on Agricultural Implements. 



601 



are ^iven in the direction of the ridges to break the furrows and prevent 

 the turf from being torn up by the cross harrowing ; and it is seldom that 

 the operation can be properly accomplished with less than six double 

 strokes or twelve harrowings." 



Thus a harrow has to be drawn twelve tinnes over the same 

 ground by a horse. If we imagine it to be drawn once by twelve 

 horses we shall see at once the vast saving which would be effected 

 by the Woburn drill, of about the same width with the harrow, 

 drawn by two horses only, yet burying at once most of the seed, 

 and followed, as it has been preceded, by a light harrow — a saving 

 of 8 horses in 12, or 2 horses in 3. This is, however, an extreme 

 case ; but we should not be far wrong in saying that by the 

 Woburn drill, which will come presently under our notice, two 

 horses in four, or one half, might be saved to the farmer who 

 has been in the practice of broadcasting. 



There is also a saving in seed by the use of the drill ; but it is 

 further interesting to observe how the drill dovetails, as it were, 

 with our last class of implements the scarifier. When drilling 

 was unknown, great stress was laid upon so ploughing the land 

 that the furrow edge would stand up sharp at the exact angle of 

 45 degrees, in order that the harrows catching those edges and 

 crumbling them down might properly cover the seed. No one 

 would have dreamed of sowing corn upon scarified land. Now, on 

 the contrary, the surface may be perfectly smooth ; and wheat may 

 be drilled after turnips in winter upon land which has been only 

 breast-ploughed, pared, that is, half an inch deep ; for the seed, if 

 drilled, is perfectly covered, and wheat prefers a firm bed. The 

 drill again is indispensable for the use of many new artificial 

 manures, distributing them by special coulters beneath the ground, 

 and covering them with earth, that their excessive strength may 

 not injure the seed, which is deposited above, last of ail. The 

 beautiful system of horse-hoeing depends, too, of course, entirely 

 on the use of the drill, which may be regarded as the key of the 

 new system. We ought, then, to regard the whole as a system ; 

 not, using the drill, retain ancient courses of ploughing which 

 were meant for the seedsman, nor, on the other hand, fall short in 

 the consequences of the drill — use it, that is, as some farmers do, 

 but with no artificial manure and without a horsehoe to follow. 



As to particular drills, there is the general-purpose drill, a very 

 complete implement, capable of drilling, with or without manure, 

 wheat, beans, and turnips at the different intervals suited to those 

 plants respectively, from 2 feet to 7 inches. It comprehends, in 

 fact, two drills, the parts of which are substituted for each other at 

 pleasure ; yet admirable as is the implement, one may question 

 whether, as corn seldom requires manure to be sown at the same 

 time, it be not better to buy two drills separate, one for corn, the 



