166 Slate of Agriculture in Northumberland. 



or is required to wait for another. So many ploughs are set first 

 to make the drills or ridges^ which they continue at throughout the 

 day : so many men are set to fill the carts at the dungheap, which 

 has been previously metde in such a situation as to give the easiest 

 access^ and to be conveyed by carts with one horse in each, to the 

 drills ; these carts are driven by boys (the empty ones often at a 

 trot) between the heap and the man who is appointed to unload 

 them, which he does by setting up the cart to a certain degree by 

 means of an upright slip of iron in front, which slides into another 

 with notches, to go higher or lower as required ; this adjusted, he 

 puts his horse in motion, and with a hack like a fork with prongs 

 turned down, he draws out the dung which falls into the centre 

 drill of the three which the cart occupies, and never stops from a 

 quick walk until the whole is emptied out. To do this with regu- 

 larity, and at times to give a little extra manure to a part of the 

 ground which stands more in need, requires great activity as well 

 as judgment, and is a task allotted to one of the most able and 

 judicious among the men. So soon as he has emptied his cart 

 another is at hand for him, and thus he keeps on without inter- 

 mission through the day. The manure thus laid in the centre 

 drill is divided equally among the three, by a person who follows 

 with a three-pronged fork, and is again spread carefully along the 

 hollow of each drill by women, who, each taking one, go on at 

 good speed. Following close upon their heels is another set of 

 ploughs reversing the drills and covering up the smoking dung ; 

 after them comes the sowing-machine, which finishes off two drills 

 at once, having a roller in front to smooth and compress them — 

 the funnels to deposit the seed in the centre of them an inch or 

 two above the dung, and a light roller following the funnels. This 

 machine is drawn by one horse and guided by a man walking be- 

 hind, who attends to supplying the canisters with seed, and to 

 clear away obstructions, driving the horse by reins. This man 

 concludes the operation of sowing, and does not leave the field till 

 he has finished the last drill ; and thus a plot, which in the morn- 

 ing presented a flat and uninteresting surface, has before evening 

 been twice turned over by the plough, had a quantity of manure 

 applied to it, no particle of which is now visible, and is laid in 

 rows equal in size, and of undeviating straightness. In this way 

 from 8 to 12 acres are done in a day, according to circumstances ; 

 and if bone manure is employed without dung, and sown from the 

 drill-machine in common use, which does three rows at once, the 

 operation goes on still more rapidly; and in this case the drill- 

 ridges arc not set up so high, that the bones may not be deposited 

 at too great a depth below the seed ; in some cases the seed and 

 bones are sown together ; but I believe it is better that the plants 

 should have a little soil to go through before reaching the bones ; 



