352 DRILL HUSfiAHDRV. 



93 acres sown broad-cast produced 44 lasts 18 coombs 

 two bushels, or ten coombs two pecks per acre. 



As it was a common pra6lice in the distri6l of Holk- 

 ham to break up a second year's layer (and sometimes of 

 three years) at Midsummer, to give a bastard-fallow for 

 wheat ; a husbandry still common in Wiltshire, where 

 they begin with raftering., it should seem that one great 

 benefit of the drill is the saving this tillage on all light 

 soils. But it ought certainly to be remembered, that this 

 saving belongs to the dibbling husbandry as well as to dril- 

 ling. 



It was with much pleasure I viewed Mr. Coke's farm 

 at Holkham in 1800: every sort of corn was all drilled, 

 and in a masterly manner. The wheat, however, not 

 great that year, being apparently too thin ; and I pointed 

 out to Mr. Wright many gaps in the rows, of nine 

 inches, a foot, and even two feet in length. If a general 

 thinness is a fault, such gaps add much to k. I made the 

 same remark in otlier person's crops. Mr. Coke's dis- 

 tance of rows nine inches ; always hand-hocs twice at 

 IS. 8d. ; 2s. and sometimes much more per acre. 



Some of the crops were immense, panjcularly barley ; 

 and all the barley I saw was extremely good ; one acre 

 certainly produced, as Mr. Wright, the bailiff, assured 

 me, 19 coombs one bushel. 



Mr. Coke had that year some drilled turnips, but his 

 broad-cast ones far exceeded tliem : these were capital. 

 In drilling corn, the distance for barley six inches; never 

 hoed, but drilled after harrowing on the stirring earth ; 

 then the seeds sown broad-cast, and harrowed again across. 

 Thus the only advantages attending the drill in this crop, 

 rsdepositing the seed at a more regular depth than the har- 

 \ro\v will do, and saviiig an earth ploughed by one horse. 

 Aud one man and one horse putting in an acre a day of 



barley, 



