Rural Economy. 423 



conflictinof claims, and through whose beautiful grounds I rode eight con- 

 tinuous miles,) the cottages of the laborer^ were of the very best descrip- 

 tion ; and their establishments, both within and without doors, indicated 

 the greatest neatness and comfort. Gardens for fruit, vegetables, and 

 flowers, were attached to all of them ; and they were charming pictures 

 of rural taste and embellishHient. Many of these persons had likewise 

 small allotments of land. The wages paid to the men were from JOs. to 

 12s. per week, and to the women 8d. per day while at work. This, of 

 course, however, with the current expenses of living, did not allow them 

 to accumulate any thing for sickness or old age. During the four weeks 

 of harvest, by working by the piece, the laborer would sometimes earn 

 more than 20s. per week ; and the women and children, by gleaning the 

 scattered heads of wheat after the field is cleared of the crop, or, as it is 

 here called, by leesing, not infrequently collect four or five bushels of 

 grain. I have met with instances where even more has been collected. 

 Such are tlie fruits of the most exact frugality." 



No question has been more disputed among farmers than 

 the quantity of seed which should be sown to the acre, and 

 the author has devoted a chapter to this subject. The tes- 

 timony of a practical farmer, who has more than seven 

 hundred acres of highly rented land, is given in his own 

 words, and from whicli we qtiote : — 



" 'The practice throughout England is to sow two and a half and three 

 bushels per acre, and the yield is seldom forty bushels, and more com- 

 monly only twenty bushels; and one tenth, at least, of the crop grown, is 

 consumed in seed. These facts, and the knowledge that a single grain 

 of wlieat, planted where it has room to tiller out, will readily produce 

 four hundred fold, and often very much more, have induced me, in the 

 course of the last eleven years, to make a variety of experiments, the 

 results of which have shown me, that, independent of the waste, a posi- 

 tive and serious injury is done to the crop from so much seed ; and the result 

 is perfectly analogous to attempting to feed four animals upon a pasture 

 sufficient only for one ; and, in consequence, I have gradually reduced 

 my proportion of seed-wheat from three bushels per acre, which was my 

 practice, down to about three pecks, which reduction I have accomplished 

 to the evident improvement of my crops. 



My practice is to drill every thing, (clover seed alone excepted ;) to care- 

 fully horse-hoe, hand-hoe, and weed, so that the land may be kept perfectly 

 free from weeds, and the soil between the rows may be stirred, and re- 

 ceive the benefit of fine tilth and cultivation, of which gardeners are sen- 

 sible ; but by farmers this is lost sight of, or not sufficiently attended to. 

 My rye and tares for green feeding are sown in rows at nine-incli inter- 

 vals ; all my white corn at twelve inches ; my pulse at twenty-seven 

 inches ; and my root crops, on the ridge, at twenty-seven inches. 

 My proportion of seed per acre are as follows : 



Of rye, l^ bushel ; Of oats, 8 pecks ; 



" tares, li do.; " barley, 7 do. ; 



" mangel-wurzel, G lbs. ; " wheat, 3 do. ; 



" swedes, 1 quart ; " peas, 8 do. ; 



" turnips, 1 do. ; " beans, 8 do,' " 



" cabbages, 1 every three feet ; 



