74 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. VI. 



distribution of their seeds is much more difficult tlian those of corn, and it 

 is therefore advisable to go twice over the land, each time with only half 

 the entire quantity to be sown, as in this manner a better chance is aftbrded 

 of avoiding blank spaces. In fine weather, and upon land over which he 

 can step with ease, a steady labourer will bow perhaps an acre and a half 

 within the hour, or about ten acres in an ordinary day's work ; but there is 

 perhaps no farming operation about which more circumspection is required, 

 and therefore great care should be used in the choice of an experienced 

 person every way capable of performing it with due precision. 



To obviate the inconvenience of sowing corn broad-cast by hand, a 

 machine has been invented by which the work is performed with as much 

 accuracy as with the drill ; and the greater equality of the distance at 

 which the seeds are deposited, necessarily adds to the goodness of the crop. 

 It is formed in the shape of a narrow oblong box, which contains the seed, 

 and is usually made from fifteen to eighteen feet long, or the breadth of 

 an ordinary ridge in length. When of this size, it is mounted upon three 

 wheels — two behind and one in front ; the horse by which it is drawn and 

 the fore-wheel moving in the inter-furrow, so that the box extends over the 

 half of each adjoining ridge. The length of the machine should thus be 

 equal to the breadth of the ridges ; but they can be easily adapted to each 

 other if the land be laid in narrower stitches ; for, in that case, the drop- 

 ping of the corn may be prevented to any extent at each end of the seed- 

 box, by which means its action can be shortened to the requisite length. 

 Some makers, indeed, construct it of only eleven feet and a half in length, 

 which renders it so light that it can then be worked by the hand : it is, 

 in that case, suspended upon only one wheel, wliich runs either upon the 

 crown of the ridge, or in the furrow, and the labourer pushes it before him. 



It acts by an axle communicating with the hind-wheels upon revolving 

 spindles and short brushes placed lengthwise in the seed-box, which force 

 the corn through lines of holes perforated through the box ; and the size 

 of the holes can be adjusted to that of the seed by slides. Instead of 

 passing into tubes, as in the drill machine, the seed falls at once upon the 

 ground, as if broad-cast ; but in every other respect it nearly resembles that 

 instrument. The annexed is a perspective view of it as employed for work ; 

 but a description of its machinery would not enable a common artisan to 

 make it. 



Besides the sowing of corn, it is equ ally well adapted to the sowing of 

 the grasses, which, indeed, from the minuteness of their seeds, and their 

 easy dispersion by the wind, require still greater care, and it certainly dis- 

 perses them with much regularity, without being at all dependent upon the 

 skill of the sower : a vast advantage this, if it be considered that the farmer 

 has no other means of detecting an error in the sowing than by the subse- 

 quent appearance of the crop, when it can be no longer rectified. It is 



