70 



BRITISH HUSBANDRY. 



[Ch. V 



In order to effect this, he adopted several new implements, chiefly of his 

 own invention, for a description of vvliich we must refer to his ' New System 

 of Cultivation,' as we have only seen the scarifier in use. This is of a 

 light construction, and certainly performs well ; though, upon land such as 

 that described by the General, it is worked by a pair of horses, and 

 sometimes more, instead of one. It is made by Weir, of Oxford-street, 

 and Morton, of Leith, for about ]Ql., and, with the exception of the cross- 

 bars, is formed entirely of iron, in this fashion — 



\ \ iiu \ -Pssl. 



The frame, however, can be made of wood by any country carpenter. It is 

 drawn upon one wheel, fixed at A, in fig. 1. The tines, or shares, which 

 are moveable — and consequently may be made of various shapes to suit the 

 nature of the proposed work, though figures 2 and 3 represent the elevation 

 and lower part of the lattei' — are mortised into the bars at the holes marked 

 1 to 8 ; that opposite to No. 6 being not generally used as a hoe, but occa- 

 sionally added when only one bar of the machine is employed ; as for the 

 purpose of a stubble rake. The bars are at the letters B, and the stilts at C. 



He conceived that the grand source of all the heavy expenses of the old 

 method might be traced to the fallow itself, and to the mode of preparing 

 it — "by bringing up immense slags with the plough, by reversing the soil, 

 and thus burying the seeds of weeds that had fallen on the surface, by 

 which a foundation is laid for all the subsequent laborious and expensive 

 operations." To avoid these, he therefore thought it necessary to proceed 

 in a different manner — " to only break and crumble the surface soil to any 

 depth that may be required ; to burn and destroy the weeds ; after which he 

 would have the land in a fine and clean state of pulverization, and in readi- 

 ness for receiving the seed, without losing a year's rent and taxes ; and all 

 this at a mere trifle of expense when compared with that which is incurred 

 by a fallow.'' 



In pursuance of this, he reduced the ploughing to a single operation at 

 the depth of four inches. The chief use, indeed, which he made of the 

 plough was to open furrows at twenty-seven inches apart, vvliich was per- 

 formed by a couple of horses at the rate of three acres jier day, and was 

 merely intended to prepare the land for the scarifiers, " which, by passing 

 twice across these furrows, loosen all the stubble and roots of weeds, which 

 Jire afterwards, with a small portion of the soil, placed in heaps and burned.'' 

 By these means, together with the more frequent repetition of the horse- 



