546 OCTOBEfc. 



if the land is so laid in autumn, on to ridges of 

 that exact breadth which suits th tools (whatever 

 they may be, whether harrows, scarifiers, scufflers, 

 or drills), so that the horses which draw them may 

 walk only in the furrows, the frosts will have left 

 so fine and friable a surface, that any of these ope- 

 rations may be performed long before the land in 

 the common system could be ploughed. The seed 

 is securely in the ground before the old-fashioned 

 farmer thinks of moving. If he ploughs, he turns 

 down a dry crumbling surface, and brings up the 

 stiff wet clung bottom : if rain comes, then he is 

 in the mire, and must wait for a season : if a dry- 

 ing sharp north-east wind comes, his furrows are 

 converted to oblong stripes of a stony hardness. 

 In one case he is plagued with mud, in the other 

 with impenetrable clods: he was possessed of just 

 the surface he wanted, and which, once lost, is not 

 often regained. This surface may be scuffled, and 

 immediately drilled securely. If this husbandry be 

 intended, it is of particular importance that tlve 

 lands or stitches be laid out with great exactness. 

 See the Calendar for the spring months. 



A caution in the first forming of these stitches 

 should be mentioned; which is, the difficulty, with-' 

 out two or three ploughings, of bringing them from 

 old breadths into a correct form. If the men are 

 not skilful, they raise the centers too high ; and, ip 

 reversing, are apt to leave the outside furrows also 

 too high : the stitch sliould be flat, or, if rounded, 



very 



