128 AGRICULTURAL SURVEY OF chap. VL 



roller light, but with a box on the frame or 

 carriage, into which stones or any other heavy 

 substance may be put occasionally. In this way 

 the weight could be encreased or diminished at 

 pleasure, and the same roller be made to answer 

 in all cases. 



The usual purposes to which the roller is ap- 

 plied, are. smoothing grass lands, or giving them 

 more solidity when loose and open, and break- 

 ing the clods of rough land under tillage. It is 

 likewise applied to land newly sown with flax 

 or grass seeds, or turnip ; and when young wheat 

 is harrowed in the spring, a practice which is 

 sometimes followed, this operation is usually 

 succeeded by rolling. There are some kinds of 

 land that have a natural tendency to heave and 

 swell, soon after the grain is sown, by which 

 the tender plants are in danger of being torn up 

 by the roots and destroyed. Frequent plough- 

 ing may reduce and consolidate this kind of soil, 

 but where this remedy has not been used, no- 

 thing except the application of a heavy roller 

 can save the crop. 



Instruments for drilling and hoeing are nu- 

 merous, and of various construction. The drill 

 barrow, for sowing turnips and other small seeds, 

 is simple and of easy management. One kind 

 requires only one man, and another two, to ma- 

 nage it, Some years ago a kind of drill machine 

 for turnip was in use, which was drawn by a 

 horse, run upon two wheels which turned the 

 seed box, had a share for making the rut or fur- 

 row, and dragged a small harrow behind for co- 

 vering the seed. But this is now less common-*, 



