60 BEANS AFTER BARLEY, [FEB. 



Dibbling is an excellent method,, when well per- 

 formed ; but the grand objeclion to it is, the diffi- 

 culty of getting it well done. When it becomes 

 the common husbandry of a district, the workmen 

 find that great earnings are to be made by it ; and 

 this is much too apt to make them careless, and 

 eager to earn still more ; and if a very minute at- 

 tention be not paid to them, by the constant at- 

 tendance of the farmer, they strike the holes so 

 shallow, that the first peck of a rook's bill takes 

 the seed, and acres may be destroyed, if the breed 

 of those birds be encouraged as they ought to be. 

 Boys are employed for weeks together, to keep the 

 iields, but all works that depend on boys are 

 horribly neglecled, and thus the farmer suffers 

 materially ; but if the seed is deposited two and a 

 half, or (better) three inches deep, it is not so 

 easily got at. The imperfect delivery of beans 

 by all the drill-machines which I have seen, caus- 

 ing many gaps in the rows, is an additional motive 

 to dibble. But, on the contrary, the power to put 

 in the seed at the desired depth, with the drill, is a 

 great motive to use it ; nor should the difference of 

 the expcncc be forgotten. To dibble beans well, 

 at eighteen inches equi-distant, will cost 5s. an 

 acre ; but drilling will not come to the half of that 

 sum. On layers, whether of grass or clover, I pre- 

 fer dibbling, because, on such, it i> easier to de- 

 posit the seed at a safe depth, In the dibble than 

 by the drill, unless it be on clover of our year, 

 ploughed with Mr. Ducket's skim-cpulter before 



winter, 





