144 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. X. 



distances, so as to suit tlie furrows in various kinds of wotK. When used 

 also as a drill, the seed-box and coulters are added as in fig. 2, which 

 represents the machine when in action. 



MANURE. 



Soils of an ordinary quality, when fallowed for wheat, are very com- 

 monly dunged in the course of the summer ; but in those of a richer nature, 

 or those which have been kept in heart by the previous application of 

 manure to other crops, it is dispensed with ; and in no case is it ever 

 applied by any farmer who understands his business, at the time of sowing. 

 Experience has, indeed, shown that its application is very generally rather 

 productive of an increase of straw than corn ; that the crop is thus subject 

 to be lodged ; and the wheat has been found inferior in weight, as well as more 

 subject to smut than when it has been avoided. An attentive and experienced 

 observer can, indeed, discriminate by the bearded appearance of one end 

 of the grain, whether it has been forced by putrescent manure, or has been 

 spontaneously grown upon a free and well-tilled soil. Intelligent men, 

 therefore, endeavour so to arrange their alternation of crops, as that the 

 wheat shall come in before it can have exhausted the power of the dung ; 

 and, when it does not follow clover, they, if possible, make it succeed a 

 drilled crop, either potatoes, mangel-wurzel, or peas ; or more generally 

 beans. When, liowever, the state of the land is such as that a bare 

 fallow cannot be avoided ; that it is too poor to afford the promise of a crop 

 without the aid of manure ; that the refuse of fish, blubber, rape-dust, or 

 any of the extraneous manures of a putrescent or nutritive quality can- 

 not be procured, and that, consequently, farm-yard dung must be employed, 

 it should then be previously mixed with the scrapings of roads and ditches, 

 the headlands of fields, or earth of some kind to form it into a compost, in 

 which state, when completely decomposed, it may be laid upon the land 

 with safety. 



Chemistry, with all its powers of analyzation, has hitherto added so little 

 to our knowledge of the food of plants, that our acquaintance with the 

 subject has been chiefly derived from experience ; and we are still at a loss 

 for a scientific account of the mixture and application of composts ; though 

 it may be reasonably supposed that, as different plants require different 

 species of nourishment, a selection might be advantageously made of the 

 matters most appropriate to that object. Thus it has been conjectured 

 that wheat, containing more of the substance called gluten than exists in 

 any other species of grain, would be peculiarly benefited by the application 

 of animal manures, as ajjproaching nearer to its nature than those com- 

 posed of vegetables; and some experiments have tended to prove that the 

 idea is correct. In our present ignorance of the subject, however, farmers 

 can do nothing better than to collect any animal and vegetable refuse 

 which fall within their reach, and incorporate them together for the forma- 

 tion of composts, which will in all cases be found more suitable than raw 

 dung; to the growth of wheat. 



There can be no doubt that rt;;;;//r«^w/i of lime is beneficial to the j)ro- 

 duction of wheat, as improving the quality of the grain, and correcting 

 the adhesiveness of the strong clays upon which it is usually grown. Tiie 

 nature of the soil, as well as the amount and period of its former employ- 

 ment, should, however, be attentively examined, before any further use of 

 it be allowed ; for, if applied in a causlic state, it acts so powerfully as a 

 stimulant, that if the land be not suj)ported by an equivalent application of 

 putrescent manure, it will speedily become exhausted. If mixed in com- 



