506 ' THE BKILL HUSBAXDRY. [oCT, 



a great and rapid progress in Norfolk ; but it travelled 

 no further in that county. A great revolution which 

 has taken place in the wet land district of Suffolk , has 

 introduced it with equal success on the strong soils of 

 that county. 



This great change is the banishment of the plough, 

 to as great a degree as possible from heavy soils in the 

 spring ; all barley, oats, pease, and beans, that can by 

 any means be thus managed, are piit in on an autum- 

 nal ploughing, which has thrown the stitches very 

 carefully ploughed to the exa6t breadth which suits 

 either one movement of the drill, or a bout of that 

 tool ; according to the system the farmer is in, some 

 preferring one and some the other. The frosts give 

 a considerable friability to the surface, so that the 

 farmer can go on very early in the spring, and after 

 one scarifying and harrowing, drill the corn without 

 a horse's foot treading any where except in the stitch 

 furrows. 



The advantages of this system are beyond con- 

 ception. In the common husbandry of giving two 

 or three spring ploughing*, or even one, that friable 

 surface, the gift of the atmosphere, is turned down, 

 iind in eight seasons out of ten lost, to bo had no 

 more. Succes-.in rain and sharp N.E. winds give a 

 succession of mire and clods, to the material delay, 

 expence and vexation of the farmer. His crops suf- 

 fer greatly, and lie is generally /'// / voon of 



spring operations. 



The improvement is applicable to Hie broad-cast 



to the drill; but as it was intro- 



duced, I believe, by those who had been in the habit 







