54 CULTUKE OF FARM CROPS. 



dates the sides of the hole, and keeps it open till the seed 

 is deposited. The holes are made in the top of the furrow, 

 at distances 3 inches from each other. The seed grains, 

 two or three in number, are dropped in the holes by chil- 

 dren, who follow the dibblers, two grains being dropped 

 in at the early part of the season, three at the later part. 

 After the grains are deposited, the land is bush-harrowed 

 twice or thrice, according to the lightness of the soil, and 

 in the same day. 



39. There is no doubt that improved practice in the cul- 

 ture of grain points to the dibbling system, or at least to thin 

 sowing ; everything, therefore, that can tend to throw light 

 upon the subject, and its practical bearings, is of vast im- 

 portance. Amongst those who have paid attention to it 

 we may name Mr. Hardy of Maldon, Essex, who has de- 

 voted much time to its practical points, and who thus, in 

 a paper which we deem right to reproduce here draws 

 attention to what may be called good and bad practice of 

 wheat dibbling : 



" Dibbling wheat is good, provided it can be, and is, 

 performed in a proper manner ; for, by the dropping pro- 

 cess necessarily combined with it, the surface of the land 

 is consolidated, and the kneading of the subsoil by horses 

 is avoided, both being essential for the well-doing of the 

 crop. Dropping the grains, if justice is given to the plan, 

 is better than by any modern implements and inventions of 

 quickness, whether it be the common drill, invented by 

 ' Tull for his organ pipes,' or Sigma's 'modern and admi- 

 rable planter,' both of which are good in the esteem of 

 many. But I contend that they sow the grains too many 

 in one place, though it may be in equal quantities, which 

 only gives them credit thus far. It is, however, to be re- 

 gretted, and necessary to be noticed, that this dropping is 

 generally misapplied, and done in a confused, hurried, dis- 

 orderly, and imperfect manner, by idle or incompetent boys 

 and girls, placing too many or no grains at all into one hole, 

 and even by the most industrious and careful women em- 

 ployed to do it, the quantity in each plantation is deposited 



