DIB 
roots, oo are liable to permit water to eee 
prove a feed efpecially in ce ae fea- 
befides, where the feeds or roots reft upon the 
bottoms of the ein 2 growth of the plants is mofily 
more perfe& and c 
All the ferent cee “SE bulbs, as thofe of the crocus, 
narciflus, tulip, &c. require this form of dibble in planting 
DIBBLER, in Agriculture, a perfon who is employed in 
the bufinefs of dibbling or fetting of crops by means of the 
LING, 
feed, or other crops, by the le. It is chiefly prac- 
putting in of wheat crops, and thofe of = 
dae mies in thofe dittricts in ae labour is cheap. 
pra was known at an early period, but was a aaah 
negleéted, until the attention of the farmer was again drawn 
to it, by the writings of Mr. Varlo and fome others. 
The author of Modern n Agriculture remarks, * that the 
method of dibbling, or oe de By the hand, was firft 
heer ee orfoll » by a deeds 
wich ; 
= 
a 
which 
counties of Cambridge and Suffolk. 
well as in the county of Norfolk, confiderable quantities of 
wheat are annually fet by hand; but, in the laft, where the 
method was firft a adopt ted, uk quantity of rae now E ieeote 
by hand is not nearly fo confiderable as it wa w yea 
ago. The wheat is Saely dibbled in OAober, on land 
newly broken up from clover-ley. When the foil is of a 
light nature, it is ufually rolled before a feed is planted ; the 
method of which is as follows: a man with an iron dibble, 
about three feet aap in wag hand, aa aes backward and 
in each furrow, hogk or flag ; 
3 
making two row ole 
they are made sho fae fees diftant from each other, and 
from one to two inches deep. The dibbler . fallow d by 
two or three women, boys, or r girls, who dro oo 
grains into each hole. The field is Gee *puth-h 
rowed, by fitting thorns to a gate, and drawing it by one tore 
along the furrows. The ufual quantity of {eed is about fix 
or feven pecks, and the expence of fetting from nine to ten 
fhillings the acre. =” experiecced dibbler, with three active 
t ha iF an acre i 
in every foot ey aot the furrow 
for dibbling wheat ftate feveral advantages which, in th 
opinion, refult from adopting this method in preference a 
the ordinary one, fowing broad-caft. fay a con- 
fiderable quantity of feed is faved, that the grain is better, 
i 
e 
ier ‘in order to ee this fies of wheat ae fre or fix 
ciple, therefore, the praQlice cannot te defended. 
tural to fuppofe, and will be readily admitted, that a crop of 
Jeane wheat will always be toa certain degree better, and 
more equal in quality, and (although from that circumftance 
prebsbly, eet greater in quantity, than that fown broad- 
call. 
: during a whole period of its growth, a 
DIB 
The crop, fpringing up at regular diftances, enjoys, 
more free circula- 
tion of a nefit from the rays of the 
a fhould be of a better quality. It was ed that 
wheat is commonly dibbled on on broken up from one 
year’s clover. hen wheat is broad-caft on a 
lands, a great 7. of the feeds mi naturally into the inter 
flices o oaked 
nh greater abundance than in the other parts of the 
ae _ the _- are fet in the flice or flags, the ee 
cannot meet with any impediment to retard their g rowth, 
Although, ne thefe ar it 18 highly probable that the 
produce of dibbled wheat muft always be ae in ay 
and quantity to that fown broad-caft ; yet, w eated 
experiments, or the efeahlifh ment of a law by eerie al grain 
fhali be fold by weight, it is impoffible to determine the 
teft improvements 
and that owing pri o the Aca tees of its furmfhing 
work for the poor. Ina populous diftri¢t, where agricul- 
ture is almoft the only employment of the inhabitants, aud 
where the poor-rates have advanced to an extravagant 
y practice D ate 
are 
med avery Meanial sueneavar Boiip 
wheat, therefore, in diftri€ts fo fituated, efpeciaily if followed 
out by hand-hoeing, fo as to afford ftill longer work, may be 
avery proper way of furnifhing employment for the pea 
fantry. But the writer thinks, in a country like 
Britain, nbc the great body of the people are iceatly 
mployed in w arfare, or in commerce and manufe€tures, and 
the ordinary operations of hufbandry, she impraucability of 
rendering this a general pra€tice muft be at once obvious. 
The population muft, indeed, be rae oe increafed before 
that can happen. Populous as this ifland now is, beyon 
what it was at any former period, yet, were a law enacted, 
that all grain fhould be sie by een it would be ne ecele 
fary that all ranks, the SA as well as the governed, 
ow to ufe the le. In a word, although 
he practice may be pence as well as laudable, in fome 
particular diftriéts, no perfon in his fober fenfes will, he af- 
ferts, think of saveane aa the general oo of it, 
as an improvement in the national agricultur 
The author of the Report of Suffolk meee that * for 
heat in fome diftricts a narrow-fet plough of only feven 
etm, is ufed to plongh with ; a one horfe 
e flag, or furrow, for the dibblers 
who ftrike only one row upon eac he wheat is de- 
pofited, two or three kernels in each hole, a two horfe-rolk 
follows, and afterwards the harrows twice in a place ; — 
the field is finifhed in this manner, it is harrowed up agai 
obliquely : by this method the wheat is depotted in he 
middle of the flag, at the diftance oe nine in € row, 
of Boag drilled; 
— 
ing the w 
rowing, and ce land's a fo folid by roiling, that very little 
apprehenfions are entertained about the flug or worm. 
there fhould be oceafion to hoe in the {pring, the operation te 
4 F ¢ 
