Ch. VI.] DIBBLING. 83 



and carefully performed, it is there considered by many experienced persons 

 as decidedly superior. The price paid for dibbling is 7s. 6d. per acre, 

 including the charge of the dibbler and his assistants ; and the cost of drill- 

 ing, including all expenses, may be from 5s. 6d. to 6s. : but the usual 

 quantity of seed sown by the former method is only six or seven pecks 

 per acre, whereas, upon the drill system, nine or ten pecks would be required 

 upon the same land, all other circumstances coinciding. 



Through the kindness of Lord Suffield, — who considerately keeps a por- 

 tion of his home-farm for tlie purpose of making experiments for the infor- 

 mation of the neighbours, — we learn from Mr. Henry Smith, his Lordship's 

 steward, that " the land in that district is usually sown with wheat after 

 clover, or after grass of two or more years, and is prepared for dibbling by 

 one ploughing, unless in a foul state, when the general practice is to slip 

 furrow, or half plough it first ; by repeated harrowings all the weeds are 

 thus brought to tlie surface, and when killed by the sun or drought, are 

 ploughed under the next furrow with the manure. A heavy roller is then 

 applied, when the land is in a proper state for the operations of the dibbler, 

 who, with three children, are reckoned a set. An expert dibbler will hole 

 half an acre a day: with two irons he goes backwards down the first 

 furrow, and returns upon the third, making two holes in an oblique direc- 

 tion, three inches apart on each furrow ; the children then drop three or 

 four grains of seed into each hole, which is afterwards covered by means 

 of a bush harrow, and the work is thus completed." 



Such is the usual process for wheat ; but the distance of the holes, and 

 the number of seeds, of course vary on different crops. The operation is 

 usually performed with irons, of a conical shape, somewhat resembling the 

 following, with which a hole of about two inches deep is punched on the 

 middle of the flag, or turned up earth of every furrow. 



Drill, and spiked rollers, and an implement called " the self-sowing 

 dibble," have also been employed for the same purpose, with a view to the 

 economy of both time and money ; but they have not been found to answer 

 so well as the common practice. The success of the sowing, as well as the 

 saving of seed, depends, indeed, very much upon the care and attention of 

 the droppers ; for if not closely watched, some will put in too many, and 

 others none. It is, therefore, unadvisable to allow many of them to work 

 together, as they thus distract each other, and the dibblers, by being placed 

 in distant parts of the field, have a better opportunity of observing them. 

 If a careful man, he can do this with perfect ease and certainty, for the 

 droppers follow him with their faces towards his, and consequently going 

 forwards. Women or children are generally employed, and we have just 

 seen a four- acre field of beans very completely dibbled with a man and a 

 couple of boys under twelve years of age, within the week. 



When correctly executed, there can be no manner of doubt that it not 

 only possesses the important advantage of saving at least a bushel of seed 

 per acre, but it also sets out the corn at equal distances as well as depth, 

 which must, it is presumed, give more equal nourishment than can be 

 ensured by either the drill or the broad-cast systems. We accordingly 

 learn, from various accounts, that the plants are found to be more vigorous 

 in their growth, and the straw stronger in the stem, and less subject to be 

 root-fallen, when dibbled, than when sown in either of the other modes. 



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