56 
The Mechanical Condition of the Soil 
the stronger the land, the greater the necessity for keeping neaa; 
to the surface. 
The three modes of sowing wheat, viz., dibbling, drilling, and 
sowing broadcast, have each their respective merits and advo- 
cates. Dibbling is the system which most perfectly fulfils 
our ideas of the requirements of vegetable growth ; but there are 
many difficulties in the way of its general adoption, from the 
large amount of manual labour required, in consequence of the 
imperfect action of the implements made for this purpose. 
Drilling is the process which is most extensively adopted, and is 
decidedly the best and most economical mode of depositing seed- 
wheat. The great preventive to its more constant adoption is 
the fact that, as the implement is heavy, tender soils are injured 
hy the traffic over the land in wet seasons, and these soils must 
have more time given them to become dry and ready for sowing ; 
hence it often becomes desirable, in order that we may avoid a 
late seed-time, to sow the seed broadcast. The advantages of 
the drill are very great in the opportunity affi)rded for hoeing the 
land, but when the system of horse or hand hoeing is not practised 
much of the benefit of drilling is lost. After the seed has been 
sown it should be covered by the use of the harrow, but the less 
the land is worked the better, and especially upon strong soils. 
The roughness of the surface will be rather desirable than other- 
wise, for protecting the wheat-plant during the winter-months. 
For sowing spring-wheat the soil need not be brought to as 
firm a condition as for the autumn sowing, but the difference is 
only one of degree, and such as enables us at once to see the 
cause which renders greater solidity essential for autumn sowing. 
When wheat is sown upon land which is not sufficiently firm,, 
the plant fails in the severe weather of winter ; on the other hand,, 
when the seed has a more solid seed-bed in which to establish 
itself, the roots are enabled to become more fibrous in form antl 
vigorous in action, and in this manner they obtain a secure 
hold upon the soil from which the winter frosts cannot dislodge 
them. The great necessity then for a firm seed-bed for autumn- 
wheat is to insure the stability of the plant during the winter j 
consequently there need be no surprise that in spring we are less 
anxious about our land-pressers. 
The preparation of the land in spring for wheat is therefore 
far less troublesome than in the autumn. After the roots have 
been removed from or consumed upon the ground, the land is 
once ploughed and a favourable opportunity taken for sowing it 
in due course, when the soil is in dry working-order. 
A second ploughing is seldom given, for the reasons I assigned 
when speaking of the autumn-sowing. Early sowing is im- 
portant for this description of wheat, and as a rule none,. 
