Report on the lllieat selected for Trial at Southampton. 5G7 
made by the dibbles from two to six grains, rarely, if ever, exceeding 
the last number. Several agricultural friends were present at the work- 
ing of the implement; and as a wish was expressed that the smallest 
quantity of seed per acre which the dibbling-machine could deposit 
should be sown, it was set at 2 pecks per acre. I think, however, that 
it would not be out of place here to state that the system of thin sowing 
is by no means a novelty ; and that if the late Lord Leicester considered 
3 bushels of seed per acre as necessary to ensure a good crop of wheat, 
there were others who thought that a tenth, or even less than that quan- 
tity, would lead to a similar result ; whilst, without doubt, the saving 
of wheat consequent upon such a reduction of seed used could not be 
considered but of national importance. I met lately with a work upon 
agriculture written by C. Venlo, and published at ^Vinchester in 1773, 
from which, even at the risk of being tedious, I cannot resist giving 
an extract, as the writer appears to have been a thoroughly experienceU 
agriculturist, and in practical and theoretical knowledge considerably 
advanced beyond the agriculturists of that period. 
" In 1764 the author instituted an experiment to find out the true dis- 
tance or quantity of land that wheat ought to have to grow upon. In 
his own language, it appears that he had invented a machine which har- 
rowed, sowed, and rolled at the same time ; and which, as it would sow 
any quantity of grain on an acre the broad -cast way, the author made a 
trial of sowing wheat thin on the ground ; he accordingly fixed upon 
a field of 15 acres, which had three different sorts of land in the length 
of the ridge, which was 40 perches long. One end of the field lay low ; 
the soil was a strong loamy clay ; the middle was a high hill, the soil at 
top was a kind of clay-gravel, very shallow, and mixed with a middle- 
sized paving stone. The other end was not so low as the first, neither 
was it so strong a clay, but was what we call a loamy sand : upon the 
whole it was very good wheat-earth ; but the bottom of the field was 
rather more so. The top of the hill was more proper for barley than 
wheat. The field had been fallowed for two years, in which time it had 
got only seven ploughings, 'which — if I had had the management earlier, 
as. I had not — should have been at least twice as many. Upon the 
whole, it was in good order, and by far a better fallow than the com- 
mon run. I gave it a thin top-dressing of wet turf-ashes (for I had no 
other), and harrowed them in with the seed. On the 15th of February 
I sowed 14 oz. on one ridge, which, according to the measurement of the 
ridge, was at the rate of 10 lbs. to the acre; on the otlier ridge I sowed 
28 oz., which according to measurement was at the rate of 20 lbs. to 
the acre. The ground was very wet, and the horses sunk as far as the 
plough went : however, the seed was not trod in, because it was sown 
between the harrow and the horses' feet ; but the harrow could not come 
over it the second time without making the ground in mortar, so that it 
was only harrowed once in a place ; therefore, I am clear, more than 
half the seed lay bare and uncovered, but as the ground and the weather 
was wet, it soon vegetated, and most of it grew." 
The author then enters into his theory of the shooting of wheat, and 
states " that in rich, clean, good, well-tilled land, a plant of wheat may 
shoot to fill 18 inches square ; yet I choose to fi.x my standard to 1 foot 
