;14« BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. X. 



as our own experience goes, we have sfen equally fine crops of wheat pro- 

 duced in either way. In the first, it is usually at the rate of 2h- to 3 and 

 sometimes 3^ bushels ; but if drilled or dibbled, it must be governed by 

 the distance at which the rows and the holes are placed : thus it is drilled 

 at various intervals, from six to twelve inches apart, and generally dibbled 

 at about eight inches by three. Various experiments have been tried to 

 ascertain the effect of different distances in the production of the crop, and 

 the result has shown the best space at which wheat can be drilled to be 

 from seven to eight inches *. From 2 to 2^ bushels are tlius sown ; though 

 some farmers limit the quantity to 6 or S pecks : when dibbled, from 5 to 

 7 pecks are considered sufficient. This, however, must also be partly 

 regulated both by the nature of the soil and of the seed, as well as the time 

 of sowing ; for if both the corn and the land be of superior quality, less seed 

 will serve than if they be of a bad kind ; and whatever may be their equality, 

 the quantity of seed must be somewhat increased in proportion to the late- 

 ness of the season at which the grain is sown. 



In the remarks which we have made upon the growth of corn, we have 

 stated it as our opinion, that farmers generally err on the side of sowing 

 too profusely. The practice, however, has been still further extended by 

 the recommendation of Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, on whose estates wheat is 

 now usually sown at the rate of full four bushels per acre. The reasons 

 upon which it is founded, are stated by Mr. Blaikie, his land-steward, as 

 having partly arisen from accidental circumstances, but to have been 

 adopted as a general rule, after repeated trials, upon a very extended i)rac- 

 tice ; the result of which has shown that early and thick sowing is pro- 

 ductive of an increase in the crops, and is also a preventive of mildew. The 

 experiments f recorded by Mr. Blaikie are no doubt strongly corroborative 



* Mr. Buirotip^hs mentions his having sown wheat in drills at eii^hfeen inches distant, 

 which in the foUowinj^ March were liorse-hoed, and tlien landed ; in A])ril they were 

 again hoed and 1 mded, which caused the plants to tiller so much that they nearly 

 filled the space between the drill : the heads grew extremely large, but loose and open, 

 and the crop in many respects proved unprofitable. In the following year he hoed the 

 drills in the same manner, but did not land them, and ibuud that the quality of the 

 grain was very superior. Still, however, he observed the straw to be too luxuriant, in 

 consequence of the intervals between the drills being too wide; in a third experiment, 

 he therefore narrowed them, and found the produce more and of better quality. — On the 

 Cu/livalton of White Crops, p. I'J. 



f They are as f.dlows : — " The first was in a thirty-acre brake, or field of wheat: 

 the seed was sown iu the autumn upon a stale furrow, after a one-year"s clover ley ; the 

 soil a kind of sandy loam, incumbent upon a chalky clay sub-soil. Two drids started at 

 the same time in the middle of this field ; one drill worked towards the west and the 

 other towards the east, the rows ranging from north to south. Both the drill-men 

 received the same directions, and one deposited the usual quantity of seed, four bushels 

 to the acre ; but the other, being a young practitioner, gauged his drill wrong, and 

 depos.ted only three bushels to the acre. The result was, that the four-bushel seeding 

 escaped the mildev/, and was a very fine crop: the three-bushel seeding was mildewed, 

 and was the only thin wheat, and the only mildew worthy of notice upon the Holkham 

 farms. 



"The other experiment was in a thirty-five-acre field of wheat, sown in the same man- 

 ner, alter a clover layer of one year : the soil a lighter sandy loam than the former ; the 

 sub-soil similar. A new drill was put to work upon this field, and the man had in- 

 structions to sow four bushels of seed to the acre ; but the blacksmith having gauged the 

 drill UTiproperly, the labourer went on with it as put into his hands, and deposited yTre 

 buskf/s to the acre. The mistake was discovered, and corrected, after the first day's work ; 

 and the remainder of the field was finished at the rate of four bushels to ihc acre. This 

 accidental experiment was exhibited at the following sheep-shearing, and was subse- 

 quently viewed by many practical men, who gave it as their decided opinion, that the 

 five-bushel seeding was the best crop in the field. The whole was, however, extraor- 

 dinarily good, and without mildew in either part." — Blaikie on MMeir, 2nd Edit. p. 1 1, 



