40 Raising Crops of Grain. 



The rows raay be made either at ten or fourteen inches distance, 

 but ten inches is considered sufficient by the generality of farmers, 

 more especially where hand-hoeing is adopted. It is easy with a 

 plough to make a furrow about ten inches wide ; but where it is pro- 

 posed to have a furrow of fourteen inches, it is necessary to have 

 two ploughs, with narrow bottoms, to follow one another, each ma- 

 king a furrow of seven inches broad. Mr Dickson of Bangholm, 

 near Leith, has tried various breadths between the drills, as nine, 

 ten, twelve, and fourteen inches, but, on the whole, he prefers ten 

 inches on light soils, because the wheat does not tiller, and the same 

 breadth for oats and barley, though he thinks fourteen inches de- 

 sirable, when wheat is sown on strong land, where it is likely to 

 tiller much. The crops of grain and straw produced under this sys- 

 tem, are fully as great, as under any hitherto tried. Mr Hume, of East 

 Barns, had about forty-eight bushels per English acre ; and Mr Dick- 

 son, in a field of thirty-two English acres, sown by a box attached to 

 the plough, had no less than fifty-one Winchester bushels per English 

 acre, which were harvested, and carefully thrashed on the 8th day of 

 September 1815. 



If this system answers, according to the expectations that are form- 

 ed of it, the cultivation of grain might be brought to a degree of per- 

 fection, which it has not hitherto reached. The whole plan is so 

 simple in its operations, that there can be no difficulty in its execu- 

 tion. No expensive or complicated machinery is necessary ; on the 

 contrary, the same simple barrow, by raising or lowering the brush, 

 or by an alteration in the size of the flute or hollow part of the roller 

 used, will answer all kinds of crops ; and besides the other advanta- 

 ges already stated, the crop, from being sown in rows, gets more air, 

 is easier cut down by the sickle, and produces more straw, than when 

 sown in a scattered manner ; and being completely cleared of weeds, 

 it can be harvested to much more advantage. 



It is only necessary to add, that when a respectable farmer, to 

 whom the country owes so much for the introduction of drilled tur- 

 nips, (the late William Dawson, Esq. of Graden), had the plan of 

 sowing grain by the drill-barrow explained to him, he highly approved 

 of it, and declared his full conviction, " that it would be the means 

 " of bringing the culture of grain to perfection, as the seed would 

 " have a level bed, and would receive an equal nourishment to bring 

 " it to maturity." 



N. B. In a recent communication from Mr Dickson, ( 16th August 

 1817), he states, that in the unfortunate season of 1816, his drilled 

 crops were not so much sprouted as the broadcast, and that the heads 

 were larger, and better filled. His neighbour, Mr Oliver of Lochend, 

 finds drilling with a barrow equally advantageous. 



