UNSOUND SYSTEMS OF TILLAGE 75 



end of November, it has not been possible, through 

 rainfall and the absence of drying winds or weather, 

 to sow one-fourth of the wheat area, which the 

 average farmer, without any compulsory tillage 

 measure, in reality intended. 



In the new year the farmer hoped against hope, 

 that the weather would " take up," and give him a 

 chance to sow his wheat crop. The weather in the 

 first half of January continued wet. The wheat 

 which was sown in early October, and that " put 

 down in snatches," after potatoes and roots in 

 November, mostly perished with the constant wet. 

 Then from mid-January onwards came two or three 

 weeks of frost and snow, which lasted to mid- 

 February. The frost then cleared off, the weather 

 for two or three days remained dry, just long enough 

 for the frost to leave the land, then down came the 

 rain again, and continued well into March, when we 

 had another fall of snow. 



That winter was undoubtedly rather more trying 

 than the average winter, but there has been a 

 sufficiency of bad weather conditions during what 

 may be termed the tillage decay period to convince 

 the average farmer of the futility of trying to till on 

 the ordinary lines under what are average conditions. 



