68 BARLEY AFTER TCKNIPS. [FEB. 



they are called in Suffolk, and ridges in some 

 counties), of such breadth, as shall very exactly 

 suit for one stroke or going of the drill -machine, 

 or for two ; a bout, as it is termed. The shafts 

 of the drill are fixed, like those of a cart for one 

 horse, that quarters. This will be more particiu 

 larly explained elsewhere, but the horse-hoeing 

 implements, and scarifiers, and scufflers, whatever 

 may be used, must be prepared according to the 

 drill -machine, to fit the stitches exaclly. We shall 

 suppose the turnips to have been drilled, or sown, 

 on stitches sixty-six inches wide, which will admit 

 seven rows of barley to be drilled, at nine inches 

 asunder, besides leaving twelve inches for each 

 furrow. These lands being cleared of turnips, 

 either by sheep-feeding, if the soil be dry, or by 

 carting off with double breast carts (the horses and 

 wheels moving only in the furrows), and the soil 

 on the surface being pulverized and opened in 

 some degree by frosts, the question will be, how 

 to prepare it for barley or oats. The husbandry 

 universal in the kingdom, till very lately, was that 

 of ploughing such land once, twice, or thrice, for 

 spring corn ; the bcttsr farmers thrice, others 

 once, and a few twice. Upon very dry soils, the 

 evil was little more than that of a useless cxpence, 

 except, probably, a greater dissipation of the vola- 

 tile particles of the urine of the sheep that had fed 

 on the turnips ; but upon all other soils more stiff 

 and unmanageable, the surface, which had lu-c-u 



rendered 



