l6O MARCH. 



pence per acre, is utterly inadequate for a period 

 when a farmer would be glad to hire horses, could 

 he get them at 5s. per day, and even at a greater 

 charge : but if the modern system, of avoiding as 

 far as possible, all spring ploughing, by the use of 

 the same and other tools, be taken into the ac- 

 count, trier, the drill-husbandry will not demand 

 more i: nv/:s, possibly not so many. Whatever the 

 operation, never loosen the bottom, for that should 

 be left firm for wheat. 



Towards the cud of this month in some seasons, 

 and all through April in others, wheat may be 

 gently earthed up by hand hoes ; it is not, how- 

 ever, common: and let it be remembered, that the 

 husbandry is questionable. It encourages tillering, 

 and if done too late, the crop will ripen unequally ; 

 the tillers will not be so early as the main stems. 



HAND-HOE WHEAT. 



If the farmer docs not choose to practise the pre- 

 ceding operations of horse-hoeing his wheat, he 

 must at all events hand-hoe the drilled intervals ; 

 but the same attention to earliriess, is as necessary 

 in this operation as in the former. If he gives the 

 first hoeing early in this month, he may do it a 

 second time the last week, or early in April. 



HAND-HOE BROAD-CAST WHEAT. 

 There are several districts in the kingdom, in 

 which this is generally done by every good farmer, 

 and in seine at a considerable expence. Some of 



the 



