90 



On Cropping and Cultivating Light Land. 



other and equally profitable cereals and pulse-crops, tlie wise 

 application of cheap and necessary manures — all must be 

 regarded as vital points, and under such management there 

 need be, there is no fear, that the wheat-crop will suffer from 

 the increased importance given to the crops which precede or 

 which follow it. On the contrary, while there have been so much 

 more energy and skill directed to other branches of farming, the 

 average growth of wheat has gradually increased. This fresh 

 spring of energy invigorates every section of the art of which 

 Ave treat ; and assuredly, as year after year we invoke the aid of 

 our latent energies, we shall see a proportionate increase in the 

 produce of our crops. So much attention has so long been 

 paid to the growth of wheat, that there is but little to notice of 

 marked change ; still the increased average growth shows that 

 a gradual improvement has taken place in preparatory manage- 

 ment. 



The almost universal use of the drill is of recent date, and 

 its rapidly-increasing popularity is sufficient evidence of its 

 sterling value, and no doubt rewards the labours of the imple- 

 ment-makers, whose ingenuity, energy, and skill supply the 

 British farmer with an endless variety of tools, the perfection 

 and manifold uses of which strike the foreigner with amazement, 

 while their signal use and advantage are proved by the ease with 

 which they have v/orked a revolution among, and yet gained the 

 goodwill of, those for whose use they were invented ; a class, if 

 not ]irejudiced in favour of old habits, by no means celebrated 

 for any incautious love of change or innovation. 



It is needless to point out the advantages of drill-husbandry, 

 as applied to planting wheat, over the old mode of sowing 

 broadcast. The minute regulation of the quantity of seed to be 

 planted, the regularity with which that quantity is deposited at 

 equal distances and at equal depth over its allotted area, are 

 well-known facts, as are the subsequent advantages gained by 

 the use of the hoe, and the more perfect admission of the solar 

 and atmospheric influences. Dibbling by hand is in partial 

 use : it is decidedly the mode by which a less quantity of seed 

 may be used ; and, when wheat is dear, the saving of two or three 

 pecks of seed may cover the increased expense. It is also of 

 .some advantage upon land which, from wet weather or from any 

 other cause, is unable to bear the roller, and is therefore grateful 

 for the solidity given it by the dibbler and his droppers. 



Sowing wheat broadcast is almost an obsolete practice. It is 

 only barely tolerable when a good ley has been well ploughed 

 and pressed, so that the corn falls almost entirely into the seams, 

 and rests upon a sound and therefore congenial bed. An im- 

 portant and almost insensible change has lately taken place in 



