on AgiHcultiwal Implements. 



609 



improvement — for distributino; a small quantity, such as 3 bushels 

 per acre, of guano or nitrate of soda, or a larger quantity of super- 

 phosphate and rape-cake on wheat in the spring of the year. This 

 fact deserves the more to be known, because the convincing 

 argument for any agricultural change is that it has become a 

 practice somewhere or other, an argument that answers where 

 reasoning fails. The other argument — that, namely, founded on 

 quick return — is also not wanting, as it has lately been shown that 

 nitrate so applied on poor land will sometimes yield double its 

 own value — near a quarter of wheat — at a cost of '20s. per acre. 



Holmes's Manure-sowing Machine. 



It is curious, indeed, that this very cheap and simple machine 

 is on some soils superseding the more costly and intricate drill. 

 In the words of Mr. Holmes, its inventor, — 



They were used very much last turnip-sowing season, and considerably 

 more this season, for sowing manure (rape-cake, malt-coombs, and guano, 

 about 8 or 10 bushels per acre, and in some instances as much as 20 

 bushels to the acre, when a quantity of burnt earth or ashes are mixed) 

 into the furrows of the ridged turnip-land, at 24, 26, and 27 inches apart. 

 The ridges are then turned over on to the manure by the double-breasted 

 plough, and the manure is covered sufficiently out of the way of the seed, 

 although distributed equally around ; so that, instead of striking immediately 

 into the whole body of manure — as is the case when drilled in with the 

 manure— it catches it gradually in its different stages of growth. 



This plan proved highly satisfactory to all those who tried it last season, 

 which has induced many others to pursue the same course this season, not 

 only as regards the crops themselves, but also in the labour required to put 

 the crop in. Our manure distributor will cover 3 or 4 furrows at 27 inches 

 apart, if required, and is worked with one horse. It is followed by a light 

 drill expressly for turnips and mangold-wurzel, which is also worked by 

 one horse. Thus it will readily be seen that a great saving of horse-labour 

 was effected by the use of the distributor in the place of the drill. 



This saving of horse-work is indeed great, but it must not be 

 disguised that there is inconsistency between the principle of 

 general diffusion here recommended and the concentration which 

 is the aim of the drop-drill. Each method in fact has its merits 

 for different purposes, — concentration for pushing the young plant, 

 extension for feeding it in its later stages. The question, like 



VOL. XII. 2 R 



