WHEAT. 87 



seem, by experience, that on soils where wheat is 

 liable to be thrown oat by freezing, ploughing in the 

 seed with a slight furrow is preferable to harrowing. 

 The practice called ribbing is recommended in the 

 Encyclopaedia Britannica, and we have heard some 

 farmers in this country speak of the plan with ap- 

 probation. The land, after being properly prepared, 

 is thrown into ridges and furrows with the plough, 

 to the depth and at the distances desired ; the wheat 

 is then sown broadcast in the usual manner, and the 

 greater part will, of course, roll into the furrows ; 

 the process is then finished by a light harrowing 

 across the furrows, and the grain will come up la 

 rows with much regularity. This method allows 

 the sun to reach the ground more effectually than in 

 the usual way ; but the comparative advantages of 

 the two modes can only be determined by farther 

 experiment. 



In this country, when the farmer has committed 

 his seed-wheat to the earth, he usually acts as 

 though he had done his part, and trusts to Provi- 

 dence for the rest. Trusting in Providence is very 

 well; but what is called so is, nine times out of 

 ten, so far as farming is concerned, trusting to 

 chance for a crop ; and we cannot help thinking", 

 that if, in addition to this trust, a little attention 

 was paid to freeing the wheat-crop while growing 

 from the weeds that so numerously infest most of 

 our farms, sensible benefits would result. That 

 hand-weeding the wheat should be carried in this 

 country to the extent that it is in Britain or Holland, 

 •cannot be expected — certainly not in the Northern 

 States : the prices of labour and the habits of our 

 citizens render it impossible. In foreign countries, 

 the greater part of all such light field-labour is per- 

 formed by women ; and a late visiter to Holkham 

 mentions having seen from fifty to one hundred fe- 

 males employed at the same time on the crops. 

 Such an occupation for American females is not de- 



