

 or the drills are ftuck in the level furface, as has been already noticed. 



The manner of performing the firft operation is by a furrow being firft drawn 

 as ftraight as poflible down the field, and in returning another furrow from the 

 other fide being laid up againft it, by keeping the orT-lide horfe in the firft made 

 furrow; a fuitable proportion of land being given to the plough for forming a 



It is obferved, that by noting the average diftance of each turnip in the laft column, it is intended 

 to mew at one view how many plants there were wanting in the drills to have made them a full crop ; 

 for if 550 be dated as a medium number in., full crop upon the fortieth part of an acre, they will ba 

 found to occupy afpace of 17 inches each way in broadcail, 10|- by 27 inches on the one-bout ridges, 

 and of 13| by 21 inches in thofe drilled on the level furface ; whence it may bo eafily feen how rnuck 

 thofe were wider in the nJws than they ought to have been. 



* Kent s Hints, p, lie. 



VOL. II. T 



