500 LAY UP THE FALLOWS. [oCT. 



leading principle is this : if the land is so laid in 

 autumn, on to ridges of that exact breadth which suits 

 the tools (whatever they may be, whether harrows, 

 scarifiers, scuffier?, or drills), so that the horses which 

 draw them may walk only in the furrows, the frosts 

 will have left so fine and friable a surface, that any of 

 these operations may be performed long before the 

 land in the common system could be ploughed. The 

 seed is securely in the ground before the old-fashioned 

 farmer thinks of moving. If he ploughs, he turns 

 down a dry crumbling surface, and brings up the stiff 

 wet clung bottom ; if rain comes, then he is in the 

 mire, and must wait for a season : if a drying sharp 

 north-east wind comes, his furrows are converted to 

 oblong stripes of a stony hardness. In one case he 

 is plagued with mud, in the other with impenetrable 

 clods : he was possessed of just the surface he wanted, 

 arid which once lost, is not often regained. This sur- 

 face may be scuffled, and immediately drilled securely. 

 If this husbandry be intended, it is of particular im- 

 portance 'that the lands or stitches be laid out with 

 great exactness. See the Calendar for the spring 

 months. 



A caution in the first forming of these stitches 

 should be mentioned ; which is, the difficulty, with- 

 out two or three ploughings, of bringing them from 

 old breadths into a correct form. If the men are not 

 skilful, they raise the centers too high ; and, in re- 

 versing, are apt to leave the outside furrows also too 

 high : the stitch should be flat, or, if rounded, very 

 slightly so; without this attention, the seed in some 

 drills will be deposited deeper than in others. 



so 





