238 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XVIII. 



two adjoining drills on each side. The muck is then drawn out by tlie 

 driver into small heaps at regular distances, and is followed by women 

 and children, who spread it with forks. It is thus laid into the hollow 

 drills, and the ridgelets are then immediately split open by tlie passage of a 

 plough through tlie centre of each ; by which means the manure is com- 

 pletely covered, and a bed is formed for the reception of the seed. 



It should, however, be observed, that as the land for the grain crop, 

 wliich follows turnips — whether barley, oats, or wheat — seldom gets more 

 than one ploughing *, it is customary to lay off the drills obliquely, in a 

 direction somewhat different from that in which the ridges are to be after- 

 wards drawn for the corn ; as thus a more equal distribution of tlie manure 

 is secured to the soil, for the nourishment of the ensuing crops. Neither 

 is the land always raised into small ridges for the reception of the dung; 

 for the seed is frequently sown in drills drawn through the soil after it has 

 been mixed with the manure, and laid quite flat. 



In thus stating the application of manure, we have only adverted to the 

 use of lime and dung, though ashes, rape-dust, oil, and sea-weed, together 

 with many other kinds, both natural and composite, are frequently em- 

 ployed, and latterly bone-dust has come into such general favour for the 

 cultivation of turnips, as to nearly supersede every purchased species of a 

 putrescent nature. On this, however, we have already dilated so fully in 

 our first volume, that we deem it unnecessary to pursue the subject any 

 further; but we particularly refer our readers to the details in the 19th 

 Chapter. 



The next operation is that of sowing the seed. This ought to be done 

 as soon as possible, while the earth is fresh and moist, after being newly 

 turned up, and when not done broad-cast, is usually performed by means 

 of one or other of the numerous machines already mentioned f, which 

 all act upon the same principle. When dried, some farmers, however, 

 still put it in by liand, from a small implement formed like a pepper- 

 box, with holes at one end, fastened to the end of a walking-stick +, 

 and followed by a man with a rake to cover the seed ; the crowns of the 

 drills being in either case flatted down by a light roller, and the seed 

 sown in regular rows, at the depth of about an inch and a half, along 

 the middle of the tops, directly over the manure. A common mode is 

 also by the hand-drill, which follows the roller, to which it is attached 

 by a rope, and the seed is sown upon one-bout ridges in the following 

 manner. The roller, though of course wide enough to cover two ridges at 

 once, yet, on the first turn, " takes but one ridge with one of its ends ; and, in 

 returning, while it rolls this a second time with the same end, rolls a 

 second ridge the first time with the other; which again, in returning, it 

 rolls a second time, along with a third ridge the first time. In this way it 

 goes twice over the ground : the drill depositing the seed between the first 

 and second sowings §." 



The more general practice is, however, to sow two drills at once. The 

 frame-work of this machine is supported by two separate concave rollers, 

 which work together, and are formed to embrace each drill, in the manner 



* Berwicksh. Rep. p. 271. In Norfolk, however, barley when accompanied with 

 clover is generally sown upon a third ploughing. Kent's Norfolk, p. 45. 



f See Chapter vi. 



+ Siii-v. of Mid-Lothian, p. 111. 



^ Report of a Gloucestershire Hill farm, in the '' Farmer's Series, No. XXI."' See 

 also the plate in the Northumberland Report, and in Brown of Markle's Treatise on 

 Rural Atlairs. 



