30 



well made harrows covers the ridge at a bout ; and three 

 reapers are found a sufficient number to cut the grain, 

 the centre one making ropes for all the three, and none 

 of them having far to go to lay in the corn they cut 

 down : At the same time, where the crop is abundant, it 

 might be advisable to have four reapers, with two rows 

 of sheaves, and two binders to bind for three ridges *. 

 It is evident, that in wet land it would not be advisable 

 to have ridges broader than eighteen feet, as it would 

 then be necessary to gather the ridge thrice in ploughing, 

 for the purpose of laying it dry, by which process, in 

 ordinary soils, the furrows would be rendered so bare, that 

 upon two or three feet of every furrow, the corn would 

 not be worth the cutting f. The only question, then, is 

 this, that though on the east coast of Scotland, where the 

 climate is dry, eighteen feet ridges may be advisable ; 

 vet whether on the west coast, where fo much more rain 

 falls, from ten to fifteen feet may [not, on wet soils, 

 be more convenient. 



On very dry porous turnip soils, it is of little impor- 

 tance, as has been already observed, whether ridges are 

 formed at all, unless to regulate the sowing and cutting 

 down in harvest J. An intelligent farmer in Dumfries- 

 shire, (Mr Church of Hitchill), has his ridges in general 

 30 feet wide, when the soil is dry i and in regard to 

 such soils, no specific standard is necessary. 



Remark by Mr Dudgeon, Prora. 



f Remark by Mr Rennie, Kinblcthmont. 



J Remark by Mr Hunter of Tyncfield. 



That respectable farmer, Mr Money Hill, has favoured 

 me with the following observations on this subject. On tur- 



