Book VI. 



CULTURE OF THE CEREAL GRASSES. 



80'J 



is to be regarded as the rule in husbandry, and which the exception ? Now, independ- 

 ently of the circumstances just adverted to, and judging only from the greater extent to 

 which the broad-cast system is carried on in the country ; from the fact of the row system 

 having declined in favour in districts where it had once been most extensively practised ; 

 and from its having recently ceased to make progress in general practice, we should be 

 inclined to hold that, with respect to the cereal grains, the rule of agriculture is the 

 broad-cast system, and the exception the row system. The cases falling under the 

 exception may be, and doubtless are, very numerous and important. There are many 

 light soils in which the seeds require to be deposited at a considerable and equal depth, 

 and this the drill-machine effects better than sowing on the surface ; and there are many 

 thin cold clays which tend to throw out the plants, the best remedy for which is thought 

 to be deep sowing." 



4985. The sowing of cwn from the hand, "however, is known to be attended with some uncertainty; 

 being dependent for the accuracy of the execution upon the skill and attention of the sowers. 1'he regu- 

 larity of the work is also affected by winds; and, unfortunately, the means rarely exist of detecting the 

 degree of inaccuracy in the work until too late to correct it." As a remedy forthese inconveniences, we 

 have already described a broad-cast hand drill (2576.), and shall here introduce a horse machine for the 



same purpose {fig. 129, a. b.), that has been 



for some years employed in " the agricul- 



j ^^*^*^n:?^ ^ ^ '"'^ ^ Northumberland, North Durham, 



I ^^^^v. y^^Tm^^^^^ ^"'^ some of the southern counties of Scot- 



I ^""^^N^ f:^ ^ //v/l /\\ land, for sowing broad-cast. As it regards 



economy alone, little perhaps is effected by 

 the employment of this machine: its recom- 

 mendations are the regularity and certainty 

 with which it performs the work, and the 

 ^^^^ rendering of the execution inde[)cndent of 



I >_ ^>- -^ unskilfulness or want of care in the ope- 



lator." {Quar. Jour. Agr. vol. ii. p. 250.) 



'= A man and a horse with this machine will sow between 25 and SO acres in a day. The regular manner 

 in which the seed is disseminated renders less seed necessary than in the common method of sowing by 

 the hand. Besides the advantages arising from a saving of seed, the greater regularity, as it regards their 

 distance from each other, with which the plants spring up, generally renders the crop superior to that 

 sown in the other way. The machine has been described as adapted to the sowing of the common sort* 

 of grain, but it is equally well calculated for sowing the cultivated grasses." (Quar. Jour. Agr. vol iL 

 p. 254.) 



4986. The preservation of com after it is threshed and cleaned is generally effected in 

 granaries, where the grain is kept well ventilated by passing it frequently from one floor 

 to another, or through winnowing machines. 



4987. It has been proposed and altcmjited in France to preserve it in pits or dry cells at an equal tem- 

 perature, and included from the atmospliere ; but the experiments now going on for this purpose, more 



