Oil the Drill Ilu\baiidry of Turti'ps. 
53 
To manure on level, broadcast, and then drill the seed in 
rows, is no fair trial of the drill system ; but some have laid drill- 
ing aside after such a trial. The most ardent advocate for drilling 
could not reasonably expect to grow the best turnips merely be- 
cause the seed was sown in rows : that, to a certain extent, is an 
advantage, but the drill system is not fairly tried, unless the ma- 
nure and the seed come in contact m f/ie rows, and such means 
are adopted, in other respects, as tend not only to prevent these 
advantages being counteracted unnecessarily, but enable us to 
make use of all other advantages peculiar to drilling. 
As I shall in some cases recommend the system of drilling on 
level, although in Scotland ridging is almost invariably practised, 
I feelit due to the character of the people of that country, so emi- 
nent as a body for their intelligence and good sense, to go fully 
into my motives for so doing. 
In July of the very dry summer of 1826, the prospect as to the 
turnip crop was indeed melancholy ; there were few persons in 
my neighbourhood who were likely to have, or, as the event 
proved, who had, any. At that ]ieriod the ridge system was 
almost invariably followed on the wolds of Yorkshire ; and, out 
of about 200 acres of turnips, in which I at that time was more par- 
ticularly interested, all, except about 5 acres, had been ridged ; as 
these would have been also, had not a fortunate chance interfered 
to prevent it. The piece of land in question was of a triangular 
shape, with a deep valley running through it, rendering it very 
unsuitable for ridging. From these and other circumstances it 
was drilled level ; and the crop on it proved a very good one, 
whilst the remainder of the field bore scarcely any turnips at all. 
The ridging system was so little more successful in the other 
fields, that it was calculated there had been about 300/. worth 
of bone and other manure thrown away. 
This was rather a sharp practical lesson as to effects, and it was 
not necessary to look far for causes. The soil was thin, and 
rested on chalk; therefore, particularly liable to be injured by 
drought. The ridges, by constantly having the sun on three sides 
of them, had become as dry as if they had been baked in an oven. 
Any person, who examined them closely, would as soon expect to 
get a crop of turnips out of the mud-walls of past ages, as from 
ridges in that situation during such a season as the one I speak of. 
Having thus seen what serious consequences might in some 
seasons arise from practising the ridge system, in addition to loss 
by sheep getting laid on their backs betwixt the ridges, as well as 
the extra trouble attending it, it became necessary to consider 
whether there were any advantages arising peculiarly from that 
system, sufficient to justify running the risk of the ill effects just 
mentioned. After much consideration, I became of opinion that. 
