FARMERS' REGISTER. 



69 



lurned lor f'rnientation, ihe gates are again sliut, 

 iiniil ihe coMiijIetion of the barley-seed, when the 

 ti!la<re is renewed in one of" two ways. IT a very 

 liyht fieUi, it is again severely harrowed by cattle 

 travelling at a qnick pace, and hand picked, &c. : 

 if a field of better staple, it undergoes a third 

 |)louirhing across the Ibrmer one, a rolling, har- 

 rowing, and hand picking; and in both cases it is 

 lelt in a hiifhiy-pulverizcd stale to wait utiiil seed 

 time. When the people open the gates to beirin 

 sowing, they like to find a young and scarcely 

 perceptible braird or growth of'annuai weeds thin- 

 ly scattered on the surliice. 



At the time of sowinir green crops in Sutherland 

 the dusk or twilight of the evening glides into that 

 ofthe morning, wiihout passinir into night ; when 

 the sun has a most poweriul influence. The seed 

 process is, therefore, carried ihronirh with every 

 possible desjiatch. The meihod followed is two- 

 ibld : in each case it is preceded by a deep furrow- 

 line, to define the head-ridge on each of the lour 

 sides of the field. 



1. Wiiere dung is to be employed, two ploughs, 

 which are yoked twenty minutes before the carters, 

 open drills, furrowing an acute angle with th« 

 side ridijes ; to favor the admixture of the dung 

 next season in the mass of the field, these fiirrows 

 are from twenty-seven to thirty inches wide, accord- 

 ing to the quality of the soil. Four single carts 

 follow, two at each end of the drills at the rate of 

 fifteen to twenty tons per acre. Six girls spread 

 the dung as fist as the carters deposit it. Two 

 ploughs, which yoke forty minutes later than the 

 carters, cover in the dunir. A few boys and cirls 

 hand-pick the whole. The sowing machine fol- 

 lows and rolls in the seed ; and at the termination 

 of each yokinij, three acres, which at the beginning 

 lay fiat and dan)p from the former tillaae, is driil- 

 6(1, dunged, covered, hand-picked, sown and com- 

 pleted. The machine sows two drills at once. 

 lis rollers are formed to encompass and embrace 

 each drill. The two sets of rollers (one for each 

 drill) are separate, and diverge on" an iron axle in 

 such a manner, that ihey can be made to deposit 

 thesepd only on the lop of the drill, immediately 

 incumbent on the manure — a condition which in- 

 sures a more equal and a better crop than where 

 less perfect tillage is employed. 



2. When bone-dust is used, fourteen quarters of 

 Ihe manure is wet and covered for fermentation 

 lorty-eight hours before the yokinsr begins. The 

 horses cart this to the field at yoking time, and 

 the loads are set down at measured distances in 

 different parts of the field. Two ploughs open the 

 drills ; ten boys and cirls manure, carry, and sow 

 the dust into the drill, which is in a state of inci- 

 pient fermentation. Four ploughs instantly cover 

 in. The sowing machine follows, and from four 

 and a half to five acres are completed at a yoking. 

 The machine is regulated to sow from one to four 

 pounds of seed per acre, according to the farmer's 

 intention. The quantity sown is generally about 

 two pounds to the imperial acre. In all cases the 

 seeds are floated, the lights are skimmed off, and 

 the good seeds dried with flour of sulphur, all at 

 the time of sowinsr. The sulphur is thouijht to 

 preserve the seed from vermin. The dampness, 

 however, communicated by thefloatinirto the seed, 

 and the fermentation incipient in the manure, does, 

 with greater certainty, at that sunny season, send 

 up a regular vigorous braid, and carry it quickly to 



the rough leaf, at which state il is secure li-om the 



fly. 



Some farmers use bone-dust sowing machines 

 drawn by iwo horses. The writer of this report, 

 on the whole, prefers manual labor, performed 

 after the fashion above described, to any sowing 

 machine which he has yet seen. 



Besides ra|)e or cole he grows four difl[erent 

 kinds of turnips. At the part nearest to the 

 mountain (intended to be first used by the sheep) 

 while globe; in the middle, red top and green 

 mixed, four drills and lour drills alternately; at 

 ihe boilom, for spring eatage, yellow, one-lburth 

 part may be while globe, two-lburths, or rather 

 better, red and green, and the remainder, where 

 the field suits, yellow. The while, lor early eatage 

 in November and December, and lor quantity per 

 acre, are unequalled, but their thin skin renders 

 them too tender for the frosts of January and 

 February. The red and green, with great bulk, 

 are proof against the severities of winter. The 

 writer of this report mixes them agreeably to that 

 law of nature which uives none of its eatage in one 

 single species ; and he thinks the sheep like the 

 variety which is in the two sorts mixed. The yel- 

 lows, as Ihey retain iheirsap longest, are decidedly 

 the best lor the spririg months. The difliierent sorta 

 are made to follow each other in the same drill, by 

 using diflerent seed-boxes, which are exchanged 

 at the different parts marked in the field ; the re- 

 moved one being laid down on the top ofthe near- 

 est two drills to wait the relurn of ihe machine. 



The Scotch farmer will pardon this minute de- 

 tail of his every day work, which is submitted to 

 the English reader in case he should choose to 

 give a lair trial to the drill husbandry in the cul- 

 tivation olturnips. 



The writer invariably grows his own turnip 

 seeds. He plants his four diflerent lots of roots 

 far distant from each other, to prevent hybrid ad- 

 mixture, having first selecled the roots with great 

 care from the field in which they had been sown. 

 Where, in the course of his little lours, or by cor- 

 respondence, he can pick up small samples of what 

 is called grood seed, he sows them, marks the drill 

 in his weekly report, and pricks from them in the 

 ensuing month of November whatever may seem 

 likely to give a good cross in his seed plots, one 

 load to ten of his own sort, perhaps ; less or more 

 as he may judge advisable at tfie time: it is a 

 measure to be adopted with great caution. Some 

 samples which he obtained from Aikeld and Kel- 

 ham, in Northumberland, ft-om Samuslon, Rox- 

 burghshire, from Leaming Lane, in Yorkshire, 

 and from Dalswinton, in Dumlt-esshire, have done 

 him a deal of good ; other samples obtained from 

 sardeners and nurserymen have turned out to be 

 trash in some cases, and in others to be of the very 

 best breeds. 



But to return to the tillage : the green crop 

 sowing begins with the rape, as formerly men- 

 tioned, about the 25th of May ; it concludes belbre 

 the last week in June. Two horse hoe harrows, 

 followed by twenty or thirty hand hoes, attended 

 by the second grieve, are then set on, first to the 

 rape, and so forward through the turnips, to the 

 latest sown crops. By the time the latest sown 

 is completed, the first sown is ready for the second 

 hoeing. The horse hoere then exchange their 

 harrows for small double mould-board ploughs: 

 with these they set up the crop lightly, and thus, 



