Report on some features qf Scottish Agriculture. 
Ill 
The land is then harrowed, cross-ploughed as deeply as in 
autumn, and harrowed again, and the heavy land is gone over 
with a peculiar wooden implement, locally called a " slipe." 
This apparatus consists of a heavy rectangular frame, with iron- 
shod cross-bars beneath ; when weighted with stones and dragged 
over the land it assists in the process of pulverization. The 
principle of its construction is the same as that of the Belgian 
" traineau." When a sufficiently good tilth has been obtained, 
the drills are made by a single-wrest plough going and returning. 
Three ploughs are kept going together, and each is followed by 
a man sowing artificial manure, no farmyard manure being used 
for turnips as a general rule. One seed-barrow, doing two drills, 
follows the manure, and will about keep up with the three 
ploughs during the day. The manure for roots will amount to 
as much as 4 cwts. of guano, 3 cwts. of dissolved bones, and 
10 bushels of ground bones per imperial acre. If the ground 
bones are omitted, the total quantity of the other substances is 
increased to 11 or even 12 cwts. Skirving's Purple-top swede 
and Hybrid Yellow turnip are the sorts generally used, 5 lbs. of 
seed being required to ensure a braird, except near the sea, 
where not more than half the quantity is sown as a rule. A few 
W^hite Globe turnips are occasionally grown if keep is deficient, 
or else a small quantity of Gre'ystones for young stock. 
As soon as a good braird has appeared, a two-horse grubber 
is passed along the drills, and this is followed by a light harrow. 
The plants are singled, by hoe and hand, to 14 or 15 inches 
apart, and hand-hoed afterwards as may be required. The 
winter climate being too wet to allow of roots being fed-off on 
the land, the whole crop is drawn, topped, tailed, and stored in 
pits. Turnips are lifted by New Year's Day, and swedes during 
the month of January. About three-fourths of the roots grown 
are swedes, and an average crop of them will weigh about 
20 tons per imperial acre. 
TVheat. — As the turnips are drawn the land is ploughed to 
a depth of not more than 5 inches, being already loose from 
having been deeply grubbed during the growth of the roots. 
One-third of the strong land on the farm being annually in wheat, 
there is not sufficient foldyard manure* for the whole of it ; there- 
fore, after it has been exhausted by applying it at the rate of 25 
to 30 loads per acre previous to ploughing, the remainder of the 
wheat-course is dressed with from 3 to 4 cwts. per Scotch acre 
of Peruvian guano directly after the seed is sown. Immediately 
after ploughing, viz. some time in January, white wheat (generally 
Archer's Prolific) is sown broadcast by hand, the wetness of the 
* For wheat a compost of farmyard manure and sea-ware is generally prepared 
during the summer and autumn. 
VOL. VII. — S. S. N 
