366 
On the Use of the Water-Drill. 
respect than the other, requiring only a more competent and 
skilful labourer to manage it, surely it becomes us rather to try 
and train up men to this standard of efficiency, than to seek to 
accommodate our implements and farm operations to their care- 
less and slovenly habits, thereby putting a premium upon 
negligence and inefficiency. If ever we are to have intelligent 
and superior labourers, it must be by diligently training them to 
the right management of those useful inventions which the 
science of modern agriculture is so constantly urging upon our 
adoption. 
As I have previously stated, the water-drill is not equally 
adapted for every peculiarity of soil and circumstance, although 
it would probably prove a decided acquisition to the great 
majority of English farmers. Soils vary considerably in the 
degree of their natural fertility. In one district we find that nearly 
every crop flourishes, whilst in another the very opposite is the 
case. Climate, too, exerts a very powerful and decided influence 
upon the cultivation of different localities. Where rain is more 
frequent and copious less difficulty is experienced in securing the 
successful growth of green crops than where drought prevails, 
although the latter is frequently more favourable to the growth 
of cereals. It is, therefore, in the eastern counties, and other 
districts of the country, where the amount of rainfall is con- 
siderably below the average, and where, consequently, greater 
difficulty is experienced in the successful culture of green crops, 
and also on soils that are naturally unkind and ill-adapted for 
the free vegetation and vigorous early growth of the young and 
tender plant, that the triumphs of the water-drill have been most 
signal. In this immediate locality we have to contend against 
both these evils. The climate is dry, and at times very withering, 
whilst the soil is fickle and generally unfavourable to the early 
growth of tender plants. This led me five years ago to hail the 
water-drill as a great boon, and to introduce it to this part of the 
country. Since then the results of its employment have been so 
eminently satisfactory, that its use has been very widely extended 
throughout the whole of the surrounding neighbourhood. In this 
parish alone I believe there are now not less than 12 or 14 water- 
drills, all of which find considerable employment during the 
times of the oat, mangold, and coleseed seeding. 
The mode of working these drills is far less difficult than 
would be generally conceived. The main thing is the supply 
of water required, and, upon an occasional farm, this does grow 
into a slight difficulty. On our Fen-farms, where every field 
is surrounded by ditches, which throughout the entire year 
have a supply of water, this difficulty has no existence. And 
