OBJECTIONS. 113 



woodeu roller, a tree truck fitted with a frame 

 with shafts for the horse. Sometimes the wheat 

 was dibbled, which was a far better way of put- 

 ting it iu thau the above ; and as about a bushel 

 of Avheat was saved in the seeding, the value of 

 this when worth Ts. paid for the labour, and 

 recuperative employment was found for surplus 

 hands when there were too many of them. A 

 field or breadth having been ploughed, a man 

 armed with a dibber in each hand would walk 

 backwards on two furrows, striking holes in them 

 as he went, while a woman or lad followed to 

 drop a corn or oftener two corns into each hole. 

 The wheat plant always came up strong and 

 vigorous after the surface consolidation by the 

 tread of human feet, and, if performed early 

 in the season, autumn tillering was the result. 

 Beans were often dibbled similarly, but bean- 

 planting by field women was the more general 

 custom. A company of perhaps half a dozen 

 women were often to be seen on a black February 

 or March morning, each with an open-mouthed 

 bag containing the seed beans suspended to her 

 waist, and she would strike holes with a short 

 dirk held in the right hand, and drop beans into 

 them after taking them out of the bag with her 

 left hand. Truly it was back-aching work for 

 the poor women, who had to perform it stooping, 

 with heads nearly down to the ground all day. 

 Perhaps, it will be asked, why did not farmers 

 drill their beans? The corn drills of that time 

 were cumbrous, requiring four horses to drav,- 



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