116 
Report on the Farming of the 
advantages which are supposed to flow from the contrary practice 
can justify the certain loss which is sustained by manure being 
exposed to the wind and sun of July and August. 
Wheat -sowing, — Where wheat follows clover-lea, it is found, on 
the higher parts especially, advisable to sow it as soon as possible 
after harvest is finished. Consequently seed-time may be said 
to commence in some seasons in this district at the beginning of 
October. The land gets but one ploughing; a furrow-slice 9 
inches by 4 is about the average. 
Until within the last eight or nine years the drill was universally 
used for sowing wheat ; and the way was to harrow, first along, 
and then athwart the ploughed furrows, and then to drill the 
seed at about 7 or 8 inches apart. 
Within this period, however, the drill- 
presser, or iron land-presser, with 
hopper affixed, having an apparatus 
for depositing seed and tillage, has 
come very much into use, and has been 
much approved. It has sometimes 
three pressing wheels, but more com- 
monly two. If the latter, it of course follows and covers the 
wprk of two ploughs. The diameter of the wheels for Wold work 
is about 3 feet 6 inches. 
l^he annexed diagram represents a sec- 
tion of the rim of the pressing wheels, a a, 
and of the furrows, h b h, just at the point 
where the furrows overlie, and pressure is 
imparted. 
A light seed-harrow is frequently hung on 
to the implements, for the sake of covering 
the seed from the depredation of birds: 
where this is done, the work is finished off in a very complete 
manner. 
Some farmers are not content with the amount of pressure 
which their light lands receive from this implement, but give it 
a rolling also with Crosskill's clod- crusher after the seed is sown. 
Nor can this be said to be superfluous. The danger to be dreaded 
in this climate and soil is that the wheat-plant should be thrown 
out in the spring. The perilous time is the month of March, 
when frosty nights and sunny days succeed each other frequently 
for weeks together, and then the soil becomes so light and pul- 
verulent that the wheat-roots loose their hold, and many die away. 
No machine that has yet been invented seems so well calculated 
to provide a remedy for this as Crosskill's clod-crushing roller. 
It is not ordinary rolling that it gives ; the points of the serrated 
