82 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. VI. 



The drill represented in tlie preceding page, is, it will beperceivcd,of a large 

 size, — being 8^ feet between the wheels, — and is that most generally ap- 

 proved for the sowing of corn, cutting the rows at intervals of eight to twelve 

 inches, either on ridges expressly ploughed to t!:eir breadth, whicli are sown 

 at one bout going up half tlie land, and returning down the other half : 

 thus sowing six, seven, or eight rows at once, according as the drills 

 are previously adjusted, and cutting them an inch and a half, or two inclies 

 wide, and about two inches in depth. Machines are however constructed of 

 various dimensions, and there is one now very much in use which covers 

 an entire ridge of ten feet, and thus sows it at once. It is drawn by a 

 double set of horses, which being hooked on with Whipple trees to each end 

 of the frame, each move in the interfurrow on each side of the ridge, 

 and the wheels also running in the furrow, the land is thus sown without 

 being poached by the treading of the cattle. It requires, however, not less 

 than two pair of horses, with a driver to each pair, and we have seen it 

 worked on clay-land by six horses, three on each side. 



The usual work with an implement of this size is from eight to ten acres 

 a day ; for the land must be in very superior order to admit of twelve being 

 sown. They cost about forty guineas ; or the price of one of the first-men- 

 tioned description is 35/., exclusive of the charges of packing and convey- 

 ance, and the machinery is besides very subject to get out of order. There 

 are, however, persons to be found in most parts of every county who let 

 them out for hire, generally at the rate of two shillings the acre, the farmer 

 finding his own cattle, and also feeding the man who conducts the work. 

 The management, indeed, requires considerable intelligence, and very 

 marked attention ; and this circumstance, together with the cost of the 

 implement, or else the uncertainty of being able to get it on hire at the 

 moment when it may be wanted, forms a strong objection to the more 

 general adoption of the drill husbandry on corn-land. 



An implement called a drill-roller, though employed in broad-casting, 

 was also formerly much employed in many parts of Norfolk, but has since 

 been partly superseded by the adoption of the regular machines. It is a 

 cylinder of iron, about seven feet long, around which are cutting wheels 

 of cast-iron, that turn, each independently of the others, around the com- 

 mon cylinder, weighing from a ton to a ton and a half, and occasions 

 heavy work to four horses. The cutting wheels, being moveable, may be 

 fixed at any distance, and, by passing over a fresh- ploughed layer, the soil 

 is cut into little channels ; the seed being then sown broad-cast, the land 

 is afterwards bush-liarrowed, and the corn is thus deposited at an equal 

 depth. On heavy soils it is, however, not found to answer; but "for 

 breaking clods in dry weather," Arthur Young says " no tool he ever 

 beheld comes near to it*." The land-presser also acts much in a similar 

 manner upon light soils, and will be more particularly described in the 

 chapter on the cultivation of vvlieat. 



DIBBLING, 



Or selling corn grain by grain^ is a practice which was not introduced 

 until some time in the middle of the last century, and though now much 

 adopted in most parts of the kingdom for the planting of beans, is only 

 generally used for corn in Suffolk and Norfolk, and the lighter parts of 

 Essex, in wliich counties it is practised to such considerable extent, that 

 there are fiirmers who thus sow from 100 to 300 acres yearly. As com- 

 pared with drilling, it is indeed foimd to be cheaper ; and, when skilfully 



* Norfolk Report, p. 58. 



