60 NOTES. 



down ; and the treading of the labourers' feet in carrying on the dibbling opera- 

 tion, is beneficial by consolidating the ground. The seed is covered in the dib- 

 ble holes, by a bush harrow dragged over the surface. The foul turf is not bro- 

 ken in any way, nor the couch-grass roots cut in pieces, and transplanted as 

 they would be, by the operation of the harrows, if such land was prepared to be 

 sown by the drill machine. 



147 Young's Essex, vol. i. p. 272. 



148 Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 98, and 133. 

 ] 49 Middlesex Report, p. 1 90, 1 95. 



150 Darwin's Phytologia, p. 291. See also Bogle's Essay in the Papers of 

 the Bath Society, vol. iii. p. 494, and a Treatise on the Culture of Wheat, 

 1 vol. 8vo, printed anno 1812, p. 225. The plants from a peck of seed per 

 acre, would be sufficient. The plants should be set at about live inches apart, 

 in drills 14 inches asunder, rolled with a moderate-sized machine, horse-hoed 

 when weeds appear, and afterwards earthed up with a double mould plough. 

 The produce, when skilfully done, was at the rate of 44 Winchester bushels per 

 statute acre, and the grain was plump and heavy. Ditto, p. 228. In the 

 Monthly Review for July 1796, p. 329, there is an account of a curious expe- 

 riment in the transplantation of wheat. The effect of these operations, will ap- 

 pear in a striking point of view, from an experiment tried by Mr Charles Miller 

 of Cambridge, recorded in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. Iviii, p. 203. It 

 is said that one plant, frequently replanted, ultimately produced 576,840 grains 

 or pickles. 



151 A successful experiment of transplanting wheat, was tried in Essex, an. 

 1 797, taking up plants where they were too thick in a field, and dibbling them 

 where too thin. Essex Report, vol. i. p. 282. It was done in May, but would 

 probably have been still more successful if executed in April, when the season 

 was wet. 



152 Coventry's Discourses, p. 71. 



153 Sir John Anstruther's Remarks on the Drill Husbandry, p. 91. 



154 Communication from the late Arthur Young, Esq. (dated Bradfield-Hall, 

 Sept. 9. 1818), to the Author. Duckett considered hoeing necessary for the 

 object of destroying weeds, but often hurtful in the application. If done on a 

 sandy land, in hot sunshine, it would prove highly injurious to the crop. Where 

 the soil is hard and dry, there is less risk of injury from the operation. 



155 In Flanders, where the minutiae of agriculture are so much attended to, 

 it is not unusual, to tread fields of a moderate size, by the human feet ; but this 

 plan cannot be carried to any great extent. The superior sample obtained from 

 the dibble, compared to the drill, is by some attributed to the additional solidity 

 the land receives from the treading of the children employed in the operation. 



156 Marshall's Southern Counties, vol. ii. p. 329. 



157 Bedfordshire Report, p. 373. 



158 Marshall's Southern Counties, vol. i. p. 174. He adds, that the advan- 

 tages of this practice are so great in light soils, in dry seasons, that it would be 

 worth while, in many cases, to be at the expense of an additional horse and 

 driver, in countries where two horses a-breast are the ordinary team, to have the 

 land thus compressed. 



159 Treading by sheep, or other stock, would be a more effectual mode of 

 destroying slugs, or the wire-worm, than even rolling. The head-lands, upon 

 which the horses have turned, and where the earth is compressed, are in gene- 

 ral free from damage. It is in hollows, therefore, where the slug is sheltered 

 and breeds, and the remedy is to be found, in pressure, either by a heavy roller, 

 or, still better, by the tread of animals. 



160 This observation is very applicable to the Irish farmer, who seldom at- 

 tends to minutia: in any branch of his business. This is a very unfortunate fact, 

 as it is by attending to minor matters, that the husbandman, and even the cot- 



