SIZE AND SHAPE OP FIELDS. 3? 



the purpose of drying the ground, of bringing forward and 

 ripening the grain, and of enabling the farmer more easily 

 to secure it, during any unfavourable harvest, by a free 

 circulation of the air. 



It is now proper to make some observations on the shape 

 of fields, the form of which should be square in strong, 

 and oblong in turnip lands, uniformity of soil being at the 

 same time attended to. 



Square Form. It is evident, that it is advantageous to 

 have the fences in straight lines, and that fields when large, 

 should be square,* and when small, more especially in tur- 

 nip soils, of an oblong form, in order that the ploughing 

 may be dispatched with as few turnings as possible. Some 

 people, whose farms are of a waving or uneven surface, and 

 who inclose with hedge and ditch, carry their ditch through 

 the hollows or best soil, with a view of raising a good 

 hedge ; thus, often sacrificing, for the sake of the fence, 

 the form of their field. A straight line, however, is pre- 

 ferable, even though it should be necessary to take some 

 particular pains to enrich the soil for the thorns, when it is 

 thin and poor, on any elevation.f By means of the square 

 form, an opportunity is afforded, of ploughing in every di- 

 rection, when necessary, and less time is lost in carrying 

 on all the operations of husbandry in a field of that form, 

 than of any other shape. Where the waving form is ne- 

 cessary to secure proper water-runs, plantations may be so 



* Mr Kerr justly remarks, that in hanging grounds, the ridges and 

 furrows ought always to have so much obliquity, as to reduce the field 

 nearly to the circumstances of one situated on a plain. The operations 

 of ploughing, harrowing, carting, &c. are thus materially facilitated| and 

 jthe filling up, or sanding of the furrows effectually prevented. 



t Remark by Mr Church, Hitchill, near Annan, 



