On the Use of the Water-Drill. 
365 
which exists against the other, and which I have just explained, 
viz. the irregular and deficient discharge of the manure at the 
ends of the field. Where propeily and carefully managed, 
nothing can exceed the regularity with which it discharges the 
liquid. On one occasion I sowed 24 rows of coleseed in one 
field, and the same in another, by putting the seed into the 
cistern, and discharging it with the liquid through the plates at 
the bottom of the drill. In both instances I had an uniformly 
regular and even plant, as much so as if the seed had been de- 
posited in the usual manner. This experiment clearly convinced 
me that from this drill, with right management, there must be a 
most satisfactory and equal distribution of the manure ; and this 
is one of the advantages of the liquid system which should 
never be overlooked. With the dry drill it was quite im- 
possible to get either superphosphate of lime or guano to run 
evenly : in spite of every effort, it would beat up into lumps like 
mortar or putty, and discharge itself with great irregularity, to 
which the crop bore unmistakeable testimony. 
As I have already intimated, this kind of drill requires 
more careful management, and makes it necessary to send a 
better style of labourer with it, than would be required to work 
one on the cup principle. But, after all, it is more a ques- 
tion of careful attention and steadiness of management than 
of skill. The manure requires to be more finely sifted, and the 
slide needs constant vigilance and attention to keep the flow 
of the liquid uniformly regular. But this can be easily done, 
although in many instances it is shamefully neglected. Care- 
less men, who shirk work, regardless of consequences, instead 
of seeing that the manure is finely sifted and equally distributed, 
very frequently allow it to be thrown in large unbroken lumps 
into the cistern, and with the same unconcern neglect the right 
management of the slide ; the result is a very defective and 
irregular crop, one coulter having been almost stopped, whilst 
another has been discharging too freely, until at length, as the 
crop progresses, the whole field presents the aspect of a mass of 
irregular patches, whilst it occasions a heavy loss to the owner. 
But this need not be ; and wherever witnessed, only goes to 
show that a most indolent and inattentive labourer has been em- 
ployed. 
It has, however, been adduced as an argument that, because the 
new principle of drill requires more care and attention than the 
old one, notwithstanding its many superior advantages when 
rightly managed, it ought to be abandoned : and the other, im- 
perfect though it be, adopted. But I question this conclusion. 
If the one performs its work more advantageously in every 
