9 



one hundred pounds in value of produce, besides injuring 

 their land from want of better cultivation. I have long 

 been convinced that a steam- plough might be constructed 

 to plough a dozen furrows at once. 1 hear one is likely 

 soon to be brought forward, and I should think it would, 

 well answer on the large open arable farms in Hampshire, 

 and other counties. There is still a great deal of ploughing 

 with three horses at length that might as easily be done 

 with two horses a-breast. Different soils require differently 

 constructed ploughs ; the Norfolk plough appears an 

 unwieldy and certainly a most unsightly plough ; still 1 

 believe it the best for ploughing Norfolk land. Skim 

 eoulters, to turn in dung or turf, are most useful. 



SOWING. Different descriptions of land require such 

 different methods of sowing, and such different quantities 

 of corn to be sown, that no one can lay down any general 

 rule for this important part of farming. It is generally 

 admitted that for most soils it is unwise to be saving in 

 seed, and that the poorer the land the greater the quantity 

 of seed is necessary. 



DRILLING CORN is attended with the following ad- 

 vantages over broad-cast sowing. All the seed is put into 

 the earth at an equal and proper depth, whereas, in 

 broad-cast, some of it being too deep and some too shallow, 

 it does not all come up or ripen at the same time, as 

 it does when drilled. Drilled corn can be more easily, 

 expeditiously, and less expensively hoed than broad, 

 cast. Seed corn on poor sandy soils should be drilled in 

 so thick that each grain should throw up but one stem. If 

 three-fourths of the grains of 3| bushels of barley thus 

 sown, produce one ear with twenty grains in it, this is a 

 produce of fifteen times the quantity sown, and will 

 amount to six quarters and a half per acre. I 

 invented and have long used a hoe, drawn by one 

 boy and wheeled by another, that hoes corn well and expe- 

 ditiously. Clover does best with drilled corn ; it gets more 

 air, and is not so likely to be killed by layed corn. 



RIBBING, which is broad-cast sowing after furrows had 



B 



