Ch. VI.] DRILLING. 75 



said, by a late writer on agriculture, " that a man and a horse, with a 

 machine of sixteen feet in length, and the assistance required to brino- 

 forward the seeds and empty them into the seed-box, will sow from twenty- 

 five to thirty acres in a day *." If so, we can only say that it must be a 

 good day's work. The machine, however, is not very generally employed, 

 for it requires close attention to secure the regular dropping of the seed, 

 which sometimes clogs the holes of the seed-box, particularly in the sowing 

 of wheat, if it be not well dried after being steeped and spread with lime. 

 The cost in London is also 12/. 12s. for those of the smallest size. 



DRILLING, 



Like all other innovations, was only slowly adopted ; and it is not a 

 little remarkable that, unless by a few gentlemen-farmers, it is even at this 

 day scarcely practised in the south of England for the cultivation of tur- 

 nips, although it is to that crop that it is perhaps the most essentially useful. 

 Li the north, however, and throughout Scotland, it is the only mode em- 

 ployed in the culture of that root ; and as it is there superiorly managed, 

 and carried to a greater extent than in other places, we shall hereafter 

 devote a separate chapter to the subject. For other root crops, and indeed 

 for the sowing of corn, especially wheat, and pulse of every kind, it is also 

 becoming more general, and the breadth of land now sown with drilled 

 grain is, in every part of the United Kingdom, very considerable. The 

 advantages arising from the practice are generally considered to consist in 

 these, namely — 



That it is a more perfect and economical mode of sowing grain 

 than when broad-cast, for the seed is deposited with greater exactness 

 and regularity, in regard to depth and proportion of quantity, than can 

 be effected by the most expert seedsman ; it is also thus more equally 

 covered, a less quantity is consequently requisite, and it is better 

 secured from the depredation of birds. 



That it admits of a more effectual use of manure, by bringing it 

 into immediate contact with the seed, as well as'^a more sparing use 

 of it, as it may be laid in the drills without intermixture with the rest 

 of the soil. 



That the admission of air between the rows is materially beneficial 

 to the growth of all crops, and so much increase the strength of the 

 straw of white corn, that it is much less apt to be lodged than when 

 sown broad-cast t; that the grain is also of more equal quality ; and 

 that the operation of reaping corn can be more expeditiously per- 

 formed when it is grown in drills than when broad-cast. 



Tliat, if the land be hand-weeded, less damage will be done by the 

 vveeder's feet in passing between the drills, than when the crop is scat- 

 tered over every part of the ground. In the early stages of its 

 growth, weeds are also more easily distinguished from the sown plants, 



* Low's Elements of Practical Agriculture, p. 109.| 



f " The grain being placed at an equal and proper depth, the coronal roots are after- 

 wards formed at such a distance below the surface of the field as best suits with the 

 nature of the plant and the peculiarities of the soil, and which, in most cases, is from 

 an inch and a half to two inches below the settled surface of the field. The plants 

 being thus seated, grow strong and vigorous, and which, if necessarily prostrated by 

 heavy storms, having such excellent foot-hold, the crop soon resumes an erect posture, 

 and in that state continues until it is ready to be shorn." — Vancover's Survey of Hamp- 

 shire, p. 215. 



