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NEW 



NE W 



hoes, to make experiments of the?e 

 kinds. After the ground is plough- 

 ed into ridges and well harrowed, 

 the channels may be expeditiously 

 made two inches deep with the head 

 of a common rake, and the seed 

 may be scattered in them by hand, 

 and covered with the rake. The 

 horse hoeing may be well enough 

 performed with a common horse 

 plough, passing it twice in a furrow, 

 if it be found necessary, that the 

 ground may be stirred to a suffici- 

 ent depth. 



If, after a fair trial or two, the 

 new culture of winter wheat and 

 rye should prove unsuccessful, it 

 need not discourage any from sow- 

 ing their grain with a drill plough. 

 In land that is fit for it, the sowing 

 may be performed with great expe- 

 dition. If the seed were to be dril- 

 led in rows about nine inches apart, 

 leaving no wider intervals, it would 

 be attended with several advanta- 

 ges. Half the seed may be saved 

 by it, which is a matter of some im- 

 portance, especially in a time of 

 scarcity of grain. 



If the seed be good, it will un- 

 doubtedly all come up well and 

 prosper: Because it will all be bu- 

 ried at the most suitable depth in 

 the soil. But in the common way 

 of sowing, some of the seeds are bu- 

 ried at such a depth, that they 

 scarcely come up at all. Some are 

 so near the surface, that the least 

 drying of the soil prevents their ve- 

 getating, or alternate moisture and 

 dryness turns them to malt. And 

 some will be uncovered,which will 

 be taken away by birds. Many 

 stinted plants will appear ; the crop 

 will be uneven, some part of it be- 



ing belter, and ripening 60oner,than 

 the rest. Another advantage of 

 drilling will be, that weeders may 

 pass through a field to weed it, if 

 there should be occasion for it,with- 

 out any danger of hurting the plants. 

 And all fields of wheat that produce 

 weeds, ought to be carefully weed- 

 ed. Sowed in this way the ground 

 might also be stirred in the narrow 

 intervals with a small hoe, which 

 would encourage the growth of the 

 plant, and keep it cleaner from 

 weeds. 



Instead of the drill husbandry. 

 Dr. Hunter recommends a new 

 scheme of bis own, which partakes 

 partly of the new, and partly of the 

 old husbandry. He calls it alter- 

 nate husbandry. The scheme is as 

 follows : He ploughs his ground in 

 fiat ridges, or in lands, nine feet 

 wide. When seed time arrsveSjhe 

 sows one land in the broad cast 

 way, and leaves the next, sawing 

 the third, and so on alternately 

 through the field. The lands which 

 are not sown he fallows, allowing 

 them three or four ploughings in 

 the fallow year; sows them the 

 next year, and fallows the other. 



He finds this to be a good mode 

 of culture for land that is weak,and 

 which lies remote from manure. A 

 mean soil will thus bear pretty good 

 crops without dressings, or with 

 very small ones. The grain has 

 greater advantage of a free air than 

 in the old husbandry. No new im- 

 plements are needed, nor any 

 greater accuracy in the culture re- 

 quired than any ploughman is ca- 

 pable of. Perhaps a row or two of 

 potatoes, or carrots, in the middle 

 of the fallow ridges, might not be 



