Ch. VI.] EXPERIMENTS. 87 



cific items of every charge*, of which our limits only allow us to give the 

 above abstracts ; and tliere are various authentic accounts spread through- 

 out the County Surveys, and other works of equal authority, most of which 

 are corroborative of the superiority of the drill over the broad-cast hus- 

 bandry, on those soils on which it can be conveniently managed. It is 

 well known to be universally practised by the tenantry on the extensive 

 estates of Mr. Coke, and of many other men of large property on the light 

 soils of Norfolk ; and Sir John Sinclair mentions an instance of 150 Scotch 

 acres of light loam, much subject to annual weeds, having been drilled with 

 wheat by Mr. Brodie, of Scoughall, in East Lothian, the produce of which 

 was 42 Winchester bushels per acre, while that sown broad-cast, though 

 weighing about a pound more in the bushel, was only 35, and the grass- 

 seeds sown with both crops answered best upon that vvliich was drilled t- 

 It is indeed evident that grass-seeds are frequently injured by small weeds 

 which cannot be got at when the ground is covered by a broad-cast 

 crop ; whereas, if drilled, they can be easily extirpated by the operation of 

 hoeing. 



A very satisfactory comparison between the different systems of drill and 

 broad-cast has been also recorded by the Rev. Mr. Radcliff, in the Report 

 delivered by him to the Farming Society of Ireland, upon the agriculture 

 of Eastern and Western Flanders, in which it is stated, that some land 

 of equal quality, which had been manured the preceding year for a crop 

 of winter-barley, was sown with beans — one half broad-cast, the other 

 drilled in rows at two feet distance, and hand-hoed. The following season 

 both moieties were again sown in the usual way with winter-barley, 

 broad-cast ; the grain of which was much finer on the piece that had been 

 drilled than on the other, and the ground itself much freer from weeds 

 and more easily worked. The produce of the respective crops, when 

 reduced into English measure, was, as nearly as it is necessary to cal- 

 culate — 



Thus, not only was there a saving of seed which would probably equal the 

 extra expense of drilling the beans, but a considerable increase of pro- 

 duce was also obtained ; the tilth also appears to have been so improved by 

 the drill method, that the succeeding crop of barley was nearly one-half 

 larger than on the land on which it was sown broad-cast : but the differ- 

 ence of seed is not stated. 



On examining the various accounts of these and other experiments upon 

 drilling, the soil will, in most cases, be found light and dry, or at least 



* See Vancouver's Surv. of Hampsh., chap. vii. sect, in comparison of the drill and 

 broad-cast husbandry, p. 210 ; and the Norfolk Report, by Young, in which a compara- 

 tive experiment on drilled and broad-cast wheat is stated to have produced five bushels 

 more per acre than the latter. — p. 289. 



f Farmer's Mag., vol. xxii. p. 171. Sir John also mentions a communication from 

 Mr. Burroughs, which states that " on a field sown in drills 12 inches apart, which re- 

 ceived one hoeing in spring, a more productive crop, and far more valuable grain, was 

 raised than on a broad-cast crop which had received three times the quantity of dung. 

 The manure for the drilled crop of wheat was applied in drills made by the plough, the 

 seed sown, and then harrowed down." — Code of Agric, 3d edit., p. 375. 



