752 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



northern farmers is the defective manner in which the land is ploughed, by which there is 

 not sufficient covering for the seed. To guard against these evils it is a very general 

 practice in most of the southern counties, when wheat is sown broad-cast, to plough it in 

 with a shallow furrow. This is done even after beans and on clover leys, and is a favorite 

 practice on very opposite soils, as in Norfolk and Middlesex. 



4628. Drilling, however, is extensively practised in some districts, and is becoming more general on lands 

 infested with the seeds of annual weeds, especially when sown in spring. A machine which sows at three 

 different intervals, according to the judgment of the farmer, of twelve, ten and a half, or nine inches, 

 is much approved of in the northern districts. It deposits six, seven, or eight rows at once, according as 

 it is adjusted to one or other of these intervals, and the work is done with ease and accuracy when the 

 ridges are previously laid out of such a breadth, twelve and a half feet, as to be sown by one bout; the 

 machine going along one side of such a ridge, and returning on the other, and its direction being guided by 

 .one of its wheels, which thus always runs in the open furrow between the ridges. If the ten and a half inch 

 interval be adopted, and it is the most common one in that country, the machine sows seven rows at once, 

 or fourteen rows on a ridge of twelve feet and a half. But the space between the rows varies in some parts 

 still more than this machine admits of; it ought not, however, to be so narrow as to prevent hand hoeing, 

 even after the crop has made considerable progress in growth ; and it cannot advantageously be so wide as 

 to admit the use of any effective horse-hoe. 



4629. Ribbing is a mode of sowing common in some places, by which a drill machine is 

 dispensed with, though the same purpose is nearly answered. This is what is called 

 ribbing, which we have already adverted to in the section on tillage. The seed is scatter- 

 ed with the hand in the usual broad-cast manner, but as it necessarily falls for the most 

 part in the furrows between the ribs, the crop rises in straight parallel rows, as if it had 

 been sown by a drill machine ; after sowing the ribs are levelled by harrowing across 

 them. This plan has nearly all the advantages of drilling in so far as regards exposure 

 to the rays of the sun, and the circulation of air among the plants ; but as some plants 

 must always rise between the rows, it is not quite so proper when horse-hoeing is required. 

 {Sup. E. Brit.) 



4630. The dibbling of wheat is practised in some parts of Norfolk. The furrow is laid 

 over flat, and a row of holes is made along the middle of each by a man who uses a dib- 

 ber in each hand. A middling workman will make four holes in a second. One dibbler 

 is sufficient for three droppers ; whence one man and three children are called a set. The 

 dibbler carries on three flags or turned furrows ; going on some yards upon one of the 

 outside furrows, and returning upon the other, after which he takes the middle one ; and 

 thus keeps his three droppers constantly employed ; and at the same time is in no danger 

 of filling up the holes with his feet. The droppers put in two or three grains of wheat 

 into each hole ; but much time and patience is necessary to teach them to perform the 

 business properly and quickly. An expert dibbler will hole half an acre in a day ; 

 though one-third of an acre is usually reckoned a good day's work. The seed is covered 

 by means of a bush harrow ; and from one bushel to six pecks is the usual quantity for 

 an acre; Notwithstanding the advantages of saving seed, as well as some others which 

 are generally reckoned undeniable, it is asserted by some very judicious farmers, that 

 dibbling of wheat on the whole is not really a profitable practice. It is particularly said 

 to be productive of weeds unless dibbled very thick : which indeed may probably be the 

 case as the weeds are thus allowed a greater space to vegetate in. Marshal is of opinion, 

 that the dibbling of wheat appears to be peculiarly adapted to deep rich soils, on which 

 three or four pecks dibbled early may spread sufficiently for a full crop ; whereas light, 

 weak, shallow soils, which have lain two or three years, and have become grassy, require 

 an additional quantity of seed, and consequently an addition of labor, otherwise the plants 

 are not able to reach each other, and the grasses of course find their way up between 

 them, by M'hich means the crop is injured and the soil rendered foul. If a single grain 

 of good size and sound, could be dropt in each hole and no more, there might be an ad- 

 vantage in dibbling where it could be accomplished at a moderate rate ; but where two or 

 three grains are put in each hole, and often six or eight, the source of profit is diminished 

 or destroyed by twofold means ; first, by using too much seed ; and secondly, because 

 three or four grains springing out of one hole will not make such a strong plant or stool 

 as one sound grain. The only way in which we can conceive dibbling likely to answer 

 is by the use of a machine such as that invented by Plunkett (2469. ;, but which never 

 came into use. To attempt dibbling either wheat or beans by hand on a large scale, we 

 consider as quite unsuitable for the present improved state of agriculture. 



4631. The after culture of wheat, or culture of the growing crop, depends on the man- 

 ner in which it has been sown. When wheat is sown broad-cast, the subsequent culture 

 must generally be confined to harrowing, rolling, and hand-hoeing. As grass seeds are 

 frequently sown in spring on winter-sown wheat, the harrows and roller are employed to 

 loosen the soil, and cover the seeds. But these operations, to a certain extent, and at the 

 proper season, are found beneficial to the wheat crop itself, and are sometimes performed 

 even when grass seeds are not to be sown. One or two courses of harrowing penetrate the 

 crust which is formed on tenacious soils, and operate like hand-hoeing in raising a fresh 

 mould to the stems of the young plants. Rolling in spring ought never to be omitted on 

 dry porous soils, which are frequently left in so loose a state by the winter frosts, that the 



