62 
The Mechanical Condition of the Soil 
improved by the fresh soil as well as by the pressure. Upon 
some of our blowing sands this roughness of the surface is the 
chief protection to the crop. I have known the greater portion 
of a crop of oats blown off the ground, simply from the field 
having been rolled instead of being left rough from the harrow. 
Upon such land the seed must always be buried deeply, say two 
inches, for this gives the plant a better opportunity for securing 
itself to the spot. 
The (quantity of seed will vary according to local requirements, 
but the variable character of the seed-oat in a great measure ex- 
plains the difference in the quantity sown. As the oat degenerates 
in character, so it becomes longer and less plump than good seed ; 
for this reason, inferior seed weighs less, and numbers less to the 
bushel, than a sample of close and sound seed. Thus, whilst some 
use from ten pecks to three bushels, according to the time of 
sowing, others put on from four to five bushels of seed-oats to the 
acre. This difference cannot, however, be entirely traced to one 
cause ; for when the climate is wet, and there is a great tendency 
to produce straw, a thick seeding favours the yield of corn. 
Peas. — The cultivation of peas is seldom practised as part of 
any regular rotation of crops, and they must rather be considered 
as a catch crop. The preparation will necessarily vary in detail 
according to the preceding crop. A corn-stubble is more gene- 
rally selected for this purpose, but a young clover-ley, on which 
the plant has partially failed, is by no means unfrequently used. 
The system of cultivation generally approved commences with 
cleaning the surface of the land in the autumn of the year, after 
which the farm-yard manure (if any is to be applied) is spread 
upon the land and ploughed in before winter. In this state it 
remains until the arrival of the seed-time in the spring. If the 
land during this interval has become close and adhesive, it 
receives another ploughing in the spring, immediately before 
the sowing of the seed ; but this only becomes necessary in the 
stronger class of soils, upon which peas are not so frequently 
grown. The pea requires a free and loose soil for its successful 
growth, and it is upon soils of this character^that it is chiefly 
cultivated. The land can scarcely be rendered too free for their 
growth, and hence soils which do not need to be ploughed a 
second time are improved by the use of the cultivator in the 
spring, unless the manure is thus brought to the surface, in 
which case a drag will be preferable. The seed-bed best suited 
for peas may therefore be described as a deeply-worked and well- 
cultivated soil, fine in texture, loose and free ; the seed should 
therefore be sown when it is dry, so as not to prejudice the con- 
dition of the land. 
The depth at which the seed should be sown will vary from two 
