142 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. X. 



as not to require at tliat ])eriod any additional tillage tor ihe extrication of 

 the weeds *." 



There is much sound sense in the above observation ; for the more 

 light soils are stirred, the more is their compactness and solidity im- 

 paired, and the less are they thereby rendered adequate to the production of 

 a strong and healthy crop of wheat. The soil mav, indeed, be again 

 partially restored to its former denseness, but it cannot be so perfectly con- 

 solidated by the means of rolling, as it had been by the previous state of 

 rest in which it had been left. The treading of sheep is a plan very gene- 

 rally resorted to for giving a firm bottom to wheat lands ; and flocks are 

 folded in dry weather, upon young wheat, previous to the frost setting in, 

 and afterwards early in the spring, with very beneficial effect. In Norfolk, 

 indeed, they are not unfrequently fed upon the wheats, with turnips carted 

 from the other fields and spread upon the land. 



PRESSING MACHINE. 



An ingenious mode of compressing- light soils has, however, been long 

 practised by some farmers in the use of a machine called the " Land- 

 Presser," or " Furrow-Slice Compressor," which being drawn over land 

 recently ploughed, leaves it as if the work had been executed by a drill 

 sowing machine, pressing down the grips, or channels left by the common 

 ploughs, laying the furrows flat at the bottom, compact, regular, and in a 

 proper state to receive the seed without any further preparation, so that no 

 hollow places may remain in which it can be buried too deep. 



Above is the representation of an implement of this kind, for which a 

 premium was a few years ago awarded by the Bath and West of England 

 Agricultural Society to Mr. Cliarles Adams. It is worked by one horse, 

 which walks in the furrow, and follows two ploughs. The small wheels 

 represent three cast-iron rollers, which are fastened in an oak shaft, or 

 roller. The larger ones, marked a, weigh from 2^ cwt. to 3 cwt. each, 

 are from 2 feet 9 inches to 3 feet in height, and act between the 

 furrow-slices. The small wheel, marked b, works on the unploughed 

 land, except where the implement is following the two last furrows; 

 when, if properly adjusted, it will run between the two last furrows, on 



* Webb Hall's Prize Essay on tlie jjrowth of Wheat : Trans, of the Bath and West of 

 England Soc. — Vol. xv. Art. xiv. p. 132. 



