78 



it is no inconsiderable motive for sowing seeds to 

 last nine or ten years, expressly with a view to it. 



BLACK OATS. 



This month is the proper season for sowing" 

 black oats. The land should have been ploughed 

 in autumn, and the seed now harrowed in. Four 

 or five bushels per acre is a proper portion of seed, 

 in rich soils ; but six do better on poorer ones. 

 They suit best on turf land ploughed up before 

 the winter*, but left till this time for dibbling in, 

 which is a profitable husbandry. The farmers too 

 often sow them after other crops of com, but 

 that practice is always to be condemned. They 

 likewise plough for them at the time of sowing* 

 On the contrary, I suppose the land to have been 

 ploughed in the preceding autumn. They follow 

 beans or pease properly, or any ameliorating crop 

 of roots, &c. Supposing the land too wet for 

 dibbling, they cannot be sown this month ; but, 

 if the soil and the season will allow, there should 

 be no delay in getting them into the ground ; for 

 early sowing of all hardy crops, when the land is 

 dry enough, is of great importance, and many 

 times more than sufficient to balance other very 

 expensive circumstances. 



* The reader will have the goodness to remark, that the di- 

 rection to plough the land, at a former season, previous to sowing* 

 y?as given (however imperfectly) in the first edition of this work, 

 printed in 1/7 1. 



SORT 



