2 FEBRUARY. 



and unmanageable, the surface which had been 

 rendered friable by the frosts, being turned down, 

 and the more stiff' and clun^ bottom not influenced 

 in the same manner by those natural agents being 

 brought up ; ttjat might also, if very favourable 

 weather ensued, be brought into good order, but if 

 the season proved the least unfavourable, the farmer 

 could have no chance of obtaining so fine and safe 

 a tilth as the surface was capable of, without any 

 such reversal of it by ploughing. The new sys- 

 tem is, to apply the scarifiers instead of such 

 ploughing. Mr. Cook's with his cast-iron beam, 

 or any other heavy enough, is used, the horses 

 walking only in the furrows, and consequently 

 without any trampling of the land. These scari- 

 fiers are of different breadths, but all narrow, 

 usually about three inches, or, at most four, and 

 they will . go as deeply as may be thought proper. 

 They ought to stir to the depth to which it would 

 have been ploughed, whether four, live, or six 

 inches. They completely loosen the soil, let down 

 the air, to dry it at bottom, give a very good tilth, 

 with the material advantage of not burying that 

 pulverized surface which frosts have given, and 

 which, if once lost, may not be regained in time 

 for barley. In some cases, one scarifying, and two 

 or three harrow ings, will effect the preparation ; 

 in others two. Three operations may be wanted in 

 others, that is, two scarify ings and one scuffling, 

 with broader triangular shares. These variations 

 will depend entirely on the degree in which the 



soil 



