On the Cultivation of Oats. 



125 



seed which is covered by a small harrow hooked on behind. In 

 preparing lea ground for oats the sowing apparatus could not be 

 used when the ploughing is done in winter ; but for land after 

 green crop or after lea that has been rib-ploughed early in winter 

 and again to be ploughed in spring, the several processes of 

 ploughing, pressing, sowing, and harrowing can all be accom- 

 plished at one operation. The press-roller is remarkably well 

 adapted to the preparation of dry, light land for sowing grain of 

 any description, but on damp or clayey soils it is not so useful, 

 neither does it work so well owing to the greater liability of the 

 wheels to become clogged v/ith earth.* The addition of a sowing 

 apparatus to the common press-roller has not^ so far as the v. riter 

 is aware, been tried before, and the one mentioned above is solely 

 his own invention, and consequently the remarks referring to its 

 usefulness are only entitled to such an amount of confidence as 

 the testimony of one individual can afford. 



The ploughing of lea-ground is one of the nicest operations 

 the ploughman has to perform, as any deviation from a straight 

 line in the furrows is easily seen, and is always particularly 

 offensive to the eye of a practical farmer. In Scotland the land is 

 ploughed in ridges (Anglice stetches), generally either 6 or 

 twelve yards wide, or in broad feirings of various dimensions. 

 Clay land, or low lying damp land of any kind, is usually laid in 

 6-yard ridges, but by far the most comm^on size on ordinary, well- 

 drained soils, is the 1 2-yard ridge. On thin, dry land, where 

 open furrows are not only useless but in some degree hurtful, 

 owing to the greater exposure to drought, wide feirings are pre- 

 ferred. When the ridges are long and the field large the usual 

 plan is to lay two 12-yard ridges together, by liujjping, or turning 

 to the right hand at the ends, and when this has been accom- 

 plished, to plough three 12-yard ridges by loinding, or turning to 

 the left hand. But before commencing to plough the field, it is 

 marked off in parallel breaks 60 yards broad, or in every fifth open 

 furrow if the land has been laid down in i2-3^ard ridges. It will 

 be seen from this arrangement that, by laymg two ridges 

 (24 yards) together at each of these, marking and winding out 

 the intermediate spaces, there will only be one open furrow every 

 60 yards. In smaller fields, with shorter ridges, ploughing in large 

 feirings causes a great deal of lost time in going so great dis- 

 tances along the ends, it is better therefore to lay two ridges 

 together at the markings as before, and only to leave one between 

 them instead of three. There will thus be an open furrow every 

 36 yards, and to guide the sower, when sowing broadcast, a 



* The system alluded to, of a sowing-machine being fixed and worked by the axle 

 of the press roller; has been adopted by me for at least ten years with great success. — 

 S. Bennett. 



