30 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. II. 



of bars, and fixed beliind tlie grubber with iron arms hanging on pivots, 

 to fallow for the collection of the weeds. They may also be employed 

 in preparing land in certain cases for the seed, without the necessity of 

 a repetition of the operation of ploughing; though, in saying that, we by 

 no means wish to be understood as recommending the disuse of the plough, 

 for the range of the aj)plication of the grubber is obviously limited. Arthur 

 Young, in his directions for wheat after beans, states, '' that it will be more 

 advantageous to trust to the scarifiers than the plough ; " and again, 

 speaking of wheat after tares, on a light soil, he says, " the land should not 

 be ploughed at all, but left to consolidate at bottom, to beconae firm for the 

 roots of the wheat to fix in, and the surface worked with the scarifiers just 

 sufficient to keep it clear of all weeds, and in that state drill the wheat, 

 without any ploughing*; " and this was not only his own practice, but has 

 been adopted by many eminent farmers. Thus, land on which crops of 

 pulse and roots have been cultivated under the drill system, and which has 

 consequently been kept clean by horse-hoeing, may, in almost all cases, 

 be sown with corn without any necessity for a second ploughing ; and, if 

 the soil be light and dry, it may be prepared for the seed solely by the use 

 of the grubber. In this case, however, it is generally expedient to go 

 twice over the ground : setting the teeth, in the first instance, at a less 

 depth than in the second operation ; and if the land requires much stir- 

 ring, it should be worked at right angles ; afterwards collecting the rubbish 

 by the operation of the common harrow, either to be carried to the dung- 

 heap, or burned, and the ashes spread upon the field. 



HORSE-HOES. 



The operation of horse-hoeing, though in most respects similar to those 

 of the grubber, yet is distinctively confined by farmers to that of earthing 

 up crops, and cleaning land which has been already cultivated upon the drill 

 system ; and being merely intended to act between the rows of the different 

 crops as they stand upon the ground, is executed with implements of a 

 lighter description, and drawn invariably by only one horse. The necessity 

 of using extreme caution in keeping the horse exactly between the rows, 

 also requires a steady animal to be employed along with the driver, and 

 the implement should never be confided to any other than an experienced 

 and very careful workman. They are made of several different forms : 

 sometimes, when the object is simply that of cleaning the land from surface 

 weeds, in that of the paring instrument represented in the first volume of 

 this workf; but more commonly in the triangular shape, resembling the 

 grubber already depicted at the commencement of the account of that in- 

 stnunent, though so slightly constructed, that we have seen them drawn by 

 a donkey when carrying three flat shares, in the following fashion — 



the two outer bars being of iron, but fixed with hinges to the centre 

 piece, and having a cross-bar, which admits of their being either widened 

 or narrowed as the width of the rows may require. In this manner it per- 

 forms very fair work, particularly if the crop be in such narrow drills as to 



* Farmer's Calendar, p. 457. f See Chap. XVI. p. 345 and 346. i 



