Season for Sowing. 331 



dry soil ; but where moisture is likely to be injurious to the 

 crop, the furrows should be gone over by a plough, with- 

 out a mould plate, and the mould or loosened earth, should 

 be thrown, by spades or shovels, upon the land sown with 

 the oats. If the crop is too luxuriant in spring, it may 

 either be cut with the scythe, or fed off with sheep, in the 

 months of February or March. This is of use to the crop, 

 though it may retard the ripening. But after all, it will 

 be a fortnight or three weeks earlier for the sickle, than the 

 spring sown, and the produce will be more abundant. If 

 possible, seed should be procured from a crop that had been 

 sown in winter, as such oats will naturally produce plants 

 of a hardier nature, than could be obtained from spring- 

 sown corn. The Tartarian oat, as being of a sort peculiar- 

 ly hardy, has been strongly recommended for trying the 

 experiment ( 98 ). 



SECT. XL Sowing Broad-cast. 



THE most advantageous mode of depositing seed in the 

 ground, and of covering it afterwards, is one of the most in- 

 teresting subjects of agricultural inquiry. It has of late at- 

 tracted particular attention, and has been discussed, not on- 

 ly in various publications, but at numerous meetings of in- 

 telligent practical farmers. It may be considered under 

 three heads 1. Sowing broad-cast; 2. Drilling; and, 

 3. Dibbling. 



Sowing Broad-cast. This mode of sowing, was originally 

 almost universal. It is still very generally adopted in many 

 districts in these kingdoms, and is the usual practice in the 

 greater part of the Continent. To execute, however, the 

 process well, is attended with much difficulty ; nor is it pos- 

 sible, from any description, to form an idea, of the measured 

 step, the regular handfuls, and the artificial cast which the 

 sower acquires, and which can only be learnt, by inspec- 

 tion, imitation, and practice. A skilful and experienced 

 sower, regulates the prescribed quantity of seed to the acre, 

 with wonderful precision, and distributes the seed over the 

 ground, with the most exact equality. It is often however, 

 very imperfectly executed ; and even where it is done well, 

 it must depend upon the subsequent operation of harrow- 

 ing, whether the seed is deposited at the proper depth, so 

 as to germinate with advantage. 



It is objected to this process, by those who have adopted 

 a more correct one, that it is slovenly ; that it is difficult 



