71 



the broadcast crop seem the larger, and even this, is 

 only when both crops are young-. And farther, it 

 has been abundantly proved, that where the inter- 

 vals have been greatest, the largest crops have been 

 produced, and those where hoeing was used, with- 

 out manure, have been richer than where manure 

 was used and ho(?ing omitted : because, the plants 

 receive their growth, not according to the ground 

 they stand on, but to the ground they can extend their 

 roots into. In drills, the earth can be stirred (and 

 in stiff grounds wheat will be particularly benefited 

 by it) with either a horse or hand hoe, by which the 

 plants will have supplies of nourishment, which they 

 could not have, when scattered over the whole 

 ground and occupying every inch of it. The lightest 

 and driest soils are the best for drill husbandry, and 

 tough and wet ones the worst. In heavy land, covering 

 with spade and shovel, or sowing under the plough in 

 narrow ridges (to be harrowed down the following 

 spring) is a good mode. You must always be 

 guided by seasons and circumstances, but the occu- 

 pier of a solitary acre or two should contrive to drill 

 every crop (tlax excepted) he can drain and pulve- 

 rize his little patch effectually — he at least should in- 

 troduce the practice of the garden into the field — he, 

 from having so little to do, can easily sow in trenches 

 drawn regularly, of an eqiial depth, and that depth 

 suited to the kind of seed, and instead of rearing 

 those pernicious weeds whose seeds are Mdnged with 

 down and carried by the wind to great distances, he 

 may have clean and enriched soil, and crops icalcu- 

 lal)ly greater than those which it has hitherto been 

 his lot to raise. 



Land sown with wheat, however well tilled in 

 autumn, sinks in winter and binds, so that in spring 

 the land is nearly in the same situation as if it had 

 not been ploughed, but that is the season when it 

 should branch and grow with the greatest vigour, 

 and therefore stands most in need of ploughing or 



