256 Cultivation of Arable Land. Wood Time and Method of /owing. 



drill is employed, &amp;gt;lefs will be neceflary than in the broadcaft method. A rood of 

 land, where the crop is good, will in general a fiord (ced ftfficient tor tight or ten 

 acres. In feme places fix bufhels are made ufe ot to the acre, in the broadcaft 

 method.* 



Time and method of fencing. The period of putting crops of this fort into the 

 ground mud depend in feme mcafure upon the method of preparation that has 

 been adopted. Where the fn ft of the methods that have been mentioned is fol 

 lowed, it mu ft be much later than in the other cafes. Early fowing is in general 

 to be preferred, as there w ill be lefs danger of the plants being deftroyed by the at 

 tacks of the /y or grub.\ When the weather is fuitable, and the land in a proper 

 ftate of preparation, the feed may therefore be fown in the latter end of Febru 

 ary or in March, continuing the fowings, in different portions of land, till about 

 the middle of May, at fuitable intervals, to vary the times of cropping the leaves 

 of the plants. The late fowings are generally performed about trie latter end of 

 July, or beginning of the following month. In Scmerfctiliire they fow it in June. 

 The manner in which the feed is put into the ground is different, according to 

 the nature and ftate of preparation of the land. When it is in a fine ftate of mould, 

 the drill or row method, is the moft generally pradifed ; and is by much the beft, 

 as the plants ir.ay be kept n ore eafily clean from weeds, and become more vi 

 gorous from the earth being more ftirrcd about the plants: but where the contrary 

 is the cafe, the broadcaft plan is moftly followed j though it does not by any means 

 admit of the plants being kept fo free from weeds, or of the mould being fo well 

 flirrcd about them. 



In the firft method, the feed is put in by a drilling machine, fuch as is employed 

 for turnips, in equi-diftant rows, about eight or nine inches apart, being covered 

 either by means of a harrow which is attached to the implement, or by paffing a 

 light common harrow over it afterwards once in a place; and if there be any clods, 

 they {hould be raked off&quot; to the fides, or into the furrows. In the latter mode, it 

 is difperfed by the hand in as equal a manner as poflible over the whole of the land, 

 being then harrowed in by a light harrow, fo as to Itave the land in as even and level 

 a. ftate as poffible. In either way the land is frequently rolled afterwards, in order 

 to leave the furface as even and neat as it will admit of. 



When the feafon is favourable and the feed is of a good quality, the plants moftly 

 appear in the courfe of a fortnight ; when much attention (hould be paid to them to 



* Corrected Agricultural Report of Northumberland. 

 t Laurence, on Agriculture and Gardening, folio edition. 



