ADVANTAGES OF DRILLING. 45 



width. The corn-barrel or seed-box of this machine 

 delivers from two pecks to six or seven bushels per acre, 

 of any kind of grain, and has an additional barrel for 

 turnip seed, &c. ; and again, these barrels, by a simple 

 yet excellent regulator, are kept on unequal and hilly 

 grounds, on the same level, so that the grain is evenly 

 delivered, whatever may be the situation of the drill. 

 The weight of this machine varies, according to the 

 number of coulters, from three to ten hundredweight, 

 and it is drawn, according to circumstances, by one, 

 two, or three horses. 



Numerous arguments for and against drilling are 

 employed by the advocates of different systems of farm- 

 ing ; but on the whole it appears, that wherever it can 

 be employed, it promotes the destruction of weeds and 

 fertilizing of the soil, and introduces habits of neat- 

 ness and order, to say nothing of its chief benefit in 

 the improvement of the crop. Sinclair, in his Code of 

 Husbandry, speaks thus decidedly in its favour : "There 

 is every reason to believe that the system would become 

 general were it oncea dmitted to be an established maxim, 

 that drilling corn, like drilling" turnips, is superior to 

 broad-cast. Farmers would then prepare for it, by 

 furnishing themselves with the necessary implements, 

 and by dressing and clearing the soil with peculiar and 

 minute attention. There might still be some excep- 

 tions, as on very strong clays, or in very unfavourable 

 seasons ; but these exceptions, as in the case of the 

 turnip, would be every day less numerous. Our fields 

 would be then cultivated with the same zeal and neat- 

 ness as our gardens, and would become equally pro- 

 ductive. On the whole, such is the importance of the 

 drill system, that its general adoption ought to be pro- 

 moted as far as practicable. Models or engravings of 

 the simplest and best machines, and directions for their 

 use, ought everywhere to be circulated, and liberal en- 

 couragement given to those who will prove, by accurate 

 experiments, in districts where it is at present either 



